Kolkata, Aug 30 (IANS) An environmental activist plans to set up India’s first Green Party on the lines of similar outfits in Germany, Australia, the US and Britain and is leaving for London next month to learn about the functioning of pro-environment parties.

A chartered accountant (CA) by profession who is a green crusader, Subhas Dutta has participated in several environment movements across West Bengal and has been fighting for various green issues since 1977.

He was instrumental in India setting up first a state-level “Green Bench” at Calcutta High Court in 1996. He has also championed other green causes, including the pollution at the Victoria Memorial, the degradation of the city’s sprawling Maidan, and for phasing out old and polluting commercial vehicles of Kolkata.

But realising that environment matters can be better highlighted by participating in the decision-making process, he plans to form the country’s first Green Party and is going to London to meet Caroline Lucas, leader of the the British Green Party and member of European Parliament.

“I wrote to the authorities of the British Green Party and they agreed to meet me. I am going to meet them next month,” Dutta told IANS.

He said he will be in London between Sep 15 and 22 and if needed, will extend his stay.

“During my visit, I’ll also try to gather first-hand knowledge about the Green Party’s constitution, policies, framework and success,” he added.

“I would also like to interact with members of the German Green Party as it is the first among green parties worldwide to achieve national prominence by being part of the ruling coalition led by the Social Democratic Party from 1998 to 2005,” Dutta said.

He said if a similar Green Party could be launched in India, it would help the environment activists to participate in the decision making process to bring a sustainable change in our environment.

“We already have a nation-wide network. If everything goes well, we’ll be able to constitute a Green Party in the near future to fight the issues of environmental degradation in our country,” said Dutta.

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) A dreaded criminal involved in over 50 cases of murder and robbery was arrested here, Delhi Police said Sunday.

Shokat, 49, who carried a reward of Rs.50,000 on his capture, was held by police Saturday evening near Kalindi Kunj in south Delhi. Police seized a revolver and three live cartridges from him.

“Shokat is a proclaimed offender. He was first arrested in a robbery case in 1986. He was again arrested in 1990 and remained in jail for three years,” a police official said.

In 1995, he was held in a robbery case but escaped from custody two years later.

“In 2007, he contested assembly elections from Amroha in Uttar Pradesh but lost. After losing the elections, he returned to Delhi and formed a gang. Being the leader of the gang and he used to get his share from the members even without actively participating in their criminal activities,” he added.

Abhishek Roy

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) India may have made the final without any palpitations, but not many are giving them a chance of retaining the Nehru Cup football title they won two years ago beating the same Syrians in the final.

The home team would, however, back themselves to send Syria packing in front of home crowd, a feat they managed in 2007. Back then India lost to Syria 2-3 in the league phase and went on to beat the visitors in the final. This time,too, India lost 0-1 in the inconsequential league match against Syria Saturday and would hope to turn the tables Monday.

Syria are the only unbeaten side at the round-robin stage and there was some suspense about who do they play in Monday’s final till it was belatedly revealed that India were through after their facile victory over Sri Lanka as no-one cared to flip through the rule book to see how a tie is resolved.

The inconsequential last league game gave both the teams to ponder about a couple of things.

Syrians realise that they had a reasonably tough game Saturday against an India team that rested their regulars, while the match must have given the hosts confidence to fight it out on level terms. But it will take some doing for the defending champions to send Syria home without the trophy a second time from the Ambedkar Stadium.

While India were impressive against Sri Lanka and Kyrgyzstan, they had to pull themselves back from a shock defeat in the opening game against Lebanon.

Whatever the players’ feelings be, India’s coach Bob Houghton would have liked the team to have, at least, left the stadium on level terms ahead of the final. The win would certainly boost Syria’s confidence but the match should have given enough for Houghton to strategise for Monday’s title clash.

India’s best strikers, skipper Bhaichung Bhutia, who warmed the bench, and Sunil Chettri, who came out for the last ten minutes, should be in better physical and mental shape after the day’s rest.

Chettri, who has been refused work-permit by the British government after he became the first Indian to be signed by a Championship club, Queen’s Park Rangers, will be out to prove a point or two to everyone. Bhutia will be there to nudge him upfront.

For Houghton, his right-flank has been exceptional with both winger Steven Dias and wing-back Surkumar Singh combining well to rattle the opposition.

The left-flank, however, could do with a bit of enterprise to keep pace with others now that mid-fielder Renedy Singh, who captained the team Saturday, has regained his touch.

Houghton go in with his experienced hands, though the two trusted defenders Mahesh Gawli and Dipak Mondal should make up for their slowness with a bit of imagination, while Surkumar and Gourmangi Singh look adequate. Steven, Climax Lawrence, N.P. Pradeep and Renedy should do keep attackers on their toes. But Houghton may also start with newcomer Anthony Pereira and then bring on Renedy at a later stage. This is the best line-up the Indians can think of.

The teams (from):

India: Subrata Paul, Subhashish Roy Chowdhury; Mahesh Gawli, Gourmangi Singh, Anwar, Surkumar Singh, Dipak Mondal, Sameer Naik; Climax Lawrence, Steven Dias, Renedy Singh, Anthony Pereira, Mehrajuddin Waddoo, Syed Rahim Nabi, N.P. Pradeep; Bhaichung Bhutia, Sunil Chettri, Sushil Singh, Abhishek Yadav

Syria: Mosab Blhousa, Moustafa Shakosh, Kawa Hisso; Abdulkader Dakka, Belal Abduldaim, Ali Dyab, Hamzeh Al Aitoni, Wael Ayan, Feras Esmaeel; Aatef Jenyat, Abdelrazaq Al Hussain, Alaa Alshbli, Moutaz Kaldini, Jwan Hisso, Ahmad Haj Mohamad, Bakri Tarrab, Firas Al Khatib, Mohamed Al Zeno, Abdul Fatah Alaga, Raja Rafe.

Coimbatore, Aug 30 (IANS) P. Karthik was unstoppable on Sunday as he romped to victory in both the races in the Expert class (Group B, 4-stroke, 165cc) in the third round of the Rolon FMSCI national racing championship for two-wheelers here.

Karthik was off to a flier in both the races and the others struggled to keep pace with him as he virtually decimated the challenge in style.

Results:

Experts – Group B 4-stroke 130 to 165 cc: Race 1 – 1. P.Karthik 07:44:194 2.Harry Sylvester 07:45:116 3. R.Deepak 07:45:416 Race 2 – 1. P.Karthik 07:47:678 2. T.K.Vishwanath 07:47:718 3. Harry Sylvester 07:48:539.

Group C 2-stroke 130 – 65 cc – 6 laps: Race 1 – 1. A.Satish Kumar 07:59:896 2. Tharun Rajan 08:05:175 3. M. Gautham 08:06:557 Race 2 -1. A.Satish Kumar 08:01:542 2. Tharun Rajan 08:11:623. A.Vinoth Kumar 08:12:230.

Group D 4-stroke 150 cc (Honda) 6 laps: Race 1 – 1. A.Satish Kumar 08:36:616 2. Varad More 08:49:900 3. S. Raj Kumar 08:51:800.

Open: Group D 4-stroke 135cc to 160cc – Race 1 6 laps- 1.Harry Sylvester 08:26:893 2. P.Karthik 08:28:236 3. R.Deepak 08:28:989 Race 2 -1. Harry Sylvester 08:21:376 2. Sarath Kumar 08:21:681 3. R. Deepak 08:22:065

Novice: Group D 4-stroke up to 130 cc – Race 1 – 6 laps – 1. K.Jagan 09:02:294 2. Dinesh Kumar 09:03:714 3. A.Prabhu 09:14:783 Race 2 – 1.A. Prabhu 09:01:280 2. K.Jagan 09:01:444 3. Dinesh Kumar 09:02:755

Group D 4-stroke Honda (125cc, CBR – Stunner Class) : Race 1-6 laps – 1. A. Prabhu 09:20:769 2.B.Naveen Raj 09;30:695 3. S.Anand Kumar 09:37:895 Race 2 – 1. A.Prabhu 09:24:926 2. S.Anand Kumar 09:34:469 3. B. Naveen Raj 09:35:170

Moped – Up to 65 cc: Race 1-4 laps – 1. R.Ashok Kumar 06:45:910 2. A.Vinoth Kumar 06:52:446 3. S.Ravi 06:55:872 Race 2 – 1. R. Ashok Kumar 06:32:725 2. BM Sriram 06:38:785 3. S.Ravi 06:42:963.

Coimbatore, Aug 30 (IANS) Eleven-year-old Tarun Reddy from Chennai, in only his first season, came up with a fine performance to take the honours in the Micro Max class to consolidate his championship standing in the JK Tyre Rotax Max Mojo karting challenge series, here Sunday.

Tarun, thus, has won three of the four rounds and put in yet another impressive performance to make it a start-to-finish affair.

Equally fluent were Chittesh Mandody (Seniors) and Parth Ghorpade (juniors) as they proved far too superior for the rest and won in their respective classes quite comfortably.

Results:

Seniors – 19 laps – 1. Chittesh Mandody 12:26:377 2. Ameya Walavalkar 12:26:798 3. Samyak Shah 12:27:145.

Juniors – 17 laps – 1. Parth Ghorpade 11:05:754 2. Nikhil P Kashyap 11:16:682 3. Shashank Ravishankar 11:29:131

Micro Max-11 laps- 1. Tarun Reddy 08:44:283 2. Dhruv Mohite 08:44:342 3. Surya Raghuram 08:44:5

Tokyo, Aug 30 (DPA) Japan looked set for a change in government Sunday as the opposition Democratic Party of Japan (DPJ) seemed to secure a comfortable majority in the House of Representatives.

Voting in Japan’s general elections ended Sunday evening, with initial exit polls pointing to a landslide victory for the DPJ. Polls indicated the party might gain more than 300 seats in the 480-seat lower chamber.

Only half an hour into the vote count, with 247 seats left unallocated, DPJ had garnered 176 seats, while the ruling LDP (Liberal Democratic Party) secured 42. New Komeito, a coalition partner to the LDP, had nine seats.

Currently, the DPJ has only 112 seats. It already controls the upper house of parliament.

Such a win would end more than 50 years of rule by Prime Minister Taro Aso’s Liberal Democratic Party.

A DPJ win would mean 62-year-old party chief Yukio Hatoyama is set to become the next prime minister.

The DPJ vowed to cut wasteful spending and revitalise the world’s second-largest economy by increasing household incomes and encouraging spending. However, it has offered little detail on how it would fulfill its promises.

Hatoyama said he plans to review the current government’s record-high stimulus package. His party’s manifesto promises to raise monthly child allowances for children and to scrap both expressway tolls and gasoline taxes as part of its plan to stimulate consumer spending.

Kolkata, Aug 30 (IANS) One Maoist linkman was killed and another injured when a crude bomb they were making went off in West Bengal’s Murshidabad district Sunday, police said.

The incident took place near Beharampur town when the duo was preparing the explosive to carry out a blast on the National Highway (NH)-34.

“They were preparing the explosive when it went off, killing one of the offenders on the spot,” Murshidabad Superintendent of Police Bharatlal Meena said.

“The two had links with Maoist rebels and planned to carry out the blast on NH-34,” Meena said, adding the ultras had also hatched a plan to call a shutdown in the district.

According to sources, some Maoist posters were recovered from the blast site.

“The injured person was arrested in connection with the case,” police said.

Panaji, Aug 30 (IANS) India Sunday decided to terminate its first unmanned moon mission as contact could not be re-established with the spacecraft Chandrayaan, a top space official said here.

“We are disappointed with what has happened, but we have managed to salvage a large volume of data,” Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) chairman G. Madhavan Nair told reporters here.

“We are content with the result,” he said.

Chandrayaan-1, launched last year, sent last message 00.25 IST Saturday and the space agency’s Deep Space Network (DSN) lost radio contact with the spacecraft five minutes later.

New Delhi, Aug 30 (IANS) Voicing concern over climate change, food shortage and poor monsoons, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president Rajnath Singh Sunday wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh that measures should be taken to improve the conditions.

“Climate change and its adverse effects on our people, agriculture and national economy are more than obvious. This year, nearly 250 districts have already been declared drought-affected. The foodgrain production may dip substantially, say by 10 per cent or so,” he said in his letter to the prime minister.

The BJP president said farmers, who constitute the bulk of the poor of the country, were hit the hardest.

The meteorological distresses have aggravated their problems and “rendered them extremely vulnerable to the uncertainties of the climate change,” Rajnath Singh said.

“It is projected that mean annual temperature in India by the end of the 21st century will increase by three to six percent degrees and the rainfall by 15 to 40 per cent, but would be more erratic,” he added.

Singh said: “Thus, the drought in kharif season (which will also affect water availability in the ensuing rabi) and high temperature in rabi season will respectively weaken rice and wheat economy – the two legs of food security and agrarian prosperity of the nation.”

“Due to weak monsoon, the spiralling prices of foodgrain are further shooting up and taking their toll on the poor and other weaker sections of the society. Therefore, the government should make arrangements to ensure immediate supply of foodgrain to poor and needy at nominal prices,” he added.

“Establishment of village seed banks, foodgrain banks, feed and fodder banks, water banks and village knowledge centres for early warning and information sharing will also go a long way in mitigating the adverse impacts arising from climate change,” he said.

The BJP president said there is an urgent need to resolve the deepening agrarian crisis “through a dynamic and long-term action plan.”

“The BJP demands that a national task force on adaptation to climate change and sustainable agriculture should immediately be created,” he said.

Chennai, Aug 30 (IANS) Actor-social activist Rahul Bose feels that movies can’t change society but can help make sensible people “more sensible”.

“Films have a small impact on society – it can be negative or positive. But the impact is very little. But at the same time I feel movies can make sensible people more sensible and that sense of compassion will make you a better human being,” said Rahul.

The actor, known for his powerful performances in “English August” and “Mr. and Mrs. Iyer”, was here for a campaign.

“I’m into activism because I just feel like it. I strongly feel it from my heart. In my opinion, if you feel like doing some change for your society, do it from your heart, not from your brain. For me, issues like gender equality, communal harmony, climate change and child rights are of utmost priority. In my case, activism comes very naturally,” he said.

Do you think that an actor should be political?

“I think everybody should be political. Politics plays a major role in our lives. What you wear, where you go, whom you meet… all these are determined by certain politics.”

Talking about the current situation of Bengali cinema, he said: “There are good commercial and art films from Bengal now. Filmmakers like Rituparna Ghosh, Gautam Ghosh, Aparna Sen and Buddhadev Dasgupta are coming with good films. Bengali art films like ‘Kalpurush’ and ‘Anuranan’ are getting critical acclaim.”

The actor says he is open to act in any language movie.

“That is just a matter of good script. If good scripts, directors and film crew are there I am ready to act in any language films, whether it is Tamil or Italian.”