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Thursday,
November 21, 2002, Chandigarh, India  
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Centre not politicising drought Pandya’s fate hangs in balance RSS men in charge of Gujarat campaign Godhra: passenger
saw flames outside coach NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT Nostalgia for
Amritsar in Pakistan: scholar |
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PWG ultras blow up rly station
MiG spares okay:
Fernandes 8 cops killed in blast Rebel UP MLAs submit
replies Tokyo Mayor credits calculus to Indian Task force to arrest
Pappu Yadav Communal clash
quelled Shekhawat felicitated NCW team visits
medical college
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Centre not politicising drought relief:
PM New Delhi, November 20 “We will take up the massive project on a war footing. Funds for such a project will not be a problem. The government has sufficient money,” Mr Vajpayee said, intervening in a discussion in the Lok Sabha on an adjournment motion on drought moved by Congress President Sonia Gandhi. Appealing to leaders of all political parties to join hands with the government for the success of the project, Mr Vajpayee said, “What is needed is to spend the money in a proper manner to provide a lasting solution to the drought problem.” Stating that the project had been conceived soon after Independence, but could not be implemented due to paucity of funds, Mr Vajpayee said the Centre was willing to talk to neighbouring countries to ensure that major rivers in the country were linked. He informed that a task force had been set up to link the Ganga with the Cauvery and asked for suggestions from all states in connection with the project. Earlier, in a blistering attack, Congress President Sonia Gandhi criticised the BJP-led NDA government’s handling of the drought situation in the country, accusing it of failure to provide food despite a buffer stock four times the 16.9 million tonnes of grain required for total food security. Moving an adjournment motion in the Lok Sabha on the drought situation in the country, Mrs Gandhi said despite the government having the largest foodgrain stocks in the history of the nation, it “failed miserably to provide basic and essential food security where it was needed most”. Demanding immediate formulation of a drought management code to tackle such calamities, the Leader of the Opposition regretted that the Centre, despite acknowledging its shortcomings in the matter, sought to shift responsibility on the states repeatedly. Denying that the recent deaths in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh were not due to starvation, she said the “immediate cause” of the recent tragic deaths in Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh was “specific illness”. Mr Laxman Singh, brother of Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh, said allegations of starvation deaths were false and he was willing to quit his Lok Sabha seat if the charges were proved correct. Rural Development Minister Shanta Kumar said 29,000 tonnes of foodgrain had been given to drought-hit states so far. He expressed concern that despite large stocks of foodgrain, reports about deaths due to hunger pointed towards maladministration. |
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Pandya’s fate hangs in balance New Delhi, November 20 The second list of 11 party candidates released here today did not include either Mr Pandya’s name nor his constituency Ellisbridge. Interestingly, contrary to news reports that former Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel was keen on contesting in the coming poll, Mr Kansubhai Bhalala’s name has been announced as candidate for Mr Patel’s constituency Visavadar. Mr Bhalala, a taluka president, is a Patel loyalist. Releasing the second list, BJP spokesperson Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi told mediapersons that “the names for the remaining 27 seats would be announced shortly.” Asked about the absence of Mr Pandya’s name from the list, Mr Naqvi said: “We have not received recommendation from the State Election Committee for some seats.” He asserted that candidates to all seats were selected unanimously by party leaders and there was no dispute whatsoever. Meanwhile, the BJP has decided to have a high-voltage election campaign in Gujarat led by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, who will address meetings in four regions of the state. Mr Vapayee will address poll meetings in Surat, Vadodra, Rajkot and Ahmedabad, while Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani will actively campaign for the party in all 25 districts of the state, party sources said. Besides these two stalwarts, other party leaders, including HRD Minister Murali Manohar Joshi, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pramod Mahajan, Coal Minister Uma Bharati and Civil Aviation Minister Syed Shahnawaz Hussain would campaign for the party, the sources said. Party’s tribal leaders Jual Oram and Jharkhand Chief Minister Babulal Marandi would campaign in the tribal areas of the state, the sources said. They said Parliament would not have any break during the Gujarat poll. The BJP has decided to add glamour to the campaign by roping in the services of the dream girl of yesteryear Hema Malini and actress Juhi Chawla. Besides, actor-turned-politicians Shatrughan Sinha and Vinod Khanna will also extensively campaign for the party. Irate BJP men
stage protest Ahmedabad |
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RSS men in charge of Gujarat campaign New Delhi, November 20 Since the BJP heavily banks on the support of the Sangh Parivar, it does not want any coordination and management problem to surface ahead of the crucial poll which would decide its future political course. According to sources, former BJP President Kushabhav Thakre will be based at Ahmedabad and will supervise the entire poll campaign management and coordination, while Senior Vice-President of the BJP Pyare Lal Khandelwal will be based at Rajkot looking after the most important Saurashtra region, which has a sizeable 59 seats. Mr Om Prakash Dankar, National Secretary (Organisation) has been asked to assist Mr Khandelwal in the Saurashtra region. Another RSS man, who has immense organisational abilities and presently holding the position of General Secretary in the Maharashtra Unit of the BJP, Sharad Kulkarni, will be in charge of south Gujarat and will base himself at Surat. In the Ahmedabad region, which witnessed maximum communal violence and from where Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi will be contesting, the responsibility has been given to senior BJP leader having close links with the Parivar outfit Om Prakash Kohli, sources said. Mr Manohar Lal, General Secretary (Organisation) of the BJP unit in Haryana will be in charge of the six crucial seats in the Kutch region. Mr Om Prakash Mathur, a Prabhari from Madhya Pradesh will be in charge of all constituencies falling in the Gujarat-Rajasthan border, sources said. |
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Godhra: passenger
saw flames outside coach Ahmedabad, November 20 Deposing before the commission headed by Justice G.T. Nanavati and Justice K.G. Shah, the witness, Mr Mahesh Chaudhary said: “He was asleep and woke up only when the train halted after leaving Godhra station for the second time”. Recording of statements of those present in the Sabarmati Express began here before the commission. “Statement of three witnesses present in the S-6 coach would be recorded every day in the presence of the two retired justices, government pleader and defence attorney”, said an advocate connected with the case. Fiftyeight passengers, mostly kar sevaks returning from Ayodhya, were killed when the train was set ablaze which sparked off communal violence in the state claiming about 1,000 lives.
PTI
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, November 20 In a written reply, Minister for External Affairs Yashwant Sinha said India had requested the Pakistani Government to return the personal belongings of Bhagat Singh, Sukhdev and Rajguru. The Pakistani Government had replied that the authorities concerned had indicated their inability to locate the articles as the jail in which the martyrs were hanged in 1931 was demolished and all records of temporary nature were destroyed, the House was informed. The Himachal Pradesh Government had been advised to prepare project proposals to the tune of Rs 250 crore strictly keeping in view the programme guidelines, Minister for Rural Development Shanta Kumar told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. No proposals had so far been cleared for Himachal Pradesh during 2002-03. There are 51 post offices in the union territory of Chandigarh. The average population served by each post office is 17,973 in urban areas and 13,160 in rural areas, Minister of State for Communications and Information Technology Sanjay Paswan told the Lok Sabha in a written reply to a question raised by Pawan Kumar Bansal, MP from Chandigarh. The minister said opening of new post offices was subject to the fulfilment of norms based justification and availability of requisite resources. In reply to another question, the minister said there was a proposal to open a new post office at Bir Talab village in Bhatinda district during the current financial year. There was no proposal to open new post offices in Mansa district during 2002-03. As reported by the state government, between August 1, 2002, and October 15, 2002, 249 civilians were killed, while 139 security personnel and 414 terrorists were killed during the period, the Minister of State for Home Ch Vidyasagar Rao told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply. As reported by the state government, the number of structures damaged in the state during the period from August 1, 2002, to October 31, 2002, was 62. This included government and educational buildings, private houses, shops and bridges. Despite the terrorist threat to life, people came out in large numbers to cast thier votes and defied the terrorist designs to disrupt the election process. The overall turnout was 44.62 per cent, the House was informed. |
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Nostalgia for Amritsar in Pakistan:
scholar New Delhi, November 20 Addressing a gathering invited by the National Institute of Punjab Studies at India International Centre, Professor Talbot said he had not realised that the Muslim nostalgia for Amritsar was as strong as the Hindu and Sikh nostalgia for Lahore. Professor Talbot explained that the projects he was working on were set in the context of the new history of Partition, the increasing interest in the lived experiences of the refugees and the way they had resettled. “I’m looking at how people experienced Partition both in terms of violence, uprooting and resettlement. Another thing I would be looking at is the pattern of refugee resettlement.” He said he hopes to have the work published in two years. Prof Talbot said that the urban dimension of resettlement had been neglected. He observed that the psychological effects of Partition had been profound across all classes. Professor Talbot pointed out that differential experiences were emerging from the study. He urged historians to talk about Partition in a particular locality. “I would urge historians to write about local history. It is a rich area of exploration which would yield interesting data,” said Professor Talbot, who is visiting localities in Amritsar on Friday. He said Amritsar “really never recovered after Partition whereas Lahore, because of its political significance, moved on and became a major driving centre of West Punjab economy. It took many years for the Amritsar Municipal Corporation to restore normalcy. It is very clear from reports in The Tribune that electricity supply was affected. There was a lot of disruption even a year after Independence. Lahore was less disrupted and less physically destroyed. This probably also explains why refugees chose to stay in Lahore and not
Amritsar.’’ Replying to a question on why refugees chose Delhi in preference to Amritsar, Professor Talbot explained, “Delhi had the appeal as the leading political centre of India. It was seen as more safe and secure. It also offered a lot of opportunities for professional employment and commercial activity. The whole character of Delhi was altered by people not just from Lahore but also from West Punjab coming and staying here.” Former Chief Election Commissioner M.S. Gill acknowledged the tremendous amount of work from the West on analysis of Partition. In his
introductory remarks, an eminent historian, Prof V.N. Datta, said Professor Talbot had made a substantial contribution to the history of Punjab. “He has done a very valuable service by access to Pakistan archival material which is not available to us,” he said. |
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PWG ultras blow up rly station
Hyderabad, November 20 Intensifying their strikes, a group of 20 Naxals from the outlawed People’s War Group stormed Thummalchervu station at about 2 am and asked railway staff and some passengers to clear the place before they blew up the station with IEDs. The rail track was reportedly intact. The attack came close on the heels of a major landmine blast which blew up a state roadways bus in Warangal district, killing 14 persons and injuring 16 others on Monday. On the same day in Guntur, the ultras had blown up a district official’s office at Karampudi, causing damage to the building and loss of computers and office records. The strike at the station was apparently in protest against the killing of three Naxals, including a local commander during a police encounter, the police said. Rail traffic on the Hyderabad-Guntur route was diverted via Kazipet and Vijaywada, officials said. State Home Minister Devendra Goud said the Naxal attacks were apparently aimed at getting publicity for the banned group since they were increasingly getting neutralised by security forces. Significantly, Guntur is slowly emerging as a hotbed of Naxal activities in the past few months. “They want to show their presence and therefore resorting to subversive activities,” he said. Asked about prospects of the resumption of the stalled peace talks with the PWG, Mr Goud said the government was always ready for dialogue.
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MiG spares okay:
Fernandes New Delhi, November 20 Defence Minister George Fernandes said in a written reply that at the instance of the HAL, three Russian experts were on a visit to three HAL divisions and two Air Force stations to look into the matter regarding the failure of R-25 engines of MiG-21. As many as 53 MiG aircraft had crashed between 1998 and November 14, 2002 and as many as 30 pilots were killed. The damage as a result of the crashes was estimated at Rs 143.82 crore, Mr Fernandes said. He said the modernisation and upgrading of the Indian Air Force fleet was a continuous process and progressive phasing out of older variants of MiG-21 had already commenced. Mr Fernandes told the Rajya Sabha through a written reply that “the Government has decided to induct the Advance Jet Trainers (AJT), but no deal has been finalised as yet”. He was replying to queries on how many such trainers did the government propose to acquire. On the proposed purchase of Russian Kiev class aircraft carrier Admiral Gorshkov, Mr Fernandes said an inter-governmental agreement had been signed on October 4, 2000 with the Russian Federation which interalia provides for the acquisition of the warship. He, however, said negotiations on price and other
purchase formalities, including the refit and modernisation of the carrier, were being held. Mr
Fernandes told the Rajya Sabha that the strategic relocation of the Army from the international border with Pakistan had started and would be gradually completed without compromising on “decisive response” capabilities in case of an emergency. “The process of strategic relocation is underway and will be completed in a gradual manner,” Mr Fernandes said. The minister, in a written answer, sidestepped a direct answer to how much the almost year-long forward deployment had cost the country saying that the expenditure could be assessed only after redeployment of forces was completed. He said mobilisation had been carried out to force Islamabad to abandon cross-border terrorism, provide military muscle to “our” diplomacy and to exercise military option against Pakistan if necessary. “The mobilisation achieved the intended objectives. It exerted immense pressure on the Pakistan President to denounce support to jehad. Some of the terrorist organisations in Pakistan were banned, some terrorist camps were closed, their accounts frozen and leaders arrested,” Mr Fernandes said.
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8 cops killed in blast Ranchi, November 20 The police said here that the deceased were Sub-Inspector Mohshin Khan, two havildars, four constables and a driver. The insurgents detonated the landmine when the police escort party was returning to an outpost under Barwadih police station. The injured was rushed to a local hospital. The police said the ultras decamped with the security personnel’s stengun, six rifles and live cartridges. The landmine exploded when the police squad reached the Labhar police outpost during a routine patrol. The vehicle carrying the police personnel was blown a few metres away from the border. Senior police officers have rushed to the spot. The victims belonged to the Jharkhand Armed Forces.
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Rebel UP MLAs submit
replies Lucknow, November 20 The legislators had challenged the maintainability of the petition. The Speaker subsequently asked leader of the BJP legislature party Lalji Tandon and leader of the BSP legislature party Mayawati to give their replies on the objections raised by the legislators by November 26. On November 30 the Speaker will decide whether the petitions are maintainable or not. The legislators facing disqualification are Mr Kovid Kumar, Mr R.P. Singh, Mr Mayankeshwar Saran Singh, Mr Ganga Bux Singh, Mr Anil Verma, Mr Narendra Verma, Mr Dayashankar Verma, Mr Badshah Singh, Mr Chandramani Kant Singh, Mr Ravindra Singh Pundeer (all BJP) and Mr Jai Prakash Yadav (BSP). Later, the legislators met the Governor and submitted a memorandum against the government for allegedly harassing those who had revolted against the Mayawati government. |
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Tokyo Mayor credits calculus to Indian
New Delhi, November 20 Mr Shintaro Ishihara, who spoke here yesterday on “India and Japan in a changing world”, had an interesting anecdote to relate in the course of his talk. He mentioned that he had once been invited to address a batch of Dutch diplomats about to be posted in Asia. He was lecturing them on the medieval history of the Japanese people and how advanced Japanese society was during that period. He mentioned how a Japanese mathematician was supposed to have developed theories of integration and differentiation, half a century before Leibnitz and Newton. Mr Ishihara said he was approached at the end of his lecture by a professor at the University of California at Los Angeles(UCLA), Mr Staal, who told him that an Indian mathematician had done this more than two decades before the Japanese mathematician.
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Task force to arrest
Pappu Yadav Patna, November 20 The DGP, Mr R.R. Prasad, said: “A special police team will be dispatched to find them and take punitive action against them. The three Bihari don politicians were declared absconders, as a police team led by the sub-divisional police officer did not find them in the AIIMS and Safdarganj Hospital in Delhi where they were undergoing treatment under judicial custody. The state police has lodged a case against the three at Defence Colony police station in Delhi. The SSP of Patna, Mr Sunil Kumar, has in the meantime suspended 25 policemen, including three officers, escorting the accused. Pappu Yadav has denied being out of hospital. The MP said he was on bed rest when the police team visited AIIMS. Surajbhan Singh and Rajan Tiwary said they were living in private rented quarters as doctors had allowed them to do so owing to space crunch in Safdarganj Hospital. |
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Communal clash
quelled
Hubli, November 20 The clash took place over one community’s use of a public address system for prayers in the early hours which was objected to by members of the other community, Assistant Commissioner of Police Ravikante Gowda said. Both groups threw stones at each other and the police had to resort to lathi charge to control the mob. But when it failed, it lobbed tear gas shells, he said. The situation is “under control now”, Mr Gowda said, adding that seven persons had been arrested in this connection.
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Shekhawat felicitated New Delhi, November 20 Mr Shekhawat expressed concern over “serious threats” to bonds of national integration and the secular fabric. He was also felicitated by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Chairperson of Rajya Sabha Najma Heptullah, Mr Manmohan Singh and Mr Jaswant Singh. |
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NCW team visits
medical college New Delhi, November 20 Ms Advani, accompanied by NCW members Nafisa Hussain and Shantha Reddy and two officials, accepted a charter of demands by the students, who claimed that they felt insecure on the campus, sources in the commission said. |
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