New Delhi, August 14
A week after government auditors exposed Army supplying stale food to jawans, Defence Minister AK Antony today gave an assurance that efforts were in progress to improve quality of rations given to them.

In his message to the armed forces personnel on the eve of 64th Independence Day broadcast over radio, Antony said necessary provisions had also been made for supplying special rations for jawans deployed in counter-insurgency operations and high-altitude areas.

“The government has taken several welfare measures for the defence personnel. We are making efforts to improve the quality of atta, rice, vegetables, tea, pulses and other items. Similarly, we have made a provision for special rations to troops deployed in counter-insurgency operations. Special rations have also been authorised for additional troops serving in high-altitude areas above 12,000 feet,” he said in his address.

The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) had in its report last week slammed the Defence Ministry for supplying rotting food items that were unfit for human consumption to jawans, particularly those in Jammu and Kashmir and North-East.

Alerting the defence personnel about the “several challenges” brought on by India’s rising economic stature, Antony said the development in and around neighbourhood had forced a review and upgrade of the nation’s security apparatus.

“The challenges to our nation’s security are indeed varied and manifold. The security measures taken by us are often misunderstood by some nations. However, we have always been a peace-loving nation and we will continue to strive for peaceful relations with all our neighbours,” he said without naming either Pakistan or China.

Antony said post 26/11, the government had initiated several steps to strengthen the security apparatus, particularly along the coastline.

“We have cleared the setting up of four air enclaves at Goa, Kochi, Vizag, and New Mangalore. Coastal security has been strengthened, with acquisitions of new systems and platforms,” he said.

Noting that the armed forces all over the world were modernising and becoming technology-intensive, the mnister assured that the defence modernisation plans were on the right track.

“We want to give our armed forces the latest and the best possible equipment. The success in the development of the indigenous nuclear submarine INS Arihant must be replicated in other fields too,” he added.

Antony said the Defence Ministry had accorded top priority to create infrastructure and build all-weather roads in inaccessible areas. — PTI

New Delhi, August 14
President Pratibha Patil has called upon the Maoists to abandon the path of violence and join the mainstream.

Addressing the Nation on the 64th Independence Day, the President said, “The followers of Left wing extremism must abandon their path of violence. I call on them to join national efforts for growth and development,” she said adding, “By listening to each other, respecting each other’s viewpoint and understanding one another, we can address issues before us.”

She also urged the comity of nations to work together to defeat terrorism saying, “Terrorism poses the biggest threat to global peace, stability and security” and ask all nations to work collectively to defeat it, “so that terrorists have no sanctuaries, no training grounds, no access to financial resources, no infrastructural support, and no defenders of their ideology.”

President Patil emphasised that “violence and hatred can have no place in the world,” and urged that “across the world, the message of peace and not of destruction must spread,” to make this century, powered by the most rapid advances in science and technology, the century of the most spectacular gains made by mankind, with human values.

The President began her address, conveying her condolences to the victims of Leh cloudburst.

The President also pronounced India as the fourth largest economy of the world “Based on purchasing power parity” and mentioned how “the resilience of our economy was evident during the global financial crisis which we weathered, better than many other countries.”

But she also stressed upon inclusive growth saying, “Foremost, among our tasks is to ensure the welfare of all. It is for this reason that India has adopted inclusive growth as a pillar of its economic edifice and is pro-actively pursuing it. Our task will be complete only when no one sleeps on a hungry stomach, when no one sleeps on the footpath and when every child is in school.

“Therefore, she announced, “Education, capacity building, housing, healthcare and nutrition are a priority on the agenda of the government.”

Jaipur, August 14
With the security agencies apprehending possibility of missing 300 tonne explosives falling into the hands of Naxalite groups, the Rajasthan Anti-Terrorist Squad has taken over the probe into the case.

ATS ADG Kapil Garg said a team of officials paid a visit to RECL, Dholpur, on Friday and began probe into the matter. “It would be too premature to comment right now,” he said when asked about the possibility of misuse of explosives. The ATS, led by DSP JP Sharma, examined the records of the deal between the RECL and Sagar-based Ganesh Explosives, besides quizzing RECL officials about the communication with the company and exchange of documents between them.

Apart from the ATS, Dholpur Collector V. Sarvan Kumar has also ordered a separate inquiry into the case. Sources said RECL officials, including senior manager (works) K. Edward Kelly, put forth their version in the case before the collector. The officials told the authorities that they had received delivery report from Jaikishan Avsani, who bought the consignment in the name of Ganesh Explosives.

Meanwhile, reports pouring in from MP suggest that four trucks, which were part of the consignment, have been confiscated in Rajgarh district, but the explosives loaded in them are nowhere to be found, which has added to the apprehensions of security agencies of explosives falling into wrong hands.

Incidentally, this is not the first time that the RECL is hogging the limelight for wrong reasons. The explosives unit first hit the headlines in 1998 when some of the detonators used by terrorists to trigger serial blasts in Coimbatore were found to have been manufactured by the RECL. The serial blasts claimed the lives of 46 persons and left over 200 injured. In another incident, 1,500 detonators manufactured by RECL were recovered from a man in the Hazaribagh district of Jharkhand in August 2005. He was said to be a supplier of arms to Maoists in Jharkhand. In 2008, the Gujarat police found that the detonators used in the 23 bombs recovered from Surat were from the RECL. The bombs, which were defused, had detonators and came with the embossing RECL 6 or C.

Guwahati, August 14
The influential All Assam Students Union (AASU) led by its adviser Dr Samujjal Bhattacharrya today resorted to 24-hour hunger-strike in protest against non-implementation of Assam Accord that was signed 25 years ago on August 15, 1985, by the then Indian Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and leaders of Assam Agitation against unabated illegal migration from Bangladesh.

The students’ body has demanded to know the stand of UPA chairman Sonia Gandhi about the strategy of the Congress-led UPA government to implement Assam Accord that was signed by her late husband Rajiv Gandhi in the capacity of the Prime Minister of the country.

“We are appalled that successive governments of various political parties, both in the state and the Centre, have not bothered to implement Assam Accord,” Dr Bhattacharyya said.

New Delhi, August 14
Thanks to the forthcoming Commonwealth Games, Indian sportspersons would no longer have to go abroad for injury management. Come September 1, Southeast Asia’s first Sports Injury Centre will open up on the campus of Safdarjung Hospital in the national capital in partnership between the Government and six private players.

This proposal, pending with the Ministry of Health since 1991, is being fast-tracked now to be timed with the CWGs’ inauguration. The facility has come up within 30 months of the start of the construction process.

It will have the best sports injury management facilities - from imaging (open to all 24/7) and diagnostics to fitness training and rehabilitation, something that has long been missing in India, forcing sportspersons to go in for expensive treatments abroad. Most recently spinner Harbhajan Singh had to go out of India for injury management.

“That is now set to end. At the Centre we will have a bed capacity of 44, fitted with high-end equipment like MRI, CT Scan, bone densitometry, digital X ray and colour doppler. The centre cost is Rs 70 crore, which is being met from allocation under the 11th Plan,” Vineet Chaudhary, joint secretary in the Health Ministry today said.

All poor (below poverty line) players will have free access to medical facilities at this Centre while those from Above Poverty Line category will be charged Government rates provided they get certification from Safdarjung Hospital.

The facility would also be open to private persons to make it financially viable. These people would however have to pay private rates which the Government will approve. The certified APL players will be charged CGHS (Central Government Health Service) rates.

For the first time in the construction of this Centre, the Government has not procured equipment. The same has come through PPP mode but the Government will receive 26 per cent of the earning of the facility. “All charges will be applied by the government, collected by the Government and then the accounts will be settled with the private partners,” Chaudhary clarified.

“The benefit of the facility would be simple. It would spare sportspersons of the trouble of going all the way abroad - like Sri Lankan bowler Muralidharan who had to go to Melbourne to get his bowling technique verified and corrected,” the officials said.

Of the total estimate of Rs 17 crore, equipment worth Rs six crore has already been procured. It will be installed and tested at the Centre before becoming fully functional by September 15.

During the Commonwealth Games, the Centre will cater to tertiary needs of players who will also have access to the polyclinic at the Games Village here.

Chennai, August 14
The Madras University, where the preliminary research on superbugs was done, will appoint an expert panel to go into the claims of Karthigeyan Kumarasamy, who had alleged that the report had been distorted and misinterpreted.

Vice-Chancellor G Thiruvasagam said the experts would ascertain whether the report on the enzyme named NDM-1 published in Lancet had been distorted and had derived “wrong conclusions” to blame India as the origin of the superbug. The panel would examine whether the report which was co-authored by Karthigeyan Kumarasamy had been twisted or misinterpreted, he said.

“We support all good research in the best interest of the community. However, we will take the view of the expert panel to be appointed, before allowing this kind of research in future”, he said, to a query about the negative impact of the research on medical tourism in India.

When asked about Kumarasamy’s contribution to the report and whether he would be allowed to continue his research in Madras Univeristy, Thiruvasagam said: “I do not want to intervene until anything is proved against the boy. Anyway, he is not continuing his research here”. Officials working at the university’s microbiology laboratory, where Kumarasamy conducted his research, strongly defended him.

Head of the microbiology department Thangam Menon said: “Karthigeyan drew sample strains from patients within India as he could not access people abroad. That is why, his research was confined to this geographical research. But antibiotic resistant organisms can be found anywhere in the world”.

Hyderabad, August 14
A city court today directed the police to register cases against a group of 16 Andhra Pradesh Ministers who had recently created a flutter in political circles by dubbing Telangana statehood movement as “anti-national”.

Acting on a petition by a local lawyer, an additional chief metropolitan magistrate asked the station house officer of Saifabad police station to register cases, investigate the matter and submit a report to the court by August 28.

In his petition, Sriranga Rao, representing the Telangana Advocates’ Joint Action Committee, contended that the ministers, who are opposed to the formation of separate Telangana state, had hurt the sentiments of the people of the region by equating the statehood demand to sedition.

The petitioner wanted cases to be registered against the ministers under IPC sections 499, 500 (punishment for defamation) and 153 A (causing disharmony and ill-will among people). He brought to the notice of the court a memorandum submitted by the ministers, all hailing from coastal Andhra and Rayalaseema regions, to the Justice BN Srikrishna Committee appointed by the Centre to go into the competing demands for and against the formation of Telangana.

In their memorandum, they argued that Telangana demand was equivalent to “waging war” against the Indian Union. Any demand for carving out a new state on the grounds of self-respect and self-rule would sow seeds of disintegration in the country, the Ministers said and made out a strong case for retaining the status quo.

They had also urged the Centre not to give credence to demands like self-rule and self-respect. Questioning the rationale behind the constitution of a committee to examine the statehood demand, the memorandum said: “It is surprising that the Central government has appointed a committee to look into these anti-national demands.”

Taking a serious objection to the ministers’ arguments, the petitioner said: “This is most reprehensible, defamatory and inflammatory. They have insulted the Telangana movement.”