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Thursday,
January 9, 2003, Chandigarh, India   |
Top scientists felicitated Naga leaders arrive for talks
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Sonia approves
probables for JK expansion New Delhi, January 8 With the Congress having finalised its list of MLAs for inclusion in the Mufti ministry in Jammu and Kashmir, decks have been cleared for the first expansion of the coalition government in the state.
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Congress to target
HVC: Virbhadra RSS refuses to give up temple land Master Tara Singh’s statue unveiled
Documentary makes Mayawati angry
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Top scientists felicitated New Delhi, January 8 V. Sridevi, an Assistant Manager with Bharat Dynamics, was honoured for doing pioneering work on some of the sub-systems of the Prithvi, Trishul and Agni missiles while Shibi K. Verghese was decorated for key contribution in the development of the country’s fastest offshore patrol vessels with the capability of reaching top speeds of 35 knots. Among those awarded were A. Mohan, N.C. Agarwal, C.V. Venugopal, K.S. Narayana Rao, P.V. Mustafe, Col H.S. Shankar (retd), A. Mohana Rao, S.L. Prasad, R. Jagannathan and N.K. Khurana, S.S. Shivashankar, M. Vinod Kumar, S.S.R. Sastry, and T. Srinivas A.J. Das, V. Palaniswamy, V.S. Bharadwaj, D. Balakrishna, G. Ramswamy and S. Guruprakash, P. Amma Rao, V.S. Srinivasan and Dr T.V.L. Narasimha Rao. Giving away the awards, Mr Fernandes urged scientists, technologists and engineers to strive for complete self-reliance in defence so that India as a nuclear weapon state did not feel the weaknesses of the Kargil conflict again. He asked them to increase the production of defence equipment as imports for the defence forces continued to outnumber the indigenous arms production. Pointing out that the development of indigenous light combat aircraft and advanced light helicopters had been appreciated by several countries, Mr Fernandes said nations wanted to join as development partners in these key technology products. Meanwhile, Mr Fernandes is expected to take up the long-pending aircraft carrier, Admiral Gorshkov, issue with his Russian counterpart during his week-long visit to Moscow from January 14. |
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Naga leaders arrive for talks New Delhi, January 8 Mr Muivah and Mr Swu are expected to be accompanied by three other leaders from Nagaland during their meetings with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Deputy Prime Minister L.K. Advani and the leaders of the major Opposition parties over the next few days. Significantly, Mr Muivah and Mr Swu, who are setting foot in India after more than 30 years, are likely to begin their official engagements by offering respect to Mahatma Gandhi at Rajghat. Several key leaders representing various parties, including the church, NGOs and students from the state, are camping in Delhi. Centre’s interlocutor K Padmanabhaiah said Mr Swu and Mr Muivah were coming here to hold talks without any “pre-conditions”. They had been provided with travel documents and their visit was a positive pointer. The Naga leaders are learnt to have expressed their willingness to visit India for carrying forward the peace process under the condition that they would not be arrested or detained in the eventuality of the failure of talks. They have also sent to the Centre a set of proposals for creating a basis for preparing a structured agenda for the talks. Sources indicated that the talks was likely to focus on the key issue of granting more sovereignty to Nagaland by bringing under Article 371 A under the Constitution of India. The Naga leaders were also learnt to have demanded special autonomy which would entail “minimal interference from the Centre” in the governance of the state. Besides, there was also a demand for separate currency and flag for the state. The success of the Naga peace process is crucial for the entire North-East as it will pave the way for similar negotiations with other insurgency outfits in the region. Even ULFA, which has been waging an arms struggle for a “sovereign Assam” for more that two decades has indicated its willingness to engage in negotiations with the Centre and has termed the present peace talks with Naga leaders as an “acid test”. |
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Sonia approves
probables for JK expansion New Delhi, January 8 Sources said Congress President Sonia Gandhi had approved the names of her party nominees to be inducted into the Cabinet. Mr Mohammad Shafi Bhat, Gujjar leader Taj Mohiuddin, Mr Mohammad Sharief Naz, a relative of PCC chief Ghulam Nabi Azad, Mr Madan Lal from Jammu, and Mr Abdul Majid Wani from Doda are the Congress candidates to be inducted into the Cabinet. The PDP has reportedly cleared the name of Qazi Mohammad Afzal, who humbled National Conference president Omar Abdullah from the prestigious Ganderbal constituency and former minister Abdul Aziz Zargar. Two Independents — former Hurriyat leader Sofi Ghulam Mohiuddin and Hakim Mohammad Yaseen — are likely to get the berth in the Cabinet. |
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Congress to target HVC: Virbhadra New Delhi, January 8 Mr Virbhadra Singh’s remarks have come at a time when a section of Congress leadership, both at the Centre and the state, is pitching for some understanding with the HVC. Mr Singh told The Tribune here that the HVC was a "diminished force" in the state and even at the "height of its popularity," it had won only five seats. He said while the HVC was still a part of the NDA, Mr Sukh Ram was chairman of the Resource Mobilisation and Employment Committee of the state government. "The BJP government in the state has run for five years because of Mr Sukh Ram and his party was as guilty of acts of ommission and commission as the BJP," Mr Singh said. Asked if the Congress should project a chief ministerial candidate in view of the projection of Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal by the BJP as its candidate, Mr Singh said the Congress should also project a leader. He said the Congress had a tradition of not projecting a chief ministerial candidate but the times had changed. "The BJP," he said, "was indicating its choices even in the states that were not to face elections immediately." "The people want to know who will lead the party. They vote both for the party and the person," Mr Singh said, adding that he was saying this not only in the context of Himachal Pradesh but for elections in other states as well. Mr Singh said anyone projected by the high
command as chief ministerial choice would be acceptable to the Congress leaders in the state. Supporters of Mr Singh have been urging the high command to give clear signals on the choice of leadership in the state. About his talks in Delhi with the central leaders, Mr Singh said it had been decided to retain all sitting MLAs except those facing corruption charges. He said candidates who had lost the last elections by over 4,000 votes would not be given tickets but the condition would be relaxed in exceptional cases. He said Mr Dhumal’s ‘vishwas yatra’ was a "flop" and alleged that "government machinery was being misused for the yatra." Dismissing any impact of campaigning by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi on the plank of Hindutva, Mr Singh said the Congress would campaign through rallies, corner meetings and door-to-door canvassing. |
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RSS refuses to give up temple land Bhopal, January 8 “The RSS has been enjoying ownership rights over the approximately 106-bigha plot since 1931. Even a court gave a seal of approval. Despite that, the district administration is undertaking an illegal measure in trying to acquire it,” RSS Sah Prant Karyavah Ashok Sohni said here today to the media. “Keeping in view the 2004 Sinhasth Mela, the land is being demanded from the Sangh. This plot has been used during earlier melas, with no objections from the RSS, and the Sangh will not object in future. But now the administration wants to seize the land with wrong motives,” he added. “There is no controversy over the plot but, due to political vendetta, the matter is being unnecessarily raked up,” Mr Sohni alleged. In a recent letter to Sarsanghchalak K.S. Sudarshan, Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh referred to Sinhasth arrangements and urged Mr Sudarshan to direct the RSS’ district unit to hand over the land to the temple administration, for security reasons.
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Master Tara Singh’s statue unveiled New Delhi, January 8 After remaining embroiled in a controversy for seven years, the bronze-plated statue erected at the crossing adjacent to the Rakabganj Gurdwara, was unveiled by Union Urban Minister Ananth Kumar at a special function attended by senior BJP leaders Madan Lal Khurana, Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra and several Akali leaders. Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) President Paramjit Singh Sarna, said services of Master Tara Singh to the country had been recognised, though belatedly. If Master Tara Singh had not turned down the overtures of Mr Jinnah for joining Pakistan under a special arrangement in 1947, the shape of the Indian sub-continent would have been different, said Mr Sarna. Interestingly, the opposition to the installation of the statue has come from National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Vice-Chairman Tirlochan Singh, who said Master Tara Singh deserved a place in the premises of Parliament complex as he had closely worked with Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Sardar Patel and many other senior Congress leaders of those days. |
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Afghan refugees opt for repatriation New Delhi, January 8 The changing political conditions in Afghanistan have encouraged 80 Hindu and Sikh Afghan refugees to opt for voluntary repatriation since April 2002. The Ariana Airlines direct flight between India and
Afghanistan was resumed in March 2002. According to an UNHCR brief, 11,629 Afghan refugees are registered in India. Nearly 80 per cent of these are of Indian origin (Hindus and Sikhs). Afghan refugees first came to India in the early 80s following the erstwhile Soviet Union intervention in Afghanistan. Most of the refugees came when the Najibullah regime fell in 1992. According to the UNHCR website: "Within months, Afghanistan has gone from being the source of one of the world’s largest refugee populations to its biggest repatriation and reintegration operation breaking new records along with throwing up fresh challenges to the relief community and its own leaders.’’ The thought of rebuilding their houses by accepting the long term solution offered by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) seems to have prompted the resilient refugees to start life afresh in the comfort of their own hearth and homes. As Nayana Bose,
Associate External Relations Officer, UNHCR observes: "Afghan refugees have been in India since 1981. The option of return was never there. This is the first time in the last twenty years that
Afghan refuges have had a sustained interest in going back to Afghanistan. The numbers are
noteworthy globally. It could be the beginning of a trend." Sources in the UNHCR told TNS that during the past three-and-a-half years, they had received maximum number of requests for repatriation in 2002. |
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Documentary makes Mayawati angry Allahabad, January 8 Ms Mayawati, who has taken over the reins of the state for the third time, also took a serious view of the omission of Ram Prakash Gupta’s name from the list of Chief Ministers of the state. “Strong action will be taken against the official of the Information Department responsible for the errors,” she said.
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