New Delhi, July 17
The tug-of-war between Maharashtra and Karnataka over the decades-old Belgaum issue continued with Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan today insisting on Union Territory status for the disputed boundary areas in Karnataka and his counterpart from the adjoining state BS Yeddyurappa saying that Belgaum was an integral part of Karnataka.

Led by Chavan, a delegation of Maharashtra Congress leaders met UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi and apprised her of the situation in the state after the flaring up of the boundary dispute with Karnataka.

The group has already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the issue.Chavan later said he was firm on his demand for UT status to the 865 villages in Karnataka having a majority of Marathi-speaking population. The issue, however, was not raised with the Congress president.

The group has asked for a National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) team to visit the disputed areas, claiming that Marathi-speaking people were being “harassed” by the state government there.It is an allegation that is vehemently denied by Yeddyurappa. “The people there are very safe and there is no need for panic,” the Karnataka Chief Minister said. The government would not allow anyone to disturb peace in the state, he added.

Terming Belgaum an integral part of Karnataka, Yeddyurappa said the Mahajan Commission report was final and should to be implemented. “The Maharashtra Government is creating confusion on the issue unnecessarily,” he added.The issue was revived after the Centre recently filed an affidavit, saying that language could not be the only criterion for deciding boundaries of states. This was a big setback for Maharashtra, which has been demanding that 865 villages in Marathi-speaking districts like Belgaum and Gulbarga in the adjoining state be merged with it.

In this emotive state-versus-state issue, depending on the side they are in members of same political parties are resorting to rhetoric to cater to respective audience. So in Karnataka the state BJP leaders disagree with demands of their own party leaders from Maharashtra on Belgaum and the situation is very similar with the Congress.

The Maharashtra BJP is opposed to the Congress’ UT status demand for 865 villages till the Supreme Court gives its verdict on the long-pending border dispute.

New Delhi, July 17
Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yedyurappa trying hard to get rid of the Bellary brothers, holding prime portfolios in his cabinet and damaging the BJP image because of allegations of illegal mining against them, was outmanoeuvred yet again here today. In November last year, he had to drop his trusted minister Shobha Karandlaje under pressure from the party high command working at the behest of the three Reddy brothers, Janardhana Reddy, Karunakara Reddy and Somashekhara Reddy, two of whom hold important portfolios in his cabinet.

After day-long parleys with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, BJP senior leader L.K. Advani, president Nitin Gadkari, general secretary Ananth Kumar and a host of his state party leaders, the Chief Minister failed to convince the high command to let him drop the Reddy brothers.

Sources said Yedyurappa had almost won the day when Advani suggested sending Gadkari and Arun Jaitely to Bangalore to prevail upon the Reddy brothers to quit. Ananth Kumar, however, scuttled the bid by quietly inviting the core group of the state party leaders to Gadkari’s house ahead of the Gadkari-Yedyurappa meeting. Yedyurappa met Advani around 1 pm. The sources said there was a marked change in Advani this time. Earlier (October/November, 2009) Advani had even accused Yedyurappa of being corrupt. But this time he asked the Chief Minister whether he could survive a vote of confidence if the Reddy brothers were dropped.

“He said yes, but state BJP president KS Easwarappa from the opposite camp immediately contradicted him saying there might be trouble,” the sources disclosed.

From there Yedyurappa returned to Karnataka Bhawan pleased with Advani’s support.

He was scheduled to meet Gadkari at 4.30 pm. Suddenly he was informed that the Karnataka core group was meeting Gadkari at 3 pm. The sources said Yedyurappa was taken by surprise since he knew nothing of the core group following him to Delhi. Since Gadkari had to catch a flight after the meeting with the core group, Yedyurappa got very little time and opportunity to discuss the matter.

New Delhi, July 17
Special schools like Jawahar Navodayas, Kendriya Vidyalayas and Sainik Schools among others are all set to be exempted from the “no-screening of students” clause of the Right of Children to Free and Compulsory Education (RTE) Act, 2009.

The development comes within days of The Tribune reporting how the Commissioner, Navodaya Vidyalaya Samiti (NVS) petitioned the Human Resource Development Ministry about practical problems of not screening students for Navodayas, which were conceived as selective schools to cater to talented children in the community. He had sought exemption from the clause.

“The law has not been envisioned well. The question is whether talent can be identified through a lottery? The Act is silent on this. It confuses between comprehensive and selective schools. Not testing students for Navodayas would be a mockery of the scheme,” top NVS sources told The Tribune. The NVS is legally examining other impractical clauses of the Act and will refer them to the Centre soon.

The ministry for its part is serious about exempting from Section 13 (which mandates that no child will be screened for admission to classes I to VIII; it requires random admissions) all specialized and selective schools like Navodayas, Kendriya Vidyalas, Sainik Schools, Bal Bhartis and Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, which came up for a purpose under government schemes.

While Navodayas (they begin from Class VI), conceived by former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi, are meant to identify children with special talent in the district (right up to the block level) and offer them quality education to let them proceed faster than others, Sainik Schools were established to prepare boys for entry to the National Defence Academy. KVs were to accommodate wards of Central government employees while Bal Bhartis had their own target group, including wards of older parents and girl children.

Sardar Patel Vidyalaya, with its focus on extra curricular activities, is another specialised school being considered for exemption from no-exam provision of RTE Act.

Top sources in the HRD Ministry confirmed that discussions were on to resolve practical problems being faced by stakeholders implementing the Act.

New Delhi, July 17
A day before he was arrested by the Jammu & Kashmir Police for fraudulently claiming to be Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s adviser, the con man had assaulted the Personal Security Official (PSO) of a Central minister.

The Delhi police had registered a case against him on July 10 for assaulting a cop on duty and its probe has revealed that the accused --- Manmohan Singh ---had some papers showing his links to some Congress leaders. One such document shows him as an “election co-ordinator” for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh when he had fought the Lok Sabha poll from South Delhi in 1999, an investigating official said.

The accused (54) had assaulted Head Constable deployed at Minister of State for Food Processing Industries Subodh Kant Sahay’s residence on July 10. “The minister was not present in the house nor was his brother when the incident took place. Manmohan had gone to the minister’s house. As there was no one in the house, the Head Constable asked him to leave. However, the accused began arguing with him and then grabbed the security guard’s collar and slapped him,” said a police official. SHO of Tuhlaq Road police station, Anil Yadav, said they booked the accused under various charges, including trespassing, assault of public servant and criminal intimidation, on the same day. However, cops were not aware at that time that Manmohan was a con man who had been enjoying official privileges by impersonating as the PM’s adviser.