M A I N   N E W S

Rajasansi to be upgraded
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, April 13 — The Union Cabinet today approved a proposal on the declaration of Amritsar’s Rajasansi Airport an international airport and cleared a proposal to amend the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994.

The Cabinet also cleared proposals to declare existing airports in Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Goa, Guwahati and the new Cochin airport at Nedumbassery as international airports as recommended by the Task Force on Infrastructure.

The amendment of the Punjab Municipal Corporation Law (Extension to Chandigarh) Act, 1994, through parliamentary legislation will provide for representation to the local Member of Parliament in the Municipal Corporation of Chandigarh.

The amendment will provide specifically for representation for the MP in Chandigarh Municipal Corporation meetings including a right to vote.

The official spokesperson told newspersons here that the Union Cabinet also approved establishment of a Sardar Swaran Singh National Institute of Renewable Energy, on the Jalandhar-Kapurthala road as an autonomous apex institution of the Ministry of Non-Conventional Energy Sources.

The institute to be set up at a cost of Rs 37.686 crore will focus on areas not tackled by existing institutes and centres supported by the Ministry. These include biomass, biogas, energy from urban and industrial wastes and new technologies, besides human resources development and international cooperation in the area of renewable energy.

The spokesperson said more than 75 acres of land adjoining Science City (another project of the Union Government) has been acquired. Construction work is likely to commence this year and the institute is expected to become fully operational in a period of four years.

Meanwhile, some of the programmes of the institute are also likely to be started from its project office at Jalandhar.

It has been decided to construct a new airport on a joint venture basis at Shamshabad near Hyderabad. The existing airport in Hyderabad will be closed on commissioning of the new aiport.

The Cabinet also gave approval to amend the Border Security Force Act, 1968 to insert a new section on the lines of Section 169 A of the Army Act, 1950 to safeguard the interest of persons facing trial under the Border Security Force Act, 1968.

Under this a person subject to the BSF Act it sentenced by a Security Force Court will have the period spent by him in civil or Force custody during trial deducted from his term of imprisonment.

A proposal for accession to the international convention relating to intervention on the high seas in case of oil pollution casualties, 1969 was also cleared by the Cabinet.

The spokesperson said about 30 per cent of the world’s tanker traffic at some stage or the other passes through the Indian Exclusive Economic Zone making it vulnerable to oil pollution. Accession to the Convention would confer necessary jurisdiction on India for taking measures on the high seas for protecting its coastal and exclusive economic zone.

Other Cabinet decisions relate to giving on lease hold basis for a period of five years defence land measuring 2158.48 square metres to Indraprastha Gas Limited, New Delhi for augmentation of compressed natural gas supply outlets at Delhi, and approval to a proposal to amend the route schedule as per the air services agreement between India and Belgium to provide better flexibility in the operation of air services between the two countries.

UNI adds: In view of the continuous fall in the prices of imported edible oil, the government today announced reduction in the central issue price of imported Palmoleine oil by Rs 2,000 a tonne from Rs 20,000 to Rs 18,000 — both for bulk and 15-kg tin buyers.