Sunday, February 28, 1999

Patel ministry expanded
BANGALORE, Feb 27 — The Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr J.H. Patel, today expanded his 47-member ministry, inducting four ministers and elevating a Minister of State to the Cabinet rank.

Flights rescheduled
NEW DELHI, Feb 27 — Indian Airlines has combined and rescheduled some of its flights leaving from Delhi on March 2 due to Holi.

AJMM threatens stir
RANCHI, Feb 27 — Reiterating its demand for early creation of Jharkhand, the Akhil Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (AJMM) today threatened to launch an agitation in South Bihar if the Centre failed to ensure passage of the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill, 1998, in the ongoing Budget session.

Charges against Soren framed in Jha
murder case

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 (PTI) — A special court here today framed charges against Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (JMM) MP Shibu Soren and six others for allegedly murdering Mr Soren’s private secretary Shashi Nath Jha.

Special judge Ajit Bharihoke after marshalling pre-charge evidence against the accused in his order said “prima facie” there was sufficient material to proceed with the trial against them.

Besides Soren, the other six accused are Ashish Thakur, Sunil Khaware, Nand Kishore Mehta, Ajay Kumar Mehta, Pashupati Mehta and Shailendra Bhattacharya.

They will face trial under various provisions of the Indian Penal Code for “criminal conspiracy, abduction, and murder” of Jha, who was allegedly kidnapped from the Dhaula Kuan area in the Capital in May 1994 and was later taken to Ranchi.

According to the prosecution, he was “killed” by the accused as he had “knowledge of the payment of bribe to four JMM MPs” who voted against the no-confidence motion against the P.V. Narasimha Rao government in July 1993 for alleged “money considerations”.

The CBI had claimed in August last year to have recovered Jha’s skeleton from a village near Ranchi.

Soren is at present on bail, while some of the other accused are under judicial custody in the Tihar Jail.

BJP to observe betrayal week
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 — The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) will observe a countrywide betrayal week from March 3 to 10 for “exposing the real face” of the Congress and the Left parties to the people.

Talking to newspersons, the BJP spokesman, Mr M. Venkaiah Naidu, said both the Congress and the Left parties betrayed the Vajpayee government on the Bihar issue. “This shows that these parties are not concerned with the welfare of Dalits”, he pointed out.

Mr Naidu said dharnas and demonstrations would be held at the district and taluk level to inform the Dalits about the “real face” of the Congress and Left parties “which are not only anti-Dalit but anti-democratic as well”.

Earlier, the BJP President, Mr Kushabhau Thakre, welcomed the Union Budget, saying, “it is truly an end-of-the millennium Budget which looks towards the next millennium and the new century and seek to prepare India to convert tomorrow’s challenges into opportunities”.

In a statement issued here, Mr Thakre said it was for the first time that an effort had been made to empower the people. The government had embarked upon an ambitious programme to empower the gram sabhas and panchayats, he said adding that special attention had been paid to infrastructure, agro-based rural industrialisation and small scale industries.

Mr Naidu described the Budget as “pro-poor, pro-village and pro-farmer”. Development and welfare were the two key guiding factors in making the Budget, he said, adding that the Budget was aimed at bringing back the economy on rails.

Medha Patkar sounds alarm

MUMBAI, Feb 27 (UNI) — Noted environmentalist and Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) leader Medha Patkar yesterday claimed that the houses of more than 2,000 families in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh would be submerged during monsoon, this year due to the increase in the height of the disputed Sardar Sarovar Dam.

Ms Patkar said the state government should make immediate efforts to rehabilitate the families and allot them separate cultivable land.

However, it was unlikely that the rehabilitation of the tribesmen could be completed on time, she said.

The Supreme Court, through an interim order on February 18, permitted construction on the dam and allowed the Gujarat government to raise its height to 85 Mts. from 80.3 Mts. The order by a three-judge bench, came during hearings on a writ petition filed by the NBA against the construction of the dam.

The NBA leader told reporters here that Maharashtra would also be severely affected by the project. Nearly 6,400 hectares of 'good' forest land had already been submerged and 4,200 hectares more would go under water. Moreover, with the rise in the height of the dam, the government will have to further rehabilitate people.

The Supreme Court has asked the newly-constituted Grievances Redressal Authority (GRA), under the chairmanship of Justice PD Desai to conduct a survey of relief and rehabilitation work at the existing 61 sites by April 9.

HIV cases on the rise in Kerala

KOCHI, Feb 27 (UNI) — Paediatric Human Immuno-Deficiency Virus (HIV) cases in Kerala are on the rise with more cases of children suffering from AIDS being reported from different parts of the state, according to Dr R. Sajit Kumar, Assistant Professor of Infectious Diseases unit, attached to the Medical College Hospital, Kottayam.

Children contracting the dreaded disease is a new development in Kerala. In most cases, the child gets the virus from an infected mother either in the womb or during breast feeding, said Dr Kumar at a workshop on AIDS for mediapersons yesterday.

He said five to ten HIV-positive cases were referred to the medical college alone in the state every week.

According to Dr Prasannakumar, Assistant Director, state AIDS cell, there were 30,000 known HIV positive and 182 full blown AIDS patients in the state at present.

Most of these cases were reported mainly from blood banks and some hospitals. All these figures clearly showed the underreporting of HIV=positive cases and AIDS patients, they said.

According to the resource material on HIV/AIDS programme, 20 per cent of the medical termination of pregnancies in Kerala occurred among unmarried college students. The concept of virginity was becoming less and less important to adolescents as they were not equipped with the correct knowledge about sex and techniques to resist pressure.

Reviewing the national scenario, the resource material said an estimated four million people in the country carried the virus, giving India the dubious distinction of having the largest number of HIV-infected people in the world.

Recent testing of pregnant women in Pondicherry showed infection rates of around four per cent. Among truck dealers in Chennai, HIV prevalence quadrupled from 1.5 per cent in 1995 to 6.2 per cent a year later. In Manipur, where the epidemic took off quickly among male drug injectors, some drug clinics were registering HIV rates as high as over 70 per cent.

A nationwide sentinel surveillance data collected in February-March 1998 clearly indicated that HIV infection was prevalent in all parts of the country.

The resource paper said in recent years the infection had spread from urban to rural areas and from individuals practising high risk behaviour to the general population.

Studies indicated that more and more women attending ante-natal clinics were testing HIV-positive, thereby increasing the risk of perinatal transmission. About 75 per cent of the infections occurred from sexual intercourse, about 8 per cent through blood transfusion and another eight per cent through drug injection.

Over 90 per cent of the reported cases were occurring in sexually-active and economically productive age group of 15-59 years.

With a high prevalence of TB infection in India, the problem of HIV/TB co-infection also posed a major challenge. Nearly 60 per cent of the HIV/AIDS cases were reported to be with opportunistic TB infection. Treatment of TB among the HIV-infected persons was a new challenge to the national effort to control tuberculosis.

Some of the drugs which were recommended for TB treatment caused complications in HIV-infected persons and had to be withdrawn in areas of high HIV prevalence, the paper said.

Cong: Advani or Bhandari to blame

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 (PTI) — The Congress today said either Union Home Minister L.K. Advani or Bihar Governor Sunder Singh Bhandari should take "responsibility" for the "wrong" decision on dismissal of the Rabri Devi government.

"The person who chaired the Cabinet meeting which recommended president’s rule in the state or the state Governor who sent the report to the Centre will have to take the responsibility", leader of the Opposition Sharad Pawar, told mediapersons.

Asked about the reported decision of the BJP and the Samata Party to launch a weeklong agitation to highlight the "betrayal" by the Congress on the Bihar issue, he said the Congress was also considering a campaign to expose them.

To a query whether the decision to vote against President’s rule in the state would affect the party electorally, he said the Congress did not take decisions on electoral considerations alone. "We have taken a principled decision...It will not affect the party prospects...We have taken a line against the RSS taking over the reins of power in the state".

Asked as to why the party changed its stand on the Bihar issue after declaring that the Rabri Devi government had no moral authority to govern following the Dalit massacres, he said the party had never talked about any constitutional remedy but had only moral responsibility.

Patel ministry expanded

BANGALORE, Feb 27 (PTI) — The Karnataka Chief Minister, Mr J.H. Patel, today expanded his 47-member ministry, inducting four ministers and elevating a Minister of State to the Cabinet rank.

While the Minister of State for Kannada and Culture, Mr Leeladevi R.Prasad, was promoted to the Cabinet rank, Mr Amarnath Shetty, Mr D. Nagarajaiah, Mr D. Naryanadas and Mr Ashwath-narayana Reddy were sworn in as Ministers of State.

Mr Nagarajaiah had served in the H.D.Deve Gowda Ministry in the state.

The Governor, Mr Khurshed Alam Khan, administered the oath of office and secrecy to the new ministers.

With this, the Patel Ministry’s strength has risen to 51.

The ruling Janata Dal has 111 members in the 224-member state Assembly.

Radiation mutant gram tested

CALCUTTA, Feb 27 (PTI) — In a bid to strengthen the livelihood of families living in coastal areas, the Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) is testing a number of radiation mutant gram and rice varieties in some pockets of Tamil Nadu.

"To test if gamma ray induced seeds are better alternatives to normal varieties, we have tied up with the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation of Chennai under a project called 'Nuclear and Bio-Technology Tools in Coastal System’, department secretary Dr R. Chidambaram told PTI here today.

Dr Chidambaram said initial results showed strong indications of higher yields and hundred per cent pest resistance in these mutant varieties.

"In small plots of land where both normal and radiation mutant varieties were grown adjacently, farmers have reported absolute non-infection in the latter, while normal varieties were plagued by leaf spot and rot diseases," he said.

Apart from myriad varieties of grams and a single rice variety, intensive farming of green and chick peas were being carried out in an ecologically sustainable basis at demonstration farms in Kalpakkam, Kudankulam and Chidambaram.

"In the four month old farms, we are also experimenting with cyanobacteria as an agent to remove coastal soil salinity as also a variety of green manure for nitrogen fixation,"he added. The project will generate significant data on the viability of the mutants as alternatives for large-scale production in the country, Mr Chidambaram said.

Flights rescheduled

NEW DELHI, Feb 27 (PTI) — Indian Airlines has combined and rescheduled some of its flights leaving from Delhi on March 2 due to Holi.

IC-817 has been combined with IC-415 and will operate Delhi-Vadodara-Ahmedabad leaving Delhi at 0550 hours while the return flight IC-818 will operate with IC-416 leaving Ahmedabad at 0845 hours. IC-407 to Agra-Khajuraho-Varanasi will leave at 1045 hours.

IC-940 to Hyderabad combined with IC-803 will leave Delhi at 0650 to reach Bangalore via Hyderabad and the return flight IC-804 combined with IC-939 will leave Bangalore at 0800 hrs.

Delhi-Bangalore, Delhi-Lucknow and Delhi-Mumbai flights have also be rescheduled in view of the festival of colours, an Indian Airlines press note stated.

AJMM threatens stir

RANCHI, Feb 27 (UNI) — Reiterating its demand for early creation of Jharkhand, the Akhil Jharkhand Mukti Morcha (AJMM) today threatened to launch an agitation in South Bihar if the Centre failed to ensure passage of the Bihar State Reorganisation Bill, 1998, in the ongoing Budget session.

Talking to UNI, here the AJMM convener, Mr Sudhir Mahato said, the situation might turn violent in the Jharkhand region if the Centre failed to get the bill, introduced in Parliament adopted during the winter session.

Calling upon the people to be prepared for a “decisive fight’’ he said “we want Jharkhand and will not sit idle till its realisation.’’

The AJMM was opposed to the proposed state being called Vananchal but had decided not to make nomenclature an issue and further delay the state’s creation. Mr Mahato said his party’s ultimate goal was to achieve realisation of a greater Jharkhand comprising 26 districts of Bihar, West Bengal, Orissa and Madhya Pradesh, for which agitation would be continued even if Vananchal of 18 southern districts of Bihar came into existence.

He said the AJMM was not opposed to smaller Jharkhand as it was being seen by the party as a stepping stone towards realisation of its ultimate goal.

Mr Mahato, one of the five AJMM conveners, here to attend the party’s first three-day central convention which began yesterday, criticised the Rashtriya Janata Dal and the Samajwadi Party for opposing the state’s creation.

He called upon the people to expose the “double speak” of the Congress on the issue and charged the party with “double role” as it was supporting the regime in Bihar, which had outrightly rejected Jharkhand in the state legislature.

Welcoming the imposition of president’s rule in Bihar, he said it would help the state regain and restore democratic traditions “vitiated by the corrupt and ineffective’’ RJD regime.

Stamp on Biju Patnaik
NEW DELHI: A commemorative stamp on a former Orissa Chief Minister and freedom fighter Biju Patnaik will be issued on March 3. Born in 1916 in an eminent family Biju Patnaik played a leading role in the freedom movement. A pilot in early days he participated in Second World War and was also active in the Quit India Movement in 1942. He also contributed to the development of his home state, Orissa. He was instrumental in establishing the largest man-made deep water port of Asia in Paradeep which is depicted on the Rs 3 stamp, said a release of the Postal Department. He held important positions like the Chairman of the State Planning Board, Union Cabinet Minister and Chief Minister of Orissa. — PTI

Australian to help in rail projects
NEW DELHI: India and Australia agreed to cooperate in the field of heritage railways and museum on Friday. Australia has offered to consider assistance for various world heritage sites in India under its Ausheritage scheme, an official release said. This emerged during discussions between the Australian Deputy Prime Minister Tim Fischer, and Indian railway officials here. Fischer informed that Australia would be participating in the international conference of transport and communication museums to be hosted by India in November 1999. — PTI

Woman kills children, commits suicide
DHARMAPURI: A woman threw her three children, all aged below six, into a well and later committed suicide by jumping into it at Vedapatti in Dharmapuri district, according to the police. Police said the 27-year-old woman took the extreme step following a quarrel with her husband who reportedly assaulted her in an inebriated condition. — PTI

Extension of DD serials decried
NEW DELHI: A parliamentary committee has criticised the “mindless” extension of some serials on Doordarshan in view of the revenue considerations and asked the information and broadcasting ministry and Prasar Bharati to respect the viewers’ sentiments. It expressed resentment that the planning commission’s instructions to increase internal generation of revenue instead of relying upon budgetary support had compelled Doordarshan to grant lengthy extensions to some serials like “Shanti”, “Swabhimaan”, “Junoon” and “Chandralekha”. The committee, under the chairmanship of Mr Somnath Chatterjee of the CPI-M, noted that for telecast of “Shanti”, Doordarshan earned a revenue of Rs 50,000 to Rs one lakh per day and for “Swabhimaan” Rs 3 lakh per day. — PTI

Durga’s statue found
LAKHISARAI (BIHAR): A four foot black stone statue of Goddess Durga has been unearthed at Chouki village under Lakhisarai police station area. Some labourers working in a brick — field found the statue while digging on Thursday. The villagers have placed the statue in a nearby temple, official sources said. — UNI