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Monday,
October
20, 2003,
Chandigarh, India
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Why Dawood was
named global terrorist
Togadia justifies
attack on Vajpayee EC to impose
stricter rules on poll spending
State power panels to decide tariff, says SC |
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Cong not to tie
up with BSP in MP Haryana ordered
to compensate axed staff Golden Peacock
for Iranian film “At Five In The Afternoon” Maharashtra moves SC in Salman case Four killed in
ropeway mishap
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Why Dawood was named global terrorist New Delhi, October 19 Besides, Dawood’s D Company has also been found to have entered into a financial arrangement with Al-Qaida to allow the latter to use its smuggling routes from South Asia, West Asia and Africa, top sources said here today. The sources disclosed that Dawood travelled to Afghanistan some five years ago under the protection of Taliban for operational reasons. It is understood that the Vajpayee government is keeping close tabs on the movements of Dawood. It was on the basis of inputs by Indian intelligence that the USA went hammer and tongs after Dawood. Deputy Prime Minister L. K. Advani had shared reams of “Top Secret” information with top officials of the Bush Administration during his visit to the USA earlier this year. Mr Advani’s trump card during his US visit was that he focussed on Dawood’s links with Lashkar-e-Toiba and Al-Qaida, knowing fully well that Washington was not interested in Dawood’s anti-India operations. Mr Advani gave loads and loads of evidence to the USA of how Dawood was no longer an underworld don but a shipping magnate, media baron, drug trafficker, arms trafficker and the CEO of a huge corporate called D Company all rolled into one. More breathtaking was how Dawood’s operations had lately turned against the USA and Israeli interests. Sources said the Americans would have never acted on Dawood had it not been for the double attack by suspected Al-Qaida cadres in Mombasa (Kenya) in November last year when the terrorists attacked a hotel where Israeli tourists were staying and almost simultaneously made an abortive attempt to blow up an airliner packed with Israelis. Shortly after the Mombasa incidents, Dawood’s main operations man, Anees Ibrahim, was picked up in Dubai. The arrest was disclosed only after six days to facilitate Americans grill him intensively. The main thrust of the American questioning was the Mombasa incidents. The D Company had a warehouse in Mombasa and Anees Ibrahim was its chief operator. It is understood that Mr Advani educated the USA on this particular aspect of D Company operations. India already had a lot of information available on this subject in the wake of the arrest of another D company operative Madad Ali Chatur who was picked up in Kenya and jailed there some four years ago. Mr Advani’s information bank had reasons to be rich because of the arrests of two Dawood operatives — Lambu Shakeel and Imran Khan Zubair — about a year ago. Shakeel, Dawood’s coastal landing in charge in western India, was arrested in Dubai and brought to India while Zubair was arrested in Mumbai only. Both were well aware of Dawood’s shipping operations. Sources disclosed that Mr Advani told the Americans during his US visit that Dawood with the covert help from the ISI routinely sent ships laden with armaments or drugs from Karachi which will dock at Jabel Ali port in UAE and then go off to their respective destinations. Invariably, the arms-laden ships would be sent to Mombasa while the ships carrying drugs were bound to European coastlines. An important difference was that while the India-bound ships were laden with material in aid of “jehad”, the European links were meant to fill up Dawood’s coffers. |
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Togadia justifies attack on Vajpayee New Delhi, October 19 The VHP, which has decided to go ahead with its “Sankalp sammelan” at Ayodhya tomorrow despite restrictions imposed by the Uttar Pradesh Government, accused the BJP and its leaders of forgetting the Hindutva cause and only interested in “power sharing”. “The BJP claims to be a party with an ideology, but it has abandoned its ideological agenda...Mr Vajpayee is also not interested in any of the ideological agenda. That is the basic conflict between the VHP and them.” VHP’s international general secretary Parveen Togadia said. To why the VHP was mounting pressure on the BJP for introducing a Bill for the construction of a Ram temple knowing well that the party did not have adequate numbers, the VHP leader said: “I agree that the BJP does not have sufficient numbers to pursue the agenda, but a party which claims to be a party with ideology cannot abandon its ideology and should continue to educate the people on the Hindutva agenda.” Asked why VHP leaders had been attacking only Mr Vajpayee and not Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, the VHP leader maintained that “our attack is not against an individual but the policies of the government. As we attacked Rajiv Gandhi, Chandrashekhar and Narasimha Rao, we are attacking Mr Vajpayee also. If Mr Advani had been the Prime Minister, we would have attacked him too.” On the restrictions imposed by the Uttar Pradesh administration on the Ram Bhakts wanting to go to Ayodhya, Mr Togadia said: “The VHP has already assured that the programme will be conducted in a peaceful manner.” |
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EC to impose stricter rules on poll spending New Delhi, October 19 According to EC sources, the commission is working on stricter guidelines, which will be ready before the official notifications for the poll are issued. This will be the first time such stringent measures will be imposed on the expenditure of candidates. The sources pointed out that though the electoral laws provided a maximum limit of Rs 6 lakh for a candidate contesting Assembly poll, a majority of the candidates ended up spending much more and accounting it on the heads of political parties, friends and relatives, which the commission was keen on plugging. The intentions of the Election Commission in this regard were evident when Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh had said recently in Jaipur that every contestant for the Assembly poll would have to file assets and statement of expenditure incurred on electioneering everyday. “The Election Commission will be very strict in this regard and the candidate should have to attribute expenses incurred by anyone on his behalf. There will be no relaxation in this regard,” he had said. Any declaration about assets and money incurred on campaigning by a candidate would not be kept confidential and the Income Tax Department or any investigative agency could have access to it, he had said. Meanwhile, the commission will convene a meeting on October 30 of at least 500 observers, who will oversee the poll in the five states. The sources said the observers would take positions around the time of filing of nominations. While nearly 135 observers were likely to be deployed in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan would have around 100 observers, Chhattisgarh between 60 and 70 observers and Delhi and Mizoram between 20 and 25 observers each. |
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State power panels to decide tariff, says SC
New Delhi, October 19 A Bench comprising Mr Justice R.C. Lahoti and Mr Justice G.P. Mathur said in a recent judgement that “tariff for intra-state transmission of electricity and tariff for the supply of electricity in wholesale, bulk or retail has to be determined by the electricity regulatory commission of the state and a licensee cannot by its unilateral action enhance the charges.” This ruling was given by the Bench while referring the dispute over payments over the supply of power between the Tata Power Company and the Bombay Suburban Electricity Supply Company (BSES) to the Maharashtra electricity panel (MERC) for fresh consideration. Upholding the Bombay High Court order in this regard, the Bench directed the MERC to decide the dispute expeditiously, preferably within three months. The Maharashtra Government, gave effect to an interim arrangement over the payments but on a petition filed before the MERC, it put on hold the interim arrangement. After considering the matter, the commission gave a ruling that was set aside by the high court which asked the MERC to reconsider the dispute afresh. Referring to various sections of the Electricity Regulatory Commission Act, 1998, Mr Justice
Mathur, writing for the Bench, said the determination or quantification of the amount which was payable for this kind of standby arrangement made in favour of the company and the BSES would in reality mean determination of the price or charges for wholesale or bulk supply of electricity. — PTI |
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Cong not to tie up with BSP in MP New Delhi, October 19 The screening committee finalised the names of about 80 per cent of the candidates as consensus could not be arrived at on 40 names. “The screening committee has arrived at a consensus on 80 per cent of the names and will submit its list to the central election committee of the party in a day or two,” Congress General Secretary Ambika Soni told mediapersons last night. The meeting of the committee, headed by Mr G. Venkatswami, was held on Friday and Saturday and was attended by the Chief Minister, MPCC President Radhakishan Malviya and senior leader Pranab Mukherjee, among others. |
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Haryana ordered to compensate axed staff New Delhi, October 19 These employees were engaged by the HTDC as cooks, cleaners, sweepers and gardeners in its ventures, but retrenched on their closure in 1991. "We feel that the HTDC can be directed to pay Rs 70,000 to each of these respondents by way of compensation in lieu of their reinstatement," a Bench comprising Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice P.V. Reddi said. Rejecting their plea for reinstatement, the court said the amount of compensation should be paid to them within two months, failing which the award passed by the Labour Court for their reinstatement would revive and these persons would be at liberty to enforce the same. The Labour Court had passed an order for the reinstatement of these daily wagers employed in a large number. Accepting the contention of HTDC counsel that these employees were
recruited purely on daily wages for the venture started by the corporation, which unfortunately failed, the Bench said "we do not think that the direction to reinstate them would be a just and equitable solution at this distance of time." |
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Golden Peacock for Iranian film “At Five In The Afternoon” New Delhi, October 19 The Silver Peacock and the Rs-2.5-lakh cash prize for the most promising director was bagged by Israel’s Ra’anan Alexandrowicz for his film “James’ Journey to Jerusalem”, a dispassionate look at the harsh realities in today’s Israel. The special jury award, comprising the Silver Peacock and Rs 2.5 lakh in cash, was awarded to India’s Subhadro Chowdhury for his Bengali film “Prohor”, which had opened the Indian Panorama. Minister of Information and Broadcasting Ravi Shankar Prasad gave away the
awards. The closing ceremony was supposed to be a grand finale to the 10-day extravaganza, but ended up being a staid, sarkari affair salvaged somewhat by the presence of Aishwarya Rai who happened to be perhaps the only Bollywood representative at the festival, dominated by bureaucrats and officials. Even she arrived only half way through the function — caught as she was in the notorious Delhi traffic. The award presentation function itself began about 20 minutes late. The director-screenplay writer of “At Five In the Afternoon”, Ms Samira Makhmalbaf, announced through an interpreter to a cheering crowd that she was donating the Rs 5-lakh prize money to Indian NGOs working for the promotion of human rights and the welfare of women and children. The shadow of the rape of a Swiss girl that rocked the festival last Tuesday hung darkly over the closing ceremony as well with Mr Prasad and the Director, Film Festivals, Ms Neelam Kapur, making a mention of it. Mr Prasad patted himself and his officials on the back for the “successful” conclusion of the festival which, according to him, had fulfilled its major objective of registering the powerful presence of the Indian cinema. He reiterated the government’s commitment to make Goa the permanent venue of the International Film Festival of India and give it a brand image. Switching to Hindi, he said Goa would not be made “sukhi” by making Delhi “dukhi”. Nor did he forget to compliment the Delhi Government for its help in making the festival a success. He even mentioned that films transcended political differences. While announcing the awards, the Chairman of the Jury of the Asian competition section, Polish film maker Krzysztof Zanussi, said in Delhi the selection was done by five particular persons, unlike in Oscars etc where anonymous people voted for choosing films. He was happy that the Asian films expressed deep concern for basis human values, a quality missing in European films. The festival concluded with the screening of Australian film, “Rabbit-proof Fence” directed by Phillip Noyce. The poignancy of “Panj e Asr” (At Five In The Afternoon) is increased manifold by the fact that it has been made a woman director who five years ago had the honour of becoming the youngest director in the world to participate in the official section of the 1998 Cannes Film with her first film The Apple. The protagonist of the “At Five in The Afternoon” is a brave but poor daughter of a horse cart driver who does not have even enough to eat but dreams of becoming the President of her country one day. Indira Gandhi and Benazir Bhutto inspire her even as she struggles to find some water for the horse. The family taking shelter in a bombed down plane and her father burning their tonga when her nephew dies are the scenes which will haunt viewers for long. Ra’anan Alexandrowicz has got the honour of bagging the Silver Peacock for his very first feature film, “Massa’ot James Be’Eretz Hakodesh” (James’ Journey to Jerusalem). The story of James’ pilgrimage from a small African village to Jerusalem in a way becomes the voyage of all of us to the promised land. Similarly, “Prohor” happens to be Subhadro Chowdhury’s first film. The complexity of the female nature is brought out forcefully through a nurse, Nandita, who first tries to kill and then save a criminal. |
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Maharashtra moves SC in Salman case
Mumbai, October 19 The petition, filed on October 16, will come up for hearing after October 27 when the apex court reopens after vacations, official sources said here today. The actor will be defended by criminal lawyer Dipesh Mehta. In view of this development, the trial in a magistrate’s court may not commence on October 21 and is likely to be adjourned until the Supreme Court decides the law point on whether the offence allegedly committed by the actor fell within the scope of Section 304 (2), IPC, culpable homicide not amounting to murder which attracts 10 years’ jail term. |
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Four killed in
ropeway mishap
Darjeeling, October 19 Superintendent of Police Sanjay Chandra said three cabins of the Darjeeling Rangeet Valley ropeway services suddenly got disconnected and fell down on a tea garden in Singmari. Of the three, two were carrying tourists, while there was no occupant in the third one, Mr Chandra said, adding that the cabins got disconnected due to some technical fault.
— UNI |
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New Delhi, October 19
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