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Seer’s arrest is an insult, says Vajpayee
Sarna, Hit join hands to oust Chandok
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Relocation: No headway yet
Students go on fast unto death in Dasna jail
Different strokes on display at Pragyan competition
Karamchari Sangh seeks clarification from Cong
Release funds to MCD, Gupta appeals to LG
Traffic arrangement
BJP petitions Kalam on
Agitated crowd demands release of lovers
Court seeks repatriation of Bangladeshi kids
Seminar held on company law
Slowdown in economic activity worries industrialists
Naveen Patnaik visits IITF
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Seer’s arrest is an insult, says Vajpayee
Ghaziabad, November 22 Highlighting the soft approach of the various governments towards the religious leaders of the minority community, he wondered whether the government would have taken similar steps if it had involved the religious heads of other communities. It is a public issue and one cannot oppose it sitting in one’s home. The BJP is, therefore, opposing it on the roads, he said. The issue of the Sankaracharya’s arrest is bothering the people in the whole country, for which the Government of Tamil Nadu and the Government of India are both responsible. Mr Vajpayee said the arrest of Sankaracharya , the most respected Hindu saint, was an open affront to the multi-religious and multi-racial democratic society of India. The former Prime Minister, who was here to attend a private function, said the Congress-led UPA government has completely failed in controlling the prices of essential commodities and the common man was feeling the pinch of the rising cost of living. The Union Government, Mr Vajpayee alleged, was not bothered about the common man, who is being crushed under the impact of unprecedented price hike of essential commodities. The Union Government should have effectively addressed this problem, which affects one and all, more so the poor. However, the government has miserably failed in controlling prices, he added. Criticising the government’s policy of giving food grains to the poor in lieu of work, Mr Vajpayee said the scheme was only on papers and in government files. One does not find its implementation at the people’s level anywhere, the former Prime Minister alleged.
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Sarna, Hit join hands to oust Chandok
New Delhi, November 22 The others who were declared elected were Baldev Singh Ranibagh for the post of senior vice president; Tarjeet Singh
Nagi, junior vice president; Ravinder Singh Khurana, general secretary; and Daljeet Kaur, joint secretary. Also elected were 10 members of the executive committee. They are : Tarsem Singh, Joginder Singh Walia, Thekedar Surjeet Singh, Avtar Singh, Jagmohan Singh Jaggi, Bakshish Singh, Surjeet Singh, Manjit Singh, Rajinder Singh and Malkinder Singh. The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) and the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi) had forged an alliance before the election to dislodge the incumbents from the powerful religious bastion. SAD Secretary General Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa had become a key player in striking reconciliation between his party and its fierce opponent Paramjit Singh Sarna, who had unseated entrenched Badal loyalists from Sikh religious power in Delhi in the 2002 election. Mr Sarna was able to keep the powerful SAD at bay by even having anointed veteran Congressman Prehlad Singh Chandok as president of the Akali-exclusive DSGMC last year. However, Mr Chandok apparently sidelined his mentor after taking office, setting the stage for rapprochement between Mr Sarna and Mr Parkash Singh Badal’s SAD is headed here by his close lieutenant Avtar Singh Hit. In the 51-member DSGMC, the Sikh religious centre in the Capital, Mr Sarna and Mr Hit – known in the community as political opponents – managed to cobble together a majority to oust Mr Chandok. Meanwhile, the DSGMC, which controls a number of historical gurdwaras and institutions in the Capital, has faced allegations of horse-trading and vote-buying, prompting suggestions from Sikh scholars to replace elections in Sikh religious affairs with a selection system.
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Relocation: No headway yet
New Delhi, November 22 The National Capital Region Planning Board
(NCRPB) has said that it has drawn up a plan for relocating industries on the outskirts of Delhi but is waiting for the Delhi Government to identify the category and the number of industries it wants to shift out. According to the member secretary of NCRPB, Mr P. K. Mishra, industrial estates in and around Delhi have been identified. “The Union Ministry of Urban Development,” he said, “is co-ordinating with state governments in this regard.” He said that the NCRPB met in the last week of October and accepted the report of the working group set up for the purpose. “We have identified industrial estates in Haryana and Uttar Pradesh and have proposed a single-window approach to relocating industries.” “Land is available. Incentives are also being offered to the industry but it is not clear what categories of industries the Delhi Government wants to shift and their numbers. Till that is conveyed to us there can be little progress,” he added. Compounding matters for the NCRPB is the confusion arising out of the recent decisions to amend the Master Plan so that the industries do not have to shift out of the Capital and how it would impact the court’s orders on the public interest petitions filed in this regard. The Ministry of Urban Development announced on November 4 new guidelines to regularise non-conforming clusters of illegal industries in the Capital by adding an enabling provision to Master Plan 2021, which would regularise certain illegal industries. The notification provides that non-conforming clusters of industrial concentration of minimum four hectares contiguous area having more than 70 per cent of plots under manufacturing activity may be considered for redevelopment. Meanwhile, offers for relocating the industries are pouring in from the neighbouring states. The Uttar Pradesh Government has said that all big and medium-sized industrial units in Delhi could be set up in Noida,
Loni, Ghaziabad and Meerut. Uttar Pradesh Industries Minister Jagdish Singh Rana has also promised incentives like tax exemption and asserted that some 500-odd industrialists of Delhi have approached him for shifting their industries out of the Capital. Rolling out the red carpet, even Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Babulal Gaur has said that the industrial cluster of Pithampur in Indore is comparable to Detroit. He also said that the state is strategically located for logistic benefits.
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Busted gang used Ceilo for burglaries
New Delhi, November 22 The police have recovered one Ceilo car, two house breaking implements, one gold chain and one gold ring from the accused. The gang was using the car for robberies. The Northeast district police arrested the accused from Anand Vihar Bus terminal on November 17 while they were travelling in their Ceilo car. According to the police, Nadeem was a vegetable seller and took to crime to make a fast buck. He has two brothers and three sisters. Jai Prakash had studied up to the 10th standard. He has one brother and three sisters. Another accused, Allaudeen, has four sons and five daughters. He was a TSR driver but unable to sustain his livelihood. Sahanwaj (25), another accused, has four brothers and two sisters. He was running a meat shop in Ghaziabad.
Fazlu gang member arrested
The Special Cell of the Delhi Police claims to have arrested one of the members of the notorious Fazlu gang from Sarai Kale Khan bus terminus. He was wanted for a long time by the police in a case of extortion of money from a school owner in Rohini and an exporter in Gurgaon area. The police have recovered .38 bore revolver and six live cartridges from him. The accused has been identified as Shams-e-Alam, alias Adnan. According to the DCP Special Cell, Ashok Chand, “The accused was wanted for extorting money from a school owner in Rohini area. He was demanding Rs 25 lakh from him.” Three persons have already been arrested by the police in this connection.
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Students go on fast unto death in Dasna jail
Ghaziabad, November 22 The ABVP burnt an effigy of the UP Chief Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, and demanded the unconditional release of the students arrested by the police. The students are reportedly being supported by the Congress, BJP and BSP. The students were arrested under various Sections of IPC for creating public disorder. After clashes in the jail, seven students— Jatinder Nagar, Nand Kishore Gujar, Ajay Harit, Rajiv Chauhan, Islam, Ajay Singh and Mukesh Yadav-have started a fast unto death to protest against their arrest. A delegation of the students led by Man Mohan Sharma and Pradeep Sharma of the Students Joint Action Committee, who met the fasting students in the Dasna jail, alleged that students were unnecessarily being harassed. In an emergency meeting of the Union, they demanded the unconditional release of the students and called for a time- bound strategy for holding the elections to students union. Student representatives from Dadri, Loni, Noida, Javer, Modinagar and Ghaziabad took part in this meeting. The National Secretary of the students union, Mr Trilok Tyagi, condemned the lathi-charge on the students and the failure of the authorities to hold the elections to the students union.
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Different strokes on display at Pragyan competition
New Delhi, November 22 Within a short span of four years, this competition has developed
into an extremely popular event among children and parents, where the
young ones get an opportunity to project themselves on papers with
myriad colours. Last year, almost 3000 children participated in the competition. However, this year the Pragyan-on-the-Spot Painting Competition attracted more than 4000 participants from different schools in Noida, Greater Noida and Delhi. It was a delightful sight to see children dressed in bright colours, in gay abundance, clutching the hand of their parents and walking to the enclosure, ready to excel in the world of Picasso and Raphael. The event was efficiently managed by the staff and faculty of Pragyan School, which warmly welcomed the parents and the participants. The parents were seen admiring the well-maintained lawns, massive grounds and the beautiful buildings of the school. The grand annual event, which aimed at encouraging creativity and sharpening aesthetic sensibilities, offers numerous attractive prizes and gift hampers. The overall best entry in the competition will get the coveted ‘Satish Chand Memorial Award’, comprising of a National Saving Certificate of Rs 5,000 and a gift voucher worth
Rs 5,000. The three next best entries in 5-8 years, 9-12 years and 13-16 years categories will be awarded gift vouchers for Rs 3,000, Rs 2,000 and Rs 1,000 each respectively in order of merit. In the ‘Tiny Tots’ category prizes of Rs 500 each to the best ten entries will be distributed. There will be 150 additional prizes, which will be in the form of gift hampers. The list of awardees will be displayed on the school website. Moreover, the winners in each category will be announced in the national dailies.
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Karamchari Sangh seeks clarification from Cong
Faridabad, November 22 The Sangh, which has launched a ‘Janata Jago Abhiyan’ to highlight the problems faced by the government employees in the state, today organised a workshop in this regard in Sector-11 here. The speakers at the workshop, which included the District President of the
SKS, Mr Subhash Lamba, demanded a clarification from the Congress party as to how it differed with the present INLD government on issues relating to the welfare of the government employees. According to Mr Lamba, the Congress party should make its position clear regarding issues such privatisation, contract-based employment, retrenchment of staff, ban on recruitment, closing down of the government departments and ‘victimisation’ of the staff on various counts. He said this was necessary, as it was clear that the people were fed up with the present INLD government and the Congress stood a good chance of coming to power in the state. He said the position of the Congress party on these issues could be the deciding factor for the 3.5 lakh employees and their families in the state. The spokesperson of the Sangh, Mr Jeevan Singh, alleged that the State government had failed to honour its promise and agreement on four occasions, and had terminated the services of about 20,000 employees and had failed to fill in about 50,000 posts in different government departments.
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Release funds to MCD, Gupta appeals to LG
New Delhi, November 22 He alleged that if the demand is not accepted, five lakh people living in these colonies would be exposed to epidemics and water-borne diseases. They will be compelled to live in hellish conditions for no fault of their own. He said that the Delhi Government had transferred 44 resettlement colonies on the condition that the expenditure incurred on providing civic amenities in these colonies will be reimbursed by the Delhi Government. The expenditure is being provided to the MCD with delaying tactics. The resettlement colonies were transferred to the corporation on the condition that expenditure for providing infrastructure facilities would be reimbursed by the Delhi Government. He demanded that Lt-Governor should personally intervene in the matter to get released necessary funds for providing infrastructure facilities and cost of maintenance.
Traffic arrangement
New Delhi, November 22 The procession would start from Parade ground to Gurudwara Sis Ganj- Ajmeri Gate- Pul Paharganj- Chuna Mandi- Basant Road- Punchkuian Road- Bangla Sahib- Baba Kharak Singh Marg- GPO roundabout to Gurudwara Rakab Ganj.
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BJP petitions Kalam on water tariff
New Delhi, November 22 Led by Jagdish Mukhi, Leader of the Opposition in the Delhi Assembly, the legislators submitted a memorandum to the President, requesting him to direct the Sheila Dikshit Government to withdraw the proposed hike in water tariff. Similarly, the MCD should also be directed to withdraw its decision to impose professional tax, they said. The memorandum said the decision of the government to appoint a Water Regulatory Commission proved that the government was going to privatise the Delhi Jal Board, and the proposed steep hike in water tariff was nothing but a game plan to give undue advantage to the private companies in the near future.
CPI holds sit-in against hike
Demanding the stalling of the proposed steep hike in water tariff, the CPI today held a sit-in. CPI Secretary Amarjit Kaur said the recent hike in petrol, diesel and cooking gas had already compounded the woes of the common man, and with this raise, their hardship would be aggravated. “We therefore request the Delhi Government to stall its move to increase water tariff as proposed by the Delhi Jal Board and to be discussed in the Cabinet meeting shortly,” she averred. “We are tying up with various Resident Welfare Associations and NGOs and would take the agitation to every corner of the Capital to impress upon the residents to join the movement, forcing the government to take appropriate steps in this direction,” she said. “Instead of increasing the tariff, the government could check misuse and wastage of water, besides keeping a tab on stealing by various parties,” she demanded.
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Agitated crowd demands release of lovers
Ghaziabad, November 22 The two lovers, who are adults and want to marry against the wishes of their parents, had arrived in Balmiki Kunj, Ghaziabad, from Delhi, after having lived in Indore for sometime. The police, however, maintained that they were trying to gather information about the two lovers, who had fled from Dunger Garh in Rajasthan. “We are trying to verify if any case is registered against them there,” the SO of the police station said. Naseem Bano (daughter of Babul Khan) and M. Khan (son of Jamal Khan) of Dunger Garh had reached Ghaziabad by train from Delhi on Friday. Naseem Bano said she had disagreement with her family members, who were negotiating her marriage with another family in Sakheda village. The truth was that she was in love with M. Khan. Even though she had told her father and brother about her preference, they did not agree with her. Subsequently, she left her father’s house and lived with her sister in Indore. Having spent over Rs 5000, they had decided to move to Ghaziabad to cut their expenses by living in a small town. A rickshaw-puller Nanhe had brought them to Balmiki Kunj after promising them a suitable accommodation and a job. After finding a suitable room, Nanhe took M. Khan for arranging a job for him. However, when Nanhe came back in a drunken state to Naseem’s room and could not give a satisfactory answer regarding the whereabouts of her lover, she raised an alarm, thinking that he could have been murdered. The resident handed over Nanhe to the officers at the police post in Nandgram. Later, the police also took the two lovers to the police station for interrogation, when they learnt that they had eloped from Rajasthan. The crowd gathered at the police station alleged that the lovers were detained even though they were adults and had the right to decide on their marriage.
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Court seeks repatriation of Bangladeshi kids
New Delhi, November 22 The Joint Director, Social Welfare Department, told the court in a written submission that though many letters in the regard were sent to the Home Ministry, there was no response
from it. The court noted that the government departments routinely resort to lengthy paper formalities and that there may be hundreds of reasons for not repatriating the juveniles, but it expected the government to take decisions in the interest of the children. The court asked Social Welfare Department to pursue the matter with other departments and file a report on December 23. Taking serious note of the Delhi government’s non-compliance of its repeated orders to repatriate the juveniles held guilty of violating laws, the court had on November 17 issued notice to the Social Welfare Department Director to report the steps taken in the matter. Terming the minors’ detention as “illegal”, the court said “non-compliance of the order is not only failure of the government in discharge of its functions, but is also
contempt”.
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Seminar held on company law
New Delhi, November 22 Delivering the inaugural address, Minister of State for Company Affairs, Mr P. C. Gupta, emphasised that regulatory loopholes must be plugged in order to protect the interest of small investors, general public and companies. He said a high powered committee has already been formed under the leadership of Mr J. J. Irani of the Tata Group. Acknowledging that its takes unduly long to form and register a company, Mr Gupta rued that small investors are often duped by unscrupulous persons who change the names of their companies after getting millions invested. Mr K. C. Ganjwal, Member, Company Law, emphasised the need for strengthening the provisions relating to prevention of oppression and mismanagement and for protecting the interests of minority shareholders.
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Slowdown in economic activity worries industrialists
Faridabad, November 22 The industrialists are concerned that the city, which is one of the largest industrial areas, has been facing a slowdown of economic activities. Although the problems of the industrialists in the area have been highlighted at various levels, there have been no solutions to them so far. There are about half a dozen industrial associations in the district, with hundreds of members. However, a large number of units in the small and medium sectors were still unrepresented. As such, the issues concerning the industrialists have not been raised in an effective manner, said a local entrepreneur. He said the leadership of the industrial associations had failed to speak in one voice. Some of the representatives were even apprehensive of ‘antagonising” the authorities or those in power, he said. As such, he alleged that a ‘meek’ language was adopted by the ‘captains’ of the industry here. According to Mr K. L.Gera, a social activist here, the industrialist need to highlight the lack of proper sewerage system, streetlights, adequate drinking water and power supply. The industrialists, who spoke at the function raised the demand for creating a ‘Special Economic Zone’ and the immediate construction of the flyover at Badarpur border. The other issues raised included the repairs of roads in the industrial sectors, single window system clearance for new projects, regularising the non-conforming industrial areas, where about 70 per cent of the total units are located and making the region a ‘no power cut zone’. “While the State government had organised at least two special functions ‘to take up’ the issues regarding the industry here in the past few years, these seem to have ended up as ‘get-togethers’ and utilised for networking,” claimed an insider.
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Naveen Patnaik visits IITF
New Delhi, November 22 Mr Patnaik appreciated the show put up by the businessmen, industrialists and state-owned industrial houses from his state. Buoyed by the promise of huge investment in the steel and
aluminum sectors, the state had put up a spirited show at the trade fair. Orissa Industry Minister K. B. Singh Deo, Information and Public Relation Minister Devashis Nayak and Power Minister Surya Narayan Patra also attended the ceremony.
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New Delhi, November 22
