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False quake alarm triggers panic
Ancestral warning systems saved Andaman tribes
Scientists can’t sit and watch disasters happen: PM
Laloo announces free travel for tsunami victims
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Lighthouse on Indira Point survives
Notice to Mayawati, Centre on Kanshi Ram
Absconding Babbar Khalsa terrorist nabbed
Railway report blames Station masters
For neighbours he was a social activist
Cong, BJP condole Dixit’s death
National Rural Healthcare Mission constituted
Pepsi, Coke in legal soup over ‘dangerous’ contents
Curbs on nomination
processions Another denial
from Zahira
MP decides to wind up road transport corpn
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False quake alarm triggers panic
Warangal (Andhra Pradesh), January 3 Residents of ‘Labour Colony’ on the Warangal-Naramsampet Road were terror-stricken after the announcement over the public address system of a church and ran helter-skelter to take shelter in the churches in the area and stayed there till they were assured that the alarm was false. The quake alarm was sounded by a certain Father Joshi of one of the churches after a jeep with a public address system went around the area warning of an impending earthquake, queries revealed. Several hundreds of people then thronged the churches. He clarified that the church made the announcement in a sincere attempt to provide shelter to everyone in the area. The police said they were trying to trace who had raised the false alarm. People in the area said someone had done it over the telephone. Meanwhile, three persons were arrested for spreading rumours about impending tsunami waves in Chennai’s Marina beach area today, the police said. The police said they were found shouting to passers-by to run for their lives and that tidal waves were coming in. They were charged under IPC Sections 506(2) (threat to cause hurt), 336 (endangering others’ personal safety) and 341 (wrongful restraint). — PTI/UNI
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Ancestral warning systems saved Andaman tribes
Kolkata, January 3 “The tribals get wind of impending danger from biological warning signals like the cry of birds and change in the behavioural patterns of marine animals. They must have run to the forests for safety. No casualties have been reported among these five tribes,” ASI Director Dr V.R. Rao told PTI today. This has prompted the Anthropological Survey of India (ASI) to propose its immediate documentation to save coastal populations from similar disasters in future. His team in the badly-hit islands reported the well-being of all five aborigines tribes — Jarawas, Onges, Shompens, Sentenelese and Great Andamanese. Early warning systems developed by their forefathers and adapted successfully by the tribals must have sent the first alarm signals and given them time to run for safety, he said. “We have proposed to the Centre to take up immediate documentation of these systems and geomorphological changes triggered by the tsunami since these would be fresh in the memory of the tribals now,” Mr Rao said. “We have no confirmed reports on the number of casualties among Nicobarese and would not like to hazard a guess. Since the epicentre of the earthquake was closer to the Nicobar island, the Nicobarese, which are the most populated among the tribes (about 30,000), have been hit,” Mr Rao said. The Shompens, with a population of about 200, were the only Mongoloid tribe in the region while the rest were Negroids and had escaped the watery onslaught as they lived in the higher forest areas. “The forest areas of both Jarawas and Shompens are intact,” he added. According to the latest census figures, the Jarawas number about 270, the Onges about 100 and the Great Andamanese around 45. — PTI
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Amritapuri math offers Rs 100 cr
Amritapuri, (Kerala), January 3 Talking to newspersons at the headquarters of the spiritual leader here, Mata Amritanandamayi said her math would reconstruct all houses destroyed by the tsunami across Kerala, if the state government gave the permission. Amma, having followers which included leading scientists and running educational institutions across the globe, also offered to look into the possibility of setting up a centre of excellence aimed at research, specially in disaster management.
—UNI |
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Tsunami toll 9,479
New Delhi, January 3 According to a status report of the Home Ministry, Tamil Nadu accounted for maximum human casualty with 7,814 dead. Andaman and Nicobar Islands, which has reported 818 deaths so far, has the largest number of missing persons with 5,681 inhabitants still not accounted for, the report said.
— PTI |
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Chhattisgarh, K’taka to adopt villages
Chennai, January 3 The state government would be involved in the reconstruction of houses, providing basic needs like hospital, school and community centre in each of the villages proposed to be adopted, he told reporters here. Mr Singh, who met his Tamil Nadu counterpart Jayalalithaa and discussed with her matters relating to tsunami-affected areas, relief and rehabilitation, said his state had announced an emergency relief of Rs 7 crore. Bangalore: The Karnataka Government will take a decision at the next Cabinet meeting on adopting a few tsunami-ravaged villages in neighbouring affected states, Chief Minister N. Dharam Singh informed on Monday. Briefing newspersons after an all-party meeting to discuss the relief measures undertaken by the state government, he said the parties collectively suggested taking up relief works on a war footing by adopting some villages for providing basic amenities. — PTI, UNI
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Special TN package for teenaged girls
Chennai, January 3 Ms Jayalalithaa, who had already stated that the government would adopt orphaned children, said here that the disaster had left many girls in the 14-18 age group orphans. The government was determined to provide them a fresh lease of life. The girls would be accommodated in service centres to be set up in Nagapattinam and Kanniyakumari districts. Besides providing shelter, food and clothes, the government would help them continue their education, she said in a statement. To enable them to stand on their own feet, the government would give them training in modern technology, so that they could become self-employed, she said. Ms Jayalalithaa said just as Rs 5 lakh was being deposited in the names of orphaned children, which they could use after the age of 18, the government would deposit Rs 5 lakh in the names of these girls too. On maturity, they could use the deposits for starting employment or pursuing higher studies, she added. The Chief Minister also announced relief packages, including cash payment and free treatment, for those injured in the tsunami. While those who had lost their eyesight and limbs would be given Rs 25,000 each and free medical treatment in government hospitals. Others who were in-patients for more than a week would be given Rs 5,000 each, she added. — UNI |
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Chennai, January 3 In an official press statement here, she said an amount of Rs 200 per month would be paid to such people, identified under the state government’s old-age pension scheme and the pension scheme for the handicapped without any family support. She also announced that in addition, they would be provided with a free nutritious meal every day, 2 kg of rice every month and 4 kg of rice every month for those who were not beneficiaries under the nutritious noon meal scheme. — UNI
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Scientists can’t sit and watch disasters happen: PM
Ahmedabad, January 3 Inaugurating the 92nd session of the Indian Science Congress here, he said science and technology must play a greater role in the country’s strategy to address the problems of mitigation and management of the impact of natural disasters. “We must enhance our predictive capability and preparedness for meeting emergencies arising from floods, cyclones, earthquakes, droughts, landslides and avalanches,” he said. “Confronted by the colossal human tragedies wreaked on thousands of people in our part of the world by the tsunami waves triggered by an earthquake in Andaman sea, the question has been asked if we could have made better use of modern science and technology to alleviate, if not prevent, human suffering,” he said. While the government is prepared to fund the needed research and investment in required technologies, “we cannot reinvent the wheel nor be oblivious of the fact that there are contending claims on our limited resources,” he said. — PTI, UNI
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Laloo announces free travel for tsunami victims
Patna, January 3 The Railways would also transport relief materials donated by voluntary organisations and individuals for the calamity-stricken people free of freight charges, he declared. The Indian Railways had announced a contribution of Rs 25 crore towards the Prime Minister’s Calamity Contingency Fund of which an amount of Rs 15 crore had been paid. A cheque for the remaining Rs 10 crore would be handed over to the Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, this evening, he added. Meanwhile, Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi today left for New Delhi where she would hand over a cheque for Rs 10 crore to the Prime Minister as contribution from the state towards relief of tsunami victims, officials here said.
— UNI |
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Lighthouse on Indira Point survives
New Delhi, January 3 Though the tip has been separated from Cambell Bay in Great Nicobar Island, and all structures have been destroyed, the lighthouse is just partly submerged, Coast Guard Director-General Vice-Admiral Arun Kumar Singh told reporters today while showing the photograph of the lighthouse. Meanwhile, another temblor hit the Andaman Islands today, taking the total number of aftershocks to 94 in the wake of December 26 high-magnitude earthquake near Sumatra. — UNI
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Notice to Mayawati, Centre on Kanshi Ram
New Delhi, January 3 After failing to secure a favourable order from the Delhi High Court in this regard, Mr Kanshi Ram's 93-year-old mother Bishan Kaur and brother Dalbara Singh had knocked the doors of the Supreme Court last month. While taking up their petition today, a Bench of Mr Justice N. Santosh Hegde and Mr Justice S. B. Sinha said the notices issued by the court would be strictly confined to the limited prayer of "free access" to the ailing leader and better medical treatment to him as sought by the petitioners. The Court made it clear that it would not go beyond these aspects, while asking Ms Mayawati and the Union Health Ministry to submit their replies within two weeks. Ms Bishan Kaur and Mr Dalbara Singh had accused Ms Mayawati of not allowing them to meet the ailing leader. They also alleged that Mr Kanshi Ram, who was now not able to communicate properly, was being given "heavy doses" of medicines which had caused more harm to his health. Senior advocate Gopal Subramaniam, appearing for the petitioners, said Ms Bishan Kaur was a 93-year-old lady longing to meet his ailing son but was being denied access to him by BSP leader Mayawati. The High Court had rejected their petition after a report of a "commission" appointed by it to look into the matter which said that Kanshi Ram was staying at the residence of Mayawati at his free will. But Ms Bishan Kaur and Mr Dalbara Singh, in their special leave petition (SLP) moved in the Supreme Court, said the "court commission" was not a proper body to evaluate the medical requirements of the ailing leader and sought his examination by a team of senior doctors from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).
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Absconding Babbar Khalsa terrorist nabbed
New Delhi, January 3 The accused identified as Prem Pal Singh (48), resident of Fatehgarh Saheb, Punjab managed to escape to Thailand while he was out on parole and then lived illegally in East Germany, London and New York till the year 2003. During his stay in the United States, the accused had committed several crimes and was listed as a wanted criminal by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). Acting on a secret information that an active member of the Babbar Khalsa was trying to make a forged passport, a special team under the supervision of Assistant Commissioner of Police (Operations), south-west district, R P Meena, managed to overpower him near the passport office in Bhikaji Cama Place. During interrogation, he revealed that he worked for the Pepsu Road Corporation and during that period he came into contact with Babbar Khalsa terrorists Anoop Singh, Sukhdev Singh and Balbir Singh through his colleague Karnail Singh. |
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Railway report blames Station masters
New Delhi, January 3 Chief Commissioner of Railway Safety G P Garg, in the preliminary report, following a statutory inquiry into the accident, has held that the accident was caused due to the “blunder” by the station masters. A Railway spokesman said the commissioner, Railway safety, had recommended that the use of VHF (very high frequency) sets presently installed at the stations, which were accessible to many railway officials, should be forbidden for obtaining “line clear” signal for trains. The other recommendations include expediting the provision of voice recorder in the Firozpur control office, preparing a route plan for underground cables laid along the track and providing cable markers at specified intervals. The spokesman said the preliminary report was being considered by the government. The accident had occurred on December 14 between the Ahmedabad-bound Jammu Tawi Express and a local train. |
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For neighbours he was a social activist
Gurgaon, January 3 Dixit, who used to stay here at his house in DLF, Phase-I, had shifted to Delhi after he took up the assignment of the Adviser. He was actively associated with the Society for Urban Regeneration of Gurgaon (SURGE), a voluntary organisation floated by a section of corporate representatives and residents of Gurgaon, and worked as its Chairman. He, however, gave up the post after he joined the Congress on grounds that he was part of a political organisation. A former executive secretary of SURGE, Wing Cmdr Baldev Sharma (retd), remembers Dixit as a social activist. He had reformatory zeal and actively contributed to the policies of SURGE, he says. He once took to the streets along with other residents of the DLF City area in protest against erratic supply of power and water before he joined the Congress. A resident remembers Dixit as both a scare for the local officialdom and a source of succour for the common residents. Although Dixit had shifted to his official residence in the Capital, he used to visit his house frequently. In fact the last time he visited his house was last evening. He had come to collect his mails from the security guard posted outside his residence. The security guard remembers him as a down-to-earth person as he used to come down all the way from Delhi just to collect his mails even though he was holding such a powerful post.
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Cong, BJP condole Dixit’s death New Delhi, January 3 Congress President Sonia Gandhi had earlier expressed her deep sense of shock over the death of J.N. Dixit. She visited his home and consoled the bereaved family. BJP President L.K. Advani described J.N. Dixit as a learned man and said India had lost an eminent diplomat who served the country in many foreign policy assignments with distinction. “Even after his retirement more than a decade ago, he remained an active participant in the debate on foreign policy, especially India’s neighbourhood policy, and national security,” he said.
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Dixit — a diplomat par excellence
Tribune News Service
New Delhi, January 3 J.N. Dixit rose like a phoenix and his competence was recognised and rewarded a decade after his superannuation in 1994, when he was made the National Security Advisor, after the UPA government assumed office in May last. He was one of the few surviving diplomats from the Nehruvian era who strongly favoured dynamic relations with the United States and Israel. It was during his tenure as the Foreign Secretary that New Delhi established full diplomatic relations with Tel Aviv. Obviously, his imprint on this historic decision of the Government of India was unmistakable. Born in Madras on January 8, 1936, he joined the foreign service in 1958. He served in various capacities in Chile, Mexico, Japan, Australia and headed Indian mission in Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Afghanistan. He was India's first High Commissioner to Dhaka after Bangladesh came into being. Dixit was very popular among journalists and as the MEA's spokesman between 1978 and 1982, he was India's perfect show window to the world. He was known for his pithy and to-the-point briefings to journalists. He served as India's Ambassador to Afghanistan during the post-Soviet Union invasion period between 1982 and 1985. He was India's High Commissioner in Colombo in 1987 when New Delhi signed an accord with Sri Lanka under which Indian Peacekeeping Force (IPKF) was sent to the island nation. The test by fire for Mr Dixit's diplomatic skills came from April 1989 to November 1991 when he was India's High Commissioner to Pakistan. This was the time when Pakistan, in pursuance of its K-2 (Khalistan-Kashmir) policy, had opened up the second proxy war front in Kashmir. He represented India at the UN General Assembly, Security Council, UNIDO, UNESCO, IAEA, ILO and Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) meetings. Though his personal convictions were much different from the BJP ideology, such was his professional competence that even the Vajpayee government could not ignore him and he was made a member of the first National Security Advisory Board (NSAB) set up after the Pokhran-II nuclear tests. He joined the Congress when the party was down in the dumps. It was the Gujarat carnage which shook him to the core and compelled him to join the Congress. Since 2003, Dixit had been closely associated with the Congress party's Foreign Affairs Cell. As its Vice-Chairman, he played an active role in drafting the party's pre-poll paper on foreign policy, defence and national security. He received his education in unfancied institutions here like Harcourt Butler School and Delhi College. He studied International Relations at the School of International Studies before it became a part of Jawaharlal Nehru University. He was a linguist and was fluent in several languages like Malayalam (his mother tongue), Tamil, Urdu, Bengali, Punjabi and Marathi, apart from Hindi, English and Spanish. Not only a voracious reader, Dixit was a prolific writer and author. Among his published books are — “Anatomy of a flawed Inheritance; a survey of Indo-Pak Relations 1970-94”, “Assignment Colombo; Indo-Sri Lanka Relation form 1985-1989”, “Across Borders; A survey of 50 years of India's foreign Policy”, “Liberation and Beyond; Indo-Bangladesh Relations 1971-99" and "An Afghan Diary - Zahir Shah to Taliban". He was a visiting Professor to the international Universities of Hull, Manchester, Oxford, Heidelburg, La Trobe, Melbourne, the University of Perth, the School of Oriental and African Studies, London and University of Western Cape, South Africa.
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Amarinder, Kidwai mourn
Chandigarh, January 3 He died of a heart attack at New Delhi this morning. In a condolence message, the Chief Minister said Mr Dixit was an able administrator, an accomplished diplomat and an acknowledged expert on Indo-Pak ties. He was also a prolific author and columnist on international and regional affairs. Haryana Governor A.R. Kidwai has mourned the demise of National Security Advisor J.N. Dixit. Conveying his condolences to the bereaved family, Dr Kidwai described him as an able and competent diplomat who handled all assignments in his distinguished career with tact and finesse. |
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National Rural Healthcare Mission constituted Ahmedabad, January 3 Inaugurating the 92nd Indian Science Congress here, he said the outcome could be shared by a vast majority of developing countries, including those in the sub-Sahara region. He assured of all possible financial help from the government. He also announced the formation of Scientific Advisory Council, headed by Prof C.N.R. Rao, former Director of the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Sciences, (IISc), to channelise the contribution of the Indian scientists for the benefit of society. He recalled that the Indian National Science Academy has conducted a study that highlighted the absence of scientific temper in the country. Hardly three per cent of school students aspire to be scientists, the study has found. On the contrary, he said all 19 young boys and girls from India, who participated in the Olympiad recently, have won some award or the other. ‘’But past record shows that our former Olympians have not pursued science as a career later in life. This trend must be reversed,’’ he said. There was a need to set up more institutes in the country on the lines of IISc in Bangalore, he added. —UNI
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Pepsi, Coke in legal soup over ‘dangerous’ contents
New Delhi, January 3 A Bench of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Mr Justice G.P. Mathur at this stage issued the notice to the Union Government only, though the public interest litigation (PIL) raising the issue had named Coca Cola India and Pepsi Co India Ltd also as parties, stating that the main prayers in the petition were only aimed against the Centre. The petition filed by the Centre for Public Interest Litigation (CPIL), a private body dealing with the public interest matters, claimed that the carbonated soft drinks contained contents like sugar, caffeine, various acids, preservatives, ethyl glycol, carbon dioxide and colouring and flavouring agents for which no standard had been fixed. Senior advocate Anil Diwan, appearing for the CPIL, contended that consumption of these materials were hazardous for human, specially children. Seeking setting up of an expert committee to evaluate the harmful effect of these ingredients on human health, the petitioner said the Union Health Ministry, while amending the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Rules after Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) report on the “presence of pesticides” in the soft drinks, had failed to take note of the presence of other “dangerous” materials in them. The petitioner also sought setting up of a regulatory body for soft drinks and make it mandatory for their manufacturers to disclose the exact nature of the contents and the quantity on the labels of the packaging, including appropriate warning about their harmful effects on human health. The petition further wanted to have a proper check on the “misleading advertisements” by soft drinks companies about their products.
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Curbs on nomination
processions New Delhi, January 3 “During the forthcoming elections not more than three vehicles will be allowed to come within 100 m of returning officer’s/assistant returning officer’s office at the time of nomination,” the poll panel said after briefing the observers who would be deployed in Haryana, Bihar and Jharkhand for the next month assembly poll. The poll panel has issued directions that at the time of nominations only candidates, their proposers as prescribed by the law and four others be allowed to enter office of returning officer/assistant returning officer. The meeting by Mr T. S. Krishna Murthy, Chief Election Commissioner, Mr B.B. Tandon and Mr N. Gopalaswami, Election Commissioners, asked the observers to make sure that the affidavits filed by the candidates at the time of nomination detailing convictions, cases pending in courts, movable/immovable assets, qualifications were displayed and made available for public scrutiny without any loss of time. |
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Another denial
from Zahira
New Delhi, January 3 Zahira’s latest affidavit came in response to the Supreme Court notice to her on an application filed by Teesta Setalvad seeking CBI probe into her recent shift of stand in the Bakery case accusing the social activist of pressurizing her to implicate persons in the case. Stopping short of accusing Setalvad of filing a forged affidavit on her behalf, Zahira, through her counsel D.K. Garg, said “all these matters contain an affidavit supposed to have been filed by me in September 2003. “I do not recall having made any such affidavit. It does not contain any evidence of my having sworn it as it does not bear my signature,”
— PTI |
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MP decides to wind up road transport corpn
Bhopal, January 3 The MPSRTC has a fleet strength of 1700, but only a little over half of it fully functional. The present staff strength is estimated at 11,500. The corporation incurs a monthly loss of Rs 5 crore, the accumulated losses having crossed Rs 800 crore. |
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