New Delhi, July 2
Commonwealth Games Organising Committee’s sacked chief Suresh Kalmadi’s habit of courting controversy has again created trouble and this time in the Tihar Jail where he has been lodged for the past few months after being charge-sheeted for misappropriation of funds in organising the Games.

Two days after a trial court judge, Brijesh Kumar Garg, on a surprise visit to Tihar Jail, found “high-profile undertrial prisoners (UTP) being given undue liberty by the jail authorities”, a Vigilance inquiry has been ordered into the incident.

While Jail Superintendent SC Bhardwaj has been reportedly transferred away to Andaman Islands, senior jail officials maintained that it was a routine transfer and has nothing to do with the incident.

“A Vigilance inquiry into the incident has been ordered and the report is expected by Monday. Action will be taken only after the arrival of the report. Superintendent of Jail number 4 SC Bhardwaj has been transferred to Andaman Islands but it is a routine transfer,” said Sunil Kumar Gupta, spokesperson, Tihar Jails.

As per Garg’s report, when he went on a surprise visit to Jail number 4 on Thursday, he found Suresh Kalmadi having tea and snacks with Jail Superintendent Bhardwaj in his chamber while the cells of other 2G spectrum accused were unlocked and “all the high-profile UTPs were able to roam around and interact with each other”. The judge in his report also mentioned that Vikas Yadav and Vishal Yadav, serving a life imprisonment for a murder, were seen strolling in the jail garden beyond the permitted time.

“Officer-in-charge of Vigilance Dinesh Gandhi will carry out the inquiry and submit a report within 48 hours,” Deputy Inspector-General (Prisons) RN Sharma said after a meeting of all jail superintendents where they were apparently pulled up over the reports.

The DIG said, “The inspecting trial court judge had visited us on Thursday and was present in the Jail Superintendent’s room. Kalmadi too was waiting there for the van to take him to the hospital. Then tea arrived and Kalmadi too was offered. Other than this, we have no knowledge of any special treatment being given to him.”

Sharma also denied allegations of prisoners strolling around from one jail to another.

“Whatever allegations of wrong doings inside the prison have been made, the truth will be known once the inquiry report is out. We have held a meeting of all jail superintendents and taken up the issue with them,” the DIG added.

Munger, July 2
Maoists masquerading as CRPF personnel shot dead six villagers, while 11 other persons went missing after an encounter at a village in Bihar's Munger district.

The Maoists, armed with AK-47 rifles and other sophisticated weapons, stormed Kareili village - about 200 km from Patna - at around 5:00 am and opened fire at the villagers, killing six of them, DGP Neelmani told reporters.

While around 18 to 20 Maoists arrived in two jeeps, another 25 came on foot from the forest, he said.

The rebels came looking for a former Maoist, whose wife had successfully contested the elections to the post of village chief, Neelmani said. "There was firing on the house of the former Maoist, Ashok Korha, but since the villagers were not fully prepared at the time, they could not retaliate effectively," he said.

In the ensuing exchange of fire between the Maoists and villagers, some of whom had licensed arms, two special police officers Shivan Rai and Sunil Rai were killed. The other villagers killed in the encounter were Narayan Rai, Ramdeo Rai, Congress Rai and Naresh Rai. He said eleven villagers -- six adults and five children had gone missing after the firing. A BSF helicopter was requisitioned from Jharkhand to assist in locating the missing persons, he added.

A combing operation was underway by the CRPF, the BSF, the Bihar Military Police, Special Auxiliary Police and District Armed Police under the supervision of Deputy Inspector General of Police (Munger Range) KK Yadav and SP P Kanan, the DGP said.

He said a compensation of Rs 4 lakh - Rs 3 lakh from the Centre and Rs 1 lakh from the state government - would be provided to each of the bereaved families.

The DGP said he had ordered an inquiry into why the policemen were not present at the nearby Banglawa police outpost when the attack took place. When a team led by the SP reached the spot, angry villagers initially prevented them from taking away the bodies, but later allowed them to do so. — PTI

New Delhi, July 2
India today sought to contain the damage which appears to have been caused to relations with Dhaka over Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s recent ‘off-the-record’ remarks that sections of Bangladeshi people were under the influence of Pakistan’s ISI.

With External Affairs Minister S M Krishna set to visit Dhaka next week to prepare the ground for the PM’s visit to the neighbouring country later this year, New Delhi issued a statement, clarifying that the remarks attributed to Singh were by no means intended to be judgemental.

“The PM and his government and the people of India have the greatest affection for the people of Bangladesh and hold our relations with Bangladesh to be of the highest importance,” MEA spokesman Vishnu Prakash said in response to a question.

New Delhi’s clarification came following negative reactions in Bangladesh over Singh’s remarks in his interaction with select editors on June 29 in which he thanked Bangladesh for helping combat anti-India insurgents but at the same time warned against the linkage between the Jamaat-e-Islami and the ISI.

“But we must reckon that at least 25 per cent of the population of Bangladesh swear by the Jamaat-e-Islami and they are very anti-Indian, and they are in the clutches, many times, of the ISI,” the PM was quoted as saying in the ‘off-the-record’ comments posted by the PMO on its website the same day. However, these controversial remarks were deleted yesterday following the hostile reactions in Bangladesh.

The MEA spokesman emphasised that India recognised the stability of the democratically elected government and was committed to the non-interference in the internal affairs of sovereign states. He also went on to draw attention to the fact that the ties between the two countries had seen exceptional heights in recent years. 

New Delhi, July 2
Marking a significant departure from its earlier position, the BJP decided today to attend the all-party meeting on the Lokpal Bill tomorrow, ostensibly persuaded by its NDA partners and sections within its leadership.

After about an hour-long discussion with NDA leaders, sans the Shiv Sena, NDA chairman LK Advani announced at his residence today, “We will go for tomorrow’s meeting and express our views about the Lokpal Bill there. We will argue for a strong and effective Lokpal Bill to put an end to widespread corruption in the country.”

“I hope that the Opposition’s nationwide campaign against corruption, the media’s efforts in expose of recent scams and the campaign built up by the civil society will yield some positive results and the Bill is passed as soon as possible,” he added. He acknowledged that there was no certainty so far about the BJP attending tomorrow’s meeting because, “For the last 2-3 days, the Opposition parties had no idea how to respond.” He implied that now that the working paper and the two drafts of the Bill, by the Team Anna and the Centre, have been circulated, the confusion has been cleared.

The Shiv Sena was conspicuous by its absence from today’s NDA meeting at Advani’s house attended by Sushma Swaraj and Arun Jaitley, NDA convenor Sharad Yadav and JD-U leader Shivanand Tiwari, Shiromani Akali Dal leaders Ratan Singh Ajnala and Naresh Gujral.

Till yesterday, the BJP leaders were maintaining, “That attending the meeting would serve no purpose,” since the government has not yet come out with its stand. Its president Nitin Gadkari had said the same only three days ago, “Centre should first finalise the draft bill,” indicating the party’s disinclination to attend the meeting.

Hyderabad, July 2
Is Andhra Pradesh heading towards President’s rule? All indications are pointing towards such a scenario as turmoil over Telangana statehood issue shows no signs of subsiding. The Telangana MPs and legislators of the ruling Congress today stood firm on their decision to submit their resignations on Monday to mount pressure on the UPA government to concede to the demand for a separate Telangana state.

The elected representatives from the region had announced their decision yesterday, triggering a fresh bout of political crisis in the state. If they go ahead with the en mass resignations, a constitutional crisis is bound to be created forcing the Centre to impose President’s rule.

Worried over such a prospect, the Congress leadership initiated a damage-control exercise to persuade the Telangana leaders to change their mind. Party President Sonia Gandhi’s political adviser Ahmad Patel called up some of the senior MPs and advised them not to precipitate the matters.

Following instructions from the high command, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy and PCC chief B Satyanarayana held separate meetings with the ministers and MPs from the region and urged them to reconsider their decision. However, their efforts appear to have gone in vain as the Telangana protagonists vowed to go ahead with their plans.

“There is no question of going back on our resolve to sacrifice the posts for the sake of the statehood cause. We will be betraying the people of Telangana if we continue in our posts,” Congress MPs K Kesava Rao, P Prabhakar and G Vivek said.

Against the backdrop of hardening of stand by Telangana leaders, the PCC chief called on state Governor ESL Narasimhan and briefed him about the emerging political situation.

On a day of hectic political activity, the Chief Minister held consultations with senior Telangana ministers K Jana Reddy, Sudarshan Reddy and B Saraiah while the PCC chief had separate meetings with the party MPs and legislators from the region. However, the Telangana leaders made it clear that they were under tremendous public pressure to quit their posts and take a plunge into the statehood agitation.

The Telangana region accounts for 119 seats in the 294-member Assembly and 17 MPs out of the total 42 from the state.

Chandigarh, July 2
To bring in more objectivity and fairness while assessing the performance of scientists, the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) has introduced a new appraisal system.

Henceforth, the performance of scientists will be evaluated by a panel of experts, doing away with the earlier procedure of assessment focused around the annual confidential reports written by their immediate superior.

Director, Central Scientific Instruments Organisation (CSIO), Dr Pawan Kapur said this system would be used for performance appraisal from this year. The CSIO is one of the CSIR’s 39 laboratories that have a collective strength of over 15,000 scientists located all across the country.

Under the new system, the panel to assess a scientist will comprise of a chairman, two experts from the assessee’s field, two scientists from other fields or laboratories and the director of the laboratory concerned. The role of the director will be limited to give his advice or opinion on borderline cases. The assessee will be required to give a presentation before the panel on his work and achievements before being questioned.

“Earlier, appraisal was related only to a scientist’s professional work within his particular field or subject. Now, other factors like personality traits, co-curricular activities, participation in managerial activities and contribution in the establishment’s management will also be assessed,” Dr Kapur added.

The panel system of appraisal, scientists said, limited the scope of subjectivity or personal bias by a single person while assessing his subordinate. The new system aims to facilitate communication of all aspects of performance and achievement between the scientist and the assessing panel, besides identifying areas in which improvement and learning will help him become more successful.