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| Friday,
November 3, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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Uttaranchal: EC to initiate delimitation Uttaranchal Sikhs
welcome Barnala’s appointment Who will form first Jharkhand govt? Sonia refutes coterie charge Naidu
pledges support to women’s quota |
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Army atrocity: MoD asked to compensate Infiltration continues along Indo-Nepal border Corruption ‘threat’
to democracy Cabinet for winter
session from Nov 20 Ammonia gas leak
causes panic
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Uttaranchal: EC to initiate delimitation NEW DELHI, Nov 2 — The Election Commission is preparing to undertake delimitation in the newly constituted state of Uttaranchal and the work would begin once the State formally comes into existence November 9, the Chief Election Commissioner, Dr Manohar Singh Gill, said here today. “I have already asked to set up a new section in the Election Commission for this (delimitation) purpose and I would visit Dehra Dun, the capital of Uttaranchal, to set the ball rolling,” Dr Gill told mediapersons. The process of delimitation in Uttaranchal is necessitated as the newly constituted state has only 22 MLAs in the region at present as against the strength of 70 Legislators recommended in the State Reorganisation Bill passed in the monsoon session of Parliament. On the other hand, the two other newly formed states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand will not need a delimitation as the number of MLAs recommended in the Bills remains the same, the Chief Election Commissioner said. Dr Gill said while Parliament had frozen fresh delimitation of Parliamentary constituencies till 2020, redrawing of boundaries and balancing of electorates in the existing constituencies had become necessary. Citing an example, he said the Chandni Chowk constituency in Delhi has just 3.7 lakh voters as against a whopping 28 lakh voters in Outer Delhi constituency. “This means that the voting strength of the electorate in Outer Delhi is only one-seventh of that in Chandni Chowk. This is also unfair to the candidates as the expenditure limit is the same in all constituencies regardless of their size. The average constituency should comprise about 15 lakh voters,” he said. Asked whether elections would be due in Uttar Pradesh in October 2000 or March 2001 as the present assembly did not function for some months and Governor’s Rule was imposed for a while soon after the elections, Dr Gill said “I would have to study the exact legal position before commenting on it.” Referring to the progress of organisational elections in various political parties, Dr Gill ruled out any “interference” by the commission in the internal political process of parties. However, he said “the Election Commission will ensure that the organisational elections are held regularly as per the party constitution. “We are not at all expected, and nor is it correct for us, to interfere in the internal process of elections,” he said. Asked whether the commission would intervene if complaints of malpractices in party elections were brought to its notice, Dr Gill said “EC has no role to play in such cases... The courts are there to sort out any disputes.” Detailing about the preparations for the Assembly elections to be held in early next year in four states and a Union Territory, Dr Gill said he would be visiting Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry on November 11 to take stock of the progress made in issuing voter identity cards. Referring to the last pending litigation between the Centre and the commission, on the issue of the implementation of the model code of conduct, Dr Gill said the former had sought four weeks’ time from the Supreme Court during a hearing earlier this week. As the point of difference between the government and the commission had been narrowed down to the short question of the gap between the announcement and notification of elections, Dr Gill hoped that the Centre would withdraw its case soon. |
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Uttaranchal Sikhs
welcome Barnala’s appointment DEHRA DUN, Nov 2 — There is no resentment among residents of Udham Singh Nagar regarding their inclusion in the Uttaranchal State. The Sikh community has welcomed the decision of the Central Government to appoint senior Akali leader Surjit Singh Barnala as the first Governor of the new State. Talking to The Tribune Mr Bhagat Singh Koshiyari, President of the Uttaranchal BJP unit said here, this evening that during his visit to the area last week the people of US Nagar greeted him with full faith in the BJP leadership. In many places of the area including Nanak Mata Saheb the Gurdwara he was presented ‘Siropa’, the highest honour in the Sikh community. Mr Koshiyari has welcomed the Union Government’s decision to appoint Mr Barnala as the first Governor of the new
State. |
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Who will form first Jharkhand govt? RANCHI, Nov 2 (UNI) — The ongoing meeting of the Jharkhand Mukti Morcha in Patna to explore the possibilities of government formation in Jharkhand has once again encouraged the ruling RJD to prop up a non-BJP led combination in the new state. The RJD, which has nine legislators from Jharkhand, has initiated efforts to polarise non-BJP forces in Jharkhand on “ethnic lines”, projecting the morcha as one of its possible allies. Taking advantage of the prevailing confusion in the NDA over the choice of Chief Minister in the BJP and JMM, the RJD is trying to lure the morcha to sever its ties with the NDA and strive for the installation of a non-BJP government in Jharkhand headed by JMM President Shibu Soren as the first Chief Minister. According to sources in the RJD, feelers in this regard have been sent to the morcha, assuring support of the two legislators of the CPI, one each of the CPI (ML) and MCC and 11 of the Congress, besides promising to manage the Independent legislators who would be playing a pivotal role in Jharkhand’s government formation following the electoral status of various political parties in the new state. The Jharkhand Assembly will have 82 members. With the death of a CPI legislator from Ramgarh, its present strength has come down to 81, with one representative of the Anglo-Indian community. In the proposed Jharkhand Assembly, the BJP has 32 members followed by JMM (12), Congress (11), RJD (9), Samata Party (5), Janata Dal (3), CPI (2), AJSU backed legislators (2) CPI (ML) and MCC (1 each) and independents (4). The NDA with the BJP, Samata Party, Janata Dal (U) and Jharkhand Mukti Morcha as its constituents in Jharkhand has 52 legislators. Political observers said in case the JMM decided to sever its ties with NDA on the issue of chief ministership, the latter would be left with just 40 legislators, two short of the number required to form the government in the new state. On the other hand, if the JMM broke its ties and decided to go with the RJD, CPI and Congress to form a government with a total strength of 34 legislators, it would require eight more to come to power. Reportedly, the two AJSU backed legislators have extended their support to the NDA, leaving the non-NDA forces with just two legislators to bank on for support. |
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Sonia refutes coterie charge AMINI (LAKSHADWEEP), Nov 2 (UNI) — Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said she was not scared by Mr Jitendra Prasada’s challenge to the party presidentship and that the contest was a “positive democratic way” to go about. However, she refuted Mr Prasada’s charges of a coterie and lack of inner party democracy and asserted that the Congress had excellent inner party democracy. In an informal chat with reporters after the inauguration of the ‘Congress Mahasangam’ here she said a challenge to a member of the Nehru-Gandhi family was “nothing new”, adding that once Mrs Indira Gandhi was thrown out of the party she had worked for years. When the late Rajiv Gandhi was Prime Minister, there was a conspiracy hatched by some people within the party, backed by none other than the President of India to “unconstitutionally” remove him, she said. “And do you think I am scared of this challenge? Not at all,” Mrs Gandhi said. Chief Ministers Digvijay Singh of Madhya Pradesh, Vilasrao Deshmukh of Maharashtra, Ashok Gehlot of Rajasthan and P. Shanmugham of Pondicherry also addressed the inaugural session. Lok Sabha Deputy Speaker P.M. Sayeed welcomed the gathering. Mrs Gandhi said the Sangh Parivar had been pushing its communal agenda. The coalition nature forced them to resort to a vocabulary of secularism borrowed from the Congress tradition, she said. “Let none of us be fooled into imagining that the
BJP leopard is changing its spots or the Sangh Parivar tiger is changing its stripes,’’ she said. “It is impossible to believe that leaders who have devoted half a century of their lives to propagating the
RSS ideology suddenly become secular on entering the portals of governance,’’ she added. She also attacked the economic policies of the government and said, “The Congress is deeply disturbed at what is happening to the economy. There is no transparency in the disinvestment policy.’’ When asked about Mr Prasada’s claim that he stood for inner party democracy, she replied, “I have always stood for inner party democracy. The fact that we introduced the election authority in the party for the first time points towards this. |
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Naidu
pledges support to women’s quota HYDERABAD, Nov 2 — The Chief Minister of Andhra
Pradesh, Mr N. Chandrababu Naidu, yesterday pledged to support the
move for one third reservation of seats in Parliament and Assembly to
women while speaking at a function celebrating the formation of the
state. Andhra Pradesh state, which was formed on November 1, 1956, celebrated the state formation day along with present Punjab, which was formed on the same day 10 years later. Mr Naidu who became the Chief Minister five years ago in September 1995 following a split in the Telugu Desam Party yesterday, claimed before a large gathering of supporters that since he had taken over the state had moved to fifth place from 22nd among the states with regard to total investments and had done even better with regard to industrial investments in the country. The Chief Minister enumerated various schemes and programmes he had launched not only in the field of information technology but also in industrial, agricultural, educational and social welfare fields that had helped the state to attain progress. He was able to change the way the government administration functioned by making it more responsive in assessment and action with regards to the needs of the people. Secondly, he was able to secure the people’s participation by launching what had been termed as “mother land” programmes, which were initially launched to attract NRI contributions and investment in a few projects but now encompass almost all fields involving the participation of local people. Thirdly he set long-term goals under what had come to be known as “vision 2020” in attaining which he proposes to mobilise the state and private investments. The Governor, Mr C.Rangarajan, and the Chief Minister separately greeted the people of Andhra Pradesh on the occasion of state formation celebrations. There were, however, some discordant voices from organisations, including the Osmania University Teachers Association, who were fighting for the formation of a separate Telangana state. |
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Army atrocity: MoD asked to compensate NEW DELHI, Nov 2 — In a landmark judgement, the National Human Rights Commission has directed the Ministry of Defence (MoD) to compensate farmers of Andhra Pradesh who suffered Army atrocity. At the same time, the commission has asked the MoD to consider initiating proceedings to prosecute the Army personnel responsible for violating human rights of a large number of persons. The commission has said the MoD must formulate necessary guidelines to ensure that the armed forces observe human rights of the civilian population while performing their duties in non-combat areas. Sources in the commission said it had directed the MoD to pay Rs 12 lakh as compensation for loss to property, Rs 10,000 each to the four farmers beaten up by the armymen and Rs 5,000 each to the farmers who were evicted. The commission has said the Government of India will pay the aforesaid amount granted as “immediate interim relief” to the Andhra Pradesh Government. The calculation of the entire amount will be done by the Chief Secretary, Andhra Pradesh, and this would be intimated to the Secretary, MoD, within a month. The amount would be paid by the Centre to the Andhra Pradesh Government within a month for disbursement within a month. The NHRC has asked for a compliance report by both the
governments within four months. The commission has also stressed the urgency and need for amendment in the Protection of Human Rights Act, 1993, to empower the NHRC to probe more effectively into human rights violations by armed forces. The commission had taken suo motu cognisance of a news report in May. The report alleged that the armymen went on rampage in Andhra Pradesh and attacked farmers who had come to sell their wares in Rythu Bazar in Hyderabad. According to the report, 300 armymen went on rampage in pre-dawn swoop in the Mehtipattnam area of Hyderabad on May 12, 1999. They threatened farmers sleeping in the compound and beat up four farmers who protested. The district administration estimated the loss at around Rs 12 lakh. |
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Infiltration continues along Indo-Nepal border PATNA, Nov 2 — Even after entry into Nepal via air route, without a visa or proper identity, was banned, following the hijack of the Indian Airlines plane, scores of people are infiltrating into the Himalayan kingdom through the long porous boundary along Bihar. Thanks to the “patronage” of the transit outposts and border officials, a massive plexus of smuggling is operating in the northern districts of Bihar. The smugglers have recruited a large number of children and women to carry out cross-border smuggling. A “classified” notification of the Ministry of Home Affairs on October 1, sent to the Bihar Government recently, cautions the state machinery not to allow air travel to Nepal without a visa or proper identification papers as the Nepal Government has banned such entry in a bid to check the infiltration of suspected ISI people in the kingdom. It also says that possession and exchange of Rs 500 notes in Nepal would now be a cognizable offence as India had requested Nepal to take steps to check ISI activities and their bid to pump in fake Rs 500 notes into India. However, the steps have proved a wasteful exercise as the infiltration into Nepal through many transit posts is going unchecked. Smugglers are having a field day along the Indo-Nepal border. To avoid arrest and trouble from the authorities, the smugglers have recruited large number of kids and women who act as carriers for them. They are sent into Nepal as pilgrims or on the pretext that they are going there to visit their relatives in Nepal. They bring back foreign goods, narcotics and other `special’ items hidden in dirty looking bundle of clothes. The smuggled goods are wrapped round the body of the kids who pretend to be with their “mothers”. The women act as the mothers and conceal the items in their inner garments. They generally are dressed poorly and wear a harassed look to avoid detection at the entry transit points. The male “guide” keeps a close watch on them. When any of the women is caught by the officials or the public, they come to the rescue by making a hue and cry over the alleged molesting of a “poor women”. The woman and kids make their escape good in the melee. The fake Rs 500 notes are also in large circulation along the Indo-Nepal border. There are gangs who offer a “double your money scheme” to ignorant masses of the villages and blocks. They offer lotteries of Rs 100 and return Rs 500 notes in the evening to “lucky winners”. They give a number to the person and in the evening, they allegedly dial a telephone number of Delhi and after some “talks” they announce that the names of the “lucky winners” have been declared in Delhi. The winners are given five times the money they invested in the morning. The hundred-rupee note the public gives is genuine but the Rs 500 note is a fake one. The fake notes are said to be supplied by the ISI from Nepal. The local police is hand in glove with the lottery operators. Often the lottery operators get a raid of police conducted and the police recovers the “genuine notes”. Thus these lottery operators get a clean chit. The top police officers maintain that the fake notes are so perfectly made that it is impossible to detect them through bare eyes. |
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Corruption ‘threat’
to democracy NEW DELHI, Nov 2 — Good, effective and democratic governance can go a long way in countering terrorism. Delivering the first Krishan Lal Sharma Memorial Lecture on “Democracy and terrorism” the Vice-President Mr Krishan Kant, said when there were shortcomings in democratic attributes of a state, terrorism infected it. He said biggest danger to democracy was corruption and parochialism of different kinds. Very often these weaknesses are justified in terms of imperatives of electoral politics, the Vice-President said, adding that these defects were found today in many genuinely democratic countries which only highlighted that the quality of democracy in all these countries need to be improved. Paying tributes to Mr K. L. Sharma, the Vice-President described him as an avid practioner of value-based politics. Glowing tributes were also paid to Mr Sharma by Union Food Minister, Mr Shanta Kumar, and the Uttar Pradesh Governor, Mr Suraj Bhan. Mr Shyam Khosla, Secretary-General of the Council for International Relations and Human Rights presented a memento to the Vice-President. |
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Cabinet for winter
session from Nov 20 NEW DELHI, Nov 2 — The Union Cabinet today decided to recommend that the Winter session of Parliament be called from November 20. Subject to exigencies of the government, business would end on December 22, the Cabinet spokesperson and Union Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan said. The 33-day winter session would have 25 sittings in which five days would be for private members’ business. Another decision taken by the Cabinet was to repeal the Influx from Pakistan (Control) Repealing Act, 1952, which has become redundant with the passport system replacing the permit system. Mr Mahajan said the legislation was enacted in 1949 and repealed in 1952. But there was a saving provision of Section 3 in 1952 repealed Act which stipulated that the Act would not stand repealed as long as single permit holder lived in India. Since there is no permit holder in India, the Act has become redundant. The Cabinet decided to set up a medicinal plants Board, including drawing up of policies and strategies for proper development, propagation and sustainable availability of such plants. The Board to encourage protection of patent rights and intellectual property rights, would be a national level body under the Department of Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy in the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It was also decided to offer Voluntary Separation Scheme to employees of Bharat Gold Mine. An earlier scheme saw only 356 of the 4310 employees opting for it. To make it more attractive, the Government is offering better terms, he
added. |
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Ammonia gas leak
causes panic PARADEEP (Orissa), Nov 2 (UNI) — Leakage of ammonia gas from the Oswal Chemical and Fertiliser Plant caused panic among the local people here last night, with many complaining of suffocation and irritation. However, the situation was brought under control as the plant authorities successfully stopped the leakage inside the plant. According to the police, though some persons complained of irritation in the eyes and suffocation, neither was there any casualty nor anybody admitted to the hospital due to the leakage. The ammonia gas leakage, sources said affected the neighbouring areas of
Atharbanki, Brundaban Colony, Paradeep Phosphate Colony and Oswal Plant areas. |
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