The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

30 Shirdi pilgrims die as bus falls off bridge
Shiv Kumar &
Suresh Dharur/TNS

The police rush injured persons to hospital. — PTI

Mumbai/Hyderabad, June 16
In one of the worst road mishaps in Maharashtra this year, at least 30 persons were killed and 14 others injured after a bus went off a bridge and plunged into a riverbed early this morning. The deceased included 16 women.

The police said the mishap occurred near Naldurg town in Osmanabad, about 260 km from Hyderabad, at around 2.30 am today. Most of the passengers hailed from Hyderabad and some from neighbouring districts.

On board was a family of seven from Guntur district. They were on their way to the pilgrim town of Shirdi in Maharashtra's Ahmednagar district. Most of the victims were in the age group of 25-40, the police said.

The luxury bus, owned by Hyderabad-based Shree Kaleshwari Travels, had left for Shirdi last evening. According to information from Osmanabad district headquarters, the bus plunged into the nearly dry riverbed after breaking through the barrier on the bridge.

While most of the injured persons were taken to hospital in a serious condition, a one-year-old boy escaped unhurt, the police said.

The injured have been shifted to hospitals in Osmanabad, Latur, Solapur and other neighbouring towns.

The Andhra Pradesh Government has rushed a helicopter to help airlift the injured to hospitals in Maharashtra, according to reports.

According to information available here, the deceased included 13 software engineers from Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) who were on their way to Shirdi shortly after being hired by the company.

Andhra Pradesh Civil Supplies Minister D Sridhar Babu left for Osmanabad by helicopter along with a team of officials to oversee arrangements being made to shift the bodies to Hyderabad and to ensure proper medical care for the injured who have been admitted to hospitals in Osmanabad and Sholapur.

The authorities have arranged special buses to take relatives of the victims to Osmanabad.

The private travel agency, to which the ill-fated bus belonged, was unable to provide the information about the names and number of passengers.

The angry relatives of passengers gathered at the office of the travel agency and staged a protest demonstration.

The police sources said they were having a problem gathering information about the passengers since most of them had booked tickers either online or from various travel agencies in Hyderabad.

Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy, expressing shock over the accident, directed officials to provide all help to the victims and their families. He also directed the transport department to take action against the private travel operator for alleged negligence and the delay in providing information to the relatives about the passengers.

He also spoke to his Maharashtra counterpart Prithviraj Chavan and requested him to extend all medical help to the injured. The AP Government would bear all expenses for the treatment of the injured, he said.

Information and Public Relations Commissioner RV Chandravadan said steps were being taken to bring the bodies to Hyderabad. "If necessary, the injured will be brought here for treatment," he said.

The state government has sent three officials to Osmanabad to coordinate with the local officials in providing treatment for the injured and also rescue operations. Ambulances are also being sent to shift the bodies to Hyderabad after the post-mortem examination.

n The deceased include 13 TCS engineers and 16 women
n The engineers had finished training last week and were on their way to Shirdi before joining work
n Most passengers were from Hyderabad and were in the 25-40 age group
n Most of the victims

CBI reconstructs crime scene once again

Palanpur (Guj), June 16
The CBI along with the forensic experts from Chandigarh and a team from All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) today reconstructed the crime scene of the 2006 Tulsi Prajapati fake encounter.

Prajapati, a key witness to the November 2005 killing of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausarbi, was gunned down by the police on December 28, 2006 near Chhapri village, around 7 km from Ambaji, in Gujarat's Banskantha district.

The CBI had earlier conducted a similar reconstruction and to plug the loopholes in the first one carried out the second one. The encounter case is monitored by the Supreme Court.

The CBI team, led by joint director V Lakshminarayana, along with the AIIMS team and the forensic experts arrived at the village in the morning, CBI sources said.

"The experts obtained crucial data such as the distance between the police vehicle and the car in which Prajapati was travelling; location of Prajapati's body after the encounter as mentioned by CID and regarding how the police officers fired at Prajapati and the distance from which they fired," they said. "They also video recorded the reconstruction," the sources said. — PTI

Defence think-tank pushes for overhaul of intel agencies
Ajay Banerjee/TNS

New Delhi, June 16
Leading strategic think-tank, the Institute of Defence Studies and Analyses (IDSA), has suggested comprehensive reforms of intelligence agencies, including having legislation, an oversight committee and a minister for national security and intelligence.

The IDSA released the report of the Taskforce on Intelligence Reforms recently and has presented an overarching picture for reform. It says there has been a paradigm shift in the nature of security challenges facing the country and stresses the urgency for reforms in the country’s intelligence apparatus.

“Examine the option of having a minister for national security and intelligence, who could exercise administrative authority on all intelligence agencies,” says the report and adds that the National Security Adviser (NSA) may function independently under such a minister.

“There is a need for comprehensive, not adhoc and piecemeal, reforms,” says the document, authored by a three-member team headed by former Special Secretary in the Cabinet Secretariat, Rana Banerji. Its other two members are PK Upadhyay, who is on the IDSA Pakistan desk, and Harinder Singh, an expert in counter-terrorism and operational readiness.

The report wants that a National Intelligence Coordinator or Director of National Intelligence be appointed to bring about better interagency coordination, remove overlaps and duplications. It cites examples of the US and other countries. This will end “turf-wars” and ensure better utilisation of national resources, says the report.

As per the report, the focus of comprehensive reforms should be on removing “deficiencies within the system, improving coordination between intelligence agencies and ensuring better accountability and oversight”.

Since Indian intelligence agencies are operating in grey areas, the taskforce talks about the need to “introduce legislation in Parliament for laying down the charters, functions and duties of intelligence organisations.” This suggestion is aimed to have a legal basis for different tiers of accountability — executive, financial and legislative.

It goes on to suggest “open separate direct recruitment mechanisms for different intelligence agencies by advertising for the best talent available, specifying the qualifications required, including linguistic abilities”.

The report identifies a need to induct experts from the military and science and technology streams and critically touches upon the need to introduce the concept of social welfare safeguards for assets who rendered valuable service for national security, but became casualties on the job. This means the people who are exposed to risk in the line of national duty should be taken care off and their families tended to.

In an attempt to cut the silo-style structure of Indian intelligence agencies, the report suggests a system of interchangeability between various intelligence agencies and the connected ministries of the Government of India.

Wife wants French diplomat accused of daughter’s rape to be tried in India
Shubhadeep Choudhury/TNS

Bangalore, June 16
The Indian wife of a Bangalore-based French diplomat has appealed to the government to prevent her husband, accused of sexually abusing their minor daughter, from leaving the country even as he enjoys diplomatic immunity.

In a letter to Home Minister P Chidambaram and External Affairs Minister SM Krishna, Suja Jones Mazurier has requested that her husband, Pascal Mazurier, be restrained from leaving the country till legal proceedings were completed and that under no circumstances should he be allowed custody of their children, who are French citizens. Asha S Basu, Suja’s counsel who has written the letters on her behalf, sought protection for her client and her children.

Suja Jones also wanted the French Embassy to be directed to help her with legal and financial assistance as she was currently unemployed and has to take care of their children.

She said apart from the High Grounds police station here registering a case of rape against the diplomat, Baptist hospital, Bangalore, has also registered a medico-legal case against him in view of the medical evidence found after examining the minor.

Jones has accused her husband of raping their three-year-old daughter over the past year. Mazurier was detained for questioning on Thursday night but has not been arrested, as he enjoys diplomatic immunity.

Suja Jones said she has already written to the Ambassador of France intimating the details of alleged domestic violence and repeated child abuse.

BJP to consult NDA partners today
Anita Katyal
Our Political Correspondent

New Delhi, June 16
BJP core group, which held a marathon session this evening at party president Nitin Gadkari’s residence to discuss its strategy for the Presidential election, decided to take a final view after consulting its NDA partners tomorrow.

Besides Gadkari, others who attended the meeting included LK Advani, Sushma Swaraj and Ananth Kumar.

Meanwhile, Rajya Sabha MP Ram Jethmalani today declared that he will contest if the BJP decides to back Mukherjee.

While two key BJP allies - Janata Dal (U) and the Akali Dal - are not in favour of contesting the election after the UPA named senior Congress leader as its Presidential candidate, there is division within the party’s own ranks on this issue.

JD(U) leader Shivanand Tiwari went on record to say that the Opposition should support Mukherjee as he is eminently qualified for this post. PM Manmohan Singh and Mukherjee called up JD(U) leader Nitish Kumar for support, but he was non-committal.

There is a view in the BJP that the Opposition should not force a contest as the numbers are now stacked firmly in favour of the UPA after Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav decided to support Mukherjee.

Moreover, there are reservations within the BJP on taking on the senior Congress leader as he enjoys a good rapport with Opposition leaders and they believe that he is the right person to occupy the top Constitutional post.

There are others in the BJP who argue that the principal Opposition party should negotiate with the UPA for the Vice-President’s post in lieu of its support for Mukherjee.

Senior party leader Jaswant Singh has pitched himself for this job. He had called on SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav last week to solicit his party’s support.

This post is critical as the Vice-President is also the Chairman of the Rajya Sabha where the UPA is currently in a minority. The Congress would obviously not like this crucial post to go to anybody outside the ruling coalition.

There is a section in the BJP which wants the party to put up a token fight on the plea that the Opposition should not be seen to be supporting the UPA at a time when its popularity has hit rock bottom.

NCP to take action against Sangma if he contests

New Delhi, June 16
The NCP today indicated that it would take action against PA Sangma if he persisted with his proposal to contest the Presidential election.“We will react if he pursues with his candidature,” senior NCP leader and Union Minister Praful Patel told PTI when asked what action was being contemplated by the party against the former Lok Sabha Speaker.

Maintaining that the party’s line was to support UPA’s nominee Pranab Mukherjee for the top constitutional post “unconditionally”, Patel said, “The NCP’s stated position is that we do not subscribe to his (Sangma’s) candidature. We will react only if he files his nomination. Let me make it very clear that Mr Sangma does not enjoy support of the NCP. We wish that he does not contest... I don’t think he should defy the party’s direction or the line of thinking,” Patel said.

“In this case, the party’s direction and the line is to support Pranab Mukherjee unconditionally,” he said.

Sangma is insisting on contesting, saying he has the support of AIADMK leader Jayalalithaa and BJD chief Naveen Patnaik. “I am in the fray as a tribal candidate, not as an NCP candidate,” he had said earlier.

Meanwhile, with Sangma insisting on contesting the Presidential poll, the ruling BJD in Odisha, which was the first to moot his name, today said there was no change in its decision to back him — PTI

Will go with NDA decision: Badal
Tribune News Service

Chandigarh June 16
Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said here today that the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) will go by the decision of the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) on the forthcoming Presidential election in the country.

In a statement here, Badal reiterated that as a constituent of the NDA, the SAD will back the decision to be taken at a meeting in New Delhi in this regard.

The CM said the SAD-BJP alliance has a shared approach on all issues which goes beyond political expediency.

“The SAD-BJP alliance in Punjab represents not just a political adjustment but a common approach to social cohesion, peace, communal harmony and Punjabi unity.

“There is complete understanding between the alliance partners on all issues and a well-oiled and smooth system of functioning from the top to the grassroot levels,” he said.

The CM described as “incorrect and misleading” reports in a section of the press about some misunderstanding on the posts of office-bearers in civic bodies.

Cong free to leave Mamata govt: Trinamool minister

Kolkata, June 16
A Trinamool Congress minister today said ally Congress was free to quit the Mamata Banerjee ministry government in West Bengal. "The Congress is free to leave the government if they want," Firhad Hakim said on the sidelines of a meeting in Howrah. — PTI

SP denies striking deal over support to Pranab
Shahira Naim/TNS

Lucknow, June 16
Samajwadi Party national president Mulayam Singh Yadav today ruled out any deal behind his party’s decision to support Pranab Mukherjee for the Presidential post declaring that deals were made by ‘dalals’.

Talking to the media after addressing party workers at the Vikramaditya Marg party headquarters, Yadav said the SP had supported Mukherjee’s candidature for his ability, secular credentials and intellectual prowess. “The President’s post is a Constitutional one and not a party post. We want that the election should be unopposed and not contested,” he said.

Mumbai ‘encounter specialist’ Daya Nayak reinstated

Mumbai, June 16
Mumbai Police sub-inspector and 'encounter specialist' Daya Nayak, who was under suspension for nearly six-and-a-half years in a disproportionate assets case, was today reinstated and posted in a local arms wing of the department, the police said.

Soon after receiving the order of reinstatement, Nayak took charge today itself. He had been suspended from the service in January 2006 and was arrested by the Maharashtra Anti- Corruption Bureau after a court rejected his anticipatory bail plea in the case.

In October 2009, the then director-general of police, SS Virk, had denied permission to prosecute Nayak in the case with a remark that there were insufficient grounds and cleared him of all charges. Later, his file had been sent to the ACB. This had paved a way for his reinstatement in the force.

A 1995-batch police officer, Nayak had got actor Amitabh Bachchan to inaugurate his school in Karnataka in memory of his mother nearly seven years ago. — PTI

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