Pak court suspends ban on fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar

LAHORE, Pakistan:(AP) A judge says an 18-month playing ban imposed by Pakistan's Cricket Board on fast bowler Shoaib Akhtar for disciplinary violations has been suspended.

Lahore High Court judge Sayed Zahid Hussain said in his ruling Friday that the ban was suspended until after the summer break when the court resumes hearing the case. That is expected to be in September.

Initially, court secretary Jamshed Akhtar told reporters the ban had been "lifted," but the judge's written ruling made clear a final decision is yet to come.

A PCB tribunal had originally banned Akhtar for five years and imposed a 7 million rupee (US$102,900) fine. The ban was reduced to 18 months on appeal.

Rizvi said Akhtar still had to pay the fine.

When Mahatma comes down to convince Communists

By K Ramanathan Iyer

Now Kalam has said it. ‘Please sign nuclear deal, it's good for India’, etc etc. Mind it, this has come from a great scientist, a great statesman (Some people in this group may disagree), a great thinker and finally a great human being.

Will Left parties heed to this great soul of India? I really do not know the pros and cons of the nuclear deal, whether it is good or bad for India, but what I know is that the deal has been conceived by great people who have knowledge on the subject. I also do not want to buy an argument that this deal will make India kneel down to US or stop india's freedom towards technological advancement.

As Kalam is regarded highly by Congress, BJP and left parties alike, will his words fall on right ears? I believe not.

Left parties, being (mis)guided by Chinese ideologues, will not even listen to, even if Mahatma Gandhi comes down on earth to ask them to sign the treaty. First of all they have least regard to the Father of the Nation, secondly they may question his very presence after his "expiry date" had been lapsed.

I had written in one of my previous blogs comparing Left parties to a dog tied near a heap of fodder. Neither it eat nor will it allow a cattle to feed on it. Left parties in coalition or in power never allow the government to implement developmental works. They have always something to say against the schemes and put a spoke in the wheel of development. This is a fact. Take for example: Kerala and West Bengal, the two predominantly Left-ruled states since Independence. And see its state now. People are being forced to go out of the state for jobs. Given a chance, these people would love to settle in their own motherland, provided they get a decent living.

Coming back to the signing of the Nuclear treaty, these Left parties are even ready to withdraw support to the government much to the disappointment to the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. As a spineless PM, he keeps on giving veiled threat of his resignation, which the Left never took it seriously.

So, who will bell the cat? Who has got the convincing ability to tame the Left tigers? None, in India. Only Chinese have got that magic wand to change the mindset of these Left parties. Is it not dangerous? India's security decision is being controlled by Chinese, our potential enemy.

Then a question comes to our mind on patriotism. West Bengal, which had produced great freedom fighters, is supporting a party which has pledged the national security to foreign hands. They may argue that by signing the Nuclear Deal, India's compromising her security concern. I am not an expert to comment on it nor do they have any competent authority on board to pass on such comment.

But one thing is certain. When Kalam , nuclear experts and some of the leaders in the opposition want India to sign the deal, I have less doubts about their intention.

If the Left parties say that Kalam has ulterior motives on signing the deal, then our country is going towards disaster having on board people like Prakash Karat , Sitaram Yechury, D. Raja, A.B. Bardhan and the great Surjeet.

Long live India.

A mango tree that flowers 300 varieties

HAJI KALIMULLAH Khan recently won a Padma Sri for growing more than 300 varieties of mangoes of different shapes, sizes and hues on one tree. This rare technique of his has made him popular as ’mango man’ in Malihabad.

Listening to Khan talk about the variety of mangoes grown by him in his orchads, the expression and delight on his face puts across as if he is fiondly referring to his family members.

Khan’s prized tree is about 100 years old, on which he started work in 1987 to develop the craft of growing different varieties on one tree. He named these mangoes as namesakes on his family members who were also mango growers.

After 50 years of incessant efforts, Khan has lately developed five new varieties of mangoes.

He is, however, excited about a ’most delicate’ and ’graceful’ looking latest variety, which he has named as ’Aishwarya’ as it reminds him of Bollywood star Aishwarya Rai.

"It were the children in the family who on seeing the new variety remarked that it resembles the actress in its colour and grace," Khan said.

Among his most precious creations is a tree in the Mughal Garden at the Rashtrapati Bhawan flowering 54 varieties. The tree is 10 feet tall with six-foot-long root and was dug not with axe or spade but by water currents and transported from the prchid to Delhi in five quintiles of mud in 1999 as a present to the then President, said Khan.

The craft developed by him has become a mystery for researchers and agriculturists from the country and abroad who have been left baffled by his work.

The sexagenarian who also finds mention in Limca Book of records for growing the rare tree has the support of his sons in keeping the tradition alive.

Among his regular visitors is the Uttar Pradesh governor, T V Rajeswar who had in 2006 named three of his varieties as Nayantara, Nargis and Jahanara, his son Nazimullah Khan said.

Khan has also cultivated a new variety of all season flowering guava, which on ripening grows as red as apple.

Source: Merinews

Rs 8,000-cr premium realty projects face delay

On June 20, 2005, India's largest real estate company DLF bought the 17.5 acre Mumbai Textile Mills land for Rs 702 crore from the National Textile Coporation (NTC) and announced a futuristic retail-cum-entertainment centre in Lower Parel. The project, which was earlier expected to be completed this year, is unlikely to be over before 2010.

The same year, Shiv Sena leader Manohar Joshi's Kohinoor Group and Raj Thackeray's Matoshree Realtors bought the Kohinoor Mills land in Dadar from NTC for Rs 421 crore. The land was expected to be converted into a plush retail mall, but the property was put up for sale following disagreements between the retailers and the developers over rentals. So far, no one has bought the land.

Ashok Piramal Group's Peninsula Land acquired the erstwhile Dawn Mills in Lower Parel from the Ruias for nearly Rs 120 crore and planned to set up a 1.1 million sq ft Peninsula Business Park by July 2009. The company now expects the project to be over only in the first quarter of 2010.

These are just three examples of high-end luxury realty projects announced by the country's biggest property giants that are behind schedule. According to industry estimates, around Rs 8,000 crore of real estate projects covering over 40 million square feet are facing delays.

Analysts said the construction cost for large commercial projects was Rs 2,000 per square foot, on average.

In the process, developers are facing huge cost overruns. According to analysts, construction cost is growing 20 per cent every year and the developers are carrying a compounded interest burden of 30 to 40 per cent after three years.

Real estate observers believe that cost of the projects has doubled in the last three or four years owing to the rise in input and construction costs, and increase in interest rates. Steel and cement prices, which are the main components in property projects apart from labour, have risen nearly 50 per cent since December 2005.

The reasons for the delays are varied: tardy government approvals, stop-work notices from the municipality, construction delays, labour unavailability and so on.

"All the developers who bought land from NTC had to pay upfront and raised huge sums from the market. Even if they raised money at 10 per cent, the interest rate comes to 40 to 50 per cent compounded after four years," said Akshaya Kumar, managing director of Park Lane Property Advisors.

Anuj Puri, chairman of property consultancy Jones Lang LaSalle Meghraj, said developers had not been able to take advantage of the property boom in the last three years due to these delays.

"In the coming days, when new supply hits market, prices could soften," he said.

By 2008-end, Mumbai and its suburbs will add 15.4 million square feet of office space, which analysts said will have a sobering impact on property prices. Office rentals in Mumbai's central business district such as Nariman Point have increased 50 per cent in the last three years and places such as Worli and Lower Parel saw a 30 to 40 per cent increase in this period.

Though developers maintain that their projects are on schedule, in private they blame the delay in getting government approvals.

"In Mumbai, developers need to obtain 56 approvals from environment and forest department, pollution control board and others. It takes over a year to get these approvals," said a leading developer who is setting up a large project in Central Mumbai.

Adds Pranay Vakil, chairman of property consultancy Knight Frank: "There was a lack of clarity on approvals in the mill land case. Some of the approvals were revoked with retrospective effect which caused delays. Shift in policy stands also resulted some delays," he said.

For instance, Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC)'s stop-work notices in October 2007 to the developers of mill lands for violation of development control (DC) rules and subsequent revoking of notices in early 2008 caused much delay in the development of mill lands. The DC rule allowed mill owners to redevelop or sell their land provided the owner would hand over one-third of the open land on the premises to the BMC and MHADA each.

When asked about delays, a DLF spokesperson said: "Our Lower Parel project is on time and proceeding smoothly. We are not in a hurry to complete the development and we can take our own time to finish the project. We cannot specify any reasons for the delay," the spokesperson said.

A Matoshree Realtors executive said: "We have decided to sell the land but not finalised the buyers. We received good offers for the land so we did not want to go ahead with development," she said.

Rajesh Jaggi, managing director of Peninsula Land said: "Due to stop-work notice, our project was delayed three or four months. Beyond that there is no delay."

Source: Rediff

Aarushi case: CBI gets 4-day custody of Krishna

Dr Rajesh Talwar's compounder-cum-receptionist Krishna has been sent for another 4 days in CBI remand.

Earlier, Krishna, the prime accused in Aarushi case was produced in the Court by CBI on Monday. Krishna broke down in the court and told the Judge that he is innocent and is being pressurized.

''They keep beating me. I haven't done anything. I was sleeping at home on the night of the murders,'' said Krishna.

The CBI has so far claimed that the receptionist from Dr Talwar's clinic has not been cooperating during interrogation.

Last week, the CBI had also said that he was involved in the double murders, but did not divulge any further details.

The CBI also quizzed Nupur Talwar again on Sunday in connection with the May 15 murders of Aarushi Talwar and Hemraj, but officials refused to comment on the nature of the queries.

Source: NDTV

Should Gorkhaland statehood be granted?

By K Ramanathan Iyer/Chennai

India is a land of agitations. Agitating for any issue is our democratic right. We agitate for anything; being for more quota in educational instututions/ jobs or for a separate statehood, the recent one being the Gokhaland.

After a few years of lull, the issue of Gorkhaland has again come to the fore with renewed vigor, thanks to the inefficiency of WB government, centre leadership and yes, the local council body to resolve the decade- old issue.

Now the echoes of Gorkhas' demand for separate statehood have reached Delhi and the state government has conveniently showed its finger towards the centre to take a decision on the vexed issue, the ball is now in the UPA government's court.

Congress, which has a history of wait-and-watch policy, thereby aggravating any issue affecting people, may again put the separate state demand in the backburner and thus leaving the issue to the next government to resolve. As elections are around the corner, the party may not take any decision which will go against the party's interest in the coming elections.

Another issue is if separate statehood is awarded to Darjeeling council, then many a few areas across India will start demanding separate statehood for them also, with Telungana sitting pretty first to grab such an offer. Already the country has been successfully divided by caste, religion, languages, etc, by our great politicians and thinkers, having more fragrant states will further add chaos to the already chaotic region. Yes, this will facilitate more wealth to local politicians and babus and thumbs down to the local area development.

Gorkha Janmukti Morcha, which is spearheading the agitation under the leadership of Bimal Gurung, has decided to go to Delhi with representatives from 13 outfits including Congress, BJP and Left parties, to talk to the centre over the separate land issue.

But unfortunately, the tourism industry in the beautiful hill station has been the worst hit due to the ongoing agitation by the parties concerned. Several tourists were caught unaware due to the sudden turn of events and stranded for several hours. Travelling to Darjeeling for vocation will not be an enjoyable experience anymore. But again, who cares?

As both West Bengal government and Centre have their own issues to ponder upon, the hilly region will once again turn into a battle ground for justice.

Epileptics who don't take their medicines at higher death risk

Washington, June 19: Epileptics who don't take their seizure medication regularly are three times more likely to die, according to a new study.

Researchers came to this conclusion after examining insurance records from three US Medicaid programmes over eight-and-a-half years. The records were of 33,658 epileptics who have at least two drug prescriptions.

The study found that those who took their medication less than 80 percent of the time over three months appeared to be three times more likely to die compared to people who took medication regularly.

The study showed that hospital visits went up by 86 percent and emergency room visits increased by 50 percent during the time when people did not take their medication regularly.

There also appeared to be a significantly higher incidence of car accidents and bone fractures. Only head injuries were less common during periods of non-compliance with epilepsy drugs.

"These results are of concern since some studies show about 30 to 50 percent of people with epilepsy do not take their medication regularly," said study author Edward Faught of the University of Alabama.

"There are many reasons epileptic patients fail to take their seizure medications - including cost, side-effects and pregnancy. But this study suggests that none of those reasons overshadow the threat of death or other problems related to uncontrolled seizures," he noted.

The findings of the study were published Wednesday in the online issue of Neurology, the journal of the American Academy of Neurology.

Source: Sulekhanews