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Indian
Airlines set to fly to Pakistan
Be
sensitive to sexual harassment cases: SC Plans
afoot to modernise infantry |
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7
decomposed bodies found in village Shiv
Sainiks go on rampage, 11 held 400
students awarded certificates in music
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Indian Airlines set to fly to Pakistan New Delhi, December 21 Indian Airlines officials said today that preparations had been made to start flights to the two cities within a few hours of government clearance. The airlines is expecting the clearance to come in the coming few days as the SAARC summit is slated to begin in Islamabad in early January. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee is slated to fly directly into Islamabad for the summit. There are plans to charter a special flight to Islamabad to ferry Indian journalists who would be covering the summit. Indian Airlines has its offices in Lahore and Karachi with the Indian as well as the local staff stationed there. The airlines office in Karachi also holds the keys of the Indian consulate there which was shut down after relations between India and Pakistan soured. Officials said the airlines was prepared to start flights but various sanctions and clearances were still to come from the government. Officials said the airlines was ready to start two flights per week. Pakistani officials were here recently but the bilateral was not signed. After the government opening up the Indian skies for private domestic airlines to fly abroad, it was not clear as to how many flights would the Indian Airlines operate and what would be share of the private operators. There was another problem being faced by the Indian officials and that was of the seat capacity rationalisation. Pakistan wanted to operate its Jumbo's on the Indian sector which have a capacity of 350-400 seats, while Indian Airlines had made preparations to fly A-320 on the route which had a capacity of just 145 seats. Sources said it could be here that the private operators might get a share of the pie which they had been eyeing for a long time. |
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DMK ministers quit Cabinet New Delhi, December 21 President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam today accepted the resignation of Minister of Environment and Forests T R Baalu and Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare A. Raja on the advice of the Prime Minister, said a Rashtrapati Bhawan spokesman. The party would, however, continue to support the coalition from outside on issues like the TDP. Mr Baalu who was looking after the Environment Ministry and Mr Raja Minister of State for Health, drove to the Prime Minister’s residence this morning and submitted their resignations. They told Mr Vajpayee that the party had decided to walk out of the coalition government as there were major differences between the DMK and the state unit of the BJP on various issues. Despite severing of ties with the NDA, there was no difference in the relationship between his party leader M. Karunanidhi and the Prime Minister, he said. Talking to reporters later Mr Baalu said a concerned Mr Vajpayee asked them why they had not informed him earlier of what was happening. He was replying to a question whether the Prime Minister asked the DMK to reconsider the decision. The DMK leader told the Prime Minister that it was a party decision which they had to obey and there was no question of reconsidering it. Mr Baalu said: “We will be like the TDP. We are going to give only outside support”. Mr Baalu said when he asked Mr Vajpayee whether there was anything to be conveyed to Mr Karunanidhi, the Prime Minister said “I am not going to accept the resignations”. |
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US Sikhs seek safety from hate crimes New Delhi, December 21 Sikh Coalition, a US-based advocacy group, which has been documenting these cases since 9/11 says “in the last two years, Sikh Americans have endured a significant increase in acts of hate and discrimination. More than 30 such incidents were reported from New Jersey alone.” “Bias against Sikhs has increased this year. We want our government to help us stop it,” says a report from Sikh Coalition quoting Amardeep Singh, its legal director. This year has seen a significant increase in discrimination against Sikhs in New Jersey and across the country. I believe this increase is a result of the heightened hostilities in West Asia and a result of misguided animosity against Americans of Arab descent or of the Muslim faith, says Singh. However, to combat these hate crimes, Sikh leaders across the USA got together recently and chalked out a plan. According to the letter which the group is circulating to government officials, Sikh leaders want to see more cooperation between them and state officials in tracking and prosecuting these hate crimes. Public misinformation is the main cause of the incidents, says Amardeep Singh. “Ninetynine per cent of the people you see with a turban and beard in this country are Sikhs... but people in the country (the US) associate the beard and turban with terrorists.”
— PTI |
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Be sensitive to sexual harassment cases: SC New Delhi, December 21 "The courts are expected to deal with cases of
sexual crimes against women with utmost sensitivity. A socially sensitised Judge, in our opinion, is a better statutory armour in cases of crimes against women than long clauses of penal provisions, containing complex exceptions," a Bench comprising Mr Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat said in a judgement. Allowing an appeal by the Punjab Government against the acquittal of accused Ramdev Singh by the Punjab and Haryana High Court in a rape case, in which he was awarded seven years' rigorous imprisonment by the trial court in the state, the Bench said, "Sexual harassment cases need to be dealt with sternly and severely." "The courts have to display a greater sense of responsibility and to be more sensitive while dealing with charges of sexual assault on women, particularly of the minors," the apex court said. Criticising the high court for giving weightage to "irrelevant, insignificant circumstances or technicalities" to give the benefit of the doubt to the accused, the apex court said it was not justified in reversing the conviction and, therefore, the judgement was set aside as it did not stand legal scrutiny. The court directed the accused to immediately surrender to the jail authorities to serve the remaining sentence. Accepting Punjab's counsel Bimal Roy Jad's arguments that the high court had erred in giving the benefit of the doubt to the accused, the Bench said, "An unmerited acquittal does no good to society." "The courts below should not lean in favour of acquittal by giving weightage to irrelevant or insignificant circumstances," the apex court said, adding that a doubt, as understood in criminal jurisprudence, had to be a reasonable doubt and got an excuse for finding
favour of acquittal." If perpetrators of crimes against women were let off like this, it would
encourage the wolves in society to be on the prowl for easy prey, the court observed. The court also had a word of caution to the media about reporting cases of sexual harassment, saying the name of the victim should never be disclosed, keeping in view the social object of preventing her victimisation or
ostracism. Ramdev Singh had committed the offence after forcibly dragging
a minor girl from in front of her house to his house in the neighbourhood on the evening of October 1, 1985, when
his wife was not living with him. |
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Plans afoot to modernise infantry New Delhi, December 21 Making a presentation on the concluding day of the Army-Industry Partnership Meet-2003 here yesterday Director-General Infantry Lt-Gen K Nagaraj, said the plan, termed ‘F-INSAS’ (Future Infantry Soldier as a System), is based on the prevailing trends which indicated that ‘infantry-centric’ pattern of warfare would predominate in the present and even for the foreseeable future at all strategic, operational and tactical levels. He said the idea was not to burden the soldier but make him better equipped. “We are looking at a maximum total weight of 20 to 25 kg for all equipment,” he said. The government had recently given its clearance for modernising the infantry and had also earmarked a budget for it. Listing the other infantry modernisation programmes being undertaken globally like the US ‘Land Warrior: the first integrated soldier fighting system for dismounted infantrymen,’ the German `Future Infantryman System’, the French “Fassin a equipment et liasons integres’ and the British “Future integrated soldier technology’, he said all these sought to use “cutting edge technologies”. |
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7 decomposed bodies found in village Malvan (Maharashtra), December 21 Acting on specific information about the bodies, a police team rushed to the spot and retrieved the bodies which were found to be in a highly decomposed state, and suspected to be dumped around one-and-a-half months ago, the police said. “Earlier, the bodies were suspected to be all male corpses. However, further investigations revealed that one of the bodies was that of a woman,” the police said. “We suspect that it is a murder case and have registered a case under the related section,” the sources said. The police was also conducting a post mortem of the bodies and the reports were expected soon.
— PTI |
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Shiv Sainiks go on rampage, 11 held
Mumbai, December 21 The police said the Shiv Sainiks were demanding that only persons of Maharashtrian origin be employed the at R Mall. The Shiv Sainiks were also protesting against the murder of a 22-year-old youth on the premises recently. Bablu Singh, a 22-year-old youth, was caught stealing a razor by store workers, who beat him up. He sustained serious injuries in the attack and died after reaching his house, the police said. Today’s attack was led by Shiv Sena’s Deputy leader in the Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation Shishir Shinde, who followers broke the windows of stores located at the R Mall. No one was injured in the violence, according to the police. The Mulund police arrested 11 persons, including Shinde, for rioting. Addressing the party cadre prior to the attack, Shinde said the management of the R Mall had promised to recruit 300 Maharashtrians following an earlier attack by party workers. The store had not fulfilled its promise, Shinde said.  |
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400 students awarded certificates in music Kolkata, December 21 The students belonged to West Bengal, Bihar, Assam, Tripura, Arunachal Pradesh and other states in the north-east region. The students were given the Visharad diploma in B.Music and the Bhaskar in M.Music for 2002-3 after the successful completion of their courses. It was announced that the kendra would start offering a special prestigious award worth Rs 1 lakh to the ‘best performer’ in different fields of art and culture from next year. The awards will be given in the name of M.L. and Shobha Koser, the husband-wife exponents of the Indian art and culture. Participants from foreign countries will also be eligible. Vocalist Biresh Roy; novelist Sirshendu Mukherjee and journalists Jayanta Chakraborty and Mridul Kanti Roy were felicitated on the occasion. The Mayor, Subrata Mukherjee,
inaugurated the convocation and the former Chief Secretary, Sourin Roy was present as the guest of honour in the morning session. |
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JAG celebrates anniversary New Delhi, December 21 Lieut Gen A Natarajan, Adjutant-General and Colonel Commandant of the department and its officers paid homage to the unknown soldiers at Amar Jawan Jyoti this morning. |
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