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Majority Of States Guilty:SCANDALOUS LOOT OF FOOD GRAINS, by Insaf, 20 September 2007 Print E-mail

Round The States

New Delhi, 20 September 2007

Majority Of States Guilty

SCANDALOUS LOOT OF FOOD GRAINS

By Insaf

Sensational disclosures about the “great Indian grain drain” have pushed a majority of the States into the dock. Wheat and rice worth more than Rs.31,585 crore meant for the poor was reportedly siphoned off from the Public Distribution System in the last three years. Last year alone, according to a statistical study commissioned by the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution in 2005, Rs.11,336 crore worth of food grain that was meant for distribution to the needy at subsidized prices found its way into the market clandestinely. The total cost of wheat and rice stolen from the PDS was Rs,9,918 crore in 2004-05 and Rs.10,330 crore in 2005-2006. The study shows that India’s poor and needy are cheated out of 53.3 per cent of wheat and 39 per cent of rice meant for them. 

The six top offenders guilty of criminal loot among the States are: UP Rs.3,289.713 crore, Left-ruled West Bengal 1,913.758 crore; Madhya Pradesh 1,038.69 crore; Assam 958.48; Rajasthan Rs.665.71 crore and Maharashtra Rs.435.80 crore.  The North-East region beats all. Of the eight States, not even a grain of the wheat supplied to six --- Sikkim, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram, Assam and Nagaland --- reportedly reached the targeted poor. Arunachal was a little less corrupt at 96.2 per cent. Shockingly, Vigilance Committees to catch the culprits have not been constituted so far in Assam, Bihar, Haryana, Jharkhand, MP, Maharashtra, Manipur, Orissa, Punjab, Tripura, Uttarakhand, UP, Andaman & Nicobar Islands and Daman & Diu.

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Ram Setu Controversy

The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi, is up in arms against the Centre on the controversial Ram Setu issue. His annoyance stems from the Union Government’s decision to take a re-look at the Sethusamudram Shipping Canal Project (SSPC) while withdrawing its affidavit in the Supreme Court questioning the existence of Lord Ram and Ram Setu. Chiding the Centre for its stand, Karunanidhi who has been pushing hard for the project, sought to underscore the Ramayana as fiction floated by the Aryans (represented by Ram) to dominate the Dravidians (read Ravana). “Who is Ram?” he derisively asked and added: “If he built the Ram Setu, from which engineering college did he graduate?” Leading to a sharp reaction from the Sangh Parivar and an attack on his daughter’s residence in Bangalore.

Forgotten in the political churning on Ram Setu are the views of renowned experts that the SSCP is not only a bad idea but bad economics. The distance saved by ships coming from Europe and Africa by using the canal has been highly over estimated by assuming Kanyakumari and Tuticorin as the starting points. These ships need not touch either before going around Sri Lanka. Even time saved will be much less. The ships negotiating the canal will have to slow down considerably to enable them to be piloted through. Moreover, the Rs 3000 crore project faces one other disincentive. The canal will be able to carry vessels up to 32,000 DWT as against the latest trend of operating vessels of 60,000 DWT and above. According to a top infrastructure expert, the project may take more than 200 years to break even!

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Andhra Bails Gulf Returnees

While neighbouring Tamil Nadu continues to be embroiled in the Ram controversy, the Andhra Government is being revered as a ‘godsend’ by thousands of Indians returning from the Gulf. Following the State’s decision to give the workers a year’s “holiday” from repaying the loans they had taken before going abroad. Moved by a spate of suicides among 28,000 workers who have already returned and 15,000 who are awaiting deportation. Chief Minister Rajasekhar Reddy has also put the onus on the private money lenders, who charge interest ranging from 36 per cent to 100 per cent as against 14 per cent by the financial institutions. Harass and be punished, is his stern message to them. Going a step further, the State Government plans to provide employment too. A classic case of Mera Bharat Mahan!

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BSP To Debut In Gujarat

Riding high on her electoral success in Uttar Pradesh, the BSP chief Mayawati plans to brave it out alone in the forthcoming Assembly election in Gujarat. The Party intends fighting all the 182 seats, even though Mayawati’s recent rally in Ahmedabad attracted a crowd of no more than a few thousand and her BSP has yet to open its account in the Assembly. Undeterred, Mayawati seems to be banking on repeating her Dalit-Brahmin success story in the State. Going a step further, she has also demanded a quota for Dalit Christians and the poor among the upper castes. Gujarat has a sizeable Dalit Christian population. Will Mayawati’s quota wheels churn her rich electoral dividends?  Much will also depend upon the outcome of quiet attempts to get her to join hands with the Congress on a trial basis.

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Kudos for ASI In MP

Even as the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) takes flak for the Ram Setu controversy, it deserves a pat for its performance in Madhya Pradesh: reconstructing temples dating back to the 6th and 9th centuries --- literally from scratch. More importantly, it is now successfully working on the borders of dacoit-infested Chambal, near Gwalior. Earlier attempts of the ASI had failed as the ruins were the hideout of the dacoits. But not anymore, thanks to a chance meeting of an ASI archaeologist with a group of dacoits. He convinced them that the temples were of the same deities as they worshipped and that the ASI team was neither the police nor its informers. The dacoits are now staying away from the site. And with hundreds of stones and idols in the debris, score of temples shall go up at Bateshwar before very long. 

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ULFA Commander Captured

Assam may well get some respite from the ruthless operations of the United Liberation Front of Assam (ULFA), following the arrest of Prabal Neog, its self-styled commander. For the State police it is, indeed, a prize catch. Not only was Neog beind the  killing of Hindi-speaking people in Upper Assam this January. He was also responsible for conducting monthly extortions to the tune of Rs 2 crore from the “industrialist districts” of Tinsukia and Dibrugarh. Neog, according to the police, had been trained in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Mynamar and had the reputation of being an excellent organizer and planner. Meanwhile, the English version of an article published by ULFA’s monthly mouthpiece Freedom and e-mailed to newspapers last week has sought to give the peace talks a new lease of life. It has claimed that these talks have neither come to a halt nor broken down. Time alone will tell.

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Mothers’ Milk Bank

Few are aware that we now have even human milk banks! The Lokmanya Tilak Municipal General Hospital in Sion, Mumbai was the first in Asia to set up such bank in 1989. Other Government hospitals have followed suit giving hope for survival to premature, sick and abandoned babies. The milk is collected, pasteurized at 65 degrees Celsius for30 minutes and frozen at minus 20 degrees Celsius. It can be stored for at least  six months. The Lokmanya Tilak hospital has collected 924 litres of milk from mother donars and created a record of sorts. Dr Armida Fernandez, the founder of the human milk bank, cites scientific data to claim that mother’s milk given to a premature baby on ventilator can prevent asthma, diabetes and other allergies which are the cause for infant death. The milk is, indeed, a boon for the babies. Mum’s the word! ---- INFA

(Copyright India News and Feature Alliance)               

 

 

Hyderabad Blues Continue:MORE TERRORIST BLASTS FEARED,by Insaf, 12 September 2007 Print E-mail

 

Round The States

New Delhi, 12 September 2007 

Hyderabad Blues Continue

MORE TERRORIST BLASTS FEARED

By Insaf

More terrorist strikes appear to be in store for troubled Hyderabad. The Lakshar-e-Taiba’s public face, Jamat Dawa (JD) has given a clarion call for a jehad to liberate Hyderabad, Junagadh and Manvadar. Significantly, it has now come to light, that prior to the twin blasts that rocked the State capital, the JD Chief, Hafiz Abdul Rehman Maki, had avowed to settle scores with India. Addressing a conference in Lahore, Maki thundered: “Our relationship with India is that of revenge.” Adding, that jehad was the only solution to achieve its ends of liberating the three erstwhile princely States from India. Significantly, the chairman of the break-away group of J&K’s Hurriyat Conference, Geelani, also addressed the conference over the phone.    

Shockingly, some of the Pakistan-based terrorists groups consider Nizam’s Hyderabad and the two other States as the unfinished agenda of Partition. These three States, they claim, were supposed to go to Pakistan. The JD has even released Pakistani maps showing these three places along with Jammu & Kashmir and Bangladesh as part of Pakistan. Even though security experts dismiss the claim as routine anti-India tirade by the jehadis, what is worrisome is that Hyderabad has become the new playground of the jehadis. Towards that end, the JD alongwith the LeT, Jaish-e-Mohammad (JEM) and the Harkat-ul-Jihad Islami Bangladesh (HUJI-B), it is now learnt, set-up a core unit in Hyderabad in 2004.

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UP Crackdown On Police

Mayawati’s efforts to streamline the UP administration has exposed the malfeasance by her predecessor Mulayam Singh Yadav’s administration. Namely, in the recruitment of police constables. Shockingly, about 22,000 constables were accommodated in the Police Armed Constabulary (PAC) and the Civil Police without proper selection and purely on the basis of caste and creed ----Yadavs, Thakurs and Muslims. With Mayawati now cracking the whip by terminating the services of 6,504 recruits and suspending 10 IPS officers, policedom is in a tizzy as she is hell-bent on cancelling the remaining recruitment on the recommendations of an investigation committee. A worried All India Muslim Personal Board has requested the Chief Minister not to dislodge 1,500 Muslim youths, as it would send a wrong signal to the minority community. Mayawati’s response is eagerly awaited.

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Nitish Halo Begins To Fade

Bihar’s honeymoon with Nitish Kumar’s Government appears to be ending. Two years after the JD-led coalition Government came to power, doubts have arisen whether Nitish will be able to keep his promises of ridding the State of ‘jungle raj’. The crime graph, especially the kidnapping of children, shows no sign of abating. Discontent is rife not only among his partymen but also police officers and bureaucrats. On the development front too, apart from some improved roads, there is not much to show. Power production remains abysmal. Adding to the problems, the relentless floods have devastated the State. Political disgruntlement among the MLAs is growing as they await the promised ‘mangal raj’.

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Winds Of Harmony In Kashmir

Heart-warming winds of harmony blew over strife-torn Kashmir the other day. A history of sorts was created when the Shobha Yatra (dharma satam in Kashmir parlance) of Kashmiri Pandits passed through Srinagar’s historic Lal Chowk for the first time. What is more, the Muslims joined their Pandit brethren in the yatra.  Importantly, senior separatist leader Shabir Ahmad Shah, President Democratic Freedom Party, and leaders of other mainstream parties too participated. Shah, speaking on behalf of the Muslims, asserted that all wanted the early return of the “Pandit migrants”. It remains to be seen whether the Shobha Yatra was a flash in the pan or will lead to Pandit-Muslim Bhaichara and return of happy days.

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Hindi Unites 11 Tribes In Assam

This could be straight out of believe-it-or-not tale in Assam. While Hindi-speaking migrants continue to live under the fear of being attacked by the militants in the Kabri Anglong district of Assam, in the adjoining North Cachar Hills district, Hindi unites 11 different tribes. For nearly a century the tribes were unable to communicate with each other. Today thanks to ‘Haflong Hindi’ they sing hum saath saath hain. Significantly, Hindi has led to a decrease in militant strikes against the Hindi-speaking people in the Hills infamous for being the hot bed of militancy with at least seven groups active in the region. Needless to say the development of Hindi has led to all-round development. It is a moot point whether ‘Haflong Hindi’ can erase the militants’ scars in the rest of the State. 

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Political Bug Bites DUSU

The Delhi University Students Union continues to set a bad example to the University unions elsewhere in the country. Money and muscle power were in the forefront of the battle royale, between the Congress-backed NSUI and the BJP-backed ABVP. Leading an angry Supreme Court to warn that students should “be students first, leaders later”. The two-member bench added: “Let the academic scenario not be polluted by this kind of elections. The day is not far when dadagiri, goondagiri will be part of the curriculum”.  It also called for the implementation of the Lyngdoh Committee recommendations on conducting university polls. All eyes are now on the Delhi University panel probing the poll. Will it crackdown like the Election Commission? The Congress winners of the DUSU poll have reason to keep their fingers crossed.

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Militancy Rules In Manipur

Militancy could well be another name for Manipur. Shamefully, the grip of the militants has become so tight in the State that the Central Bureau of Investigation had to negotiate with a militant group to get at the man wanted for killing the State Health Minister’s eight-year-old daughter in November 2004. Even as a hapless and helpless State Government stands as mute testimony to the havoc wrought by over two dozen militants groups in the State. Things have come to such a sorry pass that citizens now prefer to take their grievances to the rebels, not the police or courts. Every citizen pays taxes to the militants directly or indirectly. More. All Government contracts are awarded by the administration only after being whetted by the militants, who get their agreed cut in the deal. Even the Chief Minister, it is alleged, pays a tax to survive the militant onslaught!

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Bathinda Is New Wine Country

From Bordeaux to Bathinda is a long distance through two continents. Today, both are united by the love of wine and grapes. Bathinda has joined France’s wine-making district and become India’s new wine country. Traditionally, Bathinda was a cotton-growing area. But farmers there are now taking to cultivating grapes, which earn them five times more money. Over 2,500 hectare land is presently under grape cultivation with an annual yield of 70,000 metric tonnes. The State Government has set up a winery in joint collaboration with a farmer. Bathinda white wine and champagne are set to hit the stores before very long. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

Setting An Alarming Trend:ALL-MUSLIM CONGRESS MEET IN GUJARAT, by Insaf, 6 September 2007 Print E-mail

ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 6 September 2007

Setting An Alarming Trend

ALL-MUSLIM CONGRESS MEET IN GUJARAT

By Insaf

Gujarat witnessed last week a new and disturbing development. For the first time, an all-Muslim meeting of Congress MLAs, councillors, local leaders and former MLAs was held in Ahmedabad to demand a “fair share” in the December Assembly polls. Led by PCC Vice President J V Momin, the gathering demanded that at least 14 constituencies should have Muslim candidates. On the ground that there was a sizeable (about 50 per cent) Muslim population in these constituencies. It was pointed out that though the Congress eagerly expected Muslim support, it was not fielding enough candidates and merely indulging in lip service.

The meeting went a step further. It criticized the High Command for not taking action on the Sachar Committee recommendations and pointedly asked whether the Muslims could expect its implementation in lieu of their support. Bluntly, a quid pro quo. The deliberations also brought out the embarrassment caused to the GPCC President, Bharatsinh Solanki, by the meeting and its brazenly communal demands. At one stage Solanki was even involved in a public spat with Vice President Momin. Termed as a “brainstorming” session, the meet raised the “basic question” whether supporting the Congress in poll after poll had done any good for the community. Clearly, the Congress has a problem on its hands, thanks to its shortsighted appeasement policy and vote bank politics.

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Farmers Upset Over Wheat Heist

Forget the Opposition calling it a “shameless loot,” farmers across the country are up in arms against the Union Government’s “wheat heist.” Namely, the Agriculture Ministry’s decision to import 7.9 lakh tones of wheat by paying 150 per cent more ($390 per tonne) over the price ($263) it had negotiated and cancelled in June last. Shockingly, the import price of Rs 16,000 per tonne is about 88 per cent more than the minimum support price of Rs 8,500 per tonne paid to the farmers during the current Rabi season. Not only that, agriculturists also question the need to import wheat in the face of comfortable domestic supply. Wheat production is up by about 8 per cent and procurement by 20 lakh tonnes. “It is a betrayal”, allege the farmers. The Government has surely landed itself in an inedible wheat broth!

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Spat Again In J&K Coalition

All is not well again between the Congress and its alliance partner PDP in Jammu & Kashmir. Both are in a confrontation mood following the resignation of the PDP Housing & Urban Development Minister Qazi Mohammad Afzal from the Council of Ministers. Afzal resigned in a huff after he was unceremoniously divested of the Forest portfolio on “corruption charges” by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad. Notwithstanding, the Chief Minister’s efforts to bury the hatchet by rejecting Afzal’s resignation, the PDP is mulling over whether to continue in the Government or opt for a divorce when the Valley is inching towards an Assembly election. Though backroom manoeuvers are on to salvage the situation, the Afzal issue could well turn out to be the breaking point.

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Mayawati Wins Bye-elections

The UP Chief Minister Mayawati’s honeymoon with the electorate continues. The BSP has wrested two Assembly seats (Swar Tanda and Farrukhabad) from the Samajwadi Party taking its total tally to 208 in the State Assembly. No matter that senior Samajwadi leader Amar Singh told Insaf that his Party was not losing any sleep as the seats were in fact, the pocketboroughs of ex Samjawadi MLA’s who had deserted the party for greener pastures. These victories have not only added to Maya’s hold over UP but also reaffirmed that her social Dalit-Brahmin engineering continues to yield dividends. Adding to her joy is the fact that both the BJP and Congress continue to be in the doldrums, having been rejected outright once more by the electorate. Despite BJP President Rajnath Singh’s tall claims that his support base in the villages remained in tact!

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Uttarakhand To Erase Corruption?

The BJP Government in Uttarakhand is all set to launch Operation Clean-up to rid the State of corruption. Buoyed by his impressive victory in the Dhumakot Assembly poll, Chief Minister BC Khanduri is mulling over launching a crackdown on members of the previous Congress regime and the State babus. On the anvil are exposes on around 56 corrupt deals during his predecessor ND Tiwari’s reign. These include irregularities in the allotment of industrial land plots by the State Industrial Corporation of Uttarakhand. Khanduri has promised to make the findings of the enquiry committee report public. Notwithstanding Khanduri’s reputation for uprightness and a no-nonsense approach, the State Congress leaders are crying foul against this “politics of vendetta”. All eyes are on Khanduri.

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Investors Unhappy In Haryana

All that glitters is not gold in investor rich Haryana. Notwithstanding the State boasting of the largest number of Special Economic Zones (SEZs). Investors are becoming increasingly restive about the poor physical infrastructure and the lack of politico-bureaucratic vision required to positively absorb this investment. Except for the ‘mall mile’ in Gurgaon, Haryana’s beacon of industrialization, is a chaos infrastructurally. There is inadequate power and water supply, increasing traffic density, haphazard growth of colonies and inefficient sewerage system. The tragedy is worse confounded as the State is at the right place (proximity to Delhi) and the right time (booming economy). Yet infrastructurally zero. Clearly, Chief Minister B.S. Hooda has his hands full.

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Kerala DC Shows the Way

The IAS cadre in Kerala is making big waves. Principalled official investigation by District Collector Raju Narayanaswamy has cost the Kerala Public Works Minister, T U Karuvila, his job. Known for his uprightness and taking on the political establishment, the young IAS officer stopped a contractor from blocking off a public road to a poor neighbourhood of Scheduled Castes and grab the land for himself. Even though the contractor was none other than his father-in-law, it did not stop Narayanaswamy from invoking the Criminal Procedure Code, calling in the police and demolishing the wall. This, of course, is not the first for this young bureaucrat, a topper of 91 batch and one who had turned down an MIT scholarship for the civil service. He had earlier forced an influential liquor baron to cough up Rs. 11 crore as taxes to the Government, stopped a minister from turning a hospital into a private medical college among other actions. If only others could follow suit.            

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Women Power in Pune

What the police did not do in two years, women residents of a Pune locality did in minutes. Twenty-odd members of the bachat gats (self-help groups), simply stormed the premises of a wine shop last week and brought down the shed in front of it. The shed, housed on the ground floor of an apartment building, had become a great nuisance for the women and girls in the area. Men would drink there all day, quarrel and pass lewd comments on women and girls who walked past it. Worse, policemen who too would be passersby simply looked the other way. With their complaint to the police hanging fire for two years, the women decided to take the law in their own hands. Can anyone fault them? ----- INFA

(Copyright India News & Feature Alliance)

 

 

 

 

Terror Strikes Again:HYDERABAD RENEWED TARGET, by Insaf,30 August 2007 Print E-mail

ROUND THE STATES

New Delhi, 30 August 2007

Terror Strikes Again

HYDERABAD RENEWED TARGET

By Insaf

Terror revisited cyber city Hyderabad gift wrapped in a black school bag on Saturday last.  Two explosions, barely minutes and five km of each other, left 35 people dead and nearly 60 injured. The bombs ripped through the famous amusement park Lumbini and a popular chaat joint in the old city. This attack comes just three months after blasts in the city’s Mecca Masjid in May in which 10 persons were killed and 40 injured. According to police officials the explosives used in the twin blasts were similar to the one used by terrorists in the Masjid blast. Fingers are being pointed to the involvement of the Bangladesh-based Harkat-ul-Jehadi Islami. Preliminary police investigations have revealed that the blasts might have been caused by improvised explosive devices loaded with RDX.

Meanwhile, the Union Home Minister, Shivraj Patil, who visited Hyderabad after the blasts, has welcomed the Opposition suggestion for a federal crime agency. He was replying to an NDA-backed adjournment motion on the Government’s failure to contain terrorism in the Lok Sabha. Further, such an agency would be set up only in the event of a Centre-States consensus and with the full concurrence of Parliament. However, he ruled-out re-enactment of a POTA type law, strongly demanded by the leader of the Opposition, L.K. Advani, on the ground that it had failed to prevent Parliament from being attacked. Importantly, the Hyderabad blasts have once again brought to the fore the lacunae in handling terror. India has many agencies, but little intelligence. Clearly, New Delhi has to work harder and rise above partisan political considerations to win its war against mounting terror.

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Violence Grips Agra & Gohana

If terror stalked Hyderabad, the spector of communal and caste conflict came back to haunt the Hindi heartland --- Agra in Uttar Pradesh and Gohana in Sonepat, Haryana. Both bore the brunt of mob fury, leaving one dead and 50 injured in Agra and a Dalit youth killed and scores injured in Gohana. Trouble started in Agra, home of India’s most famous monument of love, the Taj Mahal, when four Muslim youths on their way to participate in the Shab-e-Baraat procession, were crushed by a truck. Blinded by fury, the Muslim community pelted stones, burnt 17 trucks, several police vans and looted shops owned by the Hindus. Leading to pitched battles between the Hindus and the Muslims --- and clamping of prohibitory orders in the city and curfew in six sensitive districts. Schools and colleges were shut for three days.

In Gohana, the killing of a Dalit youth has revived traditional hostilities between the Jats and the Dalits. The Dalit perceived this as a revenge killing of a Jat boy two years ago. The Dalit retaliation was followed by a day-long spectacle of the two communities fighting each other. The Dalits, now seething with vengeance, have accused the Bhupinder Singh Hooda Government of doing nothing to protect them. The present clash and tension between the Valmikis and Jats in Haryana is part of the regional make-up. The Dalits have clashed with the “dominant oppressor class” across the region --- recently in the Fatehgarh Sahib district where the rape of Dalit girls by Jat landlords snowballed in to a major political issue. Clearly, the Dalit protest spells trouble for the Congress and its Chief Minister, Hooda.

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JD-BJP Stand-Off In Karnataka

If the Centre is plagued by the acrimony between the Congress and the Left, Karnataka is weighed down by the widening rift between the ruling coalition partners in Karnataka --- the Janata Dal (Secular) and the BJP. The friction came to the fore when the Chief Minister H.D. Kumaraswamy cancelled a crucial coordination committee meeting with the BJP on Saturday last. That too for the second time in a row. Interestingly, the meeting had been called to iron out the differences between the partners following the BJP’s boycott of a Cabinet meeting chaired by Kumaraswamy earlier in the week. The BJP is upset over what it calls “step-motherly treatment” being meted out to the Party. What is more it suspects that the JD(S) is having second thoughts about handing over power to it on 3 October.

Importantly, the cancellation of the crucial meet is viewed by the BJP as an indication of the JD(S)’s change of mind in regard to the power sharing deal between the two parties in January 2006. “Our leaders were ready for the meeting but the JD(S) was reluctant. They seem to be afraid of facing us,” stated BJP President D.V. Sadananda Gowda. Notwithstanding, Kumaraswamy’s explanation that he was forced to cancel the meeting on account of an “official tour” and his promises to hold the cancelled meet next week. More. The BJP’s litany of complaints include: marginalisation of its ministers by Kumaraswamy and appointment by the Chief Minister of a member to the State Public Service Commission, a post that belonged to the BJP’s quota. Equally objectionable for the BJP is the JD(S) assertion that its image had got dented by its alignment with the saffron party.

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Madhya Pradesh Scores A First

Madhya Pradesh has scored a first in an otherwise minor expansion of its State Cabinet. For the first time, a victim of the 1984 anti-Sikh riots, Harendrajit Singh ‘Babbu’, was sworn-in as a Minister in the country. (His father was burnt alive by a mob in his village a day after the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi was shot dead) He was among the six new faces, three of them in the Cabinet rank and three Ministers of State, inducted into the Council of Ministers. Two Ministers of State were also promoted to the Cabinet rank. Another surprise was the re-induction by Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan of his bete noire, suspended MLA and Uma Bharti loyalist, Dr. Shejwar. Needless to say, with this induction Chauhan can now breathe easy. He has another ace up his sleeve: three more ministerial vacancies to fill within the Constitutional quota.

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New Threat In J&K

If terror came to Hyderabad gift-wrapped, a new ‘trigger’ threat looms large over Jammu and Kashmir. Militants there are changing their tactics and now using mobile phone-triggered devices to set off explosives. All it takes to set off this Improvised Explosive Device (IED) is to dial the number or set the phone on alarm mode. This kills two birds with one stone: minimum risk for the militant group and the device is cheap to assemble. The J&K stumbled on this latest device when they discovered the IED packed with five kg deadly explosives, a detonator and mobile phone in Rajouri district last week. So far five blasts have been detected from different regions this summer. Even as the State Government is contemplating ways to combat this new threat, the people at large are worried. Will it deprive them the use of their cell phones, permitted only since August 2003?

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Nitish’s Bihar Sets Trend

Bihar under Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has done what has been long needed in free India: set a trend for office-wear for the Government Babus and enforce it. No flashy or casual clothes any more, according to the dress code issued by the Chief Secretary to IAS officers and other civil servants. All have been asked to dress in sober colours—men in dhoti-kurta or in shirts and trousers and women in saris or salwar kameez. For ceremonial occasions, a sherwani or bandgala is to be allowed.  No other exceptions are to be tolerated. The order follows Patna High Court’s decision to fine two officers for appearing before it in gaudy and non-formal clothes. While senior babus maintain there is nothing new about the code, first prescribed in 1954, it remains to be seen whether they will fall in line or continue to be trendy and fashionable!---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

Snap Poll Alert:CONGRESS CHURNING IN STATES, by Insaf,22 August 2007 Print E-mail

Round The States

New Delhi, 22 August 2007

Snap Poll Alert

CONGRESS CHURNING IN STATES

By Insaf

With the possibility of the country being pushed into a mid-term poll, the Congress has suddenly become conscious about getting its act together. Party units are now on the alert as the Congress High Command starts turning its attention towards revamping its  organizations in the States. Accordingly, some Pradesh Congress Committee (PCC) Chiefs may be replaced in the reshuffle and PCCs reconstituted or constituted where they are non-existent. Prominent among the States likely to witness changes include Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. In Madhya Pradesh, the PCC chief Subhash Yadav, whose stint has been marked by infighting, is likely to be replaced, and a PCC constituted. Incredibly enough, the State has been without a PCC for more than two years.

Those vying for the post are Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly Jamuna Devi, Gwalior scion and MP Jyotiraditya Scindia and Union Minister Suresh Pachauri as former Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, presently AICC General Secretary, is not interested in going back to the State. In UP, where the Congress had to bite dust in the Assembly poll, PCC Chief Salman Khursheed is likely to shift to Delhi. In Rajasthan, notwithstanding former Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot’s keenness to become PCC Chief, chances are that a fresh face may replace BD Kalla as PCC Chief. In the reckoning are former Chief Minister Jaganath Pahadia, PCC spokesperson Param Navdeep Singh and Harinder Mirdha. Ultimately, caste equations would be the deciding factor.

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Kerala Adds to Congress’s Problems 

The UPA’s tie-up with the Left is causing more trouble than it had anticipated. Grappling with the CPMs threat over the nuclear deal at the Centre, the Union Government is now forced to cope with a turnaround by the CPM-led Government in Kerala. The latter has refused to go along with the toll-based Build Operate Transfer model for the construction of the national highway in the State and has asked the Union Transport & Highways Ministry to foot the bill for the 70-km stretch. With the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s talks with Chief Minister Achutanandan making no headway, the Centre is being left with no choice but to cough up Rs 400 crore! Consequently, all remaining road projects in the State have been put on hold till the issue is resolved. 

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Naga Encroachment In Assam

Assam’s cup of woes seems to be over-flowing. On the one hand, Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi’s Congress Government is busy grappling with the violence unleashed by the outlawed ULFA to rid the State of Bihari labourers. On the other hand, Assam’s border dispute with neigbouring Nagaland has assumed sinister proportions. So far, armed Naga depredations were limited to creating havoc in Assam’s border villages. But now they have the tacit support of their State Government in surreptiously encroaching on Assamese land through the rebels in “well coordinated and planned moves.” Not only that. Schools, churches and police stations have allegedly been set-up in Assam’s territory by the Government in Kohima.

Recall, Nagaland has been making calculated and persistent attempts to acquire Assamese territory in pursuance of its grand design of greater Nagalim --- comprising major chunks of Assam and Manipur’s territory. The Nagas continue to be goaded by the belief that Nagaland got a raw deal when it was carved out of the then undivided Assam. Kohima even cites ‘historical facts’ to buttress its claim. Forgetting that the areas demanded by it were earlier hubs of the Ahom kingdom of which the Nagas were never the inhabitants. Sadly, the laxity by successive Assam governments has resulted in Nagaland now controlling a sizeable area of Assam as part of its territory.

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Punjab’s New Deal For Farmers

The Punjab Chief Minister, Prakash Singh Badal, has unveiled a new deal for the State’s poor. Whereby low-priced atta and daal will be provided to over 14 lakh families, including eight lakh Scheduled Castes households, with an annual income of less than Rs 30,000. The scheme aims to provide wheat at Rs 4 a kilo and daal at Rs 20 through fair-price shops. Even as the Opposition dismissed this measure as a “stunt” and “unsustainable”, given Punjab’s precarious fiscal health, an unstoppable Chief Minister went a step further. He has also relaxed the Rs 7,200 per year national criterion to define families living below the poverty line. It remains to be seen whether these measure will decrease the indebtedness of 65 per cent farmers in the State.

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Army To Blame For J&K Ammo Fire?

Is the Army to blame for the biggest-ever fire at the ammunition depot in J&K? Has the military’s callousness also cost the country 23 precious lives --- of 18 Army personnel and 13 firemen? It may well be so. Given the complaints by a fireman and a few others. The fire at the 21 Field Ammunition Depot at Khundroo, in Kashmir on 11 August last, has made Harjeet Singh, brother of one of the personnel killed, recall his letters written in October 2005. Addressed to the Chief of Army Staff, he had warned that inappropriate enrolment of civilians at the depot was resulting in militants drafting their own men. Shockingly, no action was taken. Had it been taken, the army may not have lost its men and property and Singh his brother.

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Tata Brews Another Storm In TN

On the heels of the ruckus it created in Singrur West Bengal, the Tatas have brewed up another storm in sleepy Tirunelveli in Tamil Nadu. Teams from various political parties are crisscrossing Tirunelveli, venue of the Tata titanium dioxide project, eliciting views from the public following a furore over the company’s proposal to acquire 12,000 acres for its project. Worried about its fallout on his Government, Chief Minister Karunanidhi has put the project on hold, after giving his blessing to the Rs 2,500 crore venture. The Tata’s are keeping their fingers crossed amidst the war of words between Karunanidhi and his bete noire Jayalalitha. Both are accusing the other of ‘selling the farmers interest’, as mute farmers watch the unseemly spectacle.

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Himachal Apple Growers Woes

There seems no end to the miseries of the Himachal apple growers. On the heels of the intemperate weather, the orchardists are faced with an acute shortage of ‘specialised’ fruit pluckers – the fleet-footed and determined Gurkhas. The apple belt is dotted with ‘Wanted Gurkhas’ signboards. It isn’t as if there is a dearth of local labour, but plucking apples requires mountaineering specialists, as orchards are located on great heights. Gurkhas have the natural ability to carry heavy loads on their backs and simultaneously maneouvre tricky hill terrain. So desperate is the situation at ground zero that orchardists are sponsoring tours to Nepal to get labour from there.  ---INFA

 (Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)

 

 

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