Karnataka porn scandal: Action against only one of three former ministers, says committee

Bangalore:  Of the trio of former ministers accused of watching porn in the Karnataka Assembly, two have reason to exhale. A committee, set up by the Assembly, has found there is evidence to merit action against only one of them - Lakshman S Savadi.

On February 7, three ministers were seen watching porn on a cellphone. The incident was captured by the camera crew of a private TV channel that was covering the proceedings in the Assembly that day.

The trio - Lakshman S Savadi, CC Patil and J Krishna Palemar - were forced to resign. All three said they were innocent and were watching a news report on an incident of rape. The phone, it would later turn out, belonged to Mr Palemar.

A committee comprising seven MLAs was set up to investigate the incident. The opposition MLAs refused to participate in the inquiry, because they said that the former ministers should be expelled as MLAs. So the former ministers were questioned only by four members of their own party.

During the probe, it also emerged that over a dozen other MLAs may have also been viewing porn inside the Assembly. But ten of them were not in the terms of reference for the panel that submitted its report today.

The committee's report has been handed over to the speaker, KG Bopaiah.

The fact that two of the three men allegedly involved will be excused comes as huge relief to the BJP which is currently dealing with a revolt in its Karnataka branch. Former chief minister BS Yeddyurapa wants to return to office. He has 67 MLAs - more than half of the party's elected representatives - on his side.

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'Paan Singh Tomar' team to care for former athletes

Mumbai: Who says actors and films do not make a difference to the quality of our life? A biopic on the life of athlete-turned-outlaw Paan Singh Tomar has made its makers aware of their social responsibility. They are set to establish a charitable trust to look after retired, out-of-favour athletes and sportpersons.
The film's director Tigmanshu Dhulia, lead actor Irrfan Khan and producers UTV Motion Pictures are spearheading the trust, which is being called SOS - Save Our Sportspersons.
Dhulia laments the state of former athletes in the country.
"Not everyone is as fortunate as Milkha Singh. We met so many athletes and sportspersons who either died due to poverty or are living wretched lives.
"Four-time Olympics hockey gold medalist Shankar Laxman died due to lack of medical attention. K.D. Yadav, the 1952 Olympics bronze medalist, died penniless. Sarwan Singh, the 1954 Asian Games gold medalist, had to sell his medal for money.
"Asian Games gold medal winner Parduman Singh died penniless. We want to do something to help such people before it's too late," he added.
Dhulia says the move to initiate a trust for needy athletes arose from megastar Amitabh Bachchan's concern for them, after he watched 'Paan Singh Tomar'.
"He saw the film and grew very concerned about how we treat our sportspersons. We've of course been thinking about these unfortunate sportspersons all through the making of our own.
"Our initiative towards helping athletes who have fallen on hard times comes from him," he said.
Armed with the determination to get this project on the way, Dhulia and his team are set to get the SOS project going. Hopefully, Big B would be the face of the project.
Dhulia hopes to discuss the matter with the 69-year-old veteran, who is currently recuperating after two surgeries that he underwent last month.
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Maharashtra's former minister arrested in housing scam case

Mumbai:  Maharashtra's former minister and Jalgaon MLA Suresh Jain was arrested last night in connection with the 2006 multi-crore Gharkul Housing scheme scam, police said.
Mr Jain, who was a Minister for Housing in the Shiv Sena-BJP government in the 1990s, was arrested at Dharangaon late last night while he was trying to escape to Indore.  He will be produced in the court in the afternoon, they said.
The arrest was made by a police office while Mr Jain was trying to escape to Indore.
Mr Jain, a Shiv Sena MLA, is demanding the arrest of minister of state for transport Gulab Devkar, who is a co-accused in the case.
Incidentally, Mr Jain had filed a defamation case against social activist Anna Hazare, which is still pending.
(With PTI inputs)
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UP health scam: CBI arrests former Family Welfare minister Babu Singh Kushwaha

Lucknow:  The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has arrested Babu Singh Kushwaha, former Family Welfare Minister of Uttar Pradesh, in connection with the multi-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam. Mr Kushwaha is a prime accused in the scam and had been named in one of the FIRs filed by the CBI.

Mr Kushwaha, the most high-profile arrest in the case so far, was arrested immediately after the final phase of polling ended in Uttar Pradesh. Mr Kushwaha, a former Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) minister, had joined the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) just before the UP polls. Along with Mr Kushwaha, his close aide RP Jaiswal, a BSP MLA from Deoria, was also arrested, taking the number of people arrested in the case to eight.

Sources say Mr Kushwaha and Mr Jaiswal were produced before a Special CBI court in Ghaziabad this evening which sent them to CBI remand for 10 days.

In 2005, the UPA government launched the National Rural Health Mission Scheme. Huge amounts of money were to be sent to states to provide accessible and affordable health care to the poorest families in remote regions. The government's auditor has said that more than half of 8500 crores sent by the Centre to UP (from 2005 to 2011) have been embezzled.

The large scale bungling in the centrally funded programme involved not only heavy over-invoicing, but even fake supply of medicines and hospital equipment by fictitious firms as well as huge kickbacks in construction activity undertaken with a view to improving the available health services in government-run primary health centres in rural areas.

The scam saw corrupt bureaucrats and politicians siphoning away crores meant to improve health facilities. It was birthed in the Family Welfare department in Mayawati's government, which handled the huge funds sent by the Centre for the NRHM Scheme. Mr Kushwaha was sacked by Mayawati in April last year after the murders of three chief medical officers forced the government to acknowledge the deep-rooted graft in his department.

Two senior doctors affiliated to the department were murdered; another was found dead in a Lucknow jail in mysterious circumstances. In January, an officer with the UP Jal Nigam committed suicide allegedly because he was being investigated for his role in the scam.    
The Allahabad High Court has ordered the CBI to investigate the trio of deaths and the swindle entrenched in the department.  Chief Minister Mayawati has, however, described the investigation into the swindle, and its findings, as a political conspiracy against her.

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