Cauvery panel finds T.N. demand for water not feasible

The committee agrees for decisions by consensus

The Cauvery Supervisory Committee that met here on Wednesday did not find “feasible” the demand of the Tamil Nadu government for directions to Karnataka for release of Cauvery waters as per the award of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal.

 The panel, chaired by Union Water Resources Secretary S.K. Sarkar, agreed to the suggestion of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to modify its Rules of Business to decide that decisions shall ordinarily be taken by consensus. If no consensus is reached, then the decision may be left to the Chairperson. Noting that the situation was “very grim” for both the basin States as the storage levels in their respective reservoirs were deficient, the committee decided to review the position in its next meeting slated to be held in the first week of July.

 The meeting observed that the southwest monsoon had arrived on time in Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu and has so far been in excess of normal in the first 10 days of June. It is expected to pick up in due course.

 “Looking into the data such as deficit in inflows and very low storages in the reservoirs in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the request of Tamil Nadu for release of water by Karnataka was considered and found not feasible as of now. However, the position will be reviewed in the next meeting proposed to be held in the first week of July 2013,” said the six-page order signed by Mr. Sarkar.

 The live storage in Karnataka reservoirs on June 10 was 3.716 tmcft, while it was 3.58 tmcft in Mettur dam as against 15.8 tmcft and 41.96 tmcft respectively in the previous year on the same date.

 The outflow from Karnataka reservoirs is 0.83 tmcft and drawals, including evaporation, is 0.04 tmcft, while outflow at Mettur is 0.49 tmcft. “It is evident from the data that the situation in both Karnataka and Mettur (Tamil Nadu) is very grim,” the order said. Both Tamil Nadu and Karnataka raised objections to certain provisions in the Rules of Business, particularly the clauses pertaining to quorum and decision by majority vote. While Tamil Nadu sought early constitution of the Cauvery Management Board, Karnataka wanted that the panel should not adopt the guidelines of the Cauvery Management Board (as prescribed in the final award). The Supervisory Committee has been formed on the directions of the Supreme Court. Karnataka also suggested that water account be done at the end of December instead of from June to May. Besides, Tamil Nadu that sought 24 hours average water flows at Biligundlu for kuruvai crop and other needs.

 Panel takes note of poor storage levels in the two States

 It will review the position in the next meeting in July

Source : The Hindu

Image : Representation Only

CBI files fresh FIR in coal scam, books Naveen Jindal, ex-MoS coal for cheating, graft

The agency team carried out coordinated searches at the 6-Prithviraj Road residence of Jindal and offices of his firms in Bikaji Cama place.

In a major embarrassment to the Congress, its MP Naveen Jindal and former Minister of State for Coal Dasari Narayan Rao have been accused of alleged cheating and graft by CBI in its fresh FIR in the coal scam.

After registering the 12th FIR in coal block allocation scam probe, CBI sources said the agency today carried out searches at 15 locations including residence and offices of Jindal in the national capital and Rao in Hyderabad.

The agency team carried out coordinated searches at the 6-Prithviraj Road residence of Jindal and offices of his firms in Bikaji Cama place.

Besides Jindal and Rao, CBI has also booked companies Jindal Steel and Power Limited and Gagan Sponge which were allotted Amarkonda Murgadangal coal block in Birbhum, Jharkhand in the year 2008.

The agency also booked Jindal’s companies–Jindal Realty and ND Exim and Rao’s company Saubhagya Media.

The agency has accused Jindal, Rao and the companies of alleged criminal conspiracy, cheating and relevant provisions of the Prevention of Corruption Act.

Rao, a former Congress Rajya Sabha MP, held position of Minister of state for Coal between 2004-06 and between 2006 and 2008. He has already been quizzed by the agency in connection with the probe in coal block allocation scam.

Reacting to the development, Head of External Affairs, Jindal Steel and Power Limited, Manu Kapoor said, “JSPL, as a law abiding company, is governed by a strong ethical code of conduct. This is an ongoing CBI investigation into coal block allocation. At this stage of investigation, JSPL is committed to fully cooperate with CBI.”

BJP Spokesperson Prakash Javdekar termed the action of agency too little too later and demanded that action should not be limited to searches alone. 

PTI

Exhibition on Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s life at BJP’s MP executive meet

The exhibition also displays photographs of Vajpayee addressing in his trademark style which remained his forte till he was restricted because of poor health.

An exhibition on the life and achievements of BJP‘s veteran leader, former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, has been put up at the venue of the party’s three-day state executive meet which began in Gwalior on Thursday.

Though the 88-year-old leader’s frail health has restricted him from attending the meet at his birthplace here, his presence has been ensured by way of the exhibition titled ‘Atal Bihari Vajapyeeji ke Vyaktitva ki Chitramay Pradarshini’.

The leader’s birth place ‘Krishna Kripa’ here is now converted into a library in the memory of his parents Krishna Devi and Krishna Bihari Vajpayee.

The exhibition highlights Vajpayee’s achievements right from his formative years and is a tell tale of BJP’s political success – from just two seats in 1984 to the party’s coming to power at the Centre.

“The exhibition has a collection of Atalji’s rare photographs collected by ‘Atal Samagra’, to showcase the achievements of the poet-turned-politician for inspiring younger generation,” BJP investor cell’s co-convenor, Shailendra Sharma said.

It also showcases Vajapayee’s political journey from Jansangh to taking oath as Foreign Minister and then as the Prime Minister, first for a short stint of 13 days, 13 months and later for the full five-year-term.

The exhibition also displays photographs of Vajpayee addressing in his trademark style which remained his forte till he was restricted because of poor health.

On display are also his photographs with former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, Pakistan’s ex-President General Zia-ul-Haq, former US President Bill Clinton and at the Pokhran nuclear test site.

There are also photographs of Vajpayee’s bus diplomacy and peace initiatives during Nawaz Sharif‘s government in Pakistan.

Going through the exhibition, Madhya Pradesh Medical Education Minister Anoop Mishra, who is the nephew of Vajpayee, turned nostalgic when he identified his mother in a rare family photograph.

Though BJP’s senior leader and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi‘s image was conspicuously missing from the posters and banners that dotted the city, the exhibition showcased at least two of Modi’s photographs with Vajpayee, one in Lucknow and the other playing Holi with him.

Vajpayee had advised Modi to follow the path of ‘Raj-dharma’ in the aftermath of the 2002 Godhra riots.

Justifying the exclusion of Modi from the posters and banners, state BJP’s media in-charge Dr Hitesh Bajpai said, “Only photographs of those leaders are displayed who are attending the three-day meeting in different sessions.”

BJP’s national vice president and former MP Chief Minister Uma Bharti, who has not been invited by the party to attend the state executive meeting, has found a place in the exhibition which displays her 2003 victory in Madhya Pradesh, ousting Congress government led by then Chief Minister Digvijay Singh.

The exhibition also showcases Vajpayee’s photograph with late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia, whose family ruled Gwalior for ages.

The exhibition also puts up portraits of Jansangh-BJP’s formative years under the leadership of its founders, Pandit Deendayal Upadhyaya and Dr Shyama Prasad Mukherjee.

Senior party leaders, including BJP President Rajnath Singh, senior leader LK Advani, Leader of Opposition in Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj, and her counterpart in the Rajya Sabha Arun Jaitley, state Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, among others, are taking part in the meet.

The meeting is crucial for the saffron party in view of the Assembly elections scheduled in Madhya Pradesh by year-end. 

Labour Day 2013: Google builds a Doodle for May Day.. – #GoogleDoodle

Google is saluting the workers of the world with a building doodle on the occasion of Labour Day 2013. The doodle features the Google logo in the shape of a building with several workers on their job.

The doodle features an IT professional on her computer, a gardener watering a tree, a painter giving the letter ‘O’ a paint job and a plumber fixing a leak around the letter ‘E’.

There is also a helicopter hovering above the second ‘G’ and a satellite dish, indicative of modern-day communication, perched on the ‘E’.

Labour Day has its origins in the labour union movement, especially the eight-hour day movement, which urged eight hours for work, eight hours for recreation, and eight hours for rest. Labour Day is an annual holiday to mark the celebration of the economic and social achievements of workers. It generally sees organised street demonstrations and marches by labourers and their unions, on this day.

The Labour Day public holiday is fixed by the state and territory governments, and so it varies considerably.

In India, Labour Day is celebrated on May 1 every year. It is an official public holiday. The first May Day celebration in India took place in Madras by the Labour Kisan Party of Hindustan on May 1, 1923

May 1 is a national holiday in more than 80 countries including Bolivia, India, Chile, Peru, Mexico, Uruguay, Bahrain, Bangladesh, China, Israel, Philippines, Nepal and Pakistan. It is also celebrated unofficially in various other countries.

In the Australian Capital Territory, New South Wales and South Australia, it is celebrated on the first Monday in October. In Canada, Labour Day is celebrated on the first Monday in September.

Though Google had a Labour Day doodle in 2012 it was not posted on the Google India home page.

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Police probe threat to India’s richest man

 

Mukesh Ambani at the India Economic Summit 2007 (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

 

Indian police are probing a threatening letter sent by militant Islamists to India’s richest man, Mukesh Ambani, for supporting a nationalist politician, police and reports said on Thursday.

 

The Mumbai Mirror said Indian Mujahideen had threatened to harm the head of the Reliance Industries group for backing Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi who is expected to make a bid to become premier in polls next year.

 

Reliance is a major investor in Gujarat and Ambani hailed Modi as a leader with a “grand vision” as well as calling him a “brother” at a major business conference in Gujarat in December.

 

The letter, delivered to a Reliance office in Mumbai, also accused Ambani of grabbing land belonging to a state-run statutory body to build his 27-storey residence in the city, believed to be the world’s most expensive private home, according to the newspaper.

 

Police confirmed they were investigating the letter, without giving details of its contents.

 

“We got the letter yesterday and we’re verifying all the facts and an inquiry is going on,” Mumbai police spokesman Satyanarayan Choudhary told AFP.

 

Indian Mujahideen has been blamed for several recent deadly attacks in India, including the recent twin attacks in southern city of Hyderabad, which killed 16 people.

 

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Petrol price cut by Rs 2 per litre, excluding VAT

The cut in petrol price follows two rounds of hike in rates since February

Petrol price was on Friday cut by Rs 2 per litre with effect from midnight tonight, the steepest reduction in rates in nine months. While petrol price has been cut by Rs 2 per litre, excluding local sales tax or VAT, there will be no change in diesel rates.

After including VAT, the reduction in price of petrol in Delhi comes to Rs 2.40 per litre and the fuel will from midnight tonight cost Rs 68.34 per litre as against Rs 70.74 currently. It was expected that oil firms will also effect the monthly hike of 40-50 paise per litre in diesel rates but they deferred the decision apparently to save the government from trouble in Parliament.

When oil firms had last hiked petrol price on 2 March, opposition parties had disrupted one full day’s proceedings. The cut in petrol price follows two rounds of hike in rates since February. Petrol price was hiked by Rs 1.50 a litre on 16 Feb and then by Rs 1.40 per litre from 2 March. Both were excluding VAT.

The reduction in rates was possible as international oil prices have eased. While the slide in international prices of crude oil from $112.73 per barrel to $107.41 enabled reduction in petrol prices, it also helped lower losses on diesel sales. Losses on diesel have come down to Rs 8.64 per litre from Rs 11.26 at the beginning of the month, according to Indian Oil Corp (IOC) which announced the price revision. Oil firms calculate the desired retail price on 1st and 16th of every month based on average imported oil price on the previous fortnight. Petrol price had last been cut by over Rs 2 per litre in June 2012 when prices were reduced from Rs 70.24 to Rs 67.78 per litre. IOC said rupee had depreciated marginally. ‘Following this trend, it has been decided to pass on the benefit to customers,’ the company said.

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Gujrat CM #Modi to address India Today Conclave 2013 on 16th March 2013

Shri Modi to address India Today Conclave 2013 on 16th March 2013 at 8 PM

At 8 PM on the evening of Saturday 16^th March 2013 Shri Narendra Modi will address the India Today Conclave 2013. Shri Modi will speak on ‘The NaMo Mantra’ and the talk will be followed by an interactive question and answer session with the audience.

Shri Modi is one of the most anticipated speakers at the Conclave. Both mainstream and social media are eagerly awaiting Shri Modi’s talk at the campaign.

You can watch Shri Modi’s speech LIVE on the website. You can also follow @narendramodi_in for real time Tweets of  Shri Modi’s speech.

#Modi’s 3D speeches in Guinness Book of World Records

The 3D broadcasts of the speeches of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi during the 2012 Assembly elections have entered the Guinness Book of World Records, he stated on Friday. ‘Gujarat election campaign 2012 becomes even more memorable with the 3D interaction creating a Guinness World,’ Modi said on Twitter.

The Guinness World Record for most simultaneous shows of ‘the Pepper’s Ghost Illusion’ (a technology) is now held by Raj Kasu Reddy and Mani Shankar of NChant 3D, which telecast, live, a 55-minute speech by Modi to 53 locations across Gujarat on 10 December, 2012, Modi said on his blog.

NChant 3d used 3D ‘holographic projection technology’ for this purpose. This technology is popular in Europe.

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Karunanidhi warns of pulling out of UPA over Sri Lanka

DMK chief M Karunanidhi on Friday warned his party will pull out of the UPA government if India does not press for an independent international probe against those responsible for the genocide in Sri Lanka in the US-sponsored resolution in the UNHRC against the island nation.

In a statement issued here late night, Karunanidhi, referring to the US sponsored resolution at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC), said: “India should take steps to amend the American resolution to include thatt those war criminals responsible for the genocide in Sri Lanka be identified, hold a free international enquiry against them and take time bound appropriate action.”

“If this request is not heeded, it will be meaningless for the DMK to continue in the central government,” he added.

DMK, with 18 members in the Lok Sabha, is a key constituent in the central United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government.

IANS

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[Exclusive] AgustaWestland scam: Setback for SP Tyagi, CBI to file FIR against the former Air Chief and kin

In a development which could spell bad news for the Former Air Chief Marshall (retd) SP Tyagi, CBI has decided to file an FIR against him and his cousins in the AgustaWestland chopper scam. According to sources in the CBI, SP Tyagi, his cousins Julie and Docsa, Gautam Khaitan and Parveen Bakshi will be booked under charges of bribery and cheating.

Sources say that CBI’s investigation is pointing towards the fact that SP Tyagi has accepted a bribe from his cousins to help AugustaWestland in the now infamous VVIP Chopper scam. The kickbacks in excess of 350 crores were allegedly routed through fake engineering contracts and paid to Tyagi brothers.

In another development, Satish Bagordia was also questioned by the CBI in the VVIP chopper scam. Satish Bagrodia is the younger brother of former MOS Coal, Santosh Bagrodia, and is a director in Chandigarh based IDS Infotech Ltd, which Italian investigators are alleging, was used to route bribe money in India.

The scam in the 4,000 crore helicopter deal would have gone unnoticed if Italian investigators had not arrested Giuseppe Orsi, CEO of Finmeccanica, parent company of AgustaWestland, to be guilty of having paid kickbacks to seal the helicopter deal in India. The Italian report had named cousins of former Indian Air Force Chief S P Tyagi – Julie and Docsa alias Rajiv Tyagi – as having received cash through middlemen and companies in London,Tunisia, Switzerland and Mauritius. The said helicopters (three out of 12 have already been delivered) were meant for VIPs like the Prime Minister.

As TEHELKA had reported earlier, a 64-page prosecution report filed by the Italian authorities, had detailed how Italian nationals Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa and UK-based consultant Christian Michel connived to push the deal through nefarious means. Bribes amounting to 51 million euros were paid and fictitious orders were raised through IT companies in Chandigarh. Junk helicopters were bought in order to mask the money trail. The bombshell in the report was the part where it said that middleman Haschke admitted that he had met former Indian Air Force chief SP Tyagi six-seven times and that Tyagi’s three cousins were instrumental in swinging the deal.

In a factsheet put up on the PIB website, the defence ministry admitted that in “November 2012, a letter was received in MoD from the director, income tax investigations, regarding allegations against Indians possibly involved in the deal as middlemen and seeking information about them”. After sitting on this information for two months, the MoD wrote to the Income Tax (IT) department that “it had no such details and if the IT has any such credible information, it should share with them”.

BRIJESH PANDEY – TEHELKA