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Saturday,
July 27, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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TRIBUNE IMPACT EU takes
up J&K poll with India Oppn to
have talks with EC on Gujarat poll Vajpayee to meet Powell UP BJP leaders
meet PM, Advani |
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Aggarwal
coordinator for J&K Assembly elections Oppn
demand on Advani rejected NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT Jaya
sore with govt for not being invited Sonia
writes to Vajpayee 42
killed in boat mishaps in Bihar Lagaan
bags 7 awards
Haryana
jails are overcrowded: NHRC
Havildar
held in graft case
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TRIBUNE IMPACT Kolkata, July 26 A news item was published exclusively in The Tribune on July 17 with the caption “Temple on verge of submersion”, which had promptly brought to the notice of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, who, it is officially learnt, immediately ordered the Surface Transport Ministry to take up the protection programme of the temple. Accordingly, the ministry directed the Calcutta Port Trust (CPT) authorities to take appropriate steps. The state government was also told to participate in the protection programme of the Dakshineswar temple. An official spokesman for the CPT said they had received a communication from the Prime Minister’s office (PMO) directing them to immediately implement the Rs 1.50 crore anti-erosion scheme of the Ganga embankment near Dakshineswar. An expert team will be soon coming to Kolkata from New Delhi to discuss with the CPT and the temple authorities anti-erosion measures. A committee of engineers and officials of the CPT and the state government was set up two days ago to implement the scheme. The Dakshineswar temple became famous Ramakrishna Paramhans and Vivekananda were associated with it. Ramakrishna was the priest during Rani Rashmoni’s time. The temple was built by her during 1989-94. Every year, thousands of pilgrims and devotees from the country and abroad pay visit to the temple. Due to speedy erosion of the Ganga embankment, the temple is facing the threat of submersion. Already some vast area near the historic Panchabati forest, where Ramakrishna used to pray regularly, has been submerged. The river water approaching the Shiva temple has caused concern to the temple authorities. The state government pleaded they could not take up anti-erosion measures since the place belonged to the CPT. The CPT, plagued by fund shortage, didn’t take up the programme. |
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EU takes up J&K poll with India New Delhi, July 26 Mr Solana also recognised the validity of a permanent end by Pakistan to cross-border infiltration and dismantling of all infrastructure of terrorism, a spokesperson of the Ministry of External Affairs said. Mr Solana favoured holding of free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir. Mr Solana met External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, his deputy Omar Abdullah, Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra and Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani. |
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Oppn to have talks with EC on Gujarat poll New Delhi, July 26 “We hope the commission will take an appropriate decision on when to hold poll as the situation in Gujarat is still not normal,” CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee told newspersons here. Former Prime Ministers Chandra Shekhar and H D Deve Gowda would be part of the delegation. |
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Vajpayee to meet Powell New Delhi, July 26 The sources said the meeting would be held before Mr Powell leaves for Islamabad. During his two-day visit, the US Secretary of State will also have meetings with Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani, External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra. This is Mr Powell’s third visit to India since October last year.
UNI
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UP BJP leaders
meet PM, Advani New Delhi, July 26 While conveying concern over Ms Mayawati’s “unilateral decision making” without consulting the BJP, the leaders categorically clarified that the coalition government was intact and it would complete its full term. “The Chief Minister should abide by the dharma of coalition politics and realise that both partners should be involved in all decisions,” UP BJP President Vinay Katiyar told newspersons after a 30-minute meeting with Mr Vajpayee and Mr
Advani. However, Mr Katiyar said these problems could be resolved with both parties sitting down and discussing them. Mr Katiyar and state Urban Development Minister Lalji Tandon said they expressed their unhappiness over Ms Mayawati asking for the BJP on the date for her Cabinet expansion. The leaders also discussed with Mr Vajpayee and Mr Advani the functioning of the state government and the July-28 meeting of the State Legislature Party called for to elect a successor to Mr Rajnath Singh who has been made national General Secretary. During the 75-minute long meeting, Mr Advani asked the leaders to keep in mind the “interests of the state and the party.” Former state unit president Kalraj Mishra and former Chief Minister Ram Prakash Gupta were also present. |
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Aggarwal
coordinator for J&K Assembly elections New Delhi, July 26 The Ministry of Home Affairs had issued a notification to this effect earlier this week, well-placed sources said today. The move demonstrated the Centre’s utmost seriousness to ensure that the elections were held in a free and fair manner because the international community would be keenly watching the elections. Sources said Mr Aggarwal’s appointment showed that the Centre did not want a sensitive matter like Assembly elections in the state to be left solely to the state government or the Army. Viewed from the political prism, the development conveyed that Deputy Prime Minister and Union Home Minister L.K. Advani would be closely monitoring the electoral process. This way Mr Advani could also curtail the involvement of Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary and National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, with whom he had no love lost. Meanwhile, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference leader Umer Farooq, who had recently got married, would leave for his month-long honeymoon in France shortly. |
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Oppn demand on Advani rejected New Delhi, July 26 “Members may find other methods as per rules and procedures to seek clarifications. I do not think anything (else) can be done,” he told opposition members when they persisted with their demand during zero hour. Asserting that the government was responsible to the Lok
Sabha, Mr P.R. Dasmunshi (Cong), Mr Somnath Chatterjee and Mr Basudeb Acharia (both
CPM), Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav and Mr Ramjilal Suman (both SP) and Mr Raghuvansh Prasad Singh
(RJD) raised the Godhra incident issue and several issues connected with the Gujarat riots. Recalling that the House was adjourned after the Deputy Prime Minister’s reply on Tuesday, Mr Joshi said it was not possible for a minister to reply to all queries and that there was no precedent of any minister returning to the House to reply to questions which had not been answered. The Speaker said he had no objection if the issue was taken up by the Business Advisory Committee. Mr Yadav maintained that those killed in the Godhra train incident were travelling on reservations made by MPs and MLAs and that they had been sent to Ayodhya to create violence. Outlining a long list of queries which Mr Advani had not replied to, Mr Dasmunshi said the Deputy Prime Minister should respond to clarifications on the forensic report on the Godhra incident, whether situation in Gujarat was conducive for Assembly elections, action taken on the NHRC report, reports of rape, how the Prime Minister’s Rs 150-crore relief package was being spent and issues relating to relief camps, among others. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, July 26 In a written reply, the Minister of State for Agriculture, Mr Hukumdeo Narayan Yadav, said centrally sponsored schemes under implementation by the Department of Agriculture and Cooperation for increasing agricultural production in Himachal Pradesh were Macro Management Scheme, Oilseed Production Programme (OPP), National Pulses Development Project (NPDP), Accelerated Maize Development Programme (AMDP) and Integrated Pest Management. Under these schemes, the funds are released to the state government, which in turn passes the funds on to the implementing agencies in the state depending on crop specific interventions, the minister told the House. In reply to another question, the minister told the Rajya Sabha that parts of Haryana, Punjab, Delhi and Uttar Pradesh had been affected by delayed rainfall during current south-west monsoon period. The state governments of Punjab, Gujarat, Mizoram, Maharashtra, Tripura, Delhi and Daman and Diu have issued instructions for deleting dissection of animals from schools’ syllabi, the Minister of State for Human Resource Development, Prof Rita Verma, told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. As on July 22, 2002, 9863 thousand tonne of wheat was procured for the central pool from Punjab during the current year, Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution U.V. Krishnam Raju told the Lok Sabha in a written reply. In Haryana, the corresponding figure stood at 5882 thousand tonne, the minister added. |
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Jaya sore with govt for not being invited New Delhi, July 26 Although the possible “omission” could have occurred at the Protocol Division of Rashtrapati Bhavan, the NDA leaders are apparently embarrassed that the AIADMK chief was blaming the Central Government, especially the Home Ministry for not inviting her to the swearing-in ceremony, despite Dr Kalam hailing from Tamil Nadu. The Home Ministry is planning to send a communication to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister explaining to her that the ministry was nowhere in the picture as far as issuing invitations for the ceremony was concerned. The responsibility wrested solely with the Protocol Division of Rashtrapati Bhavan. Leaders of the Vajpayee government strongly feel that if there was any omission on the part of the Protocol Division of the Rashtrapati Bhavan, it should tender a formal apology to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister. |
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Sonia writes to Vajpayee New Delhi, July 26 In a letter to Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Congress President expressed apprehension about the UPOV being essentially a platform for the developed countries whose fundamental aim was to protect the rights of breeders which today meant large corporations in these countries. Pointing out that Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Act was passed by Parliament about a year ago, she said the Congress had supported the passage of this Act on the ground that it was required to fulfil WTO obligations and that it laid down certain safeguards which included the right to sell seed, even of a protected variety, to other farmers, protection of varieties through registration, prohibition on using farmers’ varieties for breeding work without permission of farmers, payment of royalty to farmers for the usage of farmers’ varieties for breeding, compensation to farmers for crop failure due to poor quality of breeders’ seeds and legal protection to farmers against terminator seed technology. She said the Congress was alarmed to learn that, barely a year later, even before the law was implemented, the Agriculture Ministry has recommended that India should become a member of UPOV. The disturbing fact is that the safeguards for farmers’ rights laid down in the Protection of Plant Varieties Act were unlikely to be permitted under UPOV, she said. |
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42 killed in boat mishaps in Bihar Patna, July 26 A boat carrying 35 persons capsized in the Koshi river near Bhaptiyahi village in Supaul district. Only five could swim back to safety. Another boat tragedy was reported from Sheohar district where seven persons were drowned in flood waters. Another boat mishap took place in Sitamarhi district killing five persons on board. Reports said the boat was carrying fodder along with 25 persons. Two deaths were reported from Gopalganj district. A 14-year-old girl. Meera Kumari, died in Darbhanga district in the stampede to get the food packets dropped by Army choppers. New Delhi: In view of the grim flood situation in Bihar and Assam assistance of the Army has been requisitioned by the respective state governments for providing relief to flood victims. In Bihar, a column of troops has been deployed in Madhubani district while another has been flown in from Palam. The columns include engineers with rescue boats and medical teams. The troops have started the rescue operations in the Madhubani area. In Assam, a column each has been operating in Lahorighat and Kamrup districts, while one more column has been despatched to Morigaon. The rescue operations have been going on for the past two days. |
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Lagaan
bags 7 awards
New Delhi, July 26 Popular Hindi films dominated by winning as many as 13 of the 34 awards in the feature film category, and ‘Chandni Bar’ won four awards including Best Actress Tabu, Best Supporting Stars Atul Kulkarni and Ananya Khare, and the award for best film on social issues. Well-known filmmaker B. Lenin gets the best director award for his Tamil film ‘Ooruku Nooruper’ which also gets the best Tamil film award. The Best Actor award has gone to talented Murali for the Malayalam ‘Neythukaran’, while Tabu shares the award with Shobhana for her role in English film ‘Mitr — My Friend’ directed by actress Revathy (Asha Menon) which has also been named as the best English film and best editing by Beena Paul. ‘Sonal’ (Hindi-English) by renowned Prakash Jha for the Films Division has bagged the best non-feature film award, while senior filmmaker Buddhadeb Das Gupta is the best director for Bengali film ‘Jorasanko Thakurbari’. The Best Books on cinema are ‘Asomiya Chalachitrar Chha-Pohar’ by Apurba Sarma and ‘Moulik Marathi Chitrageete’ by Gangadhar Mahambare while the best critic is the Hindi journalist Vinod Anupam. The jury has made a special mention of English critic C. S. Venkateswaran. In a departure from the practice, the same juries announced the list of 20 features and eleven non-features. Hindi led with five features while Bengali had four while the non-features had four in English, two each in Malayalam and Tamil, one each in Bengali and Hindi, and one in Hindi-English.
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Haryana
jails are overcrowded: NHRC New Delhi, July 26 The maximum overcrowding was recorded in the jails of Mizoram (442 per cent) followed by Jharkhand (260 per cent), Delhi (211 per cent), Haryana (165 per cent), Andaman & Nicobar Islands (139 per cent) and Chhattisgarh (115 per cent). Compared to the previous year, overcrowding has increased in the jails of Andhra Pradesh, Andaman & Nicobar Islands, Delhi, Goa, Madhya Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh. The newly formed states of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand are also experiencing an acute problem of overcrowding. According to a press note issued by the Commission here on Friday, more than 74 per cent of the total prison population in the country are undertrials. The overall percentage of undertrials in jails has registered an increase of seven per cent. The largest number of undertrials are in jails of Uttar Pradesh, Manipur, Meghalaya and Dadra & Nagar Haveli. In Dadra & Nagar Haveli, undertrials constitute 100 per cent of the jail population because convicts sentenced to more than three months imprisonment are moved to the neighbouring state of Gujarat. In Bihar, Delhi, Jammu & Kashmir, Karnataka, Nagaland and Jharkhand, undertrials account for more than 80 per cent of the jail population. Tamil Nadu has brought down the percentage of undertrials from 76 in 2000 to 31.2 in 2001. Himachal Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh have maintained their undertrial population in the range of 55 to 60 per cent. |
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President
visits samadhis New Delhi, July 26 The President, who reverted to his informal dress today with a light blue shirt and grey trousers, also visited the mausoleums of Fakruddin Ali Ahmed and Shanker Dayal Sharma. Subsequently, he also paid floral tributes at the samadhi of former Union Minister Jagjivan Ram. The President left Rashtrapati Bhavan at 9 a.m. and took about two hours to visit various memorials located at Shanti Van, Vijay Ghat, Kisan Ghat, Shakti Sthal, Veer Bhumi, Shankar Dham and Samta Sthal, official sources said. Last evening Dr Kalam visited Rajghat and paid homage to the Father of the Nation, Mahatma Gandhi. |
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Havildar
held in graft case New Delhi, July 26 The investigation revealed that the havildar had demanded an illegal gratification of Rs 50,000 from the complainant, who appeared in an Army recruitment rally, on the promise of getting the appointment order for employment in the Army. The complainant reported the matter to the CBI, which laid a trap and the havildar was caught “red-handed” while accepting the part payment of Rs 10,000 from the complainant, a CBI press note said. In another case, the Visakhapatnam branch of the CBI registered a case against a former officer, of the Bimadole branch at State Bank, and an official of private firm of Godavari District. |
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