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Ban on defence
middlemen From B L Kak Jana
Krishnamurthi NEW DELHI, Mar 24: The National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today ratified the appointment of Mr K Jana Krishnamurthy as president of the party.....more
NEW DELHI, Mar 24 : Despite the political storm over the Tehelka expose, the BJP today firmly defended its former president Bangaru Laxman and expressed hope that......more TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Mar 24: Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) founder leader S Ramadoss categorically denied haing any links with the Liberation....more |
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CVC recommends raid NEW DELHI, Mar 24: Central Vigilance Commissioner N Vittal has favoured income.......more
Mahajan
rules out resignation of NEW DELHI, Mar 24: Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan has ruled...more
TMC
hits back at ‘rebel’ CHENNAI, Mar 24: The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) today hit back at the rebel TMC leader and former Union......more Vajpayee
Govt under NEW DELHI, Mar 24: The Vajpayee Government has come under a severe attack from historians and educationists.......more |
Ban
on defence middlemen From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Mar 24: The Government has, without any fanfare, issued instructions, making it clear that officers below the rank of Additional Secretary or equivalent are not authorised to carry ‘top secret’ documents and files to their residences. Under the existing rules, classified documents or files classified as ‘secret’ and ‘confidential’ are not permitted to be taken home by an officer below the rank of Joint Secretary or equivalent, according to Mr Jaswant Singh, who as the External Affairs Minister is also going about as the country’s Defence Minister. The Government, Mr Jaswant Singh has confirmed, has hired private security guards for guarding the ‘restricted area’. According to him, as many as 43 security guards have been hired to perform security duties only in non-strategic and non-sensitive areas. Of these, 25 guards have been hired by the DRDO (Defence Research and Development Organisation). Services of private security agencies are hired due to scarcity of DSC platoons. Hence, the question of taking action against DRDO for hiring private security guards "does not arise", Mr Jaswant Singh has clarified. Mr Jaswant Singh, while recalling that the Government banned, in 1989, the involvement of agents and middlemen in the purchase of weapons and weapon systems, let it be known that the seller, as per the existing instructions, is required to certify in the contract itself that it has not employed any agents or middlemen. It has been stipulated that in case it is found otherwise, the contract is liable for cancellation, the Defence Minister says and adds that the seller is also liable to be debarred from entering into any supply contract with the Government of India for a minimum period of 5 years. According to Mr Jaswant Singh, defence services officers of the rank of colonel or equivalent or above, who retire with pension, gratuity or any other benefits in respect of the services rendered by them, are, under the existing instructions, required to obtain prior permission of the Government for accepting any commercial employment within a period of 2 years from the date of retirement. Mr Jaswant Singh also clarified that the Government, before granting permission in such cases, has to satisfy itself that any officer who has had dealings with a particular firm and its sister concern before his retirement shall not be allowed to take up a job with that firm, that any officer in an appointment dealing with contracts and procurement shall not be allowed to take up a job with a firm and its sister concerns which has subsisting contract or contracts with the Ministry of Defence and that if the proposed appointment calls for marketing or liaison with defence establishments, such an appointment shall not be permitted. The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI), Mr Jaswant Singh has further clarified, is not conducting enquiries into the 380-odd defence deals, relating to a period after 1989, when the defence agents were banned. The CBI, Mr Singh confirmed, is investigating nine cases, including contract concluded with Messrs Bofors, Sweden for procurement of 155 mm FH77B gun system, ammunition and associated items, procurement of weapon locating radar, irregular procurement of ‘crucibles’ in the Eastern Naval Command and irregularities in the procurement of developed items in the Eastern Naval Command. When asked to comment on a recent media report, which said that touts were wooing rural youth in Jammu and Kashmir offering them soldiers’ job for a price ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 40,000, Mr Jaswant Singh chose to highlight two points in this regard. First, Army continues to educate the candidates, their parents and guardians not to fall prey to touts. Media is also approached, from time to time, to educate the youth on this issue. Second, all recruitment, under the new recruitment procedure made applicable with effect from April 1, 1998, is carried out by open recruitment rallies. The local branch recruiting office does not form part of the recruitment team, which conducts the recruitment rallies. Independent members are detailed to oversea each stage of the recruitment process. The system, Mr Jaswant Singh has insisted, is "fair, open and transparent". |
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Jana Krishnamurthi is now president NEW DELHI, Mar 24: The National Executive of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today ratified the appointment of Mr K Jana Krishnamurthy as president of the party. Mr Krishnamurthy was appointed acting president following the resignation of Mr Bangaru Laxman on March 13 in the wake of Tehelka expose. Mr Krishnamurthy, an advocate turned politician, has been associated with the party from the Jana Sangh days. He was a Pracharak in the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS) earlier. Mr Krishnamurthy was the senior-most vice president, incharge of organisational matters of the party. Mr Krishnamurthy, hailing from Madurai in Tamil Nadu, takes over the reins at a crucial juncture when the party is facing the Tehelka allegations and is to fight elections in five states. He, earlier as vice president, also served as incharge of party’s affairs in Karnataka where the party made deep inroads in the last two elections, both to Parliament and Assembly. He, however, himself failed to make to Parliament from his home state of Tamil Nadu in 1996. Basically an organiser, Mr Krishnamurthy was among the first runners for the coveted post when it was given to Mr Bangaru Laxman. After the death of Mr K L Sharma, Mr Krishnamurthy has been the main spokesperson of the party. He was involved in many trouble-shooting missions, including the crisis in the Gujarat unit. Unlike many Pracharaks, Mr Krishnamurthy is married. Thanking the executive for entrusting him the responsibility of the party presidentship, Mr Krishnamurthy said that he felt ‘quite at home’ with his new responsibility as he had been groomed by Atal Behari Vajpayee, L K Advani and Kushabhau Thakre for the past 35 years. "The very fact that you (national executive) have enstrused the responsibility of the party presidentship is a proof that I enjoy your trust and confidence as well as total cooperation in the task of not only carrying this party of ours to its destined goal but also the entire nation with us to its destined glory," he said. (UNI) |
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NEW DELHI, Mar 24 : Despite the political storm over the Tehelka expose, the BJP today firmly defended its former president Bangaru Laxman and expressed hope that he would be found an "innocent victim caught in a web of conspiracy." Expressing sadness and pain over the situation arising out of Laxman’s resignation, BJP’s new president K Jana Krishnamurthy told the national executive, "our opponents have sought to create such a situation that doubt is sought to be created about the credibility of our leadership". Noting that Laxman had made himself available for an impartial inquiry, he said the party looked forward to the day to see that Laxman stood vindicated and found as an "innocent victim caught in a web of conspiracy". "I can assure that once he comes out of ‘Agni Pariksha’, ......His services are sure to be utilised fully befitting his personality and in the best interests of the party", Krishnamurthi said. (PTI) |
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TMC hits back at ‘rebel’ Chidambaram CHENNAI, Mar 24: The Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) today hit back at the rebel TMC leader and former Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram, saying that he failed in his attempt to take away the party and its leadership to the Bhartiya Janata Party (BJP). Addressing a press conference here, senior TMC leader and former Union Minister S R Balasubramanian and other leaders said Mr Chidambaram, who had been suspended from the party, had "left his soul with the BJP, even while his body was with the TMC." Yesterday, Mr Chidambaram had claimed that he was the "soul of the TMC and only the body was left in Sathyamoorthy Bhavan (TMC headquarters)." Ridiculing Mr Chidambaram’s "tall claim," Mr Balasubramanian and other leaders said Mr Chidambaram’s soul had already entered the body of the BJP. Besides, for any political party the soul was with the party cadres. Hundred per cent of the party cadres were with the TMC and the decision to suspend Mr Chidambaram was taken with the consent of all the 55 district party units, they said. The TMC leaders said Mr Chidambaram, who had been harping on the lack of assurance from the AIADMK to deliver good governance, had openly declared that he would campaign for the "corrupt, communal and casteist" DMK-led alliance in the state. If Mr Chidambaram thought that a single party rule cannot provide good governance, then why had he not asked for power sharing with the DMK when the TMC allied with it in 1996. "Also, did his conscience not prick when aligning with the DMK then, which was yet to clear the stigma of Sarkarian Commission corruption charges against it by any court." "His main objection to the alliance with the AIADMK was because he had drifted away from the Congress to which he once belonged and the congress was now an ally of the AIADMK," party general secretary Peter Alphonse, MP, said. The TMC leaders said Mr Chidambaram’s exit would have zero impact on the party since no no cadre was with him. It may be recalled that the party had sent a show-cause notice to Mr Chidambaram as to why he should not not be expelled from the party. (UNI) |
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Vajpayee Govt under severe attack from educationists NEW DELHI, Mar 24: The Vajpayee Government has come under a severe attack from historians and educationists for its alleged attempts at saffronisation of education to propagate its ideology of hate and bigoted chauvinism. The experts at a two-day national convention on ‘crisis in education: Safforonisation and marketisation’, which concluded here last evening, also condemned the Government’s efforts to foist Hindutva elements on the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT). Historian R S Sharma, in his keynote address, said the Hindutva attack was not limited to the rewriting of history books. There is a deliberate policy to saffronise the entire system of education as the Bharatiya Janata Party takes it to be the most important vehicle for itsideological thrust. Prof Sharma and some other experts also questioned the UGC’s move to introduce astrology and vedic mathematics as subjects of study in schools and colleges. The NCERT’s controversial document national curriculum framework for school education also came in for criticism with speakers dubbing it as instrument for introducing the sangh ideology in books meants for young students of the country. The speakers also condemned the Ambani Birla report on privatisation of education saying the privatisation of higher education would make education inaccessible to a majority of the people. Among others who participated in the convention, jointly organised by the Indian Social Institute, the Janvadi Sikshak Sangh and National Federation of Indian Women, were historians Prof Gautam Chattopadhyaya, Prof Arjun Dev and Dr Narayani Gupta, political scientist Prof Imtiaz Ahmed, educationist Rajni Kumar and journalist John Dayal. (UNI) |
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