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| Monday, February
5, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Gujarat to get 4400 cr as aid Quake upsets Budget
calculations Foreign teams teach lessons Sleepless even nine
days after quake Move on high-rise
buildings Quake-resistant houses for
poor |
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Drive to restore
telecommunications Court seeks details of CRF
from Centre Garhwal quake-hit yet to get
relief Japan’s misgivings
cleared: PM India to build ‘killer’
submarines Enter talks, Advani tells
ULFA Jogi’s tribal status
under scrutiny Hearing on Shah’s bail
plea today CBSE extends last date for
submitting forms
Mobile medical stores
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Gujarat to get 4400 cr as aid AHMEDABAD, Feb 4 (PTI, UNI) — The Gujarat Government reeling under the effect of the devastating earthquake which has caused damage worth Rs 21,000 crore to property has got commitment of Rs 4400 crore as international and domestic aid. While Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee has released Rs 500 crore as central assistance, the Union Human Resource Department has committed Rs 150 crore, the Adviser to Chief Minister Mr S.K. Shelat, said here today. Meanwhile, the Gujarat Government has sought central assistance of Rs 2,500 crore to evolve and implement a crisis management policy for minimising damages by natural calamities in future. The Minister of State for Home, Mr Haren Pandya said the need to implement such a policy was necessitated by the fact that the state had been hit by two cyclones, two droughts, besides the killer earthquake in the past couple of years. Various states, including Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal and Rajasthan, have committed together to give Rs 30 crore aid, he said. The Asian Development Bank (ADB) has agreed to divert $ 350 million earmarked for other projects as relief and the World Bank has sanctioned $ 300 million as immediate relief for the victims, Mr Shelat said. The state government has asked the ADB and the World Bank each for $ 1 billion more of aid, he said. The amount to be disbursed through the Centre would be in the form of 70 per cent loan and 30 per cent grant. Many countries have pledged to provide aid in cash and kind. While the US aid was to the tune of $ 5 million with a commitment of another $ 9 million, UNICEF's was $ 8 million and Belgium’s $ 9 million. The UK has committed for $ 4.5 million followed by Italy $ 2.5 million, Canada $ 2 million, Australia $ 0.10 million, Germany $ 1 million, Kuwait $ 0.25 million, Morocco $ 0.25 million, IRIS New Jersey $ 16 million, China $ 0.05 million, and France Rs 2 crore. The International Red Cross and Red Crescent movement today sent a plane load of water purifying tablets and equipment from France for the devastated areas of Kutch and Bhuj. Indian Red Cross Society executive committee member (Gujarat) S.K. Sharma told UNI the aircraft had landed at the Ahmedabad airport. Experts from Japan and Belgium have been entrusted with the task of purifying water. Mr Sharma said more than 10,000 Red Cross volunteers, from India and abroad were working in the quake-ravaged areas. The Red Cross has also setup a unique 350-bed mobile hospital having modern equipment and manned by specialist doctors from Japan, Geneva, Germany, UK and the USA. Thousands of patients have been treated here so far. He said the International Red Cross had sent relief material worth crores of rupees from Denmark, Iran, the UAE, Japan, Germany, Spain, Belgium, France, the UK, the USA, Austria and Italy. Meanwhile, a report from Bhuj said the World Health Organisation (who) has deputed a 12-member medical team, including three disaster management specialists, for Bhuj and Ahmedabad to identify and target areas which could lead to an epidemic. The surveillance team is led by earthquake and health specialist Dr Luis Jorge Petez and also includes rapid response teams to deal with any disease outbreak and potential epidemics. Who is also providing public health advice to the government and the non-government organisations and will also provide technical assistance and support for re-establishing the health infrastructure and services. Meanwhile, the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) has come down heavily on political parties criticising relief operation in quake-hit areas of Gujarat and asked the state government to ensure transparency in providing succour to the affected people. “Certain political parties along with a section of the media are accusing the state government of failing to provide relief to those affected with an aim to gain political mileage”, VHP chief Ashok Singhal, without referring to any particular political outfit, alleged at a press conference here today. He said these attempts were highly condemnable and were having a demoralising effect on those engaged in the arduous task. Mr Singhal also said the state government should work out modalities for ensuring transparency in proper utilisation of huge aid for relief and rehabilitation work. “The state administration can seek assistance of some
NGOs to ensure transparency”, he said. |
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Quake upsets Budget
calculations NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha has to do some tight ropewalking for the impending Union Budget as he faces the unanticipated pressure of mobilising resources in excess of Rs 1,500 crore, for meeting the exigency requirements thrown up by the January 26 quake and its aftermath. The immediate requirement for the government is to make available enough funds for reconstruction purposes to the shelterless and the National Calamity Fund with a corpus of Rs 500 crore in last December may prove to be inadequate for the purpose. The Union Cabinet has already approved the promulgation of an ordinance called taxation law amendment laws, 2001, to raise Rs 1,300 crore through the imposition of a 2 per cent surcharge on individuals and companies for the assessment year 2001-02. The Budget calculations has to ensure that in the process of mobilising additional resources, primarily through imposition of fresh taxes, do not create laxity in consumer demand which could scuttle growth-oriented initiatives. Economists said a rising inflation is another ominous signal that is appearing over the economy’s horizon and the Finance Minister should move with caution while deciding on the commodities upon which fresh taxes may be imposed. The Finance Minister, may therefore, target the high category items, often referred to as luxury goods, to mop up additional resources. The forthcoming Budget could incorporate additional excise duties on white goods and similar commodities. Also, it needs to ensure that government borrowing does not shoot through the roof as it might have a serious impact on the fiscal deficit. The Eleventh Finance Commission, in its report, has stated that a National Calamity Fund be constituted to meet unanticipated resource requirements. This fund should draw upon resources through the levy of surcharges and cesses. The principle behind such a move is to put disaster management resource requirements outside the ambit of the Budget making process. This apart, the government also faces a shortfall in revenue collection during the current fiscal due to the quake. Gujarat, contributing roughly about 8 per cent of the GDP, has a vast industrial base with major industries like petrochemicals, textiles, diamonds and gem and petroleum. The world’s largest grass-roots refinery, the 27
MTPA Jamnagar refinery of Reliance Petroleum Limited (RPL) is housed here. While the Finance Ministry is in the process of working the net revenue loss due to the quake, available indications suggest that it could be well above Rs 800 crore during the current fiscal year itself, besides making a serious impact on the projections for the subsequent fiscal year. |
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Foreign teams teach lessons AHMEDABAD, Feb 4 (UNI) — The Republic Day quake that cut a swathe of devastation in Gujarat has once again brought to the fore the absence of any disaster management mechanism in India which led to the delayed and incoherent response to the catastrophe. The earthquake numbed the entire government machinery in Gujarat for almost a day, before rescue and relief workers started trickling into the areas where thousands were killed or remained trapped under the ruins of flattened houses. “We were stunned for a few hours after the calamity struck,’’ state Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel said while acknowledging the delay in starting rescue and relief works. However, teams from several foreign countries lost no time in offering their expertise in the field and their rescue teams managed to reach the areas alongside the initial batches of Indian aid workers. The rescue team from Switzerland was the first to arrive in Bhuj on January 27, followed by the experts from other countries including Britain, Russia, Turkey, Germany, Italy and Spain. All foreign search and rescue teams were equipped with specially trained sniffer dogs, life-detector instruments, sound amplifiers, thermal energy cameras and sophisticated cutting equipment. “It is a shame that we have to get trained dogs and specialised equipment from other countries to meet such situations,” state Home Minister Haren Pandya said while lamenting the lack of such facilities and an institutional apparatus to tackle such situations. Spurred by the outcry of disaster experts in the wake of the Kutch quake, the Central Government decided to constitute a permanent disaster management committee after an all-party meeting. Besides experts, the committee will have representatives from major political parties to guide the government during such disasters. The operation of the self-sufficient foreign SAR and relief teams could come as a lesson for the central and state governments. “They (foreign teams) got into the act without losing even a second while our rescue workers were more bothered about their own food and shelter,” Mr Pandya said. The 52-member Swiss squad, which operated in Bhuj and Ahmedabad, was the most successful rescuing eight persons alive from the debris while the Italians pulled out a dehydrated man with broken arm in Bhuj area, six days after the quake. Besides nine sniffer dogs, the Swiss team comprised rescue troops from the Swiss Military Disaster Relief, dog handlers from Swiss Disaster Dog Association onsite advisers (building experts), communication experts, cooks and doctors and psychologists. The Swiss rescue chain is capable of flying to disaster areas within 8-12 hours after the alert and can operate autonomously for up to seven days. After disengaging from the operations, Chief of Operations Ahuja
Karvin, a half-Indian, said, “We offer our help immediately on information about any calamity from any part of the world. But the decision has to be taken by the political leadership of the affected country.” Some countries like Iran and more recently Russia (during last year’s Kursk submarine crisis) have refused to accept help. |
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Sleepless even nine days after quake BHUJ, Feb 4 (PTI) — People in Bhuj have lost their sleep literally. Those in the ravaged areas are searching for the bodies of their relatives while others are too scared to sleep in their houses. Even nine days after the devastating quake left their world crumbling down and despite relief materials pouring in, the city showed no semblence of normalcy. Rescue operations are now called clearing operations as no one has been retrieved alive in the past three days. Buildings in the “old city areas” have all collapsed and trapped bodies are being dug out with the clearing of debris. Even now, on an average, 30 bodies are being retrieved from the debris daily, says Kanak Mod, the municipality driver who is carrying out the unenviable task of lugging them to the crematorium. Clearing operations in the once highly congested city, which is estimated to have lost 40,000 persons, was hampered mainly because heavy materials and equipment cannot be carried into the interiors of the now deserted localities, Chief Engineer of Road and Building Department M.B. Bhalala said. Come evening, and the city area wears a ghostly look. The once busy commercial hub of Kutch region today does not have anyone save some stray dogs stalking the narrow streets. Streets are stacked with huge logs of wood mainly for consigning the dead to the flames. The once ornate Bhid Gate, one of the historic entries to the city, and the state protected monuments survive in bits and pieces. As the multi-storey buildings lie strewn around, groups of police stand guard to the razed structures to prevent outbreak of any looting spree, says a CRPF official at Lohar Chowk. Thanks to ample relief materials as also advice which is available in abundance, fumidants are being liberally sprayed before the clearing operations to prevent outbreak of epidemic, which fortunately has not occurred as yet, says Mod. Percentage wise, Bhuj being a big city, has lost more than 80 per cent of its constructions, he says. Little wonder, people find tilted remains of some surviving structures too gory a reminder to go to bed. They now need tents and blankets and it will take years before they get a sound sleep.
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Move on high-rise buildings NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (UNI) —Union Urban Development Minister Jagmohan says his ministry plans to launch a drive to assess structural safety standards in high-rise buildings of the Capital. Structural engineers would be asked to determine whether these buildings could withstand strong tremors such as the Gujarat earthquake, he said in the inaugural edition of the programme ‘Zero Hour’ on Doordarshan telecast today. In order to make the drive effective, private buildings will be checked by engineers from the Central Public Works Department. In turn, structural engineers’ associations will be asked to certify government buildings. Replying to a pointed question on high-rise buildings at Nehru Place in South Delhi, the minister said the people should also take the initiative to identify unsafe structures. He said the drive would also seek to identify unauthorised additions to existing buildings. “The real enemy of a building is the unauthorised construction. And if the building has been designed to take a particular load and you put so much illegal load on it then naturally it will fall”. Mr Jagmohan said that in Bhuj, CPWD buildings had not collapsed because of sound structural engineering. “We have proper designs and safety measure. There are so many of our buildings in that area and one or two developed cracks and there was no casualty,” he added. Mr Jagmohan said his ministry had prepared a law making it mandatory for buildings to be certified by qualified structural engineers. The draft law is to be tabled in Parliament in the next session. Asked about the builder-bureaucrat-politician nexus that allowed a number of badly designed and constructed buildings to come up in Ahmedabad, Mr Jagmohan agreed that “several cities have been taken over by land and building mafias and it is my bounden duty to get rid of this menace.” |
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Quake-resistant houses for poor CHENNAI, Feb 4 (UNI) — The Union Government will build small quake-resistant houses in Gujarat for the poor who lost their dwellings in the January 26 earthquake, Rural Development Minister Venkaiah Naidu announced yesterday. He told reporters here after collecting over Rs 10.5 lakh from the public in a 90-minute special fund collection for Gujarat on behalf of the Prime Minister, that his department would also reconstruct the drinking water sources in the rural areas destroyed by the quake. “These schemes will be undertaken under the Indira Avas Yojana and the Grameen Avas Yojana”, Mr Naidu said. A team of ministers were examining the modalities of rebuilding houses destroyed in the urban areas. Corporate bodies such as the CII, FICCI, and ASSOCHAM had volunteered to join the government’s efforts to rebuild the infrastructure such as schools and community halls in Gujarat, he said. These bodies were awaiting specific instruction from the government to start their work, the minister added. Mr Naidu termed as “unfounded” the criticism that the government did nothing to prevent the catastrophe. “Even in advanced countries there is no way to predict earthquakes”, he pointed out. However, it was important to build only quake-resistant structures in tremor-prone areas, he admitted. Mr Naidu appealed to the people to contribute apart from money materials such as tents since the construction of houses would take “six to nine months”.
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51 couples tie knot AHMEDABAD, Feb 4 (PTI) — It was a colourful scene for otherwise mourning
Ahmedabad-bad, with 51 couples tying the nuptial knot to begin a new life in Sabarmati here today. More than 12,000 persons from all over Gujarat attended the “Sabarmati Shatriya Thakor Samaj Vikas
Mandal’s” community wedding with brides and bridegrooms dressed in ceremonial red and white sans any real gold jewellery. “This is the sixth mass wedding organised by our
samaj. But the response is comparatively poor this time because of the earthquake. On previous occasions, we had more than 150 couples from all over the state tying nuptials,” samaj chief Kanjibhai Thakor told PTI. In the wake of the killer earthquake, the samaj also decided to make the wedding simpler. None of the 51 brides wore gold jewellery, he said. “I suffered a tragedy, but owing to personal reasons did not cancel the wedding,” said Amrat
Thakor, a bridegroom from Rupaal. Tara, his wife said, “It was a conscious decision not to wear any gold jewellery. I am too moved by the tragedy.” The samaj has a budget of Rs 7 lakh for providing the newly wed utensils, clothes, some cash, two chairs, an electronic mixer and some other household essential items as gifts. “We organise the mass weddings through donations collected from people,” Mr Thakor said. |
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Drive to restore
telecommunications NEW DELHI, Feb — A special programme for communication during calamities will be launched shortly by the government , Union Minister for Communication, Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, has said. Called “Operation Doorsanchar Jumbish ”, the programme is primarily aimed at restoring telecommunication in quake-devastated
Gujarat, Mr Paswan said. The Communication Ministry has already started two short-term steps to restore communication in Gujarat. “ In the first phase, we will set up makeshift telephone exchanges with air conditioning facility to make the lines operational, while in the second phase we will try to set up maximum number of public call offices
(PCOs) as individual lines may take some more time in the absence of proper buildings”, he said. The government have also decided to provide free local calls, STD calls and ISD calls till February 28 at 78 government PCOs in Gujarat and through hotlines and satellite phones, Mr Paswan said. |
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Court seeks details of CRF
from Centre NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) — Even as the Centre has decided to set up a permanent National Disaster Management Committee in the wake of the killer Gujarat earthquake to deal with natural disasters, the Delhi High Court has directed it to furnish details about the utilisation of the Calamity Relief Fund
(CRF) by states. “Merely creating separate funds for calamity relief is not sufficient. The Centre has to see what is the check to ensure that these funds will always be available with the states for relief during the natural disasters,” a Bench comprising Chief Justice Arijit Passayat and Mr Justice
D.K. Jain said while hearing a petition on the issue recently. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee yesterday announced the setting up of the permanent committee at an all-party meeting, which saw unanimity among leaders on the issue including Leader of the Opposition, Sonia Gandhi. The court had sought specific information from the Centre as to how many states had submitted utilisation certificates to it on use of the Calamity Relief Fund and the money advanced to them under this head over the years. |
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Sonia flags off 100
trucks NEW DELHI, Feb 4 — The Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, today flagged off 100 trucks carrying relief material for the earthquake affected areas of Gujarat.
Indian Youth Congress President Randeep Singh Surjewala told TNS here on Sunday that blankets, medicines, tents, clothes, woollens, utensils, food items, wheat, rice, water and suitcases collected in the last five days have been sent to the main relief camp in Radhanpur on the Sardarpura-Palanpur national highway, 175 km from Ahmedabad. AICC member and former Pradesh Congress Committee President of Gujarat, Mr Ahmed Patel is in charge of the camp.
He said Mrs Gandhi was likely to visit the quake-affected areas again.
Mr Surjewala said that 50 Youth Congress workers and 40 Sewa Dal volunteers had also gone to the camp to ensure that the relief material reached the target beneficiaries. Apart from this, two general secretaries of the Indian Youth Congress were also camping at Bhuj and Ahmedabad. A camp was also being run in Bhuj by the Youth Congress district president, Kiran Bhai.
He said that the Congress-ruled states had contributed over Rs 25 crore for relief to earthquake-affected areas in Gujarat. |
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VHP stands up for Centre,
Gujarat AHMEDABAD, Feb 4 (UNI) — The VHP today came to the defence of the
NDA Government at the Centre and the BJP Government in Gujarat, saying that the political parties should not criticise them over the relief operations in the quake-hit areas for their political motives.
Referring to the statements of the political parties criticising the governments over the relief works, Mr Ashok Singhal, international working president of the
VHP said such allegations were aimed at misleading the people and to gain political mileage. “The herculean task of providing relief and undertake rescue works of such magnitude was not easy.” He gave a clean chit to the Gujarat Government and expressed total satisfaction over the relief and rescue operations.
Mr Singhal, who arrived here today after his recent visit to the earthquake-affected Kutch and
Sarasota regions, said the government agencies should work in co-ordination with
NGOs to bring in total transparency in relief and rehabilitation works. |
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Infant comes alive after ‘last rites’ PALANPUR (Banaskantha), Feb 4 (UNI) — Drawing life-giving oxygen from under a mangled mass of concrete and steel that was once her home, an 11-month-old infant managed to hold on for a week, surprising rescue workers who were sorting out the rubble at Palaswa village in this border district.
Army personnel pulled out 11-month-old Tejal yesterday. For her family, a “dead’’ child had been brought back alive, for they had even performed her “last rites’’.
People thanked Mother Earth and organised special prayers after Tejal’s rescue. |
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Film stars march for quake victims MUMBAI, Feb 4 (PTI) — Several Bollywood stars marched along with Shiv Sena workers at a big rally held at Andheri in western suburbs of the metropolis today to lend their support to quake-victims of Gujarat.
Bollywood stars Jitendra, Govinda, Raveena Tandon, Sunil Shetty, Shekhar Suman, Arun Govil, Nitish Bharadwaj, Mukesh Khanna, Puja Batra and Yukta Mukhi joined hands with Sena to raise funds for the victims, according to Sena sources.
Sena took out rallies at other parts of the city and party leaders Uday Thackeray, Raj Thackeray, Narayan Rane, union ministers Suresh Prabhu, Manohar Joshi and Mumbai Mayor Hareshwar Patil participated.
Meanwhile, state unit of the BJP today dispatched 500 activists to Bhuj, Anjar, Gandhidham and Ahmedabad for assisting rehabilitation work. Tripura to ban construction of
high-rise buildings AGARTALA, Feb 4 (UNI) — The Tripura Government has decided to ban the construction of high-rise buildings following the January 26 earthquake in Gujarat.
Chief Minister Manik Sarkar said today his government would not allow the construction of buildings with more than three storeys in the state. However, the existing high-rise buildings in the state would not be disturbed, he added. He said a high-level meeting would be held here tomorrow to finalise measures and legal actions to be taken to ban the construction of high- rise buildings in the state. The state government was concerned over the GSI report that the north-eastern state falls within the high seismic zone of the country, he observed. Meanwhile, Institutions of Engineers has recommended measures for the construction of earthquake-proof houses in the north-eastern region, which forms the highest risk zone among the country’s five earthquake-prone zones. The recommendations were submitted to the Centre and the Tripura Government following a three-day seminar on construction with special reference to the North-East. |
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Garhwal quake-hit yet to get
relief DEHRA DUN: All sections of society and the government have come forward to help the victims of the Gujarat earthquake but will the needs of those in distress be fulfilled? If past experiences are any indication, then the answer is: No. People of the Garhwal region are still waiting for the resettlement relief money announced by the government to rebuilt or renovate their houses which were destroyed by an earthquake on March 28, 1999. There are about 30,000 families which have lost the hope of getting the relief from the government. Ramesh
Unayal, a resident of Chamoli, says his four-room house was fully destroyed but so far he has not received a single paisa from the government for resettlement. He sold 15 bighas of his land to construct a new house. The earthquake that rocked
Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Uttarkashi and Tehri districts of the Garhwal region claimed more than 100 lives and property worth more than Rs 3,000 crore was destroyed. Thousands were left homeless. Although relief money was given to the kin of those killed shortly after the quake, money to build the houses was never cleared by the government. The UP Government (now the area comes under the Uttaranchal Government) had decided to give a relief of Rs 25,000 to each affected family to rebuild their houses. Hari
Narayan, a resident of Tehri, recalls that an officer of the local administration visited the devastated site of his residence and personally assessed the loss but thereafter no one ever turned up to help them. He sold six bighas of his ancestral land to raise the structure of a new house. The government authorities admit that the scars of the 1999 disaster can still be witnessed in these districts but they are helpless. The financial position of the government is not sound enough to disburse the relief money under the present circumstances. “Considering the need of the affected people, the new government has already established two departments — Resettlement and Disaster Management. Things are under process and soon something would be worked out to release the amount in the next financial year. It is unfortunate that the UP Government has not kept its promise made to the quake-affected people of Garhwal”, says Mr Ajay
Bhatt, Minister of Health and Disaster Management. According to reports available, 5,132 houses were fully destroyed in Chamoli district alone. Of these, only 150 families have received three instalments of the promised Rs 25,000 relief. The fourth instalment is hanging since one year. The partially-destroyed houses of 7,572 families in the district also await grant for renovation. In Rudraprayag district 791 houses were fully destroyed while 3,841 were damaged partially. Opposition parties in the state have come out openly against the Nityanand Swami government for “neglecting” the sorrows of the quake victims. As the elections are due by the end of this year, the aftermath of the quake may have political ramifications. |
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Japan’s misgivings cleared: PM NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) — The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has said India’s decision against conducting any more nuclear tests and its commitment of not being the first to use atomic weapons has cleared misgivings of Japan that arose after the 1998 Pokhran blasts. Citing high-level visits, including that of Japanese Premier Yoshiro Mori to India in August last, he said although New Delhi and Toyko differed on security issues, “there is a better appreciation of our security concerns” by Japan. “Our decision not to have any more nuclear tests has cleared any misgiving (Japan might have). India will also not be the first to use atomic weapons,” Mr Vajpayee, who put off his next week’s visit to Tokyo in view of the Gujarat earthquake, told Japanese reporters here yesterday. The Prime Minister said, “I am disappointed that the visit has been postponed” and added that he now hoped to visit Japan later this year. Mr Vajpayee said he wanted to gather information about Japan’s earthquake-resistant construction techniques. “We would like to learn many things from Japan as far as earthquakes are concerned...I wanted to make use of my visit to seek cooperation in this field,” he added. |
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India to build ‘killer’ submarines NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) —India has embarked upon a major submarine-building programme to manufacture 24 ‘‘hunter’’ and ‘‘killer’’ submarines as part of its efforts to make underwater, surface and air wings of the Navy more potent by equipping these with long-range missiles. Negotiations are in an advanced stage with the French and the Russians for collaboration in Project 75, which will commence production later this year, the Chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Sushil Kumar, told PTI in an interview. “Our emphasis will be on re-configuration to build more silent and hunt-kill submarines equipped with long- range weapons and advanced electronic warfare systems”, he said. The Admiral said the government’s go-ahead for the project would entail re-activating the submarine-building lines at Mazagaon docks in Mumbai. The work on upgrading the facilities was in progress, he said. With the unveiling of the project, India would become part of a select group of nations like the USA, the UK, Russia, France and Germany to have the capability to build advanced submarines. The new submarines would be manufactured over the next 30 years to maintain a minimum force level of 20 such vessels. The submarines, which would replace the older ones over a period of time, would be armed with missiles with a range of over 300 km. At present, India has 138 combat ships, including 18 submarines. Admiral Sushil Kumar said the new submarines would be a mix of ‘‘SSK’’ class and the recently acquired Russian-made ‘‘Sindhushastra’’ class which are equipped with ‘‘Klub’’ class 300 km under water-to-surface cruise missiles. He indicated that the Navy was on the verge of dropping the German-acquired ‘‘HDW" class submarine project. He said that negotiations were also in an advanced stage for the induction of four Russian tu-22m long-range maritime reconnaissance aircraft into the Navy on long lease to replace tu-142 and il-38, which were being sent back to Russia for modernisation and to make them capable of carrying missiles. The new tu-22m are equipped with jet engines like the American pc3 Orions, which Pakistan has, and also possesses a longer reach and carries air defence missiles. Admiral Sushil Kumar said the Navy in it’s new acquisitions was laying emphasis on “longer reach and versatile capability” and added that trials of ‘‘Dhanush’’, the naval version of the surface-to-surface Prithvi missile, from on-board combat ship had so far been fairly successful as a technology demonstrator. The Naval Chief said the country had also made rapid strides in the development of the advance light helicopter(alh) maintaining that though it’s naval utility role version would be inducted soon, the specialised anti-submarine role one would take some more time. |
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Enter talks, Advani tells ULFA NAGAON, Feb 4 (PTI) — Union Home Minister L. K. Advani today asked banned militant outfit ULFA to lay down arms and come forward for talks without any precondition. Addressing a public meeting here where a large number of people turned up ignoring a boycott call by the ULFA and Bodo outfits, he said the Nagas, Bodos and the Hurriyat Conference have come forward for talks and hoped ULFA would follow suit. Earlier, addressing a public rally at Tinsukia, the Home Minister said the Centre was ready to hold negotiations with the ultras on any issue and grievance except on the matter of nationality and sovereignty. He said the Centre was ready to hold parleys with the ultras who voiced their desire to eschew violence and return to the mainstream. Mr Advani said ULFA had already lost its popularity and the recent killing of innocent Hindi-speaking people in the state was resented even by the Assamese people. Referring to the controversial Illegal Migrants’ Determination by Tribunals (IMDT) Act, Mr Advani said the BJP was in favour of its scrapping but was unable to do so due to the “arithmetic equation in Parliament”. Mr Advani accused Pakistan of “patronising militancy in India through the ISI” after it failed to win the wars of 1946, 1965 and 1971. “Pakistan started a proxy war against India after it tasted defeat in the battlegrounds and used the ISI to foment trouble for us,” he said. The Home Minister said India had given a befitting reply to Pakistan’s nefarious designs by containing violence and concentrating on development works. “To tackle Pakistan-based militancy we have decided to stop violence on the ground and started economic development of the country. We have achieved considerable success in this regard,” he added. |
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Jogi’s tribal status
under scrutiny BHOPAL, Feb 4 — Is Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi a tribesman? The matter is currently under investigation of the National Commission for SCs and STs. An adverse finding by the commission may jeopardise Mr Jogi’s political career. The commission Chairman, Mr Dileep Singh Bhuria, said here yesterday that the commission had received a complaint from a tribesman of Chhattisgarh saying Mr Jogi was not a tribesman and he should, therefore, be debarred from enjoying the rights of tribesmen. The commission forwarded the complaint to the Chief Secretary of Chhattisgarh for comments about a week ago. The commission is yet to get Chhattisgarh Government’s comments though its communication was marked “urgent”. Mr Bhuria said one got the tribal status by birth and there was a presidential notification listing the castes and sub-castes in each district as Scheduled Tribes. The commission’s inquiry would follow the prescribed norms, he said. Mr Jogi was sworn in as the first Chief Minister of Chhattisgarh on November 1 and he has to become a member of the state Assembly within six months, that is by the end of April. He has filed his nomination papers from Marwahi constituency where a byelection is slated for later this month. Marwahi constituency is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. Mr Bhuria said that on receiving Chhattisgarh Government’s comments, the commission would send its findings to the state government. As the commission is a constitutional body, its findings and directions would be binding on the government. In case the complaint against Mr Jogi is found to be correct, he will lose his membership of the Assembly (in case he wins from Marwahi) and there is little chance to another byelection being held in the next two months. Hearing on Shah’s bail
plea today MUMBAI, Feb 4 (PTI) — With the Mumbai High Court rejecting the bail plea of dismissed judge J.W. Singh, focus has now shifted on prospects of the incarcerated film financier Bharat Shah getting liberty as evidence against both of them are almost identical, legal sources say. Police has accused both J.W. Singh and Shah of having talked to Karachi-based Chhota Shakeel separately on telephone which allegedly indicates their nexus with the underworld for personal gains. Shah’s bail plea was partly heard by special court Judge A.P. Bhangale on February 2 and arguments will continue tomorrow. Shah has challenged the police decision to book him under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA). His lawyer has, however, argued that the interception of telephonic talks between Shah and gangster Shakeel under the Indian Telegraph Act was invalid because proper procedure was not followed. Shah’s lawyer has argued that his client was only acting as a mediator between Shakeel and a film producer who had reportedly been asked by the underworld to pay Rs 5 crore.
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CBSE extends last date for
submitting forms NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (UNI) — The Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) today said it had extended the last date for the sale and submission of application forms for the All-India Pre-Medical and Pre-Dental Entrance Test for students living in the quake-ravaged Gujarat. A CBSE official said this had been done to help the students of the quake-affected state not to miss the opportunity to appear in important competitive examinations like this. The forms would be available from February 7 to February 15 and could be submitted till February 20 by registered and speed post only. The information bulletin would be available for sale from February 7 at identified branches of Canara Bank in Ahmedabad, Surat, Rajkot, Baroda and Jamnagar. The cut-off date for submission of forms for the rest of the country had ended in January.
Mobile medical stores HANUMANGARH, Feb 4 — Some mobile medical stores are operating in the city these days. Found mostly, inside the buses or on the bus stops these stores are run by individuals. Carrying a bag and two or three wrappers of tablets in their hand, it appears as these persons have got some, “ram baan” as they claim that a tablet can cure various diseases. This business is getting popular among the unemployed youths. Those who were not doing any job till yesterday, have overnight gained full knowledge of the medical profession. They claim that a single tablet can cure headache, bodyache, cough and various other diseases. On being asked why such tablets are sold at low rates representatives of the company say that, the company is new thus the rates are kept low to market the product. Thus a wrapper of 10 tablets is sold at Rs 5 to the bus passengers, whose actual price in the market is Rs 10. One such seller, Yogesh (name changed) revealed that he gets Rs 50 on selling 20 packets. He maintained that, he does not have any knowledge about the salt from which the tablet is made and added that he was doing this just to earn a livelihood. This is not only the case, as number of those engaged in this business is very large. Most of the illiterates have given up the trade of selling eatables, cosmetics, books on “rehris” and adopted this profession, while some are running it as a side business. The Drug Inspector of the Chief Medical and Health Office said the sale of medicines inside the bus was not allowed and the department had taken steps to put an end to such practice.
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Vasudev Singh Lok Janshakti
Kisan cell chief NEW DELHI, Feb 4 (PTI) — Union Minister and Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) President Ramvilas Paswan today appointed Mr Vasudev Singh from Bihar as the party’s all-India kisan cell chief and M. Parbhavati of Karnataka as the party’s national general secretary. Speaking to reporters here, Mr Paswan said Mr M.C. Patel would be the Karnataka party unit chief while Mr Balmiki Paswan his counterpart in West Bengal. Mr Phool Chand has been appointed secretary of the party’s Delhi unit while Mr Chupsuo Angami has been nominated the LJP’s Nagaland unit chief, Mr Paswan said. He also said that noted social worker in Maharashtra Kaka Saheb Khambhalkar and former Independent MP Arvind Sharma had joined his party. |
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