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Tuesday,
August 6, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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1,300
Trinamool men held States may
get subsidy for power Mulayam’s
remarks irk CPM No bias,
Centre tells Cong states EC team
briefs CEC on Gujarat |
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EC to
depute J&K observers today Diabetics
highest in India Medical
graduates on strike Saraswati Samman for
Dr Tiwana
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1,300 Trinamool men held Kolkata, August 5 The bandh was partial with buses, trams, minibuses and other private vehicles plying in the city and elsewhere. But at many places, Trinamool and CPM supporters were involved in clashes. However, shops, markets, offices and other establishments were mostly closed. Schools, colleges and other educational institutions did not function. Train services — both in Sealdah and Howrah divisions— were badly affected due to obstructions on the track. Many mail and long-distance trains were held up at various railway stations by the bandh supporters. Air services from the Kolkata airport, however, operated normally. Meanwhile, the CPM observed the 114th birth anniversary of their leader Muzzafar Ahmed by organising functions and meetings at various places in the city. The SUCI , which had supported Ms Banerjee’s agitation against bifurcation, did not endorse the bandh and observed the birth anniversary of their founder Sibdas Ghosh. State Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee claimed that the bandh was unsuccessful. He criticised the Trinamool for calling the bandh, which— he believed — would not solve the bifurcation problem. Ms Banerjee and Mr Sudip Bandopadhya, MP and Trinamool chief whip in Lok Sabha, however, hoped that the Centre would now seriously consider to review Eastern Railway’s bifurcation. They claimed that despite stiff opposition by the CPM and the administration, the people responded positively to their bandh call. Ms Banerjee stood by the party’s decision to boycott the NDA candidate in Vice-President’s poll on August 12 and threatened to pull out from the NDA if their demand was not met. The Chief Minister reiterated that he would reopen a dialogue with the Prime Minister and Mr L.K.Advani for an amicable solution to the bifurcation problem. Mr Anil Biswas, CPM secretary and politburo member, claimed that the bandh had no impact on the normal life. He blamed Ms Banerjee for encouraging provincial politics for her own interest. The Congress neither opposed nor supported the bandh, said it would continue its agitation against the bifurcation. |
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States may get subsidy for power New Delhi, August 5 Speaking at a meeting of the state power ministers here Union Power Minister Suresh Prabhu, said a note had already been cleared by the Union Cabinet in this connection. He said the Centre’s proposal to provide subsidy was to ensure access to enough funds for the states aimed at enhancing the plant load factor of units through renovation and modernisation of machinery. Mr Prabhu also said that the Power Ministry had requested the Petroleum Ministry to appropriately reduce the prices of naphtha to boost generation in naphtha-based power plants. The overall shortfall in hydel generation due to poor water levels at various reservoirs was estimated at 30 to 33 per cent in 2002-03, with the output being 58,155 MU against the target of 82,814 MU. The minister said today’s meeting would lead to the preparation of a short-term strategy, especially in the context of increased demand of power for irrigation purposes arising out of the drought situation. The southern states have been the worst-hit due to low generation of power in the hydel sector especially in Karnataka, Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh which primarily depend on rain-fed water. Mr Prabhu said his ministry would apprise the states every fortnight of the steps being taken by it and the states could in turn inform the Centre of the developments at their end so that there was proper coordination to meet the challenge. He suggested linking of the transmission network for transferring power from the surplus regions to meet peak demands at other places. The eastern region, which had surplus capacity, was being linked to the regions of north and south having a shortfall. The Kolar-Talchar link was being completed ahead of schedule by over a year, he said. An appeal would be made to the consumers to use power sparingly in view of the demand and supply gap. Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala urged the Centre to enhance up to at least 35 per cent the state’s quota of power from the unallocated share of power as against the existing 26 per cent and provide loan on easy terms for renovation and modernisation of power projects under the Accelerated Power Development Programme (APDP). Mr Chautala also said that Haryana’s request for financial assistance of Rs 40 crore to modernise the second unit of Panipat Thermal Plant be approved under the APDP. |
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Mulayam’s remarks irk CPM New Delhi, August 5 “It will be good if the Samajwadi Party pursues its efforts to fight against the BJP as its political resolution has declared,” the CPM politburo said in a statement, referring to the Samajwadi Party’s national executive meeting in Bhopal yesterday wherein it resolved to fight against the BJP. On the party’s statement at the meeting, blaming the CPM for the split in the People’s Front, the CPM politburo said the CPM on its part would do everything to see that there was a united fight given by all secular and democratic forces. |
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No bias, Centre tells Cong states New Delhi, August 5 Talking to newspersons after an hour-long meeting between the government and a Congress delegation, Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh said the country was facing a situation worse than that of 1987. “The country is facing a calamity which is worse than that of 1987. The deficient rainfall till July 31 this year was 30 per cent as compared to 24 per cent during the corresponding period of 1987”, Mr Ajit Singh said. The worst-affected areas, he said, were Haryana, Delhi, west Uttar Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and parts of Rajasthan. |
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EC team briefs CEC on Gujarat New Delhi, August 5 The nine-member team, which returned from its four-day visit to Gujarat yesterday, will submit a detailed report to the CEC by this weekend, commission sources said here. The team, headed by Deputy Election Commissioners A.N. Jha and S. Mehdiratta, visited all riot-hit districts of Gujarat and met representatives of major political parties, state and district-level officials and non-governmental organisations. The team visited the relief camps housing the riot victims and also went to Godhra, where one coach of Sabarmati Express was gutted on February 27, sparking off widespread riots in the state for the next few weeks. The team held meetings with government officials. Political leaders from the Third Front along with a section of riot victims in Ahmedabad, besides a delegation of the ruling BJP, met the team. The team then split into three groups and visited different riot-hit
districts. |
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EC to depute J&K observers today New Delhi, August 5 “For the on-the-spot assessment and supervision of poll arrangements, including the progress made on the issue of special high-security identity cards and voter slips, the 20 central observers identified by the commission will tour Jammu and Kashmir in small groups from tomorrow,” an Election Commission official said here today. Stating that the Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh himself is supervising the entire poll arrangements in the most sensitive state with the assistance of other top commission officials, he said the commission was also monitoring on a day-to-day basis the law and order situation. |
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Diabetics highest in India
Chennai, August 5 Patient barriers to intensive insulin therapy, lack of awareness and late diagnosis is adding to increased diabetes related complications and mortality due to such complications in developing countries like India. The recently concluded National Urban Diabates Conference in Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Hyderabad, Kolkatta and New Delhi estimated that the prevalence rate of diabetes in the adult population was 12.1, per cent, while the prevalence rate of Impaired Glucose Tolerence (IGT), a pre-diabetes condition, was 14 per cent. WHO statistics show that India has the highest number of diabetics in the world. Approximately 177.7 million adults have diabetes worldwide and this number was estimated to double by 2025. The Cost of Diabetes in India (CODI) revealed that on an annualised basis, the direct cost of treatment per person, including hospitalisation, was Rs 7,158 per year, which, according to Dr Anil Kapoor, an expert on diabetes treatment, is one of the cheapest in the world. “Diabetes is one of the costliest health problems in the world”, he told PTI, adding that the total direct costs of diabetes were the highest in the USA, Japan, Germany and France, amounting to $ 60 billion, $ 16.94 billion, $ 16.67 billion and $ 7.3 billion respectively.
PTI |
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Medical
graduates on strike New Delhi, August 5 These medical graduates, who have earned their degrees from medical colleges of the erstwhile USSR, are protesting against the MCI’s decision to hold a screening test to be conducted by the National Board of Examination for these foreign-returned doctors. These doctors allege that the MCI’s decision is “discriminatory and unjust”. “Why should doctors from abroad take the test which their counterparts who have studied in private medical colleges in the country are exempt from”, asks Dr Parveen Goyal, spokesperson for the All-India Association of Foreign Returned Doctors (AIAFRD). The MCI has made it mandatory for these doctors to take the screening test scheduled to be held in September this year. The MCI’s contention that these doctors fail to match the standard set by the Indian Medical Council has caused much outrage. |
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Saraswati Samman for Dr Tiwana New Delhi, August 5 The award, carrying a cash reward of Rs 5 lakh, a citation and a plaque was presented to her by former Prime Minister I.K. Gujral at a function here. The 67-year-old Punjabi writer bagged the 11th Saraswati Samman award for her epic saga “Katha Kaho Urvashi”, a story of three generations of a family. Mr Gujral appreciated the manner in which Dr Tiwana has weaved the subject matter in her award winning novel. In her speech, Dr Tiwana said “I thought I had written this story, but the truth is that I was only a medium-the story got itself written through me.” “The honour that you have conferred on me today really belong to Punjabi language, which has preserved the story,” Dr Tiwana, who is the second women writer to bag this award, said. |
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Temple desecrated Pune, August 5 |
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