Excelsior... Nation

SAARC a ‘victim’
of differences
among members

NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Claiming that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had become a "victim" of.....more

Jaya refutes nexus
with former UTI chief

CHENNAI, Aug 11: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha today refuted news reports that there was a ‘nexus’ between her and former UTI chief P S Subramanyam. ....more

Take all mineral bearing
lands out of forest
mandate demands

JAIPUR, Aug 11: Federation of Mining Association of Rajasthan today demanded that all mineral-bearing lands in the state should be notified as .....more

DMRC to go for
broad-gauge line:
Railway Ministry

NEW DELHI, Aug 11: The Railway Ministry today reaffirmed that there is no change in its recommendations for using broad-gauge lines for the Delhi . .......more

Ultras remanded to
further custody

JALGAON, Aug 11: Four Pakistan-trained militants, who were among nine Muslim youth owing allegience to Hizbul Mujahideen, arrested on July 25 ...........more

Eye patients from
Chhindwara to get
follow-up check-up

CHHINDWARA, Aug 11: All the patients who had undergone eye surgeries in the past two months in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh would be given follow-up check-up by the eye ......more

Naga groups not to accept "piecemeal" solution

NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Two prominent Naga organisations today said they would not accept any "piecemeal solution" to the vexed Naga issue and claimed that there were no differences among them on it. ......more

MP Govt contemplating
special concessions
for Jains

BHOPAL, Aug 11: The Madhya Pradesh Government through State Minority Commission is contemplating about special protection and concessions that....more

SAARC a ‘victim’ of differences among members

NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Claiming that the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) had become a "victim" of bilateral differences among member nations, former Prime Minister I K Gujral today said the region’s development had suffered due to the "myopic" policies of India and Pakistan.

Inaugurating the second SAARC Trade Unions conference here, Gujral said India and Pakistan should realise the importance of it in development of the region.

He said the regional body must have a session this year to ensure its relevance.

"During the Male summit in 1997 it had been decided to make the region’s free trade area operational by 2000 and set up a SAARC Association of Economic Cooperation by 2005," he said.

But things have not materialsed and a lot needs to be done, the former Premier added.

He said regional cooperation would help in tapping the latent hydro-energy of Nepal and Bhutan, gas potential in Bangladesh and assist in laying gas pipelines across Pakistan.

Addressing over 200 delegates from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka, he said trade unions had an important role to play in revision of labour laws so that the interests of the workers were not compromised.

He exhorted that the SAARC members should put up a joint front in the WTO fora to protect the interests of the developing countries.(PTI)

Jaya refutes nexus with former UTI chief

CHENNAI, Aug 11: Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalitha today refuted news reports that there was a ‘nexus’ between her and former UTI chief P S Subramanyam.

"There is no question of any nexus between me and the former UTI chief as I do not know the individual referred to in the news item at all", she said in a statement here.

"The news item which seeks to link my name with the UTI scam not only consists of fabricated lies, but also is mischievous in nature besides being untrue in content. It is blatantly motivated and published with the sole motive of bringing disrepute to my fair name", she said.

Stressing that the news item had been published "unnecessarily" bringing her name into the UTI scam issue, Jayalalithaa said she did not have any connection whatsoever with this issue at all. (PTI)

Take all mineral bearing lands out of forest mandate demands

JAIPUR, Aug 11: Federation of Mining Association of Rajasthan today demanded that all mineral-bearing lands in the state should be notified as exclusive mining land while the control by the Ministry of Environment and Forests over such lands should be taken off by removing forest mandate on them.

Stating that the Forest Department was unnecessarily exerting pressure to retain mineral-bearing lands which were ‘unsuitable’ for plantation, the Federation secretary general A S Mathur said the existing "control" over such lands by the Ministry of Environment and Forests should be done away with.

"Most of the mineral lands had no soil cover. They are neither compact nor rocky and having no water resource but are officially demarcated as forest lands locking precious mineral wealth", Mathur said at a national seminar on strategy for sustainable development which began here today.

"Nobody can explain the logic as to why the forest department is creating pressure to keep in its possession the mineral-bearing lands that were unsuited for any kind of plantation, ignoring large chunks of non-forest lands available in many states in the country where green cover could be provided," Mathur contended.

Therefore, he said, all the mineral bearing areas, which provided basic raw material to industries and large-scale employment opportunities, should be taken out of the possession of Forest Department and Plantation Projects should be taken over on an equivalent area of suitable non-forest lands and degraded forests.

Mathur complained that while mining activities in forest areas had been curbed, unlawful and illegal mining was continuing unabated on a large scale by local musclemen defeating the very purpose of the Forest (Conservation) Act.

He said if a mere 1.88 per cent of the total forest land - about 600 sq km out of the total 31,559 sq km of forest land in Rajasthan - is taken away from the control of the Forest Department for mining purposes, the Government could earn over Rs 150 crore per annum in the wake of a loss of revenue after closure of 2500 mines as per the enforcement of the act.

Mathur said the State Government should de-reserve forest lands for mining by transferring equal non-forest land to the Forest Department for compensatory afforestation. The entire cost of the plantation projects could be borne by mine owners with support from NABARD, he added. (PTI)

DMRC to go for broad-gauge line: Railway Ministry

NEW DELHI, Aug 11: The Railway Ministry today reaffirmed that there is no change in its recommendations for using broad-gauge lines for the Delhi metro, thus setting at rest the ongoing gauge controvery with the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC).

In a statement issued here, the Ministry categorically stated the manufacture of modern coaches in the country through a Transfer of Technology (ToT) "is in the overall interest of the public and country and is the best techno-economic decision".

Under the Railway Act, the Ministry has to approve the safety and operation of any rail project in the country.

DMRC is in favour of using standard gauge, instead of broad gauge being used by the railways all over the country.

Last year the Union Cabinet decided in favour of using the broad gauge for the metro pro‘eut when the issue came up before it.

However, DMRC of late again wants to reopen the issue arguing in favour of the standard gauge.

Recently, Delhi Government’s Transport Minister Parvez Hashmi publicly pleaded for the standard gauge arguing that the city Government should be allowed to decide about the gauge as it was funding the metro project.

He also argued on behalf of DMRC that the metro project, originally scheduled to be operational in first phase by April 2002, would be delayed if the standard gauge was not used.

DMRC says the project could be operated early by importing standard gauge coaches and locomotives.

Referring to recent reports, the Ministry said the project has been started after the Delhi Government and DMRC accepted the recommendations of their consultants to use broad gauge for the project.

The Ministry said the present DMRC managing director E Sreedharan, who was member (engineering) in the Railway Board had in that capacity "very categorically" supported the recommendations of the ministry’s project report which said only broad-gauge should be used for the metro project.

While taking this view, Sreedharan as member (engineering) also recorded "there was no case made out for bringing in yet another and the fourth gauge into the country, for rail-based transportation". Railways are already using three gauges — broad gauge, metre gauge and narrow gauge.

The release however, said, after taking over as the DMRC managing director Sreedharan had urged the Ministry for reconsideration of the gauge to be laid.

"The Railway Ministry after due consideration informed the DMRC the decision did not require to be changed. Sreedharan then constituted a committee consisting of experts to consider the issue afresh. This committee also recommended adoption of broad gauge for DMRC", it said.

Stating that DMRC had already awarded the contract for supply of state-of-art broad gauge coaches for the project in May this year, the release said ‘’any review at this stage would require re-tendering and only add to the delays which have already taken place and consequently the project costs.

"Claims of DMRC to the contrary are, therefore, without any logic", it added. (PTI)

Ultras remanded to further custody

JALGAON, Aug 11: Four Pakistan-trained militants, who were among nine Muslim youth owing allegience to Hizbul Mujahideen, arrested on July 25 last for placing powerful bombs in densely populated areas of Nagpur, were remanded to custody by a local court yesterday.

The court remanded Shaikh Rashid Shaikh Chand, Shaikh Siddique Shaikh Aziz and Sharif Khan Sarfraz Khan to magisterial custody for 15 days while Shakil Ahmed Abdul Hannan was remanded to police custody till August 13, police said today.

Five others, Khalid Asadkhan Ajmalkhan, Rizwan Abdul Rashid, Shaikh Irfan Khan, Mushtak Shaikh Shafi and Shaikh Ilyyas Shaikh Yusuf, were handed over to special squad of Nagpur police, they said, adding the youth were in police custody till yesterday.

Meanwhile, a special squad of Jalgaon police, after interrogating the nine youth, went to Delhi and arrested Simi National Secretary Mohamed Hassan Khan yesterday. (PTI)

Eye patients from Chhindwara to get follow-up check-up

CHHINDWARA, Aug 11: All the patients who had undergone eye surgeries in the past two months in Chhindwara district of Madhya Pradesh would be given follow-up check-up by the eye specialists at their places of residence.

These directives were given by the State Health Minister Subhash Kumar Sojatia at a high level meeting held here yesterday, an official release said today.

He directed that further eye surgeries would be performed at Chhindwara district hospital only after full and complete sterilisation of the operation theatre.

Sojatia said that an inquiry team has already been formed for looking into the arrangements at the district hospital for which the Chief Medical Officers of Narsinghpur and Betul districts have been designated as inquiry officers.

He said that the inquiry will also cover standard of medicines purchased, supply and quality of medicines and equipment.

The minister said that Health Department has taken a very serious view of the negligence in giving treatment to the eye patients at Chhindwara district hospital, the release said.

The meeting was attended by the MP Kamalnath, Minister for Public Health Engineering Deepak Saxena, Minister for Water Resources Tejilal Saryam, Principal Secretary, Health Alka Sirohi and Director, Health Services Dr P K Bajaj, the release added.

Sojatia said that a diagnostic centre with a cost of Rs three crore would be set up from the 11th Finance Commission.

He also directed that the local health officials to send proposals to the Government for the repair and maintenance of the district hospital for which Rs 40 lakh has been sanctioned.

Sojatia said that ‘Rogi Kalyan Samiti’ should work with greater efficiency and alertness in the hospital as there has been a qualitative difference in the services available at the Government hospitals wherever the Rogi Kalyan Samitis are active, the release added. (PTI)

Naga groups not to accept "piecemeal" solution

NEW DELHI, Aug 11: Two prominent Naga organisations today said they would not accept any "piecemeal solution" to the vexed Naga issue and claimed that there were no differences among them on it.

"While expressing our continued support to the on-going peace process, we shall not accept any piecemeal solution which does not recognise the rights of the Naga people," the Naga Students’ Federation (NSF) and Naga People’s Movement for Human Rights (NPMHR) said in a joint statement.

They said it was not "abnormal or surprising" that Nagas were divided on various issues "as can be seen from the histories of any struggling nation including India when it fought the British for freedom".

"Therefore, it need not be construed to mean that Naga national leaders have no following of the people. Rather, there are no two opinions among Nagas on the cause they stand for," NPMHR secretary general N Krome and NSF president V Kintso said while asking the nagas not to be swayed by "disinformation". (PTI)