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11 Pak men involved in Mumbai train blasts 3 Manipuri militants held at IGI airport
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HC pulls up public prosecutor in Jessica case
RLD minister quits Mulayam Cabinet
Left-UPA lock horns on reforms
Hunt on for MLA in Bihar
SAD seeks clemency for Bhullar
DGP Virk’s son-in-law told to pay Rs 15 lakh
Hearing impaired candidates allege harassment
Nitish depends on ‘tested’ few to set things right
Haryana second most dry region
Govt mulls FDI in education
Blast suspect in police remand till Oct 13
Montek suggests higher power tariffs for households
Jamnalal Bajaj award for
Dr Rani, Subba Rao
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11 Pak men involved in Mumbai train blasts
New Delhi, October 4 It has not gone unnoticed by Indian spies that whenever in the past New Delhi has produced evidence before Islamabad on the latter’s involvement in aiding and abetting terrorism against India, it has merely ended up as a bounty for the ISI. The details given by India have been largely of two types: intercepted wireless messages and tracked phone calls, and interrogation reports of arrested militants. The sharing of this information with Pakistan has invariably boomeranged on Indian strategic establishment. The only purpose the exercise has served in the past is enable the ISI to plug its loopholes in things like infiltration, operational planning, execution of the mission and do’s and don’ts to be followed by terrorists after completing the operation. This time it is going to be different. As many as 11 Pakistani nationals have been found to be directly involved in the 7/11 carnage — the first time ever. All of them have left trails. Almost all of them made telephone calls to Pakistan. The telephone numbers and addresses in Pakistan, unearthed by the Mumbai Police and Central agencies after checking telephone records, are going to be shared with Pakistan. The Indian efforts will be to confront Pakistan with these telephone numbers and addresses without letting out any operational details. The sharing of evidence will, in all probability, be whenever the institutionalised Indo-Pak joint mechanism on terrorism holds its maiden meeting. The two countries’ Foreign Secretaries, who are expected to meet here later this month, will decide the date and venue of this meeting. New Delhi is aware that it cannot expect the moon from Islamabad but, at the same time, it will test the Pakistan government’s sincerity with regard to the Havana Joint Statement wherein Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf decided to launch the joint mechanism on terror. Dr Manmohan Singh yesterday went on record, saying that Pakistan’s response to the evidence India gives regarding its involvement in the Mumbai blasts would be a test of its sincerity in controlling terrorism. "Pakistan will have to walk the talk," the Prime Minister told journalists on board Air-India One while flying from Johannesburg to New Delhi. "Whatever has been discovered (by the Mumbai Police), we will share that information with Pakistan and test them on how sincere they are in carrying forward the commitment I and President Musharraf have underlined in our joint statement (in Havana)," the Prime Minister said.
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Menon discusses blasts case with Duggal New Delhi, October 4 While the Home Ministry officially maintained it was a courtsey call by Mr Menon after assuming the office of Foreign Secretary on October 1, sources said the two officials discussed the cracking of the 7/11 train blasts case by the Mumbai police. The two are understood to have discussed finalising how to go about putting in place the anti-terror mechanism agreed to by India and Pakistan after the meeting between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Pervez Musharraf in Havana last month. Meanwhile, Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy and Anti-Terrorist Squad (ATS) chief K.P. Raghuvanshi today met Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal and are understood to have detailed him about evidence available about the involvement of Pakistan-sponsored terrorists in the July 11 Mumbai serial blasts.
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3 Manipuri militants held at IGI airport
New Delhi, October 4 Jayant Kumar, Ghanshyan Kumar and Shyam Kumar were spotted by the officials of the special cell of the Delhi Police on Monday night when they reached the airport to board a flight to Kathmandu, Nepal. The police said a pen drive containing minute details about the deployment of Army and paramilitary forces in the north-eastern states, besides information about its source of funding and its cadre-strength was seized from them. While Jayant Kumar and Ghanshyan Kumar identified themselves as lieut colonels of the outfit, Shyam said he was a facilitator, a senior police official said, adding that they were going to Kathmandu to attend a meeting. The arrests have come at a time when most of the international airports in the country have been put on a high alert following intelligence inputs that Pakistan-based terrorists may attempt to hijack an aircraft.
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HC pulls up public prosecutor in Jessica case
New Delhi, October 4 A Division Bench of Justice R.S. Sodhi and Justice P.K. Bhasin remarked that due to the mishandling of the witnesses during the trial, the accused had been let off. “Your special public prosecutor has brought the case down and you have let off the accused,” the Bench told the Delhi Police. The court asked why Bina Ramani, a key witness in the case, was not declared hostile when she retracted from her statement that she had seen the prime accused, Manu Sharma, putting a pistol in his pocket after allegedly shooting Jessica. The court was hearing an appeal filed by the Delhi Police, challenging the acquittal of all nine accused in the case.
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RLD minister quits Mulayam Cabinet
Lucknow, October 4 The Raj Bhavan accepted his resignation yesterday, an official communique said today. Mr Pushkar is the second minister from the Rashtriya Lok Dal (RLD) quota to have resigned in the recent past. Dr Meerajuddin, who was Irrigation Minister, had resigned last month as he was not a member of either house of the state legislature and could not have continued for more than six months in office. Meanwhile, sources in the state government said Mr Tarachand Shastri (RLD) was likely to be inducted in place of Dr Meerajuddin, while Khalid Chaudhury (also RLD) would be inducted in the place of Mr Pushkar. The Cabinet expansion-cum-reshuffle could take place either this evening or tomorrow. Both are not members of either house of the state legislature. The sources maintained that though the Chief Minister was against the resignation of Mr Pushkar, RLD supremo and former Union minister Ajit Singh prevailed upon the Chief Minister to replace Mr Pushkar. Before Dr Meerajuddin, Mr Munna Singh Chauhan had tendered his resignation as Irrigation Minister following differences with Anuradha Chaudhury, a close lieutenant of Mr Ajit Singh. Anuradha Chaudhury was the first Irrigation Minister in the Mulayam government from the RLD quota. She was later made chairperson of the UP Irrigation Commission after she won the last Lok Sabha elections. A major alliance partner in the ruling dispensation in UP, the RLD has 14 MLAs in the state assembly and has six ministers in the government. — UNI
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Left-UPA lock horns on reforms New Delhi, October 4 Sources said Left leaders refused to yield on disinvestment of government stake in non-strategic public sector unit. The UPA plans to utilise the capital collected from the divested stakes to fund the social sector projects. The Communists argued for strengthening of the PSUs and pointed out that the government had been denying the grant of navratna status to eight other companies, which had fulfilled the criteria. During the three-hour UPA-Left Coordination-Committee meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the Left leaders opposed financial sector liberalisation, reforms in pension, banking and insurance sectors. UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram, CPM and CPI general secretaries Prakash Karat and A.B. Bardhan attended the meeting. However, the UPA agreed to table the Women’s Reservation Bill in its original form. The government had earlier been arguing of building a consensus before tabling it. UPA constituent Rashtriya Janata Dal and outside supporter Samajwadi Party are opposed to the tabling of the Bill before arriving at a consensus. The original Bill calls for increasing the number of seats for enabling 33 per cent reservation to women in Parliament. Speaking to mediapersons after the meeting, Mr Bardhan said they did not discuss the contentious SEZ issue and agreed to take it up at a separate meeting. The Left wants the Centre to follow the Bengal SEZ model and is asking for the processing area to be 50 per cent of the total area with another 25 per cent area earmarked for infrastructure. |
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Hunt on for MLA in Bihar
Patna, October 4 Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has already asked the police to investigate the matter without any “fear” or “favour”. “Law will take its own course”, Mr Kumar asserted. The victim, Sabiya Khatoon, was the sister of Barrister Khan, an accused in the murder of Mr Rampravesh Rai’s associate Munna Ojha. Barrister Khan has also been arrested by the police. Munna Ojha was stabbed to death in front of a beer bar near the station road in Chapra on September 28. After Ojha’s cremation, Mr Rai went to the beer bar owner Suman Kumar and enquired about the incident. When Suman Kumar failed to fulfil his queries, the MLA and his supporters reportedly physically assaulted him. Subsequently, the MLA and his supporters raided the house of Barrister Khan and ransacked it.In the process Sabiya got injured and later succumbed to her injuries in the hospital. In the FIR lodged with the police, Sabiya’s father Feroz Khan alleged that Mr Rai, along with the former Marhoura MLA Yadubanshi Rai barged into his house. The MLA and his supporters had hit Sabiya and had also assaulted Feroz Khan and his wife. Initially, the police were reportedly hesitant to lodge the FIR against the ruling-party MLA. But they swung into action following instructions by Mr Nitish Kumar. Till late night on Tuesday, the police raided in different hideouts of the MLA, including his office in Chapra, to arrest him but in vain. While admitting of having beaten up the beer bar owner Suman Kumar, the MLA was said to have pleaded innocence with regard to Sabiya’s death. “Sabiya was a TB patient and died because of that” , the MLA claimed. The Leader of the Opposition, Ms Rabri Devi, has demanded a CBI probe into the incident.
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SAD seeks clemency for Bhullar
New Delhi, October 4 “If Afzal Guru is granted clemency, why can’t (Davinder Pal Singh) Bhullar?” SAD secretary-general Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa told reporters after a meeting of SAD and BJP leaders with President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam. The two alliance partners, however, spoke in different voices over clemency, with the BJP advocating tough action against those facing terrorism charges and the SAD insisting on a common norm for granting mercy. Mr Navjot Singh Sidhu, BJP MP, said there should be no leniency towards anti-national elements. All-India Anti-Terrorist Front (AIATF) chief Bitta told The Tribune that the Akalis were voicing for Bhullar with an eye on vote bank politics. “The government should set up a special court to decide terror cases expeditiously and send a strong message to those, who indulge in anti-national activities,” he said. Davinder Pal Singh was sentenced on the basis of a confession extracted under police duress. His death sentence had been confirmed by the Supreme Court through a 2-1 split judgement. Hanging a person on the basis of a split judgement, wherein the presiding judge had held the person totally innocent, is unprecedented in the annals of criminal jurisprudence, not only in India, but, across the world, said the online petition to be submitted to Mr Kalam. It is being circulated on the Internet . Ahead of the state Assembly elections, SAD chief Parkash Singh Badal ended his four-year estrangement with Akali veteran Gurcharan Singh Tohra to make their joint mercy requests to the Centre for Bhullar. Earlier, Mr Dhindsa and other Akali and BJP MPs submitted a memorandum to Mr Kalam to seek his intervention in recommendation of a CBI probe into the Ludhiana City Centre scam, “brutal police misconduct” against innocent girls and neglect of issues concerning farmers of Punjab.
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DGP Virk’s son-in-law told to pay Rs 15 lakh Kochi, October 4 Mr Justice J.M. James also directed Dr Jasleen to withdraw the case she filed against Mr Singh in a Pune court alleging harassment. The court directions came after an over two-hour-long meeting with the couple in the Judge’s chamber at which the Punjab DGP also was present. Mr Justice James had called the couple for reconciliation after Mr Singh moved an anticipatory bail application following the case filed against him in the Pune court. The couple told the Judge they decided to go for divorce through mutual consent. Noting this in his order, the Judge directed Mr Singh to return to his wife within two days all her personal belongings lying in Thiruvananthapuram. He also directed the Aluva SP to give Rs 15 lakh to his
wife, spent as marriage expenditure and told both parties to return the gold ornaments that had been exchanged as gifts at the time of the marriage. The Judge directed that the matter be listed for October 20 for the compliance report.
— UNI |
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Hearing impaired candidates allege harassment
New Delhi, October 4 The Prime Minister has issued orders to reserve three per cent of the IAS jobs in Civil Services Examination (CSE) for persons with physical disability in January this year has had little impact on the fate of these individuals, which has been left hanging in balance by the Department of Personnel and Training. Salma Fahim, Abhijeet Chakraborty and Maniram Sharma after clearing three hurdles to find their name in the final list of selected candidates have not been able to join their colleagues at the Lal Bahadur Shastri National Academy of Administration, Mussoorie. “These candidates have a certificate by the government’s medical board, yet the DoPT has failed to allot them the services that they are eligible for. It is a pity that the DoPT chooses to ignore the medical certificate which is given by government doctors and insists on their own medical test,” said disabled rights activist Javed Abidi. Pointing out that the DoPT has refused to accept the medical certification of their disability and opted to go by the “medical test” conducted first in the Capital’s Safdurjung Hospital and then Ram Manohar Lohia, Mr Abidi said, “It has become imperative for us to know what this medical test is.” “Maniram’s hearing is totally impaired, a category which is known as ‘D’ and is entitled to a service, but the DoPT does not think so. Salma’s medical certification says her degree of impairment is 75 per cent, but the DoPT insists that it is only 38 per cent, 2 per cent less than the mandatory 40 per cent, a second review at RML says her disability is 55 per cent, now her case has been referred to a technical committee and in the case of Abhijeet, he has been declared ‘D’ whereas he comes in the ‘PD’ category,” said Mr Abidi. Alleging that the “confusion” has occurred following the DoPT’s insistence to not accept the medical certification, Mr Abidi said, “It is bizarre and upsetting that they are trying to rise above the disability Act itself.” Questioning the rationale of getting the candidates’ health certified a second time, Mr Abidi said, “Abhijeet was asked to come to Safdurjung hospital on a said date, which was also his last chance, he took a flight, came here only to find out that the doctor scheduled to examine him was on leave. He has been asked to come back again this month.” There is a provision for persons with disabilities such as low vision or blindness, hearing impairment and cerebral palsy to be allotted the IAS apart from other services. In 2003 Rigzian and Lokesh, trainees for the Indian Information Service cadre had complained of discrimination because of their disability, the same year Ravi Kumar who secured 325th rank in the general category despite his low vision was considered unfit for “all services” by the DoPT.
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Nitish depends on ‘tested’ few to set things right
Patna, October 4 The latest in this regard is the appointment of the former Foreign Secretary, Mr Muchkund Dubey, for heading a three-member panel to suggest ways and means to end discrimination at school-level education and provide equitable quality education to students from all strata of society in the state. Official sources disclosed that the state Cabinet had already given its approval to the proposal for the constitution of the common school system commission, the first in the country. The panel has been asked to submit its report to the government within nine months. It was learnt that the recommendations of the Education Commission of 1966, which included the concept of “neighbourhood schools” for equitable quality education to all schoolchildren, would form the basis of the task assigned to the new panel. Besides appointing Mr Dubey to head the panel, the government has already hired the services of Mr N.K.Singh as vice-chairman of the state Planning Commission. Mr Singh had earlier served the Planning Commission in Delhi. Overcoming political inhibitions, the ruling NDA also did not hesitate to appoint former bureaucrat D.Bandopadhyay as the chairman of the recently constituted Land Reforms Commission to suggest ways to undertake much delayed land reforms in Bihar by taking into account all aspects and complexities of the prevailing socio-economic set-up in the state. Mr Bandopadhay had worked under the then West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu and was known to be the architect behind the land reforms in the Left-ruled state. Besides “retired” bureaucrats, cutting across various political regimes, Mr Kumar reportedly depends on few “serving” bureaucrats. They include the state Home Secretary, Mr Afzal Amanullah, The Information Secretary, Mr Vivek Singh, among others. For the implementation of rule of law, Mr Kumar’s present best bet reportedly is the Additional Director-General of Police, Mr Abhaynand.
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Haryana second most dry region New Delhi, October 4 Meteorological sub-division of Haryana, Chandigarh and Delhi has emerged as the second most driest region in the country after west Uttar Pradesh. While west UP received 43 per cent, the Haryana sub-division experienced minus 39 per cent rainfall. Since agricultural land in the areas are irrigated well through canals and tubewells, by meteorological definition they certainly face drought this season. On the whole, the country remained just 1 per cent deficient, quite near normal and just as The Tribune reported in its pre-monsoon report in April while the IMD in its first forecast had predicted the monsoon to be below normal. The Met report, which is yet to be posted on the website, has two hits and two misses for the IMD. The IMD proved right when it said that south peninsula would receive 97 per cent of the long period average (LPA) with an error margin of 8 per cent. The region received 5 per cent deficient rains. It said northwest India would receive 91 per cent of the LPA and the region on the whole got minus 6 per cent rains with Rajasthan coming to its rescue. However, it went way off the mark in the case of central India, which received 16 per cent excess rains (IMD predicted 90 per cent of the LPA for the region with a margin error of 8 per cent) and northeast minus 17 per cent (IMD’s prediction was 94 per cent of the LPA). The north-west, comprising east UP (-23), west UP The fact is (even though the Met Department may not like to admit it, saying that one year was not a good example of climate change) environmentalists term these changes where west Rajasthan received 27 per cent and east Rajasthan 11 per cent excess rains and Assam remained dry as definite signs of changes in the climate. The Met chief had said climate change was manifested through precipitation and temperature changes. “If there was a change in precipitation, it would have registered as a continuous pattern. But, leaving aside a few pockets in the country, no increasing or decreasing trend in the rainfall pattern of the country as a whole has been registered.” But, Center for Science and Environment Director Sunita Narain does not agree. “The monsoons are becoming more freakish… More cloudbursts like the Mumbai’s extraordinary rains in 2005 and Barmer’s devastating showers in 2006 seem to be happening,” she says. Global warming, she says, can lead to changes in moisture and heat regimes, which keep the monsoon circulatory patterns active. “ In other words, this could lead to increased variations in rainfall patterns, an increased incidence of drought and increased intensity of floods, but our scientists refuse to move with times”. That is for scientists to decide, but in Haryana the worst affected areas have been Sonepat (-55), Mahendergarh (-67), Kurukshetra (-67), Karnal (-59), Kaithal In Punjab the areas that fared badly were Sangrur The top three gainers were the Gujarat region (plus 55), Saurashtra and Kutch (plus 44) and central Maharashtra (plus 59). The top losers, of course, were west UP and the Haryana subdivision.
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Govt mulls FDI in education
New Delhi, October 4 The Commerce Ministry is keen on liberalising the Indian education sector, both for foreign investment and domestic players”, said Mr G K Pillai, Commerce Secretary, while speaking at the International Congress and Exposition on Trade in Services organised by the Federation of Indian Export Organisations. The Commerce Secretary said the University Grants Commission should stop opening of colleges which offer only courses of Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Science, he said. The Commerce Ministry has recently submitted a concept paper to the HRD Ministry and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, demanding opening of foreign universities in India.
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Blast suspect in police remand till Oct 13
Mumbai, October 4 Officials of the Anti-Terror Squad, while claiming to have solved the July 11 blasts last week, said they had been looking for Junaid, who was wanted for planting the bombs in the trains in Mumbai. Junaid was produced before the special court constituted under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). Junaid is the sixteenth suspect to be arrested. According to the police, Junaid is an activist of the banned Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI).
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Montek suggests higher power tariffs for households
New Delhi, October 4 Speaking at a work shop on energy efficiency, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said some amount of power could be given free to the households. but anything above that can be charged at par with the commercial establishments. The Power Ministry should evolve ways of rationalising on the energy pricing front, he said. Due to huge losses to the power distributor, large-scale metering is being introduced. There is a significant difference between the electricity charges for households as compared to commercial establishments, which has resulted in such discrepancies, he said. “You can easily take care of this problem by unifying the rates,’’ the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman said.
— UNI
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Jamnalal Bajaj award for Dr Rani, Subba Rao Mumbai, October 4 Dr Bang will be honoured for her contribution for upliftment and welfare of women and children with the award instituted in the memory of Jankidevi Bajaj. While Dr Rao will be felicitated for her outstanding contribution in the field of constructive work. The other winners are Dr Anil Prakash Joshi from Dehradun who will get the award for application of science and technology for rural development. Dr Ismail Serageldin, director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina in Egypt will get the international award for promoting Gandhian values outside India. Addressing a press conference, foundation trustee Madhur Bajaj said each award comprise a citation, trophy and a cash prize of Rs 5lakh and in case of international award, Rs 5 lakh or its equivalent in foreign exchange. — UNI
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