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Will work to isolate govt in House: CPM
Khushwant Singh Lit Fest concludes
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Russia won’t arm India’s enemies: Dy PM
Travel by Mumbai trains fraught with danger
Jantar Mantar
Govt trying to bail out Khurshid: Kejriwal
Army Commanders meet to suggest more avenues for ex-servicemen
MCI bars 27 ‘corrupt’ doctors from practice
Madhubani violence: Nitish cancels address at rallies
Green Kumbh Yatra to save environment
Boy pushes girl off running train
Yash Chopra down with dengue
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Will work to isolate govt in House: CPM
New Delhi, October 14 “In the next session of Parliament, we will talk to other political parties to find effective ways to put the government on the dock. We will work out appropriate tactics by which we can isolate the government. It they do not reverse these (economic) measures, then they have no right to continue in office,” CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat told reporters after a three-day Central Committee meeting here during which he preferred not to commit whether the party would support a No Confidence Motion, if moved by the Trinamool Congress. On the other hand, the CPM indicated it was not averse to join hands with the BJP in its quest to cut-off the UPA in Parliament. Karat stated the party would adopt all tactics and there were various ideas and proposals with some parties already in touch with the Left. “The UPA Government has undertaken a series of measures which are meant to appease foreign finance capital and big business on one hand and to squeeze the people and burden them with steps to increase price rise and cut subsidies on the other’’ the party Central Committee said in its statement that underscored the political thrust of the party. Corruption and recent allegations against Robert Vadra, son-in-law of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, also figured in the discussion with the CPM stating that besides the coal block allocation scandal, the CAG reports on Delhi airport and SASAN power project showed how the government's policy framework “was being used to loot public resources”. “The allegations against Robert Vadra also reflect the same nexus -- the big real estate agents, the Haryana government and a person with high political connection. The business dealings of these companies should be investigated”, Karat said adding that his companies and its links with realty major DLF and nexus with Haryana Government should be proved and action taken if wrong doing is detected. The CPM also announced that a series of movements would be launched on price rise, corruption, food security and foreign direct investment in retail. The party, Karat said, will go in for direct action and ensure that no foreign retail chains including WalMart could come to India.
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Khushwant Singh Lit Fest concludes
Kasauli, October 14 History of Sikhs
"History of the Sikhs" was discussed on the open terrace of the Kasauli Club by two authors, both inspired by the voluminous work of Khushwant Singh of the same title (A History of the Sikhs - 1838-2004). In his writings, Khushwant Singh has often expressed concern whether after him someone else will be interested in telling the tale of the Sikhs. Putting his fears to rest, Navtej Sarna, diplomat-turned-author whose father Mohinder Singh Sarna had penned history of the Sikhs in Punjabi, shared his experience of writing "The Exile", a fictional account of the life of Maharaja Dalip Singh. The author said when he shared his idea of writing the book on Dalip Singh's life, the grand old man of literature had cautioned him, "Don't try to make a hero out of him." Fortunately for Sarna, Singh liked his book and wrote the blurb for "The Exile". Sarna also shared the challenges of fictionalising history. "History told as a novel added the emotional and psychological dimensions to its character caught up in a whirlpool of time, which lend it a popular appeal. But doing justice to a tragic hero who changed his religion twice, was taken to a foreign land and who died in a Paris hotel needed a lot of empathy." Suneet Aiyar, author of "Homage to Guru Gobind Singh", was encouraged by Khushwant Singh to write the book. He provided her with the research material. The book was published in 1966, on the 300th birth centenary of the 10th Guru. The concerns of history led to the contemporary concerns, whether Sikhs would lose their identity, swarmed by the majority community. Both authors expressed their views, Sarna concluded the debate, saying, "Sikh identity has seen many ups and downs like any other community, physical manifestations of the identity are very important in social and cultural milieu, and they will survive, changing with changing times." The audience involvement in the session was palpable.
Eco conservation
While on Saturday Dr Harish Dhillon, Mandeep Rai and Raaja Bhasin gave historical perspectives on the making of the hill towns-Kasauli, Sanawar and Shimla, concerns were expressed on their ecological conservation on the concluding day. In a well- researched presentation on the history of making of Sanawar, Dr Dhillon talked about the traditions that helped in raising great institutions like The Lawrence School, Sanawar, that he headed for many years. In an equally stirring presentation, Pradip Krishen talked about the relevance of growing native trees and shrubs for better sustainable environment, in the context of his amazing work "Making of Rao Jodha Desrt Rock Park", where, by following the principals of ecological gardening, his team was able to turn the arid land into a green pasture. Similar concerns about ecological conservation of Kasauli and surrounding hills were debated at length, the audience took keen interest in issues concerning environment.
Hills and fiction
The day opened with some poignant literary voices, diverse and rich, expressing their love for the hills in shades as varying as the flora and fauna of the mountains. Deepti Naval read excerpts from her moving short story "Sisters". The story is about two teenaged girls of Palampur and their humiliation when their hair was shorn by their alcoholic father because the girls had lice. The girls decide to run away from home, but, on the threshold of liberation, they hesitate. Minakshi Chaudhury paid warm tributes to Khushwant Singh for showing confidence in her writing potential and quipped: "I want to write like Khushwant Singh and look like Shobhaa De." She read out excerpts from Singh's columns that introduced her books and from her popular collection "Ghost Stories of Shimla Hills". Navtej Sarna said there was something about hills that made you feel at home. With their loneliness and their silences, they somehow creep into fiction. He also read out excerpts from "A Golden Twilight", a story set in the hills. Rahul Singh, director of the festival said, "The second chapter of the festival will be bigger and better." Khushwant Singh's latest book "Free Thinker's Prayer Book" was auctioned, it was bought by Billy Gill for Rs 51,000. According to organizers, the money received by auctioning of the book will be invested for ecological conservation of
Kasauli.
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Russia won’t arm India’s enemies: Dy PM
"You must understand that we do not deal with your enemies. We don't deliver any arms to them.... If you see otherwise, you may spit on my face," Rogozin told reporters here when asked if Russia would supply arms to Pakistan. He said Russia has no restrictions in delivering arms and weapons to India "because there are no conflicts and contradictions in our relations". "We never created problems for India on its frontiers in difference from other countries. That is a political advantage (for Russia) as a friend of India," he said. Rogozin, who will co-chair the Inter-Governmental Commission meeting on Trade, Economic, Scientific, Technological and Cultural Cooperation (IRIGC-TEC) with External Affairs Minister SM Krishna here tomorrow, said Russia was ready to cooperate with India in producing a transport plane with a payload of six tonnes as well as developing battle tanks. Noting the success in producing BrahMos supersonic cruise missiles jointly, he said Russia was keen to cooperate with India and make it a top defence producer. At the same time, he acknowledged that there were problems in handing over the aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov to India due to technical reasons. He said new technology always encountered some complaints and asserted India would be proud to have such a ship for its navy. — PTI You must understand that we do not deal with your enemies. We don't deliver any arms to them.... If you see otherwise, you may spit on my
face.
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Travel by Mumbai trains fraught with danger
Mumbai, October 14 Government Railway Police said four passengers fell off the train mid-way at Sion while a fifth managed to pull himself into the coach and escaped with a leg injury. The names of the victims have been given as Satish Merawala (16), and Kedar Yadav (28). Both boarded the train shortly before the mishap and had to hang onto the foot-board because of the huge rush, the police said. Two other victims, who are in hospital with serious injuries, have been named as Uday Sharma (31) and Zia Ansari (26). Both of them had boarded the train shortly after it left the originating station and wanted to get off at one of the stations mid-way and thus got pushed around by the crowd, the police said. “As of now we do not know if there was any fight that caused the four men to fall out of the train,” a GRP spokesman said. The victims were taken to the hospital by slum-dwellers living alongside the tracks, the police said. The injured are still unconscious and the police identified them through their belongings. “It is not the first time that passengers have fallen off a moving train due to the huge crowds,” says Pravin Gandhi of the Western Railways Passengers Association. According to information available from the Railways, 3,458 Mumbaiites died on the railway tracks in 2011, while 4,164 others were injured. While most of the casualties are trespassers who get run over by trains, hundreds of people fall off moving trains every year, according to passenger associations. Following the mishap, passengers’ associations are demanding more trains during peak hours. “While each 12-car train can carry 2,296 people, the number of people inside the trains during peak hours goes up three times,” says Ashok Chaturvedi, who heads the passengers’ association at Borivali in suburban Mumbai.
Hundreds fall off every year
Records with Railways reveal that 3,458 Mumbaiites lost their lives on the railway tracks, while 4,164 were injured in 2011. While most of the casualties are trespassers who get run over by trains, hundreds of people fall off moving trains every year
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Rashtrapati Bhavan’s treasure
Anita Katyal
Stir revival worries for Cong in MP
Jaitley, Vadra come face to face
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Govt trying to bail out Khurshid: Kejriwal
New Delhi, October 14 Posing five questions to Khurshid, the activist claimed that the allegations were not his but that of the Uttar Pradesh government, whose probe "proved the irregularities" done by the NGO run by the minister and his wife. "These are not our allegations. These are the allegations of Akhilesh Yadav government. The matter was probed by the state government and a report was submitted on June 12 and send to the Central government which issued a show cause notice," Kejriwal said, addressing protesters at Parliament Street who were into their third day of demonstration demanding the resignation of Khurshid and registration of case. "...Already the issue has been probed. But now Akhilesh Yadav says this will be probed again. We suspect that it will not be a probe but an effort to destroy evidence. It appears that the issue have been settled between both of them (Yadav and Khurshid). It appears they have managed it," Kejriwal alleged. Khurshid, who was in London for the past few days and returned to Delhi this morning, denied the allegations levelled by a TV news channel and Kejriwal-led India Against Corruption that the Zakir Hussain Memorial Trust owned by him and his wife Louise was involved in cases of financial misappropriation and forgery. Earlier in the day, IAC volunteers staged protests at the IGI airport when Khurshid arrived from London. — PTI
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Army Commanders meet to suggest more avenues for ex-servicemen
New Delhi, October 14 The conference will conclude on October 19 when Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will jointly address Commanders of all three services - the Army, Navy and Air Force. Sources said that one of the key proposals that the Army Commanders will make to the Ministry of Defence is on re-employing ex-servicemen in the government set-up and not just the existing available openings in the paramilitary and some state police forces. The Army wants more avenues to be made available to Junior Commissioned Officers and other ranks. Most of them retire between the age of 36 and 42 years and are skilled in specialised tasks and have the tenacity required for high-security work. The Commanders will seek lateral entry for jawans into public sector undertakings (PSU) and also the government sector. They will suggest that departments need to be identified in the government where lateral entry is possible. A source — giving an example — said that one clear case is of optic fibre cable (OFC) management. With so much business in India riding on telephony and internet, jawans from the ‘signals’ regiment could be used to manage the OFCs running throughout the country. These jawans are already trained in managing the dedicated OFCs of the forces and know its secrecy protocols and the necessary precautions. Similarly, the Army trains its jawans in the engineers regiment to repair heavy equipment, machinery and even helicopters. The government and PSUs can utilise these instead of opting for unskilled workers outside. Also, the men are highly skilled drivers in high altitudes. Additional natural employment for the jawans are high-risk and skill jobs like working on oil rigs, gas pipelines, oil pipelines - all these are expected to form the proposal. Besides this issue, the Army Commanders will deliberate on having an enduring human resource promotion policy from the level of Major Generals and above.
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MCI bars 27 ‘corrupt’ doctors from practice
New Delhi, October 14 The Ethics Committee of the apex medical regulator penalised 25 of the doctors for faking as full-time faculty of the Melmaruvathur Adiparasakthi Institute of Medical Sciences in Melmaruvathur in Tamil Nadu to help its management get the MCI approval for various medical courses. The CBI’s Chennai Anti-Corruption Bureau had referred the complaint to the regulator. It has asked respective state medical councils to remove the doctors’ names from the medical registers followed by a similar striking off from the Indian Medical Register. In another case, the MCI barred two doctors — Ajit Kale from Maharashtra and Deepak Kalra from Agra — for simultaneously serving as faculty in two colleges. Kale was working in MGM Aurangabad and Ahmadnagar Medical Colleges in Maharashtra at the same time. Kalra, a faculty at Agra Government Medical College, was also teaching at the Chintpurni Medical College in Pathankot. All these doctors have been found violating the Medical Code of Ethics defined by the Indian Medical Council (Professional Conduct, Etiquette and Ethics) Regulations, 2002. The MCI website lists the names and number of years for which the erring doctors have been barred. They are Surendra Singh Verma, Ramesh Limbajirao Renge, Abhay Vasantrao and Sachin Hanumantrao Chandolkar (Maharashtra Medical Council, barred for three years); Anuja Pandey, Gathe Sachin and Vishnu Prasad (Maharashtra Medical Council, four years); Asmitha Deshmukh, Shalik Bhaurao and Manjiri Vasantrao Morab (Maharashtra Medical Council; five years); Manoj Kumar Gupta, Jogesh Chandra (Orissa Medical Council, four years); Manjunath BV (Karnataka Medical Council, four years); Chitgopeker Vijay (Karnataka Medical Council, five years); Lokesh (Karnataka Medical Council, three years); Bhuva Bhavin (Gujarat Medical Council, five years); Naresh V and Anamalla Naresh (Andhra Medical Council, barred for four years); ALV Rajasekhara Rao (Andhra Medical Council, three years); Mylsamy (Tamil Nadu Medical Council, three years); S. Thiagarajamurthy, K. Nedumaran and R. Mahadevan (Tamil Nadu Medical Council, five years); Binny Kuttan, (Travancore Cochin Medical Council, five years) and K. Padmanabhan (Travancore Cochin Medical Council, three years).
Cracking the whip
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Madhubani violence: Nitish cancels address at rallies
Patna, October 14 "The CM's programme to address the 'Adhikar Rallies' at Buxar and Bhojpur districts today have been cancelled in view of Madhubani incidents," an official spokesman said. The rallies, however, will take place at scheduled time at the two venues and will be addressed by ministers and ruling JD (U) leaders, he said. "The chief minister is gripped with the situation in Madhubani and personally supervising and monitoring condition in the north Bihar district where three persons were injured in police firing at Jainagar yesterday," he said. Kumar had cut short his 'Adhikar Rally' last evening at Kaimur and rushed to the state capital to take stock of the situation in Madhubani where protestors indulged in large-scale violence in several areas. Kumar has been touring the state to mobilise support for a massive rally at Patna on November 4 to demand special status from the Centre for Bihar. The agitators pelted stones and set on fire Basopatti, Khajauli, Kaluwahi, Jainagar and Rajnagar police stations in Madhubani district yesterday protesting against the murder of a school boy last month.— PTI
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Green Kumbh Yatra to save environment
Hyderabad, October 14 “It is an environmental pilgrimage on foot and non-motorised vehicles that will traverse 1,125 km through rural routes. The yatra will culminate at Allahabad, the site of Maha Kumbh Mela, in January 2013,” the organisers said. The Green Kumbh Yatra was flagged off from the venue of the 11th Conference of Parties (COP-11) to the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) here today. GYAN and Living Planet Foundation, in collaboration with the Hyderabad-based Vikasa Tarangani, the CBD secretariat, Sacred Natural Sites Initiative, the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) and other groups are conducting the yatra in which international delegates and spiritual leaders will take part. A decorated “Kumbh” (brass pitcher) consisting of samples of fabric from across the world were presented to CBD executive secretary D’Souza Dias before the launch of the yatra. A special cultural show was organised depicting India’s culture and biodiversity. In context of the ongoing biodiversity convention, it has been named “Green Kumbh”, as a symbol of the “web of life” that includes animals, humans, plants, microscopic creatures and their habitats on the planet.
LONG WALK
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Boy pushes girl off running train
Kolkata, October 14 Sujaya Basak, a student of Samudragarh High School, was returning home along with her friends in the Katwa Bandel local train when she was pushed off the train near Kalinagar station in the district, 90 km from Kolkata, yesterday. "We have already interrogated two friends of the boy while his brother has been arrested and produced in a court," said Tapan Kumar Das of Government Railway Police (Kalna). The boy, who stalked the girl, had an argument with her in the train after she refused his proposal for friendship. He then dragged her and pushed her out of the running train, the police said. Family members of the girl have demanded exemplary punishment for the boy. They have also accused the police of inaction. — IANS
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Yash Chopra down with dengue
Mumbai, October 14
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New Delhi, October 14
New Delhi, October 14
Nearly three months after they set up office in the Rashtrapati Bhavan, President Pranab Mukherjee’s staff members are still to complete their exploration of the sprawling premises. Mukherjee’s predecessors Pratibha Patil and APJ Abdul Kalam had apparently closed down a number of rooms as they confined themselves to a section of the building. Mukherjee’s staff decided to open these unused rooms which had, over the years, been inadvertently converted into godowns. In the process, they discovered a veritable treasure trove inside. Besides old pieces of furniture, ivory horn gifted to President Radhakrishnan and a number of priceless works by renowned artistes like Jogen Chowdhary and Jamini Roy were found collecting dust in these rooms. The rooms are now being spruced up while the ivory horn and the paintings are being cleaned up so that these can be displayed appropriately. It seems Rashtrapati Bhavan is all set to acquire a new look.
The UPA government was understandably relieved when Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh negotiated an agreement with organisers of the Ekta Parishad that was leading a march from Gwalior to Delhi to press for their demand of land rights. While Ramesh ensured the march by thousands of landless poor ended peacefully at Agra itself, the truce could prove to be short-lived. The march was apparently sponsored by the Madhya Pradesh BJP that obviously wanted to create trouble for the already-beleaguered UPA government. It should, therefore, come as no surprise if this stir is revived as Madhya Pradesh is headed for Assembly elections next year. BJP insiders maintain that Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan is in touch with the Ekta Parishad leaders, including its chief PV Rajagopal, who may even be fielded in the upcoming elections in order to muddy the waters for the Congress which is desperate to dislodge the two-term CM.
Ever since Congress President Sonia Gandhi’s son-in-law Robert Vadra hit the headlines over his business dealings with realty major DLF, there has been a speculation that he had gone abroad to escape the heat here. Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley, however, discovered last week that there was no basis to these reports when he encountered Vadra on his daily morning walk in Lodhi Gardens. Vadra appeared unperturbed about the charges being levelled against him as he went about his rigorous exercise regimen even though it was the same morning when activist-politician Arvind Kejriwal had threatened to come out with fresh revelations about him. Coming face to face, Jaitley and Vadra exchanged some pleasantries before going their separate ways. It must be recalled that the BJP leader was keen that the party raised the Vadra issue when the media first reported on him a year ago, but Jaitley was overruled by his colleagues who felt they should not violate the unwritten norms about not attacking relatives of their political opponents.
