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Wednesday,
April 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Allies avoid street fights in Baghdad NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT
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Suspected SARS patient hospitalised White Paper on Railways HC rejects Sharma’s
3-week bail plea
Case against Bihar minister Oppn
bankrupt of ideas: Advani ‘USA should have
attacked Pak’ NCERT: no shortage of
textbooks Harsher penalty for insult to Tricolour IAF monitors civilian air traffic Ardh Kumbh Mela projects launched Tribunal asks DoT to furnish documents
No unity move: Tohra Main accused in DDA scam arrested
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Allies avoid street fights in Baghdad New Delhi, April 8 This is the ruthless world of urban warfare which the USA is scrupulously avoiding in Baghdad. The only law in urban warfare is that there are no laws. Historical records of military battles fought in cities show that the body count ranges from 3,000 to 30,000 per day. In this form of warfare, labyrinths of streets and alleys make natural fortresses and cityscape acts like a tropical jungle, rendering spy satellites useless. Even 10:1 superiority in manpower has seen an equal fight with high number of casualties on both sides. Invariably, the command and control set-up collapses in urban warfare and bayonet-to-bayonet, hand-to-hand combats take place. Response shown by ordinary defenders is that of suicidal desperation, not unlike that of a cornered cat. Consider the following historical facts: Moscow (1812): Demonstrating his steely resolve to expel Napoleon Bonaparte, the czarist governor burned the city to the ground. Manila (1899): Filipino soldiers attempted arson to kill Americans in large numbers in infernos. Stalingrad (1942-43): Hitler’s Panzers lost their famed mobility inside Stalingrad. Despite a 2:1 advantage in artillery and 4:1 superiority in tanks, the battle for Stalingrad lasted nearly six months (August 19, 1942 to February 2, 1943) and at the end of it the Germans were defeated. Manila (1945): Gen MacArthur reached Manila’s periphery with over two lakh troops, visualising a round-the-corner victory over some 17,000 Japanese soldiers “trapped” inside the city. It took four weeks of pitched street battles, over one lakh Filipino civilian deaths and loss of his own 6,675 men before Manila could be conquered. Berlin (1945): More than two lakh Germans died in 11 days. This was despite a 10:1 troop superiority, absolute air control and powerful tanks. Soviets themselves lost 78,000 soldiers. Here in case of Iraq, Saddam Hussein has thousands of fidayeen, including women, who are ready to carry out offensive suicide operations. Experts believe that in entire Iraq, Baghdad is the only terrain that provides Saddam Hussein his best fortress. Saddam is still believed to have at least 50,000 fighters defending Baghdad. These include 15,000 Saddam-loyalist Special Republican Guard, the best-paid highly motivated elite guards each one of whom is hand-picked by Saddam and his sons and every fighter of this unit belongs to Saddam’s tribe. Last but not the least, this elite unit has not seen any action in the war so far and thus has the potential to surprise the coalition forces with “shock and awe”. |
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Anti-war protest turns violent, 100 arrested Nagercoil (TN), April 8 The police said trouble broke out when they attempted to prevent a 3000-strong crowd from local Jamath and the Tamil Nadu Muslim Munnetra Kazhagam (TMMK) from burning effigies of US President Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair in front of the Kanyakumari Collectorate. As the police tried to stop the protesters, a bottle filled with petrol kept inside one of the effigies burst. The crowd pelted stones at the police, government buses, private vehicles, damaging scores of them, the police said. While a police constable and a bus driver were hurt in the stone pelting, two of the protesters were injured when they got trapped under a government bus as the driver swirled the vehicle trying to escape the stone pelting, the police said. Superintendent of Police Sandeep Mittal rushed to the spot from where crude bombs, needles, pins and glass pieces and other splinters were recovered. The police has also impounded a car which was found abandoned in the area. Cases had been registered against 100 people and 75 arrested in connection with the violence, they said.
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, April 8 He said most of the Indians in Iraq had voluntarily left before the outbreak of the war. So far as the other Gulf countries were concerned, normal commercial flights had been operating and there had been no necessity of evacuation of Indian nationals, the Minister said. Tourism Tourism and Culture Minister Jagmohan informed the House that the number of foreign tourists, who visited Punjab, had declined to 8,975 (estimated) in 2002 compared to 12,690 in 1998. While in Haryana, the number of foreign tourists visiting the state in 2002 had increased from 1,311 in 1998 to 85,281(estimated) in 2001, in Himachal Pradesh it had increased from 75,206 in 1998 to 1,44,383 in 2002 and in Jammu and Kashmir, had declined significantally to 8,269 in 2002 against 25,485 in 1998. The foreign exchange earnings due to tourism had increased from Rs 12,150 crore in 1998 to Rs 14,420 crore in 2002, the minister told the House. Polluting industries The number of units identified by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) under the 17 categories of polluting industries was 45 in Punjab, one in Chandigarh, 43 in Haryana, nine in Himachal Pradesh and eight in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr TR Baalu, Environment and Forests Ministers, informed the Lok Sabha. He said the State Pollution Control Boards and Committees concerned had been directed to take action against the defaulting units and in case of certain units the CPCB had also issued directions . Short-stay homes The Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Ms Jas Kaur Meena, informed the Lok Sabha that the government had financed four short stay homes for women in Haryana during 2002-03, two in Punjab and one each in Himachal Pradesh and Chandigarh. She said the government was providing assistance, both financial and organisational, to set up creches for children of working and sick mothers belonging to the weaker sections of society. The number of creches, which had been provided financial assistance during 2002-03, was 145 in Punjab, 591 in Haryana, 480 in Himachal 153 in Jammu and Kashmir and 37 in Chandigarh. Rural development As many as 10.2 lakh persons in Punjab were living below the poverty line in 1999-2000, Mr Annasaheb MK Patil, Minister of State for Rural Development, informed the Lok Sabha. The number of such people in Haryana was 11.9 lakh , 2.9 lakh in Jammu and Kashmir and 4.8 lakh in Himachal, the minister said. |
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Act amended for open voting in RS New Delhi, April 8 The Representation of People (Amendment) Bill, 2001, piloted by Law Minister Arun Jaitley said the waiving of the residence clause for a member to contest elections was not to condone the wrongdoings of the MPs but in the interest of ‘federalism’ by providing some amount of flexibility. Recalling the 1977 situation in the Lok Sabha when the four southern states had virtually no representation in the Janata Party government at the Centre, he said the residence status should not be an impediment for the government to provide a representation in the Union Cabinet. He said it was not just the political parties which wanted the clause to go but also the full Bench of the Election Commission which had supported the need to doing away with the permanent resident status for a citizen to become a member of the Rajya Sabha. The amendment would not alter the status of the Upper House as the Council of States, he maintained.
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Wake up to SARS threat, say RS members New Delhi, April 8 Raising the issue in zero hour, the members expressed serious concern over the possibility of spread of SARS in the country. They urged the government to make all necessary arrangements at the airports to screen passengers from South East Asian nations. Besides Nirupam, two other members N.P. Durga of TDP and Motilal Vora (Cong) raised separate special mentions on the issue to which the Minister of State for Parliamentary Affairs Mr O. Rajagopal, said the government would make a statement soon on this serious issue. Speaking on the issue, Shiv Sena member Sanjay Nirupam referred to a SARS case detected at the Mumbai airport yesterday and lack of facilities to handle such a situation at the airport. Mr Durga said India should be extra careful, especially due to its proximity to China, to ensure that the disease does not spread in the country and government should take steps to deal with the situation. Mr Vora said it was regrettable that adequate number of masks and gloves were not provided to the immigration officials handling large number of passengers coming from these countries. BJP member Kalraj Mishra said adequate number of medical personnel should be posted at airports to ensure timely detection of SARS cases. Meanwhile, the Union Minister for Tourism and Culture, Mr Jagmohan, informed the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that the SARS scare in some countries had not affected tourist inflow to India. “There is no such case in India. I do not think it is going to hit the inflow of tourists to India,” he said, adding there has been a 14 to 16 per cent increase in tourist inflow during the past six months. As a result of this, the foreign exchange inflows have grown 17 to 18 per cent during the period, the minister said while replying to supplementaries during question hour. Stating that the country had 13 tourist offices in various countries, the minister said three new ones were being opened in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Tokyo. |
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Suspected SARS patient hospitalised
Hyderabad, April 8 Anthony, who was coming from Australia and was born for Mumbai, had boarded a Singapore-Mumbai flight at Singapore. Anthony, who was suffering from cough and acute fever, checked in at the special medical cell set up at the airport and was immediately shifted to the government chest hospital, airport sources said.
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White Paper on Railways New Delhi, April 8 In his foreword to the report, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar has stated that striving for the zero-risk level for absolute safety is an impossible task in the transport sector and has cited the recent crash of space shuttle in the USA to support his argument. The report tabled in both Houses of Parliament yesterday stated that the passenger deaths had come down from 0.0003 per million passengers km during 1992-’93 to 0.0001 death per million passengers km during 2001-’02. The report had drawn attention to 80 per cent reduction in train accidents since 1960-’61 despite nearly 535 per cent increase in passenger traffic and 360 per cent increase in freight traffic, respectively. It had further stated that the number of consequential train accidents (having serious repercussion in terms of loss of human life, injury, damage to railway property or interruption to rail traffic of laid down threshold levels and values) had come down from 2,131 during 1960-’61 to 414 during 2001-’02, despite heavy increase in traffic. The document stated that modernisation of infrastructure was another step towards ensuring a safe journey. The steps include a track maintenance, track renewal, an extensive and detailed sytem of multi-tier inspection of 1.2 lakh bridges,
rehabilitation/rebuilding on priority of over 500 distressed bridges of which 341 had been rehabilitated during 2002-’03, preventive maintenance of rolling stock and execution of recommendations made by the Research, Design and Standards Organisation (RDSO), the research and design wing of the Indian Railways. |
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HC rejects Sharma’s
3-week bail plea New Delhi, April 8 He said keeping in mind the conduct of the petitioner prior to his arrest, there were no good grounds for his enlargement on interim bail, and added that the offence allegedly committed by the petitioner was serious and the charges against him were grave. A list of marriage functions submitted by the petitioner was too long and it did not appear that his presence would be necessary in all those functions, the Judge said. The Judge noted that the reception of the barat here was on April 19, the marriage on April 20 and the marriage reception in Allahabad on April 23, and all these functions could be attended within the five-day “custodial parole” already granted to him by a Sessions Court, he observed. Hence, the court said there was no good ground for granting interim bail to the petitioner for the period sought by him nor any indulgence was required to be shown in the trial court’s order.
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Case against Bihar minister Gaya, April 8 The police said today that an FIR was lodged at the Rampur police station in Gaya yesterday against Minister of State for Excise Surendra Yadav, Gandhi and Pappu Yadav, brother-in-law of Subhas Yadav, Chief Minister Rabri Devi’s brother. They said Atul Prakash Sinha, son of B.K. Sinha, an accused in the multi-crore Fodder Scam, was arrested in connection with a fraud case and was being brought to Bihar by the police led by Sub Inspector Rama Kant Ram. The case against B.K. Sinha, registered at Kotwali Police Station in Patna, was for allegedly duping several politicians of several lakhs of rupees before fleeing to Gujarat. On April 4, when the train arrived at Gaya Junction, Gandhi, who was part of the entourage as a witness in the case, alighted and took the accused and the policemen to Surendra Yadav’s house. After reaching there, Atul Sinha was locked in a room and beaten mercilessly for two days. The policemen were confined in another room and not allowed to intervene. The SI managed to escape from the minister’s house on the night of April 6 and informed Gaya Superintendent of Police Ravindran Shankaran about the incident. On the directive of the SP, a case was registered against the minister, MLC Azad Gandhi, Pappu Yadav and two others on the basis of the complaint of the SI. A search warrant of the minister’s house was issued, but the police could not lay a hand on him last night as he had left by that time. Atul Sinha was brought to the state capital from Gaya yesterday and produced before the Patna Chief Judicial Magistrate S.K. Shrivastava, who remanded him to 14-day judicial custody. Bihar Director General of Police D.P. Ojha has sought a report from Gaya SP within 24 hours about the incident. Meanwhile, Surendra Yadav denied that he had any connection with Atul Prakash or had ever seen him.
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Oppn
bankrupt of ideas: Advani New Delhi, April 8 “There is total bankruptcy of ideas in the Opposition
camp. They do not have any issue to be raised in Parliament and,
hence, they are creating a stalemate over the use of a particular word
in the resolution on Iraq,” BJP spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra
quoted Mr Advani as saying at a meeting of Parliamentary Party here. Mr Advani, who chaired the meeting in the absence of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee who had gone to the Rashtrapati Bhavan for the ceremonial welcome of the Singapore Prime Minister, said the government had already deplored the US attack on Iraq and had made it clear that it was against any unilateral aggression skipping the UN route. “Even
then the Opposition is insisting on the use of the word ‘condemn’
in the resolution on Iraq instead of the word ‘deplore’,” the
Deputy Prime Minister was quoted as having told the meeting. |
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‘USA should have attacked Pak’ New Delhi, April 8 Pakistan has been sponsoring terrorist activities in India for almost three decades, and is subtly extending support to Osama bin Laden, so the first US target should be that country, not Iraq, if it really wants to put an end to terror, morcha president G. Krishan Reddy said. He was addressing party wokers in front of the UNO office here before submitting to the international body 1.70 crore signatures of Indian youths put on cloth banners, calling for declaring Pakistan a terrorist state. Mr Reddy said the signatures reflected the anguish and anger of the entire 1 billion people of India and determination of the youth to fight terrorism. “Pakistan is allowed to go scot-free despite abundant evidence of its patronage of assistance to terrorist organisations,” said the memorandum accompanying the piles of signed cloth banners handed over to the Director of United Nations Information Centre, Fedeo Starcevic. Earlier, BJYM office-bearers who had come from different parts of the country collected at Lok Nayak Bhavan in the Khan Market area and from there they marched to the UNO regional office on Lodhi Road.
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NCERT: no shortage of
textbooks New Delhi, April 8 The council said wholesalers of each region were allotted specific dates for the collection of their stocks following which the books were made available through retailers and other book stores. “Wholesalers from Chandigarh have been asked to collect their stocks on April 8 and 9. Books will be available in the market once these wholesalers pass them on to the retailers”, said the Head of the Publication Division, Prof Puran Chand. He dismissed allegation that traders have been selling the books at costs higher than prescribed. |
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Harsher penalty for insult to Tricolour New Delhi, April 8 Replying to the debate, Minister of State for Home Affairs I.D. Swamy attempted to dispel the apprehension raised by Akali Dal (Amritsar) leader Simranjit Singh Mann that Sikhs had not been accorded a proper niche in national life.
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IAF monitors civilian air traffic New Delhi, April 8 The government decision apparently came in the wake of an “accidental” intrusion by a plane of a foreign airliner which hovered over the “No-fly zone” comprising the Prime Minister’s residence, Rashtrapati Bhavan and other key installations for several minutes in November last. In a written reply to a question in the Upper House, he said information was being collected from the IAF regarding the manner in which the step would help in reacting quickly in case of deviation of flight from its normal route. |
Ardh Kumbh Mela projects launched Hradwar, April 8 In his address at the inaugural functions, Mr Tiwari said it would be the first Ardh Kumbh to be celebrated in the new state. Ardh Kumbh Mela budget was for Hardwar, Rishikesh, Roorkee and the neighbouring towns. The aim was to develop roads, sewerage and drainage systems, power supply and potable water. Mr Tiwari was accompanied by the State Minister for PWD and Parliamentary Affairs, Dr Indira Hridyesh; the Minister for Social Welfare and Minister in-charge for Hardwar district, Mr R.P. Tamta; and the Minister for Urban Development, Forests and Environment, Mr Nav Prabhat. Mr Om Prakash, Mela Officer, said the assistance of engineers of the IIT-Roorkee had been sought to monitor the quality of the construction work. |
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Tribunal asks DoT to furnish documents New Delhi, April 8 The TDSAT today asked the DoT to furnish before the tribunal all relevant documents. The government has been given time till tomorrow to present the documents or appeal against the order. |
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No unity move: Tohra New Delhi, April 8 “Surprisingly, I learn about the so-called unity talks only from the media,” Mr Tohra, a former President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), said here. He also denied a news report that Mr Badal would meet him in Delhi tomorrow to finalise unity talks. Mr Tohra’s remarks also came in the wake of reports that both Akali parties would announce a patch-up on April 13, the Baisakhi day.
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Main accused in DDA scam arrested New Delhi, April 8 Khattar, who allegedly acted as a conduit and was on the run ever since the CBI carried out raids on March 27, was arrested from the hospital where he was allegedly hiding, they said. Khattar had applied for anticipatory bail which was scheduled to come up for hearing tomorrow.
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