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Expect
non-conventional threats, PM asks services
‘Enforce law on construction workers’ Punjab
farmers stage protest Rs 250
crore package for Manipur Tiwari
on the way out |
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BJP
calls Powell’s revelation imagination I can
work without position: Naidu Laloo
gives job to girl without arms SC
okays relief plan for Bhopal gas victims SC
rejects private plea in Cauvery dispute
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Expect non-conventional threats, PM asks services New Delhi, October 26 Addressing commanders of the armed forces of the country at the daylong Combined Commander Conference here, the Prime Minister while cautioning India to remain alert about aberrations in the neighbours’ policies, observed that there had been a steady growth of non-conventional challenges. Particularly referring to the security and strategic environment in India’s immediate neighbourhood as well as in the other regions, the Prime Minister said the country had to enlarge its instrumentalities and capacities to respond to these. Dr Manmohan Singh said the imperative of this multi-layered scenario imposes the need to integrate resources and assets and rethink basic concepts. “We need to put in place new decision making formats in the pursuit of a sustainable model of national security, in a highly complex strategic environment,” he said. “Our military doctrine must have an inherent flexibility to imbibe technological changes and adapt them to our strategic needs”. Stressing the need for a structure of cooperative and mutually beneficial relations with our neighbours as a basic objective of our policies, Dr Manmohan Singh cautioned that “we have to remain alert about aberrations, strategic ambitions and geopolitical motivations in their policies which can militate against our security and vital interests”. “Our first and preferred resort is diplomacy, but our pursuit of peace does not imply that we shall relax our vigil or compromise on our defence”. Upholding the country’s decision to exercise the nuclear option, the Prime Minister said this had helped remove potentially dangerous ambiguities in the region. India, he said, would be guided by “restraint and responsibility” and no first use of nuclear weapons. In his first-ever address to the top commanders, the Prime Minister while elaborating on the manpower reforms in the armed forces, said that this should incorporate perspective plans for recruitment of the “best and the brightest of our youth into our armed forces”. “Reforms also involve recognition of the fact that the Navy, Air Force and the Army can no longer function in compartments with exclusive chains of command and operational plans,” the Prime Minister said, in an apparent reference to the need for faster integration of the three services. Calling upon the armed forces to look beyond the neighbourhood syndrome, Dr Manmohan Singh told the commanders that India’s “strategic footprints” covered the region bounded by the Horn of Africa, West Asia, Central Asia, South-East Asia and beyond, to the far reaches of the Indian Ocean. The conference was also addressed by the Defence Minister, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, the External Affairs Minister, Mr K. Natwar Singh, the Home Minister, Mr Shivraj Patil, and the Finance Minister, Mr P. Chidambaram. |
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‘Enforce law on construction workers’ New Delhi, October 26 NCW chairperson Poornima Advani called for a national campaign for protection of legal rights of women labourers, besides raising pertinent questions regarding the condition of children at labour sites. After a sustained campaign of almost 12 years by various trade unions and others, two legislations were passed by Parliament in 1996 for construction workers-the Building and Construction Workers, 1996, and Other Construction Workers Welfare Cess Act,1996. Among other things, the legislation provided for collection of a cess on all new construction activity at the rate of 1 to 2 per cent. This amount had to be deposited with the Construction Workers Welfare Board for welfare activities of construction workers, including pension, assistance in case of accident, housing loan, insurance scheme, maternity benefits and education of children. The legislation applied to every building or construction work which employed 10 or more workers and covered all central and state government establishments, besides residential buildings costing more than Rs 10 lakh. These Acts had to be implemented by all states and union territories. But even after eight years, Ms Advani said, these Acts had been only implemented only by Delhi, Pondicherry, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Kerala (which sought an exemption and implemented its earlier law). She also expressed concern at the lack of first-aid and educational facilities and potable water for lakhs of children, growing up on construction sites, amidst dust and rubble. “There are as many as three crore construction workers in India, out of which one-third are women and children,” she said. The report has been compiled on the basis of proceedings of five public hearings on the various issues concerning construction workers. Besides sexual harassment at work, women labourers are also discriminated against. The majority of women workers complain that they are paid lower wages than men.
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Punjab farmers stage protest
New Delhi, October 26 The farmers were demanding that the government take immediate steps to ensure that the rates do not fall below the minimum support price (MSP) of Rs 1760 and Rs 1900 per quintal fixed for different varieties. Despite the central government last week asking the Cotton Corporation of India
(CCI) to procure cotton from mandis to arrest the declining prices, the CCI has not started purchase from northern cotton growing states of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan, leaving the farmers at the mercy of cartels of private trade, said Mr Pishora Singh Sidhupur, president of Punjab’s Bharati Kisan Union (Ekta), which has organised the protest. The main grouse of farmers was that the Central Textile Ministry, which controls the
CCI, has always worked as per its mandate of making raw cotton available at cheaper rates to the textile industry, BKU general secretary Balkar Singh Dakaunda said. In the process, the farmers failed to get even renumerative prices of their produce and the CCI operates on commercial lines with an eye to make profit. If the CCI fails to make profit on its domestic purchases, its imports go for shopping abroad, Mr Dakaunda said. Hundreds of slogan-shouting farmers, brandishing banners and placards, accused the government of shedding
crocodile tears as it “never bothers to create a buffer stock of cotton as it had done for sugar barons by floating a buffer of 20 lakh tonnes of sugar.”
— UNI |
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Rs 250 crore package for Manipur New Delhi, October 26 The package was announced by Minister for Development of North-Eastern Region P.R. Kyndiah when Chief Minister of Manipur O. Ibobi Singh called on the former here. During their half an hour long meeting the two leaders discussed a wide range of issues, including developmental activities in Manipur, official sources said. The Ministry allocates funds for various development projects for the eight states in the North-East — Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Nagaland, Sikkim and Tripura, on the principle of equitable distribution of central funds. However, according to Mr Kyndiah special consideration has been given to Manipur with a view to kick-start developmental activities and generate employment activities in the state, sources said. |
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Tiwari on the way out Dehradun, October 26 Mr Tiwari is likely to meet Congress President Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, apart from Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia and Finance Commission Chairman R. Rangarajan, to lobby for financial help from the Centre for the state tomorrow, sources said. Mr Tiwari’s frequent visits to Delhi come amid speculations about his being made the Governor of one of the six states in the next couple of months. While in West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, the Governors would complete their tenures in the next two months, Rajasthan Governor Madan Lal Khurana tendered his resignation yesterday. Rumour mills have been abuzz about the replacement of the veteran Congress leader for a few months with his deteriorating health but with rising speculation of his being offered the Governor’s office. Even as Mr Tiwari holds on to his old stance of being a disciplined soldier of the party leaving it to top bosses in the party to decide, run up to the Chief Ministerial office is hotting up in the state Congress. It is learnt that the claimants to the top office include PCC chief Harish Rawat, Information and PWD Minister Indira Hridayesh and former Union Minister Satpal Maharaj. According to sources, Mr Tiwari would like to be replaced by Information and PWD Minister Indira Hridayesh. Besides lobbying with the high command the contenders are working on enlisting the support of legislators to prepare themselves for a display of strength if the need arises. |
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BJP calls Powell’s revelation imagination New Delhi, October 26 Challenging Powell's statement that the Indo-Pak standoff during December 2001- October 2002 had a "nuclear dimension", Mr Jaswant Singh said: "It is a figment of imagination". "It is an imagination process like the US claim of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq," he pointed out asserting that there was no nuclear dimension to it. The USA had no role in the start of the Indo-Pak dialogue process when Mr Vajpayee decided to give peace another chance, the BJP leader said. He hit out at the USA hard when he said that Washington was acting like a "telephone exchange" or an "eloquence instructor". Continuing with his anti-US tirade, Mr Jaswant Singh warned the Government of India to remain cautious while dealing with Washington on developing New Steps in Strategic Partnership (NSSP). On the issue of nuclear cooperation with the USA, he asked the government to explain the term "balance of equipment" in the agreement as it is not synonymous to "nuclear cooperation". |
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I can work without position: Naidu New Delhi, October 26 In an informal interaction with mediapersons at his residence here, Mr Naidu, said, "The party has given me everything beyond my capacity...I want to take a break for sometime and want to establish that people can work without position". Brushing aside criticism that the BJP had discriminated leaders from the South, Mr Naidu said, "It is wrong to say there is discrimination. Moreover, linking me just to Telugu and Andhra Pradesh is injustice to me. I am a BJP man risen from the ranks." Asserting that the RSS had no role to play in his decision to quit BJP President's post, he said it would be his endeavour in future to establish that people can work without position. |
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Laloo gives job to girl without arms
New Delhi, October 26 Mr Prasad gave the appointment letter to Kumari Rupali Trilok Thakre of Yoregaon in Wardha District of Maharashtra, a Group C category post in Central Railway, Mumbai. He also gave her a cheque of Rs 50,000 from his welfare fund. She had made a representation to the Railway Minister at Wardha during the campaign for Maharashtra Assembly elections, 2004 last month.
— UNI |
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SC okays relief plan for Bhopal gas victims New Delhi, October 26 Approving an action plan for the disbursement of the money among the victims on a pro rata basis, a Bench of Mr Justice Shivaraj V. Patil and Mr Justice B. N. Srikrishna said the distribution should start from November 15 to 5,72,173 victims, whose claims had been finalised by the Welfare Commissioner. The court also approved the proposal of the commissioner to keep aside Rs 60 crore for payment to those whose claims were yet to be settled. The court was informed by victims' counsel, S. Murlidhar, that about 11,000 claims had yet to be finalised. The leakage of a deadly gas in Bhopal on the December 2 night in 1984 had resulted in the death of nearly 15,000 persons. |
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SC
rejects private plea in Cauvery dispute New Delhi, October 26 The tribunal had passed three orders about the inspection of the water level in Karnataka reservoirs in the long-standing dispute between the two states on sharing of the Cauvery waters. A Bench of Ms Justice Ruma Pal and Mr Justice Arun Kumar dismissed the petition filed by a Bangalore-based NGO, Gandhi Sahitya Sangh Trust (GSST), saying that a private party had no locus standi in the matter when the Karnataka Government had no objection to the tribunal's orders. |
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SAARC conference to focus on media issues New Delhi, October 26 The two-day conference being inaugurated by Information and Broadcasting Minister S. Jaipal Reddy would consider a proposal to set up a SAARC-recognised regional media forum and a discussion paper by Bangladesh for setting up a SAARC Media Development Fund.
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