From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: The Centre is contemplating action against some voluntary and religious organisations in Jammu and Kashmir....more

All quiet on the
Kashmir front, or
so: A commander

CHAKOTHI (PAKISTAN), Dec 28: There is at least one quiet military outpost on the border between Pakistan and India in the breathtaking region of Kashmir. Pakistani Brig Commander Muhammed Yakub Khan was yesterday....more

4 excise officials in
CBI net on graft charges

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: The CBI has arrested four officials of Central Excise Department for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000, a CBI release said here today. .....more

UDF victory, mysterious
red rains marked year
in Kerala

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Dec 28: Three shocking mishaps, a spectacular showing by the Congress-led UDF in the Assembly polls and a .....more

Dissidence, health
scam failed to stem
HP’s development

SHIMLA, Dec 28: Himachal kept its date with development and endeavoured to usher in information technology an bio-technology revolution even as revolt by seven dissident ministers and MLAs and health.....more

Year of consolidation
for Congress

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: After a two-year virtual dry run, it was a year of consolidation for Congress president Sonia Gandhi as the party stormed back to power in Assam and Kerala and ...more

Orissa bears brunt of
nature’s fury yet again

BHUBANESWAR, Dec 28: An unprecedented drought, starvation deaths in tribal pockets, Naxalite menace and heavy floods in the delta region made ......more

Liberhan term extended
for another six months

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: The term of the Justice M. S. Liberhan Commission probing the demolition of the controversial structure in Ayodhya in December.....more

Govt to act against some J&K organisations

From B L Kak

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: The Centre is contemplating action against some voluntary and religious organisations in Jammu and Kashmir. Their fault ostensibly springs from allegations of misuse of foreign contributions received by them in recent years.

Administrative action is also expected against several such organisations in some other States as well. According to sources in the Ministry of Home Affairs, organisations in J&K as well as in other States, charged with misusing foreign contributions, have been identified.

Immediate action against them is unlikely, as the Minister for Home Affairs, Mr LK Advani, would like the existing law to be amended to make it more stringent version of the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act, 1976.

That the Vajpayee Government is determined to ensure that there was no complacency in respect of matters of national security has been borne out by yet another move, namely, the circulation of a draft Bill among Cabinet members in support of changes in the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act (FCRA).

The document has been titled the Foreign Contribution (Management and Control) Bill. It has been kept confidential, because of the flak the Government had to face over the POTO (Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance) within and outside Parliament. Whatever the attitude of the Government’s critics, there is no doubt that the Bill, seeking changes in the FCRA, is directed at voluntary organisations, including those run or funded by members of the minority community.

The Bill is said to be a brainchild of Mr LK Advani. Many voluntary organisations, campaigning for the relaxation of the FCRA, may receive a setback if the amended legislation became a more stringent version of the existing law. A national campaign committee for the repeal of the FCRA is already in place. Its membership, in fact, has increased in the past some years, particularly after the perception grew that the Government used the FCRA as a tool against voluntary organisations that criticised or opposed the BJP and its allies during the last Lok Sabha elections.

It is recalled that the Foreign Contribution (Regulation) Act had its origins in the Emergency years and was enacted in the wake of allegations that contributions from abroad were being used to destabilise the Government. The present Government headed by Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee seems perturbed by unending reports alleging misuse of a sizeable portion of foreign contributions by certain organisations in Jammu and Kashmir and elsewhere in the country.

The new Bill is, thus, an attempt to consolidate the law relating to the acceptance and utilisation of foreignb contributions or foreign hospitality by individuals, associations or companies and prohibit the acceptance of foreign contributions or foreign hospitality for anti-national activities.

Political observers, while admitting that the aim of the new Bill is to prevent the misuse of incoming foreign contributions, do not rule out a political motive behind the Government’s move. In the altered scenario, the States, which earlier had to give information about the recipients, will now be responsible for regitration. Apart from monitoring the implementation of the law, the Centre will also issue guidelines to the States on implementation.

It is pointed out that the FCRA, when amended, would give the Government sweeping powers to prohibit the inflow of foreign funds, assistance and hospitality if its suspects that the recipients have links with anti-national activities such as terrorism, insurgency, militancy and subversion. In the Government’s perception, while foreign funds were used for religious conversions in some States, in others such as Jammu and Kashmir and North-Eastern States they were used for subversive and terrorist activities.

The new Bill is aimed at snapping the source of funding to militant groups and madrassas. Even as Muslims contribute to madrassas for either educational or welfare purposes, quite a number of these centres have become the focus for the Vajpayee Government.

All quiet on the Kashmir front, or so: A commander

CHAKOTHI (PAKISTAN), Dec 28: There is at least one quiet military outpost on the border between Pakistan and India in the breathtaking region of Kashmir.

Pakistani Brig Commander Muhammed Yakub Khan was yesterday standing on it. Across a stream, less than 100 metre away, Indian soldiers hunkered down in a bunker. The armed soldiers from both saides stared at each other. Then one of the Indian soldiers waved.

A few hours later, matching sanction for sanction, Pakistan said it would bar Indian Airliners from using its airspace and ordered home half of India’s diplomatic corps. India had done exactly the same shortly before in the latest escalation of tensions over Kashmir and a terrorist attack on its Parliament.

But for two nuclear-equipped nations that have been eyeball-to-eyeball for the last 54 years, many things are not what they seem - especially on the Line of Control.

Khan was hosting to about 50 international journalists at the Shaheen military base, which houses the "rough and ready," according to an old, hand-painted sign.

For all his apparent earnestness about tensions in this troubled land - where Indians and Pakistanis have fought three wars since partition in 1947 - Khan admitted there has been random neighbourliness in this part of Kashmir.

The soldiers at two sides have shared tea a few times, he said. They also share maintenance of communications lines.

And when journalists jumped atop a concrete wall on the Pakistani side and began videotaping the Indian soldiers, one raised bot hands over his head and waved - in a gesture that may have meant either "hello!" or "get back!"

But no weapons were raised.

The Pakistani military, which ferried the media up winding switchbacks in swaying buses, went to great lengths in trying to present its side of the Kashmir conflict.

Using big maps and a bamboo pointer, Khan spent more than 30 minutes tracing the bloody history of Kashmir.

India, he said, "very frequently keeps violating the Line of Control. We never initiate firings." India says the opposite, claiming Pakistan launched an unprovoked attack Sunday that killed two soldiers and wounded three others.

India also blames Pakistani militant groups, and Islamabad’s spy agency, for a Dec 13 assault on New Delhi’s Parliament that killed 14, including five gunmen.

But in the village of Chakothi, where barely 1,000 metre divides Pakistani and Indian gunners, there has been no shelling for more than a year, Khan said. The whitewashed walls of outlying buildings on the military base bear pockmarks of artillery fire, as do some village homes.

And despite the sometimes blurred boundaries of close living, that same proximity makes for split-second explosions.

"When the soldiers are sitting eyeball-to-eyeball and there is so much hatred for each other," Khan said, "there will be no such thing as limited war." (AP)

4 excise officials in CBI net on graft charges

NEW DELHI, Dec 28: The CBI has arrested four officials of Central Excise Department for allegedly demanding and accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000, a CBI release said here today.

The release said three Central Excise Inspectors alongwith another official conducted an "unauthorised raid" on a business house in Ahmedabad and allegedly demanded a bribe of Rs 2.75 lakh from the owner for concealing information.

The businessman informed CBI, which laid a trap, and caught a Central Excise Inspector red-handed while accepting a bribe of Rs 30,000, the agency claimed.

All the accused were arrested and produced before a designated court. (PTI)

Orissa bears brunt of nature’s fury yet again

BHUBANESWAR, Dec 28: An unprecedented drought, starvation deaths in tribal pockets, Naxalite menace and heavy floods in the delta region made things difficult for the 21-month-old Naveen Patnaik Government that managed to survive a no-trust motion during the year.

The sensational thefts in the famous Lingaraj Temple in the capital city and Jagannath Temple at Puri sent shock waves among devotees in the state.

Scanty rains triggered a severe drought across almost 27 of the total 30 districts resulting in extensive crop failure. Several lakh people were hit by an acute potable water crisis with the drying up of all water bodies, reservoirs, wells and ponds during the hot summer.

Even as the state was recovering from the drought situation, heavy and incessant rains lashed Orissa in August and September, causing unimaginable floods in the entire delta region besides the western parts of the state. The Government was forced to requisition the help of the three services of the defence to rescue many lakh people from the marooned villages.

Kashipur, a non-descript tribal block in Rayagada district, hit the headlines as it reported over 20 deaths allegedly due to starvation during July-August. It sparked off nation-wide outrage and the supreme court had to intervene. It directed the states to undertake various remedial measures and prepare the Below Poverty Line (BPL) list to ensure food security.

In the face of severe opposition attack, the State Government bluntly denied that these deaths were due to starvation and attributed the cause to food poisoning. The tribals died of consuming poisonous mango Kernel Gruel, it maintained. Subsequently, Chief Minister Patnaik was booed and attacked with mango kernels by angry villagers when he visited the area.

The opposition claimed that the tribals died of starvation as they had no other option but to consume mango kernel for bare survival.

The situation forced Union Food and Consumers Affairs Minister Shanta Kumar to rush to Kashipur to launch the ‘Annapurna Scheme’ meant for the poorest of the poor in the state.

Mr Kumar admitted that there was poverty and hunger in the country, but to him there was no reason for anybody to die of starvation. "Starvation deaths mean that the person did not eat anything for the last 15 to 20 days, which was not the case at Kashipur," he said.

Reports of starvation deaths also came from other inaccessble areas of Gajapati and Ganjam district. Political leaders made a beeline for the affected areas to take advantage of the situation while the Government also geared up its machinery to wriggle out from the opposition onslaught on its failure to provide food security to tribals.

A sudden spurt of militant activities by the Naxalites belonging to the People’s War Group (PWG) in the Southern district of Malkangiri bordering Andhra Pradesh kept state police on their toes.

In a major incident, over 150 armed extremists in each case attacked the motu and Kalimela police stations in Malkangiri district on August nine, killing five policemen on the spot and injuring several others.

The Naxalites snatched away all the weapons and blasted the police station. The police also for the first time took up the challenge and inflicted heavy casualties on them. Three of the ultras were killed while a large number of cadres sustained injuries.

The State Government approached the centre to rush paramilitary forces to control the situation in Malkangiri district, declared by the Naxalites as liberated zone. One company of central reserve police force jawans were posted at the trouble-torn district.

The Naxalites also blew up a house belonging to State Cooperation Minister Aurobinda Dhali (BJ) and the Potteru Police Station on December one.

While the Malkangiri attacks caused much headache for the Orissa Police, the bordering Nabarangpur district too became a matter of much concern for the Government as the gond tribals revolted against the Bengali settlers in Raighar block, leading to a serious law and order situation.

The Raighar block had in the past witnessed several clashes and disputes between the tribals and the Bengali settlers over the ownership of their land and crop cultivation. But the October 30 incident took the situation to a climax when three tribals were killed in police firing at Rengamati village.

Two more were also killed in police firing on November 11 again when the tribals armed with bows, arrows and guns went on the rampage torching to the Bengali houses and Government buildings.

The Naveen Patnaik Government promptly despatched a three member ministerial team for on-the-spot investigation, suspended the Police Superintendent and other officials. A judicial inquiry by a sitting judge of Orissa High Court was ordered into the incident.

On the political front, Mr Patnaik took his partymen and the coalition partner Bharatiya Janata Party by surprise by dismissing three influencial ministers on charges of shadow corruption on August nine.

The three ministers were Nalini Kanta Mahanty Works and Parliamentary Affairs and Kamala Das Health and Family Welfare Biju Janata Dal (BJD) besides Minister of State for Rural Development and Education Prashant Nanda.

Mr Mahanty, also the working president of BJD who later resigned from the post protesting against what he called the dictatorial attitude of the Chief Minister, was subsequently expelled from the party for anti-party activities. Ms Das, who was the chief of BJD’s women wing, also resigned from her post.

The sacking of the three ministers on corruption grounds strengthened the hands of Mr Patnaik who was recently elected unopposed as party president. A vigilance inquiry has been instituted against the three sacked ministers and cases were filed against them.

His Government got a shot in the arm when it defeated a Congress-sponsored no-confidence motion after a 14 hour-long marathon debate on December 21 during the just-concluded winter session of the Assembly.

This was for the first time the BJD-BJP coalition Government faced such a motion since it assumed power in March 2000. The opposition had accused the Government of non-performance, holding it responsible for the deteriorating law and order situation and failure of the adminstration on all fronts.

In a tragic accident, seven budding chess players of Andhra Pradesh including Junior Asian Champion M Abhinav were killed in a road accident near Puri on September 23. The young players were on their way to participate in a championship in the holy city of Puri when the mishap occuraed.

A series of thefts in the temples including the famous 11th century Lingaraj temple in the capital city and 12th century Jagannath Temple at Puri sent shock waves all over the states.

While the ornaments of the Lingaraj Temple were stolen on the night of November five, a week later, on the night of November eleven, two precious idols - Narayan and Madan Mohan — considered as the living deity of Lord Jagannath were stolen from the Jagannath temple.

The theft of Madan Mohan brought all the temple rituals to a standstill for several hours till an alternative idol was installed. This idol was recovered from the temple well after some days.

Police later claimed to have nabbed the main culprit involved in the thefts - - 24-year-old Prakash Patnaik who was also involved in a series of temple thefts in Andhra Pradesh.

Orissa, which was a pioneer state to unbundle and corporatise its State Electricity Board, was witness to a tussle between the Government and US power major AES Transpower when the latter wanted to pull out of the electricity distribution company Central Electricity Distribution Company Ltd.

An emergency meeting of directors of the GRIDCO not only declined AES’ offer to sell its equity in CEDCO but also decided not to permit sale or transfer of AES shares to a third party.

The fued between the State Government and aes remained unresolved even after Union Energy Secretary A K Basu convened a meeting in New Delhi that was attended by World Bank officials apart from the representatives of the warring sides.

The dispute between the two surfaced in May after aes closed down operations at a thermal power station in Banharpali in Jharsuguda district, 395 km from here, for a week demanding that dues of Rs 14 billion from GRIDCO be cleared first.

But GRIDCO said it could pay aes only after it recovered Rs 1.60 billion as electricity bill dues from CEDCO. It has also asked AES to pay Rs 270 million as compensation for losses due to the closure of the Banharpali Plant. (UNI)