Lucknow, May 6
As campaigning ended in the final seventh phase of polling, this evening the Election Commission is gearing up for the challenge of holding polls for the phase with the maximum number of 162 (17.34 per cent) candidates with criminal antecedents in the fray.

Once again Samajwadi party leads the list of such candidates 32/55 (58%), followed by BJP-Apna Dal combine 19/53 (36%), BSP 20/59 (34%) and Congress with 16/57 (28%).

With 63 cases pending against him, Pawan Pande of Apna Dal contesting from Akbarpur in Ambedkar Nagar leads the list of criminal candidates, not only for the final phase but also for all the phases put together.

At least three candidates in this phase are contesting from behind the bars. The first is Mukhtar Ansari from Mau who has been behind bars for many months now in connection with BJP MLA Krishnanad Rai’s murder case. Last week he was transferred from Ghazipur jail to Jhansi for addressing a public meeting through mobile phone.

The second well known under trial is sitting MLA from Laxmipur in Maharajganj, Amarmani Tripathi facing murder charges in the high-profile poetess Madhumita Shukla murder case. His case has now been transferred to Uttrakhand as he was reportedly intimidating witnesses.

During the last assembly election Madhumita had cast a magical spell over audiences at Amarmani’s election meetings with her rabble-rousing poetry. This time her sister Nidhi Shukla is running a campaign against Amarmani asking the voters to give her justice.

The third contestant behind bars is Anand Sen, BSP candidate from Milkipur in Ambedkarnagar. Recently his father BSP MP Mitrasen Yadav hit national headlines when his name was revealed in the Katara case of human trafficking.

The son has 25 cases against him, which includes looting and dacoity.

Incidentally three of Apna Dal candidates figure in the list of top ten contestants with criminal records compiled for the entire 7-phase by UP Election Watch.

Besides Pawan Pande two more Apna Dal candidates with identical names - Thakur Prakash Singh- are contesting from two adjoining constituencies of Kunda and Rampur Khas in Pratapgarh. They hold the distinction of being second and third names on the list of candidates with criminal record.

This alliance partner of BJP is contesting merely 39 of the 403 seats. Yet it holds the dubious distinction of fielding the top three candidates with criminal records.

Party president Sonelal Patel had openly made an offer to mafia don Abu Salem and Babloo Srivastava to contest from the Apna Dal platform. It’s another matter that things did not work out with these international dons and the party had to contend with relatively small fries.

Varanasi, May 6
Amid speculation that the UPA government at the Centre may impose the President's rule in Uttar Pradesh in the event of a hung Assembly, state Congress president Salman Khursheed today said "all options" were open under the provisions of the Constitution.

"All options are open under the Constitution," he told reporters here in reply to a question on whether the Centre would impose the President's rule in the event of a hung Assembly.

"The formation of the government and the Central rule have been both envisaged in our Constitution," he said and evaded a direct reply on the issue of the imposition of the president's rule in the state in the wake of a hung Assembly after the ongoing polls.

The UPCC chief, however, claimed that no political party would get a clear majority in the assembly polls.

He said the Congress would perform beyond the expectations by riding on the whirlwind campaigning by the party chief Sonia Gandhi and the young MP Rahul Gandhi.

Khursheed said the Congress would play a crucial role in the formation of the next government in the state on account of its improved performance in the Assembly polls.

The senior Congress leader slammed the performance of the Mulayam Singh Yadav government on all fronts and criticised the SP supremo for parading former chief ministers including AIADMK chief J Jayalalithha, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu and INLD president O P Chautala and film stars during electioneering.

Khursheed said he would meet a similar fate as the these leaders had met in the assembly polls in their respective states. — PTI

Guwahati, May 6
Even as opposition parties in Assam Assembly are trying hard to find a consensus common candidate for the forthcoming Rajya Sabha election scheduled for May 24, Dada Saheb Phalke Award winner, the colossal singer Dr Bhupen Hazarika has candidly stated that he is not game to help the opposition parties by accepting the reported offer of consensus candidate for Rajya Sabha election.

Election to two RS seats from Assam will be held on May 24 at the expiry of term of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and BJP member Indramoni Bora. The ruling Congress has decided to field on the PM, leaving the second seat open for the opposition parties in order to facilitate smooth election of Dr Singh to the RS for the fourth time in a row.

Dr Singh is scheduled to arrive here on May 8 to file his nominations for the election next day, according to an official source. A team of the Special Protection Group (SPG) is already in the city to look after security arrangement for the PM’s visit.

The Congress enjoys support of 12 MLAs from its coalition partner Bodoland People’s Progressive Front (BPPF), six Independent associate members and one legislator from the NCP. That makes total 72 legislators in support of the ruling Congress.

However, the main opposition parties in 126-member Assam Assembly including Asom Gana Parishad (24 seats), Assam United Democratic Front (11 seats), BJP (10) seats have so far failed to strike a deal among themselves to find a consensus candidate for the second Rajya Sabha seat.

The situation compelled some of the smaller opposition parties including Asom Gana Parishad (Progressive) led by fomer Assam CM Prafulla Kumar Mahanta to float the name of Dr Bhupen Hazarika as the consensus candidate of the opposition.

However, the legendary musician and singer Dr Hazarika, who had vowed not to try his hand at politics again after his defeat in 2004 Lok Sabha election as the candidate of the BJP, refused the offer.

“I am sticking to the stand I took after my defeat in Lok Sabha election and I will be the last person to go back on my word,” Dr Hazarika said.

New Delhi, May 6
The latest report of the UN Inter-governmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) asking all countries to introduce drastic cuts in the greenhouse gases that cause global warming, has also put India and China under greater pressure to cut down the carbon emissions. The IPCC report was released this Friday.

After the US, India and China are the second largest emitters of greenhouse gases. India argues that it has been taking sufficient measures to contain emissions, thereby refusing to agree to any cuts in carbon emissions on the basis that reducing emissions would impact its economic development.

A country like China is also heavily dependent on hydrocarbons to meet its energy requirements. But the latest report has dismissed the argument of “loss to economy”, stating that overall, the cost of reducing and stabilising emissions “tends to be comparable to, or lower than, costs of inaction”.

The report also asks developed countries to change their lifestyles and alter consumption patterns. In fact, the hard-hitting report released in Bangkok on Friday firmly states that all countries must take drastic steps and cut down carbon emissions in order to check the rise in temperatures and sea levels.

The 24-page document, endorsed by 105 countries, including the US and China, has given the world eight years to stabilise greenhouse gases in the air at 445 ppm to keep temperatures from rising more than two degree Celsius over pre-industrial levels.

In its earlier reports this year, the IPCC had confirmed that global warming was increasing at an alarming rate due to human activity, thereby making millions vulnerable due to rise in sea levels, droughts and floods across the world.

But this time, the UN's environment panel has listed a host of key technologies and policies that India, among others, could adopt to reduce their emissions at an affordable cost to ward off disastrous changes in the climate.

The report mentions an outlay of action plans for reducing emissions from industry, transport, power generation, agriculture, forests, and buildings, all activities that generate the six greenhouse gases.

The Kyoto Protocol requires developed nations to cut their emissions by certain levels. While India, China and other countries are exempted from any such obligation, the US and Australia have refused to conform to the protocol, which expires in 2012.

Some environmentalists feel that India may not be able to escape the mandate when the next stage of Kyoto Protocol comes into force in 2012 and that it should come up with a clear-cut plan.

However, others maintain that it is for developed countries like the US who should be under the foremost obligation to accept the mandate. While India is already making efforts in the right direction, it is for the rich and developed nations to lead the way.

New Delhi, May 6
With the country grappling with a water crisis in every nook and corner of its territory, it comes as a relief that India’s first project under the ambitious Inter-Linking of Rivers (ILR) programme is expected to take off soon. The programme aims at tackling the country’s water problems through effective management.

While the government has approved the terms of reference for the preparation of a Detailed Project Report (DPR) for inter-linking of Ken and Betwa between Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh, four other projects, including the Parbati-Kalisindh-Chambal link between Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, are under high-priority consideration.

The ILR programme, estimated at a whopping Rs 4,44,331.20 crore and expected to take nearly 35-40 years to complete, is expected to solve the critical problem of uneven distribution of run-offs and precipitation rates during the monsoon season. However, by using modern construction and remote sensing techniques, the government hopes to complete the programme within 25 years.

While the Brahmaputra and Mahanadi river basins regularly flood due to heavy run-offs, most other parts, except the Western Ghats, face recurrent droughts. In fact, droughts occur in over 80 per cent of the country even if shortfall in rains is only 25 per cent from the national average for the monsoon period.

A first-of-its-kind in the country, the Ken-Betwa project is likely to begin in as early as 2008.

Minister of water resources Saifuddin Soz informed the Lok Sabha last week that after studying suggestions of the government-constituted committee of environmentalists, social scientists and other experts on ILR, terms of reference for preparing the DPR of the Ken-Betwa link had been approved by the government.

The Ministry of Environment and Forests has also conveyed its approval on the terms of reference on EIA studies on the link. On the basis of a report by IIM Ahmedabad, a two-tier institutional setup has been suggested for the implementation of the project.

The Task Force on ILR has also consulted the ICICI for funding options. Soz maintains that ICICI proposed that funding should be done partly through public, public-private and private inputs. However, the exact requirement would be available only after the preparation of DPRs of all links.

The imminent differences and problems between various states on the inter-linking issue would be resolved through high-level meetings between the Prime Minister and the respective chief ministers.

Till now, attention had been largely paid to interlinking of rivers in peninsular India due to involvement of neighbouring nations in the rivers of the Himalayan region.

Soz said a working group of international level constituted by the Task Force on ILR also suggested that at the present juncture, it was too early to pursue the matter further at high political levels with the Nepal Government.

Regarding Bangladesh, it has been suggested that Dhaka would continue to raise the ILR issue in the Joint River Commission (JRC), and possibly, in other bilateral forums.

“India should respond by reiterating the line taken in the JRC that ILR is a concept, and not a single project,” Soz said.

New Delhi, May 6
As the rift between the Left parties and the Manmohan Singh government on the economic policies continues to widen, the CPI today indicated issue based support to the Congress-led UPA coalition.

“There is a difference between pulling down a government and withdrawal of support. If we withdraw the support to government, it would only benefit the BJP. We are not for that,” the CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan said here today.

He said “we cannot support all their policies and decisions.”

When specifically asked whether he was suggesting issue based support, Bardhan said “we have not finalised the kind of support, but there has to be a review” of the support we are extending from outside.

Bardhan said all the four Left parties had jointly given support to the Congress led UPA coalition on the basis of national common minimum programme.

While the big brother CPM has categorically rejected the review of support to the Manmohan Singh coalition, other two partners, the Revolutionary Socialist Party and the All India Forward Bloc, have been vociferously been demanded the withdrawal of support to the Manmohan Singh government as its economic policies are in no way different from the NDA government.

He said the four Left parties should meet to review our support to the UPA coalition. Asked when such a review meeting would take place, he said after the presidential election.

As the probe into the murder of Sohrabuddin Sheikh and his wife Kausar Bi allegedly by Gujarat cadre IPS officers D G Vanzara and Raj Kumar Pandian, in a fake encounter, has opened wounds of such extra-judicial killings across the country, the Communist Party of India today demanded a judicial probe into all such police action in past in the country.

“We demand that a commission of inquiry be set up to probe all encounters that have happened in the past in the country,” said CPI General Secretary A B Bardhan here today. He said a judge should head the commission.

Bardhan demanded the Manmohan Singh government to revamp the National Knowledge Commission, as it has become the voice of the Americans.

Coming down heavily on the UPA government for removing the vice-chairman of the NKC, Dr P M Bhargava, the CPI leader said, “he had only pointed out the arbitrariness in the functioning of the NKC chairman Sam Pitroda.”

Bhargava had written expressing his dissent on the report prepared by the Commission had even criticised the functioning of the NKC to the Prime Minister.

Chennai, May 6
The Tamil Nadu police is conducting a census in the state, albeit of a different kind. The “Q” branch of the police, which deals with terrorist activities, has started a door-to-door verification of Sri Lankan Tamils to identify sympathisers of the LTTE and militants engaged in nefarious activities.

Following the seizures of huge amount of arms and ammunitions, explosives and bomb making materials in coastal areas that were being smuggled to Sri Lanka, the top brass of the police decided to conduct this exercise.

During the census documents of the Lankan Tamils are being checked along with their antecedents in the island nation before they arrived in India.

Said a senior police official: “Their addresses are being verified and antecedents checked. Those who seem suspicious will be placed under observation. We will have to keep an eye on the people they meet.”

There are more than 1 lakh Sri Lankan Tamil refugees in the state. While nearly 60,000 of them are housed in 103 refugees spread all over the state, at least 40,000 of them who have money are on their own either in jobs or having small businesses.

Since January 2006, over 1,9000 persons have crossed the Gulf of Mannar and the Palk Bay, dividing India and Sri Lanka, to Tamil Nadu from the island nation after the ceasefire between the LTTE and the Sri Lankan government failed and their was escalation of violence. Over the past one year several large consignments of materials meant for the LTTE were seized in Tamil Nadu. In many cases, the complicity of Sri Lankan.