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Karnataka whistleblower succumbs to injuries
GANGA-YAMUNA CLEAN-UP
National panel needed to save Ganga: Govt
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Modi keeps BJP in dark over attendance at executive meet
Presidential Poll
2 IPL players ‘among’ 100 detained at rave party
RTI activist on fast against mega dams
Jantar Mantar
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Karnataka whistleblower succumbs to injuries
Bangalore, May 20 Mahantesh was found unconscious by some auto drivers near a hotel in the night of May 15 and police admitted him to hospital. “As far as our investigations, it looks like an assault case. The post-mortem is being conducted at the Bowring Hospital and the report is expected tomorrow. Definitely the report will throw more light on this aspect”, Ravikanthegowda, DCP, who is investigating the incident, told this reporter. Mahantesh has left behind his wife and two young daughters who are 10 and seven years old respectively. The DCP said they had formed four teams to investigate the case and are looking into both “professional and personal angles”. Dashing hopes that the suspected assault might have been captured on the CCTV cameras installed in that area, the DCP said it was raining that evening as a result of which the footage of CCTV was found to be in a blurred condition. Moreover, the spot where Mahantesh was found was not covered by CCTV, he said. A week before the suspected assault, Mahantesh had handed over to a daily having an edition in Bangalore a copy of the audit report of the BEML Employees Cooperative Society (ECS) which showed irregularities pertaining to land acquisition, layout formation and allotment of sites. He also exposed irregularities in the allocation of land in the Judicial Employees House Building Cooperative Society in Bangalore. Mahantesh's family members told reporters that he had exposed large-scale irregularities in several house-building societies in allotment of plots to senior officials and politicians. Around 80 house-building cooperative societies in the state, most of them in Bangalore, are being probed for irregularities. Mahantesh, who had internal head injuries, was on life-support for the last four days. “The injuries did not look to have been caused by an accident”, Dr RG Varma, neurosurgeon at Mallige Hospital where the intrepid civil servant was undergoing treatment, said. Chief Minister DV Sadananda Gowda has expressed shock and regret at Mahantesh's death. The slain officer’s 12th marriage anniversary was on
Saturday. He exposed irregularities
Mahantesh exposed irregularities in the allocation of land in the Judicial Employees House Building Cooperative Society in Bangalore. His family members say that he had exposed large-scale irregularities in several house-building societies in allotment of plots to senior officials and politicians. Around 80 house-building cooperative societies in the state, most of them in Bangalore, are being probed for irregularities
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GANGA-YAMUNA CLEAN-UP
New Delhi, May 20 These steps included setting up a consortium of the IITs for preparing a comprehensive Ganga River Basin Management Plan (GRBMP). "A consortium of seven IITs has been tasked with the responsibility of preparing a comprehensive GRBMP. The terms of the study include continuous, adequate and unpolluted flow in the river, longitudinal and lateral connectivity, adequate space for various river functions and an ecological entity," it said. The department-related parliamentary panel headed by T Subbarami Reddy, in its report submitted on the same day, said the schemes to clean the Ganga and the Yamuna had failed because the government had so far adopted only the engineering-centric approach to solve the problem with undue emphasis on creation of sewage-treatment plants. Very clearly, the committee members also recommended that services of other institutes apart from the IITs should be taken to find a viable solution to the problem. "The engineering-centric activities alone will not be successful and the ministry should approach it as a social-engineering process. The time has come when we should integrate engineering-centric approach with social-centric or society-centric approach through which people living on and around the banks of the rivers are involved and assimilated in the 'Mission Clean Ganga'. The committee also recommends that services of various other institutes apart from the IITs should be sought to seek a viable solution to the problem of pollution," it said. To take stock of the initiatives being taken to restore and maintain the ecological health of the Ganga, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in a meeting of the National Ganga River Basin Authority (NBRBA) on April 17, had ordered the constitution of an inter-ministerial group under the Chairmanship of the Member Planning Commission for early completion of the study being conducted by a consortium of IITs for preparing a comprehensive GRBMP. The panel's views on the government's efforts so far to revive the two rivers are telling. Despite incurring huge expenditures under various schemes and projects, the pollution level in both rivers continues to increase unabated, it says.
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National panel needed to save
Ganga: Govt
New Delhi, May 20 This information was given to the Lok Sabha on Thursday when, while replying to an emotive debate on the fate of the sacred river, Environment Minister Jayanti Natarajan said India needed a "National Commission to Prevent Atrocities against the Ganges". "The entire stretch of the Ganges must be governed by a Central Act. There should be a National Commission to protect the Ganga from atrocities just as there is a National Commission for Women," the minister said after over 30 MPs participated in the heated debate on the national river. The debate came at a time when Ganga Sewa Abhiyaan's Swami Gyan Swaroop Sanand is on a hunger strike to protest dams along the river bank. Only yesterday, PM Manmohan Singh sent his emissary to meet the fasting Swami. The emotionally surcharged discussions were initiated last week by Samajwadi Party's Allahabad member Rewati Raman Singh, who also read during his intervention a poem by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar on the state of the Ganges. The poem was titled, "Bahut udaas hai Ganga?" Echoing the sentiments of the members who demanded that the many dams (70) on the river be disbanded to ensure its uninterrupted flow, the Government said the solution to the problem of pollution was strong monitoring of discharge of untreated effluents into the river. Natarajan said disbanding dams was a decision the nation would have to take as hydroelectric power generation would have to be compromised. The Government, however, informed the House
that 80 per cent pollution in the Ganges was due to discharge of untreated domestic sewage and the rest due to untreatedindustrial waste. "We are considering seriously how to monitor the discharge of waste into the river. The Centre and the states have to act strongly against the defaulters. The Government will soon evolve a mechanism to monitor action taken against these defaulters. We will strain every nerve to see this is done," she said adding that the Government had identified 767 grossly polluting industries along the Ganges Bank. Of these, 43 are in Uttarakhand; 637 in UP; 13 in Bihar and 23 in West Bengal, the states touched by the Ganges. Shockingly, the Government said only 16 notices had so far been served to defaulters for violations under the Environment Act and 12 notices under the Water Act. Compliance has been achieved only in six cases. The Government said states were not using money under the ongoing World Bank project to set up sewage treatment plants along the river bank. "There are huge shortfalls in expenditure as compared to the monies released and of the 42 projects started so far, only two have been completed," Natarajan said, warning the House that unless the states urgently built treatment plants for sewage, the national goal of zero effluent discharge into the Ganges till 2020 would not be realised. Domestic sewage & industrial waste
'You have pathological hatred for women' Jayanti Natarajan elicited an apology from JDU chief Sharad Yadav who had earlier doubted her ability to save the Ganga saying she alone could not do the job. "You have pathological hatred for women," Jayanti told Yadav, leading to a quick apology from the latter who said, "I didn't mean to hurt you; only meant that there is too much burden on your shoulders."
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Modi keeps BJP in dark over attendance at executive meet
The party has already invited the Gujarat CM's arch-rival Keshubhai Patel for the event. Patel too not confirmed his attendance giving rise to speculation that both men are playing mind-games with the party leadership over their attendance at the Mumbai event. On Saturday, party spokesman Shahnawaz Hussain told reporters that invitations had been sent to 340 persons, including senior leaders of the party. "All senior leaders of the party will attend the meet," Hussain told reporters who persistently questioned him as to whether the Gujarat CM would make it. Modi has stayed away from the party's executive meets in the past to express his disenchantment with the Central leadership of the BJP. Modi had reportedly stayed away from the last national executive after the party inducted his arch-rival Sanjay Joshi. The national executive meeting to be held in Mumbai is expected to be a simple affair. "We would like to keep it a simple affair as Maharashtra is suffering from a drought," Mumbai BJP chief Raj Purohit told reporters here.
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Presidential Poll
Jayalalithaa spoke over the telephone to Advani, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leader AB Bardhan, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shiromani Akali Dal leader and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, an AIADMK release said here. As part of the “intensified efforts” to garner support for Sangma, Jayalalithaa spoke to these leaders seeking their support for the tribal leader from the North-East who “has all the qualifications” (to become President), it said. Jayalalithaa’s latest initiative comes two days after she asked all parties to “rise above political considerations” and support the tribal leader. — PTI
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Kirti Azad fasts against IPL
New Delhi, May 20 Though he is not opposed to the latest format of the game, it is the apparent downtrend of the gentleman’s game in the wake of the recent untoward incidents on and outside the ground that has led to the fading of the sheen that cricket is otherwise known for, he said. “There is no transparency or discipline now. Imagine the impression that these incidents will be leaving on young minds who wish to play cricket in the future,” said Azad, who was accompanied by former cricketers Vivek Razdan and Surendra Khanna. While pointing to the recent episodes in the IPL, he sought an explanation from the Finance Ministry over the alleged money-laundering in it. “There should be credibility and accountability. The game has now become a money-making business. It is now entrenched in malpractices and corruption. Cricket is a religion in our country, but it hurts when I get to know that youngsters want to play in the IPL and not for the country,” he addressed a thin gathering outside Ferozeshah Kotla that was manned by around 50 Delhi policemen. Around 4 pm, Azad ended his fast abruptly even as he had intimated journalists about a two-day protest. When asked, he just said that he would raise the matter in Parliament. Azad’s call against IPL received the support of Baba Ramdev. A coordinator of the Bharat Swabhiman Trust, Dr Jagdish Arya, conveyed it to him at the protest site. The recent episodes that brought ill fame to the IPL were the suspension of five players for spot-fixing, imposition of a five-year ban on Shah Rukh Khan by the Maharashtra Cricket Association and the alleged molestation of an American woman by Royal Challengers Bangalore player Luke Pomersbach.
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2 IPL players ‘among’ 100 detained at rave party Mumbai, May 20 He said 58 boys and 38 girls were taken to Cooper hospital for a blood and urine test. A case will be registered against those who test positive, he said. Television channels reported that among those picked up were two IPL players and some having links with Bollywood, but there was no official word on it. "We will do a proper investigation into who organised the party and who were the drug peddlers," Patil said. — PTI
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RTI activist on fast against mega dams
Guwahati, May 20 The KMSS leader has also demanded immediate halt to transportation of construction material to the under-construction mega dam projects and resented police atrocities on the anti-mega dam agitators in Lakhimpur district of Assam. Meanwhile, the police arrested four persons who had also begun an indefinite fast in Lakhimpur district to express solidarity with Akhil Gogoi.
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Jantar Mantar
She was particularly upset with fellow DMK member Vasanthi who, she said, invariably left the place in a mess. A baffled Jayanthi repeatedly told the SP member that she could do little in the matter, but Jaya was not willing to take no for an answer. She insisted that the minister bring this to the notice of the offending party to which Jayanthi pointed out the member does not belong to her party. “So what, she belongs to your state,” replied Jaya. To this, the minister just mumbled her excuses and beat a hasty retreat. Early bird gets clicked next to Sonia Lok Sabha leader Pranab Mukherjee may not have made it for the joint photo shoot organised last week to commemorate the 60th anniversary of the first sitting of Parliament, but a large number of MPs turned up more than two hours in advance to grab a vantage position before the camera. Although the seats are allotted according to seniority, the system never works as the early birds always take the best places. Vilas Muttemwar, Congress Lok Sabha member from Nagpur, proudly admits that he is always the first to land up for every photo shoot in Parliament. As usual, he reached the spot at 8 am, three hours before the scheduled time, so that he could seat himself behind Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Jaitley does a Brutus to PC Rajya Sabha Opposition leader Arun Jaitley was faced with a real dilemma when the BJP decided to take on Home Minister P Chidambaram in Parliament on the Aircel-Maxis deal. Having known the minister personally for over 20 years, Jaitley was clearly wary of targeting Chidambaram. Since he had no choice but to follow his party diktat and lead the Opposition charge in the Upper House, Jaitley decided to adopt a statesman-like approach in his speech. He concentrated on the facts of the case, especially those pertaining to the involvement of Chidambaram’s son in the deal and sought answers on specific queries. However, he was careful not to mount a personal attack against the Home Minister. Nevertheless, an injured Chidambaram invoked his two-decade-old friendship with Jaitley to declare, “Plunge a dagger in my heart, but don’t doubt my integrity.”
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Mumbai, May 20
Chennai, May 20
As Environment Minister, Jayanthi Natarajan is often approached by people with all kinds of proposals, but a recent complaint from actor-turned-politician and Rajya Sabha MP Jaya Bachchan has really stumped her. Jaya, who is back in the Upper House as a Samajwadi Party candidate again, accosted the minister in the Parliament House corridors to complain about the filthy state of the ladies toilet located near the Rajya
Sabha.