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Printed at Chennai, Coimbatore, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Madurai, Noida, Visakhapatnam, Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi, Vijayawada, Mangaluru, Tiruchirapalli, Kolkata, Hubballi, Mohali, Allahabad and Malappuram

Regd. DL(ND)-11/6110/2006-07-08 RNI No. TNENG/2012/49940 ISSN 0971 - 751X Vol. 5 No. 52 CITY EDITION 18 Pages Rs. 8.00 www.thehindu.in

NEW DELHI: The Centre and theReserve Bank of India signedan agreement last month un-der which the central bankwill prioritise controllingprice rise above the other ob-jectives of the monetary pol-icy interest rates and theforeign exchange rate.

The agreement formaliseda policy the Reserve Bankhad been following since Ja-nuary 2014, which is a signif-

icant development inmonetary policy formulationchampioned by GovernorRaghuram Rajan.

The Reserve Bank is com-mitted to bringing inflation

below 6 per cent by January2016. The consumer infla-tion target has been set at 4per cent, with a band of plusor minus 2 percentagepoints, for the financial year

2016-17.Under the agreement, the

central bank will be deemedto have missed its target ifconsumer inflation remainsabove the 6 per cent level forthree consecutive quartersduring 2015-16 or if it re-mains below 2 per cent forthree consecutive quartersduring the year 2016-17.

The bank will have to ex-plain to the government thecauses, and what steps it in-tends to take to steer infla-tion back within a given timeif it misses the target.

The rate of consumer priceinflation was 5.11 in January.

Will try to bringfigure down to6% by Jan. 2016

Puja Mehra

Pact binds RBI to inflation target

CENTRE TO AMEND RBI ACT | PAGE 10

PRICE RISE Central bank to give it more priority than interest and forex rates

CHENNAI: Jagmohan Dalmiyawas elected unopposed presi-dent of the Board of Controlfor Cricket in India at its an-nual general meeting here onMonday. The 74-year-oldformer BCCI and ICC presi-dent said, Its a victory forthe cleansing of cricket. Mr.

Dalmiya had been backed byN. Srinivasan, formerpresident.

During the two-hour meet-ing, Mr. Srinivasans groupwon four of the five posts forwhich elections were held. Ina unanimous resolution, theBCCI named Mr. Srinivasanas its representative in Inter-national Cricket Council

meetings. The current na-tional senior selection com-mittee headed by SandipPatil will continue till thenext AGM in September.

The Sharad Pawar groupslone success came when An-urag Thakur edged out San-jay Patel 15-14 for the post ofsecretary. Interestingly,there was a blank vote (a

member does not indicate hischoice) in the poll. Had it be-come 15-15, Shivlal Yadavscasting vote as chairmanwould have come into play.Mr. Yadav presided over themeeting.

Dalmiya back at BCCI helmSrinivasans group wins four of the five posts for which polls were held

S. Dinakar

ICC chairman N. Srinivasan (left) leaves after the election of Jagmohan Dalmiya (second from left) asBCCI president, in Chennai on Monday. Anurag Thakur (centre) was elected BCCI secretary in themeeting, presided over by Shivlal Yadav (second from right). Jyotiraditya Scindia, however, wasunsuccessful in his bid to become vice-president of the Central Zone. PHOTOS: V. GANESAN

A TIEAND A CASTING VOTE | PAGE 10

EDITORIAL | PAGE 8

NEW DELHI: Close on the heelsof the appointment of fiveState unit chiefs on Monday,the Congress is gearing up toelevate three close associatesof party vice-president Ra-hul Gandhi as generalsecretaries.

Two Congress leaders

confirmed to The Hindu thatMr. Gandhis team mem-bers, who had worked close-ly with him on therestructuring project for theyouth organisations, arelikely to be promoted to therank of general secretary inthe party organisation.

While former MPs JitendraSingh and Meenakshi Nat-arajan served as secretariesof the party attached to Mr.Gandhi when he was generalsecretary in charge of theyouth organisations, sittingMP Rajeev Satav was presi-dent of the Indian YouthCongress till December2014. The three, along with

Mr. Satavs predecessor Ash-ok Tanwar, were instrumen-tal in implementing Mr.Gandhis project of intro-ducing elections in the NSUIand the IYC. All appoint-ments are part of a processinitiated by Mr. Gandhi andtaken with his concurrence,a senior party leader said.

Jatin Gandhi

Rahuls associates to take top slots in CongressEXCLUSIVE

KEY ROLE FOR MAKEN | PAGE 10

INSIDE OPINION | PAGE 8A VISION FOR RESURGENCEIn an exclusive article, Anil D.Ambani, Chairman of RelianceGroup, looks at what he calls PrimeMinister Narendra Modis newvision for defence resurgence.

NEWS | PAGE 10

BHATTARAI IN DELHIFormer Nepal Prime MinisterBaburam Bhattarai, who is in Delhi,has said that India could help hiscountry solve its Constitution-making conflict.

NEWS | PAGE 10

CRISIS DEEPENS IN AAPAAP leaders have accusedfounder-members Yogendra Yadavand Prashant Bhushan of attempt-ing to remove Arvind Kejriwal fromthe post of party convener.

BUSINESS | PAGE 14

OLA ACQUIRES TAXIFORSUREOla Cabs has acquired its rivalTaxiForSure in a cash-and-equitydeal worth $200 million. They willcontinue to operate as separateentities.

Uproar over Mufti remarks

Congress president Sonia Gandhi led a walkout in the Lok Sabha onMonday over Mufti Mohammad Sayeeds statement on Sunday creditingPakistan, separatists and militants for the smooth conduct of polls inJ&K. PHOTO: PTI (REPORT ON PAGE 10)

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K.K. Sharma to be Delhi Chief SecretarySenior IAS officer K.K. Sharma will be the nextChief Secretary of Delhi, a choice that is alsoacceptable to the AAP Government: Page 4

Delhi Government to issue e-ration cardsIn order to arrest procedural delays in delivering Food SecurityCards, the Delhi Government is planning to issue e-ration cards tobeneficiaries identified under the Food Security Act: Page 4

NEW DELHI: Dwarka might get abiodiversity park spread over80 hectares if the Delhi De-velopment Authority (DDA)agrees to the requests of itsresidents.

The residents have beenasking the DDA to develop abiodiversity park at BharatVandana Udhyaan in Sector20 saying it would act as arecharge zone to improve thelocal water table in the areawhich is water scarce. TheUdhyaan has a water body re-vived by residents and wel-comes various birds andanimals.

When asked about theplans, DDA Vice-ChairmanBalvinder Kumar did not sayif the land agency had agreedto grant residents their wishbut said anything concern-ing environment is betterthan any other development.

Biodiversity parks are al-ways far better than anythingelse...Anything related to en-vironment is good, said Mr.Kumar without clearly spec-ifying the future of BharatVandana Udhyaan.

The land use of BharatVandana Udhyaan is recre-ational green, which allowscertain construction whichthe residents are not in favourof. They took up the issuewhen they got to know thatthe land is under consider-ation by the DDAs architec-tural division. This couldmean some construction overit.

A representation with sig-natures of environmentalistsand residents was submittedto Mr. Kumar.

Mr. Kumar did not disagree

with the logic given by the res-idents who wish to see a biodi-versity park at the site justlike the DDAs Yamuna biodi-versity park near Wazirabadvillage or Jagatpur village andthe Aravalli biodiversity Parknear Vasant Vihar in southcentral ridge.

Dwarka is a water scarcityarea. There is need for rain-water harvesting in surfacewater bodies which not onlystore water and recharge sub-soil aquifer, but also bufferthe local ambient temper-ature, said Diwan Singh ofthe Yamuna Satyagrah andDwarka Water BodiesCommittee.

A biodiversity park at thesite will serve as a habitat foraquatic fauna and flora. The

80 ha plot already has a wet-land which receives stormwater from its own catchmentand from surrounding areas.The storm water from the air-port and nearby areas that isbeing diverted into the waterbody here, under directionsfrom the Dwarka Water Bod-ies Committee, has immensepotential for improving thelocal water table, said Mr.Singh.

Mr. Singh is part of thegroup which revived the wa-ter body in the Bharat Vanda-na Udhyaan.

Not just Dwarka but resi-dents from nearby colonieslike Janakpuri, Kakrola Extn,Palam, Uttam Nagar, Nawadaand local villages too supportthe proposal. We also hope

that the existing populationof wildlife like neelgai, jack-als, peacock, hare, and mon-itor lizards may survive if theDDA heeds to the request ofresidents. A biodiversity parkwould also serve a great valuefor conservation and natureeducation, says Mr. Singh.

He informed that a group ofresidents also visited the ex-isting biodiversity parks anddiscussed their proposal withManu Bhatnagar (INTACH),Manoj Mishra (Yamuna JiyeAbhiyan), Prof. Vikram Soni,environmentalist and re-search scientist at Jamia Mi-lia University, Prof. ShashankShekhar, hydrogeologist atDept of Geology, Delhi Uni-versity. All these experts haveendorsed the proposal.

Say it will recharge groundwater and sustain birds, animals Akanksha Jain

The Bharat Vandana Udhyaan, where a biodiversity park may come up, has awater body revived by residents and welcomes various birds and animals.

Dwarka residents want biodiversitypark spread across 80 hectares

NEW DELHI: Most major citiestoday struggle to sustainthemselves. They are facedwith problems like limitedhousing for the growing pop-ulation, an acute shortage ofclean water and pure air, andare dealing with hugeamounts of garbage. Theyhave to exploit the resourcesof neighbouring areas to meettheir demands.

The problems faced byspace stations are also similarto that of a city with scarceresources. However, spacestations are built in such a waythat they are super-efficientand self sufficient.

An ongoing exhibition atKhoj Studios gives out themessage that we need everycity to be self-sufficient like aspace station in order to tosurvive in the future.

The Undivided Mind is acrossover exhibition betweenart and science that asks if ourcities can survive for long ifthey continue to grow irre-sponsibly. It explores howpolicy-makers can interveneto make our cities self-suffi-cient.

The exhibition is a result ofa two-week residency to ex-plore the interaction betweenart and science that was at-tended by City As A Space-ship collective comprisingSusmita Mohanty (spaceshipdesigner and aerospace entre-preneur), Barbara Imhof(space architect) and SueFairburn (scientist and designresearcher) along with RohiniDevasher (visual artist).

The works on display atKhoj focus on data collectedthrough CAASs interactionswith people from the neigh-bourhood. Sue Fairburn, Can-adian scientist who workswith concepts of extremephysiology, says: Throughour collages that juxtapose

various living environmentson earth and that in space, wewant to create a dialogue thatearth and space are not exclu-sive of each other.

The art production in-cludes: videos, interviews, col-lages, mash-ups, post-cardsand printed journals. In themain gallery they are threevideos playing simultaneous-ly. On the left wall shows life inspace and astronaut SunitaWilliams takes people on atour of the space station shewas on. She explains how thespace station is self-sufficientand allows humans to live on itfor long periods of time.

On the other side of theroom is a video with inter-views city planners and otherexperts in Delhi and sharestheir vision for the future.Viewers can sit back in thecentre of the room on bean-bags and look at the projectionon the ceiling of the room thathas rolling text explaining thevision of CAAS. The exhibi-tion is on till Tuesday at theKhoj Studio, Khirkee Exten-sion.

Towards smart,self-sustained cities Staff Reporter

An exhibition at KhojStudios gives out themessage that every citymust be a self-sufficientunit like a space station.It concludes today.

NEW DELHI: In an endeavourto promote young womenartists in the city and givethem a platform to sharegallery space with more es-tablished women artists,the Sahitya Kala Parishadhas organised an exhibitiontitled Vama at the TwinArt Gallery, Indira GandhiNational Centre for theArts.

The exhibition hopes toencourage artistic expres-sion that is a mirror of thetimes we live in.

The gallery has works by32 artists that include vet-erans like Arpana Caur, Go-goi Saroj Pal, MadhviParekh, Mona Rai andShobha Broota who join up-coming artists in the city tocreate a platform, seeingwhich students of art coulddream of a career in con-temporary art.

In an inspirational mess-age to the participants,Chief Minister Arvind Ker-jiwal said: Women todayare increasingly findingtheir voice in every field

and we need to make surethat they are provided ev-ery possible opportunity todisplay their talent. I amsure this exhibition will al-so inspire many youngwomen to take up theirtalents.

He was happy that theexhibition not only high-lights veteran artists but al-so provides much-neededencouragement to a lot ofbudding artists.

The exhibition show-cases varied styles and in-dividual interpretation of avariety of themes. Apartfrom paintings, there are anumber of sculptures andinstallations as well thatdeal with life in the city.

The exhibition is on tillMarch 8 at Twin Art Gal-lery, IGNCA.

Celebrating Delhisyoung women artists

A visitor at exhibition Vama at Twin Art Gallery,IGNCA, in New Delhi on Monday. PHOTO: SHIV KUMAR PUSHPAKAR

Staff ReporterThe exhibition bringsworks of veterans andnew comers togetherand so is aninspiration tostudents of art

NEW DELHI: Just a few monthsago, one of the Delhi Devel-opment parks in Dwarka Sec-tor 10 saw several light gymequipment installed. It rang-ed from an elliptical trainer, achest press, parallel bars toexer-cycle that were accom-panied with short notes onhow to use them.

While many residentswould sit lazily in the park,their children started theequipment. Within days, thepark was drawing maximumvisitors, especially womenwho could do light exerciseswithout a trainer while keep-ing track of their kids move-ments. Now that ground seesfull attendance and queues ofpeople wait to use the equip-ment throughout the day.

The equipment calledKoofit were erected by RobenDass, who thought out of thebox to engage parents andchildren.

Dass, in his late 40s, manu-factured Koochie Play andGymming Systems, which heclaims and proves throughthe documents, meet highestinternational safety stan-dards and certifications bythe prestigious EN1176. TheManaging Director of Koo-chie, Dass was in the Capitalthis Saturday to introducethe equipment to the Delhiand Central Government tourge them to install these inall DDA parks for the safetyof children as well as for pub-lic health.

At Silver Oak ground, IndiaHabitat Centre, the equip-ments were displayed with acolourful zig-zag slide at-tracting children. A conclaveon the same was attended bywell known architects, engi-neers from NDMC/DDA,landscape designers, key pol-icy makers, doctors and real-tors. It showed interestingplaygrounds designed on var-ious themes from a dragon,boat, cargo, castle, village,water body entwining themwith puzzling routes to en-gage kids brains and limbs.

Dass has already taken thesystems across four conti-nents and created an infras-tructure in France, Australia,Morocco, Lebanon, UAE, be-

sides making its presenceprominent in India acrossBangalore, Mumbai, Chennaiand Ahmedabad.

Reflecting over Delhislackadaisical approach overchildrens safety, especiallyin government-run parks,Dass said, Most of the publicparks in Delhi have unsafeplay equipments, some arerusted, and some fragile. Idoubt if any private or gov-ernment institutions, educa-tion centres, privatebuildings, societies are evenaware of the internationalsafety norms that should bemet while installing suchequipment.

A four-year-old girl diedin Delhi in December last af-ter falling off a weak swingthat had come down. Ali-garhs exhibition ground sawseveral people dying as thesky-high swing lost its axis.In Delhi, if we apply to thegovernment for installing

such equipment in govern-ment parks, they take out thetender and go for the lowestbid, irrespective of the qual-ity. How can one provide in-ternational standards then?It is a vicious circle.

He adds that even coun-tries like Sri Lanka are imple-menting safety norms forequipment. How can webuild smart cities withoutthese, he asks.

A recent World Health Or-ganization report claims thatby 2015 an estimated 2.3 bil-lion adults worldwide wouldbe overweight and more than700 million obese. It hasdubbed this epidemic asglobecity, caused due to theurban lifestyle being restrict-ed to glass cubicle habitationthat will lead to severe healthailments. So it is perhapstime, as Dass puts it, tobring people out of closetsand help them lead a fit andsafe life.

Time to play it safe andhealthy in city parksRana Siddiqui Zaman

Koochie Play and Gymming Systems offers healthequipment with highest international safetystandards for installation in parks.

NEW DELHI: As the Railwaystries desperately to clean itstracks and property of filthand stop people from litter-ing, the National Green Tri-bunal on Monday expressedits disquiet with the slow paceof action and lack of visibleresults.

A Bench headed by NGTchairperson Justice Swatan-ter Kumar was visibly unim-pressed with the stepsRailways said it had taken toclean its tracks and platformsas the Tribunal said no changecould be seen on the ground.

The Bench also pulled upthe municipal corporationsand the Delhi Urban ShelterImprovement Board (DUSIB)for failing to show what ef-forts they had made in the di-rection of shifting jhuggiesfrom near railway property asthey are the cause of much oflittering, defecation anddumping of waste on railwayproperty.

The counsel for Railways,Advocate Om Prakash, in-formed the Bench that theDelhi Division of NorthernRailways had sent a request toExecutive Director of Munici-pal Solid Waste Plant, Okhla,asking if the waste can be col-lected directly from Railways.

He said that in complianceof courts order dated January29, the Delhi Division said re-moval of garbage littered ontracks is being done regularlyand the work is being mon-itored continuously.

The Railways is using me-chanical methods like high jetpressure machines for clean-ing of tracks. However, onstretches of tracks with largenumber of jhuggies alongside,there is serious problem ofdumping of garbage and defe-cation on tracks by jhuggi res-idents.

Railways said removal ofsuch waste has become verydifficult.

Railways collects garbagefrom tracks and premises ofmajor stations and disposes itof at nominated garbagedumping grounds at Ghazipurand Bhalaswa.

Green Tribunalunimpressedwith Railwaysefforts forcleanliness Akanksha Jain

Testing times

FIRST-DAY JITTERS: Students doing last-minute revision, wishing each other before appearingfor the Class XII CBSE examination in New Delhi on Monday. PHOTOS: R.V. MOORTHY AND PTI

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DELHI TODAY

Mar RISE 06 45 Mar RISE 06 44 Mar RISE 06 43

03SET 18 22

04SET 18 23

05SET 18 24

RISE 16 28 RISE 17 20 RISE 18 11

TUE SET 05 00 WED SET 05 38 THU SET 06 13

NEW DELHI: Two minors werekilled, while two were injuredafter an SUV hit them in EastDelhis New Ashok Nagar inthe early hours of Monday.

According to the police,the driver of the car was in aninebriated condition whenthe accident occurred around1:50 a.m. at Ghadauli of NewAshok Nagar where theweekly Sunday market wason.

When traders were pack-ing up to close stalls, an In-nova being driven in a rashmanner and at a high speedhit some children, who werecarrying water on a cycle cart.The traders present at thespot immediately caughthold of the driver and handedhim over to the police, while aPCR van that was nearbytook the children to the hos-pital. While two of the chil-dren were declared deadupon arrival at the hospital,two were admitted with seri-ous injuries, a police officer

said. Shiva (15) and Daleep(13) died on the spot, whileSahil (15) and Shubham (16)received serious injuries andwere admitted to Lal Baha-dur Shastri Hospital, hesaid. The driver of the car,

identified as Dharmveer (28),was drunk at the time of theincident. He was arrested anda case under sections ofdrunk driving and negligencehas been registered at theNew Ashok Nagar police sta-

tion. His car has been im-pounded, the officer said.

The accident occurrednear the New Ashok Nagarpolice station.

Dharmveer is a resident ofRajeev Colony in East Delhi.

He is employed with a privatetravel agency and used to car-ry media persons late atnight. The car that he wasdriving at the time of the ac-cident had stickers of two dif-ferent media houses on it.

Two injured after an SUV hit them near Sunday market in New Ashok NagarStaff Reporter

RASH DRIVING: The vehicle that hit the children carrying water on a cycle cart (right) in New AshokNagar on Monday. PHOTOS: S. SUBRAMANIUM

Two minors fall prey to drunken drivingNEW DELHI: A Delhi court onMonday granted bail to meatexporter Moin Qureshi andhis employee Aditya Sharmain a case filed by the IncomeTax Department for allegedlynot disclosing income ofabout Rs. 20 crore.

AdditionalChief Metro-politan Magistrate DevendraKumar Sharma granted bailto the two accused subject tofurnishing abond of Rs.50,000 each with one suretyof a like amount.

The court also asked them

not to leave the country with-out its permission.

The court had last month-summoned the two accused,taking cognisance of the com-plaint filed by the departmentin the matter.

Earlier, they appeared be-fore the court on a summonsby the court.

The court later fixed April29 as the date for recording ofpre-charge evidence in thecase.

The Income Tax Depart-ment has filed the complaintunder various provisions ofthe Income Tax Act for alleg-edly making false statementand the Indian Penal Code forallegedly entering into acriminal conspiracy and giv-ing or fabricating false evi-dence in a judicialproceeding.

Special Correspondent

Meat exporter Moin Qureshigets bail in tax evasion case

The court also askedthe meat exporter andhis employee not toleave the countrywithout itspermission

Unseasonal rain triggers traffic misery

NEW DELHI: For the secondconsecutive day, sudden andheavy rain threw traffic out ofgear throughout the day withwater-logging on arterialroads leading to gridlocks andjams.

According to the traffic po-lice, water-logging triggeredcongestion on arterial routessuch as Wazirabad Road, thestretch from Nizamuddin tothe National Highway-24 to-wards Noida, ITO and OuterRing Road.

Areas such as Malviya Na-gar, Lawrence Road, MintoRoad, stretches near the In-terstate Bus Terminal inKashmere Gate, Adchini,Nehru Place, and near the In-dian Institute of Technologyin Munirka saw congestion aswell. It took me two hours todrive down from my resi-dence in Noida to my office inConnaught Place in themorning and more than thatdue to the sudden downpourin the evening, said AjayKhanna, 25, a softwareconsultant.

Kanika Sharma, 30, an adexecutive, said, The most in-convenience that motoristsfaced was in the evening; notonly were the streetlightsswitched off even on arterialroutes in New Delhi, but es-pecially on stretches such asRing Road. Drivers had no op-tion other than using theirjudgement instead of theireyes to manoeuvre .

The traffic police said com-plaints were also receivedfrom commuters headed to-wards and from the IndiraGandhi International Air-port; while the volume of traf-fic was heavy on the NationalHighway-8, diversions had tobe put in place for vehiclescoming from the IGI due towater-logging on the pot-holed Mehrauli-Mahipalpurstretch. The municipal corpo-rations continued to get com-plaints of fallen trees andwater-logging caused by rain-fall throughout Monday. A to-tal of 27 water-loggingcomplaints and 10 pertainingto fallen trees were receivedby the zonal control rooms ofthe three corporations. Eventhe office of the Sub-Divi-sional Magistrate in GeetaColony had to register a wa-ter-logging complaint withthe EDMC.

Staff Reporter

FUN TIME: While water-logged roads threw traffic out of gear in the cityon Monday, these children make a splash. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

NEW DELHI: Rain lashed the cityfor the second day and con-tinued to be accompanied bystrong cold winds that gotpeople shivering in the eve-ning.

The weatherman said theminimum temperature wasrecorded at two degreesabove normal at 14.8 degreesCelsius on Monday, while themaximum temperature set-tled at five degrees below theseasons average at 22.1 de-grees Celsius.

Safdarjung station

Rainfall measuring 60.4mm was recorded at the Saf-darjung station and that thehumidity oscillated between75 and 100 per cent, officialssaid.

Thundershowers

The weather forecast forMarch 3 predicts partly clou-dy skies with light rain orthundershowers in some ar-eas till noon.

The maximum and mini-mum temperatures are ex-pected to hover at 22 and 13

degrees Celsius. While thetemperatures were not verylow, the wind factor played a

role in cooling the city withpeople travelling on motorcy-cles bearing the brunt.

60 mm shower, winds add to chill in the city

Staff Reporter

ON GUARD: A biker drives through a water-logged GT Karnal Road on Monday. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

MeT predicts overcast Tuesday

NEW DELHI: The unexpectedshowers have sent alarmbells ringing in the HealthDepartment of the DelhiGovernment as Health Min-ister Satyendra Jain held anemergency review meetingon swine flu on Monday andput all the designated hospi-tals on alert.

I held a review meetingon swine flu. There is nodearth of medicines. Wehave also put the hospitalsdesignated to treat swine fluon alert. Doctors, if theythink suitable, should im-mediately put patients onoseltamivir, if they showsymptoms like cough, coldand temperature between100-101 degrees Celsius,Mr. Jain told PTI.

Meanwhile, 111 new casesof swine flu were reportedon Monday taking the totalfigure to 3,110 in the city.The death toll still stands at10.

A total 440 people weretested for the H1N1 influen-za virus out of which 111turned positive. No freshdeath has been reported ,said a senior official fromthe Health Department.

According to experts fromthe Health Department, theweather conditions are fa-vourable for the H1N1 virusto thrive and thus publicshould be vigilant.

The virus would waneaway with increase in tem-perature, but this spell ofrains has brought down thetemperature considerably.It is a favourable conditionfor H1N1 virus that persistsin cold temperature andmore people may get infect-ed by the disease.

There is a need to main-tain personal hygiene to pre-vent the infection fromspreading, said an expertfrom the Health Depart-ment. PTI

Emergencymeet overswine flu

NEW DELHI: A Delhi court on-Mondayframed chargesagainst former Union Minis-ter Jagdish Tytler in a defa-mation case filed by advocateH.S. Phoolka.

Mr. Phoolka has been in theforefront of arguing cases fil-ed by the victims of the 1984anti-Sikh riots in variouscourts here, including the oneagainst Mr. Tytler.

Additional Chief Metropol-itan Magistrate (ACMM)Gaurav Rao framed the charg-es when Mr. Tytler pleadednot guilty and claimed a trial.

The court later posted thecase to May 2 for beginningtrial with recording of prose-cution evidence.

It is alleged that you hadmade defamatory imputationagainst complainant Sh. H.S.Phoolka Further, you hadmade the following defamato-ry statements against him bystating that

he has made money. He isblackmailing people theACMM said, while readingover and explaining the noticeand putting questions to Mr.Tytler.

Saying that he had under-stood the notice, Mr. Tytlersaid that he pleaded not guiltyand claimed a trial.

In his complaint, Mr.Phoolka alleged that Mr. Tyt-ler had made derogatory re-marks about him during thelive telecast of two pro-grammes titled Khabro-ki-

Khabar and X-Factor onNDTV in 2004.

Mr. Phoolka had initiallyfiled the complaint in thecourt of Chief Judicial Magis-trate, Ludhiana, which had is-sued warrants against Mr.Tytler. Later, Mr. Tytler hadapproached the SupremeCourt for transfer of the caseto a Delhi court, submittingthat he could not go to Lud-hiana due to threat to his life.The Apex Court had latertransferred the case to Delhi.

Charges framed againstTytler for defamation Special Correspondent

Jagdish Tytler pleadednot guilty and claimed a trial.

In his complaint,advocate H.S.Phoolka alleged thatMr. Tytler had madederogatory remarksabout him during thelive telecast of twoprogrammes onNDTV in 2004

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Policehave busted an illegal gun-running racket spread overUttar Pradesh, Bihar andMadhya Pradesh, where man-ufacturers of guns bartertheir firearms with those whomake cartridges and vice-ver-sa.

The gang used women op-eratives to accompany theirmen in travelling from Mun-ger, Bihar.

The module was busted bythe Special Cell of the DelhiPolice on February 23. It got atip-off that a couple would bearriving at the Anand ViharISBT for gun and cartridgepeddling.

The accused have beenidentified as Mohd Rabbani(35) and Chunni Beghum(30), both residents of Mun-ger, Bihar. They were arrest-ed from ISBT. Twosophisticated pistols and a to-tal of 900 Ordnance Factorymade 7.65 mm cartridgeswere seized from their pos-session, said Deputy Com-missioner of Police (SpecialCell) Sanjeev Kumar Yadav.

On interrogation , the po-lice found out that this inter-State syndicate employs a dif-ferent modus operandi toexecute its business. The fire-arms manufactured in Mun-ger, Bihar, are traded forcartridges from dubioussources by collectors based inKhargone and Khandwa ofMadhya Pradesh.

Inter-State armsracket busted,two arrested Staff Reporter

NEW DELHI: Taking ahead in-vestigations in the docu-ments theft case, the DelhiPolice on Monday questioneda senior official of GMR Ener-gy. However, none of the CE-Os of the companies namedso far have been questionedas yet.

Rajbir Singh, manager,Corporate Relations, GMREnergy Limited, was calledfor questioning at the Inter-state Cell of the Delhi PoliceCrime Branch inChanakyapuri.

GMR employee RajbirSingh was called for question-ing and we are still in talkswith other people. Some ofthem are on the run and ef-forts are on to nab them.Those who ran away are pri-marily members of consult-

ing companies, Delhi PoliceCommissioner BS Bassi said.

Mr. Bassi clarified that theCrime Branch, which is prob-ing the case, has not ques-tioned any CEOs so far.

Documents examined

Asked about the nature ofthe documents received so farand whether the police wereplanning to slap the OfficialSecrets Act (OSA) in this con-nection, he said, Some docu-ments have been recovered;

we are examining them; theyare being examined in consul-tation with respective minis-tries so that the importanceof the documents can beascertained.

So far 16 people have beenarrested in this case undertwo separate FIRs. While 13people have been arrestedunder the first FIR, threehave been held in the secondcase.

Last arrest

The last arrest in the casewas on February 26 when thepolice had apprehended twoofficials of the EnvironmentMinistry and the UPSC.

They were identified as Ji-tender Nagpal (40), PS toJoint Secretary in the Forestand Environment Ministry,and Vipan Kumar (42), PA toan UPSC member.

Staff Reporter

GMR Energy official questionedin corporate espionage case

None of the CEOs ofthe companies namedso far have beenquestioned by theCrime Branch, saysthe Delhi PoliceCommissioner

NEW DELHI: Two boys from Hindu Collegewere reportedly expelled for bringing in asex worker and smuggling alcohol into thehostel on Monday. Although the college ad-ministration, including the hostel warden,denied such a thing, well-placed sourcesconfirmed the incident to The Hindu.

A meeting of the hostel committee tookplace and a complaint was reported to havebeen made to the police by the woman, whowas allegedly from Bangladesh, said thesources. There was no such incident, saidhostel warden Poonam Sethi.

Hindu College boys expelledfor bringing in sex worker Vijetha S.N

CMYK

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4 THE HINDU TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015NOIDA/DELHI

CITY/NCR

NEW DELHI: South Delhi resi-dents may soon get some sayin the way developmentfunds are used in their mu-nicipal wards, as the localcivic body is likely to set upResidents Ward Commit-tees (RWCs).

The South Delhi Munici-pal Corporations StandingCommittee willpass a pro-posal on Tuesdayto createRWCs in each of its 104wards, chairperson SubhashArya said on Monday.

Introduced by MCD

The proposal was initiallyintroduced by the then uni-fied Municipal Corporationof Delhi in 2011, but its im-plementation had beenpending till now. Mr. Aryaadmitted there had been adelay due to opposition fromcouncillors. Since council-lors have the discretionarypower on utilisation offunds, they were not keen onsharing it with residents,said officials.

However, they added thatwith the AAP taking powerin Delhi, the BJP-led corpo-ration has decided to finallyset up the RWCs. A part ofits 70-point agenda, theSwaraj Bill as envisaged bythe AAP includes the settingup of Mohalla Sabhas. Thesesabhas are meant to increasetransparency in develop-ment spending.

Correct usage of funds

However, Mr. Arya saidthe move to set up the RWCsnow had nothing to do withthe party in power in Delhi.We had started working onthis idea even before the

AAP had thought of it. TheRWCs will help us utilisefunds correctly with the in-puts of residents.

As per the SDMCs plan,each RWC will be chaired bythe area councillor and theJunior Engineer (Works)will be its convener. Mr.Arya said this was becausethe corporation isnt al-lowed to disburse funds tooutsiders.

Each registered RWA ofthe ward will nominate arepresentative to the RWC,in addition to members fromtrade organisations, reli-gious and social groups andsenior citizensorganisations.

Consultative committee

As per the proposal: TheRWC will act as a consulta-tive committee and work incooperation with the localelected councillor for thedevelopment of the ward.

The committees will meetonce a month, for which anallowance of Rs.1,000 will begiven, and decide on devel-opment works of up to Rs.30lakh.

The councillor will act onthe recommendations of theRWC, and the Mayors officewill monitor its progress.

South Delhi to getResidents WardCommittees soon

Damini Nath

The RWC will act as aconsultative committeeand work in cooperationwith the local electedcouncillor for thedevelopment of the ward

NEW DELHI: The Aam AadmiParty-led government toldthe Delhi High Court onMonday that a CAG audit ofprivate discoms is necessaryas these companies dischargea public function.

The submission was madebefore a bench of Chief Jus-tice G. Rohini and Justice R.S.Endlaw by senior advocateRajiv Dhavan, appearing forthe Delhi Government. Hesaid Where there is a naturalresource involved, CAG auditis necessary.

This issue (case) is noth-ing less than a CAG audit, hesaid, adding, It is necessaryto clear the air over the al-leged anomalies and manip-ulation of their (discoms)accounts affecting power tar-iff in the Capital.

Discoms are involved indistribution of power, whichis a public function and,hence falls under the ambit ofCAG audit, he contended.

Mr. Dhavan submitted thatthe decision to conduct CAGaudit of the three discoms,Tata Power Delhi Distribu-tion Ltd. (TPDDL) and Re-liance Anil DhirubhaiAmbani Group firms BSESRajdhani Power Ltd and

BSES Yamuna Power Ltd was taken by the Cabinet in2011, much before the AamAadmi Party came to power.

During the days hearing,he said the discoms have onlyadopted the argument of lackof jurisdiction and not men-

tioned what prejudice wouldbe caused to them by a CAGaudit.

If CAG does not have thepower, then who does? Their(discoms) only oppositionagainst CAG audit is jurisdic-tion, he argued.

Mr. Dhavan said the gov-ernment was not trying tostop their functioning or in-terfere in it but was only try-ing to bring them underpublic audit, as 49 per centstake in the discoms was heldby the Delhi Government,which has also infused capitalin these companies.

He also alleged that the dis-coms have not paid the powerproducers from whom theypurchase electricity to dis-tribute in the national Capitaland argued that these werepublic authority performingpublic functions.

The arguments, which re-mained inconclusive, will re-sume today. PTI

They discharge public function, so they should be audited

It has been alleged that manipulation of accounts ofprivate discoms are affecting power tariff in theCapital. HINDU FILE PHOTO

CAG audit of discoms needed: Govt. to HC

NEW DELHI: After a tug-of-warwith the Centre that lastedalmost a fortnight, the UnionMinistry of Home Affairs(MHA) gave its nod for theappointment of senior IASofficer K.K. Sharma as thenext Chief Secretary ofDelhi.

Home Minister RajnathSingh approved the appoint-ment of Mr. Sharma, who iscurrently serving as ChiefSecretary of Goa, for his ele-vation to the post.

A 1983-batch AGMUT-cadre IAS officer, Mr. Shar-ma meets the criterion need-ed for his appointment to theoffice. He had assumed thecharge of Chief Secretary ofGoa in September 2014. Be-fore that, he was advisor tothe Administrator ofChandigarh.

Delhi Governmentsources said Mr. Sharma isacceptable to them. In fact,his name was one of thosesuggested by the Delhi Gov-ernment to the Centre al-though it was our secondchoice, said an official add-ing that they were satisfied

that the governments man-date had been give duerespect.

The approval of the HomeMinister came after DelhiChief Minister Arvind Kej-riwal rejected a panel ofthree officers recommendedby the Home Ministry.

Mr. Kejriwals first choicefor Chief Secretarys post,R.S. Negi, was rejected by theHome Ministry on theground that he was not se-nior enough to hold the postand not in the higher payscale of Rs. 80,000.

The Home Ministry hadalso told the Delhi Govern-ment that appointment of

Mr. Negi will be unfair to adozen UT cadre officers whoare senior to him and servingin different posts.

Mr. Kejriwal and DeputyChief Minister Manish Siso-dia had met Rajnath Singhon Thursday and requestedhim to appoint Mr. Negi asthe Chief Secretary.

Arguing for Mr. Negis ap-pointment, the AAP Govern-ment had also conveyed tothe Home Ministry that itcame to power after a histor-ic mandate from the peopleof Delhi and the Centreshould extend all possiblecooperation to it to realisethe peoples expectations.

The Home Ministry is thenodal authority of making alltop bureaucratic appoint-ments in the Delhi Govern-ment as the city is a UnionTerritory.

Staff Reporter

His name was one ofthose suggested by the Delhi Government to the Centre

K.K. Sharma gets MHA nod, tobe Delhis new Chief Secretary

A 1983-batchAGMUT-cadre IASofficer, K.K. Sharmais currently serving asthe Chief Secretary of Goa

NEW DELHI: The Delhi HighCourt on Monday sought theCentres response on pharmamajor Reckitt Benckisersplea challenging a govern-ment notification mandatingthat every pack of cosmeticsshould indicate whether ithas any ingredient of animalorigin.

A bench of Chief Justice G.Rohini and Justice R.S. En-dlaw issued notice to the gov-ernment and sought itsresponse by May 18 on Reck-itt Benckisers plea that theJune 16, 2014, notification ofthe Department of ConsumerAffairs is contrary to provi-sions of the Drugs and Cos-metics Act.

The department has issuedthe notification under the Le-gal Metrology Act, while thecompany has claimed thatthe issue falls under the scopeof the Drugs and CosmeticsAct.

The notification mandatesthat packages of cosmeticsand toiletries like shampoos,toothpastes and soaps shouldbear a red/brown dot for non-vegetarian origin and greendot for vegetarian. PTI

HC seeks Centresreply on treatingcosmetics as vegor non-veg

ing buffer stock in producingareas need to be strengthened,he added.

Mr. Sisodia also directed thedepartments concerned toprovide legality to the pushcart-based vegetable sellers toenable them to earn their live-lihood with dignity and pro-vide effective deliverymechanism to the people.

NEW DELHI: Spurred by the pasttrack record of prices of essen-tial vegetables registering asteep hike during the summermonths, the Delhi Govern-ment has launched measuresto keep the rates, including on-ions and potatoes, undercheck.

Deputy Chief Minister Man-ish Sisodia took stock of themeasures at a review meetingof the Food and Supply Depart-ment here on Monday, whileaffirming that the preparationwas essential at the right ear-nest to have a meaningfulmarket intervention.

Mr. Sisodia said the DelhiGovernments objectives weregiving the farmers due pricesfor their produce and ensuringadequate supply to the con-sumers of the Capital, especial-ly those belonging to theeconomically weaker sections,at reasonable prices. The proc-ess of augmentation for creat-

Govt. takes measures tocontrol vegetable pricesMohammed Iqbal

The price of onionsusually skyrocket during summer

Dirty secret

A pile of garbage lies strewn on the sideof a road at Ashok Vihar in Delhi onMonday. PHOTO: SUSHIL KUMAR VERMA

a print out of the e-card, asenior official said.

The e-ration card wouldhave to be certified from thelocal Food & Supplies Officer(FSO) and start claiming his/her entitlement from the ra-tion shop, the official added.

There have been severalcomplaints of beneficiariesare still yet to get their cards.Currently, the departmentdispatches the cards to theapplicants through SpeedPost. Sources said the depart-ment has already dispatchedcards of over 16 lakh bene-ficiary families, the remain-ing two lakh is in the process.

Officials said while the newmechanism of e-ration cardswould be helpful in arrestingsuch delays, it would be help-ful even for those who losetheir card or want to get itamended either in case of ad-dition/deletion of names.

NEW DELHI: In order to arrestprocedural delays in deliver-ing Food Security Cards, theFood & Supplies Departmentof the Delhi Government isplanning to issue e-rationscards to the beneficiariesidentified under the Food Se-curity Act.

The print out of the e-ra-tion cards, which could be ac-cessed from thedepartments portal, wouldfunction as a substitute forfood security cards to claimentitlements as envisagedunder the Act.

Sources said the onlinemechanism would belaunched soon. The soft-ware required for the pur-pose is being developed. Therecord of all card holders ison the departments portal.Once this new feature on thewebsite becomes functional,an applicant would have tokey in some factual informa-tion. If the fed data matcheswith the record, a one-timepassword would be sent tothe applicant through SMS.Using that password, the ap-plicant would be able to take

Delhi Govt. to soonissue e-ration cards Vishal Kant The e-ration cards

would function as asubstitute for foodsecurity cards to claimentitlements

It will be headed by Mad-hukar Gupta, IAS (retd.), whowas a former Vice-Chairmanof DDA. The members in-clude S.K. Tandon, formercommissioner of Land Acqui-sition, DDA, Sharda Prasad,former commissioner ofLand Acquisition, DDA, K.P.Laxman Rao, former member(Finance), DDA and A.K.Jain, former commissionerof Planning, DDA.

Ex-officio members of thecommittee include: Addi-tional Secretary and JointSecretary, Ministry of UrbanDevelopment, Chief Planner,Town and Country PlanningOrganisation, Secretary, Del-hi Urban Arts Commission,Chairman, NDMC, Munici-pal Commissioners of thethree Municipal Corpora-tions of Delhi and Secretary,DDA who will also be theMember Secretary of theCommittee.

The chairman of the com-mittee has been authorised toco-opt two other members asexperts from outside thegovernment.

NEW DELHI: The Delhi Devel-opment Authority is set toundergo a change of role tokeep up with the develop-ment needs of Delhi.

The Union Urban Develop-ment Ministry has proposedto reassess the role of DDA tomeet the diverse and emerg-ing development needs of thecity. Minister of Urban De-velopment M. Venkaiah Nai-du has set up a 14-memberCommittee to revisit and re-draft the Delhi DevelopmentAct, 1957, under which theDDA was set up.

The committee will assessthe adequacy of the provi-sions of the Delhi Develop-ment Act, 1957, and the roleof the DDA under the Act. Itwill suggest measures to betaken to enable the DDA toplay the role of a facilitatorand regulator. The DDA cur-rently plays the role of a de-veloper.

The committee would besubmitting drafts, acts andrules in three months time.

DDA set to get moreresponsibilitiesAkanksha Jain

NEW DELHI: Asking the DelhiLieutenant-Governors officeto desist from adopting a flip-flop approach, the Central In-formation Commission (CIC)has directed it to make clearwithin 30 days whether it con-siders itself a public authorityunder the Right to InformationAct or not.

The case relates to an RTIapplicant seeking to get fromthe Lieutenant-Governors Of-fice the communication ex-changed with Delhi ChiefMinister Arvind Kejriwal, Ad-vocate General and SolicitorGeneral in connection with theKhriki Extension raid wherethe then Law Minister Som-nath Bhartis conduct cameunder question.

He had also sought copies ofother communications ex-changed between the Lieuten-ant-Governor and otherauthorities on various issues.In its reply, the office neitherprovided information nor didit dispute being a public au-thority under the RTI Act.

The issue arose before In-formation Commissioner Srid-har Acharyulu where officialsrepresenting the L-G office cit-ed a stay issued by Delhi HighCourt, which was deciding on

whether the office comes un-der the purview of the law.

Stating that L-G office wasviolating the fundamentalright to equality given underArticle 14 of the Constitution,Mr. Acharyulu said, Strangely,the office of L-G took a peculiarstand that whenever it is feasi-ble it will conduct itself as apublic authority under theRTI Act to give information,and whenever it is not, it willraise the claim that it is not apublic authority.

The people of Delhi have aright to know whether theirL-G office is public authorityor not...This is needed becauseit will kick up unnecessary liti-gations and increase the pen-dency on Delhi High Court, hesaid. PTI

Is L-Gs office a publicauthority or not: CIC

Will the L-Gs officecome under the RTI Act?

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5THE HINDU TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015NOIDA/DELHI

STATE

NEW DELHI: Resurrecting hisparty, learning to speak thelanguage of the commonman and practising issue-based politics are the mainpriorities of Delhi Congresspresident Ajay Maken.

The face of the partys cam-paign for this years Assemblyelections, which translatedinto its worst-ever defeat, theformer Union Minister andAICC General Secretary saidthe party had learnt many les-sons both before and after theresults, which would be in-corporated in its quest to be-come relevant in the Capitalspolitical life again.

On February 22, The Hin-du had reported that the par-ty was planning asignificant rejig of its entireDelhi unit, which was expect-ed to be affected by the end ofFebruary.

We will re-engage with thecommon man of Delhi, re-learn the language he speaks

and the core issues that affecthim so that a new, issue-based politics can be put intopractice, Mr. Maken toldThe Hindu.

Our block-level manage-ment was found wanting inmany respects in addition tothe various issue-based cells,

which were, unfortunately,allowed to lie defunct for ayear in the run-up to thepolls. These will be resurrec-ted and made active at alarger scale than earlier, headded.

Another priority for theparty, he said, would be the

creation of a massive base ofvolunteers, the process forwhich had been streamlined.

Membership will be a keyarea of concern and we are inthe process of launching web-based apps over several plat-forms which will soon make itmore than convenient to be-come a member of the party,Mr. Maken said.

At its lowest ebb, the partycould not even mange to re-tain the tally of eight seats,which it had managed to se-cure in 2013.

Meanwhile, former DelhiPradesh Congress Commit-tee president Arvinder Singh,might be on his way towardsbigger responsibilities.

When asked about him, Mr.Maken said: Every partyworker has a particular posi-tion and a role that the partyhas kept for him or her; hiselevation to a post involvingbigger responsibilities seemsquite natural given the factthat he has age on his side, hesaid.

Delhi Congress chief says membership will be partys key focus Jatin Anand

Ajay Maken campaigning at Shastri Nagar for theAssembly elections. FILE PHOTO: S. SUBRAMANIUM

Need to speak common mans language,practise issue-based politics: Maken

NEW DELHI: The Aam Aadmi Party pollstrategist, Gopal Mohan, has been rec-ommended by Delhi Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal for the post of Vice-Chairman of the New Delhi MunicipalCouncil. In a letter to Union HomeMinister Rajnath Singh, Mr. Kejriwalhas requested that Mr. Mohan be cho-sen for the post, which is in keepingwith the NDMC Act.

In accordance with the NDMC Act,I had recommended Gopal Mohan asVice-Chairman of the NDMC and

written to you a few days back, stateda letter written by Mr. Kejriwal onFebruary 28. The BJPs Karan SinghTanwar who was the former legislatorfrom the Delhi Cantt area currentlyholds the position.

In September last year, the NDMChad been reconstituted with the ap-pointment of four new non-officialmembers who replaced the four Con-gress-nominated members in the 13-member body. Former MP and formerDelhi Mayor Anita Arya, and B.S.Bhatt and Abdul Rashid Ansari are itsnon-official members.

Kejriwal wants Gopal Mohanappointed NDMC vice-chairman Sowmiya Ashok

NEW DELHI: Barring New Delhi, Old Del-hi and Nizamuddin railway stations,where partial services will be avail-able, all the computerised passengerreservation centres in the Capital andnearby areas will remain closed till 2p.m. on the occasion of Holi on Friday.

Skeleton service will be available inmorning shift at the reservation com-plex near stations at New Delhi, OldDelhi and Nizamuddin from 8 a.m. to 2p.m., according to a senior NorthernRailway official.

However, all counters will remainopen in the evening shift from 2 p.m.to 8 p.m.

Reservation counters at the Parlia-ment House, Press Club of India, Su-preme Court, Delhi High Court, DelhiUniversity, Jawahar Lal Nehru Uni-versity, Tis Hazari Court, KashmereGate and at IIT will remain closed forthe whole day on Holi.

The current reservation counterswill work as usual at Delhi, New Delhiand Hazrat Nizamuddin, Anand Vihar,Delhi Cantt and Meerut City stations.

The computerised reservation offic-es which will not operate in the morn-ing are Sahibabad, New Ghaziabad,Sarojini Nagar, Lajpat Nagar, Okhla,Karkardooma, Noida, Delhi Shahdara,Adarsh Nagar, Ghaziabad, Naya Azad-pur, Subzi Mandi, Kirti Nagar, Tugla-kabad, Shakur Basti, Rohini, AIIMS,International Tourist Bureau, Gur-gaon, Palam, Delhi Cantt., Delhi SaraiRohilla, Faridabad, Ballabhgarh, Pal-wal, Narela, Sonepat, Panipat, Karnal,Kurukshetra, Kaithal, Jind, Mansa,Rohtak, Bahadurgarh, Nangloi, Sham-li, Muradnagar, Modinagar, MeerutCity, Meerut Cantonment, Muzaffar-nagar, Deoband, among others. Thesecentres will work as usual in the eve-ning shift. PTI

Most rail reservation centresto operate after 2 p.m. on Holi

NEW DELHI: The tussle between the Delhi Gov-ernment and journalists over entry into DelhiSecretariat was resolved on Monday to someextent with the AAP Government allowingconditional entry to scribes.

The governments stand comes after a dele-gation of the Delhi Press Accreditation Com-mittee (DPAC) met the senior officials.

Review every month

DPAC chairman Ratnesh Mishra said, Ac-cording to the governments decision, jour-nalists with DIP accreditation cards can enterthe Secretariat at 3 p.m. onwards. Journalistswho dont have DIP accreditation cards willhave to get entry pass issued in their names atthe reception before entering the Secretariat.Mr. Mishra said, Government has also decid-ed to review the entry of journalists everymonth.

The government has already made it clearthat it has not banned the media entry into theDelhi Secretariat, but some restrictions wereimposed on their entry. PTI

Conditional entry forscribes at Secretariat

to find ways for inclusivedevelopment.

The commissions vice-chairperson Ashish Khetan,Deputy Chief Minister Man-

ish Sisodia, commissionsmember-secretary AshishJoshi, who is member fi-nance in the Delhi UrbanShelter Improvement Board,and senior officers attendedthe meeting.

According to an officialannouncement, the taskforces will be devoted to thesubjects of governance, elec-tricity, clean water, clean Ya-muna, neat and clean Delhi,education, health, womenssafety, Delhi rural, trade,jobs and job security, pollu-tion, transport, unauthor-ised colonies, JJ clusters,price rise, traffic, speedy jus-tice, Mobile Par Sakaar andWi-Fi and CCTV.

The commission has de-cided that the task forceswould be set up at the earli-

est, though no pressure of aspecific deadline has beenput as of now. It was alsodecided that the commissionwould function from an in-dependent office, the mod-alities of which are beingworked out.

The task forces will be re-quested to submit their rec-ommendations as soon aspossible once they startfunctioning, so that the gov-ernment gets time to imple-ment the suggestedmeasures.

While announcing the es-tablishment of the commis-sion, Mr. Sisodia had statedlast week that the task forceswould comprise experts,who would consult the peo-ple and come up with thebest solutions.

NEW DELHI: The newly ap-pointed Delhi DialogueCommission, having themandate to implement theruling Aam Aadmi Partys vi-sion for governance in theCapital, on Monday decidedon setting up of as many as20 task forces on multifa-rious subjects, stated to be ofpublic interest.

The commissions firstmeeting, presided over byChief Minister Arvind Kej-riwal, was held here to delib-erate on a wide range ofissues to be taken up by thenew body, which has effec-tively extended the AAPspre-poll initiative to holddialogues with different sec-tions of population in order

Dialogue panel to set up 20 task forces Mohammed Iqbal

The commissions firstmeeting was presidedover by Chief MinisterArvind Kejriwal

NEW DELHI: The Congresss newly appointedDelhi president said he was willing to adviceChief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on policy is-sues even as he accused the latter of attempt-ing to find excuses to justify non-delivery ofthe promises made to the people of Delhi.

First of all, I would like to tell the ChiefMinister that I am always available andwould remain so for him; as and when heneeds my advice or would like to consult meas per the promise of moving forward withthe experience of both the Congress and theBJP for the progress of Delhi, which he hadmade on the day of his swearing-in, Mr.Maken said.

He alleged that Mr. Kejriwal seemed to beattempting to cloak his lack of performancewith an illusion of being needlessly victi-mised by the Central Government.

The issue of water supply from the MunakCanal was first raked by the Sheila Dikshit-led Congress Government during two con-secutive tenures.

Mind you, this was when the Hooda Gov-ernment was at the helm of that State andstill there could be no headway. For the DelhiChief Minister to expect cooperation fromwhat is now a BJP-led Government thatheads the State is preposterous, Mr. Makensaid,

Similarly, what level of cooperation is heattempting to elicit from a party that had nomention of statehood in its own manifesto?Even the tug-of-war over the issue of theChief Secretary seems to be a gimmick;would he have let one of his own bureaucratsgo at another governments whims? Mr.Maken asked.

Ready to adviseCM if he needs itJatin Anand

Fighting for a cause

Members of the Airport Employees Union protestoutside the office of Labour Ministry in New Delhion Monday. PHOTO: SHANKER CHAKRAVARTY

CMYK

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6 THE HINDU TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015NOIDA/DELHI

NORTHERN REGION

CHANDIGARH: Claiming that hehad inherited a shatteredeconomy and near-empty coff-ers, Haryana Chief MinisterManohar Lal Khattar on Mon-day came out with a white paperpresenting the factual status ofvarious aspects of finances andrelated growth data over the 10-year period between 2004-05and 2013-14.

Mr. Khattar said the docu-ment seeks to diagnose the ar-eas where course correction byway of policy intervention is re-quired to put the economy on afast growth trajectory. He alsoinvited suggestions from econ-omists, financial experts, aca-demics and political parties onshoring up revenue, accelerat-ing economic growth, creatingmore jobs and to improving thelot of the people, particularlythe poor and farmers.

The Chief Minister clarifiedthat the aim of the White Paperwas not to criticise the previous

Congress Government led byBhupinder Singh Hooda but tolet the people know the correctpicture about the economic re-alities and state of finances ofthe government.

I had promised to bring outa White Paper to benchmarkthe status of the State financesbefore the Budget session of theState Assembly, and I have keptmy word, Mr. Khattar said.

He said urgent steps wereneeded to speed up the growthof the primary sector. This canbe done by promoting diversifi-cation of agriculture and by im-proving productivity of theworkforce engaged in farms --given that large number of fam-ilies are dependent on agricul-ture, animal husbandry,horticulture and other alliedactivities.

As for the secondary (indus-trial) sector, Mr. Khattar saidthe White Paper had revealedthat it too was on a decline. Weneed to take immediate mea-sures to arrest this decline and

improve the contribution ofmanufacturing to the StatesGross Domestic Product(GSDP) which has fallen in thepast decade. Haryana must lev-erage its locational advantageto give fresh impetus to the lag-ging industrial sector.

He said the poor health ofState finances has shown theneed to shift from populism to amerits long-term vision basedon the principles of soundeconomics.

The White Paper has alsobrought out the trends in mac-ro-economic indicators, bud-getary receipts and expenditureand analysed the 10-year trendsin growth of tax revenue, non-tax revenue, revenue collectionas well as areas of shortfall andslow growth in receipts.

Finance Minister CaptainAbhimanyu while providing thedetails said a declining trendwas noticed in both the Statesown tax revenue and non-taxrevenue between 2004-05 and2013-14.

Gaurav Vivek Bhatnagar

Haryana Govt. brings out whitepaper on growth in last 10 years

12 deaths have been recordedin the last 24 hours with 600fresh cases PUNE: With Mah-arashtra experiencing unsea-sonal rain and a sharp drop intemperatures, the swine flutoll in the State has soared to152.

State Health authorities arestruggling to cope with therapid spread of the H1N1 virus, even as Health Minister Dee-pak Sawant cancelled theleave granted to doctors.

The number of those in-fected has touched 1,789 600 fresh cases in 72 hoursand 12 deaths in 24 hours.Nagpur and the Vidarbha di-vision continue to be theworst-affected, registeringmore than 45 deaths so far.

The toll in Pune has crossed34, while 26 patients are saidto be critical and on ventila-tor. Nashik district registeredeight deaths, while Latur dis-trict in the Marathwada re-gion of South Maharashtrarecorded six so far.

Hospitals across the Statewitnessed chaos and confu-sion, particularly in Pune,over the format ofprescriptions.

Doctors in certain privatehospitals have been insisting

that patients submit prescrip-tions as per the governmentspecification classifying H1N1symptoms, namely categoryA (extremely critical), B (forsymptoms requiring adminis-tration of Tamiflu) and C(which needs symptomatictreatment of seasonal influen-za without Tamiflu dosage).This has often led to argu-ments between the kin of pa-tients and harried doctors.

Anxious parents were seenstruggling to convince doctorsto examine their wards andadminister them Tamiflu.

Acknowledging the gravityof the situation, Chief Minis-ter Devendra Fadnavis saidthe State would pay for thetreatment of H1N1 patients inprivate hospitals across theState.

Speaking to an English dai-ly in Mumbai, Mr. Fadnavissaid that hospitals could notrefuse treatment to any per-son with swine flu symptoms.

(With additional reportingby Vinaya Deshpande)

Shoumojit Banerjee

Rain pushes Maharashtraswine flu toll to 152

600 fresh casesreported in the last72 hours

The name of Aam Aadmi Par-ty leader Yogendra Yadav wasmisspelt in the edition dated02/03/15. The error isregretted.

Correction

INDERJEET Singh Rai,resident of Ra-jinder Nagar,lost his Certificatesof class 10 and 12 on the way toNew Delhi station.In case of anyinformation,kindly contact on7838085890

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LUCKNOW: Thirteen new casesof swine flu were reported onMonday, taking the totalnumber of people sufferingfrom the H1N1 virus to 627 inUttar Pradesh, where 15 per-sons have died so far due tothe disease. - PTI

More swine flucases in U.P.

White cover

People brave heavy snowfall in Shimla on Monday. - PHOTO: PTI

DEHRADUN: Snowfall and rainsdisrupted life as they contin-ued to lash Uttarakhand forover 24 hours with Devprayagand Dehradun receiving

heavy rainfall of 72.2 mm and71.6 mm respectively, onMonday morning, Director ofthe Dehradun MeteorologicalCentre Anand Sharma said.

Snowfall was experiencedat places above 2,500 metres,

including Kedarnath, whereit disrupted the ongoing re-construction work.

Landslide at Lambagar inChamoli district and variousplaces in Uttarkashi were alsoreported.

Staff Reporter

Rain disrupts life in Uttarakhand

CMYK

ND-ND

7THE HINDU TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015NOIDA/DELHI

VARIETY/SOUTHERN REGION

Kooratazhvan, disciple of Ramanujacharya, felt it wastime to leave the world. He prayed to Lord Ranganathaof Srirangam and requested that moksha be grantedsoon. Because of Kooratazhvans devotion to hisAcharya, the Lord agreed to grant his request, said P.T.Seshadri, in a discourse.

Kooratazhvan had always been by Ramanujas side.When Ramanuja wrote his monumental commentary Sri Bhashya, Kooratazhvan was with him, offeringvaluable inputs. To Ramanuja, therefore, parting fromKooratazhvan seemed unthinkable.

Ramanuja went to the Srirangam temple to requestthe Lord to take back the boon he had just granted toKooratazhvan the boon of moksha soon. But just as hegot to the entrance to the temple, Ramanuja paused. Hebegan to have second thoughts about placing such arequest before the Lord. The Lord would definitely havegranted Ramanujas request, and that would have meantthat Kooratazhvan would be by Ramanujas side, asusual. But would that not lead to people saying that theLord did not keep His word to His devotees? Was it rightto expose the Lord to such criticism? So Ramanujachanged his mind.

The Lord had promised moksha to all those associatedwith Ramanuja, and His granting of moksha uponrequest to Kooratazhvan, was, therefore, not surprising.If Lord Ranganatha now went back on His word toKooratazhvan, that would be like nullifying His promisenot only to Kooratazhvan himself, but also His promiseof liberation to all those associated with Ramanuja. So topray that the Lords boon to Kooratazhvan be cancelled,would again tantamount to asking the Lord to break Hisown promise. Ramanuja, therefore, did not ask the Lordto cancel His promise to Kooratazhvan, andKooratazhvan left this earth, as promised by the Lord.

Request for moksha

FAITH

Across

7 Fine offer attractingsoldiers to bar (6)

8 Eagerness of a councilloruniting ordinary people(8)

9 Uplifting song with andwithout a curse (8)

10 Run from either sidekeeping dead straight (6)

11 Temperamental doctor,oddly absent at intervals(5)

12 Permit to trap local bird(6)

14 Dilemma in front of others,not prepared to pledgeloyalty in marriage(6,4,5)

17 Continue summary (6)18 This aunt gives advice for

pain (5)22 Affair around the palm

tree (6)23 Unusual thing, flying close

to sound barrier (4,4)24 Instrument to cut, trim

and also pound (4,4)25 Gradually collects in area

between valleys (6)Down

1 Sentimental about toy, adecorative figure in straw(4,5)

2 Sailor dined and died sank (6)

3 Did extremely little at

work? (5)4 Enterprise sheltering

large and small pets (8)5 One owed praise for

cancelling function (8)6 Sheer pace overcoming

one in the end (5)8 Digital representation of

exceptionally rare animalcub? (6,7)

13 Travelling in time throughTintin comic (9)

15 Beasts (howlers) eatingbird without wings (8)

16 Person willing to checkupcoming duty list (8)

19 Spit obstruction in wineglass (6)

20 Helpful, splendid husbandfor first daughter (5)

21 Grounds to switch limits ofusage in medicines (5)

THE HINDU CROSSWORD 113321 2 3 4 5 6

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YG TSAE

D L P A P BF O R E G O N A P O L E O N

G S S O T A WA S P I R I N G I D Y L L S

L O T R T B SR E I N S M E D U S A

I A D L AA G A I N S T T H E C L O C K

H N A S CC A T C H Y E B B E D

C A C A A E SW A R M T H K I N D L E S S

R E E E G O OO V E R A L L S S E N T R Y

xChequer

Solution to puzzle 11331

Conflict on powersof legislature

The Minister ofParliamentary Affairs,Mr. Satyanarayana Sinha,informed the Lok Sabhaduring question time onMarch 2 that theGovernment proposed tohave a discussion in theHouse, if possible duringthe current session, onthe opinion of theSupreme Court on thejurisdictional conflictbetween the AllahabadHigh Court and the UttarPradesh Legislature. Hesaid the conference ofleaders of various partiesin Parliament which hehad convened during thelast session had notconcluded the discussionon the subject. Heproposed to call anotherconference of the leaderssoon.

Pamban againThe swift and efficient

manner in which thePamban bridge has beenrebuilt by the Southern

Railway authorities, withassistance from otherrailway zones all over thecountry, is a matter forsatisfaction and is also anindex of the countrywideinterest in Rameswaramas a holy pilgrim centre.In time for theresumption of the railwayservice on Sivaratri day,the euphonious name ofthe Boat Mail, perhapsthe best known of allsouthern trains, has beenchanged to RameswaramExpress, obviouslybecause the train nolonger connects Madraswith any regular boatservice to Colombo andfrom there to the othercontinents.

Titos suggestionto Shastri

President Tito isunderstood to havesuggested a joint appealby leading non-alignedcountries to theconflicting parties in VietNam to stop their warlikeactivities and seek apeaceful solution of theirdispute. The suggestionwas contained in theYugoslav leaders letter tothe Prime Minister, Mr.Lal Bahadur Shastri.

(dated March 3, 1965)

FROM THE ARCHIVES

Slice of history, piece of cake delight Rio

Rio de Janeiro showed on Sunday thatpartying really is a piece of cake, asresidents tucked into a monster birthdayconfection to mark the Brazilian citys450th anniversary. Those adverse to carbs

should look away now the 450-metre cake was made with 2.5tonnes of flour, 2.1 tonnes of sugar, 1.5 tonnes of margarine, 3,000eggs and 1,000 litres each of milk and whipped cream. The enormoussweet, the centrepiece of the birthday celebrations, was served upon a long table in the heart of the city. Thousands of people stoodby, singing Happy Birthday before bakers dished out slices todelighted locals.Rio was founded on March 1, 1565 by Portuguese explorer and cityfounder Estacio de Sa. AFP

New portrait ofQueen on coinA new portraitof QueenElizabeth IIwhich willappear on coinsin Britain was unveiled onMonday.The likeness shows the 88-year-old monarch facing rightin profile and wearing a crownand drop earrings. It replaces aprevious portrait which datesback to 1998. AFP

Haze off China smog

An online documentary onChinas smog has become viralwith more than 155 millionviews a day after release, statemedia said on Monday. Underthe Dome, produced by ChaiJing, former TV anchor, blamesslack supervision and lenientpenalties. AFP

#PICKT R E N D I N G N O W

SANGAREDDY: Fire that brokeout following a leakage inthe Reliance pipeline carry-ing gas from Kakinada inEast Godavari to Bharuchwas brought under controlafter five hours of hectic ef-forts by the company per-sonnel at Maddikunta inMedak district.

A major mishap wasaverted with timely actionof the Reliance personneland the district administra-tion in the early hours ofMonday after they pluggedthe leakage from the MainLive Valve (MLV) 14- nearMaddikunta in Sadashiva-pet mandal and brought thefire under control.

The MLV was hardly 50metres away from the SCColony, which has 200houses. The villagers saidthat the fire rose to about30-40 metres, triggeringpanic in the village. Thepipeline was laid by Re-liance Gas TransportationInfrastructure Ltd

(RGTIL), a part of MukeshAmbani-controlled Re-liance Industries (RIL), tosupply gas from Kakinadato Bharuch.

The gas started leakingat about 2.35 a.m. and with-in no time it caught fire .Our people reached the spotwithin 45 minutes after theincident and swung into ac-tion. However, we do not

know the cause of fire. Ex-perts from Mumbai wouldbe arriving here and theywill ascertain the reasons,G.V. Reddy, General Man-ager, Reliance, told TheHindu.

Soon after the fire brokeout, a security guard of thecompany alerted the police.They also got an alert fromthe head office of the com-

pany in Mumbai. Immedi-ately, power supply to thevillage was cut by theofficials.

As a precautionary mea-sure, the technical expertsopened two valves - MLV 13at Indresam near Patanch-eru and MLV 15 at Madhiraat Kohir- and released thegas that was in the pipelinefor about 70 kilometres and

averted the fire fromspreading.

Villagers were evacuatedto safer places and policeprevented people from go-ing close to the MLV. Localpeople returned to theirhouses only after the firewas brought under control.

Collector Rahul Bojja andSuperintendent of Police B.Sumathi visited the spot.

R. Avadhani

Fire in Reliance gas pipeline triggers panic

SAN FRANCISCO: For its nexttechnological trick, Googlewill show you what its like tozip through trees in the Ama-zon jungle.

The images released onMonday are the latest additionto the diverse collection ofphotos supplementing Goo-gles widely used digital maps.The maps Street View op-tion mostly provides pano-ramic views of cities andneighbourhoods photo-graphed by car-mounted cam-eras, but Google has foundcreative ways to depict exoticlocations where there are noroads.

In its latest foray into thewilderness, Google teamed upwith the environmental pro-tection group Amazonas Sus-tainable Foundation, or FAS,to explore a remote part of anAmazon rainforest. GoogleInc. lent FAS its Trekker de-vice, a camera mounted on anapparatus originally designedto be carried like a backpack byhikers walking on trails.

FAS, though, sent theTrekker down a zip line. Goo-gle is renowned for going outon a technological limb, buteven this project made thecompany nervous at first, saidKarin Tuxen-Bettman, whooversees Googles Street Viewpartnerships. The set-up re-

quired FAS workers to treadthrough the rainforest to find aplace where they could stringthe zip line so the Trekkerwould not bump into treetrunks and branches as itzoomed through the thick ca-nopy. With the help of somemonkeys who joined their

scouting expedition, FASworkers found just enoughroom to erect a zip line for theTrekkers trip. One of thethings that I love about work-ing at Google is that if a part-ner comes to us with a crazyidea, we will probably try it,Ms. Tuxen-Bettman said.

Since Google developed theTrekker camera in 2012, thedevice has been dispatched onother unusual journeys. TheTrekker went scuba-diving inthe Galapagos Islands to takeunderwater photographs ofthe preserve, and travelled ona dog sled in the Canadian Ar-tic to photograph the tundra.

Privacy issues should not bean issue in any of the photo-graphs taken by the zip-liningTrekker. Birds and insects arethe only visible forms of life inthe pictures it took. AP

This undated image released by Google shows thecompanys Trekker device on a zip line above theAmazon jungle in South America. PHOTO: AP/GOOGLE

Google Maps goes trekking in AmazonPhotos of the rainforestnow in Street Viewoption

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: KeralaChief Minister OommenChandy will meet PrimeMinister Narendra Modi inDelhi on Tuesday to seek re-laxation in cabotage law towoo port operating compa-nies and consortia to the Viz-hinjam internationalmulti-purpose seaport pro-ject.

The Vizhinjam missionby the Chief Minister comesafter two port operatingcompanies and a consortiumbacked out of the tendersfloated by Vizhinjam Inter-national Seaport Limited(VISL) even after an extend-ed deadline.

Official sources said Mr.Chandy would be accompa-nied by Ports Minister K. Ba-bu and top officials. TheChief Minister would alsomeet Union Minister forShipping Nitin Gadkari.

Kerala CM in Delhi onVizhinjammission Special Correspondent

DEATH

DEATH

ANNIVERSARIES

CHENNAI: The reason a greater propor-tion of Indian children, even thosefrom economically better families, areshorter and smaller than children insub-Saharan Africa is the lower bodymass of mothers before conceptionand less weight gain during pregnancy.

A study published in the journalProceedings of the National Academyof Sciences on Monday says over 42per cent of pre-pregnant Indian wom-en were found to be underweight com-pared with 16.5 per cent insub-Saharan Africa.

The most important reason whypre-pregnant women are more likelyto be underweight than the averagewomen is age. In India, women havechildren very soon after marriage, in anarrow age range between 18 and 25.This is also the time in their lives thatthey are most likely to be under-weight, Diane Coffey, a researcherfrom Princeton University and authorof the paper, said in an e-mail to TheHindu.

Besides lower pre-pregnancyweight, weight gain during pregnancy

is low at about 7 kg for a full-termpregnancy both in India and in sub-Saharan Africa. Since weight gain dur-ing pregnancy is nearly the same in thetwo regions, Indian women end upweighing less than their counterpartsat the end of pregnancy.

To my knowledge, India has no na-tional guidelines for healthy weightgain during pregnancy, Ms. Coffeysaid. The United States Institute ofMedicine, for instance, recommendsthat underweight women gain be-tween 12.5 and 18 kg during pregnan-cy. In situations where there ishigh-quality health care at delivery,this recommendation probably ap-plies to Indian women as well.

It is difficult to compensate for poornutrition during pregnancy by provid-ing nutritious food to children afterbirth. First, babies have to be exclu-sively breastfed for the first sixmonths. Second, stunting is thought totake place in the first 1,000 days be-tween conception and two years ofage.

For half of this first 1,000 days, achild relies totally on the mother fornutrition, she said.

Mothers low weight linked toshorter height of Indian childrenR. Prasad

KOTTAYAM: Kanam Rajendran, national ex-ecutive committee member of the Com-munist Party of India (CPI), has beenunanimously elected new secretary of itsKerala unit at the 22nd State conference ofthe party here on Monday.

A tough stand taken by the partys cen-tral leadership appears to have saved theorganisation from going in for a division toselect the party chief, which would havebeen an unprecedented step. K.E. Ismail,MP, also a national executive member, wasa strong contender for the post.

His camp was confident that in case of anelection, their leader stood a fair chancebecoming the State unit chief.

Though his name was proposed, after astrong intervention from the Central lead-ership, Mr. Ismail expressed his willing-ness to withdraw from the race.

For Mr. Rajendran, this is a case of sec-ond time lucky. The election of PannianRavindran to the secretary post after thedemise of the then party chief C.K. Chan-drappan had resulted in a similar situationwhen the official candidate C. Divakaranwas opposed by Mr. Rajendran.

The party then had to go in for a thirdperson in Mr. Ravindran. This time, Mr.Rajendran had the support of the Central

leadership and also that of Mr. Ravindran,the outgoing secretary.

Mr. Rajendran, considered a product ofthe C.K. Chandrappan line of thinking, isviewed as bullish about his partys inter-ests.

He told presspersons here after his elec-tion that he would stand firm when it cameto issues faced by the party. I will alwaysspeak up for my party. But that does notmean I am speaking against anyone, hesaid. He was the leader of a party whichstood for the unity of the larger Left, andwould work towards it. We do not believethat Left unity means the unity amongmainstream political parties, but that oforganisations, individuals, and groups whostand against neoliberal policies, he said.

As the leader of the CPI, it is my respon-sibility to respond to criticisms against theparty, he said.

Even as the party would work for thestrengthening of the larger Left and theLeft Democratic Front (LDF), the CPIwould keep its identity intact. The partywould move ahead with pro-people strug-gles, and his immediate responsibilitywould be to prepare it to take up suchstruggles.

The party would take up agitationswhich were acceptable to the people, hesaid.

Special Correspondent

Kanam Rajendran electedCPI Kerala unit secretary

CMYK

ND-ND

TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015

8 THE HINDU TUESDAY, MARCH 3, 2015NOIDA/DELHI

EDITORIAL

When he spoke of India first as his govern-

ments religion and the Indian Constitu-

tion as its only religious book, Prime

Minister Narendra Modi was moving be-

yond platitudes on religious freedom, and correctly

re-emphasising the constitutional guarantees of India

as a secular, democratic republic. Within the space of

ten days, Mr. Modi went from offering mere reas-

surances to religious minorities to actually committing

his government to the constitutionally conferred rights

of all citizens to freely practise a religion of their

choice. In a welcome contrast to the typical stance of

Hindutva groups, he upheld the Constitution as the

expression of the ethos the country had followed for

thousands of years, and chided those making irrespon-

sible statements in the name of religion. If his speech at

an event organised by a Christian group was meant as

an assurance to religious minorities, this response in

Parliament, in which he insisted that the country could

only be run in accordance with the Constitution,

seemed directed against Hindutva hardliners who were

making the functioning of his government difficult.

Clearly, Mr. Modi was trying to distance his govern-

ment from the vituperative hate-mongering of the Hin-

dutva groups, including the RSS. Evidently

disconcerted by the criticism of his failure to rein in the

extremist elements within the broader Hindutva fold,

Mr. Modi seemed to be hoping he would be judged on

the basis of his own words and deeds, and not of those

claiming to be the ideological affiliates of the BJP.

True, the statements of RSS leaders and Hindutva

extremists are amplified many times over during the

periods the BJP is in power. But if Mr. Modi does not

want to be answerable for the behaviour of the Hindut-

va fringe, many of whom are also middle-rung leaders

of his own party, he should not then hesitate to repri-

mand them more often and more openly for their

provocative speeches. Otherwise, the government

would be seen as cynically exploiting the work of the

fringe for the political ends of the ruling party whenev-

er possible, and tactically retreating where the fringes

politics become inconvenient. The views of the RSS

and the Vishwa Hindu Parishad would continue to

make headlines as long as the ruling party leaders and

functionaries treat these organisations as part of their

extended family. What is troubling about the public

agenda of the Hindutva groups is the impression that

the implied aggression against non-Hindus has the

tacit sanction of the ruling party. Mr. Modi will have to

continuously speak up categorically against religious

extremists of the saffron hue too, if the Hindutva fringe

is not to cast a long shadow on his government and

undermine its credibility.

Curb the fringe elements W

hen I once met Prime MinisterNarendra Modi, I was struckby a telling comment he madeduring our conversation. He

said, Anil, do you know that even the tearswe shed in this country are not our own?Every tear gas shell used by our securityagencies is actually imported!

The Prime Ministers anguish was entirelygenuine and for me, an eye-opener, literally.

It left me in no doubt about the PrimeMinisters Make in India initiative andwhat a remarkable change of mindset it rep-resented when compared to earlier govern-ments, particularly in relation to the defencesector. For me, it was an extraordinary andpersonal glimpse into the Prime Ministersthinking, his larger strategic vision, and hisdetermination to make India a leading globalplayer in defence manufacturing. This wasreinforced by his choice of Defence Minister,Manohar Parrikar.

Mr. Parrikar is among the most talented,intelligent, hardworking and ethical leadersIndia has seen. His brief, from what I haveseen so far, is to push the Make in Indiaagenda, and provide our armed forces withthe best possible, cutting-edge equipmentand armaments. His reputation for being aman of principle and probity and one who isready to change existing norms and systemsfor greater efficiency and transparency arethe two elements that will transform ourdefence sector into one that is modern andworld class.

Troubled neighbourhood

We live in a troubled neighbourhood anddefending our borders has become a hugechallenge. There are frequent exchanges offire with Pakistani troops along the Line ofControl (LoC), infiltration attempts, and fre-quent face-offs with China on the Line ofActual Control (LAC). Growing military andpolitical relations between China and Pakis-tan continue to define our strategic vision tocounter this joint threat. One of the mostillustrative examples of how our defencepreparedness has suffered is the fact that for25 years, the Indian Army has not been ableto replace the Bofors 155 howitzer gun, avital force multiplier in our artillery arsenal.This was because no Indian firm made simi-lar weapons. Thus, the new policy of openingup the defence sector to private players willgo a long way in ending such self-imposed

handicaps imposed on our defence forces.Therefore, defence preparedness holds

the key to our future as a nation. I recentlyhad the honour of meeting each of our threeservice chiefs Gen. Dalbir Singh Suhag, AirMarshal Arup Raha and Admiral Robin Dho-wan; three officers of exceptional integrity,dedication and commitment. I came awayreassured that the defence of our realm is invery capable hands. Our greatest blessing isthat we have the finest officers and bravestmen and women in uniform anywhere in theworld.

Importance of quality

Unfortunately, borders in todays worldcannot be defended by strength of characternor wars won by dedication, training, dis-cipline and bravery alone. Without techno-logical superiority, our country remainsvulnerable, entailing disproportionate levelsof sacrifice on the part of our valiant armedforces. The Kargil war exemplified this harshreality. For far too long, indecisiveness in

defence procurements, based on a play safeapproach, has resulted in the armed forcessuffering with suboptimal hardware. This istruly a travesty.

The outcome of war is never certain. How-ever, success in warfare in our age is greatlyaided by technological superiority, informa-tion systems and the quality and precision ofweaponry. We owe it to our men and womenin uniform to give them the best-of-classmilitary hardware.

Most submarines currently operated bythe Indian Navy are past their operationallife, while the Indian Air Force is still sad-dled with MiG-21 aircraft of 1970s vintage.India has great power ambitions, and withjustification. We are seeking a permanentseat in the UN Security Council and India isprojected to be the worlds third largesteconomy by 2024. Yet, unlike all other majorpowers in the world, India remains the large-st importer of defence hardware in theworld. Nearly three-quarters of all our crit-

ical defence equipment is sourced fromabroad.

Our record in developing our aerospaceindustry, quite unlike the remarkable strideswe have made in other high-technology ar-eas such as space, communications and mis-sile programmes, is a sorry one, hobbled bymissed opportunities, short-term thinking, alack of controls on domestic manufacturers,and a blinkered strategic vision.

Recent industry surveys assess the matu-rity of Indias aerospace on a scale of 5 at 2.7,the lowest among all defence sectors, laggingfar behind naval and land systems.

Studies also peg Indias defence hardwarepurchases at over $250 billion or nearlyRs.16 lakh crore. Sadly, based on our currentrecord, nearly most of this equipment willhave to be imported.

Our goal of minimum dependence in aero-space is nowhere in sight. It is clear that if wewish to peg our defence expenditure at thecurrent or even higher levels of GDP, thenwe will have to manufacture a major propor-

tion of our requirements indigenously and,in time, begin to export so as to rollback thenet deficit in the defence sector.

Engaging the private sector

So, whats the way forward? The PrimeMinister has outlined a bold new visio