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Cabinet expansion gains currency
Natwar dropped from Cong editorial board
Cong CMs’ conclave to focus on agriculture
Resident doctors rejoin, observe black day
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Docs continue stir, IMA services requisitioned
BJP confident of bringing order to Karnataka unit
Fernandes stays away from meeting
Envoy delivers Hague’s response but no apology
Passengers back home
Special wheat for diabetic patients developed
A nun from the Missionaries of Charity prays on the 96th birth anniversary of Mother Teresa in Kolkata on Saturday. — Reuters
photo
Ramoowalia pens book on Khalistan
Cola firms have reneged on promise, says Ramdev
Sanjoy Hazarika bereaved
Indians
involved in mid-air panic say all well now. Karunanidhi
welcomes 27 per cent reservation Bill. Himesh
Reshammiya says he sings from the heart.
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Cabinet expansion gains currency
New Delhi, August 26 With Dr Singh overseeing the External Affairs portfolio, sources in the government and the Congress insist that a Cabinet-rank External Affairs minister needs to be in place for the United Nations General Assembly session in New York from the third week of September. It is believed that Dr Singh might go ahead with a Cabinet expansion before he leaves on the foreign tour. This assumes importance as the External Affairs ministry has made it clear internally that a Cabinet minister will lead the Indian delegation to the UNGA. The note does not specify who the minister will be or if a Cabinet rank minister will be at the helm of the high profile ministry soon. Meanwhile, DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi is keen to provide representation to the Nadar community in the Union council of ministers. Sources in the party say that one of the junior ministers in Dr Singh's council of ministers might be replaced by a Nadar handpicked by Mr Karunanidhi. On his return from the G-8 summit at St Petersburg in July, Dr Singh had told mediapersons that there would be a Foreign Minister soon. The keenly awaited Cabinet expansion will facilitate an organisational revamp as well as appointment of new Governors. Dr Singh had undertaken the last expansion-cum-reshuffle on January 29 this year which was predominantly a Congress affair aimed at giving economic reforms a major push and ensuring proper representation to the states. JMM's Shibhu Soren also found his way back into the Cabinet with the Coal portfolio. The Prime Minister had kept the External Affairs ministry to himself and told mediapersons then that external affairs could wait.
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Natwar dropped from Cong editorial board
New Delhi, August 26 When the controversy over the Volcker report,naming the former external affairs minister as a non-contractual beneficiary of Iraq’s oil-for-food programme, erupted last year, Mr.
K. Natwar Singh was first stripped of his portfolio and then removed from the Congress party’s working committee, eventually resulting in his resignation from the Union
Cabinet. Mr.Natwar Singh was recently suspended from the party after the Pathak Authority, probing the Volcker report’s charges, found that the former minister had misused his position in the party to get oil vouchers from the Iraqi authorities for persons close to him. Congress sources said Mr. Natwar Singh was retained on the Congress Sandesh editorial board and the Rajiv Gandhi Sadhbhavna award committee as long as the enquiry against him was on but once he was suspended, he was immediately removed from these bodies. His name does not figure in the latest issue of the Congress Sandesh. Party insiders indicated that Mr Natwar Singh could also be dropped from the boards of the Indira Gandhi Memorial Trust and the Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Fund. Since these trusts do not fall under the party’s purview, the final decision will be left to their respective nodal ministries or administrative bodies. “But the process for his removal is on,” remarked a senior Congress office-bearer. Even before he was suspended, it had become evident that Mr Natwar Singh had fallen from grace but did not stop the former minister from reaching out to the party leadership. In fact, he made one such attempt early this month when Mr. Natwar Singh landed up at the Prime Minister’s residence for a meeting of the Rajiv Gandhi Sadhbhavna award committee bringing him face to face with Congress President Sonia Gandhi for the first time after his resignation from the Union Cabinet. It was stated that there was an embarrassed silence when Mr Natwar Singh walked in for the meeting, which then came to a abrupt halt. The former minister, who was issued a show cause notice to explain why he should not be expelled from the party, has sent in his reply but the Congress leadership is in no hurry to act on it. Congress sources disclosed that Mr Natwar Singh will remain under suspension for an indefinite period as he would then be bound by the party whip, failing which he could loose his Rajya Sabha membership.
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Cong CMs’ conclave to focus on agriculture
New Delhi, August 26 Dwelling at length on these issues in her recent address during the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting at the
beginning of the recent session, party president Sonia Gandhi had specifically mentioned that the next Chief Ministers’ meeting would be devoted to agriculture issues. The seventh conclave would be attended by 14 Congress Chief Ministers, who would present status reports on the agriculture sector in their respective states, the efforts being made to strengthen the sector and the tasks ahead. Agriculture experts might also be invited to give their inputs on these critical issues. The forthcoming meeting, which would be addressed by Ms Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, was also expected to come up with a blueprint for further action. The party leadership could be handicapped in following up on these suggestions as the agriculture and food portfolios were not held by the Congress at the Centre. Having come to power on the “aam admi” plank, the Congress had come in for severe criticism in recent months for its failure to deliver on its promise to revive the stagnating agriculture sector. There had been a drop in the production of wheat and pulses, leading to severe shortages and spiralling prices, which had eventually forced the UPA government to import wheat and pulses. At the same time, reports of farmers’ suicides had continued to pour in from parts of the country, including the Vidarbha region of
Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh. While the Prime Minister had recently travelled to Vidarbha,
where he announced a special package for farmers, a worried Ms Gandhi had convened a meeting of the party’s working committee and called Congress Chief Ministers last month to address the problem of rising prices. The Nainital conference also assumed significance as Assembly elections were due in Uttaranchal early next year and the party would like to use this opportunity to send out a message to the electorate that it was serious on delivering on its promises. The last Chief Ministers’ conclave had been held in Chandigarh last year, but its opening session was completely overshadowed by the Supreme Court’s order on imposition of President’s rule in Bihar and the second day by the severe earthquake in the Kashmir valley.
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Resident doctors rejoin, observe black day
New Delhi, August 26 The doctors who rejoined duty after two days of mass casual leave wore black badges to express solidarity with their counterparts in Jaipur, who were at the receiving end of police action. “We have assured the administration and patients that we will put in extra hours to ensure that we take care of needs of patients, but we are fighting for a larger cause and expect support from society”, said a member of the AIIMS RDA. Members of the Youth for Equality and RDAs of several hospitals said though they had rejoined work, they would continue to fight against the government’s quota policy. “We will continue to raise the issue of reservation and work out a plan to fight it out on the streets and if need be, in the Supreme Court”, said Youth for Equality members. The students pointed out that they wanted the government to explain the basis on which it have recommended the 27 per cent reservation for OBCs and its reluctance to address the creamy layer issue. They censured the government for the brutal action against medicos in Jaipur and Kolkata. “The government cannot use force against people who choose democratic means of protest”, they said. “Why should students participating in peaceful protests be subjected to police excesses”, they questioned. Medicos wore black armbands and badges to mark their protest against the police action in Jaipur. A section of students at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) boycotted classes to protest against the reservation policy and police action against students. These students had decided to boycott classes and laboratory tests till August 28. A demonstration would be staged on the campus on tomorrow to protest against the detention of IIT students by the police here yesterday.
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Docs continue stir, IMA services requisitioned
Kolkata, August 26 Junior doctors and the house staff also boycotted the emergency duties in the hospitals, which hampered the services to a great extent. In the afternoon, the hospital authorities in Kolkata and other places requisitioned the services of the doctors of the Indian Medical Association (IMA) and private hospitals for their deployment from tomorrow in case the strike continued. A spokesman of the striking doctors said they would continue their protest till an independent review committee was set up to look into their proposals vis-a-vis the new reservation policy. He said they were not against reservation but that should be on the basis of the economic standard of the students and not ignoring the merit lists. They also demanded an independent probe into the police lathi-charge on them near Lal Bazar and said the guilty police personnel be punished. A procession was taken out by the striking doctors and students today. It began from Calcutta Medical College Hospital and passed through College Street, Esplanade, and ended near the Chowringhee-Rabindra Sadan crossing. Doctors of other medical colleges also joined the procession. The Democratic Students Organisation (DSO) and the Chhatra Parisad criticised the police excess on the striking students and observed a protest by wearing black badges. The DSO opposed the new reservation policy. The Trinamool Congress and BJP accused the UPA government of bringing out the new reservation policy in order to earn their vote banks. The TMC leaders criticised the CPM and other Left parties for extending their support to the UPA government on the reservation issue. The CPM secretary, Mr Biman Bose, who is also Left Front chairman and an important politburo member, however, today warned the striking doctors and engineering students against further continuing their cease-work, adding that they would not tolerate some vested interests to disturb the hospital services. The CPM students’ wing, the SFI, also asked the striking doctors and students to immediately call off their agitation. Otherwise, they would publicly oppose their agitation, the SFI leaders warned.
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BJP confident of bringing order to Karnataka unit
New Delhi, August 26 Coming out after meeting the Leader of Opposition, Mr L.K. Advani, the Deputy Chief Minister informed the newspersons that the very fact of all ministers meeting the central leadership as an entity showed that there were no differences. “We have ensured that the party leaders in Karnataka not do anything which might bring discredit to the central leadership,” he said. Questioned about indiscipline in the state unit, he said the problem involved a few individuals. The party had suspended MLC Janardhana Reddy and this would not have happened if he had taken the party into confidence.
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BJP hails HC judgement on Haj subsidy
New Delhi, August 26 BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said even courts in Pakistan had held that subsidising Haj was against the tenets of Islam. |
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Fernandes stays away from meeting
New Delhi, August 26 Fernandes' conspicious absence alongwith that of Rajya Sabha MP Digvijay Singh, party general secretary Shiv Kumar and Fernandes loyalist Aneel Hegde has caused anxiety and embarrassment to senior party office bearers. Sources closes to Fernandes said that he was unlikely to attend the national executive on the concluding day tomorrow. His shock treatment to his partymen is not without reason. It is a passive expression of his suppressed anger over the manner in which organisational elections held in Patna in April were hijacked to prevent his re-election.
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Envoy delivers Hague’s response but no apology
New Delhi, August 26 Instead, The Hague justified its action by sticking to its "suspicious behaviour" line of argument and maintained that this kind of behaviour "appeared to require urgent preventive action". The Hague also maintained there was "no racial consideration" behind the incident. The Dutch Ambassador here, Mr Eric
Niehe, today again met Ms Shashi U. Tripathi, Secretary (West) in the Ministry of External Affairs, and gave The Hague's response to a demarche New Delhi had handed him yesterday. The Indian demarche pertained to the August 23 incident involving the detention of 12 Indian nationals who were on board the North West Airlines Flight NW 42 from Schiphol Airport to Mumbai. The Dutch authorities merely expressed "understanding" for the concerns expressed by the Indian government regarding the incident, but drew attention to the apparently suspicious behaviour of the 12 Indian passengers, "which appeared to require urgent preventive action." The Ministry of External Affairs said the Dutch authorities conveyed that as soon as investigations were completed within one and a half days, the passengers were not only released from detention, but the Dutch authorities facilitated their earliest possible return to India. "The Dutch authorities have assured us that they do not undertake any racial profiling. They have also reiterated their close and friendly relations with India," the MEA said.
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Passengers back home
Mumbai, August 26 The passengers touched down in the Northwest Airlines flight NW042 a little after 2 am, four hours after their expected time of arrival. Tired and shaken, most passengers felt that they would put the experience behind them and get on with their lives. “It was a misunderstanding on the part of the airline. It was a bad experience which we would like to forget”, said Mr Mohammad Iqbal Batliwala, one of the passengers. According to him, the problem arose when the passengers, who were travelling in a group, decided to exchange seats to be near their friends. Mr Farook Aseem, another passenger, thanked the government for its help. Most passengers complained of being handcuffed, though they said they were not beaten up by the Dutch authorities. “We were not given any food on the first day”, one of the passengers said. Several relatives waited in front of the airport for hours. “It is like another Eid for us today”, a woman exclaimed.
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Special wheat for diabetic patients developed
New Delhi, August 26 Now, they can look forward to consuming food products made from the new ‘Dicoccum’ wheat variety that controls the sugar as well as cholesterol level in the blood. Developed by the All-India Coordinated Research Project (AICRP) at Dharwad centre of University of Agricultural Sciences, the food products made from Dicoccum variety, called DDK 1029, slowly dissolve in the body and release very less amount of calories. It takes five to six hours to dissolve in the human blood, thereby controlling sugar levels. DDK 1029 has good yield gain of nearly 3q/ha over the best dicoccum check DDK 1009 along with disease resistance. The average yield of this variety is 40.9 q/ha and has been identified for Maharashtra, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Goa, plains of Tamil Nadu, hilly areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala comprising the Nilgiri and Palni hills of the southern plateau. ICAR has also identified five new improved wheat varieties, two varieties of barley and one variety of triticale for various agro-climatic regions of the country. ICAR has initiated research work on developing hybrid wheat in order to improve the productivity as compared to the conventional varieties. Also, it has been decided to develop new wheat varieties suited to zero-tillage system, Furrow Irrigated Raised Bed System (FIRBS) and surface seeding in network mode, the research body said. It has identified wheat variety called DBW 17 which yields 1.2 quintals more than the present best variety PBW 343. It is also proven to be resistant to new yellow rust race for which PBW 343 and PBW 302 are susceptible. It also has shown better Karnal rust resistance than PBW 343. Besides this, DBW 17 has better chapatti making quality (score 7.96 out of 10) and gives average yield of 49.0 quintal per hectare. It has been identified for Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Rajasthan (except Kota and Udaipur divisions) and Western UP (except Jhansi division), parts of J &K (Jammu and Kathua distt.) and parts of HP (Una distt. and Paonta valley) and Uttaranchal (Tarai region) under timely sown irrigated conditions. In order to improve wheat productivity, it was recommended that sowings in the states of Punjab, northern Rajasthan and western parts of Uttar Pradesh be completed between 4th to 11th November under timely sown, high fertility irrigated conditions. Also, intensification of rice-wheat system by including vegetable pea after rice and before late sown wheat was found more profitable in north western India.
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Mother Teresa’s 96th birth anniversary observed
Kolkata, August 26 All-faith prayer held in the premises marked the occasion. Superior General of the Missionaries of Charity Sister Nirmala led the mass that celebrated the life of the Mother, who made the city her home and founded the order of the Missionaries of Charity to serve the poor and destitutes. Speaking on the occasion, the Mother's successor called upon militants to eschew violence and said ''Only love can conquer everything''. ''Guns can only spread evil. Violence can't do any good. But the power of love can conquer everything,'' she said. She described Mother Teresa as a ''gift of God to the earth''. Later, an all-faith prayer, attended by members from Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Sikh and Buddhist communities, was held in the premises of the MC. The prayer was organised by the United Minority Forum. A large number of people, majority of them children, flocked the Mother's house since morning to offer prayers and flowers at her tomb.
— UNI
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Ramoowalia pens book on Khalistan
New Delhi, August 26 “The Midair Frown” by Iqbal Ramoowalia focuses on the Canadian version of the Khalistani movement that raged in Punjab through the 1980s. The novel is built around one of the worst aviation tragedies that shook the world — the blowing up of the Air-India Boeing, Kanishka, which resulted in the death of over 329 persons. Ramoowalia stresses that “I’ve written this book as I wanted to bring up issues that I strongly feel the public should be informed on. The Khalistani movement is dead in India but it is being kept alive in Canada because it brings in money. That is why I call it a fake.”
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Cola firms have reneged on promise, says Ramdev
New Delhi, August 26 Swami Ramdev, who returned today from his six-week visit of the United Kingdom, said that during his yoga camps he had told people of the risks to health from colas and benefits of vegetables like bottle-gourd. He said India had the potential to supply them juice mixed with Ayurvedic herbs. He alleged that cola companies had not met their promises to the government on export obligations and providing employment.
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Sanjoy Hazarika bereaved
Chandigarh, August 26 She had presented many programmes in collaboration with Bhupen Hazarika for All India Radio. She was in the news recently when she grew in her kitchen garden a pumpkin that weighed 25 kg. She leaves behind two sons, including Sanjoy Hazarika, a journalist and specialist on the North-East. |
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