Kashmir BJP welcomes release of political prisoners

SRINAGAR, Nov 13: Even as the BJP central leadership has voiced concern over the release of political prisoners in Jammu and Kashmir, the valley unit of the party today welcomed the PDP-Congress’ Government’s action and suggested the centre declare a ceasefire to help solve the Kashmir problem.

"We welcome the measures of the new Government including release of detenus as the initiatives can lead to the restoration of peace and prosperity in the state," convener of BJP’s Kashmir-unit, Fayaz Ahmad Bhat said here.

Observing that the people of the border state needed healing of their wounds, he appealed to the State and Central Governments to announce ceasefire once again.

"We appeal to the State and Central Governments to go in for ceasefire once again and militants to adopt the path of negotiations to resolve their issues," Bhat said.

Today, time has come when the wounds of the people of the state needs to be healed, he said, adding every politician should rise above political differences and welcome the steps taken by the new Government aimed at restoring peace and prosperity in the state. (PTI)

Bollywood losses since last Diwali Rs 290 crore: Survey

NEW DELHI, Nov 13: Diwali may herald a period of good fortune (Laxmi) for many, but for Bollywood, this year’s festival of lights marks the culmination of an year dominated by staggering losses to the tune of Rs 290 crore, the worst ever in the history of the world’s largest film industry, a latest survey on the industry’s financial state reveals.

Of the total losses, a majority, Rs 210 crore, were incurred in medium and big budget films like the "23 March, 1931 Shaheed", "The legend of Bhagat Singh", "Om Jai Jagadeesh (OJJ)", "Hum Kisise Kum Nahin" (HKKN), "Tum Ko Na Bhool Payenge" (TNBP), "Badhai Ho Badhai", "Sharaarat" and "Filhaal".

The only saving graces among such films were "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" (K3G), "Devdas", which proved profitable for producers as well as exhibitors.

"The 50-week period between last year’s Diwali and this year’s festival of lights has been the worst ever Diwali-to-Diwali period in the history of the film industry. So many disasters have been released during this period that the losses in all three sectors of film business - production, distribution and exhibitors - have been astronomical," says a survey by "Film information", a weekly trade magazine for the film industry.

"Furthermore, with costs rising over time, losses from flop films are higher than ever before with the result that distributors’ funds have dried up," the survey said.

Of the 132 films released during this period (excluding films released on this Diwali), only 18 resulted in a profit for their producers, the rest being loss-making ventures. For the distributors and exhibitors, only 17 films brought profits, the rest bringing them huge losses.

While the total losses for producers from 114 films were rs 140 crore, the figure of losses for the distributors and exhibitors amounted to Rs 150 crore, thus bringing the total losses incurred by all sectors of the movie business to Rs 290 crore.

As many as 45 of the 132 films were medium to big budget ventures made either with a big starcast or by known directors under big and/or established banners.

Of these, only eight- "Kabhi Khushi Kabhie Gham" (K3G), "Devdas", "Aap Mujhe Achche Lagne Lage" (Amall), "Aankhen", "Raaz", "Mere Yaar Ki Shaadi Hai" (MYKSH), "Mujhse Dosti Karoge" (MDK) and "Ek Chhoti Si Love Story" (ECSLS) - made money for their producers while the remaining 37 made massive losses of Rs 100 crore for the filmmakers. At the same time, the distributors and exhibitors lost as much as Rs 110 crore from 38 of these 45 movies while making money in only seven- K3G, Devdas, ECSLS, Awara Paagal Deewana (APD), Yeh Dil Aashiquana (YDA) and Hum Tumhare Hain Sanam (HTHS).

Of these seven films also, the last three films were not universally successful.

While the two costliest films of the period - Devdas and K3G -proved profitable for all concerned, the five next costliest films - "The legend of Bhagat Singh", "23 March, 1931 Shaheed", "Ojj", "HKKN" and "Jaani Dushman-Ek Anokhi Kahaani" turned out to be heavy losers, costing each of their producers a loss of Rs 20 crore each apart from entailing back-breaking losses for their distributors and exhibitors.

In the case of the 45 medium to big budget ventures, the net losses for the producers (ie, losses in 37 films minus profits from 8 films) was a little over Rs 45 crore, almost nine per cent of their total cost of Rs 575 crore incurred on them.

The net losses to distributors and exhibitors (losses in 38 films minus profits in seven) were Rs 70 crore, 15 per cent of the total cost of Rs 420 crore incurred by these parties.

Among the small budget films, the biggest success story was that of ECSLS, but its success was more due to controversy and less due to merits, the survey says.

The massive losses notwithstanding, all is not lost for the industry which still has a lot of sources to bank upon for financial support for the new and under-production ventures, the survey says.

A lot of new companies, which forsee a good future for the industry, have, in recent months, been making inroads into it. These companies — Pantaloons, Zee Telefilms, Venus and Tatas, to name a few — bring in money as their investment into the business.

Further, the Industrial Development Bank of India (IDBI) and a couple of other banks have recently started lending money for film productions. For instance, IDBI has funded Rs 93 crore among 16 films, four of which have already been released. (UNI)

Parliament attack case foisted on us: Accused

NEW DELHI, Nov 13: The Parliament attack case accused today charged the police with foisting a case on them without evidence in a Delhi court.

Contending that there was no evidence to establish that the accused persons entered into a conspiracy to attack the Parliament house, the alleged Jaish-e-Mohammed (JeM) militant Shuakat Hussain Guru’s counsel K G Kanaveeran told Special Judge S N Dhingra that the charge of conspiracy to wage war against the Government is without evidence.

He said it was unimaginable that a handful of people could conspire to wage war against the Government. "The case has been foisted on the accused persons," he alleged during the hearing on final arguments of the case.

The prosecution case is devoid of independent witnesses and the recoveries made by the police after the incident are unreliable, he submitted.

Besides Shaukat, his wife Navjot Sandhu alias Afsan Guru, JeM’s pointman in Delhi Mohd Afzal and S A R Geelani, suspended lecturer of a Delhi University college, are facing trial in the case.

Prosecution had alleged that the accused persons entered into conspiracy with the five Pakistani militants killed in the gun battle with security force in the December 13 attack, to destablise the country.

Police had charged that the JeM militants were in touch with Ghazi Baba, a Pakistani national and outfit’s area commander in Jammu and Kashmir before the attack.

The defence counsel questioned whether prosecution has evidence to allege that particular terrorist organisation was behind the attack. "What is the evidence placed in the court that a particular organisation was behind it (attack) and these persons were associated with it," he submitted.

He also raised doubts over the prosecution claim that Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) leaders and Ghazi Baba had met some of the accused persons.

Besides Ghazi Baba alias Abu Jehadi, JeM chief Maulana Masood Azhar and one Tariq Ahmed, have been declared as proclaimed offenders in the case.

The counsel claimed police had failed to establish that the five militants killed by the security force were Pakistani nationals. "What is the proof that those killed were Pakistani nationals," he argued.

Police had said the militants killed in the gun battle with security force in the Parliament house complex were —Mohammed alias leader, Hamza, Haider alias Tufial, Raja and Rana — all Pakistani nationals.

He contended that the charges made against the accused persons were merely combination of accusation unsupported by material evidence and the offences have political overtone.

The counsel accused the police of making a case of conspiracy without placing material before the court.

However, concluding his arguments yesterday, senior public prosecutor D P Aggarwal had said there was sufficient evidence to prove that the accused persons had entered into conspiracy with the Pakistani militants.

Prosecution had mainly relied on the confessional statements of Afzal and Shaukat made under POTA, statements of the eye witnesses and seizures made by the police after the incident.

The court had framed charges against the accused persons for the December 13 Parliament attack, charging them with attempting to kill the Vice-President, Prime Minister, Central Ministers, MPs and several other VIPs.

The accused have been charged with e unity, integrity, security and sovereignty of the country by waging war against it and committing several other offences under POTA, IPC, Explosive Substance Act and Arms Act. (PTI)

BJP should spread to villages for its survival: Naidu

TARN TARAN, Nov 13: National BJP president M Vankaiah Naidu today admitted that the party’s recent political debacles in some states and below par performances in others were due to the party being ineffective in spreading to villages and the NDA Government’s failure to monitor developmental schemes in rural areas.

Addressing the second ‘Gaon Chalo Abhiyan’ of the BJP here, he asked the party cadres to aproach villages in every nook and corner of the country and monitor whether the Central Government schemes for development, launched to benefit the poor sections of society, were implemented.

The BJP party suffered political losses in recent times as the central beneficiary schemes were not being implemented in certain states, he said while putting a question to the Congress leadership whether the Centre’s rural uplift schemes were being properly implemented in states ruled by it (the Congress).

He said under the ‘Gaon Chalo Abhiyan’, he had instructed his cadres to also address the difficulties of the poor in rural areas.

Under the ‘Abhiyan’, feedback would be given to the party units of the respective states and then to be forwarded to the party high command so that the Government could be apprised of the implementation of certain schemes and, accordingly, enabling for better implementation of its rural schemes, he added.

He said his party was committed to bridging the urban-rural gap which "the Congress created in its 47 years of rule at the centre."

The NDA Government under Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had, in last three years, framed a number of schemes for uplift of rural India and seven per cent of the GDP was being spent for this purpose, he said.

"The Congress ignored the rural segment all these years and its past achievements are nothing in front of the last three years of the Vajpayee Government. Addressing the rally in this town, where the BJP has little base, Mr Naidu said he would ask the Central Government to waive off loans of the poor in states which had been hit either by drought or floods.

He said under the ‘Abhiyan’, the BJP network would be strengthened in rural areas where the party cadres would make the masses aware of the Government schemes.

Mr Naidu, who was the Rural Development Minister before resigning from the cabinet and taking over the party’s leadership, dished out a number of rural projects that had been launched by the NDA Government. These included electrification, laying of concrete roads, strengthening the education and health services and various other developmental schemes meant for the uplift of the poor and funds for which had already been allocated to the states.

Mr Naidu said it was for the first time in the country’s history that a ‘Kisan Credit Card’ scheme had been launched by the centre and so far three crore farmers had been issued these cards and the target for the next two years was five crore farmers.

If businessmen and company executives could benefit from credit cards then why not the farmers who had for long been ignored by the Congress, he added.

He said that another scheme being launched by the Government was to provide cell phones to all postmen posted in villages. Those who cannot afford their own telephone connections could utilise the cell phone of the postman and making the payment on the spot, he added. (UNI)

India, US to establish high tech cooperation group

NEW DELHI, Nov 13: In a major step towards transfer of "dual use" technology, India and the United States today decided to establish a high technology cooperation group to expeditiously work towards developing a "new statement of principles" governing bilateral cooperation in high-tech trade.

"The two Governments have agreed to create the group, comprising senior representatives of relevant departments of both countries," said a joint statement issued after visiting US Under Secretary of State Kenneth I Juster had with the Indian leadership during his two-day stay here.

The group, it said, would expeditiously work towards developing a new statement of principles governing bilateral cooperation in high technology trade that "broadly advances our relationship in this area, including ways to increase trade in `dual use’ goods and technologies".

Asked whether India would be able to get certain dual use technology denied by the US earlier, an External Affairs Ministry spokesman said the sanctions imposed by Washington after the 1998 Pokhran nuclear tests have been lifted and the group would help streamline licensing procedures.

The group would meet early next year, he said.

Observing that this was a first such group the US has agreed to establish with any country, the spokesman said certain US items had not not been proscribed for trade with India and were only subject to licensing procedures, which, the group would look into.

The statement said the US delegation "reviewed with its Indian counterpart the current state of bilateral high technology trade, including trade in US-controlled `dual use’ items".

It said the two sides recognised there should be "improvement" in the area and pledged to "think boldly and creatively about steps that could be taken to further enhance high technology trade in a way that reflects their countries’ new relationship and common strategic interests".

During his stay, juster met External Affairs Minister Yashwant Sinha, Defence Minister George Fernandes, National Security Adviser Brajesh Mishra, Minister of State for Space Vasudhara Raje and Foreign Secretary Kanwal Sibal.

The statement said the two delegations reaffirmed their shared commitment to and common interest in preventing proliferation of strategic good and technology. They also decided to further enhance their export control cooperation.

The Indian side welcomed the US offer to host the group’s first meeting in Washington early next year.

The statement said the two countries agreed to take concrete steps to pursue the commitment between Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and US President George Bush during their November 2001 meeting to stimulate bilateral high technology commerce twoards realising their goal of transforming Indo-US relations.

Later this month, US Treasury Secretary Paul O’Neill will visit India to carry forward the new momentum in economic dialogue. (PTI)

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