The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Do more to tackle terror, New Delhi tells Islamabad Ashok Tuteja Tribune News Service New Delhi , June 27 External Affairs Minister SM Krishna today asked Pakistan to join hands with India to ensure that terrorism was eliminated from the region instead of combating the menace on a selective basis. “They (Pakistan) should come out and declare a war on terror which should be across the board and not on a selective basis since they claim they are also a victim of terrorism,” he said at a breakfast meeting with the media here. On whether the arrest of Abu Jundal, a key plotter of the Mumbai attack, would be taken up by India at the foreign secretary-level talks between the two countries on July 4-5, the minister pointed out that India had always focused attention on terror and terror-related activities at every meeting between the two neighbours. Krishna said he was keenly looking forward to his visit to Pakistan in July but the trip had to be deferred in view of the Presidential poll. ‘’I am expecting alternate dates for the visit…as soon as we get the dates, the highest priority will be given to the visit.’’ On Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposed visit to Pakistan, Krishna made it clear that India had only accepted in principle the invitations extended by the President and the Prime Minister of Pakistan in its anxiety to normalise relations with the neighbouring country. “When that visit will take place will depend on various factors.” He underlined that India needed to be courteous and have abundance of patience and perseverance in dealing with Pakistan. “We want to have peace and stability in the region. It is in India ’s national interest that we need to have a stable Pakistan .” On the delay in signing the much-anticipated visa agreement that is expected to facilitate easy travel between the two countries, Krishna said: “We hope the accord will be signed at the earliest possible.” Asked about the cooperation India had received from Saudi Arabia in getting Jundal deported from the kingdom, he said the government could not spell out how the Mumbai plotter was nabbed. “The fact of the matter is that we have succeeded in getting a known terrorist in our net. The Government of India, the Home Ministry and the External Affairs Ministry have all played a constructive and well-coordinated role.”
	Krishna favours Rahul Gandhi joining govt New Delhi, June 27 With the Manmohan Singh Government expected to undertake a reshuffle of the Union Council of Ministers, the demand that Congress General Secretary Rahul Gandhi join the Government has come to the fore. External Affairs Minister SM Krishna is of the view that it is “necessary” for the young Congress leader to make an entry into the Government and help the country solve the problems it is facing. “I am one of those who feel it is necessary for Rahul Gandhi to come into the Government and help in solving the problems that we face as a country,” Krishna said in response to a question during an interaction with media here. In the same breath, he said while the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s invitation to Rahul Gandhi to be part of his team stands, the young Congress leader himself appears not too keen on it. “We have always wanted Rahul Gandhi’s involvement in the Government. The Prime Minister’s invitation for him to join is there but he himself seems not quite inclined at the moment,” the senior Minister observed. Talk of an imminent reshuffle gained ground after two vacancies arose in the Union Cabinet yesterday, with Pranab Mukherjee resigning as the Finance Minister after being nominated to be the UPA candidate for the Presidential election and Virbhadra Singh putting in his papers as the Micro, Small and Medium Industries Minister (MSM) after a Himachal court framed corruption charges against him. — TNS
	IITs come around to CET idea Aditi Tandon/TNS New Delhi, June 27 IIT Senates have more or less agreed to the new formulation of the common engineering entrance test which the IIT Council decided today. The only formality that remains to be completed now is - formal ratification of the proposal by the Senate of each IIT. The final clinching with IITs however happened after days of bitter battle over autonomy between the Senates and HRD Minister Kapil Sibal, who skipped today’s Council meeting to make the point that he never interfered with the process of structuring the common engineering entrance test (CET), which top Indian academics debated and designed from the beginning. Sibal however said today in a written message to the Council that most countries used a single test to screen students for entry into higher education. “The US uses SAT; UK depends on A levels, Japan has a single exam that adds on school performance; China has a national exam which over 9 million students take.” Back home, the Minister clarified that the one-test idea was not his own. In fact, the National Policy on Education called for a single test for admission to all technical and professional colleges, the Science Advisory Council to the PM recommended it and so did the Yashpal Committee on Higher Education Reforms. As for CET, the IIT Council had given its first in-principle approval to the idea in September 2011. This was based on recommendations of the committee headed by Secretary, Science, T Ramasami, who suggested a national engineering exam with weightage to state board results normalised on the basis of a percentile formula for admission to engineering institutes. This formula was designed by the Indian Statistical Institute, Kolkata, but the IIT Senates raised objections over its validity, saying the idea of normalisation of marks awarded by different state boards (there are 42) was error-prone and not judicious. They wanted the CET postponed to 2014 and experimenting with the normalisation formula’s efficacy in 2013. “How can you fairly normalise the marks awarded by so many different boards? UP board awards lesser marks. Tamil Nadu board awards more,” IIT Senates asked. The Senates wanted school marks used only for admission eligibility and not for merit rankings. But the Council ignored most of these proposals in its meeting on May 28. The IITs then appealed to the PM for protection of their autonomy. The PM assured support to them and said their “brand” was unique and would be preserved.
	20 perish in Assam floods, Majuli Island may be submerged Guwahati, June 27 Assam’s flood scene worsened today with 10 more persons being washed away, as many feared drowned and thousands rendered homeless across the state. The world's biggest inhabited river island Majuli is facing a threat of complete submergence. Officials said 10 persons were washed away in Sonitpur and Jorhat districts today and put the toll at 20 in the floods that have affected 23 of the total 27 districts following incessant rains during the past few weeks. The state government said all districts barring the hill districts of Karbi Anglong, North Cachar Hills, Kokrajhar and Buxa have been affected. The situation is worst in Majuli in Jorhat district which is threatened with complete submergence after the Brahmaputra breached an embankment this morning, sources said. A 70-member National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) team is on way from Kolkata to the island, which house several Vaishnavite monasteries, to help thousands of people stranded there following submergence of 70 villages and complete washing away of 30 others. Road and rail communication to Barak valley in south Assam and neighbouring states of Mizoram, Manipur and Tripura was cut off following landslides in Dima Hasao hill district and Meghalaya, the sources said. In Lakhimpur, over 2 lakh persons have been hit by flood in the Brahmaputra and Subansiri rivers while in neighbouring Dhemaji, over 2.5 lakh persons have been affected. Sources said flood waters have engulfed the entire Kaziranga National Park and animals are crossing NH 37, which passes through the park, to higher grounds in Karbi Anglong hills. The Golaghat district administration said two deer and a wild boar were knocked down on the highway by vehicles and killed this morning. — PTI
	Another landslide in Guwahati, three dead Bijay Sankar Bora/TNS Guwahati, June 27 Three members of a family were killed and one injured when their house caved in due to a landslide in the Dhirenpara area of Guwahati city on Tuesday night after a heavy downpour. The deceased have been identified as Marjina Begum (40), Jebin Islam (13) and Mainu Islam (8) who died on the spot. La Ali (48) who was seriously injured, was shifted to Guwahati Medical College Hospital. This happens to be third landslide tragedy in Guwahati since June 22 and it has taken the death toll to seven. All these incidents occurred at the foot of hillocks that are marked as landslide-prone by the district authority. But people continued to live nearby defying the warning.
	IAF copters rescue 12 stranded on boat clinic Bijay Sankar Bora/TNS Guwahati, June 27 Helicopters of the Indian Air Force (IAF) today rescued all the 12 persons on board the boat clinic stranded in the Dibang river here. The Dibang is one of the main channels of the Brahmaputra in eastern Assam. The motorboat had been immobilised after it hit the river’s bottom that had swelled up due to heavy siltation. The boat clinic belongs to the Centre for North-East Studies and Policy Research (C-NES). Ashok Rao, a C-NES programme coordinator, said that the 12 persons, including two doctors, nurses and boat crew, had been stuck in the gushing water near an isle under Amarpur revenue circle in the flood-ravaged Tinsukia district of Assam since June 21. The medical team had gone there to provide treatment to dwellers of Amarpur isle. The rescued persons were brought to the Deputy Commissioner’s office in Tinsukia. The boat clinic was also brought to safety today. While there were foodstuffs on the boat, it had run out of its stock of drinking water. The villagers were providing drinking water to our stranded staff, a C-NES official in Tinsukia said. It is one of the 15 boat clinics operated by the C-NES in Assam under financial assistance from the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM). These boat clinics are an innovative means to reach out to lakhs of residents in numerous inaccessible river isles in the Brahmaputra.
	BSP blocks Bill to withdraw quota in promotions Shahira Naim/TNS Lucknow, June 27 In a major setback to the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) has managed to block a Bill doing away with reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes (SC/ST) in promotions in government service. After pushing through the Uttar Pradesh Public Service (Promotion for SC, ST and Other Backward Castes) (Amendment) Bill, 2012, in the Vidhan Sabha, the SP government had tabled the Bill in the Upper House, where the BSP still has the numbers. Accusing the SP government of having “anti-Dalit mentality”, Leader of the Opposition in the Vidhan Parishad Naseemudidn Siddiqui questioned whether any survey had been conducted by the government on points raised by the apex court. Leader of the House Ahmad Hasan said there was no provision of reservation in promotion in the Constitution and alleged the law framed by the Mayawati-led BSP government did not exist anywhere in the world. Following the BSP protest, the Bill was referred to a select committee of the Upper House. In 2007, the Mayawati government had amended the government service rules in order to provide reservation in promotions to SC/ST employees. The high court last year scrapped the provision declaring it to be unconstitutional. In April, even the apex court quashed the Mayawati government’s decision. Following the Supreme Court order, the Akhilesh Yadav government had issued an order in May scrapping the provision. It then introduced the Uttar Pradesh Public Service (Promotion for SC, ST and Other Backward Castes) (Amendment) Bill, 2012, which was passed in the Vidhan Sabha earlier this month.
	Haryana Board students denied admissions in DU Jyoti Rai/TNS New Delhi, June 27 Problems are mounting for Haryana Board students seeking admission in Delhi University by the hour. Over the past two days, after the university declared its first cut-off list, Haryana Board students are being denied admissions in DU colleges due to lack of their Class XII mark-sheet. This is because, even though their results have been declared, these are only available online and students don't have copies of their certificates. As a result, aspirants from Haryana approaching the colleges without their original mark-sheets and handwritten provisional certificates are being turned down by the colleges. A couple of colleges have given these students a seven-day window to submit their original certificates after which their admissions will stand cancelled. “We get as many as 10 to 20 per cent applicants from Haryana and the same problem arises every year. These students don’t have original papers. The state resident commissioner should bring out a uniform statement and clarify the admission procedure. How hard is it to send the CD results for verification to Delhi University? We cannot give admissions on just Internet photocopies due to the risk of fake mark- sheets,” said Hansraj College Prinicpal BK Kwatra. The non-uniformity in policies is clearly evident across the university. While the DSW and the North Campus colleges have separate versions, South Campus director Dinesh Varshney today said, “How can we admit students on the basis of handwritten provisional certificates? They should at least have an attested copy of their Internet mark-sheet by their school Principal. The delay by the Haryana Board is now being faced by DU and the applicants who are losing out on precious time. I have requested the college principals in South Campus to admit students with an undertaking, their proper provisional certificates and their attested mark-sheets.”
	Graft Case CBI raids premises of top I-T official Raipur, June 27 The CBI today carried out searches at the residential and official premises of Income Tax Chief Commissioner here in connection with a graft case in which a Joint Commissioner was arrested by the agency. CBI sources said the agency carried out search operation at the premises of Girdhari Lal Bhagat, Chief Commissioner, Income Tax, here. The case relates to alleged payment of Rs 15 lakh bribe to a Joint Commissioner of Income Tax P W Athalye by businessmen through a middleman at his residence for which he was arrested by the agency on April 27. Athalye, along with his I-T team, had carried out searches at a factory of Raipur-based Khetan group on April 16, the agency sources said. The group is owned by four businessmen, including Arun Khetan and his associate Sapan Khetan. "Three persons acted as middlemen for the accused officials of the Income Tax Department, Raipur, for negotiating, arranging and delivering illegal gratification to Income Tax officials in collusion with the businessmen," CBI said in a statement. The CBI through its sources had come to know that Athalye had allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 15 lakh from Khetans through middleman O P Singhania at his residence. When the trio emerged from the residence of officer, the CBI team intercepted them and recovered the bribe amount of Rs 15 lakh. — PTI
	Govt likely to seek report on NDA job scam New Delhi, June 27 Unhappy over alleged involvement of a Colonel in a recruitment scam at the National Defence Academy (NDA), the Defence Ministry has taken cognisance of the issue and is likely to seek a detailed report from the Integrated Defence Staff (IDS). On Saturday, the CBI had arrested Col Kulbir Singh along with five others for allegedly receiving bribe from candidates during recruitment drive at the National Defence Academy. The Pune-based training institution in under the purview of the tri-services IDS manned by officers from the Army, Navy and the Air force. The Defence Ministry is unhappy over the fact that Staff Officer of the Commandant of the prestigious National Defence Academy was allegedly involved in the recruitment scam and may seek a detailed report from the IDS in this regard, sources said here. The Colonel is posted as staff officer to commandant of National Defence Academy, Lt Gen Jatinder Singh. They said IDS Chief Vice Admiral Shekhar Sinha had also met Defence Minister AK Antony in his office today. Another key officer of the National Defence Academy, Suhas Shankar Waghmare, was arrested by CBI on Monday night over allegations that he had taken money from over 15 candidates in the alleged recruitment scam. The CBI has alleged that Col Singh in conspiracy with the other accused had obtained illegal gratification of Rs 3 lakh to Rs 4 lakh from each candidate to give them appointment for subordinate staff like cooks, gardeners, lab attendants, library attendants and cadet orderly. The accused persons had allegedly taken signatures of those candidates, who had agreed to pay the bribe, on blank sheets and later filled them with correct answers, it said. — PTI