Lucknow, March 7
The police resorted to a lathicharge in Lucknow, Meerut and several other cities across Uttar Pradesh and arrested thousands of Samajwadi Party workers on Day 1 of the party’s three-day agitation against the anti-people policies of the ruling Bahujan Samaj Party.

SP president Mulayam Singh Yadav charged the ruling party of keeping him and his son, Kannauj MP and state SP president Akhilesh Yadav under house arrest.

Speaking to mediapersons at his Vikramaditya Marg residence here, Mulayam accused the Mayawati Government of barricading the street and posting five companies of the PAC to prevent him from leaving his home. The father-son duo was to fly to Delhi to attend the Lok Sabha session.

“When speaking to the DIG didn’t help, I faxed a letter to Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar informing her of the breach of privilege due to which I was being prevented from attending the session,” Mulayam said.

However, District Magistrate Anil Kumar Sagar denied that the two leaders were under house arrest. He said that the duo did not leave as their flight was delayed. Finally, they left around 10 am, he said.

SP spokesperson Rajendra Chadhury claimed that at least 1 lakh workers had been arrested while Special DG (Law and Order) Brij Lal put this number at around 2,000, including six party MPs and 18 MLAs.

Despite a large number of preventive detentions since yesterday, the SP claimed that its ‘chakka jam’ and demonstration at collectorates at district headquarters’ was a success.

New Delhi March 7
China’s rising military prowess reverberated in the Lok Sabha today as Defence Minister AK Antony told members that India’s northern neighbour has built five airfields, a network of rail lines and more than 58,000 km of roads in the Tibet Autonomous Region (TAR) - all reaching close to the border.

“Five airfields in Tibet have become operational and include Gongar, Linchi, Pangta, Hoping and Gar Gunsa,” Antony said in a written reply. A total of 19 members had raised probing questions on China and its designs.

Antony went on to say that total road network in Tibet is assessed to be 58,000 km in the year 2010. The Chinese are also extending Qinghai Tibet Railway to Xigaze. Another railway line from Kashgar to Hotan in Xinjinag Uighur Autonomous Region (XUAR) is also under construction.

AK Antony explained that differences in perception of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) had led to situations that could have been avoided if we (India and China) had a common perception of the LAC. Last year there were a series of reports that the Chinese had intruded into the India territory.

On the specific cases of infrastructure development by Chinese near the LAC, Antony said, “these are taken up with their authorities through the established mechanism of Hotline facility, flag meetings and Border Personnel Meetings (BPMs).”

The Defence Minister emphasised that the process has been initiated for ensuring that India’s security concerns are adequately addressed through development of infrastructure, including rail, roads and forward airfields as well as operational capabilities.

India has taken several steps, including raising two Mountain Divisions of the Army in the northeast, deployment of four squadrons of its frontline Su-30 MKI fighters, and is also considering deployment of Ultra Light Howitzers (ULHs) and light tanks in the territories along the LAC.

New Delhi: Just days after the Army ordered a probe into the leak of a classified field trial report of M-777 ultra-light Howitzer guns, Defence Minister AK Antony told Parliament that trials for the gun were on. Replying to a question, he said, “The trials for procurement of lightweight 155 mm Howitzers are underway.”

The gun is being purchased through the Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route from the US. Under the FMS route, the agreement, if any, takes place between the governments of India and the US.

Controversy hit the procurement of these guns after some pages of the classified report were leaked recently. The Army is seeing this as an act of “espionage” and has ordered the Director-General of Military Intelligence to conduct a probe into the incident. — TNS

New Delhi, March 7
As part of the year-long events to celebrate 100 years of civil aviation in the country and to commemorate International Women’s Day tomorrow, national carrier Air India will operate all-women crew domestic and international flights while the Ministry of Civil Aviation will felicitate women aviators.

Right from women pilots and cabin crew to ground support staff, women will hold fort be it the check-in and security counters, safety procedures, dispatch or loading. A 15-hour AI non-stop Delhi-Toronto flight will be operated by the all-women team of Commanders Capt Rashmi Miranda and Capt Sunita Narula and First Officers Capt Varsha Sheoran and Capt Nidhi Suri.

The 11-member crew will not only operate flight AI-187, but women engineers will carry out the safety audit before the Boeing B 777-300ER aircraft flies out from the IGI Airport.

The airline will also operate flights on several domestic sectors with all-women crew tomorrow. These include flights on sectors like Delhi-Patna, Delhi-Raipur-Nagpur, Delhi-Lucknow, Mumbai-Bangalore, Chennai-Mumbai and Kozhikode-Mumbai.

Air India has a large contingent of 157 women pilots flying its fleet of wide and narrow body aircraft on international and domestic routes. It has over 5,300 women employees in its workforce.

Air India operated the first all-women crew flight in November 1985 when Capt Saudamini Deshmukh and Capt Nivedita Bhasin flew the Indian Airlines Fokker Friendship flight from Kolkata to Silchar.

Last year, Air India had operated an all-women crew flight from Mumbai to New York at midnight on March 8. The flight had created history as an all-women crew had operated an ultra long-haul flight. In 2010, Air India had operated a record 22 all-women crew flight across its domestic and international network.

Hyderabad, March 7
The main opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) in Andhra Pradesh, headed by N Chandrababu Naidu, today plunged into a crisis following sharp internal differences over the raging Telangana statehood issue.

At the centre of the brewing storm within the party was its deputy floor leader in the Assembly and a strong Telangana protagonist N Janardhan Reddy who has openly revolted against the party leadership.

Reddy, who was the convener of the now-disbanded TDP Telangana Forum, created ripples when he defied Naidu’s instructions and stalled the proceedings in the Assembly. Raising pro-Telangana slogans and holding a placard demanding introduction of a bill in the Parliament for carving out a separate state, he frequently rushed to the podium.

His antics caused acute embarrassment to Naidu who was also present in the House. The TDP chief signalled to his legislators from Telangana not to join Reddy in his protest. As a result, Reddy, a former minister, found himself isolated.

This was followed by an open war of words by Reddy and his detractors in the party who were said to be backed by Naidu. “I am prepared to wage a lone battle for Telangana cause. I will take my own decision if the party leadership opposes separate Telangana state,” Reddy said.

As his confrontation with the party leadership reached a boiling point, Reddy, who hails from Mahaboobnagar district, is likely to be shown the door sooner than later.

About a dozen TDP Telangana legislators came before the media to hit back at Reddy, alleging that he was resorting to “blackmail tactics” and pushing his personal agenda by projecting himself as the sole fighter in the party for Telangana cause.

On his part, Reddy has claimed support from a majority of the party leaders from the region. The TDP has 37 legislators from Telangana which accounts for 119 seats in the 294-member Assembly.

The fresh crisis follows the TDP’s decision to end the Assembly boycott by Telangana members. However, Reddy opposed the decision and argued that it would send wrong signals to the people of the region, particularly when Telangana members from other parties, including the ruling Congress, were boycotting the session over the statehood issue.

The TDP has been adopting an ambivalent stand on Telangana with Naidu saying that he was required to protect the interests of the party in all the three regions of the state — Telangana, Rayalaseema and Coastal Andhra. The party has been maintaining that it was for the ruling Congress and the UPA government to resolve the issue. 

Chandigarh, March 7
After having faced the Armed Forces Tribunal’s ire over non-production of documents related to the Kargil conflict, the army today brought in a stack of the necessary documents in a sealed cover.

These were, however, not taken on record by the bench today as the petitioner in the case, Brig Surinder Singh (retd) moved another application seeking some additional documents. He had sought several documents held by the army to substantiate the contentions raised in his petition.

The bench decided to take up the papers brought in by the army as well as the fresh set of documents sought by the petitioner together on April 27.

Central government counsels, Col R. Balasubramanian and Gurpreet Singh said that the army would be claiming privilege under section 123 of the Evidence Act against the production of the documents as there were classified and had ramifications on national security.

Brig Surinder today said the documents he is now seeking to be brought on record included published extracts of books authored by the then army chief, Gen V.P. Malik and former Punjab chief minister Capt Amarinder Singh. He contended that these extracts included classified information and maps. He is also seeking details of security classification categorisation of documents.

Brigadier Singh was commander of 121 Brigade at Kargil when the conflict broke out. He was removed from command in the early stages of the conflict and later dismissed from service. Praying not only for professional restitution, but also for a complete investigation into the Kargil conflict, he has sought a number of records to substantiate his claims and contentions.

The brigade was responsible for the defence of the LoC in the Kargil sector, where Pakistani troops and other elements had intruded and occupied key peaks on the Indian side. 

BRIEFLY

Plane overshoots runway, all safe
AIZAWL: In a narrow escape for 140 air passengers, an Air India plane ferrying defence personnel and their families overshot the runway and suffered tyre bursts while landing at Lengpui airport near here on Monday. No one was hurt. — PTI

24 Army job aspirants hurt
BHAGALPUR: About 24 aspirants for Army jobs were injured in a police lathicharge on Monday after they vandalised some vehicles and blocked a road in protest against alleged harassment during a physical test, the police said. — PTI

HC quashes case against Bhansali
MUMBAI: The Bombay High Court on Monday quashed a case against Bollywood director Sanjay Leela Bhansali in connection with a fire on the sets of his film “Black”. An FIR was lodged against Bhansali in 2006 on the complaint of an antiques’ dealer whose furniture was destroyed. — PTI