Sanjay Subramaniam, Sudha Reghunathan
rated best singers

CHENNAI, Jan 19: Sanjay Subramaniam and Sudha Reghunathan were rated as the best male and female singers respectively by carnatic music aficionados during the famous annual music festival here.

According to a survey conducted by IRC-Wide Vision Market Intelligence and Future Studies during the festival held here between December 15, 2007 and January 1, 2008, 37 per cent of the audience said Sanjay Subramaniam was the best male singer, followed by T N Seshagopalan with 23 per cent.

Sudha Reghunathan was rated by 30 per cent as the best female singer while 21 per cent cast their lot with Bombay Jayashree, the survey conducted among 750 people spread over around 100 ‘music sabhas’ (stages) during the fest, said.

Music lovers also felt that instruments like violin, veena and nadaswaram would "die" if reditions on these were not given prime time slots during the music festival, it said.

The practice of music sabhas announcing names of artistes who would perform seven months in advance has created "pressure" on them. Meanwhile, those who were left out or not given prime time, were ignored by other sabhas, it said.

This would create mental tension among the budding artistes, the survey added.

The survey said 41 per cent of the audience preferred Music Academy as the best managed auditorium for its ambience and sound system. It was also preferred by 33 per cent of audience for "judicious selection" of artistes. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Jan 19: Forward Bloc today expressed concern over the state of affairs relating to hundreds of Bhutanese refugees staying in camps near the Indo-Nepal border and blamed the government for not being interested in settling the issue.

"Thousands of Bhutanese refugees are staying in (the refugee camps in Damakh) on the banks of Mechi river which also borders West Bengal. These refugees have tried several times to go back to their homeland but the Bhutan Government is not ready to receive them," party secretary G Devarajan said here.

New Delhi "is taking no interest to settle this issue" which could create social tension and law and order problem in the border areas of Nepal, Bhutan and India and nearby districts, he alleged, adding the India Bhutan People’s Solidarity Forum wanted the Government to take steps to resolve the matter.

The Forward Bloc would submit a report to the Government after a delegation led by general secretary and MP Debabrata Biswas visits the camps, Devarajan said. (PTI)

‘Centre not satisfied with WB Govt’s tackling of birdflu’

KOLKATA, Jan 19: The Centre is not satisfied with the steps being taken by the West Bengal Government to tackle birdflu raging in some districts, Union minister of state for Health and Family Welfare Panabaka Lakshmi said today.

"No, we are not satisfied," Lakshmi, said when asked if the Centre was satisfied with the measures being taken by the state government to contain the disease.

The minister, however, did not specify exactly where the State Government was lacking in its initiatives, but said that as per information available to her, compensation to poultry losers was not properly distributed.

Stating that the Centre was ready to help the state in every way to contain the disease, the Union minister said, "We have already sent masks and other things to the state, besides five ventilators for the hospitals. We have sent these even without the State Government’s asking for them."

In reply to a question, Lakshmi said that she would visit the affected districts today and would hold a review meeting with state Health minister Surya Kanta Mishra on Monday.

Yesterday, Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee had described the bird-flu situation as "very serious". (PTI)

BJP disapproves attack on news channel’s office

NEW DELHI, Jan 19: BJP today expressed its disapproval over the attack on the office of private news channel NDTV in Ahmedabad by activists of a little known outfit.

"Media is the fourth pillar of democracy. Such things should not happen," BJP President Rajnath Singh told reporters here.

Singh said he was confident that Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will order a probe into the incident and take appropriate action.

Activists of ‘Hindu Samarajya Sena’ today ransacked NDTV’s office and assaulted two staffers to protest the news channel’s SMS poll with noted painter M F Husain as a contender for the Bharat Ratna.

Some 20 activists armed with hockey sticks, attacked the private channel’s office located in a residential area. (PTI)

Congress condemns attack on NDTV office

NEW DELHI, Jan 19: Congress today condemned the attack on NDTV’s office in Ahmedabad by a right wing Hindu outfit, deploring the "climate of intolerance" and alleged "ultimately this is what fascism all about".

Party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi said, "If you cannot air your views with freedom, then it is a very sorry phase you have come to. Ultimately this is what fascism is all about. This is what intolerance is all about."

Some 20 activists of ‘Hindu Samarajya Sena’ attacked the private channel’s office this morning and assaulted two staffers to protest the news channel’s SMS poll with noted painter M F Husain as a contender for the Bharat Ratna.

Singhvi said he was not suggesting whether ‘A’ should be given award or ‘B’ but said, "this is the trend, this is the beginning or this is the phenomenon which must be crushed in the threshold."

Terming the incident as "serious and unfortunate", he said "this will boomerang into a big thing and it will be very bad for the state (Gujarat) and the country, for the whole ethos of a democratic country." (PTI)

Congress claims Bangladeshi names
included in Tripura electoral roll

AGARTALA, Jan 19: The Tripura Pradesh Congress Committee has expressed concern over the authenticity of the photo electoral rolls in the State and alleged that the names of 11 people, who were permanent residents of Bangladesh, were included in the lists.

The party’s youth wing submitted a memorandum to the state Chief Electoral Officer (CEO) on the issue and alleged that Bangladeshi nationals had managed to enlist their names in the electoral rolls.

"One Pradeep Das, who is a permanent resident of the neighbouring country and lecturer in a college in Cummilla district of Bangladesh, has been enrolled as a voter of Pratapgarh Assembly constituency," the memorandum pointed out.

The party urged for immediate intervention of the authorities in the matter and underlined, "Some projects are still being announced and beneficiaries are being identified with retrospective effect even after the CEC’s instructions to the Chief Secretary not to announce any new project or identify beneficiaries from the State Government," Congress spokesperson Ratan Chakraborty said.

Meanwhile, the CEO said, "We have also received complaints with regard to faulty electoral rolls from some political parties and alleged presence of duplicate voters and mismatched photo-identity cards. Besides there were also allegations of deletion of genuine voters from the rolls, which we are looking into." (UNI)

CPI-M for pursuing independent foreign policy: Vijayan

KANNUR, Jan 19: Accusing the Congress-led UPA Government at the Centre of deviating from the Common Mininum programme on many issues including the Indo-US nuclear deal,CPI-M politburo member Pinarayi Vijayan today said his party was exploring the possibility of forming a third front.

The Congress was increasingly succumbing to pressures of American imperialistic forces while the BJP was seemingly gaining ground projecting its ‘Hindutva’ agenda, he alleged.

The Left parties’ opposition to the India-U.S. Nuclear Deal was primarily aimed at helping India pursue an independent foreign policy instead of toeing the line of American imperialism. "And the US wants to target the CPI-M by indulging in a disinformation campaign against the Left parties," Vijayan said.

The forces, which tried to put the CPI-M in the dock by indulging in such a campaign on the party’s stand on socialism and against the left Government in West Bengal on the Nandigram happenings, have started retracting after realising the true facts on the issue, he claimed.

Vijayan, also CPI-M’s Kerala unit secretary, was inaugurating the delegates session of the party’s three-day district committee meet that began here today.

Vijayan said the ‘momentum’ given to the liberal economic policies in fact helped the corporate bodies and stock market register remarkable growth while the agrarian sector was facing deep crisis due to the Centre’s ‘anti-people’ policies.

On the Sachar Committee Report on the status of Muslims in the country, Vijayan said the report had not been able to bring to light the actual conditions of the minority Muslims.

Party Central Committee members including Kodiyeri Balakrishnan, M A Baby, P K Sreemathi, all state ministers, and other senior state Cpi-m leaders were present at the inaugural function of the meeting which would elect 45-member District Committee on the concluding day on Monday. (PTI)

HAL to develop multi-role transport aircraft

BANGALORE, Jan 19: Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd was likely to enter into a joint venture this year with a Russian company for developing a multi-role transport aircraft, according to a top official of HAL.

The JV was aimed at sharing of technical collaboration and development of a multi-role transport aircraft, Ashok Baweja, Chairman, HAL, told reporters today on the sidelines of the second Air Chief Marshal L M Katre Memorial Lecture, organised by Karnataka Air Force Association.

He, however, did not mention the name of the company.

The aircraft was expected to be in the 60-ton class with payload of 20 tons. It was aimed at replacing the AN 32, the twin-engined turboprop military transport aircraft, he said.

Replying to former President Dr A P J Abdul Kalam’s demand at the function to build a 150-seat passenger jet, he said that the passenger jet could be developed subsequently as an offshoot of the multi-role transporter.

"Right now we are concentrating on optimising our capabilities and building it up", he said.

"We have a Rs 50,000 crore order book and several programmes were running currently", he said.

The first batch of HAL manufactured jet trainer aircraft, Hawk, was expected to roll out in March this year, and 14 such Hawks were expected to be rolled out next year, he said.

Speaking on the quantum of multi-mission helicopter ALH, he said that 80 had been delivered in the country and it still had 159 orders in hand with an addition of eight expected from the Home ministry.

On the weaponisation of ALH, he said the process was on and was in the advanced stages. Some trials would be held this year. Weaponisation of Light Combat Aircraft was also in the process, he said. (PTI)