Month: March 2011

New Delhi, March 01: Islamic seminary Darul-Uloom Deoband has opined that children should follow the choice of their parents for marriage and that a person who is religious should get priority over a wealthy one.

The seminary was asked if a girl wants to marry a boy because he is rich and can give her a good life and does not accept her parents’ choice as it is based only on religion then whether the parents should agree to her choice or stick to their choice.

New Delhi, March 01: Congress in Tamil Nadu is understood to have demanded 75 seats from the DMK in the ensuing Assembly elections and has placed a proposal for share in power if the alliance emerges victorious.

Highly-placed sources said hard bargaining was on from both sides on seat-sharing issues with the Congress demanding 75 assembly constituencies as against the 48 seats it contested during the 2006 polls.

Bihar, March 01: Armed Maoists today abducted two members of a family near Aureya village in Bihar’s Rohtas district, police said.

As many as twenty Maoists accosted Dinesh Yadav and his nephew Omprakash, when they were returning to the village after offering prayers at a nearby temple of Lord Shiva and took them away to an unknown place, Superintendent of Police P Manu Maharaj said.

Raids were on to locate the victims.

——-PTI

New Delhi, March 01: Targeting the BJP for alleged lapses in spectrum allocations during the NDA regime, Telecom Minister Kapil Sibal today said he never said there would be zero loss to the exchequer if the radio frequency was auctioned.

“I never said if spectrum were auctioned it would fetch no price…if spectrum was auctioned the price would be zero,” Sibal said in the Rajya Sabha, moving a motion for setting up a Joint Parliamentary Committee to go into the 2G spectrum scam.

New Delhi, March 01: The high profile wedding reception of the Bharatiya Janata Party’s young MP Varun Gandhi has been cancelled due to the death of his maternal grandmother, mother Maneka Gandhi said Tuesday.

The young Gandhi, 30, will tie the knot with Kolkata fashion designer Yamini Roy, who is in her mid-20s, March 6 in Varanasi. But the reception, which was scheduled for next week in Delhi where the who-is-who of India politics were expected, has been cancelled.

Maneka Gandhi’s 77-year-old mother Amteshwar Anand died Monday.

Jammu, March 01: Jammu and Kashmir government issued 51,622 arms licenses in the last two years in the state, Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said today.

While replying to the question of PDP MLA Choudhary Zulfikar during Question Hour in the Assembly, Abdullah said in a written reply, “51,622 arms licenses have been issued by the District Magistrates and State Home Department during the past two years in the state”.

New Delhi, March 01: Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday said peace talks with the banned United Liberation Front of Asom (ULFA) here last month were very significant.

Addressing the media here after releasing his ministry’s progress card for February, Chidambaram said: “The ULFA leaders had met me on February 10. They met the prime minister on February 14. The talks were very significant.”

He said talks were going on with nine insurgent groups in the northeast. “We hope to reach agreement with some of them this year,” he said.

Jammu, March 01: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah today underscored the need for conservation of water bodies in the state.

Officials should render their service with dedication and sincerely accomplish the benchmarks fixed for them, he said at a meeting of Suransar-Mansar Development Authority (SMDA) here.

The chief minister was reviewing the progress made in the development and beautification of these places of tourist and pilgrim interests.

The Chief Executive Officer of SMDA explained the physical and financial progress made by the Authority during 2010-11.

Mumbai, March 01: Shops and homes in select areas of Maharashtra would soon need to pay in advance for electricity they use, with the launch of the prepaid electricity meters.

Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar formally launched the scheme at Mantralaya today.

The Maharashtra Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved introducing prepaid electricity meters on a pilot basis.

In the first phase, the state electricity distribution company will install 25,000 prepaid meters at Pune, Nagpur, Aurangabad, Pen, Kalyan, Kolhapur, Mahabaleshwar, Matheran and Chikhaldara.

Patna, March 01: Girls were being married off before they attain the age of 18 years despite sincere efforts made to rein in such cases in the state, Bihar government told the Assembly today.

“Child marriages have emerged as a major problem facing the state… though the state government enacted a legislation to rein in such cases, 69 per cent of marriages are those where the girls have not reached the age of 18 years,” social welfare minister Praveen Amanullah said while replying to a short-notice question of Binod Narain Jha (BJP).

New Delhi, March 01: It was a “clerical error” irrelevant in a democratic India. The government Tuesday substituted the words “martial law” with “military law” in an act that came into force seven years ago to facilitate transfer of foreign prisoners from the country.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram Tuesday enacted the correction in the Repatriation of Prisoners Act, 2003 relating to transfer of prisoners convicted for various offences under civil or criminal law or under military (martial in original act) law.

New Delhi, March 01: The Sir Creek maritime border dispute between India and Pakistan is unlikely to be resolved soon, the navy chief, Admiral Nirmal Verma, said here Tuesday.

“Really speaking, I cannot say it is doable because it is a question of both sides willing to follow a certain line of action. As far as Sir Creek is concerned, there are issues which have to be addressed by both the governments,” Verma told reporters on the sidelines of a naval function here.

New Delhi, March 01: As the Rajya Sabha nominated 10 MPs for the 30-member joint parliamentary committee (JPC) probe into the 2G spectrum scam, Congress member Abhishek Manu Singhvi withdrew himself from the panel saying he had appeared for cellular operators in court as a senior advocate.

“I had appeared as a senior advocate in court for cellular operators and had attacked the telecom policies from 2002 to 2004 when Pramod Mahajan, Arun Shourie and Ram Vilas Paswan were telecom ministers (in the National Democratic Alliance government),” Singhvi told reporters.

New Delhi, March 01: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is ready to evacuate, if called on to do so, the Indians stranded in Libya by the violent anti-government protests in the north African country, Defence Minister A.K. Antony said Tuesday.

“The navy has sent its warships. The air force is also ready (with its aircraft). Whether it is (for) Libya or other countries, if the government wants their services, they can also be sent,” Antony told reporters on the sidelines of a defence event here.