Sunday, July 26, 1998
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George reverses decision on property
for Navy NEW DELHI, July 25 — Defence Minister George Fernandes has reversed his earlier decision on the Naval Headquarters wanting to acquire a property in Mumbai, which would cost Rs 300 crore. Gandhi’s samadhi to be replaced NEW DELHI, July 25 — The Central Public Works Department is planning to replace the entire black granite structure of the Gandhi samadhi after it was damaged by a youth yesterday. |
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NHRC restores missing girl to father NEW DELHI, July 25 — The investigation wing of the National Human Rights Commission has traced a 12-year-old girl, reported missing from her house in Uttar Pradesh since July 8 last year.
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No threat to govt, says Thakre NEW DELHI, July 25 — Ruling out any immediate threat to the Vajpayee government at the Centre, BJP president Kushabhau Thakre exhorted the women’s wing of the party to take the issue of the women’s reservation Bill to the people. G.D. Birla Award for two NEW DELHI, July 25 — Vice-President Krishan Kant today presented the G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research for 1997 to Prof Biman Bagchi of the Indian Institute of Science and the Shankar Puraskar for 1996 to Mr Brij Mohan Pande, a former director of the Archaeological Survey of India. Lok Shakti secretary resigns NEW DELHI, July 25 — Mr Virendar Mohan Trehan, national secretary of the Lok Shakti, has resigned from the party.  |
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| George reverses decision Property to be acquired for Navy From Girja Shankar Kaura Tribune News Service NEW DELHI, July 25 — Defence Minister, George Fernandes has reversed his earlier decision on Naval Headquarters wanting to acquire a property in Mumbai, which would cost the exchequer about Rs 300 crore. Mr George Fernandes changed his earlier decision within one month of rejecting the initial proposal, which would now enable Naval Headquarters to purchase 33 flats in Dhanraj Mahal, Apollo Bunder, near Gateway of India, at a steep cost to the exchequer. The Defence Ministry bureaucracy is also fuming over the decision as it felt there could have been cheaper alternatives available for the Navy to acquire. While the Navy in its proposal said that acquisition of the flats was imperative for the security, the Director-General of Defence Estates (DGDE) in its report pointed out that the cost of the flats, being quoted, was much exaggerated. This specially keeping in mind the recent acquisition by the Coast Guards where each flat was bought at an approximate cost of Rs 25 lakh. Naval Headquarters had proposed to buy 33 flats in Dhanraj Mahal for its officers as it was facing an acute shortage of accommodation, specially after it had been forced to dehire this very property by a court ruling last year. The Supreme Court in its ruling had asked the Naval authorities to either vacate or purchase the flats which had been under its possession for a long time. Mr George Fernandes was however, not convinced by the proposal, which had been cleared in principle by the former Defence Minister, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. He rejected the proposal vide letter No. WK/0424/8/W-II/NHQ/ 11(2)94/D(N.III) dated June 19, 1998. But the turnabout came within a month and vide another ID No. 461/NE dated July 10, 1998, he cancelled his earlier decision. The letter addressed to the Chief of Naval Staff clearly granted permission for the purchase of the property. The approval in principle, incidentally, was also obtained without Cabinet clearance, which was mandatory for every financial deal worth more than Rs 50 crore. |After taking charge as Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes went through the proposal again and not being convinced called for a report from the Mumbai office of the DGDE. The report pointed out that the acquisition of the 33 flats would cost anywhere in the region of Rs 300 crore. It said with this cost in view the proposal was economically unviable. This led to Mr George Fernandes overruling the decision of the former Defence Minister. Naval Headquarters then reportedly gave another representation arguing that acquisition of these flats was imperative from the security point of view as the building was overlooking the Naval Dockyard. The proposal said due to this reason the flats must remain in possession of the Naval authorities. The Chief of Naval Staff, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, also wrote a brief note to the Defence Minister refuting the DGDE cost estimate and said it was highly exaggerated. The actual cost was much lower. Following this Mr George Fernandes overruled his earlier decision and granted permission for the acquisition of 33 flats in Dhanraj Mahal. |
| NHRC restores missing girl to
father Tribune News Service NEW DELHI, July 25 — The investigation wing of the National Human Rights Commission has traced a 12-year-old-girl, reported missing from her house in Sultanpur district in Uttar Pradesh since July 8 last year. The girl, reportedly kidnapped from her house by certain unidentified persons, was traced in Mumbai in May in the safe custody of a family. She was restored to her father the same day. Taking a serious cognizance of the complaint made by the girl’s father, the NHRC has drawn the attention of the Director-General of UP Police to the "gross negligence and indifference" of the Station House Officer (SHO) of Jagdishpur who refused to register a complaint of kidnapping. The Commission has requested the UP Police to entrust the inquiry of the case to a senior officer. Keeping in view the petitioner’s plea for safety of life and property, the Commission has asked the UP Police to consider the threat perception of the family and send a report. In a letter to the NHRC, the girl’s father had said that he suspected the involvement of his tenant, Mohd. Sami, in the kidnapping. According to the Commission, a tip-off by the girl’s father enabled the NHRC team and the Mumbai police trace the girl in the house of one Jamil Ahmed in Sakinaka. During interrogation, Jamil Ahmed, a widower, reportedly told the NHRC officer that he spotted the girl in a distraught condition while travelling from Lucknow to Bombay. Concerned about her safety, he brought her home and decided to provide her care and shelter along with his 11 children. |
| Gandhi’s samadhi to be
replaced Tribune News Service NEW DELHI, July 25 — The Central Public Works Department (CPWD) is planning to replace the entire black granite structure of the Gandhi samadhi after it was damaged by an unemployed youth yesterday. However, as Independence Day and Gandhi Jayanti are approaching, the CPWD has decided to hide the damaged corner by undertaking temporary repairs with a layer of granite 20 mm thick all over the samadhi. The granite samadhi is made of nine 2.5 feet thick granite blocks, each weighing 2 tonnes, which were quarried in Madurai in Tamil Nadu. The stones will now have to be brought either from Madurai or Bangalore. As the stones may weigh over 18 tonnes, we will have to break gates to allow cranes to bring the huge blocks inside, a junior engineer said. The initial plan to reverse the damaged block was abandoned since its first architect had cautioned that the cement might not allow the stone to come out without damage. Meanwhile, employees at the samadhi have demanded that wrought iron grills be constructed. PTI adds: A Delhi court has remanded the youth, who allegedly damaged Mahatma Gandhi’s samadhi yesterday, to a 14-day judicial custody. Raj Ballabh, who was sentenced on similar charges in December, was sent to custody by Metropolitan Magistrate Ravindra Dudeja till August 7. |
| Robbers have field day in Delhi From Syed Ali Ahmed NEW DELHI, July 25 - Several incidents of robbery were reported since the last 24 hours despite the arrest of members of the Chhota Nawab gang of Haryana alleged to be involved in at least 23 cases of robbery in the capital. Most of the cases of robbery took place in the broad daylight even though the police errected barricades at all crossings and important places. A 29-year-old businessman was reportedly robbed of cash and valuables worth Rs 60,000 while he was on his way to home in South Delhi. In a separate incident, a Kanpur- based businessman was duped of Rs 1 lakh within hours of his arriving in Delhi and in Narela three youths snatched Rs 5000 from an attendent of a petrol station yesterday. In another incident, Mr Mohammad Saifullah, a lawyer in Tis Hazari courts was robbed by two unidentified youths of Rs 3000 and his wrist watch at Lariat park in East Delhi last evening. A newspaper vendor, Jaikishan Gel, was robbed of Rs 750 by three unidentified persons in the Seelampur area of North East Delhi. However, the Delhi Police Commissioner, Mr V.N. Singh claimed that Chhota Nawab, leader of the Chhota Nawab gang which operated in Haryana, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh has been arrested along with his three accomplices, Salem,Nawab and Mohd. Rizwan, today from Samaipur Badly in North-west Delhi. The gang was involved in 23 robberies, 11 murders, one attempt to murder and one abduction case. One China made revolver and two country-made revolvers were recovered from their possession, the police said. Three other gangs alleged to be involved in the recent spate of robberies in the capital are still at large. Although , the gangs have been identified , the police declined to disclose their identities and only said that the police was on the right track and they would be nabbed very soon. Mr Singh said during June and July, cases of robbery have risen in comparison to last year. In 1997 till July the number of reported cases were 32760 and this year it is 30268. A total of 431 cases were registered this year. Of these 245 have been worked out. “It is a good result”, the commissioner said. PTI: Mr V.N. Singh denied any alarming spurt in crimes in the capital ‘barring few exceptions’ and attributed the rise in reported incidents to free and fair registration of cases. “Few bad incidents have taken place and it has affected the psyche of the people, but the rise is neither abnormal nor alarming,” Mr Singh told reporters here. “Quoting from last year’s figures, Mr Singh claimed that there was an overall decline in cases registered under the Indian penal code in the first five months of 1998 “Excepting a rise in robberies” in June and July. Even with regard to the rise in incidents of robbery, he attributed it to free and fair registration of cases. “In 13 cases, where we felt the cases were not properly drafted, we ourselves changed the relevant sections from theft to robbery”, the police chief said. Mr Singh expressed satisfaction at the robbery workout rate of 57 per cent claiming 245 out of the 431 robberies committed last year were worked out. While pointing out that the responsibility of 1.63 crore strong Delhi lay with only 20,000 policemen attached to police stations Mr Singh, however, said, “I do not think police can ever be satisfied. I would like the situation to improve”. |
| No threat to govt, says Thakre Tribune News Service NEW DELHI, July 25 — Ruling out any immediate threat to the Vajpayee government at the Centre, the Bharatiya Janata Party president, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, exhorted the women’s wing of the party to take the issue of the women’s reservation Bill to the people in the coming assembly elections in Rajasthan, Delhi, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram. In conversation with newspersons after addressing the party’s Mahila Morcha executive committee meeting, the BJP president criticised the behaviour of some of the political parties, which he termed as “undemocratic” for stalling the Women’s reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament. Mr Thakre admitted that the BJP-led coalition government continued to face some problems but they were not worrisome. He hoped that these would be resolved soon. He said that if the Congress had been in a position to form a government, it would have done it by now. Earlier, addressing the Mahila Morcha executive, Mr Thakre assured them that the women’s Bill would be passed by Parliament. However, he declined to give any specific date for its passage. |
| G.D. Birla Award for two NEW DELHI, July 25 (PTI) — Vice-President Krishan Kant today regretted the politicisation of religion and said the country needed to realise Mahatma Gandhi’s dream of spiritualising politics. Earlier, the Vice-President presented the G.D. Birla Award for Scientific Research for 1997 to Prof Biman Bagchi of the Indian Institute of Science (Bangalore) and the Shankar Puraskar for 1996 to Mr Brij Mohan Pande, a former director of the Archaeological Survey of India. Prof Ashore Seen and Prof Krishna Narain Prusad Magadha, recipients of the G.D. Birla Award (1997) and the Shankar Puraskar, (1996), respectively, were not present to accept the award. While Prof Ashore Seen has been awarded for his contribution to mathematical physics, Prof Bagchi received it for his contribution to the field of physical chemistry of condensed matter. Brij Mohan Pande got the Shankar Puraskar for his book, “Puratatv Prasang”, a collection of essays on archaeology, while Prof Krishna Narration Pursed Magadha of Manipur University’s Department of Hindi, got it for his book, “Vagdevi Saraswati”. Both the awards comprise a citation, a shawl and a cash prize of Rs 1.50 lakh. |
| Lok Shakti secretary resigns Tribune News Service NEW DELHI, July 25 — Mr Virendar Mohan Trehan, national secretary of the Lok Shakti, has resigned from the party. Differences over policies and programmes of the party is reported to have been the immediate provocation for Mr Trehan to quit the party. In a letter addressed to Mr Ramakrishna Hegde, president of the party, he thanked him for his benevolence, and guidance. He also thanked him for giving him an opportunity to work with him, “but perhaps, it was destined to be shortlived” he added. |
| In
brief Work on longest bridge to start soon LUCKNOW: Work on the longest bridge of the country which is to create a direct link between Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh is to start soon. The bridge will be constructed in collaboration with Japan at a cost of Rs 200 crore and will connect Allahabad directly to Madhya Pradesh and other districts of the state. Besides, the construction of the Rs 180 crore Moradabad bypass, which had been under consideration for the past several years, is to begin by the end of the year. — UNI Krishna river waters CHENNAI: The much awaited water from the Krishna river in Andhra Pradesh reached the Poondi reservoir on Chennai’s outskirts, one of the chief sources of water supply, on Friday, the Madras Metropolitan Water and Sewerage authorities said on Saturday. Karnataka, Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh had agreed to spare five TMC of water from their share to meet Chennai’s drinking water requirements. — PTI Compensation for missing son CUTTACK: The Orissa High Court has awarded a compensation of Rs 1.5 lakh to a woman whose son has been missing from jail custody for the past 23 years. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice S.N. Phukan and Mr Justice C.R. Pal on Thursday held that Umakanta Behera, son of Sabitri Behera of Boudh, had either died or disappeared while in jail custody and it was a fit case for the award of compensation. — PTI Public sector convention BHOPAL: An all-India convention of public sector unions will be held in New Delhi on August 11 to prepare the programme for a combined mass movement in protest against the anti-labour and anti-economic policies being adopted by the present government. This was stated by secretary, Centre of Indian Trade Unions Jobon Roy here on Friday. — UNI Heart valve CHENNAI: Replacing a diseased human heart valve with a pig valve, treated with chemicals offers a better alternative to the mechanical heart valve, according to Dr Siavosh Khonsari, noted cardiac surgeon from Los Angeles. He said the specially treated pig valve was expected to give a life of about 20 to 25 years. — UNI  |
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