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Saturday,
May 17, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Madhumita’s family gives clean chit to Tripathi BJP puts onus on Mayawati Nitish for closing 57 unviable lines Mamata resigns as party chief IAS officer gets 5-year RI for graft
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Stamps on
Rafi, Kishore
Sugarcane farmers meet Kalam Warrant against
Shilpa’s parents DDA scam: bail plea of three transferred
Cabinet reshuffle soon
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Madhumita’s family gives clean chit to Tripathi Lucknow, May 16 “We are now fed up with the police investigation ... they are hell bent upon to prove that Madhumita was killed owing to some family feud,” said Nidhi Shukla, sister of the deceased. Nidhi and her mother denied that Madhumita was pregnant. “The police has cooked up a theory saying that she was pregnant to put her in a bad light,” said Nidhi. It was disgraceful on the part of the police to bring the body of Madhumita back to Lucknow from Sitapur to carry out a DNA test on the foetus and declare it to the world that she was pregnant, she added. Moreover, she said, we had come to know that the police had entered our flat in our absence. They might have planted some incriminating documents in our house, she said, adding that whatever happened had happened. Now the police should allow us to live in peace, she said. The family of Madhumita also retracted from their earlier statements against the BSP minister and his wife. Nidhi had earlier given a statement saying that the wife of Mr Amar Mani Tripathi had plotted the murder of her sister because “she was jealous of her intimacy with the BSP minister”. She said today that she had been misquoted. Mr Vijay Shukla, brother of Nidhi, said probably she (Nidhi) gave the statement in a fit of rage. She never meant that Mr Tripathi or any member of his family were involved in the murder. “On the contrary Mr Tripathi had helped our family a number of times,” he said. “He is like a bhagwan (god) for us,” he added. Meanwhile, there are indications that Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati may drop Mr Tripathi from the Cabinet. Sources close to the CM’s office said had not the Samajwadi party raised the issue she would have dropped him by now. The Chief Minister may take a decision before the Prime Minister’s two-day visit to Lucknow on May 20, the source added. |
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BJP puts onus on Mayawati New Delhi, May 16 “The party is of the view that those having criminal cases against them should not be allowed to hold ministerial posts. Even Chief Minister Mayawati has said that any person involved in crime will not be in the government,” BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told mediapersons here. Asked whether the BJP would demand the resignation of Mr Tripathi on moral grounds, Mr Naqvi said, “It is upto Ms Mayawati whether she wants to retain him or not as he belongs to the BSP, and also it is upto Mr Tripathi himself to resign on moral grounds.” When insisted why the BJP is shying away from directly demanding the resignation of Mr Tripathi when several circumstantial evidences surfaced so far point finger at him, the BJP spokesperson said, “Let the police complete the investigation. Those found guilty will not be allowed to remain in office.” Meanwhile, BJP President Venkaiah Naidu spoke to Ms Mayawati and understood to have asked the Chief Minister to make her moves carefully to prevent any political fallout. Central leaders of the BJP were also in constant touch with the party’s Uttar Pradesh unit leaders, sources said. |
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Nitish for closing 57 unviable lines New Delhi, May 16 The Railway Ministry has decided to bring the issue before the Railway Finance Committee meeting in the first week of next month, sources said. Despite the recommendations of the Railway Reforms Recommendation Committee to close down these lines in 1983, no Railway Minister has yet gathered political courage to take the much-needed step as a majority of these lines are in states like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh. Incidentally, Punjab, Haryana and Himachal Pradesh do not have a single economically unviable line. To ensure that the proposed closure is not made a political issue, the minister has suggested that the state transport system could be given air- conditioned coaches for ferrying passengers who would be stranded for want of connecting trains, sources said. Though roughly Rs 8000 crore have been lost in the past 20 years, no minister has tried to get the recommendation implemented. Mr Nitish Kumar has sounded Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, sources pointed out, adding that the Prime Minister had given his assent to the move. |
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Mamata resigns as party chief Kolkata, May 16 Following a difference of opinions with some of her senior colleagues, the TMC supremo staged a walk out at a crucial party meeting late last night and immediately sent in her resignation to Mr Pankaj Banerjee, chairman, policy planning committee. Mr Banerjee said today that they had not accepted her resignation. She would be persuaded to withdraw it. TMC leaders, present at the meeting, differed on Ms Banerjee’s decision to boycotting the Assembly’s ongoing budget session in protest against the alleged rigging by the CPM in the panchayat poll. Mr Nirben Roy, TMC MLA from Tamluk, demanded to if the MLAs were directed to boycott the Assembly, the MPs and the persons elected to the panchayats should also boycott the Lok Sabha and the panchayat boards on the same ground. Ms Banerjee did not approve the demand. An angry exchange followed between Ms Banerjee and Mr Roy for some time. Mr Ray accused her of running the party on her whims and ultimately destroying it. Even some of Ms Banerjee’s close associates did not oppose Mr Roy and sided with the leader. |
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IAS officer gets 5-year RI for graft New Delhi, May 16 Special CBI Judge P.K. Bhasin, who had found Ram Singh guilty of the offence under the Prevention of Corruption Act on May 14, sent him to five years’ rigorous imprisonment and imposed a fine of Rs 50,000 on him. The Judge also pronounced him guilty of abuse of official position and sentenced him to undergo four years’ rigorous imprisonment, besides imposing a fine of Rs 50,000 and ordering that the two sentences would run concurrently. In its charge sheet, the CBI had said that Ram Singh, during his tenure as General Manager of Delhi Milk Supply (DMS), had demanded a bribe of Rs 2 lakh from representatives of a milk cooperative in 1992. The CBI had charged that as per the agreement between milk societies and the DMS, milk suppliers were to keep a security deposit equivalent to six days of average supply of milk to ensure that the supply of milk was not hampered during the lean period. Ram Singh, a Madhya Pradesh cadre IAS officer of the 1972 batch, passed an order enhancing this security deposit from six days to 10 days. Representatives of various milk cooperative societies, who met Ram Singh, were told by him that the order could be reversed if they paid him Rs 2 lakh.
PTI |
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Stamps on Rafi, Kishore New Delhi, May 16 And when he sang “Zindagi kaisi hai paheli” from “Anand”, he had the 2000-strong audience nostalgic. For the singer himself, it was a special occasion. He was singing at an event where the first-ever commemorative postage stamps in memory of four playback singers were released at the Siri Fort auditorium last night. The singers were his contemporaries — Mohammad Rafi, Kishore Kumar, Mukesh and Hemant Kumar. Manna Dey was honoured with a special award by Swar Sansar, which organised the event. While the stamps were released by Ms Padma Balasubramanian, Secretary, Department of Posts, of the Communication and Information Technology Ministry, those present included Mukesh’s son and singer Nitin, Kishore’s widow Leena Chandravarkar and her son Sumit, Mohammad Rafi’s daughter-in-law Shahid Rafi, and Hemant Kumar’s son Jayanta Mukherjee. Others present on the occasion included singer Udit Narayan and his son Aditya Narayan, and the veteran voice of radio, Ameen Sayani, apart from writer Kamleshwar and former cricketer B.S. Chandrashekhar. The special stamps, each costing Rs 5, are available at all general post offices. A set of all four stamps costs Rs 20. Dey also released the revised edition of the book, “Mukesh! Tumko Na Bhool Payenge” authored and edited by Rajiv Shrivastava.
UNI |
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Sugarcane farmers meet Kalam New Delhi, May 16 The farmers under the banner of the Kisan Mazdoor Sangathan
(KMS), alleged that they were not being paid the state advisory price (SAP) of Rs 95 per quintal in spite of the directions of the Supreme Court in this connection. “We have apprised the President of our plight requesting him to direct the state under Article 142 to ensure compliance of the Supreme Court orders on the payment of SAP,” KMS convener
V.M. Singh said in a press note here today. |
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Warrant against Shilpa’s parents Surat, May 16 |
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DDA scam: bail plea of three transferred New Delhi, May 16 When the bail pleas of the sacked DDA officials - Commissioner (Land Disposal) Anand Mohan Sharan, Vice-Chairman Subhash Sharma and Director (Land) Jagdish Chander came up for hearing, Mr Justice Chopra refused to take arguments, saying that he had decided to transfer the applications. “Subject to orders of the Chief Justice, the applications are transferred to another Bench”, he said without elaborating further. All three bail applications will now come up for hearing on May 19 before another Bench to be chosen by Chief Justice B.C. Patel.
PTI |
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Ship runs aground; crew rescued Haldia (WB), May 16 The ship, which was on its way from Porbandar (Gujarat) to Chittagong (Bangladesh), started taking in water after developing a leak last evening and finally ran aground near the Sandheads about 50 km off the Haldia port, according to Coast Guard Commander R.K. Wadhwa. He further said that crew members of the vessel, Sigitika Biru, were lowered into lifeboats and shifted to a rescue vessel, M.V. Harsha, which was anchored metres away. To a query, Commander Wadhwa said the ship was now virtually anchored as “it cannot sink since the depth in the area is hardly 8 to 10 metres”. PTI |
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Cabinet reshuffle soon New Delhi, May 16 |
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4 CRUSHED TO DEATH UNDER AMBULANCE TWELVE PUNJABIS DETAINED, LET OFF 5 KIDS CHARRED TO DEATH 2 CHHOTA RAJAN ACCOMPLICES SHOT |
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