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Ministers to skip Cabinet meeting Small N-power stations soon, says Prof Bhattacharjee Saraswati Sugar Mills begins crushing 15 years’ jail for opium smuggler 3 cases of burglary reported |
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Ministers to skip Cabinet meeting Chandigarh, November 21 Chief Parliamentary Secretary, Mr Ram Pal Majra, who is attached to the Chief Minister for looking after the Irrigation Department, will also not take part in tomorrow’s meeting, it was learnt. Mr Majra, who has been camping in Rajasthan for months, will come back to Chandigarh only after the polling in the state on December 1 is over, said his staff here. Among the five ministers of state, none is expected to attend tomorrow’s meeting. Mr M L Ranga, Minister of State for Health, has been deputed to Srimadhavpur in Rajasthan and will not come for the meeting here tomorrow, said an official attached to him. Mr Subhash Goyal, Minister of State for Urban Development, who is camping at Hanumangarh in Rajasthan, is also likely to be absent from the meeting. Mohammad Illyas, Minister of State for Animal Husbandry, Mr Bahadur Singh, Minister of State for Education and Mr Risal Singh, Minister of State for Social Welfare, are also unlikely to take part in tomorrow’s meeting because of their engagements in Rajasthan. The 10-member Cabinet headed by Mr Chautala is having five Cabinet ministers and it is imperative that all of them take part in the meeting to enable the government to complete the quorum necessary for convening a meeting of the Cabinet. However, while the presence of Mr Sampat Singh, Finance and Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Dhirpal Singh, Revenue and Town and Country Planning Minister and Mr Jaswinder Singh Sandhu, Agriculture Minister in tomorrow’s meeting is confirmed, it is doubtful whether Mr Ashok Kumar Arora, Transport Minister, and Mr Kartar Singh Bhadana, Cooperation Minister, will be able to take a day off from their responsibilities in Rajasthan and attend the meeting of the Cabinet tomorrow. Even as the ministers, like most other INLD functionaries of the state, have been deputed to Rajasthan by the Chief Minister to work for the INLD candidates in the state, their staff here claim ignorance about the exact nature of the assignments of the ministers. The prolonged absence of the ministers from the secretariat has not at all affected the work in the departments they are looking after. Files coming to these ministers are forwarded to the Chief Minister’s Office where a decision regarding the matter is taken and referred for action. |
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Small N-power stations soon, says Prof Bhattacharjee Ambala, November 21 Prof B Bhattacharjee, Director Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC) and Member, Atomic Energy Commission, said that plans were on to develop small nuclear power stations which would take care of power needs in remote areas. ‘‘The small dual-purpose nuclear power stations will also be used for high temperature operations resulting in production of hydrogen from water. The hydrogen will be useful in the transport industry in the near future,’’ Professor Bhattacharjee said. The world renowned nuclear scientist was in Ambala to deliver the prestigious Gian Chand Jain Memorial Lecture. Professor Bhattacharjee explained that the reactor would split hydrogen from water at about 1000°C. ‘‘The small reactor will be totally passive. This means that there will be absolutely no danger and in an emergency, it will shut off automatically,’’ he said. He said that the small reactor was called ‘compact high temperature reactor’. ‘‘These nuclear power stations will be set up in far-flung areas where accessibility is a challenge. It will be simple in nature and there will not be any requirement for skilled personnel. The reactors will change the lives of people in remote areas significantly,’’he claimed. He stated that India was surging ahead in harnessing nuclear power and today the country had undertaken the world’s largest exercise of setting up eight nuclear power stations simultaneously. ‘‘An exercise of this magnitude for nuclear power generation is taking place internationally for the first time,’’ he said. ‘‘Today, we generate less than 3 per cent of nuclear power as compared to other sources. Although, the impact of nuclear power is not much now, it will change considerably in the next couple of years. We will show our potential very soon. By 2005, the power generation will reach 5 per cent from 3 per cent and by 2020, it will be 10 per cent,’’ he said. He said that apparently, the ‘developed’ nations of the world were not installing new nuclear power stations. ‘‘It is so because , their electrical needs are saturated. Also, through technological advancement, they are enhancing the life of a single nuclear plant and the same plant can be operated at a higher capacity,’’ he stated. ‘‘In the field of medicine, we have contributed a lot. Recently, we have developed a hydrogel which is useful for treating burn victims. Earlier, this was imported but now it is available here itself. Another contribution has been in the electrical cable industry. Cured cables have certain life but cross-linking by radiation has shown excellent results by enhancing the life of the cable. For example, a railway wagon has a life of about four decades but the cable wears out in 7 to 8 years. This can change now,’’ he said. Professor Bhattacharjee stated that electron beam accelerators were now being produced indigenously. ‘‘In the gems and diamonds industry, the colour of the precious stones can be changed. This leads to value addition and boosts our export,’’ he said. ‘‘Black gram and groundnut too have been improved by us,’’ he said. ‘‘We are touching the lives of people in varied ways,’’ Prof Bhattacharjee said with a smile. |
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Saraswati Sugar Mills begins crushing Yamunanagar, November 21 He said it was decided at the Sugarcane Control Board meeting on November 17 at Chandigarh that Saraswati Sugar Mills and two other factories of Haryana would pay the statutory minimum price (which is yet to be fixed by the Centre whereas 12 co-operative sugar factories would pay the state advised price, which is higher than the statutory minimum price payable by the private factories. In addition, Saraswati Sugar Mills will also be paying an incentive of Rs 24 per quintal of cane for the mid variety and Rs 64 for the early variety of cane over and above the statutory minimum price as fixed by the Centre. The statutory minimum price for the season 2002-03 is Rs 87.54 per quintal whereas for 2003-04, it is yet to be fixed. |
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15 years’ jail for opium smuggler Sirsa, November 21 The court, yesterday, also imposed a fine of Rs 1,50,000 on the convict. On July 12, 2001 the police got a tip off that a drugs smuggler was coming to Dabwali along with the contraband in a car. The police on the basis of the information set up a naka and signalled a car to stop. On the search of the vehicle the police recovered 25 kg of poppy sap (afim ka doodh), which is used in the manufacture of opium. The occupant of the car was identified as Parminder alias Kaka son of Movil Singh a resident of Darshanpur village (Udaipur).
— PTI |
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3 cases of burglary reported Karnal, November 21 After this, the burglars struck at a nearby Nageshwar temple. They looted cash from the temple after breaking three locks. The next target of the burglars was Mahadev Dairy. They broke the main shutter of the dairy and looted cash lying in the cash box. The exact loss in these three cases has not yet been ascertained yet. Meanwhile, the Inspector General of Police, Rohtak Range, Mr Sharad Kumar, visited the city and held meeting with the senior police officials to review the law and order situation. |
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Stone laid for
library Ambala, November 21 Speaking at the annual function of the Vedic Prachar Mandal, Arya Samaj, Mr Kataria said ‘Satyarthprakash’ by Swami Dayanand Saraswati contained knowledge which helped overall development of a person, a release said. Among others, Mr Ravindra Dhawan, Mr Shish Pal Bhola, Pandit Shankar Dass, Mr Surendar Bindra, Mr Gyanchand Aggarwal, Mr Ravi Sehgal, Mr Narendra Jain, Mr V.P. Chauhan, Mr Shalin Puri, Mr B.D. Sapra and Mr Raj Singh were present. |
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