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Seminar by NEDFi |
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Gangtok: A brainstorming seminar on 'Development of
manufacturing and service sectors in Northeastern Region' is
slated to be held at Gangtok on September 9. The seminar is
being organized by North Eastern Development Finance
Corporation (NEDFi) in association with DoNER Ministry.
The seminar will be inaugurated by DoNER Minister and
attended by various government departments, representatives
from banks, financial institutions, chambers of commerce,
industrial houses, entrepreneurs and other stakeholders from
Northeastern States.
Chief Minister Dr. Pawan Chamling will also be attending the
seminar, a press note informs. |
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Darjeeling deal may be
finalized soon |
OUR CORRESPONDENT
Kolkata: A crucial tripartite meeting at the home ministry
today (Sept 7) Tuesday could practically seal a deal between
West Bengal, the Centre and GJM, the outfit spearheading the
agitation in the hill districts of Darjeeling. The three
sides have been in negotiations over the past one year to
work out the form, structure and powers of the Gorkhaland
Regional Authority (GRA) to be constituted as an interim
arrangement. Last year, the GJM agreed in principle to an
interim arrangement since talks on statehood would take
time. The GJM also recognised difficulties in arriving at a
permanent solution as the state was heading for assembly
elections next year.
Sources said the government expected the details of the
interim authority expected to be have features of the Ladakh
Autonomous Hill Development Council to be finalised at
Tuesday's official-level talks.
Once an agreement is reached, one more round of political
level talks would be held to formally clear the deal. "There
is broad consensus on most points… the remaining would be
sorted out at Tuesday's meeting," said a source. Among the
points expected to be finalised are the number of members
that GRA should have. The GJM wants 56 members since the
now-defunct Darjeeling Gorkha Hill Council had 42 members
and not 20 members as proposed by the government. While the
GJM and the Centre agree that GJM leaders be nominated to
the body, the West Bengal government wants membership to be
decided on the basis of proportional votes polled in Gram
Panchayat and Panchayat Samiti elections. Sources said GJM
was also expected to be pragmatic about difficulties in
expanding the territorial jurisdiction of the interim GRA. |
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BGUF serves Show cause notice to
Ravi Behl, host of Boogie Woogie |
| New Delhi: Bharatiya Gorkhali United Forum
BGUF a social organization based at Delhi is awaiting reply
in regarding to the show cause notice served to Ravi Behl
host of Boogie Woogie dance show. It was on August 13, 2010,
an episode of BOOGIE WOOGIE, TITLED “LITTLE CHAMPION DANCE
COMPETITION” that Mr. Ravi Behl made a racial remark hinting
at Soumya Rai an 8 year old Girl a native of Darjeling/
Gorkha hills, after she became the runner – up he said “we
have to learn to handle Torches and lasers as if no other
job is available we can at least take the job of watchmen.”
That whilst the achievement of Soumya Rai was a moment of
joy and bliss for the entire Gorkha community, one of your
judges, Mr. Ravi Behl made rather unusual, unnecessary
remarks which was supported by another judge Mr. Javed as
follows The matter was informed by Mr. YK Shrestha and Mr.
Kamal Pradhan to the organization and requested the
organization to take concrete measures. Accordingly BGUF had
served a show cause notice to Mr. Ravi Behl on 21st Aug,
2010, an act which has been applauded by Gorkhas all over.
As stated by Mr. T.L Shrestha - President of BGUF they would
file a defamation suit if they don’t get satisfactory reply
in regard to the racial slur as the organization has given
15 days time to give explanation about the said incident. |
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Distributing free foodgrain not practical: Prime Minister |
New Delhi: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said Monday he
appreciated the Supreme Court’s sentiment behind its
suggestion about distributing foodgrain free to the poor,
but made it clear that it was not a practical idea.
“How can foodgrain be distributed free to an estimated 37
percent of the population which lives below the poverty
line,” Manmohan Singh asked during an interaction with
editors at his official residence. He said this when asked
about a recent Supreme Court order directing Agriculture
Minister Sharad Pawar to distribute foodgrain free to the
poor instead of allowing it to rot.
It was not possible to give free foodgrain to all the poor,
Manmohan Singh said, adding that he had not seen the final
judgment of the court.
The PM stressed that he respected the “sentiments” behind
the decision and assured that a way would be found to ensure
that the people’s needs are met at a time when foodgrain is
rotting.
“I do recognise that food should be available to the people
below poverty line at concessional prices. We have not
allowed any increase in the issue price of foodgrains to
people below poverty line since 2004,” he said. The
government had taken adequate steps in this direction to
make food available to the poor at affordable prices, the
prime minister said. He, however, qualified this by
stressing that making food available free would destroy
incentives to farmers to produce more. If there was no food
available, there would be nothing to distribute, he said.
(Agencies) |
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Five-judge bench to hear plea
on law on free education |
New Delhi: The Supreme Court on Monday referred to the
five-judge constitution bench a bunch of petitions
challenging the validity of the law providing free and
compulsory education.
A bench headed by Chief Justice S H Kapadia said that the
matter will be put before a larger bench of five judges to
pass direction on the petitions challenging the
constitutional validity of provisions in the Right to Free
and Compulsory Education Act.
The petitions claimed that the Act providing free and
compulsory education was “unconstitutional” and “violative”
of fundamental rights.
The Act made free and compulsory education a fundamental
right for children between 6-14 years, besides mandating
that even private educational institutions have to reserve
25 per cent of the seats for children from poor families.
The petitions claimed the Act violated the rights of private
educational institutions under Article 19(1) (g) which
provided maximum autonomy to private managements to run
their institutions without governmental interference.
The petitioners recalled the 11-judge Constitution Bench
ruling of the Supreme Court in the TMA Pai case wherein it
was ruled that maximum autonomy should be provided to
private educational institutions. According to the
petitions, Section 3 of the Act imposed an absolute mandate
on all schools, including private unaided and minority
institutions, to admit without any choice each and every
child whosoever comes to take admission in the schools in
the neighbourhood.
The Act was silent with regard to the fate of children
between the ages of 3-6 years which was in fact a crucial
period for a child’s education to commence, it said. (Media
Watch) |
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Mahanta elected AGP legislature party leader |
Guwahati: Newly elected AGP legislature
party leader Prafulla Kumar Mahanta on Monday said he will
take the agenda of his party to the people of Assam and
would also play an active role on the floor of the House.
Unanimously elected as the Asom Gana Parishad Legislature
Party leader on Sunday, Mahanta said, “My party has reposed
faith in me. I shall discharge my duty on the party line. My
prime duty will be to take my party’s agenda to the people”.
“I shall function inside the assembly on the advice of my
party. I want to make the AGP a strong constructive
opposition to the ruling Congress in the House”, Mahanta, a
former two time Chief Minister of the Assam said.
“We will play an active role on the floor of the House
against the corruption and misrule of the state government.
We will maintain floor coordination to expose the ministers
involved in various scams”, the AGPLP leader asserted.
On the steps he would take for strengthening the party that
he founded in 1986 at the end of the Assam Agitation,
Mahanta said, “the party has its president, working
president, vice presidents and general secretaries. They
have taken the necessary measures for strengthening the AGP”.
“As legislators we will extend cooperation to the party
leadership to make AGP strong”, he added. (Media Watch) |
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Assam’s Bihu troupe to perform
at CWG opening ceremony |
Guwahati: Assam’s most popular folk dance
form ‘Bihu’ will be one of the star attractions of the
opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on October three
in New Delhi.
A 110-member troupe, comprising 48 dancers and 62 drummers,
or dhuliyas in Assamese, led by acclaimed drummer Oja
Somnath Bora, has already left for New Delhi to practise for
the opening ceremony.
“It is indeed a big honour to showcase our beautiful Bihu
dance form before a global audience and we are practising
hard to leave a lasting impression in the minds of millions
of people who will watch the opening ceremony,” Bora said.
The state cultural affairs department has asked Bora to
bring together the dancers and drummers and prepare for the
ceremony.
Bora, a master dhuliya, who was the first Indian to win a
gold medal in a percussion playing competition at Delphic in
South Korea last year, is, however, keeping the details of
the presentation close to his heart.
“We are still evolving and improving on the steps and the
final presentation is yet to take shape,” he said.
The new assignment has kept on hold his long-cherished dream
of making it to the Guinness Book of World Records.
“I have a dream of bringing together 25,000 dancers,
drummers and instrumentalists on a common platform and
present a performance to enter the Guinness World Records,”
Bora said. He had earlier planned for October 10, 2010 as
the date when he wanted to break the earlier record created
by 10,200 Cheraw dancers from Mizoram, but had to postpone
it due to the Commonwealth Games opening ceremony. |
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Only two categories of
casual/contingency employees: CM |
Itanagar: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister
Dorjee Khandu on Monday informed the state assembly that
from now on there would be two categories of
casual/contingency employees - skilled and unskilled and the
category semi skilled would be merged with the skilled ones.
Accordingly, the wages structure of the contingency
employees has been upgraded, he said.
The un-skilled and skilled employees serving from 0-5 years
will get monthly wages of Rs 3,500 and Rs 3,800
respectively, while employees working for 6-10 years will
get Rs 4,000 (un-skilled) and Rs 4,300 (skilled), 11-15
years- Rs 5,000 (un-skilled) and Rs 5,300 (skilled) and
beyond 15 years - Rs 6,000 (un-skilled) and Rs 6,300
(skilled), including Rs 250 per month as medical allowance
for each category, Khandu said.
The same wages structure should apply to the Auxiliary
Labour Corps (ALCs) in the districts, the Chief Minister
informed adding, an additional allowance (difficulty
allowance) of Rs 500 per month will be provided to the
contingency/ casual staff working in difficult areas.
He further said the recruitment rules for the group ‘D’posts
and for work charged (WC) employees in case of works
departments should be amended to reserve at least 25 per
cent seats by promotion from contingency employees who have
completed 20 years of service, after a qualification test. |
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‘Rise in detection of
corruption cases’ |
Chennai: The Lokayukta in Karnataka has so
far stood its ground against political and bureaucratic
pressures and done ‘’something more than what has been done
in other states,’’ Lokayukta Justice N Santosh Hegde has
said.
Delivering the Nani Palkhivala Foundation Memorial Lecture
on “Good Governance - The Role of Lokayukta’ here recently,
Justice Hegde said the detection of corruption in state
administration has seen a big upswing in the last four
years. The Karnataka Lokayukta Police have either arrested
or trapped over 1,400 officers for corruption of who at
least 60 per cent are senior IAS or IPS officials. The
Lokayukta however, rued that getting sanction from the
competent authority was still a major hurdle delaying filing
of charge sheets.
Once a case was referred for sanction to the Executive, the
latter tended to “go into the evidence” and may deny
sanction on the ground “evidence/witness not reliable.” Thus
the Executive has been stepping into the arena of judicial
review, Justice Hegde contended.
Increased cooperation
Calling for an amendment of the Karnataka Lokayukta Act to
ensure that sanction is deemed to have been granted once the
the Lokayukta has finalised the charge sheet, he said such a
provision would obviate the need for the Lokayukta to
approach the government every time seeking sanction. He,
however, noted that there has been an increased cooperation
in recent times in granting sanctions. Despite the Lokayukta,
corruption has increased in Karnataka, he said with a rider
that he was unaware of the condition in other states. But
the major difference the Lokayukta as an institution has
made in Karnataka was to change and better the investigative
system.
Stating that the Karnataka Lokayukta Act was the “most
comprehensive” of its kind, Justice Hegde said, besides the
drive against corruption, an equally important mandate was
“overseeing good governance including prevention of
corruption, nepotism and favouritism” in the administration.
More than the literate and the affluent or politically
well-connected people, it was the ‘ordinary citizens’ who
approached the Lokayukta the most in Karnataka, he noted and
added that for any officer, “humanitarian consideration (of
the people’s problem) is as important as honesty.”
(Media Watch) |
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| Israeli
scientists find HIV cure: Report |
Jerusalem: In a major breakthrough, Israeli
scientists have developed a method that can wipe out HIV
infected cells without affecting the healthy ones but it
will be a while before it is available to the public, a
medical journal says.
Although the researchers have registered an Israeli patent,
the treatment must still go through trials on animals and
humans, the latest edition of the British journal AIDS
Research and Therapy says.
Peptides, unique short protein segments developed by the
researchers, can interfere with replication and at the same
time overwhelm the infected cell, triggering its
self-destruction.
“It is our view that the results described in this work
suggest a novel approach to specifically promote death of
HIV-1 infected cells and thus may eventually be developed
into a new and general anti-viral therapy,” Xinhua quoted
the researchers as saying in the journal.
“The usual medications kill the virus that has entered the
body during infection and the (peptide) treatment allows
cells infected with the genetic load of the virus to be
killed,” they added. (Agencies) |
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U.S. releases stamp honouring
Mother Teresa |
Washington: The U.S. has released a special
postal stamp in honour of Mother Teresa, acknowledging the
diminutive nun’s unrelenting humanitarian service for the
sick and destitute for nearly 50 years. The U.S. Postal
Service issued the stamp during a special ceremony held at
the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate
Conception in Washington on Sunday. The 44-cent stamp
features a portrait of Mother Teresa, who received a Nobel
Prize in 1979, painted by award-winning artist Thomas
Blackshear II of Colorado Springs.
Blackshear II was also in attendance at the event. Teresa,
who died in Kolkata on September 5, 1997, and is buried
there, was awarded honorary U.S. citizenship in 1996. Noted
for her compassion toward the poor and suffering, Mother
Teresa, a diminutive Roman Catholic nun, served the sick and
destitute of India and the world for nearly 50 years.
“Often, stamps are referred to as a nation’s ‘calling cards’
because they reach a national, and even an international
audience,” said Postmaster General John Potter in dedicating
the stamp. “They focus attention on subjects our country
regards with respect and affection, and that is certainly
true of Mother Teresa, who believed so deeply in the innate
worth and dignity of humankind and worked tirelessly on
behalf of the poor, sick, orphaned and dying,” Potter said.
(Agencies) |
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| India takes
note of Chinese involvement in Nepal PM's polls |
| New Delhi: India has taken note of the
reports of alleged Chinese monetary involvement in the
on-going Prime Ministerial elections in Nepal. "New Delhi
has taken note of the reports," sources said here on Monday,
two days after allegations of a Maoist leader trying to buy
MPs with the help of a Chinese "friend" surfaced. A wiretap
on Saturday alleged that the Maoists have sought Rs 50 crore
from China to "buy" lawmakers to get their supremo elected
to the coveted post. In a telephonic conversation, the tape
of which was leaked to the media in Kathmandu, Unified CPN-Maoists'
Foreign Department chief Krishna Bahadur Mahara was
purportedly heard asking an unknown Chinese official for Rs
50 crore to buy 50 MPs, apparently from Terai-based Madhesi
parties which have been boycotting the polls. However,
Mahara, in a statement, dismissed the tape as "fabricated,
misleading and fictitious."(Media Watch) |
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| Australia in
thrall to three wobbly politicians |
Sydney: Australians were on tenterhooks on
Monday as three independent members of Parliament voted in
at last month’s general election promised to declare which
major party they would back to allow the formation of a
minority government.But an opinion poll showed most were fed
up with the posturing and dithering of the independents and
would like a fresh parliamentary election and another go at
electing a majority government.
After two weeks of bargaining since the August 21
parliamentary election, Prime Minister Julia Gillard’s
Labour commands 74 seats in the 150-member assembly one more
that Tony Abbott’s conservatives but two short of the
majority that would give her another spell in government.
“There’s a possibility that we could end up with 75-all,”
said Tony Windsor, who with Rob Oakeshott and Bob Katter
makes up the trio of kingmakers. “I’d hope that we’d all
vote in a similar fashion, but there’s no guarantee of that
at all.” Windsor said it was likely that one of the three
would have to go against his first choice and side with the
other two, so that a government could be formed.
The three are all former members of the Nationals, the
junior partner in Abbott’s Liberal-Party led conservative
coalition, and their rural electorates are considered
conservative heartland.(Agencies) |
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Queen to “snub” Blair over memoirs |
London: The Queen was on Sunday reported to
be “so annoyed” over unflattering references to the royal
family in former Prime Minister Tony Blair’s memoirs that
she “planned” to withhold granting him an exclusive honour
automatically granted to all leaders of Scottish descent on
leaving office. The Sunday Express quoted unnamed “royal
insiders” as saying that Mr. Blair’s references to personal
and private conversations in his book, A Journey, was
thought to have deeply “disappointed” the Queen and she
might snub him by withholding the Order of the Thistle, the
highest Scottish honour. The book describes how Prince
Philip did the cooking at a barbecue at Balmoral while the
Queen cleared the plates and did the washing-up.
There are also references to the Queen’s reaction to the
death of Princess Diana.
“I wouldn’t be at all surprised if his chances of being
awarded the Order of the Thistle have floated to 100 to-one
because of his cocky references,” said royal biographer Hugo
Vickers. (Media Watch) |
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Oman to invest $ 3 billion in
fertiliser sector in India |
Oman (Muscat): Oman and India agreed to
deepen their trade and investment partnership, including
investing about USD 3 billion by Muscat for revival of
fertilisers plants in India. Oman has agreed in-principle to
invest in India USD 3 billion for revival of few closed
plants of Fertiliser Corporation of India, Hindustan
Fertiliser Corporation Ltd and the expansion in RCF, this
was done in the sixth Session of the India Oman Joint
Commission Meeting (JCM) held by India and Oman here.
The sixth session of the India Oman Joint Commission Meeting
was led by Minister of Commerce & Industry Anand Sharma
while Omani side was led by their Minister of Commerce &
Industry Maqbool Ali Sultan. The meeting reviewed the entire
gamut of bilateral economic relations and means enhancing
bilateral trade, which rose to 4.5 billion last year, even
in face of severe recessionary pressure. "This initiative is
expected to function as a catalyst to promote and
partnership between the private sectors of the two countries
and enhance the trade and investment between |
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Colombian is world's shortest man
at 27 inches |
Bogota: Edward Nino Hernandez is in many
ways a typical 24-year-old Colombian male. He loves to dance
reggaeton, dreams of owning a car, preferably a Mercedes,
and wants to see the world. Top on his list of people he
would like to meet are Jackie Chan, Sylvester Stallone and
former Colombian President Alvaro Uribe. What sets Nino
(pronounced NEE-nyoh) apart is his size.
He is slightly taller than a piece of carry-on luggage and
weighs just 22 pounds (10 kilograms).Nino has just been
officially certified as the world's shortest living man by
Guinness World Records, measuring 27 inches. "He hasn't
grown since he was 2 years old," his mother, Noemi
Hernandez, said of the oldest of her five living children.
The previous titleholder was He Pingping of China, who was
1.5 inches taller and died March 13. The Guinness people
discovered Nino afterward. They say Nino's reign is not
likely to last long, however.Khagendra Thapa Magar of Nepal
is expected to take over after he turns 18 on October. 14.
(Agencies) |
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‘Cap CEO salaries, let shareholders decide pay' |
New Delhi: Salaries of chief executives
should be capped and shareholders should have a say in
managerial remunerations, a parliamentary panel on the new
Companies Bill suggested. It asked the Corporate Affairs
Ministry to develop a “rational formula” for managerial
remunerations. “The committees are of the view that an
overall outer ceiling on managerial remuneration may be
prescribed,” said the Parliamentary Standing Committee on
Finance, which presented its report on Companies Bill 2009
in the Lok Sabha last week.
Currently, total remuneration paid to managerial personnel
cannot be more than 11 per cent of net profit, while an
individual manager's compensation is capped at 5 per cent of
net profit. If a company wishes to break the ceiling, it
requires a go ahead from the Corporate Affairs Ministry.
Besides, in case a company fails to garner profit or the
profit is not adequate, it requires the Central Government's
approval to dole out salaries. The revised Companies Bill,
which seeks to replace the half-a-century old Act, is
expected to be tabled in Parliament in the winter session.
(Agencies) |
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North Korean capital prepares for
important convention |
Seoul: Posters lining Pyongyang’s streets
are promoting the Workers’ Party convention; North Korea’s
biggest political meeting in 30 years, as a historic event
amid speculation on Monday that leader Kim Jong Il will
grant his son a key party position and pave the way for his
succession.
Troops, artillery and tanks were massing near the capital of
Pyongyang in apparent preparation for a military parade,
South Korean officials said, but there was no word in the
state media on whether the convention, slated for “early
September,” had begun or when it was scheduled to begin. The
capital was festooned with posters hailing an event that one
North Korean professor told broadcaster APTN may be a
“turning point” for the communist nation. Party delegates
from all corners of the country were gathering in Pyongyang,
North Korea’s main Rodong Sinmun newspaper said in a
commentary carried on Monday by state media. Thousands of
residents waved colourful red and pink plastic flowers in a
weekend rehearsal at Pyongyang’s main Kim Il Sung Square,
China’s official Xinhua News Agency said.
“Let’s make this a festive event that will shine in the
history of our country and people,” one giant poster read in
footage aired by APTN. Kim Chang Gyong, an assistant
professor at the North Korean Academy of Social Science,
hinted to APTN that party officials would be addressing an
urgent matter, but did not elaborate. (Agencies) |
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Baichung upbeat about Indian football |
New Delhi : The national team has shown
remarkable progress under coach Bob Houghton, and captain
Baichung Bhutia is confident that Indian football has a
bright future after 2011 Asian Cup next year. India was once
the dominant force in Asian football and although the
decline started during the 1980s, even as late as the early
1990s India boasted of world class players like Sisir Ghosh,
Babu Mani and Krishanu Dey.
However, thanks to the non-existant youth development
structure in the country, the last few years have seen a
glut of quality Indian players.
But after Houghton took over the reigns of the Indian team,
the situation has taken a turn for the better with several
talented youngsters performing creditably at the
international level. A fact which has inspired Bhutia with
new hope about the future.''Indian football has got a great
future. Apart from Mahesh (Gawli), most of the boys in the
national team are below the age of 24 to 25 years. ''Gouramangi,
Subroto, Anwar are all young and they have a great future
ahead of them,'' Bhutia told mediapersons here.
Baichung's fellow Team India striker Sunil Chhetri backed
his captain's statement and asserted that the Indians will
put their best foot forward during the Asian Cup. ''We knew
that we would draw some of the best teams at the Asian Cup
and we got the best names in South Korea, Australia and
Bahrain.
''It is not about the opposition. It is about how we
prepare. We look forward to the challenge,'' Chhetri said.
The former Bury FC striker expressed his unhappiness with
the All India Football Federation (AIFF) and the clubs for
failing to implement a proper system to nurture and develop
talent at the grassroot level. He also blamed the haphazard
policies of the AIFF and club officials for the decline of
Indian football. ''Earlier, the national camps were
basically selection camps. Around 40-50 players used to be
there in the camp and until the last moment no one was aware
what the team was.
''The selectors used to finalise the team a few days before
the tournament and we used to go without any match
practice,'' Baichung rued. ''In the clubs also, every season
50 per cent of the team is new. It takes almost the entire
season to get to know and understand each other. And the
next season, again there are a lot of new faces and we have
to start from scratch,'' he added.
Talking about his first international match, the 33-year-old
said, ''It was against Thailand in Nehru Cup of 1995. I used
to play mid-fielder at that time and come on in the second
half. ''We lost 5-0 and it was a horrible experience. The
next match against Uzbekistan was better. I started the
match and also scored a goal.'' (Media Watch) |
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Queen's baton accorded rousing reception in Udupi |
Udupi: Rousing reception was given today by
the district's reception committee to the Delhi Commonwealth
Games Queen's Baton Relay convoy at Kinnimulky junction, the
entering point of the city here. Deputy Commissioner P
Hemalatha received the Baton from Wing Commander V N Singh,
the relay commander as the music and dance set the perfect
background. Udupi MLA K Raghupathy Bhat, Police
Superintendent Madhukar Praveen Pawar, Udupi Zilla Panchayat
President Gladis Alameda were among those dignitaries
present at the function.
The relay was later passed through the main roads in the
city before leaving to Karwar in Uttar Kannada. About 5000
students including Scouts and Guides, NCC and NSS
participated and other cultural troupes such as Veeraghase
and Yakshagana. The Deputy Commissioner handed over the
Baton to international repute sports person Babu Shetty who
escorted the Baton. Later it was handed over back to V N
Singh.
Though there was no official programme scheduled in Udupi,
the district administration had chalked out the programme to
welcome the Queen's Baton at the entrance of Udupi. Ms.
Hemalatha speaking on the occasion, wished for the success
of the commonwealth Games to be held during October in New
Delhi. |
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Bopanna-Qureshi, Paes-Black in US Open quarter-finals |
New York: India's Rohan Bopanna and
Pakistan's Aisam Ul-Haq-Qureshi stunned second-seeded Daniel
Nestor of Canada and Nenad Zimonjic of Serbia 6-3, 6-4 in
the US Open tennis third round to enter their second
successive Grand Slam quarter-finals. Bopanna and Qureshi,
who made their first quarter-final at Wimbledon earlier in
the year, next face 10th-seeded South Africa's Wesley Moodie
and Dick Norman of Belgium, who dumped Brazilians Marcelo
Melo and Bruno Soares 6-2, 6-2.
The India-Pakistan pair, seeded 16th here, have never won a
US Open match together prior to this year's campaign. In the
mixed doubles, second-seeded Leander Paes of India and his
Zimbabwean partner Cara Black cruised to the quarterfinals
with a 6-4, 6-1, win over Estonia's Kaia Kanepi and Robert
Lindstedt of Sweden, who had shocked fourth-seeded Mahesh
Bhupathi and Daniela Hantuchova. Paes and Black next play
Anna-Lena Groenefeld of Germany and Mark Knowles of Bahamas. |
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14 youths from NE to climb Nepal Peak |
Imphal: Fourteen youths from the
Northeastern region, including four girls, will scale the
Nepal Peak as a precursor to the Mt Everest expedition
planned next year. The pre-Everest Nepal Peak Expedition of
the Manipur Mountaineering and Trekking Association (MMTA)
was flagged off by N Biren Singh, Minister, Youth Affairs
and Sports, and Maj Gen DS Hooda, GOC 57 Mtn Div, Chief
Patron of Manipur Mountaineering Institute, yesterday.
The expedition, led by L Surjit Singh, president MMTA, will
try to summit the Nepal Peak (7168m) from the Sikkim
approach on September 25. The 14 member contingent, which
includes four ladies, has been drawn from different states
of the region. The expedition has been organized under the
aegis of the Indian Mountaineering Foundation (IMF) and
sponsored by the North Eastern Council. Surjit Singh, team
leader, said the expedition is a precursor to the Everest
Expedition being planned next year. He urged the state
government and other adventure lovers to support the
forthcoming Everest Expedition. (Agencies) |
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