4 students held for smearing colour on Maya's poster

LUCKNOW: Four students of UP Sainik School have been arrested and sent to juvenile home for allegedly smearing colour on chief minister Mayawati's posters here during Holi.

The four, who are appearing for their XII board exams, were arrested on Holi night on charges of damaging public property and a case had been lodged against them under the Prevention of Damage to Public Property Act. They have beet sent to a reformatory home for juveniles, official sources said today.

While police claimed that the students were caught damaging the public property, school authorities alleged that the police was settling scores.

"It doesn't seem that our students would do such an act," school spokesman K K Tiwari said.

He said that on Holi night these students had gone out of the hostel to purchase some medicine. "While they were returning back, the students were stopped by police, who alleged that they had damaged posters of the CM and booked them on charges of damaging public property."

"Why these students, who are meritorious and passed their high school examination with more than 85 per cent marks indulged in such activity. They are being framed by police," father of a student Rajkumar alleged.

"With board examinations going on, our children are brought to school from juvenile home to appear in the examination. They are being treated like murderers," Rajkumar alleged.

The bail application of the four students would be heard in juvenile court today.

Women's Bill row: MPs protest eviction of 7 Rajya Sabha members

NEW DELHI: Forcible eviction of seven Rajya Sabha members opposing the Women's Reservation Bill triggered massive uproar in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday, forcing two adjournments till 2pm. The Speaker later adjourned the House for the day.

When the House reassembled at noon after the first adjournment, members of SP, RJD, JD(U) and LJP rushed menacingly to the well shouting 'marshal bulao' (call the marshals), prompting Speaker Meira Kumar to immediately adjourn the House till 2pm.

The Speaker could not even order laying of papers due to vociferous protests led by SP and RJD chiefs Mulayam Singh Yadav and Lalu Prasad, who too were in the well. Noticing the aggressive nature of the protests, Kumar adjourned the House almost immediately after she came in.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee and Leader of Opposition Sushma Swaraj were present in the House.

After the adjournment, Yadav and Prasad were seen urging Swaraj to take up the issue of using marshals to remove the suspended members from Rajya Sabha yesterday.

BJP leader Yashwant Sinha was heard asking the RJD and SP chiefs to go to the President and withdrawing support from the UPA.

R R Patil attends Mumbai terror attack proceedings

MUMBAI: In a rare gesture, Maharashtra home minister R R Patil on Tuesday attended the proceedings in the 26/11 terror attack case along with minister of state for home Ramesh Bagwe in a special court here.

Patil's visit assumes significance in the wake of the prosecution opening its final arguments against lone surviving Pakistani gunman Ajmal Kasab and two Indian nationals Faheem Ansari and Sabauddin Ahmed.

Unprecedented security measures were undertaken in view of the ministers' visit.

While Kasab is charged with killing 166 persons in the attack, Sabahuddin and Ansari are facing charges of drawing maps of targets and passing them on militant outfit LeT for executing the terror strikes

Women's Bill row: 7 MPs suspended in Rajya Sabha

NEW DELHI: Seven members of Rajya Sabha belonging to SP, RJD, LJP and an unattached MP were suspended on Tuesday for remaining part of the Budget session for their unruly behaviour in the House on Monday over the Women's Reservation Bill.

The suspended members are Subhash Yadav (RJD), Sabir Ali (LJP), Veerpal Singh Yadav, Nand Kishore Yadav, Amir Alam Khan and Kamal Akhtar (SP), and Ejaz Ali(Unattached).

The motion for their suspension was moved by Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Prithviraj Chavan and was passed by a voice vote.

The action was taken under Rule 256 of the House, for showing total "disregard for dignity of Council and authority of the Chair" by obstructing the business of the House.

On Monday, these members had indulged in unprecedented unruly scenes and even tried to attack Chairman Hamid Ansari when the Womens' Reservation Bill was moved by the government.

Both Houses of Parliament were adjourned till 2pm following uproar over the Women's Reservation Bill.

RJD chief Lalu Prasad Yadav led the protests in the Lok Sabha against the Women's Reservation Bill forcing the Speaker to adjourn the House.

Earlier in the morning, Sharad Yadav, Lalu Prasad and Mulayam Singh Yadav, who are opposing the Women's Reservation Bill had met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and informed the PM of their differences towards the bill.

On Monday, SP and RJD MPs had held the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha to ransom by disrupting proceedings where the landmark legislation was to be discussed and adopted.

SC challenges HC verdict bringing CJI office under RTI ambit

NEW DELHI: The Supreme Court on Monday filed an appeal before itself challenging the judgement of Delhi High Court holding that the office of the Chief Justice of India came under the ambit of the RTI Act and was liable to reveal information under it.

The petition, which has been filed after CJI K G Balakrishnan had consultation with his fellow judges, raised the point that information held by the CJI is sensitive in nature and its revelation would hamper the judiciary's independence.

The petition, though drafted more than a month ago, was filed on Monday by advocate Devdutt Kamat on behalf of the apex court registry and the case would be argued by the Attorney General G E Vahanvati.

The apex court will be seeking immediate stay on the High Court rulings otherwise it would be under obligation to reveal information under RTI Act.

In a path-breaking verdict, the Delhi High Court had on January 12 held that the office of the Chief Justice of India comes under the purview of the RTI Act and rejected a Supreme Court appeal, saying judicial independence is not a judge's personal privilege but a responsibility cast upon him.

The verdict was being seen as a setback to Balakrishnan who has consistently been maintaining that his office does not come under the transparency law and hence cannot part with information like disclosure of judges' assets under it.

No voting on women's bill today, all-party meet tomorrow

NEW DELHI: The voting on the women's reservation bill in Rajya Sabha will not take place today. The Prime Minister has postponed for today the all-party meet on the issue.

The meeting has probably been put off to buy time for the government to finalise the floor strategy.

The Prime Minister, meanwhile, discussed the floor strategy with key UPA allies, including Sharad Pawar and T R Baalu.

The Lok Sabha has been adjourned till tomorrow while the Rajya Sabha has been adjourned for the fifth time in the day to reconvene at 6 pm.

Earlier, the landmark Women's Reservation Bill was moved for consideration in the Rajya Sabha on Monday amidst unprecedented scenes of pandemonium with members of the SP, BSP and the RJD trying to attack Chairman Hamid Ansari.

While some members, including RJD's Rajniti Prasad, tore the copy of the Bill, Kamal Akhtar and Nand Kishore Yadav of the SP and some others tried to reach the Chair raising slogans against the bill.

The SP and RJD members tried to uproot the mike on the table of the Chairman and threw the stationery placed on it. The security attendants immediately swung into action and shielded the Chairman to prevent the agitated members from climbing on the table.

The unprecedented pandemonium was witnessed as soon as law minister M Veerappa Moily moved for consideration of the Bill which provides for 33 per cent reservation for women in Lok Sabha and state assemblies.

Meanwhile, when the Lok Sabha, which was earlier adjourned twice on the same issue, reassembled at 2pm, members of these parties led by RJD chief Lalu Prasad, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and JD(U) president Sharad Yadav, stormed the well shouting slogans.

As the slogan-shouting continued, Trinamool Congress members including its chief and railway minister Mamata Banerjee, were seen singing the famous song -- "We shall overcome some day".

Other Trinamool members, including minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi, chief whip Sudip Bandopadhyay and cine-star turned MP Shatabdi Roy, were heard singing the song in the House.

As the din continued, Deputy Speaker Karia Munda adjourned the House till 1500 hours.

Earlier in the day, SP, BSP and RJD members on Monday strongly opposed the Women's Reservation Bill in the Lok Sabha, with one of them even trying to climb the Speaker's podium, leading to adjournment of the House for the second time till 2pm. The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned after huge protests.

The bill, created storm in the Lok Sabha soon after Speaker Meira Kumar welcomed a Croatian delegation and read out a reference on International Women's Day.

The moment Kumar called for Question Hour, SP, BSP and RJD members trooped into the Well demanding quotas for OBC, Dalit and Muslim women within the proposed law to reserve 33 per cent seats in Parliament and State assemblies for the fair sex.

The Speaker refused to adjourn the House and carried on with the Question Hour. SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav gestured his party members to move forward and himself marched to the Well from the side of the treasury benches. Dara Singh Chauhan (BSP) and Lalu Prasad and Umashanker Singh (both RJD) followed Yadav.

Mithilesh Kumar (SP) tried to climb the table placed in front of the Speaker prompting Leader of the House Pranab Mukherjee to request Yadav to control his members.

On the SP chief's directive, the members retreated a bit but stayed put in the Well and continued to raise slogans.

The Rajya Sabha was also adjourned after Samajwadi Party members demanded that question hour be suspended to discuss the Women's Reservation Bill. When the house assembled at 11am, Chairman Hamid Ansari read out a message on the international Women's Day saying that among others "women have to be included in the decision making process".

As soon as he finished, Kamal Akhtar and other SP members were on their feet demanding that the report of the National Commission for Religious and Linguistic Minorities headed by Justice (retd) Ranganath Misra be discussed.

Ansari ruled it out on the ground that no notice had been served for this. As a handful of SP members advanced to towards the chairman's podium, Ansari adjourned the House.

Govt to talk to allies on fuel price hike: Pranab

NEW DELHI: Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee on Wednesday said that the government would talk to its allies on the issue of fuel price hike but gave enough hints that a rollback would be difficult.

Party sources said that Mukherjee briefed the Congress MPs about the salient features of the budget in the backdrop of the demands for a rollback in fuel prices and explained why reduction in the excise duty on petroleum products was difficult.

The finance minister informed the Congress MPs about the challenges before the government in the current economic scenario.

Mukherjee is learnt to have told the MPs that since no new taxes have been imposed in the budget and the government is expecting a GDP of 8.5 percent from 7.2 per cent in the outgoing financial year, some steps were required to mop up revenues. This was more so as the government plans to invest heavily in the social sector schemes, the sources said.

He also gave a comparative chart of the fuel price hike done under the UPA and the NDA respectively in which he explained that the rise in prices of petroleum products was far less during the UPA rule as compared to that of the NDA.

Mukherjee also told the MPs that the minimum support price for foodgrains was doubled under the UPA as compared to that under the NDA.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi is expected to explain the party's position on the issue of rollback when she addresses a meeting of the Congress Parliamentary Party on Thursday.