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SC to resume hearing in Badal case
Coalition partners absent at Mulayam govt function
RLD spells out differences with SP
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Comedy of errors at AICC office
Cong, TMC strike pact to fight CPM jointly
BJP meeting to focus on burning issues
BJP rebuffs Lalu on Bihar Govt prediction
Desecration of Ganga, Yamuna continues
Soz seeks world site status for Dal Lake
World Bank resumes aid to Indian health sector
Create fast-track courts for cyber fraud, says Nasscom chief
Meeting on 13 Naxal-hit states
Cabinet clears high-level appointments
Special cell for protection of
Bihari workers
Court refuses to ban film “Omkara”
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SC to resume hearing in Badal case
New Delhi, August 29 The Bench was changed after Mr Justice D.K. Jain, who had been Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, withdrew himself from the case earlier as he had heard the cases against some of the SAD leaders there. The new Bench comprising Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.H. Kapadia today directed all parties to file written submissions of their arguments by September 4 to avoid lengthy hearings. The hearing had resumed earlier this month with Badal’s counsel K.K. Venugopal opening up the arguments in the case pending before the apex court since 2004. The case was adjourned due to the withdrawal of Mr Justice Jain. The court today declined to give longer adjournment in order to expedite the proceedings after Punjab’s Advocate General R.S. Cheema said the trial in the cases against Mr Badal and other Akali Dal leaders had been stayed for long due to apex court’s interim stay order. Besides Mr Badal, his other party colleagues who had approached the Supreme Court on the issue of “improper” sanction for their prosecution include Gurdev Singh Badal, Niramal Singh Kahlon, Sohan Singh Thandal, Tota Singh, Sewa Singh and Rattan Singh Ajnala. The Congress Government, headed by Amarinder Singh had booked them under the Prevention of Corruption Act for allegedly amassing assets disproportionate to their known sources of income when the SAD government, headed by Badal, was in power. Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav, his wife and former Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and former Kerala Chief Minister K. Karunakaran, also facing corruption cases, had also moved the apex court on the issue of sanction and their cases would also be heard simultaneously from September 4.
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Coalition partners absent at Mulayam govt function
Lucknow, August 29 Most conspicuous by his absence was the Rashtriya Lok Dal partner Ajit Singh, who has six ministers in the government. Refusing to draw any inference on his alliance partners non-attendance, the Chief Minister blamed the media for reading too much between the lines. Commenting on the health of the government, UPCC president Salman Khurshid said the function to mark the milestone itself proved that most of his partners were no longer with him. Mr Khurshid also charged the Mulayam government with taking the entire credit for the massive Rs 57758-crore Central grants received by the UP Government under various Central schemes. Significantly, the main function of the Samajwadi Party-led government’s completion of three years was held at the SP state party office. While the Chief Minister went to great length to describe it as a “Sarkari Ayojan”, party flags and slogans adoring the venue told another story. Sitting uneasily on the dais along with the SP MPs, MLAs, heads of frontal organisations, district and university-level leaders, were senior bureaucrats, including Chief Secretary N.C. Bajpai, DGP Bua Singh among many others. Calling the coming Assembly election as his most crucial, Mr Yadav assured the audience, mainly of party functionaries, that if they worked hard and the party returned to power, it would continue to rule uninterrupted like the CPM in West Bengal. Addressing district-level functionaries, the Chief Minister asked them to hold meetings of the beneficiaries of government schemes like the unemployment allowance so that they could be mobilised to spread the work of the government. Launching a frontal attack on VP Singh’s Jan Morcha, SP national general secretary Amar Singh said that when 28, 000 hectares had been acquired in Haryana for SEZ the so-called leader of the farmers did not go there to plough the fields. Similarly, senior leader and MP Janeshwar Mishra thanked the party student leaders who had attacked former prime minister’s son’s shopping mall in Allahabad recently. “Those students were indeed true Samajwadis,” he declared. By completing three years in office, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav has earned the unique distinction of being the only non-Congress CM and the fourth in the state’s history to occupy this office for such a long tenure. During his two earlier tenures, Mr Yadav remained in office for mere 19 and 18 months. The first term in 1989-91 lasted 19 months and the second term in 1993-95 just 18 months. He took over as the Chief Minister for the third time on August 29, 2003, after Ms Mayawati resigned on August 23, 2003 following the Taj corridor controversy.
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RLD spells out differences with SP
New Delhi, August 29 “The power problem, the law and order situation, the way lands were being acquired to benefit a few have been worrying us for quite sometime,” RLD supremo Ajit Singh said. The relations between the RLD and the SP have been under strain for some time as Mr Yadav has gone back on his promise of a separate state in western UP, Ajit Singh said before addressing his party’s rally in Badayun. When asked why his party was not joining in the Mulayam-led coalition government’s celebrations of three year of its rule in the state, he said: “I have to be in Badayun for my own party’s programme.” The SP government assumed office on August 29, 2003 with the support of several political parties, including the RLD, the Congress, the Rashtriya Kranti Party of Kalyan Singh and other smaller groups. Ajit Singh said the Mulayam government had failed miserably on the power front, which besides affecting development activities had hit the farmers hard. Besides, the common man was also feeling insecure due to lack of check on land and criminal mafia. He noted that his party was also agitated over the way the state’s prime and fertile land was being diverted to purposes like construction of golf course, with select industrial houses getting preference in land allotments. “Though we are part of the coalition, we are very much dissatisfied with the policies of the Mulayam government and have repeatedly conveyed our feelings to them,” said the RLD chief. This is not the first time that Ajit Singh has given expression to his feelings about the SP government in the state. Lately, he has been expressing his opposition to the way the state was functioning, which political observers here feel was a clear indication of chinks in the three-year-old coalition. One of the RLD’s main problems with the SP is the latter’s opposition to the idea of “Harit Pradesh” consisting of some western UP districts. Mulayam Singh Yadav and general secretary Amar Singh have several times dismissed the idea on the plea that it was not in the interest of the people of the state. The RLD has 15 members in the Assembly. Besides the RLD, the SP is also not having good relations with the two-member Loktantrik Congress Party of Harishankar Tewari.
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Comedy of errors at AICC office
New Delhi, August 29 But very few Congress leaders were particularly amused when they all landed up in the afternoon at the party office ostensibly to welcome a delegation from Lebanon, but instead found themselves greeting a group of academics and research scholars from Thailand. It all began late last night when AICC office-bearers were literally woken up from sleep and informed by the party control room that they all had to be present at the Congress headquarters on Tuesday afternoon as an important delegation from politically sensitive Lebanon was dropping in for an informal chat. The mere mention of Lebanon was enough to set off frenetic activity at the AICC office, given the party’s traditional ties with the Arab world and its longstanding support to the people of Palestine. The party’s spin doctors were immediately at work as they felt that this was an excellent opportunity to dispel the widespread impression that the Congress had not taken a sufficiently strong position on the recent Israeli attack on the Hezbollah in Lebanon. The Congress party’s recent press releases in which they had condemned this attack, even dubbing it an invasion, were pulled out, as proof of its continuing support to the Palestine cause. All senior AICC office-bearers - Motilal Vora, Oscar Fernandes, Digvijay Singh, Janardan Dwivedi, Margret Alva, B.K. Hariprasad and V. Narayanswamy — were all present to welcome their special guests. Not just that but reinforcements in the form of UP Congress leader Noor Bano,were also called in to showcase the party’s Muslim face. But much to the surprise of Mr Vora and Mr Fernandes, who were waiting in the porch to welcome the delegation, found that their guests bore little resemblance to the Lebanese people. As the 40-odd men and women in blue suits and yellow shirts streamed in, Congress leaders belatedly realised that the visitors were actually academics and research scholars from Thailand. All the rehearsed lines regarding the party’s ties with the Arab world were consequently forgotten and the AICC office-bearers instead found themsleves faced with questions like, “How do you raise funds for the party” and “Do you think the government will last its full term.” The answer to the second query was predictable while, on the first, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora held forth on the Manmohan Singh committee report, which had provided a blueprint for fund-raising. The one-hour session may have been a productive one for the Thai visitors but Congress leaders were chafing about the major goof-up well after the delegation had departed. Till late night, efforts were on in the Congress office to find out who was responsible for the mix-up. In true Congress style, the blame game was on in full measure.
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Cong, TMC strike pact to fight CPM jointly
Kolkata, August 29 The agreement was reached after a coffee-table talk between Mrs Sonia Gandhi and Ms Mamata Banerjee on Friday. Mrs Margaret Alva, AICC general secretary, who had been negotiating with the TMC leader as Mrs Gandhi’s emissary for jointly fighting with the Congress in the state against the CPM, was present at the talks. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is also
WBPCC(l) president, and a cross-section in the Congress and the TMC welcomed the decision and were confident of dislodging the CPM from power by fighting jointly. Ms Banerjee said they had decided to support Mr Chowdhury in Malda to show their respect to the late Ghani Khan Chowdhury who did a lot for the state and the Congress. She refused to answer if the TMC was quitting the NDA. According to the agreement, Ms Banerjee agreed to support Congress candidate Abu Hasat Chowdhury, the late MP Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s brother for the Malda seat, instead of supporting the BJP candidate against the CPM. On the other hand, the Congress agreed not to field any candidates for the Katwa Lok Sabha and Bongaon Assembly seats and support the TMC candidates, Susanto Ghosh and Saugata Roy, in those two seats respectively. The Katwa and Bongaon Assembly seats fell vacant following sudden deaths of Mahboob Zahedi (CPM) and Bhupen Seth (TMC) respectively. Incidentally, the CPM had fielded Sailen Sarker as its candidate for the Malda Lok Sabha seat, who had been defeated for the past five terms against the late Ghani Khan Chowdhury, for this seat. Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee appealed to the Malda people to get the candidate elected and assured them that he would finish the works left incomplete by late Khan Chowdhury.
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BJP meeting to focus on burning issues
New Delhi, August 29 The meeting, being held in Uttaranchal, is expected to prepare a strategy to help state units to lure voters by taking up issues that are hurting people the most, party’s national media in-charge Siddharth Nath Singh said. In Uttaranchal, Punjab and Manipur, the party will highlight the problems of rising prices, appeasement of minorities and dangers to internal security from terrorism and Naxal extremism, he said. The deliberation is also expected to exploit the issues of appeasement of minorities and insult to Vande Matram by a section of Muslims, who have refused to sing the song, he said. On the latter issue, the party’s minority cell has sought the permission of Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee to allow 200 members of the minority community, including Muslim intellectuals and party activists, to sing the national song on September 5 in front of the Gandhi statue in Parliament. In the face of a refusal, they plan to march either to Parliament or India Gate to recite the national song, Mr Singh said. The party will also discuss the issue of rising prices, he said adding that the Indo-US nuclear deal and the UPA government’s inability to effectively deal with terrorism and Naxalism would also figure highly at the meeting.
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BJP rebuffs Lalu on Bihar Govt prediction
Patna, August 29 Talking to media here, Mr Lalu Prasad observed, "No party having alliance with the BJP rules for long because the BJP doesn't allow any other party to rule. Nitish may collapse any day." Mr Lalu Prasad had also warned the NDA against its alleged "Kushansan" (misgovernance), claiming that the people were fed up with it. In a caustic indictment of Mr Lalu Prasad, the BJP national general secretary and party's spokesman Ravishankar Prasad said his party did not need any lesson from Mr Lalu Prasad on "political stability". He chose to describe Mr Lalu Prasad's observations on the BJP-JD(U) relationship as "foolish". Mr Prasad claimed that it was the BJP which for the first time after Independence had successfully implemented the ethics of coalition politics at the Centre by running the NDA government for six years with 24 partners between 1999-2004. Another senior leader of the party and MLC Kiran Ghai wondered why Mr Lalu Prasad was shying away in explaining the desertion of one of the coalition partners of the UPA, TRS, before the government completed its full term till 2009. Ghai pointed out that all such experiments of coalitions at the Centre before the NDA, either in 1977 by then Janata party or in 1989 by then Janata Dal, could not continue their full term."Even though the Congress was forced to follow coalition ethics now, it also once was charged with pulling down the Chandrashekhar-led government at the Centre", she remarked. The state BJP leadership claimed that Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and Deputy Chief Minister Sushil Modi were working in absolute tandem and there was no threat to this government. The BJP leadership sought to pick up this point to advance its logic that the admission by Mr Singh itself bore enough testimony to their party`s commitment to development and hence would continue to remain partner of JD(U) in Bihar for the full five-year term to build up a "new Bihar".
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Film lovers bid adieu to Hrishikesh Mukherjee
Mumbai, August 29 Many of those stars who began their careers with Mukherjee paid their last respects to the departed film maker at the Bandra Hindu Association where his body was kept this morning before being taken to the Shivaji Park electric crematorium at Dadar. Actresses Jaya Bachchan, Juhi Chawla, Deepti Naval, lyricist Gulzar and veteran directors Subhash Ghai, Vidhu Vinod Chopra, Shyam Benegal as well as young film makers such as Naguesh Kukunoor and Rajkumar Hirani paid their last respects to Mukherjee. Tears welled up in many eyes, including those of actresses Jaya Bachchan, Deepti Naval and Juhi Chawla, as Mukherjee’s body was being taken to the crematorium. “I will miss him. I shared a close relationship with him and he was a father figure to me. I feel orphaned. I feel alone at this moment,” an emotional Bachchan, who acted in several films by Mukherjee, told reporters. Other who paid last respects included actors Shatrughan Sinha, Om Puri, actor-director Anant Mahadevan, music director Sachin Bhowmick, radio personality Amin Sayani, and veteran actor A K Hangal. Mukherjee died in a hospital here on Sunday after prolonged illness at the age of 84. Mukherjee has to his credit some of the most loved films in Hindi, including “Anand,” “Chupke Chupke,”, “Golmaal” and “Abhimaan”. However, many of Mukherjee’s stars, including Dharmendra and Amitabh Bachchan, who embarked on the path to superstardom with his role in “Anand”, were not present as they were out of Mumbai.
— PTI
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Desecration of Ganga, Yamuna continues
New Delhi, August 29 Sewage is the major source of river pollution in the country and the rate of non-compliance of STPs to operational norms is 17 per cent in Delhi, 50 per cent in Haryana, 64 per cent in Uttar Pradesh, 66 per cent in Uttaranchal and 100 per cent in Bihar. In its annual report tabled in Parliament, the CPCB says there is a large gap between generation of sewage and treatment facilities and capacity to treat it, resulting in discharge of huge amounts of untreated sewage into the rivers. In Haryana, the sewage treatment plants are facing a huge gap between generation of sewage and the actual utilisation of capacity due to several reasons like power shortage and non-compliance with stipulated norms. About 29, 000 mld of sewage is generated from Class-I and Class-II cities and towns while the capacity for treatment is only for about 7,000 mld. In fact, under the Yamuna Action Plan, the CPCB found only one complying with norms. In its performance evaluation of STPs in North Zone, the CPCB found that most of the STPs were receiving discharge more than their designed capacity, creating operation and maintenance problems. Sewage is the main cause of pollution and the entire problem is linked to haphazard urbanisation in the country in the past few years. While cities and towns located in the river basins have grown at a phenomenal rate, the states have not been able match this growth. Yamuna, which flows into the Ganga, is said to be the most polluted river in the country. There is also a problem of the quality of treated effluent not conforming to prescribed standards. For example in Kanpur, due to intrusion of tennery waste water, untreated water is being discharged into the Ganga. In Agra, three plants oxidation ponds are running under capacity due to accumulation of sludge, resulting in only 10 to 50 per cent sewage being treated and the rest going directly into the Yamuna. Mathura's two plants have power problems and are not being able to meet prescribed norms The bio-gas generated from the plants is also not being used properly. The CPCB also found that plants based on low capital and low operational cost of sewage treatment method such as Waste Stabiliser Ponds (WSP) technology etc, which are best suited for small towns and cities, can be very effective, provided they are operated properly.
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Soz seeks world site status for Dal Lake
New Delhi, August 29 Mr Soz, who returned yesterday after attending World Water Week in Stockholm, told the Swedish authorities and SIWI about the steps taken by the government for the conservation of the Dal Lake and reasons for it to be declared as world heritage site of UNESCO. SIWI Executive Director Anders Berntel assured Mr Soz of support in Dal Lake’s conservation and assistance in garnering support from Scandinavian and other countries for declaring the lake as a site of world heritage.
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World Bank resumes aid to Indian health sector
New Delhi, August 29 The bank had suspended the assistance when it received complaints of wrongdoing in the procurement of drugs as part of the RCH I Project. An investigation by the bank had found instances of serious deficiencies in procurement and its practices. On this, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram intervened and convinced the bank president by clarifying misgivings, thus resolving the issue to the satisfaction of the World Bank. Finance Minister emphasised that the delay by the bank in sanctioning these projects was gravely hurting the delivery of health services to poor people in the country. Punjab has already got around Rs 400-crore financial assistance from the bank for the restructuring of its health services. “The bank and the Government of India have agreed to implement an action plan aimed at addressing collusion and corruption in procurement across the health sector,” said Praful Patel, World Bank Vice-President for South Asia.
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Create fast-track courts for cyber fraud, says Nasscom chief
Bangalore, August 29 Talking to reporters after speaking at a conference organised by Solid Works Corporation here, Nasscom president Kiran Karnik said cyber security and protection of intellectual property rights were critical areas which needed to be addressed if the country expected multi-nationals to make investments in the IT sector."We continue to be unhappy with the rate of convictions", he said, saying the judicial process was too slow. He said fast-track courts could address this issue by ensuring cases of cyber fraud culminated in conviction quickly to act as an adequate deterrent against such activity. Nasscom on its part had held discussions with the judiciary and also organised workshops to make members of the judiciary aware of the cyber fraud phenomenon. Mr Karnik said Nasscom had moved ahead on this issue with the Union Government set to make amendments in the IT Act, which was likely to be passed by Parliament soon. He said the police administration in various states had also woken to the danger of cyber fraud and separate cells were being formed to investigate such cases. The IT organisation president said in Bangalore a cyber security laboratory was likely to be established soon. Besides, Nasscom was also working with its members to introduce a professional recruitment programme along with a detailed verification exercise to guard against cyber fraud. Answering a question on reports of IT companies closing shop abruptly and leaving their employees in the lurch, he said this was a matter of concern, but indicated Nasscom could do little in the matter. "We do not have mandatory or regulatory powers", he said, adding that the aggrieved employees could approach the law to get justice. "We try to persuade all companies to follow ‘best practices ethics’ framed by us but anyone not doing so can be hauled up by the law,” he added.
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Rahul Mahajan ties
the knot
Mumbai, August 29 The low-key ceremony took place at 11.30 a.m. this morning. The event comes barely four months after Pramod Mahajan’s death after being shot at by brother Pravin. Relatives of Pravin, including his wife and children, were absent from the ceremony. A team from the Delhi police was also in attendance since Rahul is on bail in a drug case which claimed the life of Pramod Mahajan’s secretary Vivek Moitra. BJP leader Gopinath Munde, Rahul’s uncle, greeted the guests. Rahul leaves for Seychelles for his honeymoon. He will be back in the country on September 14.
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Mangeshkar sisters to leave Pedder Road
Mumbai, August 29 The two sisters have bought sprawling penthouses in new projects which are coming up on mill lands in Central Mumbai. While Lata plans to stay in a 2000-sq-ft apartment at Casa Grande coming up on the Matulya Mills compound, Asha has purchased a 4,000-sq-ft duplex in the same complex. At present both sisters occupy a single floor in the Prabhu Kunj building at Peddar Road. Both sisters had opposed the new flyover proposed to be built on Pedder Road on the ground that the elevated structure would bring streetside noises into their homes. Opposition from the two sisters caused the project to be shelved in 2001, but congestion on the roads connecting South Mumbai’s business district with other parts of the city forced the government to take a second glance at the project. The Mangeshkar sisters’ continued opposition to the project provoked the ire of citizens who openly asked them to pack up and leave. The two sisters decided to do just that and like scores of South Mumbai residents are moving into the newly gentrified areas of Central Mumbai. Sources say the two sister booked the flats three months ago and may move in when work on the new flyover projects starts. Maharashtra’s Public Works Minister Anil Deshmukh who is pushing the flyover project seems to be relieved that the singers are leaving.
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Meeting on 13 Naxal-hit states
New Delhi, August 29 The meeting will be chaired by Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal and is expected to be attended by Chief Secretaries and Directors General of Police of the affected states. The quarterly meeting of the coordination centre will review the status of various policies involving intelligence gathering, networking and coordination between the Centre and Naxal-affected states, Home Ministry sources said.
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Cabinet clears high-level appointments
New Delhi, August 29 The committee has also cleared the appointment of Mr S. Krishnan as Additional Secretary in the Ministry of Youth Affairs and Sports. Mr Rudra Gangadharan, has been appointed Director of the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. Mr Lambor Rynjah has been appointed Advisor of the Planning commission while Mr Bhaskar Chatterjee has been appointed Additional Secretary in the Department of Land Resources.
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Special cell for protection of
Bihari workers
Patna, August 29 The decision followed a high-level meeting chaired by Mr Kumar in the wake of the recent harassment faced by Bihari workers in Punjab. Talking to the media here, Mr Kumar said the special cell would function under the resident Commissioner of Bihar in Delhi. Mr Kumar also asked the respective district administrations to undertake a survey at the Panchayat and block level to find out the exact number of migrant workers and if possible to which states they belonged too.
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Court refuses to ban film “Omkara”
Mumbai, August 29 Hearing the petition, the court observed that it was not granting any ad-interim relief at this juncture and posted the matter for arguments on September 14. Bollywood actor Naeem Khan had moved a city civil court seeking a ban on the film alleging that its dialogues were vulgar and bad in taste which depraved the minds of the audience and Indian culture. — PTI
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Protest by PETA activists
New Delhi, August 29 Posing as frozen human beings, two women activists of the People for Ethical Treatment of Animals (PETA) lay down wrapped in plastic packages with posters reading "Rs 130/kg" in front of Pragati Maidan. Their colleagues distributed pamphlets, sensitising the public about the cruelty meted out to animals while being slaughtered. "Animals are made of flesh, blood and bones like us. They have senses and a range of emotions. Eating meat is, literally, eating a corpse. Billions of animals are violently killed because you eat meat…We are really challenging people to think about what meat is. Eating meat means eating the corpse of a tortured animal who did not want to die. We are encouraging consumers to give vegetarianism a try", PETA activist N.G.Jayasimha said. |
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