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Maya govt inaugurates bridge in a jiffy
India wants Afghanistan to step up security
Attacks on Indians hit reputation: Oz FM |
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Fund Scam
Pravin leaves behind unanswered questions
Young Global Leaders
Taslima’s Articles
Govt red-faced, courtesy its own MP
Muslim MP opposes minority quota
Now, women as forest guards
Pawar refutes sugar scam charge
Fuel Price Hike
Karuna confident of rollback
Communal Clash
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Maya govt inaugurates bridge in a jiffy
Lucknow, March 3 It was held in such a jiffy at the Lucknow PWD Guest House that the foundation stone unveiled was of vinyl and a strip was pasted over the original card which mentioned March 4 as the date of the inauguration to be held at Rae Bareli. The sudden programme was clearly the outcome of a meeting of six Congress legislators from Rae Bareli with UP Governor BL Joshi early today in which they apprised him of the ‘unethical designs of the Mayawati government’ of inaugurating the bridge on March 4 at Dalmau which was scheduled to be inaugurated by the Congress president later this month. The state government decided not to wait for the Congress president and get the bridge inaugurated by PWD Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui on March 4. The legislators had sought the Governor’s intervention in the matter and handed him the correspondence between the Centre and the state on the issue of inaugurating the bridge. However, after the Congress MLAs’ meeting with the Governor, the government decided not to take any chance. PWD Minister Naseemuddin Siddiqui and BSP president Swami Prasad Maurya inaugurated the bridge from the Lucknow PWD Guest House in the presence of government officials who incidentally had been invited on the pretext of Holi Milan celebrations. According to sources, Union Ministry of Road Transport and Highways RPN Singh had written to the Engineer-in-Chief of the PWD informing him of the Congress president’s tentative programme. Singh who was travelling by road to Rae Bareli to inspect the project was detained by the district police in Munshiganj for several hours till the inaugural function was completed in Lucknow. Talking to the media, the Congress MLAs charged the BSP of trying to gain political mileage over a project that had been constructed solely with Central funds. Inaugurating the bridge, PWD Minister Siddiqui denied that the function had been preponed. When the card bearing the date March 4 hidden by a sticker and vinyl foundation stone was pointed out, he quipped “kal phir kar lenge” (tomorrow we would inaugurate it once again). Accusing the Central government of step-motherly treatment Siddiqui said it was denying financial assistance even for national highways passing through the state. However, PWD chief engineer T Ram admitted that the bridge inaugurated was built with Central funds. The bridge over the Ganga in Dalmau in Rae Bareli, has been constructed with funds (Rs 31.65 crore) sanctioned by the Central Road Fund (CRF). Interestingly, the foundation stone for this bridge was laid 34 years ago in 1976 by late Indira Gandhi. Work in earnest started in 2004.
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India wants Afghanistan to step up security
New Delhi, March 3 Preliminary investigations by the Home and Defence ministries’s team sent to Kabul is learnt to have expressed the opinion that Indian nationals and establishments need more protection in view of the continuing threat to their safety from the Taliban and the Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT). Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had conveyed to Afghan President Hamid Karzai following last Friday’s attacks on two hotels frequented by Indians in the heart of Kabul that extra measures were needed for the protection of all Indians in the embattled country. The team of Indian investigators is working in coordinaton with a five-member team constituted by the Afghan government to probe the deadly attacks on the Nor Guesthouse and the Park Residence Guesthouse, located just 500 metres away from the Indian Embassy. Officials here said the latest terror attacks in Kabul were on the pattern of the 26/11 Mumbai attacks in which terrorists went from one room to another in the guesthouses looking for Indians. The six to eight terrorists first flattened the Noor Guesthouse with a powerful car bomb which left a deep crater on the road, before knocking down the doors of several rooms in their search for Indians. They indulged in heavy indiscriminate firing. The officials said the two hotels were ‘soft’ targets for the terrorists since it was difficult for them to attack the Indian Embassy for a third time in view of the unprecedented security at the mission following the attacks in July 2008 and October 2009. Indian Ambassador to Afghanistan Jayant Prasad has gone on record saying the attacks specifically targeted Indian cooperation experts and workers, those who are serving the Afghan people and earning goodwill for India. It was clearly the handiwork of those who oppose the Indian presence in Afghanistan. The officials said although the two guesthouses had been virtually been rented out to the Indian mission for guests as well as officials, their security was in the hands of the Afghan authorities.
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Attacks on Indians hit reputation: Oz FM New Delhi, March 3 “I acknowledge absolutely that this issue has caused considerable damage to Australia’s reputation among Indian people. We have to work very hard to address that. We have to be open, transparent and upfront about that,” visiting Australian Foreign Minister Stephen Smith told reporters here. Australia had hitherto maintained that the violence against Indians Down Under was not racially motivated despite New Delhi’s contention that Indians were being singled out for attacks. The visiting minister, who arrived here yesterday, reviewed the security arrangements for the Commonwealth Games and expressed satisfaction over the measures taken.
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Fund Scam
Guwahati, March 3 The war of words between the Treasury Bench and the Opposition started when leader of the Opposition Chandra Mohan Patowari was speaking on the admissibility of the motion. He referred to certain media reports as well as a chargesheet filed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a case of diversion of development funds to a militant group (Black Widow) in the North Cachar Hills district. Patowari, who is also president of the Asom Gana Parishad (AGP), demanded dismissal of some of the ministers of the Tarun Gogoi government, who were reportedly named in the NIA report. This provoked a section of ruling Congress to hurl counter-allegations against AGP MLAs triggering a chaos in the House. Health Minister Himanta Bishwa Sharma hit back saying it was AGP spokesman Bijan Mahajan, who was offering legal aid to two of the key accused in the NCHADC scam as mentioned in the chargesheet. The minister also raked up an LoC scandal that had occurred when the AGP was in power with Prafulla Kumar Mahanta as Chief Minister and incumbent Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi hit out at Mahanta saying the latter was chargesheeted by the CBI in the multi-crore LoC scam but managed to escape as the then Governor did not grant prosecution sanction against him. In response, Mahanta held Gogoi responsible for the NCHADC scandal. “Chief Minister Gogoi, who has been holding the finance portfolio for the past nine years, cannot escape from the Rs 1000-crore scandal,” Mahanta said. Members of other Opposition parties, including the BJP, All India United Democratic Front, CPI, CPM and some Independent MLAs, too joined in the debate and vent their ire against the ruling Congress.
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Pravin leaves behind unanswered questions
Mumbai, March 3 From that day onwards, Pravin became a national enigma. Very little was known about him, and about his motive for killing Pramod, who was then one of the important and high-profile politicians at the national level. Pramod passed away 13 days later. Pravin was convicted for the murder by a Mumbai sessions court, and sentenced to life imprisonment on December 18, 2007. However, even during the trial the prosecution could not pinpoint the actual motive. Pravin's lawyer took the stand that he did not shoot his brother. Even in his latest interview after he was released on furlough from Nashik prison last month, Pravin maintained that "I did not kill Pramod". Born to a school teacher, Pravin (50) was the youngest of the five siblings. According to his short memoirs ‘Maza Album’ (My Album), he was keenly interested in his brother's political career, but never joined politics. As an elder brother, it was Pramod who found for Pravin his bride Sarangi. Pravin settled down in Thane, working as a consultant. Apparently, in the last 5-6 years before Pramod's death, their relations began to sour. Evidence submitted by the prosecution during the trial indicated that they had disputes over financial transactions. His brother, Prakash Mahajan, alleged after the publication of ‘Maza Album’ that Pravin and his family were living off Pramod's money. Though other members of the Mahajan family severed ties with him after the murder, Sarangi stood by him through the trial and afterwards. He was released on furlough on November 27. — PTI
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Young Global Leaders
Geneva/New Delhi, March 3 Global non-profit organisation WEF annually compiles a list of up to 200 young leaders across the globe for their outstanding leadership, professional accomplishments and commitment to society. The other Indians named in this year’s young global leaders list include Wipro’s Sangita Singh, Tejpreet Singh Chopra of General Electric and Manisha Girotra, MD and Chairperson, UBS Securities India. In addition, Ashok Aram of Abraaj Capital, Ashok Giri Durgesh of Vindhya e-Infomedia, Sandeep Naik and Sangeeth Varghese of Leadcap Trust also appear in the list. Sanjeev Sanyal of Sustainable Planet Institute and Sriram Raghavan of Comat Technologies are the other two Indians. The list also comprises four people having Indian routes-Shamina Singh of CitiGroup, Openwave Systems’ Anand Chandrasekaran, Sanjay Gupta of Abraxis BioScience and Ricken Patel of Avaaz.org. “The World Economic Forum (WEF) is a true multi-stakeholder community of global decision-makers in which the young global leaders represent the voice for the future and the hopes of the next generation,” WEF founder and executive chairman Klaus Schwab said. The forum has honoured people from 72 countries, who come from various professions including business, civil society, entrepreneurs, politics & government, art & culture, and opinion & media. World number one tennis player Roger Federer and Australian swimmer Ian Thorpe have also made to the list for their contribution in their respective fields. Interestingly, this year 38 per cent women have cornered a place in the list. Further, the list also includes Sanjeev Sanyal, founder and managing trustee of Sustainable Planet Institute, and Sriram Raghavan, chief executive officer and co-founder Comat Technologies. — PTI
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Taslima’s Articles
Bangalore, March 3 “We are trying to establish the identity of the attackers”, Gopal Hosur, IGP (Western Range), told the Tribune over the phone today. AS Rao, SP, Dakshin Kannada district, said no arrest could be made as yet in relation to the attack on the newspaper offices last night. “We have not been able to pinpoint the identity of the attackers,” Rao said. About 9 pm last night four masked men forced their way into the office of Kannada daily ‘Kannada Prabha’ and set the furniture in the lobby on fire. They also damaged computers, printers, and glass panels. Shortly afterwards, the office of Kannada eveninger ‘Jaykirana’ in an apartment complex was attacked by four men. Computers and furniture were damaged and an employee sustained minor injuries. Apartment residents said a large number of men on motorcycles waited outside during the attack. Offices of some newspapers claimed they received threat calls. Basheer, manager of ‘Jaykirana’, said property worth about Rs 6 lakh was damaged in the attack. While ‘Kannada Prabha’ had published the translation of an article written by Taslima Nasreen, which sparked off the violence in Karnataka leading to the death of two persons in Shimoga on March 1 in police firing, ‘Jaykirana’ was apparently attacked owing its identification with causes espoused by the Hindu-right. AS Rao said in all likelihood the two attacks last night were carried out by the same gang. Apart from Shimoga, Hassan also witnessed widespread violence on Monday. However, since then no untoward incident has been reported from these two places.
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Govt red-faced, courtesy its own MP New Delhi, March 3 Chosen to open the debate on the President’s address to Parliament, Rao ended up picking holes in his own government. In a largely directionless speech, the Gurgaon MP did not refer even once to UPA’s achievements as listed in the Presidential address. He just kept beating about the bush, saying things that left the treasury red-faced. Some of his utterances today were as follows — Home Minister is doing better as Home Minister compared to when he was the Finance Minister; PM’s promise to make bureaucracy accountable couldn’t be implemented in UPA-I, it’ll be implemented now; out of 40 million arms, only 2 per cent are legal; India’s physical attributes are going down compared to a small-population (he meant small sized population) as China’s. The most embarrassing moment came when Rao referred to the politician-business nexus, with Petroleum Minister Murali Deora sitting next to him. Deora wasn’t amused, until Rao said: “The two (politicians and businessmen) sleep in the same bed.” If that was less, the Congressman sought state funding of elections, managing applause from the Opposition members. The Congress was relieved when Meenakshi Natarajan rose to second the motion, undoing the damage Rao had done.
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Muslim MP opposes
minority quota New Delhi, March 3 The man is Ali Anwar, the JDU Rajya Sabha member and the convener of the All India Pasmanda Muslim Mahaz (All India Front for Backward Muslims). Instead, Anwar wants reservation for Muslims also on the constitutional criterion of caste as the index of backwardness. He is organising a big rally of Dalit and OBC Muslims here on March 15. He is virtually stirring a hornet’s nest because he is demanding reservation for Dalits and OBCs in minority institutions as well. Minority institutions have so far resisted reservation for OBCs and Dalits pleading the special status accorded to them by the Constitution. Incidentally, it was Anwar who pressed the government repeatedly in last winter session to place before the House the Ranganath Mishra Commission report. The commission was setup by the UPA government to work out some mechanism to improve the plight of Muslims, who are educationally and economically backward. Anwar told The Tribune, “We oppose religion-based reservation or reservation-based on economic criterion because first it is unconstitutional and therefore, if the government tries implementing it, it would immediately be struck down by the courts. Besides, it would further polarise the Hindu-Muslim divide and create communal tensions all over the country, with the BJP already threatening to use this to whip up communal passions.” He pointed out that in the 27 per cent OBC quota there is 8.4 per cent quota for minorities and of that 6 per cent is the share of Muslims and the government should forthwith implement that. He also felt that by demanding reservation for the entire Muslim community, the Muslim leaders are deliberately trying to queer the pitch for the deserving sections of Muslim society.
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Now, women as forest guards
Guwahati, March 3 A senior forest official informed that these 34 women recruits will start working in their place of posting in the filed after completion of a three-month long crash training course that is underway at Assam Forest Guards School at Makum in Tinsukia district of eastern Assam since February 22 last. “Since it will be a tough job at hand for these women forest guards once they are posted in the wildlife protection and forest areas in the state they have to undergo the same training that is meant for their male counterparts. Besides rigorous daily physical training, the women forest sentinels are being trained in 10 forestry subjects,” an official in forest guards training school said. Once they are sent to their place of posting, many of these women will be required to man interior camps in the wildlife protection areas like the Kaziranga National Park, the Orang National Park and the Pabitora Wildlife Sanctuary to guard over the state’s precious flora and fauna. Their jobs will be apparently tougher than that of their counterparts in the State Police Department who are usually posted in police station in the urban and the semi-urban localities in the state. A senior forest official, however, said these new women forest guards would require some time to get themselves acclimatised with the tough working conditions as most of them had no previous experience of spending time inside thick jungles. Assam happens to be the first state in the North East to recruit women as forest guards.
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Pawar refutes sugar scam charge
New Delhi, March 3 “Not a single kg of sugar was imported by the government,” Pawar said amid din, which forced adjournment of the House for the third time during the day on issues related to fuel or food prices. CPI (M) member Brinda Karat alleged that state agencies have played a “dubious” role by not importing sugar and leaving it to the private trade. Sugar prices in the last one year have more than doubled in the retail market and are currently ruling above Rs 43 a kg. The hour-long reply by Pawar, after the House reassembled at 1400 hours, saw frequent interruptions and shouting of slogans by the Opposition parties that alleged that the minister was not addressing the concerns raised by them specifically with regard to sugar prices and the issue price of commodities distributed through PDS. Claiming that prices of some of the essential commodities like pulses, flour, potato and onion have declined, Pawar said the government had raised the Minimum Support Price (MSP) for wheat and rice by over 70 per cent in the last five years and some impact was unavoidable on inflation. Pawar said the government has taken several steps to contain prices of essential commodities and was willing to take more measures in this direction. “Whatever steps required to be taken have been taken and will be taken by the government,” he said.
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Fuel Price Hike New Delhi, March 3 Mukherjee held separate meetings with the Congrss MPs and party whips of alliance partners like the Trinamul Congress and the DMK, which expressed reservations about the fuel hike, to brief them about the salient features of the budget and explain the difficulties in reducing excise duty on petroluem products. The Finance Minister also met Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) chief Lalu Prasad Yadav in this connection and is expected to meet Samajwadi Party (SP) leader Mulayum Singh Yadav to convince him that there were sound economic reasons for this move. While justifying the hike, Mukherjee underlined it would result in a minimal inflation of 0.41per cent that could be absorbed by the economy. The SP and RJD lend outside support to the UPA government, but on this particular issue, their leaders have cast their lot with the other opposition parties. While Mukherjee is learnt to have counselled Lalu Prasad Yadav about the perils of being seen in close proximity to the BJP, the RJD chief offered his unstinted support to the ruling combine provided it drops the Women’s Quota Bill, which is being slated for passage in the Rajya Sabha on International Women’s Day on March 8. The SP leaders is also stated to share this view and has conveyed as much to the UPA leadership. In his inconclusive meeting with Congress MPs, the Finance Minister told them that he was well aware that his decision to hike fuel prices would come in for strong criticism, but felt there was little choice, but to take this route. Faced with the challenge of cutting the fiscal deficit, he said he had several options before him, but raising fuel prices was the least inflationary. Mukherjee also explained that this was the best time for him to take hard decisions, as other political considerations will come into play next year, when several states are headed for assembly elections. He also gave figures to underline that fuel prices were raised 35 times during the NDA regime.
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Karuna confident of rollback
Chennai, March 3 While explaining the compulsions of the UPA government for increasing the fuel price, he said he was hopeful of persuading the Centre to rollback the prices at least for diesel. “We will debate the issue with the government and persuade them to reduce the price. We hope that at least the price of diesel, used by farmers will be reduced,” Karunanidhi said, when he arrived in Tiruchi, a city in the central region of Tamil Nadu, to inaugurate a free housing scheme, under which 21 lakh concrete houses would be provided for the poor. To a query whether the DMK, would “fight” against fuel price hike as other opposition parties were doing, he said: “From the days of Anna (DMK founder), we have not believed in opposing and fighting for the sake of fighting”.
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Communal Clash
Lucknow, March 3 The agitated crowd attacked the police station in Kohadpir and damaged houses and shops in the vicinity. Around 32 houses and shops were either gutted in the fire or damaged in the brick batting. Thirteen injured people have been admitted in the district hospital where their condition is stated to be stable. The police dispersed the crowd and imposed curfew in areas under police stations Kotwali, Premnagar, Qila and Baradari. Briefing the media, the ADG (Law and Order) said the incident occurred when one of the Anjumans (congregations) wanted to join the main procession at Kohadpir crossing by passing through Patwa Gali that was not part of the pre-scheduled route. Two companies of the Rapid Action Force and eight companies of the PAC had been deployed besides the district police.
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Pravin Mahajan was an unknown figure until the morning of April 22, 2006, when he shot his brother and prominent BJP leader
Pramod. On that day, Pravin drove to the Worli residence of Pramod. After a brief, tense conversation, Pravin shot Pramod and then went to a police station and surrendered.
From that day onwards, Pravin became a national enigma. Very little was known about him, and about his motive for killing
Pramod, who was then one of the important and high-profile politicians at the national level.
