|
|
|
|
|
India News
New Delhi February 3:
Amid the continued attack on the government over corruption, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today acknowledged efforts to ensure transparency, accountability and probity in public life would take a long time.
Addressing a Conference of Chief Secretaries here, Singh cited a number of initiatives taken by the government to rid the country of corruption and said these had moved "substantially forward" over the last one year. "But, we still have a long way to go in our efforts for ensuring transparency, accountability and probity in public life," he said.
To achieve these goals, he said the Centre and states needed to work together. The statement assumes significance as it comes amid persistent attacks on the government over corruption. The government yesterday faced a huge embarrassment when the Supreme Court cancelled all the 122 licences for 2G spectrum allocated in 2008 as these were held illegal. Singh recalled that last year, while addressing the conference, he had emphasised the need for a systemic response that reduced opportunities for corruption in public life and had stated his government was committed to taking all legal and administrative measures to curb the menace.
"I had also said we should make full use of the advances in modern technology to improve the delivery of our public services system. We have moved substantially forward in these areas in the last one year," he said. Listing the initiatives to tackle corruption, the Prime Minister cited the Right to Information Act, the Judicial Accountability Bill and the Whistle Blowers Bill besides Citizen's Charter and the Electronic Delivery of Services bills introduced in Parliament last year as examples.
Referring to the Lokpal and Lokayuktas Bill, he regretted it could not be passed in the last session of Parliament and hoped the government "would soon be able to enact a strong Lokpal law". Singh noted "we live in uncertain times" and the country faces a whole range of challenges in diverse areas. He recalled that he had grouped these challenges into five broad categories -- one relates to livelihood security, the second relates to realization of economic security, third to energy security, fourth -- ecological security and finally, the concerns with national security. "It is important that all of us have a clear understanding of these challenges," he said, adding "to effectively overcome them, the Centre and states need to work together."
He said while difficulties should be recognised, there should be strategies to cope with them and one "must also have the faith that these difficulties are not insurmountable". Pointing out that "uncertain times" have been faced earlier too, Singh said, "We have faced crises. We have faced difficult odds. But each time our nation has emerged stronger. I have no doubt that whatever the challenge, we have the will and the ability to achieve success, provided of course, we all work together and with firm resolve."
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
New Delhi February 3:
The Congress on Friday rejected opposition demand for resignation of Prime Minister Manmohhan Singh and Home Minister P. Chidambaram, contending that the Supreme Court has not held either of them responsible in the 2G case directly or indirectly.
“The Bharatiya Janata Party and some other opposition parties have tried for last 18 months to suggest that the legal proceedings must culminate in an indictment of the PM or at least a comment against him but they failed,” party spokesperson Abhishek Singhvi told reporters in New Delhi. Quoting Thursday’s 2G case verdict, he said the Supreme Court has not held the Prime Minister at all responsible directly or indirectly for it.
He also said that the court has not made any comment against Mr. Chidambaram. He said that as far delays in giving nod to prosecution sanctions are concerned, this affected all governments including that of the National Democratic Alliance. Coming down heavily on the BJP for “politicising” and sensationalising” court orders by “dragging” institutions for narrow gains, Mr. Singhvi also sought to shift the blame on the BJP for the cancellation of licenses, saying it was the NDA which had enacted the ‘first cum first serve’ policy for granting licences.
“We accept the fact that today the first cum first serve policy has been condemned...This government must accept responsibility and we do accept responsibility for the errors of the FCFS. The FCFS was on February 2 held to be wrong. It was not held wrong then. “When I am accepting responsibility, the BJP should also accept responsibility. Is it possible that those who implement and continue with the policy accept the responsibility but those who invented and operated it did not accept responsibility? I deny that,” Mr. Singhvi said.
Asked why did the United Progressive Alliance not change the policy when it came to power, Mr. Singhvi said it was not done as “there was no SC judgement holding FCFS as bad in concept till yesterday. You cannot be penalised and punished for continuing a policy.” He said, “We deprecate in strongest possible terms the repeated attempts of the BJP and other opposition parties to politicise and sensationalise legal judgements... It is utterly irresponsbile and unconstitutional to link judgements with totally unconnected political issues.”
Mr. Singhvi also blamed the opposition for the opposing the Lokpal Bill which incorporated a proposal for doing away with all sanctions. “The Parliamentary panel headed by me had recommended complete abolition of sanctions, which the government had accepted and brought a bill in Lok Sabha. We could pass it there amid vociferous opposition of the BJP but in Rajya Sabha, where we did not have majority, they did not allow its passage,” Mr. Singhvi said. He also accused the BJP of being “double faced” for condemning the FCFS policy now, saying it had emanated from them.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
Washington February 3:
Amidst pending comprehensive immigration reform, the United States has proposed several steps including changes in the F-1 and H-1B visas to attract foreign skilled workforce, a move likely to benefit professionals from countries like India.
Prominent among these reforms include providing work authorisation for spouses of certain H-1B visa holders, 17-month extension of optional practical training (OPT) for F-1 international students to include students with a prior degree in Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics, allow for additional part-time study for spouses of F-1 students and allow outstanding professors and researchers to present a broader scope of evidence of academic achievement. In addition, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) announced that on February 22, it would launch its 'Entrepreneurs in Residence' initiative with an Information Summit in Silicon Valley.
This will bring together high-level representatives from the entrepreneurial community, academia and federal government agencies to discuss how to maximize current immigration laws' potential to attract foreign entrepreneurial talent. These moves are in support of President Barack Obama's, efforts to meet 21st century national security and economic needs, the Department of Homeland Security said, adding that he is deeply committed to fixing our broken immigration system so that it meets national security and economic needs.
As a part of comprehensive immigration reform, Obama supports legislative measures that would attract and retain immigrants who create jobs and boost competitiveness in the US, including creating a "Startup Visa," strengthening the H-1B programme, and "stapling" green cards to the diplomas of certain foreign-born graduates in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) fields.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
Mumbai February 3:
Union Agriculture Minister and NCP chief Sharad Pawar today came out in strong defence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh saying that the SC verdict cancelling 2G licenses was not an indictment of the government.
He also ruled out that the 2G case will harm UPA's poll prospects in the assembly elections to five states. Addressing a press conference here, Pawar read out few paras of the judgement and said that the judiciary had taken note of the PM's letter to then Telecom Minister A Raja to ensure fairness and transparency in spectrum allocation. "The judgement also says that the concerned minister had not bothered to consider the Prime Minister's advice. I don't think SC has passed any strictures against the PM.
In fact, it has noted that the Prime Minister had done his job. So, PM and the UPA are not to be blamed," Pawar noted. He however admitted that the 2G scam brought disrepute to the system and the government. When asked about collective responsibility of the government, Pawar said the spectrum allocation decision was taken by an individual ministry and not cabinet. He said adverse repercussions on India as an investment destination cannot be ruled out. "Credibility and decision making process may be questioned."
Pawar said ministers will now tend to adopt cautious approach and decision making may be delayed. Replying to questions on whether UPA's electoral prospects, he said according to his assessment Congress is likely to win Punjab, and in Uttar Pradesh, Samajwadi party may form government with Congress and Ajit Singh's party. "In Goa and Manipur, there will be no effect on the UPA partners," he said.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
New Delhi February 3:
Eleven bank lockers of liquor baron Ponty Chadha were sealed today by the Income Tax department, which claimed to have seized cash and jewellery worth Rs 15 crore during searches carried out at his premises in UP and Delhi.
"Cash worth about Rs five crore and jewellery valued at about Rs 10 crore have been seized after operations were conducted at various places in U P and Delhi," I-T sources said after raids at the premises of Chadha and his associates. Eleven bank lockers have been sealed. However, the premises, including a mall owned by Chadha in Noida near Delhi, covered during the searches are free for operation by the owners, they said.
The I-T sleuths have seized two laptops that have been sent for forensic examination at a department-owned laboratory in the national capital. When contacted, a spokesperson of Waves Infratech, owned by Chadha, declined to get into specifics of seizures claimed to have been made by I-T and insisted that there was no wrongdoing by the Chadha group. "There is no income which remains undisclosed to the government authorities," the spokesperson said reiterating what was put out in a statement by the real estate group.
The I-T department has acceded a request made by Chadha, who has returned after a visit to Dubai, that its operations be suspended in view of a family wedding on February 9, the sources said. Chadha has promised to extend full cooperation to tax authorities in their probe of alleged tax evasion in his various businesses including liquor sale and real estate. The tax department is scrutinising transaction bills claimed to be worth Rs 600 crore. They are examining over 5,000 pages of computer printed documents, papers of mining leases in U P and other investments made by Chadha, the sources said.
The tax department had begun the operations Chadha and his associates on February 1, covering 13 locations in Delhi including at the posh Sainik Farms, Lajpat Nagar, New Friends Colony while in UP, I-T teams comprising 200 officials, undertook similar operations at six locations in Noida, Moradabad and state capital Lucknow.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
Poonch February 3:
A Special Police Officer allegedly having contacts with ISI and Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and carrying a Pakisani SIM card was arrested near the Line of Control in the district, officials said today.
Acting on intelligence inputs and after monitoring alleged links of SPO Mohammad Rafiq with militants and Pakistani intelligence agency ISI, police arrested him at Chakan-Da-Bagh crossing point along LoC, they said. SPO was allegedly in touch with his handlers in ISI and LeT, they said, adding a case has been registered and investigations were on.
As per the preliminary investigation, he had received fake currency with a face value of Rs 12 lakh from across the border, they said. Rafiq’s contact Hafiz of Surankote was arrested by Srinagar Police last month in connection with fake currency racket.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
Amethi February 3:
Hitting the campaign trail in Uttar Pradesh, Congress' star campaigner Priyanka Gandhi on Friday asked the electorate to realise the strength of their vote and exercise their franchise for a change in the state where politics over the last 22 years has become totally "religion and caste-based".
"Election is the time when leaders come for electioneering of all kinds...I also come in your midst but who has the wisdom to recognise the reality of their candidates and the political parties...you...and take this into account when you go out to vote", Priyanka said at a public meeting in Balbhadrapur area of her brother Rahul Gandhi's parliamentary constituency here. "Times have come when the people are not getting their rights in their areas .. politics has become bad and become opportunistic and moves ahead only because of division of your vote", she said adding people and not leaders should be standing on the dias.
Stressing that it is wrong that people beg before their leaders, she said that in the past 22 years it has been caste and religion-based politics in UP which has been dominating at the cost of development. Taking a stand similar to her brother, Priyanka said that people from here go out of the state to Maharashtra and Kerala to work as they are developed and now it is time to bring a change here. Endearingly terming her brother Rahul as "stubborn", Priyanka said that when he had set out to campaign in the last assembly elections she had asked why are you working so hard as the verdict was not known, he replied that his aim was not the verdict of election but was to change the state which was lagging behind.
She said the time has come to bring this change and it was not the prestige of her family nor of the Congress candidates but of the future of their families and their children. "If Congress is strengthened and its government is formed in UP, it would would develop", she said. She said that situation has come to such a pass when parties have to introduce their candidates and specifically mention that they have not committed crimes like murder, not snatched the land of people. Priyanka would stay in the area for five days.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
New Delhi February 3:
Congress president Sonia Gandhi brought up the alleged embezzlement of funds meant for the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme — an issue that has put the Mayawati government in the dock — at a function commemorating the completion of six years of the job entitlement scheme.
Holding the State governments responsible for the shortcomings, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh directed them to ensure timely payment of wages to the MGNREGS workers. Without naming the Bahujan Samaj Party government in U.P., against which the Congress-led UPA government has been pressing for a CBI enquiry, Ms. Gandhi said loot of MGNREGS money amounted to a crime against the poor.
She said the plunder was tantamount to doing injustice to the Father of the Nation, as the scheme was named after him. Her warning that such irregularities should not be ignored was a clear message for the government to pursue the enquiry process. She also hailed the social audit process as an effective instrument to expose irregularities. Ms. Gandhi expressed happiness that the CAG had also been roped in to enquire into utilisation of the rural job scheme funds, to pinpoint the irregularities, and place accountability.
She said, apart from the social audits, reports of State Quality Monitors showed how the funds had been ‘embezzled' in U.P., following which Union Minister of Rural Development Jairam Ramesh wrote to Ms. Mayawati demanding a CBI enquiry, which she declined. When a PIL was filed before the Lucknow bench of the Allahabad High Court, the Centre in its response affidavit supported the demand for a CBI enquiry. Ms. Gandhi also pulled up the economically backward States for their ‘failure' to implement the scheme. She also deprecated the delay in the payment of wages.
Calling the delay in payment of wages as a cause for concern, Dr. Singh said owing to inadequate staff, it was not possible to carry out the verification process and hand out wages within the stipulated 15-day period. He asked the States to take up the issue on a priority basis. Pointing to the provision of payment of unemployment allowance to those not provided work within 15 days of placement of demand for a job, the Prime Minister expected the States to abide by the rule.
Hailing the project, Dr. Singh said its convergence with the Integrated Action Plan in Naxalite-affected districts had raised the aspirations of the people. Dr. Singh called for its proper implementation to speed up the development process, which would eliminate the causes that forced people to resort to the path of violence.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
New Delhi February 3:
The government is reading between the lines of today’s Supreme Court judgment to put up a strong defence for Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and former finance minister P Chidambaram.
Both have been accused by the opposition of allegedly acting as spectators as their cabinet colleague A Raja granted 122 licences at throwaway prices in an arbitrary manner. The court makes it clear that A Raja ignored the red flags waved by the finance secretary and didn’t consult the finance minister in the run-up to the issue of letters of intent by the Department of Telecom on January 10, 2008.
The court has noted that it was the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India (TRAI) which was not in favour of changing the spectrum fee regime for a new entrant. In its August 2007 recommendations, TRAI ruled out differential treatment to new entrants vis-a-vis incumbents stating this would go against the principle of a level-playing field. The Telecom Commission — under DoT — approved these recommendations but in the absence of the Finance Secretary, a non-permanent member.
In a November 2007 letter to the DoT Secretary, the then Finance Secretary expressed doubt about how the rate of Rs 1,600 crore determined in 2001 could be applied, without any indexation, to a licence to be given in 2008. To this, the DoT Secretary replied that the Cabinet decision of October 31, 2003 authorised the DoT to finalise the details of the implementation of TRAI’s recommendations. TRAI itself, it may be noted, had not suggested any change in the entry fee or licence fee, and has been pulled up by the court today.
“The notice of meeting of the Telecom Commission was not given to any of the non-permanent members. In such matter, it was absolutely necessary for the DoT to take the opinion of the Finance Ministry,” the court said. It further pointed out that the telecom minister was “very much conscious of the fact that the Secretary, Finance, had objected to the allocation of 2G spectrum at the rates fixed in 2001, he did not consult the Finance Minister or the officers of the finance ministry,” it added.
According to the Supreme Court, TRAI’s recommendations became a handle for Raja and the officers of the department of telecom who “virtually gifted away the important national asset at throwaway prices”. Besides not keeping the finance ministry in the loop, the telecom minister also rejected the suggestions made by the Prime Minister for a fair and transparent method for grant of licences in November 2007, stating this will not give them (the new players) level-playing field, the court said.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
New Delhi February 3:
The Centre decided to continue the ban imposed on Students Islamic Movement of India (SIMI) for its alleged links with certain Pakistan-based terrorist outfits including Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) and its front, Indian Mujahideen.
The decision to continue the ban, first imposed in September 2001, was taken at a meeting of the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. "The home ministry will now soon notify the extension of the ban which was supposed to have expired this month," said an official. SIMI was initially banned for two years after various intelligence reports showed its cadres were joining LeT and the outfit was providing logistical support in setting up 'sleeper cells' in the hinterland. Some of its members had also received training from Lashkar in Gulf countries and Pakistan before joining the Indian Mujahideen here.
Though SIMI had challenged the government's move in various courts and also before the Special Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act tribunals on a number of occasions, it did not get any reprieve. "It can again challenge the latest decision before the tribunal after the home ministry notifies the ban. The tribunal has the power to turn down the government's decision if it is not convinced of the evidence presented by the ministry," the official said. The outfit recently came under the spotlight when Union home ministry in January issued a 'security advisory' to Delhi and Rajasthan Police, stating that author Salman Rushdie was under grave threat from the banned group SIMI.
The ministry's advisory had come just two days before the controversial author was supposed to come to India to attend the Jaipur Literature Festival from January 20 to 24. Rushdie subsequently cancelled his visit on security grounds. The one-page advisory had stated that SIMI's whose former general secretary Saquib Nachan was "exploring the possibility of targeting Rushdie during his proposed visit". Nachan, a key accused in the 2003 Mulund train blast case of Mumbai, is currently out of jail after being given bail by special POTA court in January last year. Nachan is considered a link between SIMI and LeT.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
Mandvi February 3:
Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi said that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had no right to continue in the office in view of the Supreme Court's ruling in the 2G spectrum case.
"When the Supreme Court has given a clear verdict, Manmohan Singh has no right to stay in the post even for a minute," Modi said, addressing a Sadbhavna fast meeting here. "I dare the Prime Minister to give up his silence and resign," he said. Modi also targeted Union Home Minister P Chidambaram, saying that "the court has established charges against Chidambaram. The Supreme Court has directed the lower court to hold a trial".
"After the apex court's directives, Congress has come out in the open to save him," Modi said. "This raises a suspicion that entire Manmohan Singh-led government is making all these efforts not to save Chidambaram but all those people who are behind him and whose names have still not cropped up," Modi said. "In the history of the country, we have not seen such a scam where the country's exchequer was looted to the tune of Rs 1.76 lakh crore."
The apex court on Thursday cancelled 122 telecom licenses granted during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja, saying that first-come-first-served policy was wrong. As to Chidambaram, the Court left it to the trial court to decide on the demand for investigation of his alleged role in the 2G scam.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 3
|
|
New York February 2:
Social networking giant Facebook has said it faces risks of content censorship and other kinds of restrictions by the governments of one or more countries and this could hurt its revenue growth.
Without naming India or any other countries where it sees the possibility of censorship or other restrictions, the IPO-bound company said it would also continue to pursue an entry into China, where it has been denied an access so far. The Indian government in December 2011 had asked social media networks like Facebook and even the companies like internet major Google to act against uploading of offensive material on to the web platforms.
Since then, there has been a debate in India over the distinction between freedom of expression and derogatory content with respect to the content on internet platforms. Similar concerns have been raised in some other countries too. Without naming any nation, Facebook has said in its IPO (initial public offer) documents that it is possible that governments of one or more other countries may seek to censor content available on its website, restrict access, or impose other restrictions that may affect the accessibility of Facebook for an extended period of time or indefinitely.
"In the event that access to Facebook is restricted... our ability to retain or increase our user base and user engagement may be adversely affected, we may not be able to maintain or grow our revenue as anticipated, and our financial results could be adversely affected," Facebook said. The company plans to list itself on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) after raising about USD five billion and has filed the documents for the same with the US market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Facebook, which has over 800 million user globally, said "there are more than two billion global internet users, according to an industry source, and we aim to connect all of them." The company further said that it would continue to "evaluate entering China" and many other countries. "However, this (China) market has substantial legal and regulatory complexities that have prevented our entry into China to date. If we fail to deploy or manage our operations in international markets successfully, our business may suffer," Facebook said.
"China is a large potential market for Facebook, but users are generally restricted from accessing Facebook from China. We do not know if we will be able to find an approach to managing content and information that will be acceptable to us and to the Chinese government," it added. Access to Facebook and Twitter was blocked in China in July 2009 after riots broke out between police and protesters in the Xinjiang province. The access to Facebook is currently restricted in Iran, North Korea, and Syria as well.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
SUPREME COURT CANCELS 122 2G LICENCES
New Delhi February 2:
In a huge embarrassment to the government and a jolt to the telecom sector, the Supreme Court today cancelled 122 2G licences granted during the tenure of former telecom minister A Raja declaring it as "illegal" and blamed the government's flawed first-come-first served policy.
Bringing the curtains down on the controversial allocation by Raja in 2008, the court strongly indicted him over the manner in which he manipulated the issue of licences and ordered that the licences in 22 circles be sold by auction for which the TRAI will make fresh recommendations.
A two-judge bench comprising of Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly allowed the impugned licences to run for four months after which the cancellation order will become operative. The court imposed heavy costs of Rs5 crore on Etisalat DB Telecom Pvt Ltd (Swan Telecom Ltd), Unitech Wireless Group and Tata Teleservices Ltd, who were benefited by a "wholly arbitrary and unconstitutional" action of award of licences to them and for off-loading their stakes for many thousand crores in the name of fresh infusion of equity or transfer of equity.
It ordered Loop Telecom Pvt Ltd, S-Tel, Allianz Infratech and Sistema Shyam Tele Services Ltd, who were also beneficiary of the decision, to pay a cost of Rs50 lakhs each. The apex court said the allocation of of the 2G spectrum under Raja was "wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest apart from being violative of the doctrine of equality" to "favour some companies at the cost of the public exchequer".
The bench, while pointing out serious lapses by the DoT slammed the department and Raja for not heeding to the Prime Minister's advise that "transparency" and "fairness" should be adopted in the allocation of scarce spectrum. It also criticised the TRAI's role in the entire episode saying that the regulator's approach was "lopsided" and "contrary to the decision taken by the Council of Ministers" and its recommendations became a "handle" for Raja who "virtually gifted away the important national asset at throwaway prices".
Rejecting the Attorney General's arguments that the government's policy decision for private sector participation cannot be scrutinised by the court, the bench cited earlier judgments including the Reliance gas dispute and said that it is the solemn duty of the state to protect the national interest. "National resources be always be used in the interest of the country and not private interests," it said.
The court said that it cannot be denied that TRAI is an expert body but in view of the facts that have emerged in the case "we have no hesitation to record a finding that the recommendations made by TRAI were flawed in many respects and implementation thereof by the DoT resulted in gross violation of the objectives of national policy on telecom, 1999." The Centre adopted a wrong policy of first-come-first served in allocating the "scarce" resource at a "throw away price" to "favour" some corporations, it said.
The court said that it had no doubt that if the method of auction had been adopted for grant of licence, which could be the only rational transparent method for distribution of national wealth, the nation would have been enriched by "many thousand crores". "The exercise undertaken by the officers of the DoT between September, 2007 and March 2008, under the leadership of the then Telecom Minister A Raja was wholly arbitrary, capricious and contrary to public interest apart from being violative of the doctrine of equality," the court said.
Detailing the way Raja issued licences, the court said "Not only this, within few hours of the receipt of the suggestion made by the Prime Minister in his November 2, 2007 letter that keeping in view the inadequacy of spectrum, transparency and fairness should be maintained in the matter of allocation of the spectrum, the minister rejected the same by saying that it will be unfair, discriminatory, arbitrary and capricious to auction the spectrum to new applicants because it will not give them level playing field".
It said Raja took an arbitrary action of advancing the cut off date from October 1, 2007 to September 25, 2007, which was "actually intended to benefit some of the real estate companies who did not have any experience in dealing with telecom services". "He (Raja) simultaneously introduced cut off date as 25.9.2007 for consideration of the applications received for grant of licence despite the fact that only one day prior to this, press release was issued by the DoT fixing 1.10.2007 as the last date for receipt of the applications.
"This arbitrary action of the minister of C&IT though appears to be innocuous was actually intended to benefit some of the real estate companies who did not have any experience in dealing with telecom services and who had made applications only on 24.9.2007, i.e. one day before the cut off date fixed by the minister of C&IT on his own," the bench said.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
New Delhi February 2:
Dismissing the view that the Supreme Court’s judgement cancelling 122 2G licences was an indictment, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal on Thursday said the government will move forward in the issue after regulator TRAI make its recommendations.
“There is no indictment of the Prime Minister or the then Finance Minister (P. Chidambaram) in the Supreme Court’s judgement. If there is any indictment it is the 2003 policy (first-come, first-serve) of the National Democratic Alliance government and we only followed it,” he told a press conference shortly after the Supreme Court judgement on the issue. The government will abide by the judgement that spectrum should be auctioned which, he said, the Ministry has done by delinking spectrum from the licence in 2011 after he took over.
He said the United Progressive Alliance only followed the policy of the NDA government of FCFS, which has been declared discriminatory by the Supreme Court. The Bharatiya Janata Party, therefore, must apologise to the nation from the nation for causing huge loss to the government. Asked about the implications of the judgement on the companies like Telenor of Norway and Sistema of Russia who have pumped huge money to roll out services, the Minister said any aggrieved corporates can approach the court for relief.
The confusion has been removed and clarity has been brought in the sector and this help in getting investments in the important sector. While blaming the NDA for the 2003 policy which the UPA implemented, he sought to shift blame on irregularities in the manner in which it was implemented on the then Telecom Minister A. Raja. “The Supreme Court has clearly said that the then Minister (Mr. Raja) did not heed to the good advise of both Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and the Finance Ministry,” Mr. Sibal said.
Mr. Sibal said that there was problem in implemenation of the policy and “that is why Raja is where he is“. At the same time in reply to questions he denied he was blaming Mr. Raja or the UPA ally Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam. “DMK is our valued ally and they will continue to be our valued ally,” he said. Asked whether Mr. Chidambaram was guilty of omission by not preventing the scam, he said how can he be blamed if there was no time for him to know that some wrong was being committed.
Asked whether the FCFS policy, which is also applicable in other sector like mining, could be impacted by the judgement, the Minister said “it could be.” He, however, said that the government will not preempt a revision of the policy in other sectors. “Why should we preempt, there are statutes in other sector, let the Supreme Court strike it down,” he said. From now it is a new begining and the nation will attract more investments in a sector which is crying for the investments since last more than a year ever since the uncertainties engulfed this sector.
About losses to the government, he said “there is no question of loss if the policy (FCFS) is right and if the policy is faulty then you will have to calculate losses from October 2003 onward when the policy was implemented.” Asked what lesson the government has learnt from today’s judgement, Mr. Sibal said, “Which ever the Minister is functioning, must consult everybody... and not commit any irregularity.”
Asked about the implications of the Supreme Court’s verdict on customers, Mr. Sibal said: “The Supreme Court by its order has also made sure that the customers are not affected. Why? Because this order will not be operative for a period of four months. In the meantime the Trai will give recommendations and we will auction the spectrum. So our customers will not be impacted.” He also said at the financial implications of the verdict are yet to be seen. Further, he said at the moment the much awaited exit policy is not relevant following the court’s order.
Earlier, Trai had issued a draft exit policy seeking comments from the stakeholders aimed at providing a route to companies which want to leave the telecom sector. While stating that the details are still being worked out, DoT officials said an estimated 536 Mhz of 2G spectrum will be freed following the cancellation of the 122 licenses. “Barring five out of the 122 licenses, all have been allotted 4.4 MHz each,” DoT Secretary R. Chandrasekhar said. When asked if the order will affect FDI inflow into the sector, he replied that it will be on the contrary. “After the Supreme Court verdict, now there is clarity, sanity and hope that it will get larger investors in the sector,” Mr. Sibal said.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
New Delhi February 2:
Putting the ongoing trial in the 26/11 case in Pakistan into further uncertainty, a judicial commission of that country, which was to record statements of key persons involved in Mumbai attack probe, failed to arrive on its scheduled visit to India Thursday.
Islamabad conveyed to New Delhi through diplomatic channels that the commission would not be able to come to India on its planned visit as part of the judicial process in the 26/11 case in Pakistan, government sources said. Though no reason has been given for the cancellation of the trip, the sources said it could be due to a special hearing in the case on February 4 at a Rawalpindi court where the trial is going on.
Pakistan has not suggested any fresh date for the visit of the commission. India had earlier conveyed that the commission could come anytime between February 1 and 10. The commission was supposed to record the statement of Ramesh Mahale, the 26/11 case investigating officer and R V Sawant-Waghul, the magistrate who recorded the confessional statement of lone surviving Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab. The statements of two doctors who conducted the post-mortem of the nine slain terrorists involved in the macabre attack along with Kasab were also supposed to be recorded by it.
The visit of the commission has been pending for close to two years and it has been delayed due to one reason or the other. The trial in the Rawalpindi court also has been going on at a snail's pace and Indian officials are not very optimistic that the guilty will be punished any time soon. Curiously, four judges have been changed ever since the trial began in early 2009. Shahid Rafique is the fifth judge hearing the case. Pakistan has already issued a gazette notification on the formation of the judicial commission and has listed the names of the members who will represent Pakistan government.
The delegation that was supposed to come includes Khalid Qureshi, the head of the Federal Investigation Agency's Special Investigation Group, and Muhammad Azhar Chaudhry and Chaudhry Zulifqar-- the two main prosecutors. Five counsel of seven Pakistani suspects charged with involvement in the Mumbai attacks had informed the anti-terrorism court that they were prepared to go to India. The commission was announced by Pakistan in response to a directive from the anti-terrorism court that is conducting the trial of seven Pakistani suspects, including Lashkar-e-Taiba commander Zaki-ur Rehman Lakhvi, who have been charged with planning and financing the attacks in 2008 that killed 166 people.
The five lawyers include Lakhvi's counsel Khwaja Sultan, Riaz Cheema, Asam bin Haris and Fakhar-e-Hayat. During the Home Secretary-level talks held in New Delhi in March last year, India had agreed to the Pakistani proposal to host the judicial commission of that country as Islamabad maintained that it was necessary to send the panel to India as part of the judicial process in Pakistan. Pakistan's contention is that the charges against seven LeT operatives, including Lakhvi, lodged in a jail there, were based on Kasab's statement in Mumbai and, hence, it was necessary to submit the magistrate's and the IO's statements to the anti-terror court.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
New Delhi February 2:
On Thursday, when Justice A K Ganguly, a schoolteacher who became a Supreme Court judge, delivers his farewell speech, he would have had a busy day. He would have shared verdicts with longtime companion judge Justice G S Singhvi for the 2G case for the last time.
The Bench will decide three crucial matters in the 2G case: the alleged role of Home Minister P Chidambaram, the cancellation of 122 licences allotted by former telecom minister A Raja to private companies, and whether a special investigation team (SIT) is required to monitor the 2G investigation. It all started in October 2010, when a little-known public interest plea, demanding a court-monitored investigation into public officials and the then minister Raja, into the allotment of 2G spectrum to private companies came up in the court of the two judges.
The PIL, filed by an even lesser known NGO, Centre for Public Interest Litigation, was, many thought, destined for quick dismissal before the calling of the next case by the court master. It had, after all, been dismissed by the Delhi High Court. But the predictions went wrong. The two judges, after a quiet discussion on the bench before a waiting courtroom, decided to issue notices to the central government and Raja in person. The short hearing marked the beginning of one of the most significant Indian courtroom dramas in recent times, catapulting the two judges centrestage.
If the government had any doubts on where the court was heading, the next hearing on October 29, 2010, brought the answer. Justice Ganguly interrupted Additional Solicitor General Harin Raval to ask: “The same minister (Raja) is continuing. Is this the way a government should function?”It was a question the government found difficult to answer. Raja had to resign, only to be arrested and tried for his role in allotting 2G spectrum at “throwaway prices”. The bench was focused, direct and blunt. When Justice Ganguly received an anonymous letter alleging the court was being “managed”, he simply made it public and went ahead with the job at hand. “A letter has come to me. Allegations in the anonymous letter are that we are being managed,” he declared to the courtroom on November 25, 2010, before signalling for the hearing to start.
Justice Ganguly makes no bones about his belief that “an independent judiciary has to play a role in maintaining rule of law and the common man’s faith in the justice delivering system”. He stayed true to his belief as he delivered his separate judgment on Subramanian Swamy’s application complaining of delay by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to grant him sanction to prosecute Raja. His judgment characteristically upheld the common man’s right to directly seek sanction to prosecute the corrupt. Justice Ganguly also recommended a change in the corruption law to set the government a time limit to prevent delay in providing sanction: four months, or “deem” it given.
An insight into Justice Ganguly’s ideal of an uncompromising, independent judiciary is provided by a quote he used in the Swamy judgment: “The judiciary accepts a responsibility for the maintenance of the rule of law that embraces a willingness to oversee executive action and to refuse to countenance behaviour that threatens either basic human rights or the rule of law.” It was again Justice Ganguly who candidly said in open court on February 12, 2011 that “no government wants a strong judiciary”. He was listening to the government’s explanation for the four-year gap between the filing of chargesheet in 2006 and starting of trial in 2010 in the Amar Singh phone-tapping case.
Justice Ganguly’s disapproval of the government’s attitude of encouraging central minister Vilasrao Deshmukh despite the fact that the politician had been reprimanded by the SC for allegedly using influence to favour money lenders against the poor is well-recorded in a judgment. Again, when accused of judicial hyperactivism, Justice Ganguly in a judgment with Justice Singhvi on July 12, 2011, lashed out at their critics for taking an “elitist and status quoist approach”.
He also used his judgment to voice doubts about the advent of globalisation on the workforce. In his judgment in the case Harjinder Singh vs Punjab State Warehousing Corporation on January 18, 2010, the judge wrote: “Deep are the ditches created in our society by the so-called advance of globalisation”.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
New Delhi February 2:
The income-tax department today raided Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s favourite businessman Ponty Chadha, carrying out simultaneous searches at 19 of his premises in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi.
The raids, in Lucknow, Moradabad and Noida among other places in UP, and on his farmhouse-home in Delhi’s Chhattarpur and premises in Lajpat Nagar, began at 10.30 am and were ongoing till late on Wednesday night. I-T officials said teams had been sent to Chandigarh and Punjab, where Chadha has extensive liquor and realty businesses.
The action against Chadha, the first by a central agency, comes just a week before the first phase of polling in UP, and ahead of his daughter’s wedding, planned at the Chhattarpur farmhouse on February 9 and 10. The high profile businessman is known for lavish celebrations, with an array of politicians in attendance. Sources close to Chadha said the businessman had anticipated the raids on his premises.
An I-T officer said gas cutters and banking professionals had been called in to open a currency chest discovered in the basement of Noida’s Centrestage mall, owned by Chadha. I-T department sources said the operations had been carried out following specific inputs on tax evasion by Chadha’s companies. The success story of the Chadha family began three decades ago when Ponty’s father Kulwant Singh Chadha made his first foray into the sugar crushing business in UP.
Ponty was known for his proximity first to former Punjab chief minister Amarinder Singh and, later, to Mulayam Singh Yadav when he was chief minister of UP. He became close to Mayawati subsequently and, in 2009, bagged the entire wholesale and part retail contract for liquor in UP. I-T officials said they were acting on the basis also of reports of “mispricing” of liquor consignments, and looking at the possibility of the illegal sale of liquor by certain firms in the run-up to the UP polls.
The properties of two of Chadha’s alleged associates, Lalit Kapoor and Gurjeet Kochhar, were also searched in Delhi. The two men were likely to be questioned about certain transactions, especially over the past few months, I-T sources said. In a rare interview with media in 2009, Ponty had recalled that a strong electric shock he suffered in a childhood accident had left him partially disabled, and that made his family anxious about his future. “My parents would worry how I would pull through in life. But my family now tells me that I have done enough business to last several generations.”
During the same conversation, he had said, “Personally, I don’t have much interest in the liquor business. It is managed by around 20 of my uncles and cousins. But the problem is that whenever any one of them wins a fresh bid at a liquor auction, only Ponty Chadha’s name appears in the press.” Despite such reluctance to be described as a liquor baron, Chadha had monopolised the liquor trade in Punjab during Amarinder’s chief ministership from 2002-2007. The UP liquor coup in 2009 catapulted him to national headlines.
Cases have repeatedly come up in the Punjab and Haryana High Court by local liquor traders alleging the flouting of excise department norms to help Chadha clinch auctions. In several cases, the court has ordered re-auctions. One such case is scheduled to come up in the Supreme Court tomorrow. Chadha’s younger brothers Rajwinder and Hardeep manage the distillery, sugar crushing and paper branches of the fast-growing family empire. Chadha himself is in the high-stakes real estate and construction business.
This business had its first breakthrough in a 1993 contract for construction of a bridge over the Gandak in Bihar. A decade later, the group’s real estate assets basket includes townships, city centres, multiplexes, shopping malls and residential schools. While Noida remains the group’s favourite playground, with a 152-acre city centre being the latest project to be announced, real estate and commercial properties owned by the Chadha group are spread over Mohali, Amritsar, Agra, Meerut, Jaipur, Dehradun, Jammu, Bareilly, Lucknow and Moradabad. Last year the company announced Chadha as the chairman and managing director of the consolidated company rechristened as Waves Incorporated.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
Islamabad February 2:
Exposing the ISI’s “manipulation” of Taliban’s senior leadership and its “massive double game”, a damning NATO report says that Pakistan government remains “intimately” involved with the Afghan-based terror group.
The report leaked out on a day when Pakistan Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar was in Kabul for talks with Afghan leaders. The NATO report contains accusations that Pakistan is playing a massive double game with the West as it publicly claims to seek a political solution to the Afghan conflict, while still supporting fighters who have killed thousands of international troops. Many of the reports most serious revelations concern the scale of support to the Taliban provided by Pakistan and the influence of ISI agency. “The Government of Pakistan remains intimately involved with the Taliban,” The Telegraph quoted the report as saying. The report was first leaked to The Times newspaper and the BBC.
Reacting to the report, Khar said, “We can disregard this as a potentially strategic leak... This is old wine in an even older bottle.” The report fully exposes the relationship between the ISI and the Taliban, the BBC said. The report is based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters. It notes: “Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly”.
It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders such as Nasiruddin Haqqani, who maintain residences in the immediate vicinity of ISI headquarters in Islamabad. The report says senior Taliban leaders regularly meet with ISI officers “who advise on strategy and relay any pertinent concerns of the Government of Pakistan”. The report also suggested that captured Taliban militants believe they will return to power after the US-led coalition ends its combat role in Afghanistan in 2014.
Female professor sent anthrax to Gilani office: A university professor allegedly sent a packet containing anthrax to the Pakistani prime minister’s office in October, his spokesman said Wednesday, raising new security concerns in a country battling Islamist extremists. No one was made ill by the deadly spores in the package, which was sent by a female professor who was not otherwise identified, said Akram Shaheedi, a spokesman for Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani. He added that the motive was not clear.
Shaheedi said tests at laboratories run by Pakistan’s Council for Scientific and Industrial Research in Islamabad confirmed the substance in the package was anthrax. Shaheedi said the package was received in October. He did not say why the case was publicised only now.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
Jaunpur February 2:
The avidly wooed Muslim vote isn’t likely to go en bloc to any party this time, at least in the Muslim-dominated constituencies of Bhadohi and Jaunpur (Sadar).
Traditionally Congress supporters, Muslim voters here had gone with the Samajwadi Party following the Babri Masjid demolition in 1992. However, Mulayam Singh Yadav’s decision to join hands with Kalyan Singh cost the SP the Muslim vote. Though he has distanced himself from the former BJP leader now, it does not seem to have cut much ice. Wiser, Muslims here now intend to make their own choices, depending on the candidates put up.
In Jaunpur (Sadar)’s Guraini and Kheta Sarai villages, which go to polls on February 15, every family has at least one member working in the Gulf. Ali Ahmed says they couldn’t get government jobs due to lack of education. In the last elections, the parliamentary polls of 2009, the Muslims had voted en bloc for Ulema Council candidate Dr Taslim Ahmed Rehmani. While it did not get any seat, the Ulema Council won the community’s vote by centring its campaign on the issue of Muslims being tarred with the terror brush.
This time there is no such mobilisation. “We have nothing to do with the political situation,” says the assistant manager at the madrasa at Guraini, Abu Bakar, opening up after much goading. “In 2009, we had joined the Ulema Council. But when they too started using the same political language as the others, we decided to quit politics for good.” Locals say the madrasa stood with the SP earlier. Prior to delimitation, when Guraini and Kheta Sarai fell under Shahganj (reserved), it was the SP’s Jagdish Sonkar who won from here. Jaunpur (Sadar) had been won by the SP’s Javed Ansari.
In 2012, many villagers are inclined towards the Congress’s Nadeem Javed. A “local”, he also carries the “national” tag, having been national president of Congress students’ wing NSUI. However, sitting MLA Ansari is expected to take some of the Muslim vote. “There is no strong leadership among the community,” said Alam Khan, a resident of Alampur village. Bhadohi’s Shamsher Khan, a carpet trader in the constituency’s Qazipur area, agrees that Muslims are more inclined towards taking a call on their own. “Even illiterate voters have become intelligent. They can now think for themselves whether a certain person will be of help or not,” he says.
A general seat after delimitation, Bhadohi is seeing a tight contest between the Congress’s Tanveer Hussain and the SP’s Zahid Beg. Khan will vote for a candidate whom he knows and who knows him, and one who’s a “full-timer” in politics. That might be directed against Hussain who, a carpet trader by profession, is seen to have joined politics “just to earn name and fame”. In Maharajpur, a village of nearly 5,000 people dependent on carpet weaving, Ghulam Ali says, “Nobody does anything for us. Our business is in ruins. I haven’t decided yet, but I would like to vote for a party that will do something for the weavers.”
In 2007, the village had voted for the SP’s Surendra Patel. The neighbouring hamlet of Chaukia, that falls under Varanasi and is also involved in the carpet trade, had voted together for BJP candidate Ajay Rai in the 2007 Assembly polls because he was a social worker who visited them regularly. In the 2009 parliamentary elections, they all voted for eastern UP strongman Mukhtar Ansari, then a BSP candidate, as he was from their community. Elderly Bechan Ali, an Ansari like everyone in the village, was among those who canvassed for Mukhtar. Now, he is not so sure. “All who come here make a few promises and disappear. We have not decided yet.”
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 2
|
|
New Delhi February 1:
It's official - India is the most dangerous place in the world to be a baby girl. Newly released data shows that an Indian girl child aged 1-5 years is 75% more likely to die than an Indian boy, making this the worst gender differential in child mortality for any country in the world.
Infant (0-1 years) and child (1-5 years) mortality are declining in India and across the world, though not as fast as was hoped in India. Simultaneously, most of the world is experiencing a faster fall in female infant and child mortality than in male, on account of well established biological factors which make girls better survivors of early infancy given equal access to resources. The world's two most populous countries, however, buck this trend.
Newly released United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs ( UN-DESA) data for 150 countries over 40 years shows that India and China are the only two countries in the world where female infant mortality is higher than male infant mortality in the 2000s. In China, there are 76 male infant deaths for every 100 female infant deaths compared with 122 male infant deaths for every 100 female infant deaths in the developing world as a whole.
The released data has found that India has a better infant mortality sex ratio than China, with 97 male infant deaths for every 100 female, but this is still not in tune with the global trend, or with its neighbours Sri Lanka (125) or Pakistan (120). When it comes to the child mortality sex ratio, however, India is far and away the world's worst. In the 2000s, there were 56 male child deaths for every 100 female, compared with 111 in the developing world. This ratio has got progressively worse since the 1970s in India, even as Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Iraq improved.
The UN report is clear that high girl child mortality is explained by socio-cultural values. So strong is the biological advantage for girls in early childhood that higher mortality among girls should be seen as "a powerful warning that differential treatment or access to resources is putting girls at a disadvantage", the report says. "Higher female mortality from age 1 onwards clearly indicated sustained discrimination," says P Arokiasamy, professor of development studies at Mumbai's International Institute for Population Studies, who has studied gender differentials in child mortality in India. "Such neglect and discrimination can be in three areas: food and nutrition, healthcare and emotional wellbeing.
Of these, neglect of the healthcare of the girl child is the most direct determinant of mortality," says Arokisamy. Studies have shown that health-related neglect may involve waiting longer before taking a sick girl to a doctor than a sick boy, and is also reflected in lower rates of immunization for girls than boys. Moreover, since the outrage over India's poor child sex ratio came out of census data for children aged 0-6 years, the UN data on child mortality indicates that a campaign against female foeticide alone is not a complete solution.
"Pre-natal and post-natal discrimination are complementarily contributing to gender imbalance," agrees Dr Arokiasamy. While pre-natal discrimination in the form of sex-selective abortions is more common among better educated upper income households, post-natal discrimination or neglect is more common among poorer, less educated rural households, he adds.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 1
|
|
New Delhi February 1:
Expressing concern over corruption plaguing public life, the Supreme Court said the malady poses a "grave" danger to the country's democracy.
"Today, corruption in our country not only poses a grave danger to the concept of constitutional governance, it also threatens the very foundation of Indian democracy and the Rule of Law," Justice A K Ganguly said while delivering the verdict on the issue of granting sanction to prosecute former Telecom Minister A Raja in the 2G spectrum allocation scam. "The magnitude of corruption in our public life is incompatible with the concept of a socialist, secular and democratic republic.
It cannot be disputed that where corruption begins all rights end," he said. He further elaborated that anti-corruption law has to be interpreted in such a fashion as to strengthen the fight against corruption. "Corruption devalues human rights, chokes development and undermines justice, liberty, equality, fraternity which are the core values in our preambular vision. Therefore, the duty of the Court is that any anti-corruption law has to be interpreted and worked out in such a fashion as to strengthen the fight against corruption," he said.
He said the right of private citizen to file a complaint against a corrupt public servant is a constitutional right and competent authority must be taking action on those complaints. "The right of private citizen to file a complaint against a corrupt public servant must be equated with his right to access the Court in order to set the criminal law in motion against a corrupt public official. This right of access, a constitutional right should not be burdened with unreasonable fetters," he said while pointing out that the government has not given sanction to prosecute 126 alleged corrupt officials.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 1
|
|
New Delhi February 1:
While Gujarat CM Narender Modi kept away from polls in Uttarakhand and Punjab, it now seems certain that Modi, one of the most sought after BJP leaders for election campaigns, is not going to canvass in UP too.
Sources confirmed that Modi has not yet responded to messages from party authorities seeking to finalise his campaign dates for what are the most significant polls in the run up to the 2014 parliamentary election. Party sources said that M A Naqvi had been asked to coordinate with Modi on when he would like to campaign in UP but Modi has not shown any interest.
While his reluctance is being attributed to party president Nitin Gadkari's decision to rehabilitate his bete noire Sanjay Joshi, who is looking after the party campaign in UP, Modi seems to be having second thoughts also because of what is being seen as Gadkari's overbearing role in the entire poll process in UP. "In an election which may decide who is going to be the next PM, Modi may not want to risk everything by participating in what is turning out to be an out-and-out Gadkari show. Right now, if the party fails in the state, Gadkari will have only himself to blame,'' said a source.
Gadkari has dominated BJP's campaign in the state to the extent that he is said to be responsible for the choice of almost all candidates. Many senior leaders are upset that they were not allowed to have any say in distribution of tickets. According to insiders, Gadkari did away with the earlier practice of allowing senior leaders to have their own quota in selection of candidates and instead took upon himself to prepare the final list.
The idea of making Uma Bharati contest is also said to be Gadkari's brainchild. Many leaders in UP are said to be upset with the move but this has hardly bothered Gadkari. While he bravely owned up to the decision to admit sacked BSP minister Babu Singh Kushwaha in the party, there is no gainsaying the fact that this hurt the party and even ended up offending senior leaders bringing inner discontent to the fore.
It is learnt that Gadkari has been trying hard to rope in Modi for UP elections by sending him feelers through other leaders but Modi has not shown any inclination at all. While dates for visit by other leaders are already decided, there is no word on scheduling for Modi.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 1
|
|
Lucknow February 1:
BJP president Nitin Gadkari alleged that price rise and corruption were two sins of the Congress.
"There is resentment among people on the issue of price rise and corruption are two sins of the Congress. "These problems are due to wrong economic policies and bad governance," he told an election meeting after flagging off BJP leader Uma Bharti's rath.
Targeting the SP and the BSP, Gadkari said these parties had supported the Congress-led UPA government time and again. In this context, he said the SP and the BSP supported the Congress in the Parliamentary Accounts Committee (PAC) on the 2G spectrum issue. "They support the Congress on cut motions, they support it in the PAC. They supported the sins of the party," the BJP president said.
He accused the Congress party of spreading poison of communalism by pursuing vote-bank politics. The Constitution was opposed to religion-based reservation, Gadkari said. "The Constitution does not permit it, but they brought it for the division of the country." The BJP president said the SP, the BSP and Mayawati, who calls herself a messiah of dalits, were trying hard to get minority votes. "All the three are searching their brains on how to get minority votes," he said. Attacking the Congress, Gadkari said "how it will develop Uttar Pradesh when it has ruined the country." He said the BJP was the only alternative for the people. Uma Bharti said the Congress and its leaders should give clarifications on their sins.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 1
|
|
New Delhi February 1:
With an eye on the crucial minority vote bank, Congress released its election manifesto for Uttar Pradesh promising to develop the state’s neglected infrastructure, create more employment opportunities and provide reservation for the most backward sections of the society.
Speaking on the occasion, Union HRD Minister Kapil Sibal said, “Congress party’s manifesto promises to make Uttar Pradesh a corruption-free state. We will do everything in our capacity to improve people’s standard of living if we come to power after the Assembly Elections here.”
With an eye on attracting the Mahadalit votes, the manifesto promises a sub quota for the “most oppressed within the SCs” in government jobs and education. Along with this, STs too have not been neglected; the party has committed to pursuing a case for reinstatement of 9 tribes listed as SCs- Kols, Majhis, Korwas, Kuraus, Dhangars, Macheras, Ghasiyas, Badis and Koarais. Attempting to woo the Dalit and other backward caste voters, the Congress party promised free legal aid to the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes.
In a bid to give boost to education sector, the party promised to create one lakh vacancies for teachers across the state. Its manifesto also promises a school in every village of Uttar Pradesh and several residential schools for the SCs/STs and OBCs. The manifesto also promises that every SC/ST family would be given Rs 10,000 at the time of their daughters' wedding while all SC/ST families below poverty line would also get free electricity connections. Sibal mentioned that the Congress would form a special cell to implement the manifesto and release annual report card.
The grand old party’s manifesto promises to provide a 50% reservation for women at the panchayat level. In a bid to stop crime against women, we have promised to build a women’s police station in every district which will be managed by women police officers, the minister said. “Congress party’s manifesto promises to bring the state’s chief minister under the ambit of the Lokayukta," he said, adding, "We will also concentrate on infrastructure building, revamping road and rail network in the state.”
“The Meerut- Delhi Highway will be upgraded to world class highway, make the state power surplus within five years and set up three new greenfield airports in the state,” he said. Significantly, the party is also promising to extend the Delhi Metro to all NCR areas of UP within five years. With an aim to boost employment in the state, localised industries will be revived through developing special commercial hubs across the state, he informed.
Special economic packages like the Central package for Bundelkhand have been promised for other backward regions like Mirzapur, Sonbhadra and Chandauli. Farmers and agriculturalists, who are being assiduously wooed by the party, have been promised separate agricultural power grid to ensure farmers get adequate power supply, in fact promising eight hours supply for tube wells in the farm sector. The manifesto also promises to provide loans to farmers at cheaper interest rates of 6%. Acknowledging agriculture as a thrust area, the party promises to set up Dairy Mission on the AMUL model, a Pulses Mission, a Horticulture mission and launching of a new irrigation policy.
The 18 % minority vote bank, which all political parties in the state are hoping to cash in on, the most backward among them have been promised a reservation. In a major move to win over Muslim voters, the manifesto promises to notify Urdu as the state's second official language. To boost its prospects among the sizeable youth votebank in the state, the party is promising to launch the UP Skills and Employment mission where in two million youth will be trained and given jobs. The manifesto was released simultaneously on Tuesday afternoon from Lucknow, Allahabad, Varanasi, Kanpur, Agra, Gorakhpur, Shahjahanpur, Saharanpur, Jhansi and Bareilly.
Senior Congress leaders as well as Central ministers fanned out to these towns to launch the document. They include Congress general secretary in charge of UP Digvijay Singh, Janardhan Dwivedi, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, Law Minister Salman Khurshid, Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad, Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh, I&B minister Ambika Soni, Punjab Chief Ministerial nominee Amarinder Singh and technocrat Sam Pitroda, among others.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
February 1
|
|
New Delhi January 31:
Indicting the PMO but letting the Prime Minister off lightly on failure to decide on prosecuting the then telecom minister A Raja in the 2G case, the Supreme Court today set a limit of four months for deciding the issue of sanction for prosecution of corrupt public servants.
Allowing Janata Party President Subramanian Swamy's petition against the Delhi High Court judgement refusing to direct the Prime Minister on his plea for prosecution of Raja, the apex court upheld the right of a private citizen to seek sanction for prosecution of a public servant for corruption. Rejecting Attorney General G E Vahanvati's arguments, a bench comprising justices G S Singhvi and A K Ganguly held that Swamy had the locus standi to seek sanction.
The apex court blamed the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) for sitting on the plea to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for granting sanction to prosecute Raja. It said that those who were "duty bound" to apprise the Prime Minister about the "seriousness" of the allegations to enable him to take appropriate decision in the matter "failed" to do so. "Unfortunately, those who were expected to give proper advice to Prime Minister and place full facts and legal position before him failed to do so.
"We have no doubt that if the Prime Minister had been apprised of the true factual and legal position regarding the representation made by the appellant, he would have surely taken appropriate decision and would not have allowed the matter to linger for a period of more than one year," the bench said.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 31
|
|
New Delhi January 31:
Laying the blame on the army’s doors for the controversy over Gen V K Singh’s age issue, Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday said it occured because the force kept two sets of his date of birth for 36 years and maintained there was no civil-military confrontation.
“For 36 years, two branches of the same institution maintained two dates of birth and that is why this controversy,” he told reporters in New Delhi in his first detailed comments on the raging controversy that is before the Supreme Court now. “It is unfortunate that it took years together but I don’t agree with some of you that it is a civil-military controversy,” Mr. Antony added.
He suggested that the government had no role to play in the whole issue as this discrepancy was first noticed in 2006 by the Army headquarters and reconciled at that level then and later in 2008 by two respective chiefs.
Agreeing with Mr. Antony, Gen. Singh said the controversy over his age was the making of the Army. He also rejected suggestions that there has been a delay on the part of the Army to respond to Defence Ministry’s latest letter on his age issue saying everything does not happen “with the press of a button”. Gen. Singh said the Defence Minister was “right” in saying that the Army was responsible for the controversy over his age issue.
“Absolutely, it is within the Army. After 36 years, you suddenly decide to come up with an issue. There is something wrong with it,” the Army Chief told reporters here. He was asked to comment on Defence Minister’s statement and if the ‘original sin’ on the issue was committed within the force. “Yes, it is a problem in the Army... he is right. There is no doubt about that,” he added. The Army Chief said steps have been taken to ensure that such a controversy never recurs in future.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 31
|
|
New Delhi January 31:
France's Dassault has placed the lowest bid to supply India with 126 fighter jets in a closely watched multi-billion dollar deal.
The tender was being fought between Dassault's Rafale jet and Eurofighter's Typhoon. Further commercial negotiations will take place before a deal is signed, sources said. Sources said the government is seriously considering giving the contract to Rafale since its bid is significantly lower than that of Eurofighter's. With Rafale's bid, the deal amounts to Rs 80,000 crore.
The air force has given Rafale the L1 certificate, which acknowledges it has emerged the lowest bigger. Signing the deal could take up to six months, sources added. The defence ministry had said earlier that India would not sign a multi-billion dollar contract to buy European fighter jets before the fiscal year ends in March. The deal is to revamp ageing weapons in line with the country's rising global influence.
Not this financial year, Defence Minister A.K. Antony told Reuters in reply to a question about when the deal that has been in the works since 2007 would be signed. However, government sources told Reuters about the $15 billion deal that France's Rafale jet was the likely winner, adding that the defence ministry was now considering buying another 80 or so jets and could invite bidders excluded from the current process to take part.
Already Asia's third-largest economy and growing fast, India has emerged as the world's leading importer of weapons as it jostles with China for influence and reach on the world stage. Dassault's Rafale is competing with the Typhoon fighter made by four-nation consortium Eurofighter in what is currently one of the largest global weapons tenders.
''It is a long process. The file has not come to my table,'' Antony said, adding that the finance ministry and a Cabinet panel headed by the Prime Minister have to look at the agreement after he signs off. The Eurofighter Typhoon is built by the German and Spanish branches of EADS, Britain's BAE Systems and Italy's Finmeccanica. Dassault is French. American, Russian and Swedish bids were rejected in April.
The U.S. company Lockheed Martin has kept alive hopes of selling its F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to India. One defence ministry source with knowledge of the negotiations said the life-time cost of the tender including training and maintenance may reach $15 billion. Previous estimates put the cost around $11 billion. The Defence Ministry source said each Rafale was $4 million to $5 million cheaper than its rival and the plane was preferred by the Air Force.
Unit-wise, the French plane is much cheaper than the Eurofighter. Moreover, the Indian Airforce, which is well-equipped with French fighters, is favouring the French fighter, said the source, who asked not be named.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 31
|
|
Sitapur January 31:
Lashing out at non-Congress governments of Uttar Pradesh for "selling Ram, caste and religion" for the past 22 years, Congress general secretary Rahul Gandhi today asked voters to give five years to his party for development of the state.
"These parties have looted your hard earned money, sold Ram, religion and caste...never talked about progress and development in the past 22 years," Gandhi said addressing an election meeting here. The Congress general secretary said that he visits other states marching ahead on the path of progress and see people of the state contributing and the lack of development is UP fills him with anger.
Attacking the BJP for its India Shining slogan of 2004 and Samajwadi Party for embracing former BJP leader Kalyan Singh, he said that his party has stood alone and never embraced people like Kalyan Singh and would not do so ever. Stressing that he would not budge till the state's progress is in place, Gandhi said that there was a need to think of the future, which leaders of Uttar Pradesh were not doing. Establishing a direct contact with the audience, Gandhi sought the names of a few and got others to raise their hands during his address.
Telling the audience that the mobile phone in the hands of people in villages was a result of forward looking thinking of his father, late prime minister Rajiv Gandhi, he said that he was told about it (mobile phone) when he was 12 or 15 years old that the day phone reached villages they would wake up.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 31
|
|
Kolkata January 30:
Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee today alleged that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh did not call her during her anti-land acquisition agitation at Singur because he did not want to annoy the CPI(M).
''During my fast on the Singur land issue, the Prime Minister did not call me. Perhaps he did not want to annoy the CPI(M),'' Banerjee remarked during an interview aired on three Bengali news channels. Saying her party was a 'responsible' constituent of the UPA coalition, she noted, ''We have a responsibility to maintain the alliance. But we also have a responsibility to the people who have elected us. We have told this to the Prime Minister too.''
The Trinamool Congress carried out its activities based on policies, she said adding, ''That is why we have protested against issues like entry of FDI in retail and hike in petrol prices which directly affected the people. But some Congress leaders of the state were working like the CPI(M).'' She also wondered where the government would get the money to implement the Food Security Act, if it comes into force.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 30
|
|
New Delhi January 30:
Asking government to take up electoral reforms in the coming session of Parliament, Chief Election Commissioner SY Quraishi on Sunday said the time has come to consider the Right to reject proposal.
The CEC rejected the suggestion for state funding of elections, saying "this will only further add to the problem and not curb the use of money power in elections".
"We hope the government will bring about the pending electoral reforms soon. Reform proposals should be taken very seriously in the coming session of Parliament... The EC's authority needs to be strengthened," he said. Speaking at a panel discussion on electoral reforms, Quraishi said "time has come for us to consider the Right to Reject proposal", but said further discussion was required to prevent political parties from fielding criminal candidates in elections. Such a proposal was earlier also demanded by Team Anna.
Under this, voters will have the right to reject all the candidates in the fray if they find none to be suitable. The CEC said a number of electoral reforms have been pending with the government and sought a beginning in this regard. Turning down the idea of state funding, Quraishi said it will not help in curbing the use of black money in elections. He also rejected the idea of making voting compulsory as done in some countries like Australia.
"Voting cannot be made compulsory. In Australia too it is working hopelessly...It is practically impossible," he said, adding that such a law could lead to crores of cases because the law has to be implemented properly. Quraishi also sought more powers for EC to deregister political parties indulging in malpractices and also to fix the limit for money to be spent in elections. The CEC also sought a ban on all political advertisements by incumbent governments six months ahead of elections. He also sought a ban on opinion polls ahead of polls, even though the exit polls have been banned as per law.
"If exit polls can be banned, so can opinion polls be...Just as paid news, we have been getting complaints about opinion polls being paid too," he said. "There should also be a ban on any kind of advertisement 48 hours before the polls to enable the voters to decide on their own. At present, print media is allowed to have advertisements. We want even print media ads by political parties and leaders should also be banned," he added.
Quraishi also wanted restrictions to be imposed on door to door campaigning as it led to malpractices like exchange of money and liquor during personal contact by candidates.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 30
|
|
Indore January 30:
Congress General Secretary Digvijay Singh lashed out at Delhi's Jama Masjid's Shahi Imam Syed Ahmed Bukhari, who has extended support to Samjawadi Party, saying that he was "a man with communal leanings".
Digvijay, who is also party in-charge of Uttar Pradesh, told reporters that "Bukhari is the same person who had praised Osama Bin Laden and expressed anger over the latter's killing. He is a communal type of man". Continuing his tirade against the cleric, Digvijay said, "after the 2002 Gujarat riots, Bukhari had issued a diktat in 2004 asking voters to vote for BJP. Earlier, Kalyan Singh, who is responsible for the demolition of Babri masjid, rode the bicycle of Samajwadi Party, and now Bukhari is riding it".
The former Madhya Pradesh chief minister also claimed that when Bukhari was opposing Samajwadi Party, he was party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav who had advised him to do "imamat and not siyasat" (do religious work and not politics). The senior Congress leader also said there was a dissent in SP over Bukhari. Replying to a query, Digvijay clarified that neither Bukhari has given any statement in favour of Congress nor the party would prefer to take his support.
Targeting the BJP, he said the fact that the party brought Uma Bharti to UP shows it is suffering from leadership bankruptcy in the state. "BJP president Nitin Gadkari did not trust the capabilities of seasoned leaders like Rajnath Singh, Kalraj Mishra, Lalji Tandon and Surya Pratap Shahi in Uttar Pradesh. That is why he has got Uma Bharti from Madhya Pradesh, which shows the bankruptcy in BJP leadership," Digvijay said.
In its election manifesto, the BJP has said that it is dedicated to removing obstacles for building the Ram Mandir, which was an attempt to provoke "religious sentiments," he alleged. He also demanded an inquiry into the state Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan. On accusations that the government had bowed to some Muslim fundamentalists on the issue of Salman Rushdie's visit to the Jaipur Literature Festival, he said, "Rushdie was never told not to come to India. He does not need any visa to come to the country and he is free to visit any time."
Attacking BJP government in Madhya Pradesh, he alleged that "Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan and industries minister Kailash Vijayvargiya were two sides of the same coin and both were indulging in corruption." "I challenge the BJP and RSS to level even one allegation of corruption against me. The question of proving will come later on," he said while addressing a rally at Reliance ground here.
The extent of corruption in the state can be seen "from instances where crores of rupees have been seized from clerks, store keepers and peons during raids," he alleged. The state will be buried under the burden of over Rs 1 lakh cr debt by next year, which shot to Rs 94,000 cr under the BJP government from Rs 26,000 cr during Congress rule, he claimed.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 30
|
|
New Delhi January 29:
In a hardening of its stand ahead of the Supreme Court hearing, the Defence Ministry has directed that the Army's records should be corrected to show that Army Chief Gen.V K Singh's year of birth is 1950, contrary to his stand that he was born one year later.
The Defence Ministry has written six days back to the AG's branch, Army's official record keeper, which has so far maintained that the Gen Singh's date of birth was May 10, 1951, that it should be reconciled with other records which show the date as May 10, 1950. In its letter, the ministry is understood to have sought a compliance report. The hearing on the age issue will come up before the apex court on February 3.
While the AG's branch has maintained Gen Singh's date of birth as May 10, 1951, the Military Secretary's branch records it as May 10, 1950. The move appears to be to reconcile the two dates in Army records and is an indication of the tough stance of the government against Gen Singh, who has moved the Supreme Court on his age issue. In its first order rejecting Army Chief's contention on July 21, the Defence Ministry had asked the AG's branch to record 1950 as Gen Singh's year of birth.
In its July 21 decision, the Ministry had declared the order issued by the Adjutant General (Manpower and Planning) on February 25 directing amendment of the date of birth as May 10, 1951 instead of May 10, 1950 as recorded as "null and void and non est". Soon after the order was issued by the Ministry, the Army chief had filed a statutory complaint with Defence Minister A K Antony reiterating that his date of birth should be accepted as May 10, 1951. Army Headquarters had later openly questioned the decision, saying that the date of birth mentioned in his matriculation certificate cannot be ignored.
It had said the Defence Ministry has arrived at its decision on the issue on the basis of what it was told by the MS Branch which has no jurisdiction on such issues. After the Ministry rejected his statutory complaint on December 30, Gen Singh moved the Supreme Court on January 16 challenging the government decision of not accepting his assertion on his date of birth issue. As per the 1950 date of birth, Gen Singh will have to leave office on May 31, this year whereas acceptance of May 10, 1951 would give him an extension of ten months in office.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 29
|
|
Davos January 29:
Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani has said that there was "no chance" of a military coup in Pakistan ever as all stakeholders including the army, desires democracy and stability in the country.
"I don't think there will be a coup in Pakistan ever. There is no threat to democracy," Gilani told reporters on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum (WEF) at Davos in Switzerland. No state institution, including the military, or the people of Pakistan want a coup and all stakeholders favour a democracy, he said.
There was "no chance" of a military takeover, he said. Gilani's remarks came against the backdrop of the worst political crisis endured by his nearly four-year-old government -- a stand off with the military over an alleged memo that had sought US help to prevent a possible coup after the killing of Osama bin Laden last year.
Gilani also spoke on a host of other issues, including Pakistan-US ties following the cross-border NATO air strike that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers in November last year. He described the incident as a "turning point" in ties that created a "bad taste". Even before the NATO attack, there were a number of other incidents that had strained ties between the two countries to a large extent, he said yesterday.
Pakistan's parliament will define the new terms of engagement for the US, Gilani said. He hoped these new terms would be "more productive and lasting". Under the policies of the previous military regime, former President Pervez Musharraf took all decisions without taking the people into confidence, he remarked. "If there is no support of the public, no one can win a war," Gilani said. Asked about US drone strikes in Pakistan's tribal belt, Gilani said the country was against the spy plane campaign as it was "illegal and counterproductive".
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 29
|
|
Lucknow January 29:
BJP today challenged AICC general secretary Rahul Gandhi to become the Prime Minister of the country before the 2014 general elections.
It claimed that Congress and other political parties were just fighting for minority votes, while the majority community was being ignored in the Uttar Pradesh elections. 'If the Congress has the courage then Rahul Gandhi should come and take over the reins from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh for the next two years,' said BJP general secretary and spokesperson Ravishanker Prasad while commenting on the promises made by Congress leaders to the people of Uttar Pradesh during election meetings.
Talking to mediapersons, Mr Prasad alleged that Congress and other parties, including the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, were just interested in Muslim votes while the majority community was being ignored. 'Salman Rushdie has been coming to India frequently for the past 23 years even after ban but suddenly preventing him to enter the country was just a move to appease the hardliner Muslims before the UP assembly polls,' he added.
He also questioned SP supremo Mulayam Singh Yadav that how would he give 18 per cent reservation to the Muslims in UP as per his promise made during the election meetings. Holding both the Congress and the SP responsible for the backwardness of the Muslim community, the BJP leader alleged that Congress has never cared for the Muslims during his over 60 years of rule in the country.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 29
|
|
Islamabad January 29:
Twenty two Indian fishermen have been arrested for fishing in Pakistani territorial waters off the coast of Karachi, reports say.
The fishermen were arrested on Saturday by the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency, the Associated Press of Pakistan reported. Four of their boats were also seized. The Indians were handed over to police for further investigation.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 29
|
|
Imphal January 29:
An estimated 82 per cent of the electorate on Saturday exercised their franchise in Manipur Assembly elections which was marred by militant violence that claimed seven lives, including that of an ultra.
Chief Electoral Officer P C Lawmkunga said as per preliminary official reports, 82 per cent of the 17.50 lakh electorate cast their votes even as details from the state's nine districts were awaited. Deputy Election Commissioner Alok Shukla said in New Delhi that a person, posing as a voter, entered a polling station in an interior area in Sugnu assembly constituency in Chandel district at around 12:30 and started firing indiscriminately, killing a CRPF man, three polling persons and a voter on the spot.
An injured voter, who was taken to Imphal in a helicopter, succumbed to bullet injuries. The shooter, who is yet to be identified, was also gunned down by CRPF personnel posted at the polling booth. Bombs suspected to have been planted by militants were seized and defused before the start of polling in Khurai Chingangbam area, Sawombung High School, Khomidok in Imphal East district and Naoremthong High School area in Imphal West district, official sources said.
There were also reports from six other places in the state where mobs damaged Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) and in another incident miscreants snatched an EVM, said Shukla. Two CRPF personnel on poll duty were killed in an ambush by militants in Ukhrul district yesterday, the sources said. Alok Shukla said the final poll percentage would be available only after receiving details from across the state. As polling continued till late due to long queues inside polling booths, election officials hoped the turnout would be higher.
The state had witnessed a polling percentage of 84.7 per cent in the 2007 general assembly elections while it was lower at 67.8 per cent during the 2009 Lok Sabha elections. Today's voting saw the fate of Chief Minister O Ibobi Singh (Thoubal), Forest Minister and Congress leader Th Debendra (Jiribam), Congress nominee and Speaker I Hemochandra Singh (Shingjamei), former chief minister and NCP chief Radhabinod Koijam (Thangmeiband) and Manipur people's party (MPP) leader and former deputy chief minister] L Chandramani Singh (Patsoi) sealed in EVMs.
A total of 279 candidates, including 15 women, were in the fray for the 60-member Manipur assembly. The EC had set up 2,365 polling stations and appointed 19 general observers, nine police observers and 13 expenditure observers, besides 64 assistant expenditure observers and 135 micro observers for smooth and fair polls in the state. While two helicopters were also pressed into service and video cameras used in these polls, live webcasting of polling was done in 60 polling stations.
Two new features of this poll in Manipur were allowing voting through postal ballots to 197 members of insurgent groups lodged in camps under the Suspension of Operations (SOO) agreements and taking photographs of all voters exercising their franchise. Around 350 companies of security personnel, including 270 central para military personnel, were deployed besides the state armed police to ensure free and fair poll. A helicopter was also kept on standby for emergencies. The run-up to the election witnessed several militant attacks.
A coordination committee of seven major militant groups had called for a ban on all election meetings and campaigning by Congress candidates. Congress and its partner CPI, which comprise the ruling Secular Progressive Front, fought separately. While Congress contested all the 60 seats, CPI did so in 24. Trinamool Congress, which has one member in the outgoing assembly and is an ally of Congress in West Bengal contested in 47 seats on its own. Peoples Democratic Front, an opposition five-party alliance comprising Manipur Peoples Party, NCP, CPI-M, Janata Dal (U) and RJD, contested 43 seats.
BJP fielded candidates in 19 seats and Manipur State Congress Party (MSCP) in 34. Manipur unit of Nagaland-based party, Naga Peoples Front (NPF), contested in 12 consttuencies in the hills.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 29
|
|
Dehradun January 29:
One day after it vowed to abolish the recently- promulgated "Muslim"quota within the OBC quota , BJP attacked Congress for promising the minority community a share proportional to their population within the larger "backward" reservation scheme and attacked its rivals of engaging in "competitive communalism".
Reacting to the promise in Congress's "Vision Document", BJP leader Arun Jaitley on Saturday dubbed the document a "division document". "The Vision Document of Congress seems more like division document as it states about providing reservation on the basis of religion. I want to ask Congress to reconsider it as it is neither in the interest of the nation nor any political party", agency reports quoted the BJP leader saying in Dehradun.
He alleged that the Congress proposal was in effect a faith-based quota which was not allowed under the Constitution, was divisive and would hurt the genuine interests of backward classes, warning "this deprivation could agitate the people belonging to backward classes and lead to tension in the society". The focus on the "Muslim quota" which has become a major wedge issue in the polls is consistent with BJP 's plan to tape into any unrest among politically significant OBCs over the proposal to hive off a part of the OBC pie exclusively for "backwards" belonging to the minority community.
The saffron outfit which was once taunted as "Brahmin and Bania" party because of its narrow upper caste base expanded aggressively beyond its social core to embrace "backwards" the 90s. It appeal shrank equally fast to be confined to the upper castes. The party sees in the "Muslim quota" an opportunity to renew its appeal to the OBCs, feeling confident that it will be the sole beneficiary of any angst among the "backwards" over the quota as dependence of SP and BSP on Muslim votes has seen them trying to better Congress' s outreach to Muslims.
The calculation came off clearly in Jaitley's remarks at Dehuradun on Saturday. "UP has become a battleground for competitive communalism", he said. BJP is comfortable playing up the "quota issue" for another reason as well: it allows the party to play its old appeasement" theme without sounding overtly "communal". The invocation of constitutional aversion towards faith-based quotas invokes fears of communal separateness getting institutionalized and kindles fears of the consequences can , its strategists hope, will resonate with groups which have not been sympathetic to its lament about the pampering of Muslims.
He said providing reservation on the basis of religion would not only divide the society but also deprive backward classes of their genuine rights. " Jailey accused Congress of seeking to exacerbate divisions within society in order to win election. Meanwhile, senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Sudheendra Kulkarni criticized the vision document of Congress in Lucknow.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 29
|
|
New Delhi January 29:
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said the country needs more youth leaders to infuse creativity, energy and dynamism in different fields of national endeavour.
"I have great faith in the youth of our country. I have no doubt that given the right opportunity, they will rise to the occasion. "Our country needs many more youth leaders to infuse creativity, energy and dynamism in different fields of national endeavour," Singh said while addressing the NCC's annual rally at the Garrison Parade Ground here.
Singh, who took the salute of an impressive parade by NCC's mounting and marching contingents, also lauded their contribution in various fields including sports and community service. "I am very happy to learn that NCC cadets extended invaluable help in the aftermath of the serial bomb blast in Mumbai and the earthquake last year," he said. Many national leaders including freedom fighter Subash Chandra Bose were NCC cadets, Singh said.
The Prime Minister also conveyed his wishes to cadets from other countries and asked them to carry back message of friendship, love and peace from India. Cadets representing 17 directorates dotted the landscape with vibrant colours at the ground, where the Prime Minister also distributed awards to the cadets. The march past was followed by a spectacular display of various skills by the cadets of the NCC's three wings. Particularly eye-catching was the creation of a modern war-field by the Army wing cadets of NCC, who carried out thrilling and daring drops from helicopters.
|
|
Source :
Punjab Mail Online
|
|
News Date :
January 29
|
|
|
|
|
|