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LJP forms alliance with students union in Jharkhand
Suicide bid by Cong activist
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Proximity to BJP, RSS got them land
Jaya rules out withdrawal of cases against seer
Bail pleas only for stalling probe: Jaya
Two Naxalites killed, bus torched
UPA on verge of collapse in Bihar
Confession under TADA can be used in other cases: SC
Former Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah releases the book “Four Fingers and Seventeen Nails” in New Delhi on Sunday.
— Tribune photo by Rajeev Tyagi
8 die in kite flying incidents
Naxalites mar panchayat elections
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LJP forms alliance with students union in Jharkhand
Ranchi, January 16 According to the understanding arrived between the AJSU and Ram Vilas Paswan's LJP, while the latter would contest in 38 constituencies, the AJSU would field candidates in 43 out of 81 seats. "The BJP underestimated the might of the AJSU. Now that we have achieved an electoral deal with the LJP, the BJP will rue its decision for the second time in nine months," Mr Mahto, the President of the AJSU, said referring to the debacle suffered by the BJP in the Lok Sabha polls. Mr Paswan said his decision was the fallout of an "old relationship" with the AJSU and Sudesh Mahto would be the Chief Ministerial candidate of the two parties. Mr Mahto, the lone AJSU member in the NDA Cabinet, holding the road construction portfolio, claimed it was he who struggled for taking the recent Cabinet decision on the recommendation to the Centre to list Kurmis in the Schedule Tribe category. Himself a Kurmi, Mr Mahto has only announced six names for the first phase of elections slated on February 3. He also said Mr Paswan and he would lead the campaigning during the elections.
— PTI |
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Suicide bid by Cong activist
New Delhi, January 16 He was admitted to a nearby hospital with about eight per cent burn injuries. His condition is stated to be stable, the Deputy Commissioner of Police (New Delhi District), Ms Anita Arya said. She said that the youth from Haryana belonged to one of the six factions vying to get party ticket, outside the 24, Akbar Road, Congress headquarters in New Delhi. Denying reports that three persons had tried to set themselves on fire by pouring kerosene, the DCP said only one person was involved in the incident. "It is a minor case which occurred around noon and the person received minor burns," she said. He seemed to be a supporter of one of the candidates seeking tickets for the February polls in Haryana, the DCP said. |
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Proximity to BJP, RSS got them land
New Delhi, January 16 In the case of the Pushpa Vihar Ayyappa Samiti, former BJP MPs, including Mr Saheb Singh Verma, Mr K.L. Sharma and Mr O. Rajgopal, had taken up the case of allotment of land with the Urban Development Ministry. A piece of 400 sq m was allotted at M.B. Road on October 11, 2000. Unsatisfied with the piece of land, the samiti wrote to the Urban Development Ministry again for more land and while the application was in process, the organisation started construction on adjacent plots. Additional land was allotted and its illegal construction regularised, the report added. In another case the Dharam Yatra Mahasangh had applied for 500 sq m on September 19, 2000. After its application was rejected in May 2001, it again wrote to the then Urban Development Minister, Mr Jagmohan. A proposal was put to the Urban Development Minister for allotment of 736.5 sq m. The proposal was forwarded with a note that “in this case, as would be observed from the letter head (the then) Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajapyee, VHP leader Ashok Singhal and Urban Development Minister Jagmohan were its board members...” The committee observed that the papers were never sent to the Home Ministry for verification of the group or whether it was registered with any ministry.
— PTI |
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Jaya rules out withdrawal of cases against seer
Chennai, January 16 In a lengthy statement defending her government’s actions against the Kanchi Mutt officials and its two pontiffs, she described the stand of the BJP and “certain other vested interests” crying for her intervention in the investigation process as “politically motivated”. She stated: “The BJP may be interested in taking up this issue in order to rehabilitate itself. I cannot yield to their request contrary to the law of the land.” Arguing further, she added: “No one expected the heads of the Shankara Mutt to stray from the path of dharma and be arraigned as accused in a murder case. The evidence clearly pointed towards them in the commission of such a crime.” Describing the SIT police officers as “appropriate officers”, she pointed out that even the judiciary could not intervene in the matter. Ms Jayalalithaa said: “I am getting only minimum information from the officers on the course of the investigation. In the entire episode I have acted without fear or favour.” The statement further said: “the Sankararaman murder, the assault of Radhakrishnan and temple priest Madhavan posed a severe challenge to the police and the investigations revealed shocking facts which pointed to the involvement of certain persons, who could never have been suspected of involvement in such crimes. When these names were brought to my knowledge, it came as a rude shock to me.” “These three cases point to the fact that the three persons, who were victims of the assaults, had at some point of time connections with the Kanchi Shankara Mutt. This will raise the relevant questions as to why all three persons should have been assaulted or murdered,” she added, justifying additional action against the seer. Describing Sankararaman as “an orthodox temple manager”, the Chief Minister charged the Acharyas with pre-meditating a crime which was committed by hirelings in broad daylight within the temple premises. She accused her detractors as those interested in side-tracking the investigation and charged them with manipulative misinformation. Reacting to the Sangh Parivar’s charges, she said: “Ultimately the guilt or innocence of those accused in the case could be established only during the trial.” |
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Bail pleas only for stalling probe: Jaya
Chennai, January 16 “The accused in the case, with a view to stalling the investigation, resorted to frequent filing of bail petitions from forum to forum,” she said in a statement. “For days together, endless arguments are being carried on and wasteful advertisements are being released. Slanderous news is being published about the investigating officers so as to frustrate their efforts and deflect investigation,” Ms Jayalalithaa said. “Attempts are being made to negate the confessional statements recorded by the court and public meetings are being held so as to misdirect and delay the investigation,” she said. She also had a dig at the media, saying that “the media blitz in the case will impede and obfuscate the investigation.” The people must have now become aware of these “diversionary and obfuscatory actions of vested interests and political parties” to use media aided by “half-baked and self-proclaimed legal eagles, whose lifetime profession is to confuse and divert the truth,” she said. These tactics were being resorted to as a concerted, orchestrated campaign in support of the accused at “enormous expenditure,” to obfuscate the legal proceedings and to weaken the case, she alleged.
— PTI |
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Two Naxalites killed, bus torched
Hyderabad, January 16 The exchange of fire took place between the Naxalites and the police in a forest area near Kothaguda of Narasampet sub-division, the police said. The deceased are yet to be identified. A report from Kurnool said in a retaliatory action, six Maoists set a government bus on fire near Bairluti between Atmakur and Dornala after alighting passengers from the vehicle. Concerned over a sudden spurt in naxalite violence, Chief Minister Y S R Reddy today held a high-level review meeting to take stock of the situation following gunning down of naxals and counter-attack by ultras.
— PTI |
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UPA on verge of collapse in Bihar
Patna, January 16 Both Mr Yadav and Mr Paswan, however, continued to assert that talks with the Congress for avoiding split in anti-NDA votes were on. While the RJD was yet to release the list of nominees even for the first phase of elections for which nominations were to close tomorrow, the LJP has fielded its candidates in 56 of the 64 constituencies where polling would take place in the first phase, with the promise to leave two seats to the Congress. The LJP list which named its candidate for Warisaliganj from where Bihar Congress president Ram Jatan Sinha was contesting attracted ire from the RJD supremo Mr Yadav. He accused Mr Paswan of "backtracking" from his commitment not to contest from the seats where the Congress would field candidates and said the announcement of the LJP to put up candidates in all but two constituencies in the first phase would help the communal forces.
— UNI |
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Confession under TADA can be used in other cases: SC
New Delhi, January 16 A five-judge Constitution Bench said a confession recorded under TADA would continue to remain “admissible for offences under other laws” despite the accused being acquitted of offences under TADA in the same trial.
— UNI |
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Farooq releases Dahiya’s book
New Delhi, January 16 Dr Abdullah hailed the achievements of Dahiya, executive director of three family-run companies in hotels, plastics and engineering. Since Punjab Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh could not attend the function, he sent a message to be read out at the function. He sent his wishes to Dahiya for a book full of human emotions. According to Dahiya, the West had been enamoured by the East, charmed by its spirituality, mystic religions, contradictory values and contentment amidst financial frailty. In his opinion, him, the East, at least the big majority, had been attracted to the West for its material success, the spectacle of modernity, the worldly miracles of technology and wide array of bodily luxuries. Dahiya said as we moved towards a more localised world, an intensive swap was happening between the people, values and cultures of these two worlds. He said the metamorphosising cocktail had, every now and then, rendered momentous trivialities, which were stunning in terms of joy and pain — the two extreme points of our mental pendulum. “What is more, in this new post-modern informational age, people at both ends of the spectrum have been caught in the desire square of money, women, ingestion and power,” added Dahiya. “Four Fingers and Seventeen Nails,” is a selection of 17 short stories about these diametrically different worlds and the commonly shared desire square. Moreover, they incorporate the element of chance, the fickleness of life and the twists and turns of fate, which make losers overnight winners and vice versa. They have been conceived and written in an international setting with backgrounds in Europe, the USA and Asia. The stories draw out on several cultures. The contrast, by design, is fascinating, scandalous at times appalling — some of them are set amidst a traditional, value-based, superstitious East while others in a modern, materialistic West. A common Indian character AJ in several of the stories provides cohesiveness and an interesting confederacy. Characterised by strong plots, the stories, though varying in content and pulse, share endings. Besides the collection of short stories, he has finished a novel, ‘The Desert Hotel’, and a collection of poems, ‘Hallow Whispers’. He is working on a non-fiction, futuristic book, tentatively titled ‘2050’, and a novel ‘The Islamic Cross’. |
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8 die in kite flying incidents
Hyderabad, January 16 Five-year-old M. Arun Kumar fell from the terrace of a building, where he tried to catch a kite in the Kulsumpura area. He died while undergoing treatment at Osmania General Hospital. In another incident, E. Krishna, a five-year-old resident of Vidyanagar slipped and fell over a water-tank, while flying kite. He died in a private hospital while undergoing treatment. A two-year-old boy was hit by an auto-rickshaw, while he was running to catch a kite. He died at Osmania General Hospital while undergoing treatment. Meanwhile, in Surat five persons lost their lives in separate incidents related to kite-flying during the Uttarayan Festival here.
— UNI |
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Naxalites mar panchayat elections
Raipur, January 16 The extremists yesterday took away polling materials from 11 booths and set them on fire in Sarguja district, the sources said, adding they also set on fire a bus, acquired for transporting the polling party to Kusmi block. The Naxalites also took away voting materials at Phandiguda booth of Konta block in Dantewada district. Polling in 17 places have been deferred, the sources added.
— PTI |
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Chennai, January 16
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