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BJP not worried about Mamata move to
forge RANCHI, Nov 17: BJP president Kushabhau Thakre said today that his party was not unduly worried about the efforts launched...more Congress ready to THIRUVABANTHAPURAM,
Nov 17: Congress
Working Committee (CWC) member A K Antony today said the
party would not.....more MUMBAI,
Nov 17: Congress
today assailed the foreign policy of the BJP-led
Government as a "total failure".........more BALI (RAJASTHAN), Nov 17: Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is engaged in a proxy war with sitting Congress MP Mitha Lal Jain......more CHENNAI,
Nov 17: A Division
Bench of Madras High Court today upheld the
detention.....more NEW
DELHI, Nov 17: After
allowing it remain on paper for five years, the Bharatiya
Janata Party...........more
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Ministers,
MPs quota in KVs HC stuck down Central Government’s policy NEW DELHI, Nov 17: Delhi High Court today struck down
the scheme of the Central Government for admission to
the.....more DEHRA
DUN, Nov 17: Librarians
of various institutions and organisations have underlined
the need for establishing a library network in the
Doon.......more NEW DELHI, Nov 17: Eco-tourism and ayurveda have been chosen as the focal themes at the India international trade fair......more ASI recommends three CHENNAI,
Nov 17: The
Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) has recommended to
the UNESCO to declare.......more NEW
DELHI, Nov 17: With
the assembly polls nearing, warring BJP leaders Madan Lal
Khurana and Sahib Singh Verma.....more MUMBAI,
Nov 17: Bombay
High Court today directed the State Government to clarify
their stand on whether the editorial written by
Marathi......more BHOJPUR, Nov 17: The "betrayal of trust of voters" is being used by the Congress as a major election issue against........more
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| Congress ready
to accept support from others: Antony THIRUVABANTHAPURAM, Nov 17: Congress Working Committee (CWC) member A K Antony today said the party would not hesitate to accept support from other parties to form an alternative Government in the event of the fall of the BJP-led Government at the Centre. "However, it holds good only when there is an alternative which can function for a reasonable period," he told newspersons here. Stating that Left Parties and Congress cooperating at the national level was a historical necessity, he argued that there was no harm in joining hands with the Communist Party of India (Marxist) at the Centre. There would, however, be no understanding, whatsoever, in Kerala between the two parties, he added. (UNI) |
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| Cong assails
failure of Vajpayee Govt’s foreign policy MUMBAI, Nov 17: Congress today assailed the foreign policy of the BJP-led Government as a "total failure". "The recent statement by US Under Secretary of State Strobe Talbott that India would not be accorded the honour of a nuclear weapons state and release of a list barring 200 Indian entities from business relationships with American companies speaks for total failure of foreign policy", AICC Secretary Manishankar Aiyar said in his Keynote address to a day-long "Shibir" (party conclave) here. The conclave was organised on behalf of the Maharashtra Pradesh Congress Committee (MPCC) by the implementation committee on the eight point Panchmarhi declaration adopted earlier this year. Aiyar said not only had the Vajpayee Government invited unprecedented economic sanctions by conducting nuclear tests, but had also antagonised China and South Africa, a long time ally of India, by unnecessary statements. The Congress spokesperson directed party workers to work for implementing Panchmarhi declaration expressing commitment to strengthen, secularism, socialistic pattern of society, small family norm and promoting welfare of dalits, backward classes and minorities. He lambasted the Sena-BJP Government for rejecting the Srikrishna commission report and felt that "deteriorating law and order situation in Mumbai" could be attributed to the "deep links of ruling parties with the underworld". (PTI) Shekhawat engaged in proxy war with Jain BALI (RAJASTHAN), Nov 17: Rajasthan Chief Minister Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is engaged in a proxy war with sitting Congress MP Mitha Lal Jain in this Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe dominated area of Pali district. Veteran Bharatiya Janata Party leader Bhairon Singh Shekhawat is seeking his tenth term for the Assembly, second successive from Bali, against Congress nominee Ummed Singh Champawat, BJP rebel Amrit Lal Parmer (independent) and two others. If he wins, the Chief Minister will equal the record set by his predecessor late Harideo Joshi of winning ten Assembly elections. Though late Mr Joshi of the Congress had won all ten Assembly elections in a row, Mr Shekhawat tasted defeat once. However, the key player behind the screen, is reportedly the sitting Congress member of Lok Sabha Mittha Lal Jain who before demolishing the stronghold of the ruling party in Pali in the recent Lok Sabha elections had tasted bitter defeat in the hands of the Chief Minister in the 1993 Assembly election in Bali. Mr Jain had defeated former Chief Justice of Guwahati High Court and sitting MP Guman Mal Lodha (BJP) in the February 1998 Lok Sabha polls to wrest the Pali Lok Sabha seat for the Congress after a gap of nine years. But Mr Shekhawat had given him a crushing defeat in Bali in 1993 by winning the seat by a margin of over 10,000 votes. Mr Shekhawat kept the Congress camp guessing till the last day of filing nomination and even before the announcement he tactically filed papers from the Johri Bazar Assembly constituency in Jaipur city. The Congress had cleared the name of Mr Sanuwant Singh as its candidate for Bali but at the eleventh hour the party announced Mr Ummed Singh’s name in place of the former. This will be the third occasion in over four decades long career of Mr Shekhawat when he is seeking re-election from the same constituency. He had entered the State Legislature in the first general election wayback in 1952 by winning the Assembly election from Dataramgarh (Sikar). In 1957 he had won the Srimadhopur seat of the same district and the Kishanpol seat of Jaipur in 1962 and 1967. However, he lost the election in 1972 from Gandhi Nagar (Jaipur) to Mr Janardhan Singh Gehlot of the Congress. Mr Shekhawat went to the Rajya Sabha from Madhya Pradesh in 1974 and became the first non-Congress Chief Minister in the Janata Party Government in the state in 1977. The Bali constituency is not a political constituency as it has so far returned independents on three occasions, Congress nominees four times while the Swatantera Party, Janata Party and Bharatiya Janata Party once each. Of the over 1.25 lakh electorate in the constituency Scheduled Tribes constitute the largest group (over 24,000), Rebari (14,000), Rajputs (13,000), Jains (10,000), Rawana Rajputs (7,000) and Janwa Chaudhary (10,000). Electioneering has so far been on a low note. However, the arrival of AICC President Sonia Gandhi in nearby Pali town on November 13 and immediately followed by BJP leader and Union Home Minister L K Advani’s visit had brought a momentum to campaigning in this tiny town. The BJP has set up a well-oiled machinery to gear up its campaigning by laying special emphasis on achievements of the Shekhawat Government, particularly for the Scheduled Tastes and the Scheduled Tribes. The party campaign managers are confident of making way for the Chief Minister without much of a problem while Mr Shekhawat is himself criss crossing the state campaigning for his party nominees in a helicopter. Local Congress leaders are working extra time to woo the electorate over the sky-rocketting prices of essential commodities. They claim that the BJP Government has failed to deliver the goods to the people at large and the Chief Minister had no time to nurse his constituency. The opposition leaders allege that the BJP’s claim about development work had no basis. Meanwhile, the ruling party leadership has been trying to persuade rebel candidate Amrit Lal Parmer, who had held the seat once in 1990, to retire. Mr Advani during his visit to Bali on Sunday for campaigning had also reportedly tried to contact Mr Parmer who was eluding the BJP leaders and carrying on campaigning. The Congress camp was also equally purturbed with the presence of rebel Congressman Jethu Singh (Ind) who had conceded the seat in 1990 with a narrow margin to Mr Parmer. Though flying high with in a helicopter, the 76-year old Mr Shekhawat will face a tough challenge from the Congress candidate in the constituency. (UNI) CHENNAI, Nov 17: A Division Bench of Madras High Court today upheld the detention of Al Umma leader S A Basha and five others under the National Security Act (NSA) with a view to preventing them from acting in any manner prejudicial to the maintenance of public order. Dismissing the petition filed by Basha and five others, seeking to set aside the order of detention under NSA, the Bench comprising Mr Justice T Jayarama Choutha and Mr Justice A Raman said there was no delay in considering the representations of Basha and the five others by the State and Central Governments, as contended by the petitioners. The representations were considered expeditiously and the decision of the Government was informed to the detenu without undue delay, the Bench said. Referring to their submission that certain documents were not furnished, the Bench said all the documents which were relied upon by the detaining authority had been furnished to the detenu. Documents which were not taken into consideration need not be furnished, it added. According to the prosecution, Basha, a hardcore fundamentalist, with the active assistance of the other accused had set off the serial blasts in Coimbatore on February 14 last to promote or in an attempt to promote ill-will, enmity and disharmony between Hindus and Muslims. Hence the State Government banned "Al Umma" and arrested its leader and members. On behalf of Basha and others, it was submitted that there was inordinate delay by the State and Union Governments in considering and disposing of their representations. On behalf of the State and Union Governments, it was submitted that there was no delay in the disposal of the representations. The State Government received the representations dated March 24 last on March 27 last. They were disposed of on March 29 last and the detenus were informed about it on March 31 last. Similarly, another representation was received on April two last and the remarks were received from sponsoring authority on April six last. It was forwarded to the State Government the same day and the Government disposed of the representation on April 24 last, in between there were 12 holidays and hence there was no delay. However, the Bench set aside the order of detention of Sikkander, secretary of Al Umma, Madurai unit, under NSA and said he should be released forthwith unless detention was otherwise required. The Bench said in this case, the representation dated April 24 last had been received by the Union Government on May 15 last and disposed of only on October 17 last, after a delay of five months. If there was an unexplained delay even for a short period, it may prove fatal, explanations offered by the Union Government could not not be accepted, the Bench added. The very fact that several reminders were sent to the Union Government showed that neither the Union Government nor the State Government was interested in disposing of the representation. (UNI) |
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| Potential CM candidate Patwa looking for
4th win BHOJPUR, Nov 17: The "betrayal of trust of voters" is being used by the Congress as a major election issue against veteran BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa who is seeking a fourth term from this rural constituency of Madhya Pradesh. Congress nominee Vijay Dhakkad accuses Mr Patwa, a former chief minister, of deserting the constituency by resigning from the seat after he was elected to the Lok Sabha in the Chhindwara byelection last year. Mr Patwa, a potential candidate for chief ministership if the BJP comes back to power, had won from here in 1985, 1990 and 1993. The seat is at present held by the BJP whose candidate Ram Kishan Chouhan defeated Mr Bhupat Singh (Congress) by a slender margin of 4,000 votes in the byelection following Mr Patwa’s resignation. The constituency in Raisen district has a 1.6 million electorate, nearly half of them women. Others who are in the fray are Maharishi Mahesh Yogi’s Ajay Bharat party nominee Tara Chand Sahu, Mr Bannulal (Gondwana Gantantra Party), Mr Gangaram Gaur (Apana Dal) and Banshi Lal (Janata Party). Electioneering is gradually picking up in the constituency with Mr Dakkad, a lawyer, embarking on a hectic door-to-door campaign to woo the voters. Mr Patwa is yet to undertake an extensive tour as he is busy with poll campaign in other parts of the state. Both the parties are this time concentrating more in villages. The BJP says development of the constituency is the major poll issue as the Digvijay Singh Government had ignored the region during the last five years. The Congress, however, counter this saying Mr Patwa, being an influential leader, did not show any interest towards development of the region. Local Congress leaders are trying to use this as an issue to drive home the point that Mr Patwa did not have any emotional attachment with the voters of Bhojpur while BJP workers claim that the people are well aware that his victory would mean they could get a Chief Minister. The morale of Congressmen is high as the margin of victory in the last years’ byelection won by the BJP was only 4,000 compared to the 25,000 vote victory of Mr Patwa in 1993. Mr Patwa had then defeated Congress Working Committee member Arjun Singh’s son Ajay Singh in a multi-cornered contest. "The region lagged behind in development during the last one-and-a-half decades," says Mr Mukul Bansal, a corporator of Obaidullahganj and campaign coordinator of the Congress candidate. "Raja Naresh Chandra Singh was Chief Minister just for 13 days. But development in his Sarangarh constituency is much more than that of Bhojpur during Mr Patwa’s 33-month regime," Mr Bansal said. He said his party was also explaining to the people that there was no guarantee of Mr Patwa becoming Chief Minister as the BJP leadership had distanced itself from projecting anyone as its candidate for Chief Ministership. Mr Dhakkad is also banking on caste equations which, his partymen say, could go in his favour. They have also pinned their hopes on Ajay Bharat party and Gondwana Gantantra Party which they feel could cut into the votes of the BJP. The Bahujan Samaj Party, the Janata Dal and the Shiv Sena have not fielded their nominees this time. The Bhojpur constituency was carved out in 1967. Mr Gulab Singh Tamot (Congress) won the first election defeating Mr Ramesh Kumar (independent) and in 1972 he again defeated Mr Kumar, who contested as a Jan Sangh candidate. But the constituency had been lost to the Congress since then. In 1977 Mr Tamot lost to Mr Parab Chand (Janata Party) during the anti-Congress wave. Later in 1980, the BJP’s Shaligram Shrivastav defeated Mr Aslam Sher Khan (Congress). Mr Patwa, who has had a more than four-decade-old stint in state politics, won from here for the first time in 1985 to become a member of the eighth Vidhan Sabha. The Congress had been changing its candidate in all the last six elections in its bid to wrest the seat. It field Mr Raj Kumar Patel in 1990, Mr Ajay Singh in 1993 and Mr Bhupat Singh in the 1997 byelection. Mr Patwa joined electoral politics in 1957 winning the Manasa seat in Mandsaur district. He retained it in 1962 before shifting to Mandsaur which he won in 1977 and became Chief Minister for a short period during the post-emergency period. (UNI) |
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| Ministers, MPs quota in KVs HC stuck down Central Government’s policy NEW DELHI, Nov 17: Delhi High Court today struck down the scheme of the Central Government for admission to the Kendriya Vidyalayas under the Minister and MP quota saying that it was violative of certain provisions of the constitution. A division bench comprising Mr Jusitce R C Lakhoti and Mr Justice C K Mahajan, however, allowed the students admitted under the scheme before August 28, ’98 to continue their studies in the schools. The Court also said those cleared by the admission board till the cut off date will be allowed to take admission. The decision to permit them to continue was taken considering the future and academic career of the students, the Bench observed. The order said the scheme was struck down as it was violative of Art. 14 of the constitution. The Court gave the judgement on the petition filed by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan Employees Union and Centre for Public Interest litigation seeking quashing of the scheme. The quota system, which was earlier suspended was revived by Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi by an order in July. Under the scheme a Union Cabinet Minister could recommend 1000 names, whereas Minister of State and an MP 100 and two names respectively for admission to various Kendriya Vidyalays. The petitioners had maintained that the purpose of establishing Kendriya Vidyalayas for Government employees and those having transferable jobs would be defeated if the scheme continued. Though the scheme was being struck down, the judges allowed those who already been admitted after being cleared by the Kendriya Vidyalaya Board to continue to protect their academic interests. (UNI) |
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| UPLA stresses need for library network in
Doon DEHRA DUN, Nov 17: Librarians of various institutions and organisations have underlined the need for establishing a library network in the Doon Valley to facilitate coordination and exchange of technical know how among the various libraries of the Valley. At a seminar organised by the Dehra Dun branch of the Uttar Pradesh Library Association (UPLA), Lucknow, at the officers’ club of the Oil and Natural Gas Corporation here on November 15, several experts on the subject made presentations. Titled "inter-library loan": Problems and prospects", the seminar was held as part of the "book week" being observed throughout the country, according to Mr Shiv Nandan Pandey, Librarian, Archaeological Survey of India, Dehra Dun. Doon Library Association President M S Rana, who is the librarian at the Wildlife Institute of India, Dehra Dun, said at the meet that the technological revolution had resulted in major changes in the functioning and structure of libraries. He also stressed the need for establishing "Doon Net" to promote exchange of technical information among the libraries in the Valley. Mr S N Pandey of the Archaeological Survey of India highlighted the need for better methods of preserving valuable books in libraries. He also regretted the lack of coordination among the various libraries in Doon. "Bringing about coordination was the greatest challenge before the authorities concerned," he added. Mr Bhagnan Das, ‘Librarian’, Kidmipe, ONGC, who conducted the proceedings of the seminar, talked about the various changes being brought about in libraries to keep pace with the swift advances in information technology. ONGC’s Chief Lirarian Atul Srivastav said that the ONGC had an electronic on-line service which other libraries of the town could avail of. The Uttar Pradesh Library Association was established in 1966. Major activities of the association’s Doon branch are running a certificate course in library science, providing professional training to those already working in libraries and information centres, organising talks by library professionals and providing a common platform for exchange of ideas among library and information professionals. (UNI) |
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