Excelsior... Nation

From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Pakistan’s military ruler is reported to be making contingency plans in the event of the situation in his country getting out of his hands.....more

Diwali gifts
received by
CM auctioned

AHMEDABAD, Dec 1: Gift items received by Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi during Diwali, have . ...more

Many more Kalams
in offing,
says Joshi

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Encouraged by renowned scientist Dr A P J Abdul Kalam’s resolve to infuse young .....more

When should judge
bend the law ?

JAIPUR, Dec 1: A gathering of judges were asked to describe in detail the last sexual escapade they had.....more

MCI denies allegations of
under-utilisation funds

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has denied that it has failed to utilise funds allocated to it for various disease control and family welfare programmes.....more

BJP rules out AIADMK
joining NDA

CHENNAI, Dec 1: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today ruled out the All India Anna DMK (AIADMK) joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the centre......more

Abdul Kalam on new
assignment: 16 year
old NRI inspired him

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Dr A P J Abdul Kalam, father of the Indian missile programme, has set out on a new mission, more down to earth, that of ‘firing the imagination’ of high school students and youth with nuclear science and.......more

DP to support POTO

MACHILIPATNAM, Dec 1: The Telugu Desam Party, which is extending crucial outside support to the.....more

Musharraf is making contingency plans

From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: Pakistan’s military ruler is reported to be making contingency plans in the event of the situation in his country getting out of his hands.

All this at a time when Pakistan is agog with rumours that Gen. Parvez Musharraf’s ouster is imminent. His decision to extend support to the US in its campaign against terrorism has not gone down well with fundamentalists in Pakistan, who continue to stridently oppose Islamabad’s pro-America stand.

Gen. Musharraf seems to have zeroed on the United States as a possible safe haven for him and his family in case the situation gets out of hand. In this context, his wife has been house hunting in America.

Indian intelligence reports say that Begum Sehba Musharraf was shown a couple of houses in Washington by senior US Administration officials during a private visit in the third week of November.

Incidentally, it was her second trip within a month. Earlier, she had accompanied her husband (Gen. Musharraf) when he had gone to New York to address the United Nations General Assembly. Besides Washington, Begum Musharraf has also seen some houses in New York and other important cities in the USA.

It could not be ascertained if the house hunting was part of the ‘deal’ that Gen. Parvez Musharraf struck for providing permission to US aircraft to fly over Pakistani air space for bombing Afghanistan.

Thanks to Afghanistan, Gen. Zia-ul-Haq enjoyed nine years in the sun. And Gen. Musharraf a mere two months. This is no reflection on Gen. Musharraf’s person, only an indication of the different circumstances then and now, the rout of the Taliban having dramatically altered Pakistan’s frontline status.

As Gen. Musharraf and his men mock the rout of the Taliban, they apparently forget that whereas the Taliban are still holding out, defiant to the last, Pakistani army laid down its arms in East Pakistan (now Bangladesh) in 1971 without so much as a decent fight in an encounter that lasted no more than a fortnight.

Meanwhile, Mr Kedar Sharma, an academic-astrologer, has predicted that Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee is entering the "best" phase of his public life, while Gen. Parvez Musharraf is heading towards precarious difficulties. A professor of economics in a college in Jaipur, Mr Sharma had told Mr George W Bush that he would become President of America by a victory in the courts rather than in the polls.

According to Mr Sharma, Mr Vajpayee could face some health problems but they could be "very minor". More serious would be any conspiracy that might arise to remove him from his office, but it would not be successful.

Mr Vajpayee, Mr Sharma insisted, was not only going to be in his stronger phase but would also play a "major international role" in the post-Taliban scenario that was developing in South Asia.

Mr Sharma, however, predicted that it would be difficult to find Osama bin Laden, and the US President, Mr George Bush, would slowly lose control over events and be trapped in a bog. Mr Sharma’s yet another prediction: Former US President, Mr Bill Clinton, will be back as President of the United States in the future.

When should judge bend the law ?

JAIPUR, Dec 1: A gathering of judges were asked to describe in detail the last sexual escapade they had with their wives.

"There was a sudden feeling of unease. We did not know how to react. Time moved slowly because there was a strange stillness in the room," recalled Mr I A Ansari, Registrar General of the Guwahati High Court.

"Our trainer asked what was our problem, why couldn’t we share the details with our colleagues. After all, we were senior, mature, adults, some of us knew each other for a long time."

"Now imagine," he said, "imagine the reaction of a rape victim in the courtroom".

Mr Ansari was speaking to a group of District and Sessions Judges and Chief Magistrate Officers at a Colloquia on "gender and law". As many as 80 judicial officers from Delhi, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh are attending the three-day conference, which began today.

Organised jointly by the National Judicial Academy, the British Council and the Rajasthan High Court, it aims at improving awareness about gender related issues among judicial officers and removing gender bias and insensitivity in the judicial process.

"What is important is to understand that law is never static. Society keeps changing and law has to keep pace with it," said Mr Ansari, who along with some three dozen other officers was trained for today’s programme at the National Judicial Academy (NJA), Bhopal, and the University of Warwick, United Kingdom. "Law remains the same but interpretation changes," Mr Ansari said and used case histories and judicial anecdotes to push the point that there was need for greater sensitivity on the part of the judge to gender issues.

"We have not come together to tell anyone what law is. What we are basically concerned with is our perceptions, our attitudes. There’s an in-built resistance to learning. We think what is there for us to learn now ?"

The conference, he said, was designed to help the judicial officers introspect. "We know that the very basis of our profession rests on the absence of bias. If one is not free from bias then one is not a judge...But there have been instances where men who have lost a case to women have become the butt of jokes."

The task of making the judiciary free of biases was not easy, he said. In this context he mentioned former Chief Justice A M Ahmadi’s regret that women had more complaints against female judges of family courts as compared to male judges.

"There’s an unseen pressure working on female judges, not to be seen as partial to the woman litigant. We breathe in a very complex society...Everyone of us grows up with some streotypical notions," he said.

The institution of judiciary would be successful only if it enjoys equal respect from both female and male members of the society, he added.

Inaugurating the conference, Mr Justice Y R Meena of the Rajasthan High Court said despite the enactment of many laws, cases of crime against women were on the rise. "This means there’s a problem with the law, or with the implementation of the law, or some other lacunae," he said.

The judge said only a fraction of rape cases reached courts. Urgency in the matter of justice for such victims was the court’s responsibility, he said. "We should mould the law, not break the law to reach justice. That is required," he said.

NJA member secretary and Registrar General of the Supreme Court L C Bhadoo said the conference which began today was the tenth in a series of judicial colloquia being organised in different parts of the country.

Eight state-specific programmes and four regional programmes under the series were planned originally. The conferences which began simultaneously here and in Chennai today are the last in the current leg.

The participants would have three days of group discussions, case studies and plenary presentations. There would be a review of the programme with Dr Ann Stewart of the School of Law, Warwick University, next month. (UNI)

MCI denies allegations of under-utilisation funds

NEW DELHI, Dec 1: The Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has denied that it has failed to utilise funds allocated to it for various disease control and family welfare programmes.

Filing an affidavit in Delhi High Court, Additional Medical Health Officer P K Sharma said the figures indicate that this allegation in not true.

The World Bank had funded a project, named IPP-VIII, for MCD, total outlay of which was Rs 73.84 crore of which Rs 72.10 crore had been spent by October 31 and an excess amount, from the original outlay of Rs 5.16 crore was likely to be spent on the project. Under the programme, six maternity homes-cum-health centres, 21 health centres and 106 health posts have already been set up, the document said.

It also outlines the corporation’s efforts to fight diseases like Tuberculosis (TB), leprosy, dengue, malaria, cholera and gastroenteritis.

Dr Sharma denied that there was any case of guinea worm infection, kala-zar or filaria in the national capital, and that the MCD was not running the national trachoma and blindness control programme nor did it receive any funds for the purpose.

In the case of HIV and AIDS control programmes, which was run by the National AIDS Control Organisation (NACO) and Delhi State AIDS Control Society, the MCD was doing its bit by running 3 STD clinics, which were helping in reducing the number of HIV/AIDS cases, he said.

The affidavit had been filed in response to a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed by senior advocate B L Wadehra which alleges that India is going to achieve the dubious distinction of ill-health for most of its citizens as the Government has failed to perform its constitutional duty to safeguard the health of its citizens.

This is not as much due to lack of funds but due to failure of the Union Health Ministry and its state counterparts to spend the available funding over past several years, it claimed.

The affidavit, however, said that some diseases could be knocking at the doors of Delhi due to the frequency of arrival of people from affected areas and the possibility in such circumstances of diseases not known to occur in the capital cannot be denied. Fighting these would need programming at the central and state level.

A division bench comprising Chief Justice S B Sinha and Justice A K Sikri, disposed the matter saying they were satisfied by the steps taken by the Government and its agencies for improving health services and no more directions were needed to be given in the regard.

Other Government agencies had also filed their replies to the petition denying what was stated in the petition and saying that measures were continuously been taken to upgrade health facalities in the country.

Earlier, the Directorate of Health Services had been asked to reply by the High Court on the petition seeking appropriate utilising of funds allocated for health care and disease control programmes.

The (PIL) said India was committed to the World Health Organisation (WHO) declaration "health for all by 2000." But, according to the latest annual report of the Union Health Ministry, the country would be short of 5,000 primary health centres, 20,000 sub-centres and 3,800 community health centres that year.

It said this would have disastrous consequences for common citizens, particularly those residing in rural sector and slum clusters in the urban environment. Also, there would be a gross shortage of speciality and super-speciality hospitals.

Mr Wadehra said India received liberal aid from the World Bank, the WHO and other international bodies. But the problem lay elsewhere. It was the Health Ministry’s failure to be able to spend the money.

In 1995-96, the total unutilised money totalled Rs 84.50 crore. In 1996-97, Rs 121.96 crore remained unutilised while in 1997-98, the unutilised money was Rs 148.90 crore.

"Thus what is required is a conscious and expedient effort to review the situation on fund utilisation front by streamlining the procedures and efforts of the existing infrastructure and putting in additional health care outfits so that the projected shortage of health centres does not come about."

The PIL said about 1.4 crore Indians suffer from tb even five years after the invention of anti-TB drugs. Nearly five lakh people die of TB every year. In 1997-98, the World Bank alone gave 142.4 million dollars (about Rs 626.56 crore) for the TB Control Programme but the Health Ministry could not utilise it. In the same year, the Government provided Rs 80 crore but the ministry could use only Rs 32.05 crore.

Under the national trachoma and blindness control programme, there was a provision of Rs seven crore as grants-in-aid to State Governments during 1997-98. But the actual expenditure was Rs 1.10 crore and the performance of states was miserable. The programme was meant to reduce the rate of blindness from 1.49 per cent to 0.3 per cent by the year 2000 but is nowhere near the target.

The PIL said AIDS was detected in 1986 and has shown phenomenal growth, particularly in the northeastern states. The National AIDS Control Programme records that out of 3.4 million people screened, a total of 8,000 were found positive. The scenario is grim but has not set the alarm bells ringing, Mr Wadehra said.

The target of leprosy eradication programme to reduce the prevalance of leprosy to one in 10,000 has remained elusive. At the end of 1998, it stood at 5.3 per 10,000. About 58 per cent of leprosy cases recorded globally are in India.

At the same time, 17,000 cases of kala azar were reported and 72 per cent of them died. In 1992, the number went upto 77,000 of whom 1,400 died. In 1997, 17,500 cases were reported. The position shows no great improvement.

In the past three years, 12,000 cases of dengue were confirmed in the national capital of whom 500 died. No serious effort has been made to prevent and control the disease, the PIL claimed.

Malaria, which was once eradicated from the country, has reappeared in a big way. In 1998, a total of 21 lakh cases were reported across the country of which 38 per cent were serious cases. About 500 of them died. The states of Maharashtra, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa and Assam are high-risk areas. Among the 19 cities where the disease is expected to gain epidemic proportions are Delhi, Calcutta, Chennai, Ahmedabad and Bangalore.

Even the common disease of gastroenteritis remains uncontrolled. Over 2,500 people got affected by it in the second half of April 1999 in Kalkaji here. The petitioner said no serious and meaningful effort seems to be going into the matter except to flaunt deficient reasoning. (UNI)

BJP rules out AIADMK joining NDA

CHENNAI, Dec 1: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) today ruled out the All India Anna DMK (AIADMK) joining the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) at the centre.

Replying to a volley of questions on media reports about the AIADMK warming up towards the BJP, and the DMK, a constituent of the NDA cooling off its relationship with the BJP, party national vice president Rama Rao told reporters that there was no possibility of the AIADMK joining the NDA.

The DMK was part of the NDA and would stay with it, he asserted adding that therefore there was no scope for the AIADMK to join the NDA.

The Vajpayee Government was happy that the AIADMK was supporting the centre on the question of Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO).

The Centre wanted the support all political parties and State Governments for POTO and the Tamil Nadu Government’s response in this regard was welcome, Mr Rao said.

Mr Rama Rao said the Vajpayee Government was stable and there was no threat to its stability. It would continue in office for its full five year term. That being so there was no compulsion to get more parties into the NDA now, he explained.

There was also no election in sight. Where was the need for formation of new fronts, he asked.

The party’s main thrust now was to expand its mass base in Tamil Nadu as also in other states through direct contact with the people.

Replying to a question, he said he did not think that the relationship between the BJP and the DMK was strained. He also did not give any credence to reports that the DMK and the Congress were finding common cause.

Mr Rama Rao said it was the duty of all political parties to lend their support to POTO in the interest of national security. All major political parties were in power in one state or another and they had a responsibility to extend support to POTO to fight terrorism.

Major elements of POTO had been incorporated in laws in states ruled by the Congress (I), he pointed out.

Besides, certain aspects of POTO were present in various statutes. The BJP vice-president also did not think that the freedom of the press was curtailed under the provisions of the POTO.

The ordinance was framed on the basis of guidelines given by the supreme court while repealing TADA and the Law Commission had concurred with POTO, he said.

"The existing laws could not fight terrorism as it existed today and that explained the need for a stringent law", Mr Rama Rao said.

He said the year 2002 would be treated as the year of expansion of the BJP. (UNI)

Abdul Kalam on new assignment: 16 year
old NRI inspired him

Dr Kalam’s journey into the future began last month after he retired from the coveted post of the Principal Scientific Advisor to the Government. His new mission is to produce "hundreds of Abdul Kalams in the country," Human Resource Development Minister Murli Manohar Joshi said at a farewell organised for Dr Kalam here last night.

Dr Kalam said his desire to do something for high school students and youth was fuelled by a 16 year-old NRI in the US. The boy, living in Atlanta, had written a letter to Dr Kalam saying "I can sing the song of India the day India puts a sanction against any other country." (That is, when the country becomes economically and militarily powerful). "What an imagination the 16-year old has. I want to catch that imagination," Dr Kalam said.

Dr Joshi, while appreciating Dr Kalam’s services to the nation and the country’s scientific research programmes, said whatever progress India had achieved in the field of nuclear science and technology, was because of Dr Kalam. "He is a dreamer and pursues his dreams to fulfil them," the minister added.

Dr Joshi said, after retirement, Dr Kalam had been given a better and more important assignment where his services would be utilised so that "hundreds of Abdul Kalams are produced in the country."

The function at Dr Joshi’s residence was attended by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, Minister of State in the Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) Vijay Goel, Members of Parliament and Scientists from the DRDO and BARC.

"This will now be the beginning of a new process of the seeding of hundreds of Abdul Kalams" in the country, Dr Joshi added.

Dr Joshi assured that the Government would utilise his services whenever required.

Mr Kalam, in his brief speech, said he had joined the Government in 1957 and had done all sorts of work.

Now he has taken up the mission of educating 100,000 high school students upto 2003 with science and technology.

"I am a common link. I can ignite them for science and technology so that they are able to do something for the country," he added.’

Regretting that even as India had been independent for more than 50 years, it had not become a developed country. He wanted to utilise the imagination of high school students for the progress of the country, Dr Kalam added. (UNI)