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Govt ashamed that ’84 riots took place
Navy Day Today
CAT Glitch |
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RS members take exception to China’s objection
Bhopal Gas Tragedy
25 years after Bhopal
RS mourns Bhopal victims
2 Bangalore terror suspects held
SK Singh cremated with state honours
RS members take exception to China’s objection
Army men face action for selling weapons
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Govt ashamed that ’84 riots took place
New Delhi, December 2 “We can’t remove the agony that the affected persons felt, but we can surely take a vow and draw a lesson that it does not happen in future. I will talk to the Prime Minister …and see whatever can be done in the given situation,” leader of Lok Sabha Pranab Mukherjee assured the House after the opposition united behind Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) member Harsimrat Badal whose emotional appeals for justice moved the members into silence. Recounting the horrors of 1984 killings and subsequent government inertia in the matter, the Akali MP from Bathinda questioned the ruling Congress’ intent behind not punishing the guilty. Her reference was to inexplicable delays in the grant of sanction to the CBI to file a fresh chargesheet against Sajjan Kumar. The Nanavati Commission had indicted Sajjan in 2004, but even four years later, the government hasn’t given the CBI a sanction to challan him. In reply to a question by Badal a while ago, the Home Ministry admitted that the CBI had sought such sanction and the matter was “under consideration.” “A chargesheet that should normally take three months has taken four years. How long do we wait for justice? When an ex-Prime Minister is killed, the assassins are hanged in four years; when another PM is killed, Nalini spends 18 years in jail. But when 7,000 Sikhs are butchered, no one is punished in 25 years. In the eyes of law, should the Prime Minister and aam aadmi not be equal?” Badal asked, as the House heard in rapt attention, and the government felt the heat of the issue that keeps returning to haunt it. So far, 10 commissions have sat on the matter. Not surprising then that Pranab was forced to make an assurance in zero hour - something not mandated under rules. On November 26, he had refused to respond to zero hour references of BJP leader LK Advani on the delayed compensation to 26/11 victims. “I won’t make this (ministerial reference in zero hour) a precedent,” Pranab had said then. But today, he had no excuse, with the SAD cornering the government right from question hour, which they wanted suspended. They relented only after the Speaker assured them of time during zero hour. Later, when Badal brought forth the memory of those dark days, reliving her own trauma of having to hoodwink the killers, the House threw its might behind her, with leader of Opposition LK Advani demanding the constitution of a parliamentary committee on the matter. “It is a very a serious issue that despite so many commissions and indictments, no one has been punished,” Advani said with the BSP, the SP and the JDU supporting him. The final word came from Pranab, who referred to the riots as the “most tragic events” and admitted that he was present in Delhi that day.
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Navy Day Today
New Delhi, December 2 “The construction schedule is where our shipyards lag”, Admiral Verma said, even as he separately said the Navy was looking to have another construction line for conventional diesel-powered submarines. This would be in addition to the existing one at Mazagon Docks, Mumbai, where the Indo-French joint project for the Scorpenes was on. On the nuclear submarine, he said the INS Airhant, inaugurated on July 26 this year, would be inducted in the Navy within two years and it would be equipped with ballistic missiles. He refused to set a date on when India would acquire the Nerpa, a Russian Akula-class N-powered submarine. On building additional N-powered submarines, he hoped that the government would not let the huge investments in nuclear submarine building wither away after the submarines were commissioned. Admiral Verma, who took over from Admiral Sureesh Mehta a couple of months ago, was candid as he made out the case for speeding up warship building in the country. The Navy had currently given orders for 34 ships in three different shipyards of the country, but the rate of delivery was only one ship per year, he said, adding that the Navy would be forced to go in for imports. Over the next decade, the Navy's fleet strength will be 40 ships (34 from Indian shipyards and six from abroad) and 60 aircraft and an equal number of helicopters. The new orders will take the number of warships to 160 and aircraft to about 290. It currently has 130 ships and another 190 aircraft and helicopters in service. In the next year alone, the Navy will get delivery of two frigates, six fast-attack crafts, two survey vessels and a fleet tanker. The Admiral said he was in favour of having a larger private participation in warship building. Larsen and Toubro has set up the country’s largest shipyard in Tamil Nadu and had announced some two months ago that it was ready to take orders of the Navy. He allayed fears that the post-26/11 Mumbai attacks, the Navy had changed its focus. It remained focussed on its primary task of the country's security on the high seas.
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CAT Glitch
New Delhi, December 3 They, however, added that the test crash was not a result of the attack of software viruses alone; hardware failures including failure of servers and network switches, and power outages, were also responsible. The findings have been attributed to preliminary analysis of the test failures. On the first day of the online test, there were 47 unplanned power outages, the IIMs said in their reply to the letter of HRD Ministry. In their reply to HRD ministry, the IIMs added that 2022 students were affected due to the problem on the first day of online testing on November 28. The highest numbers affected were on day 2 - when 4292 students were displaced. Only 50 labs could be repaired in the first three days, the IIMs reported adding that the actual number of affected students could be more because Prometric, which was responsible for conducting a test, is still in the process of retrieving test results from the test sites. That apart, the IIMs said the decision to conduct a computerised test was taken unanimously by all seven IIMs and the contract for delivery of this test awarded to Prometric, a world leader in computerised test delivery. Meanwhile, IIM CAT Convenor Satish Deodhar has written to the HRD ministry, saying: “Prometric has assured that candidates who could not take the test would be given an opportunity to take it. The details are being worked out and conveyed to the candidates.”
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Bhopal Gas Tragedy
New Delhi, December 2 Singh issued a statement here today to mark the 25th anniversary of the leakage of Methyl Isocyanate (MIC) gas from the Union Carbide Pesticide Plant in Bhopal which resulted in the death of over 5,000 persons on December 1, 2004, and incapacitated several thousands for life, a great many of whom are still reeling under the impact of the devastating mass poisoning due to leakage of the lethal gas in the atmosphere. Many, who survived after breathing the lethal gas, became invalids and sick for life and thousands died slow deaths with any number of survivors still reeling under the devastating effect of the biggest industrial disasters of India. Men and women have even been afflicted by cancer, diagnosed as an after effect of breathing MIC. Young women have delivered children afflicted by various diseases. For all these years, the victims have been knocking at the doors of the Madhya Pradesh and Central government and the courts right up to the apex court without full redressal of their grievances. The Prime Minister has evidently tried to apply a kind of balm to the injury of the Bhopal gas tragedy victims. He said: “The country woke up to a terrible tragedy in Bhopal 25 years ago. The MIC gas had leaked from the pesticide plant of Union Carbide India Ltd at Bhopal into the atmosphere”. “Singh said: “The enormity of that tragedy of neglect still gnaws at our collective conscience. The families that suffered and lost their dear ones can never really be fully compensated. However, the Government of India has implemented several measures to provide relief to the affected families, including socioeconomic and medical rehabilitation and improvement in their living conditions”. Meanwhile, the Rajya Sabha today mourned the victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy, expressing the members’ “heartfelt sympathies” for the “human tragedy of unparalleled magnitude”.
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25 years after Bhopal
Bangalore, December 2 "Our study shows, for the first time, that in-utero MIC exposure during the Bhopal gas tragedy has caused a persistent immune system hyper-responsiveness in affected individuals," Pradyumna Kumar Mishra said. The findings have been published in the journal Occupational and Environmental Medicine. Whether this "immune hyper-responsiveness" has any clinical implications will be clear only after follow-up of the exposed individuals, the BMHRC researcher said. The release of 30-40 tonnes of gas spreading over approximately 75 sq km killed at least 3,500 and injured thousands more. There are more than 5,00,000 registered survivors of the tragedy, Mishra said. The survivors continue to experience higher incidence of health problems, including respiratory, neurological, psychiatric and ophthalmic symptoms, Mishra said. — IANS
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RS mourns Bhopal victims
New Delhi, December 2 As soon as the Upper House assembled at 11 am, House Chairman and Vice-President Hamid Ansari read out a statement, saying that the “scars of the tragedy still haunt us”. “It was a human tragedy of unparalleled magnitude and shocked the world. It is incumbent on us to do the utmost for the victims,” Ansari said. “Compensation claims should be settled on a time-bound manner,” he added. “I am sure the house will join me in conveying our heartfelt sympathies to those who suffered from this gruesome incident,” Ansari said.
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2 Bangalore terror suspects held
Guwahati, December 2 Shillong-based BSF spokesman DIG Ravi Gandhi said a patrol party arrested two persons who were suspiciously roaming around near 1072/6 border pillar located about 400 metres inside Indian territory at Umsiam in Dawki sector at around 1.30 am today. “They were arrested without any arms and were being grilled. They were identified as Nasir and Samsuddin, suspected to be Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) militants. They were suspected to be involved in 2005 terrorist attack at Indian Institute of Sciences (IISC) in Bangalore,” the BSF official said. Meanwhile, Union Home Secretary GK Pillai said in New Delhi that two suspected Lashkar operatives were detained along the Indo-Bangladesh border in Meghalaya and “we are trying to find out their antecedents and links and their activities.” On December 28, 2005, terrorists barged into the prestigious IISc campus and opened fire indiscriminately killing retired professor of IIT Delhi M C Puri and injuring four others. Puri, Professor Emiratus of Mathematics Department of IIT Delhi, fell a victim as the gunmen sprayed bullets from an AK-47 rifle as delegates attending an international conference were proceeding for dinner outside the JN Tata Auditorium. |
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SK Singh cremated with state honours
New Delhi, December 2 Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Ghelot also paid floral tributes to Shailender Kumar Singh. Others who paid tributes to the departed soul were Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Gursharan Kaur, wife of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The Rajasthan Government has declared a seven-day state mourning from Tuesday. Shailender Kumar Singh had also served as the Governor of Arunachal Pradesh from December 2004 to September 2007.— ANI HP Guv gets additional charge
New Delhi: Himachal Pradesh Governor Prabha Rao was on Wednesday given additional charge of Rajasthan. The post there had fallen vacant after the demise of SK Singh. The additional charge to Prabha Rao would continue until a regular arrangement was made. —
TNS
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RS members take exception to China’s objection
New Delhi, December 2 Noting that 35 members in Lok Sabha have conveyed their concern to the government over the issue, he sought to know why Indian Army did not respond when Chinese forces intruded into the Indian territory to stop the construction and beat up workers. —
TNS
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Army men face action for selling weapons
New Delhi, December 2 Minister of Defence AK Antony, in a written reply in the Parliament said, these were non-service pattern weapons that are sold at dirt-cheap rates to the officers for their collection. These are not weapons of the Indian Army. Antony said, a Court of Inquiry was held to enquire into the circumstances under which some serving/retired army personnel had sold/purchased/disposed off firearms and ammunition of various calibers. The District Collector, Sriganganagar had provided a list of officers who sold their non-service pattern (NSP) weapons, which included two Major Generals and two Brigadiers. The Court of Inquiry however did not find them involved/blameworthy in the matter. 25 officers who were in possession of more rounds of ammunition than authorised for their NSP weapons have been censured. Air space violations
Pakistan’s Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV’s)-used for reconnaissance missions-have violated Indian air space some five times in the past one year. Separately, Chinese two choppers intruded into India on separate occasions in June this year. Besides this a fixed wing medium sized aircraft of Pakistan also intruded into India while the Chinese sent across a “slow moving aircraft” in May this year, AK Antony told the Parliament in written reply. The intrusion by Chinese choppers is the same incidents which led to a huge media outcry with both Nations exchanging a heated words. All such cases are taken up with the concerned country through diplomatic channels, as per established procedure, Antony said. 265 crashes
in 20 years
In the last two decades since April 1989 and up to November 26, 2009, 265 fighter aircraft of the Russian origin MiG series of the Indian Air Force have crashed. A total of 96 service personnel and 44 civilians were killed in these cases, the Defence Minister informed the Parliament today. Each accident was investigated through a Court of Inquiry and remedial measures undertaken accordingly to check their recurrence, said Antony.
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New Delhi, December 2
Bangalore, December 2
