Excelsior... Nation

Assess impact of armed
forces in N-E: NBSAP

GUWAHATI, Dec 23: The National Bio-diversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) has said an assessment should be made on the impact the presence of the armed forces had made.....more

Bruised Bihar struggles
to find economic moorings

PATNA, Dec 23: Political parties busied themselves in dousing flames of dissidence and squabbling ultra-left .....more

BT cotton hogs limelight;
CNG another hiccup

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Despite country-wide Brouhaha over BT cotton for its alleged harmful effects on....more

HC asks Govt to
consider trauma
services to accident victims

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to examine certain suggestions by a .....more

Palace revolt fails,
flash floods, accidents
cause misery

SHIMLA, Dec 23: A palace revolt that blew over, flash floods and several accidents that left a trail of misery..more

Judiciary makes
major impact on
political scene in TN

CHENNAI, Dec 23: The judiciary made a major impact on the political scene in Tamil Nadu during 2001 ....more

‘Open medical colleges
in under-served states’

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: New medical and dental colleges to be set up during the tenth five-year plan.....more

EC to go ahead with
use of photo cards
despite opposition

DEHRA DUN, Dec 23: Preparation for the first Assembly elections in Uttaranchal.....more

Assess impact of armed forces in N-E: NBSAP

GUWAHATI, Dec 23: The National Bio-diversity Strategy and Action Plan (NBSAP) has said an assessment should be made on the impact the presence of the armed forces had made on the environment and people of the north-east.

Besides guarding the border, the Army has been having a very large presence in the north-east having two corps, one in Tezpur in Assam and the other in Rangapahar at Dimapur in Nagaland.

The NBSAP said the impact of the Army’s presence for over half a century needs to be independently assessed, and orientation sessions need to be held to make them more sensitive to bio-diversity and cultural livelihood issues.

The NBSAP is one of the world’s largest environment and development planning exercise underway in India.

This is the project of the Union Ministry of Environment and Forests and aims to produce a series of planning documents dealing with the conservation of India’s bio-diversity, sustainable use of its biological resources and equity, including in decisions regarding access to such resources and the benefits accruing from them.

The project is funded by the global environment facility through the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The end result of the exercise, started in early 2000, will be a series of action plans at local and state level as well as a national plan.

As part of the project, the recently held north-eastern regional workshop recommended that since there were serious inter-state border issues across the region, including deforestation, social conflicts, poaching, and others, these could be resolved by providing a much greater role to local communities on both sides of the border, in dialogue and mutually acceptable actions, including joint forest and wildlife conservation measures.

It said a thorough study should be made on the several major dams proposed for the region as they could have a significant impact on the bio-diversity and the condition of the local people.

It further said a full investigation should be made into inter-state forest trade and stringent controls should be put in place on extraction from forests and measures should be made to ensure that the major benefits from the trade go to the local communities.

Patterns of land ownership and rights across the region are complex, and their relationship with bio-diversity needs to be understood. All efforts should be made to encourage and revive community management systems which are otherwise breaking down under the influence of modernization and privatization and in some states to address the issue of alienation of tribal lands by outsiders.

Structures of governance in the region, such as local and district councils, and state bureaucracies, need to be made sensitive to concerns regarding bio-diversity.

The workshop also took note of the considerable damage being caused by mining in many states of the region. This needed to be controlled by subjecting all mining activities to stringent ecological and social impact assessments, consent from local communities, and public hearings.

International trade in wildlife and timber, especially to Myanmar and Bhutan, needs to be curbed, it said, adding that the local communities and the forces stationed along the border need to be sensitised on the matter.

The true economic and social value of bio-diversity in the region, including the ecosystem services being provided within and between states, should be estimated and built into the planning and budgeting of the state and regional plans.

Such valuation can also be the basis of compensation by the centre for the north-eastern states who have to forego options like logging and large dams and such compensation should be used to help devise alternative livelihoods for those who lose jobs due to ecological reasons.

There is considerable expertise and innovativeness within the north-eastern region, which can be exchanged amongst the various states to mutual benefit, it said giving an example of eco-tourism model in Sikkim, bamboo crafts in Tripura and Arunachal Pradesh, short-cycle sustainable shifting cultivation in Nagaland, women-led orchid societies in Arunachal.

Overall, it was recommended that institutions such as the north-east council should take the above and other bio-diversity-related issues much more seriously, and incorporate them as one of their core items for discussion and decision-making. (UNI)

Bruised Bihar struggles to find economic moorings

PATNA, Dec 23: Political parties busied themselves in dousing flames of dissidence and squabbling ultra-left organisations unleashed terror as Chief Minister Rabri Devi and RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav remained bogged down by fodder scam cases in the year that saw Bihar struggling to find its economic moorings after the creation of mineral-rich and industrially opulent Jharkhand.

Politics, more than anything else, occupied centrestage as Yadav, though caught in the mire of fodder scam cases, smothered a rebellion in his party, in power since 1990

For once the threat to Yadav’s hegemony appeared real as RJD working president Ranjan Prasad Yadav raised a banner of revolt only to be thrown out along with four other MPs on April 28. Five Samata Lok Sabha members led by Jha convened a parallel meeting of the state executive and threatened to split the party in the event of a merger provoking Kumar to tender his resignation from the union cabinet which was later rejected by the Prime Minister.

With senior party leader George Fernandes playing a peace-maker, a truce was called on the condition that the views of rebellious party MPs against the merger would be considered and Jha retained as Samata president.

For Yadav, buffeted by a string of scam cases, there was further disappointment as he along with another former Chief Minister Jagannath Mishra was sent to jail in a conspiracy angle case by a Ranchi court on November 26.

Incarcerated for a fifth time in connection with the fodder scam, Yadav was granted bail in the case by Supreme Court on December 14, but unfortunately for him, the CBI had filed yet another chargesheet, the seventh against him, the previous day in a Ranchi court.

Bihar began to feel the pinch of bifurcation as vital economic indicators showed signs of rapid worsening.

The credit-deposit ratio dropped to a paltry 20 per cent and the state began to give away a whopping Rs 3000 crore annually for debt servicing. According to Chairman of the Bihar Finance Commission, S C Jha, about 90 per cent of Government’s revenue earnings are spent on establishment.

According to Finance Department sources, the current plan of Rs 2424 crore is unlikely to be implemented as the Government does not have funds for matching grants.

The year also saw a thaw in the relations between the two most dreaded Naxalite outfits in the state — PWG and MCC, banned by the centre under POTO with the two organisations resolving to put an end to their bloody conflicts that had claimed hundreds of lives over the past decade.

On August 16, six Dalits were gunned down by Naxalites at Mathaura village of Patna district and within a week, six more were shot dead by them at datmai village also in the same district.

PWG rebels struck again killing nine people, including six police personnel, in a landmine blast near Keva Canal in Kaimur district on September 12. Striking with impunity PWG guerrillas killed six policemen, including the officer-in-charge of Dhanarua Police Station in another landmine explosion at Jagpura village in Patna district on October 20. They also took away four rifles and a pistol.

In yet another strike, the ultras detonated a landmine near Manjhar village of Gaya district killing six, including the officer-in-charge of Charhta Police Station and four Bihar Military Police jawans on November 21. The Naxalites also decamped with four SLRs, one sten gun, one pistol and over 600 rounds of ammunition.

Bihar also had a bloody Panchayat election held after a gap of 21 years which claimed 92 lives, including those of two Magistrates, in the five phases of polling. (PTI)

BT cotton hogs limelight; CNG another hiccup

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Despite country-wide Brouhaha over BT cotton for its alleged harmful effects on environment and health, the controversy seems to have died a silent death as the Centre could neither destroy the genetically modified crop in Gujarat nor retrieve its seeds.

As the year drew to a close, the issue that rocked the nation appeared to have become a mere "academic exercise" with the cotton grown on 10,000 hectares of land finding its way to the markets, making retrieval virtually impossible.

Even as the farmers cried foul over the order to destroy the GM cotton, the centre filed a complaint against the company which sold the BT cotton seeds to farmers in Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra and Punjab in a clandestine manner citing its pest-resistant and high productivity qualities.

Environmentalists, however, vowed to oppose tooth and nail any move to allow commercial introduction of GM crop saying it would play havoc with health and environment.

Though the year saw permission for trials on some other GM seeds including rice, maize, tomato and cauliflower, the Government asserted that their commercial cultivation would not be allowed without ascertaining their impact.

The nation’s capital witnessed a vigorous drive to contain alarming air pollution following Supreme Court’s order to convert all public transport vehicles in the city to CNG mode and phase out diesel-run vehicles.

As the commuters were left stranded in the middle of a controversy triggered by misrepresentation of facts about the availability of the compressed natural gas and people’s willingness and readiness to change over, the Supreme Court ordered implementation of its earlier verdict on conversion but kept extending the deadline.

But the move evoked sharp protests from research groups who questioned CNG’s suitability and cited its low usage in other parts of the world. The Government also appealed to the apex court to allow plying of vehicles run by diesel with very low sulphur content.

A big question mark still remains about the safety of the CNG-run vehicles with incidents of blasts and fires in several of them.

What can be described as a feather in the caps of the Centre and Uttar Pradesh Government was closing down of the polluting industrial units near the Taj Mahal to protect the historic monument. Similar steps were taken against polluting units in Delhi when they were shifted to satellite towns in neighbouring states.

All these nudged the industries to wake up to the threat of closure in the face of protests and they started a snail-paced walk to follow the theory of "green is profitable".

One of the environmental research institutes placed the Tata Iron and Steel Co., Bayer (India), ABB, Gujarat Ambuja Cements and some other companies at the top of the list of the ten most green companies.

But a sad reflection on the state of things was that out of 450 companies which were sent the queries, only 47 responded, laying bare the compliance level and the will to improve. (PTI)

HC asks Govt to consider trauma services
to accident victims

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: The Delhi High Court has asked the Centre to examine certain suggestions by a surgeon in his writ petition to improve the medical assistance to accident victims including trauma services, very crucial to save their lives and said a decision be taken on it within four months.

"The functionaries of the Government at a very high level may examine the feasibility and desirability of adopting the suggestions ... And proper policy decision be taken in this respect preferably within a period of four months," the court said.

Disposing of the petition, based on a letter written to the court by Dr Chander Prakash, who works with a Government hospital, a division bench comprising Chief Justice S B Sinha and Justice A K Sikri said the Union Health Ministry should circulate Supreme Court guidelines on medical aid to accident victims, to all Government and private hospitals.

"It may be ensured that they (hospitals) comply with the directions contained in the apex court judgements" on the issue, the bench said.

Dr Prakash, who himself has been treating the accident victims, in a letter to the court, earlier this year had listed various "difficulties, obstacles and hurdles" caused due to the inefficient and inadequate medical services, leading to death.

While listing a series of suggestions to improve medical care for victims, Dr Prakash had emphasised setting up of trauma centres in hospitals, saying the first half an hour was very crucial for saving the life of a accident victim.

Prakash had suggested that Government should provide state-of-art ambulance services at all vulnerable places to ensure timely assistance to victims.

To mobilise resources for free medical treatment of victims, 25 per cent of the third party insurance scheme should be converted into a special corps every year for the purpose, he said.

A certain share from the sale of petrol and diesel, road tax and challans of vehicles could also be pooled into the account of the corps and the cost of the treatment to accident victims be reimbursed to the hospitals from this fund, he suggested.

However, the court said it was not expressing any opinion on the suggestions relating to the collection of the money to the corps and leave the matter to the Government.

The petitioner also said that the Government should set up national, regional and local accident management authority comprising doctors, police officials, local leaders, members from judiciary and social workers so that help to the victims is rendered immediately.

All hospitals in a city should be interconnected with a suitable communication system for effective coordination in any emergency, Prakash added. (PTI)

Palace revolt fails, flash floods, accidents cause misery

SHIMLA, Dec 23: A palace revolt that blew over, flash floods and several accidents that left a trail of misery brought the tiny hill state of Himachal Pradesh into the news pages several times this year.

A political crisis in the BJP-HVC coalition Government snowballed with the sacking of four ministers who had levelled serious charges of corruption, nepotism and financial mismanagement against Chief Minister Prem Kumar Dhumal.

Two of these ministers and a dissident MLA were among six people, accused of kidnapping and torturing two Zila Parishad women members at Kangra. Police registered a case against all the six in this connection.

The dissidents calling for removal of Mr Dhumal as Chief Minister boycotted the proceedings of the Vidhan Sabha for about a month.

The four sacked ministers—Kishen Kapoor, Ramesh Chand, Rajan Sushant and Hari Narain Singh— were reinducted into the Council of Ministers after a patch-up and got the same portfolios they held earlier.

Although the state remained free from any terrorist strike, militant activities continued with messages meant for militants being intercepted on wireless sets of the National Hydro Power Corporation at Baira Siul in Chamba district.

During the year the state was bogged down by financial crisis and the Government blamed the previous Congress Government for the situation.

The Congress, however, charged the Government with indulging in wasteful expenditure and resorting to reckless borrowings without taking into consideration its repaying capacity.

The Government claimed to have taken steps to cut down wasteful expenditure and to raise resources by giving priority to hydel power generation and other income generating sectors. It targetted generating 10,000 mw additional electricity in the state by 2010 and started work on projects having generation capacity of more than 7100 mw.

On the eve of Indo-Pak summit at Agra, a controversy was raised regarding removal of a colour potrait of Mrs Indira Gandhi from the wall behind the "Simla agreement table" in the Raj Bhavan.

Governor Suraj Bhan appointed a high power committee to inquire into the removal of the portrait but dissolved it later because of "non-cooperation" of Congress members who opined that no inquiry was required and that the portrait be reinstalled.

The Governor later announced that black and white photographs of President K R Narayanan, Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi would be displayed in the summit hall of the Raj Bhavan.

Natural calamities like the flashfloods in the Chotta Bangal and Binwa area in Kangra district still haunt the people. As many as 12 people, 400 cattlehead and 20 bridges were washed away in these floods which damaged the six mw Binwa hydel project and caused a loss to number of water supply and irrigation schemes, public and private property and agriculture land.

The 10.5 mw Gaj and 12 mw Baner hydel projects too were damaged partially. Rain, lightning and landslides also took their toll.

Besides, a number of accidents involving public and private transport buses resulted in several casualities. As many as 36 people travelling in a Himachal Road Transport Corporation bus were killed when it rolled down into a rivulet at lahal, near Bharmour in Chamba district.

In another mishap, 18 people lost their lives and 24 others were injured when a private bus fell into a deep gorge at Ghagas in Bilaspur district. Two participants in the "Raid De Himalaya" motor sports rally were killed when their vehicle skidded off the road and rolled down the mountainside at Drabla in Shimla district.

A spate of fire incidents gutted residential houses, temples and cowsheds. A child and 29 cattlehead were burnt alive and 70 houses were reduced to ashes in a fire at tosh village, 17 km from Manikaran in Kullu district.

The century-old Heritage Railway Board building at Shimla was partially gutted when fire broke out in five storey building housing some State and Central Government offices.

About 150 people had a miraculous escape in a head-on collision between two passenger trains at Shogi in Shimla district.

The first electric passenger train linking Una-Nangal Dam -Sirhind Section was flagged off on May 26 by Union Railway Minister Nitish Kumar.

Two MiG-21 fighter planes crashed at Khard and Halaid villages, both in Kangra district in March and June.

President K R Narayanan twice postponed his visit to Shimla before finally cancelling it. He was to arrive here on a week-long sojourn. Prime Minister Vajpayee, however, managed to visit the salubrious state for a short break.

Gastroenteritis spread in certain parts of Kangra district, claiming ten lives and affecting about 500 others at Chidvan and surrounding areas in the district.

Towards the close of the year, the ruling BJP launched an 18-day "Vikas Yatra" to undertake development programmes in the state. (UNI)

Judiciary makes major impact on political scene in TN

CHENNAI, Dec 23: The judiciary made a major impact on the political scene in Tamil Nadu during 2001 with the verdicts going for and against one of its key players J Jayalalithaa.

After being unseated as Chief Minister by the Supreme Court Jayalalithaa’s political career got a new lease of life on December four when the Madras High Court acquitted her of corruption charges in two TANSI land deal cases, overturning her October 2000 conviction by a special court which barred her from contesting elections under the Representation of the People Act.

The build up to Jayalalitha’s acquittal saw her appeals passing through the hands of two judges of the High Court before Chief Justice B Subhashan Reddy, acting on a directive of the apex court, nominated Justice N Dinakar on September 20 last to hear her appeal against convictions in the TANSI cases and Pleasant Stay Hotel case.

Earlier, the then Chief Justice N K Jain had appointed former State Advocate General K V Venkatapathy to represent the prosecution following allegations that presentation of the cases could be affected since the public prosecutors handling the cases had been appointed by the AIADMK Government.

On August 21, Justice Jain was shifted to Karnataka High Court as its Chief Justice.

Besides, Jayalalithaa, the High Court also absolved her close friend Sasikala Natarajan, two former AIADMK ministers Asif Mohammad and T M Selvaganapathy and some IAS officers of corruption charges in the TANSI and Pleasant Stay Hotel cases.

Jayalalithaa’s earlier attempt to get the High Court to stay her convictions to enable her contest the May 10 Assembly polls, however, did not bear fruit as Justice Malaisubramanian dismissed her petition on April 11.

Soon afteback to power in May, Jayalalithaa trained her guns on DMK chief M Karunanidhi, his son and Chennai Mayor M K Stalin and 12 others by having cases filed against them for alleged corrupt practices in the construction of several fly-overs by the city corporation.

The Crime Branch-CID claim investigations into the ‘flyovers scam’ has reached an advanced stage.

Soon after Karunanidhi, Stalin and others were arrested in a mid-night swoop by police in June last, the Principal Sessions Court came into play when Judge Ashok Kumar, while hearing bail applications, came down heavily on the police for the manner in which investigations into the scam had been carried out and arrests made.

The year began on a bleak note for Jayalalithaa with the apex court, acting on a Special Leave Petition filed by the DMK Government, giving the go-ahead on February 16 to a special judge to start trial in the Rs 28.29 crore ‘SPIC Disinvestment’ case. The High Court in August 2000 had told the special court to proceed as far as framing of charges and no further.

Former State Industries Secretary C Ramachandran and industrialist and SPIC CEO A C Muthiah are also arraigned in the disinvestment case for which charges were framed in December 2000.

Chargesheets were also filed in the Principal Sessions Court in March against Jayalalithaa and her party MP T T V Dinakaran in the Rs 44-crore ‘London Hotels’ cases, in which the AIADMK supremo has been charged with funnelling funds abroad and purchasing the Hopps Crodt Hotel and Slaley Hall. Both were later sold in 1998 for over Rs 121 crore. (PTI)

‘Open medical colleges in under-served states’

NEW DELHI, Dec 23: New medical and dental colleges to be set up during the tenth five-year plan (2002-07) should go to the states which do not have such institutions and other under-served areas to remove regional imbalances, according to a working group of experts set up by the Planning Commission.

"There is need for correcting the regional imbalance in the growth of medical and dental colleges over the years," the working group on "development of human resources for health" said in its just-concluded report which will be the basis for the preparation the tenth plan.

The 22-member group, headed by the Health Secretary, has suggested opening of of more dental colleges as there is a shortage of such institutions.

The Medical Council of India (MCI) and Dental Council of India (DCI) should encourage setting up new medical and dental colleges in unattractive regions by offering relaxation in respect of certain physical requirements like land area and development of certain infrastructure, the report says.

There is also need for suitable change in the policy in order to remove the imbalances in the distribution of such colleges in the country, the experts opine.

According to the group, no data is available with the MCI and DCI on the actual number of specialists and super specialists available in the country.

In the absence of data bank of medical and dental specialists and super specialists and their requirement, it difficult to work out a policy to equitable develop and distribute the required specialist in the country.

"During the tenth plan period, the respective councils should create a scientific databank of medical professionals," it said.

Further, at present, there is no system of registration of specialist and super specialist doctors. This may be introduced which will help in maintaining reliable data on the availability of such doctors.

The proposal for renewal of registration of all medical practitioners after every five years needs to be given effect expeditiously as the re-registration of doctors at a fixed interval will provide accurate data on the availability of doctors after elimination of the doctors who have become inactive, migrated to other countries or expired.

The group also has suggestions for reviving students’ interest in subjects which have few takers. Subjects like anatomy, physiology, pharmacology and forensic medicine have become less popular as career options for medical graduates.

In order to attract students for these courses, the examining authorities could bring out exclusive advertisements for filling up the seats, the group suggests.

A cadre of non-medical teachers may be developed to meet the shortage of teachers in basic sciences and run these departments, besides the involvement of clinical teachers. (UNI)