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1857 Uprising Anniversary
Presidential candidate
Manmohan not floating specific names for President’s post: PMO
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UP for grabs
2007 
In video (56k)
Sheila Dikshit apologises
Dinakaran incident: CM seeks CBI probe
In video (56k)
Lalu chairs coordination panel meeting
Shahabuddin quits Congress
Wheat import an attempt to ‘favour’ MNCs
ILO reports new forms of discrimination
ESIS workers entitled to relief: SC
ISRO to beam 600 lectures to engineering grads per semester
Soon, conversion of coal into petro products
Ankit alive: Kidnapper
Attack on priests: 14 held
Human trafficking case
Kerala told to send report
in infants’ death case
Copter service to Kedarnath, Hemkunt Sahib
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‘Vision’ may ruffle political plumes Kalam for two-party system Rajeev Sharma Tribune News Service
New Delhi, May 10 The President’s candid remarks come at a time when the Presidential election is just about two months away and indications are that the ruling coalition is not interested in giving Kalam a second tenure. The following is the relevant paragraph where Kalam ticked off the ruling UPA government. “Many challenges need to be responded to: the emergence of multi-party coalitions as a regular form of government, that need to rapidly evolve as a stable, two-party system, the need to strengthen internal security to cope with global terrorism and new forms of internal law and order problems; the widening of economic disparities during a period of high growth in the absence of a comprehensive National Prosperity Index in place of GDP alone; the rapid depletion of global fossil fuel reserves; and increasing threats to our territorial security by the development of new forms of warfare.” Kalam called upon Parliament and Legislative Assemblies to emerge with a new vision and leadership to make the nation enlightened, prosperous and safe, invulnerable forever to invasion and infiltration across its borders. The President was speaking at a function to commemorate the 150th anniversary of First War of Indian Independence in the Central Hall of Parliament where the top leadership of the country, including Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee were also present as speakers. Another remark by the President in his speech ruffled many a feather. “National leadership has to radiate confidence in our people and boldly emerge by formulating and implementing new national missions, targeting specific time-bound goals,” he said. Kalam urged the young MPs to have a big aim and work for the nation in the Parliament and outside. The President described the 1857 uprising as the turning point in the 19th Century. He said the freedom movement created a renaissance of visionary, devoted and passionate leadership across the entire spectrum of the civilisational heritage, in multiple fields such as politics, spirituality, literature, fine arts, judiciary, science and industry. “The global environment, however, is still dangerous and India’s freedom, won by suffering and sacrifice, has to be alertly guarded, strengthened and expanded. Freedom and independence must be our continuing quest, and in such a manner as to accelerate our evolution as a free nation through a bold and swift development,” Kalam said. Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat favoured the setting up of a museum of the National Struggle: 1857-1947. He said such a museum would serve as a guide and inspire the youth and future generations to preserve the hard earned freedom and would motivate them to build up a strong and fully developed nation worthy of the dreams of the freedom fighters. He described the long period from 1857 to 1947 as the precious heritage of the unique struggle for freedom, democracy and human rights. This was so not only for the people of India but for the people all over the world who had been suffering under the subjugation of colonial and imperialist forces. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the nation could not forget the Hindu-Muslim unity that the 1857 uprising represented and observed that this unity held out as an example for subsequent generations. The Prime Minister urged the countrymen to ensure that sacrifices of martyrs did not go in vain.
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Presidential candidate
New Delhi, May 10 The general secretaries of CPM Prakash Karat, CPI A.B Bardhan and All India Forward Bloc D. Biswas held talks with the Congress president today. CPI leader A.B Bardhan, who confirmed the consultations with Sonia Gandhi, told The Tribune that the discussions were merely a preliminary exercise and would continue. Amid speculations on several names doing the rounds, Bardhan said the Congress president had mentioned six probables whom the party could consider to arrive at a consensus with the UPA allies, the CPI leader, however, refused to disclose any of the names. Prime Minister’s Office today said the Prime Minister has had some preliminary and exploratory discussions on election to the Office of the President with some political leaders. News reports mentioning specific names are speculative and premature. Party sources said she told the Left leaders that the Congress would discuss these names among itself before consulting the UPA allies. According to sources the Left leaders did not suggest any name nor did they argue in favour of any person whose names were dropped by Sonia Gandhi. Party sources said the Communists asked the Congress president to narrow down the choice before holding further talks on the issue. They also said the UP poll outcome would give a clear picture for the parties to move forward in their discussions. The Left leaders, however, categorically stated that they do not favour a second term for President A.P.J Abdul Kalam nor would they favour the elevation of Vice-President to the top post. Considering the important role played by the President, in the era of coalition governments, the leaders stated that they would prefer a political appointee rather than a scholar or an academician. Left leaders, sources said, would soon meet to discuss the possible names, but would wait for the UPA to take initiative in proposing the name at the first instance. While Vice-President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat appears to be the first choice for the NDA, sources said they would wait for the UPA to make the first move. “Ideally, it will be good to have a consensual secular candidate... who will have impeccable secular credentials,” CPM polit bureau member Sitaram Yechury had said. Noting that UP was a “powerful element”, he said the party would see the composition of the state Assembly as the value of each vote there was 203, compared with 25 of Arunachal Pradesh.
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Manmohan not floating specific names for President’s post: PMO
New Delhi, May 10 "The Prime Minister has had some preliminary and exploratory
discussions on this matter with some political leaders. News reports mentioning specific names are speculative and premature," the Prime Minister's media adviser Sanjaya Baru clarified here today. Baru said various political parties were consulting each other in this regard. With the seven-phase month-long Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh having concluded and the counting of votes scheduled for tomorrow, the ruling UPA and its supporting Left partners have begun consultations for the Presidential elections to be held in July. The Samajwadi Party has said it would support a presidential candidate set up by the Left parties but not a Left-supported Congress candidate. The race for the Presidential nominee is expected to pick up momentum after the results of the UP Assembly elections are out tomorrow. This will help the major political parties calculate their respective strength in the electoral colleage and evolve their strategies. A.P.J Abdul Kalam was sworn in as the country's 11th President on July 25, 2002 for a five-year term.
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UP for grabs
2007
New Delhi, May 10 For the first time, extensive video coverage has been ordered at every stage of the counting process. "The video coverage shall include the process of opening of strong room, transfer of EVMs from strong room to counting hall, counting hall arrangement, process of counting in the counting hall and the process of tabulation in general at the returning officer's table as also the process of counter checking of two EVMs," the commission said. The counting for 402 Assembly constituencies will begin tomorrow at 7 am and the first result is likely by 11am. In a move to weed out any bias in the counting process, the Election Commission, in a letter to the Chief Electoral Officer, Lucknow, has called for randomisation of counting officials. “The posting of counting supervisors and counting assistants must be done randomly in such a way that the counting official come to know of the Assembly constituency and the table assigned to them only at the time of their arrival at the counting centre on the day of the counting,” it said. The poll panel asked the returning officer to do the tabulation of the round based on the table wise result provided by the counting supervisors. The table wise result of the round is to be countersigned by the observer before the returning officer announces the result of the round. In its instruction, the commission said at the closure of each round, the observer would randomly select any two EVM control units from amongst the control units of the round concerned which has been counted. He would then direct the counting staff specifically deployed for this purpose by the returning officer/assistant returning officer through from the control units selected, the details of the votes polled as indicated by the machine. These details he would then compare with the details provided by the officials in the table wise result to check for any discrepancy between the two. Care must be taken that the staff assigned for random checking is not aware of the details provided in the table wise result. Election for the Khaga seat was deferred because of death of a candidate. The UP Assembly has a strength of 403 members. The commission has deployed about 20,000 Central Paramilitary and other security personnel for guarding the EVMs. It has directed the authorities to ensure that the counting centres are sanitised and precautionary measures taken to bar the entry of potential trouble-makers. A close watch will also be kept on counting and election agents as well as candidates, the commission instructed in a communication to the Chief Electoral Officer of UP.
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Sheila Dikshit apologises
New Delhi, May 10 Congress sources said that Dikshit met External Affairs minister Pranab Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs minister Priya Ranjan Dasmunshi in the Parliament House complex today and expressed regret over the statement. Both Mukherjee and Dasmunshi reviewed the CD containing her speech and asked her to refrain from making such statements. On Wednesday, Dikshit had while expressing concern over the rising population in the capital due to migration from neighbouring states said "people from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh come to Delhi and settle down here. We have no rules and regulations to stop them." Ramkirpal Yadav of the RJD said the statement of Dikshit was utterly irresponsible.
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Tempers run high in Parliament
Lok Sabha New Delhi, May 10 Despite the CM’s clarification later that she had simply made a reference to the fact that migrants from other states settling down permanently in the capital put enormous pressure on civic amenities, the agitated members appeared to be in no mood to relent and wanted her to apologise. BJP MPs shouted slogans against Dikshit and were even heard demanding her resignation. Members of the RJD, Samajwadi Party and BSP also rushed into the well shouting slogans in a separate group resulting in a din. Sensing that members were trying to score against each other, speaker Somnath Chatterjee adjourned the House till 1200 hours and the 'question hour' could not be taken up. Tempers ran high after the house reassembled as SP, RJD and BJP members again rushed to the well raising slogans against Dikshit. When the House reassembled at 1200 hours, the speaker sought the approval of the members to adjourn the House at 1700 hours today to enable them to attend a function at the Balayogi auditorium within the Parliament house complex for the release of a DVD on Gitanjali marking the 150th anniversary of the first war of independence. But, the members forced the adjournment of the House for the day minutes after 1200 hours.
New Delhi, May 10 The Upper House, which saw two adjournments before lunch, was adjourned for the day after unrelenting AIADMK members raised slogans demanding the dismissal of the DMK government. They were protesting yesterday’s violence at a newspaper office in Madurai, allegedly by the supporters of a son of Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi. The AIADMK members stormed into the well soon after the House reassembled at 2 pm, demanding a discussion on the incident and action against the state government. The AIADMK members had made similar demands after the House met at noon following the first adjournment. Earlier, after the House met in the morning, members of the Congress and SP demanded that the scheduled business of the House be suspended and the Gujarat fake encounter issue taken up for discussion. As they remained adamant, the Chair adjourned the House till noon. |
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Dinakaran incident: CM seeks CBI probe
Chennai, May 10 Replying to members’ concern over the violence, arising out of an opinion poll published by the daily published by the Sun TV group, Karunanidhi told the state Assembly that as some members of his family were allegedly involved, he did not want the state police to handle the probe. “The government will write to the Centre for a CBI inquiry,” he said. While the Opposition demanded Karunanidhi’s resignation, the CM disregarded the demand, saying that such demands were always made in light of any unsavoury issue. AIADMK general secretary J. Jayalalithaa and MDMK general secretary Vaiko had asked for the CM’s resignation. Karunanidhi said that he had advised against publishing the results of various Dinakaran-AC Nielsen opinion polls. “However, the Dinakaran management ignored my advice and published findings of a survey on the most efficient ministers from Tamil Nadu,” the Chief Minister said, “And yet again, despite my public disapproval of the poll, they published another one, this time on who should succeed me in the DMK.”
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Lalu chairs coordination panel meeting
New Delhi, May 10 The minister said this while chairing the first meeting of the Railway-Industry Coordination Committee here today. He informed the cement and steel customers that the Railways were willing to bear 50 per cent of the expenditure and prepared to give five per cent freight discount under the Engine on Load scheme. He said the Railways wanted to start a similar plan in the development and modernisation of unloading terminals. He also suggested that the cement and steel industries enter into long-term agreements with the Railways. Prasad said his ministry has decided that any decision on the freight discount scheme would be taken by the zonal administration within two months. He said the Railways would hold special camps in all zonal Railways in the first week of every quarter to redress complaints. The minister expressed hope that the ministry’s share in cement and steel transportation would increase to 200 million tonnes each by the year 2011-12.
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Shahabuddin quits Congress
New Delhi, May 10 In a statement, the leader said “on the eve of the 2004 general elections, I felt an inner urge to re-enter the political arena to participate in the epic battle against resurgent forces of communalism. So, on April 4, 2004, I voluntarily and unconditionally joined the Congress and canvassed for it to defeat the BJP.” Three years later, Shahabuddin said he realised that he had lost his freedom and felt shackled in reacting to political developments. Now that the UP assembly elections are over, “I have decided to resign from the Congress and inform the people where I stand.”
— TNS
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Wheat import an attempt to ‘favour’ MNCs
New Delhi, May 10 Shiva’s counsel Pinky Anand made a special mention of her fresh application before a three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice of India K G Balakrishnan, seeking immediate intervention and issue a direction for stopping the import process, which was described as an attempt to “favour” the MNCs. The court, which had issued notice to the Centre on Shiva’s PIL on August 4 last year after the Government had gone for import of 57 lakh tonnes of wheat, fixed further hearing on her application for May 17. While seeking an urgent hearing on her PIL as well as the fresh application, she alleged that the whole exercise of permitting the import of wheat, which according to her was “substandard and pesticide-stricken”, was nothing but a move to let the MNCs to procure good quality Indian wheat for direct export and on the other hand to provide the poor people the imported wheat under the public distribution system (PDS). Ms Shiva said that on the one hand the government had declared that it was giving top priority for maintaining the food grain stock by procuring the wheat from farmers, on the other hand it has planned to import 73.6 million tonnes when the country had witnessed rich harvest this season. The Agriculture Ministry has already issued the direction to the State Trading Corporation for floating tender for the import of one million tonnes in July and the details were being worked out by the corporation, she claimed. According to the application, the import was being allowed at a “phenomenally” high price of Rs 1,680 per quintal, to be paid in dollars, whereas the Indian farmers were being paid the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 850 per quintal. The import price was far higher even to that being paid by the private companies for the purchase of wheat directly from farmers in the open market, she said. Instead of spending Rs 1,680 per quintal for import of “substandard” wheat, if the government paid even Rs 1,000 per quintal to the farmers as MSP, they will prefer to sell their produce to the government agencies and the Centre would also not face the problem shortfall in the buffer stock. “This would also save the valuable foreign exchange being spent by the Government on import,” she said. In her main PIL, she had challenged the entire food policy of the government for allegedly promoting distribution of “pesticide infested” wheat through the PDS among the poor and allowing private companies to enrich their coffers by permitting them to buy the wheat from open market used for export of food products made of it.
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ILO reports new forms of discrimination
New Delhi, May 10 The report titled “Equality at work: tackling the challenges” highlights newly emerging forms for discrimination like unfair treatment in hiring of younger and older workers, people with disabilities, those living with HIV/AIDS, on the basis of sexual orientation, lifestyle issues considered unhealthy. The major theme of the report launched globally, focuses on the gender gaps in employment and pay and the need for integrated policies addressing sex discrimination in remuneration and occupational segregation by sex, while reconciling work and family responsibilities. According to the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act, the report said “it is premature to draw any conclusions about the impact of the scheme on poverty and gender equality, but concerns have been voiced about possible tensions within families over the selection of the member to be given the job and about women being left out.” Around the world, more women were entering the workplace, the report said, but it highlighted South Asia as one of the worst regions for gender equality, with just 43.5 per cent of women working. India was one of the worst offenders, with 26 per cent of women in work, compared to 84.1 per cent of men. This was well below the global average of 56.6 per cent of women being in the labour market. South Asia deserves to be singled out because in many respects it’s one of the most problematic regions when it comes to gender discrimination-lack of equality of opportunity and treatment for women, the report said. The region has the highest share of unpaid women working and it’s the only region in the world where a higher proportion of women do unpaid work in agriculture than in all other economic sectors together. The report emphasised the need for stronger laws and more effective enforcement, promoting gender equality through more integrated and better coordinated global action.
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ESIS workers entitled to relief: SC
New Delhi, May 10 “The service rendered by the medical practitioners of hospitals, nursing homes run by the ESI Corporation cannot be regarded as a service free of charge… the scheme would fall within the ambit of service defined in Section 2(1)(O) of the Consumer Protection Act,” a Bench comprising Justices B N Agrawal, P P Naolekar and Dalveer Bhandari ruled. The judgement came on an appeal of industrial worker Kishori Lal from Haryana, whose petition claiming compensation from the state ESI Corporation for its failure to provide proper treatment to his wife in 1993, when she was admitted to its dispensary in Sonepat as she was suffering from diabetes. The ESI dispensary not only failed to provide her proper treatment but diagnosed her incorrectly as was established by her examination in some reputed private hospitals. The result of the wrong treatment to her was that her condition had deteriorated when she was under treatment in ESI hospital. Aggrieved by this, he had filed a complaint before the district consumer forum but it rejected the same. Kishori Lal, who failed to get relief from the Haryana State as well as the National Consumer Forum, however, continued his fight and knocked the doors of the Supreme Court in 2000. Allowing his appeal, the apex court in the judgement pronounced on May 8 but made available to media today, said since under the ESIS the cost of consultation, diagnosis and medical treatment was borne by the insurer, the service definitely would come under the ambit of the Consumer Protection Act. “It has been held in numerous cases by this Court that the jurisdiction of the consumer forum has to be construed liberally to as to bring many cases under it for their speedy disposal,” the Bench said. “The Act being a beneficial legislation, it should receive liberal construction… the trend of the decisions of this Court is that the jurisdiction of the consumer forum should not and would not be curtailed unless there is an express provision prohibiting the consumer forum to take up the matter which falls within the jurisdiction of the civil court,” the apex court ruled. Since Kishori Lal’s petition was decided only on the question of law, the apex court for the purpose of fixing the quantum of the compensation for him, it referred the case back to the District Consumer Forum, Sonepat to decide it on merit.
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ISRO to beam 600 lectures to engineering grads per semester
Bangalore, May 10 The space agency, which has provided a satellite link for the programme, is also in the process of increasing the scope of this service in rural areas. “We have realised there is more enthusiasm for the service in engineering colleges situated in rural and semi rural areas”, said Department of Science Additional Secretary S V Ranganath here today. Ranganath was attending a workshop on communication strategies to promote science and technology among rural people. “We found there was lukewarm response to the programme in Bangalore where students have access to quality teachers”, he said adding that reverse was the case in rural areas where students wished to get lectures which were a benchmark in their respective fields. He said the agency was in the process of increasing the scope of its programme after reports from Nasscom, representative body of IT industry, that 17 lakh high quality engineers would be needed in the country by the end of the eleventh five year plan. Similarly, Ranganath said efforts were on to increase the scope of the Primary Education Project which was first started in Chamarajanagar district in Karnataka in 2005. “By the end of the eleventh plan, there will be around fifty million school going children. We do not have the teachers to take on these children”, he said. At present ISRO has set up 885 satellite receive terminals for primary schools in predominantly tribal areas. ISRO also plans to increase the number of Village Resource Centres which are aimed at providing e-governance facilities in villages. The agency is set to increase the present number of VRCs from 221 to 400 shortly. He said the ‘e-chaupal’ experiment, aimed at providing expert advise and information to farmers, had taken off successfully and would be given support as and when needed.
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Soon, conversion of coal into petro products
Dehra Dun, May 10 Stating this today, executive director of the Keshav Dev Malviya Institute of Petroleum Exploration
(KDMIPE) Jokhan Ram said his organisation has been working on the optimum utilisation of coal as a user-friendly energy source in the liquid or gaseous form with a larger purpose of finding alternative sources of energy. The
KDMIPE, which is involved in providing geo-scientific backup to exploration schemes of the ONGC, has also been trying to explore the possibility of converting coal into gas, he said. The ONGC has taken up a pilot project on the lines of China to convert coal into petroleum products, especially in view of the large coal reserves in India. “Even as we are involved in the task of providing scientific inputs for exploration of hydrocarbons, we are also working to develop wind energy as an alternate source on the west coast of the country,” he added.
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Ankit alive: Kidnapper
Patna, May 10 Yesterday, Ankit’s domestic help Balram had confessed to abducting and burying him along the Ganga in Chhapra after killing him just days after his kidnapping on April 12. While the change in statement brings a new ray of hope to Ankit’s parents, the police now have decided to put him to a lie detector test. SSP Kundan Krishnan said that Balram was produced in court today following which he was remanded to five-day police custody for further interrogation. The SSP said that the police has not been able to recover the boy’s body from the place Balram had mentioned. "On the first day, Balram said he had killed the boy and had thrown the body in the river. We searched a few places but could not find Ankit’s body. On further questioning, Balram said the boy was alive and a man called Sanjay had taken him," he added. Two separate teams of Patna police have already been formed to track down Sanjay Rajak.
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Attack on priests: 14 held
Mumbai, May 10 The arrests came after the public beating of the two missionaries was telecast on television channels. Christian revivalist groups in Mumbai claimed that the two missionaries - Ajit Billawi and Ramesh Kagargole - belonged to the Friends Missionary Prayer Band (FMPB). The arrested persons were produced in a local court which let them off on bail. Earlier this week, the two men were dragged from the office and prayer hall set up by them in the town and dragged through the streets where they were punched and kicked by several men. The two priests were then handed over to the local police station where they were booked under Section 420 of the IPC.
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Human trafficking case
Hyderabad, May 10 A week after Andhra Pradesh police registered a case against him, Bapurao went to the Central Crime Station (CCS) along with his lawyer at around 8.30 am and gave himself up. Bapurao, who represents Boath constituency in Adilabad district, had gone underground ever since the city police booked the criminal case on May 3 against him on charges of securing passports for others in the name of his wife and three children. The police had booked a case against him based on the "revelations" made by the alleged kingpin in the immigration scam and city-based travel agent Rasheed during interrogation. Rasheed and his associate Muzaffar Ali Khan are now in judicial remand till May 18.
— PTI
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Kerala told to send report
in infants’ death case
New Delhi, May 10 Taking suo motu cognizance of a recent report in a newspaper, the NHRC has said that if the contents of the report are true, they raise serious issue of violation of human rights. Quoting the findings of an inquiry by the paediatric wing of the hospital, the report said that infants died a month after contracting bacterial infection. The paediatric wing of the hospital held the inquiry after noticing abnormal number of infant deaths.
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Copter service to Kedarnath, Hemkunt Sahib
New Delhi, May 10 Private air carrier Prabhatam Aviation has started operating helicopters for the pilgrims to Kedarnath, one of the four main Hindu shrines on the Himalayan route, it said in a statement here. Two helicopters will be used to ferry pilgrims and it would take 10 minutes to cover a distance of 14 km from Phata-based helipad to the shrine. — PTI
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