The Tribune – Poll violence at Mann village; Congress workers lift dharna on assurance of impartial probe

Archit Watts, Tribune News Service

Badal (Muktsar), June 2. CWC member Jagmeet Singh Brar and his supporters today lifted their dharna from outside Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal’s residence after getting an assurance of an impartial probe into the Mann village violence episode from the district administration.

The protest lasted for almost 24 hours. Brar, his brother and former MLA Ripjit Singh Brar, district Congress president Gurdas Girdhar, Vijay Sathi and party workers were seeking the cancellation of an FIR lodged against 150 Congress workers and supporters belonging to Mann village.

A delegation, led by DIG (Bathinda range) Amar Singh Chahal, Muktsar Deputy Commissioner Paramjit Singh and SSP Surjeet Singh, assured the protesters that the matter would be probed thoroughly and no further arrests would be made.

Brar said: “The administration has assured us that no one will be harassed. But, if they failed to keep their word, we will stage a massive protest at Mann village”.

Later, the Congress leaders and workers went to Mann village to inform the aggrieved families about the development.

During the day, the protesters alleged they were not allowed to bring food from outside and their workers were stopped from entering the village. Two party workers were allegedly detained by the police.

Baljinder Kaur of Mann village, whose family members have been running since the incident, said: “The news came as a big relief for us. Now, our family members can return to their homes”.

Meanwhile, no party MLA from the district or constituency in charge turned up at the protest venue. Even Maheshinder Singh Badal, who resides in Badal village, did not join the protest. He had yesterday said that it was his father’s death anniversary, but he failed to turn up today as well.

Meanwhile, district Congress president Gurdas Girdhar said: “The District Congress Committee will issue show-cause notices to all the district leaders who did not join the protest”.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130603/punjab.htm#1

The Tribune – Finance Ministry seeks RBI nod for all-women bank

New Delhi, June 2. To make all-women bank a reality by October, the Finance Ministry has approached the Reserve Bank of India for clearance to set up the country’s first such bank.

“The committee set up to prepare the blueprint for an all-women bank has submitted its report to the Finance Minister. We have sought in-principle approval from the RBI for the all-women bank,” Financial Services Secretary Rajiv Takru said.

The first all-women bank owned wholly by the government is expected to start its operations from November 2013 through six branches spread across the country.

Finance Minister P Chidambaram had said the bank would be inaugurated in November.

“We should initially start with at least one branch in each major region – South, West, East, Centre, North and North-East – of the country. This means we should immediately start with six branches,” he had said.

The bank mostly manned by women will start with an initial capital of Rs 1,000 crore.

The proposed bank will lend mostly to women and women-run businesses, provide support to women self-help groups and their livelihood.

It will further employ predominately women to address gender-related issues, empowerment and financial inclusion. However, it will take deposits from members of both sexes.

Chidambaram had proposed the setting up of country’s first all-women bank while presenting the Budget on February 28. In March, the Finance Minister constituted a committee of bankers and other experts to prepare a blueprint for the all-women bank.

The committee was headed by former Canara Bank chairman MBN Rao. Its members were MD Mallya, former CMD of Bank of Baroda; Jayshree Vyas, managing director of SEWA; Arundhati Bhattacharya, MD & CEO of SBI Caps; Usha Ananthasubramanian, executive director, Punjab National Bank; and K Ramakrishnan, chief executive of Indian Banks’ Association. (PTI)

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130603/main7.htm

BBC News – Indian cricket chief steps aside amid IPL spot-fixing investigation

Indian cricket chief N Srinivasan will step aside from his role until an investigation into allegations of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League has been completed.

Srinivasan, president of the Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI), has so far resisted calls to resign.

His son-in-law and Chennai Super Kings official Gurunath Meiyappan is among those to have been arrested by police.

India fast bowler Shantha Sreesanth is one of three players arrested.

The BCCI held an emergency meeting in Chennai on Sunday to address growing criticism of the board, and Srinivasan in particular, in the wake of spot-fixing allegations in the IPL.

“N Srinivasan announced that he will not discharge his duties as the president till such time that the probe is completed,” the BCCI said on its official Twitter account.

“Mr Jagmohan Dalmiya will conduct the day-to-day affairs of the board.”

On Saturday, IPL chairman Rajeev Shukla  resigned from his position.

In the last fortnight, three bowlers from the Rajasthan Royals team – Sreesanth, Ajit Chandila and Ankeet Chavan – have been arrested as part of the police investigation.

Last week, Sreesanth insisted he was innocent. The families of the other two have also denied the allegations.

The players have been suspended by India’s cricket board and their IPL team.

Spot-fixing involves illegally rigging parts of a match, for example by timing the delivery of a deliberate wide or no-ball, to benefit bookmakers or those betting on matches.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/cricket/22747041

The Tribune – Three more districts declared tobacco-free

Tribune News Service

Chandigarh/Sangrur, May 31. The Punjab Government today declared Shaheed Bhagat Singh Nagar, Gurdaspur and Fatehgarh Sahib as ‘tobacco-free’ districts. Speaking on the occasion of World No Tobacco Day, Health and Family Welfare Minister Madan Mohan Mittal said the School of Public Health, PGI, had in its report confirmed that there were no “active smokers” in these districts.

Mohali, Mansa, Ropar and Amritsar districts have already been declared “tobacco- free”.

In Sangrur, about 90,000 students from more than 350 schools today took a pledge not to use tobacco products and to help tobacco users to give up the habit by educating them on its life-threatening effects.

A district-level function was organised at Government Senior Secondary School at Uppli village near Sangrur where District Health Officer (DHO) Dr Surinder Singla spoke on the ill-effects of tobacco that contained more than 4,000 harmful chemicals. He said tobacco was the root cause of more than 50 kinds of cancer as well as heart ailments.

Dr Singla, a TB specialist, said in Sangrur district at least 1,000 persons had been challaned and fined for smoking at public places from January to May this year.

Additional DC Pritam Singh Johl asked the students to motivate addicts to give up habit-forming drugs, especially tobacco products.

Civil Surgeon Dr Subodh Gupta and District Education Officer (Secondary) Nirmal Singh Sohi sought a ban on advertisements promoting the use of tobacco products.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130601/punjab.htm#11

The Tribune – PM elected to RS from Assam for fifth term

Bijay Sankar Bora, Tribune News Service

Guwahati, May 30. Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh has been elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam for the fifth consecutive term in the election held today. Besides Dr Singh, the other ruling Congress candidate, Santiuse Kujur, also got elected to the Upper House of the Parliament for the first time. Election was held to two Rajya Sabha seats from Assam which will fall vacant in June.

‘I’m honoured’

Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister It is a great honour for me that the people of Assam, through their elected representatives in the State’s Legislative Assembly, have given me an opportunity to serve them again.

I have been representing Assam in the Rajya Sabha ever since 1991 and in this period it has been my constant endeavour to work for the state’s development and prosperity to the best of my ability. I solemnly pledge that I will continue these efforts in the future too. —  Manmohan Singh, Prime Minister

For the dissidence-ridden Congress, the Rajya Sabha election went off smoothly as all 79 party MLAs obeyed the three-whip issued by the Congress Legislature Party (CLP) on the eve of the election to ensure victory of both the party candidates.

There was a third candidate in the election, Aminul Islam, who was put up by the All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF).

As expected, he was defeated despite the confidence exuded by AIUDF chief Badaruddin Ajmal about his victory against all odds.

The AIUDF has 18 MLAs in the 126-member Assam Assembly.

The Opposition AGP with nine MLAs and BJP with five MLAs did not take part in the election.

Dr Singh was first elected to the Rajya Sabha from Assam in 1991. He was then re-elected in 1995, 2001 and 2007.

He is officially a resident of Assam and has a rented house in the city.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130531/nation.htm#1

The Tribune – CBSE X results: Girls outshine boys yet again

Ananya Panda & Vivek Gupta, Tribune News Service

New Delhi/Chandigarh, May 30. The Class X CBSE results declared today clearly indicate that the shift to the Cumulative Grade Point Average (CGPA) system for Class X has not affected students’ spirit to excel and score better.

Not only has the number of students qualifying the examination increased to 98.76 per cent from last year’s 98.19 per cent, but the number of candidates getting 10 CGPA has also gone up to 86,162 as compared to previous year’s 68,516 students.

This year also, girls have outshone boys in the overall pass percentage with 98.94 per cent girls and 98.64 per cent boys clearing the exam. However, more number of boys (44,224) have got 10 CGPA than girls (41,938).

Among those scoring 10 CGPA, 62 students belonged to the differently abled/special category. In the same category, 25 other students have posted a CGPA between 9.6 and 9.9.

In mathematics 1,60,314 students got 10 CGPA, while the number was 1,51,468 in science, 1,71,291 in social studies, 1,29,409 in English (communicative), 21,204 in English language, 73,335 in Hindi Course (A), 49,294 in Hindi and 33,399 in Sanskrit.

The number of total students (1,25,7893) who registered for the Class X exam this year was 6.67 per cent more than the figure for the last year.

The Chennai region, for which result was declared on May 26, leads among the eight regions with a pass percentage of 99.8, Delhi with 98.4 per cent lags behind all other regions, except Guwahati (90.93 per cent).

The number 2 slot among the regions is occupied by Panchkula with a 99.45 pass percentage. Ajmer stood third with 99.38 per cent, followed by Allahabad (99.17 per cent) and Patna (99.3 per cent).

The Panchkula region comprises Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir and Chandigarh.

Of the total 1,80,392 students who appeared for the CBSE Class X exam from this region, 99.45 per cent were declared successful. There was an improvement of 0.93 per cent over the last year’s pass percentage of 98.2 for the region.

Like the Class XII results, Class X girls also outshined boys in the region with 99.68 per cent girls clearing the exam, as compared to 99.3 per cent boys. Besides decreasing exam stress, the new examination system has also improved overall performance of the students, according to Regional CBSE Director RJ Khanderao.

In Haryana, 49,381 students appeared for the school-based board exam against 35,808 who sat for the board-based exam. It is followed by Punjab with 34,072 students taking the school-based board exam against 24,118 taking the board-based students. In Chandigarh, 12,230 students appeared for the board-based exam against 4,975 students for school-based exam.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130531/main5.htm

The Asian Age – India is Sharif’s ‘No. 1 priority’

Shafqat Ali, Asian Age Correspondent

Islamabad, 29 May 2013. Resolving all issues with India will be incoming Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s priority number one, his close aides said Tuesday.

“There is a list of priorities, and good ties with India are top priority for Nawaz Sharif. He wants to solve all issues with India, including Kashmir”, a senior leader of Mr Sharif’s PML(N) told this newspaper.

“Soon after the oath-taking (likely on June 5), the PML-N government will take steps to come closer to India”, he added.

In his last stint in power, Mr Sharif started a dialogue process with then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for a resolution on Kashmir and other issues.

At a Lahore meeting Monday night with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s special representative S.K. Lambah, the two “discussed ways to improve bilateral relations”, a PML-N leader said. “Mr Sharif on the need of a dialogue to settle all outstanding mutual issues”.

http://www.asianage.com/india/india-sharif-s-no-1-priority-131

The Hindu – Raman Singh acknowledges security lapse as National Investigation Agency starts probe

NIA starts investigation; judicial inquiry ordered

Suvojit Bagchi

Jagdalpur, 27 May 2013. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Raman Singh has acknowledged that there was a “lapse” and that led to Saturday’s Maoist attack on a Congress motorcade.

“An incident of such a magnitude could not have happened; there must have been some lapse somewhere.

That is why in order to get to the bottom of the truth an impartial inquiry by a sitting judge has been ordered. The Government of India has also ordered an inquiry by the National Investigation Agency (NIA),” Mr. Singh said.

So far, two inquiries have been ordered. One would be led by a sitting judge of the High Court and the other by the NIA. “I have an open mind with regard to any kind of inquiry as long as it brings out the truth,” said Mr. Singh. His office told The Hindu that Mr. Singh insists on “speedy investigation.”

A five-member NIA team, headed by Inspector General (IG) S. K. Singh, arrived in Raipur on Monday. The team’s itinerary and work plan has not been disclosed. But, sources told The Hindu, the team will be based in Raipur for a “longish period.” The team members will visit the hilly tracts of Darbha and talk to officials concerned.

The NIA team visited a Raipur hospital to talk to some of the injured Congress workers and leaders.

Simultaneously, a security operation has been launched in and around Bastar and Sukma. “Six hundred paramilitary persons have been engaged in the operation. However, some of them are guarding the area where Saturday’s incident took place. It is a joint operation with the State police,” said a senior official.

Additional Director-General (Naxal Operations) R.K. Vij told The Hindu that there is an ongoing operation in the Minapa area of Sukma where about one thousand members of paramilitary forces have been engaged. “That is an ongoing operation. However, there is no fresh deployment in the area,” he said. He has also claimed that 300 police personnel were deployed for road sanitisation on Saturday. “This was a reserve force for special operations, which was used for road opening. So this allegation, that road was not sanitised on Saturday, is not correct,” said Mr. Vij.

Meanwhile, the last rites of Congress chief Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, killed in the attack, were performed with State honours at their native village, Nandeli, in Raigarh district on Monday.

Mr. Patel’s younger son Umesh performed the rites, in the presence of Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, Governor Shekhar Dutta, and Mr. Raman Singh.

About three thousand people, including State Minister for Home R.P.N. Singh, attended the last rites of Mahendra Karma in his hometown in Pharsapal in Dantewada.

http://www.thehindu.com/news/national/raman-singh-acknowledges-security-lapse-as-nia-starts-probe/article4756975.ece?homepage=true

The Tribune – Explain delay in widening of road: High Court to Amritsar administration

G S Paul, Tribune News Service

Amritsar, May 26. Taking cognisance of traffic congestion and hassles en route the Golden Temple, the Punjab and Haryana High Court has issued a notice of motion to the Amritsar Deputy Commissioner, Municipal Commissioner and the Executive Officer of the Improvement Trust, directing them to furnish affidavits by May 29 and explain why the road widening project on this route could not be executed till date.

Acting on a petition filed by Amritsar resident Manmohan Singh, the High Court has questioned the delay in widening the road leading from GT road to the Golden Temple passing through Ghee Mandi even as a compensation of Rs 8.98 crore has been awarded to 105 affected property owners. The court also took notice of the old buildings in deplorable conditions on both sides of this route.

Under the project, the 1.5-km stretch opposite the momentous Jallianwala Bagh till Ghee Mandi is to be widened up to 40 ft to ease congestion on the way to the Golden Temple. The administration had issued notices to residents and traders, asking them to shift their belongings to a safer place. But due to political intervention, the authorities have so far failed to take possession of the required land despite awarding compensation.

Amritsar Deputy Commissioner Rajat Aggarwal said: “We will comply with the directions of the High Court”.

The Golden Temple is located in the centre of the walled city. Approach to this Sikh shrine, which receives over 1 lakh visitors daily, is through two main roads.

Via Hall Bazaar: Hall Bazaar is a commercial hub of the city. Temporary shops have come up outside Dharam Singh Market and loading/unloading of goods is a common sight in the narrow Katra Ahluwalia. Haphazard parking and encroachments on pedestrian paths in Bazaar Pappara, Brahambuta Market are traffic hazards.

Via Ghee Mandi, Sheranwala Gate: Main approach from the GT road. Both these roads are in a deplorable condition. On the Sheranwala Gate road, a flyover has been made, but it ends at Saragarhi parking meant for personal vehicles.

Encroachments and parking of heavy trucks on the road below the flyover lead to chaos. The only alternative for a hassle-free ride to the Golden Temple is left with widening of the Ghee Mandi road, adjoining the Sheranwala Gate.

http://www.tribuneindia.com/2013/20130527/punjab.htm#14

The Asian Age – Chhattisgarh, Bodies of abducted PCC chief, son found; toll 28

Rabindra Nath Choudhury, Asian Age Correspondent

Raipur, 27 May 2013. Eleven more bodies of Congress leaders, including those of abducted Chhattisgarh PCC president Nand Kumar Patel and his son Dinesh, were recovered Sunday from Jiram Ghat in Bastar region, where Naxals ambushed a Congress convoy Saturday, taking the toll to 28.

“The death toll in Saturday’s Maoist attack on the Congress convoy has risen to 28 with 11 more bodies recovered”, chief minister Raman Singh told reporters here. The deceased included 10 jawans, mostly personal security officers of some Congress leaders.

The security forces deployed in the search operation after the Maoist ambush spotted the bullet-ridden bodies of the PCC chief and his son on a mound inside the forest, just half a kilometre from the attack site.

The Maoists had abducted Mr Patel and his young son after ambushing the Congress convoy. Besides the bodies of the PCC chief and his son, nine other bodies were also found.

Altogether 32 people were injured in the attack. Of this, 27 were shifted to a specialised hospital in Raipur after their condition worsened.

PM Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi arrived here Sunday and went straight to Rama Krishan Care Hospital to visit the injured leaders. They also visited the Congress Bhavan to pay tribute.

http://www.asianage.com/india/bodies-abducted-pcc-chief-son-found-toll-28-904