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Thursday,
June 20, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Cong forms
panel to end Maharashtra row Let
Geelani trial be fair: Editors’ Guild UP to play
crucial role in Kalam’s victory Left flays
Naidu’s statement |
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No US proposal on sending troops Gujarat
urged not to close relief camps
Emigration
Act to be amended Dental
students left in the lurch Directive
to UP on medical seats 7 killed
in accident Vijay
Anand summoned
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Cong forms panel to end Maharashtra row New Delhi, June 19 The coordination committee, set up by party President Sonia Gandhi today includes Mr Deshmukh, PCC chief Mr Govindrao Adik, Mr S.B. Chavan, Deputy Leader of Congress Parliamentary Party Shivraj Patil, former PCC chief Prabha Rao, Mr N.M. Kamble, Mr Ishaq Jamkhanwala and Mr Sunil Dutt and Mr Murli Deora, both MPs. While Mr Vyalar Ravi, general secretary in charge of Maharashtra would be the ex-officio member of the committee, Mr Chavan will be its convener. Sources said that 17 MLAs had already reached Delhi and at least eight more, including some ministers, were expected to reach the Capital soon. The MLAs had met Mr Ravi to convey their grievances and are likely to meet Ms Sonia Gandhi, demanding the removal of the Chief Minister. The Congress has 74 MLAs in Maharashtra while the NCP has 71. Though the high command has said that the Chief Minister would not be replaced, it is aware of the potential threat from dissidents. AICC leaders admit that the lack of rapport between PCC chief Adik and Mr Deshmukh had forced them to set up the coordination committee. “The presence of senior leaders will make them sit together and discuss the problems,” an AICC leader said. A senior Congress leader, who was in Maharashtra recently, admitted that there were several problems which needed to be sorted out. The Congress MLAs, he said, were not satisfied with the portfolios of the ministers and there was a feeling that the Chief Minister was not doing enough to protect the party’s interests. |
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Let Geelani trial be fair: Editors’ Guild New Delhi, June 19 The police picked up Geelani from his residence on June 15 for allegedly possessing some classified documents. “Denial of this basic democratic right to him (Geelani) will be a blow to the very concept of the freedom of press,” President of the Editors Guild of India Hari Jaisingh said in a statement here. “If the government had any incriminating evidence against the arrested journalist, that should be made public in the interest of transparency”, Mr Jaisingh said in his statement. “As a recognised and accredited journalist, Mr Iftikhar Geelani is entitled to a free and open trial. If that is denied to him, it would deal a blow to the very concept of freedom of the press the editors’ guild has sought to preserve and uphold ever since its inception following the dark days of Emergency, when the authorities had successfully muzzled the press by employing the weapon of pre-censorship”, he said. Mr Iftikhar Geelani has been detained under the Official Secrets Act. He was arrested the day (June 8) his father-in-law, Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, was detained under POTA in Srinagar and sent to Ranchi Central Jail. Mr Jaisingh also demanded that a delegation of journalists, either from the Jammu-based “Kashmir Times” or from the editors’ guild, be allowed to meet Geelani. The guild President said a delegation of the Delhi Union of Journalists had met the Minister of State for Home on June 14 with a petition, demanding that Iftikhar Geelani’s case be made public and journalists, either from the “Kashmir Times” or the guild, be allowed to meet him. Mr Jaisingh said Geelani had had contacts with senior functionaries of the ministries of External Affairs, Home and Defence as also with officials of the Pakistan High Commission. “But there would be many Indian journalists, most of them non-Muslims, who are equally close to officials in the Pakistan High Commission,” he observed. Besides, the “Kashmir Times” scribe had often been critical of the policy followed by his father-in-law, not only in his despatches in the paper but even in private conversation with his friends, he claimed. “Information regarding troop strength and deployment on
the border reportedly found in Mr Geelani’s laptop had also been carried by some other publications,” Mr Jaisingh pointed out. “If he is detained indefinitely without trial, it will amount to curtailing the freedom a journalist enjoys in a democracy. If the government has incriminating evidence against him, it should be made public in the interest of transparency, or else, one would be compelled to draw the inference of a witch-hunt,” he added. |
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UP to play crucial role in Kalam’s victory Lucknow, June 19 The electoral college comprises members of the Lok Sabha, Rajya Sabha and members of the state Assembly. Due to its sheer size and population, UP has 80 members in the Lok Sabha, 35 in Rajya Sabha and 403 in the state Assembly, the largest in any state. Capt Dr Laxmi Sahgal is based in Kanpur and has a roaring practise but it seems unlikely that she would be able to cut much ice in her home state. On the other hand, as Professor Kalam is a combined candidate of the BJP, its allies, BSP and Samajwadi Party, he is likely to walk away with honous. Interestingly, it is not the number, but also the value of votes which is likely to help him. According to an estimate, each vote of an MP belonging to UP would carry 708 points, the maximum in the country. This point is calculated on the basis of the population. In UP, all the Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha votes comprising 115 (with 57,640 values) is expected to go in favour of Prof Kalam as all these seats are shared among others by the BJP, SP, BSP, LCP etc. The Left, which has sponsored Dr Sahgal has almost no base in UP and has just two seats in the Assembly. With regards to other states, even the votes of UP legislators would carry much vote as each vote will be valued at 208 points against 148 of Andhra Pradesh, 116 of Assam, 173 of Bihar, 131 of Madhya Pradesh, 175 of Maharashtra, 151 of West Bengal, 131 of Karnataka, 182 of Gujarat and 129 of Rajasthan. The total value of the 403 UP legislators’ votes would be 83,824 votes. Of this, only two legislators are likely to vote in favour of Dr Sahgal. UP is set to chart a landslide victory for Professor Kalam said Mr Vijay Pathak, media in charge of the BJP. It would be a clean sweep. |
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Left flays Naidu’s statement New Delhi, June 19 In a joint statement signed by CPM Politburo member Prakash Karat, the Left said the BJP was not prepared to stomach any criticism about the “woeful” record of the government on all fronts. “Leave alone Dr Sahgal, every citizen in the country is entitled to criticise the government policies and performance”, the statement said. Nuclear weaponisation had not heightened security for the country, it said. With both India and Pakistan going nuclear, it had only led to greater intervention of the USA in the internal affairs of our country and in Indo-Pakistan relations, the statement stressed. |
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No US proposal on sending troops New Delhi, June 19 “No such proposal was made by the USA during Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s visit to New Delhi last week”, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs told newspersons here today. The spokesperson was commenting on a reported statement made by Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah in this regard. Responding to Pakistan Information Minister Nisar Memon’s statement that Pakistan would continue to provide moral and diplomatic support to the cause of
Kashmiris, she said there was nothing new in it. “It is nothing new, novel or different from what Pakistan has all along been saying. It is yet another expression of their limited vision regarding peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue”, she said. |
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Gujarat
urged not to close relief camps New Delhi, June 19 In a statement here, the CPM expressed concern over the announcement made by the authorities to stop the supply of essential commodities to the camps. Since a large number of people are yet to return to their homes and receive any compensation, the camps should not be closed, the CPM said. The CPM also condemned the decision taken by the Gujarat unit of the BJP to organise a “rath
yatra”, saying that it was another attempt at inflaming communal passions in the state. |
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Emigration
Act to be amended New Delhi, June 19 The proposed CMEPC will play a pivotal role in promoting employment opportunities for emigrants, projecting manpower services from India in major labour markets abroad, liaison with other export promotion agencies and administration of the IOWWF. The CMEPC will have 18 members appointed by the government for a term of five years, a Labour Ministry press note said here today. This would be in addition to the Labour Minister who would be the Chairperson of the council and the Labour Secretary as the Vice-Chairman. The Protector-General of Emigrants would be an ex-officio member of the CMEPC. |
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Dental students left in the lurch Patna, June 19 He is not alone in his resentment. Thousands of students from states like Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir are ruing their decision to come to Bihar to take admission in these dental colleges. Of the six private dental colleges, five are minority institutions but not a single member of any minority community is reportedly studying in them. These dental colleges allegedly not only flouted all norms of the DCI and “looted” huge sums of money from innocent students but also “terrorised” them not to reveal their “misdeeds” in public. When a team of the state women’s is Commission visited one such college in the state capital a few days ago, the girl students broke down and told how they were forcibly confined and exploited. They also narrated how they had to spend lakhs to fulfil their dream of becoming doctors. The students have alleged that dental college managements are charging huge donations and other fees which are against the DCI rules. It is said that these colleges place advertisements in newspapers in Punjab, Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir, luring students and charging money against DCI rules and regulations. Though the DCI has specified Rs 200 as the examination fee, the students were charged Rs 500 to Rs 10,000, they alleged. It took around Rs 8-10 lakh to become a doctor here. |
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Directive
to UP on medical seats Dehra Dun, June 19 The directive, which comes into force with immediate effect, was issued by the Union Home Ministry after discussing the issue at a meeting held recently following a decision of the Uttar Pradesh Government to abolish all such provisions that earlier existed. According to the directive, Uttar Pradesh is to provide for adequate number of seats for candidates from Uttaranchal in its medical colleges for the next five years or till the time medical colleges come into existence in the new state. Sources in the Health and Family Welfare Department here said today that the ratio of seats to be made available to the candidates from Uttaranchal would be 1321:70. |
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7 killed in accident Dehra Dun, June 19 One of the deceased has been identified as Naveen Chandra, an ITBP personnel. |
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Vijay Anand summoned Mumbai, June 19 The summons were issued by Sessions Judge S.P. Nikam yesterday after public prosecutor Kiran Makasare filed an application in this regard. The deposition of Vijay Anand is considered significant in legal circles because he has signed as witness in the will executed by the late Chetan Anand.
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