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Uproar in House: parties unite against BJP
Periyar statue row:
BJP joins chorus
Singur: protests hit life in city
Nitish unhappy with ‘unrealistic’
BJP |
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CWC to discuss nuke deal today Bridge collapse: NHRC seeks rly chairman’s reply
Central grant for ‘modern’ madrassas
SC dismisses Haryana
MLAs’ petitions
Railway Board chief keen on future logistics
French award for Alka Pande
Pilotless aircraft testflown
Dilip Kumar turns 84
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Uproar in House: parties unite against BJP
New Delhi, December 11 At a joint press conference here, the leaders of these parties criticised the BJP for launching “personal attacks” on Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee who, they said, was striving to run the House taking every section into confidence. The leaders, including Mr Basudeb Acharia and Mr Sitaram Yechury (CPM), Mr Mohan Singh (SP), Mr K Yerrannaidu (TDP), Mr Gurudas Dasgupta (CPI), Mr Mitrasen Yadav (BSP), Mr Ramchandra Paswan (LJP) and Mr Subrata Bose (Forward Bloc), protested the manner in which the BJP was not allowing discussion on major issues on which debates were slated on the agenda. “While during the 13th Lok Sabha when BJP was in power only four adjournment motions (raised by the Opposition) were allowed to be debated, in the 14th Lok Sabha in two and a half years, already four such motions have been admitted by the Speaker”, Mr Dasgupta said. Mr Acharia said the Speaker was an institution of parliamentary democracy. “If this institution is denigrated, Parliament is denigrated. And they (BJP) are doing this publicly day in and out,” he said. Mr Mohan Singh accused the BJP of “abducting” the question hour and other proceedings “trying to implement their sinister design to reap political benefit in the coming UP Assembly elections. They will come to know about their bearing only in the elections”.
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Periyar statue row:
BJP joins chorus
Chennai, December 11 The Tamil Nadu BJP unit today criticised the Dravidar Kazhagam’s plan for holding a conference on “abolition of blind faith” beside the Periyar statue, near the Srirangam temple in Tiruchirappalli, saying “permission to such conferences would only escalate tension”. The statue, which was defaced last week leading to violent acts in other parts of the state, including vandalising of statues of Lord Ganesh, has now been replaced with a bronze one. BJP Tamil Nadu president L. Ganesan said the conference of rationalists in the “holy temple town” should not be permitted by the state government, as it would hurt the feelings of people. He said that “there are many other localities in the district that government can give”, adding that the permission to hold the conference would set a wrong precedent and the venue should be changed. Mr Ganesan also opposed the installation of the statue of Periyar near the temple and pointed out that it was against the recommendation of the Justice Venugopal Commission, which went into the communal clashes at Mandaikadu in Tamil Nadu. He said the commission had suggested that in order to avoid communal tension, the government should not permit a new place of worship, belonging to another religion or faith, to come up near the existing one. Mr Ganesan felt that even “atheism is a religion” and a statue of the leader of such a religion should not have been installed in the first place near a temple. Criticising the parties that had remained silent on the issue, he said the “so-called secular party leaders” did not condemn the attack on other temples as a backlash and said: “This is not real secularism.” He said: “If those who did not have any faith in statues or idols can get hurt by the damage caused to the statue, the Hindus who have faith in idol worship would feel more hurt. Political leaders should understand this sentiment.” While the state government has put all police stations on high alert following such incidents, neither the ruling Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) nor the Opposition All-India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) have commented on the issue as both are “atheist” parties and followers of Periyar.
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Singur: protests hit life in city
Kolkata, December 11 Ignoring the Calcutta High Court's restrictions, both ruling left parties and oppositions, which included the TMC and 18 other like-minded parties, caused inconvenience to vehicular traffic. Even emergency services were also affected. In addition to that, the Jamaet-Uleman, also brought out a procession and held a meeting at the Saheed Minar, which added to the public inconveniences. While at the TMC's "mass convention", Ms Mamata and other leaders reiterated their decision to continue agitation against transferring farmers’ lands to Tata Motors. CPM state secretary Biman Bose asked CPM workers and supporters to organise "counter-agitation progarmme" against the TMC and others, which had been trying to foil the government's ambitious Tata Motors plan. Mr Bose alleged that the so-called social activist (meaning Ms Medha Patkar) and a few other intellectuals, who were getting foreign funds, were joining Ms Banerjee for their ulterior motives, which would no more be tolerated, he warned. "We will implement Tata Motors project and use more farm lands for our future industrial development for the larger interest of the people and the state", Mr Bose reiterated.
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Nitish unhappy with ‘unrealistic’ BJP Patna, December 11 The apparent uneasiness on the part of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar in tolerating some “unrealistic” remarks by his BJP colleagues came to the fore on a couple of issues in the recent past. Few months back when Tata Sons Chairman Ratan Tata came to state in the capacity of the chairperson of the National Investment Commission, Mr Kumar did sound the former whether Bihar could be a possible location for his dream small car project. The Chief Minister also reportedly assured to acquire as much land for the Tata project in view of the protests in West Bengal. He, however, did not approve the way his deputy Sushil Modi again invited Tatas to set up the car project in Bihar during his recent visit to Kolkata. Mr Kumar said there was no point in asking Tata to shift the project in Bihar now as they had decided to set up the project in West Bengal. He was also unhappy the way a few BJP ministers were not following his stand favouring “slow and steady development” for a turnaround of Bihar. During the celebration after completing one year in office on November 24, in the presence of Mr Modi, Mr Kumar indirectly rebuffed the BJP leader and Urban Development Minister Ashwini Chaube for promising to turn Patna into Paris. He was equally unhappy for unrealistic promise by the BJP to turn Bhagalpur, the
home turf of Mr Modi, into Manchester. The Chief Minister’s forthright attitude in cautioning the BJP ministers against “tall promises” obviously has its roots in the recent victory of the JD (U) at Manihari Assembly by-election. Above all, Mr Kumar and the BJP clearly differed on the issue of reservation for Dalit Muslims.
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CWC to discuss nuke deal today
New Delhi, December 11 Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee will clarify doubts of party colleagues, explain the nuances of the US law and the government’s position in an attempt to get the endorsement of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) for further action on this issue. The government, it is learnt, is well aware that the US law has not addressed all its concerns and is, therefore, treading cautiously. Its initial response had referred to these when it noted that “this draft legislation contains certain extraneous and prescriptive provisions”. While reiterating this position, Mr Mukherjee will also assure his party colleagues that the US law was not binding on India and that the 123 agreement or the bilateral pact which will now be negotiated between the two countries will actually define the parameters of this deal. The Prime Minister, who has pursued this deal as a personal mission, has faced stiff resistence on this matter not just from the Marxists but from his own party colleagues who were unhappy with the government’s pro-US tilt which, they felt, had compromised its independent foreign policy. Dr. Singh had a lot of explaining to do when the party had convened a meeting of the CWC after the Indo-US nuclear deal was first signed.
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Bridge collapse: NHRC seeks rly chairman’s reply New Delhi, December 11 The Commission has directed that copies of the news reports be sent to the Chairman for his comments within two weeks. Taking suo motu cognisance of a news report that the `Ulta Pulta' road bridge was waiting to cave in any moment, the Commission said that if the contents of the report were true, they raised serious issue of violation of human rights of the passengers. The report further said a part of the bridge had been dismantled by the railways but the trains were allowed to run under the bridge in violation of railway safety norms. The NHRC has taken cognisance of another news report that an FIR had been registered against four railway officers.
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Central grant for ‘modern’ madrassas
New Delhi, December 11 “The madrassas which volunteer for introducing modern subjects like Mathematics, Science and English are being assisted under the Centrally sponsored Scheme of Area Intensive and Madrassa Modernisation Programme,” Union HRD Minister Arjun Singh informed the Rajya Sabha today. A total of 1,631 madrassas have been provided Rs 10.11 crore under the scheme during 2005-06. Of this, Rs 35.20 lakh have gone to madrassas in Andhra Pradesh, Rs 79.92 lakh to Bihar, Rs 59.04 lakh to Kerala, Rs 1.68 crore to Orissa, Rs 3.84 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs 3.16 lakh to Maharashtra, Rs 2.35 crore to Uttar Pradesh and Rs 45.72 lakh to madrassas in Tripura.
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SC dismisses Haryana
MLAs’ petitions
New Delhi, December 11 A Bench comprising Chief Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justices C.K. Thakkar and P.K. Balasubramanyan dismissed the petitions of Jagjit Singh, Bhim Sen Mehta, Devraj Dewan, Karan Singh Dalal, Jai Prakash and Rajinder Singh Bisla, who had defected to the Congress after the 2004 Assembly elections. The apex court said the petitions were devoid of merit as their total strength was less than the requisite strength and hence their act of changing the party could not be called as split and, therefore, they were liable to be disqualified under the provisions of the anti-defection law. Earlier, the court had stayed the Speaker's order disqualifying the petitioners.
— UNI
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Railway Board chief keen on future logistics New Delhi, December 11 He informed that the Asia Regional Assembly would be headquartered in New Delhi. Spelling out the UIC agenda, Mr Batra, who has been elected unanimously as the first non-European Chairman of UIC for a two year term, said his priority was to form the World Vision for Rail Logistics-2025. Mr Batra said the UIC General Assembly met in Paris on December 7 and decided that UIC would work towards becoming a truly global organsiation by promoting various activities at the international level.
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French award for Alka Pande New Delhi, December 11 The award is a recognition of Dr Pande's
contribution to Indian cultural life and to the development of cooperation between India and France in the field of art. The Ambassador of France to India, Dominique Girard. will confer the award on Dr Pande on Tuesday.
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Crocodile in bathroom Train engine catches fire Sex racket: 20 arrested Gangster killed in encounter
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