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Sunday,
March 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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POTO Bill will make nation
concentration camp: Cong Punjab opposes Central plan USA, UK to resist Taliban upsurge
Jail, blessing in disguise for PU don |
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Amonkar gets Padma
Vibhushn 5-yr-old sits by dead parents for 2 days Christian council flays talks with RSS First e-mail spamming case registered
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POTO Bill will make nation
concentration camp: Cong New Delhi, March 23 The Congress had raised serious objections in the first instance over the manner in which POTO was promulgated by the BJP-led NDA government in October last year. Party leaders insist that POTO defines a terrorist act, not terrorism and the definition has been so “cunningly drafted’’ that a person spreading religious disaffection would not be brought within purview of POTO. Pointing to some of the “draconian” provisions in POTO, Congress leaders say that bail provisions are harsh and names of witnesses could be withheld from the accused. Mr Reddy says that while journalists could still be booked in POTO under Section 14 on the ground that they have information about terrorists, trade union activities could be treated as “disruptive services” under Section 3 (1) (A) of the proposed Bill. They acknowledge that TADA was ineffective in Jammu and Kashmir, led to arrests of farmers and trade unionists in Gujarat and a 12-year boy was implicated under it in Assam. “TADA was allowed to lapse when it was found that it did not produce desired results,’’ Mr Mukherjee points out. In fact, the Congress success in forming governments in three of the four states which went to the polls last month has further convinced the party about its “ideological opposition’’ to POTO. Congress leaders feel that the Bill was aimed at bolstering BJP’s prospects in the Assembly poll. Maintaining that POTO could not prevent the December 13 terrorist attack on Parliament House, Congress leaders say that the experience in Gujarat had shown that it would be used to spread jingoism in the country. |
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Farooq meets MPs New Delhi, March 23 National Conference President and Jammu Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, met the party MPs late last night and briefed them about talks with senior BJP leaders on the issue of POTO and on the “Hindutva’’ frenzy being raked up by some organisations. Sources said Dr Abdullah was satisfied with the outcome of the meeting held to sort out differences with the major coalition partners on various issues, including implementation of POTO in Gujarat. He told the party MPs to support POTO. |
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NDA stronger by 5 MPs New Delhi, March 23 IFDP Parliamentary Party Leader P.C. Thomas, who attended yesterday’s NDA meeting, told newspersons that the party had taken the decision to join the alliance to strengthen the government at a time when the country was facing several problems. The NDA will stand together and make efforts to foster secularism and find a solution to the communal problem, propped up by the Ayodhya incidents, he said. Mr Pappu Yadav, Mr Mohan Delkar, Mr Anwarul Haque and Mr Sukhdev Paswan are the other members of the party. Mr Haque and Mr Paswan are members of the Rashtriya Janata Dal (Democratic) while Mr Thomas, Mr Yadav and Mr Delkar are Independents. |
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Punjab opposes Central plan New Delhi, March 23 Currently, decentralised
procurement of foodgrains is undertaken in Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and West Bengal. However, during the fourth meeting of the Standing Committee on Food Management and Agricultural Exports, Uttar Pradesh today threatened to withdraw from the scheme due to the problems encountered in the implementation of the system. Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh also pointed out that the state government often had to operate under severe financial constraints while implementing the decentralised food procurement scheme (DFP) as the cash credit limit extended by the Reserve Bank of India was not available on time. Uttar Pradesh said at today’s meeting that the Centre paid higher storage charges for foodgrains lying with the Food Corporation of India (FCI) as compared to the quantity stored by the state under the decentralised food procurement plan. During today’s meeting Union Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha urged the states to ensure that farmers sell their produce directly to the food processors. However several state governments, particularly Punjab, Haryana, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala have expressed their fears and disagreement on the basic philosophy of decentralised procurement. These states feel that present system of centralised procurement would work well with some modifications and a decentralised system should be preceded by a proper network of roads and market places. Otherwise farmers would continue to resort to distress sales and only traders would benefit, the states observed. Punjab was represented by Mr D.R. Bajaj, Secretary (Food) of the state government. |
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USA, UK to resist Taliban upsurge New Delhi, March 23 Well-placed sources here disclosed to The Tribune yesterday that Washington had asked for British help, militarily, to combat a sudden upsurge in attacks on US troops by cadres of the Al-Qaida and the Taliban in northern and eastern Afghanistan. The US troops are to launch a massive attack on Khost in northern Afghanistan and some pockets in eastern Afghanistan bordering Pakistan very soon, the sources said. For this operation, London has assured the USA that it would be sending 1,200 British soldiers to Afghanistan for “Operation Jacana”. A similar operation, codenamed “Operation Anaconda”, was on in Gardez in Afghanistan for the past several weeks in which US forces claimed to have killed hundreds of Al-Qaida-Taliban cadres. The operation was wound up just recently. |
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Jail, blessing in disguise for PU don New Delhi, March 23 His brief experience of teaching inmates at Tihar has earned him the invitation to run the first centre in Srinagar for coaching aspirants for the civil services and other competitive examinations for the National Defence Academy, bank probationary officers and the National Institute of Fashion Technology. The centre, housed in Rajbagh was inaugurated at a function at Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre at Centaur Hotel in Srinagar recently. It will be run by the Dr D C Saksena Foundation chaired by a former Commissioner, Education, J&K, Dr Agha Ashraf. According to Dr Saksena, the classes will begin on April 7 (Sunday) and will
enroll 125 students. Of the 125 seats, 25 will be reserved for students from Ladakh and Kargil. Students admitted to the courses will be required to pay a nominal fee but poor and needy students will be considered for freeships. There is no application fee for the courses. Dr Saksena’s university teaching experience (1962 to 2000) and experience as examiner for the essay paper for Union Public Service Commission (1984 to ‘88) and again as main examiner from 1995 to ’96 makes his task easier. Besides, he has taught a dozen IAS aspirants at the IGNOU centre in Tihar. One of Dr Saksena’s students at Tihar set a record with his selection. Dr Saksena hopes to teach the first batch by camping in Srinagar for at least a week. ``In the beginning, I will teach general studies and general English which I have taught. Since the Kashmir Administrative Service examinations are scheduled sometime in June-end, our priority is to give a crash course to CAS aspirants. I will spend 10 to 12 days with the students in early June to give some concluding lectures.’’ Dr Saksena who started teaching English on the request of the then DIG, Tihar has refused remuneration. ``It is a labour of love. We will only offer to and fro airfare and accommodation to the teachers.’’ Dr Saksena has been Chairman of the Haryana School Education Board and Convener of the All-India Committee on Teaching of English in India. He says that he plans to persuade the British Council to spare cassettes being used for their language classes and send their experts for a seminar for written and spoken English. The foundation, registered as a trust, plans to apply for grants from the government as seed money of a few lakhs would not suffice. |
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Amonkar gets Padma Vibhushan New Delhi, March 23 At a ceremony at Ashoka Hall of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, President K.R. Narayanan gave away Padma Awards for 2000 to 45 eminent personalities for excellence in various fields. Classical singers Prabha Atre and Shoba Gurtu, pioneer of India’s IT revolution Faquir Chand Kohli, mountaineer Major H.P.S. Ahluwalia, cartoon journalist Mario De Miranda, writer Nirmal Verma, eminent surgeon Natesan Rangabashyam, space scientist R.V. Perumal, foreign industrialist Henning Holck-Larsen, yoga exponent B.K.S. Raja Iyengar and Russian litterateur Y.P. Chelyshev were the other Padma Bhushan awardees. Besides the presentation of three Padma Vibhushan and 13 Padma Bhushan awards, 29 persons were honoured with Padma Shri. Three Padma Shri awardees Gopal Chhotray, Hrashel Sawi Luaia and Taro Nakayama were not present. At least 50 Padma awards would be given away on March 26. |
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5-yr-old sits by dead parents for 2 days Mumbai, March 23 The police broke open the door of the flat of Dr Haif Beg and Dr Zarina yesterday and found them murdered. They must have been done to death at least two days ago, they said. Dazed Ibrahim was found sitting near the corpses of his parents in starved and dehydrated condition, the police said, adding that the child was removed from the scene and handed over to the neighbours. The incident came to light when Zarina’s mother complained to the neighbours and the police.
PTI |
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Christian council flays talks with RSS New Delhi, March 23 “Any dialogue with members of the Sangh Parivar at this stage mocks at the thousands dead in the genocide in Gujarat and will encourage the murderous cadres of RSS militant wings — the VHP and the Bajrang Dal — to continue their reign of terror in various parts of the country,” council president said.
UNI |
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First e-mail spamming case registered New Delhi, March 23 In the
spam mails, the accused had been asking the “complainant to shut down one of the
Web sites being hosted from the company’s server and threatened to span the service provider by sending porno e-mails in case the
Web site was not deleted,” the spokesman said. The CBI traced the sender of the mails to Pondicherry and found the accused to be a 16-year-old teenager, a school dropout and an Internet addict.
PTI |
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