 |
Saturday,
November 16, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
|
BJP softens
stand on dissidents India should be part of UN team:
Iraq Joshi flays House coverage Contractual appointment of teachers on cards 9,050-cr development
plan approved HC dismisses pleas
on Delhi shootout |
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
BJP inciting Gujaratis: GPCC Enforce EC order, CPM
asks Gujarat Illegal immigrants
in Italy to get passports Website on gram sadak
yojana
|
|
BJP softens stand on
dissidents Lucknow, November 15 The leader of the BJP Legislature Party, Mr Lalji Tandon, told a group of newspersons today that after a rethink, the party had decided not to ask the Speaker for an interim order preventing 10 party legislators from the council poll. He said the dissident legislators were a “misguided lot” but they were still in the party. Earlier, the BJP leaders, including Mr Tandon and state party president Vinay Katiyar, had said that they would request the Speaker for an interim order to disenfranchise these dissident legislators “because the party had moved a petition of disqualification of these legislators from the state Assembly”. In the byelection for the lone council seat, the dissident BJP legislators have fielded former minister Yashwant Singh, whom the other opposition parties, including the Samajwadi and the Congress, have offered support. The ruling coalition has fielded Mr Munna Singh Chauhan . The council poll is said to decide whether or not the Mayawati government enjoys majority in the House because in this direct election, the Opposition and the Treasury members will elect a candidate through secret ballot. In the 403-member House, Ms Mayawati had a strength of 217 against the required number of 202. However, six independent legislators withdrew support, followed by 10 BJP MLAs, who told Governor Vishnu Kant Shastri that “they had lost faith in the Mayawati government”. With this, the strength of the Mayawati government has been reduced to 201. |
|
India should be part of UN team:
Iraq New Delhi, November 15 Addressing a news conference, Iraq’s Ambassador to India Mr Salah Al-Mukhtar, said now that India had forged a good relationship with the USA, New Delhi must play its role to ensure that the USA and other countries adhered to the UN charter and the international law. The Ambassador said Baghdad would also want New Delhi to help defuse any crisis that might arise during the inspection exercise. The envoy accused the USA of threatening to launch a war against Iraq with an eye on controlling the Iraqi oil fields which had huge reserves, probably more than Saudi Arabia’s. Mr Al-Mukhtar said the last exercise of inspections was completed about four years ago and even after 13,600 rounds of inspections all over Iraq, including the eight presidential palaces in and around Baghdad, nothing objectionable was found. He accused Washington and London of being driven by a political agenda. The envoy said Washington had allocated $ 97 million in 1998 to topple the regime of President Saddam Hussein and the money had been given to terrorists and mercenaries. Mr Al-Mukhtar rubbished reports of Iraq’s “nexus” with Osama bin Laden’s Al-Qaida and dared Washington to produce any evidence to this effect. |
|
Joshi flays House coverage New Delhi, November 15 Inaugurating the National Press Day celebrations at the Press Council of India two days before the winter session of Parliament, Mr Joshi said, “It has been observed that on many occasions, serious debate and well-reasoned speeches by members of the House are not given as much coverage as they deserve.” He said the Press sometimes gave undue coverage to members when they jumped into the well of the House or raised slogans. Due to such lopsided coverage of proceedings by the media, the attendance of the members became thin when serious business was being transacted, he said. “This is because members feel that their speeches during this time do not get adequate space in the print media,” he stated. He said the media could certainly try to strengthen parliamentary institutions by giving a positive and balanced coverage of the proceedings. |
|
Contractual appointment of teachers on cards New Delhi, November 15 The letter, a copy of which is with The Tribune, also has copy of the minutes of the departmental meeting held to discuss the norms for the appointment of university teachers, which unequivocally recommends contractual appointments. The relevant document states: “the tenure of appointment shall be for a period of five years. The first two years shall be the probation period. On satisfactory completion of the probation period, the appointment shall continue for three more years. On completion of the first five-year period, the performance of the individual concerned shall be reviewed by the assessment committee to be constituted by the Syndicate.” The meeting, which was attended by four members and was convened by Prof R. Subramaniam, also decided that the pay scales and eligibility qualifications would remain unaffected (as per the current UGC norms). The revelation from the UGC Chairman, Prof Arun Nigavekar, comes in the wake of a widespread dissent for the UGC move to “contractualise appointments”. He labelled the reaction of the university teachers as, “nothing but a knee-jerk reaction to change.” Earlier, several teachers’ associations and faculties had condemned the actions of the UGC, which mooted the idea at a commission meeting on October 31 and had referred the issue to the National Institute of Educational Planning and Administration (NIEPA). Prof Nigavekar said, “ this is an unnecessary and inept reaction as no decision had been taken as yet. It is a recommendation, which is being reviewed by the NIEPA.” He further added, “the recommendation is under review in several states, including Maharashtra and Andhra Pradesh, then why is it that the teaching community in New Delhi had already started opposing it? The recommendation comes from academicians and not the UGC so where is the allegation of the government agenda coming into picture?” Meanwhile, the Delhi University Teachers’ Association (DUTA) is planning to convene a national meeting on the issue of contractual appointments and attached ill effects, early next year to thwart the alleged agenda of the UGC to disinvest in higher education by making teachers the target. |
|
9,050-cr development
plan approved Hardwar, November 15 The rally was organised by Kunwar Pranav Singh, the local MLA, to mark the completion of 50 years of Mr Tiwari’s legislative career. Mr Tiwari was accompanied by Minister for Social Welfare and minister in charge of the district Ram Prasad Tamta, Minister of State for Energy Amrita Rawat and Minister of State for Sugarcane Development Sadhu Ram. Addressing the gathering of farmers who had come from neighbouring villages, the Chief Minister said a plan of Rs 9,050 crore had been approved for the development of the state. Infrastructure facilities such as drinking water, link roads, electricity, education and primary healthcare would be provided to all villages in the district and Rs 10 crore had been allocated for the construction of roads in the district, he added. The Chief Minister also said a committee, including experts from the IIT, Roorkee, has been set up to prepare a blueprint for integrated development of the district. He said Mr Bill Gates, the chief of Microsoft, had evinced keen interest in investment in the state. The crowds lustily cheered when Mr Tiwari announced that the sugar mills in the district would start functioning by November 20 and that the price of sugarcane in the state for the current season would not be less than that which had been fixed in Uttar Pradesh. |
|
HC dismisses pleas
on Delhi shootout New Delhi, November 15 Taking serious note of media reports about the petition that was heard by the court, a Division Bench comprising acting Chief Justice Devinder Gupta and Justice A.K. Sikri said such pleas were filed purely for publicity. The judges also dismissed the petition filed by advocate C.S. Rathour, who also urged the court for an independent inquiry. The court, however, declined a request by Additional Solicitor-General K.K. Sud, appearing for the Central Government, and Delhi police counsel Mukta Gupta for imposing a cost on the petitioner, as it had not taken cognizance of the plea. |
|
BJP inciting Gujaratis: GPCC New Delhi, November 15 In a letter to Chief Election Commissioner J.M. Lyngdoh, the GPCC said: “We request you to take necessary actions and ensure that such communal and inflamatory material and cassettes are not shown publicly by any political party”. |
|
Enforce EC order, CPM
asks Gujarat New Delhi, November 15 “It is incumbent upon the state government and the administration to enforce the order of the Election Commission and prevent the VHP from carrying out its programme,” the CPM politburo said in a statement here. The CPM said firm action was called for as the yatra might create trouble adding that the VHP, “which was mainly responsible for the large-scale violence in Gujarat, is now being used for the purpose of fomenting tension during the elections.” It also took strong exception to the BJP national leadership’s criticism of the EC’s directive. |
|
Illegal immigrants
in Italy to get passports New Delhi, November 15 At a meeting of the Consultative Committee of the Ministry of External Affairs, Mr Ramoowalia told Mr Sinha that if clearance was not given by November 30 and passports not issued by December 11, some 15,000 aggrieved Indians in Italy would each face a penalty of 500 euros with two years’ imprisonment and deportation to India. According to Mr Ramoowalia, the government would honour both these dates and issued orders to this effect on the spot. |
|
Website on gram sadak
yojana New Delhi, November 15 Speaking on the occasion of the launch of the website, the Minister said it would prove to be a milestone in the rural development programme. The site, developed by Pune-based Centre for Development of Advanced Computing (C-DAC), will be available in all major languages of the country, Mr Shanta Kumar said. The Members of Parliament would be kept abreast with information about the status of various projects of their constituencies, he said. |
 |
| Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir | Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs | Nation | Editorial | | Business | Sport | World | Mailbag | In Spotlight | Chandigarh Tribune | Ludhiana Tribune 50 years of Independence | Tercentenary Celebrations | | 122 Years of Trust | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
Lok Sabha Speaker Manohar Joshi cautioned mediapersons against giving “undue coverage” to “disorderly scenes and acts of indiscipline” in Parliament as it emboldened noisy members to violate rules and resort to impropriety.
Video
