New Delhi, December 2
On the eve of World Disability Day, Union Finance Minister P. Chidambaram has said he would ask the Ministry of Personnel to reserve more categories of jobs for persons with disabilities.

“I have asked the National Thermal Power Corporation, which has identified 68 categories of jobs, to send me the list so that I can ask the Ministry of Personnel to see what other categories can be added,” he said after giving away the Sixth NCPEDP-Shell Helen Keller Awards this morning.

The Finance Minister, however, was silent on queries about the incentives to corporates so that they were motivated to employ more numbers of persons with disabilities.

“You are wasting time,” Mr Chidambaram quipped as he left the India International Centre (IIC) for the venue of his next engagement.

The Disability Act provides for 3 per cent in all categories of jobs in the public sector.

Clause 41 of the Act, which was passed in December, 1995, also provides for incentives (for both public and private sectors) for companies who ensure that at least 5 per cent of their work force is composed of persons with disabilities.

The government is still to define the “incentives”, Mr Javed Abidi, Executive Director of the National Centre for Promotion of Employment for Disabled People (NCPEDP), observed.

He said though the clause was notified more than three years ago, its adaptation and implementation had left much to be desired.

Earlier, in his speech, Mr Chidambaram appealed the media to highlight occasions such as the World Disability Day, which falls tomorrow.

Media, he suggested, should not waste pages on the “antics” of people but publish pictures and reports that talked about individuals and corporates who had contributed to the cause of the differently abled.

The NCPEDP is a non-profit voluntary organisation. Every year, it gives away awards to individuals and corporates who have done pioneering work both within the disabled sector and without.

This year, the Helen Keller Awards have been presented to 10 individuals and three organisations.

The recipients in the individual category are: Mr Kapil Kumar Aggarwal, Ms Sachu Ramalingam, Mr T. Sesha Giri, Mr Jyotindra V. Mehta, Mr Rigzian Sampheal, Mr D.S. Lokesh Kumar, Mr Ravi Kumar Arora, Mr C. Antony Samy, Mr M. Srinivas and Mr Nishant Dattatray Mhatre.

The three companies that have won the awards this year in the companies/organisations category are: JW Marriott Hotel Mumbai; Kinetic Engineering Limited; and National Thermal Power Corporation.

New Delhi, December 2
United States’ Defence Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is visiting India on December 8 and during his talks with the Indian leadership the two sides would be conducting a general overview of the bilateral relationship, diplomatic sources said today.

They said the Americans had not told New Delhi as to from where Mr Rumsfeld would be coming except for the fact that he would be flying in here for a brief visit “from West Asia”, presumably Iraq.

However, there would be no sharp focus on Iraq, though the Iraq situation is bound to come under review.

The Americans have expressed a desire for a meeting between Mr Rumsfeld and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. As of now, it is not certain that the PM would find time to meet the Defence Secretary.

Mr Rumsfeld will be having substantive discussions with his Indian counterpart Pranab Mukherjee and is also expected to meet External Affairs Minister K. Natwar Singh.

The Defence Secretary is visiting India at a time when Washington is on the verge of selling the next instalment of F-16 fighter aircraft to Pakistan, a move which New Delhi has strongly opposed.

The US has also proposed sale of “multi-role fighter aircraft” to India (read F-16s), P3C Orion naval surveillance aircraft, Patriot surface to air missile system (which is essentially an anti-missile missile) and ship-based Sea Hawk helicopters.

During Rumsfeld-Mukherjee talks, the issue of possible sale of these weapon systems from America to India were inevitably going to come up, sources said. 

New Delhi, December 2
Accusing the UPA government of succumbing to the pressure of “liquor lobby and other vested interests” by making it “optional” and not “mandatory” to mix five per cent ethanol with petrol, the BJP today asked Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar to break his silence on the issue, which is bound to affect 71-ethanol producing units employing nearly 5000 workers.

“The UPA government, led by Dr Manmohan Singh, has inflicted a crushing death blow to this silent revolution by their decision to make the mandatory use of ethanol optional...The decision is short, sighted and a result of succumbing to the pressure of Liquor lobby and other vested interests,” former Petroleum Minister and BJP leader Ram Naik told newspersons here.

Stating that the introduction of mandatory five per cent ethanol blending in petrol by the Vajpayee-led NDA government in January 2003 was seen as a beginning of petro-agro revolution to benefit sugarcane farmers, the sugar industry and also the petroleum industry, Mr Naik said, “while one can understand the Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar may not be able to grasp the agricultural economics involved in ethanol, it is surprising that Mr Pawar is a silent spectator in the war against ethanol.”

The five per cent ethanol blending was initially launched in January 2003 in eight sugarcane producing states of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Goa, Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka. It was to be extended to remaining states this year as the second stage and to be increased to 10 per cent in the third stage.

Mr Naik said the rationale behind making it mandatory to blend ethanol with petrol was its capacity to thereby become a renewable product that would also save the country’s foreign exchange substantially.

Jaipur, December 2
Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in New Delhi today and made an appeal for intervention in the water dispute with Punjab. She was accompanied by a delegation of BJP MPs, including the Leader of the Opposition in the Rajya Sabha, Mr Jaswant Singh and the Rajasthan BJP chief, Mr Lalit Kishore Chaturvedi.

The delegation of MPs submitted a memorandum to the Prime Minister imploring him to ask the Punjab Government to release 8.06 MAF of water from the Ravi and the Beas and also to maintain the water level of the Pong dam at 1275 feet to facilitate the supply of due share of water to Rajasthan. It was impressed upon the Prime Minister that unless the Ropar, Harike and Ferozepore headworks were put under the control of the BBMB. Punjab would continue to create obstacles in releasing Rajasthan’s legitimate share of water.

It was also alleged in the memorandum that instead of releasing the due share of water, the Amarinder Government was fuelling the farmers’ agitation in Sri Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts. The memorandum attributed the unhappy incident of police firing in Rawla to the apathetic attitude of the Punjab Government.

The BJP MPs told the Prime Minister in an aggressive tone that it was also one of the responsibilities of the Centre to help maintain normalcy of law and order in the states. As such, if the farmers’ movement in the Sri Ganganagar region aggravated, the Centre would be responsible, they cautioned.

New Delhi, December 2
Both Houses of Parliament witnessed heated exchanges over the arrest and alleged maltreatment of Kanchi Shankaracharya Jayendra Saraswati with the BJP seeking transfer of the case outside Tamil Nadu and the Centre ruling out interference in the judicial process.

Raising the issue during zero hour in the Lok Sabha, BJP leader V K Malhotra demanded transfer of the case against the seer to some other state to ensure a fair trial. He also wanted the Shankaracharya to be housed in a better place than the jail. Mr Malhotra alleged that the accused in the case were being tortured to make false confessions.

Speaker Somnath Chatterjee had to intervene on several occasions to restore order as members of the Treasury Benches, barring the Congress and the Left, took exception to the remarks of Mr Malhotra and maintained that the BJP leader should not be allowed to raise the issue in the House.

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who is the Leader of the House, said that the Prime Minister in his letter to the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister on November 25, had made it clear that the law be allowed to take its own course. The letter also stated that well being of the seer should be ensured in view of his status, advanced age and heath. Mr Mukherjee said the case was a state subject and the Centre had nothing to do with it.

The Left and Treasury Bench members maintained that the matter was sub judice.

Some of the BJP and Shiv Sena members were also on their feet trying to counter the ruling party members which resulted in a commotion in the House.

Mr Malhotra objected to the Shankaracharya being kept in a jail. He said the Centre had a right under Article 256 of the Constitution to issue directives to the state on any issue.

In the Rajya Sabha, the BJP demanded that the Centre direct the Tamil Nadu Government to provide better treatment to the Shankaracharya.

Raising the issue in the form of a special mention, BJP leader Sushma Swaraj said that Centre should direct TN Government to give due regards to Shankaracharya’s religious status and age.

Kancheepuram, December 2
The police today started probing into the mysterious death of a vedic scholar and a devotee of Kanchi Mutt, whose body was found in a temple tank here two years ago.

This follows the police assertion that each and every case of death of persons associated with the mutt would be enquired afresh in the wake of the murder of Sankararaman, manager of a local temple, on September 3.

A devotee of the mutt, Ayyappa Sharma, hailing from Andhra Pradesh, had come here to participate in a vedic conference and was found dead in the Ekambareswar Temple tank.

Police sources here asserted that every single case involving persons associated with the Kanchi Mutt would be reopened and enquiries made.

Meanwhile, the office of the special teams, probing cases against the seer, had been shifted to an undisclosed place. The teams were functioning from the All-Women’s Police Station here till last evening.

In another development, a special police team had been sent to Andhra Pradesh to arrest Appu, alias Krishnasamy, one of the main accused in the Sankararaman case, following reports that he was hiding there. — PTI

Tirupathi, December 2
The Andhra Pradesh police today sought the help of their Tamil Nadu counterparts to arrest Usha, whose name was linked to Kanchi Sankaracharya Jayendra Saraswathi, in connection with a bank cheating case in Srikalahasti, about 40 km from here.

Srikalahasti Rural Circle Inspector, B Srinivasan, told PTI that Usha, and her husband, R.L. Narayanan, by submitting ‘fictitious documents’, had taken a term loan of Rs 30 lakh from State Bank of India’s branch in Srikalahasti in 1997 for setting up a cement brick factory for which she was the Managing Director.

The bank authorities in 2001 had lodged a complaint with the local police alleging cheating and non-payment of the loan. Later, Narayanan was arrested and let off on bail. However, Usha remained elusive since then, though a non-bailable warrant was issued by a Srikalahasti court on November 30 last year.

“We will send our police team to arrest Usha only after getting green signal from the Tamil Nadu police”, Mr Srinivasan said.

Meanwhile, a Kancheepuram report, quoting Andhra Pradesh police sources, said it may take two days for the bank authorities in Srikalahasti to make necessary preparations to move for the arrest of Usha.— PTI

New Delhi, December 2
The Indo-Isreal Joint Working Group (JWG) on Counter Terrorism meeting, which concluded here today, discussed measures to curb terror financing and denying terrorists the capability to use anti-aircraft missiles.

The two countries also held their first round of consultations on disarmament issues parallel to the fourth meeting of the JWG.

During the three-day meeting, the two sides reviewed the global campaign against terrorism and discussed ways and means to make it more effective.

India was led by Additional Secretary (UN) in the External Affairs Ministry Meera Shankar, while Israel was headed by Deputy Director General for Strategic Affairs in their Foreign Ministry Jeremy Issacharoff, a Ministry of External Affairs press note said.

The two sides were of the view that recent resolutions of the UN Security Council, particularly 1373, 1540 and 1566, provided a valuable framework for strengthening cooperation against terrorism in the international arena, the press note said.

The JWG meeting focussed on means to curb terror financing, terrorist use of anti-aircraft missiles and weapons of mass destruction and measures to ensure border security.

New Delhi, December 2
India has conveyed to Pakistan that a sustained and productive dialogue between the two countries requires an atmosphere free from cross-border terrorism.

Minister of State for External Affairs E. Ahamed told the Rajya Sabha in a written reply that India’s position had been conveyed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf during their meeting in New York as also during Pakistan Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz’s recent visit to the country.

Mr Ahamed said New Delhi had told Islamabad that the dialogue process was based on General Musharraf’s commitment that any territory under Pakistan’s control would not be used for terrorist activities.

He said India had asked Pakistan to put an end to cross-border infiltration and dismantle terrorist infrastructure permanently.

On whether India has received any proposal from Pakistan for a solution to the Kashmir issue, Mr Ahamed said Pakistan had only made procedural suggestions for discussing the matter.

Mr Ahamed said although there had been some decline in cross-border infiltration in the recent past, no credible or long-term action had been taken by Pakistan against the terrorist infrastructure, including training camps, launching pads and communication centres.

Replying to another question he said India-Pakistan technical-level meeting to discuss all bilateral issues, including the proposed bus service between Srinagar and Muzaffarabad, would be held here on December 7 and 8.

Replying to a question Mr Ahamed said 7,000 Indians were in foreign jails and in most cases charges were for minor offences such as violation of immigration/visa rules, non-possession of valid travel documents and economic offences.

To another question he said as per available information a mob attacked Gurdwara Nankana Sahib on September 25, in which the gurdwara building suffered some damage.

New Delhi, December 2
Early childhood education and teacher training were some of the aspects of education that were stressed during the first meeting of the National Steering Committee set up by the NCERT to review the National Curriculum Framework held here today.

The meeting chaired by Professor Yashpal was attended by 24 members nominated to the National Steering Committee. Professor Yashpal pointed out that despite the existing inequality and lack of social and educational connectivity, there was enough scope for optimism.

There was a need for flexibility in the school curriculum to recognise the talent and bring it within its formal purview, to connect even with rag pickers and all those who work with their hands, he said.

Early childhood education received considerable attention in the discussion. It was agreed that the curriculum framework should be in consonance with the developmental processes of young learners.

Teacher training, some members pointed out, remained an exercise in futility because teacher educators were rarely amenable to policy change. Human rights, peace education and rural education were also highlighted.

Professor Yashpal referred to the social architecture as conceived by Mahatma Gandhi, and reiterated that there were ‘islands of competence’ all over outside the formal system.

It was the job of the new curriculum framework to take cognisance of these and create a new generation of learners who were not mere consumers but producers and participants in all physical and intellectual activities in and outside school.

Director, NCERT, Professor Krishna Kumar emphasised a close interaction between the Steering Committee and the Focus Committees. Focus Groups, he said, would provide draft position papers by February/ March 2005, and the Steering Committee would study those drafts and meet again. Future meetings of both would be organised in different parts of the country.

In addition to this, NCERT would organise five seminars in its five centres to which prominent scholars, educationists and teachers would be invited. The final document, which was expected to be ready by the middle of next year, would be placed before the Central Advisory Board of Education (CABE) for discussion and approval.

Mr Rohit Dhankar, who heads the area of Curriculum, Syllabus and Textbooks, hoped that the review document would help create a society that would not merely cope with the changes imposed upon it but also author changes of its own choice.

New Delhi, December 2
Indian parliamentarians today joined the demonstrations by Tibetan youths and the Tibet’s parliament-in-exile to protest against the alleged illegal detention of Tibetan monk Tulku Tenzin Delek, who has been sentenced to death by the Chinese authorities.

Lok Sabha members, Mr M.A. Kharabela Swain (BJP), Mr Mohan Singh (SP) and Mr Thupstan Chhewang (Independent MP from Ladakh), marched to the Chinese Embassy here and submitted a memorandum calling for the immediate release of the monk.

The three MPs, who are members of the All-Party Indian Parliamentary Forum for Tibet, said : “It is widely believed that he is framed with false charges of causing explosions and has been denied a fair trial under the Criminal Procedure Law of your country.”

The memorandum addressed to President Hu Jintao further read : “We hope you will uphold world opinion and adhere to the International Human Rights standards for which you are a signatory to. We appeal you to immediately release [him] forthwith and unconditionally.”

In a separate memorandum, Ms Gyari Dolma, the Vice-Chairperson of Tibet’s parliament-in-exile, urged the Chinese President to “immediately intervene and ensure individual’s right to fair trial”. She also sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s support.

The Tibetan Youth Congress held a demonstration at Jantar Mantar in the morning. 

Dehra Dun, December 2
Even as Pauri Garhwal gears up for the December 4 Bunkhal fair, animal lovers and activists have launched a drive against practice of animal sacrifice, an integral part of the fair.

Hundreds of animals, including buffaloes, goats and sheep, are sacrificed every year at the fair on the pretext of appeasing Goddess Kalika. The numbers are as shocking as the carcasses of 100 buffaloes and over 2,000 sheep and goats are dumped from hilltops.