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Sunday,
September 22, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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No Cauvery
water for TN: Karnataka parties Vajpayee to impress upon K’nataka to release water Vadodara toll rises to 4, town peaceful
Check hunger deaths, Advani to Orissa Govt Salem was ‘running’ extortion racket |
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Uma for debate on disinvestment
Destroy nukes for peace: Gujral Pak puts ‘indigenous’ defence equipment on sale India, Italy to enhance defence ties More forces for J&K poll
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No
Cauvery water for TN: Karnataka parties New Delhi, September 21 Mr Krishna told mediapersons after a four-hour-long meeting here that there was a “consensus” among all parties on the issue at the meeting convened in the wake of the Centre’s directive to the state to honour the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) decision to release 9,000 cusecs of water from the Kabini reservoir during September-October. “We all feel the same way,” Mr Krishna said refusing to elaborate on the consensus or divulge any details about discussions at the meeting. Mr Krishna emphasised that there should be a united effort by both parties concerned — Karnataka and Tamil Nadu — to resolve the issue. The meeting was attended by leaders of political parties of Karnataka and state ministers, including Home Minister Mallikarjun Kharge, Irrigation Minister K.H. Patil, Agriculture Minister V.S. Kaujalagi and Special Representative in Delhi T.B. Jayachandra. Mr Krishna will be leading a small delegation to the Prime Minister to apprise him of the present situation and the outcome of the meeting. Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J. Jayalalithaa had held an all-party meeting in Chennai yesterday from which the DMK, the main opposition party in the state, stayed away. Tamil Nadu has filed a contempt petition against Karnataka Chief Minister S.M. Krishna, Water Resources Minister H.K. Patil and three top state officials for not releasing water as per the directives of the Supreme Court and the CRA, which will be heard on Monday. |
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Vajpayee to impress upon K’nataka to release water New Delhi, September 21 After a meeting of the 67-member delegation headed by Chief Minister Jayalalitha, a Tamil Nadu Government press note said the Prime Minister told the delegation that he would “impress upon Karnataka that the order of the CRA should be obeyed.” The CRA on September 8 had decided that Karnataka release 0.8 TMC ft of water to Tamil Nadu in September-October. Ms Jayalalitha handed over a memorandum containing three unanimous demands made at an all-party meeting in Chennai yesterday which included immediate release of water by Karnataka, intervention by the Centre through a directive under Article 355 to Karnataka and Centre’s takeover of all dams. She explained at great length to the Prime Minister the “pathetic” condition prevailing in the delta areas of her state. Barring the DMK, the CPM and the Pudhagai Tamil Ezham, representatives of all political parties were in the delegation.
PTI |
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Vadodara toll rises to 4, town peaceful Ahmedabad, September 21 While one person was killed in police firing, two died in stabbing incidents. The fourth succumbed to injuries late last night. Twentysix persons were injured at the sensitive Fathepura locality during the procession. Trouble started when people coming out of a mosque in the area after Friday prayers and those taking part in the immersion procession hurled stones and acid bottles at one another. The police fired as many as 47 rounds and burst 147 teargas shells to disperse the violent mobs indulging in stone-throwing and stabbing. The situation in the violence-affected localities of Vadodara, however, is under control and peaceful since mid-night, the police said In Ahmedabad, the situation in Gomtipur area, which also witnessed incidents of violence, is under control and peaceful. A senior police officer was injured in heavy stone-throwing and three others received injuries in a crude bomb blast in the labour-dominated area of the city last
night, they said.
PTI |
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Check hunger deaths, Advani to Orissa Govt Bhubaneswar, September 21 Good governance is that which can tackle the problems of enormity in a proper manner and relieve the burden on the poor, he told a drought review meeting held at Raj Bhawan here. Appreciating efforts undertaken by the state government so far to tackle the drought situation, Mr Advani, on a day’s visit to the state, noted that Orissa had been faced with natural calamities like supercyclones, floods and drought over the last 10 years. Chief Minister Naveen Patnaik urged Mr Advani to provide an interim central assistance of Rs 100 crore and two lakh tonnes of rice to tide over the present situation. He also asked the Centre to waive Rs 69 crore due from the state on account of relief, rehabilitation and airdropping operations undertaken by the IAF during supercyclone and floods. The Central Government would look into its demands sympathetically, Mr Advani said. A presentation was made on behalf of the Orissa Government in which it was pointed out that the state had sustained a crop damage to the tune of Rs 1879 crore due to prolonged dry spell. As many as 283 out of 314 blocks of the state had been affected by the drought, Mr Advani was told. According to state’s Special Relief Commissioner, R. Balakrishnan, the state government had submitted a memorandum to the Centre seeking an assistance of Rs 871.40 crore and 12.19 million tonnes of rice. A central team had already visited five drought affected districts of the state and its report was expected soon, he said.
PTI |
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Salem was ‘running’ extortion racket New Delhi, September 21 “The auditory examination of voice in cassettes marked ... and established voice of Abu Salem in cassettes reveal that the voice samples are similar to one another in respect of their general linguistic and phonetice features,” the (CFSL) said in its report submitted in the court of Special Judge Prem Kumar after examining a voice sample. The report prepared by Dr S R Singh, Director CFSL (CBI), and submitted recently, said the voice samples were the voice of the same person (Salem) beyond reasonable doubt. The Special Cell of the Delhi police has charge-sheeted Salem’s five associates — Pawan Kumar Mittal, alias Raja Bhai, Sajjan Soni alias Babu Bhai, Majid Khan alias Raju Bhai, Moammad Ashraf alias Babloo and Chanchal Mehta, a woman, for allegedly running the don’s extortion racket in the Capital. The CFSL report said the voice sample of four accused — Mittal, Soni, Khan and Ashraf — were received by it along with their established voice and it was found beyond reasonable doubt that those were the voices of the same persons.
PTI |
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Uma for debate on disinvestment New Delhi, September 21 Talking to mediapersons after inaugurating the Mineral Advisory Council meeting here, Ms Bharti said there should be no haste on such a matter as these issues were of sensitive nature which had a bearing on the national economy. Saying that she was not opposed to disinvestment as such, the minister said there should be public participation and care should be taken while taking a decision so that a situation was not created in which government monopoly was replaced by another monopoly through the process of disinvestment. Ms Bharti said modalities for disinvestment should be evolved in such a manner which took care of these parameters. She expressed the need for community development in the mining areas and asked the mining industry and state governments to accord priority to education, employment generation, health and environment in the areas where the mining activities were being undertaken. Speaking on the occasion, Minister of State for Coal and Mines Ravi Shankar Prasad expressed happiness over response of the private sector towards the mining sector. The response of the industry to the recent liberalisation process had been encouraging, Mr Prasad pointed out saying that states like Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka had done well in encouraging the private sector in mining. He, however, expressed concern over the performance of Chhattisgarh and Jharkhand saying that if these mineral-rich states did not take adequate steps, the private investment would not come. |
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Destroy nukes for peace: Gujral
New Delhi, September 21 Presiding over a function to mark the International Day of Peace, organised by the United Nation’s Information Centre and India International Centre here, Mr Gujral said a mass annihilation of nuclear weapons was the need of the hour. The former Prime Minister said he had visited nearly 70 countries since the mooting of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) but there had been dissent over it. Mr Gujral, who released UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan’s Hindi translated book “Prevention of Conflict” on the occasion, also talked about Kosovo and Bosnia and showed a deep concern over the present situation in Iraq. “Today the UN is being threatened by those who should be more responsible in their behaviour,” he said and appealed to Mr Annan not to give up peace initiatives. Citing the example of the 1995 Iraq crisis, he said, “I made all possible efforts to defuse the crisis, but the then US Foreign Secretary informed me it was due to oil reserves. I thanked God that we do not have oil.” Delivering the keynote address, Dr Karan Singh said it was ironical that the International Day of Peace was being celebrated while the world was being buffeted by a number of crises. Dr Annan, in his message, said: “From now on, the International Day of Peace will be observed every year on September 21 as a day of global ceasefire and non-violence. Therefore I call on all nations and all people to cease all hostilities for the entire day.” UNI |
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Pak puts ‘indigenous’ defence equipment on sale New Delhi, September 21 In an apparent attempt to steal a march over India, Pakistan had put a lot of defence equipment including the French Agosta submarines and the unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) consisting mainly of Chinese components, on sale at its IDEAS 2000 exhibition claiming them to be indigenously built. The exhibition is a biennial event in Pakistan. News reports reaching here say that besides the newly built Agosta submarines and the UAVs, Pakistan also put on sale several electronic instruments, night vision equipment, the K-8 advanced aircraft trainer, primary trainer aircraft and the Al-Kahlid and Al-Zarrar tanks. While it is popular knowledge that most of the defence equipment with Pakistan has no indigenous research and development factor in it, the attempt to sell off the
equipment as ‘Made in Pakistan’ has been described there as a major milestone in the country’s history. Defence experts here say that Pakistan has not been able to develop any defence equipment on its own. Even the missiles that it claims to have tested over the years have either Chinese or Korean components. In contrast India, despite all the sanctions against it, which also put the country behind by a few years technologywise, managed to develop most of the defence equipment in its armoury now. Not only has it managed to give flight to the light combat aircraft (LCA), which would be the best in the world in the coming years, but also tested innumerable indigenous missiles, advance light helicopter (ALH) and even the Nishant UAV. What has further surprised defence watchers here is that while Pakistan should initially be looking at strengthening its naval defence and induct such submarines in its navy, it has gone ahead to seek buyers for them. Experts are also not sure whether what Pakistan is putting on offer is actually world class. However, according to reports Pakistan is wanting to sell the Agosta 90-B submarines as it claims that it has the technology and the licence to manufacture and sell them. Pakistani officials claimed at the exhibition that the country was emerging as an international player in the world defence market. But there was no denying the fact that China has been providing Pakistan with expertise at various levels of defence equipment production. While claiming the products to be indigenous, Pakistani officials also openly said that China was their major partner at all three levels, including research and development. |
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India, Italy to enhance defence ties New Delhi, September 21 The agreement was made at the meeting of Defence Minister George Fernandes with his Italian counterpart Antonio Martino in Rome. Mr Fernandes was on a five-day official visit to Italy. A statement issued here said the two ministers had also agreed to conclude a collaboration agreement, presently being examined by the two Defence General Staff, that would pave the way for fresh initiatives like staff training, exchange of experiences and joint exercises. “There is a shared interest to intensify the existing collaborations and to find further forms of participation of Italian industries in the modernisation plans of the Indian Armed Forces, as also through proper modalities with interested Indian firms”, the statement said. |
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More forces for J&K poll New Delhi, September 21 Eighty companies of the CRPF have been deployed in the Jammu region alone for election duty, of which 44 companies have been deployed in Jammu, seven in Doda, 13 in Kathua, four in Poonch, six in Rajouri and six companies in Udhampur, a CRPF statement said here today. Another 80 companies of the CRPF have been deployed in the Srinagar region — Baramula (1), Kupwara (11), Srinagar (10) and Budgam (58). These 160 companies exclusively deployed for election duty are in addition to the existing 237 companies of the CRPF which are already deployed in Jammu and Kashmir for law and order and counter-insurgency operations. As the CRPF has the unblemished record of maintaining neutrality under such trying conditions, there has been a heavy demand for the deployment of CRPF personnel in elections, the statement added. |
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