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Wednesday,
September 11, 2002,
Chandigarh, India  
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No FIR against PCL MD yet
Advani meets Jaswant, George on sell-off
India for concessional
pricing from OPEC
Tea factory staff not paid salaries |
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Blended petrol must from Jan 1 French milk
processing unit for Haryana
Asha Bhosle to open restaurant in Dubai
PSIEC & PSIDC
merger ruled out Down Under pulls Indian tourists Essar Oil plans 250 outlets Supplier to meet Daewoo AirTel incoming calls free in HP Allahabad Bank, ICICI Pru tie up Max to sell stake in Avnet Max
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No FIR against PCL MD yet Chandigarh, September 10 Consequently, Mr A. S. Gill, MD of PCL, and Mr R. S. Chawla, a senior official in the financial branch of the company, continue to remain in their posts and have been rather promoted, and two other accused Lt-Col Inderjit Singh (retd.) and Col Jaswant Singh (retd ) have retired after getting full retirement benefits. Interestingly, Mr Gill, who claims to be innocent, has recently lost a defamation suit filed against Mr Ahluwalia in the Kharar court. He had alleged that Mr Ahluwalia tried to malign his reputation by circulating an affidavit that “he had shown undue favour for the purchase of instruments and had violated FERA rules in the purchase of components from A R Italy, L Cuttle France, N C Selectronics, Germany, and other companies resulting in the loss of Rs 3 crore to PCL.” However, Mr Gill failed to defend his case in the court. The court in its decision has observed “since the plaintiff has failed to provide any evidence, so the issue is decided against him due to lack of evidence.” It has also imposed a penalty of Rs 6,500 to be paid to the defendant. On the other hand, officials in the Vigilance Bureau, on the condition of anonymity, said, “No doubt the inquiry officer had recommended the registration of an FIR against Mr A.S. Gill, Lt-Col Inderjit Singh, Mr R.S. Chawla and Col Jaswant Singh and others for indulging in a fraud worth Rs 3 crore. But we have to take sanction from the Punjab Government to register the FIR. Since we are under-staffed and working on other cases, no time limit could be fixed. However, sooner or later, the action will be taken against the culprits.” Mr Ahluwalia, in a letter addressed to the ADGP, Vigilance, urged him either to complete the inquiry to its logical conclusion or close the file so that he was no more harassed by the accused. He said according to recent developments, the bureau was no more required to take any sanction from the government to register FIR against the accused. In his complaint, Mr Ahluwalia had alleged that the AG Audit Review Committee report on May 15, 1995, had clearly indicated a large-scale bungling of funds but no action was taken in the department. He alleged that he was running from pillar to post over the past five years but neither the Vigilance had pursued the inquiry nor it had closed the file. The departmental report had observed that 60 pieces of various items like analog, multimeter, digital multimeter, digital power meter, power sensor and frequency counter were found either missing or lost in the physical verification report. These were worth Rs 2 crore, including the customs duty. The physical verification was conducted by the then Manager (materials), Mr H.S. Ahluwalia, Account Officer G.S. Saini, Store-keeper Charanjit Singh and Accountant Salim Mohammad (all PCL officials.) Mr Gill declined to make any comments. |
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Advani meets Jaswant, George on sell-off New Delhi, September 10 After a nearly half and hour meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister at his North Block office, both Mr Fernandes and Mr Jaswant Singh refused to speak to reporters about the outcome of the discussions. However, sources said the discussions
centered around the negative signals going out for the financial sector after the Cabinet Committee on Disinvestment (CCD) deferred the disinvestment of the Hindustan Petroleum Corporation Ltd and Bharat Petroleum Corporation Ltd on September 7. Stock market’s reaction to the postponement of the disinvestment of the HPCL and the BPCL is ‘emotional’ and merely a ‘paper’ transaction, said Defence Minister George Fernandes today. Talking to newspersons on the sidelines of a function organised by the FICCI on one year of the September 11 US tragedy, Mr Fernandes said he had never been against economic reforms and was in fact, a strong advocate of the reforms. Mr Fernandes said business organisations like the FICCI could play a valuable role and identify areas where the two nations could evolve win -win situations so far as business was concerned. Mr Rajendra S
Lodha, President, FICCI, said the prevailing tension between India and Pakistan was detrimental to the economic and commercial interest of both India and the USA. “ The global cooperation against terror is the proper and effective route to ensure that the process of globalisation and international integration is not disrupted”, he said. Over the past one year, the US-India cooperation had been strengthened especially in the areas of security, defence, intelligence, strategies and science and technology, he said. |
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India for concessional pricing from OPEC New Delhi, September 10 The crude oil prices are just below $ 30 a barrel, which can reflect in a Rs 2-3 per litre increase in the domestic prices of petrol and diesel, official sources said. Petroleum Minister Ram Naik raised the issue with OPEC President R. Lukman and OPEC Secretary General Alvaro Silva Calderon during his visit to Brazil last week to make a case for providing the developing countries like India enhanced credit, concessional pricing and rebates during high volatilities. Sources said India sought stable prices in $ 22-23 per barrel band and some mechanism to protect the developing countries from extreme fluctuations. Naik was in Brazil to attend 17th World Petroleum Congress. Indianoil, Hindustan Petroleum and Bharat Petroleum and exploration firms Oil and Natural Gas Corporation and Oil India, part of the 57-member Indian delegation, put at the Mecca of oil world country’s self-sufficiency in refining and its thrust on attaining the same in the crude oil production, the sources said. Naik and chief executives of the oil companies had wide-ranging discussions on acquisition of equity oil, sourcing of crude oil and technology partnership with 297-member
strong US delegation. Discussions were also held with 149-member Nigerian delegation, 94-member Chinese delegation, 82-member French delegation, 71-member Russian delegation and 70-member British delegation, they added. Naik discussed issues of pricing of crude oil with Saudi Arabia’s largest company Aramco. He told Aramco CEO Abdullah S. Jumah about the difficulties faced by Indian companies in sourcing crude. India imports 7.5 million tonnes of crude oil on term contract basis from Saudi Arabia and imports a similar quantity on spot tender, the sources said. Naik emphasised that the Venezuelan agreement with two neighbouring countries for crude oil supplies with some beneficial conditions should be spread to other countries as well. The minister also raised the need to resolve problems connected with differential prices charged for different regions by some OPEC members. The sources said Naik held discussions with Wang Tao, chairman of Chinese WPC delegation, on Sino-Indian cooperation in the hydrocarbon sector.
PTI |
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Tea factory staff not paid salaries Dharamsala, September 10 A visit to the Sidhbari Co-operative Tea factory reveals the pathetic situation. The hum of activity is absent as planters have refused to give green leaf to the factory as their payments for the past one year have not been made. The factory was set up in 1986 and during its best days it processed more than 2.5 lakh kg of tea as against the total capacity of only 2 lakh kg. But this year only 12,000 kg of tea has been processed. According to Mr L.S. Amb, Manager and Mr Rai, the production in charge, the factory is facing a crisis due to the import of cheap tea under the WTO rules. The cost of production of Kangra tea come to around Rs 80 per kg while Indonesian tea is being imported at Rs 20 per kg. Consequently exporters are buying cheap tea, blend it with small quantities of Indian tea and sell it abroad. They also blame the apathy of the state government and the Co-operatives Department for this juncture. Mr Ravinder Kumar, General Secretary of the Sahkari Chai Udyog Mazdoor Sangh, a BMS unit, said the government had adopted an indifferent attitude towards the industry. They alleged that the state government’s plan to introduce tea in the non traditional areas appeared to be an attempt to give land to outsiders. According to Ravinder Kumar, they have met Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal, the local MLA and the Transport Minister, Mr Kishan Kapoor, but to no avail. The Chairman of the factory, Mr Naveen Bhandari, said the industry is on verge of collapse due to government policies. According to him, the planters have not been paid for the past one year as no funds are available and employees’ salaries for the past five months are due. Their arrears and bonus have also not been paid. The land of the factory is also not in its name that is why no bank is ready to advance money which may have helped in tidying over the crisis. He said there was a proposal to export tea to Armenia but the factory had to withdraw at the last moment due to lack of finance. The Tea Federation has a fund of almost Rs 1.5 crore which if distributed to the co-operative tea factories may help in their survival. Mr Bhandari said at present the factory owes about Rs 1.67
crore. |
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Blended petrol must from Jan 1 New Delhi, September 10 The first phase which will commence from January 1,2003, will focus on major sugar-producing areas and span across nine states and four union territories. These nine states are
Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Gujarat, Haryana and
Karnataka. The four union territories are Chandigarh, Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Pondicherry. The blended fuel i.e gasohol, will be supplied through 11,538 retail outlets in these states and UTs. The second phase, which will be taken up
subsequently, will cover the rest of the country. The control order regulating supply and distribution of petrol has also been amended accordingly. The total petrol consumption in the states and UTs where ethanol would be supplied in the first phase was over 4.6 million tonnes in 2001-02. At this level, the estimated ethanol required for blending with petrol would be approximately in the range of 32 to 35 crore litres per year. |
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French milk processing unit for Haryana
Paris, September 10 The Chairman of the Danone group, Mr Franck Ribond, who met Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala in Paris today, appreciated the facilities being provided by the state government to entrepreneurs. Mr Chautala informed Mr Ribond about Haryana’s vast potential in dairy products and food processing. There was a large market for international standard in milk products in the national capital region of Delhi, to which Haryana surrounds from three sides.
UNI |
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Asha Bhosle to open restaurant in Dubai
Dubai, September 10 Named “Asha’s”, the innovative style restaurant in the Wafi mall extension here combines traditional North Western cuisine and a contemporary design in a buzzing environment. Chef Mohd Saleem Qurashi has spent three months in the kitchen with Asha perfecting her secret recipes that are destined to become special signature items when the restaurant opens during Eid celebrations later this year. The delights at “Asha’s” will include kebabs, signature cocktails at the main bar as the restaurant’s resident disc jockey plays remixes of Asha’s hits combined with modern ethnic beat and lounge music.
PTI |
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Nabard schemes Haldia Petro IPO Assessment scheme 12 pc growth Craft Bazar Telco sales up Seminar CDSL features |
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