| Bank
operations come to a standstill as employees go on a two-day strike New
Delhi: Employees of public sector banks across the country went on a two-day
strike from Thursday to press their demands as per the recommendations of the
sixth pay commission. Bank employees unions decided to observe nationwide strike
after talks with the government and the Indian Bank's Association (IBA) collapsed
on Wednesday. The bank employees are demanding a 20 percent raise in salary, resumption
of talks and expeditious settlement of all their demands. About one million employees
of country's dominating public sector banks along with some private and foreign
banks staff are on strike demanding the government increase their wages by as
agreed to between bank unions and IBA earlier. The employees are now blaming the
IBA for backtracking from its earlier commitment. "One of the main reasons for
the strike is the wage revision. Earlier, they promised us a 17 per cent increase,
they reduced it to 15 per cent on our next meeting and then to 13 per cent in
the following reconciliatory meeting on Tuesday," said JP Sharma, Vice-President
of All India Bank Employees' Association. Earlier, the unions had called a strike
on June 12 but had withdrawn it in the last hour after the management agreed to
meet some of their demands on pension scheme and higher wages. Meanwhile, in Kolkata,
bank employees held a demonstration outside the State Bank of India building.
Besides wage hike, the bank employees were demanding immediate resumption of negotiations,
pension for all, a better social security net and a proper policy for giving jobs
to the family members of deceased or disabled employees on compassionate grounds.
India has 80 commercial banks, including 29 foreign banks and nearly 3,000 urban
and rural co-operative banks. State-run banks as a sector, the employees of which
are on strike, corner 55 percent of all assets. The strike, followed by a weekend,
is feared to delay cheque clearance till next week. Cheques of all banks worth
nearly Rs.40 million are cleared on an average day. Meanwhile, ATMs within bank
branches would be closed, but standalone ATMs would function during the strike.
Bangaldeshi
author Taslima Nasreen in Delhi for her visa extension Top New
Delhi: Taslima Nasreen, the controversial Bangladeshi writer, arrived in the
national capital on Thursday for her visa extension, which is ending on August
17. According to official sources, she arrived at the Indira Gandhi International
Airport from a European country and was immediately whisked away to an undisclosed
location by security agencies. According to sources, the papers for extending
visa had been moved and the nod for the extension was likely to be given by the
government soon. The 46-year-old Bangladeshi writer has been requesting for permanent
residency in the country, but the government has not taken any decision on the
issue. On March 18, 2008, she had left India for Sweden after she was kept in
an undisclosed location in New Delhi , effectively under house arrest, for more
than seven months. In February, she returned to India but was asked to leave immediately
after visa was granted to her till August 17. She has been a target of Islamic
fundamentalists in India and in other parts of the world for her controversial
writings, including books ''Lajja'' and ''Dvikhandita''. She has been trying to
build support for secular humanism, freedom of thought, equality for women, and
human rights by publishing, lecturing, and campaigning. In the recent past, the
controversial author has received full support from the writers community in India
. They have said that she should be granted freedom of speech and security. 2003
Mumbai twin blasts case: 3 convicts get death sentence Top Mumbai:
A special Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA) court on Thursday awarded the death
sentence to all three accused in the 2003 Mumbai twin blasts case. Hanif Syed
and his wife Fehmida have been found guilty of planting the bomb at the Gateway
of India. Ashrat Ansari delivered the bomb at Zaveri Bazaar. Calling it a ''rarest
of rare'' case, Special Prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam said the trio had ''enjoyed their
act of killing''. The court observed that "it was the murder charges levelled
against the three that led the court to give death penalty". They have been convicted
under various Sections of the IPC for conspiracy, murder and attempt to murder,
Sections of the POTA, the Explosive Substances Act and the Prevention of Damage
to Public Property Act. On August 25, 2003, two bombs left in taxis exploded in
south Mumbai - the Gateway of India and Zaveri Bazaar in the busy Kalbadevi area,
killing 52 people and wounding more than a hundred others. The attacks were carried
out to "avenge" the deaths of Muslims during the 2002 Gujarat riots. It is the
most awaited judgement in a terrorist case after the Special TADA Court completed
the March 2, 1993, serial blasts trial in 2007, which led to the conviction of
100 people, including Bollywood actor Sanjay Dutt. LeT
plans to target Delhi, Kolkata, Hyderabad cities on I-Day Top New
Delhi: Officials of the Home Ministry have warned that Pakistan-based terror
group Lashkar-e-Taiba has plans to target three major cities including Delhi on
the occasion of Independence Day. According to a top Home Ministry official, Kolkata
and Hyderabad cities are the other two targets of the LeT apart from the national
capital (Delhi). Intelligence agencies have given specific inputs that LeT, responsible
for innumerable terror strikes including 26/11 in Mumbai, is planning to target
the three metros in the run-up to the Independence Day, the official said. The
information has already shared this information with the State Governments of
West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh and Delhi. To keep a strict watch on anti-national
elements, searches and regular screening at all the exit and entry points of Delhi
is being carried out. The officials say that the next 10 days are very crucial.
"We are taking all necessary steps to foil the designs of LeT to strike at the
three cities, the official stated. The intelligence input shared included an interrogation
report of some recent catches of terrorists made along the LoC who claimed that
they had been tasked to meet some of the terror cells in these cities to carry
out attacks ahead of the Independence Day. Meanwhile, security at important public
places and vital installations, including Delhi Metro and railway stations, bus
terminals and crowded marketplaces, has been beefed up. Prime Minister Manmohan
Singh will unfurl the National Flag and give a speech to the nation from the ramparts
of historic Red Fort on the occasion of Independence Day (August 15).
Supreme Court
panel inspects Mayawati's park project in Noida Top Noida:
The Supreme Court panel on Thursday inspected Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati's
Noida park project. A high-level committee constituted by the apex court visited
the Ambedkar Park to look into the alleged violation of environmental laws in
the construction of a park in NOIDA. Uttar Pradesh Chief Secretary was also present.
In July, the Ministry of Environment and Forest sought an explanation from Uttar
Pradesh Government over alleged violation of environmental laws in the construction
of a park. Uttar Pradesh Government is constructing Memorial Park in 33-hectare
area along the Yamuna riverbed in Sector 15 -A of NOIDA. The State Government
is installing statues of Mayawati, her political mentor Kanshi Ram, and Dr B.
R. Ambedkar in this park. This park is a new addition to the controversial statue
installation projects taken up by the Mayawati's Government. Residents and environmentalists
are opposing to the statue installations as it violated the green law. Earlier,
the team of Indian Forest Service officers sent by the Central Government to probe
the alleged violations found out that around 6,000 trees have been chopped down
for the project. Their report also pointed that the State Government ignored an
environment impact assessment required for such a projects. Earlier, a two-Judge
Bench of the apex court had refused to intervene in the statue installation projects
of the Uttar Pradesh Government. Sukhbir
wins in Jalalabad, Akali Dal sweeps Punjab by-polls Top Chandigarh:
Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal registered a thumping victory in the Jalalabad
constituency in Ferozpur district on Thursday as his party swept all three seats
in a by election to the Punjab assembly. Badal defeated his nearest rival former
Minister Hans Raj Joshan of the Congress, by over 80,000 votes. Earlier, Badal
had resigned from the post of Punjab's Deputy Chief Minister, after he failed
to make it to the assembly in the prescribed six month duration. The victory in
Jalalabad could see for Badal as Deputy Chief Minister again. Akali Dal candidate
Jasjit Singh Bunny, the son of former state Cooperation Minister Kanwaljit Singh,
won the Banur assembly seat in Mohali district by over 20,000 votes. Sewa Singh
Sekhwan won by over 12,000 votes from the Kahnuwan assembly seat in Gurdaspur
district. "This is a victory of the people of Jalalabad, and I thank them for
the faith they reposed in me," said Badal after his victory. Badal said "I am
serving the party. I will accept whatever responsibility they give to me." White
House now declares Ahmadinejad Iran's elected leader Top Washington:
White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs has described Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as
the "elected leader" of Iran. Walking back on his remarks from a day earlier in
which he concluded that Ahmadinejad's re-election was an ongoing debate "in Iran
by Iranians," Gibbs said that was now the elected leader of that country and that
the United States remains committed to the goal of "reaching out in order to ensure
that they don't develop a nuclear weapons program." Asked whether that meant the
administration recognizes Ahmadinejad as the legitimate president of Iran, the
spokesman replied, "He's the elected leader." According to Fox News, Gibbs admitted
candidly that he wanted to "correct a little bit" of what he said on Tuesday.
Despite massive opposition to his return to power and several show trials of hundreds
of protest organizers and participants, Ahmadinejad was sworn in for a second
term on Wednesday. His inauguration was surrounded by security, including a mile-wide
area cordoned off around the Parliament building and 9,000 police, anti-riot and
plains-clothed officers. One woman, who was able to get within earshot of the
two-term president, was arrested for yelling out in support of the opposition
candidate Houssein Mir Mousavi. "Long live Mousavi. Death to the dictator," she
shouted. Traveling in Kenya on Wednesday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton urged
the Iranian government to "recognize the rights of the people of Iran" and to
make democracy "much more than a flawed election as that last one was." Clinton
added that the United States still has "engagement" on the table for Tehran, either
directly or through a multi-country forum, but has not received any response.
She said President Obama intends to re-evaluate Iran's willingness to meet and
negotiate this fall, but provided other considerations are in place. 1,000
US Marine commandoes for American Embassy in Islamabad Top Karachi:
US Marine commandoes numbering 1,000 will be deployed at American Embassy
in Islamabad under massive expansion work which is nearing completion. Pakistan
's Foreign Office Spokesman Abdul Basit Khan has said that 1,000 US Marines will
be coming to Pakistan to be deployed at US Mission. He said that there was no
restriction on the number of personnel that a foreign mission could station at
its mission but it is done through mutual understanding. The FO Spokesman stated
on Wednesday while replying to a query relating to increase in the strength of
the US personnel at Islamabad 's mission, The Nation reported. A former Pakistan
diplomat had objected to the US plans to have a bigger presence in Pakistan in
the pursuit of its strategic interests in the region. Former Foreign Secretary
Shamshad Ahmed Khan said that it is evident that America wants to remote control
the region from Islamabad . According to an estimate, Washington is planning to
spend a whopping one billion dollars for revamping its main embassy building in
Islamabad and increase the strength of its staff. The Obama Administration is
about to spend 405 million dollars for the reconstruction and refurbishment of
the main embassy building and 111 million dollars for constructing a new complex
for 330 personnel. A further 197 million dollars would be spent for construction
of a housing unit for about 250 personnel. Not only this, the United States is
also planning to give its consular buildings in Lahore and Peshawar a new look.
Experts believe that this is a clear cut strategy of the US to augment its presence
and establish control over the region. |
