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Sonia hopeful on women’s quota
issue
Memory fails Justice
Sarkaria
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Smash militant camps in Bangladesh, Lapang to Centre
Canadian visa centres in Jalandhar,
Chandigarh
Desaffronisation of textbooks not on agenda: Prof
Yashpal
Mahashivratri celebrated with fervour
Penalty recommended for
perjury
Basu supporters not included in state CPM panel
BJP charges Sonia with dishonesty
CPM congress next month
International Sufi Festival from March 10
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Sonia hopeful on women’s quota
issue
New Delhi, March 8 The lack of propriety on the part of senior functionaries of the host ministry definitely struck as odd to the audience. Ms Sonia Gandhi noticed the oversight. She tried to undo the damage by asking the Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar to invite Ms Gursharan Kaur to the stage. The function had already begun and the presence of Ms Gursharan Kaur was acknowledged midway. Addressing a function at Vigyan Bhavan today to honour women entrepreneurs from various states on the International Women’s Day, the UPA Chairperson said women should get 33 per cent reservation in the Lok Sabha and state legislatures as in Panchayats. “Talks are going on with political parties and I am hopeful that some way will be found,” she said. The 25 women honoured today belonged to the Scheduled Caste, OBCs, minorities and physically challenged. The women were living below the poverty line and improved their conditions by applying for loans under various schemes of the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. Ms Gandhi said over 10,000 women were working in Panchayats in the country, besides those working as chairpersons in Zila Parishads. She suggested that land records given to the landless people should be in the name of women. “No society can progress leaving women behind. The Indian culture is known for its tradition of revering women like Goddesses. Then why are atrocities committed against women? It is important to change the attitude of people and a national effort is needed for this. I expect all non-government organisations, social action groups, media and society to work in this direction with political parties,” Ms Gandhi said. The Congress President reiterated the UPA government’s commitment to empower women through various programmes, including employment, education and health. She said allocation to these areas had been increased in the Central Budget. Terming female foeticide a blot on society, Ms Gandhi stressed the need for creating awareness on the issue at the national level. Ms Gandhi said manual scavenging should be discontinued at the earliest. Speaking on the occasion, Minister for Social Justice and Empowerment Meira Kumar said though women comprised half the population, equal opportunity for development, equality and social prestige was still a distant dream. Ms Shalini Dewan, Director, United Nations Information Centre, read out UN Secretary General Kofi Annan’s message on the occasion of the International Women’s Day. In his message, Kofi Annan has said that this year marks a milestone in the movement for gender equality and the advancement of women, the 10-year review of the Beijing conference and platform for action. Mr Annan has reminded the international community that promoting gender equality is not just the responsibility of women, it is a responsibility of everybody. |
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Memory fails Justice
Sarkaria
New Delhi, March 8 Rendered a recluse by old age and fading memory, Justice Sarkaria spends his time with his wife alone at their residence in eastern Delhi. Their children live in Chandigarh. “His condition has been so for a couple of years now. He finds it difficult to recognise people or recall events from the past. Sometimes he reads newspapers and underlines sentences that interest him,” says Mrs Bakshish Kaur, his wife. Justice Sarkaria depends on the three personal security officers provided to him for understanding the images on television. “He nods when he is told about the mention of his report on television. Earlier, he used to talk about the absence of character and honesty in public life and how unfortunate it was that even the judiciary has been affected,” she observes as Justice Sarkaria apologises for remaining silent. Incidentally, it was on March 23, 1983, when the then Prime Minister, Indira Gandhi, announced in Parliament her proposal to set up a commission under the chairmanship of Justice Sarkaria, a retired Judge of the Supreme
Court. The commission examined the existing arrangements between the Centre and the states, and recommended certain changes within the framework of the Constitution. The Sarkaria Commission was subsequently set up in June 1983. It laboured for five years. Its voluminous reports were submitted in 1988. The reports were in two volumes and ran into 1600-odd pages. The Inter-State Council (ISC), which met in Srinagar in August, 2003, deliberated on the 17 recommendations that remained out of the 247 recommendations contained in the Sarkaria Commission report. |
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Smash militant camps in Bangladesh, Lapang to Centre
Shillong (Meghalaya), March 8 Mr Lapang was recently in Delhi to meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress President Sonia Gandhi. During his meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Lapang not only demanded the immediate destruction of militant camps in Bangladesh but also fencing of the state’s border with Bangladesh to check infiltration which was fast changing the demographic character of Meghalaya. It may be noted that even the Chief Ministers of West Bengal and Tripura, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharaya and Mr Manik Sarker, respectively, are in favour of total fencing of the borders with Bangladesh. The Bangladesh Rifles recently opened fire on the Tripura border to obstruct the ongoing fencing there. Mr Lapang plans to open talks with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarker to put joint pressure on the Centre to take up the matter with Bangladesh. |
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Canadian visa centres in Jalandhar,
Chandigarh
New Delhi, March 8 Residents applying for all types of temporary visas (visitors, students, and workers) will now be able to submit visa applications across the counter at these nine application centres. The applications will then be forwarded daily by courier to the High Commission or the Consulate General in Chandigarh for assessment. Jalandhar is one of the nine cities in the country selected across India for this service. The other Visa Application Centres will be located in New Delhi, Chandigarh, Mumbai, Ahmedabad, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Kolkata. All centres will open on March 9. According to the Canadian High Commission, applicants for temporary visas will get the option of submitting their application at a centre geographically convenient to them instead of to the High Commission in New Delhi or the Consulate General in Chandigarh. Canada has selected VFS (India) Private Limited to operate the new Visa Application Centres. A Canadian High Commission media press statement said VFS also offered the applicants to opt for a courier service for return delivery of the passports directly at their doorstep. |
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Desaffronisation of textbooks not on
Hyderabad, March 8 Disapproving of any talk of desaffronisation of the education system, Prof Yashpal pointed out that the current approach of the NCERT was not an effort in this direction. The general consensus at the review meetings was to evolve a curriculum that is inclusive, blending various disciplines to help children understand and relate different things instead of memorising useless information. He was speaking at the conclusion of a three-day meeting of the 30-member national steering committee and the chairpersons of 21 national focus groups to deliberate on various aspects of educational reforms, curriculum changes and focusing on new subjects like peace education and gender issues. The curriculum review exercise was expected to be completed by the end of next month and the recommendations of the review committee would be submitted to the NCERT executive committee and the general council for discussion and approval, Prof Yashpal said. Voicing concern over the present state of affairs in education and mad race for coaching classes, he said the faulty examination system, which did not require understanding of concepts, amounted to cheating children and ourselves. |
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Mahashivratri celebrated with fervour
Kurukshetra, March 8 The pilgrims, including political leaders comprising Mr Shanta Kumar, former Chief Minister, Himachal Pradesh and the newly elected Congress MLAs, Mr K.L. Sharma and Ms Kartari Devi as well as veteran Congress leader and former Member of Parliament, Mr Tara Singh, paid obeisance at these temples. On this occasion, as many as 187 units of blood were donated at a blood donation camp organised by Shri Sangmeshwar Dham, Urnai (Pehowa). SUNDERNAGAR: Thousands of devotees today visited various Shiva temples in and around Sundernagar and adjoining Balh valley and performed puja. In Sundernagar, devotees were seen at historical Mahadev temple. The devotees started queuing up here since early morning and waited for hours to pay obeisance. Similarly, devotees thronged at Kulada Mahadev temple and Shitla Mata temple. At Nagchala Shiva temple, a large number of devotees from Balh valley and Mandi town performed puja. HAMIRPUR: Mahashivratri was celebrated throughout the Hamirpur district with traditional gaiety and fervour today. The temples were beautifully decorated and illuminated. The main function was held at Gasoteshwra temple at Gasota. Thousands of devotees were seen standing in a queue to pay their obeisance. AMRITSAR: Shivratri was celebrated with great fervor and gaiety here today. All the historic Shiv temples, including Shivala veer bhan, Shivala Bhaian and various other Shiv temples were decorated with lighting. The celebrations started with yajnas while the large number of devotees started thronging the temples since early morning. Paper-reading and bhajan gyan competitions were held at local DAV College of Education. A shobha yatra was also taken out on the occasion by the local Shiv Shakti temple at Guru Amardas Avenue here. SRINAGAR: The Mahashivratri, the most important festival of Kashmiri Pandits, was being celebrated today throughout the Kashmir valley with religious gaiety and fervour. A large number of Kashmiri Pandits and security force personnel were seen offering prayers at different temples in the Kashmir valley. However, the main function was held at Shankaracharya Temple, where hundreds of Kashmiri
Pandits, including women and children besides security force personnel offered prayers since early morning. |
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Penalty recommended for
perjury
New Delhi, March 8 The committee, to which a Bill on amendment in criminal laws, including the Indian Penal Code (IPC), the Code of Criminal Procedure (CrPC) and the Indian Evidence Act, was referred for examination, has said such punishment to a witness is necessary to check implication of innocent person in a false case. The committee had come to the conclusion by having intensive intereaction with jurists, social activists and accused persons and witnesses across the country. In this context the committee has agreed with the proposal in the Criminal Law (Amendment) Bill, 2003 for changes in Section 195 of the IPC, which deals with giving of fabricated, false evidence by a witness with an intent to procure conviction of an innocent person. The committee, headed by BJP leader Sushma Swaraj, however, opposed giving police officers power to record the evidence of witnesses for the offences for which maximum punishment was seven years, by amending Section 162 of the CrPC. It said the police could not be given such a power as it was entirely the duty of courts to record the evidence. If the police was given such powers, it would lead to corruption and “misused” of its authority by the investigating agencies. Besides, there was every likelihood justice being defeated, if this was allowed, the panel said. On the question of introducing the provision of pre-bargaining in certain petty bailable offences under the criminal law between parties in a case to ensure out-of-court settlement in a bid to rid the judiciary of the burden of such unwarranted trials, the committee had some reservations on this aspect too. It said though the concept of pre-bargain in petty offences, had gained popularity in the West, the provision in “our country should be introduced only after establishing the institution of Directorate of Prosecution (DP) as an independent body. The committee expressed concern over the failure of the government to establish the DP in spite of such a provision in Code of Criminal Procedure (Amendment) Bill, 1994. In the absense of a DP, which would only be a competent authority to forge a bargained settlement between the parties, there was no point of having such a provision in criminal laws, the committee said. The proposals of the committee would be placed before Parliament for necessary changes in the Criminal Law (Amendement) Bill. |
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Basu supporters not included in state CPM panel
Kolkata, March 8 The 15-member state committee, however, had included most of the members in the anti-Basu lobby headed by the politburo members, Mr Prakash Karat, Mr Anil Biswas and Mr Biman Bose. CITU leader Chittabrata Majumdar, who had been dropped from the state committee, is, however, likely to get a place in the politburo after the next party congress in April. Mr Chakraborty’s close associates claimed he too would be in the party’s central committee. Mr Basu attended the committee’s two-day meeting at Alimuddin Street which began yesterday but was not present when the new committee was formed and announced. |
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BJP charges Sonia with dishonesty New Delhi, March 8 “If the Congress President really thought the Jharkhand Governor’s action was wrong, why did not she take steps to right that wrong? Why did not she direct her party unit in the state to get Chief Minister Shibu Soren to resign and pave the way for the Governor to invite Arjun Munda to form the government, especially after the latter had physically presented 41 MLAs supporting him before the President?” BJP Vice-President Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi asked in a statement here. “Isn’t this a clear case of the Congress President’s duplicity and dishonesty”? he asked. If the Centre was not involved in Mr Soren’s “unconstitutional installation”, how was it that Union Ministers Priya Ranjan Dasmunsi and Subodh Kant Sahay were present in Ranchi throughout the episode? Mr Naqvi asked. “Is it not true that they were guiding the Governor on the basis of the directions they received from Delhi? Could the Ministers have gone to Ranchi, especially when Parliament was in session in Delhi, and done what they did without the knowledge of the PM?” Mr Naqvi asked. He said “crude attempts” had been made to shield the Congress President and the PM from gathering criticism in the wake of condemnation of the action of the Governors of Goa and Jharkhand.
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CPM congress next month
New Delhi, March 8 At a press conference, congress reception committee Chairperson Joginder Sharma and Vice-Chairperson Barinda Karat said this was for the first time in the 85 years’ history of the party that the party congress would be held in a Hindi-speaking state to discuss various national and international policy issues and elect a new leadership for the next three years. The congress would be held from April 6 to 11. CPM General Secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet would flag off Safdar Hashmi Jan Sanskritik Pahal on March 9 at the party headquarters, A.K. Gopalan Bhavan. Cultural evenings would be organised for 10 days in Delhi, Ghaziabad, Noida, and Faridabad. Theatre groups, dance troupes, choirs, mime groups and poets from across the country would participate. A weeklong programme of Hindi seminars on “Hindi Region: Taqlifen Aur Mukti Ke Raste” beginning March 17 would conclude with the holding of a cultural evening on March 23, the martyrdom day of Bhagat Singh, Rajguru and Sukhdev. A mass rally would be held on April 11 at Ramlila Maidan, to be named Major Jaipal Singh Maidan, after the legendary freedom fighter. |
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International Sufi Festival from March 10 New Delhi, March 8 The five-day festival, being organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR), is a part of a series that started in 2003. According to a press note, the ICCR is making efforts to bring foreign and Indian groups together on a common platform to allow them ample scope for interaction and know each other’s culture. The visiting foreign groups would go to other Indian cities, including Kolkata, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Jammu and
Mandi. |
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New scheme for girl child Uma loses
her cool Amarinder mourns death |
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Congress President Sonia Gandhi today expressed hope that a solution would soon be found to the issue of providing women 33 per cent reservation in the Lok Sabha and state Assemblies.
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