New Delhi, December 8
As the winter session of Parliament heads for a total wash-out, with an adamant opposition pushing the UPA government for a JPC probe into 2G allocation, the Congress today highlighted the questionable role of past BJP ministers in the telecom sector.

It also pointed at the irresponsible behaviour of the main opposition party in stalling Parliament for a record number of sittings and adopted a pragmatic approach regarding today’s CBI raids on former DMK leader A. Raja’s residence, saying these were a "culmination" of the investigation and ruled out any impact of the development on its alliance with the DMK.

"If prima facie no misdemeanour was made out, subsequent action would not have been initiated into the matter... If CBI would have believed that there was no misdemeanour committed, they would not have registered an FIR," party spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters here,clearly pointing to the Congress party’s decision to be seen to be taking action on corruption.

Finding themselves in the dock, a senior Congress leader said no mature political leadership would expect any government to wish away the issue when the charges of corruption have come in public space after the CAG submitted its report. The Congress counter follows an internal assessment that the recent series of scams, especially the 2G spectrum issue, had resulted in a serious credibility crisis for the grand old party. Although the government has initiated action in all the cases, even risking its relationship with its trusted ally, the DMK, Congress crisis managers believe the public perception is not going in its favour. So, the need for a proactive approach on this matter.

Launching a scathing attack against the BJP, Tewari today charged that the decisions taken by the NDA government on spectrum allocation had led to huge financial losses to the country. Referring to observations made by CAG in its 1998-99 report, Tewari said it clearly said that the government had suffered a huge revenue loss when the Department of Telcommunications did not charge any one-time entry fee from the existing licensees for migration to NTP-99. Tewari further accused the late Pramod Mahajan of giving a bonanza to telecom operators by bending rules.

Describing the opposition’s persistent position- “No JPC, no House”-as nothing but political blackmail, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal pointed to past records to highlight that this is the first in the history of Parliament that the proceedings have been washed out for 22 consecutive days. Stating that an erroneous impression had been created that this had happened in the past, Bansal said the NDA did not concede their demand for a JPC into the Coffin Scam and the Tehelka sting operation but the Congress did not disrupt Parliament for more than three or four days. Even in 2001 when the NDA agreed to set up a JPC on the Ketan Parikh issue after several days of disruption, the Congress had allowed Question Hour to function, he said.

Bansal said the government had rejected the opposition’s demand for a JPC as past experience had shown that such committees were highly polarised, function along party lines and eventually do not yield any substantial results.

Chennai, December 8
The CBI today raided the residences of family members of former Union Minister and DMK propaganda secretary A Raja in connection with the multi-crore 2G spectrum scam, even while the Opposition in Tamil Nadu termed it as a "belated move" and called for his immediate arrest and interrogation.

A team of CBI officials began the raids in the wee hours today and descended simultaneously on the residences of Raja in Chennai and his native district of Perambadur, besides raiding the houses belonging to his brother, mother-in-law and a close business associate.

Even though, the DMK functionaries declined to react to this development, they looked neither surprised nor shocked by the raids, which was described as a "belated move" by the opposition. Both the opposition and the ruling party circles feel that it was "an expected move" especially after the Supreme Court had flayed the CBI for not questioning the former minister.

The sleepy village of Chathiraimanai Vellore in Peramabalur district in the central region of Tamil Nadu woke up to the roaring noises of vehicles early in the morning, as CBI officials raided the residences of Raja his sister Kamala and brother Kalaiperumal. The house of his mother-in-law at Ladapuram village was also not spared.

While several teams were conducting raids at Raja's native village, another team was in Perambalur town, raiding the office belonging to Andimuthu-Chinnapillai trust, belonging to the former minister.

The CBI also raided the house of Raja's business associate Sadiq Basha, who is also the owner of Green House promoters, a real estate company and grilled him for several hours, before taking him into the custody for further questioning. The officials also visited the Canara Bank branch in Raja's native district of Perambalur, while questioning a few police officials in that town.

New Delhi, December 8
Defence Minister AK Antony today said that an Army Court of Inquiry investigating the allegations of sexual misconduct against former Engineer-in-Chief Lt General AK Nanda has found that he "acted against service decorum".

Gen Nanda, has been "censured" by the Army. The wife of a Colonel, who worked as his technical secretary, filed a complaint against Nanda. He was accused of misbehaving with her during an official trip to Israel.

Antony told the Rajya Sabha: "As per the inquiry report, the allegation against the Lt General has not been conclusively established. However, it has been found that the General Officer acted against service decorum." The Defence Minister did not explain what actions of Nanda went against the service decorum. The complainant, Colonel SPS Pasricha, has also been censured as he tried to mislead the Court of Inquiry.

Antony added that Army Chief General VK Singh has administered ‘reproof’ to both the officers under the regulations of the Army. ‘Reproof’ in Army parlance ranges from a warning to censure as punishment and it is an administrative action taken against officers found to have floundered the Army Act and Army Rules.

The Court of Inquiry was constituted under the then Shimla-based Army Training Command chief Lt General AS Lamba. Antony also said that there was no information to the Defence Ministry on the Colonel and his wife making similar sexual harassment allegations against any other officer in the past. Nanda has since retired in October this year, but he left the service only after the "reproof" was administered to him.

New Delhi, December 8
The government is working towards setting up a CBSE vocational board on the lines of the academic board to arm students with vocational skills needed to contribute to the markets.

The idea is to develop a National Vocational Education Qualification Framework under which CBSE students will Class IX onwards get choices from a stream of over 100 vocational courses for which the government will develop syllabus in partnership with the industry. The chosen sectors are automobiles, IT and Communication, construction, films, hospitality and financial services.

It is anticipated that by 2020, about 220 million students will pass out from schools in India and out of them about 150 million will not enroll for college education. They need to be trained to be employed.

Students can choose a vocational course along with academics and on attaining certain prescribed levels they will be given a CBSE certificate (at three levels till Class II) in vocational education which they can use to enter polytechnics and other technical institutes and colleges.

“At level 8, we can consider giving a student a degree in vocational education. This effectively means he can hold a BA in vocational education. He can also move in and out of the college depending on his willingness to take up academics. If he wants otherwise, he can straightaway enter the job market on the basis of the diploma and degree he gets in the stream,” HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today clarified.

The idea is to get service providers for an emerging service sector of India where 56 per cent of the economy depends on the service sector. This sector is however unsustainable with the country’s population crossing 1.2 billion. “We want to fill in the gaps by producing service providers,” the Minister clarified, adding that private schools affiliated to the CBSE would be happy to offer the courses, once prepared.

Right now, the plan is to offer such courses only in the CBSE system and gradually, a system will be worked out to bring dropouts to take up these streams.

For a start, the HRD ministry has roped in the automotive sector which generates Rs 2 lakh crore of annual revenue and requires skilled workers of which there is a dearth. A committee has been constituted under the chairmanship of Dr R. Seshasayee, Managing Director of Ashok Leyland, to frame the curriculum. The panel will submit its report in three months after which the same would be offered in CBSE schools.

Chandigarh/Mumbai, Dec 8
In what can be termed as a setback of sorts for the BCCI, the Bombay High Court has granted Kings XI Punjab an interim stay on its expulsion from the IPL but has also stated that the franchise will have to satisfy certain conditions, including fulfilling player payments over the next two years.

The two other conditions are that the ownership should be in the hands of the four original promoters-Priety Zinta, Ness Wadia, Mohit Burman and Karan Paul —and that the franchise should pay guarantee money to the BCCI in case the final judgment comes against it. — TNS

Mumbai, December 8
Pakistani terrorist Ajmal Kasab today accused the police of staging an encounter at Girgaum Chowpatty to falsely implicate him in the 26/11 attacks and told the Bombay High Court that he had not killed constable Tukaram Ombale.

Facing death penalty for his role in the killing of 166 people in the attacks, Kasab denied his presence at Chowpatty on the night of November 26, 2008. Lawyer Amin Solkar said prosecution had alleged that there was a scuffle between police and Kasab in which police snatched the rifle belonging to his client after he killed Ombale. A spot panchnama was drawn which showed that a rifle was found on the road near Skoda car in which Kasab was apprehended. However, the weapon taken away by police from Kasab was not produced before the court, he argued. The weapon found on the spot does not belong to Kasab and he is also not responsible for the murder of constable Ombale, Solkar argued, adding that the weapon was "planted" at the spot by police to implicate Kasab.

The prosecution has said that Kasab and his partner Abu Ismael had snatched the rifle of police officer Ashok Kamathe after killing him and two other policemen. Then they sped towards Girgaum Chowpatty after hijacking a car. — PTI