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| Tuesday, January 4, 2000, Chandigarh, India  
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CBI to retain final set of Bofors papers PM presents awards to 21 scientists Taliban’s role to be studied: PM |
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‘Tatkaal’ out-of-turn passports in genuine cases Hijack crisis: Cong, NCP flay govt Rating heroes ridiculous: Prof Yashpal ‘Deport Pak citizens staying illegally’ President’s assent to five Bills IJU rejects wage boards’ proposals 50 p.c. seized pistols bought by politicians Proposal to put commandos in planes Eight-year-old memorises Koran Two gangsters arrested
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CBI to retain final set of Bofors papers NEW DELHI, Jan 3 — The CBI was today granted permission by the designated court to retain the final set of Swiss bank documents relating to the Rs 64-crore Bofors payoff case for further investigation. Special Judge Ajit Bharihoke allowed the CBI to retain the documents for further investigation following a request made by CBI counsel N. Natrajan. The last set of documents, believed to be that of the sixth bank account of the alleged recipients of the kickbacks, were obtained from Switzerland last month. The CBI had filed the final set of Swiss documents relating to the alleged kickbacks in the Rs 1437 crore Bofors gun deal before the court on December-20 in a "sealed cover" after a special team of the agency had brought them from Berne a day earlier. The third and final set of documents numbering D-1 to D-71 and a letter dated August 31, 1999 from a Geneva court directing the Swiss Federal Office at Berne to give the papers to the Indian agency were brought to the court by CBI officials. The documents were brought to Delhi from Berne by a high-level CBI team after last ditch efforts by appellants to prevent the transfer of papers to India failed. The agency told the court that these documents were obtained as a sequel to the letters rogatory issued by the then Special Judge R.K. Jain on February 7, 1990. The first and second set of documents were received in December 1990, and, in January, 1997, respectively, it said. The documents were handed over to the Indian authorities at Berne in Switzerland after the Geneva court judge P. Perrandin wrote a letter in this regard to Andre Fels of the federal office for police matters on August 31. The handing over of the documents to India was facilitated after the Swiss Federal Department of Justice and Police confirmed that the appeal to prevent the transfer of these documents had been rejected. However, it is not yet clear as to who was trying to block the transfer of these documents. |
PM presents awards to 21 scientists PUNE, Jan 3 (UNI, PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today presented Indian Science Congress Association awards to 21 noted scientists, including Dr M. S. Swaminathan and Dr K. K. Kasturirangan. While veteran agriculture scientist Swaminathan got Asutosh Mookerjee Memorial Award, ISRO Chairman Dr Kasturirangan was presented the M. N. Saha Birth Centenary Award. C. V. Raman Birth Centenary Award went to Dr Narendra Kumar, Director, Raman Research Institute, Bangalore and the Srivivasa Ramanujam Birth Centenary Award to Dr M. Karmakar of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, Mumbai. Prof. S.P. Mukherjee, Centenary Professor of Statistics, Calcutta University, was given the P.C. Mahalanobis Birth Centenary Award while Dr Vasan R. Gowarikar, Chairman, Advisory Council for Sugar Technology Mission, got the G.P. Chatterjee Memorial Award. Dr Sandip K. Basu, Director, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi, was given the Raj Kristo Dutt Memorial Award, while Dr Anil Kakodkar, Director, BARC, got the H.J. Bhaba Memorial Award. Other recipients of the awards are: Dr G.S. Khush, Principal Plant Breeder and Head, Division of Plant Breeding, Genetics and Bio-Chemistry, International Rice Research Institute, Philippines-B.P. Pal Memorial Award. Prof Goverdhan Mehta, Director, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore-P.C. Ray Memorial Award. Prof T.N. Ananthakrishnan, Chairperson, Entomology Research Institute Loyola College, Chennai- J.C. Bose Memorial Award. Dr N.K. Ganguly, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi-B.C. Guha Memorial Award. Prof P.N. Tandon, Emeritus Scientist, Department of Neuro-surgery, AIIMS, new Delhi, and Dr Amrita Patel, Chairperson, NDDB, Anand-Jawaharlal Nehru Birth Centenary Awards. Dr D.M. Salunke, Scientist, National Institute of Immunology, New Delhi — Prof R.C. Shah Memorial Lecture Award. Dr S.C. Datta, Senior Scientist, IARI, new Delhi- Dr B.C. Deb Memorial Award for Soil Chemistry. Dr M. Patairiya of National Council for Science and Technology Communication, New Delhi-Dr B.C. Deb Memorial Award for Populari-sation of Science. Prof S.K. Tandan, Geology Professor, Delhi University-Prof K.P. Rode Memorial Lecture Award. Dr. A.K. Parida from Dr M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation, Chennai — Prof. Umakant Sinha Memorial Award, for Developing Molecular Markers for Management of the Coastal Agro Bio-Diversity and Developing Conservation Strategy for the Species of the Coastal Ecosystem and Prospecting for novel genes offering resistance to coastal salinity. Dr. A. D. Mangaokar of IARI, Delhi - Pran Vohra Award, for Cloning and Characterisation of Storage Protein Genes in Chickpea. Dr. T. S. Johnson, Scientist, Dabur Research Foundation - Prof. Hira Lal Chakravartui Award, for work on production of capsicum in immobilised cells and placental tissues of capsicum. Meanwhile, Dr Murli Manohar Joshi also announced the prestigious National Bioscience Career Development Awards for this year to five outstanding scientists at the function here. They are Dr B. N. Mallick, JNU, New Delhi’ Dr Kanury V.S. Rao, International Centre for Genetic Engineering and Biotechnology, New Delhi, Dr Dinakar M. Salunke, National Institute of Immunology’ Prof. Akhilesh Tyagi, Delhi University’ Dr Umesh Varshney of Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore. The Prime Minister will present the awards to these scientists during February-March. Speaking on the occasion, Mr Vajpayee said the government would hike investment on research and development (R and D) to 1 per cent of the gross domestic product (DGP) this year and 2 per cent over the next five years, and was committed to removing bureaucratic hurdles for replicating India’s success in information technology (I T) in other areas of science. At the same time, the country must aim to replicate its success in I T in other areas of science, technology and enterprise. "We are committed to removing restrictive bureaucratic hurdles and strengthening cooperative network between research laboratories, academic institutions, non-governmental organisations (NGOs), the industry and government agencies." Union Science and Technology Minister Murli Manohar Joshi, Minister of State for Science and Technology Bachhu Singh Rawat, Maharshtra Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh, Deputy Chief Minister Chhagan Bhujbal and General President of the Science Congress R A Mashelkar were also present on the occasion. Delivering the presidential address, Mr Mashelkar proposed five tenets (Panchsheel) to improve India’s social, economic and scientific status. "Child-centred education, women-centred family, human-centred development, knowledge-centred society and a innovation-centred country should be the "Panchsheel" of India," he said. |
Taliban’s role to be studied: PM PUNE, Jan 3 (PTI) — Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee today described the hijacking of the Indian Airlines airbus as "an integral part of Pakistan-backed campaign of terrorism" and said the government would work towards getting Pakistan declared as a terrorist state. Urging the major powers to declare Pakistan a terrorist state, Mr Vajpayee told reporters here that Islamabad’s "active and sustained role in fomenting terrorism in India is now too obvious to be overlooked by the international community". On the Taliban’s attitude in the hijacking episode, he said "we have to deeply study what exact role it played". In Kandahar, he said, the Taliban’s attitude looked hopeful, "so we have tried to develop a better understanding with them. However, it also looks that they (Taliban) seemed to have sympathy for the hijackers". The partial acceptance of the hijackers demands for securing the safe release of all hostages "does not in the least mean that the government will slacken its battle against terrorism," Mr Vajpayee said, adding "we will indeed intensify it." Simultaneously, he said the government would take all necessary measures to strengthen all aspects of internal security with a view to preventing recurrence of such incidents. Asked whether the USA would agree to declare Pakistan a terrorist state, Mr Vajpayee said "it is expected of the USA to agree in the larger interest and we will try our best to convince the USA". He said the Centre would ask the Jammu and Kashmir Government to set up a special court for expediting the trial of hardcore terrorists, especially those of the 36 ultras whose release was initially demanded by the hijackers and were still in the country. |
‘Tatkaal’ out-of-turn passports in genuine cases NEW DELHI, Jan 3 (UNI) — The ‘tatkaal’ scheme for issue of out-of-turn passports, introduced by the government from the dawn of the new millennium, would be granted to in cases of genuine urgency or in cases where police verification was not required. The Ministry of External Affairs said today that initially passports under the tatkaal scheme without any enhanced fee would be granted for patients requiring to go abroad for medical treatment and in case of death abroad of a close relative. Minister of State for External Affairs Ajit Kumar Panja had on December 24 announced the introduction of the scheme from January 1. Under this scheme passports would be issued on the payment of additional fee over and above the normal passport application fee. The additional fee structure was based on the fact that the issue of one out of turn passport disrupts the normal chain of issue of passports and involves extra amount of work, manpower and equipment required for the issue of five normal passports. For issue of fresh out-of-turn passport within seven working days of the date of application an additional fee of Rs 1500 plus the passport fee as applicable in India and Rs 3750 plus the passport fee as applicable abroad, between eight to 28 working days Rs 1000 plus the passport fee in India and Rs 2250 plus the passport fee abroad, within five working days in lieu of an ordinary passport where it has been stolen, destroyed or for any other such reasons Rs 2500 plus the passport fee and no additional fee abroad. ‘Tatkaal’ passport scheme would also be valid for students requiring a passport for appearing in examinations such as sat or students going abroad to join foreign universities, businessmen wising to travel abroad urgently for trade, conferences and trade fairs, blood relatives of persons residing abroad who is seriously ill and spouse, parents, parents-in-law, children, brother, sister, brother-in-law and sister-in-law of individuals working abroad. |
Hijack crisis: Cong, NCP flay govt NEW DELHI, Jan 3 — The Congress and the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) today appeared on the same side of the political fence attacking the government on its handling of the hijack crisis and demanding full facts on the episode. Both parties were not only critical of the handling but also took exception to the visit of the External Affairs Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, to Kandahar. Senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee said the manner in which the government dealt with the crisis showed the country as a "weak, hesitant and faltering’’ nation while NCP spokesman Devendra Nath Dwivedi said the entire operation had shown the government and the country in "very poor light’’. Referring Mr Jaswant Singh’s visit, the Congress said there was no need for him to go to Kandahar, especially when the negotiations had been completed. Mr Mukherjee, in an informal interaction with correspondents, said the government should come out with full facts of the hijacking episode. In a separate statement, the NCP also raised similar concern. "Why could the Foreign Minister not travel in a separate plane and the militants taken in another aircraft accompanied by a lower functionary ? What was the role of the Home Minister who is in charge of the internal security and why was he not asked to handle the operation with External Affairs Minister giving him backup support,’’ Mr Dwivedi asked. The NCP stated that the moral authority of the government had "weakened and it must be retrieved through proper action. The party also demanded that the government come out with a White Paper on the recent crisis so that the country may feel reassured that what has happened was an aberration and the government is readying itself to face any challenge to the national security. |
Rating heroes ridiculous: Prof Yashpal NEW DELHI, Jan 3 (PTI) — Some have dubbed it as an exercise in education, others call it a sales strategy. As hundreds of polls and surveys throw up their own list of millennia heroes, questions have been raised on the methodology of some surveys and the very idea of rating the contributions of achievers under the same head. "It’s all right for quiz programmes or for giving prizes, but rating the personalities, the idea is ridiculous," says Prof Yashpal, former Chairman of the University Grants Commission. "The fact that ultimate tally of several different exercises is not off the mark, does not mean that they are final," says Prof Harbans Mukhia of the Jawaharlal Nehru University (JNU), questioning the basis of such exercises. It’s a hype built to cash in on the millennium. That you are doing something new, says veteran media analyst, N. Bhaskara Rao noting they do have a marginal impact on the image of the sponsors, which gets reflected in the sales of publications and number of ‘hits’ on their websites. While some of those involved in the exercise admit that more serious efforts were required in this direction, agencies doing the polls claim to have done extensive homework. "We have detailed procedures for doing such surveys, complete with the time-frame and number of respondents as also the field area, which the client (sponsors) can choose depending on the time and money they want to spend," says an executive of leading market-research group arguing that the exercise is very authentic. But Rao points out that in India most of these polls are elite urban surveys, in which the questions are very general and the range of respondents even more. "Here you are clubbing all people together — cutting across age groups and even socio-economic class. It’s like putting apples, bananas and oranges in the same basket," says Rao, a psephologist himself. Apart from poll surveys in which the people had to choose from a list of ‘nominees’, there were publications which had some eminent experts putting together a list of the ‘men who mattered’. "And it’s no mean job to do," says Prof Mushir-ul-Hasan, who was among the experts that coined the list for a leading weekly. "One tries to be fair and objective but in so vast a country, and so many disciplines and areas it becomes a very difficult exercise. "It’s not to say that those that don’t feature in our list were not men of import or their contributions don’t matter," says the academic. In a similar vein, Prof P.V. Indrisen, who has also been on the panel of choosing the millennia personality, says "the lists should not be taken seriously." The committee, says Prof Hasan, evolved its own criteria like going by the lasting impact of contributions of leading lights as also their popularity in the years to come. Every name was discussed and debated immensely before arriving at the result, he says, adding "the problem is that when you are selecting 10 persons you cannot take all from the same field... The list has to be representative." According to Prof Indrisen, it would be difficult for various lists to name the same people, however great, because every person is entitled to his opinion and even experts are likely to differ in their choice. Their own list, say the academics was not a unanimous one because "you cannot have a verdict that can please all." Yet, Prof Indrisen says, a list coined by experts, however, few is better than conducting polls, "because public memory is very short. "Most of the names suggested as nominees in popular polls were ‘trash’. No one will remember half the names proposed in them," says Prof Indrisen. Says noted planning expert Dr Y.K. Alagh "some of the names being floated now are the ones who have been blamed for the problems in the country." Taking strong exception to such surveys, Dr Alagh notes that in mentioning a chosen few, the sterling performances of many others goes unsung. "It shows we are losing sense of history. No one is talking of post-independence history," notes Dr Alagh. He also ascribes the superficiality in lists of proposed nominees to "modern communication, which is becoming very metropolis oriented." Polls may be relevant in the western developed nations, where there is some amount of common exposure to information, says Rao noting that India has yet to reach those levels for the exercise to be more meaningful. Even Prof Indrisen is of the view if the lists are to be taken seriously, there should be prolonged discussions among experts, who should consider the issues at length. |
‘Deport Pak citizens staying illegally’ HYDERABAD, Jan 3 (PTI) — The Centre has instructed all state governments to take immediate steps to deport Pakistani nationals staying in the country after the expiry of their visa. The instruction came in the wake of the recent hijacking of the Indian Airlines flight, Union Minister of State for Home C.H. Vidyasagar Rao told reporters here today. Mr Rao said as per the government records there were about 11,000 Pakistani nationals staying illegally in various parts of the country. Around 2,000 Pakistani nationals had gone "underground" and efforts would be made to trace them, he said. As per the seventh schedule of the Constitution, it was the state governments’ responsibility to take appropriate action to apprehend and deport them, Mr Rao said. Asking the states to give priority to tackling this problem, he warned that incidents such as hijacking could occur again if this was not carried out. The government also planned to bring out a White Paper on the activities of Pakistan’s Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) in the country, he said. He said infiltrators crossing to the country through Indo-Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan border were trying to destabilise the country. Referring to the handling of the hijack crisis by the government, he said though there was some "dissatisfaction" among some quarters in the country, the international community appreciated the government for its proper handling of the situation. He also denied reports that Home Minister L.K. Advani differed with the opinion to the release of the three militants in exchange for the hostages. |
President’s assent to five Bills NEW DELHI, Jan 3 (PTI) — President K.R. Narayanan today gave assent to five more Bills, including three WTO-related Bills, passed in the recent winter session of Parliament. Except for the Vice-President’s Pension (Amendment) Act, which comes into force from immediate effect, the other four — Copyright (Amendment), Trademarks, Geographical Indications and the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act — will come into force from a date as notified by the government. The Copyright (Amendment) Act seeks to extend the term of protection of performer’s rights from 25 to 50 years and intends to benefit Indian broadcasting organisations and performers to get reciprocal protection for their rights in other countries which are signatory to the Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights (TRIPs) Agreement. The Trademarks Act seeks to appoint an Appellate Board and a Registrar of Trademarks while the Geographical Indications of Goods (Registration and Protection) Act seeks to appoint a Controller General of Patents, Designs and Trademarks to function as the Registrar of Geographical Indications. The Vice-President’s Pensions (Amendment) Act seeks to enhance the pension of the Vice-President from Rs 6,250 to Rs 20,000, while the National Trust for Welfare of Persons with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Mental Retardation and Multiple Disabilities Act seeks to set up a trust with a corpus fund of Rs 100 crore. |
IJU rejects wage boards’ proposals HYDERABAD, Jan 3 (PTI) — The Indian Journalists Union (IJU) has rejected the tentative proposals of the Manisana Singh Wage Boards for journalists and non-journalists. "The tentative proposals are totally inadequate, too little and too late," IJU Secretary-General K. Srinivas Reddy said in a statement here today. He said the proposals were "far below the expectations of the journalists and other newspaper employees. The recommendations amount to denial of just and reasonable wages to journalists and non-journalists a decade after the Bachhawat Wage Board". The proposals, notified on December 31 by the Union Government, came after 10 years of agonising wait and were a "rude shock to the newspaper employees and journalists in particular," Mr Reddy said. According to the IJU, in some cases, the proposals are worse than the Bachhawat recommendations. The IJU called upon all the unions in the newspaper industry to come on a common platform and unitedly fight against the "retrograde, inadequate and unjustified recommendations of the Manisana Singh Wage Boards", Mr Reddy added. |
50 p.c. seized pistols bought by politicians NEW DELHI, Jan 3 (PTI) — About half of the foreign-made pistols confiscated by the police in the national capital are purchased by politicians, while a meagre 10 per cent go to ordinary citizens having threat to their life, Home Ministry sources have said. While 20 per cent of them are sold to central and state government ministers, 15 per cent are bought by members of Parliament and state legislatures and 10 per cent by members of Municipal bodies, the sources said. The rest of the pistols are sold to serving and retired government officials (25 per cent), serving and retired personnel of paramilitary forces, Home Ministry and ordinary citizens who have a threat to their life (10 per cent each). Out of 29 foreign pistols which were sold by the government agency during the past five years, 11 were purchased by elected representatives including former Chief Minister Sahib Singh Verma, former Delhi Finance Minister and Leader of the Opposition in Delhi Assembly Jagdish Mukhi and City Welfare Minister and Congress leader Krishna Tirath, the sources said. The law enforcing agency had recovered 2,102 country-made pistols and 713 foreign-made pistols between 1995 and 1999, they said, adding while country-made pistols are destroyed, foreign-made ones are sold as per Home Ministry guidelines. Former BJP ministers S.P. Ratawal and Harsharan Singh Balli, MLAs Sahib Singh Chauhan and Matin Ahmed are other elected representatives of Delhi who purchased confiscated pistols. |
Proposal to put commandos in planes PUNE, Jan 3 (PTI) — The Centre was considering the feasibility of deploying commandos in planes to thwart hijacking attempts by terrorists, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee said here today. The government was seriously examining the proposal put before it for deployment of two commandos in planes, he told reporters at Rajbhavan. The government would take all necessary measures to further strengthen all aspects of internal security to prevent recurrence of such incidents, he said. Replying to a question,Mr Vajpayee said "Loose security in Nepal has made our task very difficult. That country will have to tighten its security." Asked what actions would be taken against those found guilty of neglect, the Prime Minister said appropriate steps would be taken against the persons concerned after conducting an inquiry. To a query on the charge levelled by the Congress that the Centre had compromised national interest by releasing the terrorists, he said, "I emphatically deny this charge. "We have, of course, paid a certain price in securing the safe release of the hostages. But it was the best decision under the given circumstances,"Mr Vajpayee added. |
Eight-year-old memorises Koran ALLAHABAD, Jan 3 (UNI) — Eight-year-old Sayed Mujtaba Razvi has achieved the rare distinction of memorising the holy Koran within a span of two years. He has also developed the capability to recite the entire work in 30 days. The boy told mediapersons here yesterday that he had acquired proficiency in reciting all alphabets of Koran from the beginning to the end and vice-versa. He could tell the number of alphabets, the details of the beginning and end of each chapter (Surah), the number, page, chapter and part (para) of the holy book. He is also able to narrate traditions on 20 Islamic topics from 15 ancient texts. He said he had been inspired by his father Maulana Sayed Masood Akhtar. Belonging to Azamgarh district, Razvi had attended classes conducted by the renowned Hafiz Vazeeri of Hanze-e-Limiyya Qum, Iran. |
Two gangsters arrested NEW DELHI, Jan 3 — Two inter-state gangsters, who shot dead a police personnel and injured another in an encounter in an encounter in Faridabad in December, were arrested by the Delhi police today. The two gangsters, Sunil Gujjar, alias Sunil Kumar, and his associate Shokeen Gujjar, were arrested from Prahladpur in South Delhi where they had gone to meet a relative. Two country-made pistols, along with 10 live cartridges, were seized from them, the police said. The police said that on the night of December 24 Sunil along with Satta, Vinod, Pappan and Hemu Gujjar went to Lakadpur village in Faridabad where they were intercepted by a police team. Sunil and Hemu opened fire. During the exchange firing by the police Satta was shot dead, while Sunil shot dead a constable, Lashkar and injured another, Sunil, Hemu and Vinod managed to escape. The gangsters were involved in more than 25 cases of murder, attempt to murder, dacoity, robbery with murder, robberies and in cases under the Arms Act in Haryana, Delhi and UP. |
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