The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Modi calls on RSS chief, says no discussion on PM candidate Nagpur, October 21 Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi today met RSS top brass, including its chief Mohan Bhagwat, but brushed aside suggestions that the issue of projecting him as prime ministerial candidate for 2014 general elections was discussed. "The RSS does not get involved in such things," Modi told reporters after the meeting at RSS headquarters here. He was replying to a query on the possibility of his being projected as the prime ministerial candidate. "I was here after a long time to meet RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat, general secretaries Bhayyaji Joshi and Suresh Soni. I held cordial discussions with them on various issues," the Chief Minister who is facing Assembly elections in Gujarat in December said. Modi came to the city on a special aircraft and left immediately after the meeting. The Gujarat Chief Minister's visit comes in the backdrop of BJP MP Ram Jethmalani suggesting that Modi should be projected as the party's prime ministerial candidate for the Lok Sabha poll. However, the BJP down played the meeting, saying it was a “courtesy” call and no “political meaning” should be read into it. “Narendra Modi or other senior leaders of the party keep meeting RSS leaders as courtesy... This meeting should be looked on those lines only. Seeing it more than that or reading any political meaning into it will not be right,” BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi said in Delhi. Recently, Jethmalani stirred a hornet’s nest in the BJP by writing a letter to party president Nitin Gadkari that "I do not think that the choice is difficult. I would want Narendra Modi whose integrity and administrative ability are not in doubt." However two days back, the RSS said the issue of prime ministerial candidate was the prerogative of the BJP, thereby steering clear of Jethmalani's remarks that RSS chief Mohan Bhagwat had agreed with his view that Narendra Modi was the best choice for the post. "Meetings do take place. Whether the Sarsanghchalak affirmed Jethmalani's view, only he can tell you. You have one version of it. The other version can only be given by the RSS chief," RSS leader Ram Madhav had said. — PTI courtesy call? * The Gujarat CM's visit comes in the backdrop of BJP MP Ram Jethmalani suggesting that Modi should be projected as the party's prime ministerial candidate for the LS poll * The BJP down played the meeting, saying it was a “courtesy” call and no “political meaning” should be read into it * Modi chose to visit Nagpur on a day when BJP national president Nitin Gadkari was not in Nagpur
	BJP for regular Winter Session of Parliament KV Prasad/TNS New Delhi, October 21 The Bharatiya Janata Party, the principal Opposition party in Parliament, today gave its preference for a regular Winter Session in November and December. Responding to government suggestions that included conducting it with a break for the Gujarat Assembly election scheduled for December 13, the party favoured holding it between November 21 and December 21. Last week, the government reached out to the Opposition through the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj offering three sets of dates to pre-empt the demand that the session be truncated or a break be announced to facilitate leaders to travel to Gujarat. The dates proposed by the government for the Winter Session included one from November 21 to December 21, second between November 26 and December 21 and the third one running for a week in November and the remainder in December. “We have agreed with the first proposal that the Winter Session be held from November 21 to December 21 as is normally held. I have conveyed this to Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, Leader of the House, as the Minister for Parliamentary Affairs is away,” Sushma Swaraj wrote today on a social networking site. The BJP leader said she had consulted her party colleagues and allies before informing the government of the decision. Government sources said Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal had got in touch with Sushma last week and that was the reason why the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs decided to defer its meeting scheduled for last Thursday. “Often in the past when an election schedule clashed with a Parliament session, members in the Opposition would suggest that the sittings be adjusted so that leaders can travel for campaigning. This time, we wanted to avoid such a situation and reached out to the Opposition before the government firms up the dates,” a senior minister told The Tribune. While it is the prerogative of the government to decide when to call a session of Parliament, considering the delicate nature of relations that exists between the ruling coalition and the Opposition, it was considered prudent to extend the courtesy of consulting those on the other side of the aisle in the House. The government is soon expected to decide on the date when the session will be called. Last year, the government cut short the Budget Session ending it by March 25 as most political parties were contesting elections to the Assemblies of Assam, Kerala, Puducherry, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal that were held between April 4 and May 10. The ensuing session is expected to test the skills of the parliamentary managers of the ruling United Progressive Alliance since the Opposition is preparing to take the government on over its recent decisions including foreign direct investment in multi-brand retail, raising the FDI cap in insurance and allowing pension funds to be invested in stock markets, besides its ongoing battle against corruption. reaching out Last week, the government reached out to the Opposition offering three sets of dates to pre-empt the demand that the session be truncated or a break be announced to facilitate leaders to travel to Gujarat for the Assembly poll there
	Missing Arunachal IPS officer traced in Delhi Tribune News Service New Delhi,October 21 An IPS officer, who had gone missing from Arunachal Pradesh four days ago, has been traced to the national capital. MS Chauhan, a 1998 batch IPS of the UT cadre, has probed the high-profile PDS scam in the North-Eastern state. He had gone missing in Arunchal Pradesh's West Kameng district on October 16. The Arunachal Pradesh Police has informed their counterparts in New Delhi. The officer was seen living in his flat in New Delhi. MS Chauhan, SP of the Special Investigation Cell, who was appointed by the Gauhati High Court to probe the multi-crore PDS scam in the state in 2008. Investigations by Chauhan had led to the charge-sheeting of 56 persons, including former CM Gegong Apang, five Congress MLAs, two ministers besides several IAS officers and contractors in the PDS scam. He was waiting for the sanction of prosecution from the Arunachal Pradesh government against another 36 accused in the Rs 1,000-crore scam. He had gone missing from Tippi.
	copter scam India to seek details from Rome after man’s arrest Tribune News Service New Delhi, October 21 Following reports of arrest of a man in Switzerland, India is likely to seek details in the ongoing investigation into allegations of kickbacks having been paid for securing a deal to supplying 12 helicopters to the IAF. India, in 2010, signed a 560 million-Euro deal with leading chopper maker Agusta Westland to procure triple-engine AW-101 choppers for ferrying VVIPs. They were to replace the Russian-origin Mi-17 helicopters. The Swiss authorities yesterday arrested an Italian-American man in connection with a probe into the allegations that Italian defence group Finmeccanica paid kickbacks to win an Indian helicopter deal, International news agency ‘Reuters’ quoted Italian judicial sources as having said. The Defence Ministry is likely to seek a report from the Indian embassy in Rome after the reports suggested that the arrested man was an intermediary in a bribe to secure the deal. Earlier this year also, the Defence Ministry had sought a report from the embassy in Rome after reports there suggested wrongdoings in the defence deal. The report was not clear about the status of investigations there and the Indian embassy in Rome was asked to keep an eye on the progress in this regard. The reports suggested that the probe had also targeted Finmeccanica's - the Italian Government has a 30 per cent stake in the company -- top bosses. Investigations were initiated by the allegations of an ex-Finmeccanica employee, who himself is under investigation.
	UN’s World Cities Report Delhi, Mumbai halfway from being prosperous Ananya Panda/TNS New Delhi, October 21 Both New Delhi and Mumbai register an encouraging infrastructural progress and quality of life; they have posted high human development trajectories but are still halfway from being prosperous, according to the recently released UN Habitat’s State of the World’s Cities Report 2012. The human development index (HDI) for Delhi is 0.71 and 0.77 for Mumbai, whereas the national average of HDI is 0.52. Among the total 95 cities world-over whose prosperity index was assessed on five parameters -- productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity and environmental sustainability, Delhi and Mumbai were placed at 58th and 52nd position, respectively. These cities are lagging behind several other Asian cities such as Shanghai, Beijing, Manila and Jakarta. While in terms of equity in income and access to basic services, Delhi and Mumbai are even behind Dhaka (equity index of .82 on a scale of 1), the setback mainly comes on account of poor environmental health and limited employment opportunities. Mumbai’s prosperity score stood at 0.694 and Delhi was rated 0.635 with the Austrian capital Vienna leading the list, followed by New York, Toronto, London and Stockholm. The productivity scores of Delhi and Mumbai are seen at a modest level 0.596 and 0.645, respectively. What came as a jolt given the New Delhi’s tall claim of being a “green capital” was the dismal state of environmental conditions with its environment index gauged at 0.448, one of the world’s lowest. It is even less than that of Mumbai 0.632 vis-à-vis the highest (0.963) of Canada. While attributing the deteriorating environmental conditions to less usage of public transport and increase in personal vehicles, Eduardo Lopez Moreno, the chief author of the report, said, “Both the cities are penalised for poor environmental conditions, inadequate access to public amenities, space and low productivity levels with majority of the population engaged in informal sector.” Moreno observed, “In terms of infrastructure, Delhi and Mumbai may have left many cities behind, but the economy is not absorbing in terms of job generation, resulting in informality. This makes people prone to poverty trap and exploitation.” Recommending holistic development policies, Moreno noted that similar to several other countries, India’s notion of development is distorted as the real purpose of urban planning is to expand prosperity levels considering the five factors and not to enclave it to mere economic dimension. Questioning the country’s urban planning system, Moreno stated, “The public institutions at the centre of the wheel of prosperity are not holding together the five dimensions of prosperity. Urban planning to some extent has been confiscated by economic interest and more for the use of real estate development.” On the one hand, the report makes it amply clear that India has failed to reap the dividends of having one of the youngest and productive population, on the other hand, it reveals the far from adequate reach into rural areas of the country’s much-hailed national programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme and National Rural Health Mission reflected in the wide gap in the HDI of cities and national average. Growth quotient * The prosperity index of 95 cities world-over were assessed on five parameters -- productivity, infrastructure, quality of life, equity and environmental sustainability * While in terms of equity in income and access to basic services, Delhi and Mumbai are even behind Dhaka, the setback comes on account of poor environmental health and limited employment opportunities * Mumbai’s prosperity score stood at 0.694 and Delhi was rated 0.635 with the Austrian capital Vienna leading the list, followed by New York, Toronto, London and Stockholm
	FCI to rope in experts to cut down foodgrain loss Vibha Sharma/TNS New Delhi, October 21 Continuous criticism over wastage of foodgrain has now prompted government’s lead procurement agency -- the Food Corporation of India (FCI) -- to seek expert advice to assess the existing processes, suggest improvements and also ascertain how much loss (of grain) can be called “normal”. While multi-national company PricewaterhouseCoopers has been asked to assess existing processes being followed in the supply chain management of grains across the country, the Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) is conducting a study to find out reasons for accrual of damaged foodgrain and develop storage-loss norms for different agro-climatic zones. FCI chairman Amar Singh says the ICAR will ascertain reasons for damage and develop the norms to ascertain how much grain spoilage due to various reasons can be considered normal. Responding to the mounting allegations of wastage against the FCI, Singh says the percentage of damage to the grains managed by it is not alarming. In 2011-12, the percentage of damaged food grain was only 0.007 (3,337 tonnes) of the total off-take quantity of 473.59 lakh tonnes. In terms of value, the damage amounted to Rs 1.66 crore. In the crop year 2012-13 (which has not ended), 0.007 per cent grains (1,325 tonnes of 188.17 lakh tonnes) worth Rs 1.10 crore have been damaged till date. Incidentally, the maximum damage to foodgrain, especially to rice, is reported from Punjab, officials say. Singh says damage to the foodgrain should not be happening at all, but the supply-chain operations in India are so enormous that some amount of damage is inevitable. As per the FCI, the most important reason for damage is storage in open and cover and plinth (CAP). While CAP is considered a scientific way of storage, the fact is that due to the excess wheat production, India this year was forced to store as much as 70.82 lakh tonnes of wheat on “vulnerable plinths” largely in Punjab (31.67 lakh tonnes), Haryana (19.20 lakh tonnes) and Madhya Pradesh (19.20 lakh tonnes). Even on date, as much as 13.49 lakh tonnes of wheat, including 6.55 lakh tonnes in Punjab and 4.82 lakh tonnes in Haryana, is stocked on vulnerable plinths. However, Singh assured that the 3.75 lakh tonnes stored under “high” vulnerable conditions (0.73 lakh tonnes in Punjab, 1.41 lakh tonnes in Madhya Pradesh and 1.61 lakh tonnes in Haryana) will be moved to safety within a month. Food pangs * FCI chairman Amar Singh says the Indian Council of Agricultural Research will ascertain reasons for damage and develop the norms to ascertain how much grain spoilage due to various reasons can be considered normal * In 2011-12, the percentage of damaged food grain was only 0.007 worth Rs 1.66 crore * In the crop year 2012-13 (which has not ended), 0.007 per cent grains worth Rs 1.10 crore have been damaged till date
	Uma gets no political support for Ganga campaign Shahira Naim/TNS Lucknow, October 21 While political leaders occasionally pay lip service to clean the Ganga, BJP leader Uma Bharti, who is currently undertaking a Ganga Samagra Yatra in the state, is ploughing a lonely furrow as she is not getting any support from anywhere not even her own party. The newly elected MLA from Mahoba in Bundelkhand, Uma has remained busy with cleaning the Ganga campaign. During the past few months, she has completely devoted herself to the campaign first in Uttarakhand and now in Uttar Pradesh. When recently asked why she had not taken oath of office in the Vidhan Sabha or attended a single day of any Session, Uma said she was busy with clean the Ganga campaign. However, leave alone other political parties or NGOs, BJP leaders in Uttar Pradesh are not expressing solidarity with her and maintaining a safe distance. At the moment, the yatra is completing its longest lap in the state but senior BJP leaders are nowhere to be seen even when it passes through their respective constituencies.
	Jail for 13 in Kandhamal riots case Phulbani (Odisha), Oct 21 A fast track court in Odisha has sentenced 13 persons to six years’ rigorous imprisonment (RI) for their involvement in the 2008 Kandhamal riots. Pronouncing the judgement yesterday, the court of additional sessions Judge (Fast Track Court-1) Sobhan Kumar Das acquitted six others due to lack of evidence. — PTI
	Jalandhar remembers its son Dharmendra Joshi/TNS Jalandhar, October 21 Grief-stricken Jalandharis remember the cooperative and polite nature of its son Yash Chopra who had spent the prime of his life at the Mohalla Gobindgarh near the railway station here. Chopra did his graduation from the local Doaba College which bestowed ‘Doaba Honour’ on him in 2004. Since then, he had been sending Rs 1 lakh as donation every year.
	Jantar Mantar Anita Katyal O’Brien takes TMC theme to UN It is no secret that Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee exercises total control over her party members who have the choice of falling in line or opting out. As a result, Trinamool members go out of their way to please their boss. Not missing any opportunity to catch her attention, Trinamool MP Derek O’Brien went out of his way to propagate his party’s philosophy while participating in a recent debate on South-South Cooperation at the UN. Speaking in his capacity as a member of the Indian delegation, O’Brien first dwelt at length on how poverty eradication should be at the heart UN development activities as it remains the overriding priority for developing countries. He then went on to speak about West Bengal pointing out that in his home state “we call this humanistic philosophy ‘Ma, Maati and Manush’ that signifies an equilibrium between the universally caring Mother, the Earth that nurtures us and the human beings who must be central to our developmental endeavours.” Considering that this has been the central theme of the Trinamool Congress, O’Brien would be hoping to get a special pat on the back for disseminating this message to an international audience. A classic case of thinking globally, acting locally. BJP may use Modi ‘magic’ in UP As the Congress’ popularity ratings continue to plummet, the BJP is becoming increasingly optimistic about coming to power in 2014. Party strategists are, therefore, working on ways to maximise their gains. One plan being given serious thought is to field BJP’s controversial Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi from a second seat in Uttar Pradesh in the next Lok Sabha poll. Given Modi’s popularity with its rank and file, the party believes that such a move would energise the cadres in the electorally crucial state of UP. It also hopes that Modi would be able to weave his magic on the electorate there as he has been doing in Gujarat. Delhi MP does his wife proud The festive season provides an excellent opportunity for ‘netas’ to bond with their electorate. It makes for a special change for the politicians who can have fun socialising with the people without having to listen to their usual staple of grievances. As a result, Ganesh Chaturthi, Durga Puja, Ramlila and the Navratra celebrations are generally well attended by local politicians. For instance, Delhi MP Sandeep Dikshit was spotted dancing away at a well-attended ‘garba’ and ‘dandiya’ programme organised last week by the Capital’s Gujarati community. His enthusiasm and perfect moves could be put down to the fact that Dikshit’s Gujarati wife Mona had conducted special ‘garba’ classes at the Sardar Patel School for this occasion.