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Wednesday,
July 24, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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No differences with BJP: Mayawati USA to interrogate Muttawakil
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Pak not reciprocating, says India
Powell arrives on July 27 India hails US move to lift travel restrictions BJP campaign against
Vaghela ‘Declare’ drought national calamity NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT JD(U) splits again, 4 MLAs to join
RJD Consensus eludes panel on RS poll
reforms Mohan Prakash quits JD (U), joins
Cong Chautala asks George to shift ammo depot
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No differences with BJP: Mayawati Patna, July 23 “The major hindrance to the combination, sacked BJP leader and now chief of the Rashtriya Kranti Party (RKP) Kalyan Singh, due to whom “the BSP-BJP coalition failed twice earlier in the state, is no more there and hence the third experiment with the combination is running smoothly without any hiccups,” Ms Mayawati told reporters here. “The BJP has done the right thing by identifying the black sheep (Kalyan Singh) and throwing him out of the party. Now there is no hindrance to the smooth running of the BSP-BJP combine”, she added. Ms Mayawati, a third-time Chief Minister of Uttar Pradesh, denied that there were any differences with the BJP and other coalition partners in Uttar Pradesh. “Neither the BJP nor any other party has any complaints. I am taking everybody into confidence to run the state smoothly”, she said, charging the media with cooking up baseless reports about differences in the BSP-BJP government. Ms Mayawati said her government had initiated several measures to tone up law and order and uplift the downtrodden. “District Magistrates, senior district police officers, DIGs and officers of the 70 districts have been instructed to stringently enforce the rule of the law in their areas and book criminals,” she said, adding that senior district officials were asked to hold regular open-door meetings with the locals to solve their problems so that “they do not have to rush to Lucknow.” Ms Mayawati said the officials had been warned of strict action if they failed to carry out her instructions regarding law and order and development programmes. The Director-General of Police and the Senior Superintendent of Police of Lucknow, along with some other police officers, were recently removed for failing to tone up security, she said. Asked if she proposed to take any step against ministers allegedly having criminal background, the Chief Minister said: “They have been given time to reform themselves and action will follow if they fail.” She said a special drive had been launched in districts bordering Bihar to check Naxalites from entering the state through Varanasi, Gorakhpur, Azamgarh and other areas. The state government has constituted a special task force to control inter-state criminal gangs operating in the state. The Chief Minister said about 275 villages lagging behind in development have been identified and special schemes under the Ambedkar Gram Yojna were being run for their uplift. On the VHP threat to start the construction of the Ram temple at Ayodhya in November, she said the state government would follow the Supreme Court order. “Nobody will be permitted to take the law into his own hands”, she said.
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USA to interrogate Muttawakil New Delhi, July 23 India will soon send a questionnaire to the US authorities concerned on the basis of which the USA would interrogate Muttawakil, well placed sources disclosed this to The Tribune today. India used the next best option — of sending a questionnaire to the USA — after Washington rejected New Delhi’s request for allowing Indian investigators to interrogate Muttawakil who is presently in US custody. The USA would hand over to India a transcript of Muttawakil’s interrogation in the hijack case. This agreement was arrived at a meeting of the Indo-US Joint Working Group (JWG) on counter-terrorism held in Washington on July 11-12, the sources said. India believes that Muttawakil was a key player in the hijack drama which saw the plane hijacked from Kathmandu to Kandahar in December 1999. Muttawakil had received the then External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh at Kandahar airport who had taken along with him three freed terrorists in exchange for the hijacked persons on board IC-814. Muttawakil was rude and brusque with Mr Jaswant Singh and had “falsely” promised that the released terrorists would not be let off until the plane took off with the passengers. India is convinced that Muttawakil can throw light on what kind of assistance the hijackers got from the Taliban as well as Pakistan. India’s case is that the hijackers— all Pakistani nationals— were remote-controlled by the Pakistani authorities from the Pakistani soil and the hijackers were getting detailed instructions frequently through phone and wireless from their Pakistani masters. Now that the USA has rejected India’s demand of making Muttawakil available for Indian interrogators, India wants the USA to question him on various circumstances and logistics surrounding the hijack. |
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Pak not reciprocating, says India New Delhi, July 23 In response to a question, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Nirupama Rao said the Pakistani move clearly showed that Islamabad was not keen on reciprocating the Indian gesture by opening its airspace . “We have not seen this (Pakistani sincerity) in the context of overflights or cross-border infiltration or cross border terrorism,” the spokesperson said. Reacting to statements emanating from Pakistan that India had thrown open its airspace to Pakistani planes because New Delhi was “desperate” to use Pakistani airspace, the spokesperson rubbished it. She said: “We keep on hearing about it from Pakistan. It is not a question of overflight, but of flight of fancy. We are not impressed. It only shows Pakistan’s lack of seriousness and sincerity. It’s a telling indication of that.” Meanwhile, the fourth session of India-Laos Joint Commission is under way here. It is discussing bilateral cooperation in areas like agriculture, industry, power, human resource development, science and technology, transport and tourism. The Indian side is led by Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh while the Laotian side is led by Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs Phongsavath Boupha. |
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Powell arrives on July 27 New Delhi, July 23 Mr Powell, who will reach here from Islamabad on July 27 evening, will have talks with External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha the next day. Asked if Mr Powell would also meet Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said his programme was being finalised. This will be Mr Powell’s second visit to the region in the past few months in the wake of heightened tensions between India and Pakistan. From New Delhi, Mr Powell will leave for Brunei to attend a meeting of the ASEAN Regional forum
(ARF). UNI |
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India hails US move to lift travel restrictions New Delhi, July 23 “We welcome it,’’ an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters, adding: “India has always been a safe place’’. New Delhi has maintained that travel advisories by the USA and some other countries in May and June urging their citizens to defer visits to India in the wake of heightened Indo-Pak tensions were totally unwarranted. The US State Department had yesterday said though tensions had subsided between India and Pakistan, the risk of renewed increased tensions could not be ruled out. It said the authorised departure for US Government personnel in non-emergency positions and all family members has been lifted and “those who departed in early June under the authorised departure may return to India’’. This supercedes the travel warning issued on June 26 in which Americans were asked to defer visits to India. Britain, France, Australia, Japan and some other countries have already announced revision of their travel advisories to those wishing to travel to India.
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BJP campaign against
Vaghela New Delhi, July 23 A memorandum to the Gujarat Governor in 1997 for withdrawing support which was submitted by the Congress that listed charges of corruption against Mr Vaghela who had become the state Chief Minister, breaking away from the BJP, was released to journalists, by party spokesman Sunil Shastri at the regular party media briefing. In a related development, the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morcha (BJYM), BJP’s youth wing, said it would “expose the role” of the Congress in the Godhra incident and its “pseudo secularism”. “The Gujarat elections would be a litmus test for the Congress and Communists who have been making baseless charges against the RSS and the VHP for the violence in the state. We will be exposing the role of the Congress in the burning of the train which is in black and white,” the morcha’s newly appointed president G. Kishan Reddy told reporters. Mr Reddy, who would be visiting the state in the first week of August, said the youth wing would “counter the negative propaganda of the Congress and expose its pseudo-secularism.” The morcha had earlier held public screening of videos on the Godhra incident to “expose the Congress.” |
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‘Declare’ drought national calamity New Delhi, July 22 Led by IYC chief Randeep Singh Surjewala, Youth Congress activists demanded the resignation of the Vajpayee government over its “criminal apathy” in addressing the drought situation, steep rise in the price of petroleum products, neglect of the farm sector and failure to meet employment targets of the Ninth Five Year Plan. Addressing the rally, the Deputy Leader of the Congress in the Lok Sabha, Mr Shivraj Patil, assured that the issues being highlighted by the IYC workers would be raised in Parliament. Chhattisgarh Chief Minister Ajit Jogi alleged that the Central Government was discriminating against the non-NDA governments in the grant of relief. AICC General Secretary Mukul Wasnik said the IYC rally had failed today’s bandh called by the BJP in Delhi. He said it was unfortunate that the country was being led by men of the RSS. Chairperson of the Khet Mazdoor Congress Balram Jakhar demanded that the prevailing drought condition be declared as a national calamity. Referring to the “agriculture policy” framed by the Congress, Mr Jakhar said the country was being ruled by “those who had inadequate knowledge of agriculture.” Accusing the Central Government of “looting the public exchequer,’’ Mr Surjewala said the BJP’s “lust for power” was demonstrated by “its dividing the polity on communal lines.” He said immediate steps should be taken to save kharif crop, 40 per cent of which had been destroyed due to the prevailing drought. He demanded that recovery of agriculture loans should be deferred and relief given to farmers in the payment of land revenue. Among those who addressed the rally were Rajasthan PCC chief Girja Vyas and AICC secretaries Sushila Triya and Chandan Bagchi. A large number of youth, specially from the neighbouring states of Haryana and Punjab, besides Delhi, attended the rally. YC activists, led by Mr Devinder Singh Babbu, Punjab Youth Congress chief, came in nearly 200 trucks. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, July 23 In a written reply, Minister of State for Home Affairs Vidyasagar Rao said all security aspects with regard to terrorism were reviewed in the Unified Headquarters, operational groups and intelligence groups at various levels in the state and Centre. In addition, in order to ensure speedy implementation of various Centrally and Centrally-sponsored projects in J&K, a standing committee had been constituted under the chairmanship of the Cabinet Secretary to review the progress of various ministries/organisations and the state government for closer monitoring of the projects to ensure better coordination and corrective action. In the Kargil area, the damaged infrastructure such as schools, government, buildings, bridges, roads, electric lines etc had been restored by the state government at an expenditure of Rs 3 crore provided as additional Central assistance. The state government had since formulated a three-year development plan in Kargil. The Planning Commission had allocated Rs 6 crore for the implementation of the plan as additional Central assistance under the state’s Annual Plan outlay of Rs 2050 crore for 2001-02, the minister told the House. In reply to a question asked by Chandigarh MP Pawan Kumar Bansal, the minister said the conditions of service of persons appointed to the Central Civil Services and posts under the administrative control of the Chandigarh Administration had been provided to be the same as the conditions of service of persons appointed to the corresponding posts in the Punjab Civil Services. However, these provisions had not been extended to those employees of the Chandigarh Administration who opted for the pay scales of the Central Government, the minister said. The extension of the same conditions of service to the employees of the
Chandigarh Administration as applicable to the corresponding categories of employees of the Punjab government did not make it incumbent on the Chandigarh Administration to prescribe the same mode of recruitment as applicable under the state government, the minister said. The relaxation of five years over and above the upper age limit fixed for direct
recruitment was, however, available to the Scheduled Castes candidates seeking appointment to civil posts under the Chandigarh Administration as per guidelines followed by the Central Government, the minister said. |
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JD(U) splits again, 4 MLAs to join
RJD Patna, July 23 The four MLAs — Shashi Kumar Rai, Vishwanath Singh, Lakshmi Narayan Yadav and Jaynandan Yadav — are set to join the RJD soon. Their entry will be formalised after Laloo Prasad Yadav returns to the state capital. They have already asked the Speaker, Mr Sadanand Singh, to recognise them as the separate group and make separate seating arrangements for them in the House. The mood in the RJD camp is now upbeat as the party now has (after the four new MLAs) the majority in the Assembly. It does not have to depend on the Congress for support. In the 243-member House, the RJD had 119 members. It needed three more to have the magic figure of 122. Now it has 123. The split was imminent ever since four JD (U) legislators had voted against the party candidate, Ranjan Yadav, a political friend turned foe of Laloo Prasad Yadav in the recently concluded Rajya Sabha elections. It is also said that the split was engineered following talks of a joint legislative party of the Samata and the JD (U). Political analysts here believe that the state Congress was since long broaching the idea of coming out of the alliance with the RJD and as a large faction of the Congress was pressuring the high command to withdraw itself from the alliance, it was necessary for the RJD to engineer splits in the NDA alliance to get the required majority. Laloo Prasad Yadav had reportedly been saying to his men that he was a master craftsman in running a minority government. The splits show how Laloo Yadav has been surviving political crises. |
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Consensus eludes panel on RS poll
reforms New Delhi, July 23 In its report tabled in both Houses of Parliament today, the Standing Committee on Home Affairs has recommended that the government explore the possibility of evolving a consensus on the issues before piloting the Representation of the People (Amendment) Bill, 2001, in Parliament. The Bill was introduced in the Rajya Sabha on December 5, 2001, and referred to the committee. The committee, headed by senior Congress leader Pranab Mukherjee, held four sittings between December, 2001, and July 5, 2002, to consider the Bill. In its report tabled today, the committee said notwithstanding the divergent views on the provisions of the Bill, the members were unanimous on curbing money power in the Rajya Sabha elections at the earliest. On the issue of amending Section 3 of the RPA, 1951, for dispensing with the residential requirement, one section of MPs opined that the provision acted as a hindrance to contesting elections to the Rajya Sabha as a person might belong to more than one state occupationally. It led to the submission of false affidavits at the time of filing nomination papers by candidates who normally did not reside in that state. They advocated that this section be deleted so that MPs did not enter the Rajya Sabha with a false conscience. They also contended that the constitutionally guaranteed right to move and reside freely was somehow infringed by Section 3 of the RPA. The opposing viewpoint was that deleting the Section would affect the federal character of the Rajya Sabha. The amendment was against the spirit of the right of sons of the soil and affected the representative charater of the Upper House. It was suggested that since around 10 per cent of members elected during January 1, 1998 to December 28, 1993, were from other states, there was no need to amend Section 3 of the RPA. With regard to the open ballot system, members supporting amendments to Sections 59, 94 and 128 of the RPA to eliminate the present practice of secret ballot, said this would help lessen horsetrading and “rampant corruption” in the Rajya Sabha elections. Members opposing the open ballot system, however, argued that this would not help in reducing corruption. While some of them said discipline within the party would help in curbing horsetrading, others stressed the need for bringing about a conscientious change to eradicate corruption. |
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Mohan Prakash quits JD (U), joins
Cong New Delhi, July 23 Announcing the decision, AICC treasurer Motilal Vora in charge of Uttar Pradesh, said Mr Prakash had been in the national polity for almost 35 years. Mr Mohan Prakash, who had been an MLA from Rajasthan, said he had decided to quit the Janata Dal (U), part of the NDA government, after the Gujarat riots. “The role of the Prime Minister and the Deputy Prime Minister in the wake of the riots was a challenge to the Gandhian values. If I was in their place, I would have quit politics,” he said, adding that he was joining the Congress to work for Gandhian values. A bachelor, Mr Prakash was jailed during the Emergency and had been associated with the Yuva Janata and the Lok Dal, besides the farmers’ movement of Chaudhary Devi Lal. Having been appointed spokesman for the JD (U) in 1997, he quit the post in May this year. Meanwhile, the Congress today criticised BJP President Venkaiah Naidu for giving “irresponsible statements” about the party. Congress spokesman Anand Sharma said Mr Naidu had defended the “communal ideology’’ of the BJP while “scoffing at the secular Congress.” He said BJP leaders had been speaking in two voices on Gujarat. “What Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani had said during his visit to Gujarat on July 7 is quite different from the BJP’s stand today,” he said. |
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Chautala asks George to shift ammo depot New Delhi, July 23 Mr Chautala, who met Mr Fernandes to discuss various issues concerning the Defence Ministry here also offered to provide a piece of land to relocate the ammunition depot. He invited Mr Fernandes to visit Haryana to address a rally of ex-servicemen at Matanhail village and lay the foundation stone of a new Sainik School in the same village. He said that the land of camping grounds located in the proximity of the towns should be transferred to the Haryana Government as these were no longer being used by the Defence Forces. |
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