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India, Iran to increase flight flow
Cong backs out from admitting dubious leader
BJP flays Sri Lanka for forced closure of UN office
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Naxal Menace
Sena, MNS threaten stir over Belgaum
Settle BSP symbol issue in 3 months, EC told
Fuel pump glitch led to GSLV crash
Jagan may break away from Cong
Train services resume in region Pb & Hry HC gets five
Addl Judges Now, trader drags city lawyer into threat row J&K Violence NIA seeks warrants against Headley, Lakhvi Stay off buses, trains: Bodo ultras to people Major reshuffle in I-T Dept
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India, Iran to increase flight flow
New Delhi, July 9 The other four accords are: agreement on transfer of sentenced prisoners; MOU on cooperation in small-scale industry between the National Small Industries Corporation (NSIC) and the Iranian Small Industries and Industrial Parks Organisation (ISIPO); programme of cooperation on science and technology; and MOU on cooperation between the Central Pulp and Paper Research Institute (CPPRI) of India and the Gorgan University of Agricultural Science and Natural Resources (GUASNR). The signing of the agreements clearly reflected New Delhi’s intention that it would pursue an independent policy on Iran, notwithstanding the American pressure on it not to enlarge the area of its engagement with Tehran. Although it is committed to abide by the UN sanctions on Tehran, New Delhi maintains that the Iranian nuclear issue must be resolved through negotiations since the sanctions would only hurt the common Iranian people. While recognising Iran’s right to develop nuclear energy for peaceful purposes, it has also advised Iran to strictly abide by the IAEA guidelines while pursuing its nuclear programme. The Iranian Minister indicated that his country was keen to boost its economic and commercial links with India. Hosseini, who also held meetings with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee during his stay in the Indian capital, proposed a bilateral investment protection treaty between the two countries and called for doubling the bilateral trade from $15 billion at present to $30 billion in the next five years. On the much talked about India-Pakistan-Iran (IPI) gas pipeline, he said the two countries would take forward talks on the project soon and come to an agreement. He said his country was committed to the successful implementation of the pipeline as it was of the firm view that Asian nations should play a much bigger role in the global economy. The two sides are also understood to have discussed the situation in Afghanistan at length with both of them expressing their common stakes in the stability of the violence-torn country. New Delhi is believed to have pressed for structured and regular consultations with Tehran on defeating terrorists in Afghanistan and in the region. The Iranian side is also understood to have agreed to step up the pace of work at Chabahhar port that will provide Indian goods an alternative access route to Afghanistan, by bypassing Pakistan.
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Cong backs out from admitting dubious leader
New Delhi, July 9 A sitting Tamil Nadu MLA Selvaperunthokai, former president of the Tamil Nadu unit of the BSP, was being admitted to the Congress at the party headquarters here. The Congress had announced a special briefing for introducing him to the media at 2.30 pm. But by the time newspersons started trickling in, the special briefing was cancelled and the routine briefing for 4.15 pm was announced. At this briefing, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmad admitted that Selvaperunthokai, who had hopped several political parties, was scheduled to join the Congress but failed to explain why the scheduled programme was cancelled. However, sources said the Dalit leader who was expelled recently by the BSP was being inducted into the Congress at the instance of the followers of Union Home Minister P. Chidambram’s camp. That is why the normal practice of organising such functions in the state was abandoned in favour of giving Selvaperunthokai a more honourable entry and making him join here in Delhi. But at the last minute, followers of another camp, headed by Tamil Nadu minister G.K. Vasan, sabotaged the move. They brought to the notice of the party high command the unsavoury past of Selvaperunthokai and the party cancelled the function in a hurry. Later, however, the Chidambaram camp seems to have prevailed upon the Congress party, and AICC media department chairman Janardhan Dwivedi sent a message that Selvaperunthokai would join the party at a function in Chennai, confirming the infighting and a tussle for supremacy within the Tamil Nadu Congress.
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BJP flays Sri Lanka for forced closure of UN office
Chennai, July 9 Welcoming the decision of UN secretary general Ban Ki Moon, Tamil Nadu BJP secretary Pon Radhakrishnan demanded that the Sri Lankan government should be punished for war crimes against Tamils. The UPA should realise its mistake of supporting the military offensive of the island government and backing the international community, the BJP leader and former Union Minister said. Pro-Tiger allies of the DMK and the AIADMK came down heavily on the Lankan government and said finally, the ugly face of the racist government had been exposed before the international community. MDMK leader Vaiko, who held discussion with AIADMK supremo J Jayalalithaa at her residence today, demanded the closure of the Sri Lankan Deputy High Commission here.
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Naxal Menace
Bastar, July 9 The LTTE waged a civil war in Sri Lanka, which was one of the longest running armed conflicts in Asia.The LTTE’s stronghold region was similar to Bastar’s jungles, where security forces are finding it difficult to penetrate. If there is some truth in the LTTE cadres’ presence here, they will be at home in dense jungles of bamboo, sal, teak, sheesam and high hills and streams. The way the Naxals have carried out well-planned military style operations in the recent past, the question that is being debated by security experts is: who are their trainers? Besides doing self-training, Maoists are known for taking help of ex-Army men and foreign mercenaries. The irony is that LTTE cadres, including Prabhakaran, were trained by the Indian Army in Chakrata (Uttarakhand) and elsewhere in the seventies. The same Army later fought against the LTTE as ‘Indian Peace Keeping Force’. This had later led to the assassination of former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi. When this correspondent met local tribals and police officers in Bastar town, they said they have heard of some dark foreigners training new Naxal recruits in jungle warfare. The LTTE fighters were known as the best in jungle warfare, which is why they could control huge territory and survive fighting the Sri Lankan army for four decades. Over telephone, a top police officer from Raipur said, “Some LTTE members might have established their links with their old Naxal allies after their defeat in Sri Lanka last year. We are aware that the LTTE experts used to visit Bastar to give Naxal cadres training in laying land mines. The LTTE, during its golden era, also used to supply arms and ammunition to the Maoists.” A senior Naxal leader, Ramu, who surrendered in Maharashtra recently, had told interrogators that a warfare expert from Philippines had visited and stayed in a Maoist camp in Abujmar in south Bastar in 2001 for about a month to train cadres. This disclosure had indicated the global reach of the Maoists. “Also, two LTTE men had come twice for the same purpose,” Ramu had confessed.
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Sena, MNS threaten stir over Belgaum
Mumbai, July 9 The two parties, which have been aggressively playing the Marathi card for the past several months, have latched on to this emotive issue after the Central government earlier this month filed an affidavit before the Supreme Court that the disputed villages could continue to remain with Karnataka. According to reports, the Centre had submitted to the apex court that language alone cannot be the sole criterion for demarcation of inter-state boundaries. The Maharashtra government is one of the parties to the dispute and had challenged the merger of 865 Marathi-speaking villages in Belgaum, Gulbarga, Bidar and Karwar districts into Karnataka. Counsel for Maharashtra will make fresh submissions before the Supreme Court on July 12, according to sources here. However, the Shiv Sena and the MNS are determined to embarrass the Ashok Chavan government when the monsoon session of the Maharashtra Assembly begins next week. Rivals and cousins Uddhav and Raj Thackeray have asked their party MLAs to disrupt the proceedings. The Sena has asked the Union Ministers from Maharashtra to quit the UPA Government. The MNS, on the other hand, has launched an attack on all political parties for betraying the state. Sena supremo Bal Thackeray accused the Congress and NCP ministers of lacking in love for Maharashtra. “We don’t expect you to resign, but at least make a show of it. Carry your resignation letters in your pocket... and stage a drama,” the editorial attributed to Thackeray in the party mouthpiece Saamna said. “Sharad Pawar loves cricket more than Maharashtra. Murli Deora was in the pockets of Ambanis and other oil companies while Praful Patel was owned by rich businessmen,” said the piece. Raj Thackeray said the boundary issue between Maharashtra and Karnataka could have been solved when the NDA was in power. “But today, even the BJP is silent on the issue even though its president is a Maharashtrian,” he quipped. Launching an attack on Union Ministers from Maharashtra Raj said: “We were always betrayed by our leaders who went to Delhi after getting elected.”
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Settle BSP symbol issue in 3 months, EC told
New Delhi, July 9 After hearing the PIL, the SC had in February this year asked the EC to decide within three months whether the elephant statues had anything to do with the party symbol. The EC in turn directed the UP government to submit the photographs of all the statutes and the details of the funds spent on them. Instead of giving the details, the state government questioned EC’s jurisdiction to go into the matter, the Commission’s counsel Ashok Desai and Meenakshi Arora informed a three-member Bench headed by Chief Justice SH Kapadia today. Upon this, the apex court asked the EC to consider UP’s objections first and gave it another three months to adjudicate this aspect. The EC’s decision would then be put up before the court. If the EC rejected the objections relating to maintainability and jurisdiction, the SC would go into the documents the Commission would require from the state for adjudicating the main aspect —whether the statues are in fact akin to the party symbol — of the PIL filed in June last year by a Delhi-based advocate Ravi Kant.
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Fuel pump glitch led to GSLV crash
Bangalore, July 9 A press release issued by ISRO said stoppage of the fuel booster turbo pump (FBTP) had cut off the supply of liquid hydrogen to the main engine of the cryogenic upper stage (CUS). This resulted in the crash of the 49-metre tall rocket into the sea about five minutes after it was fired from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh on April 15. The failure was a blow to the state-run ISRO as this was its maiden attempt to power the GSLV rocket with an indigenous CUS. ISRO said it had instituted a two-tier process to carry out an in-depth analysis of the flight performance of the rocket, identify the causes of its failure and recommend corrective measures. The findings of the failure analysis committee consisting of experts in various fields were further verified by a national group of eminent experts. According to ISRO, the initial conditions required for the start of the indigenous CUS were attained as expected and the CUS start sequence got initiated as planned at 294.06 seconds from lift-off. The ignition of the CUS main engine and two steering engines were confirmed as normal, as shown in the vehicle acceleration and different parameters of CUS measured during the flight. Vehicle acceleration was comparable with that of earlier GSLV flights (fired with Russian cryogenic engines) up to 2.2 seconds from start of CUS. However, the thrust build up did not progress as expected due to non-availability of liquid hydrogen (LH2) supply to the thrust chamber of the main engine. According to ISRO, the problem was caused by the anomalous stopping of the fuel booster turbo pump. The start-up of FBTP was normal. It reached a maximum speed of 34,800 rpm. But the speed of FBTP started dipping less than a second after the start of the CUS (0.9 seconds) and it stopped completely within the next 0.6 seconds. Two plausible reasons were identified for the failure of FBTP. The first was gripping at one of the seal location and seizure of rotor and; second, rupture of turbine casing due to excessive pressure rise and thermal stresses. ISRO will carry out a series of ground tests to confirm the findings.
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Jagan may break away from Cong
New Delhi, July 9 His supporters have been trying to float a party in the name of his father YS Rajasekhara Reddy called the ‘YSR Congress’.Jaganmohan Reddy, a first time MP, who launched his Odarpu Yatra yesterday, despite being asked by Congress president Sonia Gandhi not to proceed with it, is unhappy with the party because he was not considered for the Chief Minister’s post after his father’s death. A special bulletin of the Election Commission of India disclosed here today that attempts to register a political party by the name of the YSR Congress were started by a man named Mahboob Basha from Rayalseema on November 13, 2009.Similarly, Rayalseema Congress worker K Siva Kumar applied to the State Election Commission on Wednesday to register a political party named “YSR Congress” and the State Election Commission acknowledged receipt after entertaining the application. Chief Electoral Officer IV Subba Rao said the Election Commission office in Delhi had received an application a few months ago from a person seeking registration of a party named “YSR Congress.”
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Train services resume in region Chandigarh, July 9 Talking to The Tribune, GM Singh, senior divisional commercial manager, Ambala division, said the up line was restored this morning for the smooth movement of rail traffic, adding that the down line had also been opened later. The train traffic was stopped on Thursday by the railway authorities after the track started sinking near Shahbad Markanda in Haryana. At the Chandigarh railway station, Kalka-Chandigarh-Delhi Shatabdi Express (2006) and Jan Shatabdi (2058) were cancelled for the second day today. Trains on this busy route, which connects New Delhi with Punjab, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir, were restored today after the 5-km stretch of track near Ambala got damaged after monsoon’s heavy downpour waterlogged the track on Wednesday. A few trains were cancelled while all other trains were running much behind schedule. A railway official said the track had started sinking as flood water had accumulated in the fields on both sides of the railway line, leading to loosening of the track embankment. Railway authorities had put up hundreds of sandbags to strengthen the railway track and stop it from sinking further. Several express trains, including the Delhi-Amritsar-Delhi and Delhi-Chandigarh-Kalka Shatabdi Express, use this stretch daily to connect major cities of north India with the national capital. The trains that got delayed were Delhi-Chandigarh Shatabdi (2011) by five hours. The train, which usually reaches at the city railway station at 11 am, arrived at 4 pm and the Himalayan Queen (4095), which was to reach the city at 10.27 am, arrived at 1.30 pm, late by about three hours. Meanwhile, Chandigarh-Bandra Pashchim Express left the city railway station at its usual time at 3.52 pm.
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Pb & Hry HC gets five
Addl Judges New Delhi, July 9 According to a press note issued today, their appointments, made by the President, would be effective for one year from tomorrow.
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Now, trader drags city lawyer into threat row Chandigarh, July 9 Ashish Kumar levelled the allegation at a press conference held at Chandigarh Press Club today. No proof was handed over by him to the media to show his assertion was backed by an evidence. As such, the allegations levelled could solely be taken as an expression of his individual belief. The newspaper does not subscribe to his views. Talking to the media, Anupam Gupta, until recently senior standing counsel for the Chandigarh Administration, has rubbished the allegations. “I can only laugh at these allegations,” he asserted. At the very onset, Ashish Kumar said Gupta, in violation of the Punjab and Haryana High Court order, took his brother Vinod Kumar to Ludhiana to meet Saini, who was SSP at that time. Elaborating, Ashish Kumar claimed Justice VK Jhanji had restrained him and his brother from leaving Chandigarh as apprehensions were expressed about their escape following allegations that they had to repay some bank money. Despite restraining orders (passed either on March 11, 1994, or the next day), Gupta took his brother Vinod Kumar to Ludhiana for “reaching an compromise on the matter”, Ashish said. He further alleged that stringent terms and conditions for the compromise were set. Vinod Kumar was asked to fall down on his knees before the court during the hearing and tell the judge they wanted justice not from the court, but from the police. As they were not willing to compromise with their self-respect, the matter remained unresolved, Ashish Kumar claimed. He further alleged that Vinod was picked up from high court premises on the evening of March 15, 1994, after conclusion of court proceedings. Ashish Kumar has all along been saying Vinod Kumar, his brother-in-law Ashok Kumar and driver Mukhtiar Singh were kidnapped and later eliminated; and the CBI had found Saini and three other police officers directly responsible for their disappearance. His family was chief financier to Saini motors run by former husband of Saini’s sister, Ashish Kumar has been asserting.
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J&K Violence New Delhi, July 9 The undated transcripts of the conversation describe a person in Shopian in South Kashmir informing Abu Inquilabi about protests, curfew and troop movement into Srinagar. Abu Inquilabi is the sector commander of the Hizbul Mujahideen. This is the intercept, a copy of which is with The Tribune. "Kya baat hui hai yaar (what has happened, friend?)," asks Inquilabi. "Pata nahi, halat kharab huyi hai (I do not know, the situation has deteriorated)," responds the unidentified person from Shopian, according to the transcripts. "Yeh Hindustani fauj panga le rahi hai Kashmiriyon ke saath. Yeh kahan chhodegi inko (The Indian Army is troubling Kashmiris. It will not spare them)," remarks Inquilabi. This is being seen a clear signal that the Army has had an impact. "Chhodte nahi yeh (They don't spare)," is the response. Then Inquilabi asks whether stone pelting has begun and the answer is in affirmative. The Shopian-based person says that an announcement had been made in the morning that all should participate in the protest. He then says that security forces have clamped curfew at night itself. Inquilabi says that he has heard about more Army being requisitioned. The response is, "yes, some has reached." Inquilabi then asks, "was Army not there earlier?" His contact replies that it is in some strength in Srinagar, but in Shopian and Pulwama it is the CRPF and the police.
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NIA seeks warrants against Headley, Lakhvi New Delhi, July 9 Two senior officers of Pakistani Army are among those against whom the NBW has been sought by the NIA. The accused have been booked under various provisions of the IPC, Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act and waging war against the Government of India. “All the accused are at present residing outside India.The investigation in the case is at a crucial stage and thus, it is imperative for the NIA to seek issuance of NBWs in order to take necessary steps towards further investigation like issuance of Red Corner notice through the Interpol,” the plea filed by NIA said. — PTI
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Stay off buses, trains: Bodo ultras to people Guwahati, July 9 In a statement e-mailed to the media here, the outfit has threatened that it would trigger more such blasts in the state in the coming days. The outfit which demands sovereignty for Bodo tribe in Assam, is apparently out to avenge the shabby treatment meted out to its chairman Ranjan Daimary alias DR Nabla following his arrest in Bangladesh two months ago.
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Major reshuffle in I-T Dept Chandigarh, July 9 One of the significant postings in the region has been of Yograj Saini of the 1983 batch who has been shifted from Chennai to Chandigarh. He is new Director (Investigations). HC Negi will be the new Commissioner-II, Chandigarh, while SK Mittal has been posted in the Income Tax Tribunal, Chandigarh. Baldip Singh Sandhu, who was until recently Financial Adviser to the Punjab Government, becomes the new Commissioner (Appeals), Patiala. Harjit Singh has been shifted from Bathinda to Amritsar as Commissioner-II while Balvir Singh has been shifted from Hisar to Karnal as Commissioner. Kulwant Singh will be the new Commissioner-I at Ludhiana while Harbhajan Singh goes to Amritsar as Commissioner-I. Surinderjit Singh will be the new Commissioner (Appeals), Amritsar.In Chandigarh, AK Kaushal becomes Commissioner-I. Earlier, he was Commissioner-II in Chandigarh. The new Commissioner-II in Jalandhar will be Rakesh Suri while Subash Kumar will be the Commissioner-I there.
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New Delhi, July 9
The MOUs were signed at the end of the two-day meeting of the India-Iran joint commission, co-chaired by External Affairs Minister S M Krishna and visiting Iranian Minister Seyed Shamsodin Hosseini.