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Brain swelling led to death of victim
Security personnel escort Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit as she returns after anti-rape protesters stopped her at Jantar Mantar from taking part in a demonstration to mourn the death of the gang-rape victim, in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI
She has given us courage: Kolkata rape victim
Accused to face murder charge
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The journey to death began with a movie show
She took tuitions to pay for her education
Cong core meets to take stock of situation 10 Delhi Metro stations to remain closed today
Peaceful protests at Jantar Mantar
UP mourns loss of its braveheart
M’rashtra Cong, NCP sound poll bugle with war of words
Homecoming for Indian seafarers
First arrest made by NIA in Malegaon blast case
Tackling fog
Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal looks at a design of the upgraded Chandigarh Railway Station on Saturday. A Tribune photograph
Graft case
17 hurt as trains collide
Telangana supporters protest at Vijay Chowk in New Delhi. An all-party meeting said the decision on the Telangana statehood issue woukld be taken within a month. PTI
obituary hira lal sibal
Experts tell Punjab, Haryana farmers to look beyond wheat, rice
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Brain swelling led to death of victim
New Delhi, December 29 Cerebral edema, a condition characterised by excess accumulation of water in the intracellular or extracellular spaces of the brain, proved fatal in the case of the paramedic student who was airlifted to Singapore on Wednesday night for specialised treatment. The young girl suffered a cardiac arrest on Tuesday night which caused severe injuries to her brain as well. Complications in brain along with multi-organ failure took the life of the victim at the Mount Elizabeth Hospital in Singapore. "Brain injury is an important cause for the death. She suffered a cardiac arrest at Safdarjung Hospital on Tuesday. This could have caused the brain injury and she also suffered from multi-organ failure," Dr Yatin Mehta, Chairman Institute of Critical Care and Anaesthesiology at Medanta Medicity, told PTI. He said that in such cases the death is finally due to cardiac arrest. Mehta, who was by the side of the girl in the air ambulance in which she was airlifted to Singapore, said the girl's blood pressure was normal and her heart was pumping blood till last evening when he had left Singapore for India. "Her lungs were infected slightly yesterday but her blood pressure was normal," he said, adding that she was an "extremely brave girl" and a "role model" who fought back after suffering grievous injuries. Cerebral edema is a serious medical condition where there is way more fluid in the skull than there should be causing swelling in brain which compromises its own blood flow. About the nearly six-hour journey to Singapore, Dr Mehta said the victim's blood pressure dipped very low for a few minutes but it was brought to normal level immediately. — PTI
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She has given us courage: Kolkata rape victim
Kolkata, December 29 "It is a very sad day. The way she fought has given every other girl the courage to fight for their rights. She put up such a brave fight. She will always remain in our heart," she said. With West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee urging the central government to amend criminal laws to make them stringent, the Anglo-Indian woman hoped she too would get justice. — IANS
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Accused to face murder charge
New Delhi, December 29 Dharmendra Kumar, Special Commissioner of Police (Law and Order), said: “We hope to file the chargesheet by January 3. Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), which is the section for murder, has been added in the case.” Dyankrishnan, a lawyer and a counsel at the Delhi High Court, will be the Special Public Prosecutor in the case. “He has been appointed to conduct
the trial in a Fast Track Court on a daily basis,” said Kumar. The six accused in the case - Ram Singh, his brother, Mukesh, Pawan Gupta, alias Kaloo, Vinay Sharma, Akshay Kumar Singh, alias Thakur, and a juvenile - were arrested earlier. They had allegedly gang raped and brutally tortured the 23-year-old girl inside a moving bus in Delhi. Her male friend, who was with her, was also beaten by the accused. The last man to be arrested, Akshay, was today remanded to judicial custody for 12 days. Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Lokesh Kumar Sharma said: “He (Akshay) is remanded to judicial custody. Let he be produced on January 9.” He was remanded to police custody for a day. The police used him to recover the clothes he and the other accused were wearing when they allegedly gang raped and tortured the girl. Investigators informed the court that they have recovered the clothes and other items. They said the girl’s friend identified the ring she was wearing on the day of the incident. The Delhi police is yet to receive the postmortem report of the victim. She was taken by an air ambulance from Delhi to Singapore on Wednesday night. The girl was admitted to Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi on December 16, the day she was allegedly gang-raped.
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The journey to death began with a movie show
New Delhi, December 29 The crew told them they were headed to Dwarka in west Delhi. It was a lie. The unsuspecting couple had no reason to disbelieve them. It was a terrible blunder. The bus with tinted windows and curtains was under the control of a group of men with criminal mindset, the driver and conductor included. During the day, the bus ferried school students. At night, the owner left the bus with the crew, unmindful of what they did. Unknown to the young couple, the men on board the bus had sometime earlier robbed a man of money and dumped him. He went to police, who did not take his complaint seriously. It was the second blunder of the day that was to lead to a horrific crime that stunned and shamed India. According to police who later put together the sequence of events, once the bus began moving, the six men in the bus caught hold of the woman and dragged her to the back. She resisted, and so they beat her. The young man was also assaulted when he tried to fight them. Then followed an agonizing 40 minutes when the bus crew gang-raped the woman. If that was not enough, one or more than one of them tortured her with an iron rod. Their lust satisfied, the battered woman and her friend were dumped by a roadside at Mahipalpur, about eight kilometres away. They lay there naked, shivering and bleeding. No one seemingly bothered to stop by. It was a routine patrol of the National Highway Authority of India that saw the two and alerted the police. As the enormity of the crime became known, India was shocked. Doctors at Safdarjung Hospital said they had never seen any rape victim like her. As the woman struggled to live, at one point telling her family that she did not want to die, angry citizens hit the streets across India. New Delhi saw the largest protests, with violence one day leading to a policeman's death. As demonstrators ranted against the callousness of a system that let buses to ply illegally and allowed such violence to take place, officials were forced to act. The young woman was put on ventilator support right from the time of her admission. But her condition kept deteriorating. On Wednesday night, the young woman was shifted to Singapore in a last ditch attempt to save her. It was too late. When she entered the Mount Elizabeth Hospital, she was already sinking. On Saturday morning, as her distraught family watched, the young woman passed away. — IANS
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She took tuitions to pay for her education
New Delhi, December 29 Born into a family from Ballia, the young woman, family friends said, was hard working and desired to forge ahead in life. The sources close to the family said they moved to the national capital a quarter century ago. It settled in a middle-class neighbourhood in southwest Delhi where she was born 23 years ago. The girl’s father, seeing her brilliance in academics, took loans to finance her higher studies. After her education, she went to Dehradun to train as a physiotherapist. She returned to Delhi and started as an intern in a private hospital in north Delhi. As she was the eldest in the family, her family was convinced that her sucess in academics would inspire her two younger brothers too. "Like any family they dreamt of their daughter getting a better job and a better salary," a source said. The dreams were shattered when she became victim to a gang-rape Dec 16, the beginning of a 13-day agonising struggle for life that ended in her death in Singapore on Saturday. — IANS
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Peaceful protests at Jantar Mantar
New Delhi, December 29 People started pouring in at Jantar Mantar to pay tributes to the victim as soon as the news spread today. By 12 noon, over 500 people gathered here to express solidarity with the victim and pressurise the government into forming strict laws to punish sexual offenders. While the peace march organised in the memory of the victim included silent participation from various people representing diverse spheres, there were people like political leaders, students union leaders who demanded capital punishment for the accused. A parallel peace rally was organised by the activists of Left parties from Mandi House to Jantar Mantar led by CPM Politburo member Brinda Karat.
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Cong core meets to take stock of situation New Delhi, December 29 The core group, headed by party president Sonia Gandhi, had met last Tuesday at Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s official residence to review the situation following the police crackdown on the anti-rape protesters at India Gate. Sonia Gandhi had expressed her displeasure at the police action and called for restraint in the future while Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde had told the meeting that the police stepped in after the protests turned violent leading to the death of a constable. Minister of State for Home Affairs RPN Singh was called in by the core group today for a briefing on the situation as Shinde arrived late for the meeting. Fearing that the protests could get out of hand again following the gang rape victim’s death, the police barricaded the entire India Gate and Rajpath areas and closed down several metro stations but allowed the agitators to hold their protest at Jantar
Mantar. Sonia Gandhi and AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi attempted to douse public anger by issuing strong, emotional statements grieving the young woman’s death.Following up on her remarks yesterday, Sonia Gandhi promised “swift and fitting punishment for the perpetrators of such a brutal act.” Appealing for calm she said, “ As a woman, as a mother I understand how you feel. I appeal to you to remain calm and help strengthen our collective resolve to fight the menace of violence against women.” Sonia Gandhi had to step in to retrieve the situation as the Congress second-rung leadership, including Delhi MPs, legislators, the party’s youth brigade, failed to engaged with the protesters. Worse, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit was involved in an unseemly public spat with the Delhi police chief. It was Sonia Gandhi to fill this void.
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10 Delhi Metro stations to remain closed today
New Delhi, December 29 All the stations which were locked down are close to India Gate and Raisina Hill, the epicentre of the protests against the brutal gang rape. The stations that will remain closed tomorrow are Pragati
Maidan, Mandi House, Barakhamba Road, Rajiv Chowk, Patel Chowk, Central Secretariat, Udyog
Bhawan, Race Course, Jor Bagh and Khan Market. — PTI
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UP mourns loss of its braveheart
Lucknow, December 29 According to Home Department sources, security is being beefed up in view of the large scale protests expected in the state to express anger at the death of the gang rape victim. Students and youth, especially young girls have spearheaded protests on the streets of the state. Family members of the victim, who originally belongs to Ballia district in east Uttar Pradesh, have left for New Delhi to take part in her last rites. She belonged to Mehura Kala village in Ballia on the UP-Bihar border. Both Governor BL Joshi and CM Akhilesh Yadav in separate statements expressed grief over her death and said such incidents should not be allowed to take place. Earlier, Yadav had announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh for the victim and assured that the state government would bear her medical expenses. Speaking to media, BSP National president Mayawati also expressed grief and said that she had written to the PM for a special session of parliament to make the law against rape stricter. Uttar Pradesh Congress today cancelled two programmes as a mark of respect to the Delhi gang rape victim. According to Congress spokesman Amarnath Agarwal, the party’s political rally scheduled to be held in Mathura to highlight the achievements of the UPA government at the Centre and its support to FDI stands cancelled. Similarly, Sunday’s inauguration of a steel processing plant in Gonda, the parliamentary constituency of Union Minister for Steel Beni Prasad Verma, by the minister has also been cancelled.
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M’rashtra Cong, NCP sound poll bugle with war of words Mumbai, December 29 The NCP fired the first salvo earlier this
week when its leader and Union Minister Praful Patel praised Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. "Modi has been delivering, that is why the people are reposing their faith in him," Patel said at a function. He went on to say, that the NCP should not be content with just 50 per cent power in the state. "We should aim for 100 per cent," Patel said. Echoing Patel, state NCP chief Madhukar Pichad exhorted party workers to gear up for the twin polls. Though both leaders said they were ideologically closer to the Congress, they wanted the NCP to grow in Maharashtra. Within minutes, the Congress mocked the regional ally for its ambitions. "The NCP should not forget that the Congress won 17 of the 25 seats in contested in 2009 while only eight of their 23 candidates won," state Congress leader Manikrao Thakre said. The NCP which is worried that the Congress party could gain mileage with its direct cash transfer schemes is preparing to counter it by criticising the scheme.
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Homecoming for Indian seafarers New Delhi, December 29 External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid, who received them at the airport, expressed the government's resolve and determination to get all other Indian hostages, numbering more than 30, released from the captivity of the Somali pirates at the earliest. The seafarers rescued were identified as : Ganesh Mohite, Saji Purushottam, Jasvinder Singh, Santhosh Yadav and Swapnil Dadasahib Jadav. Indian officials bringing back the Indian seafarers also extended a helping hand to two Pakistani seafarers who were rescued with them. In a humanitarian gesture, the aircraft sent to bring back the Indians also brought along the Pakistani seafarers till Salalah in Oman, the last stop of the aircraft outside India. The Pakistani authorities were informed through Indian High Commissioner in Islamabad Sharat Sabharwal and requested to send their officials to take over their nationals at Salalah. Since no Pakistani Consulate is located in Salalah, a member of the Pakistani community there was entrusted the responsibility by the Pakistani authorities to take charge of the two Pakistani seafarers. The story of the rescue of theIndian seafarers can be traced back to the visit of the President of Puntland Abdirahman Mohamed Mohamud Farolez to India in May 2012. It was then that in quiet discussions the possibility of anti-piracy operations
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First arrest made by NIA in Malegaon blast case
New Delhi, December 29 The National Investigation Agency arrested one Mohan, who is alleged to be part of the criminal conspiracy and touted as planter of explosives in communally-sensitive powerloom Malegaon township on September 8, 2006 which left 35 people dead. He was arrested from Hatod area of Indore district in Madhya Pradesh and was being taken to Mumbai on a transit remand where he would produced before the court, officials said. Mohan's role came out before the NIA during the interrogation of Rajesh Chowdhry, an alleged bomber of Samjhauta train blast, who had claimed to be also a part of alleged conspiracy involved in bombing at Malegaon, they said. His arrest is the first one by the NIA in connection with the Malegaon blasts. Mumbai police's elite ATS and CBI had arrested nine Muslim youths in the aftermath of the incident. The nine youths came out of jail after nearly five years when their bail plea was not opposed. Investigations into terror cases like Malegaon took a different turn after right-wing group Abhinav Bharat member Swami Aseemanand stated in his confessional statement before a magistrate that Malegaon blast was masterminded by a Hindu group. Aseemanand, alias Jatin Chatterjee, had stated in his statement that slain RSS worker Sunil Joshi and others were responsible for the Malegaon 2006 blasts. However, he later attempted to backtrack from his confessional statement. Four bombs planted in Malegaon had exploded on September 8. — PTI
Samjhauta bomber spilled the beans
* The NIA arrested a person, Mohan, who is alleged to be part of the criminal conspiracy and touted as planter of explosives in communally-sensitive powerloom Malegaon township on September 8, 2006 which left 35 dead. *
Mohan's role came out before the NIA during the interrogation of Rajesh Chowdhry, an alleged bomber of Samjhauta train blast, who had claimed to be also a part of alleged conspiracy involved in bombing at Malegaon
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‘Railways working on radio frequency identity system’ Aarti Kapur Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 29 He said only 5 km track in the country had signals after every one km, which was according to the norms set by the Railway Ministry. He accepted the fact that during fog, railway services were affected all over the country as a majority of the tracks were ill-equipped due to improper signals installed there. He said the Railways was working on the radio frequency identity system, which would help the drivers to locate tracks during bad weather. Bansal said though in the past a number of projects were mooted for anti-fog collision devices, most of them were shelved due to the lack of funds with the ministry. Stressing upon increasing the fare, he said more funds would help the ministry in the completion of old projects and chalking out new one for the betterment of passengers. Talking about the fencing pilot project from Delhi to Agra tracks to increase safety, Bansal said the ministry had not got any positive response on the proposal of sharing the cost by private companies by putting their advertisements on the track side. He said now the ministry was taking this work on its own for which the work would commence soon. Bansal said directions had been given to railway officials to make wheelchairs available at all 7,000 railway stations in the country by the next month. He emphasised that for the better security system at railway stations, the ministry was planning to increase the installation of CCTV cameras on their premises. Bansal said the Railway Ministry had shortlisted 100 important railway stations in the country, which he would visit personally to inspect the circulated area of station premises and check sanitation and other services. He added that these stations were basically tourist or religious destination where the percentage of commuters was more than 10 lakh per day.
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CBI files chargesheet against NALCO ex-CMD
New Delhi, December 29 In its chargesheet filed before CBI judge Talwant Singh here, the agency alleged Srivastava has amassed movable and immovable properties which were more than 201 per cent above his known sources of income. CBI sources said they have had found assets worth Rs two crore which Srivastava could not explain from his known sources of income. Srivatava, his wife Chandani, middlemen B L Bajaj and Anita Bajaj were arrested on February 25 after CBI recovered about 10 kg of gold bricks and jewellery valued at around Rs 2.13 crore besides Rs 30 lakh in cash from their possession. The agency has earlier filed two charge sheets against them in graft charges. Regarding the role of wives of both the accused, the CBI said Srivastava and Bajaj had decided to deposit the gold through them in either of the lockers maintained at Shahjahan Road branch of Bank of Maharashtra and Mayur Vihar Phase-1 branch of Bank of India. - PTI
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17 hurt as trains collide
Jaipur, December 29 GRP sources said that 17 people were injured in the incident. However, no derailment took place. The track was cleared in the morning and the train left for its destination at 0940 hrs. An inquiry has been ordered into the matter, the spokesperson said. PTI
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Telangana bandh cripples life Hyderabad, December 29 The TRS, which has been in the forefront of the movement for separate state, gave the call for a shutdown, expressing disappointment over the outcome of the all-party meeting on Telangana issue convened by the Union Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde in Delhi yesterday. As expected, the meeting failed to arrive at a consensus on the raging issue while Shinde later promised that the Union Government would take a decision on the statehood demand within a month. The bus services in the region came to a standstill while educational institutions, shops and business establishments remained closed. The Telangana Joint Action Committee (JAC), a conglomeration of several pro-Telangana political and social groups, is also supporting the shutdown. While the impact of the shutdown was partial in the state capital, it was near total in the remaining nine districts of the region. The employees of the state-owned roadways corporation stayed away from duties, causing severe inconvenience to the public. The police arrested several TRS leaders and activists in Warangal, Karimnagar, Adilabad, Nizamabad and Medak districts. Senior TRS legislator T Harish Rao and his supporters were arrested at Jubliee Station here when they tried to stop buses.
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A humanist, a legal legend Vandana Shukla Tribune News Service Chandigarh, December 29 Keeping in view the illustrious services of H L Sibal in the fields of law and jurisprudence, the Punjab Government accorded a state cremation to him, an official spokesman said. He was honoured with the Padma Bhushan in 2006 for his contribution to the justice system and was bestowed the title ‘Legend of the Law’ by the International Bar Association. During his long career as a leading lawyer of India, he witnessed the evolution of the legal infrastructure of independent India and played an important role in the making of its legal history. An institution in himself, Sibal ruled the legal world for over four decades and was appointed Advocate General by several governments and by the Union territory. During these four decades, he saw the rise and fall of mighty governments, fought many landmark legal cases that involved Chief Ministers and Union ministers, and above all mentored young lawyers. Known for his legendary memory and erudition, he was available to those who needed his advice on the briefs long after he hung his boots. “He remained an inspiration to judges and lawyers and was the father figure of the Bar. He led by example. He was loved and respected universally,” said Mukul Mudgal, former Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. There was no branch of law that Sibal did not know well. Sibal started practice as a young lawyer in July 1937 after graduating from Dayal Singh College, Lahore. The community of writers still remembers the courageous stand Sibal took as a young lawyer against the mighty names of his times to defend progressive Urdu writers Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismal Chugtai in the famous obscenity case in Lahore. In the centenary year of Manto, he was honoured by the Manto Foundation for the bold stand he took to support the freedom of literary voices. “At the time of India’s partition, he was 35, the father of five children and was penniless. He found a job with the rehabilitation department and later moved to Shimla where the High Court was situated.“Despite these conditions, he repaid a loan of Rs 10,000 that he had taken from someone in Lahore,” recalls his son, Cabinet minister Kapil Sibal. It was the rare combination of humanism, fortitude and legal wizardry that places Hira Lal Sibal among the few legal luminaries that this country has produced. He leaves behind four sons -- Virender Sibal, Jitendar Sibal (both retired IAS officers), former foreign secretary Kanwal Sibal and Kapil Sibal, besides a daughter, Asha Nanda. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal was among those who attended the cremation of the legal luminary here. The chief minister described H L Sibal, as an eminent jurist and an able administrator who had rendered distinguished service in the arena of law and jurisprudence. ( with inputs from agencies)
former cj of the allahabad high court
former judge of the supreme court
former chief justice of delhi high court
former solicitor general of india
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Experts tell Punjab, Haryana farmers to look beyond wheat, rice But despite a poor performance by seasonal rains, crop production in the summer season managed to almost equal the average production in the past five years for reasons that included farmers’ resilience, increase in new growing areas in the North-East and the well-laid down irrigation system in main deficit regions in the northwest - Punjab and Haryana. Overall kharif production this year is estimated at 117.18 MT as against the average production of 118.8 MT during the past five years. The main crop - paddy - did not go down badly but others, like coarse cereals, pulses and oil seeds, suffered due to deficit in rain-fed areas. India witnessed rainfall deficit in large parts during June and July, the crucial sowing months for kharif. The good part is that the winter cropping season - rabi - presents prospects of a good harvest. In all, according to Agriculture Ministry estimates, total production in the 2012-13 crop year (July-June) is expected to match the five-year production average and also surpass some previous years’ yield except that of the 2011-12 season, when the country harvested a record 257-plus MT aided by a good monsoon. During 2011-12, India produced a record 257.44 MT compared to 244.78 MT in the previous crop year.
Message for future: Diversify The Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP) headed by Ashok Gulati recommended that the support price of the main rabi crop - wheat - be frozen at the last year’s rate of Rs 1,285 per quintal.
Bowing to political But the delay of nearly two months, when a lot of debate went on with the Food and Finance Ministries opposing the hike that was supported by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, showed that the message was sharp and clear. It was time Punjab and Haryana looked beyond paddy and explored other options to revive groundwater levels and dying soil of the region. It was time to move on to mustard, maize and soyabean (which take far less irrigation and help fix nitrogen in the gasping soil) and diversify to poultry to increase in-house consumption of maize. As Gulati said, “The future of Punjab and Haryana is in crop diversification and value addition. There are no soft options available anymore. Just asking higher and highest MSP will not take the farmers much far. “They have to come out of the paddy-wheat cycle and get back to their roots - maize, wheat and poultry - and the state should create a market within.” According to the government, the MSP of major crops like paddy, wheat and pulses has increased by more than 100 per cent between 2004-05 and 2012-13. Therefore, if the writing on the wall - as read by economists, experts and planners - is any indication, the government will not be able to maintain the trend in the future.
Problem of plenty The overall increased production is reflected in FCI stocks. Against a buffer norm of 21 MT as on October 1, 2012, India has stocked more than 66.5 MT - three times the amount it needs to maintain as buffer requirement. Paddy needs more than 25 irrigations in a season. With the levels of ground water in Punjab and Haryana dipping at an alarming rate, experts are advising diversification to crops like oilseeds, maize and soyabean. Instead of paddy, they say that Punjab and Haryana now needs to grow oilseeds and pulses to reduce dependence on imports. Procurement agencies are struggling to keep the stocks and the government is resorting to exports to built space for the current marketing season. In the ongoing kharif marketing season (KMS) 2012-13, the government agencies have so far procured 160,57,618 lakh tonnes of rice. The total rice procured till December 28 during was 3,01,244 tonnes - higher than the procurement during the corresponding period of the previous season. The highest procurement is from Punjab 85,44,190 tonnes followed by Haryana (25,74,012 tonnes) and Chhattisgarh (17,41,290 tonnes). The reason why drought did not affect paddy production is because the main paddy growing areas - Punjab and Haryana - are well-irrigated. Add to it the free doles of subsidised power and water and reasons behind good production become clear. But the fact also is that this grain has come at a cost - of depleting ground water and gasping soil. Experts say that with eastern areas like Chhattisgarh and Bihar The increasing resilience in Indian agriculture also comes from other developments like advent of new growing areas - Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Odisha, eastern UP and West Bengal. Focused efforts with scientific support led to a record production of 55.3 MT of rice in the new states during 2011-12 as against 47 MT in 2010-11. Punjab and Haryana are the highest-cost producers of grain and today, there are more efficient growing areas in the country like Madhya Pradesh. While Punjab and Haryana have peaked their potential, states like Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Bihar have much more left in them. According to officials, the government’s crop-specific and area-specific strategies to rejuvenate the sector to achieve 4 per cent growth per annum have started producing results. From having to import about 6 MT of wheat in 2006-07, the country today has become a net exporter of wheat and rice. According to the DGFT, around 7.73 MT of non-basmati rice and 3.59 MT of wheat were exported by placing it under the OGL. India’s agriculture export in 2011-12 stood at Rs 1.86 lakh crore compared to Rs 1.2 lakh crore in 2010-11 - a growth of 56 per cent.
The average annual growth rate achieved The 11th Plan period saw an increase in total food grain production of 173.38 MT over the 10th Plan period, and this despite two years of drought in various parts of the country in 2009-10 and 2010-11.
Other crops Sugarcane production in 2011-12 is estimated at an all-time record of 357.67 MT. Against the base of 14 MT - at which production had stagnated for over a decade - production of pulses is estimated at 17.21 MT in 2011-12. It is likely to cross 18 MT once figures for summer pulses become clear. Around 15 lakh hectares has been brought under summer pulses. Oilseed production in 2011-12 is 30.01 MT and that of maize is 21.57 MT. Production of fruits during 2011-12 is estimated at 75.38 MT as against 74.87 MT during the previous year and production of vegetables during 2011-12 is estimated at 150.59 MT as against 146.5 MT during the previous year. Per capita availability of fruits increased from 138 gm/person/day in 2005 to 175 gms/person/day in 2012. Similarly, per capita availability of vegetables too increased from 279 gm/person/day in 2005 to 316 gm/person/day in 2012.
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Hyderabad Betting racket busted: The police on Saturday busted a gambling racket by arresting two persons from Afzalgunj area on the charge of accepting bets for the India-Pakistan Twenty20 match played in Ahmedabad on Friday. PTI Kanpur Kota People wrap blankets to beat the cold during a foggy morning in Allahabad on Saturday. PTI Bangalore Guwahati
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Serious swelling in the brain resulting from the cardiac arrest she suffered a few days ago was an "important cause" that led to the death of 23-year-old gang-rape victim who fought for her life with "great fortitude and courage".
Out of the 64,000 km tracks in the country, only 5 km has been equipped with signals to tackle fog problem and the rest is at the mercy of the weather, said Union Railway Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal today.
He said only 5 km track in the country had signals after every one km, which was according to the norms set by the Railway Ministry.
Jaipur, December 29
Chandigarh, December 29
Although the situation is under control, the scale of the protests and the simmering anger against the ruling UPA government for its handling of this incident has unnerved the Congress top brass.
New Delhi, December 29
