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Budget session after February 20, says
Azad
Corpses, carcasses and sniffer
dogs
States using relief fund for routine expenses:
CAG
Mangroves saved 5 villages from tsunami
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When death flowed from Mumbai aunty’s hut
Laloo has time for routine railway functions, not tsunami victims
UN should balance its priorities:
Saran
Mumbai hooch death toll 77
Junior seer’s brother
held
Tripura Governor dissolves TTAADC
22 Bihar leaders debarred from elections
Little headway in JD-LJP alliance
Best Bakery case re-trial: courts
seeks extension
Army chopper crashes,
2 pilots injured
Symbiosis DLit for Sam Pitroda
General Vij back from China
Indian Divas on Sahara
One
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Budget session after February 20, says
Azad
New Delhi, December 30 “It is too early to talk about the date of the session,” he said. To a question about the possibility of change of Assembly election dates for Bihar, Jharkhand and Haryana (February 3,15,23 respectively) in view of the coming budget session of Parliament, Mr Azad said that these dates were final and “there is no need for changing them.” Whether the telecast of the meetings of Parliamentary Standing Committees of various ministries on the pattern of Parliamentary proceedings was likely, the minister ruled it out saying that there was no unanimity on this issue among the political parties. Explaining that neither the Chairman nor members was allowed to talk to the media about the proceedings till their reports were tabled in Parliament, he said “If the telecast is allowed, officials would not come forward with truth”. Describing the winter session as having been “intense, productive and peaceful,” Mr Azad said this disproved the apprehension expressed by some that the session was of short duration and not much business would be transacted. “However, at the end of the session which was of 23 days and 17 sittings, it had been able to achieve much more than we were able to do so in the Budget Session of three months. It is not duration of a session but serious involvement of members and absence of disruptions. This is more important,” he said. The minister said the session had been able to transact 100 per cent business which was discussed in Business Advisory Committee (BAC) of both Houses. “Legislative and financial business as well as various other issues which were to be taken up during the session was unanimously agreed upon by both ruling and the Opposition parties,” he said. “We could achieve these results to a large extent on account of cooperation of all political parties including the Opposition and other groups. I thank the NDA and the UPA for their support and active cooperation and I am sure in the Budget session, this cooperation from all political parties and groups would continue,” Mr Azad said. He said the session saw the introduction of 20 bills, including the National Rural Employment Guarantee bill assuring 100 days employment to one member of every household living below the poverty line (BPL), The Right to Information, The Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes (Reservation in Posts and Services) Bill, The Hindu Succession (Amendment) Bill and The Prevention of Child Marriage Bill. Mr Azad said the session saw twelve bills being approved by both Houses of Parliament with a total of 30 being introduced. He said major issues ranging from foreign policy to internal security and the problems faced by farmers figured in both houses while the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh made a statement on his foreign visits. The minister said with the live telecast of proceedings of both Houses of Parliament, there is greater responsibility on the members since the people were getting to see their elected representatives on screen. “I am sure that the Members of Parliament will use the inter-session period to prepare themselves for the Budget Session,” Mr Azad said. He thanked the Members of Parliament and the media for their cooperation and for making the sports meet held on December 18 a success. |
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Corpses, carcasses and sniffer
dogs
Nagapattinam, December 30 Of the estimated 4,000 lives the tsunami claimed in the state, an estimated 1,500-1,800 persons died in Nagapattinam district alone, especially its northern part. The force of the tsunami on Sunday was such that motorised boats were flung miles away from the shore to the top of hutments and even a bridge. After three days of Herculean efforts, the army was on Thursday able to remove the motorised boats and other debris from the bridge and open road access in the northern part of the district. “While the district administration and relief workers have been able to reach help to many affected areas in the southern parts of Nagapattinam, the northern region was neglected because motorable roads were blocked or damaged,” a senior official travelling with Petroleum Minister Mani Shankar Aiyar told IANS. “Around 20 panchayats in this region (which is separated from south Nagapattinam by Karaikal, an enclave of Pondicherry) have been severely impacted by the tsunami. “In fact, some have even been wiped out,” the official told IANS. “No help has reached some of the villages. While several VIPs have toured the place to assess the damage, the administration has not focused on the plight of the people here,” the official said. “Instead, the army, oil companies and NGOs like the Red Cross have pitched in with relief,” he said. Sniffer dogs are also being pressed into service to help in the rescue work. Petroleum Minister Aiyar’s Mayiladuthurai constituency in Thanjavur district is also among the areas that witnessed a severe onslaught of the tsunami on Sunday. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is visiting some of the areas to assess the damage to life and property in the culturally and historically important district of the state. With reports of a diarrhoea outbreak in some parts, efforts are being stepped up to provide clean potable water and medicines while the oil companies have pitched in to start community kitchens. “We are taking all precautionary steps to ensure there is no spread of disease and that proper relief is provided to the affected people,” the official said. The condition of people is so pitiable that so far not much attention has been focussed on the state of some ancient temples and places of learning in the district. Some of the structures in the Vedaranyam temple town have been damaged, which makes officials believe that a nearby bird sanctuary at Kodikkarai could also have been affected. —
IANS |
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States using relief fund for routine expenses:
CAG
New Delhi, December 30 The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) of India in its report on “usage” of the CRF by the states since its inception in July 1995, has pointed out that the state governments had been “misusing” the funds by diverting the central grants meant for it to meet their routine expenses, leaving very little to deal with any calamity. That was the reason why state governments had been found lacking in providing effective relief to the suffering people — be it the super cyclone of Orissa, massive earthquake in Gujarat or the present tsunami disaster — that had struck Tamil Nadu, Pondicherry, Andaman Nicobar Islands, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala,
affecting lakhs of people. According to the CAG report on utilisation of the CRF during past decade, most of the states had even failed to set up separate funds under the head to prevent “diversion” of the money. The funds are released to the states in two instalments and the states had to furnish “utilisation certificates”
before receiving the second instalment, indicating the balance in the CRF. According to the available figures, up to the year 2000, the Centre had provided to the states an amount of Rs 10,998 crore for pooling in the CRF but the states had been diverting it to their general expenses. Due to this practice, the states had also suffered a loss of Rs 140 crore as interest on it. During this period a total of Rs 755 crore amount was credited by various states into their general pool revenue accounts and many states had parked nearly Rs 417 crore in their “personal
ledger account/civil deposit”, the report said. As a result whenever any calamity, even of the routine nature like draught and flood affected any state, they threw up their hands as they did not have any money to help the people and had to rush to the Centre for assistance. The reliefs had not met the “intended objectives satisfactorily” due to expenditure by the state on several other items rather than on calamity relief, as was intended to under the CRF scheme, the CAG pointed out. The CAG had expressed grave concern over the failure of the “institutional
arrangement”, particularly for the management of the CRF, which according to it had not been “functioning in the desired manner”. It had equally blamed the Union Government for not setting up the monitoring committees in each state to oversee whether the CRF mechanism was in place and the funds released to it by the Centre was properly utilised. The CAG had pointed out instances where Rs 670 crore was “improperly”
direverted by the state governments to meet their
routine expenses like salaries, wages, purchase of furniture, transport, maintenance and renovation works. An amount of Rs 133 crore was found to be spent in the areas where no natural calamity had taken place during the decade. Since the states had failed to set up the CRFs, there had always been delay in sanctioning the money from the Centre whenever a disaster
struck any of the state because of the “cumbersome” procedure and as a result there had always been a delay in providing
relief to the people in distract, the CAG said. “Due to weak institutional arrangement and ineffective state-level management very little money reached the needy people,” it said. |
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Mangroves saved 5 villages from tsunami
Cuddalore (Tamil Nadu), December 30 When the entire coastline in Cuddalore district was ravaged by the killer tsunamis, Pichavaram and the five villages, which were under the “shadows” of the mangroves, were protected like a “baby in the arms of a mother.” “I have been working on the research and management of mangroves for the past 20 years and for the first time, there is a proof that the
thick forests can act as defence against the devastating high tidal waves,” Dr V. Salvam, Chennai-based M.S. Swaminathan Research Foundation Project Director (Research and Management), said. When contacted by UNI, he said: “it will not be an over-exaggeration if I say that not a single drop of water entered into any of the three villages and two hamlets when tsunami hit the coast on the fateful day.” All three villages — G.S. Pettai, Vadakku Pichavaram and Tirunalthoppu — and hamlets with a total population of 3,500 remained unscathed, thanks to the mangroves. These villages and hamlets are located within a distance of 0.67 km to 2.5 km, but the waves had to “bow down before the forests and withdraw,” Dr Selvam added. The complex and entangled root system of the mangroves stood like a rock and prevented water from entering the Pichavaram tourist spot and the
surrounding villages, he said. “I have been saying all these years that mangroves can prevent sea erosion. This is the first time I got first-hand experience,” he said. —
UNI |
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When death flowed from Mumbai aunty’s hut
Mumbai, December 30 Until a Christmas party thrown by Yogesh Sonawane on Sunday turned deadly. “People began to collapse just minutes after having their drinks,” recalls Shyamlal Yadav, a “paan” vendor in the slum. Sonawane is missing and no one knows if he is alive. The victims were rushed to nearby hospitals where the body count began to move up. Till this afternoon, the death toll has been pegged at 66. Kamble has been arrested and her one-room shanty, a part of which also doubled up as her ‘bar’, has been sealed by the police. Cops was to be blamed equally since they came here often to collect bribes from Asha,” charges Shakuntala, a neighbour whose relatives are recovering in a hospital. A pall of gloom hangs over the slum as every other family has a member dead or in hospital. “People from other areas also came here to drink since liquor was cheap,” adds Prakash Jadhav, a regular at Kamble’s bar who stayed away on the fateful day. All policemen at the small police post less than 100 metres from Kamble’s joint are new here. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R Patil suspended their predecessors from service yesterday. With another tragedy on similar lines claiming 18 lives only on Christmas-eve, Patil has had to answer a few tough questions. Two Deputy Commissioners of Police and two Assistant Commissioners of Police were among the 22 police officials suspended. The Mumbai police has now laid bare a network of illegal distillers who, with the connivance of police, excise and railway officials, used to ferry moonshine across the length and breadth of Mumbai over the public transport network. Police sources say gangsters, with the aid of local politicians, have set up huge stills in the creeks and forests in Mumbai’s outskirts. Fuelled by illegally felled timber, these crude stills spew out distillate squeezed from rotten oranges, black jaggery and a mixture of pure alcohol and chemicals called navsar. Occasionally used car batteries also find their way into the stills. Forest rangers turn a blind eye as the unmatured brew is transported to middlemen aboard private cars and tempos to Mumbai and Thane. The brew is again ‘diluted’ using navsar and other chemicals before being taken to retail hooch joints, the police says. The final trip is often undertaken by fisherwomen who carry the stuff in tubes of tyres along with fish. The police suspects that hooch suppliers at the retail level, the women are known as ‘aunties’ in local lingo, often adulterate the liquor with chemicals for a stronger kick. According to doctors at the public hospitals where Sunday’s victims were admitted, huge quantities of the deadly methyl alcohol were found mixed with the liquor. Maharashtra’s Deputy Chief Minister R R Patil admits that officials at every level are on the take from the bootleggers. Police officers, octroi personnel, excise officials, forest rangers and even drivers and conductors of public buses are known to be paid off regularly by hooch trade. Meanwhile, the politically powerful country liquor distillers are using this tragedy for a cheap liquor policy even as some prominent bootleggers are looking towards their political patrons for help to go legit. Excise Minister Ganesh Naik told reporters here that the state government was mulling lower taxes on countrymade liquor to make it affordable to the masses. “I have called a meeting of the distillery owners to discuss making country liquor cheaper for the public,” Mr Naik said.
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Laloo has time for routine railway functions, not tsunami victims
Kolkata, December 30 Mr Yadav had little word of sympathy for tsunami victims. But speaking at Jiaganj (Murshidabad) and Balurghar (South Dinajpur), he was glad in announcing that he had already ordered the release of Rs 15 crore from the Railway coffers for the tsunami victims. He also declared that the Railways would transport free of cost all relief materials from any parts of the country to the affected places. While Mr Yadav has no time to visit any affected area. He flew to the city last night to be present at several routine inauguration functions which any General Manager or other senior officials could have done. He also flew back to the Capital this evening in the same IAF plane hired by the Railways. Mr Yadav used the Defence helicopters during his day-long stay in the state for attending functions held in three districts within a 500km distance from Kolkata. Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee also skipped urgent work of the disaster management group engaged in organising the relief and rescue operations for the victims just to be present in his constituency at Jiaganj, where Mr Yadav laid the foundations stone for a new rail link-cum-bridge across the Ganga between Azimganj and Jiaganj. Mr Mukherjee, however, had been to the affected areas and made an on the-spot study of the rescue and relief operations at Chennai, Pondicherry and Port Blair.
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UN should balance its priorities:
Saran
New Delhi, December 30 At present, the international order is perceived as having become imbalanced and somewhat distorted, Mr Saran pointed in his keynote address on the “Report of the UN Secretary General’s high level panel on threats, challenges and change”. India, the Foreign Secretary said, felt that the UN was moving more towards playing a regulatory role and on taking punitive action mostly directed against developing countries, which form the largest chunk of members of the world body. A “collective mechanism” was required to effectively deal with the number of challenges on security, environment—like the recent tsunami devastation, and other fronts confronting the international community, he stressed. Regretting that the UN system has remained frozen and no effort made to mould it in line with the dramatic changes in the world, he emphasised the need for more democratisation of the international order through “genuine” multi-lateralism. Mr Saran said India believed that attention should be focussed on the entire gamut of UN institutional reforms, including expansion of the Security Council. The Foreign Secretary said while undertaking reforms of the UN, the aspirations of the developing countries should be taken into account. The UN should act as a promotional agency with stress on developmental aspects. He said it was inevitable that discrepancies crept in when activities were donor-ridden rather than UN-ridden. He said this issue should be addressed taking into consideration the aspirations of the developing countries. |
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Mumbai hooch death toll 77
Mumbai, December 30 The police said 27 persons had so far been arrested for being part of the network supplying spurious booze. |
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Junior seer’s brother
held Chennai, December 30 Raghu has been interrogated by the special investigation team, led by SP of Kancheepuram Prem Kumar, innumerable times over the last month. The police arrested him after questioning him for hours this evening at Kancheepuram, 70 km from here. The police is planning to make him an approver in the murder case, it was learnt. The police will use his statement to nail the Shankaracharya not only in the murder case but also the Radhakrishnan assault case, the second charge slapped on the seer. He has been arrested for his involvement in the murder of Sankararaman, former manager of the Vardaraja Perumal temple in Kancheepuram who was hacked to death by assailants inside his office on September 3. |
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Tripura Governor dissolves TTAADC
Agartala, December 30 The Governor asked Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the TTAADC, S.K. Rakesh to run the administration for six months, Raj Bhavan sources said, adding a notification in this regard would be issued today. The tribal council constitutes two-third of the total state territory where most tribesmen, who constitute one-third of the state’s population, live. Of the 30 members, 28 are elected and the rest two are nominated by the Governor. Till June 7, 2003, the tribal council was ruled by the Indigenous Nationalist Party of Tripura (INPT) but it was reduced to minority on the day as a faction of leaders defected from the party and formed the Nationalist Socialist Party of Tripura (NSPT). The NSPT later came to power in the council with outside support of the CPI-M. However, the NSPT suffered a split and five members from the party again joined the INPT and a delegation of the INPT led by former Chief Executive member of the TTAADC Debabrata Koloy met Governor along with 15 members of the council on December 26. He staked claim for proving majority on the floor of the House. However, the Governor dissolved the council. — PTI
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22 Bihar leaders debarred from elections
Patna, December 30 Official sources said today that the leaders had been precluded from contesting election to either Houses of Parliament or the state legislature for three years. State chief election officer K.C. Saha has written to all district election officers and other election officers on the decision. The leaders are: Bhagwan Lal Sah of Motihari, Dinesh Rai and Brijesh Singh of Maharajganj, Rajeshwar Singh of Chapra, Jainandan Kumar, Umesh Sahni, Upendra Choudhary, Brajkishore Singh and Shambhu Prasad Singh of Vaishali, Anandi Mahto of Barh, Ganesh Yadav, Kuldeep Narain Singh Patel, Mahboob Alam, Shahid Akhtar of Balia, Diwakar Lal Banshi of Bhagalpur, Chandrabhushan Kumar of Nalanda, Vashishtha Paswan, Madan Ram, Dukhi Ram and Pheku Ram of Sasaram and Jagyanand Singh and Satyendra Prasad Yadav of Jehanabad. —
UNI |
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Little headway in JD-LJP alliance
New Delhi, December 30 JD (U) leader George Fernandes today said his party was not dependent on anyone in the fight against the ruling RJD in
Bihar. Mr Fernandes said the LJP leader was faced with the dilemma as he was a minister at the Centre and also wanted to see the ouster of RJD government in Bihar. Responding to queries about the reports of the FIR filed by the Bihar administration against him for allegedly helping a victim of an attempted suicide with a hundred rupee note, Mr Fernandes said he had received no notice from the authorities. Denying the allegation, he said it was a tradition in Bihar for the party workers to accompany the leaders visiting the hospital and he could not be blamed if somebody had given money out of compassion.
Mr Ram Bilas Paswan said his party had already decided to contest all the 243 seats in Bihar and no invitation had been extended to any other party. |
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Best Bakery case re-trial: courts
seeks extension
Mumbai, December 30 Registrar General of the Bombay High Court R. C. Chavan said today that an application had been filed by Special Judge Abhay Thipsay before the Supreme Court but the apex court was yet to decide on it. The re-trial is at a crucial stage with 38 witnesses having been examined. —
PTI |
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Army chopper crashes,
2 pilots injured
Jalpaiguri , December 30 The Army chopper took off from the Hashimara airbase on a routine sortie but crashed over the Damdim tea estate in the Mal area and the wreckage fell over railway tracks disrupting train movements for some time, Superintendent of Police Rahul Srivastava said. Both the pilots of the helicopter, Flight Officer Bharadwaj and Flight Officer Jogesh, have been admitted to the Binaguri Cantonment Army Hospital in serious condition, the SP said. No civilian was injured in the crash. The movements of trains was disrupted for sometime as the wreckage of the chopper fell over the railway tracks, Mr Srivastava said adding the wreckage has been cleared and train traffic has been restored. —
PTI |
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Symbiosis DLit for Sam Pitroda
Pune, December 30 “India has managed to have a good telephonic and communication network because we were able to overcome all odds, scorns and ridicule during the tenure of late Prime Minister Rajiv Gandhi,” he said after receiving the honour. “Rajiv Gandhi era in the mid-eighties focussed on information and communication technology as a tool to drive development and destiny of India which was entering the 21st century,” Mr Pitroda said. He received the honour for his invaluable service to the nation in the fields of telecommunication and information technology. —
PTI
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General Vij back from China
New Delhi, December 30 The agreement was reached during the eight-day visit of Chief of Army Staff General N.C. Vij to China. A press note issued by the Army here said the issue of increasing meeting points along the border was raised by Gen Vij and was agreed in principle by both the sides. Gen Vij, who today took over as the Chairman Chiefs of Staff Committee from Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal S. Krishnasawmy, who retires tomorrow, returned earlier in the morning from China.
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Indian Divas on Sahara
One
Item numbers in Hindi cinema are the latest avenues for ensuring the popularity of movies. Stars are born with one-off item numbers, even lead heroines are performing to popular tracks.
Keeping this in mind, Sahara One is set to bring a show called Indian Divas on your television set on the Eve of New Year at 8 pm. The show includes leading models and actresses like Amrita Arora, Dia Mirza, Gauhar Khan, Ishaa Koppikar, Riya Sen, Priyanka Chopra and Shilpa Shetty. |
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An Army helicopter crashed in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district this morning seriously injuring both the pilots, a senior police official said.
The Army chopper took off from the Hashimara airbase on a routine sortie but crashed over the Damdim tea estate in the Mal area and the wreckage fell over railway tracks disrupting train movements for some time, Superintendent of Police Rahul Srivastava said.
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