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Telangana ghost disrupts LS
Pranab: No going back on Telangana
White paper on Rlys today |
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‘Faulty policies’ behind price rise
House panel nod for women quota bill
The NCP’s Supriya Sule, SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal and DMK member Kanimozhi in support of Women Reservation Bill in Parliament on Thursday.
Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal
File on RAW ex-chief missing, admits CBI
Margao blast: Patil part of 2 more Hindu groups
Impeachment motion against
Dinakaran Won’t quit, he says
Ban on pre-paid mobiles to stay in J&K
4 new H1N1 cases in Assam
Rajkhowa firm on sovereignty demand
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Telangana ghost disrupts LS
New Delhi, December 17 Prevailing disorder eventually led to chances of the Winter Session being curtailed tomorrow, with SP, BSP and RJD leaders fuming at loss of time and demanding the end of session if uproar was to last. As for the government, it would only be too happy to oblige, considering its desperation to evade the Telangana ghost that was alive in LS today. Disregarding the Speaker’s pleas to allow the House to function, the TDP anti-Telangana brigade led by K Narayan Rao stormed the well and kept returning to the pit until the proceedings had been shut. They were joined in the well by Bodoland crusader S Bwismuthiary. As the brazen display of placards continued, the Speaker was constrained to remind the unruly members that such exhibition was an assault on the sanctity of Lok Sabha. Not that it helped, with the TDP managing to get the House adjourned at 11.30 am for half an hour and then at 12.15 pm until 2 pm when CPM’s Basudeb Acharia was to initiate a discussion on Naxal violence in the country. Such was the chaos which followed that JDU’s Sharad Yadav got up to plead for TDP members. “Please let them speak,” he told the presiding officer only to have an otherwise reticent Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Bansal on his feet. The latter said if TDP members speak, Congress’ pro-Telangana members should also be allowed to make their point. As leaders switched sides, parliamentary proceedings took a back seat with barely any business being transacted. Home Minister P Chidambaram just about managed to introduce the Salaries and Allowances Amendment Bill to bring minister at par with the MPs in terms of free air travels concessions. The House finally wrapped up amid chaos, with the ruling Congress looking happy and the BJP not looking too sad. Only the SP, BSP and the RJD cornered Bansal in the House, seeking final adjournment of the winter session if discipline was not to be maintained. The government for its part said it had no problems adjourning the House sine die tomorrow if the Opposition agreed.
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Pranab: No going back on Telangana
New Delhi, December 17 In an attempt to rein in the anti-Telangana lobby, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee is understood to have told a group of politicians from the state, protesting against Telangana, that there was no going back on the issue and the party would bring in a resolution on the proposed new state in the Andhra Pradesh Assembly. After meeting Mukherjee and Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pawan Kumar Bansal, the United Andhra group from Coastal Andhra and Rayalseema regions said senior Congress leader told them that the high command had already started the process for the formation of a the state. Sources say while Mukherjee tried to convey to the “united Andhra” lobby that there was no going back on
Telangana, he also assured them that the party would not issue a whip when the resolution is introduced in the state assembly. In other words, those against the formation of Telengana would be free to exhibit their stand when the resolution is introduced in the state Assembly. Mukherjee also said final decision would be taken only after an “appropriate resolution is adopted in the (Andhra
Pradesh) Assembly”.
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White paper on Rlys today
New Delhi, December 17 "Tomorrow I will lay on the table (of the House) the first phase of vision document. Also a white paper will be released," Mamata said in the Rajya Sabha, winding up a debate on supplementary demands for grants for 2009-10. She said the vision document would outline short-term and long-term plans of the Railways, which carried 1.8 million passengers a day. After she become the Railway Minister in the second term of the UPA, Banerjee had said she would come out with a white paper on the financial health of the Railways. She had not sounded very optimistic about finances while presenting her budget in June, leaving a question mark on surpluses of Rs 90,000 crore shown by her predecessor. Responding to demands for new projects, she said the Railways would require Rs 1 lakh crore to clear all pending projects. When she sought help from Parliament for sanction of such a large fund, the Left and the BSP said the solution was with the Cabinet. As CPI-M members tried to interrupt, she shot back. “Do not shout, let me speak. I am not that type of typical minister. I am transparent and accountable.” With the Rajya Sabha returning the Appropriation Bill, the supplementary demands for grants allowing the Railways to draw an additional Rs 731 crore for the current fiscal got parliamentary approval. Responding to complaints about lack of coaches, Banerjee said, "When I became the Railway Minister, I was told they are not available" and it would take time even if orders were placed immediately. While she was "not accusing anybody", as a minister she must ensure that timely orders were placed. She said the Railways was the cheapest mode of transport and if fancy facilities were to be added, the common traveller would have to pay more. Banerjee also said no crossing would be left unmanned in the next five years. At present, there are 16,000 unmanned crossings in the country. She said the Railways suffered a loss of Rs 500 crore in the last few months due to agitations in various parts of the country. Responding to demands for better food, she said catering policy was under review. Earlier Opposition members charged the Railway Ministry with neglecting issues like safety and security of passengers while setting "unrealistic" targets for completion of various projects.
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‘Faulty policies’ behind price rise
New Delhi, December 17 Calling for an urgent food pricing and management policy, the Committee, in its report tabled in Lok Sabha today, asked the government to “overcome its inertia” and evolve a focused food price index to truly reflect the contribution of food prices to inflation. Right now, inflation is measured by the Wholesale Price Index (WPI), with just 15 per cent weightage for food. Contrarily, the Consumer Price Index, with 46 to 69 per cent weightage for food is a better indicator for food prices, said the panel, concluding that considering the momentum in food prices, time was ripe for a focused index for essential food items like rice, wheat and cereals which could accurately reflect the prevailing price situation in these commodities. Need for the food price index has been felt due to recent negative inflation trends at a time when prices in the market, particularly of essential food items, were actually rising unabated. On inflation, the committee noted with alarm that the prices of primary articles, including food items, more than doubled during the last one year; retail prices items like sugar, pulses and potatoes steeply rose by 50 to 100 per cent in six months. “The WPI measured inflation rate was around 4 to 6 per cent between 2004 and 2008 whereas in 2008-2009, it touched 8.41 per cent,” observed the committee, adding that in the commodity-wise weighted contribution in WPI inflation, the contribution of food items has been a whopping 135.6 per cent in the current year as compared to the last. Consequently, the panel, headed by BJP’S Murli Manohar Joshi, has suggested a reconfiguration of prices indices to ensure the government remains alive to the rising prices of consumables - both good and services- and the consequent erosion in people’s real incomes.
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House panel nod for women quota bill
New Delhi, December 17 The reservation has to be made constitutionally and not left to the discretion of political parties, said Jayanti Natarajan, a Rajya Sabha MP and Chairperson of the committee, while briefing mediapersons after a report was tabled in both houses of Parliament this morning. Former Chief Election Commissioner MS Gill had suggested that it might be made mandatory for the political parties to reserve one-third tickets for women in their respective parties. The “Gill formula” was rejected by the committee. The committee has strongly recommended that the bill, as tabled in the Rajya Sabha in May, 2008, should be passed in its present form, Natarajan said. This could be done in the coming Budget session in February-March next year, she added. The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha last year and was referred to the standing committee. Natarajan said any dilution in the bill was not called for at this juncture. The committee opined that once women come on a par with men and adequate political representation of women was achieved, then the time prescribed for 15 years could be reconsidered. The issue of rotation of seats was discussed and the committee opined that in the interest of democracy, rotation of seats was needed. Meanwhile, mixed opinions came from political parties. The NCP’s Supriya Sule said the UPA government is committed to passing the bill. BJP member Maya Singh said the party wants the Bill to be passed as soon as possible and the party would support it in every form. SAD MP Harsimrat Kaur Badal said the parties opposing the bill were against the progress of women. DMK member Kanimozhi said her party was in support.
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File on RAW ex-chief missing, admits CBI
New Delhi, December 17 The agency, replying to an RTI query filed by another former RAW official, has said that the file is not 'traceable' prompting the ex-RAW official to move a special CBI court here, which has directed the agency to give a 'status report' on the investigations. Former RAW official R K Yadav filed an RTI application seeking details of action taken on his complaint to the CBI nine years ago against former chief of the snooping agency A K Verma in which he had alleged large-scale corruption by him and amassing of properties disproportionate to his income. The CBI, in its RTI reply, said: “The matter regarding disproportionate assets allegedly acquired by A K Verma was not considered worthwhile to enquire since Verma had retired way back in 1990. However, the file is not traceable now." Yadav pleaded before the special court here
that the CBI be directed to provide details of the case and investigations carried by it on the allegations
levelled by him against the top official of the intelligence agency. — PTI
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Margao blast: Patil part of 2 more Hindu groups
Panaji, December 17 The names of these two Hindu organisations - Dharma Prachar Sabha and Hindu Dharma Prathisthan - had surfaced publicly for the first time since October 16, when a blast triggered panic in the commercial town of Margao in South Goa. The record furnished on the floor of the House during the ongoing state Legislative Assembly session has confirmed Patil’s links to these two institutions. Patil, 28, a native of Sangli in Maharashtra, till date was known only for his links with Sanatan Sanstha, a right-wing Hindu organisation operating from Ramnathi village of Goa. Patil died when the bomb he had planned to plant triggered prematurely. Yogesh Patil, 29, a Goan native, also died in the blast, which occurred on Diwali eve and was a part of larger conspiracy to trigger serial explosions in the state. Home Minister Ravi Naik in a statement in the floor of the House said gelatin sticks, detonators and timer circuits were used to set off the explosion.
— PTI
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Impeachment motion against Dinakaran New Delhi, December 17 Rajya Sabha secretariat sources said due process would be set in motion with Ansari accepting the notice. The Chairman is now expected to constitute a three-member committee comprising a Supreme Court judge, a high court chief justice and a jurist to examine the notice and give its views before the impeachment process is carried forward. The first step for initiating impeachment against Dinakaran, who has stayed away from judicial work, was taken on Monday by a group of 75 members of the Rajya Sabha, who presented a petition to Ansari. The MPs belonging to the BJP, Left parties, the Samajwadi Party, the Janata Dal (United), the Akali Dal and the AIADMK submitted the petition to Ansari seeking impeachment of Justice Dinakaran. Dinakaran has denied the allegations and claimed these were "without any substance or basis". — PTI
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Won’t quit, he says New Delhi, December 17 “Where is the question of stepping down,” Justice Dinakaran counter-questioned in an interview to Times Now news channel while responding to a query on whether he would quit in the wake of the move for impeachment. Maintaining that no conclusion could be drawn from the move as it was not an end in itself; he said it was an unfortunate situation because all the facts available on record had not been taken into consideration. Late last evening, the HC registry had issued a notification stating that Justice Dinakaran would not perform judicial functions until further notice.
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Ban on pre-paid mobiles to stay in J&K
New Delhi, December 17 Sources in the Union Home Ministry after a meeting with telecom operators, said on tuesday, “Loopholes do exist in the verification process carried out by operators”. The meeting was inconclusive and another meeting has been fixed. The telecom operators have been told how the verification process allowed people to buy multiple connections, making it impossible to track the cards. Most of these pre-paid cards are easily available for militants. Some issues remained and those had to be sorted out, said the sources. At present, post-paid SIM cards from Airtel, Aircel and the BSNL are available in the state. There is no move to allow only the state-owned BSNL to operate mobile services, said the sources. The Supreme Court granted two-week time to the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir government to respond on a petition challenging the ban on pre-paid mobile phone services in the state on Tuesday.
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Madani’s wife held after HC rejects bail plea Kochi, December 17 In an apparent fallout of the detention of a suspected LeT militant, Soofiya Madani, wife of PDP leader Abdul Nasser Madani, was arrested today in the 2005 Tamil Nadu bus burning case in Kerala shortly after the high court rejected her plea for anticipatory bail. Soofiya is likely to be produced before the Aluva Judicial First Class Magistrate court by tomorrow. She was named as the 10th accused by Kerala Police recently after the interrogation of suspected Lashkar-e-Taiba militant T Nazir, who was picked up on December 2 by Bangladesh Rifles along with an aide and handed over to Indian security agencies. Soofiya's arrest came within minutes after Justice KT Sankaran dismissed her bail plea observing that serious allegations had been levelled against her and waging war against the government was punishable with imprisonment for life or for 10 years. — PTI
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4 new H1N1 cases in Assam
Guwahati, December 17 The fresh swine flu cases included a female student, an engineer, one doctor and a businessman. They have been confirmed to be affected by H1N1 virus after samples of their blood and throat swab tested positive at the Regional Medical Research Centre in Dibrugarh. With these, the total number of swine flu cases in the state has gone up to 26.
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Rajkhowa firm on sovereignty demand
Guwahati, December 17 Arabinda Rajkhowa and his deputy Raju Baruah, who were arrested earlier this month, were today sent for nine more days of police custody. While the police prayed for 14 days of custody for each of them in three different cases, nine-day police custody was given to Rajkhowa, and Baruah.
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Putting its weight behind the proposed Women Reservation Bill, a Parliamentary Standing Committee today “strongly recommended” the passing of the pending bill in its present form - that is no dilution in the 33 per cent quota. The Samajwadi Party has submitted its note of dissent on the bill in its present form.
