OmanObserver_30-06-13

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10 INDIA Devotees pay their respects at the Sikh Shrine, The Golden Temple in Amritsar yesterday. — AFP Midnight satellite launch progressing CHENNAI — The countdown for the irst midnight launch of an Indian navigation satellite on July 1 began yesterday at Sriharikota rocket launch centre in Andhra Pradesh and is progressing smoothly, a senior oficial said. "The 64.5 hour countdown for India's irst navigational satellite IRNSS- 1A began at 7.11 am today (Saturday). It is progressing smoothly," a senior oficial at the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) said. According to the ISRO oficial, this is the irst time India is launching a rocket from its soil around midnight - the rocket launch is ixed at 11.41 pm tomorrow. "We have had late evening and early morning launches. But this is the irst time ISRO is launching a rocket around midnight," the oficial said. Court dismisses petition to arraign Rajya Sabha deputy chairman in abuse case By Ashraf Padanna THIRUVANANTHAPURAM — A court in Kerala has dismissed a review petition iled by the victim of a 17-yearold sex racket case seeking to arraign Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairman Prof P J Kurien. The District Sessions Court in Thodupuzha, Idukki, which held that there was nothing new in the petition seeking further investigation in the Suryanelli case and all aspects had been looked into earlier, also observed that the petition was iled with ill will. The victim's counsel M R Rajendran Nair said her client would move the High Court against the lower court verdict. She approached the court after her petition was not admitted in a lower court in March following a claim by the kingpin in the case, S S Dharmarajan, that he took Kurien, then a federal minister, to the schoolgirl housed in a guesthouse in the tourist town of Kumily on February 19, 1996. The scandal took place at Suryanelli in Idukki district in January 1996, when the 16-year-old was allegedly threatened, abducted and He said ISRO Chairman K Radhakrishnan is expected to have a brief meeting with the media at the rocket port post launch which will be around 12.45 am on Tuesday. The oficial said the launch time has been ixed taking into account the orbit and inclination at which the satellite will be injected. Around 20 minutes into the launch, the rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle-XL (PSLV-XL) will eject the navigational satellite at an altitude of 501 km. According to ISRO, the 1,425 kg navigational satellite IRNSS (Indian Regional Navigational Satellite System)-1A is intended to provide terrestrial, aerial and marine navigation services and help in disaster and leet management. The satellite with a life span of abused by a bus conductor and was later conined and assaulted for more than a month by 42 men. Kurien's name never appeared in the list of the accused and in the late 1990s the trial court found more than 42 people guilty, who were later acquitted by the HC except Dharmarajan. The victim had initially iled a private complaint against Kurien in a court in Idukki district alleging that he had exploited her at Kumily guesthouse. Kurien then got a discharge over the complaint from the Supreme Court. The case was back in the spotlight after the apex court ordered a retrial in the case on January 31 this year, while setting aside the acquittal in 2005 by the HC of all but one convicted by a special court. All of them have since taken bail. The district court pointed out that the case against Kurien was disposed of by the apex court and nothing new has emerged after that. Dharmarajan had iled an afidavit in the case retracting his claim on a television channel that he made from his hideout in Karnataka before his arrest. The victim approached the around 10 years is one of the seven satellites constituting the IRNSS space segment — a regional navigational system developed by India designed to provide accurate position information service to users within the country and up to 1,500 km from the nation's boundary line, ISRO said. The IRNSS will provide two types of services — standard positioning service and restricted service. The former is provided to all users and the latter is an encrypted service for authorised users. ISRO had planned to launch IRNSS- 1A last month. But it had to put off after inding a problem in one of the electro-hydraulic control actuators in the second stage engine. The rocket was fully assembled with the satellite when the problem An LPG vendor carries cooking gas cylinders as others check their delivery receipts outside a depot in Hyderabad yesterday. The federal government has approved the doubling of natural gas prices, the irst hike in three years, in a politically sensitive decision set to take effect around election time next year. — AFP court for reopening the case on the basis of Dharmarajan's statement. In his afidavit Dharmarajan said he had seen the senior Congress party leader only on television and he made the claim as he was misled by the people who interviewed him that he can escape prosecution by dragging his name into it. The criminal revision petition was iled after a lower court rejected her petition to order the police for a fresh inquiry saying there was no fresh ground to order an inquiry into the case investigated by the police and heard by the court in 1999. Dharmarajan was absconding after jumping bail and was arrested by the police after his "revelations" in February this year. Kerala government had early this month submitted in the HC that a public interest litigation against Kurien was not maintainable and pointed out that the prime accused had retracted his statement which sought to implicate the Congress leader. Though no investigation could link him to the case, the victim had constantly been maintaining that he was among her tormentors at the Kumily guesthouse. was detected during checks. The second stage had to be dismantled to replace the actuator which is an assembly of several components. It weighs around 20 kg. Following the launch of navigational satellite, ISRO is planning to launch its communication satellite G-Sat 14 using a heavier rocket — Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle (GSLV) — powered with a domestic cryogenic engine sometime in August this year. Preparatory work for the G-Sat 14 launch is going ahead at the rocket launch pad in Sriharikota in Andhra Pradesh, around 80 km from here. It will be followed by the mission to Mars later this year. The launch of one more remote sensing satellite is also being planned before the end of the year. — IANS ‘Central funds likely to upgrade Shimla hospital’ SHIMLA — The Indira Gandhi Medical College and Hospital (IGMCH) here would be upgraded on the lines of New Delhi's All India Institute of Medical Sciences under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Sewa Yojana, Himachal Pradesh Health Minister Kaul Singh said yesterday. Speaking at a conference organised by IGMCH department of gastroenterology, he said he met union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and the proposal for granting a higher status to the institution was under consideration. He said the state government wanted the IGMCH to provide qualitative and better health services. The minister also asked doctors to be ready to serve in rural areas. — IANS Statistical institute offers help to map climate change KOLKATA — The Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) has offered to help the government in mapping climatic changes in the country to develop a better understanding about the phenomena. "We are ready to help the government with the climate change mapping project," Bimal K Roy, ISI's Director said during a function to celebrate the 'Statistics Day' and the 120th birth anniversary of Indian scientist and applied statistician P C Mahalanobis here yesterday. Roy said the initiative would statistically estimate "region-wise" climate sensitivity across the country. "It will enable an enumeration of statistical co-relation of global temperature and greenhouse gases equivalent." "There is no doubt that global warming is taking place. It is an extremely complex project and we are talking about it. It can only be done statistically. We have given the suggestion to ISI," said R Chidambaram, Principal Scientiic Adviser to the Government. — IANS SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Cong begins preparation for LS polls in Karnataka BANGALORE — Flush from its victory in last month's Karnataka assembly polls, the Congress has seriously begun preparing for the Lok Sabha elections though there is no deinite indication they would be held before they're due next May. Contrary to statements by central Congress leaders that the polls will be held when due, Karnataka Congress chief G Parameshwara has of late been saying they may be advanced and the state unit must be prepared. Following up on this, he has dispatched teams to all 28 Lok Sabha constituencies in the state to sound out local leaders on the probable candidates. With the Congress returning to power on its own in Karnataka after nine years, Parameshwara wants the state unit to cash in on this and aim to bag all the 28 seats. He, however, acknowledged this is a tall order as the party had won just six seats in the 2009 Lok Sabha polls. The early start to preparations is clearly aimed at ensuring the party machinery remains well-oiled and also keeping himself active as he failed to retain his seat in the assembly polls and thus the chance of becoming chief minister. The exercise will help the party remain focused on the next big task facing it rather than getting stuck in internal squabbles as many heavyweights in the state unit have not been made ministers. Fortunately for the Congress, the rumblings over denial of ministerial berths did not blow up in its face though there are calls by a section in the state unit for setting up a panel for co-ordination between the government and the party organisation. The move, initiated earlier this month by veteran Congressman and legislator M V Rajashekaran, is aimed at curbing Chief Minister Siddaramaiah's alleged tendency to take unilateral decisions to hog the limelight. Rajashekaran's move, however, does not seem to have impressed the Congress High Command as there has been no indication of any action on it so far. Despite such problems in his unit, Parameshwara is conident that the Congress will win more Lok Sabha seats this time as the main rival Bharatiya Janata Party remains a troubled outit both at the national and at state levels. The BJP in Karnataka is yet to get out of the shock of the drubbing suffered in the May 5 assembly poll which ended its maiden rule in the state. The BJP won just 40 seats in the 225-member assembly against 110 in 2008. The BJP had won 19 of the 28 Lok Sabha seats in 2009 but a section in the state unit is not conident of repeating the show this time following the dismal performance in the assembly polls. This section, comprising loyalists of the BJP's irst chief minister in the state B S Yeddyurappa, has been actively lobbying for his return to the party to brighten its prospects in the Lok Sabha polls. Yeddyurappa now heads his own Karnataka Janata Party (KJP). His return is however being opposed by state BJP chief Pralhad Joshi, former chief minister Jagadish Shettar, party general secretary and Bangalore South Lok Sabha member H N Ananth Kumar, among others. This issue looks like keeping the state BJP divided, whatever be the solution. The other major party in the state is the Janata Dal-Secular which had bagged just three Lok Sabha seats in 2009. Its performance in the assembly polls was also poor as it too got only 40 seats. A weak opposition and the state Congress strategy of playing the early mover advantage card may help the party perform well in the Lok Sabha elections too to match its victory in the assembly polls, when it won 122 of the 225 seats. — IANS Punjab girl to represent country at Google Science Fair 2013 NEW DELHI — A 15-year-old girl from Punjab has become the only Indian student to make it to the inals of the Google Science Fair, 2013, a company statement said here yesterday. Shrishti Asthana, a Class 11 student from Millenium School, Mohali, had presented a project on a solar power-assisted green technique for degradation of detergents and was chosen from among thousands of participants from 120 countries. "The inspiration for the project came when Shrishti went on a ield trip to Ludhiana and was disturbed by the dire state of the disposal technique of industrial waste... “She began her journey to ind a green solution to turn waste detergent water from industries into an eco-friendly alternative," the statement said. According to Google, Asthana would be competing with 14 other inalists from around the world who would be taken to the Google headquarters in the US on September 23 to submit their projects to a panel of international scientists. The winner will receive a 10day trip to Galapagos Islands with National Geographic expeditions, $50,000 in scholarship funding and other prizes. The Google Science Fair is an online science competition started in 2011. It is open to students of 13-18 years of age, who formulate hypothesis, perform experiments, and present results to a panel of experts. — IANS Salman Khurshid heads to Brunei for Asean meetings NEW DELHI — External Affairs Minister Salman Khurshid leaves for Brunei today to attend three key meetings with Asean as relations with the 10-member bloc are a key part of India's Look East policy and bilateral trade is slated to touch $100 billion in two years. In Brunei, Khurshid will attend the 11th India-Asean Ministerial Meeting. He will also participate in the third East Asia Summit Ministerial Meeting of foreign ministers and the 20th Asean Regional Forum meeting on July 1 and 2. As part of efforts to deepen its co-operation with Asean, India last week launched the Asean India Centre in New Delhi. Asean comprises Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. Partnership with the Asean countries constitutes the "core" of India’s Look East policy with the combined population of India and the major Southeast Asian bloc working out to 1.8 billion, around one-fourth of the global population, and the combined GDP of the region being around $3 trillion, Khurshid had said at the launch of the centre. India has 25 mechanisms that underscore its interaction with the Asean, including six at the ministerial level — on foreign affairs, trade, agriculture, tourism, environment, and new and renewable energy. India is also an active participant in the Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) negotiations between Asean and its Free Trade Agreement Partners - Australia, China, India, Japan, South Korea and New Zealand.
SUNDAY, JUNE 30, 2013 Students serve cancer survivors, raise funds NEW DELHI — Meher and Mansi, Class 11 students of a Delhi school, have forgone their leisure trips this summer vacation. Unlike most of their peers, they braved the capital's heat and volunteered to serve cancer survivors and patients for what they called an experience that has given them a sense of great accomplishment. Full of empathy for kids of their age who have overcome the deadly disease, the two are part of a group of volunteers who have offered succour to cancer survivors and taken a lead in planning a dance and drama concert to raise funds for an NGO working for children with cancer. "We are honouring the cancer survivors because their bravery, courage and spirit need to be recognised and lauded," said Mansi. The two students of Delhi Public School, in south Delhi's R K Puram, joined cancer survivors from KidsCan Konnect — a group promoted by NGO CanKids — to plan a concert featuring a rap session, a street play and screening of documentary on the life of a survivor made by volunteers like them. Meher said: "We have our own cre- ative group in DPS R K Puram — Expressions. It has been a real privilege to put together a performance for the cause and for the survivors." "We are helping KidsCan Konnect to raise funds, as we learnt that they are doing such fantastic work to give back and to be true cancer ambassadors," she said. Nearly 30 young volunteers, mostly school and college students and some cancer survivors, tied up with CanKids to spend four-ive hours daily for "meaningful purposes" during May-June. "Saving money was one big lesson we learnt. On the one hand people like us spend so much money for pampering ourselves; on the other, there are kids with cancer who are dying because they do not have money for treatment," said Mansi. Chandan Kumar, 18, who fought blood cancer at the age of 13, now serves as a volunteer as part of Kids- Can Konnect — also known as a group of childhood cancer ambassadors. "I joined them as I realised the importance of helping children who are going through the same trouble and pain as we did," said the resident of south Delhi, who prepares modules for spreading awareness among patients and society. Zenia Taluja, a student of Hindu College, developed a "Spare a Penny" campaign to raise one rupee at a time from people in her colony. "What I am learning as a volunteer is love, respect, humanity, sellessness and dedicating my services for the welfare of society," she said. Akram Bagai from British School and Vidushri Singhal from Welhams Dehradun, both 16, have composed a song and made an animated powerpoint presentation for children with cancer who attend workshops at hospitals like the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, where they undergo treatment. A group of volunteers even managed to engage partners for their concert and raise funds for cancer-aflicted children. Among those whom they engaged for the cause is Rajiv Malhotra, Executive Director and Chief Risk Oficer of PTC India Ltd, a power-trading solutions provider. "We are supporting the cause... we think this is our way of empowering cancer survivors." — IANS INDIA Army soldiers use a stretcher to carry an elderly person at Joshimath yesterday, after he was evacuated from Badrinath in Uttarakhand. Right: Stranded travellers wait for their turn to be evacuated yesterday. — AFP Flood rescue operations in Uttarakhand near end NEW DELHI — Rescuers in lood-hit Uttarakhand state worked yesterday to free more than 500 people stranded in the town of Badrinath as efforts elsewhere turned to supplying cut-off villages and recovering bodies. Flash loods and landslides in the mountainous northern state that began two weeks ago have left at least 800 people conirmed dead and an estimated 2,000 to 3,000 missing. Uttarakhand state Legislative Assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal told reporters the death toll could exceed 10,000. "More than 1,000 reports have been iled with the police about missing persons so far," said Puja Rawat, an oficial at the state's disaster management unit. "The process is ongoing and the numbers are rising fast." Thousands of people, including tourists and pilgrims, were stranded in the state's higher elevations as loods and landslides swept away roads and bridges and buried buildings. More than 100,000 people have been rescued so far in operations by More areas looded in Asom as rivers rise GUWAHATI — More areas were looded in Asom yesterday due to surging waters of Brahmaputra river and its tributaries, which continued to swell due to incessant rains in Arunachal Pradesh, oficials said. There was no report of casualties. Several villages in Asom’s river island Majuli were submerged under waters since Friday night. Oficials of the Asom State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) said that fresh areas in Tinsukia district have been inundated by lood waters since Friday. More areas of Dhemaji district have also been inundated by loods forcing the district administration to open three relief camps for the loodhit people, the ASDMA oficials said adding that over 700 people are taking shelter in the camps. More than 8,000 people have been affected by loods in Dhemaji and Tinsukia district taking the number of total lood-affected people in ive districts of Asom to over 19,000, AS- DMA oficials said. Although loods have damaged roads and houses at many places and breached embankments at several places, yet there is no human causality in the loods so far this year, the oficials said. However, the lood situation might turn worst as water level in major rivers like Brahmaputra and Jia Bharali are still showing a rising trend at many places in the lood-hit districts. The waters in the Brahmaputra river have already been lowing over the danger mark in some areas and are showing a rising trend. “Standing crops have been affected in over 1,200 hectares across the state since last few weeks,” the lood bulletin released by the ASDMA said yesterday, adding that the loods have also affected over 10,000 animals and poultry. — IANS air and foot over the past fortnight with local media reporting more than 1,000 still stranded. An estimated 550 people were stuck in Badrinath, Rawat said. Rescue helicopters worked in spurts yesterday as bad weather grounded the choppers for hours at a stretch. Several roads were reopened in lower-lying areas, and food, drinking water, medicine and other supplies were being sent to inaccessible villages, oficials said. Delhi Metro prepares to run airport line NEW DELHI — Delhi Metro yesterday indicated that it is set to run the Airport Express Link by constituting a team of 100 employees after Reliance Infrastructure issued a notice saying it would not run the project. "Delhi Metro has started all the necessary arrangements required for taking over the operations of the Airport Express Link, if any such requirement arises," said a statement here. Reliance Infrastructure-led Delhi Airport Metro Express Private Limited (DAMEPL) had sent a notice on June 27 to Delhi Metro intimating it would stop operating the line from tonight. Delhi Metro Chairman Mangu Singh has also formed a core committee of seven oficials to handle extreme emergency situations. Oficers and staff will be deputed for all the strategic departments involved in the running of trains. — IANS A shortage of grain and other essentials was reported in more than 600 villages in the northern districts of Rudraprayag, Chamoli and Uttarkashi, state-run Doordarshan television reported. Clearing debris, identifying the dead and conducting mass cremations to avoid epidemics was under way in the worst-hit Kedarnath region. Meanwhile, confusion prevailed over the death toll in the Uttarakhand tragedy with state assembly Speaker Govind Singh Kunjwal yesterday claiming over 10,000 people had perished while union Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said the death toll was 900. Kunjwal told reporters in Dehradun that during his earlier tour of the lood-devastated areas of the state he had put the death toll at 5,000-6,000. “But after hearing accounts of the devastation from people coming down from the mountains and that of people calling me up of the piles of bodies, I feel the toll could be well over 10,000.” 11 In New Delhi, Shinde clariied that the toll was 900 according to the information with him. He added that the complete igure on the deaths was not out yet and it would take some days for that. He said 105,000 people had been evacuated so far from the lood-hit areas. “We will do combing operations now to see if anyone is left out.. the roads are broken, there is no communication... it will take some days,” he added. — Agencies Kudankulam nuclear power project to be operational soon KOLKATA — The much-delayed Kudankulam nuclear power project will become operational soon, India's principal scientiic adviser said yesterday. "The decision will come anytime now. Reactor is a safe reactor... no question about it... it is designed with safety features. It depends on the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) to examine the test results and decide," R Chidambaram told reporters on the sidelines of the 120th birth anniversary of P C Mahalanobis at the Indian Statistical Institute here. "The job of the regulatory board is to examine everything they do. Nuclear Power Corporation gives the results and regulatory board decides when to give the go ahead depending whether further tests are necessary or not," Chidambaram said. He also stressed on the need to convey to common people the statistical estimate of the safety of nuclear establishments. "For all practical purposes, nuclear power is safe. Common people have dificulty in understanding probabilistic safety assessment and analysis. India has an excellent safety record... with so many years in operation... absolutely clean safety record," the scientist added. Observing that there could be no compromise on safety, the Supreme Court recently lashed out at the Tamil Nadu government for being lethargic in putting in place a plan for the evacuation of people in the event of an accident at the Kudankulam nuclear power plant. The apex court frowned at the at- titude of the state government while hearing a petition seeking to restrain the central government from operationalising KNPP-I and II in Tamil Nadu's Tirunelveli district. The petition said that before operationalising the units, the safety measures, including 17 recommended by a task force set up by the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL), should be put in place. India's atomic power plant operator, NPCIL, is building two 1,000 MW reactors with Russian help at Kudankulam since 2001. Villagers under the People's Movement Against Nuclear Energy banner have been opposing the project for the past two years, fearing for their safety, especially since the nuclear disaster at Fukushima in Japan in March 2011. — IANS Leftist party activists wear bull masks during a protest rally in Kolkata yesterday. The rally was organised to protest against the local government and its policies and the law and order problems in the state, while also demanding the quick trials of abuse accused in recent assault cases. — AFP
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