Archives for August 2016

New Delhi: The Supreme Court today agreed to hear next week Tamil Nadu government’s plea seeking release of 50 TMC of water from Karnataka to meet its irrigation demands in the backdrop of the Cauvery water row.

A bench headed by Chief Justice T S Thakur posted the matter for September 2 after Tamil Nadu government mentioned it and sought an urgent hearing.

In the petition, Tamil Nadu has charged Karnataka with diverting water meant for farmers during distress years for undeclared projects, in violation of the final orders of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal in 2007.

It has sought directions to Karnataka to release 50.052 TMC feet of Cauvery water to irrigate the farmland of Tamil Nadu in the “interest of justice.”

The plea also sought the court’s intervention to ensure that Karnataka adhered to the stipulated water releases in accordance with the 2007 order of Tribunal for the remaining months, starting from August 20 in the irrigation year of 2016-2017.

Meanwhile, a separate bench comprising Justices Gopala Gowda and Adarsh Kumar Goel posted before the apex court Registar a bunch of petitions and cross-petitions relating to the implementation of the Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal (CWDT) award, filed by various parties, including Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala.

A detailed list of 17 agreed draft issues, including whether the suit for damages filed by Tamil Nadu was maintainable under Article 131 of the Constitution, was also filed before the bench which posted the matter before the Registrar for completion of proceedings.

Earlier, the apex court had refused to give an urgent hearing to a plea of Tamil Nadu government for setting up the Cauvery Management Board for implementation of the CWDT award.

At the directions of the apex court, the Centre, in 2013, had notified the final award of the CWDT on sharing the waters of the Cauvery system among the basin states of Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Kerala and union territory of Puducherry.

Cauvery Water Disputes Tribunal had recommended the setting up of a Cauvery Management Board/Authority on the lines of the Bhakra Beas Management Board for implementation of the order. The board, in turn, would constitute a Cauvery Water Regulation Committee for assistance.

The Tribunal, in a unanimous decision in 2007, had determined the total availability of water in the Cauvery basin at 740 thousand million cubic (tmc) feet at the Lower Coleroon Anicut site, including 14 tmcft for environmental protection and seepage into the sea.

The final award made an annual allocation of 419 tmcft to Tamil Nadu in the entire Cauvery basin, 270 tmcft to Karnataka, 30 tmcft to Kerala and 7 tmcft to Puducherry.

(Agencies)

Scorpene submarine

New Delhi: Australian investigative journalist Cameron Stewart, who broke the sensational story on the leak of data on Indian Scorpene submarines, has questioned the Indian Navy’s attempt to downplay the leak, saying his newspaper can post all the leaked documents online if India feels they pose no threat.

In an email response to questions from IANS, Stewart, an Associate Editor with The Australian, said the Navy was just trying to do “damage control”.

“The Navy is just trying to control the public relations damage of the leak, so they are trying to play it down. If they claim there is no damage, then maybe we should now put all 22,400 confidential documents on the net,” Stewart told IANS.

“I have gone through the documents in detail with a defence expert (who helped me redact those few we put out in the web) and there is no doubt these documents should never be available in the public arena. If they applied to the Australian Navy, they would be highly classified,” he said.

“This is a major and serious data leak despite the self-interested spin from India and France in trying to play it down,” he added.

On a question on whether the documents were there in the open market, Stewart said: “We don’t know. They were vulnerable on the Internet for some time, so I think it is likely they have been taken but I am not in any position to know this.”

The 22,400 pages of information leaked from DCNS, as reported by The Australian, has crucial information on the DCNS-designed Scorpene submarines that are set to form the core of India’s submarine fleet once inducted.

Some of the documents uploaded by The Australian on its website include data on functional description, including the cylindrical and flank array, sonar interception and a number of other details on the boat as well as on noise generated during patrol, attack and snorting (staying submerged but taking in surface air through the snorkel) modes.

The newspaper has redacted crucial information in the documents.

Asked about the source of the document and the leak, Stewart said his next report in The Australian would explain it. He also said the newspaper was not planning to upload more leaked documents right now.

(IANS)

Bengaluru: Former Prime Minister of India H.D. Deve Gowda today opined on the actress turned politician Ramya’s remarks on Pakistan and said that the actress was no way wrong while she spoke about Pakistani people and praised them for their hospitality.

Speaking to reporters, Gowda said “Ramya need not apologize for what she said. No one should politicize this issue.”

“Pakistan too has good people. They want a good relationship with India. Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee improved India-Pakistan relations by connecting them with road transport. But because of the fundamentalists from both the countries, the bilateral relations have not been good”, he added.

Ramya who recently visited Pakistan to attend the SAARC summit for young parliamentarians had attracted criticism mainly from BJP members for praising Pakistani people. She has not apologised for her remarks so far.

(Agencies)

Home minister Rajnath Singh and Jammu and Kashmir CM Mehbooba Mufti during the press conference in Srinagar on Thursday. (Photo by Shuaib Masoodi, IE)

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today lost her cool and abruptly ended a press conference being addressed by her and union Home Minister Rajnath Singh here when journalists asked questions about her role in dealing with the current unrest. She suddenly got up, saying “thank you”, after replying to a question even as Singh was seated. He also then got up reluctantly and the press interaction at her residence ended.

While responding to questions, Mehbooba condemned stone-pelting and other forms of violence being witnessed in Kashmir for the last 47 days and suggested that casualties will take place when camps of security forces and police pickets and police stations are attacked by violent mobs. She also elaborated on her earlier comments that only five per cent people of Kashmir are agitating. She said she meant to say that while 95 per cent of the people want resolution to the problem peacefully, five per cent had “hijacked” the issue by indulging in violence.

“I am for resolution of Kashmir issue. There should be dialogue. But by resorting to stone-pelting and attacking the camps, no issue will be resolved. We are not sidelining the issue. We want resolution,” she asserted. The Chief Minister sought to explain the manner in which casualties took place, particularly of the youngsters, over which there has been an uproar.

“95 per cent of those killed — mostly youth — have died in retaliatory action while they were attacking the security establishments,” she said. She added, “People have come onto the roads. We imposed curfew. Did the children go to army camps to buy toffees (candy)? Was the 15-year-old boy, who attacked the police station at Damhal Hanjipora (in south Kashmir), going there to get milk?”

At the same time, she said she supported action against those security personnel who were involved in the killing of a lecturer in Khrew area of Pulwama district earlier this month. “There is the case of lecturer. An inquiry should be held and punishment should be given the culprits. I support it,” Mehbooba said.

As journalists kept asking questions about her role in dealing the situation, Singh tried to mediate by telling the scribes, “Mehbooba ji is from among you”. However, Mehbooba was combative, saying, “What will they tell me? I have saved the youth of south Kashmir from Task Force (Special Operations Group of Police). I have saved them from the knives when they were taken for bonded labour.”

(PTI)

Bhubaneswar: The Kalahandi district administration of Odisha on Thursday ordered an inquiry into the shocking incident of a tribal man taking his wife’s body home on his shoulder after hospital authorities denied him a mortuary van or an ambulance.

“I have asked the sub-divisional magistrate to conduct an inquiry and submit the report by Thursday evening. Then we will take next course of action over the incident,” Kalahandi District Collector Brundha D. told IANS.

She said preliminary report suggested that the tribal man took the dead body without informing the hospital authorities.

“According to the preliminary inquiry, the tribal man took the body without informing the hospital authorities. Even the doctors did not complete the discharge procedures,” said the collector.

Dana Majhi walked 10 km along with his daughter carrying his wife’s body on his shoulder, after he failed to obtain a mortuary van or an ambulance from the hospital authorities.

His wife Amang Deis died of tuberculosis at the district headquarters hospital at Bhawanipatna on Wednesday.

Majhi said he wrapped the body of his wife in a length of cloth and carried it on his shoulders as he could not get an ambulance.

“The hospital authorities said that there are no vehicles. I pleaded with them saying I am a poor person and cannot afford a vehicle to carry my wife’s body. Despite repeated requests, they said they cannot offer me any help,” said Majhi.

He walked to his village Melghara in Rampur block, which is about 60 km from Bhawanipatna.

When some local reporters spotted Dana, he had already covered 10 km on his way from the hospital to his home. Majhi’s daughter accompanied him. The local reporters arranged an ambulance for carrying the body to his home.

The Biju Janata Dal government had launched the Mahaparayana scheme in February this year to facilitate transporting dead bodies from government hospitals and government-affiliated hospitals to the residence of the deceased across the state.

(IANS)