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Journalist moves SC in contempt case
Patil for talks with Naxalites
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Rs 5-cr assets seized from top Excise officer
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US funds TB studies
Decision on foreign experts unilateral, says CPM
BJP welcomes Pak’s change of stand on Kashmir
Americans in India can vote in US poll
Hizbul terrorist arrested
Railways use robot for welding
Ex-Army chief defends Assam Rifles jawans
Sat Mahajan takes up project with Centre
No need for POTA, says Virbhadra Vice-Chancellors to meet in Goa Ex-minister jailed
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Journalist moves SC in contempt case
New Delhi, September 23 The TV channel reporter, Kumar Rajesh, in the faxed letter sent on September 20, had claimed that the documents had “substantial” charges against the Chief Justice, and therefore, had sought his reaction before the telecast of the news about it. He had also referred in the letter about presentation of the “documents” to the Chief Justice of India, to whom he had sent a separate letter, seeking his interview on the issue. The Madras High Court, on receipt of the faxed letter, had sent a communication to him on September 21, asking him to withdraw the letter by 1.30 pm, failing which contempt proceedings would be initiated against him. The court had said that by sending such a letter to its Chief Justice, the reporter had tried to intervene in the functioning of two constitutional authorities. Since the reporter had failed to withdraw the letter by the stipulated deadline, the high court had set up a five-judge Bench to hear the contempt case against him and directed him to appear before it on October 27, a subsequent communication sent to him by the high court said. The journalist, in his petition filed in the apex court, said though the high court thought it fit to initiate contempt proceedings against him for seeking clarification on the issue from its Chief Justice B. Subhashan Reddy, no opportunity was given to him to place his viewpoint before the court. Seeking quashing of the contempt proceedings against him, he said, “The power of contempt is a safeguard not for the judge as a person but the constitutional post he holds.”
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Patil for talks with Naxalites
New Delhi, September 23 “Whether or not extremists should drop arms is not an issue... If they drop arms, it is too good. But if they carry arms and still want to talk, we don’t have any difficulty. We are not afraid of that also,” Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil, who on September 21 chaired a meeting of Chief Ministers of Naxalism-affected states in Hyderabad, told newspersons here. “Peace has to be strengthened and dependence on violence and arms should be reduced. That is the most important and basic principle. The states should ensure that dependence on arms be reduced and dependence on dialogue be encouraged,” he added. Mr Patil said the nine states affected by Naxalism had been told to initiate the dialogue process immediately, in the manner they wanted, if they found the conditions conducive. Asked if the Centre would also initiate such talks, he said, “We explained to them that they are the elected representatives and they have the government in their states and we have confidence in them and they should take the lead.” “That does not mean the Government of India will shirk from the responsibility of stepping in when it becomes necessary. We will certainly help them with funds and forces and information, if required, in order to deal with the situation.” Nearly 55 districts spread over nine states — Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Bihar, Jharkhand, parts of West Bengal and Uttar Pradesh are affected by Naxalite violence. To a question on whether Naxalite groups would be allowed to come for talks with arms, as the People’s War Group (PWG) in Andhra Pradesh has demanded, Mr Patil put the onus on the state governments, saying that it depended on the state government how to hold talks, whether conditionally or unconditionally. “The Centre will not intervene,” he said.
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Parchu lake: China assures slow water leakage New Delhi, September 23 The Indian expert team, which returned from two-day visit to Lhasa on September 21, discussed with Chinese authorities the flood threat in Sutlej, which had necessitated large-scale evacuation of people from villages along the riverbanks in Himachal Pradesh. Official sources said that the Indian team also discussed the threat of floods in other rivers flowing into India from Tibet. They said China had, in principle, agreed to the request to set up a system for immediate reporting of flood threat in rivers flowing into India. The matter would now be taken up formally through diplomatic channels. The sources said China apprised the visiting Indian team of the efforts it had made to assess the water in the Parchu Lake at the height of flood threat and to prevent damage. They said China had sent about six teams to the site with the vice-chairman of Tibetan Autonomous Region involved in the efforts. The Indian team was also shown video clippings of the site as also its photographs. The sources said lake dimensions reported by the Chinese were “slightly larger” than calculated by the experts in India. With experts having virtually ruled out floods during the winter months due to reduced temperature in the lake area, India urged China to take steps to remove the threat of floods before the start of next summers. The Chinese authorities conveyed that efforts would be made for “gradual leakage” from the lake. The Indian team, led by Mr R K Singh, Joint Secretary in Home Ministry, comprised officials from the Ministry of External Affairs, Central Mining Research Institute, Central Water Commission and the Geological Survey of India. At the height of flood threat in early August, India had requested China to allow its technical team to visit the site of the lake to measure the extent of flood threat in Sutlej. An alert was sounded along the Sutlej banks and the vulnerable population was moved to safer places. Four of the six units of the
Naptha-Jhakri Hydel project, which had resumed generation, were also shut down. |
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Rs 5-cr assets seized from top Excise officer Mumbai, September 23 The money was seized following raids at Ajwani’s residence in Andheri yesterday and subsequent raid at the house of his friend in south Mumbai today, CBI sources said. The raids took place following a complaint by a businessman from Thane alleging that Ajwani had accepted Rs 60 lakh from him for clearing his excise case but had demanded Rs 90 lakhs more. The CBI laid a trap but later raided his suburban Andheri residence upon a tip off that a large sum of money was kept there. “We raided Ajwani’s residence yesterday but found just Rs 12.25 lakh there. We also found rubber bands and bank slips in the house suggesting that large quantity of money had been moved out”, CBI superintendent Kiran Jadhav told PTI. Ajwani, meanwhile, is admitted to Jaslok Hospital after he complained of chest pain, Jadhav added.
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PTI |
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US funds TB studies
New Delhi, September 23 A press release issued by the US Embassy here today said that the funding was renewable up to three years. The cooperative agreement with CDC was the first government contribution to Aeras, which developed vaccines against TB, a bacterial disease that killed two million people worldwide every year. The leading killer of people living with HIV/AIDS, Tuberculosis was one of the most infectious diseases in the world and one-third of the global population was infected with the disease. BCG, the vaccine available currently was nearly a century old and rarely protected beyond childhood. According to the release, Aears would work with CDC and collaborators at the St John's National Academy of Health Sciences in Bangalore to develop and expand sites for Phase II and Phase III clinical trials in Palamaner Taluk in Andhra Pradesh. The cooperative agreement would help Aeras create a professional development programme for the staff in India, develop laboratory capacity for TB diagnosis and referral systems to treat and cure patients, examine TB incidence and prevalence.
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Decision on foreign experts unilateral, says CPM New Delhi, September 23 “It is the business of India and the Indian state to conduct such a review or an appraisal. This affront gets magnified manifold by the inclusion of foreign agencies who have an avowedly anti-plan process perspective... (and) whose omnipotent god is the ‘market’,” the party organ ‘People’s Democracy’ said in an editorial in its forthcoming issue. Union Commerce Minister Kamal Nath said today that the pressure on the UPA government by the Left parties to remove World Bank and ADB representative from plan panel would not send a negative signal to foreign investors. |
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BJP welcomes Pak’s change of stand on Kashmir New Delhi, September 23 BJP spokesman and former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha told newspersons that a statement of a senior person in the Pakistan establishment Mr Munir Akram did not fit into the picture that is emerging in the relationship between the two countries. Mr Sinha expressed surprise that despite India giving up its objections to Pakistan’s entry into the Asian Regional Forum (ARF) and the Commonwealth after the latter gave in writing that it would not use the fora for raising bilateral issues, Islamabad continues to be negative. But “Pakistan will play its game and it is up to our diplomacy to defeat such efforts”, he said.
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Americans in India can vote in US poll
New Delhi, September 23 A Press note issued by the embassy said American citizens could register to vote in their country of last residence and request a ballot from that country. This is done on the Federal Post Card Application (FPCA) form which can be downloaded online at www.fvap.gov or picked up from the American Citizens’ Services (ACS) unit of the US embassy. The ballot is required to be sent immediately upon receipt. The ACS unit can help American citizens send it. The FPCA has to be sent at least a month before the elections to reach the local election officials in time. The ACS units at US Consulates in Chennai, Kolkata and Mumbai will provide similar services to American citizens in their respective consular districts.
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Hizbul terrorist arrested
New Delhi, September 23 He was caught yesterday from Apollo Hospital, near Sarita Vihar, in South district. One of the 'most wanted' militant in the Kashmir valley, he had been undergoing treatment at the hospital on his face, which had been disfigured in a blast. According to the police, after being treated at Apollo Hospital, he was undergoing treatment from an eye surgeon at Lajpat Nagar. Shabbir went to Pakistan in 2001, to get the militant training, and thereafter he came back after a year. |
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Railways use robot for welding
New Delhi, September 23 According to a press note issued by the Railway Ministry here today, the Rail Coach Factory (RCF), Kapurthala, machined in-house top surface of bed of 320 tonne Press Brake which had worn out and developed inaccuracies. The endeavour saved the RCF Rs 75,000. It said a standard gauge bogie frame in the FIAT format was designed and validated for developing export potential. |
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Ex-Army chief defends Assam Rifles jawans
Kolkata, September 23 Addressing newsperson at the Press Club, he said Manorama Devi had been raped either by Army jawans or Assam Rifles personnel, which had been proved by her post-mortem report and two successive DNA tests conducted on her and 35 other accused jawans. |
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Sat Mahajan takes up project with Centre
New Delhi, September 23 Mr Mahajan said the scheme had been cleared by the HP Government and the Central Water Commission. |
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No need for POTA, says Virbhadra Hamirpur, September 23 There was no need to have such a law in India, he told a group of reporters here today. Later, he left for Guler to take part in the electioneering of Congress nominee Neeraj Ajad there. |
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Vice-Chancellors to meet in Goa New Delhi, September 23 Union Human Resource Development Minister, Mr Arjun Singh would open the meet, being organised by the University Grants Commission (UGC), to make e-learning an effective tool in higher education. |
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Ex-minister jailed Kozhikode, September 23 First Class Judicial Magistrate P. Sasidharan sentenced Nadar, a representative of the Janata Dal (S) in the then Left Democratic Front (LDF) government, after convicting him under Section 354 of the IPC for misbehaving with then Kozhikode Divisional Forest Officer Pragati Shrivastava on February 27, 1999. — UNI
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