The Tribune, Chandigarh, India

	Parliament proceedings hit over Telangana issue Cong MP gives no confidence notice against govt Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 7 Anti-Telangana protests disrupted proceedings in Parliament for the third day in a row, wrecking the first week of the reconvened Winter Session. Both Houses witnessed uproarious scenes on the issue with three Lok Sabha MPs, including GV Harsha Kumar from the ruling Congress, giving notices of no confidence in the Council of Ministers. Congress MPs from the Seemandhra region, who are opposed to the bifurcation of Andhra Pradesh, have been taking turns to give notices of no trust in the government to register their protest on the passage of the Andhra Pradesh Reorganisation Bill to form Telangana. Other MPs who gave similar notices were M Venugopala Reddy (TDP) and M Raja Mohan Reddy (YSR Congress). LS Speaker Meira Kumar could not, however, consider the notices on account of din. For a notice of no trust to be adopted, the support of 50 MPs has to be ascertained by a voice vote. Protests over Telangana were equally vociferous in the Rajya Sabha with Seemandhra MPs trooping into the well soon upon commencement of proceedings. Chairman Hamid Ansari was forced to adjourn the working until noon and later for the day as agitations continued on multiple issues, including the arrest of Tamil fishermen by the Sri Lankan Navy and British role in planning Operation Blusetar and subsequent 1984 anti-Sikh riots. A perturbed Ansari was forced to warn the MPs that their disruptive ways would henceforth be recorded in proceedings of the House. “For several days now, we have been in a situation where we are being forced to witness deviations of decorum of House when members rush into the Well. I wish to inform the members that this will now be reflected precisely in the proceedings of the House,” he announced to agitating MPs. Lok Sabha was similarly adjourned until noon and later for the day over Seemandhra MPs causing obstructions in the well and raising “United Andhra” slogans, while those from Telangana trying to match up by seeking a new state. The shadow of the Special Union Cabinet meeting loomed large on parliament proceedings all day with Seemandhra MPs worried over the final approval of the Cabinet to the Draft Reorganisation Bill. That’s exactly what the Cabinet chaired by PM Manmohan Singh decided later in the evening. The government hopes to now table the Bill in the Rajya Sabha next week. SC refuses stay tabling of Bill New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday refused to stay tabling of the Telangana Bill in Parliament, saying it did not want to interfere at this stage. A Bench comprising justices HL Dattu and SA Bobde declined to pass any direction to the Centre on a batch of petitions challenging the carving of the new state of Telangana out of Andhra Pradesh. — PTI
	N-powered Arihant to test-fire missile soon Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 7 India’s system to stall an incoming ‘enemy-fired’ nuclear missile in mid-air and destroying it will be put to test in a month from now. The Ballistic Missile Defence (BMD) system will tackle in mid-air any incoming nuclear missile. DRDO chief Avinash Chander said: “We are going through consolidation phase flight. A test flight is planned about a month from now”. We will finalise the configuration, this will conduct repeated tests for interceptions. Separately, nuclear-powered submarine Arihant will test-fire the missile so far named ‘B-05’ as part of its forthcoming sea trials. The DRDO chief told a press conference at the Defexpo here that the missiles to be fired from Arihant are ready and the submarine was going through power raising cycles. There are safety procedures to be followed and will be completed in a month or two. Once full power generation is achieved, it will go for sea trials. The DRDO chief while answering questions said “the B-05 missile will be tested this year and they are part of the sea trials of Arihant”. Chander said the development trials of the B-05 missile were completed in January 2013 and it is ready for being fully integrated with the indigenous nuclear submarine. Sources said it can travel to 700 km while the bigger variant, so far known as ‘K-4’, can hit targets 3,500 km away and will finally be installed on the Arihant and also the next two follow-on submarines of the same class. The DRDO chief said it was developing UAVs for use by the CRPF to track down Left-wing extremists in thick forest areas of Naxal-hit states, including Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand. "We are planning to do a demonstration of Nishant UAV from Jagdalpur sometime in March and April around that region. They have roughly indicated the requirement of 16 birds to start with”. Giving an update on the Arjun Mark II user trials, the DRDO chief said: "The user trials have been completed. There are small issues with the missile system being fired, which will be rectified”. Chander warned that India faces a major cyber security challenge from imported defence products which can come laden with snooping virus or malwares and should thus get involved with the production of weapon systems from their inception stage. “For real security, the answer lies being involved with it from the design stage," he said, adding that similar control cannot be possessed over a system that is procured from outside. Responding to a question on India’s ability to check for malware or snooping devices in advanced systems like the C-17 and C-130J Super Hercules aircraft procured from the United States, Chander said: “When an equipment is bought from outside, you have no control.” Fire power Nuclear-powered submarine Arihant will test-fire the missile so far named 'B-05' as part of its forthcoming sea trials The development trials of the B-05 missile were completed in January 2013 and it is ready for being fully integrated with the indigenous nuclear submarine The DRDO will also test Ballistic Missile Defence system to tackle any incoming nuclear missile mid-air
	Lectures of IIT professors to be available online Tribune News Service Sirsa, February 7 Engineering students studying in any college across the country will now be able to benefit from the expertise and experience of eminent professors of Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs). This will be done with the help of curriculum-based video and web courses developed by these experts. The initiative comes under the National Programme on Technology Enhanced Learning (NPTEL). The programme is a Government of India-sponsored collaborative educational programme. Jointly carried out by seven IITs and the IISc, Bangalore, the programme is funded by the Ministry of Human Resources Development, according to NPTEL convener Prof Kushal Sen. Professor Sen and many other professors from various IITs across the country were here for a national workshop on NPTEL. The workshop was held at Jan Nayak Chaudhary Devi Lal Memorial College of Engineering, Sirsa, today. Dushyan Singh Chautala, vice-chairman of the JCD Vidyapeeth, inaugurated the workshop. Prof MP Poonia, Director, National Institute of Technical Teachers Training Institute, Chandigrah, was the chief guest, while Prof Kuldeep Singh Dhindsa, an eminent scientist, was the special guest on the occasion. Prof Mangla Sunder Krishnan (IIT-Madras), Prof B Mohanty (IIM-Lucknow) and Prem K Kalra (IIT-Delhi) were also present to guide the participants. Prof Mangla Sunder Krishna said programmes like NPTEL would help students access lectures from the top IIT faculty members despite not being enrolled with these prestigious institutions. Only such initiatives could be the best means to providing the best technical education to a large number of youth, Krishna said. Gurcharan Dass and NS Phal, Principal and Director of the host college, respectively, said teachers from a number of colleges and universities participated in the workshop.
	Cong sweeps RS polls in Assam TMC wins four RS seats, Left Front one in West Bengal Tribune News Service Guwahati, February 7 The ruling Congress in Assam won all three Rajya Sabha seats in the election held today. The winning candidates were Bhubaneswar Kalita (Congress), Sanjay Singh (Congress) and Biswajit Daimary, a member of Congress’ ally Bodoland People’s Front (BPF). Independent candidate Haider Hussain who was supported jointly by opposition BJP, Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), and All-India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) was defeated in the elections exposing the failure of Opposition parties to remain united. Of the 126 MLAs, 125 cast their votes in the election. One of the 18 AIUDF legislators, Ataur Rahman Majar Bhuyan, abstained from voting. Six votes were cancelled, one from the ruling alliance camp and five from the opposition camp. Bhubaneswar Kalita who is also the president of the state PCC, and Sanjay Singh received 32 votes each, while Biswajit Daimary won 29 votes. Opposition-backed Independent candidate Haider Hussain won only 26 votes. In the 126-member Assam Assembly, the Congress has 79 MLAs of its own and enjoys support of 12 BPF MLAs, and two Independent MLAs which makes the effective strength of 93. The Opposition BJP (5 MLAs), Asom Gana Parishad (9) and All India United Democratic Front (18) have 32 legislators in all and the number should have been sufficient to ensure win of their common Independent candidate but for the cancellation of five votes from Opposition camps and absence of one AIUDF MLA. Kolkata: Four Trinamool Congress candidates and a Left Front nominee were elected in the election to five Rajya Sabha seats from West Bengal today. The victorious Trinamool Congress candidates are filmstar Mithun Chakraborty, painter Jogen Chowdhury, KD Singh and Ahmed Hasan. The Left Front winner is Ritobrata Banerjee, a student leader belonging to CPM. Mithun, Chowdhury and K D Singh smoothly won three seats as TMC candidates by virtue of the party’s strength in the Assembly. The fourth vacant went to the CPM’s youth leader Ritobrata. The TMC also won the fifth seat following cross-voting both from the RSP and Forward Bloc. At this seat, the Congress-supported Independent candidate Syed Malliabadi lost to the TMC candidate Ahmed Hasan whom three Left Front MLAs (Two RSP and one FB) and two other Congress MLAs voted for, seeing him through.
	SC upholds Majithia Wage Board recommendations Legal Correspondent New Delhi, February 7 The Supreme Court today refused to quash the government notification for payment of higher wages to journalists and non-journalists in the print media and news agencies as recommended by the Justice Majithia Wage Board. The revised wages “shall be payable from November 11, 2011, when the Government of India notified the recommendations,” a bench comprising Chief Justice P Sathasivam and Justice Ranjan Gogoi ruled while rejecting the petitions filed by several media organisations challenging the notification. They had contended that they did not have the financial capacity to shoulder huge additional burden arising from the recommendations. “All the arrears up to March 2014 shall be paid to all eligible persons in four equal instalments within a period of one year from today” and the revised scales be implemented from April 2014, the apex court said. “We hold that the recommendations of the wage boards are valid in law, based on genuine and acceptable considerations and there is no valid ground for interference,” it said. The SC did not agree with the contention of media houses that all the recommendations had become null and void following government’s refusal to accept some of the proposals, including for raising the retirement age. “The mere fact that in the present case the government has not accepted a few recommendations will not automatically affect the validity of the entire report,” the court ruled. The bench also disagreed with a contention that the wage board could not have recommended time-bound promotions to employees. Actually, the recommendations pertained to giving higher pay scales after completion of certain number of years “which cannot be treated as time-bound promotion,” it explained.
	Finmeccanica ‘hosted’ IAF former chief Fali Major New Delhi, February 7 In a fresh development in the scam-tainted VVIP chopper deal, lawyers of AgustaWestland have reportedly told an Italian court that its parent company Finmeccanica had hosted the then IAF chief FH Major in 2007, a period when the bidders were being shortlisted. Lawyers of the Anglo-Italian firm also told the court in Busto Arsizio that there was no meeting between Italian officials and the other former IAF chief SP Tyagi, who is named in a CBI FIR, said reports in the Italian media. A former AgustaWestland official James Saporito had claimed during the last hearing on February 4 that he had hosted Tyagi during one of his visits to that country. Lawyers said Saporito seemed to be confused over the identity of the person with whom he had had dinner while he was working with the company. Agusta lawyers also shared pictures of Major along with the company officials at a dinner hosted by the firm, said reports. Reacting to the report, Major said he had visited Finmeccanica in 2007 during an official trip to Italy and the company had hosted him, along with his delegation members, for a dinner. He said his visit had been approved by the government and programme chalked out by officials concerned as well as the Indian Embassy in Italy. "It was not for my personal requirement but for the delegation which was visiting the country," he told a TV channel. The trials of the choppers were held after Major took over from Tyagi on April one, 2007. The CAG, while auditing the deal, had observed that the trials of the Agusta copters were conducted abroad and not in India and had questioned Major's justification in this regard. The trials for the AgustaWestland model were conducted on representative Merlin helicopters and not on the actual craft whereas the other contender, Sikorsky, had offered its S-92 for try-outs, the CAG had said. — PTI
	Canada’s visa policy shift to benefit Indian travellers Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 7 Canada has introduced a scheme under which those visiting the country will be considered automatically for a multiple-entry visa. This will help those who qualify to enter and leave Canada for up to six months at a time for up to 10 years without having to reapply each time. In addition, the fee for the temporary resident visa (TRV) programme has been reduced from 150 Canadian dollars (about Rs 8,500) to 100 Canadian dollars (Rs 5,650) for the processing of either a single or multiple-entry visa. The Canadian High Commission here said by harmonising the single and multiple-entry visa fee, the visa application process had become simpler. The move would promote tourism and trade by increasing the number of eligible travellers who are able to make multiple visits to Canada. Canada has, however, increased fee in the temporary resident visa (TRV) programme with effect from yesterday.
	Khurshid cautious on Pak talks offer Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 7 Reacting cautiously to Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s call for a sustained and comprehensive dialogue with India, External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid today said talks between the two neighbours would depend on circumstances which have to be considered thoughtfully. Pointing out that circumstances had led to the suspension of dialogue, he said: “Circumstances must be befitting to be revived.” Though relations had improved “undoubtedly”, there is still a lot of work to be done, the minister added. Sharif had on Wednesday invited India to engage in a “comprehensive, sustained and result-oriented” dialogue to resolve the Kashmir issue. “I invite India for a comprehensive, sustained and result-oriented” dialogue for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, Sharif had said while addressing a joint session of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's (POK) Assembly.
	Maharashtra Cong under pressure to appease NCP Tribune News Service Mumbai, February 7 The Maharashtra unit of the Congress is under pressure from its central leadership to compromise with Sharad Pawar's Nationalist Congress Party over sharing of seats for the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Sources said state unit president Manikrao Thakre and Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan were not keen on yielding 22 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats its regional ally contested in the last elections. But NCP chief Sharad Pawar has been meeting with the party's interlocutors at the central level to rein the leaders of the state unit. The party leaders in the state want to yield just 19 of the 48 Lok Sabha seats to the NCP due to its poor showing in the local body elections in the past two years. But the NCP kicked up a storm with its leaders hinting that they were flirting with the National Democratic Alliance. Sources say the central leadership wanted to complete seat sharing talks as soon as possible. "We are expecting an announcement in the next few days," a party leader in Mumbai said. The NCP has indicated that it would exchange one or two of its seats with its national ally.
	Virbhadra presents please-all deficit budget in poll year Tribune News Service Shimla, February 7 Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh presented a please-all deficit budget of Rs 23,613 crore for 2014-15 in the Assembly today. Being a pre-poll budget, an attempt has been by Virbhadra, who also holds the finance portfolio, to woo 2.50 lakh state government employees and 1.50 lakh pensioners for whom a dearness allowance of 10% (effective from July 2013) has been announced. This will put a burden of Rs 580 crore on the exchequer. Major thrust has been laid on power and industry. The two sectors will receive additional incentives. The budget with no new taxes has some major announcements for women, farm sector, ex-servicemen and the vulnerable section like the elderly. A monthly pension of Rs 1,000 irrespective of income for all elderly above the age of 80 years has been announced, which will benefit 60,000 persons. The daily wages have been enhanced from Rs 150 to Rs 170, social security pensions from Rs 500 to Rs 550 and honorarium of part-time water carriers has been increased from Rs 1,300 to Rs 1,500. Aanganwari workers wages are up from Rs 300 to Rs 450. Enhancement has also been done in honorarium of elected representatives of Panchayati Raj and local bodies, including Shimla Municipal Corporation. Contractual employees would be regularised after six-year service while in case of daily-wagers, this would be done after seven years of service. Stamp duty on transfer of property by women has been reduced from 6 to 4 per cent, while reservation of two seats in all higher educational institutes for a single girl child has been announced.
	Rafale’s rival Eurofighter throws hat in the ring Ajay Banerjee Tribune News Service New Delhi, February 7 A day after Defence Minister AK Antony said the ministry was probing complaints on procedures of calculating the life cycle costs of procuring the 126 Rafale fighter jets from France, Euofighter, the nearest rival of the French plane maker, has shown interest saying it was on standby and ready to re-engage with India. Competitors of the French makers have suddenly shown interest as Antony’s statements yesterday are being read with interest. Theodor Benien, vice president (communications), Eurofighter, said: “We are monitoring the latest developments in India with great interest. The Eurofighter is here at Defexpo to demonstrate that we are on standby and that we are ready to re-engage any time the Indians. We have listened to the statements of the Defence Minister.” The Eurofighter Typhoon and the Rafale were the two planes shortlisted out of six in the first round. Eurofighter, which is part of the Airbus (a consortium of European countries), failed to make the cut in the final selection in January 2012. The deal is to buy 126 planes at a cost of some $11 billion.