N A T I O N

Karnataka mining business a money-spinner for officials
Bangalore, August 6
Illegal export of iron ore is not only a lucrative business for the exporters, but port officials, police personnel, customs department staff and even MPs and MLAs benefit from the business. This has been recorded in the report on illegal mining prepared under the aegis of former Karnataka Lokayukta.

Ray of hope for flat aspirants in Gr Noida
Development Authority, farmers strike a deal
Greater Noida, August 6
In a ray of hope for 20,000 aspirants for flats in Noida Extension, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority today struck a deal with farmers of Patwari village under which peasants will withdraw the case in the Allahabad High Court that had quashed land acquisition in the area.

Farmers may get Rs 80 bonus on paddy
New Delhi, August 6
Rejecting the farmers’ arguments against “meagre” increase of Rs 80 per quintal in the support price for Grade A and common varieties of paddy, the government has stated that MSP fixed for the current crop year (2011-12) provided “adequate margin” for growers if juxtaposed with the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) projected all-India weighted average cost of production of Rs 888 per quintal.

Coast Guard ill-prepared to deal with sea threats: CAG
New Delhi, August 6
In its report on the lack of preparedness of the Coast Guard, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) yesterday ripped apart the lackadaisical approach that led to wide gaps in the country’s coastal security in the period before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. The report also questioned the slowness of bringing in new equipment after the attacks.

Sunken vessel’s captain, chief engineer held
Mumbai, August 6
Two days after a cargo vessel sank off the city coast, the police today arrested the captain and chief engineer of the ill-fated ship for carelessness and endangering lives of others.

Sonia out of ICU
New Delhi, August 6
A brief statement put out by the Congress today said party president Sonia Gandhi has been shifted out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where she was kept under observation for 24 hours after her surgery on August 4.

Karnataka mining business a money-spinner for officials
Shubhadeep Choudhury/TNS

Bangalore, August 6
Illegal export of iron ore is not only a lucrative business for the exporters, but port officials, police personnel, customs department staff and even MPs and MLAs benefit from the business. This has been recorded in the report on illegal mining prepared under the aegis of former Karnataka Lokayukta.

While BS Yeddyurappa had to resign from the CM’s post after the report accused him of having received illegal gratification from a steel company, others mentioned in the report are yet pay any price for their “misdeeds”. The report said that seized documents from two shipping companies showed that money had been “regularly paid to port authorities, customs officials, police department, mines and geology officials and even to MLAs/MPs”.

According to the report, the payment of bribe amounts to different departments progressively increased from the year 2004-05 to 2007-08. While Rs 23 lakh in total was paid as bribe to various departments in 2004-05, the amount increased to Rs 48 lakh in 2005-06, Rs 66 lakh in 2006-07 and over Rs 1.28 crore in 2007-08.

The Lokayukta police conducted a raid in February 2010 and seized a computer and other documents from a firm Adani Enterprises and Sri Mallikarjun Shipping Private Limited. The digital data recovered from hard disks of the seized computers included a file sent from Accounts Section of Adani Enterprises, Belekeri, in March 2008, to higher ups of the company for getting approval of unaccounted payments made by them at the Belekeri port.

The Annexure-6 of Chapter-2 in the report contains the details of the payments. The money was paid in different modes, namely, payment of a ship-wise fixed amount, payment in proportion to quantity exported, payment of a month wise fixed amount, payment of lump sum amount at regular periods, payment of amounts once in a while, etc.

To the port department, payments were made ship-wise and different rates were fixed for different levels of officers. The general rate of payment were, port director, Rs 50,000 per ship sailed; port officer, 25,000 per ship sailed, DPC-deputy port conservator, 5,000 per shipment and port staff 5,500 per ship sailed.

The rate of payment to the customs department was, before May 26, 2006, Rs 12,000 per ship, between 26/5/2006 and 11/1/2008, 6,000 per ship plus 0.50 per MT; and from 11/1/2008 and onwards, 0.50 per MT plus 1,00,000 quarterly to AC-Custom. With regard to the police, an SP receives 1,00,000 bi-monthly; ASP 25,000 monthly; DSP 10,000 monthly; circle Inspector 14,000 monthly and outpost receives 2,000 monthly. Mines and geology officials were paid in lump-sum amount at regular intervals. MLAs/MPs were paid once in a while in a lump-sum amount. Payments are also made to CRZ, weights and measurement department and other authorities.

‘Encounter specialist’ Nayak in mine mess

Ray of hope for flat aspirants in Gr Noida
Development Authority, farmers strike a deal

Greater Noida, August 6
In a ray of hope for 20,000 aspirants for flats in Noida Extension, the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority today struck a deal with farmers of Patwari village under which peasants will withdraw the case in the Allahabad High Court that had quashed land acquisition in the area.

As part of the deal on land compensation and other issues, the Patwari farmers will move the court to withdraw the court case. Land acquisition in Patwari was quashed by the Allahabad HC on July 26. The court, after a review petition had referred the cases to larger bench as interests of several stakeholders were involved.

However, the court had allowed authorities to negotiate with the farmers and reach an out-of-court settlement by August 12. Gautam Budh Nagar MP Surinder Singh Nagar said as per agreement, farmers will get compensation at Rs 1,400 per square metre, which means they will get an additional compensation of Rs 550 per square metre as they had already taken the compensation at Rs 850 per square metre when the land was acquired from them.

Further, the farmers will get an additional 2 per cent of developed land. As per policy, they were entitled to 6 per cent developed land and now it will be 8 per cent, Nagar said.

Under the agreement, the developed land will be given in sector having 12 metre-wide roads, said Nagar. Regarding abadi land (farmers’ settlement), GNIDA agreed to leave the abadi as they exist today out of land acquisition and no back lease need to be done for this, he added. Further, under the agreement, 10 per cent seats for farmers' children will be reserved in all schools and colleges to be set up on their land, Nagar said adding “it will be binding on all such institutions.”

Village development funds would be increased and more schools set up in villages. Concrete roads, sewer network and other infrastructure would be developed at par with the sectors, said Nagar. He said henceforth the same deal would be struck with other villages. “For Shahberi village, we plan to hold separate negotiations later,” Nagar added.

Farmers may get Rs 80 bonus on paddy
Vibha Sharma/TNS

New Delhi, August 6
Rejecting the farmers’ arguments against “meagre” increase of Rs 80 per quintal in the support price for Grade A and common varieties of paddy, the government has stated that MSP fixed for the current crop year (2011-12) provided “adequate margin” for growers if juxtaposed with the Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) projected all-India weighted average cost of production of Rs 888 per quintal.

However, the farmers can hope for a Rs-80 bonus after procurement begins as the CACP had recommended that if exports remained banned and levy was not reduced, the government should give a bonus of Rs 80 per quintal on top of the recommended MSP.

In response to a question in Parliament yesterday that the farmers were not satisfied with 8 per cent increase in the support price when the CACP had recommended 16 per cent hike to offset the rising input costs, Minister of State for Agriculture Harish Rawat said the MSP of common variety of paddy for 2011-12 had been raised by Rs 80 per quintal as per the recommendations of the CACP.

He said the CACP had also stated that if exports remained banned and levy was not reduced, the government should give a bonus of Rs 80 per quintal on top of the recommended MSP.

Responding to the farmers’ anguish on a low hike that was not sufficient to take care of rising production costs, the minister said while fixing the MSP the government had to strike a balance between the interest of farmers and consumers. “The MSP for common variety of paddy for 2011-12 at Rs 1,080 per quintal provides adequate margin over the CACP’s projected all-India weighted average cost of production of Rs 888 per quintal,” he added.

Paddy farmers are saying the Rs-80 hike is not sufficient high production costs due to increase in prices of diesel, fertilisers and pesticides.

Punjab is demanding the MSP of paddy to be fixed at Rs 1,500 per quintal. The state government has been raising hue and cry saying the UPA government did not pay heed to the recommendations of the CCEA, which recommended a raise of Rs 160 of quintal in the MSP of paddy.

Coast Guard ill-prepared to deal with sea threats: CAG

New Delhi, August 6
In its report on the lack of preparedness of the Coast Guard, the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) yesterday ripped apart the lackadaisical approach that led to wide gaps in the country’s coastal security in the period before the November 2008 Mumbai attacks. The report also questioned the slowness of bringing in new equipment after the attacks.

The CAG said the 1993 Mumbai blasts led to the launch of Operation Swan, the joint coastal patrolling carried out by the Navy and the Coast Guard, that was discontinued in September 2005 on the directions of the Union Home Ministry. Since then patrolling has been left to the state police and the Customs Department, which have meager operational assets. The CAG report, which was tabled in Parliament, went on to reveal: “The Coast Guard has not been involved in the inner layer (less than 27 km from the coast) operations in Maharashtra till December 2010 due to manpower and resource constraints”. — TNS

Sunken vessel’s captain, chief engineer held

Mumbai, August 6
Two days after a cargo vessel sank off the city coast, the police today arrested the captain and chief engineer of the ill-fated ship for carelessness and endangering lives of others.

“The sunken ship MV Rak's captain, Arkan Abdul Khalil Yunus (36), a Jordanian, and chief engineer Ioneseu Ion (54), a Romanian, were arrested under Section 336 (act endangering life or personal safety of others) of the IPC,” said Inspector Bharat Bhoite. Yesterday, the police had registered an FIR against the owner, captain and the crew members of the vessel.

“The carelessness of the captain, who is the in charge of the ship, and the chief engineer, who should have taken care of technical aspects of the vessel, has caused the ship to go down the water,” said Bhoite. The police did not comment when asked if more arrests were likely, but maintained they would continue to take appropriate action as the probe progressed.

The vessel, which was on its way from Indonesia's Tutung to Dahej in Gujarat with 60,000 tonnes of coal, had a 30-member crew of Indonesian, Jordanian and Romanian nationalities, who were rescued by the Indian Navy and Coast Guard personnel before it sank on Thursday. — PTI

Sonia out of ICU

New Delhi, August 6
A brief statement put out by the Congress today said party president Sonia Gandhi has been shifted out of the Intensive Care Unit (ICU) where she was kept under observation for 24 hours after her surgery on August 4.

“Sonia Gandhi remained in the ICU for 24 hours and has thereafter been moved out. Her family has expressed gratitude on her behalf for all the messages and good wishes that have been sent to her,” Congress media department head Janardhan Dwivedi said in a statement on Saturday.

The party remained tightlipped on the nature of Sonia Gandhi’s medical condition as well as the hospital in the US where she is undergoing treatment. She is accompanied by son Rahul, daughter Priyanka and son-in-law Robert Vadra. — TNS