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October 15, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Ultras make cops run for cover Classified secrets being smuggled Staff oppose transfer to Chhattisgarh Indian film wins ‘Green Oscar’ CPM conference from Oct 20 UGC chief’s plea to teachers |
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President visits Sitaram Kesri DD’s telecast on
national security tonight
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Ultras make cops run for cover PATNA, Oct 14 — The police force in Bihar has declared a virtual war against the state government as extremists are growingly targeting their weapon and killing them like rabbits. The cops are blaming the state government for not providing adequate and sophisticated arms to them in the fight against the ultras who own AK-47s and AK-56s like baby toys. The state government in turn throws the blame on the Central Government for not sharing the massive cost of modernisation of the state police force. As the MCC and the PWG have openly floated their “hit list”, threatening to kill a dozen top police officials, looting and destroying around hundred railway stations and many more government buildings, the cops are virtually on the run for their lives. The administration remains a mute spectator. On Friday, the Railway Protection Force (RPF) cops took the state government to task blaming it for the killing of two of their colleagues on Thursday. They were gunned down by the MCC ultras near Dhanbad. The extremists attacked the RPF contingent of five cops who were travelling in a train with Railway cash box. The ultras took away the rifles and other arms of the cops. Earlier the Bihar Policemen’s Association had threatened not to work in the extremist-infested areas if the state government did not provide of proper arms. It is to be mentioned here that state cops are provided with the age-old rifles, most police stations and outposts do not even have the wireless set and vehicles. These are easy targets of ultras who attack them and take away police arms. The introduction of landmines in the repertoire of the ultras has shaken the confidence of the cops. There is no apparatus to save them from the landmine. There were proposals of buying armoured vehicles but each one of them costs around Rs 4 crore. They have to be imported from Israel. The state government has marginalized the modernisation demands. There is said to be a war between the state and the Centre over the sharing of the cost. Sources say that the Union Home Ministry had asked the Chief Secretary of Bihar to present an estimate of the cost of modernisation of police force. The request is reliably gathering dust. As part of the Centre’s request, some of the state police officers were sent to Andhra Pradesh to undergo special training to combat extremists. As per the sources, the cost of modernisation of state police is estimated around Rs. 500 crore. The state government wants the Centre to share the burden up to 90 per cent in line with what is done in the North-Eastern states. The Centre is said to be insisting on 50:50. basis. The ultras on the other hand have links with the global arms Mafiosi. Landmines, AK-47s-56s, remote-controlled bombs, and RDX are easily available to them. Their stock is replenished as they loot the police arms. It is to be mentioned here that recently the Lohardagga SP was killed by the ultras with a police bullet. It speaks of the ultras design to target cops and their arms in a big way. |
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Classified secrets being smuggled PATNA, Oct 14 — A racket of smuggling of secret information and strategic national documents with international dimensions awaits busting in Bihar. The recent seizure of two registered packets by the postal department points to the fact that secret information is leaked to enemy nations through letters and parcels. The police-politician nexus in Bihar ensures easy passage through Bihar and that is why the miscreants are using Bihar as transit route. The hand of the ISI is not ruled out. The police is investigating the matter. On October 9, two registered parcels were seized and then opened by the postal staff of the Sukhpur post office. The registered parcel, numbered 1967 and 1968, had the name and address of a Bangladeshi national and the sender was a Saudi Arab national. The parcels contained a video cassette and highly classified documents. The details of the seizure are not available as yet. It is to be mentioned here that few months back, the postal department seized parcels sent from Nagaland, containing sophisticated arms. So far such arms packets were seized twice in Bihar. The recent recovery of strategic documents and visual information has exposed the racket of using the postal services as the ‘carrier of destruction’. The Bihar government had admitted in the last Assembly session that the ongoing racket was a serious matter and also started a probe into the matter. |
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Staff oppose transfer to Chhattisgarh BHOPAL, Oct 14 — Resistance among Madhya Pradesh Government employees to their transfer to Chhattisgarh is growing. Even jawans of the Special Armed Forces (SAF), the armed wing of the state police, have opposed the move. They resorted to violence last evening. The state government had decided to shift the 16th battalion of SAF to Chhattisgarh. The family members of the jawans of the battalion made fervent appeals to the government against this. As the state government did not respond favourably, the jawans and their family members came on the streets at Sagar (where the 16th battalion is stationed) and resorted to a chakka jam. There were skirmishes between the district police and the agitators. While senior officials are using their own resources, including political connections, to stall their transfer to the new state associations of class III and IV employees have been on strike since early this week in protest against the “forcible” transfer of employees to Chhatisgarh. The associations of class III and IV employees of the Chhattisgarh region have also threatened to go on strike. The employees from Madhya Pradesh are sent forcibly to Chhattisgarh. Only officers and employees of the Forest Department have shown their willingness to move to Chhattisgarh which will have more forest area than the rest of Madhya Pradesh. In view of the reluctance of the Madhya Pradesh Government employees to move to Chhattisgarh, the employees posted in various towns of the Chhattisgarh region are being shifted to Raipur to make preparations for the launch of the new state on November 1. In all probability, ministers and secretaries of the new state will have their PAs from among these employees. Meanwhile, lawyers of Bhopal, and Raipur are continuing their five- week-old strike. The Bhopal lawyers, demanding a Bench of the Madhya Pradesh High Court at Bhopal, had locked the district courts on September 6. |
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Indian film wins ‘Green Oscar’ NEW DELHI, Oct 14 (UNI) — “Shores of Silence — Whale Sharks in India’ by renowned wildlife filmmaker Mike Pandey has won the top award for environmental films on television at the Wildscreen 2000 Festival, also known as the “Green Oscars,” in Bristol. The film was chosen out of 47 international entries in the British city at the end of the week-long festival last night. This is the second time that a film by Mike Pandey has won the “Green Oscar” at the Wildscreen International Film Festival for Environment and Conservation. “The Last Migration — Wild Elephant Capture in Sarguja” had become the first Asian film to win the Wildscreen Panda (“Green Oscar”) in 1994. This film had later gone on to win five other international awards. “Shores of Silence — Whale Sharks in India’, the first Indian film to focus on a large marine species, is a hard-hitting account of the slaughter and trade of whale sharks on the western coast of India. One of the 47 films selected of a total 424 international entries, it was made under difficult conditions and took almost three years to complete. The film was produced, directed and filmed by Mike Pandey of Riverbank Studios. |
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CPM conference from Oct 20 CALCUTTA, Oct 14 — Mr Jyoti Basu will be the main speaker at the party’s three-day special political session in Kerala, beginning on October 20. The meeting has been called to discuss the party’s organisational matter vis-a-vis the strategy to be followed to unite the country’s all secular forces onto one platform and launch a joint move to oust the BJP from power. Over 500 delegates from different states, including 89 from West Bengal, will participate in the special party conference of the CPM which is not very often held. Last such conference was held in 1978 in Howrah district of West Bengal. The meeting of the party plenum as well as the congress, are usually held in every three years and last such plenum was held in Calcutta last year. Mr Basu will leave for Thiruvanathapuram on October 17, accompanied by Mr Sailen Das Gupta, Mr Anil Biswas, Mr Biman Basu — all politburo and central committee members from the state. The main issue before the CPM is how to regain the party’s all India status, which was recently withdrawn by the Election Commission, following the party’s “poor performances” in the last Lok Sabha polls as well as various by-elections in vacant Lok Sabha and Assembly seats in different states, resulting in the reduction of required percentage of votes for obtaining the party’s national status. |
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UGC chief’s plea to teachers NEW DELHI, OCT 14 — The UGC Chairman, Dr Hari Gautam, has appealed to teachers, particularly Delhi University teachers, not to go on proposed strike on October 19 and said the principle of ‘no-work, no-pay’ could be used against those going ahead with the agitation. Talking to mediapersons here, he said that it is unfortunate that the teachers’ association have held dharnas and threatened to go on strikes to press for unreasonable demands in reaction to the positive steps taken by the government and the UGC in order to introduce accountability, academic integrity and reforms in higher education. Dr Gautam said that the UGC through its communication of October 6, 2000 had said the Career Advancement Scheme (CAS) for promotion of Reader to Professor shall not be applicable to the colleges. However, the scheme of promotion from reader to professor under the same scheme shall continue for readers in the University departments. “There has been a strong reaction to this only by the Delhi University College teachers,” the UGC Chairman said. He said the statement by the teachers this had been decided by the Cabinet in 1998 on the basis of full recommendations of the UGC was not correct. Promotion of Reader to Professor under the Career Advancement Scheme, if permitted, shall create a financial crisis all over the country and would lower the academic standards of higher education by allowing professorship even in the sub-standard undergraduate institutions, the UGC Chairman said, adding that there were 11,000 colleges in India and salary of college teachers except those of Delhi colleges was paid by the respective state governments. |
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President visits
Sitaram Kesri NEW DELHI, Oct 14 — President K.R. Narayanan today visited the Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital here and enquired after the health of ailing former Congress president Sitaram Kesri. The President talked to the doctors attending on the veteran leader. The condition of Mr Kesri continued to be critical in the intensive care unit of Ram Manohar Lohia Hospital. Mr Kesri yesterday was shifted to the ICU following breathlessness and put on a ventilator. He also had complained of chest pain. Doctors attending on him said Mr Kesri’s condition has been showing slight improvement. The 81-year-old leader was admitted to the hospital on Thursday for the treatment of a fractured leg. According to hospital officials, Mr Kesri is suffering from pulmonary embolism, a condition in which clots in the vessels affect supply of blood from lungs to the heart. They said Mr Kesri was suffering from syanosis which severely compromises the functioning of lungs in the blood purification process. Mr Kesri underwent a coronary bypass operation in 1994 and since then has not been in the best of health. |
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DD’s telecast on
national security tonight NEW DELHI, Oct 14 — Doordarshan will telecast its New National Security programme on Sunday 10 p.m. on news channel. According to a senior DD official the weekly programme TAINAAT is the first such programme to be aired by any channel in the country. Col P.N. Khera, Director of the programme says that this week’s main segment will be a live report on the situation on the Line of Control and the proxy war being fought by Pakistan against India in Kashmir. It will feature an interview with Lt Gen H.M. Khanna, General Officer Commanding in Chief of the Northern Command. |
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Two teenagers
hang schoolboy to death PUNE, Oct 14 (PTI) — In a gruesome incident, an 11-year-old boy was allegedly beaten up and then hanged to death by two teenagers here, the police said today. Mohit Mansukhani, a Class-VI student of Sardar Dastur School here, was enticed by the two suspects to a hillock yesterday on the pretext of a treasure hunt. They allegedly beat up the boy, tied a leather belt around his neck and hanged him from a tree, the police said. The two were arrested and charged with kidnapping and murder, the police said adding that the motive behind the macabre incident was yet to be ascertained. |
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