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Wednesday,
February 5, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP to file defamation case against Amarinder PM to address rallies in HP
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Cong wins Hardwar MC chairman’s poll Cong splinter group MLAs made ministers Airspace violation by Boeing ‘inadvertent’
French PM to visit India
Pesticides found in bottled water Special division to
deal with terrorism Godhra train carnage accused held Sanjay grilled in Bharat Shah case 3 priests murdered in Allahabad
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BJP to file defamation case against Amarinder New Delhi, February 4 According to top BJP leaders, the defamation case would be filed in a court in Shimla on February 6 under Sections 499 and 500 of the IPC. Under the provisions of these sections, if the defamation case is found valid against the accused, the court can sentence them to a minimum of six months’ imprisonment or six months’ imprisonment along with fine. The defamation suit would be filed on behalf of Mr Dhumal by the BJP’s All-India Legal and Election Cell convener, Satya Pal Jain, sources said. A decision to file a defamation suit was taken during the meeting of All -India General Secretaries of the BJP here chaired by party President M Venkaiah Naidu. Law Minister Arun Jaitley was a special invitee at the meeting. It may be recalled that on January 18, while addressing an election meeting in Hamirpur, the Punjab Chief Minister had levelled serious charges of corruption against the Dhumal government. The Punjab Chief Minister also accused the caretaker Himachal Chief Minister of amassing wealth and properties worth crores of rupees in Punjab. Mr Dhumal strongly denied the allegations levelled by Capt Amarinder Singh and maintained that on the day he was appointed Chief Minister (April 5, 1998), he had submitted a detailed list of properties and assets owned by him and his family members to the Speaker of the Himachal Assembly. Subsequently, he served a legal notice to Capt Amarinder Singh and his senior party colleague, Mr M.L. Vora, who had also addressed the meeting. In the legal notice served on January 25, Mr Dhumal asked the two Congress leaders to tender unqualified apologies within 48 hours of the receipt of the notice or face the consequences. Interestingly, despite the legal notice served by Mr Dhumal, AICC spokesman Anand Sharma, backed with active support and inputs provided by Punjab Chief Minister, released a list of properties alleged to be owned by Chief Minister P.K. Dhumal, his immediate family members and close relations in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi. Briefing newspersons, General Secretary and Spokesperson of the BJP Pramod Mahajan told newspersons that “a desperate Congress having found no issues to counter Mr Dhumal’s regime has embarked on levelling false allegations against the Chief Minister.” Meanwhile, the BJP’s Central Election Committee announced the names of candidates for the remaining two seats — Theog and Nalagarh. The party has decided to field former Minister Gyan Singh Chandel from Theog and former MLA Hari Narain Saini from Nalagarh. In the Nahan constituency, fearing rebellion, it has decided to field again Shayama Sharma, who had lost to the Congress candidate Kush Parmar in the 1998 elections by 2990 votes. Last week, the BJP CEC had announced the name of new face Chandra Mohan. |
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PM to address rallies in HP New Delhi, February 4 Mr Vajpayee met party General Secretaries and had first hand information on the strategy, campaigning mode and other modalities for the Assembly elections in Himachal Pradesh, Meghalaya, Tripura and Nagaland. He himself will campaign in Himachal Pradesh for two days on February 21 and 22 in Shimla, Mandi, Palampur and Hamirpur. Later briefing newspersons, BJP General Secretary Pramod Mahajan said while the party had decided to go alone in Meghalaya and Nagaland since the electoral understanding could not be reached there, in Tripura, the party will contest in an understanding with the Trinamool Congress, the Janata Dal and some regional parties. In reply to a question, Mr Mahajan said the party had asked Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi to campaign in Himachal for 3 to 4 days. The dates of his campaigning were yet to be finalised. Mr Mahajan said Mr Payere Lal Khandelwal had been made the manager of Assembly poll even as all General Secretaries would remain stationed in different places in Himachal till polling. While General Secretaries Mukhatar Abbas Naqvi and Anita Arya would remain stationed in the central office directing the campaign programmes of different central leaders, Mr Mahajan along with Law Minister Arun Jaitley would be in Shimla
monitoring and guiding the electoral campaigning. Another General Secretary Rajnath Singh would be stationed at Mandi and in Delhi, BJP President Madan Lal Khurana would remain at Dharamsala supervising the campaign, Mr Mahajan said. For coordinating organisational work between the party and other like-minded organisations and outfits, General Secretary Sanjay Joshi would be headquartered at Shimla during the campaign period, Mr Mahajan said. |
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Cong wins Hardwar MC chairman’s poll Hardwar, February 4 In the prestigious election to the post of the chairman of the Municipal Corporation of Hardwar, the Congress won a landslide victory. The Congress candidate, Mr Satpal Brahmchari, defeated his nearest rival Mr Madan Mohan Sahagal of the BJP by more than 17,000 votes. Most of the seats of the members of the Municipal Corporation also went to the Congress. In another prestigious election to the post of the chairman of the Roorkee Municipal Corporation, the rebel Congress candidate, Mr Dinesh Kaushik, trounced his nearest rival, Mr Pramod Goyal of the BJP, while in the adjoining city of Manglaur the Congress candidate, Mr Nafees Ansari, got elected as chairman of the Municipal Corporation by defeating his nearest rival, Dr Shahjad of the BSP. The chairmanship of the nagar panchayat of Laksar was also bagged by the Congress candidate, Jagdev Singh, alias Jaggi, whereas an Independent candidate, Ms Afroj, was declared elected as chairperson of the Landhora nagar panchayat. At Jhabreda, Ms Subhash Chaudhary of the BSP had already been elected unopposed as the chairperson of the nagar panchayat. Most of the seats of the members of the civic bodies were also won by the Congress, followed by the Independents, with the BJP trailing much behind. The resurgent Congress has not only routed the BJP here but has also mauled the BSP which had won five out of the total nine Assembly seats in the district in the elections last year. |
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Cong splinter group MLAs made ministers Lucknow, February 4 The four MLAs of the Akhil Bharatiya Congress, the breakaway faction of the Congress, were made ministers of state with independent charge in her nine-month-old ministry. Kazim Ali Khan, Virendra Singh Bundela, Shyam Narain Tiwari and Kameshwar Upadhyaya are the new faces in the Mayawati government. While four of the 13 ministers who had resigned this afternoon to let the Chief Minister make the necessary changes were retained, nine were dropped. Ram Bhual Nishad, Ram Achal Rajbhar, Haji Yakub and Mahendra Singh Jatav, who were earlier ministers of state with independent charge were re-inducted as ministers of state. However, Gaya Charan Dinkar, Om Prakash, Sharda Prasad, Vinay Shakya, M A Khan, Ilam Singh, Ayodhya Prasad Pal, Abdul Mannan and Ram Het were dropped. A Cabinet minister, nine ministers of state with independent charge and three were ministers of state resigned today. The state government was sworn in on May 3 and the first expansion of the ministry was held on October 11 last year.
UNI |
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Airspace violation by Boeing ‘inadvertent’ New Delhi, February 4 “It appears that the violation was inadvertent and a mistake rather than a wilful act,” defence sources said. Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain said it appeared that the Karachi Air Traffic Control (ATC) gave wrong information to the Boeing because of which it flew on flight path N-519, which is prohibited between 6 a.m. and 6 p.m. MiG fighter planes scrambled from the Bhuj airbase after the Indian Air Force’s surveillance unit noticed that the cargo plane owned by Conco Corporation had deviated significantly from its flight path, the sources said. The Boeing had taken off from Karachi and was bound for Male in the Maldives. A joint investigating team of the RAW, Intelligence Bureau, Indian Air Force, the police and the Directorate General of Civil Aviation questioned the crew for hours overnight. “There was nothing suspicious in their act,” bureau sources said. The sources said the papers and documents of the crew were all found in place. However, the US Embassy has been asked to provide further certification prior to the release of the crew of the plane owned by the Nashville-based Conco, which handles chartered flights. The sources said the formalities for the release of the crew would take about two days.
UNI |
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French PM to visit India New Delhi, February 4 The French Prime Minister and his delegation will arrive in Bangalore on February 6, and participate in the Aero-India Show. He will also participate in a business meeting to be organised by the CII and FICCI in Bangalore. On February 7 the French Prime Minister will call on President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam and Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat. |
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Pesticides found in bottled water New Delhi, February 4 Analysis of 17 brands of packaged drinking water sold in and around Delhi and 13 brands from the Mumbai region by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE)found as many as five different pesticide residues in the samples, Mrs Sunita Narain, Director CSE, told reporters here today. “The study done between July 2002 and January 2003 on randomly selected samples of different brands found that they had pesticide level far exceeding standards specified as safe for drinking water,” Mrs Narain said. Some of the manufacturers whose brands were analysed rejected the findings of the NGO report while others said all precautions were taken through sound testing techniques. “The samples had enough poison to cause in the long term cancer, liver and kidney damage, disorders of the nervous system, birth defects and disruption of the immune system,” she said, adding that though the pesticides did not kill immediately but could cause irreparable health disorders as they accumulate in the body fat. |
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Special division to
deal with terrorism New Delhi, February 4 Ms Meera Shankar, Additional Secretary in the MEA, would head this division and her primary job would be to ensure better coordination with agencies dealing with this issue. According to official sources, the need for creating such a division was felt for having a coordinated approach on the issue of counter-terrorism instead of a piecemeal one. |
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Godhra train carnage accused held Vadodara, February 4 The police today said acting on a tip-off, a crime branch team from Godhra spotted Idris Yusuf Mafat Alias Ravan, in a vehicle. The police overpowered him and whisked him to an undisclosed destination for interrogation. He was also suspected to be involved in the riots that broke out after the train carnage. Farukh Bana, disqualified member of the Godhra civic body, and Salim Panwala, two of the key accused, were still absconding.
PTI |
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Sanjay grilled in Bharat Shah case Mumbai, February 4 Sanjay Dutt, producer Sanjay Gupta, director Mahesh Manjrekar and financier Harish Sughand had talked to Shakeel from a hotel in Nasik on November 14, 2000. The police intercepted the talk and produced the recorded conversation before a special court. On January 27, the court rejected the prosecution’s plea to examine Sanjay Dutt as a “court witness”. Designated judge A P Bhangale, however, held that the actor could be examined as a “prosecution witness” in the case. The judge allowed the police to conduct further investigation in the case under Section 173 (8), CrPC by recording Sanjay Dutt’s statement and examining him as a prosecution witness.
PTI |
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3 priests murdered in Allahabad Allahabad, February 4 Highly disfigured bodies of the priests were found lying in a pool of blood by villagers today. They were apparently done to death last night with some heavy object, the police said. The DIG, Allahabad Range, Mr Pramod Tiwari, and SSP Vijay Kumar immediately rushed to the spot. A heavy police force has been deployed in the area to prevent any untoward incident. Search is on to nab the culprits.
UNI |
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IYC activists court arrest New Delhi, February 4 The leaders accused the BJP-led government of dividing people on the basis of religion and said that India faced a threat from divisive forces as much as the menace of terrorism sponsored by Pakistan. |
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