New Delhi, May 21
Spending the first of many nights to come inside a prison cell of Tihar Jail, the smile was back on the face of DMK MP Kanimozhi today morning when she appeared before the CBI’s Special court hearing argument in the 2G Spectrum allocation scam. Kanimozhi, who came to the court in a prison van around 10 am was greeted by her mother Rajathi Ammal and son Aditya in the court premises that brought a big smile on her face followed by rounds of hugs with her dear ones. Even inside the court room, Kanimozhi was seen talking to her husband and son and other co-accused in her usual cheerful self all along the day.

It was also learned that although Kanimozhi’s lawyer Ram Jethmalani is in Germany presently, paper work for applying for bail in the Delhi High Court has been started by his junior counsel. However, no date has been fixed yet.

Kanimozhi was arrested yesterday when the court dismissed her bail plea. Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar, both of whom are 20 per cent stake holder in Chennai-based Kalaignar TV, have been accused of having received Rs 214 crore in “illegal gratifications” from Dynamix Balwa (DB) Realty, a company promoted by Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka, one of the beneficiary of 2G Spectrum allocation.

Meanwhile, according to Tihar authorities, Kanimozhi spent a non-fussy night inside a 10x15 cell in Jail No 6. “She looked sleepy in the morning and it seemed that she did not have a good night’s sleep,” they said. — PTI

New Delhi, May 21
With two days to go for the fourth meeting of the Joint Drafting Committee (JDC) of the Lokpal Bill, cracks seem to appear in the civil society with demands from sections outside the Anna Hazare group to share greater amount of information with the people at large.

Taking an urgent note of such criticism, the Anna Hazare group going by the name of India Against Corruption has hurriedly announced three public sessions tomorrow to interact and invite public response to their involvement in the drafting of the Lokpal Bill.

Apart from five top ministers led by Pranab Mukherjee, AK Anthony, P Chidambaram, Kapil Sibal and Salman Khursheed, the civil society group consists of Anna Hazare, lawyer Shanti Bhushan, his son Prashant Bhushan, RTI activist Arvind Kejriwal and Karnataka Lokayukta Santosh Hegde.

The rival camp consisting of co-conveners of National Convention on People’s Right to Information Nikhil Dey, Venkatesh Nayak, Angela Rangad and Ramakrishnan Raju have written two letters, one addressed to JDC chairman Pranab Mukherjee and the other to its co-chairperson Shanti Bhushan.

These letters stated that the Gazette notification for the JDC was issued on April 9 and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had in his statement the same day described the joining hands of the civil society and the government to evolve a consensus to move this “historic legislation” as auguring “well for our democracy”

The two letters noted that since then the JDC has met three times. “Yet no clarity has emerged regarding the process” and sought transparency on the Terms of Reference and the procedure defined to prepare the draft for the Jan Lokpal Bill; the process of public consultation that will be followed by the JDC.

Within minutes there was an announcement from Kejriwal’s India Against Corruption group, issued by the Group’s official contact person Aswathi Muralidharan, stating: “Several public consultations are being organised all across Delhi for creating awareness and getting public feedback on the Jan Lokpal Bill”. 

New Delhi, May 21
The government will look out for the poor with the help of a multipurpose android 2.2, genesis of Sakshat, a tablet computer designed by the HRD Ministry as a low-cost but fully functioning device to bridge the digital divide in the country.

Armed with the desi tablet, expected to cost around Rs 3,900 all inclusive, a data entry operator and an enumerator will conduct door-to-door survey to identify the poor who will be the beneficiaries of government schemes and subsidies. Rural Development Ministry officials said this was the first time not just in the country but perhaps in the world that this type of methodology was being employed to carry out a task of this nature.

While the enumerator would ask questions regarding salary, belongings, education, landholding of households, and also caste and religion, the data entry operator would feed in the data in the tablet computer. Information will be pre-loaded and responses kept simple, either yes or no, or multiple choice.

Before saving the data, the enumerator will once again read out the questions and answers to the respondent. Once the respondent gives a go-ahead, the data operator will save the entry after which it cannot be edited or manipulated.

The data will then be uploaded directly to a central server for compiling the BPL list. However, the sensitive information regarding caste and religion will be blocked and transferred to the Registrar General under the Union Home Ministry which, in turn, will send it to the experts committee.

The rest of the data will be published and displayed in gram panchayats for filing of claims. The final order will be published after hearing of the claims.

Bharat Electronics Limited is in the process of manufacturing six lakh plus tablets required for the Census. Once the task is over, they will be handed over to gram panchayats.

Mumbai, May 21
Nariman House or Chabad House in Mumbai's downtown Colaba area, which was attacked by terrorists on November 26, 2008, will become active again in about a year's time.

Hyderabad, May 21
Internal squabbles in Andhra Pradesh Congress hit a new low today when two warring ministers of the Kiran Kumar Reddy cabinet were arrested for creating unrest in the Telangana region.

The rivalry between Information Minister DK Aruna and Endowments Minister J Krishna Rao, both hailing from Mahaboobnagar district, took a violent turn over the issue of taking out a padayatra in support of statehood for Telangana. Aruna, accompanied by a large number of supporters, took to the streets to prevent her bête noir from entering Gadwal, her Assembly constituency. Rao was equally adamant on going ahead with his padayatra across the district over the Telangana issue.

Rao, who has been on a padayatra of Telangana districts for the past few days, locked himself up in his car and threatened to commit suicide by slitting his throat if the police made any attempt to arrest him. The police had a tough time convincing Rao to come out of his vehicle, even as his supporters raised anti-Aruna slogans. They finally arrested him from a guest house at Gadwal, amidst stiff resistance from his supporters. Simultaneously, the police also took Aruna into custody at Tummalacheruvu village, while she was on her way to her constituency headquarters to stop Rao from continuing his padayatra.

Following the arrests, the supporters of the two ministers indulged in stone-pelting and arson and forcibly enforced bandh in Gadwal, Aiza and other places in the district. Aruna, who was later released on a personal bond, contended that Rao had not informed her about his padayatra in her constituency. “I represent the people of Gadwal and it is only right and as per protocol that my colleague inform me about his intention to take up padayatra in my constituency. Instead, he unilaterally decided to continue with his mission without making any effort to coordinate with me. And for me, this is not acceptable,” she said.

Meanwhile, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy said the rivalry between the two ministers was a personal issue. “Since the padayatra undertaken by Krishna Rao is a sensitive issue, I would not like to comment. However, the president of the party’s state unit D Srinivas has been asked to look into the issue,” he said. 

Raipur, May 21
Naxals went on the rampage at several places on the first day of the two-days bandh called by them killing two persons, including an abducted special police officer (SPO),setting on fire some vehicles and rupturing railways track.

Following these incidents, police has sounded an alert and additional police force has been deployed,officials said.

"Kawasi dev was killed by the naxalites in dantewada as they mistook him to be a police officer," SP Ankit garg, said.

Police official said the body of SPO Ramaiyya, who was abductede by naxalitws feom cherpal village on ay 28, was thrown on the road.- PTI