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Wednesday,
July 31, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Advani
defends Fernandes for meeting Vaiko in jail Boycott by
Oppn irks George NORTH INDIA IN
PARLIAMENT
Oppn
lashes out at govt |
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Grid collapses, power
failure in 5 states MSP for
sugarcane up ’84 riots: police was ‘ill prepared’ Govt to
help boost tourism Trinamool
man pulled up in RS Bifurcation
move arbitrary: CPM Modi downplays EC move
to send team Akali
factions clash on school premises
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Advani defends
Fernandes for meeting Vaiko in jail New Delhi, July 30 “It is the state government (of Tamil Nadu) which arrested him. We may agree or not ..... But a member of the government has every right to see his colleague in prison,” Mr Advani told agitated members of the Congress and Left parties during question hour. Refusing to comment on whether the law had been misused in Mr Vaiko’s case as the matter was sub-judice, the Home Minister said the Centre was “not responsible for the arrest of Mr Vaiko. It is the state government .... a minister goes to meet his colleague who he personally regards as not guilty. No law prohibits such a meeting”. The matter came up during question hour when Minister of State for Home Vidyasagar Rao was replying to a question by Mr Sushil Kumar Indora of the INLD, an NDA ally, on whether the Centre was contemplating steps to prevent misuse or abuse of the Prevention of Terrorism Act (POTA). At that time, Congress member
P.R. Dasmunshi asked whether it was in the fitness of propriety that Mr Fernandes went to meet a POTA accused in prison. He said the Army, which was under the Defence Minister, had lost several lives in fighting the LTTE in Sri Lanka, a banned outfit which Mr Vaiko supported. Opposition members, including CPM members Somnath Chatterjee and Rupchand Pal, Congress MPs Mani Shankar Aiyar, Satyavrat Chaturvedi and Shivraj Patil, were on their feet when Mr Rao told Mr Dasmunshi that he would get a reply if he put it as a separate question. Mr Patil accused the government of “dodging” the question even though it was accountable to Parliament. Mr Chatterjee said POTA was a Central legislation and had been piloted by “no less than a person like the Deputy Prime Minister” and asked whether the Centre had prepared its mind over the propriety of detention of Mr Vaiko. “Do you mean to say that a Central minister can go and confabulate with an accused .... are you exonerating the Defence Minister,” the CPM leader asked the Deputy Prime Minister. Several members wanted to know the government’s stand on the issue as the Defence Minister had gone to the media saying that the law had been “misused”. While AIADMK leader P.H. Pandian asked how two other MDMK members were continuing in the Council of Ministers with their party having supported the LTTE, an MDMK member asked whether any provision was being made to prevent POTA’s misuse. Mr Rao said so far 104 persons had been arrested in 155 POTA cases in Jammu and Kashmir, 115 persons in 50 cases in Jharkhand, 20 persons in four cases in Delhi, 10 persons in six cases in Uttar Pradesh, nine persons in one case in Tamil Nadu and no one in one case in Andhra Pradesh. Mr Rao said no specific complaint regarding the misuse of POTA had been received by the Centre from any state or union territory. |
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Boycott
by Oppn irks George New Delhi, July 30 From several months members belonging to certain Opposition parties, especially the Congress, have steadfastly refused to ask questions submitted by them involving the Defence Minister alleging his involvement in the “coffin purchase scam”. Mr Fernandes, in his letter dated July 24, has pointed out to the Speaker that by refusing to ask questions submitted by the members amounted to denying themselves and other members of the House opportunities to ask supplementaries and elicit information they wished to have from the government. “May I request you to kindly suggest to such members who do not wish to ask supplementaries as a matter of policy, not to submit starred questions. This will provide opportunities to other members to have their starred questions listed and have the entire House to benefit from the answers,” he observed. Refraining from commenting on the attitude of those members, who have been refusing to pose questions to him, the Defence Minister pointed out that considerable labour goes into providing answers to the questions sent by the members.
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, July 30 While 226.24 kg of narcotics was seized in Himachal Pradesh, 139.38 kg and 319.64 kg of narcotics were seized in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir during the year. Seizures do not indicate any significant increase in the smuggling of heroin, opium and other prohibited narcotic drugs into the economy. The minister said the government had taken a number of steps to put an effective check on drug trafficking. These included instructions to all drug enforcement agencies to maintain utmost vigil and step up the enforcement efforts, training of enforcement officers, close interaction between the agencies of the Centre and state governments, neutralising drug syndicates by coordinated action, modernisation and upgradation of the police and security forces, fencing and flood lighting etc. In a written reply today, Minister of State for Finance Gingee N Ramachandran said the cultivation of the narcotics was an illegal activity. It was not therefore possible to assess the impact of such cultivation on the economy of the area. The zonal unit of the Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB), based in Chandigarh and having jurisdiction over Himachal Pradesh, was making all possible efforts to destroy illicit cultivation of narcotic yielding plants and curb its illegal trade by mobilising its intelligence network in Himachal Pradesh, the minister said. The Himachal Pradesh Police was also engaged in destroying the illicit cultivation and curbing the trafficking in the narcotics in the state. A special narcotic cell had also been constituted in Kulu district by the state police to detect the illicit cultivation of narcotic plants and drug trafficking, the House was told. During the past three years 1,072,321 kisan credit cards were issued to farmers in Punjab, the Rajya Sabha was told. In a written reply, the Minister of State for Finance Anant G Geethe said in Haryana during the same period 819,840 kisan credit cards were issued, while in Himachal Pradesh 193,375 cards were issued. During the past three years 13,498 kisan credit cards were issued, the minister told the House. |
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Oppn lashes out at govt New Delhi, July 30 It accused the government of “surrendering” the country’s sovereignty to the USA and attacked Mr Powell for seeking observers for Jammu and Kashmir poll and release of political prisoners in the state. Opposition leaders demanded that Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee should clearly spell out the government’s Jammu and Kashmir policy and come out with a comprehensive response to the controversial statement by Mr Powell. Responding to an unscheduled discussion on Mr Powell’s remarks during Zero Hour, Minister of State for External Affairs Digvijay Singh asserted that there would be no compromise on country’s sovereignty. Anticipating the possibility of a discussion on the issue, Mr Digvijay Singh had come to the Lok Sabha armed with a written text of the government’s reply. India may be “polite”in its words but “very firm” in its action, he said. On the issue of poll observers, Mr Digvijay Singh said Mr Powell had made it clear both in Islamabad and on his way to Brunei that the USA was not in favour of any formal international monitoring mechanism for Jammu and Kashmir elections. Asked by the Opposition what business Mr Powell had in advising India to ensure free and fair elections in Jammu and Kashmir, Mr Digvijay Singh said nobody should harbour doubts about “our” election system and added that free and fair polls had been held in the country for the past five decades. Mr Digvijay Singh said Mr Powell had supported New Delhi’s consistent stand that outstanding issues between India and Pakistan should be resolved bilaterally. India is a country of 100 crore people. “Our foreign policy is strong and we do not need anyone’s advice,” he asserted. Raising the issue, Congress chief whip
P. R. Dasmunsi said Mr Powell’s comments were a “slur” on the nation and came as a “shock” as the nation’s sovereignty had never been questioned by anyone in the world. He said it was the tradition that whenever a foreign dignitary visited India during Parliament session the Prime Minister or any of his ministerial colleague would take the House into confidence about the talks the government had with him. But so far the government had not told the members about Mr Powell’s visit, he said. On Jammu and Kashmir poll, Mr Dasmunsi said Mr Powell had no business to say that the poll be inspected by outside observers and that Kashmir was on the global agenda. |
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Grid collapses, power
failure in 5 states
Mumbai, July 30 Power Grid Corporation of India Limited Chairman R.P. Singh said in New Delhi that normal power supply was restored in phases in parts of the five states, particularly for essential services, in two to three hours and full normalcy was likely to be restored only tomorrow morning. He said the grid collapse occurred at 8.11 p.m. due to excess withdrawal of power by Madhya Pradesh and all places in the five states, barring Mumbai, were plunged into darkness. They remained without power for several hours. The power failure in the Western Grid severely affected train services in Western and Central Railway sections.
PTI |
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MSP for sugarcane up New Delhi, July 30 The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) which met here last night gave its approval to the raising of the MSP from the last year’s level on the basis of recommendation of the Committee for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP). The MSP of sugarcane is linked to the basic recovery of 8.5 per cent subject to a premium of Rs 0.76 for every 0.1 per cent increase in the recovery above that level, official spokesperson told reporters. In the previous season, the MSP was fixed at Rs 62.05 per quintal linked to basic recovery of 8.5 per cent subject to premium of Rs 0.73 for every 0.1 per cent increase in the recovery above that level. Briefing mediapersons on the CCEA decisions an official spokesperson said the government had also hiked the royalty rate on coal. The royalty on coal was hiked to 19 per cent from prevailing average of 12.76 per cent benefiting the coal producing states to the tune of Rs 500 crore. The hike in the royalty rates has come about after a gap of eight years. At the current prices of coal, the incidence of royalty ranged from 15 per cent to 19 per cent as against prevailing average of 12.76 per cent. The royalty rates were last revised in 1994, she said. The royalty earnings of the coal producing states like Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Maharashtra, in aggregate was likely to register an increase of Rs 500 crore which would increase with an incerase in production in subsequent years, she said. However, the new rates of royalty will not apply to West Bengal which is levying a cess of around 25 per cent on coal produced in that state. These cess laws have been struck down by the Calcutta High Court, but a special leave petition filed by the state government is pending in the Supreme Court. Royalty on minerals, including coal, is payable under Section 9 (1) of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957 by the holder of a mining lease. The government also approved the revised cost estimate for the Tehri transmission system at Rs 702.29 crore. The project, being implemented by the Power Grid Corporation of India, is intended for evacuation of power from the Tehri stage- 1 generation project. The transmission system which is under execution consists of Tehri-Meerut two 800 kv s/c lines, Meerut-Mandola 400 kv d/c line and 400/200 kv new sub-station at Meerut. The project is expected to be completed by March, 2003 and will be ready to evacuate power of 1000 MW. The Tehri Hydel Project, the first unit of 250 MW which is expected to be commissioned in March, 2003 followed by other units and entire 1000 MW is to be commissioned by September next year. |
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’84 riots: police was ‘ill prepared’
New Delhi, July 30 “The impression that was gathered regarding the conduct of the police, was that it was not ready for the disturbances on such a large scale,” General Jamwal told the commission. Deposing as a witness before the commission, General Jamwal described as “baseless” the claim of the then Police Commissioner S.C. Tandon that only 19 companies of the Army were provided to assist the civil administration against a demand for 70.
PTI |
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Govt to help boost tourism New Delhi, July 30 Intervening during special mentions, he urged the state governments to ensure that no encroachments took place in and around the tourist spots which should be kept environmentally clean for both domestic and international tourists. Mr Jagmohan was answering to the mentions raised by Mr Manohar Kant Dhyani (BJP), seeking development of travel routes to Badrinath-Kedarnath in Uttaranchal, and Mr B.J. Panda, (BJD), for development of tourism in Orissa. Mr Singh said he had visited Uttaranchal which had great potential for tourism. His ministry had already sanctioned many projects in that state. Mr Dhyani had highlighted the problems being faced by the pilgrims to the holy ‘dham’ and emphasised the need to augment amenities like shelters on the route between Badrinath and Kedarnath. Mr Panda had, enlisting the tourist spots in Orissa, said that since the state was poor it should be helped by the Centre to develop and maintain them properly. |
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Trinamool
man pulled up in RS New Delhi, July 30 “While you might get emotional, you should not say the country will disintegrate. I did not like your comment’ she told Mr Dineshbhai Trivedi. Mr Trivedi opposed the Union Cabinet’s decision to bifurcate the Eastern Railways, saying that it was not in the interest of the country.
UNI |
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Bifurcation
move arbitrary: CPM New Delhi, July 30 Terming the decision as arbitrary, senior CPM leader Somnath Chatterjee said the decision had been taken without any discussion with any state government, leaders of political parties or any discussion on the floor of the House. |
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Move to improve efficiency: BJP New Delhi, July 30 |
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Modi downplays EC move to send team New Delhi, July 30 Informally talking to newspersons here, Mr Modi said the Election Commission often sent its teams to states where Assembly poll were due when asked whether he felt the commission’s decision was extraordinary and whether he planned to meet the commission to press for an early poll. |
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Akali factions clash on school premises New Delhi, July 30 Hundreds of children of Guru Nanak Khalsa School, Hari Nagar, in the Capital had a harrowing time, when sword-wielding supporters of two Akali factions virtually clashed in the school premises in a bid to take control of the building. While the Akalis blamed each other of “illegal trespassing”, the classes in the senior secondary school were disrupted as supporters of the two Akali groups armed with sticks, sword and iron rods entered the premises and manhandled one another. The situation was controlled with the timely intervention of the police. Senior police officials said police pickets had been posted around the school and patrolling in the area intensified. |
9 KIDNAPPERS KILLED, BOY RESCUED 5 ARMY JAWANS KILLED IN AMBUSH 19 MORE ELEPHANTS IN RAJAJI PARK LIFE TERM FOR MURDERING LOVER FIVE STRIKING MC WORKERS DISMISSED HANDLOOM WEAVERS 'STARVING' |
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