New Delhi, July 5
Even as more resignations poured in favour of Telangana statehood demand, all that the Centre indicated today was a fresh round of discussions on whether Andhra Pradesh should be bifurcated.

Congress ministers, MPs and MLAs from the region met party general secretary Ghulam Nabi Azad to explain why they had put in their papers. Azad later said, “It is time for discussion on a separate state (for Telangana)”, making it clear that a “sensitive and complex issue” like formation of Telangana required “wider consultations”.

After the meeting, senior Andhra leader K Jana Reddy said they would continue to discuss the issue of formation of a separate Telangana with the high command. “We will continue to be part of the discussions. We explained to Azad conditions under which we put in our papers,” he said.

Telangana leaders are expected to hold another round of consultation with Azad, who today remained in constant touch with senior party leaders, including the Prime Minister and the Congress president on the issue.

Faced with another political crisis in the state after YS Jaganmohan Reddy’s breakaway from the party, the Congress has remained guarded in its response on the issue. Party spokesman Shakeel Ahmed reiterated today that the Congress was not against Telangana.

“The government is trying for a consensus. This is a highly sensitive and emotional issue and an appropriate decision will be taken at an appropriate time,” he said. The sources say the Congress leadership was also not too happy with the way MPs and MLAs rushed to tender their resignations despite being categorically told to remain patient. They say it is not just the question of people from Telangana, but also Rayalseema and coastal Andhra. Besides the decision is bound to see the coming back of similar demands from other regions

The resignations may have put the Congress and its allies on the back foot but there may not be any immediate trouble. Sources say resignations may not be accepted in order to give the Congress time to strike a deal with rebel MPs and avoid losing the vote-bank . 

New Delhi, July 5
Corporate Affairs Minister Murli Deora’s offer to resign ahead of a Cabinet reshuffle has evoked a guarded response from the Congress.

“We have seen reports in the media. But what transpired between him and the Prime Minister and the Congress president only he (Murli Deora) can tell,” Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said, preferring not to make any further comment on the issue.

Some sources say Deora is likely to be eased out in the next reshuffle and by offering to resign ahead of the event he has only sought to pave the way for the induction of his son Milind Deora into the Council of Ministers.

“The possibility (of taking Milind in the government) is there. There is a strong feeling in the party that a young dynamic leader like Milind should be accommodated,” a senior Congress leader said, explaining that the senior Deora had not been keeping good health, which was quite evident from his gait.

But Deora, who said he had submitted his resignation, dismissed reports that he had asked for his son’s inclusion in the Council of Ministers. “Yes, I have offered to Congress President Sonia Gandhi to step down from the Union Council of Ministers... have not asked for anything more... it is not a sudden decision," a news agency quoted Deora as saying.

However, the Congress leader said even though he was taken by surprise by Murli Deora’s offer of resignation but pitching in for his son as he stepped down was “part of human nature”. “When the next generation is ready to shoulder the responsibility, anyone in the circumstances would make similar efforts,” he said.

Meanwhile, Deora’s statement said: “Due to personal reasons, I have offered to step down as minister from the Union Cabinet and offer my services for the Congress party, where my political career began. I thank the Congress president and Prime Minister for their continuous support and guidance.”

He also clarified that he had not resigned yet and had offered to relinquish charge of the Corporate Affairs Ministry "orally" to Sonia a few weeks back. “I have the satisfaction of completing a full five-year stint as Union Minister and so now I thought it will be appropriate to step down,” he said without elaborating.

There is talk of a Cabinet reshuffle after President Pratibha Patil's return from her sojourn in Hyderabad on July 8. Deora has been accused of being partisan towards a prominent industrial house. 

New Delhi/Nangla Bhattauna (UP), July 5
As it prepares to pitch itself as the only alternative before the people ahead of next year’s Uttar Pradesh Assembly polls, the Congress is on a no-holds barred campaign against the Mayawati government.

Congress MP Rahul Gandhi today took his campaign against forced land acquisition to the farmer's doorstep, walking from village to village and stressing at each stop that he was with them in their fight.

"I am listening to you, I am with you," the Congress general secretary told a gathering in this village in the lucrative Greater Noida belt, about 60 km from Delhi, on Day One of a proposed foot march that will end in Aligarh July 9 with a ‘maha panchayat’.

Accompanied by about 60 state policemen, a sniffer dog squad, fire brigade and ambulance vehicles, besides the elite Special Protection Group, Rahul’s cavalcade walked 12 km from the twin villages of Bhatta Parsaul - the epicentre of a farmers' agitation against land acquisition by the UP Government.

The party scion began his day early, surprising state authorities by reaching Bhatta-Parsaul at 6 am despite being denied permission to hold a rally there. The venue of the rally was then shifted to Aligarh.

After interacting with villagers there, he began the foot march (padyatra) and reached Nangla Bhattauna by noon. "I have come to you. I am listening to you. I am with you," Gandhi, 41, told the gathering of men, women and children, described as a 'kisan panchayat' by his aides. He interacted with the villagers for 45 minutes.

"I went to Bhatta Parsaul to know the truth. Sitting in Delhi, I cannot know the truth," Gandhi said. "I know the truth about the situation here. You also know the truth." Four people, including two policemen, were killed in violence in Bhatta Parsaul in May.

Congress general secretary Digvijay Singh says Rahul’s ‘padyatra’ was aimed at getting first-hand information from people on the UP Government’s land acquisition policy and will help prepare the young party leader for the Aligarh rally. The party’s UP in-charge exhorted farmers facing problems relating to land acquisition in any part of the state to come to Aligarh and speak out.

Digvijay claimed that the July 9 rally would be a non-political platform where farmers could make their speeches. Rahul would listen to them and work towards a solution for all issues related to farmers, including problems faced by them regarding availability of power and fertilisers, he added.

New Delhi, July 5
The Supreme Court today said that the State was the biggest land-grabber, depriving farmers of their livelihood for generations.

The apex court bench of Justices GS Singhvi and AK Ganguly said that farmers' lands were being acquired in the name of public interest and being given to builders to construct luxury houses, which had nothing to do with the requirement of the common man.

The court made the comment during the hearing on a batch of petitions by a number of builders challenging the Allahabad High Court verdict that quashed the takeover of land in three villages of Shahberi, Surajpur and Gulistanpur in Uttar Pradesh's Greater Noida. The land was taken over by invoking emergency provisions of the Land Acquisition Act.

Justice Singhvi said farmers deprived of livelihood after the acquisition of their lands were left with two options - either to live in slums or to take recourse to criminal activities which we get to witness everyday. The hearing would continue tomorrow. — IANS

Tezpur/Dhemaji (Assam), July 5
Incessant rains in parts of Assam and the upper reaches of neighbouring Arunachal Pradesh have caused flash floods in Sonitpur and Dhemaji districts, where nearly 30,000 persons have been affected.

Continuous rains for the past two days in Sonitpur district’s Tezpur subdivision inundated vast riverine areas and damaged standing crops at Dalabari, Besseria, Parbatia, Panchmile, Koroiyani and Rajbharal, official sources said today.

Fed by rains in Arunachal Pradesh along its course, the Brahmaputra and its tributaries are rising alarmingly towards the danger level in the district. Rivers Jiabhorali at Khalihamari and Gabharu near NH-52 with other major tributaries are also rising.

The overflowing waters of Brahmaputra and its branch rivers Borgang and Burigang submerged vast areas in Biswanath and Gohpur subdivisions, sources said.

The worst affected villages are Kesukhona, Nepalisuti and Rotua.

The situation in Dhemaji was compounded by breaching of a temporary mud dam for diverting water of the Subansiri built during construction of the Lower Subansiri Hydro Electric Power Project. — PTI

Two days after Dilshan succumbed to gunshot wounds in army residential premises here, a top police official said, "We are verifying some of the leads. But there is no breakthrough yet." In Delhi, Army sources said a Lt Colonel, a jawan and a civilian guard were made available to the CB-CID in Chennai for questioning. They have not been detained, the sources said. On its part, the CB-CID Additional DGP R Sekar avoided a direct reply about the questioning of the Lt Colonel.

Asked if the state police were planning to seek the nod from Army headquarters to question some officers here, he said that army officers in Chennai were extending "full assistance" in the probe. — PTI

New Delhi, July 5
The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has shut its website following reports of security breach though it claimed it was tightening safety mechanism following hacking of government websites.

The NIA, formed in the aftermath of 26/11 Mumbai attacks in 2008, had created its website with the help of National Informatics Centre (NIC). However, the address “nia.gov.in” today reads that the site is under construction.

Sources in the NIC, which mans all government websites, said there was an urgent message from the NIA for shutting its website after certain documents were placed on it which could be termed as a security breach.

Senior NIA officials, however, said the website was taken off from the cyber space in order to further tighten the security so that it becomes impregnable for hackers.

In December last year, the home page of the CBI website had a message from the “Pakistani Cyber Army” warning the Indian Cyber Army not to attack their websites. The hackers have been able to attack some other vital websites besides 270 non-governmental websites. — PTI 

Mumbai, July 5
The Maharashtra Government has begun a major crackdown on sonography centres across the state after a flourishing sex-selection racket was unearthed in the state's Beed district last month.

The public outcry following the discovery of a large number female foetuses being dumped in the open forced the authorities to focus on sonography centres operating in the state which illegally allowed sex determination tests to be done. “We have sealed 136 sonography centres across the state so far for not conforming with the provisions of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques Act, 1994 (PCPNDT)," said an official of the Family Welfare Bureau. Officials say some of the sonography centres that were sealed belonged to government-run hospitals.

While many of the sonography centres were caught without adequate records about the patients on whom the procedure was done, others were found to have purchased sonography equipment without registration with the state government authorities.

Officials say in Beed district alone, 32 sonography centres have been shut down. Most of them allegedly conducted sex determination tests illegally. Across the state, 28 criminal cases have been filed against various doctors. Officials of the bureau say more cases can be filed if people are convinced to come forward and give evidence of illegal sex determination being conducted at these centres.

The government has now announced a prize of Rs 25,000 for anyone who comes with proof of doctors conducting sex determination tests.

Chandigarh, July 5
Precision maps of the vital road axis, mountainous topography and the amount of snow cover in the Himalayas would soon be available for developmental works, identifying hazardous stretches and determining water resources.

The Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) has launched a project to undertake laser mapping of the Himalayas in North India. Snow and Avalanche Studies Establishment (SASE), a DRDO lab here engaged in the study of snow physics and avalanche control, will be executing the project.

Using an airborne LiDAR (light detection and ranging), DRDO specialists would be able to generate accurate topographic data and produce high-resolution digital maps that have strategic value. LiDAR is an optical remote sensing technology that can measure the distance and other properties of a target by illuminating it with light using pulses from a laser.

It can also produce 3-D imaging and being airborne, can cover an area of several hundred square km in a day. A foreign LiDAR has been procured by the DRDO. This would be installed on a suitable aircraft. The gadget’s sensor would be mounted externally while the related operating paraphernalia, control panels and display units would be installed inside the fuselage. Under the first phase of the project, the Manali-Leh highway would be surveyed this year.

According to DRDO scientists, at least two surveys would be done, one of which would be in winters when snow cover is at its maximum. This would enable the calculation of the difference in snow cover during various seasons. According to DRDO scientists, LiDAR is highly accurate, with a variation or error probability of just a few centimetres.

It can detect subtle topographic features such as river terraces and river channel banks, penetrate tree cover and measure the land surface elevation beneath the vegetation canopy, “By generating data on road axis and the properties of the underlying soil, we can generate more reliable maps identifying avalanche-prone areas, weak stretches and other topographical features that would be beneficial in road making or other constructions in the mountains,” a scientist said.

Beyond roads, DRDO intends to use LiDAR to map the entire Himalayan region in Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh. Later, this project could be extended to the Himalayas in the northeast. Scientists say that LiDAR can also be effectively used to accurately map the depth of the snow cover and detect the movement of glaciers, giving a fairly precise idea of the availability fresh water. “This would be valuable information to planers and policy makers associated with water security, agriculture and hydo-power generation,” the scientist said. 

New Delhi, July 5
India’s continuous efforts to establish defence ties with countries that are neighbours with China, today resulted in an important development. Indian forces have been asked to train the armed forces of Kyrghyzstan — a former republic of the erstwhile Soviet Union.

The matter with Kyrghyzstan was sealed last night when Defence Minister AK Antony met his Kyrghyz counterpart Major-General Abibilla Kudayberdiev in Bishkek. “As a first step, India will be sending a team to train Kyrghyz Armed Forces in UN Peace-Keeping Operations and impart English language skills to them.

The team will be arriving in Kyrghyzstan by the end of this month itself,” the ministry spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said in an emailed communiqué from Bishkek this morning. Notably, this comes just two just two months after a top-level Chinese delegation visited Kyrghyzstan and Kazakhstan for ‘promoting ties’. It cannot be termed as a ‘diplomatic coup’ as China and several former soviet republics are part of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation.

New Delhi, July 5
The National Green Tribunal (NGT), a judicial body aimed at expediting environment-related cases, has started functioning with two fresh cases besides the 26 it inherited from the erstwhile National Environment Appellate Authority (NEAA), which was dissolved following the notification of the National Green Tribunal Act, 2010.

Headed by Supreme Court judge Lokeshwar Singh Panta, the tribunal, which started functioning in mid-May, had its first hearing yesterday after vacation. Panta told The Tribune that the NGT is currently dealing with the 26 cases it inherited from the NEAA besides two fresh cases it received ever since its formation. A step toward toughening environmental laws in a country faced with growing industrialisation-related environmental issues, the tribunal is India’s effort at specialised, professional and expeditious disposal of cases related to environment protection, conservation of forests and other natural resources.

Established by an Act of Parliament, the Tribunal is dedicated exclusively to environmental issues and will have circuit benches at Kolkata, Chennai, Bhopal and Pune besides the headquarters at Delhi to try matters related to water pollution, forest conservation, air pollution, environment protection, public liability and biological diversity.

However, it would take some more months for the branches to start operating after which the cases pertaining to different regions would be transferred there. Apart from Panta, the tribunal has two retired high court judges A. Suryanarayana Naidu and C.V. Ramulu and environment experts qualified to rule on technical cases related to water quality, forestry practices and toxic waste, among others.

The tribunal is empowered to issue directions for the compensation and restitution of damage caused from actions of environmental negligence. Failure to comply with any order or award or decision of the Tribunal will punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to three years, or with fine which may extend to Rs 10 crore, or with both.In case a company fails to comply, it will be punishable with fine which may extend to Rs 25 crore and in case the failure or contravention continues, with additional fine which may extend to Rs 1 lakh for everyday.

BRIEFLY

Aamir to fight child malnutrition
NEW DELHI: Aamir Khan will now help the government fight child malnutrition. He was officially named the brand ambassador for the Ministry of Women and Child Development to spread the message of curbing malnutrition among children on Monday. — TNS

Deshmukh took great ‘interest’ in Adarsh
MUMBAI: Former Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh showed "unusual interest" in seeking information on the status of the land on which the Adarsh Housing Society stands, city Collector Chandrashekhar Oak told a judicial panel on Monday. Deshmukh had sought information regarding Block No. 6 on an urgent and important basis, he added. — PTI

Accused assault Arunachal DC
GUWAHATI: The Deputy Commissioner of a remote district of Arunachal Pradesh was severely beaten up by four arrested persons during a hearing on the latter's bail petitions on Monday. Deputy Commissioner of West Siang Amjad Tak was beaten up inside his office chamber on Monday by four persons, who were arrested by the police. — PTI

Railways to start e-ticketing
NEW DELHI: The Indian Railways is all set to roll out its own e-ticketing service, which will have no room for travel agents and will be reserved for individual users. Under the new railway e-ticketing service, individual customers would need to register themselves for the first time for availing the services. The registration will be free of charge. The new service will be available on www.indianrailways.gov.in. — PTI