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Kolkata, June 27 One person was killed and several were injured in police firing at two places during clashes between supporters of the CPM and the Trinamool Congress at Maheshtala in South 24 Parganas, about 45 km from here, where elections were held for the municipality along with 17 other civic bodies in the state.
AP Govt presents pro-farmer
Budget
Punjab, Haryana fail to meet job schemes’
targets
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Trinamool to launch stir against price
hike
‘Fractured civil society is the problem,’ says ex-CJI
Korean woman drugged,
abducted
‘Kulhars’, ‘lassi’ fail to make a mark in South
India
Maran to attend SAARC meeting in
Pak
Two sisters, Yasmeen and Tasneem, who allegedly killed their father, at a women's police station in Bhopal on Sunday.
Jewish dictum fails to affect sale of
hair
Gill wants bus service to Nankana Sahib
Nine-day sojourn of Lord Jagannath comes to an
end
Pratibha leaves for Australia
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One killed in Bengal civic
poll
Kolkata, June 27 Reports of booth capturing, looting of ballot papers and other violent incidents reached Writers Building from various districts. The elections for Darjeeling and Siliguri municipalities were, however, peaceful. Despite heavy rain, people came out in large numbers to cast their vote. In Darjeeling, GNLF candidates were elected uncontested in 31 of the 57 seats. In Dum Dum and South Dum Dum municipalities, near Kolkata, CPM and TMC supporters clashed using lethal weapons. Polling was disturbed at 69 booths following booth capturing and snatching of ballot papers. Polling continued till late evening at these booths. At Asansol and Uluberia in Howrah, supports of the CPM were injured in a blast and of pipe-gun shots fired allegedly by TMC workers. After the recent Lok Sabha elections, the municipal elections are being seen as a test case for Ms Mamata Banerjee and her party. The results will be announced tomorrow. While in north Bengal the TMC has been the main controlling force in the municipal boards where the elections were held, in south Bengal most the municipalities were under the control of the Congress and the CPM. |
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AP Govt presents pro-farmer
Budget
Hyderabad, June 27 Presenting the Budget in Telugu in the state Assembly on Wednesday, the Finance Minister, Mr K. Rosaiah, blamed the previous TDP government for handing over “debt-trapped state, with adverse asset-liability ratio, lower growth rate” and an eroding agricultural base. “Embarking upon highly lopsided and fanciful policies, the previous government has led the state into a state of high level of indebtedness in less than nine years,” the minister said and contrasted it with his government’s avowed policy of putting the rural economy back on the tracks. A massive 50 per cent increase in allocation for irrigation which has been earmarked Rs 6,053.19 crore as against Rs 3,973.46 crore last year, a substantial hike in the budgetary share for agriculture from Rs 655.60 crore last year to Rs 933.19 crore this fiscal and an additional subsidy of Rs 437.59 crore to meet a pre-poll promise of free power are among the major highlights of the Budget. |
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Punjab, Haryana fail to meet job schemes’
targets
New Delhi, June 27 Mr Mahabir Prasad, Union Minister for Small Scale Industry and Agricultural Industries, has threatened the states to improve their performance otherwise funds could be diverted to better-performing states. The schemes have, in fact, remained a non-starter in many states, including Bihar, West Bengal and Assam, due to a lack of coordination between the implementation agencies and high defaulter rate, below 40 per cent in the case of the PMRY. According to the ministry, under which both the schemes are run, even the better-governed states like Punjab and Haryana and UT Chandigarh have failed to meet the targets during last year. Since its inception in 1993, the PMRY has failed to meet the target of employment generation and loan disbursement. Under the scheme, educated unemployed youth belonging to economically backward families are sanctioned subsidised loans to set up self-employment ventures. They are also provided training and marketing support through district industry centres. As per information collected from the ministry, “By March 2004, as against a target of 2.20 lakh, which was revised to 2.60 lakh, only in 1.17 lakh loans worth Rs 692 crore had been sanctioned. It is another matter that 3.70 lakh youth had applied for loans under the scheme.” During the election year, the NDA government had decided to increase employment creation targets from 4 lakh to 5 lakh under the REGP, a scheme implemented by the state khadi and village industries boards and the Khadi and Village Industries Commission (KVIC). Mr B.S. Minhas, Secretary in the ministry, admitted that though certain states had performed well, others had lagged far behind in meeting the national targets. “We are reviewing the schemes and have asked for suggestions from the states to improve the implementation of these schemes,” he said. Under the PMRY, banks failed to meet the disbursement target for loans in Punjab (86.2 per cent), Himachal (81.9), Haryana (76.1) and Chandigarh (47). In the case of the REGP, during 2003-04, Punjab could implement only 882 projects as against a target of 1261. The state was allocated Rs 11.97 crore under the scheme. Chandigarh could implement only eight projects as against a target of 86. The ministry has also rapped the Haryana Government for sanctioning 923 projects against a target of 673, as that would result in non-disbursement of loans by financial institutions. The Centre had released Rs 18.57 crore to the state against the scheme. The ministry has laments, “In some states, including Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Kerala, well-off people have been financed at the cost of poor entrepreneurs, resulting in higher project costs.” |
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Trinamool to launch stir against price
hike
Kolkata, June 27 Ms Banerjee said SUCI, the MCC and the dissident CPM, led by Mr Saifuddin Chowdhury had decided to support their agitation. She announced a 24-hour Bangla bandh would be observed soon to protest against price rise of these essential commodities. The eight-time elected Congress MP from Malda, Mr Khan Chowdhury, who had already expressed unhappiness that the party had joined hands with the CPM, said he would oppose any move which was against the interest of the people. He regretted that the 200-year-old Congress was now at the mercy of the CPM at every step. He felt all true Congress workers and supporters would oppose the Centre’s decision to hike petrol, diesel and LPG prices which was bound to affect the poor and ordinary people. The TMC leader regretted that true and dedicated Congress worker like Mr Khan Chowdhury now had no place in the party, while some vested interests and defeated leaders had been brought back to power in the Union Cabinet. She ridiculed that two Congress leaders from Bengal (Pranab Mukherjee and Priya Das Munshi) who had once left the party and formed a new party to fight against the late Rajiv Gandhi, had been given two important Cabinet berths while the sincere and loyal Mr Khan Chowdhury had been sidelined. Mr Banerjee welcomed Mr Khan Chowdhury’s leadership for guiding them in their fight against the CPM and the Congress. The TMC and SUCI brought out two separate processions in the city yesterday protesting against the recent price hike of petrol, diesel and LPG. The TMC workers and supporters burnt the effigies of the Union Finance Minister, Dr P. Chidambaram, and the Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, in the Esplanade area and held a two-hour sit-in on streets, obstructing the vehicular movement. Altogether 65 persons were arrested from the Esplanade area. SUCI, on the other hand, led a protest march towards Writers Buildings by breaking the order under Section 144 of the CrPC. The police, however, barricaded the procession near Lalbazar. But the angry processionists tried to break the cordon when they clashed with the police. The police first resorted to lathicharges and then used tear gas shells to suppress violent attacks of
stone-throwings. Over 200 SUCI workers and supporters, including 80 women, had been arrested. The SUCI general secretary, Mr Pravash Ghosh, announced their agitation would continue till the prices of petrol, diesel and LPG were not reduced. |
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‘Fractured civil society is the problem,’ says
ex-CJI
Bangalore, June 27 Delivering the inaugural address at the National Conference on Electoral Reforms hosted by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) and the Centre for Public Policy (CPP) of the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), he said that in other countries, civil society dominated the political system, while here it was the other way round. “Today we have a hollow egg-shell of a democracy, which has gone from bad to worse. We are in danger of losing our right to live, our right to work, our right to worship, our right to be left alone, and our right to participate in the transformation that is taking place in the world,” he said. Prof Jagdeep Chhokkar said though there was plenty more to be done with regard to electoral reforms, it was heartening to note the recent initiatives like the direction to file FIRs against candidates who had filed false affidavits. “Before there was no talk of tainted ministers. Now it is an issue, and political parties at least know that taking in certain people can be problematical. That itself is an advance.” IIMB Director P.G. Apte and IIMB Professor Trilochan Sastry introduced the conference. |
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Korean woman drugged,
abducted
Chennai, June 27 Since the Villupuram district police of Tamil Nadu tried to hush up the case, the 37-year-old divorced mother of two children, Ms Hye Jeong Heo, has moved the Madras High Court through the Tamil Nadu State Legal Services Authority. In her petition, she has pleaded before the high court that her complaint should be investigated by the Crime Branch of the Tamil Nadu CID and justice be rendered to her. Ms Heo is a volunteer in Savitri Bhavan and is involved in translation of books for Deepanam School in Auroville. She came to Auroville, a society guided by the principles enunciated by Sri Aurobindo, 160 km from Chennai, in September 2002 to explore community life. She was soon befriended by a German national, Mr Jehuda Szlezynger-Nam and they became close. He was reportedly facing marital conflict and promised to marry Ms Heo as soon as his divorce was through. On this basis, he proposed that they lived together as man and wife. However, Ms Heo being a mother and of an Asian background objected to such co-habitation and insisted that Mr Jehuda should divorce his wife and then only join her or otherwise she would discontinue the relationship. According to Ms Heo, Mr Jehuda by promising to marry her, took advantage of her faith. “He basically seduced me and even exploited me financially,” Ms Heo told The Tribune. She said, “He even told me that a man and woman, who are living together in Auroville, do not get formally married and he was doing me a favour.” Ms Heo stated that on March 11 morning, Mr Jehuda declared that he would not marry her. They had a quarrel following which he said that she would be taken to a mental hospital. Immediately, three other foreigners, Joseph, Albert and Peter, came to her home and at the behest of Mr Jehuda forced her to take some tablets and then injected her with a sedative. “I was not even allowed to inform my children or change my clothes,” she said. She alleged that she was taken to a mental hospital in Bangalore and confined there for more than 10 days. After her discharge from the hospital, she approached the local Villupuram police to register her complaint. Ms Heo alleged the Additional Superintendent of Police, Mr Qader Basha, who was to investigate the complaint, did not even visit the scene of the crime or interview her. Instead he met Mr Jehuda and wrote to her stating, “They, in good faith, having understood your mental condition had taken you to Bangalore Lakeside Hospital for treatment and given tablets to control your mental stress.” “Hence, your petition to register a case does not arise,” he added. Asked by The Tribune whether a non-medical person can inject a sedative, Mr Basha said, “The woman’s character is in question as she was staying with Mr Jehuda and whatever was done was in good faith. Since all of them are foreigners and powerful people, I had to be cautious before registering a case. Now if the court directs me, I will certainly register a case.” However, he failed to explain why he never visited the scene of the alleged crime or talk to the manager of the guest house where Ms Heo was staying. |
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‘Kulhars’, ‘lassi’ fail to make a mark in South
India
Chennai, June 27 The main problem faced by the Indian Railways Catering Department is availability of earthen pots in large numbers in this region. A department official said, “Our main problem is procuring them in large numbers. At present we are getting them from Kolkata and it will take some time to regularise it.” He said a few small-scale manufacturers from Tamil Nadu had approached the department while some quantity was purchased from the potters in Valluvar
Kottam, near Chennai. “The big difference between prices of the Kolkata and Tamil Nadu products also make it difficult for us to go ahead with the implementation of the order in trains,’’ the officer said. However, there are other problems associated with the earthen pots like breakage, disposal, beverage becoming cold and the fact it cannot be recycled. Train passengers in South India, too, are not accepting earthen pots. “Earthen pots add a different kind of flavour to tea, but for coffee it is not suitable,” a passenger said. At present, only the railway refreshment centre at Chennai Central station is serving tea and coffee in earthen pots, but that too only when a customer asks for it. The officer expressed the department’s inability to enforce use of earthen pots on the plea that it was extremely difficult to carry out inspection on each and every vendor. “During routine checks we find “kulhars” everywhere. But in reality, they are just showpieces. Plastic cups are being used. We have now decided that if a bona fide passenger lodges a complaint, we will book the violator. But till date no passenger has complained as he prefers coffee in a plastic cup,” he said. So the old practice of using styrofoam and plastic cups continues. Mr Yadav’s as well as North India’s favourite drink “lassi” is also not being served at railway stations in South India. Though “lassi”, curd and milk are quite accepted in almost all the southern states, the excuse given by Southern Railway officials that “lassi” being a North Indian drink was unpopular here seems to be unacceptable. However, the Southern Railway prefers to wait and watch the success of “lassi” in the north and then appoint the same contractors to implement the project in South India.Instead of “lassi” they are thinking of serving green coconut water which is very popular in South India and availability is not a problem at all. “But we cannot allow sale of green coconuts in the trains because the disposable shells thrown on the tracks might lead to accidents or disruption of traffic,” an official said. For this they are contemplating approaching a Kolkata-based company which markets green coconut water in pouches but with its natural properties. |
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Maran to attend SAARC meeting in
Pak
New Delhi, June 27 Telecom Commission Chairman Nripendra Misra and other senior officials of the Department of Telecommunications will accompany the minister. The meeting will discuss various issues including the growing digital divide in the SAARC region. The Communication Ministers are also likely to deliberate upon evolving a common position on issues of concern to the region in the telecommunication sector at the World Summit for Information Society to be held at Tunis in November 2005. Other issues, such as cooperation with international agencies in the field of telecommunications and initiatives for high-level dialogue between SAARC and the Asia Pacific Telecommunity (APT) will also be taken up for discussion by the Ministerial Conference. The meeting will conclude with the adoption of a new plan of action on telecommunications for SAARC countries, stressing on complete digitalisation of inter-country links, establishing an intra-regional high bandwidth hub, and promoting research and development activities and exchange of expertise in telecommunication disciplines. The action plan will also ensure universal access, development of rural services and affordable tariffs of telecommunication services, according to a ministry’s press note. |
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Daughters kill father,
drink his blood
Bhopal, June 27 The police said the girls believed that their father was possessed by a ‘jinni’ and that they had tried to drive the ‘jinni’ away. The police, however, believe that both girls were mentally deranged. They continued to indulge in a bizarre behaviour, alternately shrieking, praying, and repenting for what they had done and mimicking the piercing of the entrails, last night at the mahila police station lock-up. Mohammed Yunus had recently retired as a driver in the Madhya Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation
(MPSRTC). Tasneem and Yasmeen had locked their three sisters and mother in another room before embarking upon their gruesome mission. Yunus’s son, who works in a hotel, was not at home at that time. |
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Jewish dictum fails to affect sale of
hair
Hyderabad, June 27 Last month, a leading Israeli rabbi created a storm by prohibiting women from using wigs made of hair from India. Rabbi Shalom Elyashiv said he was worried that the hair had been cut as an offering to Hindu gods, which would make the use of such hair idolatrous under Jewish law. The Jewish orthodox code of modesty requires married women to cover their hair in public, and many do so with human-hair wigs that are very expensive. According to a report in The Washington Post, orthodox wigmakers prize Indian hair for its rich texture. Cindycut.com, one of the many American websites that sell wigs, offers a unit of wig made of Tirumala hair at $ 649, describing it as having “a smooth feeling when you run your finger from top to bottom.” However, according to officers in the TTD, the largest suppliers of human hair to wig manufacturers in the country, the Jewish religious dictum has not had any impact on the sale of hair offered to Lord Venkateswara on the seven hills. “We have not had any impact of the ruling. In any case, the wigs are sold to Israel by western companies which source their hair from Tirumala,” said Ajeya Kallam, TTD executive officer. The Lord Venkateswara Temple at Tirumala attracts more pilgrims than Jerusalem, Rome and Mecca -around 1.8 crore every year- and most of them offer their hair to the Lord in reverence. Hundreds of barbers shave around 12,000 pilgrims a day, enabling the TTD to auction 75 tonnes of hair annually, earning around Rs 25 crore last year. |
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Gill wants bus service to Nankana Sahib
New Delhi, June 27 A member of the Rajya Sabha and former Chief Election Commissioner, Mr M.S. Gill, conveyed
as much to Pakistan
Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar at a dinner hosted by the Indian side in honour of the visiting Pakistani delegation. Mr Gill said a bus service linking Amritsar and Nankana Sahib, “Mecca
of the Sikhs,” as he put
it, would allow Sikhs to undertake the pilgrimage
without difficulty. “I hope a bus service is started between Amritsar and Nankana Sahib, which is only a short distance away... all faiths in the world are encouraged to go to their own religious places,” he said. |
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Yash Johar cremated
Mumbai, June 27 A large number of film personalities attended the funeral. Union Sports and Culture Minister Sunil Dutt, film stars Amitabh Bachchan, Jeetendra, Shah Rukh Khan, Preity Zinta, Hrithik Roshan, Abhishek Bachchan, Rani Mukherjee, producer-directors Subhash Ghai, Rakesh Roshan, Shekhar Kapur, Yash Chopra, Vashu Bhagnani, Raj Kohli, lyricist Javed Akhter and Reliance Industries Vice-Chairman and Managing Director Anil Ambani were among those who had come to pay their respects. Johar, 76, died here last night at 10.20 pm after a prolonged illness. He was admitted to the hospital on June 19 with severe chest congestion and his condition was critical through the past seven days. —
UNI |
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Nine-day sojourn of Lord Jagannath comes to an
end
Puri, June 27 Lakhs of devotees thronged the pilgrim city and converged at the 3-km-long ‘’bada danda’’ (grand road) from the Gundicha temple to the 12th century Jagannath temple to witness the grand annual festival known as ‘’Bahuda Yatra’’ (return car festival). Lord Jagannath, his elder brother Lord Balavadra and sister Devi Subhadra were taken to their respective chariots by the daitapatis after necessary rituals this morning inside the Gundicha temple where the three deities stayed for nine days, leaving their original abode. The three deities were taken one after the other from the sanctum sanctorum of the Gundicha temple through ceremonial pahandi bije and placed on their respective chariots. While Lord Balabhadra was taken to ‘’Taladhwaja’’ chariot, Devi Subhadra was taken to ‘’Darpadalan’’ and finally Lord Jagannath to the ‘’Nandighosh’’chariot by the temple servitors. The authorities made elaborate security arrangements for the smooth conduct of the festival. Several platoons of the Orissa State Armed Police were deployed in the holy city to control the surging crowd. Roof-tops of all buildings on either side of the road from the Gundicha temple to the Jagannath temple were packed with devotees. All lanes and bylanes leading to the grand road were also packed with the devotees as they rushed to the ‘’bada danda’’ to have a ‘darshan’ of the deities on their respective chariot. The three deities will appear for ‘’sunavesa’’ (golden attire) on their respective chariot on June 29, the last major ritual performed during the car festival. —
UNI |
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Student’s score up, courtesy Kalam
New Delhi, June 27 A bright student, 17-year-old Akhil Gupta, a student of Dayawati Modi Academy at Rampur in Uttar Pradesh, was expecting over 90 marks in physics. Nobody, including his school Principal Ashok Thakur, believed that Akhil could fare so badly in this subject when he had scored 97 per cent in mathematics. Not getting any immediate response from the CBSE, dejected Akhil made a last ditch effort by sending an e-mail to President Dr A.P.J.Abdul Kalam and followed it up with similar messages to Congress President Sonia Gandhi and other leaders explaining his plight. Unwilling to take any chances, he sent another e-mail to the President. Realising that this would have a bearing on the youth, the President had Akhil’s case sent to the HRD Ministry and the CBSE. A Rashtrapati Bhavan official said Dr Kalam, who daily receives hundreds of e-mails, had personally read Akhil’s plea and asked his staff to take it up. Good news followed when on revaluation Akhil’s marks were corrected to 85 from 13. A thankful Akhil, who has applied to BITS-Pilani, feels that the President should take the initiative in revamping the entire revaluation system so that deserving candidates do not suffer because of a mistake by one person. —
PTI |
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Pratibha leaves for Australia
New Delhi, June 27 The two-day event will begin on June 29 and will have delegates studying the role of women in Asian countries and discuss measures to better their socio-economic conditions. Ms Pratibha Singh will put forth her views on "women's perspective on socio-economic development and gender empowerment--Indian scenario with special reference to Himachal Pradesh." During her visit, she will visit Sydney and Canberra among other places to meet people of Indian origin. |
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