Saturday, November 20, 1999
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N A T I O N |
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Clinton’s visit
confirmed Red alert in Bihar Punjab Govt moves SC on Lok Pal |
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Hegde to
head Indo-French Forum
Cyclone renders thousands jobless SC criticises HC for quashing PIL IGNCA rebuts CAG report Offensives elsewhere "were
considered"
CBI: Mahato wasn’t pressured Thakre for Central rule in Tripura Pure drinks plant shut down |
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Clinton’s visit confirmed NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (UNI) — US Ambassador to India Richard Celeste has confirmed President Bill Clinton’s visit to India in February-March next year and said that his visit would take place irrespective of the situation in Pakistan or whether he chose to miss Islamabad from his itinerary. In an interview to Star Newshour, Mr Celeste said "the President will visit India early next year, but that is not contingent in any way with our relationship with Pakistan. He is likely to visit one or two other South Asian countries, and his visit to India will be designed to meet and engage India’s leaders.’’ Mr Celeste also emphasised that India and Pakistan were no longer treated uniformly by the USA foreign policy establishment, and hinted that India was now on a different plane. "I think it is clear that the USA wants to have a strong, robust relationship with India that’s appropriate with India’s role in the 21st century, and we are going to pursue that on a bilateral basis. At the same time, we want a friendly relationship with Pakistan, but the two should not be glued together. There needs to be a separate independent policy for both.’’ At the same time, Mr Celeste claimed that the future of the Indo-US relations and the end of sanctions was crucially dependent on the progress achieved in the nuclear dialogue between Mr Jaswant Singh and Mr Strobe Talbott. "Some of the sanctions relate to getting to a point where we have harmonised our views on non-proliferation. A full blown relationship with India and Pakistan is possible only if we get beyond our views on non-proliferation,’’ said Mr Celeste. The US Ambassador described the ongoing talks as constructive, but was unable to specify in what direction progress had actually been made. "This is an ongoing discussion, and this is why I was in London last week for the Talbott-Jaswant talks. I have had the privilege of watching two extraordinary representatives of our governments communicating with each other. The trend is positive and the work is encouraging and I believe the next few months are goint to be constructive.’’ The US Ambassador said the areas of common interest between the two countries had increased in recent years. "Fighting terrorism
is a common interest and the cooperation in that area is
growing, given the part of the world where India lives.
We also have shared interests in anti-narcotics and
fighting white collar crime,’’ Mr Celeste said.
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Red alert in Bihar PATNA, Nov 19 (UNI) — The Bihar Government today sounded the red alert in Palamu district and deployed four extra companies of the paramilitary forces following the massacre of 12 members of a minority family on Tuesday even as the Congress and the CPM separately demanded Chief Minister Rabri Devi’s resignation. Inspector-General of Police (Operations) M.K. Sinha said an intense search operation was on to nab culprits who were instrumental in the killings near Lowto village in the district. He said four extra companies of paramilitary forces had been sent to the district and a close watch was being maintained at railway stations, bus stands and other public places to nab the killers. He said the Zonal Inspector-General of Police (Ranchi) was supervising the combing operations though no arrest had been made so far. Meanwhile, Bihar State Congress Committee President Sadanand Singh and the Legislative Congress Party leader visited the spot during the day and demanded that the Chief Minister should step down owning moral responsibility for the butchering of so many lives and administrative failure. Holding the state government and the Centre equally responsible for such types of incidents in the state, they said the Army should be called out since the administration had failed to protect the lives and property of people. They said an investigation should also be ordered to inquire into the reason for the delay in reporting the matter to the Centre. NEW DELHI: The BJP said on Friday the Rabri Devi Government in Bihar had no moral right to govern the state in the wake of massacre of 12 persons in Palamau district. There was total breakdown of law and order and the Constitution in the state and the Rabri Devi Government was not functioning, party spokesman M. Venkaiah Naidu told reporters here. Condemning the massacre, he said this was not an isolated incident. The state had witnessed such gruesome incidents earlier also. Mr Naidu alleged that the state government was hand in glove with the culprits as action was yet to be initiated against them. Expressing surprise over the silence of the Congress and Left parties on the barbaric incident, he said these parties were responsible for bringing the "jungle raj" to Bihar for "petty" political gains. The BJP leader said though the Congress and Left parties claimed themselves to be champions of minorities, they had not condemned the incident even though all victims belonged to the minority community. Meanwhile, the Congress indicated that it was not in favour of Central rule in Bihar at present as elections to the State Assembly are round the corner. The question as to who should rule the state should be left to the people as the elections are nearing, party spokesperson Anil Shastri said. Asked whether there would be free and fair elections under the Rashtriya Janata Dal of Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav, Mr Shastri asked a counter question: "If free and fair elections can be possible under Mr Kalyan Singh in UP and Mr Chandrababu Naidu in Andhra Pradesh, why not under Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav in Bihar?’’. Asked about the
criticism about the Digvijay Singh Government in Madhya
Pradesh by Congress leader Subhash Yadav, he said Mr
Yadav should have raised his complaints before the A.K.
Antony committee. When a party forum is available why
should party leaders use the media for airing their
grievances on internal matters, he asked recalling that
there was no complaint from the MPCC. |
Punjab Govt moves SC on Lok Pal NEW DELHI, Nov 19 — The Punjab Government today moved the Supreme Court challenging the Punjab and Haryana High Court order quashing the appointment of Justice Harbans Singh Rai as the Lok Pal of the state. A Division Bench comprising Chief Justice A.S. Anand and Mr Justice R.C. Lahoti, before whom the special leave petition (SLP) came up for hearing, extended the stay on the operation of the high court order. The high court stayed the operations of its own order for three weeks following a request by the counsel for the Punjab Government. The high court stay would have come to an end on November 25. The SLP filed by the standing counsel at the apex court, contended that the finding of the high court that the consultations must be preceeded with written proposals and must be in writing is "erroneous." The high court had quashed the appointment of Justice Harbans Singh as it was not made on the basis of the advice tendered by the Chief Minister after consultations with the Chief Justice of the Punjab and Haryana High Court and the Speaker of the Assembly as required under Section 4 of the 1996 Punjab Lokpal Act. The said section of the Act "does not mandate that the consultation between the Chief Minister and the Chief Justice of the high court and Speaker of the Assembly is required to be in writing or that the proposals are to be put up in writing by the Chief Minister to the Chief Justice of High Court/Speaker of the Assembly," the counsel in the SLP submitted. The high court order
came on a writ petition filed by Pandit Balmukand, Mr Lal
Singh, Master Jagir Singh and Shamsher Singh Dullo. They
were proceeded against by the Lok Pal for alleged
corruption. |
New shells save 200 cr forex
annually CHANDIGARH, Nov 19 — Indigenous armour piercing ammunition developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), while enhancing the firepower of battle tanks, is also expected to save the country over Rs. 200 crore per annum in foreign exchange. The DRDO has transferred technology for manufacturing the 125 mm Fin Stabilised Armoured Piercing Discarding Sabot (FSAPDS) ammunition to the Ordnance Factory Board as well as to the Army's Directorate General of Quality Assurance earlier this year, sources said here. The ammunition is meant for the Army's T-72 and the more advanced T-72 M1 main battle tanks, most of which are in the Western Sector. It has been designed by the Pune-based Armament Research and Development Establishment with assistance from the Chandigarh-based Terminal Ballistics Research Laboratory, High Energy Material Research Laboratory and the Balasore-based Proof and Experimental Establishment. The production targets for the ammunition has been set at 40,000 rounds per annum. Sources say that the indigenous FSAPDS round is superior to the existing service ammunition in accuracy and lethality. It is said to be capable of defeating all known NATO armour at a range of 2,500 meters. Considrations for the design of the ammunition were — ability to fire from the T-72's smoothbore gun, not to exceed the existing storage space in the tank, be loaded in the gun by the auto-loader without affecting the rate of fire and finally, to retain the ballistic performance to conform to the existing T-72 gunsight grading pattern. The FSAPDS is a sub-calibre projectile designed to meet the ballistic requirements in the gun while being fired and while penetrating the armour. The projectile is a narrow bar made of very dense tungesten with fins at the rear to stabilise it during flight. The projectile is encompassed by three-segmented alluminium sabot, which separate when the projectile leaves the barrel. The sabot holds the projectile in the main, larger calibre brass shell and also provides a large base area to develop high kinetic energy during the travel down the barrel length. Unlike some other types of tank ammunition which have high explosive warheads, FSAPDS's effects include deformation, mushrooming, erosion, brittle fracture and thermo-chemical reaction.
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Cyclone renders thousands
jobless ASTRANG (ORISSA), Nov 19- The first rays of sun means nothing for fisherman Chakraborty Pandhiary. It is yet another hopeless, frustrating day ahead for him when all his energy will be spent standing in long queues for a morsel of food. From being an active fisherman, who used to go sailing early morning into the rough seas, Pandhiary today, like thousands of other men in his community, is jobless. The super cyclone that struck coastal Orissa on October 29 was particularly harsh on Astrang and other adjoining blocks of Puri district as here the speed of the winds was maximum. "I have never seen or heard anything of this magnitude. When the authorities made a public announcement on the eve of the cyclone we thought it must be another strong wind. It was just like something happening in a cinema. It struck us at a speed of more than 300 km. I tried to go out and I was flung a few metres away. I saw boats flying, trees crashing and our houses just disappear", Pandhiary recalls of the nightmare. More than 20 days after the cyclone struck, there are no traces of the thatched roofs and the mud walls that made for the dwellings and numerous families are seen living in the open. Though living in thatched huts, the possessions of the fishermen reveal that they were living quite a comfortable life. This correspondent saw a well carved wooden bed with one family, a sofa set with another and steel utensils in most houses. Pandhiary admits that life was comfortable earlier. He recalls he used to eat three times a day. "Today even one meal is a blessing. I feel tired without having enough food", he rues. The tiny harbour of Nuagarh in this district has 250 families dependent on fishing for a livelihood and with all their 50 boats and trawlers destroyed they are forced to depend on the relief doled out by government agencies. According to the Block Development Officer of Astrang, Bhimsen Mongras, Nuagarh is only one among the several villages affected in the area. All 109 villages in the district with a population of 85,511 have been equally affected. Though there have been minimum casualties (150) in the area, thanks to the timely warning issued by the Public Relations Department, more than 15,000 cattle have perished, all the crops destroyed and people pushed to the brink of penury. Several villages are marooned even today and one can reach Taloa, Susua, Churiana and Nagar only with the help of ferries. Mongras says that since the Government cannot feed the villagers for an indefinite period, the time had come to rehabilitate them. The Delhi Government has adopted Puri district and state officials have indicated that they would launch a labour intensive reconstruction programme for the area. This would keep the villagers going till the time they start cultivation or fishing, the main occupation of the people here. Several villagers confided that they would prefer the government to give them loans and seeds to restart farming. The farmers and fishermen say they are in no position to repay the earlier loans taken by them and the government should waive it. However, villagers in adjoining Kakatpur say they would have to depend on employment provided by the government for months to come now. Many of them were growing coconut and betel leaves. A coconut tree would take at least five years to grow. Officials of the Departments of Agriculture, Horticulture and banks have visited the place in recent days and an appropriate decision would be taken soon, Mr Mongras says. In such situations, there is also a tendency among people to exagerate their woes. For instance, an official pointed out that all fishermen had removed the motors and engines of their boats and trawlers and only the wooden structure had been damaged. But at the time of claims, they would include the motor and engine in their list of losses. This correspondent saw over 10 policemen searching a village for stolen goods. Several trawlers from Andhra Pradesh which took refuge in Nuagarh have filed a complaint that the local people stole their engines soon after the cyclone. Like the Block Development Officer of adjoining Niali, Mr F.C. Jena, says, there is so much of uncertainty about one’s future here that people would go to any extent to secure it. Theft is one of the means. He fears that with hundreds of people unemployed, there could be a serious law and order problem in the state unless emergency measures are taken to rehabilitate them. The locals are however, pessimistic about relief coming their way in the few months to come. Hemant Kumar Raut of
Jalerpur village is among them who has decided to try his
luck elsewhere. "I will go to some city, maybe
Calcutta for a job. Here I will starve without any
work", Raut’s tiny piece of cultivable land was
destroyed in the cyclone, he said. |
Indira Gandhi remembered NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (PTI) — The nation today fondly remembered late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi on her 82nd birth anniversary recalling her glorious past. President K. R. Narayanan, Vice-President Krishan Kant, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi were among the top dignitaries who offered floral tributes at her samadhi, Shakti Sthal, in the Capital. First lady Usha Narayanan, Vice-President’s wife Vimla Krishan Kant, Union Minister Jagmohan, several senior Congress leaders, including Dr Manmohan Singh and Mr Madhavrao Scindia, Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit and her Cabinet colleagues were also present at Shakti Sthal. Religious songs and
bhajans were recited on the occasion. In the Central Hall
of Parliament, Deputy Chairperson of the Rajya Sabha led
several parliamentarians and former MPs in paying homage
to the assassinated leader, who dominated the national
and international scenario for nearly two decades. |
SC criticises HC for quashing PIL NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (PTI) — The Supreme Court has severely criticised the Gujarat High Court for dimissing a public interest litigation (PIL) highlighting illegalities committed in a court at Dakor, including issuance of an arrest warrant against former Bombay High Court acting Chief Justice M. L. Phendse. "There cannot be any dispute that the facts revealed a serious scandal in the functioning of some subordinate court in Gujarat. Disapproving the manner in which the high court later dismissed the PIL, the Bench comprising Mr Justice G. B. Pattanaik and Mr Justice R. P. Sethi directed the high court to consider the PIL on merits on the basis of reports submitted to it. The background of the case was that Manohar Gilani and his family members on the basis of false complaints filed by Kishore Keshwani, who had a lot of political influence, were harassed and arrested on the basis of arrest warrants issued by the lower courts. Mr Gilani had lodged an
FIR to this effect and with the assistance of a local
press reporter in Mumbai had exposed the entire scandal
that was happening in the court at Dakor. The high court
had also quashed the complaints and inquiry on the basis
of FIR registered by Gilani. |
Women oppose death penalty to rapists HYDERABAD, Nov 19 (PTI) — Several women organisations have opposed the Andhra Pradesh Government’s proposal to award death penalty to rapists contending that the proposal will distort women’s demand for justice. The Forum for Justice in Rape Cases, an organisation comprising four women groups and a human rights’ forum, in a letter to Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu opposed the state’s recommendation to the Union Government to amend the Indian Penal Code to award death penalty to rapists. "We reject this approach of the state as it would cause more harm to women than bring them any relief. We want justice and not revenge", Rekha Pappu, convener of the forum told reporters here. The more severe the punishment, the less is the likelihood of the culprits being punished as the upper castes and wealthy would easily escape from law by forcing out-of-court compromises, she said. Moreover, the death
penalty arms the state with further powers which could be
misued, she said. |
IGNCA rebuts CAG report NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (UNI) — The Indira Gandhi National Centre for Arts (IGNCA) today rebutted several reported observations of the Comptroller and Auditor General’s team about its working. Stating that it had sent a point-by-point rejoinder about the CAG audit team’s inspection report, the IGNCA said here today that it was making these public as the matter had been frequently appearing in the media in recent days. Responding to the CAG’s reported observation that an extra Rs 25 crore was released to the IGNCA during 1992-95 without assessing its requirements, the centre said the money was released as per the recommendations of the working group on arts of the Planning Commission. About the non-utilisation of Rs 3 crore given for Indira Gandhi Martyrdom Day functions, the centre said the money transferred suo motu by the Culture Department to the IGNCA on March 31, 1995, was being utilised as per the department’s directions. Denying that it paid more than 10 per cent of the project cost as architect’s fee, the IGNCA said this was not 10 per cent, but 5 per cent of the completed cost of the project. The delay in the commencement of the construction of the centre’s building was a result not only of the delayed receipt of the American architect Ralph Lerner’s designs/drawings, but also of other factors like non-clearance of site, prolonged periods elapsing in the receipt of clearance of the building plans by the local authorities and uncertainty regarding the release of funds by the government. The IGNCA also denied that only 51 per cent of the Rs 84.55 crore released by the Human Resource Development Ministry for the building project had been utilised till March 31, 1998. The funds had been utilised to the extent of 90 per cent of the total releases, it said. Meanwhile, the BJP today demanded that the government should take steps to reconstitute the IGNCA. Reacting to former President R. Venkataraman’s resignation from the trust as its member, party spokesman M. Venkaiah Naidu also demanded an inquiry into the financial bungling in the trust in light of the report of the Comptroller and Auditor-General. The government which had given a corpus money of Rs 134 crore and the land to the trust had the right to know what was happening in the trust, he pointed out and said the BJP was against the recent amendments made to the Constitution of the trust. If the present
office-bearers wanted to run the trust in their own way,
they should run it from a private land, he said. |
Offensives elsewhere "were
considered" NEW DELHI, Nov 19 — India had considered undertaking offensives at other places during the Kargil conflict when it found it difficult to dislodge the enemy from the positions it was holding. This was stated by the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis, during his address at Pune University yesterday. He said: "There were contingencies being considered for undertaking offensives elsewhere," until air power dealt the telling blows. "Let no Indian believe that Gen Pervez Musharraf withdrew from his positions because of political pressure on him. He sought withdrawal because aerial action and our courageous ground assaults made his position untenable. With the Pakistan Air Force (PAF) not being able to take the pressure off from the air, the Pak army could not possibly have faced it alone. There were some meek attempts by the PAF to interfere, but seeing our strong presence, allowed its better sense to prevail in staying away", he said. Referring to the Kargil conflict and the role played by the IAF, the Air Chief Marshal said evicting the Pakistanis from their dominating positions was a Herculean task. "Our Army’s casualties would have been much higher had the air action not demolished several rear supply points, had the air action not shaken the forward positions and had it not broken the morale of the enemy by attacking their positions by day and night," he said. The Chief of the Air Staff said the air-power had emerged as the ultimate arbiter of human conflicts. He said he believed that air power was the most lethal power and certainly in case of advanced nations the most preferred means of waging a war. "But as had been our experience, wars will not always be fought in the expected places or for that matter in the traditional manner", he said. "I think we have to
accept that we have to be prepared for waging wars and
operations in varying degrees of conflict spectrum",
the Air Chief said and added that the air power had the
flexibility to adapt to these contingencies of high,
medium and low levels of this spectrum. |
CBI: Mahato wasn’t pressured NEW DELHI, Nov 19 (PTI) — The CBI today vehemently denied before a designated court that it had ever put pressure on approver Shailendra Mahato to name former Prime Minister P. V. Narasimha Rao as an accused in the multi-crore JMM MPs bribery case. Deputy Inspector-General A. K. Sinha, a key sleuth who had probed the case, deposed before Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke that "it’s wrong to suggest that I exerted pressure on Mahato to name P. V Narasimha Rao that he had sent the bribe money." Mr Sinha and other DIG Vivek Johri were facing the cross-examination in the case and both said the investigating team had collected sufficient evidence against the accused before filing the charge sheet. "The agency had conducted on elaborate inquiry even before the registration of the case which was monitored by the Delhi High Court," they said. Mr Johri said the charge
sheets were filed in a phased manner as evidences
trickled in as the probe proceeded. |
Hegde to head Indo-French
Forum NEW DELHI, Nov 19 — Former union minister Ramakrishna Hegde, who met the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, yesterday has been offered chairmanship of the Indo-French Forum, a Cabinet-rank position. The post was earlier held by Dr Karan Singh, who resigned before contesting the Lok Sabha poll as the Congress candidate. The Indo-French Forum is
a consultative group for promoting ties between India and
France, especially in the fields of education, science,
technology and culture. |
Thakre for Central rule in Tripura CALCUTTA, Nov 19 (UNI) — BJP President Khusabhau Thakre today suggested immediate imposition of President’s rule in Tripura in the wake of stepped up extremist violence in the north eastern border state. Coming down heavily on the state government in preventing the loss of many innocent lives recently in different parts of the state, Mr Thakre told a press conference here that the present situation in Tripura "is very bad and calls for measures like imposition of President’s rule but demand for such a drastic step must come from the state itself." To another query on the
possibility of a similar step in Orissa because of the
state government’s alleged failure in carrying out
the relief work cyclone, the BJP President categorically
ruled out "any such possibility." |
Pure drinks plant shut down NEW DELHI, Nov 19 — The operations at the plant of Pure Drinks Ltd. — the makers of Campa Cola range of softdrink — in the Capital have been closed down following a directive of the Punjab and Haryana High Court. The High Court order came in response a petition filed by 400-odd employees of the company stating that they had not been paid wages and other dues amounting to around Rs 15 crore over the past eight months. The workers’ union had moved the Punjab and Haryana High Court supporting the winding up petition filed by DCM Financial Services against Pure Drinks Ltd. The Delhi High Court had
earlier given directions preventing the owners of the
company from selling any property until the dues of the
workers had been cleared. |
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| Indira Gandhi awards NEW DELHI: Former Election Commissioner G.V.G. Krishnamurthy and cricketer Nikhil Chopra were among the 50 personalities who were awarded the Indira Gandhi Priyadarshini Awards on Friday. The awards, instituted in the memory of former Prime Minister Indira Gandhi by the All-India National Unity Conference, were presented by former Finance Minister and leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Dr Manmohan Singh at a function marking the 82nd birth anniversary of the late Indira Gandhi here. — PTI President’s Standard
for 35 Sqn JD(U) leader
shot dead Lata’s name
for RS cleared Youth Cong
activist killed in UP Water project
for Tirumala Tripura ultras
kidnap 4 |
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