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BJP to take on UPA for separatist appeasement
CPM flays PM’s take on price rise
Chiranjeevi to announce political plunge today
Orissa tribe faces threat of eviction
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Bashir teaches at a Hyderabad madrasa
Computer engineer played major role
Karat: Need to fight communalism
Naidu has miraculous escape
Package to relocate from tiger parks
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BJP to take on UPA for separatist appeasement
New Delhi, August 16 A senior leader of the party informally unveiled the BJP plan hours after Gujarat police caught a senior SIMI activist from UP. The police also claims to have solved, through this arrest, most recent terrorist acts including the latest blasts in Jaipur and Ahmedabad. “The Government is telling us don’t do this, don’t do that lest it may agitate the separatists in the valley,” said a senior BJP leader here today. “Three of its important partners, Lalu Prasad, Mulayam Singh Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan gave a clean chit to SIMI. I wonder what they have to say now?” asked the BJP leader. The BJP which concluded its three-day long nationwide agitation on the Amarnath land issue on August 13 is determined to carry on the agitation in Jammu and the rest of the country, notwithstanding the repercussions in Kashmir valley. Its Jammu in charge Arun Jaitley said, “No question of taking back the agitation. The agitation is peaceful, non-violent and nationalist. Why should we take it back?” He also rejected Government plans to bring in a non-partisan interlocutor. “Who is neutral? Ultimately it is the Prime Minister and the Home Minister who have to take the call.” The BJP held a strategy session at the residence of Leader of Opposition L.K. Advani here yesterday where former Governor of Jammu and Kashmir Lt Gen (Retd) S.K. Sinha briefed some 40 odd BJP leaders, including Advani and Jaitley. The objective, according to sources, was to get a first hand information on the state of affairs in Kashmir valley and based on that plan future strategy of the party. Sinha, incidentally, was all-praise for outgoing Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and his approach towards both the Amarnath issue as well as the separatist and terrorist elements, according to sources. In contrast, he was highly critical of Azad’s predecessor Mufti Mohammad Saeed, who he felt had fanned separatism in the valley. The BJP, however, denied that Sinha planned to formally join the BJP. “He was there only to provide a perspective. Don’t Shyam Saran and M.K. Narayanan brief Congress leaders on important national and international issues?” said a BJP leader.
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CPM flays PM’s take on price rise
New Delhi, August 16 The CPM said “The wholesale price index has hit a 13-year high of 12.44 per cent. The CPM expresses grave concern over this high inflation and the utter failure of the UPA government to provide any relief.” On the Prime Minister’s claim of inflation being a global phenomenon, the CPM said, “He has cited the rise in international food and fuel prices and claimed that the UPA government has worked hard to ensure that inflation in India is not as high as in many other countries.” It charged, “The government can ill-afford to seek solace in relatively higher inflation figures of some other developing countries.”
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Chiranjeevi to announce political plunge today
Hyderabad, August 16 Putting to an end a protracted period of suspense about his political ambitions, the mega star will be making the much-awaited announcement at a media conference convened at his new party office at 2.30 pm
tomorrow. Chiranjeevi is expected to outline the reasons for his decision to enter politics after a highly successful career in films for over three decades. His move to enter politics has already set off ripples in the two principal political parties in the state - the ruling Congress and the Telugu Desam Party. C. Harirama
Jogaiah, a sitting Congress MP from Narsapur, has already associated himself with the Chiranjeevi camp though he still continues in the ruling camp. Several other leaders are already in touch with the star’s camp, while others are likely to jump into the Chiranjeevi bandwagon after assessing its initial impact. However, it is the TDP that is worst affected by the Chiranjeevi factor as several leaders, including Rajya Sabha MP C.
Ramachandraiah, have quit the party and expressed their desire to join the new
party. TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu had to cut short his marathon mass-contact programme and return to Hyderabad in a prevent exodus from the party.
— PTI
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Orissa tribe faces threat of eviction
New Delhi, August 16 “We appeal to the Indian authorities not to engage in forced evictions,” the AI today said, in reference to the apex court decision of August 8, which came after five years of protests by environmentalists and human rights activists. The latter argued that 661-hectare of forest around the mining area should be reserved and used only by the Dongria community. The matter was brought to AI’s notice here by Jitu, an activist of Niyamgiri Protection Committee and Siddharth Nayak of Green Kalahandi an environmental group. “They raised concerns that about 800 Adivasis will be forcibly evicted and displaced from the three hamlets of Phuldumer, Konakuda and Palvari, despite the fact that mining is not proposed near these hamlets,” said an AI spokesperson. As for Niyamgiri, it is home to the 8,000-strong Dongria Khond Adivasi community (residing in 90 scattered settlements and having a distinct cultural heritage) and also to the 2,000-strong Majhi Khond community (living in about 10 settlements mainly in the foothills). The issue at hand goes back to 2,000 since when several petitions have been heard, first at the Orissa HC, and then at the SC, against the proposed bauxite mining at Niyamagiri. Arguing against permission to mine in the area, the petitioners had cited the Samatha case judgment of 1997, given by the Supreme Court in the case of neighbouring Andhra Pradesh, prohibiting the transfer of reserved forestland to non-adivasis. The Government of Orissa, however, contended that what was applicable to Andhra Pradesh was not applicable to them. The government also undertook to put aside 5 per cent of the equity in any project as preferential equity for the affected adivasi communities. Meanwhile, Sterlite Industries which just won the case in the Supreme Court, is a fully owned subsidiary of the transnational mining major, Vedanta Alumina Limited. The latter has a lease agreement with the state-owned Orissa Mining Corporation, under which Vedanta proposes to mine bauxite up to 3 million tonnes per annum. The 721 hectares of land atop the Niyamgiri forests in Kalahandi and Rayagada districts of Orissa are thought to be one of the largest bauxite deposits in the world. The company for its part has already set up, as part of an integrated alumina complex, a one million tonne capacity alumina refinery of 723 hectares, and a 75 MW captive power plant in 25 hectares at nearby Lanjigarh. In its verdict, the apex court stated that Sterlite (India) should invest $ 2.5 million or 10 per cent of the profit earned by it for the development of Adivasis. Incidentally, the Supreme Court on August 8 also allowed South Korean steel firm POSCO permission to use forestland in Orissa to build a $ 12 billion iron ore mining plant.
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Bashir teaches at a Hyderabad madrasa
Lucknow, August 16 Later in the evening, amid tight security, a team of Gujarat police took Bashir in an eight-seater Gujarat government aircraft to Ahmedabad, where a formal complaint is lodged against him in Maninagar police station. After daylong suspense, the short lanky Bashir, camouflaged in a ‘naqab’, was finally presented before the special remand magistrate Swapna Singh at around 5.30 p.m, who after an hour-long hearing gave the Gujarat police a three-day transit remand. The main accused of the July 26 serial blasts would now be presented before an appropriate authority there for further action. Originally from Binapara village, under police station Sarai Mir of Azamgarh, Bashir is the second of three brothers. His father runs a small shop in the village and according to him Bashir is a teacher in a madrasa in Hyderabad. He informed that Bashir had been in the village for the last fortnight or so on leave. The IB reportedly tipped-off the Gujarat police who then took assistance of the state’s Anti- Terrorist Squad (ATS) to nab the accused. While his arrest had been confirmed early in the day, the UP police provided no further details. According to sources, Bashir’s father had lodged a complaint in the Sarai Mir police station stating that some men had come to his house on August 14 and forcibly taken Bashir away with them. While officially nothing much was disclosed about this resident of Sarai Mir, also the home of Abu Salem, Bashir is said to be an active member of the SIMI. After a split in the banned organisation, he is said to have become a member of the hardliner splinter group that re-christened itself as the Indian Mujahideen.
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Computer engineer played major role
Ahmedabad, August 16 “A man who is an employee of Wipro and used to draw a salary of more than Rs 60,000, is also believed to be another mastermind behind the blasts along with Mufti Abu Bashir,” joint commissioner of police (crime branch) Ashish Bhatia said. “He is yet to be arrested”, Bhatia, who heads a team probing the blasts, said. “The computer engineer is believed to be involved in sending the e-mail from an Internet protocol (IP) address of a US national Ken Haywood,” sources in the crime branch said. Taufiq had stayed in city’s Vatva locality along with Bashir, for about two months before the blasts, sources said. The police has questioned the owner of the house where the two had stayed, officials said. The Gujarat police today arrested nine persons in connection with the blasts, while mastermind Bashir was arrested from Azamgarh in UP. The July 26 serial blasts in Ahmedabad had claimed 55 lives. — PTI
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Karat: Need to fight communalism
Kottayam, August 16 Presenting the first T.K.Memorial Puraskaram to Dr K.N. Panicker at a function here yesterday, Karat said imperialism, which enslaved the country, and communalism, which sought to disturb the unity among people in the struggle against imperialism, were two enemies and we had to fight against them. He said, “To secure secularism and fight against communalism, we have to take a firm stand and should not compromise with the latter. Collaboration and compromise with imperialism will erode our economic sovereignty and independent foreign policy. The Left parties and democratic forces must work together to create a new alternative platform, which will be different from that of the BJP and the Congress.” T. K. Ramakrishnan was an outstanding leader of the communist movement in Kerala and one of the most accomplished leaders of the progressive movement, he said.
— UNI
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Naidu has miraculous escape
Tirupati, August 16 The mishap occurred when the driver lost control of the vehicle while negotiating a narrow and sharp turn due to break failure. However, he managed to stop the car before it reached the next steep curve. No one was injured in the mishap, party sources said. Former minister B. Gopala Krishna Reddy, district TDP president and MLA Amaranatha Reddy besides a local leader were with Naidu in the car.
— PTI
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Package to relocate from tiger parks
New Delhi, August 16 This is the first lot that has been released recently after the new package was sanctioned by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the rehabilitation of villagers wherein each family will get Rs 10 lakh. “The amount (Rs 19 crore) will be used to relocate Kankawadi and Umari villages in Sariska in Rajasthan where two tigers have been relocated recently. “It would ensure the inviolate areas to the big cat as well other wildlife. Rajasthan’s Ranthambore Park has been allocated Rs 5.77 crore,” a senior NTCA official said. Madhya Pradesh has received approximately Rs 16 crore of which Rs 11.24 crore has been allocated for Satpura tiger park, Rs 4.94 crore to Panna park and Rs 72 lakh to Pench. There is a huge budget to resettle people from the core tiger areas. This will help decrease the man-animal conflict and create inviolate zones for the big cats. “Corbett and Dudhwa sanctuaries have managed to get Rs 1.36 crore and 1.57 crore, respectively, in the first instalment,” an official said.
— PTI |
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UDF lays siege to secretariat 1 held with fake notes Kathakali maestro dead FPF to protect flora 46th I-Day celebrated 
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