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ASI wants sole NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Hurt by the interim order of the Supreme Court directing Uttar Pradesh police to provide ....more Bhatti
uses satire CHANDIGARH, Feb 6: Master satirist Jaspal Bhatti is at it again, this time poking fun at methods of campaigning adopted by star political parties — the ....more Bagpat still loyal to Chaudhary’s lineage BAGPAT, UTTAR PRADESH, Feb 6: Bagpat, the political cradle of former Prime Minister Charan Singh and a Jat, Gujjar stronghold of western Uttar ...more Digvijay says Uttaranchal Govt has no development plan DEHRA DUN, Feb 6: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh today said that not only had the BJP Government created "political instability" in ......more |
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401 constituencies in LUCKNOW, Feb 6: Only two out of the total 403 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh are free from candidates with a criminal background. ......more India,
Russia discuss NEW DELHI, Feb 6: India today sought Russia’s assistance for comprehensive repair and maintenance facilities in this country for Russian ....more BJP’s Laxmi Kanta Chawla hoping to win for third time in a row AMRITSAR, Feb 6: BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla is hoping to win the prestigious Amritsar central seat for the third time in a row in the Punjab Assembly .....more Record
number of LUCKNOW, Feb 6: A record 42.2 per cent of candidates in the fray for the three-phase up elections this month are independents. .....more |
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ASI wants sole responsibility of protecting Taj Mahal NEW DELHI, Feb 6: Hurt by the interim order of the Supreme Court directing Uttar Pradesh police to provide security to the world heritage monument Taj Mahal to prevent vandalism, the Archaeological Survery of India (ASI) today said protecting the monument was its sole responsibility. The ASI requested a bench of Justice M B Shah and Justice B N Agrawal to direct Uttar Pradesh Government to remove the police post from south-east Verandah of the forecourt of Taj Mahal and all security personnel deployed by them in other protected monuments at Agra and Fatehpur Sikri. Taking suo motu cognisance of a news report about vandalism by BJP’s youth wing inside the Mughal monument in October last year, the court had directed the Uttar Pradesh Government to make proper security arrangements. However, ASI’s counsel A D N Rao today told the bench Agrawal that under the Ancient Monuments and Archaeological Sites and Remains Act, 1958, it was the sole responsibility of ASI to maintain and protect the national and heritage monuments. ASI Director General Kasturi Gupta Menon in her affidavit cited the apex court order of September 4, 1996 which said "it is the statutory duty of the ASI to protect and secure national monuments in the country". She said the court itself had directed as late as November 8 last year that police should remove themselves from the Verandah and warned any police official from using the monument premises for their office purposes. The ASI said it has entered into a memorandum of understanding with the taj group of hotels who would be financing the ASI to prepare a site management plan for all tourist related activities such as facilitation centre, rest room, installation of X-ray machines at three gates to avoid physical frisking and also door frame based metal detectors. Menon, in her affidavit, said pursuant to the november eight directive of the apex court ASI has negotiated with Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which has agreed to take over the task of protecting the monument from April 1 this year. "At present state police has posted 213 personnel but the same job will be done by 160 CISF personnel with not more than 63 of them inside the premises at any point of time," she said. Referring to the misuse of the police personnel of the taj premises, she said that CISF personnel would not be staying inside the monument premises. In view of the new arrangements the Uttar Pradesh Government be directed to remove the police outposts and police personnel from the precincts of Taj Mahal to enable the ASI to take over the protection and management of Taj, she said. (PTI) |
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Bhatti uses satire to bring home his message to voters CHANDIGARH, Feb 6: Master satirist Jaspal Bhatti is at it again, this time poking fun at methods of campaigning adopted by star political parties — the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Congress— for the Punjab Assembly election. "Both these parties have gone so low in their mud-slinging against each other because they are bereft of any genuine issue to highlight in the election," Bhatti told PTI here today. While on one hand Punjab Congress has resorted to mud-slinging against Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family, the latter has chosen to drag them to court for teaching a lesson. Bhatti, who organised a street play "mud-slinging match" here yesterday, himself acted as the Election Commissioner and chose two other characters, who acted as Badal and Amarinder. "It would have been better if Badal and Amarinder rather than adopting mud-slinging methods of character assassination against each other, had come out on a common platform, say like television, and openly debated the vital issues concerning the state before the public", the film and television personality said. In his role as EC, Bhatti inaugurated an opium and liquor stall. "Such intoxicants are necessary as in their absence no voter in a sober frame of mind would vote for them," he said. On being asked if his street plays would have any impact on the way the people vote, he said "the aim of artistes like us is not only to entertain people, but send a message across through our plays that they should rationalise, analyse and judiciously use their votes as that will decide the future of Punjab." He said he hoped in the next a few years more and more educated and young people would join politics and change the way things appear now. "Generally, common people are staying away from politics because they cannot afford to spend huge sums of money that are involved in electioneering. But I hope things will change and we will have more young and fresh faces, who can put in their best to improve things," he said. On any new projects in hand, Bhatti said he would be acting in a Hindi serial and a film. "I am flying to Mumbai tomorrow to act in a Hindi film, with a star cast which includes Shahrukh Khan, Karishma, Sanjay and Shakti Kapoor and Nana Patekar", he said. (PTI) |
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Bagpat still loyal to Chaudhary’s lineage BAGPAT, UTTAR PRADESH, Feb 6: Bagpat, the political cradle of former Prime Minister Charan Singh and a Jat, Gujjar stronghold of western Uttar Pradesh, continues to patronise the lineage of the late ‘Chaudhary’ with his son Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh ruling the roost. People avowedly support the Rastriya Lok Dal headed by Ajit Singh and all the four candidates (three of the RLD and one of its ally BJP) supported by it stand to win hands down in the coming State Assembly polls later this month. Of the four Assembly constituencies in bagpat parliamentary constituency, from where by Mr Ajit Singh is an MP, three are presently represented by the RLD in the State Assembly and one by the BJP. The scene here seems to have hotted up this time with the fielding of four candidates in Khekra. Bagpat, Barwana and Chhaprauli constituencies by the Indian National Lok Dal headed by Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala. Of the ten candidates in the fray for the Bagpat Assembly seat, which include the sitting MLA and former State Minister Kokar Hamid (RLD), Anil Gupta of the Samajwadi Party, Rajendra Sharma of the Congress, Sahib Singh of the BSP and Sushil Chaudhury of the INLD, several others are trying their luck with the 2,44,849 voters there of which 1,38,588 are males and 1,06,261 females. The Rashtriya Parivartan Dal of D P Yadav has also put up its candidate. In Khekra, where 14 candidates are in the fray, the contest is even more interesting as Madan Bhaiya, against whom 58 criminal cases are pending, is contesting as an independent candidate after being denied a ticket by the Samajwadi Party. His campaign was being carried out by his mother and wife, as he has alleged that ‘his life was under threat by the SP and the BJP’, in a complaint to the Election Commission. His presence is definitely eating into the vote bank of the sitting BJP candidate roop chaudhury and others in the constituency where Gujjars and other backward communities dominate, if the local grapewine is to be believed. (UNI) |
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BJP’s Laxmi Kanta Chawla hoping to win for third time in a row AMRITSAR, Feb 6: BJP leader Laxmi Kanta Chawla is hoping to win the prestigious Amritsar central seat for the third time in a row in the Punjab Assembly elections even as her nearest rival, Darbari Lal of the Congress, who has lost twice, hopes to reverse his fortunes. Chawla, who was given party ticket against the wishes of some of her own party colleagues, is making all out efforts to retain the seat and prove her critics wrong. Though many local leaders of the BJP were not in favour of Chawla, a confident-looking Chawla maintains that "people in my constituency are more associated with me than the party I represent as I have always stood for their cause. Moreover, ours is a highly disciplined party and anyone violating the party norms would attract stern disciplinary action". Chawla, is reported to be one of the few MLAs who openly attacked terrorism during the height of militancy in Punjab. She fought for getting relief for the terrorist affected families in the form of compensations, pensions and jobs. Her concern for those affected by the menace brought her closer to the masses at the grassroot level. Chawla, is widely known for pursuing people-friendly policies. Though her contender Darbari Lal has not latched on to any strong issue to woo the voters, however, political observers have not ruled out a close contest. Chawla has been retaining her seat since 1992. In 1992, she had polled 22296 votes and Darbari Lal had polled 18198 votes. While chawla improved her performance and polled 27070 votes in the 1997 election, Darbari Lal went further down and polled just 12487 votes. Darbari Lal admitted that it would be a tough fight to defeat Chawla, but hoped to reverse his fortune this time. "No doubt, I was defeated at her hands twice, but this time I am sure to change the tides in my favour," he said and claimed that "many disgruntled elements in the BJP clandestinely working against the party are likely to cause a jolt to its own candidate". (PTI) |
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Record number of independent candidates in UP election LUCKNOW, Feb 6: A record 42.2 per cent of candidates in the fray for the three-phase up elections this month are independents. According to the final official figures there are 2,351 independents among a total 5533 candidates contesting from the 403 seats going to polls this month in the state. Of the 2,351 independent candidates nearly 98 per cent are first timers. The Shikohabad seat has the distinction of having the highest number of independents-20, among the 29 candidates there including nine of political parties in the fray forcing the election commission to instal two electronic voting machines as one EVM can accommodate only 16 candidates. In Dadraula Assembly seat there are 26 candidates of which 19 are independents and the remaining seven from the mainstream parties. There are several such seats where the number of independent candidates exceed regular party candidates including Mahrauni (16), Lalitpur (14), Jaisinghpur (14) and Afzalgarh, Moradabad, Thakurdwara, Bilaspur, Pilibhat, Nigohi, Unnao, Malihabad with 12 candidates each. According to political sources the possibility of a hung assembly and displeasure either with political party’s bias on caste or community lines or family hold over party matters in the contituencies has driven several cadres to fight the elections as independents. Of these, a large chunk, who were either rejected by their party or left out due to severe competition among "winnable" candidates, are now contesting as rebels or independents. In the post-poll scenario and in the event of a hung Assembly the independents are likely to play an important role either collectively or independently. During the 1996 Assembly elections in UP before Uttranchal was created there were 2035 independent candidates among the total of 4429 candidates who were in the fray for the 421 seats. Among them only 13 candidates were elected to the Assembly. However, they garnered six per cent votes totalling 36.20 lakh votes- a sizeable number of voters expressing their choice in favour of the independent candidates. (UNI) |
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