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| Wednesday,
July 25, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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UTI fiasco: Oppn guns for Sinha
CMs’ meeting convened to discuss Manipur
Sonia: Agra summit
a disappointment |
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Hearing in Jessica Lal case on July 27 NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT Starvation deaths: HP asked to explain Escorts hospital at Amritsar soon 2 BSP leaders join Samajwadi Party
CPM denies boycott of Sonia’s tea party Non-Cong oppn parties train guns at govt RLD general secretary quits Workers march to Parliament
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UTI fiasco: Oppn guns for Sinha New Delhi, July 24 Labelling it as a “great betrayal” of over 20 million investors particularly pensioners, widows and middle class, Leader of the Opposition in Rajya Sabha Manmohan Singh said though heads had started to roll,” the Finance Ministry had a lot to answer for its inability to read the signs of crisis. During a short discussion on the UTI, which the Rajya Sabha took up today, the former Finance Minister said Finance Minister Yashwant Sinha’s yet another disclaimer that his ministry was not aware of looming crisis did not hold water. Leader of the Opposition, while elaborating on the issue said the UTI debacle had come in the wake of a spate of financial scams during the past four months like stock scam, corruption charges against the CBEC Chairman, earlier that 1998 bail out of the UTI and the reported similar scam brewing in LIC. “After the 1998 bail out, it had become more imperative on the part of the Finance Ministry to keep a close watch on country’s largest mutual fund to ensure such a crisis did not recur”, Mr Manmohan Singh said. Mr Manmohan Singh regretted that though Finance Secretary Ajit Kumar had come to know about the freeze of the UTI flagship scheme US-64, why the minister was not informed for 36 hours. He pointed out that this was a grave lapse. Mr Manmohan Singh said the argument that the government was not aware of crisis brewing up in the UTI did not hold good as the company submitted a report to the ministry every month. He demanded “deep investigations” into how the UTI had made highly questionable investments with tainted stock brokers and companies lacking credibility. He also reacted sharply to the new special package of the government terming it as too late and lacking in direction. He said the government should not succumb to even bigger blunder by pressurising the SBI and the LIC in giving rescue loans to the UTI saying this would undermine the financial health of these leading government-owned financial institutions. V.V. Raghavan (CPI) who initiated the debate demanding the resignation of the Finance Minister said common investors had been cheated by what he called “looters in high places”. “It is high time that the minister turned the torch on himself as nobody believes his repeated claims that he was no aware of the number of economic scams that have been breaking over the months”, the member said. |
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PM rules out Sinha’s resignation New Delhi, July 24 Intervening during the BJP Parliamentary party meeting, the Prime Minister said while the question of the Finance Minister’s resignation did not arise, interests of the small investors would be fully protected. Briefing newsperson about the Parliamentary party meeting, BJP spokesman Vijay Kumar Malhotra said Mr Sinha was going to apprise the party MPs of the situation later in the day. Mr Malhotra said an hour-long meeting discussed party’s strategy to counter the Opposition’s onslaught on issues like the failure of the Agra summit and the UTI fund scandal. The party had asked the members to be present in full strength to foil any attempt by the Opposition to embarrass the government, sources said. Mr Malhotra said Mr Vajpayee had informed the parliamentary party that he did raise the issue of the Pakistan occupied Kashmir during his talks with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf at the Agra summit. |
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CMs’ meeting convened to discuss Manipur New Delhi, July 24 The government was warned that it should not take the crisis lightly as this could even lead to the separation of the north-eastern states from India. The government told the House that the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, had convened a meeting of Chief Ministers of north-eastern states on July 27 and he would discuss ways to resolve the issue with them. Sharing members concern over the situation in the North East in general and Manipur in particular, the Union Parliamentary Affairs Minister, Mr Pramod Mahajan, said the government was aware of the Manipur MLAs’ threat to resign en masse if the Naga ceasefire was not reviewed by July 31. He said this was the reason that the government, without waiting for a debate in the House or approving the ordinance imposing President’s rule in Manipur had convened the meeting of Chief Ministers. Mr Mahajan said the Union Home Minister, Mr L.K.Advani, was expected to hold consultations with Opposition leaders on the issue and he too would convey their sentiments to him. Raising the issue during the zero hour, Mr Somnath Chatterjee of the CPM said the Chief Ministers and the people concerned in Manipur and other states in the region were not consulted on the extension of ceasefire. Demanding a statement from the government, Mr Chatterjee said Manipur was burning and MLAs, MPs and ministers could not go back to their state. A Congress member, Mr Santosh Mohan Dev, held the NDA government responsible for the situation in Manipur. He said: “we will support you on the imposition of President’s rule in Manipur only after you convince us.” A Muslim League member, Mr G.M. Banatwala, charged the government with being indifferent to the issue. A former Prime Minister, Mr Chandra Shekhar, in an apparent reference to the Centre’s interlocutor, Mr K.Padmanabhaiah, asked why should he hold talks with any Naga group in Bangkok or Amsterdam. The Samajwadi Party leader, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav said the government must spell out measures to resolve the crisis while a Congress member from Nagaland, Mr K.A.Sangtam, said the review of the Naga ceasefire would have serious consequences in the entire North East. |
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Sonia: Agra summit
a disappointment New Delhi, July 24 The Agra summit was handled in an inept manner before, during and after the event, she said in her address at the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting here. The government was not clear about its objectives and had no focus, she added. Pointing to the situation in the North-East, she accused the government of being insensitive in not taking into confidence the people of the region in extending the areas of ceasefire with the NSCN (I-M). The Congress governments in Assam and Arunachal Pradesh too were not consulted, she said. On the economic front, Mrs Gandhi said the country was in the midst of stagnation and crisis of confidence. She said for the second time in three years, over 20 million investors had seen their hard-earned savings in UTI’s US-64 put in jeopardy because of incompetence and corruption. “How can the government sleep over the recommendations of a committee that had been set up in the wake of the first US-64 crisis,” she asked. Referring to the “economic stagnation,” she said the GDP growth rate had fallen, tax collections were low and industrial growth had touched rock bottom. She said the party had been seeking a white paper on disinvestments but the government was continuing with its ad hoc decisions. She said the party’s plea on the food-for-work programme for the people of drought-affected areas had not been conceded by the government. Mrs Gandhi accused the government of breaking consensus on the Ayodhya case by refusing to facilitate the expeditious disposal of the criminal cases pertaining to the demolition of December 6, 1992. The Congress President said her the party’s graph was moving up and the party already had governments in 11 states. Referring to her US visit, she said Indian National Overseas Congress had been launched to
strengthen relationship with the Indian diaspora. |
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Hearing in Jessica Lal case on July 27 New Delhi, July 24 The case will be heard by a Division Bench of the Delhi High Court which deals with criminal cases. It was referred to the Special Court by Justice R.C. Chopra in the last hearing. Four of the eyewitnesses produced by the prosecution have already turned hostile. Two eyewitnesses, Malini Ramani and her mother Beena Ramani, owner of the Tamarind Court restaurant where Jessica was reportedly shot dead on the night of April 29, would be re-examined. On July 20 the case was brought before Justice Chopra who had been hearing arguments on the application before summer vacations. Justice Chopra transferred the case to a Bench hearing criminal matters only under the new roster after the vacations . Earlier on May 24, Justice Chopra had rejected a plea by Manu Sharma for early hearing of his bail application and listed the matter for July 9. Manu Sharma had contended in his bail application that since all main witnesses in the case had been re-examined he should be granted bail. However, the public prosecutor had countered that if the accused was let out on bail he could intimidate other witnesses. So far witnesses — Shyan Munshi, Shiv Das, Karan Rajput and Parikshit Sagar — have turned hostile and retracted their statements given to the police during recording of their testimony. On March 13, the court had upheld a trial court’s murder charge against Manu Sharma, but declined the permission to frame additional charges. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, July 24 The minister said
artificially induced melting of snow by sprinkling ash over the glaciers must not generate floods due to the usually low melting rate in such cases. The Union Minister for Environment and Forests, Mr T.R. Baalu, informed the Lok Sabha that mining within 2 km of Surajkund and Badkhal lakes (tourist complexes) in Haryana had been banned in compliance with the Supreme Court orders. The Union Civil Aviation Minister, Mr Sharad Yadav informed the Rajya Sabha that the names of Gaggal, Jubbar Hatti and Bhuntar airports in Himachal Pradesh had been changed to Kangra, Shimla and Kulu-Manali airports, yesterday. The Union Minister for Communication, Mr Tapan Sikdar, informed the Rajya Sabha that local dialing system has been introduced among all towns of Uttaranchal. The Minister of State for Home Affairs, Mr Vidyasagar Rao, informed the Lok Sabha that 398 daily-wage workers had so far been regularised by the Chandigarh Municipal Corporation. Responding to a question by Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, the minister said in accordance to a directive of the Supreme Court such daily-wage workers who had completed 240 days of service, had been regularised against existing vacancies in order of seniority in their respective categories. Mr Rao informed the Lok Sabha that during the 185 days unilateral ceasefire the number of incidents of violence reported were 2,142, an increase from 1,672 during the pre-unilateral ceasefire period. He said the Centre, alongwith the state government, was continuing with its multi-pronged strategy to curb militancy in Jammu and Kashmir. The Minister of State for Urban Development, Mr Bandaru Dattatreya, said the Chandigarh administration undertook the rehabilitation of those slum dwellers who reside in designated labour colonies. The minister said constant vigilance was being maintained to prevent fresh encroachment in the city. Mr Dattatreya said Chandigarh was not granted any fund under the Swarna Jayanti Shahri Rozgar Yojana during 1999-2000 and 2000-2001. The minister said Chandigarh could not utilise the Central funds made available to it till March 1999. It still has an unspent balance of Rs 179.66 lakhs as on March 31, 2001. Any further release during the current financial year which also happens to be last year of the Ninth Plan period, would depend on the UT administration utilising the unspent balance and furnishing proper utilisation certificates thereof. |
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Starvation deaths: HP asked to explain New Delhi, July 24 The court directed the respective governments and the FCI to disclose ways and means to provide food to those who were not in a position to buy food while regretting that the people were starving because of mismanagement in the distribution system although the country had sufficient foodstocks and food grains were rotting in the FCI godowns. The judges further directed the states to reopen within one week all public distribution shops. |
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Escorts hospital at Amritsar soon New Delhi, July 24 The agreement signed between the EHIRCL and the promoters of the AHL envisages setting up of a 150-bed hospital in Amritsar with cardiac care and nephrology as two
specialities. The AHL, to be renamed Escorts Heart and Superspeciality Institute Limited, is expected to start functioning within a year. Under the said agreement, the EHIRCL will have 76 per cent equity and management control over the
AHL. According to Dr Naresh Trehan, Executive Director and CEO of the
EHIRCL, the new facility at Amritsar will provide international cardiac care at an affordable price. Dr Praveen Kumar Sareen of the AHL has expressed the confidence that cardiac care of global standards being provided by the EHIRCL will give a fresh impetus to the institute. |
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2 BSP leaders join Samajwadi Party New Delhi, July 24 The Mitrasen Yadav, along with the Faizabad MLA, Mr Ramachandra
Yadav, resigned from the BSP and joined the Samajwadi Party in the presence of its President, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and the General Secretary Mr Amar
Singh. Mitrasen Yadav, who has represented the Faizabad Lok Sabha seat as CPI and Samajwadi Party MP joined the BSP during the 1998 Lok Sabha elections when he was denied ticket by the Samajwadi Party. The Samajwadi Party chief told reporters that two student leaders of Uttar Pradesh Mr Hemant Singh and Mr Sudarshan
Tripathi, had also joined his party. Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav said the elections should be held before the term of the present Assembly expired on October 17 this year. |
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CPM denies boycott of Sonia’s tea party New Delhi, July 24 Talking to newspersons, the CPM leader in the Lok Sabha, Mr Somnath Chatterjee, denied having boycotted the Leader of the Opposition Mrs Sonia Gandhi’s tea party organised for achieving floor coordination amongst opposition parties in the Lok Sabha. |
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Non-Cong oppn parties train guns at govt New Delhi, July 24 This was decided at a meeting of leaders of these parties this morning chaired by senior Marxist leader Somnath Chatterjee. The meeting was attended, among others, by MPs belonging to the CPM, CPI, RSP, Forward Bloc, Samajwadi Party, AIADMK, RJD, Janata Dal (S), RPI and Kerala Congress. |
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RLD general secretary quits New Delhi, July 24 Stating that the BJP was communal, he said “it has given no commitment either for the formation of Harit Pradesh.” |
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Workers march to Parliament New Delhi, July 24 The protestors under the banner of the Joint Action Committee of Central Trade Unions, alleged that the “second-generation reforms” had led to unemployment and price hike. |
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