Friday, April 23, 1999
|
N A T I O N |
|
| weather n
spotlight today's calendar |
 |
 |
|
|
Six convicted in CBI
cases Muthiah explains his faux pas |
 |
|
|
North India may face power crisis Centre gets notice on POWs in Pak Panel raps Doordarshan
Raghunath leaving for Beijing MCD plan for slum dwellers |
|||||||
 |
||||||||
Six convicted in CBI cases NEW DELHI, April 22 — The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) has secured conviction of six officials for various offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act and other laws. A branch manager of Union Bank of India, Jabalpur, Pravin Chandra Joshi along with two others, Tikam Das Nanumal Motwani and Maghraj, cheated the bank to the tune of Rs 3,01,003 by abusing his official position, an agency note said. The bank officer was sentenced to four years' rigorous imprisonment and fined Rs 30,000. While Tikam Das Nanumal Motwani was sentenced rigorous imprisonment for three years with a fine of Rs 40,000, Meghraj got four years rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 30,000, the note said. In another case, V.K. Chopra, branch manager of Oriental Bank of Commerce, Lucknow, was sentenced to three years' rigorous imprisonment with a fine of Rs 20,000 for misapporpriating a current account deposit of Rs 49,103 the note said. In a similar case, D. Sekar, special assistant, Oriental Bank of Commerce, Mount Road Branch, Chennai, had misappropriated various amounts totalling Rs 10,97,312 by transferring the amounts from the interest paid for accounts to various other accounts and caused wrongful loss to the bank. He was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for five years, the note stated. Three government officials convicted for demanding and accepting a bribe included an inspector (Works), Department of Railways, Raipur, and Amrit Kumar Ekka, who was sentenced to rigorous imprisonment for three years with a fine of Rs 10,000. The note further stated
that the Deputy Chief Engineer, Department of Railways,
Vishakhapatnam, C.M. Sharma and the Subdivisional
Engineer, Department of Telecommunication,
Vishakhapatnam, K. Veeraiah were sentenced to rigorous
imprisonment for one year. |
Muthiah explains his faux pas NEW DELHI, April 22 — Mr S. Muthiah of the AIADMK, who failed to vote on the crucial day of vote of confidence sought by the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, on April 17, claimed today that the electronic voting machine in the Lok Sabha had recorded his vote. Making a mention before the House got down to pass the budget, Mr Muthiah said he had not used the paper slip to register his vote as the display chart in the House clearly showed a red sign against his seat. The AIADMK leader said the vernacular dailies and the electronic media in Tamil Nadu was now casting aspersions on his conduct and urged the Speaker to investigate the glitch in the voting system of the House. Mr Muthiah, who was interrupted by the DMK member, Mr T.R. Balu, and which led to a strong rebuff from AIADMK members, also mentioned that he had given a written representation to the Speaker about the episode. The Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr P.R. Kumaramangalam, intervened to say that he understood the member’s embarrassment and the Speaker should inquire into the matter. He said according to the House procedure there were several counter checks to avoid such a mistake and the details would be available with the secretariat. Mr Kumaramangalam said he understood that the chart showing the voting pattern was photographed and also a record of it was registered in the computer system. He urged the Speaker to look into it. The Speaker, Mr G.M.C.
Balayogi, later told Mr Muthiah that he had received his
written representation and had also heard him in the
House and a detailed scrutiny would be made. |
LCA test-flight in July NEW DELHI, April 22 — India’s light combat aircraft (LCA), hit by US sanctions, will now be test-flown for the first time in July this year. This was stated by the Defence Ministry in the seventh report of Parliament’s Standing Committee on Defence tabled in the Lok Sabha yesterday. Maintaining that post-Pokhran II, US sanctions had necessitated development of alternative sources for certain items like flight control system (FCS) which led to a delay of six months, the ministry said: "The first flight of the LCA will therefore be undertaken now in July". It said all efforts were being made for the induction of the LCA into the Indian Air Force by 2003. Apart from developing two technology demonstrators, five prototype vehicles (PV one to PV five) are being developed so as to compress the time frame by simultaneous testing and logging of required cumulative flight hours, it said, adding that second technology demonstrator (TD-2) was rolled out of Hindustan Aeronautics Limited in August last year. The ministry told the committee that: "It is expected that integration and airworthiness problems which have been resolved in the first LCA (TD-1) will not recur in TD-2". While the first test flight (of TD-1) was scheduled for July, the second technology demonstrator (TD-2) would take off in October this year. The first flight of prototype vehicle-one with indigenously developed "kaveri" engine would be conducted in September, 2000, while the PV-two would be air-borne for the first time with a multi-role radar (MR) in December next year. PV-three, PV-four and PV-five would be test-flown in July, 2001, December, 2001, and June, 2002, respectively, the ministry said adding that the induction of the LCA and the initial operational clearance was scheduled for December, 2003. The final operational clearance would be given in December, 2005, it said. The ministry informed
the 44-member committee headed by Squadron Leader Kamal
Chaudhry that the design of PV-five, which would be a
two-seater trainer version, was already in progress and
differed from the fighter version primarily in respect of
front fuselage. |
North India may face power
crisis NEW DELHI, April 22 — The power crisis looms large over North India even if the several generating units of the Northern Grid produce electricity to their optimum level. Several major generating units of the Northern Grid including Singrauli, Rihand, Anta, Auriya, Dadri GT, Bhakra, Bairasiul, Chamera, Ropar, Lehra Mohabbat and Kota were not functioning to their full capacity due to technical and operational problems. The peak demand of power for the northern region by 2002 is expected to increase by 9,400 MW, which would require an additional generating capacity of about 13,000 MW. The increased power generation capacity would in addition to the covering of the peak shortage of 3,000 MW faced by the region at present, as per the 15th power survey report. According to Investment Research Information Limited, the shortfall of power for the northern region by 2002 would be minus 7.30 per cent. In 1997, the shortfall was minus 38.50 per cent. Though the spill-over projects aggregating to 5,750 MW and units which are already under construction like Nathpa Jhakri Hydel Project (1,500 MW) and a number of projects, including a large number of short gestation liquid fuel based projects are programmed to be taken up in the private sector, are coming up, the 15th power survey report said the state governments had not drawn up programmes for commissioning these projects. The survey says the power shortage conditions may have to be faced throughout the ninth Plan period ending in 2002 as most of the projects are expected to be completed only around that time. The state governments have not been able to commission all power projects taken up during the eight plan. The five North Indian states had planned to commission power projects with a total capacity generation of 2163 MW. The projects included Bathinda-III (420 MW) in Punjab, Panipat-6 (210 MW) and Yamunanagar hydel (16 MW) in Haryana, Bawana (421 MW) in Delhi, Upper Sindh (105 MW) and small hydel (3 MW) in Jammu and Kashmir. Apart from these, the Centre had also set up power projects for generating 5,646 MW with hydro-based projects accounting for 2755 MW and thermal projects for 2891 MW. The Power Grid Corporation of India was directed by the Union Power Ministry to install 150 MVAR shunt capacitors to improve the voltage profile and also to take over the operation and maintenance of three grid substations. The ministry also asked the DVB to expedite completion of 400 KV D/C ring main system and early implementation of its New Delhi Thermal Power Station with a plant capacity of 300 MW and Bawana gas station stage-I with 421 MW planned capacity. The transmission and distribution system in northern India are grossly overloaded and vary from about 20 per cent in some states to as high as 40-50 per cent in others. According to the Raja
Adhyaksha Committee funding of generation and
distribution was to be in the ratio of 4:2:2. But fund
allocation for the transmission system in Punjab has been
of the order of Rs 280 crore only during the eighth plan
as against Rs 373 crore in the seventh plan. |
Centre gets notice on POWs in
Pak NEW DELHI, April 22 — The Delhi High Court has issued a notice to the Centre on a petition seeking the government to place before it a report about the steps taken to trace 54 defence personnel “captured” by Pakistan during the 1971 war. A division bench comprising the acting Chief Justice, Mr Devinder Gupta, and Mr Justice K.S. Gupta, asked the government to file a reply by July 8, the next date of hearing. The petition, filed by advocate K.L. Sharma, also sought that the government should take up the matter with the UN Human Rights Commission, a competent body to get these personnel repatriated. “Due to the negligence of the government these brave defence personnel were left unaccounted at the time of the exchange of war prisoners,” the petitioner said, accusing the authorities of declaring them as “presumed dead” without going into the root of the case. “The shock waves
started pouring in when some Pakistan newspapers and
radio reported that some of these officers and men had
been captured alive,” it said. |
Coverage of border areas inadequate NEW DELHI, April 22 — The declining competitive edge, fall in revenue and inadequate coverage of the national broadcaster, Doordarshan, in border areas, including Jammu and Kashmir, has come under criticism from the Parliamentary Standing Committee on Communications. Doordarshan, whose revenue has been declining over the years, should take corrective measures or it might find itself in a disadvantageous position, the report prepared by the committee and tabled in the Lok Sabha said. After the peak revenue generation of Rs 572 crore in 1996-97, the revenue had declined to Rs 400 in 1998-99, the report stated. "The reasons advanced by the ministry that there are internal pressures, marketing system is not so strengthened and tuned as that of private sector, stiff competition from private channels, indicate that the policy, programme implementation and monitoring machinery of the ministry cannot rise to the occasion," Mr Somnath Chatterjee, Chairman of the committee said. The report said: "If firm steps are not taken by Doordarshan, it will be in a totally disadvantageous position in the competitive environment. The committee desires that corrective steps are devised urgently to arrest the declining trend in revenue generation which in turn will help them to have more outlay at their disposal for quick development of the electronic media." The standing committee expressed concern that the border areas like Jammu and Kashmir, areas touching Nepal and Bangladesh, the North-East and tribal areas were not adequately covered by Doordarshan transmission. The people of these areas feel cut off from the national mainstream due to inadequate development of communication and transmission facilities. The report recommended that "these areas may be accorded top priority and special package/crash programmes should be formulated for the extension of media transmission there." The plan outlay of Rs 3992.28 crore for the Ninth Plan was revised to Rs 3,135 crore at the instance of the Planning Commission. However, the finally approved outlay was Rs 1,836 crore. The substantial
reduction in the outlay had forced the Information and
Broadcasting Ministry to curtail its development projects
and to refix priorities. |
3 murder cases reported in
Delhi NEW DELHI, April 22 — Three murder cases were reported from different areas in the Capital during the past 24 hours. A 27-year old youth, Dewan, was stabbed to death by two alleged robbers, Abdul and Mahaveer, when he went to rescue his father from them in Nangloi area of West Delhi, the police said. According to the police, the incident occurred yesterday when father of the deceased, Ram Kishan, was returning home. The robbers were arrested on charges of robbery and murder. The weapon of offence was recovered from the possession of Mahaveer, the police said. In another incident, Manjeet (18) was stabbed to death in an altercation with his friend at Geeta colony area in East Delhi. In yet another incident
at Dilshad Garden police station in North-East Delhi, a
25-year old unidentified person was found murdered today
near Tahirpur water tank. He had three bullet injuries on
his chest. |
Raghunath leaving for Beijing NEW DELHI, April 22 — The Foreign Secretary, Mr K. Raghunath, is likely to leave for Beijing this weekend for resuming discussions on the border issue signalling a forward movement in the Sino-Indian relations. The Joint Working Group (JWG), which has been discussing the thorny border issue between the two countries and has not met for more than a year and half, will again pick up the threads where it had left in August,1997 in New Delhi. The JWG talks are likely to take place on April 26 and 27, the sources pointed out. The visit of the Foreign Secretary will set at rest media speculations that political instability in New Delhi is likely to postpone the JWG meeting, officials pointed out. The Sino-Indian relations took a downward trend after the Pokhran-II and particularly when New Delhi called Beijing as one of its main security threats. The next round of JWG, which was scheduled to be held in the middle of 1998, became the first victim of worsening of bilateral relations. However, both Beijing and New Delhi realised very soon that negative bilateral relationship was not in the interest of either of the two and diplomatic efforts were undertaken to resume the dialogue. Recently a high-level delegation of the Congress party was in China. The Congress delegation received positive signals from the Chinese leadership that concerted efforts should be undertaken to bring back the bilateral ties on an even keel. The South Block officials do not expect any problems on the issue of resuming the JWG talks with China even after a new Government assumed charge in New Delhi. Even the recent statements from the ruling BJP-led coalition parties, indirectly suggesting that China was instrumental in destabilising the Vajpayee Government, have not made any adverse impact on the Beijing establishment. The Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman, Mr Sun Yuxi, dismissed such statements saying that “the reports that China was involved in sabotaging the stability of the Indian Government is a fabrication out of ulterior motives”. The JWG talks in the
past have focussed mainly on twin issues of security and
border. The past JWG meetings have already helped in
reaching important agreements between the two sides
including the one on reduction of troops along the
borders and maintaining peace and tranquillity along the
Line of Actual Control. |
MCD plan for slum dwellers NEW DELHI, April 22 — The slum department of the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has evolved a three-pronged strategy to solve the problems and living conditions in the slums and jhuggi clusters here. Under the scheme, the slum dwellers are relocated by the department on the request of the land owning agency, who share the relocation cost. However, there is no
time frame in the relocation of the squatter families. |
| H |
|
||
| Stop payments, tea
planters told GUWAHATI: The Army, in its bid to choke funds for militants, had exhorted the tea industry and business houses in Assam to end protection payments to insurgent groups and instead use those funds for community development projects. More than 100 tea planters assured the Army that they would extend “total support” to the security forces in their fight against insurgency. The plan to cut out funds for militants was discussed at a meeting at Laipuli in Tinsukia district, 550 km east of Guwahati. — IANS 1,200
BJP activists held Severe drought
in West Bengal Gangster shot
dead Artist eyes
Guinness record |
 |
 |
| Punjab
| Haryana | Himachal Pradesh | Jammu & Kashmir | Chandigarh | | Editorial | Business | Sport | | Mailbag | Spotlight | World | 50 years of Independence | Weather | | Search | Subscribe | Archive | Suggestion | Home | E-mail | |
