Sunday, October 3, 1999
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Cauvery waters: Jaya
flays Karunanidhi |
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 Three boys guard their flooded home in a West Bengal village on Friday. — PTI
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Guenter’s Calcutta
connection Put off elections in Bihar,
demands JD(U) Rich tributes paid to Shastri Intruder killed |
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Cauvery waters: Jaya flays Karunanidhi CHENNAI, Oct 2 (PTI) — AIADMK General Secretary J. Jayalalitha today hit out at Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M. Karunanidhi saying history would not "forgive" him for making the Cauvery delta a "parched land". "Mr Karunanidhi owes an open apology to farmers of the Cauvery delta for betraying them. He must arrange for proper succour and relief to farmers," she said in a statement here. If Mr Karunanidhi continued to "betray" the farmers, AIADMK would release as an "open book" full statistics and figures of how the farmers had been "hoodwinked,"Ms Jayalalitha said. She alleged the Chief Minister was still "deceiving" people by claiming to have "achieved the impossible". He did not have the "political decency" to admit his failure in resolving the Cauvery problem, she said. By reposing faith in Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, the Chief Minister had "worked against the interest of farmers", she said. Ms Jayalalitha said it was "painful" to note that Mr Karunanidhi was still "deceiving" the people by saying the Cauvery River Water Authority (CRWA) headed by Mr Vajpayee was in a position of authority to bind the states. If CRWA was really in a position to arrange for timely release of water to save withering crops in the state, why had he not taken the necessary steps?, she asked. Pointing out that as per the original draft plan of May 30, 1997, the CRWA was empowered to implement the interim award of the tribunal by periodically releasing the water as and when the region required it, Ms Jayalalitha said "this was the vital clause to discipline Karnataka and restrain it from transgressing the rule of law." "But Karnataka was obdurate and adamant in insisting on the removal of this vital clause," she said. It was "shameful" on the part of Mr Karunanidhi to still claim that CRWA had the authority to order release of water, the AIADMK leader said. "How can Mr
Karunanidhi be the Chief Minister if he cannot bring
succour to the farmers of the parched state. Why is he
still singing paeans for Mr Vajpayee for resolving the
Cauvery issue?," she asked. |
Ex-CM alleges misuse of
Kargil fund NEW DELHI, Oct 2 — Former Chief Minister of Delhi Sahib Singh Varma observed a token hunger strike today in protest against the Congress failure to disburse money to families of soldiers who sacrificed their lives in Kargil. Addressing mediapersons at Rajghat here today, Mr Varma said the Congress owes an explanation to the public for delaying release of the funds raised to help the families of the soldiers. Mr Varma who is contesting from the Outer Delhi Parliamentary constituency on a BJP ticket said the Congress had collected the money in the name of its President Sonia Gandhi. "To the best of my knowledge, not a single penny has reached the families of the martyrs. The Congress should tell the people how much money it collected and how much it disbursed. There is a strong apprehension that they have used the money in the elections." He said two social
organisations of which he is the founder patron had
distributed Rs 1 lakh each among 241 families who laid
down their lives for the country during the Kargil
crisis. |
Channel Punjabi to go on air by
Oct-end NEW DELHI, Oct 2 — Punjabis globally now can begin their day by listening to the Shabad Kirtan to be telecast direct from Sri Harmandar Sahib by switching on Channel Punjabi. The new channel, which would start telecasting its programmes later this month, has the exclusive rights to telecast Gurbani from the Golden Temple for the next six years. President of the Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee, Bibi Jagir Kaur, and the Channel Punjabi director, Dr Darshan Singh Harvinder, signed the contract recently, and the test signals of the channel commenced last night. "The 24-hour Channel Punjabi has the exclusive right to record and telecast Gurbani from Shri Harmandar Sahib, Golden Temple and Sri Anandpur Sahib," Dr Harvinder said. He said "the channel and the SGPC have agreed not to telecast any advertisement during the Gurbani Kirtan from inside Darbar Sahib and Sri Kesgarh Sahib (Anandpur Sahib)." Gurbani would be telecast daily between 4.00 a.m. to 7.a.m. and in the evening between 4.30 p.m. and 6.30. p.m. The channel would beam its signal from Thaicom-3, which is in geostationary orbit 78.5 degrees east while its bandwidth is 18 Mhz. The downlink frequency is 3595 and the polarisation is vertical. The channel, which would be initially available in South Asia and South-East region, will go global, Dr Harvinder said, adding that "talks with several channels in the USA, Canada and some European countries are in an advanced stage." With the catchline "Aawaz Tuhadi Apni" (Your own voice), the channel intends to promote Punjabiyat, Dr Harvinder said, adding "the channel would promote Indian culture and tradition." Apart from telecasting Gurbani, the channel would cater to the tastes of all sections of society. "The rich cultural heritage of Punjab would be portrayed and the new generation would be enlightened on the historical tradition of the region," he said. The director of the channel said "rich culture of the land of five rivers will be incorporated to provide an ideal mix of Bulle Shah and Daler Mehndi, Bhangra and Bhangra pop, discos and philosophy. The channel will lay emphasis on Punjabiyat." Popular soap opera, tele-serials based on the writings of noted Punjabi writers, feature films, and film based songs would be telecast in the free to air programme. The channel plans to
telecast news and current affairs programme which would
highlight the transformations taking place in society and
the day’s development as it happened, Dr Harvinder
said. |
Guenter’s Calcutta connection CALCUTTA: "German Nobel Laureate Guenter Grass, the novelist par excellence, who loved Calcutta and lived in Calcutta, at long last gets the Nobel Prize of 1999 for Literature— which was much overdue like Amartya Sen’s" remarked the Akademi Award winning Bengal poet Narendranath Chakraborty. "We have the rights to rejoice and share the pride with Guenter because he was a Calcutta like many of us and lived like us", one of the closest associate of Guenter Grass Dr Aloke Ranjan Dasgupta quipped. Guenter, now 72, came to the city in 1975 and stayed in a village hut with his wife Utl. They lived like a typical low-income Bengali couple family at Baruipur, about 30 km from Calcutta’s Esplanade area, where he used to commute every day at the call of a host of young Bengali novelists and poets who would wait for him at the Central Calcutta coffee house . "Guenter with a cigar in his lips and his little knowledge in English would exchange views on modern poetry and culture, the artist Subha Prassana remembers. Guenter later got closely associated with Subha Prassana’s ‘Art Accord’, the school which he set up to teach art . In fact, Guenter himself was an artist and became a teacher in this school with no honorarium at all, Subha Prassana discloses. Guenter Grass lived at Lake Town also and the Lake Town people still remember the man with a cigar between his lips and moving around places to buy essential items like fish, vegetable etc. He himself would love to cook Bengali dishes and in fact, he was once a cook and served in a restaurant during his boyhood days, Guenter himself wrote in his memoirs. He loved to cook Bengali food and loved to eat it, Mr B.R. Gupta, a former Chief Secretary of West Bengal who was a next-door resident of Guenter at Lake Town, recollects. But Guenters did not like the filthy city and Calcutta’s way of life, which made him make some disparaging comments on the city. "I don’t appreciate Guenter’s attitude towards the people and city altogether", observed the Magsasay award winning Bengali novelist, Ms Mahasweta Devi, who used to know him very closely. Guenter learnt Bengali from her at the initial stage, which he later himself developed. Guenter wrote 36 books including novels, paintings, graphics, sketchbook, diary etc. He first wrote a poem in 1939 and his first novel "The Tin Drum in 1959" a best seller book. Then came out his Ein Weither Feld ( A Distant Field) which made him famous. Guenter gets the Nobel Prize for his "frolicsome portrayal of the forgotten face of history". He is the second German writer after Henrich Boell ( 72) to get the prize. Guenter’s staying in Calcutta and living with the Calcutta people has been portrayed in his Die Ratin, where he painted Goddess Kali in a rather vulgar way which was not liked by many the naked Kali with her tongue exposed had been a cause of amusement for him. Guenter revisited Calcutta for writing books on Bengal and Bengali and he felt that without visiting Bangladesh and meeting the people there his writing on Bengali would be incomplete and perhaps, that is why he went to Dhaka and stayed there for some time. However, Calcutta has
not forgotten him and his old friends, close associate,
his lovers are still in the city and will welcome the new
recipient of the Nobel Prize, when he arrives. |
Put off elections in Bihar,
demands JD(U) NEW DELHI, Oct 2 — The Janata Dal (United) today urged the Election Commission (EC) not to hold the last phase of elections in Bihar unless the state government complied with its order to deploy paramilitary forces at all polling stations. Party spokesperson Mohan Prakash and Samata Party general secretary Jaya Jaitly told newspersons today that security arrangements in Madhepura, where former Bihar Chief Minister, Laloo Prasad Yadav is pitted against JD (U) President Sharad Yadav, were far from adequate. They said according to the Returning Officer there, except for the Sonbarsa assembly segment in Saharsa district, the Gram Rakshak Dal and the Bihar military police were deployed in other places. The Returning Officer had accepted in the presence of central observers that only five of the seven central paramilitary force contingents had reached their destinations. In such a scenario, it
was unlikely that the sensitive booth would get adequate
security. Unless there was compliance report, the polling
in such areas should be postponed, they said. |
Rich tributes paid to Shastri NEW DELHI, Oct 2 (PTI) —President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Vice-President Krishan Kant led the nation in paying rich tributes to former Prime Minister Lal Bahadur Shastri on his 95th birth anniversary. They visited Shastri’s samadhi at Vijay Ghat on the banks of the Yamuna and offered floral tributes amidst chanting of prayers. Besides members of
Shastri’s family, prominent among those who paid
floral tributes included First Lady Usha Narayanan, Mrs
Krishan Kant, Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Union Home
Minister L K Advani, Delhi Lt-Governor Vijai Kapoor and
Delhi Chief Minister Shiela Dikshit. |
Intruder killed SRIGANGANAGAR, Oct 2 (PTI) — A Pakistani national trying to sneak into India near Garsana in Sriganganagar district was shot dead by the Border Security Force early today. A BSF patrol party sighted three persons near the border, one of whom tried to enter Indian territory by crossing the zero line between pillars 370 and 371, BSF sources said. The BSF party shot dead
the intruder after he did not heed a warning, the sources
said. |
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| Bengali film-maker dead CALCUTTA: Noted Bengali film-maker Salil Sen died at his South Calcutta residence on Friday. He was 74 and a bachelor. Sen, who started his career as a dramatist with the play "Mouchor’’, had directed films like "Chinnamul’’, "Manihar’’, "Ajana Sapath’’, "Mon Niye’’, "Chutir Phande’’, "Har Mana Har’’, "Rajkumari’’, "Sansar’’, "Aparna’’ and others. — UNI Two child labourers
tonsured Conference on
cardiology West Bengal
reserve forest ‘Quit
Tobacco’ campaign AGP worker shot 2 jawans killed
in UNLF attack 2 minor girls
raped Four women
drowned Hindi seva
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