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| Monday,
October 9, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Mamata’s antics invite criticism Destiny wanted him to operate on Vajpayee
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170 Bofors shells
found in Raipur Air Force chief’s commendations ‘Indian sites out of Pak N-range’ Will Uttaranchal keep date with people? Jharkhand: SP’s killing makes officials wary Trial in Mumbai blasts case ends Tihar jail not ready for Rao, Buta Check custodial
deaths, says UP Verdict in Tansi
case today Another probe into tigress’ death IMA reiterates charter Ministry for forests sought Ajit Singh
demands ‘Harit Pradesh’
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Mamata’s antics invite criticism CALCUTTA, Oct 8 — Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee’s “sudden” resignation from the Vajpayee government on the oil-price hike issue with a three-day ultimatum and subsequently the withdrawal of the resignation along with her senior colleague Ajit Kumar Panja, Union Minister of State for External Affairs, without achieving anything has now become a subject of criticism in the political circles. Even some of her ardent followers have been surprised at her dramatic decision to resign and then withdraw without the price hike being reduced to the minimal. But those who have known and watched Ms Banerjee closely in the past one year or so, her resignation from the Union Cabinet along with Mr Panja has not surprised them. The decision of resignation was not sudden. Nor was it tendered on the spur of the moment. It had been very much calculated. The decision was taken more for her political gain than to put the Vajpayee government into trouble water. Ms Mamata Banerjee’s main target was Writers Buildings and not New Delhi’s Rail Bhavan, not even South Block. After her party’s victory in the last Lok Sabha elections in 1999 the (Trinamool Congress won nine seats defeating the ruling CPM), Ms Banerjee found herself in an advantageous position to bargain for the coveted Railway Ministry for which former Railway Minister Ram Vilas Paswan and Nitish Kumar were also the claimants. Both belonged to a very powerful lobby and both had experienced and competence in running the ministry. Still the chair went to her at the time of the formation of the NDA government. Ms Banerjee may or may not have the competence to run the Railway Ministry like her two other senior cabinet colleagues, but she has proved herself to be the lone political antagonist against the veteran Marxist leader, Mr Jyoti Basu. Ms Banerjee comes off a low-middle class family and her political career began only in the late seventies as a Chhartra Parisad worker at South Calcutta’s Ashutosh College where she was admitted as an arts student. Her recent victory in Panskura byelection and the municipal poll in Calcutta and Bidhannagar (Salt Lake) has encouraged her to take her to Writers Buildings from where she had been driven out by Mr Basu with the help of police when she went there to seek justice for a helpless poor mute rape victim. But this time it is not merely the pro-people stand that had prompted her to take such a bold decision to step down from the Cabinet. For the past few months she was not being treated properly in Delhi and not considered as an essential factor in the decision making of the NDA Government, which was annoying her. Particularly, on the question of her demand for application of Article 356 in Bengal in the wake of breaking down of law and order machinery, Ms Banerjee found herself cornered. She was also vritually overruled on the demand for not immediately closing down six losing PSUs in Bengal, which were employing over 200,000 persons. Of late, her “demand” was not at all considered at the time of inclusion of new ministers into the Cabinet. While she had been demanding the inclusion of more ministers from the Trinamool Congress that has larger representation in Parliament, she was ignored. But the BJP with only two MPs in the state was given two major portfolios, which was not only insulting but a matter of great annoyance for her. The BJP has been still politically a virtual non-entity in the state and it is because of Ms Banerjee that the party could make a minor dent in the state politics. But it would take a long time for the BJP alone to become acceptable to the larger section of people in the state. To Ms Banerjee, the BJP in Bengal had become a burden, which she would now prefer severing. But still she would stick to her decision to quit the Cabinet and subsequently withdrawing her party from the NDA for her political gain. Ms Banerjee knows well that if the Vajpayee government ultimately slashes down the prices of these commodities even to a minimal level, it will be her political gain and she will become once more acceptable to the people in the forthcoming Assembly elections in Bengal. And if that is not being done she will definitely quit the ministry along with Mr Panja. |
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Mamata’s threat
a drama: Jaya CHENNAI, Oct 8 (PTI) — The AIADMK General Secretary, Ms Jayalalitha, today described the resignation by Railway Minister Mamata Banerjee and her rejoining the Union Cabinet as “a drama enacted by the BJP-led NDA government to hoodwink the people”. In a statement issued here, Ms Jayalalitha criticised Ms Banerjee and termed her resignation as a well-orchestrated drama”. It was deplorable, she said, that the government which took just one day to hike the price of petroleum products had to call a Cabinet meeting to say it would have a second look at the decision. She also criticised DMK ministers in the Cabinet for being ‘accomplices in the action’ instead of opposing the hike. |
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Oil price hike with
‘Mamata’s’ consent AURANGABAD, Oct 8 (UNI) — Information Technology Minister Pramod Mahajan has said the decision to increase the prices of petroleum products was taken collectively by the National Democratic Alliance (NDA), including Trinamool Congress leader Mamata Banerjee. The BJP was not solely responsible for it. All members of the NDA were present when the decision was taken, he said here yesterday. “If at all there were any differences, they were in identifying the product. Some members were for hiking the price of kerosene while others for increasing the price of the LPG. But everyone present agreed that the price rise was inevitable, and even Mamata Banerjee was part of that decision,” he said. He said it was about time people realised that this was not just a BJP government but a front of many parties. “Even as there were apprehensions about the prices, not a single state government had parted with the ‘bonus’ that would accrue from the sales tax. The Centre was debating to cover Rs 24,000 crore deficit by way of bonds which had to be tied with the international price level. The Prime Minister would look into the issue at the end of October after recuperating from the knee operation this week,” he said. 170 Bofors shells found in Raipur RAIPUR, Oct 8 (UNI) — A big cache of 170 Bofors shells left abandoned on the roadside at Dhaneli village near here on the Raipur-Bilaspur road were recovered by the police yesterday. Mr Rajiv Tandon, SP, said today that the Ordnance Factory at Kanpur had confirmed that the consignment of 170 Bofors shells had been despatched to Bolangir on September 7 for refilling through a Calcutta-based transport company. Truck driver Shahid of Fatehpur (UP) had abandoned the shells on the roadside on Tuesday and took the vehicle towards Nagpur with a fresh consignment of Kirana goods loaded at Raipur. Truck cleaner Kallu, who had been told to guard the defence goods, has been detained by the Raipur police. Meanwhile, Mr Rajiv Mathur, Inspector-General of Police, said the defence authorities were asked to confirm whether any offence had been committed by the transporter. Alertness of constable T.R. Linge of Dharsiwa police station had helped in the recovery of the shells. City Superintendent of Police Dharmendra Garg said the shells, each weighing more than 35 kg, seemed to be empty. It was to be refilled at Bolangir in Orissa. He said the shells had been kept in the custody of Dharsiwa police station. |
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Air Force chief’s commendations NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (PTI) — Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis has commended the following officers, airman and civilians for their outstanding performance and devotion on the eve of Air Force Day. Wing Commanders: Squadron Leaders: Flight Lieutenants : Flying Officers: Master Warrant Officers: Warrant Officers: Junior Warrant Officers: Sergeants: Corporals: |
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‘Indian sites out of Pak N-range’ NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (PTI) — A defence analyst has concluded that most of India’s nuclear reactors and other facilities are out of reach of Pakistani nuclear attacks. Quoting information on Pakistan’s nuclear capabilities and its delivery systems, including aircraft, their numerical strength, range and capabilities, the analyst maintained that New Delhi, Mumbai and India’s nuclear reactors and facilities were “just out of reach of the Pakistani delivery systems”. Adding that all forces likely to be at the disposal of Islamabad in the event of war, Dr Sanjay Badri-Maharaj says in his latest book that “New Delhi falls just short of the range of the M-11 missiles while
Mumbai, falls just short of the realistic range of the F-16 fighter aircraft”. “What this also means is that most of India’s nuclear reactors and nuclear facilities, especially the Indira Gandhi Atomic Research Centre in south India and the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre near Mumbai are just out of the reach of Pakistani delivery systems,” he says in the book, “The Armageddon Factor”. Though Pakistan had 40 F-16s and 140 Mirages besides 12 intermediate range ballistic missiles which could deliver the inventory of between 30 and 50 20-kiloton nuclear weapons, it did not mean that all these forces would be earmarked for a nuclear strike”, he says. While Mumbai is over 800 km from the nearest Pakistani air base, Chennai is more than 2200 km and installations in central India were between 800 and 1400 km away, he says. However, Dr Badri-Maharaj says that the range of the aircraft can be enhanced by adding external fuel and by altering the attack profile to a high altitude ingress and egress to and from the target. But this will drastically reduce the aircraft’s manoeuverability and increase its radar cross section and enhance its vulnerability to air
defences, he observes. India, he says, does not face these problems against Pakistan. IAF’s Jaguars can reach almost the whole of Pakistan and Mig-27s can hit all its major cities owing to their proximity to the Indian borders. The book also gives details about the nuclear capabilities of India and Pakistan before and after the Pokhran and Chagai tests of 1998. |
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Will Uttaranchal keep date with people? DECLARATION of Dehra Dun as the capital of the new state of Uttaranchal and the designation of 17 IAS officers to it has given a fillip to the fledgling state, which seemed to have gone into cold storage after the bill for its creation was passed in August. Though the designation of Dehra Dun at present is ‘interim’ capital as a face-saving gesture to the vocal Kumaoni constituency, which had insisted that the capital be at Nainital or some other site in Kumaon, the pragmatic choice of Doon valley is a welcome plus for the new state under a number of negative signs. The most obvious of these is its paucity of resources. In its very first public comments the special group on Uttaranchal set up by the UP government had admitted to this major problem. Of an estimated annual requirement of some 1600 crore Uttaranchal’s own accruals were estimated at around 580 crore, prodding the group to suggest that the state be given special status along the lines of the north eastern states. The sensible choice of Dehra Dun will at least save on already limited resources. Dehra Dun’s selection over such improbable candidates as Gairsain has also enthused more UP cadre IAS officials to opt for the Uttaranchal cadre. However, this is still nowhere near the estimated 63 officials required and UP may have to press gang IAS officials into the cadre against their will — an inauspicious beginning. The committee also estimates that though Uttaranchal will end up with more than 60 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s hill resorts including major money spinners like Nainital and Mussoorie, the tourism potential of the region had been widely overrated in earlier estimates and it is unlikely to be a major source of revenue. The rationale for this is transparent. Most of Garhwal is on the Char Dham yatra route and the influx of pilgrims and the resultant strain on resources deter big-spending tourists. The financially precarious state will also have to grapple with restive plains populations which have not reconciled to their ‘forced’ inclusion in the new state. The residents of Udham Singh Nagar continue to agitate for exclusion, this time taking their cue from the Samajwadi Party’s Jail Bharo agitation currently underway in the district. A leader of the Udham Singh Nagar Raksha Samiti Gurmit Singh told this correspondent on the phone that the Jail Bharo agitation and the anxiety the resultant blockade provoked had given new hope to the otherwise dispirited residents. The agitation for exclusion of Hardwar from the new state, which burst into the headlines following BKU leader Mahendra Singh Tikait’s violent four-day blockade from September 13 has quietened down for now as his mostly rural base is busy with paddy harvesting. But with Tikait smarting from the insult of being passed on to a ‘junior’ Minister by the NDA government the agitation could flare up again close to the formal announcement date of the new state on November 1, queering the pitch. A more worrying factor for the hill people though may be their mentors the BJP. The party, which has an overwhelming majority of 17 of a total of 22 MLAs in the interim state assembly, has kept putting off the choice of Chief Minister, although it does not face any of the constraints here that it does in Jharkhand. This has led to the speculation that it may play the same card in delaying elections to the new state beyond March 2000, when four other state assemblies go to the poll, to save the Ram Parkash Gupta government in UP, which will be reduced to a wafer thin majority by the subtraction of the 17 BJP MLAs from the hills. In fact its opponents in UP have already got their knives out for this eventuality. Since this would directly impact the NDA government and Mr Vajpayee himself it is being speculated that he may postpone the Uttaranchal poll. He has a readymade pretext for doing this in the need for demarcation of 70 Assembly segments out of the original 22, a cantankerous and time consuming process that can easily be stretched by a few months. |
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Jharkhand: SP’s killing makes officials wary PATNA, Oct 8 — “Areh, ye ho kya raha hai” a rather frustrated and visibly upset Laloo Prasad yelled at the Home Secretary, Mr U.N. Panjiyar, on Thursday at the Patna airport where he was awaiting the arrival of the body of the slain SP of Lohardagga, Mr Ajay Kumar Singh. The secretary had just told him the news of another landmine blast in which six cops were feared dead in Giridih district. Later, it was revealed that the cops escaped with serious injuries only. It is not only Mr Laloo Prasad who is frustrated in the state. The entire bureaucratic machinery has been affected. The killing of the SP has made them realise that the menace of extremism, coupled with threat of the tribal locals over Jharkhand is real. On top of the established parallel rule established by the MCC and other left wing ultras, Jharkhand is also faced with the growing bid of the JMM-led tribals to run a parallel government in Jharkhand. As they have sensed that their cherished dream of ‘tribal rule’ will not come true, they have started to run their diktat on the non-tribal people specially the business class. The divide between the tribesmen and outsiders has concretised with the tribesmen openly talking of driving the ‘dikkus’ away from their land. A number of officials complained that they were facing authority crisis in Jharkhand areas as the locals were hooting them and refusing to accept them. The business people are on the run already. In the 18 districts of Jharkhand, the five districts of Santhal Parganas are predominantly tribal. The Santhals are demanding a state of their own outside Jharkhand. They have adopted a slogan — “ABCD
wapas jao”. They want the four group of outsiders denominated by the letters, to go back. A stands for Ara, B for Balia, C for Chapra and D for Darbhanga. People of these four districts have traditionally controlled the economy of Jharkhand region. The tribesmen see them as exploiters and wish them away. The most dangerous potential is, however, the growing nexus between industrial belt criminals and left wing ultras to unleash a regime of extortion and loot. The ‘instant justice’ mode of the MCC has already endeared the tribesmen to it. The criminals in the industrial Jharkhand are all set to join hands with the ultras. These possibilities have made the bureaucrats wary of
Jharkhand. |
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Trial in Mumbai blasts case ends MUMBAI, Oct 8 (PTI) — Seven years after the serial blasts rocked Mumbai killing 257 persons and maiming 713, the marathon trial has at last concluded with the CBI examining 684 witnesses in a designated TADA court housed in the central prison here. The CBI will formally close its case next week after the court decides on its plea to exhibit the reports of chemical analysers which are crucial because they pertain to the use of RDX in the blasts allegedly engineered by Dawood Ibrahim at the behest of Pakistan on March 12, 1993, here. The designated Judge, Mr Pramod Kode, has directed defence lawyers Farhana Shah and Subhash Kanse to submit their reply in this regard tomorrow. The last witness to depose in the case was CBI officer and chief investigating officer O.P. Chatwal. The evidence of all the witness runs into 12,000-odd pages and the CBI has produced 2,500 documents as exhibits. After going through the entire evidence, the judge will pose questions to every accused, including film star Sanjay Dutt, on their alleged role in the crime. Statements of the accused will then be recorded under Section 313 of the Cr.PC which provides the undertrials an opportunity to put up defence. The work of framing questions by the judge has already begun. Thereafter, both the sides would present their arguments on behalf of each accused before the court which is expected to deliver its verdict after two years, according to lawyers. As many as 129 accused are facing trial which commenced on June 30, 1995. Of the 135 accused, Abu Asim Azmi and Amjad Mehr Baksh were discharged by the Supreme Court while four others were killed and one died a natural death. Last year, the police arrested Mohammed Qasm Lajpuria, alias Mechanic Chacha, from an area bordering Nepal. He was produced before the TADA court here which later joined him in the trial. As many as 29 accused lodged in custody and the rest, including Sanjay Dutt, are on bail. Sanjay’s bail plea was turned down by the TADA court. He then wrote a letter to the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court which directed the TADA court to release him after imposing conditions. After Sanjay’s release on October 16, 1995, bail was also granted to other similarly placed accused. The next day 11 others also got bail and gradually many others sought liberty. The CBI’s version is that arms and ammunition landed at Dighi coast in Raigad district on January 9, 1993. |
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Tihar jail not ready for Rao, Buta NEW DELHI, Oct 8 (UNI) — Former Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao and his Cabinet colleague Buta Singh are likely to be sentenced in the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha MPs bribery case later this week even as Tihar jail officials say that they have not made any special arrangements for them. “We are not prepared to receive them,” a senior official of the high-security central prison told UNI today. The jail authorities have no orders from the Home Ministry or any other department about making special provisions to put up Rao in view of the security provided to him under the “Z-plus” category, the official said on the condition of anonymity. Rao and Buta Singh face imprisonment for a minimum period of six months on the charges of corruption and criminal conspiracy, for which they were convicted in the case on September 29. The maximum period of imprisonment could be seven years. If the two are sentenced to more than three years, they have to be arrested immediately under the law. If the sentence is for less than three years, they can be let off on bail and allowed to appeal against the verdict of the trial court. The official said the prison management had prepared a special ward having an attached bathroom and toilet in jail No. 1 for Rao three years ago when he was expected to be arrested in any of the three cases — JMM bribery, St Kitts forgery and Lakhubhai cheating — he had been prosecuted in. The Additional Director-General of Police (Prisons), Mr Ajay Agarwal, is expected to hold a meeting of the jail staff before October 11 when the trial court will announce the quantum of sentence, official sources said. Rao is the first former PM to be convicted in a criminal case. The case is based on a complaint to the CBI by Rashtriya Mukti Morcha President Ravinder Kumar. Mr Kumar had accused Rao, V.C. Shukla, R.K. Dhawan, Satish Sharma, Ajit Singh, Bhajan Lal and industrialist Lalit Suri of a criminal conspiracy. |
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Check custodial
deaths, says UP LUCKNOW, Oct 8 (PTI) — Alarmed by the growing incidence of custodial deaths, the Uttar Pradesh Government has issued directives to the police to ensure that there were no such deaths and precautions were also taken to stop suicides in police custody. Admitting that the state police had received “flak” from the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on a number of occasions for violation of human rights, the state Director-General of Police, Mr MC Dwiwedi, said the officials found guilty would be punished severely. However, in many cases, the accused commit suicide while in custody and the blame is apportioned on the police, he said. Emphasising the need to make the police more “people friendly”, the DGP said the cooperation of people was also “essential” in this connection. Mr Dwivedi said in a bid to scientifically work out the criminal cases, the jobs of investigation and maintaining law and order had been separated in the state. He said stress was being laid on bringing about an attitudinal change in police officials. To a question, the DGP said he would see to it that genuine FIRs were immediately taken note of and police took swift action in bringing the culprits to book. |
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Verdict in Tansi
case today CHENNAI, Oct 8 (PTI) — A special court will deliver its verdict tomorrow in two Tansi land deal cases pertaining to alleged irregularities in the purchase of the Tamil Nadu Government property by former Chief Minister Jayalalitha and her close friend Sasikala in 1992. Special Judge P. Anbazhagan had examined 50 prosecution and 12 defence witnesses and heard final arguments by counsel for both parties before reserving his judgement for October 9. The case, among other things, relates to the purchase of land and buildings of the Tamil Nadu Small Industries Corporation (Tansi) by ‘Jaya Publications’ and ‘Sasi Enterprises’, firms in which the AIADMK supremo and Sasikala were partners, at prices below the then prevailing rates thus causing the exchequer a loss of over Rs 4 crore. Jayalalitha has already been convicted and sentenced to one year rigorous imprisonment by a special court in the ‘Pleasant Stay Hotel’ case, for permitting construction of a multi-storeyed hotel at Kodaikanal in violation of building norms. She had, however, been acquitted in the Rs 10.16 crore ‘colour TV case’. |
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Destiny wanted him to operate on Vajpayee INDORE, Oct 8 (PTI) — Dr Chittaranjan Ranawat, who will be conducting the knee surgery on Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee on October 10, wanted to become a lecturer, but destiny decided otherwise and took him to the USA, giving him opportunity to tackle an ailment on no less a person than the Indian Prime Minister. Reminiscising his association with Dr Ranawat, the intermediate colleague and a year senior, Dr K.C. Sharma, retired dean of Mahatma Gandhi Medical (MGM) College said, “He wanted to be a lecturer here but could not succeed as hardly one or two vacancies were advertised for a teaching post in medical colleges in the fifties”. “I would say now that it was a blessing in disguise for Dr Ranawat that he went to the USA and rose to become the Head of the Centre for Total Joint Replacement, New York, and got an opportunity to operate upon none other than the PM of India, Dr Sharma said. Recalling the earlier days, Dr Ranawat’s cousin and Deputy Superintendent of Police here Mr R.S. Ranawat said “Doctor sahab migrated to the USA with a heavy heart as a much inferior person was selected by overlooking his claim in the medical college”. “It happened in 1963-64 and that was the turning point in his life when he decided to not work in India due to the alleged favouritism,” Mr Ranawat said. “He was very straightforward, and very upset on not being selected as lecturer and migrated to the USA in 1964 where he married an Austrian national”, he said. Dr Sharma said Dr Ranawat had to wait for a year after intermediate as he could not get through in the first attempt in the MBBS course. “But once he was in, he never looked back and was full of determination”, he added. Son of an IPS officer, Dr Ranawat belongs to the royal family of Sarvaniya Maharaj of Udaipur state, now in Neemuch district of Madhya Pradesh. Dr Ranawat also runs a public trust, the Ranawat Foundation Trust, engaged in rendering services for the cause of humanity. The trust has recently provided massive aid to a local hospital here and in Pune. Dr Sharma said, “It is a matter of pride for all of us that a surgeon of such a repute and who was groomed in the city’s educational institute is performing a major surgery on Mr Vajpayee”. He also informed that the doctor assisting him in this operation, Dr Nandu Ladh, too is an alumni of MGM
College. |
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Another probe into tigress’ death HYDERABAD, Oct 8 (PTI) — The Andhra Pradesh Government today announced a probe by a senior
IAS officer Mr A.V.S. Reddy, into the gruesome killing of a female tiger at Nehru Zoological Park on the night of October 4. The Chief Minister Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, asked Mr Reddy to submit a detailed report within four days after the probe, an official press note said here. One-year-old female tiger Sakhi, was killed by poachers who slit its head and peeled off the skin in the Tiger Safari Park. The state government had earlier announced a cb-cid inquiry into the shocking incident, said to be first of its kind in the history of a zoo in the country. Meanwhile, the Union Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, and senior police officials visited the park. |
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IMA reiterates charter NEW DELHI, Oct 8 — Concerned about the deteriorating doctor-patient relationship, the Indian Medical Association (IMA) has reiterated the charter of rights and duties of patients and the privileges of doctors to all medical practitioners in the country. The charter accepted by the Central Council of the IMA nearly two years back is being reaffirmed in the wake of the recently announced initiatives of the Union Health Ministry, The ministry has decided to issue a suitable ordinance making it mandatory for all medical institutions to provide medical records of a patient to him or his kith and kin on demand. The Secretary-General of the IMA, Dr Prem Aggarwal, told TNS here on Saturday that the association was sending reminders to its 1,80,000 members throughout the country to comply with the charter. “We don’t need an Ordinance to ensure that medical records of a patient are made available to him or his kith and kin on demand. A Supreme Court verdict has upheld the patient’s right to get his medical records on demand. This provision is listed in our charter, A legislation on this issue will strain the doctor-patient relationship which is so pious,” he said. The charter entitles a patient to have treatment by qualified healthcare professionals and reasonable care and skill in diagnosis. It recognises the right of the patient to seek a second opinion from another physician unless there are serious difficulties in securing such opinion. It recommends that a patient be informed about risk, side effects, after effects of the treatment, period of recuperation and cost and the availability of treatment, before any treatment is started. It also lays down guidelines for seeking consent for treatment in case of minors or mentally retarded patients. The charter recognises a patient’s right regarding choice of hospital and consultant if the latter is attached to the said hospital. It however rules out this possibility in government institutions. Other noteworthy provisions mentioned in the charter include a patient’s right to know about the available healthcare services and the identity of the medical staff. It also provides for access to a grievance redressal mechanism. In return, it expects the patient to understand his treatment and cooperate with the doctor in giving accurate information about his health and paying capacity. It also places onus on the patient to accept all consequences of his decision after giving the consent for treatment. Lastly, the charter recommends that the patient make all efforts to maintain a stable relationship with the health professional. The doctor’s privileges spelt out in the charter grant him right to practise his speciality, to choose the place, time and mode of practice, charge reasonable fee, treat patients only of his speciality and refer patients to other hospitals or consultants. |
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MUMBAI, Oct 8 (UNI) — On the occasion of the National Wildlife Week, environmentalists and wildlife experts across the country have given a call to split the Ministry of Environment and Forests (MOEF) and establish a dedicated ministry of forests and wildlife, empowered to protect the 20 per cent land that is forested. Noted environmentalist Valmik Thapar and Editor of Sanctuary Bittu Sahgal in a joint statement, said ministries of Coal, Mines, Petroleum and Surface Transport have been set up since Independence to exploit forests in India, but the protection of these forests have been totally ignored. “Splitting of the MOEF to establish a ministry that is mandated to protect forest land and wildlife habitats is the only way to save India’s natural treasury,’’ observed Mr Thapar. Dr Asad Rahmani, Director of the Bombay Natural History Society (BNHS) supported the idea, saying a ministry of environment could also handle issues like pollution.’’ “Eco-Lethal projects continue to be the order of the day in wild India,’’ felt environmentalists. “The MOEF should be prevented from development in ecologically fragile areas. But it has failed to convince successive governments that the protection of ecological assets was in India’s financial interests,” added Mr Sahgal. Mr P.K. Sen, Director, Project Tiger stated, “The tiger has lost 1,50,000 sq km — half of its forested habitat, to deforestation since 1973, — when Project Tiger was launched.’’ Experts maintained that it was because of a lack of effective protective mechanisms. |
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Ajit Singh
demands ‘Harit Pradesh’ AGRA, Oct 8 (PTI) — Rashtriya Lok Dal President Ajit Singh today called for carving out Harit Pradesh from the western parts of Uttar Pradesh for administrative convenience. In the present form, up was too big to be effectively governed or developed, Mr Singh said at a press conference here. He claimed that the movement for Harit Pradesh had the support of all parties except from Mr Mulayam Singh’s Samajwadi Party, though workers of that party also supported the demand. Mr Singh said Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had stated in Parliament that “he (Advani) would have no objection if the up Vidhan Sabha passed a resolution for the formation of the new state”. Mr Singh said the new state could be carved out of Saharanpur, Meerut, Moradabad, Agra and Bareilly divisions and would have a population of 5.5 crore. |
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