Show-cause notice against four IAS officers

Dwaipayan Ghosh, TNN 23 October 2009, 05:30am IS

NOIDA: UP government on Thursday issued a show-cause notice against four IAS officers in connection with the alleged Noida hotel land scam of 2006.

The four officers include former chairman of the New Okhla Industrial and Development Authority (NOIDA) Rakesh Bahadur, former CEO Sanjeev Sharan, former deputy CEO K Ravindra Nayan and the then divisional commissioner of Meerut Range Dev Dutt, UP government officials said on Thursday.

"All these four officers have been chargesheeted by the state government. They have been asked to respond within 15 days,'' a senior official said. The officers have been charged with selling expensive commercial land at prices way below the established rates to some hoteliers. It was alleged that these officers received a kickback for the same. The `deal' allegedly resulted in the loss of Rs 4,500 crore to the state exchequer.

While Bahadur, Sharan and Nayak are under suspension, Devdutt has retired from his services, officials added.

According to sources, the four IAS officers are among 15 officers against whom the state government lodged FIR on August 13 this year in connection with the alleged scam.

Earlier, fingers were raised over the role of a senior Lucknow bureaucrat in the alleged scam following the suspension of these 15 officials.

In reply to these allegations, state additional cabinet Secretary Vijay Shanker Pandey had earlier stated that several officers were under the scanner but refused to name anyone.

Chief minister Mayawati, who had earlier ordered suspension of 15 officials, has also ordered a probe into the delay in punishing the guilty babus.

Pandey said the probe, to be completed very soon, will cover all aspects, including the role of those officials who had allotted land to hoteliers in violation of Statutory Regulation Act 1991 and Bidding Regulation 2006 which state that commercial land would be sold only though auction.

Officials said the CM had also ordered that all relevant files and the action taken report be brought before her within a fortnight.

The total land involved in the scam was around 65 acres covering 2.62 lakh sq meter.

Supreme Court studies secret report on Dinakaran

THIRUVALLUR(TN): Suspense mounted on Saturday about whether or not the Karnataka High Court chief justice P D Dinakaran would be elevated to the Supreme Court or even continue as a judge.

In what could have significant bearing on Justice Dinakaran’s chances of being on the Bench of the apex court, Thiruvallur district collector, V Palanikumar, sent a detailed report on the judge’s land holdings to the Supreme Court’s registrar-general, highly placed sources said. The “ discreet” inquiry was conducted at the instance of the Chief Justice of India.

The report was discussed at a meeting of the SC collegium that decides appointments to the higher judiciary in New Delhi on Saturday.

Sources said Palanikumar conducted a detailed study during a field visit alongside revenue officials before finalizing his confidential report. It was sent directly to the apex court without involving the state government. The district collector focussed on verifying the sketches and survey numbers mentioned in the original allegations.

The allegations were first made by a group of lawyers in Bangalore, that Justice Dinakaran held land in excess of the ceiling prescribed in land reform laws and had allegedly encroached on government land meant for various kinds of community use.

Though the matter at stake concerns whether Justice Dinakaran is going to make it to the apex court or not, the report submitted by the district collector, in response to a communication from the registrar of the SC, will also determine whether he continues in the judiciary at all.

India-born scientist wins Nobel Prize in Chemistry

WASHINGTON: An India-born structural biologist whose quest for scientific excellence took him from undergraduate schools in India to graduate and

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post-doc studies in US and research in UK was jointly awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry on Wednesday for work on proteins that control life. ( Watch Video )

Dr Venkatraman ''Venky'' Ramakrishnan, 58, who had his early education in the temple town of Chidambaram, Tamil Nadu, and Vadodra, Gujarat, before he made tracks to the United States, joined the long list of peripatetic Indians who had early education in India but thrived in the western academic eco-system, to have won the Nobel. Also with a chemistry Nobel, Indians or those with an India-connect figure in all prize categories.

The Swedish Nobel Committee awarded the Prize to Dr Ramakrishnan, who is currently affiliated with the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology in Cambridge, UK, for his work on protein-producing ribosomes, and its translation of DNA information into life. He will share the Prize with Dr Thomas Steitz of Yale University, Connecticut, and Dr Ada Yonath of Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel.

In a statement following the announcement of the award, Dr Ramakrishnan expressed gratitude to ``all of the brilliant associates, students and post docs who worked in my lab as science is a highly collaborative enterprise.'' He credited the MRC Laboratory of Molecular Biology and the University of Utah for supporting his work and the collegiate atmosphere there that made it all possible. ( Watch Video )

``The idea of supporting long term basic research like that at LMB does lead to breakthroughs, the ribosome is already starting to show its medical importance,'' he said.

The practical importance of Dr Ramakrishnan's work arises from ribosomes being present in all living cells, including those of bacteria. Human and bacterial ribosomes are slightly different, making the ribosome a good target for antibiotic therapy that works by blocking the bacteriums ability to make the proteins it needs to function.

Ramakrishnan, Steitz and Yonath demonstrated what the ribosome looks like and how it functions at an atomic level using a visualisation method called X-ray crystallography to map the position of each of the hundreds of thousands of atoms that make up the ribosome, according to the MRC.

``This year's three Laureates have all generated 3D models that show how different antibiotics bind to the ribosome. These models are now used by scientists in order to develop new antibiotics, directly assisting the saving of lives and decreasing humanity's suffering,'' the Nobel citation explained.

Scientists say growing knowledge of the ribosome has created targets for a new generation of antibiotics. The instruction manual for the creation of proteins is DNA, but the ribosome is the machine which takes information transcribed onto messenger RNA and turns it into proteins.

Elaborating, the MRC said Dr Ramakrishnan's basic research on the arrangement of atoms in the ribosome has allowed his team not only to gain detailed knowledge of how it contributes to protein production but also to see directly how antibiotics bind to specific pockets in the ribosome structure. Dr Ramakrishnan will share the 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.4 million) Nobel Prize money (1/3rd each), in a ceremony in Stockholm on December 10.

City Limouzines Fraud

City Limouzines is a finance company who wound up the business by duping the money of their customers on Tuesday. Near About 50 customers when they came to know of this fraud, quickly rushed to the city branch office of the firm which is at Abids in the Hyderabad. After that On noticing the office was closed, they approached the Abids police station. Afterwords the police booked a case against the City Limouzines company under Section 420 (cheating) of IPC at around 8.30 pm.

Police believe that there could be nearly 500 persons who deposited money.

The company had issued preference shares in the name of City Realcom Limited, and lured gullible investors by asking them to invest a minimum of Rs 1,30,000 with a promise that the investor would get a monthly return of Rs 7775 per Rs 1.30 lakh.

The company paid interest every month for three years, but its cheques started bouncing since August.The company is mainly into vehicle leasing. According to the Inspector, the company started its fund mobilization operations in the city in 2006.

For every 2 lakh Rs of the investment, the company offered high monthly returns for a guaranteed period of five years.