Corporation related to IT works in Haryana gets fourth head in 6 months

CHANDIGARH: After shifting whistleblower IAS officer Ashok Khemka from Hartron, a corporation to handle IT-related projects, two months after his posting, the Haryana government on Friday transferred his successor Nitin Yadav just four months after he took charge.

A Haryana civil services officer, Vivek Atrey, will be the next managing director of the corporation. With this appointment, the corporation will have its fourth managing director in just six months. The state government on May 20 had transferred then managing director of the corporation Ankur Gupta and replaced him with Ashok Khemka. Khemka, who had exposed various alleged irregularities in the corporation, was transferred within 50 days of his appointment to land consolidation department.

"There was a nexus to award software development works of petty nature without tenders to selected companies at inflated rates of Rs 25 to 50 lakh each, whereas the rudimentary software development work could have been done in-house or through NIC," Khemka had stated in a communication to the state chief secretary on October 12.

Apart from Hartron, Atrey will also handle two more cadre (mainly meant for IAS officers) posts - director of supplies and disposals, joint secretary and director of electronics and information technology. The post of joint secretary is usually occupied by a senior IAS officer. Earlier, Atrey had handled IT department of Chandigarh administration as its director. Khemka had recently hogged headlines for cancelling the mutation of a land deal between Congress chief Sonia Gandhi's son-in-law Robert Vadra and DLF.

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

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Gas Explosion Levels Buildings Like 'Missile Strike'












A natural gas explosion in one of New England's biggest cities on Friday leveled a strip club with a boom heard for miles and heavily damaged a dozen other buildings but didn't kill anyone, authorities said.



Firefighters, police officers and gas company workers in the area because of an earlier gas leak and odor report were among the 18 people injured in the blast, authorities said.



"This is a miracle on Worthington Street that no one was killed," Lt. Gov. Tim Murray said at a press conference.



The explosion in Springfield, 90 miles west of Boston, blew out all windows in a three-block radius, leaving three buildings irreparably damaged and prompting emergency workers to evacuate a six-story apartment building that was buckling, police said.



Police Sgt. John Delaney marveled at the destruction at the blast's epicenter, where a multistory building housing a Scores Gentleman's Club, evacuated earlier because of the gas leak, was leveled.



"It looks like there was a missile strike here," he said.



The victims were taken to two hospitals in the city. None of their injuries was considered life-threatening, officials said. Those hurt were nine firefighters, two police officers, four Columbia Gas of Massachusetts workers, two civilians and another city employee.






Don Treeger, Springfield Republican/AP Photo








Firefighters responded to the scene at 4:20 p.m. and were investigating the gas leak when the blast happened about one hour later. The cause of the explosion hadn't been identified but was under investigation, they said.



Springfield, which has about 150,000 residents, is the largest city in western Massachusetts. It's known as the home of the Basketball Hall of Fame, which is not in the vicinity of the blast.



The city has been rebuilding from damage it sustained in a June 2011 tornado.



The explosion happened in an area of downtown Springfield with commercial properties and residences. Area resident Wayne Davis, who lives about a block away from the destroyed strip club building, said he felt his apartment shake.



"I was laying down in bed, and I started feeling the building shaking and creaking," he said.



The Navy veteran said the boom from the explosion was louder than anything he'd ever heard, including the sound of a jet landing on an aircraft carrier.



The blast was so loud it was heard in several neighboring communities for miles around. Video from WWLP-TV showed the moment of the explosion, with smoke billowing into the air above the neighborhood.



Mayor Domenic Sarno said it was through "God's mercy" that nobody had been reported killed in the explosion.



"My thoughts and prayers are with the individuals that have been injured and the people who have been displaced," he said, adding that emergency shelter was being set up for those unable to go home.



An official of the gas company said there were no signs of any additional gas leaks in the area but crews would be monitoring the area closely over the next two days.



———



Associated Press writers Bridget Murphy and Bob Salsberg in Boston contributed to this story.



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Clashes in Cairo after Mursi seizes new powers

CAIRO (Reuters) - Angry youths hurled rocks at security forces and burned a police truck as thousands gathered in central Cairo to protest at Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi's decision to grab sweeping new powers.


Police fired tear gas near Tahrir Square, heart of the 2011 uprising that toppled Hosni Mubarak at the height of the Arab Spring. Thousands demanded that Mursi should quit and accused him of launching a "coup".


There were also violent protests in Alexandria, Port Said and Suez.


Mursi on Thursday issued a decree that puts his decisions beyond any legal challenge until a new parliament is elected. Opponents immediately accused him of turning into a new Mubarak and hijacking the Egyptian revolution.


"This is the point of no return for Mursi. He has dug himself deeper in a hole and won't know how to get out of it," said Ahmed Saleh, an activist who said many would stay in Tahrir square until Mursi withdrew the decree.


"The people want to bring down the regime," shouted protesters in Tahrir, echoing a chant used in the uprising that forced Mubarak to step down.


The United States, the European Union and the United Nations expressed concern at Mursi's move.


Mursi's rivals condemned him as an autocratic pharaoh who wanted to impose his Islamist vision on Egypt.


The president's aides said the decree was intended to speed up a protracted transition to democracy that has been hindered by legal obstacles


"I am for all Egyptians," Mursi said on a stage outside the presidential palace, adding that he was working for social and economic stability and remained committed to the revolution.


JUDGES MEET


Egyptian judges will meet on Saturday to respond to Mursi's move, which put him above the judicial oversight. The judges could threaten to go on strike, which would bring the judiciary to a halt.


Some non-Islamist political parties called for a million-strong march on Tuesday to demand that Mursi rescinds his decree.


But Islamist parties, including the Building and Development Party, accused Mursi's opponents of undermining the democratic process that brought him to office.


"Those calling for the downfall of President Mohamed Mursi have rejected democracy because President Mursi has been democratically elected by popular will," the party said in a statement. Mursi's decree would "save the revolution from the remnants of Mubarak's regime", it said.


Buoyed by accolades from around the world for mediating a truce between Hamas and Israel in the Gaza Strip, Mursi on Thursday ordered that an Islamist-dominated assembly writing the new constitution could not be dissolved by legal challenges.


Mursi, an Islamist whose roots are in the Muslim Brotherhood, also gave himself wide powers that allowed him to sack the unpopular public prosecutor and opened the door for a retrial for Mubarak and his aides.


TURBULENCE AND TURMOIL


The president's decree has consolidated his power but looks set to polarize Egypt further, threatening more turmoil in a nation at the heart of the Arab Spring.


In Alexandria, north of Cairo, protesters ransacked an office of the Brotherhood's political party, burning books and chairs in the street. Supporters of Mursi and opponents clashed elsewhere in the city, leaving 12 injured.


A party building was attacked by stone-throwing protesters in Port Said, and demonstrators in Suez threw petrol bombs that burned banners outside the party building.


Although Washington has praised Egypt for its part in bringing Israelis and Palestinians to a ceasefire on Wednesday, it expressed reservations about Mursi's latest move.


"The decisions and declarations announced on November 22 raise concerns for many Egyptians and for the international community," State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement.


The European Union urged Mursi to respect the democratic process, while the United Nations expressed fears about human rights.


"The decree is basically a coup on state institutions and the rule of law that is likely to undermine the revolution and the transition to democracy," said Mervat Ahmed, an independent activist in Tahrir protesting against the decree.


Leading liberal Mohamed ElBaradei, who joined other politicians on Thursday night to demand the decree was withdrawn, wrote on his Twitter account that Mursi had "usurped all state powers and appointed himself Egypt's new pharaoh".


Almost two years after Mubarak was toppled and about five months since Mursi took office, Egypt has no permanent constitution, which must be in place before new parliamentary elections are held.


An assembly drawing up the constitution has yet to complete its work. Many liberals, Christians and others have walked out accusing the Islamists who dominate it of ignoring their voices over the extent that Islam should be enshrined in the new state.


(Additional reporting by Tom Miles in Geneva and Sebastian Moffett in Brussels; Editing by Giles Elgood)


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National Conversation important in govt's decision making: PM Lee






SINGAPORE: The ruling People's Action Party's (PAP) Secretary General and Singapore's Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong said the government is about making choices and tradeoffs and the ongoing sessions of the National Conversation are important in this process.

Wrapping up the party's seminar, which was held as part of the National Conversation, Mr Lee said it is important for the party to think hard about what the country will be like in the next 20 to 30 years, especially in the context of an ever-changing global environment.

Mr Lee said the PAP has to remain the dominant party in the country and to engage the views of Singaporeans who form the middle ground.

As part of the seminar, teams from the different districts of the party made presentations on several topical issues, with Mr Lee summing up their presentations.

- CNA/xq



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Cash transfer: PM to play UPA-2's trump card on Monday

NEW DELHI: The Prime Minister is expected to formally kick off cash transfer of subsidies and entitlements, one of the most ambitious policy initiatives of UPA-2, on Monday. The scheme for cash transfers is visualized as a game-changer for UPA-2, like NREGA was for UPA-1, and is expected to give rich dividends at the elections.

Manmohan Singh is expected to set January 1, 2013 as the launch date for the rollout when he meets his ministerial colleagues on Monday. The plan to transfer cash directly into bank accounts of beneficiaries instead of handing over subsidised foodgrains, fertilizer or fuel is aimed to not only check leakages from the system, but also empower consumers with the choices and ensure big savings for the cash-strapped government.

Compared to NREGA, the size and scale of the cash-transfer programme is several times the rural job guarantee scheme, with the government planning to transfer over Rs 4 lakh crore annually to the public, with each BPL (below poverty line) family getting over Rs 3,000 a month.

Sources said the PM is also planning to address the nation on the scheme in the coming days, explaining the ambitious plan that would be bigger than similar programmes around the world. The government, which accords high importance to the scheme, proposes to appoint a national coordinator to oversee the programme. It will also ensure its rapid scalability.

Singh on Monday will address a meeting of ministers in-charge of subsidies, pension and scholarships and there he will disclose the government intent to formally launch the programme on January 1. The programme would begin by covering 51 districts where the Aadhar card has a high penetration. By April 1 next year, 18 states will be covered.

A senior official said the Planning Commission has identified seven flagship programmes, including pensions and 22 scholarship schemes given by nine central ministries, for cash transfers, excluding those related to subsidies on food, fertilizer and fuel.

Ministries are being asked to digitize their databases of beneficiaries and link them with Aadhar, so that Aadhar-enabled bank accounts and Aadhar-enabled payment systems can function through what's being called the Aadhar Payment Bridge - essentially, a mechanism for giving cash cards to beneficiaries who don't have bank accounts.

According to latest estimates provided by the Department of Financial Services, by March 31, 2012 all banks will migrate to the core banking platform which will facilitate direct cash transfers. The plan is to cover all villages with a population of more than 5,000 with branches, and those with population of more than 2,000 with business correspondents. Seven states have committed to make electronic payments.

Times View

The government clearly believes that cash transfers can be a game-changer. In theory, they would indeed appear to be justified in this view. However, whether the practice lives up to the theory is what will ultimately determine how much of a game-changer this move is and whether the change is for the better or for worse. That is why it is important that the government acts as soon as possible to even out the more obvious glitches to smooth implementation of cash transfers, like a large proportion of the population having neither identification documents nor bank accounts. This is particularly true of the poorest sections, who really ought to be the main beneficiaries of the government's welfare programmes.

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AP PHOTOS: Simple surgery heals blind Indonesians

PADANG SIDEMPUAN, Indonesia (AP) — They came from the remotest parts of Indonesia, taking crowded overnight ferries and riding for hours in cars or buses — all in the hope that a simple, and free, surgical procedure would restore their eyesight.

Many patients were elderly and needed help to reach two hospitals in Sumatra where mass eye camps were held earlier this month by Nepalese surgeon Dr. Sanduk Ruit. During eight days, more than 1,400 cataracts were removed.

The patients camped out, sleeping side-by-side on military cots, eating donated food while fire trucks supplied water for showers and toilets. Many who had given up hope of seeing again left smiling after their bandages were removed.

"I've been blind for three years, and it's really bad," said Arlita Tobing, 65, whose sight was restored after the surgery. "I worked on someone's farm, but I couldn't work anymore."

Indonesia has one of the highest rates of blindness in the world, making it a target country for Ruit who travels throughout the developing world holding free mass eye camps while training doctors to perform the simple, stitch-free procedure he pioneered. He often visits hard-to-reach remote areas where health care is scarce and patients are poor. He believes that by teaching doctors how to perform his method of cataract removal, the rate of blindness can be reduced worldwide.

Cataracts are the leading cause of blindness globally, affecting about 20 million people who mostly live in poor countries, according to the World Health Organization.

"We get only one life, and that life is very short. I am blessed by God to have this opportunity," said Ruit, who runs the Tilganga Eye Center in Katmandu, Nepal. "The most important of that is training, taking the idea to other people."

During the recent camps, Ruit trained six doctors from Indonesia, Thailand and Singapore.

Here, in images, are scenes from the mobile eye camps:

Read More..

Stores Work to Keep Black Friday Safe













With earlier-than-ever deals and 147 million people expected to hit the stores this holiday weekend, retailers such as Best Buy are taking extra steps to avoid the Black Friday shopper chaos -- and inevitable news stories -- of the past.


Best Buy officials said they've been prepping for the madness for days.


The retailer has created color-coded maps, moved merchandise around to ease congestion and held a dry run so that its employees can get practice.


"[We want to] get people in safely and out safely," said Jay Buchanan, a Best Buy employee. The goal is to get them "through the lines quick, fast and in a hurry so they can get what they need."


In Bloomington, Minn., the Mall of America extended its ban on young people younger than 16 shopping without an adult during the weekend evenings to Black Friday.






Daniel Acker/Bloomberg/Getty Images













At the Arden Fair Mall in Sacramento, Calif., security planned to place barricades at the mall entrance to control the crowds and officials planned to double the number of security officers.


In Los Angeles, the police were putting hundreds of extra officers on foot, on horseback and in the air to monitor shopping crowds.


"It seems like Black Friday's become bigger and bigger as the years have gone by," said Los Angeles Police Cmdr. Andrew Smith. "What we've seen across the country are huge problems with crowds. They just forget about everyday courtesy and sometimes go nuts."


According to today's news reports, though, things were already getting out of hand.


When a south Sacramento, Calif., K-Mart opened its doors at 6 a.m. today, a shopper in a line of people that had formed nearly two hours earlier reportedly threatened to stab the people around him.


And at two K-Marts in Indianapolis, police officers were called in after fights broke out among shoppers trying to score vouchers for a 32-inch plasma TV going for less than $200.


"When you have large crowds of people, control is the most important thing," Steve Reed, a security officer at the Arden Fair Mall, told ABC News affiliate News 10. "You want them [customers] to be able to get in the mall without getting trampled and having issues of any kind happening to them. That's really important for us."



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Gaza ceasefire holds but mistrust runs deep

GAZA/JERUSALEM (Reuters) - A ceasefire between Israel and Hamas held firm on Thursday with scenes of joy among the ruins in Gaza over what Palestinians hailed as a victory, and both sides saying their fingers were still on the trigger.


In the sudden calm, Palestinians who had been under Israeli bombs for eight days poured into Gaza streets for a celebratory rally, walking past wrecked houses and government buildings.


But as a precaution, schools stayed closed in southern Israel, where nerves were jangled by warning sirens - a false alarm, the army said - after a constant rain of rockets during the most serious Israeli-Palestinian fighting in four years.


Israel had launched its strikes last week with a declared aim of ending rocket attacks on its territory from Gaza, ruled by the Islamist militant group Hamas, which denies Israel's right to exist. Hamas had responded with more rockets.


The truce brokered by Egypt's new Islamist leaders, working with the United States, headed off an Israeli invasion of Gaza.


It was the fruit of intensive diplomacy spurred by U.S. President Barack Obama, who sent his secretary of state to Cairo and backed her up with phone calls to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Egyptian President Mohamed Mursi.


Mursi's role in cajoling his Islamist soulmates in Gaza into the U.S.-backed deal with Israel suggested that Washington can find ways to cooperate with the Muslim Brotherhood leader whom Egyptians elected after toppling former U.S. ally Hosni Mubarak, a bulwark of American policy in the Middle East for 30 years.


Mursi, preoccupied with Egypt's economic crisis, cannot afford to tamper with a 1979 peace treaty with Israel, despite its unpopularity with Egyptians, and needs U.S. financial aid.


MORE DEATHS


Despite the quiet on the battlefield, the death toll from the Gaza conflict crept up on both sides.


The body of Mohammed al-Dalu, 25, was recovered from the rubble of a house where nine of his relatives - four children and five women - were killed by an Israeli bomb this week.


That raised to 163 the number of Palestinians killed, more than half of them civilians, including 37 children, during the Israeli onslaught, according to Gaza medical officials.


Nearly 1,400 rockets struck Israel, killing four civilians and two soldiers, including an officer who died on Thursday of wounds sustained the day before, the Israeli army said.


Israel dropped 1,000 times as much explosive on the Gaza Strip as landed on its soil, Defense Minister Ehud Barak said.


Municipal workers in Gaza began cleaning streets and removing the rubble of bombed buildings. Stores opened and people flocked to markets to buy food.


Jubilant crowds celebrated, with most people waving green Hamas flags but some carrying the yellow emblems of the rival Fatah group, led by Western-backed President Mahmoud Abbas.


That marked a rare show of unity five years after Hamas, which won a Palestinian poll in 2006, forcibly wrested Gaza from Fatah, still dominant in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.


Israel began ferrying tanks northwards, away from the border, on transporters. It plans to discharge gradually tens of thousands of reservists called up for a possible Gaza invasion.


But trust between Israel and Hamas remains in short supply and both said they might well have to fight again.


"The battle with the enemy has not ended yet," Abu Ubaida, spokesman of Hamas's armed wing Izz el-Deen Al-Qassam Brigades, said at an event to mourn its acting military chief Ahmed al-Jaabari, whose killing by Israel on November 14 set off this round.


"HANDS ON TRIGGER"


The exiled leader of Hamas, Khaled Meshaal, said in Cairo his Islamist movement would respect the truce, but warned that if Israel violated it "our hands are on the trigger".


Netanyahu said he had agreed to "exhaust this opportunity for an extended truce", but told Israelis a tougher approach might be required in the future.


Facing a national election in two months, he swiftly came under fire from opposition politicians who had rallied to his side during the fighting but now contend he emerged from the conflict with no real gains for Israel.


"You don't settle with terrorism, you defeat it. And unfortunately, a decisive victory has not been achieved and we did not recharge our deterrence," Shaul Mofaz, leader of the main opposition Kadima party, wrote on his Facebook page.


In a speech, Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas's prime minister in Gaza, urged all Palestinian factions to respect the ceasefire and said his government and security services would monitor compliance.


According to a text of the agreement seen by Reuters, both sides should halt all hostilities, with Israel desisting from incursions and targeting of individuals, while all Palestinian factions should cease rocket fire and cross-border attacks.


The deal also provides for easing Israeli curbs on Gaza's residents, but the two sides disagreed on what this meant.


Israeli sources said Israel would not lift a blockade of the enclave it enforced after Hamas won a Palestinian election in 2006, but Meshaal said the deal covered the opening of all of the territory's border crossings with Israel and Egypt.


Israel let dozens of trucks carry supplies into the Palestinian enclave during the fighting. Residents there have long complained that Israeli restrictions blight their economy.


Barak said Hamas, which declared November 22 a national holiday to mark its "victory", had suffered heavy military blows.


"A large part of the mid-range rockets were destroyed. Hamas managed to hit Israel's built-up areas with around a metric tone of explosives, and Gaza targets got around 1,000 metric tonnes," he said.


He dismissed a ceasefire text published by Hamas, saying: "The right to self-defense trumps any piece of paper."


He appeared to confirm, however, a Hamas claim that the Israelis would no longer enforce a no-go zone on the Gaza side of the frontier that the army says has prevented Hamas raids.


(Additional reporting by Noah Browning in Gaza, Ori Lewis, Crispian Balmer and Dan Williams in Jerusalem; Writing by Jeffrey Heller and Alistair Lyon; Editing by Giles Elgood)


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North-South line sleeper replacement works to begin






SINGAPORE: Phase One of SMRT's sleeper replacement programme will start this Monday along stretches of the North-South Line.

The programme is part of the on-going upgrading and renewal of the ageing MRT system.

The timber sleepers are part of the rail support system.

Phase One will involve replacing nearly 6,300 sleepers along 4.4 kilometres of tracks between Kranji and Yishun stations.

SMRT said to avoid any disruption, replacement works will be done during non-passenger service hours on weekdays, usually between 1am and 4.30am, and between two stations each night.

Replacement works along most sections will be limited to no more than six to eight weeks.

SMRT added it is exploring other ways to complete the works in the most efficient and least disruptive manner.

This includes the possibility of starting and ending train services later or earlier, during selected weekends.

These planned closures will be publicised in advance.

SMRT added train services may also be delayed or disrupted and affected stations may be closed temporarily.

The public will be updated via local radio stations, SMRT's Twitter account (@SMRT_Singapore), the SMRTConnect App (iPhone, iPad and iPod), or through its website.

Giving an update, SMRT said some 4,100 timber sleepers along both the North-South and East-West Lines have been replaced since January.

The overall sleeper replacement programme, which covers about 131 kilometres of tracks, along both lines, is expected to be completed in 2019.

- CNA/xq



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