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Wednesday,
January 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Cong for disqualification of 8 UP MLAs Kelkar report: BJP opposes tax on farm
income War no solution to Iraq crisis: PM
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37 die in bus-truck collision Development to be BJP poll plank
Deepti hints at new genre of Hindi
films Centre’s share on modernisation of police to go up HC turns down Shah’s plea on charge IAF
copter crashes, no casuality
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Cong for disqualification of 8 UP MLAs New Delhi, January 28 Senior Congress leaders, who were closeted in a series of meetings throughout the day today, met Congress President Sonia Gandhi in the evening to decide the party’s response to the developments in UP. The meeting, which was attended among others by Mr Motilal Vora, who is in charge of Uttar Pradesh, Mrs Ambika Soni and former Law Minister H.R. Bhardwaj, decided that the CLP leader or the chief whip of the legislature party in Uttar Pradesh would write to the Assembly Speaker seeking disqualification of the "eight MLAs." The Congress leaders said there was no split in the party. "The Speaker had totally misinterpreted the law. The MLAs are laible to be disqualified," Mr Bhardwaj said, referring to the UP Speaker’s decision to recognise the splinter group. "It was a pure case of defection by manipulation," Mr Bhardwaj said. He indicated that the party would move court in case of an unfavourable ruling by the Speaker. Congress MP Begum Noor Bano, whose son is among the rebel MLAs, was also at the AICC today. Earlier in the day, the party said it would challenge in court the order of Uttar Pradesh Assembly Speaker granting recognition as a separate party to an eight-member splinter group of the Congress Legislature Party on the grounds that one among them, Akhilesh Singh, did not belong to it but had been removed from the party three months ago. The Speaker himself had declared Mr Akhilesh Singh as an unattached member of the state Assembly in November, Mr Vora said. Mrs Soni alleged that eight party MLAs had broken away from the Congress as a result of the "allurements, browbeating, threats and the carrot-and-stick policy" adopted by Chief Minister Mayawati. The party was seeking a detailed report about today’s development from state PCC president Arun Kumar Singh and CLP leader Pramod Tiwari. Mr Vora has been asked by Mrs Gandhi to go to Lucknow. Mr Vora alleged that Ms Mayawati had recently pressured Congress MLA Shamimul Haque from Moradabad to break away from the party in return for ministership. When he turned down the offer, the security offered to him was withdrawn, Mr Vora maintained. Meanwhile, charging the Congress with "helping actively" in the formation of "fascist" governments in Uttar Pradesh, the Samajwadi Party said today that had the party supported SP in the formation of a government in the state, it would not have suffered a split in the state’s Legislature Party. Meanwhile, the Congress today named its candidates for Assembly byelections in Gauriganj and Haidargarh in Uttar Pradesh. According to an AICC release, Mr Fateh Bahadur and Mr Imran Kidwai will be the candidates from Gauriganj and Haidargarh Assembly constituencies, respectively, in Uttar Pradesh. |
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Kelkar report: BJP opposes tax on farm
income New Delhi, January 28 Party President M Venkaiah Naidu said the report of the Rajnath Singh Committee had been submitted to Finance Minister Jaswant Singh yesterday. “The party is totally opposed to the idea of imposing tax on agricultural income. Time is not yet opportune to think about agricultural tax”, the report said. The Rajnath Singh panel, which was constituted to look into the recommendations of the Kelkar Committee report on direct and indirect taxes, said whether it was surplus or shortage, prices of agricultural products were not decided by the farmer because of certain inherent weaknesses. “However, the party does not support tax evasion by non-farmers showing their income from predominantly non-farm activities as farm income. This problem could be tackled by the pro-active, vigilant and strict tax department but not by taxing farmers”, the report said. The party also voiced its opposition to the proposal to withdraw tax incentives on housing loans, “especially when the government has kept the target of one crore houses to be built during a five-year period”. The committee welcomed the proposal to raise the income tax exemption limit to Rs 1.5 lakh for senior citizens and widows, against the proposed Rs 1 lakh for others. It was against another proposal for uniform depreciation for companies, stating that it would be detrimental to the growth of industry, especially in the light of globalisation. The committee was also against the recommendation for reverting back to a duty-free production limit of Rs 50 lakh for the small-scale sector. This would lead to sickness among small industries and unemployment. On the proposal to remove tax incentives for long-term savings, the Rajnath Singh Committee report said it should be considered subject to the condition that a comprehensive pension scheme was introduced. “Till then status quo should be maintained.” It also endorsed the Kelkar panel’s recommendations on abolition of dividend tax. “The proposal to remove tax on dividends at the hands of recipients will encourage lakhs of small investors. It will also give a much-needed fillip to investment”, the report said. |
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War no solution to Iraq crisis: PM Ahmedabad, January 28 “I do not know what the ‘Mahashakti’ (superpower) will do but they should show ‘Mahasanyam’ (super restraint) and it is the need of the hour,” he said. Mr Vajpayee was speaking at a function on the outskirts of the city after inaugurating the Ahmedabad-Vadodara Expressway. The Prime Minister said the USA should settle the Iraq issue peacefully through the United Nations.
PTI |
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37 die in bus-truck collision Uluberia, January 28 Only 23 bodies, including that of a woman and two children, have been identified, according to Mr Rajesh Kumar, Howrah Superintendent of Police, who supervised the rescue operation. The SP, who had initially put the toll at 42, said after completion of the rescue operation, the final casualty count on the spot was 36. West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, who ordered an inquiry into the accident, said 36 persons died on the spot while another succumbed to injuries in hospital. Orissa Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik announced an ex gratia relief of Rs 25,000 to the next of kin of the victims and said the government would bear all expenses towards the treatment of the injured.
PTI |
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Development to be BJP poll plank New Delhi, January 28 However, he asked the party workers not to be apologetic about the party’s ideology and campaign aggresively to ensure the party’s political and social expansion. He was addressing the meeting organised by the BJP’s Panchayati Raj cell here at the party headquarters. Making a veiled attack on the Election Commission for expressing apprehension over the possibility of election campaign taking communal colour, Mr Naidu maintained that “the real issue in the coming polls, especially in Himachal Pradesh will be performance, development and security.” Mr Naidu informed the gathering that he had already urged Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to bring amendments to the 73rd and 74th Constitution amendments on Panchayati Raj bodies to ensure further devolution of powers to panchayats. |
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Deepti hints at new genre of Hindi
films New Delhi, January 28 Replying to a question about her choice of roles in the bilingual films, the actress who has played the role of a temperamental 40-year-old widow in ‘Freaky chakra’ said. "I think they just started out spontaneously. They just happened to be made out of Mumbai studio. I think it is going to become a genre by itself. It gives us the freedom to experiment with subjects. The real excitement for me right now is on the periphery which can become parallel again." Deepti agreed that Hindi films had a few roles to offer to the middle-aged actresses. She said that she did not take up any roles for a long time as she did not find anything which could excite her as an actress. "I’ve gone through the scripts and couple of roles. They were like major cliches. Thematically, this film is an experiment. I felt that if people liked this film, it could be a kind of a trendsetter." Elaborating upon the theme of ‘Freaky chakra’ directed by V.K. Prakash, recipient of the national film award for the best Malayalam film, the actress clarified that the film does not represent Indian womanhood. "It is not a laughter designed slapstick kind of comedy." Produced by Trends Adfilm Makers Pvt Ltd and Channel Nine Entertainment Ltd, the film stars Deepti Naval, Sunil, Ranvir Shorey and Sachin Khedkar. Sunil Mutreja, Managing Director of Channel Nine told mediapersons that the budget of the film touches about a crore minus publicity and print. He said the film would be released simultaneously in India, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa on February 7. |
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Centre’s share on modernisation of police to go up New Delhi, January 28 The Centre’s share will be in the form of 50 per cent grant and 25 per cent loan so that it will be easier for the states to bear the remaining 25 per cent of the total expenditure for modernisation. |
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HC turns down Shah’s plea on charge Mumbai, January 28 Bharat Shah, who is facing trial before a special court had challenged its order turning down his plea for dropping and dilution of the charge.
UNI |
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IAF copter crashes, no casuality Vadodara, January 28 The helicopter crashed in a barren field and broke into pieces at around 1.30 pm, police control room sources said here. It had reportedly gone missing after it set out for Nashik in Maharashtra from an airbase in Gujarat, they said.
UNI
Imphal, January 28 |
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