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OHERALDOThe Voice of Goa Since 1900
PTI
PATNA, JUNE 12
In a clear snub to its coalitionpartner, an angry Bihar
ChiefMinister Nitish Kumar today can-celled a dinner for the top
brassof the BJP in disapproval of anadvertisement featuring himwith
Gujarat Chief MinisterNarendra Modi and another onGujarats aid
during the floodstwo years ago.
There was bad blood betweenthe two sides, which run a coali-tion
Government for the lastnearly five years, after Kumarattacked those
who released an
a d v e r -t i s e -
mentfea-
turing him with Modi, aboutwhom he was always uncom-fortable as
a political ally.
The JD(U) leader, who has aneye on Muslim votes, has fash-ioned
himself as a secular leaderand in the past had avoided shar-ing any
dais with Modi in Bihar.
The dinner he had plannedfor the BJP leaders attendingthe
National Executive becamea casualty in the midst of a viti-ated
atmosphere and BJP leadersalso expressing their reluctanceto attend
the dinner.
A BJP leader, who declined tobe identified, accused Nitish
ofover reacting by attacking Modi.
He is overreacting. This isnot the way to treat your part-ner.
He said that opinion wasbuilding up against attendingthe dinner.
Modi was one of theinvitees to the dinner.
Earlier, Kumar lashed out atModis Government for its
ad-vertisement yesterday on its
liberal donation to Biharduring the 2008 Kosi
floods, saying it wasuncivilised to talkabout help given dur-ing
times of tragedy.
He a l so tookstrong exception tothe use of his photo-
graph with that of Modi in an-other advertisement publishedin
local dailies and said he wouldtake legal action against
thoseresponsible for it.
The Gujarat Governmentsclaim (on flood relief) is un-civilised
and against Indian cul-tu re . Nobody c l a ims o fbestowing
favours on those whoface tragedy caused by naturalcalamities,
Kumar, who headsthe JD(U)-BJP Government inBihar, told reporters
here.
He said he would return theunutilised money to the
ModiGovernment. I do not knowthe exact amount contributedto the
Relief Fund by Gujarat. Iwill go through the details andimmediately
return the moneyreceived from Modi which waslying unspent in the CM
Reliefaccount, he said.
Kumar said he or his officewas not consulted on the useof his
photograph with that ofModi.
It has caused a great embar-rassment to me, Kumar said inreply
to a question.
I have no knowledge aboutthe agency advertising my pho-tograph
along with that of Modias published in newspapers
PTI
NEW DELHI/BANGALORE, JUNE 12
Amid continuing blame-gameover the Bhopal gas tragedy, thethen
Chief Justice of India A MAhmadi was at the centre of
thecontroversy with Law Minister Veer-appa Moily saying the
SupremeCourt verdict had reduced theincident to a car accident.
Ahmadi, who is blamed fordiluting the charges in the
case,reacted by saying that the Gov-ernment could not escape
theresponsibility when such an in-cident happens.
The spat between Moily andAhmadi came even as the thenMadhya
Pradesh Chief MinisterArjun Singh continued to be tar-geted by
Congress leaders overWarren Andersons escape.
Senior Congress leaderSatyavrat Chaturvedi said Arjun
Singh had earlier admitted thatthe decision to allow Andersonto
leave the country was takenat State level and said he shouldspeak
out so that the namesof others are not unnecessarilydragged into
the issue.
Singh remained incommuni-cado and did not even turn up
at a function held by a mediagroup to honour him with Life-time
Achievement Award for hiscontribution to Urdu language.
Moily regretted in Bangalorethat judiciary had diluted
thecharges in the gas leakage case.
CBI had filed charges under(IPC) Section 304 (II) under
which the maximum punish-ment is 10 years. But the highestcourt
(headed by Ahmadi), in areview petition, converted it to304 (A)
which is actually meantfor a car accident, truck acci-dent, the Law
Minister told re-porters in Bangalore.
Section 304 (II) of the IPC isculpable homicide not amount-ing
to murder while 304(A) iscausing death due to negligence.
The offence of this dimen-sion, I am very sorry, it has
beenreduced, Moily said.
Reacting to efforts to put theonus of responsibility on
him,Ahmadi said, the Governmentis always responsible. Whensomething
of this nature hap-pens to the people of the coun-try, does the
Government say ithas no responsibility? I am un-able to understand
that.
Goas Heartbeat: Jodie accused
of assaulting teenager Pg 12
Sports: Yusuf helps India
down Zimbabwe Pg 11
Region: Grandmothers stem
cells cure rare disorder Pg 4
Visit us at:www.oheraldo.in panjim, sunDaY, june 13, 2010 pRiCe
Rs. 3.00 (air surcharge Rs 1.50) pages 16+6
SUNDAY
(Continued on page 10)
(Continued on page 10)
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MARADONA BACK IN A DIFFERENT ROLE
Blame-game over Bhopal snowballsVerdict reduced incident to a
car accident: Moily
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 12
Days after the Centre deferredits decision to hike prices of
pe-troleum products, the UnionSecretary for Petroleum S
Sun-dareshan has stated that the pe-t ro leum companies
wereincurring heavy loses due toGovernment subsidy and indi-cated
that a hike was imminent.
The Centre had constituteda high-powered committeeunder the
chairmanship of Fi-nance Minister Pranab Mukher-
jee to look into the matter butno decision could be reacheddue
to the absence of manymembers.
However, the union secretarytoday indicated that the rise
inprices of petrol and dieselseemed imminent. There is
nojustification for subsidies forpetrol at least, the secretarysaid
while addressing a pressconference, here, this evening.
Substantiating his claim, Sun-dareshan said, the oil
companiesare losing Rs 3.50 on every litre
of petrol, Rs 3.40 on diesel, Rs18 on kerosene and Rs 280 perLPG
cylinder.
He said international crudeoil prices rose from $28 per bar-rel
in 2003 to $147 per barrelin 2008 and now quotes ataround $75 per
barrel (159 litresmake a barrel), putting majorburden on Government
re-sources, as also on State-run oilfirms.
Oil marketing companieshad to contend with under-re-coveries of
Rs 46,051 crore last
fiscal, for which the Governmentprovided them assistance of
Rs26,000 crore, while the up-stream oil companies con-tributed
around Rs 14,430crore, Sundareshan said addingthe balance had to be
absorbedby the oil marketing compa-nies.
The secretary said while thesubsidy on LPG and kerosene
isunderstandable, there is no jus-tification for subsidy on
petroland diesel. Three to four cars
Petrol, diesel subsidy not justified
WAR-OF-WORDSCBI had filedcharges underSec 304 (II)which the
maximum punishment is 10years. But the highest courtin a review
petition,converted it to 304 (A) whichis actually meant for a
caraccident, truck accident.
Veerappa Moily
The Govt isalwaysresponsible.Whensomething of this naturehappens
to the people of thecountry, does theGovernment say it has
noresponsibility? I am unableto understand that.
Ex-CJI A M Ahmadi
Kids realityshow
banned in Andhra
UNI
HYDERABAD, JUNE 12
Andhra Pradesh Human RightsCommission today banned withimmediate
effect telecast of atafive (play-5 series), the child re-ality show
telecast by ZEE TV,saying such shows violated therights of
children.
In its direction, CommissionChairman, Justice B SubhashanReddy
directed Hyderabad CityPolice Commissioner A K Khanto also look
into similar realityshows on other entertainmentand news television
channelsand take appropriate action toprohibit such telecast
whichwere indecent and obscene andviolated the inalienable right
ofthe child.
The Commission asked theHyderabad City Police Commis-sioner to
report by June 14 theaction taken report and the sta-tus of such
reality shows on thetelevision.
The Commission also fixedJuly 3 for public hearing andwould
issue notices to the printand electronic media for a
widerdiscussion before taking furtheraction.
Justice Reddy said HumanRights activists and NGOs in-volved in
child welfare toowould also participate in thepublic hearing.
The Commission, JusticeReddy said was also looking intoobscene
advertisements andcited few of them during the In-dian Premier
League CricketTourney and the World Cup T-20 Cricket
Championship.
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 12
The police conducted a seriesof raids in Colva, Nuvem andMajorda
in the last 24 hours insearch of former tourism min-ister Mickky
Pacheco, who hasbeen eluding the Goa police forquestioning in the
Nadia Torradodeath case.
The Colva police on Saturdayevening searched a house at Ma-jorda
and maintained a closevigil on a house at Colva.
It is learnt that the police hadconducted a search of a houseof
an elected representative atNuvem last night as part of theexercise
to lay their hands onthe former minister.
Sources at the Colva policestation disclosed that the policeled
by station incharge, PI Tush-sar Vernekar had proceeded
toBetalbatim and Majorda late thisevening in search of the
elusiveMLA.
The team also maintained astrict vigil at Colva as to
nabPacheco, even as the police teamreturned without much
success.
The raids come a day afterthe Crime Branch with the assistanceof
the local police raided the busi-ness premises of Pacheco at
Be-talbatim last evening as part ofthe investigations into
NadiaTorrado death case.
Sources in the know said thepolice also searched the houseof a
close supporter from Nuvemlast night.
Incidentally, the police hadraided a hotel earlier this
weekwhere Pachecos legal counselswere putting up with the hopeof
nabbing the Benaulim MLA,but in vain.
Though the police could notsay whether they had any
intel-ligence inputs indicating thepresence of the former
ministeralong the coastal belt, sourcesin the police headquarters
saythe raids and searches are partof a strategy to put pressure
onthe elusive MLA and force himto surrender to the
investigatingagency for his interrogation.
Sources in the know, however,say the question of any surren-der
by the Benaulim MLA willbe known only on Monday giventhat the
courts were closed dur-ing the weekend and that theappeal filed by
his OSD LyndonMonteiro will come up beforethe High Court on June
14.
Cops raid severalplaces in search
of Pacheco
UNI
VILLUPPURAM, TN, JUNE 12
A major train tragedy likeGyaneshwari Express derailmentwas
averted when more than1,500 passengers of the super-fast
Trichy-Chennai Rockfort Ex-press had a miraculous escapeafter
suspected pro-LTTE sup-porters blew up a portion of therailway
track at Chithani villagenear Perani station in Tamil Naduin the
wee hours of today.
The blast left a huge craterand the three metres of the trackwas
missing.
Only a fortnight ago, morethan 100 passengers were killedand
scores others injured when13 coaches of Mumbai-boundGyaneshwari
Express derailed
in West Bengals West Midna-pore district early on Friday. Fiveof
these coaches were also hitby a speeding goods train. Theincident
occurred at 1.30 amwhen the train was running be-tween Khemasoli
and Sardiyastations, about 135 km fromKolkata.
Police and Railway sourcessaid the blast had taken placeafter
the Salem-Chennai Expresspassed Mundiyambakkam Sta-tion at around
0200 hrs and fewminutes before the Rockfort Ex-press was to pass
the stretch.
The driver and guard of thetrain felt a rude jolt when thetrain
was passing throughChithani after crossing theMundiyambakkam
station
whose Station Master alertedthe driver of the Rockfort Ex-press
and the higher officials.
On being asked to proceedwith caution, the driver of Rock-fort
Express slowed down con-siderably and was proceedingat a speed of
20 km per hourwhen he noticed a portion ofthe track missing and
immedi-ately stopped the train, therebyaverting a deadly
disaster.
This was the second time theRockfort Express was being tar-geted
by miscreants.
On March 15, 1987, over 50people were killed when the ac-tivists
of Tamil Nadu LiberationArmy (TNLA) blew up the tracknear
Marudayatrupallam inAriyalur.
LUCKY ESCAPE FOR PASSENGERS
Train tragedy averted afterdriver spots missing tracks
l Crime Branchquizzes Viola in Nadia case
ON PAGE 2
Nitish blows hot over photo with Modi
Snubs BJP leaders, cancels dinner
Argentina's coach Diego Maradona in different moods during their
Group B first round 2010 World Cup football match on Saturday
atEllis Park stadium in Johannesburg. Argentina defeated Nigeria
1-0.
2 BKI terrorists arrestedPolice arrested two suspectedBabbar
Khalsa International out-fit terrorists and recovered apistol and
10 live cartridges fromtheir possession. Police said Bal-winder
Singh and ManjinderSingh, residents of Bijliwal vil-lage, were
arrested from a fuelpump at Khanowal. (PTI)
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GOAHERALD
Pg2GOA, SUNDAY, 13 JUNE, 2010
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 12
Noted social activist Adv Aires Rodriguestermed appointment of
Lyndon Monteiroas vice president of Goa Tourism Develop-ment
Corporation (GTDC) as illegal.
The appointment was done in completeviolation of law, Rodrigues
said.
While briefing the media, Rodriguesinformed that Section 274(1)
(d) of theCompanies Act mandates that a personshall not be
appointed director of a com-pany, if he/she has been convicted by
acourt of any offence involving moral turpi-tude and sentenced in
respect thereofto imprisonment for not less than sixmonths and a
period of five years hasnot elapsed from the date of expiry of
the sentence.The said law was not followed, while
appointing Monteiro, who was convictedand sentenced to 15-month
imprisonmentin case of frauduary, as a vice president ofGTDC, he
alleged.
Rodrigues confirmed that in 2002, Mon-teiro was convicted and
sentenced to im-prisonment by a Margao Court in six casesunder
Section 138 of the Negotiable Instru-ments Act for issuing six
bounced chequesof Rs 6 lakh to a Vasco-based businessmanRudradevan
Ellath.
In view of the sentence imposed by theCourt, Monteiro was not
allegeable for thesaid post, he maintained.
Rodrigues demanded that all the expen-diture incurred on
Monteiro by the GTDC
be recovered from him and that he be pros-ecuted in accordance
with law.
Rodrigues further said that as per theCompanies Act if the
director is appointedin contravention of law, then he is liable
torefund to the corporation the entire amountreceived and perks or
enjoyed by him atthe cost of the corporation.
The violation of law also leads to im-prisonment upto 3 years
and also fine ofRs 500 for every day of default, he added.
Monteiro, also officer on special duty(OSD) to former tourism
minister MickkyPacheco, is been declared as a co-accusedin Nadia
Torrados mysterious death case.The anticipatory bail plea of
Monteirowill be heard on June 14 in the HighCourt.
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 12
The Goa Police Crime Brancho n S a t u rd a y q u e s t i o n e
dMickky Pachecos close friendViola in the Nadia Torradodeath
case.
Viola arrived at Crime Branchon Saturday morning and wasbeing
quizzed by investigatingofficer till evening.
She was given a one-hourlunch break though.
Violas lawyer Yatish Naik laterspeaking to reporters here
saidthat she was not allowed to beaccompanied by her counsel.
We had made an applica-tion that a lawyer be allowedto accompany
her, which wasrefused by Crime Branch, herlawyer Yatish Naik told
re-porters outside Crime Branchoffice.
Police sources told Heraldthat Viola was quizzed on therelation
between Nadia and theformer minister.
Pacheco has been on the runafter tendering his resignation
a day after he was questionedby the police in the case.
Meanwhile, sources in thepolice said Pacheco had metNadia for
two days before sheallegedly consumed poison onMay 15.
There are several contradic-
tions in the statements givenby Nadia's family and Pachecoduring
the questioning, sourcesstated.
According to Crime Branch,the ex-minister had met Nadiaon May 13
and 14. It is alsoprobing whether the 46-year-
old lawmaker was present ather house when she took
ratpoison.
Crime Branch has also foundthat Nadia's mother was not inher
house when her daughtertook the extreme step, a claimdenied by
Sonia.
Crime Branch quizzes Violain Nadia death case
Viola a close friend of former Tourism Minister Mickky Pacheco
arrives at the Crime Branch at DonaPaula on Saturday. Photo by
Rozario Estibeiro
Aires terms Lyndons appointmentas GTDC vice-president
illegal
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 12
The Union Petroleum SecretaryS Sundareshan on Saturdaystated
that the gas pipelinewould be ready by mid-2012.
The work of laying of 175-km pipeline in Goa by tappingthe
Dabhol-Bangalore net-work at Gokak in Karnatakais taken up by GAIL
at a costof Rs 400 cr and would becompleted by mid-2012, saidthe
Union secretary while ad-dressing a press conferencehere on
Saturday.
The estimated cost of the en-tire network of the
Dabhol-Ban-galore pipeline, including a spurline to Goa, is Rs
4,543.43 crore.
The spur line to Goa will orig-inate from Gokak and end atZuari
Industries passing throughKarnataka, Maharashtra and Goa.
The length of the pipeline inGoa is 36 km.
The pipeline will pass throughthe talukas of Bicholim, Pondaand
Mormugao.
On completion the pipelinewill supply gas to existing com-panies
and also new gas basedindustries, Sundareshan said.
Asked whether the gas canalso be used for domestic pur-pose, he
said, The Petroleumand Natural Gas regulatoryBoard will list the
cities whichwill be supplied gas in whichGoan cities also have to
be in-cluded.
Thereafter, he continued, theprivate companies will have toplace
their bids and start supplyof domestic gas.
Sundareshan said that the in-dustrial requirement of gas inGoa
is to the tune of four millioncubic metres a day.
The MoPNG secretary saidthat GAIL will be charging thecompanies
to provide the gasat their doorstep through thepipeline.
He said such a facility will pro-vide impetus to the
gas-basedindustries in Goa.
Gas pipeline to be ready bymid-2012: Union minister
Says 14 per cent rise in petrol consumption
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 12
Goa has seen an increase of 14 per cent in the consumption
ofpetrol, a senior petroleum official said here on Saturday.
S Sundareshan, secretary, Ministry of Petroleum and NaturalGas,
said that while there is increase of 14 per cent in petrol
con-sumption there is increase of six to seven per cent rise in
dieselconsumption.
Also, he said, there is an increase of 10 per cent per annum
inthe consumption of LPG.
With four lakh LPG connections we have covered the entireGoan
population with the LPG connections, he said.
There is adequate supply of fuel to the state, the
secretarysaid.
He said Goa is one of the few states where the people do nothave
to wait for new LPG connection or a refill.
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
PORVORIM, JUNE 12
Mapusa Police has deployed two policeteams at the Mapusa
Municipal Market andKadamba bus stand to monitor the law andorder
in these two places.
The presence of police teams, which com-prises two policemen
equipped with a wire-less set, was necessitated due to the
growingthefts in the market area.
A year ago, a daylight theft had oc-curred in the Mapusa market,
whereproperty worth Rs 1.7 lakh, includingcash of Rs 92,000, was
stolen from thedrawer belonging to a lottery seller.Since then,
shopkeepers have been de-manding the deployment of police atthe
market.
Speaking to Herald, Deputy Superinten-dent of Police Sammy
Tavares said the policeteams will be deployed at Mapusa Marketround
the clock and at the Kadamba busstand till 9 pm.
The presence of police teams at thesetwo vital places will act
as a deterrent toantisocial elements and help prevent theftsand
crimes. Shopkeepers and the public
will be able to approach the police in caseof any need, said
DySP Tavares.
Meanwhile, Vibhag Pramukh of Shiv Sena(Bardez) Philip DSouza has
thanked Ma-pusa police for providing police teams atMapusa
Municipal market and at Kadamba
Bus stand.He has suggested that the police should
seek a room or kiosk from Municipal au-thorities or Kadamba
Transport Corporationto enable the police on duty to dischargetheir
duties effectively.
BMC approvesRs 8.84 cr citydevelopment
planHERALD CORRESPONDENT
MAYEM, JUNE 12
The Bicholim Muncipal Council(BMC) on Friday approved a
citydevelopment plan to the tuneof Rs 8.84 crore.
At the BMC meeting, it wasdecided to beautify the city withthe
help of the funds providedby the central government.
It was decided to have arailing on both sides of theroad from
Shantadurga HighSchool to the KTC bus stand.Besides, it was also
decidedto have a better drainage sys-tem and to maintain and
con-struct gutters to avoid floodsin the city.
BMC Cha i rman Sa t i shGaonkar told Herald that thegarbage
treatment plant wasbeing managed by a companyfrom Pune for a
year.
The contract has ended andthe locals have got the expertiseto
handle the plant. From thisyear, we will look after the plantwhich
would save us about Rs6 lakh, said Gaonkar.
Police deployed at the Kadamba bus stand in Mapusa. Photo by
Anil Shankhwalker
Cops deployed at Mapusa market,bus stand to monitor law and
order
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 12
Saying that he has not neglectedMargao after assuming the postof
Chief Minister three yearsago, Digambar Kamat on Satur-day said
that many a major proj-ects would soon see light of theday in the
Commercial Capital.
Addressing Margao blockCongress workers on the occa-sion of the
completion of threeyears as Chief Minister of Goa,Kamat said that
Margaos devel-opment is on the right track andpeople would soon
wonderwhether theres anything left tobe developed in the city.
He said actual work of thestate-of-the-art inter-state busstand
will begin 2-3 months time,while the government would ten-der work
on the seweragescheme for the southern part ofthe city within two
months.
Kamat said the District Col-
lectorate building would be in-augurated in the next 4-5months,
adding that work is infull swing of the district hospitaland the
hospital will see thelight of the day within the nexttwo years.
On the power front, the ChiefMinister said the balance workof
underground cabling will betaken up in the city in the areasof
Khareband and Comba in thenext two months at a cost of Rs70
crore.
After assuming the ChiefMinisters post, I had to lookafter
entire Goa. But, I have en-sured that neither Margao northe
Congress workers were neg-lected during the last threeyears, he
added.
The Chief Minister calledupon the workers to gear up forthe
ensuing Municipal polls, say-ing the workers should ensurethat
party backed candidates
are elected for the progress anddevelopment of the town.
Saying his government hasaccorded top most priority forthe
upliftment of women, Kamatsaid the woman mahila mandalshave been
further strengthenedin the city during the last threeyears to make
women independ-ent.
He outlined the variousschemes formulated by the gov-ernment
during the last threeyears, especially the Indira BalRath Yojana
for the benefit ofthe students belonging to theST Community. He
said thescheme will now be extendedto students of the OBC
commu-nity from the current academicyear.
GPCC President Subhash Shi-rodkar, Margao Municipal Chair-person
Savio Coutinho andothers leaders spoke on the oc-casion.
Major projects will soon see light of day in Margao: CM
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CURCHOREM, JUNE 11
A group of parishioners have threat-ened to seek legal recourse
in connec-tion with alleged irregularities at theGuardian Angel
Church at Curchorem.
Refuting claims of those parishionerssupporting the Parish
Priest Fr Ligor-inho D'Costa, the group has stated thatlegal
notices will be issued to the entireFabrica Committee in connection
withthe alleged Rs 30 lakh lottery scam.
Speaking to Herald, the GuardianAngel Church Parish Pastoral
CouncilModerator Desmond Cardozo andPaixao Pereira said the parish
priesthad stated that 50,000 lotteries wereprinted, all sold and
that Rs 50 lakhhad been collected.
A bill for printing of 80,000 lotterieswas discovered in the
accounts, butthe priest clarified that only 50,000lotteries were
printed, said Cardozo.
The New Age Printers at Verna said
60,000 lotteries were ordered andprinted. However, the parish
priesttook 25,000 lotteries and rejected35,000 others as
advertisements werenot printed as desired.
An additional 20,000 lotteries wereprinted at the request of the
parishpriest, who later wanted another 5,000lotteries. As the
printers were unableto do so, 840 sheets (5040 lotteries)from the
rejected lot were taken bythe parish priest.
Thus, 80,000 lotteries were actuallyprinted. On enquiries, we
were toldthat the printers had burnt the balance30,000 lotteries,
allegedly rejected bythe parish priest.
We want to know who authorizedthem to burn the lotteries, for
whichthey have received payment for print-ing, thus becoming the
property of thechurch? Why were 840 sheets of lot-teries, rejected
in July 2009, taken backby the parish priest in December 2009,
asked Cardozo.Commenting on the purchase of
chandeliers for the church, Cardozosaid the accounts for 2009-10
revealedan invoice/bill for Rs 1,95,694 towardspurchase of eight
chandeliers.
These were never seen in thechurch, nor were parishioners
informedof such purchase. No entry about thesechandeliers was made
in the InventoryRegister updated till March 2010. Theparish priest
claims that the chandeliersare in safe custody and will be
enteredin the Inventory Register, before heleaves the parish, said
Cardozo.
Reacting to another controversyabout the prayer room, the PPC
Mod-erator said the prayer room was con-structed and blessed by the
archbishopin 2000-01 as an Oratory.
The parish priest did announce thatthe Prayer Room would be kept
closedfor some time due to ongoing con-struction work and we never
objected
to this. But we never expected thatthe sacred prayer room would
be con-verted into a cement godown.
Why was the office, opposite theprayer room, also not closed
duringthe construction work? Even if re-quired, as is done on all
constructionsites, a temporary godown could havebeen constructed to
protect the cementfrom possible rains, argued Cardozo.
Commenting on the appointment ofthe Fabrica Committee, Cardozo
statedthat the parish priest conducted theprocess by holding
elections by secretballot.
The winners, except one who gotmaximum votes, were not
recom-mended by the parish priest. The list,including a woman who
got only 2votes, were recommended by the parishpriest and appointed
by the diocese.Why were elections conducted by se-cret ballot if
the priest did not want tohonour the elections, asked Cardozo.
Disputing claims of the former at-torney Gabriel Fernandes that
the devo-tees had increased due to the influenceof the parish
priest, Cardozo informedthat Curchorem has grown over theyears and
this has led to an increase inparishioners and catechism
students.This is a progressive trend and hasnothing to do with the
parish priest,he said.
Cardozo also claimed that churchauthorities did little to
resolve the dif-ferences between the two groups.
While admitting that the parishpriest has done a lot of
developmentby way of construction work, Cardozo,however, insisted
that the priority of apriest is to build hearts and not
struc-tures.
They expressed regret that the priesthad stopped the 80-year-old
processionlinking Curchorem and Sanvordemtowns and had refused to
offer prayersat the graves of the dead.
By Dr Jose de Sousa
Come June 13 and the feast ofthe glorious St Anthony is
cele-brated all over the world, par-ticularly in Portugal where he
isa popular saint and in Goa, peo-ple throng the sanctuaries in
atestimony of strong faith of thepeople in the saint.
Festivities are held on a grandscale in Siolimwhere he is
thepatron saint. InSalcete, thefestivities arehe ld a tDeussua ,
ahamle t o fChinchinim vil-lage, where aChapel of StA n t h o n
ystands for thelast four cen-turies.
Anguishedpeople whohave lo s tsomething, frightened ones whohave
been robbed, lonely onesneeding a partner to settle inlife and so
on all roads leadto St Anthony sanctuaries forhis intervention.
In 1752, a Portuguese noble-man Dom Joao Antonio deMalo, who had
lost his eyesight,was being taken by a machila(palanquin) from
Agassaim toRibandar. When his bearersneeded rest at Goa Velha
belowthe Pilar hillock, they made a
stop beneath a mango tree andtold the nobleman that a statueof
St Anthony was placed in aniche carved at a wayside logof a coconut
tree at Goa Velha.Immediately the noblemanprayed to St Anthony, You
areknown as the Saint of miracles,you are here in the open, in
thesun and rain; if you restore my
e y e s i g h t , Iwil l build ab e a u t i f u lc h a p e l t
oke e p y o u rstatue in.
On the re-turn journey,Dom Joaoaga in waslowered at thesame p
laceand there themiracle is re-por ted tohave oc -curred. AndDom
Joao
could see the statue of the saint.When the nobleman was
backhome, without any help heclimbed the steps of the palace.As his
wife could not believe,he came out in the veranda andcounted the
vessels he couldsee in the bay.
Fa i thfu l to the vow, hebrought the copies of best altarsfrom
Portugal, built the Chapeland placed the life size statuteof St
Anthony, which still existsin the Chapel at Goa Velha.
St Anthony, thepopular saint
Parishioners to seek legal recourse over Curchorem church
irregularities
Goa Niwas inDelhi portrays
Goan ethosHERALD NEWS DESK
PANJIM, JUNE 12
The new Goa Niwas which isconstructed at an estimated costof Rs
17 crore in the total areaof 4195 sq meters at Plot No.14, B i r T
ikendra j i t Marg,Chanakyapuri in New Delhi por-trays the Goan
ethos.
The Goa Niwas was throwsopen by Member of Parliamentand UPA
Chairperson SoniaGandhi on Friday in the presenceof Chief Minister
DigambarKamat, Speaker Pratapsing Rane,Home Minister Ravi Naik,
PWDMinister Churchill Alemao,Transport Minister
RamkrishnaDhavlikar, Revenue Minister JosePhillip DSouza, Power
MinisterAleixo Sequeira, Education Min-ister Antanasio (Babush)
Mon-se ra te , Hea l th M in i s te rV ishwajeet Rane,
DeputySpeaker Mauvin Godinho, MPsFrancisco Sardinha, Rajiv
Shuklaand Shantaram Naik, MLAs Pan-durang Madkaikar, Chairpersonof
Law Commission RamakantKhalap, In-charge of Goa desk,B K
Hariprasad, former ChiefMinister Luizinho Faleiro, Pres-ident of
GPCC(I) Subhash Shi-rodkar, and other dignitariesfrom Goa.
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 12
A visibly upset Fatorda MLADamu Naik on Saturday ques-tioned the
Margao MunicipalChief Officer for keeping him inthe dark over the
recent inspec-tion of the Sonsodo dump yard.
The MLA re-minded the ChiefO f f i ce r Y BTawde that he isa
member of theHouse Commit-tee constitutedto so l ve thegarbage
issueand demandedto know why hewas no t i n -formed aboutthe
Sonsodo in-spection.
Accompaniedby the B JP -backed Coun-cilors NarayanFondekar
andRaju Shirodkar,the MLA inspected the site andinteracted with
Fomento ChiefExecutive Officer ShridharKamat.
Kamat explained him the var-ious precautionary measurestaken at
the dumping site in
view of the ensuing monsoonsand the future plans chalked outby
the Company at the site.
During the interaction, theMMC Councillors said thatgarbage from
a Betalbatim re-sort finds its way at the Sonsodosite. Councilor
Raju Shirodkar
pointed out thatthe truck-load ofwaste from theresort is f
irstdumped in theMunicipal binsnear the Metro-pole area andlater
collectedand disposed offby the MargaoMunicipal vehi-cles.
Replying to aquestion, Naikexpressed hissatisfaction overthe
precaution-ary work carriedout at Sonsodo,but suggested
that the agency collect watersamples of drinking wells
ad-joining the dumping site duringthe monsoons.
He asked the MMC CO to en-sure that work at the site is
mon-itored by the Civic body on a
daily basis and demanded thatthe Civic body take the con-cerned
councilors into confi-dence on the issue.
The Fatorda MLA remindedthe Chief Officer that thereshould not
be any encroachmenton private property adjoiningthe dumping site
and called forexpediting the land acquisitionprocess to acquire
additionalland for the waste dumping.
Upset Fatorda MLA questionsMMC CO over Sonsodo inspection
The MLA remindedthe Chief Officer YB Tawde that he isa member of
theHouse Committeeconstituted tosolve the garbageissue and
de-manded to knowwhy he was not in-formed about theSonsodo
inspec-tion.
Man found dead
near Nagorcem
railway quartersHERALD CORRESPONDENT
CANACONA, JUNE 12
A man believed to be in his for-ties was found dead near
theRailway quarters at NagorcemCanacona on Saturday morning.
According to Canacona po-lice, the deceased, suspected tobe a
non-Goan, was found deadnear the railway quarters, whichis in close
vicinity of KonkanRailway Station at Canacona.
The body is preserved at theGMC mortuary in Bambolim andfurther
investigation is inprogress under the supervisionof Canacona PI
Raju Raut Des-sai.
Valpoi yet totake up
pre-monsoonworks
HERALD CORRSEPONDENT
VALPOI, JUNE 12
Pre-monsoon works, includingdigging of roads and cleaningof
drains, are yet to be com-pleted in many parts of Valpoitown.
Speaking to Herald, sourcessaid the Valpoi Municipal Coun-cil
(VMC) had asked the GoaState Infrastructure Develop-ment
Corporation (GSIDC) tocomplete the pre-monsoonwork before the onset
of mon-soon.
Incidentally, the GSIDC hasundertaken a project in Valpoiand the
road-widening workis going on since the last oneyear.
The trenches dug near theValpoi JMFC court oppositeUnity High
School to widen theroad have been filled with rainwater, thereby
posing a threatto students, motorists andpedestrians.
A passenger bus had recentlyskidded off the road at the
spotsame, but fortunately no onewas injured. A week ago, a riderwas
also injured when hisscooter skidded off the road atsame place.
Parents, teachers, studentsand locals have requested
au-thorities to complete the worksoon or at least to barricade
thedug portion of the road to avoidfurther mishaps.
MARGAO (HR): The All Goa ToddyTappers Association
PresidentGaspar Afonso has instituted ascholarship to the top
ranking stu-dent of the toddy-tapping com-munity of Goa. Students
securing50% and above marks in MarchSSC exam of Goa Board may
pro-duce certified copy of the marksheets to the village
toddy-tappersleaders by June 15 for the purposeof scrutiny. The top
ranking stu-dent thereafter will be selectedfor the scholarship,
stated the As-sociation President Gaspar Afonso.
Scholarship for toddy-tapper
pg2:Layout 1 6/13/2010 12:34 AM Page 1
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GOA, SUNDAY, 13 JUNE, 2010
GOAHERALD
Pg3
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 12
Village Groups of Goa have warned the gov-ernment not to take
the NGOs fighting tosave and protect Goa from destruction
forgranted any more.
Representatives of various village groupshave cautioned that
they will no longertake things lying down if the governmentis hell
bent in destroying the State.
Briefing newsmen, the village groupsquestioned Cortalim MLA
Mauvin Godinhofor his remarks on the NGOs and remindedhim that the
recent clearance given to hous-ing projects in Chicalim and
Sancoale wouldalter the demography of these two villages.
Edwin Mascarenhas said the allegationsmade by the Cortalim MLA
against the NGOsrelating of the Chicalim park are false
andbaseless.
He said the village groups of Goa had in-spected illegalities in
Cortalim on the oc-casion of World Environment Day and foundmany
illegalities, including hill cutting nearUpasnagar. I fail to
understand why God-
inho is so aggressive when the NGOs areonly exposing the
illegalities. The MLAshould name the person from the local
NGOinvolved in illegalities, he added.
Mascarenhas took strong exception tothe government decision to
include the vil-lages of Mormugao Taluka under the purviewof the
Planning and Development Authority.The villagers have been deprived
of ourright in participatory planning. Our villagesshould be
immediately excluded from thePDA and allow the villagers to
participatein the Regional Plan 2021, he demanded.
Saying that the PDA has been imposedon the villagers,
Mascarenhas sough toknow why the local MLA is so adamant toinclude
the villages under the PDA. He al-leged that the PDA has done
planning insome pockets of the Taluka only to suit cer-tain people.
For instance, he said C1 zoneshave been earmarked behind BITS
Pilaniand near the old grazing ground, addingthat records indicate
that only the realestate developers will benefit from the
zonechanges. These zone changes will not suit
the growth of the local people, it will onlysuit the
requirements of the builders, hesaid, adding that the government
ought tofirst develop basic infrastructure includingpower, garbage
disposal and water supply.
He feared that the population of Chicalimvillage would increase
by two-fold in thenext 2-3 years once the construction
plansapproved by the authorities takes concreteshape.
Edwin Pinto said the slum at Zuari Nagaris housing approximately
40,000 population,but lamented that theres no basic
sanitationfacilities, thus polluting the ground water.
He demanded to know the connectionbetween the MLAs and the real
estate de-velopers, be it in Carmona, Chicalim etcand charged the
elected representatives forpromoting and protecting mega
housingsocieties. Our MLAs are destroying Goa.The people will have
no option than tocome on the streets and stop the destructionof
Goa, he warned.
Judith Almeida and Crydon Madeira alsospoke.
NGOs warn govt not totake them for granted
HERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 12
Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) Goaunit termed Bhopal gas leak
ver-dict as Justice delayed , justicedenied and condemned Con-gress
hand in letting Warren An-derson, leave the country.
The party activists on Satur-day held demonstration in thecity
against the verdict.
BJP spokesperson, RajendraArlekar said that its a shamethat the
former top managersof the company, blamed for themassive Bhopal gas
leak, wheresentenced to only two years im-prisonment and that too
after25 years.
Its a mockery of judiciary,the activists alleged.
The Bhopal court on June 8,2010 found seven guilty, whowere all
sentenced to two yearsin prison and ordered to pay afine of Rs
100,000.
BJP has demanded to conducta thorough inquiry in the entirecourt
verdict as well as in theinvestigation part.
The activists have also de-manded to investigate the War-
ren Anderson matter.Anderson, American then-
chairman of the Union Carbideparent group, was among theaccused
but was not named inthe verdicts after the Bhopalcourt declared him
as abscond-ing.
It has been hinted that ArjunSingh, then Madhya Pradeshchief
minister in commence withthen Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhihad taken
the decision to releaseAnderson out of country.
Proper investigation isneeded in this aspect, BJP ac-tivists
said.
The said tragedy happenedin December 1984, when theUCIL (Union
Carbide India Ltd)plant in Bhopal released thehighly volatile toxic
chemicalcalled Methyl Isocyanate, storedat the pesticide plant
owned bythe company.
15,000 people died in thetragedy and atleast five lakh oth-ers
got inflicted by grievous in-juries. Millions were left sickand the
affected passed on theharmful effects of the gas to thenext
generations.
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 12
With the authorities turning ablind eye to the assembly
ofmigrant labourers behind theMargao Municipal building, theGreen
Goa Foundation hasserved a seven-day deadlineon the Margao Civic
body tokeep away the labourers offthe road.
The NGO has threatened tomove the court of law if theCivic body
fails to initiate actionwithin the deadline.
In a petition, the Foundationstated that a large group of
mi-grant labourers assemble behindthe Municipal building and
oc-cupy the road at the peak traffichour.
Chairman of the Foundation,Raison Almeida contended thatthe
presence of the labourerson the road causes considerabletraffic
obstruction, as the labour-ers solicit daily wage work from
MMC served 7-day deadlineto keep labourers off the road
the passersby.Thats not all. He said the
labourers chew tobacco and spiton the road, thus causing
nui-sance.
Incidentally, the Margao Mu-nicipal council as well as
thedistrict traffic committee hadrecommended in the past tomaintain
the stretch entire
road behind the Municipalbuilding free from the labour-ers.
If fact, suggestion made tothe Margao Civic body by the
district authorities and the traf-fic department to allot
thelabourers a fixed place in thecity have fallen on the deaf
earsof the Civic officials.
HERALD REPORTER
MARGAO, JUNE 12
The monsoons have almost setin the State, but mound of wasteis
awaiting clearance from Goaslone wholesale fish market inthe city
here.
A visit to the market ownedby the South Goa Planning
andDevelopment Authority re-vealed that tones of waste
layaccumulated in the market
premises for want of clear-ance.
SGPDA officials had no answerwhen asked over the delay
indisposing off the waste. Inci-dentally, miscreants had dis-posed
off the waste by burninglast year, causing an environ-mental
hazard.
Local residents feared thatthe waste might find its wayinto the
adjoining paddy fields
during the monsoon as wasthe case in the past and de-manded that
the PDA step inand clear the waste from themarket area. In the
past, allthe thermocol waste found itsway in the fields, causing
nui-sance to the farming commu-nity. The PDA should act fastand
clear the waste immedi-ately, remarked a local resi-dent.
Mound of waste awaits clearance from wholesale fish market
Mound of waste lying unattended at the wholesale fish market,
Margao. Photo by Savio Dias
BJP terms Bhopal gas leak verdict
as justice denied
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CALANGUTE, JUNE 12
The sculpture of fish in front ofthe St Alex Church,
Calangutehas been damaged by miscre-ants barely a month after it
wasinaugurated.
The miscreants broke the tailand fins of the fish
sculpture,which had been erected by theCalangute panchayat and
HotelGoan Heritage.
The Calangute panchayat isin the process of filing a
policereport in this connection.
The sculpture, displaying theidentity of the village, at
theentry point of Calangute whichwas a dream project of
theCalangute panchayat and hadbeen financed by Hotel Goan
Heritage, Calangute, at an esti-mated cost of Rs 7 lakh.
The sculpture was inaugu-rated on May 11 by CalanguteSarpanch
Laxman Parab Palyekar,who incidentally had celebratedhis birthday
on the same day.
Speaking to Herald, formersarpanch Joseph Sequeira saida few
disgruntled elements areobstructing developmental ac-tivities in
Calangute.
The fish sculpture, which wehad constructed at an estimatedcost
of Rs 7 lakh and sponsoredby Hote l Goan Her i tage ,Calangute, has
been broken. Wetry to bring in development forour village, but some
disgruntledelements are trying to createproblems for us, Sequeira
added.
Miscreants damage fish sculpture at Calangute
The sculpture broken by miscreants at Calangute. Photo by Thomas
Fernandes
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
QUEPEM, JUNE 12
A resident of Cavrem-Quepemhas accused forest officials atthe
Maina-Quepem Range andCanacona Range of threateninghim and
pressurising him tosign a statement against hiswish.
In a complaint with theQuepem police, Tulshidas Velipclaimed
that he had sent a letterto the prime minister claimingthat a tiger
had been spottedin Cavrem-Maina.
Since then, forest officialsare harassing and pressuring meto
issue a statement that thereis no tiger in the area,
statedVelip.
Velip claimed that on June9, a forest guard from theMaina Range
along with twoof f i c i a l s , c l a iming to be
from the Canacona range,w e n t t o h i s h o u s e a
tCavrem.
They started threateningme and wanted to know whyI had filed a
complaint re-garding the presence of atiger at Cavrem to the
primeminister. They also forced meto sign a statement whichthey had
written and I re-fused to do so. They refusedto give me a copy of
thestatement and neither werethey ready to read the con-tents,
stated Velip.
The complainant claimedthat villagers of Cavrem werealso
harassed by forest offi-cials during the alleged bison-killing
incident and fearedthat they could harass him byfiling a false
complaint againsthim.
Cavrem local accusesforest officials of harassment
One held for assaulting
traffic policeHERALD REPORTER
PANJIM, JUNE 12
In a bizarre incident, one DineshGovekar, 31, was arrested by
thePanjim police for physically as-saulting a traffic police
constablein the city.
The complainant, constableYadav Chari, 40 yrs, attached toPanjim
traffic stated that the in-cident took place after the ac-cused,
resident of Merces, wasbrought to the traffic cell for al-cohol
test.
Police said the accused wasriding his motorcycle in a rashmanner
near Customs House,when he was accosted by Yadavand his officer and
brought tothe cell for alcohol test.
After the test was done theaccused assaulted the com-plainant
and caused tooth biteinjuries on both his thighs, po-lice said.
Govekar was arrested imme-diately and will be produced forremand
tomorrow, police said.
Free medicalcamp at Assolda
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
CURCHOREM, JUNE 12
The Assolda Welfare Trust in col-laboration with the Forum
forSenior Citizens of India and As-solda panchayat will conduct
afree medical camp for senior cit-izens and needy people of
Assoldaat the Assolda panchayat on June13 from 8.30 am to 1.30
pm.
HERALD CORRESPONDENT
BICHOLIM, JUNE 11
Stray cattle have become a men-ace in Bicholim town and
littlesteps have been taken by au-thorities to address the
issue.
The stray cattle are frequentlyseen squatting on the
roads,posing a threat to motorists andpedestrians. The problem is
ag-gravated during the weekly mar-ket day, as a number of
straycattle rummage through themarket area in search of food.
This practice had been min-imised to some extent some years
ago when authorities had decidedto impound the stray
animals.
Incidentally on Saturday, acow died on the road near theBicholim
petrol pump shortlyafter giving birth to a calf.
When this correspondentwent to the site in the morning,the cow
was found strugglingafter having given birth to a calfby the
roadside. The owner ofthe cow was crying foul overthe
unavailability of a veterinarydoctor.
Later, the owner called AnimalRescue Squad Chief Amrut
Singh, who was seen searchingfor a person who would helpthe
ailing cow. The animal, how-ever, died a short while later.
Bicholim Muncipal Councilworkers acted swiftly andquickly
carried away the deadanimal to avoid any further con-troversy.
When informed about thestray cattle in the city, DeputyCollector
Narayan Gad said hewould look into the matter.
We need to follow the earlierguidelines and I will look intothe
matter, he told Herald.
Stray cattle causing menace in Bicholim
-
REGIONOHeRAL
dO
Pg4GOA, sundAy, 13 june, 2010
==
PTI
BANGALORE, JUNE 12
Law Minister M Veerappa Moilytoday attacked a top aide ofRajiv
Gandhi for suggestingthat the then prime ministermay have had a
role in the re-lease of former Union Carbidechief Warren Anderson
accusedin Bhopal gas case, saying hewas a new convert to
BJP-ShivSena camp.
"I think he (P C Alexander)had joined BJP, and with ShivSena's
support he became aRajya Sabha member. He is anew convert to the
BJP-ShivSena and anti-Congress campbecause he was not consideredfor
Presidentship. It is a moti-vated statement," he told re-porters
here.
He said many persons likeAlexander, former principalsecretary to
Rajiv Gandhi,suddenly wanted to be mar-tyrs. "I think he is
responsible(for Anderson's sudden re-lease after his arrest in
De-cember 1984) because he wasthe then Principal Secretary,"he
added.
Alexander had hinted thatRajiv Gandhi may have had arole in the
release of Andersonas the then prime ministercould have agreed with
the de-cision on letting him off.
Moily said there was need
for a law to fix responsibilityon persons responsible for
dis-asters such as the Bhopal gastragedy.
He said the CBI which inves-tigated the worst ever indus-trial
tragedy that claimedthousands of lives bookedcases under IPC
section 302,but the supreme court con-verted it into 304 A
(culpablehomicide which provides forlesser punishment).
"Unfortu-nately the judiciary did it," hesaid.
Moily said the Governmentwas working on codifying lawsto ensure
that disasters weretreated as disasters only. Healso said the
Government was
working on a set of guidelinesthat would facilitate fast
track-ing of cases related to majordisasters in the light of
theBhopal case.
"Our courts are very conser-vative. Hence we are workingon new
set of laws to deal withsuch disasters", Moily said.
Referring to the case againstformer chief of Union CarbideWarren
Anderson, he said ithad not been closed. "We arepursuing it."
When his attention wasdrawn to Anderson's wife say-ing that her
husband was tooold, he said everyone wasequal in the eyes of law
andage did not matter.
Moily slams Alexander for remarks on Rajiv Gandhi
n I think he (P CAlexander) hadjoined BJP, andwith Shiv
Sena'ssupport he becamea Rajya Sabhamember. He is anew convert to
theBJP-Shiv Sena andanti-Congresscamp because hewas not
consideredfor Presidentship. It is a motivated statement
--- M Veerappa Moily
PTI
MUMBAI, JUNE 12
Rejecting Shiv Sena's criticismof MNS for voting in favour
ofruling Congress-NCP alliance inthe just-concluded Maharash-tra
Council polls, its chief RajThackeray today said his movewas in
favour of his party.
"It is important for me tosend my four suspended MLAsback into
the Assembly as theywere elected by lakhs of vot-ers. It would be
injustice withtheir constituencies if they re-main out of the
House," he toldreporters here.
The MNS legislators weresuspended in November lastyear for
attacking SamajwadiParty MLA Abu Azmi in Assem-bly for not taking
oath inMarathi. On MNS legislatorsvoting for Congress in the June10
polls, Raj said "we tookwhatever step needed to getsuspension of
our four MLAsrevoked."
Rubbishing Sena's allegationof vote-for-money during thepolls,
Raj questioned the BalThackeray-led party's stand tosupport NCP in
Pune MunicipalCorporation elections.
"Did Sena get money to sup-port NCP in Pune MunicipalCorporation
polls despitefighting the elections withtheir ally BJP?" he
asked.
Raj asked why Sena, whichhe left in 2005 to float his own
outfit, is silent over MNS's sup-port to them in the
municipalcouncil polls in Ambernath inadjoining Thane.
Spelling out his stand, hesaid "no one is my friend orenemy in
politics. I am notbound to anyone and would dothings for the good
of my partyand Marathi people."
The estranged nephew ofBal Thackeray mentioned pastincidents,
where according tohim, Sena had helped "outside"candidates like
Congress
leader Murli Deora, who be-came Mayor of Mumbai withtheir
support.
Asking Sena to "mind theirown business", Raj said "myparty is an
independent entityand Sena should not tell mewhat to do. Why we are
beingblamed if they lost in the Coun-cil polls?"
Raj questioned Sena's sup-port to businessman RajkumarDhoot and
poet-journalist Pri-tish Nandy in Rajya Sabha pollsand Lalchand
Rathod in Coun-cil elections in the past. "Werethese people any
social ac-tivists that Sena supportedthem?"
He criticised Sena for send-ing Bharatkumar Raut, a jour-nalist,
to Rajya Sabha and partyspokesperson Neelam Gorheto the state
Council, saying thesaffron outfit should field peo-ple who are
loyal to it.
Terming the saffron outfit'scriticism of his party as
"unnec-essary", Raj said it is their(Sena's) old habit of
blamingothers for their defeat.
"After Maharashtra Assemblypoll defeat (in 2009), Senablamed
Marathi manoos andnow they are blaming my party.They never accept
their mis-takes. Why did they field sec-ond candidate (in
Councilpolls) when they did not havesufficient votes?" he sought
toknow.
Vote for Congress was to get MLAs suspension lifted: Raj
n It is important for meto send my four sus-pended MLAs backinto
the Assembly asthey were elected bylakhs of voters. Itwould be
injusticewith their constituen-cies if they remain outof the
House
--- Raj Thackeray
PTI
MUMBAI, JUNE 12
Schools in Maharashtradenying admissions to chil-dren in primary
educationfor any reason would have topay fine under the Right
toEducation Act, the StateGovernment has said.
A decision taken recentlyby the School Education De-partment
made it compul-sory for all private andGovernment aided schoolsto
admit all students.
"Schools cannot conductscrutiny for admissionprocess. It has to
be trans-parent and by a lottery sys-tem, else Rs 25,000 wouldbe
fined for first violationand Rs 50,000 for each sub-sequent
violation," an officialrelease said.
The schools would becharged 10 times theamount of donation
takenfor admission by the schoolauthorities, the release
said,adding, admission formsshould be given to all thepeople in the
nearby area ontheir demand.
"The State Government isvery serious about the im-plementation
of the Right toEducation Act and theschools cannot ignore suchan
important decision,which we are posting on theGovernment website,"
an of-ficial from Education Depart-
ment told PTI.The period for the school
admissions has been ex-tended up to September 30and students
would be enti-tled to get entry in theschools after that also,
aGovernment order said.
The Government has alsoreduced the age limit of thechildren to
five years fromsix for admission in firststandard.
In order to bring childrenoutside ambit of school ed-ucation
into the classrooms,the Government has askedall the schools to
admitthem in the standards suit-able for their age even ifthey
haven't got earlier edu-cation.
"A 10-year-old childshould be admitted in fifthstandard even if
he hasnever attended school ear-lier. It would be the
respon-sibility of the teachers andthe schools to give specialtime
to him/her to completethe earlier studies," theorder said.
Special or handicappedstudents would be given op-portunity to
complete theirprimary education till theage of 18 years, it
said.
It is also the responsibilityof parents to ensure thattheir
children are given com-pulsory primary education,it said.
Schools in Mrashtrawill be fined for
denying admissions
During holidays, the second PUC students of Hasanath College
missed their campus. Now, they are back on track.
UNI
BANGALORE, JUNE 12
The Southwest monsoonwhich arrived a week late hasadvanced into
most parts ofMaharashtra, Karnataka andAndhra Pradesh.
The Northern Limit of Mon-soon continues to passthrough Lat.19
deg N/Long.60deg E, Lat.19 deg N/Long.70deg E, Mumbai, Pune,
Osman-abad, Hyderabad, Vishakapat-nam, a report from local officeof
the meteorological depart-ment said.
Conditions were favourablefor further advancement of themonsoon
into remaining partsof north interior Karnatakaduring the next 48
hours.
The low pressure area overWest Central Bay of Bengal offCoastal
Andhra Pradesh per-sisted.
During the last 24 hoursending 0830 today, the mon-soon was
active over north in-terior Karnataka. Rainfalloccurred at most
places overCoastal Karnataka and at a fewplaces over South interior
Kar-nataka.
Reports said heavy rainswere lashing the south coastaldistrict
of Dakshina Kannadaand Udupi continuously sinceThursday evening,
throwingnormal life out of gear.
The forecast for the next 48hours said rain/thundershow-ers
would occur at most placesover Coastal Karnataka and atmany places
over interior Kar-nataka. Moderate to ratherheavy rain would occur
at mostplaces over all the districts ofCoastal Karnataka and at
manyplaces over all the districts ofnorth interior Karnataka
andSouth interior Karnataka.
Southwest monsoonadvances acrosspeninsular India
Rains claim two lives
UNI
GULBARGA, JUNE 12
The South West monsoonrains lashing many parts ofKarnataka, have
claimed twolives since yesterday.
Police said two personwere killed when lightningstruck them at
Jogur Villagein Gulbarga Taluk whileVeerappa of Kamasur Tandain
Fardabad Police Stationlimits was killed due tolightning last
evening.
In another incident, a 14year-old boy Mosin Babawas killed on
the spot whena tipper truck ran over himwhen he was asleep nearRing
Road in the city lastnight.
PTI
PUNE, JUNE 12
One can go beyond offeringjust lip service to the cause
ofwildlife conservation by adopt-ing an animal and ensuring itswell
being.
An animal adoption schemeis being given final shape at
thesprawling Rajiv Gandhi Zoolog-ical Park at Katraj on the
cityoutskirts which also houses asnake habitat. The zoo has asmany
as 24 species of wild an-imals and is regarded as a bigattraction
for tourists in the re-gion.
Under management of thePune civic administration, thezoo
authorities have mootedthe adoption scheme for ani-mals which will
be open to in-dividuals, institutions,families, schools and
corpo-rate houses.
The proposal put up beforethe civic body recently for ap-proval
said the scheme wouldserve the interests of wild life
lovers who despite their strongurge cannot visit forests
fre-quently to spend time with an-imals.
Now with prescribed pay-ments varying with the speciesat the
zoo, the sponsor canadopt the animals for a specifictime frame and
see his nameput up on the board outsidethe cage of adopted
animalsand also carry a certificatealong with photographs of
theadopted ones.
Explaining the features ofthe animal adoption schemeat Katraj
zoo, its director KUmrigar told PTI "There arelots of people who
want tocontribute to their mite forwild life conservation andthis
would offer them the op-portunity to do so. Apartfrom serving this
purpose,the scheme will also generaterevenue for Pune
MunicipalCorporation (PMC) in the bar-gain."
She said the zoo authorities
expected a good response tothe proposal, to be given effectin a
few weeks time, from theburgeoning corporate sector inPune which is
alive to its socialresponsibilities.
"We expect the corporatehouses to adopt entire speciesin the zoo
as part of their con-servation projects. Individualand
institutional donors toocan pitch in for the cause", sheadded.
Those participating in thescheme will be entitled to in-come tax
benefits. Citizens canadopt the zoo animals with theapplicable
charges for a day, amonth, a year, three and fiveyear period and
also for lifetime.
The adoption fees are beingworked out on the basis of thecost of
feeding the animals andtigers could fetch maximumrevenue for the
zoo with a pro-posed amount of about Rs 50lakh per annum, sources
inPMC said.
Pune zoo for animal adoption to promote wildlife
conservation
Woman found dead in trunk
UNI
MUMBAI, JUNE 12
A young unidentified womanwas found dead in a lockedaluminium
trunk, near theHub Shopping Mall on West-ern Express High Way at
Gore-gaon, a western suburb.
Assistant Commissioner ofPolice (ACP) Jayant Hurgudesaid the
trunk, lying near Hubshopping mall since lastevening, was noticed
by anearby 'garagewala' whoopened it out of curiosity andfound the
body of a woman be-lieved to be in her mid-to-late20s.
He got scared and rushed tohis residence at Govandi late
atnight, from where he calledone Latit Shah, a contractor,and
narrated the whole inci-dent to him.
Thereupon, Shah asked himto inform the police, but he de-clined.
So, Shah informed thepolice about the incident thismorning.
UNI
BANGALORE, JUNE 12
A grandmother's stem cells have cured a rarebleeding disorder in
a four-year-old at theNarayana Hrudayalaya Multispeciality
Hospitalwhich conducted the transplant successfully.
Tarun from Kolar District in Karnataka, wasdiagnosed with
Glanzmanns Thrombastheniaat the age of 10 months when he was
evaluatedfor severe bleeding from the nose requiringblood
transfusion.
The rare bleeding disorder is genetically ac-quired and
autosomal recessive in nature.
Less than 100 cases have been reported fromIndia so far with the
largest series of 42 casesfrom South India, according to a release
here.
Tarun comes from a family where consan-guineous marriages
(uncle-niece and firstcousins) were common. His father married
hissisters daughter and incidentally, the childs
grandparents are also first cousins.Glanzmanns Thrombasthenia is
a genetic
defect in the platelets, with the absence of areceptor as a
result of which, blood does notclot though the platelet numbers are
normal.
This child had been having recurrentepisodes of severe bleeding
from the nose withvomiting of blood leading to severe
anaemiarequiring blood transfusions.
The bleeding sometimes was so severe thatthe patient used to be
brought to hospital inshock.
The child had to receive regular blood andplatelet transfusions
to stop the bleeding.
Gradually the child stopped responding tothe platelet
transfusions due to alloantibodiesafter repeated blood
transfusions.
Meanwhile as a desperate measure, the ENTsurgeons were called in
and they attemptedcauterizing the bleeding vessel but this was
not
successful. After this attempt, the interven-tional radiologists
were consulted and em-bolization of the bleeding vessel
wasattempted, but nothing worked.
The only available treatment option at thistime was to attempt a
bone marrow transplant(BMT) and replace the platelets in the child
withsomebody elses normal platelets permanently.
BMT for this disease has been attemptedsuccessfully in only
about 25 patients all overthe world and none has been successfully
re-ported from India till date.
This is a very expensive treatment optionand needs a donor to
donate stem cells.
Dr Sharat Damodar, Consultant Haematolo-gist and Head, Bone
Marrow Transplant Unit ofNarayana Hrudayalaya Multispeciality
Hospitaland Mazumdar Shaw Cancer Center said ''For-tunately Tarun
was fully matched with his fa-ther and hence we undertook this
treatment of
bone marrow transplant for this child. Tarununderwent BMT.
''Unfortunately Tarun rejected the cells trans-fused from the
fathers bone marrow andhence was back to his original disease.
''In a desperate measure, we searched otherfamily members for a
matched donor and toour surprise we found the grandmother to
befully matched.
''The child hence underwent a second trans-plant using the
grandmothers stem cells andengrafted successfully. ''Post
transplant bloodtests have confirmed that 100 per cent of theblood
cells are the grandmother's and theplatelet function tests have
confirmed thatthe platelets are functional.''
Dr Damodar said ''This is the first case reportin the world
where a child with this rare dis-ease has been cured by stem cells
from a grand-parent.''
Grandmothers stem cells cure rare bleeding disorder
UNI
MUMBAI, JUNE 12
Prasad Group, a pioneer inpost production serviceshas launched
the latest 3Dmovie cameras for film pro-ducers.
The Group, founded byfilmmaker L V Prasad hastied up with
Toronto-based3D Camera Company(3DCC) to acquire four spe-cialized
stereoscopic cam-eras available for lease tocapture visuals in
3D.
The basic advantage 3Dimagery gives to audience isdepth in
visual field that iscreated by shooting sceneusing two lenses
similar towhat the human eye sees.The rentals range from Rs50 lakhs
to Rs three crore.
Speaking to UNI here yes-terday, Prasad Group, direc-tor, Sai
Prasad said after
James Cameron's ''Avataar'',3D is making rapid inroadsin Indian
cinema, and wason its way to change howmovies are viewed.
''Every exhibitor is awareof 3D cinema after Avataar,even those
from the smallercentres. Although there areonly 85 screens out of
thou-sands of screens across thecountry that are equippedto show
movies in 3D, thetechnology is rapidly chang-ing the game. The
Indianaudience has got a taste of3D and conversion ofscreens to 3D
format is hap-pening,'' he said.
He said workshops werebeing conducted on thetechnical and
operationalaspects of the system. Itwill also provide stream-lined
post production serv-ices, he added.
Prasad Group introduces 3D movie cameras for film producers
UNI
MUMBAI, JUNE 12
A 22-year-old youth wasstabbed to death by a 30-year-old
neighbour following aheated argument over the useof mobile at
Sakinaka in thewestern suburbs.
Earlier, Afzal Ansari had usedmobile of the victim, VeeruRampal
Jath, resident of Hed-mand D'Souza compound atSakinaka, to talk to
his familymembers in Uttar Pradesh, po-
lice said today.At around 2330 hrs yester-
day, a quarrel started betweenthe duo over the use of mo-bile
that ended up in a fight.Ansari attacked Veeru with aknife.
Injured Veeru was rushed tocivil hospital, where doctorsdeclared
him brought dead.
A case of murder was regis-tered against Ansari and asearch has
been launched toarrest him, police added.
Youth stabbed to death
UNI
MYSORE, JUNE 12
One person was killed and an-other seriously injured whenthe
Bangalore-Mysore Passen-ger train hit a truck at an un-manned level
crossing nearSiddalinga Pura on the out-skirts of the city
today.
Police said the truck driverwas trying to cross the
levelcrossing before the train
passed, when the accidenttook place.
The truck was completelydamaged.
The injured were rushed toa private hospital, where thetruck
driver died.
Railway sources told UNI fol-lowing the accident, all
trainsproceeding to Bangalore andincoming trains would be de-layed
for four to five hours.
1 killed in train mishap
UNI
MYSORE, JUNE 12
Hundreds of school childrenparticipated in the ''jatha''taken
out in the city for aware-ness on Child Labour Act onthe eve of the
World Anti-childLabour Day.
The jatha was held under thejoint auspices of District
LegalServices Authority, District Ad-ministration, Police
Depart-ment, Labour Department,
Rashtriya Baala Karmika YojanaSociety and various NGOs.
The ''jatha'' was flagged off byPrincipal District and
SessionsJudge H P Sandesh at the TownHall. A programme was alsoheld
later to mark the occasion.
As part of creating publicawareness on child labour,Judge
Sandesh stuck stickerswith the message on ChildLabour Act on shops
locatedalong the procession route.
School kids take part in Jatha
PTI
BANGALORE, JUNE 12
The transfer of Karnataka HighCourt Chief Justice P DDinkaran,
facing impeachmentproceedings for land grabbingcharges, is likely
to take placeshortly, Union Law and JusticeMinister M Veerappa
Moily in-dicated today.
"The Supreme Court Col-legium has sent a recommen-dation to the
Union LawMinistry proposing transfer ofJustice Dinakaran to the
HighCourt of Sikkim and Chief Jus-tice of Uttarakhand High
CourtJagadish Singh Kher to Kar-nataka," he told reportershere.
"We are already moving inthis direction. The file hasbeen
moved," Moily said when
asked about Justice Dinakaran,who has come under renewedattack
from Justice D V Shylen-drakumar of the state HighCourt for
continuing to exer-cise administrative functionsand staying away
from thebench.
The advocates of the HighCourt have also been demand-ing an
early decision on JusticeDinkaran.
Karnataka Law Minister SSuresh Kumar in a letter toMoily
yesterday sought theCentre's intervention to endthe "unpleasant
stalemate" inthe High Court in the wake ofJustice Dinakaran staying
awayfrom the bench since Decem-ber 17, after allegations ofland
grabbing surfaced againsthim.
Justice Dinakarans transfer soon
-
INDIA GOA, SUNDAY, 13 JUNE, 2010
Pg 5
PTI
WASHINGTON, JUNE 12
Days after ruling out any `newinquiries against Union Carbidein
the wake of the Bhopal courtverdict, the US today said it
isprepared to give "fair consider-ation" to any fresh request
fromIndia for extradition of the com-pany's former chief Warren
An-derson over the 1984 gasdisaster.
"We have an extradition treatywith India. And if India makesan
extradition request to us, wewill give it fair consideration,"State
Department spokesman PJ Crowley said.
If the government of Indiamakes such a request, the USwill
"carefully evaluate" it, hetold reporters in response to
aquestion.
Crowley, however, said he wasnot in a position to verif ywhether
the US had already re-ceived such requests or whetherit had
responded to them, ar-guing that all such issues
wereconfidential.
A day after the Bhopal courtconvicted and sentenced to twoyears
former Union CarbideIndia Chairman Keshub Mahin-dra and six others
on Monday,the US had ruled out any `newinquiries against the
company
and also hoped that the verdictwould bring "closure" to the
fam-ilies of the gas leak victims.
On that day, responding toa specific question on whetherthere
was a request by Indiafor Anderson's extradition, As-sistant
Secretary of State forSouth and Central Asia RobertBlake had said:
"As a matter ofpolicy, we never discuss extra-dition, so I cannot
commenton that."
Crowley today also noted thatit was hard to draw a compari-son
between the Bhopal gastragedy that left over 15,000dead and the
BP's oil spill in theGulf of Mexico now, saying theAmerican
companies were "verymindful and respectful" of therules of the land
when they op-erated overseas.
"It is hard to necessarily drawa direct comparison to -- in
thecase of Bhopal, there was a set-tlement realised a number
ofyears ago... though I don't ex-press that I have all the
factshere in front of me," Crowleysaid.
"You have an ongoing situa-tion here. BP, as a private com-pany,
has stepped up andindicated that it will take itsown steps, since
it owns thewell, to stop the leak and to pay
for the mitigation of the impact,"the S ta te Depar
tmentspokesman said.
He said he would not "neces-sarily feel comfortable compar-ing
what happened in themid-80s and what's happeningtoday."
Meanwhile, Anderson's wifeLillian said the family had noth-ing
else to say in the matter.She also said that her husbandwas not
well.
Early this week, US Congress-man Frank Pallone, the founderand
former co-chairman of theCongressional Caucus on Indiaand Indian
Americans, had sup-ported Anderson's extraditiondemand.
"All those responsible for thisdisaster, including the
formerchairman of Union Carbide War-ren Anderson, should stand
trialin India and receive punishmentthat reflects the devastation
andpain they have caused for thou-sands of people.
"Warren Anderson absolutelydeserves to be extradited fromthe US
and punished for the fullextent of his crimes. As Chair-man of
Union Carbide at thetime of the Bhopal gas disaster,Anderson was
ultimately respon-sible for his company's actions,"Pallone
said.
US will consider fresh plea for Anderson's extradition
PTI
PATNA, JUNE 12
With the Congress on the backfoot, the BJP today asked it tocome
clean on its role in allegedlyproviding safe passage to thenUnion
Carbide chief Warren An-derson after the Bhopal gas dis-aster in
1984 and demanded thatit apologise to the nation.
"Why is the Congress silent onthe issue? Why is Arjun
Singhsilent? Why has the country notbeen informed about what
hap-pened? The silence is eloquent,"BJP chief Nitin Gadkari said
inhis inaugural address at the two-day party national executive
here.
Terming Bhopal tragedy as asaga of "treachery, backstabbingand
betrayal", he said the gov-ernment should move theSupreme Court and
"aggressively"seek review of its judgement.
A retired CBI official B R Lallhad stated earlier that the
thenCongress government at theCentre had tried to protect theUnion
Carbide management.There are reports alleging thatArjun Singh, then
chief ministerof Madhya
Pradesh, helped Andersonflee at the behest of then PrimeMinister
Rajiv Gandhi.
"Anderson was booked underSection 304 IPC (culpable homi-cide
not amounting to murder)....Government helped the main cul-prit in
the accident in which
20,000 people died. Congressmust apologise to the nation,"BJP
spokesperson Ravi ShankarPrasad quoted Gadkari as saying.
He termed Congress-led UPAas "Union-Carbide ProtectionAgency".
Gadkari raised theBhopal gas tragedy case to argueagainst the
government's moveto pass the Civil Liability for Nu-clear Damages
Bill in Parliament.
"After the recent verdict onBhopal gas tragedy, the dangerof
capping the liability throughsuch legislation has becomemore
pronounced," Gadkari said.The BJP president also main-tained that
the compensationgiven and the delay in theprocess was a "cruel
joke".
"The Bhopal gas verdict is acruel joke by our criminal
justicesystem. BJP demands that thegovernment should again knockthe
doors of the Supreme Courtand aggressively seek review ofits
judgement... Bhopal tragedyis the saga of treachery, back-stabbing
and betrayal," he said.
"No words are powerfulenough to condemn all those whomishandled
this issue," the BJPchief said. "The Congress owesan explanation to
the nation andvictims of Bhopal Gas Tragedy asto who instructed
that Andersonbe allowed to leave the country,"senior BJP leader
Syed ShahnawazHussain told reporters on thesidelines of the
meet.
BJP asks Cong to come clean on Anderson issue PTINEW DELHI, JUNE
12
Attack from within Congressmounted on Arjun Singh on War-ren
Anderson's escape issue, withsenior party leader
SatyavratChaturvedi today saying the thenMadhya Pradesh Chief
Ministerhad earlier admitted that the de-cision was taken at state
leveland asked him to speak out.
"Arjun Singh should break hissilence and come forward to
tellwhether he stands by the threestatements he had made
afterAnderson left the country, whichclearly bring out the fact
that thethen Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhihad no role into it," he
told PTI.
Chaturvedi, who is a CongressWorking Committee memberand hails
from Madhya Pradesh,said, "On December 8, 1984,Arjun Singh had said
that An-derson was allowed to leave thecountry because the police
felthis presence was not required.
"On December 9, Singh saidthat there was no pressure onhim from
anybody (to allow An-derson to fly out of the country),while on
December 14, he saidhe briefed the then Prime MinisterRajiv Gandhi
on the circumstancesthat led to Anderson's arrest andthen leaving
the country."
These three statements,Chaturvedi said, "clearly showthat Rajiv
Gandhi had no role inthis decision, which was takenat the level of
local administra-tion and state government."
He said Arjun Singh should
Arjun Singh should speak out: Satyavrat Chaturvedi
"endorse" these three state-ments he made earlier, other-
wise if he "has any new facts,he should say".
Newly- commissioned officers after the Passing Out Parade (POP)
of the Indian Military Academy (IMA)in Dehradun on Saturday.
Eunuch commits self immolation
PTI
GHAZIPUR (UP), JUNE 12
A eunuch allegedlycommittedself immolation after her mar-riage
proposal was turned downby her live-in partner.
Eunuch Laxmina, 23, allegedlyset herself afire in Mardah
Bazarvillage yesterday and was rushedto a hospital where she
suc-cumbed to injuries, police saidtoday.
Laxmina was living with a 24-year-old youth Santosh Rajbharfor
the last two years. RecentlySantosh's marriage was fixed byhis
family, police said.
When Laxmina came to knowabout this, she asked Santoshto marry
him but he refused.Following this, the eunuch com-mitted suicide,
they said.
PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 12
A Delhi court today extendedby 14 days the judicial custodyof
Madhuri Gupta, arrested forallegedly passing classified
in-formation to Pakistani intelli-gence officials.
Metropolitan Magistrate Gau-rav Rao remanded Gupta, 53,
tojudicial custody till June 26.
The woman of f icer wasbrought to the Tis Hazari lock-up where
the duty MetropolitanMagistrate extended her judicialremand. She
was produced be-fore the court on May 31through
video-conferencing.
The court had earlier rejectedthe bail application of the
diplo-mat on the ground that someofficials were yet to be
examinedby the investigators in respectwith the case registered
againsther. Forensic reports with re-gard to the computer
seizedfrom her were not yet received.
The Delhi Police had also sub-mitted that they were
awaitinggovernment sanction for pros-
ecuting the lady officer.Gupta was arrested on April
22 after being called back fromIslamabad -- where she was
posted as Second Secretary inthe Press and Information wing--
for allegedly violating the Of-ficial Secrets Act.
The official came under thescanner after she showed
"ex-traordinary" interest in areas be-yond her role in the
informationwing of the mission.
Central security agencies thenbriefed senior MEA officialsabout
her activities in Pakistanwhich included allegedly sup-plying
sensitive and classifieddocuments related to Indian ac-tivities in
that country andAfghanistan.
A promotee officer of Ministryof External Affairs, Gupta
wasworking in the Mission fornearly three years.
She was well-versed in Urduand her services were utilisedfor
translation and interpre-tation. Earlier, she was postedin the
Indian Mission in KualaLumpur and worked with'India Perspective', a
magazineof the External Publicity wingof MEA.
Court extends custody of Guptaby 14 days in espionage case
nThe court hadearlier rejectedthe bailapplication of thediplomat
on theground that someofficials were yetto be examinedby
theinvestigators inrespect with thecase registeredagainst
her.Forensic reportswith regard to thecomputer seizedfrom her
werenot yet received.
Dacoits rob Rs 2 lakh worth jewels in train
PTI
VIJAYAWADA, JUNE 12
A five-member gang of dacoitsrobbed passengers of Rs twolakh
worth gold ornaments inSecunderabad-Gudur SimhapuriExpress near
Madhira in Kham-mam district in the wee hourstoday.
The dacoits fled from thenight train after pulling the
chainbefore the train ticket examiner(TTE) and other
passengersreach the scene. There was nosecurity to the night
train.
According to Vijayawada Gov-ernment Railway Police (GRP)the
train was passing Madhirastation around 3.30 am whenthe dacoits
entered S-12, S-8,and S-7 coaches and snatchedgold ornaments from
the pas-sengers.
Some passengers woke up tothe dacoits' act and raised alarm.A
TTE came to the passengersrescue, but by then, the dacoitshad
already pulled the chain andjumped out of the train, but onlyafter
robbing Rs two lakh worthornaments.
PTI
NEW DELHI, JUNE 12
Abhishek Bachchan is back withMani Ratnam in 'Raavan' and
thestar feels that the filmmaker isthe only one in the industry,who
know his true potential asan actor.
"I think Mani is the only onewho knows my true talent. Heknows
it better than I know my-self. He shows me what I am ca-pable of.
After I did 'Yuva', I couldnot believe it was me on thescreen doing
a character likeLallan. Same goes with 'Guru',"Abhiskek said in a
video confer-ence from Mumbai.
In a decade long career of his,Abhishek, who made his debutwith
JP Dutta's 'Refugee' 2000, hasgiven some of his career's
bestperformances in Ratnam's filmslike 'Yuva' and 'Guru'. In fact,
itwas 'Yuva' in 2003, which estab-
lished Abhishek as a performer.Before 'Yuva' happened, the
34-year-old actor was having arough patch in the industry witha
string of flops like 'Refugee','Dhai Akshar Prem Ke', 'TeraJadoo
Chal Gaya', 'Shararat' and'Mumbai Se Aaya Mera Dost'.
In 'Raavan', their third outingtogether, the actor says he
isonce again playing a role thatchallenges his very limit.
"If any other filmmaker wouldhave come to me with a scriptlike
'Raavan' I would have said nobecause I know that I am not ca-pable
to do a character like Beerabut it is Mani who always showssuch
confidence in my talentwhich is unbelievable," he added.
Ratnam, who is known to bemedia-shy, said that the role wasmeant
for Abhishek only.
"Half of my work is done afterI decide my star cast.
Every time I come with Ab-hishek it is about doing some-thing
different which he has notdone before. It is challengingfor both me
and him and we al-ways start from the scratchwhen we start
something new."
Giving an instance from theirrecent outing 'Raavan', Ratnamsaid,
"Like for Beera I was soworried because Abhishek is soproper. Beera
is this badly be-haved character and I had to askAbhishek to learn
bad wordsand be abusive all the time...just let go to get
right."
The star cast of the film, Ab-hishek, Aishwarya Rai
Bachchan,Vikram along with Mani Ratnamwere interacting with media
per-sons in Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai,New York and Dubai throughthe
new technology of videoconferencing, from Mumbai andChennai.
Only Ratnam knows my true potential: Abhishek Bachchan
Dalai Lamathanks
Nitish KumarPTI
PATNA, JUNE 12
The Dalai Lama has thankedBihar Chief Minister NitishKumar for
the warm hospitalityextended to the Tibetan spiritualleader during
his recent visit to
Patna to attend the inauguralfunction of Buddha Smriti Parkas
part of the commemorationof 2550th anniversary of Maha-parinirvana
of Lord Buddha.
"I was very touched by thewarm friendship with which youand your
government receivedme. I shall be pleased to assistin any way I can
in making thisproject successful," the DalaiLama said in a letter
to Kumar.
He said therefore the BuddhaSmriti park with all its
facilitieslike the library, meditation andlearning centre can help
in play-ing a significant role in impartingeducation about this
philosophy.
OHE
RALD
O
-
GOA, SUNDAY, 13 JUNE, 2010
INDIAHERALD
Pg 8
Coast Guard rescuesLankan
boat crewPTI
CHENNAI, JUNE 12
Five crew members of a SriLankan fishing boat were res-cued by
Indian Coast Guard( ICG) of f Andhra Pradeshcoast three weeks after
theylost communicat ion withtheir vessel owner.
The coas t guard whichlaunched a search and rescueoperation in
response to a re-quest from Sri Lankan DeputyHigh Commission here
to locatethe fishermen sighted the boat41 nautical miles off
Kalingap-atnam yesterday, an ICG releasesaid today.
The boat, 'Pearl Ishara-3',which departed Dondra fishingharbour
in Matara Distict of Srilanka on May 6, had lost com-munication
with the boat ownersince May 23.
ICG, Maritime Rescue Co-or-dination Centre, Chennai wasrequested
by the Sri LankanDeputy High Commission here,to initiate a search
and rescuethe boat.
After a coordinated search in-volving ships and aircraft of
thecoast guard, the boat was foundby its ship `Sagar.
The boat was safely towed toVishakhapatnam and the boatcrew
would be repatriated oncompletion of formalities, therelease
said.
It, however, did not mentionwhy the boat crew lost
commu-nication and drifted to Indianwaters.
PTI
PATNA, JUNE 12
Alleging that CBI was being used to target "specific state
govern-ments", including Gujarat, BJP chief Nitin Gadkari today
demandeda JPC probe into the working of the investigative agency,
whichhe dubbed as "Congress Bureau of Intimidation".
"While the nation is facing innumerable threats to its
internalsecurity, government is forcing CBI to work for its
political designs.The CBI has become a tool of intimidation .....
The postmortemof its working is necessary," he said in his
Presidential address tothe two-day National Executive of BJP which
began here.
According to party general secretary Ravi Shankar Prasad,
Gadkarialleged that the CBI is "misused" by the Congress against
non-Congress leaders, including Mulayam Singh Yadav, to suit
theneeds of the ruling party at a given time.
"The CBI is being misused in Gujarat where some brave
policeofficers are being dragged in cases....CBI is targeting
specific stategovernments. This is not proper," he said.
Gadkari said the government remains silent "even if there are70
to 80 encounters" in Uttar Pradesh. BSP, which is in power inthe
state, had bailed out the UPA on the floor the Lok Sabha withits 21
MPs abstaining from voting in the cut motions.
"The latest disclosure by an officer in the context of the
Bhopalgas tragedy has reinforced our fear that the Congress is
continuingthis strategy to cow down opponents or free from our law
theiracquaintances - Ottavio Quattrochi and Warren Anderson.
Thisproves that their commitment is not for the people of India.
Wein the BJP strongly demand a JPC probe into the misuse of
theCBI," he said.
BJP for JPC probe into CBI misuse
PTI
IMPHAL, JUNE 12
Buses and trucks of Manipur willnot ply through Nagaland
untilthe Centre and the Nagalandgovernment pay compensationfor the
damaged vehicles duringthe ongoing indefinite economicblockade on
national highways,the transporters and driverscouncil (TDC) said
today.
"Several non-government or-ganisations and militant outfitshave
been extorting money andharassing drivers, vehicle own-ers and
passengers from Ma-nipur in Nagaland for many yearsbut we (TDC)
have been toler-ating it," TDC spokesman andgeneral secretary N G
Haridastold reporters here.
Several vehicles were de-stroyed during the ongoing eco-nomic
blockade on NationalHighway 39 (Imphal-Kohima-Dimapur) passing
through amajor portion of Nagaland andNH-53
(Imphal-Jiribam-Silchar)by All Naga Students Association
Manipur vehicles not to enter Naga
PTI
SRINAGAR, JUNE 12
Apprehending "breach of peace",police today detained Chairman
ofhardline faction of Hurriyat Confer-ence Syed Ali Shah
Geelani.
A police team headed byDeputy Superintendent of PoliceBashir
Khan detained Geelanifrom his Hyderpora residenceand took him to
Humhama po-lice station at around 7.15 AM,official sources
said.
The step was taken as a pre-cautionary measure in view
ofapprehension of breach of peaceduring a special prayer
meetingconvened by Geelani at Hazrat-bal Shrine later today, they
said.
A Hurriyat spokesman con-demned the police action
saying"government resort to cheaptactics and arrest our leaderson
flimsy grounds".
"Geelani was leaving for Soporeto attend funeral of his close
friendMohammad Akbar Bisati, whopassed away this morning.
Geelanipleaded that he be allowed to attendthe funeral of Bisati in
police custodybut they refused and took him tothe police station,"
the spokesmansaid.
Geelani had planned a specialprayer meeting at Hazratbalshrine
later today for improve-ment of weather conditions inthe
valley.
Manipur (ANSAM), Haridas said.The decision not to ply trucks
and buses was taken during anemergency meeting of the coun-cil
last evening.
Several NGOs and militantoutfits have been issuing dik-tat to
Manipur-based vehicleowners at their whim be-sides security
personnel col-lecting various `illegal taxesin Nagaland, the TDC
generalsecretary said.
The ANSAM, United NagaCouncil and Naga Students Fed-eration
(NSF)