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April 30, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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CANDIDATE OUTSTANDING TMC to back Jaya for CM’s post Shoot-at-sight orders in Bihar BJYM demands inquiry into lathi charge |
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BDR action was planned:
Jagat
India envisages mission to moon:
Kalam Power theft maximum in
J&K, Delhi Kiosk allotment target not met Concessions for
disabled
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CANDIDATE
OUTSTANDING Kolkata, April 29 She is now again in the streets but in a different role. She has been now seen moving from door to door, place to place, ignoring the hot and humid sun, asking people to vote for her and the Trinamool Congress to end the 24-year “misrule” of the CPM. Madhabi Mukherjee (59) is the Urvashi-winning actress and Satyajit Ray’s ‘‘Charulata’’ (Tagore’s novel in the same name), who had played heroine’s role in almost all Ray films that brought international recognition to her as an actress and Ray, the Oscar-winning director. But Madhabi now has been playing a different role a practical one in the drama of politics. She has been chosen by the TMC chief, Ms Mamata Banerjee, to contest against Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharya (56), Chief Minister, from Jadavpore seat which he won in the past two elections. In the 1999 Lok Sabha elections, however, in Jadavpore Assembly segment, the Trinamool Congress had a margin of 6,000 votes over the CPM. The Jadavpore Lok Sabha seat was won by the TMC candidate, Mrs Krishna Bose, who had defeated the then CPM Mayor, Mr Kanti Ganguly, by a margin of 7,000 votes. And this has been an encouraging point for Madhabi to take on the Marxist heavyweight, Mr Bhattacharya, who maintains a clean political image. ‘‘Yes, personally, I have nothing against him. He is a perfect gentleman and a man of culture. But what about his party, what they have done for long 24 years?’’ she asked. And she did not wait for others to answer,‘‘Yes. I’ll tell you the answer. I know the answer. It’s nothing simply nothing, they did”. Madhabi admits, in politics, she is no match for Mr Bhattacharya and she cannot defeat him at the hustings. ‘‘After all, I’m not a political person and I cannot fight him politically. But still I’m in the fray and circumstances have compelled me to strengthen Mamata Banerjee’s hands against the CPM which had ‘ruined’ Bengal in every respect. And I’m here to raise protest against the CPM, their misrule,’’ Madhabi mutters. ‘‘Moreover, what has he done for Jadavpore, for the local unemployed youth, for the poor and have-nots? Nothing, simply nothing’’, the actress-turned politician said. Mr Bhattacharya, however, did not utter a single word against Madhabi. Though he had been busy in electioneering all over the state to get maximum number of his MLAs elected again, he also finds some time for this own constituency, which he had not been able to look after properly for some reasons. But he should have his answer to convince the voters at the right time. And so, he had been engaging himself whole-heartedly in his constituency in addition to looking after the official job and campaigning for the party elsewhere. However, Mr Bhattacharya had not been so much afraid of either Mamata Banerjee of Madhabi Mukherjee as he had been about Mr Samir Putatunda, the erstwhile south 24-parganas CPM secretary, who recently left the party, protesting against the party’s questionable role and filed nomination as a candidate of a breakaway group, the PDS. |
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TMC to back Jaya for CM’s post Chennai, April 29 “Though she has been disqualified from contesting the polls, there is no legal bar on her being sworn in as Chief Minister”, TMC president G.K. Moopanar told a meet-the-press programme here, organised by the Madras Reporters Guild. Endorsing Jayalalitha’s view that the DMK government was behind the rejection of her papers in four constituencies, he said: “I was very close to power at the Centre and at the state. I know how power could be used for such things”. He said though Jayalalitha had been disqualified, she could be sworn in as Chief Minister, as the Constitution allowed a non-legislator to be sworn in as head of the government on the condition that he or she should be elected to the Assembly within six months. However, she would have to be elected to the legislature before the expiry of the period, he said, adding that her disqualification could be nullified by that time as her appeal against the conviction and sentence for three years in the TANSI land case could be disposed of by the Madras High Court. The acceptance of the nomination of former Kerala Minister R. Balakrishna Pillai, who had been convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment, was ample evidence of the “miscarriage of justice,” Mr Moopanar said. Asked about DMK Youth Wing leader and city Mayor M.K. Stalin’s propects of becoming the Chief Minister, succeeding his father M. Karunanidhi, Mr Moopanar said the question did not arise as the
Secular Front would win hands down. Asked about TMC Democratic Forum president P. Chidambaram’s assertion that Ms Jayalalitha could not become the Chief Minister as she had been
disqualified from contesting the election, Mr Moopanar said this was “one lawyer’s view” and there were other views as well. The late K. Kamaraj became Chief Minister without being a member of the Assembly, he pointed out. Asked whether it was morally right on part of the TMC to align with the AIADMK after it was born in opposition to the latter’s corruption, Mr Moopanar said: “only those in power could be involved in corruption”. Ms Jayalalitha was out of power during the past five years and the TMC would be a moderating influence once she assumed office, he said. Mr Moopanar, who is nursing a fractured leg, said he would campaign along with Ms Jayalalitha if such an opportunity arose.
PTI, UNI |
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Shoot-at-sight orders in Bihar Patna, April 29 Poll violence in the first five phases had claimed the lives of 110 persons, including several candidates. Panchayat elections in Bihar, held after a gap of 23 years, have been staggered to six phases, starting April 11. They will conclude tomorrow. State Home Commissioner UN Panjiyar said here today that besides state policemen, the Railway Police, the Crime Investigation Department and the Bihar Military Police had been deployed in all 12,746 polling booths of 947 panchayats spread across in 59 blocks. The authorities had been directed to shoot-at-sight to restrain booth-grabbers and miscreants from disturbing the poll process. He said Deputy Inspector-Generals of Police (DIGs) had been asked to maintain a special vigil in extremist-dominated areas. Mr Panjiyar said in apprehension of extremists triggering landmine blasts, the police had been asked to remain extra cautious and intensify patrolling in these areas during tomorrow’s polling. State Director-General of Police R.R. Prasad said 28 anti-socials, including 10 hardcore extremists of banned outfits, had been arrested under a special drive launched for tomorrow’s panchayat elections and a huge cache of arms and ammunition recovered. The DGP said the Additional Director-General of Police (Patna Zone) would keep a vigil in the extremist-affected districts of Rohtas and Patna during the poll. Besides, additional forces might be sought from Jharkhand, to which Director-General of Police (Jharkhand) T.P. Sinha had already agreed, he added. A report from Samastipur, quoting police sources said the police staged a flag march in the districts to instill confidence among the electorate. The borders of the district have been sealed as a preventive measure.
UNI |
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BJYM demands inquiry into lathi charge New Delhi, April 29 Holding the Chhattisgarh Government, especially Mr Jogi, responsible for the police action, the BJYM demanded registration of cases against those responsible for the lathi charge. Stating that the demonstrations against the Chief Minister would continue for his alleged false affidavit in a petrol station allotment case, the morcha in a statement here said the police attack on demonstrators was an act of “vindictiveness.” Nearly 150 BJP workers, including the leader of Opposition in Chhattisgarh Assembly Nand Kumar
Sai, BJYM president Shivraj Singh and BJP’s state unit president Tara Chand
Sahu, and 10 policemen were reportedly injured in the violence during the demonstration.
PTI |
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New Delhi, April 29 The BSF also said it had no prior information from any agency about the BDR action in the Pyrdiwah area under Indian possession. BSF Director-General Gurbachan Jagat said the claim by Bangladesh that the BDR action was prompted by the construction of a path in the Pyrdiwah area was baseless. “There was no construction on the border. A path is being built at Lynkhat, about 4.5 km inside the border,” he said. On reports that the action taken by BDR troops was purely at the instance of local commander, Mr Jagat said: “It was a planned operation. BDR Director-General, Maj-Gen A.L.M. Fazlur Rahman, was involved in it. Three battalions of the BDR would not move without the directions of the DG.” Terming the action by the BDR in Pyrdiwah as “totally unprovoked,” he said the Indian border outpost (BoP) in the area was surrounded by about 300 BDR personnel and hundreds of civilians. “They (BDR personnel) repeatedly said that they had orders from Dhaka,” he added. Asked whether it could be the political leadership in Dhaka, he said: “I can’t say”. Mr Jagat said for the first three days after encircling the Indian BoP on April 15, the BDR personnel “just insisted that we vacate the area, an adverse position. But we told them that it had to be decided by the political leadership and not the forces.” “The issue of path was added on April 18,” he said. Referring to the Boraibari incident, he denied it was a retaliatory action by the BSF against the Pyrdiwah action by the BDR, saying that “had it been so, we would have taken measures and moved with more troops.” Detailing the events in Mankachar-Boraibari, Mr Jagat said after the BDR action in the Pyrdiwah area, the BSF was alerted and patrolling ordered in other sectors to prevent another such incident. “On the night of April 18, a BSF patrol was fired at and it was construed as a precursor to an attack by the BDR,” he said, adding in that a bid to preempt any such plan, the BSF Commandant decided to enter the Boraibari area to gain “tactical advantage”. The BDR brought civilians forward as a defence shield due to which BSF Commandant B.R. Mondal decided not to open fire. “This resulted in their capture and killing,” Mr Jagat said. The BSF chief said that in view of this month’s incidents, redeployment of troops had been carried out and patrolling on the Indo-Bangladesh border was being strengthened. Mr Jagat said the issue of adverse possessions had been remaining unresolved for many years. Fortyseven ‘adverse’ positions belonging to Bangladesh are under Indian control while 43 such positions belonging to India are under Bangladesh’s occupation. The two countries have formed joint working groups (JWGs) to sort these out. The terms of reference of the JWGs were sent to Bangladesh in December last year and the response is awaited. Meanwhile, BSF sources said the incident had affected the trust between the two border guards and to correct it would take some time. They added that an alert on the Indo-Bangladesh border was yet to be withdrawn.
PTI |
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India envisages mission to moon:
Kalam Dehra Dun, April 29 Mr APJ Abdul Kalam, Adviser (Science & Technology) to the Government of India disclosed yesterday afternoon that the Union Government was considering seriously the proposal of a “vision-oriented target” (VoT) for the next two decades to become self-reliant in all aspects. Named “Vision for the year 2020”. More than 500 experts from all fields are working jointly to turn this dream into a reality. He said, India needed to come out with the proposals of VoT to raise the rate of GDP from six per cent to around 10 per cent for uplifting the socio-economic conditions of 300 million people living below the poverty line, improving the status of education, health, infrastructure, communications IT and research. The VoT aims at increasing the agricultural produce from 200 million tonnes to 300 million tonnes with better storage facilities and processing utilisation. Biotechnology is the key to improve agricultural produce in India. Efforts should be made to make technology farmer-friendly. He added, besides developing infrastructure there was need of big revolution in the field of Information Technology and Communication in the country. Other basic facilities should be technology-oriented to meet international standards. When asked about the vision to hoist the national flag on moon Mr Kalam replied “dream, dream, dream. Dream transforms into thoughts. And thoughts result into action.” He also said, “India will emerge as superpower in the years to come. We have the vision to develop our nation self-reliant in matters of defence. In the years to come India will not be dependent on other countries to purchase weapons. Efforts are on in this direction”. When asked about the large scale migration of scientists, engineers and other professionals to developed nations, Mr Kalam said, the Union Government was very serious about this problem and soon a policy would be announced to keep the brains in India by providing better facilities. Later, in the evening Mr Kalam inaugurated the fourth Petroleum Industry R & D Managers Meet on “Industry-Academia Linkages organised by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation (ONGC) here yesterday. In his inaugural address the noted scientist called upon the ONGC to go ahead with the “New Energy Mission” to meet challenges of the future. |
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Power theft maximum in
J&K, Delhi New Delhi, April 29 While Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir in the northern region along with Mizoram in the north-east were the leading states where nearly 50 per cent of power was stolen or pilfered, Haryana reported a loss of 26.78 per cent in 1992-93, going up to as high as 34.04 per cent in 1997-98. In HP, the losses rose from 19.51 per cent in 1992-93 to 20.13 per cent in 1997-98, Uttar Pradesh from 24.43 per cent to 26.18 per cent and Delhi 23.56 per cent to 47.91 per cent. However, there was a marginal improvement in Punjab where the losses dipped from 19.24 per cent to 18.94 per cent and in Chandigarh from 26.21 per cent to 22.38 per cent. |
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Kiosk allotment target not met Hanumangarh, April 29 The corporation has selected 184 candidates for the allotment of kiosks, though under the scheme started for the benefit of the poor, the target fixed in the last financial year was 265. Although 75 kiosks have been constructed, none has so far been allotted. The eligibility conditions for the allotment of a kiosk include that the applicant should be from the age group of 32-56, should be a city resident, in addition to other conditions. While 461 applications were rejected on the grounds that the applicants were under age, the rest was rejected for not fulfilling other conditions. In the reserved categories, 54 applicants have been selected from the SC/ST categories, 18 from disabled category, 22 from OBC, 83 from unemployed families and seven widows have been selected. It may be recalled that last year, the Municipal Corporation had launched an anti-encroachment drive. The corporation had assured the small shopkeepers that they would be allotted kiosks. The corporation reportedly did not advertise properly about the allotments and so many persons whose shops or rehris were removed during the anti-encroachment drive could not get benefits. Only 184 candidates have been selected against a target of 265 given to the corporation. Though the Housing Board has constructed 74 kiosks on land provided by the corporation, these are yet to be allotted. New Delhi, April 29 They will get 75 per cent concession in AC chair-car, AC 3-tier, first class and sleeper and second class, while the concession in AC 2-tier and AC first class will be 50 per cent, an official release said today.
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