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Uma, Vasundhara, Raman ready to be in saddle
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Jogi’s image did him in BSP suffers in MP due to split Hooda to meet Sonia |
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Adjournment motion on PSU issue rejected SC okays action against men avoiding tough posting Chinks in
Cong-NCP alliance SC questions Punjab interest in suicide case Australia eases visa rules Treat HIV patients properly: NHRC
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Uma, Vasundhara, Raman ready to be in saddle Bhopal, December 5 According to Raj Bhavan sources, he has been asked to continue with his responsibilities till a new government is constituted. Meanwhile, BJP’s Chief Minister in-waiting Ms Uma Bharti will be administered the oath of office and secrecy on December 8 at the Lal Parade Ground. Of the 230 seats in the state, the BJP had won 172 and the Congress 39. JAIPUR: Newly elected BJP legislators would meet here tomorrow to elect state party chief Vasundhara Raje as their leader to give Rajasthan its first woman Chief Minister. The first meeting of the 120 BJP MLAs has been convened at the state party headquarters here tomorrow morning in which the Union Finance Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, and party general secretary Pramod Mahajan would be present as observers, state general secretary of BJP Prakash Chandra said. It would be a mere formality as Ms Raje has already been chosen by the BJP high command to lead the party government, he said. It has already been announced that Ms Raje would take oath of office on December 8 at a public gathering in “Amroodon ka Baagh”, the open ground where all political rallies are held. Meanwhile,
according to reports from Raipur former Union Minister Raman Singh was today elected leader of the Chhattisgarh BJP Legislature Party to become the new Chief Minister. Mr Raman Singh, an MP from Rajnandgaon who did not contest the Assembly poll, was elected at a meeting of the newly elected legislators attended by party president M. Venkaiah Naidu, general secretary Sanjay Joshi, former Union Minister Dilip Singh Judeo and Union Minister Ramesh Bais. —
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Jogi’s image did him in New Delhi, December 5 Unlike the neighbouring Madhya Pradesh, lack of development was not an issue in Chhattisgarh. People all over the state felt a visible change in the past three years, for which the BJP also tried to take credit by claiming that the funds had come from the Centre. Roads were built in all districts and investment flowed into the state. Chhattisgarh was not prepared for caste politics practised by Mr Jogi. The former Chief Minister played the tribal card to the hilt even as the Opposition lost no opportunity to question his tribal origins. Mr Jogi sought to weaken the Opposition through defections, but some of his actions were seen to take the political battle to family turf. Having direct access to Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Mr Jogi was known to often disregard advice of the party general secretary in charge of the state. Chhattisgarh was one of the few states that had three AICC leaders taking care of the state in the past three years. Mr Jogi's ministers felt powerless as he centralised administration and patronised a few IPS and IAS officers. Traders in Raipur and Bilaspur, who also catered to the needs of neighbouring Orissa, felt stifled under Mr Jogi's rule. Besides the new rules that were seen to be stringent, the business community was fearful of selective raids. The perceived interference of Mr Jogi's son in the administration was resented by the people. The former Chief Minister was alleged to have taken on the Centre by sending a "forged" letter to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. Mr Vajpayee enjoys wide popularity in Chhattisgarh and Mr Jogi suffered by targeting him in his election campaign. Mr Jogi promoted his own loyalists over certain senior party leaders, which led to heartburn within the state Congress. His was the last word in the distribution of the party ticket and disgruntled workers felt they had not been heard by the high command. The cash-on-tapes controversy did little to boost the Congress prospects. On the other hand, Mr Dilip Singh Judeo's resignation and subsequent reports about the controversy lent credence to the impression about a conspiracy having been hatched at the Chief Minister's house. It was a deliberate Jogi-versus-rest electoral fight in which the former Chief Minister hoped to ride a wave of empathy. His assiduous wooing of the tribes and Dalits and call to the Chhattisgarhi pride did not pay off due to the BJP's counter propaganda among the tribal people. Mr Jogi also disregarded the suggestion of certain central leaders of accommodating Mr V.C. Shukla in the Congress. As it turned out, Mr Shukla's Nationalist Congress Party damaged the Congress prospects in about 30 constituencies. |
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BSP suffers in MP due to split Bhopal, December 5 The BSP candidates came second in 17 constituencies. Quite a number of its candidates lost by small margins. A united BSP could have definitely fared better. The party's state unit president, Mr Phool Singh Baraiya, who had worked hard for the past several years to make the BSP a formidable force in Madhya Pradesh, had formed a new party at the end of October after he, and several others, were expelled from the party by Ms Mayawati for their refusal to agree to an electoral understanding with the Congress. Mr Baraiya, a sitting MLA, lost to Mr Kamalapat Arya of the BJP in his Bhander constituency. The Samajwadi Party had won in four seats in 1998 but there was only one member left in the Madhya Pradesh Assembly after Chhattisgarh was carved. This time the Samajwadi Party has won seven seats and seven of its candidates were runners-up. The most spectacular performance has been shown by the Gondwana Ganatantra Party (GGP). In 1998, only one member of the GGP was elected. The GGP has this time sent three members to the Madhya Pradesh Assembly while three others came second. |
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Security around Ayodhya tightened Lucknow, December 5 “We are taking no chances and have tightened security around Ayodhya,” Director General of Police V.K.V. Nair told The Tribune today. “Additional para-military forces have been deployed there and more forces are on their way.” He said the police was prepared to meet any eventuality. |
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Hooda to meet Sonia New Delhi, December 5 The meeting would focus on the party strategy to prepare for the forthcoming general election in the state and to corner the state government for its failure on various fronts, he told The Tribune here today. Dismissing reports of differences within the party, Hooda said he would discuss the ways to project the Congress as an alternative to the people of the state. He said a meeting of party MLAs would be called within a fortnight to chalk out the party’s agitational programme. He said the ruling by the Supreme Court on teachers’ recruitment and release of convicted prisoners had placed the Chautala government in a corner. Added to this was the failure of the state government on the SYL canal issue, which is severely affecting the interests of farmers of the state. |
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Adjournment motion on PSU issue rejected New Delhi, December 5 "At no point did the Central Vigilance Commissioner, Mr P. Shankar mention any name or make any allegation regarding any Central minister. There are no complaints regarding the ministers demanding money from the PSU chiefs," Mr Joshi said while giving his ruling on matter. He said while the matter was "important" it did not merit adjournment of the entire business for this purpose. Mr Joshi said he had called for a ‘factual note’ from the government on the matter as the adjournment notice moved by Opposition members was essentially based on reports appearing in the media. Referring to authority on Parliamentary procedures -Kaul and Shakdher - the Speaker said reports appearing in the media, unless admitted by the government, could not be accepted as authoritative for purposes of an adjournment motion. Rejecting the notices, he said as per the note provided by the government, the CVC had met the Prime Minister on October 16 and briefed him about the initiatives taken by the CVC during the past one year. "Further, the CVC delineated various measures which could be taken towards promoting economy and accountability in the functioning of the PSUs," Mr Joshi said. He said the CVC underlined the importance of removing the misplaced fear on the minds of senior public sector executives about vigilance which sometimes led to delay in decision making. On the alleged bribery issue involving a Union minister, Mr Joshi said the matter could be discussed in the House after the Prime Minister gave a statement on it. "I have, therefore, separated this matter from the other matter relating to the alleged misuse of PSUs by some ministers," he said. |
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SC okays action against men avoiding New Delhi, December 5 The ruling was given by a Bench comprising Mr Justice Doraiswamy Raju and Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat on an appeal by the Centre against the Solan and Sirmaur Districts Sessions Judge and the Himachal Pradesh High Court judgements, quashing an order of ITBP’s Assistant Commandant (AC) sentencing a personnel to three years imprisonment for overstaying sanctioned leave. “In our view deterrent punishment must be resorted to when such absence is resorted to avoid and evade undertaking a testing or trying venture or deployment essential at any given point of time, and not as a routine in the normal course,” the court said. |
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Chinks in
Cong-NCP alliance Mumbai, December 5 Congress party leaders here believe that the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party in preparation for a countrywide alliance with the BJP was sabotaging their political prospects in the state. Earlier this week, BJP general secretary Pramod Mahajan, a Maharashtra politician, added fuel to the fire when he spoke of NCP support for the BJP during and after the assembly elections in Chhattisgarh. Mr Mahajan’s negotiations with Mr Pawar have also led to speculations here that the BJP is exploring a tie-up with the NCP in the forthcoming elections. However, BJP’s ally, Shiv Sena has so far kept mum on the issue though its leader Bal Thackeray has never bothered to hide his dislike for Pawar and Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal, a breakaway Shiv Sena leader. |
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SC questions Punjab interest in suicide case New Delhi, December 5 "Why the state is before us? Because two officers of their liking are under shadow. The state should have remained neutral. Should the state intervene in the matter between two individual officials?" a Bench comprising Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice B.P. Singh observed while rejecting the Punjab Government's appeal against the high court's order. When a direction had been issued by the high court for the registration of a case, how was the state aggrieved? "It seems that the state wants to protect certain officers," the court observed. The alleged suicide was committed by ASI Rajiv Kumar in 2000 when posted in Kapurthala district. His father, Mr Brij Mohan Swarup, a Deputy Superintendent of Police, in a complaint to the then Director-General of Police had alleged that his son had committed suicide because of harassment by his superior officers. Subsequently, two inquiries were conducted against the then Kapurthala SSP, Mr Iqbal Singh, and the SP, Mr Manish Chand, and both were cleared of the charges, Senior Advocate Sushil Kumar, appearing for Punjab along with Additional Advocate-General Bimal Roy Jad, informed the court. State government counsel said as per the inquiry the allegations of suicide were based on a photocopy of a purported suicide note the complainant claimed to have found two and a half years after the incident at the house of the deceased. Mr Sushil Kumar alleged that the complaint had been filed by the father of the ASI "to settle his personal score" with the senior police officers, "who were honest and upright." However, the court was not convinced with the stand taken by the Punjab Government, and said even if there was personal rivalry between the complainant and the two senior police officers, why should the state show undue interest in challenging the order for registering an FIR? "The complaint before the high court was simply that the inquiry in the case was not being done as per the law," Mr Justice Hegde observed. |
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Australia eases visa rules New Delhi, December 5 There are at present some 12,000 Indian students in Australia, over 90 per cent of whom are pursuing postgraduate studies in Information Technology, engineering, management, accounting, applied science and hospitality. New fields of study like biotechnology, communication studies, and art and design are also becoming popular with Indian students. |
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Treat HIV patients properly: NHRC New Delhi, December 5 The direction came in the wake of a complaint by an unemployed HIV positive patient that he had been denied proper treatment both by government and non-government hospitals in Delhi, a commission press note said today. |
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