NEW DELHI (AP) — Every morning just before dawn, hundreds of trucks loaded with buffaloes trundle into New Delhi’s sprawling slaughterhouse complex where young men rush to unload the bellowing cargo. Skidding on heaps of fresh dung, they pull the animals out of the trucks, herding them for the daily auction and eventual slaughter. The work is hard and the money at the end of it, poor.

But the business is big. Despite Hindu beliefs that cows are sacred — and the fact that their slaughter is banned in most of the country — India is the world’s fifth-largest consumer and second-largest exporter of beef. The meat, which in India comes from bulls and buffaloes, is widely eaten in some communities, particularly by low-caste Hindus and millions of Muslims and Christians.

With the victory of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party last year, hard-line Hindu groups are pushing to expand the slaughter ban to include all types of cattle, male or female. Meat traders, many of whom have carried their trade for generations, are worried about their jobs.

“This is a political decision,” said Mohammed Aqil Qureshi, president of the Buffalo Traders Welfare Association in Ghazipur, the New Delhi neighborhood where the slaughterhouse complex is located. “They want to gratify the Hindus and harass the Muslims.”

A beef ban would hit the poor the most, Qureshi said.

“This is poor people’s food and is a key source of nutrition for millions of people,” he said.

Beef is far cheaper than most meat in India, often just half the price of chicken, making it a key food for people struggling with poverty.

Fears among meat traders grew last month when India’s second-most-populous state, Maharashtra, extended the slaughter ban to include bulls. While buffalo was not mentioned in the new law, buffalo meat quickly disappeared from most of the state’s butcher shops, amid fears of communal violence if it was confused with cow meat.

The ban carries a stiff punishment: Bail is not allowed and anyone convicted of selling or possessing beef faces a 5-year jail term and a $200 fine, a huge sum for poor Indians.

Within days of the ban, the red-meat business in Mumbai, the state capital, was forced underground, leaving restaurants and eateries scrambling for alternatives. Meat traders in Maharashtra have challenged the ban in court, saying tens of thousands of people have lost their jobs.

The state’s decision did not come as a surprise. During his election campaign, Modi promised a countrywide ban on cow slaughter, and that has emboldened Hindu hardliners.

Other states ruled by Modi’s party have promised to follow Maharashtra’s example. The government in Haryana state, bordering New Delhi, is considering laws making cow slaughter comparable to murder. Offenders would face a life term for killing a cow or bull if the state adopts the planned legislation.

Many Hindus regard the cow as the living symbol of their religion. Hindu welfare organizations run “gaushalas,” or cow shelters, in many cities where abandoned cows found wandering the streets are given food and shelter. Feeding a cow is seen by many Hindus as a way to appease the gods and get one’s wishes fulfilled.

“Hare Krishna, Hare Krishna,” chanted Minu Aggarwal, a housewife, as she fed soaked lentils and leafy greens to a cow at a New Delhi shelter. The chant means “Lord Krishna,” a popular Hindu god.

As she bent down in obeisance near the animal, a shelter worker touched her head with the cow’s tail — a blessing, Aggarwal said.

Pankaj Bansal, a New Delhi businessman feeding pieces of bread to a cow nearby, praised the bans.

“The cow is our mother,” he said. “The ban should be imposed all over the country.”

In recent decades, as millions of Indians traveled abroad for study and work, tastes have slowly changed. Today, many restaurants and small eateries serve steak and kebabs made from buffalo meat. Many people who in the past would not have eaten the meat at home in deference to strictly vegetarian parents and older relatives now openly broil buffalo meat.

Economists say a complete ban on cow slaughter could prove counterproductive as farmers would abandon their animals once they stop giving milk. Worse, farmers may consider it economically impossible to keep cows altogether if they must feed the animals for the rest of their lives, said Harish Damodaran, an economic analyst.

“The cow has a future only in the states that at least permit selective culling,” Damodaran wrote in the Indian Express newspaper, bolstering his argument with figures that showed farmers switching to buffaloes in states that did not allow cow slaughter.

The ban could also spell disaster for India’s beef exports, which have grown quickly over the past decade, increasing annually in recent years at 17-19 percent. This year, exporters were expecting a 25 percent increase. They hope they won’t be hit hard, but they are anxious.

“With such a ban, meat exports are going to suffer badly,” said an official at the state-run Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority. He spoke on condition of anonymity as he was not authorized to speak to the media.

Nearly $5 billion worth of buffalo meat was exported in 2013, with most headed to Southeast Asia and Persian Gulf countries.

“It’s not just meat exports, but leather and leather goods, tallow, bone meal and other animal product exports that will also suffer,” said D.B. Sabharwal, director of Allanasons, India’s biggest exporter of buffalo meat.

For many Indians, a ban would be an unwelcome government intrusion into their personal lives.

“Is the government going to tell us what we can eat and what we cannot eat? We’ve been eating beef for generations,” said Danish Qureshi, a young trader at Ghazipur. “It’s like telling people they can’t eat sugar. This ban won’t work.”

LONDON (Reuters) – Rolls-Royce (RR.L) has won a $9.2 billion deal to supply engines for 50 A380 aircraft for Dubai’s Emirates airline [EMIRA.UL], the largest order in its history and giving it a boost after a torrid year of profit warnings.

Shares in the British company rose an initial 2 percent after Friday’s announcement, which Rolls-Royce said was the biggest order placed with a British company outside the defence sector.

It is the first time the Gulf carrier has ordered Rolls-Royce engines for its superjumbo fleet, the rest of which is powered by Engine Alliance, a joint venture of General Electric (GE.N) and Pratt & Whitney (UTX.N).

Announcing the deal at a press conference attended by Rolls-Royce Chief Executive John Rishton and Emirates President Tim Clark, the companies said the aircraft in question would enter service from 2016.

Though a shift in engine supplier is rare, the deal had been flagged by Clark in March, when he said he was considering Rolls-Royce engines for the aircraft. The selection could raise hopes that Rolls will win more orders from Emirates.

Emirates, the leading buyer of the A380 jet with 140 orders, has said that if Airbus (AIR.PA) goes ahead with a revamp of its A380 superjumbo it would place a big order for that model.

Clark has said he expected any so-called A380neo to be powered by Rolls-Royce engines based on its Trent XWB engine.

“As far as the neo is concerned, we await the deliberations from Toulouse,” Clark told reporters on Friday, referring to Airbus headquarters.

Rolls-Royce was also awaiting Airbus’s decision on the A380 upgrade, the CEO said. “We have said that if they do, we will support that. We think that we can find a business case for it.”

The contract signed on Friday for the classic A380 includes a long-term “Totalcare” package, which means Rolls-Royce will also provide service and maintenance to Emirates.

Rolls-Royce is the world’s second-largest maker of aeroengines after GE, but its outlook has been hit by cancelled orders in other parts of its business, where it makes power systems for the oil and gas, marine and industrial sectors.

It warned in February that profits this year could fall by as much as 13 percent, on top of an 8 percent drop last year, saying the low oil price had increased uncertainty.

In its aerospace division, the company is in the throes of a cost-cutting programme, aiming to shed 2,600 jobs to try to improve profitability. Rishton said the new order would help secure jobs but the 2,600 planned cuts would still go ahead.

A white rhinoSudan, the last male white rhino left in the entire world, is under 24-hour protection by armed guards at the Ol Pejeta Conservancy in central Kenya, CNN reports. The entire species depends on his ability to reproduce with the two other females there.

Sudan, however, is no spring chicken. At 42, he may no longer be able to “naturally mount and mate with a female,” the conservancy’s deputy veterinarian George Paul told CNN. He also has a low sperm count.

To make matters worse, the older of the two females has weak legs and may not be able to support Sudan. The conservancy has been trying to coax a conception, but so far, it’s had no luck.

Usually, species can’t interbreed. For example, a northern white rhino can’t mate with a black rhino. There’s a chance, however, that a northern white rhino could mate with a southern white rhino, the only rhino species not on the endangered list.

If the entire population disappears from the globe, the result could spell catastrophe for African savannas — and potentially the whole world.

Poaching and habitat loss seriously threaten the rhino population. In 2013, 1,004 rhinos were poached in South Africa. That’s a terrible number considering only about 20,000 Southern white rhinos and 5,000 black rhinos still inhabit South Africa. Other species of rhino fare even worse:

Mumbai: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday returned here after attending the Hannover Trade Fair in Germany and holding talks with business leaders there on investment in the state.

The five-day fair was jointly inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and German Chancellor Angela Merkel.

India was partner country at ‘Hannover Messe 2015’, the world’s largest industrial trade fair.

“India is the destination for the foreign investors. Our ‘Make in Maharashtra’ initiative is a mission to open up greater opportunities for foreign investors,” Fadnavis said.

The Chief Minister led a delegation comprising state Industries Minister Subash Desai and senior bureaucrats.
PTI

New Delhi: Delhi High Court on Thursday asked MNS chief Raj Thackeray to refrain from making statements against non-Maharashtrian people, as it reserved order on his plea for quashing of summons issued against him for allegedly making a hate speech in 2012.

“No one has a problem with any individual promoting his state or language. You promote Maharashtra, no one has problem with that, but don’t interfere in the rights of others,” Justice Manmohan Singh said.

The bench observed “everyone has their own rights and he (Thackeray) should not say such things against the people of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.”

During the hearing, Arunabh Chowdhury, counsel appearing for the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) head, said no prior sanction for prosecution from the Centre or the state was taken under section 196 of CrPC, before the magistrate took cognizance of the offence of promoting enmity between different groups against his client under sections 153 (a) and 153(b) of the IPC.

He argued that even the police has filed a closure report in the case but magistrate rejected it and summoned Thackeray.

“This summoning order is bad in law and no requisite procedure was followed and is without any jurisdiction. This summoning order as well as the FIR lodged at Dwarka police station should be quashed,” he said.

When the bench asked the counsel for Thackeray whether a probe is being carried out in the case, he replied in affirmative and said no hate speeches were given by his client in Azad Maidan or at any other instance.

Complainant Mithilesh Kumar Pandey, on whose complaint the summons were issued by the court, accepted that there is a mandatory provision for prior sanction from Centre or state government for summoning any accused for these offences.

“There are more than 173 FIRs pending against Thackeray with respect to hate speeches and he has never appeared before any court, or no one from MNS has appeared. Trial should not be stalled in the matter. Summons can be held back for some time till the requisite sanctions are received,” Pandey said.

Pandey contended that the FIR could be kept in abeyance and not quashed as prayed by Thackeray because the question of sanction for prosecution was also involved.

The bench then asked Pandey to show a single line in his complaint where Thackeray gave statements against people from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand.

However, he was unable to do so but said Thackeray’s statements at Azad Maidan had led to violence and promoted hatred among masses.

Counsel for Delhi Police said the Centre or state government was not party in the case and it can proceed only after they are impleaded as a party in the matter.

The bench, while posting the matter for April 24, said it will consider the matter and pass an appropriate order.

Thackeray has been summoned as accused for April 25 by the trial court.

On March 17, the court had issued notice to complainant and Delhi police on the plea of Thackeray.

The trial court had issued the summons on October 7, 2014, on Pandey’s complaint referring to a rally in Mumbai addressed by Thackeray, in which he had allegedly blamed Muslims from Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand for violence during protests against Assam riots in 2012.

In his complaint, Pandey had said that the MNS chief, in his political rally, had repeatedly targeted these migrants and even declared them as “insurgents” and threatened to throw them out of Maharashtra.
PTI

New Delhi: The CBI Thursday arrested a Deputy Commissioner of Income Tax at his Central Revenue Building office here for allegedly receiving a bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh from an industrialist for settling tax issue.

CBI sources said an IRS officer of 2008 batch M Logapathy, posted as Deputy Commissioner Income Tax here, along with an alleged middleman Hitesh Kumar, Logapathy’s personal attendant Abhishek Kumar and businessman Vikas Singla were arrested in connection with the bribery case.

The sources said the four were detained yesterday and were taken into custody early this morning after a thorough search and seizure operation during which the bribe amount was recovered by CBI.

They claimed the agency has recovered property documents worth crores of rupees from Logapathy’s possession indicating his alleged connivance in many other such cases in which it suspected that he was taking one per cent of the tax demand as Commission for settling these issues.

The sources said bribe of Rs 1.5 lakh was allegedly given to Logapathy by Vikas Singla, Director CBS Steel Private Limited, through advocate Hitesh Kumar in a case of alleged tax evasion.

Giving details of the operation, the sources said Kumar and Logapathy were under the scanner of the agency for quite some time and CBI was keeping an active surveillance on them listening to their conversations through phone intercepts and other means.
PTI

Kolkata: Congress MP Deepender Singh Hooda on Friday said that the files pertaining to Netaji Subhas Chandra Bose should be declassified and the truth should come out.

The Netaji files should be declassified and laid in the Parliament. The truth should come out”, Hooda, a Lok Sabha MP from Rohtak constituency, told reporters here.

The statement from the Congress Parliamentarian came amidst the growing demand for declassification of the files by a section of Netaji’s household, particularly after revelation of reports of snooping on his kin’s family.

Saying that Netaji and Jawaharlal Nehru were never at loggerheads as portrayed in the media, Hooda said that both of them had the same economic ideology of socialism.

“In fact, Sardar Patel and Netaji were at loggerheads, and not Bose and Nehru”, he said.

The friendship between them was such that Netaji named his INA regiments after Nehru, Mahatma Gandhi and and Maulana Azad.

Hooda said that he had moved a private member bill in the budget session for creation of two regiments in the Indian Army named after Bose.

“I think this is the most unique way of showing respect to the great leader”, he said.
PTI

Senior Congress leader and former union minister Mani Shankar Aiyar today said the Centre as well as the West Bengal government must reach out to Indian Gorkhas and the Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha to resolve the problem in Darjeeling hills.
Former union home secretary RK Singh also endorsed the option of a union territory for Darjeeling hills, supporting the proposition suggested by senior journalist Swaraj Thapa that a centrally administered model in the form of a union territory may be a permanent solution to the issue.
“I agree that a union territory can be considered for Darjeeling provided that the West Bengal government is agreeable to the idea,” he said speaking at a seminar organized by the Darjeeling Foundation, a Delhi based think tank promoting the cause of separate state of Gorkhaland. The foundation has been initiated by Swaraj Thapa and a few other like minded individuals in Delhi. Criticizing the Trinamool Congress for its unyielding attitude , Aiyer said he was its founding member but quit within three months after realizing that Mamata Banerjee was not democratic in her approach .

Senior BJP leader and Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh also supported the idea of a union territory, recalling that the sacrifice of Gorkhas towards the nation is commendable.
Speaking in the seminar, Gorkha Jana Mukti Morcha spokesperson and Kalimpong MLA Harka Bahadur Chettri maintained that the Gorkhaland Territorial Administration was only a temporary arrangement and the GJM was committed to the issue of Gorkhaland.
Telengana Rashtra Samiti leader and former MP B Vinod Kumar said that the demand for Gorkhaland was being misrepresented in the national media in general and in the Telegu media in particular. “The media is very biased and it has tried to project it as if creation of Gorkhaland will lead to disintegration of India. This is wrong. You must counter it effectively” he said and added that more states were necessary for the country if development was to reach to all segments of the people. He also contended that national integrity would be strengthened if more states were formed.
Addressing a packed audience at the Teen Murti Auditorium here in Delhi, the speakers acknowledged the contribution and role of Indian Gorkhas in the development of the country and said that they would have to be given their due. Mani Shankar Aiyar specifically recalled his association with former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and said that as an OSD in the then Prime Minister’s Office, he had been assigned to organize the (infamous) public rally in Darjeeling in 1986 which was boycotted by the then GNLF. Disregarding the advise of the PMO and state Congress leadership, Rajiv Gandhi went ahead with the rally and addressed just a handful of policemen and Congress workers at the St Joseph’s grounds for over an hour. “Later while I was travelling back with Rajivji in the car, I asked him what possessed him to agree to such an embarrassment and address empty stands. Rajivji told me that people may not have come to see him but they were hearing every part of what I said. ” Mani Shankar Aiyar said. In other words, Rajiv Gandhi wanted to reach out to the Indian Gorkhas notwithstanding the fact that they had boycotted him. And the results paid when two years later an accord was signed with the GNLF leading to the creation of the Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council.
“We need to help Indian Gorkhas rather than alienate them. An answer has to be found” he said.

Aiyar also gave a historical perspective to the DGHC accord, saying that much of the autonomy proposals and devolution of powers through the DGHC was actually drawn from the Sri Lanka accord. “At that same time, Rajiv Gandhi was tackling the Sri Lanka problem. We in the PMO had to devise proposals that were aimed at devolution of powers in the Sri Lanka provinces, especially to the provinces in the Tamil majority Southern part of Sri Lanka. Much of the DGHC proposals were modeled along the same lines as the Sri Lanka devolution of powers proposal” he said. Supporting the concept of smaller states, he said that they were easier to administer.
Former union home secretary RK Singh conceded that he had earlier opposed statehood for Gorkhaland as well as Telengana on the ground that it would lead to more such demands elsewhere. However, after listening to the participants like Swaraj Thapa and Harka Bahadur Chettri, he said that he was convinced that there is considerable merit in their arguments. He admitted that the region had been neglected for long and development was negligible in the Darjeeling hills.
Darjeeling MP Jaswant Singh underlined the need to narrow down differences in the perception on Gorkhaland between the Indian Gorkhas and the Centre and the state government.

Ranjan Sharma , Media Coordinator has in a press report stated that the response of the guests was positive and they supported the idea of creation of a state of Gorkhaland. We shall frequently organize such events in future and support our cause . After all we are not asking anything out of the box and it is a constitutional demand which should be treated at par with Telangana.

The seminar, organized by the Darjeeling Foundation was held at Nehru Memorial Museum and Library Auditorium, Teen Murti House.

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GANGTOK
15 Apr 2015

Judge Minakshi Madan Rai was on Wednesday sworn in as the first woman judge of the Sikkim High Court by Governor Srinivas Patil at a function held at the Aashirvad Hall of Raj Bhavan in Gangtok. She was administered the oath and sworn to secrecy by the Governor. The function had the presence of Chief Minister Pawan Kumar Chamling, Sikkim High Court Chief Justice SK Sinha, senior judge SP Wangdi, Sikkim Legislative Assembly speaker KN Rai, Ministers, Chairmen and Bar Association members among others. Rai has taken over the charge her office after the swearing in ceremony. The dignitaries present at the function offered the traditional “Khadas” to the newly sworn-in judge and congratulated her. Rai is also only the third person from the state to be sworn in as the judge of Sikkim High Court. (HS)