Heavy rain disrupts normal life in Odisha

BHUBANESWAR: Incessant rain over the past two days has thrown life out of gear in parts of Odisha, disrupting road traffic and causing damage to paddy crop in some areas, a weather official said on Saturday.

Many places have witnessed rainfall due to the impact of cyclone Nilam in the Bay of Bengal even though it has weakened. Rain was also continuing at several places, SC Sahu, director of the Bhubaneswar meteorological centre said.

While the port town of Gopalpur received the state's highest rainfall of 123 mm on Friday, the coastal towns of Puri and Berhampur recorded a rainfall of 116.8 and 82 mm respectively, he said.

Rain continued to lash state capital Bhubaneswar which received about 88 mm rainfall on Friday. Traffic was disrupted on national highway close to the city.

Large number of children on Saturday preferred to stay at home and did not attend school.

The rain has damaged paddy crop in some places especially in the coastal belt, an official of the state agriculture department said.

The weather office has predicted heavy rains for some areas until November 5.

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TDP leader Yeran Naidu cremated at his native village

SRIKAKULAM: Former Union minister and senior TDP leader Kinjarapu Yerran Naidu, who died in a road accident, was cremated with state honours at his native Nimmada village in north coastal Andhra district on Sunday morning.

Telugu Desam chief N Chandrababu Naidu led scores of party leaders, workers and admirers in the funeral procession after which a gun salute was given by the police.

Srikakulam district collector Saurabh Gaur placed a wreath on Yerran's body on behalf of the government.

Yerran Naidu's son Rammohan lit the pyre set in the family's agriculture field.

Chandrababu, who was accompanied by his son Lokesh, was in tears as he bid final adieu to his closest aide.

Thousands of people from Srikakulam and neighbouring Vizianagaram district thronged Nimmada and paid homage to the departed leader, who had represented them in AP Legislative Assembly and Lok Sabha for four terms each.

State civil supplies minister D Sridhar Babu, MP Madhu Yashki, MLAs Nagam Janardhan Reddy and S Venugopalachari were among those who paid homage to Yerran Naidu.

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Modi's Gujarat is vibrant only for his five pet industrialists: Gujarat Congress

AHMEDABAD: As the election campaign in Gujarat heats up, the state Congress, which has been out of power since 1995 when it lost to the BJP, is confident of ousting the three-term Narendra Modi government in the December polls.

"The people of Gujarat are fed up with the Modi government. Modi claims Gujarat is vibrant and he has well-oiled machinery to propagate his lies. But the people of Gujarat have realised and exposed his fake claims. The Gujarat voter will give a befitting reply in December. Modi will be defeated," said a confident Leader of Opposition Shaktisinh Gohil of the Gujarat Congress.

But how will the Congress counter the onslaught of Modi, with his enigmatic personality and shrill rhetoric, that too in a state which has remained polarised since 2002?

"We are exposing Modi's lies. 'Vibrant Gujarat' is a myth. Modi's Gujarat is vibrant only for his five pet industrialists, not for the 'aam aadmi'. Over 16 farmers have committed suicide due to debt or poverty. Crimes against women have increased. Over 16,000 children have gone missing during the Modi regime. Modi moves around with 300-plus commandos, but there is no safety net for the people. Farmers and small and medium entrepreneurs are all tired and feel betrayed.

"We are voicing the concern of the aam aadmi and thereby exposing Modi. His benefits have been for Tata and Essar only. He has doled out benefits. There is nothing for the aam aadmi in Gujarat," Gohil told IANS in an interview.

He also debunked the perception that Modi had brought development to Gujarat. "Listen, only those who have NOT been to Gujarat before 2001 are touting it as developed. Gujarat has always been developed and progressive."

What about the fact that the Congress in Gujarat is in disorder? That it has not even projected a chief ministerial candidate till now?

"There is no leadership crisis in the Gujarat Congress. Unlike the BJP, we don't have an authoritarian dictator imposing his whims and fancies on us. We are a democratic party and for us, the organisation matters more than any individual. We don't have a system of declaring chief ministerial candidates," Gohil said.

What will the Congress' poll strategy be? How will it reach out to the state's five distinct regions, its communities and groups like farmers?

"We are focussing on the whole of Gujarat and not any one particular region. Because the entire state needs to be freed from the clutches of Modi," Gohil said.

"As far as communities are concerned, the aam aadmi will vote for the Congress irrespective of his or her caste and class. And Muslims in Gujarat are not carried away by Modi's 'Sadbhavana' (goodwill) farce."

"Farmers will get uninterrupted power supply. Right now, that is not the case. Also competitive prices for their products. Right now, farmers are the most hassled section in the Modi regime. Their land is being snatched away by mafias. All this will be checked through a special farmer's policy," Gohil said.

Elections to the 182-member Gujarat assembly will be held on December 13 and 17 and votes will be counted Dec 20.

The BJP has 117 seats in the outgoing assembly and the Congress 59. The Nationalist Congress Party has three seats and the Janata Dal-United one, while there are two independents.

While the BJP first came to power in March 1995, Modi became chief minister only in October 2001. The party was returned to power in the 2002 and 2007 elections. Between 1995 and now, the state was briefly under President's Rule in September-October 1996 and was then ruled by the Rashtriya Janata Party, which had broken away from the BJP, from October 1996 to March 1998, when the BJP returned to power.

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Public authorities failed to comply with RTI provisions: CIC Satyananda Mishra

NEW DELHI: Chief information commissioner Satyananda Mishra on Saturday slammed public authorities for failing to comply with the suo-motu disclosure provisions of the Right to Information Act even after seven years of the implementation of the Act.

Referring to section four of the RTI Act which mandates public authorities to make proactive disclosures and organise records within 120 days of enactment of transparency law in 2005, Mishra said these statutory provisions are not complied with even after seven years.

"The RTI has mandatory provision for proactive disclosure of a whole range of information by every public authority. I must say that almost all public authorities have failed to comply with this mandatory requirement even after seven years," he said at 11th All India Lokayukta Conference here.

Section four of the RTI Act mandates all public authorities to maintain all its records duly catalogued and indexed, publish all relevant facts while formulating important policies, provide reasons for its administrative or quasi-judicial decisions and publish within 120 days 17 point information about the authority.

Terming RTI Act as defence mechanism against corruption, Mishra said, "Well kept records and indexing" would further help in disseminating information and curbing corruption at all levels.

Member of National Advisory Council, Aruna Roy said there was a need of bringing other supportive legislations like Whistleblowers' Bill, Grievance Redressal Bill among others to curb corruption.

"We need a whistle blowers bill which is already in the Parliament. However, the Lokayuktas should also take cognizance of all the fall outs that comes out of these bills," Roy said while speaking on the role of RTI mechanism bringing in transparency.

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26/11 case in Pakistan: Prosecution seeks speedy trial

ISLAMABAD: Day-to-day hearings should be held for an early decision in the Mumbai attack case in Pakistan involving LeT's Zakiur Rehman Lakhvi and six other suspects, the prosecution has demanded, prompting the court holding the trial to issue notices to the accused to respond to this.

Judge Chaudhry Habib-ur-Rehman of the Rawalpindi-based anti-terrorism court on Saturday listed the application filed by chief prosecutor Chaudhry Zulifqar Ali for hearing on November 10 and asked the accused to respond by that date.

In the application, Ali said there had been an inordinate delay in the case and this was not giving a good impression of Pakistan to the world.

"Day-to-day hearings should be held for an early decision in the case," Ali told the judge during proceedings held behind closed doors at Adiala Jail for security reasons. "The anti-terrorism courts were established for speedy trial of the accused. Under Section 19(7) of the Anti- Terrorism Act of 1997, the speedy trial of the accused is mandatory," Ali told . Ali accused the defence lawyers of resorting to delaying tactics for the past four years and said the court should look into this.

"If the accused are proved innocent, they should not remain in prison for a long time. But the prosecution wonders why the counsel of the accused are not pressing for a speedy trial if their clients are innocent," he said.

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Qatar Airways to pay flier Rs 80,000 for loss of luggage

The author has posted comments on this articlePTI | Nov 1, 2012, 02.02PM IST

NEW DELHI: Qatar Airways has been directed by a district consumer forum here to pay Rs 80,005 to a flier for loss of his luggage in transit from Delhi to Milan.

The East District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum said that Qatar Airways is liable to reimburse Delhi resident Manish Raj Bhardwaj for loss as his baggage was lost due to negligence of the airline's handling staff.

"The affidavit filed by the complainant (Bhardwaj) is uncontested. In these circumstances, it is to be accepted that the value of the lost baggage was Rs 60,005 and the offer made by respondent (airline) of Rs 5,525 was not justified. The goods were lost due to negligence on the part of handling staff of the respondent. As such they cannot escape from their liability of reimbursing the amount of loss...

"It has also been contented by complainant that articles lost were of prime importance for his visit and he could not show them to prospective clients. He suffered not only loss of goods but also loss of opportunities which cannot be evaluated in terms of money," the bench presided by N A Zaidi said.

The forum directed the airline to pay Bhardwaj Rs 60,005 as the value of the lost goods and compensation of Rs 20,000 which included the cost of litigation.

Bhardwaj's grievance, according to his complaint, had been that not only did the airline lose his luggage but it offered a paltry sum of Rs 5,525 to him as compensation.

He had said in his complaint that he had travelled to Milan from Delhi via Doha on December 19, 2010 and when he had arrived there on the next day he was informed that two pieces of his luggage were missing.

He had lodged a 'property irregularity report' with the airline on December 20, 2010 at Milan and had reported loss of items worth Rs 60,005, giving all the details, he had said.

The airline was proceeded against ex-parte as no one appeared on its behalf in the forum.

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Former Punjab minister Bibi Jagir Kaur gets bail

CHANDIGARH: Seven months after her conviction and prison term in connection with the killing of her daughter, former Punjab minister Bibi Jagir Kaur was on Thursday granted bail by the Punjab and Haryana high court on the condition that she will not leave the country.

Kaur, who is currently lodged in the Kapurthala jail, is a former President of Shiromani Gurdwara Prabhandak Committee ( SGPC), and was awarded five years imprisonment and fined Rs 5,000 by the special CBI court of Patiala in March this year.

Handing down the bail orders, a division bench of the court comprising Justice A K Mittal and Justice G S Sandhawalia directed Kaur to seek the court's permission before going abroad, Kaur's counsel R S Cheema said.

Jagir Kaur's daughter Harpreet had died under mysterious circumstances during the intervening night of April 20 and 21, 2000, en route from Phagwara to Ludhiana's Christian Medical College and Hospital.

Citing that there was "no foul play" and Harpreet's death was natural due to fever, vomiting and severe dehydration, her post-mortem was not conducted and she was cremated in a hurried manner on April 21 at the Bibi's home village Begowal (Kapurthala) 12 years ago.

A few days after Harpreet's death, Kamaljit Singh, a resident of Begowal claimed that he was her husband and father of her stillborn child. On April 27, 2000, Kamaljit approached the Punjab and Haryana high court. On June 9, 2000, the HC directed the CBI to conduct an inquiry into the matter.

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Indian economy lost Rs 6,600 cr due to frauds in FY12: E&Y

The author has posted comments on this articlePTI | Nov 1, 2012, 05.57PM IST

NEW DELHI: Different types of frauds may have caused Rs 6,600 crore loss to Indian economy in the last fiscal and banks were the most common victim in swindling cases, a report by Ernst & Young has said.

"What we found alarming in this edition was that insider enabled fraud accounted for 61 per cent of the reported fraud cases in this edition," Ernst & Young India Partner and National Director Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services Arpinder Singh said.

According to the first edition of Ernst & Young's Fraud Indicators in India, the magnitude of frauds in the second half of FY2012 increased by 36 per cent over the first half, while the number of frauds rose by a mere 8 per cent during the same period.

The report look into frauds in all spheres of society, including business and government segments, as well as in the case of financial institutions and individuals.

"Businesses are continuously exposed to fraud risks, with losses recorded in this edition accumulating to around Rs 6,600 crore," the report said.

A thorough research using various databases was conducted on a total of 1,80,000 news reports for FY12 to represent an analysis on frauds that took place in businesses, government, financial institutions, E&Y said.

Around 63 per cent of the total fraud cases in FY12 were reported in the financial services sector, banks being the most common victim of frauds followed by insurance and mutual fund companies.

The report revealed that losses incurred by banks due to fraud increased by 88 per cent in 2010-11 to exceed Rs 3,790 crore (more than Rs 2,010 crore in 2009-10).

79 per cent of the major fraud cases (majority cases above Rs 100 million) were due to involvement of senior management of the company owing to their authority and direct interference in the company's decisions.

Singh said that entrusting employees with confidential information, giving them a right to access company's bank accounts and the like may be essential, but this should be done with some "skepticism".

The spread of fraud is consistent across the country. A city wise analysis showed that Delhi witnessed the largest number of fraud cases and highest aggregate losses by fraud in 2011-12. It also recorded the highest average losses (Rs 0.8 billion) followed by Rs 5 billion for Andhra Pradesh.

"Alarmingly the top 10 frauds recorded in this study accounted for losses amounting to Rs 5,670 crore around 86 per cent of the total losses due to fraudulent incidents in the FY12 clearly indicates that it's the magnitude of these frauds that adversely impacts our economy and makes investors vary about doing business in India," Singh added.

Technology can however, play a major part in combating new age frauds, the survey noted and added that a proactive Forensic Data analysis can help governments, regulatory bodies and corporate to counter the increasingly complex nature of frauds.

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Centre to give security cover for SAIL's Chhattisgarh mining project

NEW DELHI: The Steel Authority of India Limited (SAIL) will start work in December on development of its new iron-ore feeder mine in Rowghat, located in Naxal-infested Kanker region of Chhattisgarh, including construction of a rail link for transporting the ore to Bhilai Steel Plant (BSP). These works are to be taken under a security cover to be provided by Central paramilitary forces, according to sources in the Union home ministry.

A meeting among officials of SAIL, steel and mines ministry and home ministry here on Wednesday tied up security details for the project to counter possible disruptions by the Maoists as part of their strategy to keep the area "inaccessible" or "liberated" from civil administration.

Start of mining activity at Rowghat will become necessary to ensure uninterrupted supply of iron-ore to BSP, as the existing Dalli-Rajhara captive mines are expected to run dry in the next three to four years. Rail connectivity is, however, needed to ensure transportation of the ore from Rowghat to the steel plant. The proposed 90-km-long Dalli Rajhara-Rowghat line will take care of this aspect. Besides, with the line proposed to extend further to Jagdalpur, passenger traffic will also be facilitated.

Sources said while work on the initial 17-km-long uninhabited stretch will begin in December itself, the remaining 73-km tracks will be laid only after land acquisition and tribal rehabilitation issues are sorted, infrastructure laid out and security forces deployed to guard the works.

Of the 600 local tribals likely to be displaced by the rail project, 210 are likely to be offered jobs in the government. Adequate financial compensation will be handed out to locals who may be displaced as a result of land acquisition for the project.

With most of the compensation likely to be finalized by May, 2013, work on the currently inhabited stretch may start only from the middle of next year.

SAIL plans to invest Rs 5,000 crore in the Rowghat mines, including Rs 702 crore for laying of the Dalli-Rowghat rail line. All environmental clearances for the mines are in place.

Large presence of Maoists in and around Rowghat, however, is hampering SAIL's plan.

Maoist spokesperson Gudsa Usendi was quoted in a May, 2011, interview as saying: "They (the government) are trying to squeeze us. The Rowghat mountains are very important to the ecology of the area and the Maria tribes who live there."

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More than 120 people were missing in Bangladesh after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal

DHAKA: More than 120 people were missing in Bangladesh after their boat capsized in the Bay of Bengal, officials said Thursday.

The wooden boat was carrying 135 illegal immigrants to Malaysia when it capsized close to Shah Parir island Sunday.

The accident came to light only Tuesday after six survivors informed fishermen after being rescued. They swam ashore from about 50 nautical miles off Shah Parir island.

The coast guard and other agencies have been alerted for help, Mohammad Jashimuddin, chief of Cox's Bazaar district administration that governs the island, told Xinhua.

An official said the missing people may have been drowned.

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