Politics Archive

Chief minister violating election code: Himachal Congress

Published: November 4, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags:

Shimla, Nov 4 – The Congress has filed a complaint with the election commission alleging violation of the poll code by ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in Himachal Pradesh, a party official said here Wednesday.

‘Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal is violating the election code by making announcements to lure the voters and using official machinery during the canvassing. A complaint in this regard has been filed with the state election department,’ state Congress chief Kaul Singh Thakur told IANS.

He said Dhumal’s announcement Sunday that five news polytechnics would be opened in the state is a violation of the election code.

‘The chief minister has also been accused of using official machinery for canvassing in Rohru and Jawali seats,’ he said.

However, BJP state chief Khimi Ram has refuted all the allegations by the Congress.

‘The Congress is an issueless party. They have the habit of making baseless allegations to gain the public’s sympathy,’ he said.

Himachal Pradesh will go to the by-polls for Rohru and Jawali Saturday.

The Congress has fielded former minister Sujan Singh Pathania against BJP’s Baldev Raj Chaudhary from Jawali in Kangra district.

The BJP has pitted Khushi Ram Balnatah against Congress’ Manjit Singh from Rohru in Shimla district.

PM appeals to Vishva Bharti students to end stir

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: Education, National, PoliticsTags:

New Delhi, Nov 3 – Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday urged the agitating students of Vishva Bharati University to ‘desist from disrupting normal life’ and end their stir to protest the theft of a CD containing paintings and unpublished documents of Nobel laureate Rabindranath Tagore.

The prime minister said he had been ‘deeply pained’ by the turn of events at the Vishva Bharati University during the last few days leading to the disruption of academic activities and normal life on the campus, according to a statement here.

The university is virtually closed since the last ten days as the staff and students joined hands in an agitation to demand a high-level inquiry into the alleged theft of a CD.

The prime minister appealed to the students to ‘desist from disrupting normal life and academic activities and withdraw the agitation’.

‘Thereafter, I will ensure that an impartial inquiry is conducted into the circumstances leading to the agitation and the allegations that have been levelled against the university authorities and other concerned entities,’ he added, according to the statement.

The protesters have also alleged rampant corruption in the university and also demanded that the institution’s vice-chancellor be sent on leave during the investigation to ensure a fair probe.

Ajay Chautala resigns from Rajya Sabha

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags:

Chandigarh, Nov 3 – Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) secretary general Ajay Singh Chautala resigned his membership of the Rajya Sabha Tuesday.

Chautala, elder son of INLD leader and former chief minister Om Prakash Chautala, was last month elected to the Haryana assembly from the Dabwali seat.

His term in the Rajya Sabha was to end in August 2010.

Chautala had earlier been Lok Sabha member from Bhiwani parliamentary constituency in Haryana.

The INLD won 31 seats in last month’s assembly election in Haryana. The Haryana assembly has 90 members.

Scheme to tackle malnutrition launched in Madhya Pradesh

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: Health, National, PoliticsTags:

Bhopal, Nov 3 – Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan Tuesday launched the ‘Sanjha Chulha’ (community kitchen) scheme, which he termed a ‘revolutionary step’ towards the challenge of eradicating malnutrition.

The scheme was launched in Parwalia Sadak village in Bhopal district.

Under the scheme, Anganwadi and school children will get freshly cooked food, prepared in same place as for the mid-day meal scheme by self-help groups. The scheme will be monitored in coordination with panchayats (village councils) and the community.

Chouhan said his endeavour is to ensure that all children get education and no one is left out.

‘Earlier, these schemes were being conducted separately due to which their monitoring and quality were affected on one hand and on the other, profits were pocketed by contractors. The community kitchen scheme is being jointly implemented by the two departments (women and child welfare and the school education department), so that their benefits can be received by both mothers and children,’ he said.

The new system of combined kitchen will not only facilitate proper monitoring and improve quality, but will also provide employment to women’s self-help groups, Chouhan added.

Congress clears 26 candidates for Jharkhand polls

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags:

New Delhi, Nov 3 – The Congress Tuesday announced its first list of candidates for the coming elections to the Jharkhand assembly.

‘The central election committee (CEC) chaired by party president Sonia Gandhi Monday approved 26 names of the candidates for the phase one, two and three,’ a Congress leader here.

The list of the candidates was released by CEC in-charge Oscar Fernandes.

The five-phase Jharkhand poll begins Nov 25 and ends Dec 18. The votes will be counted Dec 23.

BJP struggles to solve Karnataka impasse

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags: ,

New Delhi/Bangalore, Nov 3 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday struggled to end the nine-day old crisis in Karnataka where rebel ministers insisted on removal of Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, ignoring party chief Rajnath Singh’s assertion that there would be no leadership change in the state.

Singh and senior leader Sushma Swaraj indicated, after day-long discussion in New Delhi, that solution to the turmoil was not in sight.

Singh appeared irritable when reporters asked him whether Yeddyurappa would continue as chief minister.

‘How many times the same question?’ he shot back as he got into his car.

When asked about leadership change and whether a solution has been found, Swaraj said: ‘Talks are on, not reached that stage’.

Yeddyurappa sent out contradictory signals while talking to reporters in Bellary, stronghold of state Tourism Minister G. Janardhana Reddy and his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy, who are leading the rebellion against him.

The Reddy brothers are mining barons in Bellary, which is rich in iron ore and is 400 km from Bangalore. Yeddyruappa hoped the crisis would be resolved in a day or two as the BJP leadership was talking to the Reddys.

He blamed assembly Speaker Jagadish Shettar, propped up by the Reddy brothers and supporters as an alternative leader, for the crisis simply because he was not made a minister. Shettar holds Yeddyurappa responsible for depriving him of a political post.

Janardhana Reddy in New Delhi and Karunakara Reddy in Bangalore dismissed talk of the party favouring Yeddyurappa continuing as chief minister.

‘It is media creation,’ Karunakara Reddy said when asked whether there was any change in their stand since Rajnath Singh had said Yedyurappa would ‘definitely’ continue as the chief minister.

‘The central leadership has not given us any such indication,’ he asserted.

Janardhana Reddy also maintained the same stand after talking to senior leader Sushma Swaraj, considered close to the Reddy brothers as they joined the BJP just ahead of the 1999 Lok Sabha polls and canvassed for her when she took on Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Bellary.

Yeddyurappa continued to talk tough. ‘There is no need for me to get a certificate on the work I am doing,’ he said, clearly in response to Reddy brothers’ repeated statements that the state BJP needed ‘good leadership’ if it wanted to continue to be in power in Karnataka.

The chief minister said he would visit Delhi Nov 5-6 to meet party central leaders and also Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over central funds for the rehabilitation of the flood hit in north Karnataka.

While Yeddyurappa Tuesday toured north Karnataka and participated in foundation stone laying ceremonies at several places for relocation of flood-prone villages, Karunakara Reddy, as Revenue Minister, held a video conference in Bangalore with senior officials of 12 affected districts to review the rehab work.

In related developments, Energy Minister K.S. Eshwarappa, who has also been unhappy with Yeddyurappa, left for Delhi to meet central leaders.

‘There is problem in the party. We will impress on our central leaders the need for an early solution,’ he said at the airport. He is accompanied by party legislator and spokesperson C.T. Ravi.

A large number of legislators supporting the Reddy brothers and staying in a star hotel in Hyderabad for the last one week also plan to visit Delhi in the next two days if the crisis persists.

The two opposition parties, the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular, have stayed aloof though strongly attacking the ruling party for ignoring the plight of the flood hit and indulging in power games.

The Reddy brothers have sought Yeddyurappa’s removal on the ground that he is dictatorial, does not give them free hand to run the ministries, does not consult them on posting of officials, and allows his favourites to interfere in the functioning of others’ ministries.

The Reddy brothers are upset that their younger sibling G. Somashekara Reddy, a legislator, has been slapped with a case of kidnapping in mid-October. They want the case to be dropped.

PM talks education, health, his security blamed for death

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags:

Chandigarh, Nov 3 – On a hectic six-hour trip to the city where he once resided, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh Tuesday talked of deficiencies in effective healthcare and higher education, but his tight security was blamed for contributing to the death of a young man who failed to reach the hospital in time owing to blocked traffic.

Ambala resident Sumit Prakash Verma, 32, died as over-zealous security personnel did not allow his vehicle to reach the emergency area of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) as the prime minister had arrived there to address the 30th convocation of the premier health institute.

Verma’s relatives blamed the prime minister’s security for wasting over two hours of theirs, the time during which the victim, who was suffering from kidney, breathing and heart problems, died.

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) reacted instantly in New Delhi saying: ‘The PMO is saddened at the death of a patient at the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research today (Tuesday) during the visit of the prime minister. A full report has been asked for.’

Coming to his alma mater, the Panjab University, after many years made the prime minister feel a ‘little emotional’. But that did not stop him from questioning the quality of higher education being imparted by institutions in the country.

Addressing faculty and students of the university where he once studied and later taught, Manmohan Singh, wearing his trademark white kurta-pyjama and a black half-jacket with light-blue turban, said: ‘A major problem that we face is in the quality of higher education that our institutions impart. Unfortunately, most of them produce pass-outs who are nowhere near international standards.’

The prime minister was honoured by the PU with a Doctor of Law (honoris causa) at a special convocation here. Later, he laid the foundation stone of a multi-purpose auditorium and examination centre. He also met with his contemporaries in PU from his student and teaching days and also some of his own students.

The prime minister said: ‘In fact, one dimension of the quality deficit is the difficulty being faced in recruiting top class faculty for the new IIMs, IITs, central universities and other such institutions that the government has decided to establish in the last five years.’

Earlier, addressing the 30th convocation of the Post-Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) here, the prime minister said that even though critical indicators of health had shown consistent improvement over the years, India did not compare favourably with other countries.

‘It is also a fact that in the public sector today we are spending one percent of the GDP on healthcare. It has been our goal to raise it to two to three percent. Both the central and state governments have to work hard to achieve this goal.

‘Our progress has been much less than what we would have liked to achieve and are capable of achieving. It also does not compare well with what a number of other countries, particularly in Southeast Asia, have achieved,’ he said.

‘A review of the National Rural Health Mission points to the acute shortage of human resources at various levels in the health sector – specialists, doctors, nurses and paramedics. To address this deficiency, the government has taken a number of initiatives. More medical colleges and nursing schools are being established, particularly in the less developed states,’ he said.

The prime minister asked institutes like the PGIMER to reach out to the common man by laying emphasis on preventive healthcare as curative healthcare proved costly.

‘The mission of PGI will remain incomplete unless the interest of the common man is addressed effectively and purposefully. Only when the lives of the common people, be they in Tripura or the tribal areas of Chhattisgarh, are touched by your research and the most underprivileged child in your ward goes back home satisfied with your care, will your mission be truly accomplished.’

At least 17 injured in CPI-M, Trinamool clash

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags:

Kolkata, Nov 3 – At least 17 people were injured in a clash between armed activists of the Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal’s Birbhum district Tuesday, police said.

The clash broke out as the rival groups opened fire and also hurled crude bombs at each other, according to police sources.

‘When our first group of policemen reached the spot, goons from both sides shot at our force. The policemen had to return. Later, huge contingents of police rushed to the troubled area and brought the situation under control. We have registered complaints from both sides and will take action after preliminary investigation,’ Birbhum district Additional Superintendent of Police Farhat Abbas said.

‘Rapid Action Force (RAF) was deployed in the troubled zone to maintain the law and order situation there,’ Abbas said.

Trinamool Congress Birbhum district president Kesto Mondal said: ‘The CPI-M have lost the Thupsara gram panchayat in 2008 rural body election. For the past few days, they were insisting our members join their camp. But our members refused to follow their diktat. The violence is a result of that.’

‘This is quite mysterious to us why the police arrived so late to the spot,’ said Mondal.

‘This violent attack by CPI-M cadres signals that they are again trying to recapture Nanoor ahead of state assembly elections in 2011,’ he added.

Nanoor, a CPI-M stronghold area, witnessed killing of 11 Trinamool supporters in 2002.

District CPI-M leadership, however, denied the charge.

‘Altogether, 10 of our party supporters were injured in the clash. Trinammol Congress tried to capture CPI-M base by force. And, we have right to resist an attack on us,’ CPI-M zonal committee secretary Samir Bhattacharjee said.

After the Lok Sabha polls, which saw the Congress-Trinamool combine almost sweeping the state, the state has witnessed regular political clashes which have claimed over 100 lives so far.

NCP will ‘definitely’ join Maharashtra ministry: Praful Patel

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags:

New Delhi, Nov 3 – Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Praful Patel Tuesday said his party will ‘definitely’ be part of the next government in Maharashtra and said all power sharing issues with the Congress would be solved ‘in a day or two’.

‘We will definitely be joining the government (in Maharashtra),’ Patel, who is the union civil aviation minister, told reporters here.

Admitting that both sides could not reach a ‘definite formula’ on the government formation, he said the ‘NCP won’t deviate from the 1999 portfolios’ formula’, according to which major ministries like home, power and finance were with the NCP.

The assurance came hours after NCP leader and deputy chief minister-designate Chhagan Bhujbal said in Mumbai that if the Congress did not agree to the power-sharing formula decided in 1999, the NCP would offer it ‘outside support’ instead of joining the ministry.

Patel said, ‘All issues would be solved in high-level talks amicably and to the satisfaction of all in a day or two.’

The NCP leader also said ‘there is no constitutional issue at the moment’ in the state.

This is not the first time that the talks between the two alliance partners over portfolio allocation went ‘beyond the stipulated time’, Patel added.

The two parties – the Congress with 82 seats and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) with 62 seats in the 288-member assembly – are locked in a bitter squabble over allocation of portfolios, causing a delay in the formation of the new government.

The issue apparently caused some concern to Governor S.C. Jamir, who Tuesday advised the Congress and the NCP to form the ministry ‘without delay’.

The results of the assembly polls came Oct 22.

BJP struggles to solve Karnataka impasse

Published: November 3, 2009Posted in: National, PoliticsTags: ,

New Delhi/Bangalore, Nov 3 – The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Tuesday struggled to end the nine-day old crisis in it Karnataka with rebels insisting on the removal Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa, ignoring party chief Rajnath Singh’s assertion that he would continue to lead the state.

Yeddyurappa sent out contradictory signals while talking to reporters in Bellary, stronghold of Tourism minister G. Janardhana Reddy and his elder brother and Revenue Minister G. Karunakara Reddy, who are leading the campaign against him.

The Reddy brothers are mining barons in Bellary, which is rich in iron ore and is 400 km from Bangalore. Yeddyruappa hoped the crisis would be resolved in a day or two as the BJP leadership was talking to the Reddys.

He blamed assembly speaker Jagadish Shettar, propped up by the Reddy brothers and supporters as an alternative leader, for the crisis, simply because he was not made a minister. Shettar holds Yeddyurappa responsible for depriving him of a political post.

Janardhana Reddy in New Delhi and Karunakara Reddy in Bangalore dismissed talk of the party favouring Yeddyurappa continuing as chief minister.

‘It is media creation,’ Karunakara Reddy said when asked whether there was any change in their stand since Rajnath Singh had said Yedyurappa would ‘definitely’ continue as chief minister.

‘The central leadership has not given us any such indication,’ he asserted.

Janardhana Reddy also maintained the same stand after talking to senior leader Sushma Swaraj, considered close to the Reddy brothers as they joined BJP just ahead of the 1999 Lok Sabha polls and canvassed for her when she took on Congress president Sonia Gandhi in Bellary.

Yeddyurappa continued to talk tough. ‘There is no need for me to get a certificate on the work I am doing,’ he said, clearly in response to Reddy brothers repeated statements that the state BJP needed ‘good leadership’ if it wanted to continue to be in power in Karnataka.

The chief minister said he would visit Delhi Nov 5 and 6 to meet party central leaders and also Prime Minister Manmohan Singh over central funds for the rehabilitation of the flood hit in north Karnataka.

While Yeddyurappa Tuesday toured north Karnataka and participated in foundation stone laying ceremonies at several places for relocation of flood-prone villages, Karunakara Reddy, as Revenue Minister, held a video conference in Bangalore with senior officials of 12 affected districts to review the rehab work.

In related developments, Energy Minister K.S. Eshwarappa, who has also been unhappy with Yeddyurappa, left for Delhi to meet central leaders. ‘There is problem in the party. We will impress on our central leaders the need for an early solution,’ he said at the airport. He is accompanied by party legislator and spokesperson C.T. Ravi.

A large number of legislators supporting the Reddy brothers and staying in a star hotel in Hyderabad for the last one week also plan to visit Delhi in the next two days if the crisis persists.

The two opposition parties, the Congress and Janata Dal-Secular, have stayed aloof though strongly attacking the ruling party for ignoring the plight of the flood hit and indulging in power games.

The Reddy brothers have sought Yeddyurappa’s removal on the ground he is dictatorial, does not give them free hand to run the ministries, does not consult them on posting of officials, allows his favourites to interfere in the functioning of other ministries.

The Reddy brothers are upset that their younger sibling G. Somashekara Reddy, a legislator, has been slapped with a case of kidnapping in mid-October. They want the case to be dropped.

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