Thursday, September 24, 1998

Saxena : counter Pak propaganda
NEW DELHI, Sept 23 — Jammu and Kashmir Governor Girish Saxena today called for countering the false propaganda by Pakistan on Kashmir and “checkmating” through diplomatic efforts their move to internationalise the issue.

SC ruling on MVA compensation
NEW DELHI, Sept 23 — In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held the life insurance money received by kin of a person killed in an accident is not deductible from the compensation awarded under the Motor Vehicles Act.

HC censures Magistrate
NEW DELHI, Sept 23 — The Delhi High Court has censured a Metropolitan Magistrate for causing “unnecessary embarrassment and harassment” to a medical practitioner in the Capital for allegedly not co-operating with the police.

Rear Admiral faces CBI probe
From Girja Shankar Kaura
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 23 — The Ministry of Defence has asked the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) to inquire into the allegations against a Rear Admiral of the Navy for showing favouritism towards a private firm in several contracts.

The CBI was asked by the Ministry to inquire into the matter against the Rear Admiral who was in line to take over the post of Chief of Logistics after an inquiry was conducted by a committee consisting of the Defence Secretary, the Deputy Chief of Army Staff and the Financial Adviser to the Ministry. An earlier inquiry conducted by a Vice-Admiral had cleared the officer concerned of the allegations.

According to sources, as a result of the inquiry pending against the officer, he had been posted on an ad hoc basis to the position of Chief of Logistics (a key post), which has been lying vacant since January 31 last. While Naval Headquarters has been insisting that the posting be cleared, the Ministry of Defence was not agreeing, not only because of the pending inquiry but also because a number of senior officers had been ignored while making the selection of the officer.

According to reports there were allegations against the officer concerned, of favouring a Delhi-based company which had bagged several contracts through the ACOL. The Ministry had initially constituted the inquiry committee after it had received letters and complaints against him for allegedly misusing his powers.

The Navy had initiated the inquiry after a confidential report prepared by Russian and Ukranian embassies against the companies involved in the contracts was sent to Naval Headquarters for investigation. The issue of the Rs 2 crore order for walkie-talkies had also been raised in the inquiry. The order was initially placed with an electronics giant through its authorised dealer and the indent in that firm’s name was signed by the officer.

Incidentally, besides the post of Chief of Logistics several other key posts in the Navy have been lying vacant or were being occupied by junior officers on ad hoc basis for the past several months. Naval Headquarters had picked officials who were junior to at least half-a-dozen Vice-Admirals currently awaiting appropriate postings, for these posts. The Ministry has questioned these moves of Naval Headquarters and had so far not given clearance to the officers being posted in these key positions.

As a result, a serious crisis is brewing in the Navy with a majority of top Admirals levelling allegations of favouritism in senior appointments. At least three Vice-Admirals and six Rear Admirals had filed statutory complaints with the Ministry about they being sidelined without any cogent reasons.

Among them were officers, with blemishless record over the past 35 years of service in the force. A senior Vice-Admiral has even gone to the High Court, alleging mala fide and victimisation.

The three important operational posts lying vacant or being occupied on ad hoc basis were that of the Deputy Chief of Naval Staff (DCNS), Assistant Chief of Naval Staff(ACNS) and the Chief of Logistics.

While the post of DCNS, which was reserved for a Vice-Admiral, was being occupied by a Rear Admiral who was on the select list, the post of the ACNS was being occupied by a Commodore on the select list while it was reserved for a Rear Admiral. The post of Chief of Logistics has been lying vacant as the officer was facing a CBI inquiry. His file, which had gone to the Appointments Committee of the Cabinet, had been returned for vigilance clearance.

The objections raised by the Ministry has resulted in a stand-off. Naval Headquarters was objecting that the Ministry was interfering in appointments to key posts, while the Ministry was arguing that senior officers with excellent operational records could not be overlooked for whimsical reasons.

Narmada project battle proves costly
From Gobind Thukral

AHMEDABAD: If Punjab and Haryana have wasted costly water resources while contending on the bloody Sutlej Yamuna Link Canal, then Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra and Rajasthan have not been wise either. They have deprived their people of drinking water, irrigation and power while wasting scarce resources. If the northern states could not decide about the sharing of the quantum of water, much of which goes waste now, their counterparts in central and western India have been cavalier enough to allow starvation deaths on one hand and prosperity and good health on another.

Consider the much contentious Sardar Sarovar Narmada Project: Environmentalists under the aegis of the World Commission on Dams are fighting their own partisan battles. The project was cleared in 1987 and up to July this year, a whopping sum of Rs 7,046 crore has been spent. The Narmada Planning Group got 47 studies conducted pertaining to all issues, including resettlement and environment. One condition was to take protective measures, both for the rehabilitation of several thousand ousted families and afforestation. Here, the states initially bungled but later got into motion. Credit must go to the likes of Medha Patkar. But then they too have overstretched themselves opposing the dam.

Till now, the documents with Gujarat where the gains in terms of irrigation are going to be maximum (in terms of power, Madhya Pradesh is the bigger gainer) say that by July this year, 98 per cent excavation of the main dam was complete and 83 per cent concreting done. Thus, more than 4/5th work on the main dam has been completed.

There are two powerhouses for the project — one at the river bed called the River Bed Power House (RBPH) with a 1200 MW installed capacity and the other the Canal Head Power House (CHPH) with an installed capacity of 250 MW. As much as 95 per cent of the open excavation and 90 per cent of the underground excavation for the RBPH has been completed. For this, turbo-generator sets of the reversible type are required to be imported from Japan. Negotiations with the Japanese firm are on and it is expected that the turbo-generator sets would be imported soon.

Concreting work of the CHPH and the Vadgam Saddle Dam is complete. All five turbo-generator sets have been installed and the station is ready for power generation. When the height of the main spillway blocks reaches 110 metres, water can start flowing into the CHPH and after generation of power, water enters in Pond No 1. and as ponds are interconnected, water can be drawn in the main canal through the head regulator. Thus when, the dam height reaches 110m, it is possible to start irrigation in the initial command area and electricity can also be generated.

In the case of the Narmada Main Canal, in Phase-I, from the Main Canal head regulator to the Mahi river crossing, 99 per cent of earthwork, and lining besides 93 per cent of the structural concreting work is complete.

In the case of Phase-II, the 263 km stretch from the Mahi River crossing to the off-take of the Saurashtra Branch Canal, 99 per cent of earthwork, 70 per cent of lining work and 70 per cent of structural concreting work is complete. There are seven major rivers in this reach of the Main Canal, where canal syphons are under execution. Work on all these structures is in full swing and by June 1999, one monolith in all these structures is planned to be completed.

In the case of Branch Canal of Phase-I, 92 per cent of the earthwork, 80 per cent lining work and 91 per cent structural concrete work in structures is complete. There are 23 branch sub-branch canals in Phase-I, out of which 11 branch sub-branch canals are complete whereas the remaining will be almost ready by end of this year.

Benefits include irrigation in 1.9 million hectares of land and drinking water for 8215 villages. In addition, 1450 MW of power will be generated. As much as 37,690 hectares of land would submerge in four states and out of the total uprooting of 45,000 families, 33,000 come from Madhya Pradesh. Hence, some opposition parties and several Prime Ministers have had to contend with this dam which was first conceived over four decades back, but work on it could start only in 1988. The states quarrelled and now the case is pending in the Supreme Court. Unless its height is raised to 110 m, the benefits cannot flow and there is a stay by the apex court not to go beyond 80.3 m.

Inbetween has come this World Commission on Dams (WCD) under Prof Kadar Asmal, South African Water Resources Minister. Two Indian representatives on this Commission, a totally voluntary body set up in April, 1997, in Switzerland with the help of the World Bank are anti-dam activists. They are Ms Medha Patkar and Mr L.C. Jain, former Ambassador to South Africa. The WCD’s efforts to hold public hearings in Bhopal and later visit Gujarat have been stalled. The Gujarat Assembly held a special session and passed a unanimous resolution opposing the WCD.

The aim of the WCD is to review the development effectiveness of dams and assess other options for water resources and energy development and develop internationally accepted standards, guidelines and criteria for decision making in the planning, design, construction, monitoring, operation and decommissioning of dams.

“In reality, the WCD is set up with a specific goal to achieve decommissioning of large dams under operation/implementation and to prevent the construction of large dams the world over. It seems to have mobilised financial support from western countries that have already exploited and dammed their rivers to the maximum extent. Now their agenda is to raise questions against large water resources projects being taken up in developing countries. Projects of India like Tehri in UP, Narmada in Gujarat, Indira Sagar and Maheshwar in Madhya Pradesh, Three Gorges in China and Mekong River Project in East Asia have a tremendous potential of boosting agriculture and hydro-power production of these countries and the activities of forums like the WCD smack of a well-orchestrated attempt by vested interests to sabotage them”, experts in Gujarat said.

One wonders if there was a similar a Bhakra or a Pong Dam and opposition, there could not have been Green Revolution in the North. Consequence of these could have been only starvation and slavery. When posed this question, experts in Gandhinagar said,” People in the North are lucky and so are others in the once starvation states. But we have to contend with this, despite the fact that no World Bank aid is being used”.

Delhi session begins today
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Sept 23 — The last session of the Delhi Assembly beginning tomorrow is expected to be stormy with the Opposition led by the Congress deciding to move a no-confidence motion against the ruling BJP government.
The Chief Whip of the Congress, Mr Deep Chand Bandhu, said his party would highlight the failure of the BJP government on all fronts and non-fulfilment of its poll promises during the four-day session.

The ruling BJP government is likely to be confronted by Congress members for the spiralling prices of essential commodities, deteriorating law and order situation, regularisation of unauthorised colonies, adulteration of mustard oil and problems faced by the citizens on the power and water supply fronts.

The Congress members are likely to find support from some of the members in the Treasury Benches.

Even though the Congress has only 16 members in the 70-member House, the motion would provide an opportunity to the Opposition to expose the "misdeeds" of the BJP government in its five-year rule.

Some of the Bills expected to be tabled in the session are regarding work related diseases and restructuring of the Delhi Agricultural Marketing Board. The Amendment of the Luxury Tax Act, Indraprastha Vishwavidyalaya Act and Anti-Quackery Bill are expected to come up during this session.

In the past five years, there have been only 126 sittings of the assembly. On an average, a legislator spends only 25 days in the House in one year.

The Speakers of all the legislative assemblies in the country had resolved in their annual presiding officers’ conference that a House should meet for not less than 90 days in a year.

In the Delhi Assembly, the House met for the longest duration of 21 days in 1994. It was the first Budget session of the Delhi Legislative Assembly. There have been no occasion after that when the session was held for more than two weeks at a stretch.

In terms of business, the Delhi Assembly passed around 50 Bills in the past five years. Around 12 Bills are still pending and there is a slim possibility that they would be discussed in the coming session.

Private airlines owe Rs 140 crore to govt

NEW DELHI, Sept 23 (UNI) — The standing committee on transport and tourism has taken a serious view of the dues of several private airlines to various government agencies as the arrears have mounted to Rs 140 crore.

The committee, under the chairmanship of Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra, MP, which met here last week, has asked the Civil Aviation Ministry and the other authorities concerned to let the committee know within 10 days the steps that are being initiated to recover the mounting arrears.

The defaulters include those airline operators who have already closed shop.

Put together, the operators, till date, owe around Rs 140 crore to several government departments including the Airports Authority of India (AAI), Indian Oil and others. Till the end of the 1997-98 fiscal, the dues stood at Rs 128.65 crore. Of this, the major chunk is due to the Customs Department by way of inland air travel tax (IATT) amounting to Rs 54.55 crore while the dues to oil companies stand at Rs 42.84 crore and that to the AAI Rs 31.265 crore.

As far as dues to the oil companies are concerned, by March 31, 1998, Skyline-NEPC leads the list with an outstanding of Rs 21 crore followed by Modiluft with Rs 18.16 crore. East West Airline owes the oil companies Rs 2.62 crore while Citilink Airlines’ outstandings are at Rs 51 lakh, those of Raj Aviation at Rs 34 lakh, Continental Aviation at Rs 13 lakh and VIF Airways at Rs 6 lakh.

Modiluft owes the most to the Customs Department with an outstanding of Rs 120.16 crore while Rs 14.45 crore is pending recovery from Skyline-NEPC. East West Airlines owes the Customs Rs 6.49 crore while NEPC Airlines is due to pay Rs 4.57 crore to the department.

UP Airways owes Rs 1.66 crore to the Customs while Continental Aviation’s dues to the department have mounted to Rs 1.61 crore followed by Air Asiatic Limited with Rs 1.55 crore, Gujarat Airways with Rs 1.30 crore, Citilink Airlines with Rs 1.27 crore, Raj Aviation with Rs 98 lakh, VIF Airways with Rs 46 lakh and Jagson Airlines with Rs 5 lakh.

East West Airlines leads the list of the 27 private airlines who have faltered payments to the AAI with an outstanding of Rs 15.773 crore.

Jet Airways’ dues to the AAI stood at Rs 4.006 crore followed by Sahara with Rs 3.286 crore and Modiluft with Rs 3.264 crore. Skyline-NEPC owes Rs 2.007 crore to the AAI while NEPC Airlines has to pay it Rs 1.174 crore.

Decks cleared for Uttaranchal

LUCKNOW, Sept 23 (PTI) — The Uttar Pradesh Vidhan Sabha today passed the Uttar Pradesh Reorganisation Draft Bill, 1998 and cleared the decks for the creation of the proposed hill state of Uttaranchal.

The House adopted a resolution seeking 26 amendments to various issues relating to the proposed hill state, including the exclusion of Hardwar district, from the original Bill by a division vote of 215 in favour and 74 against.

The ruling BJP and its allies and the Congress voted in favour of the draft Bill while the main opposition, the Samajwadi Party (SP), and the Left voted against the resolution moved by state Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.

The BSP legislators, however, boycotted the special session of the state assembly convened to discuss the Uttaranchal Statehood Bill protesting against the inclusion of Hardwar and Udham Singh Nagar districts in the proposed state.

The Bharatiya Kisan Kamgar Party (BKKP) and the Janata Dal did not participate in the voting as the two parties staged a walkout earlier in the day demanding the creation of separate states for eastern and western districts of Uttar Pradesh.

Saxena : counter Pak propaganda

NEW DELHI, Sept 23 (UNI) — Jammu and Kashmir Governor Girish Saxena today called for countering the false propaganda by Pakistan on Kashmir and “checkmating” through diplomatic efforts their move to internationalise the issue.

The Governor, who was here to attend the 28th meeting of the Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, told UNI that efforts would have to be made to expose the false propaganda launched by separatist elements to win over the few sections of people in Jammu and Kashmir who may still be feeling alienated from the political mainstream.

He said efforts on all fronts, including political, economic, administrative and diplomatic, would have to go in tandem. The situation would have to be met by the political leadership and administrative machinery through developmental activities.

The Governor said that although the situation in the Kashmir valley was much better, there was no scope for complacency and there could be “ups and downs” in consolidating and building upon the present gains.

He, however, said there were “new challenges” in areas south of Pir Panjal, including Poonch, Rajouri and Doda districts of Jammu, the region, for which a “different response” had been put into action. He did not give details.

He said where there was massive export of terrorism, some setbacks would have to be encountered and the most daunting task was the handling of foreign mercenaries. But the most important thing was that popular support for militants among locals was waning, he added.

SC ruling on MVA compensation

NEW DELHI, Sept 23 (PTI) — In a significant ruling, the Supreme Court has held the life insurance money received by kin of a person killed in an accident is not deductible from the compensation awarded under the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA).

Setting to rest a plethora of divergent views taken by various high courts on this issue, the court concluded: “The set of decisions, which applied the principle of no deduction of the life insurance amount, should be accepted and the other set, which interpreted to deduct, is to be rejected.”

The court in its recent judgement said it had no hesitation “to hold that such high courts were wrong in deducting the amount paid or payable under the life insurance by giving restricted meaning to the provisions of the MVA basing mostly on the language of English statutes and not taking into consideration the changed language and intends of the legislature under the MVA, 1939.”

The case arose from the accidental death of Rebello in 1973. While the trial court awarded a compensation of Rs 3,90,000, the Bombay High Court ordered deduction of the insurance amount of Rs 3,15,000 from the compensation awarded under the Motor Vehicles Act.

HC censures Magistrate

NEW DELHI, Sept 23 (UNI) — The Delhi High Court has censured a Metropolitan Magistrate for causing “unnecessary embarrassment and harassment” to a medical practitioner in the Capital for allegedly not co-operating with the police.

Metropolitan Magistrate V.K. Bansal had issued a bailable warrant against Dr D.P. Ray of Bara Hindu Rao Hospital on July 13 after considering the contentions made by the local police in a case, not against the doctor.

Mr Justice D.K. Jain in his recent order observed that “the Magistrate while passing the order should have acted more carefully.” The Judge subsequently disposed of the petition filed by Dr Ray through counsel Ashok Aggarwal, seeking quashing of the warrant and the proceedings initiated against him.

Sound pollution grips Jaipur
JAIPUR: Residents here are facing threat of several physical and psychological diseases due to the increasing rate of sound pollution here, says an official study. The study, conducted by the Rajasthan State Pollution Control Board, says sound pollution was assessed at 46 places in the Pink City of which except Jhotwara and Sudarshanpura industrial areas every other place was engulfed by sound pollution above the permissible limit. — PTI

Immunology congress in Delhi
NEW DELHI: A galaxy of the world’s top immunologists, including several Nobel laureates, are among the 3,000 scientists who would be attending the 10th international congress on immunology beginning here on November 1, its organisers announced on Tuesday. President K.R. Narayanan will inaugurate the week-long meeting described as “the last global meet of immunologists of this century and the first to be held in a developing country.” The immunology congress is organised once in three years by the International Union of Immunological Societies. The nine earlier meetings were held in the developed world. — PTI

Child abductors’ gang busted
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan police has busted a gang of child abductors and arrested 10 members in Ajmer, the police said here on Wednesday. The gang members, of which nine were women, were nabbed while their two male accomplices escaped at the Ajmer railway station on Tuesday, Director-General of Police, Amitabh Gupta said. The gang members abducted small children and later forced them to beg on streets, lift goods belonging to train and bus passengers and indulge in pick-pocketing. Six children were found in their custody. — PTI

Fungi to check water pollution
NEW DELHI: Bhubaneswar-based scientists have identified a fungal strain that can efficiently degrade lignin, a non-biodegradable substance found in plants, which is one of the main pollutants of paper and pulp industries. A team led by Mr R.S. Rohella from the regional research laboratory screened a number of fungal strains reported to possess special lignin-degrading enzymes. Wastes generated from paper mills, called black liquor, are rich in lignin. But this lignin is highly resistant to degradation by micro-organisms like fungi and bacteria while chemical treatment of such wastes is costly. — PTI

Brain tumour removed via ear
NEW DELHI: In a rare feat, a brain tumour involving the hearing nerve was successfully removed via the ear by a team of surgeons from Guru Teg Bahadur Hospital. Dr P.P. Singh (Head of the ENT Department at GTBH) and Dr S. Dua (Head of the Neuro-Surgery Department) jointly conducted the eight-hour operation on Monday. The operation was done to remove the tumour, an acquastic neuroma, through the ear instead of the traditional method of cutting open the skull which has a higher morbidity risk and facial movement complications, GTBH Medical Superintendent Dr D.K. Srivastava said. — UNI

Naxals blast Gandhi statue
HYDERABAD: Naxalites belonging to the “Red Tigers” group blasted a statue of Mahatma Gandhi at Kosgi town in Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh on Tuesday, the police said here on Wednesday. The extremists, who had given a call to boycott the Gandhi Jayanti celebrations, had left a note threatening to blast the Gandhi statue on the state assembly premises if the government did not replace it with the Telugu Talli statue. Meanwhile, local MLA N. Surya Narayana said a new statue would be installed at the same place. — UNI