Month: July 2009

Attari (Punjab), July 05: The Border Security Force (BSF) is investigating two blasts that occurred in a village along the fenced border between India and Pakistan Saturday night.

BSF officials said two shells landed on the Indian side of the border in paddy fields of Dande village near the Attari-Wagah land border joint check post, 30 km from Amritsar city.

‘Villagers told our officials that two projectiles landed in the paddy fields last night,’ a BSF official, who visited the spot, told IANS.

New Delhi, July 05: India is set to prepare new rules to save its 7,517 km coastline after deciding to let a controversial notification under attack from the fishing community to lapse.

The decision came after Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh told a delegation of fishermen here Thursday that existing regulations that date from 1991 would not be changed without consulting them. The fishermen’s objection was to the draft of the coastal management zone (CMZ) notification of 2008 which they alleged would displace their settlements along the beaches and halt fishing near the coast.

Mumbai, July 05: Mumbai’s traffic cops are to have new allies in their campaign against drunk driving – and believe it or not, it’s the Zoo Zoos.

Seeing the popularity of the white egg heads, officials from Mumbai’s traffic department have now contacted Vodafone, requesting the use of the characters in public awareness campaigns.

New Delhi, July 05: Six days after the UN Security Council proscribed and froze the assets of Pakistani national Arif Qasmani — along with three other Pakistanis charged with providing direct support to the Lashkar-e-Tayyeba and Al Qaeda in executing terror attacks including the July 2006 Mumbai serial train blasts — Indian counter-terror agencies are still trying to figure out just who this shadowy figure is.

New Delhi, July 05: To give a boost to thermal power generation, the government has set an annual coal production target of 1,055 million tonnes in the XIIth Five-Year Plan (2012-17).

The Coal Ministry has envisaged a production target of 1,055 million tonnes annually from the existing mines, completed projects, ongoing projects and new projects in the XIIth Plan period, according to official data.

Kargil, July 05: In a bid to provide all-round protection to the troops in the Kargil-Drass sector, the Indian Army is building strong defences to protect them from being hit by enemy artillery shells and heavy weapon fire at the Line of Control (LoC).

“In order to strengthen our defences on ground and protecting our soldiers from enemy fire, we have built strong defences covered from all the sides, which can keep away enemy fire from our troops,” a senior Army officer at one of the forward bases on the Line of Control told PTI here.

New Delhi, July 05: Faced with recent scams in the recruitment of constables in paramilitary forces, the government has approved a new hiring scheme which aims at making the process more objective and allows maximum use of technology.

According to the new recruitment policy for the Central forces approved by the Ministry of Home Affairs, tainted officers will find no place during the appointments.

Bhopal, July 05: With its tiger population dwindling sharply over the last two years, a worried Madhya Pradesh government will deploy a Special Tiger Protection Force in its three tiger reserves of Kanha, Bandhavgarh and Pench to arrest the big cat’s worrying decline.

The state government took the decision as it does not want to lose its ‘Tiger State’ tag to Karnataka due to the falling number of the big cats, according to a forest department official. The number of tigers in the state is reported to have dropped from 300 in 2007 to 232 in 2009, he said.

New Delhi, July 05: Delhiites can expect a warm and humid day Sunday as rains are likely to elude the capital yet again, the weatherman said.

“There will be mainly clear skies but it is possible that it could get cloudy towards the evening,” an official at the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.

“There has been no rain so far and none is expected in the day – so the warm and humid conditions would continue,” the official added.

The minimum temperature recorded Sunday was 27 degrees Celsius while the maximum forecast for the day is 38 degrees.

New Delhi, July 05: Justice MS Liberhan on Saturday denied allegations that the commission headed by him — which probed the reasons for the demolition of Babri Masjid in Ayodhya 17 years ago — wanted to absolve BJP leader L.K. Advani of all blame since the beginning.

Hindustan Times contacted Liberhan following a revelation by advocate Anupam Gupta, the commission counsel between 1999 and 2007 that the judge was not even in favour of issuing summons to Advani for appearing before the commission.

Mumbai, July 05: Predicting heavy rainfall for the second-consecutive day coupled with high tides, the Bhihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) civic body has geared up to avoid water-logging in the city and its suburbs.

“Though there is no fresh heavy downpour, our men are on the field and are ready to drain out rain water as heavy rainfall is expected over the next 24 hours,” a civic official said.

The City will experience two high tides today — one in the afternoon with 4.7 meters height and the other at night with 3.39 mertres height.