Jyoti
Basu slams UPA over CMP
Kolkata:
Former West Bengal Chief Minister and veteran CPI-M
leader Jyoti Basu today said that Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh's government was not following the Common Minimum
Programme. Talking to reporters hre, Basu said that the
Left was not following a policy of "double standards" in
supporting the UPA government and "that is why we have lent
our support to the government from outside". "We are supporting
the UPA on an issue-to-issue basis and we want it to pursue
the Common Minimum Programme, but it is not doing it." Basu
said. "We (the Left and the UPA) have to meet together,"
Basu said.
11
students among several killed in Meghalaya (Go
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Shillong:
Eleven students were among several people killed when
Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) personnel opened fire
on stone-throwing rallyists agitating on the Meghalaya Board
of School Education (MBOSE) issue in the West Garo Hills
town of Tura on Friday. Law enforcement authorities had
to impose a curfew across the town. Meghalaya's Home Minister
Mukul Sangma said that the total number of dead was yet
to be ascertained, even as student leaders claimed that
six students had been shot dead at the Chandmari ground
in Tura. Deputy Inspector General of Meghalaya Police, Vijay
Kumar, said the Garo Students Union (GSU) was not given
permission to stage the rally over the MBOSE issue. Despite
that activists of the GSU gathered at the Chandmari ground
for the rally. When the police arrived on the spot, the
crowd started throwing stones in which some policemen were
hurt, Kumar claimed. The police and then CRPF opened fire
in retaliation, he said. Three government vehicles were
burnt by the protestors, the sources said. Curfew has been
clamped in both Tura and Williamnagar in the wake of the
violence. The GSU began a campaign of protests earlier this
month against the state government's proposed educational
reforms. The government has asked the students body to end
their protest actions before it negotiates with them over
the reforms.
Manmohan
talks to Bush, review joint statement (Go
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New
Delhi: US President George Bush called Prime Minister
Dr Manmohan Singh at 4.45 p.m. on Friday. The two leaders
reviewed the implementation of the July 18 India- US Joint
Statement, and other bilateral issues and touched on developments
in the region.
Differences
as India, Bangladesh border talks end (Go
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by Ashok Dixit
New
Delhi: Differences surfaced between senior officers
of Border Security Force (BSF) and the Bangladesh Rifles(BDR)
as the four-day border-related talks between the two countries
came to an end on Friday. Though both R.S.Mooshahary, Director
General of the BSF and Major General Mohammad Jehangir Alam
Chowdhury described their deliberations as constructive,
they both admitted that there were a couple of issues over
which "perceptions differed". Mooshahhary said that the
BSF had expressed grave concern over the number of occasions
on which the BDR personnel had opened fire on the Indo-Bangladesh
border without provocation since April this year, and specifically
quoted two instances to prove his point (1) the killing
of Assistant Commandant Jiwan Kumar of the BSF's 131st Battalion
on April 16, 2005 and (2) the unprovoked firing by BDR troops
on BSF troops durng the reinforcement of the Mahananda River
embankment. To both of these querries, Major General Chowdhury
said that an enquiry had been carried out and the government
had absolved the BDR personnel of any involvement. Other
issues raised during the course of the four-day meeting
included the illegal migration of Bangladeshis to India,
trans- border crimes, incidents of smuggling of arms and
ammunition to north east India, proliferation of fake Indian
currency, and poaching of Indian resources.
Janata
Dal (Secular) splits formally (Go
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Bangalore:
The Janata Dal (Secular) today formally split with a
section of the party today announcing the removal of former
Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda as national president. The
JD (S) faction named former Union Minister C M Ibrahim as
its president at its national council meeting held here.
The meeting also replaced state president N Thippanna with
Satish Jharkiholi, MLC.
CBI
raids 198 places in 54 cities, 41 officers indicted
New
Delhi: India's premier investigation agency, the Central
Bureau of Investigation (CBI), today carried out anti-corruption
raids in 198 places in 54 cities and hauled up 41 government
officials for further scrutiny. Addressing a press conference
at the CBI headquarters in New Delhi, CBI Director US Misra
confirmed that raids had taken place in Delhi (34 places),
Mumbai (25 places),Jaipur (9), Patna (8), Kolkata (7), Chennai
(5), Howrah (5), Vaishali in Bihar (4), Nagpur (4), Dhanbad
(3), Ranchi (3) and Jind (4), and several other places.
Elaborating on the special anti-corruption drive, the fourth
to be held this year, Misra said cases had been registered
against officers belonging to the Departments of Customs
and Central Excise (11 cases), Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited
(4), Income Tax (3), Oil and Natural Gas Commission (2),
the Municipal Corporation of India (2), CAPART (4), the
National Council of Homeopathy (2), nationalised banks (4),
Railways (2), Insurance, Bombay Port Trust, IIT (Delhi),
CBI, the Cotton Corporation of India, Indian Airlines, BCCL,
National Crime Bureau and Delhi Police (one each). Misra
said that the cases had been registered under the Prevention
of Corruption Act, 1988, for demanding and accepting bribes
and for possession disproportionate assets, besides abuse
of official position for monetary gain to private persons
at considerable loss to the government. Cases were also
lodged under the Indian Penal Code for cheating, forgery,
criminal breach of trust and criminal conspiracy.
Sheikh
Hasina meets Manmohan Singh (Go
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by Vrishti Beniwal
New
Delhi: Bangladesh opposition leader and former Prime
Minister Sheikh Hasina met Indian Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh in New Delhi on Friday. Hasina, currently in India
on a private-cum-semi-official visit, said that during her
30-minute meeting with Dr. Singh, she had discussed regional
and bilateral issues and how best both countries could go
forward in terms of cooperation. "It's a courtesy visit
and we discussed about regional cooperation, how we can
help our people. We can work together and all these matters,"
she told reporters. The former premier leads the Awami League
in Bangladesh. Hasina is also slated to meet Defence Minister
Pranab Mukherjee, Home Minister Shivraj Patil, Congress
president Sonia Gandhi and Leader of the Opposition L.K.Advani
during the course of the day. On Thursday, Hasina offered
prayers and homage at the mausoleum of Sufi saint Khwaja
Moinuddin Chisti in Ajmer. Hasina will fly to Kolkata on
Saturday before returning to Dhaka on Sunday. India and
Bangladesh have been holding talks to resolve New Delhi's
charges against Dhaka for harbouring rebels from its northeastern
states, a key irritant between the usually friendly neighbours.
Bangladesh denies the presence of anti-India rebel camps
in its soil. Ties have also soured over skirmishes between
border forces of both nations in recent months, which ended
in the killing of half a dozen troops and villagers. The
firefights, India says, are sparked by Bangladeshis trying
to illegally slip into its territory and not aimed at the
Bangladesh Rifles or the BDR but Dhaka has refuted the claims
accusing their Indian counterparts of acting without provocation.
