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Congress to challenge FIR against Rahul
Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh at a poll rally in Firozabad on Tuesday. — PTI
Diesel cars to get costlier as govt plans 10% cess
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AP Govt looks for treasure trove beneath hillock
TMC-Cong tussle: Mamata to meet Manmohan today
Bihar asks Mauritius Govt to set up medical college in state
Frequent K’taka bypolls mock democracy
Praful writes to Ajit Singh, seeks probe
TB, heart diseases stalk inmates in Indian jails
President’s son quizzed over cash seizure
Pakistani ‘spy’ arrested
SC: Govt should protect people’s lives at any cost
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Congress to challenge FIR against Rahul
Lucknow, February 21 Speaking to the media in Kanpur, Congress general secretary and in charge of UP Digvijay Singh said the Congress would move the high court seeking to get the FIR against Gandhi and others, including Congress' Kanpur city president Mahesh Dixit, cancelled.
"Rahul Gandhi is a law-abiding citizen who respects the law and takes special care not to violate orders of the Election Commission. Still the manner in which the FIR has been lodged against him and others indicate that the action has been taken on the instructions of the Mayawati government in Lucknow," Singh said. "It appears that the Mayawati government is clearly nervous at the success of Rahul Gandhi's road show in Lucknow and the general effectiveness of the Congress' campaign in the state," he claimed. According to Singh, the party received the news of the change in the route at the eleventh hour. He also claimed that the party had till now not received any notice regarding the violation of model code of conduct by Gandhi and others. District Magistrate Hari Om said the FIR had been lodged against Gandhi and others for breaching the time limit and ignoring the route map for the road show set by the district administration.
The district administration had allocated time till noon and fixed a 20-km route for the road show of Rahul Gandhi, who, according to the DM, did not adhere to either the route set by them or to the time limit. Similarly, attacking the Kanpur district administration, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said the administration gave permission for the road show on February 17 but withdrew it on the night of February 19 in the name of Shivratri when all the arrangements for the road show had been made. "Everybody, except perhaps the Kanpur district administration, knew well in advance about the impending festival of Shivratri," he quipped. Sibal was addressing a press conference at the UPCC headquarters in Lucknow. UPCC chief Rita Bahuguna Joshi also charged the district administration of trying to stop Gandhi's mass contact programme at the behest of the Mayawati government. Totally unperturbed by the furor, Gandhi continued his campaigning in Mainpuri and Etah districts where he continued his Jan Sampark and addressed two public meetings in what is considered Mulayam Singh Yadav's bastion.
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Poll Snippets
A significant indicator of women empowerment which has emerged during the 16th Vidhan Sabha polls in Uttar Pradesh is the enthusiastic participation of women in voting. The figures compiled for the nine assembly seats in Lucknow show that their participation has improved significantly everywhere and dramatically in four rural seats of Malihabad (62.55 per cent), Bakhshi ka Talab (63.69 per cent), Sarojini Nagar (66.80 per cent) and Mohanlalganj (61.43 per cent). Explaining this, former state chief of the Mahila Samakhya Nishi Mahrotra said the reservation of women in panchayats has encouraged their participation in village meetings. More women now come out to sit in the village chaupal as passive listeners if not active participants in discussions over local issues. A woman Chief Minister at the helm of affairs may have also encouraged them to be more assertive about their political rights.
Right to reject
In Lucknow, of the 15 voters who chose the right to reject, seven are doctors working for the Sanjay Gandhi Post Graduate Institute. They took the trouble of going to their polling booth in the rural Sarojini Nagar and queue up. After signing the register, they explained in writing that they had chosen not to vote as they found none of the candidates suitable for their vote. Two others were the husband-wife team of the office bearers of the All India Voters' Forum.
EC's hawk eye
The Election Commission's monitoring is strict not only in the state capital but even in faraway districts where nothing seems to escape their eyes and ears. In Mahoba on the border of Madhya Pradesh, notices were issued against the BJP and Congress candidates for violation of the Model Code of Conduct. BJP candidate from Chatarpur Lalita Yadav, who was going to attend BJP president Nitin Gadkari's election meeting in Kulpahad, was stopped by the EC flying squad. She was asked to explain why she was moving with more than five vehicles without permission along with security guards. Congress candidate from Mahoba Arimardan Singh was asked to explain why such a large quantity of sweets in small packets was found in two cars parked outside the local Congress election office.
Crystal-clear instruction
The Labour Department is alert in the "Suhaag Nagari" of Firozabad where thousands of workers work in various glass factories dotting the city. According to Assistant Labour Commissioner Madhur Singh, special care is being taken to ensure that over 50,000 labourers working in the bangle industry are given a paid holiday to cast their vote on February 23. The department is running a campaign to inform the voters working as unorganised labour in the industries here that they would be given a paid holiday to cast their votes and the factories would remain closed. Earlier, the exploitative glass industry and cold storages in the region extracted an extra day's work from the labourers in lieu of the holiday given to them on voting day. (Compiled by Shahira
Naim)
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Diesel cars to get costlier as govt plans 10% cess
New Delhi, February 21 The move from the government is expected as the demand of diesel cars has zoomed over the past year following repeated hikes in petrol prices. Another major hike of Rs 4 per litre is expected immediately after the ongoing Assembly elections in various states. Top officials of the majority of the automobile makers, especially diesel car makers, have already approached the Finance Ministry officials seeking to stop the levying of the cess. However, despite all efforts, the government, which is also under pressure from environmentalists, would go ahead with the increase in prices of diesel cars. The cess could push the car prices up by over Rs 70,000, depending on the model and its pricing. The increase in prices of the diesel cars would come as another jolt for the car makers in the country, which are already facing a major slowdown in the automobile industry as a result of increased fuel prices and higher interest rates. With January sales falling short of expectations, the outlook for the January-to-March quarter this year is also not very bright and the car sales would miss the target set at the start of the fiscal in 2011. Car sales, which grew 30 per cent during 2010-11, posted their first monthly fall in three years last July as result of high financing and running costs This would be the first time in 10 years that car sales would not be able to cross the target forecast at the beginning of the fiscal. In comparison, however, the sale of diesel cars in the popular car segment (Rs 4 to 10 lakh) has increased from about 48 per cent at the start of 2010-11 to around 52 per cent by September 2011. Incidentally, the car makers are not very happy with the government move and already a top official of Ford India has said that levying a cess on diesel car was not the right approach and instead the price of diesel should be hiked to earn more revenue. In December last, the Parliamentary Panel on Petroleum and Natural Gas had also suggested levying a "cess on diesel car (private car) to be paid at the time of purchase of diesel vehicle". It said such collections should go for "compensating the under recoveries of oil marketing companies." At present, petrol and diesel cars attract excise duty of 10 per cent (less than 4 m) and 22 per cent (large cars).
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AP Govt looks for treasure trove beneath hillock
Hyderabad, February 21 The Andhra Pradesh Archaeology Department, which supervised the digging work on all sides of a hillock and in the premises of a century-old school building in the heart of the city, has not found anything worthwhile so far. The archaeologists have now sought the expertise of geologists to locate the “tunnel” which is believed to contain a massive treasure. “We have approached the National Mineral Development Corporation (NMDC) to conduct the survey and submit a report,” the Director of the state archaeology department P Chenna Reddy said. The hillock “Naubath Pahad”, on which stands the majestic Birla temple, and its surrounding area have become the cynosure of all eyes as it is believed that there is a huge treasure underneath a hidden tunnel. However, the massive digging works in their premises and the sudden media attention have created nuisance for the management of Vidyaranya Public School, a highly respected educational institution in the city. “They just walked into our premises and started digging the area indiscriminately. Nobody bothered to inform us or take our permission. This is affecting our students,” said a spokesman of the school. Based on an affidavit filed by TB Raju, chief manager (personnel), Coal India Limited, and eight others, stating that they had reliable information about the presence of a treasure in a hidden tunnel beneath the Naubath Pahad, the archaeology department took up the excavation work. According to Dr Mohammad Safiullah, a member of the Hyderabad chapter of the Indian National Trust for Art and Cultural Heritage (INTACH), the 100-year-old school building belonged to the kings of Wanaparthi province of the neighbouring Mahbubnagar district, who used to own nearly one lakh acres of land in the area. "That may be the reason to believe that there could be a treasure in the area. But there is no evidence to that effect," he said. “I have told the officials that instead of digging up everywhere, they should take the help of sophisticated instruments if they feel there is something underneath,” the Minister for Archaeology and Museums Vatti Vasant Kumar said.
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TMC-Cong tussle: Mamata to meet Manmohan today
Kolkata, February 21 Mamata has already expressed her resentment at the Home Ministry’s lukewarm attitude in finalising the new Darjeeling accord signed at the tripartite meeting on July 29. She had also expressed her unhappiness on the Centre’s decision to set up the National Counter Terrorism Centre without consulting the states. Before starting off from the city for New Delhi today, the Chief Minister said she would demand from the PM the immediate implementation of the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration (GTA) Act which would give more economic, administrative and financial powers to the hill council. She said that the state government had agreed on the GTA Act, which the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) leaders endorsed, in the presence of Home Minister Chidambaram. She claimed the Home Ministry was sitting on the file. Mamata denied there was any politics in her protest on the NCTC issue. She wasn’t clear if the Centre would be encroaching upon the states’ jurisdiction by enforcing the NCTC order, but she was annoyed that such a controversial step had been taken without informing the state governments. Mamata said that despite repeated reminders, no financial aid had been sanctioned in the form of special grant to the state to deal with the financial burden that her government had inherited from the Left front government. The state government demanded that the Centre should, at least, grant a three-month moratorium on the repayment of interest amounting to Rs 22,000 crore every month on the loans that the Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee’s government had taken. During her meeting with the PM, Mamata will also raise issues like the Teesta water sharing treaty,
problems at the Farakka barrage and exchange of enclaves between India and Bangladesh.
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Bihar asks Mauritius Govt to set up medical college in state
Patna, February 21 The letter was handed over to a visiting minister of the island country, Mookheshwar Choonee, who was here to participate in the global summit on changing Bihar. The offer letter says that the college and hospital would be in the joint name of the first Indian President Dr Rajendra Prasad and Sir Seewoosagar Ramgoolam, popularly referred to as “father of the nation” in Mauritius. The state government has planned to set up this joint venture on a plot of 27 acres at Mairwa in Siwan district. A leprosy ashram in the name of Rajendra Prasad exists on this place. Chaube said the land offered for the joint project was located on the highway connecting eight districts of Bihar and seven districts of Uttar Pradesh. The hospital was expected to cater to the needs of around one crore people living in the area. The Mauritian minister of art and culture, who is carrying the letter for his PM, said a large number of Mauritians had their roots in Bihar and other parts of India and this project would further strengthen the ties between the two nations. The Bihar Government plans to send a delegation to Mauritius to discuss the modalities for the joint venture after it gets the acceptance letter from the island nation. If the project comes through, it would be the first medical education project in foreign collaboration in the state, Chaube said.
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Frequent K’taka bypolls mock democracy
Bangalore, February 21 The byelection next month is different from previous byelections since this one is for a Parliamentary constituency and has nothing to do with defection by MLAs. Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda’s resignation from the Udupi-Chikmagalur Lok Sabha seat after getting elected to the Legislative Council in a byelection on December 22 has necessitated the March 18 parliamentary byelection. An unprecedented 22 byelections - held for 20 Assembly constituencies and one Legislative Council seat - have preceded the first Lok Sabha byelection in the state taking place under the BJP regime. Contest for the Udupi-Chikmagalur seat will be the first byelection of 2012. In the previous year, there were byelections in five Assembly constituencies and one Legislative Council seat. Two Assembly byelections took place in 2010, six in 2009 and eight Assembly byelections took place in December 2008, within seven months of formation of government by the BJP in the state in May 2008. Seventeen out of the 21 Assembly byelections were held owing to floor-crossing by opposition MLAs to help the ruling party. Congress and JD (S), two main opposition parties in Karnataka, are both planning to play up the phenomenon of the BJP-engineered defections of MLAs as an election issue in the coming LS
byelection.
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AI ‘largesse’ Tribune News Service
New Delhi, February 21 In a letter to Singh, the former Civil Aviation Minister referred to news reports based on an RTI query wherein it had been alleged that some members of his family travelled from Bangalore to Male and back in an Air India flight which was changed to a larger aircraft so as to enable them to travel by business class. "I am personally embarrassed and pained about the impression that is sought to be created that (a) the passengers travelled either on free tickets or were upgraded to business class, whereas they were actually fully paid business class passengers; (b) it was done at my behest; (c) Air India or any private Airlines has never done change of aircraft typeever before if they have more bookings or for commercial reasons,” Patel said, requesting Singh to "immediately order an enquiry and ascertain all the facts or probe the matter in any way you deem appropriate." "I would be very obliged if you take this up at the earliest so as to clear the doubts and wrong impression which have emanated out of the RTI query and sensationalised media reports," he said. Asked about this controversy, Singh said "they (Air India) should not have done this (changing the aircraft)."
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TB, heart diseases stalk inmates in Indian jails
New Delhi, February 21 A considerable proportion of inmates committed suicides or succumbed to injuries and many died in road accidents. The audit has revealed shocking, even ironical details, and posed question marks over the safety of inmates in the overcrowded jails. The audit shows that out of 2,138 inmates, whose deaths the state governments have explained to the commission so far, 234 committed suicide; 240 died of “injuries” (nature not explained) and 6 died in road accidents. Only 271 deaths have been found to have occurred due to natural causes; the rest have either followed some preventable illness or injury, accident and suicide. The NHRC for its part is baffled by the trends that have surfaced. It is difficult, for instance, to explain how a whopping 839 deaths out of 2,138 happened due to TB, a preventable respiratory disease. Among those who died, 408 were aged 18 to 45 years and 229 were aged 18 to 35 years. The commission is also finding it hard to believe that 349 deaths (17 per cent) occurred due to cardio-respiratory failure and heart attacks. The mystery is compounded by the age profile of the dead. “Our analysis shows that 149 inmates, who died due to cardio-respiratory failure, were very young - aged 18 to 45 years. They could have survived with timely medical attention. Moreover, 21 inmates, who died on account of heart attacks, were even younger - aged 18 to 25 years. TB deaths are equally inexplicable and shocking. These indicate the fact that neither medical check-ups are being done on inmates who arrive freshly in jails nor are the infected being segregated to prevent infection from spreading,” Justice BC Patel, doing the audit, told The Tribune. In all, 3,057 custodial deaths happened in India over the past three years. So far, 2,138 deaths have been explained by the jail authorities. Following is the breakup of causes of 2,138 deaths: 838 TB; 349 cardio-respiratory failure; 271 natural; 240 injuries; 234 suicides; 44 cancer; 40 HIV/AIDS; 34 asthma; 32 jaundice; 25 hypertension and 24 diabetes. The highest number of deaths have occurred in UP jails (572), followed by Bihar (290), Maharashtra (241) and Andhra Pradesh (228). Among TB deaths, too, UP jails top the charts accounting for 248 inmate’s deaths out of 839, followed by Bihar (85), Maharashtra (70) and Jharkhand (63). Maximum suicides also happened in UP (34) jails, followed by Maharashtra (24), Tamil Nadu (20) and Himachal (18). As many as 84 suicides were committed by youngsters aged 25 to 35 years. The NHRC will submit its report to the Centre and seek increased public spending on health. “The 12th Plan must factor in these issues. The government should increase its health budget and the jails must get a fair share. Inmates’ lives are not cheap,” Justice Patel said.
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President’s son quizzed over cash seizure
Amravati, February 21 "There was a communication gap and the MPCC could not inform me how and when the fund was dispatched. I came to know only when the Amravati Police seized the vehicle and recovered Rs 1 crore. I got a call from the person bringing cash to Amravati when the police detained him. After the seizure, I contacted the MPCC office, who then quickly faxed detailed statements of disbursement to the police," Shekhawat told the mediapersons after recording his statement before the Commissioner of Police Amitesh Kumar. "I told the police that Rs 1 crore was meant for disbursement among 87 Congress nominees in proportion of Rs 1 lakh each for municipal polls and remaining Rs 13 lakh was supposed to be spent by the Amravati District Congress Committee for meeting the expenses and making advance payments. The entire fund was sent by the MPCC through its general secretary advocate Ganesh Patil," Shekhawat said. “We submitted original papers to the police for verification and told them about the sequence of events,” Shekhawat's lawyer Wasim Ahmead Mirza said. The city police had asked Shekhawat, besides others, to record his statement following the direction by a local court in this regard after seizure of the cash. "Our explanation was satisfactory and we have placed facts before the police," Mirza said. — PTI
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Pakistani ‘spy’ arrested
New Delhi, February 21 The Pakistani national has been identified as Asif Hossain, also known as Kamran Akbar alias Attar. He got married and settled down with an Indian woman from West Bengal in October 2009. Hossain had a driving licence issued in West Bengal, an Income Tax PAN card and an international debit card of United Bank of India. He also holds an Indian passport and an Election Commission photo identity card - both issued in Kolkata. The police claimed that as a cover-up, he was running a garments business. Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime and Railways) Ashok Chand said, “Hossain was like a resident agent in India for Pakistani military intelligence agencies. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police had recently nabbed him with confidential defence documents near the New Delhi railway station. His handlers across the border had tasked him with cultivating links with defence personnel and relaying information about the Indian Army.” On February 13, the police was tipped off about the agent who would arrive at Delhi to receive some secret documents from his contact. Police said the man who was to deliver the documents was an Army personnel. Police nabbed him from Chelmsford Road leading to the New Delhi railway station from Connaught Place. Police said Hossain was planning to take the documents to Kolkata for further transmission to his handlers in Pakistan. He reports to a man identified only as Chauhan and he is a “military officer”, according to the police. According to a source, one of his contacts was a retired Indian Air Force official, from whom he could not extract vital information. He had also gone to the Pakistan High Commission to collect funds, relay information or probably act as a courier to send the defence documents. A team of the Crime Branch raided his house in Kolkata. The investigating agencies found some “hand-written notes”, which, according to Hossain, were made during his training that was imparted by the Pakistani military intelligence at
Multan.
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Chargesheet filed against Jigna Vora
Shiv Kumar/TNS
Mumbai, February 21 “We have filed a supplementary chargesheet against Vora today in the MCOCA court," Additional Commissioner of Police Deven Bharti told reporters later today. The 1,400-page supplementary charge sheet was filed in addition to the 3,055 page charge sheet filed earlier in the case, Bharti said. Vora who was attached to a city newspaper was arrested on November 25 last year. A section of the Mumbai police believe that Vora provided information about J Dey to gangster Chhota Rajan who ordered his men to carry out the hit. However, this has been contested by Vora's former editor and colleagues who have found holes in the police theory. According to the charge sheet filed against Vora, she has been booked under various sections of the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act, Arms Act and the Bombay Police Act. Among the sections levied on her include those pertaining to murder, criminal conspiracy and destruction of evidence. Later, the special MCOCA court extended the custody of all accused till March 12.
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SC: Govt should protect people’s lives at any cost
New Delhi, February 21 A Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and HL Gokhale made the observation while hearing a PIL on the death of 20 young job aspirants by falling from the roof of two speeding trains in Uttar Pradesh on February 1, 2011. The Bench made the remark as the Railways, the state government, the Centre and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) blamed one another for the tragedy. The petitioner, advocate AK Gupta, said it was unfortunate that lakhs of youth from 11 states had come to Bareilly, UP, for submitting their applications for jobs with the ITBP. The border police should not have centralised the process, inviting so many people at one place at the same time. Acknowledging youths’ desperation for jobs, the Bench noted that normally lakhs of applications were received for a few hundred jobs. “We understand the problem because of over population. But it does not mean that constitutional and statutory obligations can be given a go-bye. The government can’t leave its responsibility for protecting lives in the hands of the people themselves. If lives can’t be protected, then why the government is there,” the Bench observed. Directing the ITBP, the Railways and the state government to submit copies of the reports of the fact-finding committees set up by them separately following the incident, the apex court slated the next hearing for March 27. Indicating its willingness to issue guidelines for preventing such incidents in future, the Bench asked the UP government to explain under what circumstances the ITBP was allowed to resort to the use of lathicharge and teargas shells.
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Blaming the Mayawati government for lodging an FIR against Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in Kanpur yesterday, the Congress today declared its determination to challenge the order in the high court.
Come budget and the diesel cars could become more expensive as the government is planning to levy a one-time cess of at least 10 per cent at the time of purchase of new diesel cars. Reports emerging from the market suggest while there was a recommendation for a higher one-time cess on diesel cars, the government may limit it to 10 per cent.
Hyderabad, February 21
J Dey murder
Blaming the Mayawati government for lodging an FIR against Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi in Kanpur yesterday, the Congress today declared its determination to challenge the order in the high court.
Tuberculosis has emerged as the largest killer, claiming 40 per cent of inmates’ lives, followed by cardio-respiratory failure and heart attacks. Majority of inmates who died due to ailments such as hypertension, asthma, diabetes and even jaundice, were in the age group of 18 to 45 years.