Ramdev aide in fake degree glare

New Delhi, July 24 (PTI): The CBI today registered a case against yoga televangelist Ramdev’s aide Balkrishna for allegedly submitting a fake degree to get a passport.

A lookout notice has been issued against Balkrishna, a CBI officer said.

The decision to register the case was taken after the Sampurna Nand Sanskrit University denied ever having him on its rolls. Registrar Rajnish Shukla told the CBI that the enrolment number mentioned by Balkrishna in his degree did not match with the university records and indicated fudging of documents.

Land draft bill spells out public purpose

New Delhi, July 24: A meeting that worked on the draft bill to amend the land acquisition act has defined “project for public purpose”, a key term in the legislation.

“It refers to any project that benefits the public. This includes industry by private entities if it renders any benefit to the public,” said N.C. Saxena, a member of the National Advisory Council (NAC), who attended the meeting convened by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh.

Eye in Red sky

New Delhi, July 24: Starting this week, unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) will be used for the first time for surveillance over the country’s Maoist zones.

In October, hired and privately flown military-class helicopters will make their debut in anti-Maoist operations by ferrying troops and supplies.

Moo! Rs 27-lakh cow insurance scam spills out

Bhubaneswar, July 24: You’ve heard the term cash cow, but this one takes the moo.

A cow was insured for Rs 27 lakh and the government paid Rs 3.8 lakh as premium to an insurance firm in a scam that has led to the arrest of a senior manager of the company and an Orissa government official.

Fearing he too will be arrested, another employee has gone into hiding — all for a cow that doesn’t even exist.

5yrs on, cradle takes shape

Brambe (Ranchi), July 24: Five years after it was first proposed and one false start later, the Institute of Hotel Management, Catering Technology and Applied Nutrition at Brambe took a big step towards taking shape today with chief minister Arjun Munda laying the foundation stone, albeit for the second time. The prestigious institute will come up at a cost of Rs 20 crore, of which Rs 12 crore will be provided by the Centre and the rest by the state.

Get set, go... with sananda tv!

Three gutsy girls, two pairs of lovebirds and a kick-ass cop are waiting for you to tune in to Sananda tv this evening

Alpo Alpo Premer Galpo

Bitter-sweet love: She’s a carefree, spunky, no-nonsense girl raised in a loving family; he is Mr Moneybags but with a kind heart. Wait and watch how the sparks fly when Miki and Rohit cross paths.

“It’s basically Miki’s story and how despite the odds she resolves all problems and emerges a winner,” says producer Rangan Chakravarty.

Airs at: 8pm, Monday to Saturday

Sobinoy Nibedon

Chalk and cheese: What happens when a Marwari girl marries a Bong boy?

Moja and mayhem! Here’s Naina wanting to go for higher studies while her rich, conservative family wants her to settle down. And then there’s Joydeep, a bright but happy-go-lucky chap from a well-heeled Bengali family who has lost his heart to the pretty north Indian girl.

“Sobinoy Nibedon is a love story. The fun begins when Naina and Joydeep meet and the two cultures clash. But eventually both sides come to understand and value one another,” says creative director Soumik Chatterjee.

Airs at: 9pm, Monday to Saturday

Amar Naam Joyeeta

girl power: A gutsy, ambitious girl from a middle-class family, Joyeeta has her sights set on making it big in a man’s world armed with a degree in law.

“It’s about a girl whose dream is to live up to her family’s aspirations but she has a lot of hurdles to overcome before she can reach her goal,” says director Bijoy Jana.

airs at: 7.30pm, Monday to Saturday

Mrs Sinha Roy

Mrs boss: She’s a softie with a sweet smile in the outside world but hard-to-please and bossy at home. Her three sons and hubby are petrified of the volatile Mrs Sinha Roy. But when her youngest son marries a girl from the slums (in picture), Mrs Sinha Roy gets a taste of her own medicine.

“Here, we are dealing with the contradiction in human psychology. Mrs Sinha Roy (played by Laboni Sarkar) is a domineering matriarch at home but an altogether different personality when she is out saving distressed women as a social worker. Later on, it’s about how the young girl fights to survive in the hostile household and comes out a winner,” says director Partha Sen.

Airs at: 8.30pm, Monday to Saturday

Bindi

courage under fire: Village girl Bindi’s parents try to sell her off for cash, while city girl Rahi gets ready for her wedding day.

“The story starts from the point where the two girls come face to face under certain circumstances. It’s a fictionalised tale on trafficking,” says Snehasish Chakraborty, producer, writer and music composer of Bindi.

Airs at: 7pm, Monday to Saturday

Proloy Aasche

Daredevil: Gelled-back hair, dark glasses and smart formals — ditching his Bomkesh Bakshi garb, Abir Chatterjee will kick some serious butt as a tough-talking cop who’s also easy on the eye!

“Proloy Aasche is a wake-up call for people who are too scared to speak up against injustice.... We have shot it on a Red camera, not like a TV series, and we are doing DI (digital intermediate). So it’s like a film and it’s got the Raj Chakraborty signature,” says director Raj Chakraborty.

Airs at: 9.30pm, Monday to Friday

Bindi

courage under fire: Village girl Bindi’s parents try to sell her off for cash, while city girl Rahi gets ready for her wedding day.

“The story starts from the point where the two girls come face to face under certain circumstances. It’s a fictionalised tale on trafficking,” says Snehasish Chakraborty, producer, writer and music composer of Bindi.

Ring of fraud

Saheli Mitra checks out the plethora of scam messages hitting the inboxes of mobile phone subscribers and tells you how to avoid being duped

If you are a mobile phone subscriber, you may have received messages like these on your phone. They bring happy tidings — telling you that you have won a king’s ransom at some mysterious lottery you have never heard of or participated in. However, as many people have found out to their grief, such messages are nothing but skilful and elaborate scams — meant to make you poorer rather than richer.

Surabhi Sen, a Calcutta homemaker, fell victim to one such fantastic sms. When she responded to it, she was given a State Bank of India account number and asked to deposit a sum of Rs 15,000 as “transaction fee” for processing and remitting her prize money. Once she paid up, the scamsters took off with the money, and that was the last she had heard of her alleged winnings.

Eyes on growth cues in RBI policy

Mumbai, July 24: As RBI governor Duvvuri Subbarao prepares to table the apex bank’s first quarter review of the monetary policy on Tuesday, analysts are not so much concerned with another rate hike — rather they are placing more importance on the tone of the policy statement, with expectations that the RBI will take note of economic growth in its announcement.

The central bank has so far hiked the key repo rate 10 times since March last year to 7.50 per cent to rein in an obstinate inflation.

Europe’s dark side that feeds on fears

Berlin, July 24: The attacks in Oslo have riveted new attention on right-wing extremists not just in Norway but across Europe, where opposition to Muslim immigrants, globalisation, the power of the European Union and the drive towards multiculturalism has proven a potent political force and, in a few cases, a spur to violence.

No fracture, Gambhir is likely to bat

London: Be it with ball or bat, Stuart Broad just can’t have enough of Team India.

England’s bowling coach David Saker has called him The Enforcer, but he’s The Tormentor right now.

After Ishant Sharma had turned the Lord’s Test on its head, on the fourth morning (Sunday), Broad joined forces with centurion Matt Prior to wrest back the initiative.

TRIAL BY MEDIA

Television channels have substituted for poor governance — in investigation of crimes including corruption, in the hounding of criminals and politicians who may have committed crimes, in forcing impartial police investigation, in pushing for an impartial judicial process and speedy sentencing. This has mobilized public opinion and helped resolve a few investigations.

3 tiers back in hills, but what next

Chungthung, July 24: The Gorkha Janmukti Morcha is not sure how the three-tier panchayat system will be put in place in the hills despite its provisions in the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration.

Bimal Gurung’s outfit, the Morcha, is one of the three signatories to the memorandum of agreement that will set up the GTA for the Darjeeling hills.

Since the Constitution has no provision for setting up two zilla parishads in the same district, the Morcha is unsure about how the new system would be implemented in Darjeeling district where the Siliguri Mahakuma Parishad is equivalent to the zilla parishad. The rest of Darjeeling district, according to the constitutional amendment of 1992, has a two-tier panchayat system.

The Morcha’s Darjeeling MLA Trilok Dewan today told party workers at Chungthung: “One of the biggest achievement for the hill people in the agreement is the revival of the three-tier panchayat system.”

Councillor son wish costs seat

Patna, July 24: The desire to become a mom of a son has robbed a councillor of her seat in a state that was headed by a chief minister with nine children for 15 years.

Bihar State Election Commission disqualified Rehaana Khatun from holding the post of councillor of ward number 25 in Phulwarisharif for being mother of six children, with effect from July 15.

Threat finger at Trinamul

Sankrail, July 24: Trinamul Congress activists are allegedly threatening CPM supporters employed as para teachers and anganwadi workers in West Midnapore’s Sankrail, asking them to quit or stay away from work.

District CPM leaders claimed that some of the para teachers and anganwadi workers have been roughed up as well.

Deoband axe falls on moderate VC

 New Delhi, July 24: Ghulam Mohammed Vastanvi, the moderate maulana and vice-chancellor of the Dar-ul Uloom Deoband seminary, was sacked today although a panel probing his supposed pro-Narendra Modi comments reportedly gave him a clean chit.

The axe came down five months after Vastanvi’s comments on Gujarat triggered protests in the country’s oldest Islamic seminary. A three-member committee was inquiring into the matter and also probing who incited the students’ protests. Some suspect conservatives on the campus were behind the protests.

Bus ploughs into passengers Life lost, limbs at risk

A state-run bus ploughed into a crowd of commuters waiting for transport in north Calcutta on Sunday evening, crushing to death an elderly man and grievously injuring 12 more people, three of whom might need amputation. Driver Bikash Mondal was at the wheel of the Calcutta State Transport Corporation bus on the IC-21 route — Bagbazar to Garia — when the vehicle hit a van parked 50 metres north of the Shyambazar five-point crossing around 5.30pm and headed straight for the people standing just below the pavement.

Blood on China’s bullet train rush

Beijing, July 24: China sacked three senior railway officials today and called for an urgent review of its burgeoning high-speed train network after a collision left at least 35 people dead and over 200 injured.

The accident — the worst in the four-year history of China’s bullet train network — occurred when a train hurtling through the countryside near the eastern city of Wenzhou careening into a second train from Hangzhou that had stalled on the tracks in a thunderstorm. Two carriages were derailed and four were hurled off a bridge.

DMK cabinet seats stay empty

Coimbatore, July 24: The DMK has decided not to fill its two vacancies in the Union cabinet, a move being seen as M. Karunanidhi’s expression of displeasure at the Congress for its failure to help his daughter Kanimozhi get bail.

Karunanidhi told the media that the vacancies, caused by the resignations of A. Raja and Dayanidhi Maran, would not be filled as the DMK was unhappy at the attacks on it by local Congress leaders. 

NDFB sets up camps in Chin

Jorhat, July 24: The NDFB has set up camps in the Hakha area of Chin province in western Myanmar since September 2009. This was revealed during the interrogation of four NDFB militants who were arrested last week.

The four cadres were apprehended by the Assam Rifles from Namtola along the Assam-Nagaland border on Friday night. Myanmarese currency amounting to 1,000 kyat was recovered.

The militants, who were handed over to Assam Police yesterday, were produced in court today and remanded in three-day police custody.

Hepatitis incidence highest in N-E

Guwahati, July 24: The Indian Council for Medical Research (ICMR) has commissioned a study to determine the incidence of hepatitis in the Northeast, which is considered to be highest in the country.

The ICMR is the apex body of the Centre for formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research and is one of the oldest medical research bodies in the world.

Informers killed after kangaroo court trial

Ranchi, July 24: A Maoist kangaroo court branded six villagers police informers, shot dead two and relegated three to house arrest in Latehar last week. The sixth “accused” managed to escape after trial.

Sources said the rebels held court twice — on July 21 and yesterday — at Sarju forests, 20km from the district headquarters in Garu police station area, to punish the six who had apparently helped the police during Operation Parakram earlier this month.

Ah! A doze of democracy - Question Hour change allows Elders chance for siesta

New Delhi, July 24: Profound national questions kept many Rajya Sabha members sleepless through the afternoons during the budget session. Thanks to Vice-President Hamid Ansari, the torture is over.

No, the Rajya Sabha chairman did not need to solve all the nation’s problems; he merely switched Question Hour back from 3pm to 11am. Privately, many Elders are deeply grateful to Ansari for giving them back their siesta.

3 pillars raise bar for Presidency teachers

Sugata Bose

Calcutta, July 24: Teaching at Presidency University will be a “strenuous” job involving regular research and upgrade of skills, Sugata Bose, the chairman of the panel formed to help restore the 194-year-old institution to its former glory, said today.

“Teachers of the erstwhile Presidency College will have to prove their scholarship, teaching ability and commitment to serving the institution beyond the confines of a classroom” to retain their jobs in Presidency University, Bose told The Telegraph.

Consent of 80% needed to buy land

New Delhi, July 24: The written consent of at least 80 per cent of the landowners will be mandatory for acquisition of plots for industry, according to a new draft for amending the law.

The 80 per cent threshold, proposed at a meeting today, goes beyond the 70 per cent suggested by the Sonia Gandhi-headed National Advisory Council (NAC).

Sand dealer oils wheels of police

Burdwan, July 24: The senior-most police officer in Burdwan has been using a car belonging to a local sand dealer who wants to keep “good relations” with the cops — a cosy arrangement that reeks of cronyism.

Burdwan superintendent of police Humayun Kabir is being ferried in the Innova although two air-conditioned Scorpios have been hired and set aside for the officer. The hiring of non-commercial vehicles for officials is prohibited to ensure that favours are not sought and citizens are not arm-twisted by those in power.

Caffeine consumption linked to fertility problems

 Experts have always suggested cutting back on caffeine if you are trying to conceive or if you are pregnant, but recent studies show that caffeine reduces muscle activity in the Fallopian tubes that carry eggs from a woman's ovaries to her womb.
According to Sean Ward, professor of physiology and cell biology at the University of Nevada School of Medicine, drinking caffeinated drinks can reduce a woman's chance of becoming pregnant.

It was gruesome but necessary, says Norway attacker

Oslo, July 24 (IANS) Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old Norwegian who sprayed bullets at a youth camp killing 85 people and is also linked to a bombing in Oslo, has said his action was 'gruesome but necessary', said his lawyer.

Breivik Saturday confessed to killing at least 85 people on Utoya Island Friday evening. Breivik is also believed to be linked to the Oslo bombing, which left seven people dead.

ISI spied on Pakistani Diaspora inside US: Report

Washington: Months before the FBI arrested Kashmiri separatist leader Ghulam Nabi Fai, it had forced a Pakistani Consulate official in New York, who spied on Pakistanis living in the US in a systematic ISI campaign, to leave the country.

Mohammed Tasleem, a clandestine operative of the spy agency ISI, had been posing as an FBI agent to extract information from Pakistanis living in the US and was issuing threats to keep them from speaking openly about Pakistan's government, The New York Times reported.

Year’s fastest 100m by Bolt

Monaco: Usain Bolt overcame a tentative start to win his final 100 metres before the World Championships next month, clocking 9.88 seconds at the Monaco Diamond League meeting on Friday.

Bolt improved his personal best time this season by 0.03 seconds but was still well short of his world mark of 9.58 seconds.

Pole for Webber

Nuerburgring: Red Bull’s Mark Webber will start Sunday’s German Formula One Grand Prix on pole position with McLaren’s Lewis Hamilton alongside after a superb qualifying lap.

Champions Red Bull have now seized pole for the last 11 races, 10 of them this season, but their world champion Sebastian Vettel could only manage third spot on the grid at his home race. Ferrari’s Fernando Alonso, winner in Britain earlier this month, qualified fourth.

A life ban for the former AFC boss

London: Less than two months after attempting to become the most powerful man in world soccer, Mohamed Bin Hammam was banned from the sport for life on Saturday, completing a spectacular fall from grace.

The 62-year-old Qatari, found guilty by Fifa’s ethics committee of attempting to bribe delegates in the Caribbean to vote for him in the Fifa presidential election, has been left with his reputation in tatters and a 29-year career as an administrator over.

Harika is now GM

Mumbai: Dronavalli Harika followed the footsteps of her compatriot and fellow-Andhraite Koneru Humpy to earn a Grandmaster title following her fine display at the 1st Hangzhou Women's Grandmasters Tournament in China, where she finished third with 5.5 points.

Kevin should have been given out on 49: Boycott

Calcutta: Kevin Pietersen should have been back in the pavilion much before he struck his unbeaten double hundred but umpire Asad Rauf’s lack of conviction saved him in the ongoing first Test against India, says Geoffrey Boycott.

The former opener said Pietersen, who made unbeaten 202 in England’s 474 for 8 declared, should have been given out caught at leg slip when he was on 49 as Rauf had a clear view of the catch but it was referred to the third umpire.

Superior attack factor

London: Former England captain Mike Brearley has termed the home team “favourites” to win the four-Test series.

“As we speak, there’s a question mark over Zaheer Khan... Without him, your attack is ordinary... England’s is superior and, so, the favourites,” Brearley told The Telegraph.

Speaking at Lord’s, on Saturday afternoon, Brearley added: “India have the batting, but our line-up is also very good and we did see that in the first innings.”

CIL hires expert for report

Calcutta, July 23: Coal India is drawing up a sustainability report, which will constitute a part of its corporate social responsibility activity for which an annual investment of Rs 250 crore has been earmarked. To develop the report, Coal India is hiring a private consulting firm during this financial year. The report will include different initiatives that Coal India needs to take to improve business, while at the same time maintain the interests of various stakeholders and the environment.

Tweak in textile plan

Calcutta, July 23: The Bengal government will set up a committee to prepare a new textile policy for the state.

“I have given orders to my additional chief secretary (Anup Chandra) to set up a committee to consider the prospects of textile industry in the state. The committee that shall be declared soon will look after the textile policy of the state,” Bengal textile minister Manas Ranjan Bhunia said here today.

Obama bid to salvage debt deal

Washington, July 23: With a little more than a week remaining before the federal government risks defaulting on its debts, Congressional leaders and top aides worked on Saturday to assemble a proposal that would allow a badly divided Congress to increase the federal debt ceiling and avert a potentially crippling economic shock.

Judge’s Murdoch ties under glare

London, July 23: The resignation not announced today was that of Lord Justice Leveson, the judge appointed by David Cameron to conduct a fair and fearless inquiry into phone hacking and make recommendations on whether media barons like Rupert Murdoch should have their wings clipped.

Now it turns out Leveson attended two parties at the London home of Rupert Murdoch’s second daughter, Elisabeth, who is married to Matthew Freud, an influential PR man who offered his services free of charge to the judge with whom he had previously had a separate dinner in Oxford.

Terror lasted for over an hour

 Oslo, July 23 (AP): A gunman who opened fire on an island teeming with young people kept shooting for one and a half hours hours before surrendering to a Swat team, which arrived 40 minutes after they were called, police said today.

Survivors of the shooting spree have described hiding and fleeing into the water to escape the gunman, but a police briefing today detailed for the first time how long the terror lasted — and how long victims waited for help.

‘He first shot people on the island... afterwards he started shooting people in the water’

Sundvollen (Norway), July 23 (AP): The man in the police uniform shouted for the campers to come closer. When they did, he killed them. The gunman who killed at least 80 people at an island youth camp northwest of Oslo used his disguise to lure in his victims, then shot them twice to make sure they were dead, survivors said in the village of Sundvollen, where they were taken after the massacre. “I saw many dead people,” said 15-year old Elise, whose father, Vidar Myhre, didn’t want her to disclose her last name. She just feet away from the gunman when he opened fire in the camp on Utoya island.

Trinamul eyes last Left den Tripura

Calcutta, July 23: Mamata Banerjee is trying to breach the Left’s last bastion, Tripura, by launching a “sustained anti-Left campaign” with an eye on the 2013 Assembly elections.

The CPM-led Left Front has been in power in the northeastern state since 1993, winning four elections in a row. The Trinamul Congress is yet to open its account in the 60-member Assembly.

Minibus, taxi fare hike ruled out

Calcutta, July 23: A fare hike for minibuses and taxis was ruled out for the time being today after a section of transport operators that had gone on strike on July 14 said it would “give the new government more time” to consider its demands.

Private bus operators have not yet demanded a fare hike following an upward revision of the price of diesel on June 25. But several minibus and taxi operators had been demanding higher fares since June 26. Two of the three major taxi unions and the main minibus union had taken part in the July 14 strike.

Youth saves train from track crack

Bappa Biswas points out the crack in the tracks in Hooghly. July 23: A youth waved red rags and alerted the driver of an express train about a six-inch crack on the tracks in Hooghly, averting a possible accident. The Howrah-bound Viswabharati Express stopped after the engine and two bogies passed over the crack, spotted 200 metres from Adisaptagram station in the Bandel-Burdwan section. The train was stranded for about an hour from 8.50am as railway officials repaired the tracks. The Mayurakshi Express and several local trains were also held up, inconveniencing office-bound passengers.

Baby survives night in ditch

The baby at the Purulia hospital. (Amit Datta)

 July 23: A newborn girl who had been left in a ditch survived an entire night in neck-deep cold water and battled several diseases, including septicaemia, after being rescued to live another day.

The baby was found in a ditch in Purulia’s Burrabazar by villagers on the morning of June 30 and was admitted to Deben Mahato Sadar Hospital. She battled septicaemia, hypothermia (low body temperature), severe low birth weight and fever for three weeks and is now fit to be discharged.

Airport ‘order’ plea

Calcutta, July 23: Calcutta airport authorities today requested the state government to ensure law and order, a day after six senior officials were gheraoed for six hours by a Trinamul Congress-backed staff union.

Airport director B.P. Sharma met home secretary G.D. Gautama and briefed him about yesterday’s incident. “We have also written to the North 24-Parganas’ administration requesting it to take steps to ensure law and order at the airport,” a senior airport official said.

Kid strangled in planned murder for cash

Munsifdanga (Purulia), July 23: The Purulia girl whose body was found in her neighbour’s bag yesterday had been strangled by the accused couple who had planned to later pose as kidnappers and extort money from her parents, police said. Malay and Piya Ghosh had confined Tamalika Deogharia, six, in their Munsifdanga house after she went there on Thursday afternoon, Piya is supposed to have told the police during interrogation. Piya said her family needed money as Malay had lost his job in a finance company last year on the charge of stealing Rs 3.7 lakh. Piya, who used to work in the same company, had left the job in November “out of shame for her husband’s act”, the police said. While they were working, they had taken a loan from the company to buy a Maruti Alto car.

Ask the cop

On the afternoon of July 21, when Mamata Banerjee spoke to the city, an amateur photographer was perched on a traffic police pedestal at the Esplanade crossing to click the homebound rallyists. It was a vantage point for the shutterbug, and also offered her shelter from the shower.

But within minutes, she found some of her subjects striding purposefully towards her. No, they weren’t objecting to being photographed.

Importance of studying folly

 What’s common to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the Japanese bombing of Pearl Harbour and the vervet monkey? They are all case studies in folly, according to Tata Sons director R. Gopalakrishnan.

Gopalakrishnan, invited by the Bengal Chamber of Commerce and Industry, along with the KKN Group, The Telegraph and Seagrams, was speaking on “A Brief History of Folly, Why Smart People Continue to Make Stupid Mistakes” to a gathering at the Tollygunge Club.

The lecture, part of the chamber’s Think series, was peppered with stories and anecdotes. Gopalakrishnan, set out to talk about human follies “not because of Dominique Strauss-Kahn but because individuals, generally and as part of a system, institution, government or society, display aberrant behaviour”.

Chipping in for backstage artiste

Khaled Chowdhury

Khaled Chowdhury is the pioneer of modern set design in Bengali theatre, the first person to think of using the structure of the set, lines and colours to build a subtext to help communicate the various layers of a script.

An idealist to the core, Khaled Chowdhury, now in his early nineties, has never sought publicity and has refused financial assistance from many sources. His theatre friends recently got together and unknown to him, four groups planned a festival at the Madhusudan Mancha from July 28-31.

Once river-fed, now cesspool

(Top) Hastings tank now (Bishwarup Dutta) and in 1984

Many tanks have vanished without trace from the face of Calcutta over the years. One such was the tank situated opposite Esplanade Mansion with Raj Bhavan in front. It was filled up to build Curzon Park. An ancient tank that had been drained of water some years ago, and whose cemented bowl has turned into a breeding ground of mosquitoes is located at Hastings on the south-west of Calcutta.

Hastings tank amidst Leonard Square was a river-fed waterbody, which maintained its level of seepage and evaporation loss with the ebb and flow of the tide of the Hooghly. 

Of tokens & tokenism

Nearly 4,000 Calcuttans now have something in common: all of them possess a round, black disc fitted with a microchip. What binds these citizens are the ‘tokens’ introduced by the Metro Railway. In more than a token gesture of appreciation, commuters pocketed 4,000 of the 3.5 lakh tokens that are supposedly in circulation. That there are 4,000 kleptomaniacs prowling Calcutta’s underground railway network is improbable. Some have attributed the disappearance of tokens to enterprising Bengali carrom addicts replacing ghuntis (carrom discs) with the new devices. 

Delhi revives link with Suu Kyi

New Delhi, July 23: India’s foreign secretary Nirupama Rao met Aung San Suu Kyi in the first high-level contact with the Myanmarese pro-democracy leader in years, government sources confirmed today.

Rao, who was in Yangon on June 22 as part of foreign minister S.M. Krishna’s delegation, met Suu Kyi in her villa a day after her birthday and “had a long conversation free of tension”, the sources said.

Since presenting Suu Kyi with the Jawaharlal Nehru Award for International Understanding in 1992, New Delhi has moved away from being her solid political backer to a low-key but studied engagement with Myanmar’s junta. For much of the time in the intervening years, Suu Kyi was under house arrest before being freed in November last year.

Police door opens for rebel vigilantes

Raipur, July 23: The Chhattisgarh government has decided to ease recruitment rules for constables in Bastar in order to absorb special police officers, who are part of a counter-Maoist vigilante force the Supreme Court has forbidden from operating.

On July 5, the apex court barred the Raman Singh government from arming tribals to fight the Maoists and pulled up the Centre for looking the other way as the state raised a private militia.

Dog bites? Blame Valley forces - PIL against canines

Srinagar, July 23: If the Valley is going to the dogs, blame it on the men in uniform.

Residents of Kashmir say one reason behind the “alarming increase” in the number of stray dogs is security forces who “nurture” them “around their camps” by giving them left-over food.

According to Salim Khan, a member of a rabies-control body, the dog population in Srinagar was estimated to be between 80,000 and 1 lakh. “The dog to human ratio in the city is 1:14…” he said, “quite high compared with other cities in India.”

Booster dose for Rahul team

New Delhi, July 23: Regular training camps, padyatras, internal platforms to showcase performance and free and fair elections under Rahul Gandhi’s watch are changing the Youth Congress, seen till recently as a discredited front organisation.

An anti-drug campaign of the Youth Congress, which included a 45-day march to spread awareness last November, a hunger strike in March and raids on drug dens across the state, is being rated a success. Before the drive started, office-bearers attended a two-day workshop on the issue in Amritsar.

Call for talk minus cuffs - Free top leaders to facilitate dialogue, say jailed Maoists

Chhatradhar Mahato

Calcutta, July 23: Jailed Maoists and People’s Committee Against Police Atrocities chief Chhatradhar Mahato have told the government’s interlocutors they welcome Mamata Banerjee’s talks offer but want top leaders released to facilitate the dialogue.

Mamata’s known stand is that top Maoist or PCPA leaders would not be released from prison till she receives a “positive response” to her appeal for an end to violence in Jungle Mahal and to her talks offer.

PC terror jab at Pak

New Delhi, July 23: Governments cannot escape responsibility by pointing to “non-state actors” in the case of terrorist attacks, P. Chidambaram said today, dealing a jab at Pakistan days before the foreign ministers of both countries are scheduled to meet here.

“If I may speak frankly, let me say that no state and no government can escape responsibility by pointing to non-state actors,” Chidambaram told a Saarc home ministers’ meeting in Thimphu.

Fai not to fog Pak talks

New Delhi, July 23: The arrest of alleged Kashmiri militant Ghulam Nabi Fai in the US and the investigation into his links will figure in talks between the Indian and Pakistani foreign ministers next week.

But government sources in New Delhi believe that the unearthing of Fai’s connections to the Pakistan government, whose funds he was allegedly using, may not impact the talks between S.M. Krishna and Hina Rabbani Khar.

Karuna plays blame game

Karunanidhi

Coimbatore, July 23: DMK chief M. Karunanidhi today sought to spread the blame for his party’s recent election defeat, amid muted criticism that his family’s grip on the organisation and the government was responsible for the debacle.

“Rather than looking for reasons for the defeat, we must accept that all of us are equally to blame for the defeat,” he told the party’s executive committee that met here, a day ahead of the general council.

Both the meetings are stock-taking exercises to analyse the poll debacle that saw the DMK slip to third place in the Assembly.

BJP with him, Yeddy drops Delhi trip

Yeddyurappa

New Delhi/ Bangalore, July 23: The BJP today signalled full support to B.S. Yeddyurappa, prompting the Karnataka chief minister to drop his plans of coming to Delhi and instead head straight to Bangalore tomorrow from Mauritius where he is holidaying.

Yeddyurappa is likely to hold a news conference on Monday to clarify his position on Lokayukta Santosh Hegde’s soon-to-be-released report on illegal mining that indicts the chief minister and four of his cabinet colleagues, sources said.

Ban orders extended for a week

The Kharsawan project site

Jamshedpur, July 23: Prohibitory orders will continue to be in force at the project site of Corporate Ispat and Alloy Limited in Kharsawan, indicating the local administration’s unease about allowing the Abhijeet Group subsidiary to resume work on their proposed steel plant.

At a meeting today to review the decision to impose Section 144 in the area after the July 18 attack on company staff, Seraikela-Kharsawan deputy commissioner A.K. Mishra decided to extend the ban orders till July 29.