Stepping up her campaign for former Lok Sabha Speaker PA Sangma's candidature for presidency, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa on Sunday contacted top leaders of several non-Congress parties including BJP veteran LK Advani, seeking their support to the tribal leader.

Jayalalithaa spoke over telephone to Advani, CPI-M general secretary Prakash Karat, CPI leader AB Bardhan, TDP chief N Chandrababu Naidu, Samajwadi Party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, Shironmani Akali Dal leader and Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, an AIADMK release said here.

As part of the "intensified efforts" to garner support for Sangma, Jayalalithaa spoke to these leaders seeking their support the tribal leader from the Northeast who "has all the qualifications" (to become President) in the coming Presidential polls, it said.
Jayalalithaa's latest initiative comes two days after she asked all parties to "rise above political considerations," and support the tribal leader for the top job.

In a coordinated move, Jayalalithaa and her Odisha counterpart Naveen Patnaik on May 17 announced their joint support to Sangma.

The AIADMK chief had held consultations with Patnaik besides within her party before announcing her support to Sangma, who himself had called on her on May 15.

The Nationalist Congress Party, to which Sangma belongs, however, has ruled out supporting his candidature, saying it would go with the UPA being a part of it.

With the Budget session set to conclude on Tuesday, the much debated Lokpal Bill, instead of being brought in the Rajya Sabha, could be referred to a Joint Select Committee amid lack of consensus on its key provisions.

"A decision will be taken tomorrow", a Union minister involved in the process said when asked whether the bill would go to a Joint Select Committee or Select Committee.

When a Bill comes up before a House for discussion, it may be referred to a Select Committee of the House or a Joint Committee of the two Houses. The Select or the Joint Select Committee considers the Bill clause by clause just as the two Houses do.

A senior Congress leader, who declined to be identified, said the possibility of the bill being referred to a Joint Select Committee, cannot be ruled out.
Reports said that in the absence of consensus on key provisions of the legislation including the one dealing with Lokpal's superintendence over CBI appears to be deterring the government from bringing the bill in the Rajya Sabha this week. The bill has already been passed by the Lok Sabha.

Uncertainty hung over the bill coming up in the Upper House in the current session with Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee saying yesterday that the Business Advisory Committee of Rajya Sabha will take a decision. The original plan was to move official amendments to the Lokpal Bill and bring it for passage in the Rajya Sabha on May 21, the penultimate day of the current session.

But, the reluctance of BJP and other parties to soften their stand on other amendments sought by them seems to have come in the way of government's consensus-building exercise.

BJP has been insisting that the legislation should be passed before the end of the current session, criticising the Union government over the delay in the passage of the Bill for creating an anti-corruption ombudsman.

Congress MP Abhishek Singhvi, who had headed the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Law and Personnel, that went into the Lokpal Bill, however, downplayed any possible move to refer it to the Joint Select Committee.

The monthly pension of Rs. 200 given to the elderly is "an insult to the dignity of an individual", rural development minister Jairam Ramesh has said, requesting the Prime Minister to immediately review the scheme.

In a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the minister has recommended streamlining the disbursal system of Indira Gandhi National Old Age Pension Scheme (IGNOAPS) under which Rs. 200 per month is given to three crore people over the age of 60.

"I have always held the view that the amount of pension that we are giving is an insult to the diginity of the individual," he stated in his letter dated May 16.

The minister raised the issue after a meeting with the convenors of Pension Parishad Baba Adhav and Aruna Roy few days back.

The key demands of the Parishad include removal of poverty line criteria while implementing the pension scheme, increasing the amount of pension from Rs. 200 to Rs. 300 and reducing the age eligibility from 60 years to 55 for men and 50 for women.
"I agree with the Pension Parishad that use of BPL and APL criteria should be done away with. We are proposing to do away with the BPL and APL criteria in the sanitation programme and in the National Rural Livelihood Mission (NRLM) as well," Ramesh wrote in the letter.

On timely disbursement of pension, he noted, "Pensioners do not get monthly payments but get payments bunched once every few months. Immediate task is to restructure the pension payment architecture so that pensioners get pension amount on an assured date in the bank account every month."

He further added that he has recommended the same for the Indira Awas Yojana (IAY). "Even in the IAY, I have written to deputy chairman, Planning Commission that the BPL and APL criteria has only ended up ensuring that deserving families do not get that benefit," Ramesh said.

The rural development ministry has already submitted proposal in this regard to the finance ministry.

Ramesh, however, disagreed with the Parishad's suggestion to lower the eligibility age for pension from the present 60 to 55 for men and 50 for women.

Dubbing the present whistleblowers protection law as a "farce", activists led by Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Monday staged a protest here for a stronger legislation in this regard and justice for an RTI activist who died under mysterious circumstances.

Kejriwal, along with other Team Anna members, including former Union minister Shanti Bhushan, led over a 100 protesters to seek justice for RTI activist Ravinder Balwani, who suffered fatal injuries in a "hit-and-run" incident in the capital last month.

"Time and again we hear cases of RTI activists being attacked. It is saddening. How many more murders will have to happen for the government to come to a realisation that the present Whistleblowers law is a farce and that we need a stronger legislation?" Kejriwal asked.
"The current Act, instead of protecting whistleblowers, is in fact making them easier targets," he added.

Balwani, who retired from Delhi Transco in 2010 as a manager, was an aide of Kejriwal and a member of his NGO Parivartan. His family had alleged that he was murdered though police maintain that he died in a hit and run accident.

Remembering Balwani as a "passionate" RTI activist, Kejriwal said, "there were enough and more reasons for the administration to do away with him".

"He (Balwani) went no end to expose the corruption in his department. An independent probe must be conducted to find if Balwani was killed or it actually was an accident case. The police can't easily brush it aside as an accident," Kejriwal said.

The activists also demanded an independent probe into the death of Balwani to ascertain whether it is a murder or an accident. "We feel the investigations have been compromised," Kejriwal alleged.

Pitching for an independent agency to oversee the protection of whistlebolowers, Kejriwal said provisions must be made in the Lokpal Bill to shield RTI activists.

A candlelight vigil was also observed by the protesters seeking an independent probe into Balwana's "mysterious" death.

Software industry leader N R Narayana Murthy on Sunday appeared to have joined the debate on policy paralysis at the Centre when he said the government has not been able to provide clarity on definition of software exports for over a year now causing inconvenience to the industry.

"I have tremendous faith in Finance Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is an excellent minister and an excellent person. But it has been a year now since we requested clarification on the definition of software exports and for various reasons the officers have not been able to provide clarification," the Infosys founder and Chief Mentor said.

This situation is causing inconvenience to the software and services industry that has exports of over USD 70 billion, Murthy told reporters here.
"I hope that an extraordinary individual like Pranab Mukherjee will ensure that a quick clarification is provided on the definition of software exports," he said.

Last year, Parliament was informed that the Income Tax Department has slapped a demand of over Rs 450 crore on software giant Infosys Technologies for wrongfully claiming tax exemption on onshore services by declaring them as software exports.

Onshore software development is the practice wherein Indian companies send their software engineers on short assignments (3-6 months) to companies based in Europe, the US, and other nations.

Expressing shock over the killing of Karnataka official S P Mahantesh, said to be a whistle-blower in some controversial land allotments, Murthy said the first priority of the government should be to protect honest officers.

"I'm really shocked because the first priority of the government must be to protect honest officers. Unless our honest officers have confidence in the government, in the police system, in being able to execute their work properly, we will not get justice.

"Therefore, it is very very important that every central and state government takes care of protecting honest officers," he said.

On the eve of eight years of UPA rule, a survey has suggested that the Congress-led alliance is losing its sheen and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has emerged as the most popular national leader ahead of the Prime Minister and Rahul Gandhi.

The ABP News-Nielsen survey also suggested that if General elections are held now, the BJP would garner 28 per cent of the votes while the Congress would manage only 20 percent.

"After eight years in power, the UPA pull seems to be diminishing. Narendra Modi, for the first time, emerges as the most popular national leader, ahead of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Rahul Gandhi," the news channel said in its release.
The channel said the survey, conducted in 28 cities across the country, also revealed that the BJP has turned out to be the most favoured party.

"In an interesting revelation, only 69 per cent of those who voted for Congress during the 2009 polls are still intending to vote for it if elections are held now," it said.

In 2009 General elections, the Congress had won 207 seats whereas the BJP secured 116.

Eleven Indian citizens, who had either overstayed visas or entered Britain illegally, have been arrested following a check of two overcrowded vehicles in Lincolnshire.

They have been held in immigration detention centres pending their removal from the country.

Official sources said the check was conducted following receipt of intelligence by a team that included the Lincolnshire police, Gangmasters licensing Authority (GLA) and UK Border Agency outside Grantham, Lincolnshire.

After checking the immigration status of all occupants of the vehicles, and using fingerprint scanners to confirm identities in some cases, 11 Indian nationals who had either overstayed visas or entered the UK illegally were found.
One Pakistani man was also identified as being in the country illegally.

The agencies involved in the operation on May 17 suspect that the men were travelling to work on a farm in Lincolnshire, without having permission to work in the UK.

Both vehicles were severely overcrowded, placing the safety of the occupants at risk, and breaching transport regulations.

This was brought to the attention of the GLA as a critical breach of their licensing conditions, the sources said.

Rachel Challis, from the agency's Lincolnshire local immigration team, said: "We are cracking down on immigration abuse across the county. Any foreign national who is in the UK illegally should be in no doubt that they will be found, arrested and removed from the country. Businesses that take on illegal workers should also be warned that they face heavy fines and possible prosecution."

Dubbing the present whistleblowers protection law as a "farce", activists led by Team Anna member Arvind Kejriwal on Monday staged a protest here for a stronger legislation in this regard and justice for an RTI activist who died under mysterious circumstances.

Kejriwal, along with other Team Anna members, including former Union minister Shanti Bhushan, led over a 100 protesters to seek justice for RTI activist Ravinder Balwani, who suffered fatal injuries in a "hit-and-run" incident in the capital last month.

"Time and again we hear cases of RTI activists being attacked. It is saddening. How many more murders will have to happen for the government to come to a realisation that the present Whistleblowers law is a farce and that we need a stronger legislation?" Kejriwal asked.
"The current Act, instead of protecting whistleblowers, is in fact making them easier targets," he added.

Balwani, who retired from Delhi Transco in 2010 as a manager, was an aide of Kejriwal and a member of his NGO Parivartan. His family had alleged that he was murdered though police maintain that he died in a hit and run accident.

Remembering Balwani as a "passionate" RTI activist, Kejriwal said, "there were enough and more reasons for the administration to do away with him".

"He (Balwani) went no end to expose the corruption in his department. An independent probe must be conducted to find if Balwani was killed or it actually was an accident case. The police can't easily brush it aside as an accident," Kejriwal said.

The activists also demanded an independent probe into the death of Balwani to ascertain whether it is a murder or an accident. "We feel the investigations have been compromised," Kejriwal alleged.

Pitching for an independent agency to oversee the protection of whistlebolowers, Kejriwal said provisions must be made in the Lokpal Bill to shield RTI activists.

A candlelight vigil was also observed by the protesters seeking an independent probe into Balwana's "mysterious" death.