NEW DELHI, May 14: Ahead of Indo-Pak Home Secretary- level talks later this month, Home Secretary R K Singh will visit Jammu and Kashmir this week to have a first-hand assessment of problems being faced by businessmen in cross-LoC trade.
The visit comes close on the heels of Chief Minister Omar Abdullah flagging the problems being faced by traders in cross-LoC at an internal security conference chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh last month.
While Omar had termed cross-border trade as a major confidence building measure between India and Pakistan, he had favoured end of barter practice and suggested opening of normal banking channels.
According to official sources, Singh, whose visit scheduled last month was postponed, will be travelling to Kashmir first on May 16.
He will visit Salamabad in Uri in North Kashmir, see the arrangements and talk to some of the trade unions in a bid to firm up the stand on modalities for establishing banking relations for businessmen.
India has been proposing to Pakistan for opening of banking channels to encourage more trade between the two parts of Kashmir.
On Omar’s plea to the Centre, the Home Secretary will also hold talks with the state authorities for having a telephone link between the two parts of Kashmir for encouraging trade relations which started in 2008, the sources said.
The Home Secretary will on May 17 visit Jammu region where he will get a first-hand account about trading at Chakan-da-Bagh in Poonch, the sources said.
The Chief Minister, in his speech at the Internal Security Conference last month, had said, “There is a need for restoration of telephonic links between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and putting in place a proper institutional arrangement by replacing the current barter system of trade, which will also address the security concerns.”
Omar had requested the Home Ministry to take up the matter with the ministries concerned so that trade can flourish in real terms.
The matter is likely to be raised at the proposed meeting of the Home Secretaries of India and Pakistan scheduled to be held in Islamabad next month. (AGENCIES)

JAIPUR, May 14: A Rajasthan minister has hit out at Bollywood star Aamir Khan for sensationalising female foeticide cases in the state, saying the Government was already working on the issue before the actor’s campaign.
Minister of State for Health, Rajkumar Sharma said that it was not right on the part of Aamir to highlight Rajasthan as the only state where the cases of female foeticide are rampant.
“There was an impression that the government has swung into action after Aamir Khan’s campaign but to clarify, I would like to highlight that the government is already working for the same. Budget announcements to check foeticide are there and several other steps are being taken,” Sharma told.
“The Government took up the issue much before Aamir Khan’s programme. It is not because of him that the government is working against female foeticide.”
Sharma said that the actor needs to work on ground level to prove his commitment to the issue.
“He (Aamir) himself has said that he is an entertainer and cannot work longer on one topic, that simply means what he is doing is for monetary gains. If he really wants to work on this issue then I welcome him to work here on ground,” Sharma said.
Khan took up the issue in the first episode of his TV show ‘Satyamev Jayate’ aired on May 6 and also met Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot to request him to form a fast track court to expedite cases related to the issue. (PTI)

BANGALORE, May 14: The political crisis in the ruling BJP in Karnataka today loomed large with rebel leader and former Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa deciding to take a final call on his future political course by this evening.
“I will consult MPs, MLAs and my supporters today and announce my decision by 4 PM”, Yeddyurappa, who has been fuming at BJP central leadership for “ignoring” him, particularly after the Supreme Court order for a CBI probe into illegal mining during his tenure as chief minister, told reporters.
Yeddyurappa, who visited Siddganga mut pontiff Shivakumara Swamiji of the Lingayat community to which he belongs, attacked BJP General Secretary H N Anantkumar, State unit chief K S Eshwarappa, Chief Minister D V Sadananda Gowda and RSS leader Satish.
He accused Anantkumar of “feeding malicious information” about him to BJP leader L K Advani.
“Anantkumar made efforts to topple me from the Chief Ministership at least thrice earlier with the help of mine owners”, Yeddyurappa alleged.
In a damage-control bid, Eshwarappa today ruled out accepting resignations of more than half a dozen MLAs and dropping ministers loyal to Yeddyurappa.
“There is truth in the fact that about more than half a dozen MLAs and ministers have tendered resignation to Yeddyurappa. However, the party will neither accept their resignations nor drop any ministers,” he told reporters.
Meanwhile, MLAs and Ministers loyal to Yeddyurappa met at a breakfast meeting at his Race Course residence where the consultation process has begun.
Sources close to Yeddyurappa claim that he has been toying with the idea of quitting BJP, a development that would threaten the survival of the four-year-old BJP government, the first ever in the South.
Eight ministers loyal to Yeddyurappa have already handed over their resignation letters to their leader.
In another development, the BJP central leadership has reportedly rejected Yeddyurappa’s demand for change in the leadership of Sadananda Gowda. Minister for Power Shobha Karandlaje, who was sent as Yeddyurappa’s emissary to hold talks with BJP Central Leadership is, returning empty handed.
As a last effort to save the situation, Eswarappa said the entire BJP was with Yeddyurappa. Eswarappa’s parleys with Yeddyurappa yesterday have failed to end the crisis.
In the 225-member Assembly, BJP has a strength of 120. Yeddyurappa claims to have the support of at least nine ministers and 45 MLAs.
Eshwarappa also said he has not received the resignation letters either from the ministers or the MLAs. “I have been in touch with these MLAs and ministers and I am telling confidently as the state party chief that they will not quit,” he said.
On Yeddyurappa praising Congress President Sonia Gandhi and her party for being supportive of leaders facing trouble “unlike” his own party, Eshwarappa said BJP leadership had never left any of their leaders including L K Advani, Narendra Modi, Madan Lal Khurana and Uma Bharti in the lurch during crisis.
The BJP leadership had always stood behind Yeddyurappa and expressed hope that he would come out clean in the illegal mining case, Eshwarappa said.
He also said he failed to understand the reason for Yeddyurappa to praise Sonia Gandhi and her party. “I would like to make it clear that all BJP leaders, including central leaders are with Yeddyurappa,” Eshwarappa said.
“I think Yeddyurappa is giving such statements (praising Sonia Gandhi) out of pain. There is no question of Yeddyurappa quitting the party,” he said.
Eswarappa also believed the crisis would be resolved soon.
Former Minister H Halappa told the press before entering Yeddyurappa’s residence that he would follow the foot steps of his leader. “I will resign if Yeddyurappa resigns”, he said.
Former legislator and Chairman of Karnataka Handloom Development Corporation M D Lakshminarayana was seen making appeals to BJP High Command to ensure that Yeddyurappa remains in BJP. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 14:Supreme Court judge Justice P Sathasivam underlined the need for imparting technological training to nurses to help them serve patients in a better and effective manner.
Addressing nurses on the eve of the International Nurses Day, to mark the birth anniversary of Florence Nightingale (a celebrtated English nurse, writer and statistician), at the Constitution Club, Justice Sathasivam said both the Government and the NGOs should take adequate steps to address the problems faced by the nursing community.
Justice P V Reddy (retd) Chairperson Law Commission of India called for setting up a committee to look into the grievances of nurses in India.
Nurses, who gathered at the function from all over India, expressed gratitude to the Supreme Court and the Delhi High Court for their recent orders to the Government to take action against hospitals treating them as bonded labourers. (PTI)

KATHMANDU, May 14: Thirteen Indian pilgrims were among 15 persons killed today when a small plane with 21 people on board crashed in northern Nepal after hitting a hill top while attempting to land at a high-altitude airport.
Six others, including three Indians and two Danish nationals, miraculously survived the crash of the Dornier 9N AIG aircraft belonging to the private carrier Agni Air, nearly eight months after 10 Indians perished in an air disaster near here.
The plane, which flew from the resort town of Pokhara on its way to Jomsom, crashed at 9.30 am local time while landing at the mountain airstrip, said an official at the Rescue Coordination Committee of Tribhuvan International Airport.
The passengers had chartered the flight to take them from the central tourist hub of Pokhara to Muktinath, a famous Hindu pilgrimage in Jomsom near Tibetan border at the foot of the Thorong La Himalayan mountain pass, the official said.
He said there were possibilities of a technical fault.
“Thirteen Indian nationals and two Nepalese crew member were killed in the crash,” the official said, adding rescuers have so far recovered nine bodies from the wreckage.
He said three Indians including two children, a Nepalese air hostess and two Danes have been rescued alive from the crash site.
The injured were taken to a hospital in Pokhara and the three Indians who survived were out of danger, said Rescue Coordination Committee of the Tribhuvan International Airport.
The high-altitude Jomsom airport, about 200 km northwest of the capital, is a gateway to a popular tourism and trekking destination situated more than 2,600m above sea level.
Prime Minister Baburam Bhattarai extended condolences to the victims’ families and wished speedy recovery of the injured.
Separately, Nepali Congress party leader Ram Chandra Paudel demanded a probe into the tragedy.
When contacted, Indian embassy officials said they were trying to collect the details as there was some confusion over the nationalities of the passengers on board the ill-fated plane.
Agni Air marketing manager Pramod Pandey said two Danish nationals were also among the passengers.
“It’s not that much difficult to land at the Jomsom airport. We are using experienced pilots over there. So, this pilot who was flying this aircraft had a lot of flying hours,” he added.
The plane turned into pieces but did not catch fire. The bodies of pilot Prabhu Sharan Pathak and co-pilot JD Maharjan have been recovered.
On September 25 last year, 19 people, including 10 Indians, were killed when a small plane carrying them crashed and broke into pieces at Kotdanda hills near the Nepalese capital while returning from a sight-seeing trip around Mount Everest.
The aircraft crashed at an elevation of 9,000ft just behind Jomsom Mountain Resort Hotel near the airport while turning left diverting to Pokhara after the engine failure, according to Rescue Coordination Committee of the Civil Aviation Authority of Nepal (CAAN).
The 13 Indians killed in the crash were identified by the airport authorities as Mr K Mahanya, Mr S K Arora, Mr M Handa, Ms M Arora, Ms R Handa, Mr K O Arora, Ms T Sachdev, Ms G Sachdev, Mr Saniam Sudhar, Mr G Raman, Ms Latha Echambadi, Mr Kumar and Ms Kumar.
Two other people killed were Nepalese crew members and identified as pilot Prabhu Sharan Pathak and co-pilot JD Maharjan.
The bodies are being brought to Kathmandu from Jomsom.
The three Indians who survived the crash are Tirumala Kidambi Shrikanth (40) and his children Tirumala Kidambi Shrivaadhani (9-year-old daughter) and Tirumala Kidambi Shripad (6-year-old son).
Two Danes, who were among six people rescued from the crash site, were identified as R Andreas and T Emille. Nepalese air hostess Roshani Hayji was also among the survivors. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 14: India Inc is expected to give slightly lower hikes in salary as well as variable payouts this fiscal while the overall increment would be around 12 per cent, says a survey.
The lesser pay hike projection compared to about 13 per cent last fiscal comes against the backdrop of high inflation levels and global issues impacting domestic economic growth, it said.
The survey was conducted by Deloitte India, Human Capital Advisory Services (HCAS), part of global consultancy Deloitte.
According to the survey of 142 companies, average salary increases would be 12 per cent this fiscal while the variable payout would be 16 per cent during the same period.
Overall variable pay is calculated as a percentage of Cost to Company (CTC).
Deloitte in India’s Leader (Human Capital Advisory Services) Thiruvengadam P said this year, the increment figures are conservative compared to the previous fiscal.
“The overall median has dropped one percentage point to 12 per cent,” he said.
Manufacturing, infrastructure and real estate sector is projected to see the highest increment of as much as 15 per cent in 2012-13.
However, financial services sector is expected to have hikes of only about 10 per cent in the current financial year.
According to Thiruvengadam, domestic growth rate was impacted by RBI’s monetary policy tightening measures and geopolitical concerns.
“Nationally the effect was witnessed across all industries, as a result the spread of variable pay range has shown a considerable decrease as compared to 2011-12.
“Across all industries, the variable pay has reduced most for top management by 2.5 per cent points and the higher payout is expected to be at 30 per cent as compared to 41 per cent last year,” he said.
When it comes to attrition, pharmaceutical, healthcare and life sciences’ are expected to see the highest levels at 22 per cent.
“The overall attrition across industries is 13 per cent. Better pay and personal reasons have been rated as the key reasons for attrition industry-wide,” the survey said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 14: To meet the drinking water needs of people in Naxal-affected areas, the Government is planning to set up 10,000 solar based water systems in 78 districts which have been hit by Left Wing Extremism.
“We have just prepared a proposal for 10,000 solar based water systems which supply drinking water to communities in rural areas,” Rural Development minister Jairam Ramesh said while addressing a conference here.
Ramesh said that this ambitious project would cost Rs 540 crores.
“It is a very ambitious project of 10,000 solar based drinking water systems with a total cost of 540 crores which we are going to fund. We have the money, money is not the problem,” he said.
Ramesh said that this project marked the convergence of the twin aims of developing rural areas and promoting use of renewable energy.
“For the first time we have taken the programme and said that lets address this issue of renewable energy because there are villages and habitations which are not going to seek electricity in the near future because of a variety of reasons… For remoteness, forest areas and so on,” he said.
Later speaking to reporters, Ramesh said that 200 water systems which utilised German made ground water pumps and solar panels made in Pune, had already been installed in Naxal affected Gadchiroli District of Maharashtra.
“We are going to do it in all the 78 Naxal affected districts. We have already installed 200 such systems in Gadchiroli district,” Ramesh said.
He also said that there was need to carry out development in areas affected by Naxalism.
Ramesh was speaking at a conference which had been called to discuss “Towards greening Rural Development programmes in India.”
Ramesh said while the earlier five year plans sought either faster economic growth and later inclusive growth, now for the first time the five year plan talks about faster, inclusive and more sustainable economic growth.
He said there were people who think that “if you use the word sustainable, it means lower economic growth. But I am glad that the 12th Five year plan debunks that notion, we are now talking of faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth.”
Ramesh also said his ministry’s scheme, the Green India mission was meant to improve the quantity and quality of green cover.
“The quantity of our green cover is very, very poor.Forty percent of our land, officially classified as forest is open degraded forest,” he said.
Improving the Green cover was one area of convergence between rural development and sustainability, Ramesh said. The second area which is linked to rural development and sustainability is water use efficiency.
Rural Development and the use of non renewable sources of energy is the third area linked to sustainability, he said.
Noting that the budget of the Rural Development ministry was next in size only to the Defence ministry, he said what this expenditure would provide in the long run in terms of sustainability was an important and legitimate question. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, May 14: A journalist involved in Tehelka’s expose into fictitious arms deal today refused to depose before a court here as a witness saying the CBI has not reimbursed his travel and other daily expenses.
Mathew Samuel, who conducted the sting on former BJP President Bangaru Laxman and then Samata Party chief Jaya Jaitly and other government officials, said he would not depose in the case unless paid Rs 10,000 per day.
Mathew hails from Goa and holds the key to prosecution’s case against Hem Chand Pant and Narender Singh, erstwhile civilian officers in the Defence Ministry. He appeared before the court today after a bailable warrant was issued against him on an earlier date and said “it (the demand) has a history”.
“In the case against Bangaru Laxman and others, the CBI called me for 25 days. They said they will pay the air fare. I have a history. They have not paid even the Rs 200 daily expense,” Mathew told the Special CBI Judge Manoj Jain.
The judge said even though he felt that the “system does not pay adequate amount” to witnesses but the court is bound by law and cannot grant the expenses sought by him.
“After all why should anyone pay from his pocket? But there are rules and procedures that have to be followed,” the judge said.
“I’m bound by the law. Even if I want to pay you I can’t. Legally I can’t,” he said adding that at the most he can recommend the same to the Delhi High Court.
The CBI sought time from the court to consider the demand and the matter was posted for July 12 for recording of Mathew’s statement. (PTI)