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| Thursday, April 6, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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MoD, forces’
standoff continues
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NDA govt to last full
term: Thakre HC notice to MoD on land transfer Defence budget hike
‘irreversible’
Mamata: Railways to promote Hindi Canada to host website on India SAD disowns Hit’s remark Digvijay moots unified command Indian HIV testing kit soon Patent plant resources: experts UP CM: no threat to government WB Congress gets nod to talk to TC AI to clear stranded Hajis Kerala, TN talks fail
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MoD,
forces’ standoff continues NEW DELHI, April 5 — Little signs of an early settlement are available on the standoff between the Armed Forces and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) over the implementation of the revised recommendations of the Fifth Pay Commission, a notification for which was issued by the government in February last. It has now been more than a month, with the notification having been issued by the MoD on February 29, when the three services were ordered to implement the recommendations which had been revised by the group of ministers and then passed by the Union Cabinet. But the three services have till now not taken any action and have actually been waiting for the government to take further action on the protests made by them. Although the Navy had initially sent out an “India General” signal, informing all its units about the recommendations, but then soon put them on hold to keep in step with the Army and the Air Force that had taken no follow-up action on the notifications. The chiefs of the three services had on March 2 last met the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes and expressed their unhappiness over the revised recommendations as had been notified by the government. But still there has been no outcome of that meeting with nobody apparently wanting to budge from their position. But as a result the service officials have not got any revised salaries or nor is there a possibility of them getting them in the near future. Although still there have been no open protests within the services over the revised recommendations of the Pay Commission, already there have been rumblings and the armed forces personnel are said to be not very happy with them. The Defence Ministry officials are also wary of saying anything about the possibility of the outcome on the present standoff lest it fuel another controversy. However they say that as of now the notifications remain in effect and they had not been withdrawn. Besides there were also no orders to keep them in abeyance. There are indications that even the service headquarters had not made any official representation against the notifications. However, it is understood that the armed forces have deliberately refrained from lodging formal protests as that could be interpreted as defiance and hope that their non-implementation of the notifications would serve to have the matter reviewed. For the present, both the government and the service headquarters appear anxious to avoid an open confrontation, but unless formal moves are made in one direction or another, the stalemate could have an unhealthy impact. “The Pay Commission’s award is valid for 10 years, almost three have elapsed and we are still waiting for higher allowances,” a service officer said. It was over allowances that the IAF witnessed an ugly agitation -a mutiny many would insist - in 1997 following which a committee was appointed to review the matter. Its report was not accepted in toto. The matter was then dealt with at the level of Cabinet Secretary and Chiefs of Staff, but again no satisfactory way out was found. Eventually a ministerial group deliberated the matter and last month, the notifications were issued. The ministry maintains the aim was to redress some, but not all grievances. The notifications did not cover the pay scales for non-officers, and those of the rank of Lieutenant General, Vice-Admiral and Air Marshal. The official explanation
is that the ministerial group is yet to decide on them,
the pay/allowances of that bracket of senior officers is
said to have wider implications. |
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MUMBAI, April 5 (UNI) — A property dispute may have led to the murder of actress Priya Rajvansh, senior police officials today said. Securing ownership of the Ruia Park bungalow, which was in the name of the accused brothers Ketan Anand and Vivek Anand and Rajvansh, was the motive behind the murder, they believe. The bungalow was owned by the late Chetan Anand, father of Ketan and Vivek. Rajvansh, who was a close friend of Chetan Anand, was staying in the bungalow. Ketan, Vivek, Rajvansh’s maid Mala Chaudhury and her associate Ashok Chinnappa Swami were arrested by the Mumbai police last night. Mala and Swami have confessed to the crime, a senior official said. The Crime Branch, which is investigating the case, may arrest “one or two more persons”, he said. Mr D. Shivanandan, Joint Commissioner of Police (Crime) told UNI today that Ketan and Vivek had been questioned thoroughly. The body of the 57-year-old actress was in the bathroom of the Ruia Park bungalow on March 28. A second post mortem examination showed that she was strangulated and had died due to asphyxiation. Several senior members of the Mumbai film industry have come out in support of the Anands claiming the second-generation Anand brothers were being implicated in the case. Ketan, a successful filmmaker, directed ‘Toote Khilone’ starring Shekhar Kapoor and Shabana Azmi and ‘Ham Rahe Na Tum’ starring Vijay Anand, Rehana Sultan and Shabana Azmi. Ketan and Vivek, were today remanded to police custody along with two others until April 10 by a local court which turned down the bail plea of the two brothers. Priya’s maid Mala Choudhary and Ashok Chinnappa Swamy, were also remanded to police custody. The investigating officer from Juhu police station stepped into the witness box to unfold the prosecution story that the two brothers had allegedly planned the murder over a property dispute and “hired” the maid and her associate to kill the actress by paying them Rs 4000. The police alleged the dispute was over the Juhu bungalow of late Chetan Anand in which Priya, Ketan and Vivek had equal shares. Satish Maneshinde,
counsel for Ketan and Vivek, argued that police had put
up a “concocted” story as there was no dispute
over property between the Anand brothers and Priya, who
was treated like a family member. |
NDA govt to last full term: Thakre NEW DELHI, April 5 (UNI) — The BJP President, Mr Kushabhau Thakre today expressed confidence that the NDA government at the Centre would not only last its full term, but return to power as well. Talking to UNI on the eve of the BJP completing 20 years of its existence, Mr Thakre said while the BJP and its allies were gaining in strength, its opponents, particularly the Congress, was loosing ground by the day. More importantly, he asserted that the NDA had a “wholesome vision” of taking the country rapidly on the path of progress while its adversaries were a confused lot pulling in different directions. Mr Thakre said the BJP firmly believed in integrated development of the country so that regional imbalances were eliminated and no area nursed the feeling of being left behind. The BJP President said there was no question of his party pushing forward its own agenda at the expense of other NDA constituents. The BJP has no special agenda to push. The NDA’s agenda for governance is the only agenda. The NDA government is obliged to follow it, he said. He parried a question if the Ram Temple issue has been abandoned by the BJP. We have to face the reality. Therefore, we decided on issues that could be taken up now (by the NDA), he pointed out. Answering another question, Mr Thakre said there was nothing communal about the Uttar Pradesh Religious Bill as it was aimed at regulating construction of places of worship of all faiths. Where was then the possibility of targeting any particular community, he countered. He dismissed as the Congress and Leftist bogy the campaign against the Bill. About the cross-voting in the recent Rajya Sabha elections in Uttar Pradesh, the BJP President admitted that perhaps there were certain elements within the party whose sympathies lay with expelled party leader Mr Kalyan Singh, but chose not to openly revolt for fear of attracting the anti-defection law. The party was keeping a watch on such elements, he said. The BJP Chief was non-committal on the move for forging a grand anti-Left alliance in West Bengal. The Left’s monopoly of power in West Bengal must be broken, he said but, he, however, did not say what impact the coming together of Ms Mamata Banerjee’s Trinamool Congress and the Congress will have on the NDA of which the Trinamool Congress was a component. About the growth of the
party, Mr Thakre, who will be relinquishing office in two
months, said we have traversed a long route since the
days of the Jana Sangh of which the BJP is a successor
and have a long way ahead. We are confident of reaching
our goal, he said. |
HC notice to MoD on land transfer NEW DELHI, April 5 (UNI) — The Delhi High Court today issued notices to the Cabinet Secretary and the Ministry of Defence (MoD) on a case relating to transfer of four acres of prime land at Kirkee cantonment to the Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies, Pune. Others who have been asked to reply by a Division Bench comprising of Mr Justices Arun Kumar and D.K. Jain, are the Chief of the Army Staff and the Director-General of Defence Estates. The public interest litigation (PIL) filed by advocate B.L. Wadehra says the government sanctioned the land for a period of 30 years renewable for two more similar periods (totalling 90 years) at a concessional rent of Rs 6.92 lakh per year. This was in breach of rules. “The government has for the first time in the defence ministry’s history granted a large tract of land to a private organisation for running an unrecognised institute which will not be able to grant degrees and diplomas,’’ the petitioner said. Also, admission will be open to only one category of people as a captive facility in contravention of all rules and court directions on the subject. The March 25 decision has created an awkward precedent which may create a demand for similar private bodies to set up captive institutes for education of employees and their dependants, Mr Wadehra said. The Defence Ministry is
scheduled to perform the ‘Bhoomi Poojan’
ceremony on the said land on April 8. The petitioner said
the court must intervene and issue ex parte order of
stay. |
Defence budget hike ‘irreversible’ NEW DELHI, April 5 (PTI) — Defence Minister George Fernandes today said recent “step up” in defence budget would be a continuing trend and was irreversible to keep armed forces in pace with cutting edge technology. Asserting that the step-up was essential to keep the armed forces adequately equipped, Mr Fernandes said “inadequate funds” had been the reason that the armed forces were caught off-guard as at the start of the conflict in Kargil. Addressing the ongoing bi-annual Army Commanders conference here, the Defence Minister said when “Operation Vijay” was launched to throw out Pakistani intrusion in Kargil the defence forces were “not adequately equipped” due to paucity of funds. Giving a strident call to the armed forces to remain on vigil keeping in view the extraordinary threats to national security, Mr Fernandes told the senior Army Commanders to be on guard as the nation expected another “hot summer” this year in Jammu and Kashmir. Expressing satisfaction at the increased budgetary allocation for defence, he said “while it might not be enough to meet all our requirements, we were on a path which could not be reversed. We are making all efforts so that we are in a state of much better preparedness.” Mr Fernandes said while India wanted friendship with all countries, there could be no compromise on the question of security of the country. He said the government was looking forward to a debate in Parliament on the Subrahmanyam panel report on the Kargil conflict saying this would help in focusing on some key and urgent issues relating to the country’s security. Paying tribute to the
soldiers, the minister said victory in Kargil had created
a great deal of awareness in the country and the positive
fallout of which had been the increased defence
allocation this year. |
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CALCUTTA, April 5 (PTI) — Noted exponent of Tagore songs Kanika Bandyopadhyay, whose melodious voice won the hearts of millions over half a century, died today after a protracted illness. Kanika (76), one of the few surviving disciples of Rabindra Nath Tagore, was admitted to the state-run SSKM hospital on March 8 with complaints of acute lung infection and cardialogical complications, hospital sources said here. The end came at 6.20 a.m., they added. Hundreds of her admirers thronged the hospital as soon as the news spread across the city. Winner of several awards including Padma Shri, Desikottam (the highest award of Visva Bharati University), EMI golden disc and Allauddin Khan Awards, Bandyopadhyay married Birendra Chandra Bandyopadhyay, a deputy librarian at Visva Bharati University, in 1945. The couple had no children. Condoling her death, West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu said: “The void created by Kanika Bandyopadhyay’s death will be difficult to fill”. The body will be kept at Rabindra Sadan for the public to pay homage before being taken to Santiniketan for the last rites. Kanika ruled the world of Rabindra Sangeet like a queen — quiet, dignified and charming, keeping under her spell generations of music lovers for over four decades. Her pet name ‘Mohar’ (gold coin) was symbolic of her golden voice which set exacting standards for singers of coming years to follow. Born on October 12, 1924 at Sonamukhi in Bankura district, Kanika was noticed early in her student days in Visva Bharati by Rabindra Nath Tagore himself. Her lesson in music was learnt from none else but Tagore. Kanika was also indebted
to Sailaja Ranjan Majumder, who was a teacher of many
other illustrious exponents of Rabindra sangeet and
instrumental in popularising it and Tagore’s dance
form. |
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NEW DELHI, April 5 (UNI) — President K.R. Narayanan today led the nation in paying homage to Jagjivan Ram on his 92nd birth anniversary by offering floral tributes at his statue in the Capital. Mr Narayanan, accompanied by Delhi Lt, Governor Vijai Kapoor, visited Jagjivan Ram Memorial at 6, Krishna Menon Marg and also participated in an all-religion prayer held at the venue. Earlier, MS Indrani Devi, wife of Jagjivan Ram, and his daughter Meira Kumar and other members of the family paid homage at Samata Sthal. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit, MLAs Ramakant Goswami, Roop Chand and Darshana Ram Kumar and Chairman of Babu Jagjivan Ram Smriti Samiti Sanik O.P. Maurya also paid tributes at his samadhi. Meanwhile, Mr Maurya, in
a memorandum to the President, has demanded that the
highest civilian award, the Bharat Ratna, be conferred on
Jagjivan Ram posthumously in recognition of his services
to the Nation and a foundation created to propagate his
ideology. |
Mamata:
Railways to promote Hindi NEW DELHI, April 5 — The Railways have decided to produce a 13-episode television serial highlighting its role in promoting national integration through the use of Hindi. This decision was announced by the Railway Minister, Ms Mamata Banerjee at the 47th meeting of the Hindi advisory committee of the Railways here today. Ms Banerjee said the serial directed by noted film maker, Shyam Benegal was expected to be ready for telecast by September. She said the committee must work in a broad minded manner and promote Hindi while giving equal respect to other languages in the country. Addressing the meeting, the Minister of State for Railways, Mr Digvijay Singh said the Indian Railways have been in the forefront in the use of Hindi through computers. The Chairman, of the
Railway Board, Mr V.K. Aggarwal, said the ministry had
worked out plan to promote the use of Hindi in its
computerisation programme. Canada to host website on India CALCUTTA, April 5 (PTI) — The Canadian High Commission will host a customised, India-specific website to market the country to the Canadians. “We are trying to have it up and running in another two months,’’ the Canadian High Commissioner in India, Mr Peter Walker, told members of the Indian Chamber of Commerce here. Stating that his country
was ‘heavily dependent’ on immigrants, he said
India was Canada’s second largest source of
immigration. Nearly 7,00,000 persons of Indian origin in
Canada comprised about 2 per cent of that country’s
population. |
SAD
disowns Hit’s remark NEW DELHI, April 5 — The Shiromani Akali Dal (Badal) today disowned the remarks by its Delhi State Chief demanding the removal of the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah. In a statement issued here today, the Union Minister and party General Secretary, Mr Sukhdev Singh Dhindsa, today said what Mr Avtar Singh Hit had claimed “is not our party’s stand.” He said Mr Hit may have raised the demand in his individual capacity and had since been cautioned not to make policy pronouncements. Mr Hit, who led a
seven-member delegation to the Chatti Singhpora village
in Jammu and Kashmir, had said on return that Jammu and
Kashmir should be put under Central rule. |
Digvijay moots unified command BHOPAL, April 5 (PTI) — All Naxalite-affected states should have unified police command to deal with naxalism, according to Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Digvijay Singh. The Chief Minister, who participated in “World Today” programme of the BBC last night, said since borders between Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar and Orissa were marked by dense forests where it was not easy for security forces to reach easily, he was demanding joint police action to tackle the Naxal-menace. He said the problem of naxalism has to be dealt with at the political and administrative levels and it could be done by giving more rights to tribals people, transferring to them use of minor forest produce and implementing land reforms. To a query on whether he
was satisfied with the steps taken by the Union Home
Minister L.K. Advani to counter naxalism, he said the
Union Government’s attitude had improved and now it
was much more constructive in approach. |
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NEW DELHI, April 5 (PTI) — The first Indian kit to test AIDS-causing Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV), that is cheap and highly sensitive, will hit the market shortly, a Department of Biotechnology (DBT) official said. The test kit has been developed by Delhi University South Campus researchers under a project funded by the Department-of-Biotechnology. It is based on recombinant DNA technology in which DNA or deoxyribose nucleic acid, the genetic material of cells, from different sources are stitched together. The technology was transferred to Kerala Pharmaceuticals which is upscaling the process in its laboratory in Ahmedabad. Already about 30,000 kits have been produced, which are being validated by different agencies, Dr V.K. Vinayak, adviser for medical affairs at DBT, said. Mr Vinayak, who presented a paper on different HIV vaccine strategies at a conference on HIV/AIDS organised by the Ranbaxy Science Foundation here today, said once commercialised, the Indian test kit were expected to cost only Rs 20 per test compared to Rs 80 to 100 incurred per test with imported Elisa (enzyme linked immunosorbent assay) kits. Mr Vinayak said the Delhi University scientists joined together two genes. One was from an antigen protein that is present on the surface of red blood cells, and the second from the HIV virus itself. The recombinant product
was put inside a bacterium which produced hundreds of
copies of it to produce a watery material containing both
genes, Mr Vinayak added. |
Patent plant resources: experts NEW DELHI, April 5 (PTI) — Plant species grown and widely used in India for centuries are being patented by the dozens in developed countries. “It is indeed a dangerous phenomenon and a threat to our biodiversity,” says Dr Balasubramaniam, head of the Intellectual Property Rights (IPR) Department of the Ministry of Science and Technology. First it was neem, then basmati rice, kala zeera (cumin), amla (Indian gooseberry), kali mirch (pepper), ritha (soapnut tree), dudhi (euphoriba hirta), and now it’s the turn of karela (bitter gourd), jamun (blackberry) and the baigan (brinjal) to be patented in countries like Japan, the USA and China. This means that indigenous communities of our country who have developed the various uses of these plants have been relegated to the ‘third party’ status as per the TRIPS (Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights) agreements or simply put, “we now face the situation of having to pay royalty for using our own natural resources”. “The injustice is being perpetrated because the intellectual achievements of our local and indigenous communities are not recognised and legally protected” says Afsar Jaffrey, Programme Co-ordinator of Research Foundation for Science, Technology and Ecology (RFSTE). “A legislation should be moved as soon as possible to fill this huge loophole,” he suggests. Jaffrey also stresses upon the need for the government to include plants and plant products in the list of non-patentable items as they are not within the ambits of inventions to qualify for patenting. “India’s position paper for the Seattle round had this clause, but unfortunately it has been removed now,” he says. Suman Sahay, convenor of NGO ‘Gene Campaign’ and a former Professor of Genetics in Germany suggests another way. “The solution lies in consolidating the agenda of India and other developing countries to negotiate the linkage of TRIPS and the Convention on Biodiversity (CBD).” “We promptly signed all the clauses in the TRIPS, then the CBD came along and US refused to ratify it. So what we need to do is to make efforts to mobilise developing countries to demand a linkage between the TRIPS and the CBD i.e. Every country must either sign both the treaties or none,” she says. The CBD, adopted in Rio de Janeiro in 1992, assumes that when a state allows access to a sample of genetic resources, it is in turn entitled to insist on a number of benefits. Research activities on the genetic resources it provides have to be done in its territory to help it build capacity. All the information generated by research on that genetic resource must be repatriated. Any biotechnology applied on the genetic resource must be made accessible to it. And a fair and equitable share of benefits accruing from the use, including from commercial gains, must also be given to it. All these clauses of CBD make it a rather pro-Third World treaty and thus it is only fair “that its linkage be sought with TRIPS,” argues Sahay. Dr Balasubramaniam, however, contends that the only way to curtail the foreign firms from patenting our products is to patent them ourselves. “We have to treat it like a race,” she says. “The government is helpless to that extent. We challenged the turmeric patent successfully, but it is simply not possible to challenge each and every such patent abroad. The whole procedure of challenging a patent abroad is very tedious and expensive. Thus, the best way is to get it before anyone else does.” “The problem, however, is that we don’t really have a patent culture in the country. Most of the scientists, lawyers and concerned officials are not aware of the patent filing procedure. They may for once be thorough with copyrights and trademarks, but when it comes to patents we lag far behind,” says Sahay. On the other side we have the developed countries like us with huge, elaborate patent offices, computerised information and databases and qualified staff. This factor goes a long way in the race for patents. The seriousness of the Indian situation can best be understood from the fact that the patent offices in our country have granted patents for such common items as rice, dosa, green peas, pulao and believe it or not on cotton seeds, in which case it took a former Prime Minister’s intervention a few years back to have the ‘illegal’ patent removed from the register. Moreover, the way to go about seeking a patent in our country is in itself a challenging task. There are four patent offices for the entire country — one each in Mumbai, Calcutta, New Delhi and Chennai . According to reports there are about 33,230 applications in the backlog waiting clearance in these offices. Add to this the
high-level of ignorance of the concerned officials and
the public at large about the process of filing patent
applications. |
UP CM: no threat to government LUCKNOW, April 5 (UNI) — Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta and State BJP Chief Om Prakash Singh today asserted there was no threat to the government or the leadership in the state. Dismissing speculations
in political circles about a threat to his government
following recent signs of discontent among its allies,
the latest being the boycott of the Cabinet meeting
yesterday by two of its constituents, the Loktantrik
Congress Party and JD Raja Ram , the Chief Minister told
mediapersons that there was absolutely no threat to it. |
WB Congress gets nod to talk to TC NEW DELHI, April 5 (PTI) — In a significant development, the Congress high command today gave the formal go ahead to its West Bengal unit to hold talks with NDA constituent the Trinamool Congress on formation of a ‘‘grand alliance’’ to defeat the CPI-M in next year’s Assembly elections, but with a rider that there could not be a tie-up with the BJP. Asserting that Ms Mamata Banerjee’s party was ‘‘like minded’’ despite being part of the BJP-led NDA, AICC spokesman Ajit Jogi, however, made it clear that under no circumstances there could be any direct or indirect adjustment or alliance with the communal forces led by the BJP. The announcement came close on the heels of several rounds of talks the WBPCC leaders led by the PCC President A.B.A. Ghani Khan Chaudhary had with the party high command. ‘‘What is the harm in talking to Mamata.... She had been a part of the Congress,’’ Mr Jogi told reporters in reply to a volley of questions maintaining that such a dialogue could be ‘‘advantageous’’ for the party. In an apparent move to strike a balance between the two warring factions in the state unit, the AICC also announced that a small probe committee would be constituted to go into the issue of cross-voting by a section of party MLAs which led to the defeat of party nominee D.P. Roy in the recent Rajya Sabha elections. ‘‘We have taken cognisance of the affairs and developments in the West Bengal Congress. We appreciate the role of MLAs who voted for the Congress candidate. AICC cannot, however, overlook the cross-voting by a section of the party MLAs,’’ Mr Jogi said. Mr Jogi said the probe committee to be constituted soon would complete its work ‘‘as early as possible’’. Asked as to why the Congress leadership was delaying action against the West Bengal MLAs, who voted against the official nominee, and was not following the Maharashtra case in which it had acted against 11 MLAs, he merely said no two situations are alike. Replying to a question on the state Youth Congress President Paresh Pal’s reported statement that the CPI-M was more communal than the BJP, he said the AICC does not endorse that view. Meanwhile, WBPCC chief
Chowdhury had detailed discussions today with AICC
General Secretary in charge of state Prabha Rao and AICC
Secretary Pawan Bansal. Senior Congress leader S.S. Ray
was also present at the meeting. |
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NEW DELHI, April 5 (UNI) — In a massive airlift operation, Air India is operating 30 flights today and tomorrow from Jeddah (Saudi Arabia) for the Haj pilgrims stranded there for the past few days. “We are operating 14 to 16 services today and tomorrow by the midnight of April 6, there will be no backlog as far as passengers are concerned,” Mr Jitender Bhargava, Air India Director, Public Relations, Inflight Service and National Marketing Division, told a press conference today. Explaining the situation arising out of the “huge number” of pilgrims this year, Mr Bhargava said, “the backlog occurred in the first week itself with allocation of only four check-in counters, one X-ray machine and one bay to Air India at the Jeddah airport.” He said this year the number of pilgrims being carried by the airline stood at 71,924 requiring 191 flights each way. “Many other countries also increased their number of pilgrims resulting in severe strain on the Jeddah terminal ... Also with the facilities at our disposal, we could operate only six flights a day with each flight taking four hours,” he said. “We should also take into account the fact that most of the passengers are first time air-travellers,” he added. Expressing surprise over media reports blaming the airline for the mess, he said in the Haj pilgrimage, Air India is only a facilitator with the Ministries of External Aviation and Civil Aviation, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) and the Central Haj Committee preparing the details. Mr Bhargava also pointed out excess baggage carried by the pilgrims was a major bottleneck. “According to our contract with the Central Haj Committee, each pilgrim is allowed 45 kg, but in reality most of them carry far in excess,” he said and suggested imposition of certain disincentives like fine for extra baggage. He said a week ago the backlog of baggage on ground at Jeddah terminal stood at 30 tonnes which has now “come down to 8-10 tonnes”. Mr Bhargava said the Central Haj Committee should take a decision fast on the issue of excess baggage. At present there is no disincentive for it, he said adding Air India could not impose baggage restrictions on the pilgrims unilaterally. “In the first week, the situation was frightening at Jeddah terminal,” he admitted, but added the airline could not be blamed for the inconvenience to the pilgrims. The baggage left behind are being put onto the scheduled flights at no cost to the “Hajis”. He said CHC Chairman Tanvie Ahmed reviewed the situation at Jeddah yesterday and expressed satisfaction at the arrangements made for the home-bound pilgrims at the terminal. He also referred to the delay in granting of visa by the Ministry of External Affairs as one of the bottlenecks in the entire process. Mr J.J. Singh, Resident
Director, attributed lack of precise information at Delhi
airport regarding the flight timings for the relatives of
the pilgrims to “rolling delay” at the other
end. “Unless the flight takes off, it is very
difficult to say its expected time of arrival here,”
Mr Singh said. |
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THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, April 5 (PTI) — Chief Ministerial-level talks between Kerala and Tamil Nadu over the vexed Mullaperiyar dam issue failed today as both states refused to budge from their intransigent positions on maintaining the water level of the reservoir. After the talks Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi told reporters that he was unhappy that no agreement had been reached and he would make a detailed statement on the issue in the assembly. Kerala’s Chief Minister, EK Nayanar reiterated that the state was uncompromising against raising the water level of the over 112-year-old dam above 136 feet as it would endanger its safety. He said Tamil Nadu had also rejected his suggestion to constitute a joint committee of technical experts from both states to monitor the dam’s parameters and performance after installing all requisite instruments. During the talks, Mr
Karunanidhi held that since the dam had been
strengthened, there was nothing wrong in raising the
level at first to 145 feet. |
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