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Local bodies poll must after every 5 yrs: SC
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Rein in Punjab Govt, SAD petitions EC
CBI files charge sheet against MP’s son
’93 Mumbai blasts: 2 more held guilty
Don’t ignore reports on Chinese FDI: BJP
India to face shortage of teachers, health workers: report
Amend land acquisition law: V. P. Singh
AI, Indian staff warned against slackness
CNN-IBN chief to appear before House
Chinese President coming on Nov 20
Four Maoists killed in blast
DMK front sweeps local body poll
VHP prefers Modi to
head BJP
Political will on time-bound quota lacking, says Naqvi
Procurement of rice all-time-high
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Local bodies poll must after every 5 yrs: SC
New Delhi, October 19 It said the states could not take a plea that the electoral rolls had not been completed by the state election commissions and census data was not compiled as the 73rd amendment made in Article 243 of the Constitution had clearly laid that the elections were compulsory after every five years, except in certain exigencies. “Going by the provisions contained in Article 234-U of the Constitution (as amended), it is clear that the period of five years fixed thereunder to constitute the municipality is mandatory in nature and has to be followed in all respects,” a five-Judge Constitution Bench headed by Chief Justice Y. K. Sabharwal ruled. The court said though it was the duty of the state election commissions to complete the electoral rolls in time, but the state governments could not make it a ground for postponing the elections as the municipalities and panchayats were the pillars of grass-root democracy. In the absence of revised electoral rolls, elections has to be held on the basis of the old electoral rolls, the court said. The ruling came on an appeal of Mr Kishan
Singh Tomar, a member of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation after his petition against the deferring of the elections by the Gujarat Government last year was rejected by the state high court. Allowing his appeal, the court took into account the arguments of his counsel, Mr Nidesh Gupta, that the purpose of the 73rd amendment was clear that the elections to the local bodies had to be held in routine manner like the poll held for state assemblies. Mr Gupta had argued that no “negative” inference regarding withholding the election on the ground of inadequate electoral rolls or census data could be drawn from the Article 243-U. The court also directed that the election commissions in the states would take steps to update the electoral rolls before the expiry of stipulated five years term and “not yield to situations that may be created by vested interests to postpone the elections.” In no circumstances, the Election Commission would be justified in delaying the process of election after consulting state governments and other authorities concerned. The rule of mandatory election might not apply in rigid manner only when a civic body was dissolved and the remainder period its term was less then six months, the court said. On the expiry of the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation’s five-year term, the Gujarat Government had appointed an administrator to oversee the function of the corporation, which was challenged by Mr Tomar in the high court. However, during the interim period the elections were held.
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MiG-27 crashes, pilot ejects
Siliguri, October 19 This was the sixth combat aircraft lost by the IAF this year and the fifth accident involving a jet of the Russian-made MiG series. Earlier reports had said there were two pilots in the MiG-27 that crashed about 36 km from Hasimara airbase at 10.15 am, but an IAF spokesman in Delhi said the jet had only one pilot. Police officials in Jailpaiguri said the pilot had injured his leg while ejecting from the aircraft and was taken to the Hasimara airbase hospital. The plane caught fire after hitting the ground. The IAF spokesman said there were no reports of casualties or damage to property on the ground though local police officials said a girl fell unconscious due to loud sound of the crash and was taken to Alipurduar hospital.
— PTI
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Rein in Punjab Govt, SAD petitions EC
New Delhi, October 19 However, they did not demand the imposition of Governor’s rule for the conduct of free and fair polls in the state, even though they did not express much confidence that the electorate under the Congress rule would be able to exercise their franchise as per their conscience. When asked, the leader of the Akali delegation, SAD General Secretary Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa said the party’s political affairs committee would soon meet and discuss the issue. He indicated that the party was not keeping out the option of seeking Governor’s rule for the conduct of free and fair polls. In a memorandum to the poll panel, the Akalis urged notification of the Assembly poll dates, as less than three months were left, so that the model code of conduct could come into force in the state. Dhindsa said full page advertisements of various departments of the state government were being published regularly and even their rallies are being advertised. This is clearly a blatant misuse of government money and machinery. The government is able to do this because elections have not been notified, he added and urged the poll panel to take steps to curb this act of the state government. SAD MP Sukhbir Badal alleged that “the police officers are being posted with a motive in Punjab. Such instances are many when selected officers are being posted who carry their hand-picked juniors along with them and then in return they indulge in helping political party in power during elections.” The Commission assured the delegation that it would look into their complaints at the earliest.
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CBI files charge sheet against MP’s son
New Delhi, October 19 The chargesheet, under Section 120-B (criminal conspiracy), Section 3 (penalties for spying) and 9 (abetments, incitements, etc) of the Official Secrets Act, 1923, was filed in the court of Chief Metropolitan Magistrate here. This is the second chargesheet in the case, a CBI press note said here. Abhishek Verma, who was arrested in July and is presently in judicial custody, was the Group Director of the Atlas Group of Companies and also managing their affairs in India. Of this group, Atlas Defence and Atlas Telecom were into defence procurement areas and were in communication with the Ministry of Defence for supply of various equipment and systems, it said. According to the CBI chargesheet, Verma conspired and obtained documents and information, which might directly or indirectly affect the sovereignty and integrity of India. He has also abetted the commission of offence by his co-accused under the Official Secrets Act, 1923. According to the CBI, one of the accused Kulbhushan Parasar, Vice-President, Atlas Defence Systems, who was earlier chargesheeted in the case, was instrumental in purchasing at least eight pen drives which were given to compromised defence officials to collect sensitive information. Another accused Ravi Shankaran was also closely associated with the Atlas group, the CBI said. The compromised defence information, apart from the large volume of classified defence information mentioned in the first chargesheet, further contains 369 pages of sensitive procurement related letters, file notings, etc of the Ministry of Defence which indicate the access of the Atlas group and the accused chargesheeted today to the ministry, it said. The Naval War Room Leak Case was registered on March 20. The first chargesheet in the case was filed on July 3 against two retired Lieutenants of Indian Navy, an ex-Wing Commander of the Indian Air Force and two ex-Commanders of the Indian Navy, on the charge of criminal conspiracy in obtaining classified documents through pen drives. Close links of the accused being chargesheeted today with the key accused earlier chargesheeted, have been established as also with the pen drives and some of the classified documents leaked through the pen drives, the CBI claimed. The modus operandi of obtaining of classified defence-related documents by cultivating defence officials through lavish parties and giving illegal gratifications of different kinds and by employing the stratagem of pen drives has been established by CBI, it claimed.
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’93 Mumbai blasts: 2 more held guilty
Mumbai, October 19 Both are members of Mohammad Dossa’s gang, which along with Dawood Ibrahim are the masterminds of the blasts. Dossa along with Ibrahim is absconding. However, Dossa’s brother Mustafa, who is also an accused in the case, has been extradited to India. The TADA court, however, acquitted both Potdar and Shaikh of being part of the conspiracy to carry out the blasts. So far 55 persons had been found guilty in the blasts case. Meanwhile, the Maharashtra Government may provide police protection to Shahid Azmi, the defence lawyer of those accused in carrying out the blasts in Mumbai’s local trains on July 11, after he allegedly received death threats from the Ravi Pujari gang. Sources said Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh and Deputy Chief Minister R.R. Patil had been apprised of the threat to Azmi. In a police complaint filed on Tuesday night, Azmi said a caller from the Ravi Pujari gang warned him over the telephone that he would be shot dead either at his residence or in his chambers if he did not give up defending the accused. The lawyer also alleged that unidentified persons had visited his home and office and inquired about him. So far only politicians like Raj Thackeray had warned lawyers from representing those arrested for the Mumbai train blasts. Legal proceedings against Thackeray were in progress after civil rights lawyers approached the Bombay High Court for relief following his threats. The same gangster has now threatened Shahid Azmi to give up defending the accused held in cases under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act and other Special Acts. The police said Ravi Pujari was portraying himself as a ‘Hindu’ gangster like Chotta Rajan by targeting lawyers representing Muslim underworld and criminal elements. Members of his gang had allegedly shot at lawyer Majeed Memon last year.
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Don’t ignore reports on Chinese FDI: BJP New Delhi, October 19 BJP spokesman Ravi Shankar Prasad told mediapersons that it was the NDA government that had generated extraordinary momentum to the Sino-Indian relationship during Vajpayee’s historic visit to Beijing in July 2003. He said Intelligence Bureau and RAW agencies had expressed concerns over Chinese FDI and urged the government not to succumb to the pressures from the Left parties. The government should not undermine national security interests, Mr Prasad added.
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India to face shortage of teachers,
New Delhi, October 19 The disparity between literacy rates of various states is stark and 1.4 crore primary age children continue to remain out of school. As India rushes ahead to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MGD), these statistics indicate an acute shortage of health workers and trained primary teachers. A study ‘Serve the Essentials’ brought out by Oxfam highlights the failures in the delivery of essential services in the country that includes primary education, basic health, water and sanitation. The report points out that despite the water coverage in rural areas having increased from 56 to 95 per cent between 1995 to 2004, by 2015, when the MDG are scheduled to be achieved, 33.4 crore Indians will still lack access to safe drinking water and 500 million will lack access to sanitation. To meet the shortage of 2.7 lakh trained primary teachers and 13 lakh trained health workers, the report has asked the government to “eliminate user fees in education and health, support universal rather than targeted programmes for the delivery of essential services, adopt a multi pronged strategy to fight corruption and ensure essential services are truly sensitive to the needs of women”. Citing the example of Sri Lanka where health care is free and tuition fees is abolished in all levels of education, the report urges India to “create a robust political commitment to the delivery of essential services, ensure teachers’ salaries are at least 3.5 times the national per capita GDP, improve infrastructural conditions in schools and health clinics and employ and train more nurses than doctors”. The report rues that while medical tourism in India is getting required support and government incentives, primary health care centres suffer from lack of government patronage. “The poorest 20 per cent of the population captured only 10 per cent of the total net subsidy from publicly-provided clinical services while the rich received more than three times that”, the report mentions. Making a case for improving political will as well as fiscal allotment for education, the reports says despite a universal education cess started to fund education incentives like midday meal in government-run schools, the drop out rate at the primary level stands at 38 per cent.
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Amend land acquisition law: V. P. Singh
New Delhi, October 19 ''Let the farmer determine the cost of his land, why does the government step in to obtain land for the rich who can pay market prices,'' Mr Singh, founder of Jan Morcha, said while addressing a press conference jointly with Jan Morcha president Raj Babbar. ''Even in the USA, no land is acquired for the industry. Those wishing to set up industry have to buy the land from the owner at market prices,'' he said. The former Prime Minister said the farmers' plight would be his party's main poll plank against the ruling Samajwadi Party (SP) in the coming Uttar Pradesh Assembly elections. Mr Singh also demanded a special package for the drought-hit district of Bundelkhand and formation of a development council for the region. Mr Singh said he wanted the authors of India's economic reforms to explain why the government did not let the market come into play while acquiring land for big industrial houses. While appreciating UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi's taking up the issue at the Nainital conclave of Congress Chief Ministers, he, however, said it was not enough just to make a statement over SEZ, but the party should act and start the process for amending the land acquisition law. Mr Singh said the matter was not just confined to Uttar Pradesh, but was an all India issue. In reply to a question, he said he was in dialogue with West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya and other leaders on the issue of land acquisition for SEZ which was reversing the process of farmers' land entitlement achieved after Independence. Drawing attention to the plight of farmers of Bundelkhand region which was experiencing drought for the past three years, he said the farmers were committing suicide and living in a deplorable situation. The region was in urgent need of a special package and a developmental council to take care of its needs, he said. In reply to a question, Mr Singh said he did not favour a separate state comprising the district of Bundelkhand as the region did not possess adequate resources, he pointed out. He said the ruling Samajwadi Party in Uttar Pradesh had completely failed to mitigate the plight of farmers and was rather acting in the interests of the rich. The party had also played a fraud on minorities, especially Muslims, of the state, by depriving them of reservation under the Mandal recommendations. The 9 per cent quota for the backward under the Mandal report covered 65 per cent of Muslims, but none of the previous governments have given the community its benefit, he said. Providing backward Muslims their share of quota and scrapping the land acquisition law will be the Jan Morcha's first steps if it came to power in the state, Mr Singh said. Earlier, Mr Babbar said he would begin the third phase of the Jan Morcha campaign from Unnao on November 9. He said the Jan Morcha under Mr Singh's leadership was filling a political and social void in the state. ''It has forced political parties to pay attention to relevant social and political issues in a state where casteism and corruption were ruling the roost and the administration had been taken over by mafias. In reply to a question, he said the party will contest all the seats in Uttar Pradesh and might have an alliance with other parties.
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AI, Indian staff warned against slackness
New Delhi, October 19 After receiving the first of the brand new A319 aircraft of the Indian at the IGI airport, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said here, “I am personally not very happy with the way the two carriers are performing... government support is only to an extent. Beyond this, the airlines would have to retain their standards of performance.” “The government will not remain a mute spectator to the going on in both carriers,” he said. While refusing to elaborate on what he meant by “going on,” he said the GoM set up by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to finalise the path for the merger. The GoM will be headed by Finance Minister P. Chidambaram. The other members of the GoM will be Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, Law Minister H.R. Bharadwaj, Tourism and Culture Minister Ambika Soni, Minister of State for Personnel and Deputy Chairman of Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia as its members, besides Mr Patel. The minister said the government was not engaging in a blame game with the airlines, but was “looking at the totality of a lot of things which should have been done and have not been done.” “We would not like to see things going in a drift. I want to tell each and every employee of Indian and Air-India to come up to the expectations of the people,” the minister said asserting that “By the end of this fiscal, the two carriers will merge into a single entity to become a strong airline to take on domestic and international competition.” The warning from the government comes even as the staff of the two airlines has been negotiating with the management on various issues.
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CNN-IBN chief to appear before House
New Delhi, October 19 He was summoned on October 27 by the Assembly for alleged breach of privilege arising out a sting operation telecast by the channel against certain UP ministers. At the very outset of today’s hearing on his petition, Sardesai’s counsel Mukul Rohtagi said that his client was ready to appear before the Assembly on October 27 but said that the condition of his arrest as imposed by the House be waived off. At this, the UP Government counsel Rakesh Dwivedi said it was an “unfortunate development” but assured that he would not be arrested if he appeared before the House on the stipulated date. In view of a sort of understanding arrived at between Sardesai and UP Government on the question of his appearance, a Bench, headed by Chief Justice Y K Sabharwal disposed off the petition at the request of Mr Rohtagi. But the Court did not say anything on the protection against arrest to Sardesai after a statement was made by the UP
Government counsel. The court yesterday had questioned whether “sting operations” were being conducted by various TV news channels with public interests in mind or were aimed at raising their rating points. The Assembly had taken exception to certain derogatory references about the UP ministers in the sting operation telecast by the CNN-IBN.
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Chinese President coming on Nov 20
New Delhi, October 19 Mr Hu reaches Mumbai on November 20 and reaches the Capital the next day. The Chinese leaders are known for their penchant for signing a large number of agreements during their official/state visits abroad and Mr Hu’s India visit is expected to be no different in this regard. However, this correspondent understands that on the most crucial point of Sino-India relations-the boundary dispute-no breakthrough is on the anvil during Mr Hu’s visit. Several trade and economy related agreements are expected to be inked during this visit. In contrast, Mr Hu’s Pakistan visit is expected to be far more substantive. Beijing plans to sell four to six nuclear reactors to Islamabad to shore up Pakistan’s nuclear energy production. Pakistan is aiming at 80,000 MW power generation a quarter century later. Moreover, Pakistan is tipped to sign its first-ever Free Trade Area agreement with China during Mr Hu’s visit. Mr Hu, the number one political leader in Chinese hierarchy, took over as the leader of the Communist Party of China in 2002. His visit comes 20 months after Chinese Prime Minister Wen Jiabao came here in April 2005 during which a slew of agreements were signed, including the most important of them all-guiding principles and political parameters for resolving the border dispute and improving overall bilateral
relations. Annual trade between the two neighbours has already crossed $ 22 billion mark.
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Four Maoists killed in blast
Hyderabad, October 19 The police said four suspected members of the outlawed Communist Party of India (Maoist) were killed in the blast in a hut in Amudalapally village of Bhupalapally mandal, 210 km north of the state capital. The powerful blast, which tore apart their bodies beyond recognition, sent panic among villagers, who came out of their houses and rushed to the scene. the police suspects that the blast occurred when a bomb which the Maoists had with them accidentally went off. District Superintendent of Police Soumya Mishra, who visited the scene, said that investigations were on to establish the cause of
the blast. She said with the help of some of the papers and diaries found in the hideout, the police could identify two of the killed as Parakal local area sub-committee commander of CPI (Maoist) Kumara Swamy, alias Kiran, and commander Ramakant. The owner of the hut could also be among those killed. the police recovered double-barrelled guns from the scene. This is the latest in the series of setbacks to the Maoist outfit that has been waging a four-decade-old struggle against what it calls ‘state oppression.’ Meanwhile, the police has stepped up search operations in Nallamalla forests for arms dump with the help of Srinivas Reddy, alias Tech Madhu, involved in the fabrication and supply of rockets and rocket launchers. Tech Madhu and his wife Sudharani, wanted in connection with the supply of rockets to the Maoists from Chennai, surrendered to the police in Warangal district on Tuesday. the police seized more than 1,000 rockets from different places in the state
last month.
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DMK front sweeps local body poll
Chennai, October 19 The DPA, which includes the Congress and Left parties, had won all 39 seats in Tamil Nadu during the 2004 Lok Sabha polls and managed to win the State Assembly elections in May this year. Now, it had swept the local body polls and also retained the Madurai seat with a larger margin. The AIADMK now has hope only for the Chennai Corporation whose fate is hanging in the court and ballots would be counted only tomorrow afternoon. The five municipal corporations which the DMK front won are Madurai, Tiruchi, Coimbatore, Salem and Tirunelveli. The AIADMK and its ally, the MDMK, could bag only 13 municipalities. The one-year-old Desiya Murpokku Dravida Kazhagam (DMDK), founded by Tamil superstar Vijaykanth, performed well by winning many wards, but could not win a controlling majority in any local body. Independents have won the largest number of seats in 23 municipalities. During the state Assembly polls in May this year the AIADMK alliance could 59 seats out of 234 but the results of the local body polls indicate that it has considerably lost its ground since then.
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VHP prefers Modi to
head BJP
New Delhi, October 19 Also, VHP leader Vishnu Hari Dalmia, who ruled out support to the BJP in the upcoming Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh, said he believed senior party leader L.K. Advani had “surrendered” to allies while being in power. In an interview to Hindi weekly Outlook, Mr Dalmia, who flayed the BJP for what he called inaction over the Ram temple issue, insisted Mr Advani succumbed to the allies without any pressure from them. “Saying that the government could do nothing (on the temple issue) because of the allies won’t work. The reality is there was no constraint. All wanted to enjoy power,” the VHP leader remarked.
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Political will on time-bound quota lacking, says Naqvi
New Delhi, October 19 The BJP Vice-President maintained that the Constitution do not allow reservations to continue for an indefinite period. “There is a provision in the Constitution that it (reservations) should not go on for an indefinite period. A time limit was fixed. But honestly speaking, no political party, including us, has the courage (to speak) that it should not stay for an indefinite period as set out by Baba Sahib Ambedkar,” Mr Naqvi said. His comments came in the wake of the Supreme Court's ruling that the overall limit of 50 per cent reservation cannot be exceeded under any circumstances. “Every political party is faced with a constraint and that's why they cannot bind it (the reservation policy) in a time limit,” Mr Naqvi said.
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Procurement of rice all-time-high
New Delhi, October 19 The estimates at the start of KMS 2005-06 were put at 230 lakh tonnes but aggressive buying by Punjab (89 lakh tonnes) and Andhra Pradesh (49 lakh tonnes) led to procurement touching 280 lakh tonnes, an official release said. Progressive procurement of rice in the current KMS (2006-07) was 45 lakh tonnes as on October 16, which is 12 lakh tonne more than that procured during the corresponding period last year.
— TNS
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