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Saturday,
August 18, 2001, Chandigarh, India  
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Centre-state ties discussed in RS MPs’ salaries increased MP PCC dissolved, chief retained Naxalites gun down 6 Dalits
Vital link in Phoolan case still untraced |
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Hospitalised Tyagi moves court for bail NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT Bandh paralyses
life in Dehra Dun Health Dept faces shortage of staff Newly wed couple seek
protection
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Centre-state ties discussed in RS New Delhi, August 17 Intervening in a discussion on a private member’s resolution, the minister said the Centre was interested in evolving “harmonious relations” with state governments as the Constitution provided for a cooperative and quasi-federal structure. Of the 247 recommendations of the Sarkaria Commission, 95 have been implemented, 60 are in various stages of implementation, while another 171 are under review of the Inter-State Council. On the controversial issue of transfer of three police officers from Tamil Nadu to the Centre, Mr Swamy said “The matter was sub judice.” He, however, said the Sarkaria Commission had observed that in case of difference of opinion the Centre should have the final say. The views of the minister were, however, contested by AIADMK member P.G. Narayanan. Mr Swamy expressing concern over the increasing erosion of federal principles in Centre-state relations, appealed to mover of the resolution S. Ramachandran Pillai of the CPM to withdraw it. The minister said a committee had already been set up to review the
Constitution. Mr Pillai, later, withdrew his resolution. Earlier, participating in the resolution, AIADMK member S.G. Indira charged the central government with being partisan in its dealing with state governments. She alleged the Tamil Nadu Government was being “disturbed” by the opposition DMK party in collaboration with the central government. AIADMK member said her party was in favour of an inter-dependent relationship between the Centre and the states. TDP member Prabhakar Reddy said his party was in favour of the Centre-state relations being reviewed and states being given more powers in light of the changed economic and political scenario of the country. Congress leader Moolchand Meena said increasing trends of strain in the Centre-state relations were not good for the country. He demanded a review of institutions like the Finance Commission and the Planning Commission. |
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MPs’ salaries increased New Delhi, August 17 This would put an annual additional burden of over Rs 23.38 crore to the exchequer. The Bill seeking to amend the Salary, Allowances and Pension of MPs Act, 1954, was approved last night by the Cabinet under which monthly salary of an MP has been raised from Rs 4,000 to Rs 12,000, official sources said today. It also proposed to provide mobile phones to MPs with adjustment of calls against one lakh free calls. The amendment proposed to increase the daily allowances by 25 per cent from the present Rs 400 and raise the constituency allowance from Rs 8,000 to Rs 10,000 per month. The Joint Committee on Salaries and Allowances had recommended that the constituency allowance continued without any change. The Bill also proposed to increase the transport allowance from Rs 6 per km to Rs 8 per km. Similarly, office expense allowance had been raised from Rs 9,500 to Rs 14,000 per month and 20,000 additional telephones calls had been sanctioned beyond 1,000 km. Free electricity and water were proposed to be doubled from 25,000 units to 50,000 units and 2,000 kilolitres to 4,000 kilolitres, respectively.
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MP PCC dissolved, chief retained New Delhi, August 17 Following the July 29 incident in which Mr Inder Prajapati, a general secretary of the state Congress, fired at and critically injured his counterpart Manak Aggarawal, the Congress committee president Mrs Sonia Gandhi had appointed a two-member committee to inquire into the case. The committee, comprising Congress general secretary Oscar Fernandes and senior leader L.P. Sahi, visited the state in August beginning. It is believed they have pointed to the closeness of Mr Malviya to the Mr Prajapati but they have not made any critical references against the PCC chief. Mr Prajapati, who nursed personal grudges against Mr Aggarwal, had fired blindly at him and had later surrendered to the police. He was subsequently suspended from the party. Congress sources say that another reason for the high command’s decision not to remove Mr Malviya was the strong support he received from the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Mr Digvijay Singh. Mr Digvijay Singh had pleaded against taking action against Mr Malviya, who is perceived in the Congress circles as a confidant of the Chief Minister. Sources said the decision to dissolve the PCC may have approval of other senior Congress leaders from Madhya Pradesh, including Mr Kamal Math and Mr Arjun Singh who would now try to get in their supporters in the reconstituted PCC. State Congress leaders said another reason for the high command being “soft” towards Mr Malviya could be his being a Dalit. They said Mr Malviya was the only Dalit PCC chief in the Congress. Defending the decision of the high command, Ms Mohsina Kidwai, Congress general secretary said there was no basis of suspicion against Mr Malviya. She said Mr Malviya’s name had not appeared in the FIR. Ms Kidwai said care would be taken in future to see that no leaders with criminal record were appointed office-bearers in the state Congress. The 108-member PCC executive would be recast “very soon,” she told the TNS. Ms Kidwai said senior leaders would be told to recommend names of only those leaders who had a “clean record.” |
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Naxalites gun down 6 Dalits Mataurha (Bihar), August 17 The Additional Director-General of Police, Mr Ashish Ranjan Sinha, however, confirmed the killing of only five persons. The killers raised slogans of “People’s War Group (PWG) zindabad” after the incident. The killing of six Dalits is part of the chain of retaliatory killings between the PWG and another ultra-Left wing outfit, the Maoist Communist Centre (MCC). The battle of one-unmanship between the two ultra-Left groups in the area over the past one week has left at least 11 persons dead. Police sources said that on Tuesday PWG ultras had killed two persons in retaliation to the killing of three persons on Monday by MCC men. The area was tense since then. Villagers said the PWG killer squad of around 50 armed men attacked the village at around 10 p.m. The killers went to the Dalit “tola” (a separate group of huts within the village where “low caste” men live) and separated 10 male members. They later sprayed bullets on them, killing six on the spot. A Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) contingent has been rushed to the spot and has launched a combing operation in the area to arrest the killers. |
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Vital link in Phoolan case still untraced New Delhi, August 17 Shravan, who hails from Bihar, was earlier working in the liquor vend owned by Pankaj in Roorkee who reportedly paid him a hefty sum to go to jail in his place after he had his bail cancelled. The idea was obviously to have a water tight alibi to show that he was in jail the day the crime was committed on July 25. However, the arrest of the other alleged accomplices revealed the web of deception which he was trying to spin around the case. Police sources said a team of Crime Branch detectives had scoured several places in the neighbouring states and his native village in Bihar without any apparent luck. It was also being speculated that Shravan may have been eliminated by the alleged conspirators to erase the crucial link which could shatter Pankaj’s alibi in the courts. Senior police officers, however, claimed that while they had been able to establish beyond doubt that it was Shravan and not Pankaj, alias Sher Singh Rana, who was in the Hardwar jail on July 25, his arrest was essential as this would make the case legally perfect against the main suspect. |
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Hospitalised Tyagi moves court for bail
Mumbai, August 17 Adjourning his petition to August 20, Sessions Judge A.M. Thipsay directed Tyagi’s lawyer Ashok Mundargi to file medical report on the status of his health as he had been admitted to the hospital following cardiac problems. A relative of one of the nine victims killed in police firing allegedly led by Tyagi, filed an application through laywer Niloffer Bhagwat seeking to intervene in the matter to oppose the bail plea. The petitioner opposed the application and the court decided to hear it on the next occasion. PTI |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, August 17 As many as 380 purchase centres were opened to procure wheat by the FCI and state agencies during 2000-01. Out of these, 43 centes were exclusively operated by FCI and 34 centres jointly with the state governments and its agencies, the minister informed. There were 289 unmanned level-crossings in Himachal Pradesh with six of them on broad guage and the remaining 283 on narrow guage, the Minister of State for Railways and Parliamentary Affairs, Mr O. Rajagopal, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply today. The unmanned level-crossings were progressively being manned in a phased manner, the minister informed. Although the initial cost of manning crossings had to be borne by the road authority concerned, the annual operating cost was to be borne by the Railways, the minister told the House. The survey of gauge conversion of Pathankot-Joginder Nagar 189.50-km rail line extension of 162.60 broad gauge line from Joginder Nagar to Bhanupali via Mandi and Bilaspur had been completed, Mr Rajagopal told the Rajya Sabha in a reply to a separate question. There were 485 women prisoners in Punjab, 358 in Haryana, 19 in Himachal Pradesh and 24 in Jammu and Kashmir as on December 31, 1999, the Minister of Human Resource and Development, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. A proposal for setting up of a Himalayan Binocular telescope at Mt Saraswati, Hanle, Ladakh at an estimated cost of Rs 150 crore, had been made for inclusion in the 10th Five Year Plan, the Minister of Science and Technology, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi informed the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. The Indian Institute of Physics had established a state-of-the-art and world’s highest astronomical observatory with a 2-metre class optical/infrared telescope at Hanle. The cost of the project for setting up the high altitude astronomical observatory was Rs 38.49 crore. The setting up of the observatory had been completed and the telescope had already received its first astronomical image on the night intervening night of September 26 and 27, 2000, the minister informed. The centre had launched a scheme for setting up of Youth Development Centres throughout the country, including in Himachal Pradesh, in 1994-95, the Minister of State for Youth Affairs and Sports, Mr P. Radhakrishnan, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. |
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Bandh paralyses
life in Dehra Dun Dehra Dun, August 17 Police sources said no violent incident had been reported although more than 100 Shiv Sena activists were arrested as precautionary measure. But few shopkeepers have alleged that sena activists misbehaved with them. All shops, educational institutions and private offices remained closed. Partial attendance was observed in the government offices and banks. The local buses, auto rickshaws did not operate the whole day, resulting in inconvenience to people. The supply of essential commodities was badly affected.
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Health Dept faces shortage of staff Hanumangarh, August 17 Sources said though the two posts of the observers were sanctioned to control the malaria, but these had been lying vacant for the past several years. Same situation prevails in the primary health centres of the rural areas, as out of the total 15 posts of the health observers, about nine are lying vacant. The sources said in the waterlogged areas of Rawatsar and Sangaria tehsils of the district the posts of malaria observers were created and a similar post was sanctioned for
Pilibangan. Out of the three posts two are lying vacant in these areas that had been regularly hit by malaria. No one has been appointed in Sangaria for the past three and a half years whereas in Rawatsar the same post lying vacant for the past one and a half year. The department has no other option but to get the job done from other employees. The job of the malaria observer is to chalk out a plan to control the breakdown and spread of malaria in a particular area and to spray the
D.D.T. Several posts of observers in the primary health centres at the rural areas are lying vacant. Out of total 15 posts only six are in working condition. The sources said the posts of health observers were lying vacant for the past two years in the
Fefana, Ramgarh, Jasana, Klana, Aritpura, Pilibangan and Tibbi areas of the district. |
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Newly wed couple seek protection Muzaffarnagar, August 17 The police said Vikas and Sona from different castes, has sought police protection fearing danger from their family members. The police said Vikas and Sona, residents of Pirakheri and Viralia villages, belonged to different castes and had married against the wishes of their parents.
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HC refuses bail to Bharat Shah Mumbai, August 17 Rejecting Shah’s bail petition, Justice A.B Palkar said he would give a reasoned order later. Film producer Mahesh Bhatt and Shah’s sons, Rashesh and Rajiv, were present in the jam-packed courtroom.
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38 minor girls freed from brothel New Delhi, August 17 The police also arrested 25 persons on the charge of running the brothel and confining minor girls from various parts of the country. The police said the raid was carried on the basis of an anonymous complaint and continued for more than five hours. |
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Letter to PM on
manual scavenging New Delhi, August 17 In a letter to the Prime Minister Justice Verma said, “It is a matter of national shame that despite over half a century of our independence, the inhuman practice of manual scavenging continues. As a significant step towards its eradication it may be appropriate that everyone under your leadership, were to take action to ensure that by October 2, the scourge of manual scavenging is eradicated.’’ |
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Woman beaten up for dowry Greater Noida, August 17 Karishna (27) was married to Jayaparkash of the village on May 8. According to neighbourers of the couple, Karishna was being tortured by her in laws from the third day of her marriage. According to the police, she was beaten mercilessly by her mother-in-law and brother-in-law and was thrown out of their house. |
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