New Delhi: Women's Reservation Bill appears to remain a distant dream for the 14th
Lok Sabha too. As the Parliament session, the last of the current Lok Sabha, commences tomorrow, the Constitution Amendment Bill seeking to provide 33 per cent reservation for women in the Lok Sabha and state assemblies, is not listed. Asked whether the Bill will be brought up in the short session, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Vyalar Ravi today said the Parliamentary
Standing Committee to which the Bill has been referred to is yet to give its report.
"The bill is not listed," he said after an all-party floor coordination meeting convened by Speaker Somnath Chatterjee. A consensus has been eluding the Bill for over a decade. The legislation was drafted by the Deve Gowda-led United Front government and introduced in Lok Sabha on September 12, 1996.
Though it has been introduced in Parliament several times since then, the Bill could not be passed because of lack of political consensus. Its advocates say the Bill is essential for active political participation of women, while its opponents argue that the quota as envisaged in the measure would only help women of elite groups gain political power.
The session, which will begin with the address of the President to a joint sitting of both the Houses and spread over ten sittings, is essentially for passing the interim Railway and General Budgets. (PTI)
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Antony plays down Qaeda warning, says ready to face any threat
Thiruvananthapuram: Defence Minister A K Antony on Tuesday asserted that India was capable of facing any threat from any quarter.
Mr Antony was reacting to questions about the reported warning of al-Qaeda commander that the country will be targeted in Mumbai-style attacks.
''One thing I can tell you...whatever threat is coming from any quarter or in any shape, our Armed forces are ready to face them,'' he said while replying to questions on the issue.
However, Mr Antony said he was yet to come across the particular report.
"India should know that it will have to pay a heavy price if it attacks Pakistan," Mustafa Abu al-Yazid, believed to be al-Qaeda's military commander in Afghanistan and ranked behind No 2 Ayman al-Zawahiri, said in a 20-minute video in Arabic received by BBC.
Yazid, who the Pakistani military, said may have been killed in fighting last August in the Bajaur tribal region, said, "The Mujahideen will sunder your armies into the ground, like they did to the Russians in Afghanistan.
"They will target your economic centres and raze them to the ground."
To another question about the delay in Pakistan taking action on perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attack even after India submitted its dossier to them, the Defence Minister said ''my senior colleague, External Affairs Minister Pranab Mukherjee had already categorically stated the Government's view on the issue.''
Asked about Pakistan's new demand for more evidence, Mr Antony said ''Mr Mukherjee had already explained the government's position on the matter. We are one government and one voice on the issue.'' (Agencies)
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Possible mid-air collision averted in Assam
Kolkata/ New Delhi: A potential mid-air disaster was averted on Tuesday when an Air India Airbus on a flight from Dibrugarh to Kolkata with 43 passengers on board and an IAF plane came dangerously close to each other over Jorhat airspace, a day after a civilian plane narrowly missed colliding with President's helicopter in Mumbai.
The Air India flight -- IC-206-- came dangerously close to an IAF plane when it was coming from Dibrugarh in Assam to Kolkata at around 1.30 pm, sources said in New Delhi on Tuesday night. The IAF plane was believed to be a transport aircraft.
The AI plane later landed safely at Kolkata, they said.
An Air India spokesman said in Kolkata that the Airbus pilot after finding the IAF aircraft in the vicinity alerted Dibrugarh Air Traffic Control (ATC) and descended to a lower height.
"Like any responsible pilot, our pilot descended the Airbus to be on the safe side and landed safely at the NSC Bose International Airport," he told PTI.
The spokesman however maintained that the two aircraft were not on the same flight path and there was no possibility of a collision.
The incident occurred a little after the Airbus took off from Dibrugarh at 11.55 am. It landed at the NSC Bose International Airport at 1.20 pm, he said.
According to preliminary reports, the mid-air scare happened when the two airplanes were at an altitude of between 17,000 and 18,000 feet. (PTI)
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Opposition Congress stalls proceedings
Bhubaneswar: The Opposition on Tuesday paralysed the proceedings of the Orissa Assembly for the entire day on the allegations of use of black money and tampering of EVMs by Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik in the just-concluded elections to the Cuttack Muncipal Corporation and Baripada Municipality.
Speaker Kishore Chadra Mohanty was forced to adjourn the House four times - twice each in pre and post-lunch session as the Opposition members shouted slogans and did not allow the Speaker to run the House.
The Opposition members said the Chief Minister had no moral right to continue in power after two Cabinet Ministers - Samir Dey and Golak Naik - alleged that he (Mr Patnaik) had used black money and manipulated the EVMs to win the just concluded elections to Cuttack and Baripada Urban local bodies.
The Opposition Members demanded the resignation of Mr Patnaik and served a notice for moving a no confidence motion against the government.
They also demanded the Speaker to suspend all business of the House and discuss the issue as it was a serious allegation made by two Ministers of the government. But the Speaker rejected the demand, saying there was no time for it.
As the House reassembled after the lunch break, the Speaker adjourned it for 10 minutes at 1506 hrs, as there was no quorum.
After the House reassembled at 1516 hrs, Umesh Swain (Cong) said the Chief Minister had misused his power during the civil polls and urged the Speaker to direct Golak Naik to make a statement in the House.
Agriculture Minister S Naik challeged the Opposition to move a no confidence motion. A chaotic situation prevailed after the remark of the Minister, forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House for 10 minutes at 1557 hours.
After the House reassembled, J Jena (Cong) said the Opposition Chief, who had served a notice to move a no confidence motion and urged the Speaker to accept it.
But the Speaker said he could not accept it, as there was no time to discuss it. Mr Sahu said the Speaker should suspend all proceeding of the house and discuss the issue.
As there was no change in the situation, the Spaker adjourned it for Wednesday at 1642 hours (UNI)
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‘SP attack on Guv due to strained relation with Cong’
Lucknow: Describing the conduct of opposition parties mainly the Samajwadi Party, in Uttar Pradesh Assembly as 'unparliamentary' and 'indecent', Chief Minister Mayawati on Tuesday said SP's attack on the Governor was the outcome of its strained relationship with the Congress.
''It was sheer frustartion of the SP that its leader launched a diatribe against the UP governor T V Rajeswar during his joint address to both the Houses of the state legislature today,'' she said.
The UP CM was talking to reporters on the sidelines of 57th All India Police Athletics Meet, which she declared open at a ceremony organised in the 35 batallion PAC grounds on Tuesday afternoon.
In an acerbic repartee to the protest of SP, she said the conduct and behaviour of the SP in the House was below dignity and was detrimental to the democratic, legislative and political norms.
The state Governor, during his address was booed and hooted and he had to leave the House without reading his whole address.
Later, outside the House, the SP president and leader of the opposition in the Assmebly Mulayam Singh Yadav launched a verbal war against the Governor. (UNI)
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Bharat Ratna to Bhimsen Joshi
Pune: Eminent exponent of Hindustani classical music Pandit Bhimsen Joshi was on Tuesday officially conferred the "Bharat Ratna' at his residence here by a President's emissary.
A simple 15-minute ceremony marked the occasion as Additional Secretary in the Union Home ministry A F Ahmed presented the citation and the 'Ratna' to the doyen of Kirana Gharana who turned 88 on February 4.
Maharashtra Cultural Affairs Minister Harshawardhan Patil and some disciples of the maestro were present along with his family members at the function.
Pandit Joshi, who had expressed his inability to go to Delhi to receive the highest civilian honour on health grounds, thanked the President and countrymen for the award.
His sons-Raghavendra, Srinivas and Jayant told mediapersons that President Pratibha Patil wanted to come down to Pune personally to present the honour to Panditji.
"It was however, his wish to keep it a low-key affair and he did not want the President to take the trouble of personally coming over," they added. However, the media was not given access to witness the function.
A disciple of Bhimsen Joshi Anand Bhate said, though not in not sound health, his ‘Guruji’ looked cheerful as he exchanged pleasantries with the visiting dignitaries. (PTI)
RATNA-LIST
Following is the list of Bharat Ratna awardees since its institution in 1954:
1)Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan (1954)
2) Chakravarti Rajagopalachari (1954)
3) C V Raman (1954)
4) Bhagwan Das (1955)
5)Mokshagundam Visvesvarayya (1955)
6) Jawaharlal Nehru (1955)
7) Govind Ballabh Pant (1957) 8) Dhondo Keshav Karve (1958)
9) Dr B C Roy (1961)
10) Purushottam Das Tandon (1961)
11) Dr Rajendra Prasad (1962)
12) Dr Zakir Hussain (1963)
13) Pandurang Vaman Kane (1963)
14) Lal Bahadur Shastri (1966)
15) Indira Gandhi (1971)
16) V V Giri (1975)
17) K Kamaraj (1976)
18) Mother Teresa (1980)
19)Acharya Vinoba Bhave (1983)
20) Khan Abdul Ghaffar Khan (1987)
21) M G Ramachandran (1988)
22) B R Ambedkar (1990)
23) Nelson Mandela (1990)
24) Rajiv Gandhi (1991)
25) Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel (1991)
26) Morarji Desai (1991)
27) Maulana Abul Kalam Azad (1992)
28) J R D Tata (1992)
29) Satyajit Ray (1992)
30) A P J Abdul Kalam (1997)
31) Gulzarilal Nanda (1997)
32) Aruna Asaf Ali (1997)
33) M S Subbulakshmi (1998)
34)Chidambaram Subrama niam (1998)
35) Jayaprakash Narayan (1998)
36) Pandit Ravi Shankar (1999)
37) Amartya Sen (1999)
38) Gopinath Bordoloi (1999)
39) Lata Mangeshkar (2001)
40) Ustad Bismillah Khan (2001)
41) Pandit Bhimsen Joshi (2008) (PTI)
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Left to corner Govt over loss of jobs
New Delhi: Left parties will put the Manmohan Singh government in the dock during the brief session of Parliament beginning on Thursday over its ''callous'' approach in tackling the problem of lay-offs, retrenchments and closures following the impact of the global meltdown on the Indian economy.
Top CPI(M) and CPI floor leaders in the Lok Sabha told UNI here on Tuesday that they would also raise the issues relating to internal security, the price rise and rampant corruption in the corporate world.
CPI(M) senior leaders Salim Mohammad and Rup Chand Pal said their party would corner the Congress-led coalition because of its miserable failure to provide any relief to the aam aadmi, particularly the working classes, who had been hard hit because of the agrarian crisis and the industrial slowdown.
CPI floor leader Gurudas Dasgupta said his party would raise the people's issues, including large scale loss of jobs of the working classes and the impact of recession.
Mr Pal said more so in the backdrop of the global downturn millions of jobs had been lost and the government was giving bailout packgages to the same people who contributed to this crisis.
''The government claims that the inflation has come down, but how come the prices of essential commodities are skyrocketing. This callous government is indulging in disastrous steps like increasing railway freight in respect of food and essential commodities,'' he added.
Referring to ''rampant corporate fraud'' and corruption as demonstrated in the case of Satyam, the Left leaders said it reflected on the whole system, which they said the government was trying to build up at the cost of the common man.
Mr Dasgupta and Mr Salim said they would also raise the issues relating to internal security, which the government had put in ''jeopardy''.
They said the post-Mumbai terrorist attack developments needed a thorough debate.
''We will also discuss the Indo-Pak relations besides the fundamentalists' attack on women in Mangalore, inter state issues,'' Mr Salim added. (UNI)
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SC raps CBI, reserves order in DA case against Mulayam
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Tuesday slammed the CBI for acting on Centre's advice while filing applications for withdrawing its earlier application for modification of the court's order in the disproportionate assets case against former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav and his family members.
The court had earlier directed the CBI to submit its preliminary probe report to the government. The moment Additional Solicitor General Mohan Parasaran submitted that the CBI had filed its application dated December 6, 2008 on the advice of Union Law Ministry, it invited sharp reaction from the infuriated judges. Senior counsel Harish Salve, appearing for Mr Yadav, demanded a judicial probe, telling the court that his client has no faith in the CBI. Senior counsel K T S Tulsi, appearing for petitioner Vishwanath Chaturvedi on whose petition an order dated March 1, 2007, was passed, also described the action of the CBI as most unfortunate. (UNI)
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Andhra CM seeks CBI probe into Satyam scam
HYDERABAD: Giving in to opposition criticism that undue favours were being extended to the promoter of Satyam computers, chief minister YS Rajasekhara Reddy late on Monday evening dashed off a letter to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh seeking a CBI probe into the fraud committed by the company.
Reddy in his letter said that Satyam attracted global attention because of fudged accounts, financial imprudence and the accounting scam it had created.
He said the incident had come to his notice on January 7 and immediately, the government had ordered CB-CID investigation. Company chairman Ramalinga Raju, his brother Rama Raju and the chief financial officer were arrested.
More than 300 companies were reportedly raised by Ramalinga Raju and his close relatives as directors and promoters which facilitated insider trading of shares.
Reddy said the CB-CID has been in regular touch with the other investigating agencies but there were several issues which need to be looked into deeply by central government organisations like Sebi, Income Tax, Enforcement Directorate, Registrar of Companies, ministry of company affairs and Serious Fraud Investigation Office.
Besides, irregularities have been reported in its overseas operations also, he added.
In view of this, the CM said that it would be appropriate if CBI takes over the investigation into Satyam scam so that coordination with various investigation agencies, including Satyam’s overseas operations can be better achieved. (Agencies)
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YSR defends action on Satyam-Maytas issue
Hyderabad: Turning the tables on Leader of the Opposition N Chandrababu Naidu on the Satyam Scam, Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Rajasekhara Reddy on Tuesday asserted his government had not cancelled contracts awarded to Maytas Infra, including the prestigious Metro Rail Project, ''in the best interests of the works and to protect the State's interests''.
Replying to the debate on the irregularities in Satyam, Maytas and other companies, the Chief Minister contended Mr Naidu scuttled a probe by the Central agencies, when the irregularities in the Satyam Computer Services Limited were brought to light by Republican Party of India Leader Ramdas Athawale, using his clout with the then Vajpayee Government.
Referring to media reports on the origin of the scam, the Chief Minister said Mr Naidu had neither denied the reports nor resorted to filing a defamation suit. (UNI)
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No slumdogs’ but millionaires’ for these canines
Chandigarh: They are no 'slumdogs' but 'millionaires' in their own right. Being man's best friend is working well for some dogs these days.
Carrying price tags that match up to the showroom prices of Mercedes cars, exhibit dogs are catching the fancy of dog lovers. And if the craze here to own the best breeds of dogs is anything to go by, the dog's life is surely headed to become life worth living.
At the annual dog show held here on Sunday by the Chandigarh Kennel Club (CKC), hundreds of people turned out with their canines. On the catwalk were dogs with price tags ranging from Rs.2,500 to a whopping Rs.4 million (Rs.40 lakh).
Jacob, an Afghan hound, was the centre of attraction at the show with its supposed market value of Rs.4 million. The hound had come here for the show from Bangalore, with a team of four caretakers, two Australian trainers and two Indian helpers.
Gurbej Singh, one of the organisers and general secretary of CKC, told IANS: "We are organising this dog show for the last 32 years and it has transformed from a normal get- together of dog lovers to a big classy affair. Many elite breeds of dogs from various countries like China, Australia, Afghanistan, Canada and Germany are participating here."
The annual dog show here has become a hunting ground for prospective dog-keepers to look for a canine of their choice. Pugs, the dog made popular by the Vodafone advertisement, is one of the most sought-after breeds. Price tags for a Pug pup start at Rs.40,000.
From petite Chihuahuas, Pugs and Lhasa Apsos to big German Shepherds, Rottweilers, Dobermans and Dalmatians to huge Great Danes and Saint Bernards, all were on display at the show.
Over 300 dogs of 45 breeds participated. Besides walking the ramp, they did everything else that dogs do, but they did it in air-conditioned kennels, enjoying the admiring glances of thousands of spectators, especially youngsters, who thronged the show.
Apart from Jacob, another crowd-puller was three-year-old white Poodle Jojo, who arrived with his hair-stylist from Chile and grooming expert from Thailand.
"Apart from its dashing looks, Jojo is a very intelligent dog. It is probably one of the best-groomed and well-trained dogs on this earth. Earlier also it has won prizes at various competitions in New Delhi, Chennai, Agra, Mumbai and in Goa," said Mariano Santo, the Chilean hair-stylist.
Dog enthusiast Gursatjit Sandhu had come to the show with dotted Dalmatian George and Chinese Sarpei Bush.
"I bought George for $10,000 and Bush for $7,000 last year, both from Perth in Australia. Their monthly expenditure on diet and maintenance easily goes up to nearly Rs.100,000," said Sandhu.
There were quite a few Chinese Sarpeis, a breed once declared endangered. They attracted many spectators with their deep wrinkles, muzzled faces and blue-black tongues.
Bollywood actress and former Miss India Gul Panag, who grew up in this city, was at the show too, with her family dogs. (IANS)
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‘Pink Chaddi’ campaign to take on cultural vigilantes
New Delhi: Outraged Indian women say they will collect hundreds of underwear to send to a man whose supporters say women should not visit pubs nor celebrate Valentine's Day as it is against Indian culture.
Pink underwears are being collected in right earnest, and the 'Pink Chaddi' campaigners say they are hopeful of collecting 3,000 underwears to present the cheeky gift to Sri Rama Sene chief Pramod Muthalik to counter his moral policing. The Sri Rama Sene has questioned the "family background" of the campaigners who are targeting him.
The campaign launched on social networking site Facebook has generated immense interest, and support, especially after the media highlighted it Tuesday.
The 'Pink Chaddi' campaign has been initiated by a group of women who call themselves the Consortium of Pub-Going, Loose and Forward Women. Men can also send in underwears, and if they don't have pink ones, any other colour will do, says a group member.
Besides the Pink Chaddi campaign, another one on Facebook is attracting a lot of interest and support - 'Pub Bharo'. This campaign is asking youth across the country, especially women, to fill up pubs on February 14, Valentine's Day, to counter the Sene's moral policing.
Activists of the right-wing Sene had attacked and beaten up women at a pub in Mangalore January 24, claiming pub-going was against Indian traditions.
While members of both campaigns are determined to counter the Sri Rama Sene, activists of the fringe Hindu nationalist group are raising questions about the "family background" of the campaigners. "We were raised by our mother in such a manner that we are working against pub culture and vulgarity. What about the family background of those working for the 'pub bharo' (fill pubs) and other campaign," Binay Kumar Singh, general secretary the Sri Rama Sene, said to IANS.
"The campaigns show the limit of their activism and bankruptcy of their ideology," he said.
The 'Pub Bharo' campaign is being endorsed by Tejaswini Chowdhury, and her mother union Minister for Women and Child Development Renuka Chowdhury.
Politicising the issue, Singh added: "The Congress party was the one that was based on Mahatma Gandhi's philosophy - from Swades (self-reliance) to Jail Bharo (fill prisons), this party has now come to Pub bharo (fill pubs).
"The women and child development minister is such a senior person, what kind of woman and child welfare does she want to do by endorsing pub bharo?" Singh asked. (IANS)
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- Gloria Nianghoikim
- Gloria Nianghoikim
