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NC to abstain from voting, Omar Abdullah offers to resign
The decision on non-voting was conveyed to Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee by Ali Mohammed Naik and Abdullah himself. The minister later told reporters that his offer to quit (to save the government from possible embarrassment owing to NC's abstention from voting) had nothing to do with Ram Vilas Paswan's resignation on Monday. "It's not like Paswan. Anyhow I will make it clear in the due course of time. I came to meet the Prime Minister," he added. The NC has five MPs in the Lok Sabha. Vajpayee, it is likely, will accept Abdullah's resignation which, according to sources, may be handed over to him just before voting starts. This is apparently because the Centre believes that continuation of the party in the government in such a situation would set a wrong precedent. The status of NC is deemed different from that of Telugu Desam and Trinamool Congress which are outside supporters. . But sources added that the National Conference had political compulsions on voting along with the government on the Gujarat issue since it faces elections in September in Jammu and Kashmir, a Muslim-majority state. (ANI) Remove Modi, says SoniaGo to top New Delhi, Apr 30 (ANI): Congress president and leader of the Opposition Sonia Gandhi has demanded immediate removal of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as he has "totally failed" to fulfill his constitutional obligations. She also asked the Centre to issue a directive to the state government to control communal violence without any delay. Speaking in the Lok Sabha during a debate on the censure motion on the Gujarat issue, Sonia sought appointment of a sitting Supreme Court Judge to inquire into the causes of the unabated violence. The probe should be complete within three months, she added. In a hard-hitting speech, which was mostly aimed at Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Sonia sought implementation of the NHRC (National Human Rights Commission) reports. She also urged the government to provide relief and rehabilitation to all those affected by the riots. Her party, she said, would continue to agitate unless these demands were not fulfilled.(ANI)
RS adjourned for elders to watch LS debate
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top New Delhi, Apr 30 (ANI): In what can be called an unprecedented move, the Rajya Sabha was adjourned here Tuesday as the elders wanted to watch Lok Sabha proceedings on the Gujarat issue. As soon as Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha gave his reply to the discussion on the Appropriation bill, Rajiv Shukla suggested the Chair adjourn the House to enable members "to witness the interesting discussion going on in the other house". Rama Shankar Kaushik, who was in the Chair, sought opinion of the members and on getting it adjourned the House an hour before schedule. (ANI) Social activists, celebrities demand Modi ouster
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to top New Delhi, Apr 30 (ANI): Social activists and celebrities took to the streets here on Tuesday condemning the ongoing religious violence in Gujarat. More than 850 people, most of them Muslims, have been killed in clashes since a Muslim mob firebombed a train killing 59 Hindus in late February. Hundreds of protestors demanded immediate dismissal of Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi who belongs to Bharatiya Janata Party, which also heads the federal coalition. The protestors carried placards which read : "India is not RSS property" and "We are united". RSS, the ideological parent of all Hindu groups, has come under fire for fomenting religious sentiments in the riot-hit state. The BJP, which rivals say is biased against Muslims, too has been under pressure from some of its allies and opposition parties to dismiss the chief minister of Gujarat for failing to stop the bloodshed. Shabana Azmi, social activist and member of the Rajya Sabha, demanded immediate rehabilitation of riot victims. "An all-party delegation should be formed for relief and rehabilitation work. As the Gujarat government has lost credibility, it is all the more necessary that such a delegation be formed. Just as the Members of Parliament got together to help out victims of the Gujarat earthquake and the Orissa cyclone, this time too such a committee should be formed," said Azmi. More than 30,000 people were killed and over 50,000 injured in the devastating earthquake which hit Gujarat in 2001. In 1999 a super cyclone hit Orissa claiming over 9,000 lives and destroying property worth millions of dollars. "All those who participated in the pogrom in Gujarat and all those who participated in the carnage in Godhra should be charged, arrested and tried," said Arundathi Roy, novelist and social activist.(ANI)
500 million dollar ADB loan for KeralaGo
to top Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 30 (ANI): The Kerala government has been granted a 500 million dollar loan by the Asian Development Bank. The loan would be provided over a period of two years. While 70 percent of the money will be treated as loan, the rest would be in the shape of grant. The loan comes at a time when the state is under a heavy debt burden of around Rs 25,000 crore. The bail-out package will help the state launch a modernisation programme. Chief Minister A.K. Antony said, "We are trying to build a new Kerala. And we want to do that by taking into confidence all the people of the state". Nearly 60 per cent of the loan amount would be utilised in supporting fiscal reforms, while the rest would be spent on reforms in the power sector. The state government has decided to make public all details about the loan agreement.(ANI)
Maoists bomb airport tower in Nepal Go to top Kathmandu, Apr 30 (ANI): Maoist guerrillas bombed an airport tower in Khotang district on Tuesday, severing communication links and disrupting domestic flights. Sources said as the Lamidanda airport control tower was completely destroyed, all flights were suspended. Meanwhile, security forces shot nine insurgents in anti-terrorist operations Tuesday. While two rebels were killed in an encounter in Sindhupalchowk, a senior functionary of the central region was gunned down in Parvat district. Two guerrillas were killed by security forces in Rukum district while four rebels were killed in Dang, Gulmi, Baglung and Udaypur districts. On Saturday as many as 18 rebels were killed in an encounter in Parvat district. (ANI)
Musharraf says he is confident of victory
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He was looking relaxed in a polo shirt as he arrived at a polling station in Rawalpindi, accompanied by his wife and mother. "I feel good and I feel confident," he told reporters outside, adding that he had never before run in any election campaign. (ANI) Indian engineering and IT outsourcing seek more business in UKGo to top London, Apr 30 (ANI): Indian industry continues to pitch strongly for British business. This week the largest exhibition of Indian engineering products to be seen in the UK is on show at the National Exhibition Centre near Birmingham as part of Subcon 2002, a biennial subcontracting market. Last week, the software industry appeared in force at the Outsource World London Exhibition. More than 120 engineering enterprises constitute Indiatech at Birmingham, the sixth such exhibition organised by the Engineering Export Promotion Council (EEPC) since 1998; the others have been in Kenya, Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Egypt and Venezuela. In the UK, which is the single largest destination for Indian engineering exports, its target is the sub-contracting industry. Indiatech is intended as a showcase for the great strides made by India in developing and modernising such sectors as forging and casting, metal components, precision machine components, earthmoving, construction and electrical equipment, auto components, machine and hand tools, agricultural and scientific instruments and high technology products. EEPC Chairman J.S. Bhasin told guests at Indiatech's inauguration that its size was evidence of the significance attached to the UK market by the engineering industry and exporters. The hope is that a combination of quality and cost effectiveness will attract business in Britain and Europe. The same combination was the selling point last week, when Indiasoft went on show in London, under the auspices of the Electronics and Computer Software Export Promotion Council (ESC). Companies such as Birlasoft, Andhra Electronics, SGS Infotech, Supreme Data PRO and a score of others were seeking to expand what is already a thriving trade. Thriving it may be, but it still lags seriously behind trade with America. India's global IT export trade is estimated at 8 billion dollars, but less than a quarter of that comes from Europe, and the aim at Outsource London was to work towards a better ratio. As Sekhar S, President of Supreme Data Pro put it: "The mindset about outsourcing has to go. We need to tell people here what we do in the US as an example of our success stories." He felt there was a reluctance on the part of British companies to outsource in India, and he thought this was partly due to employee and Trade Union opposition. The small and medium-sized companies that formed the focus of the Indiasoft pavilion were offering a wide range of services, including off-shore development, solutions in Customer Relations Management (CRM), data conversion, database management and Global Information Service (GIS) software development. Thanks to its vast pool of skilled manpower, proficient in the world's business language - English - India's IT industry has grown remarkably at a time of global slowdown. It is thought that more than half the Fortune 500 companies have made use of India's IT services. The projected annual growth is 50 per cent, and outsourcing is expected to play a significant part in that increase. The influx of Indian IT companies setting up in the UK has been a feature of bilateral trade in recent years, and bilateral co- operation in knowledge-based industries was recognised as a focus for further developing trade when Tony Blair and Atal Behari Vajpayee signed the Delhi Declaration last January. That presages good results for the Indiasoft participants seeking outsourcing business in London. (ANI) |
