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Maharashtra rain toll 40
Letter crucial evidence against
Notice against PMO, ‘not Manmohan’
Dawood aide arrested
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Sahara One to create waves with ‘Superstars’
Hooch tragedy: SC stays acquittal of vendors
Citizens rally behind suspended IG
Ban on SIMI valid
Blast in Mahur injures 6
150 Shiv Sainiks held
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Maharashtra rain toll 40
New Delhi/Mumbai, August 7 The victims were drowned in flood waters or were buried in landslides as rescue officials and para-military forces worked hard to evacuate people from the affected areas. According to the Mumbai disaster management cell, more than one lakh people have been evacuated across the state. Officials said 15 districts had been badly hit by the rain with Nanded, Yavatmal, Buldana, Jalgaon, Parbhani and Hingoli being the worst affected. More than 25,000 families have been evacuated from low-lying areas. Army and naval forces were called out in different parts of Vidarbha and Marathwada with 170 villages in 16 tehsils of Yavatmal district being affected. In all 678 villages in 85 tehsils across Maharashtra have been affected by the rain. In Buldana district, 4,000 families in 80 villages were shifted to safer places. As per information available here, the Penganga, the Wardha, the Godavari and the Ulhas rivers in the flood-hit areas were overflowing. Briefing reporters, Chief Secretary D. K. Sankaran said eight Army companies and five helicopters were pressed into service for rescue and relief operations after the Godavari rose 16 ft above the danger mark. Religious sites like Trimbakeshwar at Nashik where the Kumbh Mela is held saw several temples being submerged by the river. According to the Met Department, more than 200 mm of rainfall was received in different parts of the state. In some areas like Nanded, nearly 300 mm of rainfall has been reported. Mumbaikars relieved
Mumbaikars heaved a sigh of relief as the city’s arterial railway systems functioned albeit with some delays. The Western and Central Railways’ suburban services functioned throughout the day though services were late by 20 minutes. Though some services were cancelled, train services did not stop entirely. However, offices reported scant attendance as employees in many parts of the city decided to stay at home. Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh visited some flood-hit areas to survey relief measures. Expressway shut
Traffic on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway was shut for a few hours this morning after landslides blocked the road, the police here said. Pune received heavy rain for the past three days. Train services also took a hit with the Mumbai-Pune Intercity Express being cancelled for the day. Meanwhile, the Met Department has warned of heavy rain for the next 24 hours. Copter rescue
The Indian Air Force was called out today to rescue seven persons who were in a bus that was washed away in Buldana district, the police here said. The bus was trapped with flood waters rising steadily. The passengers moved to the roof of the vehicle from where they were winched up by helicopter and brought to safety. Train derailed
The heavy rain also resulted in the derailment of the Amritsar-Vilaspur Chhattisgarh Express in Nagpur early today. According to railway officials here, landslides caused by the heavy rain derailed five coaches and the engine of the train between Maramjhiri and Dharakhoh in Nagpur early this morning.
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Letter crucial evidence against Natwar: Pathak
New Delhi, August 7 The 87-page report by Justice R.S. Pathak observed that “there is no material to show that Natwar Singh derived any financial or other personal benefit from the contract.” Natwar Singh was a “beneficiary in so far that the role played by him in influencing and facilitating the procurement of the contract had fructified.” The report details how Andaleeb Sehgal, his relative, and Aditya Khanna, Jagat Singh'sfriend, got the oil contracts from the Saddam Hussein regime in 2001, by which they earned a commission of $1,93,000. Sehgal's Hamdaan Exports got a commission of $ 47,000 for executing one contract and another $ 1,46,000 for a second contract. The $47,000 commission earned through contract no. M/09/54 did not "include the amount retained by Aditya Khanna at one cent ($ 0.01) per barrel of oil as his commission." For the contract no. M/10/57, "Aditya Khanna and Andaleeb Sehgal received a total sum of $ 1,46,000 which amounts to about 5 cents ($0.05) per barrel of oil," the report said. The Pathak report said Natwar Singh's letter of January 30, 2001, indicated that he “utilised his presence in Iraq not merely for the purpose of representing the Congress in a goodwill mission but also took the opportunity of lending his assistance in the procurement of the oil allocation for Andaleeb Sehgal, who accompanied him on the visit to the Oil Minister.” It was noted that Singh's letter was written on an official letterhead of the All India Congress Committee showing him as 'Member, Congress Working Committee, and beneath that as 'Chairman, Foreign Affairs Department' and the address given was 24, Akbar Road, New Delhi. The official phone numbers of the AICC were mentioned on the letter head itself and at the bottom of it the residence phone numbers along with the fax number were mentioned, it said. When confronted with the letter, Natwar Singh admitted that the signature on it was his but he was not sure about the text. The panel held that the letter was "in fact" written by Natwar Singh because not only was the signature his but also the words "with regards" written by hand, the handwriting of which was admitted by Natwar Singh to be his. The report said it seemed from the letter written by the Executive Director of State Oil Marketing Organisation (SOMO) that in the “eyes of the Iraqi authorities, the intended beneficiary of the contract was Natwar Singh of the Indian Congress Party.” “Had Natwar Singh not met the Iraqi Minister on January 22, when he visited Baghdad, there would have been practically no possibility of Hamdaan Exports obtaining the contract. These allocations were political allocations for which the primary consideration was that the person at whose behest the contract was being allocated was friendly to the people of Iraq and sympathetic to their cause.” Pathak report said, “Natwar Singh did not offer any explanation as to how his name came to be mentioned in the letter of the Executive Director, SOMO, to the Oil Minister, Iraq.” “All these considerations taken together indicate why Natwar Singh was described by the Independent Inquiry Committee as a non-contractual beneficiary,” it added.
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Notice against PMO, ‘not Manmohan’
New Delhi, August 7 Mr Natwar Singh, who has been indicted by the R.S. Pathak Inquiry Authority for his role in the Iraqi oil-for-food scam, said he would fight it out. “It is a question of propriety. There was only one copy of the Pathak report and within minutes it was all over the press,” he said. “I have never committed any wrong. I will fight inside and outside Parliament,” he told reporters outside his residence here. Mr Natwar Singh, who had a meeting with BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh and JD(U) leader Digvijay Singh later in the day, indicated that ruling party members were not letting him speak in Parliament.
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Dawood aide arrested
New Delhi, August 7 Rahman was suspected to be a key aide of Dawood Ibrahim and wanted in more than 30 cases of extortion, kidnapping for ransom and blackmailing. He was arrested last evening between Sanoli and Gorakhpur by a team of the special branch, Delhi Police Commissioner K.K. Paul said today. He was produced before a court and was remanded in police custody for 10 days. The police is verifying the disclosures he made during preliminary interrogation. The special cell of the Delhi Police received inputs that the suspect was hiding in Dubai and Malaysia, and used to come to his native village in Darbhanga district in Bihar and some other states in India. He came through the Nepal border. The Delhi Police discussed this issue with its counterparts in UP and sleuths in plainclothes were deployed on the Indo-Nepal border. During questioning, he disclosed his identity. After staying in Dubai for nine years, he had shifted his base to Nepal last year, the Police Commissioner said.
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Sahara One to create waves with ‘Superstars’
New Delhi, August 7 Purnendu Bose, CEO of Sahara One, says, "India is a nation obsessed with Bollywood. There are temples, clubs, associations dedicated to film actors. Dancing and singing is not only about performing, It's a passion that drives our souls. Our show is an endeavour to provide a national platform to bring forth this talent." 'Superstars' provides Bollywood fans with the opportunity to perform like their favourite stars. "Superstars means performing like your favourite star," says a glittering Urmilla Matondkar who turned up for the launch. "I've never before favoured judging a show but I'm sure this is going to be wonderful. I like the concept and its going to be quite a ride," she says. Dance choreographer Shiamak Davar says, "Strangely enough I've been offered many TV shows before but I never agreed. However, I am honoured to be on the board here." Shiamak further adds, "This time I really want to do something with the young people that turn up and create something out of them. We will be judging their potential closely and they will be intensively trained by my institute." Prizes on offer for the winners are Rs 1 crore and a film with a super-star for the first prize, Rs 35 lakhs as second prize and Rs 25 lakhs as third prize. The first phase of superstars rolls out from August 10. The international format of this show has been successfully produced by Endemol in 70 series spread across 20 countries.
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Hooch tragedy: SC stays acquittal of vendors
New Delhi, August 7 The high court had held the Haryana Excise Department liable for failing to have effective control over the liquor vends and directed it to pay Rs 2 lakh to the kin of each dead and Rs 1.5 lakh to each of the blinded person. The tragedy that occurred on December 1, 1996, at Kalanwali village of Sirsa district was the result of alleged selling of illicit liquor by the vendors from their licensed shops. Both were convicted for murder under Section 302 of the IPC by the trial court. A Bench of Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice C.K. Thakker issued the stay order on a specific plea by the state’s Additional Advocate-General Neeraj Jain and issued notices to the two acquitted vendors, seeking their replies. The state government was aggrieved by the high court judgement for not only acquitting the accused but fixing liability on it to pay the compensation to the victims even when the Excise Department was not a party to the criminal proceedings before the trial court.
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More trouble for cola firms New Delhi, August 7 The Centre for Sceince and Environment, on the other hand, dared the cola companies to come clean. Concerned at the damage-control exercise launched by the soft drink companies through newspapers to reassure consumers about the safety of fizzy drinks being sold in the country, the CSE today took on the cola MNCs and their star endorses, including Bollywood superstar Shahrukh
Khan. CSE Director Sunita Narain termed the entire exercise “a clever copy-writing full of half-truths that will not be able to fool the Indian consumer.” The Health Ministry issued a suo motu statement in Parliament. Health Minister Anbumani Ramadoss said taking a note of the studies carried out in the media on August 2, it had been decided to undertake a comprehensive multi-centre study on soft drinks using the LC-MS-MS. The LC-MS-MS, he said, was most sophisticated equipment available to detect even the slightest traces of pesticides. The study would be carried out by Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswa Vidyalaya, the National Institute of Occupational Health and the National Institute of Nutrition, which had been asked to take necessary steps to augment their facilities and instal the LC-MS-MS. Dr Ramadoss said his ministry was viewing the issue of contamination very seriously and had set up a National-level Expert Committee, comprising Dr N.K. Ganguly, Dr S.R. Khanna, Dr
N.P. Agnihotri and Dr G. Thyagrajan to advise the Central Committee for Food Standards on the issue of pesticides residue. Meanwhile, the CSE’s concern came mainly after some national dailies on Monday carried huge advertisements by the leading cola companies, quoting sections of the Joint Parliamentary Committee
(JPC) report of February, 2004, that gave some of their products clean chit for permissible levels of pesticides as present in packaged water standards. The advertisements also carried figures on limits of pesticides in other essential food items like tea, milk products, eggs, rice and apples that were surpassing limits set by the Health Ministry by several thousand times. Dr Narain said the companies wanted people to forget “their contamination by saying that the rest of the country is contaminated so what can they do. Their insinuation that they are being targeted because they are ‘poor MNCs’. Their star endorser Shahrukh Khan was quoted in the media, saying that ‘we are a filthy company’.” “Is he, therefore, implying that we deserve filthy products.” she questioned. The soft drink comapnies have been saying that contamination, if any, was due to the contamination of ground water. In the statement released under the banner of the Indian Soft Drinks Manufacturers last week, the two cola companies said “soft drinks manufactured in India comply with stringent international norms and all applicable national regulations. Over the past three years, the soft drink industry has worked with the government, the scientific community and NGOs to establish stringent science-based norms”.
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Citizens rally behind suspended IG
Allahabad, August 7 The signatories — Padma Shri R.S. Gahlot, Prof Shri Ballabh, Prof Pradeep Kumar, Dr K.S. Anandi, Ramdheeraj, Jazar Bakht and Dr Suchet Goindia — said a “public-spirited honest police officer” had been trying voluntarily and
single handedly to make Sangam pollution-free for the 2007 Ardh Kumbh Mela. On Saturday night, the IG was suspended for sitting on a dharna in front of Bandhava Hanuman Temple near Sangam here alleging assault by armed aides of Narendra Giri — the mahant of Baghambari Gaddi Mutt.
— UNI |
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Ban on SIMI valid
New Delhi, August 7 “Justice B.N. Chaturvedi did not pronounce the report in the open court as we had wanted. I was called in his chamber along with government’s counsel Siddhartha Mridul and was told that the government’s decision to ban SIMI was valid and legal,” Mr Akhtar said.
— UNI
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Blast in Mahur injures 6
Guwahati, August 7 Official sources said here that the blast was triggered by a grenade, a signature style of the
ULFA.
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150 Shiv Sainiks held
Varanasi, August 7 Additional Police Superintendent (ASP) Nachiketa Jha said here 150 Sainiks were held from Luxa, Sarnath and Girjaghar crossing.
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