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SC extends ban on SIMI for six weeks
Simi chief sent to police custody
Main suspect in Jaipur blasts arrested
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Cash ’n’ Curry?
SGPC Issue
Persuade ULFA to shun guns, PM asks people
Staff protest transfer of power stations
Slain Col laid to rest
Free cataract surgery costs 21 their vision
Foundation course venue shifted to Hyderabad
Warner Bros sues makers of 'Hari Puttar'
BSF, BDR agree on joint patrolling
Youth burnt to death
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SC extends ban on SIMI for six weeks
New Delhi, August 25 “The matter is important. We are ready to hear it,” a Bench headed by Chief Justice K.G. Balakrishan said after an hour-long hearing. “We are extending the stay on the tribunal’s order by another six weeks,” the Bench, also comprising Justice P Sathasivam, said and posted the matter for further hearing on September 24, asking the Centre to place before it the synopsis of arguments and other documents in support of its stand to ban the Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI). The apex court’s interim order extending the ban on SIMI was opposed by Dr Shahid Badr, who was the president of the outfit till September 27, 2001, when the Centre had come out with its first notification to declare it as an proscribed organisation. Advocate Kamini Jaiswal, who was countering the arguments of the Centre, clarified that at present no advocate was appearing for the banned organisation and she was standing only for Badr. However, when Additional Solicitor General Gopal Subramanium was contending that the tribunal had gone wrong in lifting the ban, Jaiswal questioned the stay granted by the apex court raising technical grounds. She said the stay was granted a day after the tribunal passed the order when even the special leave petition (SLP) was not filed by the Centre. However, Subramanium said the stay was obtained after an urgent mentioning was made before the Bench and the advocate who had filed the SLP on behalf of the Centre had informed Badr’s counsel about it, but he had refused to accept the petition. The ASG further said even in the tribunal nobody appeared for SIMI. The Centre, which has alleged involvement of SIMI in subversive and anti-national activities, including the recent blasts in Ahmedabad, contended that the tribunal failed to appreciate the ‘background note’, ‘Cabinet note’ and ‘intelligence reports’ before arriving at its decision to lift the ban on the organisation. This argument was opposed by Jaiswal, who said the tribunal had gone into all these three aspects and was of the view that the averments in them were not supported by evidence and deposition of government witnesses. She said the background note of the Centre’s February 7, 2008, notification extending the ban on SIMI till 2010, which was placed before the tribunal in a sealed cover, spoke about nine cases involving its members who were already acquitted after facing trial in the courts. Jaiswal said the background note was not supported by the deposition of Centre’s witnesses. However, the court said “The background note can be a general statement while issuing the notification”. “The background note is only a synopsis which could be substantiated in future,” the Bench observed. Differing with it, Jaiswal said tribunal could only go into the validity of the notification, which had to be based on the documents available at the time of issuing it and no subsequent documents could be considered for justification. “Technically, the tribunal found the notification invalid,” she said. However, the Bench said the tribunal order at two or three places considered the material placed by the Centre. The ASG said the Centre had given details about the July 2006 Mumbai train serial blasts to support its allegation of involvement of members of SIMI which was ignored by the tribunal. — PTI
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Simi chief sent to police custody
Ahmedabad, August 25 Nagori, brought by the Gujarat Police from Madhya Pradesh, was remanded in police custody by Metropolition Magistrate
G.M. Patel after the city Crime Branch sought his custody for 14 days, saying he had planned the blasts in the SIMI training camps held in Kerala in December
2007. Nagori was arrested in Madhya Pradesh in March 2008 and the Gujarat Police had brought him to the city on a transfer
warrant. Nagori and his men had also organised other training camps in jungles near Halol in January 2008, Crime Branch officials said. The officials said, Nagori was also present in the city in February this year and held some meetings to execute the serial
blasts. Nagori’s advocate Hasim Qureshi argued against sending Nagori to police custody saying he was not involved in the terrorist attack in the state.
— PTI
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Main suspect in Jaipur blasts arrested
Lucknow/Jaipur, August 25 In a joint operation, the Anti-Terrosist Squad (ATS) of the Uttar Pradesh police and their Rajasthan counterparts held Shahbaz Hussain from posh Aminabad locality here in connection with the blasts that left 64 persons dead on May 13 this year. Additional DG of UP Police (law and order) Brij Lal said in Lucknow that a Rajasthan police team led by an Additional SP came here with warrants to arrest Shahbaz, who runs a cyber cafe and computer centre in Aminabad. A native of Bhadohi district of Uttar Pradesh, Shahbaz had set up a computer centre near a women's college in Aminabad locality, Brij Lal said. Shahbaz's name cropped up during investigations of the Jaipur bomb blasts, he added.Shahbaz was produced in the court of Chief Judicial Magistrate R.P Tripathi, who granted him a 48-hour transit remand for taking him to Jaipur, where he would appear before the CJM. The UP police told the court that Shahbaz Hussain, alias Shahbaz Ahmed, was wanted by the Jaipur court which also issued a non-bailable warrant against him. Shahbaz faces charges under various sections of the IPC relating to murder, attempt to murder, criminal conspiracy, besides the Explosives Act and the Terrorists And Disruptive Activities Act. A senior Rajasthan Crime branch official said in Jaipur that 32-year-old Shahbaz "is the main conspirator of bomb blasts that occurred in the country and for Jaipur blasts, he formed a gang providing money and other facilities", he said.
— PTI
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Singur Deadlock Continues Singur, August 25 Shortly after the Chief Minister made a fresh offer of one-to -one unconditional talks, Banerjee, after initially rejecting it, wrote to Bhattacharjee. “In the interest of development of the state we are ready for a satisfactory solution of the Singur issue if you are kind enough to return the 400 acres to the unwilling farmers,” Banerjee, who has begun an indefinite dharna beside the Tata Motors small car plant here since yesterdays, said. Banerjee, who thanked Bhattacharjee for his letter, told PTI “it is our stated stand that till the land is returned to the ‘unwilling’ farmers, the dharna will continue.” Trinamool Congress leader Partha Chatterjee said that the letter was being faxed to the Chief Minister and would also be sent to him by hand tomorrow morning. In his letter, the Chief Minister said “I am ready to discuss anything with her. All issues raised by her party can be discussed at the highest level.” Without setting any condition for talks, Bhattacharjee said “as a responsible opposition leader you must appreciate that the quick implementation of the Tata Motors project is very important for the state. You must be wanting that this project is implemented in this state. “We are facing a critical situation when many other states have offered the Tatas to shift their small car plant from Singur, which we cannot not afford to lose,” the chief minister said.
— PTI
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Cash ’n’ Curry? Chandigarh SSP S.S. Shrivastava said a police team had been to Solan to verify the details in the deed. He said there were indications that the names and certain other details, like addresses, father’s name, mentioned in the deed, were fake. “We are asking the Solan police to check the veracity of these details”, he added. It may be mentioned, besides the Judge, names of 17 other persons figure in the deed pertaining to the purchase of 11.1 bighas of land. The reports claim that at least three to four names are fake. Meanwhile, Shrivastava admitted that despite some “positive” leads, the police had so far failed to nab Ravinder Singh, one of the prime accused in the case at whose behest Rs 15 lakh was allegedly delivered albeit wrongly at the residence of Justice Nirmaljit Kaur. He said they were in touch with the Delhi Police’s Operation Cell to track Ravinder. The SSP said raids had also been conducted last night but the suspect had managed to keep ahead of the police. He claimed that they were tracking his movements. Shrivastava said, “The motive behind the delivery of money to a Punjab and Haryana judge’s house can only be ascertained after Ravinder’s arrest”. While the police apparently has no clue about Ravinder’s whereabouts, it is reliably learnt that he has been in touch with some influential people of the city.
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SGPC Issue
New Delhi, August 25 A section of the SGPC members from Haryana have sought appointments from the Prime Minister and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi to express their opinion. The Prime Minister’s office told Punjab and Haryana Chief Ministers Parkash Singh Badal and Bhupendra Singh Hooda to cool down matters. Badal announced that the rally of the SAD was postponed while Hooda was asked to stop promoting the cause of a separate SGPC. Jagdish Singh Jhinda, a member of the SGPC from Haryana, said the rally of theirs at Karnal would continue. “We have not postponed our rally like Parkash Singh Badal has done”, Jhinda, who is in the national capital said today. It is just that the rally will now be held on September 7 instead of on August 30. The minor change has been made as the Haryana assembly will be in session from September 1 to September 4. It was the right of Haryana Sikhs to have a separate body he said while rejecting a proposal that the SGPC could form its own Haryana-specific committee. He said the rally date had been shifted as the Haryana assembly could pass a Bill to have a separate SGPC for the state during the session. In case the Bill is passed, the rally on September 7 will be a welcome rally and in case it is not passed it will be a protest rally. He said at this rally it would be announced that they would take over the seven SGPC-controlled gurdwaras of Haryana. Asked as to how he could possibly take such a step when the SGPC, a democratically elected SGPC was in place, Jhinda said “I am a SGPC member hence could take charge of any gurdwara”. He said in Haryana there were 72 gurdwaras. The SGPC controls seven. He alleged that the SGPC collected around Rs 40 crore from various gurdwaras in the state every year, but not even a single penny was spent for the welfare of the Sikh community of Haryana. It may be mentioned here that the SGPC claims that the figure is much less and also lists out the educational projects worth crores being run in Haryana. Jhinda and few other Sikh leaders had met Haryana agriculture minister Harmohinder Singh Chatha, who is the chairman of a committee constituted by the state government on the separate SGPC issue.
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Shortage of docs, nurses worries PM
Jorhat (Assam) August 25 Laying the foundation of 500-bed Jorhat Medical College Hospital here in upper Assam, Dr Manmohan Singh said: “One of the major challenges the country faces is providing adequate medical facilities to burgeoning population. This depends critically on the availability of trained medical professionals. We have a major shortage of both trained doctors and nurses. This needs to be addressed at both national and regional levels.” “In the case of medical colleges, the spread of medical institutions in the country is uneven with five southern states of India having more than 60 per cent of the medical colleges. This uneven spread of facilities for medical education is at the root of the problem of poor medical care in several states of India,” he said. He said the Centre and the state government were required to think collectively to find a solution to address this gap and underlined the need to amend the charter of the Medical Council of India to facilitate the spread of quality medical education all over the country. “The Planning Commission estimates that there will be a shortage of about one million nurses in the country in the next five years. Given the scope the ‘educated and progressive women of the northeast would be able to make good doctors and nurses to cater to the countrywide need of medical professionals,” said Dr Manmohan Singh. The Prime Minister also flagged off mobile medical units for 17 districts of Assam at the function held at the home town of Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi here. Each of these mobile medical units comprise three vehicles carrying doctors, nurses, diagnostic equipment and medicines. The Centre would provide Rs 480 crore to set up three medical colleges and hospitals at Jorhat, Tezpur and Barpeta in Assam and Rs 160.64 crore would be spent to set up the fourth medical college in the state. The state of the art new medical college would take in 100 students every year.
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Persuade ULFA to shun guns, PM asks people
Jorhat (Assam), August 25 “I have said on a number of occasions that power in a democracy flows from the ballot rather than from the bullet and that all grievances of the people of Assam can be addressed effectively in our democratic polity. I, therefore, call upon ULFA to join the national mainstream and work with all of us for rapid social and economic development of Assam,” Manmohan Singh said. The Prime Minister’s speech was read out in absentia at Nagaon in central Assam by Dip Gogoi, Congress MP from Kaliabor Lok Sabha constituency, as the Prime Minister’s chopper could not land in Nagaon due to bad weather. He said the UPA government was according a high priority to address the problem of lack of adequate infrastructure in the northeast and there would be substantial investment in the Eleventh Plan in the infrastructure sector in the region. The Prime Minister informed about the major initiative taken to address the recurrence of floods in Assam and damage they cause. He said Rs 430 crore had been sanctioned for the 11th Plan period for the implementation of 75 flood control schemes.
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Staff protest transfer of power stations
The Khanduri government in Uttarakhand, in one of its cabinet decisions, had decided to transfer Khatima (41.4 MW), Pathri (20.4 MW) and Mohammadpur (9.3 MW) hydropower generating stations to a West Virginia-based company - Dodson-Lindblom International Inc - for a period of 30 years on lease, rehabilitate, operate and transfer basis. However, Uttarakhand Power Employees Joint Coordination Committee today said there was no justification in the decision as all the three stations are running in profit, and the power corporation was fully capable to upgrade and manage these projects. “Providing profit-making power projects to a private American company is nothing but a complete sell-out of the hydropower interests of Uttarakhand and its people,” asserted Jagmohan Singh Rauthan, an office-bearer of Uttarakhand Power Employees Joint Coordination Committee. The Committee now plans a massive rally in Dehra Dun on September 25, which would be followed by an indefinite stir till the state government does not shelve its plan. On the other hand, government officials claim that the three power stations are obsolete and need urgent modernisation. They said while finances were a constraint for the government, the private company would not only put its finances but also add state-of- the-art infrastructure to these projects. Significantly, the partnership ensures Dodson-Lindblom International Inc to sell a part of the power generated in these stations to outside states, which is proving to be a major irritant for the protesting employees.
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Slain Col laid to rest
Bangalore, August 25 The cemetery at Hosur Road, where the army officer was laid to rest, was milling with people. From the Manekshaw Enclave house, where Thomas’s family is staying, the body was first brought to St George Knanaya Syrian Church in the Koramongola area of the city. Karnataka Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa was among the dignitaries who attended the service. Yeddyurappa announced that state government would bear the full cost of the education of the two children left behind by Col Thomas. The body was taken to the Hosur Road cemetery from the church in a decorated military truck. The truck was escorted by a police gypsy and two motorcycle-borne personnel of the Army. A fleet of civil and military vehicles, with Thomas’s friends and family members on board, followed the truck. At traffic junctions, the police brought vehicles coming from other directions to a halt to let Thomas’s funeral procession pass. The noisy Bangalore traffic bore the interruption gracefully. At the cemetery, wreaths were placed on the body by the military as well as civilians and also by representatives of the Navy and the Air Force. Lieutenant General G. S. Dhillon, Commandant (ASC Centre & College) Major General P.K Chakravorty, Commandant (Selection Centre South) Brigadier P.S. Ravindranath, Commander of Karnataka & Kerala Sub Area and 400 other defence personnel, including officers, were present at the cemetery.
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Free cataract surgery costs 21 their vision Tiruchirapalli, August 25 The minister, who visited the affected patients at the Dr Joseph Institute of Ophthalmology here, said 21 persons had lost vision in the eye they were operated on. Intensive treatment was being provided to all those who complained of severe complications following the surgery. He said the initial report from the government appointed medical team stated that eye drops (known as Ringer Lactate) administered to them after surgery was suspected to have caused the complications. Samples of the eye drops had been forwarded to the Microbiology Laboratory in the KAP Viswanathan Government Medical College here and the King Institute in Chennai for testing. Since it would take 10 to 15 days for the results to be known, nothing could be ascertained till then, he said. Patients from different villages in Rishivandiyam taluk in Villupuram district underwent the cataract operation during a camp conducted jointly by the Blindness Prevention Society and the private hospital on July 28. Meanwhile, Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi today sanctioned a solatium of Rs 5 lakh each to those who complained of blurred vision. — PTI
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Foundation course venue shifted to Hyderabad
Mussoorie, August 25 According to official sources foundation courses for officer trainees under revenue, customs, Railways, ordinance factories and P&T services shall be conducted at the M.C. Chinna Reddy Human Resource Development Institute at Hyderabad. However, their course design willl remain the same and the faculty of LBSNAA will be closely involved in conducting these courses.
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Warner Bros sues makers of 'Hari Puttar'
Mumbai, August 25 In its petition filed before the Bombay High Court, Warner
Bros. contended that the film's title was similar to the character of Harry Potter. The "Hari Puttar" movie starring Jackie Shroff, Sarika and other actors has been touted as a comedy film about the antics of a 10-year-old boy. Munish Puri, CEO, Mirchi Movies, has refused to comment on the matter saying it was sub judice. |
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BSF, BDR agree on joint patrolling
New Delhi, August 25
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Youth burnt to death
Indore, August 25
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Dehra Dun, August 25