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Memorial services for tsunami victims
MCD land worth
thousands of crores encroached upon |
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Paswan re-elected LJP chief
Centre proposes multipurpose identity cards
No secret talks with Pakistan
142 alternative medicine colleges lack infrastructure
NDA to meet on Singur today
IAF to install radar on Mumbai highrise
Cirumstances surrounding execution of Will is crucial: SC
Andhra Rashtra Samithi
wants separate state
Three held for intention to commit dacoity
Slum rehabilitation plan runs into rough weather
Killer goes to police with victim’s head
78 tribesmen reconvert to Hinduism
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Memorial services for tsunami victims
Nagapattinam/Cuddalore, December 26 People collectively paid homage to their loved ones, silent processions were held and "diyas" lit at memorials constructed in front of homes. People sat on the beaches and recounted the black day which wrecked havoc in their lives. Parents who lost their children sobbed inconsolably. Wreaths were placed at the tsunami memorial at the Nagapattinam collectorate at 9.17 am,the precise time the tsunami struck the coastal areas of the district. Announcements were made on the newly installed public address system at the Keechankuppam fishing hamlet asking people to join the procession and participate in the community prayer at the tsunami memorial at Akkaraipettai village. Priests chanted mantras and performed puja at the memorial which has a stone totem in the shape of a flame. Primary school teachers and students paid tributes to 53 children who died in the tsunami. Thousands of pilgrims from several parts of the country and abroad attended a special mass at the Basilica of Our Lady of Good Health at Velankani in Nagapattinam. Around 600 pilgrims died when the tsunami it the Indian Ocean while they were taking a holy dip after Christmas. ,In Cuddalore District Collector Gagandeep Singh Bedi visited 55 fishing hamlets damaged by the tsunami and held memorial services. He also inaugurated a disaster information centre which has a wireless and internet connectivity built by an NGO. Lt Governor of Pondicherry Mukut Methi visited the fishing village of Karaikal which falls within the Union Territory and paid homage to the dead. |
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MCD land worth
thousands of crores encroached upon
New Delhi, December 25 The Municipal Commissioner tabled the report before the committee after members of the House demanded details of land owned by the MCD. As per the report, besides DDA and CRPF, a few other govt agencies and a large number of individuals have encroached upon land worth thousands of crores of rupees. The report pointed out that a 22.15 acre plot in Mehrauli of South Delhi acquired for establishing a hospital has been ‘completely’ occupied by CRPF and DDA illegally. While the paramilitary force is occupying 11.80 acres, DDA flats occupy the remaining 10.33 acre land, which is under the jurisdiction of the Land and Estate Department of the civic body, it mentions. One hundred thirty bighas of land in Samlakha village, allotted for shops and some petrol pumps, have also been completely encroached by slum dwellers, the report said. The acquisition of the land had run into rough weather earlier when some villagers approached the court and most of the plots could not be handed over to the allottees. Responding to the accusation, the CRPF, however, strongly denied having possession of any land belonging to the MCD. Senior DDA officials refused to comment on the issue saying they had not received any communication in this regard from the civic body. One hundred thirty bighas of land in Samlakha village, allotted for shops and some petrol pumps, have also been completely encroached by slum dwellers, the report said. The acquisition of the land had run into rough weather earlier when some villagers approached the court and most of the plots could not be handed over to the allottees.
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Paswan re-elected LJP chief
New Delhi, December 26 Mr Paswan's name for the president's post was proposed by senior party leader Ranjan Prasad Yadav and the national executive elected him unanimously. The LJP executive also decided to go it alone in the Assembly elections in four states if itwas unable to cobble alliances with like-minded parties against the BJP and expanding the party's base in those states. ''The LJP shall keep its doors open for electoral alliances with like-minded parties on the basis of a common minimum programme
(CMP), but in case it is not possible, it will contest elections in Uttar Pradesh,
Uttarakhand, Punjab and Manipur on its own,'' said the political resolution of the party. Mr Paswan was authorised by the party to scout for alliances and formalise these on the basis of the
CMP. Asserting that his party was poised to make significant gains in the coming Assembly elections, Mr Paswan said the party would go to the electorate with the message ‘defeat the BJP and its allies.’ The resolution came out in support of the Justice Rajender Sachar Committee report regarding the socio-economic conditions of Muslims as an ''eye-opener document for the entire country''. ''The Sachar report, in a way, gives a boost to the campaign of the LJP that there is a conspiracy to keep away the Muslim community from the national mainstream.'' The resolution said though announcement and schemes were made to make Muslims economically, educationally and politically strong, but the fact remained that their participation in the government and the administration was almost
nill. The party demanded the inclusion of "right to work" as a fundamental right in the Constitution. The LJP also demanded 33 per cent reservation for women in all government and non-government services and interest-free loans for women to help them run their own units.
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Centre proposes multipurpose identity cards
New Delhi , December 26 The decision assumes significance in the wake of Assembly elections in the politically crucial state of Uttar Pradesh along with Punjab, Uttaranchal and Manipur and the Lok Sabha poll three years later. The Law Ministry said since it would take longer time to achieve the target of providing election I-cards to cent per cent voters, as only 69 per cent of the total 68 crore voters so far had been covered, the proposal for “tracking number” for each migrating voter was being considered. “This card will be a multipurpose I-card with a unique tracking number to overcome the problem of additions to the electoral rolls during annual revisions by taking into account the inter-state and inter-city migrations,” the ministry said. As per the data available with the ministry up to January 1, 2005, only 47.82 crore out of 68.05 crore voters had been provided with the photo I-cards. The ministry and the EC had time and again taken up the issue with the states but the performance of states like Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, UP, MP, Punjab, Uttaranchal, Orissa, Tamil Nadu and even Delhi and various Union Territories was not encouraging. These states had so far been able to achieve the target ranging between 50 and 70 per cent. Bur states like Kerala (95.22 per cent), Karnataka (89.68 per cent), Haryana (87.47 per cent), West Bengal (83.82 per cent), Manipur (80 per cent) and the Union Territory of Pondicherry providing I-cards to 99.46 per cent voters, had come for a special praise from the ministry and the Election Commission. The states pf Goa, Maharashtra, Nagaland, Rajasthan, Tripura and the UT of Chandigarh’s work has also been described satisfactory with each covering over 70 per cent of voters. The Union Government has been making substantial budgetary allocations every year for preparing of the voters I-cards.The Election Commission has been pressing the government for issuing strict instructions to the states to make voters I-cards compulsory for every voter during the next General Election due in 2009.
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142 alternative medicine colleges lack infrastructure
New Delhi, December 26 A report prepared by the Public Accounts Committee (PAC) found that this include 35 newly established colleges. It said the teaching facility standards in these colleges were low and that all of them face a severe teaching staff crunch. “A test check of records of 142 colleges — Ayurveda (58), Unani (14) and Homoeopathy (70) colleges, including 35 new colleges — which were inspected, revealed that none of them meet the minimum requirement of infrastructural and teaching facility standards prescribed,” the report said. “Colleges with persistent deficiencies in infrastructure were denied permission to run courses during this five year period ranged between one and 13,” it said. The Health Ministry, while agreeing with the observations, said the Regulatory Councils would consider the system of inspection of colleges at the earliest. The deficiencies in these 142 colleges came to the light when their records by the representatives of Regulatory Councils from 2000-05 were checked. BJP MP and Chairman of the PAC, Vijay Kumar Malhotra who had presented the 38th report to the Lok Sabha on Performance Audit of Department of Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha and Homoeopathy (AYUSH) said 32 to 59 per cent of the Ayurvedic colleges and 23 to 71 per cent of the Homoeopathy colleges were inspected every year by the Regulatory Councils during 2000-05. — PTI
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NDA to meet on Singur today
New Delhi, December 26 Reiterating the BJP's total support for Ms Banerjee, Mr Javadekar termed the Left attitude towards the Trinamool chief as "insensitive".
"What Ms Banerjee is raising is a real and serious issue. The Communists have been speaking the same language about the affected farmers in other states, but when it comes to the question of West Bengal, they change their stand. They are not even ready to reconsider the issue. The BJP condemns this insensitivity and we stand by Ms Banerjee fully in her agitation and reaffirm our solidarity for the issue", he said.
The saffron party took exception to the Left's remarks on the party's resolutions adopted at the BJP's national council session in Lucknow and charged them of doublespeak on various issues.
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IAF to install radar on Mumbai highrise
Mumbai, December 26 Now, the Indian Air Force will soon be installing radars and sensors on a 37-storeyed building coming up at Powai in North Central Mumbai. IAF officials today confirmed that the Torino Building coming up on the Hiranandani Complex at Powai may become the home of its radars and sensors since the structure towers higher than the hill where the IAF's equipment are now located. The IAF had originally sited its anti-aircraft guns and interceptor missiles at its Powai base when the area was a mountainous jungle.However, with real estate developers discovering Powai in the 1990s, the area has been dotted with plush high-rises. The plush Hiranandani Gardens, which dominates Powai, has turned the area into an upmarket residential area. Thanks to the clout of this developer, several high-rises have come up even though the military authorities are opposed to so many buildings overlooking the IAF base. The base played a major role in the defence of Mumbai during the 1971 war with Pakistan when the city was threatened by fighter aircraft from the neighbouring country. With the IAF showing interest in setting up facilities in a civilian building, the activities of those who buy houses in the building may be curtailed. For one, the terrace may not be accessible to the residents.Also, the military authorities may pose restrictions on foreigners buying or renting houses in the building. Already, a large number of foreign nationals live in Powai's buildings after a number of IT companies set up base here. The plush Torino building has big flats of 1,440 to 2,060 square feet area costing around Rs 1 crore each.
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Cirumstances surrounding execution of
New Delhi, December 26 “The propounder is required to prove that testator has signed the Will, and he had put his signature out of his own free will having a sound disposition of mind,” said a bench comprising of Justices S B Sinha and Markandey Katju. The case involved the Will of Umeshchandra Joshi, owner of ‘Ramtirth Brahmi Hair Oil’ company, who had seven sons and three daughters but he had bequeathed all his property on his second son, depriving the rest. The Will was drafted in ICU of a hospital where he was undergoing treatment for Liposercoma. He was being treated by a doctor who was a student of beneficiary. The Will was executed in the presence of two witnesses who were also close to the beneficiary. Family members who were deprived questioned the genuineness of the Will and accused the beneficary of playing fraud on family members. Raising suspicion on the cirumstances surrounding the Will a
division Judge Bench of High Court held that the witnesses to the Will are interested persons, and evidence adduced in support of execution of the Will was unsatifactory. Upholding the verdict of High Court, the Supreme Court also took notice of the meticulously drafted bill and held “When he was admitted in ICU, he would not be permitted to carry documents. It is unnatural that he would remember all the detail of his assets.” “An inference can, therefore, be safely drawn that Appellant (Beneficry) had a role to play in execution of the Will,” the bench held.
— PTI
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Andhra Rashtra Samithi
wants separate state
Hyderabad, December 26 The new party was announced at a meeting organised by veterans of the Jai Andhra movement of 1972 on the death anniversary of K. Venkataratnam, who died during the agitation for a separate state. Politicians, cutting across party lines, participated in a separate meeting to discuss the future of the coastal districts and felt that the Andhra region, which was a developed area before the formation of Andhra Pradesh, had been subjected to utter neglect in the last 50 years. “The Telangana Rasthra Samithi has been blackmailing the central and the state governments and has been successful in diverting all development works to the region. However, Andhra leaders have failed to raise their voice against this injustice,” Mr Y Sivaji, a former Telugu Desam MP, alleged. Andhra Pradesh consists of three regions- Andhra, Rayalaseema and Telangana. While Andhra and Rayalaseema were under the British rule, Telangana was governed by the Nizam till Independence. “We want all Telugus to be united. But if people want to separate, let it be. I will not say that Andhra was discriminated against, but it is true that there has been no development in the region,” Congress MP K. Sambasiva Rao said. This is a major shift from the earlier stand of Andhra leaders, who stood by united Andhra Pradesh, and have been rejecting the TRS demand for division of the state. Most of the political parties appear to be gradually reconciling to the fact that the political climate in the state is heading towards a split.
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Three held for intention to commit dacoity
New Delhi, December 26 One loaded country made pistol, one button actuated knife and one iron rod were allegedly recovered from them. They were apprehended near Kalka Public School after a tip-off. Two of their accomplices, Raju and Teja, managed to escape taking the ‘cover of darkness’. Four robbed mobile phones were also recovered from them. In another development, the same district police claimed to have worked out 28 cases of auto thefts with the arrest of two persons – Shahid and Atiq — from Malviya Nagar area. Ten stolen vehicles have allegedly been recovered at their instance. 32 gm of a narcotic was also recovered from their possession, said a police officer.
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Slum rehabilitation plan runs into rough weather
New Delhi, December 25 In fact, the slum department and registrar officials have developed cold feet on the issue of verifying the slum residents as a member of the societies to enable them to get flats at concessional rates and are passing the buck to each other. To begin with, though the officials of the Slum Department have sent a list of slum dwellers “eligible” for membership to the registrar, it has washed its hand off as far as identification criteria is concerned. “The slum department has handed a list of prospective members to the registrar with a caution that it has nothing to do with the verification. Thus, verification is now responsibility of the Registrar of Cooperatives,” said Vijay Singh Lochav, member of multi-purpose housing societies of slum dwellers. However, Delhi Registrar of Cooperatives Societies, which is already reeling under the multi-crore CGHS scam, is adopting a precautionary mode. It categorically said at a meeting held last week among the members of the committee set up to facilitate setting up of societies.
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Killer goes to police with victim’s head
Bhubaneswar, December 26 "He beheaded the woman with an axe after she allegedly quarrelled with Ghanshiram's wife over some family matter," a police official said. After killing the woman, Ghansiram walked over 3 km to reach the police station with the severed head. As he walked, the sight of the severed head created panic in the town.
— IANS
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78 tribesmen reconvert to Hinduism
Rourkela, December 26 The tribals, belonging to 16 families from Balilepta, Gudguda, Chikitia, Sorada and Bhojpur, were presented with a locket each bearing imprints of Hindu deities and new clothes by the VHP functionaries present during the ceremony, held yesterday. Senior VHP leaders of the district such as Achutananda Kar, Pradyumna Mishra, Gadadhar Sahu, Makaradhyaja Mahanto, Ajay Barnawal and Mitrabhanu Panda attended the ceremony.
— UNI
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Hospital ship commissioned Temple looted, guard killed 5 killed in mishap
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