Budget should focus on small farmers; agri experts tell FM

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: Agriculture experts today asked the Government to accord highest priority on resources for small farmers and provide incentives to enhance productivity of the farm sector in the next year's budget.

In a pre-budget meeting with Finance Minister P Chidambaram, the experts expressed concern over the spate of farmers' suicides and said the focus of the 2007-08 budget should be on ways to alleviate the lot of small peasants.

Ashok Gulati of International Food Policy and Research Institute said the Government should allocate resources for taking up irrigation projects which were on the verge of completion to solve the water problem for farmers.

He favoured introduction of the support price as well as a minimum procurement price for incentivising farmers.

Gulati said the support price should take care of the actual expenditure incurred by the farmer in producing grain.

Eminent farmer leader Sharad Joshi said the government should implement the recommendations of the National Farmers Commission on providing crop loans at four per cent interest.

He said financially feasible exit route for farmers, including those who are selling land to Special Economic Zones developers, should be provided. Besides, ways should be found to educate farmers about the WTO framework.

The two-hour meeting was part of the customary pre-budget consultations that Chidambaram holds with representatives of various sectors.

Conservationist Rajinder Singh told Chidambaram that water had become a major restraining factor in enhancing productivity and suggested a novel concept of community-driven decentralised water management.

This could be achieved through cheap loans for digging wells or tube-wells, he said, adding as a long term policy the government should also shuffle the items provided under the Public Distribution System (PDS).

Singh said the Government provided only high water consuming products such as wheat and rice in PDS. This meant shifting water resources of villages to other areas, he said and sought inclusion of pulses and other items in PDS basket.

During the meeting, Sharad Joshi described the Essential Commodities Act as an "archaic legislation" which bestowed "enormous power" on the state but "hardly any legal obligation" to ensure that farmers get a fair and remunerative price for their crops.

"All systems putting restrictions on transport, storage, marketing, processing and exporting should be scrapped," he said, but added imports in the form of dumping were against the interest of Indian farmers and should not be allowed.

The Government should put in place a vast network of laboratories for testing food, seed, insecticides, fertilisers and water, he added. (PTI)

EC summons Arunachal CM, MLAs on Office of Profit issue

ITANAGAR, Dec 29: The Election Commission has summoned Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Gegong Apang and 24 others including ministers and ruling Congress MLAs and Independents supporting the Government from outside, to appear in person or through their lawyers at the next hearing on the office of profit case against them on January 11.

The petitioners BJP leaders were also summoned to be present, BJP sources said today.

The earlier hearing fixed on December 21 was deferred on the request of the petitioners.

BJP had submitted two petitions to the Governor S K Singh in March demanding disqualification of 25 ministers and MLAs from the membership of the 60-member state Assembly.

They alleged that the ministers and MLAs were holding offices of profit by way of becoming chairmen of different boards and corporations and other government bodies. Some MLAs were holding posts of Advisor to Chief Minister and Parliamentary Secretaries enjoying status and facilities of Cabinet ministers and minister of states violating Article 192 and 164 (amended).

The state Assembly on May 15 passed the Arunachal Pradesh Legislature Member (Prevention of Disqualifications) Act 1997. It was aimed to prevent disqualification of MLAs on office of profit issue. During the debate Apang had denied the allegation of the BJP and said the MLAs resigned from the post of his Advisors and board Chairmen before the petitions were filed.

The BJP had, however, described the amendement as a move to institutionalise corruption in the state and said the resignations were effected with back dates. (PTI)

Jaya asked to appear in court on Jan 29 over IT cases

CHENNAI, Dec 29: An Economic Offences Wing Court today directed AIADMK Supremo J Jayalalithaa and her close aide Sasikala to appear before it on January 29 in connection with the Income Tax cases registered against them.

When the case came up for hearing, Additional Chief Metropolitan Magistrate J V Raj held it was a fit case for framing charges.

He adjourned the case to January 29, directing Ms Jayalalithaa and Ms Sasikala to appear before the court on that day.

It may be recalled that the Magistrate had on June 14 dismissed the petitions filed by the two seeking to discharge them from the IT cases pending against them.

The case IS related to non-filing of Income-tax returns by Ms Jayalalithaa and Ms Sasikala for the assessment year 1993-94. In another case, in which M/s Sasi Enterprises was cited as accused, the two again failed to file returns in their capacity as partners of the firm for the assessment year 1991-92 and 1992-93. (UNI)

Forward Bloc to support Mulayam against BJP, Cong

LUCKNOW, Dec 29: Admitting that bad law and order situation and corruption was rampant in Uttar Pradesh, All India Forward Bloc (AIFB) has nonetheless pledged support to Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav for a "bigger cause."

"Although we know that law and order situation is not good in UP and corruption is rampant, still for bigger cause we have to support Mr Yadav to fight the BJP and Congress," AIFB general secretary Debabrata Biswas said here.

Talking to UNI, the Rajya Sabha member said Mr Yadav must be supported for taking on BJP and Congress head-on. "...But, due to 'opportunistic' approach, left parties are divided on the issue."

He also criticised the SP Government over the SEZ policy and the Dadri power project.

"While the CPI is opposed to Mulayam, the CPI(M) is supporting the Samajwadi Party government and even plans to contest the 2007 assembly poll in alliance with them," he claimed.

The AIFB leader said his party was yet to consider a pre-poll alliance in UP, but wanted a united left front for the election.

Commenting on the Reliance's Dadri power project and opposition by former Prime Minister V P Singh, Mr Biswas supported the issue raised by Mr Singh saying "it is our duty to protect the interest of farmers."

However, he noted the former Prime Minister was playing to the Congress' tune by weakening the secular forces by announcing that Jan Morcha will contest the 2007 UP assembly election. (UNI)

BSF intercepts 754 illegal Bangladeshi entrants in 2006

SHILLONG, Dec 29: BSF intercepted 776 illegal Bangladeshi entrants in Assam-Meghalaya border this year - of which 754 were handed over to police and 22 to Bangladesh Rifles (BDR) after finding them to be cases of 'inadvertent crossing'.

A BSF spokesman of Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur and Nagaland (AMMN) frontier, headquartered here, said today that most of the 754 Bangladeshis handed over to the police were deported to the neighbouring country after talks in BSF-BDR flag meetings.

The figures were from January to November this year.

Troops of the frontier had effected an overall sizure of smuggled goods worth over Rs 8.5 crore including forest produce valued at Rs 2.4 crore, narcotics worth Rs 70.9 lakh and cattle valued at Rs 1.9 crore from the Indo-Bangladesh border.

He said the BSF personnel also seized fake Indian currency notes with the face value of Rs 33,000 which were being pumped into the country from Banladesh.

In the counter-insurgency operations, the AMMN frontier was instrumental in apprehending 35 militants of various underground outfits of Manipur this year. Two battalions of the frontier which had participated in the anti-naxalite operations in Bihar also arrested three militnats and recovered a large number of arms, ammunition and explosives. (PTI)

Mayawati appoints new UP unit president of BSP

LUCKNOW, Dec 29: BSP chief Mayawati today appointed Lalji Verma as the new president of party's state unit replacing Barkhuram Verma.

"Barkhuram Verma is ill and assembly elections are round the corner. That is why I have appointed Lalji Verma as the new state unit president," Mayawati told reporters here. (PTI)

Andaman celebrates 63rd anniversary
of Netaji's flag hoisting

PORT BLAIR, Dec 29: Andaman and Nicobar Islands will commemorate the 63rd anniversary of hoisting of the Indian Tricolour by Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose here on December 30, 1943 tomorrow, sources said.

Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose hoisted the Tricolour here for the first time, declaring the islands as the first Indian Territory to be freed from the British rule.

To witness the historic occassion the newly-appointed Lt Governor of the Islands, Lt Gen (Redt) Bhopinder Singh would lay wreath near the Netaji's Statue, 1857 Memorial Marina Park, Battle of Aberdeen Memmorial and Martyrs' Column and National memorial Cellular Jail, Territory's Information and Publicity Division officer-in-charge V K Mishra told UNI.

Later, he would hoist the National Flag at the Memorial near here followed by the guard of honour, Mr Mishra said.

The memorial had been constructed at the Andaman Club as a mute testimony of Netaji's visit to the islands, Mr Mishra added.

A 'Run for Cellular Jail' would also be organised as a part of Centenary Year of the Jail. (UNI)

Education in Bihar is stagnant: Report

PATNA, Dec 29: Education in Bihar is almost stagnant except for some activities in primary education and there has been large-scale migration of educated youth from the state, says an official report submitted to the Planning Commission.

An approach paper prepared by Bihar's planning and development department for the 11th Five-Year Plan and titled "Vision for accelerated inclusive growth" that was released by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar here recently said, "The 2001 census shows that Bihar's literacy level at 47 per cent is the lowest in the country...Educational indicators for Bihar have been abysmally low as compared to the national average."

The paper said the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for 2003-04 in the case of children aged six to 14, who have a fundamental right to access free and compulsory education, was 56 compared to national average of 85, with a wide gender gap.

"The GER in the state for boys being 62 and for girls 49 is also very low as it was 88 and 81 respectively for the country as a whole...The situation on the dropout front is equally bad," the paper said.

Out of every 100 children, 59 do not complete grade five and 78 fail to reach grade eight in Bihar. The national droput rates at these two stages are 31 and 52 per cent respectively.

The paper further said Bihar presented a classical example where the number of schools and teachers required for elementary education "strangely" decreased while it had increased at the national level.

While the number of elementary schools increased in the country by 40 per cent (from 7.12 lakh in 1990-91 to 9.84 lakh in 2003-04) and teachers by 37 per cent (from 26.89 lakh in 1990-91 to 36.89 lakh in 2003-04), it effectively decreased in Bihar by 10 per cent and 29 per cent respectively during the same period, it said.

With no new schools being opened and no posts for teachers being created since 1990, classrooms in Bihar are overcrowded and the teacher-pupil ratio of 1:62 is highly adverse to the national norms of 1:40.

The situation in secondary and higher education is no better, the paper said. Bihar has only five secondary schools for every one lakh people against the national average of 13 secondary schools for the same number of people.

Officials said the NDA Government, after coming to power in Bihar, has initiated several measures to improve the scenario in education, such as appointing 2.36 lakh teachers for elementary and secondary schools. This decision is aimed at bringing the teacher-pupil ratio to the national average of 1:40.

In addition to the appointment of teachers, 15,000 new schools are being opened in the state and the appointment process of teachers has been decentralised and is being done by Panchayati Raj institutions, they said. (PTI)

Sub-standard alternative medical insts under scanner

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: To prevent growth of sub-standard alternative medical colleges, the Health Ministry is planning to come down heavily on those institutes who are running them for just "profit" and not providing quality education.

"Our focus in the coming year would be to come down heavily on those who are running AYUSH institutes for profit. If we find they are not imparting quality education, we will shut them down,"Shiv Basant, Joint Secretary in the Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH), told .

"This is the only way to check the mushrooming of these alternative medical institutes in the country. Colleges with persistent deficiencies in infrastructure will be denied permission to run courses," he said.

A Parliamentary panel has said that 142 such colleges lack minimum infrastructure and also face a severe teaching staff crunch.

The Public Accounts Committee (PAC) also found that even the 35 newly established colleges lack infrastructure.

The Committee said no systematic or rational system for inspecting the colleges had been devised or followed and visits were generally carried out randomly. It noted that 61 to 62 per cent colleges of Ayurveda and Homoeopathy were inspected only once or twice in the last five years.

Basant said they are also planning to upgrade institutes that really need monetary help. "We are seeking Rs 500 crore more in the 11th pay commission so that we could improve the education system,"he said.

He said since 2003 there has been a growth in AYUSH institutes in the country and which is not in an uniform manner.

Basant said the government knows about the sub-standard institutes and is tighteing its regulations.

Earlier, the Central Council of Indian Medicine was keeping a check on these sub-standard colleges and carrying out inspections.

"Their powers have been taken away. Now, the Central Government grants permission to open a new institute," Basant said.

The permission of the Central Government is now mandatory for establishing new colleges, starting new and higher courses and increasing admission capacity in Ayurveda, Unani, Siddha and Homeopathy systems of medicines.

The Health Ministry has also formed a panel, which will inspect these institutes and give their report on whether they are genuine colleges, are providing basic facilities and education to students.

There are 400 AYUSH institutes in the country.

Basant said they would also try to see that there was an equitable growth of these colleges in areas that actually needs them. (PTI)

HC deals with Mattoo, Jessica and other high-profile cases

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: The Delhi High Court went through a significant year delivering crucial verdicts in cases involving the high and the mighty, which had sparked major public debates.

The Court, which boasts of being the busiest one in the country with an average of 3,000 odd cases being heard on any given day, gave two much-awaited judgements--awarding capital punishment to Santosh Singh in the Priyadarshini Mattoo rape-cum-murder case and life imprisonment to Manu Sharma in the Jessica Lal murder case.

In both the cases, the accused had managed to secure their acquittal, but the tables turned when the matter came up for appeal in the High Court.

On October 17, this year as the clock struck 2 pm, a hushed silence descended at Court Hall No 35 of the Delhi High Court when Justices R S Sodhi and P K Bhasin pronounced advocate Santosh Singh guilty for the rape and murder of his classmate Priyadarshini Mattoo.

The suspense continued for 12 days as the High Court after reserving the quantum of punishment finally ordered that Santosh Singh should be hanged till death.

The verdict was in several ways significant and welcomed by an overwhelming section of the civil society which was outraged by the acquittal of the accused by the trial Judge.

If Santosh Singh was acquitted nine years after he committed the heinous offence, the denouement that unfolded in the Delhi High Court was quick and prompt dispensation of justice.

The Judges took just two-and-half months for admitting the appeal of the Delhi police, hearing the arguments on day-to-day basis and pronouncing its verdict, albeit leaving the accused, son of a retired top police officer, in utter shock and disbelief.

Similar was the fate of Manu Sharma, son of a senior Congress leader Venod Sharma, who could not escape from the clutches of law and was pronounced guilty for murdering model Jessica Lall by the same Bench which awarded death sentence to Santosh Singh in Mattoo murder case.

Only difference between the two verdict was that Manu Sharma was given a lesser punishment of life imprisonment as the court concluded that the offence committeed by him did not attract the dictum of rarest of rare case.

The ugly spat between the Union Health Minister A Ramadoss and the Director of the prestigious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) P Venugopal found its echo in the High Court.

On July 7, Justice Anil Kumar stayed the reported move of the Centre to terminate his services and later the Health Ministry on July 25 suffered another embarassment over the issue after a Division Bench refused to interfere with the single judge's order. The case will come up in the new year.

In November, the High Court was again in the news after it upheld the citizenship of Congress president Sonia Gandhi, rejecting a PIL filed by the Rashtriya Mukti Morcha.

The furore over the cash-for-query sting operation of a private TV channel, which cost 11 Members of Parliament their seats, found its resonance in the High Court after it issued notices to the Lok Sabha secretariat triggering of a fresh confrontation between the legislature and the judiciary.

The infamous drug snorting case involving Rahul Mahajan, son of the slain BJP leader Promod Mahajan, also figured in the High Court after Justice Badar Durrez Ahmed restrained police from conducting any brain mapping test against Mahajan.

In an interesting ruling, the High Court held that no restriction can be imposed on women from working in establishments serving liquor to customers.

A Bench held that any such restriction was unconstitutional, a verdict that has now facilitated entry of women employees into bars and restaurants serving intoxicants, which until then was the male bastion.

If these were some of the important jugdements, the High Court had used, on several occasions, its judicial powers to discipline the somnolent bureacracy.

The High Court had warned the MCD that it would invoke its extra-ordinary jurisdiction to direct the Centre for dissolving the civic body if it failed to close down the illegal farm houses operating in the capital.

As the Yamuna continued to be encroached upon by vested interests, a Division Bench had to order the presence of the Delhi's Chief Secretary to ensure compliance of its earlier orders for removal of all encroachments.

And thanks to the High Court's intervention the historic Jama Masjid, which was under largescale encroachment, is all set to regain its pristine glory after the Sheila Dikshit Government agreed to spend a whooping Rs 90 crore for beautifying the monument and make it a major tourist attraction. (PTI)

Hindi Prachar Sabha in trouble, lock out declared

CHENNAI, Dec 29: The 88-year-old Dakshina Bharat Hindi Prachar Sabha (DBHPS) here, founded by Mahatma Gandhi to spread Hindi among non-Hindi speaking people of South India, is embroiled in a labour dipute and has stayed closed for more than two weeks now.

The present imbroglio involving management and labour union has paralysed book sales and administrative and printing work of the institution, putting a question mark over the conduct of examinations scheduled for February, 2007.

The sabha caters to nearly 2.5 lakh students in the southern part of the country, offering regular and post-graduate courses and research programmes. In Chennai alone, it has 60,000 students.

Founded in 1918, the sabha was declared by Parliament as an Institution of National Importance by Act 14 of 1964.

The central sabha here has provincial units in Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka, besides Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu.

Union Minister of State for Planning M V Rajasekaran now heads the sabha, which boasts of an illustrious list of Presidents including Gandhiji, Lal Bahadur Shastri, R Venkataraman, K R Narayanan and former Chief Justice of India Ranganath Misra.

Trouble broke out when the management recently transferred three employees from the sabha to the press wing. As sabha employees come under separate service rules and press workers come under the Factory Act, with less benefits, the workers protested against the decision.

The matter was subsequently taken to the Labour Commission, but three round of tripartite talks so far failed to break the deadlock.

As 150-odd workers began a sit-in agitation, the management announced a lockout on December 11. (UNI)

Home Ministry kept on tenterhoks after
Mumbai, Malegaon blasts

NEW DELHI, Dec 29: The Mumbai serial train blasts that threatened to derail the Indo-Pak dialogue process and the Malegaon explosions kept the security establishment on tenterhooks during the bygone year which also witnessed Naxal violence, insurgency in the North East and communal troubles.

After the investigations into the 7/11 train explosions in Mumbai, which left 200 people dead and hundreds injured, security agencies pointed an accusing finger at elements in Pakistan for their role in the blasts.

Pakistan, which denied the accusations, later agreed to the setting up of a joint working group with India on counter terrorism that led to the revival of the Foreign Secretary-level talks.

Jammu and Kashmir remained in the news for terror attacks on soft targets by ISI-sponsored Lashker-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad, Al-Badr and Hizbul Mujahideen terror outfits even as the Home Ministry reported a decline in 'fidayeen' (suicide) attacks during the year.

Security forces neutralised 516 terrorists including 45 top self-styled commanders and arrested 348 militants.

The security establishment also found a decline in infiltration from across the western border though there was growing concern over the strategies being adopted by terror groups.

Militancy in the North East kept raising its head as extortions and bomb blasts in Nagaland, Manipur and Assam continued to give headaches to the paramilitary and armed forces. The Naxal problem was quite pronounced in Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand causing higher casualties among civilians.

All these developments had an impact on the man heading the Home Ministry. Shivraj Patil remained a beleagured Minister for a span of time amid growing demands for his removal by the Opposition and a not-so-favourable disposition towards him in sections within the ruling UPA.

Demolition of a 'dargah' by the authorities in Vadodara sparked communal violence that forced the Gujarat government to deploy the Army after para-military forces and local police failed to contain the situation.

Desecration of a statue of Babasaheb Ambedkar in Kanpur led to violent protests in Maharashtra.

The Home Ministry grappled with terrorist violence in the hinterland by LeT and JeM which use the territory and elements in Bangladesh and Nepal for movement of terrorists to target vital installations and economic infrastructure.

The terror attacks in Varanasi and the recent train blast in North Bengal pointed accusing fingers at HUJI of Bangladesh.

Besides, Ayodhya, Bangalore, Nagpur and Malegaon were in the news for some major terrorist incidents, which the MHA said, were casued by externally based and sponsored terrorist outfits with some local help.

New Delhi took up these incidents seriously during the Home Secretary-level talks with Pakistan.

Back home, the Centre initiated consultations with various political groups for allround development of Jammu and Kashmir while the Prime Minister chaired the two Round Table Conferences on J and K. Five Working Groups were constituted.

The Prime Minister as well as Home Minister Shivraj Patil stressed the need for intelligence collection at the police constable level and asked States to strengthen special branches, which deal with intelligence gathering.

Barring ULFA violence in Assam, the overall security situation in the North East has shown signs of improvement. The MHA expected the situation to improve further due to extension of ceasefire and Suspension of Operations agreements with NSCN(IM) and NSCN(K), National Democratic Front of Bodoland, United People's Democratic Solidarity and Dima Halam Dagoh in Assam; and Achik National Volunteer Council in Meghalaya.

As part of its peace initiative, the Centre held three rounds of talks with the People's Consultative Group set up by the United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) and suspended operations against the banned outfit.

However, the talks could not proceed as ULFA stuck to its demand that its five top detenues be released before direct talks could start.

While the number of violent incidents and civilian casualties in Manipur come down, violence has went up in Nagaland where there was also a slight increase in the casualty level of security forces and civilians.

The Home Ministry proactively engaged NSCN(IM) in observance of ceasefire ground rules. A Group of Ministers (GoM) was constituted to hold talks on substantive issues with NSCN(IM).

Meghalaya also witnessed a marginal increase in violence.

The overall naxal situation saw a decline in terms of incidents and casualties of police personnel. However, the marginal increase in casualties of civilians was mainly due to high violence levels in Chhattisgarh and to some extent in Jharkhand.

Chhattisgarh alone accounted for nearly 50 per cent of total incidents and almost 60 per cent of total casualties in the current year. The higher casualties in the state were mainly because of increased use of violence by naxalites to derail 'Salwa Judum '(movement against naxalism).

Naxal violence came down significantly in Andhra Pradesh in terms of incidents and casualties, though the seizure of huge consignments of rocket shells and rocket launchers became a matter of serioius concern for the Centre.

To tackle naxal violence, all affected states prepared action plans for a comprehensive and coordinate response. The MHA asked the states to formulate and implement an effective surrender and rehabilitation policy for naxalites. They were, however, asked not to have any peace dialogue with the ultras till they abjure violence and gave up arms.

The Home Minister asked the States to mount special recruitment drives to fill up all vacancies in the affected police stations and set up special intelligence machinery on naxal related activities.

On its hot pursuit strategy against naxalites, the Centre took a decision to deploy para-military forces at no cost basis and sanction additional India Reserve Battalions for the naxal-hit states.

Specialised training to state police in guerilla warfare, supply of vehicles that could withstand mine blasts and setting up an anti-naxal unit in the MHA were some other proactive measures to deal with the problem.

To ensure faster development of naxal-hit areas, the Centre provided financial assistance of Rs.2,475 crore for 55 naxal affected dstricts under the Backward Districts Initiative component of the Rashtriya Sam Vikas Yojana.

The Home Minister cautioned that the coastal areas, particularly the long western coast, were vulnerable to terrorist attacks as threat perception through the sea route has increased following sealing of land borders.

The Centre sanctioned setting up of 73 coastal police stations at a cost of Rs.551 crore to be established in five years to nine states and four union territories. Over 200 boats and nearly 500 vehicles were being procured for the purpose. The MHA decided to fund Rs.342.56 crore for 15 interceptor boats.

"Operation Swan" was launched to strengthen security off Maharashtra and Gujarat coastlines in view of their vulnerability.

Under the Police Modernisation Scheme, the Government took a major decision to provide Rs. Two crore annually to 76 districts seriously affected by the naxalite menace for strengthening basic police infrastructure. Besides, 30 districts on the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bhutan borders would be provided Rs. One crore each for the same purpose.

A scheme for modernisation of BSF, CRPF, ITBP, Assam Rifles, CISF and NSG with an outlay of Rs.3,740 crore was also under implementation.

The security establishment was also working towards meeting the target of police population ratio of 1:500 in the next three years from 1:728 now. While the ratio in Russia is 1:82, in the UK it is 1:290 and in the US 1:334.

The MHA was also actively considering bringing about police reforms by amending the obsolete Police Act of 1861. (PTI)