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Goa's crucial by-elections on June 2

     Panaji: With just one week to go for the crucial June 2 by-elections on five Assembly seats, political heat has turned on in Goa. The seats fell vacant after the sitting MLAs from these seats withdrew support to the Manohar Parikkar government. While four among these belonged to the BJP, one was Independent. Results from the five seats would decide whether the Congress or the BJP would rule the state. Right now the state is under President's rule. All major political parties have swung into action. Different methods of canvassing are being employed. Some die-hard supporters are wearing the colours of their political parties. Candidates are doing rounds of their constituencies, seeking votes from their electorate. Some candidates like Babush Monserrate, who was responsible for the fall of the Parrikar government, has embarked on door-to-door campaigning. Assured on his popularity, he is not seeking any famous leader of the Congress to come and campaign for him. Monserrate says that he has not chalked out any special strategy for electioneering. He says he simply counts on his popularity and his service to Goa for two years.

     Meanwhile, the Congress has roped in lower rung and new leaders like Sanjay Nirupam to campaign for the party. This is a testing ground for the loyalty of the former Shiv Sena MP turned Congressman and he is thanking Sonia Gandhi for allowing him this chance to prove his mettle. Not to be left behind in the race, the BJP has come up with intentions of launching an intensive postal campaign. Thousands of letters containing requests from former CM Manohar Parrikar, are being prepared in the BJP office. These will be dispatched to the voters in all the five constituencies. Unlike Congress, the BJP is bringing its top rung leaders for campaigning. Its campaign was formally launched on May 20 by none other than the BJP President LK Advani. Now, Sushma Swaraj is in Goa addressing public meetings and seeking support from the people for her party's candidates. By May 30, the last day of campaigning, the state would witness hectic campaigning even as political and film stars, including Pramod Mahajan, Govinda, Smriti Irani, slated to carry on aggressive campaigning.

'Red alerts' and 'monsoon patrolling' to save tigers (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: After Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh's plainspeak on the slack management of tiger parks, Environment and Forest Minister A. Raja has ordered 'red alerts' and 'monsoon patrolling' in all tiger reserves. Addressing the meeting of the field directors of the tiger reserves and the chief wildlife wardens of the states here today, Raja emphasized the need for learning from the Sariska experience and called for evolving a road map to protect the tiger in its habitat. The minister however, refused to be drawn into the general inference that Sariska-like situation was prevailing in other protected areas and tiger reserves. Raja said before coming to such a conclusion, we should wait for the new country-level census figures next year. "The subjective opinions of some individuals based on anecdotal evidence should not lead to a conclusion that the tiger population is declining in the country as a whole," said the Minister. Terming the situation in Sariska "an unfortunate one", which was the cumulative effect of long standing chronic problems facing the reserve, Raja preferred to put the responsibility squarely at the door of state government for stagnating population of tigers. But he admitted that the population of the cats has been decimated "with the slackening of day-to-day supervision and control". "However, there are site specific problems in Tiger Reserves and we are committed to address these based on specific proposals from the concerned State Governments," said Raja.

     While calling for concerted efforts to strengthen management of tiger reserves, Raja shifted the responsibility on its implimentation on states and said "the problems prevailing in these reserves, by and large, reflect the overall situation in the respective States". Pointing out that poaching is a matter of criminal investigation, which rests squarely with the State Governments, akin to "law and order, the Minister informed that the process of inter- ministerial consultation is underway regarding the creation of a "Wildlife Crime Bureau" on the lines of the Narcotics Bureau". "This institutional arrangement would facilitate creation of a national level crime data-base, apart from networking with the States for containing wildlife crime, involving the regional offices of the Ministry", he said. Raja listed fragmentation of habitats, paucity of staff, over ageing of staff, ban on fresh recruitment, lack of skill and training amongst frontline personnel and officers, unregulated tourism, heavily used infrastructure within the reserves as grounds for the current situation.

India denies hosting Maoist leader  (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: India today denied that it has played host to a top Nepalese Maoist leader Baburam Bhattarai of the Communist Party of Nepal - Marxist. Reacting to media reports which suggested that Bhattari was being escorted around the country by Indian intelligence agencies, External Affairs Ministry spokesman termed the reports as "misinformed. "There is no change in respect to our policy on CPN-M. We unequivocally condemn the Maoist violence in Nepal and have consistently maintained that there can be no military solution to the Maoist violence," said the spokesman. He furnished a signed statement from CPI (M) General Secretary Prakash Karat, whom Bhattarai was supposed to have met while in Delhi. Karat has denied meeting the underground Nepalese Maoist leader. India has been consistently putting pressure on Nepal to restore multi-party democracy ever since the royal takeover of February 1, 2005 when King Gyanendra dismissed the Sher Bahadur Deuba government. In fact, India's pledge of military assistance to the Kingdom was also put on hold following the dismissal of the government, which had sparked widespread protests within the country.

Clinton keeps his date with AIDS patients  (Go To Top)
by Vrishti Beniwal

     New Delhi: Former US President Bill Clinton today visited Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital (RML) and interacted with AIDS patients and the hospital staff here. Clinton, who is on a three-day visit to India as special UN envoy, said that doctors in India are doing a marvelous job in treating HIV positive people and giving medications to the people who have AIDS. "I have seen the health charts and they are doing remarkably well. Most of these people are going to have a longer life span because of what these staffers and nurses are doing," Clinton told reporters after his half-an-hour long interaction with the patients and the hospital staff. "You should be proud of what they are doing here and the public should support their efforts," he said. Clinton also saw the register which was maintained for AIDS patients and talked to the counselor about the kind of support being provided to the patients. Dr. B.B. Rewari, senior physician at RML and focal person for conducting the visit, said that Clinton was impressed with the kind of treatment being provided to AIDS patients in India. "He wasn't sure whether the records, which are maintained in India, are kept in the US," Rewari said. Ram Lakhan, 36, one of the AIDS patients who talked to the former US president, said that Clinton was a very warm person and that he was happy to meet a person of his stature. Ram Lakhan wants to open an NGO 'Jagriti Support Group' and Clinton said that the citizens of India should support people like him. Earlier in the day Clinton had said that urgent steps were required to train medical personnel to treat AIDS patients failing which millions out there are going to die. "AIDS is 100 per cent preventable disease...Yet 8000 people die every day," he said launching an initiative of his foundation with the assistance of state-owned National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) to train 1.5 lakh private sector doctors in HIV/AIDS care and treatment over the year.

Delhi girl saves date with Clinton  (Go To Top)
by Vrishti Beniwal

     New Delhi: "I'm not a Clinton fan, I'm a Clinton lover...I hate being called his fan," claimed an over- enthusiastic 16-year-old girl who somehow managed to meet the former US president by breaking his security cordon during his visit to Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital in the capital today. As Clinton was about to leave after meeting AIDS patients at the hospital here, Swati Yadav came in front of his car and started shouting that she wants to meet the ex-prez. Security guards tried to stop the girl, but she was adamant to meet Clinton, whom she considers the best US president ever. Finally, Clinton had to give in and the girl was allowed to meet her 'role model'. She sat with him in the car and the two had a brief chat. After a few minutes Clinton and his cavalcade left the place, but this daring girl became the center of everybody's attraction. "Since 2000 I have been waiting for this day and today it has arrived. I spent last five years of my life praying to God to give me an opportunity to meet the person I admire the most. Today, I came here just to meet him and I got a chance to touch him. I'm very happy," said Swati, who had come with her father and younger brother. "I would like to meet him 100 times, 1000 times. He is so tall, He is so fair..I wish India had a president like him", she said much to the amusement of onlookers.

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