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Sheila Dikshit ministry takes oath Newly elected Chief Minister of Delhi Sheila Dikshit after the swearing-in ceremony in New Delhi on Monday.
— PTI photo Naidu meets Vajpayee
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Telgi to undergo lie-detector test Mumbai, December 15 Abdul Karim Telgi, the alleged mastermind behind the multi-crore fake stamp racket, and several others arrested along with him are to undergo lie-detector tests, a court ruled today.
Examine approvers in Ravi Sidhu case: SC Hindu case: SC notice to Centre, TN Govt
Daler’s plea for transfer of
case dismissed In a major blow to Indi-pop singer Daler Mehndi, who is allegedly absconding in a human trafficking case filed against him by the Punjab Police, the Supreme Court today dismissed his plea seeking the transfer of the probe into the case to the Central Bureau of Investigation. SC reserves order on Jaya’s plea MoD pulled up for delay in Arjuna tanks India may be first with AIDS vaccine Oppn demands statement from government on Saddam’s arrest
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Sheila Dikshit ministry takes oath New Delhi, December 15 Dr A.K. Walia, Mr Haroon Yusuf, Mr Raj Kumar Chauhan, Mr Arvinder Singh Lovely, Mr Mangat Ram Singhal and Mr Yoganand Shastri took oath as ministers. Mr Arvinder Singh Lovely is the lone Sikh in the Council of Ministers. Ms Dikshit had staked her claim to form government on Friday night. Hailing from Kapurthala in Punjab, Ms Dikshit first became Chief Minister on December 3, 1998. She is the second woman to adorn the office after Ms Sushma Swaraj. The Chief Minister told mediapersons that governance and development would be high on the government agenda. “I will endeavour to give to the people an efficient and responsive administration. Development with a human face will be my priority,” she said. Several dignitaries graced the occasion. Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed, Congress General Secretary Ahmed Patel and Delhi Pradesh BJP President Madan Lal Khurana were among others who were present at the ceremony. High drama preceded the swearing-in ceremony with MLAs vying with one another for a ministerial berth. The constitution of the Council of Ministers was delayed on account of a tussle between Ms Dikshit and Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President Prem Singh. It took the party a week to resolve the matter after Mr Prem Singh insisted that certain legislators of his choice be inducted in the Cabinet. Ms Dikshit, however, stood her ground and kept the rebels out by getting Congress President Sonia Gandhi to endorse her decisions. The Congress won 47 seats in the December 1 Assembly elections, five less than its tally in 1998. It enjoys a two-third majority in the 70-member Delhi Legislative Assembly. This is the first time a party has been voted back to power in Delhi. |
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Naidu meets Vajpayee New Delhi, December 15 After a 30-minute meeting with the Prime Minister in Parliament, Mr Naidu told newspersons that the Telugu Desam had already decided to go for the Assembly elections before March 17, the commencement date for state-level examinations. Asked if he had pressed for simultaneous Assembly and Lok Sabha poll, Mr Naidu said, “It is for the Prime Minister and the NDA partners to decide whether to hold Lok Sabha elections before March 17. We are inclined to hold simultaneous poll, provided it is before March 17.” Mr Naidu, who led a delegation of TDP MPs during his meeting with the Prime Minister, requested the Centre to provide additional forces for elections and to contain extremist violence. Mr Naidu said he had sought a drought assistance of Rs 995 crore, besides 15 metric tonnes of rice, for taking up drought relief programmes in his state. Earlier, Mr Naidu met Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani to apprise him about the law and order situation, particularly the left-wing Naxalite problem faced by the state. Mr Naidu held discussions over lunch with BJP President M. Venkaiah Naidu at his residence. The luncheon meeting was attended by senior BJP ministers and General Secretaries Pramod Mahajan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Ministers like Sushma Swaraj, Syed Shah Nawaz Hussain and Rudra Pratap Rudy. |
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PM flags off Vigyan Rail New Delhi, December 15 “Using science and technology, which is the basis of development of modern world, India has secured a place among leading countries. However, people are not aware of how much progress the country has made in science and technology,” he said. Describing Vigyan Rail a “carrier of message of the country’s progress in science and technology,” Mr Vajpayee said in the modern world, science and technology were the main sources of progress and prosperity. After Independence, India had become a leader among the front-ranking nations in science and technology. Vigyan Rail, a joint venture experiment between the Railways and the Department of Science and Technology, has 12 coaches carrying various exhibits, including scientific heritage, environment, space, communication, IT, scientific and industrial research, ocean development, water resources, Defence, agriculture, non-conventional energy sources, health and medicine, and atomic energy, among others. It will travel to 56 cities all over the country including Kanyakumari and Guwahati and complete the journey in about a year. Asserting that knowledge on scientific developments would have to be taken to “every corner of the country,’’ the Prime Minister said India’s tremendous progress in various sectors, including agriculture. ocean development, pharmaceuticals, information technology and space, had benefited the common man. Describing the Metro Rail launched in the Capital as a “glorious national achievement,” he said Railways had used modern technology for connecting people living in far-flung areas. “Our farmers should realise that our scientists have converted India from a food-importing to a food-exporting country... Our youth should know how our defence scientists and engineers are assisting in our national security...Our teachers should have information about how to convey details of new opportunities to students...Our children should be well-versed with the surprising
and mysterious details of science and our entire population should help develop a new scientific vision,” he said. Earlier, Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said only through application of science and technology a solution could be found to various problems concerning socio-economic development and security. He, however, said during the past few years, some shortcomings had been noticed in taking the scientific temper to the people who had not fully measured scientific progress. |
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Telgi to undergo lie-detector test Mumbai, December 15 A special court constituted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA) today gave permission to the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the fake stamp racket, to conduct lie detector tests and narcoanalysis on nine persons, including Abdul Karim Telgi. Special Judge S.M. Shambole ruled that in addition to Telgi, his brother Azim, Assistant Police Inspector Dilip Pandurang Kamath, Dhule MLA Anil Gote, Dattatreya Dhal, Abdul Rashid Kulkarni, Ramchandra Reddy, Manoj Mehta and Anil Shah be taken to Bangalore for the tests. The accused are presently held at Yerwada Jail in Pune. Telgi is already in custody of the authorities in Bangalore. The SIT had filed an application on December 9, asking the court to permit it to take voice samples of all accused persons. Meanwhile Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal was rushed to Breach Candy Hospital in Mumbai from Nagpur after he complained of uneasiness yesterday evening. Bhujbal, who was at Nagpur to attend the winter session of the state legislature, is said to be stable. Doctors say, Bhujbal has been undergoing severe stress. The Opposition in Maharashtra has been demanding Bhujbal’s resignation following several allegations made regarding his links with senior police officials accused in the Telgi case. |
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Examine approvers in Ravi Sidhu case: SC New Delhi, December 15 “It is a strange thing that the trial judge would say that he would hear the matter only for half-an-hour a day,” a Bench comprising Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan and Mr Justice B.N. Srikrishna said, while issuing the direction to the trial court. The court was hearing the pending bail petition by Sidhu, who has been lodged in judicial custody since his arrest in March 2002. During previous hearing the court had said it was inclined to grant bail to Sidhu, who had already got the relief in two of the three “job-for-money” scam cases, provided the cross-examination of the two approvers — Prem Sagar and Randhir Singh Dheera — was completed. The Bench had last time asked the prosecution to expedite it. Sidhu’s counsel K.T.S. Tulsi alleged that the trial judge had only fixed half-an-hour’s time for cross-examination on the dates of hearing and told the counsel for the parties that he had no time more than that. Cheema told today the apex court that the statements of the approvers were “very crucial” in the case as they were the persons, who had acted as conduit on Sidhu’s behalf. |
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Hindu case: SC notice to Centre, TN Govt New Delhi, December 15 A Bench comprising Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha, also issued notices on the newspaper’s application for stay of the trial proceedings under Section 499 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC), dealing with the criminal defamation. ‘The Hindu’ has also challenged the constitutional validity of Section 499 in the light of fundamental right of free speech, available to citizen of the country. Hindu’s counsel Harish Salve was able to convince the court to seek notice after a forceful argument that criticism of “a public figure in public” could not be equated with the criticism of a private person as a general law. Salve said there had been a lot of progress in the world in the constitutional law and right of citzen over the past half-a-century and a public servant could not be allowed to take shelter against his “genuine criticism for public good” under the provision of Section 499. If a public servant was allowed to take shelter under Section 499 like this as had been done by the Jayalalithaa government against ‘The Hindu’ by filing so many criminal defamation cases for criticising her administration, “it will have a chilling effect on its functioning.” |
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Daler’s plea for transfer of
case dismissed
New Delhi, December 15 Expressing serious displeasure over the way the singer had taken advantage of the orders of the Delhi High Court and the Punjab and Haryana High Court and had not yet surrendered before the trial court at Patiala, a Bench comprising Mr Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat dismissed his writ petition. However, it kept for hearing on Friday Mehndi’s Special Leave Petition (SLP) seeking anticipatory bail. The Bench observed that it was not proper for him to seek relief from the apex court without surrendering before the trial court. In the writ petition, the singer had said that false cases had been instituted against him as he had refused to pay Rs 1.5 crore to the Punjab police investigating team. Terming the investigating team as “corrupt”, the singer had said they even made him sing in his “underwears” in the police station where he was called for “questioning”.
The SLP filed by Mehndi challenged a Punjab and Haryana High Court order refusing bail to him in the case. |
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SC reserves order on Jaya’s plea New Delhi, December 15 The Tamil Nadu Chief Minister had opposed transfer of the cases to Bangalore, as ordered by the apex court on
November 18, on the ground that there had been a lot of “hostility” against Tamilians in Karnataka due to the Cauvery waters dispute and “fair trial” was not possible in such a surcharged atmosphere. A Bench comprising Mr Justice S.N. Variava and Mr Justice H.K. Sema, which had ordered transfer of her cases to Bangalore, reserved its
verdict after Ms Jayalalithaa’s counsel K.K. Venugopal argued that in the interest of justice, the case should not be conducted in a “hostile atmosphere”. The court had ordered transfer of the case from a Chennai Special Court to Bangalore after it was informed that 67 witnesses had turned hostile, including some senior police officials in the case since Ms Jayalalithaa had assumed power. Senior advocate T.R. Andhiyarujina, who appeared on behalf of a DMK General Secretary on whose plea the transfer was allowed, opposed Ms Jayalalithaa’s petition, contending that she was trying to mix politics with the functioning of judiciary, which, as per the apex court’s own observations, was
completely independent and judges were not swayed by “adverse political propaganda”. |
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MoD pulled up for delay in Arjuna tanks New Delhi, December 15 Pointing to the “inordinate delay” in production of the main battletank, Arjuna, the committee, pulling up the Ministry of Defence (MoD), also expressed concern over the phenomenal increase in foreign components in the prototype of the tank. The foreign components now amounted to 60 per cent in the prototypes of Arjuna. In its action-taken report tabled in both Houses of Parliament, the PAC said the delay had hit the crucial plan for replacing the ageing Vijyanta tanks. As of date, not a single tank has rolled out which had also delayed the raising of the country’s first indigenous Arjuna tank regiment. The report said the committee had been informed that the first regiment equipped with Arjuna tanks was expected to be raised from 2002 and two regiments were to be ready by 2007 at the end of the Tenth Plan. Concerned that the delay would have a serious adverse impact on the entire planning in respect of equipping the Army, the PAC asked the MoD to closely monitor the production schedule at the Heavy Vehicles Factory at Avadi near Chennai. The Defence Ministry told the committee that the production of Arjuna had commenced with the release of an indent by the Army for the manufacture of 124 tanks and the first lot would enter service during 2003. The Committee said production should be stepped up and the tanks be made available to the Army in stipulated time. It also urged the Defence Ministry to see that infrastructural facilities created at the Avadi plant were utilised optimally so that the desired volume of production of Arjuna tanks was achieved, which in turn would help in progressive reduction in import control. |
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India may be first with AIDS vaccine New Delhi, December 15 Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour, Ms Swaraj said there were 57,781 AIDS cases, besides an estimated 4.58 million HIV cases in the country. “We are about to start pre-clinical tests. India could become the first country to develop an AIDS vaccine,” she said. The Centre, she said, had instructed government hospitals not to reject any AIDS case. She said celebrities were being shown with the AIDS patients to remove the fear about spread of the disease through mere contact. The minister said it had now been decided to provide Anti-Retro Viral Drug Therapy to HIV positive pregnant mothers in government hospitals to ensure that the disease did not spread to the newly-born child. Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Nagaland, Manipur, Maharashtra and Tamil Nadu were regarded as high risk states for HIV disease, she said. In reply to another question, she said 60 per cent Indian women were anaemic according to a World Bank report. However, as per the National Family Health Survey, 1989-99, percentage of anaemic women in the country was 51.8. The Centre, she said, had initiated steps to improve nutritional standards and well-being of women. Ms Swaraj said 5,419 cases of dengue were detected from September onwards this year and of which 91 patients had died. She said efforts were being made to prevent and control the disease. The minister said the government was in the process of setting up a taskforce to promote health tourism in India. The details were being worked out. The minister said the government had set up Organ Retrieval Banking Organisation at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, Delhi, as a national facility and nodal centre to facilitate transplant in the country. |
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Oppn demands statement from government on Saddam’s arrest New Delhi, December 15 Raising the issue during zero hour, Mr Dharam Raj Singh Patel (SP) demanded that the government treat Mr Saddam Hussein’s arrest in accordance with the norms laid down by the United Nations. Congress member Jaipal Reddy said that government should make a statement on the issue although he clarified that the party did not want to convert this into a political issue. Mr Ram Bilas Paswan of the Lok Janshakti Party said no official reaction had yet come from the Indian government even though various nations had given their reaction to the arrest of Mr Saddam Hussein. |
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Jaswant apologises for furore in RS New Delhi, December 15 Mr Jaswant Singh said there was no intention of hurting anyone. “If it hurt anyone, I would apologise. We respect the Chair and we apologise,” he said. Mr Jaswant Singh urged Opposition leader Manmohan Singh to forget the incident and said discussions should carry on in the House without hindrance. |
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HC permits Vaiko to attend Parliament Chennai, December 15 Disposing of a petition filed by the MP, Mr Justice A.
Kulasekharan, however, made it clear that he was being permitted to go for a day and if he did not take part in the voting and debate
tomorrow, he should be brought back tomorrow evening itself. — PTI |
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India condemns attack on
Musharraf New Delhi, December 15 Foreign Office spokesman Navtej Sarna said today that the attack underscored the need for eliminating terrorism “from everywhere”. |
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