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Friday,
March 15, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Murmurs in Air Force over leak Govt helpless in stopping migrants
Surjeet may quit party post |
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Fernandes’ boycott continues in LS NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT Relief for loss of crop due to troop build-up Shift Afroz to Thane jail: court
Murmurs in Air Force over leak Tribune News Service New Delhi, March 14 Questions are being raised as to why the letter written by him to the former Chief Minister of Punjab, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, has been leaked now, when Air Marshal Sekhon is heading the Court of Inquiry on the issue of the transport plane being flown by Air Marshal V.K. Bhatia, AOC-in-C, Western Air Command (WAC), coming under fire along the border in the Kargil region of Jammu and Kashmir. The letter was written in October 2001. The leak has come at a time when a controversy is raging over the WAC Chief’s plane, being flown by him, coming under fire apparently from Pakistani forces. Reports have suggested that Air Marshal Bhatia had strayed deep into Pakistani territory. His plane had also been hit by a Pakistani surface-to-air missile, but it did not explode and only damaged one of the engines. The damaged engine had fallen in Indian territory and not in Pakistan. That is also one of the reasons that Pakistan has not made much of the issue. One is its embarassment over the missile not exploding and second is that there is no evidence with Pakistan. More importantly, doubts are being raised over where the leak has come from. Reports said the former Punjab Chief Minister had forwarded the letter to the Centre with his covering letter. This was not the first case where he was lobbying for men in uniform from his community. There is hushed talk that the motive behind the leak is much larger than is visifle. With the WAC being the most important Air Command in the country, its Chief is expected to know where the Indian airspace ends and Pakistani airspace begins. |
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Govt helpless in stopping migrants New Delhi, March 14 External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh informed the Rajya Sabha during question hour that it was practically to fence the entire border to stop illegal migration as most of it was riverine. The rivers kept changing course almost each year, making border demarcation and fencing a difficult task. Calling upon the governments of various states, directly affected by the illegal immigration to cooperate with the Centre, Mr Singh said such a problem could not be tackled by the Centre alone in a federal structure. “The states too will have to cooperate,’’ he said. The Border Security Force (BSF) alone could not check it because of the nature of the border. He said the Indo-Bangladesh Joint Working Group (JWG) would meet next week to discuss border issues. He said illegal immigration was triggered by various factors, including socio-economic ones. Jobs alone were not the criteria. He also ruled out a member’s suggestion regarding work permits to the immigrants, saying such permits could only be granted to legal entrants. The minister said it was difficult to stop fishing by Bangladeshi and other fishermen in Indian territorial waters because there was no defined line. Indian security agencies like the Coast Guard taking adequate measures and the government took up the matter with these countries regularly. The minister refrained from giving a time frame for completion of fencing along the Indo-Bangla border and said that besides facing practical problems, such a decision required constitutional ratification. “Unless the entire border was fenced, there could not be any ratification,” he stated. To a question on the Pyrdiwah incident last year in which Bangladesh Rifles personnel had killed about 16 BSF jawans, the minister said the matter had been taken up with Bangladeshi authorities from time to time. The Bangladesh government had also initiated an inquiry into the incident, he said and assured the House that the government would inform the members once the inquiry was completed and India told about it. |
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Surjeet may quit party post Kolkata, March 14 According to party sources, Mr Surjeet has himself expressed the desire to quit the chair which he has been holding since 1995 after Mr E.M.S Namboodiripad retired on health grounds. If the party allows Mr Surjeet to quit, then Mr Sitaram Yechuri is likely to take over as the new General Secretary of the party. The name of Mr Prakash Karat has also not been ruled out. However, the final decision will be taken by the newly constituted central committee. After Mr Jyoti Basu, Mr Surjeet is the oldest member of the Politburo. The sources add that when Mr Basu voluntarily stepped down from the Chief Minister’s post in November, 1999, Mr Surjeet too wanted to quit to allow a younger member to step in. Mr Basu, however, requested him to continue as the presence of a senior leader in the Politburo was felt necessary. But Mr Basu is now willing that Mr Surjeet steps down to make room for Mr Yechuri, the party sources said. The 18-member Politburo and the party’s central committee which will be reconstituted in the forthcoming party congress will include some new and young faces. This time, a woman member may be inducted in the Politburo and there will be a larger representation of women in the central committee. It is learnt that Mr Basu has also endorsed the demand for larger representation of women in the party’s highest body. Following the death of Sailen Dasgupta, one seat in the Politburo from West Bengal is already vacant. Similarly, with the demise of Benoy Chowdhury, Niren Ghosh, Dasgupta and some other members, the central committee’s strength has been reduced to 60 from 74. But the central leadership does not want to increase the membership strength of the Politburo and the central committee any further. |
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Fernandes’ boycott continues in LS New Delhi, March 14 Led by the Congress, the opposition members were up on their feet the moment they saw Mr Fernandes getting up to answer the first listed question related to his Ministry during the question hour. The Deputy Speaker Mr P.M. Sayeed, avoided a confrontation by immediately moving over to the next question not related to the Defence Ministry. Yesterday, the Defence Minister had won a reprieve in the Rajya Sabha when members allowed him to answer questions against his name for the first time after he was reinducted into the Cabinet. The Opposition in the Lok Sabha have not recognised Mr Fernandes’ reinduction as Defence Minister as they feel that he should have waited for the inquiry on the Tehelka controversy to be over. Mr Fernandes had resigned in the wake of the Tehelka tapes controversy which showed fictitious arms dealers getting easy access to his residence. In the Lok Sabha the agitated members were heard shouting, “we don’t consider him as Defence Minister.... he is illegally occupying the office.” |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, March 14 The Union Minister of State for Communication, Mr Tapan Sikdar said there was a proposal to upgrade four branch post offices in Punjab: Fatehgarh Pajtoor in Moga district, Mehraj in Bathinda district, Baradwal in Sangrur district and Bhuchokala in Bathinda district. The minister informed the Rajya Sabha that the department concerned had received seven representation for opening of new branches of post offices at Chehalwali in Bathinda, Sainikhurd in Faridkot, Kala Bhaiyan in Jalandhar, Dago in Ludhiana, Chuharwali in Jalandhar, Khadauli in Patiala and Kaharpur in Hoshiarpur district. Mr Sikdar said a total of 3093 branch post offices were functioning in Punjab of which 384 were in Amritsar district. In reply to another question, he said there was no plan to install new technology-based OCB telephone exchange in Hamirpur, Bilaspur and Una districts of Himachal Pradesh. The Minister of State for Railways, Mr O. Rajagopal, said the inquiry report of the Khanna committee on rail accident had not completed its work. The minister said the report of Garg Commission appointed under the Chairmanship of Justice G.C. Garg to inquire into the cause of the accident was still awaited. |
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Relief for loss of crop due to troop build-up New Delhi, March 14 The issue was recently raised by the Punjab Chief Minister, Capt Amarinder Singh, when he met the Defence Minister in the Capital. In a written reply in the Lok Sabha, Mr Fernandes said, “The local Army authorities have been asked to carry out a survey along with local revenue officials to assess the loss of standing crop due to the mobilisation of troops.” |
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Shift Afroz to Thane jail: court Mumbai, March 14
The order was delivered yesterday by the Additional Sessions Judge A.T. Vaidya on a plea made by the jailer of the Byculla prison.
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