Excelsior... Nation

Pramod Mahajan

Centre to observe
IT year from Nov
21: Mahajan

MUMBAI, Nov 5: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government will observe "information .....more

Preparations in final stages for creation of Uttaranchal

DEHRADUN, Nov 5: Preparations are in the final stage for the formal creation of Uttaranchal on.....more

Amanullah Khan

Abdullah unlikely to
attend marriage of
JKLF chief’s daughter

NEW DELHI, Nov 5: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah today said he was ....more

Paswan to make
effort to connect all
villages by Apr 2002

BHOPAL, Nov 5: Union Minister for Communication, Ram Vilas Paswan today said it would be his....more

Jitendra Prasada

Main aim to revive
Congress: Prasada

AHMEDABAD, Nov 5: Senior Congress leader Jitendra Prasada, contesting for the post of Congress ......more

Sushma Swaraj

Govt will not allow
vertical monopoly
in media: Sushma

SURAJKUND (HARYANA), Nov 5: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj.......more

IT Department to proceed
against tainted cricketers

NEW DELHI, Nov 5: Having discovered a Huge undisclosed income with some cricketers and book....more

Creation of PSGPC
Pak national emerges as a
controversial personality

NEW DELHI, Nov 5: While Akali factions are differing in their approach towards the creation of a Pakistan (Sikh) Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) for looking ....more

Centre to observe IT year from Nov 21: Mahajan

MUMBAI, Nov 5: The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance Government will observe "information technology year" beginning this November 21, Union Minister for Information Technology Pramod Mahajan has said.

"IT has the ability to provide momentum to administration and e-governance is the only future", Mahajan said addressing the concluding session of the two-day seminar "people-oriented administrative reforms", here yesterday.

The seminar was jointly organised by the Department of Culture of the Union Government and Rambhau Mhalgi Prabodhini, an organisation set up in memory of the former BJP MP.

Computer literacy will be an essential prerequisite to enter into the administrative services and the current employees will be asked to gain computer knowledge in a stipulated time frame, he said.

The newly-created IT Ministry at the Centre, which is completing a year on November 21, has undertaken the responsibility of connecting 484 Talukas in eight states at a cost of Rs 250 crore, he informed.

Similar programme will be implemented in other parts of the country, Mahajan added. (PTI)

Preparations in final stages for creation of Uttaranchal

DEHRADUN, Nov 5: Preparations are in the final stage for the formal creation of Uttaranchal on November nine with the interim administration redoubling its efforts.

We have almost completed arrangements for the 27th state to take birth at the stroke of midnight of Nov 8, Secretary, Uttaranchal, Rakesh Sharma told PTI here today.

With barely three days to go, Dehradun, the interim capital of new state, is being spruced up for the occasion and the authorities are giving final touches to roads and buildings to give them a new look.

As the Centre had resolved many a contentious issue that had become a stumbling block in the smooth formation of the new state, the vexed issue of the new Chief Minister is yet to be resolved by the BJP high command.

The names of K C Pant, Deputy Planning Commissioner, Bhuvan Chand Khanduri, chief whip of BJP in Lok Sabha, Ramesh Pokhriyal Mishan, MLA and Bhagat Singh Keshyari are being mentioned in the BJP circles, party sources here said.

The interim administration had yesterday announced that the State High Court would be set up in Nainital despite the striking lawyers’ demand that High Court be established in Dehradun.

Meanwhile, arrangements for swearing in ceremonies of the new Governor and Chief Minister are going on at the lawns of the parade ground here, where the main function will be held. Doordarshan is making arrangements to cover the swearing-in ceremonies live, Commissioner, Utttaranchal, Brij Mohan Vohra said.

Governor-designate Surjit Singh Barnala has indicated that his searing-in ceremony be held at a public place.

Meanwhile, another intricate issue of employees’ transfer from Lucknow and other areas of Uttar Pradesh has also been settled, Sharma said.

At least 134 State Government employees are being transferred to Uttaranchal, he said. Earlier, some of the employees in Lucknow had protested such transfers.

An issue which is yet to be settled is the division of assets and liabilities of the two states. However, officials here maintained that the issue can be resolved till December 31, 2000 under the provisions of the Constitution. (PTI)

Abdullah unlikely to attend marriage of
JKLF chief’s daughter

NEW DELHI, Nov 5: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah today said he was unlikely to attend the marriage ceremony of Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front’s Chairman Amanullah Khan’s daughter in Pakistan.

Khan had sent an invitation to Abdullah and some media reports suggested that he would be visiting Pakistan to attend the marriage ceremony of Khan’s daughter with the son of Hurriyat leader Abdul Gani Lone.

Putting all speculations to rest, Abdullah told PTI that he was unlikely to visit Pakistan for the ceremony.

The security situation in that part of the world is very bad and I cannot go there, Abdullah said.

Meanwhile, some Hurriyat conference leaders have approached the Ministry of External Affairs seeking permission for travel to Pakistan.

In its letter to Secretary of External Affairs, Hurriyat Conference sought permission to travel to Pakistan for Abdul Gani Bhat, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mohammed Yaseen Malik, Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, Abdul Gani Lone and Sheikh Abdul Aziz.

While Farooq has the travel documents, the passports of other Hurriyat leaders have either not been issued or not renewed ever since they indulged in anti-national and separatist activities.

The marriage of Khan’s daughter was fixed with Lone’s Dubai-based son earlier last month. (PTI)

Paswan to make effort to connect all villages by Apr 2002

BHOPAL, Nov 5: Union Minister for Communication, Ram Vilas Paswan today said it would be his endeavour to connect all villages in the country with telephones by April one, 2002.

Commissioning Airtel’s village public telephone service, he made a call to Gyan Singh Meena of Hamiri village in the neighbouring Raisen district.

Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Digvijay Singh also made a call to Vijay Narayan Shrivastava in Bandori village of the same district to mark the launching of the village telephone service.

Singh told Paswan that private operators had not fufilled the targets of providing phones in villages in at least six states. It was only in some southern states that all the villages were connected by phones, he added.

Singh said it was his experience that 90 per cent of the telephones installed in villages were not working and added that this could be due to a large number of factors. (PTI)

Main aim to revive Congress: Prasada

AHMEDABAD, Nov 5: Senior Congress leader Jitendra Prasada, contesting for the post of Congress president against Sonia Gandhi, today said his sole aim was to revive the party and strengthen its base.

He told newsmen, after meeting some Congress workers here, that he had appealed to them to cast their vote in his favour by responding to their inner conscience for the sake of the party. The election would be free and fair and the secret ballot would be maintained, he added.

Prasada said if elected, his first move would be to constitute the Congress Parliamentary Board (CPB).

To a question, he said the recent civic poll in Gujarat, where party workers at the grassroot level had won, gave him the inspiration to fight for the party chief’s post.

Prasada said the dignity and respect of party workers were important and added that if they were not given their right, the party would not become stronger.

Prasada, who was here to campaign for the forthcoming election to the party chief’s post, said he had also informed GPCC president C D Patel about his programme which was aimed at stregthening the party.

Asked about his poll prospect, Prasada said every candidate contests election to win. I am not ambitious about certain things but only wanted to make the party stronger. (PTI)

Govt will not allow vertical monopoly in media: Sushma

SURAJKUND (HARYANA), Nov 5: Union Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj today categorically stated that Government will not allow vertical monopoly in media and clarified that it was yet to make up its mind on allowing foreign equity in print media.

The Government is against vertical monopoly in media and the safeguards will be taken while allowing Direct-To-Home (DTH) and convergence, Swaraj said addressing the 12th binnenial conference of National Union of Journalists (India) here on the outskirts of Delhi.

Pointing out that even Indian companies had been allowed only 20 per cent stake in DTH, she said media is not like any other commercial entity where the floodgates would be opened in the name of liberalisation. Extra precautions will be taken in this area, she added.

The I&B Minister said the Government had already put on the internet a draft prepared by noted constitution expert F S Nariman on the proposed convergence bill.

The Government favours total transparency in the formulation of the bill, Swaraj said while inviting suggestions for improvement in the draft from journalists.

We want a flawless law which would protect our national interest, she said.

Clarifying the Government position on allowing foreign equity in print media, she said we have not yet formulated any opinion on the issue. We are taking into consideration views from different sections.

Government, she said, favoured a nationwide debate on the issue.

Swaraj said the Government policy of not allowing foreign equity in print media was taken way back in 1955 and time had come to review it keeping in mind the changed circumstances.

So much technology changes have taken place and this needs to be taken into account. Lets us have a policy for 2000 and not have 1995 decision as our reference point even if we decide not to allow foreign equity in print media, she added. (PTI)

IT Department to proceed against tainted cricketers

NEW DELHI, Nov 5: Having discovered a Huge undisclosed income with some cricketers and bookies, Income Tax Department has decided to proceed against them.

Senior IT officials said they have also found some New leads against a bookie who had emerged as a key player in the match fixing case.

Even as a debate was on about whether the players and others named by CBI in its report could be prosecuted, highly placed IT sources said the department would go ahead in the cases of undisclosed and unacquainted income detected during a nation-wide raid on July 20.

The sources said the department had almost finalised the appraisal report about the raids conducted at the premises of several top cricketers, administrators and bookies.

While a major portion of the appraisal report would be finalised by the end of this month, some may spill over to the next month, the sources said.

The appraisal report would be sent to assessment circles for officers to send show-cause notices to the players concerned for paying up taxes due against their names, the sources said adding that undisclosed and unexplained income would be termed as deemed income automatically reopening the cases for a block year of 1991/2001.

We have achieved reasonable success in the probe into cricketers and bookies who have huge concealed incomes from various sources, the sources said.

While detection of undisclosed and unexplained income would invite 60 per cent penalty without any interest or prosecution, subsequent detection of undisclosed and unexplained income would attract a hefty penalty for the defaulters, the sources said adding that the IT laws are very severe.

Meanwhile, the Tax Department has found some new leads over and above the CBI findings against the financial dealings of a bookie who had emerged as a key player in the match-fixing case, the sources said without elaborating.

They said the Department would investigate afresh these leads and confront him with the evidence gathered. (PTI)

Creation of PSGPC
Pak national emerges as a controversial personality

NEW DELHI, Nov 5: While Akali factions are differing in their approach towards the creation of a Pakistan (Sikh) Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC) for looking after Sikh shrines in that country, its co-chairman Sham Singh, a Pak national, has also emerged a controversial personality.

Ruling Akali Dal (Badal) leader Avtar Singh, who is also president of the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) has described the PSGPC as an inter-services intelligence prop but his political rival here, Mr Paramjit Singh Sarna, has seen as ‘achievement’ the insertion of the word ‘Sikh’ in the earlier-floated Pakistan Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PGPC).

But Sikh historian and expert on Pakistan affairs, Dr Sangat Singh, today claimed to have gathered specific information about the antecendents of Sham Singh who is an "ISI creation for the task."

Dr Singh, who has documented Sikh political history in his recently-published work, ‘The Sikhs in history’, said Sham Singh hails from Multan and belongs to a Sunni Muslim family.

Dr Singh, who retired as incharge of the research cell in Pakistan Division of the External Affairs Ministry, said Sham Singh began sporting a beard and turban in the early 1980s after Pakistan allowed Sikh Jathas to visit historical Sikh shrines in 1974. The Jathas’ visit to Pakistan had remained suspended for years in the wake of the Indo-Pak war of 1971.

Claiming that he had met Sham Singh in his official capacity when the latter visited India in 1981, Dr Singh said he (Sham Singh) and his family had not embraced Sikhism so far.

After partition, Pakistan’s Punjab province was left with only two Sikh families - one in Sialkot and the other in Pindi Gheb in Attock district, Dr Singh said.

Giani Hari Singh of Amritsar, he said, was close to M A Jinnah, migrated to Lahore after partition and married a Muslim woman. He was looking after Sikh shrines there before he died about 20 years ago.

Besides them, there were around 500 Sikh families in ‘no man’s land’ on the Afghan border and they were represented by a medical practitioner, Dr Mohar Singh, on the minority commission of Pakistan, Dr Sangat Singh added.

When confronted with the controversial antecedants of the PSGPC co-chairman, former FSGMC president P S Sarna said he had never met Sham Singh in his personal capacity. But for the sake of better management of Sikh shrines in Pakistan, and the issue of allowing sikhs to pay obeisance at historic Gurdwaras there, they could talk to anyone deputed by the Pakistan Government.

The Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC), Amritsar, controlled by the ruling Akali Dal (Badal), stopped the sending of Jathas to Pakistan in 1999 in protest against the creation of PSGPC.

But their political opponents the Akalis led by the Sarna group in Delhi, continue to send Jathas to Pakistan on Sikh religious occasions. Again, Mr Sarna is heading a Jatha of pilgrims to Pakistan on the eve of Guru Nanak’s birth anniversary celebrations on November 11 at Nankana Sahib.

On the other hand, Sham Singh had sent invitations to Sikh leaders in India in the capacity of co-chairman, PSGPC, on committee letterheads, saying that Pakistan had not denied visa to any Sikh pilgrim wishing to visit Gurdwaras there.

About 3,000 Sikhs will visit Gurdwaras in Pakistan in the second week of this month. (UNI)