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Notice to HC on Haryana judicial staff body’s plea
Industrialist financed tapping at Cong behest: Amar Dhruv accident to be probed |
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Mercury dips below 5ºC in Delhi
Third arrest in phone-tapping case
Two Shiv Sena MLAs to join Cong, quit Assembly
Saran leaves for China today
Centre moots voting right for NRIs
Amritsar to Mughalsarai rail line to be doubled
BJP has doubts over communal violence Bill Poaching case: SC seeks govt views on CBI probe
Wheat patent: SC concerned over Centre’s failure
Gen Lidder to head UN
peacekeeping mission
Three LeT ultras held in Mumbai
6 YC chiefs appointed
CAT results declared
Sansar Chand chargesheeted
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Notice to HC on Haryana judicial staff body’s plea
New Delhi, January 6 Taking note of the petition of the Haryana Judicial Court Employees Association (HJCEA), fighting for recognition since the creation of Haryana in 1966, a Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice C.K. Thakker and Mr Justice R.V. Raveendran issued notice to the High Court Administration, seeking its reply. HJCEA counsel Sanjay Parikh told the court that the association formed by the class-III and class-IV employees of judiciary in Haryana had been registered by the state government since 1990 but was not being granted recognition by the High Court Administration. The HJCEA moved the Supreme Court after their petition was rejected by the High Court in judicial side by an order passed on July 19, 2005. The apex court took cognisance of the HJCEA petition after Mr Parikh pointed out that it was strange that under the same High Court, the jurisdiction of which extends to both Punjab and Haryana, the association of the judicial employees of the former was recognised in 1954 and that of the latter was being deprived of it. He further said that even the government of joint Punjab had granted official recognition to the association of court employees in November 1952, 14 years before the separate state of Haryana was created. After the creation of the new state the association of its judicial employees should have been automatically recognised, he argued. “It is simply a case of discrimination of employees lower judiciary established in one state under the same high court, while those in the other state falling under its jurisdiction enjoying the facility,” Mr Parikh said. As the Bench wanted to know about the effect of non-recognition of the association when it was registered with the state government, Mr Parikh said, due to this the employees were deprived of the privileges as prescribed under the Fundamental and Subsidiary Rules which were applicable to the Central Government employees. The State of Punjab had also issued instructions to the heads of its various departments, including the Registrar of Punjab and Haryana High Court and Districts and Sessions Judges in the state regarding the applicability of the Fundamental and Subsidiary Rules in March 1962, and therefore, the same should have been automatically applicable to the court employees in Haryana.
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Industrialist financed tapping at Cong behest: Amar New Delhi, January 6 Hitting out at Congress general secretary Ambika Soni for her recent remarks on the tapping controversy, Mr Amar Singh demanded that the audio tapes of his conversations purportedly showing him in poor light be made public “by the Congress.” Alleging that the tapping operation was planned at behest of 10 Janpath, he said it was “outsourced” by intelligence agencies and “a big industrialist had financed it.” Mr Amar Singh said he had told about the industrialist to the Prime Minister whom he met a funtion this morning. He claimed that several tapes involving leaders of different political parties, including the BJP and Congress, had been prepared. Mr Amar Singh said he would meet non-Congress Chief Ministers to caution them that “Mrs Gandhi was listening to what they were talking.” The Congress and the Centre have already denied the charge of phone-tapping by the SP leader. Mr Amar Singh said he had been told about the tapping by some men from intelligence agencies. The Samajwadi Party leader said he himself had heard audio tapes spread over 20 hours. “In these, there is some truth and some lies.” Mr Amar Singh said a part of tapes had been doctored. “A person who can spend Rs 80 lakh in a month to get my phones tapped, can also spend a huge sum to doctor the tapes to damage me.” He said the audio tapes were not admissible as evidence under the IPC. Mr Amar Singh said he had connections with leading Bollywood actors and if the tapes had “expolosive” contents, these could be made public. Mr Amar Singh said if the industrialist could provide Rs 80 lakh for the tapes, he could also provide money to kill him. He named Ms Naveen Dahiya, Harinder and Anand as persons who should be investigated on phone-tapping by the police. “Some of them have 60 mobiles,” he said. The SP chief said he was consulting lawyers to see if a case could be filed against Reliance Infocomm which was the service provider for the telephone allegedly tapped. Mr Amar Singh said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had no information about the alleged phone-tapping. He said while Prime Minister had described the tapping as a serious issue, the AICC leaders were making light of it. Meanwhile, Mr Amar Singh called on Janata Dal (United) President George Fernandes with his supporters here this evening to garner support across party lines. |
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BJP for JPC probe into
phone tapping
New Delhi, January 6 “The phone tapping issue is getting murkier with every passing day. We have already given a notice for discussion on the issue when the Lok Sabha meets for the Budget session next month. We will demand setting up of a JPC to probe the matter,” BJP deputy leader in the Lower House V.K. Malhotra said. “The fact that three persons have been arrested in the case confirms that tapping took place. It is not enough for the Prime Minister to say it is a serious issue. He will have to find out who is the power behind it,” he said. “If the government does not know about it, it shows its incompetence. If it is taking place with its connivance, it’s all the more serious”, he said in the party’s first official reaction to phone tapping charges made by the Samajwadi Party leader. Recalling the Watergate scandal and the phone tapping case involving then Karnataka Chief Minister Ramkrishna Hegde, who had to consequently resign, he said, “The country should know how many telephones are being tapped and which political leaders are under surveillance. The tapping of phones of Opposition leaders reminds one of Emergency days.” Referring to the charges levelled by Mr Amar Singh against Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Mr Malhotra said, “She should come clean before the country.” |
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Now Gowda complains of phone tapping New Delhi, January 6 In reply to a query, Mr Gowda said, “I had never complained about my phone-tapping ...what I have to hide... but someone told me that my phone was being tapped, that too, when I was not in power at all”.
— UNI |
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Dhruv accident to be probed New Delhi, January 6 “Whenever there is an accident in aircraft, whether a helicopter or a fixed wing, there is always a system to have it investigated. A regular board of investigation has been set up,” he told reporters here. Mr Mukherjee said the board would come out with its report as to why the accident occurred and what corrective action was needed to be taken. The Indian armed forces had earlier grounded the entire fleet of the much-hyped indigenously developed ALH following recent emergence of technical faults in the helicopter. The chopper was also touted to be India’s window to the international arms market. The grounding of the multi-purpose
ALH, which is being manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL), by all three arms of the Indian armed forces came about 15 days ago following the crash of a helicopter in Hyderabad. The chopper meant for the Jharkhand Government came down near Hyderabad after taking off from Bangalore. A total of over 45 ALH’s with the three arms of the Indian military have been grounded. |
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Mercury dips below 5ºC in Delhi
New Delhi, January 6 However, while visibility levels were normal at the airport, trains services continued to be affected due to fog in the northern plains. There was no let-up in the chill as cold winds brought down the temperature further. Despite clear sky and bright sunshine, the chill in the air caused shivery conditions, as the minimum temperature came down to 4.5°C, 0.5 degree down from last night. Delhi faced chilly winds for the fourth consecutive day today. The chill could intensify in the next 24 hours as the Met office predicted minimum temperature going further down to 4° C tomorrow, with fog or mist in the morning. — TNS
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Third arrest in phone-tapping case
New Delhi, January 6 Refusing to give further details about the case, he said investigations were on and revelation of information would hamper the probe. The police had earlier arrested Bhupendra, owner of a private detective agency and one Kuldeep, an employee of Reliance Infocomm, who had helped him. Mr Paul asserted that the Delhi Police had conducted no phone tapping as alleged by Mr Amar Singh. He said the phone tapping had been carried out by some people on the basis of forged letters. According to the police, Bhupendra, the owner of “Metro Intelligence” in South Extension was allegedly tapping Mr Amar Singh’s phone on the basis of forged letters in the name of Delhi Government’s Home Secretary R. Narayanswamy and Delhi Police’s Joint Commissioner (Crime) Ranjit Narayan.
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Two Shiv Sena MLAs to join Cong, quit Assembly
Mumbai, January 6 The MLAs — Mr Kalidas Kolambkar and Mr Shyam Sawant — are supporters of Shiv Sena leader turned Congressman Narayan Rane. After submitting their resignation to Speaker Babasaheb Kupekar, Mr Kolambkar and Mr Sawant reached the Congress office in South Mumbai where they joined the party in the presence of Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee chief Prabha Rau and Mr Rane. Mr Rane’s supporters say that more MLAs from the Shiv Sena are likely to join the Congress after the party completes the formalities to help them contest byelections afresh. So far, three MLAs from the Shiv Sena are contesting on Congress tickets. Mr Ganpat Kadam (Rajapur), Mr Subhash Bane (Sangameshwar) and Mr Shankar Kambli (Vengurla) have all been fielded for the January 21 Assembly bypoll. Though the three seats were contested by the Congress party’s ally, the Nationalist Congress Party, the outfits reached an agreement which allowed the dissident Shiv Sena leaders to contest afresh. Mr Rane has already announced elaborate campaigning plans in a bid to shore up support for the three MLAs. While the Congress will field Mr Kolambkar from Naigaon, Mr Sawant will contest from his Srivardhan seat. Mr Kolambakar is the first Shiv Sena MLA from Mumbai City to move towards the Congress. The Shiv Sena will now have 56 MLAs in the Maharashtra Assembly while the BJP has 55. Should a few more Shiv Sena MLAs leave, the party would be forced to give up the post of the Leader of the Opposition to the BJP.
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Saran leaves for China today New Delhi, January 6 India would like to probe the Chinese stand on two specific issues — the Group of Four’s renewed effort for a permanent seat in the to-be-expanded United Nations Security Council and Beijing’s view on relaxing Nuclear Suppliers’ Group’s stipulations in wake of the July 18 Indo-US nuclear agreement. Mr Saran, who will be accompanied by Mr Ashok Kanth, Joint Secretary (East Asia) in the Ministry of External Affairs, will have talks with his Chinese counterpart, Vice Foreign Minister Wu Dawei, on January 9 and 10. The first India-China Strategic Dialogue, held here on January 24 last year, was mainly exploratory in nature. It is understood that the second dialogue will be more crucial as the two Asian giants engage each other more meaningfully with a positive spirit, propelled by rapidly increasing bilateral trade which is expected to cross $ 18 billion in 2005. The second Sino-Indian Strategic Dialogue is being held at a time when the G4 (India, Brazil, Germany and Japan) has re-tabled its draft resolution of July 6, 2005 aimed at a Permanent membership of the UNSC without veto power. The re-tabling was done yesterday after a meeting of 25 co-sponsors in New York yesterday. Significantly, Japan, Beijing’s arch-rival, kept out of the re-tabling of the resolution, fuelling speculations whether Japan was considering to break away from G4. A senior official of the Ministry of External Affairs today said Japan was committed to the G4 efforts and it had sent its Permanent Representative in UN for attending discussions as well as meeting co-sponsors. |
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Centre moots voting right for NRIs
Hyderabad, January 6 Briefing the press today about the three-day Pravasi Bharatiya Divas 2006, which is kicking off here tomorrow, the minister said the UPA government would soon take a decision in this regard. The focus of this year’s edition is establishing an institutional framework for sustainable engagement with overseas Indians. “This framework will pull in overseas Indians as knowledge partners, the states of India as stakeholder partners and the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs as a facilitator,” Mr Fernandes said.
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Amritsar to Mughalsarai rail line to be doubled
New Delhi, January 6 The approval was given at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. Briefing reporters on the decision, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee said the move would facilitate smooth flow of coal, oil and other commodities between the two regions. There are two major routes for trains bound to Amritsar from Mughalsarai. One route is via Allahabad-Kanpur, Tundla-Ghaziabad-Delhi and the second route is via Zafrabad-Sultanpur-Utraitia-Moradabad-Saharanpur. On the second route from Mughalsarai to Amritsar, the entire route is double line except the Utraitia-Sultanpur-Zafrabad section.
— TNS |
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BJP has doubts over communal violence Bill New Delhi, January 6 BJP General Secretary Arun Jaitley said it could upset the federal structure as it provides special powers to the Centre without adequate safeguards against their misuse. Taking part in a seminar on the Communal Violence (Prevention, Control and Rehabilitation of Victims) Bill, 2005, organised by the Home Ministry, Mr Jaitley said, “Chapter 11 of the Bill gives special powers to the Centre to deal with communal violence in a state and empowers it to take over the state’s law and order mechanism if it is suspected that the state does not intend to act.”
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Poaching
case: SC seeks govt views on CBI probe New Delhi, January 6 Noting with concern the dwindling population of tigers in the country , a Special Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal, Mr Justice Arijit Pasyat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia sought government comments on it by January 13. |
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Wheat patent: SC concerned over Centre’s failure
New Delhi, January 6 Drawing the attention of Additional Solicitor-General (ASG) Gopal Subramaniam to the fact that the US was able to bag the patent for three different wheat “strains”, a Bench of Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia asked the government to make its position clear within four weeks. The strong observation on the issue came during the hearing of a petition by an NGO, the Research Foundation, Science,
Technology and Economy (RFSTE), alleging that the Indian Government had not “contested” the grant of patent to Monsanto for “Nap Hal”, a variety of wheat that had originated in India more than 1,000 years ago. But a report of a committee, set up to examine the issue by the Department of Agricultural Research and Education (DARE) and Indian Council of Agriculture Research (ICAR), placed before the court, said the patent “EPO 0445929 B1” granted to Monsanto had been revoked with effect from October 3, 2004. The court pointed out that it was not the question of revocation but the steps being taken by the Indian Government to protect its genetic products from being patented by foreign countries. It asked the government to examine the suggestions given by the petitioner NGO on the issue. The committee further said that “the need for contesting the case in US is not there because it is a patent for a ‘strain’ NCIMBA-40251; and that a strain developed in the USA cannot prevent others to develop a strain/variety with similar characteristics by using Nap Hal, which is available in the country.” The need for contesting the US patent “No 5859315” was also not established because there was full freedom for conducting research to Indian scientists in India for developing soft milling varieties. “We can develop our own varieties of soft milling wheat as and when demand for export of this product arises,” its report said. It had been established by the Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers Right (PPVFR) authorities that India would provide a fillip to the registration of new varieties of wheat in the country and those could be “appropriately protected in the countries of our commercial interest,” the report said, adding that the PPVFR Act would additionally lead to the registration of new farmers’ varieties of plant products. |
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Gen Lidder to head UN
peacekeeping mission
New Delhi, January 6 The UN has a mandated strength of over 10,000 troops in Sudan, comprising contingents from 42 countries. India has deployed two infantry battalions and an Air Force helicopter squadron. Lt-Gen Lidder is an alumnus of Punjab Public School, Nabha, and was commissioned into 3 Grenadiers. Lt-Gen Lidder has had vast experience in counter terrorism operations in Jammu and Kashmir and was, in his last assignment, performing duties of the Additional Director General Military Operations in the Army Headquarters. He has also earlier served as the Chief of Staff of the UN Mission in Mozambique. His vast operational experience will be an asset in conducting multi-national operations in Sudan. The Indian Army contributes a large number of officers as UN Military Observers, and is presently the third largest contributor of military forces for the UN Peacekeeping Operations. The selection of Lt-Gen Lidder is recognition by the UN of India’s contribution. |
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Three LeT ultras held in Mumbai
Mumbai, January 6 Mc Roy told a press conference here that the three men were arrested following a tip-off received from central intelligence agencies. All three were wanted in Jammu and Kashmir for allegedly holding up banks and acts of terror there. The Police Commissioner gave the names of the three as Khursheed Ahmed, Arshad Hussain and Mohammed Ramzan. They are being interrogated by senior police and intelligence officials. The police has also recovered huge amounts of arms and ammunition, electronic circuits and timers from them. The police says that preliminary information indicates that the three were part of a sleeper network tasked to expand the LeT’s base in Mumbai. The three were being questioned to see if they were planning terror attacks in the city as well, Mr Roy said. They were arrested from Nagpada today though they were in the city for the past several weeks. |
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6 YC chiefs appointed New Delhi, January 6 Other appointents of Youth Congress chiefs approved by Congress President Sonia Gandhi include Mr Sunil Ahire (Mumbai), Mr Zenith M. Sangma (Meghalaya), Mr Rohit Pujari (Orissa), Mr Sukhamay Saha (Tripura) and Mr Rajpal Singh Khairola (Uttaranchal).
— TNS |
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Ahmedabad, January 6 The scorecards of all 1.53 lakh candidates, who had written the CAT-2005, have been posted on the websites of all six IIMs. The marks scored by a candidate is mentioned in ‘percentile’, meaning the per cent of students behind that particular candidate. — UNI
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Sansar Chand chargesheeted
New Delhi, January 6 Sansar Chand, who was arrested by the Delhi police in June last year, is blamed for wiping out tigers from the Project Tiger Sariska reserve in Rajasthan.
— TNS |
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