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Monday,
August 5, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Scare of
face-scratcher haunts UP Unions fear another round of VRS PM’s China visit may be delayed till Dec
SP raps PM for ‘bad’ governance |
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Minister takes potshot at Modi Film personality to ‘expose’
Sanjay Relief work: Bihar to sack docs Man gets wife raped for divorce
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Scare of face-scratcher haunts UP Lucknow, August 4 The scare which started from eastern UP was felt in parts of the state capital when residents of Bakshi ka Talab, a small hamlet, about 25 km from Lucknow, complained of some unknown “object” which left scratch marks on the body. The fear is not unfounded as deep scratches on the faces of many people are testimony to the danger the people are exposed to. Many people, who had suffered the wrath of muh nochwan, have been admitted to the district hospitals of Allahabad, Mirzapur and Ghazipur. Even the District Magistrate and SP of Mirzapur district had themselves seen this flying object and reported the matter to the state government. The doctors vouch that the victims’ faces have long deep marks left by the scratches made by either long nails or some sharpened iron tool, said Dr Sanjay Agnihotri, who claims to have treated over 24 persons in the past fortnight. He said injuries to these people were not fatal but they were scared and gripped with fear psychosis. For them any unknown person is muh nochwan, and this fear has given rise to secondary problems, said Dr Agnihotri. No one has so far seen how this muh nochwan looks like. Whoso- ever claims to have seen this creature gives a different version about the shape and size of muh nochwan. For some he was like a human being with long hairs. Ram Awadh, who claims to have seen the creature said it was like a fox with a jump as high as 18 feet! The only common thing about the description of this creature is that it comes at night and its arrival and departure is marked by a flash of light. Interestingly, Nand Lal, a resident of Rajella village in Ghazipur district, claimed to have grappled with muh nochwan. He told this correspondent that he was sleeping on the roof of his house when all of a sudden he felt someone was standing beside him. He opened his eyes and saw a dark face staring at him. “I got up and caught hold of the creature and shouted for help. He felt like a human figure made of iron. Before people could come, he escaped,” he said. Sunita Rani, Nand Lal’s wife, is an eyewitness to this episode. “It really happened. He (Nand Lal) had caught the muh nochwan. I have seen it with my own eyes,” she said nodding her head four to five times. The fear of this unknown creature is palpable in the villages of eastern UP. No one ventures out at dusk. Any person found loitering at night is thrashed. No one dares to move out of his house alone, said Rajendra Singh, a resident of Muhammadabad. People, armed with lathis, move around in groups at night. “Many of us have not slept for a minute for many nights,” he said. The district administration has beefed up security. We have reports of some unknown person creating a scare and we do not have any proof to show that it is some extraterrestrial body, said the ADM. |
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Unions fear another round of VRS New Delhi, August 4 “Moves are afoot to introduce VRS in Allahabad Bank, Bank of India and the Indian Bank which will be a retrograde step”, V.K. Gupta, the Delhi Convener of United Forum of Bank Unions, an umbrella group for nine banks unions comprising 10 lakh employees, told PTI. “At a time when the customer service has assumed more significance and the banks are expanding their services, it is unfortunate that these banks are looking for trimming the workforce at a time when they should have increased it”, Gupta said. “It will be better if Finance Minister Jaswant Singh and his officials, instead, seriously look at the problem of burgeoning Non-Performance Assets which has crossed Rs one lakh crore that should more than offset the salary obligations”, he said. Senior office bearers of the National Bank Employees Union, Kishan Singh and Ahuja said the Public Sector banks are already under the grip of staff shortage and “whatever modernisation measures are taken cannot fully substitute the need for workers”. Gupta said he found no justification in the banks’ plans to set up ATM centres in a big way in the rural areas. “What is the point in installing the Automatic Teller Machines in rural areas and villages when the gullible poor people could be cheated by many. Don’t you think it is unsafe to withdraw in the night in these villages”, Gupta asked. The UFBU convener said the NPA’s of nationalised banks due to corporate sector default has touched Rs 12,000 crore and demanded the government expedite the matter. He said the creation of Asset Reconstruction Companies for tackling the problem of NPA “is nothing but an attempt by the government to whitewash the balance sheets of banking sector and financial institutions”. The Unions have already released what they say is a list of 265 loan defaulters who owe Rs 10 crore and above to the Public Sector banks. “In the light of this, the bank unions have no other alternative than to gherao the offices of wilful defaulters in Delhi shortly”, Gupta said adding the “idea is to ensure that the corporate sector which is eating up the public money, pays up”.
PTI |
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PM’s China visit may be delayed till Dec PRIME MINISTER ATAL BEHARI VAJPAYEE’S proposed visit to China may not take place before November-December due to some crucial political and diplomatic activities in the Communist nation during September-October, official sources said here. “We have started the process of consultations for the visit. But no decision has been made in view of the high-profile events that are scheduled to take place in Chinese politics from now to early November,” an official source told PTI here. While Beijing is keen to host Mr Vajpayee earlier, New Delhi is of the view that it would like to wait till the dust settles on Chinese succession politics, the source said. The Communist Party of China (CPC), the country’s ruling party, is likely to hold its five-year party congress some time in September-October this year at which top leaders, including General Secretary Jiang Zemin, are supposed to retire. Chinese leaders are currently meeting in the sea side resort of Beidaihe to work out details of the change in leadership, including when to hold the party congress, which is usually held in September or October. However, there are reports that the 16th party congress could be delayed until Mr Jiang, who is also the President, returns from the USA after a high-profile summit with his US counterpart George W. Bush at the latter’s private ranch in Crawford, Texas on October 25. After his US trip, Mr Jiang will also attend the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) leaders’ meeting in Mexico on October 26-27. Thus, there is a strong possibility that the party congress could be delayed till early November. Chinese premier Zhu Rongji, who has invited Mr Vajpayee to China, is also scheduled to undertake a visit to Europe in late September. Mr Zhu is also supposed to retire from the standing committee of the CPC politburo at the party congress. Thus it is only natural that the Indian leadership would like to meet the new generation of Chinese leaders when Mr Vajpayee visits Beijing after a gap of 23 years, an official source said.
PTI |
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SP raps PM for ‘bad’ governance Bhopal, August 4 Addressing a press conference at the end of a two-day meeting of the party’s national executive, Mr Yadav claimed that the image of these two BJP leaders had taken a very “severe beating” and that their party was now busy “repairing the damage”. It was due to the policies pursued by Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani that the country was getting behind in all areas, including the vital area of foreign policy, he alleged. “There was a time when our foreign policy was formed keeping in mind the country’s interests but now it appeared to be formulated keeping in mind US interests,” Mr Yadav said. When reminded that the Congress had not backed his party in government formation in Uttar Pradesh because it was backing Mr Kalyan Singh, he said the former Chief Minister was now doing an “excellent job of fighting against the VHP and Bajrang Dal.” “If Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani also leave the BJP and begin working against the Bajrang Dal and for protecting the Muslims, I will have no hesitation in supporting them also,” he quipped.
PTI |
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Minister takes potshot at Modi
Ahmedabad, August 4 In his hard-hitting reply to the show-cause notice by state party president Rajendrasinh Rana, Mr Pandiya questioned the rationale behind serving him the notice and said he would not “bow to anybody for wrong reasons.” He said he had not given any interview to a leading magazine or a press statement criticising the Modi government’s handling of communal riots and denied having appeared before a “citizens’ tribunal” probing the riots and commented on Mr Modi’s controversial directives to police officials in the wake of the Godhra carnage. “I had not been present before the Citizen Council or any other institution,” he said. Mr Pandiya said no press report had mentioned anywhere about his presence in the council and there was, therefore, no necessity to issue any formal denial about it. Without naming Mr Modi, Mr Pandiya drew the attention of the party President about the person who tried to pressurise Mr Rana to seek his clarification and get some more details about it. Stating that no press report had talked about his presence before the council, Mr Pandiya said “if there is no reference of his in the press reports he do not find any reason to seek any clarification from him for issuing a show-cause notice.” PTI |
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Muslim body for President’s rule in Gujarat New Delhi, August 4 In a resolution adopted after a consultative meeting of the conference at Aligarh yesterday, it urged the Election Commission to allow international observers to monitor the elections in Gujarat “in line with the true spirit of democracy.” It also appealed to the delegation of the Election Commission, which recently visited Gujarat, “to thoroughly assess the situation in the context of the fear of the Muslims and other weaker sections of society”.
PTI |
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Film personality to ‘expose’ Sanjay Mumbai, August 4 The court has not disclosed the identity of the person on the latter’s request apprehending threat to life. The summons were issued by designated Judge P.D. Kode on July 24. The person had earlier filed an affidavit claiming that there was enough evidence against Dutt for his alleged role in 1993 bomb blast case.
PTI |
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Relief work: Bihar to sack docs Saharsa, August 4 The doctors who do not join duty, particularly in the flood-affected districts of the state, by August 15 will be dismissed from the job, Bihar Health Minister Shakuni Choudhary said here last night after reviewing the relief operations with the district medical officials here. During the review meeting, the minister found that only 19 out of 36 doctors recently transferred to Saharsa district had joined duties. The government would not listen to any excuse if the absentee doctors do not return to job by August 15, he said. District Magistrates and representatives of the people of the Kosi division had complained to Chief Minister Rabri Devi during a meeting on July 31 that flood relief works were being hampered due to the absence of doctors and other medical staff. The Health Minister asserted that there was no shortage of medicines in the flood-affected districts of the state as the government had already released money for the distribution of medicines among the flood-hit people.
PTI |
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Man gets wife raped for divorce New Delhi, August 4 Husband of Sukhwanti (28), Jangir Singh got her raped by his brother and nephew repeatedly and made a video cassette of the heinous crime to blackmail her and get a quick divorce. Sukhwanti’s only “crime to get this punishment’’ was that she had given birth to a deaf and dumb child. Narrating her tale of woes to UNI, she said she was married to Jangir Singh of Govindgarh town of Alwar district in Rajasthan 11 years ago and shortly after marriage her husband and in-laws started ill-treating her demanding dowry. The situation aggravated when she gave birth to her first child Dharamveer eight years ago as he was deaf and dumb. She complained to the police against her husband about six months ago and returned to her maternal home. Jangir was booked by the police under Section 498 of the IPC and was put behind bars for about 32 days. After this he treated her well and took her out for a trip to religious places, it was all a sham as he was trying to convince Panchayat leaders that he had reformed. In fact he was planning to flee to London where her sisters stayed. But instead of asking for a divorce as it would have meant giving maintenance to his wife and two children, Jangir, who had a jewellery business, made a sly plan. He forced pregnant Sukhwanti to undergo an abortion and asked his younger brother and nephew to rape her after drugging her. Jangir and his brother Wazir and nephew Gurinder have been arrested and two video cassettes has been recovered from their house. He has also confessed before the police that he got his wife raped. However, four other accused, including the videographer, a nurse who conducted the abortion and an advocate who helped Jangir with the crime are on the run.
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