No Threat to India, Says Tsunami Warning Centre

Houses are in flame while the Natori river is flooded over the surrounding area by tsunami tidal waves in Natori city, Miyagi Prefecture, northern Japan.

Following the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami reported today near the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, has informed that that tsunami threat does not exist in respect of India.

New Delhi, Mar 11 : Following the massive earthquake and subsequent tsunami reported today near the northeast coast of Honshu, Japan, the Indian National Centre for Ocean Information Services (INCOIS), Hyderabad, has informed that that tsunami threat does not exist in respect of India.

"The INCOIS is continuously monitoring the situation," said a Ministry of Home Affairs release.

The massive earthquake that hit north-east Japan today, rocked buildings in Tokyo and triggered a tsunami that dashed ships into the coastline and swept cars through streets of coastal towns.

The first earthquake measuring 8.9 on the Richter Scale struck at 2.45 p.m. local time about 237 miles northeast of Tokyo at a depth of 15.2 miles, the US Geological Survey said, revising the magnitude from an earlier 7.9.

Ten nations are said to have issued tsunami-related alerts. Warnings have also been issued along the Pacific coast.

Japan Earthquake 8.9 Magnitude Earthquake Hits, 13-Foot Tsunami Triggered

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Japan has been pounded by a massive tsunami after being struck by one of the largest earthquakes in recorded history, which was listed by the USGS as magnitude 8.9.

The powerful tsunami swept away cars near the coast and news networks have been broadcasting footage of waves sweeping through farmland normally many miles from the coast.

No Collateral Required For Loans To SC/ST

New Delhi, Mar 11 : The government today said the provision of collateral security for getting loans from banks has been waived for Schedule Caste and Schedule Tribe (SC/ST) as part of measures to grant them easier access to credit.

"There is no need for collateral security for these sections for getting bank loans," Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee told the Lok Sabha while replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour.

He said banks should not insist on deposits while considering loan applications under government sponsored poverty alleviation schemes/self-employment programmes from borrowers of these (SC/ST) communities.

In case of rejection of loan applications of SC/ST, it should be done at the next higher level instead of at the branch level indicating proper reasons for rejection, he said.

Mukherjee said banks have been asked to create greater awareness among SC/STs in order to encourage them to access credit facilities.

"Field staff should contact such borrowers to explain schemes and their advantages," he said.

Meghen: We Have No Proposal For Talks

Neither the Centre nor the banned UNLF have sent peace proposals yet

By Ratnadip Choudhury

Guwahati, Mar 11 : The Chairman of the United National Liberation Front (UNLF) Rajkumar Meghen alias Saniyama, who is now in judicial custody, has said the UNLF has not received a proposal from New Delhi on talks.

Earlier this week, there were media reports that Union Home Secretary GK Pillai has said the UNLF is coming forward for a dialogue with the Centre.

“I want to make one thing clear, we have received no proposal from the Centre for talks. We have not sent a proposal either. Our stand remains the same and we are with the people of Manipur and their wishes,” Meghen told TEHELKA outside the National Investigative Agency (NIA) Special Court in Guwahati.

The National Investigation Agency has filed a chargesheet against 19 members of the banned UNLF. The chargesheet is related to their involvement in waging war against the country, raising funds by resorting to large scale extortion from the government and private bodies in Manipur, and for trying to procure arms and ammunition from foreign countries in FIR no 10/10 under sections 120(B), read with sections 121, 121(A), 122 of the IPC,16, 17, 18,18A, 18B and 20 of UA(P) Act,1967, as amended in 2008 .

Meghen was shown arrested by NIA from Motihari in Bihar on 30 November 2010. TEHELKA reported how Meghen was actually picked up by Indian Intelligence sleuths inside Bangladesh and later handed over to India. His whereabouts were not known for a long time, until the TEHELKA story pointed out he was in NIA custody.

Meanwhile, people from the Manipuri community staged a protest in front of the NIA Special Court asking for the transfer of Meghen’s case to Manipur. Strong sentiments are brewing in Manipur as people feel that the Centre is showing double standards.

They said on the one hand, United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa agrees to speak on Indian terms, so he is let off from jail and received with honour, while Meghen is in jail and is proceeded against because he won’t speak on Indian terms.

“The Centre is biased. We support Meghen. If he is held captive under the Constitution, then we want plebiscite in Manipur. The Centre should have the courage for this,” said Binoy Singh, one of the protestors.

One Farmer Commits Suicide Every 12 Hrs in India

By Dipankar Paul

The numbers are stark and in your face: According to The National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB) data from 2009, more than 2,16, 000 farmers have killed themselves since 1997. Add the figures for 1995, 1996 and 2010 and the total crosses 2,50,000. That is, two farmers a day for the past 15 years.

Veteran journalist and The Hindu Rural Affairs editor P Sainath says: "We have been undergoing the largest catastrophe of our independent history - the suicides of nearly a quarter of a million farmers since 1995. We are talking of the largest recorded rate of suicides in human history.

Sainath was speaking at the Third Michael Sprinker Lecture on 'Death on the Farm: Agrarian crisis and inequality' at the Institute of Development Studies in Kolkata.

Bringing to light several stark contrasts in India, where the average CEO earns 30,000 times more than the average worker, Sainath said "While labour productivity rose 84%, real wages of labourers dropped 22%. The country imports wheat from Australia, which was importing wheat nine years ago from Punjab. It exports 20 million tonnes of grain at Rs 5.45/kg, whereas the same grain is sold to the poor at Rs 6.15/kg."

And there lies the problem, which UPA 2 calls systemic. Agriculture minister Sharad Pawar, whose state has the worst figures for the 10th consecutive year, has stopped quoting NCRB figures since 2007.

In 2009, more than 17,000 farmers committed suicide in 2009, the worst count since 2004.

But the figures could be worse, says Sainath, who first published the story. He explains the actual numbers could be beyond a quarter million people.

"The numbers are from the annual report of the Government of India's own National Crime Records Bureau. Their yearly total for farmer suicide from 1995 to 2009 bring us to a total of 2,40,000. So even if we assume that 2010 saw far fewer suicides than the average of the last decade, it still takes the figure past 2,50,000 or a quarter of a million farmer suicides," says P Sainath.

If you haven't woken up yet, now is the time.

For the 10th year on the trot, agriculture minister Sharad Pawar's home state has had the worst record with 2,872 farmers committing suicide, despite the much hyped Prime Minister's relief package. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh follow, with two thirds of farmer suicides being reported from these states.

In fact, according to a written reply on Wednesday, MP's Home Minister, Uma Shankar Gupta, as many as 5,838 farmers ended their lives during the period from 2006 to 2010. Surprisingly, the minister maintained that only six of the 5,838 farmers killed themselves due to being overburdened with debt. Prior to this, replying to Congress legislator Ramnivas Rawat's query, the home minister said that 89 farmers had committed suicide in 87 days since Nov 6, 2010. However, Gupta added that only three of them took the extreme step due to debt.

Sainath emphasises: "Farmer suicide is not the crisis, it is the outcome of the crisis."

And here's how it all started.

In the 1990s India woke up to a spate of farmers suicides. The first state where suicides were reported was Maharashtra. Soon newspapers began to report similar occurrences from Andhra Pradesh. The government appointed a number of inquiries to look into the causes of farmers suicide and farm-related distress in general. Subsequently Prime Minister Manmohan Singh visited Vidarbha and promised a package of Rs.110 billion (about $2.4 billion) to be spent by the government in Vidarbha.

The families of farmers who had committed suicide were also offered an ex gratia grant to the tune of Rs.100,000 (about $2,000) by the government. This figure kept varying, depending on how much criticism the government was facing from the media and the opposition parties for being uncaring towards the farmers' plight. But the suicides kept happening.

Initially, the suicides that began to be reported out of Vidharbha (a cotton-growing region) were attributed to the farmers' indebtedness to moeny lenders because of the shift to the of Bt Cotton. Farmers had to borrow money to buy the more expensive seeds. And committed suicide when they could not pay back the money.

However, the Bt Cotton theory was soon sidelined. The major causes that were identified were this: India was transforming rapidly into a primarily urban, industrial society with industry as its main source of income; the government and society had begun to be unconcerned about the condition of the countryside; moreover, a downturn in the urban economy was pushing a large number of distressed non-farmers to try their hand at cultivation; in the absence of any responsible counselling either from the government or society there were many farmers who did not know how to survive in the changing economy. Such stresses pushed many into a corner where suicide became the only option for them.

The problems that plagued the farmers 15 years ago are still glaringly present today: There is little credit available. What is available is very expensivey. There is no advice on how best to conduct agriculture operations. Income through farming is not enough to meet even the minimum needs of a farming family. Support systems like free health facilities from the government are virtually non-existent.

Traditionally, support systems in the villages of India have been provided for by the government. However, due to a variety of reasons best known to Sonia Gandhi, Manmohan Singh and the rest of our leaders, the government has either withdrawn itself from its supportive role or plain simple misgovernance has allowed facilities in the villages to wither away.

The despair has deepened over the past year with 18 of the 28 states reporting more suicides. The farmer suicide graph has been steadily rising.

"I believe the issue is more systemic. Because if you are talking about 15 years, you are talking about one and a half decades. There is a need to hold our horses, study the report and then comment," said Congress spokesperson Manish Tewary.

In 2007, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar, in a written reply in the Rajya Sabha, had said that there were more than 1,49,000 farmer suicides between 1997 and 2005. However, he has not quoted NCRB numbers ever since. Nor has he openly acknowledged the distress.

But the first step towards resolving a crisis is conceding that one exists.

Source: India Syndicate

Give Us Our State, Bodos Ask Again

Twenty-five thousand people gather to launch fresh movement ahead of May election

By Ratnadip Choudhury

The renewed Bodoland agitation. The ABSU supporters asking for a separate Bodoland out of Assam

Barama (Assam): Twenty-four years after it began, the movement for a separate Bodoland state appears to be taking fresh life. More than 25,000 people gathered in the Bodo-dominated Barama, an assembly constituency in Kokrajhar, for what they called a peoples’ revolution programme. It was almost to the day in March 1987 that the All Bodo Students Union (ABSU) began a movement for a separate Bodoland state to be carved out of Assam.

The movement quickly turned violent, involving senseless bombings and ethnic clashes with the people of Assam. Now, as Assam heads into a May assembly election, almost all groups involved in the movement have given their support for a fresh agitation.

These groups include the two factions of the Bodo People’s Front (BPF) and the pro-peace talks and anti-talks factions of the banned underground National Democratic Front of Bodoland (NDFB). With the ABSU, they can summon a formidable bank of supporters.

To set off the agitation, these groups have targeted Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha member from Assam. They attacked Singh when he was in Assam in the first week of March. The ABSU said Singh was biased and anti-tribals, adding that the Congress has for long ‘neglected tribal rights’.

Assam is to vote for 126 seats on 4 April and 11 April. The Congress heads the current government, Tarun Gogoi ending his second consecutive term as chief minister.

“We want to know from the Prime Minister if Parliament has decided not discuss the formation of new states,” ABSU President Pramod Boro said, in response to the Prime Minister’s reported statement that demands for a new state would not be considered.

The Barama gathering was the first after ABSU renewed its demand for separate statehood in its recently held 43rd conference. ABSU had given up the demand for a separate state after the Bodo Territorial Council (BTC), an autonomous body, was formed. The BTC came about after an agreement between New Delhi and the underground outfit Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT).

“India is not a monarchy and the Prime Minister is not king. This is a democracy where the Bodos, like any other community, have the right to put up our demand and it should be addressed properly,” Boro added.

The BPF, with 12 seats in the assembly, is an ally of the government. There are 14 assembly seats in the BTC area.

PHOTO: RUPAM MEDI

Source: Tehelka

Terrorism And Electoral Politics in Assam

By Kishalay Bhattacharjee

In less than a month from now, four Indian states are going to the polls. Two of them may throw up surprises, while the other two promise predictable results. While the Left Front in West Bengal is facing its darkest electoral hour, this election in Tamil Nadu may offer the last melodramatic performance to some of its ‘actors’.

But the focus here is on Assam, which generates neither academic interest nor public discourse, and is somewhat absent in the national consciousness. Yet, it has the most fascinating story of ‘power’ packed electoral politics.

Looking beyond the upcoming elections, the 2016 Assam Assembly may have the most interesting composition of legislators.

The Congress, AGP, BJP, NCP, TMC, etc. will be sitting on one flank of the house while the other flank is occupied by leaders and cadres of at least eight terror groups now engaged in talks or are almost ready for talks with the Government of India.

Two such groups are already represented in the state Assembly. The political formation of what was Bodo Liberation Tigers (BLT) and a few Independent legislators with terror profiles are already part of the government. The BLT used to be the most violent of the armed groups; having blown up passenger trains and causing heavy human casualties.

It is not only part of the coalition government but it governs an autonomous council with little accountability. The Assam Police may not have any definite records about the violent activities of BLT members, but a few hundred killings can easily be attributed to this group. Amongst the Independent MLAs, the most active is a surrendered ULFA cadre who ran, amongst other illegal activities, a fishing camp inside Kaziranga National Park. He was finally arrested inside the Park but got away and appeared on local television channels daring authorities to touch him again, arguing that he is the ‘undisputed king’ of that area. So the territories are defined and the satraps run their writ.

The 2011 Assam Assembly may lose out on some of the big names who have just descended on the scene and will take a while before settling down, but it will have its own share of celebrity legislators. For someone who has lived in Assam during the late eighties and early nineties, Dhekial Phukan will be an easy name to recall. He commanded Upper Assam districts from Lakhimpur right down to Sonitpur across Dhemaji and Sibsagar. When asked, residents of those areas refer to him as a brutal murderer and a member of the banned ULFA.

ULFA, one of the few terror groups in the region which sustained itself for thirty one years without a split, is now a divided house. Or so it appears. But an evaluation of its terrorist activities has not been carried out. The police do not have sufficient records and the documentation of conflict rests heavily on orally recounted stories. One such incident during the early nineties was the killing of a doctor; he was crucified on a tree in the Upper Assam town of Lakhimpur. Documents are, however, available on the killing of the Officer in Charge of Laluk Police Station in the same district.

During the same time, in the same town, a student leader was buried alive simply because he refused to join the group. Numerous instances of stories similar to these are available with several families. The mastermind or possibly even the perpetrator of each of these crimes allegedly was Dhekial Phukan, who is now an aspirant for a seat in the Assembly. And a national political party has nominated him as its candidate.

Nowhere, except in India’s North East, would one find so blatant a policy of granting amnesty and legitimacy to people or groups of people who have used the most abhorrent forms of violence against civilians, women and children.

The law allows every individual to contest for elections even it is from the jail. If election is a participatory process, then surely elections in Assam are well participated in (even by once self styled ‘underground’ commanders who still carry guns but engage in ‘overground’ extortionist methods). So while Dhekial Phukan has no legal hurdles in aspiring for a seat in the Assembly, the moral (and not the model) code of conduct should have barred political parties from giving him a ticket. At the same time, if former Bodo militants Chandan Brahma and Hagrama Mohilary along with their Central Committee members can occupy ministerial berths, then why cannot Phukan at least contest in elections?

Mizoram perhaps set the trend with former guerillas taking over the office of the Chief Minister. That office has been virtually reserved for former rebels. But the Mizo insurgency was different in nature from the others. Some of the biggest underground leaders are waiting their turn in the Nagaland and Manipur assemblies, though their de facto control over the political establishment is well known. In Assam too, the influence of the underground rebels and the alleged nexus of politicians and parties with various groups is not only a media speculation but a matter of current investigation.

The study of electoral politics in the states of the North East explains how democracy can absorb people who have fought against the democratic institution. But it fails to answer a critical question - the victims’ right to justice. For example, the families of the victims of Dhekial Phukan’s terror run are now on the streets demanding action.

The parents of the children who were blown up on Independence Day (2004) in Dhemaji now say they want the killers to be hanged. So while authorities argue that amnesty is granted to buy long term peace, they must find answers to individuals’ right to justice. After all, we do not seek a counterproductive peace which sets the clock back to where it all began.

When Actresses Cried Foul Over Fake Pix

Vidya Balan in the fake picture

It's not all roses being in the limelight. Showbiz comes with its share of hazards as well. Like fake pictures of stars in various stages of undress floating in the internet.

The latest actress to fall prey to this was Vidya Balan, when a picture of her in a bikini started circulating on the net.

The morphed picture put her on the cover of men's magazine Maxim, even though she has never featured in the magazine ever.

The magazine clarified that the picture was not genuine.

We look at other actresses who have had to deal with fake pictures through the years.

Sonakshi Sinha

Sonakshi Sinha

Sonakshi was very upset when she came across a fake picture of her in a bikini as though it was on the cover of Maxim, and voiced her anger on Twitter.

'Quite shocked to see India Today carrying an article on me appearing on Maxim in a bikini!! Yeah right,' Sonakshi tweeted.

'Would've been smart if they checked out the magazine before writing whatever they felt like. It's not about me anymore but about their credibility,' she added.

The actress obviously had not anticipated such a thing so early in her career.

Asin

Asin

Maxim magazine has featured quite a few actresses in their sexiest photoshoots, and that's probably why it's often used as a backdrop to circulate fake pictures.

Asin, who has not ever worn a bikini in her films, was also shown as though on the Maxim cover in a skin-coloured bikini. The picture was a fake.

The actress was shocked to see the picture and claimed that there was a lot of difference between her figure and that shown in the morphed image.

Katrina Kaif

Katrina Kaif

With Katrina Kaif it was not a mere photograph but a fake video that surfaced on the Internet. Titled 'Katrina Kaif's sex scandal', it was a big hit on the Net. But the girl in the video was clearly not Kaif, just a lookalike.

Naturally, Katrina was very upset over the incident and reacted to it, saying: 'The video is disgusting and the girl clearly doesn't even look like me. There's no room for any speculation whatsoever. How can you even call her my lookalike? The girl's face is completely different! I think it's ridiculous to even talk about it.'

Celina Jaitley

Celina Jaitley

Celina Jaitley has no qualms about showing skin in her movies. But a particular fake picture on the Internet got her so mad that she even lodged a cyber crime complaint against two websites, which had allegedly morphed her pictures from a photoshoot she had done years ago.

The picture showed Celina wearing a white t-shirt and black underwear with the words 'Slide to unlock' written on it.

Khushboo

Khushboo

When actress Khushboo saw her morphed pictures in Maxim, she filed a police complaint.

The case was filed under section 292 A and 3, 4, 5 of Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act 1986 and Section 4 of Tamil Nadu Prohibition of Harassment of Women Act.

The five accused were the magazine editor Sunil Mehra, art director Anjan Das, publisher and printer Xavier Collaco, deputy general manager of circulation Deepak Bhatt and regional circulation manager Fazal Hussain Khan.

While Bhatt and Khan were granted anticipatory bail by the Madras high court, the court denied bail to Mehra, Das and Collaco. The accused approached the Supreme Court for bail, which also dismissed their application.

Negar Khan

Negar Khan

Item girl Negar Khan's topless picture in VI Menn, a men's magazine in Norway, was a big hit on the internet.

But Negar said the picture on the cover, as well as the ones inside the magazine, were fake and that she had never posed for them.

However, the editor of VI Menn magazine claimed that they do not publish morphed images in their magazine.