India suspends fencing on Bangladesh border; Mortal remains of Sunil Dutt brought to home state; Volcanic eruptions rock Barren Islands; EC team completes three-day visit to Bihar; Dalai Lama to present award to Anupam Kher; Two LeT militants killed in J and K; Amarinder admits visiting Pro-Khalistan places in Canada;India Travel Times, Indian News, Tourism, Hotels, Airlines, Tour, Travel, Ayurveda, Yoga, Festival, Hindu, Taj Mahal, Kathakali, Dance,

Home Contact Us Dateline New Delhi, Sunday, May 29, 2005

India suspends fencing on Bangladesh border

New Delhi: India has suspended fencing work at several places along the Indo-Bangla border following objections raised by Bangladesh. Officials said that though New Delhi wants Dhaka to fast implement a proposal for "co-ordinated patrolling" and the fence was being constructed for thwarting instances of illegal activity, including smuggling and incursions into Indian territory, India suspended the work at several places along the Bangladesh border. They said that work, has been stopped in certain patches till the Foreign Secretary level talks, expected to take place in early July in New Delhi. Officials further say that India's decision will affect work on the 212 patches identified along the 4095-kilometre long Indo- Bangla border. Although the fence is being erected 150 yards inside the border to check illegal immigration from Bangladesh and trans-border crimes like smuggling, abductions and cattle-lifting, Bangladesh has vociferously opposed the erection of the fence, even to the extent of opening fire on the Indian side, in an attempt to stop the fencing work.

Mortal remains of Sunil Dutt brought to home state (Go To Top)

Yamunagar/Sonipat: The urn containing the ashes of sports minister and renowned Bollywood star Sunil Dutt reached his home state Haryana today. Dutt had moved along with his family to Mandoli village in Haryana after the partition of 1948 between India and Pakistan. Dutt, 75, died on Wednesday after a brief illness at an hospital in Mumbai. He came to prominence in politics due to his reputation as an honest politician and for his immense social work. Sanjay Dutt, his son and Bollywood actor, along with sisters Namrata and Priya, carried the urn containing the ashes. The convoy carrying his ashes passed through various towns of Haryana. Locals, on the way, showered petals at the vehicle carrying the urn. Huge crowd had gathered to pay last homage to the departed soul. "Dutt was a pillar of strength in our family. No one would ever be born like him either in Haryana or in the entire country. No one can fill the void created by his death," said Suraj Dutt, a distant relative of Dutts. Bhupinder Singh Hooda, Chief Minister of Haryana, paid floral tribute to the departed soul when the vehicle carrying the urn reached Sonipat.

Dutt, a popular film star since the late 1950s, was a member of the Lok Sabha from Mumbai and had been a minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's cabinet for the past one year. One of Dutt's greatest films was "Mother India," which was nominated for an Oscar in the best foreign film category in 1957 and catapulted him to stardom. He undertook a peace march from Mumbai to Amritsar in the 1980s when the state was reeling from a Sikh rebellion. Dutt, whose wife died of cancer, was an active campaigner against the deadly disease and was also working for AIDS awareness campaign and other social evils. Dutt's son, Sanjay, is a leading actor in Bollywood and the father-son duo acted together in a hit comedy called "Munnabhai MBBS" in 2003.

Volcanic eruptions rock Barren Islands (Go To Top)

New Delhi: Volcanic eruptions have been noticed at Barren Islands in the Indian ocean, 135 kms north east of Port Blair. According to a Coast Guard release here, fresh eruption of lava and smoke had been seen on the Island by Coast Guard ship Sagar and Dornier aircraft who patrol in Andaman and Nicobar seas. The small, uninhabited 3-km-wide island is accessible only to Coast Guard and naval ships maintaining regular patrol in the area. Barren Island, a possession of India in the Andaman Sea about 135 km NE of Port Blair in the Andaman Islands, is the only historically active volcano along the N-S-trending volcanic arc extending between Sumatra and Burma (Myanmar). The 354-m-high island is the emergent summit of a volcano that rises from a depth of about 2250 m. The island contains a roughly 2-km-wide caldera with walls 250- 350 m high. The caldera, which is open to the sea on the west, was created during a major explosive eruption in the late Pleistocene that produced pyroclastic-flow and -surge deposits. The morphology of a fresh pyroclastic cone that was constructed in the center of the caldera has varied during the course of historical eruptions. Lava flows fill much of the caldera floor and have reached the sea along the western coast during eruptions in the 19th century and more recently in 1991 and 1995.

EC team completes three-day visit to Bihar (Go To Top)

Patna: The Election Commission team today wrapped up its three-day visit to Bihar after holding meetings with political parties and officials and conducting an on-the-spot survey of many flood-prone northern districts of the State. Deputy Election Commissioner Anand Kumar and the Commission's legal advisor S K Mehendiratta refused to comment on NDA's demand to hold assembly polls in the state in mid-July, They said: ''We will submit our report to the EC, which will take the final decision''. The EC team had arrived here on May 27 and met a delegation of the NDA leaders, comprising BJP State President Gopal Narayan Singh and his JD (U) counterpart Vijendra Prasad Yadav. That was when the leaders of the opposition coalition demanded a one-day poll in mid-July with 24 hours deployment of para-military forces at all the polling booths under the direct supervision of the EC observers. They also termed the Governments decision to dissolve the State Assembly as a 'dictatorial and unconstitutional step and demanded that tainted IAS, IPS and Bihar Administrative Service officials be removed from election-related work. State RJD President Abdul Bari Siddiqui has demanded for uniformity in withholding the counting of votes at the booths, where 90 per cent or more votes were cast. The State BSP President, Sanjay Kumar Mandal, has on his part, asked the EC not to involve home guards and district armed police personnel in election work. While, PCC President Ram Jatan Sinha has said the elections should be held after a thorough assessment of the situation, LJP leaders are requesting the Commission not to take a hasty decision on holding polls in the state. The team also met the Chief Secretary, Home Secretary and District Magistrates of various districts.

Dalai Lama to present award to Anupam Kher (Go To Top)

Mumbai: Tibetan spiritual guru Dalai Lama is likely to confer upon Divya Himachal Award for Excellence for the year 2005, to veteran actor and former Censor Board Chairman Anupam Kher. Kher, who hails from the state, would be awarded on June two at Macleodgang, the headquarter of Tibetan government-in-exile, for his contributions to the society. Divya Himachal, the first vernacular newspaper of the state, has instituted the award. Chief Minister of Himachal Pradesh Veer Bhadra Singh is also expected to grace the occasion. The award carries a citation and trophy. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will inaugurate a national seminar on Strategies for the Development of Himachal Pradesh on the same day at the Club House, McLeod Ganj. Organised by Divya Himachal, the seminar will be attended by the state's Chief Minister, ministers for Power, Tourism, Industry and Forest, secretaries and other senior officials from the central and state governments, businessmen and management experts. His Holiness the Dalai Lama will also address the inaugural function.

Two LeT militants killed in J and K (Go To Top)

Jammu: Two Lashker-e-Taiba (LeT) militants have been killed in an encounter in Udhampur district today. The state police, acting on a tip-off, carried out a search and cordon operation in Gool area of the district early today, said Deputy Insepector General of Police Udhampur-Doda range Satvir Gupta to a news agency. He said that two AK rifles, two magazines, three grenades, one wireless set have been seized so far in the operation.

Amarinder admits visiting Pro-Khalistan places in Canada (Go To Top)
by Balesh Dhankhar

New Delhi: Punjab Chief Minister Capt. Amarinder Singh admits today that he had visited to one time Pro-Khalistan places in Canada, while returning from an official foreign tour. There were many reports in local media about his meeting with Khalistan sympathises in Canada and visiting such places. Though Singh denied that any such activity is going on there now. "Our Sikh community there invited us to the Toronto's biggest Dixie Gurdwara. At the time such activities (Khalistan related) were there but nothing is there now," Capt. Singh said. Singh was returning from an eight-day foreign tour to Canada and France to promote foreign investment in Punjab. Several other ministers and secretaries of State government accompanied him. The Chief Minister he attended 23 meetings, which resulted in 'by-and-large successful visit'. "Most of the investors are interested in the sectors like bio- tech, power, roads, textile and housing beside IT," Capt. Singh said while briefing about his tour of Toronto and Vancouver. "To felicitate the foreign investors we have constituted a high power committee in my chairmanship which will look after all mega- projects of more than 100 crores of investment," he added. A high power delegation of 21 people will come from the two Canadian cities in October this year expectedly to see the opportunities of investment here, Singh said. Apart from the delegation many individuals who are interested in investing in Punjab are also approaching the State Government, he added. A show of small-scale industry 'Made in Punjab' was also organised at Toronto by NGOs from Chandigarh, which was a countable success.

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