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Friday,
August 29, 2003, Chandigarh, India  
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CWC to decide on joining
Mulayam government Pepsico apologises for ad Kalam interacts with women sarpanches HC reserves order in Parliament attack case Railways records passenger increase of
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Mob molested women, alleges riot victim Giving thanks for monsoon bounty
Shiromani Awards for Chautala, Sheila Dikshit Talks on to boost Indo-Vietnam naval ties 25 students held for ragging Veteran journalist dead
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CWC to decide on joining Mulayam
government New Delhi, August 28 Opinion in the party is divided on the issue with a section not in favour of the party joining the state government. Some senior leaders feel that the Congress should not join a government which includes former UP Chief Minister Kalyan Singh. Rashtriya Kranti Party of Mr Kalyan Singh, who is an accused in the Babri masjid demolition case, is supporting Mr Mulayam Singh. The
Congress also has to weigh the long-term pros and cons of the decision it takes in Uttar Pradesh. Several senior party leaders see the Bahujan Samaj Party as a more useful ally than the Samajwadi Party for the party’s impending electoral battles, specially the Lok Sabha elections next year. They feel that the Congress should not compromise its manouvrability by joining the Mulayam-led government. Though most of the 16 Congress MLAs in Uttar Pradesh are keen to join the government, they are being told that only five of them would become ministers. The leaders feel that the Congress, which has been
criticising the NDA coalition for lack of direction, should avoid becoming part of too many coalitions. Those favouring the party’s joining Mulayam-led government say that the party would then be in a position to lay claim to credit for the good works done by the state government. They say that party leaders would be in a better position to serve their constituents by being in the government. The Congress also has to contend with the possibility of some of its MLAs leaving the party to join the government. The Congress Working Committee (CWC) will also discuss the party’s preparations for the assembly elections in five states. The “aggressive stance’’ adopted by the BJP on the Ayodhya issue in the wake of the ASI report is also expected to figure at the meeting. The CWC is meeting after almost two months. Its last meeting had adopted ‘Shimla sankalp’ as part of its preparations for the coming elections. |
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Pepsico apologises for ad New Delhi, August 28 The company, from whom the government had demanded an unconditional apology on August 25, also announced to withdraw the advertisement. In the advertisement carried by some dailies, the company said, ‘‘Pepsi withdraws the advertisement dated August 22, 2003 quoting Hon’ble Minister for Health and Family Welfare Sushma Swaraj. We sincerely apologise for the same.’’ Health and Family Welfare joint secretary Deepak Gupta had said in a letter written to Pepsico Chairman Rajeev Bakshi, ‘‘You are advised to issue an unconditional apology and publish the same prominently in the same newspapers where your advertisement has appeared.” The letter had clarified that this was without prejudice to any further action which the government may propose to take in this matter. Mr Gupta had also asked for the withdrawal of the advertisement and any other further campaigns of this nature proposed to be launch. “Your advertisement is misleading as only a part of one sentence given in the statement of the Minister before the Lok Sabha has been used in the advertisement,’’ he said and added, ‘‘It is obvious that the remaining part of the sentence has been wilfully concealed with questionable motives.’’ Pepsico India Holdings Ltd at that time had said the company meant no offence through the advertisement. The company had issued a statement, saying, “We meant no offence with our advertisement. The directions of the Health Ministry are being complied with.’’ Mr Gupta said the minister’s statement before the Lok Sabha noted that pesticide residues had been found in all the samples tested, and in nine of these samples the pesticide residues were found to be above the prescribed EU norms. ‘‘Thus your claim that your product is conforming to EU norms is not true,’’ he added. Mr Gupta said using the Minister’s name for promoting sale of the company’s product was ‘‘extremely unethical and also violative of established norms of advertisements.’’
— UNI |
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Kalam interacts with women sarpanches New Delhi, August 28 Though the President began his address in Hindi, he soon switched over to English at the inaugural function of the elected women sarpanches gathered here for a three-day seminar on “Gram sabha se Lok Sabha tak - strengthening grassroot democracy”. organised by the Guild of Services. Dr Kalam said women sarpanches had an important role to play in the development of villages. Interacting with some of the sarpanches from Haryana, Himachal Pradesh and Chhattisgarh who reiterated their demand for 33 per cent reservation for women in Parliament, the President assured them that if they continued to work hard, they would get the right proportion in Parliament. Pointing out that the government had decided to implement PURA (providing urban facilities in rural areas) strategy in 5,000 rural clusters across the country in the next five years, he said it involved the identification of rural clusters with a growth potential and creation of four types of connectivity, including physical, in the shape of roads, electronic through telecommunications, knowledge and market. |
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HC reserves order in Parliament attack case New Delhi, August 28 The prosecution has also sought enhancing the jail term of the lone woman convict from five years to life imprisonment in the case, in which a Bench comprising Ms Justice Usha Mehra and Mr Justice Pradeep Nandrajog reserved its verdict on the appeals filed by all four convicts as well as the state. The judgement was reserved after marathon arguments by the counsel for the Jaish-e-Mohammed militants, Mohammad Afzal and Shaukat Hussain, alias Guru, sacked city college lecturer S.A.R. Geelani and Guru’s wife Navjot Sandhu, alias Afsan, and the prosecution stretching for several days. The Special Court had awarded death sentence to the three male convicts under POTA and relevant provisions of the Indian Penal Code. Prosecution counsel Gopal Subramanian said considering the gravity of the offence, they deserved to be awarded the capital punishment for the offence of waging a war against India, for which life imprisonment had been given. The prosecution also sought life imprisonment to Afsan for criminal conspiracy and abetting the crime. She was awarded five years’ rigorous imprisonment by the trial court on December 18 last year. On the other hand, the male convicts had challenged their conviction as well as awarding of the death penalty to them and Afsan had pleaded that she was not guilty and should be acquitted. The trial court had found them guilty of involving in the conspiracy which resulted on the attack on Parliament House on December 13, 2001 by five Pakistani terrorists, who were killed by the security forces. Seven security personnel had also lost their lives in the attack. The trial court had said the whole conspiracy was hatched by the terrorists with the intention to kill Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, Home Minister L.K. Advani and other important leaders and hold various VIPs hostage. While the prosecution claimed that there was ample evidence on record for confirming the death sentence to them and enhancing their sentence for the other related offences, the defence counsel had claimed that the evidence were not examined properly by the trial court. The defence had also raised the question of invoking POTA in the case much after the registration of the FIR. It also claimed that proper procedure for
prosecution under POTA was not followed as the accused were not given details about the authority that had granted permission for tapping the telephones of the convicts. Geelani had contended that there was no evidence against him except certain telephonic conversation, which was not recorded as per the provisions laid down under POTA. |
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Railways records passenger increase of 39 million New Delhi, August 28 During the period, the Railways saved Rs 718.77 crore in its working expenditure vis-a-vis a budgetary target of expenditure pegged at Rs 8409.61 crore. As for punctuality of trains, it improved from 90 per cent to 92.1 per cent on broad gauge and from 95 per cent to 97.1 per cent on metre gauge during the period, the press note further said. The Railways moved 513 rakes of foodgrains on broad gauge in Rajasthan during April-July, 2003, against a target of 498 rakes fixed by the Food Corporation of India (FCI), recording an increase of 15 rakes. Similarly, it transported 363 rakes of foodgrains on metre gauge against a target of 355 rakes set by the FCI, recording an increase of eight rakes, the press note said. Loading of foodgrains by the Railways for different states for the Public Distribution System
(PDS) and other welfare schemes is done according to the programme given by the
FCI. |
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He saved 12 kids from stampede Nashik, August 28 A civil defence warden from Mumbai had come here for a holy dip during the ‘shahi snan’. His training proved useful as he rescued at least 12 children from the clutches of death. Mahesh Ramavat, a Deputy Divisional Warden at Juhu in north-west Mumbai, who was watching the sea of humanity proceeding towards the Godavari from the balcony of his relative’s home at Sardar Chowk (site of the tragedy), jumped from the first floor to a neighbouring shed and started rescuing people when the stampede started. “The local Home Guard and civil defence boys did a very good job. They averted many casualties by their action,’’ Mr Ramavat said at the accident site. Recounting the tragedy that befell devotees at Ramkund, Mr Ramavat said there was utter chaos when the stampede started. ‘‘Nobody knew what had exactly happened and people started running helter-skelter, adding to the confusion,’’ he said.
— UNI |
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Mob molested women, alleges riot victim
Ahmedabad, August 28 Emotionally choked, these witnesses, whose relatives were reportedly butchered and burnt before their eyes by the mob, also alleged that the policemen present there did not protect them and instead said they had orders “from above” not to protect them. Deposing before Justice (retd) G.T. Nanavati and Justice (retd) K.G. Shah, Mr Naeemuddin Shaikh, a bread vendor of the area gave graphic description of how mobs, some with saffron head bands and shorts and vests, gathered at the area on the morning of February 28 and began torching houses and hacking people to death. Mr Shaikh, an eyewitness to the massacre of eight members of his family, said: “Even the police drove us towards the mob. Our long-time Hindu neighbours of Gangotri and Gopinath societies took part in the massacre and while we were running, Hindu youths poured kerosene from the terrace and set ablaze whoever was drenched”. Mr Shaikh also told the commission that youths of the society took advantage of the mayhem and molested several girls and women and tore off their clothes. “They behaved worse than dogs and scratched and bit our girls and tore their clothes off and chopped off my wife’s hand. The worst part is that our long-time neighbours also took part in the killings and plunder”, Mr Shaikh said.
— PTI |
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Giving thanks for monsoon bounty Mathania (Rajasthan) But after five years of devastating drought, the 42-year-old farmer from Rajasthan will let nothing stop him completing his pilgrimage to a shrine to give thanks for this year’s bountiful monsoon. “The rain gods have shown mercy. I have cultivated my field after five years,” he says, resting under a tree with a group of 20 men and women on their way to the Ramdev shrine in the Thar desert, 500 km from their village of Kekri. Hundreds of colourfully turbaned men dressed in traditional kurta and lungi and women in bright saris are walking barefoot along the dusty highway leading to the shrine. Mange Ram, part of Lal’s group, lost all his cattle as food ran out in the province: “I had nothing to feed my cattle, I let all of them go...I could not see them dying in front of my eyes,” he recalls. But this year, things are different in Rajasthan. In July, it rained almost every day in the state’s western districts of Jodhpur, Barmer and Jaisalmer — something locals have not seen for a generation. Men are returning from labouring jobs in distant parts, wells are full enough to last a year or more, some farmers are planning early plantings and shopkeepers are stocking up in anticipation of good times. “I have not seen this kind of rain in the last 30 years,” Nand Kishore Bhoop, a 55-year-old trader, says in Mathania, famous across India for the taste and colour of its red chillies. India’s worst drought in 15 years hit farm output and economic growth last year and one of the worst-affected areas was Rajasthan, where the last normal monsoon was in 1998. Thousands of cattle perished in the scorching heat — above 50 degrees Celsius at times — and farmers left their homes to seek jobs in factories in neighbouring states. Dauda Ram, a farmer from Agaloi village on the highway to the tourist city of Jaisalmer, has come home to his family after three years in Gujarat. “I had no work, my farms were dry. I worked as a labourer in a textile mill,” says the 35-year-old, wearing a white kurta and sporting large gold earrings common on Rajasthani men. Today, the Thar’s sand dunes, a major attraction for foreign tourists, have turned lush green and sheep, camels, cows and buffaloes graze on their slopes. Cattle ponds and water tanks in most villages are full, with enough water for more than a year. Rajasthan normally gets little of India’s crucial June-September monsoons, but crop sowing has been excellent this year. The state mainly grows pulses, mustard seed and coarse cereals. Last season’s mustard seed harvest, India’s key summer oilseed crop, dipped to 3.75 million tonnes from 4.85 million tonnes a year before. Rajasthan is the main mustard state and now many farmers are planning early sowing because the land is already moist enough. Shopkeepers are planning to stock their stores before Divali. “People have not bought clothes and toys for children for four years. This year I expect good sales,” says shopkeeper Dungar Ram.
— Reuters |
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Shiromani Awards for Chautala, Sheila Dikshit New Delhi, August 28 Mrs Dikshit will preside over the function and the awards committee panel of judges include Air Chief Marshal N.C. Suri and Justice R.S. Narula, a press note said here today. The 24th series of the Shiromani Awards for outstanding achievements in their chosen fields of activities will also be presented to National Minority Commission Chairman Tarlochan Singh, University Grants Commission Chairman Arun Nigavekar, Delhi University Vice-Chancellor Deepak Nayyar, Union Minister of State for Information Technology Ashok Pradhan, Bharat Hotels Chairman Lalit Suri, cricket commentator Navjot Singh Sidhu, Dabur India Managing Director V.C. Burman, J and K Bank Chairman M.Y. Khan, Doordarshan Director S.Y. Quraishi, Reliance Infocomm Corporate President A Shanker, Veecom Group of Companies Chairman Vijay K. Srivastava, Cheshire Homes-India Chairman Virendra Singh, Punjab and Sindh Bank Chairman N.S. Gujral, Border Security Force Director-General Ajai Raj Sharma, National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management Director-General A.K. Goel, Kuchipudi dance exponents Raja and Radha Reddy, British Airways-India Commercial Director Alok Sawhney, SGL Charitable Hospital founder Baba Kashmira Singh, entrepreneur of Nabha Kanwarani Sohinder,
Senior Builder Managing Director Vijay Dixit and educationists Dr M.P. Rozario and Geeta Dudea, it added. |
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Talks on to boost Indo-Vietnam naval ties New Delhi, August 28 The delegation led by Rear Admiral Be Quock Hung, the Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Vietnamese Navy, has been in India for more than a week now and held discussions with the Indian Navy on the issues of cooperation and mutual interest. During its stay in India, the delegation has visited naval maintenance facilities and defence shipyards at Goa, Mumbai and Visakhapatnam to discuss sharing of experience in operation and maintenance of equipment common to both navies, purchase of Indian-built naval vessels as well as assistance for building warships. India and Vietnam have an old standing military relationship specially since the days of Pandit Jawaharlal Nehru and Ho Chi Minh. Both countries share commonality in equipment operated by their navies and have accelerated cooperation over the recent years. The internationalisation of terrorism in our maritime neighbourhood has also provided the impetus for future cooperation. |
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25 students held for ragging Bhopal, August 28 Commissioner Satya Prakash has issued directives to Collectors to take stringent action in the cases of ragging. An anti-ragging helpline has been set up. An aggrieved student can contact the helpline any time for prompt police assistance. The Madhya Pradesh Human Rights Commission (MPHRC) has been issuing directives to the administration to take precautionary measures against the menace. The first serious case of ragging was reported on Monday when a first year student of the BIST, Chandra Bhushan Singh Chauhan “Chintoo”, “fell” under a goods train at Bhopal railway station and lost his hands and a leg. He was ragged by his seniors for several days and was said to have lost his mental balance. A magisterial inquiry has been ordered into the incident. On Tuesday night, Arun Kumar Ravi, a first year student of Bachelor of Ayurvedic Medicine at the RGC, was admitted to a private nursing home in an unconscious state after he was beaten up mercilessly by his seniors. |
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Veteran journalist dead New Delhi, August 28 During a long career in the information wing of the government — he briefly served in the Indian Embassy in Dublin — SR, as he was known to friends, had a spell as a lecturer in Lucknow University before he branched out into newspaper and broadcasting. SR was a meticulous writer and a conscientious citizen who looked at his country and the world with a critical eye. He found the evolution of the new India exciting even as he was distressed by some of the unsavoury aspects of the nation’s development. In later years, he devoted greater attention to writing, particularly literary criticism. His major contribution to the world of ideology and politics came with his 750-page work on “Liberal Values in India”, still to be published. |
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Indian boy in Pak to be freed tomorrow New Delhi, August 28 This was confirmed here today by an External Affairs Ministry spokesman. He said Ranjit would be handed over by Pakistani Rangers to the BSF at the Wagah border.
— UNI |
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Bofors says it can’t be prosecuted New Delhi, August 28 |
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Project on rural roads cleared New Delhi, August 28 The projects involved a sum of Rs 9,000 crore. The objective was to provide connectivity to all unconnected habitations with a population of more than 1,000 persons by 2003 and for habitations with a population of 500 by 2007, the minister said. |
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‘Hawayein’ to be released today New Delhi, August 28 |
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