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Ration scam: Army orders inquiry
Integrated Action Plan for Naxal areas soon: PC
Dantewada encounter over |
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Derecognition of deemed varsities
BJP guns for govt on price rise
Honour
Killings
Assets Case 1984 Riots MESSY GAMES
Jevar airport carrot for BSP
New twist in Himachal George Cross tale
28 districts of Bihar drought-hit
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Ration scam: Army orders inquiry
New Delhi, August 4 The CAG says the estimated storage life (ESL) of a food item is the period for which it is likely to remain fit for consumption. According to instructions of the Director General Supplies & Transport, the ESL may be extended to a maximum of three months subject to clearance from the Central Food Laboratory (CFL). The CAG found that 11,330 samples, out of the 11,346 sent for extension, were cleared. The CFLs in Mumbai and Delhi adhered to the DGST instructions. However, the CAG has pointed out to the CFL Jammu, which covers the whole of Northern Command and some parts of Western Command. The CFL granted extensions, in some cases even up to 28 months. “It was found that flour, sugar, rice, tea, pulses, edible oil and raisins were consumed even six to 28 months after the expiry of the storage life,” the CAG said. The performance audit of the supply chain was conducted in the Northern, Eastern and Western Commands of the Army and the CAG has found that annual provisioning is carried out on a normative basis, rather than on real data. In case of sugar, there was excess procurement. During 2006-07, a whopping 11,944 metric tonne of excess sugar was procured. The CAG has said that in case of fresh rations, 36 per cent was based on single quotations. In Delhi, only one vendor, Mohd. Iqbal & Co, was the sole company to submit a tender for the supply of meat and chicken. The contract was awarded to the company. Similarly, in Chandimandir, only two vendors responded for meat and chicken during tendering in 2005-06. The CAG has expressed concern over the purchase of oranges at an unbelievable Re 1 per kg “This indicates lack of quality,” said Guatam Guha, DG, Audit Services.
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Integrated Action Plan for Naxal areas soon: PC
New Delhi, August 4 As the news of the ambush trickled, Home Minister P. Chidambaram told the Rajya Sabha that the Planning Commission would be ready with the final draft of the plan for development of Naxal-hit districts in the next few days. The plan panel has been asked to enlarge its scope to cover as many of the 83 Naxal-affected districts possible in seven states, Chidambaram said during Question Hour. Chidambaram said development was the first part of the two-pronged strategy and that the plan would apply to districts beyond the 35 affected ones. Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia had last month indicated that the Integrated Action Plan may include a Rs 13,742 crore financial package for the 35 worst-hit districts. Replying to questions, the Home Minister clarified that there was no evidence currently to suggest that Naxalites were receiving money from abroad. “(But) there is evidence that weapons are being smuggled from abroad... from across Myanmar border and from across Bangladesh border,” he said. “These are porous borders.” The Home Minister also said that a unified command would be set up in Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Orissa to deal with the Naxal problem. Chhattisgarh already has such a command. “This has been agreed to by the four chief ministers,” he said.
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Raipur, August 4 “Our jawans displayed bravery in the encounter that began around 11 am and stretched till evening. Now the gunfight is over and all policemen are safe... they are on their way back but returning slowly as there is a possibility of landmines or ambushes in their forested way after sunset,” DGP Vishwa Ranjan told IANS. — IANS
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Kishore Da still owes canteen ‘paanch rupaiya barah aana’ Indore, August 4 Born on August 4, 1929 in Madhya Pradesh’s Khandwa district as Abhas Kumar Ganguly, Kishore attended the Christian College here after his matriculation. His college continues to remember the singer-actor for his exploits. According to Swaroop Vajpayee, who teaches history in the college, Kishore was famous as a prankster. “Kishore studied here from 1946-48 and then went to Mumbai but he failed to pay five rupees and 12 paise that he owed to the canteen owner,” Vajpayee said. It is said that the small debt inspired the singer to write the song ‘Paanch rupaiya barah aana…’ in the
1958 film ‘Chalti Ka Naam Gadi’ that also starred his brothers Ashok Kumar and Anup Kumar and Madhubala.According to college principal Amit David, stories related to the singer are now part of the college lore. “Not many know that Kishore was very shy and never gave a live performance. He would always insist on singing behind the curtain,” David said. Relating another incident, Vajpayee said, “Once Kishore was using the bench in the classroom as a tabla, which angered his civics teacher. He told Kishore to stop wasting time like that. Kishore smiled and told the teacher that he intended to earn his livelihood by singing.” — PTI
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Derecognition of deemed varsities R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, August 4 Senior counsel Rajeev Dhavan, appearing for some of the 44 Deemed varsities that are facing the heat, argued before a Bench comprising Justices Dalveer Bhandari and Deepak Verma that some politicians were working for the entry of foreign universities. “A big tussle is going on between the University Grants Commission and some political forces which want foreign universities to come into the country,” Dhavan said. The Tandon committee inquiry was only to determine the status of universities and therefore could not be the basis for stripping the deemed status granted by the UGC, he argued. Senior counsel Ashok Desai, representing some of the affected universities, said UGC was the only body which had the power to inspect, recognise or de-recognise universities. Even the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) was supposed to work in tandem with the UGC, he said. Further, the UGC provisions applied to all-regular universities, deemed universities and open universities. The UGC Act protected the autonomy of universities. He said government should not have a dominant role in education, as it would stifle intellectual progress.
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BJP guns for govt on price rise
New Delhi, August 4 Leader of Opposition in the House Arun Jaitley launched a scathing attack on the government and its policies, questioning even the credibility of the economists who run the country. As he pointed out that the country’s inflation figures were higher than that of any other country of similar economic stature, Jaitley said: “We want to maintain the credibility of the economists who make the economic policies”. Initiating the debate in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Leader of Opposition asked: “The government has repeatedly blamed global trends for the inflation. Inflation in China is close to 1 per cent. In Malaysia, it is 1.16 per cent. In Thailand, it is 3.3 per cent. Are these countries not affected by global trends?” Attacking the government for hiking petroleum prices, Jaitley said the tax component on fuel was unduly high in India. “China has duty on petroleum close to 31 per cent. In Malaysia , it is 25 per cent. In India , it is nearly 51 per cent," he pointed out. He also pointed out that there were innumerable scandals that were hitting the government by the day and that there was nothing clear about the government policies. He was also critical of the government’s handling of the Kashmir situation and said a solution should be worked out at the earliest. He ended his submission by urging the government to “keep attacking us (opposition parties) but not the common man”. Participating in the debate, Congress member Jayanthi Natarajan accused the Opposition of politicising the price rise issue. “The issue of price rise and the suffering of the common man is a political tool in the hands of the Opposition,” she said. She also lamented the lack of any concrete suggestions from Jaitley on dealing with price rise.
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How Kalam saved his scholarship
Itanagar, August 4 Speaking at the second convocation of the North Eastern Regional Institute of Science and Technology (NERIST) here, Kalam said at MIT he was assigned a project to design a low-level attack aircraft together with six other colleagues by his design teacher Professor Srinivasan. Srinivasan, on a review of the project, had told him in apparent disgust, "Oh Kalam, I am disappointed." Kalam said he had requested Srinivasan to give him one month's time considering the difficulty in bringing together data from multiple designers in those days without computers. "I had to get the inputs from five of my colleagues without which I could not have completed the system design." Kalam said he got the jolt of his life when Srinivasan told him "look, young man, today is Friday afternoon. I give you three days. If by Monday morning I don't get the configuration design, your scholarship will be stopped." "At the prospect of losing the scholarship, my colleagues and I did not sleep that night and went on working non-stop on the drawing board, skipping our dinner. The next day I took a break for only one hour. On Sunday morning I was near completion, when I felt someone's presence in my laboratory. It was Srinivasan, who patted and hugged me affectionately," said Kalam regarded as the father of Indian missile system. “He took me to his home and offered me great Madras coffee saying, ‘I knew I was putting you under stress and asking you to meet a difficult deadline. You have done a great job in system design’,” Kalam recalled. — PTI
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GoM to meet tomorrow
Anita Katyal Our Political Correspondent
New Delhi, August 4 The GoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, was set up after several ministers in the Union Cabinet had raised doubts about the implementation of the Home Ministry’s proposed amendments which extended the murder charge to all members of a family, clan, community and caste who are found to participate or abet in the honour killings ordered by khap panchayats. Ministers like MS Gill and Kapil Sibal had pointed to the difficulty in implementing such a provision as it would be impossible to identify and account for members of a community or caste involved in ordering the killing of young couples. Although there was agreement that the social evil of honour killings should be addressed, ministers had warned against taking any hasty step and suggested that state governments should also be consulted in the matter since they are responsible for the enforcement and implementation of these laws. It was also suggested that instead of amending the provisions of the Indian Penal Code, the Indian Evidence Act and the Special Marriages Act to deal with honour killings as was being proposed by the Home Ministry, the Centre should consider the possibility of enacting a stand-alone law on honour killings as was done in the case of sati and dowry. Besides Mukherjee, other members of the GoM who will deliberate on all these aspects, include Home Minister P Chidambaram, Law Minister M Veerappa Moily, HRD minister Kapil Sibal, minister of youth affairs and sports M S Gill, parliamentary affairs minister Pawan Bansal, social justice minister Mukul Wasnik, women and child development minister Krishna Tirath and minister of state for textiles Panabaka Lakshmi. The notification issued by the government constituting the GoM had said besides holding consultations on the need for a law relating to honour killings and khap panchayats, it could invite the CMs concerned.
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CBI probe ordered against Koda
Ranchi, August 4 “A division bench of acting Chief Justice Sushil Harkoli and Justice DN Patel ordered a CBI probe against Madhu Koda and six ex-ministers,” Rajiv Kumar, lawyer of petitioner Durga Oraon, said. “Besides them, the CBI will also probe two key associates of Koda -- Vinod Sinha and Sanjay Chaudhary. The court will also monitor the case,” he added. Both Sinha and Chaudhary are absconding. The state government has been opposing the CBI probe ever since a public interest litigation (PIL) was filed by Durga Oraon in October 2008. Oraon had sought a probe into the assets of Koda and six former ministers -- Harinarayan Rai, Enos Ekka, Kamlesh Singh, Bhanu Pratap Sahi, Chandra Prakash Choudhary and Dulal Bhuiyan, who were in Koda’s Cabinet between September 2006 and August 2008. Koda, Ekka, Rai and Kamlesh Singh are in jail in the graft case. Koda is currently in Tihar Jail, New Delhi. — IANS
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1984 Riots New Delhi, August 4 Replying to supplementaries during Question Hour, the Home Minister said: “As many as 2,733 persons were killed during 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi as per the report of the Ahooja Committee, appointed by the Delhi government.” He said Rs 154.53 crore had been paid to eligible claimants as enhanced ex gratia.
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Set up high-level panel, says Aiyar Tribune News Service New Delhi, August 4 “Let us have a high-level apex committee to which all agencies, including the Organising Committee, will be answerable. We may still get clean Games,” Aiyar said outside Parliament. He said if a committee was formed along the lines of the Special Organising Committee formed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi during the 1982 Asiad, the country could still have a “very clean and successful games”. Aiyar created a furore by saying that he would be unhappy if the CWG were a success. Today, he said, “I have given a constructive suggestion and I have not said Kalmadi should be removed from the
OC.”
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Haven’t given clean chit to anyone: Cong
New Delhi, August 4 With controversies in the Games increasing by the day, party spokesperson Manish Tewari said: “We have neither given any clean chit nor any unclean chit to anybody. We are neither holding any brief for anybody nor indicting anybody”. Making a complete U-turn from the party’s stand yesterday, Tewari said that all stakeholders and agencies involved in the Commonwealth Games should answer the questions being raised.Yesterday, the party defended Sports Minister MS Gill, Urban Development Minister Jaipal Reddy and Delhi CM Sheila Dixit forcefully, beleagured chairman of CWG Organising Committee Suresh Kalmadi was left to fend for himself.
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Jevar airport carrot for BSP
New Delhi, August 4 So even though the UPA Government has formed a Group of Ministers to examine the proposal to set up the Greenfield airport in Mayawati land Uttar Pradesh, it’s being seen as a means to keep the BSP happy. Mayawati’s MPs recently met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, demanding an early approval to the Jevar airport. They said the new airport would benefit areas from Noida to Agra, besides improving international tourism in the state. The government, too, says it is in the favour of multiple airports in metros but does not want court cases once Greater Noida is approved, therefore a GoM on Aviation is looking at legal issues. Civil Aviation Ministry officials add that the government would also like the situation to “stabilise” at the newly expanded IGIA in Delhi before taking a call on another airport in the NCR region. The fact is that the government is in no mood to oblige UP Chief Minister Mayawati on her pet project in a hurry. Sources said the Greater Noida airport decision is a purely political and the one that would be taken based on relationship between the Congress and the BSP. This is why GoM meeting on this issue has been scheduled at the end of the session, on August 25, to allow Parliament to function peacefully. The proposal has been pending with the government for the past seven years and with the GoM on Aviation for at least three years. After the UPA-II came to power the panel, comprising Law Minister Veerappa Moily, HRD minister Kapil Sibal and Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, was revived before the crucial voting on Opposition-sponsored cut motions in the budget session. The new GoM, headed by which is headed by home minister P Chidambaram was constituted to take a decision on the airport proposal after examining legal aspects of an airport in Greater Noida but has not had a single meeting so far. Even though the Cabinet had given in-principle approval to Mayawati’s pet project, the GoM was set up to examine the legality of the proposal vis-a-vis the agreement with the GMR-led Delhi International Airport (Pvt) Ltd (DIAL). The DIAL it seems pointed that it was developing IGI to meet the requirements of NCR for several years and has now also asked the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO) to study the traffic growth in the region.
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New twist in Himachal George Cross tale
Chandigarh, August 4 While the medal owner, Capt Ashok Nath, a former Indian Army officer and a historian presently residing in Moldova, has claimed that he had bought the medal in 2000 from a dealer in New Delhi, the awardee’s widow, Brahmi Devi from Bilaspur, has claimed that it was stolen from her room in 2002.
The video is now also available on youtube.com. The issue came into focus when the George Cross, awarded posthumously to Nk Kirpa Ram in 1946, was put up for auction by Nath last year to raise funds for a book on Indian military history. Subsequently, Dix Noonan Webb, a London-based house specialising in military memorabilia, withdrew the medal from the auction. George Cross is the highest British award for gallantry and is roughly equivalent to the Ashok Chakra. Made of solid silver, Kirpa’s Ram’s decoration is valued at over 20,000 pounds (about Rs 15 lakh). Belonging to 13 Frontier Force, he was decorated fro his “fine spirit of sacrifice and devotion to duty”. At a training exercise in Southern India, he had dashed towards an unexploded grenade while screaming at his comrades to take cover. As he picked up the grenade, with the intention of hurling it away, it exploded in his had, killing him instantly. His action, however shielded his men from the blast that would have otherwise resulted in more fatalities. “The hue and cry over the medal in India and assertions to get in back are politically motivated,” Capt Nath claimed over the phone from Moldova. “I am being bullied by threats, false claims and public maligning by Indian authorities and the police is twisting evidence to suit its own agenda,” he alleged. “There can be no question of harassment as he is not a local resident and nor have we asked for his custody,” DIG (CID), Himachal Pradesh, N. Venugopal, whose department is handling the case, said. “The case is still under investigation and we can consider only material and evidence that is placed on record,” he added. Based upon leads and evidence gathered by them on the basis of questioning other persons associated with the medal, the Himachal Pradesh Police has sent a questionnaire to UK police. The medal is presently in the custody of the Metropolitan Court. “The matter is now before the British authorities and we are awaiting their response,” said Venugopal. Contending that the medal was neither an antique nor a national treasure as was being claimed by the Indian authorities, Capt Nath said that he had all the requisite documents and affidavits in support of him having purchased the medal in 2000. These were made available to the auction house as well as Scotland Yard for their investigations. He also said that the DVD substantiates his claims, though the police here have termed the video to be inconclusive.
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28 districts of Bihar drought-hit
Patna, August 4 The committee had reportedly made the recommendation to the government regarding “drought-like situation” in 28 districts of the state on the basis of the rainfall data and sowing of kharif crop from June 1 to July 31. The cabinet decision would be followed by the state government’s request to the Centre for adequate relief from the National Calamity Contingency Fund.
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New Delhi, August 4
As the controversy over the true ownership assumed international proportion with the British authorities being roped in for the investigations, a recently surfaced DVD, purportedly containing a video recording showing Brahmi Devi willingly handing over the medal to a local man who later sold it to the dealer in Delhi, is now expected to provide fresh evidence to investigators.