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PM: Terror threat can trigger disasters
Cong to amend its constitution
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Lalu’s vote bank under threat
Federalism tool for global order: Pratibha
FIR can’t be sole basis for determining truth: SC
Russian offer on arms depot in India
Book on ’84 riots questions probe panels’ findings
Greenpeace, BKU warn against GE rice
Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to focus on social issues
Kaziranga park hit by fund crisis
Paddy MSP issue rocks Andhra Houses
Maoists behind violence: CPM
Ultras gun down DSP
Sacked minister’s driver confesses to killing girl
Rizwanur Case
NHRC issues notice to Bihar govt on atrocities
Now national awards for children’s films
Chennai to have metro rail
EU puts Galileo project on back burner
Punjab to get Rs 75 cr for adarsh schools
Directive to UP govt on Periyar’s book
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PM: Terror threat can trigger disasters
New Delhi, November 7 “The threat of terrorism looms large in many parts of our region and could trigger disasters across borders,” the Prime Minister said while inaugurating the second Asian ministerial conference on disaster risk reduction here. Pointing the countries must also learn to deal with new kinds of health disasters such as HIV, avian flu which have emerged as new challenges all over the world and have enormous social and economic consequences, he said “we need improved methodologies for risk reduction, insurance as well as for mitigation.” Asserting that the biggest disaster that we may yet prevent from happening is the catastrophic effect of global warming and climate change, the Prime Minister hoped that the Asian region would show the wisdom and cooperative spirit in dealing with manmade disasters as it has shown in dealing with natural disasters. “Disasters know no political boundaries and we are all equally vulnerable to them. I firmly believe that this is one area where nations can - and indeed must - cooperate to find collective, cooperative solutions to the challenges that face them,” he said adding “after all, it is in difficult times that we need the best of relations.” In this context, he pointed out that in recent years, countries of Asia have come together to help one another during times of natural disasters. “We have had joint efforts to provide rescue and relief to those in distress - in the aftermath of the tsunami of 2004, after the recent earthquakes in our regions, including in Jammu and Kashmir,” he said adding “this conference is taking place at a time when we can all feel hopeful that we have the sagacity to cooperate during times of natural disasters.” “While we have the necessary wherewithal in Asia to respond to disasters, we need more bilateral and regional cooperation to make effective use of our capabilities,” Manmohan Singh told the international meet also attended by UPA chairperson and Congress president Sonia Gandhi. Sonia strongly advocated proactive policies as part of long-term measures and permanent solutions to anticipate the destructive power of disasters and minimise their effect. Union home minister Shivraj Patil suggested intensive research and development to manage disasters and said contingency plans to help people should be kept ready. Nearly 500 delegates from over 50 countries are attending the two-day conference to review initiatives in various sub-regions of Asia, considered as the most disaster-prone continent.
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Cong to amend its constitution
New Delhi, November 7 The meeting of the party’s highest decision-making body was called primarily to draw up the broad agenda for the November 17 AICC session and discuss the proposed amendments to the party’s constitution. Participating in the deliberations, the newly-appointed AICC general-secretary pointed to the set of conditions which are to be met by those in the party and said not all should be binding on members. According to these guidelines, party members are to wear khadi, refrain from drinking alchohol, should not own property above the Land Ceiling Act, uphold secularism, do a stint of manual labour and subscribe to the AICC publications. Gandhi said since it was difficult to verfiy if a party member was actually following these guidelines some of them, like compulsory subscription to AICC publications, should be waived. Briefing mediapersons after the meeting, Veerappa Moily, AICC media department chairperson, said the CWC decided to amend the party constitution and do away with the distinction between active and primary members. The amendemnts will now be placed before the AICC for formal clearance. Congress president Sonia Gandhi, who welcomed all the new CWC members, made a strong pitch for enrolment of more women in the party.
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Lalu’s vote bank under threat
Patna, November 7 The JD(U) already demanded reservation for Dalit Muslims on the pattern of Dalit Hindus, besides demanding compensation to the victims of 1989 Bhagalpur riot victims on the lines of anti-Sikh riot victims of 1984, by charging Lalu with practically doing nothing for the 15 per cent minority in Bihar except using them as his vote bank. The mythical Muslim-Yadav combination of Lalu, comprising about 25 per cent of the total electorate of Bihar, was said to have helped the RJD boss and his wife, Rabri Devi, to rule Bihar for 15 years between 1990 and 2005. At the first-ever convention organised under the banner of the newly floated “Yadav Jagran Manch”, primarily a frontal face of the LJP, there was a clear and loud message for RJD supremo Lalu - Yadavs in Bihar can no longer be taken for granted. Yadav representatives from 530 blocks spread over 38 districts of Bihar came at the S.K. Memorial hall here on Sunday to attend the convention. The extent of the impressive turnout could be assessed from the fact that those who failed to make it to the chock-a-block hall that could accommodate over 6,000 gathering preferred to listen to the speakers from outside. Manch patron Ranjan Yadav is presently the chairman of Lok Janashakti Party (LJP) parliamentary board, after he had deserted Lalu Yadav’s RJD few years back. In presence of LJP chief Ramvilas Paswan, speaker after speaker from the community blamed Lalu Prasad of making Yadavs a “butt of joke and object of hatred because of his misdemeanours” during 15 years of RJD rule in the state. Be it Suresh Yadav from Lalu’s Chapra or Nagendra Rai from Madhepura, they unanimously voiced their anger alleging that Yadavs in reality became all the more backward during RJD rule as it benefitted only Lalu-Rabri, besides a few Yadavs close to them. Paswan obviously did not make any mistake to take advantage of the prevailing charged atmosphere against his bete noire, Lalu Prasad, hitherto known as the only “messiah” for Yadavs, by urging this powerful community to give his party a chance to retrieve their lost dignity. Taking a dig at Lalu, Paswan said, “For no fault of yours, people here identified you more with lathis (muscle power) than pen (dignity)”. Questioning Lalu’s real commitment for Yadavs, Paswan claimed that the RJD boss had spurned his offer to nominate any Yadav, beyond his wife Rabri Devi, as the chief ministerial candidate before 2005 Assembly elections. Incidentally, besides sharing a common hatred for Lalu, Paswan also took a leaf out of Nitish by using the former Lalu loyalist Ranjan Yadav, the propagator of Yadav Jagaan Manch, to target the RJD boss. Nitish was already using another former lieutenant of Lalu, now the national spokesman of JD(U), Shivanand Tiwary, to train guns on the union railway minister. Besides, another Yadav satrap from Bihar, Sharad Yadav, had replaced George Fernandes as the national president of JD(U) backed by Nitish a year
back.
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Lakshmi’s surgery successful
Bangalore, November 7 Lakshmi has been placed under observation in Sparsh hospital’s ICU and is on ventilator support at present. Doctors say the next 48 hours are crucial for her recovery, but they were upbeat as all her systems were running normal. The road to complete recovery for the toddler, however, is still three weeks away during which time the doctors hope to get the girl on her feet and make her start walking after appropriate physiotherapy and rehabilitation care. “Our service to the family will be complete when we make Lakshmi walk”, said Dr Sharan Patil after the operation today adding that the family was ecstatic after the successful completion of the surgery. But Lakshmi’s parents will have to wait for some more time before they will be able to meet their daughter in her new avatar. Speaking about the surgery and the challenges involved, Dr Patil said the first challenge was the nuerological separation of the two spinal cords. He said a nuero team led by Dr Thimappa Hegde separated the two spinal cords giving everyone confidence that the baby was intact neurologically. Following this Dr Patil led a team of orthopaedic surgeons to conduct the Osteotomy (separation of pelvic bone) process under which the bones attaching the two bodies together were detached part by part. Dr Patil said once the parasitic body was eased out, its bones were used to join the bones of the torso and the pelvic reconstruction was completed at 3.30 a.m today. The pelvic bone was brought back by 180 degrees and is now in a normal alignment. Lakshmi has responded well to the surgery and both her kidneys, one of which was brought back to her main body from her parasitic part, are functioning normally. Doctors said their next challenge was to oversee Lakshmi’s recovery and they were closely monitoring her urinary functioning as well as her general metabolic stage. Dr Thimappa Hegde said he was hopeful doctors would not have to operate on the baby again soon. The surgery was completed ahead of schedule at 10 a.m taking a total of 27 hours even though the doctors had projected a time frame of 40 hours.
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Federalism tool for global order: Pratibha
New Delhi, November 7 “Federalism is not merely a legal constitutional mechanism for the distribution of powers, both legislative and fiscal, among different levels of the government but it is a concept rooted in self-rule,” she said at the valedictory session of the Fourth International Conference on Federalism. “Power sharing facilitates the deepening and widening of the democratic process. By equipping the different units to take appropriate decisions, federalism helps in the judicious use of resources, increasing efficiency and better targeting of policies,” she said, asserting that “federalism thus is not only good politics, but also good economics”. Referring to the Indian context, she said the working of the Constitution had demonstrated the inherent strength and resilience of the Indian federal structure in withstanding the stresses and strains of diverse aspirations of the people. “The Indian Constitution is a living document and has also been amended from time to time reflecting its resilience and dynamism,” she said pointing that the concepts of democracy and federalism were maximised when people at the grassroots were empowered to elect their own representative and to plan and implement programmes for their own economic development through the constitutional amendment in 1993.
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FIR can’t be sole basis for determining truth: SC
New Delhi, November 7 After finding trial courts faulting in deciding cases while relying heavily on the contents of the FIRs, resulting in the miscarriage of justice, two separate Benches of the apex court in two murder cases firmed up the guidelines to the trial courts on the issue of a careful treatment to the first information reports. “The truth and veracity of contents of the FIR cannot in all cases be tested with a reference to the entries made in police station daily diary,” a Bench of Justices P.P. Naolekar and B. Sudershan Reddy ruled in a murder case from Punjab, while dealing with the question how the trial judges should deal with the “defects” in the FIRs and its contradiction with investigation report. In another judgement in a murder case from Maharashtra, another Bench of Justices S.B. Sinha and H.S. Bedi, while deciding the vital question of the timing of the FIR, a crucial factor to decide the case, ruled that “a FIR cannot be lodged in a murder case after the inquest has been held… where the FIR was ante-timed or not also requires serious consideration.” In the Punjab case, the court said a defect or procedural irregularity, if any found in the investigation report itself, could not vitiate and nullify the trial based on the erroneous probe.
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Nandigram Violence
Kolkata, November 7 At the end of the Left Front’s two-hour meeting, veteran leader Jyoti Basu conveyed this decision to mediapersons at the Alimuddin Street party office. Basu also volunteered himself to again talk to Mamata Banerjee for ending the 11-month-old political crisis in Nandigram. However, front chairman Biman Bose, who is also the CPM secretary in the state, denied that the front meeting had decided against the deployment of the CRPF in Nandigram. “Jyoti Babu only suggested that there was no need to deploy the CRPF now, which the Chief Minister would consider,” he said. But he admitted that the front was not happy at the administrative handling of the Nandigram situation. The CPM politburo defended the chief minister’s decision of deployment of the central force. In a statement issued today, the politburo asked the state government to immediately deploy the CRPF in Nandigram for bringing down peace and normalcy there. The politburo alleged that the Maoist activists and other anti-social elements had taken over the control of Nandigram leading to law and order problems. Trinamool Congress chief Mamata welcomed Basu’s invitation. However, she favoured the deployment of CRPF personnel with the condition that they should be allowed to function independently and not under the directions of the state government. She demanded that the chief minister should resign owning the moral responsibility of the killings in Nandigram and his utter failure in handling the law and order situation in the state. Mamata met Governor Gopal Krishna Gandhi and demanded the application of Article 355 in the state. Gandhi later called home secretary Prasad Ranjan Royand DGP Anup Bhora at Raj Bhavan and enquired about the situation in Nandigram vis-à-vis the government handling of the problems. Meanwhile, there was fresh outbreak of violence in Nandigram today when both the Bhoomi Bachaoo Committee and the CPM were involved in the exchange of fire and bomb-throwing over the capturing of the areas by the respective warring groups. According to the home secretary, the CPM had re-captured many of their “lost areas” in Nandigram where the residents had been evicted. Similarly, the TMC and its allies also re-capturedsome areas in Khejuri which has been a stronghold of the CPM. The police stood a mere spectator all through today.
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Russian offer on arms depot in India
New Delhi, November 7 The proposal of the Russian Government was being examined by the Government, official sources said today. During his visit to Russia last month, Defence minister A.K. Antony raised the issue of the shortage of spares for various armaments in the inventory of the Indian Navy, the Army and the Indian Air Force, following which the proposal came from Moscow. The Defence Ministry is now discussing the Russian proposal and some positive response seems to be emerging. The time consumed in getting crucial spares would be saved through such an option and it would be cost effective too, sources said. India has several arms and equipment in its inventory which have been manufactured by Russia and many are being co-produced in India. These include the MiG and Sukhoi fighters, T-90 and T-72 tanks, AN-32 planes, the Ilyushin (Gajraj) aircraft, submarines, vessels and missiles.
— PTI
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Book on ’84 riots questions probe panels’ findings
New Delhi, November 7 A judicial commission, headed by the former Chief Justice of India, Ranganath Misra, though had said that the killing of at least 2,000 people would have been averted, had the army been deployed on November 1, 1984, a day after the assassination of Indira Gandhi, but it failed to fix the responsibility on the authorities concerned. The book, while analysing the findings of the two judicial commissions on the basis of documents placed on record, says though the PMO had issued instruction on the evening of October 31, 1984 to alert the Army and the then General-Officer-Commanding of Delhi area, Major Genral J S Jamwal duly sounded, various authorities continued to pass the buck on each other for issuing order for calling in the troops. "The Misra commission, too... skirted the whole issue, although it purportedly examined whether the violence in Delhi had been organised," the book said putting a question mark on the report of the panel, which held its proceedings in camera. The authors say that the second judicial commission of Justice G T Nanavati though held the proceedings in transparent manner, yet it also failed to fix the responsibilities behind the delay in deploying the Army.
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Greenpeace, BKU warn against GE rice
New Delhi, November 7 Quoting from a report titled "risky business" that enumerates the loss due to contamination of rice chain from Bayer's field trials in the US, Greenpeace called for a stop to any further GE rice field trials in India. In fact, the NGO chose to release the report in a rice field at Mahura Kalam village, about 25 km from Lucknow where Greenpeace volunteers and farmers from Bharatiya Kisan Union (BKU) covered a paddy field with a 7500-sq ft. banner reading 'Save Our Rice'. Greenpeace campaigner Saumya Tripathi said this was done to draw attention of the Indian government to the contamination threat faced by rice farmers in Lucknow because of the proposed open air field trials of Bt rice by Maharashtra Hybrid Seed Company (Mahyco) in the district. Tripathi says traces of the Bayer's GE rice variety LL601, known as Liberty Link, were discovered in US rice supply chain in 2006. "The contamination arose from experimental field trials of this variety in the US carried out in 2001. The discovery triggered the largest financial and marketing disaster in the history of the US rice industry. At least, 30 countries were affected by the contamination and many closed their markets to US rice, including major importers such as the European Union, Japan and the Philippines," he said. According to BKU spokesperson Rakesh Tikait, India's basmati rice growers were committed to remaining GE free. "However, experimental trials of other GE rice strains are to take place next to basmati growing areas, creating a risk of contamination which could affect our rice exports markets which was worth Rs 7,035 crore in 2006-07 and thereby seal the fate of our paddy farmers," he said. Greenpeace says this should serve as a wake-up call to "Indian government which has thrown all cautions to wind in venturing down the Genetic Engineering food crop route." "Limited field trials of just one strain of GE rice led to financial losses that some farmers in the US may never recoup. Banning crop trials and cultivation of GE rice is the only way to prevent replications of such a disaster in India," added GE-Free India Campaigner Rajesh Krishnan.
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Pravasi Bharatiya Divas to focus on social issues
New Delhi, November 7 The theme of the sixth edition of the divas, to be held at Vigyan Bhavan here, is ‘Engaging the diaspora: The way forward’ with the objective to encourage overseas Indians to be part of the socio-economic development of India. The main focus during the event will be on social areas with special emphasis on women. The forthcoming Pravasi Bharatiya Divas includes a two-day convention featuring diverse themes with eminent speakers; trade and industry exhibition, business networking and cultural evenings. Ravi said Prime Minister Manmohan Singh would inaugurate the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas on January 7 and it will culminate with valedictory address and conferment of Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award by President Pratibha Patil on January 9. Ravi said the union and state governments would be fully involved in the sessions so that participants could directly interact with government representatives and address their concerns and have exposure to the government programmes for the common man and how they could be involved in these. There will also be parallel sessions of different regions, which have significant number of overseas Indians. The second day of the convention would be dedicated to interaction with Indian states represented by various chief ministers. The session would give impetus to greater interaction between the diaspora and major Indian states as important investment destinations.
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Kaziranga park hit by fund crisis
Guwahati, November 7 According to divisional forest officer (DFO) of the park, Bankim Sharma, the estimated Rs 5 crore will be required for repair of damages caused by three waves of floods this year to the infrastructure inside the ‘bio-diversity hot spot’. The park authority has already submitted a proposal of Rs 2.78 crore which will hardly suffice the requirement and hence a new proposal of Rs 5 crore will be submitted to the central government through the Assam government. As on date, the park authority is yet to receive any substantial grant from both the Assam government and the Centre for post-flood restoration work. “We have managed to make only some stop gap repair to damaged infrastructure so far in order to open the park for tourists as scheduled on November 1 last. The local legislator has helped by providing fund for repair of two roads inside the park. No money has come from the government so far for flood damage repair,” the official said. The Assam government has also failed to rise to the occasion and allot some emergency fund to the national park to take care of the flood damage repair work. All 23 wildlife sanctuaries and reserve forest areas in Assam suffer from perennial fund crisis because of low allocation by the state and central government. Kaziranga Park was provided only Rs 10 lakh by the Assam government during the fiscal 2006-07. In fact, all protected wildlife areas in the Northeast, which is considered a treasure trove of varies animals, birds and faunal resources, are suffering from paucity of fund because of low fund allotment from the central as well as state government. The total central annual allocation for wildlife areas in Karnataka is more that the total allocation for all wildlife area in the entire Northeastern states, including Assam. A source in wildlife administration said low central allocation was basically because of failure of N-E state governments to submit the utility certificate in time against the fund allocated in the previous year.
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Paddy MSP issue rocks Andhra Houses
Hyderabad, November 7 Accusing the Congress governments at the centre and in the state of neglecting the interests of farmers, TDP chief N. Chandrababu Naidu demanded enhancement of MSP for paddy to Rs 1,000 per quintal to make it on par with wheat and implementation of the recommendations of Dr Swaminathan committee on welfare of farmers. During an acrimonious discussion in the Assembly over the issue, Naidu charged the UPA government with meting out a raw deal to paddy farmers while doling out favours to wheat growing farmers. During the last three years, the MSP for wheat had been increased by over 50 per cent while the hike for paddy was only to the tune of 22 per cent, Naidu said adding it created a huge disparity. Though paddy cultivation involved higher production cost and greater risk, the MSP was fixed at Rs 695 per quintal putting the paddy producing states at a great loss, he said adding a ban on export of rice had only compounded the problems of farmers. He assailed the Manmohan Singh government for failing to implement recommendations of the National Commission for Farmers Welfare, headed by eminent agricultural scientist Dr Swaminathan, even over a year after it had submitted its
report. — PTI
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Maoists behind violence: CPM
New Delhi, November 7 The statement said the state government had announced that there was no question of land acquisition for a chemical hub, but for the past eight months an alliance of political forces have occupied the area and physically driven out all those who are identified with the CPM and the Left. “Under the guise of the Bhumi Ucchad Pratirodh Samiti, the Trinamul Congress and some other forces have combined to maintain their sway in the area. In order to achieve their aims they have ganged up with the Maoists who have brought in armed squads from outside West Bengal,” it said. The party said for the past few months, the administration and the police have been out of the area which has been utilised by the armed elements led by the Maoists to entrench themselves and bunkers have been built and landmines laid. It said that one of the squads is led by Ranjit Pal who was involved in the killing of JMM MP Sunil Mahato in Jharkhand. “The Maoists’ role has been exposed by the landmine blasts which took place on November 6. Of the five landmines that were planted, three exploded, killing two persons. Such landmines are being used by the Maoists in Jharkhand and Chhattisgarh,” the statement said. It said that the actual situation in Nandigarm has become clear despite efforts at “disinformation.” |
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Ultras gun down DSP
Guwahati, November 7 Ri-Bhoi district police superintendent J. Rymbai said a team led by the DSP set on a hideout of HNLC militants at Paham Umdoh village. He said the ultras opened fire which injured the DSP, while another militant was killed. The police managed to arrest two more militants, while the rest of the group managed to flee. The DSP succumbed to his injuries at the Army Base Hospital in Basistha in Guwahati. The police has launched a massive search operation in the district to nab the rest of the gang members. Meanwhile, Chief Minister D.D. Lapang has summoned a high-level meeting to assess the overall law and order situation in the state. The Meghalaya police have of late geared up operations against the Khasi tribe militants group, the HNLC, which has been on an extortion spree in East Khasi Hills district, West Khasi Hills and Ri-Bhoi. On October 30 last, five militants of the banned outfit were gunned down in a shootout in Shillong. The ultras were reportedly on their way to kill the chief executive member of the Khasi Hills Autonomous District Council (KHADC), H.S. Shylla. Meghalaya director general of police (DGP), Bijon Dey Sawian told mediapersons that the police had stumbled upon close links between the HNLC ultras and the Khasi Students’ Union (KSU) during its course of investigations into many cases and a dossier which was being prepared on the issue, would be presented to the state government and the Centre for future action.
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Sacked minister’s driver confesses to killing girl
Lucknow, November 7 However, efforts by police divers to fish out Shashi’s body from the river proved futile. The divers had been pressed into service by the Faizabad police investigating into the case after the SHO, Haliapur, admitted to have received a call from the minister’s driver on October 22, the day Shashi disappeared. The SHO said the minister’s driver had called him on the night of October 22, and claiming to be a relative of the driver had requested him to send some help as the minister’s car had broken down and required to be pushed. Following the request, Ramanuj Mishra on picket duty near the bridge between Haliapur and Sultanpur, was sent. Mishra recollects pushing a red Santro car in which a woman was sitting. However, he does not recall the face of the woman but remembers that the car was facing towards Faizabad. The investigating officers also took him to the site where the car had broken down. Sources in the Faizabad police said the driver had confessed to the crime so as to bail out the minister. Wife of the dismissed minister, Indu Sen Yadav, charged the Samajwadi Party of deliberately dragging her husband into the controversy. Meanwhile, sacked minister and MLA from Milkipur Assembly segment, Anand, saw to it that no newspapers reached his constituency. A senior journalist on the condition of anonymity told The Tribune that no newspaper hawker was allowed to distribute any newspaper in the MLA’s area. “As there is hardly any electricity or cable network in the villages, the minister does not find any threat from satellite TV”, he said.
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Rizwanur Case
Kolkata, November 7 Priyanka had written a letter to Kishwar Jahan yesterday through her lawyer where she had requested her for returning her dairies, several photographs, clothes, etc, which she had left in the in-law’s house. In the letter she also wished some sort of mutual settlements between the two families. But she made it clear she was not thinking of returning to the in-laws’ house now. Kishwar Jahan replied to her where she expressed her deep sorrow and anguish that her daughter-in-law could write to her through the lawyer, when she was expecting her every time in the hours of her bereavement for her son.
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NHRC issues notice to Bihar govt on atrocities
New Delhi, November 7 Taking the cognisance of a media report about the incident, the commission said if the contents of the report were true it raised a serious issue of human rights violation of Dalits. The commission has directed that the copies of the report be forwarded to the state chief secretary for it to be submitted within four weeks. According to the November 1 report, station in-charge of a police station picked up 18 Dalits from Bannarpur village and brought them to the station. They were kept in the lockup for about 24 hours and then severely beaten up by the police inspector,
it said. ''He then called their wives to the station and asked them to beat them with their slippers. But they refused and returned,'' it added. ''Even this could not calm him down and he made the Dalits lick the spit,'' it said.
— UNI
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Now national awards for children’s films
New Delhi, November 7 Briefing mediapersons here today on the forthcoming international children's film festival (November 14-20) to be held in Hyderabad, Children’s Film Society chairperson Nafisa Ali Sodhi said the 52-year-old society was keen on introducing national awards for children’s films from November 14 (Children’s Day) next year. “The I&B minister is fully supportive of this. The Planning Commission has to give budget approval for the award”, she said. As in the past, the festival will begin on the birth anniversary of India’s first Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru. More than 300 entries were received from 40 countries and a selection committee of experts from film and allied fields shortlisted the entries for competition. Enumerating ways of encouraging children’s cinema, Nafisa Asked if the CFSI has asked superstar Amitabh Bachchan to The CFSI chairperson said the film festival will cost Rs 1.5 crore. The expenditure for hosting the festival will be shared equally by the government and the Andhra government. Ali said the opening film at the Golden Elephant 15th International Film Festival is the most magical. Titled `Khan Kluay', it is Thailand's first CG animated film. She said 300 children from all regions of India,including children representing municipal schools will attend the festival as special guests.
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Chennai to have metro rail
Chennai, November 7 The Tamil Nadu government today announced that it would form a joint venture, “Chennai Metro Rail Ltd” with the Centre and implement the project which would cost around Rs 9,757 crore. The state Cabinet which met here today decided to seek financial assistance from the Centre and also from the Japan Bank for International Cooperation. The feasibility report for the project was prepared by the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation and it will have two corridors - one from the airport to the extreme northern part of the city and another from the state secretariat at Fort St George to the southern part of the metropolis. The two metro rail tracks would be a stretch of 46.5 km out of which only 20 km will be underground. The metro rail will considerably ease the perennial traffic problem in this old city which basically has only one arterial road running from the north to the south.
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EU puts Galileo project on back burner
New Delhi, November 7 Jose Manuel Silva Rodriguez, the European Commission's Director General for Research, who began his two-day official visit to India today, said there was disagreement within the EU on what should be the financial contribution from other countries for the project. Work on the project would start after this is sorted out,
Rodriguez said. Galileo is based on a constellation of 30 satellites and ground stations providing information concerning the positioning of users in many sectors. These sectors include transport (vehicle location, route searching, speed control, guidance systems), social services (aid for the disabled or elderly), the justice system and customs services (location of suspects, border controls), public works (geographical information systems), search and rescue systems, or leisure (direction-finding at sea or in the mountains). The EU has started cooperation with India on Science and Technology front as an equal partner, making India the second such country after the United States with which the EU is engaged in scientific research as an equal partner.
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Punjab to get Rs 75 cr for adarsh schools
New Delhi, November 7 Media advisor to Chief Minister Harcharan Bains said the centre has also agreed to give the requisite advice and recommendation to the World Bank to enable the state to utilise technical assistance from the international body for fighting the problem of falling water table as well as water logging in
the state. Bains said Badal called for steps to boost growth in agricultural production in Punjab which stood at just 2 per cent against the targeted growth of 4 per cent per annum. The Chief Minister said the state does not have adequate surface water and was heavily dependent on ground water extraction which had resulted in the problem of declining water table in about 128 out of 141 blocks of the state. He said large agricultural areas in the south western district of Ferozepur and Mukatsar had been adversely affected by water logging due to which the farm production is declining.
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Directive to UP govt on Periyar’s book
Lucknow, November 7 Yesterday as part of the BJP’s planned campaign demanding the banning of the book, senior members of the Vidhan Parishad, including Nepal Singh, Sheema Rizvi, and others brought up the issue and urged the chairperson to adjourn the proceedings in order to have a discussion.
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