Tuesday, June 29, 1999
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N A T I O N |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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HC dismisses plea to
change judge Session ‘won't serve
purpose’ |
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Kargil not part of
‘politics of vote’ Jessica case: HC seeks records
from lower court AP Cong to campaign against TDP Nath threatens action against DVB
staff
Cong, TDP lock horns over local
bodies Cong opposes change in Central
Plan aid ‘Govt let ultras cross
LoC’ IAF top brass told to be prepared PCOs for war widows, soldiers Monsoon arrives in Delhi |
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Wealth case against Jaya CHENNAI, June 28 (PTI) — The Madras High Court today dismissed a plea to transfer the ‘‘Rs 66.65 crore wealth case’’ against former Chief Minister Jayalalitha from special Judge S. Sambandam to another on the ground that the judge was ‘‘biased’’. Dismissing the petition filed by J. Elavarsi, a co-accused in the case and sister-in-law of Jayalalitha’s close friend Sasikala, Justice A. Ramamurthy held that the petition was devoid of merit and directed the trial court to dispose of the case expeditiously, taking into account that the special court had been constituted to ensure speedy trial. The grounds raised by Elavarsi were not sufficient to infer that the accused could not have a fair and impartial trial at the hands of the special judge, he held. Contending that the trial judge’s conduct since he began hearing the case had given rise to apprehension of a fair trial, the petitioner said that on October 21 last the judge, immediately after dismissing discharge petitions filed by the accused, had framed charges against them in the case, ‘‘the entire matter had been prejudged by the judge’’, she alleged. Besides Jayalalitha and Elavarsi the others accused in the case are: Sasikala and the AIADMK supremo’s disowned foster son V.N. Sudhakaran. The Directorate of
Vigilance and Anti-Corruption has charged Jayalalitha
with amassing unaccountable wealth to the tune of Rs
66.65 crore while she was Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu. |
Kargil conflict NEW DELHI, June 28 — The BJP has said it is not in favour of holding a special Rajya Sabha session to discuss developments in Kargil. "It is sad that political parties are trying to politicise the issue. The need of the hour is to remain united against external aggression on the country," party national Vice-President K L Sharma told newspersons here today. He said although the party did not agree with the Opposition demand for convening a special session of the Upper House, it would support whatever decision Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee took after the all-party meeting today. "We don't think the Rajya Sabha session will serve any purpose. On the other hand, it is likely to affect the morale of our soldiers," he said. Mr Sharma reiterated that a dialogue with Pakistan could be considered only if the latter withdrew its troops and militants from the Indian territory. He also ruled out the third party mediation on Kashmir. "No kind of threat or pressure can deter us from achieving our target of clearing every inch of our land and flushing out infiltrators," he said. Mr Sharma said the party was in favour of holding elections on time as spelt out by the Election Commission. Answering a question, Mr
Sharma ruled out internal emergency. "Right now, we
are in commanding position in Kargil. We have the upper
hand. I don't think the present situation calls for an
internal emergency in the country. When such a situation
arises, we will see," he said. |
Helping war widows rebuild lives NEW DELHI, June 28 (PTI) — Those left behind by the dead die a thousand deaths. Nothing could be closer to this truth for the widows and families of soldiers who sacrifice their lives for the nation. While the three wars of 1962, 1965 and 1971 left an estimated million-plus widows, the death of young soldiers and officers in the ongoing Kargil conflict has once again brought to the fore the need to provide relief and rehabilitation to war widows. “Initially, the government did not have adequate funds for war widows, but now armed forces have set up non-public funds and all of us contribute to the insurance scheme; says Air Marshal Denzil Keelor (retd). Besides the ex gratia that the family gets depending on the rank and seniority of the deceased, the armed forces also have their own welfare branches to rehabilitate disabled soldiers and help widows and dependants rebuild their lives. According to official sources, the Army Central Welfare Fund gives educational and travel concessions, runs employment schemes and vocational programmes for the widows, dependants of armed forces personnel killed/disabled during the 1962, 1965, 1971 conflicts, and Operations Pawan (in Sri Lanka) and Meghdoot. It also aims at rehabilitating the families of the soldiers who laid down their lives in the ongoing Kargil operation. The Army Wives Welfare Association (AWWA), registered as an NGO in 1966, rehabilitates, supports and creates opportunities for wives, widows and children of Army personnel. “It has been there for a long time since our borders were always active. It is only now that the media has given it a lot of attention”, says an AWWA official. Though the AWWA has been helping the wives of jawans coming from rural areas adapt to changing trends, a significant role has been the inclusion of widows as commissioned officers. “There are already four women commissioned officers after the relaxation of age up to 30 years”, says Dr Ranjana Malik, president of the AWWA. Monetarily also they are well looked after as benefits such as pension to war widows are slightly enhanced, besides the vocational training which is imparted to wives of soldiers who want access to such ventures, says Dr Malik. Those injured in service are retained and given softer duties while the association helps in finding jobs for them. “The Air Force too has its own welfare measures for widows and disabled soldiers”, says IAF PRO Sqd Ldr Dhingra. The Air Force Wives
Welfare Association, headed by the wife of the Air Chief
Marshal, contributes in a major way towards this end. It
has set up vocational centres at a number of bases to
train wives/ widows of airmen and even officers in
teachers’ training, textile designing, sewing,
stitching, cooking and several other useful vocations. |
Kargil not part of ‘politics of vote’ JAIPUR, June 28 (PTI) — Pakistani aggression in Kargil has already become an election issue but the BJP does not see it in the context of “politics of vote” but as an issue having a bearing on the country’s security and integrity, BJP General Secretary Govindacharya said here today. The circumstances, Pakistani designs to usurp Indian territory and the government’s firm approach and efforts to tackle the aggression have made Kargil an election issue, Mr Govindacharya told a press conference. To a question if the BJP would make the Kargil issue a poll plank, he said “we shall consider it when the poll campaign is launched”. When asked about the Intelligence failure in detecting the massive intrusion in Kargil, the BJP General Secretary said more important issue was the central government’s firm effort to dislodge the intruders and vacate Indian territory of Pakistani intruders. The efforts made by India to vacate the aggression showed a proactive policy of the Centre to get Jammu and Kashmir freed from Pakistani backed terrorism, he said. To a question if India will cross the Line of Control, Mr Govindacharya said the authorities on the spot dealing with the war like situation in Kargil were the best suited to venture an opinion on this. Mr Govindacharya said the BJP was of the opinion that summoning a Rajya Sabha session was not necessary at present when the country needed to pay full attention to vacation of aggression. He said there could’nt be peace unless Pakistani aggression on Indian soil was vacated. He said Pakistan had committed a misadventure, a harakiri, by mounting aggression in Kargil. The BJP leader expressed
the hope that Indian territory would be cleared of all
intruders in Kargil within a week or two and the Lok
Sabha elections would be held as per the scheduled. |
Jessica case: HC seeks records
from NEW DELHI, June 28 (PTI) — The Delhi High Court today sought remand papers and orders pertaining to the Jessica Lal murder case in which Rajya Sabha member D.P. Yadav’s son Vikas Yadav is accused of destroying evidence and harbouring the offender. Justice Madan Lokur sought the remand papers and orders pertaining to the case for tomorrow as defence counsel said these papers should be brought on record before deciding the petition filed by the Delhi Police. Delhi police has filed the petition challenging the bail order granted to Vikas by Metropolitan Magistrate V.K. Khanna on the ground that his custodial interrogation was necessary for recovering the weapon allegedly used in the crime. According to the police, Vikas had allegedly helped prime accused Manu Sharma, son of former Union Minister Venod Sharma, flee the city after the murder of ramp model Jessica Lal in an illegal south Delhi bar on April 30 and had destroyed evidence. The lower court had
granted bail to Vikas, two Coca Cola executives Amardeep
Singh Gill and Alok Khanna and another businessman Amit
Jinghan, saying the offences against them were bailable. |
AP Cong to campaign against TDP HYDERABAD, June 28 (PTI) — The Andhra Pradesh unit of the Congress has decided to launch a month-long campaign against the “misrule” of TDP government in the state from July 1, APCC President Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy said here today. As part of the campaign, christened as “jagruti”, the party in coordination with the respective District Congress Committees (DCCs) would organise public meetings in each mandal of every district, Mr Reddy told reporters after presiding over the APCC executive meeting here. Launching a broadside
against the TDP government, Mr Reddy alleged that the
state government was resorting to the misuse of official
machinery in the run up to the elections. |
Nath threatens action against
DVB staff NEW DELHI, June 28 — The Delhi Power Minister, Dr Narendra Nath said strict action would be taken against the striking technical staff of the Delhi Vidyut Board if the strike was not called off by today. The DVB Technical Staff Association has been on an indefinite strike since last week. “We have had no communication with the striking employees. They are continuing with the strike,” said DVB spokesperson Jagdish Kapoor. With the employees not showing any signs of relenting the Delhi Government has decided to take a tough stand by promising strict action against the striking employees. Dr Nath had met two of
the association demands including increase in conveyance
allowance and issuance of transfer policy. |
5 booked for stealing KVPs worth 1.14 cr NEW DELHI, June 28 (PTI) — The CBI has registered a case against five persons for allegedly stealing Kisan Vikas Patras (KVPs) worth over Rs 1.14 crore. The case registered by the economic offences wing-I of the CBI on June 18, has named Ashwin Dhingra, Dilbhajan Singh Sandhu, Wasim Ahmed, Ramesh Chandra Singh and Arvind Yadav as accused along with some unidentified persons. Dhingra and Sandhu are residents of Rajendra Nagar in the capital, while the rest hail from Varanasi in Uttar Pradesh, the FIR said. The agency alleged that the accused entered into a criminal conspiracy among themselves sometime last year with a view to commit theft of blank KVPs. In pursuance of the said criminal conspiracy they managed to obtain 1,145 blank KVPs of Rs 10,000 each. These KVPs worth Rs 1,14,50,000 were stolen when being despatched from the India Security Press, Nasik, to the central stamp depot in Calcutta in March 1997, the CBI alleged. The KVPs were in fact stolen from a railway wagon lying at Patna railway station. In pursuance of the said criminal conspiracy, the accused filled their names in the KVPs and also forged the signatures of the Post Masters of Cavalry post office, Allahabad and Jamua Bazar post office, Mirzapur, the FIR said. The accused used false rubber stamps which were got made in the names of the said two post offices on the KVPs making them appear like genuine ones, the CBI alleged. The agency alleged that accused Dhingra kept the false and forged KVPs in his safe custody with intention to sell them in market or use them for monetary benefit. The fraud was detected
in August last year during a search of the Dhingra’s
residential premises in connection with investigation of
another case when CBI officials seized these KVPs, the
FIR said. |
Cong, TDP lock horns over local bodies HYDERABAD, June 28 (PTI) — The functioning of local bodies has become a bone of contention between the ruling Telugu Desam Party and the Congress with the latter vowing to abolish nodal officers’ system and self-help groups if it was voted to power. The Congress has alleged that the system had led to the deliberate dilution of powers of the Panchayat Raj bodies. The TDP supremo and Chief Minister Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, however, criticised the Congress’ argument and accused it of trying to scuttle developmental programmes out of frustration. “We are committed to strengthening local bodies by transferring financial and administrative powers as per the 73rd and 74th amendments”, Mr Naidu told reporters here today. He was reacting to the state Congress President Mr Y.S. Rajasekhar Reddy’s, assertion, during a state-level convention on local bodies organised by the party in Ongole town yesterday, that his party, if voted to power, would scrap nodal officers’ set up and parallel committees constituted by TDP government to “usurp the powers of local bodies”. Charging the Congress with pursuing “negative politics”, Mr Naidu said the interests of local bodies were deliberately ignored by the Congress, when it was in power, while his government was committed to the decentralisation of powers and had initiated several measures to strengthen local bodies. “After stifling the aspirations of local bodies for several decades, they (Congress) are now showing false concern”, Chief Minister said. “When they
(Congress) were in power, they never bothered to conduct
elections to local bodies and were now in a desperate
mood to obstruct development”, he said.However, the
crux of the Congress argument is that the self-help
groups, covering various rural development activities
like irrigation, education and health, had become
“parallel centres of powers”. |
Cong opposes change in
Central Plan aid NEW DELHI, June 28 — The Congress today objected to the decision of the Centre to unilaterally change the Central Plan Assistance to states instead of adhering to the existing Gadgil formula. The party said the central government had decided to change instead of providing for “formula-based block grant” also known as the Gadgil formula, that was being followed for more than two decades. The Centre changed the procedure and decided to assist the state governments on a specific project. This is highly undesirable and the state Chief Ministers were not even consulted, the AICC general secretary, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, said here today. He said between 1951 and 1969, there was no formula and the states used to complain that funding on projects was ad hoc. A formula was evolved in 1969 which was revised in 1980 and was being followed since then with revisions. Mr Mukherjee said even this revision were adopted by the Planning Commission after being ratified by the National Development Council of which all state Chief Ministers and Union Cabinet Ministers are members. He said the Centre this
time did not even consult the Chief Ministers and some of
them, including the one of West Bengal, Rajasthan, Madhya
Pradesh and Kerala had already written to the Prime
Minister seeking a meeting of the NDC. |
‘Govt let ultras cross LoC’ KANPUR, June 28 (UNI) — Communist Organisation of India (Marxist-Leninist) General Secretary Kanu Sanyal has charged the BJP-led government at the Centre of allowing Pakistani intruders to cross the Line of Control (LoC) and infilt rate into Kashmir. He accused the government of exploiting the situation for gaining political mileage in the general election. Addressing a press conference here yesterday, Mr Sanyal, who was here to attend a two-day state-level meeting of the party, said the Vajpayee government had helped create a situation for the USA to intervene in the internal affairs of the country which ultimately might lead to signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT). Mr Sanyal said his party had demanded a White Paper on the Kargil situation explaining intelligence failure regarding Pakistani inflitration, the reason why Defence Minister George Fernandes had declared that the intruders would be provided safe passage and the presence of two military generals at the meeting of the BJP national executive. Mr Sanyal also charged the Congress, the BJP and the Left Parties including the CPI(M) of forming of opportunistic alliances to grab power and declared that his organisation would not support any of the combinations. He said the CPI would contest the Lok Sabha elections jointly with Naxalite and other like-minded progressive and revolutionary groups by forming a front at the national level. Preliminary discussions among the leaders of six such groups had been held in West Bengal. The second round of discussions would now be held in Delhi on July 1. He said about 16 to 18 groups were likely to join the proposed front. He said the front would
put up candidates in most of the states. |
IAF top brass told to be prepared BANGALORE, June 28 (PTI) — The Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis, today cautioned the IAF commanders to be prepared for any eventuality. Addressing a conference of Commanders of various training establishments under the Training Command here, the Air Chief Marshal briefed them about the IAF’s role in Kargil and exhorted all Air Force personnel to be alert and alive to the responsibilities and trust reposed in them by the nation. He later gave away trophies for the best training establishment, the best ground training establishment and for flight and maintenance safety to the commandants of Air Force Station, Bidar, Air Force Technical College, Jalahalli and Air Force Academy, Hyderabad respectively. At another function
organised at the Training Command, Mr Molina Tipnis,
President of the Air Force Wives Welfare Association,
received from K.S. Vaidyanathan, an industrialist, a
cheque for Rs 5 lakh for Air Force Central Welfare Fund. |
PCOs for war widows, soldiers NEW DELHI, June 28 (PTI) — The government will allot public call offices (PCOs) to war widows and disabled soldiers on an out-of-turn basis for a period of one year. The proposal to allot PCOs with the STD and ISD facilities has already been cleared by the Minister of State for Telecommunications, Mr Kabindra Purkayastha, “in view of the sacrifice made by the soldiers fighting for the country and the hardship faced by the members of their family,” an official release said here today. The facility would be applicable to one of the dependants of the soldiers, including from paramilitary forces, those who have been rendered disabled or those in captivity or missing, the release said. The educational criteria
of the applicants has also been relaxed, it said, adding
that for war widows the minimum qualification to get a
PCO booth had been relaxed to fifth standard instead of
matriculation. |
Monsoon arrives in Delhi NEW DELHI, June 28 (UNI) — The much-awaited monsoon arrived in the Capital today but the weather office said the system is not “well marked” and heavy showers are not expected in the next two or three days. The monsoon normally hit Delhi by June 29, but the weather office had forecast an early onset, around June 25, this year. The rains, however, played truant, mainly because of stronger westerlies prevailing over the moisture-laden easterlies, the weather office said. Different observatories in the Capital recorded rainfall ranging from 12.6 mm (Ayanagar) to 20.8 mm (Ridge) and 21.9 mm (Safdarjung). “The monsoon
current is not supported by any well-marked system.
Hence, the precipitation activity in north-west India is
likely to be subdued over these areas in the next two to
three days. Some isolated thundershowers accompanied with
showers cannot be ruled out,” the weather office
said this evening. |
Jeweller’s shop burgled NEW DELHI, June 28 — Gold and diamond jewellery worth lakhs of rupees was robbed from a local jeweller’s shop allegedly by a Nepali servant at Karol Bagh in central district. The servant, Vishnu,
lived on the first floor of the shop at Bank Street at
Karol Bagh. When the shop was closed, he opened it, broke
open the locker and decamped with the valuables. He is
absconding, the police said. |
DSGMC elections NEW DELHI, June 28 — President of Delhi unit of the Shiromani Akali Dal, Mr Avtar Singh Hit, yesterday said all those who were keen on contesting the forthcoming Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee elections under the aegis of the SAD should submit their curriculum vitae to the state office. Mr Hit said the complete
biodata of the prospective candidate must reach the Delhi
unit office located at Gurdwara Rakabganj complex by July
10. |
DMRC holds blood donation
camp NEW DELHI, June 28 — The Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) today organised a blood donation camp in the Capital for the relief of soldiers wounded while fighting in the Kargil sector of Jammu and Kashmir. The DMRC employees have
also decided to donate one day’s salary. The
Corporation is overseeing the work of the Metro Rail
Transport System in Delhi. |
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| Bandh hits life in
Manipur IMPHAL: Normal life came to a grinding halt throughout Manipur on Monday following a students-sponsored 48-hour ‘North-East bandh’ to press for their demand of immediate deletion of the word Manipuri from ‘Bishnupriya Manipuri’ by the Assam and Tripura governments. Official sources said the attendance in the government offices was almost nil with transport operators cancelling their services to various parts of the region including long-distance destinations. — PTI Sikkim to have human
rights panel Red panda cubs
born Delhi metro
train by 2002 Cases against
dailies Wall to prevent
sea erosion Pakistan flag
burnt Sikkim remains
cut-off from country Holy relic
displayed |
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