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| Friday, June 9, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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3 hurt in attacks on churches NEW DELHI, May 8 — Renewed attacks on Christian places of worship today left three persons injured as two churches in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Karnataka and Goa were rocked by explosions. Panskura LS poll ‘Kashmir on verge of opting for India’ Pak poet seeks asylum in India Aftab’s plea
under process
Indians discover memory switch Bollywood gears up for stir |
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Central team back from Tripura 6 arrested for maid’s murder Centre to execute
scheme for
expectant mothers Woman kills husband To smoke or not to smoke Hurriyat
leader
released Balakrishnan sworn
in as SC judge
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3 hurt in attacks on churches NEW DELHI, May 8 (UNI) — Renewed attacks on Christian places of worship today left three persons injured as two churches in Andhra Pradesh and one each in Karnataka and Goa were rocked by explosions. The attacks came a day after a 43-year-old priest was clubbed to death by some men at a school in Nevada village near Mathura in Uttar Pradesh. Three of the churches that came under attack were Catholic and one American Baptist. Three persons were injured when two bombs went off almost simultaneously at two churches at Ongole and Tadepalligudem towns in Andhra Pradesh. The Prakasam district Superintendent of Police said a time bomb exploded at the American Baptist Church in Ongole town around 0845 hrs soon after a gathering of students, who attended Bible classes left. However, three persons suffered minor injuries when the explosives kept under a bench near the main entrance of the 114-year-old protestant church went off. He said the low intensity blast damaged the window panes and furniture. In the second incident at Tadepalligudem in west Godavari district, a bomb exploded in a recently-built Catholic church around 0835 hrs, creating a big crater and causing extensive damage to window panes. No one was injured. In Karnataka, another Roman Catholic church at Wadi town was rocked by two explosions, damaging windows and glass panes of the prayer hall. Gulbarga police chief Prathap Reddy said the first explosion at 0615 hrs was followed by another at 0900 hrs. There were no casualties. In Goa, a low intensity bomb exploded at the St Andrew Church at Vasco Da Gama. Police Superintendent Karnal Singh told reporters that the crude bomb which went off at 1015 hrs was placed near a window. He said sniffer dogs and bomb disposal squads were pressed into service and police parties formed to conduct raids to nab the culprits. Meanwhile, those present at the church said the bomb went off just five minutes after students of a school, which is situated in the church premises, returned to their classes after recess. Mr Karnal Singh said alert has been sounded all over the state and a close vigil was being maintained, particularly on all religious places in view of the incident. The CPM demanded a judicial inquiry by a sitting high court judge into the series of bomb blasts in churches in Andhra. |
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Panskura LS poll CALCUTTA, June 8 (PTI) — The ruling Left Front in West Bengal today suffered a major setback when its candidate Gurudas Dasgupta lost the crucial by-election to Trinamool Congress candidate Bikram Sarkar from the Panskura Lok Sabha
constituency. The Left Front candidate polled 3,85,304 votes against 4,26,719 received by the Trinamool Congress candidate. Congress candidate Subhankar Sarkar bagged only 20,497 votes, Returning Officer A. Subbiah said in Panskura. CPI
leader late Geeta Mukherjee had won the seat, regarded as the stronghold of the Leftists, consecutively seven times since 1980. In 1999 the
CPI candidate had received 4,01,431 while the Trinamool Congress nominee had bagged 3,54,573. The Congress was further marginalised as the party’s share of votes was reduced from 59,147 to just 20,497 votes. With this the Trinamool Congress increased its tally in the Lok Sabha to nine seats. Describing the result as “the beginning of the end of the Left Front rule in the state”, Trinamool Congress policy-making body Chairman Pankaj Banerjee said here that the people had expressed confidence in Ms Banerjee’s leadership and rejected the Front. The by-election assumed significance since it had turned out to be a prestige fight between Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee and the CPM. Chief Minister Jyoti Basu, former Prime Minister V.P. Singh,
CPI General Secretary A.B. Bardhan had campaigned for Mr Dasgupta besides CPM Politburo members Anil Biswas and Biman Bose while Ms Banerjee, who camped in Midnapore for over a week, steered her party’s campaign. MIDNAPORE (West Bengal): Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee on Thursday described her party’s victory in Panskura Lok Sabha by-election as “people’s victory” and said a united fight would wipe out the ruling Left Front from West Bengal. “If we fight unitedly against the Left Front, it will be wiped out from West Bengal,” Ms Banerjee told reporters here. “At present, however, our task will be to restore law and order in villages where CPM has unleashed terror,” she said. Referring to the role of the administration, the Railway Minister said “Had I not been present here till the counting, the police and the district administration might not have acted independently.” |
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‘Kashmir on verge of opting for India’ NEW DELHI, June 8 (UNI) — A prominent Pakistan analyst, Mr Mansoor Ijaz, has said the Kashmiris appeared to be on the verge of ‘opting for India,’ which offers economic revitalisation and peaceful co-existence, rather than going Muslim Pakistan, because of the emergence of a zealot in that nation. Pakistan offers “little more than religious zealotry and violent accession,” Mr Ijaz said in an interview with the Los Angeles Times soon after a visit to the Kashmir valley to meet separatist leaders. Mr Ijaz, considered close to successive governments in Pakistan, described Islamabad’s claim that it was not extending military support to the militant groups as false. “I saw several thousand weapons seized from insurgents in gun battles around the valley and along the Line of Control which bear the logo of Pakistan’s official ammunition factories. The fingerprints of Pakistan army and intelligence were unmistakable,” he said. Mr Ijaz criticised the life style of Kashmiri separatist leaders, after looking at the homes in which the Kashmiri separatist leaders and others in the valley live. He was also critical of human rights violations in the Kashmir valley. Mr Ijaz, who also met with several state government officials, said the police and security forces admitted that their
soldiers had been overzealous in expelling militants from their homes, sometimes violating civil liberties. |
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Pak poet seeks asylum in India NEW DELHI, June 8 (PTI) — Pakistani writer Aftab Hussain, who was harassed by the military regime for publishing poems of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, has applied for political asylum in India. “I have approached the Ministry of External Affairs and Ministry of Home for granting me political asylum in India as situation in Pakistan, governed by General Pervez Musharraf, was worse than ever before”, Hussain, who observed a quiet birthday today, told PTI. He said he had been assured by External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh that the country would favourably responsed to his request for political asylum. “But so far, I have not received any reply and my 90-day visa will end on June 15,” Hussain said. The 38-year-old Hussain said several Indian writers had also written a “request letter to Prime Minister Vajpayee and Home Minister L.K. Advani, for a favourable response to my plea for political asylum... but a reply is still awaited.” The miseries for him started after a noted Indian Urdu poet Jameel Akhther, who translated Mr Vajpayee’s poems, sent a copy to him with the request for publishing it in Pakistan. He said he was harassed by the military regime for this act and refusal to blame it on the deposed Pakistani premier Nawaz Sharif to such an extent that he was left with no option but to leave the country. Hussain said he had received only one letter from his family three days ago since he left the country on March 15. “And the letter only contains information about welfare of my family”, he said, adding “the letter had apparently been opened by the ISI agents as the envelope was not in a proper shape”. About the situation in Pakistan, he said. “I completely agree with a US official report that Pakistan is responsible for arming Islamic fundamentalists and waging cross-border terrorism against India”. “I am myself a victim of Islamic fundamentalism. They opposed the visit of Mr Vajpayee to Lahore last year... so how could they tolerate my publishing his poems in Pakistan,” Hussain said. However, he had no regrets over his decision to come and seek asylum in India saying. “My decision for India was natural as we share the same culture, literature and other values which the Britishers could not divide”. Hussain plans to continue his literary work in India and his first book containing his new poems titled “Samundar se Pehli Mulakat” first encounter with seal and a cassette of his Urdu ghazals would be released soon in India. |
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Aftab’s plea
under process NEW DELHI, June 8 — Request of Pakistani poet Aftab Hussain for asylum in India on the grounds that he was being harassed there, is under process. Home Ministry sources today said that consultations were on between the Ministry of External Affairs and the Home Ministry to take a decision before his visa expires on June 15. |
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Indians discover memory switch NEW DELHI, June 8 (PTI) — Using computer simulations, a team of scientists has claimed to have identified a “memory switch” that activates the memory storage
process in the brain. The findings may provide new clues in comprehending the memory storage process which is not well-understood so far. Though the memory-switch does not immediately offer promise of a memory-boosting pill, it will certainly suggest ways in which memory could be more reliably stored, according to Upinder Bhalla at National Centre for Biological Sciences (NCBS) in Bangalore. The memory switch was discovered by Mr Bhalla and Ravi Iyenger of Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York last year. After his return to India, Mr Bhalla is continuing his studies on it. The switch is actually a signalling pathway which plays a crucial role in communicating between brain cells. Though it is known that communication between 100 billion brain cells account for memory, the details of the process are not known. The
theoretical study by Mr Bhalla and Mr Iyenger which was published in the US journal “Science”, showed how a series of biochemical activities help retain information in the brain permanently. The switch is present in the hippocampus region which is the seat of memory, Mr Bhalla said. The switch consists of four signalling molecules and acts as an intermediate storage mechanism between short-term inputs and long-duration memory storage mechanism, Dr Bhalla said. The switch can stay “on” at a particular state which is a pre-requisite for memory storage, he said. It fits well with experimental data that suggests an hour after the inputs, memory consolidation process involving protein synthesis begins. “We look at how short-term events can flip a switch which can retain its information till long term processes like protein synthesis can kick in for permanent storage,” he said. The findings may also help in cancer research as several molecules involved in the formation of a cancerous growth also play a role in memory storage, he added. |
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Bollywood gears up for stir MUMBAI, June 8 (UNI) — Even though the Maharashtra Government has put its sales tax policy for the film industry in abeyance for two weeks, an action committee set up to fight the tax on transfer of copyright is doubtful whether the government would be able to roll back the proposed levy. A delegation of the action committee met Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh on Monday and protested against the imposition of further taxes on the
beleaguered industry, which is facing threats from extortionists and a fall in earnings due to poor business. They said the industry would go on strike if the government were to impose the tax. The Chief Minister has appointed a committee under the chairmanship of Finance Minister Jayant Patil to chalk out a solution and find out other ways to generate revenue for the state government. The industry sources, however, said the government was bent upon taxing the “living dead”. Another back-breaking tax would cripple the Mumbai entertainment industry, which was already reeling under the worst ever resource crunch in its history, they asserted. It is a cold, premeditated ploy to milk the industry dry, a draconian levy that will be best fought collectively, rather than in the form of ineffectual letters of prayer and request from individual trade bodies, they said. The first meeting of the Jayant Patil Committee will be held on June 11 and its outcome will decide the future course of action by the film industry. Through an amendment to the Maharashtra Sales Tax Act, the government plans to implement a 4 per cent tax on all kinds of transfer of rights or use of copyright — in film, television software, music and video. The action committee members said things had become worse for showbiz since 1985. The ratio of hits to flops had fallen drastically. Now, for every release that managed to break even, there were 30 that did not. Most producers felt that for all fanfare with which industry status was granted to filmdom, the benefits that went with it were yet to trickle down. Electricity and water were yet to be provided at industrialised rates, studio and set rentals still cost the producers a tidy packet and even the state-owned film city charged a premium for the meagre services it provides. Shooting on roads, beaches and port property did not come cheap either, and permission to shoot at public places was not easy. The All India Film Producers’ Council and the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association had written to the Chief Minister protesting against the tax. They argued that the tax went against the Chief Minister’s assurances that the state government would provide the industry with an atmosphere conducive to growth. |
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Central team back from Tripura NEW DELHI, June 8 — The Centre has called for a more pro-active approach to tackle insurgency in Tripura which recently witnessed large-scale killings. Union Home Secretary Kamal Pande who returned here today after a two-day visit to Agartala after assessing law and order situation expressed concern especially over the rise in killings of innocent citizens and increase in kidnappings. He said that the tribal as well as non-tribal people were feeling insecure and that it was primary duty of the Central government and the State government to ensure security of the people. While calling for a more pro-active approach, he said that there was need for improved coordination as well as accountability for the situation in their respective areas of control. Mr Pande emphasised the need for a sense of urgency in implementing the action plan approved in consultation with the Centre. At present there are 15 battalions of the CRPF, four of Assam Rifles, six of Tripura State Rifles apart from the police deployed there. In addition, eight battalions of the BSF were present on the border. Mr Pande said the forces would be accountable for the security scenario in their respective areas of control and that the Home Ministry would review the situation after two months. The Home Secretary also informed that the Centre recently sanctioned an additional India Reserve Battalion for Tripura and three battalions of the BSF of which two would be deployed in Tripura. He said there was also need for more effective use of the National Security Act and other laws to curb militancy and bring about environment of security. Mr Pande led a team of officials, including the Director-General of the BSF, Mr E.N. Ram Mohan and the CRPF, Mr M.N. Sabherwal and Joint Secretary G.K. Pillai. Meanwhile, both the ruling and Opposition parties met the Union Home Secretary yesterday and submitted a memoranda. The ruling
CPM-led Left Front demanded deployment of five battalions of Army and sealing of the state’s 856 km long Indo-Bangla border, while the Opposition Congress, Trinamool Congress and the
BJP demanded imposition of President’s rule and resignation of the front government for its “failure” to curb insurgency. The Central team, which arrived here yesterday comprised Border Security Force Director-General E.N. Rammohan, Central Reserve Police Force Director-General M.N. Sabharwal and Home Ministry’s Joint Secretary for North East Affairs G.K. Pillai. It also reviewed the deployment strategy and performance of Central para-military forces in anti-insurgency operations. |
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6 arrested for
maid’s murder NEW DELHI, June 8 — With the arrest of six persons, the Delhi Police has worked out the servant’s murder case in Vasant Vihar reported a few days ago. The victim was raped and murdered on Monday in the flat number D-1/25 in Vasant Vihar by the accused who were identified as Stella, Salimuddin, alias Rafique, Miraj, Ajay, Yuvraj alias Raja and Bhupinder. The flat owner was Ms Anjali Ghate, the police said. The police said Ajay, Yuvraj and Bhupinder worked as dry-cleaners in Khan Market in South Delhi. Their motive was robbery. The police said that mastermind behind the murder was Stella, who worked as a maid in the first floor of the building where the incident occurred. She knew that the landlady worked as a principal and left her house at 8 a.m. Her husband worked as a senior officer in the World Bank. She had two sons, one worked as a visiting professor in America and the second one is in a Tata Institute in Mumbai. Stella thought that she could get good money from Ms Anjali’s house. However, all the rooms were locked and the accused could not rob the house, the police said. |
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Centre to execute
scheme for
expectant mothers NEW DELHI, June 8 — The Centre plans to execute the referral transportation scheme for the pregnant women in all states. This was decided at a two day meeting of the State Family Welfare secretaries recently. According to the new proposal, all women living below the poverty line can avail of the scheme. It is also proposed to include districts where over 80 per cent of child birth takes place at home. Under the proposal, women can be taken to any referral hospital other than a primary or a community health centres. Sources in the Health Ministry said that the scheme meant for women belonging to poor families was hitherto offered in Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Orissa, Assam, Nagaland and Haryana. The scheme under the Reproductive and Child Health Programme, offers financial assistance to the panchayats through district Family Welfare Officers. The assistance covers transportation cost for carrying of expectant mothers to primary or community health centres for child birth. Woman kills
husband NEW DELHI, June 8 — A 40-year old woman, Urmila, reportedly murdered her husband Dori Lal with the help of her paramour Vinod (19) and his friend Rakesh. They stabbed Dori Lal to death and buried him in one of the rooms in his house at Gokulpuri area of North-East Delhi two months ago. His skeleton was recovered yesterday. The woman sold off the house five days ago and had run away along with her six children. She told the people that her husband had left her. The incident came to light with the arrest of Kalu, a rickshaw-puller in North Delhi. He is alleged to be one of the accomplices of the accused. During interrogation he disclosed about the murder of Dori Lal. He said the woman’s paramour, Vinod and his friend, Rakesh took him to the house of the deceased two months ago. They asked him to wait outside. |
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To smoke or not to smoke CALCUTTA, June 8 — To smoke or not to smoke: that is the question now being discussed in this Marxist-ruled city, a metropolis more known for its intellectual and cultural activities, politics and labour unrest, traffic jam, dirt and dust and Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity. Smoking is injurious to health but smoking is not banned in the city. One can smoke in the public places, in the corridors of Writers Buildings, other government offices, hospitals, educational institutions, gardens and parks, railway stations, bus terminus and even cinema and show houses. Calcutta’s intellectuals, writers and poets do smoke and some of them are chain smokers. They love to smoke as they love to drink. Mr Jyoti Basu does not smoke but he is no stranger to smoking. His Deputy Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharyya, (also looks after Home, Police Information and Culture) is a frequent smoker. So also is Mr Biman Basu, the Marxist young Turk and the politburo leader who loves foreign 555 brand cigarette and if at all Indian cigarette, then the India King. But Mr Basu’s Finance Minister, Dr Asim Dasgupta, an MIT scholar and Marxist-Economist is an ardent crusader against smoking. He wants a legal ban on smoking and favours adoption of formal legislation in the state Assembly in this connection. The idea, however, has not been much welcomed by his young colleague. The Minister for Environment Mr Manab Mukherjee who himself a smoker. Today’s young Marxist leaders had seen their great master, Mr Promode Dasgupta (better known as PDG) with always a Ilavana cigar on his lips while at work or no work at the Alimuddin Street party office or elsewhere — when other leaders got themselves accustomed to bidis or a less expensive cigarette. Nowadays, however, they prefer foreign brand cigarettes or country’s expensive brand as they can afford to buy and not the poor man’s bidis. Non-Leftist leaders also are not yet solely against smoking. Congress leader of the yesteryears, Mr Siddhartha Shankar Ray, former Punjab Governor, does not smoke but he is against blanket ban on smoking. Mr Saugata Roy, state Congress leader, by profession a lecturer at Jadavpore University, is not only a chain smoker but would fight against those non-smokers who want legal ban on smoking. Mr Somen Mitra, former WBPCC President also is against any ban. State BJP leaders are in favour of prohibition of liquor but they do not want any legal ban on smoking though most of them are casual smokers. Young BJP minister from West Bengal in Delhi, Mr Tapan Sikhdar, hardly smokes. Bengal’s poets and writers mostly smoke and are no teetotallers. Renowned novelist Sunil Gangopadhyya and the poet Niren Chakraborty are often seen on the street pavements adjacent to the Ananda Patrika in the Esplanade area, smoking cigarettes since the offices premises were declared “no smoking zone” after the outbreak of the recent devastating fire in the building. People of Calcutta are well aware about the health hazards of smoking: alarming rise of cancer, tuberculosis and other related diseases of which every sixth man is a victim. But still they smoke — some of them, are chain smokers. Cigarette is injurious to health but Calcutta’s tobacco manufacturers and the traders run their business very merrily and run profitably. And it is because smoking rate in this
metropolis has been very high. Every 20 persons out of 100, on an average in and around the city either do smoke bidis or cigarettes (according to the rough estimate by the West Bengal Pollution Control Board). The city people are aware of the danger, still they smoke. Not only male and the elitist womenfolk of Calcutta smoke cigarettes, these days young working girls and college students also smoke in large number. And Bengal’s Marxist Finance Minister has come out to stop them from smoking. But Dr Dasgupta is not the lone fighter. Now he finds by his side a host of young IAS and IPS officers, his party comrades and members of State Pollution Control Board who are out to change the smoking habit in the society and the minister is confident soon a day will come when the people in Calcutta would rarely be seen smoking. |
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Hurriyat
leader
released
NEW DELHI, June 8 (PTI) — The Centre has released a senior Hurriyat leader and an important functionary of Jamat-e-Islamia (JEI) Qazi Ahad-Ullah as a goodwill gesture, official sources said here today. The sources said Qazi was released from Udhampur jail in the Jammu region recently after nearly six months of detention under the Public Safety Act for launching as anti-poll campaign in the valley. After the release of Qazi, two other Hurriyat leaders still continue to be in captive. They are executive members of the the Hurriyat and leader of
People's league Sheikh Abdul Aziz and conference’s Jammu provincial General Secretary Amir Mohammed Shammi.
Balakrishnan sworn
in as SC judge NEW DELHI, June 8 (PTI) — Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Chief Justice of the Madras High Court, was today sworn in as a judge of the Supreme Court. Chief Justice of India A.S. Anand administered the oath of office to him at a simple ceremony held in the judge lounge in the presence of other judges of the Supreme Court and senior lawyers. With the elevation of Mr Justice Balakrishnan, who belongs to Kerala, to the apex court, the strength of judges of the Supreme Court has gone up to 25 as against the sanctioned strength of 26. |
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