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Pune bomb blasts
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HC to hear plea against Dimple Yadav’s election on August 8
India kept away from UN vote on Syria as it called for regime change
Ensure food security, Left parties tell government
Gorkha Admn body takes oath in Darjeeling
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Nationwide raids on suspected IM hideouts
Shiv Kumar/TNS
Mumbai, August 4 Officers from various agencies like the Maharashtra Anti-Terror Squad and the National Investigating Agency have conducted raids at a number of places in Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh, the sources said. Maharashtra Home Department officials say the IM has established sleeper networks in parts of the state and has carried out blasts in Mumbai and other places. However, what is puzzling many investigators is the poor construction of the four explosive devices which went off at the Jungli Maharaj road in Pune. The police had told local newspapers that the explosive devices were capable of causing tremendous damage but for their faulty design. The explosive devices had nails and ball bearings packed in them which could have proved dangerous in the hands of an expert, the police said. A section of the ATS has also warned the government that the IM may have split with one faction acting alone without adequate resources from the parent organisation. However, without any confirmation the authorities are keeping all options open, the sources said. The location of the blasts, close to outlets belonging to McDonalds and KFC, is also being probed. Investigators are checking whether the blasts were aimed at foreigners who frequent these two establishments, according to the police. Meanwhile, investigators from various agencies are still trying to track down two suspects who are believed to have purchased bicycles from a shop in Pune. Sketches prepared based on the description of the shopkeeper and his employees are being passed around but no leads have come in so far, the police said.
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Northern grid failure
‘Near-miss’ warning was ignored Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service
Documents accessed by The Tribune show there was a “near-miss” situation at 3:10 pm on July 29. This had happened as extra heavy flow of power was recorded at the 400 kV Bina-Gwalior-Agra power circuit. The grid tripped at 2:33 am on July 30 - almost 11 hours after the first “near-miss” situation. This key hint was overlooked as no correctives steps appear to have been applied to prevent a recurrence, said sources while pointing out that once the grid survived the “near miss”, all parameters should have been checked and rechecked. Within 10 hours of the first scare, five circuits of 400 kV each were running high voltage when the trouble first started around 1 am on July 30. It could not be contained and had a cascading effect. The entire northern grid -connecting nine northern states - buckled under plunging cities in darkness and stopping trains midway. The Power System Operation Corporation Limited has written to all the power suppliers and distributors describing how moments before the grid collapsed there was a heavy flow of power - which was beyond its capacity - through several circuits. The communication says: It has been found that just before the grid collapsed “there was a heavy power flow on a single circuit - the 400 kV Bina-Gwalior-Agra section”. Some 1,000 MW of power travelled on the single circuit available that day on this section. The second circuit on the same route had been shut down for upgradation on July 28. The single circuit has a power-surge ceiling of 691 kV. This is an inbuilt safety feature so that small spikes in power do not threaten the grid. If this was not enough, the loading on many power circuits in the eastern region was also of the order of 550 MW - much above the ceiling of 515 MW. Power engineers across the northern region are networked through a dedicated optic fibre cable link that provides real-time information on desktop computers in dedicated 24x7 control rooms. A warning is issued online by the Northern Regional Load Despatch Centre (NRLDC) in Delhi and can be simultaneously seen by grid managers in Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Delhi and Chandigarh. Even while the grid has been restored, three of the five circuits that ran high voltage, including Manesar-Neemraana, Gorakhpur-Lucknow-iv and Neemrana-Sikar, are still being repaired. Till a detail report of the grid failures is out, a review has been ordered to check the capability of all lines carrying power from one area to another. Also, the states have been told that they would face penalties in case the overdrawal of power does not stop. The Government of India has tasked a committee headed by the chairperson of the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) to probe and submit a report.
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HC to hear plea against Dimple Yadav’s election on August 8
New Delhi, August 4 The petition filed in the HC on July 23 has been assigned to the court of Justice Krishna Morari, who will examine its maintainability under the law. The matter will be heard on August 8. In the election petition, complainant Prabhat Pandey from Amethi, candidate of a new party called the Voters Party International, has alleged that the election of Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav from Kannauj Lok Sabha constituency, was not unopposed and that candidates were allegedly kidnapped to prevent filing of nominations for a contest. Pandey has himself stated in the petition that he was allegedly kidnapped from the Collector’s office in Kannauj on June 6. Citing violation of his right to contest elections, Pandey had prayed to the court to declare the Parliamentary byelection from Kannauj as null and void and direct the Election Commission of India to conduct a repoll. The Allahabad High Court Chief Justice has now deputed the court of Justice Krishna Morari to examine the issue. The petition was earlier filed under Section 81 of the Representation of People Act 1951 in the office of Registrar of the High Court. The complainant has also stated in his petition to the HC that the Kannauj SP has been directed to investigate his charges of kidnapping. “The case of kidnapping is under investigation by the SP,” states the petition, adding that Prabhat Pandey had been invited to record his statement before the investigating officer. Pandey has added in his complaint that he has demanded police protection from the Centre to appear before the Kannauj SP. The petition alleges that the SP in question, along with his police personnel, were present in Kannauj on June 6 when Pandey and other leaders of Voters Party were allegedly kidnapped. The petitioner has stated he has had to shift his residence to Delhi out of fear of living in Uttar Pradesh.
NHRC ALSO APPROACHED The Voters Party candidate Prabhat Pandey had also approached the NHRC about a fortnight ago for protection of his human rights. The commission, it is learnt, is yet to issue notice to the UP Government
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India kept away from UN vote on Syria as it called for regime change
New Delhi, August 4 The Saudi-drafted resolution secured 133 votes in favour and 12 against in the world body. India was among 31 nations which abstained. Official sources here strongly justified India's decision to abstain, saying the fundamental problem that New Delhi had with the draft of the resolution was that it essentially called for a regime change. "We are deeply concerned over the situation in Syria but it is a bit unusual (for any such resolution) to call for a regime change,'' they said. New Delhi was not in favour of this provision and Indian officials worked "overtime" to get it dropped from the resolution. Others countries like Brazil, Russia, China and South Africa too were not in support of the provisions demanding regime change and sanctions. When it was realised in New Delhi that the General Assembly resolution differed from the Security Council's July 19 resolution since it called for power transition, it was decided that India could not support it. The decision was immediately conveyed to India's Permanent Representative to the UN Hardeep Singh Puri even as the General Assembly was debating the resolution. The sources said New Delhi believed that the situation in Syria had become very serious and there was an absolute need for the international community to remain engaged in the country through the UN. However, it was not comfortable with the articulation made the Council of League of Arab States at its ministerial meeting on July 22, calling on the Syria President to step down. In his explanation of vote, Puri also stated that: Though we do not hold any brief for any particular Syrian leader, we cannot welcome the League of Arab States resolution which openly called for President Assad to step down and other UN members to severe diplomatic relations and contacts with Syria. Regretting that this element of the present resolution was not removed, he said India believed that the leadership of Syria was for the Syrians to decide through a democratic process. The task of the international community, anchored by the UN, was to assist the Syrian parties in this process. The resolution, which is not legally binding and is of a moral nature, also demanded that the country lockdown its chemical and biological weapons.
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Ensure food security, Left parties tell government
New Delhi, August 4 General secretaries Prakash Karat (CPM), S. Sudhakar Reddy (CPI), Debabrata Biswas (AIFB) and Abani Roy (Secretary, RSP), met the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here and submitted a memorandum stating that the country produces enough foodgrains to ensure a food security system that covers all sections of the people and underscored the failure of the targeted public distribution system. “Large sections of people who require subsidised foodgrains are excluded. It has been shown that in a country like India, with a large majority of the workforce in the unorganised sector with no fixed income, the errors of exclusion far outweigh those of inclusion in a targeted system. With the largest numbers of hungry people in the world, India requires a comprehensive and inclusive food security system, which can only be provided by scrapping the targeted system and replacing it with a universal system,” they said. The Left parties, which concluded a five-day sit-in protest yesterday to highlight the adverse impact of food inflation on the lives of common people, unanimously rejected the draft Food Security Bill being examined by a Parliamentary Standing Committee. In the memorandum, the parties said with increase in prices of food items, a universal public distribution system can also help to keep market prices down. Dal, edible oil and other essential commodities should be supplied through the public distribution system, the parties said. Opposing the linkage between Planning Commission estimates either with food security or other welfare rights and schemes, the parties said the present questionnaire for the BPL census also raises many questions as it is designed to exclude rather than include the deprived. ``This further underlines the urgent necessity for universalising the right to food’’. The memorandum said India can have a successful food security programme only if its farmers are protected from the volatility of market manipulation by powerful lobbies and pointed to the recommendation of the National Farmers Commission for an MSP based on actual cost of production.
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Gorkha Admn body takes oath in Darjeeling
Darjeeling, August 4 The 50-member GTA board was set up with the 45 Gorkha Janmukti Morcha (GJM) members elected unopposed and five other nominated members by Governor MK Narayanan. GJM president Bimal Gurung was appointed the chief executive of the GTA board. He was administered the oath of office by Narayanan. The GTA board today formally took over the administrative control of Darjeeling. In the past four decades, there were numerous incidents of bloodbaths, bandhs, strikes and demonstrations in the area affecting development work, tourism and economy of the hill town. Both Mamata and Shinde assured the newly elected GTA board that the state and the Centre would extend all help and co-operation for ensuring peace, progress and prosperity of Darjeeling. Mamata announced an immediate release of an ad hoc Rs 23 crore grant to the GTA for taking up urgent development works. She also promised to set up a university and three ITI institutes in Darjeeling. The Home Minister assured that he would take necessary steps for relaxing employment rules of the police for the Gorkha people, who are often denied the opportunity due to their drawbacks in height and weight. The hill town today wore a festive look. The residents wore colourful dresses for attending the oath-taking ceremony.
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New Delhi, August 4
