Monday, March 8, 1999
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N A T I O N |
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spotlight today's calendar |
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‘Agni-II to be test
fired soon’ |
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Pass quota Bill: AIDWA
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Kiran Bedi’s gift to
PTC IAF
flexes its muscles Ganga
action plan under way DGCA
probe into plane crash on |
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‘Agni-II to be test fired soon’ NEW DELHI, March 7 — India will test fire the longer range Agni-II ballistic missile at an "appropriate time", the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, said today. "Agni project is in good shape. It will be test fired at the appropriate time," Mr Fernandes told mediapersons after witnessing "Vayu Shakti-99", the annual air power show in Rajasthan’s Pokhran desert during which missiles and ammunition were fired. Asked if the test firing of Agni-II had been postponed because of pressure from the USA, he said, "I don’t think anybody should come to any conclusion on this. The government never announced the test firing of Agni. At the appropriate time it will be done". On how soon the missile was likely to be tested, the minister said. "I can’t say how soon is appropriate". Agni-II is a longer range version of the intermediate range ballistic missile, Agni, which has been test fired thrice by India. Agni, which has so far been termed as a technology demonstrator, has a range of 1,500 km and can carry both conventional and nuclear warheads. The Defence Minister also said a decision on the much needed Advanced Jet Trainer (AJT) for the Indian Air Force (IAF) would be taken very soon and the target of putting the Advanced Warning and Control Systems (AWACS) aircraft in the sky would also be achieved. Mr Fernandes said priority would also be given to all other aircraft and helicopters needing upgradation, and every effort would be taken to strengthen the IAF. Replying to another question, he said "Vayu Shakti-99" should not be a cause of concern for Pakistan as it was an annual exercise. "Vayu Shakti-99" for the first time was watched by millions across the country on television. He said every exercise carried out today only reaffirmed the commitment, dedication and patriotism of the forces. A lot of negative publicity regarding the morale of the forces had been brought out but today’s demonstration only proved that the morale was at its peak, he said. The Air Chief Marshal, Mr
A.K. Tipnis, said the public’s interest in things
which were military had gone up over the years and they
now sought to know whether the armed forces were
prepared. |
Centre’s action on judge defended NEW DELHI, March 7 (PTI) — AIADMK leader in the Rajya Sabha R. Margabandhu today defended the Centre’s action on the issue of Justice Shivappa, who has ceased to be a judge of the Madras High Court, saying there was no violation of rules by Union Law Minister M. Thambi Durai in communicating the decision of the President. "For his (Justice Shivappa) deliberate act of tampering with the date of birth, he has to be chargesheeted and to be prosecuted", Mr Margabandhu told reporters here. He was the second AIADMK MP to demand action against the judge after the party’s legal wing secretary N. Thalavai Sundaram said in Chennai that Justice Shivappa be punished for his alleged ‘fraud’ in declaring his age and commenting on the President and Chief Justice of India’s decision regarding his date of birth. Stating that everything was done in accordance with law, Mr Margabandhu, who is also chairman of the Bar Council of Tamil Nadu and Pondicherry, claimed Justice Shivappa was trying to give a political colour to show that the Law Minister had influenced the President to pass such an order. He said the President’s order issued under Article 217(3) was final and it cannot be challenged in a court of law. "Justice Shivappa is liable to be chargesheeted for tampering with the date of birth and for attributing motive to the removal order of the President", he said. Asserting Mr Thambi Durai did nothing wrong in communicating the order to the Madras High Court, Mr Margababdhu said there was no constitutional constraint prohibiting the Law Minister from communicating the order. Tiruchirappalli: Union Petroleum Minister Vazhapadi Ramamurthy came out in support of Mr Thambi Durai on Justice Shivappa, saying the issue had not been ‘created’ by Mr Thambi Durai. "The issue is not of recent origin and has not been created by Mr Thambi Durai. The mistake had come to light three years ago", Mr Ramamurthy, leader of the Tamzhiaga Rajiv Congress, told reporters here. He, however, said Justice
Shivappa should undergo the ‘deserving
punishment’ if he had erred, but could appeal to
higher authorities if he had not committed any mistake. |
Appointment of Harinder opposed NEW DELHI, March 7 (PTI) — The CPM today opposed the government’s decision to appoint Vice-Admiral Harinder Singh as the Deputy Chief of the Naval Staff saying the step gave the impression that integrity and secular character of the armed forces was being interfered with. The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet had taken the decision on appointing him as the DCNS "despite the established fact that the officer concerned had levelled baseless charges with a communal tinge against the (sacked) chief of the Naval Staff, Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat, the CPM Politburo said in a statement. It said Vice-Admiral Harinder Singh had, in a statutory complaint, accused the then Navy Chief of being communal by citing that his wife was a "half-Muslim". "Such remarks should have invited disciplinary action. Instead the Vajpayee Government first expunged the adverse remarks made against the officer by the Naval headquarters and then proceeded to appoint the same officer as the DCNS under Admiral Bhagwat," the statement said. Asking the government to
"immediately desist from pursuing such a harmful
course", it said "already there is unhappiness
in the armed forces regarding the arbitrary dismissal of
Admiral Bhagwat and the interference in the
chain-of-command." |
Pass quota Bill: AIDWA NEW DELHI, March 7 (PTI) — A “Mahila Adhiveshan” (women’s convention) here today expressed concern over rise in violence against women and minorities in the country and demanded immediate passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in the current session of Parliament. The convention, organised by the All-India Democratic Women’s Association (AIDWA) on the eve of International Women’s Day, attracted participation of women from all parts of the country. People from diverse backgrounds, including Chairman of National Commission for Minorities (NCM) Tahir Mahmood, Niloufer Bhagwat, lawyer wife of sacked Naval Chief Admiral Vishnu Bhagwat and Anjana Mishra whose alleged gangrape recently created an uproar in the nation, spoke at the convention which was inaugurated by veteran freedom fighter Laxmi Sahgal. “The convention was organised in the last year of the 20th century with an aim of evolving suggestions for a social change from a system of inequality which ensures women’s subordination,” said AIDWA General Secretary Brinda Karat. Expressing grave concern over the “huge increase” in the incidence of violence against women, including sexual assaults, the convention noted that crimes against women had risen to around 1.15 lakh cases per year. “This increase is in substantive measure a social reflection of the policies of liberalisation which while increasing inequality propagate a set of values based on the pursuit of individual fantasies and self fulfilment,” said one of the five resolutions adopted at the meeting. It asked political parties to revise their agendas to include crucial issues of social reform and stressed the need for wider community mobilisations in all struggles against violence against women. Lambasting the increasing attacks on minorities allegedly by Sangh Parivar constituents during last year, another resolution adopted at the convention said “it is shameful that the BJP-led government has provided overt and covert patronage to the forces responsible.” “These attacks have spread to areas and sections of society, often the poorest sections like adivasis... Very often women of minority communities, especially Christians in the recent past, have been victims of communally motivated assaults,” it said. On the women’s reservation in Parliament and state assemblies, the convention demanded immediate passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill and appealed to all political parties not to raise the question of quotas within quotas. The convention also demanded that social and economic justice be ensured, including the crucial question of land reform and distribution of land to Dalits, reclaiming distributed land. Criticising the union
Budget, the ‘adhiveshan’ said it amounted to a
“fierce attack on the living conditions of vast
sections of our people.” |
Kiran Bedi’s gift to PTC NEW DELHI, March 7 — Over a thousand constable recruits, probationary sub-inspectors and staff of Police Training College, Jharoda Kalan, are all set to explore their inner world through a novel exercise in meditation. The 11-day time-table for vipassana meditation which began on Friday evening is away from the mundane training programmes in the PTC. An ancient meditation technique of India, vipassana enables a person see things as they are not as they should be. Vipassana is a Pali word which means insight and aims at purifying the mind. Dr Kiran Bedi, the outgoing Joint Commissioner of Police (Training) and the Inspector General Police-designate-Chandigarh says, “This course is guided by three objectives, namely, to teach policemen to police themselves before they police others, to make the policemen feel that they belong not to a force but to a service and to motivate them to follow moral laws.” Dr Bedi, who supervised a similar programme for Tihar inmates as Inspector General in 1993, said the course was being conducted by the Vipasana Research Institute of Igatpuri near Nasik. She said she had participated in the course alongwith 34 staff members of the PTC in January. “Convinced of the benefits of the course, we decided to offer it to more people.” Dr Bedi supervised arrangements in three halls on the PTC campus. While two halls would have 440 persons each, the third would have 170 persons. Mr Manhar Patel, who is among the 20 teachers who have been authorised to conduct the course here by Acharya Satya Narayana Goenka, said the meditation programme would go on for 10 and a half hours everyday with brief intervals. Mr Patel, who has conducted vipassana courses for jail inmates in Jaipur, Sabarmati, Rajkot, Baroda, Jamnagar, Porbandar and Pune, said the exercise entails observing noble silence. He said persons participating in the programme are required to maintain silence for nine days, but are free to discuss problems with the teacher. “The day starts at 4.30 am with a two-hour meditation exercise. This is followed by a breakfast recess for an hour and a half. At 8 pm, the students assemble again for a three-hour meditation. This is followed by a two hour lunch break. From 1 pm to 5 pm, they sit in a meditative state and get up for a one-hour snack break. This is followed by discussions and instructions for the next day.” He added that in the first three days, the participants practise inhalation and exhalation. They are acquainted with vipassana on the fourth day when they observe themselves. They end their silence on the 10th day and are helped to return to the normal way of life by mediators. The course concludes on the morning of the 11th day. Mr V K Sobti, Assistant Commissioner of Police at PTC hailed the initiative as “ a good start”. Ms Kathleen Martin, who is among the 20 teachers who have been authorised to teach this meditation technique at the PTC says, “vipassana has given me a tool to approach the problems in a balanced way.” The Principal of the PTC, Mr Sunil Garg, told this correspondent that the college plans to include meditation as a discipline in its curriculum. The college offers training in Law, criminology, human behaviour, police administration, scientific investigation and human rights. He said, “ Although this kind of course has been conducted for small groups in the Police Academy in Gujarat, this is the first time that such a large group in a police training centre is participating in the vipassana meditation programme.’’ Mr Garg said although it
was not compulsory for staff members to participate in
the programme, he has enrolled himself for the programme. |
IAF flexes its muscles POKHRAN, March 7 — Even as a major disaster struck the Indian Air Force (IAF) with the crashing of one of its AN-32 transport aircraft in New Delhi killing all 18 personnel on board, Vayu Shakti-99, the display showcasing the might of the IAF, went off without a flutter here today. While word about the unfortunate crash spread around quietly, there was no exhibition of any emotion, not even a word of condolence mentioned for the family members of the deceased IAF personnel, either from Defence Minister, George Fernandes, who was also the chief guest at the show or from the Chief of the Air Staff, Air Chief Marshal A.Y. Tipnis, as they addressed the large gathering of political, civil and military dignitaries besides Defence Attaches from a host of countries. The show, for the first time was also telecast live to the nation by Doordarshan. The crash aside, Vayu Shakti-99, seemed to be a scene straight out of the “Star Wars”. Although there were some misses during the exercise, which was one of the biggest ever carried out in South Asia, but the IAF fighter aircraft returned to destroy everything in sight. The IAF used a variety of combat aircraft, attack helicopters and air-to-air missiles during the show. The Vayu Shakti-99 concentrated on showing off the capabilities of one of its frontline fighter aircraft, Mirage-2000, using it for various purposes, including dropping of the ‘iron bombs’ for the first time. The multi-functional role of this acquisition of the country was brought out to the best during the exercise. There were other firsts also for the audience. The firing of state-of-the-art R-73 missiles by the country’s latest acquisition, Sukhoi-30 and the firing together of the Shtrum missile, 57 mm rockets, 12.7 mm four barrel gun and 12.7 mm shells from the world class Mi-35 helicopters. The firing ability displayed by the Mi-35 choppers is not available even with the best of the fighter aircraft any-where in the world. While the supersonic run of the MiG-29s left a deafening silence in the awestruck audience, the display in the end by the Surya Kiran aerobatic team brought out the applause from all. The one-and-a-half hour show of power, precision and finesse was witnessed, besides the Defence Minister, by Minister for Information and Broadcasting Pramod Mahajan, the Army Chief, the Cabinet Secretary, Defence Secretary, Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister and a host of Members of Parliament, mainly those from the Standing Committee of Parliament on Defence. For the first time, Vayu
Shakti became a joint operation with the Indian Army
joining in a show of strength that covered a
cross-section of weapon systems and delivery techniques
that the IAF employs in applying the desired degree of
force at the selected time and place. |
Ganga action plan under way ALLAHABAD, March 7 (PTI) — In an effort to make the Ganga pollution free, a whopping Rs 462 crore has been sanctioned for 261 schemes of pollution abatement and treatment plants for municipal sewage and industrial effluent under the Ganga action plan (GAP). These schemes include 88 interception and diversion schemes, 35 sewage treatment plants, 43 low cost toilets, 28 electric crematoria, 35 river front development and another 32 schemes of miscellaneous category, Ms Kanchan Jain, regional director, Ganga action plan (GAP), Uttar Pradesh, told PTI here. She said 25 towns, situated along the stretch of the river from Devprayag to Ganga Sagar in West Bengal, would benefit from these schemes. According to a survey report, the total municipal sewage generated in these 25 towns was of the order of 1,340 million litres per day. Out of this, only 65 per cent had been taken up under the first phase of GAP due to the resource crunch, she said. Ms Kanchan said initially it was expected that the programme would be completed within 6-7 years, but it had been delayed due to lack of experience both at the central and state levels and other related things. She said the stretch of the river from Farrukhabad to Varanasi in general and at Kanpur in particular was very critical in terms of the availability of the minimum flow in the river. She, however, said
notwithstanding the delay in the completion of the
programme, the implementation of pollution abatement
facilities had been by and large satisfactory with
certain limitations. |
DGCA probe into plane crash on CHENNAI, March 7 (PTI) — The Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA) has initiated its probe into the cause of the accident involving an Air France freighter, which was gutted after crash-landing at Chennai airport late on Friday night. Director of Air Safety V.K. Chandanna, who has been appointed as the inspector of the accident, has undertaken the investigation, along with an Air France technical team and its accident investigation bureau. He would submit his report in two months highlighting the factors that led to the crash landing, Director General of Civil Aviation H.S. Khola told newsmen here today. Mr Khola and Mr Chandanna, who arrived here last night from Mumbai, immediately visited the accident spot and also spoke to the Air France freighter’s crew. Mr Khola said the black box (digital flight data recorder), which was recovered along with the cockpit voice recorder (CVR), had been damaged in the fire. “But we hope the tape inside is okay”. The black box was useful but more information was expected to be obtained from the CVR. Mr Khola said the issue of
the nose wheel not opening up was not
‘unprecedented’ as there were many ways to get
it opened. Preliminary investigations had so far
indicated that the issue was basically confined to a
problem in the nose gear. |
Maneka to get Mahavir Award NEW DELHI March 7 (PTI) — The Union Minister of State for Social Justice and Empowerment, Mrs Maneka Gandhi, has been chosen for this year’s Mahavir Award for excellence in human endeavour in the sphere of truth, non-violence and vegetarianism by the Bhagwan Mahaveer Foundation. The award carries a cash
prize of Rs 5 lakh, a citation and a memento, an official
release said on Saturday. The award will be presented to
her in Chennai on Mahavir Jayanti on March 29. |
Bharat Ratna for Cariappa sought BANGALORE, March 7 (PTI) — The Kodava Samaja today asked the Centre to confer Bharat Ratna posthumously on Field Marshall K.M. Cariappa in recognition of his outstanding contribution to the Army. Karnataka Law Minister M.C. Nanaiah told reporters here that it was unfortunate that the Centre had not considered the recommendations of the state government for the names of Cariappa, national poet Kuvempu and statesman S. Nijalinappa for conferring the country’s highest civilian award. He said the state government twice recommended the names for the award. The Kodava Samaja had
drawn up a series of programmes to celebrate the birth
centenary of Cariappa and the celebrations which began
from January 28 would be held till next January, he said. |
Judge leaves for Delhi CHENNAI, March 7 (PTI) — Justice Shivappa today left for New Delhi to meet the Chief Justice of India, Justice A.S. Anand. His family sources said
Justice Shivappa had left for the Capital at the
invitation of Chief Justice Anand. |
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| Helpline for cancer
patients NEW DELHI: A unique helpline has been launched in the capital that will enable cancer patients to obtain advice and clarify doubts related to the disease. For accessing the helpline, launched on Saturday under the aegis of ‘Cancer Sahyog’, an emotional support group for people living with cancer, all a patient would have to do is dial 6528223 on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays between 1200 and 2 p.m. the group’s founder, Ms Harmala Gupta, said in a release here. — PTI New method to screen
Parkinson’s Order to pay
compensation ‘Amla can
reduce cholesterol’ Rs 600 cr facelift
for Agra |
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