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Eurocopter clinches Army deal
Mahima, Romeo Gladrags winners
Maureen Wadia with Mahima Chaudhary from Pune and Romeo Gates from London, winners of the Gladrags Mega Model and Manhunt Contest — 2007, in Mumbai on Saturday evening. — PTI
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Sarah Jane crowned Miss India
Signs of non-Cong, non-BJP front visible at SP rally
’84 riots relief: Centre tells states to take steps
A Bihar village sans crime for 40 years
Spurned lover sets girl’s house afire, 3 dead Quarter Master General gets additional charge of ASC
e-governance centres bring cheer to Bangaloreans
BJP to protest against second FIR today
EC’s diktat: Advantage BSP
AMU student shot dead
Easter celebrated
Grenade blast in Dehra Dun leaves 1 dead Jaiswal’s plane catches fire TN blast: 2
arrested
Girl falls into sewage pit, rescued
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Eurocopter clinches Army deal
New Delhi, April 8 According to a report in the latest issue of India Strategic magazine on defence and foreign affairs, the Army chose Eurocopter's AS 550 C3 Fennec over the Bell Helicopter's Bell 407 after trials in hot, humid and high-altitude conditions in Rajasthan, Punjab and Kashmir, including Siachen. The new machines will replace the old and aged 1970s generation Chetak and Cheetah helicopters of the Army, which has an appropriate plan to modernise and expand its Army Aviation Corps (AAC) in line with current and future rapid mobility battlefield requirements. Eurocopter will supply 60 helicopters in a fly-away condition, made at its plants in France and Germany, while the remaining 137 will be manufactured by Hindustan Aeronautics Limited (HAL) at its Bangalore facility. Company sources told India Strategic that it would take three years to supply the made-in-Europe lot, but that assembly lines would be set up simultaneously at the HAL to facilitate their manufacture in India under the transfer of technology (ToT). Eurocopter also has the obligation to invest 30 per cent of the deal back in the Indian defence industry under the now mandatory offset clause, a brainchild of defence secretary Shekhar Dutt. Commercial negotiations between Eurocopter, a subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space (EADS) company, and the ministry of defence (MoD) are slated to begin this month to finetune the deal as also to work out the weapons and electronic warfare package. A formal contract would be signed then.
— IANS
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Mahima, Romeo Gladrags winners
Mumbai, April 8 Shweta Bharadwaj from New Delhi and Nachiket Samant from Pune were the second runners-up whereas Ambika Ragbir from New York and Kaiomurz Chindhy from Pune were the first runners-up in the function held yesterday. They were chosen from 20 girls and 21 boys, respectively. The other awardees include: Mr and Miss Congeniality - Miss Ethiel Konyak from Nagaland and Mr Mitlesh Kamat from Mumbai; Most Photogenic - Anondo Ghosh and Vinitha Menon; Most Potential - Dipaali Singh and Piyush Wadhwani; Best Body - Ambika Ragbir and Karan Singh. The contestants hailed from New York, New Delhi, Los Angeles, Nagaland, Kolkata, Guwahati, Ujjain, Indore, Pune, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Vancouver, Canada, Mangalore, and Mumbai. Some of the previous winners of the Gladrags contest are Aishwarya Rai, Shamoly Verma, Koena Mitra, John Abraham, Kelly Dorjee, Lisa Ray and Meher Jesia to name a few. The deferred telecast of the contest will be telecast on Star One on at 10 pm on April 14. — UNI
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Sarah Jane crowned Miss India
Mumbai, April 8 Sarah, who is a Veejay and model, won the title beating 24 other contestants in the finals of the event. The first runner-up was Puja Gupta and Puja Chitgopekar the second runner-up, an official of the event organiser Pantaloons said. He said the pageant this year had decided to declared the “Miss India World” as the official winner. The event was judged by several
celebraties, including Bollywood actors Sanjay Dutt, Priyanka Chopra, director Subhash Ghai and model Ujwalla Raut, and went for almost two-and-a-half hours. In the final round, the five finalists had to answer to the question — “If you had to convince a rural woman to participate in the Miss India contest, how would you do it?”
— PTI
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Signs of non-Cong, non-BJP front visible at SP rally
Bareilly, April 8 These sentiments were shared by TDP leader and former Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandra Babu Naidu when he said the present UP Assembly election was not only limited to the future of the state but was to give the country’s politics a new direction. The contours of the much touted non-Congress, non-BJP third front was visible today at the Fazrul Rehman Islamia Inter College grounds where a well-attended rally was attended among others by Naidu, Chautala and former Karnataka Chief Minister and now SP Member of Parliament S. Bagarappa. Another former Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa sent her best wishes for the success of the rally as she could not make it at the last minute due to the Sendur blast that killed 16 persons, including some of her party sympathisers, announced Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh. General secretary of the Asom Gana Parishad Brindaban Goswami had also travelled to express his party’s solidarity for Mulayam in one of his toughest electoral battle. The message was plain for all who cared. This was obviously no ordinary election meeting to gather support for SP Bareilley city candidate Dr Arun Kumar. Mulayam Singh Yadav has started the countdown for the Lok Sabha election of 2009 or even earlier, as most of the speakers have hoped. Sitting besides Yadav on the dais were not just half a dozen prominent leaders of regional parties, but also two rebel Congress MPs Natwar Singh and Obaidullah Azmi, who strangely were more critical of their official party than the regional leaders themselves. The two Jayas from the SP, Jaya Bachchan and Jaya Prada, added colour to the proceedings while another senior SP minister Mohammad Azam Khan provided just the right amount of fury to warm up the proceedings. Striking an immediate rapport with the crowd, Chautala donning his typical green safa described Yadav as a ‘sapling once planted by his father Devi Lal’. Urging Yadav to go ahead and lead the country as he, according to Chautala, was a person who understood farmers. Lashing out at the Congress-led UPA government for discriminating against farmers, Chautala said, “This government gives support price of Rs 7 per kg for the brown skinned farmer while the white skinned farmer is promised Rs 13 per kg”. Calling the Congress the ‘most communal party’, Chautala asked the people present if they could recall who had ordered the unlocking of the Babri Masjid and directed the Army to enter and damage the Golden Temple. Terming Rahul Gandhi’s recent statement on the Babri Masjid as ‘childish’, Naidu said any one aware of the recent history could compare and contrast what Rajiv Gandhi did for the Babri Masjid with what Mulayam did. Most of the speakers also had a message for the Left parties. Chautala wanted Yadav to ask his friends in the Left to understand the true character of the Congress. “For them secularism was just a façade”, quipped Chautala.
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’84 riots relief: Centre tells states to take steps New Delhi, April 8 The other states are Himachal Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. In letters to chief secretaries of states, the ministry says there appears to be no action taken by these state governments to implement certain points in the rehabilitation package. Areas referred to by the ministry include preference to be given by relaxing age for recruitment of children or family members of those who died in the 1984 riots in the India Reserve Battalions, state police forces, departments of state governments, public sector undertakings and other organisations under the state governments. Other areas where states and the union territory of Delhi are lagging behind are the launching of special recruitment drives to provide jobs to eligible members of riot-hit families and permitting victims who lost their jobs to rejoin by pardoning the period of their absence. According to the ministry, states were also lagging behind in providing pensionary benefits by relaxing normal rules to victims who left their jobs due to the riots and have since crossed their age of superannuation. Another area of concern was the payment of pension at the rate of Rs 2,500 a month to widows and aged parents of those killed in the 1984 riots and to wives of those who suffered 70 per cent disability or were missing since 1984. Reviewing the progress of implementation of the Centre's rehabilitation package in the affected states, the ministry also noted reasonable progress in disbursing relief for death, injury, damaged residential property and uninsured commercial and industrial property and the payment of rehabilitation grant of Rs 2 lakh per migrant family.
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A Bihar village sans crime for 40 years
Patna, April 8 Contrary to Jehanabad‘s reputation as a Maoist-infested district and related crime graph, the small Kosdihra village under this district truly stands out as an exception. No crime has been reported from this village in past 40 years. Despite pressure from the Maoists, Kosdihra has not allowed itself to be embroiled in any violent activities since long. Inputs available from Kosdihra also vindicate the stand of Nitish favouring land reforms to check Naxalism. Nitish last year had appointed a former bureaucrat Debrabata Bandopadhaya as the chairman of the land reforms commission in Bihar to suggest ways and means for land reforms in caste-ridden Bihar. Bandopadhaya was the architect behind land reforms in West Bengal under then Jyoti Basu government. Official sources say Kosdihra was the first village of the district where consolidation of land holdings (Chakbandi) was successfully implemented way back in 1978. Later, it earned the distinction of being the first village in undivided Bihar where land passbooks were issued to the tenants in 1994. What was more encouraging was that against around 60 per cent literacy of the state, Kosdihra already has achieved 80 per cent literacy. Despite the positive credentials of the village against surrounding odds, villagers here regret the apathy of the successive governments in the past to develop Kosdihra as a model village in Jehanabad. It was learnt that whatever developments took place in the village was more due to community initiative at the local level than the government help. Incidentally, way back in 1990 the then Magadh Division Commissioner M. Shakeel Ahmed had declared Kosdihra as an ideal village after making an on-the-spot survey of the area to ascertain whether it was really crime-free. This followed the assurance from the district administration to develop Kosdihra as a “model village”. The dream of model village, however, remained unfulfilled, as the previous RJD government in Bihar was allegedly not bothered much about Kosdihra’s achievement of being a crime-free village. The villagers, reportedly known as the most law-abiding citizens of Bihar, have now pinned their hopes on the promised good governance by Nitish to fulfill their dream of being developed as a model village.
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Spurned lover sets girl’s house afire, 3 dead
Mumbai, April 8 The girl, Satya Pratap Singh (18), her father Nagendra Pratap Singh and brother Shubha (11) died while her mother is recuperating in Bhagwati Hospital in suburban Mumbai. Accused Ajay Singh, distantly related to the family, wanted to marry Satya but her family had fixed her marriage with another man on April 20, the police said. Ajay set on fire the girl’s house in the Hanuman Nagar area in Kandivali east. While Satya and Nagendra were burnt to death inside the house, Shubha died in hospital, succumbing to 100 per cent burns. Her mother sustained 15-20 per cent burns, the police said. Ajay was later arrested by the police.
— PTI
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Quarter Master General gets additional charge of ASC Chandigarh, April 8 Maj-Gen D.K. Dutta was officiating as the DGST in the absence of a lieutenant general to head the ASC, but he retired on March 31, sources said. The Quarter Master General (QMG), who is a principal staff officer to Chief of the Army Staff, is responsible for logistics, supplies, transport, remounts and veterinary services, military farms, postal services, canteens and movement. “The day-to-day affairs of the ASC may be looked after by a major general, but all important files and notings would now be sent to the QMG for his perusal and approval,” a senor officer revealed. It is unprecedented in the ASC’s 246-year history for the QMG to assume additional responsibilities of the DGST. The senior-most ASC major general at Army Headquarters is Maj Gen B.P.S. Mander. He has not been allowed to officiate as the DGST, sources said. Following a court of inquiry (COI), the Army had attached the then DGST, Lt Gen S.K. Sahni, as he was held blameworthy for irregularities in procurement of dry rations. The next senior-most officer, Lt Gen S K Dahiya, was not posted as the DGST as he was held blameworthy for irregularities in the procurement of frozen meat by a separate (COI). The Delhi High court had set aside the COI, and subsequent disciplinary proceedings in the case of General Sahni, who has since retired. General Dahiya, who was awarded a censure, has moved the High Court, seeking to be appointed as the DGST as he is the senior-most serving ASC officer. The matter is scheduled to come up for hearing on April 18. With the QMG ordered to assume additional responsibility as DGST, it is given to understand that the defence ministry may not be willing to move a tainted general to head the ASC till the matter is pending in court, an officer said.
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e-governance centres bring cheer to Bangaloreans
Bangalore, April 8 Once at the centre, Santosh’s application is submitted within 15 minutes bringing a joyous look on his face. He is not the only one to return home smiling after visiting BangaloreOne offices in the city, which provide a host of other services as well to the people of the city, including submission of applications for passports, issue of birth and death certificates and electricity, water, telephone and mobile bills besides others. The e-governance scheme, started nearly one year back, is now reaching out to lakhs of people in the city and will be extended to five other cities in the state this year, says e- governance secretary Rajeev Chawla. As many as 4.2 lakh transactions have been done under the scheme in March this year. In fact the scheme has taken off virtually by the word of mouth with only 15,000 transactions being recorded when it had started. “It is the efficiency involved, which makes it a success,” says Sriniwas K while talking to TNS at a BangaloreOne center in Divyashree Chambers. The centre is one of the smaller ones, is air-conditioned and has nine counters with ample sitting space in front of them, says its head
Savitha. The centre is open round the clock. “And yes we do get techies coming in past midnight,” says
Savitha. So buoyed up is the state department of e-governance over the success of the scheme that it is aiming to further expand the facilities being offered to consumers, free of cost. BangaloreOne director Vipin Singh told TNS that the centres would start booking both aeroplane as well as train tickets within a fortnight. Giving details of how the project came about, Vipin Singh said the department did an e-readiness survey of the state departments. “We checked the IT systems already in place and hand-held departments where these systems needed fine tuning.” Giving an example of the electricity department, the director said it had 39 subdivisions. “Though the headquarter is linked with each subdivision the links were down most of the time because the bills are collected in the subdivision and the department did not think in terms of upgrading the entire system,” he said. The system works with 16 citizen centres being connected to a database centre. At the citizen centres, operators log in for domain, file authentication proof and select service, which is to be availed. Once in the database the entry is referred to the respective department, which gives the needed reply. Successful transactions go back to the operator’s desk that selects a print option to generate a receipt. An offline server is also deployed in case connectivity fails between the data centre and the citizen centre. Applicants desirous of availing of the services on the Internet themselves have to register and do the same transaction using a credit card.
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BJP to protest against second FIR today
New Delhi, April 8 Rajnath Singh will court arrest in Lucknow tomorrow, party spokesman Pakash Javadekar, said, adding that senior party members, including L.K. Advani, M. Venkaiah Naidu, Sushma Swaraj, Arun Jaitley, Yashwant Sinha, will also be present on the occassion. Javadekar said the second FIR had been lodged under influence of the UP government, despite the BJP’s explanation to the Chief Election Commissioner that the CD was not a part of official campaign. A BJP delegation led by party vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi met the CEC and stated that the contentious CD was neither official and nor had it been seen or approved by the BJP leadership. ‘’The second FIR against Rajnath Singh is a malicious design of the Samajwadi Party and other pseudo secularist parties,’’ Javadekar alleged, adding that no action was taken against RJD supremo Lalu Prasad who used a Godhra CD in the Bihar elections for divisive politics. “Recently notices have been issued to Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar for declaring sugar package and UP Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav for castist appeal both in violation of the code of conduct. However, no FIR was registered against them,” he asserted. He also added that no FIR was registered either against Congress president Sonia Gandhi for using state government aircraft during Chhattisgarh Assembly elections or Lalu Prasad for distributing cash during the Bihar Assembly campaign.
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EC’s diktat: Advantage BSP
Muzaffarnagar, April 8 While there are many like Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his general secretary Amar Singh, who are cribbing and complaining about the EC’s role, “we welcome the commission’s role as it would alone ensure free and fair poll”, BSP candidate for Deoband Manoj Chaudhary said. In Chhaprauli and Baghpat, where former Chief Minister and kisan leader Charan Singh dominated the political scenario, there were times when there was unusually high polling even when lower castes and the Dalits had not even voted, he went on to assert. A strict and vigilant EC is a source of headache for all those political parties and entities who have been using “muscle and money” to win the electoral battle in the past, Abdul Wahid, who is a supporter of the BSP, observed. While the BSP, which had won 15 seats in 2002, will gain maximum due to the EC’s vigil as Dalit voter would be able to exercise their franchise in much bigger numbers this time than in the past, parties like the Rashtriya Lok Dal, the Samajwadi Party, the BJP and the Congress would electorally suffer, a political activist Deepak Bhushan said and welcomed the EC’s vigil. He said the EC had appointed separate observers for the nine Assembly seats here and cases against LS MP Munnwar Hasan, RLD candidate from Kairana Arshad Hasan, SP candidate from Charthawal Uma Kiran and Congress candidate Pankaj Malik had already been registered. The RLD, which is contesting the election without an alliance or an electoral understanding, may turn out to be the main victim of the EC’s vigil. The party’s main vote bank of Jats would not be able to use time-tested methods to swing election results in their candidates’ favour, an iron merchant in Bulandshahr Arun Gupta pointed out.
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Rs 234-crore electric ‘shock’
Chandigarh, April 8 Murari Lal of Narnaul town did not, however, faint on seeing the bill that his even seven generations would not be able to pay. “It was shocking to receive such a bill,” he said as he headed to get the “mistake” in the bill rectified. The state’s power distribution agency’s executive engineer said the high bill went to the consumer due to a snag in the spot bill machine. But Murari Lal’s woes will end only after the phenomenal bill is withdrawn. The penalty for non-payment of the bill by the April 18 deadline itself runs to over Rs 70 crore.
— IANS
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Aligarh, April 8 Mohammad Saquib, a commerce student, died this morning when he was caught in a crossfire between the two rival groups outside Habib Hall in the campus, the police said. Saquib was returning from the university library when the incident occurred. According to a university spokesman, tension between the two rival group of student activists had arisen yesterday afternoon and this morning’s shootout was a fallout of that. An uneasy calm prevailed in the AMU campus following sporadic protests in parts of it over Saquib’s death. Shopkeepers in markets adjoining the campus, including Dodhpur, Shamshad, Amir Nishan and Zakariya, shut their establishments in the wake of this morning’s shootout. Members of Saquib’s family told PTI that he had a brilliant academic record. Saquib was returning from the AMU library in the early hours and had stopped at a roadside tea-stall for a short break when some motorcycle-borne students suddenly opened fire at another group of youths sitting at an adjoining table. Saquib was hit by a stray bullet in his chest and succumbed to his injury soon after. The incident left AMU’s administration “completely paralysed” as the the varsity’s Vice Chancellor Naseem Ahmad, who submitted his resignation late last night, is currently in New Delhi. — PTI
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New Delhi, April 8 Easter services were held in churches in the national capital, Kerala, Orissa and north-eastern states like Mizoram and Meghalaya, marking the end of the Lent season of fasting and abstinence. Senior prelates and bishops led the services and gave sermons in cathedrals and churches of different Christian denominations. In the capital, the main Easter service was held at the Sacred Heart Cathedral where about 5,000 persons attended a midnight mass. Union Labour Minister Oscar Fernandes, an adept musician, joined the church choir during the mass. Arch Bishop of Delhi Vincent Concessao, who led the prayers, blessed the “new fire” which symbolises the risen Christ. In Kochi, the head of the Syro Malankara Catholic Church, Catholicose Baselios Mar Cleemis, led the services in St Mary’s Cathedral. Archbishop M Susai Packyam led prayers in St Joseph’s Cathedral. Kerala’s Governor R L Bhatia, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan and leader of opposition Ommen Chandy greeted the people on the occasion. — PTI
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Grenade blast in Dehra Dun leaves 1 dead
Dehra Dun, April 8 “Four boys returning home after collecting firewood from Maldevata jungles unknowingly picked up a live grenade in the Raipur army range. After some time, the grenade exploded killing one of them and injuring three others,” the police said. The deceased has been identified as Kapil (13) while three other injured boys have been admitted to Doon hospital, the police said. The incident came barely a week after two youths were killed when they picked up a live grenade at the firing range of Seema Sashastra Bal (SSB) at Srinagar town of Garhwal region. An IMA cadet was also killed last month when the grenade he was handling during a training exploded killing him on the spot.
— PTI
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Jaiswal’s plane catches fire
Varanasi, April 8 Airport security sources said the incident occurred with the Jet Airways flight No. 9W723 which, among others, had Jaiswal on board. The incident occurred at 12.15 pm soon after, the pasengers had deboarded the
Delhi-Varanasi-Khajuraho flight, as owing to overheating and overflow of excess fuel, one of the engines of the aircraft started billowing fumes. Jaiswal was in the city to attend personal engagements and also for electioneering.
— UNI
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TN blast: 2
arrested
Villupuram, April 8 Police sources said Annamalai and Nagappan working at the godown owned by the Sekar were arrested and interrogated. The duo reportedly told the police they had travelled in the ill-fated jeep along with Babu and Shanmugam who were among those killed. The duo travelled in the jeep from the Pathirapuliyur Godown to Thennalapakkam where they got down. Annamalai and Nagappan were in charge of the despatch of the explosives. Meanwhile, police sources said the documentation was pucca and the incident could have happened due to failure to follow safety procedures during transport of the explosives.
— UNI
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Girl falls into sewage pit, rescued
Kanpur, April 8 Afsa, daughter of roadside tea-stall owner Anwar, fell into the pit in Fathfulganj this morning when her father was taking a nap. On hearing about the incident, a large crowd gathered and tried to rescue her, but failed. They then informed the Railbazar police station. The police brought her out an hour later. She had sustained minor injuries and was sent for a medical examination.
— PTI
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Quake hits Kutch
New Delhi, April 8 The temblor struck at 2150 hours and was epicentred between 23.3 degrees north and 70.4 degrees east. There were no immediate reports of damage or injuries.
— UNI
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Mumbai, April 8
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