OID‰†‰KOID‰†‰OID‰†‰MOID‰†‰C N ew Delhi, Saturday,N ovember 1, 2003www.timesofindia.com C apital 36 pa ges* Invita tion Price Rs.1.50 International India Sport Abdullah the new Amitabh will strike a India take on Malaysian PM as chord with children Australia in Mahathir bows out as Unicef ambassador Mumbai match Page 13 Page 6 Page 17 WIN WITH THE TIMES Graphic: Nirmal Sharma/Text: Sanjay Anand GOVT CLEARS UNIFIED LICENSING IN TELECOM Established 1838 Bennett, Coleman & Co., Ltd. Don’t step on our toes: SC Simply put Costlier or cheaper? This means landline/WLL-M companies like No one’s clear yet. Reliance and Tatas will It doesn’t matter who yo u Reliance and Tata Indicom can offer cellular have to cough up Rs 1,600 crore and Rs v ote f or, the Government TIMES NEWS NETWORK discharged by a retired bureaucrat as head of the commission created to services with automatic roaming, without 500 crore, respectively. Sources say, al w a ys g ets in. separate cellular licences. More operational N ew Delhi: The Supreme Court on Some years later, the deal with mergers and demergers of despite this, tariffs may not go up. flexibility for companies — Anonymous Friday lambasted the Centre over the ‘‘government will say that it companies running into thousands of Here’s how: appointment of a retired bureaucrat crores and the orders of which were ‘‘ What’s the idea? ● These players as chairman of the newly-created will replace all the 26 to be executed by the high courts?’’ NEWS DIGEST Competition Commission — which Govt feels this will end knew this was judges of the Supreme Jain raised the preliminary objec- cellular-landline wars. coming, so they has replaced the MRTPC headed by a tion. He said the MRTPC was always judge. ‘‘If these things are allowed to Court with bureaucrats New regime will let have back-up headed by a retired Chief Justice of a everyone offer all continue, then the day is not far when high court. ● They expect the bureaucrats will replace all the Bench headed by CJI V N Khare services; less confusion The Bench said: ‘‘The matter was for users consumer base judges in the country,’’ the court said. very serious’’. will grow enough An anguished Bench of Chief Jus- Sorabjee. Sorabjee gave an undertak- When the high court was the exe- Will it work? to balance the tice V N Khare and Justice S B Sinha ing on behalf of the Centre that till cuting court for the orders passed by It won’t be smooth for new charge also termed it a ‘‘direct attempt’’ to further orders the commission would the commission, how could a bureau- sure. Cellular operators ● not carry out judicial functions. He Competition is encroach upon the judiciary. crat head the commission? the court have threatened to chal- would only deal with administrative stiff, raising tariff ‘‘It is a direct encroachment on ju - wondered. Jain referred to a 1987 lenge the move; they dicial functioning. It is a direct on - matters. judgment which had held that ‘‘all would be a have already moved SC bad idea slaught on the high courts. Some Petitioner Brahm Dutt’s counsel R those tribunals which function as a against letting landline years later, the government will say K Jain challenged the creation of the substitute to the high courts to deal companies offer WLL-M that it will replace all the 26 judges of commission and appointment of for- with certain matters should ordinar- Bottom line the Supreme Court with bureaucrats. mer commerce secretary Deepak ily be headed by a retired Chief Jus- Add-ons Companies may make up for new You must restrain your hand,’’ CJI Chatterjee as its chairman. tice of a high court or a senior judge WLL-M users, at present 6m, will get ser- investments through new services Khare told attorney general Soli J ‘‘How could a judicial function be of the high court’’. vices like automatic roaming, Internet etc. ▲ RBI may cut bank rate: RBI is More on page 15 likely to scale up its GDP growth projection for this year to 6.5 per cent from 6 per cent on Monday. It Varun barred Pakistan happy may also signal softer interest rates Next time, we’ll get you to boost investment. P15 PTI Jogi sings two with India’s No further bail for Daler: The from Indira Delhi High Court has refused ‘partial’ reply to extend the interim anticipatory memorial bail of Punjabi pop singer Daler Islamabad: Notwithstand- Mehndi in an immigration racket TIMES NEWS NETWORK tunes on EC ing New Delhi’s strong reac- case. P6 tion to Islamabad’s Kash- N ew Delhi: Feroze Varun TIMES NEWS NETWORK mir-centric proposals, Pak- Breather for schools: Private Gandhi was barred from en- tering a memorial service at N ew Delhi: After a long istan promised on Friday to schools will not be required to put implement all mutually- aside 20 per cent seats for poor Shakti Sthal for his grand- meeting with Chief Elec- children as the draft Bill on mother, the late Prime Min- tion Commissioner J M agreed measures to improve admission quota for poor children ister Indira Gandhi, on her L yngdoh and other Elec- relations with India. does not specify the minimum death anniversary on Fri- tion Commission (EC) offi- “Pakistan welcomes In- number of seats to be reserved day. Police cited ‘security cials on F riday, Chhattis- dia’s response to the for them. P11 reasons’. garh chief minister Ajit proposals though it remains Varun, who had taken Jo gi criticised the EC f or Ajit Jogi Lyngdoh partial and once again tries Anand wins Rapid Chess: to exclude core issues,” for - Viswanathan Anand toppled along a hundred supporters den ying his g over nment complaints against the topseed Vladimir Kramnik of Russia with him, has written to ‘‘na tur al justice’ ’ b y tr a n s - Congress. He accused the eign office spokesman to win the World Rapid Chess Delhi chief minister Sheila fer ring its of ficials . BJP of attac king and as- Masood Khan said in a Championship in France. P20 Dikshit, alleging “malafide H ow ever, a senior EC of - saulting tr uc k driver s car - statement. intentions” and “political ficial said tha t in the meet - rying school bags with his He, however, said India vendetta”. ing , Jo gi g av e a 10-pa g e photograph and slo gan. should not “obstruct steps” The memorial, organised memorandum and request- T herefore, the EC should, to provide “some relief” to by the Delhi government, ed the commission to hear he said, hear both sides be- the Kashmiris. “India was attended by Vice-Presi- his point of vie w bef or e for e giving its decision. should not misconstrue dent Bhairon Singh taking action. Jogi, he said, His memorandum says, steps proposed by Islama- Shekhawat, leader of the also pr omised cooperation ‘‘Such lapses and miscar- bad for the welfare of Kash- Opposition in the Lok Sab- in futur e. ria ge of justice could not miris as well as modalities ha Sonia Gandhi and other But outside the commis- have occured if the com- for Srinagar-Muzaffarabad VIPs. Police say Varun’s sion, it w as a dif fer ent J o gi. mission had follo w ed the bus service,” the statement friends did not have entry He said the EC’s actions principle of n a tur al jus - said. indiatimes.com POLL passes, but Varun says have forced him to speak tice .’’On the alle gation tha t “If India is serious, it Who is a bigger brand they did. out. He ask ed the EC to r e- two retur ning of ficer s w er e should not obstruct steps in Bollywood? In his “serious protest” to consider its decision to transfer red over the distri - that may provide some relief Dikshit, Varun says: “I was transfer two ‘‘upright SC’’ to the Kashmiris trapped in Amitabh Aishwarya b ution of sc hool bags with told by the security officers of ficials . J o gi also b l a m e d a tragic situation,” it said, 85% 15% his photo graph, Jogi clari - that we could not go in as it the BJP and other parties fied tha t if the controversy referring to India’s rebuff to VOTE NOW : Do you agree with Shoaib was a security risk.” He for his f a te. According to w as over these, he could Pakistan’s proposal for pro- that new stringent rules have made Shoaib Akhtar presents the Moment of the Year award to Sachin Tendulkar for then asked the policemen to him, they have flooded the h av e g ot these r e m o v ed f or viding assistance to “Kash- cricket a ‘girlie’ game? the six the master blaster hit off the Pakistani pace bowler in the 2003 World let them pay their respects commission with ‘‘frivo- the sake of students. miri students, widows and Vote on indiatimes.com or SMS ‘Poll’ to 8888 Cup. The awards function was held in Mumbai late Thursday night. from the non-VIP area, lous, false and f abricated’ ’ Jogi schoolbags: P7 rape victims.” PTI but even that was not allowed. by Laxman YOU SAID IT He alleges “malafide in- Hockey boys on a high tentions” on the part of the police and adds that “they By Errol D’Cruz from the penalty spot in the 8th were obviously acting un- TIMES NEWS NETWORK minute after Deepak Thakur and der orders.’’ He also says: Gagan groped on the turf to outwit “For others it may be a po- H yderabad: India shot down more Pakistan goalkeeper Qasim Moham- litical occasion, for the fam - than one jinx on Friday while hum- mad.