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Parliament adjourns

      New Delhi: Both the Houses of Parliament have been adjourned for the day, after paying homage to Pramod Mahajan, A B A Ghani Khan Chowdhury and Bansi Lal, sitting member Mahboob Zahedi and two former Members of Parliament. In their obituary references and paying tributes to the late leader, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat described Mahajan as an able Parliamentarian, an impressive orator and an effective floor manager. Mahajan, 57, a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha and member of the eleventh Lok Sabha, died on May 3 after struggling for 12 days. He received fatal bullet injuries when his brother Pravin Mahajan attacked him at his residence in Mumbai. The second phase of the Budget Session was likely to be stormy as the Left parties were ready with various issues like reservations in higher educational institutions, office of profit which is an important issue for the Left as at least ten MPs, including Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee, have been issued notices by the election commission following complaints of holding such offices, airport privatisation and FDI in retail and hike in petroleum prices, Vadodara riots and many other issues were to be raised in the session today.

SC stay on dance bars, hearing on July 19 (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Supreme Court today in its judgement put a stay on the operation of dance bars and has postponed the matter for further hearing on July 19. The apex court admitted an appeal by the Maharashtra government against the Bombay High Court judgment and decided to put a stay. A Bench of Justices B N Aggarwal and P P Naolekar pronounced the statement. President of Dance Bar Owners' Association Manjit Sethi, however, expressed his disapproval on the court's judgement. He said that the livelihood of around one lakh bar dancers and others related to the business was being affected. On April 12, the Bombay High Court had lifted the ban on dance bars and allowed those with valid licences to resume operations. The petitions filed by Association of Hotels and Restaurants (AHAR), Dance Bar Owners' Association (DBOA), Bharatiya Bar Girls' Union (BBGU) and others challenged the Bombay Police (Amendment) Act, which imposed a ban on dance bars from August 15 last year. The Act, while prohibiting all dance performances in dance bars, exempted 3-star and above graded hotels from this ban. Counsel for the defence advocate general Ravi Kadam said that the State would challenge the order in the SC. The State was asking for a stay but the judges allowed a pending time of eight weeks to renew dance bar licences that had lapsed since December, last year. Reacting to the High Court decision, Maharashtra Government had appealed in the Supreme Court to revoke the ban on dance bars. In the past, cops have often booked women dancers and bar owners, and sometimes even patrons, under section 294 of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) which pertains to "obscene" acts and songs.

Schools told to stop interviews (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Delhi High Court today said that interviews of children and their parents should not be conducted by the private schools at the time of admission to the nursery classes. A division Bench of acting Chief Justices Vijender Jain and S N Aggarwal gave orders and granted four week's time to schools to stop this activity. The court also said that no interviews could be conducted without its permission. The Bench also expressed anguish at the failure of the schools' managements to come out with any suitable reply despite the court's earlier direction on December 9, 2005 that banned such interviews. The court also said that earlier in an affidavit by the Association of Unaided Private Schools, had assured to set parameters to stop the interviews, but nothing happened even four months after the assurance. The decision came after a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) was filed by an NGO Social Jurist on the behalf of its counsel Ashok Aggarwal. NGO complained that interviews caused trouble and inconvenience to small children as well as to their parents.

Militant plan to attack film world foiled (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: Police said that they had unravelled plans of Islamist militants who were to attack film financiers and a film award ceremony. Police had arrested two militants from New Delhi railway station with huge cache of arms and ammunition. Initial interrogation of the militants had led them to a senior leader of outlawed Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT), who was killed in an encounter. Karnail Singh, joint commissioner of police with the Delhi Police said that the militants had also targeted a number of places in Gujarat. "One of the targets was Kandla port, a railway bridge in Ahmedabad was another and motor market in Ahmedabad. The militants had also planned to attack a meeting of film financers as well as a film award ceremony," Singh said. Singh also said that the interrogation of the two militants led to the recovery of a large quantity of arms and ammunition from a house in Haryana. "We took help of Haryana police also and both the teams raided the house, it was locked but inside the house a lot of material was found. Explosive material, five kgs of PTEL two AK-56 rifles, six magazines, 179 live cartridges. Apart from this there was thoria phone. The computer was recovered from there and there were low explosives also. Nitric acid of three litres, one litre of glycerin and three kilograms of ammonium nitrate was recoveries from that house," Singh added. LeT is among the dozen militant outfits in Kashmir. Last week, suspected Islamic militants shot dead at least 35 Hindus in Doda region. Militant violence has increased in Kashmir in recent weeks with the onset of summer when snow melts in the region's mountain passes, allowing easier movement of militants between the two zones of Kashmir split between nuclear rivals India and Pakistan, but claimed in full by both. Overall violence in the region has fallen due to a peace process between Islamabad and New Delhi which began in 2004.

Explosives seized from Kashmir hideout (Go To Top)

     Srinagar: Army has seized huge quantity of explosives and equipment from a rebel hideout in Kashmir barely two weeks ahead of a key peace dialogue between Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and separatist groups. The massive haul came in the wee hours yesterday as soldiers cordoned off the Bijebera village nestled amid the region's thick forests and recovered the large cache of detonators, remote control circuits and chemicals after a nearly eight-hour search. Officials said documents and telecommunication intercepts recovered by their intelligence indicated the militants were planning a series of strikes ahead of the May 25th talks. "What could be a better purpose than using it just before the round table conference to scuttle the entire thing," General Officer Commanding of the Indian Army, A K Singh said, who carried out the operation. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's effort to revive the faltering peace process last month had been overshadowed by a shocking massacre of 35 Hindus and rising violence in the disputed region. Singh's meeting with the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC), an umbrella alliance of two-dozen political separatist groups was the second since he took power in 2004. The premier will now travel to Srinagar for a round table dialogue but the APHC has still now given a final confirmation if it will attend the talks. Although overall violence levels have fallen since New Delhi and Islamabad launched new moves to make peace after going to the brink of another war in Kargil in 1999, there has been a spurt in militant attacks in recent weeks.

Maharashtra minister jailed (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Wednesday sentenced Maharashtra's transport minister Swaroop Singh Naik to one month in prison for contempt of court. The apex court also awarded the same sentence to the Additional Chief Secretary (Forest) of Maharashtra Government, Ashok Khot. A three-judge bench of the Supreme Court observed that Naik and Khot were guilty of violating the court order in which they were asked to shut down sawmills running without licences. However, the court found that they amended the rules to allow about six such illegal mills to function by giving them licenses to continue operations.

MP CM resigns Lok Sabh membership (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on Wednesday submitted his resignation from Lok Sabha (LS) membership following his win in Budhni Assembly by- poll. Chouhan met Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee and submitted resignation from his membership of Parliament from Vidisha constituency in Madhya Pradesh. Chouhan had earlier this month won the Budhni assembly constituency by-poll by a record margin of 36,525 votes defeating his nearest Congress rival Raj Kumar Patel. Chouhan assumed the charge as the 31st Chief Minister of Madhya Pradesh on November 29, replacing his predecessor Babulal Gaur. The Budhni constituency seat had fallen vacant following the resignation of MLA Rajender Singh Rajput to make way for the Chief Minister. Though Rajput had made clear then that his decision was not under any pressure. Chouhan is the third person to rise to the chief minister's post since the Bharatiya Janata Party swept to power with a record three-fourth majority in December 2003.

India elected to UNHRC (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: India scored a major success at the United Nations on Wednesday when it was elected to the first United Nations Human Rights Council, securing the highest number of votes. Among the contested seats, India polled 173 out of 190 votes. Briefing reporters about the election, spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs, Navtej Sarna said that the election was recognition of India's diplomatic standing in the comity of nations today and its commitment to the promotion and protection of human rights. "It is also a recognition of the success that India has had with its diplomatic demarches made in New York through the UN and in the Indian Missions all over the world," Sarna added. There were 13 seats each in the Asian and the African groups at the elections while Latin American and Caribbean group had 8, Western and other country group had 7 and Eastern Europe 6. The African group was the only one which produced a clean slate and therefore all of them were elected. The election was followed by a draw of lots to decide which country serves for how long, according to which, India would be serving for one year.

Unemployment allowance in UP (Go To Top)

     Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh Government has decided to give an allowance of Rs 500 per month to the registered unemployed youth starting April 2006. The decision was taken after the State Cabinet meeting chaired by Chief Minister Mulayam Singh Yadav here on Wednesday. All unemployed youths in the age group of 21 to 35 years and registered in the State Employment Exchanges till February 28 last would be entitled for the allowance, said State Chief Secretary Navin Chandra Bajpayee after the meeting. Concession in age limit would also be provided to the reserved categories as per rules, he added. Those studying would not be eligible for the allowance, he said. The scheme has Rs 400 crore earmarked and would benefit 8,55,392 unemployed youths. The earmarked amount would be sanctioned by the State Legislature in the session starting from Thursday. The allowances would be sent to the youths to their bank account through district magistrates who will also display the list of beneficiaries in their office. The youth concerned would have to submit an affidavit to the respective district magistrate to get the allowances.

Five Pakistanis with heroin arretsed (Go To Top)

     Attari (Punjab): Custom officials have seized over 50 million rupees worth of heroin from five Pakistani nationals in Punjab. Officials seized over 5.72 kilograms of heroin from the group that included four women at the Attari railway station, the Indian crossing point on the Pakistani train route. "They are all Pakistani nationals and around 5.7 kilograms of heroin was recovered. We cannot comment on the percentage of purity of the seized heroin but that will soon be found out after testing of the drug. The price of heroin in about one crore per kg in the international market," Assistant Commissioner of Customs (Attari railway station) Z R Kambli said. Packets of heroin were concealed in the soles of footwear, hair chignon, jacket linings, trouser belt linings and cavities made in baggage. Narcotics agencies say India, wedged between two major drug- producing regions, the Golden Triangle and the Golden Crescent, is a major transit point for drug smuggling to the West where the returns are lucrative. India accuses Pakistan's Inter Services Intelligence of trying to destabilise the economy by pushing in drugs and fake currency. Pakistan denies the charges.