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Governor
invites Uma to form government Reshuffle in Cong on cards BJP plans to corner Sonia |
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SC to
hear Badals’ plea today
It was
bomb blast, say protesters Fake
stamp paper racket busted, 3 held Another
top cop quizzed in stamp paper scam Fresh
rules for private varsities Status
quo on Best Bakery Jawans
‘beat up’ man to death 2 Pak militants killed in encounter Two militant arrested Bodoland
council sworn in
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CBI to probe Jogi case, says Raman Singh
Raipur, December 7 “The matter has already been registered with the anti-corruption bureau but since it is related to an outgoing Chief Minister and defection, it will be handed over to the CBI,” he told reporters in his maiden press conference after he was administered the oath of office by Governor
K.M. Seth here. Meanwhile, Chhattisgarh MP P.R. Khunte, whose name figured in the bribery allegations, met state BJP leaders here late last night and urged them to provide him security following perceived threats to his life. Earlier, Dr Raman Singh was sworn in as Chhattisgarh Chief Minister. Governor Lt-Gen (Retd) Krishna Mohan Seth administered the oath of office and secrecy to Dr Raman Singh at an impressive ceremony at the Police Grounds. His council of ministers will be sworn in at a later date, yet to be finalised. Known for his simplicity and patience, 51-year-old Raman Singh had proved his organisational skills and motivated the rank and file during the past one year after taking over as state BJP President.
— UNI, PTI |
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CRPF chief rejects Jogi’s charges New Delhi, December 7 Mr Chaube dismissed Chhattisgarh’s erstwhile chief minister Ajit Jogi’s allegation that the CRPF played a ‘partisan role’ in the just-concluded polls in which Mr Jogi was ousted from power. The CRPF chief denied Mr Jogi’s charges saying, “These are completely baseless and unfair allegations against a force, which has over the years, played a commendable role in ensuring free, fair and peaceful polls in different parts of the country”. About a week or 10 days before the December 1 polls, the state administration had decided that CRPF personnel would not be deployed at polling booths, carry electronic voting machines, election material or escort polling staff. The CRPF was only deployed as a deterrent for ‘area domination and sanitise’ the
naxal-affected area, Mr Chaube said. |
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Governor invites Uma to form government
Bhopal, December 7 Sadhvi Uma Bharti was today elected as the Leader of the Madhya Pradesh BJP Legislature Party. The proposal was moved by senior BJP leader, Dr Gauri Shankar Shejwar, and seconded by Mr Himmat Kothari. Ms Bharti’s election as the leader was a mere formality since the party had already declared her as the chief ministerial candidate. Immediately after her election as the leader of the party, Ms Bharti went to Raj Bhavan with other senior party leaders to submit a letter to Governor Ramprakash Gupta staking claim to form the next government. All 173 party legislators, in the 230-member House were present in the meeting, along with senior leaders, including Union Petroleum Minister Ram Naik, Union Law Minister Arun Jaitley, state BJP president Kailash Joshi, national party Vice-President Pyarelal Khandelwal, organising secretary Kaptansingh Solanki, national party general secretary Sanjay Joshi. She will take the oath of office and secrecy tomorrow at the historic Lal Parade ground at 12 noon along with a handful of ministers. Deputy Prime Minister Lal Krishna Advani and party president Venkaiah Naidu are expected to attend the function. This is the second time since the formation of Madhya Pradesh, that the oath ceremony will be held outside Raj Bhavan. Earlier, BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa also took oath at the same ground in 1990.
— UNI |
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Reshuffle in Cong on cards New Delhi, December 7 Admitting that the Congress lost the mandate of the people as it failed to measure up to their expectations, Ms Sonia Gandhi refused to apportion blame to any person for the outcome. “We all share the responsibility.... I am not excluding myself,” she emphasised. Speaking to mediapersons after the seven-hour meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) which analysed the election results, Ms Sonia Gandhi said as head of the party organisation, she also carried “some part of the responsibility for these defeats.” In reply to a question, she said there was no question of accepting AICC General Secretary Ambika Soni’s resignation who offered to step down owning responsibility for the party’s defeats. She refused to comment on the Jogi episode except to maintain that “he has been suspended.” It was clear that though this embarrassing episode did not figure at the meeting, it did cast a shadow on the deliberations. She said the meeting had deliberated upon the reasons for the party’s performance but decided to move ahead now and prepare an action plan to strengthen the party with an eye on the general elections. Ms Sonia Gandhi stated that a smaller committee would be set up to look into all the issues discussed today, suggest corrective measures and work out the future poll strategy. The committee has been asked to submit its report within 10 days, she added. She admitted that the decision not to forge alliances in these elections was based on the assessment of the state units. She said the party left this matter to the state leaders who reported it was not necessary to have any pre-poll alliances. Congress sources said in their assessments of the recent results, several state leaders admitted that though their governments, especially in Madhya Pradesh, had done a lot of work, they were unable to project their achievements. |
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BJP plans to corner Sonia
Bhopal, December 7 The Law Minister, who had managed the entire election campaign of the party in Madhya Pradesh, decided to return to New Delhi this evening after meeting Ms Bharti to make himself available in the Lok Sabha tomorrow when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is scheduled to make a statement on the Judeo episode. Top leaders of the party are working overnight to identify point-by-point argument pertaining to the Jogi episode, which if needed be used by the Prime Minister during his statement on the Judeo episode. According to BJP sources, the party’s top leaders are confident about a fool-proof case against Mr Jogi and they feel that there would be no problem in the Prime Minister ordering a CBI probe into it including the alleged involvement of Ms Sonia Gandhi. They feel that by applying Section 10 of the Evidence Act, even Ms Sonia Gandhi could be brought under the purview of the probe. Even as the party is confident that the evidences so far available with the party against Mr Jogi — the audio-tape containing the conversation among Mr Jogi, Mr P.R. Kunte, who switched over to the Congress just before the Assembly poll and BJP leaders namely Mr Virendra Pandey and Mr Baliram Kashyap, the letter of Mr Jogi ensuring support to the break away BJP group and the initial bribe money of Rs 20 lakh — would be enough to pin down Mr Jogi and the Congress, its leaders are now busy digging out proof to identify the bank and the bank account from which the bribe money was withdrawn. |
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SC to hear Badals’ plea today New Delhi, December 7 The case is listed for hearing before a Bench comprising Mr Justice N Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice B.P. Singh. On Friday, a Bench headed by Mr Justice S Rajendra Babu had expressed its inability to hear the matter has it had already been marked to the other Bench. However, Justice Babu had acceded the request of senior advocate Harish Salve, appearing for Badals, to prepone the hearing for Monday from December 15, the date fixed earlier. Salve had challenged the order of the Special Court at Ropar, rejecting the bail plea of Badals and remanding them to judicial custody till December 13, by describing it as “erroneous”. He had contended that when the father and the son had appeared before the special court voluntarily without being arrested, they should have been released on bail as per the provisions of law by considering the fact that the former Chief Minister is an old man and is also the Leader of Opposition in the Punjab Assembly. The Badals have also sought immediate stay on the special court’s order remanding them to judicial custody. If the Court takes cognizance of the petitions, it may issue notices to the state government and the Punjab’s Vigilance Bureau, the prosecuting agency in the case, to seek their response. |
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It was bomb blast, say protesters Mumbai, December 7 The demonstrators, who had just returned after the funeral of a woman who had succumbed to her injuries at Masina Hospital yesterday, staged a “raasta roko”, bringing the traffic to a halt. They claimed that the explosion had not been caused due to a cylinder blast but was the result of a bomb blast and the matter had been misreported by the authorities and the media, the police said. They demanded compensation and alternative accommodation for those whose houses had been damaged in the explosion. The police was forced to resort to a mild canecharge when the demonstrators turned unruly and pelted stones at some parked and passing vehicles, the police said. A television media scribe was roughed up by the mob alleging that the media had
misreported the incident while another television crew was threatened. However, the police said they had not received any written complaint on the matter. Though tension prevailed in the area, the situation was now peaceful and traffic had been restored. Meanwhile, Shiv Sena leader Mohan Rawle rushed to the spot to pacify the demonstrators. A team from a leading television channel bore the brunt of the ire of the demonstrators.
— PTI |
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Fake stamp paper racket busted, 3 held New Delhi, December 7 Surender Pratap Singh, alias Munna Bhai, his wife Hemlata and Dinesh Singh were arrested on the basis of specific intelligence, Deputy Commissioner of Police (North-District) Sanjay Beniwal told reporters today. “They were arrested from the Metro rail station at Tri Nagar after a deal was struck using a decoy for the purchase of judicial papers worth Rs 25,000 and non-judicial papers worth Rs 25,000 for Rs 20,000”, he said. During interrogation it was revealed that 56-year-old Surender was the alleged kingpin of the racket which had been allegedly running for the past two years, he said, adding that he had been involved in three such cases earlier also. At least 6405 stamp papers worth over Rs 1.58 crore and 1,03,160 stamps worth Rs 8.43 lakh were seized from them. The police also recovered printing materials, including computer, scanner, colour tone catridges, printer, exposers, printing block and blank water mark papers. Surender allegedly claimed that he had sold fake papers and stamps for Rs 50 lakh in two years, but the police said the figure could be higher. “We are contacting vendors to find out the exact amount”, Mr Beniwal said. While Dinesh Singh used to design the fake stamp papers and stamps, Surender used to distribute them using dealers in Meerut, Bulandshahr and Saharanpur.
— PTI |
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Another top cop quizzed in stamp paper scam Mumbai, December 7 Pradip Sawant, DCP, special branch, was quizzed for three hours by Mr S.S. Puri, SIT chief, at its Worli office. SIT had a few days ago arrested R.B. Yenam, ACP Navi Mumbai, who was attached to Dharavi unit of Mumbai police, under DCP Pradip Sawant when the case was registered against the prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi in 1995. Sawant was questioned on alleged lapses in this probe, SIT sources said. SIT is also probing the alleged role of Sawant into allegations of transfer of police officials at the instance of Telgi.
— PTI |
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Fresh rules for private varsities New Delhi, December 7 Under the University Grants Commission (Establishment of and Maintenance of Standards in Private Universities) Regulations, 2003, any private university, which has started functioning before the commencement of these regulation would ensure adherence to these within a period of three months. Failure to comply with the regulations would render any degree or diploma awarded by a private university as unrecognised and invite penalty under the UGC Act. Sources said fresh regulations were necessitated as setting up of private universities through state Acts was a recent phenomenon. While as many as 150 private universities existed in Chhattisgarh, Himachal Pradesh and Uttaranchal had also started following suit. They said a suitable regulatory mechanism was essential by way of laying down conditions specifically for the establishment and operation of such universities for safeguarding the interests of the student community with adequate emphasis on the quality of education and to avoid commercialisation of higher education.
— PTI |
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Status quo on Best Bakery Vadodara, December 7 In a complaint before the Civil Judge (Junior Division), D.L. Patil, Sehrunisa said her daughter-in-law Yasminbanu was trying to create a claim to the Best Bakery premises property by repairing and occupying a part of it, police sources said here today. “After the death of her husband, she and her children are the owner of the property and Yasminbanu cannot make a claim over the property,” she said. In the order passed on Friday, the judge ordered status quo on the property.
— PTI |
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Jawans ‘beat up’ man to death Ahmedabad, December 7 A complaint filed by victim Poonambhai Parmar’s brother with the Shaherkotda police said that the deceased was passing through a chawl in the area last night when SRPF jawans stopped him and beat him with their sticks. Parmar was rushed to the Shardaben hospital in the area where he was declared brought dead. It is alleged that the unnamed SRPF jawans were in an inebriated condition when the incident occurred, the police has, however, denied it. Shaherkotda police, however, claimed that Parmar, who has a criminal background, was in a drunken state and armed with a knife he was chasing someone.
— PTI |
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2 Pak militants killed in encounter New Delhi, December 7 The terrorists belonging to the Hizbul Mujahideen Pir Punjab Range were traced near the temple in the Kalkaji area shortly after the arrest and interrogation of their two associates earlier this evening from Khanpur, also in South Delhi, the Joint Commissioner of Police (Special Cell), Mr Neeraj Kumar, said. The dead militants were identified by their Indian associates as Hafiz Rashid and Bilal. Mr Kumar said the police located the duo near the temple and laid a trap for them triggering an encounter. The terrorists fired at the police drawing retaliation in which both were killed. Two Chinese pistols and some empty cartridges were found near the bodies of the slain militants, Mr Kumar said. Earlier, the police arrested Tarif Hussein and Tazim Mohammed. Two AK 56 rifles, four magazines, six hand grenades, 120 rounds of ammunitions, 4.3 kg of RDX, two detonators and Rs 15 lakh in cash were recovered from the possession of Hussein and Mohammed.
— PTI |
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Two militant arrested New Delhi, December 7 The duo was arrested from a house in Khanpur village. Two AK rifles, six grenades, four kg RDX, two detonators and Rs 15 lakh in cash were recovered from them. The militants, identified as Tariq Hussain (24) and Tenzim Ahmed (28) from Kashmir, were planning to set up a base in the city and interrogation and investigations are on. |
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Bodoland council sworn in Kokrajhar, (Assam) December 7 Mr Advani said the Vajpayee-led NDA government had imparted stability to the administration and provided good governance since 1998. “Since 1988 after the late Rajiv Gandhi there were as many as seven prime ministers which created instability in the country”, Mr Advani told a massive public rally at the Kokrajhar Gauhati University campus ground, about 8 km from here. “Since the last five and half years from 1998, only one Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee governed the nation with emphasis that every part of India should be developed,” he said. He said the NDA government did not want the tag of developing nation to be attached to India for ever.
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PTI |
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