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Left to back Office of Profit Bill in present form
Sonia, Natwar come face-to-face |
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Siddaramaiah joins Congress Police told to verify authenticity of
Bharati’s fax
Decision on Bharti’s proclamation on July 29
No terror infrastructure in “Azad Kashmir”, says Pak
Tunda has a Lucknow link
Groundwater situation in Punjab not alarming: Soz
Daughter-in-law entitled to job on compassionate grounds
Finnair to start operations from India
Abhishek Verma sent in police custody
After 19 yrs, a ray of hope for Hashimpura victims
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Left to back Office of Profit Bill in present form New Delhi, July 22 The Left leaders would be raising this issue on the floor of the House during the monsoon session beginning on Monday and demanded that important international treaties should be ratified in Parliament, although there is no such provision in the Indian Constitution at present. During the two hour long meeting of the UPA-Left Coordination Committee, the leaders could not accommodate the price rise issue for discussion. The Communists had earlier this week concluded their three day-long nationwide agitation on spiralling prices of essential commodities. “We had supported the legislation earlier also. If the government brings it now in the present form, we will support it again,” CPIM Politburo member to Sitaram Yechury said. He said a parliamentary committee should be set up alongside to clearly define what an office of profit meant as the present laws and the Constitution were silent on the matter. The meeting took up a large number of important issues likely to figure in the monsoon session of Parliament, including the internal security situation and the Indo-US nuclear deal. Apart from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the meeting from the government side was attended by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and the Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil. The Left parties were represented by CPM General Secretary Prakash Karat, Politburo member Sitaram Yechury, CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan, party’s National Secretary D. Raja, Forward Bloc General Secretary D. Biswas and RSP Secretary Abani Roy. The Home Minister briefed the Communists on the internal security situation in the wake of the serial blasts in Mumbai and
grenade attack in Srinagar. However, the leaders could not hold a detailed discussion on the issue, Mr Karat told newspersons.
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Sonia, Natwar come face-to-face New Delhi, July 22 The possibility appears highly unlikely given the cold vibes witnessed between the two yesterday when they came face to face for the first time after Mr Natwar Singh resigned from the Union Cabinet last December. This brief encounter took place at the Prime Minister’s Race Course Road office yesterday evening when Mr Natwar Singh put in an appearance for the meeting of the advisory committee of the Rajiv Gandhi National Sadbhavna Award since he still remains a member of the panel although he is no longer a minister. Dr Manmohan Singh, Ms Gandhi, Justice A.S. Ahmadi and AICC treasurer, who are also members of the committee, were present at the
meeting where it was decided to give this year’s award to Nirmala Deshpande. It is learnt that the atmosphere was thick with underlying tension when Mr Natwar Singh walked in towards the close of the meeting and appended his signature on the final decision. There was virtually no conversation and though the former minister and a long-time friend of the Nehru-Gandhi family greeted the Congress president with a namaste, it was acknowledged grudgingly by
Ms Gandhi. The meeting then broke up abruptly as Ms Gandhi and Dr Singh then proceeded for the core committee meeting. This is the first close encounter between Mr Natwar Singh and the Congress chief in the past eight months. The former minister had tried to catch Ms Gandhi’s eye at the dinner hosted by the Prime Minister on the lawn of his Race Course residence in May to celebrate the UPA government’s second anniversary. Ms Gandhi, however, cold-shouldered Mr Natwar Singh when she stalked past him without acknowledging his presence. Mr Natwar Singh’s decision to turn up for a meeting, which was attended by Ms Gandhi, comes amidst reports that the Enforcement Directorate, probing the charges against Mr Natwar Singh and his son Jagat Singh, is closing in on them. Similarly, the Justice Pathak Commission has also completed its work and will be submitting its findings shortly.
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New Delhi, July 22 The prominent OBC leader, who is a friend-turned-foe of Gowda, gave indications that he would like to be a Congress Chief Minister whenever the party would come to power. “I have joined the party without any condition...I am not joining the Congress with that ambition. But every leader wants to become something in politics. We are not sanyasins,” he said when asked whether he would like to become Chief Minister. Siddaramaiah, who quit his assembly seat early this week, had a meeting with Congress President Sonia Gandhi and later announced his joining the party accusing the former Prime Minister of “burying” the JD(S) by joining hands with “communal” BJP to gain power. — PTI
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Police told to verify authenticity of Bharati’s fax
New Delhi, July 22 Defence counsel told Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Ravinder Kaur that Bharti had sent the fax yesterday to the judge incharge of the Patiala House Court from the UK through a Delhi fax number. In the fax message bearing a Middlesex address in the UK, Bharti, the sister of main accused Vikas Yadav, said she was ready to record her evidence through video conferencing or on commission. The court directed the prosecution to verify the authenticity of the fax, including the address and the signatures of Bharati on it, through the External Affairs Ministry and submit the report on the next date of hearing July 29 and observed that the application for proclamation would be disposed of accordingly. The ASJ is hearing an application by the prosecution seeking the issue of proclamation against Bharti for failing to appear before the court as witness despite three non-bailable warrants. The court also adjourned to the next date of hearing, the prosecution’s application to secure the presence of advocate Satya Pal Singh Yadav of Ghaziabad who was present at the time of recovery of the murder weapon. — PTI
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Decision on Bharti’s proclamation on July 29
New Delhi, July 22 Defence counsel told Additional Sessions Judge (ASJ) Ravinder Kaur that Bharti had sent the fax yesterday to the judge incharge of the Patiala House Court from the UK through a Delhi fax number. In the fax message bearing a Middlesex address in the UK, Bharti, the sister of main accused Vikas Yadav, said she was ready to record her evidence through video conferencing or on commission. The court directed the prosecution to verify the authenticity of the fax, including the address and the signatures of Bharati on it, through the External Affairs Ministry and submit the report on the next date of hearing July 29 and observed that the application for proclamation would be disposed of accordingly. The ASJ is hearing an application by the prosecution seeking the issue of proclamation against Bharti for failing to appear before the court as witness despite three non-bailable warrants. The court also adjourned to the next date of hearing, the prosecution’s application to secure the presence of advocate Satya Pal Singh Yadav of Ghaziabad who was present at the time of recovery of the murder weapon.
— PTI
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No terror infrastructure in “Azad Kashmir”, says Pak
New Delhi, July 22 To Pakistan’s claim that “There is no terrorist infrastructure in Azad Kashmir”, a key official of the Government of India, talking to this correspondent today, remarked: “Terrorists camps don’t have sign boards.” The Pakistan High Commission here issued a point-by-point rebuttal last night of issues raised by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs spokesman when he was asked to react on Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s address to nation on July 20. “The fact that there is no terrorist infrastructure in Azad Kashmir became fully known to the international community with the opening of the entire area along the LoC to international NGOs and relief teams as well as NATO and other foreign contingents after the October earthquake. Pakistan’s actions in the fight against international terrorism are well-known to and appreciated by the international community,” the Pakistani statement said. The Indian official said the Pakistani contention did not hold water because the movements of foreign troops and contingents in Pakistan Occupied Kashmir and elsewhere in Pakistan are choreographed by the Pakistan Government. “Even if the foreign contingents’ movements are not choreographed, terrorist training camps and other infrastructure of terrorism do not have sign boards,” the official said. Besides, the Indian official said, the comments publicly made by the Afghan leadership and the United Nations’ reports on Afghanistan had time and again exposed Pakistan’s proxy war tactics against the Hamid Karzai government in Afghanistan. Islamabad maintained that Dawood Ibrahim was not in Pakistan and described Hizb ul Mujahideen as a “well-known Kashmiri political party”. New Delhi had yesterday demanded that Pakistan should immediately arrest Dawood and Hizbul chief Syed Salahuddin for fomenting terror in India. Instead, Islamabad accused India of launching terrorist activities against Pakistan. “We have given evidence of terrorist infrastructure on the Indian soil that operates against Pakistan”.
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Tunda has a Lucknow link
Lucknow, July 22 Tunda, who was detained in Mombasa yesterday, had got his first passport issued from Lucknow way back in 1989, a senior police official said. His other passport found to have been issued from Bangladesh, the official said. A resident of Pilkuan village in Ghaziabad, near New Delhi, Tunda is wanted in connection with a series of bomb blasts in the late 90s that left 24 dead and many others wounded. He carried a cash reward of Rs 3 lakh on his head. While his real name is Abdul Karim, he acquired the nickname “Tunda” after one of his arms was blown off in the explosion of a bomb he was preparing.` Tunda, 64, is believed to have a hand in the 1993 Mumbai bombings as well. “We would not rule out his indirect involvement in the Ayodhya and Varanasi blasts as well as he was among the key LeT masterminds in India,” the official said. The passport authorities in Lucknow admit that Tunda got his passport issued from here on April 26, 1989. “Since he was a resident of Uttar Pradesh, he applied in the normal course and got his passport issued from here. As his terrorist links were discovered only after 1990 he had also got a clean chit from the police.” Not very long ago, an aide of mobster Dawood Ibrahim too had managed to get his passport issued from Lucknow, a passport official admitted. “That was Dawood’s personal cook Khan Jabrail Khan, who got his passport issued from the Lucknow office as late as in 2004,” the official said. “But once again, the passport was issued after due verification by the police and the intelligence authorities who found nothing wrong with all documentation attached by the applicant, who was a resident of Bahraich in the state,” he added.
— IANS
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Groundwater situation in Punjab not alarming: Soz New Delhi, July 22 The Artificial Recharge of Ground Water Advisory Council, which held its inaugural meeting today, suggested calling a Chief Ministers conference at the earliest to persuade all states to adopt the comprehensive model Bill which has been circulated to them. The Bill aims at regulation of groundwater development. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who inaugurated the meeting, called for a nationwide campaign for recharge of groundwater and stressed the need of new forms of institutional management of water to ensure more equitable access to it. Briefing about the deliberations of the council, Mr Soz said it had suggested urgent action by the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) to prioritise action for rainwater harvesting in the 1,065 blocks, which had been categorised as over-exploited, critical and semi-critical. The board would prioritise work in 31 districts, which had been identified as “farmers’ distress hot spot”. To regulate withdrawal of groundwater, the board had circulated a list of 1,615 assessment units to state pollution control boards and Ministry of Environment and Forests to regulate withdrawal of groundwater by industry. The council has decided to set up a sub-committee to work on a policy for water for industry. Endorsing suggestion of the National Commission for Farmers, it said crops like rabi, bajra, jowar and pulses that need less water should be made part of the PDS. Answering queries, Mr Soz said situation in Punjab was not alarming despite over-exploitation by a large number of blocks due to presence of deep aquifers. He said groundwater supported 55 per cent of irrigation requirements, 85 per cent of domestic requirements in rural areas and over 50 per cent of requirements of urban areas and industrial sector. The Prime Minister said water table in 306 districts had fallen by over four metres in the past 20 years.
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Daughter-in-law entitled to job on compassionate grounds
Lucknow, July 22 The court observed that the word ‘family’ in the provisions must be construed liberally in the spirit of the rules. Doing so the court relied on several Supreme Court rulings defining the word family to achieve the objective of the rules framed by the government in this regard. Justice Shishir Kumar on Friday took this landmark decision by quashing an order of 15 November, 2002, by the deputy director of Cooperative Bank in which the petitioner Sanyogita Rai’s claim for an appointment under the dying-in-harness rules had been rejected on the grounds that being the daughter-in-law she was not entitled to seek employment. Ms Rai had filed the petition after being denied a job after seven persons of her marital family were murdered on 22 November 2001. She and her mother-in-law were the only survivors of the macabre incident. The department had rejected the petitioners application for the appointment in place of her father-in-law Kauri Ram, an employee of the District Cooperative Bank in Gorakhpur. The reasons given by the department was that the definition of a family as defined under the dying-in-harness rules includes the wife, father, children, unmarried and widowed daughters but not the daughter-in-law. Allowing the petitioner’s writ, the court observed that the word family to be read liberally having due regard to the inclusive definition of the term family as defined in the rules. Quashing the impugned rejection order and directing for her suitable appointment the court said that such super technical objection for not appointing the petitioner by the department was not permissible under the law.
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Finnair to start operations from India
New Delhi, July 22 Finnair, the official airline of Finland, one of the countries situated in the Scandinavian region, has already worked out the bilateral agreement with the Ministry of Civil Aviation and would start its operations from October this year, just after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's visit to Helsinki for the India-European Union Summit. Finland took over the EU Chairmanship from July 1 and would accordingly be hosting the India-EU Summit in Helsinki from October 12. Director Indian Subcontinent for Finnair Taina Tornstrom talking to The Tribune said her airline would be looking to focus on the Northern India region initially with the stress on Punjab, Haryana and Delhi due to major traffic from these areas to Europe. The airline is looking at exploiting the offer of providing the shortest flight to Europe from Delhi. It is offering a flight time of seven and a half hours from Delhi to Helsinki, the major touch down point for northern Europe and a return flight from Helsinki to Delhi in six and a half hours. Initially, the airline is looking at starting three flights a week to eventually increase it to one flight daily from the summer of 2007 and then moving onto the other Indian cities by the winter of 2007. According to Ms Tornstrom, Delhi would be the 10th destination which Finnair would be connecting to Europe from Asia, the last one being Nagoya in Japan. The other Indian cities which the airline is looking at connecting could include one in Punjab and possibly Mumbai and Chennai. But this would depend on the business which the airline is able to get from these regions, Ms Tornstrom said. The importance which the airline is attaching to starting more destinations from Asia can be seen from the fact that almost 30 per cent of its revenue is already coming out of this continent, which it hopes to increase by adding Delhi and other Indian destinations to its chart. Finnair, whose 60 per cent equity is controlled by the Finnish Government has already tied with the tour operators in India and is looking at promoting destinations like Helsinki and Lapland (the permanent home of Santa Clause) during the coming summer. The airline has already placed orders for the wide bodied, A-340 and A-350, aircrafts and eventually would be looking at operating them from India as well. By offering an inaugural return flight at Rs 17,000, Finnair would be looking at promoting the entire Scandinavian region initially rather than just Finland. According to Ms Tornstrom, the new bilaterals between New Delhi and Helsinki were signed during the visit of Finland's Prime Minister to India earlier in March this year and gave both countries rights to operate as many flights to as many destinations in the two countries. Although the airline has been in India from 1990s, but it had only been operating charter flights to Goa, with no commercial flights coming to any of the Indian cities. In a country of five million people, Finland already has about 500 Indian families staying there and is also looking at increasing their numbers.
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Abhishek Verma sent in police custody
New Delhi, July 22 Verma, who was arrested yesterday, was produced before the Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Seema Maini, who sent him to police custody till August 2 after the CBI sought time for his interrogation. Verma has been accused of offences under Section 120B (criminal conspiracy) of the IPC and relevant sections of the Official Secrets Act, 1923. The CBI claims that Verma had passed on sensitive information to other accused in the case Kulbhushan Parashar and Ravi Shankaran, who is absconding, and the “foreign office-bearers” of Atlas Group of companies, with whom he allegedly had close links.
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After 19 yrs, a ray of hope for Hashimpura victims
New Delhi, July 22 Zulfiqar Nasir, a crucial witness in the case, gave his version of how military personnel and PAC officials took them away from their locality on May 22, 1987, and later shot them one by one before throwing them in a canal in Muradnagar. “The lights of the truck was switched off ...they then started bringing down persons one by one. The first person to come down the truck was one Yaseen from our mohallah (locality). PAC officials then fired bullet shots on Yassen and threw him into the canal,” Nasir told Additional Sessions Judge N.P. Kaushik. “They then brought my neighbour Asraf, who was also shot with bullets and then thrown in the same canal. I was the third person ...the bullet hit my armpit and came out on the side of my chest,” he added. Justice Kaushik deferred the hearing till July 31. All 19 PAC personnel are being prosecuted on charges of murder, conspiracy, abduction and other serious crimes. However, three of them, including the company commander S.P. Singh, have died. — IANS
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