david tremayne
Lewis Hamilton (in photo) goes to Canada this weekend intent on building on the fourth-place finish in Monaco which put him back in the points after a disastrous Spanish Grand Prix a fortnight earlier.
The Monaco result was a much-needed fillip after he could finish only 12th in Barcelona, but Hamilton was overshadowed again there as his team-mate Nico Rosberg outqualified him and went on to score Mercedes’ first victory of the season on the streets of the Principality.
On the Circuit Gilles Villeneuve, where he registered his first grand prix victory for McLaren back in 2007 at the age of 22, and where he won again in 2010 and 2012, Hamilton hopes to recapture the edge that has been missing recently.
`There’s a really good feeling in the team at the moment following Nico’s win in Monaco and we’re continuing to work hard to make sure we have the potential for more victories this season. Going with the confidence that the team won the last race is a big encouragement. It obviously shows we have got great pace, the car is in a great place and we have got potential for more wins.’
But Hamilton, who lies fourth in the overall standings, 45 points behind leader Sebastian Vettel, also acknowledged that the big talking point of 2013 has been his inability of late to beat Rosberg, who has been on pole position for the last three races.
`I expected him to be competitive,’ Hamilton said. `I expected him to be even stronger than he has been simply because he has been in the team for years. It’s his home.
You can see when you are in the engineering debriefs that he is 100 per cent comfortable with the car because he’s been driving it for years. I expected him to be as competitive as he has been, especially with experience of racing him for many years.’
After a slow start of his own, Jenson Button can have high hopes of emulating Hamilton’s win last year in the McLaren.
the independent

agence france-presse
PARIS, 4 JUNE: World number one Novak Djokovic reached his 16th consecutive Grand Slam quarter-final while seven-time champion Rafael Nadal marked his 27th birthday by also reaching the French Open last eight.
Top seed Djokovic carved out a 4-6 6-3 6-4 6-4 win over 16th seed Philipp Kohlschreiber yesterday, with the German paying a high price for converting just two of 13 break points.
World number one Djokovic goes on to face German 35-year-old Tommy Haas, who became the third oldest man to reach the last-eight with a comfortable 6-1 6-1 6-3 win over volatile Russian Mikhail Youzhny.
Nadal, bidding to become the first man to win the same Grand Slam title eight times, trounced Japanese 13th seed Kei Nishikori 6-4 6-1 6-3.
It was third-seeded Nadal’s 56th win in 57 career matches at Roland Garros.
The defending champion next faces Swiss ninth seed Stanislas Wawrinka who reached his first French Open quarter-final, beating French seventh seed Richard Gasquet, 6-7 (5/7) 4-6 6-4 7-5 8-6. Djokovic, the runner-up to Nadal last year, needs a French Open title to complete a career Grand Slam.
The last time he failed to reach the last-eight of a major was in Paris in 2009 when he lost in the fourth round to Monday’s opponent.
Nadal arrived in Paris having collected six titles in eight finals since his return from a seven-month injury lay-off.
But he was sluggish in the first week of a cold and damp Paris, losing the opening set of his first two matches.
Since the weather has improved, so has the Spaniard, seeing off Fabio Fognini in straight sets on Saturday and then comfortably defeating Nishikori, the first Japanese man in the fourth round since Fumiteru Nakano in 1938.
Nadal was presented with a giant birthday cake and he will be looking for more celebrations on Wednesday in the quarter-finals as he holds a 9-0 career lead over Wawrinka.
Haas became the first German in 17 years to reach the quarter-finals and the oldest man to make the last eight at any Grand Slam since Andre Agassi at the 2005 US Open.
Haas had also made history in the third round when he needed a record 13 match points to beat John Isner.
Only Pancho Gonzales, who was over 40 when he made the last eight in 1968, and 39-year-old Istvan Gulyas in 1971, have got this far in the tournament at Haas’s age. Former world number two Haas had lost on clay in straight sets to Youzhny in Rome last month.
But he was never troubled yesterday, winning 10 games in succession after losing the opener. Such was Youzhny’s frustration that he smashed his racquet nine times against his courtside chair, sending splinters spiralling into the air at Court Suzanne Lenglen.
The violence of his outburst made him an instant YouTube hit even as the match was still being played.
Wawrinka came through a four hour 16min struggle to beat Gasquet in his sixth career comeback from two sets down. Defending champion Maria Sharapova joined third seed Victoria Azarenka in the French Open quarter-finals as both posted routine fourth-round wins.
Sharapova was all business in seeing off American 17th seed Sloane Stephens 6-4 6-3 yesterday to set up a meeting with Serbian 18th seed Jelena Jankovic, who thrashed US hope Jamie Hampton 6-0 6-2, while double Australian Open champion Azarenka swamped 2010 French Open champion Francesca Schiavone 6-3 6-0.
Sharapova, who in beating Sara Errani in last year’s final became the sixth player in the Open era to complete a full collection of Grand Slams, was rarely troubled by Stephens, Australian Open semi-finalist last January, the Floridian 20-year, gifting her a final break by hitting long on match point.
Next up for Azarenka, meanwhile, is a meeting with Russian 12th seed and erstwhile doubles partner Maria Kirilenko after her win over Schiavone moved her into the last eight for the third time in Paris. The protagonists notably paired up at the 2011 Australian Open, where they finished runners-up.
Then they were rivals as Azarenka won their London Olympics bronze medal encounter last summer. Azarenka was delighted with her form, given that the French Open is the only Grand Slam where she has failed to get beyond the quarter-finals having been beaten at the last-eight stage by Dinara Safina in 2009 and by eventual champion Li Na two years later.
Kirilenko, who had treatment for a sore shoulder, saw off unseeded Bethanie Mattek-Sands of the United States 7-5 6-4 to reach the last eight at Roland Garros for the first time after recovering from losing the opening three games. Azarenka has a 3-2 winning record against Kirilenko — who won the first two matches of their series although her last triumph was back in 2007.

KOLKATA, 6 JUNE: Nisana Foundation, a voluntary social service organisation  dealing with sports health and social development, is going to organise a summer camp for school students from 7 to 9 June at B E College Model School Howrah. Students in the age group of 13-15 years will be participating in the summer camp.
The aim of the program is to develop an active lifestyle  among the young generation. Nature study and awareness for environment protection are most important areas of the curriculum.
Reputed institutions like Indian Red Cross Society, Indian Institute of Bio-behavioral Sciences, Citus Adventures will be involved in training the students. sns

kanchan siddiqui  
DURGAPUR, 8 JUNE: Peeved about the infighting ahead of the panchayat poll, the state Trinamul Congress today summoned the leaders at loggerhead in Bankura to Durgapur town to put an end to the crisis today.
State industries minister Partha Chatterjee met the Burdwan district leadership at Mangalik, the civic body’s guest house here, while the party&’s labour front leader Dola Sen was busy putting an end to the intra-party squabble over nominations in Bankura.
Yesterday, the party had to postpone distribution of symbols at a private hotel in Bankura town following a commotion between party factions from Khatra subdivision. Mrs Sen was present there and asked the district leaders to shift the programme to Durgapur. Senior district leaders of the party&’s various factions ~ state minister Mr Shyam Mukherjee, Mr Arup Chakraborty, Mr Arup Khan ~ joined the meeting that lasted nine hours and finally party symbols were distributed and the ‘rebels’ unwilling to withdraw their nominations were told either to stay away from poll or face post-poll consequences of mass expulsion.

SERAMPORE, 8 JUNE: A man was arrested for raping a woman he had befriended on Facebook. Haq Jafar Imam, a resident of Bibi village in English Bazaar, Malda and a photographer came to know the victim through the social networking site and recently met her at the Sealdah station. He took her to a hotel and they rented a room posing as a married couple. He then raped her several times and also took objectionable pictures of the girl. He threatened to upload the photos on Facebook if she complained against him. The victim, however, along with her parents, lodged a complaint with the local police station on 6 June. As per police plan, the victim set up a meeting with the accused at Bandel, where he was nabbed. sns

press trust of india
CARDIFF, 4 JUNE: Seeking to regain form, Indian pace bowler Ishant Sharma is keen to make a good impression in English conditions during the Champions Trophy tournament starting here on Thursday.
On pitches where the ball is expected to move and bounce, Sharma seeks to improve his tournament record and resurrect a career that is increasingly under threat from younger colleagues.
“The conditions here are just right for me. For both batsmen and bowlers, it’s going to be a challenge,” he said, adding: “It’s going to be a mental thing this time around. If we can bowl in the right areas, the wickets will come and that’s been our focus at the nets,” said Sharma. Yesterday, he worked overtime at the nets at Swalec Stadium here. He bowled at full pace for close to an hour as India rotated their main batsmen on two adjacent wickets close to the main square.
Sharma is clearly not in top form. He leaked runs – a record 66 against Chennai Super Kings — during the Indian Premier League, hardly justifying the price Sunrisers Hyderabad paid to buy him.
In India’s first warm-up game, against Sri Lanka in Birmingham on 1 June, he conceded 41 runs in his six overs and got the wicket of Mahela Jayawardene. But Sharma does not want to read much into all this.
“It’s not the number of runs we fast bowlers conceded but the fact that we repeatedly missed the edge of the bat showed that the ball was being pitched in the right areas,” said Sharma.
This will be his second Champions Trophy. He was part of the pace quartet in the 2009 championship in South Africa that included Ashish Nehra, R P Singh and Praveen Kumar.
Sharma picked up three wickets in two matches, both held at Centurion, a pitch that usually had a lot going for fast bowlers. This time around, the 24-year-old wants to do better. “I have a job to do but I can’t say that I am the boss of this pace attack. It’s going to be a collective responsibility because there are others who will have to do as well. We are all of the same age and you can say I have a little more experience than Bhuvneshwar (Kumar) and Vinay Kumar,” said Sharma.
He, of course, is looking for a lot of support from Irfan Pathan. The left-right combination will help in English conditions and Sharma says: “Irfan has a lot of experience too. He can use the conditions very well. So it won’t be correct to say that I am going to lead the attack alone.”

Harassment charge
Former India women’s hockey team captain Rekha Bhide on Thursday shot off a letter to the Sports Minister Jitendra Singh, complaining of harassment and defamation by Hockey India (HI) for refusing to tow to its Secretary General, Narinder Batra’s line of thought. “I am writing to you to bring to your kind attention the immense, unjust harassment that I am being subjected to by some officials of HI,” Bhide wrote in the letter. Hockey India secretary General Narinder Batra, however, denied that she was being harrassed and said she was removed from the post after a three-member inquiry panel found her guilty.
Rani books berth
Olympian Sudha Singh of Uttar Pradesh booked her berth in the Moscow World Championship with a new national mark in 3000 meter steeplechase for women in the 53rd National Athletics championship in Chennai on Thursday.
Mixed fortunes
Grandmaster-in-waiting V Vishnu Prasanna continued his dream run and held Argentine GM Sandro Mareco to a draw but Abhijeet Gupta suffered a shock defeat in the fifth round of the Grand Europe Albena International Chess Tournament in Bulgaria. Abhijeet, a former world junior champion, lost to Brazilian International Master Roberto Junio Brito Molina. The draw helped Vishnu stay in joint lead on 4.5 points out of a possible five and the Indian now shares the podium with Mareco, Armenian duo of Tigran Petrosian and Hrant Melkumyan; Vladislav Nevednichy of Roumania and legendary Grandmaster Evgeny Sveshnikov of Latvia.
Divij, Raja win
Third seeded Indian pair of Divij Sharan and Purav Raja made it to the quarter-final of the ATP Challenger event in Furth, Germany after a hard-earned win in the opening round. Left-handed Divij and Raja defeated Andrej Martin of Slovak Republic and Hans Podlipnik-Castillo of Chile 6-3 1-6 10-8 in the first round of the euro 30,000 clay court event. Divij and Raja next play Kevin Krawietz and Dominic Schulz of Germany in the quarter finals.
Brazil slump
World Cup hosts Brazil slumped to a new record low in the FIFA world rankings on Thursday as the five-time world champions dropped three places to 22nd. Having spent most of the first 15 years of official FIFA world rankings at the top of the pile, Brazil’s demise began a year ago when the Selecao dropped six places from fifth to 11th in July 2012. Scolari’s team have now reached their worst ever position.
School regatta
The 41st KC Mahindra All India Invitation School&’s Regatta 2013, will be held from 9 – 16 June at the The Lake Club, Kolkata . Nearly 350 schoolchildren and 60 schools from West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Assam, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Andaman and Nicobar will be contesting this event.

statesman news service 
KOLKATA, 9 JUNE: Three more youths were today arrested in connection with the gangrape and murder of the 20-year-old girl at Kirtipur village at Barasat in North 24-Parganas while the victim’s brother demanded capital punishment for the accused.  
Police said Saiful Mollah, Gopal Das and Bhola Naskar were arrested from one of their hideouts this morning. They were remanded in police custody for a week after being produced before the Barasat court. Three more youths, including the main accused Ansar Ali, were arrested yesterday. 
Despite the arrests in the past two days, there is still discontent among local people over poor policing and increase in anti-social activities in the area. The local people demanded immediate steps to check growth of such activities. The victim’s brother today met Mr Jyotipriyo Mullick, state food and civil supplies minister, in his office at Barasat to raise the demands.  
Sources said he told Mr Mullick there should be proper investigation into the rape and murder of his sister. He also demanded capital punishment for the accused and requested him to ensure no other girl fell victim like his sister. He also wanted to meet Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee.  
Mr Mullick assured him to help him meet the chief minister. Sources said thew minister will take the victim’s brother to Trinamul Congress Bhavan on 12 June where he will meet Mr Mukul Roy and Miss Banerjee at Writers’ Buildings later that day.  
Meanwhile, the Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has taken up the case and senior officers of the department went to the spot to collect samples. The district police has also given a copy of the victim’s post-mortem report to CID officers.     
Sources said the autopsy report confirmed the girl was gangraped, her throat slit and there were severe injuries on her head and her legs were broken.
A senior police officer said more youths will be arrested in this connection and police is planning to reconstruct the entire incident.

Rupee bounces back
MUMBAI, 4 JUNE: Snapping its five-day losing run, the rupee today rebounded from 11-month lows to close with a hefty 32 paise gain at 56.44 against the US dollar on heavy selling of the American currency by exporters amid signs of FII inflows. The rupee derived strength from speculation that the government is likely to raise soon the cap on foreign institutional investors in government securities (G-secs) by $5 billion, which will lead to more inflows. The local currency had lost 119 paise in the past five sessions on rising worries over current account deficit and fears that withdrawal of US stimulus will hit inflows from overseas. pti
GDP growth
MUMBAI, 4 JUNE: Global brokerage Morgan Stanley today said the economy has come out of the trough and will grow at six per cent in the current fiscal. Sounding bullish on the stock markets, it pegged the Sensex target at 23,000 by December. “We are confident that the economy has come out of the furrow, though the recovery will be gradual,” Morgan Stanley Asia Pacific economist Mr Chetan Ahya told reporters at the 15th MS India summit here. pti
BoB home loan
MUMBAI, 4 JUNE: State-run Bank of Baroda today announced a single rate of interest ~ 10.25 per cent ~ for all its home loans. The rate revision, which will be effective from 1 June, will be available to borrowers irrespective of tenor or quantum of the loan, a bank statement issued here said. Banks typically charge lower interest rate for an amount of up to Rs 30 lakh, after which it goes up. They also differentiate the interest rate offering according to the tenor of the loan. Both new as well as existing borrowers can avail the loans under the revised scheme, the statement said, adding that there are no conversion charges for existing customers  to get the benefit of reduced rate of interest. pti
TTK Prestige stake
NEW DELHI, 4 JUNE: Home appliances manufacturer TTK Prestige today said global fund manager Cartica will acquire 5.6 per cent stake in the company for around Rs 230 crore. The company will issue on a preferential basis three lakh shares of Rs 10 each, amounting to about 2.6 per cent stake, at a premium of Rs 3,540 to Mauritius-based Cartica Capital, it said in a filing to the Bombay Stock Exchange. pti
Soyameal exports down
NEW DELHI, 4 JUNE: Soyameal exports declined by 30 per cent to 97,546 tons during last month on lower demand from overseas markets except Iran, according to industry data. Sanction-hit Iran has imported the maximum soyameal from India at 83,239 tons. pti

poulomi ghosh
KOLKATA, 9 JUNE: While Presidency University is deep in controversy over the Benjamin Zachariah episode, an external member of the moderation committee of the History Department has written to the Vice-Chancellor, questioning the validity of the committee. This is because the external members were invited to join the committee over phone and they do not have any formal invitation from the university authorities.
In her letter addressed to V-C Professor Malabika Sarkar, Prof. Tapati Guha Thakurta has said the entire process deviated from "what is considered to be proper official procedure". The director of Centre for Studies in Social Sciences was invited on the question paper moderation committee of the History Department as the nominee of the V-C. Apart from her, Prof. Lakshmi Subramaniam is another external member of the committee.
"I never received any formal letter of invitation to be the external expert in the moderation committee, neither for its meeting on the UG examination questions in April nor for the PG examination questions in May. Everything happened only through phone calls," wrote Prof. Guha Thakurta. 
In the letter she expressed her wish to resign from the committee after her name was dragged into the controversy of tampering of question papers of PG examination which will commence from tomorrow. 
"I received the letter and I spoke to both the external experts. Prof. Guha Thakurta was aggrieved as her name got linked with the tampering of question paper controversy. But I assured her no such thing happened. It is the same question that the moderation committee prepared. Only, instead of being a take-home paper as verbally proposed by Prof. Zachariah, it will be a conventional paper. Both of them have confirmed that they will be with us," said the V-C.
Admitting the grievance of Prof. Guha Thakurta for not receiving any official invitation, the V-C said: "This is the practice of all the departments of the university. The external members receive a copy of the certificate signed by the head of the department after they attend a meeting. No external member has any formal invitation. Still, I have told them that my office would issue formal invitation letters if they want."
Though Prof. Guha Thakurta, in her letter, said she had received a call from the university to drop the "take-away" questions from the paper, the university authorities dismissed it. "She was called to provide some additional questions for the examination of extra departmental History as many questions were out of syllabus. That paper was also set by Prof. Benjamin Zachariah," said an official of the university.

statesman news service
ARAMBAGH/BANDEL, 9 JUNE: Trinamul Congress-backed goons allegedly tortured CPI candidates for the panchayat polls into withdrawing their nomination at Salerpur, Arambagh. The gram panchayat candidate of CPI, Sanatan Paramanik, Mukta Ram Rana, Uttam Das, Bidyut Mallick and others were allegedly attacked and beaten up by Trinamul goons forcing them to withdraw their nomination papers. The district CPI secretary, Mr Priyo Ranjan Pal, lodged a complaint against the "undemocratic approach" of the Trinamul-controlled goons at the district D M office to be forwarded to the election commissioner. Police have started an investigation.
Meanwhile, in Bandel, the Trinamul goons threatened two CPM women candidates in a bid to make them withdraw their nominations. Ms Sarbani Majumdar of Saheb Bagan and Ms Swapana Pal of Korola, both from Devanandapur gram panchayat, Bandel, were attacked by masked goons riding motorcycles. The attackers hurled bombs at the residence of both the CPM candidates warning them to withdraw their nomination papers today at 11 a.m.

statesman news service
KOLKATA, 9 JUNE: A few undergraduate students of Institute of Post-Graduate Medical Education and Research (IPGMER) at SSKM hospital today accused the Trinamul Congress Chhatra Parishad (TMCP) leaders of assaulting and threatening to drive them out of the campus.
The accusations came after a student owing allegiance to All-India Democratic Students Organisation (AIDSO) was allegedly beaten up last night.
The AIDSO blamed the TMCP for the assault and said students’ leaders of the ruling party have been engaged in hooliganism ever since the polls were halted in the campus last year
Mr Bharat Chandra Das, a final year student, accused the TMCP activists of attacking him last night after he refused to vacate his hostel room.
Mr Das has been served a showcause notice and asked to appear before West Bengal University of Health Sciences on 12 June to specify the reason for not leaving the campus.
However, the TMCP leaders have rubbished the allegations calling it baseless and have accused Mr Das of being involved in illegal activities in the campus.
“He has been spoiling the atmosphere in the hostel and has been repeatedly told to leave, but he refuses to listen,” said a TMCP leader.

press trust of india
NEW DELHI, 4 JUNE: Tata Consultancy Services, the country’s largest software company, may sack as many as 290 employees at its Finland office, a move that the workers say is an attempt to shift jobs to India.
TCS, which has a registered office in Helsinki and has an employee strength of about 800 in Finland, is currently in negotiation with the employee representatives (ERs) over the move to cut jobs. The Union of Professional Engineers in Finland (UIL) claimed that the jobs at stake were about 412, a figure which TCS said was inaccurate.
“If I remember…412, I believe is the correct number,” UIL director (collective bargaining) Mr Ismo Kokko said when asked about the number of jobs at stake in TCS.
When contacted, a TCS spokesperson said: “The maximum number of roles affected is 290 and not the numbers you have mentioned, which are completely inaccurate.”
Lay-offs may be less than even 290, some sources privy to TCS management thinking said.
In April this year, more than 160 employees at the Finland offices of TCS staged a walkout protesting against job cuts. These employees were outsourced by Nokia to TCS in March. The employees are based in Espoo, Salo, Tampere and Oulu.
“On 25 April, there was a spontaneous walk-out from all TCS offices located in Nokia premises in Finland. People felt angry and betrayed over the fact that it only took TCS seven weeks to show their true colours. Many people felt that Nokia simply outsourced its lay-offs and dirty work to TCS,” sources closely following the developments revealed.
Nokia made the announcement related to the outsourcing of employees in January and the total number of Nokia employees to be transferred was 820 of which about 560 were to go to TCS and 230 to HCL, Mr Kokko said.
Separately, Nokia also cut jobs at its IT centre by up to 300 employees.
Mr Kokko said negotiations with employee representatives (ERs) are currently going on and will conclude soon, which was also confirmed by sources, who wished not to be quoted.

DURGAPUR, 9 JUNE: A sitting Panchayat Samiti member from the Trinamul Congress, Mr Sassi Choube of Andal, was given Congress ticket to contest in a Panchayat samiti seat by state Congress president Pradip Bhattacharya today.
Mr Choube, the first Trinamul Congress Pradhan in Andal in 2003 was elected as a Panchayat Samiti member in 2008. The Trinamul Congress meanwhile refused ticket to him this year and the leader along with his 400 followers migrated to the Congress. Mr Bhattacharya said: “Sassi is an example how the Trinamul Congress is behaving step-brotherly and ditching its friends of past days. There are many those who are suffering the worst. The Congress offers them the choice to come back voluntarily and give the Trinamul big trouble in the coming election.”
State agriculture minister and Trinamul congress&’s state committee member, Mr Moloy Ghatak however said: “Persons like Sassi have been refused symbol because of their corruption and nepotism.” He added: “Such persons leaving the Trinamul Congress would ensure better health of our party.” The Congress has assigned Mr Choube to contest as a candidate for the No: 19 Panchayat Samiti seat in Andal. sns

Be better informed about parties
SIR, ~ My compliments to you for the report, “Parties covered under RTI” (4 June). The fact of the matter is that the lives and aspirations of the people are  tremendously affected by the political parties, either directly or indirectly. It is the parties that frame laws after debates and discussions in Parliament and the state Assemblies. Theoretically, legislative enactments are intended to benefit the people. In reality, however, it is quite the contrary.
The political parties, irrespective of whether they belong to the ruling side or the Opposition, are in a position to fulfil the aspirations and improve the living conditions of the people. When they fail to do so, the people need to be vigilant. And they do reserve the right to seek information pertaining to political parties.
Therefore, the directive of the Central Information Commission deserves to be generally welcomed. Democracy will thereby reach the grassroot level of society.
yours, etc., prasanta sanyal, kolkata, 4 june.
Unusual unanimity
SIR, ~ Post-Independence, our parties have seldom arrived at a consensus on any issue other than external aggression, a natural calamity or a hike in pay and perquisites. MPs and MLAs are unanimous when it comes to the third compulsion.
  Notably, all parties have now banded together to oppose the CIC&’s order that seeks to include all political parties within the purview of the Right To Information Act. Politicians, normally divided along party lines, have almost unanimously demanded the withdrawal of the order.
yours, etc., arun malankar, mumbai, 5 june.
Ideology of extortion
SIR, ~ The Maoists are active once again to protest against the exploitation of tribals, who have been displaced from their hearth and home and without compensation… to make way for industrial projects.
  Neither the government nor the investor has ever come to their rescue. The Maoists are, in fact, fighting for the rights of the tribals.
   In 2006, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh referred to the outfit as “the single biggest internal security challenge ever faced by our country.”  On 22 June 2009, the UPA government banned the CPI (Maoist) under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA), claiming that the outfit is a terrorist organization.
The Maoists have claimed that they are fighting for the rights of the tribals in the forest belt around central India ~ Chattisgharh, Odisha, Bihar, Jharkhand, Maharashtra, and West Bengal. They have reportedly extended their network to Uttarakhand, Assam, Manipur, Nagaland, Tamil Nadu, and Karnataka. These areas are rich in mineral deposits that are of interest to mining companies, such as  Tata and Essar.
Equally, the Maoists have somehow conveyed the impression that they are a bunch of extortionists who demand huge sums from the local offices of the mining companies and other business enterprises. They have been involved in the blowing up of schools and railway tracks, and accused of hindering  development.
They have often been involved in the killing of innocent people. They have been urged by the government to return to the mainstream, but to no avail. They have no faith in the Constitution, democracy or democratic institutions. Nor have they responded to appeals to abjure violence, surrender their arms, and head for the negotiating table. Their brand of Maoism is not based on ideology, but on extortion. They are the enemies of the country and ought to be dealt with severely.
yours, etc., soumita paul, kolkata, 4 june.
Fatal acid attack
SIR, ~ The death of a 25-year-old nurse, Preeti Rathee, is a national shame. She had just arrived at Mumbai&’s Bandra railway station by Garib Rath Express, when an unidentified assailant threw acid on her face.
  The tragedy has provoked widespread outrage in Delhi, where her relatives have decided not to cremate her body until certain demands are met.
India prides itself on a string of achievements ~ the first woman President, Pratibha Patil; the first woman Speaker of the Lok Sabha, Meira Kumar; and the chairperson of the United Progressive Alliance, Sonia Gandhi. Yet the treatment of women has disgraced the country.
There are reports of female foeticide, gangrape, dowry deaths, and acid attack, to name but a few forms of crime against women. The acid attack on Preeti has trashed the traditional values of the country.
yours, etc., ramesh g jethwani, bangalore, 5 june.

Options in Syria
SIR, ~ This is with reference to your excellent editorial, “Elusive peace” (3 June). Nothing seems to be working to end the hostilities in Syria. Desperate situations call for desperate solutions. NATO, led by the USA, should threaten Bashr al-Assad with dire consequences in an effort to bring the warring factions to the negotiating table.
  If this doesn’t work, a limited offensive can be launched against both the rebels and the regime. But before that, the USA, Russia and China must reach a consensus. The conflict has the potential to become a conflagration that can engulf the whole of West Asia.
yours, etc., aranya sanyal, siliguri, 4 june.

buddhadeb halder
KOLKATA, 5 JUNE: City-based Vikrant Forge Limited (VFL), open doe forgings maker, consumed mainly by heavy engineering industries, is targeting to double its exports revenue this financial year.
The company’s exports revenue stood at around Rs 35 crore during financial year 2012-13, which accounted for about 35 per cent of its overall turnover of Rs 110 crore, while the remaining 65 per cent came from domestic markets.
"This year we are targeting a turnover of Rs 140 crore. Out of which 50 per cent is expected to come from exports, which means we will be doubling our exports revenues," Mr Manoj Chhajer, one of directors of the company, told the Statesman.
The company, which exports its forgings mainly to Europe, is exploring new markets like Austria and Finland, Mr RK Chhajer, another director, said. The company will also be focusing on the USA, he said.
"Domestic market being sluggish for the last few years with no major investments taking place in steel and power sectors which are our potential customers, we are on the lookout for opportunities in overseas markets," Mr Manoj Chhajer said.
The company, which has its manufacturing facility spread over 18 acres at Dankuni near Kolkata, has a production capacity of 15,000 tons per annum. The company has recently pumped in Rs 40 crore in VFL to upgrade its machinery to conform to international standard, Mr Chhajer said.
The plant&’s capacity can be doubled to 30,000 tons a year within a short span. "We will do it once there are signs of improvement in domestic market," he added.
Asked whether the company plans to tap the capital market, Mr RK Chhajer said: "We have no such plan in the immediate future".
VFL has recently been awarded the EEPC National Award for highest growth in exports during financial year 2011-12.

The official also said they were questioning Ramesh Vyas, arrested by  Mumbai Police recently in a betting case. Delhi Police have been allowed by a court here to question him till 18 June
press trust of india
NEW DELHI, 9 JUNE: Delhi Police has written to the Enforcement Directorate (ED) for a probe into alleged hawala transactions in the IPL spot-fixing case, including underworld don Dawood Ibrahim.
A senior police official said etails have been provided to the ED about 27 people arrested in connection with the scandal as well as that about Dawood and Chota Shakeel.
“We have written to the ED. There have been hawala transactions not only in India but abroad as well like in Karachi and Dubai in connection with the case. They (ED) have the expertise in investigating this angle,” he said, referring to the letter. He said establishing the money trail in the case is “very important”. The official also said they were questioning Ramesh Vyas, arrested by  Mumbai Police recently in a betting case. Delhi Police have been allowed by a court here to question him till 18 June. “He was in touch with bookies arrested by us. He was the one of the main men in the racket. He had direct links with the underworld,” the official said. “He had communication with people outside and inside the country,” he said.
Sources said they were questioning Vyas to ascertain the the identity of “Master” and “Doctor Saab”, who figured in intercepted telephone calls between bookies.
“Both ‘Master’ and ‘Doctor Saab’ stay abroad,” the official said, adding,  Mumbai Police had told them that Vyas used 92 mobile phones to communicate with bookies and those connected to the underworld. He also said they are yet to nab six-seven bookies in the case.