Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chinese Premier Li Kequiang

Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Chinese Premier Li Kequiang at their meeting in New Delhi on Monday. — G.N. JHA

Lucknow: Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta Justice N.K. Mehrotra (Retd), has given a clean chit to BSP supremo Mayawati in the UP memorial scam while her government was in power, but said that Rs 1,400 crore was siphoned off by two former ministers, legislators, bureaucrats and technocrats in constructing memorials.
These revelations came after a year-long investigation by the lokayukta into alleged irregularities in construction of parks and memorials under the Mayawati government.
The lokayukta found 199 persons guilty of siphoning off money in the projects, and recommended action against them in a report that he submitted to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday.
The report says there is clear evidence of commission on the part of the 199 found guilty. He told reporters he had recommended filing of FIRs under the Prevention of Corruption Act and IPC Section 409 (criminal breach of trust by public servant) against 19 persons.
Justice Mehrotra has said FIRs should be filed against former BSP ministers Naseemuddin Siddiqui and Babu Singh Kushwaha, and 30 per cent of the money siphoned off should be recovered from them. The report claimed these two were at the centre of the scam.
He also recommended action against former legislators Sharda Pratap and Anil Maurya and sitting BSP MLA Ramesh Chandra Dubey.  
Uttar Pradesh Lokayukta has found that a sum of Rs 1400 crore was embezzled through inflated billing, which amounts to almost 34 per cent of Rs 4300 crore, the total money spent in construction of memorials and parks during the BSP regime.
Those found guilty in the report prepared by Justice (retd.) N.K. Mehrotra include Chatrapal Singh, the then MD of UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam, S.A. Farooqui, joint director mining, 5 officials of the Lucknow D e v e l o p m e n t Authority (LDA), five engineers of PWD, five officials of the mining department, 37 accountants of Rajkiya Nirman Nigam, two advocates and 60 firms that were entrusted work during the BSP regime.
Naseemuddin Siddiqui, BSP's national general secretary, who was the PWD minister in the BSP government and Babu Singh Kushwaha, the then in charge of the mining department, have also been indicted in the report.
Most of the construction work for the memorials was carried out by the UP Rajkiya Nirman Nigam and the PWD — both of which were under Siddiqui.
The Lokayukta report was handed over to Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav on Monday who had promised after assuming power in UP last year that firm action would be taken against those found guilty of corruption. 

In a fresh trouble for chief minister Sheila Dikshit, the Delhi lokayukta, Justice Manmohan Sarin (Retd), found her government guilty of misusing power and public funds, and recommended that the President advise Ms Dikshit to deposit `11 crores with the exchequer.
In an order on Wednesday, Justice Manmohan Sarin asked the President to “advise the respondent (Ms Dikshit) to reimburse, either herself or through her party, being beneficiaries, a sum of `11 crores, being approximately 50 per cent of the total cost of advertisements in an election year used... for party political purposes, or such other sum as the President finds adequate...”
In July 2009 BJP leader Vijender Gupta filed a petition with the lokayukta accusing her of misusing public funds for her party’s campaign during the 2008 Assembly elections.

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Karzai gives ‘wishlist’ of military gear
Anand K. Sahay
New Delhi, May 22

Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Wednesday ruled out any role for Indian troops after the US and Nato combat mission ends next year, but said he had given the Indian government a “wishlist” of military equipment. “It is up to India to consider our list,” he said in reply to a question.
Speaking to a select group just before flying home to Kabul, Mr Karzai said the question of Indian troops in Afghanistan wasn’t discussed in his four-five hours of talks with Indian leaders on Tuesday.

Why this thundering silence, Mr Srinivasan? Were you just the managing director of a listed company and owned a cricket team even in the best league in the world, no one would have worried too much about such a betting scandal coming right to your door. But you are the president of the BCCI and you are accountable — first to the fair name of the game, and then to the nation in which cricket is such a shared passion among a billion and more.
When questioned on the surfacing of the spot-fixing scandal traced to three IPL cricketers after diligent detective work, you proferred the opinion that “a few rotten eggs don’t spoil the whole IPL”, or words to that effect. As head of the board you had to be far more committed to the investigation and you should have resolved at once to help clean up the game. But you failed the test of responsibility in public life then and there.
When the scandal reached “home”, why didn’t you have the gumption to say “maybe this has first to be thoroughly investigated?” As BCCI president, a public response was the least the nation’s millions of cricket fans expected from you through the media. You had to go up there in front of the camera and face up squarely to the issue. Had this been the first time that some allegations had come to your door, you could have arrogantly brushed them away as the figments of imagination of a few crazed people who don’t know the intricate game of cricket. But this is by no means the first instance.
No, this scandal is too close for comfort and the usual arbitrariness in defeating every public query by stone-walling and flagrant manipulation and manoeuvres was never going to work. The most morally upright action on the spot would have been to tender your resignation until the investigation had run its course. You could then have resumed your seat if your son-in-law is absolved of serious charges of gambling on IPL and cavorting with a Bollywood impresario who thinks nothing of manipulating the game and its players just for a few dirty bucks from bookies who have enriched themselves on the gambling instincts of the gullible.
The BCCI is accountable to the public. What lends it an aura greater than any fights or lawsuits to define its legality is the fact that it cares for the welfare of the game, its players and all its stakeholders. But it has been just a selfish ride for you and your favourites. Had you bitten the bullet and stepped down, you would have compensated for all those years of having to fight so hard to become the czar of world cricket. With a son-in-law who has to fight to clear his name now, what you have lost is the last shred of credibility.
Even your known love for the game would not make up for this callousness in trying to brazen out the latest challenge or refuse to accept that the rotten eggs are indeed being thrown at you for not being courageous enough to accept when the time has come to take the moral high ground.

The UPA-2 on Wednesday night tried to dispel the shadow of scams and controversies with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh attempting to paint a rosy picture and Congress president Sonia Gandhi striking a combative note, taking the Opposition head on. She also sought to end speculation about a rift between the party and the Prime Minister.
Replying to Opposition charges about corruption and scams, Mrs Gandhi declared: “We have nothing to hide, nothing to be defensive about.” Also, in an attempt to end all speculation about a rift between the party and the government, she said: “We all stand by the Prime Minister.” Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi echoed similar sentiments, saying there were “no differences”.
Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, who gives the UPA-2 crucial outside support, chose to stay away from its celebrations of four years in power.
Aware that corruption could be the Opposition’s main electoral plank, the UPA-2’s “Report to the People” released by Dr Singh clearly indicated that the government was set to bank on reforms for the 2014 general election.
While the Prime Minister talked economics, reforms, growth and welfare schemes, it was Mrs Gandhi who virtually sounded the poll bugle against the Opposition. She began her attack by accusing the Opposition of disrupting Parliament and refusing to respond to the government’s repeated assurances of debate and discussion on the floor of the House. Claiming that the government was “transparent” and “uncompromising” on corruption, Mrs Gandhi launched a frontal attack on the Opposition by terming its charges as “innuendos,” “lies” and “misinformation”.
There was also a concerted effort by both the Prime Minister and Mrs Gandhi to dispel speculation of a rift. Mrs Gandhi said there were “no differences” and there “is a collective leadership”. She said the Prime Minister had been “fulfilling his responsibility with great dignity and in the face of unrelenting hostility and abuse from the Opposition”. Then she added: “We respect him and we all stand by him.” Earlier, releasing the report, the PM said Mrs Gandhi had been a “great source of inspiration” for him.
While the Samajwadi chief, who is reportedly exploring options for a third alternative, stayed away, the Bahujan Samaj Party, which too lends the UPA outside support, sent its representatives to attend the dinner. The BSP’s Satish Chandra Mishra and Brajesh Pathak did not attend the report card presentation but came in time for dinner.
Downplaying the SP’s absence, minister of state for parliamentary affairs Rajeev Shukla said the absence of any party at the function did not mean that it was not supporting the UPA.
Those seated at the table with Mrs Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi were National Conference leader Farooq Abdullah, RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav, NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and the BSP leaders. Former Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh also attended the celebrations.
Mrs Gandhi, who attacked the Opposition for disrupting Parliament, also appealed to them to cooperate with the government now to pass the bills on food security and land acquisition in the interests of the people.

The Mumbai police crime branch is all set to question Gurunath Meiyappan, son-in-law of Indian cricket board president N. Srinivasan, in connection with spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League. Mr Meiyappan is the team principal and CEO of Chennai Super Kings, the IPL franchise that is owned by Mr Srinivasan.
Crime branch sources said Mr Meiyaappan’s name came up during the questioning of Bollywood actor Vindoo Dara Singh, who has already been arrested by the police in connection with the spot-fixing case.
During interrogation Vindoo reportedly admitted placing huge bets on behalf of Mr Meiyappan.
Further, crime branch sources said, Vindoo has made a number of calls to a Chennai mobile number which is believed to be that of Mr Meiyappan. Around the same time that Vindoo called that number, he had also spoken to at least three major bookies, including Ramesh Vyas, who is emerging as the kingpin in the spot-fixing scam.
What the police now wants to ascertain is if Vindoo was only placing bets on behalf of Mr Meiyappan, or using him for spot-fixing in IPL matches. Either way, it could be trouble for Mr Meiyappan as even betting is illegal in this country.
“As of now one of the key accused in the case has made certain serious allegations against Mr Meiyappan. There is some technical evidence to back this too. But we need to question Mr Meiyappan to clarify some key issues and only after that will a clear picture emerge,” a senior crime branch official said.
Gurunath has sought time to appear before the Mumbai Police. As Chennai Super Kings have already booked a place in Sunday’s final by beating Mumbai Indians in New Delhi on Tuesday, he may be preoccupied with his team’s preparations in Kolkata.
Gurunath’s film connections may have led to several stars and starlets getting access to players. A Chennai police source pointed out in particular that the daughter of a surrendered cricket bookie, Prashant, thought to be the mastermind of many betting operations in the city, has also been a regular in such hard partying in what is said to be an exclusive circle.
Investigating officials in Mumbai said Vindoo was one of the key facilitators in the betting racket and the possibility of more Bollywood actors being involved could not be ruled out at this stage. Vindoo has been seen sitting in CSK’s VIP box during their matches, alongside India and CSK skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s wife Sakshi.
In a related development, three more Bollywood film producers could also be questioned in the case. Film industry sources said these three producers used to place bets on cricket matches along with Vindoo. However, so far there is no evidence to suggest that these three had any direct contact with any of the bookies.
The income-tax department, meanwhile, has also started an investigation into the case. Investigations by the Delhi police special cell have revealed that cricketer Ajit Chandila was allegedly paid at least `49 lakhs by bookies for spot-fixing matches in this IPL season. Of this sum, `15 lakhs was paid for one over in a match against Sunrisers Hyderabad on May 17, but he was arrested before the game, investigators said.
Investigators also said they suspected arrested bookie Sunil Bhatia had fixed some matches of the Bangladesh Premier League after interrogating him. The bookie also claimed that he fixed some matches of the rebel Indian Cricket League, police sources said.
Delhi police special cell officials said so far no links had emerged between Vindoo or bookie Ramesh Vyas and the Delhi case, though they in were touch with the crime branch in Mumbai for any common links in the two cases.

Release the “Report Card of UPA-2” in New Delhi on Wednesday

Finance minister P. Chidambaram (from left), Congress vice-president Rahul Gandhi, defence minister A.K. Antony, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, NCP chief Sharad Pawar and civil aviation minister Ajit Singh release the “Report Card of UPA-2” in New Delhi on Wednesday. — PTI

The first Bollywood link in the current IPL betting and spot-fixing scandal — Vindoo Dara Singh has been into the betting business for the past many years. The investigators said that they had learnt that the actor had been betting on all the IPL seasons, ODI World Cup and during interrogation had even admitted, “I have a bad addiction to betting”.
Son of veteran actor late Dara Singh, Vindoo is famously known as “Jack” in the bookies circle. He used to run the book under the same name and was accepting bets from high-profile people who were his contacts. Vindoo would later forward these bets to bookies placing bets with Pakistani and Dubai bookies, on higher rates. On Wednesday, the police conducted searches at Vindoo’s flat located in the Mamata Cooperative Housing Society. “We have seized three cellphones that belongs to Pawan Jaipur, a bookie from Rajasthan,” said Himanshu Roy, joint commissioner of police.

There is marginal increase in the skewed sex ratio of Haryana. As per the latest data released by the Haryana census department on Wednesday, the sex ratio has increased up to 879 in 2001 as compared to 861 females in the 2001 census. However, Gurgaon, the most developed district, has lowest female sex ratio at only 854.
Ironically, the highest female sex ratio was found in most backward districts of Mewat and Fatehabad at 907 and 902, respectively.
As per the data, female sex ratio dipped in Mahendragarh by 23 points from 918 as per 2001 census to 895 and in Rewari by one point to 898. The sex ratio in rural areas also increased to 882 from 866 and in urban areas from 847 to 873.
Growth of population in rural areas was 9.8 per cent while in urban areas, it was 44.6 per cent. Density of population in Haryana has increased from 478 in 2001 to 573 in 2011.
The literacy rate in the state has also improved from 67.9 per cent in 2001 to 75.6 per cent in 2011. In rural areas, literacy rate increased from 63.2 per cent to 71.4 per cent and in urban areas from 79.2 per cent to 83.1 per cent, according to the data.
Maximum literacy has been recorded in Gurgaon district at 84.7 per cent.

The death of terror suspect Khalid Mujahid last week is gradually turning into a major communal issue.
The office of Jamal Ahmed, the counsel of Khalid Mujahid, was ransacked by protesting lawyers at the district court premises in Faizabad to protest against a demonstration held in Faizabad on Monday to protest against Mujahid’s death. The demonstration had been led by a section of lawyers belong to the Muslim community.
Another lawyer, Salim Ahmed, was also attacked on Tuesday and had to be admitted in the emergency ward of the district hospital. The District Bar Association (DBA) in Faizabad held a meeting and condemned a protest march which was taken out in Faizabad on Monday to protest against Khalid’s death.
The District Bar Association further cancelled the membership of three advocates —- Shakeelur Rehman, Nadeem Ahmed and Salim Ahmed — for supporting the protests against Khalid’s death.
Jamal Ahmed’s membership was already cancelled in 2008, when he had filed papers for contesting Khalid’s case.
“After the DBA meeting, the lawyers came to the compound where we used to sit and damaged furniture and name plates. Salim was also attacked,” said Jamal Ahmad and added that the lawyers were being instigated by SP (city) Manoj Kumar Jha. Jamal Ahmad has sought police protection but the same has not yet been given to him. DBA president Jagdamba Singh, meanwhile, denied that any lawyer was attacked in the court premises.
“A general body meeting of the DBA was held on Tuesday and a resolution was passed unanimously, cancelling the bar membership of some lawyers. Soon after this, we heard the lawyers abusing us outside the bar association office,” Mr Singh told this correspondent on Wednesday.

India has sought access from the US to 26/11 Mumbai terror attack convict David Headley and his accomplice Tahawwur Rana — both of whom were found guilty of supporting Pakistan-based terror outfit LeT and sentenced by a Chicago court.
While there was no official word from either side on the issues discussed in particular those with reference to Headley and Rana, officials said it was prominently raised by home minister Sushilkumar Shinde during his meeting with US Attorney General Eric Holder here. “Shinde and Holder agreed that the ministry of home affairs and the department of justice should work together institutionally, so as to ensure the best possible outcomes within the laws of the two countries, to address pending issues relating to extradition, execution of Letters Rogatory and Red Corner Notices,” an official Indian statement said.

Concerned over the vulnerability of children being exploited through social networking sites, the Delhi high court on Wednesday sought suggestions from Facebook and Google on safety measures to be put in place for online usage of such sites by minors in India.
A bench of justices B.D. Ahmed and Vibhu Bakhru voiced concern about children using Facebook and other social networking sites and then being lured knowingly and unknowing into illegal and unsafe acts by adults.
“What we are worried about is children who have been part of the social network and some adults misleading them and taking advantage. We are also concern about the use of their data by the adults for their advantage,” the high court bench said.
“The counsel for Facebook Inc and Google Inc will file suggestions regarding the online media sites used by the minors in India and how their rights were protected within four weeks,” it said.
The court’s direction came after counsel for Facebook Inc submitted that the site operated under the US law Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) as per which a child below 13 years of age is not allowed to open an account.
To this, the bench said in the US the rights of the children are protected by COPPA but what about the children in India. “What will the Facebook do if a child is exploited online? Like American children, how do you protect the rights of Indian children,” the court asked and fixed July 16 as the next date of hearing in the matter.
The bench’s direction came while hearing the plea of former BJP ideologue K.N. Govindacharya seeking recovery of taxes from the websites on their income from operations in India.
The court also expressed unhappiness over the Centre’s argument that one has to enter into an agreement with the site while opening an account which is not a contract but agreement to the terms and conditions.
The government counsel also submitted that there is no mechanism to verify the identity and age of a child from online account. Earlier, the court had asked the government to respond to a plea questioning how children below the age of 18 years are allowed to open account on social networking sites including Facebook, even though Indian laws do not permit it.

The bride sat with a 10 inch male doll as the Pandit recited “mantras” at the wedding ceremony.
When the time came for the “pheras,” the bride nonchalantly picked up the doll and took seven rounds of the sacred fire.
This unique wedding was solemnised in Unchahar in Rae Bareli district on Wednesday night in Gangauli village.
The groom, Sahil, is in jail on charges of murdering his own brother-in-law.
His wedding was scheduled for Wednesday and both the parties did not want any further postponement.
“Once the wedding was fixed, we decided to share each other’s fate. I told Sahil’s father, Thakurdin, that the wedding would be held on schedule and we discussed the matter with our priests. The priests told us that in mythology there are instances where marriages have been solemnised in the absence of the bride or the groom by keeping a doll and we decided to follow the pattern,” said the bride’s father Suresh.
Suresh and his family members came to Lucknow last week and purchased a 10-inch male doll for the wedding.
“We could not find a bigger one though we wanted a life-sized doll. We dressed up the doll in wedding finery and put it in a sitting position during the rituals,” he informed.
The wedding attracted huge crowds as soon as the word spread that the groom was being replaced by a doll.
Some people even questioned the idea but were pacified when the priests explained the situation to them.
On Thursday morning, the “baraat” returned to Dalmau along with the bride and the “groom” and the wedding festivities came to an end.
Thakurdin said that the bride would now live with them and perform all duties as a daughter-in-law.
“We will have another small wedding when Sahil comes out of jail but till then his bride is our responsibility,” he said.

The National Biodiversity Authority has come under attack for its failure to take a stand and determine the exact percentage of equitable benefit sharing with regard to coal producers and other companies under the provisions of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002.
Members of Biodiversity Management Committees (BMC), who came here from different parts of the state to attend the state-level function to mark the International Biodiversity Day at the Academy of Administration here on Wednesday were unanimous in targeting the NBA and even the Union ministry of environment and forests for not taking steps under Section 21 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, which confers the powers to the National Biodiversity Authority to determine equitable benefit sharing with the community to meet the larger goal of promoting conservation, sustainable use of biological diversity, including preservation of habitats, conservation of land races, folk varieties and cultivar, domesticated stocks and breeds of animals and micro-organisms and chronicling of knowledge related to biodiversity.
A BMC member even went to the extent of saying that the Congress-led UPA Government is not interested in carrying forward in letter and spirit the mandate of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002. After NBA’s continuous failure to take a stand on sharing of benefits by users of resources, the coal companies have now taken the stand that coal is not a biological resource and they are not supposed to take any permission to carry out their operations under Section 24 of the Biological Diversity Act, 2002, he said adding, as a consequence the larger community is being denied revenue running into thousands of crores.

In a gruesome incident, Naxals brutally killed an elderly tribal man in a Chhattisgarh village by hanging him to death in public, the police said on Thursday.
Around 50 armed Maoists stormed Murkinar village under Bedre police station in Bijapur district late on Wednesday night and ordered all the villagers to assemble near a tree in the locality.
The ultras then pulled three old men — Guddi Marma (59), Ram Badeja (52) and Mangu Ram (53) — from the gathering to try them in the kangaroo court, set up by them in the village.
Later, the Maoists hanged Guddi on a tree in public view of the villagers till he died.
They also tortured the two others by beating them mercilessly for the whole night.
The police recovered Guddi’s body from the tree on Thursday morning and sent it for post-mortem, a senior district police officer said.
Meanwhile, four naxals, including a woman, on Thursday surrendered in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district.
“The cadres surrendered before Narayanpur superintendent of police Amit Kamble at Benur police station of the district,” additional SP N.K. Sahu told PTI over phone. Those arrested have been identified as — Ajay (21) and Bharat (22), the members of Kudur LOS (Local Operating Squad) of Maoist, Vinod (32) of Chinahri Sarkar Raksha Sakha and Sudha (23), a member of Kohkameta platoon. They all were involved in several cases of crime ranging from loot, arson and murder in the region, Sahu said, adding, that of them, Vinod was active for past several years. “Under pressure from security personnel and due to harsh forest life, he decided to join the mainstream,” the ASP said. They will be rehabilitated as per the government policies, he added.

Last week’s encounter at Edesmeta in Chhattisgarh’s Bijapur district, in which eight “innocent” tribals, including three children, were gunned down by security forces, seems to have provided fodder to the Opposition Congress in the poll-bound state to attack the Raman Singh government.
“It is not a fake encounter but genocide. The incident has clearly demonstrated the state BJP government’s insensitivity towards the helpless tribals of Bastar who are sandwiched between forces and Naxals,” former chief minister and senior Congress leader Ajit Jogi told reporters here on Thursday.
Calling for an immediate halt to killing of innocent tribals in Bastar in the name of anti-Maoist operation, Mr Jogi also demanded the security personnel involved in the Edesmeta massacre be booked under murder charges.
“The ministry of home affairs (MHA) should take urgent steps to prevent recurrence of such a terrible incident,” he added.
Describing May 18 Edesmeta killings as a replay of last year’s Sarkeguda encounter, in which 17 alleged innocent tribals were killed by forces in the same district, he remarked, “It appears the security establishment has learnt no lesson from the Sarkeguda incident, leading to occurrence of Edesmeta tragedy.”
Chhattisgarh home minister Nankiram Kanwar, however, flayed the Congress for blaming security forces for the Edesmeta incident.
“The forces had merely fired in self defence when the Naxals opened fire on them. One CRPF jawan was killed when he was hit by a bullet on his forehead, fired by Naxals,” he added.

The fate of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will be decided by voting for two Rajya Sabha seats on May 30 as All-India United Democratic Front refused to withdraw its candidate on Thursday last date for withdrawing nomination.
Though, victory of PM is almost certain but nomination of Santius Kujur, a little known Congress leader for second Rajya Sabha seat, has thrown a spanner into his smooth elections. A section of Congress MLAs led by former minister Anjan Dutta has openly expressed their reservation over the nomination of Mr Kujur, who is backed by Union minister Pawan Singh Ghatowar and leader of dissident camp and health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma.
In an obvious attempt to avoid elections, Assam CM Tarun Gogoi on Wednesday met AIUDF president Badruddin Ajmal in New Delhi and requested to withdraw their candidate in support of PM but his request was turned down. The AIUDF is supporting the UPA alliance government in New Delhi.
The AIUDF, which has only 18 MLAs in the Assam assembly, has fielded Mr Animul Islam hoping to capitalise the ongoing rift in the ruling Congress party. The AIUDF president and MP Badurddin Ajmal who refused to open his strategy claimed that they are sure to win second seat. When asked about support of MLAs, he told reporters, “Ye andar ki baat hai”.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs on Thursday approved a `2,550 crore National AIDS Control Support Project.
The proposed project by the Department of AIDS Control will contribute towards intensifying and consolidating prevention services with a focus on highly vulnerable populations, high risk groups and bridge population and strengthening behaviour change communication and demand generation, besides institutional strengthening and financial management.
This would help in providing the desired impetus required for further consolidation of gains made in containing the spread of HIV infection in the country. With an aim to increase safe behaviour among high risk groups in pursuance of the national goal of accelerated reversal of the HIV epidemic by 2017, its primary focus will be to strengthen and scale up prevention interventions and related BCC strategies for sub- groups of population identified to be most-at-risk by the NACP. The high risk population include Female Sex Workers (FSW), men who have sex with men (MSM), Transgender (TG)/Hijra populations and Injecting Drug Users (IDU).
The NACP has been a remarkable success in its third phase (2007-12) and the country is on track to meet the Millennium Development Goal for HIV prevention and control.

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Malayalam now classical language
AGE CORRESPONDENT
new delhi, May 23

The Union Cabinet on Thursday stamped its approval on the proposal to classify Malayalam as a “classical language” subject to the outcome of a case pending in the Chennai high court in connection with it.
Two major annual international awards for scholars of eminence, a Centre of Excellence for Studies in that language and a request to the University Grants Commission to create with at least in the Central Universities a certain number of Professional chairs for scholars of eminence are the benefits that accrue to a language after it is declared “classical”.
There was huge uproar when Telugu and Kannada were given the honour, earlier, even as Malayalam was not notified.

A group of ministers (GoM), which was constituted by the Prime Minister to prepare a draft law to insulate CBI from external influence and a draft affidavit to be presented in the Supreme Court, held its first meeting on Thursday. The government’s move to constitute the GoM, headed by Union finance minister P. Chidambaram, had come after the Supreme Court had indicted CBI for being a “caged parrot” of its political masters.
The Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), which exercises administrative control over the agency, gave its presentation before the GoM on Thursday. The DoPT proposal giving more financial powers to the CBI director did not find much support in the meeting which was attended by Mr Chidambaram, law minister Kapil Sibal, external affairs minister Salman Khurshid and minister of state for personnel V. Narayanasamy, sources said. Home minister Sushilkumar Shinde could not attend the meeting as he is away in the US.
The DoPT opposed scrapping of the provision which requires CBI to seek government’s permission before probing an official of the rank of joint secretary and above in corruption cases, they added.
“CBI director Ranjit Sinha did not attend the meeting today since it was the DoPT that had to make a presentation, not the CBI. But the director will definitely go whenever called by the GoM for presentation,” sources said.
Talking to this newspaper, Mr Sinha said, “Whenever the GoM invites CBI, we will certainly make a presentation before it. The CBI is all set to raise the issue of providing more autonomy and independence to the country’s premier investigative agency and also insulating it from all political interference”.
We all want an independent investigative agency, he said.

Picking holes in the UPA-II’s report card on completion of four years, the main Opposition BJP on Thursday said the Congress-led UPA made false claims of success and the report card does not stand scrutiny on figures, facts and statements made in the document.
It also countered Congress and government’s allegations that the NDA has been an irresponsible and disruptive Opposition.
Rubbishing UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi’s charge that the Opposition had frequently disrupted Parliament which prevented passage of Food Security Bill and Land Acquisition Bill, BJP’s Sudhanshu Trivedi said, “Did this government not get the Indo-US Civilian Nuclear Deal and the FDI in multi-brand retail issues passed in Parliament despite our opposition to them. So why can they not get the Food Security and the Land Acquisition bills passed? The first two were matters of interest to them but these two bills are not.”
He said BJP wants these important bills to be passed but with some amendments.
The main Opposition alleged that though Congress has been in power for 56 years since Independence yet it has failed to provide food security to the people.
“Even today two-thirds of the population of this country needs food security. Congress should apologise to the nation for this,” Mr Trivedi said.