Andhranews

New Delhi, Sept. 21: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi are yet to reach a consensus on a Cabinet minister for the ministry of external affairs. The hunt has not yielded mutually acceptable faces, with the reshuffle of the top ministerial portfolios being placed on hold for the moment.

Dr Karan Singh, who was being mentioned in the list of probables, has reportedly got tired of waiting and has expressed a desire to throw his hat into the ring for the presidential elections, due in 2007, before vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is able to steal a decided march on him. The hunt is on for a low-profile candidate for the Foreign Office as Dr Manmohan Singh is not particularly keen to open a new confrontation in the area which the PMO has started looking upon as its territory.

Defence minister Pranab Mukherjee is not interested in the ministry of external affairs and would have liked to take on the home portfolio, which is reportedly not being offered to him. Dr Manmohan Singh has opposed Mr Mukherjee’s appointment to the Foreign Office, saying that he was very much required to be in New Delhi as he was heading important GOMs and was the Leader of the Lok Sabha and required to handle important matters.

The second lineup includes Maharashtra governor S.M. Krishna, and Union ministers Kapil Sibal and Kamal Nath. The Prime Minister is kindly disposed towards Mr Krishna, according to Congress Party sources, but he is facing stiff resistance from the AICC leaders. The other two ministers are considered too junior for the post. A new name that has emerged, but with little indication of support, is that of Union power minister Sushilkumar Shinde, whose low profile could make him acceptable to both the Prime Minister and Mrs Sonia Gandhi.

Dr Singh, who has announced twice already during his foreign tours that he would be appointing a minister of external affairs upon his return, is keen to fill the post before the month is through. The dates now being mentioned for a possible appointment are between September 24, after the Congress chief ministers’ conclave, and September 30, when the Prime Minister leaves for a foreign tour.

Congress sources said that the issue now was whether the foreign minister would be someone who could exercise authority or just a rubber stamp. It is being acknowledged within the party that the Congress does not have senior leaders with knowledge of foreign policy like Mr K. Natwar Singh. The Prime Minister has already tied up essential elements of foreign policy by placing the US-India civilian nuclear energy deal under a special envoy, outgoing foreign secretary Shyam Saran, who will be directly accountable to him.

Pakistan policy is being largely determined by the back channels that are active under senior official Satish Lamba, who is also reporting directly to the Prime Minister. The sensitive border issues with China are also being handled at the PMO level through national security adviser M.K. Narayanan.

Hyderabad, Sept. 21: The State government’s method of classifying below poverty line (BPL) families who are eligible to draw subsidy rice has placed 75 per cent of the population under the poverty line thereby resulting in severe burden on the exchequer. The classification method adopted by the State does not match with those of the Planning Commission or the World Bank which also fund poverty alleviation programmes in the State.

Latest official statistics show that three out of every four persons in the State are officially poor. The statistics compiled in the first week of September has 1.45 crore BPL families who are provided with white ration cards, Antyodaya Anna Yojana cards and Annapurna cards to obtain subsidised rice from the government. The State figures show 36.89 lakh families in urban areas and 1.08 crore families in rural areas as being below poverty line. Figures from Hyderabad and Visakhapatnam are yet to be completed.

Assuming that on an average there are four members in each family, the total number of people below the poverty line comes to roughly six crores. Which means, 75 per cent of total population of the State — about eight crores — are poor. The State government has compiled this data based on the declarations given by the families which were later verified by mandal revenue officials.

However, the statistics of the Planning Commission are different. As per the study carried out by an expert group of the commission till 2000, only 1.19 crore people in the State were below the poverty line which adds up to 15.77 per cent of the total population. This compared to the national average of 26.10 per cent portrays a better picture.

As per the Tenth Plan statistics, with expectations up to 2006-07, the percentage of BPL people in the State is estimated to drop to 8.49 per cent, including 4.58 per cent in rural areas and the rest in urban areas. The high percentage of BPL population in urban areas may partly be due to unemployment coupled with migration from rural areas.

The World Bank statistics tell a different story altogether. Sources in the WB-funded AP district poverty initiative programme, say that the population below poverty ranges from 40 per cent to 46 per cent in different districts. The implementation of WB programmes like Velugu is targeted to reduce the poverty among the BPL families. The differences in the evaluation of the three sources are due to the methodology adopted.

The State government categorises BPL families based on their annual income which is fixed at around Rs 20,000 in rural areas and Rs 24,000 in urban areas. The Planning Commission follows the recommendation of the expert group led by Lakdawala Committee in 1990, according to which the minimum intake of 2,400 calories in rural areas and 2,100 calories in urban areas were taken into account.

The World Bank follows various parametres such as purchasing capacity of the people, their calorie intake, their social status, to declare them as BPL, sources said. Because of the vast difference between the Planning Commission figures and its own figures on BPL families, the State government is spending more than Rs 600 crores towards additional subsidy on rice from its own budgetary resources. “There will be a burden of another Rs 150 crores this year due to increase in the number of white cards,” official sources added.

New Delhi, Sept. 21: A collision between a Jet Airways Boeing 737 carrying 89 passengers and two Sukhoi-30 fighter aircraft of the Indian Air Force flying in formation was averted in the nick of time on Thursday morning in the skies above Rajkot in Gujarat. The incident has sent shockwaves through aviation circles in the country.

Both the Indian Air Force and the directorate-general of civil aviation (DGCA), the regulator in the civil aviation sector, will conduct separate inquiries into the incident. According to IAF sources, there were two Sukhoi aircraft flying in close proximity to the Jet Airways aircraft. Both were taking part in Operation Gagan Shakti, the biggest exercise of the IAF in recent years.

Air Traffic Control (ATC) sources refused to confirm reports that the distance between the Jet Airways aircraft and the IAF fighter planes was a mere 500 feet at one stage. “This has to be ascertained. We also have to investigate whether it was the Jet Airways aircraft or the IAF aircraft that had strayed off course,” an ATC official said.

“According to regulations, there has to be a minimum separation of 1,000 feet (vertically) and at least 10 miles (horizontally) between two aircraft. If this distance is breached, it becomes a case of proximity and has to be investigated,” the official said. Jet Airways Flight 9W-345 took off at about 7.30 am from Mumbai for Rajkot.

At about 8.30 am, when the aircraft began its descent towards Rajkot airport, the Traffic Collision Avoidance System (TCAS) alerted the pilot about the presence of another aircraft. At that time, the Jet Airways aircraft was reportedly at an altitude of 22,500 feet, and the pilot then applied the higher power thrust controls in order to gain altitude and avoid a collision.

Jet Airways also insisted that its pilot had not violated any ATC instructions and that its pilot “had reacted professionally” after the TCAS alert. The Air Force stated on Thursday that “prima facie reports available suggest that the fighter aircraft did not pose any threat to the civil airliner as they were under the control of the (IAF’s) ground-based radar and in visual contact (with the civil airliner).”

Stating that the “incident” took place at 8.30 am, the IAF said this “involved flying of an IAF fighter (aircraft) formation in close proximity” with the civil airliner. The IAF also stated that “the incident took place during the practice manoeuvres of the ongoing air exercise Gagan Shakti.” Sources said that the IAF had discussed its plans for Operation Gagan Shakti with the civilian ATC authorities and that the airlines had been informed in advance about the areas which they should avoid in view of the ongoing IAF exercises.

The IAF and DGCA inquiries will go into why there had been such a serious lapse in coordination.
Keeping in mind Thursday’s incident, the IAF, civilian ATC authorities and airlines operating in the country will have to ensure that they are in perfect coordination in order to avoid any danger to the lives of passengers.

Chandigarh, Sept. 21: A Major-General of the Indian Army has been cashiered and sentenced to three years’ rigorous imprisonment after a military courtmartial pronounced him guilty of stealing and smuggling supplies of rum meant for soldiers. Maj. Gen. Gur Iqbal Singh, an artillery officer, who was removed from his command as GOC of the 6 Mountain Division at Bareilly nearly 10 months ago, has been found guilty of misappropriating huge quantities of Army liquor and selling it in the open market.

Maj. Gen. Singh will be stripped of his rank, sacked from service and handed over to the civilian authorities to serve his prison sentence. The officer, who had allegedly been siphoning off liquor supplies meant for sale through the Army’s canteen stores department outlets for months, was nabbed through a joint military intelligence and civil police operation, in which two liquor-laden trucks were impounded at Dehra Dun last October.

The trucks were on their way from 6 Division’s headquarters at Bareilly to the general’s hometown of Sangrur in Punjab. Thanks to its GOC’s apparently well known but illegal liquor smuggling operation, 6 Mountain Division had, in Army circles, come to be commonly referred to as the “Rum Division”. A court of inquiry ordered by the Army to fix responsibility had held Maj. Gen. Singh prima facie “blameworthy” and the GOC-in-C of Central Command, Lt. Gen. O.P. Nandrajog, issued instructions for the officer to be tried by a general court martial in July this year. Maj. Gen. Singh was charged under Section 52 of the Army Act for misappropriating government property and Section 63 for acts prejudicial to good order and military discipline. His ADC – a captain – was charged similarly, to be tried before a separate GCM.

The GCM at the Army War College at Mhow near Indore on Thursday found the officer guilty and pronounced sentence on him. This is, however, subject to confirmation by the appropriate military authority. This is for the second time in recent years that a senior Army officer has been charged and found guilty of CSD liquor supplies. A GCM in December 2004 had sentenced Brig. R.P. Singh to nine months’ rigorous imprisonment for similar offences. Another general officer is currently stated to be under inquiry for selling soldiers’ rations.

While the Army has variously tried to correct matters by putting in place measures to prevent misappropriation of liquor, fuel and other stores, many retired generals believe the only way to actually stem the rot would be to review the entire process of recruitment of officers and, more importantly, the vetting procedure for senior command posts.

Washington, Sept. 21: The US would not hesitate to send its troops into Pakistan to hunt for Osama Bin Laden if there was credible intelligence about his location, US President George W. Bush said in an interview. However, his Pakistani counterpart General Pervez Musharraf made it clear that he would not allow the sovereignty of his country to be breached by the US.

“We will do it ourselves... There have been many such occasions when we have located al Qaeda or Taliban activity, and we have struck with full force very successfully,” Gen. Musharraf told reporters when asked about Mr Bush’s comment. Responding to a question on if US forces would track down Bin Laden if it meant hunting him down on Pakistani soil, Mr Bush in an interview to CNN on Wednesday replied, “Absolutely”. “We would take action necessary to bring him (Bin Laden) to justice,” the US President said.

If the fossil Lucy, the most famous woman from out of the deep human past, had a child, it might have looked a lot like the bundle of skull and bones uncovered by scientists digging in the badlands of . The palaeontologists, who announced the discovery in the journal Nature on Thursday, said the 3.3-million-year-old fossils were of the earliest well-preserved child ever found in the human lineage. It was estimated to be about three years old at death, probably female and a member of the Australopithecus afarensis species, the same as Lucy’s.

An analysis of the skeleton revealed evidence of a species in transition, the scientists said in interviews on Wednesday. The lower limbs supported earlier findings that afarensis walked upright, like modern humans. But gorilla-like arms and shoulders suggested that it possibly retained an ancestral ability to climb and swing through the trees.

“Her completeness, antiquity and age at death make this find unprecedented in the history of paleoanthropology,” said Zeresenay Alemseged, the Ethiopian leader of the discovery team and a researcher at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany.

Two reports of the findings have been published in Nature. The , a supporter of the research, will run a popular article on the fossil child in the November issue of its magazine. At a press conference in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, the scientists gave the fossil the name Selam, which means peace in Ethiopia’s official Amharic language. Scientists not involved in the research said the fossils were a significant find that should provide new insights about the afarensis species and a little-known period of early human origins.

“The child really confirms that afarensis was walking upright,” said Tim D. White, a paleoanthropologist at the, Berkeley. “It has the potential to answer old questions and raises some new ones” — including their behaviour in trees. Other discoveries show that the afarensis species, a major branch of the human family tree, lived in Africa from earlier than 3.7 million to three million years ago.

In an accompanying commentary in the journal, Bernard Wood, who had no part in the discovery, said the specimen was “a veritable mine of information about a crucial stage in human evolutionary history.” Dr Wood, a paleoanthropologist, also noted how rare it was for the fragile bones of infants to survive long enough to fossilise. “But if they do, they provide precious evidence about the growth and development of the individual and the species,” he wrote.

Until now, Dr Wood said, the earliest comparably complete specimen of a human-related child was that of a Neanderthal who lived less than 300,000 years ago in Syria. The discovery team said the largely intact condition of the fossils indicated that the child was presumably buried in sand and rocks shortly after death during a flood in a desert region known today as Dikika, in northeastern Ethiopia.
Then, in December 2000, along came a team of fossil hunters led by Dr Alemseged.

On a steep hillside, one of the men, Tilahun Gebreselassie of the Ethiopia ministry of culture and tourism, was the first to see the child’s tiny face looking up from a block of sandstone. It was a long and projecting face with a flat nose. The face and skull were clearly that of a young afarensis, the scientists concluded almost immediately.

Dr Alemseged’s team spent much of the last five years extracting the rest of the specimen from the surrounding stone with dentist’s drills and picks. The tedious work exposed the full cranium and jaws, the torso and spinal column, limbs and the left foot. The child’s one complete finger was curled in a tiny grasp, much like a young chimpanzee’s. The skeleton is more complete than Lucy’s. Although the fossils are still being studied, Dr Alemseged and his colleagues noted several important findings and areas for further research.

Washington: In a positive development towards tabling of the Indo-US nuclear deal in the Senate, US legislators who had placed a “hold” on the legislation have relented, paving the way for it to be debated in the Upper House. Sources told PTI that a small group of Senators who put an “anonymous” hold on the Senate Bill objecting to Title Two of the legislation, which dealt with an additional protocol between the US and the International Atomic Energy Agency, have “found accommodation” with Senator Richard Lugar, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee.

Title Two of S-3709 has nothing to do with the Indo-US civilian nuclear agreement, and is related to arrangements between the United States and the IAEA. It was said that three senators had placed a “hold” on the entire Bill. Hectic efforts have been under way in the last few days to try and bring the Senate version of the civilian nuclear agreement to a debate and vote prior to the Senate adjourning on September 29.

Even now, sources point out, it is not entirely clear whether the agreement reached on the “hold” means that the entire Title Two will be taken out of the legislation, or whether “acceptable” language had been found so that the legislation as a whole could move forward. But for India and the Bush administration, the bottomline is that the major difficulty in terms of legislators’ objections had been resolved.

Congressional sources said that with the current legislative agenda on hand, it might be very difficult if not impossible for the Senate to take up the new bill, and debate and vote on it, by the end of this week. One speculation is that the bill might come up next Tuesday, given that the Senate is in session this Friday and next Monday but votes have not been scheduled. Currently the process of finalising the procedural aspects of bringing the civilian nuclear legislation to the floor is said to be on including negotiations on the length of debate and the number of amendments which are to be offered.