Sunday, February 14, 1999

• Congress ‘not interested in SAD tussle’
• Principal held for raping student
• Solar eclipse on Feb16

Sharif may accompany Vajpayee to Delhi
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 — The Pakistan Prime Minister, Mr Nawaz Sharif, is likely to be the fellow passenger of the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, on his return bus journey from Lahore to Delhi on February 22, according to highly placed sources.

While Mr Sharif would be in the Indian capital, the BJP-led coalition government is seriously contemplating to bring the Pakistan Premier to the Indian Parliament which would begin its Budget session on February 22, the party sources said.

“We are debating whether it would be appropriate to make Mr Sharif address a joint session of Parliament”, they maintained.

Meanwhile, reports from Islamabad indicate that Mr Sharif’s secretariat has asked the Pakistan Tourism Development Corporation to make necessary arrangements for Pakistani Premier to board the Lahore-Delhi return bus. A team from the Ministry of External Affairs is already in Islamabad to finalise details of Mr Vajpayee’s visit to Pakistan. The Pakistani side is also planning a public rally at which Mr Vajpayee would have an opportunity to reach the people of Pakistan through his oratory.

Mr Sharif is said to be very keen to have a public rally which would be jointly addressed by him and Mr Vajpayee. The Pakistan Prime Minister is said to be highly impressed with Mr Vajpayee’s oratorial reach.

Indian official sources did not rule out a public meeting for the Indian Prime Minister saying that this would help in generating a conducive environment for improving bilateral ties.

The sources said Mr Vajpayee would lead at least a 100-member delegation, including a team of journalists, to Pakistan. The number may go further up as media has evinced a strong interest in a trip to Pakistan with Mr Vajpayee. The Ministry of External Affairs is flooded with requests from the electronic and print media.

The sources said that both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Sharif are aware of the pitfalls on the road to better ties between the two South Asian neighbours which have 50 years of less than friendly relations. There are deeply entrenched vested interests which would go to any extent to sabotage the joint initiative of the two Prime Ministers, observers pointed out adding that they would have to remain consistent and firm in their approach.

For tactical reasons, both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Sharif would publicly maintain their postures on Kashmir but in their one-to-one talks they would make serious efforts to evolve a formula for solving the problem, the sources said.

Both Mr Vajpayee and Mr Sharif are of the view that the process of normalisation of relations between the two countries can only be taken to its logical conclusion if the people of two countries supported the move. The two Prime Ministers, on their part, would have to approach the bumpy road of Indo-Pakistan relations in a spirit of give and take. “Accommodation of mutual interests would be the key to success”, the sources said.

The two-day interaction between Members of Parliament of the two countries, sponsored by the Jang Group of newspapers, has already helped in building up positive atmosphere. The Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi went out of the way to facilitate the journey of the accompanying reporters.

UP police inspector's murder solved
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, Feb 13 — The Delhi Police today claimed having solved the murder of Uttar Pradesh Police Inspector Pritam Singh in Ghaziabad, after interrogating Rajan Tiwari, an associate of gangster Sri Prakash Shukla, who was arrested from the residence of a BJP MP on Friday.

Inspector Pritam Singh, who had a long stint with the Special Task Force, Ghaziabad and Meerut Division, was shot dead by car-borne persons in the morning of November 5, 1998, when he was returning home after a morning walk.

Four persons travelling in a white Maruti car fired at the Inspector when he was about to climb stairs leading to his house.

Deputy Commissioner of Police (Crime), Karnal Singh, said that Rajan Tiwari, (25) disclosed that a conspiracy to eliminate Inspector Singh was hatched by DP Yadav, Pappu Yadav and Rajpal Tyagi.

D.P. Yadav is a sitting member of the Rajya Sabha, Pappu Yadav is a former MP and Rajpal Tyagi is a sitting MLA of the Samata Party in UP Assembly.

Inspector Pritam Singh was known for being tough with criminals and mafia operators of Ghaziabad and Meerut districts.

The DCP said that Rajan Tiwari during questioning stated that Rajpal Tyagi had approached Suraj Bhan, a gangster presently lodged in Patna jail, to arrange men and weapons for the operation to eliminate Inspector Singh.

Rajan Tiwari stated that he was personally directed by Suraj Bhan, whom he had gone to visit in Beur, Patna Jail to reach Delhi where Lallan and Munna Shukla would meet.

The accused disclosed that DP Yadav had given a "Supari" of Rs 15 lakh to them to eliminate Inspector Singh as he suspected that the UP police officer was instrumental in the escape of the wanted criminal, who had murdered his elder brother Ram Singh Yadav in 1997, the police said.

Rajan Tiwari disclosed that the conspiracy was hatched at the house of Pappu Yadav in which DP Yadav, Pappu Yadav, Pratap Malik, Lallan Singh of Mukama, Munna Shukla of Muzaffarpur and Ritesh Mishra of Patna participated.

To give effect to conspiracy plan, Rajan Tiwari along with Lallan Singh, Ritesh Mishra and Munna Shukla eliminated Inspector Singh. The gangsters were paid Rs 15 lakh a day before the day of incident.

Rajan Tiwari also disclosed that he along with Devender Dubey, an MLA of Bihar Assembly had killed one Jitender Singh, also a criminal in 1997 in Motihari, Bihar. Devender Dubey was later killed by the members of Brij Bihari Prashad gang.

Rajan Tiwari also disclosed that he was being motivated by Pappu Yadav, DP Yadav and Pratap Malik to eliminate Munna Bajrangi presently lodged in Naini jail, Allahabad, however, the plans could not be finalised.

Rajan Tiwari further disclosed that he was to go to Motihari to eliminate one Vinod Singh, a member of Brij Bihari-Prashad gang responsible for a murderous attack on him when Devender Dubey, Amar Singh, Bhusan Tiwari, driver Amrender Gupta, servant Jai Chand were killed at Badaria village in Bihar. Rajan Tiwari had received bullet injuries in his legs, hence he wanted to eliminate Vinod Singh.

The police said Tewari entered the world of crime in 1996 and took over the reins of the Sri Prakash Shukla gang after Shukla was killed in an encounter in Ghaziabad last year.

Shukla who was involved in a number of murders was killed last year in an encounter with a combined team of Crime Branch and UP police. Investigations by the UP police revealed that UP Chief Minister, Mr Kalyan Singh, was one of his targets. He was reportedly given a huge contract to kill the UP Chief Minister.

Funding of 9th Plan
"Discourage deficit financing"

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (PTI) — The Planning Commission has outlined a strategy to finance the entire Ninth Plan, envisaging a 33 per cent growth in public sector outlay at Rs 8,59,200 crore, without resort to deficit financing.

"The financing pattern for the Ninth Plan does not visualise recourse to deficit financing, defined as monetised deficit of the Centre, which accounted for 6 per cent of the Centre’s resources for the Eighth Plan", the draft Ninth Plan, approved by the Cabinet last month, said.

Stating that mobilisation of resources of this order predicted about a number of measures to be taken by the Centre, the state and the public sector undertakings, the draft document stressed on a "strict" fiscal discipline in terms of containment of non-plan expenditure and increase in tax and non-tax revenue.

The Rs 8,59,200 crore public outlay at 1996-97 prices, up 33 per cent in real terms from Rs 4,34,100 crore of the approved Eighth Plan outlay, includes Rs 3,74,000 crore as budgetary support from the Centre and Rs 2,90,094 crore as internal and extra budgetary resources of the Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs).

Projecting a lower interest liability during the plan period on account of gross fiscal deficit, the draft targets lowering the non-plan revenue expenditure to 9.5 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) from 10.05 per cent in the previous plan.

For mobilising additional resources, the tax-GDP ratio of the Centre has to increase to 11.5 per cent by the end of the Ninth Plan from the level of 10.15 per cent in 1997-98, the draft Ninth Plan said.

"A strict fiscal discipline is required in terms of containment of non-plan expenditure and increase in tax and non-tax revenue", it said.

A decline in non-plan revenue expenditure from 10.05 per cent of GDP to 9.5 per cent is expected during the plan period and the impact of the Fifth Pay Commission recommendations has been taken into account in the projections, the draft plan said.

"The resource projections imply a lower interest liability during the plan period on account of reduction in the gross fiscal deficit", it said.

The states are also expected to observe strict fiscal discipline and mobilise sizeable additional resources, both in terms of tax and non-tax measures.

These include tax reform and focusing on rationalisation of tax structure, particularly Sales tax.

The revenue raised by the states came down due to introduction of prohibition and this needs to be made up through compensatory measures in the other elements of tax structure and improvement of tax administration, the draft said.

Reunited with kin after 26 years

BANGALORE, Feb 13 (PTI) — Like a typical climax scene in a Bollywood melodrama, a 32-year-old Swedish national was at last re-united with his biological mother, two sisters and a brother in Karnataka’s Hubli town on Tuesday, 26 years after he strayed away and got lost.

Jonathan, whose original name is Ishar, now a graduate in economics working with Shell Oil in Sweden, was just five-year-old when he accidentally boarded a train in 1972 at Hubli Railway station where his father was working as a porter and after a night’s journey landed in this garden city.

He was roaming at Bangalore Raillway station and when the Railway police interrogated him he could not say anything regarding his whereabouts.

The police admitted him to a remand home here and then he was shifted to an orphanage from where he was adopted by a Swedish couple and taken to Sweden.

Jonathan had come to Bangalore eight years ago to collect his adoption papers and other documents but it is not known why he didn’t bother to find out his parents then.

He came 15 days ago to Bangalore in search of his family and met the City Police Commissioner L. Revanna Siddaiah and sought his help. Unable to speak Kannada or Urdu, he could speak only English. The only clue he could give to the police was that he had boarded a train in 1972 at a railway station and the journey took him to Bangalore after a night.

After investigation the police found out that he had boarded the train at Hubli where they found his family through the clues given by a local Muslim who said Jonathan’s father Hussain Sahib passed away 10 years ago.

This time, Jonathan has a Swedish film maker and a cameraman along with him. What better material for a film than a “Union Across the Seas”!

But here again, the down-to-earth practicalities seemed to jeer at the emotional bond as the City Police Commissioner said although Jonathan’s blood group matched with that of his mother Mehroo Nabi, brother Jaffer and his sisters Beebijan and Ameenabi, the relationship could be proved only through a DNA test.

But the happy ending has it that the police is not forcing the re-united family to undergo any such test since nobody has disputed their bondage.

Jonathan, along with his family, came to this garden city on Thursday and posed for a press photograph.

“Not looks or voice, but scent does the trick”

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 (UNI) — It is a sweet smell emanating from a woman, more that her “breathtaking looks” or her “melodious voice” which attracts a man towards her, say Austrian scientists.

Latest scientific research shows that by releasing “chemical messengers” commonly called female pheromones, women may trick men into believing that that they are more attractive than they appear (or sound), says a recent report published in “The Independent, London”.

According to research by biologists Karl Grammer and Astrid Juette from Vienna university, these chemicals block a man’s ability to judge a woman’s attractiveness by the way she looks and the sound of her voice.

The chemical messengers, which affect behaviour and are often used by female animals to attract males, act as a love potion, attracting the man to a woman although on the basis of sight and sound alone he might not have been interested in her.

Professor Grammer, however, warns that the pheromones will prove ineffective in case of women who use contraceptive pills as these pills hinder the release of the pheromones.

In the course of their study, the researchers exposed a group of 66 young men unknowingly to synthetic vaginal pheromones called copulins. Their reactions to the photographs of women and to female voice were compared with what happened when the pheromones were replaced with ordinary water.

When the men had been exposed to copulin, they rated the female voices and faces as more attractive than when they were exposed to water. But, exposure to pheromones equalised the perceived differences in the attraction of different women whose photographs were shown to the 66 men.

In fact, the less attractive the woman was rated before exposure to copulin, the bigger the rise in their perceived attractiveness after exposure.

“The more negative a woman was rated in attractiveness without smell, the more she gained through smell” Prof Karl Grammer said.

He also said that the level of testosterone in the man’s saliva increased after they had inhaled the pheromones.

“Merely by smelling the pheromones, the men’s ability to process information from their eyes and ears was altered.”

According to Prof Grammer, women also altered in the amount of pheromones they produced depending on the stage in their menstrual cycle, producing most as they approached their most fertile time.

Prof Grammer said the effect was an example of how a “chemical warfare” was unconsciously and consciously waged between men and women.

The most outstanding thing was that attractive women lost out to plainer-looking women when pheromones were introduced.

Principal held for raping student

AGARTALA: The Principal of a Tripura school was arrested on Saturday on charges of raping a minor student who subsequently delivered a baby inside the hostel at Kakraban in South Tripura district. The Principal Hari Sankar Tiwari was arrested following an FIR lodged by the 14-year-old student of class eight alleging that she was raped by him in his residence, police said. The victim in her FIR alleged that when she had gone to the principal’s house to collect a book from her classmate, Tiwari’s daughter, she was forcibly taken to a room and criminally assaulted in April last year. She became pregnant and delivered a child inside the hostel on February 2. The principal secretly arranged the delivery and shifted the girl to her parents, police said.

The incident sparked off tension in the entire area as the local residents ransacked the school on Tuesday last.

The District Magistrate Shailen Das, also the ex-officio chairman of the institution, issued show cause notice to the Principal and formed a three-member inquiry committee.

A team of state women’s commission met the victim and her parents. The commission was also investigating complaints from two women teachers of the same school that the principal had sexually harassed them last year.

Cong ‘not interested in SAD tussle’

NEW DELHI, Feb 13 — The Congress today denied that it had any role in the ongoing feud in the ruling Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab.

Reacting to reports quoting the Punjab Chief Minister, Mr Parkash Singh Badal, that the SGPC Chief Mr Gurcharan Singh Tohra was in league with the Congress, the party spokesman Mr Ajit Jogi said the allegation was “baseless and unfounded”.

“This allegation is totally baseless and unfounded. We strongly deny it,” Mr Jogi said adding that the Congress had no interest in the current infighting.

Solar eclipse, on Feb16

HYDERABAD, Feb 13 (UNI) — The annular solar eclipse this February 16 is of a rare nature, as it will mark the end of the 19-year metonic cycle of the Sun.

The metonic cycle is an astronomical period spanning 19 years, at the end of which, a new cycle starts with a new moon or a full moon and the Sun and the Moon return to their original position vis-a-vis the Earth.

Satellite airlifted
BANGALORE: Insat-2E, India’s most advanced satellite, was airlifted from here on Saturday morning to Kourou in French Guyana where it will be launched by the European Ariane rocket in the first week of April. An Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) official told PTI here that the spacecraft was packed in a special container, and the total cargo weighing 43 tonnes, would reach Kourou on Monday. Recommendations made by the national review committee, which examined the failure of Insat-2D, had been incorporated in the Rs 220 crore Insat-2E, which is designed for a mission life of 12 years and is a forerunner to the third generation Insat-3 series. — PTI

Sarojini Naidu anniversary
NEW DELHI: The nation on Saturday paid glowing tributes to Sarojini Naidu, the “Nightingale of India”, on the occasion of her 120th birth anniversary. Several parliamentarians recalled the services of the great poet and freedom fighter after paying floral tributes at her portrait in Central Hall of Parliament House. A booklet containing Sarojini Naidu’s profile was brought out on the occasion by the Lok Sabha Secretariat in Hindi and English. — PTI

Critic quits to protest Sena criticism
AURANGABAD: Renowned Marathi critic and former president of the Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Mahamandal, Dr Sudgir Rasal, has resigned from membership of Maharashtra Rajya Sahitya Sanskruti Mandal, the highest state body for literary and cultural activities. In a letter to Chief Minister Narayan Rane, Mr Rasal said he was resigning to protest against the “derogatory remarks” made by Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray against the president of Akhil Bharatiya Marathi Sahitya Sammelan Vasant Bapat and other writers. — PTI

DIG’s sons held in dowry case
NAGPUR: The police arrested two sons of Deputy Inspector General of Prisons, Vidarbha region, Mr T.S. Bhamre, early on Saturday in connection with the alleged harassment of his daughter-in-law. Avinash the eldest son of Bhamre, and his younger brother Nitin were arrested following a complaint by Avinash’s wife Archana. Archana had lodged a complaint with the Commissioner of Police, Mr U.D. Joshi, on Friday alleging physical and mental harassment by her in-laws including Mr Bhamre, mother-in-law Bhagirathi and brothers-in-law Nitin and Mohan. According to a police press release, Archana, in her petition, had alleged that Bhamres were demanding Rs 30 lakh more as dowry from her parents and they had already received Rs two lakh by demand draft within a year of her wedding. — PTI

Bandh in Manipur
IMPHAL: Banks, business establishments and educational institutions remained closed in view of the bandh called by the outlawed Revolutionary Peoples Front to protest against the visit of President K.R. Narayanan. Mr Narayanan is arriving here on Saturday afternoon to inaugurate the fifth national games tomorrow. Attendance in government offices was thin though activities connected with the national games went ahead uninterrupted. The public transport system was thrown out of gear and very few private vehicles were seen on the roads. — UNI