New Delhi, June 30
The Congress here today accused the Gujarat Government for destroying vital intelligence records related to the 2002 riots, terming the action a "sinister conspiracy".

A day after the state government admitted before the Nanavati Commission that it had destroyed all State Intelligence Bureau (SIB) records pertaining to the 2002 riots, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari said, "Such documents, if they disappear in this manner or are deliberately shredded or destroyed by the state government, shows that the state government is doing a cover-up of its role in the entire massacre."

In a startling official admission, the Gujarat Government yesterday said that all records of the state intelligence agency relating to the 2002 riots were destroyed in 2007, five years after it happened, as per "standard practice". The government counsel said IPS officer Sanjiv Bhatt, who was DCP (SIB) in 2002, knew the rule that such records were destroyed after a certain period and in spite of that he was asking for such records through various direct and indirect representations.

Slamming the state government without mentioning state Chief Minister Narendra Modi's name, Tewari said, "It is astounding that vital documents pertaining to the carnage which is under investigation by the highest court of the land are destroyed in such a cavalier manner. There cannot be a bigger and sinister conspiracy to hide the truth."

"This is nothing short of a criminal conspiracy to see that the truth does not emerge. It clearly points out that the state government is trying to cover up the entire matter," Tewari said.

In Ahmedabad, Gujarat Congress chief Arjun Modhvadia said, "The records were destroyed to hide the truth regarding involvement of Chief Minister Narendra Modi and his cabinet colleagues."

"It is criminal negligence to destroy the records on which cases are pending in the courts, as well as a commission inquiring in the matter," he said.

"I demand that an independent inquiry be constituted under the supervision of the Supreme Court in the matter," he added.

Lawyer Mukul Sinha of NGO Jan Sangharsh Manch, which represents some of the riot victims, said, "It is a terrible thing for the government to do. We had a doubt that they had been destroyed."

"Since all allegations were against police officer for inaction, destruction of SIB records could have serious implications," Sinha said. Now with the records destroyed, it would be difficult to prove allegations against them, he said.

New Delhi, June 30
Social activist Anna Hazare could not meet Sonia Gandhi as her 10 Janpath office did not give him an appointment for the meeting because of the Congress president’s “prior engagements” as per party sources.

Though no fresh date has been given, Anna’s team is hopeful that they will get a chance to meet Sonia before the all-party meet, scheduled to be held on Sunday.

A section of the party strongly believes that Sonia should stay away from the issue at least till July 3, especially when Team Anna has been given enough time by the government to put across civil activists’ views in several meetings, a majority of which ended in not-so-pleasant circumstances.

However, a senior party leader has hinted that Sonia may agree to meet Anna on Saturday as she believes that differences of opinion was one issue and maintaining courtesy another. “She feels that a certain level of courtesy should be maintained despite strong difference of opinions,” he added.

Anna, who is in the Capital to garner support from various political parties for the draft of the Lokpal Bill prepared by civil society members yesterday, said he would try to persuade Sonia to include the office of the Prime Minister in the Lokpal Bill.

Today, he met Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and CPI leaders AB Bardhan and D Raja to put across his point while yesterday he held meetings with CPM general secretary Prakash Karat and RLD chief Ajit Singh. He is now scheduled to meet senior BJP leaders LK Advani and Arun Jaitley tomorrow.Article continues below.

Later, Nitish said he had asked the government to clarify its position on the proposed anti-corruption Lokpal Bill.

Referring to Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee’s letter asking parties and state governments for their views on the Bill, Nitish said: “I had written back to him that the government should first say what it wants. Now, they have given us two drafts... but if they give us only one draft and clarify their position, it is easier to give point-to-point comments.”

Meanwhile, Anna was all praise for Nitish. He said the Bihar Chief Minister was already implementing a lot of measures suggested in their Jan Lokpal draft. “He is Bihar’s Chief Minister, but an activist at heart,” Anna added.

Social activist Arvind Kejriwal said Nitish had told them that his government was planning to use the draft Jan Lokpal Bill as a model for the establishment of Lokayukta in his state.

New Delhi, June 30
India today took a huge leap forward towards guaranteeing equality and non-discrimination to more than 70 million of its disabled as a government committee appointed to draft a new law for the sector submitted a groundbreaking disability legislation that provides legal mechanisms to enforce civil and political rights of the persons with disabilities.

The Rights of Persons with Disabilities Bill 2011, submitted to the Minister of Social Justice Mukul Wasnik today, specifies, for the first time, criminal sanctions for acts of omission and commission against the disabled; bars discrimination on grounds of disability and proposes enhanced job quota for the disabled from 3 to 7 per cent in all establishments. The quota is to be distributed among seven listed categories of the disabled.

Twenty forms of disability, including intellectual disabilities, thalassemia, dwarfism and hemophilia, are covered by the new law (against seven currently covered), which proposes a National Disability Regulatory Authority to prescribe standards on accessibility and rules for service providers. The law says no new building plan can be passed unless it meets accessibility norms; existing government buildings will have to become accessible in three years of the law’s enforcement and other public buildings will get five years.

Non-compliance will result in suspension of water, electricity supply to buildings; cancellation or suspension of builders’ licence or fine up to 5 per cent of the building’s market value or a combination of all.

Separate chapters have been dedicated to the rights of disabled women and children and penalties prescribed for violation. All disabled children (0 to 18 years) will be entitled to the Right to Education though the RTE Act covers those from 6 to 14 years.

“The RTE Act depends on the disability law. Since the new law defines disabled children as those up to 18 years, this age will have to apply,” Amita Dhanda of NALSAR University of Law, Hyderabad, who was legal consultant for the law, said.

The Bill further replaces the existing concept of plenary guardianship with limited guardianship, which means all guardians of persons with disabilities will be legally obliged to consult them to arrive at legally binding decisions.

The law prescribes severe penalties - 6 months to 8 years in prison and fine for wilfully injuring a person with disability; up to seven years and fine for wrongful medical practises that cause infertility and up to 10 years for forceful termination of pregnancy. For general violations, a penalty of 6 months and Rs 50,000 fine is proposed.

The new law is in accordance with the UN Convention on Rights of Persons with Disability, which India ratified in 2007. 

Haridwar, June 30
After a week of speculations, a CBI team today conducted a raid on the Haridwar Municipality Committee office for checking the birth certificate and other documental records relating to Patanjali Yogpeeth managing director Acharya Balakrishna.

The visit of the CBI team assumes importance as several documents related with the case have been missing from the municipality records, while a file is missing from the local intelligence unit office.

One of the key documents provided by Balakrishna for remaking of his birth certificate in 1997 (registration number 379, dated December 5, 1997) is also missing from the municipality record.

Two officials from the CBI's Dehradun office arrived at the Municipal Committee office at Mayapur without any prior information. They went straight into the record room and conducted investigation.

No one was allowed entry into the area apart from municipality officials. The team then had an extensive discussion with Executive Officer of civic body BL Arya.

Executive officer BL Arya said the information sought by CBI officials was provided to them. However, the records demanded by them would be given to them within a couple of days.

Arya also refuted that some municipal record related with Acharya Balakrishna had been missing.

New Delhi, June 30
As part of the exercise to strengthen coastal security, the Navy has decided to procure 80 interception boats at a cost of Rs 300 crore from a Sri Lanka-based ship manufacturer.

The boats, with speeds between 45-50 miles per hour, will be an asset in shallow waters close to the coast crew, Naval officials said. The small speed boats were effectively used in the past by the Sri Lankan Navy in its well-documented fight against the LTTE that, for a rebel organisation, had a good strong naval wing.

The boats are planned to be used by the newly formed Sagar Prahari Bal and other wings of the Navy, naval officials said.

The contract process for 80 Fast Interception Craft (FIC) from Sri Lanka-based SOLAS Marine is in its final stages and the deal is expected to be finalised soon, they said.

Delivery of the first 15 FICs is expected to be completed by the end of 2012 and the next 80 would be inducted in coming 36 months, they said.

Thiruvananthapuram, June 30
Bedlam prevailed in the Kerala Assembly here today with the ruling UDF and the opposition LDF members nearly coming to blows over the police lathi-charge on pro-Left outfits, forcing the proceedings to be adjourned ahead of the day’s schedule.

Raising the matter of police action on students during their protest over self-financing college admission during the Zero Hour, some LDF members moved towards the treasury benches when Chief Minister Oommen Chandy was making a statement on the adjournment motion sought by LDF over the matter.

As LDF MLAs moved towards the Chief Minister’s seat showing bloodstained clothes of the CPM MLA R Rajesh, who was injured in the lathicharge yesterday, members from the ruling side also surged to the well to counter them.

Sensing the situation slipping out of control, Speaker G Karthikeyan asked the watch-and-ward to create a human shield between the rival sides and within seconds temporarily adjourned the house.

Normalcy failed to return after the House re-assembled two hours later as the Opposition insisted on an inquiry into the police action and suspension of the official, who beat up the MLA.

As the protest continued, the Speaker adjourned the house for the day by rushing through the day’s business. Before the House rose for the day, the Speaker censured CPM MLA Babu M Palissery, who led LDF members in moving towards the Chief Minister’s seat.

Earlier, replying to the notice for adjournment motion moved by CPM's Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, Chandy said there was no justification for student's agitation. The UDF government had not made any change in the policy of self-financing professional colleges than that followed by the previous LDF government, Chandy added.

"The government is ready to hold talks with the Opposition to find a solution to the issue," he said, adding that it was an issue which needed a consensus among all concerned.— PTI

Hyderabad, June 30
Amidst indications that the UPA government is not willing to grant statehood to Telangana for the fear of opening a Pandora’s Box, the pro-Telangana leaders across the political spectrum are preparing for a final showdown on the issue.

Signals emanating from New Delhi indicate that the Congress leadership is mulling creation of an autonomous Telangana Regional Council in tune with the recommendations of the Justice BN Srikrishna Commission that went into the competing demands for the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh and continuing the status quo.

“The current thinking is that formation of separate Telangana state may trigger similar demands across the country leading to political instability. Instead of dividing the state, a compromise formula can be worked out under which a statutorily-empowered regional council can be created and also a fair financial package for the region,” Congress sources said.

However, the Telangana protagonists have rejected such a proposal and made it clear that nothing short of a separate state would satisfy the people of the region. “Telangana will burn if the UPA government tries to mislead the people by announcing formation of a council,” Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) president K Chandrasekhar Rao warned.

There are fears that the Telangana agitation would take a violent turn in the days ahead. The TRS chief has been pitching for en mass resignations by the elected representatives of all parties from the region to mount pressure on the Centre to concede the statehood demand. The Congress leadership is coming under increasing pressure from within as Telangana MPs, MLAs and MLCs have threatened to quit their posts and join the battle to achieve the statehood goal.

A meeting of Congress MPs and legislators will be held in Hyderabad tomorrow to chalk out future course of action as the deadline set by them for the high command to take a final decision on Telangana issue ended today. The ruling party leaders from the region are likely to undertake indefinite fast from July 5.

They want the UPA government to table a Bill in the coming session of Parliament for carving out separate Telangana state.

New Delhi, June 30
Amid speculation about an impending Cabinet reshuffle, Textiles Minister and DMK representative Dayanidhi Maran met with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today.

Maran, who has been under considerable pressure to resign on account of his alleged involvement with the telecom scam when he was Telecom Minister, clarified that he had briefed the PM on his department and that he "is still a minister in the Cabinet". 

New Delhi, June 30
The Centre yesterday said it was making arrangements to lift 18.77 lakh tonne foodgrains lying under covered and plinth (CAP) in Punjab. The Food Ministry maintained that half of the quantity had already been lifted and the remaining would be shifted out of the state by July-end.

Food Minister KV Thomas said due to large handling of foodgrains undertaken by the FCI and other government agencies, some storage and transit losses occur due to various reasons. But due to constant efforts being undertaken to reduce such losses, the storage and transit losses of the FCI have come down over the years.

The damaged foodgrains with the FCI, which were 2.12 lakh tonne in 1999-2000, came down to 0.34 lakh tonne in 2007-08 and only 0.07 lakh tonne in the year 2009-10 and 0.06 lakh tonne during 2010-11, Thomas said.

Due to current high level of stocks of foodgrains in the Central pool, in addition to normal annual allocations of foodgrains under the TPDS and other welfare schemes, the government has allocated an additional quantity of 50 lakh tonne of foodgrains for BPL families in May and another 50 lakh tonne for APL families in June.

Another 50 lakh tonne of foodgrains will be allocated shortly for 150 poorer districts as mandated by the Supreme Court, modalities of which are being worked out.

Thomas said the Centre was continuously monitoring the lifting by state governments and also considering six months’ lump-sum allocation at a time for distribution to the targeted groups. This will help in faster evacuation of stocks from the Central pool, particularly in states which have seen much higher level of procurement of wheat than was earlier expected like Punjab, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

New Delhi, June 30
Students, long deprived of knowledge due to lack of availability of texts in Indian languages, have a reason to rejoice. The Ministry of Human Resource Development has decided to translate knowledge texts in 15 basic disciplines, including modern sciences, engineering and social sciences, into all 22 languages listed in the 8th Schedule of the Constitution.

The move comes in the wake of growing realisation that whereas all original knowledge texts, no matter where they were written or developed, were available in English and most other European languages, these were barely available in the languages spoken and used in India.

Now, the government has tasked the Central Institute of Indian Languages, Mysore, to begin translating the most significant knowledge texts - at both graduate and postgraduate level - into the Scheduled Indian languages. To begin with, the translation will happen in languages that have an established market in India - such as Marathi, Malyalam and Tamil.

BRIEFLY

Home Secretary GK Pillai retires
NEW DELHI: GK Pillai hung up his boots as Union Home Secretary on Thursday after completing his two-year tenure in the challenging post. The was one of the popular top-rung officials during the UPA rule. He handed over charge to RK Singh, a 1975-batch IAS officer from Bihar cadre. — PTI