The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

UPA allies’ outcry may lead to rollback
Faraz Ahmad/TNS

New Delhi, November 4
With prominent UPA allies, including the Trinamool Congress, fuming and frothing over the latest petrol price hike, the Congress also expressed reservations over the move and some rollback appeared imminent.

Earlier, TMC president Mamata Banerjee led the charge and even threatened to consider withdrawing support to the government if the trend continued. Others also attacked the decision with equal vehemence.

National Conference chief and Union Minister Farooq Abdullah also demanded withdrawal of the petrol price hike and his party issued a statement on similar lines.

Similarly, DMK parliamentary party leader TR Baalu also expressed reservations saying, "We are not at all satisfied with the hike. It was untimely. Frequent increase in petrol products is not fair. He said when the food inflation is already high, increasing the prices of petroleum was "definitely a burden on the common man". He said his party will raise the issue in Winter Session of Parliament.

Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee tried to distance the government from the decision saying after deregulation of petrol companies, the government had no role to play in petrol price hike. "Please remember this is a decontrolled item, and the companies maintain petrol prices," he said.

However, besieged by all-round criticism, the Congress joined in expressing concern and asking the government to take some immediate remedial measures. Privately, Congress sources hoped the government might consider a rollback.

Congress spokesman Abhishek Singhvi said his party hoped the government would look into the matter most seriously to diminish the increase.

Midnight Deceit, says BJP
BJP leader Yashwant Sinha attacked the government on fuel price hike. Earlier, the party had described the announcement as "Midnight Deceit". Sinha went a bit farther and said, "This was not midnight deceit, it was midnight massacre." "If petrol has been decontrolled why have the prices not come down even once since the decontrol has been effected?" he said.
Similar shock was expressed by CPM Politburo, AIADMK leader J Jayalalitha and UP Chief Minister Mayawati.

SC’s no to Jaya’s exemption plea
Legal Correspondent

New Delhi, November 4
The Supreme Court today rejected Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa’s plea for exemption from personal appearance in the CBI court, Bangalore, in connection with a corruption case against her.

A Bench comprising Justice Dalveer Bhandari and Justice Deepak Misra, however, asked the trial court to finish recording her statement at the next appearance. If it was not possible, the trial court should complete it the next day, the court said.

The SC also directed Karnataka police to provide Z-plus security to her. The Bench noted that during her appearance in the Bangalore court on October 20 and 21, she had answered 567 of the 1,339 questions.

The trial court is recording her statement under Section 313 CrPC meant for giving a final chance to the accused to defend herself. The disproportionate assets case against her involves Rs 66 crore accumulated by her when she was CM earlier in 1991-96.

Lokpal Bill
Team Anna seeks constitutional amendments
Aditi Tandon/TNS

New Delhi, November 4
Members of activist Anna Hazare’s core team, who are campaigning for their version of the Lokpal Bill to be passed by the Parliament, today said they had no problems with the body being accorded Constitutional status, provided there was no delay in passage of the Bill.

They demanded three major changes to the existing constitutional provisions — among them a clarification in Article 105 that MPs won’t have the privilege of accepting bribes. The Team also sought changes to Article 311 of the Constitution which says only the government will have the power to dismiss a government servant.

Team Anna also wants safeguards to ensure that no high court sits on a Lokpal order beyond three months.

Cong misusing CBI in Punjab, says Gadkari
Sends out warning to dissidents in Himachal
Faraz Ahmed/TNS

New Delhi, November 4
In Punjab, the CBI is being “misused” by the Congress, complained BJP president Nitin Gadkari a day before he leaves for Ludhiana to attend the party’s state executive.

Describing the CBI as the “Congress Bureau of Investigation”, Gadkari claimed there was no charge of corruption against any BJP minister in Punjab. Ministers, he added, were dropped because of organisational issues and had nothing to do with corruption.

Gadkari, in fact, gave a clean chit to the SAD-BJP government in the state. The state government has maintained law and order in the state as well as communal harmony. A slew of development schemes and industrial projects have been undertaken in the state, new districts have been created and reforms initiated.

The BJP, he said, had not taken any decision about seat-sharing in the Assembly elections scheduled to be held early next year. In the last election, the BJP had contested 23 seats and won 19 of them. He, however, remained noncommittal about asking for more seats for the party.

He also held out a stern warning to dissidents in Himachal Pradesh and threatened them with disciplinary action if they persisted in raising issues related to corruption. BJP dissidents owing allegiance to Shanta Kumar, possibly emboldened by the developments in Uttarakhand where the BJP replaced the Chief Minister, have recently raised a banner of revolt.

The beleaguered HP Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal had called on Gadkari earlier this week and complained about the dissidents. Gadkari told The Tribune that charges against the Dhumal government were completely baseless and there was no evidence whatsoever. “It is not proper to malign the government without evidence and if leaders persist with their improper conduct, the party will be forced to take disciplinary action against them,” he added.

Illegal mining
CBI quizzes Jagan Mohan
Suresh Dharur/TNS

Hyderabad, November 4
Amid high drama, YSR Congress party president YS Jagan Mohan Reddy today appeared before the CBI in connection with the illegal mining case involving jailed mining baron and former Karnataka Minister Gali Janardhan Reddy.

He was questioned by the CBI sleuths for over two hours about his business links with the mining czar who is in jail here along with his brother-in-law and managing director of Obulapuram Mining Company (OMC) Srinivas Reddy.

However, it was clarified by the CBI sources later that Jagan was summoned as a witness in the case and not as an accused. Emerging from the grilling, a combative Jagan sought to turn the tables on TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, saying that the mining licence was granted for OMC in 2002 when TDP was in power.

Dark underbelly of IT hub: It’s city with highest suicide rate
Shubhadeep Choudhury/TNS

Bangalore, November 4
The IT hub, it seems, is fast becoming the suicide capital of the country. A techie today committed suicide by jumping from the fifth floor of his office building located in the Electronic City area of Bangalore. Tushar Bhatia (30) hailed from Bihar and the reason why he took such an extreme step is unclear.

Bhatia’s suicide is yet another addition to the alarmingly rising suicide graph of the ‘Garden City.’ For the past two years, Bangalore has earned the dubious distinction of the city having the highest number of suicides — 1,778 cases were reported in 2010; the figure for 2009 was 2,167.

According to the statistics released by National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) recently, Bangalore is followed by Chennai, which recorded 1,325 suicides, Delhi 1,242 and Mumbai 1,192.

Together, Bangalore, Chennai, Delhi and Mumbai accounted for almost 43 per cent of the total suicides in 35 cities measured. Bangalore topped the list for the previous five years before 2009, too.

Experts point to accelerated development, sudden social urbanisation and high migration as the prime factors responsible. Being the tech hub of India, the city attracts a huge number of techies and other professionals from across the country.

“Skyrocketing aspirations of individuals are almost impossible to be satisfied in the city and many are unable to cope up with stress”, G Gururaj, professor and Head of the Fepartment of Epidemiology, NIMHANS, said.

Interestingly, the data from the NCRB also suggest that almost half the number of people who committed suicides in Bangalore were illiterate. This phenomenon is theorised by experts by saying that Bangalore is a city where educational standards required to find a job are high, thus widening the gap between rich and poor and the losers in the race sometimes end their lives.

However, bulk of the suicides committed in Bangalore reportedly has to do with financial difficulties. “At least 30 per cent to 40 per cent cases of suicides are due to financial problems. In some cases, parents who were in severe debt had killed their children and then took their own lives”, an officer with the city’s crime record bureau said.

Bangalore Bane

For the past two years, Bangalore has earned the dubious distinction of recording the highest number of suicides among cities in India

Experts point to accelerated development, sudden social urbanisation and high migration as the prime factors responsible.

Bangalore also topped the list for five years preceding 2009

Battle for Marathi votes
Bal Thackeray, Raj outshout one another
Shiv Kumar
Tribune News Service

Mumbai, November 4
Locked in desperate combat to carve the Marathi vote bank among themselves ahead of the February elections to the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation, the Shiv Sena and its offshoot the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena are taking Mumbai to the brink of parochial conflict.

Bal Thackeray and his rebellious nephew who head the respective outfits have taken to abusing North Indian migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar who have made Mumbai their home. The Shiv Sena jumped into it all after viewing the success of the MNS in the Maharashtra assembly elections two years ago.

The elder Thackeray had then accused his estranged nephew of betrayal for misguiding the Marathi voter and thus paving the way for the Congress and its ally, the Nationalist Congress Party to retain power in the state.

But with the Mumbai civic polls round the corner and the Shiv Sena bogged down under the weight of incumbency after 20 years in office, Bal Thackeray has decided to outshout nephew Raj in order to retain as much of the Marathi vote as possible. His first target was former party aide-turned-Congressman Sanjay Nirupam, who has played a major role in mobilising the North Indian vote for the Grand Old Party.

Latching on to a statement made by Nirupam in faraway Nagpur that Mumbai would shut down if the North Indians struck work for a day, Thackeray said his men would break Nirupam’s teeth for challenging the Marathis in their home turf of Mumbai. “You have come to earn a living in Mumbai, so please do not pick a fight with us,” Thackeray wrote in the party mouthpiece, Saamna.

Not to be outdone, nephew Raj reminded the Marathi manoos that it was uncle Bal and cousin Uddhav who reared Nirupam. “Now you are saying he has become so big that you even find it hard to break his teeth,” Raj added.