Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will arrive here on Wednesday on a day’s visit to offer prayers at the nearby famous hill shrine of Lord Venkateswara and also lay the foundation stones for some projects.
This would be Dr Singh’s second visit to the ancient shrine and the first after UPA II came to power. Earlier, he had offered prayers at the temple on September 25, 2005. Dr Singh would arrive at Renigunta by a special IAF aircraft at 10.30 am and proceed to Mannavaram, 35 km from here, for laying the foundation stone of the Rs 6,000-crore NTPC-BHEL joint venture manufacturing plant for power equipment, officials said.
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Hooda against honour killing law
New Delhi : Haryana chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda on Tuesday disfavoured framing of any special provision to deal with the cases of “honour” killing, saying that the existing law is sufficient enough to handle such matters.
“Murder is murder, whoever commits (it) with whatever motive. It’s not a question of (involvement of) a panchayat or an individual. Law is already there (to deal with such cases). Efforts should be made to get them punished (under the existing law),” he told reporters here. Mr Hooda was replying to a question whether there should be a special provision to deal with the cases of “honour” killings. —PTI
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Quraishi: Can’t control paid news
Panaji : Chief Election commissioner of India S.Y. Quraishi on Tuesday said the commission cannot control media players indulging in paid news practices during the elections. “Our role comes in picture only when the candidate exceeds the expenditure ceiling. We cannot question the media, our powers extend only to candidates,” Mr Quraishi said here.
He said it is for the Press Council of India to set guidelines for the media. When pointed out that the electronic media is out of PCI’s ambit, Mr Quraishi said there is a lacunae and a special body needs to be formed covering all the media.
The CEC said the paid news issue extends beyond the poll period. —PTI
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Telangana activists sing tough tune
AGE CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi
Peeved at the government’s supposed apathy towards the cause of a separate Telangana, the supporters of a separate state of Telangana have begun to use intimidatory language. This could be gauged from the statements of Niroop Reddy, who happens to be the convenor of the National Federation of New States.
The president of the forum is Amar Singh. During the course of an interaction with the media on Tuesday in the capital, Mr Reddy warned the government that India would go the Soviet Union way if the demand for a separate state of Telangana is not met.