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Wednesday,
August 28, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Advani confident of winning proxy war Advani assures Centre’s help to nab Veerappan
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No headway in Cauvery river water talks
Oppn
joins hands to fight BJP in Gujarat Cong
opposed to poll ordinance: Sonia Oust NDA govt
call by Left Economic offences: CBI seeks new law Sinha to represent PM at World Summit
Point 5353 controversy rears its head again MoD maintains silence
Centre to rationalise labour laws: minister 4 PGI doctors to get ICMR awards Police puts reward on MLA’s arrest Krishnaswamy is NCC Commodore-in-Chief India assures Lanka of financial aid Prasar Bharati Board chief quits George leaves for Switzerland
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Advani confident of winning proxy war Bangalore, August 27 Inaugurating a two-day South Zone meeting of the BJP here, he recalled that the party’s views on the issue were not trusted initially but “now everyone is believing us about Pakistan’s role’’. Pakistan, which had suffered a humiliating defeat in the 1971 war with India, would face the same fate in the proxy war as well, he remarked. Terming the history of Kashmir issue a “story of missed opportunities’’, Mr Advani said life in the Valley would have been peaceful today. In a scathing attack on the Opposition, he said the principal adversaries had launched vicious conspiracies against the BJP as it had been able to surmount all obstacles. The Opposition felt that the NDA government would last till 2004 and hence chose to malign the BJP-led NDA government and abuse it. “It is a simple and plain strategy, which is utterly false. The Opposition is doing it with an eye on Parliament elections in 2004 so that the mud is still there. They (the Opposition) know it is false. Still they indulge in slanderous attack on one minister after another,’’ he added. Mr Advani said the present political situation entailed greater responsibility for the party workers than ever before. “The BJP is not merely a political party but a movement with political and cultural manifestations. Therefore, people’s expectations from it are very high.’’ He said the party was facing a challenging phase and regretted that there was very little sportsmanship in politics. The strength of democracy lay in realisation that there could not be any permanent ruler other than the people. Neither any individual nor any dynasty could be in office permanently as the rulers would keep on changing. All those who realised this innate truth could exhibit sportsmanship in politics. Unfortunately, political adversaries did not realise the natural tolerance, he rued.
UNI |
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Advani assures Centre’s help to nab Veerappan Bangalore, August 27 “Veerappan’s is an issue which has been causing concern, not only to the people of states (Karnataka and Tamil Nadu), where he has been operating, but throughout the country”, Mr Advani, who is also Home Minister, told mediapersons here. “Whenever there has been a request from the state to give assistance, the Centre has always been willing to do so. The same situation is present even now”, he said. Mr Advani, who arrived here to inaugurate a two-day meeting of office-bearers of BJP units in the southern states and elected representatives, was responding to a question if the Centre was ready to provide paramilitary forces to nab the brigand. Meanwhile, Karnataka Home Minister, Mallikarjuna Kharge, met Mr Advani at the airport and requested him to send central forces to end the kidnap drama involving former minister H. Nagappa and catch Veerappan, who had been eluding the police dragnet for long. Meanwhile, Chief Ministers Jayalalithaa and S.M. Krishna, who are primarily in New Delhi for the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) meeting, are expected to work out a strategy to deal with the situation that threatens to strain relations between the two neighbouring states. A day after Ms Jayalalithaa alleged that the sudden transfer of the Karnataka Special Task Force (STF) Kempiah by the state government gave courage to Veerappan to carry out the act on Sunday night, Mr Krishna told mediapersons in Delhi that he owed no explanation to the AIADMK leader on this issue. Mr Krishna confirmed that Veerappan had sent an audio tape to the Karnataka Government but did not elaborate.
PTI |
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No headway in Cauvery river water talks New Delhi, August 27 Her protest action against the “delay” in evolving a distress sharing formula with Karnataka notwithstanding, Union Water Resources Minister Arjun Sethi claimed the meeting “unanimously” decided that the details of the distress sharing formula would be worked out by the Cauvery River Monitoring Committee within a fortnight. The next meeting of the CRA would be held in the third week of September to arrive at an agreed formula. The meeting took place on a day when Ms Jayalalithaa and her Karnataka counterpart S.M. Krishna met earlier to discuss the crisis over the kidnaping of former Karnataka minister H. Nagappa by forest brigand Veerappan. Ms Jayalalithaa, walked out of the meeting saying the formula would only further delay release of water to her state from Karnataka. Mr Sethi said Tamil Nadu had earlier agreed for pro-rata distress sharing and also agreed to it at today’s meeting. “We all agreed that there is a distress situation. We agreed that the distress needs to be shared among the basin states,” Mr Sethi said. Mr Vajpayee in his concluding remarks proposed such a meeting of the authority to arrive at an agreed distress sharing formula which would ensure equal distribution of water to Cauvery basin states. He said, “In one sense we are entering a defining moment to demonstrate our capability, conviction and commitment to resolve such inter-state differences and disputes in a spirit of give and take which is the hallmark of highest traditions of democracy. “If we succeed in arriving at an agreed formula for pro-rata sharing when we meet next, we will create a historic decision of which Indian democracy could be proud of. I am sure I would have your cooperation in doing so,” Mr Vajpayee added.
PTI |
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Oppn
joins hands to fight BJP in Gujarat New Delhi, August 27 At a dinner hosted by former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu at the residence of senior CPM leader Somnath Chaterjee here, leaders of the Congress, Left, NCP and RJD discussed the ways for opposition unity in Gujarat. Three former Prime Ministers — V.P. Singh, I.K. Gujral, and H.D. Deve Gowda were also present. After the dinner meeting which lasted for over an hour, Mr Charterjee said the BJP must be defeated in Gujarat. “The Opposition parties will see that there is no disunity in Gujarat,’’ he said. Mr Chatrejee did not elaborate on “one-to-one’’ fight with the BJP but indicated that meetings would be held in the future to work out the modalities of seat adjustments. While the joint Opposition is likely to back the Congress on most of the seats in Gujarat, the Congress may leave a few seats for other parties. Mr Chaterjee said Samajwadi Party leaders could not attend the meeting due to funeral of a party worker but had conveyed their support for the decisions taken at the meeting. Though NCP supremo Sharad Pawar was not present, a party general secretary T.P. Pidambram attended the dinner meeting. With a meeting having taken place earlier between Samajwadi Party leader Amar Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi, opposition unity seems to be on course in Gujarat. Apart from Mrs Gandhi, senior Congress leaders Manmohan Singh and Shivraj Patil were present at the dinner. Bihar Chief Minister Laloo Prasad Yadav, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadev Bhattacharya, Mr Sitaram Yechury and Mr Prem Gupta were among the other leaders present. Mr Yadav said that it was important to defeat the BJP in Gujarat as the party had turned the state into “a kind of laboratory.’’ “If we don’t defeat BJP in Gujarat, they will replicate the experiment at other places,’’ he said. |
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Cong
opposed to poll ordinance: Sonia New
Delhi, August 27 In a statement, Ms Gandhi said the Ordinance defies the will of a vast majority of people, was against the letter and spirit of Supreme Court directions and the basic tenets of transparency and accountability in politics. Ms
Gandhi, who is also the Leader of the Opposition in the Lok
Sabha, said the Congress attached great importance to the
issue of electoral law reforms in the light of the recent
Supreme Court order for the disclosure of information by
candidates. “We are distressed to find that large sections
of the media continue to club the Congress with other
political parties in projecting the impression that all
political parties are united in opposing the implementation
of the order of the Supreme Court. The erroneous reporting
has been further encouraged by the misleading statements
issued from time to time by the NDA government and BJP
functionaries,” Mrs Gandhi said. The Congress, she said,
had articulated its viewpoint in the all-party meeting
convened by Union Law Minister on August 2 and a letter
written to the Law Minister by senior Congress leaders on
August 8. |
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Oust NDA govt
call by Left New Delhi, August 27 Addressing a public meeting organised by the CPM on “brazen corruption being indulged in by the BJP’’ here, they said it was the need of the hour that all Left, democratic forces and concerned citizens joined hands to overthrow the Vajpayee led government “which had become synonymous with corruption and communalism.’’ However, Veteran CPM leader and former West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu who was scheduled to address the meeting, could not attend due to ill health. Mr Basu, in the Capital to attend the Party Central Committee meeting, has organised a dinner meeting tonight to be attended by Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Samjwadi Party Chief Mulayam Singh Yadav and others.
UNI |
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Economic offences: CBI seeks new law New Delhi, August 27 “It was felt that no exact definition of ‘economic offences’ was available and there was a need for a separate procedural law to govern the investigation and trial of economic offences, because the existing conventional provisions in the CrPC and the Evidence Act were not adequate to deal with such offences,” CBI Director P.C. Sharma said on the recommendations of the conference. “Since economic offences are different from the conventional crimes, the procedures should also be different,” he said, adding that “only four or five cases of the securities scam of 1992 have ended up in conviction so far.” Mr Sharma informed that the CBI had already presented its case for a separate procedure code before the Justice Malimath Committee, which is looking into possible amendments to the criminal law. To a question whether the money laundering Bill, pending in Parliament, could be of any help to tackle economic offences, he said the Bill was not enough to deal with the growing economic offences. “This Bill will deal only with the money that is being laundered out of the country, but not with the offences committed within the country,” he said. It was also felt by the delegates at the conference that the Criminal Law Amendment Ordinance, 1944, which deals with the attachment of properties of offenders, was procedurally cumbersome and as such was not being widely applied. “Therefore, there is a need to simplify the procedure for attachment of properties of the accused in economic offences,” Mr Sharma said. The conference had four sessions — “Effective mechanism for coordination between the CBI and state anti-corruption bureaux”, “Measures for tackling organised economic crimes/financial frauds”, “Legal issues in corruption cases” and “Emerging methodologies/technologies in investigation of corruption cases”. The delegates from across the country had pointed out that state anti-corruption bureaux were ill-equipped and under-staffed and hence there was need to modernise these. “It was recommended that the Central Government and the state governments should provide adequate funds for the purpose on the lines of modernisation programmes for state police forces,” the CBI Director said, adding that the recommendations of the conference would be forwarded to the government for necessary action and direction. Most importantly, it was resolved that the CBI and state anti-corruption bureaux should shed the “jurisdictional mindset” which acts as a hinderance to cooperation and coordination among them, and interact more often, and also informally, so as to exchange intelligence and ideas. During the technical session, the delegates touched upon various technologies which could be used for the collection of intelligence in corruption cases as well as for investigation. |
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Sinha to represent PM at World Summit New Delhi, August 27 While Environment and Forests Minister
T.R. Baalu is already in Johannesburg for the ministerial meetings, Mr Sinha will lead the Indian delegation
for the high-level segment of the Summit, an External Affairs Ministry spokesperson told reporters here today. Representatives from leading non-governmental organisations, MPs and other key public figures are taking part in the 10-day conference which began yesterday.
PTI |
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Gas tragedy: decision on charges today Bhopal, August 27 CJM Rameshwar Kothe will pronounce his judgement on the CBI’s plea, seeking alteration in the charges framed against Anderson and other two absconders — Union Carbide Corporation and Union
Carbide (eastern) of Hong Kong. Earlier, the CBI had pleaded that it was helpless before the Supreme Court order under which action against Anderson and two other absconding accused could be taken only under Section 304(A) of the IPC. The agency has now sought to prosecute Anderson and two more accused under Section 304(A) (causing death by rash and negligent act not amounting to murder) of the IPC in place of Section 304 (Part II) (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) in the light of the Supreme Court ruling. Under section 304 (Part II), an accused can be sentenced up to a maximum of 10 years while Section 304(A) entails a maximum punishment of two-year rigorous imprisonment or a fine of Rs 5,000. Two important witnesses were produced before the court by the CBI during first day of the two-day hearing of the case today.
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Point 5353 controversy rears its head again New Delhi, August 27 While India today strongly denied reports suggesting that the Army had launched an operation to wrest three peaks from the Pakistanis in the Dras sector, sources said that Indian troops were constantly under fire from the enemy troops occupying the important peak. Irked by the shelling from the dominating feature, which also overlooks the all important National Highway 1A, and with the Legislative Assembly elections in Jammu and Kashmir round the corner, the Indian troops had also apparently been redeployed for a possible operation to take over the peak. But whether the operation was launched or not has not been confirmed or denied in the official circles. A single page denial issued by the Ministry of Defence (MoD) said, “as far as Point 5353 is concerned, it is a Point on the Line of Control (LoC) as delineated after Simla Agreement. This has been authenticated on a map by Lt. Gen P.S. Bhagat of India and Lt. Gen Abdul Hamid Khan of Pakistan on a map on December 11, 1972”. The denial prompted by the media reports that India had launched a recent operation to take over Points 5303, 5050 and 5250, however, conveniently overlooked the factor that the most dominating feature on the Indo-Pak border in the Kargil region - Point 5353 - is under the Pakistani army control. It was lost over to Pakistan when the intrusions were made into Kargil from across the border in the winter and summer of 1999. It also did not give any details of the two-day visit of Defence Minister George Fernandes and Chief of Army Staff General S. Padmanabhan to Dras, Gurez and Gultari. Also that there had been detailed briefing of the Defence Minister by the Commanders in Leh in regard to the various “incidents” which had occurred over the last three weeks. Sources said that India had also suffered some casualties in the vicinity of Point 5353 where the army troops have built their own posts. It had been as a result of increased artillery shelling from Point 5353 and which was proving to be a sore point with the Indian army. The redeployment of troops had apparently been done over the past three weeks after Indian troops backed by the Air force had evicted Pakistanis from Point 3610. Flights by unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) to the region had suggested that the Pakistanis had again made intrusions and has also built bunkers. This had happened due to lack of patrolling by the troops stationed in the area. Reports suggest that all is not well in the western sector and there are a number of incidents that have been occurring. The authorities have been trying keep a lid on them but reports have been filtering in which suggest to the contrary of what is being stressed. The denial issued by the MoD accused Pakistan of trying to whip up tension through false claims of flare-ups along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir. While asserting that Indian Military posture along the LoC was “militarily sound”, the government described as “totally baseless” reports that Army last week had mounted an attack to capture three features point 5050, point 5303 and point 5353 near Marpola in Dras sector and suffered 16 casualties in the process. “No such feature as point 5050 and point 5303 exist in the area grid, so there is no question of any attack or use of Indian Air Force jets”, the statement said. This is not the first time that Point 5353 has proved to be a source of embarassment to India. A similar controversy had erupted in August and December 2000. While in August 2000 Defence Minister had stirred a hornets nest by saying that that all peaks in Kargil were under the Indian control, in December 2000 he had been projected to be on the Point 5353 and was quoted as saying that “this should end the unfortunate controversy about this peak once and for all”. However, contrary to the assertion the Point 5353 controversy continues to haunt India. |
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MoD maintains silence New Delhi, August 27 Secrecy surrounds everything and the tight-lipped MoD officials refuse to give out information even when they know that an uncommunicative attitude would only lead to further controversies. Unsuccessful attempts are made to hide everything behind the iron curtain leading to issues snowballing into major controversies. The Point 5353 controversy continues to remain one such issue which has repeatedly embarrassed India and the MoD’s silence on the issue has only resulted in stoking the fire. The latest media reports on Point 5353 and the skirmishes between India and Pakistan along the Line of Control (LoC) are a perfect example of the MoD throwing up controversies when these could have been avoided by providing information to the media rather than facts coming out in slowly and possibly distorted versions through various other channels. Senior MoD and Army officials today remained huddled in meetings after they were approached to give a correct picture on what had happened on the LoC in the Dras, Gurez and Gultari regions of Jammu and Kashmir which had prompted hushed murmurs from various quarters in the ministry and the Army. Specific queries on the exchange between Indian and Pakistani troops possibly in the Dras region and somewhere near the Point 5353 only prompted a denial from the MoD which said there were no attempts to capture Point 5050, which is a little away from Point 5353, and the Indian Army had not suffered any casualties in such an attempt. It further said that the effort to revive this controversy appeared to be motivated and would harm the national interests. What however was not forthcoming was that this statement, without any clear details, was issued at the instance of Defence Minister George Fernandes. While senior Army officers opined that media should be taken into confidence, what the Defence Minister cleared for the Press Information Bureau (PIB) to release for publication was a five paragraph statement which said that the reports on Point 5353 and 5050 were baseless. There was also no reference to the hurried visit of the Defence Minister and Chief of Army Staff General S. Padmanabhan to the forward areas of Dras, Gurez and Gultari on Saturday. Senior Army officers privately agreed that there was more than what was being given out, but expressed their helplessness to give details as it involved national security and prestige. They also concurred that the sudden visit of the Defence Minister and Army Chief to the region was too much of a coincidence when there were unconfirmed reports floating around. These reports which are being confirmed talk of the Indian Army launching an operation backed by the Indian Air Force (IAF) jets to evict Pakistanis from Point 3610 in Kargil where they had again intruded and built bunkers. But there are unconfirmed reports which say that an unsuccessful attempt was also launched to evict the Pakistanis from Point 5353 and some casualties were also suffered. The Army denies this but is not ready to give the exact details of what happened in the Dras region in the past few weeks. Incidentally, Pakistan continues to hold the strategically located Point 5353 ever since the Kargil intrusion. |
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Centre to rationalise labour laws: minister New Delhi, August 27 Talking to mediapersons for the first time after his road accident last month, Dr Verma said the ministry was working to bring in a new labour law regime which was in tune with the fast-changing industrial environment. He said there were about 200 labour laws today which had been enacted either by the Centre or the states. Referring to the Report of the Second National Commission, the minister said the Centre was studying it in detail and the action taken report on its recommendations would be presented in Parliament during the winter session. Prior to this, the ministry would hold consultations with all social partners, including employers’ organisations and trade unions from September 5 to 30, Dr Verma said,adding that members of Parliament had also been invited to send their views about reforms in labour laws. The minister also indicated that some changes were also proposed in the Employees State Insurance Acts. On the issue of industrial relations, Dr Verma said they could be considerably improved with the participation of labour in management but this issue had been pending for the past 25 years. He said the sharing of profits with workers would give a big boost to harmonious industrial relations and would also increase efficiency and productivity. |
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4 PGI doctors to get ICMR awards New Delhi, August 27 The awards will be presented to the scientists at a function here on September 30. Dr Nagi has been selected for the Basanti Devi Amir Chand prize for his outstanding contribution to the development of arthroplasty along with the late Dr S. R. Naik of Sanjay Gandhi PGIMS, Lucknow, (for work in the area of clinical gastroenterology and hepatology). Dr Jindal has been selected for the Amrut Mody Unicehem prize for his work on the prevalence of smoking and its relationship to asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary diseases. Dr Basu has been selected for the Tilak Venkoba Rao award for his work on the psychiatric aspects of psychoactive substance abuse. Dr Ranju Ralhan of AIIMS has been selected for the P.N. Raju oration award for developing molecular markers for oral pre-cancer and cancer. Other doctors from Delhi who will be honoured are Dr P.Kar of Maulana Azad Medical College for research on liver diseases. Dr Kar has been selected for the Dr Kamala Menon medical research award. Dr C.S. Pandav of AIIMS, Delhi has been selected for Dr M.K. Seshadri prize for his work on ‘sustaining elimination of iodine deficiency disorders’ in the South Asian region. The M.N. Sen oration award will be given to Dr Anita Panda of R.P. Centre for ophthalmic Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi for her work on Lamellar Keratoplasty. Dr K.Anand of AIIMS has been selected for the Prof. B.C. Srivastava Foundation award for his work in the area of community medicine. The Kshanika oration award has been jointly given to Dr P. Salotra of Institute of Pathology, ICMR , Delhi for her work on development of attenuated parasites and Dr Prabha Balaram of Regional Cancer Centre, Thiruvananthapuram for her work on biology of gestational trophoblastic diseases. The ICMR prize for biomedical research for scientists belonging to underprivileged communities has been given to Dr A.K. Mandal of L.V. Prasad Eye Institute, Hyderabad for his work on integrated management of childhood glaucomas. Dr P. Vijayachari of Regional Medical Research Centre, Port Blair, has been selected for the ICMR prize for biomedical research in underdeveloped areas for his work in the area of diagnosis and characterisation of Leptospires. Dr S.D. Shetty of Institute of Immunohaematology, Mumbai has been selected for the BGRC silver jubilee oration award for his outstanding work in the area of genetics, diagnosis and preventive strategy for haemophilia A and B. Dr B.S. Ramakrishna of Christian Medical College, Vellore has been selected for the Prof. B.K. Aikat oration award for his work in understanding the importance of colonic fluid absorption in limited diarrhoeal illness. Dr R. Renuka Nair of Shree Chitra Tirunal Institute of Medical Sciences and Technology, Thiruvananthapuram has been selected for her work on response of myocardial and cardial interstitial cells to environmental and endogenous factors leading to cardiac injury. Dr Renu Agarwal of ITRC, Dr Neeloo Singh of CDRI, Lucknow and Dr Shiladitya Sengupta of Delhi have been selected for Shakuntala Amir Chand prizes. Ma-Gen Saheb Sokhey award will be given to Dr Rakesh Aggarwal of Sanjay Gandhi PGIMS, Lucknow for his work in the area of viral hepatitis and Helicobacter pylori. Dr Sanjeev Gulati from the same institute has been selected for the H.B. Dingley memorial award for his work on nephrotic syndrome in Indian children. |
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Police puts reward on MLA’s arrest Lucknow, August 27 Akhilesh Singh is Deputy Leader of the Congress Legislature Party and has been declared absconder by the police. The police has even moved the court for attachment of Congress legislator’s property. The Congress legislator is not alone against whom criminal cases are on. There is the state president of Apna Dal and sitting legislator from Allahabad (West) Atiq Ahmad who is in police custody and who recently survived a bomb attack in court premises. Mukhtar Ansari, a sitting MLA from Mau, is another legislator who is in Lucknow jail. He is wanted by the CBI in kidnapping of an industrialist. He too was declared absconder and had surreptitiously surrendered before a CJM court in the state capital. Another sitting legislator from Mirzapur Vijay Shukla, who has been named as a conspirator in murder of brother of former Home Minister and senior BJP leader Ranga Nath Mishra, has criminal cases pending against him. A senior police official told The Tribune that if one goes by number of criminal cases then Mr Shukla is bound to be on the top of the list. He has 37 criminal cases pending against him. |
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Krishnaswamy is NCC Commodore-in-Chief New Delhi, August 27 This traditional appointment goes a long way in fostering espirit-do-corps among cadets and look afer the interests of the organisation at Central and state levels. The Commodore-in-Chief of the NCC and the Air Chief Marshal will advise the Central Advisory Committee and the Ministry of Defence on important policy matters and guide the corps on leadership training, customs, traditions and dress. |
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India assures Lanka of financial aid New Delhi, August 27 Mr Pant gave this assurance to the visiting Sri Lankan Minister for Economic Reforms Milinda Moragoda who is the principal negotiator for peace talks between his government and the LTTE from September 16 to 18 in Thailand. During his two-day visit, Mr Moragoda will meet External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and Prime Minister’s Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra to apprise them of the progress in the Norway-brokered peace process. |
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Prasar Bharati Board chief quits Bangalore, August 27 “I sent in my resignation to the government a few days ago”, Mr Rao, also a member of the Space Commission and former Chairman of Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), told PTI here. Mr Rao was appointed Chairman of the Prasar Bharati Board last year.
PTI |
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George leaves for Switzerland New Delhi, August 27 Mr Fernandes, during his visit, would address a working session of the International Conference on Federalism near Zurich and also attend its plenary session and the valedictory address. From Zurich, the Defence Minister will fly to Berne to hold talks with Swiss military leaders, including the country’s Defence Minister. |
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