The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Aam Aadmi Party launched Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 26 The latest entrant on Indian political scene, Arvind Kejriwal’s Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) was formally launched today in the presence of thousands of supporters amid voluntary donations and offers of premises for party offices by newly-inducted members. Kejriwal was accorded traditional felicitations by supporters from across India, a siropa and kirpan from Punjab, a Jaapi (traditional Assamese headgear) and a folk dance from Karnataka at the first public rally at the Sansad Marg here. The venue with an impressive turnout of people from all walks of life reverberated with slogans of “Bharat Mata ki Jai” and fluttering Tricolours. Kejriwal declared the party “result of struggle against corruption”. He administered four oaths to his supporters -- I will never give or take bribe; I will never sell my vote for a liquor bottle, money or saree; I will exercise my franchise in every election and I will not vote according to my caste or religion. As speaker after speaker forwarded support to the newly found party, Kejriwal’s colleague Kumar Vishwas kept the rally alive with references to corporate connections and Swiss bank accounts of other parties vis-à-vis AAP’s dependence of public support. Allegations were also made by some AAP members of the government’s “gag orders” on media against the coverage of the rally. Kejriwal, Pankaj Gupta and Krishna Kanth were appointed as the national convener, the national secretary and the national treasurer of the AAP, respectively. The constitution of the new party was released by former Law Minister Shanti Bhushan, while Manish Sisodia declared the name of the party and announced the names of the other 23 members of the national executive body, which includes Sisodia along with Prashant Bhushan, Dinesh Waghela, Sanjay Singh, Gopal Rai and Vishwas. Kejriwal said he would tour the country for the next year to "expose" the Congress and the BJP while trying to convince people why they should support his outfit.
	2G case: Witness identifies letters between Raja, Prime Minister New Delhi, November 26 A Prime Minister's Office (PMO) official today identified in a Delhi court the letters exchanged between former Telecom Minister A Raja and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in November-December 2007 on the issue of 2G spectrum allocation. Deposing in the court as a CBI witness, Pushpendra Kumar Sharma, a section officer in the PMO, identified the letters written by Raja to the PM on November 2, 2007 and December 26, 2007. He told Special CBI Judge OP Saini that he had sent a letter to the CBI on March 9, 2011, through which he had sent the correspondence mentioned therein to the agency on its prayer. "The correspondence sent by me to the CBI includes a letter of A Raja to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh dated November 2, 2007... and another letter of the same date from A Raja to the Prime Minister. It also included letter of December 26, 2007 written by A Raja to the Prime Minister along with its annexures.” According to the CBI chargesheet, Raja had written to the Prime Minister on November 2, 2007 "misrepresenting the facts and fraudulently justifying his decision regarding the cut-off date of September 25, 2007." — PTI
	Retirement: TA officers, regular Armymen to be at par Tribune News Service Chandigarh, November 26 Striking down applicable provisions in government regulations, the Armed Forces Tribunal has ordered that all officers and men of the Territorial Army (TA) would be at par with regular Army personnel for the purpose of post-retirement benefits. While the Tribunal had earlier held that TA personnel were entitled to the same benefits as were being given to regular Army personnel, these orders were not implemented by the Controller General of Defence Accounts, which contrary to government decisions, had inserted clauses in regulations denying benefits to TA personnel. This led to a second round of litigation. While allowing a petition filed by Maj SD Singh and others seeking that the provisions that deny weightage for the purpose of calculation of pension to TA personnel be quashed and they be paid pension since inception by recalculating, as in the case of other Army officers, with weightage at the rate of 50 per cent of last drawn pay along with interest of 12 per cent per annum, the Tribunal ordered that besides the petitions all similarly placed persons be given the said benefits. Different “weightage” in terms of number of years is stipulated for different ranks for the purpose of calculating pension to offset the disadvantage of early retirement from services.
	281 sanctioned posts of HC judges vacant Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 26 The Indian judicial system continues to reel under massive vacancies leading to delay in justice delivery and mounting case load. As many as 281 sanctioned posts of high court judges are lying vacant across the country, amounting to a whopping one third of the total sanctioned strength. At present 614 judges are working against a sanctioned strength of 894 in high courts across the country, the government told the Parliament today. In other words, almost one-third of the total sanctioned strength of judges is lying vacant. The maximum number of vacancies is in Allahabad High Court (73) followed by Punjab and Haryana High Court (26) and Bombay High Court (20), according to the data furnished by Law and Justice Minister Ashwani Kumar in response to a written question. The Allahabad High Court is working with 87 judges against the approved strength of 160 judges while the Punjab and Haryana High Court is functioning with 42 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 68 judges, the minister said in response to the query by nominated member HK Dua. There are 17 vacancies each in Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Chhattisgarh high courts. The only high court to be working with complete strength is Himachal with an approved as well as working strength of 11 judges. According to the Law Minister, the initiation of proposal for appointment of a judge of a high court rests with the Chief Justice of that high court. “Filling of the vacancies in the high courts is a continuous consultative process among constitutional authorities to select suitable candidates. It is a time-consuming process as it requires consultation and approval from various constitutional authorities. While every effort is made to fill the existing vacancies expeditiously, vacancies keep on arising on account of retirement, resignation or elevation of judges,” he said. Kumar said every effort was made by the Centre to fill the vacancies, including through periodically reminding the Chief Justices of the high courts to initiate proposals in time for filling the existing vacancies of judges as well as the vacancies anticipated in next six months in the high courts. 26 vacancies in Pb & Haryana HC The maximum number of vacancies is in Allahabad High Court (73) followed by Punjab and Haryana High Court (26) and Bombay High Court (20) The Allahabad HC is working with 87 judges against the approved strength of 160 judges while the Punjab and Haryana HC has 42 judges as against the sanctioned strength of 68 judges
	Ruling SP pushes through UP supplementary Budget House adjourned after disruptions over law and order Tribune News Service Lucknow, November 26 Amid protests by the entire Opposition, the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) somehow pushed through its first supplementary Budget of Rs 5,861.29 crore in the Vidhan Sabha today. The House was then adjourned for the day. The first proper working day of the winter session of the Vidhan Sabha started with the Opposition parties coming together to disrupt proceedings in both Houses of the state legislature on the issue of deteriorating law and order situation and delay in the announcement of cane support price. In the Upper House, the BSP forced adjournments. Its leader Naseemuddin Siddiqui demanded dismissal of the state government and imposition of the President’s Rule in the state. In the Vidhan Sabha, BSP members waved blue banners carrying slogans like “UP bana danga pradesh, mukhya mantri jiska Akhilesh”, “250 din ka SP ka kushasan, yaad aaya BSP ka sushasan” and “Chhalava samajwad ka, badhava aatankwad ka”. Rashtriya Lok Dal members carried green placards carrying slogans against the state government. BJP members waved orange-coloured banners. Some BJP members wore long capes with photographs of sugarcane painted on them. As soon as the House proceedings began at 11 am, BSP and RLD members barged into the well, raising anti-government slogans. They forced a series of adjournments, leading to the suspension of question hour. Later, Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, who also holds the finance portfolio, tabled the first supplementary Budget to the tune of Rs 5,861.29 crore. When the House re-assembled, the Opposition continued to create noise and did not heed to Speaker Mata Prasad Pandey’s pleas to restore order in the House. The day’s business was rushed through and the House was abruptly adjourned thereafter. Protesting against the manner in which the House was adjourned, BJP members squatted in the well of the House. They sought extension of the four-day session and immediate announcement of sugarcane support price. Uma makes first appearance Senior BJP leader and MLA from Charkhari in Bundelkhand Uma Bharti on Monday made a brief appearance in the Vidhan Sabha, almost eight months after being elected. Accompanied by senior BJP leader and MLA from Lucknow (East) Kalraj Misra, Uma Bharti entered the House during an adjournment and walked straight to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav. They then held a meeting in the CM’s office on the same floor. Uma did not stay in the House for much long thereafter and sneaked out as the Opposition was protesting against the poor law and order situation in the state.
	ULFA hawks reach out to tribal groups Call upon ethnic groups to join armed revolution to free Assam Bijay Sankar Bora/TNS Guwahati, November 26 With more tribal communities in Assam raising demand for autonomy under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, the anti-talks (hawks) faction of the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) led by its fugitive commander-in-chief Paresh Barua is apparently worried over the dwindling support among ethnic groups in the state. The ethnic groups take the ULFA as an organisation representing the Assamese-speaking population but not exclusively the tribal communities. The tribal communities have been demanding autonomy and have shown least interest in ULFA’s ‘armed revolution’ aimed at ‘liberating’ Assam. In order to regain the support base among various tribal communities, the ULFA (anti-talks faction) has called upon all the indigenous ethnic groups in Assam, including Bodo, Karbi and Dimasa, to join its armed revolution to liberate Assam from the clutches of the ‘colonial Indian state’. The self-styled ‘chairman’ of the outfit Abhijit Asom in a statement issued here said once Assam could be ‘liberated’, the issue of protection of individual identity, political and economic rights of all the indigenous ethnic communities could be talked out. The ULFA said it would aspire for unity among diversity. “It is not possible within the framework of Indian Constitution to fulfil the political aspirations of individual ethnic communities in Assam. The autonomy granted under the Sixth Schedule of Indian Constitution to various ethnic groups in the state has failed to fulfil the aspiration of tribes as a whole, while a handful of leaders of those communities have reaped the benefits. The autonomy is designed to create division among various ethnic groups so that the aspiration for a unified greater Assam remains unfulfilled,” the ULFA statement alleged. The ULFA pointed out that growing tendency among various indigenous communities in Assam to identify themselves only by their tribal identity instead of as ‘Assamese’ (resident of Assam) because of ‘illusion’ over the ‘dominance’ of Assamese-speaking non-tribal communities had served very fruitfully to the ‘design of colonial Indian state’ to keep Assam a divided house. A security source termed ULFA’s comment an apparent attempt to woo back tribal communities whose support towards it revolution has been on the wane. Without the support of ethnic communities, it would be difficult for the outfit to regain its base among the people. With various principal tribal communities in the state aspiring for autonomy, youths of these communities have lost interest in the revolution led by the ULFA to ‘liberate’ Assam.
	Road building moves at snail’s pace along Chinese frontier BRO spends only 36% of allocated Rs 5,100 cr in first half of financial year Ajay Banerjee/TNS New Delhi, November 26 The Defence Ministry’s well-crafted plans, backed by a huge budgetary support, to construct roads alongside the Chinese frontier have not fructified for the second year running. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) was tasked to lay these roads. However, the organisation has not been able to make sufficient progress due to a clutch of reasons. Till the end of the first half of the ongoing financial year, the BRO had spent around Rs 1,833 crore, which is just about 36 per cent of the allocated budget of Rs 5,100 crore. The figures are based on the data accessed by The Tribune till September 20, the first half of the 2012-13 fiscal ended 10 days later on September 30. Unlike other departments that catch up on budget utilisation in the second half of the fiscal, the BRO cannot build roads in the Himalayas after October as severe winter has already set in, thus making road work impossible. The situation was the same last fiscal when the BRO struggled to use its allocated budget of Rs 4,962 crore. As a result, the work on all roads bordering China is running behind schedule. All these roads are of strategic importance. The Army is paying out of its own budget for some and others had been recommended by the all-powerful China Study Group (CSG) headed by the Cabinet Secretary. The slackness in road construction is evident despite PM Manmohan Singh and Defence Minister AK Antony’s assurances that the work to build infrastructure alongside the Chinese frontier is progressing well. Antony was apprised about the tardy pace of work last week. He later asked the BRO to come up with reasons for the delay. Of the 61 roads monitored, work was found to be satisfactory only on 13. Key roads in Arunachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal, Sikkim and Uttarakhand are running behind schedule. In contrast, China is double-laning major highways in Tibet. The key is the road to connect Lhasa with Aksai Chin, part of Jammu and Kashmir that was forcefully occupied by China in 1962. This 3,105-km road has three alignments that branch out into various unreachable areas of the Tibetan Plateau. It runs all along the Sino-India border. China has already constructed roads connecting all its highways to logistic centres and major defence installations that dot the border with India and the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in south eastern J&K. Some of these roads come as close as 1 km of the LAC. Antony has asked his officials to re-examine the report on BRO submitted by Lt Gen SS Sengupta, Commandant of the Pune-based College of Military Engineering. China far ahead China is double-laning major highways in Tibet It has already constructed roads connecting all its highways to logistic centres and major defence installations that dot the border with India Some of these roads come as close as 1 km to the Line of Actual Control
	NSA to visit China next month amid map row Ashok Tuteja Tribune News Service New Delhi, November 26 Amid the ongoing map row between India and China, National Security Adviser Shivshanker Menon will visit Beijing next month. Menon, who is India’s Special Representative for the boundary talks with China, will hold the 16th round of meeting with his Chinese counterpart, State Councillor Dai Bingguo. Informed sources said New Delhi was also exploring the possibility of a meeting between Menon and at least one of the top representatives of the new Communist Party leadership of China. The vexed boundary issue had figured at a bilateral meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao in Cambodia last week on the margins of ASEAN Summit and Seventh East Asia Summit. Menon’s visit assumes significance against the backdrop of the new territorial row that has broken out between India and China after Beijing started issuing e-passports to its citizens depicting a map that includes Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin (in Ladakh) as part of China. As soon as it came to the notice of the Indian Embassy in Beijing, it retaliated by stamping these passports with its own version of the map, marking out its own territorial boundaries. On his part, Menon sought to downplay the issue today while addressing books on China at a function at the Observer research Foundation (ORF) here. “I think you need to see these things in some perspective. We do have differences on where the boundary lies. We are discussing them. We have made progress in dealing with that,” he said in reply to questions on the latest map depiction by China. Chinese documents show their version of the boundary while Indian documents show “our version of the boundary”, he added. “What has changed? Chinese have a view on where the boundary lies, which is why we are having discussions on the boundary because we have differences on where the boundary is,” the NSA added. “Chinese chose to put a watermark on their passports which shows the boundaries as they see it. We show our boundary as we see it on visas that we issue. So, what has changed. On our documents we continue to show what we regard as our boundary, they show their claims on their documents,” he said. Fresh controversy New territorial row has broken out between India and China after Beijing started issuing e-passports to its citizens depicting a map that includes Arunachal Pradesh and Aksai Chin (in Ladakh) as part of China
	BJP expels Namdhari from primary membership Tribune News Service Dehradun, November 26 The Uttarakhand BJP today suspended former Minorities Commission Chairman Sukhdev Singh Namdhari from the primary membership of the party. The step comes after his arrest in connection with the Chattarpur farmhouse shootout. Of late, Namdhari had started becoming liability for the BJP and today state party chief BS Chuphal issued his expulsion letter. “After becoming the Chairman of the minorities commission, he ceased to be a member of the party, but today he was officially expelled from the primary membership of the party,” Chuphal said. The BJP’s ambivalence on the issue was, however, quite evident in the delay. The voices for his removal had been getting shriller in the party as more and more details about his alleged complicity in the murder of the Chadha brothers emerged. BJP’s Gadarpur legislator Arvind Pandey even wrote a letter urging the party to take action against Namdhari. “He actively campaigned against me though he had been my private security guard in 2002. I could never trust him. Namdhari was brought to the BJP fold by senior BJP leader Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, who was even keen to give him the Assembly ticket from Gadarpur in the 2012 elections. To accommodate him, my name was withheld and announced a little late,” said Arvind Pandey. He alleged businessman Ponty Chadha had invested in benami properties through Namdhari and his family members. BJP leaders maintain Namdhari has been in the habit of shifting loyalties too often. “He began his career as a private security guard of Akali Dal leader Harbhajan Singh Cheema. He also remained a security guard to Gurjeet Singh Rana, political leader from Punjab who has interest in Udham Singh Nagar. He later came in contact with liquor baron Ponty Chadha and Arvind Pandey,” said a BJP leader from Udham Singh Nagar.
	Got licences for 3 weapons from Kurali Akash Ghai/TNS Mohali, November 26 Sukhdev Singh Namdhari, the alleged conspirator in Ponty Chadha and his brother Hardeep Singh’s murder case, owned three weapons for which he had procured arms licence from Kurali in 1995. This fact came up in the preliminary reports of the inquiry that has been initiated by SP (Headquarters) Darshan Singh Mann following the directions of Mohali SSP Gurpreet Singh Bhullar here today. The police added that the licence had been issued in the name of Sukhdev Singh Namdhari s/o Roor Singh, r/o Master Colony, Kurali, and the three licenced weapons were 12 bore pistol, 315 bore rifle and 7.62 mouser. The licence (276/Kurali/DM/Ropar) was issued on March 2, 1995, when the area was under Ropar district. The permission for the 315 bore rifle was given the next day. Permissions for the 12 bore rifle and 7.62 mouser were given on September 21, 1995, and December 15, 2008, respectively. The licence was renewed on March 30, 2010 will expire on March 1 next year.
	Meet and resolve Cauvery dispute: SC to Jaya, Shettar New Delhi, November 26 The Supreme Court today asked the chief ministers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to meet and arrive at an amicable solution to the "sensitive" Cauvery water dispute. "Why the two Chief Ministers can't sit together? Give it a try, it is not impossible," a bench of justices D K Jain and Madan B Lokur said. "We want you to meet in a congenial manner and discuss the issue in the larger interest of farmers from both states," it said. The court said that it is not possible for Cauvery River Authority (CRA) headed by the Prime Minister to meet, so the state governments should meet to find a solution. "Try to find out a solution through give and take," the bench said, adding that "the chief ministers should not meet just for coffee but they should meet along with their experts to file a solution". Senior advocate Fali S Nariman, appearing for Karnataka, said there is no problem in meeting and the Karnataka Chief Minister will certainly meet. The counsel appearing for Tamil Nadu, however, remained non-committal and said that he will have to take instructions from the concerned authority. — PTI
	Property of Dawood's kin not to be seized New Delhi, November 26 The Supreme Court today stayed attachment proceedings of the properties of fugitive underworld don Dawood Ibrahim's mother and sister in Mumbai. A bench of Justices TS Thakur and FMI Kalifulla also issued notice to the Centre on Dawood's mother Amina Bi (dead, petition filed by her legal representative) and sister Hasina Ibrahim Parker's plea challenging the attachment order of their residential houses. The two women have seven residential properties in their names. Of this, two are in the mother's name and five are in the sister's name. The properties worth crores of rupees have allegedly been acquired with Dawood's ill-gotten wealth.— PTI
	New anti-TB drug set for clinical trials soon Tribune News Service Hyderabad, November 26 A unique collaborative initiative by the Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) to develop low-cost drugs for infectious diseases is all set to taste its first success. An anti-TB molecule, developed through CSIR’s Open Source Drug Discovery (OSDD) initiative, will enter the first phase of clinical trials in a few months. This marks a major milestone for the OSDD programme that links researchers across the globe to solve key challenges in designing drugs for tropical diseases like malaria and tuberculosis which fail to draw the attention of big pharmaceutical research companies. The project is based on a portal that provides an open source platform for scientists, doctors, technocrats, software professionals and students to share knowledge. The collaborative approach, started four years ago, is designed to keep the cost of drug discovery low, thereby making the treatment affordable. “Our target is to get into the first phase of the clinical trial of the anti-TB drug molecule in about six months,” CSIR Director-General Samir K Brahmachari said. He was talking to reporters after delivering the 25th Foundation Day lecture of the Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology, a CSIR institute here.