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SP fields 59 in UP, silent on Amethi
Sonia still hopeful of alliance in UP
Rahul’s entry enlivens Cong
Cong manifesto mere rhetoric, says BJP
BJP seeking 2nd term to finish tasks: PM
Poll notification tomorrow
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Jagmohan meets EC
on illegal structures
Muslim League to field serial blasts accused against PM
SC seeks CBI reply in Pandya
case
POTA panel to review ban on LTTE
File reply in prisoners’ case, SC tells Haryana
Blind student gets MBBS degree
11 polling booths for Kashmiri migrants
Lt-Gen Avtar Singh new DIA chief
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SP fields 59 in UP, silent on Amethi
New Delhi, March 22 The party has fielded Jaya Prada from Rampur, Raj Babbar from Agra and Akhilesh Yadav, son of party supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav, from Kannauj but left out Amethi from where the Congress was fielding Rahul Gandhi. With today’s announcement, the SP had declared candidates on 63 of the 70 seats it was contesting in Uttar Pradesh. The party had left 10 seats for the Rashtriya Lok Dal. Maintaining that it had held back announcement of party candidate from Amethi, SP general secretary Amar Singh said he had no inkling that Congress President Sonia Gandhi would shift to Rae Bareli. The SP had already declared its candidate from that seat. The Samajwadi Party, he said, would not withdraw its candidate from Rae Bareli and a decision about Amethi would be taken later. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav’s brother Ram Gopal Yadav would contest from Sambhal. No candidate was announced for Mainpuri amid speculation that the UP CM would contest from the seat. The party’s list today contained the names of 12 members from the Muslim community and six women, including Madhu Gupta, who was pitted against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee in Lucknow. It had announced the candidature of Revati Raman Singh from Allahabad, where the HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi was seeking re-election. Former Union Minister Beni Prasad Verma would take on Arif Mohammad Khan, who recently joined the BJP, in Kaiserganj. Mr Singh blamed the Congress for its failure to firm up a secular alliance against the BJP in Uttar Pradesh by ‘spurning SP initially and courting the BSP’. The Congress leaders, he said, had also threatened to withdraw outside support to the SP government in UP. Ruling out any pre-poll tie-up except with the RLD, Mr Singh said the Congress was not in a position to give a challenge to the BSP and the BJP in the state. He, however, kept the option open for participation in a post-poll ‘secular front’ government. The party also announced three candidates each from Bihar and Madhya Pradesh and from Mahendragarh in Haryana. Prominent among whom was former Congress president Sitaram Kesri’s brother Rajiv Ranjan Sahu from Sitamarhi in Bihar. The party renominated 17 MPs, 16 former MPs besides two ministers and three MLAs. Candidates for Balia, the traditional seat of former Prime Minister Chandrashekar besides Sultanpur, Pratapgarh, Shahbad and Fatehpur had not been announced. Ms Jaya Prada said that Andhra Pradesh was her ‘janambhoomi’ and Uttar Pradesh would be her ‘karambhoomi’. With the announcement of the Samajwadi Party candidate from the Lucknow parliamentary constituency, the proposal to field a joint opposition candidate against Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee has been finally dropped. SP General Secretary Amar Singh, named Ms Madhu Gupta as the SP candidate from the Lucknow constituency. |
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Sonia still hopeful of alliance in UP
New Delhi, March 22 “All options are open,” she declared even as both its potential allies, the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) and the Samajwadi Party (SP), have released their lists of Lok Sabha candidates and declared their intention to go alone in the coming polls. As for SP leader Amar Singh’s statement blaming the Congress for closing its doors for an alliance with their party, Ms Gandhi maintained it was “a most unfair statement.” Speaking to reporters after the release of the party manifesto, the Congress president said it had been her effort from the very beginning to call on all leaders of like-minded parties. While sounding a positive note on the issue of alliances in UP, Ms Gandhi also reiterated that in case the Congress could not ally with other parties, “it was willing to go it alone without any fear.” She dismissed any talk of naming her son Rahul Gandhi as “heir apparent”, stating that it was entirely his decision to contest the elections. Similarly, she said, it was for her daughter, Priyanka, to decide if she wished to enter politics. “It is for Priyanka to decide. If any decision is taken, you will come to know,” she added. Regarding her decision to shift to the Rae Bareli constituency, Ms Gandhi said she had decided to contest from here as her father-in-law and mother-in-law had represented it. She said it was after considerable discussions in the family that it was decided that Rahul should contest from Amethi, the constituency represented by
his father. Responding to another question, Ms Gandhi said plans were being chalked out for joint campaign with its alliance partners, adding that
if necessary, a common minimum programme could also be brought out. As for the party’s election manifesto, Ms Gandhi maintained that it would be supplemented with three separate vision documents which would spell out the party’s position on economic affairs, social empowerment and national security and foreign affairs. “We did not want the election manifesto to be too bulky,” she explained, adding that these three issues would be dealt
with in detail. |
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Rahul’s entry enlivens Cong
Lucknow, March 22 “The news of Rahul bhaiya contesting election from Amethi has enlivened the party workers”, the chief spokesman of the Uttar Pradesh Congress Committee, Mr Akhilesh Singh, said. It is almost a festival-like scenario in Nehru Bhavan – the headquarters of the UPCC. Crackers were busted and sweets were distributed. Amidst the beating of drums, the general secretary of the UPCC said the Congress workers had recently passed a resolution demanding that Rahul and Priyanka should contest elections. “The high command has accepted our demand,” he said. Party activists in Rae Bareli, from where Sonia Gandhi would contest election, celebrated a second round of Holi today, smearing colours on each other faces. “There is no difference between Rae Bareli and Amethi — both the constituencies belong to the Gandhi family”, Mr Jagdish Piyush, Sonia’s local area in charge told The Tribune on the telephone from Amethi. “People in Rae Bareli celebrated Holi… it is a joyous mood there”, he said. The Leader of the Congress Legislature Party, Mr Pramod Tiwari, said the party would win over 25 seats in the elections. |
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Cong manifesto mere rhetoric, says BJP
New Delhi, March 22 Maintaining that the Congress’ decision to give ticket to Rahul was an internal matter and party’s right to freedom to field candidate of its choice, senior BJP leader and Union Minister Arun Jaitley said: “The Congress had always sought common man’s support to further the politics of a privileged family.” Dubbing the Congress manifesto mere rhetoric, full of slogans without being specific on any issue, Mr Jaitley said: “The Congress manifesto speaks of a party certain of its defeat at the hustings.” |
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BJP seeking 2nd term to finish tasks: PM
Maharajganj (UP), March 22 “We want to complete the incomplete work... roads are not complete and the plan to link rivers for ending floods and droughts in the country is to be implemented,” he said while addressing an election rally here. “For this we have come to seek your support not just votes,” he added. Mr Vajpayee said the ambitious project to link all rivers in the country would solve the problem of drought as water in over-flooded rivers during the monsoons would be conserved in dams and used in parts of scarcity. He said the inter-linking project had been envisaged by the Congress which, however, chose to examine it at a later stage. “We promised one crore jobs every year. And statistics show 88 lakh people have been given employment opportunities. There is some shortfall, we will bridge that,” he said. Listing the achievements of his government, Mr Vajpayee said from creating road infrastructure to giving farmers right price for their crops and cheaper credit and credit cards, the picture of the country has changed. |
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Poll notification tomorrow
New Delhi, March 22 For the first time the country would witness paperless polling with the commission deploying electronic voting machines in all the constituencies to elect the 543-member House of the people. About 675 electorate would go to polls in five phases from April 20 to May 10. The counting of votes would take place on May 13, and the results are expected the same day. The polling for the first and second phase would be held on April 20 and April 22 for 141 seats spread over 17 states across the country. The candidates would have time to file their nomination till March 31 and the scrutiny would take place on April 1 and in some places the next day. The last date for withdrawal is April 5. The states which would go to polls in the first phase were Andhra Pradesh (21), Assam (6), Bihar (11), Gujarat (26), Jammu and Kashmir (2), Karnataka (15), Maharashtra (24), Manipur (1), Meghalaya (2), Orissa (11), Chhattisgarh (11), Jharkhand (6), Dadra and Nagar Haveli (1), Daman and Diu (1) and Andaman and Nicobar Islands (1). The commission had rescheduled the polling in Tripura. Although, the state would go to polls on April 22, the notification and other dates would be similar to the first phase. |
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Jagmohan meets EC
on illegal structures New Delhi, March 22 Mr Jagmohan, who is the sitting MP from New Delhi Parliamentary constituency, met the three-member poll panel and urged them to look at the issue of ‘induced squatting’ by political parties as it hampered the process of free and fair elections that the commission strived to uphold. He said the phenomenon of induced squatting violated with impunity a host of our civil and criminal laws and strangulated almost all our constitutional, environmental, cultural and civic values. “How can a phenomenon which is based upon violation of so many laws and strangulation of so many of our positive values find a place in a process which claims to be fair, free and pure,” he asked. He accused the Delhi Chief Minister, Ms Sheila Dikshit, of “intentional
disinformation” campaign on the removal of illegal structures in the Yamuna Pushta area.
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Muslim League to field serial blasts accused against PM
Mumbai, March 22 Ahmed obtained permission from Judge Pramod Kode of the Special TADA Court to travel to Lucknow as per the bail provisions under which he was released along with other accused persons. He was permitted to stay away from Mumbai till April 18. He had, however, been asked to present himself before the court on that date. A marine engineer by profession, Ahmed was among 86 others accused in the conspiracy which resulted in 13 bomb blasts across Mumbai on March 13, 1993. He was accused of attending a meeting with gangster Dawood Ibrahim in Dubai before the blasts. At least 250 persons were killed and nearly a thousand others injured in the terror wave said to have been masterminded by Dawood Ibrahim and the Pakistan’s ISI. Ahmed had contested elections earlier as well. In 2002, he contested the Lok Sabha byelections from Mirzapore in Uttar Pradesh following the killing of sitting MP Phoolan Devi. He had managed 28,000 votes then. Before leaving Mumbai, Ahmed told reporters here that the Muslim League wanted him to contest from Lucknow which had 3.5 lakh Muslim voters out of a total of 12 lakh voters. He also intended to protest his innocence in the case. In his defense Ahmed had said that he was in Dubai working as a marine engineer and had nothing to do with the blasts. |
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SC seeks CBI reply in Pandya
case New Delhi, March 22 While quashing of the POTA charges was sought by all 11 accused, the transfer of the trial from Gujarat to Andhra Pradesh was sought by five accused who belonged to that state. Pandya was assassinated on March 26, 2003, in front of his house in Ahmedabad. The police had arrested Mohammad Asghar Ali, Mohammad Abdul Rauf, Mohammad Saifuddin, Saiyed Iftekhar and Mohammad Abdul Bari from Andhra Pradesh and six from Gujarat. When the court asked counsel for the five accused from Andhra Pradesh whether the other accused wanted trial outside Gujarat, counsel for the state government told a Bench, comprising Mr Justice S. Rajendra Babu, Mr Justice P.V. Reddi and Mr Justice G.P. Mathur, that the remaining accused had not questioned the trial inside the state but only sought quashing of the POTA charges. Following this, the court also sought clarification from the petitioners how the case could be transferred when only some of the accused had pleaded for the shifting of the trial. The CBI was given two weeks time to submit the reply. Meanwhile, Solicitor General Kirit Raval, appearing for the agency, told the court that the POTA charges were slapped on the accused because the case related to a conspiracy to assassinate a former Home Minister of the state. |
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POTA panel to review ban on LTTE
New Delhi, March 22 This was revealed today by the POTA panel during the hearing of MDMK leader Vaiko’s application for the review of the POTA case against him, slapped by the Tamil Nadu Government. The POTA Review Committee, headed by former Punjab and Haryana High Court Chief Justice A.B. Saharya during the hearing disclosed that the panel had recently received Nedumaran’s application, seeking to know what action had been taken by the Union Government on his November 2002 representation to it regarding the lifting of the ban on the LTTE. Since the POTA panel was not constituted at that time, the government had kept the matter pending and referred the same to it only recently to deal with the case. The Union Government had banned the LTTE after Rajiv Gandhi’s assassination in 1991. The separatist Sri Lankan Tamilian organisation was created in 1976 with the aim of seeking
independence to Tamilians in that country. |
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File reply in prisoners’ case, SC tells Haryana
New Delhi, March 22 A Bench of Mr Justice S.N. Variava and Mr Justice H.K. Sema while passing the order on Friday, told Haryana’s counsel D.P. Singh that the compiling of the data about the released prisoners should not be difficult as the police had their records in the FIRs. The petitioners — advocate Anil Sharma and the Society for Human Rights and Civil Liberties (SHRCL) — had alleged that the government had even released those hardcore prisoners, whose sentences had been upheld by the apex court. They alleged that the celmency was granted by the state government in violation of the apex court’s guidelines. In many case the clemency was granted to life convicts only after the completion of three to four years of jail term and many of them had even been given government jobs, they alleged. The petitioners had alleged that the INLD Government, headed by Om Prakash Chautala had released nearly 275 convicts and Mr Bhajan Lal and Bansi Lal Governments had remitted the sentences of seven and two lifers. |
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PIL on jailbreaks New Delhi, March 22 A Bench of Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice
B.P. Singh directed petitioners, lead by Manzoor Ali Khan, to make all states and union territories parties to his PIL before seeking notice on it to the government, as the matter of jails was in the state list. |
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Jailbreaks
an ‘eye-opener’ New Delhi, March 22 “The recent jail breaks should be an eye opener and there is a
need to take effective steps as these incidents cannot be
tolerated,” Mr Baijal said inaugurating a two-day conference of
Directors General and Inspectors General of Prison here.
“We have had jail breaks like at Tihar and Burail...We need to
draw lessons and plug any loopholes...These do not brook any delay,”
he said.
Referring to prison reforms, Mr Baijal said though the Centre had
earmarked Rs 1,800 crore for prison reforms there were several states
which had not come up with any proposal as yet for improving the
condition within the jail premises.
“Earlier there was paucity of funds. But now when funds are
available, we are still awaiting proposals from the states,” Mr
Baijal said appealing to the states to finalise the proposal reports
within this financial year.
Stressing the need to go through incidents like custodial deaths
and procedures involving escorting prisoners to hospitals etc, the
Home Secretary asked the jail administrators from various states to
frame procedures for improving the condition in jails and if needed,
seek assistance from the Bureau of Police Research and Development (BPRD). The court told Khan’s counsel that the matter would be taken up for hearing after a week’s time when the states and the union territories are impleaded as parties. The petitioner said since the escape of Beant Singh murder case main accused Jagtar Singh Hawara and two of his accomplices from Burail Jail, near Chandigarh, on January 22, there had been a spate of jailbreaks in which 19 hardcore prisoners, including Sher Singh Rana, the prime accused in Phoolan murder case, managed to flee from Tihar Jail.  |
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Blind student gets MBBS degree
New Delhi, March 22 CSP Anka Toppo, who was on the verge of losing his dream of becoming a doctor, is today both happy and proud to have passed the hurdles. Toppo was allowed to take the final examination by the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), where he was enrolled after NHRC's intervention. The degree was awarded to him at the convocation ceremony held here recently. Toppo who enrolled in AIIMS in 1989 was barred from taking the final examination in December 1993 when he developed visual problems in September. What begun as a gradual reduction in vision finally left Toppo totally impaired. Toppo had to seek the NHRC's intervention when the Medical Council of India refused him permission to take the examination. He told the NHRC that he had been denied permission to appear for the final MBBS examination conducted by AIIMS in May 2001. |
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11 polling booths for Kashmiri migrants
New Delhi, March 22 Eight booths will be set up in Jammu, two in Delhi and one in Udhampur. All migrant voters from Jammu and Kashmir will have to submit a form with the assistant returning officer concerned on specific days to enroll themselves for the six constituencies in the state — Jammu, Baramula, Srinagar, Anantnag, Ladakh and Udhampur. Special polling booths for such migrants were set up for the first time in 1996. |
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Lt-Gen Avtar Singh new DIA chief
New Delhi, March 22 Lt-Gen Avtar Singh, who was earlier General Officer Commanding of an operationally committed corps in the Eastern Sector, has also been a military attache at the Indian Embaassy in Ethiopia. He commanded an elite Infantry Division in the Western Sector during Operation Vijay. He has also worked as Instructor at the Defence Services Staff College, as well as the Army War College, Mhow. |
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