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Cops’ hand in
Rana escape denied
Bangladeshi author Taslima Nasreen on her way to a book-launch function in the Capital on Wednesday.
— Photo by Mukesh Aggarwal Cong ranks swell in M’rashtra, K’nataka EC, Home Secy
meet today Advani attacks
‘India shining’ critics |
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Hema to join BJP
today
JD (U) forges
alliance Centre soft
towards Bangladeshis: VHP PM to open
congress on disasters Qualification-based
promotion quotas okay, says SC Four injured in Godhra violence Salem challenges
extradition 6 new Australian
visa centres 2 lakh take dip
during Ardh Kumbh 3 volumes on
medicinal plants
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Cops’ hand in Rana escape denied New Delhi, February 18 Dr Paul asserted that the person who took custody of Rana posing as a member of the 3rd Battalion, Delhi Armed Police, was in no way connected with the Delhi police. He dismissed reports that the preliminary report submitted to the Home Ministry had stated that prima facie, there was collusion of the jail staff in Rana’s escape. He added that two inquiries into the incident were on and the truth would come out soon. Sources, however, said the police is not ruling out the involvement of jail staff in the escape. Rana escaped from the high-security Tihar Jail here yesterday. The Director-General of Prisons, Mr Ajay Agrawal, had yesterday admitted to some lapses on the part of the jail authorities. Rana was among 11 persons arrested in connection with the broad daylight shooting of Samajwadi Party MP Phoolan Devi outside her Ashoka Road residence here in July, 2001. A person posing as Constable Arvind Kumar of the 3rd Battalion of the Delhi Armed Police came to the jail authorities around 7 a.m. showed them a fake warrant for producing Rana in a Hardwar court in connection with a murder case there under the Gangsters Act. He told the authorities that his team members were waiting for Rana outside. The deception came to light when the genuine team arrived from Hardwar asking for his custody about 45 minutes later. Three Tihar Jail officials, including Deputy Superintendent V.D. Pushkarna, have been suspended for “dereliction of duty” and the Delhi Police Commissioner has also announced a reward of Rs 50,000 to anyone providing information leading to Rana’s arrest. |
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Red alert in Roorkee Roorkee, February 18 The SSP, Mr Ashok Kumar, told the Tribune that security had been beefed up at the residence of Uma Kashyap, a key witness in the Phoolan Devi murder case. The police sources said three special teams of the local police, the local intelligence unit and the Special Operation Group had been constituted to keep a close watch on the situation. Meanwhile, a special team of the crime branch of Delhi Police has also reached Roorkee. |
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Banning books meaningless, says Taslima New Delhi, February 18 "India is the biggest democracy in the world and a ban on books here is unjustified. Banning of books not only amounts to violation of the rights of the writer but also of the readers", said Taslima, who was here to launch the fourth Hindi edition of her biography "Woh Andhere Din (Those Dark Days)." "The ban holds no meaning as the books are available online and thousands of people across the globe are already reading it," she said. Taslima, who was exiled from Bangladesh because of her book "Lajja", said, "My books are banned because of fear of communal riots. Those against my work think Muslims are 'illiterate' and would revolt if they read something against their religion."
— PTI |
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Cong ranks swell in M’rashtra, K’nataka New Delhi, February 18 The party had reason to cheer as it got heartening news from Maharashtra and Karnataka with senior leaders from the opposing camp joining the party. This good news was, however, offset by the fact that the party’s attempts to forge alliances are coming unstuck. There has been an inordinate delay in the finalisation of the Congress tie-up with the Telengana Rashtriya Samiti (TRS) in Andhra Pradesh. The party got a boost in Karnataka when 11 sitting legislators, owing allegiance to the late Ramkrishna Hegde, joined the Congress. Similarly, the Congress camp in Maharashtra was looking up as senior Shiv Sena leader and former Union minister Balasaheb Vikhe Patil joined their ranks. The Karnataka legislators and Mr Patil met Congress President Sonia Gandhi this morning before a formal announcement was made at the AICC headquarters. Chief Minister S.M. Krishna maintained that after Mr Hegde’s death, there was confusion among his followers, stating that the Congress battle against the communal forces would be strengthened with these legislators joining the party. Party insiders maintained that since majority of Hegde camp followers belonged to the powerful Lingayat caste, their entry would help the Congress reach out to this caste, which had been drifting towards the BJP. Their support had become even more crucial for the Congress as the state was headed for a simultaneous assembly election. In Maharshtra, the Shiv Sena got a rude shock when their senior leader Balasaheb Vikhe Patil moved to the Congress. Mr Patil, a prominent leader of the sugar cooperative sector in the state, was with the Congress but joined the Shiv Sena ahead of the 1999 Lok Sabha elections. Mr Patil had been unhappy after he was removed from the Union Cabinet. His move back to the Congress, it was stated, would provide a psychological boost to the state party unit given his clean image and influence. While the Congress was celebrating the new additions to its ranks, there was disappointing news on the Andhra Pradesh front where the ongoing seat-sharing discussions with the TRS have not yielded positive results. The TRS, it is learnt, has asked for 51 assembly seats in the Telengana region while the Congress is not willing to offer more than 35 along with four Lok Sabha seats. |
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EC, Home Secy meet today New Delhi, February 18 At the meeting, Home Secretary Anil Baijal is expected to brief the poll panel comprising Chief Election Commissioner T. S.
Krishnamurthy, Mr B. B. Tandon and Mr Gopalaswamy about the availability of Central forces and the time required for deploying these at various centres. He is also expected to brief them on the arrangements for the security of electronic voting machines, election material before and after the poll. |
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Advani attacks ‘India shining’ critics New Delhi, February 18 "I fail to understand the reason for their ire... I could have understood if we had said 'BJP shining' and they criticised it. But the other, I cannot understand and it pains me," Mr Advani said at a function marking Maharshi Dayanand's enlightenment on Mahashivratri day. Asserting that the greatest achievement of the present government was the self-confidence it had created in every Indian, Mr Advani said citizens were now confident that India was on the road to achieve superpower status. The Deputy Prime Minister said the country had made "extraordinary" progress in the past five years and said there was increasing acceptance of this all over the world. Even at the last month's three-day "Pravasi Bharatiya Divas," every "pravasi" had said they felt proud at the respect India and Indians were getting around the world, Mr Advani pointed out. |
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Hema to join
BJP today New Delhi, February 18 Mr Khan, who was elected from Bahraich in Uttar Pradesh in the past, had expressed a desire to join the party and campaign for it, party sources said. The sources said there was a difficulty in giving him party ticket from Bahraich because the sitting MP belonged to the BJP. Mr Khan, who had in 1989 joined the Jan Morcha of former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, had later moved to the BSP. Hema Malini campaigned for the party in the recent Assembly elections. |
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BJP to contest 7 of 40 seats in TN
Chennai, February 18 The BJP has been given Chennai (North), Chidambaram (SC), Dharmapuri, Pondicherry, Nilgiris, Coimbatore and Nagercoil, the last three now held by the party, under the agreement reached today in the talks between the election committees of the two parties.
— PTI |
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JD (U) forges alliance
New Delhi, February 18 The alliance was struck between the JD (U) and three regional parties — Puthiya Thamizhagam, Dalit Panthers and Makkal Tamil Desam. The three parties are likely to contest 20 seats in Tamil Nadu with the JD (U) leaders
campaigning for candidates of these parties.
— TNS |
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Centre soft towards Bangladeshis: VHP Kolkata, February 18 He alleged that the CPM in West Bengal had been encouraging Bangladeshis to cross border and settle down in the state for political gain. The Centre had been totally silent in this connection. Mr Togadia said they had specific had information that over a crore infiltrators had recently crossed in to border districts in the state and had been rehabilitated by the ruling CPM and its partners. Most of these people had been given ration cards and enrolled as voters. He said the state BJP had already sent a detailed report to the Centre in this connection. But the BJP leaders at the Centre,
having lukewarm response towards it, he alleged. Mr Togadia warned the BJP leadership that unless it changed its attitude, the VHP and the Bajrang Dal would jointly launch a movement against the NDA government and campaign against their candidates in the forthcoming Lok Sabha poll. The VHP leader was speaking at a religious gathering in Malda town, about 360 km from Kolkata. He criticised the Centre for neglecting the interest of the Hindus and giving undue privileges to minority communities. The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee, said they would not allow the VHP and the Bajrang Dal to play communal cards and destroy the peace and amity in West Bengal. |
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PM to open
congress on disasters New Delhi, February 18 Addressing mediapersons here today, Prof G.P. Lal, Chairman of the organising committee of the World Congress, said top executives from world bodies would present global and regional views on disaster mitigation in addition to country reports from various developed and developing nations. The congress, in which over 400 exhibitors 750 experts in disaster mitigation from India and overseas would participate, aims to draw global attention to issues arising out of natural disasters like earthquake, cyclone, flood, landslide and avalanche. It would also discuss in depth latest developments in natural disaster mitigation. |
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Qualification-based promotion quotas okay, says SC New Delhi, February 18 A Bench comprising Chief Justice V.N. Khare, Mr Justice S.B. Sinha and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia upheld the Kerala Public Health Engineering Service Rules giving preference to degree-holders over diploma-holders and the latter over certificate-holders in matters of promotion. Holding that such a rule was not unconstitutional, the Bench said the state as an employer was entitled to fix separate quota of promotion for different educational qualification holders in exercise of its rule-making power under Article 309 of the Constitution of India. "The state, therefore, in our opinion, cannot be said to have acted arbitrarily by giving an option to such diploma holders who acquired a higher qualification so as to enable them to either opt for promotion in the category of degree-holder or diploma-holder," Justice Sinha, writing for the Bench, said. The degree-holders had challenged the decision of the government to allow diploma-holders to compete with them after acquiring an equivalent of a degree. Directing the Kerala Government to consider the cases of all candidates in terms of the rules, the Bench set aside the judgements of the high court. |
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Four injured in Godhra violence
Ahmedabad, February 18 Violence erupted when Paanwala was arrested outside the Fatema mosque in Satpool Audha locality by a six-member team of the Railway Police in mufti, police said here. Paanwala started screaming and a 500-strong mob gheraoed the police and pelted them with stones, badly damaging the van, Panchamahals District Collector Dinesh Brahmbhatt told PTI on the phone. The mob dragged Paanwala out of the van prompting police to open fire, he said, adding the accused fled in the midst of the chaos. A police sub inspector and two constables were injured when they were heavily stoned by the mob. While a civilian was hit by the bullet on his leg, the sub inspector was injured when a stone hit his eye, the police said. Reports from Godhra said the police fired at least six rounds and burst several teargas shells to disperse the mob, which included women and children.
— PTI |
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New Delhi, February 18 CBI sources said today that the Prosecutor-General of Portugal had already been briefed by the investigating agency to counter Salem's application in the Supreme Court. The underworld don requested the Supreme Court for a review of the High Court order for his extradition. During the trial earlier, Salem had told the court that he would be discriminated against by the government as he belonged to the minority community, a charge countered by the CBI which handed over copies of judgements given out by various courts in the country in support of its contention that the Indian judiciary was impartial. The Portugal High Court had last month ordered extradition of Salem to face trial in the serial blasts that rocked the Mumbai city in 1993, killing more than 250 persons. Salem, who was arrested along with his girlfriend and Bollywood actress Monica Bedi and others on September 21, 2002 in Lisbon, was sentenced to four-and-half years' imprisonment on three counts.
— PTI |
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6 new Australian visa centres New Delhi, February 18 Indians applying for a visa will be able to file their applications at six centres in New Delhi, Mumbai, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, with more centres to follow. Announcing the new arrangements, Australian High Commissioner to India Penny Wensley A.O. said, "There has been a large increase in the numbers of Indians seeking to travel to Australia, students, tourists, business people, officials. We expect this trend to accelerate as our bilateral relations grow. This new user-friendly system will help us manage this welcome growth and provide a better service to the Indian community." Mr Greg Kelly, Immigration Counsellor at the Australian High Commission, added, "I am delighted at the prospect of the new visa application and collection centres spread throughout India. Applicants will have greater choice in where they file their applications. Indians who wish to travel to Australia for business or tourism will no longer be required to apply directly to the high commission in New Delhi or the Consulate-General in Mumbai, which sometimes involve significant inconvenience." Each centre would provide a comfortable client waiting area and have sufficient capacity to ensure clients were not required to wait for extended periods. Services would be provided from 9 am to 5 pm on working days. The locations for the centres can be found at:
www.ausgovindia.com. |
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2 lakh take
dip during
Ardh Kumbh Hardwar, February 18 The mela administration had made elaborate security arrangements on the occasion and had deployed, besides civil police, the BSF, the CISF, the RAF, the fire fighting force, the river police, the sniffer dogs and the bomb disposal squads in the mela area. |
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3 volumes on medicinal plants New Delhi, February 18 Mr Shekhar Dutt, Secretary, Department of AYUSH (Formerly known as Department of Indian System of Medicine), Ministry of Health, will release these here on Thursday. Sources in the ICMR said these volumes contain detailed description on 600 medicinal plants which would be useful for researchers, pharmaceutical industry and export houses. The focus of the project is to consolidate the work done in various
institutions and laboratories in India on such plants and present the multidisciplinary information in the form of review monographs. |
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In video: Rana's family says police kidnapped him. (
