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Trinamool, Left MLAs trade blows
Riots in Maharashtra
Statue damage: Tension over rounding up of Dalit youths
Jordan to boost ties with India
Lip-lock row
No Chinese plan to divert Brahmputra: Pranab
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Lok Sabha passes Bill on
Jallianwala Bagh memorial
Chunchun wants to be a doctor
Padma Shri sought for ‘Lage Raho...’ makers
DD beams film on HIV women
AIDS costing million jobs every year
Strengthen PDS to tackle price rise: LS
SC upholds life sentence
Japan keen on more Indian students
Helmet rule in jeopardy in Bangalore
Govt to provide Rs 400 cr for coastal security
An Army-IAF affiliation
5-year visa introduced for 18 countries
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Trinamool, Left MLAs trade blows
Kolkata, November 30 The violence also spread in several parts of the city and other districts. Agitators burnt buses and trams and erected blockades on the railway tracks and roads. Over 100 Trinamool and Congress workers were arrested. The Trinamool and 19 like-minded parties, including the Congress, SUCI, the PDS, the RJD, the JD (United) and the CPI (M-L) have given a call for 12-hour Bangla Bandh tomorrow. It was alleged that while Ms Banerjee, accompanied by two other MLAs, was proceeding towards Singhur, Hooghly, around 12 noon for attending a rally there, she was dragged out of her vehicle near Dankuni on the Durgapur highway, put in a police van and later driven back to the city. At the time of detention, she was severely beaten up, Ms Banerjee alleged. The incident in the Assembly was an angry outburst of their MLAs and supporters, the Opposition leader, Mr Partha Chatterjee, said. The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee, said it was a violent expression of the Trinamool’s isolation and rejection by the people. He alleged that some six CPM MLAs, two Assembly employees and two journalists, including Dr K.G. Ghosh, the MLA from Noapara, North 24-Parganas, were injured in the violent attack by the Trinamool MLAs. Mr Bhattacharjee denied there was any assault on Ms Banerjee. But, he admitted that she was restrained from proceeding to Singhur following the imposition of 144 CrPc there. Neither the CPM nor any other political parties was allowed to hold any meeting or demonstration at Singhur today, he added. The Speaker, Mr Hashim Abdul Halim, regretted that in his long political career, he had never seen or heard of any such violence in the Assembly. As a serving Speaker of the state Assembly for the past three decades, it was a black day of his life. The Left Front chairman, Mr Biman Bose, alleged that the incident started when Ms Banerjee entered the House with some of her supporters unauthorisedly and incited the MLAs. He said the CPM and other Left Front parties would resist tomorrow's bandh. He appealed to the people to oppose the bandh. |
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Riots in Maharashtra
Mumbai, November 30 The police said three teenagers were killed in Osmanabad after the police fired on mobs. A 13-year-old boy was killed this morning while the other two were shot in the afternoon. Indefinite curfew has been imposed on the town and companies of the Rapid Action Force deployed. Deccan Queen train plying between Mumbai and Pune was set on fire at the Ulhasnagar station on the outskirts of Mumbai. Seven coaches of the train were burnt after passengers were made to flee by a mob. Glasspanes of more than 90 buses belonging to the BMC-run BEST were smashed across the city. In other parts of the state, nearly 70 buses belonging to the Maharashtra State Transport Undertaking were burnt. The violence began late last evening after television channels broadcast images of the beheaded statue. Shortly afterwards, the protesters descended on the Eastern Express Highway throughout the evening to block traffic. The state government quickly deployed teams of the Rapid Action Force to disperse the protesters. However, the situation went out of control this morning following reports of a 23-year-old Dalit being lynched by a mob in Nashik. The police said residents of a Dalit colony were pelting vehicles with stones when they were attacked by uppercaste people residing in the locality. Ranganath Dhale got separated from his crowd only to be caught by the mob and beaten to death. Activists belonging to the Republican Party of India put out boards in major Dalit localities across Maharashtra, calling for a Mumbai bandh and sparking off violence, the police said. "It is not just the Dalits, people from all sections of society are out in the streets," Mr Ramdas Athvale, leader of one of the RPI factions claimed. The police later said six youths had been arrested in connection with the lynching incident. Maharashtra's PWD Minister and Dalit leader Chagan Bhujbal took a tour of the Nashik and Vithgaon areas which were affected by the violence and sought to pacify the Dalits. He announced a compensation of Rs 1 lakh and a government job to the next of kin of Dhale. He also promised government-sponsored treatment to Dhale’s ailing father. Violence has also been reported from Virar, Bandra and Kherwadi. The business hub of Worli was also affected as slum dwellers in the vicinity descended in the streets to vandalise vehicles. However, rioting has been intense on the Central Railway line where the city's poor live. The stretch from Pimpri-Chinchwad on the outskirts of Pune has also seen intense rioting. The police had to open fire in Pimpri, Ulhasnagar, Kalyan and Trombay after the protesters attempted to damage railway property. Life in Thane came to a standstill after the RPI called for a complete bandh in the township. Suburban train services on the Central Railway line have been suspended and several outstation trains cancelled. Elsewhere in the state, Nanded, Osmanabad, Latur, Nashik, Jalgaon, Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara and large parts of sensitive Marathwada have been affected by violence. All three deaths from police firing have been reported from this region. Curfew has been imposed on all these places as Dalits and anti-Dalit mobs clashed. Traffic between Aurangabad and Jalna has been thrown out of gear after mobs blocked roads for several hours this morning. The state police control room said more than 2,500 persons have been detained under various charges. Meanwhile, schools and colleges were closed in the affected areas as a precautionary measure, according to information from the state Home Department. The DGP, Mr P.S. Pasricha, however, said only one person had been killed in the police firing. He said 40 policemen had been injured in the incident. Mumbai Police Commissioner A.N. Roy has asked all offices in the city to remain shut on December 6, the death anniversary of Dr Ambedkar. Meanwhile, Naxals have taken responsibility for protests by Dalits in Maharashtra earlier this month. "We have nothing to hide about this association. We pledge to stand by the Dalit masses and help them punish the real culprits," the Maharashtra State Committee General Secretary of the CPI (Maoists) said in a letter.
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Statue damage: Tension over rounding up of Dalit youths
Kanpur, November 30 UP chief of the Dalit Panther Party Dhaniram Panther said a day-long dharna was organised today at the spot where the 14-year-old idol was damaged. The dharna also aimed at highlighting the highhandedness of the police in picking up local youths in the night without any warrant. A rally would be held at Kanpur tomorrow, which would be addressed by Republican Party national president and MP Ramdas Athvale, who would arrive here from Mumbai tonight. The incident was headed to become a rallying point for Dalits in the coming Vidhan Sabha elections. The Kanpur incident almost coincided with the BSP’s statewide “dhikkar diwas” today in which BSP workers burnt effigies of Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav at the district headquarters across the state for what they described as his anti-Dalit policies. According to a spokesperson of the BSP, the major grudge of the BSP against the SP government was that Yadav had not offered his condolences at the death of BSP founder Kanshi Ram. They were protesting against both the state and the Central Governments for refusing to declare a national mourning on his death. Meanwhile, SSP Kanpur P.C. Meena expressed surprise at such a strong reaction over the incident in Maharashtra when the epicentre of the incident at Kanpur was relatively calm. “The situation here was brought under control within a few hours by deciding to replace the damaged statue with a larger one,” he said. He said the re-running of reports on the incident through out the day by the electronic media might have triggered the large-scale violence in Maharashtra. He had sent a report to the DGP and the Home Secretary in Lucknow. He expressed hope that the case would be sorted by late tonight. The city did not report any untoward incident today, except the dharna demanding the immediate arrest of the real culprits and the release of the Dalit youths picked up by the police last night. Angry crowd from the Dalit basti headed by their leaders, including Dhaniram Panther and BSP leader Nirmal Tiwari, had come out in the streets yesterday in large numbers stopping traffic in protest against the sacrilege to their icon. They even burnt a tyre and brought vehicular traffic to a standstill. What added fuel to the fire was the district administration’s stance of trying to explain away the incident as an act of some mentally challenged person. However, Dalits living in the area claimed this was a well-thought out conspiracy.
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Jordan
to boost ties with India New Delhi, November 30 King Abdullah will hold talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at Hyderabad House tomorrow. During the visit, the two countries are expected to sign five agreements in investment protection, agriculture, tourism, information technology and cultural exchange, apart from the Bilateral Investment Protection Agreement. King Abdullah, 44, who has been ruling the country for the past seven years, will also meet President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi during his visit. He delivered a keynote address on India-Jordan relations at the Indian Council of World Affairs
(ICWA) and interacted with top Indian businessmen at a separate meeting this evening. Jordan's late King Hussein visited India thrice (1963, 1983 and 1986) and former Crown Prince El Hassan Bin Talal made five visits (1976, 1979, 1982, 1984 and 1988). The last Indian prime minister who visited Jordan was Rajiv Gandhi, who went there in 1988. The bilateral trade between India and Jordan is $494 million. In the past eight months (January to August this year), there has been a growth of 45 per cent in Indian exports to Jordan. This is a result of a series of steps taken over last year by Indian export councils as well as India’s participation in the Jordan global village. At present, India ranks among the top five trading partners of Jordan. For India, Jordan is the single biggest source of phosphate products.
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No Chinese plan to divert Brahmputra: Pranab
New Delhi, November 30 Mr Mukherjee was replying to a question on recent reports indicating Beijing’s plan to divert water from the Yarlung Zangbo river, which on entering India was known as the Brahmaputra, to the Yellow river in North-West China by constructing a dam. "The government has taken up the issue (reports of construction of dam) with the Chinese side. The spokesman of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Chinese Ambassador to India have denied such plans," he said replying to supplementaries during Question Hour. The Minister said the issue relating to the trans-border river flowing from Tibet into India was discussed during the recent visit of the Chinese President to India. Mukherjee said there were reports that China planned to build a 40,000 MW hydro-electric power plant and a dam on the Yarlung Zangbo river and divert 200 billion cubic meter of water to the Yellow river.
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Lok Sabha passes Bill on
Jallianwala Bagh memorial
New Delhi, November 30 The Bill was necessitated as otherwise the government could not have appointed life trustees in place of Jawaharlal Nehru, Saifuddin Kitchlew and Maulana Abul Kalam Azad. According to the amendment, the new trustees will include the Prime Minister as Chairperson, the Congress president, the Union Culture Minister, the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok Sabha, the Governor and the Chief Minister of Punjab and three eminent persons to be nominated by the Centre. Participating in the debate some members, including the Shiromani Akali Dal objected to the statutory provision of the Congress president as a member of the trust. Rattab Singh Ajnala of SAD demanded that the MP from Amritsar and the Leader of Opposition of the Punjab Assembly should also be included in the trustees. His remark on the role of the royal family of Patiala during the colonial era evoked sharp protest from the treasury benches led by Preneet Kaur (Congress). Members, participating in the discussion on the Bill, welcomed it as a move to revive the memories and contribution of the hundreds of freedom fighters who laid down their lives in the agitation against the ''Black'' Rowlatt Act, and was the worst massacre during the freedom struggle. They regretted that ever since the death of Pt Nehru, no government considered it necessary to reconstitue the trust until the present Bill was brought, and also came out with suggestions for the upkeep of the memorial. "There will be no change in the spirit and sentiment of the 1951 Act," she said. While BJP's Rasa Singh Rawat and Congress' Preneet Kaur supported the Bill, CPM's Sujan Chakraborty said the amendment to fill the vacancies should have been tabled earlier. Prasanna Acharya (BJD) said there was "no justification" in continuing with the inclusion of Congress president as a trustee. "The Congress was different then and it is different now," he said amid protest by the treasury benches.
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Chunchun wants to be a doctor
Patna, November 30 Talking to The Tribune at her father`s roadside dhaba in Patna, Chunchun said she did not like to work,and instead dreamt to go to school like other children. She said it was a compulsion on her part to work for survival against her wishes. Chunchun said,”I am very happy. I want to be a doctor and help my friends who cannot afford treatment.” Chunchun`s mother Sita Devi was also happy that her daughter would now get education free of cost,besides food and clothes. Chunchun’s dream to go the school finally became true following intervention by none other than Chief Minister Nitish Kumar. Chunchun had hit the headlines recently when it was found that she was still working in the dhaba even after the “smile on her face” was used by Unicef in its campaign against child-labour. It was a lapse on part of Unicef not to bring back the smile on the face of its mascot by addressing her plight who herself was a child labourer.
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Padma Shri sought for ‘Lage Raho...’ makers
New Delhi, November 30 Raising a Special Mention in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Shantaram Laxman Naik of the Congress said the film, which was even screened at the United Nations, had done a lot to propogate Gandhian values so the government should decorate the producer and director of the film with a Padma Shri at the Rupublic Day. Mr Santosh Bagrodia of the Congress demanded that the government should take steps to promote care of geriatrics in the country. Pointing out that at present the care and treatment of the elderly population was left mainly to NGOs and volunteers, he said the government should take measures to develop specialised geriatrics care infrastructure in the country. Mr Girish Kumar Sangh of the Congress demanded a review of the Constitution every 20 years and get it endorsed by the people of the country.
— UNI
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DD beams film on HIV women
New Delhi, November 30 The stories of these women spoke of the dilemma of young married women across the country, who are not in a position to negotiate safe sex and get HIV infection from their husbands. According to the film, more than 60 per cent of women widowed in India due to HIV are less than 30 years old. Women constitute 39 per cent of the total number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in India. Asha Ramaiah from Bangalore in Karnataka and Naina Raut from Pune in Maharashtra, who got the infection from their husbands, had recounted their trauma of how their in-laws turned them out of the house and wrongly accused them. The film presented their struggle with stigma and discrimination and their ability to lead normal lives with support from their parents and community. All four women are now working with state networks of people living with HIV/AIDS and are spreading awareness on HIV/AIDS in their
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AIDS costing million jobs every year
New Delhi, November 30 The report, “HIV/AIDS and work: global estimates, impact on children and youth, and response 2006”, says that the relentless advance of HIV/AIDS has been markedly reducing economic and employment growth in countries hit hardest by the epidemic. It has jeopardised their efforts to reduce poverty, create new jobs, especially for the youth, and fight child labour. The report says that an estimated 36.3 million persons of working age were now living with HIV/AIDS, the vast majority being in sub-Saharan Africa. The analysis has been carried out with data from 60 countries in the world that are heavily affected by the HIV epidemic. They include 56 countries in which the HIV prevalence among persons aged 15 to 49 years was 1 per cent or higher. The list also includes India, Brazil, China and the US, where, though the HIV prevalence is lower because of their large populations, possibly a million or more are HIV-positive. Of the 60 countries, data on 43 countries is available to estimate losses in economic and employment growth. Of the remaining countries, 13 are small countries for which data is unavailable or unreliable. Of the four large countries with low HIV prevalence, Brazil, China, India and the US, the impact on their economies was too small to be measurable.
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Strengthen PDS to tackle price rise: LS
New Delhi, November 30 Participating in a discussion under Rule 193, the members said the price rise was hitting hard the common man and asked the government to take urgent steps to curb prices. Mr Chinta Mohan (Congress) said the PDS system needs to be revitalised and highlighted how many of the government schemes were getting adversely affected due to poor implementation. Mr Ananth Kumar (BJP) took on the government for failure to check the hike in prices of essential commodities and said despite there being a Cabinet Committee on Prices(CCP), the prices were spiralling. He attributed the increase in the prices to three factors—(a) increase in prices of sugar, cereals and pulses; (b) rise in prices of petroleum products and (c) increase in prices of manufactured goods. Mr Kumar wanted the government to establish a fool proof monitoring mechanism which will keep a close watch on production of agricultural commodities and their procurement and prices. —
UNI
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SC upholds life sentence
New Delhi, November 30 A Bench said the killing of six-year-old Abhishek and eight-year-old Heena by their neighbours Gagan Kanojia and Rajender Kumar was a heinous crime but it could not be put in the rarest of rare category. Rejecting the appeal of the convicts against the Punjab and Haryana High Court judgement of 2005, converting their death sentence to life as they had claimed to be innocent, the apex court said there was sufficient evidence to prove them guilty. |
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Japan keen on more Indian students
New Delhi, November 30 "We are pushing to open some of the undergraduate courses like biotechnology and neurosciences to Indian students," said Kiyoshi Kurokawa, science adviser to Japan's Prime Minister. He is also a Professor at the National Graduate Institute for Policy Studies (GRIPS), Tokyo. "I have suggested that at least 20 per cent of courses being offered in the University of Tokyo be taught in English so that more students from India and other countries can join them," Kurokawa told IANS. With very few Indian students well-versed in Japanese, the number of students going to Japan for higher studies is very minuscule.
— IANS
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Helmet rule in jeopardy in Bangalore
Bangalore, November 30 The state government had implemented the helmet rule reluctantly after two years of vacillation, despite a court order on the issue and a scientific study conducted by the National Institute of Mental Health and Nuero-Surgery (NIMHANS) which stressed that helmets could ward off serious head injuries on November 1. However, following the expected immediate outcry the government amended the rule taking the pillion rider outside its ambit. This despite the fact that NIMHANS had recommended helmets for pillion riders also. The rule itself was not implemented strictly in the first few days, with the government asking the traffic police to go in for an education phase besides giving people time to buy helmets. The Chamundeshwari byelection has come as a boon for those opposing imposition of the helmet rule in state. Chief Minister H D Kumaraswamy was besieged with complaints regarding inconvenience caused by helmets and responded two day back by saying that the government would take a decision respecting public sentiment on the issue shortly. He said he could not, however, make an announcement in this regard due to the poll code. With the Chief Minister’s statement again putting the helmet implementation notification in jeopardy, the helmet rule itself is not being taken seriously by many two-wheeler drivers. The helmet opposers are deep-rooted. They even have an official Helmet Opposers Forum on the net which gives detailed reasons why helmets are more of a nuisance than of any help. Among the reasons why helmets are not needed in Bangalore are hot tropical climate, difficulty in breathing, difficulty in following sounds on the road, baldness worries and the fact that helmets are a liability while shopping. These same issues are being published in different forms in various daily publications and outnumber the views of people voicing their assent for making helmets compulsory. A traffic expert, Prof M.N. Sreehari, while talking to TNS, says the helmet rule had stirred up extreme reactions but the critics did not have a case. “Helmets are a must with records showing that as many as 60 per cent of head-related injuries can be prevented by the use of helmets”. He said this fact alone should make people realise the importance of wearing helmets. But when it comes to the country’s I T capital even this fact is disputed. “The traffic moves at a snail’s speed. The cracked head theory does not work here”, says a member of the Opposers Forum indicated it will be some time before Bangalorians reconcile to covering their heads.
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Govt to provide Rs 400 cr for coastal security
New Delhi, November 30 In addition, the government is receptive to the idea of providing better security arrangements to mega cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore, Kolkata, Chennai and Hyderabad, which have been targeted by terrorists. Replying to a long-drawn discussion in the Rajya Sabha on the internal security scenario in the country, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said the government was alive to the fact that sea routes were more important and were likely to be used by terrorists for infilitration into the country. He said the government would provide Rs 400 crore to coastal states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Kerala, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh to beef up security apparatuses and make coastal patrolling more effective. Sharing concern of members over the need to provide better security arrangements to mega cities against terror attacks, the minister said the Central Government had accepted this suggestion. ‘’We have asked the state governments to send proposals to the Centre for providing better security arrangements in mega cities,’’ he said, adding that the UPA government would help them in all respects. Mr Patil also rejected the idea of toughening anti-terror laws, saying that the existence of POTA and TADA had failed to prevent the occurrence of violent activities. ‘’Our conviction is that laws have to be humane. We have to ensure that laws are not misused against innocent people to make them hostile to society,’’ he argued. The minister said there was a need to delete some of the obnoxious
provisions of some of the laws. The Supreme Court had also prescribed some guidelines while dealing with terrorists, and these could be incorporated into the existing laws, he
added. Pointing out that terrorists were executing their nefarious game plans by high-tech arms and weapons, he said this made a strong case for modernising the security machinery by inducting modern technology.
— UNI
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An Army-IAF affiliation
Belgaum, November 30 A charter of the affiliation to this effect was signed by the Chief of Army Staff, Gen J.J. Singh, who is also Maratha Light Infantry Colonel, and Air Vice-Marshal T.S. Randhawa, Commodore Commandant of 20 AF Squadron here. A similar charter of affiliations was signed by Maratha Light Infantry Regimental Centre Commandant brig Ranjit Misra, and 20 AF Squadron, Pune, Commanding officer, Wing Commander George Thomas. The affiliation of one of the most formidable battalions of the Indian Army with one of the most decorated squadrons of the Air Force was expected to foster mutual understanding and ensure better inter-operability during war and peace times alike. General J.J. Singh said this affiliation was not only between the two regiments, but also an effort towards synergising the coordination between the three services. ‘’When the three services fight together, our victory is certain. The Maratha Light Infantry has become the first battalion to be affiliated with both the Air Force and the Navy.’’ Air Marshal P K Mehra said the affiliation would develop with time at field, adventure and socio-cultural events.
—UNI
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5-year visa introduced for 18 countries
New Delhi, November 30 The visa will have a five-year validity with the stipulation that continuous stay in India on each visit shall not exceed 90 days. The long-term visa would facilitate repeat visits by the nationals of these countries.
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6 die trapped in colliery Tallest church tower Cop run over by train Project King Cobra
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