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No New Year parties for armed forces
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She was inspiration for family, neighbourhood
Women security to be in focus at Cong ‘chintan
shivir’
House Special session
Protesters call for safer Delhi
Minor molested on bus was earlier raped by brother
Gujarat Poll
Assets Case
DRDO chief gets 2011 Aryabhatta Award
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New Delhi, December 31 A senior police official said the chargesheet, which is being vetted by legal experts, has cited 30 witnesses in connection with the December 16 incident in which the medical student was gang-raped by six men. Amanat died in a Singapore hospital on Saturday morning. Investigators said they will seek death penalty for the accused in the case. Six persons, including a 17-year-old boy, was apprehended in connection with the incident, which evoked widespread outrage and anger and triggered violent protests at India Gate and Raisina Hill. The chargesheet, to be filed in the Saket court, will detail the role of five men while mentioning that a separate report would be sent to Juvenile Justice Board for the trial of the minor boy allegedly involved in the case, the official said. The chargesheet gives details about the sequence of events, the treatment, shifting of the patient to a Singapore hospital as well as her death, the official said. The police has slapped rape, murder and other charges against the accused. — PTI
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No New Year parties for armed forces
New Delhi, December 31 The New Year parties of the forces are a big draw in the national capital, big cities like Mumbai and even the smaller cantonment towns. Army Headquarters issued an advisory to all the commands to cancel the New Year celebrations. Army Chief Gen Bikram Singh and his wife Bubbles Singh will visit patients at the Army Research and Referral Hospital here and Base Hospital on the New Year. The Navy has cancelled all functions, said officials, adding that all the commands have been informed of the decision. IAF officials said the main function was scheduled at the auditorium in New Delhi that has been cancelled and a message has been sent to all the commands. Several state governments, hotels, clubs and business houses have either cancelled or toned down the celebrations.
Prez says no to celebrations
President Pranab Mukherjee has decided not to take part in New Year celebrations or receive greetings in person.
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She was inspiration for family, neighbourhood
New Delhi, December 31 “She was an ambitious girl, who aspired to be a doctor. After schooling, she spent one full year preparing for various entrance examinations. She had
only recently returned to Delhi after completing her medical course in Dehradun. She was the first girl from the neighbourhood to have pursued medical studies,” the neighbour recounted with tears welling up in her eyes. “The last time I saw her was on the fateful evening of December 16. She was leaving for a south Delhi mall,” she added. She met the boy (the 28-year-old engineer who was beaten while the six accused committed the gang rape) along with other friends at the mall to celebrate the completion of her degree. They watched movie “Life of Pi”. A pall of gloom has descended on the neighbourhood ever since the news of gruesome incident. “For many days, people in the locality did not even feel like cooking or eating their meals,” the neighbour said. The family of the victim did not speak to anyone while she was admitted to the Safdarjung Hospital. “It became known only after the news of girl’s death broke and the police battalions ringed the area,” a male member of the neighbour’s family said. “We wanted to talk to her family. She was like our daughter. But in that situation what could we have said,” he said. This morning, several politicians, including BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, called on the family of the victim. The family has since left to their native village in Balia, Uttar Pradesh, for the last rites, the neighbour said. The victim has two younger brothers. One of them has completed his class XII studies and is preparing for admission to an engineering course while the other is studying in class 10. “She was an inspiration for her brothers. She was an inspiration for all the kids in the neighbourhood and an epitome of ambition. We would often tell our children to be like her,” members of the family in the neighbourhood said.
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BJP for tougher laws on crimes against women
New Delhi, December 31 “Strict action against the accused in all such cases can be the only real justice to this victim. Our party workers have decided not to celebrate the New Year. But this will not be enough. The year should witness some serious implementation of laws in cases of crime against women. She said the party would press for a special Parliament session to work in this direction and if the government doesn’t call for the same, the budget session will be used for amending laws for protecting women. Senior BJP leaders raised the demand for a special session to review the laws related to crimes against women. BJP leaders, including Arun Jaitlely, Sushma Swaraj and Delhi BJP president Vijender Gupta, said the Congress government could have called a special session to ascertain views of all the parties and passed stern and reasonable laws for punishment in rape cases, but the government tried to avoid it. The leaders later on went to the house of the victim to console the family members. Addressing the workers at the meeting, Jaitley said not only Delhi has become a rape capital, the country has been ashamed in the entire world due to this incident. Jaitley said the judicial process should be such that justice was meted out to the victim within a few days or weeks and the police completes the probe quickly. The leaders also called for sensitisation of the Delhi police. “The government should act to make the police gender-sensitive, so that the victim can approach it fearlessly,” said
Sushma.
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Women security to be in focus at Cong ‘chintan
shivir’
New Delhi, December 31 The brainstorming session has essentially been called to prepare the party for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. Issues which have been identified for debate include political challenges facing the party, organisational matters, the state of the economy and foreign affairs. However, the nationwide angry protests which followed the gang rape and brutal assault of a 23-year-old medical student in a moving bus in the Capital, has alerted the political class about the need to accord priority to women’s issues. In the light of the prevailing sombre mood, Congress president Sonia Gandhi has decided not to celebrate the New Year. Congress sources said several party leaders, including Renuka
Chaudhary, plan to raise issues pertaining to women’s security and empowerment at the Jaipur meet in the light of the Delhi incident. The meeting is likely to discuss how the Congress should place these issues on its political agenda instead of dismissing them as mere footnotes. In addition, Congress women MPs and members of the Mahila Congress have decided to draw up a list of recommendations for submission to the Justice Verma Committee, which has been mandated on making sexual abuse laws against women more stringent and fast-tracking the judicial process in such cases. AICC general secretary Mohsina
Kidwai, who is also in charge of Mahila Congress, will fine tune these proposals and send them to the panel on behalf of the Congress.
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Govt awaiting Verma panel report before taking a call
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 31 “We have appointed the Justice Verma Committee to recommend to the government what changes should be made in the law. Therefore, a special session or a session of Parliament makes sense only when the report is received by the government... So let us first get the report and then we can examine when the session of Parliament should be,” Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram said at a press conference here. The Verma Committee has sought suggestions from individuals, NGOs, women’s groups and others by the first week of January. The panel, set up by the government on December 23, has been given 30 days to submit its report. Justice (retd) Leila Seth, former Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court, and Gopal Subramanian, former Solicitor General of India, are other members on the panel.
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VK Singh supports death penalty for rapists
New Delhi, December 31 He said that political parties were not serious about calling a special session of Parliament to discuss the recent gang rape of a 23-year-old physiotherapist and to formulate a strict law to discourage people from committing such crimes. Gen VK Singh (retd) said, “I support the protesters who are demanding death penalty for rapists and a strict law to deal with such cases. Their demands are justified. They are demanding security for their mothers and sisters. The government should take them seriously.” On the kind of punishment, he seeks for rapists, Gen VK Singh (retd) said, “Even death penalty is not sufficient punishment for such crimes."
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Protesters call for safer Delhi
New Delhi, December 31 “As this year ends, we bid adieu to the nation’s braveheart — the 23-year-old victim of the gang rape who passed away earlier this week. But we will not forget her. Her culprits should be brought to justice and we will see to it that our movement carries on into the New Year. Working towards gender sensitisation and safety initiatives in the coming year is the only way forward,” said Kavita Krishnan, vice-president, All India Progressive Women's Association. Even as traffic restrictions in central Delhi were relaxed today by the Delhi Police;
Rajpath, India Gate and Connaught Place still remained out of reach for protesters due to prohibitory orders. Jantar Mantar witnessed heavy outpour of supporters who boycotted the New Year’s celebrations. Social media threads and hundreds of protesters have been urging people not to participate in the Republic day celebrations.
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Minor molested on bus was earlier raped by brother
New Delhi, December 31 The 16-year-old girl recorded her statement with the police yesterday. Her brother Nazakkat Ali (19) was arrested following her complaint. The girl was molested on Saturday night allegedly by a conductor when she had ran away from her house following harassment by her family. The conductor Ranjit Singh was arrested in connection with the case. — PTI
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NCP miffed at Cong treatment, threatens to review alliance
Kochi, December 31 "This is not the way to work together. This is the reason why the BJP came to power in Gujarat. One has to work together and there should be honesty and commitment. If such a policy continues, we would give a serious thought about the alliance in the coming Lok Sabha and Assembly polls," he said. Addressing party workers here on Sunday, Pawar said the NCP would support any new legislation which recommends harsher punishment for those convicted for atrocities against women. The Union Government was taking steps to ensure that farm lands were not being diverted for non-agricultural purposes, he said, adding, a bill to amend the Land Acquisition Act would be tabled in the next session of Parliament. The amendment seeks to provide 400 per cent of the market price to farmers for acquiring their lands for industrial projects, job to one member of the family or salary for 20 years once the land is acquired. The Kerala Government should enter the market and procure coconuts so that the farmers would get a better price, he said. — PTI
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Court grants anticipatory bail to K’taka Deputy CM
Shimoga, December 31 Besides Eshwarappa, his son KE Kantesh and daughter-in-law Shalini were also granted anticipatory bail by Judge R M Shettar. The court directed them to furnish a bond of Rs one lakh each and a surety for similar sum. They were also ordered to appear before it within ten days from today. Advocate Vinod filed the complaint accusing Eshwarappa and his family members of amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income. The Lokayukta police recently conducted raids on eight places belonging to Eshwarappa and seized Rs ten lakh, 1.9 kgs of gold and 32 kgs of silver. Meanwhile, two families of Shimoga have filed a complaint at Tunga police station alleging that an Educational Trust run by Eshwarappa had encroached their two sites at Bypass road. — PTI
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Boost for BJP as Kalyan Singh to rejoin party on Jan 21
Lucknow, December 31 He would also announce the merger of his Jan Kranti party with the BJP on the same day. Singh represents Etah parliamentary constituency and is the sole elected representative of the party in any elected body. According to BJP state president Laxmikant
Bajpai, the former Chief Minister would be ushered into the party at a public function in the presence of
Gadkari, former national president Rajnath Singh, and Varanasi MP Murli Manohar Joshi. The public function of January 21 is part of a string of programmes chalked out by the BJP state unit to mobilise its cadre and raise its profile ahead of the 2014 Lok Sabha polls. From January 1, the BJP state unit is launching ‘Atal Sushasan
yatra’ (Atal’s good governance yatra) during which BJP cadres from each of the 404 Vidhan Sabha constituencies across the state would highlight the failure of the state government on the law and order front, irregularities in paddy purchase, problems of sugarcane farmers and failure of the state government to protect the small traders by refusing to stall
FDI. The yatra would continue till the birth anniversary of Swami Vivekanand. The membership drive of the party has also been extended till April 2013.
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DRDO chief gets 2011 Aryabhatta Award
Bangalore, December 31 The
ASI, which was set up in 1990 for promotion of astronautics and space in the country through dissemination of knowledge and information related to the subject, has today announced the names of the awardees under different categories for 2010 and 2011.
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Two days after the death of the 23-year-old girl, who was brutalised and gang-raped on a moving bus in the national capital, the Delhi Police today said it has finalised around 1,000-page charge sheet.
Miffed at the way it was treated by the Congress in the just concluded Gujarat Assembly polls, the Nationalist Congress Party has hinted that it would have to rethink on its alliance with the UPA in the 2014 Lok Sabha elections and assembly polls.In the Gujarat polls, which saw
BJP-led Narendra Modi retaining power, though his party was allotted nine seats, Congress fielded its candidates in five of them and in the remaining, Congress rebels contested, NCP president and Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said.
