 |
|
|
Anti-MNS campaign snowballs into poll issue
M’rashtrians in UP come out against Raj
Assembly Poll
SIT begins probe into Assam blasts
|
|
|
Assam govt had information about strikes: Army
House panel for abolishing vacations in judiciary
Sulabh inks pact with Ethiopia
German Rape Case
Sadhvi to be produced in court today
AIIMS ‘violates’ RTI Act
High security cover for Chhat Puja
ULFA denies links with HuJI
Stranded Haj pilgrims block traffic
|
|
Anti-MNS campaign snowballs into poll issue
Patna, November 2 Initially, the ruling Janata Dal (United) tried to steal the show by announcing to make all its five MPs quit the Lok Sabha membership on this issue. The silence on the part of Lalu Prasad Yadav and Ram Vilas Paswan, the main political rivals of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, for a couple of days on this matter indicated that they were all taken aback by this masterstroke of the JD (U). But now Lalu Yadav has gone a step further by announcing at a press conference held in Patna today that he would not only make all his MPs quit the Lok Sabha as well as the Rajya Sabha on this issue, but all his MLAs and MLCs would also resign from the state legislative Assembly and council by November 15. However, all these announcements are conditional. The conditions are that the JD (U) should also make all its MPs in the Rajya Sabha and legislators in the state legislature resign simultaneously, which means that Nitish should also quit the Chief Minister’s post. Paswan had also spoken in similar terms in this connection. Lalu also charged the JD (U) and its leader Nitish Kumar with trying to reap electoral dividends from this issue that had touched the emotional chord of every Bihari. “It is not fair. Nitish and his party should come clean on this matter. All of us (politicians from Bihar) are equally concerned on this issue and this was the reason that all of us had joined Nitish in all party delegation from Bihar to meet the Prime Minister recently,” Lalu said. According to him, the unity of all parties from Bihar in this connection had sent a strong message across the country. But by making a suo-motu decision to quit the Lok Sabha, the JD (U) tried to derive electoral mileage on this issue, he added. Lalu suggested that all political parties should come together on this issue and constitute a steering committee to launch a mass movement against the MNS and the Shiv Sena.
|
|
M’rashtrians in UP come out against Raj
Lucknow, November 2 “People who go out for livelihood do value addition both to their native state as well as their place of work and this is true in case of North Indians living in Maharashtra,” president of Maharashtra Samaj, Lucknow, G.V. Vaishampayan, said. Referring to the killing of Dharamdev Rai, who hailed from UP, by the Maharashtra police, he said the Maharashtra Samaj severely condemns such incidents. “Such acts were a blot on a civilised society and should be opposed by all possible means," Vaishampayan said adding that he would demand strong action against MNS by the Maharashtra government. When asked about the reasons behind the “hate campaign”, Vaishampayan, who is also the head of the Applied Economics Department in Lucknow University, said, “All this is being done simply to gain some political space.” “Many Marathi families were living in parts of Uttar Pradesh and other states for generations but were never subjected to the kind of hatred campaign as is going on in Maharashtra,” he said. The concentration of Marathi population in Uttar Pradesh is mainly in Kanpur, Varanasi, Allahabad, Jhansi and Lucknow. The Maharashtra Samaj in Lucknow was established in 1921, Vaishampayan said. In Lucknow, there are nearly 250 Marathi households and the population is around 1,500. As far as Uttar Pradesh was concerned, the population stood at about 8,000, he
said. — PTI
|
|
Assembly Poll
New Delhi, November 2 The CPM had already stated this and CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan also announced it here today. For symbolic value, the two main Left parties, the CPM and the CPI, are putting up sundry candidates here and there but that is largely to declare their complete break off from the Congress and the UPA, indicated Bardhan. Delhi state secretary of the CPM Pushependra Singh Grewal had announced yesterday that the CPM was putting up only three candidates in Delhi and added, “It has been decided by the central committee of the party to put our efforts against the BJP and the Congress. Since the BSP has emerged as the third force, we will obviously support its candidates,” he added. Bardhan elaborated on the same theme today. He said “Since the Left is committed to oppose both the Congress and the BJP and it is not very strong in these six states going to polls, apart from the Left candidates, we will vote and support the candidates of secular parties like the BSP and the JD-S.” Now there is virtually no JD-S also in these states. In the process, the CPM is going to contest three or four seats and the CPI another five or six. “In all, we will restrict ourselves to only 10 seats in Delhi,” the CPI general secretary explained. The Delhi Assembly has 70 seats. Similarly, in other such states, namely Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Chhatisgarh, where conventionally there is a direct contest between the Congress and the BJP, the Left parties have decided to set up some token candidates. Besides, they will back Mayawati, Deve Gowda and some other “secular regional forces.” Meanwhile, the CPI national executive, which ended its two meeting here today reiterated its commitment not to have any alliance with the BJP and the Congress in the Lok Sabha poll either.
|
|
House panel for abolishing vacations in judiciary
New Delhi , November 2 “The system of vacations is a colonial legacy that has no relevance today. Given the huge pendency of cases at various levels, including at the Supreme Court, vacation is a privilege that the judicial system could hardly afford,” the committee headed by E.M. Sudarsana Natchiappan said. At present, courts get a six-week summer holiday, besides about a week each of Dussehra, Diwali and Christmas/new year holidays. The committee said doing away with vacations was necessary in view of the number of pending cases - about 47,000 in the Supreme Court, about 37 lakh in High Courts and about 2.75 crore in the subordinate judiciary. If there was no vacation, the number of working days would considerably go up from the present 190 and help speedy disposal of cases, the committee said in its 28th report tabled in Parliament last week. The foreign investor was happy with India’s democracy and the independent judiciary, but was quite upset over the disposal rate of cases. If cases were pending for 40-60 years, people would lose confidence in the administration of justice, the committee felt.
|
|
Sulabh inks pact with Ethiopia
New Delhi, November 2 The MOU was signed last evening in the presence of Dr Bindeshwar Pathak, founder of the Sulabh movement and Ethopian ambassador Genit Zewide. The work will commence soon in Oromia, one of the largest states out of nine total states of Ethopia. Zewide said India and Ethiopia had many things in common and would like to have the presence of an Indian NGO to improve the sanitation conditions there. Both the countries cannot afford the high cost of sewer system therefore Sulabh technology of low cost sanitation is very effective there. Dr Pathak said besides Ethiopia, five other countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America and Caribbean regions had been chosen to start the work. “Work would be started soon in Ethiopia and plans are being finalised for Angola, Madagascar, Tajikistan and Haiti,” he said. Addressing the media, Dr Pathak said Sulabh would provide consultancy services to each of the five countries to help them to adapt Sulabh technologies for on-site sanitation, including Sulabh twin-pit, pour-flush, compost toilet, public toilets connected to biogas digesters for energy production and Sulabh Effluent Treatment technology for purification of waste water. The Sulabh twin-pit toilet decomposes human waste to manure within two years, which can then be used as inorganic fertiliser in the fields. The public toilets complexes, when connected to biogas digesters, recycle human waste to biogas, which can be used for lighting, cooking, and power generation. The effluent out of the digester, being rich in nutrients, can be purified through the Sulabh Effluent Treatment device, which makes it colourless, odourless, and pathogen-free, thus making it safe for agriculture, horticulture or disposal into rivers and water bodies. Dr Pathak further stated that under the aegis of UN-HABITAT, Sulabh International earlier trained sector professionals from 15 African countries on various Sulabh technologies so that they could replicate these strategies in their respective countries for on-site sanitation with some modifications, if need be.
— UNI
|
|
|
German Rape Case
Panaji, November 2 “I have spoken to the doctors and they told that the examination has proved that she was raped,” girl’s lawyer Aires Rodrigues told mediapersons here. The medical examination on the 14-year-old German girl, whose mother had accused Goa education minister Atanasio Monserratte’s son, Rohit, of raping and Public Works Department minister’s nephew, Warren, of sexually abusing her daughter, was conducted this morning. The examination was conducted by a panel of doctors at Goa Medical College and Hospital at Bambolim. The panel, comprising a lady doctor, examined the girl for almost two hours. Accompanied by her mother and lawyer, the girl came to the Forensic Department of Goa Medical College in the morning. She had to wait almost for an hour as the doctors had to consult the GMC dean. “A panel of doctors was constituted as the case is sensational. Otherwise, only one doctor conducts the examination,” a doctor said, who did not want to be named. As per the Goa Children’s Act, even if the girl had sex with consensus, it amounts to rape as she is a minor,” Rodrigues said. The girl’s medical examination was conducted less than 24 hours after she deposed before the Judicial Magistrate First Class (JMFC).
— PTI
|
|
|
Sadhvi to be produced in court today
Nashik, November 2 The ATS has so far arrested five persons, including Major Ramesh Shivji Upadhyay (retd) and Abhinav Bharat office bearer Sameer Kulkarni, in connection with the blasts, which killed five persons. The custody of three accused - Prgya Singh Thakur, Shivnarayan Singh Kalsangram and Shyam Bhawarlal Sahu - is ending tomorrow and they are likely to be produced in Nashik court, while custody of two others - Upadhyay and Kulkarni - will end on November 10, court sources said. Meanwhile, secretary of Bhonsala Military School (BMS) Diwakar Kulkarni while talking to mediapersons yesterday said a meeting of Abhinav Bharat activists was held at the BMS on September 16 for which the BMS had provided place. “Our leading 70-year-old educational institute had no connection with the said meeting,” he said, adding that the name of the BMS was unnecessarily being implicated into the case. The ATS has detained the retired Army officer, along with BMS commandant Shailesh Raikar and clerk Rajan Gaidhani, yesterday but our institute will stand firmly behind them, he added.
— PTI
|
|
AIIMS ‘violates’ RTI Act
New Delhi, November 2 In response to the information sought by Uday Foundation, an NGO, whose RTI query had led to the disclosure of the infant deaths during clinical trial at AIIMS, the institute said the information was being provided for ‘personal consumption’ as the media might represent the facts. The NGO had sought information from the newborn Nursery at AIIMS regarding the number of babies admitted since January, patient-nurse ratio, mortality rates, top five injections and top reasons of death. The AIIMS while replying to the query said: “We have provided this information, you are advised to take written permission from the director AIIMS before sharing it with media.” Rahul Verma of the Uday Foundation, who has yet to approach the AIIMS director, said: “He will approach World Health Organisation (WHO) which funds the medical institution to protest against the high headedness of AIIMS.” “Once an RTI inquiry is addressed, it is meant to be a public property and placing a gag like this violates the entire purpose of the RTI Act,” Verma added.
— UNI
|
|
High security cover for Chhat Puja
Mumbai, November 2 In addition to Mumbai police personnel, additional forces from the Reserve Police Force (RPF) and Defence Forces will be deployed during the celebrations. Approximately five lakh people are expected to congregate at the city sea fronts during the festival, official sources said. A majority of the crowd is expected at the Juhu beach in northwest Mumbai and special arrangements have been made there for crowd control and security. Over 10 watch towers have been erected and a public address system has been installed to ensure public safety, the officials added.
— PTI
|
|
ULFA denies links with HuJI
Guwahati, November 2 “We strongly refute these charges and would like to clarify to all people of Assam that Ulfa has been never associated with any fundamental organisation in the past and neither will it do so in the future,” said an editorial in the latest issue of Ulfa mouthpiece Freedom. The group also came down heavily on health minister Himanta Biswa Sarma,who had said there was no difference between Ulfa and jehadis and they operate in cahoots.
— PTI
|
|
Stranded Haj pilgrims block traffic Lucknow, November 2 Around 1,250 Haj pilgrims, who were to leave from Lucknow, had missed their flights as they did not receive their passports stamped with the Haj visa.The inagural Haj flight on October 30 was cancelled as most of those scheduled to leave by it did not have their papers in order. Chief Minister Mayawati had blamed the Central government for this situation which left around 13,000 Haj pilgrims who were to leave from Lucknow in the lurch. Traffic on the busy Kanpur-Lucknow National Highway-21 today came to a halt when angry Hajis, lodged in the Haj House on the outskirts of the city, poured on the road. Around 8,000 pilgrims from all over the state are lodged at the Haj House on the Kanpur-Lucknow road while the place can barely accommodate 5,000 persons. In a hurriedly called press conference in the evening, chief secretary Atul Gupta admitted that Chief Minister Mayawati was extremely worried and angry due to the hardship caused to Haj pilgrims. Principal secretary, minority affairs, Navneet Sehgal has been rushed to Mumbai to liason with the Haj Committee of India, he said. Gupta also met Union minister of state for external affairs E.Ahmad in this regard who was in the state capital today. Ahmad informed the chief secretary that the situation had arisen due to some staff problem in the Consulate of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in Mumbai. Refusing the state Haj committee's role in the mismanagement, Gupta said this problem was completly due to lack of coordination and forsight of the Central Haj Committee.
|
||||||
5 Indian students get Rhodes scholarship New slogan to woo foreigners Shah Rukh turns 43 Radar for Taj Mahal security
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
