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President gives away NEW DELHI, May 27: President K R Narayanan today gave away the National Awards....more
TDP for amendment barring foreign origin person to hold high office HYDERABAD, May 27: The Telugu Desam today joined other parties in making a strident demand for....more
BANGALORE, May 27: The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite, IRS-P4 (oceansat) launched yesterday by Polar...more |
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Rich tributes paid ALLAHABAD, May 27: People from all walks of life, including intellectuals, advocates and political leaders..more
Elephant population BARIPADA (ORISSA), May 27: The elephant population in the Kuldiha Wild Life Sanctuary has gone up from 31 in 1994....more 10 country-made VIJAYAWADA, May 27: Four police personnel, including a sub-inspector, escaped unhurt when a group....more Pak artistes to sing NEW DELHI, May 27: At a time when Indo-Pak ties have a hit a new low with Indian air strikes on..more Varying number of NEW DELHI, May 27: The Supreme Court has ruled that reduction in the number of vacancies in...more |
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President gives away Child Welfare Awards NEW DELHI, May 27: President K R Narayanan today gave away the National Awards for Child Welfare for 1998 to five institutions and three individuals. The award, instituted in 1979 by the Department of Women and Child Development with a view to recognise efforts of voluntary agencies working for the cause of children, carries a cash component of Rs two lakh each and a citation for the institutions and Rs 50,000 each and a citation for each individual. Minister of State for Women and Child Development and Youth Affairs and Sports Uma Bharti said the development of a child was very important for the country’s future. She said the programmes being undertaken by the Government, should be enhanced to the highest institutions levels for the benefit of the children. Among the institutions awarded today were Kerala-based SoS Children’s Village and Calcutta’s Muslim Prphanage. The three individuals who were awarded were Ms Shila Barun, president of the Kasturba Gandhi National Memorial Trust, from Delhi, Ms Brijbala Nirbheek General secretary of the Madhu Smriti Sansthan from Rangbhadi in Rajasthan and Ms Champa Bahin, a social worker from Sagar in Madhya Pradesh. (UNI) |
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TDP
for amendment barring foreign origin HYDERABAD, May 27: The Telugu Desam today joined other parties in making a strident demand for a constitutional amendment to bar persons of foreign origin from occupying high public offices, including Prime Minister’s post. The demand was voiced in a resolution moved at party’s biennial general body meeting "Mahanaadu" here and in the presidential address of its leader and Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu. "It is not just a question of merely a constitutional amendment, but it struck at the very roots of issues like self-respect and prestige of the country", the resolution said citing several European and other countries including Italy where a person other than natural born citizen is barred from occupying high posts. In his 90-minute speech, Naidu said it was a question of national pride and patriotism and recalled that his party was itself founded on the issue of "Atma Gouravam" (self-respect) by late N T Rama Rao. The TDP, which may have to face simultaneous elections to Lok Sabha and Assembly later this year, has chosen to make Sonia Gandhi’s foreign origin as a poll issue with Congress planning to counter it with "misrule and high-tech corruption" of the Naidu Government. The ruling party has been strident in its criticism of the foreign origin issue, having raised it in the 1998 polls too. Addressing the delegates’ session as part of the two-day conference, Naidu kept his cards on the issue of alliance with BJP for the coming elections close to his chest, merely saying the polls would produce a "non-Congress coalition that will have majority and provide a stable Government". Justifying his party’s outside support to BJP-led Government, he said the TDP had only supported the national agenda of the Vajpayee Government. Accusing the Congress of destabilising every non-Congress Government in its "lust for power", Naidu said Congress should squarely own responsibility for the fall of Vajpayee Government and "thrusting" another election on the country. After attending the tea party of AIADMK leader Jayalalitha, who triggered the vote of confidence in Lok Sabha, the Congress continued to pretend that it had no role in the Government’s defeat, he said. Naidu said the Congress favoured political instability at the Centre so that it could fish in troubled waters and try to capture power through backdoor. He said that Gandhi had shown "tearing hurry" to capture power when she went to the president claiming the support of 272 MPs and finally could show only 230 MPs in her favour. (PTI) |
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BANGALORE, May 27: The Indian Remote Sensing Satellite, IRS-P4 (oceansat) launched yesterday by Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) is working normally, according to Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) here. The hold down and tilt mechanisms for the Ocean Colour Monitor (OCM) on board were released during its 15th orbit at 1100 hours today by issuing telecommands from the spacecraft control centre of ISRO telemetry tracking and command network (ISTRAC) here, ISRO said. The tilt mechanisms enable OCM instrument to be directed in such a way as to avoid sun glint during data collection over the oceans, ISRO said in a statement. In the satellites’s 16th orbit, Multi-frequency Scanning Microwave Radiometer (MSMR) had also been tested by switching on the instrument at 1240 hours and preliminary data collected at the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA), at Hyderabad, indicate normal performance, ISRO said. The two sun-tracking solar panels of IRS-P4, which generate electrical power for the satellite, were automatically deployed by an on-board sequencer immediately after its injection into orbit yesterday, it was stated. IRS-P4 was being monitored and controlled by ISTRAC stations located at Bangalore, Sriharikota, Lucknow, Mauritius Bearslake in Russia and Biak in Indonesia. Another station at Wilhem in Germany was providing support for the initial phase of the mission. ISRO said during the next few days, OCM would also be tested out and in about ten days, IRS-P4 would start sending data from its two payloads. Meanwhile, first signals from the German DLR-Tubsat were received by University of Berlin during its second orbit about three hours after its injection into orbit by PSLV-C2. The first signals from the Korean Kitsat-3 were also acquired by the Korean station during its fifth orbit as expected and the satellite was also functioning normally. Kitsat-3 and DLR-Tubsat were launched by India’s PSLV-C2 along with IRS-P4 into a 727 km polar sunsynchronous orbit yesterday from ISRO’s Shar Centre at Sriharikota. (PTI) |
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Rich tributes paid to Pt Nehru ALLAHABAD, May 27: People from all walks of life, including intellectuals, advocates and political leaders, today paid rich tributes to the first Prime Minister and "apostle of peace", Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, on his 35th death anniversary here. A large number of people gathered at Anand Bhawan, the ancestral home of Nehrus, and paid tributes by garlanding the portrait of Pandit Nehru. An all religion meeting was also held at Anand Bhawan premises where religious hymns were recited. Recalling the contribution of Nehru in nation-building, UP Nagarik Sangh president Sunit Vyas said at a meeting Pandit Nehru always worked for national integration, communal harmony and unity among all sections of the society. Among those who paid tributes to Nehru were district Congress president Ashok Kumar Vajpayee, city Congress president Ram Krishna Srivasta, UP Mahila Congress president Dr Ranjana Bajpai, ex-minister Ram Pujan Patel and Shekhar Bahuguna. (PTI) |
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Elephant population goes up in Kuldiha Sanctuary BARIPADA (ORISSA), May 27: The elephant population in the Kuldiha Wild Life Sanctuary has gone up from 31 in 1994 to 41 this year, a recent census has revealed. Forest Department sources said here yesterday that following a three-day elephant census, which used direct sighting for its data collection and covered 273 square kilometers of the Kuldiha Sanctuary, 41 pachyderms were found in the park. The Kuldiha reserved forest in Balasore district, which was declared as a wild life sanctuary in January 1984, had harboured 31 elephants during the last census conducted in 1994. Migration of pachyderms from their adjoining ‘home range’ could be one of the possible reasons for increase in the population besides breeding of adult cow elephants, they said. Meanwhile, a herd of 47 elephants that migrated from dalma sanctuary in Bihar and entered the Simlipal national park in February last is being regularly sighted in the park. Park officials said the herd feels quite at home in Simlipal and is in no mood to leave the park which has abundant green fodder and water. During the last three months’ of their sojourn in Simlipal, the dalma elephants were being frequently sighted at different places of the park. Tiger reserve trackers sighted the herd in Nawana range of the park during the recent headcounting of the pachyderm. (UNI) |
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Pak artistes to sing hymns in capital NEW DELHI, May 27: At a time when Indo-Pak ties have a hit a new low with Indian air strikes on Pakistan-backed infiltrators, Pakistani artistes Shafqat and Sharafat Ali Khan will lead a group of singers from both sides of the border in spreading the message of secularism contained in the Sikh holy book ‘The dasam granth’. The two sons of legendary singer Ustad Salamat Ali Khan will render hymns from the ‘dasam granth’ at a special programme at the capital’s Siri Fort auditorium on May 29 along with leading vocalists like the Singh Bandhu duo, Ahmed and Mohammed Hussain and Rajan and Sajan Mishra accompanied by an audio-visual presentation. The evening of devotional hymns, aimed at taking to all people the message of secularism contained in the ‘dasam granth’, will for the first time bring together singers of different religions singing the holy scriptures on a public platform outside a gurdwara, Bhupindar Singh, Chief Executive of Organisers Sarthak Music World (SMW), told newspersons. Other singers who will participate in the programme are Ajay Chakraborty, Jatinder Dogra, Ghulam Mustafa and Ragi Bhai Amrik Singh, he said. Similar programmes, all supported by the Department of Culture, will later be held in Calcutta, Nanded, Kanpur and Patna, and separate albums will be brought out on their recording under the SMW label devoted to classical and folk music, Singh said. The Khan brothers had last month become the first Pakistani singers to render Sikh hymns at an Indian gurdwara when they mesmerised devotees at Gurdwara Bangla Sahib here. SMW also has plans to hold programmes of devotional singing at gurdwaras in Pakistan, including Nankana Sahib, on Guru Nanak’s birthday and we will soon make a proposal to the Government on this, Singh said. Incidentally, SMW is soon bringing out a special album of Ustad Salamat Ali Khan based on a recording which the legendary singer has done in India after a gap of 35 years. (PTI) |
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Varying number of vacancies no
prejudice NEW DELHI, May 27: The Supreme Court has ruled that reduction in the number of vacancies in Indian Civil Services from the tentative figure advertised by Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) for the 1998 examination could cause no prejudice to the candidates appearing in it. For the Civil Services Examination, 1998, UPSC in its advertisement had said that approximate number of vacancies would be 740 while clearly stipulating that the number of vacancies would be subject to alteration. However, in March this year after results of the main examination was declared, UPSC fixed the vacancies at 470. As per rules it would call for interview candidates whose number will not exceed double the number of vacancies. Certain candidates approached the Allahabad High Court saying that as per the original advertisement around 1480 candidates would have been called for interview and any curtailment in the number would cause prejudice to the candidates who would have secured rank below 940 in the written test. The High Court had allowed the plea of the petitioners and had directed the UPSC to call 1480 candidates for the interview. Setting aside the High Court order, a division bench of the Apex Court comprising Justice B N Kirpal and Justice S Rajendra Babu said reduction in the number of vacancies would not cause any prejudice to the candidates. (PTI) |
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