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Cottonians take forward century and-a-half old musical legacy SHIMLA, Dec 3: The hills were alive once again with the sound of music. The century-old holy Trinity Chapel in this hill town reverberated with......more Death-toll in HP bus accident rises to 34 CHAMBA, Dec 3: With three more people succumbing to their injuries, the death-toll in yesterday’s Himachal Road Transport Corporation bus accident, .....more Venkaiah urges Cong to accept CBI probe into ‘mother of all scams’ CHENNAI, Dec 3: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president M Venkaiah Naidu today urged the Congress to support a ...more Revival of AWACS programme on cards BANGALORE, Dec 3: India is in the process of reviving the programme to indigenously develop the ...more |
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Jagdalpur prison JAGDALPUR, BASTAR, Dec 3: The Jagdalpur-based central prison has emerged as one of the ideal prisons in the country, thanks to the ...more Jaya
speaks up for CHENNAI, Dec 3: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today urged Prime Minister A B Vajpayee to take immediate steps to secure the release ....more Cong
loses, Nagpur MUMBAI, Dec 3: Factionalism within the Mumbai Congress took its toll with the party failing to retain the Mumbai local self-governing bodies’ seats in the .....more BHOPAL, Dec 3: Counting of votes polled on December 1 will be held tomorrow to decide the electoral fate of the 2,171 candidates for the 230-member......more |
Cottonians take forward century and-a-half old musical legacy SHIMLA, Dec 3: The hills were alive once again with the sound of music. The century-old holy Trinity Chapel in this hill town reverberated with traditional melodies sung by more than 100 children carrying forward the legacy of a 144-year-old festival at one of the oldest residential schools in Asia. Celebrated over the weekend, the Carol festival of Bishop Cotton School (BCS) is a grand century plus old tradition as a yearly thanksgiving and remembrance of the highlights of the year gone by as well as a look at the year ahead. The festival began with a multi-dimensional ceremony at the beautifully restored school Chapel followed by singing of traditional carols and readings, almost a month before christmas as the school closes for vacations after the festival. "The Carol festival is unique to BCS Shimla where we ring out the old and ring in the new at the end of the term. It is solemn and it is fun and is a very good example of what this school is about with its simultaneous emphasis on continuity and change," said Headmaster of Bishop Cotton School, Kabir Mustafi. "It evolved from the mid-nineteenth century traditional Carol service. Till the 1950s, it was very anglicised. However, along with upholding the traditional spirit of the service, every year, something new is added to the festival. Over the years, we have introduced new music and musical instruments and have been constantly innovating the festival keeping intact its underlying spirit and message," he told UNI. More than 100 children participated in the service, under the direction of Choir master and trainer Elizabeth Gupta. During the two-day extravaganza, students, staff and the congregation lent their voices to uphold the tradition of the school that was founded in 1859 by Bishop George Edward Lynch cotton. The students sang traditional carols along with bhajans and special presentations by the school band, sphinx. This is the first time that the band has been allowed to perform with ‘plugged in’ instruments at the Chapel. The school choir, comprising 50 children from the junior school and 40 children from main school sang in perfect coordination. "We have been practising for almost over a month to prepare ourselves for the carol service, which means a lot to all cottonians," school captain Rahul Godara said. The end of the year Chapel-based festivity also included sitar and piano recitals. Singing in parts was a difficult task, which the children perfected with rigorous music training and practice. The school, which proudly proclaims its rich heritage and tradition, will continue with the traditional carol service at the Chapel, considered the "core of the school." One of the oldest buildings in the school, the Chapel was consecrated in 1866. It was harmed in a fire in 1905 and was redone soon after. It was extended in the 1930s and has been very well maintained, Mr Mustafi said. The other heritage buildings are the headmaster’s lodge and the senior master’s lodge, which were also built in the 1860s, he said, adding that these buildings stand in al their glory and are an inherent part of the school and its history. Many of the buildings and traditions enlighten a century or more, and every cottonian takes pride in carrying on the traditions, passing on the myths, legends and reality, thus preserving the deep-rooted heritage of the school. "However, maintaining such heritage buildings is not an easy task," said the head master, pointing out that approximately 30 lakhs are spent every year in repair and maintenance works. Proudly proclaiming "founded in 1859," the school, established at a time when the idea of the ‘public school’ did not exist in India, is of great interest for the part it played in the development of such schools and the wider history of education in this country. The school looks forward to its 150th anniversary in 2009. (UNI) |
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Death-toll in HP bus accident rises to 34 CHAMBA, Dec 3: With three more people succumbing to their injuries, the death-toll in yesterday’s Himachal Road Transport Corporation bus accident, which fell into the Ravi river at Chaurandoo Nala, near Gehra on the Chamba-Bharmour highway, has risen to 34. These three people died at Chamba zonal hospital late last night. Thirty others, who were injured, were undergoing treatment in the zonal hospital here. Later, two out of them were referred to Tanda Medical Hospital at Dharamshala. Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh today visited here and met the injured and their family members at the zonal hospital. He expressed grief over the accident and sympathies to the bereaved families. Later, talking to media persons at the local circuit house, the Chief Minister sanctioned a relief of Rs 50,000 each to next of kin of the deceased. He said all possible help would be extended to the injured undergoing treatment in the hospital, adding Rs 5000 and above would be given to the injured as per the gravity of the injuries. Mr Singh ordered a high-level inquiry into cause of the accident to be conducted by the Chief General Manager of the HRTC and asked to submit report within 24 hours. He directed the authorities of the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation to improve the condition of Chamba—Bharmour highway. He reiterated his commitment to meet the shortage of doctors in the zonal hospital here as at the moment there were 14 doctors and 8 more doctors would be posted shortly. He announced the setting up of CT scan in the zonal hospital in the near future. The Chief Minister took cognizance of the deteriorating condition of the hospital toilets and laboratories and directed the Public Works Department Authorities to renovate the hospital complex and the lift for convenience of the patients. Excise and Taxation Minister Rangila Ram Rao, Education Minister Asha Kumari, Transport Minister G S Bali and Animal Husbandry Minister Harash Mahajan, among others who accompanied the Chief Minister. Transport Minister G S Bali condoled the death of accident victims and stated that safety measures would be undertaken to ensure safety to the passengers. (UNI) |
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Venkaiah urges Cong to accept CBI probe into ‘mother of all scams’ CHENNAI, Dec 3: Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) president M Venkaiah Naidu today urged the Congress to support a discussion on the multi-crore ‘Telgi scam’ in Parliament and accept for a CBI probe into it, if that party had nothing to hide. Talking to newspersons at the airport here, Mr Naidu, who was leaving for Delhi after calling on DMK president M Karunanidhi, wondered why the Congress was fighting shy for a CBI probe into the fake stamp paper scam, which he described as a "mother of all scams," involving a whopping Rs 30,000 crore. He said the opposition, including the Congress, should come forward to support the stand of the NDA Government for a CBI probe into the scam, which seemed to have underworld and outside connections as well. Criticising the stand taken by the Congress Governments in Maharashtra and Karnataka that they would not handover the scam for a CBI probe, Mr Naidu said the Congress would have no moral right to talk about corruption if they failed to handover the cases to the investigation agency. "The people are not able to understand why the Congress is silent on the issue and they ask whether the party is trying to cover up the matter as they have something to hide. They also ask whether it is a fact that Congress ministers and senior leaders are involved in the scam," Mr Naidu said. Mr Naidu said if the Congress claimed that its hands were clean, the party should come forward to discuss the issue in Parliament. Since the scam was a security-related matter concerning 12 to 14 states and had connections with the underworld, Parliament should discuss the entire episode, he said and reiterated that there were also doubts about outside connections in the matter. "After a thorough discussion in Parliament, we could come to a conclusion whether the CBI should investigate the scam," he suggested. The BJP president ridiculed the Congress for "unnecessarily making a hue and cry" in Parliament that some Union Ministers had committed irregularities in the public sector undertakings. The Central Vigilance Commission had made it clear that it did not name any minister. The newspaper which carried a report to this effect had also withdrawn the news item and expressed regret for the same, but still the Congress, which had no evidence, would not leave the issue, he complained. "It is nothing but a political game plan of the Congress to malign the NDA Government," he said and warned the Congress that it would boomerang on the party. The people were already unhappy with the Congress that it was not allowing Parliament to function, he claimed. On the Judev tape issue, Mr Naidu said the CBI was already inquiring into the issue. "Once the truth comes out, we can think about action." (UNI) |
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Cong loses, Nagpur Mumbai local bodies seat MUMBAI, Dec 3: Factionalism within the Mumbai Congress took its toll with the party failing to retain the Mumbai local self-governing bodies’ seats in the Maharashtra Legislative Council Elections. Shiv Sena’s Arvind Sawant bagged 89 votes while BJP’s Madhu Chavan secured 83 votes. The winning candidate need 77 first preference votes to get elected. There are two seats in the Mumbai local bodies constituency of which the Shiv Sena and the Congress held one seat each. The saffron combine sought to cash in on the factional in-fighting within the Congress party in the city unit as well as in the civic body by deciding to contest the second seat as well. Congress candidate Kammrudin Merchant bagged only 52 votes although the actual strength of the Congress in the civic body is 60. Besides, it was also banking on the support of Samajwadi Party which has ten corporators. Congress had a pre-poll alliance with its ally in the State Government, the NCP. The latter has 13 corporators in the civic body. There are four independents in the Brihan Mumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC). A total of 229 corporators cast their votes in the biennial election which was held on December 1. When contacted, leader of opposition in the civic body, Gunvant Seth described the defeat as "unfortunate" and admitted that Congress corporators had cross voted. "We will investigate how many of our members cross voted and whether our allies had supported our candidate or not," he said. The Congress lost its seat in the Nagpur local bodies constituency to the BJP, as well. In Nagpur, BJP’s Sagar Meghe defeated Avinash Pande of Congress while in Akola-Buldhana-Washim Shiv Sena’s Gopikishan Bajuria was delcared elected. The only solace for the Congress was that the party managed to retain the Ahmednagar local bodies seat Yashwantrao Gadakh retained the seat for the Congress. Samajwadi party candidate Mohsin Hyder, the fourth contestant in fray for the prestigious Mumbai local bodies seat, bagged only one vote. Congress sources said, "we take it for granted that our allies have not supported us. But, at the same time, we will also find out whether only eight or more congress corporators cross voted". Mumbai BJP president Vijaybhai Girkar said his party candidate Madhu Chavan, who is also the state BJP spokesman, had secured 30 more votes. "We thank corporators from all parties who had voted for us," he said. In another setback for the Congress, it lost to the BJP in the Nagpur local bodies elections, where Sagar Meghe, son of veteran NCP leader Datta Meghe was contesting on BJP ticket. MPCC president Ranjit Deshmukh has already said in Nagpur that the NCP had "ditched" the Congress in the election by not voting for party candidate Avinash Pande. Pande secured 71 votes as against Meghe’s 221 and independent candidate Vijay Dangre supported by the Sunil Kedar group , bagged 115 votes. Congress sources said 46 party members had cross-voted in the Nagpur local bodies election. Shiv Sena’s Gopikishan Bajuria won the Akola-Buldhana-Washim local bodies seat defeating Lata Ingole of NCP while Yeshwant Gadakh of Congress retained the Ahmednagar local bodies seat. Congress has already retained Kolhapur and Dhule-Nandurbar local bodies seat while NCP’s Ranjitsinh Mohite-Patil has won the Solapur local bodies seat unopposed. The biennial elections was held to fill in eight vacancies to the two seats in Mumbai local bodies constituency, one each in Nagpur, Solapur, Ahmednagar, Kolhapur, Dhule-Nandurbar and Kola-Washim-Buldhana. (UNI) |
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BHOPAL, Dec 3: Counting of votes polled on December 1 will be held tomorrow to decide the electoral fate of the 2,171 candidates for the 230-member Madhya Pradesh assembly. The State Election Office said counting will commence at 0800 Hrs at all the centres in 45 district headquarters with results expected by late afternoon. An estimated record 66.86 per cent voters of the more than 37.8 million electorate in Madhya Pradesh exercised their franchise amid violence in which four people were killed and several injured. Repolling, ordered in 73 polling booths of the total 42,267 stations, is being held today. Among the main contestants are Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, who is seeking his second reelection from Raghogarh, BJP Chief Ministerial candidate Uma Bharti, contesting her first assembly election from Malhara and assembly speaker Srinivas Tiwari, who has represented his constituency Mangawa seven times, besides others. The Congress has fielded 229 candidates and left one seat for the Republican Party of India. The BJP has put up nominees in all the 230 constituencies. The BSP has 157 aspirants in the fray while the Samajwadi Party has 161 candidates and the NCP 105. Besides the 878 independents, 58 candidates were contesting on Rashtriya Samanta Dal ticket. The JD (U) has 36 candidates, the CPI 17 and the CPI(M) nine in the fray. Police said four people, including a woman, were killed and several injured in separate incidents in dacoit-infested bhind district. Curfew was clamped on the Chatripur Police Station area in the Dargha constituency of Indore district when members of two communities clashed and resorted to arson in the evening. However, the Election Commission said the incidents reported were not polling-related and the balloting for electing representatives for the 12th assembly was peaceful. The highest — 77.30 per cent — turnout was recorded in Bhalaghat district’s Varasiwni constituency, while the lowest was 43.30 per cent in Gohad constituency of Bhind district, where polling was marred by violent clashes, the Commission said. In the 1998 elections, an estimated 60.21 polling was registered. Elaborate security arrangements were put in place with special arrangements in 11,859 sensitive stations. More than 1,00,000 security personnel have been deployed to maintain the law and order. The ruling Congress had 127 legislators in the present assembly while the BJP had 82. The BSP and the SP are both hopeful of increasing their tally of four each. The independents have seven seats in the house while the remaining six seats were held by others. The other key contestants are Deputy Chief Ministers Jamuna Devi (Kukshi) and Subhash Yadav (Kasrawad), and his Deputy Speaker Ishwardas Rohini (Jabalpur cantt). The BJP had pitted its general secretary and MP Shivrajsinh Chauhan from Raghogarh against the Chief Minister. Leader of opposition in the state assembly Babulal Gaur is contesting from Govindpura for the eighth consecutive time, which will be a record. State Congress chief Radhakishan Malviya’s son Rajendra (Sanwer), state BJP president Kailash Joshi’s son Deepak (Bagli), senior Congress leader Arjun Singh’s son Ajay (Churhat) and veteran BJP leader Sunderlal Patwa’s nephew Surendra (Bhojpur) are also in the fray. Former Chief Minister Govind Narayan Singh’s son Harsh is contesting as a Samanta Dal candidate from Rampur Baghelan, another ex-Chief Minister Virendra Sakhlecha’s son Om Prakash is the BJP aspirant from Jawad and former assembly Speaker Brij Mohan Mishra’s daughter Archana Chitnis is being fielded by the BJP from Nepanagar. Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s nephew Anup Mishra (Lashkar-east), Congress spokesman and MP Satyabrata Chaturvedi’s son Nitin (Chandla) and Ms Bharti’s brother Swami Lodhi (Pichhor) are also in the fray. (UNI) Broadcasting Regulatory Authority being considered: Prasad NEW DELHI, Dec 3: Government said today it was planning to set up a Broadcasting Regulatory Authority comprising experts from several fields like literature, media and performing arts to frame and enforce guidelines on television and radio content. Speaking at the consultative committee meeting of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad said "in order to frame and enforce regulating guidelines from time to time for the cotent on TV and radio, the Government is considering setting up a Broadcasting Regulatory Authority comprising experts including those from fields like literature performing art, media, culture, films, management and law". Prasad said Government was committed to encourage broadcasters to exercise self-regulation in airing content on television but they should be more cautious on the issue. As per an official statement, the minister said "the television medium, on its part, has to be more cautious while adhering to self-regulation," while pointing out that "desirable" level was not being maintained. He said the ministry has received a number of complaints from various NGOs and women commissions regarding "indecent portrayal of women, violence and surrogate advertisements being telecast on various channels". Members of Parliament who attended today’s meeting include Hannan Mohan, Ajay Maroo, a a Shaheen, Pritish Nandy, E M Sudarshana Natchiappan and Balkavi Bairagi. Participating members all expressed serious concern at the growing vulgarity in music videos, films promos and Surogate advertisements on television, the statement said. "They were of the opinion that many television programmes were not fit for family viewing," it said adding a contrary view was also expressed that channels should strive for self regulation. It said members pointed out that with over 100 TV channels showing programmes in India and more than four crore cable TV homes, the Government should strengthen its monitoring network to keep "an eye on what all was being shown to the people at large". Concern was also expressed on the pitiable portrayal of women in entertainment programmes, which was creating an impression that efforts were not being made to empower women, the statement added. (PTI) Shabbir confident PM would respond to Musharraf statement on PoK SRINAGAR, Dec 3: Senior separatist leader, Shabbir Shah today expressed confidence that Prime Minister, Atal Bihari Vajpayee would respond positively to Pakistan President, Gen Pervez Musharraf’s statement that Islamabad was ready to withdraw troops from Pak-occupied Kashmir provided India withdrew forces from Jammu and Kashmir. The separatist leader in a statement described the Pakistan suggestion as a positive steps towards resolving the Kashmir issue and said Vajpayee would act as a statesman and show far-sightedness in responding to it. Shah who heads the J&K Democratic Freedom Party said that the fast changing developments in the sub-continent aprticularly relations between India and Pakistan pose a challenge to Kashmiri separatist leadership which is presently divided. If the separatist leadership fails to unite at this crucial stage,history will nver forgive it, Shah said adding the need of the hour was to unite and isolate the anti-movement people. He appealed to the international community to discharge its duties and help in further improving relations between India and Pakistan and force them to resolve the Kashmir issue to guarantee ever-lasting peace in the south Asia region. Meanwhile, opposition National Conference also welcomed the resumption of air link between India and Pakistan. "We pray for further strenghtening of ties between the two countries so that people of Jammu and Kashmir get an opportunity to live in peace," National Conference president and MP Omar Abdullah said. He said his party was all along in favour of better relations between the two countries. The NC general secretary, Sheikh Nazir Ahmad also welcomed the resumption of air links between India and Pakistan saying the founder leader of the party Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah throughout his life worked for Indo-Pak friendship. He expressed the hope that the two countries would be able to resolve all bilateral issues including Kashmir so that the on-going bloodshed comes to an end and people of the two countries live like brothers and sisters. (PTI) Surmounting superstitions in anti-HIV/AIDS campaigns PANAJI, Dec 3: For Jayadevi Swamy, a field publicity officer it was a herculean task to win over the superstitious people of Malelgao’s Ramjanpura area of Maharashtra’s Nashik district. Her team initially could not even venture to organise film shows as part of the Central Government’s campaign against HIV/AIDS and poliomylitis in the area inhabited by workforce of the adjoining powerloom industries. For most of those living in the dirty and dingly lanes and by-lanes, polio vaccine meant inviting "impotency" for their kids. They had been mired in superstition. Her team, however, prevailed upon them resulting in most of the children getting the polio vaccine. They could now screen the films showing the themes of national integration, awareness of HIV/AIDS and other health related issues unlike before. Thanks to its sustained persuation and strategy of convincing the ‘mohalla’ elders, ‘mullahs’ and ‘anganwadi’ workers of urban health centre helped the team entered the localities to convince the people on the need for health awareness. "But one thing still remained unsolved. The elders opposed showing anti-AIDS/HIV films to boys and girls together. They favoured screening them separately. Our efforts to go to the masses and win them over continue unabated," Mrs Jayadevi told UNI. She was one among the 100 odd field publicity officers from Maharashtra, Gujarat and Goa who had gathered here recently to discuss the field problems and devise strategies to intensify the national campaign on different themes as enunciated by the Directorate of Field Pubicity (DFP) under the Union Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. The officers also expressed their concern over the non-release of funds on time and the lack of adequate staff and vehicles to go to rural areas to carry out the scheduled field publicity missions to achieve targets. "The officers resolved to screen ten film exhibitions and oral communication campaigns on AIDS/HIV per unit per month till March 2004 besides launching special programmes on highways to target the drivers", according to J R M Pawar, Joint Director, DFP, Pune. Maharashtra alone accounted for a total of 1670 deaths owing to AIDS including 1214 men and 171 women since august 1986 while 18,816 people including 13872 men had been infected. Mumbai alone accounts for 8145 HIV cases and 664 deaths with the red light areas contributing the most to the tally. Goa was also not lagging behind with as many as 6128 cases of AIDS infection detected. The latest number of hiv positive cases were 999 in 2002 and 709 till September this year, according to G K Pai, Goa’s Field Publicity Officer. "Significant contribution to the HIV and AIDS count was made by the notorious Baina red light area in the Vasco-Da-Gama abutting the Mormugao port, leave along an alarmingly rising number of other Sexually Transmitted Diseases(STD)", Mr Pai said. Interestingly, some of the enterprising officers visited the red light area and tried to find out the reasons why most of the prostitutes from Andhra Praesh had been lured into the flesh trade. (UNI) Pollsters make hay despite past failures NEW DELHI, Dec 3: The electronic voting machines will declare the winners tomorrow, but pollsters made hay during the current assembly elections despite glaring failures in the past in the absence of any credible barometer of public opinion. Even as most exit polls and surveys predict a comeback for the Congress in Delhi and power slipping from the hands of Digvijay Singh in Madhya Pradesh and a close contest in Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh, the glaring failure in poll predictions in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal just two years ago have once again put a question mark on the accuracy of results this time. "Most of them are nothing more than commercial talk shops that have to cater to filling time and space in 24 hour news channels," says Communications Expert Dr N Bhaskar Rao, Chairman of the Centre for Media Studies, attributing the failure in poll predictions to lack of scientific approach in conducting the exercise in many cases. Many a psephologist admit to having made mistakes in the past but are quick to add that they have factored contentious issues and have steered clear of making sweeping predictions this time. Many of the predictions in the past have gone wrong in terms of seat predictions, admits psephologist G V L Narasimha Rao of DRS observing that poll surveys and forecasts are a great challenge in India where a lot of issues, like local governance and caste have to be factored in. Compared to the 80’s pollsters have matured and they consider these issues while choosing their samples and reaching conclusions, he says. Many pollsters this time have adopted a cautious line of approach and predicted trends instead of making seat projections in difficult states, he added. In Chhattisgarh, for example, "it’s too close to call in terms of vote percentages for parties" and most pollsters have not made seat projections, says Rao. "We don’t want to be seen as foolish and explain after the results what went wrong." According to Bhaskar Rao, in many of the pollster discussions that were telecast on various channels they looked like "discussions out of nothing" as many psephologists explained the issues that mattered in the particular constituency and which of the parties enjoyed an advantage there. Quantification was drastically down compared to the past, observed a political analyst even as Rao conceded "pollsters have been cautious in predicting extremely close races this time." (PTI) |
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