|
|
Amendment to provide reservation in promotions: Paswan LONDON, Nov 16: The Centre will amend the constitution, ....more
Media strong enough to evolve own code of conduct: Jaitley NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley .....more No threat to my ministry: Deshmukh NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao ....more Survivors of Bhopal NEW YORK, Nov 16: Survivors and relatives of victims of the .....more |
 |
Advani assured Tripura AGARTALA, Nov 16: Union Home Minister L K Advani has assured Tripura. ......more
Young artists to perform abroad, courtesy Jasraj NEW DELHI, Nov 15: Noted Hindustani classical vocalist Pandit Jasraj ....more Rabri to seek legal opinion on Governor’s decision PATNA, Nov 16: Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi today ....more Over 400 Orissa villages NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Over 400 villages in the cyclone ....more |
 |
Amendment to provide reservation in promotions: Paswan LONDON, Nov 16: The Centre will amend the constitution, if need be, to provide reservation in promotions in Government services, Communications Minister Ram Vilas Paswan has said. Government is concerned over a Supreme Court verdict against reservations in promotions and it will try to seek all-party consensus on the issue, Paswan said answering questions at a reception hosted in his honour at the High Commission here last night. If need be, there will be constitutional amendment, Paswan said adding if the judgement is against the interest of Scheduled Castes it will be rectified. Though the Minister conceded that population explosion was hindering economic progress in the country, he disagreed to a suggestion that the Scheduled Castes population was on the rise. Seeking a national debate on the issue, he said the Scheduled Castes population had gone up from 22.5 per cent to 24.8 percent in the last census because new category of people were included among the Scheduled Castes list. At this rate, it would go up to 26 per cent in the next census, he said. Paswan, who earlier participated in a round table interactive meeting with senior executives of major financial institutions, banks and telecom companies in the UK said there was tremendous response from investors in Britian and United States to invest in the telecommunication sector in India. The round table was organised by the British invisibles, an umbrella organisation of the financial institutions of the city. Sir David Jefferies, British co-chairman of the Indo-British partnership, representatives of the Commonwealth Development Corporation, Department of Trade and Industry and various consultancy organisations attended the meeting. (PTI) |
|
Media strong enough to evolve own code of conduct: Jaitley NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Information and Broadcasting Minister Arun Jaitley today disfavoured imposing any code of conduct on the media saying it was strong enough to develop its own code. I have no doubt that the Indian print and electronic media was strong enough to develop its own code than leave it to any other limb of the state to interfere with, Jaitley told a seminar media and society here organised by the Press Council of India on the occasion of National Press Day. Those irresponsible will be phased out on their own. The press, by and large, knows what to write, he said, adding it would be dangerous to regulate the power of the media as freedom of expression was for the good of the society. Jaitley suggested a debate on right to information, changes in the official secrecy act and limits of immunity to a journalist to protect the identity of sources. Expressing a sense of satisfaction while looking back at the Indian press, he said barring some stray incidents and the days of emergency, it has performed well and freedom of press has acquired a place of pre-eminence among the fundamental rights. He was also glad that press freedom was not curtailed even indirectly through economic measures like excessive taxation. Jaitley said monopoly and free expression cannot co-exist irrespective of private sector or Government monopoly. (PTI) |
|
No threat to my ministry: Deshmukh NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh today dismissed any threat to his Congress-NCP coalition Government on the issue of barring persons of foreign origin from holding high posts. There is absolutely no problem. Both of us (Congress and NCP) have decided to run this Government, he told reporters when asked about the BJP’s plans to bring a non-official resolution on the issue in the Winter session of the State Legislature beginning at Nagpur on Dec 13. He said it was up to the Speaker of the State Assembly to decide whether to admit such a resolution. State Finance Minister and NCP leader Jayant Patil, who also addressed the press conference, said there was no question of any threat to the Government. Asked whether the issue was a subject for the state Assembly, Patil said BJP should bring the issue in Parliament if it was serious about the matter. Ruling out any further pruning of his ministry, Deshmukh said that in a coalition culture, people needed Not only to accept, but digest large ministries. Citing examples of Uttar Pradesh and the Centre, he said ministries there have also become large as all coalition partners had to be accomodated. Deshmukh also declared that his Government would have to take major decisions on the economic front and might have to curtail or discontinue some of the populist schemes floated by the erstwhile Sena-BJP Government like the Shivshah Housing Scheme. (PTI) |
|
Survivors of Bhopal tragedy file class action law suit NEW YORK, Nov 16: Survivors and relatives of victims of the Bhopal gas tragedy have filed a class action law suit in a US federal court charging Union Carbide Corporation with reckless and depraved indiffernce to human life. Union carbide demonstrated a reckless and depraved indifference to human life in the design, operation and maintenance of the Union Carbide of India Ltd. Facility, victims’ attorney Kenneth McCallion said in a statement. This resulted in the devastating leak of massive amounts of Methyl Isocynate (MIC) into the city killing thousands and injuring many thousands of its residents, he added. Thousands of people died after poisonous gas leaked from a Union Carbide Corp. Pesticide plant in Bhopal on December 2, 1984. The suit, filed yesterday in a Manhattan Federal Court, also names corporation’s then Chief Executuve Officer at Warren Anderson as defendant in the case. It charges the defendants with violating international law and fundamental human rights of victims and survivors and seeks unspecified damages. Besides, it demands that the federal court take over the case which was first filed here but then moved to India because of jurisdiction reasons. The complaint also charges that the defendants are liable for fraud and civil contempt for their total failure to comply with the lawful orders of courts of both United States and India. The civil suit filed by the Indian Government was settled for payment of 470 million dollars by Union Carbide but criminal cases are still pending against the defendants. The complaints says the Indian Supreme Court had ruled in October, 1991 that criminal investigation and prosecution of Union Carbide should proceed and that failure to accomplish this would constitute a manifest injustice. Plaintiff’s lawyers say that when the case was moved to India in 1986 where damage were lower than in the United States, the defendants agreed to submit to the jurisdiction of the Indian courts. The complaint alleges that Union Carbide and Anderson violated the ruling by their failure to comply with Indian court orders to appear before them for last seven years. They contend that though the company was a party to all these proceedings, it subsequently refused to comply with all efforts to obtain its appearance for trial by the Bhopal district court. The efforts by the Indian authorities to secure jurisdiction over Union Carbide have proved futile, including service of summons on it through US Department of Justice and Interpol, they say. (PTI) |
|
|
|
Rabri to seek legal opinion on Governor’s decision PATNA, Nov 16: Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi today said she would request Governor Suraj Bhan to furnish the documents that formed the basis for dismissal of a member of her Cabinet, Rakesh Kumar alias Samrat Choudhury, before seeking legal opinion on the matter. I will write a letter to the Governor seeking to know the facts and circumstances that forced the latter to sack Rakesh before taking legal opinion, Rabri Devi told newsmen. Stating that she was not informed by the Governor as to what prompted him to take such an extreme step without taking advice, the Chief Minister said, even when I called on him at Raj Bhavan last evening, no documents were brought forth by the Governor in this connection. Asked whether the Governor’s action was under pressure from any quarters, she said let me have the documents from Raj Bhavan. She said Rakesh’s term as a minister was to expire on November 19, 1999, as he was not a member of either of the state legislature even after six months of his induction into her cabinet. Rabri Devi confirmed that she had received the letter of the Governor in which he had said Rakesh ceases to be a Minister with immediate effect. The Governor, in a 21-page notification, had directed institution of a case of forgery, false declaration and fraud against Rakesh Kumar and recovery of the pay and allowances paid to him during his tenure as Minister. (PTI) |
|
Over 400 Orissa villages still inaccessible NEW DELHI, Nov 16: Over 400 villages in the cyclone ravaged areas of Orissa still remain inaccessible for relief and rescue teams and direction has been given to identify them forthwith, Defence Minister George Fernandes said today. About five per cent of the 8,000 cyclone-hit villages are still inaccessible. Only today I was told that road links were yet to be established with these villages, Fernandes, who heads the special task force for coordinating relief and plan rehabilitation, told reporters. I acted as soon as I was given this information and asked the authorities concerned to identify these villages so that relief and rescue operations could be launched there at the earliest, he said. Fernandes, however, clarified that inaccessibility to five per cent of the affected villages did not mean absence of air-dropping of relief material. What is needed now is to establish road links and open other communication channels with these areas immediately, he said. Asked how many people were feared marooned in these villages, he declined to hazard a guess. He said the death toll could further mount after these areas were accessed. To why the Centre was reluctant to declare the devastation as a national calamity, Fernandes said it was being treated as a national calamity from the very first day and there was no need for any debate over the issue. The whole nation is moved by the devastation. Hundreds of doctors have rushed to Orissa from across the country. Over 500 scavangers have moved in from Mumbai.... Its all a national effort. This is what a national calamity is all about, he said. Asked if there was any plan to impose special calamity tax, he said that may not be necessary. I don’t think we have reached that stage. The priority is still to ensure effective relief and rescue work ... Bodies and carcasses are still floating around. On the State Government’s demand for Rs 10,000 crore Central assistance for rehabilitation and restoration work, the Minister said Rs 650 crore has already been made available. By stating this, we are not quantifying the efforts being made by more than 100 public sector undertakings and other agencies including NGOs. (PTI) |
|
| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports | |
