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March 21, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Tejpal deposes before Army BSP for action against Tehelka accused Nitish Kumar gets
Railways |
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Kanpur curfew relaxed, exams postponed Hegde refuses to share platform with Fernandes WTO: Tikait seeks President’s
help NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT Sikh jatha to visit Pak Order to HCs
on criminal cases Fernandes calls on President Jaswant to meet Powell during US visit
Raids conducted on 2 officers’ houses Tax on cattle food irks producers
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Tejpal deposes before Army New Delhi, March 20 Mr Tejpal said the two reporters —Anirudha Bahal and Mathew Samuel — who carried out the sting operation would also be available to the court of inquiry if it wanted their depositions. He said on a request from the Army, he gave the court 2 VHS tapes which contain the full film and the transcript that was made public on March 13. The court of inquiry is headed by Lieut Gen S.K. Jain, Director General EME, and also includes Maj Gen Mahinder Puri and Maj Gen M. Mathew, Both Additional Director-Generals at the Army Headquarters. Maj Gen P.S.K. Chaudhury, the Additional Director-General of Weapons and Equipment who was suspended after he was caught on camera receiving Rs 1 lakh and a gold chain, was also present and was given a chance to cross-examine the Tehelka chief. Mr Tejpal said he agreed to the court of enquiry’s request for a team to go through the rushes of the tapes that have not been included in the four and a-half hour film to see if there was anything else that could be useful to the Army. The Tehelka team filmed close to 100 hours during their seven-month operation.
UNI |
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BSP for action against Tehelka accused New Delhi, March 20 Accusing the Vajpayee government of trying to shield those who have been shown taking bribes in the Tehelka tapes, BSP Vice-President and MP Mayawati said, “It is a serious issue. An FIR should be filed immediately against those who were involved in taking money directly and they should be prosecuted.” She accused the BJP-led government of trying to push the issue, which has rocked the entire country, into “cold storage” under the pretext of debate in Parliament and a judicial probe. “If it (NDA government) doesn’t take immediate action against the guilty it has no right to stay in power,” she said. Blaming the Vajpayee government for the continued stalling of proceedings in both the Houses of Parliament on the Tehelka expose issue, Ms Mayawati said, “This kind of situation would not have arisen had the government taken stern action against those found guilty in the Tehelka tapes on the very same day.” On Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee’s challenge to Opposition to move a no-confidence motion, Ms Mayawati, said, “If the government was so confident of its majority why was it not moving such a motion.” “The BJP is shying away from bringing a confidence motion as it is unsure about the whole-hearted support of its allies, especially after the Trinamool Congress opted out of the NDA and the brewing factional in the Samata Party,” she said. |
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Nitish Kumar gets
Railways New Delhi, March 20 Mr Nitish Kumar’s additional charge, announced in a Rashtrapati Bhavan
communique, come a day after he returned to the Cabinet. Mr Kumar, along with two Samata Party Ministers — Mr Digvijay Singh and Mr V.Sreenivas Prasad — had withdrawn their resignations at the behest of Samata leader, George
Fernandes. Incidentally, Mr Digvijay Singh is the Minister of State for Railways and the portfolio would now be manned by two ministers from the Samata Party. |
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Kanpur curfew relaxed, exams postponed Allahabad, March 20 Madhyamik Shiksha Parishad secretary Achala Khanna said the decision had been taken in view of the tense situation in the city. She said examinations in the rest of the state would, however, be held as scheduled. Meanwhile situation appeared to be limping back to normalcy in Kanpur as the district administration on Tuesday decided to lift day curfew in the Raipurwa locality from tomorrow, while a relaxation of one to two hours in other curfew-bound localities, spread over eight police stations, passed off peacefully. Kanpur District Magistrate B.S. Bhullar told UNI that people purchased essential commodities and other items during the relaxation period which passed off peacefully. Meanwhile, the toll from the widespread riots which had erupted in the city on Friday went up to 18 with a man, Waseem, succumbing to injuries sustained in violence in Beconganj, late last night. Mr Bhullar said in view of the improvement in situation, the administration had decided to lift day curfew from Raipurwa from tomorrow. However, as a precautionary measure, it would be re-imposed from 5 p.m., he added. Trouble had started on Friday after a demonstration by three Muslim organisations, including Student Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). Today, the curfew was relaxed from 11.30 am 12.30 pm in Beconganj and Bazaria localities and a two-hour relaxation was allowed in Chamanganj, Colonelganj, Moolganj, Anwarganj, Sisamau and Kotwali from 1.30 p.m. Inspector General of Police (Kanpur zone) Karamveer Singh said situation was now improving and barring a stray incident at the Phoolmati ka Triraha, no major untoward happening occurred since last night. SSP Arun Kumar told reporters that 61 more arrests had been made during the past 24 hours, taking the total number to 206.
UNI
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Hegde refuses to share platform with Fernandes
New Delhi, March 20 “I won’t attend any meeting where Mr Fernandes is present,” Mr Hegde told reporters a day after JD (U) Parliamentary Party expressed “serious concern” over the manner in which the senior Karnataka leader was invited for an NDA meeting and later asked telephonically not to come for it. Asked if he would reconsider his decision to pull out of the NDA as requested by the Parliamentary Party, Mr Hegde said he would not share platform with the NDA leader. The Parliamentary Party had, however, decided to continue its support to the NDA. Mr Hegde deferred his decision to dissociate from the alliance after the JD (U) Parliamentary Party urged him to reconsider his stand and said he would wait for Dal President Sharad Yadav to convey his hurt feelings to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.
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WTO: Tikait seeks President’s help New Delhi, March 20 Mr Tikait and Mr Nanjundaswamy, who had addressed an all-India farmers rally at Kisan Ghat here yesterday to protest against the adverse impact of the WTO on agriculture, were detained yesterday along with thousands of peasants at the venue of the rally when they insisted on marching to Parliament to register their protest. The rally was organised by the National Coordination of Farmers’ Movement (NCFM). The farmers leaders, who were allowed today to visit Rashtrapati Bhavan, apprised the President of the dangers of free trade in the agriculture sector which would jeopardise the livelihood of crores of peasants in the country. They regretted that while signing the WTO agreement, the Central Government neither consulted the states nor the issue was debated in Parliament. NCFM convener Yudhvir Singh said Mr Narayanan assured the delegation that he would make efforts within his constitutional powers to help the aggrieved farmers. Mr Mahendra Singh said thousands of farmers were forced to spend their night at the Kisan Ghat, the mausoleum of former Prime Minister and peasants’ leader Charan Singh, after they were not allowed to proceed towards the Parliament house yesterday. The police had also resorted to a mild lathi charge when the farmers attempted to break through the police cordon at the Kisan Ghat yesterday. Mr Tikait and Mr Nanjundaswamy had yesterday threatened of launching a “direct action” programme if the government did not take any measures to protect farmers from the WTO menace. Under the programme, they said, the farmers would fix the prices of various crops on their own and the government would have to accept these as final.
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, March 20 ST status to Labana caste Minister of Tribal Affairs, Jual Oram told the Lok Sabha that the government had asked the Himachal Pradesh government to submit a report spelling out the tribal characteristics of the Labana community. Mr Oram told the House that the Himachal Pradesh government in its letter dated March 26, 1981, had informed the Central government that the Labana community need not be included in the list of Scheduled Tribes. He said that the state government had changed its stand vide letter dated May 24, 1994, and recommended that the Labana community be declared a Scheduled Tribe.
Expansion of phone exchanges Minister of State for Communi-cations, Tapan Sikdar told the Rajya Sabha that the government was taking steps to expand the
electronic telephone exchanges in Jammu and Kashmir. He said the existing capacity of telephone exchanges in the Jammu and Kashmir telecom circle had been expanded by 45,301 lines during the current year.
Construction of new jails Minister of State for Home Affairs, Vidyasagar Rao told the Lok Sabha that the government proposed to construct three more jails within the Central Jail, Tihar complex. The minister said a district jail was under construction at Rohini and all these jails were expected to be completed by the end of this year.
Telephone adalats Minister of Communications, Ram Vilas Paswan told the Rajya Sabha that over 2000 telephone related cases were pending in different consumer fora in Haryana while 500 similar cases were pending in Haryana. |
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Sikh jatha to visit Pak New Delhi, March 20 The Sikh jathas were stopped after Islamabad set up a parallel religious body two years ago. The SGPC, which had then protested against Islamabad’s move to create a “Pakistan Gurdwara Prabandhak Committee” headed by a former ISI chief Javed Nassir, would now sponsor the jathas. About 1800 pilgrims would come from Punjab, followed by 555 from Delhi and 200 from Haryana, the Union Home Ministry spokesman said here today. Sikh pilgrims from other states including Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal, would also take part. The group would leave for Pakistan on April 9 and 11 and return on April 20, the spokesman said. The pilgrim batches are sent under the Indo-Pak protocol of 1974 on four occasions — Baisakhi, Guru Arjun Dev’s martyrdom day, death anniversary of Maharaja Ranjit Singh and birth anniversary of Guru Nanak. |
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Order to HCs
on criminal cases New Delhi, March 20 A Division Bench of the court comprising Mr Justice K.T. Thomas and Mr Justice R.P. Sethi while setting aside a Delhi High Court judgement which quashed the charges framed under Section 302 IPC against the accused and directed reframing of charges, allowed the appeal of a mother, Mrs Om Wati whose son was allegedly
brutally murdered by three accused in the case. “There was no ground for the high court to interfere with the well reasoned order of the trial court by passing a cryptic and telegraphic order which is impugned in this appeal”, the judges said. Delivering the judgement, Mr Justice Sethi stated: “It is not safe, at this stage, to deprive the prosecution in proving the case on the basis of the direct evidence, the statement of the deceased claimed to be admissible under Section 32 of the Evidence Act and the other documents including the inquest report allegedly disclosing the infliction of injuries on the person of the deceased which resulted in his death.” “The acceptance of the opinion of the doctors, as incorporated in the post-mortem report for the cause of death of the deceased being “hepatic failure following piral hepatites” cannot be accepted on its face value at this initial stage”, the judge pointed out. The judgement, however, ordered that the final outcome of the case would not be influenced by any observations made herein for the primary purpose of finding out the existence of a prime facie case against the accused. |
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Fernandes calls on President New Delhi, March 20 During the 30-minute meeting at Rashtrapati Bhavan, Mr Fernandes apprised him on the developments that have taken place in the wake of the tehelka.com expose. This was Mr Fernandes’ first meeting with the President after his resignation on March 15. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had met Mr Narayanan a few hours prior to Mr Fernandes’ resignation from the Union Council of Ministers.
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Jaswant to meet Powell during US visit New Delhi, March 20 Briefing newspersons, a spokesman of the Ministry of External Affairs said that Mr Jaswant Singh, who also holds the Defence portfolio, would hold talks with Mr Powell which would cover entire range of bilateral relations. He would also meet other high officials of the Bush administration. |
Raids conducted on 2 officers’ houses Hanumangarh, March 20 The raids started on Sunday night and continued till yesterday evening. Department officials seized Rs 17,000 and a scooter from the residence of the DSO. In the raid on the residence of the Enforcement Officer, a sum of Rs 1,65,390 was seized and Rs 2,30,000 was found in his bank accounts. Gold ornaments and a scooter were also seized. It also came to light that a petrol pump, allotted to a relative of Mr Kharati
Lal, had been further given on contract, while the power of attorney was in the name of Mr Kharati Lal’s son. Sources in the department said Mr Kharati Lal revealed during an interrogation that the contractor of the petrol pump had given the cash to him. The department has registered cases in this connection. Tax on cattle food irks producers Hanumangarh, March 20 The secretary of the Hanumangarh Pharmaceuticals Association, Mr Surendra Garg said the Drugs Control and other Departments concerned were not recognising cattle food as a medicine but the Commercial Taxation Department was doing so and hence asking producers to pay tax. The secretary alleged that the department was harassing cattle food producers. |
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CLERK ROBBED OF Rs 2 LAKH SHAHI IMAM TO FLOAT PARTY IN-LAWS HELD FOR DEMANDING DOWRY MEETING HELD |
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New Delhi, March 20
