Tuesday, November 10, 1998

DSEA applicable to aided schools: HC
NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — The Delhi High Court today ruled that the Delhi School Education Act, 1973, would apply to all government-aided schools in the Capital, including those run by minorities.

India agrees to AIDS vaccine trial
NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — India has decided to join global efforts to develop AIDS vaccine and, after casting aside years of hesitation, has agreed to offer sites for international vaccine trials.

IT, Customs staff stir from today
NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — Work at international airports, cargo complexes and sea ports are likely to be severely affected with more than one lakh officers and other employees of Income Tax, Central Excise and Customs going on a three-day strike from tomorrow.

300 Trinamool workers court arrest
CALCUTTA, Nov 9 — As part of a series of agitation programmes announced by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, over 300 women workers of the party courted arrest here today while protesting against the spiralling prices of essential commodities.

ED interrogation of Jain to go on
NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — The Enforcement Directorate was today allowed by the Supreme Court to further interrogate media baron Ashok Jain in connection with certain alleged FERA violation cases after the investigating agency informed the court that the process of examining him was not yet complete.

Romesh Sharma arrest
Test case for police, says Advani
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — The Home Minister, Mr L K Advani, today underlined the need for creating a climate in the country to make it difficult for terrorists and criminals to develop an infrastructure for refuge and support.

Inaugurating a three-day conference of directors general and inspectors-general of police here today, Mr Advani said terrorism should be fought within the framework of democracy as well as the rule of law and human rights.

He referred to countries like the United Kingdom which faced secessionist forces and terrorist violence and had shown that such a democratic framework could effectively deal with the challenge of terrorism mainly because the political climate worked against secession and terrorism.

Mr Advani also asked the police to obtain detailed information on the new engines of instability like religious, ethnic, sub-national and fundamentalist tensions.

From the viewpoint of national security, he said there was need for properly calibrating the implications of the nexus between criminals and politicians.

Similarly, the impact on the body politic by the increasing involvement of transnational criminal organisations would have to be studied and preventive measures found.

In an apparent reference to the Romesh Sharma case, Mr Advani said the BJP Government was attaching great importance to the unearthing of a racket in the Capital recently in which the front man of a mafia don who had been operating from abroad for years in collusion with the ISI was organising violence and subversion in our country.

The Home Minister said: "This is a case not just of extortion, corruption and racketeering. It is a matter of national security. This is a test case for the police and investigating agencies. The scandal must be busted and the culprits brought to book."

Referring to his address at the chief ministers’ conference in Hyderabad recently, Mr Advani emphasised the need to educate people about Left-wing extremism.

"It, therefore, deserves to be dealt with firmness and urgency," he said.

On crime against women, Mr Advani said apart from being a national shame, it tended to destroy the fabric of the polity. He said the growth of crime against women over the years was much higher as compared to the overall incidence of crime.

He said the conviction rate in cases of crime against women was significantly lower than the national average and a concerted drive was required to deal with different aspects of the problem.

The Home Minister also complimented the police for effectively dealing with the internal security situation.

Earlier, welcoming the delegates, the Director of the Intelligence Bureau, Mr Shymal Dutta, emphasised the pivotal role the conference had acquired over the years, especially as it provided the government access to the collective experience and wisdom of heads of various police organisations.

He also highlighted the need to implement the recommendations of the National Police Commission on a priority basis.

The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, is scheduled to address the conference tomorrow.

Fodder case
ED probes Romesh’s role
From Syed Ali Ahmed

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — The Enforcement Directorate (ED) has begun probe into the alleged involvement of Romesh Sharma in the Rs 950 crore fodder scam case.

The probe was launched by the ED following the Patna High Court directive in this regard on Friday last.

The ED is planning to get in touch with the investigating agencies like the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the Delhi Police for obtaining relevant documents and materials relating to the fodder scam cases. This will enable the investigating officers to ascertain whether there was any violation of the Foreign Exchange Regulation Act (FERA), sources said.

The Patna High Court has directed the CBI to provide the relevant materials to the ED as well as the Income Tax Department for a separate investigation into the alleged involvement of Romesh Sharma into the multi-crore fodder scam.

Meanwhile, even though Romesh Sharma had been using the name of India’s one of the largest business house to con people, the other henchmen of Dawood Ibrahim had actually threatened senior executives of the industrial house to cough up money.

According to sources, the investigating agencies had evidence by way of taped conversation between Romesh Sharma and Abu Salem, the henchman of Dawood Ibrahim, in which the latter had asked the President of All India Bharatiya Congress Party to ensure that the amount due from the industrial house, which has its headquarters in Western India, was paid to them. The investigating agencies which had been keeping a close watch on Romesh Sharma had also taped his conversation with the henchmen of Dawood.

Sources said after the industrial house had refused to pay of the amount, which was a staggering Rs 32 crore, a very senior executive of the company started receiving threatening calls from one of the henchmen of Dawood.

According to sources, Sharma had also been planning terrorists strikes throughout the country on the instructions of the Dubai-based don. The All India Bharatiya Congress had reportedly demanded a sum of Rs 5 crore each from the Dubai-based don for 15 persons, whom he would arrange for strikes.

The investigating agencies had also apparently taped the conversation of Sharma with Dawood’s henchmen, Chota Shakeel and Irfan Goga, which had pointed towards this conspiracy. The investigating agencies had also reportedly confronted Romesh Sharma with the tapes which contained the conversation.

Cong nominee’s papers rejected
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — Having left no stone unturned to dissuade rebel candidates from contesting the Delhi Assembly poll, the Congress received a jolt today when the nomination papers of its official candidate from Seemapuri were rejected.

Mr Vir Singh’s nomination papers were rejected on the ground that he had failed to prove that he was not holding an office of profit at the time of filing his nominations.

The Election Commission said today that 98 candidates had withdrawn from the electoral fray from 62 assembly segments.

A total of 1051 candidates had filed papers for 70 assembly segments and after scrutiny 935 candidates were left in the fray.

On the last date of withdrawal of nominations for the Delhi Assembly poll, the two main political parties, the BJP and the Congress — managed to persuade some rebel candidates to opt out of the electoral fray.

The talks being held over the past two days between senior BJP city leaders and the rebels resulted in at least 10 of them withdrawing from the race.

The sitting BJP MLA from Karawal Nagar, Mr Ram Pal Kiranha, who was denied the ticket in favour of Mr Mohan Singh Bisht, has withdrawn his nomination following his meeting with senior functionaries of the Delhi BJP unit.

The Delhi unit of the Congress was, however, unable to persuade the rebel Congress candidate from the Gole Market constituency, Mr Romesh Sabharwal, to withdraw his candidature.

The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, is contesting from this assembly segment. For the BJP, sitting MLA, Kirti Azad is seeking re-election from the same constituency.

Three BJP rebel candidates who filed their nomination papers in the Shalimar Bagh assembly segment, which was represented by the former Chief Minister, Mr Sahib Singh Verma in the last assembly poll, have withdrawn their papers. The rebel candidates were Mr Tilak Raj Kataria, a senior RSS functionary, and leaders of the local unit of the BJP, Mr Brij Mohan Wig and Mr J P Kapoor.

Among other BJP rebels who have withdrawn their candidature include Mr Jai Kishan Dasgupta from Seelampur and Mr Ramesh Pahadia from Ambedkar Nagar (reserved).

Mr Harcharan Singh Josh, a former convener of the AICC (minority cell), who had filed the nomination papers as an Independent in the Sadar assembly segment, today withdrew in favour of the official candidate, Mr Rajesh Jain.

Meanwhile, campaigning began with candidates of both the Congress and the BJP doing padyatras and distributing pamphlets.

Some of the issues raised by the candidates in the padyatras included price rise, power and water shortage, law and order problem and flawed public distribution system.

While the Congress candidates highlighted the failures of the BJP government, the BJP candidates stressed upon the achievements of the party during its five-year tenure.

Meanwhile, Mr Jaswinder Singh Virk, President of the Delhi State Shiromani Akali Dal (Amritsar), told The Tribune News Service here today that his party is contesting the Vishnu Garden seat on its own election symbol of "a shield and two swords."

Mr Virk said that their leader, Mr Simranjit Singh Mann would participate in campaigning.

Congress promises power to people

BHOPAL, Nov 9 (PTI) — The Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh, today expressed the confidence that the Congress would get more than 170 out of 320 seats in the November 25 assembly elections in the state.

Talking to newsmen after releasing the Congress manifesto for the elections Mr Digvijay Singh said he was not saying this on the basis of any survey but on his own assessment.

He said the assembly elections in four states would be a referendum on the BJP-led coalition government at the Centre.

The Congress would seek votes not only on the basis of the poor performance of the Vajpayee government but also on the ruling Congress government's achievements in the state like establishing panchayati raj, empowerment of women and Dalits and strengthening local body institutions, he added.

The manifestos for Madhya Pradesh and the proposed state of Chattisgarh promise more power to the people.

The ambitious manifestos guarantee employment to at least one member of every family besides a house.

The Congress would continue to work for 'lokniti' (people's policy) and continue to strengthen the roots of democracy taking new initiatives of empowering people to call back their representatives in case they found them unfit to serve them. The modalities of such a provision, however, has not been elaborated in the manifesto.

"Garib ka raj, aarthik swaraj, kal nahi aaj" is the 'sankalp' (resolution) of the Congress for the people of the state and will include in it ambit development, progress and social justice. The manifestos offered stability, continuity and mobility under its governance if voted to power.

Barnala should quit: Cong
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 — The Congress today demanded the resignation of the Food and Civil Supplies Minister, Mr Surjit Singh Barnala, following the observation of the Prime Minister that the ministry was perhaps not sufficiently alert to warning signals on the price rise particularly onions.

Commenting on the Prime Minister’s observation, the Congress also demanded that the matter should be immediately examined and the erring officials and the minister be punished.

“If what the Prime Minister has said it true, we demand that the Food Minister should resign”, party spokesman Anil Shastri said here today.

The Prime Minister had told reporters on Saturday that beyond a point the government could do little about the price rise and had said that probably the Food Ministry was not alert to the warning signals. He further said and that the administration continued to export onions even after the shortage was evident. By the time corrective action could be taken, the prices had shot up.

Mr Shastri also referred to a letter written by the Union Environment Minister, Mr Suresh Prabhu, to the Food Minister regarding the imminent shortage of onions.

The government’s failure to act in time had resulted in the price of this essential vegetable touching an unprecedented level where even the upper middle class could not afford it, he charged.

Mr Shastri said what was even more shocking was the admission that rumour mongers had more credibility than the administration and said it was time for the government to wake up and solve the problem.

Referring to the Romesh Sharma case, the party’s other spokesman, Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar, charged the Home Minister was scuttling the investigation by “selectively exonerating the Chief Minister of Delhi”.

“It is even more deplorable that the Prime Minister has now joined the Home Minister in skewing the investigation. What is more, this gross impropriety has been committed when the Chief Minister of Delhi is facing a severe electoral challenge in her state,” he said.

The Congress also said that “trial by innuendo taking place on a daily basis at the BJP’s official briefing” was also unacceptable. He questioned if the BJP government was leaking confidential information to its party headquarters or was the BJP spokesman given to the “flights of fantasy”.

DSEA applicable to aided schools: HC

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today ruled that the Delhi School Education Act (DSEA), 1973, would apply to all government-aided schools in the Capital, including those run by minorities.

Disposing of a writ petition against an order of the Delhi School Tribunal (DST), justifying dismissal of a post-graduate teacher by the management of ‘Jain Sanmopaska Senior Secondary School’ at Sadar Bazaar here, Justice K Ramamoorthy set aside the tribunal’s October 1995 order and asked it to reconsider the matter on merit.

Mr R P Sharma, an English teacher with the school dismissed from service prior to 1995, had moved the High Court against the DST order turning down his appeal challenging the termination.

The court said DST’s view on “non-applicability” of DSEA in this case could not be “sustained”. “When the DST took the view that the Act will not apply in the present case, it will mean the tribunal has no jurisdiction to entertain the appeal,” it observed.

If the tribunal’s view on non-applicability of the Act in the present case was considered to be right, then it should have refrained from going into the merit of the case, the court said adding that the reliance for considering the school as minority institution by the tribunal was “misconceived”.

India agrees to AIDS vaccine trial

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (PTI) — India has decided to join global efforts to develop AIDS vaccine and, after casting aside years of hesitation, has agreed to offer sites for international vaccine trials.

The far-reaching decision, which still needs a formal Cabinet approval, was taken yesterday after a two-day brain storming meeting of officials from India’s National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO), the United States National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the United Nations AIDS (UNAIDS) programme.

J V R Prasad Rao, chief of NACO, announced that a core group would soon be formed to work out details of the programme to be submitted to the Cabinet for a political decision.

Mr Rao said the government had already accepted the need for AIDS vaccine and that "we have the capability to develop it with international support".

NACO, with assistance from NIH and UNAIDS, plans to create an "umbrella" organisation comprising a multi-disciplinary team with administrative and financial independence to take up all aspects of AIDS vaccine research and trials on "a mission mode".

"It will link Indian AIDS researchers with counterparts abroad and develop a flexible plan for producing candidate vaccine and testing them," said Vulimiri Ramalingaswami, former chief of Indian Council of Medical Research and the prime mover of the Indian vaccine initiative.

IT, Customs staff stir from today

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (PTI) — Work at international airports, cargo complexes and sea ports are likely to be severely affected with more than one lakh officers and other employees of Income Tax, Central Excise and Customs going on a three-day strike from tomorrow.

The strike, called by the Coordinating Committee (COC) of Federations in the Revenue Department to protest against the non-implementation of higher pay scales recommended by a panel formed by Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha in July 1998, will cause “an irretrievable Rs 500 crore loss to the state exchequer”, joint convener K N K Kutty told reporters here.

“The administrative and field offices of Income Tax, Central Excise and Customs will come to a standstill from 8 a.m. tomorrow,” Kutty said, adding tax evaders and smugglers were likely to take advantage of the situation.

Accusing the government of going back on its commitments, Kutty said that in the wake of the notice for an indefinite strike in July 1998 to protest the “incongruencies and discrimination” in the recommendations of the fifth-pay commission, Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha had formed a high power-panel to consider the COC’s charter of demands.

“Despite the panel not making recommendations up to our expectations, we accepted the same. However, the government formed the panel is yet to accept it though the report was submitted on August three, leaving us with no option but to strike work,” he said.

300 Trinamool workers court arrest

CALCUTTA, Nov 9 (PTI) — As part of a series of agitation programmes announced by Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee, over 300 women workers of the party courted arrest here today while protesting against the spiralling prices of essential commodities.

The law violation programme was organised by the Trinamool Mahila Congress. Those arrested included its president, Ms Mala Roy, the police said.

Party spokesman and M.P. Sudip Bandopadhyay charged the Left Front Government with failing to take action against the hoarders and profiteers.

He said while other state governments sold onions in their respective states at subsidised rates, the Left Front Government had failed in its duty.

The state government, he said, could not check the smuggling of rice to Bangladesh and Nepal.

Ms Mamata Banerjee was not present in the programme as she was away from the state. Ms Banerjee had already resigned from the coordination committee of the BJP and its allies in protest against the price rise.

ED interrogation of Jain to go on

NEW DELHI, Nov 9 (PTI) — The Enforcement Directorate (ED) was today allowed by the Supreme Court to further interrogate media baron Ashok Jain in connection with certain alleged FERA violation cases after the investigating agency informed the court that the process of examining him was not yet complete.

However, counsel for Jain, Arun Jaitley informed a three-Judge Bench comprising Mr Justice M.K. Mukherjee, Mr Justice S.P. Kurdukar and Mr Justice K.T. Thomas that the ED had interrogated Mr Ashok Jain for six days lasting over 18 hours without the presence of a doctor at a Bombay hospital.

Mr Jaitley said Mr Jain's condition deteriorated on Saturday and that health permitting, there was no objection to the ED interrogating him before he leaves for the USA for a heart transplant operation.

Counsel for the ED R.K. Trivedi submitted that Mr Jain was interrogated five times last week in the presence of a doctor at the hospital, where he was admitted for that purpose. Mr Trivedi said to certain questions Mr Jain had given the answer that the necessary information would be provided in a week's time. The Bench said: "You (ED) continue with the interrogation." The Bench then posted the ED petition challenging the grant of bail to Mr Jain by the Bombay High Court for hearing on Friday.

Flying hospital for poor
HYDERABAD: A “flying hospital” with state-of-the-art medical facilities has arrived here on a two-week mission. The hospital, set up on board a wide-bodied aircraft is the largest airborne hospital ever built for surgical care. The hospital’s mission here was inaugurated by the Andhra Pradesh Governor, C Rangarajan at the Rajiv Gandhi International Airport here on Sunday. It is a unit of “Operation Blessing International”, a non-profit humanitarian organisation, providing short-term medical, food and disaster relief to the poor world over. It would provide free medical check-ups to about 10,000 poor persons in this city. A team of 180 medical professionals is on board the aircraft — UNI

Dalvi’s play on Thackeray
MUMBAI: Playwright Pradeep Dalvi of “Me Nathuram Godse Boltoy” fame has completed his next play based on the life of Shiv Sena Chief Bal Thackeray which is due for release soon. Talking to UNI Mr Dalvi said the rehearsals of the play “Pasaydaan” are going on and the date for its first show would be announced soon after the venue is fixed. “The play, which is a collection of 18 “shlokas, depicts Mr Thackeray’s life in the light of what he received in the form of teachings from his elders and the way he returned them to the society for its betterment. That is the reason why I chose the title,” Mr Dalvi said. — UNI

Ancient history website
NEW DELHI: For Indians all over the world wanting to keep in touch with their cultural heritage, a leading scholar has created a website for imparting knowledge about studies and research into the country’s ancient history. One of the main points of attraction on the site created by the Bangalore-based Mr Navratna S Rajaram is the recently deciphered Harappan seals which have provided a clear historical context by establishing a firm link between Harappan archaeology and Vedic literature. The Harappans used Vedantic Sanskrit and had close connections with Vedantic works like the Sutras and Upanishads. The website, ‘http://www.vedickalidas.home.ml.org’ has already had several thousand visits and provided a wealth of information about ancient Indian history. — UNI

1.7 billion-year-old fossils
CALCUTTA: In a discovery that pushes further back the age of famous Bijawar rocks of Madhya Pradesh, geoscientists have unearthed about 1.7 billion year old rare plant microfossils buried deep in its sediments. A joint team of geoscientists from the Geological Survey of India’s Calcutta and Bhopal wings have identified remnants of filamentous blue green algae and solitary, polygonal plant bodies from the rocks, earlier surmised to be about a billion years old. During detailed microscopic examination of thin sections of these quartzarentine rocks the team comprising Mr Ajit Pal, Mr Munendra Mishra and Mr Kishore Chhatri found a number of organic bodies, mainly filaments, solitary spheroids and polygonal bodies. — PTI

5 die, 37 hurt in road mishap
MUMBAI: Five farmers were killed and 37 others injured when a state transport bus in which they were travelling dashed head-on with a truck in the outskirts of Nasik on the Mumbai-Agra highway number three, on Sunday night. According to the police here, the bus was on its way to Dhule from Mumbai. The farmers were returning to their village after attending the agro-advantage Maharashtra convention-cum-exhibition. The injured have been admitted to local hospitals. The police have registered a case. — UNI