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Delhi
monitors J&K situation From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Feb 12: The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has reaffirmed the Centre’s.....more SPECIAL
REPORT From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Feb 12: The Centre has no plans to abandon its strategy to enact a comprehensive....more Kutch village to get DHAMADKA (KUTCH), Feb 12: When Abdul Razzaque receives the ‘Master Craftsman’......more
Relief not reaching BHUJ, Feb 12: Congress president Sonia Gandhi today said relief was not reaching the minorities among the quake victims in Gujarat.....more |
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Science should take NEW DELHI, Feb 12: Science and Technology Minister Dr Murli Manohar Joshi has said that scientific research should take into account the biosafety and ethical concerns of the society as science without ethics is akin to "Jungle Raj"........more Paramhans denounces PRATAPGARH, Feb 12: Ram Janam Bhoomi Trust Chairman Ram Chandra Paramhans today accused the Shankaracharya of Dwarka, Swaroopanand Saraswati, of being a tool in the hands of politicians saying those who are opposed to Ram Temple would take advantage of his announcement that he has a new model.....more Electoral strategy to CHENNAI, Feb 12: Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) would spell out its electoral strategy for the coming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu in two days,. ....more Endeavour to protect KHAJURAHO (MP), Feb 12: In an endeavour to protect the Khajauraho temple from encroachment, the Archaeological Survey of....more |
Delhi
monitors J&K situation From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Feb 12: The Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has reaffirmed the Centre’s resolve to ensure that the militant outfits’ game-plan for ethnic-cleansing of the Kashmir Valley does not fructify at all. "We want peace in Jammu and Kashmir. We want economic and political as well as social stability in the State. We are eager to see the end of militancy and terrorism in all parts of J&K", Mr Vajpayee said at a meeting convened to discuss the sudden spurt in militant activity in J&K. The Prime Minister, at the same time, asserted: "We shall not permit the militant outfit’s game-plan against minorities in the Valley as well as in some areas of Jammu province". Obviously, the meeting was necessitated by the latest massacre of 15 people in a remote village in Rajouri district of Jammu region. The meeting was told that the gunning down of six persons belonging to the Sikh community in Srinagar on February 3 was followed by the suicide squad attack on the police control room in Srinagar itself on Friday evening in which some policemen got killed. The Prime Minister, while voicing deep shock at the massacre of 15 people in Rajouri district, let it be known that the Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, had informed him that the heinous crime was an obvious and desperate attempt by the pan-Islamic militant groups to scuttle the peace process now under way in the State. Mr Vajpayee called for "immediate action" by the administration and the security forces to track down the culprits of the massacre in the Rajouri district. The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO), EXCELSIOR was officially told, wanted the situation in J&K to be watched "keenly and with greater agility by the concerned agencies". Mr Vajpayee also conveyed to the J&K Chief Minister his message for "immediate" measures to create a sense of re-assuring effect among the members of Sikh community in Srinagar and elsewhere in Kashmir Valley. The Prime Minister’s message was dashed off after the Director of the Intelligence Bureau reportedly informed Mr Vajpayee that the terrorist elements have, in picking on a minority community, sought to realise their objective by playing upon the highly sensitive religious factor to create a sense of insecurity and panic among its members and thereby mount pressure on the security agencies to breach the cease-fire. The PMO has highlighted the need to step up vigil across Jammu and Kashmir against various militant outfits, particularly the Lashkar-e-Toiba, Jamait-ul-Mujahideen, Jaish-e-Mohammed and Al Umar Mujahideen. Significantly, the attack on the Srinagar police control room was followed by the statement issued in Pakistan by the Lashkar-e-Toiba chief, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, that his organisation "does not and will not accept any cease-fire". His assertion: "Our jihad will continue to force India to come to terms for a just and amicable solution of the Kashmir dispute". The Lashkar chief claimed that following suicidal attacks by mujahideen, the situation in Kashmir had drastically changed and the Kashmiris "are raising pro-Pakistan slogans instead of independent Kashmir slogans". His statement said: "All these developments took place after the cease-fire. As such there is need to accelerate the jihad activities to win popular support for Pakistan". The Prime Minister is said to have been apprised of the criticism by some quarters of his unilateral cease-fire experiment. Significantly, Mr Vajpayee is of the view that despite the continuing and highly provocative attempts at sabotage, the peace initiative needs to be sustained without of course lowering the guard in any manner. |
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SPECIAL REPORT From B L Kak NEW DELHI, Feb 12: The Centre has no plans to abandon its strategy to enact a comprehensive legislation aimed at discouraging use of tobacco products. In fact, close on the heels of announcing its intention in this regard, the Government of India has decided to effect further changes to the existing labelling requirements on the containers, sachets and pouches used for packaging pan masala and chewing tobacco. As part of the Government’s strategy to enact a legislation, the Ministry of Health has issued draft rules to amend the Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) rules, 1995 to stipulate that every package of chewing tobacco and related advertisements should carry the warning that "chewing of tobacco is injurious to health" in a clear, conspicuous and an easily readable manner. A senior official of the Health Ministry told EXCELSIOR that the draft rules would be taken for consideration after a period of two months. It was felt that the way warnings were displayed seemed to be rather inadequate to bring it to the attention of the consumers. The official said that in the case of pan masala, every package or related advertisement should carry the warning that "chewing of pan masala my be injurious to health". According to the draft rules, the particulars of declaration or warning should be in two languages. While English or Hindi is compulsory, the second language may be a regional language. The draft rules have also specified that the colour of the warning text printed or used for advertisement should be different from the colour of background of the label, container or the advertisements as the case may be. Meanwhile, the announcement of the Government’s move to discourage use of tobacco products has sent advertisers, media-planners and agencies into a huddle. Total adspend and marketing expenditure of the three cigarette majors, namely, ITC, VST and Godfrey Phillips India total an estimated Rs 350 crores. According to the Zafrani Zarda and Pan Masala Association, whose members include brands like Kothari, Gopal, Manickchand, Baba and Tulsi, the annual adspend by this segment is another Rs 100 crores. Mr Ramesh Narayan, President of Advertising Agencies Association of India, has argued: "Obviously, there will be a big revenue drop for ad agencies. I do not see the logic behind a ban on advertising when there is no ban on manufacturing. Worldwide, people may be moving away from smoking, but that does not mean that the mature tobacco users should not have the right of an informed choice". Even as the ITC chairman, Mr YC Deveshwar, has welcomed and assured to support the Union Government initiatives to regulate the tobacco consumption and industry sponsorships through enabling enactment, his message is loud and clear: "We should not land up in a situation where only cigarette smoking is curtailed as 84 per cent of the tobacco consumption is in the non-cigarette format and that too in the poorer sections. I do not know how the Government will regulate this section. We have to get a forum to debate this and related issues and anything that is orderly, practicable and progressive we will support". The ITC chairman told EXCELSIOR: "The tobacco industry should have been consulted. We did not know about this development. These restrictions should not be such where people will violate the norms and the competition within the tobacco industry both from overseas and other products goes up. We need to have a practical approach". His argument: "We did rather not have a situation where smuggled cigarettes get consumed across the country affecting the organised sector. Then we will have to find an alternative means of employment for our farmers and all those people who are engaged in the industry". His warning: "It should not happen that the Indian industry is thrown out and the international brands are smuggled through Nepal and Bangladesh". He is of the view that consumers, at the cost of the Indian industry, will buy smuggled cigarettes. His word of caution: "Look at a situation where over Rs 1,000 crore worth of cigarettes are smuggled into the country". About 97 billion cigarettes worth Rs 11,000 crores are sold in Indian annually. And ITC accounts for about 68 per cent of this market. |
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Kutch village to get its colour back, from its craftsman DHAMADKA (KUTCH), Feb 12: When Abdul Razzaque receives the ‘Master Craftsman’ National Award from President K R Narayanan next month, his works would be lying strewn over his quake-damaged workshed here. The 43-year-old craftsman and his brother Ismail Mohammed are carrying on a ‘Kutchhi’ tradition that had continued in their home for nine generations — dyeing and hand printing of dress material. His grandfather had seen through a similar situation 56 years ago, when a quake destroyed nearly all his goods. But Razzaque has another task at hand — helping his fellow villagers rebuild their homes. The 3,000 residents of Dhamadka village, located on the Bhachau-Bhuj highway, saw almost all of 125 houses destroyed in the January 26 quake. Only Razzaque’s house and those of two others remained. His dying farm was destroyed and the workshed partially damaged. For the other 30 craftsman in the village where life revolves around the Kutchhi art, the damage was complete. About 50 lakh worth of material used to be sent from here to exporters and domestic dealers in Delhi, Mumbai and Ahmedabad. The village lost 108 lives, including Mohammed’s 14-year-old girl who was at her grandmother’s house when the quake struck. She tried to run, but the falling debris trapped her, killing her instantly, says Mohammed. "I can’t begin work in my workshed, I must first help others," says Razzaque, who was the village’s Sarpanch from 1989 to 1994. Razzaque’s house is the centre of activity. People, who are living in tents, draw water from his borewell run by a generator, even eat food there. "We will help our people reconstruct their houses. The dyeing farms and printing sheds also will have to be rebuilt slowly," Razzaque says. His brother has cancelled a trip to Munich to attend the ‘Exampla’ expo of natural red colour in March. He wants to stay back and help his brother. Razzaque doesn’t know when the beautifully-printed dress material in his workshed will see the light of the day. But he is certain that the village will get its colour back. When Dhamadka has people like Razzaque, you too are sure. (UNI) |
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Electoral strategy to be announced in 2 days: Moopanar CHENNAI, Feb 12: Tamil Maanila Congress (TMC) would spell out its electoral strategy for the coming Assembly polls in Tamil Nadu in two days, party president G K Moopanar said today. Moopanar told newsmen before the commencement of the TMC’s executive here that he said he would be in a position to announce the party’s stand only after ascertaining the views of partymen across the state, an exercise which would be completed by tomorrow. Asked whether the TMC would continue in the AIADMK front, in which the Pattali Makkal Katchi (PMK) had been recently admitted, he said, "the PMK is also a political party". "Why should I go all the way to new delhi to discuss this", he replied when asked if he had held talks with Congress president Sonia Gandhi on the PMK’s admission into the AIADMK-front. He said TMC workers had contributed Rs 8.4 lakh in cash and also medicines worth Rs 2.5 lakh for the victims of the Gujarat earthquake. The amount would soon be sent to the Gujarat Chief Minister, he added. (PTI) |
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Endeavour to protect Khajauraho temple from encroachment KHAJURAHO (MP), Feb 12: In an endeavour to protect the Khajauraho temple from encroachment, the Archaeological Survey of India (ASI) and the Madhya Pradesh Revenue Department have jointly identified about 200 buildings on the 100 metre periphery of the temple complex. A joint team of the ASI and the Revenue Department have initiated its preliminary work on land acquisition in this regard. Most of the buildings identified in the programme were constructed even before the Chandela temples were formally included in the world heritage group by the UNESCO in 1988. Bordering the western group of temples stands the historic Rajmahal, which housed the erstwhile Maharaja Vishwanath Singh. Chhattarpur District Collector Rajiv Ranjan said the need of the hour was to impose a ban on any fresh construction within the radius of 300 metres of the temple complex. "Despite a string of five star hotels coming up and introduction of regular air services, Khajuraho is still considered a small hamlet." As per the Amended Archeological Act, 1992, construction in the territory falling within the periphery of 100 metres of any archeological monument is prohibited. Construction in the region falling under 300 metres could be sought by seeking departmental permission. ASI Assistant Curator A K Dube conceded that a slew of constructions had come up in the adjoins of the western group of temples during last one decade. (UNI) |
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