Sunday, May 16, 1999
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N A T I O N |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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HVP-INLD rift may hit
front |
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BJP leader, Tushar join
Cong
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Mahajan’s remark
triggers resentment Prani Mitra Award for Maneka Brighter side of poverty |
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HVP-INLD rift may hit front NEW DELHI, May 15 — The deep-rooted rivalry between the Haryana Vikas Party (HVP) and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) hangs like the sword of Damocles over the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) announced by the BJP and its coalition partners today morning. Soon after the announcement of the NDA, the INLD Chief, Mr Om Prakash Chautala, is understood to have indicated that the alliance was not "feasible" as an electoral understanding or seat adjustment with the HVP was "out of question". Mr Chautala’s supporters said the INLD was firm on its old stand that any understanding with the HVP was not possible. Mr Chautala and the HVP leader, Mr Surinder Singh, who is the son of Mr Bansi Lal, attended the meeting of the BJP and its allies where a decision to launch the NDA was arrived at. Efforts to contact Mr Chautala and Mr Surinder Singh proved futile as both of them are said to have left the Capital after attending the meeting. However, Mr Surinder
Singh is understood to have said he was not averse to be
in an alliance in which the INLD was also there. |
Tohra’s expulsion welcomed NEW DELHI, May 15 — The expulsion of Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra from the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) for a period of six years has been welcomed by the Delhi unit of the SAD while Tohra loyalists in the Capital have criticised the action. Addressing a press conference here, the President of the Delhi unit of the SAD, Mr Avtar Singh Hit, said it was a step in the right direction. “Mr Tohra was always keen to split the party and he was never a true Akali,” he alleged. Mr Hit said Mr Tohra should also immediately resign as a Rajya Sabha member. “The Tohra faction is being actively supported by the Congress and some of the Congress MLAs have even visited the residences of our supporters to convince them to move to the Sarna faction. However, we now have a majority among the executive body,” he said. The Delhi unit President of the SAD said if the Congress did not stop “interfering” in Sikh issues then they would hold a major demonstration outside the Congress headquarters. He alleged that last night the sacked Akal Takht chief Bhai Ranjit Singh along with his supporters had forcibly opened the room and locker of the “President of the executive body” Mr Jaswant Singh Sethi and taken away certain documents. Mr Hit reiterated that the elections had been postponed and any action taken by the Sarna faction was illegal. Meanwhile, the “newly elected President” of the executive body of the DSGMC Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna, a Tohra loyalist, strongly criticised the decision to expel Mr Tohra. “We condemn this decision and now we would take strong action against Mr Badal,” he said. Mr Sarna pointed out
that “the new executive body” was continuing
its work and there were “no problems” since
they had the support of the local administration. |
BJP leader, Tushar join Cong NEW DELHI, May 15 — Mr Tushar Gandhi, great grandson of Mahatma Gandhi, and Mr Prahlad Dore, former Deputy Speaker of Orissa Legislative Assembly, today joined the Congress. Mr Tushar Gandhi had contested the 1998 Lok Sabha elections from North-West Mumbai on a Samajwadi Party ticket. To a question why he shifted from the Samajwadi Party, Mr Gandhi said he contested the last Lok Sabha polls on a SP ticket because the party had an understanding with the Congress. He said since the SP was
now inclined towards the Sangh Parivar, he shifted to the
Congress. |
Hardwar to have spiritual
varsity HARDWAR, May 15 — The world’s first ever spiritual university will be set up in the city. the foundation stone of the university will be laid on May 23 by the 120-year-old sanyasi, Swami Kalyan Dev. The project has been mooted and will be executed by the Shanti Kunj — religious organisation, which has its headquarters on the Hardwar-Rishikesh road. The organisation is popularly known as Gyatri Parivar, headed by Mr Siri Ram Sharma. A spokesmen of the Shanti Kunj told the TNS today that the university, which would start functioning from the year 2000, would come up at a 70 acre area on the Hardwar-Rishikesh road. The total project cost would be over Rs 40 crore. He stated that the university would be named “Dev Sanskrit University” and would have four faculties (a) health faculty, (b) education faculty, (c) spiritual faculty, and self reliance faculty. The university would cater to the needs of children of non-resident Indians and teach them about the Indian spiritualism, its way of life, its culture, customs and traditions. The step was being taken as the children of the NRIs had lost touch with their roots in India and were unaware of their culture and ancestry. Under the health faculty, main stress would be on life science. Through this faculty, the Indian youth would be taught about the origin of Ayurveda system of medicines, its period of renaissance and how Ayurveda system could help Indians to live a longer and healthier life. The students would be taught about various medicinal plants, their origin and their place of availability and how these were useful in producing wonder drugs. It would be affiliated with the Indian System of Medicines Department under the Union Ministry of Health. The faculty would run a three-month course under this system. A fully equipped 40 bedded hospital would also be attached with this faculty. In the education faculty, over 1200 students would be admitted every year. The minimum qualification for entry to this faculty would be B.Ed. and BTC. The course and training would focus on imbibing the basic values of life amongst the students and how to synchronise morality with the modern day progressive world. The self-reliance
faculty would focus on training to students on how to
revive cottage industries in the villages. A six-month
course would provide enough training to the village youth
to be self-sufficient economically while living in the
villages. The course would stress on “back to the
villages” and revival of self-reliant economy there.
It would run a “Cow centre” and village
technology centres. |
Mahajan’s remark triggers resentment NEW DELHI, May 15 (UNI) — Members of the Prasar Bharati Board have said that the recent remark of Information and Broadcasting Minister Pramod Mahajan for winding up the autonomous corporation is not acceptable to them. At a meeting held yesterday under the chairmanship of Dr Abid Hussain, the board expressed the view that the vacancies on the board should be filled immediately so that the corporation could shoulder properly the challenges of the future and the competition from other television channels. Information and Broadcasting Ministry sources said the board decided to meet in mid-June to consider the report submitted by financial consultant Arun Kumar Aggarwal into the alleged irregularities committed during the past two years. The meeting, which lasted about five hours, was attended by several members, including Mr B.G. Verghese, Mr Rajendra Yadav, Professor U.R. Rao and Mr K.S. Sarma who is Joint Secretary (Broadcasting) in The Ministry, and the Ministry’s representative on the board. Prasar Bharti chief executive officer O.P. Kejriwal was also present. Ministry Secretary Piyush G. Mankad and Additional Secretary R.R. Saha also met the board members for sometime. Members also discussed ways to make the election programmes on Doordarshan and All India Radio more interesting and informative. Different views were expressed about the format of the election specials before, during and after the elections. Mr Aggarwal, a distant relation of Dr Kejriwal, had been appointed financial consultant for a month on a token fee of Rs one after due approval of the board. However, he resigned after only 16 days following the controversy over his appointment. During that period, Mr Aggarwal is understood to have found flaws in the agreement between Stracon and Doordarshan in September last year which led to litigation in Delhi and Mumbai High Courts. Mr Aggarwal, who is based in Bangalore, also prepared a detailed report on various financial transactions in and with Prasar Bharati during the past two years including the period when Mr S.S. Gill was the chief executive officer. However, members of the
board said they needed more time to consider the report
and therefore decided to meet next month for this
purpose. (normally, the board is expected to meet once
every two months.) |
Prani Mitra Award for Maneka NEW DELHI, May 15 — Six persons, including the Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Mrs Maneka Gandhi, today received the Prani Mitra Award. The awards are given to persons who have made outstanding contribution to animal welfare. They were given by the Vice-President, Mr Krishan Kant, at a function at Vigyan Bhavan here today. The award, instituted by the All-India Animal Welfare Board, carries a certificate and a gold medal worth Rs 20,000. Others who got the award are Com Tilak Raj (Amritsar), Ms Marghaben Mohanlal Khandar (Gujarat), Mr D M Thaker (Mumbai), Ms Kaya Gupta (Calcutta), and Captain (late) V Sundaram (Chennai). Speaking on the occasion, Mr Krishan Kant expressed concern over the fast depleting forests, polluted water sources, habitat loss and growing population. He drew attention to the fact that 78 of the 2100 species and sub-species in India figure in the endangered list. “If they disappear because of our insensitivity or lack of concern, the country would have lost one of its greatest heritage.” Justice Guman Mal Loda, former MP and Chairman of the All India Animal Welfare Board said that entries for nominating persons for the award were invited from voluntary organisations and persons. The 18-member Board comprises animal lovers and members of the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha. Justice Loda said that the awardees were selected by a selection committee chaired by Rajmata Scindia. Curiously, Mrs Maneka Gandhi, a recipient of the award is the Vice-Chairman of the selection committee. Justice Loda said that
Mrs Maneka Gandhi’s name was recommended for the
award in 1996 when she was not Vice-Chairman of the
Selection Committee. |
Brighter side of poverty NEW DELHI, May 15 — Nisheeth M. Katara’s exhibition of colour photographs at the Queen’s Gallery in the British Council here is a celebration of nature and freedom. The fortnight-long exhibition which is on till Saturday has been organised by the Association of British Scholars and the British Council Division. Interestingly the man behind the camera is a civil servant with a passion for photography that goes back to his school days. He has no formal training in photography. “I learnt photography by trial and error, “ he says. The negative face of
poverty is absent from his pictures. A visitor to the
gallery will not find shots of street children begging
for alms or a boy polishing shoes. Nor will he come
across malnourished human figures. A conscious deletion
of all such shots, however, cannot be termed as escapism
on Katara’s part. |
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| Former minister killed ALLAHABAD: Nandlal Patel, a former Uttar Pradesh Minister, was killed and Mr Jangbahadur Patel, a Samajwadi Party MP, was seriously injured in a road accident near Nawabganj, about 40 km from here, on Saturday, the police said. Patel, along with the MP, was on his way here from Lucknow when their Tata Sumo dashes against an oncoming truck, the police said. Patel and another co-passenger Makmuddin died on the spot. — PTI Astrologers summoned to
fell tree 9 undertrial
prisoners flee Freedom fighter
dead Rajasthan Urdu
Academy 3 Veerappan men
held 13 killed by
lightning HC permission |
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