 |
|
Centre turns down TN Special Task Force
promotions
Air Chief moots central aerospace
body
SC directs govt to re-examine promotions of 4
AVMs
SAD wants forces for Ajnala
byelection
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Civic poll turning point, says Mufti
Rao Inderjit Singh to visit Latin America
SC to hear plea on lottery sale
issue
Bride goes on mare for wedding
Govt to set up disaster management
authority
|
|
Centre turns down TN Special Task Force
promotions
Chennai, February 7 The Centre also turned down the state government’s recommendation to award Special Task Force personnel and the suggestion to confer Padmashri on its chief, Mr K. Vijay Kumar, and Ashok Chakra on the STF’s Superintendent of Police, Mr Senthamarai Kannan, for their role in eliminating Veerappan. Addressing the state Assembly here today, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa said, “It is regrettable and unfortunate that the Union Government has asked the state government to take back the promotions already announced. It is like asking someone to get up and leave after serving food on his plate.” She said, “This will have a demoralising effect on the police forces in the entire country.” After accomplishing the task of eradicating the Veerappan menace, Mr Vijay Kumar was promoted to the rank of Director-General of Police, while Mr Senthamarai Kannan and Mr Shanmugavel, both SPs, were promoted as Deputy Inspectors-General by the state government. All promotions were subject to the Centre’s approval but the Union Home Secretary has rejected the proposal and wrote to the state to withdraw them. Ms Jayalalithaa said, “I have written once again on January 27 to the Union Home Minister on this issue, but I have not got a reply as yet.” She said she had also recommended that the Centre conferred Keerti Chakra on STF personnel, Mr S. Velladurai, Mr M. Saravanan and Mr V. Kumaresan, for their gallantry. But the Republic Day award list did not include any of the names. A peeved Ms Jayalalithaa asked, “All sorts of people have got the Republic Day awards. Are the STF personnel unfit for such awards?” she asked. She lamented that none from the Centre had congratulated the STF for achieving an uphill task like killing Veerappan and his gang members except just a letter of appreciation from Home Minister Shivraj Patil. She quoted a recent judgement of the Madras High Court stating, “In our view, the Tamil Nadu STF deserves every appreciation not only by the Government of Tamil Nadu, but also the Government of India,” and added, “the Centre should bear this remark in mind and clear their promotions. |
|
Air Chief moots central aerospace
body
Bangalore, February 7 He suggested the setting up of a central aerospace organisation which could co-ordinate all aerospace related activities. "This might be on the lines of an Aeronautics Commission," he said, delivering an address at the inauguration of a seminar on 'Aerospace Technologies: Development and Strategies' organised by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) and the Aeronautical Society of India, as part of Aero India 2005. The need for setting up such a commission along the lines of the Atomic Energy and Space commissions has been stressed by several experts in the light of importance of the sector and India's growing needs and capabilities. He also stressed the need to evolve strategies to cut down on wasteful expenditure and perhaps "drop programmes" which were unable to serve their purpose. There was also a need to promote more private sector participation, which was deterred by the long gestation periods and learning curves in the sector, lack of sponsors and
non-availability of core technologies, he added. He appreciated the recent efforts initiated by the DRDO to pass on technologies to the private sector. Later talking to reporters, on the IAF requirement of 125 fighters, for which requests for information had been sent to Sweden, France, Russia and the United States, he said they were looking at a situation where the 125 fighters would be a combination of single and twin-engined aircraft with multiple roles. The proposal was to fill an immediate requirement, he said. "I need these planes now." On the need for more co-ordination, he said: "If HAL is doing some research and someone else is doing the same thing that is not useful." Delivering the inaugural address, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee echoed the need for private participation and more joint ventures. "It is clear that investment in education and training of our youth in a mission mode is important to maintain and make progress in high technology areas such as aerospace," he said. Former Royal Air Force Chief and Bae Systems adviser Sir John Day, delivering the keynote address, said airforces had "a duty to tell the army and political masters" about the critical role played by airforces in modern combat and the vital need for air superiority in order to win a conflict. |
|
SC directs govt to re-examine promotions of 4
AVMs
New Delhi, February 7 Virtually putting Harish Masand on whose petition the promotions were quashed, out of contention, the report filed in a sealed cover before a Bench of Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice P.P. Naolekar, was based on 95:5 per cent ACR and “board marks” respectively against the earlier assessment of February 2003, made on the basis of 80:20 ratio. The Bench, after perusing the report told Solicitor General G.E. Vahanvati that “there is no denying the fact that the result of reassessment is the same as it was earlier, but there are drastic changes in the board marks — whether done intentionally for a purpose or it was a coincidence, we don’t know.” Since a copy of the report was not made available to the Solicitor General in advance by the ministry, the court gave him time till February to examine it and form his legal opinion and if necessary have a discussion on the issue with the Defence Secretary and the new IAF chief S P Tyagi. The court said if the changes in the board marks had been made intentionally, then the matter had to be heard further. The apex court had on December 13 directed the Government to have a fresh
assessment of the entire promotion process on the basis of 95:05 mark ratio as had been laid down by the government in its policy, changed suddenly in 2003 for the promotions of A.D. Joshi, J.S. Gujral, F.H. Major and A K Singh as AVMs. The High Court had quashed the promotions of the four AVMs on the petitions of Masand and T.S. Chhatwal, who had alleged that the board marks were increased from 5 per cent to 20 per cent by the February 2003 SPB to ensure that they were put out of the race. Masand’s counsel Vivek Tankha said this was done by the then Chief of Air Staff Krishnaswamy to “deny” promotion to his client due to “personal differences” with him. The Solicitor General told the court that during the 2003 promotions the total 600 marks were divided as 480 based on ACR and 120 to be awarded by the six-member board, headed by Krishnaswamy, while as per the earlier policy the ACR and board marks should have been split on 570 and 30 ratio, respectively. The court further told the Solicitor General that if the marks were awarded on the same proportion as had been done by the February 2003 SPB just by reducing the board marks to 5 per cent, “then the results would have been different”. |
|
SAD wants forces for Ajnala
byelection
New Delhi, February 7 In a memorandum to Chief Election Commissioner T.S. Krishnamurthy, SAD MPs, led by party secretary-general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, also sought deployment of central observers for the Assembly byelection to ensure free and fair elections. The campaigning in the constituency has picked up after the filing of nominations. Akali candidate Amarpal Singh Bonny is pitted against the ruling Congress’ Harpartap Singh Ajnala in the constituency. Both parties are keen on winning the election in view of its importance in the state politics. The SAD accused Chief Minister Amarinder Singh of abusing power, saying that the Congress used state machinery when its candidate filed his nomination. “Polling staff should be deputed from Central government departments and not state government as it is likely to pressurise the state government employees,” stated the memorandum. Referring to the large-scale violence during the previous Assembly byelections, the SAD delegation submitted, “though the commission took action on some of the complaints and transferred many senior civil and police officers, but the Congress was able to do what it wanted to do.” Mr Dhindsa alleged, “The Chief Minister is again adopting the same modus
operandi. The whole state machinery was misused by the Congress on the day of filing of nomination papers by the Congress candidate.” He lamented that all senior officers were deputed to mobilise public and the district officers arranged transport for this purpose. “Ajnala DSP Manmohan Singh, who is related to the Congress candidate and against whom the SAD had even filed a written complaint in the last Parliament elections, is again actively behaving like a Congress worker and is pressurising and threatening SAD workers,” the memorandum said. “Elections in the state have been reduced to a farce. In the municipal elections and before that in the elections to the Panchayat Samitis and Zila Parishads, the police and the state machinery were grossly misused for preventing the opponents of the Congress Government from voting and at places the elected members were even abducted to prevent them from participating in the election of the office-bearers,” said Mr Dhindsa. He said the same story was being repeated again and again. The delegation expressed hope that the commission would take all necessary steps to put an end to the constant disregard of the Constitution and ensure that this “ living symbol of anarchy does not continue to mock our democracy and rule of law any further.” The delegation members included Mr Sukhbir Singh Badal, Mr Zora Singh Mann, Mr Varinder Singh Bajwa, Mr Raj Mohinder Singh Majitha and Ms Paramjit Kaur Gulshan. |
|
Civic poll turning point, says Mufti
New Delhi, February 7 The elections, he said, were a “turning point” for the state which had been “bearing the brunt of violence for the past 15 years.” “The high voter percentage proved that the mindset of the people have changed and the role of the gun shunned,” he said. He lauded the people of Jammu and Kashmir for coming out to vote in large numbers despite the poll boycott call and militant threats. “Wherever the polling percentage was good the PDP fared well. In fact, people have endorsed the ideology of our party by participating in the poll process,” he said. The large turnout of voters also reflected that the state was progressing well on “the path of peace and the vexed Kashmir issue can only be resolved through a dialogue process,” he said. On the Baglihar hydro power project, Mr Sayeed said the project would go on under any circumstance. |
|
Rao Inderjit Singh to visit Latin America
New Delhi, February 7 A novel thing about Mr Singh’s 13-day visit is that he would be interacting with foreign ministers and other senior officials of as many as 24 Latin American countries, the minister told The Tribune this evening. He will have a meeting in Honduras on February 10 with the eight Foreign Ministers of Central America namely, Panama, El Salvador, Costa Rica, Guatemala, Nicaragua, Belize and Dominican Republic, apart from Honduras. On February 11, Mr Singh will call on the President of Honduras and have a meeting with the Foreign Minister of Honduras on bilateral relations. On February 15, Mr Singh will have a meeting in Paramaribo, Suriname, with the 15 Foreign Ministers of Caribbean Community
(CARICOM). Mr Singh will have a meeting with the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Mexico and call on the Foreign Minister on February 17-18. The Minister will be accompanied by a Representative of Eximbank (to explore the possibilities for projects and products exports using Lines of Credit) and a senior official from the Ministry of Commerce (to assess the opportunities for trade). |
|
|
SC to hear plea on lottery sale
issue
New Delhi, February 7 Order to this effect was passed by a Bench of Mr Justice N Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice S B Sinha after Punjab’s Advocate-General Harbhagwan Singh and its standing counsel Bimal Roy Jad made a strong plea for shifting of the cases to the apex court. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the north-eastern states, said he had no objection to the transfer as his clinets were also of the view that the matter has to be heard by the Supreme Court. The Punjab Government had sought transfer of the petitions to the apex court, raising the question of jurisdiction with regard to Guwahati High Court hearing the matter. The dispute between the Punjab Government and the three north-eastern states arose with the former framing certain rules to regulate sale of ottery tickets in its territory. Under the rules framed by the Punjab Government, the sale of the tickets of any state lottery was prevented through private agents to save the people from being defrauded by them and ensure circulation of fake tickets. The rules further provided that the other states should satisfy the concerned authority about the sale arrangement, which had to be as per the guidelines laid down by the Supreme Court and the High Court. The rules said the lottery tickets should bear the logo of the state concerned, which had to keep proper accounts of the proceeds to ensure that no tax losses were caused to the Punjab Government due to lack of
arrangement. The north-eastern states in their petitions had challenged the rules on the ground that they were discriminatory.
|
|
|
Negar Khan to be deported for illegal
stay
Mumbai, February 7 She was arrested by the police at the foreigners regional registration office after being served a summon. The police said she was illegally working in the country after coming to India on a tourist visa. Khan was immediately arrested after she was informed of possessing an invalid visa and the deportation proceedings initiated against her, the police said. She was kept at the Chatrapati Shivaji International Airport from where she would be put on the first available flight to Norway, her place of origin, airport police officials said. Negar became hit after featuring in 'remix' videos like 'Chadti Jawani". She went onto play the role of item dancer in films like 'Shaadi Ka Ladoo'. After her arrest, Khan said she had married an Indian six months ago. She was said to be living with a model Sahil Khan, though it is not clear if she was married to him. Negar Khan also claimed to possess valid documents though these were not produced before the authorities. "I had gone to the foreign registration office to extend my stay in India, but they said I was living illegally in the country," she told television channels from the immigration office. Of Iranian origin, Khan was in India on a visitor's visa but was engaged in commercial ventures, the police officer at the airport said. He went on to add that she was served notices last year and her visa was not renewed then as well, the police officer added. |
|
Bride goes on mare for wedding
Jaipur, February 7 Seated on a well-decorated mare amidst dazzling lights surrounded by jubilant relatives and friends she was leading her marriage procession to her would-be-hubby’s home. Bhawana teaches Sanskrit at the National Institute of Sanskrit, Jaipur, while the groom is a computer engineer in Bangalore. To some of the people that thronged both sides of the way to enjoy this rare view, it was a strange and unprecedented ritual, while to others it symbolised the resurgence and empowerment of women. The curiosity of the crowd was quenched when Bhawana’s father, Mr Madan Lal Parashar, said it was a very old tradition in the community of Pushkarana Brahmins in Rajasthan but was forgotten long ago. In the not so distant past, the bride used to go in this manner to the groom’s house for what was called the ‘Chhiki’ custom that was considered an invitation to the latter to come to the former’s house to wed her. Bhawana’s aunt and mother had also practised this ritual more than three decades ago, adds Mr Parashar. |
|
Govt to set up disaster management
authority
Dehra Dun, February 7 Even as certain disasters cannot be predicted, the country could be more prepared to tackle such blows, he said. There could be shelters along the beaches, quakeproof houses and choice of the right construction material could help save many a life in the wake of a disaster, Mr Patil said. “The government is also requesting the state governments to form respective state disaster management authorities.” |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Videos
