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Children tie rakhi to NEW DELHI, Aug 4: A large number of children, including orphans and physically handicapped, today greeted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the occasion of Rakshabandhan. .......more Retrenched
staff PONDICHERRY, Aug 4: A retrenched employee of the PondicherryKhadi and Village Industries Board, who was on an indefinite fast .....more N-E
CMs to meet in AGARTALA, Aug 4: The Chief Ministers of the north-eastern states will meet in Shillong on August nine, a day before the crucial meeting of the North Eastern Council.....more Army
starts relief work as PATNA, Aug 4: The Army today took up relief and rescue operations in worst-hit Gopalganj district even as the overall flood situation in Bihar.........more |
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NLFT ultras kill AGARTALA, Aug 4: National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) militants shot dead a senior CPI(M) tribal leader at Gachiram Para in north Tripura late last night........more KOHIMA, Aug 4: The 24-hour bandh called by the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) to protest against the review of the June 14 cease-fire agreement ended peacefully at 0600 hrs today. .....more ‘Change
in secular NEW DELHI, Aug 4: The liberal and secular character of the Indian education is being eroded which, not in consonance with the......more 37
Cong leaders threaten AGARTALA, Aug 4: The internal wranglings in the Tripura Congress over the AICC’s decision to retain Mr Birjit Sinha as the state party chief have come .......more |
Children tie rakhi to Prime Minister NEW DELHI, Aug 4: A large number of children, including orphans and physically handicapped, today greeted Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on the occasion of Rakshabandhan. The children visited the Race Course residence of Vajpayee and tied rakhis and offered sweets to him. Some of the children recited poems on environment and sang patriotic songs as the Prime Minister mingled with them. Vajpayee told them the Government was working on various schemes so that children got more opportunities to get established in life. While a Bational Policy for Children was being worked out and would be announced soon, a National Commission for Children was being considered, he said. Vajpayee also stressed the need for laying more emphasis on vocationalisation of education so as to create more job opportunities.(PTI) |
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Retrenched staff continue fast PONDICHERRY, Aug 4: A retrenched employee of the PondicherryKhadi and Village Industries Board, who was on an indefinite fast in front of the Pondicherry Legislative Assembly here along with 92other retrenched employees, attempted to commit suicide at thevenue of the fast today. The employee, Arumugham, a heart patient, consumed pesticides. Hewas immediately rushed to the nearby Government General Hospital andwas stated to be in a serious condition. Even though several employees had fainted and were admitted to hospital, they continued to fast along with their family members forthe sixth day today, demanding the immediate reinstatement of theretrenched employees. Meanwhile, the Pondicherry unit of the NDA strongly criticisedthe Congress-led Government for its reluctance to invite the fastingemployees for a discussion to find an amicable settlement to the issue. Talking to newspersons, Puducherry Makkal Congress president K Lakshminarayana, MLA, urged the administration to take immediatesteps to reinstate the employees, failing which the NDA would stageagitations. The employees had lost all faith in the Government andwere forced to commit suicide, he alleged. Leader of the opposition in the Assembly R V Janakiraman andhimself had called on the Chief Secretary yesterday and presentedthe case of the retrenched employees, he said. Meanwhile, the group ‘D’ Health Department employees alsocontinued their indefinite fast, demanding the provision of riskallowance, among other things, for the sixth day in front of theGovernment General Hospital.(UNI) |
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N-E CMs to meet in Shillong on Aug 9 AGARTALA, Aug 4: The Chief Ministers of the north-eastern states will meet in Shillong on August nine, a day before the crucial meeting of the North Eastern Council (NEC), to discuss the ceasefire issue, insurgency and other common problems of the region. Stating this, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar told reports here today that the NE Chief Ministers’ Forum, formed in May last year, to foster better understanding of issues pertaining to regional co-operation and development with particular reference to insurgency and its effect on economy, would be revived. The then Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was the convenor of the forum and Chief Ministers of other north eastern states were its members. Mr Sarkar said the 45th NEC meeting would be held on August ten in Shillong. Assam Governor Lt. Gen.(retd) S K Sinha is the Chairman of the Council, whose last meeting was held in Guwahati on September eight last year. Mr Sarkar said inadequate fund of the NEC was one of the major hurdles facing the region. He demanded that the annual allocation of fund be increased from Rs 450 crore to Rs 1000 crore. Since inception, the flow of NEC fund to Tripura was only about 6.5 per cent. The ninth five year plan was probably the worst, he added. Expressing anguish over the delay in restructuring of NEC, the Tripura Chief Minister said the seven sister states had been demanding that either the Union Home Minister or the Union Finance Minister or the Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission be appointed the NEC Chairman instead of Governor of any state. The NEC (Amendment) Bill, 1998, was introduced in Rajya Sabha on December eight,1998, but could not be approved following adjournments during the last few sessions. The bill also seeks to include Sikkim in the Council. The Tripura Chief Minister urged the Centre to implement the Prime Minister’s package announced on January 22 last year during his visit to Shillong. Director of planning and coordination of the Tripura Government R K Dey Chowdhury said the NEC meeting would discuss those projects benefitting more than one state of the region. It would stress the development of infrastructural projects such as road, telecom and power, besides educational institutions. The Chief Minister said the north eastern region was passing through a difficult phase and some of the states were witnessing the worst form of insurgency. Lack of development was one of the major factors for the growing sense of gradual alienation of people of this region. On the other hand, lack of sense of security among the development functionaries was also affecting the developmental process, he said. "I firmly believe that if insurgency is not tackled immediately, developmental activities in the region will be jeopardised" Mr Sarkar said. He said the north eastern states had areas demarcated as international border. Illegal migration of foreign nationals had changed the demographic composition in some of the states which had complicated the socio-political situation. In view of this the Chief Ministers had demanded immediate construction of borderfencing along with border roads. Mr Sarkar claimed that more than 30 camps of militants, set up in Bangladesh, provided tactical advantage to the insurgents over the security forces. He said the State Government had asked the Centre long ago to demolish these camps and hideouts in the neighbouring countries. The NEC might also consider passing a resolution in this regard, he added. (UNI) |
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‘Change in secular character of education can affect society’ NEW DELHI, Aug 4: The liberal and secular character of the Indian education is being eroded which, not in consonance with the guiding principles of the republic, would adversely affect "our plural society", some noted historians told the `National Convention Against Communalisation of Education’ here today. "The change is engineered by a Government more committed to its ideological needs and entrepreneurial interests of the ruling classes rather than the requirements of the society," historian K N Panikkar said at the Aug 4-6 convention. He said that the post-independence education system was "essentially liberal and secular" in character drawing upon the historical experience - both colonial and pre-colonial -and the social, cultural and inherited intellectual legacy. "But the post-colonial (education) system, in the assessment of the present Government, has an entirely different character. It is an anathema to the Sangh Parivar and not sufficiently `national’," Panikkar said. Former Chairman of Indian Council for Historical Research (ICHR) Irfan Habib said that distortion of history was a crucial weapon to induce "irrational discourse". "The imaginary claims of Sangh Parivar about Aryan civilisation, and that homo sapiens originated in the upper reaches of the river Saraswati, brings it closer to the Nazi ethnocentric ideology," Habib said. In his opening remarks, Prabhat Patnaik of Sahmat, the organiser of the convention, said "the objective of the convention is to put an end to the attack on rational discourse and secure access to information of not only minorities, but the general public". (PTI) |
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37 Cong leaders threaten to resign from TPCC AGARTALA, Aug 4: The internal wranglings in the Tripura Congress over the AICC’s decision to retain Mr Birjit Sinha as the state party chief have come to the fore with 37 TPCC members threatening to resign. The AICC had renominated Mr Sinha president of the party’s state unit on Thursday and appointed former Chief Minister Samir Ranjan Barman, MLA, chairman of TPCC Advisory Committee to the TPCC. The AICC also appointed four vice-presidents for the TPCC. The 37 of the 68 TPCC members, who met here last night, in a fax message to Congress president Sonia Gandhi, demanded that the appointment of Mr Sinha or be cancelled or else they would quit. The message, which was made available to the press, said that after the election to the post of TPCC president on June 20 here, the counting of votes was held in New Delhi on July 5. While Mr Barman secured 37 first preference votes, Mr Sinha got 28. Immediately after the counting, Mr Sinha confused the AICC by giving false statements, the message said and demanded disciplinary action against him. This act has not only put a big question mark on our party’s neutrality and credibility but our party has also become a laughing stock." With Assembly elections round the corner, any mistake not corrected forthwith would have far reaching effect," the dissident leaders said in the message. One of the dissident leaders, Tapas Dey, told reporters here today that about 100 to 125 senior Congress leaders and workers will go to Delhi to apprise the high command of the development. Former TPCC president Gopal Roy and another senior Congress leader, Ratan Lal Nath, MLA, who had been appointed senior vice-presidents in the new committee, also resigned from their posts and sent separate resignation letters to Mrs Gandhi.(UNI) |
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