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Saturday,
August 16, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Fasting Hazare makes an impact Excavation report to be opened on Aug 25 No-trust motion a challenge: Advani
Togadia equates Laloo with Musharraf |
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Mitra flays CPM for ‘patronising’ US capitalists CBI submits interim report on Taj probe Karunanidhi booked under ESMA
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Fasting Hazare makes an impact Mumbai, August 15 A large number of ordinary people however continue to visit Hazare. Middle-class professionals, intellectuals, activists and students have been meeting Hazare and his supporters. “Hazare always strikes a chord in the ordinary Maharashtrian so such a support comes from the common man,” says Uday Deshpande, a doctor from suburban Mumbai. Like some many others Deshpande was here to express solidarity with Hazare and take in the points made by his supporters. The Shiv Sena and the Bharatiya Janata Party, who were at the receiving end of Hazare’s crusade when they were in office from 1994 to 1999 are giving him a wide berth. “I have nothing to say on the matter,” Uddhav Thackeray, working president of Shiv Sena, told reporters yesterday. Hazare had forced then Chief Minister Manohar Joshi of the Shiv Sena to drop former Agriculture Minister Shashikant Sutar and former Irrigation Minister Mahadev Shivankar from his Cabinet. Justice M L Dudhat of the Bombay High Court had probed allegations of corruption against them under the Commission of Inquiry Act. They were subsequently cleared of all charges. On Friday, Hazare’s condition weakened with doctors called by the Maharashtra government recommending that he be hospitalised. However Hazare refused to budge and announced that he’d rather die than go to hospital. Billing his hunger strike as the “second battle for independence” against corruption, Hazare has already managed to extract a number of concessions from the Maharashtra government. Last week President APJ Abdul Kalam gave his assent to the Maharashtra Right to Information law after the bill was forwarded to Rashtrapati Bhavan after a gap of more than a year. Though the state legislature had passed the law, the Democratic Front alliance government had chosen to forward it to the Union Home Ministry rather than to the President. Chief Minister Shinde told reporters here that the government had also devolved more powers to elected village councils as demanded by Hazare. He also promised that the government would appoint a high-level committee to get the transfer of bureaucrats. Hazare has complained of irregularities in the functioning of the agriculture, irrigation and rural development ministries. Though Shinde has agreed to order a probe against Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sureshdada Jain, Irrigation Minister Padamsinh Patil and Minister of State for General Administration Vijaykumar Gavit, he has refused to drop them from the Cabinet. Jain is however trying to dull the impact of Hazare’s allegations against him by going on a hunger strike himself. He has also called for investigations into the trusts bearing Hazare’s name. Both began their hunger strikes together and are sitting in close proximity to each other at downtown Azad Maidan. After retiring from the army where he was a driver, Hazare took upon himself the task of improving the quality of life in his village. Thanks to his efforts at water conservation and eradication of alcoholism, Ralegan Siddhi has emerged as a model village. |
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Excavation report to be opened on Aug 25 Lucknow, August 15 “Though the archaeologists will submit the report on or before August 22, the confidentiality of the report would be maintained till the special three-member Bench of the High Court sits on August 25,” said a senior court official Narendra Prasad. “The report will be submitted in a sealed envelop and the court will open the seal on August 25,” Mr Prasad said. The Bench comprising Mr Justice S.R. Alam, Mr Justice Bhawar Singh and Mr Justice Khekaran is hearing the Babri Masjid title suit. The excavation started on March 12 and ended on August 7. Around 1,360 artefacts were discovered from the site. Mr Zaffaryab Jilani, counsel for the Central Sunni Muslim Waqf Board, one of the plaintiffs in this case, told this correspondent on Tuesday that a special Bench of the High Court was specific in its August 8 order that the Bench would start its next hearing from August 25 and till then the confidentiality of the excavation report should be maintained. Mr Vireshwar Dwivedi, counsel for the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), said on August 25 the copy of the report would be given to the respective counsels of both sides to file objections if any. “As the report is likely to be a voluminous one, the court may give three or four weeks to the counsels to go through the report and file objections,” he said. |
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No-trust motion a challenge: Advani New Delhi, August 15 “I am happy that the Opposition has not only challenged us, but also provided us with an opportunity to project our achievements during the past four years,” Mr Advani told newspersons after hoisting the national flag at his residence here on the occasion of Independence Day. Later, at the flag-hoisting ceremony at the BJP headquarters here, the Deputy Prime Minister asked the people to overcome shortcomings to ensure that India figured among the developed nations by 2020. “We have to overcome our shortcomings and should try to work hard for fulfiling the target of becoming a developed nation by 2020.” Stressing the need for more efforts in providing good governance, Mr Advani said “I will not say we (NDA government) have achieved this goal but can surely boast that we made considerable progress by making sincere efforts.” The BJP President, Mr Venkaiah Naidu, who hoisted the flag, emphasised the need for greater struggle and hard work to achieve the target of making India a developed country by 2020. “We have to arouse the patriotic sentiments of the people to work towards this goal,” Mr Naidu said in his address. The BJP President used the occasion to condemn Pakistan Prime Minister Mir Zaffarullah Khan Jamali’s reference to self-determination to Kashmiris in his independence day speech yesterday. |
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Advani congratulates people of J&K New Delhi, August 15 He also lauded the security personnel deployed in the state for ensuring peaceful conduct of the Independence Day celebrations there. Meanwhile, according to reports reaching the Home Ministry, about 22,000 people participated in Independence Day celebrations in Srinagar, 13,000 in Anantnag, 7,000 each in Udhampur and Kishtwar, 6,000 in Pooch and 5,000 in Pulwama, official sources said. |
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Togadia equates Laloo with Musharraf New Delhi, August 15 Equating Patna with Pakistan, he alleged that Mr Laloo Yadav had started behaving like Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf. “After meeting President Musharraf it seems there is no difference in Laloo’s and Musharraf’s thinking pattern,” Mr Togadia told newspersons at the Delhi airport here after being escorted back from Patna. “It is absolutely illegal to prevent any person from attending a programme on Independence Day and hoist the national Tricolour,” Mr Togadia said, adding that he would return to Patna after all legal measures to take part in the function which was cancelled. I was scheduled to participate in two programmes in Patna. The first one, Independence Day celebration at Saraswati Vidya Mandir, where I was to hoist the Tricolour and secondly to address a press conference. “There was no reason to prohibit me from participating in these two functions as it was not a public function,” Mr Togadia
said. |
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Patna authorities pack off Togadia Patna, August 15 On his arrival from Mumbai, Mr Togadia was not allowed to leave the tarmac. The district administration bought a ticket for the VHP leader, who reluctantly boarded the flight after being informed that all his programmes had been banned.
— PTI |
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Mitra flays CPM for ‘patronising’ US capitalists Kolkata, August 15 Addressing a public meeting in the Cossipore-Baranagar area in north Kolkata, Dr Mitra alleged that a section of party leaders and workers had been deviating themselves from the Marxists’ ideas and ideologies and were selling themselves to the USA and the British lobby for their own interests, The meeting was organised by the local CPM zonal committee in remembrance of the mass killing of Naxalites in August, 1976, when Mr Siddhartha Sankar Ray was the Chief Minister. Dr Mitra warned partymen against those who had been serving against the interest of the poor and working class people for their own gain. Dr Mitra said he felt ashamed that he had been in a CPM-led government and the party MP Dr Mitra had resigned from the ministership during the late 1980s following a difference of opinion with the then Chief Minister, Mr Jyoti Basu, and the party leadership. The State Transport and Sports Minister, Mr Subhas Chakraborty, also addressed the meeting. |
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CBI submits interim report on Taj probe New Delhi, August 15 The report has been submitted to Mr Chief Justice of India, V.N. Khare, in a “sealed cover”, agency sources said refusing to elaborate about its contents and the progress of the inquiry. A Bench comprising Mr Justice M.B. Shah and Mr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan had on July 16 ordered the probe into the controversial project. The court had directed the CBI to complete the inquiry within two months but asked it to submit an interim report before August 21. The violations were brought to the notice of the court by a committee appointed by it to monitor the implementation of its various directions regarding protecting the ecology and environment around Taj
Mahal. |
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Karunanidhi booked under ESMA Chennai, August 15 Police sources here said Mr Karunanidhi was booked under Section 5 of ESMA (instigating government employees to indulge in the strike). The police, after registering the case, filed an FIR in a magistrate court at Egmore.
— UNI |
Sinha defers Lanka visit New Delhi, August 15 Mr Sinha was to leave for Colombo on August 17 on a two-day visit, where he was scheduled to co-chair the Indo-Sri Lanka Joint Commission meeting, official sources said today. |
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Manipur official’s vehicle torched Imphal, August 15 |
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