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Shinde, Bhujbal’s
prestige MUMBAI, Oct 2: Stakes are high for Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and his former Deputy Chhagan Bhujbal in ...more Montek’s
style of PATNA, Oct 2: The dissolution of all the consultative groups of the Planning Commission reflected the autocratic. ....more Awesome
aerobatics display during Air NEW DELHI, Oct 2: Spectacular display of aerobatics by Russian-acquired Su-30 and nine Surya Kiran aircraft .....more Frail
Gandhian makes NEW DELHI, Oct 2: Age has not withered his resolve. At 85, Mohan Lal Jain wishes to live a few more years to ......more |
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Madhepura police refuse to MADHEPURA, Oct 2: RJD candidate for Madhepura by-poll constituency Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav ....more PM
launches birth NEW DELHI, Oct 2: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today launched the ...more GUWAHATI, Oct 2: The United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) has rejected the ceasefire offer by the Assam Government. ....more Wildlife
week off to THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 2: The wildlife week celebrations got off to a colourful start here today with children, donning animal masks, marching down the city roads to spread the message of nature conservation. .......more |
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Shinde, Bhujbal’s prestige at stake in Mumbai city MUMBAI, Oct 2: Stakes are high for Chief Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde and his former Deputy Chhagan Bhujbal in the Malabar hill and Mazgaon Assembly constituencies in Mumbai where their relatives are the candidates of the Congress-led coalition. Mr Shinde’s son-in-law Raj Shroff is the Congress candidate from Malabar hill while Mr Bhujbal’s son Pankaj has entered the fray as an NCP candidate from Mazgaon. Both constituencies are part of the 17 Assembly segments in the Mumbai city district. Both first timers in electoral politics, Raj and Pankaj are locked in straight fights with BJP and Shiv Sena respectively. The BSP and Samajwadi Party candidates in Malabar hill and Mazgaon respectively are the third main contenders in the fray who, political analysts believe, have the potential to eat away around 10,000 votes. Raj’s fate at the hustings is likely to affect Mr Shinde’s personal standing in state politics, political analysts feel. The Chief Minister’s wife Ujjwala was the party candidate from Solapur in the Lok Sabha election, but she suffered a shock defeat at the hands of a former BJP MLC Subhash Deshmukh by a margin of over 5,000 votes. Last year, the Chief Minister’s nominee Anandrao Devkate suffered a humiliating beating in the Solapur Parliamentary by-election when BJP candidate Pratapsinh Mohite-Patil defeated him by a margin of over 1.2 lakh votes. The by-election was necessitated after Mr Shinde vacated the seat after becoming the Chief Minister. Malabar hill is a sprawling constituency comprising Walkeshwar, Napean Sea Road, Warden Road, Breach Candy Hospital, Haji Ali Circle, Nana Chowk, Tardeo, and parts of Mumbai central upto Mahalaxmi Race Course. The constituency presents a generous mix of high-rise buildings, chawls as well as slum colonies. It houses the Raj Bhavan, the Chief Minister’s official bungalow "Varsha" as well as residences of ministers, and Central and State Government bureaucrats. Says Gunvant Seth, local corporator who was an aspirant for the Assembly ticket, "there is no ill feeling in the local congress ranks over denial of ticket to some activists. We are all solidly behind Raj Shroff." "Raj is working very hard and we are confident that the deficit of votes from the Malabar hill constituency in the last two elections would be wiped out and Congress will do well this time." local MP Milind Deora, Rajya Sabha member Murli Deora, and city unit chief Gurudas Kamat are working unitedly for Shroff’s victory, Mr Seth said. "It is a matter of prestige for the Congress party. We are focussing on door-to-door campaigning and meeting the voters individually," Mr Seth said. The Mazgaon Assembly segment falls in the south central Mumbai Parliamentary constituency and was represented by Chhagan Bhujbal in 1985 and 1990 as a Shiv Sena candidate. He lost to Bala Nandgaonkar in 1995 while contesting as a Congress candidate by a margin of 12,000 votes. Almost out of electoral politics for nearly ten years, Mr Bhujbal is now contesting as an NCP candidate from Yeola in Nashik district while his home turf in Mazgaon has been alloted to his son Pankaj who is busy moving door-to-door soliciting votes. The Shiv Sena, still smarting under Mr Bhujbal’s manouvre to split the party, is bent upon teaching Bhujbal junior a lesson by defeating him in the elections and Nandgaonkar, who is seeking re-election for the third time, is supremely confident of his victory. Both Raj Shroff and Pankaj Bhujbal are focussing on development of their respective constituencies in a bid to woo the voters. Mazgaon comprises dockyard, Darukhana, parts of Shivdi, Chinchpokli, Byculla, Lalbaug, Cotton Green, Zakeria Bunder Road, Abhyudaya Nagar, Jijamata Nagar, and Jijamata Udyan. It is a mix of Muslims, Catholics, and Maharashtrians and is dominated by the labour class as well as Government employees. According to Ram Sawant, who is Mr Nandgaonkar’s campaign-in-charge, the performance of the sitting MLA during the last ten years and the political inexperience of Pankaj are the two issues which Mr Nandgaonkar has put forth before the voters during his "Padyatras" and door-to-door campaigning. The third candidate Paras Porwal of the Samajwadi Party is a builder by profession and hopes to cash on the minority votes in the area. Malabar hill has a population of 1.62 lakh with the male voters numbering 87,000 and women 75,000. Mazgaon has an electorate strength of 1.15 lakh with men numbering 69,000 and women 46,000. Both Pankaj and Raj say their relatives have nothing do with their securing candidatures. Pankaj is the Mumbai NCP vice president while Raj is in charge of the trade and industry cell of the Mumbai Congress. Mazgaon had always been a Congress stronghold till Sena leader Chhagan Bhujbal arrived on the scene. The constituency had always ensured a Congress victory barring the 1978 elections which saw a Janata wave in the city. The sitting MLA in the early years was V K Toraskar. Over the years, the population of the Mumbai city district has come down with more and more people moving downwards to the suburbs. Mr Nandgaonkar’s supporters say that Mr Bhujbal cannot face the Shiv Sena MLA in elections from Mazgaon and has, therefore, put up his son from here. "We are putting this across to the voters," they say. Malabar hill Assembly segment, which came into existence during the 1978 delimitation of constituencies, was earlier spread across constituencies like Girgaum, Walkeshwar and Mahalaxmi which were also dominated by the Congress. Mr B A Desai of the Congress, a prominent lawyer in the city, has represented this seat four times since 1978 till he lost to Mangalprabhat Lodha in 1995. Mr Desai was first elected in 1978 on a Janata Party ticket when he defeated Murli Deora of the Congress by a huge margin. In Malabar Hill, the Congress vote percentage has come down since the last two elections. In 1999, Mr Desai polled the lowest vote percentage of 36.9 as against 52.6 per cent of Lodha. In 1995, Lodha had polled 48.2 per cent as against 46.1 per cent of Desai. In the Lok Sabha elections this year, BJP’s Jayawantiben Mehta, despite losing to Milind Deora of the Congress, had polled more votes in Malabar Hill. With less than two weeks remaining for the polling, all eyes are on these two constituencies. Other constituencies which will share the limelight are Colaba because of the presence of Congress corporator Puran Doshi as rebel, Shivdi where Mumbai NCP president Sachin Ahir is seeking re-election, and Chinchpokli where Ahir’s uncle don-turned politican Arun Gawli is contesting against Madhu Chavan of Congress, a sitting MLA. (UNI) |
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Montek’s style of functioning is autocratic: CPI PATNA, Oct 2: The dissolution of all the consultative groups of the Planning Commission reflected the autocratic style of functioning of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, the plan panel’s deputy Chairman, the CPI said today. The dissolution of all consultative groups of the Planning Commission when the Left parties had only sought the exclusion of so called foreign experts from those bodies reflects the autocratic style of functioning of Montek Singh Ahluwalia, CPI secretary D Raja told reporters. Terming the action as unilateral, he said the Left parties, whose support was crucial for the survival of the Manmohan Singh Government, were not taken into confidence in the matter. Now that all consultative committees have been dissolved, the Government should explain why they were constituted in the first place, Raja said, adding the Left leaders had brought up the issue during their meeting with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday. Asked if the PM had given them any assurance that the Government would reconsider the matter, the CPI leader said, he did not spell out anything concrete but said a mechanism for proper consultation will be evolved. The CPI secretary said his party wanted the UPA Government to be stable and performance oriented and that keeping in mind the new balance of political forces, it should stop taking unilateral decisions on major policy matters. All the 19 consultative groups of the plan panel were dissolved last Thursday after the Left had objected to the appointment of foreign consultants from the World Bank, ADB and Mckinsey and Co. Raja said the CPI was not opposed to foreign direct investment per SE, but believed that foreign capital must be used for augmenting productive capabilities, upgrading technological capabilities and creating employment. We, however, have reservations on FDI in some sectors like insurance and telecom, which we have voiced publicly. It is because of us that the issue of hiking the FDI cap in the telecom sector to 74 per cent has been put on hold, Raja said. He said the CPI wanted the UPA Government to identify itself with the poor, to introduce a legislation guaranteeing employment, and to take up on war footing the food for work programme in states that suffered due to droughts and floods. He expressed the hope that the draft of the proposed employment guarantee act would be placed before Parliament for debate and passage in its next session. On the international front, the CPI leader expressed confidence that the composite dialogue between India and Pakistan would continue in a positive manner. He said Sino-India talks on resolving outstanding issues were also being carried forward by the UPA Government in a positive way. Describing Manmohan Singh’s first diplomatic engagement at the United Nations General Assembly after taking over as Prime Minister as fruitful, the CPI leader said India had presented its case for permanent membership of the UN Security Council commendably. (PTI) |
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Awesome aerobatics display during Air Force day celebrations NEW DELHI, Oct 2: Spectacular display of aerobatics by Russian-acquired Su-30 and nine Surya Kiran aircraft will climax the 72nd anniversary celebrations of the Indian Air Force on Ocotber 8. A total of 51 aircraft including MiG-29’s, Jaguars, upgraded MiG -21 bisons, swing wing MiG-23 and mirage aircraft would take part in the aero display at the end of the Air Force day parade at Palam technical area. Also taking part in the fly-past would be IAF’s latest acquisition il-78 mid-air refueller, Mi-35 helicopter gunships as well as indigenous advanced light helicopter Dhruv, according to an Air Force spokesman here. "The fighter aircraft would be flying at heights varying from 60 to 150 meters above the ground with the fighter flypast being ushered in by five Jaguars which took part recently in multi-nation exercises in Alaska in United States", he said. The Jaguars would be followed by arrowhead formations of bison, MiG-23,MiG 29 and Mirage 2000, which would be tailed by the il-78 mid air refueller with two Jaguars fighters plugged in. The air show would be climxed by a Su-30 carrying out a vertical charlie over the tenchical area, while two MiG-29 air superiority fighters escorting it would peel outwards. The spokesman said the grand finale would be an aerobatic display by the IAF’s nine Surya Kiran fighters. The airspace over the capital would be closed for two hours between October 3 to 8 for carrying out rehersals, the spokesman said adding residents had been warned that fighters would be flying at heights varying between 60 to 150 meters above ground over Manesar-Gurgoan-Delhi cantt and Tilpat-Qutab Minar-Shankar Vihar-Palam and Dwarka. As birds pose a serious threat to low-flying aircraft, the IAF has requested citizens in the capital and neighbourhood not to throw eatables and garbage in the open. (PTI) Frail Gandhian makes strong resolves at 85 NEW DELHI, Oct 2: Age has not withered his resolve. At 85, Mohan Lal Jain wishes to live a few more years to carry forward his task of creating a society based on the principles of ‘Antodaya’ or the welfare of all. The inspiration behind this extraordinary strength is none other than Gandhiji about whom he came to know at the age of 21 when the freedom struggle was at its peak. The man who introduced him to ‘Bapu’ was his friend Sohan Lal Vaid who once took him on a two-hour boat journey and talked to him about the man who had fired the imagination of millions of Indians. When the journey came to an end, he was a transformed youth. In fact a new journey had begun for him which continues to this day. The Septugenarian Gandhian narrated the incident in a voice choked with emotions at a function here, wherein he was honoured with the Gandhi Sewa Puruskar by the Gandhi Darshan Samiti on the eve of Gandhi Jayanti. "I would work with greater zeal and try to live up to your expectations," said Mr Jain. He said when Gandhiji died he wept bitterly like a child, cursing his stars for not getting a chance to meet him. He then resolved to devote the rest of his life to work towards the realisation of Gandhiji’s ideals. Once on the Gandhian path, he has not looked back despite the difficulties and hurdles. The indomitable spirit of this frail man is well expressed in his poem which he recited on the occasion: "Ek Ke Baad Ek Musibaten Asti Rahin, Ek Ke Bad Ek Ghazab Dhati Rahin, Kuch Dino Ke Baad Woh Chal Din, Poocha Main Ne Ki Kab Aaogi Phir, Unhon Ne Kaha Ki Kya Khak Aayen Gen, Samjha Kabhi Kya Tum Ne Musibaton Ko Kya Musibat." (Difficulties came to me one after another, and left no stone unturned to shatter me. But one day when I saw them going, I asked when they would visit me next, they said there is no pleasure in visiting a person like you as you have never taken us seriously). Mohan Lal Jain, who adopted ‘Antodaya’ as the aim of his life has also done a lot of work for child welfare. He has created several institutions for children who try to mould their character after the Gandhian values. He said he was pained to find that people were today fogetting Gandhiji. "Gandhiji will always remain relevant to India, I firmly believes and all my actions follow from this belief," said Mr Jain. (UNI) |
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Wildlife week off to colourful start in Kerala THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 2: The wildlife week celebrations got off to a colourful start here today with children, donning animal masks, marching down the city roads to spread the message of nature conservation. Carrying banners stressing upon the unique relationship between man and environment, more than 500 school and college students, including cadets from the NCC and the NSS, drew many an appreciative comment from the public for their endeavour. The students marched from the city zoo to the main shopping area of Palayam, the university campus and back to the zoo. Organised by the Department of Museums and Zoos, Kerala Government, the students’ rally marked the beginning of the annual wildlife week celebrations to be held till October 8. Museums and Zoos Director C S Yalakki told UNI that apart from the rally, which was held for the first time this year, several other activities would be organised during the week to spread the message of wildlife conservation, especially among the youth. These included painting, essay-writing, quiz, story-telling and fancy dress competitions for primary, high school and college students. To recognise the tireless efforts of zoo keepers, the department had also instituted a rolling trophy this year for the school or college which secured the maximum points in the competitions, Mr Yalakki said, adding that students would be given free entry to the zoo during the week. The V K Memorial Trophy has been dedicated to the memory of animal keeper Vijay Kumar Ganakan, who was gored to death by a rhinoceros in the zoo in December last year. The wildlife week was formally inaugurated by the state SC/ST minister A P Anil Kumar at a function in the zoo premises. (UNI) |
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