No proof of India role in Baloch :Holbrooke

Pakistan has not provided any evidence to the United States of India’s involvement in the insurgency in Balochistan, and Washington attaches no credibility to Islamabad’s charges in this regard, a top US official has indicated. The US view on Pakistan’s allegation came during a briefing by the Obama administration’s Af-Pak envoy Richard Holbrooke, who, while acknowledging that Pakistan brought up the subject during his recent visit to the country, told Washington’s foreign press corps, “I would be misleading if I said it didn’t come up, but the narrow answer to your question (has Pakistan given you any credible evidence of India’s involvement?) is no.’’ Holbrooke’s terse response to the Balochistan wrangle — the latest between India and Pakistan — broadly squares with the assertion in New Delhi that while Pakistan has raised the issue of India’s alleged involvement in the region, it has offered no evidence, even as it falsely propagates in the Pakistani media that it has give a dossier to New Delhi in this regard. The Pakistani press is full of dark conspiracies of Indian intelligence involvement in the province, an inference to which New Delhi credulously allowed Islamabad to incorporate in a joint statement at Sharm-el-Sheikh. The US has now, in effect, bailed out New Delhi. Holbrooke has previously rubbished Pakistan’s charges about alleged Indian provocations from its consulates in Afghanistan, saying he had no reason to believe Islamabad’s charges, and Pakistan would do well to examine its own internal problems. Other officials too have said Pakistan is merely trying to externalize a serious internal crisis while evading responsibility to crack down on home-grown terrorism. In fact, Holbrooke’s briefing following his latest visit to the region was notable for its dire tone with regard to Pakistan, a country which he characterized as “facing a staggering number of front-page story problems at one time.’’ Describing Washington’s efforts to stamp out terrorists in Pakistan frontier province, Holbrooke said it “hard to imagine a more dangerous area on the face of the earth today than an area which contains al-Qaida, Pakistani Taliban, Afghan Taliban, two and a half million refugees. Its just extraordinary how difficult it is’’. The US envoy also trashed speculation about a rift with India that led to the reported cancellation of his visit to New Delhi with an extraordinary revelation. “You know, if there’s a rift between me and India, it would be the first rift between me and India since I was seven years old. You know, India was the first country in the world I was ever aware of. I have a very special feeling for it,’’ Holbrooke said. Such expression of personal affection for countries is seldom expressed by US officials and is certain to rankle Pakistan, which is already sour about a perceived American tilt towards India over the last decade. Holbrooke went on to clarify that the only reason he scrubbed the New Delhi leg of his visit was because three of the four Indian interlocutors he engaged with were all going to be out of town. He would be going back in mid-August, “within the limits of Indian independence (day)’’.

Kolkata air clean up

The pollution crackdown is on. The Supreme Court on Friday refused to stay a Calcutta High Court order to scrap polluting commercial vehicles, paving the way for the long-due clean-up of Kolkata’s filthy air. You may find fewer buses, taxis and autos on the streets on Saturday, but it would be small price to pay for a lungful of fresh air. A Supreme Court bench, comprising Chief Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice P Sathaisvam, refused to pass any interim order on Bengal Bus Syndicate’s petition but posted the appeal for hearing on Tuesday. Which means, the government — that has been playing the cat-and-mouse game with court orders since 2004 — has no option but to phase out 15-year-old commercial vehicles from Kolkata Metropolitan Area. If it does not, it could make itself liable for contempt before HC. The HC had last week refused to extend the July 31 deadline, saying it had not passed the order to serve the interests of the advocates or politicians or industrialists but for the sake of the general public, who had a fundamental right to get fresh air. As many as 3,500 buses, 7,000 taxis, 80,000 autos and thousands of trucks are on their way out. On Friday, home secretary Ardhendu Sen said the administration was ready to impound the vehicles that flout the court order. “I am told that bus associations have decided not to operate 15-year-old vehicles. There has been no such assurance from taxi and autorickshaw operators yet,” Sen said at the state secretariat on Friday evening. Old vehicles that are parked by the roadside will not be seized. Taxi and autorickshaw owners remained defiant till late on Friday, insisting that owners who had applied for new vehicles would operate on Saturday. Around 3,000 taxi and 21,000 auto owners have applied for replacement. The rest of the 4,000 cabs that face the scrap hammer will remain in garages on Saturday. But drivers of 65,000 autos that have not applied for switch to LPG vowed to defy the court and take to the streets. Commuters are jittery about the effect of thousands of vehicles vanishing from the streets overnight. The state government has promised alternative arrangements on a war footing, including running the entire state fleet, roping in buses from transport corporations and even hiring buses from other states. Saturday will probably pass relatively smoothly but the real test will be on Monday.

Sensex Snapshot

The BSE sensex surged to its 13-month high on Friday on revival hopes backed by a series of healthy corporate results from across the globe. With 23 of the 30 sensex shares rallying—and both domestic and foreign fund managers turning net buyers—the sensex ended 282 points higher to close at 15,670.

The mother of all defence deals

It’s “all systems go’’ for the field trials in the “mother of all defence deals’’, the Rs 42,000-crore project to acquire 126 medium multi-role combat aircraft (MMRCA) for the IAF. The trials will begin in Bangalore next week, with the American F/A-18 ‘Super Hornet’ (Boeing) being the first off the block. The other five contenders—Swedish Gripen (Saab), American F-16 ‘Falcon’ (Lockheed Martin), French Rafale (Dassault), Russian MiG-35 (United Aircraft Corporation) and Eurofighter Typhoon (consortium of British, German, Spanish and Italian companies)—will follow suit thereafter. The six fighters are to be put through the paces in two sets of trials to be conducted in summer and winter, ranging from the snow-capped peaks of Leh, scorching Rajasthan deserts (Jaisalmer) and humid conditions of south India (Bangalore). The IAF has constituted two teams of two test pilots each for the field evaluation test (FET). The fighters will also be evaluated in the countries of their origin, which will include weapon-testing at designated firing ranges. So, in effect, the trial results will be out only by mid-2010 at the earliest. The commercial bids will only be opened, examined and compared after a shortlist is made of the top two or three contenders, following the extensive field trials and staff evaluation. With the final negotiations to begin thereafter, the entire process is expected to take a minimum of two years before the deal is actually inked. While 18 jets will be bought off-the-shelf, the rest will be manufactured in India under the transfer of technology. All the contenders have already mounted high-voltage campaigns in the hotly-contested race, worth around $10.4 billion, in which India is sure to factor in its geo-political considerations as well.

Counterfeit notes

How Fake Money Lands In Your Hands:

1 Most fake notes are printed at an ISI facility in Quetta, Pakistan

2 They are flown in to third countries like UAE or Thailand

3 From UAE, the notes come to Sri Lanka or Nepal before being smuggled into India

4 From Thailand, these fakes come in via Bangladesh

Mumbai BRTS update

Commuters who were looking forward to the Bus Rapid Transit System(BRTS) slated to start operating on the two main highways in Mumbai, will have to wait for eight to 10 more months till the flyovers over the two roads are ready. According to MMRDA officials, the traffic police said that in order to have a proper traffic management system, it was necessary for the flyovers to be ready.The BRTS system is known worldwide as an efficient method of carrying commuters by bus through dedicated lanes on the road. It has been tried out in developing countries like Brazil and also developed countries like Australia and USA. The system is capable of carrying between 10,000 and 40,000 persons per direction every hour. MMRDA officials pointed out that on the Western Expressway, there is one flyover still under construction at Times Junction in Kandivli. The Eastern Expressway has four flyovers under construction at Ambedkar Marg. “Once these flyovers are ready, it will be possible to chalk out a detailed route for the BRTS,’’ they said.The BRTS system is being planned by the MMRDA but the execution and running will be done by the municipal corporation and the BEST. BRTS trials have already been carried out in the city. MMRDA commissioner Ratnakar Gaikwad said they are making efforts to implement BRTS in a big way in Mumbai. “The planners will have to consider that this is a major project for the city. We are looking at dedicated lanes for buses and all this takes time. The highways are still not ready for the scheme. When we do start the scheme, it will be larger than the one in Delhi,’’ he said.

No shrines in public places : SC

Coming down heavily on shrines that spring up illegally on public spaces, the Supreme Court on Friday directed the government to guard against such encroachment and warned that any official shirking his duty in this regard would be taken to task. “The solicitor general will file an affidavit to ensure that no temple, church, mosque or gurudwara is constructed on a public street/public space,’’ the judges said. However, they didn’t pass any order on demolition of existing religious institutions saying it could lead to disturbance of law and order.The government, in its appeal, had said that removal of religious places was a sensitive issue and that the structures must be subjected to scrutiny and classification before demolition.