The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	3 bar girls gang-raped near Bangalore Tribune News Service Bangalore, October 19 Three bar girls in their 20s were allegedly gang-raped by a group of men at Bidadi, around 30 km from here, early this morning. “We have registered a case under Sections 363, 376 and 395 of the IPC against the unidentified men after the three victims lodged a complaint,” said Ramanagaram SP Anupam Agarwal. The victims alleged that five men armed with crude weapons barged into their rented house in Bidadi and forced them into a car before taking them to an unknown location and sexually assaulting them. The gang also robbed them of their valuables, including gold ornaments and a colour television. Eight girls shared the room and slept in bunk beds. The room bore telltale signs of struggle, as their belongings were strewn all over the floor. The attackers apparently wanted to take away five women but could get hold of three. “The victims alleged that the incident occurred after Thursday midnight when they returned from work in Bangalore suburb. The accused may have followed them from the bar in a Maruti van,” Agarwal added. The police has formed a five-member team to investigate the case and launched a manhunt to arrest the culprits. The victims have been referred to a government hospital for medical examination.
	Tax evasion charges in land deal against Rahul ‘false’ Tribune News Service Chandigarh, October 19 The Haryana Government today termed INLD supremo Om Prakash Chautala’s allegations against AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi that he evaded tax in land purchase at Hasanpur village in Palwal district as “false and motivated”. Haryana Parliamentary Affairs Minister Randeep Surjewala claimed that Rahul purchased 6.5 acres of “sailab” land in Hasanpur at a purchase price of Rs 26.47 lakh, which is equivalent to Rs 4.10 lakh per acre. “As per a letter dated July 13, 2007 issued by the Collector concerned, the collector rate for the “sailab” land was Rs 1.5 lakh per acre. Rahul had paid stamp duty of 6 per cent amounting to Rs 1,58,820 at the rate of Rs 4,10,006 per acre, which was over 2.7 times the prevailing collector rate,” Surjewala asserted. Chautala had alleged that the government value of the land given to Rahul at the rate of Rs 1.5 lakh per acre was Rs 8 lakh per acre, while its market value was much more at Rs 35 lakh per acre. He had demanded a probe by a sitting judge of the Supreme Court in the tax evasion in the land deal by Rahul. The allegation Chautala had alleged that the government value of the land given to Rahul at the rate of Rs 1.5 lakh per acre was Rs 8 lakh per acre, while its market value was much higher at Rs 35 lakh per acre
	Bid to torch supply officer in UP, 154 booked Badaun (UP), October 19 A mob of over 150 persons allegedly tried to set ablaze the District Supply Officer in Dehgava village after he sealed a fair price shop selling adulterated diesel. An FIR has been lodged against 154 persons, including 150 unidentified people, for the attack, police said today. The incident took place yesterday when on a tip off DSO Neeraj Singh raided fair price shop owner Girish Chandra's house and found him mixing kerosene with diesel. Finding this, the officer sealed the shop of Girish. While returning from there, he was surrounded by a mob including women, which tried to set him afire by sprinkling kerosene on him. The officer managed to escape from the spot and informed senior officers about the incident. On his complaint, two FIRs — one against Girish under Essential Commodities Act and other again Girish, Manoj, Sandeep and Mayank and 150 others was lodged for allegedly attacking him. The police is trying to arrest the other accused, who are at large. — PTI
	Sibal bats for privatisation in higher education Aditi Tandon/TNS New Delhi, October 19 Human Resource Development Minister Kapil Sibal today made a strong case for private participation in the education sector, saying the government did not have the financial muscle to create universities that would be required in the future to accommodate all youngsters. By 2030, close to 400 million youth would be seeking college education. For that to happen, India would require at least 800 more universities and 40,000 more colleges. Even today, as against 140 million 18 to 23 year olds, only 20 million are in colleges. Interacting with mediapersons on the sidelines of the India-New Zealand Education Council meeting at Vigyan Bhavan today, Sibal said the country was well on track to achieve the goal of 30 per cent gross enrollment ratio (GER) - number of class-XII pass outs who enter colleges - in higher education but the government was not in a position to create the infrastructure needed to accommodate the rising number of education seeking population. “Our GER will be 30 per cent by 2020 and by 2030 close to 400 million people will be going to universities. Either massive expansion needs to be done or new universities will be required. The government cannot fulfil this requirement and we need to open doors to the private sector,” Sibal said, raising the pitch for privatisation of the general education sector on the lines of medical education. India’s current GER is 15 per cent. The minister also appealed to the Opposition parties to aid the passage of the pending higher education reform Bills, many of which seek to regulate private operators to ensure the delivery of quality education. “We want our Bills to pass in Parliament so that the private sector should get a chance to help. The private sector, however, needs to be regulated. So we need the National Accreditation Authority Bill and the Prohibition of Educational Malpractices Bill. I hope we get support from the Opposition in the Winter Session of Parliament for these Bills,” Sibal said. ‘Aakash’ for all Budget tablet “Aakash” will be provided to every student in the next five years. The technology will enable one teacher to teach 10,000 children at one time. Each village will be connected with fiber optics by December, 2013. So lectures will become possible, Sibal said.
	Adviser’s appointment SC notice to Mamata Legal Correspondent New Delhi, October 19 The Supreme Court today issued notice to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee seeking her response to a petition challenging the appointment of an indicted doctor as Chief Adviser for the state’s health department. A Bench comprising Justices RM Lodha and Anil R Dave, however, clarified that the issuance of notice should not be construed as lending “credibility” to the allegations levelled against her in the petition or the other way round. According to the petitioner, Dr Kunal Saha, the SC had indicted Dr Sukumar Mukherjee in 2009 for gross medical negligence that had resulted in the death of Saha’s wife Anuradha. The SC notice is restricted to the point of high court deleting her name from the array of parties.
	IAC announces internal probe against 3 members Vibha Sharma/TNS New Delhi, October 19 On the back foot after allegations against three core members raised doubts about the very fundamentals of its anti-corruption movement, India Against Corruption today set up an independent ombudsman comprising three retired judges to investigate charges against Anjali Damania, Prashant Bhushan and Mayank Gandhi. Announcing the probe, activist-turned-politician Arvind Kejriwal challenged the UPA government to order similar investigations against Robert Vadra, Salman Khurshid and Nitin Gadkari. He said the IAC had requested for an independent inquiry into the issue but the government appeared more interested in “mud-slinging”. His “dare” was promptly dismissed by political parties as yet another attempt by Kejriwal to gain “cheap popularity”. Rubbishing the allegations against them, Damania, Bhushan and Gandhi said they were ready for double the punishment if pronounced guilty by the ombudsman. “We are also ready for any scrutiny initiated by the government,” they said. The fact is that if the IAC charged Gadkari of being involved in land deals and cheating the farmers, similar allegations have also been levelled against Damania. Likewise, Bhushan is facing charges similar to the ones IAC heaped on Vadra - using political connections for cheap land deals. Sources said there was a feeling in a section of the IAC that perhaps Kejriwal allowed Damania to share his anti-Gadkari podium without a proper cross-check on her antecedents. IAC members under lens * Anjali Damania allegedly bought 7 acres of agricultural land in Karjat taluka in 2007 and sold it in 2011 after getting the land use changed to non-agricultural. Two farmers from whom she bought the plots alleged that Damania told them that she would be using the land for farming purposes * Mayank Gandhi’s NGO Remaking of Mumbai allegedly helped his uncle Lalit Gandhi’s Lok Group and other builders in bagging land deals. He used fake documents to help Lalit Gandhi corner a redevelopment scheme for Chira Bazaar in Mumbai. The two groups also sold 5 acres of out of the 30 acres allocated to them in the name of a pilot project * Prashant Bhushan and his family members allegedly acquired land in Himachal Pradesh for an educational society at concessional rates. The Congress has accused the BJP government in HP of giving the Bhushans prime land in Palampur worth several crore for a pittance The Ombudsman Justice AP Shah, former Chief Justice of Delhi High Court; Justice BH Marlapalle, retired judge, Bombay High Court; Justice Jaspal Singh, retired judge, Delhi High Court; have been requested to examine allegations against IAC members. The panel will give its report in three months
	Pro-Telangana activists ransack theatres Anger over latest Telugu film; protesters claim it belittles statehood movement Suresh Dharur/TNS Hyderabad, October 19 Telangana activists today hit the streets and attacked theatres across the region screening the latest Telugu movie “Cameraman Gangatho Rambabu” (With cameraman Ganga, this is Rambabu), alleging that it contained several objectionable scenes belittling the movement for separate Telangana state. The angry demonstrators pulled down the cut-outs of the movie, starring popular hero Pavan Kalyan, and burnt the flexi-boards to protest against what they called “anti-Telangana remarks” in the film. The screening of the movie, released across the state yesterday, had to be cancelled following violent protests. The action thriller by ace director Puri Jagannath portrays the heroics of a reporter of a news channel who takes on the mighty politicians. Alleging that some of the scenes in the movie amounted to hurting the sentiments of people of the Telangana region, members of the Telangana Students Joint Action Committee (TSJAC) raided the Aradhana Theatre adjacent to the Osmania University campus here, the nerve-centre of the statehood movement, and took away the film reels. The activists later made a bonfire out of them. The protesters stormed some of the theatres in the region and threatened to stall the shows if the producer and director do not remove the objectionable remarks. As the reports of demonstrators turning violent and attacking the theatres poured in, film distributor Dil Raju and director Jagannath appeared before the media and offered to delete the objectionable dialogues and scenes. “Our intention was not to hurt any individual or organisation. If Telangana activists feel that some scenes are objectionable, then we are willing to delete them,” the director said. He said he had contacted leaders of the Telangana Rashtra Samithi, which is spearheading the statehood movement, and the Telangana Joint Action Committee and offered to arrange a special screening for them.
	States must curb illegal mining: Jaiswal Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 19 Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal today said states need a stronger mindset to put an end to illegal mining as the tackling of law and order was primarily in their hands. Jaiswal announced that the government had identified 54 new coal blocks with total geographical reserves of about 18.22 billion tonnes for taking up bidding of coal blocks. He said, “We receive reports of illegal mining from time to time from states. We do have the CBI investigating these cases and taking action. But the states need to take strong action because the law and order machinery is in their hands.” Jaiswal said other than government companies, it is proposed to allocate the coal blocks only after detailed exploration. A meeting has also been held with representatives of the Centre and the state governments to finalise the terms and conditions of allotment of coal blocks under government dispensation. Jaiswal was addressing the media on the performance of Coal India Ltd (CIL) and the coal production in the country. Even as the Inter Ministerial Group (IMG) on coal is still to come out with its recommendations as regards the coal blocks held by the public sector undertakings, the minister said it was not possible to restore de-allocation of coal blocks. He said the IMG had already reviewed coal blocks given to private companies. For government companies, the IMG has completed hearing and will further examine the matter on October 30 and 31. Jaiswal added that the matter of setting up a “coal regulator” was under the consideration of a Group of Ministers (GoM). A draft of the revised Bill will be placed before the next meeting of the GoM. He said the targeted production of 464 million tonnes in 2012-13 was achievable. Production had already touched 208.3 million tonnes from April 1 till October 15 this year, which was nine per cent higher than last year. “Coal off-take during the period from April 1 to October 15 was 233.60 million tonnes, a growth rate of 8.7 per cent as compared to the previous year. The CIL needs to grow at the rate of 8.5 per cent this year in terms of its off-take target and it is quite a challenge,” he said.