New Delhi, January 9
The Congress has decided to play the wait-and-watch game in Uttar Pradesh even as the political scene in the poll-bound state took an interesting turn today after ministers belonging to the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) resigned from the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.

The Congress will ideally like the upcoming Assembly elections to be conducted under the President’s Rule as it will give the Centre greater control over the administrative machinery. However, the party does not want to make any overt move in this direction as it may end up generating sympathy for the UP Chief Minister. The party will rather want that the state government falls of its own.

It is banking on the present situation snowballing into a major crisis in the coming days, particularly if Ajit Singh takes the next step and withdraws support as it can set the stage for further desertions.

The Congress will also come under pressure to follow the suit but it is hoping it will not be called upon to take this decision and that it will be bailed out by the Supreme Court as the disqualification case of 37 BSP legislators, who defected to the Samajwadi Party, is at a critical stage and a final order is expected shortly.

“If the apex court disqualifies these MLAs, the Mulayam Singh Yadav government will go on its own...we will not have to do anything,” explained a senior UP Congress leader.

Since UP is a crucial state, AICC general secretary Ashok Gehlot and UPPCC president Salman Khursheed briefed Sonia Gandhi on the emerging scenario this evening.

Congress president’s political secretary Ahmed Patel has been in touch with Ajit Singh for several months, but his efforts to lure him away from the SP-led coalition have proved futile so far. There is still no clarity whether Ajit Singh will eventually have an alliance with the Congress as he has a tendency to change partners frequently. In fact, there is a strong view in the Congress that it should not do business with the RLD as it does not stand to gain anything from such a partnership.

Gehlot, however, chose to keep all options open, stating that the Congress is willing to partner with all small parties in the state. Describing the resignation of RLD ministers as a good sign, he said, “We felt that Mulayam Singh Yadav had lost all moral authority to continue in the office after the Nithari killings.

Noida, January 9
After a lull of more than a week, skeletal remains of Nithari serial killing victims continue to tumble out with another bone of a child found in the main nullah, close to the Sector 31 D-5 “killer house” today.

The leg bone of a child was found floating in the nullah, where the drain passing from the house of the accused emptied itself. The police took the bone into its possession.

Following the discovery, villagers gathered in large numbers at the site and rekindling emotive passions expressed regret at the “half-hearted” approach of the investigations.

However, no move was afoot by the police to comb or search the nullah which was hardly 40 m from the killer house, despite today’s finding. Villagers still suspect that skeletal remains were there and could still be found.

Meanwhile, the district administration today suspended an Inspector of the Local Intelligence Unit (LIU) Shivraj Singh Yadav for his failure to detect and report the matter.

Gandhinagar: The narco analysis examination of Nithari serial killings prime accused Moninder Singh Pandher was completed here today.

The analysis which started at 3 pm took over six hours to complete and a civil surgeon was present throughout the proceedings to make sure that Pandher’s condition remained stable. — UNI

Kolkata, January 9
Nandigram was yet to return to normalcy since the Saturday’s violence in which about 12 persons belonging to both Trinamool Congress and CPM were killed. However, both Congress and the TMC now feared that fresh violence would occur till the state government was not abandoning its land acquisition move in the area for Indonesia’s Salim group.

CPM workers and supporters, who were on the defensive after the violence, were again in the forefront today, taking over the control of entire Nandigram village excepting four small mouzas, stated to be the stronghold of the TMC. The farmers along with their families and members of the Krishi Bacchao Committee staying in camps in these mouzas had been on the vigil round-the-clock against any outside attacks.

Union Information Minister Priya Dasmunsi, who had to reach Nandigram on a motor cycle since the roads were cut off, assured the farmers that he would seek the Prime Minister’s intervention in the issue.

BJP President Rajnath Singh, who made a brief halt in the city on way to Guwahati today, also demanded that the state government should abandon acquiring lands.

The CPI leadership too blamed the Chief Minister for hurriedly taking the decision of land acquisition in the Nandigram areas without taking any lesson from the Singur episode. CPI state secretary Monju Kumar Mojumdar alleged that instead of discussing Nandigram in the Left front meeting, the Chief Minister had taken the unilateral decision of acquiring lands.

Patna, January 9
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar today charged the Centre with failing to come out with a concrete policy to resolve the decades old ULFA problem in Assam.
Apparently aggrieved over the silence of the Centre on the attacks of Bihari people, Mr Kumar observed that the nation desired a statement from the Union Home Minister about the selective killing of Biharis in Assam.

But even after the massacre by ULFA since Friday claiming 61 lives of people of Bihar origin, the Chief Minister refused to treat the problem as a mere conflict between Assamese and Bihari people.

He said, “The Assamese people have nothing against the Biharis. It is the anti-national forces which are targeting Hindi-speaking people to create social tension for a possible backlash to put pressure on Delhi”.

The peace talks between the Centre and ULFA broke down in September last year following a month-long informal ceasefire after ULFA rejected the Centre’s proposal of a written promise to shun violence.

The five-member team sent by the Bihar Government to Assam on Saturday to make stock of the situation returned yesterday and submitted its report to the Chief Minister.

The team was headed by senior BJP leader and state Transport Minister Nand Kishore Yadav.

Addressing the media here today, Mr Kumar wondered the failure on part of the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil to come out with a concrete proposal.

In its report sent to the Centre, the Bihar Government referred to the interactions the team had with the Assam ministers and officials who complained of lack of adequate central forces at their disposal to deal with the situation.

Mr Kumar also took strong exception to the apparent inaction on part of both Central and Assam governments even after the report published in ULFA’s mouthpiece Freedom in December last where it had indicated to target Hindi speaking non-Assamese people as the outfit considered them as a symbol of dominance of the cow belt in Delhi.

In its report, the ULFA also had described the migration from Bihar and other parts of the country as a greater threat to the socio-political fabric of Assam than migration from outside the country, including Bangladesh.

The team also came to know that the terror outfit had even imposed taxes on non-Assamese people the day after the talks broke down last year.

Replying to a question whether such attacks on Bihari people would lead to mass exodus from Assam, Mr Kumar said it was the democratic right of any citizen to stay and work in any part of the country. “We are ready to welcome those Bihari people who are willing to return. But this is not the solution,” he said.

The leader of the team, Mr Nand Kishore Yadav, however, praised the local Assamese people for lending a helping hand to the victims. “The state government and the Centre were late to react,” he alleged.

Meanwhile, the Union Home ministry informed the Bihar Government that alarmed by the wave of ULFA terror strikes in Assam, the Centre has decided to send over 2,000 extra security personnel to the state.

Patna, January 9
Is there any connection between a ghost and the pruning of a mango tree at the Bihar Chief Minister's official residence here under which Railway Minister Lalu Prasad once luxuriated on balmy summer evenings? Prasad would have us believe so, as at the time of vacating the 1, Anne Marg residence, he had said he tied a ghost to the tree to keep troubling new incumbent Nitish Kumar.

"Now that they have cut the branches of the tree, the ghost will cut short Nitish Kumar's rule," Prasad told reporters in an informal chat at 10, Circular Road, the new residence of his wife, Leader of the Opposition Rabri Devi.

When it was pointed out that Nitish Kumar claimed not to believe in superstition, Prasad quipped, "Sab bekaar baat hai (it is all nonsense). Why else has the administrator of the state Religious Trust Board appointed by the Chief Minister organised so many recitals of Hanuman Chalisa at the Mahavir temple at his behest every day?"

When asked to comment on the matter at a press conference, Nitish was first reluctant to speak but later insisted that the branches were cut at the suggestion of the Director-General of the Indian Council of Agricultural Research, who wanted to graft another kind of mango to create a new variety of the fruit. "Woh ab khud bhootpoorva ho gaye hain is liye bhoot ki baat karte hain (Prasad has become a thing of the past and so loves talking about ghosts)," Nitish shot back. — PTI

Chennai, December 9
After the failure of the GSLV launch in July last year, scientists at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) have begun their countdown for the launch of Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV)-C7 tomorrow. The PSLV will put into orbit a remote sensing satellite with mapping applications and a space capsule programmed to return to earth.

According to ISRO sources, the launch will be from Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh at 9.30 am tomorrow.

PSLV-C7 will carry four payloads - the 680 KG Cartosat-2, a remote sensing cartographical satellite, the 550 kg Space Capsule Recovery Experiment (SRE-1), Lapan-Tubsat (56kg) from Indonesia and a nano-satellite weighing just six kg from Argentina called Peheunsat-1. The four payloads will be launched into a 635-km polar synchronous orbit shortly after lift-off from the spaceport at Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh.

The 44.4 metre tall, 295-tonne PSLV has been successful in all its six previous operational missions.

The recovery experiment payload has been named as SRE-1 and will provide important technology inputs.

New Delhi, January 9
There appears to be some respite in store for people in the North, who have been battling the freezing cold conditions in the region for the past four days now. The prevailing ground frost conditions at some places in Punjab and Haryana are also likely to subside over the next 48 hours.

Weathermen have forecast a gradual increase in temperatures in Punjab, Haryana and Delhi during the next 48 hours. Cold wave conditions are likely to abate as night temperature is likely to increase by two to three degree Celsius.

According to Met Director S.C. Bhan, who is the in charge of the weather forecast for the northwest region, situation will also improve in hilly regions.

“In comparison to Monday’s minimum of 2.6 degree Celcius, today the mercury climbed to 3.2 degrees Celcius in the Capital. Tomorrow morning we expect the temperature to touch the five-degree mark. Likewise, the situation will also improve in other parts of northwest. Current meteorological analysis suggest that on Wednesday and Thursday, temperatures are likley to hover around normal and the tendency will continue for the next two days as well,” he said.

According to the National Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting, the western disturbance over north Pakistan and adjoining Jammu and Kashmir may cause isolated to scattered light rainfall over Jammu and Kashmir and Himachal Pradesh during the next 48 hours.

With this, winds over the northwest are likely to be southwesterly, thereby causing a rise in night temperature by two to three degree. 

Devanhalli (Bangalore), January 9
The “Mamata didi” move against land acquisition may have its effect on the Karnataka Government’s move to industrialise the area around the upcoming international airport here with farmers driving out Revenue Department officials and police personnel who had come to conduct a joint survey of the notified land yesterday.

A visit to Bandikodigehalli and neighbouring villages where the government has notified land for acquisition today revealed that there is a strong undercurrent of resentment against the government, which farmers feel is “sacrificing” their interests at the hands of industrial houses for ulterior motives.

This, coupled with protests by farmers of Kanchugranahalli and Bairamangala villages of Bidadi, who are dead set against the acquisition of land for the proposed Bidadi Integrated Township, could well set off a statewide momentum against land acquisition.

Farmers at Bandikodigehalli village as well as members of the Raithara Horata Samithi claimed that the government was running a virtual land scam in league with industrial houses. They said even as land prices had gone up to Rs 50 to Rs 60 lakh an acre in their villages, the government was aiming to buy them out at around Rs 10 to Rs 12 lakh an acre.

Mr D.S. Gowda of the Samithi said the government had not even mentioned the purpose of the acquisition in its preliminary notification order, which had been issued to farmers of the villages.

Farmers, besides wanting a fair package for the land acquired, say the government can easily allow them to keep 50 per cent of their land by evolving a suitable package for the entire area. They also want the government to fix the compensation package according to prevailing market rates in the neighbouring area and not the rates fixed by the Revenue Department.

The farmers say the government has in fact issued notifications to acquire land in their villages, including B. K. Palya, Singahalli and Gollahalli, without any specific project in mind to thwart the farmers from selling their land in the open market. Farmers in the villages openly accused their local legislator as well as senior politicians of being part of a land mafia, which aims to take over their land at throwaway prices.

The entire area in and around Devanhalli has seen a steep rise in land prices in the last few years. Land adjacent to the airport is now selling for around Rs 7 crore an acre while that a little far away is selling for around Rs 1 to 2 crore an acre.

Ironically, while farmers maintain that they would like to continue tilling their land, this is not the phenomenon seen in villages adjacent to the upcoming airport. Luxury cars can be seen parked in the courtyards of villages. Some of the villagers who have made it good by selling their land to private players have themselves become small property dealers and hang out outside the registry office in Devanhalli.

One such villager K.N. Shiva, who has brought plots on the outskirts of the city by selling his land near the airport, told TNS that farmers were upset at the forced acquisition and that the government should tell companies wanting to set up shop in the state to buy the land they needed themselves.

Meanwhile, Industry Minister Katta Subramanya Naidu, while speaking on the subject in Bangalore today, said the government was going in for a joint survey in five villages near Devanhalli to ascertain genuine ownership. He said this was part of the land acquisition procedure and that villagers would have the right to negotiate prices with the Deputy Commissioner.

He said the government wanted to set up a Hardware Technology Park on land of these villages and that the decision had been taken keeping in mind its proximity to the upcoming international airport.

New Delhi, January 9
India will soon do away with the Treaty of Perpetual Peace and Friendship of August 8, 1949 with Bhutan - a bilateral document which is widely regarded as anachronistic.

Within Bhutan there has been a controlled anger against the Treaty, which is viewed by the Bhutanese as discriminatory and humiliating as many of its clauses portray Bhutan as a vassal state or a client state of “big brother”, India.

The Treaty, which is out of sync with today’s political realities, will be replaced by a more equal sounding India-Bhutan Friendship Treaty. The two neighbours have been holding discussions for bringing the Treaty in conformity with the expanded nature of their bilateral relationship.

This review was conducted most recently during the visit of Bhutan King Jigme Singye Wangchuck to India in July 2006, visit by Foreign Secretary Shivshankar Menon to Bhutan in October 2006, and during the visit of External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee to Bhutan in December 2006. Based on these discussions, the two countries have reached agreement on the text of an updated India-Bhutan Friendship Treaty. The Treaty will enable the further intensification of relations in areas such as hydropower cooperation, trade and commerce, and human resource development.

The finalisation of the India-Bhutan Friendship Treaty coincides with Bhutan’s transition to a Constitutional democracy and reflects the desire of both governments to put in place the framework for the future growth of this relationship as the King transfers the responsibilities of the Monarch to his son, Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the Fifth Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, the government has kept all the major political parties informed about the background to the revision of the Treaty and its benefits to both India and Bhutan. No specific date has been set for signing the new treaty. However, it is expected to be formally signed during the visit to India by Jigme Khesar Namgyel Wangchuck, the Fifth Druk Gyalpo of Bhutan. The following two clauses are seen to be anachronistic and discriminatory and will be changed: Article 2: The Government of India undertakes to exercise no interference in the internal administration of Bhutan. On its part the Government of Bhutan agrees to be guided by the advice of the Government of India in regard to its external relations.

Article 6: The Government of India agrees that the Government of Bhutan shall be free to import with the assistance and approval of the Government of India, from or through India into Bhutan, whatever arms, ammunitions, machines, warlike material or stores may be required or desired for the strength and welfare of Bhutan, and that this arrangement shall hold good for all time as long the Government of India is satisfied that the intentions of the Government of Bhutan are friendly and that there is no danger to India from such importations. The Government of Bhutan, on the other hand, agrees that there shall be no export of such arms, ammunition, etc. across the frontiers of Bhutan either by the Government of Bhutan or by private individuals.

The mention of the word “guidance” in Article 2 will be dropped as it gives the impression of Bhutan being a vassal state to India. This article is taken verbatim from the Treaty of Punakha of 1910, signed between the British India government and a Bhutan that had been defeated in war. No such restriction was placed on Nepal in its 1950 Treaty with India.

In stark contrast to this is the 1998 agreement of Peace and Tranquility between China and Bhutan, in which the Chinese unequivocally acknowledge Bhutan’s sovereign and independent status.

New Delhi, January 9
The heat of Punjab politics appears to be beating even the chill of Delhi. As the poll scene back home in Punjab is hotting up for the February 13 Assembly elections, so is the heart of Punjab politics in the Capital, Punjab Bhavan.

The state government-owned building on the Copernicus Marg has been brimming with activity for the past two days and has now literally turned into hotbed of political strategies and confabulations of two major political parties having their headquarters here, the Congress and the BJP.

As per Punjab Bhavan officials, all 100-odd rooms in the two blocks of the building are occupied, and some even “over occupied ”. “Due to lack of accommodation, some guests are also being forced to share rooms,” they say.

So even as the sun continues to play hide and seek, the lawns of Punjab Bhavan become resplendent with different-coloured turbans, some supporters and others curious hangers-by. The situation will continue till the final lists of candidates are announced, after which the scene will shift to the actual battleground.

But till the time that happens, scores of hopeful politicians with their supporters from Punjab continue to camp in the building, indulging in hectic parleys and making rounds of the party headquarters and houses of political heavyweights of their respective parties. All this in background of the fact that today the Punjab State Election Committee held its first meeting here.

At least 25 sitting MLAs are lodged in the building at the Copernicus Marg, while others are staying with relatives, friends or in their own houses. Chief Minister Amarinder Singh generally stays put in Kapurthala House or the official residence of his MP wife Preneet Kaur at Lodhi Estate. But several party heavyweights from Punjab, including Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee president S.S. Dullo, Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, Education Minister Harnam Dass Johar, Food and Civil Supplies Minister Avtar Henry, are staying at Punjab Bhavan.

BRIEFLY

A unique welcome
BHUJ: The local BJP honoured its state president Purushottam Rupala in a novel fashion, by weighing him against khadi. About 1,000 m of khadi was required to offset Mr Rupala’s weight of 94 kg, chief of Kutch party unit Tarachand Chheda said at a function held here on Monday. — UNI

Jailed for bid to kill mother
MUZAFFARNAGAR: A man was sentenced to seven years imprisonment for attempting to kill his mother over a property dispute by a local court here on Tuesday. Sudhir Kumar (28), a resident of Goela village, was found guilty of attempt to murder over property dispute and was also slapped a fine of Rs 7,000. — PTI

Leopard injures 2 farmers
VADODARA: Two farmers were injured, one of them seriously, when a leopard attacked them at Sinor village, 70 km from here. The full-grown wild cat first attacked Pravin Vaghri (28) while he was working in his farm. The animal then severely mauled another farmer Bhikhabhi Vaghri (40) of the same village. — UNI

Fake notes in PNB branches
JODHPUR: Counterfeit notes worth Rs 12,400 were detected in several branches of Punjab National Bank in Jodhpur division. According to the police, PNB has lodged a complaint in Pratapnagar police station, stating that unidentified people have deposited these fake notes in bank branches over the past three months. — UNI

Slippers hurled at judge
Puducherry: An undertrial in the Puducherry central prison caused a flutter in a judicial magistrate’s court here on Monday, when he hurled his slippers at the magistrate and used abusive language to protest the continued extension of his remand. The slippers did not hit the magistrate Vythinathan and fell near his seat. He immediately retired to his chamber. — PTI