New Delhi, July 24
When the heads of the states of Punjab and Haryana are together, the issue of water is always within earshot. But today at the National Development Council meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the scene was slightly different. Apart from usual three decades old accusations, the two states want to join hands and tame the Ghaggar that caused the recent floods and many more in the past.

Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and Haryana Finance Minister Capt Ajay Singh Yadav -- attending on the behalf of Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda -- today wanted that the project to have dams and barrages for taming the Ghaggar be declared a national project.

Notably, the river waters have wreaked havoc in Ambala, Kurukshetra, Mohali, Patiala, Sangrur, Fatehabad and Sirsa in the past 10 days, destroying houses, commercial establishments, roads, railway tracks, irrigation networks and other assets.

Badal made a plea: “Canalize it (Ghaggar) on a priority to save Punjab and Haryana from devastation.” Yadav seconded it promptly: “Ghaggar river (project) should be a national project.” Yadav said Haryana was constructing Kaushalya Dam on the river at a cost of Rs 180 crore from own resources. Both the states went on describe the loss of lives and that of the standing paddy crop due to the floods. But, the bonhomie over water only lasted till here.

With the Supreme Court set to hear a Presidential reference on water issues of the two states, Badal did not miss the opportunity, as he said: “Riparian principle should be adopted for the inter-basin transfer of water by protecting the existing usages and future needs of riparian states.” As Haryana and Rajasthan are not riparian states, Punjab has often contested the sharing of waters from the three rivers -- Ravi, Beas and Satluj.

For his part, Yadav said: “Punjab is using Haryana’s 1.9 MAF of Ravi-Beas water for the last 30 years by not completing the Sutlej Yamuna Link (SYL) canal in its territory. Also, the link is being used to flush out floodwater, which causes havoc in Haryana.”

Yadav went on to add that “had Haryana been given its share of water, it could produce additional one lakh tonne of food grains annually, which was a loss to the nation”. He said Punjab was objecting to the Hansi-Butana canal without any reason.

Badal also called for the revision of norms under calamity relief fund for crop loss and demanded immediate enhancement in compensation to Rs 10,000 per acre for the entire landholding of the farmers from the current scale of Rs 1,600 per acre. Yadav wanted that some Rs 1,370 crore loss due to floods be compensated fast.

Badal chided the Union government by saying it was “heading towards unitary form, which was against the spirit of Constitution” and also “detrimental to the country's development and prosperity”. He went on to give an example that though agriculture was a state subject, the states had no say either in the fixation of prices of farm inputs like fertilizers and diesel or in determining the MSP of crops.

New Delhi, July 24
Ten days after Chief Ministers of Naxal-affected states agreed to set up a unified command to tackle the Maoists, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today laid stress on the second part of the anti-naxal strategy and asked the Planning Commission “ to design a holistic development programme for Naxal-affected areas.

While addressing the meeting of the national development council today, where all CMs of the country were present, the PM said “ the development programmes must be aligned with the special circumstances in these states ……..and in consultation with the states and other stakeholders…..these areas must be provided with additional resources for development...”.

The inclusion of the word “stakeholders” in his speech is crucial as this will mean traditional tribal rights over forest produce will be protected. The naxals allege that tribals have been left out of the development and lure villagers into their larger gameplan of attempting to overthrow the Indian Government.

The Prime Minister went on to elucidate the resolve of the government on the naxal front saying “…there should be no doubt that Left-wing extremism has to be met and it will be met with Centre and the states cooperating fully with one another”. Action against Maoists has to be supplemented by action on two other fronts -- implementation of Forest Rights Act, Panchayati Raj and providing additional resources for the development of these areas.

He said “…First, we must recognise that good governance alone gives people a sense of participation and empowerment….. effective implementation of the Forest Rights Act and Panchayat Raj (Extension to Scheduled Areas) Act (PESA) are of critical importance”.

Any failure to implement these laws in letter and spirit reduces the credibility of our commitment to bring development to these neglected areas, the Prime Minister warned.

The Prime Minister made it clear that focus of the development should be to fully protect the “adivasis”. The problems of marginalized sections of our country, many of whom live in areas which are affected by left-wing extremism, call for special attention. “Our development schemes have not worked well in these backward and impoverished parts of our country, particularly the areas inhabited by the adivasis”.

He called for bridging the “development deficit” in these backward areas. He made it clear that schemes should reduce whatever sense of alienation existed among the adivasis living in these areas. As the word “adivasi” implies, they were the original inhabitants and their rights must be fully protected, the Prime Minister emphasized.

Mumbai, July 24
Gangster Abu Salem, incarcerated in Mumbai's Arthur Road Jail since his extradition from Portugal five years ago, received serious injuries when he was stabbed by Mohammad Dossa of the Dawood Ibrahim gang within the prison premises, the police said.

The incident happened after breakfast this morning when prisoners are allowed to mingle in the common yard, the police said. Dossa attacked Salem with a sharpened spoon inflicting injuries to the latter's faceand neck. According to some accounts, the two got into an argument which provoked the attack.

A profusely bleeding Salem was taken to the prison hospital where he received stitches.

His condition is stable,the police said.Salem had fallen out with Dawood Ibrahim after which he fled to Portugal from where he was extradited.

A case has been filed against Dossa who is likely to be moved out of Arthur Road jail, according to the state government sources.

Ahlisadar (Fatehabad), July 24
The swirling “pipe” that descended from the skies, lifted water from the flooded fields and sprayed it like a fountain in Haryana’s Ahlisadar village on Thursday evening was a tornado. “It was undoubtedly a tornada,” confirmed Surender Paul, director of the Indian Meteorological Department’s Chandigarh unit, after visiting the site along with his team today.

The Met officials took stock of the cotton fields from where the spinning “funnel” sucked huge quantities of water and met several eyewitnesses.

“It started at 14:11 hrs (IST) and dissipated around 14.45 hrs on Thursday, observed Paul. He said a tornado --- a vertically growing cloud formation that occurs due to intense low pressure in the area --- is caused by abundance of moisture in the air associated with the upper air cyclonic circulation.

“It is a very rare phenomenon in this part of the world, though tornados are common in America,” he added.

Paul said tornados were earlier noticed in Delhi in 1978 and at Ludhiana in 1975 and 2007. The weather phenomenon has been also reported in some northeastern states.

“I was on the terrace of my house, when I noticed a pipe- like object descending from the clouds. It came spiralling down, leaving me spellbound,” said Ram Piari, a sexagenarian, who first noticed the development in the sky and immediately asked her children and grandchildren to look for shelter. Her grandsons later filmed the event on their mobile phone.

She said a stream of water was clearly visible running upwards as the funnel made a strange whistling sound and moved towards her. Ram Piari said soon the upper portion of the “funnel” appeared touching the clouds right above her head and she experiences a very fine spray of water, even as the lower end of the “pipe” was touching the fields, a few yards away from her house.

New Delhi, July 24
The already delayed process to replace the 23-year-old Bofors artillery gun in the Indian Army’s arsenal has been held up yet again. The ongoing process has been cancelled and it will now start from the scratch that will result in at least a two-year delay.

A couple of weeks ago the Ministry of Defence had stalled the comparative trials between the guns of the BaE Mahindra and the Singapore Technologies, as was reported in The Tribune on July 14. Now the Ministry has decided to scrap the entire process and invite fresh bids from global gun manufacturers.

The situation arose after the ministry, acting at the behest of the Central Bureau of Investigation, ruled out the Singapore Technologies from the trial process. The Defence procurement procedure does not allow for purchase, if only one company remains in the fray during the selection process. “In such a single vendor situation, the trials had to be stalled and a fresh tender process had to be started”, explained a senior functionary.

This is the sixth major hurdle since 2002 when the Army decided to replace its guns which had showed their worth during the 1999 Kargil conflict in pounding enemy bunkers.

Going by the official procedure, largely dictated by the fear of corruption, the process will take upto two years to reach the stage it had reached now. Two days ago the Indian Army issued Request for Information to seek information from leading global artillery gun manufacturers. A minor correction was carried out on Friday. Once the RFI is completed, the Army will lay down its General Staff Qualitative Requirements (GSQR) and then the stage will come for the request for proposal which will be sent out to the companies that meet the GSQR’s.

It will be followed by an technical evaluation of the bids before field trials are conducted. The now-scrapped bidding process was at the trial stage and the 155 mm 52 calibre bore guns of two companies were ready to display their firepower.

The BaE was fielding its the FH77 B05 which owes its parentage to the Bofors. The Singapore Technologies was in the field with iFH 2000.

The canceled tender was for 1580 units, of which 400 were to be purchased off the shelf and the rest 1180, to be license-produced in India by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB) after transfer of technology. The Defense Acquisitions Council (DAC) had approved procurement on December 13, 2007 and a Request for Proposal (RFP) was issued on March 26, 2008. The Technical Evaluation Committee (TEC) short listed the weapons of two firms.

Itanagar, July 24
Butterfly lovers identified and photo documented 183 species of 'flying beauties' in the buffer area of the Namdhapa national park in Arunachal Pradesh during the five-day 13th Butterfly India Meet (BMI-2010) which concluded today.

Due to rain the participants from various parts of the country could not venture into the core area of the national park, said Arif Siddiqui, an eminent nature photographer and one of the organisers of the meet. "The event was held for the thirteenth time and this is the second time we have got the opportunity to explore Arunachal Pradesh in the Northeast" said Butterfly India Group Moderator Vijay Barve.

Colonel Sandeep Choudhury of 18 Assam Rifles, Jairampur and S J Jongsam, Namdapha national park field director, lauded participants for their enthusiasm in identifying so many species despite bad weather condition. The thirty participants from different parts of the country also identified numerous moths apart from some glittering beetles like 'Golden Tortoise' during the meet which ended yesterday. — PTI

Chandigarh, July 24
Lending a sympathetic view to the plight of aged world-war veterans, the Armed Forces Tribunal has “invited” the attention of the President, the Central government as well as the State government towards their welfare.

Disposing off a petition filed by a 92-year old war veteran, the Tribunal observed that the number of such survivours is very small and the authorities concerned should consider extending some financial assistance to those who could not attain pensionable service for no fault of theirs.

Piyara Singh, a resident of Hoshiarpur, had joined the British Indian Army in July 1943 and was demobilsed in 1946 after the Second World War ended. Born in 1918, he served with 25 Sikh Light Infantry in war zones and operational areas.

He was re-enrolled again after Independence and then discharged in 1953 after serving for about two years. His total service amounted to a little over five years and two months, which was less than that required to qualify for pension.

His counsel had contended that he was neither dismissed nor removed from service, but had been discharged for no fault of his. Further, the pension rules for the Army, which define the qualifying service, were framed in 1961 and though they have some guiding value, they were not strictly applicable to him. Also, when Piyara Singh was discharged, he was given other benefits for the purpose of being an ex-serviceman.

Jaipur, July 24
With former Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje being made the incharge of Haryana BJP affairs, speculations here are rife whether she would be able to retain her hold on the saffron brigade’s politics in the desert state.

Raje was inducted into BJP chief Nitin Gadkari’s team four months back as the party general secretary, after she stepped down as the Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan. However, even after quitting the key post in the state she continued to have a major say in the state BJP’s affairs. Now, in view of the fresh move, many in the BJP here feel that she may find herself distanced from the party affairs in the state. According to sources within the BJP, the move to shift her focus to neighbouring Haryana and handing over the charge of Rajasthan to leaders like Kaptan Singh Solanki and Kirit Somaya, the central leadership has ensured that state BJP chief Arun Chaturvedi and the RSS leadership face the least resistance while taking key decisions. They also feel that following her appointment as the incharge of Haryana BJP affairs, the path to the election of a new Leader of Opposition in Rajasthan will also be cleared.

On the other hand, Raje loyalists contend that the former CM had herself chosen to work in Haryana where the party is in a bad shape and needs revival. There had been intense bickering in the state BJP in the last couple of years after the party lost Assembly elections followed by successive defeats in Lok Sabha elections and civic polls. Raje had been at loggerheads with the state BJP leadership ever since her exit as the Leader of Opposition. She even stayed away from campaigning in the civic polls last year. However, last month's Rajya Sabha elections, in which the BJP bagged two seats, saw the party putting up a united front after long.

Mumbai, July 24
Conceding a major victory for environmental groups, the Maharashtra government may agree to scrap the proposed airport at Navi Mumbai. The state government suffered yet another setback earlier this week, when an expert committee, set up by the Ministry for Environment and Forests raised several objections.

However, reports from Delhi said the Maharashtra government had been asked to consider alternative sites to locate the new airport. The main objections to the Navi Mumbai airport were the likely destruction of 300 hectares of mangroves in addition to the diversion of the Ulve and Ghadi Rivers.

The Maharashtra government’s suggestion to plant mangroves in another location, 200 kms away from Navi Mumbai, as compensation for the destruction caused by the proposed airport evoked strong objections from the green lobby.