DUMKA, JHARKHAND, Apr 29: Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today asked Maoists to drop guns and join the mainstream saying there is no place for violence in the land of Mahatma Gandhi and Gautam Buddha.
“Doors are open for any (extremist) outfit willing to join the democratic process by contesting elections as there is no place for violence in the land of Buddha and Gandhiji”, Ramesh said at Dumka district’s Dhaka village.
Out of the total 78 Maoist-affected districts in the country 17 were in Jharkhand and the menace of terrorism could be tackled through rapid progressive work, said Ramesh, who visited sericulture breeding centres run by women self-help groups.
All round development work would help tribals in Jharkhand, where 10 lakh families whose land were acquired over the years were still to be rehabilitated.
Pitching for 75 per cent reservation for women in tribal communities in different fields to speed up developmental programmes, the union minister said, efforts should be made to enable 80 per cent profit to women SHGs involved in sericulture business.
“Now they get only 40 per cent profit (on silk production) due to existence of middle men. The Central Silk Board and state governments should ensure 80 per cent profit to the women silk SHGs”, he said.
A total 65,000 families are involved in sericulture in Jharkhand, out of which 10,000 are from Dumka district alone, he added. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: A parliamentary panel has expressed doubts on whether the DGCA had taken any step to prevent the “sudden surge” in air fares and asked the aviation regulator to evolve measures to prevent flyers from being “harassed”.
Observing that the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) was already empowered to check airlines from indulging in excessive or predatory pricing, the Committee on Estimates said it had “doubts about DGCA taking any cautionary step on these lines”.
It also pointed out that while visiting the various airline websites, “it is found that very few scheduled airlines are following the directive” issued by DGCA to bring about transparency in published air fares.
“The Committee would like to know as to what perceptible difference has been achieved in the field of air fare regulation by the government in recent months,” the report said.
Had the regulator taken any steps in this regard, excessive air tariffs which had earlier risen exorbitantly in December 2010 “would not have happened,” the Committee said in its report presented in Parliament last week.
Acknowledging that the government did not regulate air fares which were determined by the market, it emphasised “the need to ensure that air fares are not hiked in a sudden and unreasonable manner”.
Pointing out that the DGCA had set up a Tariff Analysis Unit to monitor air fares on a regular basis, the Committee said it was “dissatisfied with the current state of affairs despite several powers already available to the government”.
The parliamentary panel asked the DGCA and the Civil Aviation Economic Regulatory Council (CAERC) to monitor the air fare graph “with clarity”, find out measures to ensure proper compliance of the directives issued to the airlines and “prevent harassment of the consumers”.
It said it had observed that the ten orders passed by the CAERC in the past one year related only to the User Development Fee and fuel charges and not air fares.
“As the DGCA has reportedly set up a Working Group to protect consumer interests in 2010, the Committee would only hope that the two regulatory set-ups work in sync so that their respective recommendations complement each other.”
The panel also wanted to be apprised of any “concrete proposals” by the CAERC in the last one year on air fares.
Since 2009 when DGCA strengthened the provisions under the 1937 Aircraft Rules, the aviation regulator has been directing all Indian carriers regularly to show route-wise and date-wise airfares on their websites and ensure transparency so that flyers do not feel cheated by high ticket prices.
The airlines have been asked to upload the route-wise tariff across its network in various fare categories commensurate with date of purchase on their respective websites, apart from giving details of fees, taxes and other charges.
Under these directives the airlines would have to not only provide details of route-wise fares but also detail them for each ‘fare bucket’.
Aircraft seats are grouped into different categories, each at a distinct price. These categories are referred to as ‘fare buckets’. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: Large-scale encroachment of public land, especially by religious structures, has drawn the ire of the Public Accounts Committee which wants government to not only recover the land but also punish officers who turned a blind eye to unauthorised constructions.
In its latest report on the functioning of the Land and Development Office (L&DO) which falls under the Urban Development (UD) Ministry, the PAC led by Chairman Murli Manohar Joshi has noted that unauthorised religious structures existed on prime land across the capital.
“The Committee find that there are 15 unauthorised religious structures existing in different parts of Delhi on the land under the control of L&DO,” the PAC said in its report.
The report added that 91 more religious structures stood on government land under New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
More than a hundred temples, mosques and churches in posh areas like Khan Market, Lodhi Road, Connaught Place, India Gate, Chanakyapuri, Bengali Market and Barakhamba Lane are listed as encroachers in L&DO records, which were provided to the Committee.
The PAC observed that often land under the control of L&DO was managed by agencies like CPWD, DDA, MCD and NDMC and all the Urban Development Ministry did was to issue guidelines asking them to remove encroachments.
“The Committee believe that mere issuance of guidelines will not deter the encroachers who seem to take the weak inspection system for granted,” the PAC said.
The Parliamentary Committee was also strictly against letting the officials who allowed encroachment go scot free.
“Responsibility (should) also be fixed against officers who turn a blind eye to such unauthorised constructions being dereliction of duty,” the panel said in its report.
The Parliamentary Accounts Committee also criticised the Land and Development Office for non-maintenance of various basic records like the Ground Rent Register, the Squatter Register and the Register of Damages of the last 40 years.
The PAC also stressed that the L&DO should maintain consolidated records at one place both in the electronic and manual formats instead of relying of scatter individual files to avoid possibility of misuse or fraud.
The Committee also instructed the Urban Development Ministry to ensure that government properties are regularly inspected to check encroachments and also unauthorised constructions.
The PAC in its report also noted that the government receipts on account of ground rent were abysmally low. It said that this was primarily due to a formula for enhancement of ground rent for leases which was evolved in 1984.
In its report, the PAC asked the Urban Development Ministry as to why it had not approached the Cabinet to increase the rent rules and has also asked it to do so now.
The PAC in its report also observed that despite a Delhi High Court order, there was a shortfall in the number of poor patients being treated by hospitals which were being allotted land at concessional rates.
It recommended that the Urban Development Ministry should warn the defaulting hospitals to mend their ways within a specific period failing which stringent action would be taken against them. (PTI)

JALANDHAR, Apr 29: Pitching for radical reforms in the country’s education sector, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal has said the Centre is making all out efforts in this regard and by 2020 it aims to increase enrolment in higher education by around two-and-a-half times.
“Government aims to increase the number of students going to colleges by as much as two-and-a-half times by 2020,” Sibal said at a function here.
“We will need as many as 800-900 more colleges for the purpose. The number of seats in over 40,000 colleges will also have to be doubled,” he said.
Asserting that Government was taking all steps in this regard, Sibal was of the view that the education sector calls for “big reforms” and various legislations are already under the consideration of the Parliament.
Sibal also expressed deep concern over non-conversion of enrolments in schools to those in colleges and universities in the same ratio.
“At present, around 22 crore students go to school out of which, only 70 lakh students finally turn up for higher education, this gap needs to be bridged soon,” Sibal said.
Accusing State Governments of not coordinating with the Centre while giving nods to private varsities, Sibal the Government “does not even know” when the bills are passed in the Assemblies and when these universities start functioning.
“At times, its found that what these universities have in the name of infrastructure is just a set of two rooms. Owners don’t even know the basics of education. There lies the problem and states need to put a cap on it,” Sibal said.
Sibal further said that the structure of school education is also being revamped and by 2020, the Government hopes to completely overcome the problem of drop-outs.
He also called for active participation by the private sector in a bid to revamp the educational structure, noting that Government alone “can not do this.” (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: In order to weed out the problem of fake PAN cards and to ensure an accurate biometric data, the government has initiated a mammoth project to bring together both the Aadhar and the PAN databases.
The Nandan Nilekani-led Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) issues the Aadhar number which is now being synchronised with the Permanent Account Number database maintained by the IT Department.
The Finance Ministry, which had first mooted the proposal of generating and issuing biometric PAN in 2006, had kept the decision pending for sometime as it was felt that both the agencies (UIDAI and IT) would be “duplicating the effort” to reach a common goal—biometrics-based identity.
“It has been decided to integrate both the Aadhar and the PAN database which will help the agencies to maintain a correct database for ensuring two things.
“While the Aadhar will ensure effective disbursal of Government schemes to citizens, the biometric PAN card database will help stop the forgery of PAN cards which begets economic crimes,” a senior Finance Ministry official said.
The Finance Ministry, under the then Finance Minister P Chidambaram in 2006, had proposed that the biometric PAN cards would have the IT assesses’ fingerprints (two from each hand) and the face.
This will now be achieved by collating the Aadhar database with that of the PAN.
The entire effort to have a biometric PAN card was to avoid duplication and stop fraudulent practices by tax evaders and anti-nationals and now with the delivery of the UID number it has achieved the same purpose, the official added.
The IT department, in a number of cases, has uncovered several individuals possessing multiple PAN cards or forging the details to evade taxes and create ‘benami’ properties.
According to a latest data of the IT department (till November, 2011), a total of 13,74,03,213 PANs are valid at present.
The PAN card-Aadhar card, according to the official, is being developed as a “national identifier” document by the government.
It is being integrated with other official databases for ensuring implementation of schemes and creating an effective enforcement tool against financial offences like tax evasion and money laundering.
While PAN is a 10-digit alphanumeric number allotted by the IT department to taxpayers, biometrics is a biological method to identify physical features of an individual.
A 2010-11 CAG report on direct taxes had earlier revealed that 958 lakh (95.8 million) PANs were issued up to March 2010 but I-T returns filed in the corresponding period were only 340.9 lakh (34.09 million).
“The CAG had said that the gap between PAN holders and the number of returns filed was 617.1 lakh (61.7 million) but once the biometrics is available we will be able to weed out possibly all such fake PANs,” the official said. (PTI)

NEW DELHI, Apr 29: President Pratibha Patil plans to write her autobiography after she retires in July.
India’s first woman president will be completing 50 years in public life this year and is contemplating to tell her story in a book, Rashtrapati Bhawan sources said.
In 1962, young Patil had become for the first time a Congress MLA from Jalgaon city constituency of Jalgaon district of Maharashtra.
After her speech at a Kshatriya Mahasabha convention earlier at Chalisgaon, she was noticed by the then Maharashtra Chief Minister Y B Chavan who was quick to give her the Congress ticket in the Assembly polls.
Subsequently, she was continuously elected four times as MLA from the Edlabad (Muktai Nagar) constituency till 1985.
Thereafter, she served as a MP in the Rajya Sabha from 1985 to 1990 and was later elected as a Member of Parliament to the 10th Lok Sabha in the 1991 General Elections from the Amravati constituency.
She enjoys the unique distinction of not having lost a single election she contested.
While in college, she took active part in sports, excelled in table tennis and won several shields at various Inter-collegiate tournaments.
Even as an MLA, she pursued her studies as a law student at the Government Law College, Mumbai. (PTI)

KOLKATA, Apr 29: Former Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmood Kasuri, who is now heading a task force on Kashmir constituted by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), today said there can be no “perfect” solution to the Kashmir issue which can be acceptable to all.
“There can never be a solution which will be acceptable to 100 per cent of the people in Kashmir and in Pakistan. There is never going to be a perfect solution”, Kasuri said at a discussion on Indo-Pak relations here.
Recalling that peace talks between the then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had made significant progress, he said solutions can be found only by statesmen and not politicians.
“Politicians are always thinking about the next elections”, he said, adding that war is no longer an option between the two neighbouring nations.
“The only way forward for us is to remove misunderstandings and have an open communication. That is the only way forward”, Kasuri said.
Having served as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan from 2002 to 2007, he has now joined cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan’s PTI and is heading the party’s task force on highlighting the Kashmir dispute.
Stressing on the role of people to people contact between the two nations, he pointed out that there are small but strong lobbies on both sides of the border who try to create differences.
On the current missile race between India and Pakistan, the politician said even brothers fight sometimes.
“But life goes on. Maybe the competition will decrease later on”, he said while urging the leadership of the two nations to consider public opinion while taking any decision.
Kasuri recalled that both Gandhi and Jinnah had visions of friendly India-Pakistan relationships just the way the USA and Canada have.
“But because of some bitter experiences during partition and the issue of Kashmir, that vision could not be fulfilled”, he said.
Advising politicians of both the countries to stick to their stand even when they go into the opposition, he claimed that he has never changed his stand.
On the issue of terrorism, he said that the biggest victim of the menace has been Pakistan. (PTI)