New Delhi, March 19
Two more pilots have lost their job, this time for fudging flying hours to obtain their commercial pilot licence (CPL).

Low-cost carrier Spicejet terminated the services of Captain Anuj Kumar and First Officer Amit Mundra after their names appeared in ongoing investigations into the fake flying licence issue and confirmed that the two were from the infamous Rajasthan State Flying School near Jaipur, which came into the limelight in 2010 after cases of as many as 14 students over-logging flying records to obtain CPL were detected.

“The pilots, Capt Anuj Kumar and First Officer Amit Mundra, have been accused of misrepresenting their flying hours in order to obtain their licence from the regulator DGCA,” the Spicejet spokesperson said, adding that the airline was also conducting in-house investigations and cooperating with the civil aviation regulator and anti-corruption bureau officials to weed out any more such cases. All airlines, private and state-run, have set up independent inquiries to weed out “fake pilots”.

The fake pilot licence issue assumed a worrying proportion after four pilots, Parminder Kaur Gulati and Meenakshi Sehgal of IndiGo, JK Verma of Air India, and Swaran Singh Talwar of MDLR were found to have obtained their Airline Transport Pilot Licence (ATPL) using fake marksheets. While Verma and Gulati were arrested, Sehgal and Talwar are still absconding. Sources say some more cases have been detected but the names were being kept confidential to ensure they don’t get alerted and run away.

Since the “job” could not have been executed without the help of ‘insiders’, many officials are also now under scrutiny. The aviation regulator has already decided to stop the practice of issuing marksheets to pilots to bridge the loophole touts were using to produce fake documents. The logic is: When there are no marksheets, there can be no tampering. Incidentally, the two arrested pilots are believed to have paid touts Rs 10 to 12 lakh for getting the fake marksheet. Investigations are also on for those who graduated with “fake licences” from flying schools, including the one in Rajasthan, after fudging flying hours.

Though closed for more than three years now, the club near Jaipur is being investigated in 14 cases where students between 2005 and 2008 were falsely certified, including cross-country flying from places where the aircraft never landed.

Anti-Corruption Bureau officials from Rajasthan confirm that at least half of the suspected cases could be employed in flying-related duties, thereby putting into jeopardy lives of thousands of passengers. Similar cases of over-logging have been reported from other flying clubs, including the Hisar Flying club.

Lucknow, March 19
Complying with an Allahabad High Court order, Jat protesters seeking job quota today cleared the railway tracks, but threatened to renew their stir if their demand was not met.

Following the Allahabad High Court order, they allowed movement of trains at the Moradabad railway station and also lifted blockade on the national highway.

“We have decided to allow movement of trains following yesterday’s Allahabad High Court order. We have removed tents from the tracks. However, our agitation is continuing,” All-India Jat Aarakshan Samiti chief Yashpal Malik said.

“We will resume our agitation on the tracks if our demands are not met,” he said. “We have been invited for talks by the Home Minister and we are going to Delhi,” he added.

The agitation to demand reservation in Central Government jobs began on March 5. It threw train services out of gear, forcing the Railways to cancel a number of trains passing through the area en route Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

Taking suo motu cognisance of public inconvenience caused by the agitation, the Allahabad High Court had yesterday directed officials of Uttar Pradesh and the Central Government to get railway tracks and national highways cleared.

However, seeking to take credit for the Jat leaders clearing the tracks, Chief Minister Mayawati said the people of the community had done so on an appeal from the state government.

Accusing the Centre of precipitating the Jat crisis, she told reporters here, “It was due to the lackadaisical attitude of the Centre that the problem aggravated and the HC had to intervene. We are thankful to the court for paving the way for getting the tracks cleared.” Following the court order, the government launched an exercise to get the tracks cleared yesterday itself, she said.

The state sought 5,000 Central paramilitary personnel last evening, but the reinforcement had not been provided so far, she said. In the absence of Central forces, the state decided to get the tracks cleared making use of its own limited resources, she said. “An appeal was made to the members of the community to clear the tracks, to which they conceded today,” she said.

The Chief Minister said the state government supported the demand of Jats. However, as the matter came under the ambit of the Centre, it was for the Union Government to take a decision on it. — PTI

New Delhi, March 19
Former Chief Justice of India JS Verma today lamented the steep fall in the standards of the legal profession and the judiciary to such an extent that lawyers are judged by the value of their cars and judges are making news for wrong reasons.

Some of the lawyers had stooped to the level of being mercenaries charging as much as Rs one crore a day for arguing high-profile cases without much substance, while judges were facing all sorts of charges, Justice Verma said.

“Where is all this going to lead us?” he wondered while releasing an autobiography by former Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice Debi Singh Tewatia, who once worked as a porter in the United Kingdom to support his studies. The book is titled “A Journey Less Travelled.”

Justice Tewatia, who resigned as CJ of Calcutta HC for personal reasons despite the prospect of getting elevated to the Supreme Court, had come up in the profession purely on the basis of merit, integrity and dedication and without having any godfather, he said.

The legal profession had since undergone a sea change for the worse and the situation was no longer conducive to the rise of such lawyers, he said. Nevertheless, he said he had started feeling “comfortable” after Justice Kapadia became the Chief Justice of India, ending a “long phase of uncomfortable feeling.”

Echoing similar sentiments, former Nagaland Governor OP Sharma blamed the indifferent attitude of the people for the rising level of corruption in high places. The Facebook culture resulted in overthrowing the Hosni Mubarak regime in Egypt, but despite greater number of people using the social networking site in India there was no uprising against corruption because the man on the street was not bothered about what was going on, he rued.

Former Jharkhand Governor Ved Marwah pleaded with the judiciary to strongly resist the attempt by the political class to end the Collegium system of appointment of judges in high courts and the Supreme Court. The independent judiciary was the last hope of the nation as people still had faith in the system, he said.

Phullewal (Ludhiana), March 19
The Minister of State in the Union Ministry of Rural Development, Agatha Sangma, said she had learnt a lot after becoming an MP. She said youngsters joining politics in the country was a positive trend as they were all well qualified and aware about national and international issues. Besides, young minds make a positive contribution at the policy-making level, said Sangma.

Sangma, the youngest minister in the country, was in the city today on an invitation extended by Congress MLA from Qila Raipur Jassi Khangura to visit one of his dairy farms at Phullewal village near here.

Sharing her experience on her maiden visit to the city, Sangma said that such ventures (macro-dairy ventures) based on scientific technology were not just hygienic but benefited the rural population as well. By giving employment to the rural masses, especially women, the industry could make the rural population financially strong, she said.

The 30-year-old minister said that she had visited Latala and Phullewal and had interacted with the plenty of women working at the dairy farm. "They belong to the BPL families but after being financially independent, their children have started going to schools, which is so good. We have also initiated several national projects focusing on betterment of women; one such programme is “Providing Livelihood to Rural Women”. The pilot project was started in AP but we are bringing it to eight more states in the country. Through this, rural women will be imparted entrepreneurship skills," she said.

New Delhi, March 19
Taken by surprise, the Congress today said it has sought more time to resolve the differences with its ally Trinamool Congress, which has made a unilateral decision to announce a list of candidates for the West Bengal Assembly poll. “This is a new situation...new development. The party central leadership will discuss the issue in detail and then take a decision,” Congress working committee member in charge for WB Shakeel Ahmad said when.

Making no effort to hide the party’s displeasure over the Trinamool Congress move, Ahmad said, “Our discussions for seat sharing had remained inconclusive, hence it was told that we will discuss the issue again. We were seeking more time to resolve the differences on the number and nature of seats to be contested by each party…. However, now an announcement has already been made (by TMC). We have to see how we respond to the new development.”

Party sources said that West Bengal PCC president Manas Bhuniya will be arriving here to hold talks with senior Congress leaders over the issue. However, any decision by the Congress is likely only after Holi, which falls tomorrow. Party president Sonia Gandhi who is in London for a week will arrive tomorrow evening.

Sources said talks would be held between TMC chief and Pranab Mukherjee. Sonia Gandhi is learnt to be strongly in favour of the alliance. The TMC yesterday unilaterally announced its list of 228 candidates for the election to 294-member Assembly and set a Monday deadline for the Congress to accept the 64 seats allotted to it. — PTI

Mumbai, March 19
The Mumbai police has asked residents of buildings near the Wankhede Stadium, venue of the Cricket World Cup final, to block terraces, balconies and windows from where the stadium premises is clearly visible. The directions have been issued keeping in view the terror threat to World Cup matches.

The new security measures were implemented before the fixture between Sri Lanka and New Zealand on Friday. Residents of some of the buildings in Central Mumbai from where there is a clear view of the stadium were asked to lock their terraces and block their facades with protective covers as a precautionary measure.

“We have intelligence reports that terrorists may take off from high-rise buildings on paragliders to target the stadium,” a senior police official said. The police said it was keeping tabs on the Indian Mujahideen, which was responsible for setting off the blast at the German Bakery in Pune last year.

After the warning, housing societies in the area have issued identity cards to regular visitors to these buildings. These include newspaper delivery boys, milk vendors, sweepers and other maintenance personnel. Some of the housing societies have also hired private security agencies on the advice of the police. Residents of buildings having closed-circuit TV cameras in place have been told to preserve footage.

Meanwhile, central intelligence agencies have warned that terrorists might have bought as many as 17 tickets to enter the match venue during the final and carry out an attack. The Mumbai police has been told that the attack may be carried out by operatives of the Lashkar-e-Toiba and other terror outfits based in Bangladesh.

New Delhi, March 19
As the Japanese authorities mounted a massive rescue and relief operation in quake-crippled areas, India today said it was ready to dispatch a relief team from the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) to Japan and also offered any other assistance that Tokyo might require.

“We have offered to send a relief team from the NDMA to Japan to help the people and the government…we await their response,” Alok Prasad, Indian Ambassador to Japan, told The Tribune over the phone from Tokyo.

Replying to a question, he said all 40 Indians who were trapped in Sendai, the city which was the worst affected by the tragedy, have been evacuated to Tokyo. There had been no casualty among the Indians in Japan so far.

Prasad said that while he did not have the actual number of Indians living in Japan, they were estimated to be in the range of 22,000 to 25,000. “We are facilitating the travel of Indians to India but can’t say how many have gone back since many are leaving on their own from different airports,” he added.

The Indian envoy said New Delhi has given a planeload of 25,000 woolen blankets to Japan for the quake-affected people and was willing to provide any assistance to the country. He said the embassy has issued an advisory to Indian citizens, asking them to avoid non-essential travel to Japan. The government has also advised Indian nationals from Tokyo and areas close to the ‘exclusive zone’ declared by the Japanese Government to consider moving to safer areas as a precaution.

Air India has introduced daily flights with enhanced seat capacity to Japan to assist those who wish to travel back. As the Japanese authorities grapple with the tragedy, many Indians are weighing the pros and cons of remaining in the disaster-affected country.

Shailesh Kumar, a Ph.D student who also works for an Indian Government agency at Yokohama, some 30 km from Tokyo, said he had decided to continue staying in Japan as of now. He was all praise for the manner in which the Japanese Government was dealing with a war-like situation in the country.

Kumar said there was panic among the people for two-three days immediately after the quake struck the country last Friday but the situation had shown signs of improvement in the past two days.

According to Kumar, the quake had sparked panic buying of essential items but the situation was gradually stabilising.