Walk-out over Chidambaram's wife; Hearing of Karishma-Sunjay Kapur case adjourned; India, Pakistan agree to free fishermen, civilian prisoners; Monsoon session of Parliament ends sine die; Heads start rolling at Reliance's BSES; 11 Cauvery Delta districts under flood threat; Indian Embassy officials meet Sarabjit Singh; Is Liz Hurley getting hitched on the high seas?; Espresso gives Pam's bust a boost; Tara Reid books hotel room to house her shoes; Gwyneth Paltrow's marriage tips to Jen and Pitt;India Travel Times, Indian News, Tourism, Hotels, Airlines, Tour, Travel, Ayurveda, Yoga, Festival, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Kathakali, Dance,

Home Contact Us Dateline New Delhi, Tuesday, Aug 30, 2005

Walk-out over Chidambaram's wife
by Pankaj Yadav

New Delhi: The Opposition staged a walkout in Lok Sabha on Tuesday after demanding Finance Minister P Chidambaram's resignation in both Houses of Parliament. Chidambaram was asked to quit over the issue of assigning an Income Tax department case to his lawyer wife, Nalini Chidambaram. Sources in the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) said the opposition was not satisfied with the Finance Minister's explanation on the issue and reiterated their demand. Chidambaram had said on Monday that he was not aware about his wife being asked to do the case, and even the Central Board of Direct Taxes, which assigned the case, has acknowledged that the Finance Minister was not informed of the matter. The Rajya Sabha has also been adjourned over the controversy.

The CBDT had last week issued a clarification with regard to Nalini Chidambaram's engagement as a special counsel for the Income Tax Department. 'The Board would like to clarify that in January 2004, Smt Pushya Sitaraman, senior standing counsel for the Income Tax Department, Chennai briefed Shri P Chidambaram (then practising as a senior advocate) in a case involving large revenue (clubbed with a batch of cases raising the same issue). The case was not taken up for hearing until May 2004, when Shri Chidambaram became finance minister,' the press release said. 'In July, 2004, due to the non-availability of Shri Chidambaram, Smt Pushya Sitaraman persuaded Smt Nalini Chidambaram, senior advocate, to take up the case, in view of her long experience and familiarity with the subject. A proposal to this effect, received from CCIT-I, Chennai was approved by the CBDT as per the prescribed procedure,' the press release added. The CBDT claimed that the proposals for engagement of counsel are not submitted to the finance minister for approval. In this case too, the file was not put up before the finance minister. Nor was the finance minister informed of the matter, CBDT said.

Hearing of Karishma-Sunjay Kapur case adjourned (Go To Top)

New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today adjourned till September 15 the hearing on Sunjay Kapur`s petition seeking to restrain his wife, Bollywood actress Karishma Kapoor from taking their five-month-old daughter Samaira abroad to enable them to settle their discord. Justice Mukul Mudgal adjourned the matter after hearing counsels of both parties in camera. He asked the parties to report back to the court in thrashing out their differences. Earlier, the judge had asked the media to leave the courtroom for some time after both the parties said they wanted to hold negotiations to settle the dispute. The court, however, made it clear that media would not completely be barred from attending the proceedings. In the last month or so, reports had been surfacing at frequent intervals of the Kapurs' marriage having gone bust. The actress is said to have recently walked out on the man, whom she had once said was her teenage crush. The reasons are not clear. Karisma gave birth to a baby girl recently. She was engaged to Abhishek Bachchan, while Sanjay was previously married to socialite Nandita Mahtani, who is currently seeing Dino Morea. Sanjay had filed a petition in the high court on August 5 seeking to prevent Karishma from taking their five-month-old daughter Samaira out of the country without his consent. Thereafter, the case was heard on August 12, 19 and 26. Justice Mudgal has been stressing all along on the need for both parties to reconcile considering the age of the baby. " It will be better if the matter settles through reconciliation," he had said on August 12. Ashok Desai, Sunjay Kapoor's lawyer, had said then that Samaira's passport had been made by flouting rules and regulations, and demanded that the passport be cancelled. He said a father has an equal right as a mother and consent of both is necessary to get a passport made for the child. He also emphasised that since Karishma and her husband were not divorced and were still married by law, she could not get the child's passport without her husband's consent.

On the other hand, Karishma's lawyer, Arvind Nigam said that according to the new laws of the passport office, either mother or father could apply and get the passport made. So, any questions of rules being flouted did not arise. The Passport Office too has clarified that all documents submitted for the passport were valid and denied violation of any laws. Sunjay Kapur is the son of Sona Steering promoter Surinder Kapur. Reacting to the situation, Karisma has said that she is trying her best to cope with this traumatic period in her life. She also expressed her deep concern for her daughter Samaira. "I pray for my daughter Samaira that she comes out of this unaffected. Even when growing up, I trust God will take care of her."

India, Pakistan agree to free fishermen, civilian prisoners (Go To Top)

New Delhi: India and Pakistan on Tuesday agreed to release all fishermen and civilian prisoners who have completed their sentences and whose national status had been confirmed on September 12. The agreement came at the two-day Home Secretary-level talks between the two countries which concluded in New Delhi today. Home Secretary V K Duggal, while releasing a joint statement, said at a press conference that both New Delhi and Islamabad had also agreed to implement the decisions arrived at by the Foreign Secretaries of the two countries in December 2004 on prisoners. The two countries also reiterated their commitment to provide immediate notification of arrests made by either side, provide consular access to all prisoners within three months of arrest and release prisoners immmediately after completion of sentence and nationality verification. Pakistan Interior Secretary Syed Kamal Shah, who was also present at the press conference, said he ''fully endorsed'' the joint statement. The two sides also underlined the need for cooperation between the CBI and the Central Investigation Agency and agreed that experts form both sides would meet at mutually convenient dates in the near future to work out modalities for implementation of the arrangement for copoperation between the two agencies. Both countries expressed satisfaction over the continuing cooperation and exchange of information between narcotics control agencies of the two countries and agreed that the MOU between them would shortly be finalised and signed. The MOU aimed at having a regular institutional mechanism in place to intensify mutual cooperation and liaison on drugs control matters. The two sides also agreed to continue discussion within the framework of the composite dailogue process and reiterated their commitment to combat terrorism. They re-emphasised the need for effective steps for complete elemination of terrorism.

Monsoon session of Parliament ends sine die (Go To Top)

New Delhi: Both the Houses of Parliament have been adjourned sine die at the end of the Monsoon Session which had commenced on July 25. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh gave his customary concluding remarks in the Lok Sabha and the Rajya Sabha, regretting the non- introduction of the Women's Reservation Bill for want of political consensus. Compared to the budget session, the current session witnessed more activity. The session witnessed 24 sittings over 37 days. Though were the customary walkouts by the opposition National Democratic Alliance over various issues, there was a healthy debate on issues like the dissolution of the Bihar Assembly, the Women's Reservation Bill and the Report of the Justice G.T.Nanavati Commission on the 1984 anti-Sikh riot case. The session also witnessed the resignation of the Minister of Overseas Affairs, Jagdish Tytler, who was named as of the possible culprits responsible for the 1984 riots that followed the assassination of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. The plus points of the session included the passing of the Rural Employment Bill which guarantees 100 days employment for the poorest of the poor, and amendments to the Hindu Succession Act, which will ensure equal rights to girls in matters of property.

Heads start rolling at Reliance's BSES (Go To Top)

New Delhi: The CEO of the Reliance Energy-owned power distributing company BSES, Rakesh Aggarwal, was sacked on Tuesday. According to sources, Aggarwal has been sacked from the post and has not been told about his new deputation so far. A decision has also been taken that the two wings of the power distcom BSES-Yamuna and Rajdhani will now be headed by two separate CEOs, as has been demanded by Delhi Government, the sources added. BSES has been facing flak from the government as well as citizens' groups for its poor performance in the capital.

11 Cauvery Delta districts under flood threat (Go To Top)

Chennai: A flood warning has been issued in the low-lying areas across 11 Cauvery delta districts after water levels at Stanley Reservoir in Mettur crossed 120 feet mark on Tuesday morning. The reservoir touched the full level at 4.30 a.m. And after three hours the flow was in "surplus" due to release of water from dams in Karnataka, besides heavy rainfall in the catchment areas of the reservoir, the Public Works Department sources said. The present inflow is about 34,000 cusecs and outflow 22,000 cusecs putting the level to 120.20 feet, they said. The dam had earlier touched the full capacity level in December, 2000. It is the 37th time in past 100 years that it has recorded surplus water.

Indian Embassy officials meet Sarabjit Singh (Go To Top)

Lahore: Officials of the Indian High Commission have begun a meeting with Sarabjit Singh, the villager hailing from East Punjab's Bhikiwind village, who was sentenced to death by the Pakistan Supreme Court for his alleged role in the 1990 bomb blasts in Lahore, Faisalabad and Multan. Sarabjit has also been accused of being a RAW spy. Deepak Kaul, Consular Visa and S C Sharma, Attache Visa of the Indian High Commission, are reported to be inside Lahore's Kot Lakhpat jail meeting Sarabjit. Consular access to Sarabjit was granted after a delay of about a week, even as both New Delhi and Islamabad agreed to solve the problem of prisoners in each other's jail in a humanitarian manner. India's Home Secretary V K Duggal has already said that consular access to Sarabjit Singh is the first step towards him being granted clemency. The aim of Tuesday's meeting is to establish the nationality of Sarabjit who has also been identified as Manjit Singh by Pakistani authorities. It is expected that the Indian officials would collect all his details, his version of his arrest and subsequent detention in 1990. The officials would also inquire about his health and his assessment of the trial process to the Indian government. Action on his case, including chalking out further strategy for his release would be worked out after confirmation of his national status and other details from him, Indian High Commission officials said.

Meanwhile, there are rumours afloat of a possible exchange taking place i.e Sarabjit Singh for Mohammad Afzal, the main accused in the December 13, 2001 terrorist attack on the Indian Parliament. India has submitted a list of 30 names of people wanted for crimes committed in the country, while Pakistan has submitted a list of 37. Sarabjit's family is now hoping for relief from the governments of both countries. His sister, Dalbir Kaur also issued an appeal to the Pakistani authorities for his release. The family has sent a memorandum to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf via a group of Pakistani journalists today. The case of Sarabjit Singh has hogged newspaper headlines in both Pakistan and India this past week after the family of the accused said his was a clear case of mistaken identity and threatened to commit suicide if he was executed. They claimed that he had been picked up by the Pakistani Rangers (West Punjab range) and was falsely accused of being the mastermind of the 1990 blasts. Apart from public appeals for his release, the family spent most of this week knocking on the doors of political leaders to save the man who has been on death row in Pakistan since 1991. The issue was taken up very strongly in the Indian Parliament with concerned MPs urging the UPA Government to ask Pakistan to reconsider the matter on humanitarian grounds. The family met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister K.Natwar Singh, both of whom promised to take up the matter in right earnest. Natwar Singh met Pakistan High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan and his deputy and discussed the matter. This followed a meeting between Pakistan Foreign Secretary Rias Muhammad and India's High Commissioner to Pakistan Shivshanker Menon.

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