 |
|
|
PM’s statement on N-deal next week
New law to include Sonia on Jallianwala Bagh Trust
Left, BJP walk out of RS over price rise
Government to restrict kerosene to BPL families
|
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Inventories on bio-resources released
SC summons Registrar-Gen
Minister heckled, beaten up in House
Office of Profit Bill tabled
Sena men stall House proceedings
Dawood’s shopping
malls spared again
|
|
PM’s statement on N-deal next week
New Delhi, July 25 India’s civilian nuclear agreement with the US has come in for severe criticism, especially after the draft legislation relating to this deal passed recently by the US Senate and House committees went beyond the joint agreement to impose additional conditions on New Delhi. The Left parties and the BJP, who have decided to put the government on the mat on this issue in the ongoing Parliament session, had proposed yesterday that Parliament adopt a unanimous resolution to signal India’s opposition to any agreement which compromises its independent foreign policy. Responding to the suggestion today, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Priyaranjan Dasmunshi said the government was not in favour of such a resolution. However, the PM would make a statement on the subject next week, which could be followed by a debate if desired by the members. The Prime Minister will clear the air on the agreement in the light of his meeting with US President George Bush in St. Petersburg where he had raised India’s concerns over the additional conditions included in the Bills passed by the US House and Senate committees. Dr Singh had later told presspersons that Mr Bush had assured him that there will be no shifting of goal posts on the nuclear deal signed by the two countries last year. The US president had told Dr Singh that their concerns would be addressed and that the US administration will work within the parameters laid down in their July 18, 2005 and March 2, 2006, agreements and the separation plans of the civilian and military facilities prepared by India. India’s concerns emanate from the additional provisions in the draft US legislation which place limitations on its nuclear fuel reprocessing and uranium enrichment technologies and expect that India’s policy on Iran would be in consonance and supportive of the US policy. The legsilation also does not recognise that the safeguards agreement would have to be India-specific, as laid down in the joint statement. India has also objected to the clause on end-use verification as it believes there is no need for additional
verification once it has already agreed to IAEA safeguards. While this issue is set to generate a lot of heat, the controversial office of profit Bill is also expected to kick up quite a storm when it is debated in the Rajya Sabha on Thursday. The Lok Sabha will now take it up only next week. The government has already said it will seek readoption of the old Bill, which was returned by the President with several objections. The BJP is equally adamant on opposing it and has even advised President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam to seek Constitutional validity of the Bill from the Supreme Court.
|
|
|
New law to include Sonia on Jallianwala Bagh Trust
New Delhi, July 25 This legislation, which is likely to be tabled in the ongoing Parliament session, will reverse the NDA government’s decision to amend the 1951 Jalianwala Bagh National Memorial Bill and remove the Congress president from the membership of the trust. The new Bill could not be passed during the NDA regime. According to the 1951 Act, the board of trustees was to include Jawaharlal Nehru, Maulana Abdul Kalam Azad, Saifuddin Kitchlew, the president of the Indian National Congress, the Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab and three nominated members. When the NDA came to power, it sought to amend the Act to change the composition of the board of trustees as several permanent members were no longer alive. In the process of naming new trustees, it dropped the Congress president from the board. This was met with loud protests from the Congress which pointed out that the Congress president deserved to be member on the board of trustees in view of the party’s contribution to the country’s freedom struggle. Congress members, including Vylyar Ravi and Ghulam Nabi Azad, had even appended a dissent note when the Bill was referred to the standing committee on tourism and culture. It was pointed out that the Indian National Congress had functioned as a national movement for the struggle for freedom, adding that it was most reprehensible that its president should be kept out of this Trust as the AICC is the only body which has the right to be represented on this body. Reversing this decision, the UPA government has now drafted a fresh Bill in which it has named the Prime Minister, Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Congress president, , Governor and Chief Minister of Punjab and three nominated members as trustees. Even if Parliament passes this Bill, it is not certain whether the Congress president will accept the
membership of the trust as she had resigned her membership from all trusts before her Rae Bareli byelection and in the wake of the office of profit controversy.
|
|
|
Left, BJP walk out of RS over price rise
New Delhi, July 25 Left parties and the BJP staged a walkout rejecting the reply of Mr P. Chidambaram. The walkout came later in the evening after the CPM earlier in the day attacked the government for the hike in the fuel prices. It also made a demand for reversing the hike in fuel prices and ban future trading in essential commodities to arrest rise in prices. CPM leader Brinda Karat participating in the debate said:''Will the government respond to a Left note demanding rollback anti-people hike in diesel and petrol prices ?''.She said the government must also ban trading in futures of essential commodities like wheat and pulses from futures trading and reenact the Essential Commodities Act which had removed restrictions on the stocks and movement of goods on foodgrains. She said in regard to the food supplies and security, the UPA government was following the policies of the NDA for which it had ''paid an electoral price''. The CPM leader charged the government with taking ''several clandestine measures'' to sabotage the PDS by reducing the wheat allocations for the BPL (Below Poverty Line) and APL (Above Poverty Line) families. She added that ever since the future trading had begun, the prices of essential commodities like wheat have skyrocketed. She asked the government to stop “profiteering” from increase in tax collections even though it had no control over the international crude prices. Out of Re 1 paid for fuel price, 55 paise was collected by way of taxes, she noted, terming it ''scandalous'' that instead of reducing the tax burden, the Centre is asking the states to cut its share from the taxes. ''We will do it, provided the Centre which collects the major part of it, does the same,'' she said. Ms Karat was joined by former Food and Civil Supplies Minister Sharad Yadav who said while he, as a minister in the NDA Government, had allowed the commodity
exchanges, he was regretting it. ''I was misled by bureaucrats,'' he said. Mr Yadav demanded that the commodities trade should be banned forthwith since it played havoc with the country's food security. Mr Yadav also wanted strengthening of the PDS. Earlier initiating the debate, senior BJP leader M.Venkaiah Naidu attacked the Left and suggested that they took lesson from DMK leader M Karunanidhi, who recently succeeded in halting divestment of Neyveli Lignite . Reminding CPM leader Sitaram Yechury of his remarks that the Left will not only bark but, if necessary, bite also, the BJP leader asked when was it going to bite.
|
|
Government to restrict kerosene to BPL families
New Delhi, July 25 “The government has accepted, in principle, the recommendation of the Rangarajan Committee regarding restricting the heavily subsidised PDS kerosene to BPL families only,” Minister of State of Petroleum and Natural Gas Dinsha Patel said in the Rajya Sabha here. He, however, did not say when the decision would be implemented. The minister told the Rajya Sabha the government was sensitive to public concern over an increase of the consumer price of petroleum products and had taken adequate care to ensure that the impact was minimal on the common man and the weaker sections of society. The government adopted the principle of equitable burden sharing amongst three stakeholders, namely the consumer, the PSU oil companies and the government to protect the interest of the common man and the vulnerable sections of society.
|
|
Inventories on bio-resources released
New Delhi, July 25 Mr Sibal, who today released ‘Jeeva Sampada,’ the first database of digitised inventories on bioresources packaged in nine CDs, said the country had about eight per cent of the world's bio-diversity. Mr Sibal today chaired the fourth meeting of the National Bioresource Development Board, which aims to ensure development and sustainable utilisation of bio-resources for food, nutritional, environmental and livelihood security. Indian Bioresources Information Network (IBIN), the first web-enabled portal for proper integration of spatial and non-spatial data was also launched by the Minister. Under a project on ‘Biodiversity characterisation using remote sensing’ being implemented by Department of Biotechnology and Department of Space, geospatial biodiversity data has been generated for the North East Himalayas, West Himalayas, the Western Ghats, the Andaman and Nicobar Islands, the Eastern ghats, central India and Mangrove regions. Eighty per cent of the country’s forest cover has been mapped. Renowned agricultural scientist M S Swaminathan said there was need to make bio-resource relevant to programmes like the national health mission and Public Distribution System. He suggested linkages between bio-resource and rural business hubs. NBDB officials said the first Butterfly Park in the country had been established at
Bangalore.
|
|
SC summons Registrar-Gen
New Delhi, July 25 The Registrar-General’s presence was felt necessary by a Bench of Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Mr Justice A.R. Lakishmanan and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia after the counsel for the Bihar Government, Centre and Mr Yadav could not give correct information whether the appointment of the new Special Judge, Muni Lal Paswan, was approved by a “full court” of the high court. Mr Paswan’s appointment made in June last year, was challenged in a PIL by JD(U) leader Rajiv Ranjan Singh on the ground that it was an attempt to ease out the earlier Special Judge Yogendra Prasad who had heard the case in length. Mr Yadav was accused of using his political clout in getting Mr Prasad replaced after he became the Railway Minister. The case against him and his wife is also being heard by the Patna Special Judge. Former Additional Solicitor- General Mukul Rohtagi, appearing for the petitioner, contended that Mr Paswan, whose rating as a judge was far below in his ACR, was appointed as Special Judge, Patna, to hear a case like the fodder scam after Mr Yadav became the Union Minister.
|
|
Minister heckled, beaten up in House
Kolkata, July 25 The budget papers were torn and the paper balls were thrown at the Speaker. Some angry TMC MLAs went to the Speaker's desk and tried to snatch his box and other important papers. The minister in charge of the department, Mr Nanda Gopal Mukherjee (CPI), who was then reading out his budget speech, was also heckled and beaten. Both Left front and Congress MLAs present in the House were at a loss and before they could come forward to jointly protest, the TMC MLAs staged a walkout for the rest of the day. Trouble began when the TMC leader, Mr Partha Chattopadhyya, demanded from the Speaker, Mr Hashim Abdul Halim, if they would be given the main opposition's rights and allowed additional time for participating in the budget discussion. But the Speaker refused to grant the TMC the main opposition's right since the party could not obtain the strength of the required number of MLAs for getting the recognition of the main opposition's status. But this did not satisfy the TMC MLAs and they soon started shouting slogans against the Speaker's stand. Some TMC MLAs were soon seen hurriedly collecting the budget books from different tables and dumping on the floor in midst of slogan shouting. While some others jumped in the well of the House and started demonstrating . Mr Bhattacharyya, who was then trying to read from budget book, was heard angrily rebuking the TMC MLAs for their misbehavior, he became a target of attack. Some tried to heckle him and dash him but some others came to his rescue. The incident happened so suddenly and ended so hurriedly that all other MLAs present could do nothing. Soon after the incident, the Speaker castigated the TMC MLAs and warned that they would be taken to task if they were misbehaving in such manner in the future. The Chief Minister and the Congress leader in the Assembly, Dr Manash Bhuiya, and others condemned the TMC MLAs' for misbehaving inside the Assembly. The TMC MLA, Jyotipriya Mallick demanded that Sourav Ganguly should publicly apologise for his ugly and untrue attack on
Dalmia.
|
|
Office of Profit Bill tabled
New Delhi, July 25 The copy of the Bill, as passed by Parliament during its Budget Session, was laid in the Upper House under the provision to Article 111 of the Constitution. The Parliament (Prevention of Disqualification) Amendment Bill, 2006, passed by Parliament on May 17, was returned by the President in May. The Bill has come for reconsideration in the Rajya Sabha as it was the Upper House which finally approved the legislation before it was sent to the President for his assent.
|
|
Sena men stall House proceedings
New Delhi, July 25 Soon after the House met, Mr Manohar Joshi (Shiv Sena) sought a discussion on the serial blasts. Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat said he had just received Mr Joshi’s notice but the Business Advisory Committee had already decided that the issue be taken up this week.
|
|
Dawood’s shopping
malls spared again
Mumbai, July 25 MC officials said they were not given enough security by the Mumbai police which is busy probing the bomb blasts case. The two buildings constructed illegally on the land belonging to the Maharashtra Government are located bang opposite the Mumbai police headquarters.
|
|
| 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 | |
Videos
