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PANIPAT-JALANDHAR HIGHWAY
ITBP to spend Rs
1,260 cr to boost border infrastructure
At secondary level, Sikhs lead educational attainment levels among minorities
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Not digging for gold in UP: Govt
Dreaded criminal Dabodia killed in Delhi shootout
Pak trying to lure Muzaffarnagar riot victims: Rahul
51 file papers for Chhattisgarh Assembly poll
Assam declines permission for Taslima’s visit
10 killed as heavy rain lashes AP
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NHAI blames contractor for delay
R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, October 24 Arguing before a Bench comprising Justices Gyan Sudha Misra and Pinaki Chandra Ghose, senior counsel Indu Malhotra said the company was seeking to shift the plazas with an eye on additional revenue despite the fact that the project contract had no provision for the purpose. Bringing one of the plazas 36 km closer to Panipat would impose an additional financial burden on vehicles originating from Karnal, Kurukshetra, Shahbad and the traffic moving to Chandigarh and Shimla via Ambala. Further, this shifting would lead to the existence of two plazas within a distance of 14 km which was against the policy of keeping a gap of about 50 km between two toll collection centres, the NHAI said. The Haryana Government had also conveyed to the NHAI that the state was against the company’s plea as it “is already overloaded with toll plazas.” Repudiating the company’s claim that shifting was necessary to prevent revenue leakage, Malhotra said no parallel or alternative road had been constructed in recent years facilitating vehicles to bypass the National Highway 1. The NHAI also contended that the company had gone for arbitration proceedings in the Delhi High Court to settle the dispute over plaza locations, while the appeal in the SC was against the Punjab and Haryana HC verdict cancelling the contract to Soma Isolux and as such the apex court could not pass any order on toll collection centres. Firm eyeing extra revenue
* The NHAI told the Supreme Court that the company's plea for shifting two toll plazas to new locations would put an undue additional burden of Rs 1,000 crore on road users and hinder economic development, besides leading to social unrest *
The company was seeking to shift the plazas with an eye on additional revenue despite the fact that the project contract had no provision for the purpose
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ITBP to spend Rs
1,260 cr to boost border infrastructure
New Delhi, October 24 Senior ITBP officers, who didn’t want to go on record, asserted that the BDCA would be beneficial to the force as it would reduce confrontation along the 4000-km-long border. These developments were shared at the 52nd Raising Day of the ITBP that was held here at which Minister of State (Home) RPN Singh was the chief guest. The ITBP was conceived on October 24, 1962. The force is deployed at the Sino-India border to prevent border violations. It also provides security to sensitive installations such as the Rashtrapati Bhawan and Parliament House in Delhi. And it is also involved in counter-Maoist operations in Chhattisgarh. To strengthen its border infrastructure, the ITBP will spend Rs 1,260 crore. “We will give solar power plants to 69 border outposts so that the men posted there have continuous power supply. This is one of the biggest projects of the ITBP,” said the minister. The funds will also be used to construct accommodation for jawans and operational and administrative buildings. The acting Director General of the ITBP, Mahboob Alam, said that the improvement in infrastructure was being carried out to ensure that the jawans posted in the forward areas are ‘comfortable’. “We will provide electricity and proper medical facilities to our men. If they are comfortable, then their stress levels will be low,” he said. ITBP troops are manning border outposts at altitudes ranging from 9,000 ft to 18,500 ft along the Sino-India border. Most of these posts remain cut off from the mainland for six months in a year due to snow. To add to it, most of the posts, especially the ones in Leh, do not have electricity. “The whole town of Leh usually survives on generators,” said sources. The installation of water pipelines at border posts is also part of the border infrastructure enhancement plan. The force will also set up mobile phone towers along the border. “This will help in two ways. First, a jawan will be able to talk to his family by using his own mobile phone rather than waiting in a queue at a common phone. Secondly, we can also receive real-time coverage of sensitive areas along the border,” said sources. RPN Singh and Alam refused to comment on the BDCA. ITBP officers, on condition of anonymity, described the BDCA as an agreement which “will cool temperatures along the border”. “There will be better coordination between the two sides than before. We will hold joint military exercises and have better communication through a hotline that may be set up between the military headquarters of both the countries,” said the officers. Sources admitted that tensions between the security forces are a common feature along the border. In one such example, Chinese Army personnel had allegedly forced the suspension of the construction of an irrigation canal by the Leh administration in Demchok, which is located south of Aksai Chin. The incident took place on August 25. The construction of the canal resumed within a couple of hours after the Indian Army and the ITBP assured the work force of security. “They went ahead with the construction and the canal was completed,” said sources.
On Agenda
* Solar power plants at border outposts * Installation of water pipelines *
Setting up of mobile phone towers along the border
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At secondary level, Sikhs lead educational attainment levels among minorities
New Delhi, October 24 A government documentation of the educational levels among different communities in India reveals that at the level of universities (graduation), Christian children are the best placed among those from all other communities, including the five minorities (Muslims, Christians, Sikhs, Buddhists, Parsis) and the Hindu community. There’s however a fair decline in the level of educational attainment as children move up the ladder - from secondary to senior secondary (Classes XI and XII) and graduation. This negative trend will come up for discussions on October 31 at the meeting of National Monitoring Committee for Minority Educational called by the HRD Ministry. Agenda notes for the meeting reveal that the percentage of admission of Sikh students at the secondary level is the highest for all communities in India at 20.94 per cent. This is followed by Christians at 17.48%, Hindus at 14.25% and Buddhists at 14.09%. At Class IX and X, Sikhs are much ahead of the average educational attainment rate of 14.13% for all religions put together. The Muslims have the lowest percentage of 10.96 at this level. The rate of educational attainment for children of all communities falls at the senior secondary level where the percentage admission for Christian children is the highest at 8.7 followed by Buddhists at 7.65 Sikhs at 7.57, Hindus at 6.92 and Muslims at a meager 4.53. The average rate of admission of students for all religions in this category (Classes XI to XII) is 6.74% - a huge drop from 14.13% at secondary level. Further up, the percentage of admissions declines for all religions --- from 6.74% at the senior secondary level -- to 6.72% at graduation, with Christians best placed in higher education with the highest rate of educational attainment at 8.71% followed by Hindus at 7.01%, Sikhs at 6.94%, Buddhists at 5.7% and Muslims at a shocking low of 3.6%. This means only 3.6 pc of Muslim students eligible to attain graduation have actually entered colleges. “Student dropout rates tend to peak at the senior secondary levels. Scholarships should thus target this band and be top heavy instead of top bottom,” a member of the working group which prepared the report on Empowerment of Minorities for the Planning Commission told The Tribune. Currently, the government runs minority scholarship schemes for pre-matric (Classes I to X) and post- matric (Classes XII to PhD) students. Clearly the results are not very rosy. The National Monitoring Committee on Minority Education meeting here on October 31 is expected to suggest changes to improve the scenario.
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Not digging for gold in UP: Govt
New Delhi, October 24
The 1,000 tonne gold treasure is yet to be found in Daundiya Khera village even after a week of digging in which the ASI team has reached 1.5 m below the ground. With allegations against the ASI that it was following a seer's dream, the minister said they began the excavation on the basis of a Geological Survey of India report indicating presence of alloy buried in the earth. — PTI
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A tribute to manna
dey, 1919-2013 Vandana Shukla
The haunting strain of “Puchho na kaise maine rain bitayee” still evokes heart wrenching melancholy of lost love few would associate Ashok Kumar’s darkened face with. Only a few songs of the Hindi cinema have such strong association with density and range of voice that even when you remove the face, the voice lingers. Very often, that voice will turn out to be of Manna Dey - deep, dense and haunting, gifted with unmatched versatility. Dey’s songs are uniquely distinguishable in two ways. He had the immaculate voice of a trained vocalist of classical music when he arrived on the playback scene, and was fortunate to work with music directors who did not shy away from experimenting. Roshan, Shankar Jaikishan, Madan Mohan, SD Burman, Khaiyyam and RD Burman used the special texture of his voice, which was capable of delivering the most complex permutations of musical compositions. Two, many music directors rejected him for that very perfection of his voice - his technical virtuosity became a limitation for playback. For this very reason he never became a particular hero’s voice - like Mukesh was for Raj Kapoor, Rafi for Rajendra Kumar and Talat for Dilip Kumar. This lent him versatility, he gave playback for artistes as diverse as Uttam Kumar (Bengali), Raj Kapoor, Balraj Sahni, Raaj Kumar, Bharat Bhushan, Mehmood and Rajesh Khanna. Manna Dey had to work harder than his contemporaries to create a niche for himself, the songs he could sing, no one else could. His training of classical music gave him an edge in delivering taan, palte, murki and gamak with ease, to this he added immaculate diction and developed the ability to render lyrics in the perfect emotional tenor - this rendered his songs timelessness. You can’t bracket his songs with any one “trend” of Bollywood music. The technical perfection of his renderings took away hummability of his songs though, and their popularity as well. Dey worked as an assistant music director under many renowned music directors. As a vocalist, he never stopped training under renowned vocalists such as Ustad Aman Ali Khan and Ustad Abdul Rahman Khan. His career as a playback singer started with film “Tamanna” in 1943 and got his second chance at playback many years later, in 1950, for “Mashaal”. Soon he realised, his voice was used only for the playback of old men. Dejected, he would have left Bombay had he not met two persons who changed his life. In Sulochana Kumaran he found his muse and was married to her. Music composer Shankar introduced him to Raj Kapoor, who was making “Boot Polish”. Kapoor fell in love with the extraordinary range of his voice in song “Raat gayi”. This was followed by many memorable melodies he sang for RK Films. As the legendary music directors phased out, giving way to new ones, Dey, with all his mastery over classical music, was considered fit to give playback to comedians or character actors. His playback singing was limited by the limitation of music directors. Rabindra Sangeet rendered by him is still very popular and so are his songs in Marathi, Gujarati, Assamese, Punjabi, Malayalam, Oriya and other languages. He will be remembered most for his rendering of HR Bachchan’s “Madhushala” in Khayyam’s composition and many beautiful lyrics of Hindi poet Madhukar Rajasthani in private records. Recipient of Padma Bhushan, he had recorded around 3,500 songs in different languages. The niche he created by the richness of his voice will leave a void in playback singing.
Hit numbers
* Zindagi kaisi hai paheli haaye * Ai meri zohrajabin * Apni kahani chhod ja, kuchh to nishani chhod ja *
Upar gagan vishal neeche gehra patal * Jeevan se lambe hain bandhu ye jeevan ke raste *
Meri bhains ko danda kyun mara * Tu pyaar ka sagar hai * Aao twist karen *
Pyar hua ikrar hua
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51 file papers for Chhattisgarh Assembly poll
Raipur, October 24 Eighteen Maoist-affected constituencies of South Chhattisgarh will go to the polls on November 11, for which 114 nominations have been filed so far. "On Thursday, 51 nominations were filed," Electoral Officer Sunil Kujur said. — PTI
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Assam declines permission for Taslima’s visit
Guwahati, October 24 Taslima Nasreen, who has taken asylum in India to escape hostility of fundamentalist elements in her own country, was scheduled to attend a function here on the 72nd birth anniversary of the celebrated Assamese writer and Jnanpith Awardee late Mamoni Raisom Goswami on November 14 next. However, the state government has expressed its inability to provide adequate security to Nasreen during her proposed visit and hence the visit stands cancelled. The function is being organised by the South East Asia Ramayani Research Centre and magazine “Byatikram”. Soumen Bharatia of “Byatikram” magazine said the attitude of the Assam government vis-à-vis the proposed visit of Taslima Nasreen was very unfortunate.
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10 killed as heavy rain lashes AP
Hyderabad, October 24 The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) is also participating in the rescue and relief operations, the minister said, adding that over 300 houses were also damaged in the incessant rains for the last three days. According to a preliminary estimate, paddy, cotton, red gram and maize crops in about 2.5 lakh acres have been damaged as the heavy rains inundated low-lying areas in several towns and villages in the two regions, besides damaging important link roads. Sources in the CM’s Office (CMO) said the situation could turn even worse with the Meteorological Department forecasting heavy rains in the next 48 hours due to the formation of a low pressure area in the Bay of Bengal. “In terms of both human lives lost and crop damage, the current spell of heavy rains is worse than Cyclone Phailin which hit the north coastal Andhra districts recently,” said sources. “The magnitude and severity of the situation in coastal Andhra can be gauged from the fact that some parts of Guntur district received as much as 25 cm of rainfall, which is still continuing,” officials said.
6,000 evacuated
* Over 6,000 people have been evacuated so far and 19 relief camps set up in the flood-affected coastal districts, Revenue Minister N Raghuveera Reddy said *
Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy held a high-level meeting with the officials at the Secretariat here to take stock of the situation *
The NDRF is also participating in the rescue and relief operations, the minister said, adding that over 300 houses were also damaged in the incessant rains for the last three days
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Chennai
TN for suspension of Sri Lanka from Commonwealth, boycott of CHOGM Guwahati
Centre to ink truce pact with Bodo group
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Unlike other eminent singers of his times, Manna Dey’s voice never got associated with a star face. His songs stand on their own, a testimony to the power of his voice.
