| CAG
indicts Govt on corrupt Gorshkov deal New
Delhi: The Comptroller and Auditor General has heavily criticized the government
and Navy over the Admiral Gorshkov deal saying that the ageing Russian aircraft
carrier will not be able to address India's security needs due to the delay in
its delivery. According to the CAG report, induction of Russia's damaged aircraft
carrier, now rechristened INS Vikramaditya, would cost the Navy more than a new
ship. The cost of acquisition has almost doubled. The CAG report further points
out that the Navy would be acquiring an old ship with limited life span that would
be ready only by 2012-2013. It adds that certain key components like the anti-missile
system are also past their best and their refit would be taken up only between
2013 and 2017 - thereby making the ship vulnerable to missile attacks. The Soviet-era
aircraft carrier is anchored at the Sevmash factory in the northern city of Arkhangelsk
for refit with over 2,000 workers employed on the project. Under the original
1.5 billion dollars 2004 contract between Russia's state-run arms exporter Rosoboronexport
and the Indian Navy, which includes delivery of MiG-29K fighters, the work on
the aircraft carrier was to have been completed by August 2008. Russia later claimed
that it had underestimated the scale and the cost of the modernization, and asked
for an additional 1.4 billion dollars, which New Delhi said was "exorbitant."
Now, both India and Russia claim that the negotiations on the cost of aircraft
carrier repair and refit is in the final stages. While the Russians pegged the
cost at 2.9 billion dollars this February, India has been showing keenness in
finalising it for about 2.2 billion dollars. Over
hundred people hospitalised after gas leak in Thane Top Khadipar
(Maharashtra): Over a hundred people were hospitalised late last night in
the Khadipar town of Maharashtra's Thane district following a poisonous gas leak
from an ageing chemical factory. According to sources over 35,000 people have
been evacuated from Khadipar. Residents have been shifted to makeshift camp and
Mayor Javed Dalvi has ordered an investigation into the leakage. The local government
hospital, said most of the admitted patients had nosebleeds, but these had been
brought under control. In May 2008, a chlorine gas leak at a TATA motors plant,
had to the hospitalisation of 125 people in Jamshedpur. In July 2008, an ONGC
line in Surat leaked. The most destructive of them all, was the union Carbide
factory gas leak in Bhopal left 22,000 dead. Residents of Khadipar have expressed
fear about the air they will breath. Gujarat
HC allows SIT to interrogate Modi in post-Godhra riots case Top Ahmedabad:
A Gujarat High Court on Friday dismissed the petition seeking a stay on investigating
state Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his role in the 2002 Godhra riots. The
court said the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the riots is free to interrogate
Modi. The court directive came in response to a petition filed by Zakia Jaffrey,
whose husband Ehsan Jaffrey, ex-Congress MP was killed during the Gulburg society
riots along with 39 others. Justice D H Waghela also heard a petition filed by
BJP MLA Kalubai Malivad, against the SIT probe. In her complaint Zakia Jaffrey
alleged that Modi, his cabinet colleagues, police officials and senior bureaucrats
aided and abetted the riots. The Supreme Court had earlier ordered the SIT to
probe the complaint within three months and submit its report. Maliwad, who was
acquitted, has said that the Supreme Court had directed the SIT to look into Jaffrey's
complaint. Three
companies allowed to manufacture Swine flu vaccine Top New
Delhi: The Centre has granted licence to three pharmaceutical companies to
manufacture swine flu vaccine. According to sources, these companies will contact
the World Health Organisation for acquiring seeds. A committee has been constituted
to keep watch on the process of aquiring the seeds and manufacturing of vaccine.
It will be headed by Director General of the Indian Council of Medical Reseasch,
Dr. V M Katoch. Meanwhile, twenty-nine new cases have been reported from different
parts of the country. Musharraf
admits having "secret understanding" with Benazir Bhutto Top Islamabad:
Former Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf, for the first time, has admitted
that there was a secret "understanding" between him and former Prime Minister
Benazir Bhutto which facilitated her return to the country in October 2007. "There
was an understanding. I did talk to her, yes. I had been talking to her twice.
She was not supposed to come back before the elections," Musharraf said in a television
interview. Musharraf also said that had Bhutto been alive today, she would have
been the country's Prime Minister and he the President. Commenting on the current
political situation in Pakistan, Musharraf said the scenario has become a lot
more complicated and believed that the Zardari government has only added to the
complications Musharraf also endorsed President Barack Obama's views that the
Zardari government is fragile and unable to address the country's problems. "At
the moment yes. That is correct. That is happening," said Musharraf. The former
president also defended his decision to dismiss Chief Justice Iftikhar Muhammed
Chaudhry, saying the decision was absolutely 'constitutional and legal'. He, however,
admitted that the handling of the situation was "shabby". "I don't blame myself
because I don't get into the nitty gritty of which Deputy Superintendent of Police
was rude to him. Some cars were taken away or something of that sort. Now, I am
not passing such orders at all," The Nation quoted Musharraf, as saying. Osama-bin-Laden
in FATA, may strike US from there: Mullen Top Islamabad:
US Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Admiral Mike Mullen has said Al-Qaida chief
Osama-bin-Laden is hiding in Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA)
and can strike the United States from there. Admiral Mullen said it was due to
this fear, crushing Al-Qaeda was on top of Obama Administration's agenda. "Al-Qaeda
could certainly strike the US from Fata, that's why the top objective of the current
US strategy is to defeat al-Qaeda," said Admiral Mullen. When enquired as to why
the US is not taking on Al-Qaeda directly in FATA when it has credible information
that bin-Laden is there, Mullen said: "FATA is in Pakistan and Pakistan is a sovereign
country and we don't go into sovereign countries." In an interview with Qatar
based Al-Jazeera television network , Mullen said the Pakistan Army, it appears,
is serious about the impending terror threat and is countering militancy effectively.
Mullen stressed that Islamabad must stop supporting militant organizations working
in Kashmir and start focusing on the real internal threat. "What I mean is that
they have clearly focused on support of ... historically of militant organisations
both east and west. I mean that's been a focus of theirs in Kashmir historically
as well as in Fata. And I think ... that fundamentally has to change," The Nation
quoted Mullen, as saying. When asked about the dangers of just pushing back the
Taliban in Afghanistan which may see the insurgents slipping into Pakistan, he
said the tactical move will have long term effect in curbing extremism in the
region provided that the Pakistan Army also pressurize the Taliban. "The pressure
that will be brought on the Taliban specifically by the Pakistani military is
important and that movement from both the east and the west in the long run will
have an effect," Mullen said. Mullen refused to comment on whether he has more
faith in the present government of President Asif Ali Zardari than in the previous
military regime of General Pervez Musharraf. He reiterated that there were no
US combat troops present inside Pakistan's geographical region. "I've said that
we don't have any US troops.We have no US combat troops in Pakistan. We have had
trainers there for a significant period of time to train their trainers which
is an ongoing support function," Mullen added. |
