Wednesday, September 15, 1999
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weather  spotlighttoday's calendar |
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Filing of papers for
final phase ends |
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VDCs rigged poll:
Panthers Party
Five join Goa Ministry PIL on Kargil dismissed |
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SC reminds EC of its role NEW DELHI, Sept 14 — The Supreme Court’s action questioning the locus standi of the Election Commission vis a vis the guidelines issued by the Commission banning the publication of opinion polls and exit polls, though not a judgement, is an important watershed in India’s constitutional history. Since the days of Mr T.N. Seshan as Chief Election Commissioner there has been a tendency in the Election Commission to assume powers not assigned to it under the Constitution. The Supreme Court today has clearly defined the parameters under which institutions like the Election Commission should function. Article 324 of the Constitution, from which Election Commission derives its powers, entrusts the superintendence, direction and control of elections to the EC. Preparation of the electoral roll and the conduct of elections is thus the EC’s primary task. Both Mr Seshan and his successor, Dr M.S. Gill, while endeavouring to improve the quality of elections and ensure fairplay, have also from time to time made observations and statements and the EC under them has issued guidelines on matters which transcend their constitutional brief. The Supreme Court has unequivocally blown the whistle today to point out that even for the EC there is a yellow line which has to be respected. The exercise regarding voter identity cards, carried out with much fanfare during Mr Seshan’s tenure as the Chief Election Commissioner, when Dr Gill was a member of the EC is still to be completed. Meanwhile, the sanctity of a Ration Card has been accorded to voter ID card. Maybe the EC can devote its attention to this aspect, which is essential for fair conduct of elections. The incidents in New Delhi and Gandhinagar constituencies respectively, on the first day of voting this year, involving VVIPs showed how fragile the system of maintaining electoral rolls is. Preparation of electoral rolls is a basic task of the EC. Unfortunately, many voters who turned up in the polling booths in the penultimate year of this millennium found that the computer age is yet to make India’s election process a smooth affair. The Supreme Court has very rightly pointed out that before issuing guidelines the EC should debate whether it is enforceable. In the given case, as the honourable Court pointed out, the ban on publication of exit polls and opinion polls could not extend to foreign broadcast media which has its footprint over India. Thus, the fetters of the EC, if enforced, would have gagged the domestic media alone. What is unfortunate is that while it took an action of the EC itself (prompted by the appeal filed by a private TV channel in the south which had made the Madras High Court at Chennai give a judgement against the guideline) to elicit today’s direction from the Supreme Court, none of the professional bodies of mediapersons or major media groups had reacted against the ban on publication of opinion polls and exit polls, which, inter alia, may be an infringement on the right to freedom of expression and even the freedom to practice any profession, as granted by Article 19 of the Constitution. As the matter had not
been specifically mentioned, the Supreme Court has
restrained itself from adjudicating on this score. May
be, if a specific mention is made before the apex court
at a future date, a clarification on this may also
emerge. |
Filing of papers for final phase ends NEW DELHI, Sept 14 (PTI) — The filing of nominations for the fifth and final phase of the Lok Sabha poll on October 3 covering 122 constituencies in 11 states closed today. Polling in the final phase will be held for 42 seats in West Bengal, 31 in UP, 16 in Bihar, 14 in Assam, 11 in Orissa, two each in Arunachal Pradesh and Tripura and one each in Andhra Pradesh, Manipur, Sikkim and Lakshadweep. Simultaneous Assembly elections will also be held for 60 seats in Arunachal Pradesh, 32 in Sikkim, seven in Andhra Pradesh and five in Karnataka. Scrutiny will be taken up on September 15 and the last date for withdrawals is September 17. Among the notable candidates who have filed their papers for this phase are Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee (Lucknow), Congress President Sonia Gandhi (Amethi), former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar (Ballia), Biju Janata Dal President and Union Minister of Steel and Mines Naveen Patnaik (Aska), RJD President Laloo Prasad Yadav (Madhepura) BSP leader Mayawati (Akbarpur), Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee (Calcutta-South), Nationalist Congress Party general secretary Tariq Anwar (Katihar) and former Home Minister Indrajit Gupta (Midnapore). PATNA: Janata Dal (United) President Sharad Yadav and former Union Minister Digvijay Singh are among the 60 candidates who filed their nomination papers on Tuesday, the last day for filing of nominations for 16 constituencies in Bihar, which go to the polls on October 3. Prominent among those
who have filed their nominations papers were JD(U)
President Sharad Yadav and RJD supremo Laloo Prasad Yadav
(both for Madhepura), Mr Shakuni Chowdhury (RJD-Banka),
Mr Digvijay Singh (JD (U)-Banka), Mr Anand Mohan
(Sheohar), Mr Vikas Kumar Yadav (JMM-Banka), Mr Pappu
Yadav, (Purnea) and Mr Shakil Ahmed (Congress-Madhubani). |
Surjeet predicts hung House NEW DELHI, Sept 14 — CPM General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet today claimed the BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) would not get a majority in the Lok Sabha elections. Talking to reporters after his return to the Capital from various parts of the country, Mr Surjeet said the NDA was losing political ground and barring Rajasthan and Maharashtra the BJP and its allies were not gaining much. The CPM leader said the third front would emerge stronger after the elections. The BJP was getting frustrated and its desperation was reflected in the statements of its leaders, he said. Mr Surjeet said the BJP and its allies were even attacking the democratic institutions. “No Prime Minister so far had attacked any institution provided in the Constitution”, he said referring the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee’s comment on the Election Commission in Bihar recently. Realising that the NDA was losing in Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, the BJP and its leaders were concentrating on the Hindi heartland, Mr Surjeet pointed out. In Tamil Nadu, the AIADMK and its allies were doing well, he said. In West Bengal, the BJP would even lose Dum Dum seat which it won last time, Mr Surjeet said adding the BJD was expected to gain marginally in Orissa. Even in Bihar, the BJP and its allies were not gaining but the BJP was going to lose at least 17 Lok Sabha seats, the CPM leader said. “In no case, the BJP and its allies can get a majority”, he said. When asked if he would accept AIADMK leader J. Jayalalitha in the third front for forming the government in the light of many corruption cases against her, Mr Surjeet replied in affirmative stating that law would take care of the cases. Asked if allies of the
BJP would be welcome in the third front, Mr Surjeet said
that there was nothing against provided they left the
alliance and took principled stand against the BJP. |
‘Tatkal’ passports soon NEW DELHI, Sept 14 (PTI) — The Central Passport Organisation (CPO) will soon come out with a “tatkal (instant) scheme” under which new passports will be issued to certain categories of applicants within 24 hours at a cost of about Rs 1,500. Foreign Secretary K. Raghunath after formally launching a website (http://passport.nic.in) aimed at providing information on the status of passport applications, visa and persons of Indian origin (PIO) cards. Government servants, employees of public sector undertakings and those holding Press Information Bureau accreditation cards who have already been verified by the police are among those who will be eligible under this scheme. The mandatory police verification will take place subsequently in such cases. As part of steps to
streamline and improve operations of the CPO, three
franchise offices will be opened shortly in Delhi and one
each in Gurgaon and Faridabad. Those wanting new
passports can submit their forms to these offices for a
nominal charge of Rs 50. Their applications will be sent
to the Regional Passport Office (RPO) which will despatch
the passports directly to the applicants. |
No to Sonia’s rally
irks Cong NEW DELHI, Sept 14 — The Congress today condemned Kalyan Singh government for not permitting party President Sonia Gandhi to hold her election rally in Aligarh tomorrow. Describing the act as “anti-democratic”, party spokesman Kapil Sibal told reporters that she was supposed to address a party rally in Aligarh tomorrow but state administration denied her permission to hold it. The Congress issued a ‘fact sheet’ listing charges against BJP ministers in Uttar Pradesh and the mafia operating in the state and questioned as to why was the Centre not willing to bring it under President’s rule. The Congress charged that the people of UP were “fed up with the ruling politician-administration-police-mafia nexus that has unleashed havoc in every part of the state,” Mr Sibal said. He said contrary to the claim by the UP Chief Minister, Mr Kalyan Singh that his government would provide a ‘Bhay Mukt Samaj’ (terror-free society), the state was witnessing the opposite. The Congress alleged that there were many history sheeters in Mr Kalyan Singh’s jumbo cabinet and that as many as 19 ministers have criminal background. The party said the “most notorious” was Raja Bhaiya, the Minister for Programme Implementation and cited some incidence of criminal acts in UP during the last few years. It said even the UP Minister for Urban Development, Mr Lalji Tandon had gone on record to say that prime land worth Rs 100,000 crore had been captured by the mafia. The Forest Minister, Mr Raghuvar Dayal Sharma, had on record said that the mafia holds forest wealth worth Rs 85,000 crore and gangs along the Indo-Nepal border have plundered teak worth Rs 15 crore in the past three years. The Congress said State Home Secretary, N Ravi Shankar had said that the “picture that emerges is that the district administration have not properly applied their minds in taking stringent action,” and charged that it was obvious that the district and police authorities do not dare to touch any of the gangsters because they enjoy political patronage from the highest quarters of the ruling establishment. The Congress charged
that the BJP-led state government’s inability to
break the criminal-political network has invited the
wrath of the Supreme Court which has passed strictures
against the government for its failure to contain the
activities of the stone mafia. |
VDCs rigged poll: Panthers
Party NEW DELHI, Sept 14 — Panthers Party chief Bhim Singh has asked the Election Commission to hold repoll in five segments of Doda, two in Udhampur and one in Kathua of Udhampur Lok Sabha constituency where elections were held last week. Talking to reporters today after his return from the Udhampur parliamentary constituency, Prof Singh said that he had demanded a repoll in nine segments of the constituency as the BJP-National Conference “has indulged in massive rigging”. Prof Singh is Panthers Party candidate from Udhampur. The Panthers Party chief alleged that the BJP-NC alliance had manipulated the electoral process in favour of the BJP by deploying the armed members of the Village Defence Committees (VDCs) in about 430 polling stations. He further alleged that VDC members were used as polling agents in rural areas by the BJP. These VDC members helped in rigging the poll by casting the votes of about 45,000 voters who had migrated out of area in the wake of militancy. Urging the EC to hold an inquiry by either one of the three Election Commissioners or the Deputy Election Commissioner, Prof Singh said that those inquiring should compare the list of BJP polling agents with the list of the VDC members in the respective areas. “The CEC should
hold a repoll in the interest of democracy, rule of law
and national integrity lest the youth of Jammu region
also picks up the gun like the youth of Kashmir valley
did in 1987”, he said adding that credibility of the
Indian political system was at stake |
Hindi “must become” vehicle for info-tech NEW DELHI, Sept 14 (PTI) — President K.R. Narayanan today said Hindi must become a vehicle for modern information technology in order to become a major world language and observed that in a democratic country like India official work should be done in a language spoken by commoners. “The present is the age of science and technology, and a language of the people must become a vehicle for this new knowledge apart from the emotions and imageries of established tradition,” he said here while inaugurating the golden jubilee celebrations of Hindi as the official language of India. Mr Narayanan said that to love Hindi was not to be against another language, even a foreign language. “We should not try to unlearn the foreign language that we have learnt, but develop our knowledge of it further,” he said. Stating that in this era of globalisation, a foreign language would be a great asset, he added that it would ultimately enrich Hindi and the country. The President said Hindi
was a living language with great flexibility and
tolerance because of which it had an immense capacity to
adopt and assimilate words and forms of other languages.
“Hindi links us not only with the rest of South
Asia, but also with whole of Asia as also with countries
like Mauritius, Fiji, Surinam, Trinidad and Tobago,”
he said. |
Five join Goa Ministry PANAJI, Sept 14 (UNI) — The Luizinho Faleiro Ministry in Goa was expanded today by inducting five more members, raising its strength to 11, in a move to quell growing dissidence in the party which virtually led to an open revolt. The Chief Minister after obtaining clearance from the party bosses in Delhi, including Mr Madhavrao Scindia, AICC member in charge of Goa, returned to Panaji yesterday. The ministers sworn in
today are Mr Subhash Shirodkar, Mr Sanjay Bandekar, Mr
Somnath Zuarkar, a former Congress minister, besides Mr
Suresh Parulekar, who joined the Congress soon after the
June assembly results deserting the United Goans
Democratic Party (UGDP) and Mr Prakash Velip, who
recently split the Maharastrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP)
and joined the Congress. |
PIL on Kargil dismissed MUMBAI, Sept 14 (UNI) — The Bombay High Court today dismissed a public interest litigation seeking directions to initiate criminal proceedings against Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Defence Minister George Fernandes and top defence officials for their alleged negligence in handling the Kargil intrusion. The petition, filed by a
Pune-based private tutor, had alleged that politicians
and bureaucrats had made the Kargil issue a political
gimmick. |
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| Jammer system for UP
jails ALLAHABAD: The Uttar Pradesh Government will install an electronic jammer system in five sensitive jails of the state to check the misuse of cellular phones by criminals. Talking to newspersons here on Monday, state Jail Minister Shivpratap Shukla said the system would jam the operation of cellular phones and the criminals would not have access to the outside world. In the first stage, this system would be installed in Agra, Bareily, Naini and Lucknow jails. Reports of misuse of cell phones had come from these jails. — UNI Ramayana on the Net Film runs into
Censor trouble New drug to
prevent chickenpox Woman delivers
quintuplets WB to loan India
$ 191 m Freedom fighter
dead NCP
leader’s murder : 4 more held |
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