Tamil Nadu first state to quarantine Maharashtra

With a Pune girl becoming the first H1N1 fatality in the country, Tamil Nadu has become the first state to issue a formal travel advisory, cautioning people against travel to the flu-hit districts of Maharashtra, and has made special arrangements at the Chennai railway station to screen passengers arriving on trains from Mumbai and other parts of the state. All trains from Maharashtra are being directed to Platform No. 1 at the Chennai Central.

Tamil Nadu Director of Public Health, S Elango, issued a travel advisory on Wednesday, urging people not to visit, unless absolutely essential, the districts of Pune and Satara in Maharashtra where the Epidemic Act has been invoked following the death of 14-year-old Reeda Shaikh on Monday.

Elango said the advisory was issued following a government review meeting over the H1N1 situation. The state government also invoked the Public Health Act of 1939, an amended form of the Epidemic Act.

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Naxals kill 15 cops, gouge out eyes, chop limbs in Maharashtra

Maharashtra's anti Naxalite campaign received its biggest jolt on Sunday when Maoists killed 15 policemen in an ambush in the border area of Gadchiroli.

They struck in the morning when a police party was investigating another incident that happened two days ago near Markegaon village in Korchi tehsil, where Naxalites had resorted to arson. All 15 policemen, including Sub-Inspector Bhupendra Gudadekar, were killed on the spot.

According to sources, the Naxalites attacked the police men who had survived with axes. “Hands and legs were severed and even eyes were gouged out,” they said.

The Naxalites were reportedly gathered in the area — which adjoins Chhattisgarh’s Rajnandgaon district — in huge numbers, with almost 300-500 of them spread over three-four spots.

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Terror email: To clear his name, Haywood on way back to Mumbai

US National Kenneth Haywood, who left India last month while being investigated in connection with the Ahmedabad bomb Blasts e-mail sent from his account, is set to return to Mumbai tonight in a bid to clear his name.

Source said Haywood, the Navi Mumbai -based employee of business skills coaching firm Campbell White, is flying back to his home in US through London on British Airways flight BA 139 due to land after midnight on Wednesday.

Sources said Haywood sent “feelers” to Mumbai Police that he regretted the way he left India despite a look-out notice. While he is not expected to be arrested since the Maharashtra Anti- Terrorism Squad (ATS) has since given him a clean chit, Haywood is expected to visit ATS on Thursday.

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Distillery to sugar mill: Shivraj Patil's son pulls strings from father's official residence

Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil’s record in office may not be much to write home about a string of terrorist attacks across the country since he took charge and no sign of break through in any case. On one front, at least, the minister has delivered by providing the clout of his official address to help his son’s business, from a distillery in Harayana to a sugar mill in Maharashtra.

As investigation by the Indian Express in New Delhi, Ambala and Latur has found that the Home Minister’s son Shailesh Patil and daughter–in-law Archana Patil have cited the Home Minister’s official residence, 4, Janpath, as their address when they became part of a Rs 149 crore distillery project sprawled across 52 acres in Ambala.

Records obtained from Registrar of Companies and pollution board authorities show Shailesh and Archana Patil joined as directors of N V Distilleries Ltd on May 9, 2005. The plant started bottling operations for Major brands, including Seagram’s , three month ago.

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Saved from rot, 150-year-old Dabhol dhow will sail to America 1

A 150 year old Indian dhow, rescued by an American from the shores of Dabhol in Ratnagiri (Maharashtra) where it had been left to rot, will soon set out on an astounding voyage.

Malgawan the sail boat will journey from India to the US, covering a distance of 7,318 nautical miles or 13,553 km. A similar voyage from the opposite direction by the Indian Navy, which brought the USS 77enton (now lNS Jalashwa) from the US to India in 2007, took 35 days, 18 knots being the average speed.

Manpawan, a cargo sail boat dating back to 1861, has been restored and conserved by 76 year old Neil Bruder of Michigan. He chanced upon Manpawan in the mid-1990s when he came to Dabhol to work as a bulldozer operator, employed by Bechtel Corporation for the Enron power project.

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Latest from Raj: reserve 80% jobs in pvt firms for Maharashtrians

Weeks after targeting North Indian migrants, Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) has raked up the son-of-the soil issue, demanding 80 per cent job reservation for Marathi-speaking locals in the private sector and warning "we know how to explain" if this is not done.

Since Sunday, the MNS has been delivering letters by hand to private companies in and around Mumbai. The party said around 100 companies, mostly call centres and security firms, have already been approached in the suburbs of Mumbai (Vile Parle, Malad and Juhu), Pune, Nashik, Igatpuri and Vidarbha. In the coming days, the MNS plans to approach 44,000 companies.

Manoj Chavan, chief of the Maharashtra Navnirman Kaamgar Sena, said members are personally "hand-delivering the letters" and meeting company officials. "It is just a cordial reminder to the industries and the trade sector. If they don't respond, we know how to explain to them in our own way," he said.

In the letter, the MNS says a job candidate must have a 15-year Maharashtra domicile certificate which it claims is also the policy of the state government. "This rule is being violated openly and the MNS has complaints regarding the matter".

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Maharashtra set for India's first housing regulator

Maharashtra became the first state in the country today to approve a regulator for the housing sector which would have sweeping powers, including the authority to fix prices of houses, in a bid to control the sector.

The Maharashtra Housing Sector Regulatory Commission Act 2008, when passed by the state Assembly, will give the regulator powers of a civil court to settle disputes, regulate builders and have a separate budget to function independently, besides allowing it to set prices of flats built for the poor and middle classes by government agencies and private builders.

The formation of the highly publicised commission and introduction of the Bill in the ongoing session of the Assembly was cleared by the Vilasrao Deshmukh cabinet on Thursday, top government sources told The Indian Express. The decision follows a recommendation by the Law Commission to enact a law and form a commission to deal with contentious issues in the housing sector.

The commission will have three members, including a chairperson, who will be a well-known housing sector expert. It will also have an advisory committee of up to 21 members who will be experts from areas related to housing, sources said.

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May be Raj missed this: UP boy brought U-19 Cup, guarded it in tiny Kurla flat

NIYAZ and Azra Khatoon Ahmad were more than a little nervous when the Mahanagari Express brought them to Mumbai's Dadar railway station late on Wednesday.

The elderly couple were coming from Azamgarh in eastern Uttar Pradesh, traveling Sleeper Class, worried if Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena activists would be on the prowl targeting passengers from north India.

At the station, they were welcomed by a large group of youngsters led by their son Iqbal Abdulla - the only Mumbai player in the India Under-19 team which won the World Cup in Malaysia.

"Back home we had read a lot about whatever is happening in Mumbai. If not for Iqbal's celebration, it would have been a difficult decision to take the train to Mumbai, the fear was at the back of the mind," Niyaz told The Indian Express. Abdulla was brought to Mumbai more than four years ago by an eager coach and the left-arm spinner made his Ranji debut last year. He took 10 wickets in Malaysia and was also a member of the U-19 team which toured South Africa.

This week, being the only player from Mumbai, the Class 12 Arts student was given the responsibility of carrying the World Cup trophy from Bangalore, where the team arrived from Kuala Lumpur, and handing it over to the BCCI headquarters. He kept it in the kitchen of his 350-sq ft Kurla house since that was the only free space available in his tiny dwelling, but was worried


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Advani breaks silence: Mumbai hate campaign is against Constitution

WITH Raj Thackeray's Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) and cousin Uddhav's Shiv Sena vitiating Mumbai's atmosphere by competing with each other to target "North Indian migrants", Sena ally BJP's leader L K Advani today broke his party's silence on the issue, saying the hate campaign "is against the Constitution and the concept of national unity".

Though he did not name Uddhav or Raj, Advani, speaking on the sidelines of a function, said: "Every Indian has a right to live, work and travel to any place in the country irrespective of his place of birth. No party or person should undermine the Constitution of the country. The Constitution clearly provides for everyone's right to live and work anywhere in the country.

We cannot accept what is being said in Maharashtra about people from UP or Bihar. It is against the Constitution and the concept of national unity."

Shiv Sena revived its original agenda of Maratha pride and prominence in the wake of belligerent posturing by the MNS. In its original avatar in the 1960s, the Shiv Sena targeted "South Indians" who were the visible "outsiders" in Mumbai. But now, the Hindi speaking people, who constitute a noticeable segment of the city's population, are the new targets. Uddhav Thackeray has said that if labourers from UP and Bihar are brought for the construction of the new Mumbai airport, they would packed off and sent back in cargo planes.

The Shiv Sena's aggression has the BJP in discomfort as it is trying to expand base and consolidate alliances across the country, particularly in UP and Bihar. The Shiv Sena was the first ally that the BJP found - in 1989 - and the partnership has survived many a storm since then. In 2007, the Maharashtra BJP leadership and the Shiv Sena were locked in a war of words and the alliance seemed to be nearing its end. But Advani intervened and the crisis was

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