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Rodrigues for consensus on
US visa: students from North can get emergency appointment
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NCP may withdraw
Dy CM in Goa
MP Cong leader opposes Digvijay on ‘Vande Mataram’
Deve Gowda’s misgivings on metro ignored
Manipur conglomerate up in arms against Central Government
Sonia in Russia, all decisions
on hold
Don’t bow to US pressure: CPM
US official’s visit to boost defence trade
M’rashtra deports 3 US missionaries
Isolate terrorist designs, urges Left
Indian names for 2 planets
Natwar leaves for Norway tomorrow
A novel way to plant, grow trees
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Rodrigues for consensus on inter-state disputes
New Delhi, June 14 Speaking at the Governors Conference here at Rashtrapati Bhavan, General Rodrigues proposed formulation of a committee of Governors to examine some of the more contentious inter-state disputes and to suggest measures to resolve them. Drawing attention to the increasing number of inter-state disputes, he said the states concerned often tended to take a selfish, parochial view. There was also a perceived notion that justice may not be done through the
existing dispute-redressal system. In some cases the time taken to announce awards and in others the authenticity and the relevance of the data collected makes the exercise suspect in the eyes of the public and the state concerned, he said. Expressing concern over the menace of drug addiction among the youth and spread of AIDS and female foeticide, the Punjab Governor proposed the launching of missions on a national scale for tackling these problems. He pointed out at lack of emigration policy as another area of serious concern. Describing the law and order situation in Punjab as satisfactory, General Rodrigues informed the meeting that there was “comparative harmony” in the state. The inability of the institutions and the systems that were designed to implement government policy and
initiatives, is not only threatening maintenance of law and order but also the body politic and hampers efforts to rid the country of the scourge of poverty, disease and illiteracy, he said. The Punjab Governor, who also holds the charge of Administrator, Chandigarh, laid special emphasis on upgrading the existing airport to international standards and to develop Chandigarh as an export hub for fruits and vegetables for the states of Jammu and Kashmir, Uttaranchal, Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, western Uttar Pradesh and north Haryana. This would also send a clear message to our farmers that we are serious about changing our cropping pattern, he said, adding that Chandigarh should not be viewed in the context of a city of one million, but that of a vibrant region with a population of over six crore. |
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US visa: students from North can get
New Delhi, June 14 The Embassy observed that those changes had now been seamlessly integrated into the visa application process to ensure a quick processing of bona fide students. Emphasising that the basic eligibility criteria for students have not been changed, the Embassy said the visa policy was based on the principle of “secure borders, open doors.” When making an appointment for a student visa, the following rules apply: l First time students should schedule their visa interview as early as possible but ideally not more than 90 days before the school start date. l First-time students cannot enter the US more than 30 days before their start date. Continuing students with a valid visa can return at any time. l Students from North India can request an emergency appointment if they are unable to schedule an interview in time to attend school. (However, students with more than two US visa refusals within the past six months cannot apply for an emergency appointment and will need to schedule a regular appointment online when one is available.) While applying for a student visa, the applicants should:
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NCP may withdraw
Dy CM in Goa
New Delhi, June 14 NCP spokesman D P Tripathi told mediapersons here that the Congress and the NCP had reached an understanding before the elections on making all those MLAs ministers who resigned their membership and were re-elected. The Congress has violated this understanding by including only its MLAs in the Council of
Ministers, he said. Asked about alternatives the NCP was contemplating, he said the party might withdraw the Deputy Chief Minister while continuing to support the government from outside. “We don’t want the BJP to benefit from the situation,” he said. Mr Tripathi said the party had sent Mr Tariq Anwar and Mr Chhagan Bhujbal to Goa for discussions. The NCP was sore over non-inclusion of a party MLA in the recent expansion of the Goa Cabinet. Asked about the possibility of Mr Varun Gandhi joining the NCP, he said it could not be discounted. To a question about Mr Varun Gandhi meeting senior NCP leaders, Mr Tripathi said such meetings took place in politics. He said the NCP should be given proper representation in all decision-making processes of the UPA and a mechanism should be evolved to
strengthen the alliance. On Bihar, Mr Tripathi said the party favoured unity among the secular forces. He said in the last poll, the party had contested independently and won three seats. Referring to the NCP national convention at Surat on June 10, Mr Tripathi said the UPA allies and Left parties lauded the political role of NCP chief Sharad Pawar. Mr Kamal Chaudhary, former MP, who joined the NCP recently, was also present at today’s press conference. |
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MP Cong leader opposes Digvijay on ‘Vande Mataram’
Bhopal, June 14 In a letter to Mr Digvijay Singh, she has wondered how a person like him could endorse the communal agenda of the BJP Chief Minister. If singing of “Vande Mataram” in government offices promoted patriotism, why didn’t he himself start the practice during the 10 years of his chiefministership, she has asked. Ms Jamuna Devi, who was Deputy Chief Minister in the Digvijay Singh Cabinet, has reminded the former Chief Minister and now AICC general secretary that the BJP government was using “Vande Mataram” for furthering the party’s communal agenda as the BJP leaders had done earlier with the slogan of “Jai Shri Ram” and then demolished the Babri mosque. She has also reminded Mr Digvijay Singh how the RSS and VHP cadres had raised a slogan, “Bharat mein rehna hai to Vande Mataram kehna hoga,” to frighten the minorities. Meanwhile, Chief Minister Babulal Gaur has directed the General Administration Department (GAD) to issue necessary instructions for singing “Vande Mataram” in government offices and government schools. He has already introduced the practice of singing “Vande Mataram” at Cabinet meetings. |
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Deve Gowda’s misgivings on metro ignored
Bangalore, June 14 Mr Deve Gowda, who was on a high only 10 days ago after wresting the Chamarajpet Assembly seat in a byelection from the Congress, suddenly finds himself isolated on the metro issue. Chief Minister Dharam Singh has made it clear that there will not be any going back on the issue which has been cleared by the state Cabinet and had already obtained other necessary clearances. Addressing a press conference today, Karnataka Congress Committee chief B Janardhan Poojary did not stop at this only. He accused Mr Deve Gowda of taking the state backwards, saying if this continued Karnataka would find itself in the company of states like Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. If Mr Deve Gowda kept on suspecting everything, people would soon suspect his bonafides, Mr Poojary said, adding that the state Congress would have to consider launching a fight against such “irresponsible statements”. He also asserted that only a metro project with its high carrying capacity vis-a-vis a monorail project could be considered for implementation in the state. Mr Deve Gowda’s own party is sending out signals that it will try to remove all misgivings of its leader about the project. Mr Siddaramaiah, who is the JD (S) representative as Deputy Chief Minister in the government, today said that he would talk to his party chief and remove the latter’s misgivings about the metro project which, he said, had been conceived “keeping in mind the interests of the people of the state. Mr Deve Gowda’s son and JD (S) State working president H.D. Kumaraswamy is also feeling the heat on the issue. Responding to a question, he claimed that his father was not against the metro project and that the JD (S) did not have any problems with either the metro or the monorail projects. The posture adopted by Chief Minister Dharam Singh on the issue indicates that this is one demand of Mr Deve Gowda which is not likely to be met. Official sources said that with clearances having been obtained, the government was keen to see that the metro project took off next month after being under discussion for years. However the former Prime Minister’s concern for realignment of the metro in case it calls for demolition of large structures could be addressed. Mr Deve Gowda earlier, while raising objections to the metro rail project, had suggested to the government that it could consider a monorail project in its place. The former Prime Minister had claimed that the monorail project being cost-effective would also not cause large-scale urban upheaval in the city. He had also demanded that the implementation of the project be halted and a high-level committee be constituted to evaluate the project. The metro project will come up for clearance tomorrow at a meeting of the Public Investment Board in Delhi. The Union Government is contributing Rs 1,000 crore for the project. The remaining Rs 4,000 crore, estimated to be spent on the project, is being financed from various financial institutions, including Japanese banks. |
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Manipur conglomerate up in arms
Imphal (Manipur), June 14 Both hardliners and moderates of the conglomerate had launched a fierce agitation last year after the brutal rape and murder of Manorama Devi, allegedly by certain jawans of Assam Rifles. At that time, the activists had demanded to repeal the AFSPA. The conglomerate argued that if the Centre did not require such a law in any other parts of the country to deal with the law and order problem, including the Naxalite menace, why such a law was required in Manipur. During his last visit to Manipur in November Prime Minister Manmohan Singh assured the conglomerate to review the Act and subsequently constituted a five-member committee headed by Justice B. P. Jeevan Reddy in this connection. The committee submitted its report to Union Home Minister Shivraj Patil last week after interacting with a cross-section of people, political parties, social organisations, NGOs over the past six months. While the Union Home Ministry was yet to make public the contents of the report, the Apunba Lup here is angry over the news that despite the public opinion to repeal the Act, the committee reportedly suggested amendment to some clauses of the law to give it a “human face”, instead of repealing the Act. The Assam rifles and the Army have advocated to retain the Act. The hardliners in a statement said there was no point retaining the Act because the whole world now knew how the security personnel could violate human rights by taking advantage of such an Act. |
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Sonia in Russia, all decisions
on hold
New Delhi, June 14 Whether it is the all-important organisational reshuffle, the appointment of state unit chiefs, the reconstitution of the Congress Working Committee (CWC) or even the Cabinet reshuffle — all have been pushed back as none of the senior leaders are available in New Delhi. While Congress President Sonia Gandhi is away to Russia on a four-day visit, other party functionaries are also out. Party General Secretaries Ambika Soni, Janardan Dwivedi, Margaret Alva, Oscar Fernandes and Digvijay Singh are out, leaving AICC Treasurer Motilal Vora to hold the fort here. As most party offices remain locked, the only refrain to be heard in the party headquarters is that no major decision can be expected till after Ms Sonia Gandhi’s return on June 17. Consequently, everything is in a limbo. Major issues awaiting Ms Sonia Gandhi’s attention include the reconstitution of the CWC and the AICC secretariat, necessitated by the organisational elections conducted recently by the party. Similarly, PCC chiefs have to be appointed. Though some names, which were cleared by Ms Sonia Gandhi before her departure for Russia, may be announced in the next few days, most of them will be named only next week, it is stated. The organisational changes are linked closely to the impending Cabinet reshuffle as there is a strong possibility that some Congress ministers could be accommodated in the party set-up. Ms Sonia Gandhi will also have to turn her attention to the upcoming Assembly elections by initiating serious strategy sessions on these elections. The pending Cabinet reshuffle or expansion is likely to be the first item on the agenda to be tackled by her, it is learnt. These changes have been necessitated because of the vacancies caused by Sunil Dutt’s death and JMM leader Shibu Soren’s resignation. Besides, there are several states like Kerala, Orissa, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Himachal Pradesh which have presently no representation in the Cabinet. This anomaly needs to be addressed especially since Kerala is among the states where Assembly elections are due early next year. Former Chief Minister A.K. Antony, who was recently accommodated in the Rajya Sabha, is a front-runner for this slot. Ms Ambika Soni and Mr Anand Sharma are also being mentioned as probables for ministerial berths. With the exception of Mr
Soren, the new faces will be limited to the Congress as there is a belief in the party that the allies have been given sufficient representation in the government. Several ministers, like Mr Mani Shankar
Aiyer, who have two portfolios, may have to shed their additional responsibilities. |
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Don’t bow to US pressure: CPM
New Delhi, June 14 “The Prime Minister, during his visit to Washington next month, must convey India’s stand that it will not give up this project due to the American pressure,” the CPM polit bureau in a statement said. The Left party said India and Pakistan should not give up the Iran-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project and reject the US “pressure” against it. Observing that US was “stepping up pressure” to scuttle the project, the party Polit Bureau said in a statement that Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice recently conveyed to Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri that the project “could violate Iran and Libya Sanctions Act” passed by the USA. “This blatant pressure by the USA should be rejected by both India and Pakistan”, it said, adding that the US “pressure” came in the wake of Iran, Pakistan and India setting up a joint working group to take forward the pipeline project to bring Iranian gas to India. According to Pakistani media reports, while Kasuri at his meeting with Rice made out a strong case for Islamabad opting for the project, Rice told him that the project could violate Iran and Libya Sanctions Act of 1996 of US (ILSA), which forbids more than $ 20 million investment in the Iranian oil sector. Rice informed Kasuri that the project was against US laws and the violator could be deprived of American economic assistance and may also face sanctions, Pakistan daily ‘Dawn’ had reported. While Pakistan received about $ 1 billion (US) aid a year since 2002, the US monetary assistance to India amounted to a mere $ 25 million and it buys much of its weaponry from Russia and EU countries, the report said. Pakistan has stated that a decision on the proposed gas pipeline passing through its territory will be taken to suit its national interest, despite the reported US warning of sanctions. Mr Kasuri laid out Pakistan case in opting for the project arguing that his country had strong economic and political reasons to opt for the project. While Pakistan could earn 600 million a year from the pipeline, it also shared vast borders with Teheran. |
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US official’s visit to boost defence trade
New Delhi, June 14 US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State in the Bureau of
Political-Military Affairs Gregory M. Suchan met senior officials here today in the ministries of Defence and External Affairs and discussed the broad issues that have cropped up time and again in securing high tech products in the fields of aviation, avionics and naval systems. In a brief interface with mediapersons, Mr Suchan said he envisioned a significant expansion of defence cooperation between the two countries. “We’ve had ups and downs in our relationship but now our defence trade should truly reflect the nature of our prevailing ties..” Steering clear of Washington’s concerns about growing energy ties between India and Iran, he said his country had taken note of the New Delhi’s gas tie ups with Teheran. Mr Suchan said the US administration was upbeat on the sales and transfer of technology to India in strategic areas. He disclosed that for the first time since 2002, US arms and systems sales to India had touched almost $1 billion. He said so far 1320 licences for arms hardware worth $ 300 million and 156 agreements worth more than $ 688 million had been authorised. With the State Department going fully electronic by the year end, clearances for arms sales licence will be much shorter. Mr Suchan said Washington was insisting no change in the end use and no retransfer of technology to third countries without the US approval. He said that US was firm in its arms embargo policy with a “no go” situation in respect of countries like Iran and China. |
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M’rashtra deports 3 US missionaries
Mumbai, June 14 The police said the three missionaries, Philip Craig Allen, Clover Steve Edwards and Richard Wayne Jenel, were questioned for carrying out evangelisation activities while in India on a tourist visa. They were put on a US-bound flight at a.m. after they could not provide satisfactory replies to the immigration authorities, the police said. Another missionary, who was with the three, was, however not deported, the police said. A group of eight missionaries, including some Indians, were assaulted by suspected Shiv Sena activists on Saturday night while they were holding Bible classes at Malvani in suburban Mumbai. The local Koli, or fisherfolk, residents of the village alleged that the missionaries were luring Hindus to convert to Christianity. Some Christian organisations in Mumbai have demanded a probe into the assault on and deportation of the missionaries. |
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Isolate terrorist designs, urges Left
New Delhi, June 14 The CPM and CPI said in separate statements here that the terrorist attack had occurred at a time when the peace process was going on and confidence-building measures were being strengthened. They said the Central Government should not be deterred from pursuing its efforts for talks on the issue even while taking all measures to prevent such ‘’mindless violence’’. The CPM Politburo said the “pre-meditated attack was meant to kill a large number of the civilian population.’’ ‘’In the recent period, extremist groups have targetted schools and crowded areas in Srinagar and other places...’’, the Left party said adding that such attacks were coming at a time when serious efforts were on to create a congenial atmosphere for peace and dialogue on the Kashmir issue. Stating that terrorists were trying to scuttle the peace process, the CPI Central Secretariat said yesterday’s bomb blast was one such desperate, inhuman and dastardly act of the terrorists. |
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Indian names for 2 planets
Chennai, June 14 S. Sharanya and P. Senthalir were then Class XI students at Avila Convent in Coimbatore, India. Competing in the science fair, they presented a thesis that the “neem (margossa)” extract could suppress branching in eucalyptus. The team of the two won the Fourth Grand Award in the international section of the competition that year. Their guide was M. Paramathma, head of the tree-breeding department at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University. Today Sharanya is a student at the Coimbatore Institute of Technology and Senthalir a student of IT at the Kumaraguru College of Technology. “Never in our wildest dreams did we think that planets will be named after us,” the two say, delighted that Mars rocks will have Indian names too. Even as scientists give rocks on the red planet Indian names, these two young women have already theirs up in the galaxy.
— IANS |
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Natwar leaves for Norway tomorrow
New Delhi, June 14 Mr Natwar Singh and his Norwegian counterpart Petersen will also have a restricted session of talks at which bilateral, regional and international issues of concern will be discussed. EAM will call on King of Norway Harald V and
Prime Minister Kjell Magne Bondevik. He is also scheduled to meet the Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs of the Norwegian Parliament. Norway was among the first countries to publicly extend support to India's candidature for a permanent seat in the United Nations Security Council. Mr Natwar Singh’s visit also assumes significance because of the ongoing celebrations of Norway’s centenary of independence. Norway has declared India to be one of the 11 participating countries for these celebrations and an ICCR troupe will perform there in October. |
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A novel way to plant, grow trees
Bangalore, June 14 Under the scheme ‘Spoorthi Vana’, which also means ‘inspiring forest’, one has to pay Rs 500 per tree, which will be used to plant a sapling, to rear and protect it till it becomes self-sustaining. The NGO ‘Parisara’ and the state government have formed a committee to take up the project.
— PTI |
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