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CRPF jawan killed, 10 hurt in gunfight with Maoists
Team Anna-govt battle over graft intensifies |
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For its rations, Army looks to retail chains
Now, wakf property can be leased commercially for 30 years
Cong ship sinking: Modi
Now, IIT Kharagpur slams common test
Will place order for DRDO Howitzers, says Army
Jantar Mantar
Tatra case
1989-1992: Resolution was almost through
US in league with Al-Qaida in Syria: Envoy
Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train may soon be a reality
Support Pranab as Prez, Cong urges Mamata
'Telangana top priority for NDA'
Maharashtra to ban gutkha, pan masala
Cop killed while defusing bombs in Puri
IIT engineer held for sending threat mail to PM
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CRPF jawan killed, 10 hurt in gunfight with Maoists
Gaya, June 10 Six injured CRPF jawans were undergoing treatment at a primary health centre at
Imamganj, while another CRPF jawan Raju Toppo was air-lifted from Gaya to Patna for treatment at the Patna Medical College and Hospital
(PMCH). Another unidentified jawan has been admitted to a hospital at
Gaya, he said. Additional Superintendent of Police Shambhu Prasad and an unidentified Special Task Force
(STF) constable were injured in the encounter, Kumar said, adding that the gun-battle was on till late afternoon. The encounter took place between the security men and the Maoists after the CRPF's CoBRA battalion, STF and Gaya police launched a joint combing operation in the forests after being tipped off about the assembling of a large number of ultras, he said. The Maoists opened fire and triggered several landmine blasts to deter the advancing security forces who retaliated by firing on the ultras and the encounter ensued since 6 am. Superintendent of Police
(SSP), Gaya, rushed to the spot with reinforcements to assist the forces as the Inspector General of Police
(IG), Operation, Amit Kumar too went there from Patna to monitor the situation, Kumar said. The encounter was still going on, the CRPF official said, adding that the services of helicopters were pressed into service to give aerial support to the security men. There was no confirmation of the casualties or injuries to the ultras, police sources said.
— PTI
Forest encounter
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Team Anna-govt battle over graft intensifies
New Delhi, June 10 “Do or die fast from July 25 for SIT probe on PM+14 Cabinet Ministers. Tainted team may never give us an expeditious and strong criminal justice system,” tweeted
Kiran. Kiran’s tweet was in response to Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office V Narayanasamy rejecting yesterday Team Anna’s demand for an SIT probe into allegations of corruption in the allotment of coal blocks. “PMO clears Prime Minister. Did Dhritarashtra in Mahabharata not support Kauravas even after they attempted to disrobe
Draupadi? Indian genes/culture?” (sic) Kiran remarked in her tweet. Strongly reacting to Kiran’s comments, Khurshid said the civil society members had no right to question the government as they must first respond to charges of irregularities against them. “We are at least subject to public scrutiny. Every five years, we go through an election. People reject or accept our record …and we are willing for any public scrutiny.” On the other hand, Team Anna members were not ready for a probe into allegations against them. “There are many questions they must answer first. I don’t think they have the right to ask questions and I don’t think they are being very helpful and very good to democracy in our country,” the minister said. Instead of “screaming and shouting” against the government, Team Anna members should do some introspection. The government had several mechanisms to keep a watch on what was happening in the country and check corruption, Khurshid maintained. He, however, acknowledged that Team Anna had launched its anti-corruption stir with a good intention, though it had now become a campaign against individuals to achieve personal ambitions. “The idea of containing corruption and questioning corruption was a good idea. But today, they are doing greatest disservice to this idea by converting it into a personal campaign and personal ambition.”
Khurshid said he was confident that the country would show Team Anna its place at the right time. Meanwhile, BJP leader Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi supported the demand for a probe by an SIT. This was necessary to end the war of words between the civil society and the government, he reasoned.
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For its rations, Army looks to retail chains
Chandigarh, June 10 The move comes after the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) revealed serious shortcomings in the Army’s supply chain management and brought out the poor quality of food material being procured by the Army resulting in low satisfaction levels among the personnel. Sources said that consequent to the report, a committee was set under the chairmanship of the Quartermaster General at the Army Headquarters. Among other recommendations to improve the system, it was suggested that bringing in retail chains would raise the bar of satisfaction and give certain quantum of assurance in terms of inducing healthy competition among suppliers. These retail chains and bulk producers, the committee opined, should be brought into the Army’s contracting system to open up the closed cartel-type operation of a few limited registered contractors. Business chains and producers having a minimum annual turnover of Rs 25 crore only for the items to be procured will be allowed and they will be registered centrally at the Army Headquarters. The Army spends
about Rs 1,450 crore to procure rations for its 12 lakh personnel. Dry rations form a significant component of this. The Army had recently revised its procurement procedure for whole wheat flour. Now, branded flour (atta) is being procured directly at many stations. The Army intends to extend such procedures to purchase other items of dry rations. A study undertaken by the Defence Research and Development Organisation in collaboration with the Directorate General Armed Forces Medical Services found that the satisfaction level among troops regarding the quantity and quality of rations was very low ranging between 16 and 29 per cent. In its report earlier this year, Parliament’s Public Accounts Committee remarked that there seemed to be a “cartellisation” or collusive bidding among suppliers creating serious doubts about the quality of rations supplied, besides causing loss to the exchequer. Despite a large number of registered vendors and suppliers, the submission of tender documents by only one of two vendors strongly indicated the presence of cartels. The committee also observed that on occasions when open tenders were called for, only one or two vendors responded in 64 per cent cases.
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Now, wakf property can be leased commercially for 30 years
New Delhi, June 10 So far, commercial lease of wakf properties was restricted to three years and it could be extended only for the purpose of advancing the public health and educational cause of the community. Till now, wakf properties could be leased for 30 years to set up schools and hospitals, but these could not be used that long to set up businesses. Now, the Ministry of Minority Affairs has decided to allow 30-year commercial lease of wakf land, though it has categorically stated that sale of such land would be illegal. The recommendation to this effect was made by a select committee of Rajya Sabha which was examining the Wakf Amendment Bill 2010. The committee suggested the amendment to the law to the government to allow commercial lease and help managers of wakf land make honest money by preventing encroachment of land. “It has been decided to adopt the committee’s recommendation. This would allow wakf managers to give away land commercially. Sale of land is, however, not permitted,” top government sources said. Managers of wakf land, in the absence of any profitable engagement on the property, would often give away land on long lease illegally. This caused encroachments on wakf property. Also, the three-year lease period for commercial purpose was not being availed by anyone. The Wakf (Amendment) Bill, 2010 was passed by Lok Sabha on May 7, 2010. It was referred to a select committee of the Upper House that gave its report in the budget session. The government may now take the Bill back to the Cabinet before introducing it with changes in Parliament. The Bill seeks to amend the Wakf Act, 1995 that provides for administration of wakfs. ‘Wakf’ is defined as permanent dedication of property by a Muslim for any purpose recognised to be religious or charitable under Muslim law. The Bill changes the term ‘wakf’ to ‘auqaf’. It bars sale, gift or total transfer of a waqf property. The states, which have not yet established a waqf board, must do so within a year, says the draft law.
Current situation
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Cong ship sinking: Modi
The Chief Minister's remarks in his address to party members on the concluding session of two-day BJP state executive meeting here came even as posters supporting arch rival Sanjay Joshi, who was forced to make an exit from BJP, and apparently targeting Modi appeared around the meeting venue. As the poster war continued, some of the dissident workers also protested wearing masks of Joshi and carrying placards, at about 200 metres from the venue, and they were detained by the police. "This Congress-led UPA government has disappointed people of the country by series of scams and failure of checking corruption and price hike," Modi said. Modi also accused Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of misguiding people of the country by claiming to have achieved 7 per cent GDP growth, which has come down to 5 per cent this quarter. The government does not know that there was a "hole in the ship", he said, adding the "Congress ship is sinking" as it has hurt and miscalculated human power. "There is no chance for Congress to survive," Modi said and asked how the party which is struggling can give stability to the nation. "If you cannot bring the prices down, at least bring it to that level where our Atal Behari Vajpayee (former Prime Minister) left it," he added. "The Assembly elections are likely to be held in Gujarat by year end and people of the state have to decide to choose between BJP's politics of development and Congress's caste-based politics," Modi said. "We have won in 2002, 2007 and in 2012 Assembly elections, the condition is more favourable for BJP compared to 2002 and 2007 as people of the country are disappointed with Congress rule at the Centre," Modi said. Modi said there were a couple of reasons for the failure of the UPA government. As the GDP reduced and inflation increased, the government was not concerned about it, and secondly, the Indian rupee was going down day by day, he added. — PTI
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Now, IIT Kharagpur slams common test
New Delhi, June 10 In the same vein, the All India IIT Faculty Federation warned the government against “seeing IIT Kanpur senate decision in isolation”. IIT Kanpur Senate had, on June 8, resolved to reject the May 28 decision of IIT Council to hold CET from 2013 by scrapping the JEE currently used to select IIT students. “Actions of the IIT Kanpur senate should not be seen in isolation. Institutions of national importance as declared by Parliament have specific roles. It is expected that the government will nurture excellence at all levels including IITs, other centrally-funded technical institutions and state colleges. Education is also a state subject. It need not be subject to tight central controls,” AIIITFF said. Secretary of the federation Prof AK Mittal of IIT Delhi told TNS today, “Assertion of IIT academic authority is paramount. What IIT Kanpur senate has done is the beginning. They dissented to IIT Council decision on CET. The IIT Delhi senate may condemn the council’s move in writing and even move court. That would be unprecedented.” The IIT Delhi senate will meet in the coming week. Importantly, the senates of IIT Bombay, Delhi and Kanpur had to requisition special meetings to discuss Sibal’s move on CET after five out of seven senates had rejected the idea and sought time to study the formula of normalisation of school marks across 42 state boards. “Ideally, the IIT Council decision should have been sent back to the senates for ratification. That didn’t happen. Moreover, IIT Directors represented in the council never bothered to call senate meetings to discuss the move. So we had to requisition a meeting,” IIT Kanpur’s YN Singh said. IIT teachers can call a special senate meeting by getting signatures of 20 per cent of the senate’s strength. That is called requisitioning. While IIT Kanpur senate has asked senate chairman Dhande to send his dissent to Sibal in writing, the IIT Kharagpur faculty today slammed Acharya for saying the institute favours CET. “The new format is retrograde and reverses the continuous churning within the IIT system to improve its admission process academically. The decision to have CET from 2013 against all academic advice reeks of executive brinkmanship with the sole aim of hogging the limelight for reforms credit,” faculty of IIT Kharagpur, the oldest IIT, said today, countering Acharya. AIIITFF also said it was shocked about Acharya’s public statements contrary to IIT Kharagpur senate views submitted to the HRD Minister. “The IIT Kharagpur senate didn’t recommend inclusion of board marks, conduct of JEE by CBSE or conduct in 2013,” Mittal said.
IITs oppose...
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Will place order for DRDO Howitzers, says Army
New Delhi, June 10 The DRDO was recently told by the Army that it will place an order for over 140 artillery howitzers if the guns being developed by the research agency are proven in field trials and are ready for induction, sources said here. This proposal made by the Army to the DRDO was also a part of the presentation made to Defence Minister AK Antony while he was reviewing the preparedness of Army's Corps of Artillery, which has not been able to induct even a single piece of howitzer for over 25 years. During the presentation, the Defence Minister was also informed about the progress made in the development of Bofors guns being produced indigenous by the Ordnance Factory Board (OFB). The trial of the OFB guns was done recently in the Pokhran firing ranges in presence of senior officials from the army, which has already placed an order for 100 of these guns. The Defence Ministry has recently approved the procurement of 145 Ultra Light Howitzers (ULHs) from the US under a Foreign Military Sales (FMS) route for being deployed in high-altitude areas. A deal for these guns is expected to be signed by the end of this fiscal and one they start getting inducted, they will be the first ones to join the Army in over two decades. The DRDO had earlier developed the 105 mm field artillery guns for the Army and is still in operational service. The DRDO had started working on the development of the Bhim self-propelled howitzer about a decade back but the project was virtually scrapped after South African firm Denel was blacklisted by the ministry.
— PTI
Boosting firepower
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Of power & sycophancy
Anita Katyal Two interesting interventions were made during last week’s session of Congress Working Committee. Former Chhattisgarh CM Ajit Jogi said AICC general secretary and Nehru-Gandhi scion should not confine himself to overseeing activities of Youth Congress and instead take on greater responsibilities. Haryana CM BS Hooda urged party president Sonia Gandhi to undertake a Kamraj Plan-type operation involving shifting of ministers to the party organisation. Hooda offered to give up his “kursi” to work for the party. Given the sycophantic nature of Congress members, these suggestions would have normally met with immediate endorsements. But this time, there were no takers. Insiders said this would imply ministers want to enjoy their stint in power. Modi-Gadkari equation
Internal equations in BJP have undergone a sea change after last month’s meeting of the party’s national executive in Mumbai. Gujarat CM Narendra Modi and party president Nitin Gadkari, who have not exactly been the best of friends, were pushed by RSS into burying their differences. Prodded by his mentors, Gadkari agreed to ease out his friend and Modi’s bête noire Sanjay Joshi from the party in order to buy peace with the Gujarat strongman. The change in relationships found reflection in posters put up at Gujarat BJP’s two-day state executive meeting held in Rajkot over the weekend. Till now, the posters would carry pictures of Narendra Modi along with those of party patriarch LK Advani and Leader of Opposition in the LS Sushma Swaraj. This time, their pictures were missing. Instead, Gadkari’s smiling visage found place of pride along with pictures of Modi and RC Faldu, president of Gujarat BJP unit. Both Advani and Sushma have lost out as they are said to be sulking over the turn of events.
Filling up the gaps
Former Railway Minister Dinesh Trivedi of the Trinamool Congress, grabbed headlines earlier on when he raised rail fares and incurred wrath of his party leader Mamata Banerjee. He was then eased out. The otherwise low-key minister was toast of all TV channels and newspapers during that period. Now that the storm has blown over and he has been stripped of power, he is literally being shunned by his party colleagues. Trivedi is now keeping himself occupied by going on lecture tours. He visited the US where he was invited to speak at several leading universities. Back home, he has been invited by Bengal Club to speak on “Politics at the crossroads”. It would be interesting to see what
Trivedi has to say on Mamata’s home turf.
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CBI to question retired Army officers
Syed Ali Ahmed/TNS
New Delhi, June 10 Retired Army Chief VK Singh had alleged he was offered bribe of Rs 14 crore six months after he took office in 2010 for the sale of 7,000 Tatra trucks to Army by Vectra. In a complaint to the CBI, he had alleged he was offered the bribe by a lobbyist to clear supply of a tranche of “sub-standard vehicles”. Rishi is a London-based businessman who owns the Vectra Group and has a majority stake in Tatra Trucks, a Czech manufacturer. Public sector unit BEML buys Tatra parts from Vectra and assembles trucks in Bangalore that were then sold to the Army. The retired Army officers are suspected to have helped Rishi in getting the supply of trucks to the Army. Refusing to disclose the name of the officers, the sources said the officers would be questioned to establish their link with Rishi and their role in procurement and supply of Tatra vehicles to the Army from BEML. The investigating agency is suspecting their involvement in helping the Vectra firm in supply of Tatra Truck to Army as these officers, during their tenure at Master General Ordnance Branch and the Directorate General of Quality and Assurance, did not underline shortcomings in the Tatra vehicles. The agency has written to the Defence Ministry, seeking records of quality checks done by it and reports of field officers who were using these vehicles during the period. The CBI is also trying to know if better vehicles were available with Czech Republic-based Tatra and why they were not preferred despite supply agreement being renewed twice - in 1997 and 2003.
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1989-1992: Resolution was almost through
New Delhi, June 10 In these two decades, positions have hardened and geopolitics has changed drastically — Pakistan’s relations with the US have ebbed and it is now firmly under China’s influence. In June 1989, after Benazir Bhutto’s government came to power, the two sides came up with a joint statement which outlined elements of a possible settlement. It said, “Both sides to work towards a comprehensive settlement, based on redeployment of forces to reduce the chance of conflict, avoidance of the use of force and the determination of future positions on the ground?. The army authorities of both sides will determine these positions.” This produced the first, and so far, the only ray of hope for a solution. India and Pakistan agreed to relocate forces away from the disputed heights. PMs Benazir Bhutto and Rajiv Gandhi endorsed the agreement during the latter’s July 1989 visit to Islamabad. The talks hit a dead-end in November 1992 as New Delhi, at the last minute, changed its mind and wanted authentication of “current” positions prior to redeployment as it did not wanted to be caught on the wrong foot lest Pakistan backtracked to re-occupy the glacier.
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US in league with Al-Qaida in Syria: Envoy
New Delhi, June 10 “Everybody knows who created Al-Qaida…the US is supporting it in Syria while opposing it in Afghanistan. The current leadership of the Al-Qaida has already declared that they are against the Syrian regime,’’ Syrian Ambassador to India Riad Abbas said at a press conference here. He also accused countries like Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey of helping the militants who were responsible for the current situation in his country. “The Saudi foreign minister was recently seen shaking hands with one of the militant leaders…it is already known that militants have basis in Turkey,’’ he said. Abbas vehemently denied the involvement of the Syrian Government in the latest massacre in a Syrian village as also in the May-end killings of more than 100 people at Houla, saying they were “pre-planned terrorist crimes’’ designed to tarnish the image of the Syrian administration. Most of the people killed were those who refused to surrender to the dictates of the militants to oppose the current regime. “Everybody knows that the terrorist elements in Syria will indulge in the killings of innocent people whenever an international conference on Syria is round the corner…now there is a conference in Istanbul. The latest massacre is aimed at implicating the Syrian Government ahead of this conference as also the visit of (UN Special Envoy to Syria) Kofi Annan),’’ he added. The envoy said the Syrian Government was not adopting aggressive means to deal with the militant groups only because of the collateral damage such an action could cause to the innocent people. Though the situation in Syria was not normal, it was not as bad as was being projected by the Western media. The Assad regime enjoyed the full backing of the army, he said, pointing out that not a single unit had defected.
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Mumbai-Ahmedabad bullet train may soon be a reality
New Delhi, June 10 "The 492-km-long Mumbai-Ahmedabad rail route is going to have the first bullet train as the proposed high-speed rail corridor has got the green signal in a high level meeting presided by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh recently," a senior Railway Ministry official said. The proposed bullet train with a speed of 300 km per hour would drastically bring down the travel time of passengers frequenting these two vital and financially strong cities to a mere two-and-half hours from seven hours by
Duronto, the fastest train at present. "The high speed elevated rail corridor, which will be a stimulus for the development of satellite towns, will later be extended to
Pune," the official said. The project is estimated to cost Rs 60,000 crore the Railways is considering various options for its execution. "While one option is to execute it on a PPP model, the other is to opt for tying up with another country on government to government model...The funding pattern has not been decided yet," the official said.
— PTI
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Support Pranab as Prez, Cong urges Mamata
Kolkata, June 10 "Discussions about our nominee for the presidential election are still on and the ultimate decision vests with the party high command. But we feel Mukherjee is the most apt choice for the post," Congress leader and state Irrigation Minister Manas Bhunia told media persons here. "What has been concerning us the most is the silence of our ally - the Trinamool Congress. I appeal to them and their supremo (Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee) to support Mukherjee as the choice for the President," he added. Banerjee had earlier expressed reservations on Mukherjee's presidential candidature and her vote is being considered a key to selecting the nominee. On Saturday, Janardhan Dwivedi, who heads the Congress' media department, said in New
Delhi the party was yet to call on its presidential nominee. — IANS
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'Telangana top priority for NDA'
Hyderabad, June 10 "The party is totally committed for Telangana state and first decision of the NDA, if voted to power, would be carving out of Telangana region as a separate state," Shahnawaz told reporters here, before leaving for Parkal Assembly constituency in Warangal district to participate in elections campaign. Alleging that some political parties have been playing with the sentiments of Telangana people, he said they (people) had now identified the parties that had been deceiving them. "Our party leaders have raised the issue of Telangana state in Parliament, but Congress MPs and its leaders have no time to discuss the issue," he said.
— PTI
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Maharashtra to ban gutkha, pan masala
Mumbai, June 10 "It does not matter even if we face a loss of Rs 100 crore in tax from gutkha and pan masala. Compromising with the lives of the youth is unacceptable. We will soon bring in a legislation in this regard," Pawar said, while speaking during the launch of Rashtravadi Yuvati Congress (RYC), on the occasion of 13th anniversary of the Sharad Pawar-led party. The proposal would be soon put before the Cabinet, he said. Among other things, Pawar also said that NCP MLAs in the state would allocate Rs 20 lakh each from their MLA funds for constructing toilets for women.
— PTI
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Cop killed while defusing bombs in Puri
Puri, June 10 The victim was identified as Ranjan Kumar Sarangi, a constable in the district bomb disposal squad. Other seriously injured persons were rushed to the district headquarter hospital, said Anup Kumar Sahu, Superintendent of Police, Puri. Earlier in the day, following a tip off, the district police had seized 53
crude bombs and 12 detonators from an abandoned hut in Gambhari village at the bank of Chilika
Lake. — PTI
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IIT engineer held for sending threat mail to PM Ranchi, June 10 Anurag Kashyap was arrested Saturday from Hazaribagh district in Jharkhand. "Anurag has been arrested for sending a threat mail, he send the mail by creating an account in name of his neighbour Manish Sharma," a police official said. The engineer wanted to get his neighbour Manish implicated in a false case, the official added. According to the police, the e-mail was sent to the mail id of Delhi police commissioner June 2. Sent in name of Baidaihi Sharma, a resident of Aryana colony of Hazaribagh, the mailer said he was the brother of dead CCL employee Ramesh Sharma. The mail threatened the PM and Home Minister if Ramesh's retirement benefits were not given to family. — IANS
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The showdown between the government and Team Anna on corruption intensified today with Kiran Bedi evoking Law Minister Salman Khurshid’s rebuke for calling Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s Cabinet a “tainted team”.
Sharpening his attack on the UPA government, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today said it has disappointed people as a result of scams, corruption and rising prices and taunted it for not realising that the "Congress ship is sinking." The BJP strongman also expressed confidence that the saffron party will retain power and emerge triumphant in the Assembly elections in Gujarat due in the end of the year.
Rajkot, June 10