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No clean chit for Dera chief: Deshmukh
Parivar men beat up Dehra Dun pastor
9 pc growth sustainable, says Montek
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Fresh trouble for Jaya Bachchan
Hemkund Incident
Summer trials of Arjun tank successful
Gorkhaland
US ex-diplomat proposes peace zone
India, Pak to identify anti-terror measures
Jaya asks DMK to end cable TV war
RJD accorded national party status
Cholera Scare
Bihar MP convicted for murder
Kidnapped girl rescued
Genetic approval panel meets today
Irked traders stage protest
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No clean chit for Dera chief: Deshmukh
Mumbai, June 24 Party leader Sukhbir Singh Badal headed the SAD delegation, which demanded that the state government should take action against those who opened fire on innocent Sikhs. Eleven members of the Dera chief's entourage, including several of his bodyguards, have been arrested and are presently in police custody. Deshmukh assured Sukhbir that those found guilty of killing would not be spared. Two others who were protesting the presence of the Dera chief in the Mulund shopping mall received gunshot injuries when his bodyguards opened fire on them. At his meeting with Deshmukh, Sukhbir demanded that the state government should provide a job to a relative of Balkar Singh who was shot dead in the incident. Singh was a small businessman whose death has resulted in the family losing a breadwinner, he added. Accompanying Sukhbir was Harcharan Bains, media advisor to Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, who represented the Punjab government. Members of the delegation also visited the family of the victim. Sukhbir announced that the Punjab government would provide a grant of Rs 5 lakh to the next of kin of the deceased and Rs 1 lakh each would also be given to those injured in the firing. He further requested that cases filed against 27 Sikhs who participated in subsequent violence be withdrawn. "The violent protests by the Sikh community was a spontaneous emotional outburst," Sukhbir told reporters later. He added that considering the nature of the incident, the government should withdraw the cases against those arrested. Meanwhile, police officials say they are inquiring as to how the Dera chief's bodyguards were allowed to bring in firearms to Mumbai even while he enjoyed Z Category security. All-India licenses were issued to the bodyguards of the Dera chief by the Haryana government, police officials revealed here. Incidentally, the men who fired on the protesters were not the government security guards provided to the Dera chief but his private bodyguards, the police here say.
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Parivar men beat up Dehra Dun pastor
Dehra Dun, June 24 Christian religious and social leaders, along with senior Congress leader Suryakant Dhasmana, alleged that the incident was the second one ever since the BJP came to power in the state and was an attempt to browbeat the minorities. Pastor Jonathan A.Singh who was running a prayer meeting on Sundays for the past several years in the compound of a hotel at Kishannagar locality of Dehra Dun today, along with several other pastors and leaders of the local Christian community, charged that Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), Bajrang Dal and BJP workers descended on the prayer meeting on June 22 and started beating up the participants. As women and children ran helter-skelter, they caught hold of Jonathan. A. Singh and dragged him to his rented accommodation some distance away. They attackers asked the landlord to immediately throw his belongings out. “I begged them to spare me and on the assurance of my landlord they left me,” Jonathan A.Singh told the media. After meeting the Christian community leaders, a delegation went to the Garhi Cantonment police station where the incharge, instead of registering the First Information Report (FIR), advised them to contact the local BJP legislator Harbans Kapoor. Suryakant Dhasmana, a senior Congress leader, said that this was the second incident where members of the Christian community were targeted by Sangh Parivar activists in Dehra Dun.” Earlier, during the call for a Bharat bandh call given by BJP in June, the owner of the Grace Academy was mercilessly beaten up and the furniture of his school broken but no police case was registered,” Dhasmana charged. Members of the Christian community said that they would knock at the doors of National Human Rights Commission and National Minorities Commission to get justice in the matter. Meanwhile, Harbans Kapoor, who is away to Delhi, denied any knowledge about the incident. the Dehra Dun SSP Amit Sinha said he would look into it. However, BJP spokesperson Ajay Bhatt, a former state minister, denied outright that any one from the Sangh Parivar was involved in such an incident.
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9 pc growth sustainable, says Montek
New Delhi, June 24 India can maintain nine
per cent growth rate in medium term with added efforts despite soaring
prices of oil in the international market, Planning Commission deputy
chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said today, “I believe that the nine
per cent growth rate that we are talking about for the Indian economy
can be maintained even with the present level of oil prices,” he said.
However, the country is challenged at this juncture because it is a
tightrope walk to manage oil prices, improve efficiency, reduce
dependence on oil and look for other sources of energy. Whether oil will
impact growth will depend on how India handles the volatility and handle
the situation, Ahluwalia added. Stating that rising inflation was a
serious problem, Ahluwalia stressed that there was no reason to alter
India’s medium term objective. India has achieved over nine per cent
gross domestic product (GDP) growth rate in the past three years and
economic think tanks are predicting that there would be moderation in
the growth during the current fiscal. The commission, he added was of
the view that it was possible to handle oil price situation without
hurting the confidence of investors in the economy in the medium term.
Pointing out that it was difficult to say what would happen in the next
three to six months, he said the growth momentum could be maintained
even with current level of oil prices. Soaring oil prices have pushed
the inflation rate to more than 11 per cent and the Reserve Bank of
India is expected to announce more measures to tighten monetary policy
to check the rising prices.
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Fresh trouble for Jaya Bachchan
Lucknow, June 24 Earlier in the day, principal secretary to the Vidhan Sabha, V.S. Pandey, recommended action against the high-profile Rajya Sabha MP after an enquiry found substance in the two-year-old complaint lodged with the Election Commission by a Congress leader from Barabanki, Amir Haider. In his complaint, Haider had claimed that in her affidavit Jaya had deliberately concealed facts about a property purchased by her husband Amitabh Bachchan in Barabanki, barely a month before she filed the nomination papers. Following Haider's complaint, the Election Commission had ordered an inquiry into the matter. Responding to the charges, Jaya had claimed that she had not mentioned the property in her affidavit, as the formalities for the registration of the concerned property had not been completed at that time. She had maintained that there was no wilful concealment of facts, as suggested by the complainant. However, the Election Commission is not satisfied with the reply and has found a violation of the Representation of The People’s Act. Investigations had revealed that the registration of the property had been completed long before Jaya had filed her nomination papers in June 2006. Incidentally, this is not the first time that the Rajya Sabha MP has faced trouble in her political career. As a matter of fact, the controversial June 2006 re-nomination had been necessitated when in March 2006, she had been disqualified from the membership of the Upper House on the “office-of-profit issue”. At that point in time, she was holding the office of chairperson of the UP Film Development Council as well as the Rajya Sabha membership. The controversy had also provoked UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to seek re-election from Rae
Bareli.
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Hemkund Incident
Dehra Dun, June 24 “The two seriously injured pilgrims have been referred to Dehra Dun and six others were sent to Srinagar Base Hospital by road,” Chamoli DM D.S. Garbayal, told The Tribune. Seven pilgrims were killed a 12 others were injured when a glacier moved and fell on them on the way to the holy Sikh shrine of Hemkund Sahib on Monday evening. Joshimath SDM Nidhi Yadav, who is supervising the rescue operations at the site told The Tribune on the phone that the bodies were airlifted to Govind Ghat and post-mortem of dead bodies were done today. “We will be sending the bodies to Dehra Dun by helicopter so that they can be sent to their homes from there,” she said. Those dead have been identified as Narinder Singh of Kandola village, Jalandhar, Preeti from Vishnu Garden, New Delhi, Joginder of Kandola village, Jalandhar, Manpreet Kaur, of Behrampur village, Fathegarh Sahib, Jaskaran of Behrampur village, Fathegarh Sahib, a woman identified as w/o Gurmeet from Jatpura village, Fathegarh Sahib. one body is yet to be identified. Garbayal said jawans of the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP), Uttarakhand police, volunteers of Sikh organisations and locals are participating in the rescue operations. Except one no body was found in the digging of the the snow and boulders till this afternoon. Meanwhile, Uttarakhand Chief Minister Maj-Gen B.C. Khanduri (retired) has expressed deep sorrow at the natural calamity and directed the district officials to speed up the rescue operations. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal also telephoned Khanduri and requested him to intensify the rescue operations.
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Anti-tobacco activists zero in on NCERT
New Delhi, June 24 NOTE general secretary Dr Shekhar Salkar has requested the NCERT to take cognisance of the illustration which is likely to influence the unsuspecting students in their adolescence. He has asked NCERT to impress upon the authorities to withdraw the illustration and issue fresh textbooks with improved
content. Oncogene surgeon Dr Salkar fears that the book being used by millions of students, may prompt adolescents to take their first puff and add to India’s cancer burden in the long
run. Salkar has followed up his complaint to the NCERT with a letter to health minister Dr Anbumani Ramadoss and director of education department,
Goa, Dr Celsa Pinto. Dr Salkar has drawn the attention of NCERT chief business manager Gautam Ganguly to Section 1 (history lesson II-Nationalist Movement in Indo-China, sub chapter VI-The Communist Movement and Viatnamese Nationalism), Page 44, figure number 10 which shows the late French Commnader Henry Navare as smoking a cigarette. “It is ironical that on one hand, the Central government is attempting to enlighten the citizens about the menace of Tobacco and on the other, its the Education Department is oblivious to the propagation of smoking habit,” Salkar has said in his letter to the
NCERT. Dr Salkar says that he will exercise legal option to have the illustration deleted from the book. “The illustration should be tossed out from the text books which will be seen by millions of students across the country and in the CBSE board affiliated schools abroad.” According to a survey, 54 per cent of the children start smoking after seeing film stars smoking in
movies. Ganguly told The Tribune that he had forwarded Dr Salkar’s e-mailed letter to the departments of social sciences and
Humanities. NCERT spokesperson Bishnu Charan Patro said while the NCERT took care to examine the complaints from all quarters through a well laid out set of procedures, it would like to remind petitioners that their request for deleting portions from text books could not be conceded overnight. “In designing content, we take utmost care to ensure that our books don’t have anything derogatory or inaccurate. At the same time, we are willing to make amendments in case of distortion of facts or anything against national interest. We print books for every academic session, depending on the demand and distribute them through our four regional production and distribution centres in
Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Guwahati and Kolkata. Drawing out the curriculum involves a lot of planning and coordination,” said
Patro.
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Summer trials of Arjun tank successful
New Delhi, June 24 The trial was carried out by running the tanks across 5,000 km in the searing heat of Rajasthan. The guns, the gears and other systems worked very well. The transmission (gear) system that had created problems in the past also worked well, a DRDO functionary said, here tonight. The gear system is built by a German company that supplies the equipment to leading tank makers. The Army that carried out the test on behalf of the DRDO is yet to give its report on the tests. Sources in the Army said the report would be ready in a couple of weeks this even as the DRDO is expecting some suggestion from the Army on tightening of the overall quality control for the tank. The summer trials were crucial for the tank, as the Army had severely criticised the functioning of the tanks after the last trial was held in the winters. The matter had led to a furore in Parliament and also negative publicity for the tanks in the media with a series of articles by experts on how public money was being used and the tank was no where near completion. The Army had told the Parliamentary Committee on Defence that it was not satisfied with the tank and it was still below its expectation. This had come as a major setback for the tank that was seen as major step in India’s programme of building its own weapon systems. Sources said during the trials that ended yesterday the transmission system worked very well as the DRDO had installed a software that indicated the need for great shift. Earlier, the problem had occurred as the tanks had been reportedly run on low gears over extended periods. The tanks guns were tested in static as were as moving conditions. The targets were also static as well as moving. The guns proved reliable. The Arjun, as a rifled-bore gun enjoys a greater precision over a smooth-bore gun. Its night-firing ability was also put to test.
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Gorkhaland
New Delhi, June 24 On Tuesday, the GJM leaders and supporters held a protest rally at Jantar Mantar. Gorkha leaders are also trying to meet leaders of various political parties to drum up support for Gorkhaland. They said Gorkhaland would not be just for the Gorkhas, but others as well. “We are trying to build a consensus. Gorkhaland is not only for the Gorkhas. Siliguri and Dooars does not only comprise of the Gorkhas but also people from other communities. So what we are trying to tell them is that Gorkhaland is in favour of all the communities," a Gorkha leader said. Reacting to the GJM's demand, minister of state for home Sriprakash Jaiswal lobbed the ball in the state government’s court. “Let a proposal on talks come from the state government first, then we will think about the issue. We have to wait till then," Jaiswal said.
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US ex-diplomat proposes peace zone
New Delhi, June 24 He said removing the barbed wire and facilitating a visa-free, hassle-free pilgrimage for Sikh pilgrims to the historic Darbar Sahib Gurdwara in Narowal would help foster better relations between the two countries. He was taken to Dera Baba Nanak by senior Akali leader Jathedar Kuldip Singh Wadala, who has been a vocal protagonist of a visa-free pilgrimage to the Sikh shrine and has been lobbying for the Kartarpur Corridor for seven years. McDonald, who is on a two-week visit to India and on his first visit to Punjab, said he was shocked to see the barbed wire which was worse than the Berlin wall. He talked about easing out visa procedures and strengthening the relationship between Pakistani Punjab and Indian Punjab. He said even initiatives like a peace zone at the Dera Baba Nanak border would go a long way in establishing peace in the region. Jathedar Wadala hoped that with his support initiatives like the Kartarpur Corridor would get a boost.
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India, Pak to identify anti-terror measures
New Delhi, June 24 In a joint statement issued after the third meeting of the India-Pakistan Joint Anti-Terrorism Mechanism in Islamabad, the two countries shared fresh information on terrorist incidents, besides reviewing the follow-up steps taken by each side after the second meeting of the mechanism. The External Affairs Ministry here simultaneously released the text of the brief joint statement. The Indian delegation was led by Vivek
Katju, additional secretary (political and international organisations) in the External Affairs Ministry, while the Pakistani side was headed by Masood
Khalid, additional secretary in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan. The Indian delegation also called on Pakistan’s acting foreign secretary Khalid Aziz
Babar. The joint mechanism was formed in September 2006, after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh met Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Havana on the margins of the NAM Summit. |
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Jaya asks DMK to end cable TV war
Chennai, June 24 She alleged that cable operators in Madurai were being threatened by the DMK men to enrol themselves with the multi-system operator Royal Cable Vision
(RCV), backed by the Chief Minister's Madurai-based son M K Azhagiri. Stating that people Madurai were unable to watch major TV channels due to the 'war' between the
Marans-promoted Sumangali Cable Vision (SCV) and RCV, she said even entertainment solace was not made available to the people, who were hit hard by the steep rise in the prices of essential commodities.
— UNI
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RJD accorded national party status
New Delhi, June 24 A statement issued by the EC here on Tuesday said, “The RJD, which is presently recognised as a state party in Bihar, Jharkhand and Manipur has fulfilled the conditions for recognition as a national party on the basis of its poll performance in the state of
Nagaland.”
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Cholera Scare
Mumbai, June 24 Special squads formed to tackle unauthorised food stalls have been set up to remove food carts across the city, deputy municipal commissioner Milind Shambarkar said. “We will clear all food stalls that cook and sell food in the open,” Shambarkar said. As the drive got underway, civic employees virtually grabbed pushcarts serving food to lunch-hour crowds in Nariman Point and other areas. With just a handful of expensive restaurants that cater to the large number of office-goers in the entire business district, scores of people depend on the roadside eateries for their requirements. Civic officials say, the crackdown has been ordered after several cases of suspected cholera were reported earlier this month following heavy rains. Four patients from different hospitals across the city were transferred to the Kasturba Hospital, which specialises in infectious diseases after they were suspected of suffering from cholera. However, they were discharged after tests conducted for cholera turned up negative, sources say. But health authorities in the city are on an alert following cases of fever being reported from many hospitals. The makeshift food stalls are being targeted, as most of them do not have access to running water, civic officials say. But what has raised the hackles of people in the city is the crackdown on Mumbai’s open ‘khau gallis’ that have obtained licenses from the municipal corporation over the years. These joints have licenses to sell cooked foods though they are not permitted to actually cook food on the premises. These norms are usually violated and many of these have transformed into paav-baji and biryani outlets.
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Bihar MP convicted for murder
Patna, June 24 Amid tight security, the Begusarai fast track court held three persons, including LJP MP Surajbhan Singh, guilty of Rami Singh’s murder, official sources in the court said. Surajbhan Singh represents Bihar’s Ballia constituency in Parliament and is considered close to union minister of steel and LJP chief Ram Vilas
Paswan. Hundreds of people, mostly supporters of Surajbhan Singh, gathered outside the court since early afternoon to hear the court’s
verdict. Rami Singh, a resident of Mathurapur village in Begusarai district, about 126 km from here, was shot January 16, 1992, allegedly by Surajbhan Singh and his henchmen, according to the police complaint in the case. Soon after the court found him guilty in the murder case, the police took him into custody. The court will announce the quantum of punishment on
Thursday. Surajbhan Singh faces several criminal charges, including those of murder, extortion, kidnapping and looting. Last year he was named accused in the murder of additional public prosecutor Ramnaresh Sharma, 55. Sharma, a human rights activist, was shot by two unidentified people at his residence in
Begusarai. — IANS |
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Kidnapped girl rescued
Roorkee, June 24 The police has arrested, Ashu Gupta (22), a local resident, following his identification by the girl and has registered a case of kidnapping against him. The police said the girl was rescued in the morning at around 10.30 am from the local bus stand. “The motive of kidnapping was not yet known, however, the accused was being interrogated and will be produced in the court tomorrow,” said the investigating officer. Shruti, daughter of a local shopkeeper, was reportedly kidnapped on Tuesday night when she along with her younger sister was returning to her house from her father’s shop in the Bitiganj area of the town. Following the report of kidnapping, the Police had sealed the borders of the city and had intensified the search campaign.
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Genetic approval panel meets today
New Delhi, June 24 This time the GEAC, the apex body for the regulation of GM food products, will also hear a representation from Greenpeace regarding illegal GM food imports and follow up the NGO’s earlier complaint against “illegal GM corn chips”, being manufactured by a leading MNC.
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Irked traders stage protest
Roorkee, June 24 The protesters, agitating under the banner of the Roorkee Seva Samiti alleged that most of the transformers in the area have gone obsolete, leading to frequent breakdown of power supply.
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Bansal monitors loan waiver progress
Dehra Dun, 24 June
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System to predict seismic risk being devised Cong MLA’s election declared void 100-day action plan for schools Cochlear implants for kids 21 cops suspended Shiv Sena holds ‘rasta roko’ 
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