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Cash-for-vote Scam
Won’t let govt do a Ramdev on us; will go to SC: Hazare
300 political parties have never filed tax returns
Emile Jerome challenges his conviction in HC
Petitioner in Kerala temple case dies
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Man held with 10 crude bombs in Ahmedabad
Digvijay Singh carries on with anti-Sangh tirade
Nepalese national shot dead
U’khand Govt nod to CBI probe into Nigmanand’s death
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First arrest in 3
yrs, Amar to be quizzed
n Sanjeev Saxena said to be Amar Singh ‘aide’ n BJP MPs allege he gave Rs 1 cr to them before trust vote in LS
New Delhi, July 17 A senior police official said the investigators would also question expelled Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and a few others in the coming days. Police sources said Saxena was arrested today afternoon following his questioning in connection with the probe into the incident, which came to light on July 22, 2008 when BJP MPs flashed wads of notes in the Lok Sabha alleging that the money had been offered as bribe to them. Saxena has been charged under the Prevention of Corruption Act, police said. The BJP had alleged that Saxena was Amar Singh's aide and he was allegedly caught on camera giving money to the BJP MPs. They had also alleged that it was Saxena who called Amar Singh from his mobile phone and got the three MPs to talk to him in order to fix a deal. Amar Singh had denied any role and had also distanced himself from Saxena. "He (Saxena) was arrested from Delhi by the Crime Branch team. There was evidence against him in this case. He will be produced before the court tomorrow," a top police official said. The allegation was levelled by then BJP MPs Ashok Argal, Faggan Singh Kulaste and Mahavir Bhagora. The MPs alleged that Saxena had delivered Rs 1 crore in cash to them at the 4 Ferozshah Road residence of Ashok Argal on July 22, 2008, hours before the vote of confidence in Lok Sabha. Sources said the police had questioned Khulaste and Bhagora in connection with the case about two months ago. A seven-member parliamentary panel had probed the allegations and asked the Delhi Police to investigate the role of Saxena, besides that of Sudheendra Kulkarni, a former aide of BJP leader LK Advani, and Suhail Hindustani in the case. The police action came two days after the apex court came down heavily on Delhi Police for its "callous approach" in probing the scam and asking why it has not taken action so far against those involved in the case. — PTI
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Won’t let govt do a Ramdev on us; will go to SC: Hazare
New Delhi, July 17 “Government said we will suppress the agitation of Anna Hazare as had been done in the case of Baba Ramdev. Is this democracy or autocracy? That is why we will go to the Supreme Court,” Anna said, adding that the Constitution had given right to every citizen to protest democratically. “The Constitution has given right to every citizen to lodge a protest. We will launch the agitation from August 16,” he said. The exercise to work out an agreed draft of the Lokpal Bill between the Government and Hazare-led civil society had ended in failure last month after which Anna announced that he would go ahead with his August fast. He has been demanding that the Prime Minister be brought under the ambit of Lokpal, which has been opposed by the government. After several meetings spread over two months, the joint drafting committee of the two sides concluded its deliberations on a note of disagreement with the government asserting that it could not allow creation of a parallel structure which would be “answerable to nobody”. An all-party meet on Lokpal earlier this month had agreed that a “strong and effective” bill should be brought in the monsoon session of Parliament with consensus that supremacy of Parliament and established procedures be maintained. The police had carried out a crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters, who were agitating against corruption and black money, at Ramlila ground on June 4 night, lobbing tear gas shells.
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300 political parties have never filed tax returns
New Delhi, July 17 The probe, conducted after the EC asked the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT) to ascertain the financial status of these small parties for alleged violation of tax laws and money laundering, has been submitted to the election panel. A number of parties also do not possess permanent account number (PAN), stated the bulky report, prepared by the assessment wing of the CBDT. The EC had sent a list of suspect political parties to the CBDT for probe early this year. It was alleged that people are floating such political parties in large numbers to evade taxes as donations to them are exempt from payment of income tax. The EC has asked the department to intensify the probe and serve show-cause notices to these small parties under relevant sections of I-T Act and ascertain the source and end use of the funds they have received. The report has tracked the I-T returns of these small parties in 13 states, including Tamil Nadu, West Bengal and those from the North-East. “The status of such small parties in the remaining states will also be sent to the EC soon,” a senior officer involved in the exercise said. While national and other major political parties file their I-T returns regularly, small and lesser-known parties are under the scanner, the officer said. “The number of political parties registered with the Election Commission is almost touching the 1,200 mark. A recent law that exempted donations to political parties from income tax, for both the payers and the payee, has caused a spurt in the formation of new political parties," Chief Election Commissioner S Y Quraishi had said earlier this year. Quraishi had made a strong pitch for providing tax benefits on donations to only those political parties which prove their strength at the hustings as exemptions on such funds have led to mushrooming of new parties. Observing that almost 75 to 80 per cent of the registered political parties have not participated in any elections for the last several years, the CEC said that although the Commission has power to register political parties, it does not have the power to de-register them. — PTI
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Emile Jerome challenges his conviction in HC
Mumbai, July 17 "We have filed an appeal in the High Court against the sessions court order. The appeal would come up for hearing on July 25 along with Jerome’s bail application," his lawyer Wahab Khan said. Pinning the blame on Susairaj, Jerome, in his appeal has said, "That motive, if any, was with the original accused No. 1 (Susairaj) for committing the offence and not with the applicant (Jerome)." The appeal further states that the prosecution had not been able to ascertain the time of Grover’s death, and hence, the possibility that the victim was already dead, when Jerome landed in Mumbai, cannot be ruled out. — PTI
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Petitioner in Kerala temple case dies
Thiruvananthapuram, July 17 A bachelor, Sundarrajan was 70. He had been suffering from fever for the last two days, relatives said. A former IPS officer, Sundarrajan had also served in the Intelligence Bureau and security staff of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. He later quit IPS and settled down here. Sundarrajan initiated the legal battle for transparency in preservation and protection of the assets of the temple, managed by a trust under the erstwhile Travancore royal house. The case took a decisive turn with the Kerala High Court in February ordering the state to take over the temple. Later, the SC, while considering an appeal by the trustees, ordered interim stay of the HC decision but asked the temple cellars to be opened and the priceless wealth stored there, whose value was believed to be over Rs 1 lakh crore, to be inventoried. Following this, a seven-member panel of observers, including two former Judges of the Kerala High Court, was formed to go about the job of opening the secret chambers. The Supreme Court had on Friday reserved its interim orders on the question of permitting inventory of one more vault of the temple which is yet to be opened. — PTI
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Man held with 10 crude bombs in Ahmedabad
Ahmedabad, July 17 “A man identified as Sahazad has been arrested after the police, acting on a tip-off, conducted a search at his house and found crude bombs with some raw material used in their preparation,” city police commissioner S K Sinha said. There prima facie seems to be a terror link to the incident. The bombs seem to have been made to be used during rathyatra or in clashes, Sinha said. Besides Sahazad's arrest, the police has detained some more persons and are interrogating them in this connection, the police commissioner said. The raid at Sahazad's house was carried out after his wife informed the control room early this morning that her husband was in possession of bombs. — PTI
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Didi keeps Darjeeling deal under wraps
Siliguri, July 17 Even some of her senior party colleagues, including Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi and Union Minister Mukul Roy, don’t know much about the terms and conditions of the accord. Union Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee also admitted that he had no clear-cut idea about the terms of the agreement, though he had prolonged talks with the Chief Minister in Kolkata last night. They had elaborate discussion on the state’s financial condition. The CPM, the RSP, the CPI and the Forward Bloc (four major partners of the Left Front) have decided to boycott tomorrow’s function despite an invitation. Several ethnic and social organisations, now observing bandh, have decided to organise protests against the signing of the accord. After reaching here from Kolkata in the afternoon, Mamata kept herself busy in making preparations for various functions. She is scheduled to inaugurate the temporary building of the new secretariat for North Bengal at Siliguri, new railway lines from Siliguri town to the Bagdogra airport, renovation of the Siliguri town station and air services from Coochbehar to Kolkata. The newly appointed Railway Minister will be present at all the functions. The Chief Minister avoided queries from mediapersons regarding the terms and condition of the new accord.
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Digvijay Singh carries on with anti-Sangh tirade
New Delhi, July 17 Defending Singh, Congress spokesman Shakeel Ahmed said the senior Congress leader was only replying to a question. “He only said that role of all kinds of terrorist organisations, including Hindu terror outfits, should be probed. It is a factual statement and there is nothing wrong in what he said. It is the job of investigating agencies to decide whom to include and whom to exclude in the probe and everyone should be investigated,” Ahmed said. The Congress spokesman also maintained that since Singh had not made the remark at any “specially-called press conference”, it could not be treated as the party’s official line. “It was an off-the-cuff response to a very general question. Had he said that the RSS was not involved then the headlines would have screamed that Digvijaya gives clean chit to the Sangh parivaar,” Ahmed added.
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Chennai, July 17 Project Director of GSAT-12 T K Anuradha, Mission Director Pramodha Hegde and Operations Director K S Anuradha, who have been with ISRO for over two decades, will be involved in crucial tasks in the coming days before the satellite is declared operational in four to six weeks. An elated T K Anuradha said every activity of the satellite was “challenging” and the next few days would be crucial as it involves tasks that include deployment of antenna and switching on of Liquid Apogee Motor (LAM) firing for orbit-raising manoeuvres. "Pramodha Hegde, K S Anuradha and I will monitor the satellite for carrying all significant activities from the Master Control Facility (MCF) at Hassan (Karnataka)", T K Anuradha said. While the initial process will involve taking the satellite to the intended 36,000 km from 282 km (apogee --- farthest point to Earth) and 21,020 km (perigee --- closest point to Earth), she said over the next few days, the critical manoeuvre would take it to a geostationery orbit to 36,000 km. After this, the antenna would be deployed, she said. In orbit testing of payloads (12 extended "C" band transponders) will be carried out and characterised from the MCF, Anuradha said before leaving for Hassan, 200 km from Bangalore. ISRO Space Commission member and Director T K Alex had said the three women would monitor the satellite from Hassan. — PTI
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Diamond traders under pressure to leave south Mumbai
Mumbai, July 17 Though many diamond merchants - who are currently based at the Panchratna building - have acquired shops at the BDB, they have hesitated to move out on the grounds that much of the business is concentrated in South Mumbai. “By Diwali, most of the diamond business would move to the Bharat Diamond Bourse,” says Bharat Shah, president of Mumbai Diamond Merchants Association. “We have to move out because of the threat to human life,” says Mahendra Gandhi, who is vice-president of the body. According to him, five members of the association have lost their lives in Wednesday's blasts. With even insurance companies hesitating to provide insurance cover to the units in Pancharatna building, the pressure to move to a different location is mounting on diamond traders. Last year, the General Insurance Corporation had warned of the risks in providing cover to the units in the building. Diamond merchants were told that the concentration of wealth in a single building made it a very risky proposition for the insurance industry as a whole. As per the usual practice, Indian insurance companies cover such huge risks with the help of international re-insurers. However, foreign companies are reluctant to write terrorism reinsurance policies for the Panchratna building due to strikes in the past, say sources. Wednesday's bomb blast was the third time since March 1993 when Opera House was attacked. Diamond merchants have been advised by insurance companies to shift to the Bharat Diamond Bourse in the Bandra-Kurla Complex due to the safety factor there. The bourse, spread over a 20 lakh square feet area, has nine buildings. There are multiple layers of security. Nearly 3,400 diamond merchants are to be accommodated at the BDB. However, a number of small traders, who buy and sell precious stones on the kerb of Opera House, feel no provisions have been made for them at the BDB.
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Nepalese national shot dead
Motihari, July 17 The motorcycle-borne assailants intercepted Bachcha Yadav (40) near Janata chowk and shot him from close range, Raxual's Deputy Superintendent of Police (DSP) Rajiv Ranjan said. The assailants fled in their motorcycle to Nepal, the DSP said. — PTI
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RAILWAY ACCIDENTS: PRICE OF POPULISM
Indian Railways may be the world’s second-largest in terms of kms & largest in terms of passengers, but its safety standards remain the poorest Girja Shankar Kaura
In 1956 Lal Bahadur Shastri resigned as Railway Minister accepting moral and constitutional responsibility for a railway accident at Ariyalur in Tamil Nadu that claimed 144 lives. But last week, one of the two junior Railway Ministers, Mukul Roy, even dared to defy the Prime Minister's direction to visit an accident site in Assam. While inquiries into what caused the derailment of Howrah-Kalka Express on July 10 continue, two possibilities seem to have emerged. While one group of experts put the blame on the faulty locomotive, which appears to have gone off the tracks first, others hold poor maintenance of tracks responsible for the tragedy. Even as the Railways would like to reassure people that all's well, a highly critical former member of the Railway Board did not mince his words. Too many decisions at Rail Bhavan, he complained, are dictated by political considerations. While the Railways officially claims to be spending Rs 7,100 crore during the current year for replacing depreciated assets, the former Board member said, " Over the past 10 years, the percentage of money allocated for track renewal has actually gone down from 17 per cent to about 14 per cent when it should have gone up with higher budgetary allocations." Eastern tragedy
For some reason, eastern India ( Bihar and West Bengal) have provided successive Railway Ministers---Nitish Kumar, Ram Vilas Paswan, Lalu Prasad Yadav and Mamata Banerjee, to name some recent ones in the chair. Not surprisingly, rail routes in eastern India are among the busiest on Indian Railway's map. And again, it may not be surprising to find that most of the major rail accidents during the last decade or so ( see chart) took place on these very routes. Over the years, the Railway Board has been forced to allow more and more new trains at increasingly higher speed for these routes, primarily to satisfy the political constituencies of ministers and MPs. On this route, where more than 70 per cent of the sections are critical, 17 sections are more than 120 per cent utilised, 12 sections are more than 100 per cent utilised and 11 are more than 80 per cent utilised, according to calculations made in 2007-08. The situation could only have got worse since then. The route, a part of the Golden Quadrilateral, was put under even more strain after Banerjee took charge and went on to announce a slew of Kolkata-bound trains in quick succession. With technological advances, though Railways manages to run more trains on this route, the situation tends to spin out of control during winter, heightened by intense fog. Load on tracks
To make matters worse, the pressure on tracks have increased over the years due to higher loading allowed in wagons, despite warnings issued by several committees and experts that "overloading" has been damaging tracks and putting human lives at risk. Railway officials privately pin the blame on faulty tracks, damaged by the increased load forced on them by a revenue-hungry ministry, for accidents. A track fault means a crack, caused by years of wear and tear, at one of the vulnerable joints held together with fishplates or fasteners. Increasing the load on tracks, which have a certain life span, damages them and puts lives at risk, explained experts. They said that in its eagerness to earn more, the Railways had allowed increased wagon-load during Lalu Prasad's tenure as the Railway Minister. To make matters worse, most railway ministers of the past two decades have ignored track renewal. The loading capacity of a goods train was raised from 4,825 tonnes to 5,200 tonnes by adding more wagons and increasing the load on each of them. The average load on tracks has, therefore, gone up from 52 kgs to 60 kgs per metre. Railway sources claim that over 42,000 km of tracks had already been renewed with long-welded rails to reduce fishplate joints, the track's weakest link. But some 22,000 km of tracks are yet to be renewed and some of them are over five decades old. Experts attribute this delay in repairs to "populist" budgeting, particularly in recent years which has kept fares low and the trains and tracks overcrowded. The improvement of safety systems has not matched the railways' incessant expansion. They point out that passenger traffic over the past 50 years has gone up by more than 500 per cent and freight by 600 per cent but maintenance spending has not kept pace. Bridges, tracks and signaling equipment dating back to the steam era were never designed to take on fast-moving, heavy, air-conditioned coaches used increasingly by the Railways to compete with air travel. Money has been set aside to repair decaying tracks, bridges, signalling gear and rolling stock, among other things. But an internal assessment by the railways admits that a substantial portion of the money remains unutilised. Particularly worrisome is the slow progress of work on building railway bridges as well as upgrading and manning crossings across the country. Unmanned railway crossings - there are nearly 18,000 of them- have been responsible for over a third of all railway accidents since 2004 and account for nearly 70 per cent of the fatalities, claim Railway officials ( a claim which is not borne out by the chart on this page on accidents). In some states like West Bengal, unmanned crossings actually outnumber manned railway crossings. Experts point out that the country's railway system lacks modern devices to avoid collisions, which is another reason for increasing train accidents. Railways officials say they have rolled out a locally made anti-collision device on more than 1,700km of tracks but they are not hundred per cent dependable. The country lags behind on anti-collision technologies, which are standard in the West. Experts say that now such devices are available which, once installed on a train, brings it to an automatic stop if it overshoots a red signal. But we don't have such systems. "Money is a constraint," they say. Analysts say Railways needs to move quickly and invest in upgrading tracks and signals, and import state-of-the art technology to make journeys safer. It needs to step up its maintenance, track patrolling, and review the role of both the Railway Protection Force and the Government Railway Police to make them more effective. Also, the Railway tariff, which is the lowest in the world, need to be raised for a healthy
bottomline.
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MAJOR ACCIDENTS & THE TOLL
Since the turn of the century, over 800 people have lost their lives in train accidents in the country. Significantly, more than half of them have died in accidents that took place in the two states of Bihar and West Bengal, states from which most of the Railway Ministers have hailed during this period. The figures do not include, however, deaths caused at unmanned railway crossings. Also significant is the fact that no major accidents were reported in 2007 and 2008.
December 3, 2000: 46 killed as Howrah-Amritsar Mail rams into a derailed goods train between Sarai Banjara and Sadhugarh in Punjab. June 22, 2001: 40 killed when the Mangalore-Chennai Mail plunges into a river near Kozhikode, Kerala. January 5, 2002: 21 killed as Secundarabad-Manmad Express rams into a stationary goods train in Maharashtra. May 12, 2002: New Delhi-Patna Shramjeevi Express derails in Jaunpur (UP); 12 killed June 4, 2002: 34 killed when Kasgunj Express rams into a bus at a rail crossing. September 10, 2002: 120 killed as Kolkata-New Delhi Rajdhani Express derails in Bihar. May 15, 2003: Amritsar-bound Frontier Mail catches fire; 38 die. June 22, 2003: 53 killed when Karwar-Mumbai Central Holiday Special train derails in Maharashtra. July 2, 2003: A train engine falls off bridge in Warangal; 18 killed February 27, 2004: 30 persons killed as the Guwahati-bound Kanchenjunga Express rams
into a truck in West Bengal's Dinajpur district. December 15, 2004: 34 killed as Ahmedabad-bound Jammu Tawi Express collides head-on with a local train in Punjab. November 9, 2006: 40 killed in West Bengal rail accident. December 1, 2006: 35 killed when a portion of a 150-year-old bridge that was being dismantled collapsed over a passing train in Bihar. November 14, 2009: 7 killed when Delhi-bound Mandore Express derails near Jaipur with some portion of the track piercing an AC compartment October 21, 2009: 22 killed as Goa Express rams into the Mewar Express in Uttar Pradesh. May 28, 2010: Naxals derail Howrah-Kurla Jyaneshwari Express in West Bengal; 148 die July 19, 2010: 60 killed as Sealdah-bound Uttarbanga Express rams into the Vananchal Express in West Bengal April 18, 2011: Miraculous escape for passengers on board the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani Express as a fire breaks out in three coaches and the pantry car as the train chugs through Rajasthan. July 10, 2011: 35 killed as the engine of the Kalka Mail derails in Uttar Pradesh Total no. of deaths: 793 (433 persons killed in West Bengal and Bihar alone)
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The unglamorous business of accident-prevention
If Railway spokesmen are to be believed, then the Indian Railways has progressively introduced measures to improve safety. Indeed, Railway officials, even in private conversations, deny the perception that not enough is being done to improve Railway safety. They blame the media for not highlighting the hard, ongoing but unglamorous business of maintenance, training, mechanisation and accident-prevention. They point out that the pubic sector utility has set aside Rs 7,100 crore in 2011-12 alone for the Depreciation Reserve Fund (DRF) so that renewal and rehabilitation of over-aged assets is taken care of through internal resources. Human error
Safety action plans, they claim, are being continuously introduced and implemented with a view to reduce accidents due to human error. A multi-pronged approach with focus on introduction of newer technologies, mechanisation of maintenance and early detection of flaws to reduce human dependence in the first place, along with upgrading skills of the human resources, are areas Indian Railways has prioritised. The IR also carried out periodical safety audits of different divisions by multi-disciplinary teams of Zonal Railways. Inter-Railway safety audits are also conducted on a regular basis. During 2010-11, 69 internal safety audits and 26 inter-railway safety audits were carried out. In addition, inspections were also conducted by Railway Board teams. Four multi-disciplinary safety teams were constituted in March 2009 at the Board's level to audit the safety preparedness on Zonal Railways. Each team was allocated four zones. Training and TPWS
Training facilities for drivers, guards and staff connected with train operation have been upgraded. Disaster management modules have also been upgraded. During 2010-11, a total of 92,225 safety category employees attended refresher training. The Railways also executed a pilot project on Anti-Collision Device (ACD) to minimise the extent of damage caused by collisions. It has been in-service trial on 1,736 route km of Northeast Frontier Railway. Based on experience on Northeast Frontier Railway, specifications for ACD have been revised to improve its efficacy, reliability and availability. Trials with modified ACD are being carried out on electrified multiple-line and automatic signalling section of Southern Railway. Pilot projects on Train Protection Warning System (TPWS) were sanctioned earlier, out of which one is in use since May 2008 on the Chennai Central-Gummiddipundi section of Southern Railway (50 route km). Service trials are in progress for the second pilot project of the Delhi-Agra section (200 route km). The TPWS has also been approved for deployment on high-density networks/automatic signalling sections covering 895 route km of five zonal railways (North Central, Eastern, South Eastern, Southern and Western) at an estimated cost of Rs 599 crore. A Vigilance Control Device for keeping drivers vigilant exists in all three-phase electric locomotives. Warning systems
In an effort to cope with derailments, efforts are underway to eliminate fish-plated joints by welding single rails into long- welded rails. There has been a progressive increase in the use of Tie Tamping and ballast cleaning machines for track maintenance. Also, sophisticated track recording cars, ultrasonic flaw detectors, self-propelled ultrasonic rail testing cars, oscillograph cars and portable accelerometers are being used progressively. To enhance safety and reliability of passenger coaches, suspension systems are being re-designed with air springs capable of maintaining constant height at variable loads at secondary stages.
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U’khand Govt nod to CBI probe into Nigmanand’s death
Dehradun, July 17 "The government had asked for the CBI probe on June 15. It issued a notification yesterday in this regard," Uttarakhand State Media Advisory Committee chairman Devendra Bhasin said today. — PTI
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Citing the police crackdown on Baba Ramdev and his supporters at Ramlila ground here, social activist Anna Hazare today said that he would approach the Supreme Court seeking its intervention to ensure that the government does “not suppress” his fast.
Thiruvananthapuram, July 17
Last year's budget estimates for track renewal was put at Rs 408 crore in the budget but was revised downward to Rs 329.50 crore. The current year's budget allocation for track renewal too has been pegged at Rs 330 crore, he points out.