Friday, December 24, 1999
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20 cr for tackling Naxalites NEW DELHI, Dec 23 — Home Minister L. K. Advani today warned that expanding Naxalite activity was a matter of national concern and said the government had formulated a scheme for 50 per cent reimbursement of security expenditure by states in tackling the problem. St Kitts case: HC upholds Rao’s acquittal NEW DELHI, Dec 23 — The Delhi High Court today upheld the trial court decision to acquit former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and former Union Minister K.K. Tewari in the St Kitts forgery case. |
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Fake
licence of LTTE chief: warrants against 4 |
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Son’s sale: NHRC notice to
SSP NEW DELHI, Dec 23 — Taking suo motu cognisance of a news report about a man selling his son, the National Human Rights Commission has issued notice to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Bathinda. Akademi awards for
Bashir, Tasneem 77
kg heroin seized by NCB Orissa
ex-minister sentenced |
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20 cr for tackling
Naxalites NEW DELHI, Dec 23 — Home Minister L. K. Advani today warned that expanding Naxalite activity was a matter of national concern and said the government had formulated a scheme for 50 per cent reimbursement of security expenditure by states in tackling the problem. While responding to a calling attention notice by Mr Sanjay Nirupam (Shiv Sena) and four others in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Advani said the Centre had sanctioned Rs 20 crore to Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Maharashtra for the purpose. Andhra Pradesh, where the problem was rampant, accounted for about half the amount sanctioned under the scheme. The scheme was for a period of five years ending March 31, 2001, he said. The Home Minister also said the states affected by the Left wing extremism had been asked to prepare an action plan to deal with the problem. So far, only Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and Orissa had submitted the plans to the Centre which were being considered by the Planning Commission, he said. He said this was not a localised phenomenon though the effective strength of the movement had remained confined to few pockets in the country. Mr Advani said the ideology of the Left wing extremism had a “negative impact” on the country’s socio-political life. The groups which had fairly large organisational structure and resources are the CPI-ML, the People’s War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). The Home Minister cautioned that these extremist groups were currently engaged in extending their sphere of influence beyond their existing strongholds. He said Andhra Pradesh and Bihar continued to remain at the forefront of the Left wing extremist violence. But in the current year, violent incidents had shown a declining trend in all affected states, except in Bihar. The recent incidents in Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh reflected continuing efforts on their part to make their presence felt, he remarked. The Centre has taken several other measures to help the states to fight the menace, including holding of coordination meetings, sharing of intelligence with the states, training of personnel in anti-extremist operations, upgrading of weapons and making available central paramilitary forces when needed, he added. Earlier, raising the
motion Mr Nirupam said the Centre had not provided
special monetary assistance to the Maharashtra Government
for tackling the Naxalite violence. Mr Advani said the
Maharashtra Government had not sought such assistance. |
St Kitts case: HC upholds Rao’s acquittal NEW DELHI, Dec 23 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today upheld the trial court decision to acquit former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and former Union Minister K.K. Tewari in the St Kitts forgery case. Mr Justice Anil Dev Singh also upheld the trial court’s decision to frame charges against controversial ‘godman’ Chandraswami and his aide K.N. Aggarwal, alias Mamaji. The trial court had framed charges against Chandraswami and Mamaji but discharged Rao and Tewari. The high court said the trial court took the right decision as ‘‘prima facie there is no evidence against Rao and Tewari’’ in the case. CBI had in its
chargesheet alleged that Rao, Tewari, Chandraswami,
Mamaji, K.L. Verma, Larry J. Kolb, A.P. Nanday and George
D. Mclean had entered into a conspiracy to forge and
fabricate certain bank documents relating to a
non-existent bank account in the First Trust Corporation
Ltd in St Kitts island in the name of Ajey Singh showing
his father, former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, as the
beneficiary. |
Fake licence of LTTE chief: warrants against 4 DHANBAD, Dec 23 (PTI) — Arrest warrants were issued recently against four persons for allegedly issuing a fake driving licence in the name of LTTE chief V. Prabhakaran, Deputy Superintendent of Police (Law and Order), Sunil Kumar said here today. The four persons are former Motor Vehicle Inspector of Dhanbad S.P. Tiwary, Dr Pujo Singh, medical officer of the Mineral Area Development Authority, Umesh Chandra Jha and Ramadhin Singh, two clerks employed in the Motor Vehicle and District transport offices respectively. All of them were absconding, Mr Kumar said. Cases against these persons had been registered under various sections of the IPC, he told reporters. The driving licence
number 3549/PTV/93 was issued in the name of Prabhakaran
on August 2, 1993 by the District Transport Office, the
main licencing authority in Dhanbad. |
Son’s sale: NHRC notice
to SSP NEW DELHI, Dec 23 — Taking suo motu cognisance of a news report about a man selling his son, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued notice to the Senior Superintendent of Police, Bathinda. Sources said here today
that the commission had asked the SSP to send a report on
the incident by January 24. According to the notice, the
commission would take appropriate action in case of
default by the respondent. According to the report, a man
suffering from tuberculosis reportedly sold his
three-year-old son for Rs Rs 500 to get treatment. An
inhabitant of Manakpur village, the accused is said to
have negotiated the deal at Bir Talab village. The boy is
said to have been rescued by volunteers of a welfare
club. |
Akademi awards for Bashir, Tasneem NEW DELHI, Dec 23 (PTI) — Twentyone authors were selected by the Sahitya Akademi today for awards for their outstanding contribution in the field of literature for 1999. The award, which would be presented to 21 authors on February 22, 2000, contains an inscribed copper-plaque and a cheque for Rs 25,000. The authors were selected by a three-member jury in each language for their books published between January 1, 1993 and December 31, 1997, Mr K. Satchidanandan, Secretary of the akademi said here. The authors awarded are Medini Chowdhury (Assamese) for her novel “Biponna Somay”, Navanita Deb Sen (Bengali) for her poetry and fiction book “Navanita” late Kuldeep Singh Jindhraia (Dogri) for his poetry book “Mangwi Pashakri”, late A.K. Ramanujan (English) for his poetry book “The Collection of Poems”, Niranjan Bhagat (Gujarati) for “Gujarati Sahitya-Purvadh Uttarardh”, Vinod Kumar Shukla (Hindi) for his novel “Deewar Main Ek Khirkee Rahati Thi”. Late D.R. Nagaraj (Kannada) for his collection of essays “Sahitya Kathana”, Saratchandra Shenoi (Konkani) for his poetry book “Antarnad”, Saketanand (Maithili) for his collection of short stories “Gannayak”, C.V. Sreeraman (Malayalam) for collection of short stories “Sreeramante Kathakal”, Lanchenba Meetei (Manipuri) for his poetry book “Nangbu Hondeda”, Ranganath Pathare (Marathi) for his novel “Tamrapat”, Vikramvir Thapa (Nepali) for collection of short stories “Bishon Shatabdi Ki Monalisa” Haraprasad Das (Oriya) for poetry ‘Garbhagriha’, Niranjan Tasneem (Punjabi) for his novel ‘Gawache Arth’, Vashu Acharya (Rajasthani) for his poetry collection ‘Seer Ro Ghar’, Srinivas Rath (Sanskrit) for poetry ‘Tadeva Gaganam Saiva Dhara’ are also among those selected for the distinction. Vasdev Mohi (Sindhi) for his work of poetry ‘Barf Jo Thahyal’, Abdul Eahman (Tamil) for poetry collection ‘Aalapanai’, Vallampati Venkta Subbaiah (Telugu) for his collection of essays ‘Katha Silpam’ and Bashir Badr (Urdu) for his poetry work ‘Aas’ will also be conferred the honour. The awards were
finalised by the executive board which met here under the
chairmanship of akademi President Ramakanta Rath, Mr
Sachidanandan added. |
Inner beauty fetched title: Mookhey NEW DELHI, Dec 23 (PTI) — She fears heights, loves Munshi Premchand’s writings and thinks she became “just charming” after she discarded her spectacles and started wearing contact lenses. The millennium’s last Miss World, Mumbai girl Yukta Mookhey, today shared her thoughts on many things under the sun, from movies to politics, with the Capital’s scribes amidst a busy schedule including a meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee. “I know I am not the most beautiful woman on the planet, but just about charming maybe. But I won the title for, I believe, the inner beauty in me — how I presented myself with dignity and approach to people and the community,” Mookhey said about the reasons behind her winning the crown. “You have to be intelligent, know how you can portray yourself the best way and believe in yourself,” which, she said, were the secrets of her success. And what about the protests against beauty pageants? “Those people (the opponents of the contests) need to refer to how many obscene movies they don’t object to, how many youngsters pore over Playboy at night”. “And here is a girl who is trying to offer herself, in her own way, for the service of society as any normal girl would do. What is wrong in that?” she quipped. Asked whether India’s beauty queens only paid lip service to social work, but after winning world titles fall for the lure of the silver screen, Mookhey said: “How do you know they are not doing such work? they might be doing it away from public gaze, without much publicity.” “They might not like any publicity (for their charity work) and if they do, you will be the first one to point out that they are doing everything for publicity.” Queried about her own possibility of entering films, the lissome beauty in a parrot green saree, said: “It is too premature for me to say anything right now. I will probably consider it after a year when my stint and responsibilities as Miss World ends.” But then, “they will have to find a hero as tall as me”, quipped the nearly six-foot tall zoology graduate with a penchant for arts, “soft” music and books — Munshi Premchand being her favourite. Asked whether reservation was necessary in legislatures for women, she said: “Why not... In the new millennium, I think we have to focus more on women.” “The government should ensure that all plans are truly executed and reach the common man. It is a big country with big problems, but the various committees set up by the government for the plans should ensure their execution,” she said. Asked about her future plans, Mookhey ruled out marriage plans “for the next six to seven years” and said “immediately I have to attend lots of programmes and do charities till I am in the country. On January 15, I will leave for London which will be my base for the next one year for duties as the Miss World.” Mookhey, who admires the late Princess Diana, Kiran Bedi and Shobha De as the most beautiful women and idolises yesteryear’s Hollywood star Audrey Hepburn for her “quiet dignity and calm despite lots of hardships”, looks forward to certain qualities in men too to admire. Her advice for aspiring
beauty queens, “Love yourself for what you are. God
has created everyone with certain qualities and you have
to believe in them. You will succeed if you portray
yourself intelligently.” |
77 kg heroin seized by NCB NEW DELHI, Dec 23 (PTI) — In one of the biggest seizures, the Narcotics Control Board yesterday unearthed 77 kg of heroin containing Pakistan markings in South Delhi and arrested seven persons in this connection, Director General of Narcotics Control Bureau H.P. Kumar said here today. Mr Kumar told reporters it would be early to comment on the possible involvement of the ISI in the seizure at Delhi as investigations were at the preliminary stage. The seizure followed raids on the business premises of the accused at Bhagirath Place and residences at New Friends Colony and Teliwara Azad Market, Mr Kumar said. The raids in Delhi were a follow-up to the recent seizure of 18.83 kgs heroine made near Chennai in which the LTTE’s involvement was suspected, Narcotics Control Bureau officials said. Narcotics officials pointed out that the drug trade estimated at about 500 billion dollars annually was affecting the economy of several countries. A kilogram of heroine
costs over Rs one crore in the international market, they
said. |
Orissa ex-minister sentenced BHUBANESWAR, Dec 23 (UNI) — Orissa State Planning Board Deputy Chairman and former Congress minister Sharat Rout has been sentenced to one year imprisonment and a fine of Rs 20,000 by a special court for possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income. Special Judge (vigilance) Mukunda Mishra, who heard the case under Section 13(2) of the prevention of Corruption Act, passed the order here yesterday. Former Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik and 12 of his Cabinet colleagues were chargesheeted by the state Vigilance Department for amassing money disproportionate to their known sources of income. Their cases were referred to a special court constituted for the purpose in 1991 by the Biju Patnaik government. The Vigilance Department raided the houses of all the ministers and registered the case under the Prevention of Corruption Act. However, the special court was later abolished by the Congress government when it came to power in 1995 and the cases were transferred to the special vigilance judge court here for trial. The former Chief Minister was however, acquitted of the charges in the apex court while two of his cabinet colleagues — Mr Kishore Chandra Patel and Mr Niranjan Patnaik were acquitted by the Special Judge (vigilance) court here. Both Mr Patnaik and Mr
Patel are at present holding Cabinet berths in the
Hemananda Biswal government. |
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| 3 held with counterfeit
currency MUMBAI: Three men were arrested for being in possession of 300 counterfeit notes of Rs 100 denomination here on Wednesday evening. The three accused were trying to exchange the fake notes and on getting information about them, police arrested them near V.P. Road police station area. Police have seized the counterfeit notes worth Rs 30,000. — PTI Chhota Rajan man killed 4 insurgents
nabbed Chetna yatra
reaches Bangalore Award for
Shishumani Rabidas School kids
reconstruct village |
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NEW DELHI, Dec 23 —
She fears heights, loves Munshi Premchand’s
writings and thinks she became “just
charming” after she discarded her spectacles
and started wearing contact lenses.
