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Rashtriya Rifles better option against Naxals?
Congress joins battle for Bellary
The brothers claim to be clean |
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India has rich reserves of the finest Iron ore in the world. Miners in Orissa, Jharkhand, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have been minting money with profit margins exceeding a staggering 80 pc
Congress also in a glasshouse
Evidence against Reddys thin so far
CBI far too earnest
Health Ministry ‘snack bite’: Rs 94 lakh
Advani flays govt’s Pak policy
Scorched Rajasthan yearns for water
Govt goes
private to tame rising population
AFT acquits Lt Col dismissed 15 yrs ago
MiG-27 crash toll rises to 3
AJTs for Indian Navy
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Rashtriya Rifles better option against Naxals?
“Who was she?” this correspondent asked the non-tribal shop owner. Looking both sides, in a low-tone, he said, “Naxal, sahib.” Questioned, whether these Naxalites move around so freely, he whispered, “they are everywhere.” This indicate that peace will continue to elude picture postcard Bastar for long. That it is going to be a long haul is evident from frank acknowledgement that Union Home Secretary Gopal K Pillai made during his recent two-day Chhattisgarh visit “It will take three to seven years to finish the red rebels.” Actually, doubts have started surfacing in the mind of high-ranking police officers, bureaucrats and people, including anti-Maoist tribal leaders, about the capability of the Central security forces. Seeing their awful performance, the Naxal watchers are wondering whether the Centre should go for the deployment of only one aggressive para-military force, Rashtriya Rifles (RR) - if they have spare battalions - and do away with multiple security forces. None of them are trained and equipped to face the Maoists in a mobile or positional warfare. The RR, which draws men only from the army, has earned a good reputation in Jammu and Kashmir by playing a pro-active role in neutralising terrorists. The CRPF has suffered heavy casualties this summer. “Instead of getting scared,” a police officer in Narayanpur said, “the Maoists are showing dare-devil attitude by taking them head-on.” In J&K and north-east, the CRPF and the BSF have remained pitted mainly against unorganised mobs on the streets. But in Chhattisgarh, fighting terrorism is a different ball-game. The Bastar battle zone is getting worse as the red rebels are raising an independent Brigade formation (about 4,000 to 5,000 men), based on military pattern, to fight a mobile or positional battle. The Maoists’ surprise multi-prong attacks are making the forces incapable of rendering assistance even to each other. “Both the CRPF and the BSF suffer from a historical (traditional) mindset. They deploy themselves for a ‘holding’ role rather than going for the ‘area domination’ role,” a senior police officer in Jagdalpur explained. “Unlike the army,” he observed, “they are not capable of moving forward to win back the territory occupied by the enemy. In J&K jungles and hills, the RR commandos have proved their mettle. They ascertain the source of trouble, threat level and devise strategies to neutralise the enemy’s firing positions. In Bastar, the para-military forces only try to secure themselves at their base when they come under fire. Recently, in Nakulnar, 30 km from Dantewada, the Maoists attacked the house of a Congress leader-cum-contractor, Avdesh Singh Gautam. Simultaneously, they opened fire at nearby Kuankonda police station. About 100 CRPF men were also stationed there around midnight. No one stirred out to rescue Gautam, who, after two hours, managed to escape. The Maoists melted back into the forest when a CRPF reinforcement team was spotted by their lookouts moving from Dantewada at 3 a.m. “Unless and until, you create fear by eliminating the enemy, you can’t succeed,” said an army officer associated with the Naxal issue in an advisory role. “At present,” he pointed out that “faceless Maoists are striking anywhere, any time at their own sweet will.” About the demand for the army’s deployment to handle the red terror, a Major-General from New Delhi said, “The opening of a new front for the army won’t be good as it will send a wrong signal to the world. We should not become another Pakistan fighting terrorism in every nook and corner of the country.”
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Belgian dogs to guard Maoist-hit areas
Bangalore, July 25 These dogs of the "Malinois" breed, will be deployed in the Naxal-infested areas of Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh where about 120 security men have been killed in the past four months. Malinois Belgian shepherds have been used with success by NATO troops in Afghanistan and Israeli troops in Gaza. The eight Malinois being trained near Bangalore for anti-Naxal duty are the litter of an Israeli male Malinois which was crossed with an American bitch. These guard dogs will accompany CRPF patrols in the Naxal areas where previous patrols have been caught off-guard and massacred by Naxal militants. The dogs are also being trained in explosives detection and this will help in sniffing out Improvised Explosive Devices (IEDs), which have, in the past been found buried beneath tarred roads. The four-month old Malinois Belgian shepherd are presently undergoing 22-week training near Bangalore and will later be sent for an advanced course to the Indo-Tibetan Border Police's National Centre for Dog Training near Chandigarh where they will receive specialised training in explosives and narcotics detection. — PTI
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Congress joins battle for Bellary
Illegal mining, rags to riches story, political rivalry and unbridled ambition make for an explosive cocktail in this ongoing soap opera in Karnataka. Reports by Shubhadeep Chaudhary from Bangalore The continuing political soap opera in Karnataka reached a decisive turn on Sunday when Congress MLAs began a 320 Kms long march from Bangalore to Bellary. They plan to walk 20 Kms every day and arrive at Bellary in north Karnataka on August 9 to coincide with the anniversary of the Quit India Movement. The Congress wants the two Reddy brothers, Janardhana and Karunakara, to resign from the Karnataka cabinet and subject themselves to an inquiry by the Central Bureau of Investigation ( CBI) for illegal mining and earning disproportionate assets through the export of iron-ore. Illegal mining essentially means that the lease-holder conducts mining in areas beyond the lease. Transaction of illegally mined ore is then conducted without valid paper-work and with unaccounted money. But the Reddys have been claiming their innocence and documents they are freely distributing of late seem to support their contention. The government’s policy in hiking price of iron-ore to international levels and allowing unbridled export made iron-ore mining extremely lucrative since 2003. The miners are said to enjoy a profit margin of 80% and above in the domestic market itself and Reddys are not the only ones who have made a killing in these years. The Rungtas, Ahluwalias, Tatas and the Birlas have all taken advantage of the government’s generosity and made their money. Sons of a police constable, the brothers ( another brother Somashekara is an MLA) struggled to set up a NBFC ( Non-banking finance company) which was wound up in 1998 amidst charges of cheating. People in Bellary remember the brothers move around in two-wheelers then. But barely a decade later, they have come to own a fleet of helicopters and their assets are said to run into several thousand crores. Indeed their differences with the Karnataka Chief Minister B Yeddyurappa surfaced when the brothers decided to go ahead and construct houses for the flood victims in North Karnataka in 2008 without seeking any help from the state government. They are believed to have spent Rs 500 crore on the construction and the Chief Minister was not even invited when the houses were handed over to the beneficiaries. The CM retaliated by transferring the SP, DC and the Conservator of Forests overnight , just to show who was the boss. The relationship soured further when the Reddy brothers forced the CM’s favourite Shobha Karanje to resign from the ministry. While the BJP top brass have brokered a truce between them, it is an uneasy truce and it became clear once again at the National Development Council meeting in new Delhi on Saturday, when Yeddyurappa made a strong plea for placing a ban on export of iron ores. While there are several steel experts who favour the ban ( see box) , the Karnataka CM’s main motivation appears to be to hurt the Reddys where it hurts them the most. The brothers had thrown their lot with the BJP right from the beginning. When Sushma Swaraj was put up against Sonia Gandhi from Bellary in the 1999 Lok Sabha election, the Reddys worked tirelessly for her victory. She actually lost the election but the brothers ensured that the BJP swept the municipal council election in Bellary in 2001 followed by the Zila Parishad and so on. They also helped BJP win 23 of the 27 Assembly seats in the region and are accused of ‘buying’ support of Independent MLAs in favour of the BJP so that Yeddyurappa could form the government. The battle for Bellary, therefore, has all the essential ingredients of a potboiler. With staggering amounts of money involved, the soap opera is likely to continue. While the Reddy brothers are fighting with their back to the wall against the onslaught launched against them by both the Congress and a section of the BJP in Karnataka, where they are essentially outsiders , hailing from Andhra Pradesh, they are unlikely to give up without a fight. So, as the BJP prepares to hold rallies in different parts of Karnataka to counter the Congress campaign and the Reddys prepare to launch their own media blitzkrieg to tilt the PR war, the involvement of the Lok Ayukta, who has been asked to inquire into the charges by the state government, and the role of the various courts where cases against the brothers are in various stages, have added to the drama.
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The brothers claim to be clean The main allegation against the Reddys is that their firm is carrying out mining on land beyond the area allotted to them. It is also alleged that though their mining leases fall in Andhra Pradesh, they are carrying out illegal mining in bordering areas of Karnataka as well. Official records also suggest that out of the three mines the Reddys have in Ananthapuram in Andhra Pradesh bordering Karnataka, one mine has been mining an excess area of 2.4 hectares over and above the area leased out for mining. The two remaining mines have been operating within the leased area. A barbed fence has been erected to prevent them from carrying out their operations in “disputed areas” (areas over which Karnataka and AP have a dispute) and areas “abutting Karnataka”. April 25, 2009 : Secretary, Industries and Commerce, Andhra Pradesh, wrote to secretary, Ministry of Mines, New Delhi, stating that a committee of floor leaders had visited the mining areas and found no evidence of any encroachment. Following complaint by Bellary Iron Ore Pvt Ltd. (BIOPL) that mines of Reddy brothers (Obulapuram Mining Company) had encroached into its area, a committee was constituted that comprised experts from Survey of India also. The committee reported that it was BIOPL that had encroached into the mine of Reddy brothers. July 15, 2009 : Special Chief Secretary, environment, forests, science & technology department, AP, wrote to IG, Forests, Ministry of Environment and Forests, New Delhi, saying “there are no violations committed by any of the lessees in contravention of Forest Conservation Act, 1980 or violation of conditions imposed by Government of India, state government and DFO, Ananthapur for carrying out mining activity in their respective mining lease areas”. February 26, 2010 : Andhra Pradesh High court sets aside AP government’s directive to Obulapuram Mining Company to suspend mining. March 3, 2010 : The Supreme Court directs Obulapuram Mining Company to suspend mining so that survey of the mining area could be carried out by the Composite Survey Committee (CSC). April 20, 2010 : Report of the Composite Survey Committee (constituted under the directions of Supreme Court) submitted. The committee, headed by Major General A K Padha, Additional Surveyor General, found that in one of its leases for 66 hectares, the Obulapuram Mining Company had occupied an excess area of 2.4 hectares. Obulapuram also held another lease of 39.50 hectares, while its sister concern Ananthapur Mining Company held a lease of 6.50 hectares. It was found that the mining carried out by Obulapuram was deficit by one hectare in case of its second lease. The operation carried out by Ananthapur Mining Company was also deficit by 0.2 hectare. May 10, 2010 : The Supreme Court allowed Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) to resume operations in the undisputed areas (leaving out areas “abutting Karnataka boundary”). On the May 10 order, the SC directed the CSC to erect a temporary fence at the expense of OMC at the Karnataka border to confine its mining activities within the undisputed areas. June 14, 2010 : Andhra Pradesh High Court turns down plea by the CBI to conduct a “parallel inquiry” to find out if OMC had crossed their boundaries and encroached on areas belonging to another leaseholder. The court observes that “boundary dispute” cannot be handed over to the CBI for investigation as the agency did not have the expertise.
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It is because their father was a police constable and not an IAS officer that they are facing opposition, says Janardhan Mining baron and Karnataka’s tourism minister Janardhana Reddy believes that the establishment is hitting back at them because their origins are humble and because people find it difficult to swallow their rags-to-riches story. ?The reaction would have been different if we were children of IAS or IPS officers?, he said during a chat with this correspondent. But even Dhirubhai Ambani came from an ordinary background and made a huge empire?, he recalls wistfully, making no secret of the Reddys ambition to make it as big as the Ambanis one day. Suresh Bhatt, a confidante of the Reddys, says local Congress leaders target the Reddys because of the support they provided to Sushma Swaraj when she unsuccessfully fought the election against Sonia Gandhi. Sonia Gandhi may not have any plan to return to Bellary but the Congress party leaders here think that targeting the Reddys will make her happy?, Bhatt says. The Reddys also played a key role in turning Bellary from a Congress bastion to a BJP stronghold. Eight out of nine assembly segments in Bellary district are represented by BJP legislators. The Bellary Lok Sabha constituency, too, is represented by a BJP MP. Bhatt says while a number of people, including Congress party functionaries, have been engaged in iron ore extraction in Bellary for a long time, the Reddys, comparatively newcomers in the field, have made more money than any of them. The troubles of the Reddy brothers with the Andhra Pradesh government are traced back to the sudden death of Y Rajashekhar Reddy in a helicopter crash last year. While the late AP Chief Minister was known to have protected and promoted the brothers from bellary, the new AP Chief Minister, Rosaiah, called in the CBI to investigate illegal mining by Reddys. The revolt engineered last year by the Reddys against Yeddyurappa, considered a key person behind the BJP?s growth as a strong force in Karnataka and who hails from the powerful Lingayat community, has also alienated them from many BJP sympathisers in Karnataka.
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People in glasshouses cannot afford to cast a stone. So says the controversial Janardhana Reddy, believed to be the brain behind the brothers’ meteoric rise as mining barons and political kingmakers. Reddy, curiously, has been busy circulating copies of a report prepared by the Lokayukta Santosh Hegde, which appears to indict Congressmen for illegal mining activities. Citing the report, Reddy says companies owned by Congress leaders M Y Ghorpade, Anil Lad and Santosh Lad, Allum Veerabhadrappa, H G Ramulu, S M Jain and Adbul Wahab and a firm of Baldotas had encroached on hundreds of acres of land in Bellary in Karnataka. Ghorpade is a former minister, Veerabhadrappa is a former state Congress chief; Ramulu a former parliamentarian, while Wahab is the former Bellary district Congress committee chief. Similarly, Jain is also a former All India Congress Committee member while Anil Lad and Santosh Lad are, respectively, Congress Rajya Sabha member from Karnataka and Congress MLA in Karnataka. In the report the Lokayukta has identified 99 instances of encroachments by mine owners in Karnataka. Twenty-five (25) out of the 99 encroachments have been carried out by companies belonging to Congress members, Reddy claims. Repeating his charges of a Rs 150 crore bribery scam against Kumaraswamy, Reddy alleges that the Rs 36 crore was part of the scam. Reddy said documents and CDs relating to the Rs 150-crore bribe scam (allegedly collected by Kumaraswamy from Bellary miners after he became Chief Minister), will be handed over to the Karnataka Lokayukta, who will probe illegal mining. Reddy was about to screen the CDs to the media on July 20. A projector and a screen were also kept ready at the star hotel where he held a press conference. But at the last minute, he backed out.
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Evidence against Reddys thin so far
Former Chief Minister and JD(S) leader H D Kuamraswamy claims he has proof of Janardhana Reddy's illegal mining activity in Karnataka.
He says a company by the name of Black Gold Iron Ore Mines and Minerals had a mining lease at Honnalli village of Bellary
taluk, bordering Rayadurga taluk of Anantapur district in Andhra Pradesh. Its mining lease expired on November 14, 1992. He says for transportation of about 1.5 lakh tonne of iron ore, illegally mined by the company, the royalty was paid from the account of Reddy and Anantapur Mining Corporation
(AMC), a trading firm belonging to Reddy family. The incident dates back to 2006. To transport the ore, the royalty was paid from the account of AMC and Janardhana Reddy. It proves he was the owner of the firm, unofficially?, Kumaraswamy has said. Congress leaders V S Ugrappa and K C Kondaiah have alleged that OMC was mining high grade iron ore from Karnataka and exporting it using bulk permits provided by Andhra Pradesh government. But they have failed to provide
any evidence. Leader of the opposition in the Karnataka legislative assembly Siddaramaiah charged the Reddy brothers with coercing 43 mine owners in Bellary district to pay hafta (weekly bribe) to them. ?If any of these mine owners refuse to pay the
hafta, they can't do business. The local administration will not cooperate?, Siddaramaiah has alleged. Congressmen have also alleged that the Reddys own benami companies in Bellary to carry out iron ore mining in
Karnataka.
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CBI far too earnest
The more than normal interest shown by the CBI to investigate the case against OMC - handed over to the agency by Andhra Pradesh government - came under criticism from the AP high court.
In an order in June this year, the court said the CBI was not equipped with in house mechanism to survey, demarcate and fix the boundaries of the OMC’s mining area. But, “far from raising such a plea”, CBI pleaded that the agency was being assisted by technical experts in the fields of geology, mining, survey and other departments and the state government had constituted a multi-disciplinary team to assist the CBI. But the court was not amused and said the CBI was not required to settle the boundary dispute between OMC and another leaseholder since investigation by the CBI would be a duplication of the survey work already undertaken by an expert team.
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Health Ministry ‘snack bite’: Rs 94 lakh
New Delhi, July 25
Exercising his right to information, Hisar-based RTI activist Ramesh Verma had sought to know from different ministries the expenditure incurred on snacks and bottled water during 2008-09 and 2009-10. The Health Ministry, in its reply, said it had spent Rs 49.45 lakh and Rs 44.62 lakh, respectively, in the “last two years on refreshment/mineral water”, which adds to Rs 94.07 lakh. The Rural Development Ministry spent around Rs 41.42 lakh on snacks served during meetings during the period, the reply from the ministry said. The Water Resources Ministry said that nearly Rs 20.73 lakh were spent on these heads during the period, while the Ministry of Petroleum incurred expenses of Rs 19.5 lakh. The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution spent nearly Rs 35,000 on packaged drinking water during the period, while nearly Rs 14 lakh were spent on refreshments during the past two years. — PTI
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Advani flays govt’s Pak policy
New Delhi, July 25 Advani said the prime purpose of India’s Pakistan policy must be to force “this neighbour of ours to abandon terrorism” and recalled the “uncompromising” stand of the BJP-led government on cross-border terrorism that had forced then Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf to return “empty-handed” from the Agra Summit in July, 2001. “Starting with the Prime Minister’s blunder at Sharm-el-Sheikh when he announced de-linking the issue of Indo-Pak dialogue from the issue of Pakistan’s cross-border terrorism, to the External Affairs Minister’s recent performance in Pakistan, never before has India’s Pakistan policy been so completely alienated from the public opinion as it is today,” he wrote. He expressed surprise at External Affairs Minister SM Krishna ignoring his Pakistan counterpart Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s attempts at bracketing Home Secretary GK Pillai with Jamaat ud-Dawa Hafeez Saeed. “... our own minister added injury to the Pakistani insult by publicly admonishing Pillai not for any fault of his, but for the signal service he had rendered to the country by exposing the ISI’s role in the 26/11 terrorist attack on Mumbai,” Advani wrote. He said it was BJP’s “firm stand that made the General (Musharraf) ultimately discard his Agra attitude and at Islamabad in January, 2004, sign a joint statement with Vajpayee that ‘he will not permit any territory under Pakistan’s control to be used to support terrorism in any manner’,” Advani said.
— PTI
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Scorched Rajasthan yearns for water
Jaipur, July 25 Out of 180 municipal cities and towns, water resources have started drying up in almost half of them, in view of which the water resources department is now ferrying tankers and water trains to 89 of them. For the residents of these cities, these tankers are the primary source of water. The number of towns to which water is now being transported has doubled as compared to the last year when the number was a meagre 38. The number went up to 52 after the monsoon failed in 2009. The rise in number of towns facing acute water crisis is being attributed to drying up of dams due to inadequate rainfall and depletion of water table at a rapid pace. With the exception of Jodhpur and Kota, almost all the major cities are facing the water crisis. Even main cities like Jaipur and Ajmer are being supplied water through trains. The number of villages that are being supplied water through tankers has also gone up considerably. The number last year was 8,000 and now it is 20,767. The availability of drinking water has worsened in the state despite a substantial increase in the amount spent by the government. As per sources, the government has already spent Rs 590 crore on facilitating water supply to the people this year as compared to Rs 390 crore in the corresponding period last year. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot has urged the Centre to extend special status to the desert state to help it tide over the prevailing water crisis. “We have taken up drinking water projects worth Rs 20,000 crore but it is not possible to complete them on our own. An amount of Rs 33,000 crore is required to deal with the drinking water problems in the state.”
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Govt goes private to tame rising population New Delhi, July 25 Days after the world observed the Population Day and India admitted that its numbers could touch a whopping 200 crore by 2050, news is that Health Ministry’s Population Stabilisation Fund (PSF) has engaged advertising major Lintas to prepare the nation’s first mass media campaign targeting population stabilisation and family planning goals. The government, for the first time, has also managed to rope in the corporate sector to power the project, with Haryana MP Naveen Jindal’s Jindal Steel pledging to bear creative cost, estimated to run into crores. Jindal Steel has already signed an agreement with the PSF. Naveen Jindal confirmed the development to The Tribune, saying, “I feel very strongly about the growing population and I will do everything I can to contribute to the government’s efforts in this direction. We have decided to foot the creative bill of this first mass media campaign on the subject. We hope to launch it soon.” Broadcast bill of the project would, however, be borne by the government, top sources in the Health Ministry said, although they did not declare the actual cost of the campaign. This public-private partnership (PPP) model in the family planning sector is the first after Independence, and marks a major departure from the government’s old policy in this respect. “Fertility rate in India is still hovering around 2.6 whereas the promise was to hit 2.1 by 2010. While we are growing annually at the rate of 1.4 per cent, China is growing at a meager 0.6,” Amarjeet Singh of the PSF said. The brief for Lintas is clear — talk about the need to educate the girl child, publicise the just enacted Right to Education Act, create imagery to inspire girls to delay their age of marriage and promote spacing of children. The campaign will also stress the male role in family planning.
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AFT acquits Lt Col dismissed 15 yrs ago
Chandigarh, July 25 “Having gone through the evidence on record, we are of the view that the prosecution failed to establish the charges against the appellant. The findings of the GCM are not sustainable and the impugned order of dismissal from service is set aside,” the Tribunal’s Bench comprising Justice S.S. Kulshreshtha and Justice S.S. Dhillon ruled. “The respondent shall consider restoration of the withheld pension of the appellant,” the bench further ordered. Lt Col
G.R. Verma had faced six charges under Section 52(f) and 63 of the Army Act for intent to defraud and acts prejudicial to good order and military discipline, including receiving a supposedly stolen scooter and tampering documents, the GCM had concluded in 1995 and he was held guilty on five charges. Verma’s counsel, Maj K. Ramesh (retd), told The Tribune that the case related to the escape of a jawan, who was in custody of the appellant’s ASC unit for involvement in a bank robbery. An NCO, Hav K.A. Terdal, was said to have been guarding him. Thereafter, on the instructions of his Commanding Officer, Verma filed a chargesheet against Terdal, who pleaded guilty in the subsequent court of inquiry.
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Jantar Mantar
Cabinet of CM hopefuls As Union ministers and Congress functionaries continue to snipe at each other, there is a growing perception that the ruling combine and the party are increasingly at war with each other. It is not surprising since the Union Cabinet comprises more than half-a-dozen ministers who would jump at the first opportunity to head a state government.While Trinamul Congress chief and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee clearly heads the list of chief ministers-in-waiting and DMK’s M. Alagiri comes a close second, the Congress also has its fair share of CM hopefuls. Ghulam Nabi Azad and Vilasrao Deshmukh, who have done earlier stints as CMs in Kashmir and Maharashtra, respectively, are also itching to get back. Rural development minister C.P. Joshi spends all his time in Rajasthan in the hope of unseating Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot. Steel minister Virbhadra Singh will not mind going back to head the Himachal Pradesh government if luck favours the Congress in the next Assembly elections. However, he now has a competitor in bete noire - commerce minister Anand Sharma - who is also eyeing the CM’s gaddi. Meeting at the terminal As members of various consultative and Parliamentary standing committees, MPs often get an opportunity to travel round the country as the panel meetings are fixed outside Delhi on some pretext or the other. For instance, members of the standing committee on foreign affairs recently travelled to Mumbai, Kolkata and Ahmedabad to study the facilities at the passport offices in these cities. When in Delhi, the meetings are generally held in one of the committee rooms in the Parliament House complex. However, members of the consultative committee on civil aviation are in for a surprise as the venue for their next meeting is certainly unusual. The panel members will deliberate on the working of the ministry at T3, the capital’s swanking new international airport.
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MiG-27 crash toll rises to 3
Jalpaiguri (WB), July 25 The black box or digital flight data recorder was located from near the spot in Bhotputti village where the crash took place, a senior Air Force officer said. The MiG-27 had taken off from the Hashimara Air Base on a routine sortie and crashed within minutes, killing one person on the ground and injuring many. A farmer, Bholen Roy, who was cultivating his field, was killed when the fighter jet crashed between Moynaguri and Chengrabandha. Two more persons, who were seriously injured, later died at hospital, taking the toll due to the crash to three. Teenager Purnima Rai succumbed to her burn injuries at the North Bengal Medical College and Hospital last night.
— PTI
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AJTs for Indian Navy
New Delhi, July 25 The AJTs will also replace the existing lot of jet trainers named “Surya Kiran”. The deal for Rs 3042 crore will be for the supply of 17 of these AJT’s. Delivery starts from 2013 and is expected to be completed by 2016, the Navy spokesperson said last evening. These AJT’s are capable of carrying some weaponry for self protection. Unlike the MIG 29-K , these cannot land on the deck of sea-based naval aircraft carrier. The IAF has already ordered for 66 of such trainers for its pilots.
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The main allegation against the Reddys is that their firm is carrying out mining on land beyond the area allotted to them.
New Delhi, July 25
Even as July is coming to an end, half the cities in the desert state are grappling with acute water crisis, forcing residents to bank on supply of drinking water from other parts of the state.
At a road-side tea shop before Sukma, 80 km from Dantewada in South Bastar, an ordinary sari-clad tribal woman, carrying a heavy-looking cotton sling bag, walked in. Everyone stopped talking. After 10-minutes, she got up, paid the bill and sharply looked at the only stranger, this correspondent, and walked
out.
The PMO spent about Rs 11.77 lakh on refreshment during 2008-09 and 2009-10, reveals an RTI reply.
Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal was pleasantly surprised when his old university friend, Lok Sabha’s opposition leader Sushma Swaraj, assured him on Friday morning that her party would extend support to the government in the conduct of the monsoon session of Parliament commencing on Monday.
He was, therefore, taken aback when Sushma changed tack within hours, joining other senior BJP leaders in launching a full-scale offensive against the Congress to protest the CBI summons to Gujarat Home Minister Amit Shah in connection with the 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh. Slamming the UPA government for misusing the CBI to target the opposition, BJP leaders refused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s pre-session lunch invitation and vowed to stall Parliament proceedings.