NEW DELHI, Feb 25:

Amid the renewed discussion on the establishment of the National Counter Terrorism Centre (NCTC) after the recent Hyderabad blasts, the BJP today said the proposed counter terrorism centre must be restricted to intelligence collection, processing and transmission and it should not be given “police powers”.

Senior BJP leader Arun Jaitley said in an article that it was the combined responsibility of the Centre and states to combat terrorism.

“Terrorism impacts the sovereignty of India. It also impinges on both public order and law and order. Under our Constitutional scheme the Defence of India is the responsibility of the Central Government.

Public order and police fall within the domain of the states. The fight against terrorism can and must co-exist with federalism. It would be meaningless to debate an imaginary federalism versus terrorism issue,” he said.

The Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha said there could be no possible objection to a National Terrorism Counter Centre but its powers and jurisdictions must be within the Constitutional framework.

He said collecting cross-border intelligence and keeping an eye on the activities of those who foment trouble from outside was exclusively within the domain and the capacity of the Centre.

“Terrorist modules have inter-state operations. Collection of national intelligence and transmitting relevant information to the states is also the responsibility of the Central Government. The Centre has already been empowered through the creation of a National Investigative Agency which investigates offences amongst other laws under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act,” Mr Jailtey said.

He asked why does the Central government need to give police powers to the NCTC which would otherwise be under the domain of NIA or the state police?

The senior BJP leader said the NCTC was proposed to be set up under the Intelligence Bureau. Its’ Director will report to the Director of IB.

“Intelligence agencies should not get into police powers,” he added.

“Why should the Central government not trust the states? In the operational functions, the NCTC can always coordinate its activities with the State police. Is there any reason to doubt that the State police in India cannot be trusted for the anti-terror functions. In extraordinary cases the NIA can also be involved in such functions,” Mr Jaitley said.

He said it would be ‘dangerous’ to vest the powers of search, seizure and arrest i.e. The operational powers to an intelligence agency. The Intelligence Bureau functioning is secret. It is a non-statutory body. Its’ budget and spending has no accountability.

“Of late, the IB as an important national resource has shifted its’ focus predominantly from security related activities to political and quasi-political activities. I am strongly of the opinion that this tendency has to be curtailed.

The IB’s functions should not be political or investigative. It is an agency which must restrict itself to intelligence collection, processing and transmission. That is what the NCTC must do,” he added.

Mr Jaitley accused the Congress-led UPA government of demonstrating soft approach on terror.

He slammed the Congress government for repealing the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). He said the POTA was an “effective instrument” for investigating and punishing the terrorists.

He said the UPA was compelled to amend the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act wherein all but two of repealed provisions of POTA were incorporated.

After the February 21 blasts in Hyderabad, Mr Shinde has brought the NCTC issue back to the fore, saying that he would be looking into the details and talk with the states.    Twin bomb blasts at a busy area in Hyderabad killed at least 16 people and injured 117 others.

(UNI)

SHILLONG, Feb 25:

President Pranab Mukherjee has sought report from the Meghalaya government with regards to renovating historic sites associated with Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore during his stay in this North East city in the 1920s.

In a letter to the Meghalaya Chief Secretary P Barkos Warjri, the President’s office has sought an action taken report from the state government on renovations of Tagore’s bungalows in Shillong seeking “appropriate attention” in this regard.

“Please find appropriate attention a petition addressed to the President of India which is self explanatory…” Chirabrata Sarkar, under secretary to the President of India, said, seeking that an action taken report be ‘intimated’ to his office.

The order came in the wake of a city-based writer and researcher M Bisharad lodging a petition with the President of India last December informing about the neglect in which the famous ‘Brookside bungalow’ is lying in at present.

Tagore stayed for a month in 1919 during his first visit to this hill city. He composed short write-ups like the Ekti Chawni and Ekti Din at the Brookside Bungalow.

The Centre has deputed Director of Raja Rammohun Roy Library Foundation, Kolkata, K K Banerjee in February last year to prepare a report for renovating historic sites associated with Tagore including the Brookside Bungalow, Tagore Art Library and Tagore Cultural Centre.

Banerjee told PTI over phone from Kolkata that a detailed report in this regard had been submitted to the Union Ministry of Culture even as he admitted that the bungalow is in need of emergent renovation works.

According to him, “Tagore spent some time in Shillong during which he wrote some of this famous memoirs here and the Government wants to contribute in memory to this great poet.”

Tagore composed the Red Orleanders while sitting at the lawn of Jeet Bhumi. All these original works of the poet were however, not in the list of exhibits now.

In 2011, Sidli House, another site stayed by Tagore was brought down by its new owner. (PTI)

MUMBAI, Feb 25:

Country’s biggest commercial bank, State Bank of India (SBI) today said the Executive Committee of Central Board

(ECCB) of the bank at its meeting has approved preferential allotment of equity shares to the Government of India (GoI) to the

tune of up to Rs 3004 crore to enable the bank to support national

and international banking operations undertaken through its Subsidiaries and Associates.

The preferential issue has been priced at Rs 2,312.78 per share.

SBI’s net profit rose by 4.07 per cent to Rs 3396.06 crore on 14.11 per cent growth in total income to Rs 33992.11 crore in third

quarter of December 2012 over third quarter of December 2011.

The Government of India (GoI) currently holds 61.58% stake in SBI (as per the shareholding pattern as on 31 December 2012), a statement issued by the bank said.

(UNI)

AHMEDABAD, Feb 25:  A local court today extended the custody of two police officers, Tarun Barot and Bharat Patel, arrested on Saturday by CBI in connection with alleged fake encounter of Ishrat Jahan, for three more days.

Additional chief judicial magistrate H S Khutwad said “The accused police officers have been remanded to police custody till February 28 for further interrogation.”

The agency had earlier argued that the duo, during their one-day police custody granted by the court yesterday, were adopting evasive tactics and not cooperating during interrogation.

“The encounter case is an old one and the accused police officers are adopting various tactics to hide crucial evidence during interrogation,” CBI lawyer Abhishek Arora said.

The CBI argued that “the accused police officers, knowing fully well that the police custody granted to them was only for 24 hours, did not at all cooperate during interrogation and gave evasive replies.”

Opposing the remand application, counsel Brijrajsinh Jhala, who argued for Patel, said that despite being given 24 hours for interrogation, they were probed only for one and a half hours.

He also said that “false evidence is being created in the name of interrogation”, adding that CBI has mentioned that some Call Detail Record (CDR) of police officials involved in nakabandi and encounter was available while earlier the agency had said that CDR was permanently lost.

CBI counsel, however, pointed out that in the initial FIR filed by the Crime Branch, it was mentioned that CDR was permanently lost but the FIR filed by CBI stated that for commercial purposes (billing), telecom companies could make CDR available for seven years.

The CBI had arrested Special Operation Group (SOG), Gandhinagar police inspector Bharat Patel and suspended Mehsana DySP Tarun Barot late on Saturday evening.

Patel was police sub-inspector with Crime Branch, Ahmedabad in 2004.

The Gujarat police had alleged that 19-year-old Mumbai girl Ishrat Jahan, Javed Shaikh alias Pranesh Pillai, Amjadali Akbarali Rana and Zeeshan Johar were a part of the conspiracy to assassinate Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi. They were killed in an encounter on June 15, 2004 on a stretch of road between Ahmedabad and Gandhinagar.

Earlier, CBI had arrested Girish Singhal, Superintendent of Police with State Crime Records Bureau, and J G Parmar, retired DSP and the court, after rejecting their remand, had sent them in judicial custody.

After Ishrat’s mother complained about the alleged fake encounter, Gujarat High Court constituted a Special Investigation Team (SIT), which concluded that the encounter was fake. The High Court handed over the case to CBI on December 1, 2011, and monitoring the investigations. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Feb 25:

Housing prices have risen in 18 major cities, including Delhi and Mumbai, by up to 9.6 per cent during October-December period 2012 compared with the previous quarter, according to National Housing Bank (NHB).

Mumbai and Delhi witnessed the maximum increase in housing price at 9.6 per cent each.

Out of 20 cities tracked by NHB ‘RESIDEX’, prices have dropped in only two cities — Faridabad and Indore.

“In majority of the cities prices are witnessing upward trend,” NHB said in a statement.

“The movement in prices of residential properties has shown increasing trend in 18 cities ranging from 0.6 per cent in Chennai to 9.6 per cent in Delhi & Mumbai, and fall in only two cities namely Indore (-1.0 per cent) and Faridabad (-5.1 per cent) during the quarter October-December 2012 in comparison to the previous quarter July-September 2012,” it added.

Prices have shot up by 9.4 per cent each in Kolkata and Patna, followed by Kochi (8.8 per cent), Surat (8.7 per cent), Bengaluru (8.2 per cent) and Lucknow (8 per cent).

Hyderabad saw an appreciation in housing price by 7.1 per cent, while in Ludhiana rates rose by 6.5 per cent, Ahmedabad (6.1 per cent), Guwahati (5.1 per cent), Bhopal (4.9 per cent), Bhubaneshwar and Jaipur (2.4 per cent), Vijayawada (2.2 per cent), Pune (2 per cent) and Chennai (0.6 per cent).

NHB RESIDEX tracks the movement in prices of residential properties on a quarterly basis since 2007. The index for Delhi includes property transactions of Gurgaon, Noida, Greater Noida and Ghaziabad. (PTI)