New Delhi, April 27
While assimilating all points of view, Congress President Sonia Gandhi clearly reserves the right to revamp the Punjab Pradesh Congress Committee even as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has underlined the need of continuity by retaining H S Hanspal as the chief of the party organisation in the state.

With about 22 months remaining for the Assembly elections in Punjab, a wide cross section of Congressmen from the state insist that the PPCC should be headed by a person having a strong base with the capacity of taking along the highly fractous sections and working in tandem with the Chief Minister in implementing the pledges made to the people.

Capt Amarinder Singh has made a strong pitch for continuity as the party has maintained a winning streak in the three byelections in Punjab. Simply put, the party organisation has delivered thus far in tandem with the government and needs to be geared up further to meet the challenges ahead.

Consequently, the buzz doing the rounds is that the Central leadership might opt for one or two working Presidents to provide direly needed representation to the Scheduled Castes and Hindus. An analysis of the Assembly elections three years ago when the Congress triumphed showed that there were clear fissures in the OBCs and the Hindus opting for a party which campaigned on rooting out corruption, pursuing development and doing everything for the socio-economic uplift of the farmers and the underpriveleged.

A vociferous section of the PPCC believes that the presence of a Hindu and an SC in the party organisation has become imperative if the Congress is to put its house in order and make a sustained bid for retaining power in Punjab. These Congressmen are quick to point out that whenever a Jat Sikh has headed the government, the organisation has invariably been overseen by a Hindu without overlooking the interests of the of the SCs and OBCs. And therein lies the catch for the Congress high command in picking leaders whose influence among these critical sections of the populace cannot be undermined.

They are quick to point out that the Haryana model of having a youthful and energetic working president of the HPCC in Randip Singh Surjewala along with three time Chief Minister Bhajan Lal heading the party organisation in the run up to the Assembly elections in that state cannot be replicated in Punjab as the ground realities and demographic pattern are vastly different. Then the Congress has also to contend with former Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal's SAD which has accused the Capt Amarinder Singh government of running a police state against all Constitutional norms and provisions.

New Delhi, April 27
The government today said there was no proposal to construct another tier of fence along the Line of Control (LoC).

Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee informed the Rajya Sabha that the construction of 734-km fence along the LoC was completed in September last year at an expenditure of Rs 315 crore.

Answering queries on the Kelkar Committee, he said the first part of the report submitted earlier this month had recommended changes in defence acquisition and procurement process. He said the recommendations were under consideration.

In reply to another question, he said 767 obsolete Vijayanta tanks had been offered for disposal through e-auction by Metal and Scrap Trading Corporation.

He said the tanks would be stripped of guns, communication and surveillance equipment. Besides, around 681.72 tonne armament was awaiting disposal by ordnance factories, he added.

He said the government was developing an aerial version of anti-tank missile Nag to be mounted on the advanced light helicopter.

To another query, he said aerial version of Nag was in the advanced stage of development.

He said two contracts were signed in February, 2001, with M/s RVZ Russia for supply of “fully formed T-90 tanks and transfer of technology for their indigenous licensed production.

The Defence Minister said the armed forces lost 37 helicopters during the past five years. He said several measures, including constant review of flight safety of operational/maintenance units and use of simulators, had been taken to reduce crashes.

Mr Mukherjee said the Sikkim Government had requested the Centre to start luxury bus service between Gangtok and Lhasa in context of the opening of the Nathula border. However, he said as per the MoU signed between India and China, it had been agreed to open the Nathula Pass only for limited purposes of border trade.

New Delhi, April 27
Parliament today approved demands for grants for the Railways with the Rajya Sabha returning the Railways Appropriation Bill by a voice vote after Minister for Railways Lalu Prasad Yadav assured that top priority would be accorded to safety and security.

The Bill, which provides for the withdrawal of Rs 91,237.50 crore from the consolidated fund for Railway expenditure during the entire year, was passed in the absence of the entire NDA Opposition.

The NDA yesterday decided to boycott both the Houses of Parliament for three days to protest against the continuation of Mr Yadav in the Cabinet despite charges framed against him in the fodder scam case.

The Bill was passed by the Lok Sabha last week.

Winding up the discussions, the minister said safety and security had been given a top priority and the Railways was taking all-possible steps to bring down the number of accidents.

Asserting that the Railways would use the latest technology to avoid accidents caused by human errors, Mr Yadav said “anti-collision equipment will be installed on all long-distance trains in a phased manner.”

He also assured the Upper House that a blueprint for building a dedicated freight corridor along the Golden Quadrilateral of Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Kolkata would be prepared soon.

Earlier, members demanded for speedier gauge conversion by the Railways to facilitate economic development in the country.

Participating in a discussion on the Bill authorising certain sums for the Railways, Mr P. G. Narayanan of the AIADMK urged raising the annual target for gauge conversion of 300 km in Tamil Nadu to “at least 1,000 km” if the exercise was not to be allowed to continue for “another 10 or 15 years in Tamil Nadu alone.”

New Delhi, April 27
The UPA government found itself being pulled in different directions today.

On one hand, a belligerent opposition began a three-day boycott of Parliament to press its demand for the resignation of Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav after a CBI court in Ranchi framed charges against him in the multi-crore fodder scam.

On the other hand, an equally determined Mr Yadav mounted pressure on Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi to demand the dismissal of the Narendra Modi government and imposition of Central rule in Gujarat. In addition, he is also learnt to have complained about Bihar Governor Buta Singh’s critical remarks about the Rabri Devi government in his separate meetings with the two leaders today. Although Mr Yadav is not saying so publicly, RJD sources maintained the Rail Minister had conveyed his unhappiness with Mr Buta Singh to the Congress leaders.

The meeting also comes on a day when a special CBI court hearing the fodder case rejected the discharge petition filed by Mr Yadav and nine others.

Consequently, the Prime Minister had to do a tightrope walk. On one hand, he tried to end the ongoing stalemate in Parliament when he personally appealed to BJP leaders L.K. Advani and Jaswant Singh to end their boycott. At the same time, he sent out a reassuring signal to the RJD chief when he rejected the Opposition demand for Mr Yadav’s dismissal from the Union Cabinet.

While the PM’s gesture to the BJP leaders was aimed at ensuring the smooth functioning of Parliament, Dr. Singh has also to mollify Mr Yadav, whose relations with the Congress have come under a severe strain after the Bihar Assembly polls. Besides, the UPA government is critically dependent on the RJD’s 25 MPs.

Mr Buta Singh’s interview to a television channel, in which he criticised the functioning of the previous RJD government and favoured the continuation of President’s rule in Bihar for a year, has only served to add the proverbial fuel to the fire. While Mr Yadav did not openly criticise the Bihar governor, terming his remarks merely as “unfortunate”, RJD members hit out at Mr Buta Singh while participating in the debate on the Home Ministry in the Lok Sabha today.

Mr Yadav also spoke to Mr Buta Singh on Tuesday night and questioned him about his interview. The Governor, it was stated, maintained that he had been misquoted and that he would be issuing a clarification.

While lodging a protest over the governor’s remarks, the RJD chief also kept up his pressure on the Congress on the Gujarat front. Talking to reporters after his meetings with Dr Singh and Ms Gandhi, the Rail Minister said there was no question on going back on the demand for Narendra Modi’s dismissal. He also rejected the Opposition demand for his resignation, adding that the NDA protest was essentially a “diversionary tactic”. The Congress, on its part, has gone out of its way to defend Mr Yadav while rejecting the Opposition demand for his dismissal. Party spokesperson P.K. Bansal today made it clear that there was no basis for this demand, recalling that former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had stated in the Lok Sabha in 1999 that it is the Prime Minister’s prerogative to keep anybody in the Cabinet and that, mere filing of a chargesheet or framing of charges, was not enough for his resignation.

New Delhi, April 27
The government today said it was contemplating changes in criminal laws, including those relating to crimes against women, under the Criminal Procedure Amendment Bill to make the punishment more deterrent.

Replying to supplementaries during the Question Hour in the Rajya Sabha, Home Minister Shivraj Patil said states would have to address the problem of violence against the girl child.

He said introduction of capital punishment for rapists could create problems.

Referring to a recent incident in Mumbai in which a teenage girl was allegedly raped by a policeman in a police station, the minister said there were ‘black sheep’ in the police force, but the entire force should not be criticised.

He said the Home Ministry was sensitising the police and had called for strict action against those involved in crime against children and women.

He said international organisations had been told that it would not be proper to contend that crime figures in India were high. He said the figures should be seen in the context of huge population of the country.

In reply to a supplementary by Jaya Bachchan about any government efforts to deal with the psyche of the accused, Mr Patil said it was also the responsibility of the people in the show-business not to glorify crime.

Replying to a question by Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat about the recent reports that fast-track courts were being abolished, he said this should not happen.

He said the Centre had issued guidelines to state governments to give more focussed attention to improving the administration of justice in criminal cases and take necessary measures for preventing crimes against women.

The NDA boycotted the Question Hour.

New Delhi, April 27
Celebrating 150 years of their existence, the Universities of Calcutta, Madras and Mumbai today signed an MoU aimed at offering joint degrees and Ph.D programmes and setting up an online library networking, among other things.

The MoU was signed by the Vice-Chancellors of the three universities at the Rashtrapati Bhavan in the presence of President A.P.J. Abdul Kalam.

The universities had reportedly requested that the MoU be signed in the presence of the President of India, so that it could act as a model for higher education institutions in the country for cooperation amongst themselves.

The MoU envisages setting up of tele-education and high-speed data link facilities for online library networking and resources sharing between the three universities.

It also includes offering joint degree and Ph.D programmes. Setting up of chairs of University of Mumbai, Madras and Calcutta mutually for Marathi, Tamil and Bengali to bring about linkages, both academically and culturally, has also been agreed to.

The universities have also agreed to be partners in the National Research Project on nanosciences and nanotechnology.

New Delhi, April 27
The Supreme Court today reserved its verdict on a petition seeking the deletion of word “Sindh” from the National Anthem since it no more was a territory of India even as nearly half-a-dozen Sindhi organisations in the country opposed a public interest litigation (PIL) in this regard.

A Bench of Chief Justice R.C. Lahoti and Mr Justice P.K. Balasubramanyanan reserved the judgment after over two-hour-long arguments with senior advocate Ram Jethmalani, appearing for various Sindhi organisations seeking dismissal of the PIL with heavy cost, terming it as “whimsical and misconceived”.

The PIL by Sanjiv Bhatnagar had sought the deletion of “Sindh” from the National Anthem on the ground that by reciting it one billion Indian would be singing in praise of a territory belonging to Pakistan. He had sought substituting the word with some alternative world like “Kashmir”.

But Ram Jethmalani strongly contested his claim, saying “Sindh” in the National Anthem — Jana Gana Mana — was not merely a reference to a territory but symbolised the “great Indus Valley civilisation as India derived its name from word Sindhu itself”.

“This symbolises the great Indian civilisation, which flourished in the valley of the Sindhu 5,000 years ago when other parts of the world, which today claim to be more developed, were living in darkness,” Jethmalani said.

Attorney General Milon Banerjee, appearing for the Union Government, placed before the court various letters written by Rabindranath Tagore, who wrote Jana Gana Mana in 1911 and some letters received by him from different personalities, including Mahatma Gandhi, in context of the poem, which was adopted as National Anthem by the Constituent Assembly on January 24, 1950.

He said the documents, especially the clarification offered by Tagore himself, had categorically established that words like “Sindh, Dravid, Maratha, Punjab, Gujarat, Uttakal and Banga” did not refer to any geographic area but symbolised the various civilisations that had flourished in these regions of Indian Union.

The original word in Bangla version of Jana Gana Mana was “Sindhu” and not “Sindh”, which referred to the Indus and the great Indus Valley civilisation, he said.

Both Jethmalani and Attorney General said no doubt Parliament had the power to amend the National Anthem, they feared that the court could issue any mandamus to Parliament in this regard.

New Delhi, April 27
The Prime Minister has constituted a high-level committee to prepare a comprehensive report on the social, economic and educational status of the Muslim community in the country.

The report would help in planning, formulating and implementing policies and programmes besides addressing issues relating to socio-economic backwardness of the community, an official statement said.

Former Delhi High Court Chief Justice Rajinder Sachar is the Chairperson of the committee. The members of the committee are: Mr Saiyid Hamid (educationist), Dr T.K. Oommen (sociologist), Mr M.A. Basith (planner), Dr Rakesh Basant (economist), Dr Akhtar Majeed (academic) and Dr Abu Saleh Shariff (economist) will be the member secretary of the committee.

The committee will submit its report in 15 months.

It will look into various issues and address questions such as finding out in which states, regions, districts and blocks do the Muslims of India mostly live, what is the geographical pattern of their economic activity, i.e. what do they mostly do for livelihood in various states, regions and districts, and what are their asset base and income levels relative to other groups across various states and regions.

It will also go into the details of the level of their socio-economic development in terms of relevant indicators such as literacy rate, dropout rate, maternal mortality rate (MMR), infant mortality rate (IMR) etc. and draw comparative analysis with other communities in various states.

It will also find out the Muslims’ relative share in public and private sector employment and analyse whether is varies across states, and the pattern of such variations.

The committee will also look into the proportion of other backward classes (OBC) from the Muslim community in the total OBC population in various states.

The committee will look into the factors to find whether the Muslims have adequate access to (i) education (ii) health services (iii) municipal infrastructure (iv) bank credit and (v) other services provided by the government/public sector bodies.

The committee will consolidate, collate and analyse the information to identify areas of intervention by the government to address relevant issues relating to their social, economic and educational status.