‘Routine’ scan on cash for Ash

New Delhi (PTI): The Enforcement Directorate has initiated a move to ascertain whether a case of foreign exchange violation could be made out in connection with the receipt of a parcel with 23,000 euros (Rs 13.88 lakh) addressed to actress Aishwarya Rai.

The directorate has asked the customs department in Mumbai to submit a report on the parcel sent to the actress’s old address by one Avineshwar from Rotterdam in September-end, official sources said.

Directorate officials termed the move routine as it probes all cases of recovery of foreign exchange. The customs department has already given a clean chit to Aishwarya.

Reacting to the directorate’s move, Samajwadi Party general secretary Amar Singh said the government would “have to pay” if it unnecessarily harassed any person. “If anybody is unnecessarily harassed, then let me tell you very clearly and categorically that the government and the system will have to pay,” he said.

Assam plea on Games

Guwahati: Waking up to the prospect of Ulfa’s call for a boycott of the 33rd National Games affecting participation in the mega event, Assam made an appeal to sports associations not to jump the gun and the militant group to refrain from causing a scare on Wednesday.

n whether the government would consider changing the name of the event from 33rd National Games to “Assam Sports Festival”, as demanded by Ulfa, state sports minister Pradyut Bordoloi said: “The National Games will remain National Games and it will be held as scheduled, without any security scare.”

Dilip Sen

Mumbai (PTI): Music composer Dilip Sen was arrested on Wednesday in a case of alleged cheating, a police official said.

He had taken Rs 2.5 lakh from the organisers of a show in Jharkhand in 2003, but he did not perform at the event, the official added.

Cancer count

New Delhi (PTI): About 7 to 9 lakh new cancer cases are detected every year in the country, the government told the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Nearly 50 per cent of these deaths are attributed to tobacco consumption, minister of state for health Panabaka Lakshmi said.

Snow deaths

Srinagar (PTI): Three army jawans were killed in an avalanche near the Line of Control in the Uri sector of Jammu and Kashmir. Four jawans of the Maratha Regiment were buried in the avalanche near a forward post in the Bijhama area of Baramulla district.

Over 250 retinal specialists from across the country and abroad will attend the 15th annual conference of the Vitreo Retinal Society of India at Kochi, beginning on Thursday.