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Friday,
May 3, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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First POTA
case in UP sparks row Support to
continue, says TDP
Serve Modi govt notice: Cong |
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Forum
condemns Gujarat carnage NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT 45 killed in Maharashtra as bus catches
fire Rajnath
in charge of UP affairs Panel
told not to quiz Jaitley on Tehelka Boat
tragedy: 12 Indians among survivors Ex-DM:
all-round failures led to masjid demolition Bhimsen
Joshi honoured Fire on
Bhagat Singh film sets 
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First POTA case in UP sparks row Dehra Dun, May 2 A special team of the UP Police had “arrested” Raees Ahmed, Rafiq Ali, Shamim Hussain and Kallan, all residents of Udham Singh Nagar district of Uttaranchal, under POTA. The date of arrest was shown as March 22 whereas local newspapers reported it on March 17. The police claimed that Kashmir-based chief commander of Lashkar Baba Aamir was providing them funds for militant activities and that the four were allegedly fleeing to Srinagar when they were arrested. No weapons were recovered from them, they said. Mr Rahees Ali, father of one of the accused Rafiq, has another story to tell. “Rafiq was having tea in front of the Paramdharma Nursing Home in the Bajpur area of Udham Singh Nagar district where his aunt was admitted on March 16,” Mr Ali said in a three-page letter sent to NHRC Chairman J.S. Verma. “Suddenly, some STF personnel of the UP Police in civil dress came and took him away in their vehicle in full view of villagers, including manager of the nursing home and owner of the tea stall,” he claimed. The family of the four alleged militants have said they will move the Uttaranchal High Court challenging the arrest. Mr Ali said the local newspapers carried the story on March 17 and quoted Udham Singh Nagar SSP R.S. Meena. Mr Meena, who was subsequently transferred to Dehra Dun, denied any knowledge of Ali’s version. “I only came to know about this incident through a letter written by the STF that four militants belonging to Uttaranchal have been held in Hapur. Actually, I was busy with a recruitment drive during those days,” Mr Meena said today. But, Mr Ali contested Mr Meena’s contention saying the latter had full knowledge about the whole episode.
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Support to continue, says TDP Hyderabad, May 2 Home Minister and a senior TDP Politburo member T. Devendra Goud told newsmen here that there was no question of snapping ties with the NDA. “We are with the government right from day one and continue to do so. We have never said that we would withdraw support,” Mr Goud said. The 28-member strong TDP in the Lok Sabha is a crucial supporter of the NDA from outside and its boycott of voting on the censure motion yesterday signalled the first open confrontation with the government. Asked about the TDP stand on the issue of speakership in the Lok Sabha, Mr Goud said the party leadership would be taking a decision. The post of Speaker has been lying vacant since TDP’s G.M.C. Balayogi was killed in a helicopter crash. The slot was believed to be going to a TDP nominee but yesterday’s boycott of the voting has injected an element of uncertainty. BJP spokesman V.K. Malhotra said in Delhi yesterday “How can the Speaker’s post be with a party which is against the Government? It should be with a person who is with the government,” he said.
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Trial of Modi sought at rally New Delhi, May 2 Asking the Muslim community to get ready for sacrificing their lives to save humanity and justice, President of Jamiat Ulama-i-Hind Maulana Asad Madani said “no matter if one or two lakh people are sacrificed for the cause. But it should be kept in mind that it would not be a fight between Hindus and Muslims but against those who were trying to divide this country”. The leaders, who attended the rally of at least 50,000 people here to express solidarity with the victims of Gujarat violence, also demanded larger recruitment of Dalits and Muslims in the armed forces and the police to guard against their “communalisation”. The rally also passed a resolution asking for an immediate ban on the RSS, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal, the enactment of a special law to provide for immediate relief to the riot victims, adequate reservations for Muslims in political and administrative institutions and the recruitment of Dalits and Muslims in armed forces. Stating that it was the biggest rally against the “government-sponsored violence”, former Union Minister Arif Mohammad Khan, who made a brief appearance at the gathering, called for collective move to stop these “communal” forces. The rally was attended by various community leaders, including the Chairman of All India Confederation of SC/ST Organisation Udit Raj and Secretary of the All India Christian Council John Dayal. |
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Serve Modi
govt notice: Cong New Delhi, May 2 Congress chief spokesman Jaipal Reddy said since the government had decided to back the Opposition-sponsored motion in the Rajya Sabha, according to which the conditions in Gujarat have so existed or continue to exist as to necessitate the invocation of Article 355, the significance of the motion had assumed qualitatively new meaning. He said the Centre should serve a formal notice to the Gujarat Government under Article 355. “Article 355 confers duty on the government to ensure that governance is carried on according to the provisions of Constitution. Once the government agrees to such a resolution, it inevitably follows that the condition in Gujarat is so abnormal that the governance is not being carried out according to constitutional provisions,” Mr Reddy said. Asked about the statements of some BJP leaders that Article 355 was already in use in the state as reflected by the Army deployment in some parts of Gujarat, Mr Reddy said Article 355 could not be applied in a “piecemeal, clandestine” manner. He said the Sarkaria Commission had recommended that a state should be put on notice under Article 355 before Article 356 was applied to it. Mr Reddy said there was no need for the
Governor to submit a report before Article 355 was imposed in the state. Congress leaders feel that once the state was put on notice under Article 355, the imposition of Article 356 (which implies the imposition of the President’s Rule) would follow. Asked if the party still stood by its demand for the removal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, Mr Reddy said that it was “political demand” of the party. To a question, Mr Reddy said unanimous adoption of the resolution by the Rajya Sabha would be a victory of India’s democracy. Congress leaders feel that a change in government’s stance had come about because of its fear of losing more allies. They said some of the key allies of the BJP had not supported the government in the vote in the Lok Sabha and more could have distanced themselves in a vote in the Rajya Sabha where the government do not have a majority. |
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Forum condemns
Gujarat carnage New Delhi, May 2 President of the Gandhi Forum and former President of India R. Venkataraman said in a joint statement, after consultations with a few Muslim leaders and prominent Hindus, that the forum had appealed to countrymen to condemn the incident in the strongest way. The statement reads: “The perpetrators of those heinous and inhuman acts either in Godhra or elsewhere are criminals and enemies of the society. ” Besides Mr
Venkataraman, Maulana Mohammad Salim Qasmi, Rector of Darul Uloom
Deoband, Maulana Mohammad Rabey, Rector of Darul Uloom Nadwatul Ulema, Mr
R.K. Anand, member of Rajya Sabha, Mr Mufti Mozaffer Hussain, Rector of Musahir
Uloom, Maulana Hamiduddin Aquil, Rector of Darul Uloom, Hyderabad; Maulana Rahim of
Jaipur, former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral, Mr Kuldip Nayyar, Syed
Ashraf, general secretary of Gandhi Forum, and Maulana Fussil Ahmed
Qasmi, general secretary of Maekazi Jamia Ulema-e-Hind were the signatories. |
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School
kids’ plea for peace in Gujarat New Delhi, May 2 Addressing a group of 170 disabled schoolchildren from Sadavichar Parivar near Gandhinagar, Mr Advani said Gujarat was the most peaceful state and its people were very friendly. In an appeal written in blood, the children asked for restoration of peace in Gujarat. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, May 2 The storage capacity and wheat stocks from 1997 to 2002 in Punjab were given in the statement enclosed, which revealed that the maximum percentage of utilisation of storage capacity had been only 89 per cent during the past six years, the minister told the House. During the current year ( 2002-03), the Food Corporation of India (FCI) had a proposal for 10,000 tonnes of storage capacity in Punjab. In addition to this the Central Warehousing Corporation/ State Warehousing Corporation had been requested to create additional storage capacity to the tune of 41.60 lakh MT ( covered) and 4.41 lakh MT (covered and plinth) under the seven years' guarantee scheme, the House was told. Twentynine post offices had been opened till date in rural areas and one post office had been opened in border area of Punjab during the past three years, the Minister of Communications and Information Technology, Mr Tapan Sikdar, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. Opening of new post offices in Punjab under the future schemes, having e-mail, Internet and computer facilities, was subject to the fulfilment of prescribed norms and availability of requisite resources, the minister said. The minister added that computerisation of post offices and provision of other facilities was based on traffic analysis and return on investment from such services. In reply to a separate question, the minister said there was no plan with the government at present to set up OCB telephone exchanges based on latest technique of communications in Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Una districts of Himachal Pradesh. The existing CDOT-MAX-XL exchanges working in these areas were fully meeting the requirements. However, it was planned to provide an independent OCB trunk automatic exchange in Hamirpur in 2002-03, the minister added. The length of Bodh Chakki Dhar Road was 19.963 km. Of this, 5.813 km was in Punjab and 14.150 km in Himachal Pradesh. The road and bridge works in Himachal Pradesh were completed by March 2000, the Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways, Maj-Gen B.C. Khanduri, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. In Punjab, road works had been executed, but two bridge works were yet to be completed. An amount of Rs 112.50 lakh had been released to the state government for strategic road works in Punjab, including that for construction of the two bridges. However, no allocation of fund was made to the state government against this release. The state government had now agreed to allocate the amount required for completing the two bridges. These bridges were now targeted for completion by March 2003, the minister said. |
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45 killed in Maharashtra as bus catches
fire Ahmednagar (Maharashtra), May 2 They said the state roadways bus, carrying 66 persons, was on its way to pilgrim town of Shirdi from Kannad in the Marathwada region when its axle wheel broke because of which the driver lost control and the vehicle overturned setting the diesel tank of the bus on fire. So far, 32 bodies — those of 13 men and as many women and six children — have been extricated, the sources said, adding that many of the victims were charged beyond recognition. Limbs of the passengers were strewn around the site as relatives of the victims looked for the bodies of their dear ones in the charred remains of the bus. Six of the passengers managed to come out of the bus through windows, the sources said, adding that the injured had sustained 30 to 90 per cent burns. Ambulances and fire tenders of Ahmednagar and Aurangabad were pressed into service.
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Rajnath
in charge of UP affairs New Delhi, May 2 Mr Rajnath Singh replaces former party President Kushabhau Thakre, who was shifted yesterday to the region comprising east and northeastern states following the party’s debacle in the two northern states. Mr Krishnamurthy also appointed party General Secretary and party spokesman Sunil Shastri as in charge of Tamil Nadu, General Secretary Sangh Priya Gautam (Punjab and Chandigarh) and Vice-President Ram Das Agarwal (Gujarat) in the third phase. Mr Agarwal, however, will continue to be the in charge of the Aajeewan Sahayog Nidhi (Lifelong Associate Trust), set up to generate funds for the party in a transparent manner. Party Vice-President Kailashpathi Mishra was yesterday made the in charge of the central zone comprising Uttar Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh while Mr Thakre takes charge of the east zone covering West Bengal, Tripura, Assam, northeastern states and Orissa. |
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Panel told not to quiz Jaitley on Tehelka New Delhi, May 2 Reserving his judgement on Ms Jaitley’s petition which has also sought that she should not be cross-examined by the commission before the three reporters of the news portal involved in the sting operation, Mr Justice Manmohan Sarin said the judgement would be pronounced within a week. Till then the commission should accommodate Ms Jaitley against her cross-examination, the court said. The judgement on her petition was reserved by the court after tehelka.com counsel Kavin Gulati submitted that news portal’s Managing Editor Tarun Tejpal in his affidavit before the commission had stated that the field work for recording the tapes was done by correspondent Samual Mathew under the supervision of his senior Anirudh Bahal. Bahal and Mathew had also made similar statements before the commission about the recordings, he said. The court had sought the clarification after hearing arguments by
different parties on Jaitley’s petition.
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Boat tragedy: 12 Indians among survivors New Delhi, May 2 All 12 are now in the custody of the Greek police. This has been conveyed to the Foreign office by Indian Ambassador to Greece Aloke Sen, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters here today. She said apparently there was no Indian among the dead. Earlier in the day, Minister of State for External Affairs Omar Abdullah told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that no Indian was reported to have died in the sinking of the boat carrying illegal immigrants.
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Ex-DM: all-round
failures led to masjid demolition New Delhi, May 2 “The disputed structure at Ayodhya could not be saved and this has been the result of all-round failures,” he told the commission. The intelligence agencies failed to assess the eventual frenzied behaviour of the kar sevaks. The commission is probing into the sequence that led to its demolition. |
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Bhimsen
Joshi honoured
Mumbai, May 2 The award comprises a cash prize of Rs 5 lakh, citation, memento, shawl and shriphal. Pandit Bhimsen Joshi said it was not a personal achievement for him but an award for the gharana and his guru and the music connoisseurs. Pandit Joshi said the gharanas were there not to differentiate the forms of music but to enforce discipline among disciples.
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Fire on Bhagat Singh film sets Mumbai, May 2 No one was injured in the fire but the set suffered extensive damage, they said. Property worth Rs 1 crore was destroyed, Sunny Deol, said adding that the shooting for the film ‘23 March 1931’ was in full steam.
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Prime Minister
Atal Behari Vajpayee pays floral tribute to the statue of
Chattrapati Shivaji, the great hero of Maharashtra, on the occasion of
the
'Maharashtra Day' celebration in New Delhi on Wednesday. 
In video (
