Saturday, December 11, 1999
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Crucial CWC meeting today PM to lay stone on Sunday |
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 Misa Bharati sitting with her mother, Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi on the occasion of “haldi kalash”, a marriage ceremony, at the CM’s residence in Patna on Thursday. — PTI photo |
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US Nagar panel to be reactivated AMU hostels being evacuated DAE endangered public health Death trap for road-users NDA partners differ on quota Bill Govt ‘committed’ to
review Constitution 4 fake varsities in Delhi |
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Crucial CWC meeting today NEW DELHI, Dec 10 — A meeting of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) is expected to be held here tomorrow to discuss among other things the report of the A.K. Antony Introspection Committee. Ever since the committee presented its report, there has been considerable speculation about its contents since only one copy of the 200-odd page report was submitted to the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi. In the absence of any document, the party members have been relying on the recommendations understood to have been made by the Committee to restructure and prepare the party for the future challenges. The committee is understood to have questioned the manner in which decisions like the flip-flop in Haryana and the tie-up in Bihar were arrived at. That the future of many a party chief in states hinges on the report is a foregone conclusion in the wake of the worst-ever results in the recent Lok Sabha elections. Barring a handful of states like Punjab and UP to name a few, the performance Congress has dipped below par. It remains to be seen what shape and alteration the Congress President would go in for both at the AICC and in the states. The only change effected by the Congress President has been to replace the Orissa Chief Minister, Mr Girdhar Gamang with another tribal leader Mr Hemananda Biswal after criticism against the former for the inept handling of the cyclone relief work. There are reports that
the Antony Committee has also suggested the pruning of
the CWC. |
Parbati project NEW DELHI, Dec 10 — The much-delayed Parbati hydroelectric project in Kulu district of Himachal Pradesh will be inaugurated on Sunday when the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, lays the foundation stone. The project, which was originally envisaged as a five state consortium endeavour in 1991, has at last come to the take off stage with the state government signing an agreement with the National Hydroelectric Power Corporation (NHPC) for the Rs 10,000 crore, 2,051 MW endeavour, the largest in Himachal Pradesh. The NHPC has been in the news lately because of the moves to extinguish its existence and merge it with the NTPC. The project, envisaged in three stages, will see the second stage (800 MW) come up first. The first stage of 750 MW will be taken up followed by the third stage of 501 MW. The topography survey for the first stage will take place simultaneously with the construction of the second stage. The Parbati project is a run-of-the-river, "inter basin transfer type scheme for harnessing the hydro potential of the lower reaches of the river Parbati. The river will be diverted at Pulga village in the Parbati valley, where a 91-metre high, 100 metre long concrete gravity dam will be built. The power house will be located at Suind village in the neighbouring Sainj valley. A gross head of 859 metres between Pulga and Suind will be utilised for generating 800 MW of power. The diverted discharge of the Parbati river is being augmented by diverting the waters from various nullahs in the area. For those acquainted with the topography of the Kulu valley, Parbati is the river which confluences with the Beas at Bhuntar, which is the airport for Kulu. The Pulga Dam will be 51 km from Bhuntar airport and the power house at Suind 41 km from the airport. The project, which was
delayed, was likely to bring extra power and revenue to
Himachal Pradesh which would get 12 per cent of free
power in addition to 15 per cent share of generation
cost. |
US Nagar panel to be
reactivated NEW DELHI, Dec 10 — The Centre is soon expected to reactivate the three-member panel headed by the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, to study the issues relating the ‘exclusion/inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar district in the proposed Uttaranchal state. Sources in the government said here yesterday that a decision in this regard was taken at the recent meeting of the Union Cabinet after the matter came up for discussion on the issue of Bills for carving out separate states of Uttaranchal, Vananchal and Chhatigarh from UP, Bihar and Madhya Pradesh. The Atal Behari Vajpayee government is facing fresh resistance from its allies on these pieces of legislation it plans to move during next session of Parliament. Those opposing it include the Telugu Desam, the Shiromani Akali Dal and the Shiv Sena. The SAD had opposed the inclusion of Udham Singh Nagar district in Uttaranchal even during the 12th Lok Sabha with a section of the party then led by Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra suggesting review of support to then BJP-led coalition. However, the crisis was defused with the Prime Minister appointing a three-member panel headed by Mr Fernandes to go into the whole gamut of the issue. The Committee includes the Chief Minister of Punjab and Uttar Pradesh. Informed sources said the Prime Minister had indicated to Mr Fernandes to re-start the task. "The only change will be that in place of Mr Kalyan Singh, who was then the UP Chief Minister, it will be Mr Ram Prakash Gupta," the sources added. However, there was an assurance that the status of land-holding would not be affected even if Udham Singh Nagar district was included in the proposed state and adequate safeguard could be incorporated. Similarly, on the issue of including Haridwar in the proposed state, it was understood that the logic was if the adjoining Rishikesh was to go to Uttaranchal, then Haridwar could not be kept in UP. So, while Haridwar will go to the new state, the rural areas around it will remain in UP, the sources said. The Shiv Sena on the other hand is opposed to the creation of Vidharaba, another demand that has been simmering for considerable period of time. As per procedure, the Centre plans to refer these Bills which have been cleared by the Union Cabinet for approval by the respective state legislative Assemblies before they are taken up by Parliament for consideration. Meanwhile, the Congress yesterday charged that the Centre had re-started the process for referring the Bills back to the states showed the "inherent contradictions" in the NDA. The party spokesman, Mr
Ajit Jogi, said as the process was already gone through
earlier there was no need to refer the Bills providing
for creation of Uttaranchal, Vananchal and Chhatisgarh to
the Assemblies of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Madhya
Pradesh. |
Top politicians attend Misa’s marriage PATNA, Dec 10 (UNI) — Representatives of all major political parties in the country tonight attended the wedding of the eldest daughter of Bihar Chief Minister Rabri Devi and Rashtriya Janata Dal President Laloo Prasad Yadav Misa Bharati in the state capital. Two former Prime Ministers Chandrasekhar and H.D. Deve Gowda, several Union Ministers, including Mr Ram Vilas Paswan, Mr Nitish Kumar, Mr Sahrad Yadav, Mr Digvijay Singh, Mr Shahnawaz Hussain and Ms Maneka Gandhi, former Union Ministers Madhu Dandavate, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr S.R. Bommai, among others, were present at the wedding. The Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Mr Farooq Abdullah, arrived here during the day. Former AICC President
Sitaram Kesri, senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee
and AICC spokesman Ajit Kumar Jogi also attended the
function. |
AMU hostels being evacuated ALIGARH, Dec 10 (PTI) — Peace appears to be returning to Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) campus with no untoward incident being reported here since Wednesday night, the District Magistrate said today. The campus had witnessed "unruly scenes" during the past 10 days following a student agitation against the recently introduced term system at the university. The authorities have declared a month’s winter vacation following the stir. The District magistrate, Mr Dev Dutt said the "process of evacuation" of hostels in the university where an estimated 18,000 students reside is on in a "peaceful manner". Although a majority of the students had already left for their homes, district officials were working in tandem with the university authorities to ensure the process was "completed shortly in a smooth manner", Mr Dutt said. Special security arrangements have been made at the railway station and special compartments arranged on all important trains to facilitate the travel of the students. Prof Humayun Murad, president of the AMU Staff Association, said "Teachers are ready to play their due role in restoring normalcy on the campus". He, however, regretted that "So far the university’s Vice-Chancellor had not responded to the teachers’ offer of holding a meeting to sort out differences". Mr Murad said members of the staff association had yesterday met top state officials monitoring the situation and expressed satisfaction on the security provided on the campus. NEW DELHI, (UNI): Mr Z.K. Faizan, convenor of the Aligarh Muslim University Action Committee (AMUAC) here on Friday demanded sacking of the Vice-Chancellor, Mr Mehmoodur Rehman for his authoritarian and vindictive role, resulting in closure of the university. In a statement issued
here, Mr Faizan said the Centre should immediately
withdraw him from the university as he had tarnished the
image of the university in his capacity as the
Vice-Chancellor of the university. |
DAE endangered public health NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (PTI) — A nuclear safety expert has accused the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) and the Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) of "criminal negligence" for not alerting the public about the release of deadly radioactive tritium from the Rajasthan Atomic Power Station (RAPS) into the Rana Pratap Sagar Lake whose water is used for drinking. Former AERB chairman A. Gopalakrishnan was reacting to a written answer by Vasundhra Raje Minister of State for Atomic Energy in Parliament here on Monday, that heavy water containing radioactive tritium, above safety limits, was discharged by the atomic plant last year into the lake. Mr Gopalakrishnan said "It is clear that the DAE and AERB have neglected their obligation to alert the population residing near the RAPS regarding the leakage. They should have done immediately after the incident. This would have forewarned the local people not to drink the water from the dangerous zones of the lake or eat fish captured from there." Mr Gopalakrishnan who headed the AERB for six years during which he listed 134 safety concerns in Indian nuclear facilities said "The presently reported leakage of radioactive tritium from the Rajasthan plant is not the first of its kind. It has also happened before." "The DAE is either unable to repair the faulty old heat exchangers in this plant or replace them with new ones," he said, adding that the DAE had supplied "misinformation" both about the number of leakages and the amount of radioactivity. "The radioactivity levels reported by the minister in Parliament are based on the assumption that the released activity has perfectly mixed with the entire body of water in the lake," he said. "People who have drunk the water from this lake region and eaten the fish growing there must have ingested considerably more radioactivity than what the DAE would like the minister and Parliament to believe," he said. According to Mr
Gopalakrishnan the information about the leakage would
never have come out but for the question in Parliament. |
Death trap for road-users CALCUTTA, Dec 10 — Charnock’s city of Calcutta has now become a death trap for people. Official records say during the past fortnight 50 persons, including women, children and the old fell prey to speeding vehicles in the hub of the city — the Esplanade-BBD Bag-Chowringhee-Burrabazar-Shambazar-Ballygunge area. The problem, of late, has assumed such dimensions that the Chief Minister, Mr Jyoti Basu, the Mayor, Mr Prasanta Chatterjee and the city police chief, Mr D. Vajpayee, had to plead for a total ban on the movement of public transport in certain areas. The World Bank which was approached to advance funds for the development of Calcutta’s traffic and transport sometime ago advised the state government to demolish certain areas in the city and evict hawkers and trespassers first and then go for any further investment. But the advice was ignored and a loan worth Rs 105 crore was taken from the bank instead and spent on the purchase of new government buses and other vehicles. The space meant for
motorists and other operators is inadequate to cope with
traffic in the city but there is hardly any ban on the
acquisition of new vehicles. In fact, almost every day
because of political and other compulsions, the police
has to sanction permission to new buses, taxis,
mini-buses, lorries, autorickshaws and various other
slow-moving vehicles to operate on the congested streets,
which aggravates the problem, says an expert. |
NDA partners differ on quota Bill NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (UNI) — Differences among the constituents of the ruling National Democratic Alliance (NDA) over the Women’s Reservation Bill came to the fore in the Lok Sabha today, but Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan said the government was committed on the Bill and it would be introduced after consultations with the Prime Minister. Responding to Mr P.R. Das Munshi (Congress) and others who raised the issue, Mr Mahajan said the government’s commitment was stated in the President’s Address to Praliament. However, he declined to give a specific time for the introduction of the Bill by saying that there were two more weeks before the current session of Parliament concluded. Mr Das Munshi said even
in the minister’s statement about the House business
next week, there was no mention of this Bill, though the
President had stated that this was a priority for the
government. |
Govt ‘committed’ to review Constitution NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (PTI) — Minister for Law, Justice and Company Affairs Ram Jethmalani today said that in the Rajya Sabha the government was fully committed to the review of the Constitution but would ensure that its basic principles were not tinkered with. Intervening soon after a private members’ resolution moved by BJP member Ramdas Aggarwal seeking the review of the Constitution, Mr Jethmalani said it was a private members’ resolution and requested the member to withdraw it. He said the NDA manifesto and the government were for speedy marginal changes in the Constitution to meet the requirements of the changing situation. Moving the resolution,
Mr Aggarwal said several important political changes-hung
Parliament, multi — party government, defections,
growth of political parties and confrontation between
three pillars of democracy legislature, executive and
judiciary — had taken place in the past 50 years
which were not visualised by the makers of the
Constitution. |
4 fake varsities in Delhi NEW DELHI, Dec 10 (PTI) — Four fake universities are functioning in Delhi in contravention of the University Grants Commission (UGC) Act and the UGC has set up a malpractices cell in education to deal with the functioning of such universities, the Rajya Sabha was informed today. The fake universities in
the Capital are Varanaseya Vishwavidyalaya, Commercial
University Ltd, United Nations University and Vocational
University, Minister of State for Health and Family
Welfare, N.T. Shanmugam told the Upper House. |
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| Govt bans official
paraphernalia JAIPUR: Pressed by financial constraints in the state exchequer, the Rajastan Government has banned all paraphernalia in official functions, including presentation of "safa" (headgear), shawls or a memento to the chief guest or other dignitaries. "One garland could be enough for welcoming the guest, and there should be no caravan behind the Chief Minister’s car during his official visits. The state government has asked all district collectors to implement it forthwith", an official statement said here on Thursday. — PTI 3 held in paper leakage
case TDP
leader’s house blasted Naxalite killed
in encounter WWF award for
Kaziranga Park CBI to probe
cheating case Outstanding
parliamentarians chosen 12-hour bandh in
North Tripura RJD-sponsored
bandh opposed |
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