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Indigenous Assembly NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Announcing that an investment of Rs 3,027 crores was being made to technologically transform the....more State
terrorism is no NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Former President R Venkataraman today said organised terrorism had become a global menace, but the state terrorism ......more Musharraf seeks F16s NEW DELHI, Nov 10: As part price for allying Pakistan with the war on terror, President Pervez....more Doctor couple, 3 BHOPAL, Nov 10: A doctor couple and three employees of their nursing home were arrested and sent .....more |
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India lodges protest with Dhaka over Hindu influx KOLKATA, Nov 10: India has lodged a strong protest with Dhaka over the influx of Hindu minorities into West Bengal following atrocities on them in Bangladesh, Information and Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj said here today.....more Journalists, lawyers NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Eminent journalists, lawyers and social scientists today rejected in toto the newly-promulgated Prevention of Terrorism Ordinance (POTO) and demanded its immediate withdrawal saying it was politically motivated and an assault on media freedom....more Orissa lawyers CUTTACK, Nov 10: The All Orissa Lawyers Convention and Action Committee (AOLCAC) today called off their agitation and resume work from tomorrow......more |
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Indigenous Assembly of T-90 to start next year: Fernandes NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Announcing that an investment of Rs 3,027 crores was being made to technologically transform the country’s ordnance factories, Defence Minister George Fernandes today said India will receive the first batch of 80 frontline Russian T-90 main battle tanks next month and that their indigenous assembly would commence next year. Fernandes said the huge investment was being ploughed into the ordnance factories for having state-of-art plant and machinery to build futuristic weapons systems in the Tenth Plan period 2002-2007. He said as part of the plan, a new ordnance factory was being set up in Nalanda in Bihar for manufacture of bi-modular propellant charges required for heavy calibre ammunition. Addressing the Parliamentary Consultative Committee attached to his Ministry, Fernandes said the ordnance factories had registered a growth of 82.5 per cent and the present turnover of Rs 5,606 crores was expected to go up by 10 per cent to Rs 6,245 crores during 2001-2002. On the acquisition of the 300 T-90 tanks from Russia, the Minister said the first batch of 80 tanks would be inducted next month. Along with the tanks, the transfer of technology documents will also be made available which would pave the way for indigenous assembly of semi-knocked down or completely knocked down parts of the tank by late next year. The Minister said the complete indigenous production of the tanks, capable of engaging a, would begin in 2006. "The Ordnance Factory Board has prepared a perspective plan for modernisation and full automation in close interaction with major indenters", Fernandes told the MPs. Improved productivity and capacity utilisation had enabled the board to pass on benefits to the armed forces in the shape of reduction in prices of weapons, he said. On export potential of the ordnance factories, the Minister said a "plan of action" had been initiated to give impetus for exports which would lay stress on ordnance factories working on economy of scale, optimum capacity and less costs to make Indian weapons systems more Minister of State for Defence Production Harin Pathak, the Minister of State for Defence U V Krishnamraju and senior officials of the Defence, Defence Production and Ordnance Factory Board were present at the meeting.(PTI) |
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State terrorism is no answer to organised terrorism: Venkataraman NEW DELHI, Nov 10: Former President R Venkataraman today said organised terrorism had become a global menace, but the state terrorism was no answer to it. Inaugurating a dharm sammelan organised by Prajapita Brahma Kumaris Ishwariya Vishwa Vidyalaya here, Mr Venkataraman lamented that religious and ethnic conflicts took a heavy toll of human lives. Instead of preaching peace and harmony, some religious fundamentalists fan the fire of hatred and bitterness and lead their followers to the path of senseless violence. He said the answer to the chaotic conditions in the world should be found in moral and spiritual reformation and not through violence. Problems of ethnic conflict, terrorism and disharmony among people and nations of the world could not be solved through disarmament conferences, conventions and treaties but only through a change of heart, he said. The former President said the voluntary observance of moral and physical laws by a majority of people holds the society together and fear of administrative punishment plays a crucial role in this regard. However, inner voice of conscience holds a person back from misdeeds and it could be developed by faith in divinity and in the supreme being. "Religions, which have tamed the bestial man into a civilised being can alone bring about a psychological and spiritual transformation of man," he said. Every religion preaches morality, righteousness, kindness, love, selflessness and these are the requisites of a peaceful, orderly and harmonious society, he said and added that if each one practices them truthfully, faithfully and scrupulously there would be no disharmony in life. "However, the fact is that no one follows religion honestly but uses it for creating discord," he observed. He called upon the religious leaders, gathered for the conference, to agree that equal respect should be given to all religions and there should be no interference in each, following his respective religious tradition. "Peaceful co-existence of all faiths will bring about a new millennium of harmony and peace within nations and in the entire globe," he averred.(UNI) |
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Musharraf seeks F16s among US ‘gestures’ NEW DELHI, Nov 10: As part price for allying Pakistan with the war on terror, President Pervez Musharraf wants release of 28 F16 fighter planes the United States has blocked since the 1990s because it caught Islamabad secretly working on nuclear weapons, an American newspaper reported today. Pakistan purchased 28 F16s in the 1980s, when it was a US ally against the erstwhile Soviet Union, but their delivery was blocked when the United States Congress cut off all aid and military sales in 1990 citing Islamabad’s clandestine atomic-weapons development. Gen Musharraf is currently visiting New York to address the annual United Nations General Assembly session delayed almost six weeks because of the September 11 terror strikes blamed by Washington on Saudi exile Osama bin Laden and his Al Qaeda network operating in Afghanistan which has been under the control of the Islamabad-backed Taliban over the past five years. In an interview with the New York Times monitored in New Delhi, Gen Musharraf said he is in the US in search of major gestures from the Bush administration, including the release of the F-16 fighters. As he put it, the fighter planes were paid for, and Pakistan was even sent a bill for their storages in arizona. Gen Musharraf said he would be asking President George Bush at their meeting today for concrete "gestures" in response to Pakistan’s strong support in the campaign against terrorism, the paper said. "Visible gestures" of gratitude from the US would help blunt public criticism of his decision to ally his country strongly with Washington, Gen Musharraf was quoted as saying. Although he felt that the intensity of anti-campaign demonstrations was actually diminishing, he could not predict how long the bombing campaign could continue before the opposition within Pakistan became a threat to his Government, the paper said. Gen Musharraf placed special emphasis on the F-16s, because their arrival would be the most visible sign that the US was restoring Pakistan to the stature of a genuine ally, the paper said. The paper said Gen Musharraf, who took power in a coup two years ago, was using his New York city visit to burnish his image with world leaders gathering at the UN headquarters. Until September 11 he had been kept at an icy distance by Washington as both the Clinton and Bush administrations tilted toward a strategic relationship with India, it said. The paper said the Pakistani President voiced grievance over this treatment. "Pakistan certainly desires a longstanding and sustainable relationship with the United States," he said, adding that "trust has to be built." Asked whose fault it was, he said, "as a Pakistani, I have to say the fault lies with the United States." He was quoted as saying that there was a widespread sense that Washington abandoned Pakistan as soon as the Soviet Union pulled out of Afghanistan in 1989, and then applied economic sanctions when Pakistan developed nuclear weapons in response to India’s nuclear programme and both countries tested them in May 1998. "The main issue is we were part of a coalition," he was quoted as saying. "We fought a war together and evicted the Soviet Union from Afghanistan." The country’s previous experience with the US as an ally in the cold war, he said, had left the public "not very happy" and needing to "wash off their previous attitudes." The gestures that would reverse these wrongs, he was quoted as saying, should include major debt relief, military assistance, and more understanding for the sensitivity of the Pakistani public on the issue of its nuclear weapons. "The opinion of the people of Pakistan has to be moulded, and it can be done through gestures," he was quoted as saying. Asked whether he felt slighted by Washington and by Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, he hesitated and said, "well, sometimes, yes." He said this was understandable because he was a military man who had seized power, the paper said. In an unusual and forthright appeal, Gen Musharraf said Pakistan is more than willing to accept assistance from the US to render Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal more secure. But he added that reports emanating from the US that the Pentagon may have plans to "pinch" or "neutralise" Pakistan’s nuclear weapons to prevent them from falling into the hands of Islamic extremists had "a very negative impact on the public mind." He was quoted as saying Pakistan’s nuclear weapons were under "very strong custodial control." The Bush administration has been debating how it could offer such assistance without passing on information that might improve the design or reliability of Pakistan’s small arsenal, the paper said, adding that a number of specialists favoured offering "personnel reliability" programme to Pakistan nuclear commanders along with high technology security systems to physically guard the weapons and the highly enriched uranium that forms their cores. (UNI) |
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Orissa lawyers call of agitation CUTTACK, Nov 10: The All Orissa Lawyers Convention and Action Committee (AOLCAC) today called off their agitation and resume work from tomorrow. The lawyers had struck work since October 20 to protest the unprovoked, indiscriminate and violent attack on lawyers in the Puri Bar Association hall by a group of police personnel on October 16. The decision to suspend the agitation was taken at a meeting of the steering committee of the AOLCAC here. Briefing newspersons after the meeting, AOLCAC convenor Jaganath Patnaik said the decision was taken after the Government agreed to all their three demands. CBI inquiry into the incident, modification in the terms and reference of the inquiry to be made by the CBI and disciplinary action against the errant police officials were the three main demands of the lawyers. Mr Patnaik said the Chief Minister had also assured to consider the suggestion for constituting a permanent body to deal with such matters if the future. He said the steering committee of the All Orissa Lawyers Convention which met here today reviewed the situation in the light of the Chief Minister’s assurance and resolved to suspend the agitation. The committee further resolved to review the process in furtherance of the fulfilment of demands and take suitable steps in various judicial proceedings. The committee also decided to constitute a sub-committee to look after the legal proceedings and hold the next meeting of the steering committee on December 8 at Bhubaneswar to chalk out the further course of action. (UNI) |
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Vajpayee not above party, says RSS NEW DELHI, Nov 9: The RSS today fired yet another salvo on the ties between the BJP and the Government saying the position of the party president within the party should be at par with that of the Prime Minister and nobody including Atal Bihari Vajpayee was above the organisation. Sangh spokesman M G Vaidya, who had reportedly commented that the party was supreme, clarified that in his article in the RSS mouthpiece ‘Panchajanya’, he had said that both the party and the parliamentary party should be on "an equal footing and their role should be complementary to each other." Attributing the Congress downfall to the concentration of the party and parliamentary party leadership in one individual "from the days of Indira Gandhi to Sonia Gandhi", he said, "it is not a good situation for any party. When the party becomes an appendage of the Government and does not have an independent role, then the organisation deteriorates." "The position of the party president should be at par with the Prime Minister within the party," Vaidya said. He, however, said his article was not based on any RSS assessment. "We have only taken a theoretical position. We expressed our opinion and no one is bound to accept them." Vaidya told PTI that his observations were prompted by Vajpayee’s remarks about a "communication gap" between the party and Government at BJP’s national council meeting here. The RSS spokesman said Vajpayee’s clarification later that the "gap" was due to a fault on the part of the Prime Minister’s office "has enhanced the party’s prestige." Asked whether RSS considered Vajpayee above the party, he quipped, "how can one person be above the party." The RSS spokesman reiterated his organisation’s stand that there should be people within the party who will not take any post. "There should be no communication gap between the party and the parliamentary party. Both should have an independent role while maintaining a mutual dialogue," Vaidya said. He said there should also be no communication gap between the party and the Government. Asserting that RSS continued its influence over the BJP, he said the outfit has appointed its joint general secretary Madan Das Devi incharge of BJP as "our Swayamsewaks (volunteers) are working there." (PTI) |
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