Lalu seeks discharge in fodder scam case

    Patna: Railway Minister and Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) Chief Lalu Prasad Yadav has moved a special Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Court here, seeking to be discharged in the multi-crore rupee fodder scam. Lalu also claimed that without having any proper permission for the trial, the CBI had charge-sheeted him. "As I was the member of the Legislative Assembly and then Parliament, the approval for trail should have been obtained for the presiding officers of the two houses," Lalu said. He said that the same thing was done with other MLAs and MP who were charged in the case.

    Earlier, Lalu had appealed before the court of the designated CBI Judge Munilal Paswan, about a week ahead of framing of charges against him in the case. Senior Advocate C R Sinha has filed the discharge petition on Lalu's behalf, which mentioned that Lalu was a member of the Legislative Assembly, an MP and the Chief Minister (between 1990 and 1996) during that period. Besides this, he was also holding the Finance portfolio. During the time when the charge-sheet was filed, he was a member of Rajya Sabha. The hearing of the case will be held on February 22. Earlier, on January 23, the special CBI court had said that it would frame charges against Lalu and former Bihar Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra on February 22 in one of the cases in the multi- crore rupees fodder scam. Charges would also be framed against 38 other accused in the same case involving fraudulent withdrawal of Rs 46 lakhs from the Bhagalpur treasury and Banka treasuries through fake and forged bills by the Animal Husbandry Department officials. Fixing the date for framing the charges, CBI Special Judge Muni Lal Paswan had directed all the accused to personally appear before the court on the same date. The CBI had, while investigating into the fodder scam also urged the court to fix the date for framing charges against the accused in the case.

India protests fisherman's killing in Gujarat  (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Taking exception to the killing of an Indian fisherman, Shantilal Mangal, on February 13 by a Pakistan Maritime Shipping Agency (PMSA) ship, the Indian Government today summoned Pakistan's Deputy High Commissioner Munawar Bhatti and lodged a formal protest on the incident. A government spokesman said that the Indian High Commission in Islamabad would also be taking up the matter with the Pakistan Foreign Office. Giving details about the incident, the spokesman said that the Indian fishing boat, Avani, was fishing along the notional maritime boundary in Indian waters west of Gujarat coast when it was fired upon. The rest of the crew returned with the body 21- year-old Mangal to the Okha harbour. He also said that on the same day, the Pakistan Maritime Security Agency ship, Vehdaat, towed away three Indian fishing boats - MNF Bhiva, MFB Puspak and MFB Shiv Mukti - along with the crew of about 25 members, which were fishing in Indian waters near the notional maritime boundary. An Indian Coast Guard ship was able to rescue one other Indian fishing boat along with its crew and bring back another boat which had been set on fire. India has demanded the immediate release of the fishermen and their boats. The spokesman further wen to on to say that there are about 400 Indian fishermen in Pakistani jails who were arrested between September 2005 and February 2006, and added that there are 269 Indian fishing boats in Pakistani custody and these have been detained in the period October 2003 till now. Pakistan, he said has released 1171 fishermen in 2005, but did not release the fishing boats. In comparison, the spokesman said that there were 59 Pakistani fishermen detained in India, all of whom had been arrested between September 2005 and February 2006. He said that Pakistani fishermen were being granted consular access today at Jamnagar. In addition, there are 37 Pakistani fishing boats in Indian custody which were detained during December 2003, the spokesman said, adding that last year 222 Pakistani fishermen were released.

Pakistan rejects India's 'no visa' offer (Go To Top)

    New Delhi: The Government of Pakistan has rejected India's offer to allow Pakistani journalists visa-free entry to India to witness the Khokhrapar- Munabao rail link inauguration. "India had offered that Pakistani mediapersons could come to attend that function and return at the end of the function without visas. However, I understand that Pakistan would rather that anybody who came from there to here came on visas. So, visas are being issued to whoever is asking the Indian High Commission for visas. I understand that about 150 visas have been issued to Pakistani citizens including Pakistani journalists. As to why Indian journalists are not being given visas I think you should address the questions to the right quarters. Naturally, it would have been useful in promoting people-to-people contacts if Indian journalists had also been given visas," a government spokesman said. Asked whether news reports that the visas would be stamped on the train were true, the spokesman stuck to the view that New Delhi was not objecting to the issue of visas.

MoU signed to build national media centre

    New Delhi: A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) was signed on Thursday between the Information and Broadcasting Ministry, the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and the National Building Construction Corporation (NBCC) to build a National Media Centre at 7, Raisina Road by 2008. Deepak Sandhu, the Principal Information Officer of the PIB and Arup Roy Chaudhury, the Chairman and Managing Director of the NBCC inked the agreement at a simple ceremony. As per the agreement, the NBCC will plan, design, construct, furnish, equip and hand over the National Media Centre to the Press Information Bureau in ready to occupy condition. The estimated cost of the Media Centre is RS 35 crores and is being constructed on about two acre plot of land. The media centre will have three floors and two ground level tiers to house a press conference hall with a seating capacity for 600 participants, four seminar and briefing rooms, a press lounge and a work room for about 250 media persons to read and work at the same time. The Centre will also have an auditorium to accommodate 600 to 700 people and a cafeteria where two hundred journalists can sit and have refreshments. Video editing suites, audio-recording rooms, TV recording studios and facility for up-linking and live coverage would also be set up in the new media centre. A telecom centre and a telephone exchange, a reference library and a dot- com operations area will also come up in the new centre.

Tamil Nadu Congress leader expelled

    New Delhi: The Congress today expelled the dissident Congress leader in Tamil Nadu, Tindivanam K Ramamurthy from the primary membership for six years for "anti-party" activities. All India Congress Committee General Secretary Janardhan Dwivedi made the announcement today after Congress President Sonia Gandhi approved it. Ramamurthy had become a dissenting voice critical of the party and the Congress alliance leader, Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) President M Karunanidhi. He called on AIADMK chief and Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on February 13, triggering speculations that he was aiming at floating a new outfit and forging an alliance with the ruling AIADMK. Ramamurthy had founded Tamil Maanila Congress but chose to remain with the Congress and rose on to become TNCC President at one time. The AICC on February 15 had announced the appointment of former Member of Parliament, M Krishnaswamy as the TNCC president replacing G K Vasan, who was made Union Minister recently. Krishnaswamy and Ramamurthy both belonged to the Vanniyar (Most Backward Caste) heartland. It is possible that the Congress leadership choose Krishnaswamy to head the TNCC to neutralise the Ramamurthy factor. Ramamurthy had also accused the state committee leadership of sidelining his community. Earlier, Vasan had on February 14 said that the party high command would soon take ''suitable action'' against the ''rebel'' party leader. The north Chennai District Congress Committee had also adopted a resolution, demanding the immediate expulsion of Ramamurthy for his meeting with Jayalalithaa. Meanwhile, most of the party members over the state had started echoing similar feelings. Ramamurthy had also been served a show-cause notice by the Congress high command for 'indiscipline' and making a vocal demand that the party should demand a major share of seats from the DMK, so that Congress could lead the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) in the state after the Assembly elections. He had also been insisting that the Congress should take part in a coalition government in the event of the DPA winning the elections.

CBSE examination duration extended (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Students appearing for the Board examinations this year will be given an additional 15 minutes before each paper as a "cool-off" period. The examination paper will be given before the scheduled time of examinations so that students are able to plan and organise themselves in a proper manner. "First important thing is that this time we are giving fifteen minutes extra time to the students, that means that the kids will get the papers at 10:15 instead of 10:30 this time,"said Ashok Ganguly, CBSE Chairman. The board has even decided to restructure question papers of some subjects of Class 10 and 12 . This reconstruction will give students an extra time of 30 minutes for revising their answers. "Some changes have been done in order to make the examination process tension free. Papers of some difficult subjects like Social Sciences, Science and Mathematics for class tenth and seven subjects like Physics, Chemistry, Maths, Biology, Business Studies, Economics and Accountancy will be redesigned so that the students can finish the paper in two and a half hours,"added Ganguly. The CBSE has also announced starting of internal evaluation in social science subjects and appointment of school principals as chief nodal supervisors for evaluation purposes in cities where the density of schools is high.

India clinch ODI series 3-1 (Go To Top)

    Lahore: India today gave a scintillating performance beating Pakistan by five wickets in the fourth One Day International (ODI) at the Multan cricket stadium, sealing the five match series 3-1. The Indian bowlers restricted the Pakistani batting line up to a paltry 161 in 50 over, making the run chase a virtual cake-walk for the Indian batsmen, who achieved the target scoring 162 for the loss of five wickets in only 32.5 overs. Earlier, India won the toss and elected to field first. The Pakistan batting line up faltered as the Indian bowling attack notched wickets at regular intervals. RP Singh scalped four wickets giving only 40 runs. Irfan Pathan scalped three wickets for 26 runs. Pakistan skipper Inzamam ul Haq top scored for his team scoring 49 runs of 63 balls, before being adjudged LBW off Sachin Tendulkar's bowling. With such a small score on board, the Pakistan pace battery also could not do much, and that too in the absence of star bowler Shoaib Akhtar. From the Indian side, it was skipper Rahul Dravid, who top scored with 59 runs of 72 balls, which included 9 fours. He was adjudged LBW of a delivery from Mohammad Sami. Sachin Tendulkar got out on a duck caught by Kamran Akmal off Mohammad Sami's bowling. Sami was the most successful of the Pakistani bowlers scalping three wickets for 42 runs. Rahul Dravid was adjudged the man of the match for scoring the highest runs on the day.

India -Pakistan hockey series from February 17 (Go To Top)

    Wagah Border (Punjab): A 20-member Pakistan hockey squad was given a warm welcome here on Wednesday ahead of the India-Pakistan hockey series. The team led by Mohammad Saqlain will play the first leg of the India-Pakistan hockey series to be held in Chandigarh and Jalandhar, starting February 17. Saqlain while thanking the Indian officials for the great welcome hoped the series would be enjoyable. "We are thankful to you for welcoming us. By god's grace, we hope that these series would not only be enjoyed by the players, but it will be also be loved by the live spectators and the television audience. It would be great for promotion of the game," Saqlain said. Saqlain, however, denied the game being overshadowed by cricket, saying that hockey has its own dedicated fan following. "Cricket has its own interest but hockey has its own following. People watch the match and are interested in it. I hope in this series too the spirit of hockey wins," he added. The six match India-Pakistan hockey series will be played on home and away basis, with three games each in both countries. Two matches will be played in Chandigarh on February 17 and 18, while the third one will be played in Jalandhar on February 20. The second leg of the series would be played in Pakistan.

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