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Greater Noida farmers’ unrest
EC policy on electronic media soon
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 A major disappointment: ActivistsNew Delhi, May 11 In Bhopal, activist Satinath Sarangi began the day on an optimistic note, hoping that the apex court would recall the September 1996 order that diluted stringent charges of culpable homicide not amounting to murder against the Bhopal gas tragedy accused and ordered their trial for a milder offence of causing death by rash and negligent acts.
T-90 makeover: ‘Bhishma’ set to be more lethal
IAF chief: Integrate Defence Ministry with armed forces
Defence hawks discuss urban warfare
mining project
India ranks 143rd in Internet speed
MCI board gets another year in office
Ex-M’rashtra chief ministers summoned
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Greater Noida farmers’ unrest
New Delhi, May 11 “What the farmers of this region like every other conflict place in the country need is support, no diversion of the agricultural land and dialogue to resolve their problems. Political parties trying to settle scores over the blood of farmers is condemnable,” rights group National Alliance of People’s Movements (NAPM) said in a statement. Rahul who landed at Bhatta Parsaul early morning, demanded a judicial inquiry into firing incidents following clashes between the police and the farmers protesting the state government’s land acquisition and compensation policy. He was joined by party colleague Digvijay Singh, sat on a dharna after he heard villagers on alleged atrocities committed on them. Activist Medha Patkar, however, said since the day of the firing, leaders of different political parties had been trying to enter the village, which the local administration had continuously refused. “Today, somehow Rahul Gandhi along with Digvijay Singh managed to reach the village and held meetings with the villagers. The same scene was enacted last year in August where leaders of every party thronged to the venue. They failed to negotiate or respond to the farmers,” she said. The Congress supported Rahul saying the party general secretary had visited the village to understand farmers issues. “There is no Constitutional ban on travelling on a motorcycle. I don’t think any other leader has taken the trouble of understanding problems of farmers,” Natarajan said. The NAPM, which calls the 165 km, Rs 11,000-crore Yamuna Expressway Project being built by Jaypee infratech “soaked with the blood of the western Uttar Pradesh farmers”, alleges that the construction in Noida, Greater Noida, Greater Noida Extension is a big scam. “Corporate houses, politicians and real estate agents, in connivance with the local administration, are involved in loot and plunder of prime agricultural land along the upper Ganga canals. The police is being used to protect the capital interests of these groups and lakhs of marginal farmers, Dalits and other farm communities are losing their life and livelihood in the process,” activists say. “It is unfortunate that every party is demanding only amendments on the line of proposed Land Acquisition (Amendment), 2009, rather than asking for complete repeal of the draconian law responsible for dispossessing millions of farmers till date and none seems to be concerned about the Resettlement and Rehabilitation Bill, 2009,” the NAPM adds, demanding repeal of Land Acquisition Act and enactment of a development planning Act to protect interests of farmers, minimise displacement and provide relief to those already displaced or to be
displaced.
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EC policy on electronic media soon
New Delhi, May 11 Quraishi said “In some of the states which went to polls most of the channels are owned by political parties,” adding this would deny other parties a level-playing field in the elections. He opined that television channels owned by political parties would change the complexion as they do not have to buy space on other channels. The CEC, while talking to the media this morning on the conduct of polls in the five states, said a policy on television channels will be place before the next elections. “We are also examining whether using your own channel for unlimited publicity, how to account for (expenses),” he added. The problem of parties owning channels or manipulating cable transmission networks on muscle power, has cropped in Punjab also. The Congress and the Akalis level allegations of manipulation against each other when in opposition. He said high turnout in the recently concluded Assembly polls in five states was a positive sign.
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A major disappointment: Activists
New Delhi, May 11 As someone who arrived in Bhopal within days of the gas leak on the night of December 2-3, 1984, and has since been there helping in the fight for legal claims of survivors, Sarangi was expecting the Supreme Court to send the case back to the lower court but with clear instructions that it would be dealt with expeditiously. However, for him and others fighting for enhanced punishment for the accused, the day ended in a major disappointment after the Supreme Court’s order dismissed the CBI’s curative petition. While some called it a “black day”, blaming the CBI for failing to defend Bhopal tragedy victims, others were anguished that the apex court had not set aside the 1996 judgment. “The Supreme Court today heaped more injustice on victims, already suffering from the 1989 settlement for compensation and the 1996 dilution of penal charges against the accused,” Sarangi told The Tribune from Bhopal. Alleging that the state machinery, including the judiciary, had let the Bhopal victims down, he said it was strange that the Supreme Court did not see that the 1996 judgment had equated the corporate massacre with a minor traffic accident. Another activist, Rachna Dhingra of the Bhopal Group for Information and Action said the CBI was never interested in fighting for the tragedy-hit and now “even the judiciary is not with the victims.”
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ISRO, DRDO monitoring biggest Army exercise
Suratgarh, May 11 With over 50,000 troops participating in the exercise, this is one of the biggest military manoeuvres being conducted in the desert sector this summer. The DRDO would test some of the newly-developed missiles and weaponary and the ISRO would also test its satellite capabilities to connect to a real time war-like situation. The commander of the Western Command, Lt Gen SR Ghosh yesterday reviewed the training of the Ambala-based Kharga Corps during the exercise. ISRO is also keenly watching the efficiency and robustness of its satellite downlinks for the field force during the wartime like situation. The focus of the exercise is to evaluate various proposals put forth by the transformation study groups.
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T-90 makeover: ‘Bhishma’ set to be more lethal
Glorious The Army has so far deployed the T-90 along the country’s Western borders in Rajasthan and Punjab. Historically, the Army has been engaged in pitched tank battles on the Western front. Use of the T-55 and the PT-76 in Bangladesh in the 1971 war stands out as the sole exception. India will have 1,650 T-90 tanks in the next few years
New Delhi, May 11 New Delhi has finally okayed a project to include a new weapon system on board the existing tank that will enable the tank commander to fire a missile to neutralise mid-air an enemy anti-tank guided missile (ATGM) or a rocket-propelled grenade. Despite the steel armour and specialised armour protection kits, a hit by an ATGM usually leaves a tank paralysed and at times totally damaged. In the past one year, there has been speculation in the defence circles that India was re-looking at its earlier proposal to have an “active protection” suite for its frontline T-90 series of tanks. The Army has now made it official and sent out a request to global manufacturers inviting them to display the system. A similar effort was made in 2008-09 and six global companies had participated in it. The “active protection” is a proactive countermeasure to tackle incoming ATGMs and rocket-propelled grenades. In modern day battlefields, the biggest threat are anti-tank missiles that can be shoulder fired ATGM’s, also those fired from infantry carried rocket launchers and from helicopters. Militarily advanced countries like the US and Russia have such methods that give a definitive edge in battle, said a senior functionary. Now-a-days, rocket-propelled grenades are no less in threat. It can penetrate several inches of a tank’s steel-plated armour. The alternative is to increases the armour thickness that will add up to the weight of the tank making it sluggish. The best option is to have an active protection that tackles incoming threats at distance away from the tank ensuring safety of the crew and also the tanks in the same squadron. Ideally, the Army is looking at a new weapons system that will not increase the height of the tank and impact its capabilities to wade through water. Height is an issue as the Army moves its fleet
on trains across the country. The new system is likely to be top mounted on to the tank.
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IAF chief: Integrate Defence Ministry with armed forces
New Delhi, May 11 Naik was addressing a seminar on the “National Security Reforms” organised by a leading think-tank Centre for Land Warfare Studies (CLAWS) here. Delivering his keynote address, Naik said, “An institutionalised politico-military interface is required... the Integration of Defence Ministry with the Armed Forces is one area where I feel a lot has to be done.” Naik today made a suggestion that has been repeated by experts from long time that service headquarters should be integrated with the Defence Ministry. At present there is no political interface, he said adding that the participation of the service chiefs in the meetings of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) was a positive step. A lot of our inputs have been taken and acted upon Naik said. He disfavoured the creation of the Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) in its present format saying it will only obstruct the system. The IAF was against the proposal to appoint a four-star or five-star serving officer as the CDS. In my opinion, the CDS has to be the single-point military adviser to the Defence Minister Speaking candidly, Naik said a lot of people think that by withholding the appointment of the CDS, the government had actually weakened the pace and quality of military reforms. He went on to term the CDS as a “foreign” concept, and added that in his opinion the strengthening of the chiefs of the Staff Committee should be the first step in this model. Setting up new structures will not make the system more efficient or effective.
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Defence hawks discuss urban warfare
Bangalore, May 11 Vice-Admiral KN Sushil, Flag Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Southern Naval Command, Air Marshal Dhiraj Kukreja, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, HQ Training Command, IAF, and Lt-Gen K Surendra Nath, General Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Army Training Command, led delegates of their respective services at the conference. Major-General Vikram Puri, Assistant Chief of Integrated Defence Services, and his team represented the integrated defence staff. The objective of the conference was to identify and capitalise on core competencies of respective services towards promoting inter-operability and integrated training methodology to gain effective cohesiveness in joint operations. According to defence experts, the vastly changed geopolitical scenario and threat perceptions will more commonly see joint operations in varied sectors of operations in difficult terrains and inhospitable weather conditions. The new weapon platforms and technology have also necessitated integration of the three services at the training level. It has been found that the inter-services training of defence personnel leads to optimum utilisation of infrastructure and resources, and towards better understanding and insight of systems. This exposure is tactically exploited to give cutting edge in missions. The conference also reviewed the previous decisions of inter-service training methodologies and operating procedures.
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mining project
Hyderabad, May 11 The Opposition Telugu Desam Party MLA Siveru Soma, who represents the Araku Assembly constituency, and Dumbriguda block president K Dhanna Rao were attacked by tribals when they went to Sarai, a tribal hamlet, yesterday to convince the locals to attend a public hearing on mining of China clay (Kaolin, a mineral used in the making of crockery) in the area. The MLA and his followers had to run for life as the angry villagers attacked them with sticks and damaged their vehicle. The public hearing, proposed to be conducted by the AP Pollution Control Board as part of granting permission to a mining firm Transworld Services to take up the mining, had to be cancelled. The tribals have been agitating against mining in the area as it would displace them from their forests and deprive them of their source of livelihood. They even placed huge logs and boulders on the road leading to the village to prevent officials from coming.
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India ranks 143rd in Internet speed
Chandigarh, May 11 India ranks 143rd globally with an average connectivity speed of 0.8 Mbps in Q3 of 2010. This, according to the report, amounted to 6.9 per cent quarterly decline and a 9.1 per cent yearly decline. India was the only country to see the fall in internet speed among the Asian countries covered in the study. The average Internet speed in the world was registered at 1.9 Mbps. South Korea topped the list of countries with fastest internet connection with average speed of over 13 Mbps. Among the countries surveyed, only Egypt and Sudan were behind India. In broadband connectivity, India ranks 129th in the report. The adoption of broadband internet has been rather disappointing. India has only 4.5 per cent Internet connections above 2 Mbps. The Q-o-Q change and Y-o-Y change too were unimpressive at — 17 per cent and — 24 per cent, respectively. Slow adoption of broadband services in India will hamper businesses that depend on high Internet broadband consumption, like digital media providers and such. The positive to India from the report is that Internet penetration has risen 23 per cent.
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MCI board gets another year in office New Delhi, May 11 In March this year, the Union Cabinet approved the extension of the term of the BOG by a year and the order was today given legal effect with the Ministry of Law notifying it through an ordinance. The original ordinance, The Indian Medical Council (Amendment) ordinance 2011, was issued on May 15 last. It is, however, yet not clear if the same BOG as constituted last year would continue in the second term, with certain sections in the ministry hinting at the possibility of reconstitution of the board originally headed by liver expert Dr SK Sarin, currently also Director, Institute of Liver and Biliary Diseases of the Delhi Government. Other members of the original BOG are Ranjit Roy Choudhary, Sita Naik, RS Salhan, Gautam Sen and Devi Shetty. Sources in the Health Ministry said there might be a possibility of reconstitution of the team considering some members of the board are too preoccupied with other work to devote full time to a sensitive sector like the MCI.
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Ex-M’rashtra chief ministers summoned Mumbai, May 11 Both Deshmukh and Chavan will join 17 other witnesses, including Union Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, who were summoned last week, according to sources. While Ashok Chavan has been named as an accused in the case, Deshmukh too had given permissions during his tenure.
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On the day Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi decided to ride into Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s bastion on a motorcycle in support of aggrieved families of Bhatta Parsaul village in Greater Noida, activists have urged politicians to “stop playing politics over dead bodies in Greater Noida”.
As the election commission gears up for counting of votes in five states on May 13, The Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi, has termed the highest ever voter turn out as a “positive sign” while the EC today made it clear that it is working on guidelines for electronic media as several political parties own television channels.
