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Pawar blames slow wheat arrival on farmers
Quota Row
50 pc turnout in 3rd phase |
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Nandigram hearing on April 26
Hike MSP, Hooda to Centre
Fresh water from sea
Nitish grants paternity leave to promote two-child norm
Abhi-Ash wedding fiesta kicks off
FCI executive director abducted
MEA told to ease info procedure
Azad meets PM ahead of roundtable
Human Trafficking Case
Prof’s family to attend funeral
CM Raje as goddess
Speech disrupted
Efforts to rescue trapped boy
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Pawar blames slow wheat arrival on farmers
New Delhi, April 18 Talking to newspersons on the sidelines of the NDC meeting, he said the delay was due to the farmers' strategy to maximise profits by separating straw from wheat, which was causing the delay. Wheat procurement as on yesterday stood at 35.45 lakh tonnes as against 56.46 lakh tonnes till the same date last year. The arrivals stood at 46.81 lakh tonnes as on April 17 compared to 67.9 lakh tonnes as on the same date last year. Low purchases by the FCI had forced India to order an expensive import of 5.5 million tonnes of wheat in 2006. The arrival of the wheat in the market has been slightly late as growers are using hand-operated harvesting machine to maximise extraction of straw from wheat crop instead of the mechanised system, Pawar said. The minister said the new strategy of the farmers was to maximise their returns as the prices of straw, used as cattle feed, had gone up considerably in the market. The process would have to be undertaken through use of hand-operated machines as it would not damage the straw content, he said. Optimistic that the procurement would pick up, he said there were indications that the high MSP of Rs 850 per quintal had forced private traders to think twice before offering a higher price, especially in Punjab and Haryana. However, this did not apply to the purchase of the more expensive sarbati wheat from Madhya Pradesh where private players were active, he said. Pawar reiterated that the wheat production would cross 73 million tonnes this year as against 69.5 million tonnes last year. Meanwhile, FCI CMD Alok Sinha, who recently visited Punjab and Haryana, expressed confidence on achieving the wheat procurement target of 151 lakh tonnes. He said half of the crop was yet to be harvested due to slow hand-operated process of extracting straw. Labour shortage was also one of the factors for slow harvesting, he added.
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Quota Row S.S. Negi Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, April 18 Emphasising that the projection of the Mandal Commission was the most reliable exercise if the growth of the population was taken into consideration, the government said the total population of the OBCs among Hindus was 43.70 per cent and among non-Hindu religious groups it was put at 8.40 per cent as estimated by the panel, which had arrived at a figure of little over 52 per cent of their total population. The population of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) was projected at 15.05 per cent and the Scheduled Tribes (STs) 7.51 per cent, while the Muslims other than STs were put at 11.19 per cent, Christians other than STs 2.16 per cent, Sikhs other than SCs and STs 1.67 per cent, Buddhists other than STs 0.67 per cent and Jains 0.47 per cent. The total population of the non-Hindu religious groups was thus put at 16.16 per cent. Among the forward caste Hindus who have the main objection to the OBC reservation, the government said the commission had put the population of Brahmins at 5.52 per cent, Rajputs 3.90 per cent, Marathas 2.21 per cent, Jats 1 per cent, Vaishyas-Bania 1.88 per cent and Kayastha 1.07 per cent. Thus the total population of the upper caste Hindus was put at 17.78 per cent. The government said since this projection had been accepted by the court in the Indira Swahney (Mandal Commission) case, the Kaka Kalelkar Commission set by the Centre in 1953 and other commissions set up by some states by and large had made similar projections based on the 1931 census. Since the Mandal figures and the OBC list prepared by the Centre were accepted for the purpose of application of the provision of Article 16 (reservation in government jobs), it would similarly apply for the purpose of Article 15 (reservation in educational institutions) of the Constitution, it said. The court in its stay order had said the reservation under the two Articles could not be treated on the same footing. But the government in its fresh application for vacating the stay said the data that was available with it was fully adequate to justify the course of action proposed by it in the 2006 Act, extending the OBC reservation to central education institutions also. “If there were any issues with regard to over-inclusion or under-inclusion in the central lists of the socially and educationally backward/OBC, the existing permanent mechanism under the National Commission on Backward Classes Act, 2003, were adequate to deal with such situation,” the government said, adding that in its opinion this was a sufficient material for satisfying the court.
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50 pc turnout in 3rd phase
Lucknow, April 18 In Qaimganj, Congress candidate Louise Khursheed has demanded the countermanding of elections following her and husband Salman Khurshid’s names missing from the electoral rolls. Briefing the media, chief electoral officer A.K. Bishnoi admitted that besides this incident, 20 sporadic cases of irregularity in the voters’ list were also reported from various districts during polling which otherwise was said to be peaceful. Fifty-seven constituencies across 10 districts went to the polls today. Bijnore reported the highest polling percentage at 52 per cent and Farukhabad at 44.12 per cent was the lowest. Percentages of J.P. Nagar were not available till late evening. Rampur city at 38 per cent registered a relatively low polling percent. Incidentally, senior SP leader Mohd Azam Khan is contesting from here. All the four seats in the district till now were with the SP. Another important constituency Gunnaur from where Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav is seeking reelection polled 46 per cent. In another incident seemingly unrelated to the polls, 45-year-old ITBP constable Madan Mohan from Tehri Garhwal was found dead inside the polling station at 5 am today. He had received gunshot injuries fired from his service revolver. He was attached to the 13 battalion of the ITBP. According to principal secretary Home K. Chandramauli, prima facie it appeared to be a case of suicide. However, the final verdict would be available only after investigations are complete.
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Nandigram hearing on April 26
Kolkata, April 18 The decision was taken today by a division bench comprising Justice Pikani Rajan Ghose and Justice Biswanath Sammadar, which contended that since the Chief Justice himself had ordered the CBI probe, it would be right that case be heard in his presence. The CBI report was already submitted to the Chief Justice's division bench, but the content of the report was not divulged either by the high court or the CBI. Advocate Sabyasachi Roychowdhury today filed a new petition to the Pinaki Ranjan Ghose's division bench, demanding that the Army be deployed at Nandigram for restoring peace and normalcy there. He alleged that the state government had failed in restoring the rule of law in Nandigram where a parallel administration had been set up by village people. The division bench decided that the new petition would also be taken up by the Chief Justice's division bench on April 26 along with the CBI probe report. The bench today directed advocate-general Balai Roy and several other parties involved in the case to file their respective affidavits and replies within 24 hours to the court so that necessary papers could be presented at the time of hearing on April 26. Roy wanted some more time for preparing the affidavits which was disgranted.
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Badal warns Centre against wrong farm policies
New Delhi, April 18 "We are fast heading towards a situation where the unremunerative nature of agriculture is driving farmers away from farming. If this trends continues, India may have to rely almost entirely on import of foodgrains, seriously endangering the overall development process, said Badal while participating in the 2nd meeting of NDC Sub-Committee on agriculture and related issues here. He said policies of the Centre for the fixation of the prices of agricultural inputs such as diesel, fertilisers, pesticides coupled with the non-remunerative MSP were resulting in widespread distress among the farmers. The farm indebtedness was constantly mounting and farmers were committing suicide day in and day out. He cited a study based on survey conducted by PAU, Ludhiana, that 82 per cent of farmers were ridden under the burden of debt. To support his claim, the Chief Minister said the fixing of prices of diesel, fertilisers and even MSP was within the domain of the Centre without taking states into confidence which was not at all desirable. He also urged agriculture minister Sharad Pawar to involve the Chief Ministers of the agrarian states while formulating the policies so that these could be more farmer-friendly and viable. Later, the Chief Minister called on minister of water resources Saif-ud-Din Soz and sought an early clearance of various pending irrigation projects with the government. Briefing
Soz, Badal urged him to approve the project of rehabilitation of 1st Patiala feeder and Kotla branch with an estimated cost of Rs 123.80 crore that had already been approved by the Central Water Commission (CWC) for funding by the Centre. Badal also impressed upon Soz to also take up the project of Sirhind canal under extension, renovation, modernization
(ERM) programme as it was the oldest canal over 125 years since the time of British. The canal had outlived its period, thereby reducing its water intake capacity considerably. Showing concern over the fast depletion of water table, Badal also asked the ministry to rebuild all water courses in the state.
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Hike
MSP, Hooda to Centre New Delhi, April 18 Addressing the National Development Council sub-committee on Agriculture and Related Issues here today, he said the National Commission for Farmers had clearly brought out in its final report that even the cost of cultivation were not covered by MSP in case of paddy, wheat, bajra and gram in Haryana. He said the commission had recommended that the MSP should at least be 50 per cent more than the weighted coverage cost of production. Hooda urged the Centre to go a step forward and introduce a suitable legislation that will establish mandatory support prices at full economic cost of production plus a reasonable profit, so that every farmer manages to get a fair return on his production. The chief minister said in states like Punjab and Haryana, the soils had developed crop fatigue and achieving any further increase in productivity with the present level of technology could only be marginal. In several underdeveloped regions of the country, vast stretches of cultivable lands were lying under exploited and there is a need to make concerted efforts to increase productivity in other States so as to make per unit production comparable to that of Punjab and Haryana for wheat and paddy crops. He said the Working Group on Irrigation headed by Maharashtra Chief Minister, Vilas Rao Deshmukh had rightly pointed out that for Technical Appraisal Committee (TAC) clearance of irrigation projects should be simplified. He suggested that states should be allowed to take up such irrigation projects without any clearance from the Central Ministries or Departments. He said Haryana, despite being a water scarce state, had been producing more and more foodgrains in order to help the nation in terms of food security by an efficient use and management of available water resources. The Central Government must put in place incentive based schemes to help the state in this regard. Hooda stressed the need for addressing the concerns of the Animal Husbandry and Fisheries sector. He suggested that the Centre should not impose Income Tax on aquaculture. Similarly, small sized poultry farms having up to 20,000 birds should be treated as agriculture activity for tariff and tax purposes. The Chief Minister said in our country, agriculture continues to be the core sector providing a livelihood to a significant size of the population, particularly in rural areas. He said that agricultural prices have a positive impact on production. Unfortunately, the institutional and policy support for the farmer is weak, undependable and inefficient. Mr Hooda said the question of ushering in the Second Green Revolution is still wide open and requires immediate attention. The Government of India would do well to provide requisite resources to our agriculture scientists. The Chief Minister said the level of subsidy to small and marginal farmers and women farmers should be increased to 7 per cent in all the Central schemes and especially for the scheme pertaining to improved farm implements.
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Fresh water from sea
New Delhi, April 18 Minister of Earth Sciences, Kapil Sibal, today said the plant was a forerunner to similar plants of higher capacity that could be set up in public private partnership (PPP) along the vast Indian coastline using the same low-cost technology to solve the country’s water woes in the future. The single point mooring of 1000 m at the barge was the first of its kind in the world, the minister said. Population growth along with limited fresh water sources has made good quality water a precious commodity. Considering the fact that the Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change’s latest assessment report predicted the gross per capita water availability to drop by almost 38 per cent by 2050, declining from 1820 cubic meter at present to 1,000 cubic meter, this low cost method can become an answer to challenges posed by imminent climate change and global warming. “Following some more improvisations, we expect to be ready with the entire technology early next year and bring in private players to set up desalination plants of higher capacity along the coast for the use of common people, ” he added. The Chennai-based National Institute of Ocean Technology (NIOT) has mounted the project at the Sagar Shakti barge, 40 km off the Chennai shore, using the in-house technology which is much cheaper to run than the conventional reverse osmosis technology used elsewhere in the world. Other countries to have developed technologies to make salty sea water drinkable, include Israel, US and Dubai. They, however, use a different technology-reverse osmosis, which is much more expensive option. The indigenous technology will cost three paise per liter in the long run and its power consumption is 3.5 kw/hour. Compared to reverse osmosis which uses eight to 10 kw/ hour, it is a much cheaper option. Under the process warm surface seawater is flash evaporated at low pressure and vapour is condensed with cold deep seawater. The water is transported to Chennai using water bags of special material that can hold and carry 2 lakh liters of fresh water. Since fresh water is lighter than the seawater, it floats and a small fishuing boat can tow the water bag to the shore. Sibal said, NIOT managed to produce purest of pure water using the technology. The freshwater produced by NIOT has a TDS of less than 10 ppm. The accepted standard is 500 ppm whereas the BIS permits a ppm of 2000.In India, so far NIOT has indigenously designed, developed and demonstrated the desalination technology that can produce about one-lakh litre of fresh water from sea water per day. A one-lakh litre per day capacity LTTD plant was commissioned in May 2005 at Kavaratti, one of the Lakshadweep islands.
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Nitish grants paternity leave to promote two-child norm
Patna, April 18 However, the paternity leave is not applicable to all male employees. Instead, it will be given to those male employees who follow the two-child policy. "Those with more than two children will not be given leave," an official said. Going by the new decision male employees henceforth will get 15 days paternity leave and maternity leave too has been increased from 90 to 135 days. Earlier, a committee constituted to suggest the pay structure and service conditions of employees had recommended the introduction of paternity leave and increasing the maternity leave. Sources explained that the purpose of two-child rider for paternity leave was only to check the growing population in the state detrimental to economic growth.
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Abhi-Ash wedding fiesta kicks off
Mumbai, April 18 Juhu, where the Bachchans have two spacious bungalows, is under a police cordon with more than 500 police personnel in attendance to keep out gate-crashers. Traffic in the area has been diverted so that the space outside Prateeksha and Jalsa, the two bungalows owned by the Bachchans, are not clogged with vehicles. Friends of Abhishek Bachchan set the mood for the three-day festivities from Tuesday itself when they held a bachelors' party for him. According to the grapevine a number of prominent Bollywood personalities were in attendance. The festivities, which get kicked off from tonight will include an elaborately choreographed sangeet. Celebrity watchers say, members of the Bachchan household, including Jaya Bachchan participated in dance rehearsals before the big day. The guest list is small with only a hundred guests invited. So far, the Nehru-Gandhi family once close to the Bachchans before they fell out, are missing. Who will be present, include Subroto Roy, who owns the Sahara group of companies, Amar Singh, Anil and Tina Ambani. Bollywood will be represented by Yash Chopra and Karan Johar. Shah Rukh Khan, who has been locked in a war of words with the Bachchan is unlikely to be present. Other absentees will be Salman Khan and Vivek Oberoi who were romantically linked with Aishwarya Rai in the past. Other prominent politicos who will be attending, include Bal Thackeray and UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav.
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FCI executive director abducted
Guwahati, April 18 Inspector general of police Khagen Sharma told The Tribune that the senior FCI official was allegedly abducted along with his official vehicle and the driver, while he was returning home from the FCI regional headquarter located along the arterial Guwahati-Shillong Road. The police has registered a case of abduction and investigation was on. He, however, said involvement of any militant group was yet to be ascertained by the police and everything would be clear after 24 hours. No militant group or any other group has claimed the responsibility for the abduction and no ransom demand has been slapped on the family of the official. The police informed that the official was staying alone in the city, while his family was in New Delhi.
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US navy seeks berths at Indian ports
New Delhi, April 18 Addressing the media here, Admiral Michael G. Mullen, US Chief of Naval Operations said, "China is shifting its focus from the ground to the navy and the air force. Clearly, we would like to better understand this. Where China is headed strategically is not clear (because) getting into a conflict situation is bad for all of us. At this point of time, there is some potential for conflict," Admiral Mullen added. Admiral Mullen said the issue of berthing and access at Indian ports had figured in his discussions with the Indian Navy chief, Admiral Sureesh Mehta. The US had first made the proposal some three years ago and New Delhi is yet to officially respond to this. At present, US navy vessels are granted berthing and access facilities as the need arises.
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MEA told to ease info procedure
New Delhi, April 18 The directions have come on the appeal of a Supreme Court lawyer who had to run from pillar to post for almost three months just to file his application and deposit the prescribed fee. Ravinder Kumar had filed an application with the public information officer, MEA, on August 22 last year for inspecting certain files pertaining to extradition proceedings against Kewal Garg. When Kumar did not get any reply within the stipulated period, he filed an appeal with the first appellate authority on October 12. He approached the CIC with a second appeal on November 9.
— TNS
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Azad meets PM ahead of roundtable
New Delhi, April 18 The meeting was in preparation for the roundtable conference which has been convened to discuss the recommendations of four of the five working groups constituted by the Prime Minister at the second conclave in Srinagar in May last year. Clearly, Azad believes that the recommendations of these groups need to be deliberated at the conference which will provide an impetus for settling the protracted issues pertaining to the sensitive border state. The groups have drawn up their recommendations on good governance, strengthening of Centre-state relations, improving ties across the LoC and confidence-building measures to improve the condition of the people affected by the militancy and economic development of the state. The working group on stregthening the Centre-state relations is yet to submit its report.
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Human Trafficking Case New Delhi, April 18 The diplomatic passport is a privilege that is extended in India to thousands of persons and their spouses. The long list includes all 795 members of Parliament and their spouses, all Supreme Court and High Courts judges and their spouses, all officials of the Government of India of and above the rank of joint secretary and their spouses, and ministry of external affairs (MEA) officials and their spouses. In the case of the MEA, even a lower rank officer and his spouse, say an under secretary or a deputy secretary or an official even below the rank of under secretary, can be given a diplomatic passport. This privilege is unique to MEA alone. The Katara case has also focused on a hard but little known fact that diplomatic immunity to an Indian diplomatic passport holder is available only abroad, not within the country. The Government of India has laid down stringent rules and procedures for diplomatic passport holders. The case of Katara, who has since been suspended by the BJP, would have to be adjudged against the backdrop of these rules and procedures. Here is a sneak peek into the government rules and procedures for all diplomatic passport holders. Such individuals, as and when they decide to go abroad, either on official or private visit, have to send advance intimation of the itinerary of their visit as soon as it is finalised to the conference and protocol section for being communicated to the Indian missions in foreign countries concerned. Changes in the itinerary, if any, also have to be intimated. If there is any change in the itinerary after such an individual has left India, the same has to be intimated directly to the concerned Indian missions/embassies “as early as possible”. Prior permission of the central government is required for accepting any foreign hospitality during diplomatic passport holders’ private visits abroad under Section 9 of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976. All invitations from any foreign source, namely, government of any country, foreign organisations, are to be routed through the MEA. If any such invitation is received directly, such an individual is to bring it to the notice of the MEA and necessary clearance of that ministry has to be obtained. Moreover, it is incumbent on a diplomatic passport holder that his/her application should reach the ministry of home affairs (MHA) at least 10 days in advance of the date from which the foreign hospitality is proposed to be accepted. Such an individual also has to ensure that before proceeding abroad the requisite permission of the MHA has been obtained, as mere sending of the application will not amount to grant of the statutory permission.
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Prof’s family to attend funeral
Chennai, April 18 Both the Central and state government extended a helping hand to the family of the slained teacher of Virginia University to facilitate their travel as they did not possess passports. The Tamil Nadu government announced that it would bear the travel expenses for nine family members, while the Regional Passport Office issued passports within an hour's time. The U.S. Consulate too issued visas in a record time this afternoon. Sumathi Ravichandran, RPO, also made the travel arrangements and flight bookings on their behalf. The family, including Loganathan's parents, G K Vasudevan (78) and Kanamma (71), brothers G. V. Palanivel and G V Sengottuvelan, and their respective wives, who would avail the Lufthansa flight at 01.05 hrs tomorrow.
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CM Raje as goddess
Jaipur, April 18 Hemant Bohra, former vice president of the Jodhpur unit of the party, has designed the poster showing Raje as Annapurna, the goddess of harvest, showering blessings on her ministers. Former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, deputy prime minister L.K. Advani and BJP president Rajnath Singh have been shown as Lord Vishnu, Brahma and Shiva respectively, blessing Raje.
— IANS
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Speech disrupted
Ranchi, April 18
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Efforts to rescue trapped boy
Ghaziabad, April 18 Rescue operations had resumed Wednesday morning after being suspended around midnight. Army personnel had been called in Tuesday to help locate Aas, who had fallen into the pit filled with poisonous gases and sewage water at 9 am on Tuesday.
— IANS
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