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Cabinet
approves 50 pct reservation for women in panchayats
New Delhi:
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved fifty percent reservation
for women in panchayats all across the country. "The Cabinet
has approved the amendment of Article 243 (d) of the Constitution
to reserve 50 per cent of the total number of seats in panchayats
filled by direct election for women," said Information and
Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni here after a Cabinet meeting
chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. The states which
have already implemented 50 per cent reservation for women
in panchayati raj institutions are Bihar, Uttarakhand, Himachal
Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh. While Rajasthan has announced
implementation of the proposal in the next panchayat election
in 2010, Kerala recently declared that it would implement
it. The 33 per cent reservation for women in panchayats
was achieved through the 73rd Constitutional Amendment during
the regime of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao, though it
was Rajiv Gandhi who first mooted the idea of empowering
women at the grassroots.
Seven
new IIMs to be set up Top
New Delhi:
The Union Cabinet on Thursday approved the setting up of
seven new Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs). Information
and Broadcasting Minister Ambika Soni said an allocation
of Rs 451 crore as non-recurring expenditure and Rs 118
crore as recurring expenditure has been sanctioned for the
first phase. Four of these to be set up each in Trichurapally
in Tamil Nadu, Ranchi in Jharkand, Raipur in Chhattisgarh
and Rohtak in Haryana. All will have session in the next
academic session of 2010-11. The location of IIMs in Uttarakhand,
Jammu and Kashmir and Rajasthan is yet to be finalsied.
Swine
flu death toll rises to 88 Top
New Delhi:
The swine flu death toll in the country climbed to 88
on Thursday with a teenaged girl and two women succumbing
to the virus infection in Karnataka and Maharashtra, respectively.
Meanwhile, 177 fresh cases of infection were reported from
various states across the country. The swine flu has spread
even outside Bangalore as 16-year-old Sunanda Kandawal who
was admitted to BLD Medical College Hospital in Bijapur
in Northern part of Karnataka on August 24 succumbed to
the virus. Maharashtra Health authorities confirmed the
death Purva Amol Joshi (23), and Deepali Shinde (20) in
Nashik. Nashik Civil Hospital surgeon A D Bhalsingh said
the victim died on Wednesday night. With this, 46 people
died in Maharashtra, 20 in Karnataka, 7 in Gujarat, three
each in Tamil Nadu, Chattisgarh and Delhi, two in Uttarakhand
and one each in Kerala, Goa, Rajasthan and Haryana due to
the H1N1 virus.
100,000
Indians sign petition to free Sarabjit, claims lawyer Top
Lahore/Islamabad:
Over 100,000 people in India, including former test cricketers
and chief justices, have signed a petition addressed to
Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari seeking clemency for
Sarabjit Singh, an Indian currently on death row in a Pakistani
prison. Awais Sheikh, the counsel for Sarabjit, was quoted
by a private television channel as saying that said he had
brought back a mercy petition with more than 100,000 signatures
from a recent visit to India. "The signatories include former
test cricketer Kapil Dev, the Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid
Syed Ahmed Bukhari, Syed Amin Hashmi of the Ajmer Sharif
shrine, former Chief Justices R S Mongia and Rajindar Sachar,
members of Indian human rights groups, Christian and Muslim
bodies, doctors, engineers, lawyers, farmers and students,"
Sheikh said. Sheikh said he would submit the mercy petition
to the President and also apprise him about the sentiments
of the Indians in this regard. "Since Sarabjit has been
in prison for long, his sentence can be commuted to life
imprisonment under the law," he said. Commuting Sarabjit's
sentence will help improve relations between India and Pakistan,
he added. Sarabjit has been on death row since he was convicted
for alleged involvement in four bomb blasts in Pakistan's
Punjab province that killed 14 people in 1990. His family
insists that he was wrongly convicted for the bombings.
Though he was to be hanged on April 1 last year, Pakistani
authorities put off his execution indefinitely after Prime
Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani intervened in the matter.
Defence
Ministry rejects scientist's stand on Pokhran II success
Top
New Delhi:
The Defence Ministry on Thursday rejected senior DRDO scientist
K Santhanam's assertion that the 1998 Pokhran II nuclear
tests were not fully successful, adding that India has a
meaningful number of nuclear weapons and an effective delivery
system to go with it. Sources in the ministry told the Times
Now television channel that India has a nuclear deterrent
that is adequate for its security. K Santhanam, who was
director for 1998 test site preparations, told the Times
of India in an interview that the yield of thermonuclear
explosions was actually much below expectations and the
tests were perhaps more a fizzle rather than a big bang.
In nuclear parlance, a test is described as a fizzle when
it fails to meet the desired yield. Santhanam said the yield
for the thermonuclear test, or hydrogen bomb in popular
usage, was much lower than what was claimed. Santhanam also
said that given this fact, India should not rush into signing
the CTBT. He emphasized the need for India to conduct more
tests to improve its nuclear weapon programme. The test
was said to have yielded 45 kilotons (KT) but was challenged
by western experts who said it was not more than 20 KT.
The exact yield of the thermonuclear explosion is important
as during the heated debate on the India- US nuclear deal,
it was strenuously argued by the government's top scientists
that no more tests were required for the weapons programme.
It was said the disincentives the nuclear deal imposed on
testing would not really matter as further tests were not
required. According to security expert Bharat Karnad, Santhanam's
admission is remarkable because this is the first time a
nuclear scientist and one closely associated with the 1998
tests has disavowed the government line. "This means the
government has to do something. Either you don't have a
thermonuclear deterrent or prove that you have it, if you
claim to have it,'' said Karnad. The yield of the thermonuclear
device test in 1998 has led to much debate and while western
experts have stated that it was not as claimed, BARC has
maintained that it stands by its assessment. Indian scientists
had claimed after the test that the thermonuclear device
gave a total yield of 45 KT, 15 KT from the fission trigger
and 30 KT from the fusion process and that the theoretical
yield of the device (200 KT) was reduced to 45 KT in order
to minimise seismic damage to villages near the test range.
British experts, however, later challenged the claims saying
that the actual combined yield for the fission device and
thermonuclear bomb was not more than 20 KT. Sources claim
that Santhanam had admitted that the test was a fizzle during
a discussion on CTBT organized by IDSA. India conducted
five nuclear tests at the Pokhran test range. Three of them
were conducted on May 11 and two on May 13, 1998. Rajagopala
Chidambaram headed the team, which conducted tests, and
the device was developed at the Defence Research and Development
Organization's Ballistics Research Laboratory.
Pak
ICL players planning to discontinue their contract Top
Lahore: After
middle order batsman Mohammad Yousuf and bowling all-rounders
Abdul Razzaq and Rana Nave-ul-Hassan parted ways from the
Indian Cricket League (ICL) to represent their country once
again, several other Pakistani cricketers are also thinking
about ending their ties with the rebel league. Hasan Raza,
one of the 22 Pakistani players in the ICL, said former
wicketkeeper captain Moin Khan would soon send a notice
to the ICL asking it to release the cricketers. "I think
till the ICL lasted it worked for us and we benefitted from
it financially. But now it is time to move on for us. After
all, we still have a chance of representing our national
team and domestic teams again," Raza said. Raza said ICL's
future was uncertain so the players wanted to return to
the national team or seek some other assignment. "We have
still not received some dues from the ICL for the last few
months and the ICL future is also uncertain," The Daily
Times quoted Raza, as saying.
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