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‘Pak stand to decide course of talks’
Indian Navy team to ski to South Pole
India reassures Brazil
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875 spares of rocket launcher seized
Three get death sentence for multiple murders
Vajpayee slams UPA on terrorism
BJP seeks JPC to
study farmers’ suicides
UP Lalit Kala Akademy chief sacked
Patil’s move on institute of no benefit
‘Illiteracy impedes empowerment of poor’
Kalam’s office clarifies on Gandhi varsity issue
Abu Salem moves SC
Houses of 2 ex-ministers raided
Bartwal assumes charge as DGMI
George not quitting JD(U)
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‘Pak stand to decide course of talks’
New Delhi, September 8 Mr Saran, however, did not chew words when he made it clear that “unless the issue of terrorism is addressed, and addressed substantively by Pakistan, it will be difficult to carry forward the dialogue process.” When asked whether he meant that India was predicating the holding of Foreign Secretary-level talks on Islamabad’s conduct on the issue of terrorism and what, according to New Delhi, Islamabad should do, Mr Saran did some plain talk. He said if the results of the Manmohan-Musharraf meeting were “satisfactory” and if New Delhi saw that Pakistan was willing to work together with India on terrorism, the dialogue process will be carried forward. Mr Saran also remarked that both India and Pakistan knew “what needs to be done” by Islamabad on the issue of terrorism. The Foreign Secretary was asked for his take on the just-concluded deal between the Pakistan Government and tribal chiefs of Waziristan wherein the Pakistan military will move out of the Al-Qaida and Taliban-infested tribal region of Pakistan and tackling these elements would be the responsibility of the tribes. He said India was closely watching the developments and waiting for things to unfold. He said if as a result of this deal, the Taliban elements were to have a free run, it will be ominous for the region. Mr Saran’s briefing was on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to Brazil and Cuba (September 10-17) - the first time an Indian Premier would be visiting Brasilia in 38 years and Havana in 26 years. Dr Manmohan Singh will be flying straight to Brasilia where he will hold bilateral talks with Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula Da Silva on September 12 and attend the first IBSA (India, Brazil and South Africa) summit the next day. He will attend the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) summit in Havana on September 15-16. Mr Saran expressed confidence that friendly countries like Brazil would agree to the adjustment of Nuclear Suppliers’ Group (NSG) guidelines in favour of India. The NSG is expected to take up the issue of India’s quest for nuclear trade getting the nod of the world’s apex body on nuclear matters next month. India will be signing two agreements and as many Memoranda of Understanding with Brazil, including cooperation in science and technology and better connectivity by air. On the trilateral level, IBSA countries will be signing agreements on agriculture, development of bio fuels and cooperation in maritime shipping and maritime transport.
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Indian Navy team to ski to South Pole
New Delhi, September 8 Chief of Naval Staff Admiral Arun Prakash announced the plans for the adventure and said that the team will ski about 200 km with each member manually pulling sleds weighing over 140 kg each. Commander Satyabrata Dam, who led the Navy’s successful expedition to Mount Everest two years ago, will head the team to the Antarctic. “We are very excited to head to the remotest spot on earth,” Commander Dam said. Among the challenges that the team will have to face are temperatures ranging between minus 10 and minus 35 degrees celsius, wind speeds averaging 100 to 150 km an hour, and ‘katbatic’ winds or dense air with snow blowing down inclines at speeds of 60 km an hour. The team, which includes members from Ladakh, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal, represents “a microcosm of India”, said Admiral Prakash. The expedition would involve “very little rest, reserves of determination, stamina, skill and team spirit”, he said, adding the team hoped to reach the South Pole by end-December. Comparing the difficulty of Antarctic expeditions to climbing the Everest, Commander Dam said only 268 people had gone to the South Pole since 1912 while over 1,600 had scaled the world’s highest peak.
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India reassures Brazil
New Delhi, September 8 Mr Saran was asked a question about a published news report which said Minister of State for Commerce Jairam Ramesh had described Brazil as a rival of India. The Foreign Secretary said Brazil had indeed asked India about the published remarks of Mr Ramesh. “The idea that India and Brazil are natural allies is a little naive”, he is quoted as having said, “we are competitors, we are competing in (the) manufacturing sector... we have contrary interests in agriculture (Brazil is on the rise and India on the defensive) and in services, we want an opening much faster than Brazilians... IBSA will be a powerful block in South-South cooperation with echoes of ‘non-alignment’ in earlier times but from the economic point of view, IBSA is a bit fictitious”.
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875 spares of rocket launcher seized
Hyderabad, September 8 As many as 600 rocket launcher spares were seized at Achmapet in Mahabubnagar district, a Naxalite stronghold on Thursday. Following the trail of these arms, the police raided a transport company at Giddalur in Prakasam district and recovered another 275 spares of the launcher. “This is the single, largest number of empty shells of rockets ever recovered in the country. This is also the most significant recovery we have made in our war against Maoists,” DGP Swaranjit Sen, who rushed to Mahbubnagar to inspect the dump, said. The police said a Naxalite activist, Hanmanth Reddy, was arrested at Achampet Bus Station along with the haul on Wednesday night. The second haul was made from the godown of Kranthi Transport Company in Giddalur. The parcel, which contained 275 rocket launcher spares, was sent from Kadapa. — TNS
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Three get death sentence for multiple murders
Mumbai, September 8 Dilip Tiwari and two of his accomplices were convicted by the same court on Thursday for the murders of Prabhu Nochil and three others. The death sentence was the final nail in the coffin. Tiwari and his associates planned the killings after Tiwari expressed opposition to the inter-community marriage of his sister Sushma to Prabhu Nochil, a Malyalee. Nochil was murdered in the early hours of May 17, 2004, with swords and knives. Apart from Prabhu, his father, his 13-year-old nephew and a family friend were also killed. Prabhu’s mother and sister survived the attack, and it was their testimony that helped nail the accused. Ujjwal Nikam, Public Prosecutor said the 2004 murders came under the category of rarest of rare crimes, and therefore the accused deserved the death sentence. Sushma, Prabhu’s wife was five months pregnant at the time. She escaped as she was not at home. She now lives with Prabhu’s family in Andheri along with her two-year-old son. Two of the accused have been acquitted. —ANI
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Vajpayee slams UPA on terrorism
Dehra Dun, September 8 Addressing a rally for change of government in Uttaranchal, Mr Vajpayee said today’s terrorist attack in Malegaon in Maharashtra was indicative of the UPA’s failure to fight terrorism. The former Prime Minister, who delivered his 40-minute speech sitting, was not in his elements as he mentioned a deal with Britain instead of referring to the Indo-US nuclear deal. Mr Vajpayee differed with BJP President Rajnath Singh on the issue of talks with Pakistan as the latter asked the government to stop talking with Islamabad until terrorist camps inside the neighboring country were dismantled and the former said to continue talks while intensifying war against terrorism. Exhorting the people of Uttaranchal to change the Congress government in the coming Assembly elections, Mr Vajpayee asked the party leaders to ensure that the change touches the lowest levels and goes to every family and village.
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BJP seeks JPC to
study farmers’ suicides
Dehra Dun, September 8 A six-page resolution on “Crisis in nation’s food security and on the farm front”, adopted at the three-day meeting of the national executive, the BJP expressed concern over the multi-dimensional crisis afflicting agriculture and food security in India and suggested a 10-point strategy for homegrown food security. Apart from the constitution of a JPC for addressing the farmers’ suicide, the party said that a long-term strategy should be prepared to achieve self-sufficiency in food production in cereals, pulses, oilseeds and other food items by diversifying crop patterns, increasing irrigation facilities and value addition through the promotion of decentralised agri-business activities. In yet another resolution on the issue of price rise, which was also adopted today, the national executive lashed out at the UPA government for neglecting the common man, who has been overburdened by the high tax regime of the government. Earlier, the BJP supported the Special Economic Zones (SEZs) being set up by the UPA government with a rider that irrigated and good agricultural land should not be used for such ventures. While acquiring land for the SEZs, compensation to the farmers should be paid at the prevailing market rates, the BJP said and demanded that affected farmers and their kith and kin should be offered jobs in such ventures. The party supported contract farming saying that this should begin at the experimental level by allowing it on wastelands. Charging that the UPA government was discriminating towards the BJP-ruled states, the meeting asked the Centre to give a “national package” instead of a “notional” package to the states where farmers were committing suicides.
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UP Lalit Kala Akademy chief sacked
Lucknow, September 8 A two-line official statement said here today that the Bahujan Samaj Dal MLA from Madhogarh Assembly constituency in Orai district who had been accorded a ministerial rank in the government was immediately removed from post of chairman of the Akademy. It did not state the reason for his removal. Mr Brijendra Pratap Singh’s removal is perceived as a fallout of his proximity to Bollywood actor and suspended Samajwadi Party leader Raj Babbar and former Prime Minister V.P. Singh, who launched the Jan Morcha against the SP. The MLA had reportedly been participating in programmes of the Jan Morcha and was present in Dadri when party leaders were agitating against the acquisition of farmers’ land for the Reliance Energy Generation Ltd project. Mr Brijendra Pratap Singh was elected on the Bahujan Samaj Party ticket but was one of the MLAs who defected and joined the breakaway Dal which supports the Mulayam Singh Yadav government.
— PTI
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Patil’s move on institute of no benefit
New Delhi, September 8 Mr Patil, who will be laying the foundation stone of the DMTI tomorrow, is understood to have been instrumental in the setting up of the project in his home constituency instead of the adjoining Nanded district, as initially proposed by the CRPF. However, the Election Commission’s announcement last month about the new delimitation of Parliament constituencies, under which Latur will be a reserved seat in the next Lok Sabha poll, will be a source of disappointment for the Congress leader.Mr Patil had lost the last Lok Sabha elections from Latur and had to enter Parliament through a Rajya Sabha. According to sources, the CRPF was keen that the project be set up at Nanded as it already had a unit and it would be easier for its officials to monitor and commission the project. Maharashtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, who has been elected to the state Assembly for years together from the Latur constituency, will also be present at the foundation laying ceremony. While Mr Patil was not available for comment, Home Ministry spokesperson Omkar Kedia said, “It is a coincidence that the Home Minister belonged to Latur where the CRPF is setting up the institute”. The institute will be the first of its kind in the country with specialised facilities for training CRPF personnel for natural as well as manmade disasters, including radiological disasters.
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‘Illiteracy impedes empowerment of poor’
New Delhi, September 8 Speaking at the International Literacy Day function on the theme ‘Literacy Sustains Development’ here today, Mr Shekhawat said the economic uplift and empowerment of the poor with access to basic education and health care could only happen after they became literate. He said literacy opened the gateway to comprehensive-economic social and cultural-empowerment of the people, particularly women. Praising the efforts of the National Literacy Mission, the Vice-President stressed the need that the effort had to be sustained over a long period of time and till each and every illiterate was fully covered. He said value education should become an integral part of literacy campaigns as it would help children and youths to grow as responsible citizens of modern India. The Vice-President also gave away NLM-UNESCO Award, Satyen Maitra Memorial Literacy Award and the special awards on the occasion.
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Kalam’s office clarifies on Gandhi varsity issue
New Delhi, September 8 The President had advised that the ministry may hold a meeting with the university authorities and other relevant agencies so as to formulate a time bound action plan for the speedy implementation of the actionable recommendations made by the fact finding committee for furthering the interests of the university and the student community. The Ministry of Human Resource Development with the approval of the President had constituted a multi-body fact finding committee to review the work and progress of the university since its inception. The committee had submitted its final report directly to the Ministry of Human Resource Development on June 2 and was received in the President’s secretariat through the ministry on August 3. The clarification comes in the wake of media reports that the President, Dr APJ Abdul Kalam, had sought the views of the HRD Ministry on the report of the fact-finding committee on the university, which found Vice-Chancellor G. Gopinathan incapable of providing academic leadership to the fledgling institution.
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Abu Salem moves SC
New Delhi, September 8 Salem who was extradited from Portugal last year, moved the petition through his counsel K.T.S Tulsi, who made a special mention of it before a Bench of Mr Justice K.G Balakrishnan and Mr Justice D.K Jain. The court posted the matter for hearing on September 18 amidst objection by the CBI that the petition should not be entertained as the court had earlier rejected the plea of Monica Bedi, a close associate of Salem who had been extradited with him, raising identical issues. Additional Solicitor General Amarendra Shaarn, appearing for CBI also said no stay should be granted on the pronouncement of the judgement in Mumbai blast cases, which is likely to be pronounced by the Special Court soon. Tulsi, during the brief hearing said he was not seeking stay of the pronouncement of the judgement.
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Houses of 2 ex-ministers raided
Chennai, September 8 AIADMK supremo Jayalalithaa described the raids as “political vendetta”. The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-corruption conducted the raids on specific complaints about the two leaders allegedly amassing wealth disproportionate to their known sources of income, the sources said.
— PTI
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Bartwal assumes charge as DGMI
New Delhi, September 8 He commanded an infantry battalion in Operation Rakshak and in high-altitude areas in Sikkim, an infantry brigade in Jammu and Kashmir in Operations Vijay and Prakaram and an infantry division in the deserts.
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George not quitting JD(U)
Patna, September 8
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