New Delhi, May 05: To curb mushrooming tourist lodges around wildlife habitats posing threat to tiger population, Government is preparing a blue-print for promoting eco-tourism with the involvement of locals, Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh has said.
“The Ministry is concerned with reports of mushrooming tourist lodges around tiger reserves such as in the case of Corbett National Park (UP).
New Delhi,May 05: A court here on Wednesday dismissed a plea of a suspected Indian Mujahideen terrorist, arrested in connection with the 2008 Delhi serial blasts, that he was a minor at the time of the incident and should be tried before the Juvenile Justice Board.
Chief Metropolitan Magistrate Kaveri Baweja rejected accused Salman’s plea saying it was clear after perusal of the evidence that he was not a minor.
“It is clear after the perusal of the documents produced and evidences placed before the court that the accused was not a minor,” the court said.
New Delhi,May 05: The US will inform India by next week about possible dates, most likely in this month, for giving direct access to Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley.
Sources in the Home Ministry said by May 15, the US will convey to India when a team of Indian investigators will visit Chicago for “direct access” to Headley.
“India in all likelihood will get direct access within this month only,” they said.
New Delhi, May 05: The CPI(M) Central Committee met here Wednesday to review the party’s performance in the past two years and finalise its rectification campaign besides discussing the prevailing political scenario in the country.
The three-day meeting, which began this morning, will also finalise the date and venue for the extended Central Committee meeting. Vijayawada is likely to host the meeting.
Party General Secretary Prakash Karat and other senior leaders like Sitaram Yechury, S R Pillai, M K Pandhe and Mohd Amin are participating in the meeting.
Kolkata, May 05: A Spicejet flight made a ‘priority landing’ in Kolkata after two Russian passengers, including a woman in a burqa, behaved “suspiciously” on board, an airport official said.
The pilot was given a priority landing after passengers reported the couple to air crew and the woman refused to take off her burqa for identification, Kolkata airport director R. Srinivasan said.
The low-cost SpiceJet flight with 123 passengers on board was heading from Pune in the south via the capital New Delhi and on to Kolkata.
New Delhi, May 05: A Bill to revive Tamil Nadu Legislative Council was introduced in the Rajya Sabha today amidst protests by AIADMK which said there was no need for re-constitution of the Council abolished in 1986.
The ‘Bill to provide for the creation of Legislative Council for the state of Tamil Nadu and for matters supplemental, incidental and consequential thereto,’ which has already been passed by the Tamil Nadu Assembly, was introduced by Law Minister M Veerappa Moily.
New Delhi, May 05: Home Minister P Chidambaram today said he has asked the investigative agencies to speed up the Batla House incident case in which final chargesheets have been filed.
In the Batla House incident on September 19, 2008, two alleged terrorists and Delhi Police Inspector M C Sharma were killed in exchange of fire.
“This morning, I asked my officers to complete (the case),” Chidambaram said during Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha.
He said the investigating agencies were doing their job transparently and the government would seek prosecution only according to proof.
New Delhi, May 05: India, the world’s second most populous country, is against controlling population growth through legislation, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said Wednesday.
“I firmly believe that equitable, inclusive and sustainable growth of India depends on healthy and stable population. It is a matter of great concern and urgent steps need to be taken to stabilise the population for sustainable development,” Azad said here.
The minister was addressing a national workshop on Repositioning Family Planning for Maternal and Child Health.
Lucknow, May 05: The functioning of courts in Uttar Pradesh was affected Wednesday when lawyers in various districts of the state struck work protesting last month’s alleged police excesses against their colleagues in Kanpur.
The Uttar Pradesh Bar Council clarified it has not called the strike. The call was given by different lawyers’ associations that met Tuesday in Kanpur, some 80 km from Lucknow.
Mumbai, May 05: The 26/11 court has accepted a major portion of the confession given by convicted terrorist Ajmal Kasab in which he talked about the involvement of Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayeba and the security apparatus of the neighbouring country in the diabolic attacks.
“I have accepted most part of the confession and also held that it was voluntarily given by Kasab and not given under duress as claimed by him,” Judge M L Tahaliyani said while pronouncing the operative part of the verdict on Monday.
New Delhi, May 05: Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today said she was not in favour of increasing electricity charges at the moment. Her comments came a day after she issued directives to the city”s power regulator DERC to keep the power tariffs at the existing level.
“We will hold the meeting with the discoms as well DERC soon to review the situation. But I feel that the power tariff should not be increased at the moment,” Dikshit told reporters at a function here.
New Delhi, May 05: A group of top officials of the National Sports Federations (NSFs), led by IOA chief Suresh Kalmadi today met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to seek his intervention over the Sports Ministry’s guidelines to limit the tenures of the various sports administrators.
Kalmadi said the delegation informed Dr Singh about the timing of the directives and claimed the Prime Minister endorsed their view that the Sports Ministry should have waited for the Commonwealth Games to get over before issuing the guidelines.
Kolkata, May 05: Two passengers of a Spicejet flight were detained for suspicious activities after it made a ’priority landing’ here today, airport sources said.
The pilot of the New Delhi—Kolkata Spicejet flight 203 radioed the ATC at the N S C Bose International Airport about the suspicious activities and was immediately allowed to make a priority landing, the sources said.
The aircraft landed here at around noon and was immediately cordoned off on the runway by CSIF, bomb squad, fire brigade and police.
The number of passengers and crew on board are yet to be ascertained.
New Delhi, May 05: The Delhi government today launched a “park and ride” bus service from India Gate to and from various central government buildings located on either side of Rajpath in the city.
“Everyday a large number of public throng the central government offices at the Rajpath area in their vehicles, causing traffic chaos.
“But now they can park their vehicles at C—Hexagon at India Gate and hop on the bus to reach the government offices comfortably,” Jaipal Reddy, Urban Development Minister said after launching the facility here.
Patna, May 05: Families of three youths allegedly cremated in an illegal manner by police here have moved Bihar’s human rights commission for registration of criminal cases against policemen and officials of a hospital, commission sources said Wednesday.
A commission official said that family members of the youths killed last month by unidentified criminals alleged that the police carried out the cremation without informing them.
New Delhi, May 05: Alleged fake police gunbattles in Gujarat and other parts of India and an intemperate remark by Congress MP Mani Shankar Aiyar stalled Rajya Sabha proceedings Wednesday, forcing two adjournments of the house.
The house was first adjourned at 11.40 for 20 minutes following noisy protests by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) against alleged fake gunbattles and then till 2 p.m. as party MPs demanded an apology from Aiyar.
Mumbai, May 05: A Hindu woman, who marries an already-married man, cannot claim maintenance later, the Bombay High Court has ruled.
A division bench of Justices AP Deshpande and R P Sondurbaldota held that such a woman cannot claim maintenance under the Hindu Marriage Act, or even the Hindu Adoption and Maintenance Act (HAMA).
A second marriage (when the first spouse is alive) is null and void in Hindu law, the High Court emphasised.
New Delhi, May 05: As many as 39 pilots or co-pilots were found alco-positive during the pre-flight breath-analyzer test last year, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel told the Rajya Sabha today.
“39 cases have been reported to the Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) from January 2009 to December 2009, where pilots or co-pilots were found to have consumed alcohol during pre-flight breath-analyzer test,” Patel said in a written reply.
Lucknow, May 05: A commandant of the CRPF has come under the scanner of the Uttar Pradesh Special Task Force in connection with the arms racket busted recently.
Official sources said the STF is looking into the role of the commandant in the supply of stolen government arms and ammunition to criminal outfits and possibly Naxals.
While senior officers are tight-lipped about the role of the commandant, sources said, his name was given by those arrested in connection with the case.
New Delhi, May 05: The United Nations, backed by the US and other countries, Tuesday asked countries that have not signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) to join the NPT regime. India made it clear there is no change in its position that the NPT was discriminatory.
UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon called on all nations to join the NPT in his address at the ongoing NPT review conference in New York. “I urge those countries that are currently outside the treaty regime to accede to it as soon as possible,” Ban said.
New Delhi, May 05: According to an uncorroborated intelligence report, about 140 al-Qaeda terrorists have crossed into India and that was presumably the primary reason behind the weekend terror alert sounded by the government in Delhi.
The report by Assam intelligence wing suggests that the terrorists have sneaked through the western coasts of India in to Gujarat. The report also suggested that the terrorists might have used Sri Lankan Navy boats for sneaking into India though Navy has brushed aside these claims.
New Delhi, May 05: Against the backdrop of demand for inclusion of caste data in the on-going Census, the Union Cabinet today discussed the issue at length but there was no consensus.
The cabinet meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, took up the issue to ascertain views of its members ahead of a discussion expected in Parliament tomorrow.
The issue, which was included in the cabinet agenda an hour before the meeting, saw many ministers favouring inclusion of caste data in the census, sources said.
Ghaziabad, May 05: Arguments on the quantum of punishment to domestic help Surender Koli, convicted for the rape and murder of seven-year-old Arti from Noida’s Nithari village, have been deferred following a lawyers strike, an official said Wednesday.
The arguments were deferred after Ghaziabad bar association lawyers struck work to voice their protest against their colleagues in Kanpur being baton-charged.
Bengal, May 05: The government needs to focus on ensuring perennial environmental flow in the Ganga river instead of just setting up huge sewage and industrial effluent treatment plants which have failed to cleanse the river, a Parliamentary panel has said.
The panel, headed by MP T Subbarami Reddy, which submitted its report “on Demand for Grants for environment ministry” in Parliament last week, also opined that despite a huge amount of money spent under Ganga Action Plan I and II to clean the river, there has not been any considerable improvement in its water quality.
New Delhi, May 05: The Government has ruled out raising the number of days of assured work under the rural employment guarantee scheme as national average was lower than the promised 100 days.
Minister of State for Rural Development Pradeep Jain told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that less than one crore people in rural areas had availed of 100 days of employment and the national average was 52 days.
“When demand is not touching 100 days, it will not be logical to increase the number of days,” he said during Question Hour.