|
|
|
|
|
Talks on Sir Creek from May 14
Ramlila Maidan crackdown NAtional Film Awards
Dadasaheb Phalke Award winner Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee (centre) flanked by I&B Minister Ambika Soni (L) and Vice-President Hamid Ansari at the 59th National Film Awards function in New Delhi. Tribune photo: Mukesh Aggarwal |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|
RTI activist’s murder
Amend Constitution for SC/ST promotion quota: Parties
President to honour two living members of first Lok Sabha
Richard Loitham Murder Case Akhilesh seeks Central funds through UP MPs
Assocham presents 30-point agenda to UP CM
|
|
Talks on Sir Creek from May 14
Islamabad, May 3 Indications are that both countries consider the Sir Creek issue as one which can be resolved if there is political will on both sides. Even at their meeting in New Delhi earlier this month, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari had expressed the hope that the Sir Creek and Siachen issues were doable. The Home/Interior secretaries are expected to sign the liberalised visa agreement between the two countries. The accord is likely to ease restrictions on travel and promote trade and economic relations. India and Pakistan revived their peace process in February last year after
a gap of over two years following the 26/11 Mumbai attack. The two sides are said to be in touch with regard to dates for talks on the Siachen issue. Once they have completed talks on oustanding issues at the official level, External Affairs Minister SM Krishna will visit Islamabad in July to review the progress in the dialogue process. Islamabad is hoping PM Singh will be able to visit Pakistan before the year end. Zardari had renewed Pakistan's invitation to Singh during his recent visit to India. The Indian leader was born at Gah village (now in Pakistan).
|
|
SC turns down Ramdev’s review plea
R Sedhuraman Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, May 3
In the February 23 judgment, the Bench had blamed the Yogu guru for resisting the police attempt to evict his followers. The Bench had also slammed the government and the police for their high-handed action. The SC had ordered a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of a 51-year-old woman, Raj Bala, who had died in the incident, besides Rs 50,000 each to the grievously injured and Rs 25,000 each to other injured persons. The government and Ramdev, who was on a fast against corruption, should share the burden of paying compensation in the ratio of three-to-one, the Bench had ordered in a 250-page judgment. The crackdown partially suffered from the “vice of arbitrariness but every arbitrary action necessarily need not be mala fide,” the Bench had clarified. At the same time, the Bench found fault with Ramdev for asking his followers to resist the eviction, instead of pleading with them to disperse peacefully. If one were to go by the “stature that Baba Ramdev enjoyed with his followers, it was expected of him to request the gathering to disperse peacefully and leave the Ramlila Maidan,” the Bench held in separate but concurring verdicts.
|
||
|
NAtional Film Awards
New Delhi, May 3 The entire Vigyan Bhawan, the venue of the two-hour ceremony, reverberated with applause as Vidya walked up to the dais to receive her award. “Getting the national film award was a dream for me. It has come true today,” she told the media. It was indeed a moment to cherish for iconic Bengali actor Soumitra Chatterjee as he received the Dadasaheb Phalke Award, the highest honour in Indian cinema, from Ansari. “This is an award which has never been questioned since it has always gone to the deserving,” an elated Chatterjee said. The awards are traditionally presented by the President. However, the Vice-President was requested to do the honours since President Pratibha Patil is on a foreign tour. Regional cinema dominated the award function this year with ‘Bollywood’ maintaining a low key. The Best Actor award went to Girish Kulkarni for film Deool (Marathi). The Best Film award was shared by 'Deool', produced by Abhijeet Gholap and directed by Umesh Vinayak Kulkarni, and ‘Byari’ in the Byari language, produced by TH Althaf Hussain and directed by Suveeram. In the non-feature film category, the Best Film award went to 'And We Play On' (Hindi and English) directed and produced by Pramod Purswane. In Best Writing on Cinema category, the ‘Swarna Kamal’ went to the book titled ‘RD Burman - The Man, The Music’ written by Anirudha Bhattacharjee and Balaji Vittal, published by Harper Collins India. Manoj Barpujari from Assam has been awarded Best Film Critic. In Feature Film category, five films won three awards each. These films are: ‘The Dirty Picture’ (Hindi), ‘Balgandharva’ (Marathi), ‘Anhe Ghorey Da Daan’ (Punjabi), ‘Deool’ (Marathi) and ‘Ranjana Ami Ar Ashbo Na’ (Bengali). Six films won two awards each. These are ‘Chillar Party’ (Hindi), ‘Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai’ (Tamil), ‘Aaranyakandam’ (Tamil), ‘Phijigee Mani’ (Manipuri), ‘Zindagi Na Milegi Dobara’ (Hindi) and ‘Game’ (Hindi). ‘Azhagarsamiyin Kuthirai’ (Tamil) won the award for Wholesome Entertainment and ‘Chillar Party’ (Hindi) won Best Children Film. Best Director title went to Gurvinder Singh for Punjabi film ‘Anhe Ghorey Da Daan’, Best Singer (Male) to Anand Bhate for Marathi film ‘Balgandharva’ and to Roopa Ganguly for Best Singer (Female) for the Bengali film ‘Abosheyshey’. ‘Kumararaja Thiagarajan’ won the Indira Gandhi Award for Best Debut Film by a Director.
|
||
|
Top industrialist to undergo narco test
Shiv Kumar/TNS
Mumbai, May 3 A court in Pune on Wednesday granted permission to the Central Bureau of Investigation to conduct the narco-analysis test on Mhaiskar and others. The CBI was called at the request of the family of RTI activist Satish Shetty who was hacked to death in what is seen as a contract killing case. Shetty’s family, which is pursuing the case, alleged that he was killed for consistently exposing land scams in the fast developing areas on the outskirts of Pune.
|
||
|
Amend Constitution for SC/ST promotion quota: Parties
New Delhi, May 3 During a short-duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha, members demanded the amendment in the wake of the Supreme Court quashing Uttar Pradesh government's decision in this regard recently. Replying to the discussion, Minister of State for Personnel V Narayanasamy said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is seized of the matter and is willing to call an all-party meeting to build a consensus for bringing a legislation. Narayanasamy expressed deep concern over the issue and admitted much more was needed to be done for empowering the weaker sections of the society. He said different governments had, in the past, four-five times, tried to bring an amendment to provide more privileges for SCs, STs and OBCs, but they were unfortunately struck down in the courts. BSP, which raised the issue, was not satisfied and staged a walkout led by its leader Mayawati. Earlier, Minister for Law and Minorities Salman Khurshid, while intervening in the discussion, said the government was committed to empowerment of all backward communities and provide them reservation in government jobs in proportion to their population. Khurshid said primary restriction of 50 per cent maximum limit for reservation in jobs for SCs, STs and OBCs "ties the hands of the government" in doing much for them in proportion to their population. Opposition BJP, CPI and CPI (M) also accused the government of delaying action on such a crucial issue. Raising the issue of reservation for Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in promotions during service through a short duration discussion in the Rajya Sabha, Satish Chandra Misra said the matter should be taken up by the House. Seeking support of various parties to bring about such an amendment, he said, "Parliament has to consider this now... President cannot refer the matter to Supreme Court. That is not the remedy." (With inputs from
PTI)
|
||
|
President to honour two living members of first Lok Sabha
New Delhi, May 3 60 years of Parliament But that’s not the case. Despite the passage of years and dilution of parliamentary traditions and conventions, Keishing remembers in minute details what made the Parliament of India so special when it was born. “It was mostly the people who made up the Parliament,” says the living member of the first Lok Sabha that was constituted in 1952 and addressed by Nehru. Today, Keishing, a sitting Rajya Sabha member of the Congress from Manipur, is eagerly awaiting the May 13 celebrations which the Lok Sabha Speaker has planned to commemorate the 60 years of the first sitting of the Indian Parliament. Keishing, and another living member of the first Lok Sabha, 90-year-old Resham Lal Jhangle from Chhattisgarh, a member of the first, second and ninth Lok Sabhas, will be honoured for their contribution to parliamentary democracy by President Pratibha Patil as part of the May 13 celebrations. The highlight of the day, as first reported by the Tribune, will be a rare and special sitting of both the Houses on a Sunday. Both the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha sessions will be convened on May 13 to discuss “60 Years of Journey of the Parliament”. Two speakers from each party will reflect on the subject as leaders agreed today to sit till 5.30 pm on a Sunday. Importantly, the leaders at Speakers’ meeting today declined the earlier proposal to discuss on May 13 India’s developments towards the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). “There was a general consensus that the journey of the Parliament would be a better topic to discuss on the day of commemoration of the first sitting of Lok Sabha on May 13, 1952. MDGs would be taken up later,” LS sources said. Also, as against the two day celebration (May 13 and 14) planned earlier, now the commemoration would be a one day affair. Earlier, the decision was to discuss MDGs on May 13 and India’s Human Development Index on May 14. The evening of May 13 would see a special ceremony in the Central Hall of Parliament where the President will release Rs 10 denomination commemorative coin for general circulation. The coin is expected to bear the overwhelming image of the Parliament of India. The cultural soiree for the day has been planned with care to showcase the unity in diversity of India. So there will be artistes from Kashmir - Pt Shiv Kumar Sharma on the santoor and there will also be some from West Bengal. Interestingly, to ensure they don’t miss out on the felicitation of any other living members of the first Lok Sabha, the Lok Sabha TV has been running an important notice for any information pertaining to any more living members besides the two that the Parliament officials have identified.
|
||
|
Lab gives police viscera, blood report
Tribune News Service
Bangalore, May 3 “The report was given to us in a sealed cover and we have forwarded it to the doctor, who conducted the post-mortem report on the boy’s body,” G Prakash, SP, Bangalore (rural), told TNS. Prakash added that histopathological examination of Richard’s body remains was being conducted at the pathology department of the Victoria Hospital here. This report too will be given to the doctor who conducted the autopsy. Based on these two reports and the “provisional post-mortem examination report”, the doctor will give his final opinion about reasons for Richard’s death, Prakash said, adding that the conclusive opinion from the doctor was expected to come some time in the middle of next week. Richard, a native of Imphal and student of Acharya NRV College on Architecture in Bangalore, was found dead in his hostel room on April 18. Police initially suspected that Richard had died of injuries he had sustained during a bike accident a couple of days back. But this was not found acceptable by Richard’s friends. They suspect Richard died due to injuries he suffered during a fight he had with two of his hostel mates the previous evening (April 17). Union Home Minister P Chidambaram has said the case will be probed by the CBI if the state government fails to carry out an investigation.
|
||
|
Akhilesh seeks Central funds through UP MPs
Lucknow, May 3 Unlike his predecessor, BSP supremo Mayawati, who bombarded the PMO with letters seeking a central package, Akhilesh has written a letter to all the MPs representing UP, seeking their help in getting policy decisions in the state's favour. In his letter, he reminded the MPs about the former glory of UP and how it had slowly started slipping, so much so that it now lags behind in many fields of development. While the Congress In his letter, Yadav has asserted that since his government assumed office in mid-March, development has been given a major push.
|
||
|
Assocham presents 30-point agenda to UP CM Shahira Naim Tribune News Service
Lucknow, May 3 The 28-page document looks at 28 crucial areas, chalking out an immediate action agenda, another 100 days agenda and a long-term agenda for the new government. Briefing the media, Khaitan said the state government must engage with the private sector and introduce an investor-friendly policy to boost the investment scenario in the state. He said the main priority must be to aggressively invest in upgrading the social and physical infrastructure, offer tax exemptions, lucrative incentives, schemes and subsidies to encourage investments from leading industrialists. For the first 100 days of its tenure, the apex industry body has said, the state government, in collaboration with the private sector, must develop industrial areas equipped with requisite industrial infrastructure facilities like roads, drains and integrated power lines.
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | E-mail | |
Vice-President Hamid Ansari today gave away the 59th National Film Awards for 2011 with Vidya Balan walking away with the Best Actress trophy for her role in 'The Dirty Picture'.
“We have considered the averments in the review petition. Having regard to the facts and issues involved, in our opinion, no case for review is made out. There is no error in the impugned order,” a Bench comprising Justices BS Chauhan and Swatanter Kumar ruled.