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Wednesday,
August 14, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP tones down criticism of
EC EC reviews J&K poll
arrangements ‘Dismantle’ terror
camps Pak ultras active
in J&K: Sinha
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Navy chief’s US visit on cards Punjab MPs to approach
PM Cong MPs meet Ajit Singh Review Bill on domestic violence NCW Officials accept
28 deaths in cloudburst
Jet Airways’ new security regulations Govt yet to fulfil
promises: Abidi Ultras kill 12 UP Congress
office-bearers
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BJP tones down criticism of
EC New Delhi, August 13 “There is no question of anybody lowering the dignity of the EC. It is part of the commission’s constitutional obligation to conduct free-and-fair elections. The party had only stated what should be the correct and appropriate time when the poll should be conducted,” party General Secretary and spokesman Arun Jaitley told newspersons here. Coming down heavily on Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, BJP Parliamentary Party spokesman V.K. Malhotra had said yesterday that he was apparently acting at the “behest” of the Congress and other Opposition parties which wanted the Gujarat elections to be delayed. Mr Jaitley himself had on August 11 taken strong exception to Mr Lyngdoh’s focus on relief and rehabilitation measures in Gujarat and said there were several relief commissioners to do that job and that the EC should concentrate on the elections. However, Mr Jaitley asserted that there was no scope for confusion on the interpretation of Article 174. “The Governor can either prorogue or dissolve the Assembly. There should not be a lapse of more than six months in constituting a new Assembly, whether it is prorogued or dissolved. The Constitution does not make any distinction between the two,” he said. Replying to a question relating to the recent cancellation of the allotment of petrol stations, LPG and kerosene depots, Mr Jaitley said some people were bound to go to court, adding that the oil companies concerned and the Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas had devised an appropriate strategy to defend the decision. He also announced the decision of BJP President Venkaiah Naidu to appoint Mr P.N. Vijayan as the convener of the party’s economic cell. Mr Vijayan succeeds Mr Jagdish Shettigar. |
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EC reviews J&K poll
arrangements New Delhi, August 13 Mr Lyngdoh, flanked by election commissioners T.S. Krishnamurthy and B.B. Tandon, and other top commission officials, reviewed the poll preparedness with Jammu and Kashmir Chief Electoral Officer Pramod Jain. The EC panel laid emphasis on the progress made in the distribution of “high security” voter identity cards and voter slips to the electorate and district and constituency-wise security arrangements during the day-long meeting, sources said. Mr Jain is understood to have provided the statistics on the distribution of photo identity cards to the EC panel and informed it that a large number of people were turning up to get the cards. According to the sources, about 25 per cent of the 5.6 million voters in the state was expected to get these cards before the start of polling on September 16. The commission also reviewed at length the arrangements for setting up polling booths for the elections to the 87-seat Jammu and Kashmir Assembly, besides reviewing on the progress made in the training programme to educate the voters on how to use electronic voting machines (EVMs), which would be in use for the first time in the state. The commission also reviewed the polling arrangements for Kashmiri migrants, who fled the valley and are living in various camps in Jammu, Udhampur and Delhi. Later in the day, the EC panel also held a meeting with the chief electoral officers of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh with regard to deployment of poll officials from these two states for the poll in Jammu and Kashmir. The CEO of Jammu and Kashmir was also present at the meeting. Voting in the four-phased poll would be held on September 16 and 23 and October 1 and 8. The notification for the first phase would be issued on August 22 followed by further notifications on August 29 and September 6 and 13. |
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Cong sends MLAs to Jammu New Delhi, August 13 Party leaders, ministers and MLAs from Haryana, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh were briefed about the party’s stand on issues like trifurcation of the state and imposition of Governor’s rule and told to assist the local leadership in winning the maximum seats. Some MLAs from Himachal Pradesh, which would go for polls in a few months, pointed out that their going to Jammu and Kashmir would be at the cost of work in their own constituencies. They pointed out that voters lists were being revised and voters I-cards made in their areas. Himachal Pradesh Assembly is also scheduled to meet in the last week of this month. Taking note of the difficulties faced by the MLAs from the state, AICC leaders said that they could visit their constituenices while working in the Jammu region. While the observers given duties in Poonch and Rajouri, where the polls are being held in the first phase on September 16, would leave for their assigned places immediately, others would go by the end of this month. Apart from 16 MLAs and leaders from Himachal Pradesh, 15 from Punjab and 17 from Delhi and a few from UP, are being sent to the state. AICC observers being sent include Mahabir Prasad, Sri Prakash Jaiswal, Iqbal Singh, Krishna Tirath, Pervez Hashmi, Syed Sibte Razi, Avtar Singh Badhana and Jai Prakash Aggarwal. Addressing the observers at today’s meeting, Jammu and Kashmir PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad said the Centre had not accepted the Congress demand of imposing Governor’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Azad, who is unwell, would leave for the state in a few days. The meeting was also attended by AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni and Congress treasurer Motilal Vora. Meanwhile, a Congress delegation from Kerala, owing allegiance to senior Congress leader K. Karunakaran, today met party President Sonia Gandhi and complained that the Congress was “losing its prominence” under the A.K. Antony government in the state. |
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‘Dismantle’ terror
camps New Delhi, August 13 A meeting of the United Kashmir People’s National Party (UKPNP), Switzerland, was organised by its president, Shaukat Kashmiri, in Geneva on August 11. A resolution was adopted without a vote of dissent, which, among other things, demanded that “elements that propagate violence as a solution to the Kashmir problem be banned wherever these exist.” The resolution also urged the governments of India and Pakistan to enter into a dialogue for the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute. “Inter-Kashmir dialogue should be encouraged and facilitated by both governments... A global network be created for intra-Kashmir dialogue. People of different streams of thought and ideology regarding the Kashmir problem be invited to participate in the deliberations,” the resolution said. Twentyfour persons, all belonging to the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and living in Switzerland, attended the meeting. From the valley, Maqbul Kazimi, Riyaz Punjabi, K N Pandita, Tahir Ferdous (Poonch) and Khalid Jehangir attended the meeting which was presided over by K.N. Pandita. The resolution was signed by Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, Sayed Maqbul Kazimi, Mohammad Abdullah Raina, Gulnawaz Khan, Tahir Naseem Manhas, Chaudhary Mohammad Mushtaq, Khalid Jehangir, Prof Riyaz Punjabi, Mumtaz Khan and K.N. Pandita. |
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Pak ultras active
in J&K: Sinha New Delhi, August 13 Talking to reporters at the airport here on his return from Afghanistan, the minister said the picture was the same regarding cross-border infiltration. “There is no change in this. We had our apprehensions that in the elections, terrorist groups will step up violence there. We have seen evidence of that.” To a query, Mr Sinha said the captured ultras had revealed that terrorists belonging to Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida were operating in Jammu and Kashmir from across the Line of Control. Apart from meeting top officials of the Hamid Karzai administration in Afghanistan, including Mr Karzai, Foreign Minister Abdullah Abdullah and Defence Minister Fahim, Mr Sinha also met former King Zahir Shah during his three-day visit. |
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Flights to remain suspended during I-Day function New Delhi, August 13 Special Commissioner of Police (Security) S.K. Kains told reporters here today that air traffic would remain suspended from 6 a.m. to 9 a.m. on August 15, by which time the function is likely to conclude. The function at the Red Fort is likely to start at around 7 a.m. and continue till about 8.30 a.m. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee will unfurl the Tricolour at around 7.30 a.m. and then address the nation from the ramparts of the historic fort. |
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Navy chief’s US visit on cards New Delhi, August 13 The visit of the Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Madhvendra Singh, to the USA in the coming months would be an unprecedented third visit by the Chiefs of Indian Armed Forces to that country in a short span of time. Between April and October, a period of six months, all three chiefs of services would have visited the USA on goodwill or official visits. Experts point out that never in past have the chiefs of all the arms of the Indian armed forces visited the same country in the same year. The visits from the armed forces officers are besides the other diplomatic visits from India. The visits from the Indian armed forces to the USA do not end with the sojourns of the three chiefs. A number of other senior armed forces officers have also visited the USA in this period, mostly looking for equipment for the Indian troops. While the Deputy Chief of Army, Lt-Gen A.S. Khanna, is already in the USA looking for special light equipment for the Indian special forces, Lt-Gen Shantanu Choudhary is likely to be on a visit there in the coming weeks. Incidentally, while the Chief of Army Staff, S. Padmanabhan, who is also the Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, visited the USA in April just ahead of Defence Policy Group (DPG) meeting, Chief of Air Staff V. Krishnaswamy was there in early July. However, experts point out that the visits from India were being carried out despite no reciprocal visits from the USA. While there have been no visits from the US Army or Air Force chiefs, General Richard Myers, Chairman of the US Joint Chiefs of Staff, came on a visit earlier this year. The visit of Admiral Madhvendra Singh is expected to be just ahead of the Malabar series of joint exercises between the Indian and the American navies. Malabar series, a regular feature in the Indo-US relations before the 1998 Pokhran tests, was the most evolved joint exercise that Indian Navy had with any foreign navy till then. The next round of exercises is likely to feature anti-submarine warfare, naval fighters, joint search and rescue and other aspects of modern sea warfare. The Indian Air Force and Army and have already conducted joint exercises in Agra. Indian Army commandos and Air Force planes participated in the exercises with their US counterparts. Similar exercises are expected to be conducted at Alaska in September. |
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Punjab MPs to approach
PM New Delhi, August 13 Leaving their bitter party squabbles aside for the first time, MPs of various parties met at the residence of Union Chemicals and Fertilisers Minister Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa here yesterday and underlined the need to jointly pursue the demands of Punjab with various ministries and departments of the Centre. They agreed to approach Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Union Defence Minister George Fernandes to press that the proposed defence university be located in Punjab. Recounting the problems faced by NRIs, the MPs decided to request Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani to grant a temporary visa to every Punjabi NRI as evidenced in the case of tourists all over the world. They stressed that the Union Government should not be strict in issuing visas to Punjabis wanting to visit their families in their ancestral villages. Expressing concern over the drought conditions in Punjab, the parliamentarians desired that as Punjab had been the main contributor to the Central pool of foodgrains, the Centre should provide full relief to the farmers. The MPs condemned the suspected hate killing of Sukhpal Singh Sodhi in the USA and demanded that the Ministry of External Affairs approach the George Bush administration to accord full protection to the minority community. They felt that the Vajpayee government should take up this matter forcefully with the authorities concerned in the USA. |
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Cong MPs meet Ajit Singh New Delhi, August 13 The MPs demanded that Punjab should be declared drought-hit and farmers compensated for the losses they have suffered. They urged the minister to visit Mansa, Bathinda, Faridkot, Muktsar, Ferozepore and Hoshiarpur districts of Malwa belt to asses the damage. |
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Review Bill on domestic violence NCW New Delhi, August 13 Though the Bill introduced in the Parliament has been welcomed by women all over the country, objections are being raised to certain provisions, NCW sources said here today. The commission is also organising a consultative meeting with women parliamentarians, NGOs and academics to discuss the issue at length, the sources said. The suggestions made by the NCW for incorporation into the Bill include widening the definition of the term ‘domestic violence’ after a debate, the right to the abused women to stay in her matrimonial house.
PTI |
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Officials accept
28 deaths in cloudburst Dehra Dun, August 13 In a hurriedly convened press conference yesterday the Chief Minister, Mr N.D. Tiwari, told reporters that his scheduled aerial survey of the affected areas had to be called off due to the bad weather conditions. Mr Tiwari, who addressed mediapersons immediately after returning from New Delhi, said he had earlier planned to conduct an aerial survey of the Budha Kedar area by an IAF helicopter but cancelled his visit after a report submitted by the Tehri District Magistrate. |
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Jet Airways’ new security regulations New Delhi, August 13 A press note issued by the airlines said the new security regulations would come into force from August 20. Passengers would not be allowed to carry all restricted items in their baggages. The restricted items include cigarette lighters, knives, blades, nail cutters, pliers, scissors, screwdrivers, umbrellas and weapons of any nature. Passengers had also been advised that items like cigarette lighters, which contain liquefied or compressed gas, should not be carried either in the check-in baggage or on-board. In case such restricted items are discovered in the cabin baggages or on the person during security checks, the passenger will be asked by the airport authorities to leave the same behind. The airline will also discontinue collecting security-retrieved articles from the police or the CISF hand baggage screening points and forward them to destined stations. |
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Govt yet to fulfil
promises: Abidi New Delhi, August 13 Announcing the decision here on Monday, Disabled Rights Group (DRG) convener Javed Abidi told mediapersons that the government had failed to execute its three-month-old promise of meeting their 12 demands. Mr Abidi said they withdrew their agitation in May after an assurance from the Ministry of State in PMO Vijay Goel. It should not take the government so long to shift the office of the Chief Commissioner of Persons with Disabilities, he added. He said, “Even if 10 per cent of the Act were to be implemented faithfully, the lives of disabled persons would change significantly,” Mr Abidi added. |
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Ultras kill 12 Meghalaya, August 13 The Meghalaya DGP said the incident occurred around 7.45 a.m.
UNI
UP Congress
office-bearers New Delhi, August 13 AICC treasurer Motilal Vora, who is in charge of UP, today appointed 21 vice-presidents, 34 general secretaries, and 30 members to the PCC executive. Fortyone leaders, including some former chief ministers, have been made special invitees. Mr Arun Kumar Singh, alias Munna, was earlier made chief of the
Congress in UP. |
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