New Delhi, September 5
Close on the heels of the Delhi Police filing a petition in the Supreme Court seeking the review of the acquittal of Delhi University lecturer S. A. R. Geelani in the Parliament attack case, Jaish-e-Mohammed militant Mohd Afzal also sought the review of the verdict upholding his conviction and death sentence in the case.

Afzal filed a petition seeking the review of the August 4 judgement of the apex court confirming the verdict of the trial court and the Delhi High Court awarding death penalty for the December 13, 2001 attack on Parliament.

The police which listed forty grounds for the review of the judgement also sought enhancement of the 10-year sentence awarded to Shaukat Hussain Guru as well as review of acquittal of his wife Navjot Sandhu, alias Afsan Guru, in the case.

The apex court had reduced the death sentence awarded Shaukat to 10 years imprisonment besides acquitting his wife Afsan Guru and Geelani.

Terming the attack on Parliament as an unparalleled assault on the supreme seat of democracy, the court had said there was clinching evidence against Afzal regarding his nexus with the slain terrorists who carried out the “terrorist act of most diabolical nature”.

The court had said there was not even a shred of doubt about his complicity in hatching of the criminal conspiracy to attack Parliament and evidence showed that he had actively participated in its execution.

Though the apex court had absolved Geelani, it had observed that there was a needle of suspicion on him regarding his role in the “diabolical act” of attacking the supreme seat of democracy but there was no direct evidence to convict him in the case. — PTI

New Delhi, September 5
An NDA delegation will meet the Election Commission tomorrow to record its objection to the announcement of new political appointments in Bihar by the regime headed by Governor Buta Singh.

BJP spokesman Prakash Javadekar said the announcement of filling the political posts of various Bihar boards, commissions and committees on the same day when the EC declared the election dates tantamounted to violation of the model code of conduct.

The commission should act against this violation of the model code of conduct, he said.

The delegation will consist of BJP general secretary Arun Jaitley and Janata Dal (United) leader Sharad Yadav.

Asked about the BJP expressing reservation against the four-phase election schedule, Mr Javadekar said the general feeling was that one month poll is a long period. The party would be happy if the elections are complete by November 1, the Deepavali day, but the party will not make this an issue.

New Delhi, September 5
Ticking off LJP chief Ram Vilas Paswan for abandoning the secular front, an irritated Congress today let it be known that it will not have any compunction in fielding candidates against LJP’s nominees in the coming Bihar Assembly polls if it persists with its stand of charting an independent course.

“If he is not part of the front, then he should not expect a quid pro quo from us,” AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh said here today even as Congress President Sonia Gandhi is likely to meet Mr. Paswan tomorrow in a last ditch effort to bring him on board the secular front.

However, Congress insiders maintain this meeting will at best be a formality as they do not expect Mr. Paswan to resile from his stated position on having no alliance with RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav. While persisting with his efforts on forging a third front with CPI and CPML in Bihar, Mr. Paswan had said yesterday that he would not field candidates against the Congress.

Although the Congress is under intense pressure that Mr. Paswan be asked to move out of the UPA government if he fails to support it in the Bihar polls, it is unlikely to do so. This will reflect poorly on the Congress as a coalition partner and could push Mr. Paswan into the NDA camp.

Mr. Digvijay Singh, who has held several rounds of meetings with Mr. Paswan but to little avail, maintained that unlike the last time, the Congress would have only an electoral pact with the RJD, the NCP and the CPM, who will contest the Assembly poll as one formation. Ruling out any ambiguity on this score, he said, the Congress wants these four partners to have a joint manifesto and campaign although the CPM has some reservations about sharing a platform with the Congress.

Mr. Singh has also told its allies that there should no scope of friendly contests and the alliance should project only one candidate in each constituency to send out a clear message of unity to their own workers and to the electorate.

The AICC General Secretary, it is learnt, has repeatedly reminded Mr. Lalu Prasad Yadav that unlike the Congress, he has far greater stakes in this election and he should, therefore, desist from his habit of pitting independent candidates against his own partners.

Working on the assumption that Mr. Paswan will remain out of the secular front, the Congress has sent the RJD a preliminary list of 70-odd constituencies it has earmarked for itself. It has claimed seats which it won, on which it stood second and those which have never been won by the RJD.

Formal seat-sharing negotiations with the RJD will begin after September 10 since Mr. Yadav is travelling till then. Meanwhile, the Congress got into poll mode as it has appointed three observers — AICC secretary B.K.Hariprasad, Sanjay Singh and former MP Rameshwar Neekhra — as election observers for Bihar.

New Delhi, September 5
The National Commission for Minorities has convened a meeting tomorrow between prominent Hindu and Muslim leaders to promote communal harmony and deepen understanding and trust among communities.

The meeting, which does not have Ayodhya in its agenda, is being held to find ways to "narrow down differences" between the two communities.

NCM chief Tarlochan Singh, who has taken the initiative for the inter-community dialogue, said sensitive issues could be included in talks once an atmosphere of goodwill was created. The NCM chief said political personalities had not been invited and invitees from majority community were mostly those who have done work on Islam.

Among those invited include Sri Sri Ravi Shankar, India Heritage Research Foundation, Swami Chidanand Saraswati, Premarth Ashram; Mr Tarun Vijay, Editor, Panchjanya; Mr Sanjay Gupta, Editor and CEO, Dainik Jagran; Maulana Syed Kalb-e-Sadiq, Vice-President, All-India Muslim Personal Law Board; Khwaja Hasan Sani Nizami, Sajjada Nasheen, Dargah Nizamuddin Aulia; Mr Khurshi Alam Khan, former Governor; Dr Syeda Sayedain Hameed, Member, Planning Commission; Maulana Waheeduddin Khan; Maulana Mahmood Madni, general secretary, Jamiatul-Ulema-e-Hind; Maulana Asrar-ul-Haq Qasmi, President, All-India Milli Foundation; Syed Hamid, Chancellor, Jamia Hamdard; Mr Shamim Kazim, president, All-India Shia conference; Maulana Yaseen Akhtar Misbahi, general secretary, All-India Muslim Personal Law Conference and Dr Qasim Rasool Ilyas, secretary, All -India Muslim Personal Law Board. Mr Suraj Bhan, Chairman, SC Commission and Mr Kunwar Singh Chairman, ST Commission have also been invited.

Rae Bareli, September 5
AICC President Sonia Gandhi and son and party MP Rahul Gandhi today visited the district hospital here to meet the patients suffering from Japanese Encephalitis.

Ms Gandhi said the Centre had sent enough medicines and blood testing equipment for their treatment.

Admitting that 40 patients had died in Rae Bareli from different viral diseases so far, she claimed the situation was improving, quoting doctors at the district hospital.

Later, the patients with whom the two leaders had interacted told the mediapersons that they apprised the UPA Chairperson of the lack of medical facilities at the village level.

The Congress President was accompanied by senior health officials and doctors, including Dr S. P. Agarwal, Director-General of Health Services, Dr Shiv Lal, Additional Director-General, Dr V. K. Gupta, Head of Department Paeiatricis R. M. L. Hospital, New Delhi, apart from two entomologists.

Besides, a large quantity of medical equipment has also been provided to the district hospital for better diagnosis and patient care.

Meanwhile, Chief Medical Officer (CMO) L. P. Rawat said 433 viral cases were reported here till date, including 294 at the district hospital and the rest 139 at the primary health centres. Of these, 40 patients, including 28 children, had died, he added.

The district administration has repeatedly denied that all the deaths were the result of Japanese Encephalitis. A statement by District Magistrate Jitendra Kumar on Saturday had claimed that three patients detected with the disease were discharged after treatment.

After visiting the hospital, Ms Gandhi left for a surprise inspection of development works in her constituency, while Rahul accompanied his mother.

Ms Gandhi’s visit to take stock of the situation following the spread of the epidemic assumes significance, after the state Congress handed over the documents to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh here on September 1, alleging the failure of the state government in tackling the menace. — UNI

New Delhi, September 5
Noted actress Raveena Tandon has resigned from the post of Chairperson, Children’s Film Society, India (CFSI).

Sources in the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting told TNS here that I&B and Culture Minister Jaipal Reddy had accepted her resignation. The actress who has several successful films to her credit has stated that she was finding it increasingly difficult to balance her current commitments and workload.

Raveena took over as Chairperson of the CFSI in September, 2003, and still has a year left for completion of her tenure.

The resignation of Tandon comes just as arrangements are in the final stage for the next International Children’s Festival of India being held in Hyderabad from November 14 to 20.

She said she wished to resign due to time constraints and other unavoidable circumstances due to which it would be difficult for her to devote the time required to do justice to her duties as Chairperson of the CFSI.

Guwahati, September 5
The CBI today flew the bodies of BJP leader Pratul Deb and his associate Sadhan Nath to New Delhi for further forensic examinations.

The bodies were recovered from the remote and inaccessible Assam-Mizoram border area of Hawaithang in Hailakandi district.

The Central Investigative Agency recovered rings, slippers and the pace maker of Deb who was a heart patient from the spot.

The bodies had been exhumed yesterday.

Meanwhile, a new CBI team is scheduled to arrive here today with the murder case becoming the main political agenda in the Barak valley.

The police also arrested two more Chakma youths beside the two others who were released from Arunachal jail recently. All of them have confessed their involvement in the killing of Pratul Deb on March 14 last year.

The body of the BJP leader was cut into pieces and buried. He and his associate had mysteriously disappeared from Hailakandi district and after the police labelled it as another insurgency related incident, the BJP leader’s daughter, Shipra Deb, a British citizen, raised a hue and cry forcing a CBI inquiry.

Deb also happens to be the brother-in-law of Social Welfare Minister Gautam Roy and it is stated that a political tussle exists between the two.

The BJP had accused Mr Roy of being involved in the abduction and killing of Deb which the minister had been denying for the past one year. — UNI

New Delhi, September 5
After a gap of nearly two decades, two vacancies in the Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Council would be filled up with the Election Commission today announcing the polling for these seats on October 13.

The elections would be held to elect two members to Legislative Council from the members of the Kashmir Local Authorities constituency and Jammu Local Authorities constituency.

“These seats have been lying vacant since November 1987 due to non-existence of the Electoral College. Now, the elections to the Municipal Councils have been held since then and the Electoral College is in existence, and the commission has decided to hold the biennal election,” the poll panel said.

The notification for the polls would be made on September 19 and the last date for filing nomination would be September 26. The scrutiny would take place next day and the last date for withdrawal would be September 29. While the polling would take place on October 13, counting of votes would take place on October 16 and the election process would be completed on October 18.

The commission said “since the elections to the council of constituencies (local authorities constituencies) in Jammu and Kashmir are held on the same basis as the Assembly constituencies (first past the post), except that the electorate consists of members of the Local Authorities, the EC has decided to take the polls in the said biennial elections using the electronic voting machines.”

New Delhi, September 5
Even as the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today informed leaders of the Left parties that the hike in oil prices were imminent, the CPM put forward alternative set of measures to tide over the rising prices of crude oil in the international market which is hovering around $ 70 per barrel.

CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, after meeting the Prime Minister this evening told reporters that Manmohan Singh had categorically stated that the government had no option but to raise the oil prices across the board.

The Left parties, however, suggested steps to reduce impact of oil price hike. They said if the government took these measures it would have about Rs 21,000 crore without considering sales tax concessions.

The Communists said a big part of the retail prices of petrol (57 per cent) and diesel (35 per cent) was the tax component.

Mr AB Bardhan told reporters that “The Prime Minister had a counter argument that while it was true excise earnings were going up, dividends of oil PSUs had gone down to almost zero level.”

The Prime Minister also said income tax on profit of these oil PSUs had also gone down as they were making losses. “On the balance, there was nothing that the government is gaining,” Mr Singh told Mr Bardhan.

On the issue of asking state governments to lower the duties, the Prime Minister told the CPI leader that their revenue budget was also in a very bad shape.

The Prime Minister said global crude prices had crossed $ 70 a barrel and there was no change of it declining because in the winter oil consumption went up. Moreover, oil production in the US had gone down because of Katrina hurricane.

New Delhi, September 5
The Congress and its UPA partners — the RJD and the NCP — are going to formally request the Election Commission to review its schedule for the Bihar Assembly elections.

AICC General Secretary Digvijay Singh today said they are likely to meet the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) on Wednesday and suggest a two-phase polling after November 8.

Stating that since the RJD and the NCP are of the same view, they are likely to join the Congress delegation. Almost all political parties have expressed their reservations over the four-phase month-long poll schedule announced by the Election Commission on the plea that it is in the midst of the month of Ramzan while other festivals like Dasehra, Diwali and Chhat are also being celebrated at that time.