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| Monday, November 13, 2000, Chandigarh, India   
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It’s good for Oppn, says rebel Trouble ahead for Swami Govt
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MCC rebels gun down
DC’s wife ‘No intrusion in Arunachal’ CBI arrests top
Bihar official 14 cops hurt
in clash RSS launches campaign Pillai’s death blamed
on Tihar officials SC for stringent steps to curb corruption NUJ (I) calls for
direct action Prohibitory orders
in Ranebennur Nov 12 to be Public Broadcasting Day WB chief to visit Delhi today
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It’s good for Oppn, says rebel DEHRA DUN, Nov 12 — The internal rift in the BJP Legislature Party is a good sign for the opposition to gear up for the first elections to the Uttaranchal Assembly which are due next year. In an interview to TNS, Mr Munna Singh Chauhan, MLA from the Chakrata constituency, said the prevailing conditions indicated that the BJP was losing popularity. Mr Chauhan was elected to the Assembly on the Samajwadi Party ticket but later left the party following differences with Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav. He said even if the dissident BJP MLAs tried to form a government by replacing Mr Nityanand Swami or a separate group, he would not support them. He did not believe in horse trading. Rather, he said he would prefer to sit in the Opposition. On whether he would seek the support of the rest of the two SP MLAs for becoming the Leader of the Opposition, he said until and unless Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav changed the policy and programmes of the party according to the interests of the people of Uttaranchal, there was no scope for compromise. He said he was willing to join any party which came forward to fight for the rights of Uttaranchal. The new state should be given special status by the Central Government. He demanded the scrapping of the Ganga Control Board which was a hurdle in the development of the state. The rights to control hydel power projects within the limits of the state should be given to the Uttaranchal Government. He believed that it was the right time to do so as at the Centre and in the state, the BJP was in power. “The region has remained underdeveloped and the growth of its economy has been relatively at a much lower level than the state average of Uttar Pradesh. The Union Government should provide large funds for the development of hilly areas,” he said. He said the economy in the region has seen a growth of only 2.4 per cent per annum as compared to the 4.3 per cent in UP during the past one decade. Unequal distribution of income seemed to be on the rise, resulting in poverty and unemployment. The government should explore opportunities to attract foreign investment. He said villages of this hilly state should not be ignored. First and foremost priority should be education and infrastructure facilities. Mr Chauhan said the size of any ministry should be just 10 per cent of the total strength of the legislature as recommended by the Sarkaria Commission. At the present stage, there was no needs to induct 12 Ministers because it was an interim government. The government could prepare a blue-print on its policies and programmes but it did not have the time to implement them as elections were round the corner. |
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Trouble ahead for Swami Govt DEHRA DUN, Nov 12 — The three-day-old Nityanand Swami government may have won a reprieve by bringing around three ministers who had refused to take the oath of office on Friday, but its problems are so fundamental that they seem certain to haunt it throughout its projected one-year term. The capital has been quiet today with the government and rebels alike distracted by the six-day winter festival that began at Tehri today. Mr Swami’s next hurdle lies in the allocation of portfolios on Tuesday, when some of those who have taken oath are certain to feel short-changed and renew contact with the group of dissenting MLAs. Mr Swami tried to buy peace with the dissidents by nominating one of them, Mr Bharat Singh Rawat, MLA from Lansdowne, as the Leader of the Legislature Party in the Vidhan Sabha. However, the dissidents have made clear that they intend to mount a challenge to the Swami government’s choice. Much more lethal for the Swami government, this group is positioning itself as the authentic voice of dozens of small hill groups that were in the vanguard of the struggle for the state and now feel cheated by the Centre’s choice of Dehra Dun as capital, Mr Swami as CM, Mr Barnala as Governor and now a nomination of five of six MLC’s as ministers. Also unlike Mr Swami, who is forced to strike a balance between the conflicting demands of his ministers, the Centre and the parent state of Uttar Pradesh, his opponents suffer from no such constraints. And they have found an exceptionally clear enunciator of their position in the plainspeaking 46-year-old Mr Lakhi Ram Joshi, four-time MLA from Tehri. In a series of one-on-one interactions at the Drona Hotel, Mr Joshi constructed a fairly clear road map of the problems that lie ahead for Mr Swami and the BJP itself. Mr Joshi, who made a name for himself in the Uttaranchal movement by resigning as MLA, the only MLA to quit, on July 23, 1998, after the failure of the Vajpayee government to create the new state in the promised 90 days, was also the first to publicly come out against the choice of Mr Swami. Mr Swami’s name had never figured in the list of leaders that the party’s 23 Uttaranchal legislators had given to the high command on September 18 and again on October 31. After the surprise announcement of Mr Swami’s name on November 7, as many as 19 legislators met Mr Murli Manohar Joshi the following day and gave a written undertaking that they would back the MLC from Pithoragarh, Mr Bhagat Singh Khoshiyari, as CM. The legislators were surprised when Mr Khosiyari himself proposed the name of Mr Swami at the MLA meeting to elect a leader. Mr Joshi says ruefully, “our dulah (groom) sold us out. We did not know how to react.” But by the time the list of ministers was released 36 hours later opposition to Mr Swami had hardened. And when its leaders — Mr Khosiyari and Mr Pokhriyal — showed signs of playing it safe, Mr Joshi seized the initiative. That same evening he announced he would settle for nothing less than Mr Swami’s resignation. While Mr Joshi’s list of complaints is long at its heart lies his conviction that Mr Swami, who has never lived in the hills, does not understand the problems of the new state and will be disastrous for the party. Mr Swami’s lopsided ministry and harsh statements after some ministers boycotted the oath-taking ceremony that the ministers would have to come to him and he would not go to them has only strengthened this belief. “What administrative experience does Mr Swami bring to his office?” Mr Joshi asks. He was a Speaker, a post governed by strict rules and precedent. He talks of speaking for those constituents who have never seen a train or even a bus. Has Mr Swami himself ever visited these constituents? What is his policy? Swami has claimed a certain ‘mafia’ leader had offered to pay a large sum for the post of CM. Will Swami name this MLA?” Whatever Mr Swami’s policy, Mr Joshi’s position on issues is clear and, even at the expense of differing from the party stand, closely in line with long-standing Uttaranchal demands. Thus he favours prohibition and making production of illicit liquor a non-bailable offence. He is in favour of extending Article 371, prohibiting outsiders from buying agricultural land in the state, and is unequivocal on the naming of Gairsain as the states new capital. He is conservative on industrialisation insisting that the development should not be at the expense of agriculture, the mainstay of the rural economy. He also favours that constituency delimitation be on a combination of area and population as the population criterion alone favours the thickly populated plains. Though no strategist, his outspokenness will ensure that his group, currently comprising seven MLAs but with covert backing from several other legislators including some ministers, position itself as the inheritors of the Uttaranchal struggle by painting Mr Swami and those around him as outsiders. If Mr Swami slips up and Mr Joshi gets the numbers he could make a direct bid for power. Should Mr Swami survive, Mr Joshi’s outspoken position will ensure that he can extract his pound of flesh at the time of elections. And should the party expel him and the other dissident leaders they will emerge as martyrs to a people badly in need of heroes. Marandi NDA choice for CM’s post RANCHI, Nov 12
(PTI) — With barely 48 hours left for the emergence of Jharkhand, the National Democratic Alliance today appeared to have resolved its leadership issue in favour of former Union Minister Babulal Marandi as the alliance and the rival contender for power
JMM (S) prepared to stake claim to form government in the new state. “I would like to make it clear that a consensus has already emerged in favour of former Union Minister Babulal Marandi and his election as the
NDA leader to head the government is just a formality”, Opposition leader in the Bihar Assembly Sushil Kumar Modi said.
JMM youth wing
threatens stir JAMSHEDPUR, Nov 12 (PTI) — The Jharkhand Yuva Morcha (JYM), youth wing of the JMM, today threatened to launch an agitation if JMM President Shibu Soren was not made Chief Minister of the Jharkhand state. In a statement issued here, JYM central committee convener Arvind Kumar claimed that JMM had garnered the support of 42 MLAs and was certain to form government on November 15.
Cong decries Prabhat’s appointment RANCHI, Nov 12 (UNI, PTI) — The Congress has strongly opposed the appointment of former Union Cabinet Secretary Prabhat Kumar as the Governor of Jharkhand, saying a “chargesheeted” person should not have been given the gubernatorial assignment. Talking to newspersons at a tea party hosted by Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee working President P.N.Singh here yesterday, Congress Legislature Party leader Furkan Ansari said the party high command had been requested to take up the matter with the President for calling off the appointment of Mr Kumar, who was chargesheeted in the Babri Masjid demolition case. |
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MCC rebels gun down
DC’s wife HAZARIBAGH (BIHAR), Nov 12 (UNI) — Suspected MCC members gunned down Dr Archana Kumar, wife of Mr Deepak Kumar, Deputy
Commissioner, Hazaribagh, last night near Baluaon, the border of Hazaribagh and Gaya districts. The ultras who raided a petrol pump where Archana Kumar had gone to refill her vehicle sprayed bullets, leaving her profusely bleeding. She later succumbed to her injuries on the way to hospital. Archana Kumar was returning home after receiving her relatives at Gaya railway station who had come from Delhi. Sources said the bodyguards opened fire on the ultras who had jammed the road. The extremists returned the fire seriously injuring the wife of the Deputy Commissioner. “It seems to be a case of mistaken identity” sources added. Post mortem has been performed and the body has been kept at his residence. It has not yet been decided when and where the last rites would be performed. Meanwhile, the Director General of Police Mr K.A. Jacob, who rushed to the spot told UNI in Patna that massive combing operations had been launched to nab the culprits. A report from Gaya quoting the District Magistrate said the encounter between the extremists and the police continued till wee hours today but there was no report of any casualty. No other occupant of the vehicle in which the
deceased was travelling had been injured. The report said as many as 300 extremists in khaki uniforms were well armed and the bodyguards and the driver of the car in which Dr Archana Kumar was seated misunderstood them as policemen involved in routine check of vehicles in the night. |
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‘No intrusion in Arunachal’ AHMEDABAD, Nov 12 (UNI) — Defence Minister George Fernandes today reaffirmed there was no Chinese intrusion in Arunachal Pradesh. “There is absolutely no Chinese force movements in Arunachal Pradesh. Since the border is not demarcated, hunters are crossing the border — both from India and China,” he said. The statement at a party workers’ meeting here came a day ahead of the start of the Indo-China experts’ group meeting on the border issue. The eighth round of talks of officials from the Ministry of External Affairs and the Ministry of Defence with their Chinese counterparts in Beijing starting tomorrow, is expected to discuss the border question in detail. There is “no substance in it”, Mr Fernandes quipped to remarks by Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mukut Mithi on the incursions
during his visit to Itanagar on October 29. Mr Mithi had alleged Chinese intrusions in the Tawang, Taksin, Dibang Valley and Maja sectors. Retiring AOC-in-Chief of the Eastern Command Air Marshal K.N. Nair also rejected the incursion theory today. Talking to mediapersons in Guwahati, he said the border with China was “completely safe” and there was no cause for alarm. On the western front, the Defence Minister admitted marginal activities of the Pakistani Army, 70 km from the Kutch border, but dismissed these as ‘routine’. A division and a few units of the Pakistan Army had been deployed near the Kutch border, he said. The minister’s remarks at a press conference at the headquarters of South-Western Air Command in Gandhinagar today were at variance with his statements in Jammu and Kashmir last month following reports in the Pakistani media of nine divisions being deployed in the region. The minister had rejected the reports last month as a media creation. |
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RSS launches campaign NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — The Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh today launched a door-to-door campaign in the Capital to wipe off its anti-minority image while keeping its pro-Hindu character in tact. In a month-long image-building exercise, some 30,000 RSS volunteers will visit 2.5 million households in the city to convince residents that to be pro-Hindu did not mean being anti-Christian or anti-Muslim. During the campaign, which is part of the four-month-long ‘Rashtra Jagran Abhiyan’, the Sangh would try to banish “misconceptions” from the minds of the people about the Sangh’s concept of Hindutva. “Hindutva primarily means Indian lifestyle, not the customs and conventions of a particular community,” reads one of the booklets being distributed among the public, citing the 1995 ruling of a Constitution Bench of the Supreme Court. “Hindutva does not connote aggressive feelings against any creed or religion. Nor does it preach animosity or intolerance towards other communities,” it added. “The founding fathers of the Indian Constitution did not treat Hinduism as a way of worship,” the booklet says, adding that the Constitution includes Sikhs, Jains and Buddhists under the Hindu category. The RSS volunteers, which have formed 7,000 groups, will appeal to the people to come and observe the Sangh at close quarters and evaluate the organisation themselves instead of being swayed by forces working against it. They would also try to drive home the point that the Sangh strives to work for the welfare of Hindus without harming others. “We are not
aggressive Hindus. We are assertive Hindus,” Delhi RSS Sanghchalak Satyanarain Bansal said while launching the campaign. He said while Hindus had been tolerant towards other communities over centuries, they should also be treated with equal amount of tolerance by others. He said conversions tended to turn people anti-national as was evident in the northeast. |
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Pillai’s death blamed
on Tihar officials NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (PTI) — Lapses on the part of three officials of Tihar Central Jail had led to the ‘‘mysterious’’ death of biscuit tycoon Rajan Pillai in judicial custody here in July, 1995, the Delhi Police has said in its probe report. They are likely to be charge-sheeted early next year after completion of the necessary formalities. The Crime Branch of Delhi Police, which investigated into the death of the Singapore-based NRI, has concluded that Dr Hiralal and Dr Venkat Subhaia of Tihar Jail Hospital and the then Jail Superintendent A.K. Singla were ‘‘responsible for not giving proper and timely treatment to Rajan Pillai who was suffering from cirrhosis of the liver.’’ A Crime Branch official said ‘‘the investigation has been completed and all possible evidence brought on record. We are now preparing a charge sheet against the guilty after getting the necessary approval from senior (police) officers.’’ The agency is expected to file the charge sheet against the jail officials by mid-January next year after obtaining sanction for prosecution from the government. |
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SC for stringent steps to curb corruption NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (PTI) — Coming down heavily on corrupt public servants, the Supreme Court has ruled that courts should show no leniency while awarding sentence to the corrupt officials even if they succeed in protracting the litigation to get light sentences. Delivering judgement in a corruption case 20 years after the offence was committed, a Division Bench comprising Mr Justice K.T. Thomas and Mr Justice R.P. Sethi said “when corruption was sought to be eliminated from the polity all possible stringent measures are to be adopted within the bounds of law. One such measure is to provide condign punishment.” A sub-engineer in the Maharashtra State Electricity Board was caught red-handed on February 25, 1980, by the Anti-Corruption Bureau for accepting a bribe of Rs 300. The trial court had convicted him under the Prevention of Corruption Act and sentenced him to one year’s rigorous imprisonment and a fine of Rs 500. On appeal, the Bombay High Court upheld the conviction but reduced the imprisonment period to just one day while enhancing the fine amount to Rs 3000. Dissatisfied with the judgement, the public servant appealed before the apex court. Setting aside the High Court’s judgement, Mr Justice Thomas, writing the judgement for the Bench, said “increasing the fine after reducing the imprisonment to a nominal period can also defeat the purpose as the corrupt public servant could easily raise the fine amount through the same means. The Bench said Parliament, by providing a minimum sentence of one year, had resolved to meet corruption cases with very strong hand to give signals of deterrence as the most pivotal feature of sentencing of corrupt public servants. All public servants were warned through such a legislative measure that corrupt public servants have to face very serious consequences, it said. “If on the other hand any public servant is given the impression that if he succeeds in protracting the proceedings that would help him to have the advantage of getting a very light sentence even if the case ends in conviction, we are afraid its fallout would afford incentive to public servants who are susceptible to corruption to indulge in such nefarious practices with impunity,” Mr Justice Thomas opined. Referring to the case in hand, he asked “how could the mere fact that this case was pending for such a long time be considered as a special reason? “That is a general feature in almost all convictions under the PC Act and it is not a
specialty of this particular case. It is a defect of the system that longevity of the cases tried under the PC Act is too lengthy,” Mr Justice Thomas said. “If that is to be regarded as sufficient reason for reducing the minimum sentence mandated by Parliament, the legislative exercise would stand defeated,” the apex court said while restoring the trial court verdict and criticising the High Court for not looking at the sentencing aspect with seriousness. |
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NUJ (I) calls for
direct action NEW DELHI, Nov 12 (PTI) — The National Union of Journalists (India) today called for “direct trade union action” by journalists and other employees of newspapers and news agencies to get the recommendations of the Manisana Wage Boards improved and notified by the Centre. “Journalists are extremely agitated that even 12 years after the last wage revision, the government is dilly dallying on the implementation of the Wage Boards recommendations,” newly elected President of NUJ (I) Shyam Khosla said in a statement here. Mr Khosla, who was a member of the Wage Boards, said he had given a dissenting note on the recommendations as they “grossly interfered with the accepted tenets and principles and downgraded the profession.” “Despite a higher Dearness Allowance provision in all comparable professions, the Wage Boards has pegged it at the old level of 40 per cent neutralisation and the parity with university teachers were also tampered with despite protests in the board,” Mr Khosla said. |
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Prohibitory orders
in Ranebennur HUBLI, Nov 12 (UNI) — prohibitory orders were clamped in Ranebennur for three days from today, after the police opened fire in the air to disperse people belonging to two communities clashing over a burial ground in the town, 90 km from here, last night. According to the police, the trouble started when people belonging to one community gathered to offer prayers to their forefathers even as members of another community came to the burial ground and claimed that the land belonged to them. The dispute, which had been there for some time now, was recently believed to have been settled by the Deputy Commissioner of Haveri, following which two constructions being taken up on the land were demolished. Yesterday’s trouble, which started as a wordy duel between the two groups, soon turned violent as both the sides indulged in stone-throwing. Miscreants also set three vehicles on fire and looted five shops. |
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Nov 12 to be Public Broadcasting Day NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — The Minister of Information and Broadcasting, Ms Sushma Swaraj today announced that November 12 would be observed as National Public Broadcasting Day. Ms Swaraj was speaking at a function here today to commemorate Mahatma Gandhi’s visit to the Broadcasting House on November 12, 1947 to address refugees in Kurukshetra Camp. The I&B Minister called for private participation in broadcasting sector to enhance competition and stressed upon the need for public broadcasting. She said Gandhiji’s teachings would always be relevant. She also suggested the institution of two awards, one for best programme based on Gandhiji’s teachings and the other for the best public broadcast programme. Ms Swaraj also felicitated the former Director General of All India Radio, Mr P.C. Chatterjee for his immense contribution to public broadcasting in the country. The Minister of State for Information and Broadcasting, Mr Ramesh Bais, honoured Mr Lakhmi Chand, senior most Group D employee for his contribution. |
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WB chief to visit
Delhi today NEW DELHI, Nov 12 — A delegation led by the World Bank President, Mr J.D. Wolfensohn, arrives here tomorrow on a two-day visit. A government spokesperson said Mr Wolfensohn would call on the Finance Minister and the Information and Technology Minister. He would call on the Prime Mnister and meet the Ministers of Helth and Power and the Deputy Chairman, Planning Commission, on Tuesday. Sources said Mr Wolfensohn would meet representatives from the private sector over lunch organised by the International Finance Corporation. He would also visit the NIIT. The Finance Minister would host a dinner in honour of the visiting President. The delegation is said to have visited Maharashtra, Gujarat, Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan. CBI arrests top
Bihar official PATNA, Nov 12 (PTI) — The CBI today took into custody the chairman of the Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC), Laxmi Rai and Director of the Bihar Council of Science and Technolgy, Bharat Bhusan for their alleged involvement in the merit scam of 1996. CBI sources said Rai and Bhusan were grilled by sleuths yesterday and after being taken into custody they were produced before a special CBI court that remanded both of them to judicial custody for a fortnight. Rai has been kept in the Godavari ward of Beur Adarsh Jail here, jail authorities told PTI tonight. The scam involved large scale irregularities in admission of students in various technical institutes across the state.
14 cops hurt
in clash KANPUR, Nov 12
(UNI) — The police today opened fire in the air to disperse a mob which threw bombs, fired from country-made rifles and blocked a road following a dispute over the construction of a wall near a religious place in Jajmau area here. Several persons, including 14 policemen were injured and a number of vehicles, including two state roadways buses and a van was damaged in violence. |
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