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Munda moves SC on Soren’s appointment
37 Jharkhand MLAs told to reach Ranchi
Bihar MLAs not entitled to pay, perks |
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UPA allies could not coordinate in Bihar, says Cong
CM launches website for UP women
PM promises more funds for farm sector
Hooda meets Bansi Lal
India says ‘no’ to military aid to Nepal
Arms, ammo seized in Bangalore
10 Maoists killed in Andhra
3 of family killed in Rishikesh
Protect ambience of
Shantinekatan: SC
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Munda moves SC on Soren’s appointment
New Delhi, March 7 Apprehending foisting of “false” cases against some Independent MLAs, Mr Munda in a quo warranto petition also sought protection to the MLAs, specially the five Independents, against any “coercive” action by the state police in a bid to prevent them from participating in trust vote. Former Chief Minister Arjun Munda, who has been elected BJP legislative party leader, also sought a direction to Mr Soren to show a “legal title and legal authority” under which he “purports” to hold the office of Chief Minister despite his not having a majority in the Assembly, and declare the action of Mr Razi appointing him to the post as “unconstitutional” and invite him (Munda) to form the government as he enjoyed the majority support of 41 MLAs in a 81-member House. Besides, a direction has been sought by him to appoint a Judge as an independent observer to supervise the Assembly proceedings during the trust vote to ensure “total transparent, peaceful and voluntary” voting by every MLA. Mr Munda’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi made a special mention about the filing of the petition before a three-Judge Bench, headed by Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti, and sought its urgent hearing, but the court posted it for arguments on March 9 as tomorrow being a holiday. The petitioner has named the Governor, Mr Soren, Jharkhand Chief Secretary and Director-General of Police as respondents. Earlier, the Bench, while hearing former Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar’s petition challenging dismissal of his ministry by Governor S.C. Jamir, gave time to his counsel Soli J. Sorabjee to amend the petition in the wake of the state being put under the President’s rule. When Congress Chief Minister Pratapsinh Rane’s counsel Ashok Desai sought the closure of the matter in the event of the President’s rule referring to apex court’s direction in the Bomai case that the Governors have to act in a manner to protect the “political tranquillity”, the Bench observed “who is concerned about the political peace these days” and adjourned hearing in the matter to March 14. In the Jharkhand case, Mr Munda, in his petition, said the five days’ difference between convening the Assembly and the trust vote, ordered by the Governor, encouraging “horse trading” had been witnessed in Goa. Apprehending arrest of some of the five Independent MLAs, the BJP leader in his petition said “false cases of kidnapping are being sought to be lodged in spite of clear affirmation by them repeatedly before the Governor that they are supporting him (Munda) voluntarily. The family members of Independent MLAs are being harassed,” he alleged. “It is pertinent to mention here that against one Independent MLA Sudesh Mahto the present Chief Minister Shibu Soren has threatened to get a CBI inquiry done,” the petition said, adding that such open threats by Mr Soren had been reported by the media. On the issue of the Governor inviting Mr Soren to form the government, the NDA alliance leader said he “simply ignored” the majority support to him in the Assembly despite the five Independent MLAs — Inos Ekka, Hari Narayan Rao, Madhu Kora, Sudesh Mahto and Chandra Prakash Chaudhary — reiterating it by personally appearing before him in Raj Bhavan on March 1 and 2, respectively, when he called them. Alleging that the Governors in either of the cases had failed to do their duty impartially, Mr Munda said “under Article 159 of the Constitution, it is the duty of the Governor to preserve and protect the Constitution and the rule of law. But the entire action of the Jharkhand Governor is blatantly violative of the spirit of the Constitution and the Sarkaria Commission recommendations.” |
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Ranchi, March 7
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37 Jharkhand MLAs told to reach Ranchi
Jaipur, March 7 These MLAs offered ‘ziarat’ at the ‘dargah’
and paid obeisance at the holy Pushkar in Ajmer yesterday. The former Jharkhand Chief Minister and senior NDA leader Arjun Munda and Saru Ram had also been in Jaipur for the past three days, but they suddenly left for Ranchi in view of the emerging
political developments there. The Jharkhand MLAs had been directed by a party whip to remain in Jaipur so that they could reach Delhi immediately at the party’s call. It may be mentioned that MLAs from Goa were
also recently lodged in the same resort. |
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Bihar MLAs not entitled to pay, perks New Delhi, March 7 As per the Bihar Assembly rules, a newly elected MLA is not entitled for pay and perks unless he is administered oath. Since President’s rule is being clamped after various parties and combines failing to cobble up majority, the MLAs have not been administered oath. Former Union Law Minister and BJP leader Arun Jaitley said the Bihar Assembly had a peculiar rule making oath compulsory for the MLAs to draw the pay and perks. “Since this kind of a situation has never arisen in the state previously, the Centre will have to look into it,” Mr Jaitley said. The general rule is that administration of oath is a pre-requisite for an MLA or MP to participate in the proceedings of the House, he said. In this context, he referred to the situation that arose in Uttar Pradesh in 1996, when there was division over whether or not an MLA, who has not been administered oath, could vote in the Rajya Sabha elections.
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UPA allies could not coordinate in Bihar, says Cong
New Delhi, March 7 Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said the party had made “sincere endeavour” towards forming a government but the party was not successful. Asked about the party’s earlier claims of a “secular” combination being able to form a government in the state, Mr Sharma said the vote was for secular parties and efforts had been made in that direction. “UPA allies could not establish proper coordination. We tried, but were not successful,” Mr Sharma said. Asked about RJD’s criticism of Mr Ram Vilas Paswan and acrimony between the two union ministers, Mr Sharma said such matters were discussed in the UPA coordination committee meeting. |
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‘State Party’ status to
LJP, CPI(ML) New Delhi, March 7 The LJP has bagged 29 seats and the CPI (ML) seven seats in the elections.
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CM launches website for UP women
Lucknow, March 7 Reiterating his government’s commitment to women empowerment, Mr Yadav underlined his government introducing the process of gender budgeting from the coming financial year. At least one-third of the budgetary provisions of various departments made for participant-based schemes would be kept aside for women participants living below the poverty line. Underlining his government’s pledge to bring in 33 per cent reservation for women, Mr Yadav hinted at reservation within reservation when he asserted that he “only wanted to ensure that the benefit reached those women who really deserved it and was not hijacked by those who had already benefited due to their social and economic backgrounds”. As part of the Women’s Day function, 32 women achievers from diverse fields were honoured with a citation and a trophy each for their contributions. The list included social activists, doctors, journalists, academicians, musicians, bureaucrat and even designers. Prominent among them were veteran activists Kanchanlata
Sabarwal, former VC of Kanpur University Dr Hemlata Swaroop, journalists Sunita
Aron, Kulsum Talha, Ruchi Kumar and designer Kumkum Roychaudhury. While these handful of women received accolades for their work, the Gorakhpur Environment Action Group (GEAG) launched a nationwide campaign to focus attention on the nine crore women farmers in the country whose contribution remains unsung. |
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PM promises more funds for farm sector
New Delhi, March 7 “Our government has been voted to power on the wave of agrarian distress, caused partly by the failure of the market and partly by the failure of the state,” he said, while inaugurating the New Delhi office of the International Food Policy Research Institute. He said: “We have to promote greater public-private partnership in the days to come for bringing in an agrarian revolution.” The Prime Minister said there was a difference between the first Green Revolution of the 1970s and the second Green Revolution, which would encompass enhancing production of fruits and vegetables. “Our government will launch a national horticulture mission that is aimed, in part, at stimulating this second Green Revolution in the range of new crops and commodities,” he said. |
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Hooda meets Bansi Lal
New Delhi, March 7 Sources said Mr Hooda also met Union Ministers Kamal Nath and H.R. Bhardwaj. He is expected to meet Congress president Sonia Gandhi tomorrow. With the state Cabinet expected to be finalised in the next few days, Congress MLAs with ambitions to ministerial berths met Mr Hooda and Mr Janardan Dwivedi, general secretary in charge of Haryana. Mr Dwivedi met the MLAs individually. Maintaining that the ministry would be formed “early,” Mr Dwivedi said no formula had yet been worked out to decide candidates for ministerial berths. |
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India says ‘no’ to military aid to Nepal New Delhi, March 7 Nepalese Foreign Minister Ramesh Nath Pandey pitched for resumption of Indian military aid to Nepal during his working lunch with External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh, but Mr Natwar Singh told him it would be possible only when Kathmandu met three major concerns expressed by India and four other international players — the USA, the UK, the European Union and the United Nations. The three concerns are: (i) multi-party democracy should be restored, (ii) the political prisoners should be freed, and (iii) press censorship should be lifted. The argument of the Nepalese Foreign Minister was that by suspending its military aid to Nepal, only the hands of the Maoist insurgents were being strengthened. India rejected the argument, the sources said. India has delivered military aid worth Rs 480 crore to Nepal in the past four years alone and military supplies to Kathmandu worth over Rs 50 crore were in the pipeline when New Delhi put a freeze on all military supplies in the wake of February 1 royal coup by the King. The sources asserted that not even a single rupee worth military aid has been made available to Nepal since February 1. An important point to be noted here is that the Nepalese Foreign Minister was not invited by the Government of India., He came along with Nepalese Foreign Secretary Madhu Raman Acharya because he wanted to talk to the Indian leadership. Mr Pandey is here until March 9. It is understood that he is keen on a meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh but the UPA government is not in a mood to oblige him. India has made it clear to Nepal that under the present circumstances it cannot resume military supplies to Kathmandu because it does not want that money to be utilised for a vigil by the Royal Nepal Army on Nepal’s political leaders who are under house arrest. Moreover, New Delhi does not want to see its money going to the RNA which has deployed its officers in the editorial offices of newspapers and television channels to impose censorship. Mr Natwar Singh conveyed to Mr Pandey India’s disappointment at the measures taken by the King, saying that the February 1 developments had served to deepen the crisis facing the Hindu Kingdom. Mr Natwar Singh minced no words in telling his Nepalese counterpart that King Gyanendra’s actions could endanger the institution of monarchy itself. Besides, New Delhi warned that Kathmandu was now facing a deteriorating economic situation which was likely to be further worsened by decisions by donor countries to suspend aid to Nepal.
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Arms, ammo seized in Bangalore
Bangalore, March 7 Red alert has been sounded, and security intensified at the airport, railway and bus stations and central establishments, City Police commissioner S. Mariswamy stated. Intelligence agencies are on high alert, and a special police team has been formed to track the source of the cache. Chief Minister Dharam Singh inspected the haul of arms, which included one 9 mm Sten gun, three country- made pistols, five machetes, and 149 rounds of ammunition. These were displayed to him at his residence. The cache is suspected to have been brought to the station on one of the many Chennai - Bangalore trains. The items were found in two bags, left at the entrance to the station. They were picked up during routine police rounds, Mr Mariswamy said. With numerous armed forces establishments, defence research and defence public sector organisations, mostly in aerospace, and internationally renowned software companies, Bangalore has always been seen as a potential terrorist target. No major attack has, however, taken place in the city so far, not counting the planting of bombs in churches a few years ago by a terrorist group, aimed at creating communal tension. Mr Dharam Singh said that a meeting of Home Department officials would be held to review the situation. The Delhi police yesterday revealed that documents seized from the LeT militants after the encounter there had indicated a plot to attack software installations. The militants had visited Bangalore during December. State Intelligence Bureau officials have stated that they are not in possession of any specific intelligence regarding possible attacks. |
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10 Maoists killed in Andhra
Hyderabad, March 7 The police said that Nizamabad district squad commander Ramesh, alias Venkata Swamy, district committee member Babanna, besides three women militants, were among those killed in the Manala encounter. One of the local guerrilla squad members Jyohti, who fell to the police bullets, is the wife of Ramesh. According to the police, Ramesh, also a member of the north Telangana special zonal committee of Maoist revolutionaries, was wanted in more than 50 cases. A team of Grey Hounds, the anti-Naxal wing of the state police, which has been combing the area for the past fortnight, on a tip-off attacked the Maoists who had gathered for a meeting in the forest. The police seized an AK-47, two SLR and four .303 rifles from the scene of the incident. Meanwhile, militants killed constable Babu Rao, while he was returning home after dropping his children to school. The action was apparently in protest against the capturing of a senior Maoist leader Seshagiri Rao, active in the Andhra-Orissa border areas, by the Rajahmundry police on Sunday. In another incident, Maoists torched the signalling system at Annavaram railway station in East Godavari district, which delayed in the scheduled run of several trains on the route. Apprehending retaliatory killings by Maoists, the police has asked the ministers, MLAs and important political leaders in the Telangana region to immediately move to Hyderabad. Maoist representative Kalyana Rao charged that the Congress government was turning the state into a graveyard with an encounter a day. |
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3 of family killed in Rishikesh
Dehra Dun, March 7 On preliminary investigations, the case does not come across as murder for loot or robbery, the police said. As of now, the police has no clue to the accused and the cause of the murder. The police has recovered a car parked near the site, which the accused could have left behind. Forensic experts are looking into the matter. Khinauti Devi, alias Kiran (35), and her two sons, Nitin (16) and Sachin (13), were found murdered at their residence when Hukum Chand, a tempo driver and her husband’s employee, went to deliver money to her, the police said. The woman was lying dead in a pool of blood in the prayer room of the house while her younger son Sachin’s body lay in another room. Older son Nitin’s body was lying in the store of the same room. While the phone line of the house was found cut, the main power switch was switched off. Kiran’s husband, Prem Singh, who runs a video photography studio was at work when the incident occurred, police said. The police reached the site along with forensic experts and a dog squad and examined the site. The woman’s husband has denied enmity with anyone that could have led to the triple murder. A police team is camping at the site, said Dehra Dun SSP PVK Prasad. |
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Protect ambience of
Shantinekatan: SC New Delhi, March 7 A Bench of Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha, gave the direction in a judgement, on a petition by Tagore’s grand-daughter Sushanta, seeking protection of the existing nature of Viswa Bharti. She had alleged that Shantiniketan’s surroundings were being defaced in the process of future planning of the area by the state government and its agencies in its zeal to develop the area. The court said that future planning for development of the area should be done by keeping in mind “ideals conceived” by Tagore. “The land use and future planning of Shantiniketan must be done in such a manner so that the changes be brought about which would not be beyond the recognition of the poet as also the provisions of the Act,” the court said. The court, however, made it clear that it did not intend to stop legal construction by the government agencies but this could be done by keeping in mind the provisions of the relevant rules. Suhanta and some other residents of Shantiniketan, had alleged that encroachments, indiscriminate constructions, commercialisation of the area by builders was being allowed.
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Retirement age of panchayat staff raised
Dehra Dun, March 7 The government’s decision brings the panchayat employees on a par with other state government employees who retire at 60 years. |
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