Airtel has launched its new 16 Mbps Broadband Plan for high speed internet access.
The service will be initially available in Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bangalore, and will be moved on to the rest of the cities in the next phase.
K Srinivas, Joint President, Telemedia Services, Bharti Airtel said, “Airtel has constantly strived to innovate and deliver high quality products to its broadband customers. We are the leading private broadband service provider in the country and pioneered 8 Mbps broadband. It gives us great pleasure now to be able to introduce the fastest, wired broadband service on DSL. We will be able to offer 16 Mbps broadband to 70% of the households in the 3 cities of Delhi NCR, Chennai and Bangalore.”
The tariff plans offered at the 16Mbps broadband speed are:
* Speed Combo 2999 - 16 Mbps Broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 20 GB along with a fixed line connection at Rs. 2999 per month.
* Speed Combo 4999 - 16 Mbps broadband speed with monthly data transfer limit of 50 GB along with a fixed line connection at Rs. 4999 per month.
Security forces today entered Lalgarh to reclaim it from Maoist-backed tribals and were closing in on the police station there. The personnel of paramilitary forces and the state police were just two km away from the Lalgarh police station, which is under Maoist control, a senior police officer said.
The securitymen from CRPF, BSF, State Armed Police, Eastern Frontier Rifles and the Kolkata Police entered the besieged area after crossing a five-km stretch of the Jhitka forest, a Maoist stronghold, he said. They were moving in armoured vehicles fitted with anti-landmine devices and mortars and were carrying mine-detecting units.
"She was brutally killed even though she kept on begging for her life" — This has been mentioned by the Delhi Police in a chargesheet it filed in the Jigeesha Ghosh murder case on Saturday.
Ghosh, a 28-year-old executive with Hewitt Associates Pvt Ltd (Noida) and resident of the CPWD Colony in Vasant Vihar, was abducted by Ravi Kapoor and his friends from outside her home early on March 18 and later killed.
Having finished its investigations, the Vasant Vihar police have filed a chargesheet against Ravi Kapoor, the main accused, and two of his friends, Baljeet Singh, alias Poppy, and Amit Kumar Shukla. They along with two others, Ajay Sethi and Vijay Kumar, were also involved in the murder of journalist Soumya Vishwanathan on September 30 last year. These murders had raised concerns over security for working women in Delhi. The accused were arrested on March 24.
DCP (South) H G S Dhaliwal said, "An intensive investigation was conducted in this case and our teams have done a lot of hard work. The challan (chargesheet) has also been filed in time."
In the Jigeesha Ghosh murder case, a 448-page chargesheet has been filed under various sections of the IPC, including 302 (murder), 201 (destruction of evidence), 365 (abduction), 397 (robbery with attempt to cause grievous hurt or death), 34 (common intention), several forgery sections including 468, 471 and the Arms Act against the three accused.
The chargesheet, filed 90 days after the accused were arrested, includes the testimonies of 59 witnesses, among them Jigeesha's family, police officers, forensic experts and others. The police have also submitted 10 photographs related to the accused persons and crime spots, and one CD and documents related to recovery of the weapons used by the accused persons while committing robberies and murders.
Since the courts are closed for summer vacations, the chargesheet was filed in the court of Duty Metropolitan Magistrate Jitendra Mishra at the Patiala House complex.
During their investigations, the police found that Ravi Kapoor, Baljeet Singh and Amit Kumar Shukla abducted Jigeesha in a Hyundai Santro (HR18C3409) from the CPWD Colony around 4 am. She had been talking on her mobile phone. The accused then drove towards Mahipalpur. They asked her for her ATM pin at gunpoint and withdrew Rs 20,000 from an SBI ATM in Mahipalpur. After this, they strangled her and threw her body near Bhadkal Lake.
The police also found that Ravi Kapoor also roamed around the city using fake police uniforms, police badges, stickers on cars and arms, for which he was booked for forgery and under the Arms Act.
In the Soumya Vishwanathan murder case, sources said the Vasant Kunj police would be filing a chargesheet against the five accused — Ravi Kapoor, Baljeet Singh, Amit Shukla, Ajay Sethi and Vijay Kumar — by next week. "Investigations are over in that case too and almost all the documentation has been completed," a source said.
The South district police will also file a supplementary chargesheet against the five accused in the coming months under MCOCA (Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act), which was imposed on the accused later, in April.
The word on the Varun Gandhi tapes is out and it says not doctored. The Forensic Science Laboratory's report, which was submitted to the Pilibhit police on Saturday, confirms what many believed—it was indeed Varun Gandhi's voice on the tapes containing the hate speeches he delivered in Desh Nagar on March 7 and Barkhera in Pilibhit on March 8.
Varun had alleged that the recordings were "doctored" and there was a "political conspiracy" to defame him. "These are not my words and not my voice," Varun had said after the footage was aired on TV channels.
After Varun refused to give a sample of his voice to police at the Etah and Pilibhit jail, the police arranged a microchip containing a recording of his March 7 public meeting at Desh Nagar in Pilibhit. A top police official confirmed that the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) has reported that Varun's voice matched with that in the recording. "Three exhibits were sent to FSL—a compact disk, a mini video cassette that was recorded at Barkhera and a microchip, voice recorded at Desh Nagar. All three exhibits were arranged through media houses," added the official.
The Pilibhit police, who have almost completed their investigation and were waiting for the FSL report, are likely to move the state government soon in order to file a chargesheet against Varun in court. "The FSL report is second evidence against Varun. We already have affidavits and recorded statements of 20 people," said investigating officer Mani Ram Rao.
In all, six FIRs have been filed in Pilibhit against Varun, who is at present out on bail.
West Bengal's principal opposition party Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee Saturday said Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee 'is a bigger Maoist' and threatened a stir if allegations that her party had links with leftwing rebels were not withdrawn.
'We will wait for 48 hours. If nothing happens within that time, then we will hit the streets,' Banerjee told mediapersons at her Kalighat residence.
'We don't support Maoists. If you search the chief minister's house, you will get Maoist literature. He is a bigger Maoist,' the Trinamool chief said.
Banerjee also demanded Bhattacharjee's resignation for the atrocities committed by the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) cadres in various parts of the state.
'This chief minister should be sacked. He is wholly responsible for all the atrocities. He is the lead actor of all the atrocities across Singur, Nandigram, Lalgarh, Mangalkot and Keshpur,' Banerjee said.
The railway minister also questioned why the state government took so much time to crack down on the Maoists.
'Why didn't you ban the Maoists in the state, when it is banned in Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh?' she asked pointedly.
'I am condemning the atrocities, whoever is doing this. But who created the Maoists? Who has carried out atrocities against common people in the name of Maoists? The people who are arrested in Lalgarh are not Maoists,' she thundered, denying her party's links with the rebels.
She alleged the CPI-M was trying to establish its sway in Lalgarh in the name of the operation. Neither the central nor the state government had apprised her party about the ongoing operation beforehand, she added.
'They didn't tell us anything about the operation that is going on for three days. We have not been informed by the state or the central government. Law and order is a state subject. It is their joint operation. I don't want to talk on this.'
Asked about the Maoist leader Kishanji's comment that they participated in the Singur and Nandigram along with Trinamool, Banerjee said: 'There were no Maoists during the Singur and Nandigram fights. I don't know any Kishanji. It is a drama created by the CPI-M. They are very good at creating new drama.'
Conceding that the Third Front experiment has failed, Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) general secretary Prakash Karat Friday said there was a need to remodel it as the formation's utility still remained.
'Utility of the Third Front is still there. We have to remodel it,' Karat said on the concluding day of the two-day meeting of the party's West Bengal state committee, which discussed the defeat of the state's ruling CPI-M-led Left Front in the recent Lok Sabha elections.
The state committee pointed out that the call for the alternative Third Front government did not earn the confidence of people.
'As such, we have faced reverses in some states. This has been reflected in West Bengal poll results too,' state CPI-M secretary Biman Bose told newspersons.
Bose said issues such as the party's electoral tactics and all related matters will come up for discussion in a meeting of the party's politburo - the highest policymaking body - on June 19 and the central committee on June 20-21.
'I will refrain from passing any comment on our all India tactics and national issues which will be deliberated upon in these meetings,' he said.
To a query on the party's relations with the central government in which the Trinamool Congress is a constituent, Bose said: 'Such issues are not discussed in the state committee meeting. The meeting did not discuss it.
'But I would like to point out that the government role does not depend on who is with it or who is not. It is the government for the entire country.'
Describing the results as 'unexpected', the party identified a clutch of reasons for the debacle which saw the LF win only 15 seats in West Bengal, while conceding 27 to the opposition parties. The Trinamool won 19 seats, the Congress six, and the Socialist Unity Centre of India (SUCI) and the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) one each.
The party said the Congress-Trinamool alliance got additional impetus from the two years of lawlessness created in the state by a combination of parties from the extreme Left to the extreme rightwing under the Trinamool's leadership.
It also admitted that activities of a 'small section' of cadres who had deviated from the communist principles formed one of the prime reasons for the defeat.
'The behaviour, lifestyle of a section of our activists are among the deviations. They have become victims of a new-liberal society. But such deviations are not rampant,' Bose said.
Naming organisational weakness as one of the contributory factors, Bose said the ruling alliance failed to counter the campaign issues raised by the opposition. 'There were shortcomings on our part in carrying out intensive mass contact programmes.'
Bose said 53 state committee members participated in the 'frank' discussions to pinpoint the reasons.
'With all humility, we accept people's verdict. Our task now is to unite the poor against the conspiracies of the forces of separatism and isolation as also the reactionary forces, both from the country and abroad,' he said.
The meeting also chalked out future agitational programmes and said the party will hit the streets to protect democracy and people's rights which were being threatened by the 'forces of lawlessness'.
Bose said the party will agitate on issues like extension of the Public Distribution System, in overcoming the delays and probelsm in giving scheduled caste/scheduled tribe certificates and also for minority development and rural electrification.
Another state committee meeting will be held in the coming days to discuss the party organisation, and the inconveniences faced by the people due to administrative shortcomings and sloth.
Union Home Minister P. Chidambaram on Friday said that he would enquire about the details of the mysterious disappearance of a 47-year-old scientist from Kaiga Nuclear Power Plant in Karnataka.
"When I will go back to Delhi, I will find out. I will find out what efforts have been made," Chidambaram told media persons here on Friday.
The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which guards the plant and local police, have launched a joint operation to trace scientist, N Mahalingam, who went missing five days ago.
The team is trying to investigate whether it was a case of abduction or the scientist went somewhere by himself.
According to local police officials, Mahalingam, who worked at the Simulator Training Division of the Power Plant went for a morning walk on June 8 but did not return. A complaint was lodged by his wife on the same day in Mallapur police station in Karwar.
With the Lok Sabha elections out of the way, Rahul Gandhi's team in UP has started preparing for a state-level talent hunt to select district and city presidents of the Youth Congress.
While the selection process is slated to start on Monday, over 500 CVs have already poured in, with aspirants including MBAs, lecturers and corporate executives willing to give up their jobs for a position in Rahul's youth brigade.
But qualifications alone don't count in this race. Along with their CVs, candidates also have to submit a short report on their "work plan for the next six months" if they are made district or city presidents of the Youth Congress. Sources said the process of selection has been carefully chalked out under the guidance of Rahul Gandhi, who has made it clear that only serious and capable candidates make the grade.
"The past association of an individual with the Congress is not a major criterion. Instead, we have been asked to look for people who are sharp, educated, active and willing to work for a social cause," said a senior Youth Congress leader, adding, "This is why we have asked candidates to submit a report on their proposed plans for the next six months."
The shortlisted candidates will be called for "rigorous" zone-wise interviews between June 17 and June 24. Pankaj Tiwari, president UP Youth Congress's central zone said the process would be completed by the end of this month.
Air India has started a new fare war in the skies both on the domestic and international sectors. It has also launched a daily Delhi-Chicago flight via Frankfurt on Sunday.
Air India has started summer special fares at four levels starting at Rs1,891 (all inclusive) and the highest fare would be Rs 2,901 and will be valid for 148 domestic sectors. However, for flights originating from Delhi or Mumbai, passengers will have to pay an airport development fee of Rs 200 per ticket.
Under the new structure, a Delhi-Mumbai one-way ticket would cost Rs 2,611, while the normal fare on this sector on a full fare airline would cost between Rs 5,500 and Rs 6,000. Special fares will be available for tickets purchased 30 days in advance and the tickets will be available till June 30.
However, journey on the advance tickets can be undertaken after June 30 as well. For the Delhi-Chicago sector, the ticket would be at least 30 per cent cheaper in comparison to other airlines flying that route and has been priced at Rs 46,000 for a return ticket (including taxes).
"We would like to offer these promotional fares till March next year. Summer being the peak travel season and with very competitive fares on offer, we hope 80 per cent passenger load factors," said Lalit Kapoor, sales and marketing general manager, Air India.
The airline is also offering tickets that are nearly 30 per cent cheaper than other airlines on other international routes, including London, Frankfurt, Paris, New York, Chicago and Toronto. Kapoor said the airline would also start a service to San Francisco in October, after Air India gets new aircraft in July.
Low cost carriers SpiceJet, Indigo and JetLite have also come up with special fares in the 30-day advance purchase scheme to corner the summer traffic.
Even as New Delhi expressed concern over their well-being, Pakistani Sikhs have said that the majority Muslims are also a target of the Taliban, and the issue is a "national" problem rather than a "communal" one. This follows reports that that the Taliban were displacing Sikhs and levying special taxes (jaziya) on them in Pakistan's northwest region.
"Eh maslaa sirf Sikhaan da nahin ae. Suba sarhad tay FATA wich musalmaan, jo ki aksariyat wich nay, ohna naal wi Taliban tushaddat kar rahey ney. (This is not a Sikh issue. The majority Muslims living in NWFP and FATA are also being tortured by the Taliban)," said Bishen Singh, the president of the Pakistan Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee.
Speaking to The Indian Express over the phone from Lahore, Singh added: "Please don't make it a political and international issue that only Sikhs are being targeted in Pakistan. That is completely untrue. The Muslims of the Taliban-infested areas are worse off than us and other minorities like the Hindus and Christians there. To tell the truth, we are safer than them because the Taliban know that our families have been living in the north for at least 300 years, so they are soft on us. They asked for the jaziya money and we paid them, whereas the Muslims are abducted and held to ransom. If the ransom is not paid, they are killed. Waheguru is kind that no Sikh was even touched while hundreds of Muslims have been killed."
Over 100 families are reported to have fled the region in the last fortnight. Pakistan's Evacuee Property Trust Board has launched relief operations, making living arrangements in prominent gurdwaras of the country.
Nepal's first Maoist-led coalition government was plunged into a major crisis after only eight months of its rule when two of its allies quit Sunday after the ruling party took the unilateral decision to sack the army chief, Gen. Rookmangud Katawal.
Ministers from the Communist Party of Nepal-Unified Marxist Leninist (UML), including the deputy prime minister, tendered their resignations to Maoist Prime Minister Pushpa Kamal Dahal 'Prachanda' after a day-long drama marked by street violence and tension.
Besides the UML, the second-largest party in the ruling alliance that held six key portfolios, a minor partner, the ethnic Sadbhavana Party with one minister also announced its withdrawal of support to the Prachanda government.
The UML has now begun consultations with the main opposition party, former prime minister Girija Prasad Koirala's Nepali Congress (NC) to mull forming a new government. The NC says it is backed by 16 other parliamentary parties.
Under fire from both the opposition and its own allies, the Maoists too have begun hectic parleys with other parties to muster support and say they have three fringe parties behind them.
The sudden developments came after a nearly two-month-long stand-off, Prachanda and his party Sunday finally replaced Katawal -- just three months before he was due to retire -- with senior army officer Lt.Col. Kul Bahadur Khadka, despite objections by his own allies and the international community, especially India.
'The cabinet has decided to remove the army chief since he could not provide a satisfactory explanation to the three charges levied by the government,' Maoist Information and Communications Minister Krishna Bahadur Mahara, who is also the spokesman of the government, said after the cabinet meeting Sunday.
Katawal was asked to explain why did he continue military recruitment despite the government's halt order and reinstated eight brigadier-generals who had been retired by the defence ministry. He was also rapped over the army pulling out of the National Games when the Maoist combatants too decided to take part.
The four allies of the government - the UML, Madhesi Janadhikar Forum (MJF), Sadbhavana Party and Communist Party of Nepal (United) - however, distanced themselves from the sacking, saying they had asked the Maoists not to take a hasty decision.
Now the main parliamentary parties under the NC have urged President Ram Baran Yadav, who is the constitutional head of the government, to reject the cabinet order.
Yadav, who in the past asked the Maoists to act consensually with the other parties, was reported to have termed the cabinet decision 'unconstitutional, illegal and against consensus'.
'The constitution says that all decisions regarding the army have to be made on the basis of consensus,' said legal journalist and author Ananta Luitel.
'Since there was no consensus, the president can either ask the Supreme Court for advice or send the cabinet order to the interim parliament for its decision.'
If the president sends the dismissal order to parliament, it would be put to vote and the Maoists are likely t be defeated.
Though the Maoists have been threatening to remove the president if he opposes the army chief's dismissal, Luitel said that would be impossible legally.
'The president can be removed only if he is impeached by two-third of the parliament members,' he said. 'The Maoists can't sack him on their own.'
Meanwhile, former army generals said Katawal was likely to challenge his removal in court.
While the leaders planned strategies, violence erupted on Kathmandu's main thoroughfares as thousands of Maoist cadres, celebrating Katawal's dismissal, clashed with NC supporters, who began condemning the 'Maoist authoritarianism'.
India could once again play a critical role in the new crisis.
In 2006, it was India that helped the Maoists return to mainstream politics after a 10-year armed insurgency. However, the hardliners in the Maoist party have been growing increasingly hostile to India and accusing the neighbour of intervention.
Though New Delhi had sent its ambassador to Nepal Rakesh Sood to meet Prachanda seeral times, asking him not to take any unilateral step about the beleaguered army chief, the advice was rejected by the Maoist hawks.
Now with the Maoist government in danger of collapsing, India could once again have a major role in making or breaking the coalition.
A large crowd, including women, in this border town of Punjab waited in open for hours in the scorching sun for a glimpse and address of Sonia Gandhi at an election rally Sunday.
And when Gandhi in her flawless Hindi speech 'saluted' Gurdaspur - 'the land of warriors and hardworking people', the crowd, the women in particular, was left spellbound.
Looking glamorous in traditional attires, many of the women were dancing and singing with enthusiasm when Gandhi arrived.
'I salute this land (Gurdaspur). This is the land of warriors and hardworking people,' Gandhi said, drawing loud cheers from people at a sprawling ground, seeking votes for her party candidate Partap Singh Bajwa.
For Ramninder Kaur, a college student, seeing Gandhi, even from a distance, was 'a dream come true'.
'I am satisfied to see her from a distance as it is just like a dream come true for me to see Sonia Gandhi standing just a few feet away from me. She is an immaculate orator and speaks really well,' Kaur told IANS.
'I am sure Sonia Gandhi can change the face of rural Punjab and she would certainly do something for the betterment of women in Punjab,' she said.
An 86-year-old Rama Devi said it is 'good for the whole country that a strong women is leading the country's oldest party'.
And Balwinder Gill, another women supporter of the Congress, was apprehensive about Sonia's visit. 'Before coming here I thought she must be like any other leader who comes to garner votes. But I am amazed to find that she is well aware of this region and I am really impressed to hear her fluent Hindi.'
The Congress' Bawa is pitted against Bharatiya Janata Party's Vinod Khanna in Gurdaspur, around 250 km from Chandigarh, which goes to polls in the fourth phase of the general elections May 7.
The actor-turned-politician, Vinod Khanna is seeking re-election from this backward constituency. But the going may be tough for him this time.
'He (Khanna) represents us in papers only. He is unaware of the problems of his own constituency. I have not seen him even once in the last five years,' said Ramneek Bawa, who had also come to attend the Congress rally.
'Campaigning by big stars would not work this time (for Khanna), as we need a leader who represents the people of Gurdaspur,' Bawa said.