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Friday,
January 4, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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India for all possible steps to avoid war: PM
JD (S) MP, SP MLA join
Congress |
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BJP not to field criminals in UP BJP snaps ties with allies in Uttaranchal Laloo fails to appear in court Project to prevent extinction of
vultures NIFD students receive
diplomas
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India for all possible steps to avoid war: PM Lucknow, January 3 He, however, said if diplomatic methods failed to resolve the existing problems only then India would resort to war. The Prime Minister was addressing a press conference before inaugurating the 89th session of the Indian Science Congress at Lucknow University today. Before leaving for Kathmandu to participate in the SAARC summit, Mr Vajpayee said he was hopeful that the summit would back India and its resolve to tackle the scourage of terrorism which had pervaded the region. “Our bitter experience of the past decades, repeated on December 13, is also shared by some other countries of the region,” he said. Delivering a 15-minute speech after inaugurating the Science Congress, the Prime Minister said India had resolved to fight terrorism to the finish. Without naming Pakistan in his address he said; “It is unfortunate that our neighbourhood in South Asia has in recent years emerged as principal source of international terrorism and religious extremism. Since India had been its principal victim for many years, we have resolved to curb terrorism. We shall succeed in this fight. I have no doubt about it.” He exhorted scientists, technologists and academicians in South Asia to join hands to fight terrorism. He also invited engineers and scientists of the SAARC countries to help war-ravaged Afghanistan in its reconstruction efforts, assuring, “Indian Government will fully facilitate this initiative.” The horrendous incidents of September 11 in the USA and the outrageous terrorist attacks on Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on October 1 and the Parliament House on December 13 are barbaric manifestations of the same challenge. We look to our scientists and technologists for help in our national battle against terrorism,” he said. Stating that the terrorist networks had been trying to make advances in Science and Technology to pose new threats to the world, he asked scientists to build even more powerful collaborative networks among all those governments, agencies and non-government institutions who were committed to defending peace and human values. The PM announced that the government would give greater importance to agriculture in the Budget for the coming year. He also expressed concern over decline in public investment in the agriculture and agriculture related infrastructure. |
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Pak’s stance a sham: BJP New Delhi, January 3 “This is indeed strange logic. It is quite evident from this that Pakistan will continue to support the proxy war that it has been carrying on against India,” BJP spokesperson Maya Singh told newspersons here today. |
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NRI unable to
hand over
cheque to PM Lucknow, January 3 Hailing from a small village of Punjab in Ropar district, Dr Sidhu was requesting the organisers for the past two days for accommodating his brief in the tight schedule of the Prime Minister. But he was not allowed to meet him today even as he kept waiting till the last minute for his turn. “I respect the security arrangements made for the Prime Minister and I do not want to create any ruckus about it,” he said. |
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JD (S) MP, SP MLA join
Congress New Delhi, January 3 Maulana Obidullah
Azmi, MP, joined the party today in presence of several senior Congress leaders, including Mr Ghulam Nabi
Azad, Ms Mohsina Kidwai, Mr Oscar Fernandes and UPCC Chief S P Jaiswal. Mr Azad said Mr Azmi was also a religious leader and had been a member of the All-India Muslim Personal Law Conference. He announced that Mr Chota Lal, Samajwadi Party MLA from Nawabganj in
Bareilly, had also joined the Congress. He said more supporters of Mr Azmi would be joining the Congress soon. |
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BJP not to field criminals in UP New Delhi, January 3 “The chance of winning will be the main criterion, although the selection of candidates will be done on the basis of two other factors — commitment and image”, BJP national general secretary Pyare Lal Khandelwal told The Tribune here today. Mr Khandelwal further asserted that even if an MLA’s track record vis-a-vis his performance in the constituency is good, he or she may not be given ticket if he does not have bright chances of winning. On the seat-sharing arrangement with its alliance partners in Uttar Pradesh, Mr Khandelwal said, “The BJP will have the lion’s share. However, on a seat-to-seat basis, we can make some adjustment here and there with our partners on the basis of winning chances”. This statement assumes great significance as the BJP had well in advance announced that it would contest 325 seats out of the 403 seats in Uttar Pradesh, where the elections are scheduled on February 14, 18 and 21. The dominance of the BJP over its alliance partners is also evident from the fact that it is going for a separate election manifesto instead of a joint one with its partners. On the plans of Mr Om Prakash Chautala’s Indian National Lok Dal plan to contest the poll in Uttar Pradesh along with the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP), Mr Khandelwal maintained, “The INLD did not approach the BJP for contesting the poll with it and the INLD factor will not affect the party’s prospects in Uttar Pradesh”. |
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BJP snaps ties with allies in Uttaranchal Dehra Dun, January 3 Talking to mediapersons here this afternoon, Mr Puran Chand Sharma, president of the BJP unit of Uttaranchal, said they were going alone in the coming elections scheduled for February 14. He said the BJP had no intentions to go in for an alliance with the SAD and other NDA partners. In reply to a question, Mr Sharma said neither the SAD nor the INLD had any base in Uttaranchal. Therefore, question of any alliance with them did not arise. The INLD led by Mr Om Prakash Chautala, Chief Minister of Haryana, has already announced that it will field its candidates from Uttaranchal and western Uttar Pradesh. SAD supremo Parkash Singh Badal, Chief Minister of Punjab, had made his intentions clear to the Chief Minister of Uttaranchal, Mr Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, during his visit to Chandigarh last month that the SAD wished to field their candidates on three seats, particularly Jasspur, Bajpur and Kashipur, in Udham Singh Nagar district. A sizeable section of Sikhs are living in these areas. Sikhs and Bengalis living in this district had demanded the exclusion of Udham Singh Nagar from Uttaranchal. Mr Badal and the SAD had opposed the Centre’s move to include this district in Uttaranchal. A unit of the SAD was formed at that time to look into the interests of the community there. However, the SAD could not fulfil the demands of the Sikhs but succeeded in getting appointed a senior leader of the Akali Dal, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, as the constitutional head of the state. Mr Koshiyari justified the party’s decision not to go in for an alliance. “None of these parties have a base or presence in the state. The SAD has not been able to form an organisational set-up in the state during the past year”, he said. Asked whether they would seek the help of the Sikhs to favour BJP candidates in Udham Singh Nagar district, the Chief Minister said they would seek the support of all communities. |
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Laloo fails to appear in court Patna, January 3 The authorities of the Beur jail where Mr Yadav is currently lodged in connection with a conspiracy angle case of the fodder scam informed the court that he could not be produced on health grounds. The designated CBI judge S. K. Mishra fixed January 5 as the next date for the examination of witnesses in the case. The case relates to Mr Yadav having allegedly accumulated over Rs 47 lakh disproportionate to his known sources of income when he was the Chief Minister between 1990 and 1997. The former Bihar Chief Minister’s blood pressure was also very high, the Patna Civil Surgeon, Dr A. Mishra, said. He said doctors attending on the RJD chief had advised him to restrict his movements and avoid exposure to cold.
PTI |
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Project to prevent extinction of
vultures Lucknow, January 3 The CCMB is creating a bank of semen and tissues of vultures that will be used by the scientists to produce vultures, if these become extinct. Stating that the vultures were on the verge of extinction and the scientists were working to find a cause for it, Dr Lalji Singh, Director of CCMB, said that the Central Zoo Authority of India had approached him to start a project to ensure that these natural scavengers did not vanish from the planet. Dr Lalji Singh is in Lucknow to attend the 89th Science Congress scheduled to start tomorrow. He will be conferred the first Millennium Award, given to a scientist for his exemplary contribution in the field of science. The award is being given to Dr Lalji Singh for solving the murder mystery of the late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and former Chief Minister of Punjab Beant Singh under his project, “Indianisation of DNA Fingerprinting”. He will be awarded by the Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee tomorrow. The scientist told TNS here today that the CCMB was all set to inseminate the vultures artificially as their population was going down. He said that under the project, the pigeons were successfully inseminated artificially and the same procedure would be repeated on the vultures. “If this experiment is successful then there are no more worrying days for us.” Dr Lalji Singh said that in a policy decision, the Union Government has decided not to breed hybrid lions and tigers any more. The decision was taken as a study had revealed that all inbred tigers and lions had become on the verge of extinction within a period of 20 to 25 years as the inbreeding had adverse biological effects on the populations. He said that from now, tigers and lions having only pure gene pools would be given a chance to breed and rest sterilised for life. |
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NIFD students receive
diplomas Jaipur, January 3 It was a feather in the cap for
NIFD, Rajasthan, having 12 NIFD Centres, and a moment of great pride for the students who received their diplomas from the leading celebrity and India’s top designer Raghavendra Rathore, the reputed designer who shot into prominence for designing the clothes of Amitabh Bachchan in “Kaun Banega Crorepati”. He also has to his credit the tremendous achievement of being Amitabh Bachchan’s designer for the recently released Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. Rajmata Gayatri Devi put in a special appearance to flag off the budding NIFD designers into the world of fashion and design. Mr Raghavendra Rathore asked the students to be hard working, determined, dedicated and to follow a positive attitude towards their goals. He also said that earlier this kind of specialised training was only confined to big cities but with NIFD reaching out even to smaller cities this kind of education was available at the doorstep of all class of people. Rajmata Gayatri Devi congratulated and encouraged the budding designers and wished them all luck to make a mark in the world of fashion and design. Also present on the occasion was Ms Aditi Srivastava (GM Corporate). Mrs Kamla Poddar, (Centre Head, NIFD, Jaipur) gave the vote of thanks. At the end of the session, an interesting chat session of the students was held with Mr Raghavendra Rathore, where students asked him a variety of questions ranging from the role of designers to the secret of his success. |
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