Nitish backs PC on backwardness panel

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Sidharth Bhatia [1]

Ignoring ally BJP’s expressions of scepticism over the UPA government’s recent overtures towards granting special category state status to Bihar, chief minister and JD(U) strongman Nitish Kumar on Monday supported Union finance minister P. Chidambaram’s proposal for a reconsideration of the backwardness of the states.
Mr Kumar, known for his vocal advocacy of special Central packages for all backward states, clearly saw hope in Mr Chidambaram’s assurance on Saturday that a fresh review of the backwardness claims of certain states could make Bihar qualify for a special state status. The JD(U) leader obliquely chided the BJP leaders for seeing politics in his efforts and enthusiasm for getting the special status accorded to Bihar.
“After the Centre declares a state like Bihar backward, the next step will be a remedy that can happen through granting special status, transferring more funds and allocating money under the State Reorganisation Act enacted after Bihar’s division in 2000,” said Mr Kumar to mediapersons after his weekly janata durbar.

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IB: isi trying to break 2-yr valley lull
age correspondent
New Delhi, May 13

Even as India and Pakistan are seen inching closer to normalise ties under new Pakistan Prime Minister-designate Nawaz Sharif, the Indian security establishment is on its toes with fresh intelligence inputs warning of Pakistan’s ISI trying to foment unrest in Kashmir Valley in the coming months, beginning May.
The Intelligence Bureau in a note submitted to the Union home ministry early this month, has directly implicated the ISI for trying to tap the separatist elements in the Valley to be able to organise agitation and create civil unrest. The IB noted that the ISI has decided to make all efforts to repeat the summer unrest of 2010 in the Valley to break the two-year period of lull.
According to IB inputs, the ISI is disappointed that the civilian unrest it was stoking in the Valley after the hanging of Parliament attack convict Afzal Guru had failed even as it observed that divisions within the separatists has added to their troubles. In its note, the IB has outlined the fresh strategy being adopted by the Pakistani ISI which is to bring together the separatists in the Valley under the leadership of a prominent separatist leader. The ISI is also keen to ensure that the separatist leader is able to resolve any differences.