Excelsior... Nation

CPI convenes all party meeting ahead of Amarinder’s meet

CHANDIGARH, Sept 30: The CPI, an ally of the Congress in Punjab, has convened an all party meeting here on the issue of Minimum Support Price (MSP) for paddy even as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh has announced such a meeting for October two.

"The meeting convened by the CPI would be attended by representatives of Akali Dal (Badal), the Congress, CPI(M), NCP, Samta Party, BJP, Sarv Hind Shiromani Akali Dal (SHSAD), and Lok Bhalai Party," Punjab CPI secretary Dr Joginder Dayal told a press conference here today.

Alleging that both the Centre and the Punjab Government are "mute spectators" towards the plight of farmers, Dayal deplored Chief Miniser Amarinder Singh’s act of staging a demonstration before the residence of Prime Minister.

"The Congress in Punjab had already withdrawn it’s rail roko (block train traffic) campaign after the Centre announced the MSP for paddy. This means that the Congress is in agreement with the MSP for paddy," he said.

He said that the CPI had not invited any Kisan organisation to attend the meeting as "most of such bodies are aligned politically with one or the other party ."

On being asked whether the CPI would attend the all party meeting convened by Amarinder on paddy issue for October two, Dayal said that "any decision on this would only be taken after consultation with other state leadership.

Dayal said that Amarinder should now cancel the meeting he had convened on October two.

"The Punjab Government should present the case of it’s farmers of it’s own," he said.

He said that after the tomorrow’s meeting heads of political parties would meet the Prime Minister and the Union Agriculture Minister on paddy issue.

He described as "baseless" the allegations against Akali Dal chief Parkash Singh Badal that the latter was pressurising the Centre from refraining to hike in the MSP for paddy."No leader, irrespective of his political compulsions, can stoop to such a low level," he said.

He, however, accused badal of failing to play a significant role on the paddy issue despite his party being an important constituent of the NDA at the Centre.

Dayal asked Amarinder Singh to clarify his stand on the World Trade Organisation (WTO)."Is the Chief Minister prepared to openly oppose the WTO," questioned the CPI leader.

He said that the recommendations under the WTO are "dangerous and serious" for the developing countries like India. (PTI)

Exquisite dances from Uttaranchal, Goa Andhra enliven ITTM

NEW DELHI, Sept 30: Kumaon’s famous "Chhapeli" dance, Goa’s folk tunes and Rajasthan’s haunting "Kesariya Balam, Padharo Mahare Des" enraptured the varied audience at the colourful "cultural evening" that marked the conclusion of the three-day International Travel and Tourism Mart (ITTM).

Dances from Andhra Pradesh and Pondicherry also featured at the vibrant cultural event last evening where tour operators, travel writers, airlines personnel and hoteliers from several countries and all over India gathered for the cultural presentation made by the four partner States of Uttaranchal, Goa, Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh.

Union Tourism Minister Jagmohan and Uttaranchal Chief Minister N D Tiwari were among the dignitaries who graced the function. Four hundred buyers and sellers from 40 countries participated in the multi-faceted event where awards to mark the ‘international year of the mountains 2002’ were given by Mr Jagmohan and Mr Tiwari.

Tiger conservation awards 2001 were given to the Pacific Asia Travel Association (PATA) and the World Wide Fund for Nature-India to individuals and organisations.

Individual award went to eleven people for dedicated service.

Bipin Chandra Pandey, Deputy Ranger, Corbett Tiger Reserve, was honoured posthumously with a special award (of Rs 50,000). He was shot dead by poachers in August last year.

The WWF-India and PATA Institutional Award was bagged by the Bhadra Tiger Reserve in Karnataka for an "extremely high standard of management, planning and execution" displayed by its staff.

For the nascent state of Uttaranchal, it was an occasion of great pride to be sharing an international forum with established tourist destinations like Goa and Rajasthan. Having bagged three awards during the ittm, the hill State and its folk dances were the centre of attraction for most participants, especially foreigners. (UNI)

Gujarat chalks out plan to empower women, focus on girls’ education

AHMEDABAD, Sept 30: The Gujarat Government has chalked out an ambitious action plan to to empower women with special focus on girls’ education, besides giving impetus to the ongoing welfare programmes during Fy 02-03 which the State has declared as the ‘Year of girl child’.

According to a theme paper prepared by the Government, the objective behind giving special thrust to the allround development of women was not just to attain gender equality but ensure balanced growth of the society as well, according to an official release yesterday.

Gujarat was one among first states to create a separate full-fledged department for women and child welfare this year.

The country’s first ‘gender data bank’ too has been established in the State with a view to providing information regarding women at one place. The recently constituted Gujarat Women’s Commission is set to start functioning shortly, the release said.

In a novel gesture, Chief Minister Narendra Modi auctioned the gifts he had received during the last one year and donated the proceeds to the state exchequer for the cause of girls’ education.

The amount thus raised has been earmarked for the first three rank holders among girls in the SSC Board Examination from each of the 100 talukas with least literacy rate.

Under the, Chief Minister’s girls education scheme, each of the 300 meritorious girl student would get Rs 5,100 to partially meet the cost of their higher education.

Gujarat was on its way to achieve parity between girl and boy students in formal schools. The gap has closed from 693:1000 in 1996-97 to 780:1000 in 2000-01. As per 2001 census, the literacy rate among women was 54 per cent as against 80 per cent among men.

The Government has also undertaken several other schemes over the last four years such as ‘learning without burden’ for standard i-iv, appointing "Vidya Sahayaks" (educational assistants), staging children’s fairs, seminars and workshops, the release said. In 1996, the Government launched the second phase of the District Primary Education Programme (DPED) in Banaskantha, Panchmahals and Dangs districts, where literacy among women was the lowest in the State. The programme, aimed at attaining 100 per cent enrollment in primary schools, has shown encouraging results over the last six years.

"Vidya Laxmi Yojna" has been introduced in 1,000 villages in four districts, where the literacy among women is below 25 per cent. Under the scheme, girl students admitted to standard i would get a Barmada bond of Rs 1,000 each and the amount will be handed over to students only after they complete standard vii. The Government has earmarked Rs 10 crore to benefit one lakh students.

The Education Department has undertaken a ‘Back to School’ programme to reduce the dropout rate, particularly among girl students. In all, 17,799 children, including 9,396 girls, have been covered under this scheme till January this year.

As a result, the dropout rate among girl students in standard i-vii has been brought down from 50.2 per cent in 1997-98 to 36.9 per cent in 2001-02, and in standard i-iv from 39 per cent to 20.8 per cent. Subsequently, enrollment of girls in primary schools has increased from 31.72 lakhs to 36.47 lakhs over the same period.

Also, is a yearly scholarship for every girl student belonging to the most backward communities namely Kolgha, Kolcha, Kotwalia, Dubla, Padhar, Halpati and Talaviya has been set up.

It is Rs 500 for those pursuing studies in standard i-vii and Rs 240 for standard viii-x. A girl child born in a family living below the poverty line is paid Rs 500, besides a scholarship of Rs 300 gradually increasing to Rs 1,000 per year till her education in standard i-x.

Of the 60,185 educational assistants employed during the last four years, 33,600 were women, besides 64,000 women working in 32,000 ‘Anganwadis’ in the State.

In all, 1.28 lakh women comprising widows, deserted and destitute women in the State get Rs 500, plus Rs 80 per child up to two children, the release said.

About 3,000 women affected in the riots have been provided training at a cost of Rs 1.37 crore. Similarly, 20,000 women affected in the last year’s earthquake were being rehabilitated at a cost of Rs 35 crore.

Nearly 30,000 out of 80,000 Self Help Groups (SHGs) in villages are run by women. There are 1,443 SHGs for urban poor women and 1,300 SHGs for other economic activities.

The women’s economic development corporation provides loans of up to Rs 25,000 to women living below poverty line for starting their own enterprise from home. It provides a stipend of Rs 250 during training for those belonging to the scheduled castes and an assistance of Rs 1,500 for buying sewing machines.

Agenda for women’s empowerment includes amendment of acts related to women, such as Hindu succession, special marriage, Hindu marriage, Hindu adoption and maintenance, Hindu minorities and Guardians Act. (UNI)

US officials trace Al Qaeda operative to Iraq

NEW YORK, Sept 30: As the Bush administration strains itself to find "solid" links between Al Qaeda and Saddam Hussein’s regime ahead of a proposed strike against Iraq, a media report says intelligence officials may have traced a key Osama bin Laden operative to Iraq.

The report being published in the upcoming issue of American news magazine Newsweek, quoted confidential US intelligence reports saying that a 37-year old Iraqi national Ahmad Hikmat Shakir, who was being held in Jordan, is a suspected terrorist who was in direct contact with some of the major operatives in the September 11 plot.

And some US intelligence officials believe Shakir is now back home in Iraq, the magazine said.

According to it, weeks after the September 11 attacks, "when a 37-year-old Iraqi national named Ahmad Hikmat Shakir stepped off a plane in Amman’s Queen Alia Airport on Oct 21, Jordanian officials soon became suspicious. A quick review of his passport showed Shakir had recently traveled to Pakistan, Yemen and Malaysia - key stops on the terror trail. FBI agents were alerted.

"Within days they concluded that Shakir was no incidental traveller: he was, according to confidential US intelligence reports, a suspected terrorist who had been in direct contact with some of the major operatives in the September 11 plot."

But three months after he was detained, Shakir was "inexplicably" released by Jordanian authorities - and he promptly vanished, the magazine said.

The Bush administration made no public comments about Shakir and officials acknowledged they knew little about his current activities, the magazine said observing that Shakir’s case may be the most tantalizing evidence yet to support the administration’s contention that there are ties between Al Qaeda and Iraq.

But newsweek also reported that the relationship between Baghdad and Al Qaeda is still "far from clear, and even top administration officials acknowledge there are large gaps in what they actually know."

"It’s like a jigsaw puzzle," one senior US official familiar with the intelligence reports on Iraq said.

Some of the new information on Iraq’s terror links, sources told the magazine, came from two high-level Qaeda detainees - Abu Zubaydah, bin Laden’s former operations chief, and his onetime deputy Ibn Al-Shaykh Al-Libi, a fierce Libyan operative who was once the military commander of Al Qaeda’s Khalden training camp in eastern Afghanistan.

Under interrogation, both men have separately described efforts by Qaeda operatives to seek out Iraqi assistance in assembling chemical weapons, the magazine said.

But how much help the Iraqis actually provided is "really very fuzzy," one "knowledgeable" source told newsweek. (PTI)

Tehri dam oustees still awaiting rehabilitation

DEHRA DUN, Sept 30: Even after two decades, Tehri dam oustees are still waiting for their rehabilitation problems to be addressed.

The then Uttar Pradesh Government was assigned the responsibility of working out a rehabilitaion project for the dam oustees with the assistance of the Central Government.

However, the then UP Government did not champion the cause of the hill people as expected, said Amit Ranavat, a dam oustee.

"In keeping with the legacy of long-term neglect of this region, it is not surprising that a separate hill State was created," he said.

The first interim Government of Uttaranchal under the leadership of Nityanand Swami did prioritise rehabilitation of dam oustees, but could not implement policies due to official hinderances.

The problem still persisted after the formation of the first elected Government in the hill State under the leadership of Narayan Dutt Tiwari.

According to Satish Ramola, a resident of Tehri, the State Government should pressurise the Centre to implement recommendations of the Hanumantha Rao Committee (HRC) in toto.

The HRC recommendations were accepted by the Central Government in 1997.

However, during the implementation process, many recommendations have been severly toned down or totally ignored.

According to the recommendations, all children of the dam oustees who had attained the age of 18 years as on July 18, 1990 should get an exgratia grant of Rs 75,000. But the rehablitation policy of the State has reduced the grant to Rs 33,000 and changed the age to 21 years.

The HRC recommendations also mentioned an ex gratia grant of Rs 150,000 to the married sons of the oustees, but this clause is not mentioned in the State policy. Uttaranchal Industry Minister Kishore Upadhyay has been organising ‘Mahapanchayats’ for the Tehri dam oustees since the past two months to pressurise the Centre to work out a proper rehablitation package for the dam oustees.

"One of our main aims is also to make the oustees aware about the HRC recommendations and urge the Central Government to implement them," the minister said.

The Uttaranchal Congress Committee has decided to organise a dharna in Delhi for the immediate rehablitation of the dam oustees, he said.

Uttaranchal Pradesh Congress president Harish Rawat and senior Congress leader Vijay Bahuguna would be participating in the protest.

Implementation of HRC recommendations would be one of the major issues raised in Delhi, the minister added. (UNI)

PM’s week-long visit to Cyprus, Denmark and Britain from Oct 7

NEW DELHI, Sept 30: Reflecting India’s interest in giving a fresh impetus to its relations with Europe, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee will undertake a week-long trip to Cyprus, Denmark and Britain from October seven during which he will also attend the India-EU summit in Copenhagen.

Vajpayee will first embark for Nicosia on a two-day bilateral visit to Cyprus where he will meet President Glafcos Cleridges on a wide range of issues covering bilateral, regional, international issues of regional concern.

India’s ties with Cyprus have been characterised by their traditional warmth and closeness, officials said.

The Prime Minister’s visit slated in September last year was put off due to the September 11 terror strikes in the US.

Cyprus has shared India’s concerns on terrorism and supports its candidature for a permanent seat in an enlarged UN Security Council.

During his stay, the Prime Minister will meet the President of the House of Representatives Demetris Christofias, viewed as number two in the Government and the Mayor of Nicosia Miachael Zampelas.

Two agreements, one on public health and the other on culture, are likely to be signed during the visit.

From Nicosia, the Prime Minister will fly to Copenhagen for the India-EU summit.

Making significant strides during the summit held here last November, the two sides had issued a joint communique and a joint declaration on terrorism besides outlining a joint it vision statement and an agreement on science and technology and a financing agreement for universal elementary education.

The two sides are expected to review the progress in these fronts as also chart out new areas of enhanced cooperation when they meet in Copenhagen, the officials said.

Steps to step up economic cooperation are also likely to be under special focus. The EU is India’s largest trading partner accounting for 26 per cent of Indian exports and 25 per cent of its imports and a major source of direct foreign investments.

The India-EU cooperation on international terrorism was institutionalised as envisaged in the Lisbon declaration signed during the first summit in June, 2000, through the establishment of a joint working group on terrorism.

The fight against terrorism, including cross-border terrorism, is expected to figure prominently in the talks Vajpayee will have here with his British counterpart Tony Blair on October 12 in London.

This will be the fourth meeting between the two leaders during the last one year, a significant pointer to the growing relations between the two countries.

Blair first met Vajpayee in New Delhi in October last year. They again met the next month when Vajpayee visited London. Blair also paid an official visit to India in January. (PTI)

SC comes to PM’s aid in Cauvery controversy

NEW DELHI, Sep 30: Coming to the aid of the Prime Minister, the Supreme Court today asked Tamil Nadu to extend all cooperation to the Cauvery Monitoring Committee (CMC) in carrying out his directive to assess the ground situation regarding availability of water and crops in the two states.

Expressing concern over the non-implementation of the Prime Minister’s directive, a three-judge bench comprising Chief Justice B N Kirpal, Justice K G Balakrishnan and Justice Arijit Pasayat directed CMC to complete the assessment and submit a report to him before October 3.

The bench directed a copy of the report to be placed before the court on October 4, when the matter would be taken up for further consideration.

On the contempt petition filed by Tamil Nadu against Karnataka Chief Minister S M Krishna, Water Resources Minister H K Patil and Chief Secretary of the state, the bench asked them to file their responses within three days. The bench had earlier issued show cause notices to the respondents.

Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee had directed the CMC to visit the reservoirs in Karnataka and Tamil Nadu and the Cauvery basin area and assess the ground situation.

Appearing for the CMC, Additional Solicitor General Mukul Rohtagi submitted that due to non-cooperation of Tamil Nadu, the team could not visit the areas in the state and demanded police protection.

Appearing for Tamil Nadu, senior advocate K K Venugopal contended that directives of both the Supreme Court and the Cauvery River Authority (CRA) headed by the Prime Minister for daily release of 1.25 tmcft and 0.8 tmcft water respectively was violated by Karnataka amounting to contempt of court.

Karnataka counsel, senior advocate Anil Divan, contended that Tamil Nadu was the sole beneficiary of the return monsoon and that any release of water would harm the standing crops in the state.

Terming this argument as delaying tactics, Venugopal submitted that this way they want to avoid the contempt proceedings and render it infructuous.

Earlier, when Rohtagi contended that the team had visited Karnataka but could not do so in regard to Tamil Nadu due to lack of cooperation, the bench asked him to point out the kind of cooperation they wanted from the state.

The Additional Solicitor General, after a lot of hesitation, said that the matter was sensitive to both the states and that the team needed police protection to visit Tamil Nadu.

The bench then said "we direct the Cauvery Monitoring Committee to complete its task of inspection of the Mettur dam as well as assess the ground situation in the Cauvery basin as directed by the Prime Minister and submit a report to him on or before October 3. A copy of the report be filed before the court on October 4."(PTI)