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Fernandes
succumbs to Advani’s plea Stay on
mining in Aravali not vacated
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Bargaining
on over tooling cost of Hawks Remove
DGP Malik, says BJP Australian
woman’s murder accused remanded Outside
officials for LS poll in Bengal Abhimanyu,
Narain Singh join BJP Post poll staff
impartially, CPM tells EC Panthers Party moves EC against Mufti on Bill
Cong, BJP vie for star
power
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Fernandes succumbs to Advani’s plea New Delhi, March 18 Sources in the
JD (U) told TNS here today that Mr Advani was scheduled to halt at Nagpur tomorrow during the “Bharat Uday Yatra”. They said the Deputy Prime Minister rang up Mr Fernandes and desired his presence at the rally in Nagpur. Mr Fernandes’ visit to Nagpur is significant as he had ruled out his participation of any kind in the rath yatra. Sources in the party said that Mr Fernandes left for Mumbai today afternoon. On Friday he would take the morning flight to Nagpur. On his return to Delhi on Saturday forenoon, the party president will proceed to Anwla parliamentary constituency in Bareilly to address the first election rally of the JD(U). Sources said that the rally at Anwla will mark the beginning of JD (U) campaign. The party is also planning rallies in Meerut and Ghonsi. The party is inclined to field its general secretary, K.C. Tyagi for the Meerut seat. Mr Tyagi has represented Hapur in the ninth Lok Sabha. From Ghonsi, the party is likely to field youth leader Siddharth Rai, who is the son of late Union Minister Kalpnath Rai. Although the party has not yet announced the name of the candidate from Anwla, Mr Sarwaraj Singh, who represented the constituency in the 13th Lok Sabha, is likely to get the ticket. |
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Stay on mining in Aravali not vacated New Delhi, March 18 The area affected by the haphazard mining comprises the districts of Gurgaon and Faridabad in Haryana and Alwar in Rajasthan. A Bench of Mr Justice Y. K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice H. K. Sema refused to vacate the stay on mining in the area imposed by the court on May 6, 2002. It appointed a monitoring committee under the Centre Pollution Control Board
(CPCB) Chairman with environment experts Dilip Biswas, Valmik Thapar and Bhure Lal as members to ensure that the directives were enforced strictly. “The (stay) order of May 6, 2002 as clarified herein cannot be vacated or varied before consideration of the report of the monitoring committee,” the court said. The other members of the committee would be an officer of the Joint Secretary rank of the Union Environment and Forest Ministry, an officer each from the Forest, Irrigation and Agriculture departments of Haryana and Rajasthan and the district magistrates of the districts concerned. The committee was directed to look into all issues, including the impact of illegal mining before the ban and protection of the environment of the region and suggest remedial measures for the restoration of its ecology. It was directed to submit a report within three months. Stating that the “Aravali hills have to be protected at any cost”, the court said mining in the area could not be permitted under the Punjab Land Preservation Act, 1900 without the approval of the Forest Department under the Forest Conservation Act. Making the provision more stringent and ensuring that the mining mafia was not able to use their influence on local officials, the court said the monitoring committee would look into every mining lease before considering its renewal. Permission for mining could only be considered on strict enforcement of the rules after the monitoring committee had filed its report, the court in its 117-page order dealing with various aspects related to the question whether mining be permitted in the Aravali hill region, considered a nature’s buffer to prevent further expansion of the Thar desert. Directing the authorities to protect the new saplings for which foreign agencies had given liberal aid, the court said, “No mining activity be carried in the area over which plantation has been undertaken under the Aravali project.” |
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Bargaining on over tooling
cost of Hawks New Delhi, March 18 The Indian and BAe officials have been back on the negotiating table for over a week. They are bargaining over the inclusion of the tooling cost, which was accidentally overlooked by officials of the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), while working out the final cost figures late last year. The error came to light recently when the deal was about to be signed. India is to purchase 24 Hawk jet trainers in fly-away condition while the rest of the 42 jets will be assembled and manufactured here at the HAL facility, which is actually causing the trouble. It is here that the inclusion of the labour cost for the redesigning and tooling of the Hawks by the HAL staff was overlooked by the Price Negotiation Committee (PNC) while coming to an agreement over the final cost of the AJTs with BAe. Sources in the MoD said that the BAe officials have been visiting South Block everyday but were still to come to an agreement with their Indian counterparts over the cost. The Indian negotiating team is led by the Joint Secretary (Procurement) in the MoD, Mr C.L. Mohapatra. The total deal as cleared by the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS) in September last was worth Rs 80 billion out of which now the tooling and the redesigning cost may come to between Rs 100 million and Rs 300 million. India has, meanwhile, informed the British High Commission that the deal would not go through if BAe doesn’t foot this bill. On the other hand, BAe has said if the contract, as finalised last September, is not signed at the earliest it would have to be renegotiated. The problem probably arose in the unduly long time that elapsed between March 2002, when the price negotiating committee (PNC) finalised the deal, and September 2003, when the CCS cleared the procurement. The detailed Cabinet approval covered some 50 separate heads which also included the cost of training the pilots in the interim period. But somehow, the cost of design work required for tooling was left out. According to sources, some of the key officials involved in the contract work retired in the 18 months it took between the PNC and Cabinet approval and were replaced by new incumbents who did not spot the mistake. |
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Remove DGP Malik, says BJP New Delhi, March 18 Haryana BJP chief Ganeshji Lal, who gave a memorandum to the Election Commission (EC), said today that the decision to field Ms Krishna Malik, wife of the DGP, would obviously lead to his involvement not only in the electoral outcome of the Sonepat constituency but also in the ruling party’s fate in the state. Serving rules prohibit government servants from taking sides or campaign or seek support for any candidate. At one address in Haryana, Mr Malik was reported to have remarked about his wife, “I have no doubts about her victory. I believe that she is definitely going to win. In fact she has already won...”, he said. The memorandum said the Haryana Police and Home Guards should be replaced by the CRPF. |
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Australian
woman’s murder accused remanded New Delhi, March 18 Metropolitan Magistrate S. K. Sharma grant the police the remand of Prasad to facilitate his interrogation in the case as a co-accused was yet to be arrested and some recoveries were still to be made from him. According to the preliminary investigations, some more persons were involved in the murder of the Australian tourist. Also the police suspects that more documents and money appears to be missing from there. Griggs was murdered near Indira Gandhi International Airport allegedly by Prasad, a taxi driver, here soon after her arrival in the wee hours yesterday. Her body was noticed by passers by of the area in bushes near the airport around noon. The police recovered her belonging from a nearby well. Griggs had arrived from Australia via Hong Kong by a Cathy Pacific flight and was to stay in India till April 20. She had hired the taxi to go to the Brahamkumaris in Karol Bagh. Meanwhile, the body of Griggs was handed over to Embassy officials after a post-mortem examination was conducted at the Safdurjung Hospital here. The police said the examination report was expected in couple of days as expert opinion was being sought in the matter. |
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Outside officials for LS poll in Bengal Kolkata, March 18 The CEC said a senior official of the Election Commission would also be deputed during the elections for ensuring a free and fair poll in West Bengal. Adequate Central and para-military forces will be deployed at all polling stations. The Home Ministry had been told to increase the number of paramilitary battalions to some 175 from 105 already sanctioned for the state, he added. During his one-day stay in the city, the CEC met the representatives of various political parties, state officials and the police separately and heard their views on holding a peaceful, free and fair elections in Bengal, where the CPM and other left parties have been in power since 1977. A three-member EC team headed by the CEC, arrived in the city on Wednesday to make an on-the-spot study of the electioneering process in the state. The CEC said the Centre and the respective state governments had been directed to seal off the border, adjoining Bangladesh, Nepal, Bhutan and Myanmar. |
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Abhimanyu, Narain Singh join BJP New Delhi, March 18 Capt Abhimanyu is also the proprietor of Hindi daily “Hari Bhumi ”. They were given formal membership of the party by Union Minister and former BJP president M.M. Joshi in the presence of party general secretary M. A. Naqvi and Mr Verma. Mr Ram Nivas Huda, former president of the Haryana Bar Association, former wrestler Vijay Kumar and Mr Jaideep Mathur, former general secretary of the NSUI, also joined the party. He took the opportunity to criticise the Congress for its “anti-farmer policies” and ignoring the unorganised sector during its decade-long rule. |
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Post poll staff
impartially, CPM tells EC New Delhi, March 18 Taking exception to the move by the election panel to post polling personnel from outside the state in West Bengal, the politburo member, Mr Sitaram Yechuri said, “Such a decision, if taken, should be applicable to all states.” The commission has directed the chief electoral officers of all states to ensure that 50 per cent of the presiding and polling officers in every district should be from outside the district
concerned. Meanwhile, the party today renominated A. Vijayaraghavan in Kerala and Matilal Sarkar in Tripura for the Rajya Sabha poll. |
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Panthers Party moves EC against Mufti on Bill New Delhi, March 18 JKNPP chief Bhim Singh met the Chief Election Commissioner T S Krishna Murthy this evening demanding that the Election Commission “file an FIR against Mr Sayeed and Mr Sharma for committing a criminal offence by rousing communal passions in Jammu and Kashmir and other parts of the country by bringing the Bill.” In his petition to the EC, Mr Bhim Singh said that the Bill was introduced and passed in the state Assembly in violation of the code of conduct. Asked about his declaring candidature for the Udhampur Lok Sabha seat, Mr Bhim Singh said his party would contest five of the six Lok Sabha seats in Jammu and Kashmir, besides contesting some seats in
neighbouring states. |
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Cong, BJP vie for star power New Delhi, March 18 If well-known singers Kumar Shanu and Bhupen Hazarika were showcased by the BJP the other day as their prize catches, today it was the turn of the Congress, which paraded noted music director Bappi Lahiri as the latest entrant to party. Tomorrow it is the turn of another noted music director, Ravindra Jain, to pledge his support to the Congress. If Kumar Shanu announced his entry into the BJP with a “song on his lips”, Bappi Lahiri was not found lagging in this regard. The flamboyant music director hummed a small song in praise of “mother India and Sonia Gandhi”, at a special press briefing today. He said joining the Congress was like “a dream come true” for him. He promised to spread the Congress president’s message to the masses through his music. From Dream Girl Hema Malini, Smriti Irani and Suresh Oberoi to Poonam Dhillon, there has been an uninterrupted star trek to the BJP. When it found it was lagging behind the BJP in this regard, the Congress went on an overdrive, even setting up a special target committee for the purpose. The party’s “headhunters” like T.R. Subirammi Reddy and Rajiv Shukla had a tough task persuading film stars to lend support to the Congress. The stranglehold of the Shiv Sena and Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh over Bollywood further complicated matters for them. |
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SC to hear PIL against Advani’s yatra on April
2 New Delhi, March 18 A three-judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice V.N. Khare, while posting the matter for hearing on April 2, asked the Chennai-based lawyer S. Veeraraghavan under which law a person could be prevented from travelling from one place to another in the
country.
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DMK selling ticket: AIADMK New Delhi, March 18 AIADMK treasurer Dindigul C. Sreenivasan submitted a petition to Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishna Murthy, claiming that each aspirant was directed to deposit Rs 60 lakh each, even though the poll panel had put a cealing of Rs 25 lakh on poll expenditure.
— TNS |
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Quake
stirs PM security into action New Delhi, March 18 The elite Special
Protection Group (SPG) providing cover to the Prime Minister, Mr Atal
Bihari Vajpayee, immediately checked his Seven, Race Course Road
residence and later flashed a message for a series of exercises at the
Rashtrapati Bhavan and Parliament. Staff of the adjacent building in
the high-security zone around Parliament which included the Reserve
Bank of India was also evacuated. This was confirmed after a check
from the Met Office that it was an earthquake which had shaken the
city at around 1.13 pm. Not only the security personnel, but also
people working in the offices came out thinking that it could be an
explosion. A number of telephone calls were received by the Met Office
to conform that it was an earthquake, an official of the office said. |
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Buta Singh hurt in road mishap Jodhpur, March 18 The accident took place near Rohit town in Pali district, official sources said. He was immediately rushed and admitted to the intensive care unit of Mathuradas Mathur Hospital here where senior doctors are attending on him.
— PTI |
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US to accept visa forms from Chennai, Mumbai New Delhi, March 18 The move announced by the US Embassy here today would provide a much-needed relief to the American visa-seekers in Mumbai and Chennai. Appointments in New Delhi or Kolkata can be made and information on application procedures can be found at
www.ttsvisas.com. |
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Naxals gun down minister’s husband Hyderabad, March 18 The police said two suspected ultras of the PWG shot dead minister Manikumari’s husband, Rajkumar, at Paderu village in Visakhapatnam district. He died on the spot. A search is on for the assailants. — UNI |
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