New Delhi, March 21
The BJP today fired another salvo at the Congress by asking it to clarify its stand on people of foreign-origin occupying country’s highest posts like the President, the Prime Minister and the Chief Justice.

Mr Naidu said the Congress manifesto should state the party’s policy on the foreign origin issue.

“The Congress should (in its election manifesto to be released tomorrow) spell out clearly its stand on people of foreign origin occupying posts like that of the Prime Minister,” he said adding “if they want to reserve top posts for people of non-Indian origin, they should say it clearly”.

Further targeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi, whose foreign origin has been made a poll plank by the BJP, the party also asked the Congress to name its leader in case it was voted to power at the Centre.

He added: “We want the Congress to clarify its stand on three vital issues. Firstly, what alternative — one party rule or coalition government — are they presenting before the nation; secondly, if it is coalition, then their agenda should be laid out and finally, who is their leader”.

The BJP President added that he was not raising the issue because of any individual but in the larger interest of the country.

On the Congress charge that the ruling BJP had not done enough to bring a legislation to bar people of foreign origin from holding top posts, Mr Naidu said: “We did not have majority in the Rajya Sabha. If the Congress had cooperated with us, like it did on many other bills, we certainly would have brought the Bill. The Congress did not extend its support to such a legislation.”

He said the CPM in its manifesto had held Congress “misrule” responsible for the country’s state of affairs in the past 40 years.

“Is the Congress in agreement with the observation,” he sought to know.

He also raised the issue of the Congress and the NCP coming together for the poll. He pointed out that the NCP was formed as it was opposed to a person of foreign origin becoming the Prime Minister. “Now they are contesting elections together,” he said, asking the party to explain the rationale behind this.

Mr Paswan told mediapersons here, “If a person of foreign origin can become a member of Parliament, then how can he or she be stopped from becoming the Prime Minister.”

The NDA, particularly the BJP, always raised unimportant issues like the foreign origin of Ms Gandhi and Ayodhya to mislead the people and divert their attention from basic issues like poverty, unemployment and illiteracy and the problems of the farmers and labourers, he said.

“The coming Lok Sabha elections have posed a matter of life and death for the NDA as it will not return to power and is likely to end up with only 225-230 seats,” Mr Paswan said.

Meanwhile, the LJP leader said his party would contest 40 Lok Sabha seats, including 10 in Uttar Pradesh.

Nagpur, March 21
Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani has said that he will personally look into the setting up of a new wage board for journalists and non-journalists after the Lok Sabha elections.

Mr Advani gave this assurance to the delegates of the Maharashtra Union of Working Journalists (MUWJ), who met him yesterday here during his stopover before continuing his ‘Bharat Uday Yatra’. The delegates gave him a memorandum about the need for a new wage board and also discussed the issue with him.

In the memorandum, the MUWJ has said the last Manisana Singh Wage Board for journalists and non-journalist employees in the newspaper industry was constituted some six years ago. But, the current pay-scales needed to be revised in view of inflation. It also informed Mr Advani that recommendations of the Manisana Singh Wage Board were not implemented by several newspapers in the country.

Mr Advani, who is on the 12th day of his Bharat Uday Yatra, said the groundwork for the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya had already been prepared.

‘’A congenial atmosphere for the temple construction has been prevailing in the country for the past six months,’’ he told reporters here.

Mr Advani also favoured holding of simultaneous poll to the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.

He said the first four general elections and the Assembly poll were held simultaneously but got de-linked later due to some complexities.

On India-Pakistan ties, Mr Advani said the relations had improved and new channels of communication were opening.

Lauding the work done by the Uma Bharti government in Madhya Pradesh, the Deputy Prime Minister charged the previous Congress government with pushing the state into backwardness.

‘’We will contest the coming Lok Sabha elections on the twin issues of leadership and development,’’ Mr Advani said.

The Deputy Prime Minister had arrived here last night.

Mr Advani accused the previous Congress governments of misusing Article 356 to force too many elections on the people.

Mr Advani said the political agenda of the nation had been defined by bijli-sadak-pani (electricity, roads, water). These are the central issues, he said.

The results of the Assembly poll in Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh had shown that elections could be fought and won on developmental issues.

‘’Elections in these three states had set the political agenda that the overall issue was development,’’ he said.

SAGAR (MADHYA PRADESH): Mr Advani on Sunday asked the people to exercise their franchise to change the government which had not performed satisfactorily.

Addressing a massive gathering here, he said so far as the NDA government was concerned, the incumbency factor was a strength and not a weakness as it had performed well and led the country on the path of progress and development.

“We have taken into account various factors, including the surveys and feedback from cadre before finalising the names”, TDP supremo Naidu told reporters after releasing the first list amidst celebration of Ugadi, Telugu New Year Day.

Candidates had not yet been finalised for Ananthapur and Kurnool districts, Mr Naidu said adding that further lists for the Lok Sabha and other Assembly constituencies would be released very soon.

The TDP has allotted to its electoral ally BJP nine of the 42 Lok Sabha and 27 of the 294 assembly seats in a poll pact.

Though the name of Housing Minister P. Ramsubba Reddy, accused in a murder case, does not figure in the first list, it carries the name of Medical and Health Minister Dr Kodela Sivaprasada Rao, who also faces a similar charge.

Women ministers Uma Madhava Reddy and M. Mani Kumari were renominated from their respective constituencies but Social Welfare Minister Saraswathi’s name does not figure in the list.

Other ministers who were not included in the list are Padala Bhumaiah, Vadde Sobanadreswara Rao, N. Narasimha Rao, film star Babu Mohan and Nerendla Anjaneyulu.

In a bid to pacify some of the senior leaders who could not be given a ticket, Mr Naidu said those names will be considered for party work.

New Delhi, March 21
The BJP in Gujarat today got a shot in the arm with Maharani Shubhangini Raje Gaekwad, wife of Maharaja Ranjit Singh Gaekwad of Baroda and her son Samarjit Singh Gaekwad joining the party.

Announcing this at his residence, the BJP President M Venkaiah Naidu said their entry had strengthened the party which was already very strong in Gujarat. Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and senior party leaders Arun Jaitley and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi were also present.

A dedicated social worker, Maharani Shubhangini had contested the Lok Sabha poll, though unsuccessfully, in 1996 as an Independent candidate.

New Delhi, March 21
Rating themselves better equipped to read the pulse of society on public health issues, three Delhi doctors have joined the race for ticket to Lok Sabha seats here.

Unfazed by his defeat in the 1996 Lok Sabha elections in the Chandni Chowk constituency as a BJP candidate, Dr J.K. Jain wanted to contest from the same constituency on a Congress ticket this time. Also in the race was former secretary-general of the Indian Medical Association, Dr Prem Aggarwal. Interestingly the two doctors were good friends.

Dr Aggarwal said today that the party high command was considering his name. Asserting his familiarity with the constituency, Dr Aggarwal said, “I was born in a Congress family. My father, Dr R.C. Aggarwal was a Congress supporter.” Former president of the Delhi Medical Association, Dr Aggarwal was of the view that all national health programmes like the National Tuberculosis Control Programme, the National Cancer Control Programme, the National Malaria Control Programme and the Pulse Polio Immunisation Programme had failed. “Not a single person in the Congress or the BJP has the technical knowledge to address health issues properly. In the last five years, the BJP-led NDA coalition has changed Health Ministers five times,” he added.

Dr J.K. Jain said that the BJP-led NDA had ruined the country. “I had an invitation from the Congress party to join. So, I joined the party. It is a question of timing. If I’m given the ticket, I will contest. I’m not making a serious bid for it. I’m a social activist, a political activist and a mediaperson. I wear many hats. But one thing is certain. Doctors can help the government make better policies for vital sectors as health care, economy and employment.”

The Delhi Medical Association (DMA) had taken a neutral stand on the candidature of doctors. “We will support any doctor who contests regardless of which political party he represents. We need doctors as elected representatives to raise issues on health inside Parliament,” said DMA president, Dr Anil Bansal.

A former Health Minister of Delhi, Dr Harshvardhan said that professionals, not doctors alone, could prove to be an asset in politics. Dr Harshvardhan was also an MLA from Krishna Nagar.

The DMA was disappointed that the BJP did not give the East Delhi ticket to Dr Harshvardhan. But Dr Harshvardhan said that it would not have been fair on his part to contest from the East Delhi seat as he was election-in-charge of Delhi and the President of the Delhi State BJP.

The medical community was hopeful that the Congress would give the East Delhi ticket to Dr A.K. Walia. Sources in DMA said that the Health Minister did not seem inclined to contest.

In other states of the North-East, the party would contest both Lok Sabha seats in Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, he said.

In Tripura, the party has decided to contest from East Tripura, while talks were on for the West seat, Satish said yesterday.

For Tripura East, Pulin Dewan would be the party’s candidate, while in Manipur, outgoing MP Chauba Singh will contest from Inner Manipur and Doli Adani from Outer Manipur.

In Mizoram and Nagaland, the BJP would support its allies, the Mizo National Front and the Nagaland People’s Front for the two Lok Sabha constituencies, respectively.

“The Muslim community has been held for ransom by various political parties for long and now it is high time when they are educated about their rights and told that their vote should go to only that party which is really interested in their uplift,” morcha vice-president Gulam Sarwar Azad said.

Mumbai, March 21
Two VHP activists were killed in Filterpada slums in suburban Powai in north-central Mumbai and one person was arrested in this connection, the police said today.

The activists, identified as Navinchandra Dubey (38) of Mahili village and Hoslaprasad Upadhyay (45) of Filterpada, were hacked to death in the slums late last night.

Dubey and Upadhyay, who ran separate businesses in the slums, were cornered and attacked by seven assailants. Both were rushed to a local hospital where they were declared dead.

Chandigarh, March 21
The CBSE affiliated schools will have to strictly implement the system of issuing school-based evaluation certificates to the outgoing students of Class X. The certificates have to be issued to the students along with the detailed marks.

Sources in the board said that it had been found that some of the schools were denying the evaluation certificates to their students on flimsy grounds. In a communiqué to the heads of the affiliated schools, the Controller of Examination, Mr Pavnesh Kumar, has stated that the very purpose of involving schools as partners of the board in the process of evaluation was defeated when the schools did not issue the certificates to there students.

Under the process, the performance of a student in Class IX and X has to be evaluated. To stress on its point, the board has already issued guidelines for school-based evaluation to all its affiliated schools. At the time of appearing in interviews for further study or for a job, the certificate could be produced by the student, said the Controller of Examination.

To further improve the evaluation process, the schools have been asked to undertake continuous and comprehensive evaluation of its students up to Class VIII also. Under the evaluation system, the criteria of fail or pass would have to be done away with. If a student failed in a lower class it was not the fault of the student but the fault of the system, said the Controller.

Earlier, the court had extended till tomorrow its stay on a magistrate’s order issuing summons to the actress and her family members to appear in the case.

Magistrate S Y Shishode had issued summons on January 10 asking Aishwarya, her brother and parents to appear on February 27 before him in the case filed by estate agent Krishnakumar Shetty.

Shetty had moved the Bandra court alleging that during 1998 he had rendered services to help Aishwarya’s family in buying a 3,000-sq-ft flat in suburban Bandra. However, they did not pay him the brokerage as agreed by them.

According to Aishwarya lawyer Girish Kulkarni, no offence was made out against the actress and her family and also there was no agreement between them and the real estate agent.

However, according to Shetty, the flat in ‘La Maid’ building in suburban Bandra, was jointly purchased by Aishwarya, her father Krishnaraj, mother Brindaraj and brother Aditya for Rs 1.75 crore and they had agreed to pay him 2 per cent of the value of the flat as brokerage, which worked out to Rs 3.75 lakh.

Mumbai, March 21
In keeping with a Sessions Court directive, Bollywood actor Salman Khan is set to file a reply on March 26 to Maharashtra Government’s appeal against a lower court order allowing Bandra magistrate to conduct his trial in the hit-and-run case.

The appeal would come up for hearing before Principal Judge R.R. Vachha on March 26.

Salman’s lawyer Dipesh Mehta would file the reply on behalf of the actor, who is facing the charge of killing one person and injuring four by ramming his vehicle into a shop in suburban Bandra on September 28, 2002.

Chief Metropolitan Magistrate R.D. Gate had earlier rejected the state’s petition challenging the jurisdiction of the Bandra court to try Salman in the rash-and-negligent driving case. The state contended that Bandra magistrate was not competent to conduct the trial.

Salman had opposed it saying that the state was trying to abuse the process of law and delay the trial. The actor pleaded that the state had not raised the jurisdiction issue when charges were framed against him on October 6 last year and also when the Supreme Court had directed Bandra magistrate to try him.

The prosecution urged that Bandra Magistrate S.Y. Sishode was not competent to conduct the trial, as he had earlier recorded statements of three witnesses in this case. Under

New Delhi, March 21
For 180 undertrials in Tihar Jail, it is a case of freedom so near, yet so far.

Just as they hoped to walk free after being granted bail, these inmates realised that bail bond and surety conditions ordered by the courts were too big for their purse. But now they have a ray of hope with the District and Sessions Judge J.P. Singh directing trial courts to consider their cases and take appropriate remedial measures within 10 days, jail sources told PTI.

The direction follows an order of the Delhi High Court in February 2003 on a criminal writ petition filed by the Rotary Club District.

New Delhi, March 21
The Delhi police today arrested one more taxi driver here in connection with the murder of Australian woman tourist Dawn Eneilie Griggs on Wednesday last.

Ashish Kumar had allegedly helped the main accused, Jyotish Prasad, who is currently in police custody, in murdering Griggs soon after she landed here from Hong Kong, the police said.

The police has recovered Australian $ 260 and Rs 5,000 from Ashish’s possession.

Faizabad, March 21
In a major haul yesterday, the police recovered over 1,500 kilograms of explosives and 236 countrymade bombs in Faizabad and Gonda districts of Uttar Pradesh and arrested three persons in this connection.

Acting on a tip-off, the police raided some houses in Nawabganj market in Gonda district and recovered 236 countrymade bombs and 11 kilograms of explosives, Deputy Inspector General of Police V.K. Agarwal told PTI here.

Two persons were arrested in this connection, he said.

On the basis of information provided by them, the police raided a house in the Chowk area here and recovered 1,500 kilograms of explosives, Mr Agarwal said.

He said the explosives were not RDX, adding that one person had been arrested in this connection.

The explosives were kept in sacks and were bought from a Lucknow-based firm, he said.

New Delhi, March 21
A four-day workshop, being jointly organised by INTACH and AusHeritage , will be held in the Capital from March 24 as part of deliberations to prepare the Indian charter for conservation.

To be attended by experts from India and Australia, the workshop is aimed at clarifying the contents of the charter being prepared by INTACH.

It will be inaugurated by Mr Dhanendra Kumar, Secretary, Culture.

The workshop, which includes site visits and discussions on case studies, will take up for discussion INTACH charter on Heritage.

Set up in 1984, INTACH has focussed on diverse range of natural and other kinds of heritage of the country which has been slowly disappearing for want of public and government awareness and support. In the past 20 years, INTACH has set up over a hundred local chapters around the country.

According to Mr Brij Bhardwaj, Public Relations Consultant, INTACH, the trust is now in a position to consolidate its experience and draft a new and appropriate charter for conservation for India to guide its future actions.