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Monday,
September 3,
2001, Chandigarh, India  
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It’s plains versus hills Finance minister backs Digvijay Trinamool opposes rail fare hike |
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Long-distance call racket unearthed PCI team meets
DMK chief Congress to go
it alone in UP JD (U) Gen Secy quits party Amrita’s autobiography released 3 drowned, 1 stabbed at Ganesh festival Mayawati admits taking
crores Landslips disrupt flow
of Yamuna
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It’s plains versus hills Dehra Dun, September 2 Already, protests and demonstrations against the proposed structure of delimitation of Assembly constituencies have started in Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts. And the focus has shifted to exclusion of these two districts from Uttaranchal. The residents of Hardwar district has blocked the Hardwar-Delhi highway from the past nine days and a person was killed and several others injured in police firing on the protesters on Tuesday. The situation is tense and tempers of the people are running high against the Uttaranchal Government. The manner in which the Uttaranchal Government nominated five legislators for the advisory panel of the Election Commission to assist and advice the process of delimitation of Assembly constituencies of Uttaranchal has also led to protests by the Samajwadi Party (SP), the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP). The Election Commission in a major step towards holding Assembly elections in the newly created state of Uttaranchal held its first meeting of the Delimitation Committee last week and announced the proposed structure of the constituencies. The new state will have 70 Assembly segments as against the existing 22 Assembly seats, which were transferred from Uttar Pradesh Assembly for the interim Assembly. Taking the 1971 population census figures as the basis of delimitation and to propose only 25 out of the total 70 seats, for more than half of the population living in the three districts of Dehra Dun, Udham Singh Nagar and Hardwar, has raised contentious issue of plains versus the hills. Mr Subhash
Pani, Deputy Election Commissioner, announced that Hardwar and Dehra Dun have been divided into nine seats each followed by Pauri Garhwal (8), Almora and Udham Singh Nagar (7 each), Tehri Garhwal (6), Nainital and Pithoragarh (5 each), Chamoli (4), Uttarkashi and Bagheswar (3 each), Rudraprayag and Champawat (2 each). 12 seats have been reserved for Scheduled Castes and two for Scheduled Tribes. The major drawback of the 1971 census figures for delimitation is that the population of the areas which formed Uttaranchal was 44,62,563 and over a period of 31 years it has risen to 84,79,562 as per the census of 2001. Mr Ambrish Kumar, Mr Ram Singh Saini (both Samajwadi Party) and Qazi Mohiuddin (BSP), all three sitting legislators of Hardwar district in a memorandum submitted to the District magistrate, Hardwar, for forwarding it to the Election Commission alleged that taking the 1971 census as basis for delimitation would be impractical and violation of the guarantee of equality given by the Constitution of India. But on the other hand, the people of Uttaranchal seems to be satisfied with the delimitation proposal. In fact, the regional organisations of Garhwal and Kumaon had been pitching for delimitation on the basis of geographical area ratio along with their demand of transfer of assets from the parent state on the same pattern. “The same basis of delimitation was adopted in Maharashtra and Jammu and Kashmir”, says a senior leader of the Uttarakhand Kranti Dal. |
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Finance minister backs Digvijay New Delhi, September 2 “During my meeting with Mr Sinha yesterday, the Finance Minister told me that he has also gone through this (kind of) trauma in the hawala case so he understands. He said he will ensure that no injustice is done,” Mr Digvijay Singh quoted the Finance Minister as telling him. He said in an interview today that he had explained in details the alleged payoff case to the Finance Minister and cited the Lokayukta’s opinion that an unsigned note which apparently listed names of politicians and alleged payoff was not a legal document and no action could be taken on this issue. The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister complained to Mr Sinha that “selective leaking” of information by the Income Tax Department was against service conduct rules. When the Lokayukta sought information, the Income Tax officials gave information only about those belonging to a particular political party. But when the Lokayukta sent his own officials, he found the names of persons of other parties as well.
PTI |
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Trinamool opposes rail fare hike Kolkata, September 2 Ms Banerjee was in New Delhi yesterday but did not attend the swearing-in ceremony at Rashtrapati Bhavan. Nor was any Trinamool MP present there. Ms Banerjee rejoined the NDA last week to “strengthen Mr Vajpayee’s hands and the stability of the government”, after remaining in the “opposition” for the past five months. She had stepped out of the NDA government over the Tehelka exposure in the defence deal. The TC leader got her re-entry into the NDA despite strong opposition by a larger section of the BJP leadership and some other NDA partners. During her stay in the Capital, she did not make any statement criticising the fare hike. Returning to Kolkata, Ms Banerjee found herself in a delicate position as a large section of the TC workers and supporters had come out in the public opposing the rail fare hike and the government decision to close down six major public sector undertakings in the state, which employ about 2,00,000 persons. In fact, at several places, TC workers took part in the rail-roko agitations and demonstrations along with the Congress, the CPM and other left parties and also launched a month-long statewide protest march and agitation against the fare hike and the “BJP’s saffronising of the education”. |
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Long-distance call racket unearthed Sriganganagar, September 2 The matter involving the Pilibanga telephone exchange is being investigated by the vigilance cell of the department and is likely to be handed over to the CBI shortly. What has baffled the authorities is that how could the accused manage to hack into the sophisticated software and bypass the metering set-up. While this is a pointer to the expertise of the accused, the involvement of senior officers is being investigated. This is said to the first case of its kind in the state. According to sources, the case came to light when the telecom circle office here received a complaint that two consumers were availing of the services of the exchange but were not being billed for the past many months. A large number of calls were of long duration and to international destinations. A team of officers of the department, headed by Mr
N.L. Meena, DGMT, raided the exchange and seized the computer printouts pertaining to the two numbers. It was established that while calls were being made, they were not metered and billed to the consumers. A further perusal of the printouts proved that a prima facie case was made out against the consumers and the officers posted there. Pending further investigation, the SDO concerned, has been recalled to Sriganganagar. He too is being grilled on the entire issue by senior officers. Sources said the episode began when the SDO went out of the way and flouted established norms to allot telephone numbers to the two suspects. He is also said to have stood surety for the two suspects then they needed accommodation in the city. The officials did not disclose the identity of the accused. They also refused to reveal the number of calls and the countries to which they were made. The police is also making inquiries in to the involvement of other staff members of the exchange. Sources said the intelligence agencies had intensified their investigations after clues pointed out that the duo might be members of the notorious Babloo gang. Babloo was gunned down in an encounter with the police a few days ago and figured in the list of the 10 most wanted criminals in the state. The accused are absconding from the day Babloo was killed and the landlord is unable to supply their address to the police. The case assumes serious proportions since the district shares nearly 200 km of the more than 600 km international border with Pakistan, the sources pointed out. |
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PCI team meets
DMK chief Chennai, September 2 Mr Jaisingh and Mr Venkatraman were shown the tapes of the arrest episode filmed by a private television channel. They also examined the broken locks at the door of Mr Karunanidhi’s residence from where he was taken into custody on June 30 in connection with a corruption case. Later, in a brief chat with waiting mediapersons, Mr Venkatraman said the commission would soon submit its report after returning to Delhi. However, there was no timeframe for the committee to submit its report, he added. Tamil Nadu Director-General of Police (DGP) A. Ravidranath and Police Commissioner K.
Muthukaruppan also appeared before the committee in connection with the alleged attack on journalists.
UNI |
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Congress to go
it alone in UP New Delhi, September 2 “We will fight alone. We will not compromise with anyone,” Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Digvijay Singh said here today. He heads the AICC coordination committee constituted to decide the strategy for the crucial Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections due shortly. To a query whether the Congress considered the Samajwadi Party an equal opponent like the BJP in Uttar Pradesh in view of the consistent attack by its leader Mulayam Singh Yadav on Mrs Sonia Gandhi and her party, he merely said “in different constituencies, we will have different parties to oppose”.
PTI |
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JD (U) Gen Secy quits party Patna, September 2 Mr Mandal announced the decision to quit the party at the first workers’ convention of the Jan Sangharsh Morcha (JSM), a group he floated on July 29 this year. He alleged that the JD (U) was divided into different groups and it was inert and losing its relevance and mass base under the leadership of Mr Yadav. “Workers of the JD (U) were dejected, demoralised, isolated and politically marginalised in Bihar,” he said. Mr Mandal said the future course of action would be decided at a state-level rally of the JSM to be held here on November 11.
UNI |
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Amrita’s autobiography released New Delhi, September 2 Amrita Pritam is one of those chosen few. For a woman who celebrated her 82nd birthday two days ago, age has left its mark in the augmented charm. At a function organised to mark the launch of her autobiography transcreated into English, the lady enthralled a mesmerised audience by reciting the lines of her famous poem,”Waris Shah”. “I cannot take the liberty of speaking about Amritaji’s book in front of her. A book should never be discussed before its author”, said Dr Kapila Vatsayan while releasing the book
titled, "Shadows of Words”, in the capital yesterday. The book has been transcreated by Jyoti Sabharwal Consultant Editor, Macmillan India. Speaking about her experience while transcreating the book, Sabharwal said: “It has been a spiritual experience for me and I hope I have done justice to one of our greatest literary figures”. The book is Amrita’s second autobiography after “Rasidi Ticket” in 1977.It is a journey into her life and the recesses of her mind. Whether it is childhood remembrances or her relationship with Sahir Ludhianvi, the germination of an idea or the weaving of a story, the book aims at encompassing the life of Punjab’s most celebrated daughter. Dr Vatsayan said it all when she referred to the book as not just an autobiography, but an entirely novel depiction on a spiritual plane. Amrita Pritam is the recipient of many literary awards including the Jnanpith Award, she was awarded the Padma Shri and was conferred the “Poet of the Millennium” Award by the Delhi government in 2000. The book release was followed by a panel discussion on “The growing Significance of translated works.” Prof K. Satchidanandan, Secretary, Sahitya Akademi observed: “Translation in a country like India is necessary because of the numerous languages and dialects.” Eminent writer Kamleshwar, however, chose to call the translation from one Indian language into another as a “transcreation.” |
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3 drowned, 1 stabbed at Ganesh festival Mumbai, September 2 The persons, aged between 28-35, had waded into the water to immerse the idols, sources said. A rescue operation was launched by the local fire brigade to fish out the bodies of the missing men at around 11.30 pm. However, all efforts to trace them proved futile, sources said. The rescue team, assisted by a special squad of the BMC, however, were successful in fishing out the bodies this morning, the sources said adding that the deceased were yet to be identified. HUBLI: A 30-year-old man was stabbed to death and five others were injured as violence broke out during the immersion of Ganesh idol here today. Three persons have been arrested in this connection. Police Commissioner Y.R Patil told UNI that the man was stabbed in the busy Dajibanpet around 1.45 a.m. He was admitted to the hospital but was pronounced dead there. A youth, belonging to a particular community, was assaulted by a mob moving in the procession near idgah maidan and was later handed over to the police. The mob accused him of being involved in the stabbing incident, Mr Patil said. “The stabbing is the result of previous enmity between two groups of Marthas and Pattegars. We have already arrested three persons and would soon nab the others involved in the incidents,’’ the Commissioner said.
PTI, UNI |
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Mayawati admits taking crores Lucknow, September 2 Asked to comment on allegations in this regard by some expelled BSF leaders and the Opposition, she shot back at a press conference here: “Who does not take money for his party?” “When the giver and the taker have no problems, why does it bother them,” she asked.
PTI |
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Resident Editor of TOI dead New Delhi, September 2 He was earlier associated with The Hindustan Times, The Indian Express and Telegraph.
PTI |
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Landslips disrupt flow of Yamuna Uttarkashi, September 2 According to senior government officials, incessant rain during the past few days has resulted in large-scale landslides in Khanera slip zones, which blocked the flow of the river. There has also been danger of floods in the upper Yamuna valley. The Commissioner of Garhwal division, Mr Subash Kumar, visited the affected area today to oversee the work done by the PWD Department to clear the blockade. With the formation of the lake an important road bridge on the
Delhi-Yamunotri National Highway is also threatened. The traffic on the highway has been suspended. The state government has also sought the help of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police force and the Tehri dam authorities to breach the blockade. |
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Rain kills 16 in UP Varanasi, September 2 |
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36 injured as Utkal Express derails Umaria (Madhya Pradesh), September 2 Umaria railway station Deputy Superintendent G.S Patnia said the express train derailed after it followed a track on which a few coaches of a goods trains had already derailed. Trains were cancelled or diverted after traffic was disrupted at the Umaria-Bilaspur section following the derailment, the officials said. UNI |
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Curfew in Satana Nasik, September 2 |
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