north east online - north east india news: Jan 13, 2010

Wednesday, January 13, 2010

India hockey players end pre-World Cup strike

Striking members of the Indian hockey team have decided to return to a training camp for the World Cup.

Their decision came after hockey authorities decided to settle their demands for wages.

Separately, Indian company Sahara, which is also the official team sponsor, has decided to give $220,000 to the players immediately.

The hockey World Cup begins in the Indian capital, Delhi, on 28 February and lasts a fortnight.

The players had stayed away from the camp since Sunday after a dispute over wages.

Hockey authorities had accused the players of blackmail, and given them an ultimatum to return to the training camp by Thursday.

'Reasonable'

"We have sorted out the problem," Indian sports official Suresh Kalmadi said.

"The players have given us a list of demands, and most of them are reasonable."

Mr Kalmadi said the team would be returning to the training camp on Thursday.

The team's official sponsor Sahara has chipped in with $220,000 for distribution to the players so that they can "peacefully and happily" train and play for their country, a statement released by the company said.

Mr Kalmadi said several other companies had agreed to help the team financially.

Reports say chief minister of India's northern Uttar Pradesh state Mayawati has also offered the team 50 million rupees ($1m).

Earlier, Indian Sports Minister MS Gill appealed to the players to "immediately join training, and continue so, with full heart, till the [World Cup] tournament, and focus to win it".

The team went on an indefinite strike on Sunday despite reports of a truce with the hockey authorities.

Sugar prices to decline within a week: Pawar

New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) Under attack over upward spirall in prices, the government today took a slew of measures to increase availability of sugar, pulses and other commodities and hoped rates of the sweetener, being sold at nearly Rs 50 a kg, would start declining in a week's time.

To increase the availability of sugar, the government relaxed the norms for processing of raw sugar and allowed duty-free import of white sugar till December-end.

A host of decisions, including selling of 2-3 million tonnes of wheat and rice in the open market over the next two months and asking state-owned trading firms to intensify import of pulses, was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Prices chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Bajaj Allianz offers Rs 2 cr for hockey team

New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) Financial help continues to pour in for the Indian hockey team with Bajaj Allianz today making a Rs two crore sponsorship offer for the side.

Akshay Mehrotra, the marketing head of Bajaj Allianz, told PTI that the company was pained by the plight of the Indian hockey players who had resorted to strike demanding payment of their dues before a settlement was eventually reached today.

"In response to the ongoing debates and discussions in the media on the stalemate faced by the Indian hockey team, Bajaj Allianz has volunteered to offer Rs 2 crore for one year sponsorship to the national hockey team," Mehrotra said.

"This offer is purely on a voluntary basis for the passion of the national game. The intention is to ensure a hassle-free participation of the national hockey team for the forthcoming World Cup," he said.

'Army chief takes action against Generals in land scam'

New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) Four senior army officers involved in a land scam in Darjeeling will face "some disciplinary and administrative action" that will be taken by the Army chief, Defence Minister A K Antony said today.

The Army had yesterday initiated disciplinary action against Lt Gen P K Rath that may lead to a court martial and started administrative action that could result in dismissal of Military Secretary Lt Gen Avadesh Prakash, 11 Corps Commander Ramesh Halgali and Maj Gen P Sen for their role in the sale of a 70-acre civilian land adjacent to Sukna military station near Darjeeling.

Antony said the Defence Ministry had received a report from Army Chief Deepak Kapoor in this regard only last night and, therefore, it was "too early" for him to comment on the action to be taken against the Generals.

'84 riots: CBI chargesheets Sajjan Kumar in 2 cases

New Delhi, Jan 13 (PTI) Former Congress MP Sajjan Kumar was today chargesheeted by CBI in a Delhi Court in two separate cases relating to the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

The agency filed its investigation report in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja.

The cases in which the chargesheets were filed against Kumar and others were registered in police stations - Sultanpuri and Delhi Cantt- following the killing of seven and five persons respectively in the riots that broke out after the assassination of the then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi.

The investigating agency also filed a closure report in a case registered with the Mongolpuri police station in which one person was killed in the carnage. .

Cold wave in northern India claims over 326 lives

New Delhi/ Uttar Pradesh/ Jammu and Kashmir/ Punjab/ Haryana/ Himachal Pradesh, Jan 13 (ANI): The cold wave continues to disrupt normal life across north India, and the death toll is now reported to be over 326.

Another 38 deaths were reported from Uttar Pradesh, taking the death toll in the state to almost 300.

The fresh casualties were reported from Barabanki and Sitapur (5 each), Gonda and Varanasi (4 each), Etah and Orai (3 each), Lucknow, Muzaffarnagar, Kheri, Kushinagar, Balia and Chandauli (2 each) and Azamgarh and Basti (1 each), claimed official sources.

The dense fog has further added to the problems of the people in the region with Kanpur recording a temperature of 3.7 degree Celsius, the coldest place in the state, followed by Varani, where the temperarure was recorded to be 4 degree Celcius.

In Delhi, a foggy morning brought bad news for air travelers, as several flights were affected.

The Meteorological Department has predicted dense fog in the capital over the next couple of days.

The cold conditions worsened in Jammu and Ladakh regions with a fall in mercury level, though there was some improvement in night temperatures.

The night temperature in Jammu slipped to 2.7 degree Celcius with Banihal recording a temperature of minus 1.6 degree Celcius, the coldest place in the state.

In Leh, the night temperature dipped to minus 22 degree Celcius, while in Kargil it was minus 16.4 degree Celcius. Srinagar recorded a temperature of minus 3.6 degree Celcius, while the temperature recorded in Pahalgam was minimum of minus 5.5 degree Celcius.

The possibility of rains and thundershowers has been forecast in Punjab, Haryana and several parts of Himachal Pradesh in the next few days. (ANI)

“Let CBI take action against M K Subba” says Supreme Court

New Delhi, Jan 13 (ANI): The Supreme Court on Wednesday said that it is left for the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to take appropriate action against controversial MP M K Subba.

Earlier, the apex court had ordered for a CBI inquiry on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) alleging that Subba was a resident of Nepal and had acquired Indian citizenship by false methods.

Hearing a PIL the Supreme Court bench headed by Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan said: "Let CBI take appropriate action."

The PIL, was filed by Birendra Nath Singh in 2005, had alleged that Subha a lottery baron had come to India after a murder case was registered against him in Nepal in the early 1970s.

Subba had claimed before the apex court that he was born in Dadgram village in Darjeeling district of West Bengal and his parents had migrated from Singtam village in Sikkim.

Subba has been elected to the 12th, 13th and 14th Lok Sabha from Tezpur (Assam) on Congress ticket. (ANI)

ISRO to launch rockets to study Friday’s solar eclipse

Bangalore, Jan 13 (ANI): The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will launch a series of rockets from its two launch centres between Thursday and Sunday to study Friday’s solar eclipse and its after-effects.

A rare and longest annular solar eclipse of this millennium will occur on Friday visible in the southern part of the country.

ISRO’s Thiruvananthapuram based the Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre (VSSC) a series of Rohini Sounding Rockets from Thumba Equatorial Rocket Launching Station (TERLS), to investigate the effects of the solar eclipse on the atmosphere.

According to ISRO, four sounding rockets of series RH 200 and RH300MK II with peak altitudes of about 70kilometres and 116 kilometres respectively will be launched on Thursday to collect data. This will be followed by another five launches on Friday, the eclipse day.

Two larger Rohini rockets of the series RH 560 MK II will also be launched from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre (SDSC), Sriharikota, one each on Thursday and Friday, which will have a peak altitude of 548 kilometres.

‘The experiments will coordinate modern ground-based eclipse observations with in situ space measurements. Interpretation of eclipse data together with space data will give new insights to the earlier eclipse observations,” ISRO said in a statement.

“With so many atmospheric-ionospheric parameters being analysed, this is going to be one of the most comprehensive campaigns, ever attempted, during a solar eclipse anywhere in the world,” the statement added.

The nine-metre RH 560 rockets weigh 1.5 tonnes and carry a 100-kilograms payload of instruments each. The two-stage rocket will take the instruments 500 kilometres above the earth’s surface.

The rockets fired from TERLS are smaller than RH 560. They will reach 75 to 120 kilometres above the earth. (ANI)

J-K for transforming agriculture and allied sectors

Jammu, Jan 13 (PTI) Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has emphasised setting up of area and activity specific villages in the state for effectively demonstrating the benefits of new technologies.

The Model villages would act as catalysts for demonstrating the impact of research from laboratory to land and motivate farmers to adopt new technologies for achieving higher levels of productivity, Abdullah said at the fourth council meeting of Sher-e-Kashmir University of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Jammu, here yesterday.

Jammu and Kashmir Governor N N Vohra, who was chairing the meeting, laid stress on the importance of agricultural universities initiating measures for effectively utilizing and promoting biotechnology and bionanotechnology, adding that inter-disciplinary cells should be set up in both the varsities of Kashmir and Jammu for this purpose.

He emphasised promoting animal husbandry, floriculture, horticulture, mushroom, vegetable cultivation and beekeeping to transform agriculture and allied sectors.

Teen-molester-cop says "I'll smile more"

The former police officer who molested 14-year-old Ruchika Girhotra has defended the smile that incensed India. In December, after SPS Rathore was sentenced to six months in prison, he was seen smiling as he left the court. Within ten minutes of his sentence being shared with him, he was granted bail.

Speaking to the media for the first time since he was sentenced, Rathore said, " I will not run away. The secret of my smile is in my drawing room. There is a photograph of my wife and advocate with Jawaharlal Nehru. When I was young, I used to run and get a glimpse of J N Nhru . I learned from him to smile in times of adversities and I will continue to smile."

Rathore molested Ruchika in 1990. Three years later, she killed herself, allegedly because Rathore harassed her family and her relentlessly to punish her for complaining against him.

Rathore has appealed against his six-month sentence. A Chandigarh court has granted him bail till February 8, so he will not be arrested till his appeal is heard.

There are three other police cases pending against Rathore, all filed after he was found guilty of molesting Ruchika. He's been accused of tampering with documents related to her post-mortem; of framing her brother in theft cases and putting him in jail; and, most seriously, of driving Ruchika to commit suicide.

Those cases have been transferred to the CBI. Because Rathore has not been granted bail in any of those cases, the CBI is technically free to arrest him.

Mizoram will take back Reang refugees: Tripura chief minister

Mizoram will soon take back around 35,000 Reang tribal refugees who have been staying in Tripura since 1997 after fleeing their state due to ethnic violence, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said on Wednesday.

"The Mizoram chief minister during his visit in north Tripura held a meeting with refugee leaders Jan 8. He also asked the refugee leaders to study the proposed land and areas where the immigrants would be settled after their repatriation to Mizoram," Sarkar told reporters here.

He had Monday held talks about the repatriation of tribal refugees with Mizoram Chief Minister Lal Thanhawla in New Delhi.

Sarkar said: "I have also discussed about the Mizoram refugee repatriation with union home secretary Gopal Krishna Pillai in New Delhi. Pillai will visit Tripura next month."

Over 35,000 Reang tribal refugees have been sheltered in six north Tripura camps since 1997 after they fled Mizoram following ethnic clashes with the majority Mizo community.

"The Mizoram chief minister assured us that he would call a Congress legislature party (CLP) meeting immediately to discuss the refugee repatriation issue," said Elvis Chorkhy, who led the three-member refugee delegation that met Lal Thanhawla in north Tripura last week.

Lal Thanhawla visited north Tripura's Mizo-dominated areas and participated in a Mizo cultural function. There are several thousand Mizos residing in north Tripura adjacent to Mizoram.

He had told reporters: "It was not possible to constitute an autonomous council for Reang tribals (locally called Bru) residing in Mizoram. The refugees came to Tripura voluntarily and they should go to their homeland willingly."

"A road map for the repatriation of tribal refugees from Tripura has been prepared and it was approved by the union home ministry," he added.

The tribal refugees are unwilling to return to their homes in Mizoram until their demands for fool-proof security and sufficient financial assistance are accepted by the state government.

"The Mizoram government's package for the home-bound refugees suggested a Rs.20,000 cash grant instead of Rs.50,000 as promised earlier. The package also recommended a scattered resettlement of the 35,000 tribal refugees in three different districts of Mizoram - Mamit, Kolashib and Lunglei. We want compact rehabilitation of the tribals in two districts in western Mizoram," Chorkhy told IANS.

BSF slams Meghalaya police on cross-border movement

In a retaliatory attack, the Border Security Force (BSF) on Wednesday slammed the Meghalaya Government for “not sharing information” on movement of insurgents and also blamed it for poor progress of the Indo-Bangla border fencing.

Referring to the killing of a coal exporter by tribal insurgents near Dawki along the international border last month, the BSF said, “The threats given to the exporter, Raja Khongsit, was not taken seriously by the Meghalaya Police and no specific information was shared with the BSF regarding cross-border movement of militants.”

“Even after being aware of the threats to Khongsit by Hynniewtrep National Liberation Council (HNLC) militants, the state police did not take any precautionary measures and failed to protect his life. Till today, no information was shared with BSF so that it could act accordingly,” the BSF’s Assam and Meghalaya Frontier said in a statement, a day after Meghalaya police accused it of failing to prevent illegal cross-border movement.

A Meghalaya police spokesman had accused the border guards of “inefficiency” in preventing movement of insurgents to and fro the international border.

The BSF also said border fencing in Meghalaya had not progressed as expected because the state police has not been able to quell the threats being given to the contractors and workers of National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) by local goons and anti-social elements.

Google snubs China with 'Tank Man'

The iconic "Tank Man" photo taken during the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and banned in China was available on Google.cn on Wednesday, hours after the online giant vowed to defy Chinese Internet censors.

Google announced on Tuesday that it would no longer censor search engine results in China and possibly pull out of the world's largest online market, citing cyber spy attacks and Chinese Web censorship.

Searches for other sensitive topics such as the Dalai Lama and the banned Falungong spiritual group were also returned on Google, but were also available on some Chinese portals.

China blocks Web content it deems politically objectionable in a vast censorship system dubbed the "Great Firewall of China."

Google said it was targeted by China-based cyber spies along with at least 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of rights activists around the world.

Several people, some bearing flowers, turned up Wednesday at Google's China headquarters in Beijing to show their support for the Internet giant, an AFP journalist witnessed.

"We are ordinary Google users who have come here to say thank you. We want to show our support to Google," said one woman, who would not give her name

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