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India,
Pak willing to find pragmatic solutions to NEW DELHI: Signalling a positive outcome, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari on Sunday said the two countries were willing to find "practical, pragmatic" solutions to a "number of issues" affecting the bilateral relationship. Emerging after a 30-minute one-on-one meeting, both Singh and Zardari gave press statements where they expressed "satisfaction" over their deliberations. "I and President Zardari had constructive and friendly exchanges of views on bilateral issues which affects relationship between India and Pakistan," Singh said. After landing here at 12.10 pm at Palam Air Force Base (technical area) along with his son Bilawal Bhutto, Zardari drove straight to Singh's official Race Course Road residence. Zardari, who had expressed his desire to come on a "private visit" to go to Ajmer to pay obeisance at the shrine of Khwaja Moinuddin Chishti, was invited by Singh to join him for lunch. The invitation was accepted by Zardari. "I have taken advantage of this visit to discuss with him all bilateral issues and I am very satisfied with the outcome of this visit," the Prime Minister said while admitting that there were number of issues between the two countries. "We have a number of issues and we are willing to find practical and pragmatic solutions to all those issues and that is the message President Zardari and I would wish to convey," Singh said. We have had "very fruitful" bilateral talks, said Zardari, who also hoped to meet the Indian leader on Pakistani soil very soon. The Pakistan President invited Singh to visit his country. "I would be very happy to visit Pakistan on a mutually convenient date," Singh said. The Pakistan President was warmly received by Singh after reaching the Prime Minister's residence and both the leaders posed for shutterbugs. "I would like to wish the people of India 'as-salam walekum' from the President of Pakistan. I am grateful to the Prime Minister for inviting me for lunch though I am on a private visit here but we have had some fruitful bilateral talks together," Zardari said. The Pakistan President, who is on a day-long visit to India, said the two countries are neighbours. "We would like to have better relations with India. We have spoken on all topics that we could have spoken about and we are hoping to meet on Pakistani soil very soon," he said. There was no structured agenda for the meeting between Singh and Zardari. Meanwhile, cranking up pressure on Pakistan, the Prime Minister made it clear to President Zardari that action needs to be taken against Hafiz Saeed and other perpetrators of the Mumbai attacks, which will be a key factor to judge progress in bilateral ties. Terrorism figured prominently during Singh's one-on-one meeting with Zardari. "The leaders discussed the problem of terrorism which is a major issue by which the Indian people will judge progress in bilateral relationship," Foreign Secretary Ranjan Mathai told reporters here. Singh told Zardari that it was "imperative" to bring the perpetrators of Mumbai attacks to justice and prevent activities aimed against India from Pakistani soil. "In this context, the Prime Minister also mentioned the activities of Hafiz Saeed (the founder of banned terror outfit Lashkar-e-Toiba)," Mathai said. — PTI
Digvijaya calls MP Chief Minister 'coward' for avoiding media Bhopal: Congress General Secretary Digvijaya Singh on Sunday hit out at Madhya Pradesh chief minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan calling him a "coward" for "not holding even a single official press conference during the past six years of his rule." "I am convinced that as far as media is concerned, Chouhan is a coward, for he has not mustered the courage to address even a single official press conference during his rule," Digvijaya Singh told PTI. An official press conference is the one, which is held at the state secretariat, he explained. Digvijaya added that it was difficult to understand Chouhan's reluctance to talk to the media, despite making a number of "tall claims" about ensuring development and turning Madhya Pradesh into a Golden State. "I think Chouhan shies away from media, as he himself knows that his claims are hollow," Digvijay said, adding that had there been any truth in the claims, there was no reason for him to avoid the media. The senior Congress leader said that during his own 10-year-long tenure as the Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh he used to hold an official press conference almost every month. "By keeping away from the media, Chouhan has proved conclusively that he does not have the courage to face even a single uncomfortable question," Digvijay said. He further said he was amused to read the
Chief Minister's statement, in which he said that he could not understand how a corrupt man could sleep peacefully at night. "It is now known that there are three currency counting machines at Chouhan's residence. I am sure that these machines have not been purchased to count the salary that Chouhan gets," Singh said. — PTI
Indian delegation to visit war-torn areas in Lanka New Delhi: With an aim of reinforcing India's commitment towards ethnic Sri Lankan Tamils, a delegation of MPs led by the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Sushma Swaraj, will travel to the country next week to assess the resettlement and political process in war-torn areas. The 15-member multi-party delegation with representatives from Congress, BJP, DMK, AIADMK and Left parties will be in Sri Lanka from April 16 to April 21. The delegation is likely to meet the country's top leadership, including President Mahinda Rajapaksa, and travel to northern and eastern parts of the country, which bore the maximum brunt of the nearly three decades-old civil war. At least seven members of the delegation are from Tamil Nadu, where the issue of Sri Lankan Tamils is emotive. The MPs, while assessing the process of resettlement of Tamils displaced by the war that ended three years back, would press for an early political solution which involves devolution of powers to the Tamils, sources said on Sunday. Besides Swaraj, the delegation will include Congress MPs Sudarshana Natchiappan, Manicka Tagore, M. Krishnaswamy and N.S.V. Chithan, DMK's T.K.S. Elangovan and Prahlad Joshi and C.P. Thakur from BJP. CPI (M) will be represented by T.K. Rangarajan. The leaders would travel to Jaffna and Kilinochchi, the de-facto capital of the now-vanquished LTTE, and see for themselves the resettlement process taken up after the end of the war. Sources said the MPs would interact with Tamil parties and common people in the war-torn areas and seek feedback from them on the process. The long-awaited visit by the delegation comes close on the heels of India voting against Sri Lanka at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva on March 23. — PTI
2G: Former Telecom Secretary likely to depose tomorrow NEW DELHI: Former Telecom Secretary Dinesh Shankar Mathur, a key prosecution witness in the 2G spectrum allocation case, is likely to depose before a Delhi court on Monday. Mathur's deposition before Special CBI Judge O. P. Saini assumes significance as he, in his statement to the CBI, had said it was former Telecom Minister A Raja who had decided to prepone the cut-off date for the receipt of new applications for Unified Access Services Licences (UASL). Earlier, October 1, 2007 was fixed as the last date for receiving applications, but it was preponed to September 25. The CBI had alleged that Raja, in collusion with others, had decided to keep September 25, 2007 as the cut-off date for considering the applications for UASL to "wrongly benefit" Unitech Ltd MD Sanjay Chandra and Swan Telecom promoters Shahid Usman Balwa and Vinod Goenka -- all facing trial in the case. Mathur, a 1971 batch IAS officer who had joined as the telecom secretary in July 2006 and retired from the post on December 31, 2007, had said that Raja decided to prepone the cut-off date to be September 25, 2007 without having any "reasonable justification." "It was also decided by A. Raja on this date that Letter of Intent (LoIs) may be issued to the applicants, who applied by September 25, 2007. When I came back from tour, this note of the minister was put to me on November 3, 2007. "In my opinion, this could have given rise to legal implications because the department (DoT) did not have any reasonable justification for arbitrarily fixing the cut off date as September 25, 2007," Mathur had told the CBI in his statement recorded on December 16, 2010. The court, in its order on charges against Raja and others, had also said that the former telecom minister had decided the cut-off date to be October 1, 2007 and a press release was also issued to this effect on September 24, 2007 but he had already taken a view to keep it as September 25, 2007 to favour some private firms. Mathur had also told the CBI that Raja, while corresponding with the Prime Minister on various vital issues related to the allocation of Spectrum, had not consulted him. "I state that the correspondence between the minister and Prime Minister was carried by minister A. Raja at his level and the draft reply to the Prime Minister was not prepared in consultation with the department on file. "I was not even consulted in this regard even informally. Normally such communications from such high dignitaries on policy matters should be considered by the department in depth and a well thought-out reply should be sent under signatures of the minister," Mathur had told the CBI. He had also told the agency that a note prepared by him Manju Madhavan, then Member (Finance) and Telecom Commission, giving various options about fixing of the entry fee was forwarded to Raja, but no reply came from him and even the note did not appear in any policy file. "l also state that Manju Madhavan, the then Member (Finance), Telecom Commission and myself had prepared a note giving various options about fixing of the entry fee, which included an option regarding the auction of the licenses as well. "This note was initialled by Manju Madhvan and forwarded by me to A. Raja in the last week of October, 2007. However, the said note never came back and does not appear to be a part of any policy file," he had said. — PTI
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