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NEW DELHI FRIDAY 7 | DECEMBER 2012

BILATERAL TIES

Obamas pointman on Burma Patrick Murphy to travel to India this week

Rehman Malik trip delayed, to now visit Delhi Dec. 14-16

NATION
SC pulls up Centre on NGT chief post
AGE C OR RES P ON DE NT
NEW DELHI, DEC. 6

If you want to build a stronger relationship with India... you cant ignore Gujarat
James Bevan UK high commissioner

Briefs

V.K. SINGH SKIPS CHIEFS CONCLAVE

New Delhi: Former Army chief Gen. V.K. Singh (Retd) on Thursday skipped a meeting of former Army chiefs convened by the current Army Chief Gen. Bikram Singh on Thursday, citing previous commitments. The Chiefs Conclave attended by eight former Army Chiefs was held in the capital on Thursday during which Gen. Bikram Singh briefed the former chiefs on operational issues, modernisation and welfare measures for Army personnel being undertaken. Gen. V.K. Singh (retd) had expressed his inability to attend, citing previous commitments, sources said.

RAISING THE BANNER

Sadhus take part in the Dharm Dhwaja ceremony ahead of Mahakumbh at Sangam in Allahabad on Thursday. PTI

The Supreme Court on Thursday pulled up the Centre for its failure to put on file a letter of the present Chief Justice of India relating to the appointment of the chairman of the National Green Tribunal, which is functioning without its head for a year. You have placed the record but where is the letter of the present CJI? Why you have not placed it when you knew that the matter will be taken up today? Its not acceptable... The manner in which things are going. We dont know what is happening?, a bench comprising Justices G.S. Singhvi and S.J. Mukhopadhaya said. The bench made the remark after going through the file relating to the appointment placed before it by additional solicitor general (ASG) A.S. Chandhiok. The bench was upset that the matter was lingering despite the NGT being

The SC bench was upset that the matter was lingering despite the NGT being without a head for the last one year
without head for the last one year. We have our own doubts about the manner in which it is being done. We are not sure when the chairman will be appointed, the bench said and reminded the ASG about its previous order of May 3 when the Centre had assured the court that things will be completed. It has not happened and it is very unfortunate, the court said. On May 3, the Centre had submitted before the court that six expert and four judicial members will be appointed by October 31. However, the court had directed it to complete the

process of appointments of the NGT chairman as well as its expert and judicial members by September 15. The court on Thursday asked the Centre to give an undertaking about what time it will come out with the notification on appointment of the chairman and the judicial and expert members for the NGT. The bench said it will take up the matter on December 12 and would like the ASG to take instructions also on the issue of making available accommodation to the chairman and the judicial and expert members as per their previous status. The apex court said if the Centre fails to fulfil the requirements for functioning of the NGT and its benches in other parts of the country, it may give liberty to the high courts for taking up the matter as the working of the tribunal can not be kept in doldrums. We dont want the work and the appointment of the chairman and the tribunal to be in doldrums, the bench said.

Bevan: Have to deal with government if anyone wants to deal with state

MAHAJAN TENURE PROBE

UK envoy: Cannot ignore Gujarat

THUFAIL P.T.
NEW DELHI, DEC. 6

AI TO HALT SOME N-E FLIGHTS UNLESS PAID

New Delhi: National carrier Air India has made it clear that its subsidiary Alliance Air cannot continue to operate certain flights to the north-eastern region reportedly run on subsidies provided by the North Eastern Council (NEC) unless these subsidies are paid promptly by the NEC to Air India. The NEC is the nodal agency for the economic and social development of the north-eastern region.

The British government on Thursday defended its decision to end its boycott of the Narendra Modi-led Gujarat government saying that it cannot ignore the state in its goal to create a stronger relationship with India. Delivering a lecture here on the topic The UK and India: Myths, Reality and Prospects, the British high commissioner to India James Bevan said

James Bevan

that it was part of Britains policy to work more closely with India. Setting aside the criticism that Britain was moving on in matters regardless of the allegations against Mr Modi in connection with the 2002 riots, Mr Bevan said that the government of a state had to be dealt with if anybody wanted to deal with a state. Our belief that India will matter more and more in future, and that all of India matters, also played a part in our recent deci-

sion to change our policy on Gujarat. Since the 2002 riots, the British government has had no high level contact with the government of Gujarat. But if you want to build a stronger relationship with India, as we do, you cant ignore Gujarat. And if you want to deal with any Indian state, you need to deal with the government of that state. said Mr Bevan, who set off Britains new engagement with Gujarat by visiting Mr Modi in Ahmedabad on October 22. Mr Bevan, who

had clarified after his meeting with Mr Modi that the reengagement could not be seen as an endorsement to Narendra Modi, added that Gujarat could not be ignored on many counts as the state had been leading in science and technology, action against climate change etc. He also said that people to people contact between Britain and Gujarat was also crucial as many Gujarati-origin people are currently settled in London.

Public sector firms also benefited: CBI

PRAMOD KUMAR
NEW DELHI, DEC. 6

Other stories

U.P. JUDGE PULLS UP AIR INDIA FOR LUGGAGE LAPSE

AGE C OR RE S P O N D E N T
LUCKNOW, DEC. 6

NTCA rushes to probe tiger killing

RASHME SEHGAL
NEW DELHI, DEC. 6

Justice Sudhir Agarwal, a judge of the Allahabad high court has written to the Union civil aviation ministry and Air India raising questions about the functioning of the state-run airline. Justice Sudhir Agarwal recently faced a tough time recently after his luggage was not loaded on the plane by which he travelled from Mumbai to Lucknow. The judge has now written a letter to the secretary of civil aviation department and the chairman and managing director of Air India, about the incident. Justice Agarwal has questioned the action of the airline which had caused great inconvenience to him and also to other passengers who had boarded the Lucknow bound flight from Mumbai on November 28.

The killing of a 10-year-old tiger by members of a special task force of the forest department in Wayanad district of Kerala has raised the hackles of green activists across the globe. The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) has rushed a team to the coffee plantation in Moolamkavu village to get a first-hand appraisal of the chain of events that led to his shooting.

A member of the NTCA team pointed out that the forest department officials were under tremendous pressure from the local population to eliminate the tiger because it had turned into a cattle lifter. Political parties entered the fray and local CPI(M) leaders rushed to the area to pledge their support to the public. This saw the Kerala chief minister Ooman Chandy make a special trip to Wayanad district where he promised the populace the local pop-

WAYANAD
An NTCA team member said the officials were under pressure from the local population to eliminate the tiger as it had become a cattle lifter

ulace in a public meeting that he would ensure its elimination, pointed out Tito Joseph, programme manager, heading the Wildlife Protection Society of India (WPSI) in Kerala. This emboldened the public to the extent that the order issued by the chief wildlife warden allowing for the tiger to be tranquillised was also shown to the large crowds and media crew that followed the task force as it moved through the forests in an attempt to tranquillise and relocate

the tiger. The forest officer who fired the tranquilliser shots did not give the tiger any time to get sedated. Rather, the tranquilliser shot was followed by a lethal shot that killed it, Tito added. This killing was preceded by a similar killing of a tiger in the Kaziranga tiger sanctuary earlier this year when uncontrolled mobs followed a police and forest department team who were stalking another tiger-turned-cattle lifter.

The CBI probe into the allocation of additional spectrum during the tenure of former communications minister Pramod Mahajan has revealed that the decision had also benefited two public sector telecom companies. According to sources, probe by the agency has established that two government companies were also the incidental beneficiaries in getting additional spectrum (beyond 6.2 MHz and up to 10 MHz). By charging one per cent additional Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR), two public sector telecom companies were also allocated additional spectrum, sources said. Sources, however, made it clear that both public sector telecom companies were incidental beneficiaries. There was no criminal conspiracy in allocation of additional spectrum to them at all. They were allocated additional spectrum because other private telecom companies were also allocated spec-

Sources made it clear that the two public sector telecom companies were only incidental beneficiaries
trum, sources said. The CBI had filed FIR against two former officials of the DoT and three private cellular companies on November 17, 2011 in connection with its probe related to irregularities committed in award of spectrum during Pramod Mahajans tenure. Probe has established that some former officials of the DoT allegedly entered into a criminal conspiracy with three beneficiary private telecom companies causing a loss of `508 crores approximately during Mahajans tenure. The agency has already recorded the statements of the then telecom secretary, Shyamal Ghosh and two former senior officials of the DoT, including J.R. Gupta.

Interim relief for Zee chief, son

AGE CO RRE S P O N D E N T
NEW DELHI, DEC. 6

ASSAM: COPS NAB JKHAND TOP NAXAL LEADER

MANOJ ANAND
GUWAHATI, DEC. 6

RTI ACTIVIST CLAIMS THREATS FROM SP WORKER

A GE C O R RE S P O N D E N T
LUCKNOW, DEC. 6

An RTI activist Urvashi Sharma has reportedly been receiving threats from an anonymous caller, who claims to belong to the Samajwadi Party. The caller has been asking her to stop submitting RTI queries about the working of the Akhilesh government and if she persists, she will pay with her life. Urvashi Sharma has now lodged a complaint with the Talkatora police which have registered a case against an unnamed person under section 507 of the IPC after preliminary investigations. Urvashi Sharma said on Thursday that the caller claims to be one Haribhai Yadav, an office bearer of the Samajwadi Party.

While granting interim protection from arrest to Zee Group head Subhash Chandra and his son, a local court here asked them to cooperate with the police in investigating the case lodged by former MP Naveen Jindal, in which two editors of Zee allegedly tried to extort `100 crores. Additional sessions judge Raj Rani Mitra also directed the crime branch of the Delhi police not to arrest Mr Subhash Chandra and his son Punit Goenka during the course of interrogation on December 8, and to file a fresh report on December 14, the day when their interim protection from arrest expires. The court also asked the father-son duo to surrender their passport to the investigation officer. The matter be re-notified for further arguments and fresh report from the investigating officer (IO) on December 14. In the meantime, applicants shall not be arrested. However, they are directed to surrender their passports to the IO, the court said. The courts order came on the anticipatory bail

While granting interim protection from arrest a local court here asked them to cooperate with the police and surrender their passports
plea moved by senior advocate Geeta Luthra and Vijay Aggarwal on behalf of Mr Chandra and his son saying they will join the investigation if assured not to be arrested by the agency during the course of interrogation, in which two senior editors were arrested on November 27 and lodged in jail since then. However, during the proceeding, additional public prosecutor Rajiv Mohan opposed the plea submitted by the counsels appearing for the father-son duo and said the agency cannot give assurance whether to arrest them or not, and further emphasised, The moment we get a lead of the alleged extortion made on behalf of Zee Group by their two editors, we will arrest them.

In a major breakthrough, security forces on Thursday arrested a top zonal commander of the Maoists in Jharkhand from Assam. Disclosing that top Maoist commander Anand Kharwar was caught with his brother-in-law Anil Singh, authoritative security sources told this newspaper that the duo was picked up from Tezpur in Northern Assams Sonitpur district. Pointing out that Kharwar was the zonal commander of Latehar Zone and wanted in at least 18 criminal cases of Jharkhand, security sources said that he had been staying at his brotherin-laws house in Tezpur for past few days. The dreaded Maoist leader who carries a reward of `5 lakh on his head is suspected to have been in Assam for some financial dealing. Security sources said that they were chasing the movement of Kharwar for past few weeks. Informing that he is being brought to Guwahati for interrogation, security sources said Anil Singh, who was also arrested, works for a Kolkata-based power company Hindustan Electrical.