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Thursday,
February 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Oppn
boycotts defence panel meeting HC rejects
petition of Jaya’s rival WHO yet to
get report on plague
SC ruling on quashing appointments CBI for
legal status to Interpol notices Allahabad
appears tough for all |
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CCS
meeting reviews Indo-Pak stand-off CBI
quizzes traders having links with Ansari NDA
meeting to evolve strategy for Budget session Temple
construction after March 12: VHP
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Oppn boycotts defence
panel meeting New Delhi, February 20 Reviving their protests over the “coffigate”, which had rocked Parliament during winter session, the Congress and Left parties did not attend the meeting in protest against the reinduction of Mr Fernandes before the completion of the probe into the Tehelka expose on fictitious defence deals. “We are not going for the meeting. In the last Parliament session too we had boycotted it demanding the resignation of Mr Fernandes,” AICC General Secretary and Chairman of its Media Department Ambika Soni said. Of the 31 members, only five belonging to the NDA constituents attended the committee meeting while 20 members belong to the Opposition. Opposition’s protests had been eclipsed in the last session after the terrorist attack on Parliament on December 13. However, addressing the boycott-marred meeting, Mr Fernandes announced that Rs 3,565 crore had been projected for modernisation of ammunition depots and building of two more dumps. Stating that a major constraint for modernisation of the depots in the past was budgetary, Mr Fernandes told the meeting that works worth only Rs 129 crore were sanctioned for ammunition storage accommodation since 1950s. “The government has now removed this constraint in 2000-01 and 2001-02 when works worth Rs 228 crore and Rs 147 crore were released or approved,” Mr Fernandes was quoted as saying in an official note. He said allotment of additional funds would go a long way in creating more storage facilities, complete with security, firefighting and technical infrastructure. The decision assumes significance in the wake of the recent devastating fires in ammunition dumps in different parts of the country, including Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. Besides deciding to raise two new ammunition depots, the ministry has decided to modernise seven central ordnance depots at Agra, Mumbai, chheoki, Delhi Cantonment, Dehu Road, Jabalpur and Kanpur in a phased manner. Modernisation of the Kanpur depot had already been taken up at Rs 187 crore and was expected to be completed by 2003-end. Steps were also taken to design, develop and install an online inventory management system, the note said. Mr Fernandes said several steps had been taken to reduce the fire accidents in ammunition depots. These included procurement of 88 firefighting trucks and taking of another 137 on contract shortly. The minister said with the steps being taken now, the ammunition and ordnance depots would become more dynamic, responsive, secure and safe. |
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HC rejects petition
of Jaya’s rival Chennai, February 20 She is facing DMK candidate Vaigai Sekhar whose petition was rejected by the High Court on the ground that the jurisdiction for hearing such a petition lay in Madras High Court and that the latter had dismissed an identical petition. Besides the AIADMK and the DMK, two other regional parties, the MDMK and the Puthia Tamizagam are in the fray. There are 20 independents contesting the byelection. The two-week campaign, marked by bitter mutual attacks by DMK leader, M. Karunanidhi, and Ms Jayalalithaa, ended last evening. The acrimonious exchanges were climaxed by a charge from the AIADMK chief that the DMK was planning to resort to violence to disrupt the poll. Mr Karunanidhi alleged that Ms Jayalalithaa had conferred with top police officials before she left Andipatti yesterday and wondered with what authority she had done so. He pointed out that only in communist countries were party general secretaries more powerful than heads of state. Unprecedented security arrangements have been made by the authorities to ensure a peaceful poll. The result of the byelection will be announced on February 24, which happens to be Ms Jayalalithaa’s birthday. Meanwhile, agency reports from New Delhi said Justice Manmohan Sarin dismissed a writ petition by DMK candidate Vaigai Sekar seeking deferment of the byelection, alleging that nearly 17,000 names of bogus voters had been inserted in the voter list by the ruling party in Andipatti to ensure victory for Ms Jayalalithaa. During the arguments on the petition, the Election Commission had expressed its helplessness to correct the electoral rolls once the notification is issued. |
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WHO yet to get report on plague New Delhi, February 20 WHO representative to India Robert Kim Farley told TNS here today that they were yet to receive a “formal” report on the plague from the Health Ministry. He said the office would transmit the information to the South-East Asia regional office in Delhi. “They, in turn, will send it to our headquarters in Geneva. The information will be released in due course when the world-wide statistics on plague are released. The information on plague and all other diseases and epidemics is compiled every year by our Geneva office.’’ Mr Farley said the WHO will also use the website of the National Institute of Communicable Disease as a primary source of disseminating information on plague. The WHO had helped NICD set up the site. He said plague, yellow fever and cholera had been notifiable for years. Deputy WHO representative to India Tej Walia told TNS that although plague was a notifiable disease, there was no set timeframe for notifying its outbreak. “It is expected to be done within a reasonable time and depends on the investigations, the scale of the epidemic and the capacity of the country.’’ Dr Walia said the S.E. Asia regional office will forward the Health Ministry’s report on plague to 10 member countries of the region. “If they have any queries, they will get back to us. The information will be available at all levels of the WHO.’’ Dr Walia said they need the entire epidemological data of the outbreak. This should include the profile of all 16 patients infected by plague. He said the local authorities in Himachal Pradesh, where the first case was reported, had been asked to maintain a close vigil and strengthen surveillance to prevent its recurrence. Dr Walia said there was no threat of the disease spreading to Delhi as the cases had been confined to Himachal Pradesh. “The epidemic has already been controlled.’’ |
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SC ruling on quashing appointments
New Delhi, February 20 Upholding a decision to cancel recruitment of junior clerks to the Railways in Bangalore in 1996, a Bench comprising Mr Justice G.B. Pattanaik and Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar said the nature and extent of illegalities and irregularities committed in conducting a selection would have to be scrutinised in each case so as to come to a conclusion about the future course of action. “If the mischief played is so widespread and all pervasive, affecting the result, so as to make it difficult to pick out the persons who have been unlawfully benefited or wrongfully deprived of their selection, in such cases it will neither be possible nor necessary to issue individual notices to each selectee,” Mr Justice Kumar, writing for the Bench, said. The Bench said, “The only way out would be to cancel the whole selection. Motive behind the irregularities committed also has its relevance.” Mr O. Chakradhar had challenged the decision of the Central Administrative Tribunal (CAT) for quashing the entire selection process in the Karnataka High Court, which had allowed his petition asking the Railways to reinstate those whose services had been terminated on the CAT order.
PTI
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CBI for legal status to Interpol notices New Delhi, February 20 Speaking at the 17th Asian Regional Conference of the Interpol at Colombo today, Mr Sharma said: “Whenever fugitives of one nation involved in terrorist-related offences try to take shelter in another country, it should be incumbent on the member countries to deport such fugitives without going through the cumbersome extradition process.” Mr Sharma also urged members of the international police community to give urgent attention on another important issue of giving legal status to notices issued by the Interpol Secretariat General (IPSG), Lyon, France. He said their status differs from country to country and it was the high time that all member countries accorded legal status to Interpol Notices in their respective municipal laws, a CBI statement issued here said. He suggested that while issuing Red Corner notices, IPSG might also include directions that, “the member countries may immediately deport/extradite the wanted fugitive/criminal, once his identity is established.” Stressing the need for proactive and preventive role of Interpol in combating international crimes, he said “nations can no longer wait for terrorists to strike and cause havoc and then act tough. To combat terrorism there has to be meaningful and timely exchange of intelligence relating to the involvement of terrorists and their resources.” |
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Allahabad
appears tough for all Allahabad, February 20 Even in 1996, Allahabad, once the premier academic centre of not only the state but of the entire country, had given a divided verdict electing four MLAs of the BJP, four of the Samajwadi Party, three of the Bahujan Samaj Party, two of the Congress and one of the CPM. The difficulty grade for the BJP can possibly be comprehended from the fact that Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, who is Lok Sabha MP from here, has been camping here for the past two days addressing small and bigger meetings. Mr Tripathi is facing a serious challenge from SP’s challenger Shyama Charan Gupta in the Allahabad (South) constituency. Mr Gupta, who was once the financier of the BJP, turned against his former party and is now giving sleepless nights to Mr Tripathi. The combination of Muslims, traders of the town once the backbone of the BJP lawyers and Kayasthas have made Mr Tripathi’s task more difficult and Mr Gupta optimistic of his victory. Similarly in the Allahabad North constituency, where the state’s Cane
Development Minister N K S Gaur is the BJP’s candidate, a keen contest appears to be developing with Nationalist Congress Party’s Anugrah Naraian Singh threatening to unseat him. Even Congress and SP candidates Ashok Bajpayee and T P Singh are no pushover as they are using every possible means to remain in the battle. In the other two constituencies of Handia and Soraon from where state PWD Minister Rakesh Dhar Tripathi and Rang Bahadur Patel had won last time are in the fray again. While Mr Tripathi is being challeged by SP’s Mahesh Narian Singh and BSP’s Brajbhan Singh Yadav, Mr Patel’s hold is being threatened by SP’s candidate Janki Devi. Even the SP’s path to Lucknow does not appear to be easy with its sitting MLAs Reoti Raman Singh also facing a tough battle in Karchana where BSP’s candidate Balkumar Patel, who is the younger brother of notorious dacoit Shivkumar alias Dadua, is giving the SP’s tall leader a taste of criminal-politician nexus. SP leader Mulayam Singh Yadav in company of party General Secretary Amar Singh and cine star turned politician Raj Babbar made a last minute appeal to voters yesterday to make his party candidates win. Meja, a seat held by CPM’s sitting MLA Ram Kirpal, appears to be again favouring the Left party if the well attended rally addressed by the party’s Politbureau member Sitaram Yechuri and former Lok Sabha MP from Kanpur Suhasni Ali is any indication with token challenge coming from Congress candidate Munni Lal Kol only. Bara, which had sent a BSP MLA Ram Sewak Singh to Lucknow, is witnessing a quadrangular contest between the SP, the Congress, the BJP and the BSP. Congress candidate Shekhar Bahuguna, son of former UP Chief Minister Hemwati Nandan Bahuguna, is making a determined effort to revive his family’s political legacy but his task is being made difficult by SP candidate Raja Mahendra Pratap Singh who is the heir to Shankargarh and BJP candidate Udaibhan Karvaria who is local liqour baron. |
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CCS meeting reviews
Indo-Pak stand-off New Delhi, February 20 Various statements emanating from Islamabad in the past few days also came up for discussion at the meeting, sources said. Among others, the meeting was attended by Home Minister L.K. Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes and External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. Meanwhile, a spokesperson for the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) today described as “an extended season of kite-flying in Pakistan,” when asked to comment on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s comment that the current stand-off would end by May-June. India has consistently maintained that de-escalation would only begin when Pakistan responds satisfactorily to New Delhi’s concerns on cross-border terrorism. The spokesperson flayed Pakistan for its refusal to share any information regarding the confessions made by arrested terrorist Omar Sheikh, saying “we will be forced to conclude that Pakistan has something to hide”. The spokesperson said it was regrettable that Pakistan was not ready to even accede to reasonable demands from India”. She said every time India had made any request to Pakistan for cooperation in fighting terrorism, it had not received a meaningful or tangible answer. |
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CBI quizzes
traders having links with Ansari New Delhi, February 20 According to sources, Sarda Bajrang Lal, Purushotam Dasgupta and Javed Manzoor Khan, all running businesses here, are being questioned by CBI officials to ascertain their role in supplying money to Ansari’s henchman Aquib Ali, who was arrested in Bhopal in December 2001, for procurement of arms. |
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NDA meeting to
evolve strategy for Budget session New Delhi, February 20 While the declared purpose of the meeting is to chalk out a strategy for the Budget session, the electoral results of Uttar Pradesh are also expected to come up for discussion. |
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Temple construction
after March 12: VHP New Delhi, February 20 Ruling out any initiative from its side, VHP working president Acharya Giriraj Kishore told newspersons here that the ball was now in the government’s court. The VHP leader accused Mr Vajpayee of indulging in politics on the issue. |
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Engineer
killed Ranchi, February 20 |
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