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Friday,
February 28, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Gujarat observes Godhra anniversary
Iraq: India may deny logistic help to USA |
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Enforce user charges
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Bhojshala row in sight of solution Oppn slams govt on Ayodhya Dropout rates for girls still high
Aviation sector slowdown to continue NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT SPG
Bill gets parliamentary nod Bandh partial Indian Envoy to Pak Proxy voting for troops okayed Supplementary demand of Rlys
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Gujarat observes Godhra anniversary Ahmedabad, February 27 Amidst deployment of policemen and paramilitary personnel in strength, especially in communally-sensitive areas of the state, the observance of the anniversary passed off peacefully, police sources here said. Sangh Parivar affiliates organised prayer meetings, “yajnas” and took out “prabhat pheris” in different parts of the state early in the morning to remember the 59 Ram sevaks who perished when the S-6 coach of Sabarmati Express from Ayodhya was set on fire in Godhra on this day, last year. A bandh called by the Shiv Sena evoked partial response in Godhra with the majority community members downing the shutters of their businesses while minority community members kept their shops open. Senior VHP leaders, including Praveen Togadia and the BJP MLA from Godhra, Mr Haresh Bhatt, took part in a “shanti path” and “shanti yajna” at Lalbagh Tikri ground of the central Gujarat town. Mt Togadia also visited the ill-fated coach of Sabarmati Express. Addressing a rally in Vadodara later, Mr Togadia urged the Muslim community to hand over the possession of premises in Ayodhya, Kashi and Mathura to the VHP for temple construction and said if this demand is conceded, the VHP would not press for possession of such premises in other parts of the country.
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Iraq: India may deny logistic help to USA New Delhi, February 27 However, it is understood that if the Anglo-American war plans against Iraq have the mandate of the United Nations, the Vajpayee government may consider a change in this policy. At the same time, the Government of India is of the view that Iraq must disarm and implement all UN Security Council resolutions in this regard fully and unambiguously, top sources in the government said. The situation has become complicated after Iraqi President Saddam Hussein reportedly said in an interview earlier this week that he had no plans to comply with the UN demand that he should destroy his banned Al-Samoud 2 missiles. The Executive Chairman of UNMOVIC, Dr Hans Blix, briefed the UN Security Council that Iraq’s Al Samoud 2 and Al-Fatah missiles could very well represent prima facie cases of proscribed missile systems as they had been tested to ranges exceeding the 150-km limit set by the Security Council. The weapons inspectors have conducted more than 400 inspections covering more than 300 sites in Iraq. All inspections were performed without notice and access was almost always provided promptly. The inspectors have gone on record saying that in no case have they seen convincing evidence that the Iraqi side knew in advance that the inspectors were coming.
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Enforce user charges New Delhi, February 27 The focus on the infrastructure policy for a decade has led to substantial progress in some areas and the broad outlines now emerging will “involve new institutional arrangements, well enforced user charges, exploit new technologies, private sector production, and a regulatory framework that fosters competition,” the Economic Survey-2002-03 tabled in Parliament said. Emphasising the need for creating a sound regulatory framework, the survey said “in areas like rural infrastructure, where cost recovery is innately difficult, there is a greater role for the government to foster infrastructure provision even if it is not directly profitable.” Noting healthy contributions from all segments — power, telecommunications, posts, roads and road transport, ports, etc — in the handsome 5.4 per cent growth rate registered by the infrastructure sector in April-December, 2002, the survey said the success of policies must be judged by the quality, quantity and prices that end-users are charged for these services and comparisons with global standards. While generation of power not being a problem (this year registered 3.7 per cent growth compared to previous year), the key bottleneck in providing power for all lay in enforcement of user charges in distribution, the survey said. While the telecom sector witnessed phenomenal growth with new telephone connections increasing by 17 per cent in the first nine months of the current fiscal the Rs 58,000-crore National Highway Development Project was making rapid progress, it said. However, the Railways still require substantial reforms in its functioning and establishing an institutional mechanism to cut cost. It also noted that the performance of ports in India still lags far behind the standards seen in Singapore and Hong Kong, the key to success would be establishing framework through which there was competition between multiple operators at a given port and competition between ports, the survey said. |
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Bhojshala row in sight of solution New Delhi, February 27 While the Hindus would have free access to the shrine from sunrise to sunset on Tuesdays, Muslims would be provided access between 1 p.m. and 3 p.m. on Fridays for offering prayers, Tourism and Culture Minister Jagmohan told reporters here today. He said Hindus could also carry some flowers and rice as prayer offerings to the presiding diety, Wagdevi or goddess Sarawati. Mr Jagmohan said he had written a letter to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister, Mr Digvijay Singh, in this respect and a formal notification would be issued after hearing from the state government. Meanwhile, three more men were arrested under the National Security Act for their alleged involvement in violent incidents relating to attempts by Hindu activists to forcibly enter Bhojshala on February 18, closed to public since 1997.
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Oppn slams govt on Ayodhya New Delhi, February 27 The discussion, which began in the Lok Sabha this afternoon, focused particularly on Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for his controversial claim during the electioneering in Himachal Pradesh that a temple existed at Ayodhya. Samajwadi Party leader Mulayam Singh Yadav, who initiated the discussion, attacked the government, accusing it of raising an ‘unnecessary controversy’, by moving the Supreme Court for vacating its stay on religious activities in the acquired land at Ayodhya. Attacking the VHP for taking a ‘provocative’ stand on the issue and announcing that it would not abide by the court verdict, he alleged that the Sangh Parivar outfit was, in fact, a ‘sadhu cell’ of the BJP which raised the communal temperature ahead of any elections. He said the VHP leaders should be put behind bars. Senior BJP member Swami Chinmayanand countered Opposition charges and made a strong plea for an initiative from Parliament for an early resolution of the Ayodhya issue. Mr Yadav as also Mr S. Jaipal Reddy (Cong) sought to embarrass allies of the BJP for acting as ‘appendage’ of the NDA government whose agenda did not include Ayodhya. Swami Chinmayanand said there was ‘nothing objectionable’ in the VHP demand to get back the undisputed land and quoted certain parts of the court order to buttress his claim. In an obvious attack on the Congress, he said whenever a resolution of the dispute was in sight, certain forces had worked against it. He wanted tabling in Parliament of the Archaeological Department’s report on the study made by Ground Penetrating Radar System at the disputed site. He claimed the court cases on the Ayodhya issue were on since 1885 and every time, the verdict has been in favour of the ‘Ram bhakts’. |
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Dropout rates for girls still high New Delhi, February 27 The Survey accepts the hard fact that domestic violence is widely prevalent but remains largely invisible in the public domain. It states that though dropout rates at the elementary education stage have declined over the years, they continue to be relatively high for girl students (41.9 and 57.7 per cent at primary and upper primary stages, respectively, in 2000- 01). This despite the fact that elementary education has been given priority in terms of sub-sectoral allocations and schemes launched by the government. Substantial improvement in total literacy rates over the decades (from 18.33 per cent in 1951 to 65.4 per cent in 2001) and decrease in dropout rates at the primary and upper primary levels also finds a mention in the Survey. The National Literacy Mission seeks to achieve full literacy, a sustainable threshold level of 75 per cent literacy by 2005. The Survey has stated that the emphasis on the achievement of higher economic growth and social justice is manifest in the renewed focus on development
initiatives in the social sectors. The Survey mentions India’s rank in the UNDP’s Human Development Index (HDI) and its classification in the group of Medium Human Development for 2000. Punjab is among the three states which have done well in terms of HDI(0.537) in 2001, according to the first-ever National Human Development Report (NHDR) brought out by the Planning Commission. The Survey acknowledges the human face of ongoing economic reforms and targets incorporated in the 10th Five-Year Plan (2002-07) for the reduction of poverty, hunger, mortality and illiteracy. It suggests restructuring of the entire gamut of poverty alleviation and employment generation programmes. It further recommends a fiscally sustainable anti-poverty strategy targeted at those who are unable to
benefit from opportunities offered by growth. |
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Nujoma holds talks with PM
New Delhi, February 27 Mr Nujoma today held talks with Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha and the two countries signed a joint communique as well as a memorandum of understanding on technical assistance. President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam hosted a banquet in Rashtrapati Bhavan tonight in honour of Mr
Nujoma.  |
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Aviation sector slowdown to continue New Delhi, February 27 The Economic Survey for the year presented in Parliament by Finance Minister Jaswant Singh clearly stated that the Civil Aviation sector had failed to achieve the projected 5 per cent growth in the passenger traffic despite a number of promotional schemes offered by the airlines. It added that the slowdown was expected to continue. “It was anticipated that during the current year, the impact of September 11, 2001 incident in USA would start tapering off and the market would show improvement and achieve the projected growth of five per cent in passenger traffic,” the Survey said. “These expectations have, however, not materialised despite various promotional schemes or fares being offered by airlines operators,” it added. Domestic air services are provided by Indian Airlines and private operators, including the two scheduled carriers - Jet Airways and Air Sahara - and 40 non-scheduled operators. Private scheduled and non-scheduled operators cater to nearly 52.6 per cent of the domestic air traffic. The number of passengers carried by these private operators has increased from 15,000 in 1990 to about 6.7 million in 2001. The survey noted that the process of disinvestment in both Indian Airlines and Air India “has been delayed because of lack of interest on the part of the bidders due to the overall downturn in the global economic scenario.” It said that the Airports Authority of India (AAI) had earned an estimated profit of Rs 176 crore during April-September 2002 which it attributed to increase in airport charges and cargo income. This was against a profit after tax of Rs 267 crore achieved in 2001-02 and Rs 214.1 crore in 2000-01. Stating that the development of airports was no longer domain of the public sector, the survey said the Airport Infrastructure Policy, 1997 permitted private equity participation in development of airport infrastructure. |
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NORTH INDIA IN PARLIAMENT New Delhi, February 27 *** Giving details of railway projects under construction, the Minister of State for Railways Mr Bandaru Dattatraya said five new lines in Punjab, one in Haryana and two each in Himachal Pradesh and Jammu and Kashmir were under contruction. *** The number of sick industrial units in Punjab had increased to 1,902 in 2002, compared to 1,836 units in 2001, informed Dr C.P. Thakur, Minister of State for Small Scale Industries. In Haryana the number had declined from 1,285 in 2001 to 889 in 2002 and in Chandigarh theis had declined 145 from 153 sick units, the minister told the House. *** Punjab had 46 employment exchanges as on December 31, 2002, Mr Vijay Goel, Minister of State for Labour told Rajya Sabha. He said the number of such exchanges was 61 in Haryana; 15 in Himachal Pradesh; 14 in Jammu and Kashmir; and two in Chandigarh. *** Mr Arun Shourie, Communications, Information Technology and Disinvestment Minister, said 1,878 STD/ISD/PCO booths had been allocated in Punjab; 4,240 in Haryana; 875 in HP and 2,334 in Jammu and Kashmir in 2001-02. |
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SPG Bill gets parliamentary nod New Delhi, February 27 The Bill, already passed by the Lok Sabha, seeks to restrict proximate security to members of the immediate family of a former Prime Minister to three months, which may be continued subject to review on a case-to-case basis. Replying to the debate on the Bill in the Upper House, Minister of State for Home I.D. Swami admitted there was a shortage of personnel in the SPG as the existing staff was on deputation from other security agencies. He, however, said efforts would be made to make up the deficiency. Mr Prabhakar Reddy (TDP), Mr C.M. Poulouse (CPM), Mr C.P. Thirunavukkarasu (DMK), Mr Saifuddin Soz (Cong), Mr R.S. Gavai (RPI) and Mr R.P. Goenka (Cong) also participated in the discussion.
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Proxy voting for troops okayed New Delhi, February 27 The Bill, which has already been passed by the Lok Sabha on February 19, provides for voters, including armed forces and security force personnel deployed in far-flung areas on security duty, to exercise their franchise by postal ballot or by proxy. |
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Supplementary demand of Rlys New Delhi, February 27 The demand also included Rs 22.20 crore for meeting other capital expenditure. He also tabled demand for excess grants of Rs 14.36 lakhs for the 2000-01 fiscal.
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