CBI
director US Misra new Interpol vice-president
New
Delhi: Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Director
U S Misra will be the new Vice President of the Interpol,
the CBI sources said. In the election for the post, Misra
received 93 votes to emerge the winner by a margin of 53
votes as his opponent Andrew Huges of Fiji could manage
to get just 40 votes. The CBI director would be the second
Indian to hold this post of the world police body. P C Sharma
was holding the post prior to Misras election. Misra, who
will be retiring on December six this year, had taken over
the post of director from P C Sharma on December six, 2003.
Top
officials to hold office for two years (Go
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New
Delhi: The secretaries of Home and Defence ministries
and the chiefs of Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and Intelligence Bureau (IB)
will now hold their posts for minimum two years. The decision
to provide them a minimum two-year tenure was taken on Thursady
at the Cabinet meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh in the capital. Addressing media after the meeting,
Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy said
that these officials would be allowed an extension of service
beyond the age of superannuation for enabling them to complete
the tenure of two years. The amendment which was released
after the meeting said; ''Provided also that the Central
Government may, if considered necessary in public interest
to do so, give extension in service to the Cabinet Secretary,
Defence Secretary, Home Secretary, Director, IB, Secretary,
RAW and Director, CBI, for such periods as it may deem proper,
on case to case basis, subject to the condition that the
total term of the incumbents of the above post who are given
such extension in service, does not exceed two years.''
To make the provision operational, an amendment would be
made to the Fundamental Rule (FR) 56 (R), he added. Reddy
further said that the present incumbents of such posts would
be applicable to work under the proposed provision if it
is invoked, adding to it, he said the provision would not
be applicable automatically and would have to be specified
in each case.
National
Front, People's Conference quit Hurriyat (Go
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Srinagar:
Two constituents of Hurriyat hardline faction, the National
Front and People's Conference, on Thursday decided to quit
the alliance, saying Syed Ali Shah Geelani was disappointing
as the chairman. The Chairman of National Front Nayeem Khan
said the amalgam had often failed to create common consent
and he was not taking other constituents into confidence,
resulting in contradictions in policies of the amalgam.
"We respect Syed Ali Shah Geelani as a person but as chairman
of a forum he has disappointed us," Khan along with the
People's Conference leader Ghulam Mohammad Hubbi said. Criticising
Geelani's attitude, Khan said: "When we had to decide about
the invitation to visit Pakistan, my party wanted to go
but in the interest of forum politics I went with the decision
of Geelani. Even today, Geelani is on a tour of the Jammu
region to promote his Tehreek-e-Hurriyat. He is not bothered
about the forum". Adding to it, he said that Geelani was
pursuing a global agenda, which was not in conformity with
their aims. However, none of the two constituents gave any
indication whether they had plans to join the moderate faction
of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).
Assam
Rifles destroy KYKL camp in Manipur's Kharan village (Go
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Imphal
(Manipur): In a fierce gunfight at the Kharan village,
58 kilometers away from Imphal, soldiers of the 34 Assam
Rifles have cornered the proscribed militant outfit Kanglei
Yawol Kanna Lup (KYKL). According to the information received,
around 30 cadres of the militant outfit had been taking
shelter in the village for nearly 15 days. Their hideouts
were destroyed by the jawans of the 34 Assam Rifles on Wednesday.
After seeing the arrival of the Assam Rifles soldiers,KYKL
cadres started shooting at them. AR personnel retaliated
the KYKL attack. Meanwhile, civil commandos from the Thoubal
district have rushed to the site and joined the combat operations.
The AR personnel attacked the KYKLactivists from the hill,
while the civil commandos from the foothill. "Early in the
morning at around 7.00 to 8.00 a.m, 34 Assam Rifles and
the KYKL had a fierce fighting for nearly one hour. We were
at the pastor's house to condole the passing away of the
pastor. Suddenly, the shootout took place. We do not have
any information about the casualties or seizure of arms.
However, camps of the militant outfit have been destroyed
by the Assam Rifles, " said Ningam, a local. During the
encounter, no casualties have been reported and no arms
have been recovered.
Second
largest dam reaches full capacity (Go
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Chandigarh:
Water level in India's second largest Bhakra Nangal
dam in Punjab has reached its full capacity for the first
time in seven years, a top official has said. "Today the
reservoir whose capacity is 1680 feet, the water has risen
over and above that. The Pong dam, too, the water is just
short of three feet from the full level. And in the next
few days, it will reach the full reservoir level. This has
happened that after seven years last time it happened was
in 1998," Rakesh Nath, chairman, Bhakra Beas Management
Board, told reporters in Chandigarh. Nath added that the
project's power generation in 2005 jumped by 33 percent
compared to last year. "Compared to last year, there has
been an increase of 33 percent in power generation and 1700
million units of extra electricity have been generated.That
means according to today's rates of electricity, the approximate
value of the power is 4.16 billion rupees," Nath added.
Situated at Bhakra village of Bilaspur, about 13 km upstream
from Nangal township, the dam is one of the highest straight
gravity dams in the world. The lake is about 90 km long
covering an area of about 168 sq km of which 90 percent
is in Bilaspur and 10 percent in Una district. The dam was
dedicated to nation by India's first Prime Minister Jawaharlal
Nehru on November 20,1963. Soon after India's independence
from British colonial rule in 1947, Nehru, described the
country's many ambitious industrial projects as the ''temples
of modern India''. The Bhakra Nangal Dam was among the 'temples'
bequeathed to the nation by Nehru in northern India. Now,
these giant Indian dam projects are a symbol of India's
development. Currently, there are close to 25 large dams
in India -- either completed or being built. Work on three
of these have been stopped and in eight others where work
is under progress. The BBMB manages six power plants at
Bhakra and Nangal on the River Satluj and the Pong Dam project
on the River Beas. The Bhakra Nangal Dam has a total installed
capacity of 2,866 megawatt.
Heavy
rains damage Himachal apple orchards (Go
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by Nagendra Runta
Shimla:
Rains and heavy winds that lashed Himachal Pradesh in
the last few days have severely damaged apple orchards in
the State. Apple growers, who were counting on a good crop,
have very little left for marketing. In some of the orchards
more than 50 per cent of the crop has been damaged, as the
fruit has got black spots, making them unsuitable for marketing.
Harish Thakur, an apple grower,says sudden rains had crashed
their hopes of a bumper crop. They have lsot 70 per cent
of their crop."The 20 percent of the apples left on the
trees is not good for marketing as it does not have good
red colour. We are not able to pay to the labourers. All
the farmers are facing severe losses," said Thakur Ajit
Singh, a producer. Popularly known as the "Apple Bowl of
India," Himachal Pradesh is the largest producer of apples
in the country. It is the mainstay of the local economy,
with hundreds of growers earning their livelihood from the
orchards, continuing rains have also hit the apple belt
of Kinnaur, Kullu Chamba and Mandi.
Meanwhile,
in August, the apple crop in Himachal Pradesh was severely
affected by a disease called Apple Core Rot (ACR) . The
disease spread because farmers were not using fertilizers
because of the increase in their cost due to withdrawal
of Government subsidies. The worst-affected were the orchards
that produced four popular varieties--Red Delicious, Rich-a-Red,
Red June and Tydeman's Early, all of which grow above 1800
meters in the State. The disease destroyed more than 10
per cent of the apple plantations in the State. First spotted
in Mandi, in the heart of the Karsog belt, ACR had also
been reported in adjoining areas of Kullu and Shimla, attacking
the crop and weakening roots. This mysterious fungal disease
has no external manifestation but causes apples to rot and
finally drop off the trees. Himachal Pradesh alone accounts
for over 120 billion rupees (2.76 billion dollars) worth
apple produce. Spread across nine districts of the State,
grown on a land area of 96 000 hectares, the apple industry
provides employment to almost 800, 000 people.
