Delhi HC blast conspirator influenced by Osama: NIA-ToI-14.3.12

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) chargesheet on last year’s Delhi High Court blast says key conspirator Wasim Akram Malik, a medical student, was deeply influenced by slain al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden and identified with Qaida number 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri as the Egyptian is a trained doctor. 
    The NIA in a press release said that Wasim harboured strong feelings about the perceived discrimination against Muslims in India and had taken to reading jihadi literature and books on Afghanistan-Pakistan problems apart from internet literature on Laden and Taliban leader Mullah Omar. 
    The agency has said Malik found the al-Qaida leaders’ austere ways a major inspiration and was driven to make sacrifices for a “Muslim cause”. Apart from Laden, he found Zawahiri, who is believed to be leading al-Qaida now, to be a role model. 
    The agency claimed that Malik, a student of MBBS at Jalalabad Ragib-Rabeya Medical College and Hospital at Sylhet in Bangladesh, had as a self-motivated jihadist first got entangled in terror in 2005 when he came in contact with Jaish-e-Mohammed commander Salim Wani. 
    The NIA on Tuesday filed a chargesheet against six persons, including the jailed Malik and his ‘absconding’ younger brother Junaid Malik, for allegedly carrying out blast outside the Delhi High Court with the help of two Pakistani bombers, Abu Saifulla and Abu Bilal, on September 7, 2011. 
    The NIA has cited strong technical evidence in terms of emails and phone call records to nail the accused. “We also have 200 witnesses supporting the case,” said NIA DIG Mukesh Singh. The witness statements include the confessions made by Malik and Dev in front of a magistrate. The agency has also made official requests to the USA for providing evidence (email trails, IP addresses) under the Mutual Legal Assistance Treaty (MLAT). 
    Calling the elder Malik a “leaderless jihadist” and mastermind of the blast, the NIA claimed that he had planned the conspiracy with three Hizb-ul-Mujahideen terrorists, including his younger brother, in an attempt to threaten the judiciary and get the death sentence of Parliament House attack convict Afzal Guru repealed. 
    The 1,062-page chargesheet, filed in the Patiala House Court, has named two other jailed Kashmiris – Amir Abbas Dev and Abid Hussain Bhawani – and absconders Shakir Hussain Seikh alias Chota Hafiz and Amir Kamal. Saifulla and Bilal are also absconders. The NIA will file a supplementary chargesheet against the duo in due course.

OU students want beef in hostel mess-ToI-14.3.12

Hyderabad: The politics of food is now breaking out on the ‘T’ struck Osmania University campus. Asserting their food culture, a large bunch of Dalit students have asked the administration to serve beef in their hostel mess. In a petition submitted to university’s vice chancellor, S Satyanarayana, the students have stated that their food habits were ridiculed and insulted on the campus as members of Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad (ABVP) disrupted an attempt to cook beef in New Research Scholars’ Hostel on March 11. 
    Challenging the ‘casteist food culture’, the students will also hold a beef festival in front ofOsmania University (OU) Arts College in April. During the festival, cooked beef will be served and is being conducted as part of the birth anniversary celebrations of national leaders like B R Ambedakar (April 14), Jyotiba Phule (April 11) and Babu Jagjivan Ram (April 5), who were anti-caste ideologues. The university administration, though aware of the petition has not given permission to conduct such a festival. 
    The Dalit students form the second largest caste group with 2,000 members on OU campus. The campus which has a total student strength of 8,000 has about 4,000 OBC and 1,000 tribal students. “We decided to conduct such a public meeting as there have been several instances in the past where we were humiliated because of our food habits. Dalit PG students were rebuked and even roughed up by others when they cooked any non-vegetarian food in hostels during certain festival days,” said Sudarshan, a research scholar enrolled in Arts College. Observers said that this is the second time that the Dalit students of OU have come together to assert their identity. In 2011, students had organised a unique Dasara celebration on campus, where Ravana, the mythical character symbolising Dalit identity, was glorified. 
    When asked whether the OU administration will give permission for beef festival, OU vice chancellor said that the matter is sensitive and hence a decision cannot be taken in haste. “We have asked some faculty members to talk to the students. We are trying to get things under control,” said S Satyanarayana, vice chancellor, OU. He said that the issue came to his notice when some sections of the student community on campus complained about the same. “On March 11, I requested some senior teachers to get in touch with them and asked them to stop the exercise as this would create tension on campus,” said Satyanarayana. Experts said the beef festival will face serious opposition on campus. Some OBC and ST students oppose beef festival in Osmania University 
“The Telangana agitation has brought in a stronger ABVP presence on campus who will oppose the move. Some sections of OBC and ST students on campus who do not eat beef will also oppose the festival. But the students who are planning to organise the festival are determined to carry it forward,” said a senior OU professor. Posters publicising the festival are already up on OU campus and some Dalit forums in the city are also circulating the news. Beef festivals of the same kind were organised in other universities in the cityincluding University of Hyderabad (UoH) and English and Foreign Languages University (EFLU). While UoH conducts the festival annually without much opposition, the festival in Eflu conducted in 2011 had turned violent as ABVP members attacked the organisers.

A 14-year-old has started an anti-graft website –ToI -12.3.12

Another one, where you can post your trysts with bribe, is making waves with Pakistan, Bhutan, Philippines, Bangladesh, Kenya, even China, looking to replicate it. Can these bring down what affects the average Indian the most – retail corruption?

    When my father passed away, I needed a death certificate. I was shocked that a bribe (Rs 500) was asked even from someone who is in mourning. I feel ashamed now for having paid it and wish I had confronted the person.” 
    “An airport official at Begumpet airport held me back showing a small torn edge on my passport...He said he would let me off if I pay some money. I ended up paying him Rs 1,000 to allow me to take my flight.” 
    These comments were posted on ipaidabribe.com and are among the thousands of accounts of the shame and humiliation people suffer when 
forced to pay a bribe. It could be for anything — getting driving licenses, birth or death certificates, traffic challans, property deeds, gas connections, pensions…you name it and you have to pay up. 
    The website, an initiative of Bangalore-based NGO Janaagraha, has become the world’s largest crowd-sourced repository of data on corruption in just over a year since its launch, claims its co-founder Ramesh Ramanathan. Till date, over 15,000 bribe reports have been posted, totalling a value of Rs 43 crore and counting. “We care about retail corruption which affects the average citizen. The site is a vent where people can report paying bribes, having resisted it or where they didn’t have to pay one, and as a collection of data whereby some policy changes can take place,” says Ramanathan. 
    The ripple effect is already working. Bangalore’s transport department has changed its system of conducting driving tests based on the complaints. Next week, government offices there will be putting up posters with helplines for those asked to pay bribes. Ramanathan says that even the central government is exploring whether “this platform can be used to report corrupt practices in NREGA.” 
    The NGO has also got requests from Bhutan, Philippines, Bangladesh for starting similar sites there. Kenya already has one, while there are plans afoot in Pakistan. There was an attempt to start one in China but the government shut it down. 
    “There’s growing intolerance to corruption. More people are reporting it,” says Anupama Jha, executive director of Transparency International (TI) in India. When the Anna Hazare movement was at its most fervent last year, 14-year-old Aditya Palnitkar from Pune decided he should do something more. He launched www.corruptionfree.in, awebsite where people could report bribery, cheating, scams and harassment in government offices. The Central Vigilance Commission, too, has a technology-supported Blow Your Whistle initiative where people can report corruption. TI is opening centres to provide free legal advice and assistance to witnesses and victims of corruption. 
    So how effective can such websites be? Ramanathan says, “As more and more people know about it, there will be less such transactions. It’s not a witch-hunt. We want sustainable change.” 
    The highly effective role of the internet and social media in whipping up mass opinion is well-documented, with special reference to the Arab Spring. A 2011 global study on IT and corruption indicates that a 20% increase in access to the internet in a country lowers corruption by 0.60 points. But with around 90% of India’s population being outside internet’s reach, and a majority of them illiterate or uneducated in English, the digital divide continues. Citizen movements often only engage the middle class in urban areas. 
    Yamini Aiyar, director of the Accountability Initiative being set up at the Centre for Policy Research, Delhi, says the challenge for such websites “is to expand it to audiences that aren’t web-enabled”. 
    Ramanathan recognizes that: “We have already started an SMS initiative — people can dial 58888 to make their reports. We plan to make it available in vernacular languages.” He also hopes to look at corruption in the private sector. “Lots of people have got in touch with us over kickbacks, overpriced medicines and unnecessary testing in hospitals,” he says. 
    Ultimately, the greatest impact would be individual refusal to countenance corruption. That’s a focus of concern, says Jha, because of the middle class’s willingness to bribe. Ramanathan is optimistic: “Georgia changed from being among the most corrupt to least corrupt countries. How did they do that?” 
The real zero sum game 
    Way back in 1997, an expat Indian got so frustrated with the corruption he witnessed on a trip home from the US that he created the ‘zero rupee note’. It looked like a regular note with the image of Mahatma Gandhi, but its monetary value was nil. And it had the phrase ‘Eliminate Corruption at All Levels’ emblazoned across. Last year, with Anna Hazare’s movement at its height, a Chennai-based NGO, Fifth Pillar, started distributing these Rs 0 notes to people to encourage them to fight corruption at the local level. The idea is as simple as it is effective. In many Indian cities, the note has become a way of saying “no” to corruption, and there have been calls from Nepal, Argentina, Mexico, France and Germany, all debating decisions of the zero currency concept to fight corruption.

3 Ganga Authority members quit-ToI-11.3.12

New Delhi: Three non-official members in the PMchaired National Ganga River Basin Authority, including ‘waterman’ Rajendra Singh, resigned from the panel protesting against the government’s inaction to tackle pollution in the river. 
    The trio – Rajendra Singh of Tarun Bharat Sangh, Ravi Chopra of Peoples’ Science Movement and R H Siddiqi, a retired professor of the Aligarh Muslim University – have said that the government’s apathy towards the continuing fast byProfessor G D Agarwal on the banks of Ganga in Varanasi has led them to quit the board. 
    “We are sending this letter of resignation as we are deeply concerned and worried about the fast deteriorating health condition of Professor G D Agarwal, an eminent scientist who served with distinction at IIT-Kanpur and Central Pollution Control Board. He has been consistently campaigning for several years to save the river Ganga. He had undertaken the fast on January 14, 2012, and has even stopped taking water from March 8, 2012. He is at present sitting at the bank of Ganga at Varanasi. His health is extremely critical. We have been requesting the Government to immediately intervene but no action has been taken so far,” they cited. 
    Criticizing the lack of action by the authority that was set up with much fanfare about a year ago, they wrote, “We may humbly point out that though the authority has been constituted nearly three years back but it has met only twice. There has been no meeting for the last one and a half years in spite of our repeated requests. It is also on record that no worthwhile action has been taken by the authority on any of the critical issues concerning the river Ganga.”

Sand mafia fires at SDM, cop in MP –ToI-11.3.12

Goons Open Fire At Officials While Inspecting Illegal Mining; Nobody Injured

Bhopal: A war between the state and Madhya Pradesh’s politically-powerful mining, illegal hooch and construction mafia seems to be unfolding. The week ended with a sub-divisional magistrate, a sub-divisional police officer and their team facing a hail of bullets while on inspection to track down illegal sand miners in Panna district. Miraculously, nobody was hurt in the latest attack that followed the killing of young IPS officer Narendra Kumar allegedly by the mining mafia, an assault on another IPS officer and the killing of a constable trying to stop illegal sale of liquor on Holi. 
    Police sources said a team led by SDM Nathuram Gaud, SDPO Jagannath and inspector Mohammad Aslam had gone to Harrai village to seize and destroy a temporary bridge constructed by the mafia to illegally transport sand to neighbouring Uttar Pradesh. As the team approached, goons trained their guns on them, forcing the police to open retaliatory fire. As firing continued, police reinforcements were rushed to the spot from district headquarters. 
    “No one was injured. We have identified the gang leader as Kuber Singh, a former dacoit of the area now active in illegal sand mining. He has a gang of goons who mine and sell the sand in neighbouring Uttar Pradesh,” a senior police official said. 
    However, Panna SP Anil Maheshwari sought to downplay the incident. “Woh UP ke badmash the (they were criminals from UP),” he said. “The officials went to destroy a temporary bridge they had constructed. Whether any firing took place or not is a matter of investigation.” 
    The sand mining mafia is active in almost all MP districts, destroying riverbeds that dry up in the winter and peak summer months and threatening many major rivers. 
    Narendra Kumar was killed on Thursday while trying to stop a tractor trolley ferrying illegally mined stones in Morena district, the same day a group of supporters of a BJP legislator attacked another IPS officer and his team trying to prevent sale of liquor. 
UNDER ATTACK? 
    On Holi, IPS officer Narendra Kumar run over by a tractor-trolley carrying illegally-mined stones 
    On same day, liquor mafia goons killed a constable, 
attacked another IPS officer over sale of liquor 
    On Saturday, sand mafia goons fired at a team led by the sub-divisional district magistrate. The team was to demolish a bridge set up to transport sand to UP