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Name, symbol of JD
frozen NEW DELHI, Sept 30: With barely few months left for the Assembly polls in five states.......more Karunakaran gets KOCHI, Sept 30: Investigating authorities probing corruption charges against.....more Extended Khajuraho NEW DELHI, Sept 30: While celebrations to mark a millennium of the temples of love in Khajuraho have ....more JAIPUR, Sept 30: Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Shantanu Kumar has been appointed as new .....more |
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4 involved in killing undertrials arrested MUZAFFARNAGAR (UP), Sept 30: Police have arrested four persons involved in the killing of six undertrials while they were being taken from Deoband sub-jail to appear before a local court on September 25, police said today..........more Eclectic chore ensures BHOPAL, Sept 30: He is 103 years old and lost his wife four decades ago but that has not forced Bishandas to lead a hapless life, thanks to the prescriptions given by the old-age home he stays these days.......more Task force on intelligence NEW DELHI, Sept 30: The task force on intelligence apparatus to consider the recommendations of the Kargil review committee on alleged intelligence failure has submitted its report to the group of ministers......more Padmanabhaiah panel From B L Kak |
Name,
symbol of JD frozen NEW DELHI, Sept 30: With barely few months left for the Assembly polls in five states, the Election Commission today derecognised CPI(M) as a national party and froze the name and symbol of Janata Dal, recognising its two factions led by Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav and former Prime Minister H D Deve Gowda as state parties. Subramanian Swamy-led Janata Party, which officially existed only in Arunachal Pradesh, has lost its recognition as a state party and has been permitted by the Commission to function as a registered unrecognised party. Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill and the other two Election Commissioners T S Krishna Murthy and J M Lyngdoh gave their orders after hearing the parties. The Commission gave the orders on the basis of poll performance of the parties in the 1999 general elections. The Commission, which heard CPI(M) general secretary Harkishan Singh Surjeet and senior party leader Ramachandran Pillai earlier, said in its order that CPI(M) was no longer entitled to recognition as a national party under Election Symbols (Reservation and Allotment) Order 1968. Stating that the party shall cease to be recognised as a national party, the Commission said "it shall hereafter be recognised as a state party in Kerala, Tripura and West Bengal and the symbol `hammer, sickle and star’ shall be reserved for its exclusive use in those states". Referring to CPI(M) plea that it was a political party with long-standing record and the symbols order should not apply in such a manner, the order said the "Commission sees some force in the submission of the party that a political party recognised as a national party should have a reasonable presence in Parliament". "The Commission does realise that the CPI(M) is the third largest party, in terms of its strength in both the Houses of Parliament, and also that it is heading three State Governments and has its representation in the Legislative Assemblies of 12 states", it said. Stating that the Commission would consider the arguments of CPI(M) "at an appropriate time", it said "however, as of now, the Commission has to apply the symbols order as it stood at the time of the general elections held in 1999 and 2000, on the basis of which the poll performance of the party was reviewed". Stating that the Commission has carefully considered the submission of CPI(M) for immediate amendment of the symbols order, the order said "the Commission is unable to accede to the request of the party for an amendment to the symbols order and giving it the benefit of such amendment." "The Commission has been consistently applying the symbols order judiciously, and giving equal treatment to all parties equally placed. The Commission cannot act differently in this case," it said. Describing the Commission’s verdict as "unfortunate", CPI(M) said it had sought revision of the criteria for providing recognition to a national party and urged the EC to revise the election symbols order "without delay so that the actual strength of a political party as reflected in Parliament and the all-India level is properly recognised." (PTI) |
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Karunakaran gets clean chit in corruption case KOCHI, Sept 30: Investigating authorities probing corruption charges against former Kerala Chief Minister K Karunakaran have given him a clean chit saying allegations of his possessing assets disproportionate to his known sources of income could not be substantiated. T M Somarajan, Superintendent of Police, Vigilance and Anti-Corruption Bureau, Kochi, who led the investigations, in his report said the charges against Karunakaran of constructing buildings at Thiruvananthapuram, Ernakulam and Kozhikkode were not valid as all the properties had supporting documents. The investigation, carried out at the direction of the Inquiry Commissioner and Special Judge of Thrissur in 1996 on a complaint lodged by one Nawab Rajendran, found that the allegations of purchase of vast real estate at Nedumbassery and Goshree Development areas by Karunakaran was not substantiated. With regard to the allegation of acquisition of shares in Leela Kempinski Ltd, the report stated that list of shareholders do not contain the names of any of the close relatives of Karunakaran or his suspected benamies as alleged. The accused having held public positions in various capacities since the past 30 years, his perquisties and other entitlement were calculated and examined thoroughly by the investigating officers with the help of experts. It was found that the accused cannot be said to possess assests disproportionate to his known sources of income, the report said. (PTI) |
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Extended Khajuraho
millennium celebrations NEW DELHI, Sept 30: While celebrations to mark a millennium of the temples of love in Khajuraho have been extended until the end of 2000, the excavation of a new temple which is likely to be the highest in the group has given new impetus to the festivity. The newly-excavated temple near Jatkara village, three kms from Khajuraho village is 34 metres in length and it is presumed that its height must be the same, which is four metres more than the 11th century Kandariya Mahadev temple of the western group which at 30.5 metres in length has so far been considered the largest of the 25 Chandela temples. The celebrations, which commenced in March last year with the annual Khajuraho dance festival last year and were to have ended in March this year, were extended till the end of this year. The grand finale will now be the Khajuraho international film festival on the theme of ‘Ramayana around the world’ at the temple village in which Ramayana teams from Cambodia, Indonesia, Myanmar and Thailand along with three Indian temas will take part. To be graced by vice-president Krishan Kant, this has been organised from December ten to 16 by the orient express, the Madhya Pradesh Government, and the Indian Council for Cultural Relations, whose Divyabh Manchanda said the celebrations were coinciding with the golden jubillee of the ICCR. He said a compilation of various ramayana presentations may be brought out on a CD-ROM at a later stage. Mrs Pramila Poddar who is convenor of the Khajuraho chapter of INTACH told a news conference earlier this week that a total of sixteen disciplines had been selected for the celebrations. Two of the events in the extended calender - the Khajuraho Bundelkhand festival organised by the Department of Culture of Madhya Pradesh, and the film festival on ‘celebrating the word and the image’ by orient express in collaboration with the Asian film quarterly ‘Cinemaya’ and the India habitat centre - are already over. The next event is the Khajuraho Bundelkhand festival of folk music and dance from October 10 to 14 at Shilgram in Khajuraho being organised by the south central zone cultural centre. It will feature the Badhai, Rai, Naurata, Kanda and Ghat/Diwari dances among others. The Bharatiya Jnanpith, which has also published an anthology on the temple, is to organise a two-day seminar from October 21 on ‘the idea of Khajuraho’ in the capital during in which several litterateurs and intellectuals will take part. They include Dr Karan Singh, danseuse Shovana Narayan and Sonal Mansingh, Dr Vidya Niwas Mishra, Dr Sitakant Mohapatra, and Dr M C. Joshi. Mr Dinesh Mishra of the Jnanpith said two books - ‘echoes of Khajuraho’ which is an english translation of the anthology by the Jnanpith and ‘Khajuraho millennium documents’ compiled by Pramila Poddar and her daughter Ritika - are expected to be released by the first lady Mrs Usha Narayanan on October 21. The south central zone cultural centre is organising a terracota workshop at Shipgram from November 10 to 20, and this will be followed by the Khajuraho music festival at Khajuraho from November 24 to 26. Mr Sanjoy Roy by Teamwork films which is organising this event said the programme will include folk performances and also recitals by Gaurav Majumdar, Madhup Mudgal, Arti Akhlekar, Sanjeev Abhyankar, Sarat Chandra Srivastav, the Gundecha brothers and Mrigya. The first sound-and-light programme celebrating the sculptor has also been launched at the temple sites. With a narration in the baritone voice of megastar Amitabh Bachchan on a script by Mrs Poddar who has already authored a book on the temples. Celebrations coordinator Kanti Poddar of Orient Express who conceived the idea of the celebrations and successfully received support from Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, three events linked to the celebrations are going to be seen overseas. These are the costume collection by designer Ashish Soni is to be shown in three other Indian venues (Delhi, Mumbai and Bangalore), the theatre productions by Nissar and Amal Allana. (AGENCIES) |
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JAIPUR, Sept 30: Senior Indian Police Service (IPS) officer Shantanu Kumar has been appointed as new Director General of Police (DGP) in Rajasthan. The State Government issued orders appointing Kumar, a 1966 batch IPS officer, as the new DGP last night. He takes over from Amitabh Gupta who retires today. Kumar’s Batchmate Ashok Bhandari holding charge of DGP, administration, has been posted as DGP, anti-corruption bureau. Government also promoted additional DGP, security, V K Hansuka, in DGP’s pay scale and posted him as commandant general, civil defence and home guards with effect from October one, an official release said. (PTI) |
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Padmanabhaiah panel for VIP security to only 200 persons From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Sept 30: Former Home Secretary to the Government of India, Mr K Padmanabhaiah, has warned that the functioning of the police across the country will suffer more reverses if the powers-that-be in States and at the Centre fail to prevent what he termed as "unnecessary intervention" by politicians in the functioning of the police. Mr Padmanabhaiah, who headed a committee constituted by the Government to look into the functioning of the police and recommend remedial measures, has highlighted several unpleasant facts on the functioning of the police in India in a 270-page report, just submitted to the Home Minister, Mr LK Advani. The report on police reforms, currently being examined by higher-ups in the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), contains inter alia devastatingly blunt, uncharitable remarks against certain categories of Indian politicians and "corrupt" police officials. The Padmanabhaih committee has described as "totally against the law" the undue political interference in investigation of crime. The in-depth study by the committee has led it to bring to the fore: The nexus between the power-wielding politician and the corrupt police officials can only take place when there is an obliging policeman willing to do the bidding of the politicians in return for favours in posting or for sharing the booty. Finding number two: In recent year, there has been a brazen interference with the working of the police, brandishing threats of transfers to remote places, or offering inducements of postings on lucrative jobs. Finding number three: A politician tries to influence whether a case should be registered, whether it should be treated as a cognisable offence or a non-cognisable one, if so, what section of law should be applied, whether arrest should be made or should not be made and whether grant of bail should be conceded or opposed. The Padmamabhaiah panel’s report has referred to Uttar Pradesh and pointed out that the power to transfer the investigation of a case to the State CID had been withdrawn from the Police chief and given to the Chief Minister. Mr K Padmanabhaiah is for a change in the attitude and behaviour of the police. He has insisted that political interference affects the functioning of the police. The police, he has been quoted as having said, is always treated "as an extension of the Government’s arm". His loaded question: Why should politicians or the Government interfere in the investigation of a crime? Among the main recommendations of the Padmanbhaiah panel, emphasis is apparently laid on (a) only 200 individuals in the country should receive VIP security at the State’s expense, while others should pay for it; (b) IAS and IPS probationers should work as judicial magistrates for two years; (c) cities with 10 lakh population should have commissionerate system; (d) police establishment board should look after transfers and postings of all officials from SP and above; (e) all police officers should file property returns annually; (f) existing departmental inquiry manual should be replaced by new one and (g) promotion of a deputy superintendent of police should be based on written examination. Equally important recommendations include (a) comprehensive law to deal with terrorism; (b) special task force to deal with organised crime in each State; (c) investigation to be separate from law and order duties; (d) confession made by a criminal to an officer of the rank of SP or above to be made admissible in courts and (e) human rights cell in each State Police Headquarters. The Padmanabhaiah committee report has regretted that about a fourth of nearly 12,000 police stations in India do not have buildings. Believe it or not, it is a fact that some police stations even in India’s national capital, Delhi, are located in tents. And the report has cautioned: "There is no point of talking about modernising police stations with computerisation when basic facilities like furniuture, chairs, tables, drinking water, telephones, typewriters and even stationary do not exist in a large number of police stations". The report has estimated that there is an urgent need for arms worth Rs 1900 crores. These arms include more than 380,000 SLRs, over 154,000 9mm pistols and nearly 6,000 light machine guns (LMGs). |
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