Daily Times India

New Delhi, Mar 15(ANI): Bangladesh Army Chief General Mohammed Abdul Mubeen, who is on a five-day visit to India, was given a Guard of Honour in the national capital on Monday.

Earlier on Sunday, General Mubeen, who arrived with his wife and a four-member army delegation, was received by the Deputy Director General of Indian Military Intelligence Air Marshal S. C. Malhan at the Indira Gandhi International Airport. (more…)

Thiruvananthapuram, March 15 (IANS) An investors meet will be held next month for the proposed Vizhinjam port in Kerala and work on the project will start during the tenure of the Left government, Ports Minister M.Vijayakumar told the assembly Monday.

He said the meeting would help identify the investor for the proposed port.

“By November-December, we are confident that the investor would be identified and construction of the port will begin during the tenure of this government itself,” Vijayakumar said. Assembly elections are due in Kerala in May 2011.

The Vizhinjam port is to come up near the famed tourist destination of Kovalam and the proposed site has a natural depth at 24 meters, one of the deepest in the world and hence requires no dredging. It will be located close to a busy international shipping route, and is envisaged to handle 4.1 million containers annually.

The project has been hanging fire for nearly a decade.

It had got the necessary clearances for the second time last year but Hyderabad-based Lanco Kondapalli, which had won the bid to build the port, withdrew from the project, citing indefinite delays and possible legal tangles in the project.

The project cost was then envisaged at Rs.53.48 billion.

The state government has committed to develop the basic infrastructure, which includes rail and road connectivity to the port site, and has set aside Rs.450 crore for the purpose.

This would be undertaken by the government-run Vizhinjam International Sea Port Ltd.

New Delhi, Mar. 15 (ANI): The Asian Centre for Human Rights (ACHR) today welcomed the order of the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) that directed the Ministry of Defence, Government of India to pay a compensation of Rs. 50,000 each to two torture victims, namely Bhadrakanta Baruah and Ghana
Neog who were tortured in the custody of the 871st Field Regiment of the Army at Maibela camp in Sivasagar district, Assam on 31st January 2009. (ANI)

New Delhi, Mar. 15 (ANI): The UN International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) chairman, Dr R K Pachauri, today said that he would not resign over what he called ‘one mistake’ reported in the IPCC report. (more…)

Nevada (US), March 15 (ANI): The University of Houston in Texas (USA) and Institute of Technology of Banaras Hindu University in Varanasi (India) have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) for cooperation in instruction and academic exchange. (more…)

Lucknow, March 15 (IANS) Tens of thousands of people from all over the country, including Maharashtra, Karnataka and Kerala, gathered here Monday for Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati’s rally to mark the Bahujan Samaj Party’s (BSP) 25th anniversary celebrations.

The silver jubilee celebrations at the Ramabai Ambedkar grounds coincide with party founder Kanshi Ram’s birthday.

It is estimated that there are nearly 20 lakh participants from across the country, party officials said.

The BSP, which was founded on April 14, 1984, completed 25 years last year, but the celebration could not be held then because of Lok Sabha elections.

“Apart from gearing up the cadre for the upcoming assembly elections, Behenji (Mayawati) will also highlight the achievements of her government in order to give a befitting reply to our opponents, who try every means to malign the party’s image,” a BSP functionary told IANS, on the condition of anonymity.

“In this rally, our opponents will get to know about our party’s ever-expanding base as people not only from the state but from different parts of the country are attending the rally,” he added.

According to party sources, nearly 15 waterproof, special pandals, each spread over 25,000 square metres, have come up at the venue to accommodate the participants.

Moreover, a 7,000 square metre dining hall has also been set up that will offer a variety of Indian delicacies and dishes to the rally participants, they added.

The 12 km route from Hazratganj, the heart of the city, to the rally venue at Ramabai Ambedkar grounds is draped in blue. Be it the decorative lights, the welcome arches, banners and hoardings, and even the lights around fountains at major road junctions, everything is painted blue.

The Rs.1,200 crore Ambedkar Memorial has also been decorated, while all advertisement hoardings all along the thoroughfare to the venue seemed to have been taken over by the BSP. Mayawati’s portrait was emblazoned on the freshly painted hoardings and announcements about the rally were visible everywhere.

Seremban (Malaysia), Mar 15(ANI): Sikhs in Malaysia celebrated Vaisakhi, an ancient harvest festival in Punjab which marks the beginning of a new harvest season for the community, with prayers at home and gurdwara all over the country. (more…)

New Delhi, March 15 (IANS) The government will Monday move in the Lok Sabha a constitutional amendment bill that proposes to rename Orissa as Odisha.

Home Minister P. Chidambaram will table the Orissa (alteration of name) Bill 2010 in the lower house in the afternoon.

The move to introduce the bill comes months after a resolution was passed in the Orissa assembly for the change in the name of the state and its official language from Oriya to Odia. The central government had given a nod to the proposal in September last year.

Odisha is the ancient name of the state. The name Orissa was adopted in 1950.

–Indo-Asian New Service

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New Delhi, Mar.15 (ANI): A technical glitch has once again delayed the launch of India’s indigenously built Advanced Air Defence (ADD) interceptor missile from the Integrated Test Range along Orissa’s coast.

Defence sources said a technical snag in the sub-system has delayed the launch. (more…)

Agra, March 15 (IANS) Two pilgrims from Agra on their way to an annual fair in Rajasthan’s Karauli district were crushed to death by a speeding Scorpio on the highway, police said Monday. In another incident, half a dozen pilgrims from this city were injured in a gas cylinder explosion that burnt 50 shops near the fair site in Karauli.

The pilgrims were walking towards the highway which connects Agra to Karauli, which is about 250 km from here, when they were run down by the Scorpio Sunday evening.

A third person was seriously injured and has been admitted to hospital. Angry villagers blocked traffic for several hours.

In another incident Sunday evening, half a dozen pilgrims from Agra were seriously burnt when a gas cylinder in a sweet shop exploded in Karauli. Fifty shops were burnt, according to police officials.

They were treated at the local hospital and discharged, Karauli collector Neeraj Pawan told the media Sunday evening.

More than 10 million people are expected to converge at the Karauli Davi shrine for the fortnight-long fair.