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Govt not to join world tsunami warning system
Bush calls up PM, offers support
Fishermen’s colony reduced to ghost
town
Huts destroyed in fire
Miracle amid devastation
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I’ve even lost my appointment letter: IGCAR
scientist
Justice Anand donates one month’s salary
Cabinet nod to pvt carriers to fly
abroad
CPM opposes opening of aviation sector
Yearender: Left
ULFA, Naxals join hands, courtesy
ISI
Haryana poll: Cong forms panel for giving party
ticket
Medicos on dharna against revised fee
Bihar BSP secy,
4 others held for code violation
Arrest warrant issued against CPI secy’s wife
3 held for preparing fake
certificates
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Govt not to join world tsunami warning system
New Delhi, December 29 Science and Technology Minister Kapil Sibal said today, "We will invest Rs 100 crore to Rs 125 crore to install 10 or 12 deep-ocean assessment and reporting systems and set up network in cooperation with Indonesia, Thailand and Myanmar." He, however, said, India would not join the 26-member Pacific rim countries which are part of an international network as their system is installed only in the Pacific Ocean up to Sumatra. "Since 75-80 per cent of the total earthquakes, and consequently tsunamis come in the Pacific region, they have their own warning system. We have no such history of tsunamis. The last recorded Tsunami in India was in 1883, so no minister concerned has ever thought of setting up such warning systems," said Mr Sibal asking " tell me, if I had asked for funds for this purpose, what would be the response of the Planning Commission." "It is not necessary that tsunamis occur in the event of an earthquake. In the history there have been many earthquakes which have not caused any tsunamis," said the minister while reacting to allegations that the government could not warn the coastal areas on time. It is pertinent to note that Indian Met Department had failed badly this year in forecasting the monsoon. The minister had said the department would require at least Rs 500 crore to upgrade the infrastructure to "ensure a fair degree of forecast of monsoon." As part of the new initiative, 20 more data buoys would be placed in the Arabic Ocean and Indian Ocean, Mr Sibal said. At present there are 20 data buoys. The deep ocean assessment and reporting systems would be attached to 10 or 12 data buoys, which in turn, would be linked to a satellite and to a land station, he said. Department of Ocean Development Secretary Harsh Gupta said seismic stations would also be upgraded to know of earthquakes in Tsunami-prone zone. Mr Sibal said the system had not been installed earlier as such a tsunami-associated tragedy was not reported in India. The government had also changed its policy of not reporting quakes outside India to Crisis Management Group, he said, adding that all quakes would now be reported to the group. To a question, the minister said the Indian Meteorological Department contacted Port Blair at 8.25 am and the place reported only damage to buildings associated with the quake and not with the tsunami. Action was initiated when waves were seen, he clarified. The government faced criticism for not alerting the other coastal areas once the tsunami hit the Andaman and Nicobar islands. He said the government was also installing 10-12 more acoustic tidal gauges which would also be useful for cyclone warning. On the rehabilitation front, the science and technology ministry would build hutments of composite material that is weatherproof in the affected areas. A meeting with the Finance Ministy has taken place in this regard, he said. |
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Bush calls up PM, offers support
New Delhi, December 29 They expressed grief and anguish at the tragic loss of lives and the devastation caused by the Sunday’s monsterous tidal waves, a PMO spokesman said. —
PTI |
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Fishermen’s colony reduced to ghost
town
Colachel, Tamil Nadu, December 29 The fishermen’s colony on the seashore in Kanniyakumari district now resembles a ghost town with all the
inhabitants being moved to the rescue shelters in St. Mary’s School inland. With the government machinery beginning to get active only now in the rescue and relief operations in the area, it was left to the voluntary organisations, including the local church, to take the lead in providing succour to the affected people. According to Fr. Stephen Henry, of the Nagercoil Diocese, nearly 50 per cent of the 1,000 houses in Colachel has been damaged, some of them to their foundations. Colachel and the other nearby fishing villages have reported close to 500 dead, with nearly double that number still missing. It is among the worst-hit villages in Kanniyakumari district. “I rushed back from Dubai on hearing of the disaster. But, there is no trace of my wife and two children,’’ says Christali, who works as a fishermen in the UAE. Talking to UNI even as his eyes scanned the waves, as if for some clues of his missing family members, Christali said there were many more like him in the area, who had no clue what happened to their dear ones. Many more have found their lives turned upside down as the furious tidal waves wrecked even the last piece of their belongings. The beach at Colachel resembles a scrap yard, with sundry household items, clothes, fishing nets and wrecked catamarans (one with ‘Praise the Lord’ emblazoned on the side) strewn around. The small church on the beach also did not escape the tidal fury. Its glasspanes lie broken even as X’mas decorations hang limp on the outside. But, hope must live on, and so somebody has put the soggy Bibles out to dry on the church wall. The smell of hope, however, is having to fight a tough battle against the stench of despair. With bodies suspected to lie buried under the debris of the collapsed houses, an increasingly noxious stench is pervading the area. Doctors move around with their mouths and noses masked and are also distributing these free to the local residents and mediapersons and officials visiting the area. “The danger of epidemics is very real. Which is why a number of medical teams have fanned out into the area and bleaching powder is being sprinkled around,’’ says Dr Thanammai, the medical officer in charge of the Government Hospital, Colachel. The hospital’s records mention 463 as dead till 1300 hrs Wednesday. While the more seriously injured were referred to Kanniyakumari Medical College Hospital, about 60 patients are being treated in Colachel Government Hospital for abrasions, minor injuries, fever and shock. —
UNI |
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Huts destroyed in fire
Nagapattinam, December 29 Official sources told UNI that a spark from a cremation point, where more than 25 decomposed bodies were cremated, was said to be the reason for the fire mishap. An LPG cylinder kept in one of the huts accidentally exploded, resulting in huts being engulfed by fire, the sources added. Sources said that there were no
causualties. Army and fire service personnel, who were engaged in rescue and relief operations in adjoining Akkaraipettai village, rushed to the spot and put out the fire. Meanwhile, Union Finance Minister P Chidambaram visited the Tsunami-affected Vailankanni and its adjoining areas, while Union Chemicals, Fertilisers and Steel Minister Ram Vilas Paswan visited the Akkaraipettai and other affected areas of Nagapattinam district today. —
UNI |
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Miracle amid devastation
Car Nicobar, December 29 “This was a miracle in the midst of the disaster the Tsunami wrought,” station commander of the IAF base here, V.V. Bandhopadhyay said. The 13-year-old girl, Maya, was badly bruised and had been kept company on the floating door by sea serpents, but she was not harmed by them, he said. After being washed ashore yesterday, she asked to be taken to the guard house of the airbase. But she was told that it no longer existed, she asked to be taken to the runway, currently the centre of all activity of the devastated base, where 100 IAF personnel have perished. After being taken there she was treated by doctors for her bruises and later flown out to Port Blair. Daughter of an IAF Officer Sanjeev Raghav, Maya drifted into the open sea for more than two days before being washed ashore about 15 km away on a remote island full of snakes and other reptiles. However, when she was rescued and brought back here, Maya still did not know that both her father and mother were killed as the tsunami had washed away their two-storeyed house situated in the officer's enclave in the Car Nicobar Indian Air Force Base. Maya's story not only symbolises her courage, but also the few islanders' hope that their kins, lost in the ocean's depth, might return providentially. Maya has become a symbol of a young girl, who not only braved the danger of drifting in the choppy ocean, but has also shown the courage to withstand the danger spending nights in the island's alien environment surrounded by snakes and reptiles, he said. —
PTI |
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100-year-old temple falls to nature’s fury
Kollam (Kerala), December 29 The tsunami struck at 11 a.m. on Sunday as the temple priest was getting ready to perform the routine noon prayer. By the time the tides subsided, the temple had disappeared - along with the chief priest, identified as Parameswaran. All that remains of the shrine are rubble, a flagstaff, two small idols, a decorated umbrella and some lamps. The main idol, of Lord Subramanya, was also washed away. According to K. Rajesh, a member of the temple managing committee, the temple was preparing for renovation in the coming year. "This was one of the oldest temples in this area and what happened is a severe blow to our beliefs," he said. "So far no one knows what happened to our priest, and there is none to tell us how many people were here when the sea took away the temple," he said. Had the sea struck an hour later, locals say, the number of casualties would have crossed 100 because the noon prayer attracts a large number of people. Media reports say three other smaller temples in the same area were also washed away. —
IANS |
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I’ve even lost my appointment letter: IGCAR
scientist
Kalpakkam (Tamil Nadu), December 29 “I have even lost my appointment letter and I have to begin from the scratch,” Mr Muthiah Ravishankar, a Scientific Officer at the Indira Gandhi Centre for Atomic Research (IGCAR), said, tears welling up in his eyes. This was the tragic story of many, residing in the ground floor of apartments or independent houses in the township, located off east coast, about 70 km from Chennai. Being a Sunday, most of them were either reading newspapers or watching television when the devastating Tsunami hit the aesthetically-designed township and turned it into a ghost town, leaving in its wake heaps of slush, sand and debris. The township presented a battered picture with mangled television sets, refrigerators, washing machines, cars and two wheelers strewn all around. The Tsunami’s impact was so intense that a car was seen toppled in the backwaters, about a km away from the township. Clothes, books, utensils, chairs and a number of household articles constituted heaps of debris. “We have lost our entire life savings,” Ms Vidya Srinivasan, whose house, probably, the first to be hit, told this visiting UNI correspondent after showing her ravaged house in an apartment, which was hardly about 100 metre away from the shore. —
UNI |
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Justice Anand donates one month’s salary
New Delhi, December 29 The NHRC said its members had also volunteered to donate money to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. The Bar Association of India also stepped in by donating Rs 2,00,000 to the fund, issuing an appeal to legal fraternity all over the country to forego New Year celebrations and contribute to the fund. Bar Association of India honorary general secretary Lalit Bhasin said the first day's earnings by lawyers in the New Year should also be donated to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund. The CRPF presented a cheque for Rs 4 crore to the fund. The CRPF has already distributed 13 tonnes of ration and blankets and tents worth Rs 42 lakh for the tsunami-affected people. Social activist Swami Agnivesh also appealed to people to refrain from the New Year celebrations. —TNS |
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Sex workers donate money
Ahmednagar, December 29 The women, under the banner of Snehalaya, an organisation working for women in flesh trade and their children, have already sent Rs 10,000 to the Prime Minister's Relief Fund, according to Snehalaya trustee P.S. Savedker. Further, the prostitutes and flesh workers from various red light areas of the city today handed over a cheque of Rs 3,475 to the local Indian Express Citizens Relief Fund branch, he said. Earlier too, these women had donated to the Kargil Fund and to the Gujarat quake victims. —
PTI |
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National youth festival put off
New Delhi, December 29 The ministry authorities said today that the festival had to be postponed because volunteers of the Nehru Yuva Kendra Sangathan and the National Service Scheme are engaged in relief work in the tsunami-hit parts of the country. Meanwhile, the ministry has sanctioned 390 mega work camps to be organised by the sangathan at a cost of Rs 1.95 crore for setting up rescue camps, community kitchens, reconstruction of damaged houses, etc. |
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Alappuzha District Collector transferred
Thiruvananthapuram, December 29 K.R. Muraleedharan had been appointed the new Collector in his place, Chief Minister Oommen Chandy told reporters after a cabinet meeting. —
PTI |
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Advani’s call for all-party meeting
New Delhi, December 29 Mr Advani, who returned here this evening after a tour of the Tsunami-affected states, told reporters here that he would shortly meet Prime Minister to apprise him of the situation. He demanded that the government should implement the recommendations of the National Committee on Disaster Management that was set up by the NDA government after the Gujarat earthquake. The BJP leader demanded setting up of a national disaster management authority, creation of a long-term strategy for safety, welfare and development of the community of fishermen and a comprehensive coastal insurance scheme. |
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Cabinet nod to pvt carriers to fly
abroad
New Delhi, December 29 The Cabinet also decided that the operations of Air India and Indian Airlines, the two public sector airlines, would also be synergised to achieve better results. It was also decided at the meeting to discontinue the practice of mandating commercial agreements on all new services and review the existing commercial agreements, aiming at phasing them out over the next five years. However, despite protests from newly started airlines and those starting operations from next year, the Cabinet also mandated that only those private scheduled carriers would be allowed to operate to foreign destinations which have “a minimum of five years continuous experience and minimum of 20 aircraft in their fleet”. Another rule to be applied is that a minimum mileage coverage would also be taken into view while allowing the private airlines to fly abroad. Under this condition only Jet Airways and Air Sahara may be able to touch the foreign skies. However, the Gulf region has still been reserved only for the two public sector airlines mainly due to security reasons. Emerging out of the Cabinet meeting, Civil Aviation Minister Praful Patel said only Indian Airlines and Air India would operate in the Gulf region for the next three years. The government would look into opening up this region after this period is over. Later Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee, who also briefed reporters, clarified that the private carriers allowed to fly abroad would have to abide by the norms laid down by the Directorate-General of Civil Aviation in this regard. He said the private airlines, which have been allowed to fly abroad, would need to have a minimum five years of flying experience in the domestic sector, besides a minimum mileage coverage. The Civil Aviation Ministry had suggested that keeping in mind the country’s image and the experience needed to fly to foreign destinations only those airlines having a minimum of five years of experience and at least 20 aircraft in its fleet should be allowed to operate on international routes. So far, Jet Airways and Air Sahara have been operating to the SAARC nations of Sri Lanka, Nepal and were planning to launch services to Bangladesh. The Cabinet, which decided to “strengthen Air India” and “improve operational synergy” between it and Indian Airlines, felt that these decisions would result in the improvement of utilisation of the bilateral traffic rights on international routes, leading to heightened competition and “reasonable and affordable” fares. In order to allow its network growth, the government decided that it “may reserve traffic rights for Air India in accordance with its operational plans for the next two years”. In order to synergise the operations of the two public sector airlines, “a calibrated approach may be adopted so that the national carriers get time to adjust to the new competitive environment”. Keeping this in mind, the government decided to reserve operations to the Gulf nations like UAE, Qatar, Oman, Bahrain, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia for AI and IA and their subsidiaries for the next three years “as most of their operational revenue and profits accrue from these routes”. The Cabinet decided that henceforth, requests from all eligible airlines, including private, would be taken into account in negotiations with foreign governments on the bilateral air traffic rights. Efforts would also be made to obtain traffic entitlements “commensurate with the requirements of all eligible airlines”, the sources said. However, in case the total entitlements fell short of the projected requirements, the allocation of entitlements amongst the eligible carriers “will be in the ratio of available seat per kilometre (ASKM) deployed by them on domestic routes over the last five
years,” they said. |
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CPM opposes opening of aviation sector
New Delhi, December 29 Stating that the UPA government had gone ahead with the decision despite the Left Parties jointly requesting the government to refrain from making this decision, the statement said the national carriers were hamstrung in the past by the NDA government’s refusal to allow acquisition of new aircraft by them. |
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Possibilities for Left beyond unity and struggle
R. Suryamurthy Tribune News Service As the country enters the New Year 2005, the Left parties, who play a crucial role in the survival of the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre, have a daunting task of re-defining their role in the future. At the party level, they have to rejuvenate their cadre to the new reality that the world has become a global village and India cannot remain insulated to the benefits of liberal and economic policies. The verdict of 2004, perhaps, gave the Left parties, which had been confined to the two states of Kerala and West Bengal, to play a crucial role at the Centre. Here, the Left failed to rise to the occasion, even though it had secured over 60 seats in the Lok Sabha, its highest in parliamentary history. The arithmetic of the 2004 verdict is more to the Left's advantage than in 1996 when the United Front was dependent on a numerically stronger Congress. A 145-member Congress could not brush away the concerns of an ideologically cohesive Left Front Despite the advantage and difference within the four Left parties - CPI, CPM, Revolutionary Socialist Party and All India Forward Bloc - on joining the government, they decided to support the government from outside. Yet, it did not want to vacate the place of Opposition in the House as it would take the sheen out of its armour. The challenge before the Left was to use the economic reforms and globalisation to remove poverty and deprivation. This is the mandate of the common people. In a sense, the Left has already betrayed the mandate by shirking responsibility. So, what the party adopted was an approach of "unity and struggle with the UPA". It united to give stability to the Congress-led UPA government at the Centre. At the same time, it criticised the policies of the government, especially the economic, as it was not in tune with their ideological thinking. They also halted the repeated hike in petrol prices and forced the government to fulfil its budgetary promise of allocating 6 per cent of GDP on education and to introduce the National Rural Employment Guarantee Bill in the winter session of Parliament. Similarly, a Bill on the Right to information was introduced to pave the way for an accountable and responsible administration. Though they also tried to shift the focus of the National Common Minimum Programme on agriculture and rural poor, nothing tangible has emerged so far. The Left parties expressed their dissatisfaction over the functioning of the government, particularly its reluctance to restore 9.5 per cent interest rate on EPF. They were also unhappy with the government for not resolving the issue of FDI in core sectors - telecom, civil aviation and insurance. The debate on labour laws also continued with the Left's front organisations slamming the government for not taking measures to amend the Payment of Bonus Act and Payment of Gratuity and Contract Regulation Act, among other things. Left parties reviewing the performance of the UPA government said in the past six months the Centre had taken steps which were in violation of its promises in the Common Minimum Programme, which formed the basis for its support to the Union Government. The challenges in the coming year, the Left parties feel are compounded by two crucial factors. One, on the question of economic policies, most of the parties in the country are prone to towing the World Bank-IMF line thus the Left has to ensure, virtually single-handedly, that the common people's life standard is not eroded. Secondly, so-called secular parties are divided into many camps. Certain secular parties rallied behind the BJP. Even the non-NDA secular parties have not been able to put up a united fight against the communal combine. The Left has to bring these parties together maintaining national unity. The rhetoric of the Communists today seems to be caught in a time wrap. It is concerned with issues like stalling the reform process, which is to hark back to the fifties when a planned economy was considered a viable alternative. There are elements of the absurd and the hypocritical in this because in West Bengal, where the communists have been in power for over 25 years, the Chief Minister is busy wooing foreign business corporations to invest in the state. At the party level, the two main Left parties, the CPI and the CPM, would hold their national Congress in the first quarter of 2005, where they would decide on the tactics to be followed in the next couple of years. With the talks of leadership change in the CPM, it is hoped that the next leadership handles realities of the 21st century in a realistic manner. The meetings of the highest decision making bodies of both parties would also discuss unity between them and realise the dream of former general secretary of the united Communist Party of India P.C. Joshi. Mr Joshi argued that the Communists and the Congress should work together and they would be able to build a just and fair society and polity in India. The Communists should be part of the national mainstream. He advocated a national front with the core of Congress-Communist unity. The red flag and the Tricolour should fly together as the symbol of India. He was fond of saying that the Communists should be the mahouts of the Congress elephant.
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ULFA, Naxals join hands, courtesy
ISI
Guwahati, December 29 Highly placed sources in the Central Intelligence Department, corroborated by state intelligence here, disclosed that of late the ISI had been trying, to correlate the activities of Naxales as well as ULFA and Harkat -ul-Muzahiddin in order to pose both external and internal threat to India for an effective bargain on the Jammu and Kashmir issue. It may be noted that the state government here was alerted by the Centre a few days ago about the links between ULFA and the Harkat-ul-Muzahiddin where 50 Muzahiddin activists were reportedly hired by ULFA to organise violence in different parts of Assam Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhatacharjee recently expressed concern over the growing ISI activities in north Bengal and the patronage extended to it by neighbouring Bangladesh, on helping the Kamtapur Liberation Organisation (KLO) backed by ULFA. After joining hands, the People’s War Group (PWG) and the Maoist Communist Party (MCC) have already developed links with the Maoist Communist Party of Nepal to coordinate their activities to create a “compact revolutionary zone” from Nepal via West Bengal through north Bengal in Siliguri and stretched till Andhra Pradesh through Orissa. |
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Haryana poll: Cong forms panel for giving party
ticket
New Delhi, December 29 In a press statement released here, the Congress said the committee under the chairmanship of AICC treasurer Motilal Vora would include senior leaders like Mr Ram Nivas Mirdha, Union Minister for Power P.M. Sayeed, general secretary Janardan Dwivedi, state legislature party leader Ajay Yadav, Mr H. Hanumanthappa and former Haryana Chief Minister Bhajan Lal. Sources said selection of names for the committee had been done carefully. The main objective behind these names was to send a message to anti-Bhajan Lal leaders that days of the hegemony of Bhajan Lal were over. Though Mr Bhajan Lal is a member of the committee, the sources said that he may remain isolated in the committee as other members including, Mr Vora, were not very positive towards the former Chief Minister who had dominated the state politics for over three decades. The committee, which will finally clear the names of the candidates for the Assembly elections, will start its work after the PCC election committee sends the panel of names for each Assembly seat to the AICC. —
TNS |
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Medicos on dharna against revised fee
Jaipur, December 29 At the time of admission to the first year, the state government had issued orders for depositing a provisional fee of Rs 1.30 lakh and Rs 70,000 for medical and dental colleges, respectively, pending recommendations of the committee constituted under the chairmanship of Justice S.N. Bhargava, a retired Judge of the Rajasthan High Court. The Bhargava Committee has proposed an increase of Rs 55,000 and Rs 70,000 in the fee of medical and dental colleges, respectively. The agitating students’
argue that the payment of the revised fee is beyond their capacity. Mr Ram Lubhaya, Principal Medical Secretary, says that the state government is helpless as the new fee structure was devised by a high-powered committee headed by a former High Court Judge formed under the directions of the Supreme Court. The students are, however, not convinced by this plea. |
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Bihar BSP secy,
4 others held for code violation
Nawada (Bihar), December 29 Mr Gautam, BSP Nawada district president Virendra Yadav and three others were arrested under the town police station area on the directives of Sub-Divisional Officer-cum Election Officer Ram Chandra Prasad, they said. The arrest were made under Section 147 (Punishment for Rioting), 181 (False statement on oath or affirmation to public servant or person authorised to administer an oath or affirmation) and 188 (disobedience to order duly promulgated by public servant) of Indian Penal Code (IPC), the sources said. The campaign vehicle and loudspeaker were also seized by the police. —
PTI |
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Arrest warrant issued against CPI secy’s wife
New Delhi, December 29 Annie, national secretary of the National Indian federation of Women, a constituent of the umbrella organisation, People’s Action for Employment Guarantee, had organised the protest on December 21 here. |
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3 held for preparing fake
certificates
Hyderabad, December 29 Hyderabad Additional Commissioner of Police A. K. Khan said a Task Force (South Zone) team, acting on a tip off, busted the racket and arrested Syed Zainulabuddin (26), Syed Naimathullah (34) and Md Farooq (23). They were all residents of Rein Bazar and Chandrayangutta, he said. From them, the police recovered 2,737 fake certificates, 107 rubber stamps, 47 screen blocks, four metal blocks, monogram impressions of various institutions, Saudi stamps, a computer, a colour printer, scanner and other incriminating material. The other two members of the gang, Gayaz and Thofeeq, were absconding, he added. The gang was selling fake SSC, intermediate, degree and post-graduation certificates of all faculties and certificates of professional courses like MCA, engineering, ITI and polytechnic. They were also preparing certificates pertaining to Nursing, Computer courses, marriage and divorce, transfer, RTA, Municipal Corporation of Hyderabad, birth and death. The suspects used to collect Rs 300 to Rs 800 for these certificates, Mr Khan explained. —
UNI |
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