The party also left it to DPCC chief to decide on a candidate to face Delhi Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj from the Hauz Khas constituency in South Delhi.

Former DPCC presidents Chaudhry Prem Singh and Deep Chand Bandhu would contest from Dr Ambedkar Nagar and Wazirpur constituencies, AICC press release said.

The grand old father-figure of city politics Jagpravesh Chandra’s name does not figure in the list following his announcement sometime ago to retire from active politics. His traditional Jangpura constituency has been given to Talvinder Singh Varwa.

Tajdar Babar will contest from Minto road, Kiran Choudhury from Delhi Cannt and Ajay Maken from Rajouri Garden constituencies.

Former Mayor M S Saathi has been fielded from Vishnu Garden while Ramvir Singh Bidhuri, who had switched over to Congress from Janata Dal, has been allotted Badarpur seat.

Television personality Anjali Rai and Krishna Tirath have been given Paharganj and Baljit Nagar (SC) constituencies respectively.

Besides Hauz Khas, the party has left Patel Nagar Assembly seat unallotted. (PTI)

Division Bench directs Govt

HYDERABAD, Nov 6: A Division Bench of the Andhra Pradesh High Court, comprising Mr Justice Motilal B. Naik and Mr Justice J Chalmeshwar, yesterday directed the Union Government to continue on leave Mr Abdul Razak, member of Income Tax Appellate Tribunal, Chennai, and posted the writ petition filed by him to November 16.

In the petition, Mr Razak had contended that he was transferred from Chennai to Guwahati for political reasons as he had failed to satisfy the "Jayalalitha group" in making certain orders.

The petitioner impleaded Union Law Minister M Thambidurai as party to the writ petition.

The petitioner also complained that he has received threatening calls and that the impugned transfer was "malafide, vindictive and punitive". (UNI)

New engineering courses in UP colleges

LUCKNOW, Nov 6: The Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to introduce new courses of chemical engineering, electronics and instruments engineering in the B. tech courses in all engineering colleges of the state.

The courses would be introduced from the next calendar year in view of the growing demand of engineers in these disciplines both in the private and public sector, state’s Higher Education Minister Dr Narendra Singh Gaur said here today.

While a new course in bio-technology engineering would be introduced at the post-graduate level in all the engineering colleges, the Minister said specialised courses in energy systems, manufacturing science and electronics engineering at the post-graduate level, would also be introduced soon. (PTI)

Durai for improving road safety in India

NEW DELHI, Nov 6: Union Surface Transport Minister Dr Thambi Durai today stressed the need for a coordinated effort by all concerned authorities in the road transport sector for improving the road safety in the country.

Inaugurating the international seminar on highway safety management and devices here Dr Durai said highway safety is a burning topic which is receiving continuous attention both in developed and developing countries.

He said the country is now embarking upon an era of rapid road development and road user safety assumes all the more importance. He said infrastructure development creates opportunities for economic growth, which in turn creates more demand for infrastructure. The physical infrastructure and its operation are both crucial to the needs of a growing economy like ours.

The minister said a qualitative improvement in infrastructure would also lead to improvement of safety and reduce loss of human lives. He said similarly in hand the operational front also qualitative improvement should go hand in hand and only then the actual users could be benefited .

He said the national highways constitute the main arterial transport system of the country. The national highway network has grown from 21,440 kilometers at the time of independence to 38,517 km at present.

Dr Durai reaffirmed Government’s resolve to drastically improve the infrastructure in general and road infrastructure in particular. He said Government would provide more funds, both through budgetary and extra budgetary sources for road development.

He said the present Government has increased the allocation of funds to infrastructure sector by about 35 per cent over the last year and for national highways the increase is of around 50 per cent.

Attracting private sector funding, augmenting the Central road fund and levy of cess on petrol and diesel are the other sources of funding, he added.

He disclosed that though private investments have been attracted for small and medium size projects relating to bypasses, bridges and rail over bridges, the development of long four-lane corridors and expressways willneed innovative thinking and approach.

He said our road system is not adequately geared to meet the demands of growth of motor vechines in our country. The number and severity of road accidents in the country has gradually gone up resulting in a loss of about 70,000 human lives and injury to three lakh people every year. The fatality rate is high when compared to developed countries.

Significantly, though national highways form less than two per cent of the road network and carry 40 per cent of the total traffic in the country, its share of fatal accidents is about 35 per cent.

One of the main reasons of road accidents is the combined mobility and access functions on our highways. He said we should consider segregating access traffic and high speed long distance traffic in a bid to reduce the accidents. (UNI)

Film‘ Mahatma’ to expose politicians

NEW DELHI, Nov 6: Fifty years after the country attained Independence and the Mahatma departed for his heavenly abode, a film maker has made a film aimed at exposing those responsible for half a century of mismanagement and corruption: politicians.

Mr Tanvir Ahmed said his feature film Mahatma also attempts to explain the real reasons for the partition of the country and the ‘games politicians play for their selfish ends.’ he said the time had come to expose these selfish rulers and urge the people to wake up to their tricks.

He told a news conference yesterday that films like his would continue to be made ‘so long as politicians create hell in the midst of civilisation, men are degraded, women are ruined and children are afraid, and there is corruption, misery, exploitation, injustice, treachery, illiteracy, ignorance, poverty, greed, hatred and wretchedness.’ the film was an attempt to speak on behalf of brave, unknown and unsung men and women who came to be known as Mahatmas for their extraordinary deeds.

The film, produced and directed by Tanvir Ahmed, stars several new artistes including Gauri Khopkar, Arun Shirodhkar, Sajid, Dimple Ghosh, Shadab Khan and Supriya. The lyricist Shyam Anuragi, music director Anil Mohile, and cameraman Shakeel Ansari are also making their debuts with this film, which tells the story of an innocent civilian who made several sacrifices for his country but decides to take things in hand when he finds that he continues to be exploited. The film is being released with a ‘Ua’ (under parental guidance) certificate later this month.

While denying that he had justified the riots and bomb blasts in Mumbai in 1992-93 as reported in some sections of the press, Mr Ahmed said in reply to a question that seflish politicians had pushed the people to this kind of insanity and violence. He alleged that the so-called development in the last 50 years was only the result of politicians wanting to make commission out of contractors assigned on various developmental projects.

Asked about Gandhi, he said that the Mahatma had only been working on a personal vendetta,because he had been thrown out of a train and otherwise insulted by the whites in South Africa. Questioned whether he was trying to project himself as a martyr, he replied in the negative and said he was only doing his duty.(UNI)

HC adjourns hearing on converting BMP into jail

PATNA, Nov 6: The Patna High Court today adjourned hearing on a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) challenging the Bihar Government’s notification converting the BMP guest house into a camp jail till Thursday (November 12).

A division bench of the court, comprising Chief Justice B M Lal and Justice Shashank Kumar Singh, directed the petitioner to file a supplementary affidavit to update the case.

State Samata Party secretary, Lallan Singh had filed a PIL for quashing the State Government’s notification of July 25, 1997 by which the BNP guest house at Phulwarisharif was notified as camp jail allegedly to facilitate the stay of former Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, accused in the fodder scam, there.

Yadav and another former State Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra are lodged in the BMP guesthouse nw in connection with a conspiracy case pertaining to the fodder scam.

The petitioner had charged that Yadav’s and Mishra’s stay in the guest house was violative of the jail manual. (PTI)

Naryanan: Women’s education final test of progress

CALCUTTA, Nov 6: President K R Narayanan today said the final test for the progress of the country was in ameliorating the lot of women by providing them quality education.

While the country had made ‘tremendous strides’ in women’s education during the first 50 years of independence, the final goal of providing education for all women was yet to be realised, the President said inaugurating the centenary celebrations of Ramakrishna Sarada Mission’s sister Nivedita girls’ school here.

While there were many good schools in the country, not many women have access to them, the President said.

"Society can be reformed only by educating the womenfolk and alleviating their lot. This is the final test for the progress of the country," Narayanan said.

Pointing out that the main ideal behind the Indian renaissance, which began in Bengal, was education and advancement of women, he said one of its doyens, Ishwarchandra Vidyasagar was also a great initiator of women’s education.

Swami Vivekananda (Nivedita’s guru) believed that subjection of India to foreign rule was primarily due to subjugation of her women and denial of education to them, Narayanan said.

Stating that the school started by Sister Nivedita had lighted a lamp a hundred years ago, the President said no school or educational institution could have been more blessed than this inaugurated by Sri Sarada Devi in presence of Swami Vivekananda.

Congratulating the nuns of the Ramakrishna Sarada mission for their dedication in running the school, he said it is marvellous to think that such a school had been in India for the last 100 years.

Reminding the audience of monastics, intellectuals and educationists of Sri Sarada Devi’s benediction that the school produces ‘ideal girls,’ he said the century-old school had Certainly contributed to the cause of women by educating them in classical studies and inculcating in them cultural values of India with a sound scientific training.

With separate sections for industrial training and education of slum children, the school served a major function in alleviating the condition of women in the surrounding areas, he observed.

The school has a hope and it is its heritage. It is the duty of the country to ensure that the school is housed in a modern building so that it serves the cause of women to enable them to contribute to the progress of the society, the President said. (PTI)

Rajasthan electorates always encourage independents

JAIPUR, Nov 6: The electorate in Rajasthan have been fairly encouraging independents in the past ten Assembly elections held so far since 1952.

The Election Department data revealed that the first general election in 1952 itself saw a maximum of 39 independents making their way to the State Assembly while the 1977 Assembly elections, held amid strong Janata Party wave, was the toughest time for independents when a minimum of six independents could return to the sixth house.

In 1952, a total of 308 independents contested the election for 190 member State Assembly capturing 39 seats and 28.05 per cent of total votes polled.

In the 1957, second general election 32 of a total of 325 independents returned victorious in 176 member house bagging highest number of 33.93 per cent of polled votes. In 1962, 22 of 390 independent contestant had won securing 20.88 per cent vote.

In 1967, the total number of independent contestants went up to 436, however, number of winners had gone down to 15 and polling percentage to 16.55.

In the subsequent election in 1972 only eleven of 723 independents made their way to State Assembly reducing their chunk of total polled votes to 17.36 per cent. In 1977 number of seats won (6) and percentage (15.92) of votes secured by independents had also declined further.

In 1980 election, independents by winning 12 seats improved their position slightly. However, percentage of votes secured by them continued to decease further to reach at 13.10 per cent.

In 1985, a total of 977 independents were in the fray and of them nine had won sharing 11.57 per cent of votes polled.

In 1990, number of independent candidates and others was 2498. However, only nine could get the majority electorates mandate from their respective constituencies.

In the last Assembly election in 1993 the independents won 21 seats repeating their better results after 30 years. (UNI)