tribuneindia... Nation

N A T I O N

Thursday, July 23, 1998

weather n spotlight
today's calendar

Reimbursement plan soon: Advani
States fighting militancy to be helped
NEW DELHI, July 22 — The Centre will soon formulate guidelines on reimbursement of expenses incurred by state governments in tackling insurgency, militancy and Naxalite movements having a bearing on national security, Home Minister L.K. Advani told the Rajya Sabha today...

Chief Minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Verma was fined Rs 100 by the Delhi Traffic Police for driving a scooter without helmet in South Delhi on Tuesday.

Make country flood-proof, says Chandumajra
NEW DELHI, July 22 — Mr Prem Singh Chandumajra, Shiromani Akali Dal MP from Punjab, today suggested that the Government should call a meeting of Chief Ministers of all flood-prone states to evolve strategy to tackle the menace of floods...
CM fined for driving without helmet
NEW DELHI, July 22 — The Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr Sahib Singh Verma, and the BJP vice-president, Mr K.L. Sharma were today fined Rs 100 by the Delhi Traffic Police for respectively driving and riding pillion on a scooter without wearing helmets...
800 cholera cases in Delhi
NEW DELHI, July 22 — About 800 cases of cholera and 789 cases of malaria have been reported in the Capital so far this year even though the Delhi Government claimed it was fully geared to tackle monsoon-related diseases...
Free cure for ‘needy’in Apollo Hospital
NEW DELHI, July 22 — Patients having monthly income up to Rs 10,000 would be entitled for free treatment in Apollo Hospital here under the “deserving and needy” category, the Delhi government informed the Delhi High Court today...
Bollywood honours Anand Bakshi
MUMBAI, July 22 — Bollywood honoured Hindi film lyricist Anand Bakshi on his 68th birthday and complimented the Karachi-born poet for penning over 4,000 songs for the Hindi film industry in 42 years...
Running post office from grocery shop
NEW DELHI, July 22 — The Mundka post office may be hardly 50 km away from India’s first fully computerised post office in the heart of the Capital but it functions from a grocery shop run by Arvind Prakash, the lone Post Master who doubles up as postman for a measly sum...

Reimbursement plan soon: Advani
States fighting militancy to be helped
NEW DELHI, July 22 (PTI) — The Centre will soon formulate guidelines on reimbursement of expenses incurred by state governments in tackling insurgency, militancy and Naxalite movements having a bearing on national security, Home Minister L.K. Advani told the Rajya Sabha today.
Replying to supplementaries during question hour on Naxalite problem in Andhra Pradesh and a few other states, Advani said the Centre had met security-related expenditure in Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir as special cases.
Policy guidelines would be formulated on how to extend such help to other states fighting extremist movements, he added.
The Home Minister, who was responding to a demand by a TDP member that the Centre should reimburse Rs 380 crore incurred by the Andhra Pradesh Government in fighting Naxalite movement in recent years, said the matter could not be decided on an “ad hoc basis”.
The government while wanting to deal with the Naxalite problem with a firm hand, would also look into the socio-economic causes behind the extremist movement and tackle the problem accordingly, Advani said.
“It will be a combination of both approaches”, he said.
Advani said the coordination committee constituted recently under the Union Home Secretary to tackle the Naxalite problems had held meetings for dealing with the situation.
M. Venkaiah Naidu (BJP) said members of Naxalite movement had access to sophisticated arms and wanted the security forces to be well-equipped.
Janeshwar Mishra (SP) said the root cause of the Naxal problem lay in depriving the tribals of their land and other sources of living and called for proper implementation of land reforms.
Replying to the main question, Advani said he had held a meeting of Chief Ministers of Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Orissa last month in Hyderabad to review the action taken by these states to curb activities of Left-wing extremists.
BHUBANESWAR: Orissa has submitted a Rs 8 crore proposal to the Centre for combating Naxalites activities in the southern districts of the state bordering Andhra Pradesh, according to Chief Minister J.B. Patnaik.
The plan was put before Advani who held a meeting of Chief Ministers of Naxalite-infested states, including Orissa, at Hyderabad recently. Patnaik said replying to the debate on the demand for grants relating to the Home Department on Tuesday night.

Make country flood-proof, says Chandumajra
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, July 22 — Mr Prem Singh Chandumajra, Shiromani Akali Dal MP from Punjab, today suggested that the Government should call a meeting of Chief Ministers of all flood-prone states to evolve strategy to tackle the menace of floods.
Participating in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on floods in various parts of the country, Mr Prem Singh said each year Rs 700 crore was earmarked for flood control which does not serve the purpose.
He said instead of just concentrating on flood control programme, the Government should come up with programme to make the country flood-proof.
The SAD MP, suggested that Chief Ministers of states affected by floods frequently should meet and each state’s requirement found out. The funds for it could be released in installments spread over some years. He said each year floods caused loss of lives, head of cattle, property and damaged crops too.
Suggesting steps to reduce the impact, he said, the Government should implement the farm scientists’ advice to dig five-metre deep ponds in areas where the rainfall was less than 1000 millimetres. This will generate 750 lakh metric hectares of water holding facility which will also help in solving water problem and it could be used for irrigation.
He also said that the depth of rivers should be increased and more canals created to check the overflow, while preventing flow in to small rivulets.
For hilly regions, he said, the Government could build dams which would serve dual purpose, of irrigation and controlling floods.
Referring to the efforts by Pakistan, he said, if that country could build a dam to change the course of river Ravi, towards Punjab and Rajasthan, why could India not do it.
Mr Prem Singh also referred to the extensive damage to crops and villages in districts of Patiala, Sangrur and Mansa.
The discussion was initiated by Mr Mohan Singh (SP) and among others who took part in it were Mr Moti Lal Vora (Congress), Mr Indrajit Mishra (BJP) and Hari Kewal Prasad (Samata).

CM fined for driving without helmet
Tribune News Service
NEW DELHI, July 22 — The Chief Minister of Delhi, Mr Sahib Singh Verma, was today fined Rs 100 by the Delhi Traffic Police for driving a scooter without helmet in South Delhi yesterday.
The BJP vice-president, Mr K.L. Sharma, who was riding pillion on the Chief Minister’s scooter was also fined Rs 100 for "first offence". The wearing of helmet by pillion riders was made mandatory following a Delhi High Court directive in November last.
A police inspector dramatically brought the "challan" while the Chief Minister was addressing a press conference at the Delhi Water Board headquarters here. Mr Sahib Singh took out Rs 200 and paid the fine.
The Chief Minister and the senior BJP leader took a scooter ride while they were touring the Outer Delhi constituency of Mr K.L. Sharma.
The Outer Delhi MP, Mr Sharma had embarked on a 21-day tour of his constituency to solve problems of the public on the spot.
A photograph of the two, on the scooter without helmets and flanked by several policemen appeared this morning in some newspapers.
The police, however, took action after getting a video tape of the incident.
Meanwhile, the Chief Minister categorically denied ever having named Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav or Laloo Prasad Yadav as being responsible for the spiraling crime rate in Delhi.
Mr Sahib Singh had been quoted as saying that "foreign hand" was behind the spiraling crime rate in the Capital, not from "across the border but criminals let loose by Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) president Laloo Prasad Yadav and Samajwadi Party president, Mulayam Singh Yadav".
"I have not named anybody. Both of them have been responsible Chief Ministers of their states and I am sure they will not do anything of that sort,"

he said, adding "Unless we have an evidence, we cannot blame anybody."

800 cholera cases in Delhi
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, July 22 — About 800 cases of cholera and 789 cases of malaria have been reported in the Capital so far this year even though the Delhi Government claimed it was fully geared to tackle monsoon-related diseases.
“We are fully prepared to tackle dengue and cholera,” Delhi Chief Minister, Sahib Singh Verma said, adding that only one dengue case had been reported so far from an East Delhi area.
Nearly 36 per cent of cholera cases had been reported each from unauthorised and village extensions and 14 per cent from JJ clusters, the Chief Minister said, adding that 220 tankers of potable water had been provided for the areas to prevent people from drinking hand pump water.
It had also been decided to fill low-lying areas in unauthorised colonies and initiate a drainage system to prevent breeding of mosquitoes, he said.
The Municipal Commissioner, Mr V. K. Duggal, who was also present at the press conference, claimed no water-logging or mosquito-breeding had been found in Ganesh Nagar in East Delhi where the first dengue case was reported.
“Our team had gone to neighbouring NOIDA where that patient works to see whether he could have contacted it there,” Mr Duggal said.The Chief Minister said to improve the power shortage in the Capital, the state government has decided to construct six more power project with a capacity of 200 to 300 megawatts, besides two plants at Bawana where the first phase would be commissioned the next summer.
He said though the Capital had to face a shortage of nearly 2000 MW due to the strike in the UP State Electricity Board recently, enough power was supplied from the northern grid.
Meanwhile, the Union Power Secretary and the Delhi Vidyut Board Chairman today appeared before the Delhi High Court in view of the summons issued on a petition seeking directions to the authorities for ensuring uninterrupted and continuous power supply.

Free cure for ‘needy’in Apollo Hospital
NEW DELHI, July 22 (PTI) — Patients having monthly income up to Rs 10,000 would be entitled for free treatment in Apollo Hospital here under the “deserving and needy” category, the Delhi government informed the Delhi High Court today.
In an affidavit submitted before a Division Bench of Acting Chief Justice Mahinder Narain and Justice Mukul Mudgal, the government said “a maximum limit of Rs 10,000 has been prescribed keeping in view the expenditure on medicines and medical consumerables,” to be borne by the patients.
The affidavit said Apollo Hospital would also provide treatment to the patients referred to it by the government hospitals due to lack of facilities there.
Government counsel Arvind K. Nigam also submitted “Delhi state essential drug formulary”, containing list of essential drugs to be supplied in the government hospital free of cost.
The court on earlier hearings had directed the government to furnish the list of drugs being provided free by the government to the patients in its hospitals as the petitioner All India Lawyers Union (AILU), represented by counsel Ashok Aggarwal had contended that Apollo Hospital was supposed to provide medicines free of cost under an agreement with the government.

Bollywood honours Anand Bakshi
MUMBAI, July 22 (PTI) — Bollywood honoured Hindi film lyricist Anand Bakshi on his 68th birthday and complimented the Karachi-born poet for penning over 4,000 songs for the Hindi film industry in 42 years.
A virtual who’s who of Bollywood led by thespian Dilip Kumar felicitated the maestro and toasted him with champagne at a glittering event late last night, the first of its kind organised for a lyricist in the history of the film industry.
Organised by producer-director Subash Ghai under the banner of his production house Mukta Arts to record the contributions made by the living legend among song writers to his movies for the past 20 years, the fete also synchronised with the golden jubilee week of the Ghai production “Pardes”.
Dilip Kumar presented a crown enclosed in a casket to Anand Bakshi on behalf of the “Mukta Arts”. Music maestro A.R. Rehman did the honour of giving away the tips music trophy.
Video screens showed clips of film songs penned by Anand Bakshi over four decades, besides file photographs dating back to his days as a naval cadet.
A standing ovation was accorded to him by the gathering which included Nida Fazli, Hasan Kamal, Jagjit Singh, Yash Chopra, MPs Vinod Khanna and Shabana Azmi, Javed Akhtar, Anu Malik and Jackie Shroff.

Running post office from grocery shop
NEW DELHI, July 22 (PTI) — The Mundka post office may be hardly 50 km away from India’s first fully computerised post office in the heart of the Capital but it functions from a grocery shop run by Arvind Prakash, the lone Post Master who doubles up as postman for a measly sum.
Prakash is not alone. There are nearly three lakh such extra departmental agents (EDAs) — as these rural postmen are known — serving thousands of such post offices in some of the most inaccessible areas without a definite pay scale and no leave whatsoever.
Constituted by the Britons almost 150 years ago to provide postal services to the rural and inaccessible hinterland of India by paying peanuts, the current status of these EDAs is a glaring example of continued exploitation by successive governments.
For years they have trudged the entire length and breadth of their areas generally sprawling up to 50 sq km or three to four villages without a decent mode of transportation connecting the world with the hinterland on bicycles or soles.
“I have been running this post office here in Mundka since ’93 after getting the due permission from authorities. But no space, furniture or any facility was provided to me to set up this office,” says Prakash.
The Mundka village provides postal services to nearby villages of Bakaruala, Udaulnagar, Sauranpark, Railway Colony covering around 45 km distance. To supplement his measly income, Prakash who earns a little over Rs 1000, has set up a grocery shop in the post office premises, which he runs with the help of his brothers.
The shop-cum-post office constitutes the front portion of Prakash’s modest house. It is a small dimly lit room of 1.5 x 1.8 mt strewn with groceries and gunny bags. A corner of the shop is stacked with postal stationery and documents.
The timings of the post office are from 9 am to 2 pm but “invariably, it is opened till late night as the customers come to buy provisions and use the postal services along with it, “says Prakash.
“I cannot run my family of 10 members on the meagre salary of Rs 1451 per month as a branch postmaster. We are grossly underpaid and overly hardpressed. The shop provides that ‘extra’ to ease us of the financial burden,” explains Prakash.
Besides the obsolete salary structure, there is no provision for availing leave. If they do avail one, the replacement has to provide by them, says Prakash claiming that he has not availed himself of the leave for the past five years.
Mr Prakash is assisted in his task by Rajbir, an eighth standard drop-out who works from morning till late evening as the sole delivery agent for the entire village area.
“On an average there are 500 letters daily for my area, which have to be fetched from the main post office at Nangaloi in the first hour of the day. To do so, I have to travel on a bicycle and there is no allowance given for it at all,” says Rajbir.
He is assisted in his work by Prakash who after the duty hours, entrusts the shop to his brother and sets out to deliver the posts in the remaining areas thus playing dual role of a postman and postmaster. Rajbir draws a meagre salary of Rs 1368 per month in which he maintains his old bicycle too!.
With a statement laced with contempt towards the government, Prakash says “The authorities are saving a lot of money by employing EDAs as recruiting regular personnel would mean spending around Rs 25,000 while they have to pay me and my assistant only Rs 2800.
Recently the government promised them that it would resolve their demands including implementation of Justice Talwar Committee recommendations “very soon”.
Though the EDA’s slog more than the city postman, it is the label of the ‘EDA’ which segregates them and is working against their cause.
Clubbed in the category of part-time workers, they fall outside the ambit of any wage board recommendations or any other wage deal that unions may strike with the government, leaving them to their own fate.
Says B.D. Pruthi, EDA rights activist, “in the 50th year of Indian independence, it’s a matter of great shame and pity that EDAs continue to be a neglected work force despite the fact that they cater to a widespread rural populace and have still not come out of the clutches of their exploiter which were earlier the Britons and now their own countrymen.”
Various committees constituted from time to time have not been blind to EDA’s plight and have suggested the status of a government employee for them. But failure of their implementation continues to plague these messengers, who continue to strengthen postal services in rural areas where lies the soul of India.

In brief
Manipur scribes float body
IMPHAL: A Journalists Front, Manipur has been formed by representatives of three scribes’ organisations for the protection of their rights and to take up programmes for mediapersons in the state, a joint statement said on Wednesday. The front was formed on Tuesday during a joint meeting of representatives of the All-Manipur Working Journalists Union, the All-Manipur Journalists Association, and the Manipur State Journalists Association. —PTI
Nitric oxide gas to save patients
NEW DELHI: Doctors at the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences, here, have used nitric oxide gas to widen the narrow blood vessels of persons suffering from adult respiratory distress syndrome (ARDS). This is the first time nitric oxide has been used in India as an agent to open up narrow blood conduits, carrying oxygen to the peripheral organs, said Mr H.L. Kaul, Head, Department of Anaesthesiology and Intensive Care at the AIIMS.
The gas, a well known atmospheric pollutant, when used in a low quantity is very effective in treating ARDS and its higher concentration is dangerous for the body. —PTI
Jail riot after detainee’s death
IMPHAL: Irate inmates of Sajiwa Jail here on Tuesday forced the authorities to sign an agreement with them conceding their demands for a better deal after a daylong riot. Jail inmates went on a rampage and burnt down the medical centre inside the jail after a detainee died on Tuesday morning while receiving treatment. Enraged at the death of a fellow prisoner, jail inmates broke down doors of their cells in the prison and locked the main door of the jail from inside after taking hostage the doctor in the medical centre. —UNI
Central university status
NEW DELHI: The government is considering to grant the central university status to Allahabad University, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Madan Lal Khurana indicated in the Lok Sabha on Wednesday. Replying to a question raised by Samajwadi Party member Shailendra Kumar during zero hour, Mr Khurana said he had discussed the issue with the Human Resource Development Minister, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi, and had got an indication from him that the ministry was considering granting central university status to Allahabad University.

—PTI