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Saturday,
May 4, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Delimitation
Bill introduced in LS Bank
Manager gets 3-yr RI NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT Adamant
BJP MPs force LS adjournment |
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Oppn
onslaught continues Guild’s clean chit to national media Sachar
seeks Malik’s release on bail Mann
flays Gill’s appointment Khurana
in charge of Delhi BJP
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Delimitation
Bill introduced in LS New Delhi, May 3 A Bill to this effect, introduced in the Lok Sabha today by Law Minister Arun Jaitley, said the delimitation commission would be given two years to compete its work. “The proposed delimitation will apply to every General Election to the House of the people or to an Assembly held after the final orders of the commission are published and to every byelection arising from such general election,” the delimitation Bill pointed out. The present delimitation of Parliamentary and Assembly constituencies is based on the population figures in the 1971 census and since then continuous migration of people, specially from rural to urban areas, has resulted in strikingly differing sizes of constituencies even within the same state. Besides correcting the distortion in sizes of constituencies, the commission would also refix the number of Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe seats on the basis of the 1991 census, without affecting the total number of seats based on the 1971 census. The proposed commission would comprise three members, including its chairperson who would be a sitting or a retired judge of the Supreme Court. The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) or an Election Commissioner nominated by the CEC would be an ex officio member. The State Election Commissioner of the state concerned would also be an ex officio member. Besides, five members each from the Lok Sabha and the state Assembly concerned would assist the commission. The commission would also be able to take assistance from the Registrar-General and Census Commissioner, the Surveyor-General of India, geographical experts and the Central and state governments. |
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Bank Manager gets 3-yr RI New Delhi, May 3 The court has also sentenced three private persons of Indore — Jagdish Gajjar to undergo a two-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 12,000, Sanjay Shah to undergo a three-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 22,000 and Naresh Navlani to undergo a three-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 17,000, a CBI press note said here today. The CBI investigation revealed that Javeri had abused his official position while serving as Manager (Personal Banking Division), Godha Colony Branch, State Bank of India, Indore, during 1991-94 and entered into a criminal conspiracy with three account holders Jagdish Gajjar, Sanjay Shah and Naresh Navlani. He issued false special term deposits receipts (STDRs) and subsequently allowed overdrafts of Rs 18,68,750 taking the fake STDRs as security to the overdrafts and thereby caused wrongful loss to the bank of corresponding amount. In another case, the Special Judge, Patna, had convicted S.D. Bhardwaj, the then pharmacist, Railway Hospital, Samastipur and sentenced him to undergo a two-year rigorous imprisonment, it said. The accused had misappropriated funds to the tune of Rs 92,000, meant for the purchase of medicines. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, May 3 The minister said the government had also approved other concessions which include inter alia extension of excise and income tax exemption, setting up of the Jammu and Kashmir Development Finance Corporation. The total outstanding debt of eight states of Punjab, Haryana, Rajasthan, Orissa, Kerala, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal was more than twice their yearly revenue for 1999-2000, the Minister of State of Finance, Mr Gingee N Ramchandran, told the Lok Sabha in a written reply today. Pursuant to the recommendations of the 11th Finance Commission, a scheme for state fiscal reform facility ( 2000-01 to 2004-05) has been created to give incentives to the states to undertake medium term fiscal reforms programme. The states are expected to undertake a number of steps to achieve fiscal consolidation, including debt sustainability over the reform period, the minister said. In Punjab, 134,126 thousand tonnes of wheat was allocated under the targeted public distribution scheme (TPDS) during 2001-02, the Minister of State of Public Distribution, Mr Ashok Pradhan, told the Lok Sabha in a reply today. During the year 21,440 thousand tonnes of rice, 19012 mt of sugar and 301725 mt of kerosene was allocated under TPDS to Punjab, the Minister added. |
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Adamant
BJP MPs force LS adjournment New Delhi, May 3 As soon as question hour ended and zero hour began, Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed asked Mr Ramji Lal Suman (SP) to speak on the notice given by him. Even before Mr Suman could complete his remarks about an advertisement given by the Gujarat Government yesterday in a leading daily, Mr Kirti Azad (BJP) stood up and said he wanted to raise the issue of the continuous killings and rape of Dalits in Bihar, four of whom were killed only yesterday. He said his information was based on newspaper reports. Mr Sayeed told the member that he had sent the report cited by Mr Azad for verification by the government and once a reply was available, he would be allowed to raise the issue. Immediately afterwards, Mr Madan Lal Khurana (BJP) got up and said he had been giving notices since Monday on the CNG crisis in the Capital, including the price hike of the green fuel, but he had not been given a chance. Mr Khurana’s contention was that the House had already discussed the Gujarat situation for 16 hours and the Opposition member again wanted to rake up the issue. Mr Sayeed asked Mr Khurana how he could pre-judge what Mr Suman wanted to say. He said all those who had given notices for zero hour would be given a chance when their turn came and he was only following the procedure. He said members came in the morning and gave their notices and the secretariat after screening them prepared the list. Mr Sayeed said he was calling the members as per the list given by the secretariat. Mr Sayeed wondered how the Chair could be blamed if Mr Khurana had not got a chance to speak in the House. On this, some members from the ruling party,
including Prof Vijay Kumar Malhotra, were on their feet and said the Gujarat situation had already been discussed. Members from the Opposition, including Mr Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi (Congress) and Mr Somnath Chatterjee (CPM), said in all fairness Mr Suman should be given a chance to speak and asked whether the ruling party members would decide how the House had to be run. However, Mr Azad and Mr Khurana continued to shout, saying that they should be given a chance. Mr Chandra Shekhar (SJP-R) then intervened and said what was happening was lowering the dignity of the House. |
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Oppn onslaught continues New Delhi, May 3 Mr Robert Kharshiang (NCP) condemned the communal violence in the state and asked for firm and punitive steps to curb it. Resuming the discussion on the motion on Gujarat, Mr Kharshiang suggested the formation of a task force in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) to monitor relief and rehabilitation of riot victims in Gujarat. He said an all-party committee be formed to devise measures for rendering assistance to the riot-affected people. Mr D.P. Yadav (Independent) expressed concern over the continued violence and criticised the role of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi for his “partisan” role. Mr Dineshbhai Trivedi (Trinamool Congress) regretted the “hyprocrisy” of some political parties in the name of secularism. “Unless we clean our polity, nothing can be achieved”, he said. He said his party would support the demand for the resignation of Mr Modi, if it pacified the minorities. Mr Trivedi also spoke about the law and order situation in West Bengal and came down heavily on the Left Front government for its “failure” to handle it properly. Mr Narendra Singh Malik said communal violence in many parts of the country was condemnable. He said Hindus and Muslims had lived together for centuries in India and they would continue to do so. Mr Rajiv Shukla (Loktantrik Congress) criticised Defence Minister George Fernandes for his controversial statement in the Lok Sabha on Monday about riots in the country from time to time. He said the Central and the state governments should take effective steps to bring the situation under control in Gujarat. |
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Guild’s clean chit to national media New Delhi, May 3 A three-member team deputed by the guild visited Ahmedabad, Anand, Godhra and Vadodara between March 31 and April 6. In a 253-page fact-finding mission report titled “Rights and wrongs- ordeal by fire in the killing fields of Gujarat’, the three team members, Executive Managing Editor of The Times of India Dileep
Padgaonkar, Editor of Mid-Day, Mumbai, Aakar Patel and columnist B. G.
Verghese, have observed that the “mischievous role” of Gujarati newspapers cannot be glossed over. The team presented its report to mediapersons here today. It has concluded that the national media and sections of the Gujarati media, barring some notable offenders, played an exemplary role in their coverage of Gujarat, despite certain lapses, many of them inadvertent or minor. |
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Dharna
against Modi New Delhi, May 3 |
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Sachar seeks
Malik’s release on bail New Delhi, May 3 In a recent letter to the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, Justice Sachar pointed out that he had received information that Mr Malik, lodged in Jammu and Kashmir Jail, was being shabbily treated and was having a serious medical problem and sought the Governor’s intervention in the matter. “Even if a POTA case is to be proceeded against him (for which I see no justification), there is no necessity to keep him in jail. Malik is a leader of a movement (with which one may or may not agree), but he certainly is not one who is likely to abscond or run away,” he said. “Even if, therefore, the prosecution is to be continued against him, there is no reason why he should be kept in jail. I would, therefore, request you to please look into this matter and in the interest of fairness and proper justice, if the case is not to be withdrawn, Yasin Malik should at least be released on bail so that his health does not suffer further,” he said. |
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Mann flays Gill’s appointment New Delhi, May 3 Mr Mann threatened to move the National Commission for Women, the National Human Rights Commission, the National Minorities Commission, Amnesty International and other legal forums if Mr Gill’s appointment went through. “There are two maladies in Gujarat. One is the genocide of the Muslim minority and the other is the crime of rape and molestation of Muslim women. During his tenure as the DGP in Punjab, Mr K.P.S. Gill was guilty of genocide of Sikhs. Secondly, Mr Gill has been convicted by a Chandigarh court of molesting an IAS officer, Ms Rupin Deol Bajaj,” Mr Mann said, adding that “no one convicted, as per government rules, can hold a government post.” |
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Khurana
in charge of Delhi BJP New Delhi, May 3 Mr Krishnamurthi made party Vice-President, former Delhi Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, in charge of Rajasthan. Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had resigned from his Lok Sabha seat in the wake of hawala scam. Mr Khurana had also resigned as Delhi Chief Minister in 1996 when his name figured in the hawala scam. The BJP’s debacle in Delhi began in 1997 when the party refused to make Mr Khurana the Delhi Chief Minister despite the fact that he had been exonerated in the hawala scam. While Mr Advani had been reinstated, the party continued with Mr Sahib Singh Verma and when the party decided to change the Chief Minister, it opted for Mrs Sushma Swaraj, ignoring Mr Khurana’s claim. Mr Khurana, who has been an undisputed leader of Delhi and has a considerable following in the Delhi BJP, is expected to revive the party’s fortunes but the continuance of Delhi BJP President Mange Ram Garg in the post may still be an obstacle. Mr Krishnamurthi, in coming days, may face a tough time convincing the RSS lobby to withdraw support from Mr Garg. BJP Secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi has been given charge of Haryana having earlier been in charge of Jharkhand. |
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Bollywood flavour for Cannes New Delhi, May 3 |
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