New Delhi, December 21
Haryana Chief Minister Om Prakash Chautala believes that there is no anti-incumbency factor as his government has brought about discernible development having a bearing on every section of society in the state.

“The vote in February’s Assembly elections will be for further development and socio-economic uplift of the poor and the Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) will romp home with a two-third majority in the 90-member Assembly,” claimed Mr Chautala in an exclusive interview here.

He claimed that the pledges made by him, encompassing farmers, unemployed youth, ex-servicemen, teachers, government servants and senior citizens, were not empty as the state government was much better placed than others in terms of financial resources.

Mr Chautala dismissed the “Congress charge sheet” against him, listing the alleged acts of omission and commission, as a memorandum. “There is nothing concrete in it except to say that I am giving sops to the electorate. I am not making empty promises as the state government has the finances to implement all of them.”

Exuding confidence, he insisted “Voters knows who is their well-wisher. I have provided stability and that is why I am confident they will return the INLD to power in Haryana.”

Dismissing the talk of a strong anti-incumbency factor, Mr Chautala maintained, “I rely on the performance of my government over the last five years. We have progressed in every sphere, as evidenced by a GDP of 7.5 per cent, which is one of the best in the country.”

Even as farmers had been encouraged to diversify by providing incentives, a lot had been done for them. The price for sugarcane was fixed at Rs 117 per quintal, the highest in the country.

Mr Chautala said the state government could have provided more water for agriculture, but problems arose because of the non-completion of the SYL canal. He put the blame for this on the Congress. The water-sharing agreement was abrogated by Punjab. He failed to understand how the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre could have allowed this to happen.

He was critical of the Manmohan Singh government for increasing the price of petrol and diesel and working towards doing away with subsidies. “This is the so-called human face of the Congress, which obviously wants to capitalise on its performance at the Centre in the Assembly elections in Haryana. That is not going to happen,” he said.

He insisted that along with rural areas, due attention had been given to urban areas, where new facilities like roads, drainage, sewerage, upgradation of water facilities, electricity and so on had been undertaken. In this context, he makes specific mention of Gurgaon and the infrastructure created there, thereby attracting industry to Haryana. This had provided employment to lakhs of people, including skilled labour.

Gurgaon had attracted foreign direct investment and domestic capital flow, as evidenced by motor car and tractor production, which accounted for nearly 60 per cent of the entire country. There were call centres employing thousands from adjoining areas, including the Capital.

Due to the planned development of Gurgaon, it was now competing with the best in the world in terms of infrastructure and other facilities, he said. More hospitals as well as super-speciality ones were on the anvil, which would also provide treatment to the poor, he added.

Drawing from history, Mr Chautala explained “The Congress may have been in power for a long time. However, it is the work we have done that is going to be the ultimate barometer. History shows that Sher Shah Suri is remembered in northern India because of the connectivity of roads built by him during his brief rule. Then the bane of Haryana adopted in the rest of the country — the Aya Rams and Gaya Rams — is virtually non-existent now.”

Mr Chautala said a needless controversy arose about the proposed creation of the new district of Satyamevapuram on October 2, coinciding with the birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Then arose the problem of delimitation, but when the Delimitation Commission decided not to go ahead. The government moved forward with the creation of the district. The order for posting officers was already in the pipeline and issued in the normal course before the Election Commission announced the schedule for the Assembly elections. “We have, therefore, done nothing wrong as far as the state government is concerned,” he maintained.

He was highly critical of the Election Commission’s decision to keep the results of the Assembly elections in Haryana pending for nearly three weeks after the one-day polling in the first week of February. This would unnecessarily bring the administration to a standstill for an extended period till the election results were announced and could have been easily avoided as there had never been a law and order problem or allegation of election malpractices, Mr Chautala added.

Mumbai, December 21
Star witness in the Best Bakery case Zaheera Shaikh today turned hostile in the special court of Additional Sessions Judge Abhay Thipsay, who is presiding over the retrial into the case.

Zaheera is the fifth eye witness from the family to turn hostile after her two brothers — Nafitulla and Nasibulla, sister Sahira, and mother Sehrunnisa turned hostile during the course of hearing into the retrial in the infamous Best Bakery carnage case.

Fourteen persons in Best Bakery on the outskirts of Vadodara were charred to death by a rioting mob in the aftermath of the Godhra train massacre.

When Special Public Prosecutor Manjula Rao asked Zaheera about the contents of her statement to the Vadodara police after the incident, Zaheera refused to comment anything.

“I do not know what is written in the statement although the signature is mine,” Zaheera said.

It is then that Ms Rao declared Zaheera as hostile and sought the court’s permission to cross-examine her.

Zaheera had also retracted her statements to the Vadodara police publicly at a press conference in her hometown more than a month ago. — UNI

New Delhi, December 21
Amid BJP opposition, the government today introduced the much-awaited National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill, 2004, in the Lok Sabha, estimated to cost over Rs 38,000 crore annually, to be implemented by state governments in a phased manner.

The Bill aims at providing 100 days employment guarantee to all rural households across the country.

Introducing the Bill, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Pratap Singh said the Bill aimed at providing 100 days of guaranteed wage a year to rural households whose adult members volunteered to do unskilled work.

The Bill is likely to be passed by Parliament in the Budget session after discussion, since the current session is coming to an end on December 23. The Left parties have already asked the government to refer the Bill to the Standing Committee.

“Every state government shall, within six months from the date of commencement of this legislation, prepare a scheme to give effect to the guarantee proposed under the legislation,” stated the Bill, adding that Centre would provide required funds to implement the employment schemes.

The financial memorandum attached to the Bill added, “Although the total expenditure will depend on the extent of coverage of areas of the country under the proposed legislation, it is estimated that if the legislation is extended to 150 districts where the National Food for Work Programme is being implemented, the requirement of Central funds will be approximately Rs 8,984 crore. The state governments will bear 25 per cent of the material component, including wages of skilled and semi-skilled workers.”

The Bill also provides that if an applicant under the scheme is not provided employment within 15 days of the receipt of the application seeking employment, he shall be entitled to a daily unemployment allowance.

However, the catch is that the state governments will have to bear the unemployment allowance.

The focus of the scheme will be to execute water conservation, water harvesting, drought proofing, irrigation and tree plantation projects, besides “creation of durable assets and strengthening the livelihood resource base of the rural poor.” It is significant that the Bill has proposed that no contractors will be engaged to implement the work and workers will be paid minimum wages.

Welcoming the Bill, Samajwadi Party member Ramji Lal Suman wanted the government to clarify if the scheme would be extended across the country.

BJP members opposed the Bill, saying it left out “half of the country’s poor living in urban areas.” The Bill proposes that the scheme will be implemented through village panchayats and programme officers appointed by the state governments.

New Delhi, December 21
Amid charges and counter charges between the treasury bench and opposition BJP, Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh today alleged in the Rajya Sabha that his precedessor Murli Manohar Joshi’s term in office was “a spectacle of the naked abuse of power against the minorities”.

Moving the National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions Bill in the Rajya Sabha, he accused the previous NDA government of “trampling upon the rights of the minorities” as enshrined in the Constitition.

The Bill, already passed by the Lok Sabha, seeks replacement of a Presidential Ordinance to constitute a National Commission for Minority Educational Institutions in the country.

Mrs Sushma Swaraj (BJP) moved a resolution, suggesting that the Bill be referred to a Select Committee of the House, comprising ten members. She wondered why the government followed the ordinance route for constituting the Commission.

Seeking the passage of the Bill, Mr Singh said the circumstances had necessitated the promulgation of the ordinance so as to dispel the apprehensions of the minorities regarding the UPA government’s commitment to give them their due.

Mr Singh said the previous government did not renew the term of the Monitoring Committee for Minority Communities when it expired in 1998, as envisaged in the National Education Policy, 1986. The Committee, he said, was reconstituted on August 7, this year.

“The former HRD Minister used to mock at us in the House that he was doing this and that for the minorities but this important feature of the education policy of setting up a Monitoring Committee was given a go-by,” the Minister said in the presence of former HRD Minister Murli Manohar Joshi on the Opposition benches.

Mr Singh also alleged in the House that his predecessor had wilfully denied granting the status of a deemed university to a Tamil Nadu-based minority institute of science and technology, despite the recommendation of the University Grants Commission (UGC).

He narrated how the institute authorities went to the Madras High Court which also passed a judgement in its favour. The institute was still not granted the deemed university status, which was eventually given to it when the new government assumed office.

The BJP members, who were silent until now, suddenly raised their voices against the Minister with Dr Joshi, Mrs Swaraj, Mr Yashwant Sinha, Mr S.S. Ahluwalia and Mr Ravi Shankar Prasad demanded to know why the minister was being allowed to read from the official files.

“The Minister has been extremely provocative,” Mr Sinha said while Mrs Swaraj asked the Chair if she could also raise in the House the matter concerning the files of the “Churhat Lottery Case”, in which Mr Arjun Singh’s name also figured.

Dr Joshi alleged that the HRD Minister was “misleading” the House. “Will the Minister please state how many minority institutions were granted recognition during my term in office?” he asked. 

New Delhi, December 21
For combating the alarming decline in the child sex ratio in the country, the Centre is in the process of setting up national surveillance cells in all states, with the pilot project being first implemented in Punjab, Haryana, Chandigarh, Himachal Pradesh and Delhi shortly.

Health and Family Welfare Minister Anbumani Ramdoss told The Tribune that after watching the progress of the project in the four states and the union territory, it would be subsequently implemented in the rest of the country.

The minister said the cells, being informally called national surveillance cells for present, would start functioning within a month or two.

The cells would operate under the supervision of high-level retired police officials and monitor the situation and conduct undercover operations to identify medical practitioners who despite the Pre-conception and Pre-natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act continued to misuse techniques for sex determination, leading to the elimination of female foetus and creating a gender-imbalance in society. The cells would be authorised to suspend the registration of the medical practitioners involved in the heinous crime, said the minister.

It may be mentioned that as per the last census report, four states figured in the category where the number of girls was below 800 for every 1000 boys.

These included Haryana, Punjab, Himachal Pradesh, and Gujarat. Moreover, the sex ratio was reported to be a mere 770 in Kurukshetra, 754 in Fatehgarh Sahib and 845 in south-west Delhi, even though these regions were amongst most prosperous in the country.

In fact, 10 of the 17 districts in Punjab recorded a drastic reduction, with less than 800 girls for every 1,000 boys. Meanwhile, Dr Ramadoss today urged for eliminating discrimination against women, calling it the biggest social challenge before the country.

He said the Centre was committed to the sensitive issue, which could only be addressed with an integrated effort of different ministries.

Releasing a report on violence against women, brought out by the National Commission for Women, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and The United Nations Population Fund, he lamented that health care providers were not aware of the system and there was a need to educate them to be able to proactively respond to specific issues like violence against women, HIV and AIDS.

The report stated that violence posed an obstacle in ensuring dignity and human rights of women, as well as their overall health and well-being.

“Violence against women requires a multi-sectoral approach in which the health care system has a key role to play. The issue has severe physical and mental implications, including fatal and non-fatal consequences,” the report stated.

Crimes against women have been increasing over the years. According to the statistics released by the National Crimes Record Bureau, Ministry of Home Affairs, in India, one dowry death is reported every 78 minutes, one act of sexual harassment every 59 minutes, one rape every 34 minutes, one act of molestation every 16 minutes and one act of torture every 12 minutes.

New Delhi, December 21
While Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has called off his three-day trip to Kerala, Congress president Sonia Gandhi’s scheduled visit to the state on December 29 remains on course.

It was earlier announced that Dr Manmohan Singh will be in Kerala from December 31 to January 2 for a series of official programmes. Although no official reason is being cited for the change in his plans, it is learnt that he cancelled his visit as Ms Gandhi was visiting the state only a day earlier. It now appears that the Prime Minister will be ushering in the New Year in Delhi itself.

This is not the first time that Dr Manmohan Singh has called off a scheduled trip. He had recently cancelled his visit to Mauritius and again no official reason was cited for the change. His next trip will be to Bangladesh on January 9-11 for the SAARC summit.

Ms Gandhi, who will be inaugurating the new building of the Kerala Pradesh Congress Committee (KPCC) on her trip, will be in Kerala for two days. The party has also chalked out a series of other programmes for Ms Gandhi.

There had been considerable speculation that Ms Gandhi might just call off her visit as she could be put to unnecessary embarrassment because of the raging political controversy over IUML minister P.K. Kunhalikutty’s alleged involvement in a sex scandal.

Kerala Chief Minister Oommen Chandy is under tremendous pressure from his own party and the Opposition to drop the minister. However, the move could have repurcussions at the Centre since the IUML is a partner in the UPA government.

Although the state leadership has kept the AICC informed about the developments in the state, the Central party leadership has distanced itself from the controversy and asked the state to deal with it. Now that Ms Gandhi’s trip is unchanged, there are unconfirmed reports that Mr Kunhalikutty might step down on his own.

Mr Chandy, who met the Congress President today to brief her about the political situation in the state, confirmed that Ms Gandhi will be visiting Kerala as scheduled.

Dehra Dun, December 21
With the basic issue of a permanent capital remaining unaddressed, Uttaranchal is seeing demonstrations intensifying like never before. Backed by the most prominent regional party in the hill state, the UKD (Uttarakhand Kranti Dal), hundreds of activists trekked down to the capital and staged a dharna outside the Vidhan Sabha over their demand to make Gairsain the permanent capital.

Held with the idea of pressuring the ND Tiwari-led Congress government to shift the capital to Gairsain, the 15-day-long ‘padyatra’ undertaken by the activists began from Gairsain and culminated here. Hundreds of activists, including women, raised slogans against the Congress Government for lacking the political will to address what they called a basic issue close to the people of the state. The demonstrations have been on in other parts of the state, largely in Gairsain, for a few months now.

Speaking to newspersons here, UKD President BD Raturi said the agitation would now be centered at the capital to ensure that the activists were heard. The activists planned to gherao the Vidhan Sabha during the winter session from January 10. Making Gairsain the permanent capital would ensure that the benefits of the formation of the new state trickled down to those who deserved them rather than being concentrated in the corridors of power, he said.

The activists accused the BJP and the Congress of brushing the issue under the carpet when in power and demanded that they came clean on their stand on the issue. Despite tireless rallies and fasts throughout the state, the government has maintained its non-committal stand on the issue, which has forced the activists to concentrate their demonstrations in the capital.

Meanwhile, a UKD delegation led by Mr Kashi Singh Aery left for Delhi to take up the issue with the central leadership, including the President, the Prime Minister and Opposition leaders urging them to bring up the issue in Parliament. A dharna would be staged in New Delhi to draw attention towards the issue, sources in the party said.

Lucknow, December 21
The CBI told the Lucknow Bench of the Allahabad High Court today that “provocative speeches” by eight leaders, including Mr L K Advani, Mr M M Joshi and Ms Uma Bharti, worked as an “encouragement” to the kar sewaks to pull down the Babri Masjid at Ayodhya.

CBI counsel P K Chaubey, while arguing the case, stated that Ms Bharti kept reminding the people, through the public address system at the demolition of each dome, of BJP’s promise to build the Ram temple for “cheap political gain”.

He quoted the statements of the witnesses Iqbal, Hashim Ansari, Munna, Mohd. Shubrati, Mobinullah and a lady journalist, Renu Mittal to higlight that all the eight leaders remained present at the Ram Katha kunj from 10.00-18.30 hrs till the structure was pulled down.

On the demolition of each of the domes, sweets were distributed among the saints and their followers present there to celebrate their achievement, he contended.

Terming the address by these leaders on the loud speakers as “provocative speeches,” the CBI counsel said that it worked as an “encouragement” for the ‘kar sewaks’ who pulled down the structure in response.

After hearing the arguments, the court fixed January 5 as the next date of hearing on the criminal revisions challenging the special Rae Bareli Court order discharging Mr Advani in the Ayodhya demolition case while issuing summoning orders against seven others, including former Union Minister Joshi.

Justice Y R Tripathi passed the order on the revision petitions filed by Joshi, Bharti, Vinay Katiyar, Sadhvi Rithambara, Ashok Singhal and V H Dalmiya seeking directions for dropping the proceedings against them as had been done in the case of Advani. — PTI 

New Delhi, December 21
Expressing concern over the shortening of Parliament sessions, leaders of several political parties have demanded that the two Houses should sit for a minimum of 100 days in a year.

This issue figured at an all-party meeting convened by Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee today where the leaders pointed out that there has been a steady curtailment of parliamentary sessions.

Although no final decision was taken at this meeting, there is a possibility that the members’ demand could be considered next year.

Responding to the request, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, leader of the House in the Lok Sabha, argued that the government had no objection to increasing the number of sittings provided the extra days are utilised usefully. “It is not the number of sittings but the quality of the work conducted by the two Houses which is more important,” he told the meeting.

BJP leader V.K. Malhotra, however, differed, saying there could be no conditions on increasing the number of sittings, adding that it is the democratic right of the Opposition to protest if it disagreed with the government’s policies.

Today’s meeting was called after CPI leader Gurudas Dasgupta drew attention to the steady drop in the number of sittings. He pointed out that the drop had been particularly drastic in the last few years.

Mr Mukherjee attributed this reduction to the constitution of parliamentary standing committees which have taken on a lot of work earlier conducted by the members in the House.

Samajwadi Party leader Ramji Lal Suman agreed that the work being done by the standing committees was equally important and could not be belittled. He suggested that the sittings of the Rajya Sabha be increased since the Lok Sabha members had also to attend to their constituencies.

New Delhi, December 21
Army Chief General NC Vij begins tomorrow a week-long official visit to China, which will be the first by an Indian Army chief in a decade and would be aimed at enhancing trust and confidence between the two militaries.

During the visit, General Vij will meet top officers of the People’s Liberation Army besides other senior officials of the Chinese government.

He will also seek ways to take further ahead the confidence-building measures already initiated at various levels of official talks between the two countries.

The Indian Army chief’s visit, from December 22-29, comes just months after a visit to New Delhi by Chinese Defence Minister Cao Gangchuan, in March.

The last Indian Army chief to visit Beijing was General BC Joshi in July 1994. General Fu Quanyou was the last People’s Liberation Army Chief of Staff to visit India in April-May 1998.