· TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 15, 2011 ·

46 Pages Rs. 2.50

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ISSN 0971 - 751X
City Edition Vol. 134 No. 39
Chennai
www.thehindu.com Regd. TN/ARD/17/09-11
www.thehindu.in RNI No. 1001/57

ANTICIPATORY CUSTODY CHINA AHEAD KUMBLE ON

BAIL SOUGHT EXTENDED OF US: JAPAN THE 1996 WC
PAGE 9 PAGE 14 PAGE 17 PAGE 22

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• •

BRIEFLY
Fillip to protest
High Court upholds Rahat Fateh released
NEW DELHI: Pakistani Sufi
singer Rahat Fateh Ali
Khan and two members of

disqualification of
his troupe, detained with a
huge sum of undeclared
money here on Sunday,
were released on Monday.
They were asked to
surrender passports.
— PTI

5 Karnataka MLAs
“The independents were part of the BJP”
Page 15

S. Rajendran &
Krishnaprasad
BANGALORE: A full Bench of the
Karnataka High Court on
Monday upheld the disqual-
ification of five independents
WOMEN TO THE FORE: Women supporters of the Gorkha Janamukti Morcha take out a march from the Assembly. It held
that the legislators, by their
in Kalimpong, Darjeeling, on Monday to protest the recent lathicharge on Morcha workers action, formed part of the
in Jalpaiguri. The GJM, which is fighting for a separate Gorkhaland, announced relaxation Bharatiya Janata Party and
of the bandh for Tuesday, but retracted it later, saying police atrocities were continuing. consequently their with-
— PHOTO: PTI drawal of support to the gov-
ernment attracted
disqualification.
In an order passed on Octo-
ject of the Tenth Schedule.” “We are of the considered
The elected members shall opinion that the impugned
strengthen the fabric of par- action of the Speaker is not Task force on
liamentary democracy by actuated by mala fides as al-
curbing unprincipled and un- leged by the petitioners,” and direct subsidies
ethical political defections. pointed out that the petition- NEW DELHI: Concerned at
The same day, the Speaker ers — the disqualified MLAs — the wastage of public
passed another order disqual- had not placed any material funds, the Centre has set
ifying 11 other legislators, all in support of their allegation. up a task force, headed by
belonging to the BJP. The UIDAI chief Nandan
High Court upheld this order, Relief for Yeddyurappa Nilekani, to suggest ways
which has since been chal- The order comes as a of giving kerosene,
lenged in the Supreme Court,breather for Mr. Yeddyurap- cooking gas and fertilizer
and its orders are awaited. pa, who is facing a series of subsidies to beneficiaries
Based on a complaint by problems threatening the directly. — PTI
the government Chief Whip survival of his government. Page 15

Congress Core Group grapples

ber 10, Speaker K.G. Bopaiah
held that D. Sudhakar, Ven-
kataramanappa, Gulihatti D.
Shekar, Shivaraj S. Tangadagi
and P.M. Narendra Swamy,
“It is a historic judgment that
and after observing the requi-
site procedure, the Speaker will go a long way in strength- Inflation dips
ening the roots of democracy
disqualified the 16 legislators NEW DELHI: Driven by the
and restricting legislators
(including the five independ- dipping prices of sugar and
from anti-party activities. It
ents) a day ahead of the cru- wheat, the overall inflation

with nitty-gritty of JPC by attending the BJP legisla-

ture party meetings and by
other actions (including the
party whip received by them)
Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyu-
rappa on October 11.
is a big lesson to all the MLAs
cial first trust vote faced by
and MPs and all ‘ayarams’ and
‘gayarams’ in this State and
other States. I welcome the
eased marginally to 8.23
per cent in January.
Page 20
No material support METROPLUS
Opposition demand should not be “subterfuge” to run away from House debate violated the provisions of the court decision. It is a victory — 6 Pages
anti-defection law. Delivering the 192-page for the legislative process,”
Smita Gupta strategy. The Bench observed: “We verdict on Monday, Justice the Chief Minister said. YOUNG WORLD
Congress wants role of National Democratic But even as the govern- hope and trust that the elect- Mohan Shanatanagoudar, The five legislators have — 16 Pages (Tabloid)
NEW DELHI: Despite divisions in Alliance to be discussed ment moves towards a de- ed members of the House Justice S. Abdul Nazeer and since decided to move the Su- SUDOKU
the Congress, the United Pro- nouement, there are many in would realise the avowed ob- Justice A.S. Bopanna said: preme Court. — Main Sports Page
gressive Alliance (UPA) gov- It is apprehensive that Prime Minister the Congress who are wor-
ernment is now working out will be the next target ried that even if the govern-
the terms under which it ment accepts the JPC
should accept the Opposi- demand, the Opposition may
tion’s demand for a Joint Par- The Opposition, especially ment, a statement interpret- be tempted to push it further,
liamentary Committee (JPC) the Bharatiya Janata Party ed as the government’s perhaps disrupting Parlia-
probe into the 2G spectrum (BJP), has apparently been willingness to accede to the ment on the S-band issue.
scam. arguing against a debate, say- demand. “The Opposition has tasted
With just a week left for the ing the issue has been dis- The Congress’ public posi- blood,” a Congress leader
all-important budget session cussed in previous sessions. tion was articulated by Mr. said, pointing out “we have
to begin, the Congress Core The Congress counter is that Tewari on Monday: “An ap- already dropped [the former
Group met here on Monday it was not discussed in the propriate modus vivendi will Maharashtra Chief Minister]
morning, sources said, to dis- context of the demand for a be worked out jointly by the Ashok Chavan and Suresh
cuss the “nitty-gritty” of set- JPC. Besides, it wants the government and the Opposi- Kalmadi, and had [the former
ting up the JPC — and how to role of the BJP-headed Na- tion.” Indeed, the govern- Telecom Minister] A. Raja
play the issue. tional Democratic Alliance in ment’s senior political arrested. The Opposition’s
The Congress made it clear the 2G spectrum scam (1998- mangers are in touch with next target will be the Prime
that there could be no JPC, 2004) discussed. Opposition leaders. Minister, which is already
unless it was preceded by a On February 8, Finance visible.”
discussion on the floor of the Minister Pranab Mukherjee Cancels visit Many in the party now feel
House, so that the govern- met leaders of the Opposi- Interestingly, Union Com- that its managers have failed
ment could get an opportuni- tion parties in an effort to munications Minister Kapil it. For instance, on the 2G
ty to place its case before the break the parliamentary Sibal, who has been fielding spectrum scam, a leader
people. deadlock over the Opposi- questions on the scam, can- asked, “What was the need to
“The demand for a JPC,” tion’s demand that had celled his visit to the annual defend Raja? We should have
party spokesperson Manish washed out the winter ses- GSM Mobile World Congress simply said he was an ally
Tewari said, “shouldn’t be a sion. At that meeting, Mr. in Barcelona (February14-17) and difficult to handle. By
subterfuge to run away from a Mukherjee said no price was at the last moment, appar- defending Raja, we have
debate on the floor of the too high to pay for the ently to be on hand to help made the Prime Minister vul-
House.” smooth functioning of Parlia- work on the government’s nerable to attack.”

Chief Minister invites Security guard

milk producers for talks
T. Ramakrishnan
CHENNAI/SALEM: Chief Minis-
ter M. Karunanidhi on Mon-
day called milk producers,
who have been on strike for
the past one week demanding
a hike in procurement prices,
for talks on Tuesday.
A committee of Ministers
comprising Arcot N. Veeras-
wami, K. Ponmudy and U.
Mathivanan would hold ne-
gotiations with them. As a
gesture of goodwill, the gov-
ernment decided to withdraw
cases against those who car-
ried out the agitation, Mr. Ka-
runanidhi said in a statement.
The Tamil Nadu Milk Pro-
ducers Welfare Association,
Government withdraws cases against agitators
Association announces withdrawal of strike
which spearheaded the agita-
tion, thereafter announced
immediate withdrawal of the
strike. Its president, K.A. Sen-
gottuvel, told the media in Sa-
lem that the milk producers
welcomed the Chief Minis-
ter’s call for talks “whole-
heartedly.”
He thanked the Chief Min-
ister for withdrawing the
cases registered against the
milk producers.
Mr. Karunanidhi said the
procurement prices were
hiked only last month. As a
sequel to the negotiations
chaired by Deputy Chief Min-
ister M.K. Stalin, the price of
cow milk was increased by Rs.
1.10 per litre and that of buffa-
lo milk by Rs.2.20 per litre.
This burden was not passed
on to consumers.
Regretting that those who
should regard milk as holy
poured it on streets, the Chief
Minister said that his govern-
ment had always been consid-
erate and sympathetic in
solving the people’s problems
if there were legitimate de-
mands. Never in the past
were the procurement prices
hiked four times in four-and-
a-half years.
Mr. Mathivanan told The
Hindu that at the existing
rates, milk procurement cost
Rs. 1,440 crore to the author-
ities annually. Of the daily
production of 20 lakh litres,
supply to Chennai was 10.5
lakh litres and to the other
parts of the State, 3.75 lakh
litres. The remainder was
used for the production of by-
products.
Supporting the milk pro-
ducers’ demand, All India An-
na Dravida Munnetra
Kazhagam general secretary
Jayalalithaa criticised the
government for its handling
of the problem.
D. Pandian, State Secretary
of the Communist Party of
India, said the procurement
price of cow milk should be
increased by Rs. 5 a litre and
in respect of buffalo milk, Rs.
8 a litre.
makes off with
188 sovereigns
of jewellery
Special Correspondent
CHENNAI: A security guard al-
legedly stole 188 sovereigns of
jewellery from his employer’s
house in Choolai here on Sun-
day. Police have formed spe-
cial teams to apprehend the
suspect, Sriram (45) of Nepal.
According to police sourc-
es, Sripal Jain (36), a busi-
nessman residing on
Avadhana Pappiah Road in
Choolai, lodged a complaint
with the police that he and his
family returned home from a
mall around 4.30 p.m. and
found that an almirah in the
house was forced open. The
jewellery kept in it was mis-
sing. Sriram was entrusted
with the key of the main door.
After committing the theft,
the accused locked the main
door and escaped. Neigh-
bours claimed to have seen
him leaving in an autorick-
shaw. Jain and others re-
moved the window grills to
enter the house, the sources
said.
“The security guard has
been working for them for
five years,” Joint Commis-
sioner of Police (Central)
M.C. Sarangan said.

...CH-CH