Jaipur/Dholpur, August 26
Even as the police of Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan is yet to unravel the mystery behind vanishing act by 61 trucks loaded with 300-tonne explosives, another case of 103 trucks, carrying around 500 tonne of explosives from RECL, Dholpur, to Chanderi in Madhya Pradesh reportedly going missing has come to light.

Talking to The Tribune, Sagar SP Vijay Suryawanshi said this new case also has its links with the key accused in the previous case, Bhilwara explosives dealer Shiv Charan Heda and co-partner in Ganesh Explosives in Sagar, Jaikishan Ashwani.

Suryawanshi said the revelation about another 103 truckloads of explosives was made by Rajendra Chaubey, an aide of Heda and Ashwani, who was arrested from Bhopal in connection with the first case. He said the delivery of trucks loaded with explosives to Sangam Explosives at Chanderi in Ashok Nagar district of MP has also been corroborated after examining the documents in the RECL, Dholpur.

According to him, this consignment, too, was delivered between the months of April and June this year. He said Heda and Ashwani had bought a magazine (warehouse of explosives) at Chanderi in the name of Chaubey. He said it appears to be the handiwork of explosives mafia, which after striking deals with the RECL used to sell these explosives at higher rates to retail dealers.

Ashok Nagar SP Chandra Shekhar Solanki said he has ordered a probe into the entire incident. He said they received the information about the consignment from the Sagar police, after which they also inspected the magazines of Sangam Explosives in Chanderi. “Their magazines are lying deserted and their security guards are nowhere to be found. Also, the locks put up at these magazines are in a rusted condition and it appears that they haven’t been opened for years,” he said.

While Dholpur Collector V. Shravan Kumar said an inquiry has already been on into the first case of missing explosives, SP Surendra Kumar said they haven’t initiated any investigation into the fresh case of 103 missing trucks. On the other hand, RECL Deputy Manager (MIS) GS Parmar said they were collecting the details about the quantity of explosives supplied to Sangam Explosives, Chanderi, and they would be able to comment on the matter only tomorrow.

Earlier, a case of 61-trucks loaded with 300 tonne of explosives going missing had sent the police of both the states in a tizzy a fortnight back. Investigations had revealed that the explosives were diverted to three private firms in Bhilwara (Rajasthan), Rajgarh (MP) and Ahmednagar (Maharasthra).

Four officers of Rajasthan Explosives and Chemicals Limited (RECL) are already under the police scanner for their alleged negligence and complicity with explosive dealers in the case of 61 explosive-laden trucks that went missing on their way from RECL, Dholpur, to Ganesh Explosives, Sagar.

According to sources, the Sagar police has identified four officers of RECL’s marketing and administration department who had authorised the supply of explosives to Ganesh Explosives, Sagar. Sagar SP Suryawanshi said they are examining the evidence against these officials. He didn't rule out the possibility of RECL officials conniving with the explosive dealers.

Chandigarh, August 26
A Colonel, who has been held guilty of molesting a woman officer under his command, was on Thursday severely reprimanded by the General Court Martial (GCM). Besides, the officer will suffer a six- year loss of service for the purpose of fixing pension.

The GCM had yesterday evening held Col A. Mishra of the Electronics and Mechanical Engineers’ battalion guilty for the offence. The sentence was pronounced today by the GCM, whose verdict is subject to confirmation by the convening authority.

The officer has the option of going for an appeal against the verdict before the convening authority or thereafter can move the Armed Forces Tribunal.

The GCM, presided by Brig Arvind Datta, held the officer guility on three of the four charges levelled against him under provisions of the Army Act. In May 2007, he had allegedly called the woman officer to his residence on the pretext of giving her some instructions and misbehaved with her. He had pleaded not guilty to the charges.

According to sources, there have been around 20 cases so far where allegations of sexual misconduct have been levelled against senior officers, including generals. Some time ago, a court martial had cashiered a Major General posted at Leh on similar charges. More recently, the wife of a Colonel had alleged that a Lieutenant General had molested her during a foreign tour, though a Court of Inquiry reportedly absolved the General. A naval officer posted in Russia and an Army officer on UN assignment are currently in the dock over charges of sexual misconduct.

New Delhi, August 26
The Supreme Court yesterday issued a notice to the Ministry of Human Resource Development, the IIT Council (apex body for management of the IITs) and Joint Admission Board (which conducts JEEs) for irregularities in IIT-JEE for admission to 15 IITs and other institutes. The notice came on a Special Leave Petition against a Delhi High Court order that had dismissed a PIL in this respect on grounds that the petitioner had no locus standi to challenge the validity of JEE.

A Bench comprising Justice GS Singhvi and Justice Ganguli issued the notice following arguments by senior advocate Prashant Bhushan on the behalf of IIT Kharagpur professor Rajeev Kumar, who has challenged the existing JEE system. Bhushan submitted that the PIL in the Delhi High Court was a comprehensive litigation based on research and analysis by the professor who studied five-year JEE data hitherto kept secret by the IITs. The data was revealed after several orders by the Chief Information Commissioner under the RTI Act.

In the past, the JEE lacked transparency and nothing was revealed to candidates. They were not allowed to carry question papers; model solutions were never revealed after examinations; marks obtained were never informed. At the time of result declaration, a student got a rank if he qualified and a plain “not-qualified” remark if he did not.

“By a detailed analysis, the petitioner has revealed many discrepancies in IIT-JEE namely ad hocism in cutoff determination, unattended errors in question settings and evaluation, tampering and shredding of optical response sheets, promotion of coaching institutes, lack of transparency and accountability, selection of wards of IIT administrators, closed admission counselling resulting in irregularities in admissions,” the advocate argued.

In continuation of irregularities, the recently concluded JEE was also marred by errors in the question papers, namely, ambiguous instructions, wrongly printed instructions and mismatch of subject headings in question papers and optical response sheet.

New Delhi, August 26
Parliament today gave its nod to amending the law to replace the scam-ridden Medical Council of India (MCI) with a board of seven eminent doctors with the Rajya Sabha passing the relevant legislation.

The amendment was aimed at restoring the credibility of the apex body of medical education, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said during the debate in the Upper House on the Indian Medical Council (Amendment) Bill. The Lok Sabha has already passed the Bill.

Azad said the MCI, set up 76 years ago to regulate medical education in the country, was dissolved through an ordinance in May in the wake of corruption charges.

Emphasising the need for setting up private medical colleges, he said it required about Rs 150 to Rs 200 crore to set up a medical college and the recurring expenditure was about Rs 35 crore a year. ''If the Central and the state governments do not help these colleges financially, it would be wrong to think that they would not charge capitation fee,” the Minister said.

Brinda Karat (CPI-M) charged the minister with justifying capitation fee. To this, the minister said: “I am not justifying capitation fee. The issue has to be flagged and solution found. No medical colleges are coming up in the public sector. The government and Parliament have to think on it.” The amendment Bill deems that the MCI shall stand superseded and the president, vice-president and other members of the council shall vacate their offices and not claim any compensation.

It says the council shall be reconstituted within a period of one year from the date of supersession.

Until a new council is constituted, the board of governors shall exercise the powers and perform the functions of the council under the new Bill.

“A new Bill will come up in the next session and we will allay the apprehensions of the members,” Azad said, adding that whatever was the form of the new Bill, there would be representatives from state governments.

MCI president Ketan Desai was arrested on April 22 by the CBI for allegedly accepting a bribe of Rs 2 crore to give permission to a Punjab medical college to recruit a fresh batch of students without having requisite infrastructure.

New Delhi, August 26
Thousands of farmers from Uttar Pradesh today descended on the Capital, bringing with them their anguish over “forcible” acquisition of their land by the Mayawati-led BSP government and the country’s archaic land acquisition law governing the possession.

The rally, in response to a call by Rashritya Lok Dal (RLD) chief Ajit Singh and other farmer leaders, saw the Left and Right leaders send a warning to the Centre to immediately bring a new law on land acquisition that ensures a fair compensation for farmers.

In all, today’s protest witnessed the culmination of farmers’ engagement with mainstream parties, growing ever since protests began on the issue of acquisition of land for the Yamuna Expressway by the UP government. Top leaders from the BJP, the CPI, the CPM, the JD(U), the LJP, the TDP and the AIADMK spoke in favour of farmers. CPI general secretary AB Bardhan and CPM Politbureau member Brinda Karat shared dais with senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley and thundered against the government’s “anti-farmer” policies, asking it to scrap the century-old land acquisition law.

Agitations demanding more monetary compensation against land acquired for Mayawati’s dream project has seen the death of three farmers in police firing in Aligarh. Farmers, who gathered in the Capital from far off areas in UP, were clear that they would not allow their land to be acquired at any cost. Keen to seize the initiative in the agitation for higher compensation, the Congress had extended its support to the statewide shutdown by farmers on Wednesday but did not support their proposed march to the Parliament.

Though it did not participate in the demonstration, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said his party “empathised” with farmers. “We sympathise with them. However, it is a larger issue that is not confined to UP alone,” he said. Tewari said party general secretary Rahul Gandhi had already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and apprised him of “anger” of farmers on the land acquisition issue. “The Congress has already demanded that the government should place the Land Acquisition Bill before the Parliament, either in its original form or in an amended form,” he said.

While the Congress did manage to steal some thunder from the RLD-initiated rally through an assurance by the Prime Minister that the lapsed Land Acquisition (Amendment) Bill and the Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill would be brought in the next session of Parliament, the PM’s declaration just a day before the rally invited sharp criticism from Ajit Singh.

Addressing protesters, Ajit Singh said he had met the PM a week ago demanding a new law for land acquisition but did not get any response. “Yesterday, the Prime Minister announced that such a law will be introduced in the next session after a meeting with Rahul Gandhi. He should understand that he is not the PM for just Rahul Gandhi. He is my Prime Minister, your Prime Minister,” he said. Meanwhile, Arun Jaitely asked the government to convene an all-party meeting on the issue of a new law for land acquisition.

Ahmedabad, August 26
IPS officer Geetha Johri, who was probing the 2005 fake encounter case of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and killing of his wife Kausarbi, today appeared before the CBI for questioning.

Johri reached the CBI office in the old secretariat campus around 10:30 AM.

The Central investigating agency had summoned the officer, who is currently posted as Commissioner of Rajkot, to appear on August 10, but Johri had then requested for more time as she had returned from a long leave.

In her request, Johri had said that since she had joined after a break she needed time to study the case, before answering any questions.

The CBI has already interrogated Johri twice, after it began investigation into the fake encounter case following the Supreme court order in January this year.

The apex court, while transferring the case to CBI had minced no words in expressing displeasure at the failure of the Gujarat police's Special Investigation Team (SIT) headed by Inspector General of Police Geetha Johri to identify the seven Andhra Pradesh police personnel, who assisted the local police in the fake encounter.

The SC had also come down heavily on Gujarat Police for failing to conduct impartial probe and attempting to "mislead" the apex court by filing conflicting action taken reports (ATRs) in the case. — PTI

Shillong, August 26
Meghalaya Assembly will soon open its doors to students in an attempt to give them first hand lessons in the running of a legislature.

Taking a cue from the provincial assembly in Ontario in Cananda where students are often invited, Speaker of the Meghalaya Assembly Charles D Pyngrope has decided to introduce a system of active participation by school students during sessions.

"Most of our young people, some of whom will someday occupy chairs in the House, do not know what goes on in the Assembly even though they read about it in school text books," Pyngrope observed.

The Speaker said the idea struck him when he recently visited the provincial assembly of Ontario in Canada where students are taken periodically to sit next to the legislators and witness proceedings. — PTI

Guwahati, August 26
A military leader of rebel Naga group Nationalist Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) was killed in a gun battle with security forces in Mon district of Nagaland today. Five rebels were arrested along with a huge cache of arms and ammunitions.

A spokesman of the Assam Rifles said a team of the paramilitary force and the Territorial Army was on a routine patrol when it spotted suspicious movement of rebels in Pungma Colony. When challenged by a jawan, the rebels fired on him triggering a gun battle that resulted in killing of a rebel and arrest of five others. Those held said the slain rebel was a ‘Major’ belonging to the outfit.

The rebels were in possession of weapons — in sharp violation of ceasefire rules —said security personnel. The NSCN-IM, which is in ceasefire with the security forces since 1997, has been often been accused of ceasefire violation.