Lucknow, April 25
Suddenly waking up to the presence of leaders with criminal antecedents in its party, the Bahujan Samaj Party today expelled four senior leaders, including two former MPs.

The party removed two-time MP from Balrampur Rizwan Zaheer and erstwhile Raja of Mankapur and two-time MP from Gonda Kirti Vardhan Singh. It also removed former MLA from Karnailganj in Gonda Ajay Pratap Singh alaias Lalla Bhaiyya.

Incidentally, all of them had been elected on SP tickets and had changed sides after the BSP came to power in 2007.

Despite their criminal background, the BSP had fielded them in the Lok Sabha elections last year. Instead of Lalla Bhaiyya her sister had been fielded.

The fourth leader to the expelled in the ‘Operation Cleanup’ is BSP coordinator of Gonda Chhajju Ram. He has been replaced by Ganga Charan Dinkar with immediate effect.

The party started this exercise after an embarrassing incident during the BSP programme at Gonda on Dr BR Ambedkar’s 119th birth anniversary on April 14 when a BSP leader with criminal background was shot dead on the dais of the BSP programme.

In a damage-control exercise, the BSP had distanced itself by declaring that the dead leader did not belong to the party.

But the incident did make BSP supremo Mayawati to authorise all district heads of the party to prepare a list of leaders with criminal past who had promised to mend their ways at the time of joining the party but did not change.

Notably, Ansari brothers --- Mukhtar and Afzal Ansari presently lodged in jail for the murder of BJP MLA Krishnanand Rai --- were expelled from the party early this week. They had contested on a BSP ticket during the Lok Sabha polls from Varanasi and Ghazipur, respectively.

Earlier, Afzal was an SP MLA and Mukhtar an SP-supported Independent MLA.

On April 23, BSP had expelled 37 party workers in Bareilly division for their involvement in criminal activities. Most of the expelled party workers were members of the district panchayats and gram pradhans.

To lodge a protest over the action an expelled BSP leader - Chand Mohammad - had even climbed a mobile tower demanding withdrawal of the order in Bareilly. However, he came down after two hours when the police intervened.

Guwahati, April 25
At least six persons were killed and over 100 injured when a devastating thunderstorm ripped through Assam around 8.30 pm last night, even as the regional meteorological centre here has forecast another high-speed thunder squall in the region in the next 24 hours.

Assam’s Principal Secretary for disaster management VK Pipersania informed The Tribune, “The unprecedented high-speed thunderstorm left a trail of destruction all over the state causing extensive damage to property besides disrupting power supply all over the state.”

The official confirmed deaths of four persons under Raha revenue circle of Nagaon district and informed that all deputy commissioners of the districts had been instructed to assess the damage caused to lives and property and prepare final report by tomorrow.

The storm disrupted power supply all over the state, as it uprooted a large number of power transmission towers and snapped high tension electric wires.

The devastating storm lasted for over 30 minutes. The worst-affected districts included Kamrup (metropolitan), including Guwahati city, Kamrup (rural), Goalpara, Dhubri, Bongaigaon, Nalbari, Barpeta, Chirang and Baksa.

Meanwhile, many rain-fed rivers in the state have inundated last areas in Dhemaji, Lakhimpur, Jorhat, and Tinsukia districts in Upper Assam affecting over 1,50,000 people.

Jaipur, April 25
The IPL mess and the subsequent war of words between Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot and former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje has exposed the position of the two political giants vis-à-vis the issue in their respective parties. While Gehlot’s remarks on Raje’s links with IPL commissioner Lalit Modi has evoked sharp reactions from his own party, Raje seems to be fighting a lone battle with no official rebuttal coming from the state BJP to Gehlot’s charges.

Gehlot’s advice to Raje that she should come clean on her association with Modi as also on the row surrounding the sale of heritage havelis is now being scoffed at even by the ruling party legislators.

Congress MLA Ramnarayan Meena, who raised the issue of “illegal sale” of heritage havelis in the recent Budget session of the Assembly, said, “I had sought a CBI probe into the matter, but the state government ordered investigation by the Divisional Commissioner, which doesn’t have much relevance. Only an independent probe would help in unearthing the truth.”

Raghu Sharma, another Congress MLA, said the state government should provide all documents of probe into the shady land deals struck during the previous BJP regime to the income tax and enforcement directorate authorities. A few other Congress MLAs also felt that the state government’s failure in proving corruption charges against Raje and the recent observation of the Supreme Court over the validity of the Mathur Commission has made a negative impact on the image of the Congress government.

On the other hand, when none of the BJP leaders came to her rescue, Raje herself was forced to respond to Gehlot’s charges after he spit fire at her for two consecutive days. However, the IPL mess could not have come at a better time for Raje’s detractors who were happy to see her in an awkward position. The controversy may also weaken her position in the eyes of the BJP leadership that was certainly not pleased with her defiant approach when she was asked to quit as the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan.

Surprisingly, even the leaders from her own camp, who rallied behind her when she was asked to step down as the Leader of Opposition, haven’t come out in her support over the issue. Her close aide Rajendra Rathore merely said the IPL row would not affect Raje’s position in the party.

A few days ago, state BJP chief Arun Chaturvedi had given a reaction over the issue in which he tried to distance himself from the controversy. “Modi should definitely be investigated as he heads the IPL. As far as Raje is concerned, I have no idea whether she was involved in any of his activities or with the IPL,” was all that he said.

Hyderabad, April 25
The Andhra Pradesh government’s proposal to build a grand memorial for former Chief Minister late YS Rajasekhar Reddy at the accident site in Nallamalla forests has raised the hackles of environmentalists as the area is part of a protected wildlife sanctuary.

The crash site is located in a notified tiger sanctuary called Gundla Brahmeswara Wildlife Sanctuary. All construction activity is banned in a tiger reserve unless permitted by the central government and the Central Board for Wildlife.

“Ironically, the proposed memorial will go against the critical tiger habitat proposed by YSR himself. The critical tiger habitat was to be created by merging the tiger habitats of Nagarjunasagar-Srisailam Tiger Reserve with the entire Gundla Brahmeswaram Wildlife Sanctuary,” said M Veda Kumar, president of “Forum for Better Hyderabad”, an NGO.

“The development activity of the proposed memorial, together with approach roads, paths, infrastructure, vehicular traffic and large number of pilgrims will disturb the ecological balance and endanger thousands of animals, birds, and plants,” the environmentalist said.

New Delhi, April 25
The Women and Child Development (WCD) Ministry loves to announce new schemes but when it comes to getting the Centre’s approval to implement them, the ministry is far from active.

In a shocking account of how lax the WCD ministry has been with respect to fulfilling its verbal promises, a parliamentary standing committee has found that most of the ambitious women-specific schemes announced in recent years have remained on paper. Though the Budget continues to be earmarked for these schemes, the utilisation remains nil at the end of each year because the schemes are not even approved yet by the authorities concerned.

At least five such ambitious schemes have come to light, the oldest being the much-hyped Scheme for Relief and Rehabilitation of Rape Victims, which has not seen light of the day since four years. From 2006, the government has been making a token provision of Rs 1 crore in the Budget for the said scheme; the allocation was raised to Rs 40 crore in 2008-2009. Let alone approval, the scheme has not even been formulated yet.

The second phase of the Swayamsidha Scheme (meant for women’s welfare through self-help groups), first launched in 2001, never took off. Since 2008, the allocated funds have remained unutilised as the scheme awaits final approval. Out of total allocation of Rs 20 crore over the years, unspent balances worth Rs 13 crore are lying with the different state governments under this scheme.

WCD Minister Krishna Tirath’s pet the Rajiv Gandhi Scheme for Empowerment of Adolescent Girls has the same story, with Rs 111 crore initially set aside for it in the Budget estimates for 2009. The scheme is pending with the Cabinet Committee for Economic Affairs for approval.

Last year’s BE allocation to the rape victims’ scheme was Rs 59 crore; nothing was used as the scheme is under formulation. The Indira Gandhi Matritiva Sahyog Yojana, also announced by Tirath, got a token Rs 4 crore last year. Nothing was spent; the scheme hasn’t been approved.

Another of Tirath’s favourite projects - the National Mission for Empowerment of Women - announced recently was allocated Rs 1 crore. No utilisation was reported as no approval has been granted to the scheme.

“A disturbing trend is undue delay in the final approval of new schemes. We have been drawing the attention of Ministry to this issue since many years. No corrective measures have been taken and new schemes remain in formulation stage for years. 

Chandigarh, April 25
A project to upgrade and modernise infrastructure at the IAF airfields is expected to commence by the middle of this year. With budgetary estimates pegged at Rs 1,000 crore, the first phase of the project would cover 31 airfields.

The time frame stipulated for this phase is about three years from signing the contracts with the selected firms, following which airbases would don a new look and be equipped with state-of-the-art operational facilities. At present commercial negotiations are reported to be underway between the air force and the participating firms.

The IAF airfields in the coming years have to increasingly sustain the bulk of operations by aircraft of the Su-30 class, including the multi-role medium combat aircraft for which the evaluation process is on, aerial refuelling aircraft, airborne warning and control systems and the proposed C-17 heavy lift aircraft.

In addition, the growing civil aviation sector resulting in a large number of airbases having co-located civilian enclaves, require support operations of heavy and wide-bodied aircraft. This would require improved facilities for operations like strengthened runways, air traffic control services, navigational and metrological aids to sustain operations in varied operational environments.

The IAF operates from over 60 airbases spread across the country with perspective plans to enlarge some of them and construct a few new one at strategic places. 

New Delhi, April 25
Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament recently exhorted the political class to dump “romantic notions about Naxalities”. So, what attracts someone to be a Naxalite? To find out, The Tribune spoke to a senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer, Vineet Agarwal, the author of ‘Romance of a Naxalite’.

In his maiden book, Agarwal has given interesting details about Naxals’ lifestyle and the way in which they interact among themselves and the rest of the world. An engineer from IIT-Delhi, Agarwal belongs to Ghaziabad (UP). “Many young men and women become Naxalites as this gives them a weapon, uniform and respect among the tribals,” says Agarwal, who till March-end as Deputy Inspector General of Police was head of the Central Bureau of Investigation’s Delhi branch. After serving for seven years at important positions, Agarwal has gone back to his parent Maharashtra cadre. The ‘Romance of a Naxalite’ is based on his two years of experience earlier in the Naxal-infested district of Gadchiroli, Maharashtra. The 170-page book is now a “must” to understand Naxal mindset, especially for those fighting the red rebels. He has donated the book's royalty to widows of his two subordinates, a sub-inspector and a constable, killed fighting Maoists in Gadchiroli.

Interestingly, the book is set in Chhattisgarh’s Bastar region where Maoists on April 6 ambushed and killed 75 men of the 62nd CRPF battalion. “I have portrayed Naxalites from the point of view of a common tribal,” says Agarwal. It is a story about a Naxalite boy and a tribal girl; their thoughts, his ambitions, her emotions, their courage, love, and perception about life; all caught in the cobweb of a well-oiled “industry” called Naxalism. The story also includes other players like government institutions, politicians, media and NGOs. Lack of a full thrust on development issues by the authorities has, as per him, a lot to do “with the messy situation that we have in hand”. He says, “Young uneducated, rustic boys join Maoists after hearing all sorts of stories about struggle and revolution as there are no opportunities in forest villages.”

In the sixties, when the ‘red movement’ began from a small village, Naxalbari in West Bengal, it was a fashion to be known as a Naxal. Although the Naxal movement is more or less confined to the tribal belt of the ‘Red Corridor’ from the Nepal border to Andhra Pradesh, it is gaining popularity among intellectuals, Gandhians, social activists, NGOs, university teachers and media.

Maoists, as the Naxals these days prefer to be called, are operating in thick forest and hilly terrain of Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Orissa, Andhra Pradesh and some districts of Maharashtra. “Naxals like to look at themselves as pressure groups. While the government does all the development work, they always take the credit. They tell the villagers that because we are pressuring the government, you are getting the benefit. So more and more villagers want their areas to be declared Naxal-infested so that development happens,” says Agarwal. “The Naxals take all the important decisions for the villagers, even on how much dowry should be given to a groom.”

The tribals in the so-called ‘Red Corridor’ are so poor that sugar and salt are luxuries for them. To make food sweet, he says, they leave it open so that ants get into it, and when they leave, they also leave a sweet substance behind.

“As a confidence-building measure, the Ghadchraoli police had started selling salt to the villagers at a nominal price and giving sarees free to women living in nearly naked conditions,” he says.

“Most youngsters become Naxalites only because they are ambitious. After there is no other avenue for them,” says Agarwal. “They look at Naxalism as the only way out to make money. But only the leaders become rich and the lower rung remains just human weapons… if given an alternative, these young people can be weaned from the clutches of Maoists.” “During my posting in Gadchiroli, I felt it was a loss-loss situation. It had become a numbers game. How many did we get versus how many cops did they get. Finally, no one wins. If they had got my head (Agarwal was then Superintendent of Police), they could have lowered the morale of the force for a long time,” explains Agarwal. “And the recent Dantewada incident is an example of this.”

Asked what is the secret of the tribals respecting the Naxalites, Agarwal says it is the ‘tendu patta’ (bidi leaf) and bamboo collection season that does the trick. The Naxalites force the government appointed contractors to pay higher wages to tribals than what is prescribed. But they demand their pound of flesh from the contractors and the tribals alike, making crores of rupees every season. They also extort crores of rupees as ‘levy’ (protection money) from traders, transporters, industrialists and many government employees.

Kolkata, April 25
Two CPM leaders were killed by the Maoists in West Bengal’s Bankura and West Midnapore districts today, the police said.

A police officer said the body of Parmeshwar Murmu was found near his house in the Ranibandh police station area. Murmu, a member of CPM’s Jamagoria local committee, was abducted by a group of armed Maoists yesterday from his house.

The body of another CPM leader Sisuranjan Mahato, who was taken captive from his house at Dhangasole village of West Midnapore district yesterday, was also found at Mirgan close to Salboni police station.

Chennai, April 25
Chief Justice of India KG Balakrishnan today said that in view of the increase in number of cases, the country needed more courts and judges to reduce the pendency.

“Our problem is large number of cases. Unless the number of judges and courts increase there is no other way to reduce pendency,” Justice Balakrishnan said.“Tamil Nadu had good number of judges and pendency of cases in the Madras High Court has been reduced by 30,000 within a short time,” he said.

According to him, the public would have more confidence in the judiciary only if the pendency was reduced. “Like any public institution, quality of justice delivery also depends on the trust and confidence of large public,” he said.

After unveiling a statue of BR Ambedkar on the high court premises, he said, “It is apt tribute to Ambedkar’s life and contribution (to society). “Despite many constitutional democracies withering away in recent times, Indian democracy stood firm because of a strong Constitution.”

Noting that the judiciary was conscious of gender equality, Justice Balakrishnan, who retires next month, said: “We have upheld laws protecting it.”

Union Law Minister Veerappa Moily said the UPA government was striving to realise the dreams of Mahatma Gandhi, former prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru and Ambedkar.

Describing Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, whose party the DMK is a UPA constituent, as a ‘pillar of strength’ for the government, he sought his support on reservation policy and ‘gender justice’.

“We require some more support (from you). We are all for equality of justice including reservation policy and gender justice. Even now there are personal laws which are gender biased. However, we recently brought in two to three laws that are gender neutral,” Moily said.

“I think it (gender justice) should enter all courts...Only then our justice system can be perfect. He (Ambedkar) understood the meaning. It is left to you (judges) to interpret it,” he said. — PTI

New Delhi, April 25
The Supreme Court has ruled that the city and district police chiefs across the country would be responsible for timely return/disposal of stolen/seized vehicles and warned that non-compliance would be “dealt with iron hands”.

Acknowledging that there were long delays and that by the time the recovered vehicles “are released, the same are reduced to junk at the respective police stations,” a Bench comprising Justices P Sathasivam and Deepak Verma clarified that the states, Union Territories and DGPs would be held responsible at the macro level.

The Bench said the insurer could move before the jurisdictional court a separate application for the release of the recovered vehicle after being informed of the recovery. “Ordinarily, release shall be made within a period of 30 days from the date of the application,” the apex court said.

The court issued the order on a PIL, which said there was laxity on the part of the authorities in the implementation of the existing statutory provisions and earlier SC directives for timely disposal of such vehicles.

New Delhi, April 25
Seeking to reach out to Muslims, BJP president Nitin Gadkari today said his party was not against the community but was unfortunately caught in an image warp.At the same time, he said there was nothing to be apologetic about Hindutva or the core issues of the BJP, including the Uniform Civil Code, and Ram temple at Ayodhya. "We are not against Muslims. 

We are not a communal or caste-based party. We are only against terrorists and not against any religion," Gadkari said. Lamenting that the BJP's problem was "image versus reality"; he said it was "unfortunate". He targeted the Congress, accusing it of not executing Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru because he was a Muslim.

Replying to a range of questions -- from the BJP's Prime Ministerial candidate to its strategy on cut-motions in Lok Sabha this week -- Gadkari sought to keep the cards close to his chest, including on queries whether it was ready for immediate mid-term elections. When asked if the BJP would woo Muslims in its bid to increase its vote-base, Gadkari said, "100 per cent, we will reach out to Muslims."

Gadkari said the BJP wanted members of the Muslim community to join the party and this process may be slow but should be with conviction. "We want to remove their hunger, poverty and lack of education," he said. On the issue of the Babri Masjid demolition he said, though the incident was unfortunate, what was demolished was a disputed structure and not a mosque. "A mosque is one where prayers are offered regularly... Moreover, a Ram idol was kept there," he pointed out. At the same time, the BJP president said for his party, Ayodhya was not a political issue and was a matter of faith and all parties should look at it rising above political considerations. — PTI

New Delhi, April 25
Strangely enough, there are no takers at home for a dirt-cheap computers produced by the Department of Science and Research (DSIR), which incidentally is being lapped up in Malaysia and Brazil.

It seems that even though the DSIR computers cost just Rs 10,000, the government departments and private sector are not interested in investing capital in the project for large-scale manufacture. A department-related Parliamentary Standing Committee on Science and Technology has blamed bureaucratic hurdles for preventing such “innovative inventions from becoming realities and internationally competitive”.

In all, Indians prefer Chinese made cheap computers with zero reliability factor even though the indigenous technology to produce cheap computers is available right there at home with the DSIR. The other option of course is to go in for branded products, which cost much more. Interestingly, in the report tabled in Parliament, the committee said the DSIR was ultimately able to sell the technology to Malaysia, which is now being marketed in Brazil and Malaysia.

Taking serious note of injustice being meted out to Indian scientists who developed the technology, the committee said, “The Chinese product is popular because their government takes the initiative to popularise such products internationally by giving subsidies so that the cost is reduced and huge market is created while there is no such initiative on the part of our government.”

This will inevitably lower the morale of Indian scientists and dissuade them from making such inventions in future, the committee headed by Congress leader T Subbirami Reddy added, asking the government to take initiative to popularise such indigenous technologies and “remove bureaucratic hurdles which prevents such innovative inventions from becoming realities and internationally competitive”.

New Delhi, April 25
Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister M K Alagiri who has been criticised in the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha for his prolonged absence during Parliament's ongoing budget session has, in fact, been flying off to Chennai or Madurai every third day.

Chennai is his home town, where his father DMK Chief M Karunanidhi lives, and Madurai his constituency.

In the six months since he was sworn in on May 2009, the minister made 61 domestic flights to or from Chennai and Madurai, according to an RTI reply provided by the Department of Fertilisers in his Ministry.

The minister undertook 61 domestic and six international flights between May 29 and December 1, 2009 at a total cost of about Rs 14.5 lakh, according to the response to an RTI applicant.

Statistically speaking, the minister was airborne almost every third day during that period and spent hardly any time in Delhi.The department has refused to divulge how many days the minister attended office or how many meetings of the cabinet he missed. — PTI