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Inflation is under control, says Manmohan
Mamata’s condition worsens as strike continues
Saraswati can spring water: ISRO
Mullaperiyar dam: TN, Kerala ministers to meet today
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Election Commission team to visit UP
Ex-Colonel alleges HUDA apathy
16 years on, assurance given in Parliament stands unfulfilled
Dalits get right to enter temple in Keredagada
22 cr in BPL list by next year, says study
Conductor killed in bus fire
War room leak: Navy Captain questions dismissal
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Inflation is under control, says Manmohan
New Delhi, December 17 Dr Singh said that the inflation over which the Finance Ministry had expressed worry earlier, had been contained. “The price signals facing our private sector are now well-aligned with the international prices,” he said. The Prime Minister was speaking after releasing a report on rural infrastructure prepared by the economic think tank. “Inflation is largely a monetary phenomenon. We are taking steps on monetary and fiscal fronts,” Dr Singh said. The inflation had fallen to 5.16 per cent during the week ended on December 2 from 5.30 per cent. It stood at 5.45 per cent two weeks earlier. During the corresponding period last year, inflation was at 4.44 per cent and the upward trend during the current financial year had sent worrying signals to the Finance Ministry. Finance Minister P Chidambaram earlier this week had told Parliament that increase was only “fly in the ointment”. He was of the view that inflation in the range of 4 per cent was within the tolerable limit. The TATA- sponsored report on rural infrastructure, released by Dr Singh proposed that the government should provide some subsidy for the private sector for the development of rural infrastructure. It said that such subsidy was necessary because rural infrastructure development required whopping amount of Rs 1,58,313 crore. Grant of subsidy would attract more private players in the development sector. The main focus of the report was on basic requirements like building of homes for vast rural population, roads, telecommunications, electricity, water supply and sanitation. It said that the poor infrastructure in the rural areas was mainly due to non-existent private investment and the entire burden being borne by the government with its limited resource mobilisation. The private players were only interested in investing money where they expect immediate or assured returns, but this trend needed to be changed if overall development of the country is to be achieved.
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Mamata’s condition worsens as strike continues
Kolkata, December 17 The TMC leadership was in a dilemma about the future course of agitation on the Singur issue. A section in the party wanted that Ms Banerjee should call off fast and instead, launch a stronger agitation, getting all other like-minded parties and farmers involved in it. While others favoured that she should continue the strike for some more days, if possible, this would force the Chief Minister to withhold the land transferring to Tata Motors. Ms Banerjee, who till last evening was firm on continuing the fast, today virtually became incapable of communicating. But still she could scribble a few lines on a small blackboard, stating that she would be ready to die than to suddenly calling off the strike. Ms Banerjee today again appealed to Mr Bhattacharjee to stop the eviction of poor farmers from Singur. Instead, Tata Motors be allotted a similar plot of land in the adjacent areas which was barren land and under the possession of the government, she suggested. Interestingly, the Congress, under the leadership of Union Information Minister Priya Dasmunshi, has decided to launch a mass agitation programme at Singur against the transferring of farmlands to industries. But party working president Pradip Bhattacharyya and Somen Mitra said they were not aware any of such programme. Meanwhile, Lok Sabha Speaker Somnath Chatterjee has appealed to Ms Banerjee to call off the strike and come to the negotiating table with the Chief Minister. State Assembly Speaker Hashim Abdul Halim too made similar appeal. A new batch of over 1,000 workers and supporters, including about 200 schoolchildren of the Kishi Bachaoo Committee, today observed mass hunger strike at Singur. In Burdwan, Jalpaiguri, Siliguri, Howrah and 24-Parganas (North) districts, the TMC and other supporting parties organised road blockades and held demonstrations. In the Naxalite-prone areas in Midnapore, Purulia, Bankura and Birbhum, fresh rounds of violent activities started last evening in protest against the government’s pro-capitalists decisions. At Bankura, several posters were distributed among schoolchildren inviting them to join the Maoists movement against the CPM’s policies.
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Saraswati can spring water: ISRO
Bangalore, December 17 The river may never flow again but its channel could provide much needed potable water all along the parched stretches of Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan. The space agency, which first used satellite mapping data to chart the course of the ancient river which is said to have disappeared a few thousand years back, has now come out with new data in a recently tabled report which proves the existence of the river on the ground. ISRO has dug up 23 tube wells along the course of the river mapped by it across 70 kilometers west of Jaisalmer in Rajasthan. The results have been startling. All the wells have provided good quality drinking water with very little Total Dissolved Salts (TDS). The water itself was found at a depth ranging from 35 to 60 meters which is unusual for the area which is covered with sand dunes. The Bhabha Atomic Research Institute, which tested the sediments as well as the quality and age of the water, has concluded that the water belongs to a palaeo (underground) source. The isotopic analysis of the water also indicates it has no connection with the The space agency is buoyed with the findings. Its Jodhpur Regional Centre Head Dr J.R. Sharma told TNS that the organisation had recommended to the Rajasthan Government to increase the number of wells in the channel to provide potable water to settlements in the desert area. “The river can be re-channelised through a line of wells in its course,” says Dr Sharma who is convinced that only a river of the magnitude of the Saraswati could have left behind the huge underground lake of water still present in its channel. “We also dug a well 50 meters away from the channel and yielded water with very high TDS content proving quality water exists only around the old river bed of the extinct river,” he added. ISRO has, in its report, recommended a detailed exploration of palaeo channels in other districts of Rajasthan and in neighbouring states of Punjab and Haryana to define the extent of channels, their thickness, depth, quality and age of ground water. This, Dr Sharma said, will help in preparation of a master plan for exploitation of ground water occurring in the palaeo channels for use by humans and cattle in the parched regions. Remote sensing studies and ground hydro-geological investigations have indicated that 25 to 30 tube wells can be supported per square kilometre with sufficient spacing between the wells to avoid over-exploitation of ground water. According to the report, the prominence and the width of the palaeo channels on the satellite data, supported with data from archaeological finds, age and quality of ground water, sediment type confirmed that Saraswati had its major course through the present day Ghaggar river and further passing through parts of Jaisalmer and adjoining region in Pakistan and finally discharging into the Rann of Kutch. Furthermore, ISRO has also for the first time, tallied the course of the Saraswati river charted out by it through satellite imagery and ground water drilling with the archaeological sites discovered in the region. Out of the archaeological sites discovered by the Archaeological Survey of India in the Saraswati river basin, 54 sites of early-Harappan and Harappan period falling in western Rajasthan fall along the channel marked by ISRO. The agency observed that most of the archaeological sites of the Harappan period discovered in Ganganagar and Hanumangarh districts fall along the Ghaggar river, indicating Ghaggar to be on the palaeo Sarasvati course.
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Mullaperiyar dam: TN, Kerala ministers to meet today
New Delhi, December 17 Kerala Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan and his Tamil Nadu counterpart M. Karunanidhi had met in the Capital on November 29 but they failed to arrive at any immediate solution to the problem. The Centre has already clarified that it would just act as a facilitator and not “impose solutions on the two states as water was a state subject”. But the intervention and advice of the Centre and the Supreme Court helped make some progress with the two sides agreeing to continue the dialogue process at the ministerial level and find an amicable settlement. Interestingly, a similar meeting on the issue in 2000 had not lasted beyond a few minutes. In continuation of the recently held dialogue, Irrigation Ministers and Chief Engineers of the two states will meet once again in the presence of Mr Soz and the Chairman of the Central Water Commission. Tomorrow’s meeting will be crucial considering that Mr Karunanidhi has said that in case the talks fail to make any progress, he would be left with no option but to approach the SC again. Mr Soz appears to be quite hopeful that the talks would yield positive results. But he also said that the Centre was not in a position to impose solutions on the two states. “We cannot impose solutions on the two states as water is a state subject. The two states should try and sort out their differences with or without the help of the Centre,” he told The Tribune on Friday. The talks had been arranged by the Union Water Resources Ministry amidst the two neighbouring states toughening their positions on the issue of the water level in the 111-year-old dam in Kerala’s Idukki district, bordering Tamil Nadu’s Theni-Dindigul-Madurai farm belt. The problem had further intensified with road blockages on the border becoming the order of the day ever since the problem intensified. Kerala’s contention is that raising the storage level above 136 ft will endanger the safety of 3.5 million people living downstream in five districts of the state. Tamil Nadu, on the other hand, wants the water level to be increased to 142 ft as per the SC’s order. In today’s meeting, the major point of difference was the question related to the safety of the dam. The Kerala Chief Minister suggested that the construction of a new, technically sound dam, near the existing one, keeping in mind both safety concerns and availability of water for Tamil Nadu as an alternative solution. He said the existing dam had been constructed when the technology for building dams was much inferior to present day technology. But Tamil Nadu, shot the proposal of the new dam down, saying that the existing dam was quite safe and that there was no doubt about its safety. Mr Karunanidhi said Tamil Nadu had completed all major strengthening works, adding that there was no doubt about its safety aspects of the dam. He stressed that raising the height of the dam was necessary to irrigate lands in two lakh acres of drought-prone districts.
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Election Commission team to visit UP
New Delhi, December 17 Mr Gopalaswamy, accompanied by election commissioners Navin Chawla and S.Y. Quraishi, are expected to visit different districts to review the work on updating electoral rolls prior to the elections, due early next year. The commission will visit the state after receiving reports from 21 poll observers, deputed to different divisions to ensure that the work on fine-tuning electoral rolls is completed in time. The poll observers had been dispatched to the state to oversee the progress by election commission machinery and ensure that no wrong names were retained in the electoral rolls to avoid any controversy. As per observers’ reports, over 24 lakh names of dead persons or those who had shifted from one district to another had been removed from electoral rolls so far. The commission had fixed January 3 as the date for the publication of revised electoral rolls and public objections could be received thereafter. Though the sending of observers to assess the work at the booth level had proved effective in weeding out names, the commission was yet to fully assess their reports for identifying areas where intervention was required. A preliminary assessment of observers’ reports had indicated that there were certain areas of concern and the visit would focus on those. The commission’s main focus would be on larger divisions like Meerut, Kanpur and Agra, besides Lucknow, to ensure free and fair elections.
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Ex-Colonel alleges HUDA apathy
New Delhi, December 17 Since then, he has been taken for a ride by the officials concerned due to which his chances of owning an industrial unit have become bleak, thanks to the apathy of HUDA and the Directorate of Industries, Haryana. “After the possession of the plot, the HUDA officials allegedly raised objections to my building plan and surprisingly, the form of sanction of building plan was issued to me after inordinate delay by the Estate Officer, HUDA. After that, they issued a show cause notice stating that the construction was required to be completed by March 30, 1998, and asked me to produce an evidence for the cause of delay,” Colonel Bhargava said. He had met with an accident in July 1999, resulting in serious brain injury. “I was bedridden till December 2002. Prior to that, my financial position was not too sound to construct a unit on the allotted site. These facts were conveyed to the officials and I requested them to grant extension on compassionate ground. I agreed to pay the penalties, despite that no reply was given by the officials,” he said. Later on, the matter was referred to the Directorate of Industries, Haryana. In the meanwhile, HUDA issued notice for the payment of additional price in November 2001, which I did not deposit as the reply on extension of time was still awaited, the Colonel said. “I am still awaiting the reply. All efforts in this regard have proved futile. I belong to a family of freedom fighters. I fought many battles successfully, but now my whole family feel defeated in the hand of bureaucracy. ”
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16 years on, assurance given in Parliament stands unfulfilled
New Delhi, December 17 One might be wondering what was the question that has left the government pondering for an answer for more than a decade and a half. The member had sought the details of the complaints that were received after the setting of the Shikayat Adalat along with the details of action taken thereon on April 4, 1990, to the then Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Nilmani Routray. These adalats were set up to look into the grievances of the CGHS beneficiaries and the rest of the public about treatment at the Central Government hospitals. The minister had then stated that the requisite information on the actions on complaints were being collected and would be laid on the table of the House. However, after groping in the dark for years, the ministry had now sought the dropping of the assurance on the pretext that the old files pertaining to the issue were not traceable. The ministry contended that a lot of improvement had taken place in respect of the CGHS and an inspection committee had visited the CGHS office and submitted a report for further improvement. Expressing its displeasure over the manner in which the assurance was handled, a parliamentary committee on assurances headed by Mr Harin Pathak observed that it “cannot remain satisfied with this (inspection committee).” “The committee would like to be informed of the number of inspections made by the inspection committee during the past three years along with the steps taken in pursuance thereof to redress the grievances of the beneficiaries/ public and also the status on the implementation of the assurances,” the report said. Mr Pathak said, “The committee cannot but express its unhappiness over the manner in which the assurance was handled by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as well as the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs”. After the submission of an interim/part implementation report as claimed by them way back in 1990, the Minister of Health and Family Welfare never bothered to look into the precise status of the implementation of the assurance. “Strangely enough, after one and a half decade, the ministry has now citied files not being `traceable' as a ground for dropping the assurance. The committee deplore the casual attitude of the ministry in the matter of fulfilment of the assurance and desire that this situation should be remedied forthwith,” it said. The committee noted that the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs intimated the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in September 2000 that the implementation report forwarded by it in 1990 was treated as part implementation only and thereby requested it to liquidate the assurance. They later reminded the matter in February 2006, after a period of six years. “All these further indicate the manner in which matters relating to assurances are dealt with by the ministry. The committee is equally surprised that it took 10 years for the Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs to respond to the references made by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare,” the report observed.
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Dalits get right to enter temple in Keredagada
Kendrapara (Orissa), December 17 The upper caste Hindus, who launched a hunger strike yesterday en masse and appeared to be in a belligerent mood over the Dalits’ entering the 300-year-old Jagannath temple in the village last Thursday, finally agreed to abide by the decision of the administration. The incident caused a sharp divide between upper caste Hindus and Dalits of the area with the priests stopping the rituals at the shrine. A meeting was held in the village today attended by Revenue Divisional Commissioner (central division) Suresh Mohapatra and DIG of police (central range) S.K. Upadhyay. After an intense debate, upper caste villagers agreed to let the Dalits into the shrine and offer prayers as the former were doing and an amicable settlement has been reached, Superintendent of Police Shatrughna Parida, who was present at the meeting, said. It was also decided that a wall with nine holes, which stood in front of the temple to allow the Dalits to look at the deities and offer prayers from there would be demolished. A new gate would replace the wall and serve as another entrance to the shrine, the SP said. The situation was slowly returning to normal in the area but the police would continue to be alert till complete normalcy was restored, he said. The upper caste residents, belonging to 22 hamlets, which neighbour Keredagada, had expressed strong displeasure when it was learnt that four Dalits had entered the shrine incognito last Thursday. A stream of Dalits, mostly women and children, then made a beeline for the temple but could not have ‘darshan’ of the deities as the priests locked the sanctum sanctorum. The routine rituals in the temple also was stopped since then. The situation became tense when the upper castes staged a hunger strike outside the temple accusing the district administration of being responsible for “desecration” of the shrine. They, however, agreed to call off the hunger strike when Rabindra Narayan Bhanja Deo, a scion of the erstwhile ruling family of the area and interim trustee of the temple, arrived last night and persuaded them to end the stir. He also directed the priests to commence the rituals in the temple which was taken up after ‘maha snan’ of the deities. But the upper castes continued to fret and fume over the incident and vowed to continue their opposition. The administration convened the meeting between the two groups first at the block town of Rajnagar, about six km from Keredagada, but it was latter shifted to the village. —
PTI
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22 cr in BPL list by next year, says study
New Delhi, December 17 With 5.35 crore people in the BPL category, Bihar is projected to be the home of the highest number of poor in India by the end of 2006-2007, the official study says. Among union territories, Delhi will top the list with over 3.38 lakh persons living below the poverty line making the National Capital their home while Daman and Diu, Goa, Chandigarh, Pondicherry and Lakshadweep will be able to wipe out poverty, reporting almost a negligent number under the category. According to the National Building Organisation (NBO), 43.18 per cent of the projected total population of Bihar will be living amid abject poverty as the country gears up for the 11th Five Year Plan to begin from next year. The NBO is a nodal agency of the government responsible for collection, collation and dissemination of data on urban indicators. However, as far as Bihar is concerned, despite having the highest BPL population there appears to be some relief from the fact that its urban poor population at 54 lakh will be significantly less when compared to Uttar Pradesh, which is estimated to have 1.11 crore poor people living in urban areas. According to the report, Uttar Pradesh will report a total 4.84 crore people as BPL population States that will report over one crore BPL population by 2007 include West Bengal, Orissa and Maharashtra, while Madhya Pradesh will become the abode of a staggering over two crore BPL community during the same year. The compendium is silent on the number of BPL category in J & K by 2007.
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Conductor killed in bus fire
Porbandar, December 17 According to the police, the incident took place at around 2 am and a battery short circuit seems to be the cause of the fire. Earlier, reports said miscreants had torched the bus. The conductor was identified as Rambhai. The driver was admitted to Porbandar hospital where his condition was stated to be serious. Following the incident, ST employees of Porbandar and Mangrol went on a strike, which they later called off, ST sources here
said. UNI
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War room leak: Navy Captain questions dismissal
New Delhi, December 17 In a point-by-point rebuttal to claims made by the Navy in its affidavit to the Delhi High Court, Captain Kumar - who was sacked last year after being held guilty by a Naval Board of Inquiry that probed the war room leak - has informed the court that the “grounds given by the respondents for avoiding a court-martial are specious and invalid”.
— PTI
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Jessica case judgement Second term sought for Kalam Jagannath temple reopens ‘Laden’ hunted down Naga leader shot dead
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