Wednesday, February 3, 1999

French Minister meets Fernandes
NEW DELHI, Feb 2 — The Cabinet Minister for Public Works, Housing, Transport and Tourism of France, Mr Jean Claude Gayssot, met the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, in South Block today.

BJP’s list of candidates

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 (PTI) — The BJP today declared its candidates for the ensuing byelections to 10 Assembly segments spread over five states.

In two Assembly seats of Delhi, the party has fielded Mr Hari Shankar Gautam from the Hauz Khas constituency and Mr Devendra Shokeen from Nangloi-Jat. While the Hauz Khas seat fell vacant following the resignation of former Delhi Chief Minister Sushma Swaraj, election to Nangloi-Jat was postponed due to the murder of the Samata Party candidate during the last elections.

The decision was taken at a meeting of the party’s Central Election Committee this evening, which was chaired by BJP chief Kushabhau Thakre and attended, among others by Mr L.K. Advani, Mr Sikandar Bakht, Mr Murli Manohar Joshi and Mr K. Jana Krishnamurthy, a press note said.

While Mr Meghraj Lohia would contest the Sardarpura seat in Rajasthan, Mr Paresh Agarwal and Mr Dilip Shroff have been fielded from Khallari and Burhanpur segments in Madhya Pradesh.

The party authorised Mr Thakre to take a decision on selecting candidates for the Jatpur and Jodia assembly seats to the party president, while BJP candidates for three seats in Rajasthan — Mundwa, Kumbhalgarh and Bhim — have already filed their papers.

Combating reptilian threat
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 — After the Shiv Sainiks, the likelihood of snakes being released in the Ferozeshah Kotla Ground during the India-Pakistan Test match, scheduled to commence on February 4, is keeping Delhi police personnel on the toes.

The Delhi police today announced elaborate security measures, including requisitioning of snake-charmers, for the second Test in the wake of "intelligence reports" of a possible mischief.

The Delhi Police Commissioner, Mr V.N. Singh, while declining to divulge details of the intelligence reports, told mediapersons: "Though the Shiv Sena threat has been withdrawn, we have other intelligence reports of possible mischief. We are not taking any chances."

The Deputy Commissioner of Police (Central district), Mr S.B.K. Singh, said the police had requested the Environment Ministry to provide 20 snake-charmers to pre-empt an earlier threat by the Shiv Sena to release reptiles in the ground to disrupt the match.

The snake-charmers may be positioned in the enclosures as well as outside the grounds.

Mr S.B.K. Singh said the attempt by anti-social elements may be to spread panic when the match is on and disrupt it, resulting in a stampede. "We are taking adequate measures to prevent such a happening," he said.

Over 2,000 central paramilitary personnel and hundreds of Delhi police personnel had been deployed in and around Ferozeshah Kotla Ground, where the match would be played, as also Harbux Singh Stadium and Indian Air Force Ground, where the teams were practising and the hotel where they were staying, Mr V.N. Singh said.

Similar arrangements had been made for the Indo-Pak hockey match to be held tomorrow at the National Stadium, he added.

Mr V.N. Singh said aerated bottles and other items which could be used as missiles would not be allowed inside the stadium and spectators would be thoroughly frisked.

The Police Commissioner said the Delhi District Cricket Association (DDCA) had been asked not to "over-sell" tickets. "The capacity of the stadium is about 35,000 and only 25,000 tickets will be sold," Mr V.N. Singh said.

"All contingency measures, including fire safety measures, have been taken to prevent any untoward incident," he said and added that special traffic arrangements had also been made for smooth vehicular movement around the Kotla Grounds.

He pointed out that no preventive arrests had been made so far.

A thorough frisking and checking would be conducted at entry and exit points and it would be ensured that no inconvenience was caused to the public.

Earlier, when the Pakistani cricket team had reached the Capital from Lahore late last month, an unprecedented security operation had been mounted.

A senior Delhi Police official had pointed out that security agencies in the country were not leaving anything to chance with trained commandos armed with sophisticated weapons providing cover to the players as part of the arrangements in which "surprise element" would play a key role.

A multi-tier security plan is already in place.

"We first analysed the stadium security. There were many gaps which could provide easy access. The DDCA has agreed to cover these gaps. Two or three security cordons will be put in place outside the stadium", an officer said.

Plainclothes policemen will be deployed near the players' dressing room and "there will be a physical barricade around the room. No one will be allowed to go inside without being frisked."

Spotters would be deployed at the ticket sale counters. The DDCA had been asked by the city police to furnish names of those purchasing more than 10 tickets.

Bigger enclosures were being divided into smaller ones for better crowd management. Tickets would be sold in such a manner that the crowd was equally distributed in the stadium and not restricted to one enclosure.

"There will be commandos armed with sophisticated weapons inside the bus carrying players from the hotel to prevent any untoward incident," the officer said.

Meanwhile, the city police is still grappling with the lack of adequate information on Shiv Sainiks and their sympathisers in Delhi.

Cops suspect hand of same gang in murders
From Our Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 — The Delhi police has launched a massive hunt for a gang suspected to be involved in brutal killings of two persons during the past few weeks.

The deceased were identified as Suzuki Takuma, a tourist from Japan, and Ashish Somani (24), a resident of Delhi.

The bodies of both persons were chopped into several pieces and stuffed inside gunny bags which were later dumped in deserted areas.

The body of Ashish Somani was found on Sunday in Chiriya Colony, while the body of the Japanese tourist was found from R.K. Puram in South Delhi. The severed legs of Ashish were found on January 26 on Naraina flyover.

The body of Ashish was cremated yesterday after a post-mortem examination and a DNA test.

The police suspects the involvement of the same gang in these cases and the modus operandi is also suspected to be similar.

The police had registered a kidnapping case on January 23 at the Tilak Marg police station on the complaint of Ashish’s father, Mr N.K. Somani.

Tehri dam safe, contends govt
From Our Legal Correspondent

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 — The Supreme Court today directed the Central Government to file an affidavit giving details of the action taken on the recommendations of the two committees which examined the environment rehabilitation and safety aspects of the Tehri hydro-electric project, popularly known as Tehri dam.

The Bench comprising the Chief Justice, Dr A.S. Anand, Mr Justice S.P. Bharucha and Mr Justice B.N. Kirpal gave this direction after the government counsel informed the court that the recommendations of the two committees on the project had been accepted by the government.

The court was hearing a public interest petition filed by Mr N.D. Jayal and other connected petitions challenging the government decision to go ahead with the construction of the dam on the ground that since the area was earthquake-prone, the building of such a huge dam would endanger the ecology and inhabitants of the region.

Mr P.P. Malhotra, Senior Advocate-General, appearing for the Union Government submitted that a decision had been taken by the government to implement the Hanumantha Rao Committee report on the environment and rehabilitation aspects. An order to this effect had already been issued by the Ministry of Power.

However, the government had not agreed with the recommendation on the safety aspect to conduct a 3-D non-linear analysis of the dam to evaluate its performance against the maximum credible earthquake factor (MCF).

The government counsel submitted that the National Committee on Seismic Design Parameters (NCSDP) had termed the expert committee view as conservative and concluded that the dam structure was safe and could withstand maximum credible earthquake.

The hearing was adjourned for two weeks. The committees were formed pursuant to the observations of this court from time to time during the course of the hearing since the stand taken by the experts was that technically the apprehension of the petitioners was not correct. The matter has been coming up before the court for hearing since 1992.

Raising capacity by 20 lakh tn suggested
Report on cold storage
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 — An expert committee on cold storage today recommended creation of 20 lakh tonnes of additional cold storage capacity in the country for perishable items like potatoes over the next five years.

The committee constituted in the wake of the onion crisis in the country was asked to suggest ways and means to increase proper storage facilities and an organised cold-chain to ensure that there are not heavy wastages of perishable products, including fruit and vegetables.

The committee in its report submitted to the Agriculture Ministry has said that out of the 20 lakh tonnes of fresh capacity, 12 lakh tonnes would be additional capacity and eight lakh tonnes added by rehabilitating closed and sick units.

With this, the cold storage capacity available in the country would increase to 123 lakh tonnes from the present capacity of 103 lakh tonnes. About 90 per cent of the capacity would come up in the private sector and the remaining 10 per cent in the public sector.

As far as storage of onions is concerned, it has recommended creation of an additional capacity of 4.5 lakh tonnes in addition to the existing capacity of about 4.6 lakh tonnes. It is estimated that Rs 650 crore would be required to set up these facilities.

The committee headed by an Additional Secretary in the Agriculture Ministry, Mr J.N.L. Srivastava, also recommended an interest subsidy scheme for setting up new units under which loans would be provided to projects at a concessional rate of 6 per cent by the lending institutions.

It has also recommended that excise duty on refrigeration plant and machinery and import duty on raw material for sandwich insulated panel of cold storage may either be completely abolished, at least for the next five years.

According to the report, the state governments have been advised to consider cold storage as basic agricultural infrastructure for preservation of horticulture produce and ensure availability of electricity to cold storages at concessional tariff for at least 10 years. Sales tax on refrigerated equipment and machinery needs to be either abolished or fixed on a par with the central sales tax, the committee has said.

The committee has also recommended that those state governments which have their own cold storage Act may repeal it to remove licensing and rental controls. To begin with, the states have been advised to do away with the rental ceiling which is one of the major bottlenecks in creating new cold storage capacity.

Keeping in mind the success story of Haryana Tourism, villagers can be confident of this project. After the first tourist complex of Haryana Tourism came up in 1970 under Mr Misra’s guidance, 24 more were constructed between 1970 to 1972. Today, the state has 46 tourist complexes and has been requested to provide consultancy in tourism to over 200 organisations.

Recalling how he started the Surajkund Crafts Mela, Mr Misra said: “I got a feeling that tourism was being regarded as an elitist activity, representative of the five-star culture. I was keen to dispel this notion and promote it as an instrument of socio-economic growth. I also felt that tourism could act as a patron of crafts.”

India ‘will cease to be civil society’
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 — India’s socio-economic status assessed through statistics by a speaker at the second annual lecture on “Self-interest and social sensitivity” has caused concern.

Speaking at a lecture organised by Ritinjali, a local non-governmental organisation here, Mr Pavan L. Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of External Affairs said, “According to a survey conducted by UNICEF, India will be the most illiterate country in the world in the coming year.”

Mr Verma appealed to Indians to act as citizens and not residents. He said India would soon cease to be a civil society due to lack of social sensitivity and initiative of its citizens.

Enumerating statistics about social realities, Mr Verma said 46 per cent of Delhi was illiterate and one-third of the Capital’s population lived in slums. He added that India’s malnutrition rate of 75 per cent exceeded that of Ethiopia.

He further revealed 300 million persons went to bed hungry every night and 50 per cent of the girls dropped out by the fifth grade. He added 1500 companies didn’t pay tax.

French Minister meets Fernandes
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 2 — The Cabinet Minister for Public Works, Housing, Transport and Tourism of France, Mr Jean Claude Gayssot, met the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, in South Block today.

The two ministers specifically discussed proposals for collaboration in the field of aviation involving the Hindustan Aeronautics Limited. The 45-minute-long meeting took place in the context of continuing high-level political contacts between India and France and to enrich the bilateral relationship with mutually beneficial linkages in business and industrial sectors of both countries.

The Defence Secretary, Production and Supplies, Mr Prabir Sengupta and the French Ambassador, Mr Claude Blanchemaison, were among those present.

Sikkim HC short of one judge
GANGTOK: With the appointment of Mr Justice Ripusudan Dayal as the new Chief Justice, the Sikkim High Court, now having two judges, will still be one short of its sanctioned strength of three. Mr Justice Dayal, who is scheduled to take oath on Wednesday was earlier a puisne judge of the High Court from April 1984 to October 1995 before being transferred to the Allahabad High Court, official sources said. Mr Justice Anup Deb is presently the acting head of Sikkim High Court which had had a full-fledged chief Justice on September 1997 when Justice K.A. Thanikkachalam retired from here after a brief stay of one month. — PTI

Cong to hold demonstration
PONDICHERRY: The Pondicherry Congress Committee (PCC) will hold a demonstration in front of the Raj Nivas here on February 16 to protest against attacks on Christians in some parts of the country. A resolution, passed at the executive committee meeting of the party here, said Christians in the country were feeling insecure after the incidents and blamed the RSS and the Bajrang Dal for the attacks. The party also blamed the BJP-led government at the Centre for not taking strong action against the activities of the RSS and the Bajrang Dal and demanded a ban on them, PCC chief P. Shanmugham told reporters after the meeting. — PTI

Resignation of VC accepted
JAIPUR: The Rajasthan Governor has accepted the resignation of Bikaner Agricultural University Vice-Chancellor K. Pradhan, an official release said on Tuesday. Mr Pradhan, who was appointed to the post only a year ago, tendered his resignation last month on “health grounds”. State Governor Anshuman Singh, the ex-officio Chancellor of the university, has given the charge of Vice-Chancellor to Principal Secretary (Agricultural Production) R.N. Bhasin. — PTI

New Zealand honour for UP cop
VARANASI: New Zealand would honour Uttar Pradesh Police sub-inspector Raghvendra Singh for solving the mystery behind the death of a tourist from that country, Dina. The Governor of Auckland would honour the Special Task Force member in the country’s capital on February 4, an official release said here on Monday. Mr Singh and his family members left on a 20-day visit to New Zealand on Monday on the government’s invitation, the release added. — PTI

Devotee’s bounty to deity
TIRUPATI: An anonymous devotee dropped Rs 55 lakh in the ‘Srivari’ Hundi at the Tirumala temple of Lord Venkates on Monday. The temple authorities found Rs 55 lakh wrapped in a white cloth, an official said. In a similar fashion, somebody made an offering of Rs 27 lakh last year. — UNI