The Golden Sparrow on Saturday 28/6/2014

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PAGES: 16+16 (TGS LIFE) | PRICE: `5

PUNE, JUNE 28, 2014 | www.goldensparrow.com

CITY

Police chief wants force to be tech-savvy to control crime P3

SPORTS

COMMENT & ANALYSIS

Serena advances to third round of Wimbledon P 15

12 things to expect from Arun Jaitley’s July 10 budget P 10

ANIRUDDHA RAJANDEKAR

A WORLD CLASS EVENT DESERVES WORLD CLASS SUPPORT

Sparrows on the return: ecologist

Famous city environmentalist Dr Erach Bharucha says that people have spotted the return of the bird in certain pockets of Pune. A survey could throw greater light on this ANJALI SHETTY

Pune’s most famous environmentalist Dr Erach Bharucha has some good news for us. Director of the Bharati Vidyapeeth Institute of Environmental Education and Research, Dr Bharucha told The Golden Sparrow on Saturday in an exclusive interview that many people in the city have spotted the return of sparrows in certain pockets of the city. “What we now need to do is, conduct a survey and find out why these small birds have returned. This will help us find the reason for their disappearance,” said Dr Bharucha. Asked about the conspicuous disappearance of the sparrows from the city, he said, “Honestly, the reason is still to be found out and no one

See special report on P13

National Herald case

Summons to Rahul, Sonia weakens Cong further Close on the heels of the party’s humiliating defeat in the parliamentary elections, this development has come as a shock to Congressmen BY SANJAY SINGH Metropolitan magistrate Gomati Manocha’s summons to Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi — for them to be present in court on August 7 to defend themselves against charges of “cheating” and “misappropriation of property” in dubious takeover of the National Herald group — has been shocking to the Congress. It has come at a time when a humiliating defeat in the parliamentary elections indicated that Congress’s first family was no longer revered by the people and its supposed charisma had completely diminished. Incidentally, they have to defend a land grab case since another member of the family, Robert Vadra, has been accused for his lust for land. In the National Herald case too, petitioner Subramanian Swamy has

accused Sonia and Rahul Gandhi, and also some other confidantes of the Nehru-Gandhi family of taking over the company through fraudulent means to make a real estate acquisition worth over Rs 2000 crore. The publishing company for National Herald, Associated Journal, has huge assets in New Delhi, Lucknow, Panchkula, Indore and Mumbai.

The magistrate’s observations while issuing summons after examining Swamy’s petition for about a year is significant. “Complainant has established a prima facie case against the accused under Section 403 (dishonest misappropriation of property, 406 (criminal breach of trust) and 420 (cheating) read

with Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of IPC... Hence, let the accused Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, Moti Lal Vohra, Oscar Fernandes, Suman Dubey and Sam Pitroda be summoned for August 7, 2014. Let the Young Indian be summoned through it’s authorised representative for the same date,” said the magistrate. Swamy has now written to finance minister Arun Jaitley seeking a probe into the National Herald case under the Income Tax Act. There has been no official response from the Finance minister’s office. But BJP sources said that the Finance Ministry will examine all angles as listed in Swamy’s letter. The matter could also be referred to company affairs to look into the technical-legal aspects of the said take over by Young Indian incorporated in November 2010, in which Rahul and Sonia together own 76 per cent shares. Contd on p 10

Amit Shah likely to become BJP president soon? NEW DELHI, June 26 (IANS): Amit Shah, a close aide of prime minister Narendra Modi, may be named the next BJP president soon, a party leader said. Shah, who has been credited with the Bharatiya Janata Party’s impressive performance in the Lok Sabha polls in

Complementary with this issue

Uttar Pradesh, will be stepping into the shoes of party leaders like Shyama Prasad Mookerjee, Atal Bihari Vajpayee, LK Advani and Murli Manohar Joshi. Since Rajnath Singh took over as home minister, the party has to appoint a new president. However, even a month after the council of ministers took charge, the BJP has not announced its new president. “The government was just formed and there was a lot of work to do... so the selection of the party president was out for a while,” said a party leader. With assembly elections due in Maharashtra, Haryana and Jharkhand, the party leader said Shah has emerged as the front-runner vis-a-vis colleagues such as JP Nadda and Om Prakash Mathur.

Shah played a key role in the party’s landslide victory in the Lok Sabha election in Uttar Pradesh where it won 71 of the 80 seats. Known to be a sharp political strategist, the former Gujarat home minister remains Modi’s most trusted political aide and master strategist. Shah, who has a plastics and printing business, met Modi in the late 1980s. Currently BJP’s national general secretary, it was earlier said that Shah may contest from the Vadodara Lok Sabha constituency. He was accused of involvement in the killing of college student Ishrat Jahan and others in an allegedly staged shootout in Ahmedabad, Gujarat in 2004. However, he got a clean chit in the case. Indo-Asian News Service

can single out why we are missing our sparrows. Recently, many people spotted the return of sparrows in certain pockets of the city. What we now need to do is, conduct a survey and

find out why these small birds returned. This will help us find the reason for their disappearance.” The eminent environmentalist said that lack of old-style tiled roofs and the unacceptable levels of pesticides in grains are possible reasons for their disappearance.

However, efforts are on to restore their presence in the city. “Experts and bird lovers have put up nests and boxes to increase breeding in small birds. We should continue doing so and it may help getting them back to the numbers we had. Today they are in negligible numbers,” he said. Contd on p 10


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