Tuesday, August 25, 1998

Malpa landslides man-made?

ALMORA, Aug 24 (PTI) — Massive deforestation caused by the timber mafia, antiquated mapping systems and poor maintenance of roads in the region may have been responsible for the recent landslides in the hills of Uttar Pradesh which reportedly claimed 200 lives, officials and activists say.

While the authorities maintain that no precautionary measure could have been taken to prevent natural calamities like the landslides, those familiar with the region’s ecology insist that landslides are the result of years of indiscriminate deforestation in the Himalayas.

“Landslides can never be predicted. Nobody can really see it coming. The Malpa disaster may not have been man-made, but one cannot surely ignore the fact that there has been massive deforestation in the Himalayas in recent times. Areas which used to be covered by lush green forests till a decade ago, are now barren”, says Director General of Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) Gautam Kaul.

“There has been large-scale felling of precious trees in the region by the timber mafia. The mafia has always remained very low-profile so their role has never been really taken as a factor. But their shadow operations have been responsible for depriving villagers in the hills of even their supply of firewood”, says Sudarshan Sah, an environmentalist.

“For the past so many years, we have been campaigning for the protection of the environment in the region. But nobody really bothered to heed to our warning. Now that a tragedy of such a magnitude has occurred. May be the authorities will wake up”, he says.

“The Kali is full of mud water — caused by the soil erosion in the hills. This river used to be totally clean till a few years ago”, says Mr Kaul, who supervised the initial search and rescue operations in the worst-affected Malpa village in Pithoragarh district.

According to him, the maps of the region are antiquated. No effort has been made in recent times to update them. Moreover, the nature of traffic in the region has also undergone drastic change in the past few years.

“The tracks and other roads which are on the route taken by Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrims are very poorly maintained.

“Nobody has given a thought to the methods followed during road construction in the region. Blasting of dynamites for making roads is a 70-year-old technique. Perhaps lack of funds has prevented the government from adopting modern techniques for the purpose”, says Mr Kaul.

Blasts rip apart the face of the hills, bringing down boulders”, he adds.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh has already announced two plans, including a Rs 350-crore World Bank-aided project to prevent such calamities in the future.

However, Commissioner of Bareilly Dipak Singhal says: “Landslides are a natural phenomenon. They can never be predicted nor can any precautionary measure be taken to prevent them”.

HP for CBI probe against Virbhadra
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 24 — The Himachal Government today recommended to the Centre the instituting of a CBI probe into allegations of misuse of office and other financial charges against former Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh.

Announcing this here today Himachal Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal said the 41 charges listed by HVC president Sukh Ram was handed over by him to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee this morning.

He said for a long time the HVC, an ally of the BJP in the state, had been demanding that the charges be investigated by the CBI and prepared a charge sheet against Mr Virbhadra Singh.

“Today, the state government submitted the charges to the Prime Minister and asked him that in view of the serious charges, a CBI probe should be ordered,” Mr Dhumal said. He said the Centre would peruse the charges before arriving at a decision.

Among those present at the press conference were Mr Shanta Kumar, MP, BJP vice-president Krishan Lal Sharma, MP, and Mr Sukh Ram, MLA.

Mr Sukh Ram also met the Prime Minister separately.

Mr Dhumal, whose government completed five months in office today, said the state had demanded a Rs 1000 crore outright grant/long-term loan to tide over the financial problems.

Criticising the previous Congress regime for financial mismanagement, he said, the Virbhadra Singh Government had borrowed massive sums whose interest liability was Rs 650 crore each year.

In view of the militant strikes, Mr Dhumal said the state had demanded four ITBP battalions in addition to the existing deployment in the Chamba region, bordering Jammu and Kashmir.

Asked whether the militant strikes in Chamba had affected the development work, Mr Dhumal said the state government had rather speeded up activity and provided protection to the workers.

Later, Mr Sukh Ram listed some of the charges against Mr Virbhadra Singh. The previous government, he charged, had raised loans at a high rate of interest and paid Rs 10 crore as commission to parties in Delhi and Mumbai. The commission rate was higher than the 11 per cent norm set by the RBI, he claimed.

In another case, he alleged former Chief Minister’s relatives had been paid Rs 6 crore compensation for land acquired by the Nathpa-Jhakri Power Corporation whereas the land title was with the state government.

3-judge Bench to hear Rajiv case on Sept 15

NEW DELHI, Aug 24 (PTI) — Hearing on the death reference of 26 persons convicted in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and their appeals against conviction will begin on September 15 before a three-Judge Bench of the Supreme Court.

This direction was given today by a Bench, comprising Chief Justice M.M. Punchhi, Mr Justice M. Srinivasan and Mr Justice S. Rajendra Babu, which refused prosecution plea to defer the matter for eight weeks.

“Hearing in the matter should begin as early as possible as 26 convicts are involved,” the Bench said.

Additional Solicitor-General Altaf Ahmed, appearing for the prosecution, said it would be inappropriate to fix the matter before a three-Judge Bench as formalities to verify the translation of 92 volumes of record from the special court at Chennai from Tamil to English would take some more time.

However, the Bench headed by the Chief Justice asked Mr Ahmed to approach the Bench fixed to hear the case if any further directions were required regarding the completion of formalities.

The Bench said, “We are keen that hearing in the case should begin as early as possible since a large number of convicts are involved.”

The Supreme Court on March 27 had stayed till “further orders” death sentences awarded by a designated Chennai TADA court in January this year on all 26 convicted of conspiracy in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case.

The accused were convicted after a six-year trial for conspiring against and killing former Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi and 14 others in a bomb explosion detonated by a human bomb, Dhanu, at an election rally in Sriperumbudur on May 21, 1991.

The trial of the accused was held at a high security court in Poonamalle and was based on meticulous investigations conducted by a Special Investigation Team (SIT) of the CBI headed by Mr D.R. Karthikeyan.

BJP on aggressive course
From Satish Misra
Tribune News Service

JAIPUR, Aug 24 — Uncertain of its immediate future, the Bharatiya Janata Party executive has decided to go on an aggressive campaign.

Plagued with problems of the coalition politics the BJP leadership blamed the Congress and the other opposition parties for all the ills and shortcomings faced by the country and the party.

The BJP president, Mr Kushabhau Thakre launched a scathing attack on the entire opposition. Mr Thakre devoted considerable time of his speech on the rapid convergence of anti-BJP political parties describing it as an “unholy alliance” in the making.

“Impatient for power and scornful towards the people’s verdict, these parties are trying to forge yet another unholy alliance — the only thing that binds them together is political opportunism of the worst kind”, Mr Thakre told the party executive which deliberated here for three days.

Crying hoarse on the “negativism” of the anti-BJP parties, Mr Thakre described the Congress, the Left and the rest of the opposition parties as “disruptionist forces” and “political opportunists”.

“We are witness to the strange spectacle of the CPM and the Congress discovering a natural ally in each other; of yesterday crusaders against corruption joining hands with some of the most venal politicians; of rank casteist and communal politics being legitimised under the garb of ‘secularism’”, the BJP president said.

The former party president and now the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani, went a step further and defended party stand on the opposition parties.

Mr Advani sought to make a fine distinction in the negativism of the past and the present. He said the negativism, which was followed by the opposition parties including the BJP, was the result of the overbearing political presence of the Congress in the country. But now since there are two nationalist parties in the country,there was no scope of negativism now, he said.

The deliberations at the executive meeting appeared to be more of an opposition party than that of a ruling party, observers said. The language and the content of the leaders’ speeches and of the official statements lacked the depth and seriousness normally expected of a responsible ruling party, they pointed out.

Faced with a spectre of a possible poor performance of the BJP in the coming Assembly elections in Rajasthan, Delhi and probably in Madhya Pradesh also, the BJP leadership has asked its state governments to take popular steps to turn the electoral tide in their favour.

Another factor which appears to have cramped its style of functioning is leading the coalition government.

While in their public pronouncements party leaders put a brave face but in private they plead their helplessness because of the fractured mandate.

Neither the nuclear tests of May 11 and 13 in Pokhran nor the historic Cauvery accord, referred to by Mr Vajpayee in his speech, evoked any response.

The BJP, possibly burdened by the responsibility of governance, appears to be groping for a path.

My last show in Delhi: Jagjit

NEW DELHI, Aug 24 (PTI) — Ghazal maestro Jagjit Singh has accused the Delhi police of manhandling a volunteer shortly before his concert here yesterday.

“This is my last concert in Delhi.” Jagjit said here while intervening during his concert at a jampacked Siri Fort Auditorium, charging the police with manhandling one of his volunteers.

“I saw my dead son in that boy’s face and today the police has manhandled him to such an extent that he had to be hospitalised. Jagjit said, referring to a worker of the Avalanche a cultural organisation, which organised the concert.

Jagjit was in the Capital in connection with a live concert and release of his new album, “Silsilay”.

The police denied manhandling any of Jagjit’s associates saying, “There was more crowd than usual outside the main entry to the auditorium premises and we merely tried to control them.”

Additional DCP (South) R.S. Ghuman claimed cops were “very patient” in spite of people turning unruly.

Sukhoi declared fully operational
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Aug 24 — The top-of-the-line Sukhoi-30 multi-role warplanes have been declared “fully operational” after the Russian-made aircraft took part extensively in major combat evaluation exercises.

Air Chief Marshal Satish Kumar Sareen during his visit to Pune last week himself flew a SU-30 of the Hawk squadron in an air defence combat evaluation mission. He had commanded the squadron as a Wing Commander in the 1970s.

According to an IAF spokesman, a standard operating procedure for exploiting the exceptional operating capabilities of the the aircraft in its air superiority role was evolved for the purpose.

The air chief, who is also the Commodore Commandant of the SU-30 squadron, during his recent two-day visit expressed satisfaction at the achievements of engineers and technicians in meeting the challenges of absorbing the quantum technological leap from MIG-21 bis to the SU-30s within a record time period.

Bad weather hits rescue work in UP

PITHORAGARH, Aug 24 (PTI) — Hostile weather conditions have hit search and rescue operation in the landslide-hit Malpa region of Uttar Pradesh where more than 200 persons, including 60 Kailash-Mansarovar pilgrims, were killed last week, officials said today.

The operation, codenamed 'white horse' and commandeered from the Central Command in Lucknow, had gained momentum yesterday following improvement in weather conditions but had to be slowed down due to incessant rain and thick fog since early this morning, they said.

Identification of bodies recovered so far had also been difficult due to their highly decomposed state.

The in charge of 'white horse' Maj-Gen A.R. Mukherjee said in Lucknow that lifting of bodies from the region had also been stopped since last night due to inclement weather.

Till yesterday, 26 bodies were airlifted by IAF choppers from Malpa to Dharchula, while another 24, extricated from the heaps of mud and boulders, were still at the disaster site, Maj-Gen Mukherjee said.

Officials said IAF choppers failed to land at the Gunji helipad for the third consecutive day today to bring other batches of pilgrims stranded beyond Malpa.

In a boost to the rescue operations, the Army has successfully constructed a foot track to Malpa, he said, adding the ground staff had been carrying on the relief work.

The Pithoragarh Commissioner, Ms Jayati Chandra, said all bodies recovered till now had been shifted only to Dharchula.

She said the entire rescue operation was now being handled by Army and the Indo-Tibetan Border Police (ITBP).

More than 60 relatives of pilgrims feared dead had been camping at Dharchula for the past two days.

"No decision has yet been taken on the shifting of bodies out of Dharchula keeping in mind their advanced decomposed state," local officials said.

Jaya will continue support: Thakre

AHMEDABAD, Aug 24 (PTI) — BJP President Kushabhau Thakre today expressed confidence that AIADMK leader Jayalalitha would not withdraw support to the BJP-led government at the Centre.

The coalition partners should discuss mutual matters at the coordination committee meeting and grievances, if any, should not be aired publicly, he told newspersons.

Replying to a question on corruption charges made by Ms Jayalalitha against the Prime Minister’s office, he said "we have asked for proof".

He ruled out possibility of mid-term poll in the country.

On the question of imposition of President’s rule in Bihar, Mr Thakre said BJP believed that the Rabri Devi government had no right to continue in power and even other opposition parties in the state, including the CPI and the Samata Party, were in favour of President’s rule there.

However, the decision to impose central rule in the state as well as the use of Article 356 rested with the Centre, he added.

Mr Thakre said the government would take steps to check inflation within two months. When asked about the sudden rise in prices of essential commodities, he said "today, we are facing this situation because of the wrong economic policies pursued by the Congress government under Mr Narasimha Rao".

He termed signing of the GATT agreement by the then government as ‘catastrophic’ and added that "we have to pay a price for it".

Besides, the unfavourable monsoon this year had also led to rise in prices, Mr Thakre said adding that many farmers committed suicide in Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Karnataka due to crop failure.

In Madhya Pradesh, the Congress government led by Mr Digvijay Singh was responsible for death of at least 19 farmers when they tried to highlight their plight to the state government, Mr Thakre alleged.

He said the BJP-led government at the Centre had presented a very balanced Budget keeping in mind the interests of all sections of society.

It had not ignored the farmers’ interests, Mr Thakre said adding that the rules of the existing insurance scheme for farmers had been simplified.

Mr Thakre said he personally believed that any government at the Centre or in the state should try to be self-reliant and should not be caught in the vortex of loans from international organisations.

On a question of the BJP government in Gujarat taking a loan from the Asian Development Bank, he said, the situation could not be changed overnight.

About the Cauvery water pact formulated by the Prime Minister, Mr Thakre said it was a historic development because the issue was pending for nearly 40 years. Even during the Congress rule, the imbroglio between Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu, defied solution, he added.

Replying to queries on the Sardar Sarovar Narmada project in Gujarat, the BJP leader said the issue was presently before the Supreme Court but expressed the hope that negotiations between the parties concerned would bear fruits.

Mr Thakre held the Congress government in Madhya Pradesh responsible for creating hurdles in the way of arriving at any solution in the matter relating to the Narmada project.

"The rehabilitation of the project-affected persons is an emotional issue and any decision over it should not be arbitrary", he added.

To a question on what was the country’s compulsion for going nuclear, the BJP president said "the security of the country cannot be given a secondary treatment".

The explosion was necessary since the neighbouring countries were stock-piling modern defence equipment, including nuclear weapons and missiles, he added.

When the security of India was being threatened by the developments in the neighbourhood, the modernisation of the defence forces was very important and it could not have come without a nuclear explosion, Mr Thakre said.

He, however, said India would not sign the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) in the present form because it was "discriminatory and biased" towards the nuclear weapon countries.

Replying to a question about the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Thakre said he had visited the border state recently and found some positive development there.

He said the people were fed up with terrorist activities and were helping security forces and added that the problem in Jammu and Kashmir was "creation of foreign mercenaries".

Scribes’ wage board hearing
NEW DELHI: The Manisana Singh Wage Board for employees of newspapers and news agencies on Monday started its state-level hearing before preparing the tentative proposals for wage revision in the newspaper industry. The wage board heard unions representing journalists and non-journalists on the first day of the three-day session when 13 unions, would plead their case. The final hearing is likely to be held next month in which all-India organisations would participate. — PTI

Guwahati airport renamed
GUWAHATI: The Borjhar airport here was on Sunday officially renamed Lokapriya Gopinath Bordoloi Airport. The Assam Governor, Lt-Gen S.K. Sinha (retd), recalled the contribution of Lokapriya in developing the state and urged the youth to emulate his ideals. Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta urged the Centre to hasten the process of converting it to an international airport and expressed satisfaction that the Centre had acceded to the request of the state government in renaming the airport after the freedom fighter. — PTI

50 lakh urban poor in plan
NEW DELHI: The government has targeted 50 lakh urban poor for poverty eradication by the end of 1999-2000 under the “Swaran Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojna”, official sources said here on Monday. They said the house-to-house survey had been completed in 317 towns and town-wise project reports had been prepared for 304 towns. Under the self-employment component 44,199 applications had been forwarded to banks, of which 10,628 cases were approved. — PTI

Lightning kills three
AMRAVATI: Three persons were killed and four injured when lightning struck in the district, about 35 km from here, police said on Monday. The three were identified as Sandeep (16), Vijay (16) and Sunil (18). The incident took place at Jamgaon village. The injured were admitted to a nearby hospital where the condition of a woman was stated to be serious. — PTI

40 hurt in train collision
GIRIDIH (Bihar): At least 40 passengers, including five Railway employees, were injured when a passenger and goods train collided at Maheshmunda station of Eastern Railway, official sources said. The passenger train was going to Giridih from Madhupur when the accident took place on Sunday night. Deputy Commissioner Sukhdeo Singh said. — PTI

Jitendra, Hema Malini honoured
CHENNAI: Hindi film star Jitendra and actress Hema Malini were bestowed with the ‘guest of honour’ awards instituted by Cinema Express at a function here on Sunday night. Over 40 others received awards in various categories from megastar Amitabh Bachchan at the function attended by prominent film personalities from the South and the Hindi film world. Sharath Kumar received the best actor award for Tamil films for his role in ‘Suryavamsham’. — PTI

Bandh in West Tripura
AGARTALA: Tension prevailed in two blocks of West Tripura district on Monday while normal life was hit by a CPM-sponsored bandh to protest the killing of three sportspersons by NLFT militants at Sadhupara, the police said. All educational institutions in the state were closed following a strike call by the Students Federation of India and the Tripura Tribal Union over the killings. — PTI