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No let-up in firing from Pak side in Poonch
Vizag blast toll 11; DGM among dead
Electricity basic need, can’t snap supply: Court
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Little-known company to build new hill station in M’rashtra
CET will encourage coaching, graft, IITs tell PM’s adviser
Rs 200 cr for roads in Naxal-hit areas
Monsoon delay
Bhanwari case
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No let-up in firing from Pak side in Poonch
Jammu/New Delhi, June 14 Reports from agencies say there has been no let-up in the firing. The slain soldier has been identified as Lance Naik Harvinder Singh. “Had Pak troops de-escalated the situation after we passed on to them a message on hotline, the life of the soldier could have been saved,” said official sources. “In fact, the firing escalated as a result of action rooted in other Pak posts, using rockets and heavy automatics, to prevent evacuation of the injured jawan,” said Jammu-based Defence PRO, Col RK Palta. The soldier had been hit
in the neck. A message was passed through the hotline to Pakistan, for exercise of restraint towards de-escalation of the situation. Pakistan troops, however, continued firing on Indian posts and in response, Indian troops carried out controlled and effective retaliation, added Col Palta. Sources said the two soldiers sent to evacuate their colleague were also hit by Pak firing. They were, however, evacuated to Command Hospital in Udhampur, where they
are recuperating. Another soldier was also hit by Pak firing, but he had sustained minor injuries, they said, adding that this soldier had been administered first aid at a forward post along the LoC. Three injured jawans have been identified as PP Bakar, Jai Parminder and Balwinder Singh. Army sources said even this morning and during the day, Pak troops continued intermittent mortar and automatic firing. They added that the Indian troops, in a bid to de-escalate matters, exercised restraint today and didn’t retaliate to Pak firing. Sources also confirmed that calibrated response of the Indian Army to unwarranted and unprovoked firing by Pak troops resulted in injuries to two of their soldiers. Meanwhile, an agency report from Islamabad claimed that two Pakistani civilians, including a woman, were seriously injured in alleged firing by Indian troops in the Battal sector of the Line of Control on their side. The Indian side believes that the fire was aimed at providing cover to infiltrators from Pakistan across the LoC. Some 10,000 rounds of heavy machine gun were used by Pakistani troops during “intense, unprovoked” firing since Wednesday. Defence sources have termed it as a severe violation of the ceasefire by Pakistan. Pakistani troops have been firing constantly at a specific location in areas around Krishna Ghati — some 180 km south-west of Srinagar. The firing has left the Indian military authorities guessing about the motive of the other side. Defence sources said the Pakistani firing was not connected to any localised event or development on the ground along the Line of Control (LoC) in J&K. Militants trying to sneak into this side of the border are usually given such a covering fire, sources said, adding the militants are then pushed in through the gaps on the barbed wire fence. The gun battle was going on till today evening. On the Pakistani target are two Indian posts at ‘Nangi Tekri’ and ‘Kranti Post’. The Indian side has so far not reinforced its troops. Source said the Battalion responding to the Pakistanis is well equipped. Sources say firing is carried out when equipment is being moved or something is being built across the border. This is to distract the men in the operational watch towers to prevent them from seeing any build-up. Another reason is the Indian battalion located in the sector moved in only a month ago. The Pakistanis could be “testing it out.” (With inputs from
IANS)
Unprovoked firing
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Vizag blast toll 11; DGM among dead
Hyderabad, June 14 Ten persons were seriously injured the blast
which occurred at 9 pm last night when a pipeline, feeding oxygen to a newly-commissioned converter for processing, burst in the control room of the oxygen house. Such was the impact of the blast that the bodies of six workers were charred beyond recognition while others succumbed to severe burn injuries in the hospital. “The condition of the five injured is very critical as they have received 90 per cent burn injuries,” a spokesman of Seven Hills hospital where the injured are undergoing treatment. Deputy General Manager (Projects) L Srihari, who was in-charge of the operations at the time of the mishap, was among the dead. General Manager DS Kalsi is also among the seriously injured, all of whom suffered more than 80 per cent burns, the Visakhapatnam District Collector Lav Agarwal said. The death toll is likely to mount further since all
the injured are in very critical condition. A VSP spokesperson said that that they were still in the process of ascertaining as to what caused the accident, the worst in the history of the company which was accorded “Navratna” status in 2010. “It happened all of a sudden, and unfortunately, the person in-charge of the operations, Srihari, also died in the accident. We found six charred bodies in the control which were shifted to a hospital mortuary,” he said.
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Electricity basic need, can’t snap supply: Court
New Delhi, June 14 The court's observation came on a plea by an East Delhi resident Rajender Kumar Sharma for direction to the discom not to disconnect the power supply to his premises. "In my considered opinion, electricity is the basic need of every human being in the present day circumstances and, hence, a prima facie case is made out in favour of plaintiff (Sharma) for having the facility of electricity at the suit premises till the final disposal of this case on merits," Additional Sessions Judge Shahbuddin said. Sharma told the court that he had secured power connection at his premises for industrial purposes and a meter was installed there in 2004 but after an inspection in 2008, the power distribution firm "arbitrarily" raised a bill of Rs 36.94 lakh alleging he had tampered with the meter. He had said no proper inspection was carried out at his premises and discom had threatened him with snapping the power connection if the bill was not paid. During the arguments, the power distribution firm said Sharma had tampered with the meter and equipments and the inspection was carried out as per the rules. It said the bill was rightly raised against Sharma and he had not paid a substantial amount of the bill so far so he was not entitled to any relief.
— PTI
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Little-known company to build new hill station in M’rashtra
Mumbai, June 13 CM Prithviraj Chavan told reporters earlier this week that the new hill station has been given the green signal under a policy enacted in 1996. “All environmental conditions will have to be met before the project can go ahead,” Chavan told reporters while announcing the new project. The project is being built by Maharashtra Valley View Private Ltd, whose promoters are small-time industrialists from Gujarat, according to sources.
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CET will encourage coaching, graft, IITs tell PM’s adviser
New Delhi, June 14 In their 45-minute meeting with PM’s Adviser TKA Nair, the faculty argued for complete exclusion of school marks weightage from the all-India merit list for engineering admissions. They said Class XII marks should be used as cut-off to determine the eligibility of students to take CET and not for admitting them. The faculty said the current CET structure would put poor and rural students at a disadvantage and lead to a greater boom in the coaching business. “By giving 40 per cent weightage to school marks, you are encouraging corruption in the school system. Already there’s rampant cheating in state board exams. Once you agree weightage for school marks, you open the doors for the rich and the powerful to manipulate the system to their wards’ advantage. You open doors for corruption and bribery,” said Prof YN Singh of IIT Kanpur, who attended the meeting. The faculty said the PMO was positive and asked them to explain the advantages and disadvantages of the system. “We told them that the advantages were minor and the disadvantages major,” Prof Singh said. The faculty also discussed the issue of erosion of IIT autonomy by saying that the IIT Senates had objected to the formulation of normalisation of school marks as proposed in the new CET. “We told the PMO that the proposed formulation can’t work. Marks awarded by state boards and even the CBSE differ annually within zones, whereas the normalisation formula proposed in the CET assumes there would be no major fluctuation,” Prof Singh said. The faculty went at length to oppose the multiple-choice question (MCQ) nature of both JEE Main and Advanced as proposed in the CET.
IITSPEAK
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Rs 200 cr for roads in Naxal-hit areas
Mumbai, June 14 Now with some help from the Union Home Ministry, the Maharashtra Government has unveiled a plan to bridge rivers in the district and build motorable roads to ensure development of villages. “We have cleared the proposal to set up a regional office of the Public Works Department at Gadchiroli. Our priority is to build roads connecting Gadchiroli to Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh,” Maharashtra’s PWD Minister Chhagan Bhujbal told reporters here today. The Union Ministry for Surface Transport and Highways has already cleared a move to provide funding to the tune of more than Rs 200 crore to build roads under the road requirement plan.
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Mumbai mulls diverting irrigation water for quenching thirst
Shiv Kumar Tribune News Service
Mumbai, June 14 "Levels in the lakes which supply water to Mumbai are lowest in the past three years," says AS Tawadia, Deputy Engineer in the Hydraulic Department of the BMC. Water in the Upper Vaitarna, Modak Sagar, Tulsi and Bhatsa lakes is 20-30 per cent lower than last year following negligible rains in the catchment areas of these lakes, Tawadia said. Only Tansa, the smallest lake in the area, has more water than in the previous years. According to the BMC, existing water in the lakes could be stretched till July 15 using modern technological methods. Usually less than three-fourth of the water in the lakes is supplied with the rest kept in reserve. At present, the city has around 76,000 million litres of available water. In addition to water used up for supply, evaporation also accounts for loss of water. In order to avoid a major crisis, the Maharashtra Government is mulling diverting water meant for irrigation to Mumbai. There are many dams on the outskirts of Mumbai which provide water for irrigation. As per the contingency plan prepared by the government, the water supply could be restricted for drinking purposes in case of a crisis. Mumbai city and its suburbs require 3,430 million litres of water daily, according to the BMC.
Parched Mumbaikars
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Undertrial flees from court
Jodhpur, June 14 Jakhar escaped when his accomplices opened fire to create panic in the court premises. Police arrested one of them identified as Hanuman Ram and seized a vehicle from the spot. Jakhar and Bishana Ram Bishnoi, who were under Judicial Custody, were taken to the local court in connection with a case of firing. They were under the custody of five security personnel. In the court, around a dozen people were already waiting for them and three vehicles were kept stationary around the premises. "As soon as the security personnel and both the accused came out of the court room after trial, they opened fire to create panic and took away Jakhar," Jodhpur Police Commissioner Bhupendra Dak said. "The police retaliated and opened fire at them," he said. "It was a serious security lapse. Since both accused are involved in several criminal cases, we had asked jail authorities to produce them in court with handcuffs but the accused were without handcuffs," he said. — PTI
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The Andhra Pradesh Government today ordered an inquiry into the explosion at the state-owned Visakhapatnam Steel Plant plant which killed 11 persons, including a Deputy General Manager.
Ahead of their meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow, IIT faculty federation representatives today told his Adviser that the proposed common test for admission to engineering colleges from 2013 (CET) would spawn corruption in the school system and lead to more coaching.
With no sign of the monsoon, water levels in the lakes that supply drinking water to Mumbai are running low forcing the government to consider diverting water meant for agriculture to the city.