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People’s role vital in Green India Mission, says Ramesh
Top expert questions India’s carbon targets
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Subtle shift in Nitish’s anti-Modi stand
Docs on contract seek regularisation
Mecca Masjid Attack
Cong Mumbai unit boss under pressure to quit
Nadia’s death: Pachecho being falsely implicated, says OSD
Fresh probe into Bhopal tragedy sought
BJP demands Lankan minister’s arrest
7 weeks after arrest, ‘sleaze swami’ gets bail
Barabanki court dismisses plea against Big B
Detective dept to probe student’s ‘suicide’
SpiceJet flight develops technical snag, returns LS Speaker holding two bungalows?
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People’s role vital in Green India Mission, says Ramesh
Guwahati, June 11 Unveiling many nationwide consultations here today, Union Minister of State for Environment and Forests Jairam Ramesh said the Rs 44,000-crore mission would strive to make a fundamental shift from a focus on increasing the number of forests to improving quality of forests. The minister said while the country’s on-going programmes had a set target of adding 10 million hectares of forest cover in the next 10 years, the Green India Mission would add 10 million hectares more to enable the country to take on the impact of climate change in a big way. “The mission is redefining the role of people and forests. We have been only looking at them as adversaries so far. The mission intends to involve the local elected bodies as partners and natural allies,” Ramesh added. India would have two exclusive satellites in the next three years to monitor forestry and greenhouse gases on a real-time basis. “While we will have our dedicated satellite for monitoring greenhouse gases in 2012, the forest monitoring satellite will be in place in 2013,” he said. Prior to this, the country would have in place the Indian National Network for Climate change Assessment this November. This will involve more than 250 scientists spread over 128 research institutions across the country. “This would comprehensively assess four sectors, namely agriculture, water, health and food, and would divide the country into four areas - Himalayan, Western Ghats, Coastal Areas and the Northeast,” he said. The government has decided to set up a Centre for Climate Change Study exclusively for the North-east region anchored at North Eastern Hill University in Shillong.
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Top expert questions India’s carbon targets
Mumbai, June 11 Speaking at a function here on Thursday, Ghosh said the figures were arrived at without proper homework. “We were given to understand that these projections were made after a comprehensive study done by the Planning Commission, but that study, if it was ever done, has not yet been shared with us,” Ghosh said. “This is truly disturbing as this was a major departure from the government’s way of functioning.....the Government may not be transparent, but it certainly is not irrational,” Ghosh went on to say. During his talk, Ghosh went on to state that western countries were indulging in propaganda to force economies like China and India into submission. Citing various studies, Ghosh said by 2030 India’s per capita GHG emissions will be below the 2005 global average of 4.22 tonnes! Dr Ghosh said that vested interests in the west, led primarily by the US and Eurozone countries, had created a myth that India’s policymakers were oblivious to the potentially catastrophic impacts of climate change on its people. In reality, in recognition of the fact that India is historically vulnerable to climate variability that results in floods, droughts, vector borne disease, cyclones, and ocean storm surges etc., India has initiated large, nationally funded programmes, Ghosh said. He stated that in the 2006-07 budget, 2.67 per cent of the total expenditure was allocated towards these programmes. Blowing holes in another myth propagated by the western interests, that India has a very high level of energy intensity; Ghosh quoted the International Energy Agency figures which proved that India had become progressively energy efficient since 1980s, with marked reduction in energy intensity levels in terms of GDP each year. This, he said, was due to high energy efficiency achieved by India’s steel, aluminum, cement, ammonia and urea sectors, where energy intensity was reduced in the range of 20-26 percent since 1990s. Ghosh went on to say that India also benefited from the “inherently sustainable lifestyles” of its people that do not change significantly as people become better-off. This is reflected in India displaying some of the world’s lowest levels of CO2 emissions.
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Subtle shift in Nitish’s anti-Modi stand
Patna, June 11 Bihar Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi, the face of the BJP in Bihar, told The Tribune here today: “I can say with some amount of confidence that at least three people, namely Narendra Modi, Nitin Gadkari (BJP president) and L.K. Advani, will definitely address the Rashtriya Swabhiman rally at Gandhi Maidan on Sunday.” With this, Sushil Modi has put to rest all speculation whether Nitish would protest about the Hindutva icon’s showcasing by the BJP, which will give grist to arch rival RJD chief Lalu Prasad’s campaign against him, or pretend to look the other way. Evidently, he has decided to look the other way. BJP sources say the decision came after considerable amount of groundwork by Narendra Modi himself and persuasion by Sushil Modi. For instance, almost all the newspapers in Patna yesterday carried a huge advertisement by the Gujarat government with the Chief Minister’s photo, showcasing how Muslims in Gujarat were far ahead on several indices than their counterparts in other supposedly secular states, quoting from the Sachchar committee report. Political observers see in this development a big achievement for the BJP and quite a comedown by Nitish Kumar. In the 2005 Assembly elections, which catapulted the JD-U and the BJP to power in Bihar, Nitish forbade the BJP from bringing in Narendra Modi to Bihar lest Lalu instigated Muslims voters. All along, Lalu Prasad has been campaigning that Nitish Kumar is implicitly aligned with Advani and Narendra Modi. And to dispel this impression, Nitish always kept a distance from “Narendrabhai”. Even very recently when asked about the possibility of Narendra Modi campaigning for the BJP in Bihar, Nitish Kumar commented that BJP had very capable leaders in Bihar and the issues in Bihar were different from those at the national level, implying that the BJP need not bring its national icons to Patna. But then, JD(U) insiders said the last few months have seen a change in the political situation in Bihar. There is a view in the party that of late the upper caste Bhumihar, Rajput and Brahmins have been moving away from the JD(U)-BJP combine since the announcement of Bataidari (land to the tiller reforms) recommendations of the Bandopadhyaya committee.
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Docs on contract seek regularisation
Ludhiana, June 11 In a press statement, Dr Aslam Parvez, state president of the Punjab Rural Medical Services Association and convener of the United Doctors’ Association of India comprising of medical students and doctors said the doctors on contract had full right to get their jobs regularised as they had been getting meager salaries. He urged HP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal to immediately address the grievances of the agitating doctors so that the health services should not get affected. He said earlier, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Rajasthan and other states had regularised these doctors. Over 500 doctors in HP and 1,100 in Rajasthan were regularised in 2008. "The doctors are leaving the country and state services due to indifferent attitude of the state governments, which are not providing them job security, salaries etc,” he added. The governments should refrain themselves from privatising the health institutions, he added. In HP, 400 doctors were fighting for their regularisation and over 1,100 in Punjab. The doctors in Punjab, who have been working for over four years under Zila Parishads, had been ignored and the regular posts had been filled through the PPSC. “The doctors on contract in Punjab will meet on June 13 to decide the further action,” said Dr Parvez. "We may hold protests if our demands were not met. The doctors on contract should be regularised first in the rural areas and then regular doctors should be recruited,” he added. State president of the Rajasthan Medical Doctors’ Society Dr Durga Shankar Saini said the doctors on contract should be regularised first and sought recruitment of all doctors on regular basis be it in the Health Department, Panchayati Raj, RKS or NRHM. Spokesperson of the Haryana UDAI Dr Vikram Singh said the state governments should frame a policy for regularising the services of the doctors on contract.
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Mecca Masjid Attack
Hyderabad, June 11 In a report submitted to a special CBI court here, the investigating agency named Devender Gupta, Lokesh Sharma, Sandeep Dange and Ramachandra Kasalangara alias Ramji for their role in the blast. Incidentally, all four are also accused the October 2007 Ajmer blasts. Gupta is affiliated to a little-known fringe Hindu fundamentalist outfit called Abhinav Bharat and is believed to have had connections with the RSS in the past. Devender and Lokesh were arrested by the Anti-Terrorist Squad of Rajasthan recently while the other two are still at large along with the suspected kingpin Swami Asheemanand. The 14th metropolitan magistrate court, issued a prisoners’ transit warrant to bring the arrested duo to Hyderabad on June 14 and produce them in court. The CBI is also examining the possibility of some local elements being involved in the conspiracy and the terror attack as the duo had stayed in Hyderabad for almost two months before the incident. The CBI told the court that SIM cards and mobile phones used in the blast were purchased by Gupta by using a fake driving license. Working in coordination with the Rajasthan ATS to gather information from the arrested, the CBI has learnt that the phone bomb was assembled by Dange and Ramji. The latter had come to the city two months before the planned blast.
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Cong Mumbai unit boss under pressure to quit
Mumbai, June 11 Earlier this week, the Bombay High Court, which is hearing a PIL petition against Singh, directed that he along with his family members file their affidavits by July 15 this year. The court is hearing a petition filed by social activist Sanjay Tiwari who sought the investigation of Singh by a Special Investigation Team. Apart from Singh, his wife, son and other relatives have been made respondents in the petition. According to the petitioner, Singh, who was deputed to Jharkhand as AICC observer, played a major role in installing Madhu Koda as Chief Minister of that state. Koda is presently in jail for amassing wealth beyond his known sources of income. The petition stated that Singh’s son was married to the daughter of Kamlesh Singh, a minister in the Koda government. Kamlesh Singh is in jail as well. His daughter Ankita has also been named in the petition. Mahesh Jethmalani, the petitioner’s counsel, told the court that Kripashankar Singh and his wife Maltidev held two PAN cards each, which is an offence under the Income Tax laws. The petition further stated that Singh, who first arrived in Mumbai from undivided Bihar in the 1970s, began life as a vegetable vendor on the city’s streets. Among the properties listed against the names of Singh and his relatives include flats in upmarket areas of Mumbai, office buildings in the Bandra-Kurla complex, in addition to immoveable property in his native Jaunpur. Kripashankar Singh has so far refused to speak to the media after the court’s directive on Thursday. However, his rivals in the Congress have begun a campaign to oust him from the post of Mumbai Congress chief. Singh, who was Minister of State for Home in the past, was brought in to head the party in the city in view of his clout among the large North Indian population in Mumbai.
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Nadia’s death: Pachecho being falsely implicated, says OSD
Panaji, June 11 The Goa bench of the High Court has fixed the hearing of the petition filed by Lyndon Monteiro, Officer on Special Duty (OSD) to Fransisco Pacheco, on June 14. The OSD in his anticipatory bail plea has said the former minister was being falsely implicated in the case, as he had demanded investigation into the involvement of a senior politician's son in the police-drug peddler nexus case. “It is pertinent to note that recently Fransisco Pacheco, in his capacity as tourism minister, had written a letter to Chief Minister about rampant use of drugs in Goa, the police and political nexus with the drug dealers and its affect on tourism,” the petition filed by Lyndon Monteiro before the High Court reads. Pacheco had also called upon the Chief Minister to probe into the involvement of the son of an influential politician in the said drug racket, he said. “The same was not liked by the other Cabinet colleagues, who are trying to cover up and save the said politician's son as is also evident from the recent statements made by the Chief Minister himself,” the petition said. Monteiro said, “The death of Nadia Torrado is, therefore, being used as an issue to nail the minister and falsely implicate him, who has since resigned and has even been replaced by a new person.” The 28-year-old woman's death, allegedly by consuming poison on May 30, has brewed trouble for Pacheco and Monteiro, who are currently on the run. Monteiro has said he is not connected or concerned with the personal life of the minister and has been acting in his official capacity as per the instructions of the minister. He also claimed he was instructed to give assistance to the family of deceased Nadia, who being family friends of the minister had sought help from him in the time of need. — PTI Nadia’s servant to be questioned Panaji: An Orissa-based woman, who worked as maid servant at 28-year-old Nadia Torrado's residence here, will be interrogated by the Goa Police to unearth further evidence in the death case.“We will be sending a team to Orissa to take the statement of the maid, who was working with the family between January to April this year,” the police said. Nadia's family had three maids working at their place and only one of them was present when she allegedly committed suicide by consuming poison, police said, adding, this maid servant could be a key witness in this case. Another woman, who arrived to work as a domestic help at her place a day after Nadia's death, has already deposed before the police. — PTI
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Fresh probe into Bhopal tragedy sought
Kolkata, June 11 Talking to mediapersons after the left front committee’s meeting at the CPM’s Alimuddin Street party office on Wednesday, Bose said the court’s verdicts declared after about 26 years had testified that the CBI did not properly investigated the case and the chargesheets had been framed in a manner that kept the escape routes open for the culprits. — TNS
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BJP demands Lankan minister’s arrest
Chennai, June 11 State president of the party Pon Radhakrishnan in a statement here criticised Sri Lankan President Rajapaksa for bringing a proclaimed offender with him. It should be known to the world that Indian law would not show favour to anyone and hence Devananda must be arrested immediately, the BJP leader said. DMDK leader and actor Vijaykanth, too, opposed the red carpet welcome to a proclaimed offender. Reacting to claims by Douglas that he had been granted amnesty under the Indo-Lankan accord, he asked if the Indo-Lankan agreement was still in force. The merger of North and Eastern provinces in Sri Lanka was the cornerstone of the agreement, he said and pointed out that the Lankan Supreme Court had delivered a verdict saying that the proposal for merger was invalid. Douglas figures in three criminal cases for offences such as murder, attempt to murder, rioting, criminal intimidation and kidnap. In 1994, a sessions court here had declared him as a proclaimed offender and an absconding accused. The shootout-cum-murder case registered by the Chennai police against Douglas Devananda in 1986, was ripe for trial when he went underground, forcing the court to declare him a proclaimed offender.
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7 weeks after arrest, ‘sleaze swami’ gets bail
Bangalore, June 11 The self-styled godman was asked by the court to refrain from giving religious discourses till he was cleared of the charges slapped against him by the police. Nityananda was arrested in a joint operation by the Himachal and Karnataka police from a village in the hill state’s Solan district on April 21. The following day, he was brought to Karnataka and first kept in police custody and then shifted to prison. The disgraced guru is likely to walk out of the prison tomorrow after the court order is handed over to the jail authorities. The high court said that it could not keep Nityananda in jail based simply on allegations and needed substantial evidence against him to keep him incarcerated. The swami’s lawyer, BV Acharya, told the media that the court could have extended Nityananda’s stay in prison if there was a prima facie case against him. “Showing a video of him in a compromising position with an adult woman is not an offence. The so-called victim has not even filed a complaint against him,” the lawyer said. Asked whether participation in a sexual act by a person claiming to be a “sanyasi” and preaching “brahmacharya” (celibacy) amounted to moral digression, Acharya replied that court was not concerned about the moral aspects of the issue. The Karnataka Criminal Investigative Department, which is probing the case, is yet to submit any evidence or reports against the godman. Forensic experts have confirmed that the amorous video allegedly showing Nityananda with a woman is “authentic” and there is no evidence of tinkering or fabrication, as claimed by the tainted godman. Acharya, however, said that portions of the tape were “tampered” with. Ashram deserted Seeking Nityananda’s release, his followers have been holding prayers in the godman’s sprawling ashram on the city’s outskirts. The once bustling ashram now wears a desolate look now as many of the devotees left after the scandal broke out. The ashram is also facing a financial crunch, as Nityananda’s bank accounts have been frozen
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Barabanki court dismisses plea against Big B Barabanki additional chief judicial magistrate Shivchandra decision was based on the police report filed by the Mohamadpur Khala police station after investigating the charges of the Daulatpur gram pradhan Rajkumari Singh against the film star and others. The police report had been filed in the court yesterday that had prima facie found the charges leveled by Rajkumari Singh in her May 31 complaint in the court to be baseless. In the complaint filed in the court of ACJM by the Gram Pradhan through her son Arvind Singh, she had charged Bachchan of breach of promise by not building the college In the complaint, the gram pradhan had also charged the film star and former SP MP Jaya Prada’s Nishtha Foundation of financial irregularity by alleging that they had raised huge funds for the project but had not utilised it for building the college. Not satisfied with today’s order, the gram pradhan announced her decision to take the matter to the sessions court.
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Detective dept to probe student’s ‘suicide’ Kolkata, June 11 “We have taken the charge and the investigation is on,” Deputy Commissioner (Detective Department) Damayanti Sen said. “We will have to ascertain whether the boy was really driven by the accused to commit suicide. We will have to speak with the boy's friends, family members, teachers and their colleagues,” another officer of the department said. —
PTI
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SpiceJet flight develops technical snag, returns
Ahmedabad: A Mumbai-bound SpiceJet flight with 217 passengers on board from here landed back at the city airport on Friday after a technical fault was reported in the aircraft, airport officials said. The
Chennai-bound flight however, landed safely, the official said.This is the second time in last 10 days when this flight has been hit by technical fault. On June 2, the same flight had taken off after a delay of over five hours from the Ahmedabad airport due to a similar problem.Spicejet officials said they were trying to fix the problem.—
PTI
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LS Speaker holding two bungalows? New Delhi, June 11 Kumar was allotted another bungalow at 20, Akbar Road after she was elected as Lok Sabha Speaker last year. Replying to an RTI query by SC Agrawal, the Central Public Works Department on June 3 said, “As per office records, the bungalow number 6, Krishna Menon Marg is in the name of Meira Kumar.” Earlier, JP Rath, Deputy Director of Estate, has said that the bungalow “is yet to be allotted”. According to allotment rules, a MP cannot be allotted two bungalows at the same time. “I appeal that reply to the query may be made clear especially because Meira Kumar has since been allotted another bungalow in her capacity as Speaker of Lok Sabha, and a person cannot be entitled simultaneously for two government bungalows,” Agrawal said in his first appeal before the CPWD. The bungalow, where Kumar’s father and former Deputy Minister Babu Jagjivan Ram had lived for nearly four decades, has remained with the family even after his death in 1986 except for a brief period. — PTI
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The Rs 44,000-crore Green India Mission aimed at absorbing impact of climate change will redefine the role of local elected bodies in conservation and replenishment of forests in the country.
Lucknow, June 11