The government owes over Rs 110 crore to cash-strapped Air India for its special flights which ferry VVIPs including the President and the Prime Minister on their visits abroad which it is trying hard to realize.

The national carrier, which is facing a financial crunch, has pending bills of 12 special flights for the President, the vice-president and the Prime Minister which amount to over Rs 110 crore, an RTI reply from the carrier said. It said during July last year, the total outstanding bills were Rs 291 crore.

"Out of the above amount, recently the government has paid Rs 181.30 crore leaving a balance outstanding amount of Rs 110.60 crore," the reply said. The records show that two bills of are pending with the defence ministry for the abroad travel of the President to Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Damascus and Aleppo during November 20-30, 2010, which is Rs 14.5 crore and another to Paro via Bagdogra which is Rs 4.45 crore. The bill to Paro, Bhutan is nearly three years old, the reply dated December 28, 2011 said.

Five bills worth Rs 55.81 crore are pending with the Cabinet Secretariat for the travel of the PM to Huahin, Thailand during October 23-25, 2009, to Paro, Bhutan during April 27-30, to Tokyo, Kuala Lumpur, Hanoi during October 23-30, 2010, to Seoul during November 9-12, 2010 and to Brussels and Berlin during December 8-12, 2010.

One outstanding bill for the travel of the vice-president to Male, Maldives is pending since November, 2008. The total bill for this trip was Rs 2.77 crore of which part payment was done leaving an outstanding of Rs 39 lakh.

Madhya Pradesh universities have decided to do away with the revaluation system on the ground that the procedure is rather cumbersome. However, a student, who wants his/her answer sheet revaluated, could take recourse to Right to Information (RTI) route for the purpose. 

The new rule also seeks to scrap the provision that no mark will be added to the revaluated answer sheet unless there is a 10% increase in total marks. Also, the double rounds of revaluation will be eliminated in the new system.

The coordination committee of the state’ universities headed by chancellor and governor Ram Naresh Yadav passed a resolution to this effect on Thursday at Raj Bhawan in Bhopal. Vice-chancellors of the state’s universities attended the meeting. 

Confirming this, officiating vice-chancellor of the Devi Ahilya Vishwa Vidyalaya (DAVV) Raj Kamal said the committee passed the resolution that students can seek revaluation under the RTI. However, the government is yet to issue a notification on the matter. 

The resolution provides change in the rule to apply for revaluation. Now a student, who wants revaluation of his/her answer sheet, will have to apply under the RTI Act. His application will be submitted to a three-member committee to be formed at university level. 

The committee will put across the student’s demand to the university and then revaluation will be permitted. In the existing practice, students wanting revaluation are required to fill revaluation form available at their college office.

At a time when Gandhian Anna Hazare is set to begin a fast against corruption, a Gandhian institution in Ahmedabad has been accused of fraud.

Mahatma Gandhi started Majoor Mahajan Sangh in 1920 to fight for the rights of textile mill workers and even undertook a fast to convince mill owners to give the workers higher pay.

Today, the sangh is being accused of subverting Gandhian values. Police in Ahmedabad has accused leaders of the labour union of siphoning off crores of rupees meant to be compensation for jobless workers of 29 closed textile mills. The FIR, filed on Saturday, has named Raman Patel, president of the sangh, its secretary Manhar Shukla, chartered accountants Amal Datt & Associates, private lender Mohanlal Shah, Bapunagar Mahila Co-operative Bank and the HC appointed official liquidator as accused.

According to the FIR, savings accounts were opened in both cooperative and nationalized banks in the name of people who had never worked in a textile mill and the money withdrawn.

The scam came to light when Mansukh Parmar, who retired from Calico Mills in 1988, filed a complaint of fraud and embezzlement with the Navrangpura police. He told the police that when textile mills closed down in 1999, the Central government had come out with a scheme of giving the workers 18 months salary as compensation.

The sangh was asked to identify beneficiaries of the scheme and Parmar was on one of the committees identifying workers. Parmar alleges Calico Mills had 4,949 workers who were entitled for compensation. However, the sangh prepared a list of 5,757 names, 808 workers more than the actual number. He alleged that he was thrown out of the committee because he objected to this anomaly.

The sangh passed on the inflated list to the liquidator who issued cheques without verifying the names. Parmar had said in his complaint that instead of handing over cheques individually to beneficiaries, the liquidator gave all the cheques to the sangh officials.

The sangh officials have been accused of selling the cheques to a private lender at a discount. Police officials have found that at least 284 cheques have been issued in the names of people who had never worked in a textile mill. Yet, savings accounts were opened in their names in the Bapunagar bank and Rs 1.63 crore was withdrawn.

Even as Gujarat prides itself as the only home to the Asiatic lions in India at Gir National park, as many as 223 lions and 193 leopards have died in the sanctuary since 2006-07. The last census of lions in 2010 revealed that there were 411 lions in the Gir Sanctuary.

In reply to an application filed under the Right to Information Act (RTI), the office of the chief forest conservator informed out of 223 deaths, seven were the result of poaching while others died of natural causes or accidental deaths. The number of death due to natural causes stood at 182, while 33 have died due to accidents.

The last lion killed by poachers was in 2009-10. SK Nanda, principal secretary of forest and environment department, Gujarat said he was not aware of any poaching cases in the last couple of years. 

When DNA pointed out that this data was revealed under the RTI, he said they could be ‘alleged poaching cases’. He insisted, “There has been no poaching death in Gir. Local people are aware, and poachers can’t function in the region without their support.”

According to the information made available under the RTI, most of the natural deaths were caused by brain hemorrhage. A source close to the development said usually a lion suffers from brain hemorrhage when it collides with a tree or a rock after running tirelessly, especially when it hears a sound or sees a light in the midnight. 

The RTI activist, who didn’t want to be named, said it was puzzling to find that most of the lions have died due to brain hemorrhage. “It could only happen if the lion runs because of fear and collides with a tree or rock,” he said. 

The activist also claimed the state government’s figures related to the lions population are misleading.

The activist claimed the number of deaths mentioned in the RTI reply only takes into account the lions whose post-mortem have been conducted. “There are many lions whose autopsy is usually not conducted and they are directly immersed,” he claimed.

Pointing out the reason behind the unnatural or accidental death of 33 lions, in last five years, the activist said, “Lions have either fallen into the open pits or in the open well”. 

Principal chief conservator of forest, Pradip Khanna could not be reached for comment.

Over Rs 7 crore is what some current and former Members of Parliament (MPs) owe MTNL as unpaid telephone bills. CNN-IBN has accessed RTI details obtained by activist Subhash Agarwal showing how much money is owed by the MPs. 

An overall sum of Rs 19, 78,027 is owed by six sitting members, while 399 former Members of Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha combined together owe over Rs 7.10 crore to MTNL. Of the six current MPs, five belong to the Congress. 

Out of the current Lok Sabha MPs, the top defaulter is Hajipur MP Ram Sundar Das of Janata Dal (United), who owes Rs 9, 49,866. 

Among the Congress MPs, Kalahandi MP Bhakta Charan Das owes Rs 3, 31,020, Amalapuram (Andhra Pradesh) MP GV Harsha Kumar owes Rs 2,08,660, Maharajganj (UP) MP Harsh Vardhan owes Rs 36,744 and Arani (Tamil Nadu) MP M Krishnasswamy owes Rs 3,19,740. 

The sole current Rajya Sabha MP in the defaulters' list, Narendra Budania, is also from the Congress and owes Rs 1, 33,777 to MTNL. 

Out of the former MPs, late Abdul Ghani Khan Chaudhary owed over Rs 34 lakh to MTNL, while Janata Dal's Basav Raj Patil owes as much as Rs 17 lakh. 

As Abdul Ghani Khan Chaudhary is dead so the money owned by him cannot be recovered.