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New Delhi, July 26 The third round of Sino-Indian Special Representatives-level talks on the boundary issue started here today between National Security Adviser J.N. Dixit and Chinese Vice Foreign Minister Dai Bingguo. 
In video: (28k, 56k)
Iranian minister meets
Natwar
Mufti: talks with Hurriyat
soon
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BJP to move SC on HC order on
bandh
Left parties flay fuel price
policy
Uproar in House over staff
stir
Punjab will abide by SC ruling, says CM
Vajpayee meets
RSS leaders Cong flays NDA’s boycott
decision Warrant against ex-minister in 21-year-old case Trial stayed in Bilkis case
Tainted Orissa minister
resigns
SC quashes PIL against HC
judges
Nanavati panel gets extension
SC notice to Centre on senior citizens
MiG-21s very capable, says air
chief Aug 21 AICC meeting to be a tribute to
Rajiv
Cabinet okays
Pandey elected UP Speaker
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Sino-Indian talks take
off
New Delhi, July 26 The talks, which are meant to tackle the border dispute between the two countries from the political perspective rather than the Expert Groups of either side, will continue tomorrow. Mr Dixit’s delegation included Indian Ambassador to China Nalin Surie, Additional Secretary in the Ministry of External Affairs Nirupama Rao and Mr Ashok Kanth, Joint Secretary looking after China affairs in the MEA. The Chinese team comprised senior officials of the Foreign Ministry. Mr Dixit, a former Indian Ambassador to China, replaced Mr Brajesh Mishra as India’s Special Representative for talks with China after the United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government assumed office in New Delhi. Mr Mishra had led the Indian side at the two previous rounds of talks, held in New Delhi and Beijing. The two governments had asked their Special Representatives to look at the boundary dispute after more than 10 rounds of official-level talks failed to make much headway in resolving the issue. |
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Iranian minister meets
Natwar
New Delhi, July 26 Foreign Office spokesman Navtej Sarna told reporters this evening that Mr Kharrazi invited Mr Natwar Singh to Iran, a proposal which the External Affairs Minister accepted. The dates of his visit to Iran would be worked out in due course through diplomatic channels. The spokesman said the talks between the two foreign ministers spilled over to a working lunch and covered a wide gambit in bilateral, regional and international affairs Boosting bilateral trade and stepping up cooperation in the transport sector dominated the discussions. The proposed North-South corridor, which envisages to link India, Iran and Russia through a land-and-sea route also came up for discussion. |
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Mufti: talks with Hurriyat
soon
New Delhi, July 26 The Chief Minister, who today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Home Minister Shivraj
Patil, said the process of talks with Hurriyat Conference had come to a temporary stand-still but it would begin again soon. There is a general understanding among the people of the state that there cannot be any other alternative to talks for improving the situation, Mr Sayeed said. Asked about the spurt in militancy including two attacks on Deputy Chief Minister Mangat Ram Sharma, he said despite violent incidents yearing for peace among people of the state was strong. He said that cross-border infiltration was continuing but did not say if it had increased or reduced. In his meeting with the Prime Minister, Mr Sayeed said the state’s financial requirements for the current fiscal year would be Rs 4,412 crore. Mr Sayeed urged the Prime Minister to consider providing Rs 700 crore to finance the additional spending on power and liability arising out of merging 50 per cent DA with basic pay. The state, he said, was keen to meet the demand of the employees. A state government spokesman said the Prime Minister asked Planning Commission Deputy Chairperson to work out details about the demands. The spokesman said total Central assistance to fund Jammu and Kashmir’s plan was expected to be Rs 3800 crore this year. Mr Sayeed also had a one-to-one meeting with Dr Manmohan Singh for about 20 minutes. |
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BJP to move SC on HC order on
bandh
New Delhi, July 26 “The BJP is a responsible political party and does not wish to join issue with the legalism involved in the judgement, which would, at an appropriate time, be raised on various judicial forums. However, since the issue concerns the right of political parties to organise protests, the BJP is concerned about several consequences emanating from the judgement,” BJP spokespersons Arun Jaitley told newspersons. “Is it an encroachment upon free expression? Will it in future be extended to all trade union protests where members of trade unions picket at the gate of a factory? Will it apply to every section of society, including the traders, employees, lawyers, etc... Since this involves larger political and constitutional issues that can seek to encroach upon the right to express and right to protest, all political parties and sections of society must express their opinion on this issue,” he said. Spelling out the BJP’s stand on the issue, he said “the BJP believes that it is a fundamental right of every citizen, every political party to organise protests. We are committed to non-coercive and non-violence instruments of protests.” Meanwhile, the BJP condemned the reported decision of the UPA government to remove all photographs of the former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee along the national highways. “This is part of a series of actions taken by the UPA government, which smacks of arrogance and intolerance,” Mr Jaitley said, adding that it had been the practice to honour various leaders, including former Prime Ministers, who have made contributions to the country. “It is another unfortunate precedent, which the UPA government has set. It will give rise in future for reciprocal tendencies to change the names of various projects, schemes, structures and institutions which are named after the national leaders,” he added. |
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Left parties flay fuel price
policy
New Delhi, July 26 “Such freedom, however, cannot be exercised to continuously shift the burden of any increase in the international crude prices on
to the consumer automatically,” a joint statement issued by the four Left
parties here said. The Cabinet has decided that oil firms - Indian Oil Corp, Bharat Petroleum Corp, IBP and Hindustan Petroleum Corp - may now raise or lower the petrol and diesel prices by up
to 10 per cent every
fortnight following variations in the cost. The new pricing policy will come into effect from July 31, when the next fortnightly revision is due. The statement said the oil PSUs, whose accumulated profits have soared since the dismantling of the administrative price mechanism, should also share the burden and the benefit of lower international prices should invariably be passed on to the consumers rather than shoring up the profits of the oil PSUs. Left parties asked the Congress-led UPA government to bring forward much-needed reform in the duty structure of the petroleum products in order to give relief to the people. The prices of petroleum products in India are unusually high because of the high import and excise duties. The UPA government is committed to review this duty structure and this should be done at the earliest, keeping in mind the need to provide relief to the people who are already suffering from periodic hikes in the prices. “If such restructuring of the duty structure is done, then the much-talked about high levels of subsidies for certain petroleum products can be scaled down,” it added. |
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Uproar in House over staff
stir
Dehra Dun, July 26 With the Opposition quizzing the government on the delayed government staff strike, there was uproar in the Assembly. The members trooped into the well of the House and raised slogans. Pandemonium led to adjournment of the House till noon and later for the day. The strike is hampering smooth functioning of various government departments, state BJP President Bhagat Singh Koshiyari said the government ought to look into their demands and resolve the issue to avoid further hindrance in the administrative work. |
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Punjab will abide by SC ruling, says CM
New Delhi, July 26 Replying to a volley of questions on the SYL Canal issue, the Chief Minister said the Punjab Termination of Agreements Act was enacted to “protect the interests of the state.” Asked if he would resign if the SC ruling on Presidential
reference did not uphold the step taken by him, the Chief Minister said “there is no connection between the two.” The Chief Minister, who has sought appointments with Congress president Sonia Gandhi, said he had read “media reports” about the Congress chief being unhappy with him over the controversial Punjab Act. “If she is angry, she will tell on my face,” the Chief Minister said. Capt Amarinder is expected to tomorrow meet Union Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who was recently put in charge of Punjab in the AICC reshuffle. |
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Vajpayee meets RSS
leaders New Delhi, July 26 BJP chief Venkaiah Naidu said later that it was an “informal” meeting in which post-election situation was discussed. RSS spokesman Ram Madhav said there was no directive from the Sangh. On Mr Vajpayee visiting the RSS headquarters after six years, Mr Madhav contended he was unable to do so as he was the Prime Minister. |
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Cong flays NDA’s boycott
decision New Delhi, July 26 By boycotting these committees, the Opposition is not only behaving
irresponsibly but it is also displaying a lack of faith and respect for the institution of
Parliament, he said. “There is no justification to warrant such an action,” Mr. Sharma said. Basically, the BJP has been quarelling with the electoral verdict from day one and has adopted a path of confrontation, he said. |
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Warrant against ex-minister in 21-year-old case Bhopal, July 26 The matter relates to Hiranvan Kothi, supposed to be a part of the Scindia estate but in possession of the family of Sardar Angre, who was personal secretary to the late Rajmata Vijayaraje Scindia. Mr Angre’s daughter, Chitralekha, had made a criminal complaint on October 11, 1983, that Madhavrao Scindia and 15 others had entered into a conspiracy to forcibly take possession of the kothi and had committed dacoity. The police teams have in the past few days carried out extensive searches and raids on possible hideouts of the accused. Their special target appears to be Mr K.P. Singh, Congress MLA from Pichhor in Shivpuri district, who was a member of the erstwhile Digvijay Singh Cabinet.
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Trial stayed in Bilkis case New Delhi, July 26 Bilkis, whose family and relatives were killed by a mob during the post-Godhra riots, had alleged that the atmosphere in the state was not conducive for trial as witnesses were still being threatened. A Bench comprising Justice Ruma Pal, Justice S.B. Sinha and Justice S.H. Kapadia, while posting her petition seeking the transfer of the trial to August 2, granted the interim stay on the proceedings even as the Gujarat Government denied the charge that the atmosphere was not conducive for fair trial. The interim order followed the information given by her counsel Harish Salve that an Ahmedabad court is scheduled to frame charges against the 20 accused on July 29. |
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Tainted Orissa minister resigns
Bhubaneswar, July 26 Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik told newspersons at his chamber here that Ms Mallick had tendered her resignation and he had forwarded the resignation to the Governor M M Rajendran for consideration. Earlier, five Opposition parties demanded immediate arrest of the minister and her dismissal from the state Cabinet. In a joint statement issued here, the Congress, the CPI, the CPM, the Janata Dal (S) and the Orissa Gana Parishad also demanded that the Chief Minister apologise to the people of Orissa for inducting Ms Mallick into his Cabinet. It was most shocking that Ms Mallick was taken into the Cabinet despite a warrant pending against her for the last three years, the leaders of the Opposition parties said. —
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SC quashes PIL against HC
judges
New Delhi, July 26 The petition filed by Advocate Vikas Vashishth was dismissed by a bench of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Justice G.P. Mathur observing that no case of contempt was made out against them. The HC judges reportedly went on leave when the Chief Justice had asked for an explanation from some of them for accepting the membership of a controversial club at Chandigarh. |
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Nanavati panel gets extension
New Delhi, July 26 The commission’s term, which was to expire on August 2, 2004, has now been extended up to November 2, 2004. The commission is probing the riots in the wake of the assassination of then Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The spokesperson said the inquiry would help in bringing out the sequence of events leading to the violence and riots and all related facts. It would also infuse a sense of security and confidence in the public in general and the Sikh community in particular, she added. |
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SC notice to Centre on senior citizens
New Delhi, July 26 A Bench comprising Mr Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Mr Justice D.M. Dharmadhikari issued the notices on a petition filed by Brig (retd) J.S. Bawa after hearing arguments from his counsel S. Muralidhar. The petitioner sought a direction to the government to place before the court a time-bound action plan to implement the various recommendations contained in the National Policy on Older Persons (NPOP) issued in 1999 by the Ministry of Social Justice and Empowerment. He said the NPOP had pointed out that in another 30 years India would have a population of 198 million people over the age of 60 years which would increase to 326 million in 2050 and added that unless concrete steps were taken their living conditions would deteriorate. |
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MiG-21s very capable, says air
chief New Delhi, July 26 Pointing to the US Air Force report on the recent joint exercises at Gwalior, he said it was testament to plane’s and the force’s capabilities. Talking to reporters after flagging off the IAF contingent to Congo on a UN peace-keeping mission, he said: “We feel concerned. There is a requirement for modernisation ... but they are very capable machines.” He said the American forces had acknowledged that the MiG-21s and their operational capabilities, as they had witnessed during the exercise, were equivalent to the US F-15 fighters. |
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Aug 21 AICC meeting to be a tribute to
Rajiv New Delhi, July 26 The upcoming AICC meeting will be held at the Talkatora Stadium, which will be christened “Rajiv Gandhi Nagar” for the duration of the day-long deliberations. These will be preceded by a meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) on August 20, which is also late Rajiv Gandhi's 60th birth anniversary. "The CWC meeting will be dedicated to Rajiv Gandhi's memory," AICC general secretary Janardhan Diwedi told presspersons here today. He also explained that this is a meeting,to be attended by the 1,100 AICC members, as opposed to a session which has a much larger participation. The AICC meeting will follow this up by paying a special tribute to Rajiv Gandhi by adopting a special resolution on panchayati raj since he was a strong believer in the decentralisation of power. This, Mr. Diwedi said, will be in addition to the resolutions on the political situation, foreign affairs and the economy. Besides being billed as a tribute to Rajiv Gandhi, the coming AICC meeting is also significant for other reasons. Not only is the meeting being held after two years, but much has changed since then. After a gap of nearly a decade, the Congress is in power at the Centre. But, for the first time, the grand old party is heading a coalition, which is a brand new experience for it. Perhaps the biggest challenge before the Congress today is to see how it can use this opportunity to rebuild its base without treading on the toes of its allies. It is also the first time that the party and the government are headed by two persons, which has led to the redrawing of relations between the party and government. It will also underscore Congress president Sonia Gandhi's unchallenged leadership since it is the first such meeting after she declined the Prime Minister's post. It will also testify to the fact that this time round, it is the party, and not the government, which is supreme. |
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Cabinet okays
astrosat project
New Delhi, July 26 To be developed and launched by ISRO (Indian Space Research Organisation) by 2007, the project envisaged design, development, fabrication and launch of a multi-wavelength astronomical observatory satellite for studies of cosmic sources. |
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Pandey elected UP Speaker
Lucknow, July 26 Officiating Assembly Speaker Waqar Ahmed Shah announced Mr Pandey as the new Speaker —
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