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| Sunday, June 4, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Khursheed
likely to stay Boys surpass girls for second year Sonia meets Laloo, Rabri
‘Senior managers commit most
frauds’ Order against Sanjay Trust quashed Plan panel to act as interface Samiti demands Prabhakar’s
arrest |
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Stone age tools over Buddha relic
unearthed Southwest monsoon advances
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Khursheed likely to stay NEW DELHI, June 3 — Notwithstanding the campaign by a section of party leaders in the Uttar Pradesh Congress against the current PCC chief, Mr Salman Khursheed, the party’s high command is unlikely to yield to the demand for his removal. While acknowledging that all was not well in the UP Congress, sources close to the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi, were of the view that there was little justification in the demand by the section led by Mr Jitendra Prasada. Mr Prasada, MP from Shahjahanpur, and member of the Congress Working Committee, has addressed two rallies in which he has been critical of the style of functioning of Mr Khursheed. The party’s central leadership is credited with the view that the move of Mr Prasada was not justified especially after he had led the UP Congress before Mr Khursheed took over the baton. "What did he do when he had an opportunity (as chief of the UPCC)’’, a senior leader said in response to the constant reminder from Mr Prasada that the workers’ views should be heard patiently and their advice followed. The results of the last Lok Sabha elections where the Congress managed to win 10 of the 85 seats is considered a major achievement. However, there is a view that the Congress was not able to gear up to the challenge and prepare for elections that are due to be held next year. With reports that the BJP-led Ram Prakash government in UP is losing popularity, other parties in the state, including the Samajwadi Party and the Bahujan Samaj Party, are gearing up for the poll. Although the UP electorate has been voting along caste lines, there is a viewpoint that the Congress can still regain lost ground under proper leadership. Mr Khursheed, according to the dissidents, has lost the initiative and unless the party high command changed the leadership, the Congress may end up at the fourth or the fifth place once again. Yet, a section in the party, including Mr Khursheed, see the move as a battle for the control of the Uttar Pradesh Congress ahead of organisational poll due this year. The party is in the midst of conducting organisational elections which will conclude by November 1 with the election of the Congress President. The real control, this section feels, is to elect the AICC and PCC delegates who comprise the electoral college which elects the Congress Working Committee and the party chief. The AICC returns some 1,100 delegates which is a substantial chunk and prospective CWC aspirants can ill-afford to ignore the voters from the Uttar Pradesh Congress. Meanwhile, the Congress President is understood to be seized of the infighting in the Punjab and Haryana units of the party. The Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee is currently witnessing a tussle between the chief, Capt Amarinder Singh, and former Chief Minister Rajinder Kaur Bhattal. In neighbouring Haryana, there are serious difference between the CLP leader, Mr Bhajan Lal, and the HPCC President Mr Bhupinder Singh Hooda. Apparently the Congress
President is awaiting the recovery of AICC General
Secretary Moti Lal Vora, in charge of party affairs in
these states who is recovering after a surgery, to settle
the dispute. |
Boys surpass girls for second year NEW DELHI, June 3 (PTI) — Boys outscored girls for the second consecutive year in the All-India Secondary School Examination, results of which were declared by the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) here today. The results also showed an increase of 1 per cent in the overall pass percentage as compared to last year’s results. While the pass percentage in 1999 was 64.4, this year it was 65.4 per cent. A total of 4,79,591 candidates were registered for the examination, which was an increase of about 6.5 per cent over last year. Boys, who registered a pass percentage of 64.6 last year against 64 per cent of the girls, maintained their record scoring 65.6 per cent this year, but were closely followed by the girls at 65.1 per cent. However, girls notched better pass percentage vis-à-vis boys in Delhi, Ajmer, Chandigarh and Allahabad. The pass percentage of regular students stood at 70.9 per cent as compared to 29.6 of the private and correspondence candidates. With 83.8 per cent, Ajmer region topped other regions in overall pass percentage. The number of students placed in compartment also showed a sharp increase from 15.4 in 1999 to 23.1 this year. The pass percentage of candidates from government and government-aided schools increased from 33.9 per cent in 1999 to 37.9 this year and 54 per cent in 1999 to 54.4 per cent this year, respectively. In the overall pass percentage, Ajmer with 83.3 percent was followed by Chennai (81.8), Allahabad (79), Chandigarh (78), Delhi (48.8) and Guwahati (42.7). The number of unfair means detected during the year also went up from 74 in 1999 to 139 this year, with 108 cases reported from the capital alone. For the first time, the results were made available to schools and individuals on the E-mail and on the Internet. Candidates failing in two subjects were allowed to appear in compartment examination for the first time. Another first this year would be the issuance of two certificates — a qualifying certificate based on external evaluation done by the CBSE and another based on continuous comprehensive evaluation (CCE) of the student, under the direction of the board. CBSE Chairman Ashok
Ganguly today said training of teachers and streamlining
of curriculum were essential to improve the performance
of students in secondary and senior secondary school
examinations across the country. |
Sonia meets Laloo, Rabri PATNA, June 3 (PTI, UNI) — Congress President, Sonia Gandhi, today met RJD supremo, Laloo Prasad Yadav, and Chief Minister, Rabri Devi, to discuss the situation arising out of the move to create a separate tribal state out of Bihar. Ms Gandhi, who arrived at the Patna airport here by a special plane, had a nearly half-an-hour meeting with the duo at the VIP lounge. Emerging out of the meeting, the RJD president declined to spell out the details of the discussion, saying, "We have discussed a lot of things." Earlier, Ms Gandhi was received at the Patna airport by Mr Yadav and the Chief Minister besides Bihar Assembly Speaker, Sadanand Singh, state minister, Shakeel Ahmed, BPCC general secretary, Premchandra Mishra, and former Bihar Speaker, Radhanandan Jha. Meanwhile, Mrs Sonia Gandhi said here on Saturday that the Congress would exert pressure on the Centre to ensure a special economic package for the rest of Bihar at the time of passage of the Bihar Reorganisation Bill, 2000. Ms Gandhi, shared her concern with the party leaders. She said the problems arising in the aftermath of the bifurcation of Bihar had to be viewed seriously and remedial measures needed to be taken at right earnest. State Assembly Speaker Sadanand Singh, and others apprised her of the performance of the government and problems within the organisation. The leaders reportedly gave an account of the dismal law and order situation in the state and the grave consequences following the delayed panchayat elections. They also informed her about the possible financial condition of the rest of Bihar after its division. Earlier, party General Secretary apprised her of the massacres, especially killings of Dalits and exploitation of downtrodden, all over the state. He said the Dalits who were the vote bank of the party were gripped with a sense of fear and their life and property was not safe. She later flew to
Dhanbad to address a public meeting. |
Celebration time for Karunanidhi CHENNAI, June 3 — Forget the pinpricks from his NDA coalition partners — the MDMK and PMK — over the Sri Lankan ethnic crisis, it is celebration time for the Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu, Mr M. Karunanidhi. He turned 77 today and his colleagues and party workers vied with each other in their accolades for the undisputed leader of the DMK. Probably no other chief minister in the country enjoys the admiration and hero worship from the people as does Mr Karunanidhi. "At present there are only two leaders in the country, Vajpayee in the North and Karunanidhi in the South" a speaker at a birthday function declared yesterday. It is an exaggeration, admirers of the widely popular Chief Minister of Andhra Pradesh, Mr Chandrababu Naidu, may like to retort, and followers of the AIADMK leader, Ms Jayalalitha, may like to enter a caveat, but there is no gainsaying the fact that at the moment, Mr Karunanidhi will win hands down in a popularity contest. The birthday of Mr
Karunanidhi was being celebrated in different parts of
the state with pomp and frenzy. Singara (beautiful)
Chennai may be a pipedream, but Panagal Park, the venue
of a function later this evening in a suburb, has
overnight taken a new look with clean surroundings.
Billboards of the DMK leader have been erected on the
adjacent pavements, and a ‘mandapam’, similar
to that in South Indian temples has been erected. Power
may trip elsewhere in the city, but the organisers have
ensured that the evening function will glow through
scores of halogen lamps and tubelights. |
‘Senior managers commit most
frauds’ NEW DELHI, June 3 — Senior managers working in a company for many years commit most frauds, said a study based on the evidence provided by senior executives in 739 organisations from 15 countries, including 101 from India. The study found that "82 per cent of the frauds were committed by employees and one third by those in senior management positions. Nearly half of the employees involved in frauds had been in the organisation for more than five years and almost one third for more than 10 years". The global study has been jointly conducted by international consultancy firm Ernst and Young and Prof Michael Levi from Cardiff University, USA. "Almost a third (frauds) were committed by management. Of greater concern is that many of these managers are probably charged with operating fraud control and checks", the study said. Computer related frauds were listed by many respondents as the greatest threat. Almost 60 per cent of the respondents feared that such frauds were likely or very likely to occur. The chairman of Ernst and Young, Mr K.N. Memani, said "computer related frauds and frauds being committed by people in managerial position are becoming a major threat for organisations in India. The prosecution rate, the study found was dismal. Only 38 per cent of perpetrators who had committed the worst fraud suffered by each organisation were prosecuted and 28 per cent were dismissed and one third remained unpunished. Manipulation of data records held on a computer to disguise the true nature of a transaction, hacking into an organisation’s computer system to steal or manipulate organisation information, manipulation of computer programmes to disguise the true nature of a transaction and unauthorised transfer of funds electronically, were the kind of computer related frauds identified by the respondents, the study said. "Only just over a quarter of respondents consider use of their own organisation’s hardware/software for personal use to be computer fraud", the study said. The study found that "only four out of 10 respondents consider that unauthorised or improper use of access to the Internet constitutes computer fraud, although almost two thirds of high technology organisations consider this to be computer fraud and 82 per cent think it is likely or very likely to occur". "What is even more
startling is that they are not learning from their
mistakes once a fraud has been committed. This problem is
compounded by the fact that frauds are no longer
restricted to one company or one country but in the new
connected economy, it is cross-border and in many cases,
global", the study observed. |
Order against Sanjay Trust quashed NEW DELHI, June 3 (PTI) — Union Urban Development Ministry’s order revoking the licence of a bungalow allotted to the Sanjay Gandhi Memorial Trust has been quashed by a city court saying that the Estate Officer was not empowered to take a decision in this regard. "The Estate Officer was not empowered to revoke the licence granted to the trust during the period of its subsistence. In the result I set aside the order passed by him", Additional District Magistrate J.M. Malik in his recent order on a plea by the trust said. The court further said the guidelines framed by Estate Office of the Urban Affairs Ministry had clearly specified that the licence granted to the private organisations would be valid up to the end of the current allotment period. The Estate Office had on February 22, 1998, issued the order for eviction of the 12-Wellingdon Crescent bungalow by the trust, though the allotment period was up to May 8, 1999, the trust claimed. Since Supreme Court had provided for a five per cent quota of government houses to deserving NGOs and others, the trust felt there was no reason for the government not to consider its case as a genuine claimant of this benefit. The trust, which was carrying on various charitable programmes, had been using the government bungalow only for office purpose since its inception 20 years ago. The trust, apart from
running the Sanjay Gandhi Hospital in Amethi (Uttar
Pradesh) has been involved in various social activities,
it said. |
Plan panel to act as
interface NEW DELHI, June 3 — Voluntary efforts towards development will be coordinated through the Planning Commission which has been designated as the nodal agency to act as an interface between the government and voluntary agencies. Stating this at a meeting of the joint collaborative machinery here today, the Planning Commission Deputy Chairman, Mr K.C. Pant, also asked the states to set up a similar body. Mr Pant informed that the Union Home Ministry was working out a procedure to simply the Foreign Contribution Regulation Act. He said the government was aware of the significant contribution made by voluntary organisations in various departmental activities and was also confident of their role in the balanced development of society, an official release said. The joint collaborative machinery involves main ministries and departments of the Government of India connected with the voluntary sector. The meeting also adopted decisions taken by the Committee of Secretaries recently through which a standing committee of secretaries on voluntary organisations would be constituted to coordinate and review various issues related to non-governmental and voluntary organisations. A four-member committee under the chairmanship of Mr Anna Hazare was set up to go into the issues of coordination among funding bodies/ministry/departments for uniform funding practices, funding restrictions/grading of voluntary organisations, problem of delay in release of funds and transparency and accountability in both government and voluntary organisations. On voluntary
organisations’ demand for changes in law that govern
them, specially in the case of the Societies Registration
Act, the Income Tax and Foreign Contribution Regulation
Act, it was agreed that there was need for simplification
of laws. |
Major-Gen P.M. Awasthi NEW DELHI, June 3 — Major-Gen P.M. Awasthi had taken over as Additional Director-General of Army Dental Corps, and official press note said today. He was a Commissioner in Army Dental Corps on January 24, 1963. During his long-chequered career he was Corps Dental Adviser of a strike corps, Senior Adviser Oral and Maxillo Surgery, Commandant, Armed Forces Dental Clinics, New Delhi, and Professor and Head, Dental Department, Armed Forces Medical College, Pune. He is a recipient of a
Vishisht Sewa Medal, Chief of the Army Staff’s
commendation and certificate of merit from Dr A.P.J.
Abdul Kalam. He was a former president of the Association
of Oral and Maxillo-Fatial Surgeons of India. Before his
present appointment, he was Command Dental Adviser,
Central Command, Lucknow. |
Samiti demands Prabhakar’s arrest NEW DELHI, June 3 (UNI) — The Uttarakhand Sanyukta Sangharsh Samiti has demanded the arrest of former test cricketer Manoj Prabhakar for allegedly defrauding the people to the tune of Rs 50 crore through his chit fund company. In a statement, central
coordinator of the samiti Dhirendra Pratap demanded a CBI
inquiry into the Apes Company scandal in which about Rs
50 crore had been collected from people of the region in
the name of the fake financial company. The Prabhakar is
one of the directors of the company. |
Stone age tools over Buddha relic unearthed PATNA, June 3 — An ancient Buddhist ‘stupa’ (dome shaped structure) has been discovered along with stone age tools in a Bihar city, pushing back the history of the place to 200,000 years. The Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) unearthed the brick stupa, believed to have been built over a relic of Lord Buddha in the pre-Mauryan period between 491 and 459 B.C., in Rajgir city in central Bihar. The ASI, in the course of the same excavation, also discovered "paleolithic (early stone age) tools" which indicate that Rajgir has a history of 200,000 years and was one of "ancient cradles of human civilisation where people lived and wandered, fighting wild animals, killing them with stone tools for food and even sometimes getting themselves killed by the animals," excavators said. Excavators at the site suspect the relic of the Buddha in the stupa, believed to have been built by King Ajatshatru, might have gone under railway tracks because the railroad authorities had decided to level a mound in the area for a project. However, they said, the Railways had agreed to shelve the project. The discovery of the stupa puts at rest the controversy over the possible site of the Buddhist structure. Various historians had pinpointed different areas in Rajgir as the probable site of the ‘stupa’. Muhammed K.K., superintending Archaeologist of the ASI’s Patna unit, said most of the authors identified a stone structure in the northern part of the city as the stupa. The historians’ contention, he said, seemed not to be based on any evidence as the very description of the stupa in the ‘Atta Katha’ text said it was made of brick, not stone, and was located in the southwestern part of Rajgir. "The fact that the site of the stupa is on the southwestern side of the city and that it is made of brick lends credence to the latest identification," Muhammed K.K. said. "Therefore the stone structure identified in the northern side of the city is not the actual relic stupa of Buddha," he added. The ASI, he said, had started constructing a wall around the newly discovered Buddhist stupa to preserve and protect it. The excavators have dug out a mound in the southwestern part of Rajgir. They also spotted on the second terrace of the stupa a structure similar to the one described in ‘Jivakamravana,’ a text by Buddha’s disciple Jivak. The new archaeological
findings also prove that in the ancient period Rajgir was
known as Brihadrathaputram after king Brihadrath who
founded a dynasty in Magadh to which the great warrior
king Jarasandha belonged. Jarasandha was killed by Bhima,
a key character in the Hindu epic
‘Mahabharata,’ in a fierce battle in Rajgir.
— India Abroad News Service |
Southwest monsoon advances PUNE, June 3 (UNI) — Southwest monsoon has advanced into the rest of coastal Karnataka, Rayalseema and some parts of Andhra Pradesh. Conditions are favourable for the further advancement of southwest monsoon in south Konkan and Goa, south Madhya Maharashtra, north interior Karnataka and some parts of Andhra Pradesh within the next two to three days. Heavy rainfall is likely to occur at isolated places in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, south Konkan and Goa, coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep during the next 48 hours. Rain or thundershowers are likely to occur at most places in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, coastal Karnataka, Kerala and Lakshadweep, at many places in Konkan, Goa, Andhra Pradesh and interior Karnataka, at a few places in sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim, south Madhya Maharashtra, Marathwada and Tamil Nadu and at isolated places over the rest of the country outside south Rajasthan, north Gujarat, Saurashtra and Kutch where weather will be mainly dry. Rain or thundershowers
have occurred at most places in coastal Karnataka, at
many places in Andaman and Nicobar Islands, Konkan, Goa
and Kerala, at a few places in Bihar plateau, Madhya Maharashtra, Vidarbha. |
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