HC raps Bihar Govt for lapses

PATNA, Nov 24: Reprimanding the Bihar Government officials for their lackadaisical attitude in complying with the court’s orders, Patna High Court gave them strict directions for protecting prople’s constitutional rights and providing civic amenities according to law.

In the Bihar State Housing Board’s allottees’ issue, the court last week warned the Chief Secretary S N Biswas and the Director General of Police R R Prasad to award "full jail term" sentence for their failure to implement its directives.

At the same time the court expressed grave concern over lapse of development grants due to non utilisation of funds and directed the State Government to transfer real powers to the elected representatives of the local bodies.

While hearing the matter of evicting encroachers from the Housing Board’s land in Digha of the State capital, Justice R S Garg observed that the governance in the State had collapsed and the administration’s writ did not run even in Patna.

The judge also deplored the helplessness of the Chief Secretary and Director General of Police in carrying out the court’s orders. In another Public Interest Petition seeking direction to transfer development funds to the local bodies, Chief Justice Ravi S Dhavan and Justice R N Prasad ordered the Bihar Government on last Friday to provide facilities in order to make the district planning committees functional in drafting development plans for urban and rural areas.

In another development, Justice P K Sinha of Patna High Court, last Thursday issued showcause notices to Chief Minister Rabri Devi and her husband RJD chief Laloo Prasad Yadav after hearing a petition filed by Central Bureau of Investigation in connection with disproportionate asset case.

At the same time on November 18, a division bench of Justice R N Prasad and Justice S K Singh observed that the Government seemed to have stopped functioning, while hearing a case pertaining to lack of facilities in schools. The judges said that inspite of the Government’s categorical assurance before the court to provide necessary infrastructure in the Government schools, nothing was done to improve the condition, while a Central grant of Rs 100 crore had lapsed in the last decade owing to non-utilisation of the fund. (UNI)

Sayeed Mirza on a mission to raise
common people’s voice

BHUBANESWAR , Nov 24: In far off Ladakh a Kargil war widow says she hates war as it is not going to solve the problem.

In Gujarat, a youth repents participating in the communal riots that claimed hundreds of innocent lives.

And in Orissa a widow, victim of the 1999 super cyclone, has adopted three orphans, knowing very well that she cannot fend for them even a single meal in a day.

These are the few examples of the existence of humanism and pluralism that survive and flourish in India, and the credit goes to the ordinary people whose voices are hardly taken into account. They are the voices of hope for film-maker Sayeed Mirza too.

In the moments of national crisis and darkness, they are the ones who bring hope, says noted film maker Sayeed Mirza here. He is presently on a three-month-long journey across the length and breadth of the country for communal harmony and peace.

The purpose of his journey is to record on video tape the voices of hundreds of ordinary Indians and their vision for India.

Most of the stories, the noted film-maker encountered during his extensive tour to several parts of the country, are centred around the communal harmony, human spirit in the face of odds and the coping mechanism of the poor in the wake of the onslaught both by nature and polity. Mr Mirza, who arrived here after covering different places in West Bengal and northeastern States, had visited Ersama, the worst hit pockets of coastal Orissa in the 1999 super cyclone, to capture the images of the cyclone victims.

During an interaction with mediapersons yesterday, the maker of films like "Salim Langre Pe Mat Ro" and teleserial "Nukkad" recounted his tiring but extremely rewarding journey of meeting the common people whose voices are rarely heard.

"You talk to anybody struggling hard to be a real human being and he will say he wants peace and harmony," Mirza says, adding that these are the people who are the most fragile and marginalised and yet trying to maintain human dignity.

The film-maker says he got the humble experience of witnessing the people living in plight, and yet in dignity.

He says for the ordinary Indians, the politicians do not seem to represent a positive force. "So also the bureaucracy. But is anybody listening to them," Mr Mirza quips.

What we need is how to network them so that these section of the society could be brought under one platform to to raise their voices, the film-maker says. The noted film maker says he is contemplating to make a documentary on these common people whom he had met and listened on their vision of India. It might be titled "Aur Yehi Hai Hindustani".

"It is important that we hear the voices of the poor and ordinary people and heed to their wisdom and innate conviction of humanism and pluralism," he says.

To a question, Mr Mirza says he hardly came across even less then two per cent of people who want to propogate fundamentalism and communalism.

On the riots in Gujarat, the film maker says now the people suggested that if it were not Godhra, it would have happened anywhere else.

"I am sure those who participated in the communal frenzy and had taken even one life, will never remain in peace throughout their life, provided they are not a hardened or professional criminal," Mr Mirza says.

There is hatred and anger among the people but there is also faith and trust as most people want peace. He felt that the communal forces in the country would have a temporary upperhand as there has been an erosion of peoples’ right world over.

He regretted that there is no accountability for taking so many human lives. Even the delivery system is totally lacking, yet the majority of the people have not given up their hope.

Mr Mirza’s journey started from Ahmedabad on September 16 last with words of healing with the hope to take the lives and faces of the ordinary people to the rest of the country.

His team currently in Orissa would visit Bolangir to capture the voices of the drought affected migrants before leaving for Chhattisgarh from where the team would proceed to Bhopal and finally to Maharashtra after covering the southern States. (UNI)

Indiscipline has marred BJP’s image: Venkaiah

NEW DELHI, Nov 24: Bharatiya Janata Party president M Venkaiah Naidu has confessed that indiscipline and other weaknesses had crept into the party periphery and had marred its image of being a ‘party with a difference.’

He said weaknesses like "craze for power" was not only confined to new entrants but senior and loyal BJP workers too had fallen prey. "Compared to others, we still may be a party with a difference. But the party will have to address the problem at earliest to strengthen it."

In an interview to UNI on the eve of Gujarat Assembly elections, Mr Naidu however exuded confidence that this evil would be effectively checked and the party’s image refurbished. Strong action like expelling eight MLAs from Karnataka and proposed action against ten legislators in Uttar Pradesh, even at the cost of narrowing the majority margin, would help bring the party back on tracks. "We want to revert back to earlier situation where the leaders and cadre reflect the party’s ideology in their "thinking, action and conduct."

Tracing the indiscipline to the "compromises" made by the party during the formation of BJP-led coalition in Uttar Pradesh under Mr Kalyan Singh, he said this had resulted in dis-satisfaction among senior and loyal workers. There was heartburn among the partymen when junior leaders from other parties walked away with Cabinet positions while senior BJP leaders were either not accommodated or were offered junior positions. "I don’t blame Kalyan Singh for this as it was a collective decision to form the 90 member-strong Cabinet," he added.

The party leader attributed the same cause for the UP MLAs forming a separate group recently. He added that the party was taking such incidents of indiscipline very seriously and addressing it. "The party never denied access to its workers to air their genuine grievances within the party, but could not allow them to cross the ‘Lakshman Rekha’ and damage the party’s image," he said.

Mr Naidu felt that indiscipline today appeared more pronounced because of the advent of electronic media. This was not the case when the Congress was in power, although indiscipline was widespread and corruption rampant in that party’ he said.

The BJP had shown to the country that it was capable of cobbling a coalition and not only running it successfully, but also providing a better Government. Asked how the BJP hoped to achieve the target of 300 Lok Sabha seats without marginalizing its allies, Mr Naidu said the alliances were struck at the time of elections. "Until the elections everyone was free to work hard to expand the base. No party can object to other party working hard to expand its base. None of our friends (allies) had objected to the BJP setting the target," he contended.

He said BJP as the principal party in NDA had the responsibility of defending the Government effectively, although it had to make "small compromises" and at times shy away from immediate reaction because the party did not want to hurt the sentiments of its partners.

Mr Naidu said the BJP was fully preparing its cadre to communicate the message of successes of the NDA at the Centre and State Governments and expose the failings of the opposition party Governments.

The Congress may be ruling in 15 States, but this may turn a disadvantage for them in the Lok Sabha elections because people would critically analyse the work. There were reports of starvation, migration and communal tensions in Congress-ruled States of Chhattisgarh, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Madhya Pradesh. In Kerala, the Karunakaran faction was demanding legislature party meetings highlighting the intra-party conflict, the senior leader said.

Mr Naidu paid a left-handed compliment to the Congress for its political management despite "very poor" performance in the States under its rule. "Their political management is better, which is why they have survived so far," he remarked.

On the BJP’s relationship with Sangh Parivar organisations, Mr nNidu said much of the problems was because of the "wrong presentation" of facts by the "English media." The top leadership of the Parivar have met and decided to have greater interaction and understanding. It was decided not to air grievances in public in the larger national interests. "What hurts are the statements doubting the intentions of the other side," he said.

About the Vishwa Hindu Parishad taking strong exception to Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani’s statement in the Parliament, Mr Naidu blamed the media projection again. Mr Advani had never talked of ‘Hindu Rashtra,’ making it clear that the Government was against a theocratic State. The media carried stories that the BJP was against a ‘Hindu Rashtra,’ and hence the VHP’s reacton.

Asked if the VHP should have reacted cautiously, Mr Naidu said he could only react on behalf of his party. The VHP was a different organisation and there was also scope for differences on issues. "We are a political party running a Government, we are not confined to any single religion. We have a different agenda, they have theirs," he said. (UNI)

Scientists to ‘enter’ ionosphere to forecast quakes in India

NEW DELHI, Nov 24: The clue to predicting earthquakes in India may just be lying in its atmosphere.

An Indian scientist and his French collaborator are setting out to study the effects on the earth’s atmosphere over India before tremors to verify if they hold the key to forecasting strong earthquakes.

Indian atmospheric scientist Ashok Kumar Gwal and physicist Michel Parrot will begin next month their India specific research into perturbations in ionosphere, one of the many layers of the atmosphere, using satellite and ground based observations.

A French scientific satellite christened Demeter, which is scheduled for launch next year, will provide data to the research.

"One of the most seismically active regions of the earth is the India’s area where tens of earthquakes, including several strong ones, occur every year. Its territory can naturally be used for observing changes in the atmosphere before earthquakes," Dr Gwal, who heads the Electronics department at the Barkatullah University in Bhopal, told UNI.

Dr Gwal’s collaborator, Professor Parrot, who works with the laboratory of physics and environmental chemistry (LCPE) in Orleans, is a widely respected scientist in earthquake prediction research.

Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) will also pitch in by giving data from its ground-based observatories which eye the earth’s atmosphere at different altitudes.

The three-year research is supported by the New Delhi-based Indo-French centre for promotion of advanced research, a body set up by the two Governments 15 years ago.

The research into electro-magnetic emission from the focal area of an impending earthquake has been going in many parts of the world including Japan, Iran and California. Dr Gwal’s research will be the first to be undertaken in India.

Demeter, owned by the French space agency, will have a payload of several censors linked to a data processing unit with a large memory to record perturbations in ionosphere. The inspiration for the research came from Japanese scientist Masashi Hayakawa, a world renowned researcher of seismo-electromagnetics, whom Dr Gwal met during an international conference four years ago.

Researchers recorded increased electrical discharge in the air over a period of hours before a severe earthquake in the Carpathian mountain in March 1977 which was also accompanied by numerous electrical breakdowns in computer and telegraphic equipment, along with an atmospheric glow near the epicentre.

Researchers have also found that a fault with the earth’s moisture contents acts as a conductor for electro-magnetic waves originating from the rock and are then radiated into the space.

Demeter (detection of electro-magnetic emissions transmitted from earthquake regions), the first scientific microsatellite of the french space agency, is specially designed to search electro-magnetic waves linked to seismic activity over quake-prone districts.

Its telemetry will be received in toulouse, France. The ground-based observation comes under the crabex (coherent radio beacon experiment) programme of ISRO’s Thiruvananthapuram-based Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre.

"One of the main goals of the research is to perform extensive coordinated ground-satellite study of phenomenon possibly taking place before earthquakes in the ionospehre over India to verify the existence of ionospheric precursors of earthquakes and to identify their types and features keeping in mind a feasibility of using them to forecast strong earthquakes," said Dr Gwal, who was a member of the Indian expedition team to antartic in 1997 to study very low frequency. (UNI)

Jatha of 48 pilgrims returns after Pak pilgrimage
of Sikh shrines

WAGAH, Nov 24: Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) senior vice president Alwinderpal Singh Pakoke today expressed his unhappiness over the upkeep of Sikh historical shrines and traditions in the Gurdwaras in Pakistan.

Mr Pakoke expressed these views while talking to mediapersons at this road joint checkpost after returning home after a week’s pilgrimage to the Sikh historical Gurdwaras of Nankana Sahib, Panja Sahib and Dera Sahib in Lahore. The Jatha of 48 pilgrims had gone on the occasion of the birth anniversay celebrations of Guru Nanak Devji which was held at Nankana Sahib, the birth place of the first Sikh Guru, on November 19.

Those who went with the Jatha including SGPC ‘Karsewa’ members expressed unhappiness at the manner in which the Jatha from India was treated by the Pakistan Sikh Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (PSGPC). They claimed that their lodging arrangements were not being proper and even ‘Maryada’(Sikh tenents) were not observed at the Gurdwaras they visited. They also complained that the ‘langar’ (community kitchen) facilities were lacking but did not elaborate on the grounds that ‘Guru-ka-Langar’ was a religious matter. Those in the Jatha while preferring anonymity said that at none of the shrines did they come across Pakistan based Sikh militants. In the past these militants often intervened in the religious matters during the visit of Indian Sikh jathas and used the occasion to give anti-India speeches and distribute inflamatory written material.

The only pro-Khalistani prominent person who was allowed to address the gathering on the occasion of the birthday of Guru Nanak at Nankana Sahib was the US-based Ganga Singh Dhillon and he mentioned that Sikhs in India should continue their struggle for a separate State, the pilgrims claimed.

Mr Pakoke on his part said that the PSGPC maintenance only meant whitewashing of the holy Sikh historical shrines and not beyond that. The most important issue was ‘Maryada’ which was not being observed in these shrines, he claimed on the basis of information collected by him from Sikhs staying in Pakistan.

The SGPC presented a memorandum to the Punjab (Pakistan) Governor demanding that the management of the Sikh historical sites in and around Lahore should be handed over to the SGPC and that the agricultural land donated by Maharaja Ranjit Singh during his tenure to Gurdwara Nanakana Sahib should be attached to the Gurdwara. Presently this land is under the control of the Pakistan Akaf Board which is akin to the Waqf board here.

Meanwhile, the general public in Pakistan was happy that a Jatha from India was visiting the holy Sikh shrines and expressed hope that this trend would continue. The SGPC banned its Jathas from going to Pakistan in 1999 when the then SGPC chief Bibi Jagir Kaur took exception to the formation of the PSGPC on grounds that under the Sikh Gurdwara Act it was the pregorative of the SGPC to manage the shrines across the border.

However, thereafter, the Jathas kept visiting Pakistan in their individual capacity through the rail route. This was for the first time that a jatha of Indian pilgrims went through this road check-post, which had banned the entry of both Pakistan and Indian nationals.1992.

The PSGPC convenor Sham Singh came to see off the Jatha till the Pakistan side of the checkpost and his attitude as per the Jatha members was not very cooperative during their pilgrimage. (UNI)

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