The Tribune

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Monday , July 13, 1998

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Pakistan ready for talks on CTBT
ISLAMABAD, July 12 (PTI) — Pakistani Premier Nawaz Sharif has expressed his willingness to negotiate on the signing of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty (CTBP) indicating that Islamabad’s stand on the crucial issue is no longer linked with that of New Delhi’s.
"Pakistan has its own policy and we will take decisions in the interest of the country," the Pakistani premier told reporters here last evening while answering a question whether Islamabad would negotiate on the CTBP even if New Delhi refused to ink the treaty.
"We are ready for an exchange of views on the issue (CTBP), but will take a final decision in the supreme national interest," Mr Sharif said.
Pakistan’s stand had hitherto been that it would sign the CTBT only after India does that.
Mr Sharif’s comments on the CTBT came amidst media reports that an IMF delegation, which was here a few days back, had indirectly told the Pakistani leadership to sign the CTBT for the resumption of the $ 1.56 billion loan which has been suspended under pressure from the G-8 countries after the nuclear tests.
The veiled offer was delivered to Mr Sharif by the IMF Director, Paul Chabrier, a leading English daily The Nation claimed quoting a senior government official.
The IMF board is meeting in Washington tomorrow to decide the fate of the loans to Pakistan which now finds itself in a mounting economic crisis.
On the Indian offer of no-first-use of nuclear weapons, Mr Sharif said his government was ready for talks on every issue and that was why he had responded to the offer of talks in Colombo later this month.
The Pakistani Premier is scheduled to meet his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee on the sidelines of the 10th SAARC summit in Colombo from July 29 to 31.
Mr Sharif, however, regretted that talks with India had not produced results in the past.
He, however, expressed hope that his first meeting with Mr Vajpayee would produce "some positive results" and said, "I have received his (Vajpayee’s) letter and hope that we will have fruitful discussions in Colombo."
Reiterating Islamabad’s demand for a third party mediation in Indo-Pak bilateral matters, Mr Sharif called upon the United Nations and major powers of the world to play their role for the resolution of the Kashmir issue.
"We want the United Nations, G-8 and P-5 to play their role in the resolution of the Kashmir dispute," he said.
"Kashmir was the root cause of all problems between India and Pakistan," Mr Sharif said, adding that "I have once again taken up the issue with the UN Secretary General and have asked him to get the resolution on Kashmir implemented."

Forged CM’s letter for liquor vends
From Ravi S. Singh
Tribune News Service
GURGAON, July 12 — If tipplers and bootleggers here made the ill-fated prohibition of the Haryana government look hollow, there are others who though unsuccessfully forged a letter of Chief Minister Bansi Lal to take possession of liquor vends after the state went wet.
The Deputy Commissioner and the police chief, Gurgaon, Messers Devender Singh and Khushi Ram, respectively, revealed today that two persons involved in the racket have been arrested. Both of them — one claimed to be a freelance journalist with an electronic media — are said to be residents of Delhi.
The two had entered into a deal with the sarpanch of Gurgaon village to sell him four liquor vends(falling in "L 2" category) allotted to one of them by Chief Minister Bansi Lal from his discretionary quota. The deal involved Rs 2 crore and the sarpanch had reportedly paid a sum of Rs 50,000 to the two by way of earnest money.
The racket came to light after the sarpanch met the Deputy Commissioner, Gurgaon, to verify the authenticity of the documents presented to him by the fake allottee (Mr Subhash Chabbara) relating to the possession of the vends.
The documents consist of a forged letter from the chief Minister. The dubious letter is addressed "To whomsoever it may concern" and recommends all "possible" help to Mr Chabbara. The letter also praises Mr Chabbara for his social works. The documents also include a forged letter by a senior officer of the excise department in the name of Mr Chabbara regarding allotment of the vends to him.
Showing alacrity, the police nabbed the two while they had taken the sarpanch along with them to show him the sites of the vends. The two accused have been booked under Sections 420 and 34, IPC and taken in police remand for further investigations.
The police allegedly is also investigating the possibility of involvement of any government official in the crime.
The Deputy Commissioner has asserted that no official would be spared if his involvement in the crime was established.

New hydro power policy next month: Kumaramanglam
Tribune News Service
SHIMLA, July 12 — The Centre is formulating a comprehensive national hydro power policy to remove the bottlenecks which came in the way of expeditious execution of hydel projects in the country.
This was stated by Mr P.R. Kumaramangalam, Union Power Minister here today while inaugurating a two-day national seminar on "hydro power-strategies for speedy development", organised by the state electricity board.
He said the draft policy would be ready by the second week of August which would be referred to the standing committee of Parliament before the final approval. It would address to all problems, including the rehabilitation of persons dislocated because of the construction of projects, and pave the way for the exploitation of the vast hydel power potential in the country in a time-bound manner. His endeavour would be to ensure that the shape of hydel power generation was increased to 31 per cent by the end of the tenth plan and subsequently to 50 per cent.
Expressing concern over the declining share of hydro sector in the state generation, which came down to 25 per cent from 37 per cent since the Fifth Plan, he said serious efforts were required to identify the factors responsible for the slippage and take effective measures to reverse the trend. He said lack of transparency, indifferent execution and indecision were the main reasons for the time and cost overruns in hydel projects.
Referring to the contentious issues like the grant royalty to states on hydel projects through imposition of Generation tax, as proposed by Himachal, he said the Chief Ministers of all states should sit together and evolve a uniform policy so that the independent power producers and other executing agencies could know the actual cost of generation. Adhoc policy in this regard only created problems and complicated matters, he added.
Mr Kumaramanglam said the government was also considering to set up a power trading corporation which would make it easier for the states and independent power producers to take up projects across the country.
He said the government had already charged the classification of small and micro hydel projects to speed up development of hydro power. Instead of 3 MW, projects up to 25 MW capacity would now be come under the small and micro projects.
The minister said he would also review the decision to withdraw subsidy on micro hydel power projects taken by the earlier government.
Regarding the Chamera-II he said the National Hydel Power Corporation (NHPC) had decided to invite fresh bids for the execution of the project. The earlier bid was found to be on the higher side and since the prices of machinery had since come down, more reasonable bids were expected.
The NHPC and the state power board were also in the process of finalising agreement for the execution of the 2051 MW Prabati Project. The Centre would provide all assistance to the state for investigations and execution of new projects.
The Centre would not hesitate in taking up the Kol Dam project which had been hanging fire since long. The state would hold negotiations with the existing bidder for execution in joint sector. However, if it did not find the offer attractive the NHPC would step in to ensure that the project was not delayed any further.
He said he had directed the chairpersons of the NJPC and the state power board to prepare document regarding the disputes pertaining to service matters of the employees of the board, who were on secondment with the corporation, so that he could settle the issue once for all.
Earlier, the Chief Minister, Mr P.K. Dhumal, urged the Centre to give liberal grants to state government for preparing shelf of projects by undertaking detailed survey and investigations of hydro-electric schemes. Besides, documentation should be simplified and standard documents of the award of bids like request for quality, request of price, power purchase agreement and implementation agreements should be prepared and circulated to all the hydel states, the procedures for obtaining clearance from the CEA and the Environment Ministry also required to be simplified and a time-frame worked out for these clearances.
He said there was a need to extend the fixed tariff regime along with concessions which were applicable to projects up to 3 MW capacity, to projects up to say 20 MW capacity. The power Ministry would have to evolve a similar policy along with provision for interest subsidy in a like manner. This would go a long way in giving a kick-start to the projects in the small hydro segment.
Mr Sukh Ram, a former Power Minister of the state, said the argument that hydel project were capital intensive and had a long gestation period was no longer valid. He said by creating a competitive environment and streamlining the procedures for execution of projects the cost of projects could be reduced to a half.