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Monday,
March 24, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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NEWS ANALYSIS India not to boycott US defence
equipment Joshi defends PM on Iraq
issue Gujarat to take up anti-conversion
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Riot victims complain
of inadequate govt aid ‘Excavation evidence
not to affect temple’ Preparations on for BJP
meeting Drinking water scheme for villages Power project pact signed IGNOU project for panchayat members
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NEWS ANALYSIS Bhopal, March 23 A three-judge Bench of the appellate court had, prima facie, accepted the survivors’ charge of environmental damage against the Union Carbide Corporation and Warren Anderson and remanded the case for a fresh hearing to the District Court. The Bench had observed in its judgement that under New York law, “a corporate officer, who commits or participates in a tort, even if it’s in the course of his duties on behalf of the corporation, may be held individually liable.” The Bench then said that the District Court’s opinion gave “no indication of the standard by which it dismissed the claims against Anderson or the aspects of the complaint or the factual record it relied upon to support that dismissal.” The crux of Judge Keenan’s reasons for dismissing the suit last Wednesday was that the company had sold all its shares in the plant and used money to build a hospital in Bhopal. “This contribution goes far to satisfy any further obligation the defendants have for the residents of Bhopal,” he observed. Seven individual survivors and five organisations representing survivors had filed the suit seeking relief under the Alien Tort Claims Act. The suit was divided roughly into 15 points. Points nine to 15 sought monetary and equitable relief under various common law theories for environmental harms allegedly attributable to the Union Carbide India Limited plant in Bhopal but not related to the gas-leak disaster. It was in relation to the environmental aspects that the appellate court had questioned the grounds on which the District Court of New York dismissed the suit. Judge Keenan has again ignored that aspect, according to the published reports of the judgement. While there is no way of knowing what went into Judge Keenan’s mind at the time of writing the judgement, some of the Indian leaders appeared to have worked towards sabotaging the cause of the Bhopal gas disaster survivors who had been struggling to get justice for over 18 years now. The Union Carbide had produced in the court a notification of the Union Ministry of Tourism saying that the “site of its former factory is to be turned into a technology park for tourists”, along with a press statement of the Madhya Pradesh Government claiming that the “site of the Union Carbide factory is not contaminated”. Besides, there was also a statement by the then Union Minister, Ms Maneka Gandhi, in Parliament that the “site is not polluted”. This was all to impress upon the Court that all was well in Bhopal when the company had left it. The Madhya Pradesh Minister for Bhopal Gas Leak Disaster Relief and Rehabilitation, Mr Arif Aquil, went a step further in publicising his loyalty to the Union Carbide Corporation (now merged in Dow Chemical) when he gave a statement in the Assembly to the effect that the chemical wastes dumped on the premises of the defunct Union Carbide pesticide plant had no toxic substance and did not contaminate the ground water in the surrounding localities. This statement by Mr Arif Aquil came when the suit in Judge Keenan’s court was at the final stage of hearing. The organisations working for the gas victims had then expressed their apprehension that Mr Aquil probably wanted to help the respondents in the US court by claiming that no damage to the environment had been done by the chemical wastes as claimed by the petitioners. A few months earlier, Mr Aquil had visited the affected localities and got him photographed while drinking a glass of water drawn from one of the hand pumps to show that the water was not contaminated. The very next day the photograph was produced in the American court on behalf of the respondents. |
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India not to boycott US defence equipment New Delhi, March 23 Asked whether the Vajpayee government will boycott the equipment, it has been purchasing from the USA in the wake of its attack on Iraq, he said without the use of weapon locating radars, it would not be possible to protect Indian soldiers from suffering losses. “If we boycott them it will not be in the interest of our national security. We will be asking our soldiers to fight it out in the open,” he told Zee TV in an interview. Mr Fernandes said sometimes on a particular issue circumstances develop between two countries in such a way that one had to put principles and ideologies in the backburner. He said the whole world had accepted that the war against Iraq was a unilateral action by the USA which in a way rendered the United Nations meaningless and there was pain in everyone’s heart with regard to the future of the UN. Asked about the role of the NDA government, the Defence Minister said India was prepared to extend cooperation to Iraq in providing relief to the war-hit people, especially children. “The government is prepared to offer its assistance the moment such a request is received,” he added.
PTI |
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Joshi defends PM on Iraq issue Allahabad, March 23 Referring to the Opposition’s criticism of the government for not adopting a resolution condemning the war against Iraq, Mr Joshi said the matter should be left to the Prime Minister to articulate India’s view in appropriate words keeping in view the national interest and international opinion on the issue. Mr Joshi said Mr Vajpayee had time and again made clear its disagreement with the USA on the Iraq issue, but the same need not be articulated by taking a “hawkish stand.” The war on Iraq could have been avoided, Mr Joshi said, adding that a large section of international community was against war and even in the USA anti-war protests are taking place.
PTI |
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Imam flays Islamic nations'
silence New Delhi, March 23 Bukhari also announced that Kuwait embassy in the Capital will be gheraoed on Friday next to protest against its involvement in the war.
PTI |
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Gujarat to take up anti-conversion Bill Ahmedabad, March 23 Stating this here today, State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Ashok Bhatt said the religious Bill is on the lines of the existing ones in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu. However, it would be more stringent and have some modifications, he said. The main highlight of the Act was that prior permission of the District Magistrate of the respective area would have to be taken before converting to another religion, he said. “Perhaps Gujarat will be the first state to adopt this measure (prior permission of the District Magistrate) which will restrict forceful conversion into any religion.” The Bill was first tabled in Gujarat Vidhan Sabha by the then Congress government, but failed to be passed after which Orissa, Madhya Pradesh and Tamil Nadu adopted the Act, Mr Bhatt said. The Act provides imprisonment of three years with a fine for illegal or forceful religious conversion in the state, he said. The Freedom of Religion Bill was being adopted to check and prevent forceful conversion by organisations or individuals for vested interests, the minister added. The Gujarat Cabinet is confident that the Bill would be passed this time owing to a BJP majority in the House.
PTI |
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Riot victims complain of inadequate govt aid New Delhi, March 23 Recalling the deposition of witnesses at several places recorded at length by the Commission of Inquiry, he said “at a few places, there are problems relating to rehabilitation. Some are afraid to go back to their houses either because of local opposition or total destruction of their properties.” In several cases, the grievances were settled at the threshold once the commission had drawn the attention of the authorities concerned, he said adding that there was little else the commission could do at this stage. Justice Nanavati, however, termed as baseless reports about pressure being put on witnesses belonging to any community. “These reports are baseless. The victims and others have been deposing before the commission without any fear,” he said. He said the commission had completed the task of collecting evidence, relating to the Godhra carnage in which over 50 persons were burnt alive in a train. “We have spoken to a cross section of population, railway officials and the police have completed the inquiry relating to the Godhra incidents,” Justice Nanavati said. After completing the inquiry relating to other districts, the commission would start collecting evidence while probing the large number of incidents of riots in Ahmedabad and Baroda, he said. Explaining the manner in which the panel had recorded evidence, Justice Nanavati said the commission first studied all relevant material, including the cases registered by the police in various localities of the district, visited the actual place of occurrence and given adequate public invitation for the people to come and depose. “This has been very successful and large number of people from both communities have come forward to depose before the commission,” he said.
PTI |
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‘Excavation evidence not to affect temple’ Baharaich, March 2 “Will the Muslims give up their claim over the disputed site if we get the evidence (of the existence of a temple)? If it is so, there is enough evidence at Kashi and Mathura but they are not being handed over to us,” Mr Togadia said. The BJP should now give up power for some time and wait for the day when it could come back to power with an absolute majority, Mr Togadia said. Terming the BJP as “the daughter of Hindus”, he said “at present the daughter is living in the house of her in-laws and in veil. As a result, she is not able speak up. Our daughter should come back to her parents’ house for some days and should go back to her in-laws after throwing the veil (obtaining an absolute majority) so that she could openly take up the matters of Hindu interests,” he said. Mr Togadia said the VHP had spoken to the MPs of all parties for enacting a law for the construction of the Ram temple and had also sought the help of Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Samajwadi Party chief Mulayam Singh Yadav. He said the construction of the Ram temple alone could wipe out ‘jehadi terrorism’ from the country.
PTI |
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Preparations on for BJP meeting Indore, March 23 Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, his deputy L.K. Advani, party President M. Venkaiah Naidu, executive members and special invitees will form a 125-strong gathering of BJP leaders. Party General Secretary Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi will be here tomorrow to take stock of the preparations and visit Hotel Sayaji, which will be the venue, as well as Dussehra Maidan where Mr Vajpayee is to address a rally. The former MLA of the BJP, Lalchand Mittal, has urged the party leadership to hold the meeting in some school building instead of a glamorous hotel. “The two previous high-level gatherings of the RSS were organised at Keshav Vidyapeeth here. The meeting should be as per the party’s culture,’’ Mr Mittal said. The meeting would deliberate on the party’s performance in the recent Assembly elections and strategy for elections scheduled for later this year. Besides, Iraq crisis and budget proposals would also be discussed during the meeting. While Mr Vajpayee and party President Mr Venkaiah Naidu would speak on the opening day, Mr Advani would address the concluding session, the sources said.
UNI, PTI |
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Drinking water scheme for villages Bhopal, March 23 The Union Minister of Rural Development, Mr Shanta Kumar, told at a press conference on Friday that the new scheme, christened “Swajaldhara”, was essentially aimed at involving the people in the solution of their problems. He said under the present drinking water scheme, the Centre provided 50 per cent of the cost while the remaining 50 per cent had to be borne by the state government. But under “Swajaldhara”, the beneficiaries were required to prepare the blueprint, deposit 10 per cent of the estimated cost in the bank and give an undertaking that the local panchayat would be responsible for maintenance of the scheme. If the state government so desired, it could depute one of its agencies to do the construction work. The local panchayat, he said, could levy a cess on the beneficiaries for maintenance purposes. The Centre would give one time maintenance grant by way of incentive after seeing performance of the scheme for six months. The Centre had earmarked Rs 800 crore for the scheme this year and a total of 17,000 proposals had already been received. The Minister, on a day’s visit to Bhopal, reviewed with the state government ministers and officials the implementation of the rural development programmes. |
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Power project pact signed Dehra Dun, March 23 The implementation agreement was signed here yesterday by the state Power Minister, Ms Amrita Rawat, and the UP Energy Minister, Mr Ramvir Upadhyay. According to the terms of the agreement, the proposed power generation from the project would benefit Uttaranchal as well as Uttar Pradesh. Twelve per cent of the total power, produced from the project, will be provided free of cost of Uttaranchal.
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IGNOU project for panchayat members New Delhi, March 23 The state open universities and the State Institute of Rural Development (SIRD) have unanimously agreed to take forward the implementation of the Multi-media Package on Panchayati Raj Training, developed by IGNOU in their respective states. The decision was taken at a meeting of the open universities and SIRDs, convened by IGNOU’s Panchayati Raj Project. The programme would be offered as a non-credit awareness programme and its duration would be three to four months. It would not only address elected members but also potential non-elected members.
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