 |
|
Hard-pressed to support UPA: Left
BJP giving communal colour to blasts: CWC |
|
|||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Varanasi SSP transferred
PIL to beef up security at temples moved
Fate had something else in
store for Manish
SC seeks details of expenses on free medical facilities
Bihar to go industrial
Plan to have digital cameras in Bihar jails
Facing crunch, IAF mulls college with brand IIT
7 prominent docs found violating PNDT Act
Left stalwarts vent ire at EC, press
Election of TDP MLA set aside
Doctors call off strike in Maharashtra
Bitta seeks probe into Bittu case
Relief package for MP farmers announced
Plead Sarbjit’s case with Pak: BJP
G.S. Kang recommended
for award
|
|
Hard-pressed to support UPA: Left
New Delhi, March 11 The party said the decision to extend outside support to the Congress-led UPA government was rooted in 'a political compulsion', 'a choice between
Vajpayee and Manmohan Singh' and 'a support that was not unconditional'. At a crowded press conference at the Press Club of India here today, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said the Left had no other alternative but to give outside support to the Congress-led UPA government. CPM Politburo member and Rajya Sabha member Sitaram Yechury said they had serious diffences with the government on issues of foreign policy and approach to USA and don’t hesitate in expressing disagreement. Brushing aside anti-incumbency as a regular pre-election feature, the West Bengal Chief Minister today indicated that the Left Front was assured of returning to power in the five-phased election in the state beginning April 17. He said the production of rice and vegetable was the highest in West Bengal and the state was self sufficient in the production of food grains. ``Food security is guaranteed in the state and we are still distributing land to poor landless farmers. This is continuing. Based on our agriculture success, we are trying to industrialise the state,’’ he said. Replying to questions about how long the Left Front would support the Congress-led UPA from outside, he said,``So far as supporting the UPA government at the Centre is concerned, we have told you why we are supporting them. If we have to isolate the BJP to prevent it from coming back to power, then we have to continue our support to the Mr Yechury clarified the CPM was seeking a third alternative. He said that a front was a cut and paste job before the election and such a job was neither tenable nor based on principles. Asked to comment on reports that he was close to Opposition leader L.K. Advani, the Chief Minister said, ``I have no special relationship with Mr Advani. When he was the Home Minister, I had a working relationship with him. Nothing less, nothing more.’’ Asked why the party had denied tickets to 50 sitting MLAs in West Bengal, he said, ``We want to encourage young people. You will find new faces.’’ |
|
BJP giving communal colour to blasts: CWC New Delhi, March 11 The CWC meeting, held at Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s residence, assessed the current political situation in the wake of terrorist attacks at Sankatmochan Temple and railway station in Varanasi. The Prime Minister briefed the CWC members about the nuclear energy deal with the USA at the meeting which lasted over two hours. Briefing mediapersons about the deliberations, AICC general secretary Janardan Dwivedi said the CWC “deplored the crude attempt of the BJP leadership to communalise the terrorist attacks.” Referring to the proposed yatras by two senior BJP leaders, the CWC said in a statement that there was no reason for the BJP to make this terrorist attack a plea to “communalise” the whole issue. “From the past experience one cannot but express genuine apprehension that communal frenzy may follow such yatras,” it said. The statement said senseless violence causing loss of lives and injuries to innocent people was nothing but a cowardly act of terrorists of which unfortunately the country had been a victim for a long time. Recalling terrorist attacks during the NDA rule, including one on Parliament, J&K Assembly, Raghunath Temple and Akshardham temple, the CWC said the Congress and UPA had not tried to take any political mileage from these incidents. “Congress, under the leadership of Ms Sonia Gandhi, had after each incident immediately extended its cooperation to the ruling party to defuse tension. However, the BJP has a different standard of public behaviour even in moments of difficult situations,” the statement said. On the Indo-US civilian nuclear energy cooperation agreement, the CWC expressed appreciation of the manner in which the Prime Minister and his colleagues had concluded it. “The CWC also appreciates the close and meaningful consultations the Prime Minister has had with the Congress President and the party to ensure that the national sovereignity is not only protected but enhanced,” the statement said. The CWC said substantial aspects of the nuclear energy agreement were reflected in the joint statement issued by the Prime Minister and US President George Bush on July 18, 2005 during the PM’s visit to the USA.
|
|
|
Varanasi SSP transferred
Lucknow, March 11 The two men, Asghar Ali and Sadiq Ali, who were brought to Varanasi for interrogation pleaded innocence. They said they sold spectacles that they got from Iran. Originally they claimed to be residents of Garampura locality of Muzaffarpur in Bihar. Mr Ramesh Chandra Mishra the owner of Aggarwal Dharmshala in Hardoi confirmed that these young men had been frequent guests at his dharmashala for the past eight years. One Javed, a resident of Jaunpur, had introduced them to Mr Mishra. Normally the room was booked in the name of Javed where these young men stayed. That is why the police had claimed yesterday that the suspects were staying under a fictitious name. The police are now trying to trace Javed. Meanwhile, STF sources on condition of anonymity said that now the needle of suspicion is on five Kashimiri students studying in a religious seminary in rural Varanasi. They had disappeared on 7 March, the day of the blast. A strict vigil is being kept of the seminary. The sources informed that the police stumbled upon this after surveillance of mobile and landline telephone numbers. After the blast the police was probing telephone numbers from which calls to foreign countries had been made. It was discovered that approximately 300 calls had been made from four mobiles of a private operator to Kathmandu, Dhaka and the UAE. They were also in touch with Lucknow numbers and even Jammu and Pakistan. The call details of the number established that the calls were made from a tower in rural Varansai very near the religious seminary. Next it was found that these numbers belonged to some Kashmiri students who have not been seen since the day of the blast. Meanwhile, following two railway engineers at Varanasi railway station confirmed that they had seen Salaar at the Cantonment station immediately before the blast Principal Secretary Home Alok Sinha pointed out that "Salaar was definitely involved at the higher level". Salaar reportedly the LeT man in charge of UP was killed early next morning in an encounter with the STF on the outskirts of Lucknow. Dr G.K. Goswami has been named as the new SSP of Varanasi while his predecessor Navneet Sikera has been posted at the office of Directorate-General of Police in Lucknow. |
|
PIL to beef up security at temples moved
New Delhi, March 11 Mohammed Aslam, alias Bhure, on whose petition the Supreme Court had issued various directions in respect of Ram-Janambhoomi-Babri-Masjid dispute between the Hindus and Muslims, in a new public interest litigation (PIL), filed in the Supreme Court Registry sought appropriate directions to the Union and the Uttar Pradesh
Government to take adequate steps with regard to the safety and security of all religious places in Varanasi in view of the March 7 twin blasts that had claimed the lives of 20 persons. While seeking a direction to Varanasi District and Police authorities to regulate entry of pilgrims and tourists to various important places like the Kashi Vishwanath temple and the Sankatmochan temple in view of the terrorist focusing their attention to the ancient and most sacred city of Hindus, Bhure in his petition, filed through his advocate M.M. Kashyan said the authorities should be directed to prevent large assembly of people at a time outside any sensitive place and keep strict vigil on any suspicious element. Drawing the attention of the apex court to its directions issued in the past regarding regulating the movement of people, including devotees at the Lord Vishwanath temple and adjoining the Gyanvapit mosque in Varanasi and the Shri Krishna temple at Mathura, considered to be amongst the most sensitive religious places in the country, the petitioner said these orders could be further firmed up. It was on the petition of Bhure that apex court had last time passed orders on the issue of the “Shiladan” movement of Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) at Ayodhya in 2002. Bhure’s counsel said that he would make an effort to get the PIL listed by the registry as early as possible. |
|
Fate had something else in
store for Manish
Varanasi, March 11 The local papers had published his condolence. His cousin Manish Rai, a PG student of Benaras Hindu University, had virtually given up hope after running from pillar to post, trying to locate his namesake cousin. As his body had not been recovered, those close to him feared the worst. They thought that perhaps the body had been blown to pieces under the impact of the blast. His friends’ happiness and relief, therefore, knew no bounds when the brother of Bhola, another aspiring art student sketching with Manish at the railway station on the fateful evening, stumbled upon seriously injured Manish lying on a bed of ICU. Bhola, who was also hurt in the blast, is also recuperating on bed number 14 in the same hospital. Blood clots have been removed from his lungs from the injuries he suffered that evening. Dr Vivek Sharma, neurosurgeon describes Manish’s condition as “stable but not out of danger”. He has had brain surgery last night in which foreign objects were removed from his brain. Originally, a resident of Malpi village of Chapra in Bihar, Manish was to appear for the entrance examination of Bachelor of Fine Arts course at the Mahatma Gandhi Kashi Vidhyapeeth in May. According to Prof Manjula Chaturvedi, Head of the Fine Arts Department, most of the fine arts students spend their evenings at the railway station, which is at a walking distance from the Fine Art Department, every day making rapid sketches of human figures. Manish, along with a few other aspiring students, also used to go there everyday. A first-year BFA student, Pramod Kumar, who was also sketching with Manish at the time of incident, described the scene. “Manish was showing his composition to two students, Rajesh and Sadanand, when there was a loud blast and then hell broke lose”, said Pramod. Expressing happiness at the news that Manish had survived, Pramod said, “Since yesterday I had been wondering why I survived and why did Manish have to die.” |
|
SC seeks details of expenses on free medical facilities
New Delhi, March 11 A five-judge Constitution Bench, examining the validity of the December 30, 2002 notification of the Government introducing the contributory medical scheme for retired defence personnel, directed Additional Solicitor General (ASG) P.P Malhotra to furnish the details from the MoD if exemption was granted to ex-servicemen who had retired before January 1, 1996, against inclusion in the contributory medical scheme. Though defence personnel who retired before December 30, 2002 would be covered under the contributory scheme, the details were sought about the financial burden on those retiring before January 1, 1996 because the three associations of ex-servicemen that had approached the court on the issue, only represented personnel falling in this category. The direction was issued by a Bench of Chief Justice Y.K Sabharwal, Mr Justice K.G Balakrishnan, Mr Justice S.H Kapadia, Mr Justice C.K Thakker and Mr Justice P.K Balasubramanyan, while reserving its judgement yesterday on the writ petitions of Confederation of Ex-Servicemen Associations, All-India Defence Services Advocates Association and All-India Ex-Servicemen Welfare Association. Their counsels J.S Manhas and K.S Bhati, themselves retired defence officers, pointed out that as per the December 2002 regulation, ex-servicemen had to deposit one time contribution ranging between Rs 1,800 and Rs 18,000, depending upon their rank they held, to avail the medical facilities. This was contrary to the Medical Service and the Armed Forces Free Medical Care Rules, 1986, which provided for giving free medical facilities to the retired defence forces personnel. They also challenged the retrospective implementation of the scheme. |
|
|
Bihar to go industrial
New Delhi, March 11 Speaking at a conference on 'Investment Opportunities in Bihar', orgainised by Assocham, the Chief Minister of Bihar, Mr Nitish Kumar, said the new industrial policy would be industry and investment friendly which would have enough provisions such as sales tax and VAT exemptions, holidays schemes and public investment support for infrastructural projects. "The state has fertile land, the focus of my government will be to ensure that Bihar is no longer identified with agrarian economy as the new administration wants to promote Bihar as a hub of heavy and engineering industries which are labour-intensive so that the unemployment problem is eradicated in the state", the Chief Minister said. "Once the industrialisation and agricultural production in the state gain momentum, large-scale migration of agricultural labour from this state to Punjab, Haryana will slow down, leading to rise in wages in these states as well," said an industrialist present in the conference. The Chief Minister announced that the government would shortly come out with its detailed and comprehensive new industrial policy with massive fiscal and physical incentives so that the face of Bihar is completely uplifted and the state regains its lost glory. In view of Bihar's excessive focus for its industrial development, Mr Nitish Kumar said he met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh who had assured him that the Central Government through the Power Ministry will ask the National Thermal Power Corporation (NTPC) and the National Hydro-Electric Power Corporation (NHPC) to put up 2,500 MW capacities' power project to generate thermal and hydro energy in Bihar. He Invited the investors to invest in Bihar on large scale as its law and order situation has improved dramatically, he said: " The State Government of Bihar will not only provide adequate law and order safety to businessmen investing in the state but also offer them state-owned security." |
|
Plan to have digital cameras in Bihar jails
Patna, March 11 The NDA Government has decided to use digital cameras, which worked as “force multiplier” and played a major role in checking bogus voting during the October-November Assembly elections in the state, to keep a close watch on the activities of hardened criminals in the state. Sources in the Home Department disclosed that about 4,000 digital cameras,which had been purchased before the Assembly elections,would now be used for “crime control”. Jails and police stations across the state would be provided with these cameras to keep a watch on the activities of anti-social elements. A senior official of the Home Department said, ‘‘all 55 jails in Bihar would be provided with two digital cameras to take the photographs and fingerprints of the hardened criminals and those coming to meet them. The necessary information about each jail inmate would be fed into the computers”. Senior officials in the police believe that the use of digital cameras would be of great help to monitor the activities of the criminals who control crime syndicates,including masterminding abductions, reportedly from behind the bars. Sources claimed that after the installation of two digital cameras in high security Bhagalpur Central Jail, the number of visitors to the jail had gone down considerably. Controversial RJD MP from Siwan, Mohammad Shahabuddin, is currently lodged in Bhagalpur jail. Besides digital cameras, the state Home Department is also planning to install jammers in jails to curb communication links of the inmates. This step has been taken primarily because some hardened criminals in the jails of Bihar are known for using mobile phones to maintain links with their contact persons outside. Meanwhile, in a recent counter-affidavit filed in the Patna High Court in connection with the PIL of Ajay Bhattacharya,which sought reforms in the jails of Bihar, the state government informed about the formation of a special task force soon to conduct surprise inspection of all jails in Bihar. According to IG (Prisons) Jeevan Kumar Sinha, action had already been taken against 17 jail officials who were found to be in collusion with the prisoners. |
|
Facing crunch, IAF mulls college with brand IIT
Bangalore, March 11 The master plan of the proposed college, having an initial outlay of Rs 50 crore, has already been submitted to the Air Force Headquarters, New Delhi, for clearance about three months ago. The proposal, if okayed, would lead to a quantum jump in the quality of technical education being imparted by the IAF. "The requirement of the IAF is about 250 engineers per year but we are getting only 150 of them. So, it is high time the shortage got redressed," said Air Marshal B.N. Gokhale, AOC-in-C, Air Force Technical College (AFTC), here. Explaining the reasons for the crunch, he said social mores were changing and fat salary packets offered by the private sector were luring engineers away from the defence services. "Currently, the force is recruiting 150 engineers every year through direct entry. The proposed college will offer Classn 12 students an opportunity to pursue aeronautical engineering and other related courses and serve the force. Our mantra is to catch them young," he added. To be based on the pattern of the Armed Forces Medical College (AFMC), Pune, the college would function as a satellite campus of IIT, Chennai, thus ensuring exemplary standards of engineering education for the young IAF cadets. When asked whether the IAF would ask the engineering cadets passing out from the college to sign a bond so as to check brain drain, the AOC-in-C said the force was already considering the issue and only in genuine cases, would a cadet be allowed to move out. Though IIT, Chennai, was keen on entering into a collaboration with the IAF, the IAF had an option of falling back upon the Vishveshwarya Technical University, which was already offering diploma course to AFTC cadets, said Group Captain M.S. Chandru, Chief Instructer, AFTC. The college would be located at a distance of 2 km from the AFTC and around 310 acres of land had already been earmarked for the purpose, he added. |
|
|
7 prominent docs found violating PNDT Act
Patna, March 11 The daylong raids on six clinics in the city following a sting operation by a news channel exposed the involvement of a section of doctors in female foeticide. The state Health Minister, Mr Chandramohan Rai, said the government decided to approach the appropriate forum for the cancellation of registration of such doctors who were involved in female foeticide for a consideration. During the sting operation by the news channel, much to its dismay, the Patna district administration found the former head of gynaecology and obstetrician in Patna Medical College and Hospital Manjua Geeta Mishra, besides six other prominent doctors, involved in the racket. Incidentally, Dr Manjua Geeta Mishra is a winner of Dr B.C. Roy award and was the former national chief of the women’s wing of the Indian Medical Association. Even though the opposition RJD and the Congress raised a hue and cry in the Assembly on the female foeticide issue the previous RJD government backed by the Congress and the Left did not bother to organise such raids in the city or other parts of the state in the past to check this social evil. District Magistrate of Patna B. Rajendra said all six clinics had been closed and the administration was collecting more evidence to book the culprits. The leading woman entrepreneur and social activist Puspa Chopra said the prevalent dowry system was one of the main reasons behind female foeticide. She also expressed concern over the skewed sex ratio in Bihar. |
|
|
Left stalwarts vent ire at EC, press
Kolkata, March 11 While Mr Bose and Mr Biswas accused the Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Mr B.B.Tandan of interfering with the fundamental rights of the people and the political parties’ freedom of works, Mr Chakraborty threatened the CEC with dire consequences. Mr Chakraborty warned he would go to the Supreme Court within a fortnight after the elections challenging illegal actions of the EC The Marxist trio also targetted the press, charging that a section in the print and electronic media were acting irresponsibly and unfairly against the ruling Left parties. Talking of the media, Mr Biswas said we tell them something but they understand something else. What can we do when we see the media persons are illiterates? Left Front chairman Biman Bose was also critical of the role of the EC and the Kolkata press, alleging both had been conspiring against the CPM and other Left parties. However, he did not consider the media persons were illiterates and fools. |
|
|
Election of TDP MLA set aside
Hyderabad March 11 Congress candidate P Rajanna Dora, who lost the 2004 election , had filed a petition, alleging that Mr Dev did not belong to Scheduled Tribes, for whom the seat was reserved. The court ruled the election of Mr Dev as null and void as he was a Kshatriya,and hence did not come under the ST category. Mr Dev failed to prove that he belonged to the Konda Dora caste, as claimed by him, the court said. The court also directed that Mr Dora, who lost by a thin margin of 2752 votes, be declared as the winner from the Salur constituency. However, the High Court allowed the TDP legislator to file an appeal in the Supreme Court , during which period the operation of the judgment was suspended. |
|
Doctors call off strike in Maharashtra
Mumbai, March 11 Representatives of the Maharashtra Association of Resident Doctors held
11-hour- long negotiations with the Minister for Medical Education Dilip
Valse-Patil yesterday before thrashing out an agreement today. sources said. MARD claimed here that the state government had agreed to provide doctors with more security apart from an increase in stipend from Rs 8000 per month to Rs 13,000. Resident doctors would be classified as public servants so that any one assaulting them could be held without bail. The government has also assured them that no action would be taken against MARD leaders for organising the strike. The minister also assured the doctors that vacancies at public hospitals would be filled to ease the pressure on medical personnel. |
|
|
Bitta seeks probe into Bittu case
New Delhi, March 11 In a statement here, AIATF chief M.S. Bitta said he suspected that the Punjab Police did not arrest Shiromani Khalsa Dal leader Daljit Singh Bittu, acquitted some months ago, despite his TV interview because of his links with militant-turned-police informer Sukhvinder Singh Sukhi. “When people like Simranjit Singh Mann and Jagjit Singh Chohan, staunch supporters of Khalistan, can be arrested, why spare Bittu?” he asked. He said Bittu was suspected of involvement in a Ludhiana bank robbery during the unrest in Punjab and in several militancy-related cases. “The Punjab Police, on its own, should reopen the case of Bittu on the lines of the Jessica Lal case to investigate various discrepancies that led to the weakening of his case and finally resulted in his acquittal,” Mr Bitta said. |
|
|
Relief package for MP farmers announced
Bhopal, March 11 Rains and hailstorm have claimed 46 lives in the state. Crops over 50,000 hectares have been damaged. Unseasonal rains broke 70-year-old records at several places including Bhopal and Indore. The government has also announced a relief package for the affected farmers. It ranges between Rs 1250 and Rs 3000 per hectare, depending upon the farmer’s holding and the extent of the damage. The maximum compensation has been enhanced from Rs 12,000 to Rs 20,000 per farmer. |
|
|
Plead Sarbjit’s case with Pak: BJP
New Delhi, March 11 While noting that the Pakistan Supreme Court had rejected Sarabjit's review petition, he said many people had stressed that the Indian prisoner was innocent.
— TNS |
|
G.S. Kang recommended
for award
Patna, March 11 Twenty years back, in the capacity of Secretary, Programme Implementation Department, he had formulated the programme, “Operation Siddharth”—the first-ever attempt by the Bihar government to tackle the naxalite menace. |
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Mailbag | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
In video
