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STUdent aGE
SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

JKENG/2012/41612 Vol. 2 No: 236

ONLY SMALL GROUP OF PEOPLE INVOLVE IN RIOTS: MANMOHAN

CLASS WAR AT THE CAPITAL

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BARACK OBAMA NOMINATES INDIAN AMERICANS DISTRICT COURT JUDGE

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Omar meets 49 deputations, stresses for special girdawari to assess crop losses
the affected farmers. The Chief Minister said that development of Agriculture and allied sectors are receiving priority attention to ameliorate the lot of people associated with these economically important sectors. While agriculture has been almost kept out of the tax regime, special packages for increasing per hectare production and productivity have been provided to the farmers, horticulturists, animal rearers and entrepreneurs investing in these sectors. As many as 49 deputations and scores of individuals met Chief Minister in today's public Mulaqat and apprised him about various matters of urgent public importance. A deputation from Singhpora, Pahalgam requested the Chief Minister for construction of Singhpora-Manzgam road while the deputation from Anantnag stressed on construction of flyover from Khanabal to Anantnag, it also requested for inauguration of SubDistrict Hospital, Anantnag. The Chief Minister told the deputations that the DPR's for SinghporaManzgam road and Khanabal flyover would be got prepared by 8Contd p2

Political storm erupts over Gen V K Singh's controversial secret unit

NEW DELHI, SEP 20: A huge controversy erupted on Friday over allegations that an intelligence unit set up by ex-Army chief Gen VK Singh misused secret funds to try and topple the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu & Kashmir with the Centre promising action if any serving or retired officer is found involved. As the allegations in a secret Army report that the controversial Technical Services Division (TSD) was involved in unauthorized operations and financial wrongdoings triggered a political slugfest between Congress and BJP, a Union minister on condition of anonymity said a CBI probe into the "extremely sensitive" matter is not ruled out. The defence ministry said it will take a decision about action on the Army report on TSD after its careful examination while asserting it had measures in place to prevent any such undesirable activities. Stating that the report "impinges on matters of national security", the ministry in a statement, however, said it has not yet taken a decision on going for a CBI inquiry, BJP questioned the timing of the report and claimed that Singh was

NEWS IN BRIEF
DM SHOPIAN EXTENDS TIME FOR RECORDING OF STATEMENTS
SRINAGAR, SEP 20: The District Magistrate Shopian has extended the time period for recording of statements/sharing of information by the general public by one week upto 28, September 2013 in view of the prevailing law and order situation in the town. It Is Pertinent to mention that the Government had appointed DM Shopian as an inquiry officer to inquire into the firing incidents at Gagran, Shopian on 7th and 11th of September, 2013.

CM, Omar Abdullah talking to a deputation of farmers at Khansahib, Srinagar. SRINAGAR, SEP 20: Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has asked the Revenue department for the formulation of special girdawari indicating the loss to the crops due to recent hailstorms in the Valley and in other parts of the State. Omar Abdullah said that a comprehensive and detailed report should be formulated so that compensation process would be put on fast track. Talking to a deputation of farmers of Khansahib and other areas who called on him here in the Awami Mulaqat on Friday, the Chief Minister said that the loss to the crops due to the hailstorms would be assessed for compensation to

being "hounded" for sharing the dais with its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at the Rewari rally five days ago. The report was prepared by director general (military operations) Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia as part of a board of officers inquiry formed by Army chief Gen Bikram Singh to review the functioning of the top secret unit set up during the tenure of his predecessor. The report submitted to defence ministry in March this year is understood to have recommended a probe by an external agency like the CBI. The Union minister, who spoke of a possible CBI probe, said the government has taken serious note of the report. Information 8Contd p2

CENTRE ANNOUNCES 10% DA HIKE

NEW DELHI, SEP 20: The government on Friday approved a proposal to hike dearness allowance to 90% from existing 80%, a move that would benefit about 50 lakh central government employees and 30 lakh pensioners. "The Union Cabinet approved the proposal to increase dearness allowance to 90% at its meeting. The hike would be effective from July 1, this year," a source said. According to the source, the increase in DA to 90% would result in additional annual expenditure of Rs 10,879 crore. There would be additional burden of Rs 6,297 crore on exchequer during 2013-14 on account of this hike in DA. This is a double digit hike in DA after about three years. It was last in 8Contd p2

IM terrorist Usmani escapes from court Farooq Abdullah meets Cuban Vice President; offers all help
MUMBAI, SEP 20: What could be termed as a major security lapse, Afzal Usmani, an Indian Mujahideen operative accused in the 2008 Ahmedabad bombings, escaped from a special MCOCA court on Friday when he was brought there for framing of charges. Usmani was also allegedly involved in attempts to bomb various targets in Surat. The IM operative, who was brought to the Maharashtra Control of Organized Crime Act (MCOCA) court along with 18 others from Taloja Central Jail in Navi Mumbai, gave police the slip on the pretext of going to toilet, sources said, adding that a manhunt has been launched to track him down. Four other accused in the case, who were out on bail, also appeared before the court, which deferred framing of the charges till September 25 after Usmani's escape and issued an arrest warrant against him. Police personnel escorting Usmani informed the court about his disappearance at 3pm, following which special public prosecutor Raja Thakre prayed for an arrest warrant, which was granted. "This is a serious offence. It is negligence on the part of the escort team which brought the accused to court. This (his escape) will have impact on other cases also. It is a very unfortunate incident," Special judge A L Pansare said, voicing displeasure over the incident. According to police, Usmani was involved in stealing four cars which were used to transport explosives to Ahmedabad and Surat. He was also charged with planting bombs. A series of 21 bomb blasts had rocked Ahmedabad on July 26, 2008, within a span of 70 minutes, killing 56 people and wounding over 200. Some bombs were planted in tiffin carriers on bicycles. Many of the blasts targeted the city bus service, ripping apart portions 8Contd p2

India to help Cuba develop Renewable Energy resources

NEW DELHI, SEP 20: India has offered to help Cuba develop its renewable energy resources. This was conveyed by Dr. Farooq Abdullah, Minister of New and Renewable Energy to Mr. Marino Murillo, Vice president of the Republic of Cuba at Havana. Dr. Farooq Abdullah is visiting Cuba along with a high level delegation of experts to explore greater opportunities for cooperation and collaboration between the two countries. Dr. Abdullah also held detailed discussions with Mr. Alfredo Lopez Valdes, the Cuban Minister of Energy and Mines. Dr. Abdullah briefed his counter-

NASA FINDS NO LIFE ON MARS

WASHINGTON, SEP 20: No life on Mars? Hopes of finding alien life on Mars may have been dashed after new data from Nasa's Curiosity rover revealed that the Red Planet lacks methane gas, researchers, including one of Indian origin, say. Whether the Martian atmosphere contains traces of the gas has been a question of high interest for years because methane could be a potential sign of life, although it also can be produced without biology. The new finding came as a surprise to researchers because previous data reported by US and international scientists indicated positive detections. The roving laboratory performed extensive tests to search for traces of Martian methane. "This important result will help direct our efforts to examine the possibility of life on Mars," said Michael Meyer, Nasa's lead scientist 8Contd p2

part on the energy situation in India and India's ambitious plans in renewable energy. He explained that India currently has over 29

GW of grid-connected installed capacity using renewable sources of energy and that it has plans over to add over 30 8Contd p2

Constitute single Shrine Board for UPA relief to Mulayam: CBI closes DA all JK temples, shrines: APHCC
JAMMU, SEP 20: All Party Hindu Coordination Committee (APHCC) demanded constitution of single Shrine Board for all the temples and Shrines of Jammu and Kashmir. While addressing media persons, Shri Ram Sena State President, Rajiv Mahajan mentioned that the State Government asked for the suggestion in the passing of temples and shrine bill. Mahajan said "We have no objection in the said Bill but we demand that the Bill be passed in the name and style of 'J and K Hindu Shrine Board'. The temples of Kashmir are not only in poor condition but the temples in Jammu are in no better condition than that of Kashmir temples." Mahajan emphasised that the temples of Jammu be also include in the said Bill. Meanwhile, Mahajan threatened to sit on Dharna on 27th September, outside Press Club, Jammu at 10:00 AM if State Government failed to constitute the desired single Shrine Board for all temples and Shrines of Jammu and Kashmir. He alleged that land comprising of thousands of kanals belonging to various temples and shrines has been sold in J and K, but there is no agency to check all this. He further alleged that the devotees are being exploited by priests of the temples and shrines and misuse the donations. So, it is the need of the hour to protect the funds and property of the Hindu shrines and temples on the pattern of Aquaf Board and District Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee, in the interest of Hindus and it is only possible if the single Shrine Board for all temples and shrines is constituted, he added. The committee appealed to all Hindu organizations to come forward and support the genuine demand of single Shrine Board for all temples and shrines in Jammu and Kashmir to do away with monopoly of some vested interests. Those organizations who supported the religious cause were include Shri Ram Sena, Rural Women Foundation, Shiv Sena 8Contd p2 NEW DELHI, SEP 20: In a big relief to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the CBI on Friday closed a six-year-old disproportionate assets case against him citing lack of evidence. "The CBI has closed the preliminary enquiry (PE) against Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family on account of grossly insufficient evidence," the agency said. In a detailed reasoning, the CBI cited Supreme Court's order of December 13 last year whereby it was said that the income, assets and expenditure pertaining to Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh chief minister Akhilesh Yadav, should be excluded from those of her other family members. "This order necessitated re-assessment of the evidence collected during the enquiry, and a fresh look in accordance with the order of the Supreme Court," the CBI said in its statement here. "We are being very transparent about all cases including this and are ready to stand any legal scrutiny," CBI director Ranjit Sinha told. The

GOVT APPROVES ECO-SENSITIVE ZONES

SRINAGAR, SEP 20: The State Level Committee headed by Chief Secretary Mohammad Iqbal Khandey on Friday finalized and approved the draft proposal prepared by the State Wild Life Department for declaration of areas around National Parks, Wild life Sanctuaries and Conservation Reserves situated in Jammu, Kashmir and Ladakh as Eco-Sensitive Zones. The proposal envisages creation of Eco-Sensitive Zones to act as buffer or shock absorber for the protected area against any non-forest activity by way of regulating, managing and prohibiting such activities around ecologically fragile areas. The width of the EcoSensitive Zone 8Contd p2

1 DIE, 3 INJURED IN ROAD MISHAPS

SRINAGAR, SEP 20: A 4 year old girl died while three other were injured in different road accidents across the valley. A truck bearing registration number Jk13/3068 hit and injured a 4 years old Bisma daughter of Qayoom Bhat resident of Nadihal, Bandipora at Nadihal, in the jurisdiction of Police Station Argam. She succumbed to her injuries on way to Hospital. Argam Police has registered a case in this regard. Meanwhile, a Scorpio bearing registration Jk03A/7474 hit and injured a lady Fatima wife of Mohammad Sharief Chowhan resident of Manzmoh at Dalwalch, Qazigund. The injured was shifted to Hospital for treatment. Qazigund Police has registered a case in this regard. In another accident, an 8Contd p2

CBI said the PE in the case which was registered in 2007 could not be concluded earlier due to litigations and pendency of the review petitions. The CBI said that since Mulayam had not joined the probe earlier in 2007, the agency had calculated his income, that of his sons Akhilesh and Prateek and daughter in law Dimple to Rs 2.63 crore. This had to be changed after the December 2012 judgment of the Supreme Court.

POLITICISING ARMY WILL WEAKEN INDIA

HINDSIGHT
ROHIT SINGH RANA The decision of the government to probe the top secret operations of army established under the former army chief Gen. V K Singh has laid bare the callous and incompetent attitude of the ruling establishment towards the sensitive operations conducted by the army. Here disturbing factor is that two army chiefs are sought to be involved one the former and other the serving. Pitting one against the other is the general impression being carried forward by these developments. A menacing setting is being laid out. A dangerous trend is being perpetuated; a vile attempt with no good in sight is being drummed up. A frenzy is being raised, unfortunately all to the detriment of the vital interests of the country. General V K Singh after retirement has all choice ensured before him by the Constitution of India. He can join any political party or support any one. It is his choice. But Congress seems uncomfortable at his joining the Modi camp. Previously, he supported to anti- corruption campaign. His posturing has not become comfortable for the UPA or Congress. A fantastic argument given by Naresh Agarwal of Samajwadi Party against the decision of Gen V K Singh to join politics is that as army chiefs are privy to top secrets they should not join politics. Unwittingly, Naresh Agarwal has reflected the worth of politics in the country. As an army chief V K Singh could keep his top secrets in his bosom but soon he joined politics, the cancerous virus of political expediency will sting him and he will swallow out all the top secrets! Naresh Agarwal has done some justice to politics by telling the real worth, it has been reduced to. It is nothing short of a political vendetta against an honest General who wanted to uphold the clean image of his forces with his honest demenour. Rashid Alvi, the seemingly soft Congress Spokesperson went all out against the former chief. Pity, when the same grit is required for speaking against the Chinese intrusion, same Alvi meekly and sheepishly says China ko aesa nahin karna chaiye (China ought not do it). Anti- Singh pitch gathered momentum when he stood by the side of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi at his rally in Rewari, Haryana. Congress has developed a strange disease of intolerance. It tolerates no opposition. Either it will bully the person who wishes to lock horns with it or go all out against him. It does not mean that Gen. Singh is above law. If he has done something wrong it ought to be probed. But as the matter relates to the highly sensitive operations, the public row about it will not augur well for the morale of the armed forces. Sensitive governments need to understand that discussing top secret operations in public glare will undermine the security of the country. It is not the issue of knowing the facts but it is the issue of exposing the sensitive operations to political mudslinging. All military intelligence operations are top secret operations. They use secret funds. There is no intelligence operation where you will be told how much fund was used for anything. If you start compromising military intelligence operations or intelligence bureau operations, then there will be a direct threat to the security of India. Presently, in the country there is already a huge internal turmoil going on. It is the military, which is keeping it physically together today. If there is a rivalry between two Generals, it is most unfortunate. Second thing is that this equipment that was bought was bought by defence intelligence agencies and not by military intelligence. Political parties need to understand the security environment facing the country. However with elections near, there is only one thing afflicting the government votes and only votes. The race for votes and pursuing politics on the head counts is all that the political discourse has been reduced to. Wonder if Gen Colin Powell could become Secretary of State of USA and Gen. Eisenhower could become President of America why Gen. Singh is victimised on joining the Modi bandwagon. Having said so, it is important to focus on the working of the Congress mindset in the country. Any opposition to it means a sure trouble. Congress seems to have perfected the art of fine tuning politics with a political carrot and stick policy, especially using CBI against its detractors and allies. Mulayam singh Yadav is a classic example of this policy. Withdraw the cases and give a clean chit to him through the CBI and if he shows some guts, use the investigating agency against him. With Gen Singh, the same screenplay is being replicated. Surely it will undermine the military operations of the country and weaken the morale of officers and men of the army who are at the receiving end of many ills that a government, out to cash on sentiments and votes is raring to do lamentably, to the detriment of the country and its strategic interests.

GREAT INDIAN SECURITY: TERRORISTS ESCAPE FROM COURT!

Dreaded terrorist of Indian Mujahideen, Afzal Usmani escaped from the court when he was being produced before the judge. The terrorist who is an accused in Ahmadabad bomb blasts of 2008 melted into thin air. What can it be called, the heroics of a superman who went invisible in the midst of police Bandobast or its callous attitude. Seems police and the security establishment is not serious enough to keep a continuous eye on the terrorists who are wanted. Having spilled the blood of many innocent Indians, he should have been put in chains instead of allowing to go missing as the police claims. It is not a small thing which ought to be brushed as a onetime error. It is not pardonable to allow or create such a situation whereby a dreaded terrorist escapes from police. IM is a hate organization, involved in scores of bomb blasts in the country. It is also the organization which has derived support from politicians like Digvijay Singh, Salman Khursheed, and the minority affairs minister K Rahman Khan who went to the extent of denying even the existence of IM. Samajwadi Party leader Kamal Farooqi on the arrest of founder of IM Yasin Bhatkal said that he was arrested as he was from minority community. With this mindset and the easy going attitude of the security forces, it is obvious that terrorists will escape from even jails. With many enemies outside, great many inside and the non-seriousness on the part of police, will terrorism ever be controlled, leave aside eradicated from India. RANASAHIB

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STUDENT AGE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

CONTD
ters extremely seriously as it is its duty to do so and asserted that action would follow "after a probe". "The facts mentioned in the report are in the cognizance of the government. If it is found after the probe that facts are true, then action will be taken against those who are allegedly involved in it, whether they are in service or have retired," he said. Rejecting the charge that Gen Singh was being hounded after the Rewari rally and the Army report was politically motivated, Tewari said, "It is extremely surprising that whenever there is an allegation with regard to alleged subversion of an institution, you always find BJP prematurely jumping to the defence of such individuals. "I am quite struck by the fact ... I hope that behind all these incidents there is not the invisible hand of the BJP," he added. BJP spokesperson Nirmala Sitharaman said the allegations against Gen Singh sound absolutely curious and odd not just because of the timing but the contents of the report. "It is obvious that the hounding of the retired army chief is being done because he was seen seated beside Narendra Modi at the Rewari rally," she said. Lt Gen (retd) Raj Kadyan said allegations against TSD are serious and needs to be probed but raised questions, observing its contents are coming out just days after Gen Singh and Modi shared the dais. Maj Gen (retd) GD Bakshi also shared Kadyan's views. The TSD was formed in May 2010 during the tenure of Gen VK Singh and its existence came to light in March last year when it was alleged that the unit had tapped the phones of defence ministry officials at the height of the controversy over the then Army chief's date of birth. Earlier Dr. Abdullah was given a brief on the achievements of Cuba in universalizing health care resulting in significant reductions in infant mortality and increase in life expectancy. He also visited the local polyclinic to understand first-hand the health systems and had detailed discussions there. data for past 12 months to arrive at a number for the purpose of any DA hike. The retail inflation for industrial workers between July, 2012 and June 2013 was used to compute the increase in DA. concentrations, even if the methane had dispersed globally. "There's no known way for methane to disappear quickly from the atmosphere," said one of the paper's co-authors, Sushil Atreya of the University of Michigan. "Our measurements indicate there cannot be much methane being put into the atmosphere by any mechanism, whether biology, geology, or by ultraviolet degradation of organics delivered by the fall of meteorites or interplanetary dust particles," said Atreya. The highest concentration of methane that could be present without being detected by Curiosity's measurements so far would amount to no more than 10 to 20 tonnes per year of methane entering the Martian atmosphere,

2
Atreya estimated. That is about 50 million times less than the rate of methane entering Earth's atmosphere.

CONTINUATION
Omar meets ...
the concerned agencies for arranging funds. He said District Hospital Anantnag would be made functional soon. A deputation of farmers from Ganderbal discussed the matters pertaining to the new Ganderbal hydel project, while deputation of Fishermen Cooperative Society, Habak demanded the construction of fish pond. A delegation from KMD Association brought to the notice of Chief Minister, problems pertaining to the welfare of the members of KMD Association. The students sponsored under PMSSS apprised the Chief Minister of their difficulties in receiving the scholarships. The deputation of degree holders of electronics and communications requested the Chief Minister for issuance of notification so that they could appear in PSC examination. A deputation of Flour Mill Owners Association and a deputation of Fruit Growers Association also brought issues concerning from to the notice of the Chief Minister. Various delegations from Lolab, Tangmarg, Beerwah, Srinagar, Ganderbal, Anantnag, Qaimoh, Budgam, Lar, Bemina, Khansahib, Mujgund during the meeting with Chief Minister apprised him regarding various development needs in their respective areas. A deputation from Qoimoh lead by MLC Abdul Majid requested the Chief Minister for de-notifying Qoimoh as a town. The Chief Minister gave patient hearing to the deputations and the individuals and referred their cases to the concerned quarters for early action. He disposed of many cases of urgent public importance SONU \ HARDWARE STORE \
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on the spot. The Advisor to the Chief Minister Qamar Ali Akhoon was also present in the Awami Mulaqat.

Political storm ...

and broadcasting minister Manish Tewari told reporters that the facts brought out in the report are "extremely sensitive" and if any person - retired or serving - is found involved in the matter, action will be taken. "The contents of the report which have been mentioned in a newspaper are under active consideration of the government. If any malfeasance is found against any serving or retired officer, appropriate action would be initiated. In J&K, political temperatures rose with parties including ruling National Conference demanding a thorough probe into the role of state minister Ghulam Hasaan Mir, who figured in reports of having allegedly received funds from TSD unit to topple the Omar government. Mir, at present agriculture minister in the Omar government, termed these reports as "blatant lies". A media report quoting an Army document said Gen Singh had allegedly misused the secret service funds to destabilise the Omar government, to pay off an NGO to try change the line of succession in the Army top brass, to buy off-air interception equipment and to conduct "unauthorized" covert operations. Replying to a question on possible action against the retired Army chief and his team involved in this matter, Tewari said this is not a question of being individual specific, but it is more of a systemic and structural issue "wherein there are alleged actions which impinge upon the larger ambit of national security." Tewari said the government does take such matRequired Hotel Staff
(5* & 3* in Jammu, Katra & Rajouri)

IM terrorist ...
of the vehicles. Two blasts took place inside the premises of two hospitals, about 40 minutes after the initial series of blasts. 26 unexploded bombs were found at different locations in Surat between July 28 and 30. Two cars filled with material required for making explosives and detonators were found parked on the roadside near a hospital and other on outskirts of Surat. In e-mail messages to some TV channels, the home-grown terror outfit had claimed responsibility for the blasts.

1 DIE, 3 ...
unknown vehicle hit and injured a 60 years Aysha Banoo wife of Ali Mohammad Mir resident of Chandan Panjan at Qazigund. The injured lady was shifted to hospital for treatment. Qazigund Police has registered a case in this regard. In another accident, a tanker bearing registration number JK02W/3974 hit and injured a pedestrian near Harnag crossing, in the jurisdiction of Police Station Kulgam. The injured was shifted to District hospital, Anantnag for treatment. Kulgam Police has registered a case in this regard.

NASA finds no ..
for Mars exploration. "It reduces the probability of current methane-producing Martian microbes, but this addresses only one type of microbial metabolism. As we know, there are many types of terrestrial microbes that don't generate methane," said Meyer. Curiosity analysed samples of the Martian atmosphere for methane six times from October 2012 through June and detected none. Given the sensitivity of the instrument used, the Tunable Laser Spectrometer, and not detecting the gas, scientists calculate the amount of methane in the Martian atmosphere today must be no more than 1.3 parts per billion, which is about one-sixth as much as some earlier estimates. "It would have been exciting to find methane, but we have high confidence in our measurements, and the progress in expanding knowledge is what's really important," said the report's lead author, Chris Webster of Nasa's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, California. "We measured repeatedly from Martian spring to late summer, but with no detection of methane," said Webster. Previous reports of localised methane concentrations up to 45 parts per billion on Mars, which sparked interest in the possibility of a biological source on Mars, were based on observations from Earth and from orbit around Mars. However, the measurements from Curiosity are not consistent with such

Constitute single ...

Hindustan, Kranti Dal, Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh, Dharmarth Trust Sudhar Sangarsh Samiti, Rashtryawadi Shiv Sena and J and K Freedom Fighter Association. Prominent among those who were present in the press conference were include Sunita Sharma, Heena Jamwal (Rural Woman Foundation), Pritam Sharma (Kranti Dal), Karnal Singh (Bhartiya Mazdoor Sangh), Rajesh Kesari (Shiv Sena Hidustan), Vikas Devan (Rashtryawadi Shiv Sena), Ved Gandotra and Bhushan lal Gupta (J&K Freedom Fighter Association).

Farooq Abdullah meets ...

GW more capacity by 2017. He also dwelt on the success of India's wind programme as well as the significant cost reductions in solar energy through the Jawahar Lal Nehru National Solar Mission (JNNSM). Both Mr. Murillo and Mr. Valdez informed the Indian Minister of Cuba's strong desire to diversify its energy mix by exploiting its renewable energy resources, especially in wind and bagasse-based cogeneration projects. They sought India's support and expertise in helping Cuba achieve this objective. Dr. Abdullah recalled India's long standing and traditionally warm relations with Cuba and said that India has always supported the Cuban nation and its people. He offered India's support and expertise in setting up renewable projects as well as in capacity building and project preparation. He also urged the Cuban side to take advantage of the Lines of Credit offered by India in setting up renewable energy projects.

Sushma's remarks on Sonia immature: Congress

NEW DELHI: Congress on Friday dismissed as "very, very immature" Sushma Swaraj's remarks on Sonia Gandhi's foreign origin, saying the Congress chief can become Prime Minister "tomorrow if the party decides" and she doesn't need anybody else's approval. "Definitely, if Sonia Gandhi is to become Prime Minister, she does not need approval of Sushma Swaraj. If Indian National Congress decides, Sonia Gandhi can take over as Prime Minister tomorrow, in 24 hours. That does not need anybody's support, anybody's okay. "If she decides she can take Prime Ministership any day. She had many, many opportunities before to become Prime Minister.... She was offered Prime Ministership on platter. She refused it. There is no parallel in history," party spokesman P C Chacko told reporters. Noting that about three-four times, since 1991 Gandhi was overwhelmingly asked by the party to take over the leadership, he debunked the logic that someone who is an MP and also chairman of the National Advisory Committee could not become the Prime Minister. Assailing the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Chacko said, "senior and serious leaders should not make any such statements." Taking a veiled dig at the BJP leader, he recalled that someone had vowed to shave of her head if Gandhi to become the Prime Minister in 2004. "Parliament is giving all respect to Sonia Gandhi. There is no problem in dealing .....It is a very, very immature statement." The issue of Gandhi's foreign origin had cropped up yet again on Thursday with Swaraj saying she was still opposed to the idea of her becoming Prime Minister. She also appeared to be unapologetic about the vow she had taken in May 2004 to shave off her hair if Gandhi became the Prime Minister. "I have always maintained that Sonia Gandhi came to our country as daughter-in-law of Indira Gandhi and wife of Rajiv Gandhi and thus she is entitled to our love and affection. As the president of the Congress party she is entitled to our respect. But if she wants to become the Prime Minister then I say no," Swaraj said at a book launch here.

Govt approves ...

differs from Protected Area to Protected Area and is meant to protect precious areas from any negative impact and to refine the environment around these areas. The proposal will be forwarded and submitted to the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests for further processing and notification under the Environment (Protection) Act, 1986 in order to conserve the State's forests, environment and wildlife.

Centre announces ...

September, 2010, that the government had announced a hike of 10% to be given with effect from July 1, 2010. DA was hiked to 80% from 72% in April, 2013, effective from January 1, this year. As per the practice, the government uses CPI-IW

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STUDENT AGE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

STATE

3
Governor visits Raahat Ghar at Zakura; meets children
SRINAGAR, SEPTEMBER 20 - Mr. N. N. Vohra, Governor, visited Raahat Ghar, run by the Guild of Service, New Delhi, for the rehabilitation of orphan and destitute children, at Zakura, here on Friday. 52 orphan and destitute children from the far flung areas of the Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region are being provided free boarding, lodging, educational and vocational training facilities by the Raahat Ghar at Zakura. Interacting with Dr. Girija Dhar, Chairperson, Raahat Ghar, and members of the Advisory Committee of Raahat Ghar, the Governor announced that a vehicle would be provided for facilitating the transportation of children of the Raahat Ghar and, besides, a cash support of Rs. 50,000 for this organization to carry forward its work for the rehabilitation of orphan and destitute children. Regarding the need for allotment of land for construction of a permanent premises for

Wani takes stock of developmental activities in Poonch Distt

Lays foundation, inaugurates vital links
POONCH, SEPTEMBER 20- Minister for Roads & Buildings Mr. Abdul Majid Wani, who was on tour of Poonch District, conducted an extensive tour of various areas of the district and took stock of the pace of developmental activities. Minister of State for Health Mr. Shabir Ahmad Khan, besides legislators, Mr. Ajaz Ajan, Dr. Shahnaz Ganai and Mr. Jehangir Hussain Mir also accompanied the Minister during the tour. At Poonch, the Minister inspected District Hospital Building coming up at an estimated cost of Rs. 18 crore. The three storey building is being constructed by R&B Department for which Rs. 10 crore have been released so far. The Minister directed the executing agency for timely completion of the project to avoid needless cost escalation. Mr. Wani also visited Chakkan-Da-Bagh Trade Centre and took stock of the pace of construction work on the centre. The double-storey complex comprising Godown, X-ray cabin, Sentry posts and Administrative block is coming-up at an estimated cost of Rs. 5.45 crore. The Minister was informed construction and opening of Mughal Road, adding that this would promote trade and commerce activities in the area which would transform the socio-economic condition of the locals. He directed the concerned for formulation of DPRs for construction of Dak Bangalow at Chandimarh. Mr. Wani also inspected pace of work on Mughal road. He inaugurated two Snow Clearance Machinery Detts one each at Zaznar and Padpawan Shopian. The Dett buildings have been completed at a cumulative cost of Rs. 1.76 crore. Being a heavy snow bound area, these Detts are of great importance to keep the machinery readily available for snow clearance and keep the road open during inclement weather during winter. En-route various individuals and deputations called on the Minister and apprised him of the problems confronting them with demands for their early redressal. These include construction of road links, bridges, opening and up-gradation of health centres and educational institutions, engagement of manpower for maintenance of roads and provision of adequate water and power supply.

that a proposal amounting Rs. 10 crore has been submitted to the Union Government for installation of large scanner and construction of compound wall and allied works of the centre. At Khanater Tanda, the Minister laid foundation of Suka Chua-Charoon road. The 12 kilometres road would be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 7.73 crore under NABARD, RIDF-XVI which would provide road connectivity to the people of three Panchayats of the area. He also directed the district administration for immediate construction of a small bridge

over Khantar Nalla at Tanda in loving memory of the students who were washed away in flash flood while going to attend their school. At Madana, Mr. Wani inaugurated Madana to Nabana road. The 5 kilometres road was constructed and black-topped by utilizing Rs. 4.02 crore under PMGSY and would connect over half a dozen villages of the area with the Surankot- Poonch main road. At Lassana, the Minister inaugurated Lassana- Bachainwali road. The 3 kilometres blacktopped road was constructed by expending Rs. 2.19 crore under PMGSY.

At Marhote and Sanai Surankote, Mr. Wani laid the foundation of two motorable bridges which would be constructed at a cumulative cost of over Rs. 8 crore under NABARD. At Behramgala, the Minister laid foundation of Deck type motorable bridge over Chandimarh Nallah. The project would be constructed at an estimated cost of Rs. 1.50 crore and would connect habitations of Behramgala Panchayat. At Chandimarh, the Minister addressed a public meeting. He said the movement of vehicular traffic has been increased in the area with the

Raahat Ghar, as brought out by Dr. Girija Dhar, the Governor observed that this matter would be taken up with the authorities. The Governor also viewed the drawings and craft work done by the young girls and lauded their creative talents. He invited the children to visit the Raj Bhavan lawns in the coming days, which has a variety of flowers in full bloom. Earlier, in her welcome address, Dr. Girija Dhar, Chairperson, Raahat Ghar, dwelt on the establishment of

Guild of Service, its activities and the functioning of Raahat Ghar. She also presented various requirements of the Raahat Ghar, including provision of land for construction of its building. Mr. Navin K. Choudhary, Principal Secretary to the Governor, and members of the Advisory Committee of the Raahat Gar were among those present on this occasion. The children presented a brief cultural programme on this occasion.

DDC reviews functioning of RDD

Sericulture department organizes awareness camp under ATMA

SAMBA, SEPT 20 - The department of Seri organized an awareness camp under ATMA (Centrally Sponsored Scheme) at Purmandal to educate the farmers about the latest techniques of silkworm rearing and plantation. As many as, 125 farmers of sericulture and allied sector participated in the camp. MLC Master Noor Hussain, Addl Director Sericulture Dev Dept, Madan Lal Chadgal, HOD SKUAST Jammu, Dr. Kaloo Ram, Chief Agri Officer Samba, and other officers and officials besides farmers were present on the occasion. Speaking on the occasion, Addl Director Seri Jammu stressed upon the farmers to adopt sericulture activities by planting more mulberry plants in their land and conducting silkworm rearing for production of quality cocoon crop.

Vikar reviews functioning of CAPD

Constitutes committee for streamlining of ration distribution

Sham dedicates Rs137.10 lakh WSS to Pindi Sarochan people

Stresses for ground level monitoring of schemes
JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 20 - In an attempt to reach out to the people of border and rural areas, Minister for PHE, Irrigation and Flood Control, Sham Lal Sharma, on Friday dedicated 7500 gallon/hour discharge capacity drill tube well to the people of Pindi Sarochan in Suchatgarh, R. S. pura. MLA Suchatgarh, Sham Lal Shoudhary, Former Minister, R. S. Chib, SDM, R. S. Pura, Chief Engineer PHE, K. K. Gupta, Chief Engineer, Irrigation and Flood Control, Varinder Badyal, SE, Hydraulic, Rajeev Malhotra, Executive Engineers and AEE besides Sarpanchs and Panchs of the area were also present on the occasion. The tubewell has been completed with a cost of Rs.137.10 lakh under NRDWSP. Addressing a largely attended public meeting after inauguration of the tube well, Sham said that with the commissioning of this new water supply scheme, a populace of about 10,000 souls of village Pindi Sarochan and its adjoining areas would get relief from shortage of drinking water. He said that government was highly concerned KISHTWAR, SEPTEMBER 20 District Development Commissioner, Kishtwar, Baseer Ahmed Khan reviewed the functioning of Rural Development Department with focus on schemes like MGNREGA, IAY etc. He also directed the MEN Rural Engineering Wing to prepare a performa indicating all the projects undertaken and ensure proper furnishing of all records of the assets created under various schemes.He stressed on involving the stake holders in proper implementation of the schemes for development of the district. He directed the officers to convene regular meetings at Panchayat level for preparation of development plans of 14 departments. Khan directed the concerned officers to ensure time bound completion of development projects like construction of Panchayat Ghars. He cautioned the officers against any laxity in this regard.

JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 20- Minister of State for Technical Education, CAPD, Power and Information on Friday convened a meeting of CAPD department to take stock of availability of essential commodities besides reviewing functioning of the department in Jammu region. The Minister, who is here to attend the Summer Secretariat, reviewed in detail the stock and supply position of ration in the region. Commissioner Secretary CAPD Mohammad Abbas, Director CAPD G S Chib, Deputy Directors, Assistant Directors and other senior officers of CAPD were present in the meeting. The Director CAPD apprised the Minister of the status of food grain supply in various districts of Jammu region.

The Minister directed the Director to effectively monitor the public distribution mechanism in the districts especially hilly areas and ensure that the quota of ration reaches to the people well in time. He also asked for ensuring that ROs be issued before 15th of every month so that ration reaches to far flung areas in time. He asked the officers to ensure display of stock position, rate list and list of BPL families in each ration sale depot besides monitoring the quality and quantity of ration being supplied to the people. He impressed upon them to keep a check on black-marketing especially of kerosene oil. He asked the officers to initiate stern action against the dealers who violate the prescribed norms of the department.

about the scarcity of water supply in border and peripheral areas of the state, adding that number of water supply schemes have been taken up to provide safe drinking water to the people of these areas. The Minister was informed that the PHE department has taken up number of works under different schemes. He informed that under NRDWSP, nine schemes including WSSs Sai Kalan, Sai Khurd, Dewangarh, Pindi Sarochan, Kotli Aryiian, Fattu Chak, Satowali, Jeora Farm and Chakroi II are in progress with an estimated cost of Rs.1361.77 lakh during this year. Besides, an amount of Rs.164.43 lakh has been proposed under various WSSs during the current financial

Cheques among poor people distributed by jugal

JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 20: BJP State President & MLA from Nagrota Assembly Constituency Jugal Kishore Sharma distributed 57 cheques with total amount of Rs. 28 lakh from CDF on the pattern of IAY scheme in a programme organized at Dansal block headquarters in presence of BDO Ishtiaq Ahmed, Sarpanchs and Panchs namely Mohan Lal Mengi, Parkash Singh, Balwan Singh and Sadiq Ahmed. These cheques were distributed among the BPL families for repair of damaged houses and construction of new ones. Each cheque distributed amount to Rs. 24000 as first installment and the remaining is to be distributed in due course of time. Jugal Kishore Sharma, while speaking on the occasion, said that the Nargota constituency houses a large population of such people who are very poor and identified under BPL category. In these days of price rise these pepole cannot arrange even 2-time meal for their families and manage other minimum needs. None of them can dream of constructing a new house or furnish it with comfortable gadgets. Kishore Sharma said that the recent rains have caused damages to the houses of these people and they were living under open skies for many days. Some of the houses even got totally dashed to the ground. He said that the poor people of given cheques so that they can repair the damaged houses or construct the new ones. He asked the beneficiaries to make judicious use of the funds distributed among them and pay attention on the material quality. BJP leaders including Nand Kishore Sharma, Vijay Kumar Sharma, Uttam Singh, Puran Singh, Karan D.utt, Narayan Dutt, Satish Sharma and Tarsem Singh were present on the occasion.

year. He was also informed that out of the above said nine schemes, two schemes WSS Pindi Sarochan and WSS Sai Khurd are expected to be completed during current year. Moreover, water supply scheme Suchetgarh is being executed under district sector MNP at an estimated cost of Rs.46.07 lakh. Sham said that government was committed to upgrade the existing infrastructure of PHE and Irrigation facilities so that the people of the state get safe drinking water and irrigation facilities. He instructed the concerned engineers and officers to formulate a comprehensive plan for the revival of irrigation canals, traditional reservoirs and check dams to improve the ground water level.

DM clarifies rumors about issuance of gun licences

JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 20 - Reacting to rumors in the district especially in rural areas regarding issuance of gun licenses from the Deputy Commissioner Office Jammu, the District Magistrate has clarified that no special scheme or drive has been launched in this regard. The issuance of gun licenses is being done in a routine manner as per government policy and rules prescribed in Arms Act. Hence, the people are advised not to believe in such rumors and fall prey to any agent or facilitator who promises them issuance of gun license from Deputy Commissioner Office as it may be fake licence. Any complaint in this matter must be brought into the notice of Deputy Commissioner or Sr. Superintendent of Police, Jammu. It is also brought into the notice of general public that new computerized system for issuing gun license has been issued and no gun license henceforth shall be entertained which does not bear computer generated

LPG safety awareness camp organized by Air force

JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 20: Air Force Gas Agency 'VAHNI' organised LPG safety awareness camp under the aegis of Air Force Station Jammu, on Friday. The motto of the gas agency is 'Maximum Customer Satisfaction'. The programme started by lighting of lamp by Mamta Patange, President Air Force Wives Welfare Association(Local), Air Force Station Jammu followed by the inaugural speech by Air Commodore P E Patange YSM, VM, Air Officer Commanding, Air Force Station Jammu. The camp was attended by all the Sanginis of Air Force Station Jammu, and the customers from other sister services. It was also attended by M K Sinha, Senior Area Manager, IOC, Jammu, A M Lone, Dy Area Manager, IOC, Jammu and Ms Neha Thapa, Field Officer IOC. During the awareness programme, Lectures were conducted on safety measures to be followed, while usage of LPG cylinder, precautions to be taken during any LPG emergencies, how to ensure maximum utilization of LPG cylinder. A door to door LPG safety check is also planned by personnel of Air Force Gas Agency with IOC personnel on 2021 Sep 13. Air Force Gas Agency was established in the year 1990, and at present has a total customer base of around 3500.

unique number. All the renewals of gun license are also taking place on computerized system only and no manual renewal without computer generated ID shall be valid for license renewed after September, 2013 from Jammu district. Old licenses issued from Jammu district without any computer generated ID shall remain valid and those will be provided computer generated IDs as and when those are produced for renewal. This system has been adopted for controlling the fraudulent and fake gun licenses.

Mir inaugurates Ladakh festival with fun fair

Says Ladakh emerging as must visit place in the world

Bhalla lays foundation stone of culverts, deep drain

'JKHB developing new residential colonies'
JAMMU, SEPTEMBER 20- Minister for Housing, Horticulture and Culture Raman Bhalla has said that Jammu and Kashmir Housing Board (JKHB) has prepared a comprehensive plan to create modern line infrastructure facilities in urban as well as rural pockets of the State like recreational park, parking slot, playfield, super bazaars, culverts and surface drainage system. This was stated by the Minister while addressing a large gathering at Channi Rama in W. No. 49 near Shiv Temple after laying foundation stone of 100 feet two culverts and long deep drain, here on Friday. Managing Director Jammu and Housing Board Mr. Ram Pal Sharma besides senior officers of PHE, JKHB, PDD and R&B accompanied the Minister. Mr. Bhalla informed that both the projects would be to lay stress on evolving innovative measures to further tone up the functioning of JKHB to make it a competitive and profit earning organization. He impressed upon the functionaries of the Housing Board to facelift and maintain its assets properly and step up efforts to improve the revenue generation. Mr. Bhalla gave its nod to some new initiatives of the Housing Board which included development of colonies at Dhani Dhar Rajouri, Battal Wallian, Udhampur, Meen Charkan in Samba, Kathua and Mujgund in Srinagar. Regarding modernisation of Pamposh Colony nallah with slab, the Minister informed that Economic Reconstruction Agency (ERA) has prepared a detailed project report of Rs. 5 crore for draining the 'barsati nallah' adding that the project would be started soon.

completed with an estimated cost of Rs. 72.40 lakh by JKHB. He said with the construction of culverts -cum deep drain, the surface drainage problem of the people would be solved to a large extent. Responding to the demand of locals, the Minister announced Rs. 15 lakh for development of local recreation parks of Channi Rama. Mr. Bhalla asked the officers to prepare the inventory of

Housing Board assets besides available land across the State adding that Government was keen to develop new colonies as per the master plan under selffinancing schemes. He stressed the need to put the assets of the board to best use and revenue generation. The Minister stressed the need for developing more residential colonies in new areas for accommodating the houseless people. He asked

LEH, SEPTEMBER 20: Describing J&K a symbol of unity in diversity, the Minister for Tourism Mr. G. A. Mir on Friday said that despite having varied cultures, religion and languages all the three regions of the State -Kashmir, Jammu and Ladakh- is a single entity. Speaking at the inaugural function of the week long Ladakh Festival here today, the Minister said that Jammu and Kashmir is famous all over the world for its scenic splendour and hospitality adding that all out efforts are being made to market vast tourism potential of the State in the world of Tourism. Thousands of spectators and a large number of foreign as well as domestic tourists were present on the occasion.

Minister for Urban Development, Mr. Nawang Rigzin Jora, CEC, LAHDC, Rigzin Spalbar, Executive Councilor Tourism, Mohammad Shafi Lassu, Executive Councilor Animal Husbandry Gyurmet Dorje, former Union Minister P Namgyal, DC, Leh Simrandeep Singh, SP, Leh Vivek Gupta, heads of political, religious and social organization of district were also present on the occasion. Complimenting people of Ladakh, especially the Hill Development Council for organizing the festival-presenting the true color of the rich cultural heritage of Ladakh region- the Minister said that Ladakh's beauty and charm is unique and incomparable. Mir urged upon the peo-

ple to safeguard the matchless heritage of Ladakh for the posterity. Giving details about upcoming tourism infrastructure in Leh, the Tourism Minister said that facilities for Conventions, Golfing, Spiritual Interpretation and adventure tourism is being developed in a big way to develop Ladakh as a major international tourist destination. Mir credited Jora for his remarkable efforts in promotion of tourism in the State during his tenure as Tourism Minister and said that he is the man who laid a well thought out master plan for development of Leh as a perfect tourism destination adding that the Ladakh region is fast emerging as a must visit place on the world tourism map.

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STUDENT AGE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

EDUCATION AGE

Allahabad University reopens its Central Library for students after more than a decade
ALLAHABAD, SEPTEMBER 20: The Allahabad University once again reopened its Central Library for students after more than a decade. The University had stopped issuing books to students in 2001. Presently, the research scholars have the permission to issue books and take them home, whereas the students of graduate and post graduate courses will avail this facility from October. The Central Library of the university had stopped issuing books to students after receiving several complaints of theft and misuse by students and officials. A detailed proposal was tabled in the meeting of the library committee, recently, which mulled over intricacies involved in starting the practice again. There are presently around 10,000 UG students along with 5,800 PG students and 1,400 research scholars at AU. According to the new rules, every UG and PG students would be issued books for a period of 15 days whereas a research scholar can keep a book for one month. While UG students would be getting one book at a time, PG students can get two. A research scholar, on the other hand, will be able to issue three books on his name. The books have to

4 Born in Maharashtra, but can't apply for 85% of MBBS seats

examinations earlier this year, found that his application for admission to an MBBS course through the state quota was rejected as he had done his SSC and HSC from Andhra Pradesh. The rule is that 85% of seats in a government medical college come under the state quota, while 15% under the all-India quota. According to Arvind, students with marks less than him had been given admission. "The norm of requiring a student to pass SSC and HSC from an institution in Maharashtra is prejudicial to students and results in denial of admission to meritorious candidates who may otherwise have domicile in the state," argued Arvind's lawyers. The state's lawyers defended the rule, saying the government had powers to add proper conditions and terms for regulating admissions through the 85% quota.

be returned within the stipulated time period failing to do it will call for a fine of Rs 2 per day. In case a book is lost, the original cost of the book will be charged on the student along with a fine of Rs 500 per book. All the books have to be returned before the exams and students have to get a no dues receipt to receive the admit card. Moreover, the students will not be issued any library

card as the officials will keep a track of every book issued to them via new software called LIBSYS. Even as the library authorities were prepared to start issuing books from next month, the All India Student Union (AISA) activists observed a fast on campus on Thursday and demanded to start the facility on the day itself. The authorities issued the first book to a student, Ramayan Ram.

MUMBAI, September 20: Students seeking admission to MBBS courses in Maharashtra through the state quotahave to clear the SSC and HSC examinations, or their equivalent (i.e, ICSE/ISC, CBSE and IB) from an educational institute in the state, theBombay high court has said, upholding a rule, reports Shibu Thomas. Dismissing a petition by a student from Aurangabad who had challenged the rule as discriminatory, the court said, "The state has not made any wholesale provision giving preference to domicile only, and has found it necessary to impose the twin requirement (of passing SSC and HSC from institutions in Maharashtra)." Court cites exceptions to Maharashtra's MBBS rule The Bombay high court has held that the HSC/ SSC requirement for students applying to MBBS courses could not be said to be arbi-

trary or perverse. "The petitioner has failed to point out any hostile discrimination," said a division bench of Justices B P Dharmadhikari and Ravindra Ghuge. "We are unable to hold that by omitting to provide any reservation for students like the present petitioner, the state has committed any error." The court said that while the rules provide that normally a student applying for admission through the state quota should have done SSC and

HSC from Maharashtra, exceptions are carved out in the norms. One of the exceptions is for children of state and government employees and domiciled students who passed SSC elsewhere, but appeared for HSC in Maharashtra. The petition challenging the rules was filed by Arvind Rao (17; name changed) through his mother , who is a medical practitioner and a professor at a dentistry college in Latur. Arvind, who passed his HSC

Education department prepares to shut down the schools in Nashik

NASHIK, SEPTEMBER 20: The fate of 6,295 students enrolled in 457 primary schools (452 run by local self-governing bodies and five by private institutions) in the district, now hangs in balance, as the education department prepares to shut down the schools. A meeting of officials of the department is likely to be held in Pune within a couple of days to discuss the issue. There were 457 schools in the district found with less than 20 students enrolled, 447 of them werezilla parishad (ZP) schools. "There are 447 schools run by the ZP management and the rest are under private management or others," a senior educational officer said. The list of schools, other than the ones run by the ZP management, on the radar of the educational department include one privately aided school, four privately unaided schools, one school each belonging to the social welfare department and the Railways while three run by the Nandgaon municipal council. The education department has decided to close down schools that have less than 20 students enrolled but has not yet given any guidelines regarding the adjustment of the students and teachers. "The rehabilitation of the students is must and the department is thinking about it. This is yet to be decided and we are awaiting the meeting to be held in Pune," the official said. The 457 schools have, in all, 6,295 students with 832 teachers, of which, 690 are male. Surgana, a tribal taluka, has the highest number of schools that have less than 20 students. There are 108 schools here and only one of them is run by the social welfare department. The number of students that will be affected with this move stands at 1,271. "Tribal areas are remotely located and are therefore, largely inaccessible. Besides, the schools have to be placed closer to the wadis and villages, which compelled the ZP administration to open schools near the settlement. Although there are many schools run by tribal department, there are some children who have still not been enrolled to schools. Hence, the ZP opened schools in rural areas, despite just 19 students enrolled in each school," the official said.

Government proposes standards for playschools Gujarat DELHI, University NEW SEPTEMBER 20: has proposed decides to Government standards for playschools include the size of the restart the that and outdoor space, mandatory use of yoga centre classroom mother tongue or vernacular
language as medium of instruction and student-caregiver ratio. These conditions are part of the 'early childhood care and education' (ECCE) formulated by the women and child development (WCD) ministry and slated to be discussed in the Union Cabinet on Friday. Among the "base standards" that are "non-negotiable" include an ECCE programme for three-four hours, one classroom for a group of 30 children measuring at least 35 square meters and with the availability of a minimum outdoor space of 30 square meters, separate space for cooking nutritionally balanced meals and nap time for children, caregiver and student ratio of 1:20 for children between three and six years and 1:10 for kids under three years. The norms also specify that the primary medium of instruction will

MSc course at Mumbai University open to students from other universities

MUMBAI, SEPTEMBER 20: From the next academic year, students from other varsities will be allowed to pursue MSc at Mumbai University after completing a bridge course. Till date, the course was not open to students who had done their undergraduate course in BSc from other varsities, as their syllabus was not equivalent to what was offered in Mumbai. The university's academic council on Thursday approved the syllabus for the bridge course. The course will be for 12 credits and will currently be biotechnology and chemistry. The dean of science, Madhuri Pejaver, said, "BSc in other universities has three subjects in the final year. We have only one subject and so it is covered in detail. The bridge course offered will have to be done simultaneously with the MSc. It is for 12 credits and students have to ensure that they do it before they take the MSc exam, so it is advisable to do it in the first semester." The academic council also passed the perspective plan, which will be now presented in the senate.

offered for MSc in comput-

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A H M E D A B A D , SEPTEMBER 20: Gujarat University has decided to restart the yoga centre which was earlier closed due to lack of students. In this regard, GU has tied up with Lakulish Yoga University. The vice-chancellors of both the universities met each other and decided to start short-term courses. The short-term courses will be of three and six months duration. The university has allocated building and infrastructure for the yoga centre, acting GU VC Mukul Shah initiated talks with Bansidhar Upadhyay, the VC of Lakulish Yoga University (LYU), on Wednesday to start the defunct centre. "The courses are going to be for the current GU students as well as those interested in pursuing short courses in yoga," said VC Mukul Shah. The VC also said that there could be a course of 20 credits for the GU students in the new system of choice-based credit system.

be mother tongue or local language. Other conditions include age and developmentally appropriate and child-centric curriculum, first aid services, adequate and safe drinking water, separate child-friendly toilets. Playschools will be monitored by the National ECCE Council that is expected to be set up within three months of the policy being ratified. The policy also mandates that the Council create a regulatory framework within a year and state councils within 18 months. India has 158.7 million children between 0-6 years. The WCD ministry reaches out to

80 million children through its ICDS programme and provides care and education for kids of working mothers through 23,785 creches. The WCD ministry plans to advice all state governments to notify ECCE as a subject. The ministry is also likely a legislation that will "promote integrated and comprehensive child development detailing age appropriate interventions to address various facets of care, education, survival, protection and development of all children under 6 of age assuring the right of the child in early childhood to integrated child development," the draft policy said.

Over one lakh govt elementary schools across the country still don't have toilets, drinking water facilities
NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: More than three years after the implementation of the RTE Act and an expenditure of over Rs 46,282.11 crore on school infrastructure, around 1.28 lakh out of 10,75,407government elementary schools across the country still don't have toilets and over 61,000 lack drinking water facilities. According to the District Information System for Education 2011-12, Bihar has 18,169 schools without lavatories, the highest among states. Andhra Pradesh follows with 18,092 such schools, while Chhattisgarh (14,697), Jammu & Kashmir (12,341), Odisha (10,579) and Uttar Pradesh (12,104) are others with more than 10,000 schools lacking the facility. Jharkhand has 8,404 such schools and West Bengal 7,561.

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5
Sunni population of the region to converge on the outskirts of Damascus. The who's who of the fighting forces resembles onetime Afghanistan. On the regime side are the Alawite Army, local militias supporting the Army and the regime; moderate Sunnis and about 5,000 to 10,000 Hezbollah fighters who have joined battle on the express orders of Iran. Tehran's aid to Damascus totals nearly $17 billion with the Assad regime being one of its key beneficiaries. The 2,00,000 strong Syrian Army is backed by a small Air Force with Russian equipment. Arrayed against these forces are constituents of the Free Syrian Army - local Islamic militia linked to the Muslim Brotherhood; regime rebels not motivated by religion; and international jihadists linked to Al Qaeda which does not have a military presence as yet. There are reports of Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan also being in the fray. Together the opposition has 1,00,000 fighters and among these are 5,000 to 7,000 foreign jihadists from 30 countries, though the majority are Syrians. Nearly 700 of the foreigners come from Europe, mainly the UK, France, Finland, Belgium, Ireland, Denmark and so on. The rebels are in the rural areas in the north and north-east with the main cities and key road arteries held by regime forces. Small pockets of real estate keep changing hands like the historic Christian town of Maaloola between the roads from Damascus to Homs which altered ownership thrice last week. Jabhat-al Nusra is one of the leading rebel groups fighting around Homs. The success of regime forces is due to lack of any unity of effort and absence of clear political and military leadership among the opposition. Fighting among the rebels is not uncommon. In the rebel-held areas people are not in favour of sharia'h or any form of Islamic jihad. Druze Christians, Alawites and Kurdish communities are likely to stick to their horses. Syrian society is divided between pro-Assad and antiAssad groups with majority sitting on the fence. It is to the regime's credit that no military unit, senior General or Ambassador has defected. All state institutions are intact and loyal to President Bashar al-Assad who enjoys the political, military and financial support of Russia and Iran as well as China's backing at the UN. At this rate, the war can go on till one side or the other tires out or caves in. The Iran-Iraq war waged for eight years till 1988 and Iraq had used chemical weapons against Iran. The weapons and logistics supply lines to the rebels are open and uninterruptible. The CIA is known to be coordinating the supply and replenishment of war stores. The US, Turkey, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Croatia and other Western and Arab states have joined the covert re-supply chain. Airfields in Turkey and Jordan received 160 flights in January 2013 alone to keep the rebels abundantly supplied with military stores which include Chinese SN6 anti-helicopter missiles. With no decisive victory possible for either side, the following scenarios are possible: The present strategic and tactical stalemate will continue. Without regime change minus Mr Assad, a negotiated solution is unlikely In the event of US military strikes, the civil war will escalate into a broader regional war with spillover of terrorism. Bifurcation (or trifurcation) a la future Afghanistan. Two and a half years on, whatever the odds, Syria promises to go the Afghanistan way.

ENSURE SAFETY
Street food is gaining more popularity, as urbanisation is gaining speed, and receiving more regulatory attention in the country. There has always been a strong tradition of street food and its patronage in the country. According to some estimates, 80 per cent of the population access street food. It has spread from cities to small towns, with life style changes and faster and more efficient ways of preparation of food giving it an extra push. While traditional food has maintained its hold on the palate there is also greater diversity on offer, and an integration of tastes and habits is taking place across the country. This has also brought in its wake concerns and the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has said that it plans to study the state of street food in terms of quality, environmental issues and other factors. A survey made by the health ministry in 16 cities has found that 90 per cent of the street food is unsafe for consumption. An FSSAI study in Kolkota found that the food is cheap and gives nutritional value in terms of calories but hygienic standards are very unsatisfactory. The quality of water used, the manner of cooking, display and handling of food and waste disposal are all problem areas. The FSSAI is planning to make an intensive study of street food in Lucknow and Varanasi after the pilot study in Kolkota. It also has a city-wise action plan to make street food safer and better and to select streets in eight cities to be developed as model street food zones. The food safety and standards law mandates licencing vendors who number about one crore. The numbers show how important the street food business is to millions of families. The state of its health is also important for many more millions of people who like to eat standing, half sitting or even walking, enjoying food made in the simplest of ways. It is a place where public health, personal tastes and livelihood needs meet, traditions of taste are maintained and refined, varieties are preserved and new entries are encouraged. As a recent consultation on street food pointed out, its potential for employment, food and health security and tourism is huge. Improving its standards is a big challenge but the effort has to be made.

SYRIA COULD BE THE NEXT AFGHANISTAN

BY ASHOK K MEHTA
The Bashar al-Assad regime is facing trouble from a bunch of Western powers and the armed rebels from within. Whatever happens, a prolonged period of uncertainty is a certainty. At least two films on the civil war in Syria are being played at the Toronto International Film Festival. Like our own epic on the war with Pakistan, one of them is called Border. Like Libya, Iraq and Afghanistan in the past, international attention is now riveted on Syria. Experts say had France not intervened, a Taliban regime, the first after Afghanistan, would have been in place in Mali. Syria itself, many fear, is becoming another Afghanistan, a more central safe haven from where terror can be exported - especially after US-led military strikes to punish Syria for the alleged use of chemical weapons are launched. Most of the last week, I watched from Tel Aviv, Border play out to a swift anti-climax with the Russia-Iran peace plan of putting beyond use the Assad regime's stockpile of chemical weapons, ostensibly postponing aerial retribution of the Kosovo kind. "Make no mistake", US President Barack Obama reminded Syria, "the military option is not off the table till the full implementation of the agreement". Through the peace initiative, Russia not only stole victory from the jaws of diplomatic defeat but also rescued Mr Obama from the embarrassment of a negative vote from Congress on his Red Line threat. For Israel, the removal of chemical weapons from its doorstep means that the stockpile cannot fall into the hands of terrorist groups especially Hezbollah. One hundred and eighty-nine countries have signed and ratified the Chemical Weapons Convention of 1993 with seven states Angola, North Korea, Egypt, South Sudan and Syria - staying out. Burma and Israel have signed but not ratified the CWC. But what happens to deterrence and strategic signalling to the six states holding out and Iran which is determined to acquire a nuclear weapon and possibly use it? The virtues of deterrence from a limited strike may have to be sacrificed on the altar of political expediency and preventing conflict escalation. The unthinkable US-IranRussia cooperation on Syria's chemical weapons could conceivably lead to an eventual face-saving solution for Iran's nuclear programme. Even a demonstrative US strike is expected to send the jihadists on a rampage in the region. Israel destroyed Syria's nuclear programme four years ago last week and has bombed Syria thrice this year for attempting to transfer quality weapons to Hezbollah which is Israel's current Red Line. Any bombing campaign will endanger the new nuclear reactor of miniature neutron source on the outskirts of Damascus which has one kilogramme - not a large amount -of highly enriched uranium. Still it poses a collateral threat of nuclear radiation. Last week saw the first ever series of suicide attacks in Egypt - two in Sinai and one in Cairo. All this escalation in terrorism is occurring when Syria is slowly dissolving. Two million refugees and 1,20,000 casualties account for nearly one third of the seven million Syrian population that has gone missing. The war in Syria is not the direct fallout of the Arab Spring but of the peasant revolt resulting from the failure of the wheat crop in the rural areas which forced the mainly

Most of the last week, I watched from Tel Aviv, Border play out to a swift anti-climax with the Russia-Iran peace plan of putting beyond use the Assad regime's stockpile of chemical weapons, ostensibly postponing aerial retribution of the Kosovo kind. "Make no mistake", US President Barack Obama reminded Syria, "the military option is not off the table till the full implementation of the agreement". Through the peace initiative, Russia not only stole victory from the jaws of diplomatic defeat but also rescued Mr Obama from the embarrassment of a negative vote from Congress on his Red Line threat.

STOP THE MISCHIEF

The issues of revision of gas price of Reliance Industries Limited (RIL)-operated KG-D6 in the Krishna basin and the penalty to be levied on the company for shortfall in production are getting murkier with Union petroleum minister Veerappa Moily being accused of openly supporting and shielding the Mukesh Ambani-led company. While the controversial revision of gas price from $ 4.2 per mmbtu (Million Metric British Thermal Units) to $ 8.4 mmbtu is being hotly debated, the minister has come in for criticism for allegedly stalling the recovery of $ 1.8 billion penalty from RIL for shortfall in production over the last four years. CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta, who has been pointing out the "deliberate malfeasance of RIL," shot off another letter to prime minister Manmohan Singh on Saturday seeking his intervention. Dasgupta's contention is that the Director General of Hydrocarbons (DGH) had submitted a proposal to disallow costs of $ 756 million for shortfalls in production for the year 2012-13, taking the cumulative disallowance to $ 1.8 billion, with which both the petroleum and finance ministries had concurred. When the file was sent to Moily for approval to send notices to RIL, he overruled the officials and recommended that the matter be again referred to the Solicitor General and the law ministry for clarification. The point to be noted is that the DGH, the technical arm of the petroleum ministry, had written as many as seven letters between December 2010 and April 2011 to RIL referring to its lapses and rejecting its contention of 'geological uncertainty' for the shortfall. In fact, then petroleum minister Jaipal Reddy had given a go ahead for recovery of penalties, before he was abruptly shifted out of the ministry.The government's justification for doubling the domestic wellhead price of natural gas is that it will attract greater investment. But it has proved to be a fallacy as after the price was revised from as low as $ 1.79 mmbtu to $ 5.25 mmbtu, the investment in the sector and the country's gas output actually dropped -- the bulk of the drop attributed to slowing down of production by RIL. It requires no genius to conclude that RIL deliberately kept the production low while it lobbied for higher price. Dasgupta insists that RIL should be asked to make good the shortfall of a total 154 mmscmd at the old rate of $ 4.2 per mmbtu which would result in a saving of Rs 63,000 crore to the country or else a windfall profit of the same amount to the company. The prime minister should shed his ostrich-like approach and intervene immediately.

CLASS WAR AT THE CAPITAL

BY PRABHAT PATNAIK
Karl Marx, I am often told, is out of date. But the conditions of work that prevail at this very moment in industrial establishments within barely a dozen kilometres of New Delhi are reminiscent, if anything, of a period that even pre-dates what Marx was writing about. The level of regimentation is such that workers are not allowed more than five minutes during the entire working day for visiting the toilet. And this is true not just of garment workers whose employment habitats are widely recognized as being notoriously akin to sweat-shops; it is also true, as a recent public hearing revealed, of workers in one of modern India's show-case factories, the Maruti-Suzuki plant near Gurgaon. Indeed, it is a common practice among workers near India's capital to cut drastically their intake of fluids, so that they do not violate their quota of five minutes of toilet visit per working day. Since the garment factories around Gurgaon have to sell their products to big multinational companies like Gap and H&M, the public relations staff of which project them as having "corporate social responsibility", an impression has to be created that the conditions of work where the garments are produced are decent. Towards this end, inspection mechanisms have been put in place to keep the multinational company's image among its customers intact. According to garment workers' testimony however, the days of inspection are known to the factory management well in advance; and on those days several temporary toilets are put up in the factories, so that inspectors go back satisfied with the facilities enjoyed by the workers. But the moment their backs are turned, the temporary toilets are promptly removed, since too many toilets are obviously not necessary if each worker is allowed a five-minute visit per day. Lest it be thought that the garment-selling multinational companies are well-meaning innocents while villainy is confined to the local factory bosses, I should clarify that the work-norms according to which the workers are paid are specified by these multinational companies to the factories to which they outsource their work. These norms are such that the workers (who are all on piece rates) are paid only eight hours' wages for a piece of work that actually takes them no less than 10 hours. They do not get a penny for the two hours of extra work they do to fulfil their work-norm. The fixing of the norm, in other words, is so rigged by the multinational organizations behind the backs of their customers who might otherwise raise objections that unpaid surplus labour is appropriated through an implicit lengthening of the working day for the same wage, exactly as Marx had highlighted. Nassau Senior, the first professor of political economy at Oxford, had objected strenuously in his time to a reduction of the working day by one hour, on the grounds that all profits were earned from that last hour's work. This claim is what had elicited Marx's derisive references to "Senior's last hour". The derision was justified: if the workers could produce value that is equivalent to the value of their wage basket in six hours of work in a total working day of 12 hours, then a reduction of this working day to 11 hours will reduce profits by only one-sixth; it will not eliminate profits. Put differently, Senior's argument in the context of a 12-hour working day amounted to saying that the share of profits in value added was a mere 8 per cent, which is absurd since this share was perhaps more than half even in the middle of the 19th century. But Senior's concern, which reflected the concern of the capitalist class of his time, to many of whose members he was personally close, though expressed through an erroneous argument, stemmed from an appreciation of the importance of the length of the working day. Marx had emphasized precisely this importance; Senior, ironically against his own will, was therefore only proving Marx right. What is remarkable, however, is that notwithstanding all the technological progress that has taken place since Marx's days, all the automation that is supposed to have eliminated the need for human labour, and all the talk about the superiority of Japanese-style benevolent employer-worker relationships over the traditional Western capitalist preference for dealing with workers with a 'stick', capitalists still continue to be obsessed with lengthening the working day to the maximum extent possible, to a point where even more than five minutes of toilet time for workers becomes unacceptable to them. While all this is reminiscent of Marx's days, there is an important respect in which workers' condition here is worse than in those days; and that relates to workers' organization. Marx's days were characterized by workers' "combinations" that later grew into powerful trade unions; but the hallmark of the industrial establishments around Delhi today is the virtual absence of trade unions. This is true not only of the garment workers, as one would expect, but, surprisingly, even of workers in the modern Maruti-Suzuki factory. In this factory too, as in the rest of the country during the period when it is supposed to have been "shining", there has been a persistent tendency to replace regular workers with contract workers; since the latter are more difficult to unionize, this undermines the prospects of unionization. Nonetheless there has been an attempt for some time now to form a union at the Maruti factory that brings together both the remaining regular workers and the contract workers. And this attempt has been fiercely resisted by the management, leading to a prolonged conflict at the factory. This conflict reached a flashpoint when there was violence at the factory on July 18, 2012, in which a company executive was killed. How this occurred remains a mystery. While the blame was put on the agitating workers, it was stated at the public hearing that no proper investigation was held into the incident; and the executive who died was supposedly sympathetic to the workers who had no cause for anger against him. And yet his death was the occasion for 147 workers to be rounded up and charged with murder under Section 302 of the Indian Penal Code. They continue to languish in jail since then, for more than a year, without any bail and without even any parole on occasions like the birth of a child or the death of a parent. I am reminded of two deaths that had occurred in colonial times. One was in Kayyur in the Western Ghats in Kerala, where a policeman faced by an irate mob consisting of people, some of whom had been victims of excesses committed by him a few days earlier, jumped into the Kariangode river below and drowned. The other was in the princely state of Ranpur in Odisha where the British political agent was lynched by an irate mob during a praja uprising. The colonial government had unleashed massive repression in both places, but on neither occasion were a hundred-odd people charged with murder. It is a symptom of the retrogression we have made in the realm of civil liberties and democratic rights that in independent India a hundred-odd workers are charged with murder for an uninvestigated death in a factory. The proximate reason for this retrogression is obvious. The judge, while denying bail to the accused workers, had said that granting bail would send a wrong signal to the prospective foreign investors in the country (since Maruti is now a foreign-owned company). It is not a judge's business, of course, to be concerned about signals to investors; but he was simply expressing what has become the dominant official obsession in the country. And if this obsession is to be nurtured, then denying rights to workers, putting as many of them in jail as possible if they dare to talk of forming a union, becomes quite naturally the order of the day. It was mentioned at the Maruti workers' public hearing that a top executive of the company had justified its actions on the grounds that they were engaged in a "class war". He was more perceptive than most intellectuals who call Karl Marx dated. But in one sense he was wrong. What we are witnessing is not a normal "class war", but a "class war" in which the ruling classes are fast moving in the direction of fascism. I had written earlier in this column ("A Mosaic Fascism", The Telegraph, June 20) about Muslim youths in Uttar Pradesh being routinely incarcerated for years on end on the mere suspicion of being 'terrorists'. Workers trying to form a union being incarcerated for years falls into the same pattern.

READER SPACE

Popular choice
Dear Editor, Finally, the suspense is over. Narendra Modi has been officially declared as the Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections . It is good that senior party functionaries decided to settle the issue, once and for all. In any case, for the BJP, it had to be Modi sooner or later. After Atal Bihari Vajpayee, L.K. Advani is undoubtedly the tallest leader in the BJP. He is looked upto as a father figure by other party members. However, the truth is that age has caught up with Advani. He needs to assume the role of a mentor and make way for leaders like Modi, Rajnath Singh, Sushma Swaraj and others who have been groomed by him. He needs to accept the fact that while Modi may not be the most experienced leader in the BJP, he is definitely the most popular. Advani failed to steer the BJP to power in 2009. What is wrong with giving Modi an opportunity to accomplish the task in 2014 ? There is no denying the fact that the RSS and the BJP are joined by an umbilical cord. Mohan Bhagwat, the RSS sarsanghchalak, has now decided to support Modi. Advani had to be shown the door due to his stubborn stand. Advani should realize that no individual is above the party: he should have passed on the baton to Modi gracefully as was desired by the party cadre and its leaders. Everyone knows how the party treated its senior leaders like Sitaram Kesri and P.V. Narasimha Rao. However, the road to Delhi will not be a smooth one for Modi. He will have to market his ideas

to the people. The acid test for the BJP would be the forthcoming assembly elections in Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh. Modi is a man of strategy. Having carved a niche for himself among the youth in particular, he would be hoping to win the confidence of the other segments of the electorate in 2014. Yours faithfully, Vikram Manhas, Doda

Shopian crisis

Dear Editor, At a time when this state needed a really caring regime to help its traumatised population in healing the deep wounds of their immediate past it has been saddled with a set-up which betrays utter lack of understanding and is bereft of human compassion. Shopian is seething with anger and for good reason: On the day when Zubin Mehta was entertaining the bold and beautiful at Shalimar Bagh three innocent lives were snuffed out 50 kilometres away in Shopian, mainly as a result of the blanket restrictions clamped upon the entire population across Kashmir Valley. The so-called enquiry set up by the government fails to inspire confidence for the simple reason that it just does not count in material terms. Dozens of cases occurring over the past five years have been hanging fire because the government is either unwilling or unable to proceed in booking the culprits. The impotence of our rulers has eventually become an albatross around the neck of the ruled. And they seem to be condemned to suffer this fate so long as the existing regime lasts. Yours Etc. Manzoor Ahmed, Srinagar.

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STUDENT AGE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER, 21, 2013

NATIONAL

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: Describing the Muzaffarnagar riots as very sad, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Friday said only a very small group of people was responsible for creating such trouble which needed to be checked. Dr. Singh said India is a country where diverse religions have flourished together for centuries and have enriched each other and its people have an overall secular outlook. I believe that it is only a very small group of people that is responsible for creating divisions amongst us. I also believe that it is the solemn duty of each one of us to resist these forces, he said at the national communal harmony awards function in New Delhi. The Prime Minister said the function was organised in the backdrop of heightened communal tensions in some parts of the country. These are very sad developments which should make us all reflect on our individual and collective obligations to promote goodwill and amity in our polity and society, he said.

Only small group of people involve in riots: Manmohan

6
Two women held for gold smuggling
KOCHI: Two women passengers returning from Dubai were detained at Kochi airport on Thursday after they were found to be carrying 20 kg of gold, an official said. Preliminary investigations suggest their involvement in a gold-smuggling racket, the official said. They were each carrying 10 kg gold hidden inside their garments, the official added. Close to 28 kg of gold has been seized by Kochi air customs in the last one week.

Gujarat blasts accused escapes from police in Mumbai

MUMBAI, SEPTEMBER 20: Suspected Indian Mujahiddeen operative Afzal Usmani, accused of involvement in the 2008 terror blasts in Surat and Ahmedabad, escaped from custody while being taken for a court hearing in Mumbai on Friday, officials said.The incident, which has embarrassed police, took place when seven accused in the case were being brought from Taloja Jail in Raigad district to the sessions Court in south Mumbai.Mumbai police have launched a manhunt for Usmani, who was accused of arranging vehicles which were used to carry out the ter-

Dr. Singh said the country is characterised by great diversity and it also has a very proud legacy of tolerance and respect for ways of thinking other than ones own. Let me take this opportunity to reaffirm the commitment of the Central Government to make every possible effort to promote communal harmony and national integration in our country, he said, adding the government has called a meeting of the National Integration Council on September 23 to explore ways and means for achiev-

ing these ends. The National Communal Harmony Award for 2011 have been given to Shri Khamliana of Mizoram and Md Abdul Bari of Odisha. The award in the organisation category for 2012 was given to Delhi-based Foundation for Amity and National Solidarity. The Prime Minister said the two individuals, whom the honour was given, have done exemplary work which makes everyone proud. Dr. Singh said Khamlianas contribution to strengthening

cohesiveness and goodwill in the society (in Mizoram) covers a diverse range of areas -rehabilitation of drug addicts, prevention of AIDS, cultural exchange programmes to promote national integration and unity, resource mobilisation for orphanages and rescue homes. The Prime Minister said Baris career was another example of selfless service to the people as he has worked to successfully prevent potential disturbances in his district Bhadrak (Odisha) and to contain them when they had occurred. Dr. Singh said the Foundation for Amity and National Solidarity has now worked for 28 years for promoting communal harmony and national integration and it has achieved these objectives through a variety of activities and the involvement of the youth and students. It gives me happiness that through todays awards we have been able to know about the work of Khamliana, Bari and The Foundation for Amity and National Solidarity. We need more individuals and organisations like them, he said.

ror blasts in Surat and Ahmedabad, the diamond

and business capitals respectively, of Gujarat.

Riots perfect backdrop for BJP to project Modi as PM hopeful: CPI(M)

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: Accusing RSS-BJP of sharpening communal divide for electoral gains, CPI(M) on Friday said the death and displacement of a large number of people in the Muzaffarnagar riots was the perfect backdrop for BJP to project Narendra Modi as its Prime Ministerial candidate.The ghastly communal violence in Muzaffarnagar has served as the perfect backdrop for BJP to announce the anointment of the Gujarat Chief Minister as its prime ministerial prospect in the coming 2014 general elections, CPI(M) leader Sitaram Yechury said. He said, Even the remotest of doubts regarding the RSSBJPs intensions of using the sharpening of communal polarisation as its prime electoral card are set at rest by the proud assertions of the VHP leader Ashok Singhal, who reportedly equated the riots in Gujarat and Muzaffarnagar.In an editorial in party organ Peoples Democracy, Mr. Yechury said such statements show that RSS-BJP no longer require a mukhota like Atal Behari Vajpayee to push its stand that has led major allies like JD(U) to exit from NDA. Thus the irreconcilable contradiction that plagues any coalition led by the BJP has, once again, come to the fore, he said. If the NDA coalition has to be strong enough to command a majority, then BJP would have to put its core communal agenda on the back-burner. But unless the communal agenda is aggressively pursued as directed by RSS, BJP would not be able to either consolidate or expand its own political base, he said.Maintaining that history had its own ways of conveying messages through historical coincidences, Yechury said, It was on February 27, 1933 that the Reichstag (Germanys seat of power) was set on fire. On February 27, 2002, Coach S-6 of the Sabarmati Express burst into flames at Godhra. The former was used by Hitler to launch a vicious anti-Communist repression, abrogate democratic rights, suspend the Weimar Constitution and proceed to consolidate Nazi fascism. The fire was later established to have been the handiwork of the fascist forces themselves, the CPI(M) leader

Two aides of Asaram Bapu surrender before court

JODHPUR: Controversial spiritual guru Asaram Bapus two aides Prakash and Sarat surrendered before the sessions court in Jodhpur on Friday in connection with the sexual assault case of a 16-year-old girl. Prakash, who worked as a cook of the self-styled godman is said to be present outside the room, in which Asaram allegedly sexually assaulted the minor girl. Sharat was associated at Asarams Chhindwara ashram where the teenager used to study. In a setback to Asaram, in jail for alleged sexual assault of a teenage girl, the Rajasthan High Court on Wednesday deferred till October 1 the hearing on his bail application. A 16-year-old girl on Aug 20 lodged a police complaint, accusing Asaram of sexually assaulting her at his ashram near Jodhpur. Asaram was arrested from his ashram in Indore, Madhya Pradesh, and brought to Jodhpur September 1. Asaram has been booked under Sections 376, 342, 506 and 509 of the IPC, Section 8 of the Prevention of Children from Sexual Offences Act ( POCSO ) and Sections 23 and 26 of the Juvenile Justice Act. Asaram, 72, had sought bail claiming that police erred in booking him under a rape charge, which is non-bailable.

HC issues notices to Gujarat, Centre in illegal mining case

AHMEDABAD, SEPTEMBER 20: The Gujarat High Court on Friday issued notices to the Centre and Gujarat government seeking their replies to a public interest litigation (PIL) filed by a city-based resident demanding a CBI probe into illegal mining in Porbandar district with alleged complicity of Gujarat Agriculture Minister Babu Bokhiria. A divison bench of Chief Justice Bhaskar Bhattacharya and Justice J.B. Pardiwala on Friday issued notices to the Centre, Gujarat State and other concerned departments seeking their replies to the PIL seeking an independent CBI probe into the alleged illegal mining. Porbandar MLA Bokhiria and three others were convicted in a Rs. 54-crore illegal limestone mining case of 2006 by a court of Chief Judicial Magistrate in Porbandar on June 15. A week later, a sessions court stayed their conviction. The PIL was filed by one Dilipsinh Chauhan, through his advocate Babu Mangukiya, alleging large-scale illegal limestone mining takes place in Porbandar district by around 12 mining lease-holders. The PIL also alleged these lease-holders are either close relatives of Mr. Bokhiria or his acquaintances. According to the petitioner, these close relatives of Mr. Bokhiria or his acquaintances allegedly indulge in illegal mining with the support of Mr. Bokhirias political leadership. In 2005-06, when one H.N. Chhibber was posted as Collector of Porbandar, he had raided some places where illegal mining took place, the petitioner stated. If the entire area is properly inspected by those competent to do so, the theft of minerals would run into not less than Rs. 10,000 crore, the petition alleged. The petitioner stated that in many cases of illegal limestone mining, though the matter was remanded back to the State government, no action was taken and it was kept pending. The petitioner has sought a CBI inquiry into illegal limestone mining in Porbandar district or a Special Investigation Team constituted by the Gujarat High Court. After this development, the Gujarat High Court issued notices to the Centre, Gujarat State, other respondents and concerned departments seeking their replies to the petition within 15 days. The next hearing in the case is scheduled for October 11.

said. On January 30, 1948, Mahatma Gandhi was assassinated. It is, indeed, an irony of history that on this very day, 15 years earlier, in 1933, Adolf Hitler was sworn-in as the Chancellor of Germany.Mr. Yechury also referred to the RSS project of establishing a rabidly intolerant fascistic Hindu Rashtra which was defeated during the freedom struggle.Referring to Mr. Modis recent announcement about building a large statue of Sardar Patel, he said BJPs attempts to usurp Patel for its own benefit would not cut much ice as it was this very Sardar Patel who had banned RSS following the assassination of Mahatma Gandhi.

4,470 mentally challenged jail inmates in country in 2012: NCRB Serious about steps to bar entry
KOLLAM, SEPTEMBER 20: Prison statistics of the country for the year 2012 released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) last week show that 3,85,135 persons were lodged in the 1,394 jails of the country as on December 31 last, the date considered by the NCRB for tabulating the annual statistics. 95.6 per cent or 3,68,184 of the inmates were male and remaining 4.4 per cent female. During that year another 2,20,542 inmates were released on various grounds. The statistics show that 4,470 of the inmates were mentally challenged persons accounting for 1.2 per cent of the total. They include convicts, undertials and detenues. Odisha had the highest number of mentally challenged inmates with 496 followed by Andhra Pradesh with 443 inmates, West Bengal with 417 and Karnataka with 383. In fact all the 28 States had mentally challenged inmates in its jails last year. The Union Territory of Delhi had 120 such inmates. The total inmates last year comprise 1,27,789 convicts, 2,54,857 undertrials, 1,922 detenues plus 567 inmates marked as others. They include 6,592 foreign nationals. Uttar Pradesh topped the list with 80,311 inmates. Madhya Pradesh which followed had less than half the figure of UP-33,959 inmates and Bihar third with 28,550. In 2011 too UP was on top with 82,383 inmates. From among the convicts, 64,949 accounted for murder alone. With 11,417 inmates, UP had the highest number of such convicts in its jails last year and also accounted to the highest percentage of murder convicts in the country during the year-17.6, followed by Madhya Pradesh with 10,414 inmates or 16 per cent. The jails had 7,009 inmates convicted for rape. Though 414 inmates, including 13 women, in various jails of the country were

of criminals into politics: Sibal

Commission (JAC) Bill in Parliament as his top priority, Mr. Sibal said he was willing to give the Chief Justice of India Constitutional status in the proposed body to rule out speculation that at a later stage the CJI could be removed as its chairperson. Following speculation, I am willing to give CJI constitutional status as the head of the JAC in the Constitutional Amendment Bill once it comes to Lok Sabha, he said. The Bill has been passed by the Rajya Sabha. Mr. Sibal recently introduced in Rajya Sabha an enabling bill -- the Constitution (120th) Amendment Bill -and the JAC Bill, 2013, which defines the establishment of the proposed body to recommend appointment and transfer of SC and High Court judges. The Constitutional Amendment Bill says there will be a JAC but does not

those serving capital punishment only one execution had taken place and that was in Maharashtra. The person executed was the Pakistani national Ajmal Kasab who was given the noose for his involvement in the 2008 Mumbai terror attacks. Kasab was executed at the Yerwada prison, Pune on November 21, last year.

UP had the highest number of inmates serving capital punishment-106 and all of them men. Karnataka had 63 such inmates including a woman and Maharashtra had 46 including five women. Delhi had 27 and four among them were women. Last year alone 97 persons were sentenced to death in the country with UP accounting for 25.

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: Government on Friday said it was working on a proposal to prevent the entry of criminals into politics even as a bill to prevent immediate disqualification of lawmakers upon conviction in a criminal case is pending in Parliament. Union Law Minister Kapil Sibal said he was trying to build a consensus within Congress for steps to put appropriate barriers in place which would prevent criminals from entering politics. The party, he added, was serious about the issue. We want to take steps to reduce the prospect of criminals entering politics. People who are charged with very serious criminal offences should be prevented from entering politics, Mr. Sibal said during an interaction at the Indian Womens Press Corps. Terming the passage of the Judicial Appointments

IAS officer's wife protests alleged harassment by her husband

VISAKHAPATNAM: An IAS officer's wife, along with leaders and activists of All India Democratic Women's Association (AIDWA), staged a protest in front of the officer's house on Friday, to protest against forcing her for a judicial separation. Vice Chairman and Managing Director of Girijan Cooperative Corporation (GCC), Visakhapatnam, Eathokata Ramesh Kumar's wife Swapna (35) alleged he and his family were agitated that she did not give birth to a male heir to carry forward the family legacy. Swapna, a BTech graduate from Warangal in Telangana, who married Ramesh Kumar in October 29, 2001, said problems began after she gave birth to her first daughter E Rupin Kamini around 11 years ago.

say it will be headed by the CJI. There were objections to that from jurists who wanted the CJI to be mentioned in the bill. Mr. Sibal, however, ruled out stating the entire composition of the JAC in the bill. The composition of the JAC -CJI as its head, two senior SC judges, the Law Minister and two eminent persons as members -- is defined in the main bill. The Secretary (Justice) will be the convener of the panel.

CBI closes disproportionate Huge row erupts over allegations against unit set up by V.K. Singh assets case against Mulayam
This order necessitated reassessment of the evidence collected during the enquiry, and a fresh look in accordance with the order of the Supreme Court, the CBI said in its statement in New Delhi. We are being very transparent about all cases including this and are ready to stand any legal scrutiny, CBI Director Ranjit Sinha said. The CBI said the PE in the case which was registered in 2007 could not be concluded earlier due to litigations and pendency of the review petitions. The CBI said that since Mr. Mulayam had not joined the probe earlier in 2007, the agency had calculated his income, that of his sons Mr. Akhilesh and Mr. Prateek and daughter in law Dimple to Rs. 2.63 crore. This had to be changed after the December 2012 judgement of the Supreme Court. NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: A huge controversy erupted on Friday over allegations that an intelligence unit set up by ex-Army chief Gen V K Singh misused secret funds to try and topple the Omar Abdullah government in Jammu and Kashmir with the Centre promising action if any serving or retired officer is found involved. As the allegations in a secret Army report that the controversial Technical Services Division (TSD) was involved in unauthorised operations and financial wrongdoings triggered a political slugfest between Congress and BJP, a Union Minister on condition of anonymity said a CBI probe into the extremely sensitive matter is not ruled out. The Defence Ministry said it will take a decision about action on the Army report on TSD after its careful examination while asserting it had measures in place to prevent any such undesirable activities. Stating that the report impinges on matters of national security, the Ministry in a statement, however, said it has not yet taken a decision on going for a CBI inquiry, The BJP questioned the timing of the report and claimed that Singh was being hounded for sharing the dais with its prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi at the Rewari rally five dasy ago. The report was prepared by Director General(Military Operations) Lt Gen Vinod Bhatia as part of a Board of Officers inquiry formed by Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh to review the functioning of the top secret unit set up during the tenure of his predecessor. The report submitted to Defence Ministry in March this year is understood to have recommended a probe by an external agency like the CBI. The Union Minister, who spoke of a possible CBI probe, said the government has taken serious note of the report. Information and Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari told reporters that the facts brought out in the report are extremely sensitive and if any person -- retired or serving -- is found involved in the matter, action will be taken. The contents of the report which have been mentioned in a newspaper are under active consideration of the government. If any malfeasance is found against any serving or retired officer, appropriate action would be initiated. In J and K, Political temperatures rose with parties including ruling National of succession in the Army top brass, to buy off-air interception equipment and to conduct unauthorised covert operations. Replying to a question on possible action against the retired army chief and his team involved in this matter, Mr. Tewari said this is not a question of being individual-specific but it is more of a systemic and structural issue wherein there are alleged actions which impinge upon the larger ambit of national security. Mr. Tewari said the government does take such matters extremely seriously as it is its duty to do so and asserted that action would follow after a probe. The facts mentioned in the report are in the cognisance of the government. If it is found after the probe that facts are true, then action will be taken against those who are allegedly involved in it, whether they are in service or have retired, he said. Rejecting the charge that Gen Singh was being hounded after the Rewari rally and the Army report was politically motivated, Mr. Tewari said, It is extremely surprising that whenever there is an allegation with regard to alleged subversion of an institution, you always find BJP prematurely jumping to the defence of such individuals.

NEW DELHI, SEPTEMBER 20: In a big relief to Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, the CBI on Friday closed a six-year-old disproportionate assets case against him citing lack of evidence. The CBI has closed the Preliminary Enquiry (PE) against Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family on account of grossly insuffi-

cient evidence, the agency said. In a detailed reasoning, the CBI cited Supreme Courts order of December 13 last year whereby it was said that the income, assets and expenditure pertaining to Dimple Yadav, wife of Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, should be excluded from those of her other family members.

Conference demanding a thorough probe into the role of state minister Ghulam Hasaan Mir, who figured in reports of having allegedly received funds from TSD unit to topple the Omar government. Mr. Mir, at present Agriculture Minister in the Omar Government, termed these reports as blatant lies. A media report quoting an Army document said Gen Singh had allegedly misused the secret service funds to destabilise the Omar government, to pay off an NGO to try change the line

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STUDENT AGE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

INTERNATIONAL & ECONOMY

143 killed by extremists in Nigeria

PAKISTAN ARRESTS 58 INDIAN FISHERMEN

KARACHI, SEP 20: Pakistans maritime security agency has arrested 58 Indian fishermen after they allegedly strayed into the countrys territorial waters. Despite several warnings the Indian fishermen remained inside our territorial waters leading to their arrest and seizure of boats, Maritime Security Agency spokesman Commander Muhammad Farooq said yesterday. Nine boats belonging to the Indian fishermen were also confiscated, he said. Last month, Pakistan had released 337 Indian fishermen, including eight juveniles, in a goodwill gesture. Human rights bodies and the Pakistan fisherfolk forum have actively campaigned for the release of poor Indian fishermen languishing in Pakistani jails. At present, according to the forum, there are still 97 Indian fishermen and three other Indian nationals, including a juvenile, languishing in jails in Karachi.

ENISHEIK, NIGERIA, SEP 20: Searching roadsides, bushes and fields, environmental agency workers have recovered the bodies of 143 civilians killed by suspected extremists, an official said of one of the highest death tolls in an Islamic uprising in northeast Nigeria. Two soldiers and three police officers also were killed, according to a soldier who spoke to The Associated Press on condition of anonymity because he was not authorised to speak to the press during a visit on Thursday with Borno State Governor Kashim Shettima, who was under heavy military protection. The soldier said extremists disguised in military fatigues attacked in about 20 pickup trucks and two light tanks firing anti-aircraft guns that overwhelmed soldiers armed only with automatic rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. We had to retreat to our base to reinforce after running out of ammunition. We had to run for our lives, said the soldier, who said he hid in a millet plantation. But they followed us down and surrounded our base and began to shell our building. We couldnt stand the heat of their superior firepower. We had to retreat into the village after they killed two of our soldiers and three policemen. Such accounts challenge the Nigerian

militarys insistence that it is winning the war since a state of emergency was declared May 14, 2013 to put down the insurrection by extremists who want to enforce strict Shariah law throughout Nigeria, Africas most populous nation of more than 160 million people almost equally divided between Muslims and Christians. An AP reporter watched as Environmental Department workers piled corpses swollen by the tropical heat into trucks at the near-deserted village where hundreds of homes had been torched. We have been picking corpses off the roadsides all day, there are more in the bush ... We have so far picked up 143 corpses, said Abdulazeez Kolomi, an assistant at the Environmental Protection Agency. The agencys chief, Saidu Yakubu, told reporters the official numbers of corpses evacuated was 87. Women and children were being helped to clamber up into other vehicles as villagers continued to flee their homes. Our houses have been burned, we lack food to eat, we have been sleeping in the bush and cannot bear the hardship with the children crying, said 56-yearold Kaltume Baba-Haruna. The few remaining residents said they are angry at both the government and the military for not protecting them.

Barack Obama nominates Indian India not to be deterred by American s district court judge terror attacks in Afghanistan
WASHINGTON, SEP 20: President Barack Obama has nominated yet another Indian American, Manish S Shah, to the key post of US District Court judge for the Northern District of his home state of Illinois. Announcing Shah's nomination along with seven other judiciary posts, Obama said in a White House statement: "These men and women have had distinguished legal careers and I am honoured to ask them to continue their work as judges on the federal bench." "They will serve the American people with integrity and an unwavering commitment to justice," he added. An Assistant US Attorney in the Northern District of Illinois since 2001, New York-born Shah, 40, currently serves as Chief of the Criminal Division, having previously served as Chief of Criminal Appeals UNITED NATIONS, SEP 20: India has said it will not be deterred by terror attacks against its people and interests in Afghanistan, as it assured the war-torn nation of its continued support during the period of transition. Indias Deputy Permanent Representative to the UN Manjeev Singh Puri told the UN Security Council that the security situation in Afghanistan is fragile due to the continued threat of terrorist and extremist groups. Puri cited last months condemnable attack on the Indian Consulate in Jalalabad in which several Afghan security personnel guarding the Consulate were injured and several innocent Afghan citizens, including 10 children, were killed. India does not have an exit policy in Afghanistan and will not be deterred by such attacks. do not see this attack as only aimed against India, but also against the efforts of the Afghan people to overcome

from 2011 to 2012. Shah was also Deputy Chief of the Financial Crimes and Special Prosecutions Section from 2008 to 2011 and Deputy Chief of the General Crimes Section from 2007 to 2008. Both the senators from Illinois, Democrat Dick Durbin and Republican Mark Kirk, welcomed Shah's nomination reflecting the bipartisan support he enjoys in the Congress. "Manish Shah has

served with distinction as an Assistant US Attorney, and he will bring a wealth of knowledge and legal acumen to the federal bench in Northern Illinois," said Durbin. "Manish Shah's stellar record in working with former US Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald makes him an outstanding candidate to be the next federal district court judge for Northern Illinois," Kirk said.

the tragic consequences of the last several decades of war and conflict, he said at a Security Council debate on UN Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA) here yesterday. Terming as merciless the killing of Indiaborn author Sayed Kamala Sushmita Banerjee, he said the incident reflects the intolerance of those who oppose Afghanistans socio-economic development as also the challenge that lies ahead. Banerjee, 49, was married to an Afghan businessman and recently moved to Afghanistan to live with him. She was killed by a renegade Taliban militia in eastern Paktika province.

China to continue supporting Afghan reconstruction

UNITED NATIONS, SEP 20: China, which has been actively involved in peace-building and reconstruction in Afghanistan, will continue its contribution to the country, a Chinese envoy to the UN said Thursday. Liu Jieyi, China's permanent representative to the United Nations, made the statement at a UN Security Council open debate, reported Xinhua ."Afghanistan faces a heavy and arduous task for restoring stability and reconstructing the country. Recently, thanks to the efforts by the government and its people, Afghanistan has registered noticeable progress in peacebuilding and reconstruction," Liu said, adding that its transi-

tional period has entered "a critical stage". The envoy said China welcomes the recent adoption of the electoral law and structural law in Afghanistan. "We hope that all Afghan parties will continue their dialogues and consultations, properly tackle their differences, steadily promote the preparations for the related elections so as to ensure their success." "China supports the national reconciliation that is led and owned by Afghans ...We support the active role played by the High Peace Council in promoting national reconciliation. We welcome Pakistan and other regional countries in rendering further support.

VISAKHAPATNAM, SEP 20: Tanker released after authorities in Iran realised their mistake Shipping Corporation of India, Indias largest shipping company, on Thursday, said the charge levelled by the authorities in Iran against merchant tanker Desh Shanti that she caused oil spillage in the Persian Gulf was frivolous and based on misinterpretation of satellite data. SCI Director (Bulk Carrier & Tanker Division) Capt. Sunil Thapar, who was here to receive the crude carrier, told The Hindu that Desh Shanti was released after 26 days of detention at Bandar Abbas on September 6 after the public sector company gave an undertaking that they would pay $1 million if the allegations were proved. We think some other ship anchored in that area might have led to the raising of pollution alarm. They have not given any proof to us to substantiate their claim. There were five ships anchored in that area when pollution charge was made, he said.

Pollution charge frivolous, says SCI

ROWHANI OFFERS TO MEDIATE SYRIA TALKS

WASHINGTON, SEP 20: Iranian President Hassan Rowhani offered Tehrans help to mediate between warring factions in the Syrian civil war, in an article published on Friday in the Washington Post. We must create an atmosphere where peoples of the region can decide their own fates, he wrote. As part of this, I announce my governments readiness to help facilitate dialogue between the Syrian government and the opposition. The United Nations estimates that more than 100,000 people have died since early 2011 in the conflict between Syrian President Bashar al-Assads regime and an array of rebel groups. Since taking office in August, Mr. Rowhani has been signalling interest in dialogue with the US and other Iranian rivals and has called for renewed talks with international powers over Tehrans disputed nuclear programme. Mr. Rowhani is scheduled to address the annual UN General Assembly on Tuesday in New York.

13 Afghan policemen killed in Taliban ambush

KABUL, SEP 20: Insurgents killed 13 Afghan policemen and wounded 18 in an ambush this week in a remote northern part of the country, the Interior Ministry said on Friday. The ambush took place on Wednesday in the Wurduj district of Badakshan province. The Taliban claimed responsibility after the attack. The Ministry statement also said 47 insurgents were killed in the same area during a police operation earlier in the week. Although attacks with high casualty figures are increasingly common as insurgents escalate their campaign against government forces across Afghanistan, they are rare in Badakshan. The region, nestled in the Hindu Kush and Pamir mountain ranges and bordering China, is one of the most remote in the country. Casualties among Afghan security forces have been increasing after they took over the lead for security around the country from foreign troops earlier this summer. The NATO-led international coalition has been steadily drawing down and foreign forces are no longer leading the fight against the insurgency, but are instead training and assisting Afghans. All foreign combat forces are to leave Afghanistan by the end of 2014, possibly to be replaced by a smaller group of trainers.

Desh Shanti, carrying 1,40,000 tonne crude from Iraq, was detained on her way to Visakhapatnam to deliver part of the cargo to Visakh Refinery of Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Limited. The tanker ship, which anchored at the Visakhapatnam Port on Wednesday morning, left for Mumbai on Thursday evening after offloading 47,000 tonne for refining at Visakh Refinery. We think they might have released Desh Shanti after realising their mistake, he said referring to the repeated charge made by the Iranian authorities. Asked whether they (Iranian officials) admitted their mistake, he said, They have not told us any-

thing. All the 30-member crew had an uncertain time during their detention off Persian Gulf. They are all fine, he said. He said they had submitted a Letter of Undertaking as per international practices with consent to pay penalties if Iranian charge was proved that the tanker was responsible for oily ballast water, 48 km away from Lavan Island, which subsequently caused a 16-km-long oil stain. Asked to comment on reports that appeared in the section of the media that before ordering release of Desh Sahanti, some of the facilities in the tanker were damaged, he said they (reports) were nothing but a figment of imagination.

11 killed as explosion hits Sunni mosque in Iraq

BAGHDAD, SEP 20: An Iraqi official says an explosion has struck inside a Sunni mosque north of Baghdad, killing at least 11 people in the latest outburst of violence to hit the country. The deputy head of the municipal council in the city of Samarra says the blast went off during Friday prayers. The official, Mizhar Fleih, says at least eight people were wounded in the attack. Samarra is a largely Sunni city that is home to a revered Shia shrine. It is 95 km north of the Iraqi capital. Iraq is weathering its worst bout of violence in half a decade. The killing has risen significantly since April, with more than 4,000 killed since the start of that month.

13 INJURED Flag in mosques stirs Syrian govt. says war is at stalemate IN CHICAGO anger in China Militants kill 38 troops in Yemen attack SHOOTING
WASHINGTON, SEP 20: Thirteen people, including a 3-year-old child, were shot and wounded late on Thursday in a park in Chicago, US media reported. The shootings, which took place at around 10:15 pm (0315 Friday GMT) in the Back of the Yards district, appeared to be gang-related, the Chicago Tribune reported, citing police officials. The child was shot in the head and was in critical condition. The Tribune quoted police as identifying the other 12 victims as two teenagers and 10 adults. The shootings took place on a basketball court near a park. BEIJING, SEP 20: A move by authorities to place the national flag in the prayer area of a mosque in the far-western Xinjiang region has brought criticism from the local Muslim Uighur ethnic group and ignited fresh debate over the Communist Partys religious policies. Ilham Tohti, a Beijing-based Uighur professor of economics, who teaches at the National University of Minorities and is a prominent advocate for Uighur rights, on Thursday described the move as part of a policy by the government to dilute religious beliefs in Xinjiang. A Uighur website, Uighurbiz.net, posted a photograph of a Chinese national flag placed above the prayer area of a mosque in Aksu, a county in Xinjiangs western Uighur heartland. Provincial government officials could not be reached for comment on whether the move was part of a change in official policy. Thursday was a holiday for government offices in China on account of the Mid-Autumn Festival. The article on the Uighurbiz website said the move had been enforced in many mosques in Aksu. Mr. Tohti told the website he saw the campaign as an attempt to boost patriotism, but one that violated the religious autonomy that is granted under law to Muslims. Under the regional ethnic autonomy law, the State cannot interfere in religious practice. The Xinjiang government has, however, in recent months put in force a slew of religious restrictions, Mr. Tohti noted, pointing to recent public campaigns in Hotan, in southern Xinjiang, warning people against wearing religious clothing, such as veils, and also asking men to not grow beards. Mr. Tohti said. DAMASCUS, SEP 20: Syrias Deputy Prime Minister says neither side is strong enough to win and the government will call for ceasefire at Geneva talks The Syrian civil war has reached a stalemate and President Bashar alAssads government will call for a ceasefire at a longdelayed conference in Geneva on the states future, the countrys Deputy Prime Minister has said in an interview with the Guardian. Speaking on behalf of the government, Qadri Jamil said that neither side was strong enough to win the conflict, which has lasted two years and caused the death of more than 100,000 people. Mr. Jamil, who is in charge of countrys finances, also said that the Syrian economy had suffered catastrophic losses. Neither the armed opposition nor the regime is capable of defeating the other side, he said. This zero balance of refused to go to what is called Geneva Two unless Mr. Assad first resigns. An earlier conference on Syria at Geneva lasted for just one day in June last year and no Syrians attended. Mr. Jamils comments are the first indication of the proposals that Syria will bring to the table at the summit, which Russia and the U.S. have been trying to convene for months. Asked what outcome his government would require from the conference, he said: An end to external intervention, a ceasefire and the launching of a peaceful political process in a way that the Syrian people can enjoy self-determination without outside intervention and in a democratic way. Although both Moscow and the Obama administration seem committed to convening Geneva Two, a major split has emerged between Russia and the United States over who should take part.

forces will not change for a while. Meanwhile, he said, the Syrian economy had lost about $100 billion, equivalent to two years of normal production, during the war. If accepted by the armed opposition, a ceasefire would have to be kept under international observation, which could be provided by monitors or U.N. peacekeepers as long as they came from neutral or friendly countries, he said. Leaders of Syrias armed opposition have repeatedly

SANAA, SEP 20: Taking advantage of heavy fog, al-Qaeda militants launched coordinated attacks on Yemeni military barracks in a southern province on Friday, killing at least 38 troops and wounded dozens, a military official said. The dawn attacks in Shabwa province, a known al-Qaeda stronghold, surprised and caught the soldiers unprepared, said Maj. Mohammed Nasser. Yemeni authorities have been leading a war against al-Qaedas local branch, also known as the al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, considered by Washington as one of the worlds most dangerous terror groups. In Fridays attacks, the militants first tried to storm barracks in three military encampments, in Maysaa, Kamp and al-Ain areas, Maj. Nasser told The Associated Press. At the Kamp site, the militants first overpowered the guards outside the barracks, then rammed a suicide car bomb into the camp. Most of the casualties among the troops took place in this attack. By mid-morning, heavy clashes were still underway near the third location, the al-Ain military encampment, where militants had detonated a car bomb outside the barracks. Maj. Nasser said eight militants had also died in the fighting so far and that six soldiers and five military vehicles had been seized by the attackers. Most of the soldiers from the Kamp barracks were in charge of guarding oil wells in the area. The attacks in Shabwa came just days after Yemeni authorities warned of more al-Qaeda attacks and suicide bombings.

STUDENT AGE SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 21, 2013

MISC
chief coach Vinod Kumar said. "World Championship acts as a qualifying event for the World Cup. In the next year's World Cup, free-style wrestlers will be spearheading the country's challenge while the fate of grecoroman and women's wrestlers will be decided after the championship," he said. Prior to this, India's bestever finish in the World Championship in men's category came in the year 2009 when it finished 10th, while year 2010 and 2011 saw them finish 13th and a lowly 31st respectively. "Last year, World Championship in men's category did not take place as it happened to be an Olympic year while the championship in the women's category happened in September after the London Games," he said. Indian women wrestlers had qualified for the World Cup for the first time this year where they finished fifth in the eight-team event held in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from March 1-3. But the honour of representing the country in the World Cup always eluded the senior men's wrestlers including the likes of Olympic medallists Sushil and Yogeshwar. Vinod, who has been with the team since 2007 and played an important role in India reaching the pinnacle of the sport, also informed that India accumulated nine points from 55kg (Amit Kumar), eight points from 60kg (Bajrang) and six points from 74kg (Narsingh) to arrive at a grand total of 23 points from the World Championship and finish sixth ahead of much-higher ranked nations. "Our wrestling is on the ascendancy and it has been proved by our wrestlers," he said. NEW DELHI: Sportspersons would have continued to be denied India's highest civilian honour, Bharat Ratna, if bureaucrats had their way. File notings, accessed through RTI, reveal that the home ministry was initially not in favour of widening the scope of Bharat Ratna fearing that it would open floodgates for sportspersons and other vocations like social work, trade and industry as well. The government eventually reversed its decision and amended the qualification for the decoration from "exceptional service towards the advancement of art, literature and science, and in recognition of public service of the highest order" to "decoration shall be awarded for exceptional service in any field" in November, 2011. According to documents received in response to an RTI filed by activist S C Agrawal the home ministry officials felt that inclusion of sports as a category may raise the issue of other fields of work to be added. In its note, a ministry official argued for keeping the norms unchanged, "The reason behind inclusion of sports as a field of Bharat Ratna is to honour Shri Sachin Tendulkar. No doubt Shri Tendulkar deserves the highest recognition of the country but there are several other sportsperson who have made the country proud such as Major Dhyan Chand in hockey, Jaspal Rana in shooting, Vishwanathan Anand in

8
Chidambaram overruled home ministry babus on Bharat Ratna for sports stars

Indian men earn maiden berth in wrestling World Cup

NEW DELHI: Indian wrestling is well and truly on an all-time high as the country, in what turned out to be a double delight, on Friday earned a maiden World Cup berth on the back of its best-ever sixth-place finish in men's free-style at the World Championships in Budapest. India finished the tournament in the men's freestyle category with 23 points, which has catapulted the country to sixth in rankings behind Iran, Russia, Georgia, Ukraine and USA. As per the FILA rules, the top eight teams in the World Championship automatically qualify for the World Cup and Amit Kumar Dahiya's silver medal in the 55kg and Bajrang's bronze in the 60kg freestyle category ensured India its maiden World Cup appearance next year. The freestyle wrestlers produced India's best-ever show at the World Championship

in a span of two days. The news couldn't have come at an opportune time for the Indian wrestling community as the sport battled successfully to regain its place on the Olympic Games roster following its controversial axing in

February by the IOC. The news of India's World Cup qualification is music to the ears for two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar and Yogeshwar Dutt. "It's raining good news for India as after wrestling's reinclusion in the Olympic

movement, our wards performed extremely well in the World Championship. Their efforts paid rich dividends as now India's sixth rank has led to our World Cup qualification for the first time in the history of the men's senior wrestling,"

Chance for Yuvraj-led India 'A' to regain lost ground

BANGALORE: Having suffered a surprise defeat in the unofficial ODI series, it will be an opportunity for the Yuvraj Singh-led India 'A' to regain some of the lost ground when they lock horns with the West Indies 'A' in the one-off Twenty20 match on Saturday. The 1-2 series loss was a rare failure for India A, who had whitewashed their counterparts from New Zealand 3-0 prior to the just-concluded ODI rubber against the Caribbeans. The key for the hosts once again will be Yuvraj, who has had a remarkable success with the willow in the 50over format, slamming an 89ball century and following that up with knocks of 40 and 61 in the last two matches. In his quest to earn a recall to the Indian team, the stylish left-hander will look to continue in the same vein in the remainder of the series, which also includes three unofficial Tests. With the kind of form and fighting abilities the visitors displayed in the ODI series, Yuvraj and his men would be wary of their opponents. with the presence of centurions Kirk Edwards and Jonathan Carter, besides Kieran Powell and Andre Russell in their ranks, the side possess a strong batting line-up. Their main strength, however, remains the bowling, which saw them restricting India. Miguel Cummins, Veerasammy Permaul, Nikita Miller all have been among wickets and if all-rounders Carter and Russell also come good with the ball, the team has the arsenal to tame India. India 'A': Yuvraj Singh (Capt.), Robin Uthappa, Naman Ojha, Baba Aparajith, Kedar Jadhav, Yusuf Pathan, Vinay Kumar, Shahbaz Nadeem, Siddarth Kaul, Jaydev Unadkat, Unmukt Chand, Rahul Sharma, Sumit Narwal. West Indies 'A': Kieran Powell (Capt.), Andre Fletcher, Kirk Edwards, Leon Johnson, Jonathan Carter, Andre Russell, Devon Thomas(k), Ashley Nurse, Nikita Miller, Veerasammy Permaul, Miguel Cummins, Narsingh Deonarine, Sheldon Cotterrell, Nkruma Bonner, Ronsford Beaton.

Pakistan wants a bilateral series with India: Sethi

KARACHI: The BCCI might be keen on organising a tri-series involving Pakistan and Sri Lanka in India later this year, but Pakistan Cricket Board's caretaker chairman Najam Sethi said he would be more interested in the reviving the bilateral cricketing ties with the neighbours. "We are more focused on having a bilateral series with India," said Sethi. "We spoke about this when our chief operating officer went to India recently. I also plan to visit India next month to convince the BCCI about this," he told a news channel. The PCB chief said the participation of the Pakistani Twenty20 champions, Faisalabad Wolves in the ongoing Champions League in India was a welcome development. "It is a positive development for the restoration of bilateral cricket ties between the two countries," he said. Meanwhile, Sethi confirmed that former captain Moin Khan will be asked to continue as manager of the national team for the forthcoming series against South

As a whole, India have performed reasonably with the bat. While Yuvraj and Yusuf Pathan managed to get some runs under their belt, the hosts have been hugely let down by opener Robin Uthappa's form as the India discard could manage only 23, 10 and 27 in the three ODIs. The batting unit revolves around openers Unmukt Chand and Uthappa and from India's point of view, it is imperative that they give the team a good start. The Indian outfit would also hope that the likes of Baba Aparajith and Kedar Jadhav, who have shown their poten-

tial in patches in the ODI series, lend some solidity to the middle-order. India's bowling department, with the exception of pacers Vinay Kumar and Jaydev Unadkat, has completely looked off-colour and if the hosts harbour any chance of clinching the one-off T20 series, the bowlers will have to fire in unison. The West Indies 'A', on the other hand, would need to guard against complacency if they hope to maintain their winning momentum going into Saturday's match at the Chinnaswamy Stadium. The visitors have looked good in the ODI series and

Africa in UAE, starting in October. "Yes Moin will be given another chance and all those people in the board and team management who are doing a good job will be encouraged and allowed to continue their work," he said. He also said that Pakistan foreign coach Dav Whatmore had three months remaining in his contract with the PCB. Disclosing that the PCB had hired the services of a British barrister to help it in the Mohammad Aamer case, Sethi said, "I had discussed the Aamer case and the DRS system in detail when I went to England for the ICC meeting this year. Our position is clear, we are seeking to get the ICC to review Aamer's ban."

chess, P T Usha in athletics and many more." Later, this view was overruled by senior officials and then home minister P Chidambaram who voiced the opinion that "Bharat Ratna be considered a decoration for advancement in any field instead of a limited number and be qualified to include only exceptional cases." The view was also endorsed by PM Manmohan Singh and President Pratibha Patil. The issue came up after sports minister Ajay Maken sought conferment of the honour for Tendulkar. In a letter written in April 2011 Maken said that sports acted as a binding force in a pluralistic society and helped nurture national pride. "It has become one of the most potent tools of involving youth and citizen away from divisive tendencies. Hence sports should be included as an area of recognition for the conferment of the Bharat Ratna," he had said. A similar request was sent by MP Madhusudan Yadav. The ministry also received letters against Tendulkar being given the award.

Seven positive tests at Moscow Worlds: IAAF

MOSCOW:Seven athletes, including one finalist, tested positive for doping at August's World Athletics Championships in Moscow, track and field's world governing body, the IAAF, announced on Friday. The IAAF said it took a total of 1 , 9 1 9 blood samples and carried out 538 urine test during the competition and 132 during the pre-competition period. Seven athletes failed urine tests, the IAAF confirmed, with just one having appeared in a final: Ukrainian Roman Avramenko, who finished fifth in the men's javelin, but tested positive for steroid dehydrochloromethyltestosterone. The six others were named as Afghan Massoud Azizi (men's 100m; nandrolone metabolites), Ukrainian Elyzaveta Bryzgina (women's 200m; drostanolone), Kazakhstan's Ayman Kozhakhmetova (women's 20km walk; exogenous testosterone + EPO), Iran's Ebrahim Rahimian (men's 20km walk; EPO), Turkmenistan's Yelena Ryabova (women's 200m; dehydrochloromethyltestosterone); and Guatemalan Jeremias Saloj (men's marathon; EPO). The seven athletes have either already been sanctioned or provisionally suspended, the IAAF said. "I am delighted that with the assistance of our partners the IAAF has been able to carry out such a comprehensive anti-doping testing programme in Moscow," said IAAF president Lamine Diack. "The specialised analyses and the blood samples taken in connection with the Athlete Biological Passport emphasise the IAAF's firm commitment and resolve to use the most sophisticated methods at our disposal in the fight against cheating in sport," he said.

Indian shuttlers exit Japan Open

TOKYO: The Indian challenge at the $200,000 Japan Open Super Series ended on Friday after shuttlers Ajay Jayaram, K. Srikanth and H.S. Prannoy lost their respective men's singles quarterfinals at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Fifth seeded Vietnamese Tien Minh Nguyen overcame Mumbai's Jayaram in straight games in 40 minutes. The 2013 World Championship bronze medallist came out victorious 21-18, 21-13 to win his third match in four meetings against the Indian. Though Jayaram matched the Vietnamese in the first game, Nguyen came out on top in the end with the help of some down the line smashes. The second game was completely dominated by the fifth seed,

Women wrestlers fall in first round

NEW DELHI: There was nothing to cheer for in the Indian camp at the World wrestling championship in Budapest on Thursday as three Indian women wrestlers crashed out of the tournament in the the first round. Geeta Phogat failed to overcome Azerbaijan's Yuliya Ratkevich. Yuliya won the match 4-3 on VT fall in the 59 kg category. Yuliya was the first to attack, pinning Geeta down to earn two points. Next up was Geetika Jhakar in 63kg category. Geetika also suffered a similar fate losing 0-5 to Belarus' Maria Mamashuk on VT fall. Pooja's exit in the 55kg category ended all hopes of a medal by the Indian women grapplers.

Former BCCI secretary Jaywant Lele passes away

VADODARA: Former secretary of the Indian cricket board, Jaywant Yeshwant Lele passed away at his residence following a massive heart attack on Thursday. Lele breathed his last late Thursday night. He was 75 and is survived by his wife, a son and a daughter. The outspoken Lele, who served as BCCI's assistant secretary and later took over the reins as the secretary when Jagmohan Dalmiya became the president of the International Cricket Council in 1996, had celebrated his 75th birthday on September 13, said former India stumper Nayan Mongia, who confirmed the news of his death. "He had celebrated his 75th birthday with his friends. It is very unfortunate. He was like a father to me. I always used to consult him on various issues. He had guided me from the age of 12," Mongia said. According to family sources, Lele, who had written an autobiography on his career as a cricket administrator, was not feeling well during his birthday celebrations because of a viral infection.

who took away the game and match. The Indian's net play was better but Nguyen's smashes proved to be the key between the two. Elsewhere, Japanese seventh seed Kenichi Tago made short work of Thailand Open Grand Prix Gold winner Srikanth in 39 minutes. The

local player won 21-18, 21-9 in their first ever match to proceed to the semifinals. Prannoy gave a good fight to China's Huan Gao, taking his much higher ranked opponent to the decider. But Gao won 21-11, 20-22, 21-13 in a marathon match which lasted an hour and 13 minutes in their first meeting.

Chandigarh boy wins Noida leg of Hank Haney qualifiers

C H A N D I G A R H : Youngsters from the city are setting the golfing greens on fire. Names like Aadil Bedi, Vasundhara Thiara and Adilbir Singh have done the city proud at various tournaments on the national stage, over the last year or two. Add one more name Karandeep Singh Kochar, who has been in superlative form in the junior golf circuit won the Noida leg of the Hank Haney qualifiers and now stands a chance of participating in the Tournament of Champions, scheduled to be held in Orlando, USA next year. Karandeep held onto his nerves to clinch the title by hitting a birdie in the first playoff hole. The scores of Sarthak Kohli (83-76) and Karandeep (80-79) were tied at the end of the two-day tournament held in Noida Golf Club, but Karan prevailed in the playoff.

World Junior Chess: Sethuraman back into reckoning with a thumping victory
KOCAELI: Indian Grandmaster S P Sethuraman came back into the reckoning for top honours after defeating Duda Jan-Krzysztof of Poland in the seventh round of World Junior Chess Championship. After losing the sixth round against Yu Yangyo of China, Sethuraman needed to win to stay in contention and he did that in style with white pieces to take his tally to 5.5 points. Playing the white side of a Queen pawn game, Sethuraman got the initial advantage and he capitalised on it well to win a pawn by force in the middle game. JanKrzysztof, however, came up with some real resistance and it was only in the nick of time that Sethuraman found a brilliant queen sacrifice to march to glory. Yu Yangyi of China, meanwhile, stayed ahead of the rest with another fine performance against Russian Urii Eleseev. The Chinese took his tally to a commanding 6.5 points out of a possible seven and stayed a half point clear of

Wily N Srinivasan may be re-elected BCCI chief unopposed

KOLKATA: The smug look on N Srinivasan's face at the end of the BCCI's marketing committee meeting in Mumbai on Thursday said it all. That is because Srinivasan is set to be elected president unopposed for an additional one-year term at the BCCI's Annual General Meeting in Chennai on September 29. Srinivasan is virtually sure of retaining the chair after getting his candidature endorsed by five of the six South Zone units. As per BCCI's constitution, any candidate aspiring for the top post needs a proposer and 'seconder' from the zone whose turn it is to elect the president. And the turn this time is South Zone's. By securing the backing of Karnataka, Kerala, Hyderabad, Andhra and, of course, his own association, Tamil Nadu, Srinivasan has engineered a technical knock-out of sorts by eliminating any opposition to his candidature. Srinivasan's master stroke has left his rivals in the BCCI red-faced as they need the support of at case of being a little too late for the opposition. By the time a fractured BCCI could come together and mount a strong challenge to Srinivasan at the AGM, the wily Tamil Nadu strongman had checkmated them. It is a shame because Srinivasan, in the absence of a challenger, will not have to prove his majority in the 31-member house where he, as the president, commands a vote. According to sources, as many as 20 units of the BCCI want Srinivasan out, but that will not matter at the AGM where he will be anointed as the 'king', thanks to the board's archaic rotation policy that puts a premium on the zone and not the best person to head its administration. For the record, even chargesheeted individuals are not barred from contesting elections under BCCI's constitution. The opposition, in all liklelihood, will have to wait until the 2014 AGM to bring in a new set of administrators to govern Indian cricket whose image has taken a royal beating globally.

defending champion and local hero Alexander Ipatov. Indian Grandmaster Sahaj Grover and Sethuraman share a fourway tie for the third spot along with Jorge Cori of Peru and Idani Pouya of Iran with six rounds still to go in the premier event for under-20 players in the world. Grandmaster Vidit Gujarathi also scored a comeback victory over Turkey's Dastan Muhammed Batuhan while, after initial hiccups, Asian junior champion N Srinath played a fine game to cruise past Martin Romero Martinex of Colombia. Both Gujrathi and

Srinath have five points apiece. Among other Indians in the fray, S L Narayanan moved to four points, Sameer Kathmale secured 3.5 after a draw while Rakesh Kulkarni took his tally to three points with his second victory. Padmini Rout defeated G K Monnisha to reach five points in the girls' championship being played simultaneously. Irina Bulmaga of Romania defeated overnight leader Aulia Warda Melina of Indonesia to emerge as the new sole leader on six points from seven games in this section.

least one more South Zone unit apart from Goa Cricket Association to put up a candidate against the incumbent president. Srinivasan's opponents were banking on Andhra's support in this regard after no representative from the association, along with Goa, turned up at a conclave of South Zone units earlier this week. According to TOI sources, Andhra too has now fallen in line and endorsed the candidature of Srinivasan, who is likely to file at least four sets of nominations with various permutations and combinations of units backing him for the top job.

Srinivasan's tactical acumen may well have paved the way for his return to the helm of the BCCI, but it hardly reflects his strength or popularity in the world's richest cricket body. The fall-out of IPL-6 betting and spot-fixing scandal has left a majority of the BCCI members disenchanted with the ruling group. And with the matter still sub-judice, most members had been pressing for a clean break from the 'old' regime that has already shed two key office-bearers in the form of Sanjay Jagdale (secretary) and Ajay Shirke (treasurer). However, it appears to be a

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