Gandhian and freedom fighter Savitaben Patel passes away

VADODARA: Staunch Gandhian and freedom fighter Savitaben Bhanubhai Patel passed away here on Friday after a prolonged illness.

She was 90. The last rites were conducted at Vadi Vadi crematorium, where her daughter Usha lit the funeral pyre in the presence of local residents and Hitendra Patel, chairman of the standing committee of Vadodara Municipal Corporation.

Savitaben, born in Gujarat's Kheda district, was sent to jail by a British judge for hoisting the tricolour during the freedom struggle, her daughter said.

After her marriage in 1946, Savitaben shifted to Bombay (now Mumbai), where she stayed till 1964. She later settled in Vadodara.

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Odisha orders property attachment of Saradha, Seashore Groups

BHUBANESWAR: Odisha government has issued an interim order for the attachment of properties of Kolkata-based ponzi scheme firm Saradha Group and the state-based Seashore Group of companies which allegedly duped investors of crores of rupees.

"The state government has issued interim order for property attachment of both Saradha and Seashore Groups on the basis of proposal of the Economic Offence Wing (EOW) of the crime branch of Odisha Police," Odisha minister Prasanna Acharya informed the Assembly.

The property attachment order has been issued under section 3 of Orissa Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 2011 and the additional district magistrate of Balasore district, the competent authority under the act, has been intimated about it for attachment of Saradha Group's properties, he said on Friday.

The additional district magistrate of Cuttack has been informed about the order regarding attachment of properties of Seashore Group, he added.

Saradha Group had allegedly duped a large number of investors in both West Bengal and Odisha and Seashore Group in Odisha.

"We have registered two cases against Saradha Group in Balasore district. So far fraud amount against Saradha Group is alleged to be about Rs 50 crore," BK Sharma, additional director general (DG), crime branch, told PTI on Saturday.

He said Saradha Group has about 15 acre land in Balasore town. "We will certainly recover the money by attaching the properties of Saradha," he said.

As per the ad-interim order, land was purchased in the name of Saradha Realty India Ltd by its managing director Sudipta Sen and director Debika Dasgupta in Balasore.

The EOW has registered two cases against Sen and group director Debjani Mukherjee.

According to the provisions the Orissa Protection of Interests of Depositors (in Financial Establishments) Act, 2011 Act, the ADM would apply within 30 days to the designated court for making an ad-interim order of absolute attachment and for direction to sell the attached property by public auction and realise sale proceeds within 180 days.

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Rain and snowfall expected in Kashmir valley

SRINAGAR: Rain and snowfall is expected at a few places in Kashmir which will bring some respite from the cold and dry weather conditions in the valley, a Met Department official said.

"Rain or snowfall could occur at a few places in Kashmir division, bringing an end to the monthlong dry spell," the official said here.

The valley has been going through a spell of dry weather for more than a month, although winter set in early this season with high altitude areas, including Gulmarg, recording the first snowfall at the fag end of October.

The residents in most parts of the valley, including Srinagar, woke up to an overcast sky indicating an increased possibility of rain or snow.

Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu & Kashmir, recorded a minimum of 0.9 degrees celsius as against the previous night's 0.6 degrees celsius, the official said.

He said the night temperature in the tourist resort of Pahalgam also increased from the previous night's low of minus 2.2 degrees celsius to settle at a low of minus 0.8 degrees celsius.

The mercury in the famous ski-resort of Gulmarg settled at a low of 0.3 degree celsius as against zero degrees celsius the previous night, the official said.

He said Qazigiund, the gateway town to Kashmir, recorded a minimum of minus 0.3 degree celsius, against Friday night's 0.7 degrees celsius.

Kokernag in south Kashmir recorded a low of 1.4 degrees celsius, while Kupwara town in north recorded a minimum of minus 1.7 degrees celsius, the official said.

The minimum temperature in Leh town of frontier region of Ladakh settled at minus 8.5 degrees celsius as against the previous night's minus 8.7 degrees celsius, the official said. He said Leh continues to remain the coldest place in the state.

Nearby Kargil town recorded a low of minus 5.5 degrees celsius, he said.

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Opportunities provided by Indo-US nuke deal yet to be tapped: Condoleezza Rice

NEW DELHI: The technological opportunities provided by the Indo-US civil nuclear deal are yet to be tapped, former US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice said on Saturday.

"The civil nuclear deal opened the way for extraordinary technological cooperation. I am not sure we could quickly make advantage of the opportunities of the technological cooperation it presented," she said.

Rice, who had played a crucial role in the negotiations during the deal, was speaking at a media event here during a seminar on 'USA and India: Building stronger ties'.

Although the deal was signed during the Bush regime in 2008, both the countries have not been able to make good use of it with concerns of "liability" clause of the Civil Liability Nuclear Damage Act raised by many foreign collaborators.

Rice noted that a lot of effort had been put in by both the nations for the deal to be worked out.

"I hope, when we go back and think of how hard that was to make this nuclear deal possible (and) that we will work, (to) use the technological cooperation and opportunities," she said.

She observed that both the countries share common interest and have strong cooperation in the fields of technology, economy and defence.

Referring to the US exit from Afghanistan, she said both the countries have a common interest in stability in South and South Central Asian region.

"Stability in (South and South Central Asia) is a key to stability in other parts. In South Central Asia, if India and Pakistan have stable relations; if Afghanistan develops as a peaceful, integrated, multi-ethnic state...

"Imagine a region in which Pakistan and India are together, Afghanistan and Central Asia all are together, in a region that is dynamic in terms of stability and security. That cannot happen without India and United States," Rice said.

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Indian officials to question middleman in VVIP helicopter scam on Dec 13

NEW DELHI: Indian officials will question Guido Ralph Haschke, one of the three middlemen who allegedly helped swing the VVIP helicopter deal for AgustaWestland, in an Italian court next week.

Haschke, whose statement is being recorded by the Italian court after he was extradited from Switzerland, has apparently claimed 6 million euros were paid to Indian Air Force officials and 8.4 million euros to bureaucrats, with the politicians also getting a cut.

As per reports from Italy, Haschke said there was also a plan to give 7% commission in the case to the three cousins of former IAF chief Air Chief Marshal S P Tyagi, Dosca, Julie and Sandeep. He also claimed to have met Tyagi six to seven times.

Haschke, his partner Carlos Gerosa and London-based consultant Christian Michel were allegedly paid kickbacks totalling 51 million euros (around Rs 400 crore) in the Rs 3,546 crore deal for 12 VVIP helicopters inked with AgustaWestland, the UK-based subsidiary of Italian conglomerate Finmeccanica, in February 2010.

The Italian court on Thursday asked the Indian defence ministry officials present during the legal proceedings whether they wanted to question the accused. Our officials were given an opportunity to question Haschke through their lawyer on Thursday itself. But they told the court that they would reserve the right, till the next hearing on December 13, since they wanted to ask the questions in a proper, consolidated manner,'' said a source.

Italian prosecutors have alleged Haschke, who boasted of his big connections'' in India, and Gerosa acted as the intermediaries for the bribes paid to Indian officials.

The CBI FIR here, in turn, says, Guido Haschke and Carlo Gerosa managed to send 5.6 million Euros through Mohali-based IDS Infotech and Chandigarh-based Aeromatrix Info Solutions Private Ltd to India and kept the remaining amount of about 24.30 million Euros received from AgustaWestland with themselves in the account of IDS Tunisia''.

As reported earlier, even as the CBI probes the criminal case, the MoD is also getting all set to scrap the contract with AgustaWestland after earlier freezing all further payments to the company despite having inducted only three of the 12 AW-101 helicopters, with around 45% of the total contract value already been paid.

The final cancellation process was initiated after MoD received the opinion of the law ministry and the attorney general that there was a clear violation of the integrity pact and the contractual obligations'' by AgustaWestland. The provisions provide for strict action including the cancellation of contract, recovery of payment, blacklisting and penal action''.

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Madras high court upholds stringent safety rules for cracker units

CHENNAI: Flaying fire cracker unit owners for showing least concern for the poor working in the hazardous industry, the Madras high court has declined to stay or quash a circular issued by the Centre to enhance safety at these units.

Justice K K Sasidharan, concurring with the submissions of additional solicitor-general of India P Wilson and dismissing a writ petition of Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers Association president S S Vijayakumar, said, "Manufacturers have no concern for the life of workers or people living in and around the factories. In their attempt to manufacture fireworks on a larges cale during festival seasons, very often they ignore safety aspects and norms prescribed by the state," he said. "The manufacturers appear to have no concern for the lives of poor people. The difficulty faced by manufacturers to redesign their sheds or their decline in profit are not much of concern to the court," Justice Sasidharan added.

The matter relates to a circular issued by the explosives department on November 23, 2012, directing manufacturers to install facilities such as smooth pathway, separate sheds for semi-finished and finished crackers and trolleys with rubber lined wheel. Attributing several fire accidents to gross violation of safety norms, the circular also stipulated a 45-metre distance norm between two working sheds.

Counsel for the companies said authorities should implement only the existing licence conditions and added that there is no legal sanctity for the circular.

Justice Sasidharan, dismissing the writ petition, said the licence would be granted only for one year and the present circular merely said manufacturers must comply with new conditions at the time of renewal of licence. "The conditions incorporated in the circular should be considered as additional conditions appended to the licence already issued to manufacturers, he added.

Poor people living in and around Virudhunagar district are forced to work in cracker units, he said, adding that though the government could not provide all of them jobs, it could at least protect the interest of workers slogging in hazardous industries. "This is essentially not an issue between the manufacturers and the explosives department. This issue relates to the common man, workers and people residing in and around these factories," he said.

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Income Tax raid in BJP spokesman's houses in Jharkhand, Ranchi and Kolkata

JAMSHEDPUR: Income tax sleuths have been conducting raids in 20 premises of BJP leader, Amarpreet Singh Kale including in Jamshedpur, Ranchi and Kolkata on Friday.

Twenty teams of Income tax (investigation) sleuths comprising from Jharkhand and Bihar have been conducting the raids in the office, business establishments of Kale, who is the spokesman of BJP Jharkhand committee, IT sources here said.

The raids were being conducted over tax evasion case, sources said.

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Chinese filmmaker faces $164m lawsuit for violating one-child policy

BEIJING: Top Chinese film director Zhang Yimou is facing a $164 million lawsuit after violating the country's controversial one-child policy, state media reported Friday, prompting renewed debate around the rules.

Critics say China's late-1970s family-planning law, which restricts most couples to one child, is selectively and sometimes brutally enforced, while the wealthy and well-connected are easily able to pay the fines levied for extra offspring.

But in recent days some users of China's popular online social networks have directed their anger at the policy itself, rather than Zhang, with some hoping the attention heaped on his case may hasten the eventual demise of the law, which authorities have recently moved to relax.

Two lawyers filed a lawsuit on Thursday in the eastern city of Wuxi, the hometown of Zhang's wife, suing the director of "Red Sorghum" and "Raise the Red Lantern" for a total of one billion yuan ($164 million), the government-run China Daily said in a front-page report.

"The rich have become increasingly audacious by violating the family planning policy just because they are rich enough to pay the fine... and they take an extra share of resources from society," it quoted one of the lawyers, Jia Fangyi.

"It's unfair to the poor and those who strictly follow the national policy," he added in a statement.

The two lawyers are claiming 500 million yuan in "compensation for public resources" and another 500 million yuan in punitive damages, the China Daily said, adding that the court might not accept the case.

Zhang, one of China's best-known filmmakers and the director of the opening and closing ceremonies at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, had faced rumours for months that he had fathered as many as seven children with several different women.

Amid increasing pressure -- including a Nanjing newspaper's publication last month of a front-page "wanted" poster seeking information on his whereabouts -- Zhang finally issued an apology on Sunday through his studio's microblogging account.

He acknowledged that he has two sons and a daughter with his current wife, as well as another daughter with his ex-wife.

The one-child policy was put in place to control China's booming population, and officials say it has been key to the country's rising prosperity.

But opposition to it has steadily grown among members of the public as well as among demographic experts, who warn that it has led to a decline in China's working-age population and a swelling of the ranks of the elderly that could bring about a labour shortage within the next two decades.

Those fears appear to be shared by China's Communist Party leaders, who after a key meeting in Beijing last month moved to expand the exceptions to the policy to allow couples to have two children if one of the parents is an only child.

In the past Chinese web users have typically responded with fury to reports of celebrities escaping the one-child regulation, but sentiments over the past week have been more mixed, with some citing Zhang as an example of why the law should be scrapped.

"We should be grateful to Zhang Yimou!" one posted on Sina Weibo, a Chinese equivalent of Twitter. "Thanks to his popularity, he's made the whole society debate the problems of the 'family planning policy'! This might help speed up the abolition of this draconian law."

Another said the controversy was "more than ridiculous", adding: "Procreating is a fundamental human instinct and a way of passing things on to future generations. Here in China, it's actually become a crime."

Chinese media reports have speculated that Zhang could face an official penalty as high as 160 million yuan, but authorities have not released any figures.

Fines for violators of the one-child policy are a significant source of income for China's provincial governments.

In 2012, 24 of the country's 31 provinces and regions collected a total of nearly 20 billion yuan ($3.3 billion) in penalties, the Beijing News reported on Thursday. None of the provincial authorities has detailed how the money was spent.

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Illiterates in Himachal will get skill development allowance: CM

SHIMLA: Even the illiterate youth of State would now be able to reap benefits of ambitious Skill Development Allowance Scheme (SDAS) in selected trades such as masonry, carpentry, welding, plumber, painter and blacksmith etc. for upgrading their skills, disclosed chief minister Virbhadra Singh while presiding over a review meeting of the above scheme here last evening.

He said that Cabinet had already given its nod to reduce the age limit from 18 years to 16 years and essential qualification as middle pass to be eligible under SDAS. He said that the department would take up necessary steps to develop appropriate informal training modules for small sector and empanel specialised training agencies on the line of MES schemes of Govt. of India.

Virbhadra Singh said that this would not only widen the ambit of this ambitious scheme for covering more and more eligible youth but would also help in ensuring highly skilled man power in these traditional professions. He said that this would ensure better job opportunities to the youths not only in the State and country but also in Middle East and Gulf countries, where there was great demand for these skilled artisans. He said that all these courses would be certified courses so that the trainees have some document to support their expertise. He said that this would also help in preserving and reviving the traditional craftsmanship.

Chief Minister said that while engaging private partners for running skill upgradation courses, it should be ensured that they have good expertise and experience in running these courses. He said that this would save the trainees from any inconvenience after completion of their skill development courses. He said that it was necessary that gap between demand of the industries and skill be identified and courses be designed according to the demand of the Industry. He said that this would ensure better employment opportunities to the youth of the State.

Virbhadra Singh said that more than 20,000 beneficiaries had been covered under the Skill Development Allowance Scheme, so far, and number of beneficiaries were expected to cross 30,000 by the end of the year. He directed the officers of the Labour and Employment Department to ensure that the maximum number of eligible youth were benefited under the scheme. He directed the officers of the department for adopting proactive approach for ensuring effective implementation of this scheme as there was no paucity of funds for this Scheme. He also exhorted the youth of the State to take benefit of the scheme.

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RLD to pitch for Harit Pradesh if Telangana bill passed

MEERUT: Rashtriya Lok Dal has said it will strongly push the proposal for a separate Harit Pradesh if the Telangana bill is passed in Parliament.

The party will also put pressure on the Congress high command for the state, RLD general secretary and MP Jayant Chaudhary said at a wedding function here on Thursday night.

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