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general election 2014 only a few months away...
No softening of stand on Article 370, says BJP
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Politics kept away as Japan Emperor, Manmohan meet
Veteran Sena leader sacked
Top Cong leaders make a splash
Sikh council ask voters to back Cong
Infrastructure holds the key in Greater Kailash
Congress candidate Virender Kasana (L) and BJP’s Ajay Malhotra make last-ditch efforts to woo voters on Monday. Tribune photo: Manas Ranjan Bhui
Krishna Nagar set to witness battle of doctors
Parliament to take up Lokpal, women reservation Bills
Security cover based on post arbitrary, says UP High Court
Mars orbiter farthest object sent into space by India
Yasin, family ‘thrown out’ of Delhi hotel
Army Chief leaves for US
Delhi’s shame Tejpal’s potency test positive Protest at Justice Ganguly’s office
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general election 2014 only a few months away... Syed Ali Ahmed Tribune News Service
New Delhi, December 2 With this, the curtain came down on campaigning in all the five states of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Mizoram, Madhya Pradesh and Delhi which were due to assembly polls. The campaigning in Delhi saw major parties fielding top leaders like Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi, LK Advani, Narendra Modi, Mayawati and Nitish Kumar who addressed a series of rallies. Nascent Aam Admi Party confined its electioneering mainly to door-to-door campaigning and is seen as potentially a major force with opinion polls project significant support base for it. Rahul addressed two rallies at Sultanpuri and Ambedkar Nagar and Sonia Gandhi at Shastri Park in Trans Yamuna where slum-dwellers and Muslims are in majority. Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit used to address five to six rallies in a day where she had given accounts of her development work during her 15-year rule here.. The maximum rallies in the National Capital were addressed by BJP’s prime ministerial candidate Narendra Modi. He addressed five rallies each one at Rohini, Shahadra, Ambedkar Nagar, Sultanpuri and Parade Ground near Red Fort. Punjab Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal, Deputy Chief Minister Sukhbir Singh Badal, cabinet ministers and a few MLAs and MPs have been camping in Delhi for the last many days for campaigning in favour of SAD-BJP candidates. Parkash Singh Badal and Sukhbir Singh Badal addressed rallies in Hari Nagar, Rajouri Garden, Kalkaji and Shahadra to woo the Sikh voters. The Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party concentrated only in Muslim, Dalit and areas dominated by Poorvanchalis. Though Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh Akhilesh Yadav did not address even a single rally, BSP supremo Mayawati addressed a few rallies appealing electorates to vote for BSP candidates. Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar and leader of Janta Dal United addressed three rallies in Sangam Vihar and Okhla area. Besides some small time artistes, Kejriwal was the only face of the Aam Aadmi Party for campaigning but it has got maximum coverage in the media. It used three-wheelers for campaigning and stuck its posters on auto-rickshaws. Aam Admi Party leaders also held several rallies and road shows and promised to root out corruption if the party was voted to power. The party, citing releasing result of a survey, claimed that it will win 38 to 50 seats in the polls. A total of 1.19 crore voters are eligible to exercise their franchise on Wednesday. There are over 4.05 lakh first-time voters.
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No softening of stand on Article 370, says BJP
With Congress leaders working overtime to slam the BJP's shift in stance-"U-turn" as Manish Tewari christened it-the saffron party is already claiming victory. Senior BJP leader Sushma Swaraj asserted the BJP was not "going soft" on the issue. "Modi has just asked if there has been any benefit from Article 370," she said. In an almost self-congratulatory tweet, Modi said: "Glad that after my call for a debate on Article 370, it is being widely debated among people and across TV, social media." "However, we need a rational and focused debate not only on Article 370, but also on other issues relating to Jammu and Kashmir, including the suffering of sections of J&K society. Wounds of suffering caused to various communities in the state are still fresh in our hearts. We need to talk about uniting, instead of dividing. No one can ignore sufferings of the Kashmiri Pandits for so many years," he said. On Sunday he had said: "At least, there should be debate whether Article 370 has benefited Jammu and Kashmir or not." The suggestion was read as a dilution of the BJP's original poll plank. It was lapped up by Congress leaders with Tewari terming it a "turnaround", a "final nail" in the legacy of Atal Bihari Vajpayee and LK Advani. "(Modi's remark) completely reveal their (BJP's) doublespeak. Ten years ago, five years ago, one year ago you would hear BJP talking about abrogating Article 370. Now they are talking about debate on Article 370," Tewari said. Insiders say Jammu was chosen as a launch pad for the revival of the Article 370 issue, anticipating positive impact on party cadres and young voters, the most immediate being December 4 when Delhi goes to the polls.
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Politics kept away as Japan Emperor, Manmohan meet
New Delhi, December 2 The two also recalled the meeting they had in Tokyo when the Indian PM visited Japan in May. In the morning, the Japanese Emperor and Empress Michiko were accorded a ceremonial welcome on their State visit to India at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Thereafter, they visited Rajghat to pay homage to pay homage to Mahatma Gandhi. New Delhi is making every effort to make the imperial couple’s six-day visit to India a great success. As is the practice, the two sides are keeping political and contemporary issues studiously away from the Emperor’s visit. India and Japan last year celebrated the 60th anniversary of the establishment of diplomatic relations. The two countries have a strong popular connectivity in terms of spirituality, culture, people-to-people exchanges. This visit to a certain degree is being seen as a manifestation of that relationship.
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Veteran Sena leader sacked
Mumbai, December 2 “Mohan Rawale has been sacked from the Shiv Sena for dissidence,” the party said in a statement this afternoon. Rawale was removed from the party shortly after he held a press conference denouncing the Shiv Sena for “becoming a party of touts and middle-men”. Rawale went on to name Milind Narvekar, an associate of Uddhav Thackeray, for driving a wedge between the party leader and grassroots workers. “Milind Narvekar has ruined the Shiv Sena. Saheb (Bal Thackeray) wanted him removed from the party, but this was not done and now he is destroying the Shiv Sena,” Rawale said. The veteran leader added that despite his seniority, Narvekar did not allow him to meet Thackeray for four years. His outburst comes days after he met Raj Thackeray, Thackeray’s cousin and leader of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena. Rawale is likely to be fielded by the MNS from central Mumbai during the forthcoming Lok Sabha elections. Incidentally, Raj Thackeray had also left to float his outfit blaming Narvekar and other associates of Uddhav for the split between the cousins. Rawale is the second senior leader to hit out at Uddhav. Earlier, former Chief Minister Manohar Joshi had criticised the new Shiv Sena chief after it became clear that the party would not field him for the next Lok Sabha elections. According to observers, the Shiv Sena is seeing a major generational shift with Uddhav gradually easing out his father’s associates in order to craft a different party. About the leader
Sacked veteran leader Mohan Rawale had been a close associate of Bal Thackeray He recently held a press conference denouncing the Shiv Sena for becoming a party of touts and middle-men He also accused Milind Narvekar, an associate of Uddhav Thackeray, for driving a wedge between the party leader and grassroots workers
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Top Cong leaders make a splash
New Delhi, December 2 The Congress campaigning also got the Bollywood touch with actors Raveena Tandon and Mahima Choudhary being spotted alongside Congress leaders from Delhi in various constituencies today to seek support for party candidates. Also in the star campaigners’ list of the Congress this time was Sharmishtha Mukherjee, the daughter of President Pranab Mukherjee, who campaigned for the party along with her brother, a party MP from West Bengal. Sharmishtha, it is learnt, will contest the next Lok Sabha elections on Congress ticket. In all, around 40 Central, state leaders and MPs of the Congress, including Union ministers Kapil Sibal, Salman Khurshid, Rehman Khan, Ghulam Nabi Azad, Kumari Selja and RPN Singh; top Congress leaders Oscar Fernandes, Shakeel Ahmed, Ajay Makan and Mukul Wasnik; MPs Deepender Hooda, Sanjay Nirupam and Azharuddin were in the field today pitching for another win for Sheila Dikshit. Himachal, Haryana and Punjab leadership was the best represented in the Delhi campaign with the Punjab brigade led by state party chief Partap Singh Bajwa, former CM Capt Amarinder Singh and senior leader Rajinder Kaur Bhattal and the Himachal led by all state ministers. Hooda for his part held the maximum rallies in Delhi: five on November 30; seven yesterday and an equal number today. That being the spread of Congress leadership, party general secretary in charge of Delhi affairs Shakeel Ahmed today wondered why BJP leader Arun Jaitley said that the top Congress leadership had abandoned Sheila. “This is the old BJP tactic of lying to the people and misleading them. The fact is we campaigned much harder than they did,” he told TNS. AICC secretary for Delhi Asha Kumari asked:, “Who did not campaign. Our entire Central and state leadership was here. The BJP is spreading falsehoods because they are jittery.” “Only PM’s rally had to be cancelled due to the visit of the Japanese Emperor and Empress. We had the grounds booked but the PMO cancelled the rally at the last minute,” Asha said.
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Sikh council ask voters to back Cong
New Delhi, December 2 Patron of the APNSC and former president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee Parlad Singh Chandhok said since 1998, the Congress had been giving ticket to five Sikhs to contest the Assembly election. This time too, the party has given ticket to six Sikh contenders. They are Tarwinder Singh Marwah from Jangpura, Parlad Singh Sahni from Chandni Chowk, Surinder Pal Singh Bittoo from Timarpur, Arvinder Singh Lovely from Gandhi Nagar, Arvinder Singh from Deoli and HS Balli from Hari Nagar. In comparison to the Congress, the BJP has given ticket to only one Sikh, RP Singh from Rajinder Nagar. The other three Sikhs - Manjinder Singh Sirsa from Rajouri Garden, Harmit Singh Kalka from Kalkaji and Jatinder Singh Shanty from Shahdra - are contesting on SAD (Badal) ticket. Another leader Jasjit Singh, president of the Shiromani Akali Dal (Delhi-UK), also a part of the APNSC, said: “The UPA government gave a package of Rs 600 crore for welfare of 1984 riot victims. Of them, the Punjab Government had returned Rs 288 crore to the Centre that showed that the SAD (Badal) was not interested in developing the Sikh community.”
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Infrastructure holds the key in Greater Kailash
New Delhi, December 2 The BJP has fielded 45-year-old Ajay Kumar Malhotra from this constituency. Ajay is the son of the incumbent Greater Kailash MLA and the Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly, Vijay Kumar
Malhotra. Speaking to The Tribune, Ajay said he has devised a plan for infrastructure development for the area. He asserts that he will first sort out the main problems of water shortage and bad sewage system in the constituency. “I agree that there are areas such as Shahpur Jat and Chirag Dilli where people receive water for only two hours in a day. But, this is the only constituency where one gets water in all the areas. So now that we have started providing water in this constituency, we will increase its duration,” said Ajay. He also agrees that certain areas of the constituency, such as Shahpur
Jat, suffer from bad sewage systems. “Earlier the sewage system was meant only for
one-storey houses in Shahpur Jat. But, now people have constructed many floors, so it puts more pressure on the sewage system,” Ajay said. The Congress candidate for the Greater Kailash constituency, Virender
Kasana, who is an advocate by profession, asserts that he will bring in a complete change in the infrastructure. “I will make four multipurpose gyms for children. We will improve the roads in the area. We will solve the problems of parking in this constituency by setting up multilevel parking systems. In Chirag
Dilli, people have to get water from Sheikh Sarai. We will change all this. Vijay Malhotra has done no work in this constituency,” said
Kasana.
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Krishna Nagar set to witness battle of doctors
Dr Vardhan, who is a four-time BJP MLA, has been the favourite in the constituency since 1993 when he won his first election by more than 12,000 votes and after being elevated as CM candidate of the party, people are hoping that his win will change the fortunes of the constituency for all the good reasons. Challenging Dr Vardhan is Dr VK Monga of the Congress, who till 2012 was a BJP councillor from the area. He joined Congress a month ago after being denied a ticket by the
BJP. Thus, it would be a tough choice as both Dr Vardhan and Dr Monga had been a part of the same team and possess a good public image. However, Dr Vardhan’s vote bank has only increased since 1993 when he had got 30,000 votes approximately which went up to 35,000 in 2003 and 47,000 in 2008. The constituency is divided in four municipal wards: Krishna
Nagar, Geeta Colony, Anar Kali and Kondli. The municipal elections in 2012 saw two seats going in the support of
BJP, one to Congress and one Independent. Krishna Nagar constituency consists of around of 20 per cent Punjabis. The residents of the area belong to middle class, both professionals and businessmen, who are more involved into business owing to the local market.
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Parliament to take up Lokpal, women reservation Bills
New Delhi, December 2 Briefing the media after an all-party meeting ahead of the December 5-20 winter session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kamal Nath outlined priorities of the government while suggesting that the Bill to create a separate Telengana state was not on the list of to-do business today since the Union Cabinet was yet to clear it. A meeting is scheduled tomorrow evening to take a view on the proposed Bill on the contours of the new state to be carved out from Andhra Pradesh. The Lokpal Bill awaits consideration and passage by the Rajya Sabha since December 2010 when it was cleared by the Lok Sabha. The Women's Reservation Bill, promising to reserve one-third of the seats in Parliament and state legislatures for women, has not been taken up by the Lok Sabha after the Rajya Sabha passed it in March 2009 under controversial circumstances. The Women's Reservation Bill remains contentious with the Samajwadi Party, through its representative Ram Gopal Yadav, conveying that it would oppose the move and stall Parliament proceedings on this as well as the proposed legislation providing for reservation in promotions to Scheduled Castes in jobs. There are reports that the government plans to introduce the much-delayed land border agreement with Bangladesh in the current session, but raising the red flag, Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha Sushma Swaraj said the BJP and the Asom Gana Parishad were not in favour of the move. Members from the Opposition suggested that besides other things, Parliament would also discuss Muzaffarnagar communal clashes, safety and security of women and bomb blasts in the country. The current session, is one of the shortest with just 12 sittings, and the Parliamentary managers would have to put in extra effort to ensure smooth conduct both in order to push the legislative agenda while balancing it with discussions and debates the Opposition would seek. The mood itself would be determined after results of the Assembly polls in the five states were declared on December 8.
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Security cover based on post arbitrary, says UP High Court
Lucknow, December 2 Responding to a PIL, the Division Bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justice DK Arora raised objections to two state government GOs regarding scale of VIP security and observed that such use of policemen affects the professionalism of the force. Describing it as improper utilisation of police force, the court said they needed to be immediately removed. The Bench has directed the government to reconsider two GOs and produce fresh ones in three months. The two GOs issued on May 5, 2008 and January 11, 2013 relate to the scale of security for MLA, MPs, former MLA/MP, chairmen and vice-chairmen of corporations, zila panchayat chairman, nagar pramukh, etc. Agreeing to the argument extended in the PIL by social activist Nutan Thakur, the court was of the opinion that there was no need to provide definite security to University vice chancellors, chairmen of various state commissions, etc. as providing security merely on the basis of posts was completely arbitrary.
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Mars orbiter farthest object sent into space by India
Bangalore, December 2 The distance of moon’s orbit from earth is 5 lakh km. “Chandrayaan”, the moon mission of ISRO, had covered the distance. The MOM, which will have to eventually travel over 650 million km to reach the orbit of Mars, went beyond the mark of four lakh km distance from earth this morning. “A coded ranging pulse is sent to spacecraft to measure its distance from ground. When the spacecraft receives this pulse, it returns the pulse on its down-link. The distance to the spacecraft and ground station can be computed from the delay between sending and receiving this pulse,” the ISRO official explained. “We are happy with the progress being made by the spacecraft,” said Kesava Raju. “The next big operation is on December 11 when we may have to fire the engine for correcting the direction of the spacecraft,” he said. All but 20 kg of the 852 kg of propellant the MOM had started with would get burnt by the time of its insertion in the Martian orbit.
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Yasin, family ‘thrown out’ of Delhi hotel
Srinagar, December 2 Yasin Malik and his family, including an 18-month-old daughter, went to Delhi on Sunday and booked two rooms in a hotel near Nizam-ud-din, the JKLF said in a statement here. But they were asked to leave around midnight by the hotel management, it alleged. The party leader and his family had to wait on the roadside for several hours before they took shelter in a friend's house, the statement said. “If Delhi gets upset due to our presence there, it should formally introduce a law that could prevent the people of Kashmir from visiting the national capital," it said.
— PTI
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Army Chief leaves for US
New Delhi, December 2 The Indo-US Defence Cooperation is one of the most intense bilateral engagements between the two countries outside the framework of structured alliances. Since 2005 the two countries have conducted some 30 exercises from the Air Force, Navy and the Army. General Bikram Singh will visit important establishments of the US Armed Forces and meet high-ranking defence and civilian officials. The Army Chief will also be inducted into ‘The Hall of Fame’ at the Army War College, of which he is an alumnus having done the course in 2004, as also the recipient of the ‘International Toastmasters Award’ for public speaking.
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Apex court notice to Centre on juvenile law
Legal Correspondent
New Delhi, December 2 A court, however, restricted the scope of the petition to the plea for vesting in a magistrate the power to assess the mental maturity of the offenders in the age group of 16-18 and hold trial against those who committed such crimes despite being aware of the gravity of their brutal acts. Granting four weeks to the Centre for filing its response, the Bench posted the next hearing for January 6. The Bench asked the Ministry of Women and Child Development to give its views on the contention that a criminal court could not be ousted from its judicial function to try juveniles in such cases.
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Paid news: Five more candidates on radar EC puts Jaya on notice
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New Delhi, December 2
New Delhi, December 2
New Delhi, December 1
