Tuesday, October 12, 1999

Maneka's name added later
NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — The National Democratic Alliance today claimed the support of 304 MPs in Lok Sabha while staking its claim for forming the new government.

A view of a display at the Defexpo which is being inaugurated at New Delhi’s Pragati Maidan on Tuesday. — Photo by Vijender Tyagi

Defence production tie-up soon NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — India is soon to fructify collaboration with a number of countries in the field of defence production besides exploring the idea of exporting indigenous defence products.

Revolt in Bihar Congress
RANCHI, Oct 11 — A section of the Congressmen from Jharkhand, led by Jharkhand Regional Congress Vice-President and AICC delegate J.P. Choudhary, has demanded immediate ouster of Bihar Pradesh Congress Chief Sadanand Singh and JRCC President Sushilla Kerketta following the party's poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

Truckers’ strike from Oct 21
NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — To protest against the diesel price hike by the government, truck operators across the country have decided to go on strike from October 21.

Police can refer to diary for evidence: SC
NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — Saving the police from memory tests during trials of cases, the Supreme Court has ruled that an investigating officer while giving evidence before a trial court was entitled to refer to the case diaries.

BJD MPs choose Naveen as leader
NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — Mr Naveen Patnaik has been re-elected as parliamentary party leader of the 10-member Biju Janata Dal in the Lok Sabha.

Cong helped BJP: Mulayam
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — The Samajwadi Party today launched a scathing attack on the Congress and accused it of helping the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to ensure the defeat of its candidates in Uttar Pradesh in the just concluded Lok Sabha elections.

The Samajwadi Party chief, Mr Mulayam Singh Yadav, addressing his first press conference in the Capital after his party's good showing in the poll said, "The Congress alone is responsible for the victory of the BJP and its allies. It acted in such a manner that our candidates lost and the BJP won".

Mr Yadav claimed there was a "tacit understanding" between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Congress President Sonia Gandhi to defeat SP candidates in the state.

"Our objective was to prevent the BJP from coming to power at the Centre. But the Congress has done just the opposite and ensured the victory of the BJP and its allies," he said.

Mr Yadav said after its worst ever showing this time the Congress would be "wiped out from national politics" in another three to four years. "The Congress will meet this fate for helping the BJP in this manner," he said.

He also attacked the Left parties, particularly the CPM, for not adhering to the policy of maintaining equidistant from both the BJP and the Congress by helping the latter in the state.

Asked about the longevity of the NDA government, Mr Yadav said, "Let the government be formed and let the portfolios be distributed. Then you will see how differences crop up within the coalition."

He said the future of the third front was still bright and expressed confidence that it would come to power the day the ruling coalition collapsed.

To a question, Mr Yadav refuted reports that there was some pre-poll understanding between him and Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Kalyan Singh.

On the future of Rashtriya Loktantrik Morcha (RLM) with Mr Laloo Prasad Yadav's Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD), he said, "We are still together. We are not opposing Laloo".

Mr Yadav was of the view that the Sharad Pawar-led Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) should continue with its policy of maintaining equidistant from both the Congress and the BJP. He added that he was sending party general secretary and MP Raj Babbar to Mumbai to decide on the party's next course of action in Maharashtra.

NDA partners set a new trend
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — Unlike previous occasions when coalition governments were being formed, there is no open activity among the constituents of the National Democratic Alliance, though there are undercurrents to sneak in one’s name in the Council of Ministers.

Having elected Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee as their leader in Parliament and the President endorsing their choice for prime ministership, the various constituents of the National Democratic Alliance this time are going about attending to routine affairs.

The new trend was discernible even yesterday at the NDA’s parliamentary group meeting to elect their leader. Unlike the previous coalition experiments, there was only one chair for the leader. Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, was the only leader. The other constituents did not chain their hands to raise a V sign like on previous occasions and press home the point that they were all equals. Instead, they individually felicitated their leader.

The newly elected members of the Janata Dal (United) met at the residence of the Defence Minister, Mr George Fernandes, and confined their meeting to just taking stock of the violence that took place during the Bihar elections.

Party spokesman, Mohan Prakash, said the meeting did not discuss about Cabinet formation as it would tantamount to undermining the Prime Minister’s authority. He maintained that only the JD (U) President, Mr Sharad Yadav, and the Parliamentary party leader, Mr George Fernandes, who held a 15-minute meeting with the Prime Minister here today, could discuss the issue.

He said today’s meeting of the JD (U) expressed grave concern over election violence in Bihar.

The Biju Janata Dal at its end announced the results of its parliamentary party meeting last night.

It was disclosed that Mr Navin Patnaik had been reelected leader of the 10-member Biju Janata Dal in the Lok Sabha.

Mr Braja Kishore Tripathy and Mr Padmanav Behera were elected chief whip and secretary of the BJD in the Lok Sabha.

The DMK President, Dr M.Karunanidhi, did not go to Rashtrapati Bhavan as part of the NDA delegation to meet the President this morning. Instead, he deputed Mr Murasoli Maran to represent the party.

Dr Karunanidhi was the guest of the Prime Minister at an exclusive dinner hosted by Mr Vajpayee last night for the DMK supremo and Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

Home Minister, L.K.Advani and Mr Murasoli Maran were also present.

Defence production tie-up soon
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — India is soon to fructify collaboration with a number of countries in the field of defence production besides exploring the idea of exporting indigenous defence products.

India could in the near future have collaboration with France, the United Kingdom, Israel and South Africa in various fields of defence production. Already India is holding talks with a number of companies from these countries for having collaboration.

This was announced here today by the Secretary, Defence Production and Supplies, Mr Prabir Sengupta. He was addressing newsmen in connection with the Defexpo India’99 — the first Land and Naval Systems exhibition being held at Pragati Maidan. The exhibition has been organised by the Department of Defence Production and Supplies in association with the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).

Defence Minister George Fernandes will inaugurate the exhibition tomorrow.

Mr Sengupta said the two fields in which a number of countries were interested in having collaboration with India were "electronics and the avionics". He said these were two areas where there was considerable foreign interest. Foreign companies, he said, had shown interest in hooking up with the public sector Bharat Electronics Limited and Hindustan Aeronautics Limited for entering into such deals.

While pointing out that the country was not expecting any kind of deal for the purchase of defence products during the five-day exhibition, Mr Sengupta said the talks on collaboration with a number of companies from France, the UK, Israel and South Africa could be finalised. Delegations from at least 30 countries were expected to be in India during the exhibition.

The delegations would either be of the ministerial level, secretarial level or the Chief of Staff level. The delegations from South Africa and Philippines would be led by the respective Defence Ministers.

DRDO chief K. Santhanam said, India was also expected to reach about 70 per cent self-reliance level by the year 2002 after which it would also be more aggressively exploring the possibilities of exporting Indian defence products. Till now Indian defence production has primarily been for meeting the requirements of the defence forces. It is now reaching a stage from where export could be considered.

Mr Sengupta said this exhibition would also provide a very good chance to Indian Ordnance Factories to not only pick up new technologies, which would be on display, but also display their own products. He pointed out that the Indian products were far more cost effective than those produced abroad.

About 117 exhibitors from abroad will be participating in the exhibition. There will be 77 exhibitors from India of which eight will be from the public sector. Another 23 small enterprises will also be participating from India.

International participation will feature from 16 countries — Bulgaria, Czech Republic, France, Israel, Italy, Malaysia, Namibia, Netherlands, Poland, Russia, Slovak Republic, South Africa, Sweden, Switzerland, Britain and the United Arab Emirates.

Among the key foreign companies, British Aerospace will display maritime air, land and sea systems, including Hawk, Harrier and Jaguar aircraft. Other important British defence product companies participating include Marconi, Rolls Royce and GKN Westland.

Some of the product categories to be exhibited are armour, artillery, bridging system, bullet-proof clothing, components/military vehicles, decoy system, diesel engines, environment control systems, explosive detection systems, fire control systems, anti-aircraft guns, infantry combat vehicles, missiles and missile systems, rocket launching systems, small arms and ammunition, satellites and space technologies, communication systems, ship building submarines and tanks.

DPCC issues notice to MLA
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — The Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee has issued show-cause notices to an MLA and two metropolitan councillor for their anti-party activities during the general elections.

The DPCC president, Mr Subhash Chopra, told The Tribune that the party had issued show cause-notices to them following complaints from local units that they did not extend their support to official candidates during the Lok Sabha poll.

The notices were issued to Congress MLA, Jagdish Anand, and metropolitan councillors, Nathu Ram Nagar and Ashok Jain.

The Congress, which had swept the Assembly poll last year, was completely routed during the general election as the BJP won all seven seats in the Capital.

The Congress MLA was one of the vocal leaders who had called for the resignation of the Delhi Chief Minister, Mrs Sheila Dikshit, following the poor performance of the party.

The DPCC is also setting up a disciplinary committee to suggest action against those legislators who allegedly did not cooperate with the party’s candidates during the poll.

Sources said the party had received complaints against the Delhi Social Welfare Minister, Ms Krishna Tirath, MLAs, Kiran Walia, Haroon Yusuf, Anjali Rai, and Darshan Ram Kumar.

The committee will also discuss the passing of the private member’s Bill despite opposition from a minister in the recently concluded monsoon session of the Delhi Assembly. The Bill was tabled by Congress MLA, Mukesh Sharma.

The absence of the party’s heavyweight, Mr Sajjan Kumar, from the capital during elections would also be discussed by the committee.

Revolt in Bihar Congress

RANCHI, Oct 11 (UNI) — A section of the Congressmen from Jharkhand, led by Jharkhand Regional Congress Vice-President and AICC delegate J.P. Choudhary, has demanded immediate ouster of Bihar Pradesh Congress Chief Sadanand Singh and JRCC President Sushilla Kerketta following the party's poor performance in the Lok Sabha polls.

Raising a revolt against the two presidents, the Congressmen urged the party high command to save the Congress from further humiliation.

Holding Mr Singh and Mrs Kerketta responsible for the poll debacle in Bihar, Mr Choudhary said the two should resign in the interest of the party or would be forced to step down by the Congressmen.

Describing Mr Sadanand Singh as "corrupt" and Mrs Kerketta as "ineffective and self centred," the dissident Congress leaders led by Mr Choudhary said it would once again prove suicidal for the party in the state Assembly elections, due early next year, if they were allowed to continue in their respective party posts.

Talking to mediapersons Mr Choudhary said the party state leadership was responsible for its poor electoral show this time. He alleged that the leaders who were now voicing their opinion against the alliance with the Rashtriya Janata Dal were the ones who had misled the party high command in this regard for their personal political gains.

Mr Choudhary further alleged that Mr Sadanand Singh had favoured this "unholy alliance" with the RJD as he had planned to contest the Jamshedpur Parliamentary seat.

He said he had suggested the party high command to break all ties with the RJD and strive for strengthening the state party unit.

The Congress, he said, must initiate immediate steps for its revival in Bihar on its own and prepare for the coming state polls by agitating against the "misdeeds" of the "corrupt and ineffective" RJD government in the state.

The party must also unitedly strive for the creation of Jharkhand which alone would help re-establish its lost ground in the region, he added.

Truckers’ strike from Oct 21
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 — To protest against the diesel price hike by the government, truck operators across the country have decided to go on strike from October 21.

The All-India Motor Transport Congress, the apex organisation of motor transport operators and affiliated to state and regional associations decided at its emergency meeting yesterday that the members would "suspend work from 6 a.m. on October 21".

The president of the AIMTC, Mr O.P. Agarwal, told newspersons that they would sit on relay hunger strikes from October 17 in protest against the hike in diesel prices.

He said the prices should be rolled back as they were on October 5, "failing which the transporters shall be compelled to suspend their work which will affect the movement and supply of all goods, including essential commodities."

Mr Agarwal said the hike in diesel price had come as a bolt from the blue to the transport industry. It was no secret that Indian economy was passing through recession which had hit the transport sector.

CALCUTTA (UNI): A transport strike called in protest against the increase in the diesel price and fares disrupted life in the metropolis and its neighbourhood today, just four days ahead of Durga Puja.

The strike call was given by leading private transport operators, including the Bengal Taxi Association.

Police can refer to diary for evidence: SC

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 (PTI) — Saving the police from memory tests during trials of cases, the Supreme Court has ruled that an investigating officer (IO) while giving evidence before a trial court was entitled to refer to the case diaries.

"Trial court cannot overlook the reality that an investigating officer comes to the court for giving evidence after conducting investigation in many other cases in the meanwhile," a Division Bench of Mr Justice K.T. Thomas and Mr Justice A.P. Misra said.

The Bench gave this ruling while setting aside a Karnataka High Court judgement acquitting a person from charges of murdering his lover.

"Evidence giving process should not bog down to memory tests of witnesses. An IO must answer the questions in court, as far as possible, only with reference to what he had recorded during investigation," Mr Justice Thomas said in the judgement.

He said such records were the contemporary entries made by the IO and hence, for refreshing his memory it was always advisable that he looked into those records before answering any question.

Mr Justice Thomas said any objection by the defence counsel when an IO wanted to reply by referring to the records of investigation was "untenable and unjustified". "The trial court should ignore such objections," he added.

Recycled plastic bags for food banned

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 (PTI) — The Union Government has put a ban on using "recycled" plastic carry bags and containers for packaging and supplying foodstuff, the Delhi High Court was informed today by the Ministry of Environment and Forests.

The ministry counsel told a Division Bench comprising Mr Justice Arun Kumar and Mr Justice D.K. Jain that a gazette notification to this effect was issued by it on September 2 under the Environment Act.

According to the notification "no vendor shall use carry bags or containers made of recycled plastic for storing, carrying, dispensing and packaging of foodstuffs."

Laying down conditions and guidelines for manufacturers, the notification said they only be allowed to make carry bags and containers from "fresh" plastic in case these were required for supplying food items.

Where the recycled plastic bags and containers are used for non-food items, these should contain specific "print" on them to indicate that these were made of ‘recycled’ plastic material, it said.

"The recycling should strictly be in accordance with the specification of the Bureau of Indian Standard (BIS), and the same should be marked on the manufactured material," the notification said.

Maneka's name added later

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 (PTI) — The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) today claimed the support of 304 MPs in Lok Sabha while staking its claim for forming the new government.

NDA convener George Fernandes sent a second letter to the President correcting the figure to add Independent MP Maneka Gandhi’s name after it was missed out in the first letter handed over by an NDA delegation in the morning.

Mr Fernandes said in the letter on behalf of the alliance that the meeting of MPs belonging to the NDA in Parliament yesterday had elected Mr Vajpayee leader of the alliance.

"We have been informed by the Telugu Desam Party that they have addressed a letter to you conveying the decision to support the NDA for the formation of a government at the Centre. Together with 29 TDP members, we have a total strength of 304 members in the Lok Sabha.

"We request that Shri Atal Behari Vajpayee be called to form the government," the letter said.

BJD MPs choose Naveen as leader

NEW DELHI, Oct 11 (PTI) — Mr Naveen Patnaik has been re-elected as parliamentary party leader of the 10-member Biju Janata Dal (BJD) in the Lok Sabha.

Mr Patnaik was unanimously re-elected leader at a meeting held at his residence here yesterday which also elected Mr Arjun Charan Sethi as deputy leader, a BJD press note said today.

Mr Braja Kishore Tripathy and Mr Padmanav Behera were elected chief whip and secretary, respectively, of the BJD in the Lok Sabha.

Two custodial deaths
SILIGURI: Two undertrials were found dead inside a cell at Alipurduar sub-jail in West Bengal’s Jalpaiguri district, officials said on Sunday. Deonath Majhi (35) and Nimai Das (25) were found hanging from a rod in the window of their cell on Friday and Saturday morning, respectively, the Sub-Divisional Officer, Alipurduar, Mr Pinaki Ghose said. — PTI

Lightning kills two
NAGPUR: Two persons were killed when lightning struck them at two places here following heavy rain accompanied by high velocity winds that lashed the city and its adjoining areas on Sunday. According to the police, one person who took shelter under a water tank was killed on the spot in Umrer, while another person met with the same fate in Khaperkheda. — PTI

Gangster killed in encounter
MUMBAI: An Aswin Naik gang member, Mangesh Dharmaraj Khole (28), was shot dead by the police at Colaba area of the city on Monday. On a tip-off, a police party led by the crime police Inspector, Mr Reveendranath Angre, cordoned off the area. When Khole was spotted along with his associates, he was asked to surrender but he opened fire. The police returned the fire, injuring Khole seriously. He was then rushed to J J Hospital, but was declared brought dead. His associates, however, escaped. — UNI

Suicide by boy over cricket row
SURAT: Shattered by his elder brother appealing to the "umpire" for his dismissal during a cricket match, a boy committed suicide on Saturday by consuming poison at Baroda in Gujarat, the police said. The boy was playing cricket on a street and had a quarrel with his elder brother during the match, the police said. Following the tiff, he went to his house and allegedly consumed poison. — PTI

Editor among four killed in Manipur
IMPHAL: Militants shot dead four persons, including the Editor of a local daily, in Manipur’s Churachandpur district on Sunday, a senior police official said here on Monday. The victims, all hailing from a particular community, were going from Saikot and Rengkai area on two-wheelers when they were stopped by the militants, taken to the nearby jungles and shot dead at point-blank range, the district police superintendent, Mr Ashutosh Sinha said. — PTI