NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (UNI) Film personalities and artistes never had it so good , they account for the largest number of Padma awards in the listings for the second time in recent years.
While more than 36 have received the awards this year, nine film personalities were among the 27 artistes who figured in the list of awardees in 2002 apart from two artistes who were named for the nation's highest civilian honour , melody queen Lata Mangeshkar and ageing shehnai maestro Ustad Bismillah Khan got Bharat Ratna.
This year, renowned actor Soumitra Chatterjee and filmmaker Gulzar get the Padma Bhushan while noted actor Anupam Kher who is presently chairman of the Central Board of Film Certification figures among the Padma Shri awards.
The Padma Shri awardees include filmmakers Bharatiraja and Manoranjan Das, ghazal singer Hariharan of the Colonial Cousins duo, cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, well-known santoor player Bhajan Sopori, Mohiniattam dancer Bharati Shivaji and singer Purushottam Das Jalota.
Others from the world of arts in the list of Padma Bhushans are Bharatnatyam dancer Alarmel Valli, musician Komal Kothari of Jodhpur, Carnatic vocalist Madurai TN Seshagopalan, and violinist (Mrs) N Rajam.
From the world of arts, the Padma Shris are instrumentalist a K Palanivel from Tanjore, Mumbai-based instrumentalist Pandit Damodar Keshav Datar, flute player V Kunjumani, theatre personality Heisnan Kanhailal of Imphal, Kuchipudi dancer Guru Jayaram Rao, Kathakali exponent KR Kumaran Nair, instrumentalist Kadari Gopalnath of Mangalore, sculptor Kanti Bhai Patel of Ahmedabad, painter Krishn Kanhai of Mathura, Odissi dancer Maguni Charan Das, Ladakhi musician Morup Namgial, flute player N Neela, Carnatic musician N Neela of Chennai, Carnatic musician Neyyattinkara Vasudevan of Kerala, Carnatic vocalist Sudha Raghunathan of Chennai, and vocalist Surinder Singh of Delhi.
'Feel good' strengthening India's position globally: Advani NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (UNI) Deputy prime minister LK Advani today said the excellent performance by the Vajpayee government had resulted in a 'feel good factor' within the country and strengthened India's position on the global platform.
Advani, who has been using the 'feel good factor' as the Bharatiya Janata Party's punchline for the forthcoming general elections, said tremendous advance had been made in finance, technology, and software sectors during the tenure of the Vajpayee government.
"A number of Non-Resident Indians in the recently-concluded Pravashi Bharatiya Sammelan said Indians are now getting more respect the world over than they ever did.
This can be attributed to the healthy economic condition of the country," he said at a youth seminar organised by the Jain Swetambara Terapanthi Sabha here.
The deputy prime minister said the global community was today terming Indians as the "knowledge society of the world" due to the strides made in the field of technology.
"India has been the zenith of spirituality for centuries but the developments in finance and software sectors are a recent phenomenon.
This has led to the `feel good factor'," he added.
Acharya Mahapragya sent his greetings to the deputy prime minister on the successful talks with the Hurriyat Conference.
Union minister of state for human resource development Sanjay Paswan and president of Russian Academy of Science Rishkov were also present on the occassion.
Katiyar alleges irregularities in Gunnar byelections LUCKNOW, Feb 1 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh Bharatiya Janata Party president Vinay Katiyar has alleged large-scale irregularities in the Gunnar byelection, which was won by chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav with a record margin against Bhaujan Samajwadi Party's Arif Ali.
Katiyar here said the 1,83,899 margin victory was expected in view of the irregularities conducted during the polling.
He said the BJP would ask the Election Commission to appoint polling agents from outside during the forthcoming Lok Sabha polls to stop the recurrence of similar discrepancies.
He said winning an election on the basis of irregularities was 'not good for democracy.' After the byelection on the Gunnaur Vidhan Sabha seat in Badaun district on January 24, the Election Commission had ordered re-poll in 107 polling booths to be held on January 31, following complaints from the BJP and the BSP.
Seat-sharing between AIADMK, BJP will be smooth: Ganesan CHENNAI, Feb 1 (UNI) BJP All India general secretary L Ganesan today said there would not be any hitches in the seat-sharing process between his party and the ruling AIADMK, with which it had renewed ties, for the coming Lok Sabha polls.
Talking to newspersons at the party's state headquarters here, he said the committees set up by the two parties to work out seat sharing agreements had completed one round of talks.
The second round would commence in a day or two, he added.
Ganesan said the meeting between AIADMK supremo and Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa with deputy prime minister LK Advani in the city this evening and prime minister AB Vajpayee in Kanniyakumari tomorrow did not mean that the presence of the two leaders was necessary to ensure that the seat-sharing process was smooth.
"I am confident that it will come about amicably without either Mr Advani or Mr Vajpayee having to intervene," he observed.
Ganesan said Vajpayee would definitely be discussing the alliance between the BJP and the AIADMK in the context of the coming general elections.
The prime minister would also be virtually kicking off the campaign for the Lok Sabha polls when he addresses a public meeting at Nagercoil tomorrow evening.
Ganesan also hit out at DMK supremo M Karunanidhi for criticising the advertisements being put out by the BJP highlighting the achievements of the Vajpayee government in the last five years.
"Mr Karunanidhi's criticism tantamount to criticising the DMK ministers who were part of the Vajpayee government before leaving it," he pointed out.
Blunkett calls for closer cooperation in international policing PHILLAUR, PUNJAB, Feb 1 (UNI) British home minister David Blunkett today stressed the need for closer cooperation in international policing and exchange of information to curb cross-border crime.
Delivering an address at the 5th Convocation of the Maharaja Ranjit Singh Punjab Police Academy here, Blunkett said cooperation in international policing was the key to combating cross-border crime in today's increasingly mobile world.
He said "better communication and cheaper travel meant that we are living in a smaller and more mobile world.
But it also meant that crime and criminals could also travel and that is why it is so important for police forces to work together, cooperate in investigation and exchange information freely".
Elaborating on the need for more cooperation in policing between India and the United Kingdom, the visiting minister said that India and the UK enjoyed historic ties.
"Around 1.3 million Britons are of Indian origin, many of who maintain close family and emotional links with India.
The two countries had much in common and the UK remained good friends with its Indian partners.
Each year 500,000 Indians visit UK and 300,000 British people visit India," he observed.
Referring to the tragic incident of rape and murder of a 17-year-old Southampton student Hannah Foster in March last year, Blunkett said that this incident had showed why it is so important to forge even more closer policing links.
Criminals did not respect international borders.
Sharing intelligence, working even closer together and cooperating fully in joint operation is the only way to deal with global crime, he added.
Blunkett said the UK police service is amongst the best in the world, having very strong working relationship with the police force of various countries, including India.
It is also learning from its Indian counterpart on how best to deal with crimes such as forced marraige and 'honour killings'.
The Guru Nanak Dev University Vice Chancellor SP Singh, British High Commissioner to India Michael Arthur and other dignitaries were also present on the occasion.
Jaitley, Sushma brought in as BJP spokespersons NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (UNI) Gearing up for the Lok Sabha election, the Bharatiya Janata Party today appointed two union ministers, Arun Jaitley and Sushma Swaraj, as party spokespersons in addition to Pramod Mahajan and Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi.
Besides, Prakash Jawadekar continues to be additional spokesperson.
The party also constituted a resource mobilisation committee headed by former union minister Ved Prakash Goyal and publicity committee headed by Mahajan.
Naqvi has also been assigned to look after election tours and travels while Rajya Sabha member Bal Apte would supervise the election control room of the party.
The mobilisation committee has Ramdas Agarwal, Suumar Nambiar, Surendra Patel, Lakhiram Agarwal and Jugal Jatalia in addition to Goyal.
Besides Mahajan, the publicity committee has Jaitley, Naqvi, information and broadcasting minister Ravi Shankar Prasad, Balbir Punj, Dinanath Mishra, Prakash Jawadekar, Seshadrichary and Prabhath Jha.
In the party's election control room, Ram Kripal Sinha, Ashwini Kumar and Vinay Sahastrabhudhe, will assist Apte.
Deputy PM felicitates Padma awardees at ICCR function NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (UNI) Several Padma awardees from the field of arts based in Delhi feel that the government should give greater encouragement to artistes including tax concessions and incentives to perform freely with less legal and other constraints.
The artistes told UNI in different interviews that while they appreciated the fact that the present government had chosen so many artistes for the Padma felicitations, they felt that many senior artistes had either been ignored or felicitated with this award too late.
The Padma awardees were expressing their views during a felicitation organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations (ICCR) here last night.
Deputy prime minister LK Advani was the chief guest and felicitated the awardees with bouquets in the presence of ICCR chairperson and Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson Najma Heptulla.
'Yaadein', a film on the contribution of hindi films to arouse patriotic fervour among the people, was shown on the occasion.
The film directed and presented by Pratibha Advani was earlier telecast on Doordarshan's national channel on January 25.
The awardees who were felicitated included noted Urdu author Gopi Chand Narang and writer Vishnu Prabhakar who has received the Padma Bhushan.
Padma Shris felicitated included cartoonist Sudhir Tailang, Mohiniattam Danseuse Bharati Shivaji, santoor player Pandit Bhajan Sopori, and authors Gauri Ishwaran, Premlata Puri and Sunita Jain, and Dr Siddhartha Mehra and Dr Rajpal Sirohi.
BJP's alliance with INLD not yet decided: Naidu CHANDIGARH, Feb 1 (UNI) BJP national president Venkaiah Naidu today said the party s electoral alliance with the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) for the coming Lok Sabha polls was not yet decided.
"The decision in this regard will be taken after consultation with the Haryana BJP leaders," Naidu told reporters after addressing the party's regional core group meeting of Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh here.
He said no talks were going on at present with the INLD for an electoral alliance.
The BJP and the INLD had shared five seats each, out of the total ten, in Haryana in the last Lok Sabha elections.
Haryana BJP leaders had recently said the party would contest in the state on its own, while INLD president and Haryana chief minister Om Parkash Chautala had expressed anguish over such statements.
Mulayam wins Gunnaur byelection by a record margin BADAUN, UP, Feb 1 (UNI) Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mulayam Singh Yadav has won the byelection from the Gunnaur Vidhan Sabha constituency in Badaun district here today.
Yadav won the seat by defeating his nearest rival, Arif Ali of the BSP, by a record margin of 1,83,899 votes.
The record in the UP Vidhan Sabha elections was earlier held by Congress leader Pramod Tiwari who had won by a margin of 1,26,000 from the Rampur Khas Vidhan Sabha seat in Pratapgarh district in 1996.
Sources here today said the CM received a record total of 1,95,213 votes while Arif Ali got 11,314 votes.
Besides, Gulfam Singh Yadav of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) received 6,991 votes in the byelection.
Sources said the BJP and BSP boycotted the re-polling yesterday by not sending their polling agents but participated in the counting of the votes today.
Incidentally, the byelections to the Gunnaur seat was held on January 24 but following complaints of irregularities by the BJP and the BSP, re-polling was held under the orders of the Election Commission yesterday at 107 polling booths.
The counting was being done today.
India wants to take Nepal route to China KATHMANDU, Feb 1 (UNI) India has suggested that Nepal allow use of its territory for transit to China.
"If Nepal can play the role of a transit link between India and China, the two economic giants of Asia, it would benefit both Nepal and India," commerce secretary Dipak Chaterjee said after the three-day Inter-Governmental Committee meeting here between India and Nepal.
"It will reduce the cost of trade between India and China and benefit all the parties involved," Chaterjee.
India has been importing Chinese goods mostly through sea routes.
"The proposal has been put to the Nepalese side and modalities will be worked out," Indian commerce secretary said.
The Nepali side said that the Indian proposal will be studied in detail.
"We will study the Indian proposal and its merits and demerits for Nepal and respond," said joint secretary of Industry, Commerce and Supplies of Nepal, Purushottam Ojha.
India has also offered to supply petroleum products to Nepal through pipelines upto Amalekhgunj, 18 kilometre inside Nepal from Raxaul.
"I also discussed this offer with Nepalese prime minister Surya Bahadur Thapa during my meeting with him this morning," said Chaterjee who paid him a courtesy call.
"The prime minister appreciated the offer," he added.
India has also agreed to extend the time for exhaustion of vegetable oil export quota provided to Nepal.
The quota at present stands at 100,000 tonnes Nepal has already exhausted 27,000 tonnes.
The remaining quota will be utilised within three months extended time from March.
India has provided the export quota to Nepal for five items including ghee, acrylic yarn, zinc oxide and copper wire.
The Indian side also offered help to Nepal in capacity building and technical training to comply with the requirements of the World Trade Organisation (WTO).
India will also train Nepalese officials to become them familiar in the WTO related issues.
India will also help in the issues related to quality tests of food and vegetables for export.
Extension of the railway line in Nepal figured during the meeting.
India will also help Nepal in infrastructure development and upgrading of the four customs offices on the border.
After the three-day meeting Nepal and India signed a minute for promoting trade and investment.
The minute was signed by Indian commerce secretary Dipak Chaterjee and industry, commerce and supplies secretary of Nepal Dinesh Chandra Pyakurel.
President, vice president, PM greet people on Id ul Zuha NEW DELHI, Feb 1 (UNI) President APJ Abdul Kalam today said the festival of Id ul Zuha 'signifies what maximum in a human life one can sacrifice.' In his greetings to the people on the eve of the festival, he said, "to remember this day with gratitude to the almighty is by giving happiness to others, which in turn multiplies in your home and in the society." In his message, vice-president Bhairon Singh Shekhawat wished the festival would bestow fellow citizens with divine grace and compassion to serve humanity.
He said the festival commemorates the spirit of sacrifice and reminds us about the supremacy of the divine power.
"May this festival bless us with divine grace and compassion to serve the humanity." Prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee said the festival was an occasion of happiness, camaradarie and sacrifice.
"May the festival this year further strengthen the unity of our cultural mosaic and usher in joy and prosperity for all."
