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Dullo keen to give due place to party workers
Navy to acquire 27
warships
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Lalu, Rabri move SC in fodder scam case
Four pacts to be signed during PM’s Russia visit
Decision on airports’ revamp on Monday
Raj Thackeray begins drive for
membership
No solid diet yet for Amitabh Cong concern is to keep Sonia out of firing line
Consensus still missing on women’s Bill
Notice to CBI
on Jogi’s son’s bail plea
Deferment of session unconstitutional: Cong
6 dead in Karbi violence
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Dullo keen to give due place to party workers
New Delhi, December 2 Four months into his work as PCC chief, Mr Dullo has covered “80 per cent of the constituencies” in the state to know the views of party workers on various issues relating to the party and its government in the state. Unlike many other senior leaders from states neighbouring Delhi who frequent the AICC on the slightest pretext, Mr Dullo’s visits have been few and “necessitated by work.” He prefers having meals at the AICC canteen where he also gets a chance to meet his associates from other states. Talking to The Tribune here, Mr Dullo said he was addressing concerns of party workers and giving them their due place of honour. “When Prime Minister Manmohan Singh came to the party office in Chandigarh, block Congress presidents were given the honour to greet him. Dr Singh spent nearly three hours at the office,” he said. Mr Dullo said he is always accessible to workers and ready to talk to bureaucrats if genuine concerns of partymen were not met. The PCC chief has been following the tradition of former Chief Minister Beant Singh, who stayed at the Punjab Congress office while holding responsibility of the organisation. “I spend two days there every week,” he said. Mr Dullo has been meeting workers from four constituencies every day during his tours of districts in Punjab. “I believe in direct contact with the workers... Problems and demands of all sections of society are being taken to the government,” he said. Mr Dullo, who has taken a leaf out of the organisational structure of the Left parties in West Bengal, said he wanted the party unit to be cadre-based and keep up motivation of workers through regular training camps on the party’s ideology and achievements. He also plans to give authorised cards to all party workers. Congress President Sonia Gandhi is likely to give the first such cards to the workers in the state. The PCC chief said that in the past few months, the state government had taken several steps to fulfill the promises in the party manifesto, including free power to farmers and free power units to Dalit families. He said schemes of old-age and widow pension and Shagun had been revived and the 85th Amendment approved. “We are taking up other issues including withdrawal of octroi and demand for more employment avenues,” he said. Mr Dullo said that traditional bonds of amity between various communities of the state had been strengthened under the Congress rule. The party, he said, will also hold a mass-contact programme and training camps in all blocks of the state. Mr Dullo said decision about his contesting the next assembly elections will be taken by the Congress central leadership.
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Navy to acquire 27
warships
New Delhi, December 2 Addressing a news conference ahead of the Navy Day on December 4 Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash said 27 warships and submarines were on order. He further disclosed that the government clearance was also in process for inducting 36 more indigenous warships of various tonnage ranging from fast petrol craft to missile-carrying destroyers and frigates which would greatly enhance Indian Navy’s capabilities. He said Navy had completed the selection of buying a Deep Sea Rescue Vehicle (DSRV) for undertaking rescue of submarines in distress by identifying the vendor. Navy was in the process of buying at least two of these DSRV’s. Pending their induction in the next three years, it was in the process of formalising an agreement with the US Navy for its help in case of any of the Indian submarines getting into distress in the high seas. On the acquisition of the long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft, the Naval chief said Request For Proposals (RFP) for these would be floated soon and mentioned the US offer of leasing out its new P3C Orions in this connection. Admiral Prakash pointed out that if India went in for the P3C Orions offer of the US Government, it would be an interim measure. He also disclosed that Navy would be getting back its two IL-38 maritime spy planes which had been sent to Moscow for midlife upgrades by the end of the year. The Naval chief said it was in the process of building up a force level for this and mentioned that Gorshkov carrier acquired from Russia would be delivered on schedule by mid-2008, while the country’s first ever indigenous carrier to be built at Kochi was also progressing on schedule. |
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Lalu, Rabri move SC in fodder scam case
New Delhi, December 2 Taking cognizance of their appeals against the Patna High Court order, rejecting their petitions questioning the CBI’s procedure of obtaining sanction for filing of the chargesheet against them, a Bench of Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice P.P. Naolekar issued notices to the agency and the Bihar Government. They were asked to submit their replies by second week of January, when the case would be listed for further hearing. The High Court had rejected their petitions on June 21 last. Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi raised the question of “improper” sanction in the same manner as had been done by Punjab Deputy Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal, former Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, by citing their cases in detail. Since the court had earlier assured the Punjab Government that the cases of Bhattal and Badal would be listed for arguments in January, the Bench indicated that Lalu Prasad and Rabri Devi’s appeals would also be heard along with the pending cases. Senior advocate Fali Nariman, appearing for Lalu Prasad and his wife, contended that sanction obtained by the CBI on March 10, 2000 directly from the Bihar Governor for prosecuting the husband and wife was not sustainable under the law.
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Four pacts to be signed during PM’s Russia visit New Delhi, December 2 While defence has always been and still remains an important component of Indo-Russian relations, energy partnership has been flagged as an important item on the upcoming summit’s agenda. Briefing presspersons on the Prime Minister’s forthcoming visit to Russia, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran today said India has already indicated its interest in this field by acquiring a major stake in the Sakhalin-I oil and gas project with an investment of $ 2.7 billion. It is also looking to participate in Sakhalin-III besides bidding for exploration blocks in the Siberian region. In addition, India is keen on pursuing an equity partnership with Russian oil majors like Gazprom, Mr Saran said. On the flip side, he said, Russia is interested in participating in the construction of transnational gas pipelines between Iran and India as well as also the Turkemnisatan-Afghanistan-Pakistan and India. Admitting that stagnating trade is a “weak point” in their relationship, Mr Saran said Prime Minister Singh and President Putin will finalise details of the proposed joint study group which will look at increasing trade volumes and establishing new partnerships. A high-level business delegation, the Foreign Secretary said, will also be travelling to Moscow in an attempt to generate greater awareness about the business opportunities in Russia and vice versa. Defence ties, however, have strengthened over the years, having moved from a “vendor-client” relationship to a partnership where the two countires are looking at joint research and joint marketing of technology. To firm up this relationship, Mr Saran said the agreements which will finalised during this visit include the bilateral Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) on defence, an accord will be signed to amend the Indo-Russian military-technical programme till 2010 for enhancing and expanding their strategic relations. The space agencies of the two countries will sign a technology safeguard agreement to operationalise the 2004 pact on the joint use of space-based Global Navigational Satellite System (GLONASS) to end dependency on the US Global Positioning System (GPS) in military and civil applications. The broad-ranging talks between the two leaders are bound to veer around to the Iran nuclear issue as it is to come up for discussion by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on December 6, when Dr Singh will be in Moscow. Admitting that this matter will figure in the upcoming discussion, Mr Saran said that India has already welcomed the role being played by Russia in trying to arrive at a mutually-acceptable solution. He said both India and Russia agree that this matter be resolved within the ambit of the IAEA.
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Decision on airports’ revamp on Monday
New Delhi, December 2 The Group, which met here this evening, will now forward the report of the adviser to the empowered Group of Ministers (eGOM), which will decide the final bids for the modernisation of the two airports. The eGOM is scheduled to meet on Monday and is expected to take the decision that day itself. The government had earlier received bids for the modernisation of the two airports and the Ministry of Civil Aviation had said that the process for deciding the financial bids would be completed by the year-end. The six-member eGOM is headed by Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee and includes Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia. While the reports suggest that the technical adviser has rejected the plan prepared by the Airport Authority of India (AAI), which would have countered the bids made by private players, there are also allegations flying that there were some bidders who had emerged favourites while the others were likely to be ignored. Although Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel, only two days ago, scotched all such rumours by saying that the government was still to take any decision on the bidders and their consortiums, but sources in the ministry said there were some frontrunners in the race. The cut-off mark for a technical bid to qualify was kept at 80 per cent and which scored less than that are to be disqualified. However, reports now suggest that the IMG is expected to forward all bids to the eGOM for it to take the final decision which would also help in avoiding any controversy which may emerge once the winners are announced. The five bidders for Delhi airport included GMR that had teamed up with the operators of Frankfurt airport, Fraport; Reliance which had submitted a bid with ASA Mexico; D.S. Construction that had a tie-up with the Munich airport; Macquire that tied up with Airport de Paris; and the Essel Group in association with Turkish airport operator TAV. For the Mumbai airport, the government has also received a bid from the GVK group that has a tie-up with the South African airport.
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Raj Thackeray begins drive for
membership
Mumbai, December 2 Supporters of Mr Raj Thackeray were seen handing out application forms seeking details of those backing him though the document did not
say if a new political party was on the anvil. A section of his aides say Mr Raj Thackeray may form a social organisation to mobilise support before turning it into a political party in the next few months. Mr Raj Thackeray’s men have asked supporters to assemble outside his residence at Shivaji Park in Central Mumbai tomorrow. The dissident leader, however, refused to meet elected representatives of the Shiv Sena in the state legislature as well as the Mumbai and Thane civic bodies. Shiv Sena MLAs, MLCs and corporators of various civic bodies have pledged support to the party supremo and heir Uddhav. Attempts by Shiv Sena supremo Bal Thackeray to invite Mr Raj for a meeting have failed with the latter not even coming to Mumbai. |
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No solid diet yet for Amitabh Mumbai, December 2 The actor is on intravenous fluids. He is being administered antibiotics and vitamins intraveneously. Amitabh Bachchan, who underwent surgery for ‘diverticulitis’ two days ago at Leelavati Hospital here is still under observation at the intensive care unit though a bulletin said he was coming along well. “His condition is stable and all parameters are normal,” a hospital spokesperson said.
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Cong concern is to keep Sonia out of firing line New Delhi, December 2 Notwithstanding the stand taken by Prime Minister that a minister cannot be asked to step down on the basis of allegations, the Congress leadership is clearly embarrassed by the disclosures made by Mr Aniel Matherani, India's Ambassdor to Croatia and former Secretary of the AICC Foreign Affairs Department, on the Iraqi oil payoff scam, which provoked a fresh round of opposition attack in Parliament today. With the opposition now upping the ante and training its guns on Congress President Sonia Gandhi, the primary concern of the party top brass is to ensure that she remains out of the firing line. While the party is bound to go on the aggressive to counter the personal attack against Ms Gandhi, there are murmurs in the Congress that Mr Natwar Singh's continuance in the Cabinet has become an embarrassment. The party would prefer that the former foreign minister step down on his own in order to ease the pressure on the Congress leadership. The Congress will, however, be in attack mode if the opposition persists on targeting Ms Gandhi.
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Consensus still missing on women’s Bill
New Delhi, December 2 Speaking in the Lok Sabha, the Union Minister for Law and Justice, Mr H.R. Bhardwaj, said the government was making all efforts to bring the Bill on the basis of agreed provisions, while admitting that there was no political consensus among the political parties on the issue. Notably, the Prime Minister had held a meeting with leaders of the NDA and other leaders on August 24 to discuss various proposals relating to the Bill. The proposals discussed included to provide one-third reservation of seats for women, increase the strength of legislatures and provide one-third of the original number of seats to women. |
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Notice to CBI
on Jogi’s son’s bail plea
New Delhi, December 2 A Bench of Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia issued a notice to the CBI, while posting hearing of his bail plea on Monday next. Amit Jogi had been in jail since his arrest on July 1 last, for allegedly masterminding and financing the murder of Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Ram Avtar Jaggi, prior to the 2003 Assembly elections on June 4 that year. Besides Amit Jogi, CBI had arrested 14 other persons, including some NSUI activists from Chhattisgarh for alleged involvement in the case. |
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Deferment of session unconstitutional: Cong
Bhopal, December 2 Leader of the Opposition Jamuna Devi said in a statement that under Article 163 of the Constitution, only the Council of Ministers could advise the Governor. As there was no Council of Ministers at present but only Chief Minister, the advice tendered to the Governor (for postponing the winter session of the Assembly) was “unconstitutional”. Ms Devi felt that the ruling party probably decided to defer the Assembly session by over a fortnight because it feared a revolt from MLAs loyal to former Chief Minister Uma Bharati. Uma-loyalist and former Union Minister of State Prahlad Patel, who resigned yesterday from the BJP, observed that Mr Shivraj Singh Chauhan’s inability to form his Council of Ministers even five days after taking oath showed lack of will power on his part. Talking to the media here, he wondered if Mr Chauhan was running the government in Madhya Pradesh or Mr Pramod Mahajan in Delhi. Are the ministerial berths being auctioned, he asked.
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6 dead in Karbi violence Guwahati, December 2 Official sources said Dimasa militants attacked a Karbi village and killed six persons, including a woman and an infant, while 25 houses were set ablaze by Dimasa militants at Shirrkongnep village, despite attempt by the nearby CRPF camp to save the hamlet. “The attackers dragged out sleeping villagers and fired indiscriminately using automatic weapons from close range,” said Karbi Anglong district police chief Krishna Das. The police suspects the attackers included militants of the outlawed Dima Halam Daogah (DHD). “The attackers burnt down at least 20 to 25 houses before leaving the village at dawn,” he said. This afternoon the CRPF patrol party raided surrounding areas of the designated camp and the outpost of the camp which has long been suspected as the centre of all violence. The camp is an outcome of the ceasefire between the Centre and Dimasa militants where the militants can carry weapons for self-defence. — UNI
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In video: The ongoing crisis in Shiv
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