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Deficient rain portends more pain
UP Govt rushes to restore Mayawati’s statue
Andhra IPS officer in black magic row
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Minister: Monsoon mission to be under increased focus
Gogoi blames spread of violence on paucity of Central forces
BJP’s feelers to MNS chief for a 3-way alliance
Roof collapse kills six in UP school
Hooda meets Ajit, seeks cargo, civilian
airports
M’rashtra begins shutting down power stations
Lanka releases Indian fishermen
Rohit wants Tiwari punished
Tiwari blames close associates for maligning his image
Cong distances itself from DNA report, says it is personal matter
Bengal Govt to look after Assam evacuees: Mamata
SC says no to Centre’s plea to relax Haj pilgrims quota order
CBI quizzes Tytler in Abhishek Verma case
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Deficient rain portends more pain
Minister of State for Earth Sciences Ashwani Kumar said: “There is cause for concern in northern and western regions of the country. The government is making contingency plans with the help of state governments to mitigate hardship of farmers in every possible way. The PMO itself is monitoring the situation on weekly basis.” As most parts of India wait for the elusive rain, plans are afoot to keep crop loss to a minimum and save one of the world’s biggest food consumers from relying too much on global markets. India, the second largest producer of rice, wheat and sugar, is also expected to review its export rules. What is also troubling the planners is a drought-like condition prevailing in world’s top grain exporters-the US and Australia- a situation that has starting pushing up the price of soybean, corn, wheat and crude palm oil in the global market. World food prices are likely to rise due to a drought gripping large parts of the Midwest, the US Department for Agriculture has been quoted as saying. The prices are expected to increase by 3-4 per cent in 2013. The drought, which is affecting much of the Midwest, is the worst since 1956, reports say. In India, rains have so far been excess or normal in just 14 subdivisions, deficient in 18 and scanty in four sub-divisions. In area-wise distribution, just 37per cent area of the country received excess or normal rainfall while the remaining 63 per cent area has seen scanty rainfall. Rains and thundershowers are expected over many places in east Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat region and at a few places in Uttarakhand, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana, Delhi and west Uttar Pradesh, the IMD says. But by how much will they bring down the massive deficits in Punjab (66%), Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi (70%), West Rajasthan (63%) and Saurashtra and Kutch (77%) is debatable.
AREA UNDER PADDY IMPROVES
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UP Govt rushes to restore Mayawati’s statue
Lucknow, July 27 A replica of the marble statue of the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) chief was found at the Sangeet Natak Academy (SNA) in Gomtinagar late Thursday and the administration got down to restoring it at 1.30 am itself. District officials said they found an exact replica of the statue broken on Thursday. But the work would be completed only by Friday noon, an official told IANS. District Magistrate Anurag Yadav said restoration work had been taken up and the sculptor, Sharawan Prajapati, had been requisitioned. No time was wasted. Cranes were pressed into service midnight to lift the defunct statue, which was to be initially used at the Manyavar Kanshiram Eco garden on Jail Road. It was not done due to a stay by the Supreme Court. The new statue is of the same height and weighs 750 kg. The restoration work has saved the district administration around Rs 15 lakh, an official said. When Prajapati inspected the broken statue, he told officials that it was impossible to repair it because of the extent of damage inflicted on it. He said the statue was of very high grade marble and hence would have to be done all over again. Detailing the events, an official said the government was informed of the dilemma following which a hunt was ordered for a replica that was luckily found a few kilometres away. Four unidentified vandals on Thursday afternoon damaged the statue, which was placed in the sprawling Ambedkar Park. It was damaged in the head, arm and neck. Protests erupted in many parts of the state following the desecration, including in Muzaffarnagar, Jhansi and Ambedkarnagar, with BSP supporters and workers taking to the streets and raising anti-SP slogans. BSP leaders Naseemuddin Siddiqui, Swamy Prasad Maurya, Daddu Prasad and Nakul Dubey led the protest in Lucknow. They staged a sit-in in front of the Vidhan Sabha and demanded an immediate restoration of the statue. — IANS
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Andhra IPS officer in black magic row
Hyderabad, July 27 A complaint has been registered with the city police against Kumar for organising "kshudra puja" (tantrik ritual to invoke evil forces against the targeted individual) at a temple on the outskirts of Hyderabad. According to the complaint, the ritual was aimed at causing harm to the DGP. The two top cops have been locked in a bitter legal battle. Both had moved the high court, levelling charges against each other. While Kumar, now put under suspension, had accused the DGP of amassing illegal wealth and concealing property transactions of his wife, the DGP charged his colleague with misappropriation of funds during his stint with "Grey Hounds", an elite anti-Maoist outfit of the state police. A case was also registered against Umesh for allegedly creating a forged letter of a Rajya Sabha member, containing a litany of charges against Dinesh Reddy, and sending it to the Union Ministry. This was allegedly done to scuttle the appointment of Reddy as the DGP. According to the CID, which probed the case, the role of Umesh Kumar in forging signatures of an MP has been established beyond any doubt. Later, the government placed Kumar under suspension. In the latest case, a local businessman and astrologer Syed Naufail filed a complaint, claiming that Kumar had approached him and asked him to perform black magic directed against the DGP. "I refused to perform black magic. Later, I saw Umesh Kumar and priest of a local temple sitting in front of fire and performing rituals. I also saw pieces of flesh, toddy and a piece of cloth soaked in blood," Syed said. The black magic ritual was allegedly performed at Pratyangira Parameswari Devi temple at RK Puram on the city outskirts. Meanwhile, the city police has warned temple trustee Mallikarjuna Rao and priest Sarma, who were authorised to perform "kshudra puja" not to resort to such activity.
EVIL DESIGN
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Minister: Monsoon mission to be under increased focus
New Delhi, July 27 The major institutional endeavours lined up for implementation during the 12th Five-Year Plan include areas of earthquake research, monitoring of glaciers, role of Himalayan ecosystem, understanding monsoon's variability and improving skills in short-term, medium-range extended-range and seasonal scale prediction of rainfall, he said. He was speaking at the Earth Sciences Foundation day. The government is augmenting high-performance computing facility from the existing 120 tera flops to 800 tera flops to meet the emerging computing needs for monsoon's dynamical model predictions.
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Gogoi blames spread of violence on paucity of Central forces
Guwahati, July 27 He said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would visit Kokrajhar on Saturday to take stock of the situation. He claimed the situation in the area had been “limping back to normalcy and there had been no report of fresh violence since last night, barring three incidents of house burning in different villages in Baksa district”. “The violence has affected both the Bodo tribe and the religious minority community in Kokrajhar, Chirang, Baksa and Dhubri districts. The death toll has gone up to 35 while about 3.92 lakh persons have fled homes and taken shelter in 270 relief camps set up across the violence-hit districts,” Gogoi said. “I don’t want to blame anybody for delayed arrival of forces as it takes time to move forces from other states. The system is like that. The violence wouldn’t have escalated if we had reserve companies of Central forces in the state. We had about 150 companies till recently, but Centre took away some companies leaving us with only 96 companies,” Gogoi said. When his attention was drawn to Union Joint Secretary, Home (North East Affairs) , Sambhu Singh’s comments made in Kokrajhar a couple of days ago that the situation would have been much better had there been early deployment of the Army, Gogoi said, “I also agree to that. In fact, I had personally called up the Army General and the Defence Minister on the day violence broke out, requesting for deployment of the Army. But it took time.” Gogoi did not agree that there was intelligence failure that led to spread of violence. “There is no question of intelligence failure. It (violence) had happened all of a sudden and spread very fast,” he added. He said a third force was working overtime to create panic among people by spreading rumours and some people had fled their homes just out of panic. “That is why there are so many people in relief camps. It was not like this in earlier spells of such violence in the state,” he added.
Fires salvo at BJP
Gogoi refused to accept that the violence in the state was communal in nature, as was being alleged by the BJP. It was just a spell of violence that had been unleashed by miscreants with vested interests, he said. "It’s not a communal clash. The BJP is out to give a communal colour to it," he said.
I don't want to blame anybody for delayed arrival of forces as it takes time to move forces from other states. The system
is like that. |
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BJP’s feelers to MNS chief for a 3-way alliance
Mumbai, July 27 The BJP's latest overtures to Raj Thackeray follows the latter's visit to estranged cousin and Shiv Sena leader Uddhav Thackeray who was hospitalised for angioplasty in Mumbai last week. “I think that BJP-Sena should tie up with MNS. With the way things are going currently, it may well happen that way," BJP leader Gopinath Munde said at an event here on Thursday. Today, Munde told a television channel that there was a public demand for a three-way alliance between the three parties. A group of Shiv Sena sympathisers who were active members of the party at one time have begun a campaign to bring the Thackerays together. "A very large segment of the Marathi-speaking population are unhappy that the Thackeray cousins have split. They are hoping for a reunion," says Satish Valanju, who used to be an active member of the undivided
Sena.
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Roof collapse kills six in UP school
Lucknow, July 27 Superintendent of Police (SP) Nitin Tiwari said over two dozen students were buried in the rubble and were rescued after a two-hour-long joint operation by local residents, firemen and police. The rescued children were taken to a nearby medical facility, where doctors declared five of them dead. More than half-a-dozen kids are reported to be in serious condition, with two battling for their lives, police said. The police said that they were trying to get hold of the school management to ascertain the reasons for the accident. — IANS
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Hooda meets Ajit, seeks cargo, civilian
airports
New Delhi, July 27 Though Ajit Singh assured Hooda that the Centre would consider Haryana’s request positively and even asked the Airports Authority of India to deploy a team to conduct a survey of the land in collaboration with state officials, officials are sceptical of the exercise bearing fruitful results considering Delhi International Airport Limited’s (DIAL) vehement opposition to any such endeavour in the vicinity of the T3 at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. Forwarded by the Haryana State Industrial and Infrastructure Development Corporation Ltd (HSIIDC), the proposal for building the cargo airport for international operations at Meham has been long pending with the Centre. In today’s discussions also, Hooda said that an area of about 2,770 acres had already been identified for the project which would be purchased from private parties according to the Reclamation and Rehabilitation (R&R) Policy of the state government. However, the exercise may end up being a futile one considering the fate of Uttar Pradesh’s plans to build a new airport at Jewar in Greater Noida. A controversy has been raging for years due to DIAL’s opposition to any airport within a 150 km radius of the Rs 12,000 crore T3. Even though the Cabinet had given an in-principle approval to former UP Chief Minister Mayawati's pet project, the Centre had to form a Group of Ministers to examine the legality of the proposal vis-a-vis the agreement with the GMR-led DIAL that manages the T3. DIAL had expressed reservations about another airport coming up in the region citing a rule that prevents construction of two airports within a distance of 150 km from each other. Its apprehensions are that a second airport in the close vicinity could affect its business. Officials said that in addition to DIAL’s unilateral right to manage the IGI Airport for 60 years, the State Support Agreement (SSA) allows it the Right of First Refusal with regard to a second airport planned within a 150 km radius of the IGI Airport.
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M’rashtra begins shutting down power stations
Mumbai, July 27 According to an order issued by Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar who also holds the power portfolio, the Koyna power station has been asked to stop generating power. Water from the Koyna dam will be used for drinking purposes, state government sources said. Koyna is Maharashtra's biggest hydel power project generating 1900 MW of power. With the monsoon showing no signs of picking up, the state government is also likely to ask the Tata Power Company (TPC) to shut down three hydel power stations in the state which generate around 500 MW of power. Pune city and south Mumbai, which receives the bulk of TPC's power, are likely to be affected as a result. For the first time, Maharashtra is likely to shut down thermal power stations as well since they use water from rivers for cooling their plants. Reliance Power, which supplies power to Mumbai's suburbs, is expected to be hit. Should the government issue such an order, it would be the first time in decades that Mumbai will be faced with the problem of load-shedding.
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Lanka releases Indian fishermen
New Delhi, July 27 Thanking the Sri Lankan Government for the humanitarian gesture, Krishna said he had instructed the High Commissioner in Colombo to make all necessary arrangements for the fishermen to be flown back to India. The release of the fishermen came a day after India appealed to Sri Lanka to immediately set free the fishermen, who were also accused of ramming their boats into Lankan naval ships. They were expected to arrive in Rameswaram either today or tomorrow.
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Paternity Suit Ujjawala alleges that Tiwari had a child with her. There was understanding that he would adopt child. But Tiwari disputes it Aditi Tandon Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 27 While the supporters of Rohit broke into a happy frenzy after the Delhi High Court, in a historic move, pronounced him former as the biological son of Congress stalwart ND Tiwari, Ujjawala remained calm. “She has been very composed throughout the period of struggle,” Vedant Verma, Rohit’s counsel told The Tribune today. Verma assisted HRD Minister Kapil Sibal’s lawyer son, Amit Sibal, in this high-profile case. Amit for his part hailed high court’s declaration as “historic” and said the development was an international trendsetter. “Nowhere in the world have we heard of paternity being proved on the basis of the court persuading the accused to give his DNA samples. The declaration opens the way for technology to be used for justice delivery instead of letting people languish in jails for years for want of evidence,” Amit said. Ujjawala was muted in her response even today and welcomed the verdict “with all her heart”. Little is known of her long association with Tiwari, who was a simple Congress worker when Ujjawala’s father Prof Sher Singh was a Congress stalwart. Sher Singh was former Deputy Chief Minister of Punjab under Partap Singh Kairon and later became Union Minister of State for Defence. The petition filed by Rohit reconstructs the case history and details Ujjawala’s association with Tiwari. Quoting the petition, Verma said Ujjawala was married to one BP Sharma but separated from him and came to live with her parents at the Krishna Menon Marg in Delhi. “This was in late 1960s. Ujjawala had a failed marriage which brought her back to her parents’ house. It was here that Tiwari, then active in the Youth Congress, was a regular visitor. They began meeting and developed a relationship. Our petition says how Tiwari asked Ujjawala to have a child with him on the understanding that he would someday adopt him. Rohit was born in 1979 as a result of this understanding between the two,” Vedant said. He added that Ujjawala later moved out of her parents’ house to her own house in the Defence Colony. From the time of Rohit’s birth until 1990s, Tiwari would meet him regularly and privately acknowledge him as his son. “Tiwari kept citing his marital status (he was married to Sushila Tiwari) to delay things. After 2000 and more precisely 2005, he stopped acknowledging Rohit as his son. That’s what forced Rohit to file the paternity suit. Tiwari had abandoned him and his mother,” Verma said. Asked what Tiwari’s biggest defence in the case was, Verma said Tiwari cited Section 112 of the Evidence Act which says that if the child is born during the subsistence of a valid marriage, it is conclusive proof of his legitimacy. “Tiwari took recourse to the fact that Ujjawala was not divorced until 2006. But in this case, the court distinguished between legitimacy of the child and his paternity and held that the child had the right to assert paternity, as Rohit did and proved,” Verma said. He said the evidence of Tiwari being Rohit’s father was now out in the open and no more evidence was needed in the case. “The case has reached finality,” Amit Sibal added. Other than paternity, Ujjawala’s claims are yet to be validated by the court. RULE OF LAW UPHELD Amit Sibal said the HC had upheld the rule of the law by showing that no matter how high-profile the accused was, he was not above the law. “Everyone in this case was ordered to give DNA samples. Tiwari resisted but the court forced him to fall in line, showing that the principles of law would apply equally to all,” Amit said. KAPIL SIBAL ELATED My son has done wonders. It’s a path-.breaking case which will allow the use of technology for evidence gathering
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Rohit wants Tiwari punished
New Delhi, July 27 Rohit wants both compensation and punishment for 84-year-old Tiwari, who was declared his biological father by the Delhi High Court today. The victory of the legal battle has entitled Rohit the inheritance of Tiwari’s ancestral property and other rights. Rohit, who has already suffered a heart attack, and his 70-year-old mother faced anxious moments as the court took its own time in declaring the DNA test public. Exuding confidence after winning the battle of recognition as Tiwari’s legitimate son, Rohit said he has the right to use the veteran leader’s surname. “I want him to be punished for causing us to suffer for the past 30 years. His behaviour towards us has been unfortunate and dishonourable. He has insulted my mother beyond limits. He called us blackmailers,” said Rohit. On the letter written by Tiwari to his family today expressing sympathy, Rohit said his considerate behaviour was unsolicited. “We do not want his sympathies. My future is going to be more positive now,” he said. Rohit accused Tiwari of misleading his family and the court. “Tiwari, who has held many respectable positions in the past, has misguided the court of law and filed fake affidavits in the Supreme Court and the High Court,” said Rohit. Rohit’s mother Ujjawala said she was relieved with the verdict. “We will accept the orders of the court,” she said. While she left the decision to Rohit to add ‘Tiwari’ in his name, assertive Rohit sounded a warning message by making it clear that it is just the beginning of legal trouble for the Congress leader.
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Tiwari blames close associates for maligning his image
Dehradun , July 27 Tiwari, who was present at his official residence at the Forest Research Institute (FRI) here, avoided the media but later issued a written statement on the judgment. Bhawani Dut Bhatt, Tiwari’s Officer on Special Duty, read the statement before the media. Tiwari said he never wanted dispute on any issue and India being a democratic country, every person has a right to have his or her say. He said he has always believed in the judicial process and would continue to honour the court judgement. He further said he wanted to make it clear that it was a dispute of ego and selfishness between two parties and to get free publicity. “I never wanted any dispute, but due to my simplicity, some people close to me hatched a conspiracy against me at this stage of my life,” Tiwari said. Tiwari did not elaborate about his close associates. He said he has no ill will against them. He added that he has sympathy with Rohit Shekhar and has no complaints against him. Tiwari said he has every right to spend his personal life as per his own wishes. “It is not fair to interfere in anyone’s personal life,” he said. He appealed to the media not to blow up the issue. Tiwari appealed for support in his endeavour for development of the state and the country. He said in his long political career, he had worked as a dedicated worker and would continue to do service till his last breath. He added that freedom fighters like Mahatma Gandhi, Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Acharya Narendra Dev, Pandit Madan Mohan Malviya, Dr Ram Manohar Lohia, Dr BR Ambedkar and Jai Parkash Narayan had sacrificed everything for the country and he was a disciple of the same tradition.
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Cong distances itself from DNA report, says it is personal matter
New Delhi, July 27 "We should not talk about somebody's personal issue like this. This is someone's personal issue. The party has nothing to do with it. This question in personally related to Tiwari. He can answer it in a better way," was the refrain of party spokesperson Rashid Alvi. He was responding to a volley of questions on the Delhi High Court declaring the result of the DNA test conducted at the Hyderabad-based laboratory. The court said as per the report, "Tiwari is reported to be the biological father of Rohit Shekhar and Ujjawala Sharma." In his appeal, 87-year-old Tiwari had pleaded with the court to protect his "right to reputation". The court, however, rejected his plea not to open the DNA report before a single Judge Bench adjudicating the paternity suit of 32-year-old Rohit who had contended that Tiwari was his biological father. Alvi refused to make any further comments on the issue saying it is not proper to comment on a matter under investigation or before a court. — PTI
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Bengal Govt to look after Assam evacuees: Mamata
Kolkata, July 27 Mamata warned CPM and BJP leaders against visiting Alipurduar and other places where the Assamese evacuees were sheltered. She alleged that the CPM had been politicising the issue for their vested interests. Addressing a meeting today at Bolpur in Birbhum, about 200 km from here, the Chief Minister said she had asked the district administration at Coochbehar and Jalpaiguri for arranging food and shelter for the affected people. She said these people would be allowed to stay till they could safely return to Assam. The left front committee, however, at a meeting at the CPM’s Alimuddin Street party office today criticised Mamata for neglecting the evacuees at Alipurduar and Coochbehar. Earlier, the Left parties had demanded in the Assembly that an all-party delegation should visit north Bengal and accordingly, a resolution was also moved in the Assembly. Assembly Speaker Biman Banerjee turned down the move. Today, the CPM sent a delegation to north Bengal under the leadership of Opposition leader SuryaKano Mishra to visit north Bengal for making an on-the-spot study of the situation of the Assamese evacuees who had crossed over to the state.
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SC says no to Centre’s plea to relax Haj pilgrims quota order
New Delhi, July 27 A Bench of Justices Aftab Alam and Ranjana Prakash Desai refused to accede to the government plea, put forward by Attorney General GE Vahanvati and counsel Harris Beran to defer its order till next year. Vahanvati made the submission at the fag end of the hearing of a bunch of petitions by private tour operators (PTOs), who have challenged certain norms fixed by the government for the operators. On July 23, the apex court had drastically reduced the government's discretionary and dignitaries quota seats for Haj 2012 pilgrims to 300 from the proposed 5,050 seats and had hoped they would be alloted on "reasonable basis". Earlier during today's hearing, the Bench maintained that there could be no monopolisation and asked the Centre to frame a fresh PTOs policy for the annual Haj pilgrimage from next year onwards— PTI
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CBI quizzes Tytler in Abhishek Verma case
New Delhi, July 27 CBI sources said soon after his arrest last month, Verma had taken names of some influential Congress leaders which included Tytler with whom he claimed to be in regular touch. They said Tytler was questioned to verify the claims of Verma last month. The sources said Tytler had denied any association with Verma regarding the defence deals. The Congress leader claimed that his meetings with Verma took place because of his old association with his parents who were also renowned Congress leaders, they said. Meanwhile, the CBI has decided to send judicial requests to the USA and Switzerland seeking details of financial transactions of Verma's alleged front company Ganton, based in the USA and having subsidiary in India, and Swiss firm Rheinmetall Air Defence AG. Sources said a team might go to the USA to record the statement of estranged business associate of
Verma, US-based attorney C Edmond Allen. The CBI has booked Verma and his wife Ancea Neascu for allegedly taking $ 5.30 lakh from Swiss firm Rheinmetall Air Defence AG for using his "influence" to stall the black-listing proceedings initiated by the government against it after the Ordnance Factory Board scam had surfaced. Both are currently in judicial custody. — PTI
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Diamond trader jumps to death
9 kids hurt in mishap
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Lucknow, July 27
New Delhi, July 27
New Delhi, July 27
