|
|
| Badal to mediate between Chautala and BJP JALANDHAR, Nov 15: Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal, who is a close friend of Haryana Chief Miniter Om Prakash.....more Sceptics
keeping fingers NEW DELHI, Nov 15: In keeping with the still controversial but irreversible decision that the......more Sabarimala
Mandala SABARIMALA (Ker),Nov 15: The two-month-long ‘Mandala’ and ‘Makaravilakku’ pilgrimage season begins at the hill....more US, UK,
Germany vie BANGALORE, Nov 15: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has shortlisted experiments from five nations.....more |
|
Jaya urges PM to release funds for flood relief CHENNAI, Nov 15: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa today requested Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to......more ‘Aitraaz’
role toughest NEW DELHI, Nov 15: Playing the helpless common man-on-the-street must have indeed been very difficult for a master........more North
east’s unique GUWAHATI, Nov 15: North east’s uncodified customary laws and practices are a unique system of justice administra.......more Foreign
delegates KOLKATA, Nov 15: International delegates to the ongoing 10th Kolkata Film Festival are surprised over the lack of....more |
Badal to mediate between Chautala and BJP JALANDHAR, Nov 15: Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal, who is a close friend of Haryana Chief Miniter Om Prakash Chautala, would mediate between Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and BJP to forge an alliance in Haryana for the Assembly elections to defeat Congress. Speaking to reporters here, the former Punjab Chief Minister said "I think, both INLD and BJP should join hands to defeat Congress in the forthcoming Haryana Assembly election and rather I will mediate between the two for reaching consensus on the possible alliance." "If BJP and INLD fom an alliance in Haryana, the Congress will surely face a massive defeat in polls," Badal said, adding that he would make his best efforts to patch up differences between the two former allies. "But ultimately it depends on both the parties to react on the issue," he added. Badal termed the "chargesheet" by the Congress against Chautala for possessing disproportionate assets as a "political stunt" and said "it seems that Congress has adopted the habit of levelling false allegations against their opponents just before the election as it had done the same in Punjab an Himachal Pardesh". He siad Chautala should immediate file a defamation case against the Congress leaders in the state. Criticising the UPA Government for the hike in petrol and LPG prices, Badal said that his party MPs would oppose the decision tooth and nail in the coming session of Parliament and demand an immediate roll back. He said the Left parties should make clear their stand on petrol price hike issue as they were "shedding crocodile tears by opposing the UPA Government in public and supporting the same to remain in power". "Left parties must withdraw their support to UPA Government if they are concened over the hardships of the people," he said. Reitrating SAD’s demand for an impartial probe in the Hawala allegations against Raninder Singh, son of the Chief Minister Amarinder Singh, Badal said that he had met the Governor to submit memorandum on the issue, but nothing happened. "We will again submit a memorandum to Ggovernor to demand impartial probe in the allegations and if nothing happens, we will approach the High Court for its intervention in the matter," the SAD chief said. On the issue of recognising of Pakistan Gurudwara Parbandhak Committee, he said that issue would be decided by SGPC. A meeting of SAD’s political affairs committee would be held on November 19 to formalise the strategy on the current political issues. (PTI) |
 |
Sceptics keeping fingers crossed
as Goa NEW DELHI, Nov 15: In keeping with the still controversial but irreversible decision that the ‘Caravan’ International Film Festival of India should finally settle down at a permanent venue - Goa, the 35th fete this year will see several changes though the structure generally remains the same as in the past. More than 200 films will be shown in 400 screenings in the festival, being held from November 29 to December nine. The festival would have seven major sections: Asian competition, cinema of the world, Indian and foreign retrospectives, tributes and homage, Indian panorama and mainstream Indian cinema. But there will be no separate country focus as in the past. Having covered all the regions of the world, including most of the important filmmaking countries, the retrospective this year will have films from four countries apart from those devoted to individuals or institutions. The festival organised by the Directorate of Film Festivals of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry in collaboration with Goa would be held in a cineplex with four theatres. The main ceremonies would be held at the 1000-seater Kala academy. In addition to these theatres, the films would be screened for public at open air venues. The festival venues for both press and delegates would be Kala academy and old GMC multiplex (4 screens) at Campal, Panaji. About 3000 Indian and foreign delegates are expected to attend. Some of these include Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan and Karan Johar. International celebrities expected to attend the film festival include Oscar award winners Robert Bileimer of ‘A Closer Walk’ Fame and Mr Florian Gallenberger who is a member of the jury, Juan Gerald, Darell James Roodt, Amos Gitai, Denish Boivin, Kate Shortland, Avi Nesher, Xiaolian Peng, Karen Shakhnazarov, and Ekachai Uekrongtham. After the inaugural ceremony at Kala bhavan at which both Information and Broadcasting Minister S Jaipal Reddy and Goa Chief Minister Manohar Parrikar will be present, the film vanity fair by Mira Nair which had its premiere in Venice (where it was in competition) will be screened. Proving sceptics wrong, the empowered committee of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry has already seen and expressed satisfaction at the arrangements made and is satisfied with the infrastructure. Though many do not agree since Goa is known more for its beaches, and drugs, and others feel it is too far to travel every year, the National Democratic Alliance Government which took the decision being honoured by the present Government felt that this would give the festival a brand equity since most festivals in the world are known by the cities in which they are held. The main highlight of this festival would be the Asian competition section which would be adjudged by a five-member jury headed by renowned Director Mani Ratnam. The other members of the jury are young German filmmaker Florian Gallenberger, Egyptian actor Mahmoud Kabil, Locarno International Film Festival Director Irene Bignardi, and Senagalese Director Moussa Sena Absa. The golden peacock award with Rs 500,000 in cash will be given for the ‘best film’ by an Asian Director while the Silver Peacock with Rs 250,000 will be given to the most promising Asian Director. A ‘special jury’ award of Rs 250,000 will be given to the Director of a film for his individual artistic contribution. The section will have fifteen films from eleven countries including two from India (‘bow barracks forever’ by Anjan Dutt, and the national best film ‘Shwaas’ by Sandeep Sawant) and an Israel-France co-production. About sixty films from forty countries will be featured in the popular cinema of the world section. These will be films that have won awards or high acclaim in international festivals. Four films will be premiered during the festival. They include the Indian ‘American daylight’ by Roger Christian. The others are the American ‘The Forgotten’ by Joseph Ruben and ‘The Incredibles’ by Brad Bird, and the American-British collaboration ‘Finding Neverland’ by Marc Forster. Two Indian films ‘Hari Om’ by Ganapthy Bharat and ‘Chai Pani’ by Manu Rewal will be shown in special screenings. Retrospectives include films from German Bavaria (eight), Canada (five), Egypt (five), Portugal (five), and Taiwan (six). There will be seven films funded by the Hubert Bals fund (some of which were screened at the Osian’s Cinemaya Cinefan Asian Film Festival in Delhi). Five films by different directors produced by Non-Resident Indian Ashok Amritraj, six films starring the popular Italian actor Vittorio Gassman who died in 2000, four films by Burkina Faso filmmaker Jean-Marie Gaston Kabore, three of polish filmmaker Jerzy Stuhr, and five films by young Australian filmmakers will form the foreign retrospectives, which will also include a technical retro by the German Arri Cine camera company. The Indian retrospectives include five romantic films by Yash Johar and the legendary ‘Mother India’ by Mehboob featuring Nargis, and the homages are to Mehmood, Soundarya, Vijay Anand, Dr Bhabendra Nath Saikia, fifty years of cine craftsman Satyajit Ray’s ‘Pather Panchali’ and seventyfive years of the Prabhat film company. The Indian Panorama will have 21 features and 20 non-features, while the 12-film mainstream section of popular films will open with ‘Munnabhai MBBS’. For the first time, an interactive workshop for young people has been introduced called 24x7 in which an opportunity will be provided to participants upto 24 years of age to conceive, shoot and edit their films. These short films will be screened during the festival and the best would be awarded at the closing ceremony. The workshop will be curated by Dev Benegal and Anuradha Parikh. An animation workshop has also been arranged for the school children of Goa between the age group of 7 and 14 to acquaint them with the technique of animation film making. (UNI) |
|
Sabarimala Mandala season begins today SABARIMALA (Ker),Nov 15: The two-month-long ‘Mandala’ and ‘Makaravilakku’ pilgrimage season begins at the hill shrine of Lord Ayappa here tomorrow with the dawn of the auspicious month of ‘Vrishchikam’ of the Malayalam calendar. According to Travancore Devaswom Board (TDB) sources, all arrangements are in place for "hassle-free" conduct of the pilgrimage. For the authorities, effective crowd management and pollution control are the biggest challenges for the smooth conduct of the pilgrimage season. Located on the slopes of the western ghats, the influx of pilgrims to the forest temple had steadily been on the rise over the years making it a hard task for the authorities to ensure basic amenities to devotees without harming the fragile environs. Chief Minister Oommen Chandy earlier this month visited Eerumeli and Pampa for an on-the-spot review of facilities available. The 41-day ‘Mandala’ season would begin with the ‘Neyyabhishekam’ ritual being performed by the new ‘Melsanthi’ (chief priest) V Muraleedharan Namboodiri in the wee hours tomorrow. The ‘Mandala pooja’ will be held on December 26. The temple will re-open for the ‘Makaravilakku’ after a brief recess. Anticipating steady day-and-night flow of pilgrims trekking up the hill shrine and coming down after darshan, about 1000 policemen would be on duty at ‘Sannidhanam’ atop and at the foothills of Pampa during the season, official sources said. A total of 450 sanitation workers have been engaged to keep the Sannidhanam clean and the trekking path, official sources said. All the sanitation workers had been given identity cards, uniforms, gloves and footwear. The area having received heavy rains this year, the Pampa river is overflowing with water this time. Officials and volunteers were advising pilgrims not to clog the surging river by throwing wastes into it. Emergency clinics, medical aid booths and oxygen parlours have also been opened in Pampa and Sannidhanam. A total ban had been imposed on plastic in the whole area. In addition to the Government doctors and paramedics, organisations like the Amrithananda Mutt had sent doctors and health workers. (PTI) US, UK, Germany vie for slot in
India’s BANGALORE, Nov 15: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) has shortlisted experiments from five nations including the US, UK and Germany, for a slot on India’s unmanned moon mission "Chandrayaan-1" to be undertaken by 2006-07. "We have shortlisted scientific experiments from researchers in five countries - US, UK, Sweden, Bulgaria and Germany. We will finalise the right partners by December," ISRO sources told PTI here today. India plans to put a 525 kg orbiter using Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) rocket 100 kms over the moon aiming to explore more about the earth’s satellite. ISRO had allotted 10 kgs and 10 watt of power for space agencies of other nations and had invited international bids for the purpose that had evoked 15 responses from 10 nations. "The best suited proposals have been shortlisted. We have to find out whether they finally fit into our mission payload," sources said. The experiments are - Chandrayan-I X-ray spectrometer (CIXS-II) from Britain; near Infra-Red Spectrometer (SIR) from Germany; Sub-ked Atom Reflecting Analyser (SARS) from Sweden in collaboration with ISRO’s space physics laboratory; Radiation Dove Monitoring Experiment (RADOM) from Bulgaria and Mini-Synthetic Apperture Radar (Mini-SAR) from America. ISRO officials will hold final talks with scientists of these projects at the international lunar conference from November 21 to 25 in Udaipur before zeroing in on projects that will form part of the Chandrayaan-1 mission. India’s mission is aimed at expanding the scientific knowledge about the moon, upgrading India’s technological capability and providing challenging opportunities for planetary research to the younger generation. ISRO officials said a three-dimensional Atlas of regions of scientific interest of the moon will be mapped with instruments on board the mission, besides exploring the lunar surface for elements such as magnesium, aluminium, silicon, calcium, iron and titanium. (PTI) |
|
|
|
|
Foreign delegates miss contemporary Indian filcks KOLKATA, Nov 15: International delegates to the ongoing 10th Kolkata Film Festival are surprised over the lack of contemporary Indian movies being showcased during the carnival of reels. Canadian Producer Niv Fichman, who is in the city with six of his films being shown in the festival, said he would prefer watching contemporary Indian movies, particularly those from Bengal, with the venue being Kolkata. Talking to UNI here at the festival venue, Mr Fichman said, "there could not have been a better place to showcase your own films particularly the contemporary ones when you are having a festival at your own city with delegates present from the world across." The Producer of films like "Red Violin" and "Childstar" said adding the inaugural film here was one from Chile and that too an old one. "Recently I was in the Bangkok festival and the inaugural movie was a Thai film. I had to sit through it as I was a guest of that country. I can jolly well walk out of a Chilean movie being screened in India, but had it been an Indian film on the first day I would have to see the entire reel," he said. Talking about the Kolkata film festival, he said, "it is in its adolesence and has the potential to be a major one in the long-run. But things have to be managed properly. Primarily the festival is running almost a year late in the calender of cinema with almost majority of the films arriving here are coming almost at the end of a cycle of globe-trotting." "If you have any opportunity to start the festival with a new movie. Don’t let it go," the Producer said. The Producer said his childstar was having an international premier here but was showning an insignificant slot. "There was an opportunity lost," he regretted. Talking about the marketability of Indian films abroad, the overseas visitors also did not appear upbeat. Brazilian festival representative Antonio Urano observed that though Bollywood and a few names like Mira Nair were known at some places, there was not much awareness about the films made in other regions of India. Mr Urano said despite his proposals for showcasing a package of Indian films during this year’s festival Do Rio in his country, what was sent from here was a fat packet of Bollywood movies. Representative of Montreal film festival Hannah Fischer regretted that apart from Rituparno Ghosh’s ‘Chokher Bali’ not much of the Bengali films were shown in the festivals across Canada. She said no Bengali cinema had an edge over the Bollywood types for the former’s arthouse nature, "Producers here are not as much aggressive as those from Mumbai". (UNI) |
|
||
Punjab cabinet gives nod to
amend Punjab CHANDIGARH, Nov 15: The Punjab cabinet today approved the amendments in the Punjab Roads and Bridges Development Board Act, 1998 through promulgation of an ordinance to enhance the functions of Punjab Roads and Bridges Development Board with the view to improve quality of roads and bridges infrastructure and other works entrusted by the State Government. Disclosing this here, a spokesman of the Punjab Government said that in addition the State Government had also decided to amend the Punjab Mechanical Vehicles (bridges and roads tolls) Act, 1998 to enable levy and collection of toll on the road and bridge projects to be undertaken/upgraded in various modes of construction, development, operation and maintenance. The cabinet which met under the chairmanship of Chief Minister Capt Amarinder Singh also approved to grant secretariat allowance to the ministerial staff at par with the secretariat allowance payable to stenography/personnel staff in the secretariat offices wef September 1, 1997. The State Government after consideration of the recommendations of the fourth Punjab Pay Commission with regard to the grant of special allowance for certain posts/categories of the employees in the Punjab Civil Secretariat decided that the rates of special pay/ special allowance/secretariat allowance attached with existing categories or categories of posts/ employees in the Punjab Civil Secretariat shall stand doubled wef September 1, 97 and that same would be termed as secretariat allowance, he said. The cabinet also approved the re-auction of liquor vends held on November 5 this year for the l-14a and l-2 of Jalandhar-I, II, Nawanshehar and Hoshiarpur districts for the remaining period of year 2004-05. The Council of Ministers also approved to grant house rent allowance to the employees of the private aided recognised schools in Patiala city wef March 1 last year at par with Government employees. (PTI) ASEAN rally would pave way for NEW DELHI, Nov 15: The India-Asean car rally is the first public manifestation of the nation’s improving relations with Asean countries and it would pave the way for a better people-to-people contact, External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh said here today. "There is a lot happening in terms of improving relationship with Asean countries on the Government level but not much had been seen in public domain. The rally is the first public manifestation of this," he said flagging off the `Chalo Asean Rally’ from India Gate. The Chalo Asean Rally, a prelude to the India-Asean car rally from Guwahati, has been flagged off from Shimla, Kanyakumari, Panaji and Gandhinagar. All these rallies will culminate at Guwahati on November 20, ahead of the ceremonial flag off by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on November 22. The minister said the rally would help improve trade and tourism between these countries and emphasise on the need for world class road connectivity in the region along with improving people-to-people contact. Pointing out that the Manmohan Singh Government’s emphasis is on improving the country’s relations with Asean and SAARC nations, he said such efforts would help in "integrating ourselves with the global economy". He said the Government would work closely with the private sector and encourage its participation in such endeavours so that it complements the Government-to-Government efforts. Natwar Singh said the ASEAN region has shared old bonds with India and the Government’s "look east" policy, started in the early 90’s, is showing good results. Earlier confederation of Indian Industries’ president Pavan Kumar Munjal said the Chalo ASEAN rallies were a part of the efforts to create awarness across the country about the trade and tourism potential vis-a-vis the eastern neighbours. He said these rallies would cover a distance of 14,000 kms covering 25 states. Ten cars left the national capital for Guwahati and more were likely to join enroute, he added. The first India-Asean car rally, a non-competitive event, has been designed to draw attention towards the tremendous potential that exists for socio-economic partnership in the region, given the connectivity of India with ASEAN countries. Jointly organied by CII, Ministry of External Affairs and the ASEAN secretariat, the rally would pass through Myanmar, Laos, Vietnam, Thailand, Combodia, Malaysia, Singapore, before concluding at Batam, Indonesia on December 11. The rally, with participants from all ASEAN countries and India, will have parallel and allied business and cultural events through the 20-day period. It would also be received mid-way in Vientiane, Laos, on November 30 by all the heads of state of the ASEAN countries along with Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the 3rd ASEAN India summit. (PTI) BSP fared badly in Maharashtra
elections NEW DELHI, Nov 15: Why did Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) fare so badly in the recent Maharashtra elections? No, not due to Congress, NCP, BJP or any political reason but because advocate Ajay Agrawal unleashed details of Taj heritage corridor case and disproportionate assets case against her before the "innocent and uneducated" BSP voters to drift them away to other parties. This is what is stated by party supremo Mayawati in an affidavit before the Supreme Court in response to a petition filed by Agrawal challenging an Allahabad High Court order granting her anticipatory bail in the Taj case. She accused Agrawal of holding press conference during the campaign period at Nagpur in collusion with All India Republican Party leader Ram Das Athawale to tarnish her image on the basis of the heritage corridor case. In the press conference Agrawal made all sorts of allegations using the name of the Supreme Court, the affidaivt stated adding "he was indulging in all sorts of publicity stunts to defame and Malign Mayawati who is a respected national leader and president of a national political party". On the impact of the press conference, BSP supremo said "Agrawal succeeded in causing irreparable damage to considerable votes of BSP which drifted from it to other political parties because of the causing damage and doubts (SIC) in the eyes of public at large and especially the innocent and uneducated public." Mayawati said Agrawal was removed from the post of standing counsel for Uttar Pradesh for his failure to raise objections during the progress of Taj corridor matter before the Supreme Court. "The petitioner first tried to persuade the State Government for his reinstatement by making representation but failed. After this he started making all sorts of allegations to grind his axe," the former Chief Minister said and alleged that non-reinstatement of Agrawal as standing counsel was the the main reason for filing of the appeal challening grant of anticipatory bail to her. Questioning Agrawal’s locus standi to file the appeal in the Supreme Court, Mayawati said he has not shown how his fundamental rights were affected by the grant of anticipatory bail to her. She said the High Court has not made any observation with regard to actions that would be taken by the investigating agency upon final outcome of the probe. "In these circumstances, Agrawal has no legal right to challenge the judgement of the High Court granting the anticipatory bail to her," her affidavit stated. Accusing the advocate of abusing the judicial process, the BSP supremo said that "he has staged a war of allegations against her outside the court premises, in regular press conferences, in public meetings and at all public forums. (PTI) Develop international law to
deal with NEW DELHI, Nov 15: Terming terrorism as the "biggest threat" to peace and democracy, Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat today said there is an "urgent" need to develop a strong international law to effectively deal with the menace. "Terrorism today poses the biggest threat to peace and democracy. We need to combat terrorim that poses threat to the civilian population and elected Governments," he said here at a conference on international law. Shekhawat said "there is an urgent need to develop strong international law that comprehensively adderesses the issue of terrorism. While codifying such a law, there should be a guard against any selective definition of terrorism, as international peace demands solutions to all forms of terrorism including proxy war". However, it was important to recognise dialogue as a means to resolve conflicts, he said. "Indian culture of dialogue needs international recognition as a means to resolve conflicts and promote international peace," he added. There is unity in diversity in India as it encourages inter-faith dialogue and cooperation, the Vice President said, adding "the deeper and broader the dialogue amongst nations, the greater would be the content of international peace and harmony". Pointing out that over 1.2 billion people live at less than a dollar a day, he said international law also needs to ensure that globalisation sets up a regime responsive to the needs of developing nations and fulfilling the aspirations of the poor. Though globalisation has led to growth in international trade and economy, it has failed to reduce poverty, Shekhawat said. In the last decade of the 20th century, while total world income increased by an average of 2.5 per cent annually, during the same period, the actual number of people living in poverty increased by almost 100 million, he said. "In my public life of over 50 years, it has been my firm conviction that first and foremost responsibility of the state is to free the citizens from the curse of poverty and empower them with access to basic healthcare, education and shelter," the Vice President said. "So long as we do not achieve this objective, we cannot build a sustainable international order of peace, harmony and progress," he said. Warning that developed nations cannot sustain their levels of prosperity without making the developing countries their partners, he said international law on trade and investments should promote equal and non-discriminatory relationship between the developed and developing nations. The noble objective of "health for all" can be achieved only if international law meets the requirements of affordable health care for the poor, he said. The need for affordable access to medicines, including the ones for HIV/AIDS, should also be recognised as a "universal human right", Shekhawat said. Reforms in the United Nations was "necessary" to make the system stronger for promoting international peace, he said. (PTI) |
||
|
||
|
| home | state | national | business| editorial | advertisement | sports | |
