Month: February 2011

Chandigarh, February 02: The Punjab government wants road safety to be introduced as a subject in schools from the primary class level, a minister said here Wednesday.State Transport Minister Mohan Lal said that there was a need to introduce road safety as a subject in all government schools from the next academic session.

The minister was presiding over road safety council meeting. He said that drivers of the state-run roadways buses who have an accident-free record due to safe driving would be awarded from this year.

–IANS–

Jammu, February 02: Panun Kashmir, an oufit of displaced Kashmiri Pandits, today cautioned the Centre against “flirting” with the separatists.

“We are of the considered view that the problem in Kashmir is neither constitutional nor political and economic.

It is basically problem of uncontested communalism,” Panun Kashmir Chairman Ajay Chrungoo told reporters here today.

He claimed that the Centre was “continuing with its flirtations with various separatist formations in the state” and the respectability being conferred upon them was visible.

Kolkata, February 02: Governor M K Narayanan summoned state Home Secretary G D Gautama and DGP Naparajit Mukherjee to Raj Bhavan today and is understood to have discussed law and order with reference to police charge on journalists in Midnapore town in which five reporters were injured.

The overall law and order situation, political violence and Maoist activities besides injuries to scribes during police raid on a guest house were subjects that were understood to have been discussed at the meeting, which lasted nearly an hour, sources said.

New Delhi, February 02: Three months after he was forced to resign as communications and IT minister in Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s government, A. Raja was arrested here Wednesday for his suspected role in the allocation of airwaves for second generation (2G) phone services, billed as the country’s biggest corruption scandal to date.

New Delhi, February 02: Noting that land scams such as Sukna and Adarsh Society have projected armed forces in a “bad” light, Defence Minister AK Antony on Wednesday said policies would be framed to bar local military authorities from directly issuing ‘no objection certificates’ to private realtors.

of the Parliamentary Consultative Committee, he said the scams have exposed the “gaps” in the defence land management system and their records will be computerised.

New Delhi, February 02: Afghan President Hamid Karzai Wednesday arrived in India on a two-day visit that will see the two sides discuss the proposed Taliban integration process in Afghanistan and India’s concerns triggered by Pakistan’s attempts to meddle in it.

Karzai will speak at the inaugural session of the Delhi Sustainable Development Summit, organised by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI) Thursday before he sits down for wide-ranging talks with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh at his residence.

Lucknow, February 02: The Rashtriya Swayamsewak Sangh today said associating the outfit with terror activities was a conspiracy to defame it which the organisation will expose.

“Whatever inquiry is being carried out and associating RSS with it is nothing more than a conspiracy to defame the organisation,” RSS spokesman Ram Madhav told reporters here.

Madhav said RSS will go door to door to expose the conspiracy and a public awareness campaign will be launched from February 6.

New Delhi, February 02: Union environment minister Jairam Ramesh today said wetlands will be kept free from commercial activity and any states violating the government’s decision would have to stop such practicies immediately.

“No commercial activity on wetlands will be allowed in the interest of environmental conservation. We will stop all such practices in the states where efforts are being made to transform wetlands into wastelands,” he told reporters on the sidelines of a function here.

New Delhi, February 02: Government today placed before the Supreme Court a copy of the complaint on basis of which it started tapping corporate lobbyist Nira Radia’s telephonic conversations with a host of people including politicians, corporate leaders and media personalities.

The copy of the complaint in sealed cover was placed before a bench comprising Justice GS Singhvi and Justice AK Ganguly by the attorney general GE Vahanvati.

The bench said it will go through the complaint during the next hearing on February 24.

New Delhi, February 02: A Delhi court today deferred for Thursday its order on a plea for registration of an FIR against a CBI officer and Tehelka magazine owner and editor for making public Swami Aseemanand’s confessions to a court about his alleged role in the Ajmer blast case.

Additional chief metropolitan magistrate Sanjay Bansal, who was to pronounce the order today, deferred it as RSS activist Devender Gupta’s counsel Anupam S Sharma wanted to make some additional argument on the plea.

Lucknow, February 02: An FIR has been lodged against two persons in Pilibhit for allegedly issuing a threat to BJP MP Varun Gandhi over phone, police sources said here today.

On January 31 Chandrapal and Dhirendra Singh called the BJP MP Varun on his mobile and allegedly threatened him with dire consequences, they said.

The sources said that on the basis of a complaint lodged by incharge of BJP’s district officer an FIR was lodged against Chandrapal and Singh at Amriya police station yesterday.

–Agencies