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Thursday,
May 9, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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US
officials’ madarsa visit to be probed Contract
for ammo after Operation Vijay? Mayawati
on transfer spree NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT
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Amarinder:
land compensation meagre Develop
tourist spots for funds: Jagmohan What is
Omar’s status, ask Oppn MPs
Raju Ravidas carries body of his nephew after
the massacre by an armed group at Naya Tola of Bhadaora village. — PTI
photo Mine blasts kill 4 Pak soldiers
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US officials’ madarsa visit to be probed Kolkata, May 8 The Chief Minister, Mr Buddhadev Bhattacharjee who is visibly annoyed at the embassy officials’ visit to the madarsa, has ordered a probe into the visit which he has called “unwarranted, unwanted and undesirable”. The CPM leadership is also aggrieved that the US officials should have undertaken the visit, without permission from the Home Department. Both Mr Bhattacharjee and the CPM leadership has smelt a rat in the visit. The minister-counsellor of the US embassy in Delhi, James Callagham, accompanied by Rex Moser, Director, Kolkata American Centre, and another official, recently visited the madarsa and spoke with the teachers and other staff and inquired about the system of education, syllabi and funding of the institutions. They have suspected something foul behind the visit as there had already been some controversy over madarsa education in the state in the wake of the alleged involvement of some teachers in ISI activities, soon after the attack on the American Centre in Kolkata. Mr Bhattacharjee said he did not understand what business the embassy officials had in visiting the madarsa and that too without obtaining permission from the authorities. But the US embassy officials in Kolkata said they had informed the madarsa board and obtained permission from the board’s secretary, Prof Moniruzzaman. The visit had been primarily academic and the endeavour was to get acquainted with the system of education, they said. “Moreover, we are very much within our diplomatic privileges in making such a visit to an educational institution and there has been no violation of any diplomatic norms, the officials claimed. The Chief Minister, and CPM leaders Anil Biswas and Biman Basu, however, are not satisfied with the explanation. A probe has, therefore, been ordered which will be conducted by Home Secretary, A.K. Dev. |
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Contract
for ammo after Operation Vijay? New Delhi, May 8 Going by the statement of the Ministry of Defence, yes. In a written reply to a question raised in the Rajya Sabha today the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has termed the purchase of ammunition worth over Rs 412 crore from Russian firm Messers Rosovoorouzhene (RVZ), Moscow, as “critical” for “Operation Vijay”, the 50-day war which India fought with Pakistan in Kargil in 1999 when the two contracts for the supply of ammunition were signed much after the war was over. While Operation Vijay was over on July 26, 1999, the first contract for the supply of ammunition from the stocks of the Russian Army was signed on August 11, 1999. The “critical” situation continued for another four months and on December 9, 1999, the second contract for the supply of ammunition was signed by the government, that too without taking into consideration the guidelines of the Directorate-General of Quality Assurance (DGQA). While the Comptroller and Auditor-General (CAG) in its report on the “Review of Procurement” for Operation Vijay (Army) clearly pointed out the shortcomings in the purchase of the ammunition from the Russian firm, including the dates of it, the government is still calling it “critical”. The government signed the contracts in August and December 1999 after the Army Headquarters projected the urgency of procurement of various ammunitions midway through the Kargil war in June 1999. Defence observers said the reply given by the MoD to the question raised by Mr Prem Chand Gupta (RJD) clearly strengthens the prevailing view that the ministry overlooked the purchases made in the name of the Kargil war even when they were made much after the war was over. Besides all guidelines in regard to the quality of equipment was ignored. In this particular case while signing the contracts much after the war was over the ministry settled for the purchase of “vintage” ammunition rather than new and that too with the residual shelf-life of just three years. Earlier, reports had suggested that the purchases in the name of the Kargil war had continued at least till March 2000 whereas the war was over in July 1999. In the reply the ministry says, “Keeping in view the urgency of the requirement and the lead time likely to be involved in the ‘supply of ammunition’ during Operation Vijay, the operational situation dictated the purchase of some quantity of earlier vintage ammunition”. The ministry says that since most the weapons used by the Indian Army is of the Russian origin, there was no need for the trial evaluation. In its reply the ministry infact goes onto heap lavish praise on the Russians for accepting to urgently supply vintage ammunition from the stocks of the Ministry of Defence, of Russian Federation which was “critically” needed by the Army. It says, “Normally no Army in the world agrees to part with ammunition from its stocks. However, as a special case, the Government of Russia responded to the request of the Government of India to supply ammunition critically needed by the Army from the stocks of the Ministry of Defence, of Russian Federation”. “The decision to import some ammunition of earlier vintage was taken after due deliberations and after ensuring that full capacity of the Ordnance Factory Board to supply the ammunition produced indigenously, had been utilised and in consultation with the DGQA. The DGQ(Armaments) was a member of the Price Negotiations Committee which negotiated the procurement of ammunition from Russia. The vintage ammunition was contracted under a certificate being provided by the Russian Ministry of Defence that the ammunition from their stocks had a residual storage life of three years.” Incidentally, the DGQA rejected 13.3 lakh catridges of 12.7 mm calibre. |
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Mayawati
on transfer spree Lucknow, May 8 The strike rate she achieved may put master blaster Sachin Tendulkar to shame – in less than an hour’s time a government official is sent packing. Of the officials transferred, 63 are from the IAS cadre, while the rest are from the
IPS. The Samajwadi Party (SP) has started crying wolf over this transfer spree. The state president of the party, Mr Ram Saran Das, says the Chief Minister cannot transfer officials like she is doing until she wins the vote of confidence. “Already some BJP legislators are threatening to pull the government down. What will happen if Ms Mayawati fails to win with vote of confidence”, he asks. “The SP has decided to give a memorandum to the state Governor in this regard,” he says. Not only opposition parties, even some senior bureaucrats vouch that the transfers have been carried out in contravention to the Supreme Court orders. Taking a serious view over large-scale transfer of officials, the apex court, around five months back had asked the state government to regularise the tenure of services of bureaucrats. To counter the political whims and fancies, it had asked the government to constitute an establishment board to monitor the transfer of IAS and IPS officials. The then Chief Minister Rajnath Singh had constituted a five-member board headed by the Chief Secretary. As per the rule, the members of the board should decide the name of the officials to be transferred and for number of years he should be placed there. |
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This Bill passed
in minutes New Delhi, May 8 The Salaries and Allowances of Officers of Parliament (Second Amendment) Bill, 2000, which was passed by the House, provides for a family pension to the spouse of a Lok Sabha Speaker who dies when holding the post. This life pension will be 50 per cent of the last salary drawn by the Speaker. The spouse will also be entitled to an unfurnished accommodation without license fee for life.
UNI |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, May 8 The Minister said the state government had reported that work had, so far, commenced on 170 of the 236 roads and was expected to commence soon in respect of the remaining road works. The state authorities had also confirmed that funds released under the PMGSY were being kept in a separate bank account and had not been diverted. In response to another question, the Himachal Pradesh Government has reported that work on Badiyara-Devidhar road had commenced in the year 1979 and while a single lane 10-km long motorable road has been constructed, another stretch of 1.20 km long road network is presently metalled/tarred. No proposal for taking up this road under the PMGSY has, so far, been received from the state government. According to provisional estimates, the Small Industries Development Bank of India (SIDBI) had sanctioned Rs 17.07 crore during the financial year 2001-02 out of which Rs 12.06 crore had been disbursed for Jammu and Kashmir, Minister of State of Small Scale Industries, Vasundhara Raje told the Lok Sabha in a written reply today. In the year 2000-01 an amount of Rs 15.37 crore was sanctioned for Jammu and Kashmir, where as Rs 17.90 crore was sanctioned during the previous year, the minister added. The SIDBI had been continuously adopting new strategies to facilitate healthy growth to the SSI sector and would continue to take new initiatives for the SSI sector. The new activities would cover the entire country, including Jammu and Kashmir. The government has adopted a coordinated and multi-pronged approach to counter any attempt to revive militancy in Punjab, Minister of State of Home Affairs Ch Vidyasagar Rao told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply today. The measures taken for tackling the activities of militants include strengthening of border management to check illegal cross-border activities, gearing up of intelligence machinery, close interaction between different agencies of the Centre and the state government, neutralising plans of militants and anti-national elements through coordinated action, modernisation and upgradation of the police and security forces with sophisticated weapons and communication system etc., the minister added. These measures have resulted in neutralisation of several modules of Punjab, Delhi and Jammu and Kashmir, apprehension of several militants and recovery of a large quantity of arms, ammunition and explosives from them, the minister told the House. |
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Amarinder: land compensation meagre New Delhi, May 8 Capt Amarinder Singh, who met Union Home Minister L.K. Advani yesterday, said while the compensation for one acre taken for laying mines was Rs 11,000, the compensation for losing a leg was Rs 3,000. “This does not make any sense to me,’’ the Chief Minister said. He described the meeting with Mr Advani as “routine and confidential.’’ He said the issue of compensation would be taken up with Defence Minister George Fernandes. |
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Develop
tourist spots for funds: Jagmohan New Delhi, May 8 “We are not going to give money to the states for isolated projects. Only the states which work on the plans drawn with us to develop the tourist spots in totality in a focussed manner, will get funds,” Mr Jagmohan said while addressing the National Committee on Eco-Tourism attended by the state Chief Secretaries and Tourism Secretaries here. While terming the lack of cleanliness and indiscipline among the people as major hindrances in the path of development of tourism in the country the minister favoured the integrated development of the tourist spots and said it should include improvement of road infrastructure and have good places to stay and eat. “We want all-round action,” he said, adding that his ministry had recently diverted Rs 1,000 crore meant for the Maitri Mandir project in Bihar to Uttar Pradesh “because that state government did not work on total development.” Stating that foreign tourist inflow in the country was not to the desired extent even as in China it was increasing fast, he regretted it was largely because of lack of cleanliness and in discipline among the people in the country. “The number of tourists moving out last year was four million as compared to 2.6 million incoming tourists,” he said. |
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What is Omar’s status, ask Oppn MPs New Delhi, May 8 As soon as Mr Abdullah tabled papers after Question Hour, Mr Suresh Kurup wanted to know whether Mr Abdullah was competent to table the papers as there were reports in the media that he had resigned. It is not clear whether Abdullah’s resignation has been accepted by the Prime Minister or he is still continuing as a minister”, he said. “Omar Abdullah should himself clarify whether he is a minister or not,” Mr Kurup demanded. Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan quickly rose to say how could Mr Abdullah table the papers if he was not a minister.
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PWG ultras kill 6 Dalits in Bihar Patna, May 8 PWG cadres of the Jaynandan Yadav faction armed with sophisticated weapons fired a hail of bullets at Bhadaura village killing the six Dalits, including two women and two children, Additional Director General of Police Ashis Ranjan Sinha said.
PTI |
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Mine blasts kill 4 Pak soldiers Sriganganagar, May 8 Three Pakistani soldiers were killed in an area opposite Satrana village in Ganganagar district while the other died a few kilometres away in landmine blasts, the sources said. Last week, nearly 12 Pakistani soldiers were killed in landmine blast.
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