New Delhi, June 30
Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said today that consultations and consensus were significant to the process of implementation of proposed academic reforms in the country and would be accorded due priority.

Last week, the minister had announced a slew of radical reforms in the education sector, including a centralised board and scrapping of Class X exams, which generated a lot of heated debate.

Clarifying that all reformatory measures would fructify only after stakeholders had been consulted, Sibal said Class X board exams would be made optional only in CBSE schools from the next session. That is also when grades would replace marking system in classes IX and X.

Sibal has already instructed the CBSE to work towards putting these two measures in place by 2010.

An important point that the minister made was that the state boards would continue to hold their own Class X exam.

“How can we ask state boards to do something like Class X boards all together? That discussion can happen later once the quality of state boards improve,” he said.

He added that: “Right now, only CBSE schools up to Class XII have been told to end Class X board exams from the next session. Schools that are up to Class X will, however, need to retain the board system. So will the schools where Class X children want to enter pre-university instead of going to Class XI,” he maintained.

Sibal put to rest apprehension rose by the BJP and Left with regard to foreign and private players in education.

“A lot of debate will happen before these Bills go to Parliament”, the minister said, adding that a centralised board for India was his long-term target and was not part of his 100-day agenda.

The minister also hinted that the proposed national council for higher education might not be a statutory body.

“We will have to see what shape the body takes”, he said, stressing the need to make school education better through accreditation of schools.

Accreditation for schools would, however, not be compulsory but voluntary.

Mumbai, June 30
Security agencies have tightened security at the new Bandra-Worli Sea Link (BWSL) in view of the terror attacks in Mumbai on November 26

last year. To begin with the jurisdiction of various agencies like the Bandra and Worli police stations, traffic police, the port police, fire brigade stations at Bandra and Worli, marine rescue units and the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC) which owns the structure have been drawn up.

The exercise was taken shortly after the terrorist attack and is part of a drill prepared by Central security agencies to cover installations like bridges, say sources.

One of the most visible security aspects on the BWSL will be closed circuit cameras that will allow investigators to peer into every vehicle that pass through. These cameras are installed at both ends.

In all there are 12 cameras installed all along the 5.6 km structure to monitor movement of vehicles.

According to traffic police officials, mobile patrols will keep an eye on the structure round the clock to ensure that vehicles do not stop

on the BWSL for any reason. “The movement of people on the sea link will be curtailed,” a senior traffic police official said. A viewing gallery planned on the sea link hasn’t been thrown open to the public yet due to security concerns.

MSRDC officials say, some restrictions on the movement of people may be removed after a special security force to monitor movement on the BWSL is fully deployed.

The movement of fishing boats and dinghies within a 100 metre radius of the sea link has been banned. However, local fishing communities have raised objections because of the impact it could have on their livelihoods.

While the movement of port traffic in the vicinity of the BWSL will be controlled by the Versova Coastal Police Station, area from the Bandra end of the BWSL till the 19th pillar will be in the jurisdiction of Bandra police. The rest of the length of the 60 pillars will be within the jurisdiction of Worli police station.

Police chowkies have been installed near both ends of the BWSL in order to tackle emergency situations.

Chennai, June 30
In a startling revelation, a judge of the Madras High Court stated that a central minister had tried to “influence” him to grant anticipatory bail to a medical student and his father, accused by the CBI of forging an examination mark sheet.

Justice R Regupathi told an open court yesterday he would write to the prime minister about the matter if the lawyer appearing in the case failed to submit a written unconditional apology. "A Union minister talked to me. He sought to influence me to release this petitioner on anticipatory bail," the judge told startled advocates and officials in the court. However, he did not name the minister.

Regupathi was hearing the anticipatory bail plea of S Kiruba Shridhar, a third-year MBBS student in a private medical college in Pondicherry, and his father C Krishnamurthy, who is a doctor. Both of them had been charged with using the services of a Pondicherry University official and a middleman to inflate examination marks.

When the hearing began the judge said he was not inclined to grant any relief and pointed out to the petitioner's counsel that he had already rejected the pleas earlier on June 15. To this the lawyer complained the judge was passing orders on the basis of the prosecutors’ submission alone.

Immediately the judge stated most of the orders passed by him since morning had been in favour of the petitioners and disclosed that “pressure” was being exerted on him in this case. "A Union minister talked to me about the matter. You yourself know everything,” he said.

He then referred the case to Chief Justice HL Gokhale with a request that the matter be posted before another bench for appropriate orders.

The CBI had earlier alleged Kiruba Shridhar of Arubadai Veedu Medical College had failed his ophthalmology paper in the first two attempts. On the third and final attempt he got only nine out of a total of 40 marks. With the help of a university section officer and a middleman he had managed to get the original answer scripts replaced and inflated the marks to 16, which was the minimum pass mark.

The agency said it had secured the original exam answer sheet that had been replaced by them. It also claimed to have found evidence to prove that the medical student’s father had bribed the culprits. While the university official and the middleman were arrested in May 2009, the father-son duo is still at large. Investigations are continuing.

New Delhi, June 30
India today made its stand on emission reduction targets absolutely clear, saying that it would not sign any treaty that legally binds it to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.

“It (India’s stand) is non-negotiable. India will never take on legally binding emission reduction targets,” Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh said, maintaining that by doing so “we will be jeopardising our energy consumption target, transportation expansion and most importantly our agricultural and power production which is needed for poverty elimination”

India in fact would “renegotiate” emission reduction target, which developed nations have to take at the Copenhagen meet in December. “We are not negotiating or renegotiating the UN Framework on Climate Change as expected by the industrialised nations. We are renegotiating the greenhouse gas emission reduction target which developed countries have to take and we are in discussion with other nations like Brazil, China and G-77 on the issue,” Ramesh said.

Besides, India is also clear that it will never agree to have its National Action Plan on Climate Change subject to any international monitoring or verification. Only those nationally appropriate mitigation actions can be subject to international monitoring, reporting and verification that are enabled and supported by international finance and technology transfer.

Attacking a proposed US legislation, in the hunt of financially punishing countries which refuse to adhere to emission targets, Ramesh described the bill cleared by the US House of Representatives on Monday as “anemic”, saying that most pernicious part of it was the climate tax. He welcomed US President Barack Obama’s call to the US Senate to reject this part of the bill.

Ramesh said India rejected the use of climate as a non-tariff barrier and would disallow any attempt to introduce climate change talks in WTO negotiations.

While negotiating on climate change issues with the rest of the world, poverty eradication and social and economic developments would be the first and overriding priorities of the country, Ramesh said, underlining the principle of per capita emission formulation for ensuring domestic equity.

Developed nations have committed to reducing their emissions by 5.2 percent from 1990 levels and now pressurising China, India and other developing countries to commit to greenhouse gas emission reductions.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already stated that India’s per capita emissions will never exceed the per capita emission levels of developed countries. India’s stand is that industrialised countries were responsible for most of the greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and hence should be more proactive in reducing emissions.

India is a relatively low carbon economy and data indicates that the country’s emissions growth path has been on sustainable lines. A World Bank report says that among the 70 countries studied, India is ranked 63rd for per capita emissions and 48th for CO2 emissions per unit of the GDP.

Countries are now negotiating an agreement to tackle climate change. The next climate summit is in Copenhagen in December, which will be preceded by several conferences in several parts of the world, including India.

At the most recent preparatory talks for the Copenhagen summit at Bonn earlier this month, India, China and 36 other countries submitted a proposal that industrialised countries should be legally obliged to reduce their emissions by at least 40 per cent from 1990 levels by 2020.

Chennai, June 30
Chaos prevailed in Tamil Nadu Assembly today as members of the principal opposition, the AIADMK, rushed to the well of the House and raised slogans demanding a resolution against the Sri Lankan government, leading to their en masse eviction.

The MDMK and the PMK, which vociferously supported the demand of the AIADMK walked out alleging that the opposition members were not allowed to raise major issues in the Assembly.

Speaker R Avudaippan, who ordered the eviction of opposition members, following a request by Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, also expunged all the remarks made by the opposition members on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue.

Former minister and senior leader D Jayakumar said thousands of Tamil children and women were massacred by the island army in their war against the Tigers and the Tamil Nadu assembly should pass a resolution urging the Centre to appeal in the International Court of Justice.

"The DMK government's refusal to allow the opposition to raise the issue was an act of betrayal of Tamils", he said.

Hyderabad, June 30
Brushing aside the opposition objections, the Andhra Pradesh cabinet today unanimously approved a pilot project for cooperative farming in the state to make agriculture more remunerative and to generate rural wealth. The opposition parties, including the TDP, CPI, CPM and the Praja Rajyam, raised fears that it would lead to big industrialists taking over agriculture, depriving farmers of their source of livelihood.

However, the Congress government claimed that it was the first such novel experiment in the country aimed at increasing the productivity manifold through mechanization and precision farming and taking up allied activities in a big way.

As per the plan, the farmers in selected villages will be encouraged to form Integrated Agricultural Cooperative Societies, which will take up community farming and allied activities on a large scale.

Through cooperative farming, the government would help farmers reap good results in the dairy, poultry, fisheries, sheep rearing and food processing sectors. The experiment would help farmers, owning small land holdings, come together and develop the land using modern technology and thereby dramatically increase wealth.

New Delhi, June 30
A meeting of leaders of all political parties will be convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Meira Kumar tomorrow ahead of the commencement of the Budget session of Parliament.

This is the first such meeting convened by Kumar and the exercise is aimed at ensuring the smooth conduct of the over month-long session, which will conclude on August 7. Parliamentary Affairs Minister P K Bansal has also convened a meeting of chief whips of all political parties tomorrow for the purpose. The Economic Survey would be presented in the Lok Sabha on July 2, and Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee would present the Rail Budget for 2009/10 on Friday. — PTI