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Islamabad may act
irrationally: Delhi From B L Kak NEW DELHI, May 26: China and Pakistan are considered by New Delhi as ‘neighbouring threats’ to India. This description has found an.....more Centre
rejects the NEW DELHI, May 26: Even though the report of World Commission on Dams (WCD) has been accepted worldwide, the Indian Government has rejected it...more Demand
for greater RANCHI, May 26: The demand for a greater Jharkhand seems to be gaining ground again with both tribal and non-tribal inhabitants of the state stressing...more Centre
to develop JAIPUR, May 26: The Centre will announce a "Maharana Pratap Package" this year......more |
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Congress suggests DIMAPUR (NAGALAND), May 26: Congress leader and Rajya Sabha MP Mani Shankar Aiyer has suggested the appointment of a senior leader as an interlocutor in the Naga peace talks......more Ministry
expansion in THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, May 26: Expansion of the UDF Ministry in Kerala, headed by A K Antony, today saw a deft balancing act by the chief minister to keep various factions happy taking into account also caste and communal considerations......more AP
CM allocates ITANAGAR, May 26: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mukut Mithi has allocated portfolios to his three new ministers today. .....more Govt
not respecting NEW DELHI, May 26: The national committee for protection of natural resources (NCPNR), a national network of over 50 voluntary organisation.....more |
Islamabad
may act irrationally: Delhi From B L Kak NEW DELHI, May 26: China and Pakistan are considered by New Delhi as ‘neighbouring threats’ to India. This description has found an expression in a report prepared by the Group of Ministers headed by Mr LK Advani. As the Prime Minister, Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee, has, once again, highlighted the need to tackle Chinese leadership with care and caution, Mr Advani and the External Affairs-cum-Defence Minister, Mr Jaswant Singh, have chosen to sit tight over the sections of the report concerning China. In fact, the sections pertaining to China have been mainly kept confidential, in response to the instructions from the Prime Minister. All that was mentioned ran thus: "The rapid growth of China in the last few years coupled with its ambitious military modernisation programme will enable it to attain near superpower status by 2020". The Group of Ministers’ report, precisely, recommended: "Special note must be taken of China’s wide ranging defence modernisation with a special focus on force multipliers and high technology weapons systems". The report has charged Bhutan with playing host to anti-India forces. The report, significantly, has defended India’s moves aimed at developing close relations with the United States. Stating that the US "pre-eminence in the global strategic architecture" is unlikely to diminish in the foreseeable future, the report argues: "Meaningful, broad based engagement with the US spanning political, economic and technological interests and commonalties, will impact beneficially on our external security environment". The report cautioned: "Conversely, an adversarial relationship with it (USA) can have significant negative repercussions across the same broad range of issues and concerns". While discussing the modus operandi of Islamabad, the report has forecast: "Pakistan will continue to pose a threat to India’s security in the future also". Pakistan’s "traditional hostility and single minded aim of destabilising India", the report said, "is not focused just on Kashmir but on a search for parity". The report added: "This arises out of the two-nation theory, coupled with a desire to exact revenge for the 1971 humiliation over the separation of Bangladesh". Charging Pakistan with following the "policy of bleeding India through a thousand cuts", the report has noted: "Through its nexus with the Taliban and Jihadi elements, as well as its involvement in religious extremism, international terrorism and narcotics trade, Pakistan poses a threat not only to India but to the stability of the region as well. As a result of Pakistan’s political and economic instability, its military regime may act irrationally". The Group of Ministers’ yet another finding: Pakistan’s weapon acquisition from the West and China and its close collaboration with China and North Korea on nuclear and missile matters will continue to be of grave concern to India. The Group of Ministers has made a set of recommendations. Amongst the most interesting recommendations is the "one border one force" principle. According to the report, multiplicity of forces on the same border has led to lack of accountability on the part of the forces. Discussing the problems of border management, the Group of Ministers has highlighted the fact: "Some of our maritime boundaries are still undefined and much of our land borders are not demarcated on the ground". The report laments: "Little has been done over the years to understand or take action to create infrastructure for the protection of India’s vast coastal areas". The Group of Ministers has favoured setting up of specialised marine police in all coastal States and island territories. Another interesting suggestion: the Navy’s war watching organisation may be integrated into the surveillance and reporting chain of the country with fishermen watch groups set up in each coastal State. |
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Centre rejects the World Commission on Dams report NEW DELHI, May 26: Even though the report of World Commission on Dams (WCD) has been accepted worldwide, the Indian Government has rejected it without even studying and boycotted a meeting convened to discuss it. Mr L C Jain, vice chairman of the Commission and former member of the Planning Commission, said here last evening that the Water Resources Development Ministry sent a letter to the Commission, saying that it was rejecting the report ‘dams and development: a new framework for decision making’. The WCD was set up in 1998 with support from the World Bank and the International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) to discuss the contentious issue of construction of big dams. The Commission represented all sections, including dam makers, its opponents, Government representatives and technical experts. He urged the Government to first study the report and then decide on it. The report did not say whether large dams should be build or not in future but only provide the rationale for a fundamental shift in option assessment in planning and project cycles for water and energy resources development. It advocates an inclusive process in decision-making by bringing to the table all those whose rights are involved and who bear the risk associated with different options for water and energy resources, he added. Officials of the Water Resources Development Ministry boycotted a three-day meeting, which is concluding here today, to discuss the report. Even representatives of the home, and environment and forests ministries did not participate in the meeting due to "personal reasons". Though no official reason was given for rejecting the report, ostensibly the reason appears to be Narmada Bachao Andolan leader Medha Patkar being a member of the Commission. The report, which was released by Mr. Nelson Mandela in november last year, has been accepted by many countries all over the world with Sri Lanka and Brazil even setting up a Commission at the national level while Pakistan has sought IUCN’s assistance in its implementation, he informed. He said India should not reject this crucial and historic report just because of the whims and fancies of some bureaucrat. The Commission has recommended decentralisation of the decision-making process and said dams should be constructed only after "prior consent" of the people who will be displaced by it. All the options should be weighed and costs calculated before deciding what was suitable method to meet water needs of people, he said. Ms Patkar said the social and environment costs should also be calculated while constructing big dams as they were often overlooked. She highlighted under-performance of the big dams and said often they fail to fulfill the promises made during their construction. Moreover, they generally serve the interests of the urban rich while displacing indigenous and tribal population who also have a right on their resources, she said. They should also be taken into confidence while deciding about projects which affect their life and livelihood, she added. "Hydro-power was not as clean and cheap as it was claimed to be. Economy of hydro-power should be calculated on a wider basis," she said. The NBA leader stressed the need to set up similar commission in India. When the Asian Development Bank adopted the report and the World Bank has held three rounds of deliberation on it, why can’t India have a Commission where the Government, social activists and the people affected by dams could deliberate on all aspects of such projects, she said. Ms Patkar stressed the need for decentralisation of the decision-making process in water and energy resources management and reducing transmission and distribution losses. (UNI) |
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Demand for greater Jharkhand resurfaces RANCHI, May 26: The demand for a greater Jharkhand seems to be gaining ground again with both tribal and non-tribal inhabitants of the state stressing the need for including some districts of West Bengal and Orissa in the existing Jharkhand state. Leaders of different political parties belonging to the Kurmi community who attended yesterday’s Kurmi Maharally here demanded five districts of West Bengal and Orissa — Purulia, Bankura, Midnapore, Keonjhar and Rairangpur - be included in Jharkhand. They also threatened to launch a stir soon to press for their demand. The Kurmi Maharally was attended among others by BJP MP Ram Tahal Choudhary, Janata Dal (United) Legislature Party leader and Power Minister Lalchand Mahato, Samata Party’s senior leader and State Land Revenue Minister Madhu Singh, All Jharkhand Students Union (AJSU) president and State Road Construction Minister Sudesh Mahato, former Congress legislator Keshwav Mahato Kamlesh and RJD state vice-president Rajaram Mahato. The demand for a greater Jharkhand, put on the back burner following the creation of a separate Jharkhand state comrpising 18 districts of Bihar, resurfaced with tribals and the non-tribal Kurmis divided over job reservations. Led by BJP MP Salkhan Murmu - who represents Orissa’s Mayurbhanj in the Lok Sabha - the Adivasi Jharkhand Janadhikar Manch has also made a similar demand for a greater Jharkhand. (UNI) |
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AP CM allocates portfolios to 3 ministers ITANAGAR, May 26: Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Mukut Mithi has allocated portfolios to his three new ministers today. Mr Dorjee Khandu, who was sworn in as a Cabinet Minister here yesterday, was given the charge of mines, official sources said. New Ministers of State— Mrs Nyani Natung and Mr Thajam Aboh—have been allocated the portfolios of Social Welfare (women and child development) and Horticulture respectively, the sources said. The 19-month-old Congress Government led by Mukut Mithi was expanded here yesterday with the induction of three new ministers, bringing the total strength of the Council of Ministers to 41. Of them, 25 are of cabinet rank while the rest are ministers of state. The education protfolio, which fell vacant due to the sudden demise of dera natung in a helicopter crash on may eight last, is yet to be allotted. (UNI) |
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Govt not respecting SC ruling on tribals right to land NEW DELHI, May 26: The national committee for protection of natural resources (NCPNR), a national network of over 50 voluntary organisation, has accused the government of not implementing the supreme court judgement that upheld rights of tribals over land and resources even after a lapse of three years. Ncpnr president S R Hiremath said both the central and state Governments were not respecting the provision in the fifth schedule of the constitution prohibiting leasing of land in the scheduled areas to private corporations and use of resources for their economic and educational empowerment. "The historic judgement of the apex court on July 11, 1997 giving directions to the centre and state governments to respect the rights of tribals on their resources was yet to be implemented." Meanwhile, an interim report of a study team of the NCPNR has held the Raygada district administration responsible for the Maikanch firing in Orissa on December 16 last year which killed three tribals and injured 50 and many were still missing. It also charged the administration with suppression of a vibrant tribal movement in Kashipur against powerful nexus of Utkal Aluminium International Ltd., unscrupulous politicians of the area and callous district administration. The report found major discrepancies in the two FIRs registered regarding the firing and held the district administration in nexus with unscrupulous local politicians, officials and money influence of UAIL, including its goondas attacks on tribals, for the firing of December 16. The administration failed to protect the rights of tribals in time with the spirit and letter of the constitution, it said. The study team found a strong link between the transferring of lease right of Majhiliphali hill for bauxite mining from Orissa mining corporation to UAIL and heavy-handed behaviour of the district administration including repression of tribals in league with politicians. The police and district officials were responsible for tribals missing after the firing as they were picked by police and so they should produce them also. The superintendent of police ordering his deputy to proceed to Kashipur and then to Maikanch with three platoons of police shows a pre-planned and pre-meditated act on part of the officials and politicians that led to unwarranted firing leading to loss of lives, it said. The ncpnr stressed the need to understand situation of tribals and legitimising demands of their seven year old "peoples movement." (UNI) |
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