New Delhi: In what may be aclear indication of how states ini-tially over-estimated the extent ofdamage suffered by farmers in re-cent rains and hailstorms, theCentre on Thursday issued re-vised data which noted that stateshad earlier over-reported areasunder damaged rabi crops bymore than 75 lakh hectares.

Revised figures, extended bystates, show that the total areaunder damaged Rabi crop is106.73 lakh hectares in 14 statesas against 181 lakh hectares re-ported earlier.As per the reviseddata, the maximum damage isreported from Rajasthan fol-lowed by UP, Haryana, MP, Mah-arashtra, Punjab and HimachalPradesh. Among all rabi crops,wheat faced the maximum dam-age (on nearly 63 lakh hectares).

Referring to estimated pro-duction of wheat and currentretail price, officials in the agri-culture ministry indicated thatthe value of damaged wheatcould be around Rs 32,000 crore.“If one calculates the overalldamage while taking into ac-count retail prices of other af-fected rabi crops, includingpulses, maize and mustard, theloss could go beyond Rs 40,000

crore or more,” said an official.He, however, noted that the

exact amount of loss could be as-sessed only when the harveststarts next month. The revisedreport was compiled on the ba-sis of information provided byseven senior officers of the agri-culture ministry who went tothe affected areas to do an as-sessment of the damage.

After getting the report,Union agriculture minister Rad-ha Mohan Singh assured thestates that the Centre was com-

mitted to extend all help to affect-ed farmers. His ministry askedstates to immediately “take nec-essary steps for restructuringfarmers’ loans and disbursementof crop insurance”.

The amended report showsthat Uttar Pradesh had initiallyover-reported the extent of dam-age by about 60 lakh hectare. Therevised report was first dis-cussed when PM Modi had held avideo-conference with chief sec-retaries of the states concernedon Wednesday.

States overestimateddamage to rabi crops

Revised area under damaged rabi crops due to recent rains, hailstorms and strong wind 106.73 LAKH HECTAREArea under damaged wheat crop: Nearly 63 lakh hectares No of affected states| 14Total cultivable area in the current Rabi season 600 LAKH HECTARE

CLOUD OVER YIELD

Other affected

states Himachal Pradesh, Jammu & Kashmir,

Kerala, West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh,

Telangana, Uttarakhand and Gujarat

State-wise revised damaged area under rabi cropsTOP SIX (LAKH HECTARE)45.52 Rajasthan 26.79 Uttar Pradesh 18.75 Haryana5.70 Madhya Pradesh3.95 Maharashtra2.94 Punjab

Highest Lowest

Over-Reported By More Than

75 Lakh Hectares Vishwa.Mohan@timesgroup.com

Jabalpur: The Madhya Pra-desh HC on Thursday post-poned hearing on a petition fil-ed by Governor Ram NareshYadav challenging the registra-tion of an FIR against him overhis alleged role in the MadhyaPradesh Professional Examin-ations Board scam. The casewill be heard on April 8. In hispetition, Yadav said that as perthe Constitution, criminal pro-ceedings cannot be initiatedagainst the President and gov-ernors. In its reply, the state toldthe court the registration of anFIR does not come under crimi-nal proceedings. TNN

MP HC defershearing on guv

plea to quash FIR

Bengaluru: Twenty-five na-tionalized banks have lost awhopping Rs 12,620 crore tofrauds in the past four finan-cial years, according to docu-ments obtained from the fi-nance ministry. Of these, Rs2,060.75 crore were lost by fivebanks headquartered in Kar-nataka alone — Canara Bank,Vijaya Bank, CorporationBank, Syndicate Bank andState Bank of Mysore. The doc-uments revealed that therehave been 4,845 cases of bankfrauds over this period.

Finance ministry sourcessaid in most cases bank staff ei-ther connive with the fraud-sters or are negligent.

The latest instance sur-faced on Wednesday when theCBI registered a case againstan Ahmedabad-based telecomcompany and its directors fol-lowing a joint complaint fromState Bank of India, Vijaya

Bank and Canara Bank. “It is alleged that express-

ing urgency, the company pro-moter got Rs 40.4 crore releasedfrom the three banks eventhough some documentationwas pending. He disappearedafter seeking time until August31, 2013, to repay the loan,” theCBI said in a statement.

Among the documents thepromoter submitted were let-ters of credit (LCs), whichturned out to be fake. A termloan of Rs 86 crore was also re-

leased to this firm, which toowas allegedly siphoned off.There is an estimated total lossof Rs 126.4 crore to the banks.

In another case, the CBI onThursday arrested a formermanaging director of a Bho-pal-based private firm, whowas absconding in a case relat-ing to alleged loss of Rs 3.63crore to State Bank of Indore.He conspired with bank offi-cials to obtain credit facilitieson the basis of fake collateralduring 2003-2004.

Nationalized banks lose`̀12,620 crore to frauds

Chethan.Kumar@timesgroup.com 2011-12 2012-13 2013-14 2014-15* Total

Canara Bank 329.54 cr 557.58 cr 174.62 cr 4.74 cr 1066.48 cr

Corp Bank 34.09 cr 74.14 cr 271.29 cr 42.84 cr 422.36 cr

Syndicate 16.08 cr 111.06 cr 119.32 cr 253.10 cr 499.56 cr

Vijaya Bank 49.16 cr 5.39 cr 12.14 cr 00 cr 66.69 cr

SBM 3.68 cr 1.44 cr 0.52 cr 00 cr 5.64 cr

All PSU banks 2245.95 cr 3773.16 cr 4183.92 cr 2417.05 cr 12,620cr

While the ASG said therewas no question of aninterim order, the

bench directed him to take in-structions on what interim or-der could be passed in the matterand inform the court on Friday.The court also did not agree withthe ASG’s argument that the ten-der was annulled as the bid hadnot inspired confidence. It saidthat in the petitions challengingthe two-phased auction in which50% bidders are eliminated, theCentre had said there could beno cartelization but it was argu-

ing here that the system of auc-tion was operated by the bidders.

The court gave adverse ob-servations on one of the reasonsgiven by the ministry to annulthe tender process that compari-ng the price fetched in auction ofother mines for power sector, thehighest bid for Gare Palma IV/2and IV/3 did not reflect fair val-ue. “This is like comparing ap-ples to oranges,” the bench saidin response to the argument andadded that the ministry's deci-sion to annul the tender andthen allot mines to CIL “does notleave a good taste in themouth”.AGENCIES

Court rejects govt replyon rejection of JPL bid

� From P 1

12 THE TIMES OF INDIA, MUMBAIFRIDAY, MARCH 27, 2015TIMES NATION | Politics & Policy *

Source: Union Budget

STATOISTICS Under the Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management (FRBM) Act, 2003, the central government must make certain disclosures. These include information on the physical assets of the government. The data thus disclosed reveals that the Centre owns physical assets worth Rs 4.1 lakh crore. More than half is in the form of land, followed by vehicles, offi ce equipment, buildings and machinery. This doesn’t include assets created by state governments and also excludes assets under the cabinet secretariat, central police forces, defence ministry and the departments of space sciences and atomic energy

RESPONSIBILITYPHYSICAL

2004-05 % of total 2013-14 % of

total Increase (2004-05 to 2013-14)

Land 1,14,771 88.4 2,19,404 54.0 2 times

Vehicles 616 0.5 43,554 10.7 71 times

Offi ce Equipment 810 0.6 40,731 10.0 50 times

Building-Offi ce 4,746 3.7 28,809 7.1 6 times

Machinery & Equipment 2,749 2.1 28,525 7.0 10 times

Building-Residential 5,084 3.9 15,473 3.8 3 times

Bridges 25 0.02 11,717 2.9 468 times

Roads 152 0.1 10,256 2.5 68 times

Other capital projects 686 0.5 5,875 1.4 9 times

Irrigation projects 153 0.1 1,416 0.3 9 times

Power projects 25 0.02 368 0.1 15 times

CUMULATIVE TOTAL PHYSICAL ASSETS OF THE GOVERNMENT AT THE END OF THE YEAR (Value in cr)

TOTAL ASSETS

1,29,8162004-05

4,06,1292013-14

(Value in cr)

New Delhi: The SC on Thurs-day refused to restrain Karnata-

ka HC from pass-ing its verdict onthe appeal filedby former TamilNadu CM JJayalalithaaand others in a

disproportionate assets case.The court turned down

DMK general secretary K An-bazhagan’s plea that the HCshould be directed not to passits verdict till the apex court de-cides his plea challenging con-tinuance of special public pros-ecutor Bhavani Singh in thecase. The HC had on March 11reserved its order after wrap-ping up hearing in the case. Se-nior advocate T R Andhyarujina,appearing for Anbazhagan, al-leged that the prosecutor was“hand-in-glove” with the accusedand his continuance would cause“perversion of justice”.

SC: HC cangive verdict inJaya DA case

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi: The SC onThursday sent the mate-rial used in the flooringand seats in railwaycoaches for tests to reput-ed chemical laboratoriesto verify allegationsabout their toxicity.

A bench headed byChief Justice H L Dattu

asked additional solic-itor general NeerajKishan Kaul to send in10 days the material list-ed by the court for toxici-ty test to FRLS Laborato-ry in Central PowerResearch Institute, Ban-galore and Central Insti-

tute of Plastics Engi-neering and Technology,Hyderabad.

The samples of ma-terial used in coaches --polyester fibre blockused for cushioning inseats and berths, PVCsheets used for flooring,

PVC coated fibre glassused as top cover forberths, and textile fab-ric used as curtains incoaches – were broughtto the court by Kaul incompliance with the itsNovember 18 order.

Petitioner Abhay

Singh requested thecourt to include firesafety testing of thesematerial. However,Kaul pointed out that inthe PIL, the petitionerhad sought only toxicitytest of these materialsamples. Singh request-

ed the court to appointan independent expertwho would supervisetesting of these materi-al in the two reputed lab-oratories. However, theapex court bench said,“Let us have faith in thesystem and get the sam-ples tested.” The courtasked for the test re-ports in six weeks.

SC sends rly coach material for toxicity testTIMES NEWS NETWORK

Smt. Bhagibai Kishindas Kalro w/o Late Kishindas

KalroChautha

27.03.15, Fri. 5.30 - 6.00 pm.Shyam NiwasMourned by: Lalu & Rani Ram & Soni

Manu & Sheelu & Neeraj Kalro

Shaku & VashulalRajani

Bindu & late Nandlal HindujaShobha & late

Vijaylal Chhabria Suman & Romy

Gurwara Kripa & Karaan

Keswani. Grandchildren &Jumani Family.

G.KRISHNASWAMY (94)(Gopu) Ex Rallis, Mumbai At-tained Acharyan ThiruvadiOn 25-03-2015 At Chennai. Ph:044-23775190 / 9940387329.

DEATH ANNOUNCEMENTS

DEATH ANNIVERSARY

CHAUTHA- UTHAMNA

DEATH

SAD DEMISEIN MEMORIAM

MARKA

MONTHS MIND

New Delhi: The prospects ofelections to the CongressWorking Committee havebrightened and a final callwould be taken by the Gandhifamily on Rahul’s return fromsabbatical early next month.

Congress announced thetime-table for organizationalpolls on Thursday, topped byelection to CWC — at the plena-ry session to be held in Decem-ber — and of party chief to-wards September-end.

While the apex decision-making body CWC has notseen elections for past 17 yearsdespite being provided for inthe party constitution, Rahulhas long advocated that itshould return to being anelected club.

Sources said the possibili-ty of CWC members beingelected, which has becomestronger over past few months,remain high. But a final call

would be taken after Rahul’sconsultations with Sonia onhis arrival in Delhi, if only tocheck whether the party chiefhas a differing view. Havingpresided over a “nominated”CWC during her 17 years at thetop, Sonia could have a word ofcaution on the issue.

Sources said there is apossibility of Rahul takingover the party reins ahead ofthe scheduled Septembertimetable. “Everyone is wait-ing for his return so that hegives his final view on thesekey issues,” an office-bearersaid. If he is to take over now,the decision would be an-nounced at the AICC sessionto be held soon.

The internal poll schedule,finalized by Congress electionauthority head Mullapally Ra-machandran, would end witha plenary session in Decem-ber. The session is congrega-tion of party delegates fromdistrict level.

CWC polls likely, butafter Sonia-Rahul nod

TIMES NEWS NETWORK