 |
|
|
MDMK splits, Vaiko expelled
After setback, ISRO aims for the moon
Karnataka Flashback-2006
|
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Cellphone craze turns bloody
Army to recruit 400 psychiatrists
Tehelka: CBI charge sheet against 2 JD (U) men
Left Front to form panel on land use
|
|
MDMK splits, Vaiko expelled
Salem (Tamil Nadu), December 29 After being stripped of their posts, MPs L. Ganesan and Gingee N. Ramachandran convened the General Council, the party's highest decision-making body here, removed Mr Vaiko from the post and expelled him from the MDMK for his "anti-party activities." A resolution, unanimously adopted to this effect at the meeting, said Mr Vaiko was acting against the interests of the party and failed to protect the ideals and principles of rationalist leader Periyar E.V. Ramasamy and Dravidian stalwart C.N. Annadurai. The resolution also accused him of placing the party at 'the feet of the AIADMK' and acting contrary to party's policies and programmes and against the very purpose of forming the MDMK. In another resolution, the council declared as null and void Mr Vaiko's action in removing Mr Ganesan and Mr Ramachandran, two of the party's four MPs, from their posts of Presidium Chairman and Deputy General Secretary respectively. Their removal from party posts was 'illegal' as the decision was unilaterally taken by Mr Vaiko without convening the party's competent bodies, the resolution noted. The General Council unanimously appointed Mr Ramachandran as General Secretary in place of Mr Vaiko and decided to retain Mr Ganesan as MDMK Presidium Chairman. In another resolution, the council flayed Mr Vaiko for lodging a 'false complaint' with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi that DMK President and Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi had hatched a conspiracy to split the party. While Mr Ganesan claimed that about 600 General Council members attended today's meeting, informed sources said that about 200 members took part. The MDMK had more than 1,300 General Council members. The police made tight security arrangements for the meeting. — UNI
|
|
After setback, ISRO aims for the moon
Bangalore, December 29 Despite this failure, this year will also be remembered as the year ISRO accessed its ability to undertake a manned mission to the moon, won contracts to build communication satellites for European customers, is in line to establish an indigenous and independent satellite navigation system, tested an indigenous cryogenic engine and above all renewed ties with NASA by signing an agreement with the space agency to include two US scientific instruments on board its first unmanned moon mission - Chandrayan-1. India will also be looking forward to launch of Chandrayan -1 which is expected to be placed in orbit by using an advanced Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) in early 2008. In the space agencies biggest setback this year, the GSLV disintegrated 65 seconds after takeoff from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre at Sriharikota on July10. According to a Failure Analysis Committee (FAC) report, the primary cause of failure was the sudden loss of thrust in one out of the four liquid propellant strap-on stages immediately after lift- off. This resulted in the malfunctioning of a propellant regulator which had a minute defect in manufacturing. The space agency has announced it will re launch the GSLV -F02 next year along with the INSAT - 4 C satellite as the Failure Analysis Committee had not found any flaw in GSLV and it was only a question of rebuilding of the entire vehicle and payload. Though the country’s ability to put heavier commercial satellites into orbit has been questioned following the failure of the GSLV-F02, ISRO is moving on schedule with the next generation GSLV D3 which is capable of placing a four tonne satellite in orbit. The GSLV D3 is scheduled for launch in 2007-08. Among ISRO’s accomplishments this year is allying with European space agency EADS Astrium to jointly offer communication satellites in the international market. In June this year it won the W2M satellite contract offered by Eutelsat Communications under which ISRO will build the satellite while EADS Astrium will build the communications payload. ISRO will also be in charge of early in-orbit operations. The same pattern will be followed in the building of the Highly Adoptable Satellite, HYLAS, for Avanti Screen Media which was also won by the team this year. The much-awaited indigenous cryogenic stage with regenerative cooled engine which is to be used in the GSLV- D3 mission has also made progress this year.
|
|
Year of political coups, bribery scandals
Jangveer Singh Tribune News Service
Bangalore, December 29 Kumaraswamy pulled off the unlikeliest political coups in the history of the state by splitting the JD(S) legislature party and aligning with the BJP to stake claim to form a government in the State in January this year. In the process he hoodwinked the Congress which was quite sure its 20-month coalition with the JD(S) would hold on account on promises made by Kumaraswamy’s father and former Prime Minister H. D. Deve Gowda who was loathe to have any truck with the BJP. However, Kumaraswamy did not have a smooth sailing with a number of charges being levelled against him. Suspended BJP legislative assembly member Janardhan Reddy created a furore when he alleged that the Chief Minister along with Forest Minister Chennigappa had collected Rs 150 crore as bribe from mine owners of Bellary. He went on to release details of bank accounts of the Chief Minister’s sister-in-law which became flush with funds after Kumaraswamy took over the reins of the State. The government formed a one-man judicial commission to look into the charges but the Commission itself dealt a blow to the government by announcing it would get the charges probed by the CBI instead of the state police Towards the end of the year, the Chief Minister had to face the ignominy of having his party nominee being defeated in the Chamundeshwari assembly byelection by expelled JD(S) leader and newly turned Congressman Siddaramaiah. Kumaraswamy’s candidate lost the seat by a narrow margin of 257 votes but the fact that the Chief Minister had made the election a prestige issue and unlocked the doors of the state treasury to lure the voters gave the Congress a tremendous boost in the state. The state also witnessed a charade in the form of an assembly session held at Belgaum to counter Maharashtra’s claim to the city. However, here too the gains were dubious as holding of the assembly session has only polarized the issue more with the Maharashtra Ekikaran Samiti also holding a well attended parallel show of strength. On the infrastructure front some progress was made on the flyover front in Bangalore but the wrong message was sent to private players keen on investing in infrastructure building due to the government’s stand on the Bangalore- Mysore expressway project. Kumaraswamy announced the government would take over the project which is being taken up by a consortium led by an NRI-Ashok Kheny. Even after the Supreme Court asked the government to honour its agreement with the company, the government continued to make things difficult for the firm by not transferring land to it. Finally it was decided to change Bangalore’s name to Bengalooru which may happen any time next year but the concept of Bangalore as a successful multi-ethnic city has been challenged for the first time since the IT boom. The death of Kannada film icon Rajkumar and the resultant rioting brought the under current of animosity of the under privileged Kannadigas against the affluent IT workers, a large number of whom are from outside the State into the open. Kannadigas are in a minority in Bangalore and have not sufficiently gained from the IT boom. It was this element which rioted and destroyed property to express its anger at the present disposition in the name of “expressing grief” at the death of Rajkumar.
|
|
Cellphone craze turns bloody
Chennai, December 29 On Wednesday, Aravind was playing with his “friends” when they allured him to watch a movie on a VCR at around 8 pm. They took him to an empty house, whose owners had gone out of town. Seeing a dog in the house, Aravind started crying and pleaded to be taken back home. In order to silence him, the three teenagers “caught him by the throat” but when his cries did not subside, they hit him on the head with bricks. As Aravind lay in a pool of blood, the boys gagged him and he died within a few minutes. Then they dumped his body near a temple close to his house and made a telephone call to his parents demanding a ransom of Rs 5 lakh. “The boy was already dead by the time the ransom call was made.” Mr Saran said. Immediately after dumping the body, the boys returned to the scene of the crime and sprinkled chilly powder to mislead police sniffer dogs, cleaned up the House and returned to their respective homes. The parents came to know of the boy’s death the next afternoon. Investigations revealed that Aravind was last seen with the three boys, following which they were nabbed. The trio then confessed to the crime.
|
|
Army to recruit 400 psychiatrists
New Delhi, December 29 Asked about an increase in suicides among army personnel, he agreed that the suicides were linked to stress, but said the morale of army officers was high. He said the psychiatrists, who would be from a civilian background, would be able to assess the behaviour of persons and could stop any suicidal trends. He cited family problems to be a major cause driving personnel to commit suicide. This was followed by army life, he said. Explaining that stress among officers was not high, he said, “Whatever the rate, we want to bring the number down to zero”.
- PTI
|
|
Tehelka: CBI charge sheet against 2 JD (U) men
New Delhi, December 29 The charge sheet against the duo was filed by the CBI yesterday in the court of Special Judge, Patiala House Courts, the agency said today. They have been charge-sheeted for commission of offence punishable under Section 120-B IPC (Criminal Conspiracy) and Section 9 of Prevention of Corruption Act 1988.
— TNS
|
|
Left Front to form panel on land use
Kolkata, December 29 This development occurred during a meeting of the Left Front, attended by former Chief Minister Jyoti Basu. It was also decided to set up an expert committee, including government officials and representatives of political parties, to decide about the future use of land for industry. The decisions were taken in the wake of the government handling of the Singur issue. Mr Basu felt that the Singur issue had put the party and the Left Front in a major crisis, but he was happy that the crisis was over. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Minister for External Affairs Pranab Mukherjee thanked Ms Mamata Banerjee for calling off her indefinite fast. Letters of thanks were received from Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr L.K. Advani and Mr Rajnath Singh. Though Ms Banerjee had called off her indefinite fast, the stir at Singur would continue.
|
|
| 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
