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| Sunday,
August 5, 2001, Chandigarh, India   
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Army out
as 50 die in Bihar floods |
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UTI probe
may trigger blame game No
mid-term poll to Lok Sabha: Sushma Sinha
not to quit over UTI scam Centre
may relent on cops’ transfers |
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Naga
bandh ends peacefully ULFA
rejects Jnanpith winner’s mediation offer Tipnis
expresses doubts over CDS Maid
raped, murdered “PAK HINDUS-II” NE CMs
to meet on August 9
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Army out as 50 die in Bihar floods Patna, August 4 An estimated 25 lakh persons of the 15 flood-affected districts of north Bihar are in the grip of the flash floods. Lakhs of families in the Madhubani, Goplaganj, Sitamarhi and West Champaran districts have been rendered homeless in the wake of the floods. The Army was requisitioned yesterday and late in the evening the Army unit of Gorakhpur and Bihar Regiment jawans were pressed into the rescue works. An Army helicopter was made available from Gorakhpur to distribute relief material. Since Saturday morning the Army copter has been reportedly making sorties to drop food packets, medicine and fodder. A team of Bihar Regiment officers has been sent to the flood-affected districts to take stock of the degree of help the Army would be expected to provide. In the meantime, the agency sources put the death toll of flood victims at 10 whereas the government is silent on the death figures. It is believed that so far 50 persons have lost their lives in the flash floods. Twentyeight persons on board a boat that turned turtle near Goplaganj are still missing and are feared dead. The Gopalganj district has been worst-affected, as the flood water has reached the district headquarter town. The Chief Minister made an aerial survey of the flood affected areas and ordered quick distribution of the relief material. All the major rivers in north Bihar are in spate and are maintaining the rising trend owing to continued heavy downpour in the upper reaches of the rivers in Nepal. The Water Resource Department has issued a red alert to the district magistrates asking them to maintain round the clock vigil on the embankments and beef up security there in the wake of villagers getting prompted to damage them. |
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UTI probe may trigger blame
game New Delhi, August 4 Sources in the Opposition said the government could have escaped with light reprimand over the UTI crisis in the current session of Parliament but it would have to do some explaining as the probe began. The Congress has indicated that it would gun for the officials in the Prime Minister’s office and even an influential player in his house. The record of phone calls made by and received by the former UTI Chairman, Mr P.R. Subramanyam, available with the CBI would be made use of to put members in the Prime Minister’s camp in the dock. From the ruling side, efforts would be made to blame the Congress for the ills in the UTI. The real culprit, according to a JPC member from the ruling side, was the change in the portfolio of the mutual fund’s flagship scheme, the US-64. The debt character of the scheme was changed in favour of equity during the Congress regime in the early nineties and today more than 70 per cent of the investments were in stocks. It has been pointed out that the extreme volatility of the stock market was responsible for eroding the value of US-64. For instance, drop of one per cent in the sensex can erode around Rs 300 crore worth of investments. It has been mentioned that since the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha, presented his budget this year, the sensex from being at a level of 4,271 has plunged by more than 23 per cent. Another angle that would be probed is the nexus between the corporates and the UTI. Several members of Parliament have referred to the case of Reliance Industries which made huge profits at the cost of small investors, thanks to the liberal help provided by the UTI. The largesse to the Reliance group was shown during the Congress regime and the JPC is bound to see some blame game at this stage. The ongoing legal case against the former UTI Chairman, Mr Subramanyam, is likely to have made considerable progress by the time the JPC sittings actually begin and the hearings will have a large bearing on the Parliamentary probe. |
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No mid-term poll to Lok Sabha: Sushma Bellary (Karnataka), August 4 At a meet-the-press programme here, She ruled out any change in the leadership of the NDA saying that “Mr Vajpayee is healthy and will live long”. Asserting that the UTI scam would not have any impact on the NDA government’s stability, she said the Opposition had already lost the adjournment motion on the issue in the Lok Sabha. To a question, she said the NDA would evolve a code of conduct for its constituents and a four-member committee had already been formed for this purpose. To another question, she reiterated that there were no hardliners or softliners in the NDA. “We are all one on the Kashmir issue”, she added. On the alleged security lapse which led to the murder of Samajwadi Party MP Phoolan Devi, Ms Swaraj said Union Home Minister L.K. Advani had already denied this in the Lok Sabha. “Politicising such incidents is very unfortunate, I do not think it will have any bearing on the coming elections to the Uttar Pradesh Assembly,” she added. To a question, she said the Vajpayee government was very liberal in providing relief to states hit by natural calamities, be it Orissa, Gujarat or Karnataka. Ms Swaraj announced that an FM station would be established in Bellary by November. “I may bring it while coming for attending Hampi festival in the first week of November,” she added. The minister, later, laid the foundation stone for low power transmission of DD II Metro channel.
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Sinha not to quit over UTI scam Dehra dun, August 4 “There is no need for me to resign. I will abide by the Prime Minister’s instruction. Congress leader Manmohan Singh might be demanding my resignation, but he should remember that most of the scams broke during 1991-96 when the Congress was in power, Mr Sinha told mediapersons here. On the reasons for the UTI muddle, he said 90 per cent of the UTI funds had been invested heavily in the stock exchange before the NDA government came to power. “Now that the prices of the major companies have declined on the stock exchange, the price of US- 64 units have also steeply declined,” he said. He said the government would have to see what were the mala fide intentions behind the muddle, adding that the government has nothing to hide in this regard.
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Centre may relent on cops’ transfers Chennai, August 4 Sources in the Atal Behari Vajpayee government said the Centre would adopt a “wait-and-watch” attitude in the matter. The Centre’s stand on the issue comes against the background of the Jayalalitha government’s virtual rejection of the requisition by the Union Government for the services of the three police officers. The officers, who were involved in the controversial arrest of former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister and DMK leader M. Karunanidhi and Union ministers Murasoli Maran and T.R. Baalu on June 30, include city Police Commissioner K. Muthukaruppan. The DMK, a key member of the ruling National Democratic Alliance at the Centre, has been putting pressure on the Vajpayee government for action against the officers. Only two days ago, Mr Karunanidhi had asked for the suspension or dismissal of the police officers involved in his arrest. Senior BJP leader and Union Rural Development Minister M. Venkaiah Naidu gave enough indication of the Centre’s thinking on Tamil Nadu when he said confrontation between the Centre and the state would benefit none, while addressing party workers this morning as part of the Raksha Bandhan celebrations. He quoted Mr Vajpayee as having said that consensus and not confrontation was the need of the hour. The Vajpayee government stood for cordial Central-state relations, Mr Naidu told the meeting attended by senior BJP leaders in the state. He, however, made no direct reference to the developments in the state involving the Centre. Later, speaking to reporters at the party headquarters, Mr Naidu said he would not like to say anything on the police officers transfer issue since the matter was now before the courts. The services of the police officers were requisitioned only for administrative reasons of the Centre, he added and declined to elaborate. It may be merely coincidental that the three IPS officers, whose transfers were sought, were involved in the arrest of former Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi and the two Union Ministers, Mr Naidu claimed. As per the service rules framed by the earlier government, in the event of a dispute between the Centre and the states on cadre transfer, the view of the Centre will prevail.
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Naga bandh ends peacefully Kohima, August 4 According to reports received here, the bandh was total in Kohima, Dimapur, Wokha and Zunheboto districts of Nagaland and Naga-dominated areas in Manipur’s Senapati, Ukhrul and Tamenglong districts. It evoked a mixed response in Tuensang, Mokokchung and Phek districts of Nagaland and Chandel district in Manipur. NSF president Vipopal Kimtso yesterday claimed that the bandh was a total success, barring some communication gaps. Its general secretary Vivi Nyuthe said they could not communicate with the Mon and Tuensang districts. Nagas in Mokokchung district.
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ULFA rejects Jnanpith winner’s mediation offer Guwahati, August 4 ULFA commander-in-chief Paresh Barua, in a statement last night, said the organisation would extend all possible help to Dr Goswami to visit their bases in Bhutan, but rejected her role as a mediator. Dr Goswami, who has been awarded the Jnanpith Award this year for her contribution to Indian literature, had said she would not hesitate to talk to the banned outfit to end the long era of violence and bloodshed in Assam. “Assam cannot be allowed to bleed any more. I, along with the intellectuals of the state, can make an attempt to bring the ULFA militants to the negotiation table to solve the problem of militancy,” she had said.
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Tipnis expresses doubts over CDS New Delhi, August 4 The Air Chief has sent a communication to Defence Minister Jaswant Singh, asking that the government should not go ahead with the August 11 deadline for setting up the CDS, but wait for incorporating suggestions from the Air Force as well as the Army. When asked about the communication, an Air Force spokesman said “Communications between the service chiefs and the Defence Minister are confidential and we will not like to comment on it”. The Air Chief Marshal is the second service chief to have sent a letter to the Defence Minister on the CDS issue. Earlier, Admiral Sushil Kumar, the Naval Chief and Chairman, Chiefs of Staff Committee, had written to the minister forsaking his claim to the post of the CDS. Admiral Sushil Kumar being the seniormost of the three service chiefs would have been the natural choice as the country’s first Chief of Defence Staff. But, the sources said, with the government yet to hold consultations with the Opposition on the issue and new reservations expressed by the Air Chief, would mean that the creation of the CDS and its structure was likely to be further delayed. The sources said any further delay in setting up of the CDS structure could mean that both Air Chief and Naval Chief would lose their claims as they would be retiring from service before December 31 this year. A committee headed by the Admiral had finalised the basic structure for the CDS system with the government opting for four-star ranking for the new CDS instead of the earlier proposed 5-star as is in vogue in the USA. The Chief of Defence Staff would be assisted by a Vice-CDS and four Deputy CDS from the three services.
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Maid raped,
murdered New Delhi, August 4 The maid, Premwati, was murdered in the house of her employer last night. The employer, Ms Soni Principal of a public school, was asleep in the house and heard nothing when the crime was committed, the police said. The murder came to light this morning when Ms Soni called the maid and after waiting for her response went to the servant quarter in which the maid lived. She found room open and went inside where, the maid was lying on the floor in a semi-clad position in a pool of blood with multiple stab injuries on her body. In the second case, a businessman of East Delhi, Tej Singh, was shot at and injured by three persons in Jyoti Nagar. |
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“PAK HINDUS-II” Kaalian, August 4 The tale of Bharanwan Devi is one such example wherein she opted to leave her husband and his family than convert to Islam. She lives in the village at present with her two daughters and ekes out a living as a farm hand. The daughters too contribute their bit and she is held in high esteem among the migrants for her courageous stance despite being an illiterate and a destitute woman. Narrating her tale she says, “ I lived in a joint family with my husband Luna Ram, two daughters and his brother Manu Ram and his sons Kishana Ram, Dina Nath and Bhagwan Ram. In 1980 the mullahs in our village forced my husband, his brother and his (the brother’s) three sons to embrace Islam. I was shell-shocked and in a dilemma — to choose between my religion and my husband. Finally I decided not to convert and somehow escaped to India with my two daughters, “ she pointed out. “I later learnt that my husband had been married off to someone and our ancestral house was given as ‘mehr’ to his new wife. She too divorced him a couple of years later and now he is forced to do odd jobs for a living. The same fate befell his brother. His sons too are having a difficult time since their conversion and they have nowhere to go,” she revealed. Commenting on the persecution, several migrants said, “ we were not allowed to cremate our dead. We had to perform the last rites by just touching a lighted match to the body and later burying it. All this was done under the watchful eyes of the more fundamentalist locals and mullahs.” “The police treated us as second class citizens and atrocities against us were not taken seriously at police stations. In many instances, we were falsely implicated in cases and warned that we would be “fixed” unless we converted. Babu Harichand, who now lives near Hanumangarh, said he faced such a situation when one of his relatives died. “I tried to cremate the body as per Hindu rites but was prevented from doing so by the village mullah. Fortunately, I knew the local landlord who gave me permission in writing to do so. It was only then that I was able to cremate the body. But others were not so fortunate. It is a very frurstating feeling.” “To keep up the pretence of a tolerant Pakistan, two parliamentary seats and four Assembly seats in the Sindh province are reserved for Hindus, but their writ does not run. No one in authority cares for them and as such they can do little for the persecuted community in the country, “ he observed. He revealed that nearly five lakh Hindus are settled in Sindh. According to information from relatives settled there, more than 50, 000 want to migrate to India. But the going is tough for them as getting visas for India is very time consuming and the new applicants face a lot of harassment. Kaalian resident Harchand Ram Meghwal says the treatment meted out to the migrant Hindus in India was totally unexpected. “We are confined to a particular area and are treated as spies and face constant harassment at the hands of the police and intelligence agencies. “In view of the restrictions, we cannot leave the area and find it hard to arrange suitable matches for our children. We also cannot own property or raise loans from banks for our businesses,” he added. Mr Meghwal has the distinction of receiving the Deputy Magistrate’s award for the best embroidery on leather items in 1996. Most of the community members are engaged in trade and customers from far come to make bulk purchases. They are, however, all praise for their neighbours who treat them as one of their own and make no
distinctions. That was the only saving grace, he
said. |
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NE CMs to meet on August 9 Agartala, August 4 Stating this, Tripura Chief Minister Manik Sarkar told reporters here today that the NE Chief Ministers Forum, formed in May last year, to foster better understanding of issues pertaining to regional cooperation and development with particular reference to insurgency and its effect on economy, would be revived. The then Assam Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta was the convener of the forum and the Chief Ministers of other North Eastern states were its members. Mr Sarkar said the 45th nec meeting would be held on August 10 in Shillong. The Assam Governor, Lieut-Gen S.K. Sinha (retd), is the Chairman of the council, whose last meeting was held in Guwahati on September 8, last year.
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