Month: July 2011

Calcutta, July 31: Mamata Banerjee today announced a bill for government job quotas for Muslims and said the 10 per cent quota the Left had announced for Other Backward Classes in the community would be scrapped.

The chief minister said an expert committee would be formed to determine the beneficiaries among the Muslims and the quantum of reservation for the community. The guidelines for the bill will be drawn up based on the recommendations of the panel before it is placed in the Assembly.

Tokyo, July 31: An undersea quake measuring 6.4 on the Richter scale early Sunday jolted parts of northeastern Japan but there was no danger of a tsunami, Xinhua reported.

The tremor struck around 03.50 a.m. off the coast of Fukushima prefecture, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. The epicentre was about 40 km under the sea.

The quake was also felt in Tokyo, about 240 km from the prefecture. The Fukushima nuclear power plant was safe.

——IANS

New Delhi, July 31: Union Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Minister Kumari Selja on Saturday said that the Rajiv Awas Yojana is a ‘RAY’ of hope to the Urban Poor and Slum dwellers of the country.

Inaugurating the State Ministers’ Conference on Rajiv Awas Yojana in New Delhi, Ms Selja said that the “RAY envisions an inclusive and equitable urban India where every citizen has access to the basic civic and social services and decent shelter.”

Hyderabad, July 31: Congress MLA from Nellore Anam Vivekananda Reddy on Saturday came heavily on Telangana Students Joint Action committee for threatening to attack the Seemandhra employees not participating in the general strike.

Speaking to media persons on the Assembly premises on Saturday, Mr Vivekananda Reddy said that attacks on the employees are not a good thing and students should refrain from talking in this manner.

Hyderabad, July 31: YSR Congress Party official spokesperson and MLC Jupudi Prabhakar Rao on Saturday expressed apprehensions that the state government will soon increase the power tariff for agriculture sector besides increasing fertilisers prices.

Talking to media persons at the party office at Banjara Hills here, Mr Prabhakar Rao said that enough hints are emerging that Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy will set up a cabinet sub-committee which would study the possibility of affecting an increase in power tariff.

Hyderabad, July 31: Telugu Desam Party Telangana Forum convenor Errabelli Dayakar Rao on Saturday asserted that there is no question of his party Legislators taking back the resignations submitted for the cause of separate Telangana.

Talking to media persons at the TDLP on Assembly premises, Mr Dayakar Rao said that his party Legislators would meet on August 1, Monday and decide on the future course of action. The meeting would discuss on the chart to be adopted following the rejecting of the MLAs’ resignations by Assembly Speaker Nadendla Manohar.

Hyderabad, July 31: The Unique Identification Card (AADHAR) project in Andhra Pradesh is targeted to be completed by March 31, 2012, announced Commissioner Civil Supplied Andhra Pradesh Harpreet Singh and Assistant Director General Unique Identification Authority of India M Srinivas on Saturday.

Talking to the media persons at the Civil Supplies Bhavan, Mr Harpreet Singh said that as on July 30, a total of 55,04,579 cards were generated out of 1.80 crore enrolments through 3,364 stations in Andhra Pradesh.

Hyderabad, July 31: Demanding that the state government take immediate measures to protect the Seemandhra employees settled in Telangana region, Telugu Desam Party MLA Linga Reddy on Saturday lashed out at the pro-Telangana activists for issuing a threats of physical attacks on these employees.

Speaking to media persons at the TDLP on Assembly premises, Mr Linga Reddy said that the threat of physical attacks against the ‘settlers’ hailing from Seemandhra regions if they do not participate in the general strike in Telangana region are not proper.

Mumbai, July 31: Another victim of the July 13 serial blasts in the city succumbed to injuries at a hospital here today, taking the toll in the terror attacks to 26. Chandrakant Wankar (42), who was undergoing treatment at the Harkisandas hospital here died at 6.20 am, police said. He had sustained severe burn injuries at the Opera House blasts.

Bhopal, July 31(Pervez Bari): Close on the heels of launch of a Bhili community radio, the first ever anywhere in the world, at Bhabhara in Alirajpur district in central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh on July 30 last, now plan for setting up nine other tribal community radio stations is on the anvil.

There is a plan to set up as many as 110 community radio stations in all the tribal blocks of the Madhya Pradesh state. The soon-to-be-launched nine radio stations are meant for areas predominantly inhabited by Baiga, Korku, Saharia, Gond and Bharia tribal communities.

Bhopal, July 31 (Pervez Bari): The Bharatiya Janata Party ruled Madhya Pradesh Government is going to implement yet another important decision in favour of journalists. With this, all the journalists in the state will be brought under security umbrella in case of accident.

Seventy-five percent of the premium of the Individual Accident Insurance Scheme for this purpose will be provided by the State Government. Details about the scheme can be obtained and application forms with share money can be submitted to District Public Relations Office by August 10.

Bhopal, July 31 (Pervez Bari): The Campus Front of India has condemned the retrogressive decision of the Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education to de-recognize the degrees equivalent to class X and XII offered by Jamia Urdu, Aligarh. This decision will severely affect the future of thousands of Urdu students of Rajasthan.

The Campus Front National General Secretary, Abdul Raoof in a Press Release said: “Such kinds of decisions expose the hypocrisy of Government who talks about promotion of Urdu language and giving more opportunities to the minority students”

Hyderabad, July 31: Launching the Telugu Desam Party’s employment generation programme, party president N Chandrababu Naidu on Saturday handed over 25 mobile stalls to unemployed youths at the NTR Trust Bhavan.

The TDP’s employment generation programme would see the party setting up 2,000 ‘Bhandars’ which would provide employment for the jobless youths. The distribution of 25 mobile stalls was part of the party’s pilot project.

The mobile stalls will sell 18 types of egg-based delicacies. The National Egg Coordination Committee will provide fresh eggs to the mobile stalls.

Hyderabad, July 31: Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation Commissioner MT Krishna Babu on Saturday said that all E-Sevas would be functioning from 8 AM to 8 PM on Sunday, July 30 to enable the tax payers to pay their property taxes without penalty.

Mr Krishna Babu appealed to the tax payers to avail this opportunity and pay property tax in time for the development of the city.

Hyderabad, July 31: Stating that the Legislators who are openly moving around with YSR Congress Party president YS Jaganmohan Reddy are being deliberately being avoided in all Congress programmes, Pradesh Congress Committee president Botsa Satyanarayana on Saturday said that the presence of some leaders in the Seemandhra Forum delegation which met the party High Command in New Delhi was due to lack of coordination.

Hyderabad, July 31: Telangana Political Joint Action Committee convenor M Kodandaram on Saturday urged all pro-statehood units in the region to dedicate their agitations or programmes for separate Telangana state scheduled to be held on August 6 to late Professor Kothappali Jayashankar, who passed away on June 21.

Talking to media persons at the Somajiguda Press Club, Prof Kodandaram said that late Prof Jayashankar’s birthday falls on August 6 and the people of the region should dedicate all their efforts for separate statehood to the late Telangana ideologue.

Hyderabad, July 31: The Met Department on Saturday said that while the rest of Andhra Pradesh could experience rains, the city may experience a very pleasant climate with temperatures hovering between 32 and 22 degrees Celsius.

According to the Met Department, citizens living in and around Hyderabad may do well to carry their umbrellas or rain protection gear with them since rain or thunders may occur in some parts of the city.

The sky condition would be generally cloudy.

When Anjum Rahman was at primary school in the 1970s, she was only the Muslim girl in Hamilton.

There was another one in the north Waikato town of Ngaruawahia and one down the road in Putaruru, but in the big smoke she reckons she was it.

Today, Hamilton’s Muslim population numbers about 1800. Nationally, there are 37,000 Muslims.

At the Waikato mosque they may be united by their faith but they come from more than 40 different countries, and many are refugees. And about two-thirds are aged under 30.

Mysore, July 31: ‘Mysore kalyanam’, where Pathan Muslim men from Mysore marry brides from Kerala, thrives in the city despite bitter experiences for over a decade.

Local unemployed men — some of them anti-social elements, criminals, thieves and drug addicts, — marry girls from Wayanad, Malappuram and Kannur districts of Kerala only to get financial benefits. They divorce their wives later for various reasons and leave them to fend for themselves. Some of the hapless women are left with three or four children to feed.

Hyderabad, July 30: Are the Ministers from Telangana region who had kept away from their duties since July 4, are they planning to take a U Turn bowing to the pressures from their High Command?

Finding the situation amicable, Chief Minister N Kiran Kumar Reddy will utilise the chance to placate them, according to sources here.

Except Ministers Danam Nagender, Mukesh Goud and Deputy Chief Minister C Damodar Rajanarasimha, others have deserted their Chambers at Secretariat.

In their absence files were said to have piled up.

Hyderabad, July 30: A drunkard husband burned his wife alive in Tandur area. Police Tandur told this. Police registered a murder case against the cruel husband and have started the manhunt. According to police sources 25 year old Mohammadi Begum died in an attack by her husband. Mohammad Yousuf resident of Yeeropally village Tandur married with Mohammad Begum four years ago and they have two children. Yousuf is a habitual drunkard he used to assault his wife daily in drunkard state.

Lahore, July 30: Hina doesn’t like ‘fashion icon’ tag on her Lahore: Pakistan’s youngest foreign minister Hina Rabbani Khar might have held the Indian media in thrall with her precious South Sea pearls, Roberto Cavalli shades and Birkin bag, but the media spotlight on her style and fashion statements left her incandescent with rage.

The 34-year-old Khar, who is also Pakistan’s first woman foreign minister, returned here on Thursday evening after talks with her Indian counterpart S M Krishna, and objected to being described as a “fashion icon” as soon as she landed.

Jaipur, July 30: A 35-year-old woman has alleged she was branded a witch by villagers, tortured and was being forced to leave her village, in the second such case in two months in Rajasthan’s Dungarpur district.

The woman told police Thursday that her husband Manilal Parmar was also beaten up in Dowada village, about 500 km from state capital Jaipur. A case has been registered against three villagers.

“A group of people came to my house July 4 and started beating me. They said I was a ‘dayan’ (witch). The torture has been going on since then,” the woman said in her complaint.

Srinagar, July 30 (Bashir Assad): A civil society group from New-Delhi accompanied by some political leaders had to face stiff resistance during a public interaction here in Srinagar when a handful of youth took the conference hall in their incarceration shouting anti-India slogans.

Jeddah, July 30– The prices of sugar and milk have increased in the current Hijri month of Sha’aban, according to a report issued by the Ministry of Commerce and Industry. The prices of meat, however, have dropped, while that of flour, rice and cooking oil have remained the same, the report said.

The report, a copy of which Okaz/Saudi Gazette has obtained, showed that the average price of a 50 kg bag of sugar in the local market increased by SR12 during Sha’aban bringing the price to SR179. There was a 29.7 percent price hike when compared to the price in the same time last year.