 |
|
ULFA
women cadres flay top leaders’ lifestyle NHRC
seeks review of Human Rights Act Advani
to meet Thackeray over early poll
Cong
demands ouster of Kalyan party |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
England
‘played’ role in Gandhi becoming Mahatma Priyanka
Vadra to usher in New Year in Kerala Cable
law to be amended to promote DD
|
|
ULFA women cadres flay top leaders’ lifestyle Tamulpur (Indo-Bhutan border), December 28 “The top (ULFA) leaders don’t think about us in the camps .. under what conditions we were living. They are leading luxurious lives outside making us cadres suffer in the camps”, Rupali Thakuria, one of the 37 women cadres, and kin of ULFA insurgents handed over to the Indian authorities, said. “Severe cold conditions prevail in Bhutan now. But our leaders don’t bother to give us any woollens. There are no blankets even for our children in the camp. It breaks our hearts to see our children suffer the cold and the hostile condition in the camps”, she said. “We will never go back to our Bhutan camps to suffer there”, she told a PTI correspondent here before she along with other 26 women cadres and 27 children were whisked away for production in court. “We had to come here because the conditions in our camps inside the dense jungles of Bhutan are very bad. There is shortage of food and warm clothes in the camps”, she said. Similar sentiments were expressed by the other women with her in the bus transporting them to the court. Rupali in her late 20s said: “Good that we have come back to our own state. We had no electricity there and no school for our children who were growing up illiterate”. “There was no stability in our lives there and we were in a constant state of flux moving from camp to camp with our children on foot traversing the vast distances through thick forests”, she said. All women with her were unanimous in their decision to persuade their husbands in the underground outfit to desert ULFA and the kind of life they were leading. “What will our children’s future be in the jungles”, Rupali asked. The 37 women cadres, brought to Tamulpur from Bhutan camps on December 24, were two days later remanded in 48-hour police custody by Nalbari Chief Judicial Magistrate. The 27 children, accompanying them, were allowed to either remain with their mothers or to be sent to live with their relatives. Today they were brought in two buses amidst tight security to be produced in court at the end of their 48-hour police custody.
— PTI |
|
Bhutan army working on mopping up operations Darrangamela (Indo-Bhutan border), December 28 Official sources from Bhutan said today that the RBA was engaged in tracking out the dislodged rebels, who were on the run. The mopping up exercise was gaining momentum with more and more fugitives falling into the Himalayan kingdom army’s dragnet to be handed over to the Indian Army across the border, the sources said. A group of 32 ULFA and NDFB cadres were handed over by the Bhutan authorities to the Nalbari civil administration at Tamulpur yesterday. The sources said the firings in the kingdom’s southern district of Samdrup Jongkhar, where most of the militant camps were located, had been halted. The intensified Indian Army movement along the Indo- Bhutan border to provide logistic support since `Operation All-Clear’ was launched on December 15, was also noticed to have considerably eased and no helicopter was noticed flying into Bhutan for evacuating wounded RBA personnel for medical treatment. With normalcy returning, the movement of trucks carrying essentials to Bhutan and back transporting oranges had also begun. Accusing the ULFA and NDFB of being extremely obstinate and uncompromising, the Bhutan Premier said, casualties on both sides could have been avoided had reason on the part of the insurgents prevailed. He said, special efforts were made to ensure that women and children in the militant camps did not come to any harm.
— PTI |
|
|
NHRC seeks review of Human Rights Act New Delhi, December 28 It has termed as disturbing the government frequently referring to the existence of the Commission and its powers under the Act as a sure defence against the violation of human rights by the armed forces. It said “the commission finds this tendency to use it to provide an alibi for possible wrong-doing by the armed forces disturbing, to say the least”. “It became increasingly clear to the commission that certain provisions of the Act required to be re-examined as they were, in fact, tending to militate against the purpose of the Act itself and lending themselves to being used, on occasions, to thwart the endeavour of the commission to provide for ‘better protection’ of human rights in the country”, it said, in its annual report 2001-02 presented to Parliament in the just-concluded winter session last week. The government was fully aware that Section 19 of the Act, as at present worded, prevented the Commission from itself initiating an inquiry into or investigating the violation of human rights by the armed forces and that this provision had been widely criticised both at home and abroad, it said. “This is more so since the commission clearly considers the ‘present system’ unsatisfactory and the existing definition of ‘armed forces’ — which includes not only the ‘Navy, Army and the Air Force’ but also ‘any other armed forces of the Union’ — excessively wide”, the report said. Citing the complaint of Mina Khatoon, a resident of Imphal, alleging the ‘disappearance’ of her husband Mohammed Tayab Ali who was last seen in the custody of the armed forces, the report said: “A qualitative change is required both in the Act and in the sensitivity with which the central and state governments view their responsibilities under it”. Asserting that the language of the statute must be such as to prevent those who have violated human rights from escaping its net, the report said “when there is an attempt at concealment, the commission should find it possible to pierce the veil of evasion and reach the truth”. The commission conveyed its views to the Central government on the required amendments in the Act two years back without any response so far. It called upon the Union once again to respond positively to its proposals.
— PTI |
|
Advani to meet Thackeray over early poll Mumbai, December 28 “Mr Advani will meet the Sena chief in a day or two to discuss the issue of advancing the Lok Sabha elections”, a report in the Sena mouth-piece ‘Saamna’ said here today. The front-page report claimed that it had already been decided to hold Lok Sabha poll in April-May and in this regard the BJP had begun the process of discussion with its allies. Riding on the crest of the party’s victory in three states in the Hindi heartland, the BJP wanted to recapture power at the Centre, it said. Though Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is of the view that the NDA should complete five years in office to scotch off Congress’ propaganda that it alone could give a stable government, senior party leaders have convinced Mr Vajpayee on holding early poll, the report said. The BJP’s National Executive met in New Delhi and unanimously came to the conclusion that early poll should be held. “In this regard, it was also decided at the meeting that the allies should be consulted”, the report added. The BJP has set a target of 300 seats. The party will allot the remaining seats to its allies.
— PTI |
|
Cong demands ouster of Kalyan party Lucknow, December 28 “Mr Kalyan Singh has been behaving as an RSS worker for the past some days and showering praises upon Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee,” UPCC spokesman Akhilesh Pratap Singh said here. “After his recent statement hinting his possible re-entry into the BJP, there is no rationale behind having him in the coalition,” he said. Expressing doubts on whether the Chief Minister was able to understand the “political message”, the Congress leader said “the secular parties are having doubts due to Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s failure to take any decision in this regard”. The Congress spokesman said there was no rationale behind having Mr Kalyan Singh in the coalition and asked the Chief Minister to take a quick decision. He also asked Mr Mulayam Singh “to adopt a tough posture with the BJP and stop giving the party any concessions”.
— PTI |
|
England ‘played’ role in Gandhi becoming Mahatma Bhopal, December 28 Prof Mehrotra was delivering the first lecture on “The making of the Mahatma” in the Sharad Vyakhyanmala, started in the memory of Naresh Mehta, an eminent Hindi litterateur, at Hindi Bhavan here last evening. Mr Mukund Laath was awarded Naresh Mehta Smriti Vangmaya Samman . Prof Mehrotra said the vow to abstain from eating meat had created for Gandhi the single most difficult problem on his arrival in London. The discovery of The Central Restaurant solved Gandhi’s immediate problem. Besides, it gave him access to a literature which revealed a new world of ethical experimentation, provided him with the company of like-minded and friendly enthusiasts and seekers and made him part of a multi-faceted movement. |
|
Priyanka Vadra to usher in New Year in Kerala Thiruvananthapuram,
December 28 The resort shot to fame after Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee spent his New Year here three years ago and penned his famous ‘musings’ that reflected on the year gone by and his agenda for the year ahead. Ms Vadra, who was accompanied by her husband Robert Vadra, brother Rahul Gandhi
and a child and a woman, who were not identified, arrived at Kochi by a Jet Airways flight at 2 pm. The group was whisked away from the tarmac in a convoy of cars for the journey to Kumarakom before the media could get a chance to talk to Ms Vadra. They will stay at Kumarakom for three days and fly out from Kochi. “Yes, she will arrive today. I am sorry I can’t give you any more information,” said an official at the resort. “The bookings were done by a Kerala Government official,” said another employee at the resort. Singer Paul MaCartney had also spent time at the resort. The media, as also resort owners, here had been in a tizzy for the past few days ever since it became known Ms Vadra would usher in the New Year in Kerala. There had been a mad scramble among resort owners to attract Ms Vadra and her group — and Kumarakom, which is owned by former Karnataka minister T.J. John, finally got the nod. Mr John had resigned from the Congress government of Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna after he lost the elections to the state legislative council earlier this month. Kerala Tourism Minister K.V. Thomas is said to have played a key role in persuading Ms Vadra to holiday in Kerala.
— IANS |
|
Cable law to be amended to promote DD Hyderabad, December 28 Under the proposed law, Prasar Bharati officials will be empowered to seize the operator’s equipment and initiate prosecution in case he does not telecast these three channels, Prasar Bharati CEO K.S. Sarma told reporters here today. “DD has the maximum viewership among all private channels, and it is the primary duty of the 70,000 odd cable operators to present the channels, including the regional language channel for the benefit of the people”, Mr Sarma said.
— PTI |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | National Capital | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Videos
