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2G note no big deal, says Law Minister
No let-up in Telangana protests
A policeman stops members of Telangana Advocates Joint Action Committee from shouting slogans from a window during their protest at the Hyderabad High Court on Monday. — AFP |
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Nepal air crash
Prithvi-II test-fired
Gujarat Guv seeks details of money spent on Modi’s fast
Stealth fighter PAK-FA may be inducted into IAF in 6 yrs
School van plunges into canal; 3 dead
Cong justifies Plan panel’s poverty line figures
Truck driver beaten to death by transport dept personnel Won’t install any more hand pumps:
Ramesh
Dev Anand turns 88
'ATS needs to be strengthened'
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2G note no big deal, says Law Minister
New Delhi, September 26 Addressing his first formal media briefing since FM Pranab Mukherjee’s note dated March 25 became public under the Right to Information Act, Law Minister Salman Khurshid argued like a lawyer to dismiss the very root of the controversy. “The said document has no life. That is my personal opinion. It has nothing that should worry anyone,” he said. Wearing his trademark calm amidst a barrage of queries on the issue that has landed Congress stalwarts Pranab and Chidambaram in a ugly face off, Khurshid first refrained from commenting citing the sub judice nature of the matter but then decided to give his personal input. “The PM and the FM are outside the country and once they return they will give us a briefing. I have seen the document (FM’s note). There is nothing in it and the inference drawn is unwarranted and it should not preoccupy your minds,” he told reporters. The note, which was sent to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, suggests that the losses in the 2G Spectrum allocation could have been prevented had the then Finance Minister Chidambaram stuck to the auction route rather than siding with the policy of allocation on a first-come-first-served basis. Simply put, the note implied the 2G scam could have been avoided had Chidambaram acted in a certain manner as against another. But Khurshid challenged this inference as “incorrect even if all parts of the note were believed to be correct.” Prodded further, he insisted the note had no meaning so as to deserve the kind of media attention it was garnering. “The note is a summary prepared by a lower-level official. People give their opinion over and above the summary. The importance of the opinion will be seen when the issue is discussed,” the Law Minister said.
The note
The Finance Ministry’s note (dated March 25, 2011) on allocation and pricing of 2G Spectrum suggests that the loss could have been prevented had Chidambaram insisted on auctioning the rare national asset instead of agreeing to sell it on a first-come-first-served basis at 2001 prices. The said document has no life. That is my personal opinion. There is nothing in it and the inference drawn is unwarranted. — Salman Khurshid, Law Minister
CBI wants fresh charges against Raja
The CBI on Monday pleaded before the special CBI court hearing the 2G spectrum allocation case for imposing fresh charges of criminal breach of trust by public servant (Section 409 IPC) against former Telecom Minister A Raja, his former private secretary Ramesh Chandolia and the then Telecom Secretary Siddharth Behrua. Meanwhile, Raja’s counsel Sushil Kumar reiterated that the court should summon the PM and P Chidambaram as witnesses. “I will call Chidambaram as a defence witness under Section 311 of the CrPC. He was party to every decision,” said Kumar.
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No let-up in Telangana protests
Hyderabad, September 26 The seat of the state administration reverberated with slogans, folk songs and dances as Telangana employees staged a novel protest in front of the “C” block which houses the Chief Minister’s office. While a group of women employees performed 'Bathukamma', traditional dance of Telangana to mark the onset of spring festival, the others were seen wearing black blindfolds as a mark of protest against the government’s indifference to the ongoing agitation. The ruling Congress leaders from Telangana, including Minister K Venkata Reddy and MPs Madhu Yaskhi Goud, S Rajaiah and P Prabhakar, joined the protestors and expressed their solidarity. As the indefinite general strike, demanding a separate state, entered 14th day today, Telangana protagonists raised their pitch and warned of disastrous consequences if the Centre failed to honour the popular sentiment. Meanwhile, the IT hub in the city faced the heat of the agitation for the first time with activists blocking all the roads leading to “Hitech City”, the nerve centre of the software industry, and prevented the IT professionals and other staff from going to their offices. They demanded that IT companies should be closed for 48 hours to express their solidarity to the Telangana demand. As a result of the road blockade, there was a massive traffic jam in the city, causing inconvenience to the office-goers. The police had to use force to disperse the agitating mob, which led to a tense atmosphere in the area. At several places, Telangana leaders deflated buses taking IT employees to the offices. Several agitators were arrested by the police. Meanwhile, tension prevailed at the Transport Commissioner’s office here when a senior official was roughed up by Telangana activists for issuing show-cause notices to the striking employees. The TJAC has called for a total bandh in Hyderabad on September 30 and rail blockade for three days from October 9. Across Telangana districts, the striking employees of the state road transport corporation will take out rallies tomorrow.
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UNICEF mourns doctor’s death
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, September 26 The UNICEF in a statement today said Dr Pankaj Mehta was a highly committed maternal health and child survival expert whose innovative work in West Bengal and across South Asia would be long respected. As a public health paediatrician, he brought to his profession an inspiring mix of remote clinic practice as well as policy advocacy at the highest levels of government across South Asia. Dr Mehta's contributions in child immunisation, polio eradication in particular, were recognised on the global stage. Pankaj's wife, Dr Chaya Mehta, was famous in the field of ophthalmology and held senior academic positions in several universities and medical schools. As Chief of Health with UNICEF Nepal for the past two years, Dr Pankaj was just a week away from commencing on a new post with UNICEF Philippines. This fatal flight was their long awaited chance to see Mount Everest before departing from Nepal. They are survived by their two sons and other family members in Nepal, India, the USA and beyond.
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Balasore (Orissa), Sept 26 "The flight test of the surface-to-surface missile was conducted around 9 am from a mobile launcher from the Integrated Describing the trial of the indigenously developed strategic missile as "fully successful", Dash said, "It met all the mission objectives and was perfect like a text book launch." The launch operations were carried out by the armed forces as part of user trial and regular training exercise and monitored by the Scientists of Defence Research Development Organisation (DRDO). Being handled by the specially raised strategic force command, the short-range sleek missile has a length of 9m and is 1m in diameter. It is propelled by two engines than run on liquid fuel. Prithvi, the first ballistic missile developed under prestigious Integrated Guided Missile Development Programme, has the capability of carrying 500 kg warhead. The missile uses advanced inertial guidance system with manoeuvring trajectory. During today's trial, the missile reached the predefined target in the Bay of Bengal with a very high accuracy of better than 10m, a DRDO spokesperson said. "All the radars, electro optical systems located along the coast have tracked and monitored all the parameters of the missile throughout the flight path and an Indian Navy ship located near the target witnessed the final event," he said. — PTI
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Gujarat Guv seeks details of money spent on
Ahmedabad, September 26 Beniwal, who has been locked in a row with the state government over the appointment of Lokayukta, dashed off a letter based on a representation received from Mahagujarat Janta Party (MJP) chief Gordhan Zadafia. Details of the expenses and procedures followed for its sanction were sought from the state government by the Governor, sources in the Governor’s office said today. Zadafia, a former state minister in the Modi government who parted ways with the BJP and floated his own party, the MJP, alleged there was misappropriation of public funds by the government to meet the expenditure incurred for the fast. The Governor wrote a letter through Principal Secretary Arvind Joshi to the Additional Chief Secretary (ACS), General Administration Department, on September 22 asking him to respond to the allegation made by Zadafia, sources said. In the letter, the ACS has also been asked to give details of the process followed while sanctioning the expenditure, they said. Modi had sat on a fast from September 17-19 at the Gujarat University Convention Centre here for ‘peace, unity and harmony in the state”.
— PTI
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Stealth fighter PAK-FA may be inducted into
Chandigarh, September 26 “The technology demonstrator version has already been developed. The Indian version is likely to be inducted in service by 2017,” HAL Additional General Manager KP Singh told The Tribune during a visit here today. Russian aircraft manufacturer Sukhoi publicly unveiled PAK-FA, also dubbed as the T-50, which will be the base variant for developing a version that specifically caters to Indian requirements. PAK-FA is a Russian acronym for Prospective Airborne Complex of Frontline Aviation and its designers have claimed that it is comparable to the F-22 Raptor, US Air Force’s latest fighter. According to reports, HAL and Sukhoi will manufacture 250 fighters for the IAF and an equal number for Russia, with options open for further production. A joint venture company on the lines of cruise missile manufacturer BrahMos will be set up for the purpose. HAL’s contribution will include fuselage composites, flight software, including the mission computer, navigation systems, avionics and cockpit displays and counter-measure dispensing systems. Unlike the Russian version, the Indian aircraft will be a two-seater aircraft, which will involve limited re-designing of the fuselage, wings and control surfaces that will be undertaken by HAL. The project had kicked off in 2007. On the HAL-made basic trainer for the
IAF, KP Singh said that the aircraft is expected to fly in about 30 months. The trainer, christened HTT-40, is meant to be a replacement for the HPT-32 - the entire fleet of which was grounded in 2009 after a series of engine failures resulting in several fatalities.
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School van plunges into canal; 3 dead
Thiruvananthapuram, Sept 26 While most of the children were rescued by local people, two boys and a girl, all aged below 12, lost their lives as the van taking them home through a narrow road along the banks of a branch canal of Parvathy Puthanar river plunged into it at Channankara, about 25 km from here. The condition of all the children, except one, was stable, sources said. Initial reports said four children were missing,
but police said no complaint of missing children had been received. Ten rescued children were admitted to the government SAT Hospital and six in Missions Hospital at Kazhakoottam. Before the accident, two children had alighted from the van at previous stops and four others had been taken home by their parents. The children were from Jyothinilayam school in Kazhakoottam on the city outskirts. Rescue operations are still on.
— PTI
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Cong justifies Plan panel’s poverty line figures
New Delhi, September 26 Earlier, a group of leading economists rejected “official national poverty lines”, saying that Plan panel’s figures were not the acceptable benchmarks to measure the extent of poverty in the country. Congress spokesman Rashid Alvi said till now the yardstick of measuring poverty in the country was “Rs 356 a month for rural areas and Rs 539 a month for urban areas”. “It is on the basis of the Tendulkar committee methodology that the Planning Commission came up with new figures. There is a need for a review, but the government resources have to reach poorest of the poor first,” Alvi said on a day Plan panel member Arun Maira was quoted as saying that percentage of poor was declining in the country. “....the percentage of people who are poor today is declining, whether you use the Tendulkar method or the method used previously,” Maira said.
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Four yrs on, CBI to probe 323 phone lines at Maran’s home New Delhi, September 26 These 323 lines were in the name of BSNL GM connecting the boat house residence of Maran with office of Sun TV through a dedicated underground cable during the tenure of Maran as Telecom Minister, sources in the CBI claimed. The agency has recommended action to Telecom Secretary in 2007, but the department allegedly did not give its nod in the case, they said. The CBI has now decided to file a preliminary inquiry in the case against unknown persons, they said. The sources said these lines were not ordinary telephone lines, but more costly ISDN, capable of carrying huge data thus facilitating faster transmission of TV news and programmes. The CBI alleged that a stealth cable was used to connect the minister’s home with Sun TV office to give an impression that these lines were for the minister, but actually they were used by the channel. — PTI
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Truck driver beaten to death by transport dept personnel
Chandauli (UP), Sept 26 Anant Lal Gupta, 50, a native of Kaushambi district, was stopped by the checking squad in Alinagar area in the wee hours and allegedly thrashed to death by them when he expressed his inability to pay Rs 5,000 as bribe, the police said. In his complaint to the Syedraza police, the victim’s son Ashwani Kumar Gupta, who was accompanying his father, said the checking team, which included five members, took the vehicle's papers for examination and later demanded Rs 5,000 as bribe, Special Director General of Police Brij Lal said in Lucknow. Agitated with the incident, locals held a blockade at national highway-2 and when the police tried to disperse them, they turned violent and started pelting stones at the policemen. A police constable was injured in the clash. Brij Lal said a case has been filed against five accused, including a passenger tax officer, under Section 304 of IPC and Prevention of Corruption Act.
— PTI
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Won’t install any more hand pumps: Ramesh New Delhi, September 26 Stating that the Centre will now fund only pipe water supply schemes, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today batted for a "paradigm shift" in the way institutions both at the Centre and in states are looking at water supply under the National Drinking Water Programme. “We will fund only pipe water supply scheme. It is a cut decision. If you want hand pumps, you have the state government’s budget. You can’t on the one hand say water quality is a problem and then ask us to proliferate the population of hand pumps. It won't go hand in hand,” the minister said. “If you want to deal with the problem of iron, chloride, and arsenic on a long-term sustainable basis, I think, this is the only way we can do it," Ramesh said. He said the the Centre knew that the move would not go down well with the states, but asserted that it would be implemented at any cost. — PTI
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Mumbai, September 26
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'ATS needs to be strengthened'
Mumbai: Calling for a need to strengthen the state Anti-Terrorism Squad (ATS), Maharashtra Home Minister R R Patil today said the administrative problems, being faced due to overlapping of functions between the ATS and Crime Branch, should be rectified. "There are problems, which will be rectified. Certain functions of the two agencies overlap. We will have to fix the responsibilities and the nature of work of both the agencies," Patil told reporters here.
— PTI
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Amid the roaring controversy over the Finance Ministry’s note, which casts doubts over former Finance Minister P Chidambaram’s role in the 2G Spectrum scam, the government today pulled all stops in its attempt to defuse the looming political crisis.
The heat generated by Telangana protests reached the doorstep of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy’s office today as the agitators staged demonstrations in the heart of the state secretariat.
