News

• Bengal to play Jharkhand in final

  
  Sports reporter
   GUWAHATI, March 7 – Fancied West Bengal will take on Jharkhand in the title clash of the second East Zone Cricket Tournament for Deaf at the Latasil playground here tomorrow.

  In the last league matches played today, both Bengal and Jharkhand posted victories against Orissa and Assam respectively by an identical margin of seven wickets. Assam were all out for 75 in 19.3 overs and in reply Jharkhand reached the target losing three wickets.

  In the other match, Orissa were restricted to 62 by Bengal and scored 67 in just 9.3 overs for three.

  Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi will be the chief guest in the closing function.

  Brief scores: Assam 75 (Dwipen Baishya 13, Jintendra Kumar 4/16, Abhimanyu N Deo 3/27, Niranjan Guria 2/13). Jharkhand 76/3 (Manish Kumar 20, Pinku Bhokta 17, Abhimanyu 16, Amit Chakraborty 15).

  Orissa 62 (Subhankar Mullick 5/15, Sanjay Acharya 2/19). Bengal 67/3 (Suvrajit Sur 45, Sashi Bhusan 2/16).

   
  3/8/2010

• India out of World Group

  
  
   MOSCOW, March 7 (PTI): Somdev Devvarman learnt a good tennis lesson from Mikhail Youzhny and was outclassed 2-6 1-6 3-6 in the first reverse singles, resulting in India’s ouster from the elite World Group of the Davis Cup tournament here today.

  India were playing in the World Group for the first time since their 1998 appearance.

  With this win, Russia have taken a decisive 3-1 lead and secured a quarter-finals place while India would yet again compete in the play-offs to re-enter the 16-team World Group.

  Russia have levelled the head-to-head scores 2-2 between the two nations.

  Somdev’s defeat has rendered Rohan Bopanna’s second reverse singles of the first round tie against Igor Kunitsyn inconsequential.

   
  3/8/2010

• National language meet begins in Gujarat

   VADODARA, March 8 (IANS): A two-day Bharat Bhasha Confluence, a linguistic gathering of over 650 speakers representing some 320 Indian languages, began in CC Mehta Auditorium at the MS University campus on Monday morning.

   

  Professor Ganesh Devy, founder of Bhasha Research and Publication Centre which is organising the meet, said: "It is perhaps for the first time that eminent heads of Central Institute of Indian Languages from its first head D.P. Pattanayak to the present incumbent Rajesh Sachdeva along with vice chancellors, linguists, publishers, writers, cultural activists and persons belonging to numerous speech communities have joined such a conference."

   

  The Bharat Bhasha Confluence got underway with keynote addresses by 20 eminent scholars and cultural activists from across the country. An exhibition on endangered languages, development of Gujarati language and alphabet and Indian literature in general was also opened on the occasion.

   
  3/8/2010

Articles

• BJP denies divisions, to hold party meet to resolve bill row

  The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Thursday denied reports that it was divided over the women's reservation bill but the rift was evident with a section of MPs led by Yogi Adityanath said that quotas for women were "needless" and would be opposed in the Lok Sabha.

  Adityanath, who represents Gorakhpur in the lower house, openly rebelled against the bill that seeks to reserve a third of all seats in the country's legislatures for women.

  "It is needless. We are against any reservation. Everybody should come to (parliament) on his/her ability," he said, adding that the BJP leadership had fallen into a trap of the Congress-led government.

  "There are other more important issues to be discussed. People are suffering from price rise, there is Maoist insurgency, there is terrorism, and our country is facing grave internal and external security threats. The government wants to deflect attention of the public and MPs from these issues," Adityanath told IANS outside parliament.

  He described the women's reservation bill, passed by the Rajya Sabha, as "bin mausam barsaat (untimely rains)".

  "There is no demand for it from anywhere. Nobody is demanding it. All this is being done to waste time of the house so that more important issues are not discussed," he said.

  Asked if he would vote for the bill when brought to the Lok Sabha, Adityanath's reply was a categoric "no". "Not even if there is a whip from the party. There is something called internal democracy in the party."

  Asked if more MPs in the BJP shared his view, Adityanath said: "The viewpoint is growing and many MPs have understood it."

   
  3/11/2010

• Elephant killed, rhino injured by poachers

  
  
   GOLAGHAT, Mar 7 (PTI): An elephant was killed and a rhino injured by poachers in Assam, Forest department officials said today.

  The carcass of the pachyderm was found inside the Dibru Saikhowa reserve forest in Upper Assam's Tinsukia district.

  The tusks were removed by the poachers after killing the elephant a few days back, they said.

  A full grown male rhino was found in an injured state inside Agratoli range of the Kaziranga national park today.

  Agratoli forest ranger K K Deuri said a gunshot was heard late last night following which the guards swung into action.

  While poachers managed to escape in the cover of darkness, the rhino was found with a bullet injury on the right leg this morning.

  Three poachers were arrested by Forest Guards on February 18 when they tried to target a rhino inside the park, a world heritage site.

   
  3/8/2010

• Centre ridicules Naxal ‘dream’

  
  NEW DELHI, March 7 – The Centre today rubbished the claims of a Maoist leader to overthrow the Indian state before 2050 saying they are free to “dream” and asserted that talks can happen only when they abjure violence, reports PTI.

  “They can dream. They have the privilege to dream in a democracy. We have made our position absolutely clear. The Home Minister has stated that he would expect CPI (Maoist) to make a categorical statement that they would abjure violence and once that categorical statement is received in Ministry of Home Affairs, we will be prepared to talk,” Home Secretary GK Pillai told reporters here.

  Pillai’s statement has come after top Naxal leader Koteswar Rao alias Kishenji last night claimed that they could overthrow Indian state much before the year 2050.

   
  3/8/2010