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| Thursday, July 6, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Gupta to continue as UP CM NEW DELHI, July 5 — BJP President Kushabhau Thakre today ruled out a change of leadership in Uttar Pradesh, setting at rest speculation that Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta was on his way out. Rape case: HC pulls up police Myanmar
students flay Pak role Hurriyat for unconditional talks On ‘fast’
track to get her love J&K’s trifurcation opposed |
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| Maheshwar project in jeopardy BHOPAL, July 5 — German assistance for the construction of the Maheshwar hydroelectric project on the Narmada in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh is in a jeopardy following an adverse report by a three-member team which was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of the Government of Germany. Limit cell phone use : WHO CM unhappy over
CISF action Ganju Lama given
state
funeral Berth eludes ‘Vikrant’ No tie-up with
BJP: Mayawati ‘84 riots panel
begins work
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Gupta to continue as UP CM NEW DELHI, July 5 (UNI) — BJP President Kushabhau Thakre today ruled out a change of leadership in Uttar Pradesh, setting at rest speculation that Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta was on his way out. There was no question of change in leadership, Mr Thakre told reporters after a three-hour dinner meeting with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee at his residence. He said the party would go to the assembly polls, due in the state in September next year, under the leadership of Mr Gupta. Mr Thakre said the Prime Minister had invited UP leaders for dinner to discuss the working of the government as he represented Lucknow in the Lok Sabha. Replying to questions, the BJP chief said the party had not lost a single seat in UP panchayat elections. Asked if the state unit President Om Prakash Singh will be replaced following the dismal performance of the BJP in the panchayat polls, Mr Thakre clarified that state President elections were on. Asked why Mr Gupta was being summoned repeatedly to Delhi, Mr Thakre said the party high command reviewed the performance of all its state units, wherever they were in power. This was the part of that exercise, he added. Among others who attended the meeting were Home Minister L.K. Advani, party General Secretary
in charge of UP K.N. Govindacharya, Surface Transport Minister Rajnath Singh, UP Ministers Lalji Tandon, Kalraj Mishra and UP BJP President Om Prakash
Singh. |
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Rape case: HC pulls up police CUTTACK, July 5 (UNI) — The Orissa High Court has pulled up the state police authorities for showing apathetic attitude towards a minor rape victim and not registering her case despite the court order. In an interim order, Mr Justice Bimal Prasad Das also directed the Deputy Inspector General, Mr Bhubaneswar Range, to inquire into the allegations of the victim and her sister against the Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO), Khurda, who allegedly threatened the girls and abused them in filthy language during interrogation. “If the allegations in the affidavit filed by the girls are true then the repercussion would be very serious,” the court warned and wondered how could the SDPO inquire into an allegation of rape without registering a case. The victim, daughter of a Dadan labourer, who was allegedly raped by Jagannath Pradhan of Bhipur village in Khurda district on March 26, finally moved the high court in June when the police did not take any action against the culprit on the basis of her complaint. Earlier, hearing the petition, the court directed the Khurda SP to submit a report as to what action he had taken on the victim’s FIR which was also received by him and the office of the Director-General of Police on April 26. Mr Justice Das also ruled that the SDPO, who submitted his report only on June 23, had pre-empted the investigation and given a clean chit to the accused even before a case was registered and
investigated. |
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Myanmar
students flay
Pak role
NEW DELHI, July 5 (PTI) — Activists of the All Burmese Student League (ABSL) today staged a demonstration here protesting the ongoing visit of Myanmar’s military strongman Lt Gen Khin Nyunt to Pakistan to purchase arms and ammunition. The pro-democracy activists shouted slogans and carried placards such as “Pakistan stop supplying arms to Burma”, and “Pakistan stop supporting state terrorism” protesting against the five day visit which commenced from July 3. Addressing the protesters, ABSL President Kyaw Than said the purchase of arms from Pakistan would disturb peace and stability in the region. He alleged that Pakistan sold arms and ammunitions worth about $ 20 million in 1989, when the military junta was passing through a crucial period for its survival and from then on continued to provide arms, ammunition, training and military technology to the Yangon regime. “By aligning with Pakistan’s military regime, Myanmar has abandoned the policy of neutrality in the region and international affairs which it had upheld since its independence”, Than added. |
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Hurriyat for unconditional talks NEW DELHI, July 5 (PTI) — Former Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, said today the Conference was ready for talks with the Centre provided the latter accepted it as a party to the Kashmir issue. “Yes, of course, we are willing to hold a dialogue with the Centre...but it should be result oriented and ensure ending of decade-old bloodshed in the state,” he told PTI before leaving back for Srinagar. The Mirwaiz was reacting to the statement made by Home Minister L. K. Advani yesterday that the government was willing to talk to anyone within the country and not with those operating from outside. While emphasising that Hurriyat was for talks, the Mirwaiz said no pre-conditions should be attached to these. “Everyone must come to the table with his own agenda,” he said. Stating that all parties concerned with the Kashmir issue — India, Pakistan and people of Kashmir — should be at the table for talks, Mr Umer, also the religious head of Kashmir, said a “conducive atmosphere” should be created for talks. He said the Centre should accept Kashmir as a core issue for improving relationship with Pakistan. “It is high time that the Centre accepted the fact that a proper and an unconditional dialogue with us or the true representatives of Kashmiris was the need of the hour,” he said. Referring to the autonomy resolution passed by the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly and its subsequent rejection by the Union Cabinet, he said: “This is of no
significance to Kashmir.” “The autonomy resolution has received scant response from the people in the valley. In fact, it has met with a violent reaction from people in Jammu and Ladakh,” the Mirwaiz said. “Such tactics are aimed at creating a division of Jammu and Kashmir and they will never be allowed to succeed by the people of the state,” he added. “When we speak of a solution to the Kashmir problem, our focus is on the entire state including parts under Pakistan’s occupation and the autonomy issue touches only a fraction of the problem,” he said. A result-oriented dialogue with the Centre should focus on the core issue and not the grant of greater autonomy, “which is totally irrelevant in the present context,” he said. About the reports that consensus eluded the executive council of the Hurriyat Conference as its leaders had different views on holding talks with the Centre, the Mirwaiz said: “This is a hypothetical question now. Let the Centre start rolling the ball...I am sure that our response will be favourable to end the strife in the valley.” |
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On ‘fast’
track to get her love
CHENNAI, July 5 (UNI) — A 20-year-old girl is on an indefinite fast, demanding that she be united in wedlock to a married man, whom she loves. The girl has resorted to fast at Nagampatti village in Dharmapuri district of Tamil Nadu for the past three days, after the village panchayat’s ruling that the two cannot be united. Their love affair was brought before the panchayat after they tried to elope. She appealed to the police to help her stating that the 31-year-old man, who is a father of two children, was also deeply in love with her and wished to marry her. The police are in a quandary as the girl has threatened to commit suicide before the village police station if the police did not help her to unite with her lover. |
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J&K’s trifurcation opposed NEW DELHI, July 5 (UNI) — Holland-based Kashmiri leader Hashim Qureshi has strongly opposed the demand for trifurcation of Jammu and Kashmir, terming the proposal part of a “larger conspiracy to divide the people” on communal lines. All nationalist and secular forces should fight against the forces demanding division of the state, Mr Qureshi said in a faxed statement here. While supporting the demand for autonomy to the state, he criticised Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah for hastily pushing through the autonomy resolution in the State Assembly. “He kept silent for three years on the autonomy issue and then suddenly sprung a surprise and saw the motion through in the Assembly in a huff,” he said, adding that this cast aspersions on the intentions of the sponsors of the motion. The National Conference should have initiated a nation-wide debate on the autonomy issue. This, Mr Qureshi said, could have provided Dr Abdullah with an opportunity to convince the dissenting elements. Mr Qureshi, who heads the Democratic Liberation Party, said two of the three regions in the state had already rejected the autonomy proposal. The wishes of Pandits, and those of the people of Jammu and Ladakh could not be ignored, he opined. On Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani’s proposal for division of the state on the “Chenab river boundary” theory, he said dividing the people on any pretext was akin to betraying the motherland. Such demands can serve only the interests of “enemies of the people of Jammu and Kashmir”, he added. |
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Maheshwar project in jeopardy BHOPAL, July 5 — German assistance for the construction of the Maheshwar hydroelectric project on the Narmada in Khargone district of Madhya Pradesh is in a jeopardy following an adverse report by a three-member team which was commissioned by the Ministry of Economic Cooperation and Development of the Government of Germany. The report notes that in spite of the fact that the Maheshwar project is already under construction even the most preliminary demographic and socio-economic data about the impacts is totally unavailable... the affected people have never been consulted or properly informed about the project... and the project has been sought to be continued with the use of police force and human rights violations. The
project has been entrusted by the Madhya Pradesh Government to M/s S. Kumars for construction. After the two German companies backed out in 1997 and 1998 following the struggle of the local people against the project, the S. Kumars had approached a private German back Hypo Vereinsbank for a loan of Rs 500 crore. This loan is tied to the purchase of power equipment from the Siemens which, accordingly, applied to the German Government for an export guarantee for this project. Though the German Government had agreed in principle to give the export guarantee, its Ministry of Development decided to first get itself acquainted with the ground realities at the project site in view of the disquieting reports from India. It constituted a team comprising Richard E. Bissell, Executive Director of the Policy Division at the US National Research Council and former chairman of the World Bank’s Inspection Panel; Prof Shekhar Singh, a faculty member at the Indian Institute of Public Administration, New Delhi; and Dr Herman Warth, Environmental Consultant to the German and Austrian Governments and to the European Union. After visiting the area and talking to the affected people as well as those involved in the construction of the project at various levels, the team submitted its report to the Development Ministry of the German Government late last month. Its major findings are:
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Limit cell phone use: WHO NEW DELHI, July 4 — Pending conclusive inference about health hazards posed by the use of mobile phones, the World Health Organisation (WHO) has updated its recommendations on the use of such phones. The recommendations issued in Geneva last week put the onus on individuals concerned to choose to limit their own radio frequency (RF) exposure or that of their children by limiting the exposure or use ‘‘hands free’’ devices to keep mobile phones away from the head and body. Sources in WHO said fresh guidelines appeared in the WHO revised fact-sheet on mobile telephones and base stations. The revised recommendations have come after a recent international conference on the possible health effects of mobile phones organised by the WHO and the release of key national reviews in Canada and the UK. These recommendations have been termed as ‘‘important’’ by Dr Michael Repacholi, coordinator of WHO’s Occupational and Environmental Health Unit and manager of the International Electromagnetic Fields (EMF) Project. The recommendations have stressed that new studies are needed to confirm recent findings that mobile phones may cause changes in brain activity, reaction time and sleep patterns. According to the updated recommendations, motorists ought to be discouraged from using mobile phones while driving and national authorities must adopt health based electromagnetic fields guidelines. The significance of these recommendations can be gauged by the fact that more than half the population in several countries uses mobile phones. According to projections made by the industry, the number of mobile phone subscribers is expected to swell up to 1.6 billion by the year 2005. WHO has recommended introduction of precuationary measures as a separate policy to encourage reduction of RF fields by equipment manufacturers and the public. A release issued by WHO last week says if authorities want to reduce exposure to RF fields, they should not undermine the science base of the guidelines by incorporating arbitrary safety factors into the exposure limits. According to the release, uncertainty continues about the health effects of RF which mobile phones and their base stations emit. Scientific evidence does not indicate any need for RF-absorbing covers or other ‘‘absorbing devices’’ on mobile phones. According to Dr Repachili, no information to date shows adverse health effects from the use of mobile phones. ‘‘However, most studies have examined the results of whole body exposure to RF fields at levels far higher than those normally associated with wireless communications. With the advent of such devices as walkie-talkies and mobile phones, it has become apparent that few studies address the consequences of localised exposures to RF fields to the head.’’ Health conditions which have been ascribed to the use of mobile phones include some types of cancer and changes in brain activity. But no studies on humans have yet supported these claims. WHO is also conducting RF research. A large epidemiology study is being co-ordinated in over 10 countries by the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), a specialised cancer research agency of WHO to identify if there are links between the use of mobile phones and head and neck cancers. The study is expected to be completed in 2003. |
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CM unhappy over
CISF action BHOPAL July 5—A row is developing between Madhya Pradesh and the Centre over filmstars Shahrukh Khan and Kareena Kapoor. Chief Minister Digvijay Singh has announced that he will take up the matter with the Central Government as to how the vehicle for the filmstars was permitted to be driven right up to the tarmac in violation of the instructions of Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav. The two filmstars arrived at the Bhopal airport around noon on Monday on their way to Pachmarhi where they are camping at present for the shooting of “Ashoka the
Great." By the same flight had arrived Swami Swaroopanandji Maharaj, Shankaracharya
of Dwarakapeeth. A large number of Congress leaders had assembled at the airport to welcome the Shankaracharya. The Central Industrial Security Force (CISF), which was entrusted with the security of airports in the country after the Indian Airlines plane was hijacked from Kathmandu last December, had permitted the car to be taken up to the tarmac to pick up Shahrukh and Kareena. This facility was not permitted for the Shankaracharya in spite of the pleas by the Congress leaders. Shankaracharya Swaroopanandji has an incredible hold over the Congress leaders of Madhya Pradesh-and not only Madhya Pradesh. Mr Digvijay Singh as soon as he arrived in Bhopal on Tuesday was given a detailed account by Congress leaders as to how the Shankaracharya was “insulted” by the Centre’s CISF. The Chief Minister went last evening to the residence of Public Relations Minister Ravindra Chaube, where the Shankaracharya is
putting up, to personally apologise to the Swamiji. He later said that it was a serious matter and he would take it up with Civil Aviation Minister Sharad Yadav. A CISF official, meanwhile, said that there was no intention to “insult”the Swamiji and that the decision in case of the two filmstars was taken only to keep them away from the crowd which had assembled at the airport. |
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Ganju Lama given
state
funeral RABONG (South Sikkim), July 5 (UNI) — The Rajput Regiment fired the gun 22 times as a guard of honour at a full state funeral of Ganju Lama, recipient of the Victoria Cross, in this remote village some 70 km west of Gangtok today. Lama, recipient of the world’s highest honour for gallantry, the Victoria Cross, died on July one after a prolonged illness at the age of 78. Braving heavy rain thousands of mourners trekked for five km from Ganju Lama’s ancestral house here to the local village crematorium down a mountainous village trail. The funeral procession, led by Buddhist monks, was followed by a military band. His body was consigned to flames at noon at the funeral attended by Governor Chaudhury Randhir Singh, Chief Minister Pawan
Chamling, his Cabinet colleagues and senior state and central government officials. |
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Berth eludes ‘Vikrant’ MUMBAI, July 5 (UNI) — A comfortable berth continues to elude the Indian Navy’s grand old lady INS Vikrant. The claim of the Maharashtra Government to have smoothened the waters for converting the glorious ship into a Naval museum, is once again ruffled and portends of yet another rough weather ahead with experts continuing to doubt that Oyster Rock, new site chosen for docking the aircraft carrier, would not kick-off a fresh controversy from the fisherfolk. Their apprehension is based on the fact that Oyster Rock, which is close to the century-old Sassoon Dock, an equally busy hub of the fisherfolk’s business activity in down town Colaba in South Mumbai, is similar to Jamshed Bunder, where the berthing of the ship was opposed by the fisherfolk community earlier. The berthing would block the movement of trawlers and fishing boats which offload tons of catch there every day for the consumption of the local people and meeting marine exports demands. “The site is a busy port of the fisherfolks. Surely they would not keep silence as it is no less a hazard to their livelihood,” feared Naval sources, who have been always at the receiving end everytime the project ran aground. The fishermen of the area have already begun a hush hush protest against describing the signature of a couple of leaders as consent of the entire community. |
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No tie-up with
BJP: Mayawati LUCKNOW, July 5 (PTI) — The Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) today sought to scotch speculations about a possible tie-up with the BJP, saying that it had no plans to forge an alliance with any political party and would contest the next Assembly elections in Uttar Pradesh on its own. “The BJP is a spent force and who is going to join hands with it?” party vice-president Mayawati told reporters here. Not even a change of guard in Uttar Pradesh can save this “sinking ship”, she said. “We would, however, prefer to see Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta firmly in the saddle for some more time as this would serve our purpose,” the BSP leader said. “Mr Kalyan Singh’s expulsion from the BJP and his floating a new outfit has brightened BSP’s poll prospects and we would like to see many more new parties emerging in the poll fray for the Assembly elections,” she said. The BSP leader claimed that her party had won the maximum number of seats in the panchayat poll saying that it had secured absolute majority in 15 districts while making major inroads in several others. |
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‘84 riots panel
begins work NEW DELHI, July 5 — The recently appointed commission to probe the circumstances leading up to the November 1984 anti-Sikh riots in Delhi and other parts of the country, has started its formal proceedings at its office in Vigyan Bhawan here and invited presentations from the public. The commission, headed by Mr Justice G.T. Nanavati, a retired judge of the Supreme Court, will go into the reasons that led to the riots in 1984 besides looking into several other aspects of the violence. The Justice Nanavati commission of inquiry in its public notification on June 12 had invited responses from individuals, group of persons, associations, institutions and organisations having knowledge directly or indirectly of facts and circumstances relating to the riots. The commission, however, clarified that only facts or allegations supported by an affidavit would be taken note of. |
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