 |
Monday,
June 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Meeting on Women’s Bill today UP BJP on verge of collapse: Ajit
BJP to go it alone in 4 states |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Noose around Ketan tightens Shekhawat’s poll theory endorsed Online lottery case referred back to HC Pervez’s bid ‘to get out’ of Kashmir morass
Vijay Mallya renounces business Cops grill Shilpa’s father
|
|
Meeting on Women’s Bill today New Delhi, June 15 The Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Ms Sushma Swaraj, had said at the conclusion of the last session that the Bill in its present or modified form would be introduced in the monsoon session if a consensus was reached at the meeting. It would be the endeavour of the government to pass the controversial Bill, which had been stalled four times so far, during the 13th Lok Sabha itself, according to sources in the Parliamentary Affairs Ministry. It is known that the Congress, the BJP and the Left are in favour of the Bill being passed in its present form, while the Shiv Sena is opposed to it. The Samajwadi Party and the RJD want a separate category of women from Backward classes within the 33 per cent reservation. The
women's organisations, including the National Commission for Women, feel that the government should not wait for any consensus and let the Bill be put to vote as in the case of other legislations. The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Bihari
Vajpayee's, attempts to arrive at a consensus have so far failed. It is expected that the Election Commission’s suggestion that political parties should ensure 33 per cent of the seats in elected bodies to women will be among the subjects that will come up for discussion. Other issues may include double-member constituency, bringing down the percentage of reservation to 20 per cent, and allowing a sub-quota for women from Backward Classes and minority communities. Consideration of the Bill was again stalled on May 6 amid noisy scenes. The Constitution requires that two-thirds of the members present and voting must support a constitutional amendment for it to be passed. Furthermore, at least 50 per cent of the members of the House must be present.
UNI |
|
UP BJP on verge of collapse: Ajit New Delhi, June 15 He said the BJP dissidents realised that the party had no bright political prospects in the state. “Elected representatives of the people have to take popular sentiments into account. With Uttar Pradesh under shadow, the tide is turning against the Mayawati government and the BJP, its coalition partner.’’ Mr Ajit Singh was talking to newspersons after addressing a meeting of the RLD’s central and western UP office bearers, district presidents and MLAs. He said the RLD, Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, Rashtriya Kranti Party leader Kalyan Singh and the Congress had come together for a common cause — to oust Ms Mayawati from power. While the Chief Minister had claimed the support of 213 MLAs in a house of 402, the RLD leader said Ms Mayawati did not have the requisite number. “It was after the BJP and the RLD gave written assurances that the Governor invited Ms Mayawati to form the government”, said Mr Ajit Singh who has now withdrawn support to the government. “Now that we have withdrawn support, she should be sacked,’’
he said. He said a Governor was the representative of the President and Mr Vishnu Kant Shastri should not allow himself to be pressurised by the BJP. Mr Ajit Singh said the governor should immediately ask Ms Mayawati to prove her majority in the house. He also criticised Ms Mayawati for her recent foreign jaunt and said the tour was a waste of state funds. Not a single MoU was signed during her visit to the USA, Mr Ajit Singh said. |
|
BJP to go it alone in 4 states Rewa, (MP), June 15 Admitting that there was a direct confrontation between the BJP and the Congress, Mr Mahajan said voter support for the BJP was eight to 10 per cent higher than that of the Congress in Madhya Pradesh.
UNI |
|
Noose around Ketan tightens New Delhi, June 15 Sleuths of Bank Securities and Fraud Cell of the CBI, probing the case, said the two owned five of the 19 fictitious firms allegedly involved in seeking an overdraft of more than Rs 1000 crore from MMCB. As many as 11 of the 19 companies under the CBI scanner in the scam belonged to Ketan Parekh, who was arrested in the case in 2001. Parekh, whose arrest revived the grim memory of the major stock crash in 1990, allegedly engineered by big bull Harshad Mehta, was also alleged to have
siphoned the money off MMCB bank to his Swiss bank account. The CBI sources said that the arrest of these two persons had also given some leads to the agency in its probe of alleged stashing of money abroad. The CBI had already sent a Letters Rogatory to Switzerland seeking details of the account allegedly belonging to Ketan Parekh and was awaiting a response from their side, the sources said. The CBI claims that the account frozen by the Swiss authority has millions of francs (crores of rupees) stashed in it and the money has been allegedly siphonned off from the Madhavpura bank scam.The CBI had already sought the cooperation of the Interpol in the case. The CBI arrested Bank chairman Rameshchandra Parekh, big bull Ketan Parekh, Devendra Pandya, Vinit Parekh and Yogesh Mehta in the case registered in May 2001.
PTI |
|
Shekhawat’s poll theory endorsed Ranchi, June 15 Mr Naidu, who was on a day’s visit to the Jharkhand capital, told newspersons today that any formal stand in this regard could be taken by the party only after consulting its allies. The BJP president was also of the view that when a no-confidence motion against any government was tabled in the Lok Sabha or state Assembly, a confidence motion should also be moved simultaneously for the formantion of an alternative government to avoid any Constitutional crisis. Mr Naidu said all elections from the panchayat level to the Lok Sabha should be held simultaneously as it would not only strengthen democracy, but also speed up developmental and administrative process.
UNI |
|
Online lottery case referred back to HC New Delhi, June 15 A vacation Bench comprising Mr Justice R. C. Lahoti and Mr Justice Brijesh Kumar, while referring the matter back to the high court, said the Division Bench which was seized of the matter would try to dispose it of before the date of expiry of the bank guarantee furnished by the JPL. If the case was not disposed of by the high court before the expiry date, which is July 6 next, then the bank guarantee would stand extended till the decision on the JPL’s writ petition pending before it, the Supreme Court said. The direction was issued by the apex court on a special leave petition (SLP) filed by the Punjab Government against the high court’s April 7 interim order restraining the state from encashing the bank guarantee of Rs 2 crore, furnished by the JPL on the ground that the company was trying to back out from the agreement. Senior advocate A.M.Singhvi, appearing for Punjab along with its Advocate- General Harbhagwan
Singh, told the court that the JPL on March 31 had written a letter to government that its counter- offer was not acceptable to the company. The JPL had submitted its bid for running the online state lottery worth Rs 3751 crore over the next seven years on February 6 along with Rs 2 crore bank guarantee. The government had approved the recommendations of the tender committee on March 17 at the level of Chief Minister in favour of the JPL as its bid was found to be the
highest, the court was informed. However, the company even after being given extension in the time till April 7 for finalising the agreement as was requested by it, failed to comply with the required formalities as per the terms and conditions of the tender notice, the state government counsel submitted. Mr Singhvi said due to JPL’s failure to comply with the terms and conditions of the agreement, the lottery could not be made functional and the government was suffering an estimated loss of Rs 3 crore every month. The government counsel further submitted that the state had even considered certain amendments proposed by the company in the draft agreement as suggested by it and subsequently approved the same. |
|
Pervez’s bid ‘to get out’ of Kashmir morass New Delhi, June 15 “Pakistan’s rationale for its covert war in Kashmir has been two-fold. The first objective of the long term, low intensity war was to bleed India in the hope that it would eventually cut its losses and quit Kashmir,” writes Pervez Hoodbhoy, a professor in Quid-e-Azam University, in an article in a Karachi-based magazine “News Line”. “...India’s resolve and strength have not been weakened. On the contrary, an unprecedented show of national unity emerged in India in response to Pakistan’s infiltration of troops and militants across the Line of Control,” Hoodbhoy, who is an important member of Islamabad’s thinktank, said. “More significantly, confounding the expectations of Pakistani strategists, India’s economy remained unharmed. Instead, it boomed. Its foreign exchange reserves currently stand at more than $ 70 billion and Indian scientific institutions are now being counted among the world’s best. “Its high tech companies alone last year brought in $ 10 billion foreign exchange, which is more than Pakistan’s total foreign exchange holdings,” he said. “And so (Atal Bihari) Vajpayee’s peace move is welcome. There is indication that Gen Pervez Musharraf is looking for a way out of the Kashmir morass,” he said. The consequence of waging a covert war has been a steady loss of international support for “Kashmiri struggle....on the other hand India has successfully projected itself as a victim of covert terror.” The article “Rethinking Kashmir” also said that the world community, especially the USA, had its alarm bells ringing because of the fact of a militant movement in a nuclear-Pakistan and the recent naming of the Hizbul Mujahideen by the US State Department as “other terrorist” outfits was seen as a step in this direction. Hoodbhoy quoted noted Pakistani scholar and writer Iqbal Ahmad and passionately argued that “although India’s leaders bear much responsibility for Kashmir’s tragedy, Pakistan’s defective Kashmir policy has repeatedly managed to rescue defeat from the jaws of victory.”
PTI |
|
Madhumita’s mother wants CBI probe Lucknow, June 15 “If Ms Mayawati has asked for our choice, we now want that the case should be handed over to the CBI,” Mrs Shukla told The Tribune from Lakhimpur Khiri. The brother of the deceased poetess Mr Vijay Shukla, said the CBCID was partisan in its approach. “It seems that the CBCID was not keen to solve the case. Instead it looked more interested in shielding some influential persons,” he said without elaborating what exactly he meant by influential persons. Ms Mayawati in a press conference yesterday had said that she was ready to hand over the murder case to the CBI provided the request should come from the family members in black and white. “The family members had earlier asked for the CBCID probe and gave the same in writing to the Director-General of Police (DGP). I honoured that request and handed over the case to the CBCID,” Mayawati said in her press conference. Mr Vijay Shukla said they were given an impression that the CBCID probe would be fast and non-partisan. “Our experience with the CBCID sleuths was not encouraging and, therefore, we now want that the case should be handed over to the CBI,” he said. Ms Shanti Shukla will mail her request to the Chief Minister within few days as she claimed that she had lost faith in the police and the DGP. “Ms Mayawati has given us the offer and I will send my request letter directly to her,” she said. The 24-year-old poetess Madhumita Shukla, was shot dead by two assailants on May 9 at her Paper Mill residence. A former BSP minister Amar Mani Tripathi’s alleged relationship with the slain poetess created ripples in the political circles forcing the Chief Minister to drop him from the ministry and hand over the case to CBCID. The investigating agency was given a direction to submit the report within a month. The deadline ends tomorrow. |
|
Vijay Mallya renounces business Bangalore, June 15 Talking to newspersons here, he said, “Kingfisher can fend for itself with a posse of management team that can guide its destiny.” He hastened to add that he would give guidance as and when required. Earlier addressing party workers, he said, “I had everything in life. I have expanded my business in 26 countries and kept the Indian flag flying.” He said it was unfortunate that Indian politicians had become a laughing stock worldwide and added that he would devote his time to serve the country’s youth and bring them to the limelight. Mr Mallya asserted that his party was the mother of all Janata Dal factions and ruled out any fresh merger moves. “My intention is to revive the Janata Party and restore its past glory,” he told newsmen, adding that he would welcome into the partyfold any dal faction leader “who wants to return”. Mr Mallya said: “The Janata Party was not just another faction, it is the mother of all Janata Dal factions in the country and anyone who wishes to join it is most welcome”. Stating that after a year’s experience in the Janata Dal (U), he had become sick of personality and ego clashes, personal ambitions and contradictions within the party. “It is unfortunate that the unification of the dal factions is not possible”. He said he would strive hard to rejuvenate and strengthen it with the help of the youth. Calling the political parties for a public debate on various issues facing the country, he said India was not safe in the hands of the BJP as it was dividing the nation on the issue of Hindutva.
UNI |
|
Cops grill Shilpa’s father Surat, June 15 The interrogation was not conclusive and will continue next week, the police said but refused to divulge the details of what had transpired during the probe. However, Surendra will not be questioned on June 16 as Senior Inspector B.V. Ramani would be busy attending court in a matter concerning the bail of Shilpa’s mother Sunanda, the police said.
PTI |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 123 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Videos
