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Crude IED behind Agra blast
Maya wants quota for upper caste poor
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Man held in Delhi HC blast case retracts statement
BARC develops spent fuel automation system
No redrafting of constitution, says pro-talks ULFA faction
Aditya Thackeray's security stepped up
Net, radio & SMSes: Army takes to tech-savvy route to attract youth
Swaminathan Report Implementation
Identity-hiding cyber tools worry anti-terror agencies
India to develop torpedo centre in Kyrgyzstan
Finally, Big B visits Amar at AIIMS
Madhuri shifting back to India
No redrafting of constitution, says pro-talks ULFA faction
Jantar Mantar
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Crude IED behind Agra blast
Lucknow, September 18 “They were connected in series with some filament placed in a welded cylinder like shell containing the explosive. The blast took place due to the heating effect in the filament. No timer or watch has been found.” Lal said the chemical found in the explosive is the same that is used in Diwali firecrackers. The CCTV cameras installed in the hospital which were expected to provide vital leads were also not functioning at the time of the blast, admitted Lal. What continued to mystify the multi-agency investigation team was the motive behind the blast. The investigating agencies in their preliminary findings have said that it could be the handiwork of local criminals as the bomb in all likelihood was assembled locally. The business rivalry angle is also being explored. The area is populated by several private nursing homes. The National Security Guards (NSG), Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS), IB and the local police are investigating the blast. The probe is also ascertaining if there was any possible link with any terrorist organisation. The state police have announced a reward to Rs 1 lakh for anyone giving clues to the explosion. State BSP chief and Panchayati Raj Minister Swami Prasad Maurya also visited the site this morning and announced the Mayawati government’s decision to grant ex-gratia of Rs 1 lakh to the injured in the blast. Similarly, union Minister of state for Home Bhanwar Jitendra Singh who also visited the blast site announced an ex-gratia payment of Rs 50,000 for the injured from the Prime Minister’s relief Fund. He came along with former Agra MP and present Congress MP from neighbouring Firozabad Raj Babbar and also assured the state government of all possible Central assistance to bring the culprits to book. Babbar requested the media to help keep rumours at bay. “The world renowned Taj Mahal is about 8 km from the blast site and completely safe to visit. It is not 2 km away as is being reported in the media. Please don’t pay attention to rumours as it will affect the tourism business which is the backbone of this city,” Babbar said. The police has registered an FIR against unknown people at the Hari Parvat police station in Agra. According to unconfirmed reports, four persons have been detained by the investigating agencies in this regard.
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Maya wants quota for upper caste poor
Lucknow, September 18 In her letter to the PM, she has underlined the need to bring the poor and the marginalised among the upper caste into the national mainstream by giving them the benefit of reservation by amending the Constitution. The request for reservation for the poor belonging to the upper castes came a day after she wrote a similar letter to the Prime Minister urging the Centre to provide reservation to minorities, especially Muslims, proportionate to their population. In the latest letter, Mayawati has requested the Prime Minister to seriously consider reservation for the upper caste living below the poverty line so that their social, economic and educational backwardness could be bridged.
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Man held in Delhi HC blast case retracts statement
Kishtwar (J&K), September 18 Official sources said Amir Abbas Dev, one of the four persons arrested in connection with the case, has withdrawn his earlier “detailed statement” about his role in the blast. Dev is currently in police custody. Sources said even the police was facing difficulty in corroborating his earlier statement as there were many loopholes in that. They said Dev had now denied any connection with the blast. He is being questioned at length for his alleged role in sending an email two hours after the September 7 blast. He is being interrogated by a joint team of interrogators of the J&K Police and the National Investigation Agency here, 250 km from Jammu. Dev is accused of handing over the draft mail three days before the blast to two high school students. Dev had earlier told the investigators that an email claiming responsibility on behalf of HuJI was sent on his directions, sources said. He is alleged to have drafted the mail and then handed it over to the two boys with the instruction that it was to be mailed to media houses immediately after they hear about the blasts in the National Capital. The two boys were the first ones to be arrested by the police for sending the email. As the sleuths are still struggling to achieve a breakthrough in tracing the main perpetrators of the September 7 blast, sources said there was a possibility that the two could be part of a larger conspiracy behind the terror strike. Dev allegedly has links with a religious organisation and was picked up after detailed interrogation of the two boys, sources added. He is suspected to have been involved in brainwashing youths to join militant ranks. —
PTI
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BARC develops spent fuel automation system
Mumbai, September 18 "Introduction of this automation system for reprocessing plant is aimed at transferring the fuel bundles directly from fuel handling area (FHA) of storage pool to the dissolver cell in an automated way, without the necessity of using charging cask," Director of Remote Handling and Robotics and Design, Manufacturing and Automation Group of BARC, Manjit Singh said. "This contributes in eliminating dependency on skilled manpower and thus reduction of man-rem (radiation dose) consumption by workers," Singh said. A preliminary safety analysis report (PSAR) has been reviewed and approved by the BARC Safety Council and the first automated system for spent fuel nuclear reprocessing plant will be set at Tarapur in Maharashtra soon and work in that direction has already begun, he said. Singh also pointed out the system design is such that it can easily be adopted to handle fuel from 220 MW PHWR as well as from 550 MW / 700 MW with minimum changes. Provision has also been kept for manual changing of spent fuel in case of non-availability of automation system. The spent fuel bundles from nuclear power reactors (in this case PHWRs) are stored under water at reactor site. After allowing it to cool down for a given period, the bundles from the reactor site are transferred to underwater storage facility at the nuclear fuel reprocessing plant site, DN Badodkar of the Division of Remote Handling and Robotics, who developed the design, said. —
PTI
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No redrafting of constitution, says pro-talks ULFA faction
Guwahati, September 18 The news item appeared to be 'motivated' and 'reflected irresponsible standards of journalism by a section of the media in the state to create misunderstanding and tension among different sections of people,' he said. ULFA central committee members had met on September 16 to discuss a gamut of issues related to the outfit and there was no discussion on Barua, he stated. "We request the media to refrain from publishing or broadcasting such baseless reports and to be more responsible in the greater interest of Assamese society," Daimary added. —
PTI
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Aditya Thackeray's security stepped up
Mumbai, September 18 A top police official said the decision to this effect was taken after a meeting in which protection provided to various VIPs, builders and Bollywood stars was reviewed.
— PTI
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Net, radio & SMSes: Army takes to tech-savvy route to attract youth
Chandigarh, September 18 Struggling with an acute shortage in its officer cadre, the Army has listed -- besides traditional media like TV, newspapers, magazines and hoardings -- “new” media like Internet, FM channels and mobile phones as means for conveying its message. Banners, mailers, pop-ups and contextual advertisements would be placed on Internet sites associated with jobs and careers, sports, travel, entertainment, defence and social networking known to be visited by the target groups. Radio talk shows and jingles are being conceptualised for FM channels. The Additional Directorate General of Recruiting at the Army headquarters has thrown the door open to agencies in the field of advertising and publicity to conceive a new publicity campaign that primarily target male as well as female college students, along with those studying in Class XI and XII, as well as “influencers” like parents and teachers forming a secondary target group. Leadership challenges, unique quality of life, opportunity for self-development, status, job security, material benefits, working with cutting-edge technology and training for a second career are among attributes that would be emphasised. Such a motivational campaign was last conceived in 2007. Figures placed in Parliament last month state that the current shortfall of officers in the Army alone is 11,137. At present, the Army has on its roll at present 35,605 male and 1,020 female officers. The Adjutant General, Lt Gen Mukesh Sabhrawal, was quoted recently saying that the shortage was 22-24 per cent. Though the shortfall, predominant in the junior and middle rungs, has somewhat declined from its peak of close to 14,000 officers a few yeas ago, the situation is still far from comfortable with units and formations running with officers much below the authorised strength. An internal study done by the Army recently indicated that it would take almost two decades to cover up the shortfall only if the rate of intake is increased and premature retirement is brought down. According to available figures, about 1,500 officers quit prematurely. Intake of candidates at training academies is below sanctioned strength and an estimated 300 vacancies out of an average of 2,000 go unsubscribed in a year. Several reasons like lucrative careers and a comfortable lifestyle in the civilian arena, declining status of the armed forces personnel, limited promotional avenues, frequent transfers and disruptions have been cited for youth shying away from the armed forces.
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Swaminathan Report Implementation
New Delhi, September 18 The PIL filed by the Consortium of Indian Farmers Association (CIFA) made a positive headway this Friday after the Supreme Court sent a notice to the Sharad Pawar-headed Agriculture Ministry to respond, encouraging CIFA secretary general Chengal Reddy to say that the way “corruption was being monitored, issues related to farmers’ interest would also now be under apex court’s scrutiny”. Seeking implementation of the long-pending national policy on farmers, the CIFA litigation said despite rising agricultural product prices, farmers continued to live in debt-ridden misery. CIFA president Satnam Singh Behru maintains the government has been sitting idle on NFP for more than five years because it does not suit it. “We are not a powerful lobby,” he adds. In 2004, the UPA constituted the NCF under the chairmanship of eminent agriculture scientist MS Swaminathan. Based on its recommendations in 2006, the government announced a national policy for farmers in 2007. Some of the main recommendations of the report were that the MSP of any agricultural produce should be at least 50 per cent more than the weighted average cost of production and the net take home income of farmers should be comparable to government employees’ earnings. The NFP also sought to make the Commission on Agriculture Costs and Prices (CACP) an autonomous organisation, besides recommending social security for farmers and suitable risk-management measures for adequate and timely compensation. Other recommendations included making India a global outsourcing hub for supply of inputs needed for sustainable agriculture through biotechnology and ICT (information and communication technology) and establishing a national-level agriculture coordination committee under the chairmanship of the Prime Minister. Reddy, however, says that none of the recommendations were implemented.
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Identity-hiding cyber tools worry anti-terror agencies
Mumbai, September 18 Earlier this week, investigators in Ahmedabad arrested a youth Monu Oza for sending out emails threatening terrorist attacks in that city. He had sent the mail using a virtual private network (VPN) in order to make it difficult for investigators to track him via his Internet protocol (IP) address. Oza had purchased a VPN for $10 using a credit card. "Precious time gets lost when investigators have to get in touch with the providers of the VPN in order to obtain the IP address of a suspect," said a police official of the cyber crime cell in Mumbai. According to the official, providers of VPN have access to IP addresses and log in details of every user. These can be obtained by agencies investigating terror. Cyber experts from the Gujarat police have provided details of Oza’s arrest to their counterparts in other parts of the country. However, security officials are unsure as to how long they would be able to stay ahead of cyber-savvy terrorists. "Every day, there are new companies in the West which put out sophisticated anti-censorship tools,” said the officer at the cyber-crime cell. Organisations like Freedom House, which advocates removal of all forms of censorship in totalitarian countries, have emerged as the biggest promoters of online circumvention. In a comprehensive report published earlier this year, Freedom House has put out details of 11 different methods which can be used to bypass online censorship. Apart from the common VPNs and proxy servers which enjoy low levels of security, Freedom House lists alternatives like telescopic crypto or onion routing which make it difficult for real time monitoring to take place. With many service providers openly advertising high levels of encryption, the Indian Government is understandably worried. Till now, the government has targeted bigger players like Blackberry, Google and Skype going so far as to threaten their operations in India.
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Contrasting styles mark fasts of Modi, Vaghela
Ahmedabad, September 18
A special chamber with attached toilet enabled Modi to retire in comfort at around 10.30 pm.
In contrast, Vaghela and Gujarat Congress president Arjun Modvadia slept on the dias erected on a pavement outside the Sabarmati ashram. In the morning, they used the public toilets in the ashram. If mineral water kiosks were visible at the venue of Modi's fast and meals provided to thousands, there are no such facilities at the Congress site. Tea stalls did roaring business where Vaghela is on hunger strike. There were angry scenes at the venue of the Chief Minister’s fast when the organisers ran out of food. Bharatiya Janata Party leaders had to rush to becalm frayed tempers. Despite all arrangements at Modi’s fast, the crowds dwindled by late afternoon on Saturday after the high- profile inaugural function got over. Most of the back seats in the 15,000-strong convention centre remained empty. State transport buses deployed at various points in the city to take people free of cost to the venue were not much in demand. At least 30 guest books had been kept at the venue of Modi’s fast for people to write their comments. These elicited interesting opinions. If some voiced support for the Chief Minister, others complained about lack of civic matters. One comment questioned the logic of incurring so much money when the state was reeling under a debt burden. Another drew attention to the hefty bribes being demanded by the administration in Surat. One said Modi was younger in thought than Rahul Gandhi. Many who could not write took the help of volunteers. On one table, when the guest-book got filled up, it was replaced with official government stationery. The pastoralists fasting to demand curbs on cow slaughter were pacified with an official assurance that their problems would be sorted out by September 23. Modi’s peace and goodwill offensive also saw the state government launch a countrywide advertisement campaign. The blitzkrieg, both in English and Gujarat media, is still continuing. -
IANS
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India to develop torpedo centre in Kyrgyzstan
New Delhi, September 18 "The facility was visited by Defence Minister AK Antony some months ago. An Indian delegation would be visiting Kyrgyzstan soon to make an assessment of investment needed for the project and the terms and conditions for co-developing it," DRDO Chief Controller William Selvamurthy said. To develop existing infrastructure at the centre, India has proposed to engage local companies with available knowhow in torpedo technology to co-develop the facility. "India is willing to develop the centre to test all kinds of torpedoes such as heavyweight torpedoes and those having thermal navigation system," Selvamurthy said. The centre has a network of sensors which can monitor the speed, velocity, homing in and direction of the torpedo once it is fired. This enables scientists to make necessary modifications in the navigation system to make the missiles more accurate and fool proof. The torpedoes fired in the lake are also recoverable enabling the scientists to make physical verification of its structure for further study. A torpedo is a self-propelled explosive projectile weapons, launched above or below the water surface, propelled under water towards a target. —
PTI
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Finally, Big B visits Amar at AIIMS
New Delhi, September 18 Bachchan and his daughter Shweta Nanda spent a couple of hours with the family’s “closest friend”, who along with the actor and industrialist Anil Ambani once formed the troika in social, political and business circles. But times, since then, have changed and so has the situation. MP Jaya Prada seems to be the lone high-profile friend that Amar Singh is left with in his dire times -- a fact that recently prompted the visibly emotional film actress to ask where his friends from political circles and film fraternity were, an obvious reference to Amitabh and Jaya Bachchan. “Where are those big celebrities who used to be with Amar Singh and were helped by him in their land-related cases,” a teary Jaya Prada had questioned after visiting the former SP leader in AIIMS earlier this week. Notably, Bachchan had bought a piece of land in Barabanki district of UP but had to face a court case on the issue. “He (Amar Singh) has remained silent and has asked us also to remain silent. But I want to say that it means he will definitely speak out at the right time and on the right forum,” she had added. Now what actually transpired between the once “bade bhaiya” and his younger brother is difficult to say, but the meeting certainly evoked much interest in political circles with some even saying that Jaya Prada’s sarcastic remarks and veiled threat had worked. After Bachchans’ ABCL had landed in a massive financial soup, Amar Singh had come to his rescue. Bachchan wife Jaya had joined the SP and the family openly flaunted their relationship with Amar Singh, who grew to acquire a political stature as strong as that of party chief Mulayam Singh. But after distance grew between Amar Singh and Mulayam Singh, the relationship between the former and Big B also turned sour.
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Madhuri shifting back to India
New Delhi, September 18 The 44-year-old actress, who spent two decades in the Hindi film industry establishing herself as one of the leading actresses and most accomplished dancers, had shifted to the US after tying the knot with Denver-based cardiovascular surgeon Shriram Madhav Nene in 1999. — PTI
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No redrafting of constitution, says pro-talks ULFA faction Guwahati, September 18 The news item appeared to be 'motivated' and 'reflected irresponsible standards of journalism by a section of the media in the state to create misunderstanding and tension among different sections of people,' he said. ULFA central committee members had met on September 16 to discuss a gamut of issues related to the outfit and there was no discussion on Barua, he stated. "We request the media to refrain from publishing or broadcasting such baseless reports and to be more responsible in the greater interest of Assamese society," Daimary added. — PTI
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Jantar Mantar
With the UPA Government’s popularity registering a steady downward slide, the BJP has begun to believe that it could be required to take on the mantle of governance at the Centre at any given time.
As a result, the party is currently witnessing a mad scramble for the top post. Party patriarch LK Advani, who had taken sansyas from electoral politics, will soon set forth a rath yatra in the belief he’ll be the BJP’s automatic choice for the Prime Minister’s post.
Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, who was quick to proclaim victory after the Supreme Court asked the trial court to hear the 2002 riots cases, is itching to play a larger role in national affairs.
Modi’s three-day fast was essentially meant to pitchfork him onto the political centrestage as the controversial chief minister has emerged as a first among equals in the BJP. While Modi fasted, BJP president Nitin Gadkari checked into a hospital for a surgery to lose weight in a clear attempt at an image make over and to ensure he is physically fit to handle the rigors of a national election. Gadkari fancies his chances for the top job mainly because he has the unstinted support of the
RSS. Khursheed is racing against time
Law Minister Salman Khursheed is easily the most harried man these days. Ever since he moved from the Ministry of Water Resources, he is constantly racing against time. His workload has more than doubled as his ministry has to deal with legal queries from all the government departments and keep tabs on the key cases currently being heard in various courts in the country. In addition, Khursheed is also a member of a large number of GOMs in his capacity as the Law Minister. And the result is that he is always behind schedule and finds no time for personal matters. For instance, when Khursheed could not find time to go out for a hair cut last week, he called the barber home in the middle of the night. Even so, the barber had to wait for more than an hour before he eventually got down to business, which was at 2 am. NCP MP’s fish ‘restaurant’
Whenever our very own young brigade of MPs have an urge to eat fish, they don’t head to the nearest fancy restaurant, but instead land up at NCP’s Lok Sabha MP Sanjeev Naik’s residence in South Avenue. Known for his hospitality, Naik runs an open house during lunch time when Parliament is in session. His especially-trained cooks rustle up the most delicious fried fish and curry from the day’s catch which is flown down every morning from Naik’s hometown Navi Mumbai. Naik has an organised set-up at his flat and is well prepared to cater to a large number of guests who tend to turn up for a tuck-in at short notice. His tiled courtyard, enclosed with fibre glass, has been converted into a large dining room furnished with several round cane tables which can seat at least 25 guests. |
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Notices to actresses
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The low-intensity blast that exploded in reception area of a private nursing home in Agra injuring 12 persons was triggered by a crude improvised explosive device
(IED).
A veiled threat and some sarcastic remarks by Amar Singh’s close friend Jaya Prada appeared to have hit the bull’s eye when Bollywood megastar Amitabh Bachchan came calling on Rajya Sabha MP Amar Singh today to wish him speedy recovery at AIIMS, where the embattled former Samajwadi Party leader is undergoing treatment for urinary tract infection and various other medical problems.
