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Maoists to release Odisha MLA today
Collector’s abduction |
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Anna Hazare to advise M’rashtra on Lokayukta
Govt to reassess poverty determination indicators
UPA consensus on Presidential candidate a far cry
Pak prisoner, 85, gets burial, thanks to fellow Indian inmate
Overall decrease in wastelands in India
PM reconstitutes EGoM for drought management
Delhi HC rejects plea for probing Singhvi CD scandal
MUMBAI ATTACK
Custody row
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Maoists to release Odisha MLA today
Bhubaneswar, April 25 “Hikaka will put in his papers after his release and has given a written undertaking to this effect in the praja court. He is all right and in good health,” an audio message to the media from the Maoist Andhra-Odisha Border Special Zonal Committee (AOBSZC) said. The 37-year-old MLA would be handed over to his wife Kaushalya and Koraput-based lawyer Nihar Patnaik tomorrow morning at Balipeta, near Narayanpatna, in Koraput district, the message from a senior leader of the AOBSZC said. The MLA had reportedly told the “praja” court held on April 23 and 24 that he would resign as MLA and also snap all ties with the BJD and live as an ordinary citizen and work for the people. Hikaka, according to the message, alleged that Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik did not take any active steps for his release because he was a tribal. The message in Odia language said the people believed that as a local MLA, Hikaka had failed to stop “anti-people” steps taken by the government. This was also “admitted to” by him. It said the “praja” court also discussed “Operation Greenhunt”, alleged excesses and atrocities against innocent people. The Maoists had earlier informed Koraput-based lawyer Nihar Patnaik, who fights cases for rebels, and their front organisatiom Chasi Mulia Adivasi Sangha (CMAS), about the “praja” court’s decision. Though the Maoists had initially placed a tough condition that 29 freed rebels be produced at Balipeta along with MLA’s wife and the lawyer for hostage-prisoner exchange, they softened their stand later. The Chief Minister and some BJD leaders, including Koraput MP Jairam Pangi, had appealed for Hikaka’s release.
— PTI
VIPs told to avoid Naxal-hit areas
Hyderabad: The Andhra Pradesh Police has issued a general advisory to all elected representatives, mainly ministers, MPs and MLAs, asking them not to travel to Maoist-hit areas in the state. The advisory will be applicable to senior bureaucrats and important government officials as well, highly-placed police sources said. — PTI
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Deadline ends, mediators work out action plan
Raipur/New Delhi, April 25 As the hostage crisis entered the fifth day, the 32-year-old IAS officer received medicines sent for him by the authorities. He was reported to be safe. The Chhattisgarh Police said it had a broad idea of the area where Menon had been held captive but it was unable to pinpoint the exact location since the abductors were always on the move. "We have an idea about the area where he could be, but exactly it can't be pinpointed," SP of Sukma Abhishek said. The two government mediators, former chief secretaries of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh Nirmala Buch and SK Mishra, held meetings with officials in Raipur this evening to work out a plan of action to ensure that Menon was freed by the ultras unharmed. Chief Minister Raman Singh reiterated since the dialogue process would be starting, the Maoists should not insist on any deadline. The Maoists had demanded release of eight of their jailed leaders. — PTI
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Copter deal: Antony seeks fresh report on ‘tainted’ Italy firm
New Delhi, April 25 The Ministry of Defence today said there were media reports in February 2012 about investigations undertaken by Italian authorities into alleged unethical dealings by M/s Finmeccanica Italy. Following this, information was sought by the MoD from the Indian Embassy in Rome. The Indian Embassy had then reported that Italian authorities were conducting preliminary investigations on allegations of financial malpractices occurring within Finmeccanica and its subsidiaries in general. No specific probe was being conducted on the India-related transactions. There is no clear indication at this stage whether the India related deal would be probed on the basis of the preliminary investigations. “The contract for the procurement of the helicopters contains the standard provisions against use of undue influence and employment of agents and payment of agency commission. A Pre-Contract Integrity Pact has also been signed between Agusta Westland and the MoD”, an MoD spokesperson Sitanshu Kar said. Any such complaint or allegation, if received, will be investigated and the contractual provisions invoked in case any wrongdoing is established, in addition to action that may be required under law, Kar said.
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It’s here: First ‘made in India’ anti-malaria drug
New Delhi, April 25 The quick-relief treatment for uncomplicated malaria caused by Plasmodium falciparum in adults is a major breakthrough as Plasmodium falciparum causes 50% malarial deaths in India annually and 90% deaths annually worldwide. The drug is the result of the first successful public-private partnership on pharmaceutical research and development in India. Of the $30 million that the development of Synriam cost Ranbaxy, the Ministry of Science paid Rs 5 crore. The government shared investment costs on the condition of low pricing of the drug. Accordingly, Synriam costs only Rs 130 for a simple dosage of one tablet a day for three days. Most current options cost anywhere between Rs 170 and Rs 300 and require patients to take two to four tablets twice daily for three or more days. Synriam reduces the pill burden, leading to better compliance as the chances of patients missing the drug due to high dosage reduce. The new medicine that hit the markets today is also independent of dietary restrictions for fatty foods or milk (as is the case with current traditional therapies). Most importantly, it is a synthetic drug and not plant-based, like the currently available artemisinin-based anti-malarials. “Since it is a synthetic drug, it can be easily scaled up. Production is no issue,” Ranbaxy CEO Arun Sawhney said after the launch today. Ranbaxy wants to introduce the drug in government programmes. The drug is a major R&D leap for India which accounts for 77% of all 2.5 million malaria cases reported in South East Asia annually. So far as malarial mortality goes, the government estimate of 1,000 deaths a year has been disputed by medical journal Lancet, which estimates 2.05 lakh deaths annually. “The expert committee we set up to estimate the correct mortality has pegged the deaths at 40,000 a year but is waiting for the data to be validated by the ICMR,” Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said after launching the drug along with Science Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on the occasion of World Malaria Day today.
The benefits
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Anna Hazare to advise M’rashtra on Lokayukta
Mumbai, April 25 According to sources, Hazare will meet with senior leaders of both the ruling and Opposition combine ahead of a statewide tour from May 1. Supporters of the social activist are mobilising the public to participate in Hazare's programme that aims to highlight corruption in Maharashtra. Over the past few weeks, a report by the Comptroller and Auditor General about a large-scale land grab by politicians and bureaucrats has reignited public ire against graft in high places. "Hazare will kickstart his programme from Shirdi in Maharashtra," says a spokesman of the social activist. This, however, will not be a fast since Hazare will be touring the state. According to him, Hazare will hold dialogues with leaders of the Shiv Sena and the BJP in addition to the ruling parties in the state. For many years, successive governments in the state have taken pains to be in Hazare’s good books. This time too, the decision by Chavan and Pawar to rope in the social activist
is seen as a move to pre-empt Hazare from carrying out a campaign against the government.
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Govt to reassess poverty determination indicators
New Delhi, April 25 Answering supplementaries in the Lok Sabha during question hour today, Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar told the House that a technical group was being put in place to revisit the current methodology being used to compute poverty estimates in order that the disconnect between ground realities and the current methodology is addressed. “Within this month itself, the technical group would be in place. We would, if necessary, revisit the indicators for determining poverty,” Kumar said. At present, the poverty is being computed on the basis of the methodology given by the Tendulkar Committee which was set up in 2005. This Committee had moved away from the calorie consumption count which was being earlier used to determine poverty and said that people’s expenditure on food, health as well as education also needs to be considered. On the basis of the Tendulkar Committee estimates, the number of poor persons in India reduced from 40.7 crore in 2004-05 to 35.5 crore in 2009-10. In percentage terms poverty declined from 37.2 pc to 29.8 pc between the said period, the Government said today adding that extreme poverty had declined over the years in India due to UPA’s poverty alleviation programmes. Kumar’s insistence on decline in poverty was, however, met with strong resistance in the House with members contesting the same and pointing out discrepancies in poverty estimate calculations. BJD’s Bhartruhari Mahtab asked how the Planning Commission’s target of eliminating poverty in India by 2021-22 would be met when that target was fixed on the poverty estimates given by the Lakdawala Committee set up in 1977 whereas the Commission later in 2005 accepted the higher poverty estimates given by Tendulkar Committee. In response, the Government said the target of poverty elimination would be met. Kumar added that the Large Sample Surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure conducted by the National Samples Survey Organisation after evaluating one lakh households in 2009-10 showed that the all-India poverty ratio had declined by eight percentage points from 41.8 pc to 33.8 pc in rural areas.
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The tiger has a new home — Mizoram
Guwahati, April 25 Tiger presence has been confirmed in the 550 square km Dampa Tiger Reserve (DTR) in Mizoram following a field survey and DNA analysis of scat samples collected from the protected area. The faecal samples were put to DNA analysis in the wildlife genetic laboratory of Aaranyak, a leading society for biodiversity conservation in northeast India recognised by the Ministry of Science and Technology as a Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (SIRO). Laltlanhlua Zathang, Field Director of the Dampa Tiger Reserve said 27 scat samples on carnivores were collected during a joint field survey in the reserve from March 7 to 9. “I have just received information from Aaranyak that their DNA laboratory has confirmed that nine of the samples were that of tiger. It is very encouraging news,” he said. According to Udayan Borthakur, Head of the Wildlife Genetics Programme of Aaranyak, efforts were on to find out the number of tigers present in Dampa through the use of DNA fingerprinting.
PugMarks
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UPA consensus on Presidential candidate a far cry
New Delhi, April 25 President Pratibha Patil is set to demit office in three months and the election for the next occupant of the Rashtrapati Bhavan is slated for July 25. Sonia, who also doubles as the UPA chairperson, met key ally NCP chief Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar this evening in connection with the upcoming Presidential poll. There was no official word about the meeting, but UPA sources said the subject of Patil’s successor did figure in their discussions. It was, however, described as a preliminary meeting and will be followed by detailed consultations. Pawar has publicly stated that the next Presidential candidate will have to be an agreed choice of all the key parties given the numerical strength of different political parties in Parliament and state assemblies. The Congress does not have the requisite numbers in the Electoral College to get its candidate elected. Consequently, the Trinamool Congress, the Samajwadi Party (SP) and the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) are key players in the Presidential poll. The UPA needs to arrive at an understanding with two of these three parties to push through its Presidential candidate. However, this could prove to be an uphill task. Trinamool chief and West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee and SP leader Mulayum Singh Yadav have indicated that they will not endorse anybody from the Congress fold. Since they will be playing a critical role in this election, they will want a candidate of their choice. Mamata, for instance, is pitching for former West Bengal Governor Gopal Gandhi. The TNC and the SP are being encouraged by the BJP-led NDA to use their combined clout to ensure that a non-Congress candidate succeeds Patil. A senior BJP leader admitted that their party wants to use this Presidential election to expand the NDA with an eye on the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. Keen on former President APJ Abdul Kalam, the BJP’s effort will be to isolate the Congress by persuading the regional players to endorse Kalam’s candidature. At present, Vice-President Hamid Ansari appears to be frontrunner. Since he is not from the Congress ranks, he could be acceptable to the Trinamool, the SP and the Left.
The race hots up
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Pak prisoner, 85, gets burial, thanks to fellow Indian inmate
Lucknow, April 25 Hawaldar Khan (85) was buried at the Qabargaah (graveyard) at Keolariya village, around 50 km from Bareilly, by a 40-year-old labourer Yunus Khan late last night. Yunus Khan had shared some time with Hawaldar Khan in the Bareilly district jail last year. Hawaldar Khan’s family refused to come forward to claim his body and the Pakistan Embassy had denied that he was a Pak national. Hawaldar Khan was originally a native of Bareilly. Around 30 years ago, he decided to join his brother, Subedar Khan, in Pakistan. He abandoned his two wives and children to move to Pakistan. In 2005, he visited India on a 45-day non-reporting visa. But before he could reach home, he lost his belongings, including his passport and visa. He kept roaming around until he was arrested under the Foreigners Act in Bareilly on April 20, 2011. He was kept in the Bareilly jail. There he became friends with a much younger Yunus Khan who was there on charges of fraud. “When my family had abandoned me, Dada (Hawaldar Khan) stood by me,” said Yunus.
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Overall decrease in wastelands in India
New Delhi, April 25 According to data released today, while the list of 21 gainers is led by desert state Rajasthan, alongside is a group of eight states with notable hill states like J&K, Arunachal, Nagaland, Uttarakhand and Meghalaya, where the trend reversed with an increase in wasteland during the period. The land resources department made a comparison of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) satellite data between 2005-06 and 2008-09. Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, who released “Wastelands Atlas of India” — a report of change analysis on temporal satellite data of 2005-06 and 2008-09 — blamed the “positive” gains in wasteland in J&K and Arunachal to more seasonal snow during 2009 in comparison to 2006. As for Uttarakhand, the minister blamed forest degradation as the primary reason for increase of wasteland in some parts of the state. The analysis shows a decrease in wasteland by 32,000 sq km across states like Rajasthan, Gujarat, Bihar, Karnataka, UP, Kerala, Jharkhand and Tamil Nadu, which have shown gains in cropland and forest area. Not all of the wasteland stands translated into cropland or forests. Close to 137.66 sq km area wasteland has been gainfully exchanged for industrial land use. Leaders in this pack include Karnataka, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Andhra and Haryana. The bulk of area, around 20,000 sq km from different wasteland categories, has changed into cropland including fallow class. In fact, a considerable area change in case of degraded forest-scrub dominant has been noticed to have been converted into forest/dense/open and forest plantation classes (9,600 sq km area) during the period of study. About 800 sq km of wasteland has been converted into other plantations. Due to increasing population pressure, there is an excessive demand for land and land-based products/services for agricultural as well as non-agricultural purposes all over the world, which far outstrips the supply. In India, this widening gap has led to over-utilisation of land resources, regardless of their potential and limitations, resulting in creation of vast stretches of wastelands affected by soil salinity, water-logging, desertification and soil erosion, thus leading to progressive decrease in per capita cultivable land. To arrest this negative trend and bring wastelands back to the productive capability, the government has approved Rs 35,000 crore for the integrated watershed management programme in the 12th Plan, according to
Ramesh.
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PM reconstitutes EGoM for drought management
New Delhi, April 25 Officials say not much should be read into “EGoM reconstitution”, “a rejig” of the group formed in 2009— the year the country saw one of the worst droughts in past three decades — with some new faces. While some forecasters have not given a very heartening forecast for monsoon, this year, Indian Meteorological Department (IMD) recently predicted “normal rainfall in 2012”, despite fears the El Nino weather pattern could emerge in the second half of the season. “Rains could be normal this year due to the absence of any strong signal that could inhibit occurrence of a healthy monsoon,” an agency report had quoted IMD Director General LS Rathore as saying. The EGoM, headed by Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, comprises Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, Home Minister P Chidambaram, Power Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Petroleum Minister S Jaipal Reddy, Urban Development Minister Kamal Nath, Water Resources Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, Railway Minister Mukul Roy, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Food Minister KV Thomas.
— TNS
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Delhi HC rejects plea for probing Singhvi CD scandal
New Delhi, April 25 “Such things cannot be a subject matter of public interest litigation,” a Bench comprising Acting Chief Justice AK Sikri and Rajiv Sahai Endlaw ruled. The petitioner, social activist Sanjay Kumar, had sought a direction to the Bar Council of Delhi and the Delhi High Court Bar Association to take action against Singhvi’s driver, who was responsible for making the CD public. Contending that the CD had become talk of the town and everybody was asking what was happening in the high court, petitioner’s counsel Sugriv Dubey sought an inquiry in order to save the image of the lawyers’ community. On April 19, Singhvi and his former driver had informed the court that they had amicably settled the matter.
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SC reserves verdict on Kasab’s appeal
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, April 25 A Bench comprising Justices Aftab Alam and CK Prasad passed an order to this effect at the conclusion of arguments spanning over more than two months. Kasab (25) contended that he was not given a free and fair trial. He was not part of any larger conspiracy to destabilise India, he contended. Kasab had filed the appeal through a letter petition sent from the Arthur Road Jail in Mumbai. The Supreme Court had appointed senior advocate Raju Ramachandran as amicus curiae to argue Kasab’s case. On his appeal, the Bench had stayed the death sentence on October 10, 2011. Kasab was captured alive, while nine of his Pakistani associates were killed.
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Mother reunites with children
Kolkata, April 25 “I am overwhelmed as I am able to kiss them and take them in my lap after a full one year. I can’t express myself,” the emotionally choked mother, Sagarika Bhattacharya, said holding her one-year-old daughter Aishwarya and three-year-old son Abhigyan tightly at a house in north Kolkata. Sagarika returned to India alone last month and is staying with her parents at Birati in North 24 Parganas district. — PTI
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Maoists holding BJD MLA Jhina Hikaka captive for over a month today announced that a “praja” (people’s) court has decided to release him tomorrow.
The decision reportedly came after Hikaka gave an undertaking to the people’s
court that he would resign from the Odisha Assembly.
The Government today said it would reassess the existing indicators being used to determine poverty in India.
Answering supplementaries in the Lok Sabha during question hour today, Minister of State for Planning Ashwani Kumar told the House that a technical group was being put in place to revisit the current methodology being used to compute poverty estimates in order that the disconnect between ground realities and the current methodology is addressed.
