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No veto powers for new UNSC members: Annan

     New Delhi: New members joining the UN Security Council may not get veto powers, said Secretary General Kofi Annan on Thursday before his departure from India. "It is not going to be possible to remove the veto from the five (United States, Britain, France, Russia and China). It is utopian to think we could do it. Many member-states would want to do that, but it is not possible and they are not willing to create additional vetoes," said Annan. Annan said that it would be more important to have effective representation of the council, to make the council more democratic, to ensure that voices of all the regions are heard. Under the new proposals, six new permanent members are to be added to the existing five. India, Japan, Germany and Brazil are among the nations trying to become permanent members of the council. According to reports, the expansion is expected to be taken at the UN summit meeting to be held in September in New York.

PM retaining Lalu in cabinet indefensible, NDA tells Kalam (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Leaders of the opposition National Democratic Alliance (NDA) met President APJ Abdul Kalam on Thursday and told him that Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's decision to retain chargesheeted Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav in the Union Cabinet was absolutely indefensible Stepping up their no-confidence campaign against Yadav, the NDA urged President Kalam to advise the Prime Minister to drop him (Yadav) from the Cabinet immediately. "We hold the Prime Minister guilty of tainting his own high office first by including criminal elements in the Union Government and now, after the framing of charges against Yadav by the special CBI court in Ranchi, by indefensibly defending his continued inclusion in the Union Cabinet", the NDA delegation led by its Chairman and former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said in a memorandum submitted to the President.

      The metting with Kalam lasted for 20 minutes, and included another complaint that the UPA government had reportedly attempted to "dissuade" Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf, from calling on Vajpayee during his recent visit. Under attack over the Kargil arms procurements, former Defence Minister and NDA Convener George Fernandes told Kalam that he had only met the requirements of the armed forces. He appealed to the President to ensure that army and civilian officers involved in the procurements should not be put in the dock and examined by CBI and other agencies. Emerging from the meeting, Leader of the Opposition L K Advani told reporters that the President had been apprised of the Government's "attitude" towards the opposition. The inclusion of 'tainted' Ministers, they said, was not only a matter of "political impropriety born of expediency, rather it is also an act of moral transgression which brings, for the first time since India's independence, criminalisation into the realm of governance at the Centre," the NDA leaders said. "The Prime Minister may not have much control over criminalisation of politics which, unfortunately, enables persons with criminal backgrounds to get elected as Members of Parliament, they added. The delegation also included Yerran Naidu of TDP.

Nine more militants killed in Kashmir (Go To Top)

     Srinagar: Nine militants have been killed in separate encounters in Jammu and Kashmir, where BSF troops foiled an infiltration bid along the LoC in Tangdhar sector. Elsewhere in the state, militants shot dead one person and injured another, while a militant of Harkat-ul-Jehad-e- Islami (HUJI) laid down arms. A BSF spokesman said that troops of 103 battalion BSF observed a group of heavily-armed militants trying to sneak into the valley from across the border in Tangdhar sector around 0100 hours. The intruders were challenged soon after they sneaked into Darshak post area and in the ensuing gunbattle four ultras were killed while trying to flee, the spokesman said adding a search operation was launched in the area which was still continuing. The bodies of the deceased militants were lying in no mans land and efforts are on to retrieve them, he said. Four militants were killed in Dangyari forest in Kupwara district today, raising the number of militants killed in the two-day long operation to ten, a defence spokesman said. Six militants were shot dead by security forces in the area. Acting on a specific information about presence of a large group of militants, army troops laid a cordon around Dangyari in the wee hours yesterday and came under fire from hiding militants. The spokesman said troops of Rashtriya Rifles killed an unidentified militant in Kokernag area of Anantnag district.

Third bus to leave for Srinagar on May 5 (Go To Top)

     Muzaffarabad: Pakistan and India have agreed that the third bus from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar will run on May 5. The district authorities have reportedly completed the documentation of the travelers. Over 60 passengers will travel from Muzaffarabad to Srinagar in third bus. The first bus service between these two points in Kashmir rolled out on April 7 amid very tight security, as it was flagged off on the Indian side by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the presence of a host of luminaries that included Congress party president Sonia Gandhi, External Affairs Minister K.Natwar Singh and Home Minister Shivraj Patil. On the Pakistan side of Kashmir, the Prime Minister of Pakistan administered Kashmir did the honours. Attempts were made to disrupt the service by militants a day before the start of the historic journey, which was greeted with great enthusiasm by Kashmiris from all walks of life. In Srinagar, the tourist reception centre where the passengers had been lodged was attacked by suicide attackers and set afire. The second bus travelled between the two points on April 21. There was less publicity attached to event than the first one. It passed off without incident. Both the governments of Pakistan and India see this bus service as the ideal tool to boost greater people-to-people contact, reduce levels of distrust and suspicion. In fact, during Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's recent visit to Delhi (April 16 to 18), both sides agreed to activate new bus services in Kashmir, from Amritsar to Lahore, a truck service in Kashmir and confirmed that a railway service between Khokhrapar and Munnabao would be activated by the end of 2005.

After rift with Mamata, Subrato Mukherjee meets Pranab (Go To Top)
by Pankaj Yadav

     New Delhi: Trinamool Congress MLA and Kolkata Mayor Subrato Mukherjee today met senior Congress leader from West Bengal and Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee at the latter's chamber in the Parliament House. Political Adviser to Sonia Gandhi Ahmed Patel and senior Congress leader Ambika Soni were also present on the occasion. Subrato was accompanied by another Trinamool MLA Tapish Roy. The Mayor claims to be having the support of as many as 12 party MLAs out of the total 61. Though Subrato ruled out leaving Trinamool, developments in the recent past indicate that he is having a bitter rift with his party boss Mamata Banerjee. After the meeting, he said that he has formed a political platform "West Bengal Unnayan Ekjot" where he expects all the secular parties, including the Congress, NCP, SP and PDS to get together ahead of the local bodies polls slated to take place on June 17. He added that the platform formed by him was aimed at cornering the Communist parties in West Bengal. Replying to a question about seat sharing the Mayor said, "we have decided that all sitting councillors would be given ticket." Subrato also said that he has requested the leaders of all secular-minded parties to participate in public rally scheduled for May 7 in Kolkata. About the possibility of his moving out from the Trinamool and joining the Congress, he said, "as of now I am a Trinamool MLA."

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