TRS chief refuses to merge with Congress

TRS chief K. Chandrasekhar Rao poses with a bow and arrow gifted to him by partymen at a meeting org-anised in Mahbubnagar on Friday — S. Surender Reddy

The TRS chief, Mr K. Chandrasekhar Rao, who was elected as the party president for the sixth successive term on Friday, categorically declared that his party will never merge with the Congress.

Addressing a well attended TRS delegates meeting in Mahbubnagar for the party’s 10th formation day, Mr Rao wondered, “How can anyone expect the TRS to join the Congress whose state president, Mr D. Srinivas, lost the deposit in the bypolls held recently?”

He said if the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre is not going to concede to the genuine demand of the people for formation of Telangnaa, the people will themselves merge the Congress in the Bay of Bengal.

Referring to some media reports that the TRS will be merged with the Congress after the Centre announces Telangana state, Mr Rao said, “We will not merge with the Congress before or after formation of Telangana. Nowadays the Congress is suffering due to “mergers” mania. We will never do that. It is our responsibility to simultaneously develop the TRS both electorally and organisationally even after a separate state is formed.”

He said the responsibility lies with the TRS to rebuild Telangana and make it a “golden state”. “In such a case how can anyone think about a merger with the Congress?” he said.

Citing a survey conducted by one media group, Mr Rao said if elections are held in Telangana, the TRS will sweep the polls and bag a minimum of 80 seats.

However he did not unveil the future course of Telangana agitation as reported in the media, but announced that a high-level meeting would be convened after May 5 to check out the next course of agitation programme in the region.

Passport Office promises remedial measures

— File photo: S. Siva Saravanan

Too much to handle:The delay in securing appointments at the Passport

BANGALORE: The Regional Passport Office (RPO) in Bangalore will not only increase the number of appointments at the four Passport Seva Kendras (PSK) in the State but also throw open its office in Koramangala here to accept applications from May 2.

Drive

Addressing presspersons here on Friday in the wake of complaints from passport applicants, K.J. Srinivasa, Regional Passport Officer, Bangalore, said the Regional Passport Office, along with Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), its private partner in the Passport Seva Project, has launched an appointment handling drive to squeeze in an additional 1,450 appointments every day at its PSKs from the present 2,479, apart from accepting 250 to 300 applications at the Regional Passport Office in Koramangala.

To start with, the RPO, Koramangala, will accept hard copies of passport applications from May 2 to 31, 2011 to clear the rush.

“This special drive will not only provide an outlet for those who have not got appointments, but will also help cut the waiting period for future applicants.”

Tokens to be issued

Tokens will be issued from 9.15 a.m. to 12 noon on a first come, first served basis. “Applicants will have to bring all the requisite original documents with a set of photocopies along with a demand draft for the corresponding amount,” Dr. Srinivasa said.

This is expected to bring down the application-to-appointment cycle to one day in the Mangalore PSK and two weeks in the Bangalore PSKs by mid-May.

Big jump

He attributed the delay in securing appointments to an 88 per cent jump in the number of applicants over the past 11 months.

“It went up from 1,103 a day in 2007 to 1,311 in 2008 before reaching 1,700 per day in 2010. At present, the number of applicants had reached 2,479,” he said.

Dr. Srinivasa said the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), New Delhi, had assured the RPO, Bangalore, that .additional staff would be deployed from other Passport Offices in south India to clear the rush.

The Hindu report

Following a report appearing in The Hindu on April 28 on the chaotic conditions at the PSKs in the city where frustrated applicants vented their anger against the PSKs' working, senior MEA officials held a meeting with TCS representatives in New Delhi on Friday to review the system.

Faulty documents

He said the RPO, Bangalore, had to discontinue receiving passport applications at the Speed Post Passport Application Collection Centres and BangaloreOne centres as 30 per cent to 40 per cent of the applications lacked proper documents, leading to unnecessary delays in processing.

Rural applicants

However, keeping the interests of applicants from rural areas who face financial and technological difficulties in submitting online applications at the PSKs, the provision to send applications through District Passport Cells (DPC) and the Passport Application Collection Centre (PACC), Gulbarga, continues.

The PACC, Gulbarga, will soon be upgraded to a mini PSK.

Over 80% turnout in third phase of polls in West Bengal

Kolkata: The crucial third phase of the West Bengal Assembly elections — which saw the fates of high-profile candidates such as Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, Finance Minister Asim Dasgupta and Leader of the Opposition in the Assembly Partha Chatterjee being decided — passed off peacefully on Wednesday.

The voter turnout of 80.43 per cent (till 9 p.m.) was also a record in the three districts in the recent past. The average percentage in the 2006 Assembly elections and 2009 Lok Sabha elections were 77.94 per cent and 78.94 per cent respectively.

Though there was no report of any major incident, minor charges, however, kept pouring in during the day. They included the Trinamool Congress alleging rigging and booth capturing by activists of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at the Jadavpur Assembly constituency from where the Chief Minister is seeking re-election.

Seventy-five Assembly constituencies in North 24 Parganas and South 24 Parganas districts and Kolkata went to the polls. In all 479 candidates were in the fray. The percentage of polling in the city-based constituencies was a shade lower than that in the other two districts.

A spell of late-afternoon showers in the city affected the pace of polling, resulting in long queues outside many booths well after 5 p.m.

“The polling was very peaceful with no report of any law and order violation or disruption. There were strong security arrangements at the polling booths and nearby areasso that security personnel could rush immediately to any spot on receiving a complaint,” State Chief Electoral Officer Sunil Gupta said.

One arrested

Mr. Gupta added that one person was arrested from the city for allegedly trying to canvass for a political party near a polling booth, apart from 106 preventive arrests across the three districts.

Trust members stand by ‘Prema Sai’ prediction

April 27: Satya Sai Baba’s devotees are now eagerly awaiting the birth of Prema Sai, who, according to Satya Sai Baba, will be the next Sai avatar. Satya Sai Baba had also said that Prema Sai would be born in Karnataka, eight years after he "leaves" his body.
Satya Sai Baba had said that he himself is the second of the three avatars. The first was Shirdi Sai Baba and the third will be Prema Sai Baba. What he said will be true,” said Dr Anil Kumar, Baba’s English translator. Asked about the Trust’s response to the Baba’s prediction that his next avatar would be Prema Sai, a trustee said on the condition of anonymity: “We stand by what Baba has predicted.”
On July 6, 1963, during a discourse on Gurupoornima, Baba had made two revelations. First, Baba illustrated his powers by curing himself in front of thousands of people. He was unwell after having suffered a severe stroke eight days ago. Second, Satya Sai Baba talked of his next incarnation Prema Sai. Baba said that he would return as Prema Sai eight years after he leaves his body.

IAS officer offers to reveal Modi's “anti-minority stance”

AHMEDABAD: A Gujarat cadre IAS officer, Pradip Sharma, who is in jail for an alleged land scam, has attempted to reveal Chief Minister Narendra Modi's alleged anti-minority stance during the 2002 communal riots in the State.

In a cryptic note addressed to the chairman of the Supreme Court-appointed Special Investigation Team (SIT), R.K. Raghavan, Mr. Sharma claimed that during the riots, when he was posted as the municipal commissioner of Jamnagar, he received a call from the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) asking him to “prevail upon” his elder brother Kuldip, a senior IPS officer, to “abstain from taking any proactive measures in favour of the minorities” during the riots.

Mr. Sharma offered to “reveal the exact nature of the conversation and the name of the officer in the CMO who called him up” if he was allowed to depose before the SIT.

Mr. Kuldip was holding the post of Inspector-General of police, Ahmedabad range, when the riots broke out.

He was later denied promotion as State Director-General of Police and was dumped in the Gujarat Sheep and Wool Development Corporation as its managing director, a post usually reserved for a very junior level IAS officer.

Mr. Sharma was arrested in a case filed by the State CID (Crime) alleging that he gave lands to some shop-owners, violating government rules of entitlement, when he was the district collector of Kutch in 2001.

He wrote the note to Mr. Raghavan from his jail in Bhuj, where he is currently lodged.

Kanimozhi, Raja, DMK TV chief got Rs 200 crore bribe from DB: CBI

Kanimozhi charged with conspiracy in 2G scam case

See photo

NEW DELHI: Tamil Nadu's first family has been singed by the 2G scam. On Monday, the CBI charged Kanimozhi, DMK chief M Karunanidhi's daughter, of conspiring with former communications minister A Raja to receive a bribe of Rs 200 crore which was allegedly routed to DMK's Kalaignar TV.

Kanimozhi along with Kalaignar TV CEO Sharad Kumar, Cineyug Films' Karim Morani and Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables' Asif Balwa and Rajiv B Agarwal have been named in CBI's second chargesheet for conspiracy and under the Prevention of Corruption Act.

While Asif Balwa and Agarwal were arrested on March 29, Kanimozhi, Kumar and Morani have been asked to appear in the special 2G scam court on May 6. The odds are that they will be arrested that day. Accepting the chargesheet, the court ominously pronounced: "There is enough incriminating material on record" to proceed against the accused.

On February 4, The Times of India (along with The Economic Times) had first reported the money trail from DB Group's Dynamix Realty and two other associated companies to Kalaignar TV which is owned 60% by Karunanidhi's wife Dayalu Ammal, and 20% each by Kanimozhi and Sharad Kumar. And on March 30, TOI was the first to report that Kanimozhi would be charged in the 2G case.

While Kanimozhi and Kumar have been charged by the CBI, Dayalu Ammal has been spared, ostensibly because she doesn't know English and has not been involved in the day-to-day running of the TV channel.

In its 48-page supplementary chargesheet, supported by about 8,000 documents, the CBI said: "Dynamix Realty, which is a partnership firm of Dynamix Balwa group companies paid Rs 200 crore as illegal gratification to Kalaignar TV, which is also controlled by affiliates of DMK to which accused A Raja belongs, and such fund transfer was facilitated by Asif Balwa, Rajeev Agarwal and Karim Morani through their companies Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables and Cineyug Films."

While indicting Kanimozhi, the agency said that the Rajya Sabha member was the active brain behind Kalaignar TV and held a 20% stake. She actively pursued with the intermediaries and DMK headquarters the matter regarding reappointment of A Raja as communications minister in 2009, "which clearly establishes the strong association of Kanimozhi and A Raja in the official/ political matters," CBI said.

The first chargesheet filed on April 2 had charged nine individuals, led by Raja, and three companies of criminal conspiracy, forgery, cheating and bribery and causing a loss over Rs 30,000 crore in the award of telecom licences and spectrum. The supplementary for the first time draws a money trail in the scam, which the CAG had estimated to have caused a loss of up to Rs 1.76 lakh crore to the exchequer.

The agency told the court that its investigations have revealed that Dynamix Realty partnership firm of DB Realty, Eversmile Construction and Conwood Construction Developers paid Rs 200 crore to Kalaignar TV between December 2008 and August 2009. Dynamix Realty had routed the funds through Kusegaon, which is a DB Group company, and Cineyug Films, where DB later held a 49% stake.

Elaborating on the money trial, CBI has said that the fund flow started on December 23, 2008, six days after Swan Telecom received Rs 3,609 crore from Etisalat Mauritius and Genex Exim Ventures. Over the next eight months, DB Realty transferred Rs 209.25 crore to Kusegaon Fruits and Vegetables through 16 transactions.

In turn, Kusegoan transferred Rs 200 crore to Cineyug Films in seven transactions. Another Rs 6.25 crore were was transferred to Cineyug through five transactions between January and July 2009. This, CBI has said, was post facto shown as a transfer by Kusegaon for acquisition of 49% in Cineyug.

In the last leg, through six transactions between December 23, 2008 and August 7, 2009, Morani transferred Rs 200 crore Kalaignar TV account.

While the companies and those named by CBI claimed that the money transfer from DB Group to Kalaignar TV was a "loan", the investigating agency has rubbished the claim saying "no valid agreement was signed between any of the parties and no collaterals/ securities were ensured to secure the alleged loan amounts".

Investigation has also revealed that when accused A Raja was contacted by CBI for his examination scheduled on December 24, 2010, Kalaignar TV started refunding the amount of Rs 200 crore to Dynamix Realty, through Kusegaon Fruits & Vegetables. A substantial part of the amounts was refunded by it just before February 2, 2011, when A Raja was arrested, the charge sheet said.

The CBI has, however, given a clean chit to Green House Promoters, which was owned by Raja's aide Sadiq Batcha and his wife, in the conspiracy saying that the money transferred by DB Realty to the company was returned prior to the registration of FIR in the scam.

Black money comes mainly from India: Assange

t a stage where governments around the world have tried to hide away from the embarrassment caused by WikiLeaks expose on black money, founder Julian Assange speaks exclusively to Times Now's editor-in-chief Arnab Goswami on the Swiss bank data and Indian names features in the same.

Julian Assange, made a stunning disclosure, that there could be Indian names in the data that WikiLeaks would publish. In the course of the interview, Assange appealed to Indians to absolutely not lose hope that the names of those with secret Swiss accounts will come out at one point in the future. Hinting that Wikileaks might work with specialized agencies before releasing the Swiss bank data he pulled up the Indian government for not being aggressive like Germany in going after the list of Indian account holders. In fact he said India should be more aggressive because India seems like it is losing per capita more tax money than Germany

This is the first time Assange has spoken about Indian accounts in these Swiss banks, and comes at a time when the national debate over Swiss Bank accounts has sharpened.

Arnab Goswami: You have strong views on it. And I completely appreciate that you can't talk about it in detail. But let me ask you more generically, that is your heart, you would like to reveal the details...in your heart. I am not asking you when and under what circumstances, but having known about it, you would like to reveal details of how the system operates, wouldn't you?
Julian Assange: Well, we have various types of information about different banking operations in the world. Over time, we have revealed those. In fact, most of the legal attacks on us have been from banks. Banks in Scotland...banks in Dubai...banks in Iceland. We all received legal attacks from these banks. And we will continue publishing data on these banks as soon as we are able to do so.

Arnab Goswami: Have you encountered any Indian names? I am not asking you to tell me where, which banks...
Julian Assange: Yes there are Indian names in the data we have already published or going to publish. I can't remember specifically whether there are Indian names in the upcoming publication. But I have read Indian names. Similarly, in these private Swiss banking concerns, where you need at least a million dollars...which is a significant amount of money...Not an average Indian.

Arnab Goswami: And it is difficult to identify those names. Anything else you can tell us?
Julian Assange: I can't tell you anything more at this stage. As we go through the process of releasing data, as always we have to do extra research. And once we understand which media organizations are best placed to help us with that research, then we operate with them. But we are not at that stage yet that I know all the research that is going on.

Arnab Goswami: To all our Indian viewers, just one point. Should they lose hope that the names will come out at one point.
Julian Assange: No

Arnab Goswami: What would you say to them?
Julian Assange: That you should absolutely not lose hope. It is quite interesting. There is a...There are different forces at play here. The German government in particular has been very strong. There needs to be transparency in banking operations. It has gone so far as to buy CDs off...in Liechtenstein and so on...To reveal this information. Very, very aggressive approach by the German government and the German government is the dominant power within Europe. So, those German attitudes are seeping into Europe as a whole. The US has also been applying pressure in relation to UBS and tax evaders. So the problem is, as Swiss bank accounts are opened up there are simply other ways to deal with the situation. So you go and register a trust, in say Charles and then the trust then goes and opens a Swiss account while you might (?) a Swiss bank account, but what is there is a trust in Charles..Then you have to break that trust in Charles. That is the problem throughout the offshore sector. That is quite hard to deal with. In case you get this through regulation, investigation...you kind of get this at a level that although people can hide their assets in this way, the amount of expense and effort and risk involved in the asset hiding doesn't make it worthwhile.

Arnab Goswami: Given the economic and political clout that India wields, any reason that India should not be as aggressive?
Julian Assange: No. There is no reason why India should not be aggressive. In fact maybe, it should be more aggressive because India seems like it is losing per capita much more tax money than Germany.

Baba’s aspirations to be reflected in successor

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April 25: The Sri Satya Sai Central Trust owns properties in Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai and other parts of the state that are worth thousands of crores. The actual value of assets owned by the trust has gained significance after Baba’s demise and with the issue of choosing Baba’s successor as the chief functionary of the trust coming to the fore.

The issue of who will take over the Trust will be taken up after Baba’s last rites are completed on Wednesday and sources said the current trustees would go by the “aspirations of Baba”. While the government and the trustees are tight-lipped about Baba’s successor, it is being rumoured that Baba’s key aide, Mr Sathyajeet, will play a key role and might be elevated to a top position “as desired by Baba”. Satya Sai Baba’s nephew, Mr R.J. Rathnakar, who is currently a trustee, is also in the race for a top post but apparently not many are backing him.

Thus as things stand, selecting Baba’s successor will be a tricky affair unless the spiritual leader left behind a will, which many say is the case. Meanwhile, contrary to media reports, Prof. Anil Kumar, a well known figure in Prashanti Nilayam, who used to translate Baba’s Telugu speeches into English, denied any rift among the Trust members. “They are all very eminent and selfless devotees,” he said, adding, “Even if the Trust’s responsibility is bestowed on Mr Sathyajeet and Mr Rathnakar, they will have to be guided by experienced trustees.”

Properties associated with Satya Sai institutions in countries like the West Indies, Japan, and Kenya are said to be in the name of organisations and trusts floated locally there. Even in India, several properties including hospitals are distributed among other trusts like the Sri Satya Sai Medical Trust. It is estimated that in India alone, Satya Sai Central Trust properties would be worth around Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 crore. Intelligence Bureau sleuths, who are now stationed at Puttaparthi to keep a watch on the developments after Baba’s death, however, say that the rumoured figure of lakhs of crores worth of properties in the country could be an exaggeration.

A senior official said, “If the bylaws of the sub-trusts state that they are linked to the central trusts, then there can be control over them. However the properties are registered in the name of separate trusts.” The Trust has received large scale funds particularly from rich Indians, mostly Gujaratis, apart from foreign contributions. The Central Trust received `50 crore on an average every year from abroad. The total foreign contributions coming into the country in the past 40 years would be around Rs 2,000 crore.

According to the ministry of home affairs, the Satya Sai Central Trust has been among the top 10 recipients of foreign contributions in the country in the last 20 years. The trust was the largest recipient of foreign contributions for several years after the World Vision India of Tamil Nadu, followed by the Rural Development Trust of Anantapur in the state. In 1996-97, the Trust received around `47.7 crore, Rs 42.9 crore in 97-98 and around Rs 39.8 crore in 1998-99. In 2003-04 it received around Rs 49.96 crore, Rs 77.57 crore in 2004-05, Rs 72.12 crore in 2005-06, Rs 46.3 crore in 2007-08 and Rs 56.94 crore in 2008-09.

Foreign contributions are also received in the name of five other trusts apart from the Central Trusts and the chief functionary and trustees can be the same for several trusts depending on geographical area and area of charity. Other than Sri Satya Sai Baba, who was the founder trustee with powers to approve projects and issue cheques, there are six other trustees including Justice P.N. Bhagawati, Mr Indulal Shah, Mr S.V. Giri, Mr V. Srinivasan and Mr R.J. Rathnakar.

The Council of Management of the Trust include Mr K. Chakravarthi, Mr S.S. Naganand, Mr J.V. Shetty and Mr T.K.K. Bhagvat. The state government, meanwhile, has ruled out taking over the trust stating that there have been no complaints of mismanagement till date and this was the reason that the government had exempted the trust from its purview and allowed it to file assessments pertaining to acceptance of foreign donations etc. to the Centre.

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