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Thursday,
March 6, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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BJP
opposes Virbhadra as CM Governor
snubs Trinamool MLAs LS
adjourned over Hindi Charges
against 6 Pak ultras
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NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT
Minimum
2-year tenure for CBI Director EC may display rolls on Internet CPI
meeting from March 9
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BJP opposes Virbhadra as CM New Delhi, March 5 “The Congress has to reply to this as a judge has said there were sufficient grounds to proceed against the accused and it includes the Chief Minister,” party spokesman V. K. Malhotra told reporters here. Releasing a two page-background note about the case against Mr Virbhadra Singh, Mr Malhotra said Mr Singh was released on bail in the case and that the next hearing was on March 7. He said when Congress leaders were involved in corruption cases, the party was unjustified in demanding resignation of BJP leaders L. K. Advani, Murli Manohar Joshi and Uma Bharati in the Ayodhya case which was politically motivated and had even stalled the Lok Sabha. Mr Malhotra said it was ironical that the party which was not accepting Mr George Fernandes as Defence Minister because of the Tehelka case even though he had not been chargesheeted, was making a person who is on bail the Chief Minister. |
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Governor snubs Trinamool MLAs Kolkata, March 5 “By now you know me. I never retreat,’’ Mr Shah said firmly in reply to continuous slogans of ‘Governor go back, go back’ by the Trinamool Congress MLAs. After successive walkouts by the Congress and the SUCI, the Trinamool Congress MLAs who were protesting against the recent Dhantala incident, in which a gang of dacoits, some of them belonging to the ruling party, looted a marriage party and raped some women members, started shouting such slogans. They also carried a poster which read: ‘In Dhantala CPM, in Raj Bhavan V J Shah, women are in panic’. Peeved by the slogans, the Governor stopped reading his speech and quipped, “I never retreat.’’ Earlier, the Trinamool Congress legislators squatted on the well, shouted slogans and thumped desks. In the din and bustle, the Governor’s speech could not be heard. The angry TMC MLAs also obstructed the Governor returning back by lying themselves down in the lobby. Assembly security staff, however, forced them out and made smooth passage for the Governor to return to Raj Bhavan after completion of his speech. The Governor highlighted various development activities of the Left Front government but stressed that there was a need for establishing a better relations between the Centre and the state. He also demanded more Central assistance for speeding up further development programmes. Mr Shah, however, admitted that the law and order situation in several places, particularly in north Bengal, had been in the bad shape due to the terrorist activities of the KLO and the ULFA. He also referred to the infiltration problems and wanted the Centre to act more positively in tackling the problem. The session will continue till May 10. The Budget for 2003-04 will be presented on March 20. Accusing the police of trying to suppress evidence in the Dhantala incident and demanding that Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharjee relinquish his Home portfolio, Youth Congress activists today courted arrest outside the Assembly. The slogan-shouting protestors were stopped by the police about 30 m from the main gate of the Assembly minutes before the start of the session. Nearly 70 of them courted arrest, the police said. “Our agitation will continue till the guilty involved in the rape at Dhantala are punished and the government takes appropriate disciplinary steps against the police personnel linked to it,” the state YC chief Amitava Chakraborty told reporters before courting arrest. |
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LS adjourned over Hindi New Delhi, March 5 At one point of time, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who was present in the House, was seen making queries from his Cabinet colleagues on the matter. When the acrimony among members intensified, Mr Vajpayee suggested to the Speaker to adjourn the House for 15 minutes to avoid embarrassment. It all started when Speaker Manohar Joshi disallowed a supplementary question of Dr C. Krishnam who wanted to know from the Surface and Road Transport Minister, Maj-Gen B.C. Khanduri, why the authorities were writing the distance in Hindi on the milestones on the National Highway in Tamil Nadu. The Speaker said he was disallowing the question as it was not linked with the main question. Mr P.H. Pandian (AIADMK), however, supported the issue raised by Dr Krishnam and wanted a reply from the government. Members of the DMK and other members from Tamil Nadu also supported the question. Even before the Speaker could give his ruling on the question, Samajwadi Party (SP) members Akhilesh Singh, Ramji Lal Suman and others opposed the Tamil Nadu members’ plea. The JD-U and other small parties from north India asserted that Hindi should continue to be written on the milestones, resulting in shouting. Surface Transport Minister’s statement that there was no change in the government policy failed to satisfy SP
members, who continued to say that Hindi should be written on the milestones. As the slogan-raising continued, irritated DMK members S.S. Palanimanickam, Adhi Shankar, A.K.S. Vijayan and others, who were seated in the Treasury side, rushed towards SP members. Sensing trouble, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and other members from Treasury benches moved to prevent DMK members from approaching Opposition benches. |
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Charges against 6 Pak ultras New Delhi, March 5 The charges were framed by Special Judge S.N. Dhingra against Tariq Mehmood, Ashahaq Ahmed, Mohammad Amran, Mohammad Ashraf, Abdul Majid and Arshed Khan (all Pakistani nationals) and Mufti Mohammad Asrar, Gulam Mohammad Dar and Gulam Qadir Bhat (Indians) under the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA), the IPC and the Indian Explosives Act for planning to carry out terrorist activities and other offences. Another accused, Aftab Ansari, the key suspect in the American Center attack in Kolkata who was deported from Dubai last year, would be tried separately. The judge said a Kolkata court did not send Aftab to Delhi despite production warrants being issued against him as the American Center attack case was at a crucial stage. Another accused, Mohammed Jallaluddin of Dhaka, had been declared a proclaimed offender. Jallaluddin gave a slip to the police while being taken to Gujarat in another case, said the report submitted by the police. All accused present in the court pleaded not guilty and prayed for trial.
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, March 5 Replying to a question in Lok Sabha on the spread of diseases, the minister informed the House that the number of deaths in Punjab caused by hepatitis-B in 2001-02, was 19 compared to one such death in 2000-01, whereas the number of hepatitis B cases reported were 4,881 last year against 1,796 in 2000-01. While in Haryana, 10 such deaths were reported in 2001-02, in the case of Chandigarh, this number was eight. In order to prevent the disease, the government had issued guidelines for mandatory testing of blood in all blood banks, Ms Swaraj said. She also told the House that under the National Programme for Control of Blindness, Rs 484.08 lakh had been allocated to Punjab during the past three years (1999-2002). The amount allocation to Haryana was Rs 618.49 lakh, whereas Himachal Pradesh was allotted Rs 384.76 lakh and Rs 370.34 lakh had been allocated to Jammu and Kashmir during the past three years. In response to a question in Lok Sabha regarding non-utilisation of plan expenditure, Mr S.B. Mookherjee, Minister of State for Planning, said the inability of states to mobilise adequate resources was the main reason for a shortfall in plan expenditure. While Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir had utilised 100 per cent of the plan expenditure, in case of Haryana, the utilisation was 84.38 per cent, the minister said. He also said that a proportionate cut in central assistance was imposed in the case of states which record lower expenditure in the targeted Revised Plan Outlays and also on the account of shortfall in the earmarked outlays. Minister of State for Road Transport and Highways B.C. Khanduri told Lok Sabha that as many as 46 national highway projects, involving an estimated cost of Rs 114.85 crore, had been submitted for sanction by Punjab in 2002-03. The number of projects submitted by Haryana was 28 (estimated cost Rs 156.85 crore), 45 by Himachal Pradesh (estimated cost Rs 131.06 crore), three by Jammu and Kashmir (estimated cost Rs 5.5 crore) and two by Chandigarh (estimated cost Rs 3.77 crore). The total number of pending passport applications decreased by 44.18 per cent, from 1,50,278 in 2001 to 83,877 in 2002, Mr Vinod Khanna, Minister of State for External Affairs, told the House. While the Chandigarh Passport Office (covering 11 districts of Punjab, 14 districts of Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh) had 2,365 pending passport applications as on December 31, 2002, the Jalandhar Passport Office (covering six districts of Punjab) had 3,677 pending applications. The delay in issuance of passports is mainly on the account of the delay in the receipt of clear police verification report and incomplete applications, the minister said. |
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Minimum
2-year tenure for CBI Director New Delhi, March 5 This decision had been taken on the recommendation of the Independent Review Committee set up by the Centre in 1997, and in keeping with directions of the Supreme Court in the Vineet Narain case given the same year, Minister of State for Statistics and Programme Implementation S.B. Mookherjee said in a written reply. Acting on the court directions in the same case, a Directorate of Prosecution has been set up in the CBI by renaming the Legal Division, and it has been assigned the task of supervising prosecutions launched by the CBI, he said. |
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EC may display rolls on Internet New Delhi, March 5 Speaking to newspersons after inaugurating the Seventh Meeting of Electoral Management Bodies here, the Chief Election Commissioner, Mr
J.M. Lyngdoh, lamented that legal action was not an appropriate deterrent to this malpractice. "Manipulations in electoral rolls are increasing day by day and it is generally attributed to the government of the day wherever it is," he said. Mr Lyngdoh pointed out "thousands" of names are deleted from the electoral rolls "for no reason" and "those included (in the voters) who should not be there." He said the commission was working to display the list on the web so that manipulation becomes difficult. It would first be implemented in New Delhi, he said. The CEC also said the commission was also working on new measures to implement the election code of conduct and instructions in this regard would be issued soon. Conceding that the ruling parties generally had an advantage during elections, Mr Lyngdoh said some deterrent must be there to prevent anyone to have advantageous situation in the byelections. "The Election Commission will soon issue instructions in this regard," he said. Replying to a question, Mr Lyngdoh regretted that even indictments do not make politicians "ashamed" and expressed the commission's helplessness in dealing with such a situation. |
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CPI meeting
from March 9 New Delhi, March 5 The CPI national secretary, Mr D. Raja, told TNS here on Tuesday that the proposal of a “Bharat jan jagran yatra” would also be formally placed before the 31-member National Executive. The proposal for the nationwide campaign was approved by the National Council at its meeting in Hyderabad in January. Mr Raja would kick-start the month-long campaign from Kanyakumari on April 8. |
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Karzai arrives New Delhi, March 5 Mr Karzai will be given a ceremonial reception at Rashtrapati Bhavan tomorrow. |
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