Saturday, September 26, 1998
|
N A T I O N |
|
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
 |
 |
|
|
No attempt to split RJD: Fernandes CHENNAI, Sept 25 — Defence Minister George Fernandes today described as “concocted” the charge that the Samata Party and the BJP were attempting to split the Rashtriya Janata Dal and form an alternative government in Bihar. Weather
likely to clear up
|
 |
Phone call that proved
Usher
in rule of law: Nehru |
|
SAD
against Rabri govt sack: Barnala |
|||||
 |
||||||
No attempt to split RJD: Fernandes CHENNAI, Sept 25 (PTI) — Defence Minister George Fernandes today described as “concocted” the charge that the Samata Party and the BJP were attempting to split the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) and form an alternative government in Bihar. “There is no substance in it,” the Samata Party (SP) leader said on a day-long visit to the combat vehicle research and Development Establishment at Avadi. Asked about the remarks made by AIADMK general secretary Jayalalitha and Congress leader Sharad Pawar that the BJP and the SP were out to split the RJD, he said their fight was for the people of Bihar. The minister said while the GNP had gone up by 20 per cent in other states, it was down by 20 per cent in Bihar. There was no development in the state and corruption was rampant. Asked why he had changed his position on the use of Article 356 and called for invoking it against the Rabri Devi government, he denied any change in his position and said while he was still against the unjustified use of the article, in the case of Bihar it was justified. Responding to another question on different views in the Union Cabinet on the issue the Defence Minister said there were no “negative views”. He said the Centre had taken the decision on Bihar not on any political considerations but to “save 100 million people of Bihar.” Responding to a query on
the demand for the dismissal of the DMK government in
Tamil Nadu, Mr Fernandes said the Tamil Nadu Governor had
not sent any report recommending the dismissal of that
government, whereas the Bihar Governor’s report was
a “damning indictment” of the Rabri Devi
government. |
Usher in rule of law: Nehru MUMBAI, Sept 25 — The Indian voter must be taught the value of his vote and respect for the rule of law, said Mr B.K. Nehru, a former bureaucrat, diplomat and Governor. He also warned that the existing political system was collapsing and needed to be changed. Mr Nehru was delivering the keynote address at the convention organised by the Ahmedabad-based National Institute for Leadership and Public Administration (NILPA) here today. Mr A.M. Ahmadi, a former Chief Justice of India, was also present. Deploring the recent trends in the country, Mr Nehru said our democracy was no longer genuine, but only a kleptocracy. The rulers had stopped thinking about the problems of the people. This state of affairs, according to Mr Nehru, was because though our democracy was perfect theoretically, it lacked a strong foundation. “We are not aware that true democracy is,” said Mr Nehru. “Historically, our nation has experienced absolutism, with the kings of ancient India deriving lots of personal benefits.” He pointed out that there were small doses of democracy during the British rule. But the absolutism continued in the princely states. Another major flaw in the Indian system, said Mr Nehru was our lack of concern for the rule of law. We have a system where politicians knew that laws would not be implemented. The first Lok Sabha devoted 48 per cent of its time to enacting legislation, but this was curtailed to 24 per cent in the current Lok Sabha, he explained. The malady had also afflicted our civil servants who were supposed to implement the rule of law. But how can they operate in a situation where a customs official who dared to charge duty on the personal luggage of a former Union Minister, Mr Kamal Nath, was transferred two days later? Calling for fundamental changes in the present system, Mr Nehru commended the BJP government’s move to appoint a commission to study the issue. Mr Nehru said Indian judiciary, a legacy from the British was not suited to India. Though the all-powerful President of the USA could be hauled up before the courts for perjury, lying was common in the Indian courts. The legal system was plagued with huge arrears and people accused of corruption like Jayalalitha and Sukh Ram had the gall to threaten the government. He said the main thrust of the Indian people should be to change the existing political system. The former Chief Justice
of India, Mr Ahmadi, while admitting that the judiciary
had failed, pointed out to the handicaps under which it
had to function. He called for the setting up of a
powerful public ombudsman to solve national problems. The
present Lokayuktas and the proposed Lok Pal would not be
able to solve the problems facing us, he added. |
AIIMS ‘best for
diagnosis’ NEW DELHI, Sept 25 — “In spite of pressures on hospital services and increasing resource crunch, the All-India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) continues to be the best place for diagnosis and treatment in the public sector,” said Dr P.K. Dave, Director of the institute here today. Dr Dave said although the hospital had patients beyond its capacity doctors had been working diligently with a rare sense of commitment. Reviewing the achievements of the institute on the occasion of the 42nd institute day celebrations, Dr Dave said AIIMS had made significant contribution to health care, teaching, research, promotion of public health programmes and patient care services. He said AIIMS conducted teaching programmes in medical and paramedical courses both at the undergraduate and postgraduate levels and awarded its own degrees. It offered training and research in 42 disciplines. The Director told newspersons here the 25 clinical departments, including four super speciality centres, managed all kinds of disease conditions with the support of pre and paraclinical departments. He pointed out the institute did not take cases of burns, dog bites or infectious diseases. Dr Dave said AIIMS hospital and speciality centres catered to the health needs of 17 lakh patients in the out-patient departments and over one lakh indoor patients every year. He said in 1997-’98. 95,000 operations were done. These included over 2,000 heart surgeries and neuro surgeries each. Dr Dave said the institute which was set up in 1956 by an Act of Parliament had all the advanced technologies and expertise needed to manage various disease processes. These include heart valve surgery, brain surgery, protocaval surgery, spinal surgery, eye banking, sterotactic radiotherapy, endoscopic surgeries, neonatal surgeries, joint replacements, fetal liver infusion and hematopoietic stem cell cryopreservation. He said the institute had special clinics for cancer patients, sophisticated dental care programmes, thalassaemia control, plasmapheresis and dialysis programmes, a referal centre for HIV/ AIDS besides a drug de-addiction centre. Dr Dave told TNS that the institute had carried out bone marrow, liver, kidney and corneal transplants. He said AIIMS was also
running a 60-bed hospital in Ballabgarh, Haryana, which
provided health cover to about 2.5 lakh persons. He said
the Haryana Government had sought the institute’s
help in running a similar hospital in Palwal. “We
have expressed our inability to run it but we have
assured them our guidance, inputs and training of their
staff,” he added. |
Phone call that proved costly for Shukla NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (UNI) — An anonymous telephone call to the producer of a television programme on UP gangster Sri Prakash Shukla who had been hired to kill state Chief Minister Kalyan Singh had finally brought the nemesis of the dreaded killer in an encounter with the police on September 22. According to Mr Shoaib Ilyasi, producer of the programme, “India’s Most Wanted,” the phone call made on September 21 from Ghaziabad said that Shukla was seen in Ghaziabad alongwith his associates in a blue Cielo (No. HR 26 G 7305). “Although the caller did not identify himself, the information was enough to nail Shukla”, Mr Ilyasi said. He said the caller has also told him that Shukla and his two accomplices had been spotted at the residence of a “well-known politician”. He however, declined to reveal the name of the politician. The information was promptly passed on to the Special Task Force (STF), comprising 20 members of the Delhi and Uttar Pradesh police, especially constituted to nab Shukla. The killer and his accomplices were heading for Palam airport to go to Ranchi when the encounter took place. Shukla has a safe haven in Ranchi where another dreaded gangster Suraj Bhan supplied him arms and ammunition. Shukla normally carried an AK-47 rifle with him but on the day of the encounter, only two .38 revolvers were recovered from them, the police said. Uttar Pradesh Additional Director General of Police, Ajay Raj Sharma, said most of the arms missing after the Purulia arms drop had found their way to Bihar and eastern Uttar Pradesh. This was the second anonymous telephone call made to Mr Ilyasi. An earlier call on September 10, at 11.30 a.m. had informed him that Shukla and his accomplices were seen in the Cielo car near AIIMS crossing. The information was passed on to the police but they had lost sight of it. Mr Ilyasi said he was
“bombarded” with threatening calls by Shukla
and his accomplices after the programme about the killer
was aired on the television on September 8, and September
15. |
Weather likely to clear up NEW DELHI, Sept 25 — The current spell of heavy rainfall in north India, which damaged standing paddy crop, is drawing to an end and the weather is likely to improve in the next 24 hours, the Meteorological Department said here today. The Met office said that the weather over Punjab, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, and Jammu and Kashmir had already begun to clear up. According to Mr S.R. Kalsi, Deputy Director General of the Indian Meteorological Department, the rainfall in most parts of North India was due to the receding monsoon. “One can’t exactly determine the periodicity of such weather systems,” he added. Explaining that the heavy rainfall experienced over north India was “definitely the monsoon”, he said that it was not an effect of the cyclone which hit the Gujarat coast. The present weather system is influenced by the low pressure area which developed over south-western Rajasthan. “This influence, however, has begun to become a part of the seasonal trough,” Mr Kalsi said. Although heavy rainfall is
coming to an end, mild showers in the region cannot be
ruled out. |
Arrest warrants against VHP man NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (PTI) — A Delhi court has issued non-bailable arrest warrants against city Vishva Hindu Parishad (VHP) general secretary Rajinder Gupta in a criminal case, rejecting the state’s plea for the withdrawal of the same. Metropolitan Magistrate Vipin Kumar Gupta, who issued the warrants, also directed Delhi Commissioner of Police V.N. Singh to produce the accused before him on September 30. Additional Public Prosecutor Raman Kumar had sought the withdrawal of the case against all four accused, including the VHP leader "to further the ends of justice, public order and peace as the evidence on record was weak and insufficient". Dismissing the withdrawal application moved "at the instructions of the Home Ministry", the court came down heavily on the prosecution for being "hand-in-glove" with the accused, who had allegedly created communal disharmony and hatred seven years ago. "It deserves special mention here that ever since the charge sheet was filed on February 3, 1992, the court is issuing warrants of arrest against accused Rajinder Gupta, but invariably the process is received back unexecuted. "Obviously, the accused managed to escape from the clutches of law as the police is hand-in-glove with the accused," the court observed. The magistrate dismissed the withdrawal application on the ground that Mr Raman Kumar did not have any locus standi in the case as he was not attached to his court. Instead of impressing upon the accused to surrender or get his NBW cancelled, the prosecution branch made an ignoble attempt to seek his exoneration by inventing a via media in the form of the withdrawal of the case against all accused, he said. "The crypt intention of the prosecution branch is to secure a clean chit for accused Rajendra Gupta, who has constantly been hoodwinking the process of law for the past seven years by exercising his political clout". "General masses already do not have any good impression about two wings of the state. They repose unflinching faith in courts of law and if any political leader is exculpated in absentia, in the manner suggested, then the confidence of public in the judiciary will also be eroded. "Hence, it is neither desirable nor expedient in the interest of justice to allow the withdrawal of such a political case just at the whims and fancies of the prosecution branch of the union or the state government," the magistrate observed.
|
SC dismisses, Laloo, Mishra's petitions NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (PTI) — The Supreme Court today dismissed petitions of former Bihar Chief Ministers Laloo Prasad Yadav and Jagannath Mishra and seven others challenging non-bailable warrants by a special court at Patna in the multi-crore fodder scam case and directed them to surrender before the special court on October 28. A three-judge bench comprising Justice M.K. Mukherjee, Justice S.P. Kurdukar and Justice K.T. Thomas, however stayed their arrest till October 28. The stay of arrest and extension to surrender before the special court till October 28 was granted in view of the closure of the courts in Bihar for ‘Durga Puja’ and ‘Diwali’. While asking them to surrender before the special court, the apex court directed that the special judge should consider their bail petitions on merit. Besides Yadav and Mishra, the other accused who had moved the petitions included former Union Minister Chandra Deo Prasad Verma, former Bihar Ministers Bhola Ram Toofani and Vidya Sagarr Nishad, RJD MLA R.K. Rana, former Animal Husbandry Regional Director S.B. Sinha and two others. The special court on July 2 while taking cognisance of fourth CBI chargesheet against Yadav in the fodder scam had directed the RJD president to surrender before it on or before July 27. The special court, which had issued arrest warrants against Mishra and Rana had also directed Verma, Toofani and Nishad to surrender before it within a week. Earlier, senior advocate Rajinder Singh said Yadav was apprehending arrest by the CBI despite anticipatory bail granted to him by the Patna High Court. He said the anticipatory bail was granted by the high court before filing of the chargesheet in the fodder scam case No-RC 64 on July 28, 1997. Singh questioned the special judge taking cognisance of the chargesheet contending that the paper filed by the CBI before the special court could not be described a chargesheet as it was only a "single sheet paper". Singh said on surrender before the special court his client could be arrested despite the anticipatory bail. He said the allegations in the chargesheet filed on July 28 were not different than the earlier chargesheets as they alleged the similar officials involved in the scam. Mishra’s counsel D.D. Thakur questioned the issuance of NBW against his client again contending that the same allegations could not be bifurcated in many parts leading to issuing legal process in instalments.
|
25 killed in collision at level crossing HYDERABAD, Sept 25 (PTI) — At least 25 persons, most of them school children, were killed on the spot and 28 seriously injured when a rail engine rammed into a state Road Transport Corporation bus at an unmanned level crossing near Bothalapalem village, about 180 km from here, today. The police said the mishap occurred when the speeding engine of a goods train hit the rear portion of the bus proceeding from Irikigudem to Miriyalguda town. The majority of the 65 passengers in the bus were school children bound for Miriyalguda town to appear for the Class X supplementary exam, the Executive Director (Operations) of the state Road Transport Corporation (APSRTC) Dr Y. Satyanarayana, said. "We are yet to ascertain the exact cause of the mishap. The steep terrain at the unmanned level crossing might have blocked the view of the approaching engine", he said. The injured had been admitted to hospitals at Nalgonda and Miriyalguda, he said adding that a special team of surgeons had been despatched to assist the doctors there. According to UNI, 20 persons, including 14 school children, were killed and 33 injured in the accident. Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has rushed to the spot. The bus driver's negligent driving is said to be the cause of the accident, according to a Railway press note. General Manager of South Central Railway, along with a team of officers is supervising the rescue and relief operations. The minister also reviewed the arrangements to be made for enhancing safety at level crossings with Railway Board officials.
|
Laloo thanks Sonia PATNA , Sept 25 (PTI) — Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) President Laloo Prasad Yadav and Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi met Congress President Sonia Gandhi here today and thanked her for her party’s support in view of the Union Cabinet’s recommendation for imposition of President’s rule in the state. Mr Yadav and his wife Rabri met Sonia at Patna airport VIP lounge during the latter’s brief stopover after visiting flood-ravaged Kathihar and Bhagalpur districts. "We thanked Soniaji for supporting our government," Mr Yadav told reporters after the meeting which, according to Congress party sources, lasted for barely two minutes.
SAD against Rabri govt sack: Barnala LUCKNOW, Sept 25 (PTI) — Union Food Minister Surjit Singh Barnala today said the Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) was opposed to dismissal of the Rabri Devi government in Bihar by invoking Article 356 of the Constitution. ‘‘I do not think that Article 356 should be used for dismissal of the Rabri Devi government in Bihar,’’ he told reporters here. ‘‘Our party has always been against the misuse of Article 356 and in fact, it wants that this provision of the Constitution be scrapped,’’ he said. When a reporter sought to know why his party did not oppose in the Cabinet meeting the recommendations for imposition of President’s rule on Bihar, Mr Barnala said he did not attend the meeting as he was indisposed on that day. He said his party would continue to oppose the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar district in the proposed Uttaranchal state. The party would take up
the matter with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and
press for the exclusion of the district. |
Reservation centre at Press Club NEW DELHI, Sept 25 — The Railway Minister, Mr Nitish Kumar, today inaugurated a computerised reservation centre at the Press Club of India in the Capital. With the setting up two counters at this centre, the Northern Railway have set up 22 satellite passenger reservation systems in Delhi. The counter at the Press Club of India would be operational from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. on all week days except Sunday. The officials at the
counter said that they would book tickets for all having
requisition slip. The slips, however, were being given by
the club to its members. Warning against eye injuries NEW DELHI, Sept 25 (PTI) — With Dasehra and Divali round the corner, the National Society for Prevention of Blindness has once again launched a campaign warning people about dangers of crackers. Though small and innocuous
looking, the sharp-edged arrow can cause perforating eye
injuries, says secretary-general of the society, Dr L.D.
Sota, who is also an ophthalmologist with the All-India
Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). |
| H |
|
||
| Software for multilingual
E-Mail PUNE: Ignorance of the English language may no longer be a hurdle for those who wish to communicate through E-Mail. The Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (CDAC) here is ready with software which could facilitate sending of E-Mail in at least 10 Indian languages: Marathi, Hindi, Punjabi, Gujarati, Bangla, Oriya, Telugu, Kannada, Tamil and Malayalam. The GIST (Graphics and Intelligence-based Script Technology) division of the CDAC has developed a new software server, available globally through the web-browser, Mr Anupam Savrav told UNI here on Thursday. — UNI INS Vikrant to be converted
into museum Haj fee
overcharging, probe demanded Screening of film
stayed IT raids on marble
traders Lightning kills 6 |
 |
 |
 |
| Punjab
| Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | Chandigarh | | Editorial | Business | Stocks | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
