2100 HRS
5th February, 2013

THE HEADLINES:

• Election Commission of India cautions Tripura Chief Minister against misuse of official machinery for political purposes.

• Home Ministry writes to Defence Ministry to probe the incident of IAF personnel abandoning an injured policeman after a maoist attack in Chhattisgarh.

• Fast track court begins hearing of charges against five accused in Delhigang rape case; Victim's friend testifies.

• Government to sell 9.5 per cent stake in National Thermal Power Corporation on Thursday.

• England beat West Indies in the Group-A match of the ICC Women's World Cup tournament; Indian chase for the target of 283 set by Sri Lanka is on.

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The Election Commission of India, today cautioned Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar against misuse of official machinery for political purposes in violation of the Model Code of Conduct. The action against Sarkar was taken at a meeting of the Election Commission chaired by Chief Election Commissioner V S Sampath in New Delhi, after discussing the issue and the chief minister's reply to the allegations against him.

Sarkar was accused of giving an interview to a cable television channel on January 15th in his office in the Secretariat, where he made political comments praising his government and criticised the Opposition.

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The Home Ministry has written to the Defence Ministry to take action against IAF men who had abandoned an injured policeman and an armed helicopter in Chhattisgarh, saying the incident was extremely disturbing.

Home Secretary R K Singh asked his counterpart in the Defence Ministry Shashikant Sharma to institute an inquiry and take appropriate action in connection with the January 18th incident when Maoist' gunfire had forced an Indian Air Force helicopter to make emergency landing. A state police wireless operator had suffered gunshot injuries in the incident.

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The trial in the Delhi gang rape case began today with police filing a supplementary chargesheet. Besides an autopsy report from the Singapore hospital was also attached. The 28-year-old male friend of the December 16th Delhi gang rape victim, today appeared before a fast track court in New Delhi to testify about the incident to which he is the sole eyewitness.

Beside the victim's male friend, the court had also summoned three other prosecution witness to depose before the judge in the case.

A fast-track court in Delhi on Saturday framed charges against five accused in the gangrape case and put them on trial on various counts including conspiracy to abduct the 23-year-old girl and sexually assault and murder her.

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A 46-year-old serial killer was today sentenced to death by a Delhi court for murder and dumping the body near Tihar jail. A day after sentencing him to prison term for entire life in one of three murder cases against him, additional sessions judge Kamini Lau handed down capital punishment to Chandrakant Jha , saying the case fulfills all the criteria in the rarest of rare category as his act was shocking to the community.

Jha was today sentenced to death in the second of the three murder cases in which he has been convicted. Yesterday, the same court had sentenced him to life imprisonment till his death in another case of murder, in which also he had chopped off the head and limbs of the victim and had dumped the body near Tihar Jail. The sentencing in the remaining murder case against him will be pronounced tomorrow.

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Supreme Court today sharply criticised the Centre and several state governments for their failure to file a status report on the issue of missing children. The bench headed by Chief Justice Altamas Kabir said nobody seems to be concerned about these children. The apex court also came down heavily on the Chief Secretaries of Arunachal Pradesh, Gujarat and Tamil Nadu for their failure to comply with its order to be present before it later in day on the issue. The court threatened to issue non-bailable warrants against them. The bench gave a last opportunity to the Centre and the states which have not filed their affidavits on the matter and posted it for further hearing on February the 19th. Out of the five states whose Chief Secretaries were asked to appear, only the Chief Secretaries of Goa and Orissa were present.

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Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Kiran Kumar Reddy today held discussions with Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Sushil kumar Shinde on the Telangana statehood issue. Our correspondent reports, Mr Reddy briefed Dr. Singh and the Home Minister about the prevailing political and law and order situation in the State.

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President Pranab Mukherjee has strongly pitched for increasing enrollment of the disadvantaged sections of society in higher education. Addressing a conference of vice chancellors of Central universities at Rashtrapati Bhavan in New Delhi today, Mr Mukherjee expressed concern over low enrollment of scheduled tribe population in higher education. He stressed the need to focus on imparting quality education and providing opportunity to aspirants near the place of their residence.

Addressing the Conference the Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh today asked the universities to focus on giving over-riding emphasis on quality. Dr.Singh regretted that none of the Indian universities figures among the top 200 in the world. He told the meet being attended by 40 vice chancellors, that too many of them have simply not kept themselves abreast with the rapid changes that have taken place in the world in recent years and were producing graduates in subjects that the job market no longer required.

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The government will sell 9.5% stake in power major National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC). Decision was taken at EGoM meeting held in New Delhi this evening. The disinvestment will take place on Thursday . Government expects to raise 12 thousand crore rupees from the sale of shares. The price for sale will be communicated to stock exchanges tomorrow.

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Finance Minister P. Chidambaram today asked revenue officials to beef up their tax collection efforts to achieve the budgeted target. Mr. Chidambaram reminded that it has been a difficult year for the economy because there were less imports and manufacturing activity was also slackening. He was addressing the officials of Central Board of Excise and Customs in New Delhi.

This year has been a difficult year, this has been difficult year for tax collection too as economic slowdown imports have slowdown, manufacturing remains subdued and therefore, collections be affected. Nevertheless I have urged the board and through the board, all officers in rank of the custom excise department to continue their efforts to achieve the budget in targets.

Finance Ministry assured taxpayers that efforts would be made to end hostile relationships between officials and assesses.

The government has budgeted to collect over 5.05 lakh crore rupees in the current fiscal from indirect taxes that comprise excise, customs and service tax.

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THE BUSINESS WORLD

Falling for the fourth straight session, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange dropped 91 points, or 0.5 percent, to close at a one-month low of 19,660, on broad-based selling by investors, amid weak regional markets, today. The Nifty fell 30 points, to 5,957.Stock markets in Japan, Hong Kong,South Korea and Singapore shed between 0.8 percent and 2.3 percent. The rupee strengthened 15 paise, to close at an over three-and-a-half-month high of 53.13 against the dollar. Snapping three days of losses, gold rose 200 rupees, to 30,950 rupees per ten grams in Delhi. Silver gained 295 rupees, to 58,600 rupees per kilo. And Brent crude oil futures climbed towards 116 dollars a barrel, while US crude added 25 cents, to 96.42 dollars a barrel.Pradeep Kumar, AIR News

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The central team which visited the Cauvery delta districts of Tamil Nadu to assess the crop loss will submit its report to the Supreme Court tomorrow. A Supreme Court bench yesterday issued orders to the Centre to send a team to delta districts to assess the crop loss and water requirement.

The central team consisting of Agriculture department crops Deputy Commissioner Pradeep Kumar Sha ,Central Water Commission Chief Engineers K C Jacob, Mahendran and Virender Sharma today inspected the samba crop loss in delta districts of Tamil Nadu including Tiruchirapalli, Thanjavur , Tiruvarur and Nagapattinam. The central team visited Kattur Papakurichi in Tiruchi district, , Koil Pathu and Rayanthur in Thanajavur district and Perugavaznthan, Vilamkadu in Tiruvarur district. The farmers showed the affected samba crops to the team and with tears urged the need of water to save their paddy crops. K Devi Padmanabhan AIR News Tiruchirapalli

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In Jammu and Kashmir, normal life remains disrupted in the entire Jammu region due to recent snowfall in the upper reaches and incessant rain in the plains. Jammu-Srinagar National Highway remained closed for vehicular movement due to heavy snowfall and slippery road conditions. Hundreds of vehicles were stranded at various places on the highway at Banihal, Ramban, Patnitop, Kud and Udhampur areas due to closure of the highway.

Heavy rains and hail storm that took place today caused lot of problems to the people, particularly to the farming community as their standing crops were damaged. Nine houses in Bhutas village of Gool area of Ramban district suffered damaged due to heavy rains and snowfall. However, Administration has evacuated the affected families to safer places. In Samba district, rain and hail storm badly struck the border villages of Jerda, Dug, Nandpur as standing crops were damaged there. Chander Kant Sharma/JAMMU

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Heavy rain accompanied by thunderstorm lashed Delhi continuously for 18 hours, breaking all previous records of single day rainfall in the month of February after 1942 . The heavy rains threw traffic out of gear across the city due to the perennial problem of water logging. Met Department Director B P Yadav said the city received 50 mm of rainfall for a period of 24 hours. He said besides Delhi, Rajasthan, Punjab and Haryana will also receive more rains till tomorrow.

There has been snow fall in the hills and rainfall in the plains. The rainfall is very good in Punjab, Haryana NCR Delhi and UP. But now Western disturbances will move away and by tomorrow the weather will be clear. There will be fall in night temperature.

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Information & Broadcasting Minister Manish Tewari today released the e-version of Urdu Employment news in New Delhi. The Minister termed the launch of e-version as a major step saying that this will go a long way in disseminating information to various sections of society.

In the context of Urdu the reality is that this not a minority specific language, therefore, the launch of the E-version of Urdu News, I think in addition to making information easily available to in the language of their preference would also go a long way in strengthening what is the intrinsic mission of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to equally promote all languages.

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Karnataka High Court quashed a land grab complaint against former Chief Minister and KJP leader B S Yeddyurappa today. Justice K N Keshavanarayana quashed the complaint and asked the Petitioner Vinod to approach the Jurisdictional Court in Shimoga. The complainant had alleged that Yeddyurappa and others had encroached upon 250 acres of land in Bhadra Reserve Forest.

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An Indian fishing boat capsized with four people on board last Wednesday. Three of them were rescued by Sri Lankan fishermen 200 nautical miles from Negambo in Sri Lanka waters and were brought to Negambo early today morning. One of the fishermen, Zavier V. Pillai, died in the incident and his body has been recovered on Tamil Nadu coast.

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India has been eliminated from the ICC Women's World Cup. Chasing 283 to win against Sri Lanka and minimum 251 required to qualify for the super sixes, Indian team was bundled out for 144 in 42.2 overs in group A match in Mumbai. Sri Lankahad opted to bat after winning the toss.

Earlier, England swept into super sixes today after beating West Indies by six wickets in a group A match in Mumbai.

In the two group B matches played in Cuttack today, Australia beat New Zealandby seven wickets and South Africa defeated Pakistan by 126 runs.