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LoC can’t be accepted as border with Pak: Govt
Biman moves SC against his conviction
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HC dismisses PILs against Sonia
Cong seeks CBI probe into arms purchase deal
Transfer control of Shanon project to HP, says MP
Mohan Bhagwat likely to be new RSS chief
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SC notice to Mumbai blast accused
Patil opens drive on birth certificates
Aircraft crew hostile, detained
SC asks Tihar officials to
get Pappu Yadav examined
Chandra Shekhar remains Ethics panel chairman
Ratzinger’s Kerala connection
TADA case: MLA acquitted
New envoy to South Korea
Journalists demand wage board
Sixth pay panel ruled out for now
Kalam extends greeting
Left to oppose pension Bill
Rabri for Modi’s sack
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LoC can’t be accepted as border with Pak: Govt
New Delhi, April 21 Replying to a question on the issue raised by Congress member Anand Sharma, Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed informed the Rajya Sabha that no such proposal was considered or conveyed to the USA by India at any stage. The members of the opposition BJP reacted angrily when Mr E. Ahamed initially stated that ‘‘as far as this (UPA) government is concerned, there is absolutely no such suggestion.” The Minister’s statement was prompted by Mr Sharma’s question whether such a proposal was considered by India when the National Democratic Alliance was in power with Mr Jaswant Singh as the Minister of External Affairs. Reacting sharply, senior BJP member and former External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha said ‘‘Mr Ahamed by indicating that the UPA government has no such proposal, was suggesting that the previous NDA government had considered the issue’’. Terming it as an “insinuation”, Mr Sinha said the UPA government could check the records of the NDA Government on the issue. This led to a wordy duel between the Opposition and treasury bench members for a few minutes and BJP member Pramod Mahajan asked Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who was seated in the House, to intervene. After this the minister said he did not try to indicate that the NDA Government had expressed its willingness to convert LoC into International Boundary with Pakistan. Indian Fishermen : Replying to an unstarred question, Mr Ahamed informed the Upper House that Pakistan Government had released 528 Indian fishermen on March 22 and as many as 270 fishermen were still in Pakistani jails. He said the government was constantly taking up the matter with the Pakistan Government through diplomatic channels. Situation in Nepal: Replying to a question on the situation in Nepal, the Minister of State for External Affairs said at present no proposal was being considered to review the existing bilateral ties with Nepal. Expressing concern over the situation in the Himalayan Kingdom, the Minister said India had called for early restoration of multi-party democracy and had stressed the need for a national consensus between the two constitutional forces — political parties and the constitutional monarchy.
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Biman moves SC against his conviction
New Delhi, April 21 Bose, a member of the CPM’s Politburo, filed a special leave petition (SLP) in the apex court registry this afternoon. He claimed that he had not shown no “disrespect” to any judge or judiciary. Bose’s counsel Bikash Bhattacharya, who filed the petition, said that the CPM leader had pleaded that he had not made any “derogatory” remarks against any judge or the judiciary in the context of the ban imposed by the High Court on rallies. A High Court Bench had convicted Bose on March 31 and awarded him three days’ sentence apart from imposing a fine of Rs 10,000 on him. |
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HC dismisses PILs against Sonia
New Delhi, April 21 Both the petitions were filed by Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy as public interest litigations (PILs). Apart from challenging the procedure for granting citizenship to her, Mr Swamy in the first PIL had also alleged that the Gandhi family, including Ms Sonia Gandhi, was on the payroll of erstwhile Soviet Union’s intelligence agency KGB. While making this also a ground to challenge her citizenship, he had sought probe into these allegations that made, according to him, in a book of a former KGB Director. In the second petition, he had alleged that rare Indian antiques were smuggled from Chennai some years ago to the two shops run by Ms Sonia Gandhi’s mother and sister in Italy and even a person was arrested in this connection. But the CBI had not pursued the investigation further in the case. He had alleged that the CBI was not daring to register a case due to “political clout of Ms Sonia Gandhi.” On the PIL challenging Ms Sonia Gandhi’s citizenship, the court said the issue had already been settled by the apex court in its judgement of 2001 on an election petition against her and regarding the antique smuggling accusation, the court said the alleged offence was outside the jurisdictional limit of New Delhi. On the KGB payment allegations, the court said they were mainly based on newspaper reports and no concrete material was placed before it. “The petitioner has no personal knowledge about the contents i.e. the extracts of the book/news items,” the court held. “On the views expressed by an author in an article or in a book, the court cannot be called upon to exercise writ jurisdiction to direct the authority to investigate,” the Bench observed. The judgement came three years after filing of the PILs by Mr Swamy, who submitted that the parties concerned were not fully heard on the citizenship issue.
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Cong seeks CBI probe into arms purchase deal
New Delhi, April 21 After pressing for a CBI probe in the Lok Sabha, the Congress later hit out at Mr Fernandes and asked him to come clean on this matter. Party spokesperson Anand Sharma maintained that the former Defence Minister was unusually silent when this issue was raised in the House, stating that “his silence in indicative of his boundless guilt.” Mr Sharma said the Congress has always maintained that there were innumerable scams and scandals in the purchase of arms during the NDA regime. He said in this instance a British firm — Varas Associates — registered in the Isle of Man had got the minutes of the ministry’s Price Negotiating Committee (PNC), which discusses these deals.
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Transfer control of Shanon project to HP, says MP
New Delhi, April 21 Mr Parmar said the Shanan project, located in Joginder Nagar in Mandi District, was established in 1932 and its generation had reached 483.38 million units from 110 MW in 1982. However, its ownership has not been transferred from Punjab to Himachal Pradesh, despite the latter becoming a full fledged state long time back. Making a Special Mention, Mr Parmar said the project was commissioned before Himachal Pradesh attained statehood on April 15, 1948. |
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Mohan Bhagwat likely to be new RSS chief
New Delhi, April 21 Mr Sudarshan, who has been in focus of a raging controversy ever since he asked former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and BJP President L K Advani to step down for paving the way for the second generation leadership to take over the reins of the party, is going to step down soon citing health reasons. Sources said Mr Sudarshan's interview to a TV news channel last week has not gone well with the Sangh parivar and a sharp division has taken place within the RSS. While Maratha group within the Parivar is said to be demanding Mr Sudharshan's removal from the top post, the other group is supporting the RSS supremo. Till early 90s, every RSS chief belonged to Maharashtra and he used to direct Sangh's activities from its headquarters at Nagpur. A shift took place when Prof Rajendra Singh "Rajju Bhaia" became the first non-Maharashtrian RSS supremo and he ventured out of Nagpur frequently and stationed himself often at Sangh headquarters in the national Capital at Keshavkunj. An interview or a comment to the media from the RSS supremo was unheard off till Rajju Bhaia took over the reins of the Sangh. But Mr Sudarshan, by giving an interview to the news channel, has treaded on too many toes. He not only offended Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani, but has gone to create divisions within the RSS, a leader said.
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SC notice to Mumbai blast accused
New Delhi, April 21 The Mumbai High Court had stayed the release of the film on a petition of some accused, facing trial in the blast cases before a Special TADA Court. Issuing notices to the accused persons led by Mushtaq Moosa Tarani, who had filed a caveat in the apex court, a Bench of Chief Justice, Mr R.C Lahoti and Mr Justice G.P Mathur directed them to submit their replies within four weeks. The court, however, refused to vacate the stay on the release of the film in an interim order without hearing the accused persons. The film was produced by some young artists under the banner of Mid-Day Multimedia Ltd, which was based on a book titled “Black Friday, The True Story of Bombay Blast”. Senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for the Mid-Day wanted an interim order for vacating the stay on the exhibition of the film on the ground that the Bombay High Court had “erred” in coming to the conclusion that the film producers in their promos had claimed that the movie was based on the true story of the blasts.
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Patil opens drive on birth certificates
New Delhi, April 21 After distributing birth certificates to 18 children, the Home Minister said India is a signatory to the United Nations Convention on the rights of the child and is committed to ensure the registration of every birth. Mr Patil expressed the confidence that India would achieve cent per cent registration of births by 2010 as targeted in the National Population Policy 2000. He proposed a system whereby births are reported to the Registrar and birth certificates are delivered by grassroot workers. He said it is important to ensure that birth certificates are delivered soon after birth registration so that there is no backlog. In her address, the Chief Minister of Delhi, Ms Sheila Dikshit, lauded the initiative of the Central Government in organising the campaign. The Muncipal Corporation of Delhi made a presentation on the birth and death registration system in the Capital. UNICEF has assured support to the state governments for improving birth registration. The office of the Registrar-General of India and state governments are working together with UNICEF for increasing public awareness about the need and importance of birth registration and providing training to registration functionaries.
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Aircraft crew hostile, detained
Mumbai, April 21 The aircraft flying to Kuwait from Singapore had to halt at Mumbai airport for refuelling on Tuesday night, but had to be diverted to Pune. However, the aircraft was ordered back to Mumbai after its cargo was discovered. The crew members of the aircraft were taken into custody after investigators declared them hostile. Officials from the External Affairs ministry and intelligence agencies have rushed to Mumbai where they are investigating the matter. Intelligence agencies have sought information on the origin of the consignment and the final destination. Should the Kuwait government come forward to claim the ownership of the consignment, the aircraft may be released, sources said. |
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SC asks Tihar officials to
get Pappu Yadav examined New Delhi, April 21 A Bench of Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha directed the Tihar Jail authorities to take him to AIIMS for medical examination on April 26 and submit a report. The report, which the court received from AIIMS, had stated that Pappu Yadav had not “cooperated” in the medical examination after he was brought to the hospital on April 12. He did not turn up the next day despite being advised by doctors concerned. But Yadav’s counsel R.K. Singh alleged that when he was taken to the hospital on April 12, a doctor who examined him stated, “CBI officers had told him to refuse his examination.” |
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Chandra Shekhar remains Ethics panel chairman
New Delhi, April 21 Initially, the chairman’s position was offered to the BJP, which recommended the name of Mr Rasa Singh Rawat, a five-time MP from Rajasthan. However, his name did not find favour with Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, the sources said. Finally, after consultation with leaders of various political parties, including Mr Advani, the Speaker decided to retain Mr Chandra Shekhar as the chairman of the committee.
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Ratzinger’s Kerala connection
Alappuzha, April 21 St Mary’s Malankara Catholic Church at Chungam on the outskirts of the town has a plaque before it bearing the name of Joseph Ratzinger, Archbishop of Munich, who donated 20,000 Deutsch marks for building the church in 1980. “The response was prompt and he provided 20,000 Deutschmarks, which was about Rs 80,000 at that time,” recalls Mr Abraham Kakkanattu, who was instrumental in getting the donation from Mr Ratzinger, then Archbishop.
— PTI |
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TADA case: MLA acquitted
New Delhi, April 21 Not finding sufficient evidence against him, a Bench of Mr Justice B.N Agrawal and Mr Justice C.K Thakkar allowed his appeal and exonerated him of the charges. |
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New envoy to South Korea
New Delhi, April 21 |
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Journalists demand wage board New Delhi, April 21 The alliance noted with concern the present crisis in the newspaper industry, with newspaper barons multiplying their profits but denying the journalists and non-journalists their legitimate due. Not only is the contract system being thrust on them, but democratic rights of workers are also being trampled upon, felt the meeting of the alliance. |
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Sixth pay panel ruled out for now
New Delhi, April 21 “Sixth Pay Commission is not proposed to be constituted at this juncture due to the financial implication involved”, Minister of State for Personnel, Public Grievances and Pensions Suresh Pachouri informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply to a question. |
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Kalam extends greeting
New Delhi, New Delhi 21 |
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Left to oppose pension Bill
New Delhi, April 21 They also decided to write a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to consider changes in the Electricity Bill. The meeting was attended by leaders of the four Left parties, which is supporting the government from outside. |
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Patna, April 21 She alleged that hoodlums belonging to the Bajrang Dal attacked Mr Prasad’s car during the latter`s visit to the railway accident site in Vadodara. She said there was a complete breakdown of law and order machinery in Gujarat and the Modi Government, which was solely responsible for it, should be sacked. — UNI
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