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No threat to UPA govt, says Karat
Sonia Gandhi reviews development projects
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Left keeps decision on hold
Byelection to 3 LS seats in WB peaceful
Mizoram Cong chief chargesheeted
Hurriyat does not represent people of J&K: Sinha
Villagers made to undergo fire test to prove innocence
Pawar rules out third front
Mayawati is “Daulat ki
Beti”, says IJP chief
Sonia to inaugurate festival in Brussels
Mahant’s resignation face-saving exercise, says Board CEO
Pranab for computer auditing of defence accounts
Border row: Myanmar agrees for survey
Pervez Musharraf blamed for Baluchistan situation
Vikram Seth, Amartya Sen join fight for gays’ rights
VHP accuses Sonia of dividing saints
Blue Revolution focus on northern states
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No threat to UPA govt, says Karat
New Delhi, September 16 Admitting that the Left had influenced the government’s functioning, Mr Karat said it would not do “a veto on everything and pull down the government.” “Then the government would not have lasted even six months,” he told Karan Thapar in an interview with CNN-IBN. Suggesting that there had been no better alternative to the UPA at present, Mr Karat said, “We went into supporting this government knowing fully well that there are basic differences between the Congress and us but the Common Minimum Programme (CMP) should be attempted to be worked at and implemented.” “We have said we don’t want a hastily formed third front, which will be premature and which will not last. So we want to build a more stable alternative which will take more time. We are working towards it...We are starting with policies,” he added. However, the Manmohan Singh government could not breath easy, as the Left would continue to keep the pressure on the coalition government. “We want a detailed discussion (on the nine-page critical assessment of two years in office of the UPA). We don’t want a brief meeting on that. So we are still trying to fix a time for a full-fledged discussion. We need a lot of time. It can’t be just an hour’s meeting,” he said. The Left-UPA Coordination Committee is likely to be held later this month. Mr Karat’s statement is fraught with serious consequences for the government, which will have to give explanations on a number of issues ranging from foreign policy to economic measures and the agrarian crisis as he says the Left’s job was to act as the “sentinel of people’s interests.” He said Left parties want the meeting “exclusively” for discussing the report given in June and “we don’t want any other agenda on the table.” “We have given a very detailed note and we want a very detailed response,” he added. He said the Left had been playing the role of “telling the government that they could do better in certain areas and that we are not happy with certain things which have been done and telling the government that they still have much more to do as per the CMP.” “Our job is to act as the sentinel of what we consider people’s interests and whenever there is a policy measure, which we consider is not in the interest of the people of the country, we oppose it and in some cases we are able to stop but in some cases they went ahead and we continue to mobilise people to oppose it. It is a political process,” he added. Asked about the fate of the controversial Women’s Reservation Bill, he said, “It will have to be taken up in the next session of Parliament” as there was no other way.
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Sonia Gandhi reviews development projects
Rae Bareli, September 16 Some of the electorate handed over petitions to her complaining of shortage of power and lack of roads in their areas, officials said. A large number of people lined up both sides of the road shouting pro-Sonia Gandhi slogans as she arrived in the morning. The Congress chief got down from her vehicle at a number of places to meet people and her cavalcade stopped at Kundan Ganj, Ganga Ganj and Harchandpur where she mingled with the crowd which consisted a large number of women. She also paid obeisance at a Hanuman temple at Churawa near Bacharawan and unveiled a statue of freedom fighter Chandrika Prasad at Gandhi Vidyalaya Inter College, Bacharawan. She left the venue after unveiling the statue without speaking to reporters. She later held a meeting with district officials at the collectorate where she reviewed developmental projects in the constituency and also met block presidents and panchayat members in the town. — PTI
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Left keeps decision on hold
Ranchi, September 16 Talking to The Tribune, the AIFB national general secretary Debabrata Biswas said the majority of members of the party’s Jharkhand unit at its meeting in Dhanbad today favoured to extend “outside support” to the Madhu Koda government based on the Left model of the UPA at the Centre. Mr Biswas said the state committee had empowered the party’s central committee to take the final decision on the nature of its support to the Madhu Koda-led UPA government. “We will sit in Delhi next week to finally decide whether to support from outside or participate direct,” he said. Mr Biswas also did not disagree to the internal contradictions faced by the new government even before it started to govern the state. Sources in the AIFB disclosed that the party was also watching the Congress’ stand on the issue of participation in the government. The Forward Bloc has one MLA in the 82-member House. On Friday, all nine MLAs of the Congress in Jharkhand, including state chief P.K. Balmachu, had authorised the party president Sonia Gandhi to decide whether to support the Madhu Koda government from outside or through direct participation following their closed-door meeting with central observer for the state Noor Banu. Mr Balmachu told the media today that the Congress high command was expected to take a final stand on the issue in a day or two. The Koda government already had suffered a setback on Friday in terms of actual support of MLAs to it following the CPI(ML)’s stand of not to be a party to it. The national general secretary of CPI(ML), Mr Dipankar Bhattacharya, on Friday categorically stated that his party was neither with the UPA nor the NDA. He also had criticised Mr Madhu Koda and other UPA leaders ,including Mr Lalu Prasad, for “unethically” mentioning his party’s support to the UPA before the Governor on Thursday. After CPI(ML)’s lone MLA Binod Singh had distanced himself from the UPA, the actual strength supporting the Madhu Koda-led UPA had already dropped to 42 on Friday, against the projected 43 MLAs on Thursday. In the 82-member House, the minimum required number to form the government is 42, and the UPA’s 42 MLAs are one less compared to the previous NDA government’s strength of 43. Meanwhile, the UPA partners today met at Hotel Ashoka to discuss the formation of a coordination committee and a steering committee to be headed by the JMM chief, Mr Shibu Soren. The formations of the steering and coordination committees, which would meet at least once in a fortnight to monitor the functioning of the Madhu Koda government, was an idea put forward by the UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi. Mrs Sonia Gandhi has also asked the UPA partners to work out a common minimum programme to rule the state on the lines of the UPA at the Centre. The meeting of UPA partners further decided that in the absence of Mr Shibu Soren, Mr Madhu Koda would chair the meeting of both the steering and coordination committees. Going by available indications from the meeting, it was learnt that only four ministers, Mr Madhu Koda and three others, who had defected with him from the NDA, would take oath on Monday. This was reportedly in view of the crucial floor test of the new UPA government on or before September 25 and the wafer-thin majority of it with the support of the “just required” 42 MLAs in the 82-member House. It was learnt that Mr Shibu Soren as well as the state RJD chief Gautam Sagar Ran favoured expansion of the ministry with distribution of portfolios only after September 25 once the UPA could win the trust vote on the floors of the Assembly. The sources disclosed that differences already had cropped up within the UPA partners on issues related to the distribution of portfolios and also finalising the issue of the deputy chief ministership as claimed by the JMM, major partner of the UPA. The RJD too reportedly was an aspirant for the post of the Deputy Chief Minister. The Congress, though reportedly unlikely to directly participate in the government, was eyeing to bag the post of the Speaker.
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Byelection to 3 LS seats in WB peaceful
Kolkata, September 16 The byelection in Malda drew attention of all since the Congress stalwart, late Ghani Khan Chowdhury, won the seat in the past five consecutive terms when the state’s most of the Lok Sabha seats went to the CPM and its other Left Front partners. This time, late Ghani Khan Chowdhury’s younger brother Abu Hashen Khan Chowdhury (Dalu) was the Congress’s candidate in a fight against CPM leader Sailen Sarker, a state minister, who had lost to the late Congress leader in all past elections. Of the two other Lok Sabha seats, the byelection to the Katwa constituency seat in Burdwan district was necessitated following the sudden death of CPM MP Mehbood Zehadi. On this seat, TMC candidate Sushanta Ghosh fought against the CPM incumbent Abu Aayesh Mondal. The Congress sacrificed the seat in favour of the TMC. In Purulia the byelection was held following the resignation of Forward Bloc MP Birsingh Mahato after his getting stricture from the Supreme Court for his “involvement” in a rape case. For this seat, Mr Santiram Mahato of the Congress contested the election against the Forward Bloc candidate Narahari Mahato. In the Bongaon byelection, TMC stalwart Saugata Roy contested the seat against CPM candidate Pankaj Ghosh, who had lost to the former TMC candidate, late Bhupen Seth. The Congress did not field any candidate but supported Mr Roy whose victory would ensure the TMC’s “opposition status” in the Assembly. The TMC fell short of one seat (29) for getting the opposition.
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Mizoram Cong chief chargesheeted
Aizawl, September 16 Additional Public Prosecutor Aldrin told the media here today that besides Mr Lal Thanhawla, Mr Jodhraj Baid, a non-tribal businessman, and Pushpa Sharma, former accountant of Mr Baid, both co-accused in the case, appeared before the court. The next date of hearing was fixed on October 4. Mr Lal Thanhawla was accused of amassing wealth of almost Rs 2 crore, disproportionate to the known sources of income, during his chief ministership for two consecutive terms since 1989. On June 29, the Guwahati High Court dismissed the petition by Mr Baid challenging the appointment and competency of Special Judge P. Singthanga to try the case. Mr Baid thereafter appealed to the Supreme Court, which dismissed his petition on September 1. Mr Lal Thanhawla later told mediapersons here, “I still do not have a criminal case against me and will have it only after the court finds it fit to frame charges against me.” The former Chief Minister’s case dates back a decade ago when income tax officials raided some business establishments in Aizawl, Silchar, Guwahati and Kolkata on September 13, 1995, for allegedly finding evidences that Mr Lal Thanhawla and a Union minister were swindling public money in connivance with some wealthy businessmen.
— UNI
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Hurriyat does not represent people of J&K: Sinha
New Delhi, September 16 After releasing a book ‘Solving Kashmir’ by Lt-Gen Mohan Bhandari (retd) here, he said,“The media projection that, both within our country and internationally, makes you feel that the separatist elements are the true spokesmen of the people of Kashmir. I think that is very misleading.” “The Hurriyat as they are called and even other separatist groups, do not have a single person in their organisation from the non-Kashmiri speaking people in the Valley nor the Hindus or Sikhs,” he said. “There is not one group, there are four or five of them, apart from the main political parties. So choose for yourself who the true representatives are,” he said. In the foreword to the book the Governor has written that the Indo-Pak composite dialogue process and the confidence building measures hold the key to the resolution of the Kashmir problem. He also favoured both countries making the Line of Control (LoC) “irrelevant”, which he said could lead to both India and Pakistan “fighting unitedly against common enemies like poverty, ignorance and disease”. Releasing the book he said he had noticed tremendous appreciation for Army’s civic assistance programmes for the locals and that Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf’s ideas of self-rule, joint control and demilitarisation did not have any relevance. “Wherever I have gone in the state, there has been a demand for Army to help out the residents. Army has been the mainstay of innovative civic action programmes after the devastating earthquake and the floods. There is a demand that development assistance should be given through the Army,” he said. “In this context, I am at loss to understand when people talk of self-rule, joint control,
demilitarisation. what exactly do they mean. Musharraf has given these out of the box solutions,” he said. He dismissed the idea of self-rule and said that the 2002 elections in the state had been hailed even by the international media for being free and fair. He added that even other solution like demilitarisation could not be accepted as India was surrounded by neighbours who had violated and attacked the Indian territory so “it was a necessity to guard our borders”.
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Villagers made to undergo fire test to prove innocence
Jaipur, September 16 The police arrested five village panchayat members in connection with the case and they were remanded in seven day judicial custody today. Devgarh police station in charge in the district has been suspended. The panchayat of Ranpur village conducted the orthodox ‘agni pariksha’ (trial by fire) on September 10t and made to undergo the “test to prove they were innocent”. They were told to dip their hands in a pot of boiling oil and those who suffered burns would be “proven guilty”, he said. The villagers were called to a nearby hamlet and made to undergo the test to prove they were innocent. They were told to dip their hands in apot of boiling oil and those who suffered burns would be proven quilty, he said. The ritual was stopped after some 40 villagers dipped their hands in and suffered severe burns, Mr Bohra said. The villagers later protested against the test and police came to know of the incident in a local daily yesterday. One of the victims Laxman Meena agreed to lodge an FIR after which the five ‘panchs’ — Amra, Arjun, Deva, Bhagwati and Dheerji — were arrested, the ASP said.
— PTI
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Pawar rules out third front
Dehra Dun, September 16 Addressing a press conference ahead of the third national convention of the party, the Union Agriculture Minister said there were just two coalitions at the national level — the UPA and the NDA. Asked about the possibility of the formation of a third front for the 2009 elections, he said, “I cannot say anything about 2009 or 2014 ... I am not an astrologer.” He also brought the Congress under renewed pressure on the issue of broadbasing of the
UPA-Left coordination committee demanding representation for all constituents of the coalition on the body. “The NCP cannot understand the logic of having a Congress-Left coordination committee. We demand the constitution of a
UPA-Left coordination committee in which all UPA partners have representation,” the party said in its draft political resolution. The resolution calls for sharing power by way of sharing public offices of higher responsibilities among coalition partners.
— PTI
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Mayawati is “Daulat ki Beti”, says IJP chief
Lucknow, September 16 “The manner in which Ms Mayawati is managing BSP affairs, it is clear that she is least concerned about the interests of Dalits and backwards,” IJP UP unit chief Kalicharan said addressing a news conference here this afternoon. He alleged Mayawati was blatantly selling party ticket for the 2007 Assembly poll in UP. “It does not matter if the ticket-seeker is a criminal or a non-political person. The highest bidders are being given the BSP ticket,” Mr Kalicharan added. The IJP leader also sought to know the logic behind BSP organising ‘Brahmin sammelans’ across the state. “It is the same party which had coined the slogan of ‘Tilak, tarazu aur talwar, unko maro joote chaar’ is now trying to woo the upper castes. This shows their commitment towards the emancipation of the marginalised sections,” he said. “Ms Mayawati is the biggest manipulator of Dalit votes. She has now become ‘Daulat ki Beti’ and is befooling the ‘Bahujan Samaj’ by proclaiming herself as ‘Dalit ki Beti’,” the IJP leader said. — UNI
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Sonia to inaugurate festival in Brussels
New Delhi, September 16 She is, however, expected to make an exception in the coming months. She is learnt to have accepted an invitation to inaugurate month-long India Festival, being organised by the Indian Council for Cultural Relations
(ICCR), in Brussels in November. Ms Gandhi’s first trip abroad as the UPA chairperson was to Bangkok two years ago. She was invited to address the closing ceremony of an international AIDS conference at that time. She had used the opportunity to interact with world leaders. That was followed by a four-day visit to Russia last year as President Vladimir’s personal guest. Ms Gandhi’s trip was seen as a major step in cementing the traditional relations between India and Russia. In view of her interest in social issues, she was invited by former US President Bill Clinton last year for a programme on AIDS but she could not make it as the timings coincided with Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s visit to the UN General Assembly in New York. Invitations from China and Pakistan are pending, but she has yet to accept them. Congress insiders maintain if Ms Gandhi does decide to journey to Islamabad and Beijing, it will only be after the Prime Minister undertakes his long-pending trips to these politically sensitive countries.
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Mahant’s resignation face-saving exercise,
New Delhi, September 16 However, terming his resignation as “more of a face-saving exercise”, Chief Executive Officer of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board Arun Kumar said today that “preserving the conditions conducive to the formation of the Lingam is something which needs to be done”. “Pandits have been known to resorting to means to make the holy Lingam more impressive”, Dr Arun Kumar, Principal Secretary to the Jammu and Kashmir Governor, who was in the Capital in connection with the setting up of a state-of-the-art cancer hospital at Katra by the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board, told The Tribune today. The “bhoomi pujan” of the hospital will be held in October and the 200-bedded hospital is expected to be ready by next year. It will be the first cancer speciality hospital in the state and is being set up by the Mata Vaishno Devi Shrine Board at the cost of Rs 50 crore. On the much-publicised Lingam controversy and its fallouts, Dr Arun Kumar said the state government had issued the Mahant a show-cause notice on September 11 to explain why he did not contact the CEO or the management of the Amarnath board before approaching the Press on the issue when as a member of the board was very much party to all decisions taken by it. Mahant Deepinder Giri has been associated with the board, headed by the state’s Governor, as a member since its constitution in 2001. He, however, resigned from the board yesterday, saying that the raising of an artificial lingam at the holy cave had hurt sentiments of the pilgrims and for this he was dissociating himself from the board. He also raised objections to expert services being sought regarding refrigeration of the Lingam and called it an act against age-old traditions and against the sanctity of the yatra. “It appears to be a face-saving exercise. When he was asked to present his case before the Justice K.K. Commission he never bothered to do that,” Dr Arun Kumar said. Sources though also add that the Mahant appears to have been hauled by his parent akhara in Hardwar on issues pertaining to him, he being the sole trustee of the Trust set up by him after he had received the amount from the government in the wake of the constitution of the board. There is another issue pertaining to some shops next to a temple in Jammu, of which the Mahant is a trustee, being associated with his resignation. The CEO said the priority of the board was to preserve the Lingam for which two ideas had been shortlisted: installation of radiating cooling system and providing a cooling curtain at the holy cave. “Local interested parties, including pandits, pony wallahs and tent wallahs, have their own agenda, but broadly the objections are based along the lines that preservation of the lingam by artificial means is a sacrilege,” he said. “This year the weather was unusually hot. In the face of changing weather patterns and an increase in the number of devotees, steps need to be taken to preserve the conditions conducive to the formation of the Lingam. This is something which need to be done, has been done in the past as well and is a standard practice in all over the world”, he added. He said the board has taken several steps, including those for preserving the ecology and making the yatra more safe and comfortable for devotees. The RITES had been asked to carry out a study on setting up a direct rope-way till the shrine. It plans to build a ropeway and start a chopper service to the holy cave.
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Pranab for computer auditing of defence accounts
New Delhi, September 16 Addressing the meeting of the consultative committee attached to the Ministry of Defence, he said, “With greater devolution of financial powers, the role of internal audit will need to be reinforced further.” A press note issued by the ministry said the minister was of the view that besides traditional methods of auditing, the department needed to explore emerging frontiers such as auditing through computers. He said the department should examine the efficiency of existing oversight mechanism with a view to identifying and managing risks. Complimenting the 260-year-old department, Mukherjee said it had ensured that the benefits introduced by the government for the defence pensioners from time to time were delivered to the intended beneficiaries promptly, efficiently and in right measures.
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Border row: Myanmar agrees for survey
New Delhi, September 16 In the eight-page minutes signed by the two sides today after the four-day Home Secretary-level talks, the two sides agreed to hold a meeting of Surveyors General next month to fine-tune the modalities for the conduct of survey, aimed at resolving the dispute pertaining to nine boundary pillars spread over around 28 km at Chandel district in Manipur. The meeting would be held either in Moreh (Manipur) or Kolkata or Tamu in Myanmar, a top Home Ministry official told The Tribune, after the minutes of the meeting were signed by Union Home Secretary V.K. Duggal and Myanmar Deputy Minister of Home Affairs Brig Gen Phone Swe. On New Delhi’s demand for flushing out North-east insurgent groups operating from that country, Yangon, though not willing to accept the presence of insurgents, agreed to take necessary measures to flush them out if India handed over list specifying their location. In this context, the Indian side brought to their notice the list of camps of insurgent groups like ULFA, NSCN(K), NSCN (IM), UNLF and PLA, already handed over to Yangon by Ministry of External Affairs, the official said. Another important step forward in fostering economic ties between the two countries, Yangon accepted New Delhi’s proposal for opening another trade point in Pangsu in Arunachal Pradesh. Already there are two trade points — Moreh (Manipur) and Zowkhtr (Mizoram). In fact, India had proposed Eight new trade points. However, the Myanmarese side wanted India to help them create infrastructure for opening the trade point at Pangsu, the official said. The two sides also agreed to evolve a mechanism to further strengthen bilateral cooperation on the issues related to security, drug trafficking and border management and intensify patrolling and surviellence along the border.
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Pervez Musharraf blamed for Baluchistan situation
New Delhi, September 16 In its September-14 report entitled “Pakistan: The Worsening Conflict in
Baluchistan”, the ICG has said tension between the government and its Baluch opposition had grown because of “Islamabad’s heavy-handed armed response to Baluch militancy and its refusal to negotiate demands for political and economic autonomy.” It warns that the killing of the Baluch leader, Nawab Akbar Khan
Bugti, “will likely lead to more confrontation”. It says that the conflict could escalate if the government was to insist on seeking a military solution to what is a political problem. The ICG makes a wry comment on the international community, particularly the US, and says that the situation in Baluchistan could worsen if Washington failed to recognise the price that is involved for security in neighbouring Afghanistan. “But the international community, particularly the US and its Western allies, seem to ignore the domestic and regional implications of the Baluchistan conflict, instead placing their faith in a military government that is targeting the anti-Taliban Baluch and Pashtuns and rewarding pro-Taliban Pashtun parties.” It says the politically and economically marginalised Baluchis view the insurgency as a defensive response to the perceived colonisation of their province by the Punjabi-dominated military. The ICG notes that at present there was little support for secession. Militant sentiments could grow if Islamabad does not reverse ill-advised policies. The policies identified by the
ICG, which must be avoided by Islamabad, include: exploitation of Baluchistan’s natural resources without giving the province its due share; construction of further military garrisons to strengthen an already extensive network of military bases; and centrally driven and controlled economic projects, such as the Gwadar deep sea port, that do not benefit locals but raise fears that the resulting influx of economic migrants could make the Baluch a minority in their homeland. Pakistan’s failure to accept the legitimacy of the
Baluchis’ grievances and the federal government’s reliance on coercion and indiscriminate force to silence dissent could spell doom for the Musharraf government. “The military government should recognise that it faces conflict not with a handful of sardars but with a broad-based movement for political, economic and social empowerment. The only one way out is to end all military action, release political prisoners and respect constitutionally guaranteed political freedoms,” the ICG concludes.
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Vikram Seth, Amartya Sen join fight for gays’ rights
New Delhi, September 16 The Section 377 of the Indian Penal Code, which criminalises homosexuality, has already been challenged in the Delhi High Court. Vikram Seth has joined the gay rights movement in India, while accepting “ I’m a gay — or partly gay” in an interview to the NDTV Managing Editor Barkha Dutt. It will be telecast tomorrow. “I think it would be very cowardly for someone like me who in a sense is already in the public eye not to speak out on an issue which is as important as this because even if 5 per cent of the Indian population is gay, and that is a very conservative estimate, that means 50 million people and their happiness and the happiness of their family and those whom they love is involved,” he said. Claiming that large number of gays in India were harassed by the police and society, so they have decided to challenge it in the court and debate it in the public. “There have been several cases where the police has gone after gay men, in Lucknow and other places and there is a wider point to be made and in this case, the point is not originally with me, it’s with Amartya Sen…. who is very much in favour of this petition and has, in fact, written a letter to support it,” he said. The protesters have argued that though it was premature to raise the issue of gays’ rights like adoption of children and their entry in military and other government services, the government and courts must recognise their relationship as normal one.
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VHP accuses Sonia of dividing saints
New Delhi, September 16 Briefing newspersons about the two-day meeting of VHP’s apex decision-making body, the Kendriya Margdarshak Mandal, which began here today, VHP president Ashok Singhal said ongoing efforts to hold talks with Muslim leaders on the issue of construction of a Ramjanmabhoomi temple were not only purposeless but were also creating confusion in society because many attempts in the past to talk with the Muslim community leaders had failed. “Muslim leaders have been running away from the truth and they have been shifting their stand on the issue”, Mr Singhal said. Mr Singhal said the VHP’s apex decision-making body considered its duty to clarify to these leaders that the parishad wanted a temple at the disputed site without a mosque and would not allow a Babri Masjid anywhere in the country.
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Blue Revolution focus on northern states
New Delhi, September 16 If successful, the fish production will increase manifold not only in the coastal states, but also in northern states, including Punjab, Haryana and UP. Armed with an allocation of Rs 2,100 crore for six years to develop the fishery sector, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar has agreed to consider the proposal of the National Association of Fishermen (NAF) to promote fish farming by involving panchayats and banks. “At present, about 1 lakh ponds in the country are not being put to any use and these can be allotted to the traditional fishermen, living below poverty line, for fish breeding. Financial institutions, like NABARD, should be involved in funding these schemes. This will help generate employment for 10 lakh fishermen whose families can be brought above poverty line,” said NAF working chairman B.S. Chauhan. Mr Chauhan, who is also member of the National Fisheries Development Board, said the proposal had been submitted to the board headed by Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar. He said, “Blue Revolution will have a direct bearing on the socio-economic condition of millions of fishermen who also happen to be among the poorest”. He urged the government that fisheries should be treated on a par with agriculture so that funding of schemes fish farmers could be easier. Meanwhile, the Agriculture Minister has decided to hold a meeting of public sector banking associations to convince easier flow of funds to the fishermen. In fact, with changing food habits in northern states, demand for fish is growing rapidly. In a city like Ludhiana, said industry experts, fish producers had a readymade market, thanks to the presence of around 10 lakh migrants in the city. Delhi gets its supply from far-flung Kolkata and Patna. Mr Chauhan claimed that organised sea food exports were expected to be around Rs 6,000 crore annually. The country should work with a target of Rs 20,000 crores by 2011. He urged that government should increase funds allocation for the sector to at least to Rs 15,000 crore for strengthening infrastructure, including fish-landing facilities, conversion of all boats to motor boats by 2010, fuel subsidy for small boats, and research and development sector.
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Kashmir link to Malegaon blasts
Mumbai, September 16
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8 new tiger reserves
New Delhi, September 16
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