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Armitage cancels visit to India
Deshmukh Ministry to take oath today
Pratibha sworn in as Rajasthan Governor
High command convenes meeting of |
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Khursheed unlikely to go in for open confrontation Fuel price hike: Cong blames
Advani turns 78
Minister fined for travelling without ticket
Railways to run special trains
Zaheera moves minorities’ commission
Monica moves Portuguese court
Disease surveillance project launched
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Armitage cancels visit to India
New Delhi, November 8 New Delhi has been formally conveyed about Mr Armitage’s inability to make it to India this time. Sources said Mr Armitage was unable to come for a variety of reasons, such as his unscheduled visit to Abu Dhabi to attend the funeral of the late Abu Dhabi ruler Sheikh Azyed, the upcoming foreign tour of Secretary of State Colin Powell and the domestic politics of the US after President George Bush’s re-election. Asked if President Bush will visit India and Pakistan in February-March next year, as reported in a section of the Pakistan press, sources in the Ministry of External Affairs said there were no indications yet of a presidential visit from the USA. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in his letter of congratulations to President Bush on his re-election last week, had pointedly said that an early India visit from Mr Bush would help better understanding between the two countries. In another development, Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran will leave for Washington on November 17 to attend the meeting of the High Technology Cooperation Group (HTCG) to be held on November 18-19. Mr Saran, who heads the Indian side of the HTCG, would hold talks with his American counterpart Under-Secretary of Commerce Kenneth juster and other senior American officials. The HTCG, meeting would focus on issue related to information technology, bio-technology, nano-technology and defence technology especially in view of the more liberalised licensing regime envisaged under the next steps in strategic partnership. |
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Deshmukh Ministry to take oath today
Mumbai, November 8 According to sources here, Mr Deshmukh’s Cabinet will have 42 ministers, the maximum permitted under the constitutional amendment curtailing the size of the Cabinet. The Lower House of the Maharashtra legislature has 288 members, 15 per cent of which may be the size of the Cabinet. Some ministers in Mr Deshmukh’s Cabinet will be drawn from the Upper House, the Maharashtra Legislative Council, according to sources. Mr Deshmukh was in New Delhi today to give the finishing touches to his Cabinet in consultation with party chief Sonia Gandhi and others. The NCP, which has 24 berths in the Cabinet, has already finalised the names for inclusion in the ministry, Maharashtra Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil told reporters here today. Their names will, however, be announced at the time of the ministers’ swearing-in ceremony. The Congress was, however, unable to decide on its members in the Cabinet since it has only 16 berths. It would be sharing two seats with its allies, according to party leaders here. With hectic lobbying on for portfolios here, Mr Deshmukh would depend on his party leadership to pacify disgruntled partymen denied a place in the Cabinet, sources say. Mr Deshmukh’s team would be sworn in at Azad Maidan instead of Raj Bhavan in order to enable supporters of the new ministers to attend,the ceremony, according to sources. The venue was prepared more than a week ago and the green signal was awaited from the authorities concerned for the function. |
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Pratibha sworn in as Rajasthan Governor
Jaipur, November 8 Mr Pratibha Patil is the 16th Governor of Rajasthan. With her taking over, it would make a towering trio of three top women with Mrs Vasundhara Raje as the Chief Minister and Mrs Sumitra Singh as the Speaker Assembly. Mrs Patil succeeds Mr M.L. Khurana, who recently relinquished the gubernatorial office to join active politics in Delhi. It may be recalled that Gurmukh Nihaal Singh, the first Governor of Rajasthan, remained in office from November 1, 1956, to April 15, 1962. Besides him, Punjab gave three more Sikh Governors to Rajasthan — Mr Hukum Singh, Mr Joginder Singh and Mr Darbara Singh. While Gurmukh Nihaal Singh had the longest stay of more than six years as the Rajasthan Governor, Mr Darbara Singh had the briefest tenure of only 18 days because of his demise in May, 1998. |
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High command convenes meeting of HPCC today
New Delhi, November 8 The meeting will be presided over by Congress general secretary in charge of Haryana Janardhan Dwivedi. It will discuss the overall political environment in Haryana under Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala and his Indian National Lok Dal and the strategy to be adopted in blunting the Indian National Lok Dal. With the general expectation that the Assembly elections in Haryana will be held in January along with those in Bihar and Jharkhand, the Congress wants to get cracking in seeing the back of the INLD government. The attack against the alleged misgovernance of Mr Chautala is becoming shriller by the day with Congress leaders having intensified their road shows in the state. It is apparent that the effort of the Congress high command wants the HPCC to close ranks and overcome the factional fueds. HPCC chief and former Chief Minister Bhajan Lal is already on an overdrive and maintains that Mr Chautala has paved the way for the Congress to regain power in Haryana. Despite lobbies at work for a change in Congress leadership in Haryana, the High Command appears keen in retaining Mr Bhajan Lal as the PCC chief. The party’s central leadership is aware of Mr Bhajan Lal’s role during the general elections when the Congress secured nine out of the 10 seats in the state to the Lok Sabha as well ensuring the recent home coming of his arch rival Bansi Lal. There are others in former PCC chief Bhupinder Singh Hooda and Birender Singh already sharpening their swords for the battle at the hustings. |
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Khursheed unlikely to go in for open confrontation New Delhi, November 8 Unlike his earlier stint as UPPCC president when Mr. Khurhseed had launched an aggressive campaign against the Samajwadi Party leader, he will be constrained from doing the same because of the possible ramifications at the Centre. The Left parties, especially CPM leader Harkishan Singh Surjeet, have a soft spot for Mr.Mulayum Singh Yadav and would not like the Congress to take any extreme steps, which will destabilise the SP-government in UP. Since the UPA government is heavily dependent on the left, the congress would not like to do or say anything to annoy them. Mr. Khursheed said as much today in an informal conversation with presspersons. Known as a
Mulayum-baiter, the new UPPCC chief admitted that the party would have necessarily to vary its tactics in the state this time round. It is not that the Congress will not take on Mulayum Singh Yadav, he clarified, but it would adopt a subtle approach. “It will be more in the nature of a hit and run operation,” he explained. As of now, the Congress is lending outside support to the Mulayum Singh Yadav government. However relations between the two are far from cordial and neither side spares any occasion to take a swipe at the other. Clearly, Mr. Khurhseed has a tough job on hand. He cannot hardly afford to take any extreme steps vis-a-vis the SP government. At the same time, he has to take on Mr. Mulayum Singh Yadav if the Congress is to dent his Yadav-Muslim support base. “It is imperative for the Congress to win over the minorities if it is to revive in UP,” he added. But more importantly, Mr. Khursheed has to rejuvenate the party organisation in the state. He was evasive when asked whether the Congress would
continue to support the UP government, stating that the more important thing is to start opposing it. The Congress could well get the BSP’s collaboration in this endeavour, he hinted. Mr. Khursheed has a good equation with BSP leader Mayawati and was a key player when the Congress was negotiating with the BSP before the recent Lok Sabha elections. Meanwhile, Mr. Khursheed has decided to get down to work immediately as he will journey through Rampur, Bairelly, Pilibhit, Shahjahanpur and Sitapur on November 17 and 18 by road to take over his new post in Lucknow on November 19. His next visit will be to the Bundelkhand region, he added. |
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Fuel price hike: Cong blames NDA regime New Delhi, November 8 Congress spokesperson Anand Sharma today said the NDA had put this issue in deep freeze in the run-up to the last Lok Sabha poll even though there had been a steep hike in the international oil market. As for the BJP’s perception that there is a “collision” between the Congress and the Left on this issue, Mr Sharma maintained the BJP was seeing “shadows and collision everywhere” as that party is conspiratorial. Mr Sharma sidestepped questions
regarding the DMK’s plans to hold state-wide demonstrations and the Left’s strong criticism of this move, Mr. Sharma merely said that in a democracy, political parties had a right to express their views. The allies, he said, are separate
entities, stating that “the DMK is making a political statement’ and the UPA government is sensitive to this issue. |
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Advani turns 78
New Delhi, November 8 Former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was the first to greet his party associate and colleague by
calling him at his residence to greet him on the occasion. While Mr Advani met his party workers and friends at his residence, he is hosting a dinner tomorrow on the occasion of the 84th birthday of his senior colleague Jagdish Prasad Mathur. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam sent a bouquet through his ADC while Prime Minister Manmohan Singh sent Mr Advani a bouquet and a letter. Dr Singh also rang up Mr Advani from the Hague to greet him on the occasion. |
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Minister fined for travelling without ticket
Patna, November 8 Rural Development Minister Awadh Bihari Choudhary was asked to pay a fine of Rs 1,274 after he was found in an air-conditioned compartment of a super fast train near Hajipur in Vaishali district. Choudhary, known for his closeness with Railways Minister Laloo Prasad, was taken by surprise when the railway officials asked him to show his ticket. “After that, he was penalised like any ordinary passenger,” an official said. Officials of East Central Railway said this was the first instance of Bihar minister being penalised for travelling without a ticket in a train.
— IANS |
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Railways to run special trains
New Delhi, November 8 The special Amritsar-Katihar train will depart from Amritsar at 11.10 am on November 9 and 14 and reach Katihar at 12.35 am on the third day. According to a railway spokesman, the train will depart from Katihar at 12 noon on November 11 and 18 and arrive at Amritsar at 11.45 pm the next day. It will stop at Jalandhar City, Ludhiana, Ambala cantt, Saharanpur, Laksar, Moradabad, Bareilly, Lucknow, Faizabad, Varanasi, |
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Zaheera moves minorities’ commission
New Delhi, November 8 Talking to The Tribune, National Commission for Minorities Chairman Tarlochan Singh confirmed that the commission had received a letter from Zaheera in which she had complained of being coerced to name innocent persons in the case by Teesta and her NGO. She had also written that she was feeling helpless as she belonged to a minority community. Alleging that she was forcibly taken to Mumbai by some local people at the behest of Teesta, she said she was threatened with dire consequences and kept in confinement by the activist there. The NCM Chairman said the complaint had been marked and sent to the office. |
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Vadodara, November 8
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Monica moves Portuguese court
New Delhi, November 8 Monica filed an application with the Portuguese court pleading that she had already been punished for the offence by a Portuguese Trial Court for entering the country with the forged passport. An appeal with the Portuguese Supreme Court against the order had been pending for disposal, the sources said. Monica had allegedly fled the country by acquiring a passport in the name of Sana Kamal Malik, the sources said.
— UNI |
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Disease surveillance project launched
New Delhi, November 8 Aimed at detecting the outbreak of a disease in the country well in advance, the surveillance project would help notify the Centre and state within six hours if a death occurs due to some disease. The other eight states to be covered under the first phase of the project include Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Uttaranchal, Tamil Nadu, Mizoram and Kerala and cover a total of 206 districts. Mr Ramadoss told mediapersons that the project would help study the disease patterns in the country and identify emerging diseases. It would also provide essential data to monitor the progress of on-going disease control programmes and help allocate health resources more optimally. By 2007 the entire country would be covered, he said. |
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