Wednesday, March 10, 1999
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N A T I O N |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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Use of Art 356 in Bihar
flayed Advani
turns down plebiscite demand |
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PM calls
on President
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Hurriyat to take on former
chairman Pak
may get the edge Govt
not ignoring RS: Sinha Change
in building bylaws justified AIR
stir hits news bulletins Probe
into UT cops’ selection |
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Use of Art 356 in Bihar flayed NEW DELHI, March 9 (PTI) — The Congress today attacked the Vajpayee Government for "misusing" Article 356 in Bihar for "political gains" and accused it of failure on many fronts. Participating in the resumed discussion on the motion of thanks to the President’s Address in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Kapil Sibal (Cong) criticised the government for dismissing the Rabri Government at a time when the law and order situation in Bihar was far better than many other states in the country. A report by the Home Ministry suggested that the crime record in Bihar during 1993-96 was far better than in other states, Mr Sibal said. "Article 356 was used in Bihar by the government to serve its political interests," he said. He also criticised the government for not fulfilling its promise on issues such as judicial reforms, allocation of 6 per cent of GDP for education and drafting of a national water policy. Mr Raja Ramanna (Nom) said the Patent Bill should be passed by Parliament as it would benefit the country to a great extent. He also called for a rethinking on subsidies and said they should be given in areas where they were required. Dr M.N. Das (Cong) said the BJP-led government, instead of concentrating on measures to alleviate sufferings of the people, was only trying to keep its allies together. Though the Prime Minister’s Lahore bus diplomacy was a good gesture, the government should not feel jubilant in the wake of the statements by the Pakistan Prime Minister. Mr Kartar Singh Duggal
(Nom) criticised the government for the Pokhran nuclear
blasts and said misery of the poor would multiply
following the economic sanctions. Congress member from
Mizoram, Hipei referred to the rising incidence of
violence in the country, particularly against religious
minorities, in the past year. |
Advani turns down plebiscite demand NEW DELHI, March 9 (PTI) — Home Minister L K Advani today rejected in the Lok Sabha Pakistan’s demand for a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir and asserted that the border state "is an integral part of India and there can be no compromise on it at any point of time." "There is no question of plebiscite," Mr Advani said while replying to a calling attention motion moved by Mr T. Subbarami Reddy, Congress, on the situation arising out of the killing of 22 persons by militants in the Jammu region last month and the action taken by the government thereto. Declaring that the government would continue to wage a relentless battle against militancy, he said simultaneously there would be no let up in efforts to improve relations with Pakistan. He said Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had drawn the attention of his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif during his historic Lahore visit to the killings in Rajouri district noting how could one talk about normalisation of relations when such incidents were taking place. Describing the Rajouri and Udhampur incidents, which took place during Mr Vajpayee’s Pakistan visit, as "calculated, designed and executed the same night" to provoke communal disturbances, Mr Advani said all such attempts would be frustrated. He said the Centre had warned the state government and security agencies about possible stepped-up activities by militants during that period. Mr Advani said tourism was picking up in the state and had attracted over one lakh tourists so far besides facilitating the smooth passage of over 1.50 lakh pilgrims to Amarnath. Shooting of films in Kashmir valley, suspended for several years, has restarted. Restaurants are doing good business and there has been a spurt in occupancy in popular shikaras (house boats), he said observing "J and K is moving towards normalcy’’. The minister assured the
House that security forces had undertaken extensive
combing operations resulting in the death of 51
militants. Last month 51 militants were killed in J and
K, he said. |
PM calls on President NEW DELHI, March 9 (PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee called on President K. R. Narayanan at Rashtrapati Bhavan here this evening. The 30-minute meeting was described as a "courtesy call" by a Rashtrapati Bhavan spokesman. The meeting comes a day after the government had revoked President's rule in Bihar since the statutory resolution on it was certain to be defeated in the Rajya Sabha where the ruling coalition does not have a majority. Mr Narayanan is leaving
for Chennai tomorrow to undergo an operation for the
removal of cataract. |
Minister favouring dissidents: Cong BANGALORE, March 9 (PTI) — The Opposition Congress in the Karnataka Assembly today demanded the resignation of Housing Minister H D Revanna, accusing him of "favouritism and whimsical" allotment of houses under ‘Ashraya’ housing scheme. Congress leader M Mallikarjuna Kharge, who raised the issue during zero hour, charged that the minister had flouted rules, norms and even policy to favour some Legislators, the majority of them ruling party dissidents. He alleged that fewer houses were allotted to MLAs from opposition parties, while ruling partymen, particularly dissidents, secured a "bounty" by cornering a large number of houses. Mr Kharge said Mr Revanna had no moral right to continue in office and should quit. Mr Kharge also warned that the opposition parties would not hesitate to disrupt the proceedings of the House, if the government failed to withdraw various allotment orders hitherto issued and rectify anomalies. He charged that while a section of ruling partymen were allotted around 1000 houses opposition MLAs and Janata Dal MLAs, who were not supporters of Mr Revanna, were given just 200 to 300 houses. Mr Kharge accused Mr Revanna of misusing his power and adopting a "partisan attitude" by issuing orders allotting houses to favour individual MLAs. Mr B Shivaram (Cong) charged the minister, who is in-charge of Hassan district, of favouring his district and his Holenarasipur assembly constituency. While Holenarasipur constituency got 2650 houses, the entire Hassan district was allotted 9425 houses the majority of them in favour of the ruling party. Karnataka Assembly Speaker Ramesh Kumar warned the government that he would not tolerate the failure of ministers to reply to questions raised by Members in the House. Mr Kumar’s warning came in the wake of displeasure expressed by some opposition BJP and Congress members that the government had not sent replies to their questions tabled during the last session. He said since the term of the 10th Assembly was coming to an end, it was not proper on the part of ministers to evade replies to questions sent by members. When Minister of State for
Power Sharanabasappa Darshanapur sought a week’s
time to reply to a starred question today, the Speaker,
rejected the request and gave only two days to reply. |
Hurriyat to take on former chairman NEW DELHI, March 9 — A concerted vilification campaign is underway against former APHC Chairman Maulvi Umar Farooq in Kashmir valley with some senior members of the organisation accusing him of financial bungling during his stewardship of the APHC. Maulvi Farooq, who left the country on a Haj pilgrimage last week, is likely to be confronted with details of expenditure incurred during his two years as APHC chairman, the sources said adding facts were being collected. The campaign, which has the blessings of the present APHC Chairman, Mr S.A.S. Gilani and JKLF leader, Mr Yasin Malik, is aimed at discrediting Maulvi Farooq. Camp followers of Mr Gilani, Mr Malik and the Peoples Conference leader, Mr A.G. Lone, allege that Maulvi Farooq had favoured some parties while in the saddle. To support this they say expenses under Mr Gilani have been lower than over the same period under Maulvi Farooq. Maulvi Farooq’s pilgrimage and other foreign trips is also being questioned with some leaders accusing him of having links with the Government of India. "How come he (Maulvi Farooq) manages to get permission to go abroad while none of us have the privilege of going to foreign countries", a senior Hurriyat leader said recently. The Awami Action Committee, led by Maulvi Farooq, has of late been trying to spread its area of influence beyond Srinagar, its traditional base. Ever since Maulvi Farooq relinquished the APHC chairmanship, he has been maintaining a distance from other Hurriyat leaders. This has obviously irked the APHC leadership. The APHC leadership is
wary of Maulvi Farooq as they think the former APHC
Chairman is pursuing an independent agenda distinct from
the common goals of the organisation. "He should
fall in line", a Hurriyat leader said. |
French
submarines NEW DELHI, March 9 (ANI) — Pakistan is likely to steal a march over India in long-range patrol submarines when it acquires the French Agosta class boat equipped with the state-of-the-art air-independent propulsion (AI) with electrochemical generators. India too has shown interest in air-independent propulsion technology produced by the Russian Federation for its Amur class submarine even as it is continuing work on its Advanced Technology Vessel (ATV) nuclear propulsion project. Pakistan has signed a contract with France for three Agosta class submarines one of which will have a MESMA steam—and-gas AIP system. Air-independent propulsion fuel cells operate without the induction of atmospheric air supply as required for diesel-electric submarines which surface every 24 hours to recharge batteries. The unit is small in size, produces little noise and emits very little heat. The Russian Federation has offered the technology to India because joint development will reduce costs and that is also the methodology applied by Germany, Sweden and France, which have tied up with Italy, Japan and Spain, respectively, to ensure that their future submarine fleets will be both cost-effective and give better value for money in terms of range and submerged endurance. Also, air-independent propulsion technology does not bear the burden of international controls and embargoes as in the case of nuclear propulsion, being essentially within the “conventional” technology regime. The first and second generation AIP systems increase submerged endurance by as much as 15 days to about 45 days and the third generation fuel cells raise this limit to up to 90 days at a stretch thereby coming close to the rest-and-recreation break required to be given to the crew of nuclear-powered submarines, the submerged endurance of which is unlimited. The fuel cell creates energy through direct conversion of chemical reaction between hydrogen and an oxidiser into electricity thereby bypassing the usual internal combustion cycle as in diesel generation. The Russians have developed technology to entrap hydrogen (which is volatile) in a metallic sodium-boron compound and use cryogenic liquid oxygen as catalyst. The control and fire explosion protection system has been developed to automatically check the power plant’s technological parameters as well as the fuel cell’s atmospheric parameters and can cut off the supply of reagent (oxygen) in an emergency. The reaction byproduct is water. The Russians have
developed a second generation system which is land-based
and can be used as a refuelling station on to service
submarines at harbour. |
Govt not ignoring RS: Sinha NEW DELHI, March 9 — The government today denied the charge that it was bypassing its constitutional obligations by not bringing before the Rajya Sabha legislations passed in the Lok Sabha. Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha, was replying to opposition charges through the Congress Chief Whip Pranab Mukherjee and the CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta. “Mr Sinha said,” Government acted constitutionally and I would like to dispel this impression that government is bypassing the Constitution.” He added the government was not shying away from discussion on any issue in the House, but the time allotment for it must be decided by the Business Advisory Committee of the Rajya Sabha. The opposition also charged the Government with not being interested in taking up discussion on important issues thus curtailing their rights. Mr Pranab Mukherjee led the opposition charge and said that it seemed there was no need for having the upper House as it was being completely neglected. Mr Mukherjee pointed out that Opposition Members had time and again asked the government in the Business Advisory Committee meetings to allot time for discussions on important matters and also wanted to know the fate of certain legislations. In this context he specially referred to the Prasar Bharati Bill which had passed by the Lok Sabha in the monsoon session and was yet to be brought to the Rajya Sabha. He also wondered why the government revoked President’s Rule in Bihar without bringing the notification on the issue before the Rajya Sabha for discussion. Associating with Mr Pranab Mukherjee on the issue, CPI member Gurudas Dasgupta said the Rajya Sabha appeared to have become a house “abandoned” by the government. He said all sensitive issues like the ones raised by Admiral Bhagwat and Mr Guruswami were being discussed in the press regularly, but the House was being denied its right to debate them. He said, he had asked the Government to allot time for a discussion on the increasing atrocities on minorities but nothing had been done in the matter. “Can we discuss important, controversial and sensitive issues at all,” he wanted to know. Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha, Ms Najma Heptullah, who was in the Chair shared the sentiments of the opposition members and said that it should be ensured that no such impression was created that the government sought to bypass or neglect this House. Addressing the members of the Treasury Benches she said “if you don’t save the relevance of this House, then you would become redundant.” Replying to the charges Mr Pramod Mahajan, Information & Broadcasting Minister, said the government will bring the Prasar Bharati Bill before the Rajya Sabha according to its own convenience. When agitated Congress members wanted to know whether the Bill would be introduced in the ongoing session, Mr Mahajan said “whatever is constitutionally needed will be done about this Bill too”. Mr Pranab Mukherjee (Cong) said the Bill had already been passed by the Lok Sabha in the monsoon session but no initiative was being taken by the government to introduce the legislation in the upper house. Mr John Fernandes (Cong)
said the Minister had committed a breach of privilege
since his predecessor, Mrs Sushma Swaraj, had told the
house in the monsoon session that the Bill would be
introduced in the Upper House in that very session. |
Change in building bylaws justified NEW DELHI, March 9 (PTI) — The Union Ministry of Urban Affairs (MUA) has justified amendment in the Delhi building bylaws recommended by the Malhotra Committee in May last year permitting an additional floor in existing houses and an increase in the floor area ratio (FAR). The MUA, in an affidavit filed in the Delhi High Court, said the amendment was made after due consideration of all aspects and taking opinion from experts, commercial organisations and people in the larger interest of the general public in view of a shortage of houses in Delhi. The affidavit was filed in reply to a petition by the NGOs Forum for National Capital Region (NFNCR) which had challenged recommendations of the Malhotra Committee on the ground that it would result in pollution, commercialisation of residential areas and extended beyond Delhi Development Authority (DDA) and National Capital Board (NCB) rules. According to the Malhotra Committee recommendations, notified on May 21 last year, the entire basement area will not be counted in FAR and permission would be granted to construct a full floor at the top instead of a “barsati”. This also provides for levying certain charges on those house owners, who already had made unauthorised construction, and the funds so collected would be spent on improving public amenities. Describing the petition as “ill conceived”, the MUA questioned its validity stating that the forum had raised issues which pertained to policy decisions falling within the “domain” of executive and legislature. The affidavit said the government had taken the decision after a detailed study of all aspects considering the pressure of growing population in the capital which had now touched the 1.20 crore mark. It said 25 per cent of the
population in Delhi was living in over 1500 unauthorised
colonies raised on government and private land and
another 25 per cent was of jhuggi dwellers, resulting in
multiple problems. |
AIR stir hits news bulletins NEW DELHI, March 9 — The broadcast of regional language news bulletins was affected with listeners being forced to hear day-old news following a lightning strike by various sections of AIR staff. Though the news bulletins in Hindi and English were hand written or typed by senior news staff and read out by casual newsreaders, bulletins in 15 other languages were only the recordings of news broadcast before midnight yesterday. The news readers, assignee newsreaders, stenographers, editors, correspondents, translators, music and administrative staff in AIR all over the country commenced a 24-hour strike last night in support of their demands. The staff are incensed at
having been ignored by Information and Broadcasting
Minister, Pramod Mahajan, who announced a 10 to 20 per
cent pay hike for about 17,000 engineering, transmission
and programme executives of Prasar Bharati. |
Probe into UT cops’
selection NEW DELHI, March 9 — A vigilance inquiry has been ordered into complaints of irregularities in the selection of assistant sub-inspectors of Police in the Union Territory of Chandigarh. This was stated by the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K. Advani in reply to a question raised by Mr Satya Pal Jain, MP from Chandigarh. The minister said the government had received complaints against the selection of constables and ASIs by the Chandigarh police. He said the selection of constables by the Chandigarh Administration had been quashed by the Central Administrative Tribunal (Chandigarh branch) on the ground that several irregularities had been committed in finalising the list of successful candidates. A copy of the judgement in
question was received by the Chandigarh Administration
only recently and it proposed to take appropriate action
against officials found to be guilty of any misdemeanour. |
Maneka quizzed on use of funds NEW DELHI, March 9 (UNI) —Opposition members in the Lok Sabha today hauled up Minister of Social Justice and Empowerment Maneka Gandhi for diversion and non-utilisation of budgeted allocation for scavengers welfare schemes and wanted to know whether the ministry could divert funds. Ms Gandhi maintained that out of total allocation of Rs 90 crore, an amount of Rs 35 crore had been reappropriated to the centrally sponsored scheme of post matric scholarship for the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. However, under the revised estimates for 1998-99 the allocation under this scheme had been fixed at Rs 20 crore and no money has been surrendered. In his main question Mr
Jogendra Kawade (RPI) that a sum of Rs 90 crore was meant
for liberation and rehabilitation of scavengers during
1998-99 but only Rs 5.90 crore was spent and the rest
diverted to the scholarship scheme for the SCs and the
STs. |
Indian doctor part of USA’s
first hand NEW DELHI, March 9 (PTI) — A 17-member team of doctors including an Indian, has transplanted the left hand of a brain dead person on a 38-year old, whose hand was amputated 13 years ago in a blast injury. The surgery, performed by doctors at Kleinert Kutz Hand Care Centre, University of Louisville, was the USA’s first and world’s third hand transplant, Dr Amit Gupta, the only Indian member of the team, told reporters here yesterday. Though the patient is recovering well, at least a year and a half is needed for the hand to become "workable". "Complete sensation will never return in that hand," he added. The procedure, still in the experimental stage, is a costly one and involves a number of risks as the patient has to be kept on life-long immuno-suppression which means destruction of the person’s natural diseases-fighting abilities. He said, adding patients can develop diseases due to a suppressed immune system. The operation was
performed on January 24 with the consent of the patient
after a review by the Ethics Committee of the University,
Dr Gupta said. |
‘Outlook’ cartoonist missing NEW DELHI, March 9 (PTI) — A senior cartoonist of the news magazine "Outlook", Irfan Hussain, has been reported "missing under mysterious circumstances" after dropping a friend at Lakshmibai Nagar in South Delhi last night. According to an FIR lodged by 34-year-old Hussain's wife, the artist did not returned to his Sahibabad home in Uttar Pradesh after dropping his friend Major Srinivasan, police sources said today. Outlook's managing editor Tarun J. Tejpal said Hussain, who was driving a white Maruti 800, last spoke to his wife on the mobile phone at about 10.45 pm, saying he had reached Mayur Vihar in East Delhi and would be home in another 15 minutes. Tejpal claimed that no accident was reported on the Mayur Vihar-Sahibabad stretch and that all hospitals and nursing homes in the vicinity confirmed this. Meanwhile, the police is
making efforts to trace Hussain and a team under
Assistant Sub-inspector P.C. Patel has been formed for
the purpose. |
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| IA’s special salute to
women NEW DELHI: Indian Airlines saluted international Women’s Day in a special way: All-women crews flew three of their flights on Monday, two of them international. Delhi-Kathmandu-Delhi flight was operated by Capt Nivedita Bhasin and Capt Indrani Singh, both Airbus A300 commanders, along with a complete set of all-women cabin crew. Capt Bhasin has logged 8000 flying hours and Capt Singh, 5000. — UNI Human rights cells in
police HQ Award for women No code of conduct
for scribes Suspension of 3
Cong MLAs revoked Road named after
constable 9 ultras held in
Tripura 27 dacoits held in
Rajasthan Vice-Admiral
assumes charge 10 yrs’ RI
for Dawood aides Sound levels above
85 harmful Three passport
racketeers held |
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