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Panel set up to monitor prices
PM to announce package for farmers today
Individuals’
credibility affects EC’s
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Docs move SC seeking salary for strike period
CEC can recommend Chawla’s removal: BJP
Nitish gets tough with errant MLAs
UNAIDS figures based on new methodology: NACO
Jayamala blames temple authorities for her entry
Fodder scam: CBI’s no to set time-frame for cases’ disposal
Lt-Gen Pande new DG, Military Operations
Udit Narayan meets ‘first wife’
Doctor’s bail plea rejected again
‘Toxic’ ship reaches Gujarat shore
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Panel set up to monitor prices New Delhi, June 30 The empowered group of ministers (GoM) was constituted last night shortly after the Congress Working Committee (CWC) had criticised the government and Mr. Pawar for their mismanagement of the agriculture and food sectors. Mr. Pawar and Finance Minister P.Chidmabaram are the other members on this panel which has been mandated to monitor the price situation and take necessary measures to ensure that inflation is contained. The panel has been authorised to direct the ministries concerned about the steps they should initiate to bring down the prices.The GoM has been empowered to take independent policy decisions without having to seek the Union Cabinet’s prior approval. The panel, which is likely to hold its first meeting next week, has also been authorised to decide on the import and export of wheat and pulses if the situation arises and convene a meeting of chief ministers to deal with the problem of hoarding in the states. The constitution of this panel is unlikely to meet with Mr. Pawar’s approval as it is virtually tantamount to a vote of no-confidence in the management of his ministry. The NCP chief has been peeved for quite some time with the whisper campaign which has been conducted agaisnt him by the Congress which has been blaming him for the poor procurement of wheat and the dwindling buffer stocks, which has forced the government to resort to imports. The NCP chief had initially declined to accompany Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on his two-day visit to Vidharbha precisely for this reason and it was only after Dr. Singh called him up personally that he relented. Although the government was under direct attack at last night’s CWC meeting for its inability to contain the spurt in prices of essential commodities, Mr. Pawar was also in the line of fire. Finance Minister P.Chidambaram, who was invited for the meeting, also blamed the Agriculture Ministry for the wheat cricis, saying the problem of demand-supply imbalance was accentuated with progressive downward revisions of output and procurement estimates.
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PM to announce package for farmers today
Dhamangaon, June 30 Accompanied by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar on his two-day visit to the Vidarbha region that has seen a spate of suicides in the recent past under the weight of drought-induced crop failure and heavy debts, he met a select group of farmers in this village in Amravati district and assured them that the government would endeavour to improve their financial condition. “The Centre, in association with the Maharashtra Government, will try to find out a solution to your problems but the remedy cannot be found immediately,” said Singh, who acknowledged that repayment of loan and lack of irrigation facilities was a major problem in the region. He told the distressed farmers, many of whom had lost their family members in suicides, that the package he intended to announce tomorrow before the end of the visit would tackle the problem of debt traps and help them to improve their financial lot. The package, the Prime Minister said, would provide them opportunities for additional source of income like poultry and dairy farming and horticulture. During his hour-long visit here, once a major cotton market, Singh patiently heard the plight of
farmers. Many of the widows of the suicide victims narrated their plight.
— PTI
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Individuals’
credibility affects EC’s working: Gopalaswami
New Delhi, June 30 The Election Commissioner, Mr Navin Chawla, is under attack for accepting MPLAD funds from political parties, especially the Congress for the trusts run by his wife. Soon after taking over as the 15th CEC, the Gujarat cadre IAS officer of 1966 batch, told mediapersons that individuals credibility does affect the commission. When asked whether the credibility of the EC was affected because of the “faulty” procedure in the appointment of Commissioners, he said: “I do not think the credibility of the commission as such is questioned. The credibility about the appointment of a particular person would have been questioned.” He agreed with the suggestion of Mr B.B. Tandon, who demitted office yesterday, for the creation of a mechanism for the selection of CEC and other ECs on a more transparent manner. Asked specifically about the controversy shrouding Mr Chawla, Mr Gopalaswami said: “Today he is part of the commission. He is a member of the commission...The matter is pending before the court.” The government yesterday appointed Dr S.Y. Quraishi, Secretary, Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports, as the third Election Commissioner of India. Mr Chawla continues as the other Election Commissioner. By appointing Mr Gopalaswami as CEC, the government has followed the seniority principle. A gold medalist post-graduate in Chemistry from New Delhi University and a diploma holder in Urban Development Planning from the University of London, he would have a stint of nearly three years at the helm of the three-member commission. His term would end in April 2009. He would conduct the next Presidential and Vice-Presidential elections and the crucial Assembly poll to some States, including Uttar Pradesh and Punjab next year. In case general elections are held on schedule in 2009, he would retire just when the poll process would begin. Dr Quraishi, a 1971 batch IAS officer, also took over as Election Commissioner. Later talking to newsmen here, Mr Quraishi said he would try his best to uphold the dignity of this institution and further said he would fulfil his responsibilities with total integrity. Asked whether the right to recall of elected law makers should form part of the electoral reform, the new CEC said that it was a “little difficult exercise and difficult operation” in the country. He said the commission had already suggested that an option of “none of the above option” could be choice to the voters to select on the candidates. To a question on the office of profit issue, Mr Gopalaswami said his predecessor had already made the commission’s stand clear.
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Docs move SC seeking salary for strike period
New Delhi, June 30 The doctors in their application questioned ministry’s decision to deny them salary for the 19-day strike period on the ground of “no work, no pay” principle as they contended that if the government wanted to follow the principle in letter and spirit then the doctors who had been putting in several hours of extra work every day should also be paid “extra pay for extra work”. The associations of resident doctors of AIIMS and Maulana Azad Medical College already made parties to PIL against government’s decision to extend OBC quota in the higher education institutions had called off their agitation from June 4 as per the May 31 order of the court. The doctors’ bodies in their joint application pointed out that the apex court had clearly recorded a statement of Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramaniam in its order that if the strike was called off the government “shall not take any punitive action for whatever has been done till the strike was called off”. In spite of such an assurance given to the court by the government, the Health Ministry took various punitive actions and even persisted with such actions initiated prior to May 31 order of the court, they said. “If the argument of the ministry of ‘no work, no pay’ is to be made applicable then the doctors are entitled to ‘extra pay for extra work’ on the same yardstick… as they quite frequently are made to work even for 36 to 48 hours at a stretch, which is inhuman and violative of human rights,” the doctors’ associations said adding that as per ministry’s 1992 circular itself no doctor should be asked to work for more than 12 hours a day. Due to abysmally low doctor-patient ratio in the country, doctors in almost every hospital and particularly in these premium institutions were “forced to work for almost 75 to 100 hours a week, which is more than the permissible weekly limit,” they said pointing out that the ministry should not look just at one side of the coin. They said apart from holding back the salary of resident doctors, leave of interns, post-graduate students and had been deducted for the agitation period and internship period had been extended, making them “ineligible” to appear in PG entrance examination, which would have severe repercussion on their future career. The doctors said the “punitive” actions by the Health Ministry were totally uncalled for when they abided by the court directive to call off their agitation forthwith and reposed full faith in the judiciary. They urged the court to issue direction to the government to take back all “punitive” action against them. Their interim application is likely to be taken up by the court on July 3 on reopening.
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CEC can recommend Chawla’s removal: BJP
New Delhi, June 30 BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad, an advocate who was Union Law Minister in the NDA regime, said he could not accept the argument forwarded by Mr Chawla in his affidavit filed before the Supreme Court that the Union Cabinet had the powers to remove him from his post and not the CEC. “Article 324 (5) of the Constitution was amply clear that an Election Commissioner or a Regional Election Commissioner could be removed only on the recommendations of a CEC. ” “There is no need for BJP to learn anything from Mr Chawla. The Constitution is clear on the point,” he said. Mr Prasad said Mr Chawla had 'confessed' in his affidavit about his close connections with the family trust and receiving money from the MPs belonging to the Congress Party. Meanwhile, The BJP today described the yesterday’s meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) in which the UPA government was admonished for its failure to check spiralling prices an exercise in “political duplicity, deception and double talk” and said the government had to explain how they were able to convert India, an economy of surplus to an era of shortages. Ravi Shankar Prasad said the CWC to pull up the UPA in the presence of economists like Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Finance Minister and leader like Pranab Kumar Mukherjee was tantamount to the Congress offering an apologetic explanation for the government’s inaction to curb inflation.
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Nitish gets tough with errant MLAs
Patna, June 30 In a visibly inebriated condition, Mr Pandey had not only abused the hotel staff by refusing to foot the bill for his stay there but also threatened a cameraman of a TV channel to shoot if he tried to cover his “drunken brawl”. Mr Kumar has also reportedly asked the Electricity Department to realise rent from his party MLA Niraj Kumar Mandal for the period of his alleged unauthorised stay in the inspection bungalow of the department at Bhagalpur. The MLA, however, denied the charges. In an apparent soul-searching with regard to his promise to deliver good governance, Mr Kumar admitted “corruption” as a malaise as much as a crime in Bihar. Talking to mediapersons after his biweekly “janata darbar”, Mr Kumar said efforts were on to devise a “permanent mechanism” to check officials from taking bribe even for routine work like issuing birth and death certificates. According to Mr Kumar, as the government has planned various measures, including a speedy trial in cases like kidnapping to checking the crime graph, action could be expedited in pending cases of corruption against officials. Meanwhile, much to his delight, Mr Kumar received applause from unexpected quarters over the functioning of his government after the NDA completed seven months in office last week. Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee appreciated the formation of a state auxiliary force (SAP) by the state government involving retired Army personnel to check the crime graph in the state. “The rehabilitation and reemployment work of retired Army personnel initiated by the Bihar Government was appreciated by the three service chiefs of the armed forces too,” Mr Mukherjee reportedly said in a communication sent to the Bihar Government. Besides, Mohd. Taslimuddin, a close associate of RJD supremo Lalu Prasad and former Union Minister of State, gave a virtual clean chit to Nitish government with regard to law and order situation.
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UNAIDS figures based on new methodology: NACO
New Delhi, June 30 In its 2006 report on the Global AIDS Epidemic released in Geneva early this month, UNAIDS said the number of HIV AIDS cases in India had reached an estimated 5.7 million, outnumbering 5.5 million HIV AIDS cases in South Africa. NACO also announced the constitution of an expert committee headed by the Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research to look at the UNAIDS model, the assumptions made by UNAIDS and the feasibility of using the methodology for the whole population. At a joint press conference here, UNAIDS and NACO tried to justify their data on the number of HIV AIDS cases in India. While UNAIDS Country
Coordinator Denis Braun said the figure of 5.7 million cases of HIV AIDS in India was “just an estimate”, “too general” and “not precise at all”, NACO DG Sujatha Rao said UNAIDS had used global, instead of Indian, data for its assumptions. “These are trends to extrapolate on the Indian population. Their findings are based on certain assumptions and methodology covering the entire population across all age-groups. We abide by our data of 5.2 million HIV AIDS cases in the 15 to 49 age-group. We have nothing to hide,” the NACO DG said. The NACO DG added that India’s comparison with other countries on the prevalence of HIV AIDS and number of cases would be justified only if there were similarities in the number of sentinel surveillance sites and diverse sources of deriving data. “We are not accusing UNAIDS of using false data. We derive our figures from diverse sources, including antenatal clinics, female sex workers, truckers, MSMs (men having sex with men), eunuchs and injecting drug users. China, on the other hand, doesn’t collect data from such diverse groups. They only collect data from people with high risk behaviour.” She said the case of India and South Africa cannot be compared as the latter with 5.5 million HIV AIDS cases had a prevalence rate of around 20 per cent, while India had a prevalence rate below 1 per cent. UNAIDS Country Coordinator said the new methodology had been suggested by scientists and epidemiologist from the Global Reference Group on Models and Estimates for HIV.
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Jayamala blames temple authorities for her entry
Bangalore, June 30 The issue was raised in the zero hour itself today with Congress member
S.S. Patil demanding a discussion to be held on the issue as women in general and a Kannadiga woman in particular was being subjected to discrimination. Other legislators while cutting across party lines criticised the Dewaswom Board which managed the Sabarimala hill shrine for following “anti-women” practices. Independent legislator Vatal Nagaraj, who has formed the Kannada Chaluvali Vatal Paksha, accused the Travancore Dewaswom Board of practicing untouchability and said not allowing women to pay obeisance at the shrine was an insult to the entire womenfolk. Though some members objected to raising the issue in the Assembly as it referred to Kerala, Speaker Krishna allowed a half an hour discussion on the subject which will take place on Monday. The Congress has come out strongly in favour of the Kannada actress, who is being criticised for her action which took place 19 years back. Meanwhile, Jayamala, who had earlier apologised for her “mistake” in touching the idol of Lord Ayyappa at the shrine, said today that the temple authorities themselves were to blame for the incident for allowing her access to the
shrine. The actress while urging for an “end to the controversy”, said she had not touched the idol of Lord Ayyappa knowingly and that the incident occurred because she was pushed towards the idol by the crowd around her. “When I fell down near the Lord I touched his feet,” she said.
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Fodder scam: CBI’s no to set time-frame for cases’ disposal
Ranchi, June 30 However, the CBI assured the Jharkhand High Court of speedy trial of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad and other prominent figures. CBI Director Vijay Shankar made it clear that no time frame could be set and the investigating agency would treat all pending cases with equal attention. Mr Shankar this morning appeared before a Bench of the High Court Chief Justice S.J. Mukhopadhyaya, monitoring the progress of the trial, and dismissed the allegation levelled against the investigating agency that it was taking more time for the special five cases involving the ‘big names”. The court asked Mr Shankar why the CBI set time frame till 2008-2009 for the trial of the “big names”, to which he said it was not possible to set time frame and all cases were equally important to them. He told the court that all seven CBI special courts for the purpose were not sitting idle and informed that two Joint Directors were working in this regard, besides his personal perusal of the cases.
— UNI
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Lt-Gen Pande new DG, Military Operations New Delhi, June 30 Lt-Gen Mohan Pande will take over charge tomorrow from Lt-Gen Madan Gopal, who retires after an illustrious career of 39 years, a Defence Ministry release said here today. An alumnus of the National Defence Academy, Lt-Gen Pande was commissioned into the Mahar Regiment in 1968. He commanded the Tiger Division during Operation `Parakram’ and was awarded the Vishisht Seva Medal for his outstanding contribution. He was Chief of Staff, Headquarters Army Training Command before being posted as Director-General Military Operations. Lt-Gen Sandhu, who is Commandant, College of Materials Management, Jabalpur, will replace Lt-Gen TA DCunha who retires today. At present Commandant, School of Artillery at
Deolali, Lt-Gen Bajwa replaces Lt-Gen Charanjit Singh who is also retiring. Lt-Gen SPS Kumar, on promotion, will be the next Commandant of Military College of Telecommunication.
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Udit Narayan meets ‘first wife’
Patna, June 30 Ranjana Jha claimed to be the “first wife” of Udit and charged the singer with neglecting her ever since he got married to his second wife Deepa Narayan in early nineties. The decks for today’s meeting at the Patna airport lounge was cleared when Udit reportedly made a call to Ranjana at her maternal uncle’s residence in Patna early this week and favoured an out-of-court settlement. Legally, Udit was supposed to appear before the state woman commission on Wednesday to explain his side of the story why he had “disowned” Ranjana and had been living in Mumbai with Deepa. But he had failed to appear before the commission and sought more time to sort out the issue. Meanwhile, Chairperson of the Bihar State Women Commission Manju Prakash admitted some positive developments between the two as Ranjana wanted to give Udit Narayan some more time.
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Doctor’s bail plea rejected again
New Delhi, June 30 Vacation Judge Mukul Mudgal, however, referred the plea to be heard before the Division Bench which is hearing the appeal filed by the Delhi Police. Justice Mudgal refrained from granting any interim relief to Bedi, despite senior counsel K. T. S. Tulsi putting up a nearly 30-minute argument on behalf of the doctor.
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‘Toxic’ ship reaches Gujarat shore
New Delhi, June 30 The ship will also be inspected by officials of the Alang port and the Gujarat Maritime Board, who will send a report to the technical committee of the Supreme Court. Following protests from environmentalists, who said the ship was carrying toxic asbestos materials that are hazardous to health, the apex court on June 5 directed that the ship could not be dismantled unless it was properly examined by an expert agency. — TNS
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No prisoner swap offer: India
New Delhi, June 30
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