Chennai, July 9
With the 2G scam claiming the scalp of another DMK nominee in the Union Cabinet with Dayanidhi Maran's exit, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee today sought to assuage the feelings of sulking DMK chief M Karunanidhi and said there was no problem in 
their alliance.

“There is lots of writing and speculation whether the DMK-Congress alliance will continue or not. The alliance is there and will continue, it will be strengthened,” he told reporters after an hour-long meeting with Karunanidhi at his residence here.

Mukherjee’s remarks come in the backdrop of strains in the ties between the two parties following the exit of two DMK nominees -- Maran and A Raja -- and the arrest of Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi in the 2G spectrum case and the rout of the alliance in the Tamil Nadu Assembly poll.

The meeting is the first top-level contact between the leaders of the two parties in recent weeks after Kanimozhi's arrest for which the DMK chief had earlier blamed the Centre.

Karunanidhi is sore over the continued incarceration of his daughter and had skipped the UPA's second anniversary celebrations when he visited Delhi to meet Kanimozhi.

Seeking to downplay his meeting with Karunanidhi, which came two days after Maran resigned, Mukherjee said it was his pratice to call on the DMK leader whenever he was in the city.

Noting that this was his first visit to Chennai after the Tamil Nadu Assembly poll, he said: “I took the opportunity of calling on him and explained the current political situation and shared our views.” There was no word from the DMK camp on the meeting.

Mukherjee's meeting with Karunanidhi gained importance in the backdrop of speculation over an impending Union Cabinet reshuffle early next week.

The Finance Minister, who later addressed a review meeting of Income Tax and customs officials, refused to answer reporters queries on whether the issue of replacement for Maran and Raja figured during his talks with Karunanidhi.

The DMK is reportedly not in a hurry to name replacements for Maran and Raja. But the names of Baalu, party spokesman T K S Elangovan and A K S Vijayan are doing the rounds.

Besides Maran, the meeting was attended by Union Minister V Narayanasamy and TNCC president K V Thangkabalu. DMK parliamentary party leader T R Baalu was not present, sources said. — PTI 

Hyderabad, July 9
Treading cautiously on the raging Telangana issue, YSR Congress Party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy today adopted a middle path on the statehood demand, saying he respected the “sentiments” of the people of the region but made it clear that it was for the Centre to resolve the tangle.

“We respect the sentiments of Telangana people. However, we do not have power either to grant the statehood or to obstruct it,” said Jagan while addressing the concluding session of his fledgling party’s two-day plenary at Idupulapaya in Kadapa district.

Blaming the ruling Congress for creating the mess and “playing with the lives of people”, the Kadapa MP said the Union Government alone had the power to carve out new states. “Telangana is a sensitive issue. The Centre must resolve the problem in a manner acceptable to all,” he said.

Predictably, Jagan remained evasive on whether his four-month-old party supported bifurcation of the state. Beyond “respecting the sentiments” of Telangana people, he did not elaborate his party’s position on the contentious issue. Like other mainstream parties, his fledgling outfit is also coming under conflicting regional pressures from supporters and opponents of Telangana.

Jagan hails from the Rayalaseema region and had openly supported the cause of integrated state in the past. However, after floating his own party in March, he is under pressure to strike a regional balance. The YSR Congress Party is said to be gaining strength rapidly in the Rayalassema and coastal Andhra regions, but has been unable to make inroads in the Telangana region in the absence of a clear policy on the statehood demand.

Terming the Telangana issue a “very sensitive and complex”, he accused both the Congress and the main opposition Telugu Desam Party of indulging in “flip-flops” on it. 

Patna, July 9
Though the Special Police Officers (SPOs) in Bihar are proving fruitful in operations against organised gangs and banned outfits, there is no plan to arm them, Director-General of Police Neelmani said today. Neelmani said the SPOs were being appointed under the Security Related Expenditure Plan launched by the Union Home Ministry and “we have around 6,000 SPOs available in Bihar at present.”

The practice of appointing the SPOs began in 2009 and their help was being taken in the interior villages as they know the topography and were present in almost every district in Bihar, IGP (Operation) KS Dwivedi said.

Their appointment was also made in the case of Maoist-affected areas, Dwivedi added.

“We have no plan to provide arms from the police armoury and also no uniform to the SPOs in Bihar,” Neelmani said.

Referring to the mandate given to these Special Police Officers, Dwivedi said, “The SPOs who are paid Rs 3,000 per month did not have any specific power.” They are a temporary appointee and rarely have any educational qualification, Dwivedi said adding the appointment had really helped in fighting the problem they had been appointed for.

Dwivedi said physically fit person with age up to 50 years were appointed as the SPOs and their role had come in handy in instilling the confidence among villagers. — PTI 

Udupi, July 9
The erstwhile Queen of Travancore, Rani Gowri Lakshmibai, today said the properties and assets of Sree Padmanabhaswamy temple, where a treasure trove has been unearthed, do not belong to anyone and a status quo should be maintained.

“It neither belongs to the royal family, devotees nor the government. The government should not interfere in the properties and assets of the temple. A status quo should be maintained and the properties should be retained in the vaults of the temple,” she said.

The royal family is not claiming that the properties and assets belong to them, she said, adding that the government should appoint police or commandos to safeguard the temple vaults.

Lakshmivaratheertha Swami of Shiroor Paryaya Math said the government should not confiscate the assets of the temple.

The apex court had yesterday restrained the panel from opening some vaults. The treasures found from cellars of the temple are estimated to be around Rs 1 lakh crore.

The royal family, which is the trustee of the ancient temple, has challenged the Kerala Government’s decision to take over the administration of the temple which was earlier upheld by the Kerala High Court. — PTI 

Karnal, July 9
The Union Ministry of Home Affairs (Foreigners’ Division) has no updated information regarding the number of Pakistani terrorists lodged in Indian jails, status of their cases and the reason as to why they were not sentenced to death for involvement in terror activities.

This information was given by the Ministry of Home Affairs in reply to an RTI application filed by Jitender Rana, advocate and president of the Janhit Social Welfare Society, which also asked the applicant to contact the Home Department of the state governments and the union territories to obtain the data.

The department stated that as per the provisions of the Consular Access Agreement signed between India and Pakistan, the Government of India exchanges a list of Pakistani prisoners and fishermen lodged in various jails in the country with the Pakistan High Commission on January and June 1, every year.

The department did not provide the current data and informed that as per the comprehensive lists of Pakistani prisoners and fishermen lodged in India jails exchanged with the Pakistan High Commission on July 1, 2001, there were 365 Pakistani prisoners and 105 Pakistani fishermen lodged in various jails of the country. It did not give any reason for not providing the updated information up to June 1, 2011.

The ministry asked the applicant to file an appeal with the appellate authority, joint secretary (Foreigners), Ministry of Home Affairs, if he was not satisfied with the information provided to him.

Rana said the department did not furnish any detail regarding the present number as well as the sections under which they were booked and the status of their cases. The department said they had no special information about the same.

Though the Home Ministry maintains that the information about the Pakistani prisoners and fishermen lodged in Indian jails is exchanged twice a year, it shows reluctance in furnishing the latest information, he adds.

Aligarh, July 9
At the Aligarh mahapanchayat, Rahul saw himself being designated as ‘kisan neta’, kisano ka masseha (farmers’ savior) and even a ‘heartthrob of farmers’. He was presented a traditional ‘safa’ and even a hookah to go with his new image.

The Congress scion’s four-day aggressive pro-farmer campaign in Uttar Pradesh was aimed at highlighting what he termed as “atrocities on farmers by the Mayawati regime.”

Though Mayawati recently announced a new land acquisition policy to counter the Congress' anti-farmer charges, Rahul claims a mere change in the law was not sufficient. His persistent attack on the Mayawati government in the past few months and especially in the last four days has even prompted his detractors to term his people-to-people contact a nautanki (drama).

However, in Uttar Pradesh, Rahul has, so far, made all the right moves. He has connected with the people at the grass-roots level like no other leader has done in the recent times. He has walked through more than dozen villages, interacting with farmers, apprising them of their rights, eating dal roti with them and spending the night on a charpoy.

But how much of that effort would actually translate into real gains (read votes) is the big question that will only be answered after the 2012 Assembly polls, the next acid test for Rahul after a really bad show in Bihar.

If his detractors are to be believed then all the villages Rahul visited during this padyatra were “safe ones” and Mayawati is certainly not sweating. The general feeling on the ground also is that the Rahul’s effort may culminate in an increase in the percentage of the party’s votebank in 2012 but the real gains would only come after a while. 

Bangalore, July 9
Antrix Corporation Ltd, a commercial arm of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), today got a full-time chairman-cum-managing director with the ISRO chairman K Radhakrishnan today naming Dr VS Hegde, a veteran remote sensing applications scientist, for the post.

In the wake of controversies surrounding the Antrix-Devas S-band deal in February, the ISRO had announced that it would undertake structural changes in the tainted corporation, including appointment of a full-time CMD, to transform the way the Rs 900-crore company functions.

The last Antrix MD, K Sridhara Murthy, retired in September 2010.