Hostels to chant meal mantras

Jaipur (PTI): Ignoring all opposition, the recitation of the Vedic Bhojan Mantra before meals has been formally introduced in all hostels run by the social welfare department of the Rajasthan government.

The recitation by the hostel inmates has been made compulsory under new rules issued recently by the department, official sources said.

The rules were issued after the panchayat polls last month, the sources added.

There was a hue and cry when social welfare minister Madan Dilawar announced last year that recitation of the Bhojan Mantra would be made compulsory for inmates of the hostels run by his department.

Although no orders were issued last year, the mantra was made compulsory in the hostels informally, the sources said.

Several human rights and Left organisations had opposed the move, saying that it would saffronise the hostel environment.

Corrupt minister quits

Mumbai: Nationalist Congress Party leader Suresh Jain resigned from the Democratic Front government on Thursday after an inquiry commission found him guilty of corruption, reports our special correspondent.

Jain, Maharashtra?s minister for technical and higher education, is among four ministers indicted by the Justice P.B. Sawant Commission, which investigated charges made by anti-corruption crusader Anna Hazare.

Jain?s resignation comes a day after the Vilasrao Deshmukh cabinet decided to table the commission report in the Assembly session beginning on Monday.

The Sushil Kumar Shinde government had appointed the one-man commission on September 1, 2003, after Hazare staged a hunger strike demanding a probe into corruption charges against the four ministers.

Hazare had charged Jain with misappropriation of funds in the Jalgaon district cooperative bank when he was its director.

J&K highway blocked again

Srinagar (PTI): Fresh landslides blocked the Srinagar-Jammu highway on Thursday.

Landslides triggered by torrential rain at Somroli in Udhampur blocked the arterial road, police said. Several buses, which left for Jammu, were stranded at Pantha Chowk on the outskirts of Srinagar.

Film ban appeal

Mumbai (PTI): The Kerala Catholic Association has claimed that the controversial film Sins has been banned in Jammu and Kashmir and urged other states to follow suit. The film, which depicts the sexual escapades of a priest, has enraged the Christian community, which had undertaken a protest drive in Maharashtra. Bombay High Court had dismissed a plea for a stay on the film.

Trombay notice

Mumbai (PTI): Bombay High Court on Thursday directed the Centre to reply to a public interest litigation filed by an NGO, which pleaded that the nuclear weapon development establishment situated within the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre be shifted from the densely populated Trombay. The Centre was asked to respond by April 6. The Citizens for a Just Society said the centre is situated in an quake zone and in case of disasters, radiations could have a harmful effect on the population.

RSS worker killed

Kunnur(PTI): An RSS activist was stabbed to death by a group of persons suspected to be members of the National Democratic Front in Kerala on Thursday. Tashwin Kumar, 32, district convener of the Hindu Aikyavedi, was attacked while he was travelling in a bus. Kumar was from Punnad locality where an NDF activist was killed near a mosque by suspected RSS workers last year.

Woman suicide

Sonepat (PTI): Fed up with her unemployed husband and a family quarrel, a pregnant woman, along with her two children, committed suicide on Wednesday. Anju, wife of Mahipal of Rajpur, their daughter Sapna, 4, and son Rahul, 2, jumped before a train near the Rajpur railway station.

Mohan veena exponent and Grammy award winner Pundit Vishwa Mohan Bhatt and violinist L. Subramaniam will perform in Dubai on Friday to raise funds for tsunami victims.