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HC sets Aug 22 deadline LUCKNOW, July 3 : Rejecting Archaeological Survey of India’s plea for three month extension to complete excavation in Ayodhya, the Lucknow .....more Bank fraud accused deported from Nigeria BANGALORE, July 3: In the first deportation of an Indian from any African country, an accused in Rs 28 crore bank ....more NDA team blames Left for political terror in Bengal NEW DELHI, July 3 : BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who led a four-member NDA team to probe Trinamool Congress’s charges of "political terrorism" by Left....more GUWAHATI, Jul 3: The flood situation in Assam today worsened as two children drowned in Dhemaji and more than five lakh people were affected in 14 districts due to the rising of river Brahmaputra and its tributaries, . .....more |
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Arunachal CM’s ITANAGAR, July 3: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mukut Mithi has appealed to scientists and technologists to apply the tenets of science and .....more Kangra
to lose one SHIMLA, July 3: With the shift in the base from 1991 census to 2001, Kangra district in Himachal Pradesh would lose one Assembly seat, while . ....more Creator of Vandemataram sympathetic to uplift of prostitutes KOLKATA, July 03: A rare Government report submitted in the capacity of a District Magistrate by the 19th . .....more Cong-NCP
rhetoric UTTAN (MAHARASHTRA), July 2: Leader of opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Narayan Rane today said the Nationalist Congress ......more |
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| Doctor, nurse held for selling an
abandoned child ..... Accused in stamp paper case booked under MCOCA ..... Shiv Sena extends olive branch to Dalits .... PVB yet to assess Badal’s property ....
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HC sets Aug 22 deadline for ASI to submit excavation report LUCKNOW, July 3 : Rejecting Archaeological Survey of India’s plea for three month extension to complete excavation in Ayodhya, the Lucknow Bench of Allahabad High Court today granted it five more weeks for the purpose and asked it to submit its final report by August 22. The Bench comprising Justice Sudhir Narain, Justice S R Alam and Justice Bhanwar Singh gave ASI five weeks to complete excavation and two weeks to compile its report. The final report should be submitted on or before August 22, the Court said. It also asked the ASI Dirtector General to depute within three days four Additional Superintending Archaeologists to expedite the excavation work. The Court said there was no need for the ASI to submit progress report and only the views expressed in its final report would be taken into consideration. The Sunni Central Waqf board had objected to the views expressed by ASI in its progress reports submitted to the Court since the excavation started on March 12 accusing it of "working on the diktats of its political masters in Delhi". The board had also objected to ASI’s plea for more time. The Court, however, said holidays and other days when the excavation remained suspended owing to rains, would be excluded from the five week period. The Chief Engineer of the State Public Works Department would have to certify if the excavation work had to be suspended on any day, the Court said. Digging is suspended on Mondays which is a weekly holiday. The Court also directed Faizabad Commissioner, who also is the authorised person of the acquired land, to make necessary arrangements to safeguard the trenches from being flooded in the rains. He has been directed to raise the height of the tents to enable unhindered flow of air and light, provide halogen bulbs at the excavation site and preserve the stones recovered during excavation. (PTI) |
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Bank fraud accused deported from Nigeria BANGALORE, July 3: In the first deportation of an Indian from any African country, an accused in Rs 28 crore bank fraud Karunakaran Vijay was today brought here from Nigeria to face trial in the case. Vijay, accompanied by a team of Nigerian Police, arrived at Mumbai from where they were escorted in a domestic plane here. CBI has charged Vijay with entering into a criminal conspiracy with some bank officials and duping banks in Goa, Bangalore, Chennai and Bhubaneshwar to the tune of Rs 28 crore by securing loan against fake documents. "No problem. I am back here. Don’t worry," Vijay told reporters as he was taken away. He is expected to be produced before a Court for his remand. CBI had last year secured an interpol red corner warrant against Vijay. CBI sources said 54-year-old Vijay, who hailed from Kerala but had made Bangalore home for many years, is facing charges in five cases. He allegedly duped branches of Canara and Corporation Banks in Bangalore, Indian Overseas Bank in Bubaneswar and United Bank of India in Chennai of Rs 25 crore between 1998 and 2000, they said. The cases were registered in 2000 and he was absconding since then, the sources said. Vijay was arrested in Nigeria recently following issuance of a red-corner notice by interpol on CBI’s request. The sources said the fraud was committed in connivance with bank officials. CBI has already charge-sheeted bank officials involved in the case. Vijay served as an agent for banks helping them mobilise NRI funds. He used to get duplicate receipts and based on them, secured loans and also by forging fcnr receipts. The loan amount of Rs 25 crore taken by him might exceed Rs 40 crore now if one included interest, they said. In a brief encounter with reporters, a composed Vijay said he was happy to be back in India and is ready to face cases in Court. Asked if he would plead guilty, he said his advocate would decide. It was for the Court to decide if he was guity or not guilty, he said. CBI is moving the Court later in the day for his remand for interrogation. (PTI) |
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NDA team blames Left for political terror in Bengal NEW DELHI, July 3 : BJP MP Kirit Somaiya, who led a four-member NDA team to probe Trinamool Congress’s charges of "political terrorism" by Left front in West Bengal, today said if violence against political opponents was not checked now, it would affect the next general elections in the State. "If corrective steps are not taken now, political terrorism will continue in the next Lok Sabha elections" and affect the poll outcome, he told reporters after a 30-minute meeting with Deputy Prime minister L K Advani here. Stating that he had informally briefed Advani about the team’s fact-finding mission, he said he would submit the final report of the team to Advani and NDA convenor George Fernandes in a week’s time. "We will also submit the report to the election commission, if the NDA coordination committee wants us to". Referring to the recent Panchayat and local bodies polls in West Bengal, he said it was "unprecedented" that about 5,000 seats "went uncontested and there was no opposition symbol in many of them. The number (of uncontested seats) was between 500 and 1000 in the previous elections". Asked to explain what he meant by "political terrorism", Somaiya said "we received over 200 representations in which ruling Left front activists threatened Trinamool Congress and BJP candidates to withdraw their nominations". "Those who did not withdraw are still being threatened and not allowed to lead normal lives. Many of them were attacked and their houses burnt down," Somaiya alleged, adding it was "most shocking" that opposition activists were feeling threatened even after the election process was over. He alleged that the State Police and administration had not only failed to prevent such incidents but "aligned with the ruling party, posing a threat to democracy". The NDA team had visited some areas of West Bengal after Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee sought Central intervention and complained about Left front’s "animosity" towards its political opponents. She had said Centre could not remain aloof when "democracy is under attack, when opposition candidates are unable to file nominations in large number of seats in the Panchayat elections due to CPI(M)’s terror tactics and when elections are rigged with the help of a section of administration and police". Banerjee demanded Central intervention to "free the State from the State-sponsored terrorism". (PTI) |
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Creator of Vandemataram sympathetic to uplift of prostitutes KOLKATA, July 03: A rare Government report submitted in the capacity of a District Magistrate by the 19th century literary genius of Bengal Bankim Chandra Chattopadhay has established the creator of Vandemataram as one extremely sympathetic to the plight of prostitutes. Bankim Chandra Chattopadhyay had advocated for abolition of prostitution, according to a copy of the judicial report that the novelist had submitted as the Deputy Magistrate of Murshidabad about 130 years ago. The photocopy of the copy is currently on display at an exhibition in the national library here. National Library Director Ramanuj Bhattacharjee said among other exhibits, Bankim Bhavan Gabeshana Kendro at Naihati had given the library the photocopy of Mr Chattopadhyay’s report. Talking to UNI here yesterday, Bankim Bhavan Gabeshana Kendra Director Satyajit Choudhury said they had recovered the report by Mr Chattopadhyay from an archive of the State Government. In his report, the author of Ananda Math did a detailed analysis of social and economic circumstances the drove women to prostitution, Mr Chaudhury said, adding, may be he was the first one to think about ways to bring back the unfortunate women to the social mainstream. Regarding rehabilitation, Mr Chattopadhyay suggested in his report, to lay stress on educating the unfortunate lot. He had observed that forcing them out of the profession was not an effective option, Mr Chaudhury said. The writer also had several other observations about the prostitutes on the basis of religion, Mr Chaudhury informed. Mr Chattopadhyay observed that coming back to the social mainstream for the Hindu women was difficult in those times, unlike their Muslim counterparts, he said. Bankimbabu observed that great majority of the male population of Kolkata, on whose class the prostitutes depended much for their trade, did not prefer to visit the Muslim women. They mostly visited the prostitutes belonging to the Hindu community, Mr Chaudhury said, adding, Muslim women hence could not compete with their Hindu counterparts in the trade. About the reasons that had worked behind the women joining the trade were not much different from that of the present time. Mr Chattopadhyay observed in his report that besides poverty and lack of education, the women were also trapped into the profession. The date of the report is April 19. However, the exact year was not legible. We are trying to decipher portions of the report which had faded in the course of time, Mr Chaudhury said. National Library Staff Association Secretary Saibal Chakraborty said it was a great honour for the library staff to organise such an exhibition displaying works on and by the great author. Besides the Bengali writer’s original novels and several essays and its translated versions into other Indian languages, English and German and Russian, a number of his letters were also on display. (UNI) |
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CHENNAI, July 3: Official work continued to be paralysed today as the indefinite strike by Tamil Nadu Government employees and teachers entered the second day with most of the employees staying away from offices in defiance of Government ultimatum to report to work by today failing which their services would be terminated. Union leaders said the strike was ‘total’ in the State capital and the districts. At the State Secretariat, only over 20 per cent of the 8000 staff reported for duty, despite Government’s threat to suspend the abstaining employees, official sources said. So far over 700 employees had been arrested under ESMA, police said. Top Government officials will meeting here later to review the situation. Hardening its stand, the State Government had yesterday invoked Essential Services Maintenance Act (ESMA) against secretariat staff who abstained from duty and suspended them from service and threatened to book more persons under the act if the striking employees did not report for duty. The employees affiliated to various unions uniting under the banner of federation of Joint Action Council of Teachers Associations and Government Employees Organisations and Confederation of Teachers Organisation and Government Employees Associations, have gone on the strike demanding restoration of curtailed benefits. Government has decided to recruit temporary staff to fill up the vacant posts arising out of the suspensions and issued an order in this regard. A Coimbatore report said that 28 persons, including three women, were arrested in Coimbatore and erode districts, while attempting to stage demonstrations, even as work in the revenue and treasury departments was severely affected. While 11 employees, including two women, were taken into custody for attempting to stage demonstrations and raise anti-Government slogans in the city, 17 persons, including one woman, were arrested in erode, police said. According to sources, attendance in the revenue department was 20 per cent, 49 per cent in various schools, 24 per cent in the collectorate and 66 per cent in other departments. Of the 32,784 Government employees in erode district, 16,353 reported for duty, official sources there said, adding that the percentage on duty in the collectorate was 11 per cent, revenue 36 per cent and other departments, 51 per cent. However, union sources claimed that 92 to 96 per cent of the employees joined the strike in both the districts. Meanwhile, about 100 nurses and helpers in the Government hospital here staged a demonstration for some time in support of the strike, police said. A Madurai report said the situation worsened in Government offices, corporation and local bodies in the southern districts, with most of the staff not turning up for work. The valuation of the special supplementary examination papers were also affected. The schools, however, remained open, on orders from higher officials. Government did not resort to drastic invoking of ESMA."So far, we have not been asked to take any drastic action against the absentees," said an official. Though the District Collectors claimed an improvement in attendance, the reality was otherwise. Police detained nine Government servants. Some people taking tea near the Chief Education Office complex were detained, but were later let off when they showed their department identity cards. A district official, in response to a query, denied any incidents of employees being prevented from coming to work. A group of 20 college teachers, who suddenly gathered near the Tamukkam grounds and started shouting slogans against the Government, dispersed on seeing a police team arrive. Madurai District Collector Dr B Chandramohan claimed that there was no problem in maintaining essential services. A Kanchipuram report said that employees in the registrar, sub-registrar and Taluk offices did not turn up for work. Hardly 25 per cent of village administrative officers worked in Kanchipuram, Uthiramerur, Sriperumbudur, Maduranthakam and Cheyyur Taluks. Work in elementary schools under the District Educational Officer was also affected, with only 3161 of a total of 5743 teachers turning up for work, the report said. (PTI) Doctor, nurse held for selling an abandoned child AURANGABAD (MAHARASHTRA), July 3: A lady doctor and a nurse were arrested here for allegedly trying to sell a new-born abandoned child from a hospital, police said today. Dr Geeta Shevgan, the Civil Surgeon of the Government Hospital, who also runs a private hospital, and nurse Mandabai were held yesterday for keeping an abandoned child in her hospital with the intention of selling the infant, ACP Dnyaneshwar Chavan told reporters. A woman from Mangirwadi-Anolhari village in Sillod Tahsil had delivered the girl child last month at Shegvan’s Geetanjali Hospital. But she did not take the new-born with her as it was born from an illicit relationship, he said. However, Dr Shevgan neither informed the police nor did she send the child to a Government orphanage as she allegedly planned to sell the child to a needy couple. On a tip off, police laid a trap with the help of a police couple who approached the hospital to buy the baby and carried out negotiations with Mandabai. Police subsequently
arrested Dr Shevgan and Mandabai, both of whom were
released on bail last night, Chavan said. A case has been
registered against them under Sections 468, 465 and 120
of IPC, he added. (PTI) Accused in stamp paper case booked under MCOCA PUNE, July 3: Abdul Azeem Telgi, arrested from Bangalore in connection with the multi-crore fake stamp paper racket two days back, was today booked under a stringent law of Maharashtra and remanded to police custody till July 16 by a local court. Abdul Azeem, brother of the alleged kingpin in the racket Abdul Karim Telgi, was produced amidst tight security before Judicial Magistrate First Class M N Bendre who remanded him to police custody for a fortnight. Seeking his remand, prosecution said he was handling all the business transactions of prime accused Abdul Karim Telgi during the latter’s absence. Abdul Azeem was suspected to be involved in the scam as he had financed purchase of machinery used for printing counterfeit stamps, the court was told. Prosecution also alleged that Abdul Azeem had appointed certain persons to sell the counterfeit stamp papers thereby causing loss of revenue to the Government running into several crores of rupees. Telgi, vice president of Karnataka Pradesh Congress Committee’s minority cell and Khanapur town panchayat in Belgaum district, was taken into custody on July one by the special investigating team probing the scam. He was brought to Pune on a transit warrant today. The arrest of Abdul Karim’s brother is likely to throw more light in the investigations, the prosecution said. Several persons including a sitting MLA from Dhule, Anil Gote, officials of Nashik-based India security press, a police inspector of Crime Branch Mumbai and others have been arrested in this case. All of them have been
booked under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act
(MCOCA). (PTI) Shiv Sena extends olive branch to Dalits UTTAN (THANE), July 3: Downplaying its much-touted ‘Mee Mumbaikar’ campaign, the Shiv Sena, in an effort to broaden its votebank, today extended an olive branch to Dalits saying it would consider giving tickets to them in the Assembly elections next year as part of the party’s endeavour to unite ‘Shiv Shakti’ and ‘Bhim Shakti’. "The Sena’s call for unifying Shiv Shakti and Bhim Shakti has evoked tremendous response. Now nobody can stop this friendship from blossoming", Sena executive president Uddhav Thackeray, who had mooted the idea in an effort to woo the 11.5 per cent Dalit electorate, told reporters here. Uddhav, flanked by cousin Raj and opposition leader in Maharashtra Assembly Narayan Rane, talked to the media after addressing the party’s two-day ‘Nirdhar Shibir’ being held at Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini in the district. "Wherever possible we will give tickets to dalits or else enter into an alliance if the candidate is contesting on a ticket of a smaller party", Uddhav said. The Dalit population is hugely responding to the Sena’s appeal and even if Republican Party leaders are perturbed about this move, they would still strongly back the sena in the coming elections, he hoped. The Sena executive president, virtually throwing a gauntlet before the Congress-NCP led DF Government in Maharashtra, challenged the ruling coalition to hold Assembly polls along with general elections, which he said could be held in February-March next year. "We will insist that DF Government, if it has the courage, should go for simultaneus polls", Uddhav said. Asked why the party was downplaying "Mee Mumbaikar" campaign against the burgeoning influx into the metropolis, he said the campaign is for the betterment of Mumbai. "There is no politics in it..All must participate in it by setting aside caste, religion and political affiliations". Commenting about party’s stance on Hindutva, he emphasised that "Hindutva is our identity and nationalism and we will never abandon it". The party’s ‘Nirdhar Shibir’ deliberated on the party’s strategy for the next elections, he said, but refused to divulge the details. He hinted that "wherever needed the party will be fielding new candidates". At the conclave, the sena deliberated on the problems faced by Maharashtra like the fragile financial position of the state, acute scarcity of drinking water, electricity and lack of infrastrucutre, he said. "We have prepared a blueprint to overcome all the odds once we come to the power", Uddhav added. (PTI) PVB yet to assess Badal’s property CHANDIGARH, July 3: Punjab Vigilance Bureau (PVB) today said it was yet to assess the properties owned by former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal and his family members against whom a disproportionate assests case has been registered. Bureau Chief Director A P Pandey told reporters that it had secured a "record number of convictions" of 13 Government employees, including 11 officers, during June, when a number of cases of corruption were also registered against Badals. Replying to a question, he said the figure of Rs 3,500 crore of assets held by Badal was given by Chief Minister Amarinder Singh before February 2001 elections adding that the Bureau was investigating the matter of Badal’s properties acquired through illegal money. He said that the Bureau had carried out "inspection" of Badal’s residence, two showrooms and a hatchery near Kharar while "evaluation" was on. "Inspection and evaluation of other properties in Delhi, Haryana and Punjab would be completed soon", he added. He admitted that the veracity of allegations would come out after completion of "inspection and evaluation" of 16 properties, which is on. The funding of orbit resort (Gurgaon) was done by setting up of six companies, four of which which actually did not carry out any activity, Pandey said. Pandey said that Sukhbir Singh Badal was Managing Director and his mother Surinder Kaur was director of all the companies which had their registered office in sector nine house here. An amount to the tune of Rs 23.85 lakh and Rs 23.30 lakh of falcon properties and integral deposits respectively were transferred to the orbit resorts and finally to Sukhbir Badal on July 31, 2001. Pandey said that the share holders would be questioned as to from where they got the money which was ultimately transferred to Sukhbir, who will also have to explain from where he got Rs 93 lakh, for renovation of sector nine house. Pandey said that investigations so far reveal that of Rs 93 lakh, Rs 45 lakh was from bank accounts and Rs 31 loan was taken from a bank. Sukhbir will have to reveal the sources from wher he got money for taking loans and also regarding repayment of the loans. He said "evidence with the Bureau will prove that illegal money was used (for renovating the house)". Pandey said that warrants of arrest had also been issued against an NRI Narottam Singh Dhillon by a California court. Dhillon had run away from the usa after registration of cases of tax evasion, fraud, cheating and under the narcotics laws, the Bureau Chief Director claimed. (PTI) |
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