 |
Sunday,
July 20, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
|
Cong hits
back at BJP on Naqvi’s remarks PM calls
meeting on PDS Hurriyat to hold talks with Kashmir panel RSS
welcomes BJP’s resolution on Ayodhya Trinamool
ends Assembly boycott |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Monsoon session to be stormy Sonia
flags off 50 trucks of wheat for Rajasthan Maharashtra CM meets Sonia Gandhi Low
cable channel rates unlikely Post-Godhra
role of police lauded Jaitly’s
plea against Tejpal dismissed
|
|
Cong hits back at BJP on Naqvi’s remarks New Delhi, July 19 The Congress, in turn, launched a counter-attack on the leadership of Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, saying “the BJP had no one else except an ageing, octogenarian leader.” Angered at yesterday’s remarks of BJP spokesman Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi in Raipur, Congress chief spokesman Jaipal Reddy said the party condemned the “outrageous utterance in the strongest possible terms.” Asked about Law and Commerce Minister Arun Jaitley later clarifying Mr Naqvi’s remarks, Mr Reddy said any amount of explanation “does not wash away the original sin.” “The BJP’s official spokesman should not have made such a statement. It shows BJP’s moral bankruptcy as a political party,” Mr Reddy said. He accused the BJP of debasing the political debate. “We object to malevolent manner in which they have debased the debate. It is their duty to maintain minimum decency,” Mr Reddy said. To a question about the Congress asking for an apology from the BJP, the spokesman said it was for the BJP to decide. Asserting that “continuous appeal” was Congress’ strength, Mr Reddy said Mrs Gandhi had exhibited exceptional political experience which had led to the Congress “marching from strength to strength.” “When she took over as President, the Congress was in power in five states. Now it has 15 chief ministers. She has run the affairs of the Congress with extraordinary ability in stark contrast to the BJP, more particularly the anarchy in Sangh Parivar,” Mr Reddy said. Making one of the strongest attacks on Mr Vajpayee in recent times, Mr Reddy said troop deployment on border for several months costing over Rs 7,000 crore had “allowed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf to claim victory.” “If Mr Vajpayee was so competent, why has the BJP been reduced to the third position in the state from where he is an MP,” he said. “We know his record as the Prime Minister. We know his advancing years and health...he needs more rest,” Mr Reddy said in response to another question. The Congress spokesman said some objective criterion should be applied to measure a leader’s competence and it must be reflected in concrete results. Asked about leadership of Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, Mr Reddy said he had been “rejected even by the NDA.” To a question about the Congress making the age difference between Mr Vajpayee and Mrs Gandhi a talking point in its poll campaign, Mr Reddy said, “Age and results... all will figure.” |
|
PM calls meeting on PDS New Delhi, July 19 The Union Food and Consumer Affairs Minister, Mr Sharad
Yadav, told reporters that the meeting would try to evolve a consensus on improving the working of PDS and focus on how to utilise the Rs 36,000 crore subsidy provided for the sector. The PDS in the country evolved in the context of scarcity situation during the World War II and the Bengal famine of 1943. It was designed to deal with periodic scarcities resulting from drought or crop failure. Since mid-1960s, the goal of the PDS is to reduce food insecurity and to promote self sufficiency in food production. An analysis of the working of the PDS by the Centre for International Trade, Economics and Environments (CUTS) indicated that the system succeeded to certain extent. The policy helped the government to assure more supplies to the urban areas, while some parts of the rural India benefited less due to systemic problems. These problems arise out of the failure to resolve the basic conflict between the interests of the producers and those of the consumers. An upward revision of the support prices has helped the farmers to maintain the growth output but this has also contributed to higher food prices making the PDS less protective for the consumers living below the poverty line. Asked how the centre would fund the recently announced Rs 600 crore package for the sugarcane growers, Mr Sharad Yadav remained non-committal, saying that the work was on to finalise modalities for the purpose. However, the Maharashtra Chief Minister Mr Sushil Kumar
Shinde, after meeting Mr Sharad Yadav said he would bring together states like Tamil
Nadu, Karnataka and Gujarat to “protest against discriminatory attitude of New Delhi. The Maharashtra Chief Minister contended that the Sugar Development Fund
(SDF), from which the aid was proposed to be extended, was an all-India corpus whose benefit should not be restricted to a handful of states. Mr Sharad Yadav dismissed allegations that the announcement of relief to sugarcane farmers was a mere ploy to attract votes in the forthcoming elections in four states. He said the matter had been debated twice in Parliament in the recent past and would provide the much-needed relief to sugar cane growers. |
|
Hurriyat to hold talks with Kashmir panel New Delhi, July 19 Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, former chairman of the 23-party amalgam, is expected to meet the committee members in the Capital on Monday to discuss the modalities of talks, sources said. This would be the first meeting of the Hurriyat with the committee after the Kashmiri body passed a resolution in January following the opposition by JKLF chairman Yaseen Malik. Rahman in his talks with the committee impressed upon the resolution of the vexed Kashmir issue through negotiations based on the guiding principles of Simla Agreement. |
|
RSS welcomes BJP’s resolution on Ayodhya New Delhi, July 19 “It is good that the largest political party in the country and the party which is running the government has come out clear in favour of a legislative solution to the issue,” RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said. “The onus now lies on other political parties to get the legislation passed... Political maturity suggests that they (other political parties) should also join hands with the BJP so that the issue will not go back to the people’s court again. Let it be solved in Parliament,” Mr Madhav said. BJP’s resolution on Ayodhya adopted at its National Executive at Raipur says that for the legislative option to be “fruitful” NDA allies and especially the Congress would have to extend their support to it. |
|
Trinamool
ends Assembly boycott Kolkata, July 19 The Trinamool Congress chief, Ms Mamata Banerjee, said the withdrawal of boycott decision had been taken on the advice of the Prime Minister. She said participation was necessary for preserving democracy to which the Vajpayee-led NDA government was committed to. She appealed to the party MLAs to immediately return to Kolkata and attend the on-going Budget session of the Assembly. The Speaker, Mr Hashim Abdul Halim, welcomed the Trinamool MLAs for re-joining the Assembly. He said he was glad that at last good sense had prevailed and they had decided to call off the boycott. Mr Sibdas Mukherjee, the lone Trinamool MLA, who had joined the Assembly much earlier defying Ms Banerjee’s directives, said now it was proved that he had taken the right decision in joining the session. Several other MLAs like Mr Saugata Roy, Mayor, Mr Subrata Mukherjee, Mr Tapash Roy, Mr Paresh Pal, who despite their opposition had been boycotting the Assembly, thanked the Prime Minister for advising Ms Banerjee. |
|
Monsoon session to be stormy New Delhi, July 19 With the monsoon session to provide an opportunity to the Opposition to directly take on the BJP leadership ahead of Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Delhi, the House is likely to have many disruptions, boycotts and slogan-shouting. Although the Ayodhya issue likely to be the main issue in the session, beginning from July 21, the Opposition, especially the Congress, will be keen to pin down the NDA government on the spate of rail accidents and MiG crashes. Other issues on which opposition parties are likely to confront the NDA government are the Women’s Reservation Bill, disinvestment of public sector units and the failure of the government to utilise the Defence allocation in the Budget. As the agenda for the government’s legislative and non-legislative business has been finalised, a number of important Bills, including the Women’s Reservation Bill and the Lok Pal Bill, are expected to generate heated debates. To ensure effective coordination and floor management among opposition parties, Congress President Sonia Gandhi has invited leaders of other opposition parties for a discussion here tomorrow. |
|
Sonia flags off 50 trucks of wheat for Rajasthan New Delhi July 19 The trucks, carrying 4,50,000 kg of wheat, were flagged off from the AICC office here. Ms Gandhi’s political secretary Ahmed Patel, AICC general secretaries Ambika Soni and Mukul Wasnik were among those present. The relief material was collected by the Indian Youth Congress during its month-long door-to-door exercise in the neighbouring states of Punjab and
Haryana. IYC chief Randeep Singh Surjewala said his organisation had sent relief material for riot-affected people of Gujarat and displaced persons of Jammu and Kashmir. The Youth Congress, he said, had sent 151 truckloads of fodder for drought-affected areas to Rajasthan in May 2000. The IYC chief accused the BJP-led government of playing politics in granting aid to Rajasthan. He said the state had suffered drought for the past four years. |
|
Maharashtra CM meets Sonia Gandhi New Delhi, July 19 Sources said Ms Sonia Gandhi asked the Chief Minister to make the state machinery more vigilant to prevent the recurrence of such incidents. Mr Shinde, first Dalit Chief Minister of Maharashtra, later denied reports that he had been summoned by the party high-command. He said the state government would firmly deal with any incident of atrocities against
Dalits. |
|
Low cable channel rates unlikely
New Delhi, July 19 Even as uncertainty prevails on the fate of the CAS roll-out, broadcasters were expected to come out with new rates for pay channels as well as an alternative formula for the “honeymoon” time proposal of all channels for Rs 72. Some broadcasters indicated today that new rates might not be forthcoming soon and they might stick to older rates. STAR said it submitted its rate list to the government yesterday and these rates were the ones announced earlier. ESPN’s Manu Sahni sidestepped queries on lower rates, saying, “We are still in discussions with cable operators and MSOs. What can happen now is volume discounts and we are trying to work out different packages”. Discovery’s Deepak Shourie said no new rates were being announced today while Sony Entertainment Network chief Kunal Dasgupta and ZEE’s Jawahar Goel could not be contacted. CAS went into turmoil earlier after a government promise that all channels would be available for Rs 200 fell flat, with broadcasters quoting much higher rates. Rates given by broadcasters came to much over Rs 200 for free-to-air and five pay channels — Sony, Star Plus, ZEE, ESPN and Star Sports — at a meeting earlier this week. The MRPs given by broadcasters were Star Plus — Rs 24, Sony — Rs 20, ESPN — Rs 29 and Star Sports — Rs 29. While Star Plus and Star Movies were together priced at Rs 44, Set Max, Sony and Discovery together would cost Rs 44 and ESPN and Star Sports Rs 32. Rates of other channels were Rs 25 for Zee, Rs 20 each for Zee Cinema, Cartoon Network and CNBC, Rs 15 for Zee MGM, Rs 10 each for Trendz, Zee English and Zee News and Rs 5 each for Reality and CNN. Meanwhile, the government was contemplating amendments to the Cable Act for getting broadcasters under the purview of the CAS and capping rates of pay channels as well as advertisements on these.
— PTI |
|
Post-Godhra role of police lauded
Ahmedabad, July 19 Deposing before Justice G.T. Nanavati and Justice K.G. Shah, one of the four minority community witnesses, businessman Mehmood Allahrakha Ansari, said he had closed his garments shop and called up the police after rampaging mobs gathered in front of his shop. “However no damage was done to my shop at all and three or four policemen used to patrol nearby”, Mr Ansari said. Another witness, Mr Nazir Shamsuddin Sayyed, an autorickshaw driver, said due to police bandobast and location of residential quarters near his house at Peer Kamal Kabrastan, the area remained incident-free. Mr Yusuf Patel, a garage owner, and Mr Yusuf Sheikh, a painter, also lauded the police for its co-operation in controlling the rioting mobs. Considered an upmarket area, Navrangpura had not witnessed any killing during the post-Godhra violence, but some big showrooms and shops were looted.
— PTI |
|
Jaitly’s plea against Tejpal dismissed New Delhi, July 19 “No case is made out against the accused (Tejpal) and the proceedings against the accused are dropped,” Metropolitan Magistrate Gulshan Kumar said dismissing the application of Jaitly.
— PTI |
|
Asian film festival from August 2
Mumbai, July 19 The highlight of the festival organised by the Asian Film Foundation along with the NFDC is that films from the Central Asian Republic of Kazakistan and Thailand shall be screened, festival director Sudhir Nandgaonkar said. There would be three films from Kazakistan and four from Thailand, he said, and added that films from these countries were being screened in Mumbai for the first time. It would help connoisseurs of cinema in India’s film capital to acquaint themselves with the culture of these two countries. Noted film maker Mrinal Sen, who celebrated his 80th birthday recently, will be awarded the Asian Film Culture Award for his glorious contribution to the Indian cinema. Director Yash Chopra will also be felicitated. The opening film at the festival is Mrinal Sen’s ‘Amar Bhuvan’. Mr Nandgaonkar said the fest had been divided into sections like Spectrum Asia, which would have the latest films from Indonesia, Iran, China and Thailand, Focus on China, Focus on Japan and Spotlight on Kazakistan and Thailand. The award-winning film section will have Japanese film-maker Kurusawa’s ‘Seven Samurai’ and ‘Ashni Sanket’ (Distant Thunder) by Satyajit Ray, made on the 1942 Bengal famine. There will also be retrospective of Mrinal Sen’s Hindi films like ‘Bhuvan Shome’, ‘Ek Din Achanak’ and ‘Amar Bhuvan’. About 1200 delegates are expected to attend the festival, Mr Nandgoankar said.
— UNI |
 |
| 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 | |
In video (
