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Friday,
July 25, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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Army caught unawares
Unified HQ to stay under Mufti India takes up intrusion issue with China India to fund treatment of 20 Pak kids |
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Centre moots CET for medical colleges Reinstate striking TN staff, SC
tells govt Congress up in arms against Babri accused Imam, 3 others held in Pandya murder
case Bihar minister’s nephew abducted
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Army caught unawares New Delhi, July 24 While the government has stoutly been defending the Army claiming that there was no security lapse, senior officers of the force said that there was a general alert in the region in regard to the threat perception to the ongoing Amarnath Yatra but there were no specific inputs on the possible attack on the EME camp in Tanda. Highly placed sources in the Army said there was general heightened threat perception due to the yatra but the Army did not get any specific reports about terrorists planning to launch a suicide attack on any of its camps in Jammu and Kashmir. However, after this attack Army Headquarters has come to the view that more such attacks could occur on the camps in the state. Incidentally, while Defence Minister George Fernandes has openly reiterated that there was no security lapse of any sort, senior Army officers said “things could have gone off better”. Adding that the attack on the Northern Army Commander and the GOC, 16 Corps, in which Brigadier V.K. Govil was killed, could not be termed as a real security lapse, highly placed Army officers agreed that such an attack could have been avoided by better combing of the area. They, however, said the question regarding the security lapse was ‘valid’. They confirmed that the officers at the EME unit had no knowledge of the third hiding terrorist who carried out the attack on the two Army commanders. Although the Army was still to fully confirm the group behind the attack, sources said the pattern and the method of it reflected the hand of Lashkar-e-Toiba. Meanwhile, reports also suggested that although an internal assessment of the attacks would be carried out there would be no official report regarding the incident which has turned all eyes on to the battalions posted in Jammu and Kashmir. |
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Unified HQ to stay under Mufti New Delhi, July 24 Though the Army is maintaining a silence over the issue, the local Army formations in the state had been pressing for putting para-military and state police under its control so that an effective policy for tackling militancy could be put in place. The Army had also made a special briefing to the Special Task Force, headed by the then Special Secretary (J-K), Mr Ashok Bhandari, set up by the Centre in the aftermath of the Nadimarg massacre at Udhampur on May 22. The composition and working of the two Unified Headquarters was reviewed by the government and “it has been decided that there is no need for any change in the existing system which should continue to function in its present form,” official sources said. Interestingly, the newly appointed state Governor, Lt-Gen (Retd) S.K. Sinha, has been advocating handing over the command of Unified Headquarters to the Army. The decision has put all speculation to rest that any re-structuring of the Unified Headquarters will be taking place. Earlier, the Mufti Sayeed Government was the first one to put a spoke in the proposal as the move was
perceived as being against the state government’s policy of “healing touch”.
— PTI |
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India takes up intrusion issue with China New Delhi, July 24 “From time to time, on account of differences in the perception of the LAC, situations have arisen on the ground that could have been avoided if we had a common perception of the LAC,” External Affairs Ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said. He was responding to a question on newspaper reports that intruding Chinese troops detained Indian officials deep inside the northeastern state in June, when Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was on an official visit to China. Newspaper reports said a 10-member team of officials from the Intelligence Bureau (IB) and Special Security Bureau (SSB) were stopped by a Chinese army patrol 14 km inside the LAC, the military ceasefire line between the two Asian giants. “The government is aware of the transgression of the LAC by a Chinese patrol on June 26 in the Asaphila area of the Upper Subansiri district of Arunachal Pradesh. This is an area where there are differences in the perception of the LAC between the two sides,” Sarna said. He said the 1996 bilateral agreement on confidence building measures in the military field along the border contained a specific provision “for the manner in which situations involving face-to-face contact between personnel/patrols of the two sides are to be handled.” “In the case in question, these provisions do not appear to have been adhered to by the Chinese side,” he said and added the matter had been taken up with China through diplomatic channels and a response was awaited. He said the government regularly took up violations of the LAC with China through “established mechanism”. He noted that the process of clarification of the LAC was under way. The two countries share a 4,000-km disputed border and charge each other with illegally occupying each other’s territory. “This is Chinese territory and you should never come here,” on newspaper quoted a Chinese officer as having told the Indian officials after stopping them. “The Indian party was detained, disarmed and interrogated. Intelligence officials familiar with the terrain cannot recall the last time this happened,” the report said. Senior officials speaking on condition of anonymity, said Indian patrols similarly made such forays into Chinese territory from time to time and these “incursions” were considered “normal” by both sides. They said these incidents never resulted in any clashes and no shots were ever fired. One official said officials along the border often indulged in these “pinpricks” without the knowledge of their higher-ups in Beijing or New Delhi and both countries have learnt to turn a blind eye to them in recent times.
— IANS |
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India to fund treatment of 20 Pak kids New Delhi, July 24 It also decided to facilitate visa requirement for children from that country coming to India for treatment. This was conveyed by External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha when Pakistan’s new High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan made a “courtesy” call on him in South Block. BANGALORE: Narayana Hrudayalaya in the city is all set to receive another Pakistani child for treatment of heart ailment, even as the condition of Noor Fatima, who underwent a surgery last week, is improving. Sources said eight-and-a-half-year-old Juniad Khalid was suffering from a heart problem since birth. The boy reached India by the Lahore-Delhi bus on Wednesday along with his parents. Meanwhile,
Noor, who underwent surgery for plugging two holes in her heart on July 15, was doing well after she was shifted to a private ward yesterday from the intensive care unit.
— PTI, UNI |
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Centre moots CET for medical colleges New Delhi, July 24 The stay of the Act passed by the Maharashtra Government would pave the way for admissions in the state, which had put the fate of hundreds of students in a limbo. Maharashtra had freezed the admission and stopped second counselling of the selected students on its own after the legislation was challenged in the apex court. Additional Solicitor-General R.N. Trivedi, appearing for the Centre, said the government was willing to conduct an all-India combined entrance examination for selection of students for admission to government and private medical and dental colleges throughout the country in order to improve the standard, subject to its approval by the court. The Centre could issue guidelines for holding such a test and the appointment of an agency for this purpose, Mr Trivedi told a Bench comprising Chief Justice V.N. Khare and Mr Justice S.N. Variava, Mr Justice K.G. Balakrishnan, Mr Justice Arijit Pasayat and Mr Justice S.B. Sinha, hearing a bunch of petitions for correct interpretation of an earlier judgement of an 11-member Constitution Bench regarding the right of
minority and unaided private institutions about administration, admissions and the fee structure. He said the combined entrance test would also extend to students under the management quota of minority and private colleges, filling up of the NRI quota for which exams could be held at certain selected centres abroad. Over 20 unaided minority and private institutions from Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka have challenged the respective state government’s interference in their administrative and admission matters, contending that the 11-judge Constitution Bench earlier had ruled that the authorities had no right to step in. On the other hand, the state governments had taken the stand that such institutions had no “absolute” right to decide the admission and fee structure issues. Attorney-General Soli J. Sorabjee, whose assistance was sought by the court in adjudicating the matter, submitted that the minority and private institutions did not have an “absolute” right and “there could be regulatory measures for ensuring educational standard and maintaining excellence, and it is more so in the matter of admission to the professional institutions.” He said the 11-judge Bench judgement had opined that there should be a body comprising a person from academic discipline, a Health Ministry representative and a judicial officer not below the rank of District Judge to monitor whether any minority or private institution was indulging in charging the capitation fee. All such educational institutions were required to submit to the body their balance sheets, profit and loss account and other relevant information for the purpose of fixation of the fee well in advance of the admission process, he said. |
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Reinstate striking TN staff, SC
tells govt New Delhi, July 24 But state government counsel K.K. Venugopal told a Bench comprising Mr Justice M.B. Shah and Mr Justice A.R. Lakshmanan that 2,200 employees, against whom cases had been registered for indulging in violence, instigating employees for strike and sabotage, would not be taken back and would be proceeded against as per the law. The court said the employees would be taken back on work from tomorrow after they tendered unconditional apology to the government and give an undertaking that they would not indulge in such an action in future. The court said the employees would be paid salary from the date of their resuming duty tomorrow and there would be no break in their service. |
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Congress up in arms against Babri accused New Delhi, July 24 Addressing the Congress Parliamentary Party meeting here, Ms Gandhi said senior members of the BJP, the RSS and the VHP, including two ministers, “were being let off the hook through misuse of investigating agencies and legalistic devices.” “We will not, however, rest until the guilty are brought to book. Yesterday in our intervention, our members forcefully and effectively expressed our views but our adjournment motion was disallowed,” she said. The Ayodhya issue, she said, was again “dominating, or more accurately being allowed to dominate, headlines” in view of Assembly elections in five states, later this year. “The matter is in court. We must await the judicial verdict,” she said. |
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Imam, 3 others held in Pandya murder case Ahmedabad, July 24 Syed Akbar, the Imam of Idgah Masjid in Jagityal town, was arrested yesterday in Karimnagar district by a special police team from Gujarat and produced in a court there for transit remand, the police said. Akbar, a native of Regunta village, was allegedly involved in several offences.
— PTI |
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Bihar minister’s nephew abducted Patna, July 24 Siddhanta Parmar, a student of a private school located near Saguna More on the Bailey road, was abducted by three armed motor cycle-borne persons when he and his brother Shantanu were going to catch the school bus accompanied by their grandfather K.P. Singh, the sources said.
— PTI |
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