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Saturday,
October 19, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Army to
have robots for ammo destruction 11 Sikh pilgrims killed in road
mishaps Advani
briefed on Naga peace talks VHP ups
ante against PMO US Marine
Corps has hurt Hindu sentiments: VHP |
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USA favours more
de-escalatory steps Attack on Iraq will fuel terror: Malaysia Inter-state
gang of cheats busted, 3 held AIADMK
celebrates 31st anniversary Kashmir
panel defers visit to J&K Tathagata
is W. Bengal BJP President
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Army to
have robots for ammo destruction New Delhi, October 18 “Project Demilitarisation”, the Rs 260-crore robot acquisition proposal, has been forwarded by the Army to the government. The robots will be used to burn up to 8,000 to 10,000 outdated ammunition stocks annually and will make the recently accident-prone depots more safe, the Director-General of Ordnance Services Lt-Gen Tejinderjit Singh Gill, said today. Speaking to newspersons on the sidelines of a function to launch the first of the four-phase Rs 430-crore computerised inventory control project of the ordnance services, he said with the pilot project going online, the Army Headquarters as well as the Ministry of Defence would at the click of a mouse be able to access the data of inventory in ordnance depots. Along with the Army Headquarters, the first of the country’s seven central ordnance depots at Kirby Place here were also put online. They house the latest tanks, missiles, personnel carriers and entire Army mechanical vehicle spares. In the next two phases, which were awaiting government nod, he said six other ordnance depots would have a national link-up computerised inventory. “We are ready. Just 18 months to government clearance, these depots would be online”, he said, adding that it would make India the first country outside NATO to have such a sophisticated inventory system. Saying that the aim of the project was to hook up the armament-ammunition pipeline right from the “factory to foxhole”, he said the computerisation would help keep track of the armed forces’ inventory range of 4,00,700 items worth over Rs 50,000 crore and spread over 200 locations. After the completion of the project, he said it would bring in transparency in inventory holdings, procurements, receipts, stocking, store reservations and large financial savings. The Master-General of Ordnance, Lt-Gen S.J.S. Saighal, who inaugurated the pilot project, said computerisation would help the country in having centralised logistics and sustain war effort and management better. He said in the long run, the government and the Army would now have options for integrated logistics by linking up computerised inventory holding of all supplies like Supply corp, electrical and mechanical engineers as well as medical stores. The Director-General of Ordnance Services said the second phase of the project would be automation of regional ordnance depots, divisional level ordnance units and technical stores which would be completed by early 2004. Subsequently, he said the third and fourth phase of the project would include automation of ammunition inventory and aviation establishments. The pilot project had been developed with the participation of Tata Infotech which was now bidding to become a strategic partner in the entire Army inventory management and information project. |
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11 Sikh pilgrims killed in road mishaps Guna, October 18 Seven women were killed and 30 injured when a bus, carrying mostly Sikh pilgrims from Nanded in Maharashtra, overturned on the Agra-Mumbai road this morning. This was the second accident in as many days on the Agra-Mumbai road, involving devotees from Nanded’s Hazoor Sahib, which is one of the five Sikh
takhts. Six injured, admitted to the district hospital, are in critical condition. The bus was enroute from Nanded in Maharashtra to Ganganagar in Rajasthan when the accident occurred near Ramri village, 57 km from the district headquarters. The pilgrims were returning from the Gurdwara at Nanded (Maharashtra). Five women died on the spot. There were 63 passengers in the bus, most of them Sikh pilgrims from Ganganagar and Ferozepore in Punjab. In another mishap, near Indore, four pilgrims from Haryana were killed and 27 injured when the truck in which they were travelling overturned last night. The driver lost control of the truck while trying to avoid a collision with a motor cycle and the vehicle overturned between Shipra and Dewas towns, the police said. Three of the deceased have been identified as Gurudayal Singh, Banta Singh and Beant Singh, the police said, adding that the pilgrims hailed from Palsar and Hasanga villages of Haryana.
PTI |
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Advani briefed
on Naga peace talks New Delhi, October 18 The meeting came in the wake of the talks Mr Padmanabhaiah held with NSCN (IM) leaders Isak Swu and T. Muivah in Bangkok in September. The Naga leaders had reportedly agreed to come to India for further negotiations and intensify the peace process. However, the venue for the next round of the talks had not been decided yet, the sources said. They said the Naga leaders had put conditions, including lifting of ban, and repealing of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act and cancellation of arrest warrants against them. Meanwhile, Mizoram Chief Minister Zoramthanga is understood to have left for Bangkok to hold further negotiations. His
visit to Bangkok assumes significance as Mr L.K. Advani had said on
September 18 that further talks on the peace process should be held in
India instead of foreign countries. |
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VHP ups ante against PMO New Delhi, October 18 “America ke godh mein bharat ko thopne ka shrey Brajesh Mishra ko jata hai
(the credit for throwing India into the lap of the USA goes to Brajesh
Mishra),” VHP leader Acharya Giriraj Kishore told newspersons here. Ducking a question whether Mr Mishra was more powerful than Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Mr Kishore merely said: “Vidheshi neeti to Mishraji hi banate hain
(foreign policy is articulated by Mr Mishra)”. He, however, refused to elaborate on the statement. Mr Kishore’s statement comes a day after VHP’s international president Ashok Singhal had at Rajkot demanded the resignation of Mr Mishra. Mr Singhal had reportedly stated that Mr Mishra was the “culprit in the PMO” who was “ruling the country”. “The Prime Minister rules the country as per his adviser’s guidance. Here, the adviser is the culprit and should be removed,” Mr Singhal was quoted as saying. Meanwhile, the BJP today tried to downplay the strong remarks, saying that “there is no need for any comments made by the VHP”. BJP spokesman Sunil Shastri said as far as the party was concerned the Vajpayee government was running smoothly and effectively. “We have only read in media about the VHP’s criticism and we think there is no need for the BJP to react on it... There is no incompetency whatsoever in the Vajpayee government, which is functioning effectively,” Mr Shastri said. |
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US Marine Corps
has hurt Hindu sentiments: VHP New Delhi, October 18 Displaying two such T-shirts, VHP leader Giriraj Kishore claimed that the US Marine Corps had placed an order for about 200 such T-shirts from an Indian manufacturer and threatened to launch an agitation in front of the US Embassy here if it did not tender an apology. In the T-shirt “Goddess Durga” was shown holding a liquor bottle, a gun and a sword among other objects. When contacted, an official at the United States Marine Corps here refused to confirm or deny the purchase of any such T-shirts and merely said, “We are not in a position to react to it at the moment. We will get back to you.” The VHP demanded severe action against the manufacturer of such T-shirts. |
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USA favours more
de-escalatory steps New Delhi, October 18 Talking to reporters after holding a 45-minute meeting with Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra here, US Ambassador Robert Blackwill said he conveyed to Mr Mishra Washington’s view that the decision to redeploy forces away from the international border was “very welcome” and that it was “a major de-escalatory step”. Mr Blackwill said his government was “gratified” that Pakistan had announced a reciprocal step to de-escalate tension along the border. The Ambassador identified enhanced people-to-people contact like resumption of train and air links and opportunity for citizens of the two countries to interact and see their families among the “more de-escalatory steps” he had mentioned. Mr Blackwill described the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections as “positive, credible and a success”. |
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Attack on Iraq will fuel terror: Malaysia New Delhi, October 18 Addressing a news conference before leaving for Islamabad at the end of his three-day visit to India, Mr Mohammad said the UN system was being systematically weakened. “We have to formulate a common stand on how nations should tackle international problems,” he said, adding that any unilateral action against Iraq would be counter-productive. The foreign dignitary said the Iraq crisis figured during his talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and other Indian leaders yesterday. He also stated that Malaysia and India agreed that there should be no unilateral action against Iraq as any unilateral action was not an answer to international problems. Mr Mohammad said most of the members of the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) were opposed to action against Iraq, though he admitted that the OIC member states were thus far not able to speak about the issue in one voice. He hoped that the OIC would be able to adopt a common formulation on Iraq when Malaysia became its Chairman next year. The Malaysian premier said during his discussions with Mr Vajpayee, emphasis was laid on strengthening economic ties. Malaysia wanted India to grant landing rights to more Malaysian Airlines planes in cities like Hyderabad and New Delhi as part of the enhanced cooperation. He underlined the need for more collaboration between the two countries in infrastructure projects. Mr Mohammad also said he had asked Mr Vajpayee to further reduce the import duty on palm oil specially in view of the less import duty on soyabean oil from the US. |
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Inter-state gang of
cheats busted, 3 held New Delhi, October 18 The suspects were identified as Lalit Aggarwal, alias Lalit Kishore Jindal, alias Mike, alias Mikesh, Afzal Baig and Syed Sadakat, alias Chico. They had been absconding since long and hiding in Paris, Kathmandu and London. Their seven accomplices have already been arrested and chargesheeted by the CBI. They have been identified as Mohammad Mobin, alias Nurri, of Jaipur, Liyakat Ali, Syed Asim Ali, Atul Jain, owner of Jain Jewellers, Vikas Jain, owner of Popular Jewellery Mart, Ashok Bhola, owner of Ashoka Jewellers, and Naresh Kumar, Manager, Hotel Arpit Palace, all from New Delhi, a CBI official said. The suspects were involved in a case registered on the basis of complaints received from New Scotland Yard, London, alleging that two Australian women were subjected to cheating, extortion, illegal detention and sexual molestation by the gang members who had met the complainants and befriended them while they were on tourist visits to Jaipur in November, 2001. They were allegedly cheated of about Rs 12-14 lakh on the pretext of providing jewellery at cheap rates, the official said. |
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AIADMK celebrates
31st anniversary Chennai, October 18 The star of the colourful show at the party headquarters was, Ms Jayalalithaa, who garlanded the statue of the founder of the AIADMK, the late Chief Minister, Mr M.G. Ramachandran, and gave away an aid package of more than Rs.15 lakhs to 29 families of victims of incidents of violence in inter-party rivalry. She also re-admitted into the party many erstwhile “ayarams and gayarams”. The AIADMK had been ruling Tamil Nadu for 17 years since it was founded by MGR on October 17, 1972, a week after he was expelled from the DMK for seeking details of party accounts and for his allegations of corruption against DMK ministers and MLAs. The party lost power to the DMK twice — in 1989 and 1996. |
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Kashmir
panel defers visit to J&K New Delhi, October 18 This has been done in view of the fluid political situation in the state, Mr Jethmalani told The Tribune today. The fresh dates of the committee’s visit would be worked out later. Mr Jethmalani said the major problem in Jammu and Kashmir was not Jammu or Ladakh but the valley and warned that army attempts to marginalise the elected representatives of the valley in the process of Government formation would not augur well for the future. |
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Tathagata is
W. Bengal BJP President Kolkata, October 18 Incidentally, Mr Roy is the elder brother of the Trinamool Congress MLA, Mr Saugata Roy, a former Union Minister in the Congress government headed by Morarji Desai. Announcing the BJP leadership’s decision to appoint Mr Tathagata Roy as the party’s new President for Bengal, the Union Minister, Mr Tapan Singh said the step had been taken to revamp the party. He said the units in some other states would also be restructured soon to make them more effective. |
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