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Tuesday,
March 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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POTO may face joint session of Parliament Terrorism bane of Asia: Jaswant
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1 killed in Gujarat police firing Carnage state sponsored: CPM Sonia
writes to PM on Gujarat NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT Mann: action against Sekhon unfair Husbandry Dept fails to achieve
targets
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POTO may face joint session of Parliament New Delhi, March 18 Earlier, Mr Advani sought to allay the fears expressed by the Opposition that the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, 2002, is a “clone of TADA” and said the Bill has the minimum scope for abuse and human rights violations. Moving the Bill in the Lok Sabha, the Home Minister as POTO promulgated in October last year had lapsed, the government had to bring the Bill to replace the Ordinance. Earlier talking to newspersons, BJP parliamentary affairs spokesman V.K. Malhotra said: “If Rajya Sabha does not approve POTO after its passage in Lok Sabha, the government may have to resort to the constitutional provision of convening a joint sitting of Parliament for its passage”. Meanwhile, the Opposition in the Lok Sabha vehemently opposed the Bill dubbing it as “draconian”, politically motivated and “destructive of basic liberties”. Initiating the debate on the Bill, seeking to replace the POTO S. Jaipal Reddy of the Congress said the proposed law is “destructive of basic democratic liberties .... It is prompted in all seriousness and sincerity by malignant political motive”. “It empowers the authority to put anyone in jail without bail”, he said, adding that the government should remember that “power corrupts and absolute power corrupts absolutely.” A statutory resolution tabled by 15 members from the Congress, Left parties, the Samajwadi Party and the Muslim League disapproving POTO was also taken up for discussion. |
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Terrorism bane of Asia: Jaswant New Delhi, March 18 He wondered why European security should remain a predominant factor especially since, in real terms, Europe was an extension of the Asian land mass. Inaugurating the 4th Asian Security Conference, organised by the Institute of Defence and Strategic Analyses (IDSA), the minister said though a continent of great assets, Asia provided “nutrients to the scourge of our times, terrorism.” Drawing strong links between anarchy and terrorism, Mr Jaswant Singh said the philosophy of anarchy was being articulated in a different form and justification — terrorism. Experts from 24 countries are participating in the two-day conference, the main theme of which is ‘Asian security strategies in a period of uncertainty’. |
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1 killed in Gujarat police firing Ahmedabad, March 18 The police opened fire and burst teargas shells last night when some persons from outside the town tried to indulge in arson and pelted stones at a police party. One person was killed in the incident, taking the toll in yesterday’s violence in the state to five. Meanwhile, curfew remained in force in Baroda city areas . The police fired 23 rounds and burst 11 teargas shells to scare away a stone pelting mob in Bapunagar labour dominated area here late last night. No one was injured in the firing. Curfew in five police station areas of Kalupur, Karanj, Shahpur, Dariapur and Madhupura was relaxed today.
PTI |
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Carnage state sponsored: CPM New Delhi, March 18 The 28-page report has pooh-poohed state government’s claim that it controlled violence within 72 hours. In a report titled “state-sponsored carnage in Gujarat,” the delegation has observed that freedom of 72 hours to loot, kill and plunder is long enough to destroy a whole community. During its brief visit to the state (March 10 to 13), the group tried to gain insight into the events on and after February 27 by speaking to persons from both communities, victims of communal attacks, administrative officers in Ahmedabad, members of relief committees, Citizens Initiative, non-government organisations and intellectuals. The delegation also visited Godhra town in Panchmahal district, rural areas outside Godhra and Ahmedabad which “looks like a city ravaged by war.” It also visited five relief camps in Ahmedabad and a camp at Vizapur in Mehsana district. In a memorandum to Governor, S.S. Bhandari, the delegation has sought the removal of Chief Minister Narendra Modi. While contesting Modi’s justification of the carnage as spontaneous reaction to the torching of the Sabarmati Express, the delegation has stated, “The use of cranes, shovels and even trucks to demolish walls were not by any definition spontaneous. |
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Sonia
writes to PM on Gujarat New Delhi, March 18 In a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Ms Gandhi has said while it is important to bring to justice those responsible for violence in Godhra and other places in the state, the crying need of the hour is to re-establish a sense of security among the people and do everything possible to alleviate the sufferings of the victims of senseless violence. The letter, written on Saturday, was released to the media today. Calling for speedy compensation, Ms Gandhi said it was important to activate peace committees comprising members of all communities to bring back harmony and mutual trust. She said the police needed to be sensitised to enable it to handle its duty with understanding and impartiality. The background note forwarded with the letter says that the Gujarat Government should be asked to take immediate steps to trace the missing persons. It says that the police is not registering cases by name though the victims know the rioters and are willing to give their names. The police, it says, is registering one complaint for the entire village or locality to reflect less number of cases. The note says that the Chief Secretary and the Home Secretary should be directed to instruct the police authorities to register the complaints mentioning the names of the rioters. It calls for immediate arrest of those who led the rioters and names which appear in FIRs. Giving
suggestions, it says the looted goods can still be recovered if the
police does effective combing in the villages falling under the radius
of 10 km of district and tehsil towns. The “panchnama” of shops,
houses burnt and goods looted should be done in the presence of the
owners, most of whom are in camps. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, March 18 There are a total of 531 identified scavengers in Punjab, the minister for Social Justice and Empowerment, Dr Satyanarayan Jatiya, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today. In Haryana, there are 36,362 identified scavengers while the figures in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir are 4757 and 4150, respectively, the minister told the House. Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir have opposed the proposal to bring tourism under the Concurrent List of the Constitution to facilitate better coordination and cooperation between the union and state governments in this key sector, the Minister for Tourism and Culture, Mr Jagmohan, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply today. While Himachal Pradesh has supported the proposal, Haryana is yet to send its views to the Centre. There was an outbreak recently of acute febrile illness with haemoptysis (blood in sputum) at Hatkoti village in Shimla district which has been confirmed by the National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) as pneumonic plague, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Mr A. Raja, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. On receiving the report from the nodal officer for the National Surveillance Programme for Communicable Diseases, a team from NICD proceeded to the affected areas of Himachal Pradesh on February 14, this year. On February 22, another team consisting of six public health experts was sent to Chandigarh. |
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Mann: action against Sekhon unfair New Delhi, March 18 Talking to The Tribune here, he said, “Lobbying at senior positions in the armed forces was normal. Then why was action being taken only against Air Marshal Sekhon”. While saying that Air Marshal Sekhon was an honest and a straightforward officer, Mr Mann said action against him would hurt the Sikh sentiments at a time when there was already communal tension in the country. Attacking former Punjab Chief Minister, Parkash Singh Badal for forwarding the letter to the Centre, Mr Mann said there was a purpose behind the leaking of the letter as Air Marshal Sekhon was heading the inquiry against Air Marshal V.K. Bhatia ever since he strayed into the Pakistan territory. He sought action against Air Marshal Bhatia. |
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Husbandry Dept fails to achieve
targets
Hanumangarh, March 18 The government had set a target for showing films in every district, but in several districts, including Dholpur, Jaipur, Baran, Banswara, Swaimadhopur, Chittorgarh, Boondi, Kuchaman, Bhilwara and Churu this was not achieved.
The target of organising 64 programmes in the last financial year for creating awareness about improving the breed of cattle , increase in the production of milk and control of disease in animals was also not achieved as the department organised only 26 programmes.
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A picture released
on March 18 by the Indian Railway Police shows a man named Haji
Bilal, who has been arrested as the prime suspect in last month's burning of
the train carrying
kar sevaks that killed 58 persons at Godhra in Gujarat. 
In videos
