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Karnataka, Gujarat crises
put BJP on back foot
Govt to relax norms for scholarships to minority students
Adarsh scam
Maharashtra ex-CM Ashok Chavan arrives for questioning by the Adarsh Commission in Mumbai on Saturday. — PTI |
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20 injured in factory inferno
Firefighters try to douse a major fire that broke out at the Nagarjuna Agrichem plant at Chilakapalem village in Srikakulam district on Saturday. — PTI
Post-Mantralaya fire, M’rashtra mulls insuring public buildings
National Urban Health Mission soon: Manmohan
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh being presented a shawl by Tamil Nadu Finance Minister
O Panneerselvam in Chennai on Saturday. — PTI
Pranab begins Prez poll campaign from Chennai
Court defers verdict in Naroda Patiya riot case
Engineers begin inspection of Kudankulam N-plant
Shivakumar is new ISRO satellite centre director
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Karnataka, Gujarat crises
put BJP on back foot
New Delhi, June 30 The Central party leadership, however, is not likely to take a view on these burning issues till July 3 although it is hoping the state units will be able to untangle the mess earlier. BJP insiders said since most state leaders are expected to be in Delhi on Monday for party president Nitin Gadkari’s son’s wedding reception, the occasion will be used to resolve the issues raised by dissidents. Any decision will depend on the report submitted by BJP general secretary in charge of Karnataka Dharmendra Pradhan and party national organising secretary Satish, who have been sent to Bangalore to defuse the crisis which erupted after nine ministers loyal to former Chief Minister BS Yeddyurappa gave in their resignations to demand a change of leadership. At present, the BJP leadership is in no mood to agree to the demand of dissidents to replace Chief Minister Sadananda Gowda, who has also been asked not to accept the resignations of the warring ministers. The party cannot obviously succumb to pressure but it is in a dilemma as it recognises that Yeddyurappa still enjoys the support of the Lingayat community which enabled the BJP to form its first government in the South. While Karnataka is on the boil, the situation in Gujarat is equally worrisome. Senior BJP leader Keshubhai Patel, who has launched a full-throated campaign against Chief Minister Narendra Modi, has threatened to quit the party and form a new political front in Gujarat which is headed for assembly polls later this year. Keshubhai Patel has joined hands with other dissidents like Kanshiram Rana and Suresh Mehta to challenge Modi who is eyeing a third successive term as the Chief Minister. The dissidents are targeting Modi for his dictatorial style of functioning and for creating a fear psychosis in the state. They are also hoping to harness the discontent in the powerful Patel community to weaken Modi in the coming elections which are crucial for the Gujarat strongman who is banking on a credible victory to project himself as the next prime ministerial candidate. While acknowledging Keshubhai Patel as a senior state leader, the party is still trying to ascertain from their stte unit the extent of damage which the dissidents can wreak in Gujarat. So far, they said, none of the dissidents have approached Delhi with their grievances. The drama being witnessed in Karnataka is not new. Ever since he was dethroned following his involvement in illegal mining cases, Yeddyurappa and his supporters keep raising the banner of revolt. They had earlier demanded that Yeddyurappa be reinstated but have now changed their stand to press for a Lingayat CM, their choice being Jagadish
Shettar.
Testing times
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Govt to relax norms for scholarships to minority students
At present, every minority community applicant must have obtained 50 per cent marks in the previous exam to qualify for any scholarship being offered by the ministry. The plan now is to reduce the qualifying and eligibility percentage from 50. The quantum of decrease is being debated.
The issue of reduction of the eligibility percentage was discussed at a recent meeting chaired by Minority Affairs Minister Salman Khursheed in the Capital on June 7 and 8. There was unanimity on the issue and all states welcomed the proposal. The government has also written to the state governments to devise principles to equate grades with equivalent qualifying percentages in view of the introduction of continuous and comprehensive evaluation (CCE) in schools under the Right to Education Act up to Class VIII. The CCE has, however, come under attack from state governments that recently forced the Ministry of HRD to form a committee to review the effectiveness of the system, which provides for no annual or half yearly examinations which schools across the country are traditionally used to. As for minority scholarships, the Central Government is running three important schemes-the Pre-matric scholarship scheme for minority communities provides scholarships to students of classes I to X studying in government, recognised private schools and institutes in the country. Students belonging to Muslim, Christian, Sikh, Buddhist and Parsi communities, who have secured not less than 50 per cent marks in the previous final examinations and the annual income of whose parents does not exceed Rs 1 lakh can apply for these scholarships.
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Now Ashok Chavan blames Deshmukh
Mumbai, June 30 "All land allotment matters pertaining to Mumbai city, Mumbai suburb and Pune city comes under the jurisdiction of the Chief Minister irrespective of the value of the land. All matters pertaining to land allotment in rest of Maharashtra is under the jurisdiction of the revenue minister," Chavan told the two-member inquiry commission probing the scam. Chavan was state revenue minister from October 1999 to January 2003 when Deshmukh was Chief Minister. Deshmukh, during his stint as Chief Minister had issued Letter of Intent (LOI) in favour of allotting land to the Adarsh society. "In the Revenue Department, the file is processed by various officers like the Under Secretary, Deputy Secretary and Principal Secretary after which it is sent to the revenue minister along with a note from the Principal Secretary. Usually the Revenue Minister goes by the recommendation made by the principal secretary and forwards the file to the CM who takes final decision," Chavan said. Noting that since he did not have to take the decision on allotting the land to the controversial society, Chavan said his department did not feel the need to bring to his notice that the land was in possession of the Local Military Authority. — PTI
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20 injured in factory inferno
Hyderabad, June 30 According to Srikakulam district police superintendent KVV Gopal Rao, around 40 workers were inside the unit at the time of the blast. The injured were rushed to the Rajiv Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (RIMS) in Srikakulam where the condition of some of the employees was stated to be critical. Around 600 workers were deployed in the morning shift but, fortunately, the blast occurred when they had gone out for their regular tea break from 8.30 to 9 am. The fire was raging until noon as four fire tenders battled for hours to bring it under control. Thick black clouds of smoke could be seen rising from the factory even from a distance of 10 km. The eye-witnesses said that huge amount of chemical-laden smoke was belching out along with the
raging fire, causing panic in the coastal area. The panic-stricken residents of the villages around the plant came out of their homes. The factory manufactures a wide range of fungicides and pesticides including Endosulfan, Tricyclazole , Propiconazole and Profinofos.
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Post-Mantralaya fire,
M’rashtra mulls insuring public buildings
Mumbai, June 30 Apart from insuring the structures against fire, a move is afoot to take out insurance policies against other natural calamities like earthquakes and terrorism, sources say. Till now major public buildings in Mumbai, including Mantralaya, the BMC building, public hospitals etc were not insured. “Even the Rashtrapati Bhavan is not insured and in case of any disaster, the reconstruction and repairs would be taken care of from the budget,” says a senior bureaucrat. However, with estimates pegging reconstruction of a new Mantralaya building at around Rs 30 crore, the government is having second thoughts about continuing with the old policy. The government has also been advised to take out third-party cover since members of the public visit the facilities in large numbers. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation was first off the mark with Municipal Commissioner Sitaram Kunte kicking off the process to insure the iconic building located opposite the Chatrapati Shivaji Terminus in downtown Mumbai. “We have to insure the building else the cost of reconstructing the building would have to be borne by the citizens,” Kunte told reporters on Tuesday. Bureaucrats who have sought expert opinion from insurance assessors have been privately told that the risk premia to be borne for insuring the government buildings would be higher than private buildings because of additional risks. These buildings, the bureaucrats have been told, are fire-prone because of the haphazard manner in which papers are dumped all over the place. Kunte himself says the BMC would move to a paperless office in order to reduce the risk of fire. A few departments like the Building Proposals Department are regularly digitising files, mainly to ensure that they are not tampered with by vested interests. Incidentally, it is mandatory in Maharashtra for all private housing societies to insure buildings against fires, earthquakes and terrorism. But there is no such rule governing public buildings.
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National Urban Health Mission soon: Manmohan
Puducherry, June 30 Stating that the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM) has shown that health indicators can be improved with concerted focus on public health systems at primary and secondary levels, Singh said, “Our government has decided to continue the National Rural Health Mission for the next five years. We are now proposing a new National Urban Health Mission in order to focus on the health challenges in our towns and cities.” “The quality of medical education is a major concern. There is a perception of deteriorating quality. We cannot allow this situation to continue or to persist. We must put in place a credible regulatory and institutional mechanism to help develop standards in our medical education,” said Singh while speaking at the third convocation of Jawaharlal Institute of Postgraduate Medical Education and Research
(JIPMER) in Puducherry. “We also need to take a serious look at the curriculum for medical education so that doctors are trained to look at health in a truly holistic manner, and that it goes beyond a narrow clinical and technology-driven approach. Students training to be doctors have to be prepared to work with local communities and in our villages. They should be sensitised to the social determinants of health and be as willing to contribute to preventive healthcare and its management as the more lucrative curative systems,” he added. Stating that as science and society evolve rapidly in the 21st century, Singh said, “The education of health professionals too must be transformed in precept and practice.”
— ANI
PMSpeak
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Pranab begins Prez poll campaign from Chennai
Chennai, June 30 Mukherjee met UPA's key partner DMK president M Karunanidhi at his CIT Nagar residence here, formally kickstarting the campaign. The former Finance Minister, who enjoys a close rapport with Karunanidhi, having been the emissary of Congress chief Sonia Gandhi on many occasions, said it was natural to start the campaign from here as DMK was a stable partner of UPA. "The DMK is a stable partner of UPA-I and UPA II. Therefore, it is quite natural that I have started my campaign with the blessings and support of Dr Karunanidhi and from Chennai itself..." Mukherjee told reporters ahead of his meeting with MPs and MLAs of Congress and other UPA allies to enlist their support. Mukherjee, who is pitted against Lok Sabha former Speaker PA Sangma, said that apart from UPA, the Samajwadi Party, BSP, CPI(M), Forward Bloc, JD(U) and Shiv Sena had extended their support to his candidature. "I am seeking the support of those political parties who have not yet declared their choice" he said.
— PTI
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Court defers verdict in Naroda Patiya riot case
Ahmedabad, June 30 Special Judge Jyotsna Yagnik, who had earlier given a tentative date of today for delivering the much-awaited judgement put off the verdict by two months without assigning any reason. Naroda Patiya, a locality in the city, saw one of the worst riots in the wake of Sabarmati Express burning incident near Godhra. Ninety-seven members of a minority community were massacred in the area by a violent mob on February 28 2002, a day after the Godhra train fire. The 61 accused in the case include former Minister in Narendra Modi Government and Naroda MLA Maya Kodnani, ex-VHP leader Babu Bajrangi, local BJP leaders Bipin Panchal, Kishan Korani, Ashok Sindhi and Raju Chaumal. The rioting occurred during a bandh called by the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) to protest against the torching of Sabarmati Express. A rampaging mob armed with lethal weapons and allegedly led by Kodnani and others had gathered at Naroda Patiya and killed 97 people. Thirty-three others were wounded. The trial began in August 2009 and charges were framed against 62 accused. However, one of them - Vijay Shetty, died during the trial. — PTI
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Engineers begin inspection of Kudankulam N-plant
New Delhi, June 30 The inspection is a key step in the run-up to the commissioning of a nuclear plant before the regulator grants permission for loading the fuel. "This inspection will take about 10 to 12 days. The report of inspection will be submitted to the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board for its review and obtaining clearance for fuel loading," the Nuclear Power Corporation of India (NPCIL) said in a statement. The work on the KNPP was suspended from September, 2011 to March 19, 2012 due to protests over its safety and concerns about the impact of the project on environment. Earlier this week, NPCIL Chairman-cum-Managing Director Kailash Chandra Purohit had said that the first unit of KNPP was in the final stages of commissioning and he expected the fuel to be loaded in the nuclear plant by end of July.
— PTI
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Shivakumar is new ISRO satellite centre director
Bangalore, June 30
ISAC is ISRO’s premier centre for conceptualisation, design, fabrication, testing, integration and in-orbit commissioning of satellite systems involving various cutting edge technologies.
An alumnus of the Indian Institute of Science (IISc) in Bangalore, Shivakumar began his career in ISRO in its Telemetry, Tracking and Command Network (ISTRAC) in 1976 at Sriharikota and later served ISRO Satellite Centre for two decades (1978-1998), during which he contributed to the mission planning, analysis and operations of several Indian satellite missions such as Bhaskara, APPLE, IRS and Insat. He also served as mission director for IRS-1B and IRS-1C satellites, which successfully completed a decade of operations in orbit. He was project director for setting up India’s first indigenous deep space network antenna at Byalalu near Bangalore. This was used for controlling Chandrayaan-1, India’s first mission to the moon, and will serve future deep space missions. He also played a key role in setting up the entire ground segment for Chandrayaan-1 mission including the Indian Space Science Data Centre. — TNS
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The blame-game over Adarsh scam continued today with former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan pointing a finger at his predecessor Vilasrao Deshmukh, saying as revenue minister during the latter's tenure it was beyond his jurisdiction to allot land to the society.
Hyderabad,
June 30
Asserting
that the quality of medical education is a major concern, PM Manmohan Singh on
Saturday said a credible regulatory and institutional mechanism must be put in
place to help develop standards in medical education. Stating that the National Rural Health Mission
(NRHM) has shown that health indicators can be improved with concerted focus on public health systems at primary and secondary levels, Singh said, “Our government has decided to continue the National Rural Health Mission for the next five years.
New Delhi, June 30
The move follows representations from various minority communities, especially Muslims, who argued that their wards found it hard to secure these many marks on account of lack of equal opportunity and access to education.
