New Delhi, July 6
No state government can deny minority status to an educational institution on the grounds that it hasn’t admitted a fixed percentage of students from its community.

In a landmark judgment on the right of minorities to establish and administer schools and colleges, the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions (NCMEI) today abolished the “percentage fixation formula” as a criterion to grant minority status to institutes.

Commission chairperson Justice MSA Siddiqui held that “the criteria of fixation of a percentage governing admission of minority community students in a minority educational institution could be included in the indicia for determining the minority status of such an institution”.

He ruled that fixed formula system (the Supreme Court had in old cases on the issue said that minorities should admit their own students up to 50 per cent limit) involved abject surrender of the right of establishment and administration of institutions of choice which minorities enjoyed under Article 30 (1) of the Constitution.

“Such a formula is impracticable, unworkable and impermissible by virtue of the Constitutional mandate and by judicial precedents in the area,” the Commission said in its 27-page order on the petition filed by Buckley Primary School, Cuttack, run and managed by Christians in Orissa. The school was being denied minority status by the state government.

A significant issue before the Commission was whether the said school was established for the benefit of the Christian community (one of the requirements for granting of minority status) considering it didn’t admit Christians to a reasonable extent as required by the SC in the TMA Pai judgment of 2002. The SC earlier held that minority institutions admit up to 50 per cent students from their community.

The said ceiling was being used by several states to deny minority status to institutions on grounds that the latter didn’t admit minorities up to 50 per cent. Over 800 petitions for grant of minority status are pending with NCMEI for lack of clarity on the percentage issue.

Settling the matter today, Justice Siddiqui said the SC observations on percentage appear to have been made in cases of cross-border admissions, where minority institutions were admitting students from the bordering state, where the concerned minority was not a minority.

“These observations can’t be construed to mean that minority institutions, aided or unaided, must necessarily admit a fixed percentage of their students from within the community in that state,” held the Commission, adding that the Cuttack school couldn’t admit, even if it tried its best, Christian students up to 50 per cent because the Christian population in Orissa is just 2.4 per cent.

Reiterating that it was the duty of state and not NCMEI to fix the percentage of minorities and non-minorities to be admitted to minority institutions, the Commission said such intake would depend on the nature of institution (primary school or college), its location, minority population in the state and educational needs of the locality.

“But such fixation can’t be a test for minority status of institutions,” the Commission added, arguing that minority population in a minority institution would be commensurable to its population in the area. “Cuttack can’t secure even 0.46 per cent admission from its own community. Should it then lose the right to establish institutions of choice? Should religious minorities like Sikhs, Buddhists and Jains have no right to set up schools under Article 30 because there aren’t enough students from their communities to be inducted to schools?” asked the Commission, which received scores of “nasty representations” from Christian outfits, which said percentage formula was arbitrary.

New Delhi, July 6
For the first time in the history of Independent India, the seven Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) today came together to clean up the Ganges, with the government handing over the mammoth task to the IIT consortium.

The effort would require the IITs to suggest technological solutions to prevent the pollution of the Ganges, whose basin has the largest population of dwellers anywhere in the world. It is part of the government’s “Mission Clean Ganga” which seeks to ensure no untreated sewage enters the river by 2020. “If the solution comes, it would have a global relevance and could be used to solve pollution problems anywhere in the world,” Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal said after the IIT directors signed a memorandum of agreement with the Ministry of Environment and Forests to develop the Ganga River Basin Management Plan over the next 12 to 18 months for a cost of about Rs 15 crore.

The plan originally was to hand over the project to a consultancy and one had already been chosen, said Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh adding that it was finally decided to involve the IITs to train a new generation of experts, besides working with all members of the River Basin Authority headed by the Prime Minister. Members include CMs of UP, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Bihar. In the beginning, the main Ganga would be cleaned up, followed by the tributaries, Ramesh said. The project coordinator would be Vinod Tare, Professor, Environmental Engineering, IIT Kanpur - the only IIT located on the Ganges, the next closest to the river being Roorkee and Kharagpur IITs.

“This is a great coming together of experts, who will solve a problem not local in nature,” said an HRD ministry official, admitting that such synergy of expertise was the beginning of the era of cooperative research in India, where institutions are known to work in isolation. Sibal said one of the 14 innovation universities should be dedicated to environment. He added that in the process of the Ganges project, IITs would develop a whole new knowledge which would aid future research.

The government has already decided not to proceed with the Bhagirathi and Palamanari projects in the Ganges sector, and added that the decision on Lohari Nagpal project would be taken gradually as a lot of investment had already gone into it. For the IITs, the challenge of purging the Ganges would be tremendous, with Tare saying that a 100-strong group of IIT professors, students and experts from other institutions would work on the project.

“The focus so far has been to improve water quality through sewage treatment. This was like giving aspirin to someone on the death bed. We will have to adopt a fresh approach, look at institutional and policy gaps, on socio-religious sensitivities, and even recommend legislations if need be to ensure everyone works towards a singular goa,” Tare told TNS. 

New Delhi, July 6
The Centre will take another step towards coordinating a cohesive anti-Naxal policy. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet the Chief Ministers of Naxal-affected states on July 14 to chalk out a strategy to counter Maoist violence. The plan to re-deploy paramilitary forces engaged in anti-Naxal operations and development schemes undertaken under by the Planning Commission are expected to be discussed in the meeting.

Separately, the Central Government has asked Maoist-hit states to remain vigilant for the two-day bandh called by the CPI-Maoist beginning tomorrow. The states have been asked to take all possible steps to foil any attempt of violence, including hostage-like situations.

The Home Ministry has also asked the Naxal-affected states and the Railways to take necessary action to guard railway property and tracks. The bandh call has come in protest against the killing of top Naxal leader Cherukuri Rajkumar, alias Azad, in Andhra Pradesh last week.

The Centre is particularly concerned over the safety of the Shatabdi and the Rajdhani Express trains besides rail tracks and passengers. Meanwhile, the Railways said it was taking the situation seriously and had kept teams on standby. Pilot trains would run even during the day in Naxal-affected areas and all trains would run in batches.

The Chief Ministers of Chhattisgarh, Orissa, West Bengal, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Bihar would take stock of the situation arising out of the recent Maoists violence during the meeting with the Prime Minister, official sources said.

Raipur, July 6
The Indian Air Force will deploy helicopters in Maoist-hit states, especially in Chhattisgarh, to combat rising red terror. But it won’t be a free for all like ‘Rambo’ that will go and fire at Maoist camps and locations in lush green hilly terrain of the ‘Red Corridor’.

Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai here this afternoon said the Cabinet has cleared the plan to deploy IAF helicopters in inhospitable Naxal-dominated areas for quick response to reinforcements of paramilitary forces and rescue missions. New Delhi has come around to make use of IAF helicopters as successive deadly Maoist ambush and massacre of the CRPF men this year has shown that there was long delay in sending reinforcements and organising rescue missions. Also, graduation of Maoists from guerrilla tactical operations to military warfare capability is disturbing the Central government. At present, the state police and the paramilitary forces are using BSF helicopters stationed at Raipur and Ranchi. The BSF fleet consists of three to four Dhruv Advance Light Helicopters and two Mi-17 choppers.

“The IAF helicopters will be used only for logistic movements and they will not be available for any offensive operation,” Pillai said while talking to the media in the state guesthouse.

However, when contacted in New Delhi, a senior IAF officer told The Tribune that their chief is on record that he is totally against the use of armed forces in internal situations “as we are meant to defend threats from across the border.”

Some years ago, the IAF had deployed a helicopter to survey the lush green and hilly terrain and identify Maoist locations in Naxal-held Abhujmar in the Bastar region. Maoist had opened fire at the helicopter and killed a personal. After that, the IAF had withdrawn itself from anti-Naxal operations. The IAF officer from New Delhi told this correspondent that “we have made it clear that we will not carry out any Rambo-style operations against Maoists.” But he agreed that logistic and rescue missions would surely require the IAF to protect its personnel and platforms and suppress the fire coming on to them. 

Mumbai, July 6
Maharashtra’s political parties, particularly the BJP, will have to dig deep into their pockets in the coming weeks to pay for the damages caused to public property during the nationwide Bharat Bandh yesterday.

The Maharashtra Government has obtained video recordings of activists who stoned buses and damaged public property in a bid to enforce the bandh. “We had equipped police officials with video cameras to record protesters in action,” a Home Department official said. The government is also obtaining video footage from television channels, which would be used to identify rioters and prosecute them.

Where no recording was available, the onus would be on the political parties to pay compensation to the affected parties, he added.

The video recordings obtained so far include attacks on several BEST buses in Mumbai and damage caused to private vehicles. According to BEST, 155 buses were damaged in stoning by protesters. Another 200 buses belonging to the Maharashtra State Road Transport Undertaking were damaged across the state. The cost of replacing damaged windowpanes was still being assessed, officials said. The civic-owned transport undertaking would compile details of damage.

Bangalore, July 6
A rock concert like atmosphere prevailed at the rollout ceremony of the Naval version of the light combat aircraft (LCA), the fighter jet that is expected to make its first flight in October this year. The Navy band playing at venue set the tune for the events to unfold. The band’s lead singer’s spirited rendering of the 70s’ hit ‘Living next door to Alice’ saw everyone in the audience gradually getting sucked into a celebratory mood.

The rollout, when the aircraft was towed out from the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) hangar where it was actually assembled, saw the band switching over to the patriotic ‘Sare jahan se achcha’. The final resemblance to a scene of rock concert was provided by release of smoke around the aircraft as it was being towed in for display.

The person sitting at the pilot’s seat in the twin-seat first prototype of the Naval version of LCA slowly stood up, saluted the Defence Minister AK Antony (who was present in the dais along with other dignitaries) and then waved the Tricolour from side to side. At this point, the audience, consisting primarily of HAL and DRDO employees, exploded. Emotion was visible even in the face of a seasoned politician like Antony.

Addressing the gathering, Antony said the progress the LCA had made had silenced the ‘prophets of doom’ who had advised him to call off the project because of its running behind the schedule.

The Defence Minister said the indigenous main battle tank Arjun (MBT Arjun) and the Akash missiles had been both adopted by the armed forces. The IAF had already made a commitment for having 60 LCA (Air Force version), Antony said and added that the LCA (Navy), too, would soon become a reality.

He said the current success in military hardware production by the Indian defence companies was an indication that the country would one day become a defence production major.

Rollout marks the stage when an aircraft is considered ready to undergo the phase of systems integration leading to ground runs, taxi trials and flight.

Antony said he would expect the Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) to keep their commitment of carrying out the maiden flight of the prototype in October.

Navy chief Admiral Nirmal Verma said the Tejas (as the LCA was christened by former Prime Minister AB Vajpayee) would form the next fleet of navy avionics after the acquisition of Sea Harriers in the 80s and induction of Mig 29 in 2009 by the Navy.