Friday, October 30, 2009

Narendra Modi tests positive for swine flu

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hmedabad, Oct 29 (ANI): Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has tested positive for swine flu on Friday.

According to doctors at the government hospital here, Modi tested positive after undergoing an H1N1 virus test.

Modi will be kept in isolation for seven days, said a Gujarat Government spokesperson.

The Chief Minister recently returned from Russia. (ANI)

No pre-paid mobiles in J-K from Nov. 1: MHA

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ew Delhi, Oct 30 (ANI): The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) has decided that no pre-paid mobile connections should be issued and existing pre-paid SIM cards should not be renewed in Jammu and Kashmir after November 1, 2009.

The Ministry has asked the Department of Telecommunications to take appropriate action in the matter for implementation of the decision.

The step comes in the wake of the reports that proper verification is not being done while providing such pre-paid mobile connections by the service providers/vendors.

In some cases, a single person had been issued with multiple number of connections.

The fake documents/identity numbers are also reportedly being used by the vendors particularly, in the case of pre-paid connections. This situation had given rise to serious security concerns. (ANI)

Vice President lays foundation stone of first ever railway line in Sikkim

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angtok, Oct 30 (ANI): Vice President Hamid Ansari on Friday laid the foundation stone of the first ever railway line (Rangpo-Sivok railway line) to Sikkim at Rangpo.

The new broad gauge railway line is between Sikkim''s small township of Rangpo and West Bengal''s border town of Sivok.

"People of Sikkim had a dream and the process of fulfilling it just started today. It is a difficult project considering that the terrain through which the line will go is difficult," Ansari said.

Expressing confidence that the Indian Railways will do it, he said that the line would be an engineering achievement for the railway.

Terming it a landmark for India and Sikkim, Union Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee, who was also present on the ocassion, said: "It was a landmark for India and also for Sikkim which has no railway link till now."

"If we can do it in Jammu and Kashmir as well as Uttarakhand, we can do it in Sikkim, Arunachal Pradesh and Bhutan too," she added.

This 52.7 km long new broad guauge Rangpo-Sivok line will be constructed at a cost of Rs. 1339.48 crore and has been declared as a ''National Project'' for which 75 per cent of the fund would be provided by Ministry of Railways through their gross budgetary support and balance 25 per cent as an additionality by the Ministry of Finance.

The survey for further extension of this line from Rangpo upto Sikkim''s capital Gangtok (69 km) has also been completed recently and survey report is under examination in the Ministry of Railways. (ANI)

Housewives falling prey to HIV/AIDS in Mizoram

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ore and more housewives in Mizoram are falling prey to AIDS due to no fault of their own, but their husbands who comprise a large percentage of the clientele of female sex workers.

A study conducted by an NGO has revealed that at least 80 per cent of the clients of female commercial sex workers in Aizawl city are married men who are indulgingalarming rate of HIV/AIDS infections amongst the previoulsy thought no-risk group of society - mostly those who are religious in nature and otherwise 'clean'.

The New Life Home Society, which is an Aizawl-based NGO reaching out to 294 female sex workers, conducted a study of them recently and found that they could be classified into three categories - street-based, mobile phone-based and home-based.

N Samuel, Project Manager of the New Life Home Society (NLHS) says that 156 out of the 294 sex workers are looking for customers in the streets of the capital city while 110 are getting their clients through mobile phones and cabbies and 28 of them received their customers at home.

There are three sex workers who are in the age group of 10 to 15 and 58 between the ages of 16 and 20 while the highest age-group, 21-25 has 94 people, followed by 79 of the 26-30 age group, Samuel says.

30/11 blast accused still at large

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UWAHATI: A year has passed since a series of blasts ripped through the state on October 30 killing 89 people and leaving over 300 injured. But
the perpetrators of this heinous act named by CBI are still at large keeping security forces guessing about their next strike.

In May, the investigating agency revealed that the blasts were carried out by the National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) and named 19 accused in its chargesheet. Though six among them have been arrested, chairman of the outfit's pro-sovereignty faction, Ranjan Daimary, along with the rest are still absconding. CBI sources said efforts were on to arrest them.

On December 19, the state police handed over the probe to CBI. Altogether 23 officials of the investigating agency formed a special team and examined 828 witnesses before submitting their chargesheet along with other documents.

The accused have been charged with criminal conspiracy, waging war against the country, collecting arms, murder, explosions, mischief causing damage and unlawful activities.

The recommendations of the inquiry commission set up by the state government and headed by ex-DGP DN Dutt to plug the loopholes in the police department and prepare it to tackle similar situations are yet to be implemented. Dutt submitted his report to the government on December 31.

The commission had revealed there was a breakdown of co-ordination among senior police officials after the blasts took place.

The major recommendations include creation of a state disaster response force to deal with terror attacks and setting up of a police commissionrate for Guwahati. The Cabinet approved the latter but it hasn't been implemented so far.

The panel also suggested overhauling of the intelligence branch of state police, a contingency plan to handle traffic in the event of a terror strike, posting of competent officers in control rooms and computerization of all police records.

In his report, the ex-DG observed that there was total "paralysis of action right from the then director general of police to the SSP (Guwahati), besides a total lack of coordination" after the blasts took place.

On the eve of one year of the blasts, the police department remained tightlipped on how it has strengthened itself over the past 12 months. A senior functionary at the police headquarters said no one, including the DGP, was allowed to speak without prior permission from the state government and that the orders have come from the chief secretary.

Meghalaya outfit suspends road blockade against uranium mining

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he Khasi Students Union (KSU), a dominant student-youth body, has temporarily suspended its road blockade against uranium mining in Meghalaya after the government invited it for talks, officials said here Thursday.

The KSU was to begin its third phase of a night road blockade Thursday to protest proposed uranium mining in the West Khasi Hills district of southern Meghalaya. But it has relented.

"We are ready to talk to the state government to solve the impasse over the uranium mining issue," KSU secretary Augustine Jyrwa told reporters after a central body meeting of the organisation.

Chief Minister D.D. Lapang Wednesday said the government would hold discussions with protestors Nov 3.

The KSU's three-phase road blockade started Oct 14 to protest a proposed uranium mining project. It affected vehicular movement at night, specially passenger buses and goods-laden trucks on the national highways between Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura.

The road blockade had turned violent when many vehicles, including several government cars, were set ablaze by KSU activists.

The student-youth body has also demanded that seven KSU members, arrested on charges of instigating arson during road blockades, be freed unconditionally.

KSU and several local parties have been spearheading the movement against the Meghalaya government's decision to allow the Uranium Corporation of India Limited (UCIL) to carry out pre-project development programmes in 422 hectares of the uranium-rich areas of West Khasi Hills in southern Meghalaya.

Chief Minister Lapang told reporters: "The uranium reserves in Meghalaya are a national property and no one can stop the government from using them."

"The government has waited for 20 long years to persuade people to allow uranium mining at Mawthabah in West Khasi Hills district of southern Meghalaya," he pointed out.

A senior Meghalaya government official said the union ministry of environment and forests has already allowed UCIL to start mining for the annual production of 375,000 tonnes of uranium ore and process 1,500 tonnes of the mineral ore per day in the district.

UCIL has proposed a Rs.1,046 crore open-cast uranium mining and processing plant. Meghalaya has an estimated 9.22 million tonnes of uranium ore deposits.

"The UCIL would invest Rs.2.09 billion to undertake pre-developmental project activities to build schools, hospitals, roads and other infrastructure," the official said.

NDFB militant killed in Guwahati

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suspected militant was killed early Friday morning in a gunfight with police in Guwahati.

The insurgent of National Democratic Front of Boroland (NDFB) exchanged fire with the police near railway gate number five in Bamunimaidam area of the city, officials said, adding in the ensuing gunfight the ultra was killed.

A pistol with two bullets and a programmable time device were seized from the slain militant, sources said.

Mild intensity earthquake jolts North-East India

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mild intensity earthquake measuring 4.2 on the Richter scale shook parts of North East, including Guwahati and Shillong, early on Friday.

The quake having an epicentre at Kokrajhar in Assam occurred at 1.27 am, Meteorological departments officials said in Shillong.

An earthquake of moderate intensity and measuring 5.2 on the Richter scale had jolted Shillong, Guwahati and other parts of North East yesterday night. It had its epicentre in eastern Bhutan.

Officials said there was no report of any damage to property or life.

Manipur schools, colleges being held hostage

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n Manipur, usually it's militants who pass diktats. But now, it's human rights groups and student organizations that have forced all schools and colleges to shut down.

They want action taken against those involved with an alleged fake encounter in Imphal in July. Chungkham Sanjit, a militant who had surrendered, was shot dead inside a pharmacy
on a busy Imphal road by the police.

The policemen claimed Sanjit had opened fire against them, but pictures taken by an anonymous photographer showed Sanjit was unarmed. Weeks of protests followed that incident. Six police men were suspended, but the Apunba Lup, an umbrella organisation of civil society bodies and student unions, wants the chief minister to resign. "If our students are denied right to live then what's the point of studying, we must first fight for our right to live?" says Anita, Convener of Joint Action Committee Against Fake Killings.

Tuition classes have not been spared. NDTV visited a girls' hostel where Class 12 students are worried. Among them, Mina, who points out her board exams are just around the corner. "I sometimes pray to God to help us so that classes may start soon," she says.

Some departments in the Manipur University tried to hold classes secretly, but they've been threatened with serious consequences. Ironically, the same organizations that are holding Education hostage had once appealed to militants to "make education a free zone'", or spare students and classes from strikes and shut-downs. That appeal now has an entire government campaign named after it.

"We would like to appeal to the organisations and student apex bodies and the government to come to some compromise and let us resume our classes," says Karnajit Maisnam, a post-graduate student.

The government has refused to comment on the issue. As the standoff continues, teachers are finding new hobbies. At HRD Academy, a college in Imphal, lecturers are playing badminton to kill time.