Row won't affect drafting of Lokpal Bill: Pranab

New Delhi, April 22 (PTI) Government today said controversies involving some civil society members of the joint committee for drafting the Lokpal Bill would not affect its working and will work with the members to prepare a strong and sound anti-corruption legislation.

After a meeting of Congress' Core Group headed by Sonia Gandhi with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh by her side, Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee said controversies "won't affect" the working of Lokpal Bill drafting panel.

"Controversies have been raised about members of the joint committee on the Lokpal Bill. I would like to make it clear that the view of government as also the view of party, the Congress, the working of Lokpal Bill drafting panel won''t be affected by these controversies.

"Government members of the committee look forward to working with Anna Hazare and his colleagues on the committee and to draft a strong and sound Lokpal Bill to fight corruption," he said.

Mukherjee's remarks came after a 90-minute meeting of the Core Group that discussed the issues threadbare.

Hazare had written a letter to Gandhi earlier this week alleging a smear campaign by some Congress leaders and sought to know whether the exercise had her sanction. Replying to it, Gandhi had said her party did not support any kind of smear campaign and was committed to rooting out corruption.

Mukherjee's statement came a day after the Prime Minister's remarks that government hopes to introduce during the monsoon session of Parliament the Lokpal Bill on which a committee of Ministers and representatives of civil society are working.

Admitting that there is little public tolerance for the prevailing state of affairs on the issue of corruption, Singh had yesterday said that his government is committed to facing this challenge boldly as people expect swift and exemplary action.

Talking to PTI today, senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh, in the thick of a controversy over remarks on the Lokpal committee members Shanti and Prashant Bhushan and Justice Santosh Hegde, said Congress and the government would in no way hamper the work of the joint committee to draft the Lokpal Bill.

2nd phase of Bengal polls today

KOLKATA: The second phase of Bengal polls is going to be crucial for Congress as it will decide the party's status in the Trinamool Congress-led alliance. What worries Congress is the Trojan horses that may queer the Opposition pitch, paving the way for the Left Front in some of the 50 seats as three districts ^ Murshidabad, Nadia and Birbhum ^ go to the polls on Saturday.

Murshidabad Congress strongman Adhir Chowdhury has the highest stakes in the 22 seats in the district. Adhir ignored Congress president Sonia Gandhi's appeal to vote for the alliance candidates and went ahead with his decision to fight Trinamool and the Left in the district. A slip in the Congress tally is likely to impact Adhir's political career.

Adhir is backing rebel Congressmen in four of the total 22 seats, namely Bhagabangola, Jalangi, Sagardighi and Hariharpara. The risk seems to be highest in the Hariharpara assembly seat ^ a marginal seat in the 2009 LS polls ^ where the Opposition led by a thin margin. Trinamool candidates are in the fray against Congress nominees at Kandi, Behrampore and Raninangar.

Like Adhir, Sankar Singh is backing four rebel Congressmen in four of the 17 seats, namely Karimpur, Kaligunj, Nakashipara and Krishnanagar (South), in Nadia. The Krishnangar (South) was a marginal seat during the 2009 LS polls. BJP holds the key in the constituency. The party bagged 19% votes during the last LS polls. The Congress leadership isn't likely to spare Sankar Singh if any of the four seats goes to the Left.

The Left can expect a few seats from the district. The Left trailed in all the 16 seats other than Kalyani where it led during the 2009 LS polls.

The Left is likely to do well in Birbhum that sprung a surprise in the last LS polls. The Left is banking on five seats ^ Sainthia, Nanoor, Labhpur, Dubrajpur and Mayureswar. Nalhati that had once backed Forward Bloc minister Kalimuddin Shams looks tough for the Left with Pranab Mukherjee's son Abhijit in the fray. The Opposition is confident of winning five seats ^ Suri, Nalhati Hasan, Rampurhat and Murarai.

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PSLV-C16 launch successful, satellites injected into orbit

SRIHARIKOTA: In a precision launch, India's Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle- C16 placed on a 822-km sunsynchronous orbit three satellites – ResourceSat – 2, an Indo-Russian YouthSat and Singapore's first satellite X Sat, on Wednesday.

The launch went off as per schedule and the satellites were placed in orbit 18 minutes after blast off from the launch pad at the Sriharikota spaceport.

Wednesday's successful launch, which was the 17th consecutive one for India's space warhorse PSLV, has pushed up India'a remote sensing capabilities.

Indian Space Research Organisation chairman K Radhakrishnan said the launch was a grand success. "We wanted to put the satellites into a 820-km orbit, but we got an 822 km orbit," he said. The mission cost Rs 250 crore.

The launch was keenly watched across the world as data from ResourceSat – 2 will be used by 15 countries. The satellite, which weighs 1206 kg will collect data including those on ground water and mineral resources on land and fish density in the sea. The satellite is equipped with three cameras that can cover 740 km wide, 141 km wide and 17 km wide at resolutions ranging from 22 metres to 5 metres.

"The satellite will replace ResourceSat I which is in orbit since 2003. ResourceSat- 2 is a global mission and has many improvements. It has three cameras that can monitor natural resources at different resolutions. It can be used to monitor snow cover, glacier changes, urban landscape and others," said Radhakrishnan.

PSLV-C16 mission director Kunhikrishnan said all the stages of the rocket performed well. "The solid stage propulsion and liquid stage propulsion worked well and we were able to achieve the orbit in 18 minutes after the launch. The solar panel of ResourceSat- 2 has been deployed and the satellite was pushed to the second orbit soon. If all goes well with the satellite, the ground centre in Bangalore will start receiving images from April 18," he said.

The other payloads are 92-kg YouthSat, an Indo-Russian stellar and atmospheric satellite built with the participation of students from Universities. It is the second in A mini satellite series. The YouthSat mission intends to investigate the relationship between solar variability and upper layers of atmosphere.

The third one, X Sat, is Singapore's first satellite and weighs 106 kg. The mini satellite has a multispectral camera IRIS as its main load. The satellite intends to demonstrate technologies related to satellite-based remote sensing and onboard image processing.

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Centre firm on Jaitapur plant

NEW DELHI: A rethink of UPA's nuclear push is ruled out. The riotous protests and death at Jaitapur or the disaster at Fukushimi might slow the rollout of nuclear power plants but it won't derail UPA's plans of a nuclear thrust to the Indian economy, sources in the government told TOI.

The Fukushima impact on Indian shores has been to force the nuclear establishment to do a bit of closed door review but it's not opened the establishment to open scrutiny. At best, it got environment minister Jairam Ramesh to ask for an independent authority to administer the civilian nuclear power business in the country.

The protests leading to death of a person at Jaitapur, one of the four plants Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited has got environmental clearance for, hasn't had much of an impact on the UPA's will to push ahead. At the Centre, it has been dismissed as mishandling of local protests about livelihoods, about the need to negotiate – implying it's about providing the right amount of compensation and perhaps a bit more.

The increasing flare up in the area has been described as 'politicisation' of local discontent by the Left and the right.

But the fact that the environmental clearance, itself full of holes, is not even required to assess questions of nuclear safety is not up for review – a clear indication that not much is expected to change. In a conscious attempt, questions of nuclear safety were kept out of the purview of environmental norms when the laws were framed. That is going to remain so, sources indicated.

Unlike other environmental issues, nuclear safety does not form part of the issues reviewed by either the ministry or third party experts. Nuclear safety is not part of the mandatory public hearings on environmental clearances. It was not at Jaitapur. UPA has no plans of altering that either.

The government is handicapped by the fact that in the case of nuclear power plants, like in other projects, it doesn't have a separation between environmental concerns and land acquisition issues. With land acquisition and R&R bill pending infinitely, that is not going to change soon. But Congress is sure, for now, that it will not hinder its plans to sprout nuclear power plants around the countryside.

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