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Thursday,
October
2, 2003,
Chandigarh, India  
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Factionalism
behind defeat, says Shinde Cong
demands apology from Fernandes Bengal
parties to defy ruling on processions |
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In-camera trial
begins in Pandya case Raja
Bhaiya, Dhananjay acquitted Former
Gujarat minister held Foreign
criminals printing fake Indian currency Competition
panel yet to begin work Haryana
Governor’s biography released Bypass surgery on Shekhar Beware
of the cyber ‘peeping toms’ Zee TV
launches mega shows Aero
club may train West Asians 2 held
for taking photos near US Embassy
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Factionalism behind defeat, says Shinde New Delhi, October 1 Mr Shinde met the Congress President, Ms Sonia Gandhi, in the Capital and submitted a detailed report on the circumstances that led to the defeat of the party candidate from Solapur, which happens to be the constituency of the Chief Minister. Soon after the Lok Sabha byelection, Ms Gandhi had asked the Chief Minister and the PCC President to submit a report about the causes of defeat. It was necessary to analyse the result segment- wise in the Parliamentary constituency to arrive at the right conclusions, Mr Shinde told reporters after meeting Congress President Sonia Gandhi for about 45 minutes. “Whether caste factor also played a role in the defeat would also have to be analysed,” he said. The BJP candidate, who won the election happened to be the brother of a Minister from the coalition partner NCP. This would also be analysed, in the next 10 days, he said. Asked about the report of his offer to resign in the wake of the drubbing, he said “Nothing like this. What you are saying is wrong. We are soldiers of Congress President Sonia Gandhi and have come to brief her about the poll outcome.” He downplayed the humbling of Congress in the constituency vacated by him after becoming the Chief Minister by saying that it was a by-election only for ten months and therefore whether one won or not did not matter. Later, briefing newspersons party spokesperson, Mr A.M. Singhvi said the Shahi Committee was looking into the party’s performance in Kerala. The Congress party lost Ernakulam byelection to Left Democratic Front backed Independent candidate. Asked about the open call by the CPM to the Karunakaran faction, Mr Singhvi said, “It was too premature for the party react to the Left party’s stance.” He, however, did not indicate whether the party would take any disciplinary action against the Kerala Chief Minister. |
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Cong demands apology from
Fernandes New Delhi, October 1 “We demand an unconditional apology for the use of insulting and gender-biased terminology by Mr Fernandes,” party spokesperson, Mr Abhishek Manu Singhvi said here. He said: “It is a disgrace that Mr Fernandes continues greedily in office and daily diminishes the dignity of this sacred office by his self-serving, intemperate and wild utterances lowering both the dignity of discourse and of political behaviour.” Mr Singhvi said when we attacked Mr Fernandes for his misdeeds, he took refuge under the National Flag and reflects illusions of grandeur by equating himself to the nation’s armed forces and to the security of the state. The Congress asked when would the Prime Minister take legal action against those whose negligence allowed Pakistani intruders into
Kargil, and would he order a judicial inquiry into occupation of hundreds of square kilometres in the Hill Kaka? Whether the Prime Minister would state when legal action or judicial inquiry would be ordered into the Rs 4200-crore Kargil surcharge collected from taxpayers in the name of defence, security and the nation, he added. The Congress, which has been boycotting Mr Fernandes in both Houses of Parliament, has stepped up its attack on the Defence Minister as it feels that his re-induction into the Cabinet before the completion of commission of inquiry was wrong. |
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Bengal parties to defy ruling on processions Kolkata, October 1 Mr Justice Lala of the Kolkata High Court delivered the judgement on September 29 on a suo motu contempt notice which he himself had served on the DC, Traffic, and other police
personnel concerned on September 23 after being stranded due to a political procession on his way to the High Court. The judgement is illegal and unconstitutional, said the state Law Minister, Mr Nitish Adhikery. As such the government had decided to go to the Division Bench for justice, he added. The high court will remain closed for a fortnight from today for the pujas. At least four ministers of the Left Front government and several CPM trade union leaders protested publicly against the judgement. Mr Nandagopal Bhattacharjee, a CPI minister, declared at a meeting he would defy the order even if he had been arrested. The CPM leader in the Lok Sabha, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, felt in making this ruling, the judge had crossed the “Laxman rekha” which the judiciary would always follow. He said the judge should not have delivered such a judgement on his own without hearing the government, political parties and other people concerned. Mr Pranab Mukherjee of the Congress said they were consulting legal experts if the Congress could also make an appeal before the Higher Court against the judgement. But other political parties like the Trinamool Congress, SUCI, the West Bengal Tribal Welfare Congress and various students organisations have decided to openly violate the judgement and organise meetings and processions. |
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In-camera trial
begins in Pandya case
Ahmedabad, October 1 CBI counsel formally started the trial under Section 226 of the CrPC and read out the charges framed against 17 of the accused persons, including Hyderabad-based sharp-shooter Mohammed Asghar Ali and four ISI agents. Special Public Prosecutor appearing for the CBI J.M. Panchal said details of the conspiracy that led to the killing of the leader with the intent to spread terror among the people of Gujarat, investigation carried out by the agency and role played by each of the accused was read out to the court in detail. He said the role of the four ISI agents, who aided Ali in eliminating the BJP leader was explained to the court as also how they attempted to strike terror by
triggering a series of ‘tiffin bomb’ blasts inside four municipal buses on May 29 last year, leaving 12 injured. |
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Raja Bhaiya, Dhananjay acquitted
Lucknow, October 1 The Special Judge, Mr R.A. Kaushik, accepted the state government’s proposal to withdraw the Act slapped on the legislators by the erstwhile Mayawati government. The counsel for Raja Bhaiya told PTI that the court had accepted the proposal of the state government to withdraw the Gangsters Act and subsequently discharge the legislators of all charges framed under the Act .
— PTI |
Former Gujarat minister held Ahmedabad, October 1 Mr
Barad, who was a minister in the erstwhile Chimanbhai Patel government in the early nineties, was arrested yesterday.
— PTI |
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Foreign criminals printing fake Indian currency New Delhi, October 1 CBI sources said during investigations into a counterfeit currency racket being run from Rajasthan, the agency sleuths found evidence relating to involvement of criminals from these countries in printing fake currency and distributing it in the country. The case was transferred to the CBI recently after the Ministry of Home Affairs asked all state governments and Union territories to hand over the counterfeit currency and fake stamp paper cases to the investigating agency. During the investigations, the CBI found the involvement of some of the Dawood-aides in the racket which included Aftab Batki and Tahir Taklia. The two have been accused of masterminding the racket. In the same case, a special court has sentenced three persons — Kapil
Madan, Anil and Jai Gopal — to 10 years of rigorous imprisonment, besides slapping a fine of Rs 8,350 each.
— PTI |
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Competition panel yet to begin work New Delhi, October 1 This has raised eyebrows as the setting up of commission was announced amid high expectations for creating a level playing field for the growth of the domestic industry. After the government announced the setting up of the Competition Commission in mid-June and appointed two senior bureaucrats — Commerce Secretary Deepak Chatterjee and Company Affairs Secretary Vinod Dahl as its Chairman and Member Secretary, respectively — it was presumed that the commission would come into action but nothing appears to be happening. Both Mr Chatterjee and Mr Dahl gave their assent immediately but the former sought the government permission for not joining as he was busy with WTO negotiations in Cancun and was exempted from joining. The WTO negotiations failed on September 14 and Mr Chatterjee returned to the capital after two days but till now there are no indications of his assuming the charge of the commission. On the other hand, Mr Dahl took the plea that there was no point in his joining the commission as it was without a chairman and he continues to be an OSD with the Department of Company Affairs. Both are said to be delaying their joining as the 5-year tenure of their post-retirement job begins only after their joining the commission. Mr Dahl is scheduled to retire in January, 2004 and Mr Chatterjee in June, 2004. Sources here said there was a growing tendency among the country’s bureaucrats to procrastinate taking up their new assignments. They point out the case of a bureaucrat who had not taken charge of the Central Administrative Tribunal even after two months of his official appointment. The sources said Mr Chatterjee was scheduled to demit office as Commerce Secretary on
September 16, 2003, immediately after he returned from the WTO meeting in Cancun. |
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Haryana Governor’s
biography released New Delhi, October 1 The book titled ‘Sangharsh ke Prateek: Babu Parmanand’ was released at the Akhil Bharatiya Ravidasi Samaj Samajik Nayay Sammelan organised by the Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Academy at Talkatora Indoor Stadium. Priced at Rs 200, the book has been published by Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Academy. The book holds a mirror to the Haryana Governor’s life history and covers his contribution and achievements in the educational, political, social and economic fields. It also mentions his efforts towards improving the condition of the underprivileged sections of the society. The preface to the book has been written by Dr Sohanpal Sumnakshar, National President of Bharatiya Dalit Sahitya Academy. |
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Bypass surgery on Shekhar New Delhi, October 1 “After the surgery, Mr Chandra Shekhar’s condition is stable. The operation began at 6.30 am and lasted three and a half hours. He is under medication in the cardiac surgery intensive care unit of the hospital and will remain there for a few days,’’ said Dr Anupam Sibal, Director (Medical Services) of the hospital. Dr Sibal said the former Prime Minister would not be able to receive any visitors during this time. Ten days back, Mr Chandra Shekhar was evaluated for ischemic heart disease (where the blood supply to the heart is compromised) and his coronary angiography showed blocks in three vessels.
— TNS |
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Beware of the cyber ‘peeping toms’ Pune, October 1 There was something unusual about it. She went and had a closer look only to find that it was a web camera. Quickly she changed her dress and went out of the changing room and found that a cable wire was coming out of the room which led to the office of the Manager of the swimming pool where a computer was kept. Her worst fears had come true. Someone was taking pictures of the women in the changing rooms and storing it in the computers. She pushed away the person sitting on the computer and began checking the files in the computers. She found pictures of women changing their dresses stored in the files. She immediately alerted the police and soon the manager of the pool, a 21-year old boy, and two others, including a woman were arrested and booked under Section 67 of the Information Technology Act 2000. Shalini got to know about it and made the culprits pay for their crime. But there might be several other Shalinis who might not even be aware that someone is making use of this technology with a sinister motive. It could be in the hotel bathrooms, bedrooms or any swimming pool. The scope for misuse of these electronic gadgets is wide. These cyber peeping toms pose a potential threat to both men and women — especially the latter. While some do it for erotic thrills, others engage in it with more dangerous motives — to blackmail or to send photos to pornographic websites and make money. The fallout of the web-cam incident was that the Joint Commissioner of Police M.S. Mahesgauri ordered inspectors in-charge of all 20 police station of Pune to carry out checking of swimming pools to ensure that privacy of swimmers was protected. Advocate Debashis Nayak, consultant at the Asian School of Cyber Laws (ASCL) in Pune feels the only protection against these cyber criminals is to understand the technology, be aware of the scope of mischief and to be on guard. For instance, people routinely install web cameras on their computers. But a woman staying in a one room flat in Mumbai who did it had to pay a heavy price when she unwittingly downloaded malicious programme from the Internet. This programme used to activate the web camera when her computer and net was on and started sending picture from her room to a website, Naik added. There are malicious programmes in the net which activate the web camera from a person’s computer and send pictures from the room to some website or a distant computer without the person least suspecting. Private moments can be caught by these web cameras causing untold suffering to the victims. Such programmes that give hackers remote access to computers are known as Trojans. To prevent oneself from Trojan avoid downloading any files from the net that are not recognisable as they may hide Trojans which one will not be in a position to see, according to Nayak. In Tamil Nadu, an ex head of the orthopaedic association of India was accused of giving anesthesia to his patients and then taking pictures of them in compromising positions and later selling the same to websites, said Nayak.
— PTI |
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Zee TV launches mega shows New Delhi, October 1 Announcing the start of mega shows, Zee TV president Apruva Purohit said the shows lined up would enthral viewers for the full week at prime time. To begin with, Zee TV will unveil the mega show produced by Aroona Irani, “Tum Bin Jaaoon Kahan”, from October 12 at 9.30 pm, daily from Sunday to Wednesday. Beginning October 9 at 8 pm, viewers will watch stars of the big screen on a new and innovative platform through “Kabhie Kabhie”, a short stories series every Thursday, Friday and Saturday. Speaking on the occasion, Aroona Irani, well-known Bollywood celebrity said, “I am happy and excited to showcase ‘Tum Bin Jaoon Kahan’ on Zee TV and am sure that viewers will enjoy watching the new serial. While producing this serial, I have been closely associated with Zee TV and now there is an emotional connection in with the channel.” |
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Aero club may train West Asians New Delhi, October 1 In a meeting here between the Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Rajiv Pratap Rudy, and officials of the Aero Clubs from across the country, Capt Satish Sharma president of the Aero Club of India, said after the 9/11 incident in the United States had caused the activities of flying clubs in many others countries to be restricted for security reasons, India could emerge as a major international centre for training of pilots. The infrastructure for pilot training in India was comparable to the best in the world, particularly at the Indira Gandhi Rashtriya Uran Academy in Rae Bareli, he said. He also urged the minister to seek essential exemption in the exim policy for allowing foreign students to pay in foreign exchange for the training here. The Civil Aviation Minister told newsmen that a proposal to this effect was being moved with the Commerce Ministry. |
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2 held for taking photos near US Embassy New Delhi, October 1 The duo — Satinder Gill and Suresh Mohan — were handed over to the police.
— PTI |
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