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2006-07-16
2006-07-23 Tuesday, October 10, 2006
2006-07-30
2006-08-06
2006-08-13 Business News Oct 10th, 2006
2006-08-20
Opening of financial sector inevitable: PM
2006-08-27
2006-09-03
2006-09-10 London, Oct. 10: India on Tuesday said it will further
2006-09-17 open up its financial sector to foreign investors, just as it
2006-09-24 had removed barriers to FDI in most other sectors, after
2006-10-01 forging a political consensus.“I cannot report that I have
2006-10-08
consensus on it. But I remain hopeful that this is an idea
whose time has come. It is only a matter of time before
we can move forward with regard to liberalisation of
financial sector,” Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told
British investors at the India-UK Investment Summit.

Dr Singh said he had held discussions with the coalition

partners regarding the need for further opening up
banking and insurance sectors — a key demand of most
developed nations, including the US and UK. But such a
move has been strongly resisted by the UPA’s main prop —
the Left parties.

Dr Singh said the government remains committed to

liberalise trade in services, financial and legal sectors
included. “I do believe we need to promote a widely held
pension fund system. We need a much larger insurance
sector, with a higher capital base with more diverse
products.

It is these which will generate the necessary long term

funds for investing in a debt market and make available
resources for investment needs of our country,
particularly in the vital infrastructure sector.” Dr Singh
said the country had already removed most barriers to
foreign direct investment in the manufactuting sector, but
would like to see higher FDI inflows in infrastructure.

Dr Reddy’s settles Glaxo patent row

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Dr. Reddy’s Laboratories said on

Tuesday that it has settled patent litigation with
GlaxoSmithKline relating to sumatriptan succinate tablets,
the generic version of GlaxoSmithKline’s Imitrex tablets

The terms of the settlement, which remain subject to

government review, provide that Dr Reddy’s may
exclusively distribute an authorised generic version of
sumatriptan succinate tablets (in the 25 mg, 50 mg and
100 mg strengths) in the US with an expected launch date
late in the fourth quarter of 2008 ahead of the expiration
of the pediatric exclusivity on 5037845 patent on February
6, 2009.

Additional terms of the settlement agreement were not

disclosed, a Dr Reddy’s statement said. GlaxoSmithKline’s
Imitrex® tablets, which are indicated for the acute
treatment of migraine attacks in adults, had US sales of
$890 million for the 12-month period ending June, 2006.

Nath calls for hike in FDI inflow

New Delhi, Oct. 10: Union commerce minister Kamal

Nath has called for increasing the inflow of foreign direct
investment (FDI) from UK into India. The commerce
ministry info-rmed that Mr Nath, in his address to the
“India-UK Investment Summit” at Lancaster House in
London on Tuesday, said that the total outward
investment by UK is of the order of £35 billion annually,
of which only about £80 million flows into India.

Pointing out the attractiveness of India as an investment

destination, Mr Nath said that global corporations
understood the value of leveraging India’s advantages. “In
fact, India has achieved levels of European productivity at
20 per cent of the cost. It continues to remain
competitive vis-à-vis its South Asian neighbours in labour
costs,” he said.

The cumulative FDI inflow from UK is about £1.1 billion.

Mr Nath said that corporations from the UK have primarily
flowed into the areas of electrical equipment, fuels and
service sector. British companies like Castrol, Thomas
Cook, ECOM Communication and Scottish and New Castle
have been some of the largest British investors in India.

He also pointed out that (citing the latest issue of

European Investment Monitor of E&Y), India has also
emerged as the second largest foreign investor in the UK.
Giving an example of cost advantages in India, Mr Nath
said that a US-based auto component manufacturer would
increase its potential return on sales by 3-6 percentage
points by shifting its manufacturing to India. “India has
already put itself on the radar of every investing entity in
the world. The world recognises that it would be
impossible to do business without India,” he said.

Lacklustre Sensex awaits Infy numbers

Mumbai, Oct. 10: The Sensex started off with a 100 point
gain in line with the positive sentiment in the Asian
markets, but as the day progressed was like a yo-yo
shifting between positive and negative territory and
finally closed down 2.06 points. It touched a low of
12,341.34 and a high of 12481.93 to close at 12,363.77.
The Nifty was up 3.90 points and closed at 3571.05, after
touching a low of 3563.10 and a high of 3597.20 in intra-
day trade.

In contrast, the Asian markets all classed in the green

with the Hang Seng up 148.48 points, the Kospi 8.97,
Nikkei 41.19 and the Straits Times 26.15. The turnover
was also low at Rs 26,860.2 crores compared to the last
one week with the F&O sector accounting for Rs 17,575.9
crores. The number of stocks that went up were 465
compared to 462 that ended in the red.

Some market watchers felt punters were cautious as

Infosys is declaring its results on Wednesday and were
waiting to see if they were above market expectations or
not and then take positions. Infosys is usually seen as the
leader setting the trend for what may be expected during
the earnings season. Infosys was up Rs 8.70, while TCS
gained Rs 8.60, Satyam Rs 1.10 and Wipro Rs 4.40.

Among the heavyweights that pulled the Sensex down

were ONGC which lost Rs 4.65, RIL Rs 3.95, SBI Rs 3.75,
Tata Steel Rs 8.55 and HLL Rs 4.85. Among the gainers
were HDFC Rs 22.40, Grasim Rs 16.35, MUL Rs 12.35 and
Tata Motors Rs 10.10 and HDFC Bank Rs 7.20.

Reforms agenda needs paradigm shift

By Olga Tellis

Time flies and it really seems like only yesterday that

economic reforms and liberalisation were introduced. But
it has been 15 years since the 1991 crisis that saw the
then government take measures that were to open the
floodgates to development and growth of a different kind.
India is the flavour of the year and every global player
who is not here is yearning to be here and finding ways
and means to get here.

15 years on...

While there will be many studies done of the

achievements of the 1991 economic and financial reforms
in the last 15 years in the coming days and months, the
Prime Minister has given his considered view on the
subject. It is very interesting and one can see it as the
way one wants like the case of a glass half full or half
empty.

Everyone knows about the achievements and fruits of

reforms as they scream from every billboard in big cities
and smaller towns. But interestingly the Prime Minister Dr
Manmohan Singh said he wanted to point out to a
“greater concern for the long term well being of the
nation.”

He said that and I quote him verbatim “millions of our

fellow citizens are still deprived of the benefits of a
growing economy. While the belief in a market economy
is certainly justified it must be remembered that markets
serve those who are part of it. They have no relevance to
those who exist on the margins of subsistence and who
have neither the physical nor the human resources to
participate in them.” He said the growth had not been
able to generate employment opportunities on the same
scale.

Reforms need a new paradigm

There is much being said about the Soviet-type economy

of India of the 50s, 60s, and 70's and the damage it did to
economic growth but there's a lot to be learnt from what
happened then and what led to 1991. One thinks that it’s
time for the policy makers, whom some refer to as the
dream team (earlier they were three but now two more
have been added) to read The Indian Economy -Problems
and Prospects edited by former RBI governor and now
Rajya Sabha member Dr Bimal Jalan. He says “In the
1950s and 60s we engaged in learned debates on import
substitution versus export promotion policies and industry
versus agriculture.

In the 1970s we had similar debates on outward-

orientation and inward-orientations and on the monetarist
vs structuralists approaches to balance the payments and
inflation.
In 1991 the country began debating the supremacy of the
markets over government and the private sector.
However the historical lesson was that most of the
successful cases of development were those that had
managed to combine the virtues of conflicting paradigms
rather than rely exclusively on a single set of preordained
theoretically ‘right’ policies.”

2006 could be the 1970's

From what one sees, the present policy makers are

getting bogged down in the same way as their
predecessors did in the 1970s. It is time to move on. As Dr
Jalan points out reforms were undertaken after a
particular crisis, namely an empty foreign reserves kitty —
and they have succeeded tremendously. We have enough
forex reserves to stand many a crisis, not just one.

Market forces cobwebbed

So it is time to relook at the nature of the economic and

financial reforms and see whether they have outlived
their use in their present avatar. They have as Dr
Manmohan Singh who is considered the architect of the
reforms, says not delivered the goods to the majority of
the population.

Apart from the millions who have been sidelined,

agriculture is sluggish and as he says it supports two-
thirds of our population. He says there is need to expand
reforms to include health, education and agriculture. If
any reminder is needed, it is the present epidemics of
dengue, malaria and chikungunya that are calling for the
shift that Dr Singh spelt out at the Economic Times
function.

Smart MIMO is new kid on the block

IT Today

Even as Chennai appears to have become the first metro

in India with WiMax access citywide, launched by Aircel
Business Solutions, the world of WiMax has new disruptive
technologies taking a bow every other day. WiMax
(Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave Access) is a
wireless industry coalition whose members organized to
advance IEEE 802.16 standards for broadband wireless
access networks. WiMAX 802.16 technology aims to enable
multimedia applications with wireless connections.

WiMax also has a range of up to 30 miles, presenting

provider networks with a viable wireless last mile
solution, according to SearchMobileComputing. We will
talk about one such development in WiMax today. But
first, Aircel's WiMax push in Chennai. Aircel’s Internet
services through Worldwide Interoperability for Microwave
Access (WiMax) enables enables ‘last mile’ connectivity
using ‘near line of site’ (NLOS) wireless equipment.

On the technology front, meanwhile, Navini Networks, a

US-based firm, has launched a solution called Smart
WiMax, which purportedly optimises mobile WiMAX.
According to Sai Subramanian, Navini’s VP of product
management and strategic market, Smart WiMAX
combines the Smart Beamforming technology currently in
commercial service around the world, with beamformed
MIMO (multiple input multiple output), which can double
the data throughput for mobile WiMAX subscribers.
“Navini’s beamformed MIMO, called ‘Smart MIMO’,
extends the range over which typical MIMO signals can be
received and enhances the received signal power, so data
can be transmitted as much as six times faster,” he says.
“While some vendors have taken an “either MIMO or
beamforming” approach to advanced antenna systems for
mobile WiMAX, Navini's unique app-roach combines them
to improve the performance of mobile and stationary
users,” Mr Subramanian says in a posting on Navini
Networks’ web site.

“Beamformed MIMO and Smart Beamforming together

create a very powerful solution called Smart WiMAX.
Delivering both is better!” “We’ve seen beamformed
MIMO signals demonstrating over 12dB gain (16 times
increase in received power) compared to standard MIMO.
In many locations where standard MIMO signals are not
receivable, the enhanced beamformed MIMO signal is not
only received but decoded using 16 QAM (fast) or 64 QAM
modulation (very, very fast). Additionally, Beamforming
delivers over 9dB gain (8 times increase in received
power) on the uplink, which is critical to getting
broadband performance from low powered devices.”

PM rallies behind call centres on data scare

London, Oct. 10: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on

Tuesday assured British investors that India had excellent
standards for information protection, days after a UK-
based channel made damning allegations about data theft
from Indian call centres. “India adheres to all
international codes and regulations pertaining to safety
and protection of investments and Intellectual Property
Rights. We also have in place excellent standards for data
protection,” he said addressing the India-UK Investment
Summit here.

The allegations by Channel-4, which have the potential to

hurt the country’s booming BPO industry, prompted a
police investigation. “We have signed an MoU with Britain
to strengthen our cooperation in IPRs,” Dr Singh said.
“Investment in India is both safe and profitable,” he said,
adding that the country offers tremendous new
opportunities in manufacturing, particularly in
automobiles and auto components, pharma, biotech and
food processing.
Channel-4 last week claimed to have unearthed a racket
where Indian call centre workers, handling outsourced
work, were selling classified data. The allegations were
reminiscent of a similar fraud involving an HSBC employee
in June and another call centre worker in Mumbai in
September.

Study finds remote staffers play loose with computers

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Most remote workers, or tele

workers, say they are aware of security issues, but their
behaviour with regard to sharing work computers with
non-employees, opening unknown mails and hijacking
wireless networks suggests otherwise, a new study says.

The global third-party study commissioned by Cisco

Systems took a sample of 1,000 workers in 10 countries,
including India. It spotlights the challenge that behavioral
and cultural tendencies create for IT security teams as
more employees work outside of traditional offices — a
business practice that can enhance productivity yet
jeopardise corporate and personal security.

“Whether they work at home, at a café, or in a

hotel,numerous findings indicate that remote workers
aggravate network security concerns because of a false
sense of awareness. In fact, while two of every three
teleworkers surveyed (66 per cent) said they are cognisant
of security concerns when working remotely, many
admitted behavior that under mines and contradicts their
awareness,” the CiscoSystems-funded study says.

Their reasons offer valuable in sight for IT and security

managers around the world, fueling a need for tighter,
proactive relationships with end users. The study found
that more than one of every five remote workers
surveyed (21 per cent) allow friends, family members or
other non-employees to use his or her work computer to
access the Internet.

“One of the most glaring contradictions in the study’s

results involved non-business activity: Only 29 per cent of
remote workers surveyedin the 10 countries admitted that
they use their work computers for personal activities.
However, 40 per cent - 11 percent more - admitted that
they use their work computers foronline shopping. This
discrepancy occurred in eight of the 10
countries(excluding China and India).

For example, in the United Kingdom, only 27 per cent

admitted usingtheir work computer for personal reasons,
but 53 per cent said they shop online whenworking
remotely,” it says. “Hijacking wireless networks or
sharing corporatedevices with non-employees is a
significant risk for the global IT community,” saidJeff
Platon, Cisco’s vice president of Security Solutions
Marketing.

Centre supports Tatas’ UK bid

London, Oct. 10: India is fully supportive of Tata Steel’s

bid to take over UK-based steel giant Corus, industry and
commerce minister Kamal Nath has said. Asked about his
response to the proposed Tata-Corus deal, Mr Nath said
“Why not? Tata is one of our leading companies and they
must go global. It’s not merely a story today of trade
flows — it’s a question of investment, both ways.”

It was his intervention on behalf of Lakshmi Mittal earlier

this year — basically telling the French not to be so racist
if they wanted to do business with India – which probably
assisted Mittal Steel’s successful bid for Arcelor, The Daily
Telegraph newspaper reported on Tuesday.

This year, for the first time, Foreign Direct Investment

(FDI) into India —amounting to between $7 billion to $8
billion —will be exceeded by FDI going out of the country
to finance acquisitions by Indian companies. There are
plans to create a “family of 100 Indian companies”, each
worth 1 billion dollars, which assist one another. “And
that is before
Tata Steel’s proposed $10.4 billion purchase of Corus,”
Davinder Singh Brar, who heads the Confederation of
Indian Industry’s committee on Indian multinationals said.

IFC to invest $500m in agricultural business

Chennai, Oct. 10: International Finance corporation

(IFC), the private sector arm of the World Bank group,
would invest $500 million in the agri-business and
infrastructure sector in India in this fiscal.

Announcing the investment of $11 million equity in

Suguna Poultry Farms Ltd in Chennai on Tuesday, IFC’s
executive vie-president Lars H. Thunell said, the IFC
would invest $500 million in agri business and private
infrastructure projects in India. He said the multi-lateral
institution is bullish on the India’s infrastructure
development, adding he said IFC would provide funds to
firms in small towns to improve the productivity and the
rural economy.

Dena Bank in expansion mode

Chennai, Oct. 10: Dena Bank has chalked out an

aggressive plan to take its total business from Rs 42,000
crores to Rs 50,0000 crores at the end of the current
fiscal and Rs 100,000 crores by 2010. It has also planned
to reduce its net non-performing assets (NPAs) from 5 per
cent to 3 per cent by the end of this fiscal.

“We have identified Rs 600 crore worth of non-performing

assets (NPAs) to sell in a bidding process.
PricewaterhouseCoopers is conducting a process to find
out the asset value of the assets,” said Mr P.L. Gajrola,
chairman and managing director of the bank.

The PWC is expected to submit the report in a month.

The bank expects to close the deal by the end of this
year. He said that the bank is expected to clock a deposit
growth of 15 per cent and advance growth of 25 per cent
in 2006-07 and is targeting a business mix of Rs 50,000
crores.

He added that the bank is deploying core banking

solutions (CBS), which will be implemented by a
consortium comprising Wipro and Infosys with a total cost
Rs 300 crores. “In the current year, CBS will be
implemented in 25 branches and in the next two-and-half
years it will be implemented in 850 branches,” he added.

The bank has adopted a totally outsourced model for its

CBS programme. The entire hardware and software will
be outsourced from the consortium, he said. Mr Gajrola
said the bank would increase its ATM network to 500 from
the present 280 and would also add 25 additional
branches in this year.

Dot-com boom echoed in deal to buy YouTube

A profitless website started by three 20-somethings after

a late-night dinner party is sold for more than a billion
dollars, instantly turning dozens of its employees into
paper millionaires. It sounds like a tale from the late
1990’s dot-com bubble, but it happened on Monday.

Google, the online search behemoth, agreed yesterday to

pay $1.65 billion in stock for the website that came out of
that party — YouTube, the video-sharing phenomenon that
is the darling of an Internet resurgence known as Web
2.0. YouTube had been coveted by virtually every big
media and technology company, as they seek to tap into a
generation of consumers who are viewing 100 million
short videos on the site every day.

Google is expected to try to make money from YouTube

by integrating the site with its search technology and
search-based advertising program. But the purchase price
has also invited comparisons to the mind-boggling
valuations that were once given to dozens of Silicon Valley
companies a decade ago. Like YouTube, those companies
were once the Next Big Thing, but some soon folded.

Google, with a market value of $132 billion, can clearly

afford to take a gamble with YouTube, but the question
remains: How to put a price tag on an unproven business?
“If you believe it’s the future of television, it’s clearly
worth $1.6 billion,” Mr Steven A. Ballmer, Microsoft’s
chief executive, said of YouTube. “If you believe
something else, you could write down maybe it’s not
worth much at all.”

In a conference call to announce the transaction on

Monday, there were eerie echoes of the late 1990’s boom
time. There was no mention of what measures Google
used to arrive at the price it agreed to pay. At one point,
Google’s vice-president David Drummond, gave a cryptic
explanation: “We modelled this on a more or less
synergistic kind of model. You can imagine this would be
hard to do on a stand-alone basis.”

The price tag Google paid may simply have been the cost
 of beating its rivals — Yahoo, Viacom and the News
Corporation — to take control of the most sought-after
website of the moment. It was also perhaps the only price
that two YouTube founders, Chad Hurley, 29, and Steven
Chen, 28, and their big venture capital backer, Sequoia
Capital Partners, were willing to accept.

# posted by mashup @ 8:35 PM 2 comments

Andhrapradesh Regional News, Oct

10th, 2006
Anomalies in rural job scheme

Kadapa, Oct. 10: Irregularities have come to the fore in

the implementation of the National Rural Employment
Guarantee (NREG) scheme during the social audit
conducted by the AP Vyavasaya Karima Sangham and
State resource persons in Kajipet mandal of Kadapa
district.

The social audit report alleged that the contractors in

connivance with officials and politicians siphoned off
funds to the tune of Rs 11 lakh under the scheme in the
mandal. The district administration sanctioned Rs 11 lakhs
for taking up desiltation works in irrigation canals and
provide 100 man days to landless poor in Shantinagar,
Muthuluripadu and Boyyayapalle villages in the mandal.
However, the contractors, field assistants and officials
completed only 75 per cent works and did not pay the
amount to labourers.

AP Vyavasaya Karima Sangham district secretary Anvesh

submitted a memorandum in this regard to collector M.T.
Dhana Kishore on Tuesday. The collector who took the
issue seriously, called up the District Water Management
Agency (DWMA) project director and directed him to
probe into the alleged irregularities.

He also called up the Kajipet mandal revenue officer over

phone and directed him to probe into the alleged
irregularities in works taken up under NREG scheme and
submit a report, Mr Anvesh said. The collector reportedly
issued orders to stop the payment of cheques for Rs 50
lakhs worth works taken up under the scheme.
Auction of temple lands flayed

Nellore, Oct. 10: Hindu Temples Protection Committee

would file a contempt petition against endowments
department for auctioning the temple lands despite a
High Court stay order dated May 30, 2006.
Addressing a media conference here on Tuesday, State
general secretary of the committee M. Kamal Kumar came
down heavily on the endowments department for turning
a blind eye to the court order.

He said that the endowment authorities have auctioned 10

acres belonging to Chalamaiah Satram in Guntur on
August 28 besides another piece of land situated five-
kilometre from Sattenapalli on the plea that it is located
in an urban area.

He said that the department had also issued a notice on

September 5 to auction four acres of temple lands
belonging to Giddaperumallu Swamy, on the outskirts of
Karimnagar town. Stressing that the land is located
adjacent to the temple, he ridiculed the department for
its failure to protect the land.

He criticised endowments minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy for

favouring the auction of temple land located in urban
areas. “Large extent of temple lands located in rural
areas fall under the jurisdiction of urban areas following
the formation of new civic bodies and corporations,” Mr
Kamal Kumar said, alleging that endowment department
is taking advantage of this to auction these lands.

He said that half of the 3.76 lakhs acres of temple lands

in the State would disappear if the government continues
to encourage the auctions.

JKC set up in women’s college

Nellore, Oct. 10: The Institute of Electronic Governance

(IEG) of Government of Andhra Pradesh has identified Dr
Bezwada Gopal Reddy Women’s Academy (local women’s
degree college) for campus placement mission through
Jawahar Knowledge Centre (JKC).

The JKC would extend training to the final year students

of the institution on industry-related technical and soft
skills. Hitherto the JKCs are established in reputed
engineering colleges spread across the State to increase
the standards of higher education. Jawahar Bharathi
Engineering College in Kavali and Audisankara College of
Engineering Technology in Gudur are the only two colleges
which have the JKCs in the district so far.

According to Mr J.V. Reddy, correspondent of the

academy, for the first time a degree college was selected
for JKC in the district. In JKC, students are trained in
technical skills, soft skills, project management skills and
communication skills by employing accelerated learning
strategies with a mentor-student ratio of 1:5. A team of
qualified and skilled individuals from JKC, an offspring of
IEG, will select students for the training, who scored
above 65 per cent marks.

The training includes promotion of curriculum

improvement to meet the needs of the industry as well as
the government. The 100-day intensive training would be
followed by 20-day placement activity for the graduates.
Selected students have to pay Rs 1,000 for training as per
the guidelines of the JKC.

Explaining the programme to this newspaper, Mr J.V.

Reddy said that a team from IEG inspected the college
two months ago and selected it to establish the JKC, as it
was satisfied with the infrastructure. He said that many
final year students have shown interest in joining the
programme after listening to the salient features when
Nithin Reddy of IEG delivered a lecture recently.

College principal S. Raghava Reddy thanked the

government for extending the programme to the degree
colleges while stressing the need for exposure on the
needs of the industry to the students.

Centre okays to build jetty in Prakasam

Ongole, Oct. 10: The Ministry of Environment gave its

nod to the fisheries department to construct a jetty
(landing stage for boats) at the Gundayapalem in the
mandal for the benefit of fishermen community. Earlier,
the fisheries department has sent proposals to the Centre
for permission to construct a jetty at a cost of Rs.1.63
crore.

Gundayapalem, where river Gundlakamma meets the sea,

is a suitable place for the construction of jetty. The
proposed jetty would benefit hundreds of fishermen, who
could anchor their boats even during cyclone disasters. As
per the proposals concrete platforms and buildings will be
constructed in a five-acre land at Gundayapalem.

Speaking to this newspaper, Mr Lakshminarayana,

assistant director, department of fisheries, said that for
the first time a jetty would be constructed in the district.
Fishermen could repair their nets, boats and sell their
produce at the landing stage.

Prakasam district has a vast coastline of 102 km with 72

fishermen habitations. The fishermen in the district
possess 3,500 country-made boats and over 1,300
mechanised boats which help them catch over 12,000
metric tonnes of fish, prawn and other sea products every
year.

Unfortunately, these fishermen don’t have basic

amenities for several years. They don’t have facilities to
sell their catch, to repair their boats and nets. During the
cyclones, boats anchored near the sea are getting
damaged.

Fishermen from not only Prakasam but from other districts

also catch sea products along the district coast. Some of
their problems could be resolved with the construction of
a jetty. Fishermen from Nellore, Guntur, Krishna, East
and West Godavari also get benefited from the jetty. The
department of fisheries is now waiting for release of
funds from the State government for construction of
jetty.

Awareness drive over dengue

Rajahmundry, Oct. 10: In order to contain the spread of

viral fever dengue, medical and health personnel in East
and West Godavari districts took up an awareness drive
among the general public on the symptoms of the fever to
help them seek medical help from the nearest health
centre without delay.

The people who suffered the sting of Aedes mosquito will

develop symptoms like high fever, rashes on the skin,
body and joint pains, vomiting, nausea, post orbital pain
in the eye balls and also suffer dehydration. Infected
people develop dengue fever at the first instance and
later they suffer haemorrhage and at the final stage, they
suffer shock syndrome.

West Godavari district medical and health officer D.S.

Sarma said that they had equipped all the health centres
including primary health centres (PHCs) in the villages
with the necessary antibiotics to distribute to the patients
who approach them with dengue symptoms.

He said that to tackle the water and vector-borne fevers

like malaria, dengue and chikungunya, they were roping
in anganwadi workers and school teachers to bring about
awareness among the general public and students to avoid
falling prey to the diseases.

Administration in both the districts initiated measures to

give widespread publicity on dos and don’ts to avoid the
spread of the dengue fever. They advised the general
public not to allow the stagnation of fresh water in flower
pots, air coolers, broken coconut shells, abandoned tyres
for long time as they could become breeding ground for
the mosquitoes.

As a part of the action plan to contain vector-borne

fevers, malathion was being sprayed in three phases at
various parts covering plain, upland and Agency areas in
both the districts. The general public are also advised not
to approach quacks for any medical help. Meanwhile, in
East Godavari there were no reports of fevers even in
Agency areas thanks to the regular spraying of malathion.

According to district malaria officer Y. Mallikharjuna Rao,

on an average they used to receive a minimum of 20
cases of fever for 1,000 persons in the Agency villages.
But with the regular health measures, the number of
cases dwindled further. Meanwhile, a seven-year- old boy
A. Sairam from the city suspected to be suffering from
dengue was referred to a hospital at Visakhapatnam by
the health officials.
New water plan for upland areas

Kakinada, Oct 10: The non-availability of water and

changing agricultural needs prompted a search for
alternative resources in upland areas in East Godavari
district. In this backdrop, the State government has taken
up a special programme in 10 upland mandals of East
Godavari to ensure effective usage of available water
resources. The District Water Management Agency (DWMA)
has taken up this programme by promoting micro
irrigation and watersheds.

Under this programme, integrated wasteland

development, enterprise promotion in watershed
programme, productivity enhancement in watershed
programme were taken up in the district. For effective
management check-dams, staggered trenches, percolation
tanks and farm ponds were taken by DWMA.

Under this programme water from ridge to valley would

be managed at different places en route. The water thus
saved would be let in to tanks in the final stages for
agriculture purpose.The DWMA which took up the
programme in 2002 considers 500 hectares as one unit
and in total 50 such units were taken up in the upland
area of East Godavari.

The DWMA adopts ‘less water more productivity’ concept

in these areas. The water through these sources would be
effectively diverted to the needs of horticulture crops and
for pulses which are economically viable.

Kuda firm on sale plan

Warangal, Oct. 10: Despite the raging controversy over

the proposed sale of lands belonging to the Azam Jahi
(AJ) Mills, the Kakatiya Urban Development Authority
(Kuda) is going ahead with its plan.

The Kuda, as part of its proposed sale of lands, is learnt

to have got some soil samples tested from the now
defunct mills site. Though the authorities stated that the
sample testing was for the construction of the textile
park, actually it was aimed at establishing the
withstanding capacity of the land for huge constructions.

The Kuda authorities are tight-lipped about the soil

testing and refused to comment. A senior official, on
condition of anonymity, said that the Kuda had planned to
sell a total of 165 acres land allotted to it by the State
government in the first phase.

He said that more than Rs 100 crores would be raised at

one go by the sale of AJ Mills lands and the city
development would get a shot in the arm from the funds.
In a new development, the Kuda has also stepped up its
lobbying to get the government’s nod for acquiring the
lands belonging to the central jail and Mamnoor
aerodrome. The urban body is proposing to allot
alternative lands for the central jail and the aerodrome.

Inferior works caused project washout, says Desam team

Warangal, Oct. 10: The Telugu Desam (TD)’s technical

team headed by Choppadandi MLA Sana Maruti on Tuesday
squarely blamed the poor quality of construction works
for the Gundlavagu project washout.

The three-member technical team, which inspected the

Gundlavagu project site, demanded that the Congress
government take the total responsibility for the project
washout. The TD team also said that it would file a
private criminal case against the project contractor for
ignoring the quality norms in the construction.

“Not even a single quality norm was adhered to in the

construction of the project. Any engineer would be
shocked at the poor quality of the construction. We are
ready for any open debate on the project,” said Mr
Maruti.

Refuting the claim of the contractor that the

unprecedented rainfall was the main reason for the
project washout, Mr Maruti questioned if that was the
reason why no other tank or project in the area got
washed out. He said that the construction samples from
the project washout would be sent to the National
Institute of Technology and AP Research Laboratories for
quality testing.
The retired chief engineer-turned-MLA also cautioned
against the proposed “repairs” by using the project
washout remains. Mr Maruti said that only entire
reconstruction with better quality would ensure the
strength of the project.

He demanded stringent action against the erring

contractor and other officials involved in the construction
and supervision of the project that resulted in the loss of
Rs 11.5 crores of public money. Expert engineers Hanmai
Shinde and Ramana Naik and the district TD unit leaders
took part.

JC visits Durga temple

Suspends sanitary inspector

Vijayawada, Oct.10: Minister for panchayat raj and

endowments J.C. Diwakar Reddy on Tuesday paid a
surprise visit to Kanaka Durga temple. The minister went
around the temple, taking note of conditions and grilled
the officials on the temple’s state of affairs.

The minister, who found a heap of garbage at the temple

entrance, immediately suspended sanitary inspector T.
Venkateswara Rao for his negligence in discharging the
duties. Mr Diwakar Reddy reiterated that no move was
being made to confine Tirumala seven hills to two hills
and said he was misquoted by the media. “I said
according to the British records, the diameter exists up to
only two hills. The seven hills belong Lord Venkateshwara
and it is an undeniable fact,” he told the reporters.

Mr Diwakar Reddy said that efforts were being made to

save temple lands in and around Krishna district that
were encroached. “The lands that are left vacant would
be soon identified by Urban Development Authority (UDA)
for development and will be sold at a later stage. We are
not going to forgo even a small bit that belongs to the
temple,” he said.

Mr Diwakar Reddy also enquired about the long pending

gold work to the main temple mandap. “The government
has identified a few temples in the State for which Rs
2,500 is being granted for maintenance. Chief Minister
Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy is aware of poor living conditions
of archakas and that is why we did not introduce any kind
of reservation in Indiramma scheme.

The economically poor would be benefited,” the minister

said. The Minister also took part in scholarship distribution
to poor in another programme.

TN dodges handover of temple land

Guntur, Oct. 10: The Amaralingeswara temple of

Amaravathi is unable to take control of its abundant
assets in Tamil Nadu, thanks to the recalcitrant attitude
of officials in that State. It is learnt that TN officials have
been using one pretext after another to avoid discussions
on the issue.

Recently, a team led by additional secretary (revenue)

Sudha Rani went to Chennai to discuss the issue with top
TN officials including the chief secretary. But it too
turned out to be a futile exercise. Executive officer of
Amaralingeswara temple Veera Reddy, who was a member
of the team, said the TN officials said that talks could
only be held after the local bodies’ polls.

The team apprised the TN officials of the details of the

assets and urged them to speed up the process of handing
them over. The Sadavarthi Choultry of Amavarathi, which
is under the control of the temple, has abundant land
assets in Tamil Nadu.

Some crucial documents related to the lands were found a

few years ago and after making relentless efforts, district
endowment officials found out that the choultry owned
471.65 acres of land at Thalambur village near Chennai.

Since then, endowment officials have been requesting TN

officials to surrender the land, but in vain. Endowments
minister J.C. Diwakar Reddy visited Tamil Nadu twice
with all the documents but nothing happened.

It is learnt that much of the land in the village had been

allotted to several groups, including some ex-service men.
Nearly 100 acres were given to software development
organisations and leading engineering colleges.

Thalambur village is situated next to Semmancheri and

Navalur villages on Old Mahabalipuram Road. “Cost of
land in that area has gone up to Rs 4 to 5 crores per
acre,” said Mr Veera Reddy. TN is reluctant to hand over
and is initially suggested providing land at a different
location. Later, it changed its mind and proposed to pay
the price of the land at government rates. At present, its
strategy is to postpone the talks citing various reasons.

Flat owners to be sensitised

Meetings to be organised on child labour issue

Visakhapatnam, Oct. 10: With the ban on employment of

children as domestic servants taking effect from Tuesday
in the entire country, the office of deputy labour
commissioner here swung into action and organised a
sensitisation programme.
Deputy commissioner of labour M.N. Varahala Reddy said
that officials from 13 departments were drafted to
identify and rescue children below the age of 14 years
who are engaged as labourers.

“We will take the help of non-governmental organisations

and women’s organisations to conduct meetings in
apartment complexes to create awareness against
employing children below the age of 14 as domestic
helps,” he said. As per the ban imposed under the Child
Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act, 1986, child
labour is prohibited in houses, dhabas, restaurants,
resorts motels, teashops, spas and other recreational
centres.

Under the Act, if anyone employs children below 14 years

as domestic servants, they could be imprisoned up to one
year or made to pay fines ranging from Rs 10,000 to Rs
20,000. Similarly, officers of the Central and State
government department violating the act would be
dismissed from service or imprisoned for a year and
penalised.

Talking to this correspondent, Mr Reddy said the

programme was launched in three phases in the district.
This includes, vigorous campaign in the electronic and
print media, conducting raids on suspected homes and
hotels employing children and in the last phase
rehabilitate the rescued children and admit them in
schools.

Mr Reddy said from January to October 2006, a total of

3,759 child labourers were rescued in Srik-akulam,
Vizianagaram and Visakhapatnam districts and they were
being rehabilitated. But prior to this, the officials began
setting their own houses in order to prevent employment
of child labour.

“I my self had to fight with my father on entry of our

maid’s 15-year-old daughter today. I suspected she could
be below 14 and asked my father not to allow her for
work. But he ran to school and checked her date of birth
and called from there to say she crossed 15,” the deputy
commissioner said. Mr Reddy said to begin with all the
officials in the district were being asked to educate their
own family members so that others could take a cue from
them.

Lakhs attend Sirimanotsav

Vizianagaram, Oct. 10: Over three lakhs devotees

attended the annual Sirimanotsav of Goddess
Paidithallamma from north coastal Andhra districts and
from neighbouring districts of Orissa here on Tuesday.
Serpentine queues were seen at the temple since
midnight for darshan of the Goddess and all roads leading
to Three Lanterns were jam-packed.

Temple chief priest B. Bhairagi Naidu performed special

puja at the temple. Later, the Sirimanu chariot made
three rounds between the temple and Vizianagar fort
where hereditary trustee P. Ashok Gajapathi Raju and
other VIPs sat.

Since the temple trustees present at the fort belong to

Opposition party, minister for marketing Botsa
Satyanarayana, zilla parishad chairperson Botsa Jhansi
Lakshmi, district collector B. Kishore and others witnessed
the event from district co-operative central bank
premises.

While the municipality took up measures to maintain total

sanitation under the direct supervision of commissioner
S.S. Varma, the endowments department has deployed
 staff summoned from other temples.

District superintendent of police Vik-ram Singh Mann

made elaborate band-obust arrangements and traffic
diversions by deploying sufficient number of police
personnel. The RTC too has plied special services from
various parts of the district and Visakhapatnam.

# posted by mashup @ 8:34 PM 0 comments

Hyderabad News, Oct 10th, 2006

CBI accuses George in Israel Barak case

New Delhi, Oct. 10: Former defence minister George

Fernandes was on Tuesday named an accused by the
Central Bureau of Investigation in a case related to
alleged irregularities in the purchase of the Barak missile
systems from Israel in 2000.

The CBI conducted searches at 35 places in five States

against arms dealers involved in the purchases made
during the tenure of former defence minister George
Fernandes and recovered approximately Rs 2 crores in
unaccounted money, about a dozen hard disks, pen drives
and credit cards apart from other “incriminating”
documents, official sources said. No arrests had been till
the filing of this report. The raids were being conducted
in connection with four defence-related cases — the
process and purchase of Denel rifles, Barak missiles,
ARVs, and the Krasnopol TGM deal.

However, sources in the CBI indicated that the way has

been cleared for calling high-profile accused persons for
questioning in the four cases registered on Monday in
connection with the acquisition of arms and ammunition
worth Rs 1,800 crores, including the Barak missiles.

The raids were against mainly six arms dealers and

middlemen and conducted at places that included the
office and residential premises of Congress MLA from
Punjab Arvind Khanna, his father Mr Vipin Khanna, and Mr
Suresh Nanda, the son of former Navy Chief Admiral S.M.
Nanda, the sources said. The residences and official
premises of arms agent Sudhir Chaudhary and that of Mr
M.S. Sawhney were also raided by the CBI.
The agency recovered Rs 62.5 lakhs in cash from Mr
Nanda’s private office at a city hotel and another Rs 70
lakhs from his residence apart from other documents, and
Rs 48 lakhs from the Vasant Kunj residence of Mr M.S.
Sawhney, official sources said.

The premises of Mr Sawhney, Army Major S.J. Singh (Retd)

and Lt. Col. V.K. Beri (Retd) were also searched during
the raids in connection with irregularities in the Rs 150-
crore Krasnopol TGM deal. The raids were conducted in
New Delhi, Chandigarh, Gurgaon, Mumbai and Bangalore,
official sources said.

The agency on Monday converted a preliminary enquiry

(PE) for alleged irregularities in the Barak missiles deal
into a regular case (RC) against Mr Fernandes, the then
Samata Party president, Ms Jaya Jaitley, the then national
treasurer of the Samata Party, Mr R.K. Jain, the then
Navy Chief, Admiral Sushil Kumar, and Mr Suresh Nanda,
official sources added. The agency registered two other
regular cases on Monday pertaining to irregularities in
procurement of armoured recovery vehicles, terminally
guided missiles and terminally guided ammunition.

“The opinion of DRDO was over-ruled by the then defence

minister at the behest of the middlemen/ agents. The
then Chief of Naval Staff colluded with other accused
persons and put up a note directly to RM to import 6
Barak AMD Systems, misrepresenting facts and citing a
DRDO concurrence given three years earlier when the
indigenous Trishul system was in its initial stages of
development and when, in fact, the CNS had discussed
this matter that very day with the then DRDO chief, who
had opposed the proposal,” a CBI spokesperson claimed.

“The then RM not only approved the proposal for import

of Barak AMD systems but tried to get the proposal
approved by the Cabinet Committee on Security of the
then caretaker government despite objections by the then
defence secretary. The proposal had also been processed
as a single tender basis,” the spokesperson claimed.

“The negotiated note of $268.63 million (Rs 1,125 crores)

was also in excess of the earlier quoted rate by $17
million (about Rs 71 crores), for which, there is no proper
justification,” the official elaborated and added that
prima facie evidence has also come forth indicating
receipts of remittances from abroad from Israel Aircraft
Industries Limited (IAI) into the accounts of middlemen.
The contract for procuring seven Barak anti-missile
defence systems worth Rs 1,150 crores from the State-run
IAI Ltd was signed on October 23, 2000 notwithstanding
objections by the DRDO.

UPA gives same firm massive defence deal

New Delhi, Oct. 10: The Barak air-defence missile system

that has returned to haunt former defence minister
George Fernandes, who had overruled objections by the
then DRDO chief (and now President), Dr A.P.J. Abdul
Kalam, and the then Indian Navy Chief, Admiral Vishnu
Bhagwat, has been legitimised by defence minister Pranab
Mukherjee, who very quietly cleared a Barak II deal with
Israel earlier this year.

Former defence minister George Fernandes, now in

trouble with the CBI, overruled objections raised by Dr
Kalam and Admiral Bhagwat to push through the purchase
of the Barak missile system from Israel. A highly secret
file on which both officials had made notings sanctioning
only one system for the INS Viraat, and not the eight that
were being proposed by the government then,
subsequently went missing.

Admiral Bhagwat, when contacted in Mumbai by this

correspondent, confirmed that the file had disappeared
and had still not been found. He said that as the Navy
Chief he had come under “tremendous pressure” from Mr
Fernandes and the Israelis through their ambassador to
New Delhi to clear the Barak deal. He said it was an
inferior system to what was available in the market and
he had made his objections clear to the minister.

Mr Fernandes also overruled the objections raised by Dr

Kalam, who had reportedly noted that the Defence
Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was
developing indigenous missile systems and that these
should be encouraged instead of going in for the Barak.
Mr Fernandes had overruled the objections and Admiral
Bhagwat was sacked from service.
Admiral Sushil Kumar took over at the time. The Barak
deal was cleared and eight more systems were brought in,
for Rs 150 crores each, to equip not just the Indian Navy’s
lone aircraft carrier, the INS Viraat, but also two Type 15
Delhi class destroyers, two Type 16 Godavari class
frigates, three Type 16A Brahmaputra class frigates and at
least one Rajput (Kashin II) class destroyer.

Admiral Bhagwat said the Barak was a “last ditch” air-

defence missile system that was effective only within the
last five-km range and hence was not useful for the Indian
Navy. He said it relied on “alerted” firing, unlike the
Russian system at the time that was long-range and could
fire during any time of the day or night.

Mr Fernandes admitted in the Rajya Sabha in December

2003 that the initial trials for the Barak system had been
declared “unsatisfactory” and that fresh trials were being
scheduled. He had said that although the target was
successfully shot down during trials before the system was
fitted to naval warships, it was declared unsatisfactory
because of certain technical malfunctions.

The controversy surrounding the purchase of the Israeli

system under the NDA government has not deterred Mr
Pranab Mukherjee, who has gone several steps further to
successfully conclude the first-ever joint weapons
development agreement with Israel. Putting the lid on
two years of negotiations, India and Israel agreed in
January this year to build the Israel Aircraft
Industries/Rafael Barak air-defence missile system for the
Indian Navy.

This was not made public at the time. According to the

agreement IAI/Rafael will partner India’s defence
research and development laboratories at Hyderabad to
build the Barak II missiles. The joint programme will
reportedly be based on the original Barak missile system
purchased by Mr Fernandes and the missiles will,
according to Navy Chief Admiral Arun Prakash, be sold to
“friendly countries”.

The NDA government had committed itself to developing

the Barak NG (Next Generation), an ambition realised by
the UPA government with Israel. Admiral Bhagwat said he
had been moved out by Mr Fernandes to successfully
conclude the Scorpene, Barak and Admiral Gorshkov
defence transactions. He said that he and Dr Kalam had
repeatedly pointed out that the Barak system could not
stand up to even the Harpoon missile being used by the
Pakistan Navy on its submarines, which did not rely on an
alert status and had a long range.

Gurukul plot owners face big bill to legalise

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Residential plot owners in the

controversial Gurukul Ghatkesar Trust lands near
Madhapur may have to pay a hefty fee of Rs 2,000 to Rs
3,000 per square yard to regularise their lands. The fee
was decided by the three-member official committee
deputed by the government to examine ways to regularise
encroachments and buildings in the 627-acre land,
estimated to cost more than Rs 3,000 crores.

Hyderabad Urban Development Authority (Huda) secretary

P. Venkat Rama Reddy, special officer of Urban Land
Ceiling Bhanumurthy and Ranga Reddy joint collector
Seshadri are the members of the committee. While the
committee is yet to formulate the fee structure for
regularisation of other plots or structures, it has told plot
owners of the Swamy Ayyappa Cooperative Housing
Society that they would have to shell out Rs 2,000 to Rs
3,000 per square yard if they wanted to regularise their
lands.

Members of the society had purchased 147 acres of land

from the trust. Committee sources said the present
registration value of the land in and around Madhapur is
around Rs 4,000 to Rs 6,000 per square yard. This amount
was brought down on “humanitarian grounds.” However,
the society members feel that the fee proposed by the
committee is too high. Most of them purchased the plot
paying Rs 100 to Rs 200 per square yard between 1982
and 1993.

While 80 per cent of the members own 300 square yard

plots, the remaining members have 450 and 500 square
yard plots. Going by the plot sizes, each member will
have to pay Rs 6 lakhs to Rs 12 lakhs to the government to
get their land regularised. “This is atrocious,” said K.
Venkateshwara Rao, member of the society. “We can’t
afford to pay so much. We did not encroach upon the
land, but purchased it legitimately. We are being
penalised for the mistake committed by the Trust.”
It was the Gurukul Ghatkesar Trust, which had sold the
lands to them, after passing a resolution on March 11,
1981 to dispose of the lands as per the clauses in the
Trust deed. The Society purchased the land, after getting
legal verification of the resolution and the subsequent
clearance given by the ULC special officer in April, 1982.
After nearly 16 years, the endowments department took
over the land and declared the transactions void.

The High Court, while endorsing the government decision,

was sympathetical to the Ayyappa society and asked the
government to consider the members’ plea. Meanwhile,
several bigwigs who encroached upon the Gurukul Trust
lands are now said to be secretly lobbying to bring down
the regularisation fee. For instance, Annapurna Gardens,
developed by film star Akkineni Nagarjuna, is located in
6.30 acres in land falling under the Gurukul Ghatkesar
Trust.

The film star had entered into a compromise with the

endowments department for an amount of Rs 3.88 crores
in May 2005 and had paid 25 per cent of the amount. But
after the controversy over the lands erupted, the amount
was returned to him. Now, the government is learnt to
have agreed to regularise the land for the same rate.

“This works out to Rs 1,300 per square yard,” pointed out

Mr Venkateshwara Rao. Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhar
Reddy’s brother and Kadapa MP Y.S. Vivekananda Reddy,
who constructed a building for a software company in a
half-acre plot, is understood to have offered to pay Rs 50
lakh to regularise it.

Patil runs for cover as fire demo backfires

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Union home minister Shivraj Patil

and several senior IPS officers rushed for cover after a
mock fire-fighting exercise held on Tuesday at the
National Industrial Security Academy turned awry. The
Union minister was rushed to his car after thick white
clouds of smoke from a chemical powder used to put out
the mock fire enveloped the premises.

The white “smoke” was so thick that nothing was visible

for a while. Even camera lenses of news photographers
were covered with a coating of white powder. Mr Patil
was witnessing the fire drill after inaugurating the
technical laboratory of the fire service training institute
on the National Industrial Security Academy premises.
During the exercise, fire force personnel first used a
water tender, then foam tender and finally a dry
chemical powder tender. Mr Patil and IPS officers were
given seats after organisers studied the wind pattern.

But the wind changed direction while the drill was on and
plumes of smoke from the chemical powder engulfed the
specially-erected tents. CISF director-general SIS Ahmed,
director-general of police Swaranjit Sen and Nisa director
Anurag Sharma were among the senior IPS officers present
in the tent.

They all rushed out after the smoke enveloped them.

Many mediapersons who were exposed to the chemical
powder complained of headache and dryness in the
mouth. The fire drill was given up halfway. More than a
dozen cadets participating in the parade swooned in the
intense heat. They fell one after the other and had to be
carried on stretchers. The cadets had been told to be
ready at 6 am for the parade scheduled for 9.30 am. But
the programme started at 11 am, thanks to the late
arrival of the home minister.

Indian web casino kings lose a billion

New Delhi, Oct. 10: Two Indian founders of the world’s

largest online casino, PartyGaming, Mr Anurag Dikshit and
Mr Vikrant Bhargava, have lost a fortune estimated at
over $1 billion in a matter of days after the company’s
shares plunged in response to a US government crackdown
on Internet gambling.
Efforts to bring online gambling to India too have suffered
a major setback after the US Congress passed a bill on
September 30 against Internet gambling. The bill is
awaiting President George W. Bush’s assent, which is
expected in the next couple of weeks.

The bill makes it illegal to accept bets on the Internet or

for credit card firms to make payments to gambling
websites. Anurag Dikshit, a software engineer from IIT
Delhi who co-founded and remains the biggest
shareholder of Gibraltar-based PartyGaming with a 29 per
cent stake, held shares worth $1.24 billion before the bill
was passed by Congress.

However, his net worth based on his stake in PartyGaming

has dropped to about $450 million dollars with a plunge of
over 63 per cent in the company’s share price since
September 30. He had founded PartyGaming, which
controls about 50 per cent of the online poker market,
with Mr Vikrant Bhargava, and adult entertainment
business entrepreneur Ruth Parasol and her husband
Russel DeLeon in 1997.\

Mr Bhargava’s stake has tumbled by over $200 million to

about $140 million while the four founders have witnessed
a loss of about $2 billion collectively. Mr Dikshit was
named as the world’s 207th richest person in 2006 by
Forbes magazine with his huge fortune made largely from
the listing of PartyGaming in London in June 2005. He was
also ranked as the 10th richest global Indian in 2005 by
Forbes with a net worth of $3.3 billion.

Ms Ruth and Mr Russel DeLeon hold 14.9 per cent each in

the company, while Mr Bhargava holds seven per cent.
The husband and wife were tied at 197th place on the
Forbes list of 400 richest Americans this year with an
estimated net worth of $1.8 billion each. PartyGaming’s
share price has dropped to below 40 pence from 107
pence on September 29, before the crackdown on online
gambling by Congress.

The stock has lost nearly three-fourth of its value from

the all-time high of 158 pence. Meanwhile, PartyGaming
is likely to lose its place on the elite FTSE 100 index of
the London Stock Exchange after a sharp fall in its market
value to about $3.2 billion from an estimated $9 billion at
the time of its IPO. Rival 888 would also be dropped from
the FTSE 250 index to make room for PartyGaming.

Mother sets baby, herself ablaze

Hyderabad: A woman set herself ablaze in front of

Kulsumpura police station and died on Tuesday night. Her
three-year-old son suffered serious burns, reports our
correspondent. Goshamahal ACP K. Sridhar Rao said,
“Sridevi, 24, was arrested in April 2005 for theft.

A team had gone to her house at Raidurgam to serve

summons. They wanted to know where the police station
was, and we brought her brother-in-law Venkateswara
Rao here.” However Rao said, “They bought me forcibly.
She had come to seek my release.”

SC panel issues notice to Ponnala

Hyderabad: The Supreme Court empowered committee

has issued notices to major irrigation minister Ponnala
Lakshmaiah and irrigation secretaries Satish Chandra and
Rajiv Ranjan Misra for constructing irrigation projects
without forest clearance at three places. The committee
asked the minister and secretaries to appear before it on
October 17, reports our correspondent.

Blair, Singh feel North Korea heat

London, Oct. 10: Amid an international uproar over the

North Korean nuclear test, British Prime Minister Tony
Blair on Tuesday firmly rejected any parallels between it
and India’s case, saying that New Delhi had stood by its
international obligations and was working strongly for
counter-proliferation.

Endorsing Mr Blair’s view, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh

saw the North Korean test as highlighting the “danger of
clandestine proliferation” and pointed out that India’s
own security had suffered due to “clandestine
proliferation with linkages emanating from our
neighbourhood”, a thinly veiled reference to Pakistan.

The two leaders faced a number of questions on the North

Korean test at a joint press conference at 10, Downing
Street, after they held wide-ranging discussions lasting 90
minutes that encompassed this issue as well as terrorism,
Indo-Pak ties, energy, trade and economic relations.

Mr Blair minced no words in denouncing the North Korean

test, which he said was in “clear breach” of its
international obligations. “India has been working strongly
on counter- proliferation while North Korea was going in
the opposite direction. It is a very, very serious situation.
We are in discussions with our key allies,” he said.

North Korea, Mr Blair said, was “very much a separate

case” than India and any comparisons would be false.
“The difference between a country like Britain or a
country like India and a country like North Korea is that
we are a democracy, we abide by the rule of law and we
abide by our international obligations. North Korea is
doing none of those things,” he added.

Mr Blair said that North Korea was in clear breach of its

international obligations and the only way to deal with
this serious situation was to revive the six-party talks
aimed at de-nuclearisation of the Korean peninsula and to
make sure that Pyongyang comes into compliance with its
obligations.

Agreeing with Mr Blair, Dr Singh said that India was

against further erosion of the non-proliferation regime
and did not support the emergence of another nuclear
State. The North Korean test has put in jeopardy the
peace, stability and security of the Korean peninsula, he
added.

“I endorse what Prime Minister Blair has said — that there

is no parallel between India’s policies and what has
happened in North Korea. We will remain in touch with
UK in this matter,” the Prime Minister said.Besides the
North Korean test, Mr Blair and Dr Singh shared a common
view on the menace of terrorism and agreed on a new
package of cooperation on counter-terrorism measures.
The details of such cooperation were not disclosed.

Patil moots State CISF

Hyderabad, Oct 10: Union home minister Shivraj

Patil on Tuesday called upon State governments to
form industrial security forces at the local level on
the lines of the Central Industrial Security Force.
Presiding over the passing out parade of 21st batch
of assistant commandants and 30th batch of sub-
inspectors/ executive at the National Industrial
Security Academy (Nisa) here, Mr Patil emphasised
the need of industrial security forces at the State
level in view of growing acts of terrorism vis-à-vis
fast growth of cities and towns.

The latest attacks on local trains in Mumbai clearly

bring into play new variable in handling security of
local trains and metros, he said. “I have spoken
with States in private and now I am talking in public
of the need of industrial security forces to be
operated by the State governments. The Centre will
support the States with the necessary infrastructure
in this regard,” he pointed out.

Mr Patil said armed forces were being trained to

effectively face biological, chemical and
radiological terrorism. A new course and training
has been introduced in the country. Stating that the
country was witnessing challenges from new
quarters, he said terrorism in particular, was still a
matter of great concern to the country.

“Left wing extremism is another major threat which

all law-enforcing agencies will have to grapple with.
As many as 12 States of the country like Bihar,
Jharkhand, Chattisgarh, Andhra Pradesh, Orissa and
Madhya Pradesh, where the CISF is deployed, are
badly affected by Left wing extremism,” he said.
“Whatever be the form, the foremost requirement
is an effective security apparatus which can
frustrate the sinister plans of terrorists and
militants,” he said.

He also emphasised the need for increasing

representation of women in the CISF and other
Central forces. “When there are more women in
legislative bodies, why not in security forces? We
should ensure at least 10 per cent of the security
personnel are women,” he said.

Bill to restrain moneylenders ready

Rate of interest to be fixed by government from

time to time

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: The State government has

readied a legislation to prevent moneylenders from
exploiting people, particularly farmers, by charging
exorbitant rate of interest. The finance and revenue
departments have approved the draft Bill and has
been sent to the law department for legal opinion.
Official sources told this correspondent that the
government in all probability would introduce the
Bill during the winter session of the Assembly.

Stringent punishment, including five-year

imprisonment, special courts to trial cases of
usurious money lending, special committee to fix
the interest rate based on market conditions and
bringing all the moneylenders into the purview of
the Act irrespective of their registration with the
authorities concerned.

“If the Act talks of only registered moneylenders,

people who are in the trade will choose not to get
registered and get away. We have recommended
that registration or no registration any person who
lends money and charges interest shall be brought
under the purview of the Act,” a senior official said.

The finance department also recommended that

instead of fixing the upper limit of interest rate in
the Act the government should appoint a three-
member committee of high-level officials to
determine the rate of interest to be charged from
time to time. “The committee will review the
situation every six months and fix the interest rate
depending on the market trends,” the official
pointed out.

The government will also insist that the money

lender declaring the rate of interest in every case
and keep the records in a transparent manner. The
government will set up special courts at district
level to deal with cases of usurious money lending
or evading the repayment of loan taken by the
individuals or organisations.

The objective of the Bill is to avoid exploitation or

cheating by either of party. Sources said the Bill
recommends a fine of Rs 1 lakh and imprisonment
up to five years. The government will send the Bill
to Centre for approval after the Assembly passed it.
Now, Bt brinjal cooks up row

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Two expert committees, one

set up by Genetic Engineering Approval Committee
and the other constituted by civil society groups,
have reportedly expressed diverse views on allowing
field trials of Bt Brinjal, the first-ever genetically
modified (GM) food crop in the country.

The GEAC had in September set up a 13-member

expert committee under Dr Deepak Penthal of Delhi
University to evaluate the feedback received from
the public on Bt Brinjal. This committee met only
once on September 25 and is learnt to have
concluded that there was no harm in allowing field
trials of Bt Brinjal. Civil society groups raised doubts
over the credibility.

Most of the members were from the GEAC and some

of them were associated with developing GM, they
said. They set up their own committee comprising
soil scientist Dr K.P. Prabhakaran Nair, entomologist
Dr M.S. Chari, Icrisat plant physiologist Prof A.
Narayanan, NIN toxicologist Dr Ramesh Bhatt,
Hyderabad University economics professor Dr D.
Narasimha Reddy and biochemist Dr Ghafoorunnisa.

The committee which met thrice reportedly agreed

to recommend a ban on Bt brinjal and other GM
crops. The Supreme Court which is examining a
public interest litigation by Aruna Rodrigues and
others on the issue of GM foods and crops will have
its next hearing on October 13.

The GEAC committee is expected to submit its

findings to the court during the hearing. In its
earlier orders, the Supreme Court had instructed
the GEAC that field trials of Bt brinjal should not be
allowed till the next hearing.

The committee would also submit its findings. “We

hope that the committee will present the real
picture with regard to Bt brinjal, its biosafety and
issues beyond biosafety. This is a matter of
informed choices for the farmers and consumers of
which cannot be discounted by the regulators,” Ms
Kavitha of Centre for Sustainable Agriculture said.
Train timings on SMS shortly

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: The Indian Railways Catering

and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will introduce sale
of train tickets through Department of Posts, banks
and petrol bunks across the country. It hopes an
additional 50,000 terminals will enable the
commuters to purchase tickets without having to
wait in long queues, according to IRCTC managing
director P.K. Goyal, who is in city to participate in
the SCR’s Ruby Jubilee celebrations on Tuesday.
Talks are on with postal department, SBI, UTI,
HPCL, BPCL for the introduction of new terminals,
he said. It also plans to launch an all-India call
centre to help passengers know the status of trains
through SMS.

Railways to take on airlines

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: The Indian Railways facing

tough competition from low-cost airlines will soon
undergo a change in its style of functioning. “We
will adopt innovative ideas to meet the challenges
from low-cost airlines,” said Ghosh Dastidar,
member, traffic, Railway Board while participating
in a seminar of the SCR. Apart from a smiling face,
neatness and quality food service, it also plans to
introduce Internet to entice customers.

Child labour teams to announce their visits

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: In what could be a self-

defeating exercise, the government has decided
that special teams to check for child labour will
announce their visits in advance.
Sixteen of such teams were set up on Tuesday in
the city.

They will visit houses, hotels, industrial estates and

work places to check for child labour. Notices of
their visit to residential welfare associations,
apartment associations and women groups will be
issued well in advance.The teams comprise
government officials, representatives from the
media, NGOs and civil societies organisations.

Primary education minister N. Rajyalakshmi said a

child rights cell had been set up in the office of the
director of primary education. Information minister
Mohammed Ali Shabber said his department would
distribute cassettes on the evils of the system and
detailing penal action for violation of the child
labour Act.

26 cases reported, four die

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Eleven dengue cases were

reported across the State on Tuesday, taking the
number to 26 in the last three days. According to
medical officials, so far four of them have died, two
of them on Tuesday.

Among the new cases, five are from Nizamabad,

three from north coastal districts of Srikakulam and
Vizianagaram and one each from Ranga Reddy,
Karimnagar and West Godavari. District medical and
health officer of Srikakulam K. Jaganmohan Rao said
the blood samples of two patients suffering from
high fever had been sent to laboratory for testing.

He said 37 patients affected by malaria were

admitted from October 1 to 9 in Srikakulam district
headquarters hospital and of them nine were taken
in as in-patients. The officials, who have been
trying to hide figures of patients suffering from
dengue, at last admitted that the deadly disease
had been spreading very fast in many districts. They
also felt that there is a likelihood outbreak of
dengue fever in tribal areas due to lack of proper
sanitation.

Chief Minister and chairman of State health mission

Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy on Tuesday reviewed the
dengue control plan. He asked the concerned
officials to take steps on a war-footing to control
the mosquito menace. Minister for medical and
health K. Rosaiah will participate in the review
meeting of all State health ministers on Wednesday
in New Delhi. He will ask the union government for
more funds to tackle the disease in the State.

Parthasarthi seeks security

Hyderabad, Oct, 10: Telugu Desam party leader P.

Parthasarathi Reddy on Tuesday said that he was
facing threat to his life from Chief Minister Y.S.
Rajasekhar Reddy and his brother Y.S. Vivekananda
Reddy, and the Chief Minister’s son Y.S.
Jaganmohan Reddy.
Mr Parthasarathi Reddy was recently acquitted in
the 2001 murder of Y.S. Raja Reddy, father of Dr
Rajasekhar Reddy. Eleven of his kin were sentenced
to life in prison. He said his family had feud with
the Rajasekhar Reddy family for 40 years from the
time of his father Papi Reddy and Raja Reddy .

He told mediapersons that the evidence to

implicate his family in the Raja Reddy murder was
fabricated. He alleged that owing to pressure from
“higher quarters” the police was denying security to
him. He alleged that one Gangi Reddy, a close
relative of the Chief Minister, had killed his brother
in the aftermath of the Raja Reddy murder in 2001.

Mr Parthasarathi said he left the Congress in 1994

after feuding with Dr Rajasekhar Reddy. He worked
for the TD candidate Kandula Rajamohana Reddy in
the 1996 Lok Sabha elections from Pulivendula,
which Dr Rajasekhar Reddy won by a slim margin.
On August, 1, 1996, just after the election, Mr
Parthasarathi Reddy was seriously injured in an
attack. In his statement, he named Dr Rajasekhar
Reddy, his brother Vivekananda Reddy and his
father Raja Reddy as being responsible for the
attack.

TD plans to play the caste card

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: The Telugu Desam Party has
geared up to upstage the Telangana sentiment by
playing the caste card in the Karimnagar
byelection.Having committed to Unified State
policy, the TD is planning to woo the pre-dominant
b ackward class voters by fielding a candidate from
the weaker sections.

The candidature of L. Ramana, a former MP from

this constituency, is on the top priority as he
belongs to “Padmasali” (weaver) community. The
constituency has a total electorate of 14.14 lakhs,
in which voters belonging to Padmasali community
are about 1.73 lakh. As the TRS chief K.
Chandrasekhar Rao belongs to politically dominant
Velama community, the TD is banking on BC votes.

Another section in the TD is trying to convince the

leadership to field sitting MLA Sana Maruthi, who
belongs to second most dominant Munnuru Kapu
community. This group has about 1.29 lakh votes.
Though the caste equations are in favour of a BC
candidate, history tells a different story. With a
meagre 68,000 votes, candidates belonging to
Velama community have won five times. Sports
minister M. Satyanarayana Rao won from Telangana
Praja Samithi in 1971 and Mr J. Chokkarao was
elected three times on Congress ticket and Mr Rao
of TRS got elected in 2004.

No loud bombs this year: Police

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: The city police will book cases

against fire cracker shops which sell Diwali ‘bombs’
that explode with ear-splitting bangs crossing 125
decibels. Both the police and the pollution control
board have asked people (especially children) not to
buy crackers such as the popular ‘hydrogen bomb’
this Diwali.

Apart from hauling in shop owners, police will also

book cases against the manufacturers. The decision
comes in accordance to the Supreme Court ban on
sale and use of fire crackers which exceed the noise
level of 125 decibels. To ensure a safe Diwali,
police has started a campaign in 400 city schools,
urging students not to use “big bang” crackers.

Additional commissioner of police (traffic) A.K.

Khan will visit the schools with a police team to talk
to children. “We will ensure that firecrackers are
not used near hospitals and courts, Those who use
firecrackers should keep in mind that there are
severely ill patients in hospitals,” said Commissioner
of Police A.K. Mohanty.

Dr K.V. Ramani, a scientist of the Pollution Control

Board, says that during Diwali, noise levels go up
from the normal levels of 88 decibels to about 116
decibels in the city. “This exceeds the levels of
national ambient air quality standards of 55 dba
during daytime and 45 dba at night time in
residential areas,” he said. Loud firecrackers can
cause hearing loss, asthma, increase in blood
pressure and cardio vascular problems, he added.

57-yr-old held for marketing scam

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Crime Investigation

Department (CID) arrested a 57-year-old man for his
involvement in a multi-level marketing cheating
case. The arrested was identified as Jagadish Arora
of Panchkula in Haryana who was running Dream
Merchants 4u company.
The accused was nabbed at Chandigarh and brought
on transit warrant. He was produced in chief
metropolitan magistrate court in Nampally on
Tuesday.

CID economic offences wing inspector-general of

police T. Krishna Raju said, “The accused floated a
company “On-line Job Work Company Limited at
Chandigarh with franchise at Hyderabad. They
floated the company in the name of providing
computer data work through a multi-level marketing
system.”

He added: “The company also offered prizes ranging

from a laptop to a Mercedes Benz and Rs 1 crore to
Rs 1,000 crores and royalty too. A case was booked
ag-ainst the company based on a complaint lodged
by one of the victims — B. Gopan Krishna Rao of the
city.” The company reportedly enrolled 12,140
people in India out of which 7,431 are from Andhra
Pradesh.

State burdens people seeking RTI Act details

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: People seeking information

under the Right to Information Act are having to pay
up to four times the price the cost of material to
secure copies. Under the RTI Act, information given
in DVDs cost Rs 200, CD [700 mb] Rs 100 and floppy
disks [1.44 mb] Rs 50. These rates are much higher
that the cost of disks available in the market. It
costs Rs 2 to photocopy a page in A4 or A3 size. The
market rate for photocopying a page varies from 40
paise to Re 1 paise.

The applicant take along a CD or DVDs or paper to

make the copy. “The State government has fixed
the prices for each service,” an official said.
According to the the official, the price included the
cost of not only the paper and photocopying but
also for the manpower in the exercise of searching
for the documents, verifying them and coordinating
between different sections and departments.

Right to Information commissioner R. Dileep Reddy

said the prices were “reasonable.” “Every State
fixed its own prices. In Punjab, the application fee
is Rs 50. In some States, the price of photocopying a
page is Rs 5 per copy,” he said. As per government
order GO Ms No 454 issued on October 13, 2005, an
applicant has to pay Rs 10 to apply for information.
This fee has been exempted at the village level and
it is Rs 5 at mandal level.

MCH yet to enforce hawker zones scheme

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: The notoriously sluggish
Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad (MCH) is sitting
on its half finished hawker policy. Under scrutiny of
the AP High Court the MCH completed the easier
part: dividing city areas into red (no hawker),
amber (restricted hawking) and green (free
hawking) zones.

The MCH and the traffic police jointly placed 18

heavy traffic areas in the red zone, 72 areas in
amber zones and 90 areas in green zones. The MCH
is now moving at snail’s pace while implementing it.
Hawkers were to be given identity cards and the
MCH had to put up boards at places indicating the
zone it belonged to. So far, ID cards have been
issued to only 15,000 hawkers. The zone boards are
yet to be put up.

MCH additional commissioner (projects and

planning) Dhanunjaya Reddy said that it would
implement the policy after the festival season even
if all hawkers did not get ID cards. The MCH had
held back the scheme last month because of Dasara.
Just when? “May be from the last week of this
month or first week of November. ID cards can
issued as and when the hawkers come,” he said. In
case of hawker zone boards, Mr Reddy said the
boards were ready and would be erected, zone
wise, in a week.

Fancy tyres to go off roads

Hyderabad, Oct. 10: Road Transport Authority and

traffic police have decided to penalise two-wheeler
owners using fancy tyres because they destabilise
the vehicle and can cause accidents, officials said.
Neither the RTA nor the traffic police has data on
the number of accidents involving motorcycles with
big tyres. Police estimates that such tyres were a
factor in five per cent of two-wheeler accidents.

A traffic police official said, “The vehicle skids due

to the big tyres, Two-wheelers should not fit
different size tyres in the front and back. A
manufacturer may fit a bigger tyre but that is done
after testing the motorcycle.” N. Ravi a MBA
student from Venkataramana Colony in Punjagutta,
said, “I didn’t know that it is a violation. But it is
fashionable and costs Rs 3,000.”

Joint transport commissioner (planning) C.L.N.

Gandhi said, “Motor vehicle rules give tyre
specifications. Those who violate the rules and alter
the vehicle will be penalised.” As per rules, the
non-skid depth on the tyre should not be less than
0.8 mm for two-wheelers and 1.6 mm for motor
vehicles.

Joint transport commissioner B. Venkateswarlu said,

“Vehicle alterations are done by mechanics who are
not affiliated to or authorised by any manufacturer.
There is no control on them. Nobody knows their
efficiency.” Motor vehicle inspector G.P.N. Prasad
said, that two-wheeler owners were fitting
rethreaded tyres from imported bikes. Some of
them are using tyres meant for new models on old
vehicles, he said.

This is violation of Section 52 of the Motor Vehicle

Act, he said, which states that no one shall alter
the vehicle specifications that are mentioned in the
registration certificate.
The registration of the vehicle can be cancelled and
fines up to Rs 500 can be levied, he said.

Nargis’ UP village prays for Sanjay

Lucknow, Oct. 10: They have never seen

Sanjay Dutt, nor has he ever acknowledged
their presence in his life, and yet Nargis’
village is praying fervently for her son. The
nondescript village of Chilbila in Meja,
Allahabad district, has been sending silent
prayers every Friday for the acquittal of
filmstar Sanjay Dutt in the Mumbai blasts case.

The local people have been offering

“chaddars” at a local dargah every week for
the past one month in the hope that Sanjay
Dutt is let off by the Tada court in Mumbai.
Chilbila believes Sanjay is their own “beta
(son)” because his maternal grandmother
Jaddanbai, the mother of the late Nargis, was
born and brought up here till she migrated to
Mumbai.

Though Jaddanbai kept in touch with her

relatives in the village, Nargis visited the
village only once, and that too in the early
years of her career. “Jaddan ka naati hai,
Nargis ka beta hai, to hamara bhi to kuchh
lagta hai, isi liye hum uski salamati ki dua
mangte hain (He is Jaddan’s grandson and
Nargis’ son, so he is related to us too),” says
Tarrannum Begum, the late Jaddanbai’s sister.
The residents of Chilbila confess that Sanjay
has never visited the village, nor has he ever
met them during their Mumbai visits.

“We have learnt that he has come to

Allahabad on a few occasions, but he never
came to meet us. Whenever we went to
Mumbai, Sunil Bhai (Dutt) used to welcome us
with open arms. He even came twice to
Chilbila to meet the old relatives and wanted
to build a cancer hospital here in the memory
of Nargis after she died in 1981. But,
somehow, the project never took off and Sunil
Bhai was rather upset about not being able to
fulfil Nargis’ dream,” says Israr Ali, the village
pradhan and also a distantly-related nephew
of Nargis.

Every resident in Chilbila village strongly

believes that the “beta of Nargis and Sunil
Bhai” could never indulge in any anti-national
activity. “He is innocent and is being framed
for political reasons. Sanjay could have never
have been part of the conspiracy to blow up
Mumbai, it is just not in his blood. There are
people who were envious of Sunil Bhai’s
growing popularity in politics and they found
Sanjay to be a soft target,” says Iqbal, another
member of Nargis’ extended family.

Google receives notice for Orkut

Aurangabad, Oct. 10: The Aurangabad bench

of the Bombay high court has issued notice to
Google for allegedly creating an anti-India
hate band through the group website Orkut. A
bench of justice A.P. Deshpande and justice
R.M. Borde issued the notice in response to a
public interest litigation (PIL) filed by
advocate Yugant Marlapalle.

The petitioner has alleged that Orkut has

formed a “We Hate India” group through the
website, and also carries a picture depicting
the National Flag being burned. Mr Marlapalle
alleged that the site first attracted users by
offering to form an “online community” with
photographs included on the profiles.

Thousands of users signed up, and the number

increased after the site opened chat rooms, he
said. Later, the site introduced an anti-India
element into the messaging group, leading to
thousands of messages against the country, the
petition alleged. He further said that he had
contacted Google’s office in Mumbai and had
requested them to stop the anti-India tirade,
but in vain. The petitioner prayed that the
government appoint a “controller” to control
and monitor the content on the website.

Shiv Sena activists clash with Navnirman Sena

Mumbai, Oct. 10: Clashes broke out between

workers of the Shiv Sena and Maharashtra
Navnirman Sena or MNS near Sena Bhavan, the
Sena’s headquarters at Dadar on Tuesday. The
showdown involving a large number of men
from both political parties took place when Raj
Thackeray supporting MNS workers allegedly
tore off a poster of Shiv Sena supremo Bal
Thackeray, near the Shiv Sena headquarters in
Dadar. In retaliation, the Shiv Sainiks too tore
off a poster of MNS leader Raj Thackeray. The
situation around Sena Bhavan was quite calm
till the supporters of warring cousins Uddhav
and Raj started pelting stones at each other
around 5 pm.
The clash continued for nearly an hour till the
police resorted to spraying tear gas to disperse
the angry mob. In the ensuing scuffle, one
photojournalist and a few policemen were
injured. Raj and Uddhav rushed to the spot
and workers of both parties were seen
explaining the sequence of events that led to
the clash. The MNS party office is in close
proximity to Sena Bhavan.

A unit of the Rapid Action Force or RAF has

also been deployed outside the Sena Bhavan.
The police had to even resort to lathi charge
to control the enraged crowd. At the time of
going to the press, the situation was reported
to have been brought under control. An officer
from the unit of the RPF deployed at the scene
said, “The situation has been brought under
control. We will leave only when normalcy is
restored. There are no clashes now, but we
are not taking any risk.”

New Delhi to continue with limited relations

New Delhi, Oct. 10: New Delhi will persist

with its policy of “engaging” North Korea and
maintain the “limited relations” it has with
Pyongyang on an even keel, well-placed
sources in the ministry of external affairs
said.The sources said New Delhi has briefed
several countries about its position and was
also checking on the positions of other
countries in the wake of the underground
nuclear test conducted by North Korea.

“We have no policy restrictions. We did not

cut off our relations (in the past) and we will
not even now,” an official tracking New
Delhi’s engagement with Pyongyang said. He
said India and North Korea have had regular
and meaningful exchange of views through the
mechanism of foreign office consultations. The
secretary (East) co-chaired the last meeting at
Pyongyang in 2005.
Another official said New Delhi was in touch
with the Indian mission in Pyongyang but
declined to comment whether there has been
any communication with the embassy of North
Korea in New Delhi. North Korean diplomatic
sources were less forthcoming. They referred
the October 3 statement of the foreign
ministry in response to all queries. The
embassy will reopen on Wednesday after the
“KWP Foundation Day” holiday.

The sources in the ministry of external affairs

said India regularly supplied humanitarian
assistance like rice to North Korea. India
supplied 3,000 tonnes of rice to Pyongyang in
September 2002 and July 2004. In June this
year, Indian ambassador to Pyongyang N.T.
Khankhup helped members of the Korea-India
Friendship Kalchon Co-operative Farm in farm
work. Earlier in February, India donated
another 2,000 tonnes of rice.

Incidentally, trade is limited due to shortage

of foreign exchange with North Korea;
Pyongyang is keen to import from India
consumer goods on “deferred payment basis”
and / or by “barter trade”. When contacted,
North Korean diplomatic refrained from
making any comment except for referring the
October 3 statement by the foreign ministry
that clarified Pyongyang’s stand on measures
to bolster its war deterrent for self-defence.

Suri was uncrowned hotel king of India

Obituary/Lalit Suri (1947-2006)

Lalit Suri, chairman of Bharat Hotels, was

known as the “uncrowned hotel king of India”.
Born on April 15, 1947 in Rawalpindi (now in
Pakistan), Suri did his schooling from the
prestigious St. Columba’s School, Delhi, and
his graduation in commerce from Shri Ram
College of Commerce. Suri undertook a two-
year specialisation in automobile engineering
with Vauxhall Motors, England, and joined the
family-run Delhi Automobile Ltd. in 1971.
When the Suri group diversified into hotels in
1982 with Bharat Hotels, Suri was made its
joint manager. After that he never looked
back and made Bharat Group one of the
leading hotel chains in India.

In 1987, he bought his family’s stake in the

Bharat Hotels and became its chairman. He
ensured the record completion of the
company’s first project, the 444-room super
deluxe hotel along with the adjoining
commercial complexes. This hotel, called the
Grand Intercontinental Hotel, was
commissioned on October 20, 1988, and today
is considered as one of the best hotels in the
national capital.

At present, Bharat Hotels offers seven top-line

hotels in the country, four “InterContinental”
— The Grand hotels in New Delhi, Srinagar,
Goa and Mumbai and three The Grand hotels
in Bangalore, Udaipur and Khajuraho. Under
his leadership, Bharat Hotels had taken over
the 125-room Grand Palace in Srinagar, which
now operates as InterContinental: The Grand
Palace, Srinagar. In 2004, he was recognised
for his contribution towards development of
tourism in Jammu and Kashmir. He is, in fact,
the first and so far the only entrepreneur to
take such an initiative in Jammu & Kashmir.

He was also bestowed the state’s chief

minister’s special award in October 2001 for
developing and promoting tourism. This was
presented to him by Dr Farooq Abdullah, the
then chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir, and
the citation read: “Mr Suri has shown great
courage to invest in the state to promote
tourism — which is the main industry of the
Valley.”

Last year, Suri bid Rs 52 crore for Great

Eastern Hotel, one of Asia’s oldest Hotel,
located in West Bengal, which was much
higher than the next bid of Rs 40 crore and the
reserve price of Rs 30 crore. During a meeting
with West Bengal chief minister Bhattacharjee
 and industry minister Nirupam Sen on July 21
this year, Suri had said that he was pumping in
Rs 125 crore for the renovation of the Great
Eastern Hotel to convert it to a five-star
deluxe property without damaging its heritage
value. Suri was also elected to the Upper
House of Parliament as an Independent. He
was a member of a several parliamentary
committees including that of defence and
science and technology.

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