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Monday,
April 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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LTTE
supporters ignore Jaya’s warning Trinamool
divided over joining Cong Jallianwala
survivors honoured |
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NDA govt
on its way out: Laloo Tributes
paid to Ambedkar
Farmers await canal water
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LTTE supporters ignore Jaya’s warning
Chennai, April 14 While Congress and Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) leaders, who have more than one reason to oppose the LTTE, whole heartedly welcomed Ms Jayalalithaa’s onslaught against those known for their open support to the tigers. MDMK’s Vaiko, who affectionately calls LTTE supremo Velupillai Prabhakaran as “Thambi” (younger brother), has virtually dared Ms Jayalalithaa to invoke the provisions of POTA against him. In a sharp reaction to her warning, he said: “No force on earth can browbeat us”. PMK founder leader S. Ramadoss, criticising the Chief Minister for issuing the warning, said it amounted to scuttling the peace initiatives being undertaken in Sri Lanka to resolve the vexed ethnic crisis. With the PMK leader making it clear that the party was opposed to the state Assembly adopting a resolution seeking the extradition of Prabhakaran to face trial in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case, it is unlikely that the resolution will be passed unanimously as expected by Ms Jayalalithaa. Militant Dalit leader and Puthiya Thamizhagam President K. Krishnasamy, who had organised a rally in support of the LTTE in the recent past, was a bit guarded in his reaction. He said though his party was opposed to terrorism, it viewed Ms Jayalalithaa’s warning as unfair. Tamil National Movement leader P. Nedumaran, a staunch LTTE supporter pledging his unflinching support to the outfit, was of the view that extraditing Prabhakaran to face trial in the Rajiv assassination case was totally unpractical. “The Congress, which presided over the massacre of Sikhs after the assassination of late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi, has no locus standi to point an accusing finger towards the LTTE”, he averred. However, Dravidar Kazhagam (DK) General Secretary and rationalist leader K. Veeramani, to whom the LTTE continues to be the embodiment of the aspirations of Tamils world over. is in an embarrassing position. The DK leader, who is now in the Jayalalithaa camp, has yet to offer his comment about the POTA warning. BJP Tamil Nadu General Secretary L. Ganesan is of the view that India should play its role to achieve peace in Sri Lanka. Ms Jayalalithaa, however, found friends in the “enemy camps” with PCC President E. V. K. S. Elangovan and Janata Party President Dr Subramaniam Swamy welcoming her stepped-up offensive.
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Trinamool
divided over joining Cong Kolkata, April 14 The Congress leader after her two-day meeting with Chief Ministers of the Congress ruled states in Guwahati yesterday, gave a call to all non-secular parties to come together and get rid of the BJP-led NDA government at the Centre. Though Ms Banerjee is against returning to the Congress, a large section of Trinamool Congress MPs, MLAs and other party leaders have responded positively to Ms Gandhi’s call and want to re-join the Congress. Some of them have even started campaigning openly by stating it is the right time that the Trinamool Congress should leave the BJP and share the platform with the Congress and other secular forces. Ms Banerjee, however, said the issue would be discussed and decided at the party’s national committee meeting on April 21. The CPM and the CPI have welcomed Ms Gandhi’s call to the secular parties to jointly fight against the BJP and other communal forces. But neither has agreed to share platform with the Congress. The RSP and the Forward Bloc, the two other major partners of the Left Front, however, have not responded positively to Ms Gandhi’s unity call. Both of them want to distance themselves from the Congress. State Congress leader, Mr Somen Mitra has welcomed Ms Gandhi’s call to the Trinamool Congress to fight jointly against the CPM. He hoped this time good sense would prevail and Ms Banerjee would come out from the communal clutches of the BJP. “We are still ready to work under her leadership as we have in the past”, Mr Mitra reiterated. Though Ms Banerjee and leaders close to her, like Mr Sudip Bandopadhyya, Mr Khondakar Ahmed — both MPs, and Mr Pankaj Banerjee, Mr Sovandeb Chatterjee and other MLAs have been reluctant to make any alliance with the Congress against the BJP, Mr Subrata Mukherjee, Kolkata Mayor, Mr Saugata Roy, Mr Paresh Pal, Mr Sadan Pande — all MLAs and others want that the Trinamool Congress should now leave the BJP and join hands either with the Congress or move separately for re-establishing their national character. |
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Jallianwala
survivors honoured New Delhi, April 14 Five survivors of the massacre, including Raghuvansh Chopra and Misri Lal and three women survivors, were honoured at the function in the presence of a former President of India, Mr R. Venkataraman, a former Prime Minister Mr P.V. Narashimha Rao, Mr L.M. Singvi, and Mrs Vimala Sharma, wife of former President Shankar Dayal Sharma. The President of the front, Mr Maninderjit Singh Bitta, also honoured Mr Kultar Singh, brother of Shaheed-e-Azam Shaheed Bhagat Singh. Hindi feature film ‘Pukar’ was awarded the All India National Award by the front. Film stars Anil Kapoor, Sanjay Kapoor, Sridevi, Boney Kapoor and Daler Mehndi were also present. |
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NDA govt on its way out: Laloo
Patna, April 14 “The Vajpayee government can collapse any moment due to its mishandling of communal flare-up in Gujarat after the Godhra incident”, Mr Yadav said. Before emplaning for Delhi to take oath in the upper house of Parliament, Mr Yadav told reporters that he was going to the Capital with the “sole purpose of removing the NDA government and for the formation of an alternative secular government at the Centre”. The RJD chief said he was in constant touch with leaders of other Opposition parties asking them to join hands in overthrowing the government. Mr Yadav also appealed to the NDA allies professing secularism to come out of the coalition and support his efforts to form an alternative government. Criticising the BJP for giving a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, the RJD President demanded immediate arrest of Mr Modi under POTA and institution of a criminal case against him for communal disturbances which claimed the lives of hundreds of people.
PTI |
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Tributes
paid to Ambedkar
New Delhi, April 14 Vice-President Krishan Kant, Union Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Satyanarayan Jatiya, Deputy Speaker of Lok Sabha P.M. Sayeed and a number of MPs showered flowers at the statue of Ambedkar. President K.R. Narayanan could not make it due to some unavoidable reasons. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, too, could not attend the function as he was away at Panaji. Spanish social worker Reny Fernand Claude Satorre Bpnhomme, who has been selected for the Ambedkar International Award for Social Change, was also present at the function.
PTI |
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582 ‘criminals’ in MC poll fray Patna, April 14 The CIA sleuths have added to the woes sounding high alert over the possibility of large-scale violence during the elections taking place on April 28. According to Intelligence report, sent to the Union Home Ministry, 582 out of 11,500 candidates in fray for both wards and councils have criminal antecedents. of this 150 candidates are those against whom the police has filed charge sheets. The cases are pending in the courts. The report has also warned the state government that if it failed to rein in the criminal elements in various districts, they might unleash terror and violence during elections. The state intelligence has already issued letters to the respective SPs of the districts to send in complete list of anti-social elements in their area so that preventive arrests could be made. The state administration is also in the soup as it faces shortage of police force. Most of the booths have been declared sensitive by the state Election Commission. Earlier a total of 70 companies of armed forces were requisitioned for elections to the Patna Municipal Corporation. The district administration, however, maintains that this too would be less than required. |
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Deserted by Pak husbands, Indian brides’ Lucknow, April 14 Ten years down the line she, along with her four children, is again going to Pakistan. But the situation is different. She is being deported as her visa has expired. Rehana does not want to return as she complains that her husband, a drug addict has deserted her. “I have nowhere to go in Pakistan. I am an Indian and want to stay back,” she pleaded. The district authorities of Mirzapur, though sympathetic, have asked her to go back to in-laws house. Technically she is now a Pakistani citizen, who has overstayed, says the SDM Sadar. Rehana, a native of Sher Khan gali of the Vasalianj area, had been living in Pakistan for 10 years. In these years she gave birth to four children – two boys and two girls. Initially, the visa was for two months. Owing to her bad health it was extended till November. As her date of return approached she went underground. But, as state government intensified its drive to identify Pakistanis illegally staying in India, the local intelligence unit (LIU) launched a manhunt for Rehana. She was found in Hyat Nagar in Bhadohi, where she was residing in a rented house and was working in a carpet workshop. The officials asked her to leave India immediately. At last the lady luck smiled as a Lucknow-based women organisation Samakhya has decided to take up Rehana’s case. “If the Central Government could sympathetically consider the case of a Kuwaiti girl who had come to India on illegal documents only because she is in love with an Indian boy, then why cannot it help Rehana,” asked Shalini Mathur of Samakhya. These types of incidents are not new for UP Muslims. There are umpteen examples where Indian girls, married to Pakistani boys, get raw treatment in their in-law’s house. And after being deserted by their husbands these girls find themselves literally standing at 'no man’s land’ as neither they can go back to Pakistan nor they are accepted in India by the authorities. But, the case of Kuwaiti girl has given a new lease of life to Rehana. Samakhya has already written letters to the Minister of External Affairs to sympathetically consider Rehana’s case. Shalini recounts the case of another girl Nasima, a resident of Saharanpur, who too was married to a Pakistani Iqbal Hussein around seven years ago. She gave birth to two daughters. As her husband wanted a son, he married a Pakistani girl and deserted Nasima. Her in-laws even burnt her passport. But, she anyhow managed to reach Nepal on the basis of the photocopy of her passport. While she was entering India through the UP-Nepal border she was arrested. Though she has been released she has refused to leave the jail. “I have nowhere to go. I will not go to Pakistan,” she had told the CJM Maharaja. She is not even ready to go back to her parents as she said that her parents would force her to marry another Iqbal Hussein. These Indian brides are in a dilemma, said Ms Shalini. “They have nowhere to go. We are fighting their case,” she added. |
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Farmers await canal water Hanumangarh : Cultivators of the district have been demonstrating and demanding water for their crops. The water shortage, which occurs every year in the canals here, may be there this year also. In 1970, the cultivators of the Bhakra irrigation system launched a movement and sacrificed their lives in support of their various demands. The government constituted a committee at that time to consider the demands of the cultivators. But the picture remains the same as to what it was more than 30 years ago. Till date the demands of the cultivators have not been fulfilled, because the recommendations of the committee have not been implemented. For the lakhs of cultivators of the area, the number of problems is endless with shortage of water being at the top. Cultivators whose land is situated on the tail of the Bhakra irrigation system very rarely see water in the canals. These cultivators complain that even after paying irrigation tax to the department concerned they do not get water supply. As a result, the produce remains low. Though the Irrigation Department has got a committee constituted to decide the rating of the canals, but everybody knows how much these ratings are followed. Allegations, have been made, from time to time, against the irrigation officials of making alterations in the moats by taking bribes. There are many canals in which supply is not given for weeks, but the cultivators of these particular areas have to pay the irrigation tax. The cultivators, leaving the agricultural tools in the fields, are busy raising slogans for a long time now. Going into the past, in 1970, cultivators of the Bhakra Irrigation System and Indira Gandhi Canal launched a massive campaign in support of their demands. Thousands of cultivators were sent to jail and many dared to face the police lathi charge and firing. On January 7,1970, eight cultivators were killed in the police firing, but their sacrifice did not yield any fruitful result. After this incident, the government constituted a committee to consider the demands of the cultivators under the chairmanship of a retired Chief Engineer, Mr Moti Ram. In the report submitted on June 24,1970, the committee gave 18 recommendations. Though the government gave a green signal to these recommendations and in an order issued on February 27,1974, asked for the implementation of these, till date these have not been implemented. In its report, the committee had made a major recommendation of increasing the water allowance from 2.4 to 3 per thousand acres in all the areas of the Bhakra irrigation system and to increase the water density in the system to 80 per cent from 62 per cent. For doing this, the committee recommended to transfer some area under cultivation of the Bhakra irrigation system to Indira Gandhi Nahar Pariyojna and to make available extra water to the remaining irrigated area under the Bhakra system. But the apathy is such that even after more than 30 years both of these recommendations along with others made by the committee, are waiting to get implemented. Whereas the cultivators have been suffering every year because of water shortage, the officials of the Irrigation Department are of the view that it is not possible to increase the water allowance without renovating the old canals. The officials say that the water share will be available from Punjab according to the inter-state agreement and water level could be raised only by saving the water that flows as waste because of seepage from the damaged canals. To renovate the canals the Irrigation Department has sent many schemes from time to time the state government but none has been approved. The government many times has said that the canals will be modernised with financial aid from the World Bank, but this also has not been done so far. |
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Floral tributes were paid to
Bharat Ratna Baba Saheb B.R. Ambedkar at a function held in Parliament
House today on his 111th birth anniversary.
In video (
