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Jagan’s YSR Congress crushes rivals in Andhra bypolls
PM to visit Mexico, Brazil for multilateral summits
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Monsoon weakens further
Re-examine case of Army top legal officer: AFT
PM assures IIT faculty on autonomy
North India sizzles
Jalandhar man hurt in Vizag blast; toll 12
The bridge that Nehru named turns 50
Nithyananda gets bail
India-Nepal army exercise begins today
India partially lifts ban on emigration to Libya
Boat with 22 on board capsizes in Assam, 7 missing
Trinamool debuts in UP Assembly
Solar energy to power ITBP border posts
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Jagan’s YSR Congress crushes rivals in Andhra bypolls
Hyderabad, June 15 Seen as the “semifinals” before the 2014 General Elections, the bypolls turned out to be a major setback for the ruling Congress, which managed to win two seats while the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) scraped through in Parkal, the lone constituency in the Telangana region, with a slender margin of 1,560 votes in a cliff-hanger contest. The near clean sweep by the fledgling YSR Congress is bound to have grave consequences for the ruling party that barely managed to survive a no-confidence motion in the Assembly in December last year. At present, the Congress has 153 MLAs in the 294-member Assembly, five more than the magic figure of 148, and any desertions from its ranks could spell trouble for the Kiran Kumar Reddy government in near future. Two Congress legislators have already submitted their resignations and expressed support for Jagan. The bypoll outcome has emboldened the YSR Congress which said the victory of its candidates with huge margins was an “indication of the things to come”. “It is a victory of the people and democratic values. My son has been sent to jail as part of a political conspiracy,” said Jagan’s mother YS Vijayalakshmi, who, along with her daughter YS Sharmila, conducted the election campaign in the absence of the Kadapa MP. Such was the scale of YSR Congress’s victories that its candidates secured majorities in excess of 10,000 votes in 14 out of the 15 constituencies where it emerged victorious, indicating a strong anti-incumbency factor against the Congress government. The Congress had to content with Ramachandrapuram and Narsapur constituencies in the coastal region while the Telugu Desam Party drew a blank. In fact, the bypolls delivered the biggest blow to the TDP, which was hoping to capitalise on the split in the traditional Congress votes. It was a see-saw battle in Parkal, the hotbed of the Telangana movement, where YSR Congress candidate K Surekha was locked in a neck-and-neck fight with her TRS rival Bikshapathi with their fortunes changing after every round of counting. Finally, the TRS managed to win the seat with a slender margin. The Congress received a stinging slap at Tirupati. The seat was vacated by film star-turned-politician Chiranjeevi following his elevation to the Rajya Sabha as a reward for his merging Praja Rajyam Party with the Congress. It lost to the YSR Congress by 17,000 votes. The poll results have revived the fears of large-scale exodus from the ruling camp, threatening the stability of the government.
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PM to visit Mexico, Brazil for multilateral summits
New Delhi, June 15 First leg of the PM’s visit takes him to resort town of Los Cabos in Mexico for the G-20 Summit. From there, he will proceed to Brazil for the Rio + 20 summit on sustainable development. Asked if the PM would also hold talks with US President Obama on margins of the G-20 meet, MEA spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin said there was no proposal for such a meeting as of now. Meanwhile, Obama telephoned Singh yesterday and agreed to work to strengthen global economy to cope with shocks from the eurozone. “The leaders agreed on the importance of steps to strengthen the resilience of the global economy in response to persistent risks in the eurozone and elsewhere and on focusing on measures to boost global growth,” a White House statement said. They also discussed regional and international issues of mutual interest. Important Indian participants at the G-20, including Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia (who is India’s ‘sherpa’) are already at the beach resort of Los Cabos for pre-summit meetings. The G-20 Summit has set out an elaborate agenda which includes strengthening the international financial architecture and regulation, public policy options to determine the causes and reduce food price volatility, policies to promote green growth and greater investment in scientific and agricultural technology and research. The Mexican G-20 Presidency will maintain an inclusive approach, which will deal with the concerns of non-member countries of the group and various actors in the private sector and civil society. The summit will discuss main challenges before the global economy and define actions to restore economic stability and growth. Speaking about India’s stand at the Brazil meet, Environment Minister Jayanthi Natarajan said, “The Rio outcome will have to be voluntary, non-binding and aspirational... no insistence. There should be no compromise on equity and common but differentiated responsibility and these two principles should be core of any outcome.” Equity ensures the right of developing nations to grow and there are also talks of common but differentiated responsibilities about all the countries taking down emission cuts based on their historic responsibilities. According to the environment minister, greening of economy has to be directed towards achieving the overriding objectives of sustainable development and poverty eradication.
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Monsoon weakens further
New Delhi, June 15 Notably, even the eastern and the North-Eastern sector, which was in the positive last week, registered a massive 53 per cent shortfall this week. While the southern peninsula is down by 44 per cent and Central India by 54 per cent, the northwest, comprising Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi, recorded a deficit of 44 per cent. In fact, out of the 36 meteorological sub-divisions, rainfall was excess in just two, normal in three deficient in 15, scanty in 14 and no rain in two sub-divisions this week. According to the Indian Meteorological Department’s (IMD) own admission, rainfall activity in the country is way below normal with an aggregate deficit of 42 per cent ever since it set in the country on June 5, four days behind schedule. This isn’t good news for the country’s planners who are keeping their fingers crossed for the IMD’s April forecast of “near normal” monsoon to come right. Though the silver lining is that IMD Director General LS Rathore is sticking by the April forecast. “Everything will be fine, I assure you,” Rathore told The Tribune. The positive news is that in the next three days, rains are expected to advance into the remaining parts of Konkan, some more parts of interior Maharashtra, interior Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh. The IMD said that an upper air cyclonic circulation is likely to form around June 18 over northwest Bay of Bengal which may subsequently develop into a low pressure area. This would move inland and lead to increase in rainfall activity over east India. “Meteorological conditions will thus become favourable for further advance of monsoon into West Bengal, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh during the second half of the week,” the weather office said. During the week that went by, monsoon advanced into some more parts of madhya Maharashtra, interior Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Bay of Bengal, but running via Harnai, Satara, Gadag, Mysore, Vellore, Chennai and Gangtok, its northern limit is still way short of expected reach at this time of the month. By June 15, the seasonal rains should have covered the entire southern peninsula, the eastern and the northeastern regions and a good part of central India, including Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
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Re-examine case of Army top legal officer: AFT
Chandigarh, June 15
“We direct the Chief of Army Staff to re-examine as to why the administrative action on the subject remained incomplete for nearly three years. In this period, two Brigadiers PS Rathore and UK Chopra were investigated upon, apportioned some degree of supervisory lapse, but their names were conveniently omitted from the directions of the GOC-in-C, who has not recorded any reasons for such omission,” the tribunal’s Bench comprising Justice HN Sarma amd Lt Gen KPD Samanta said today while allowing a petition filed by Lt Col Mukul Dev, who had challenged the censure awarded to him in the case. A court of inquiry (COI) constituted by Central Command into allegations of publishing wrong official orders had held Brig PS Rathore, now Major General and posted as the Judge Advocate General at Army Headquarters, Brig UK Chopra, then Brigadier (Administration) at Central Command, a Colonel and three Lieutenant Colonels responsible for the lapses. Observing that such incomplete administrative actions at the level of Command Headquarters by an Army Commander is not seen often and was indicative of lack of transparency and non-application of mind, the Bench said. “The Army Chief must issue directions to rectify such lapses in Central Command,” the Bench said. “Actions like withholding information or not assigning adequate reasons while dealing with such cases, especially by senior officers, compounds the lack of transparency leading to denial of justice, apart from the vices of not rendering public service in a holistic way,” the Bench remarked. While setting aside the censure awarded to Lt Col Mukul Dev, the Bench held that the alleged lapse on his part lies unsubstantiated.
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PM assures IIT faculty on autonomy
New Delhi, June 15 The All India IIT Faculty Federation representatives said the PM reacted positively to their demands, principal being the freedom for IITs to reject or choose the proposed CET and advancement of the CET beyond 2013. “We told the PM that the current test pattern of the CET needed to be tested in 2013 before being implemented in 2014 or later. We said time was needed to validate the proposed formula to normalise Class XII marks across boards,” Prof Deepak Gupta, of the IIT Kanpur told TNS after the meeting. The faculty told the PM that the IIT Council-approved CET structure included provisions that undermined the autonomy of IITs. These, they said, should be deleted. “The Council decision says CET would be conducted by an apex admission body to be constituted by HRD Minister who will issue a relevant notification after getting the approval of IIT, NIT and IIIT Councils. This is unacceptable. Councils are non academic bodies and can’t be deciding on the behalf of the institutes if they want to be part of the CET. Even when the CET is implemented, individual IITs and even NITs should be given the freedom to join it or reject it. That’s what autonomy is all about. That’s the autonomy IIT Act gives to each institute and that’s non negotiable,” Gupta said. To that extent, the IITs sought PM’s intervention for freedom to accept the proposed CET as it is, accept it with riders or reject it for their own admission process (the IIT Kanpur model). The faculty also regretted before the PM the fact that Sibal didn’t send the IIT Council’s May 28 decision on CET to individual IIT Senates for ratification and announced it unilaterally. The AIIITFF also flagged the point that the proposed CET would increase the stress of students who would not have another chance to improve their scores or get admissions. “A make-and-break test has its disadvantages,” faculty said. The IITs also argued against Sibal’s take that a national test with weight for school marks would dissuade coaching. “Newspapers are replete with advertisements of coaching centres which are promising to offer Class XII coaching. Poor rural students will be end up at a loss because the quality of school education in their villages can’t match the quality if education imparted by urban schools,” the federation said in its representation to the PM.
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New Delhi, June 15 Churu,
Bikaner, Kota and Barmer recorded day temperatures of 44.2, 42.6, 41.4 and 41.2°C respectively while other places recorded maximum temperatures between 38°C to 40.3°C. Heat wave conditions prevailed in many parts of Uttar Pradesh also. According to the meteorological office, the day temperatures increased appreciably in Kanpur and Jhansi divisions. Temperatures were largely above normal in Gorakhpur, Varanasi, Faizabad and Allahabad divisions, markedly above normal in Kanpur, Lucknow, Bareilly and Moradabad divisions. Himachal Pradesh was also under the grip of a heat wave with day Paonta Sahib on the banks of the Yamuna sizzled at 44°C, six degrees above normal, while Una in the Shivalik foothills recorded 43°C, five notches above normal. Himachal’s capital Shimla recorded a high of 30.2°C, 6.2 degrees above normal, while the minimum temperature stayed at 19.9°C. —
PTI
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Jalandhar man hurt in Vizag blast; toll 12
Jalandhar/Visakhapatnam, June 15 Kalsi’s native village Shankar falls in Nakodar, which he used to visit off and on. His brother Amolak Singh Kalsi is posted as the Director, National Informatics Centre, here. The victim was flown via an air ambulance to National Burns Centre in Mumbai after the incident. Admitted in the ICU there, his condition is still said to critical, said the family members. An electrical engineer, DS Kalsi had been posted at the plant since 1979. His father too was an engineer in Rourkela steel plant. His son is also an engineer and is presently working as a consultant with a US-based firm. Meanwhile, the death toll in Wednesday’s explosion at the state-owned plant of Rashtriya Ispat Nigam Limited (RINL) in Visakhapatnam rose to 12 today, with a senior officer succumbing to injuries. (With inputs from
PTI)
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The bridge that Nehru named turns 50
Guwahati, June 15 Today, Saraighat is the most important point for the surface communication network of the country as there stands tall and stout a 1.5 km-long rail-cum-road bridge called Saraighat Bridge. It has been bridging the width of the mighty Brahmaputra river near Guwahati linking the region to the rest of the country. This month, the bridge has stepped into its golden jubilee year. It was in June 1963 that the first Prime Minister of the country Jawaharlal Nehru inaugurated the bridge in a grand function held at the nearby Maligaon railway stadium. The Northeast Frontier (NF) Railway is responsible for the maintenance of the road-cum-rail bridge. An official of the NF Railway Public Relation Department said that the structure of the bridge has remained intact even after five decades of service. This conclusion was drawn by a team of experts from IIT-Guwahati in April after their services was hired by the NF Railway to examine the state of the bridge. The source said that all the 11 pillars of the bridge were found in sound condition. The bridge is fit enough to continue to serve the people for years to come. The 1.5 km bridge was constructed at a cost of Rs 10.65 crore at that time. A diesel engine was run on the rail bridge on September 23, 1962 and goods train service was started on October 31 the same year. Besides a huge volume of vehicular and passenger traffic, the bridge bears the weight of 85 goods and passenger trains running over it every day. The construction of Saraighat Bridge began in January 1959 and Hindustan Construction Company completed the work in September 1962. Nehru formally laid the foundation of the bridge on January 10, 1960.
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Nithyananda gets bail
Ramanagar (Karna), June 15 Ramanagar Deputy Commissioner Sriram Reddy, also the executive magistrate, passed orders granting bail to Nithyananda on furnishing a bond for Rs 1 lakh and two sureties for like sum and directed him not to disturb peace. Public Prosecutor Nagaraj Reddy opposed bail for Nithyananda who was arrested on June 13 after he appeared before a court to surrender in an assault case and was yesterday slapped with a fresh case of disturbing peace, leading to his arrest for the second time. The self-styled godman, facing criminal charges, including rape and out on bail after his arrest in 2010, courted fresh trouble when police on June 8 booked him and his followers for allegedly assaulting a mediaperson at a press conference at his ashram at nearby Bidari. Nithyananda has filed a writ petition in high court seeking Rs 10 crore as damages to his ashram property from state government. — PTI
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India-Nepal army exercise begins today
The exercise will be conducted in an area around Ranikhet in Uttarakhand. Named Surya Kiran III, this is the first exercise after the two nations agreed to enhance defence cooperation in April. The Nepal-India Bilateral Consultative Group on security issues had conducted its ninth meeting in Nepal in April. Nepal army has its own high-altitude and mountain-warfare school in Jomsom, Mustang, 400 km northeast of Kathmandu. The security scenario in Nepal is of importance to India as the Himalayan country has been the hotbed for Left-wing extremists who have links in India. Also, India suspects that Nepal is being used as a safe haven and a launching ground by Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence. India is officially committed to supporting the modernisation of Nepalese security forces by making available the required technical and physical support in accordance with the needs and priorities listed by the Government of Nepal. The Himalayan country is keen to send its soldiers on UN peacekeeping missions.
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India partially lifts ban on emigration to Libya
New Delhi, June 15 The ban on going to Libya for employment was imposed on February 21, 2011 after violence rocked the country. After an interim government has taken over, the situation has improved. It has been noticed that there is growing demand for manpower in Libya in various sectors, officials in the Overseas Indian Affairs Ministry said. —
PTI
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Boat with 22 on board capsizes in Assam, 7 missing
Guwahati, June 15 The incident occurred around 5.30 pm today as the boat was returning from Chapar in Dhubri district at the end of the local weekly market to Ouguri in the adjoining Bongaigaon district. Bongaigaon district Superintendent of Police Nitul Gogoi said 15 persons were rescued while seven others remained untraced till late tonight. A rescue operation was launched.
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Trinamool debuts in UP Assembly
Lucknow, June 15 Samajwadi Party’s Sanjay Lahar ranked third in a closely fought contest that saw the fate of the first three candidates sea-sawing the whole day till the very last round of counting. Finally, Shyam Sunder Sharma’s vote share stood at 36.39 per cent, while the figure was 32.83 per cent in case of the RLD and around 27 per cent in case of the SP. Six-time MLA from Mant, Sharma won the seat on the Loktantrik Congress ticket in 2007. The party later merged with the BSP. He has won the Mant seat six times since 1989 on the ticket of various political parties. Lok Sabha MP from Mathura Jayant Chadhury and son of RLD chief Ajit Singh won this seat during the General Elections earlier this year. However, following the debacle of his poll partner, the Congress, Chadhury decided to continue with his Lok Sabha seat, necessitating the
bypoll.
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Solar energy to power ITBP border posts
Chandigarh, June 15
ITBP has identified 69 BOPs where solar plants are to be initially installed. The force expects these plants to be functional by October end. These posts come under jurisdiction of 11 ITBP battalions deployed in Ladakh, Uttarakhand, Arunachal and Sikkim. Depending on local requirements, the solar plants will have an output ranging from five kilowatt to 100 killowatt. The total requirement for all 69 BOPs is pegged at about 450 kW, sources said.
The plants will have high-power crystalline cells in corrosion-resistant structures along with requisite battery banks and protective devices to guard against power surges and short-circuits.
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Guwahati, June 15
The visit will provide him an opportunity to meet new French President Francois Hollande and know his mind on India-France relations, particularly on the civil nuclear deal. He will also meet Russian President Vladimir Putin in Mexico on the margins of the G-20 Summit. This will be the first meeting between them after Putin took over the Presidency again. Singh is also expected to hold bilateral meetings with Mexican President Felipe Calderon and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.
The most significant takeaway from today’s meeting was the PM’s promise to the IIT faculty that he would discuss their concerns over autonomy and structure of CET with HRD Minister Kapil Sibal. Sibal was not present in the meeting.
In Rajasthan, Sriganganagar was the hottest place recording a maximum of 45.8°C.
It was the first bridge to be built across the mighty river to bridge the surface communication route between the North-East and the rest of the country.
New Delhi, June 15