Committee to monitor
clinical use of blood

CHANDIGARH, Oct 3: The Haryana State Blood Transmission Council has decided to constitute hospital transfusion committee in all the districts of the State with a view to monitor clinical use of blood......more

Delhi, Kerla,
Rajasthan HC Chief
Justices sworn in

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: Chief Justices of the high courts of Delhi, Rajasthan and Kerala - Justice S B.....more

Femina Miss India
World-2002 launches
new NIFD centre

GORAKHPUR, Oct 3: Femina Miss India World-2002 Shruti Sharma inaugurated a centre of the.....more

Forged intelligence document case
Cong MLA
Sobhana arrested

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 3: Congress MLA Sobhana George was today arrested by Crime.....more

PM directs Nitish
Kumar to hold probe
into Lucknow stampede

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today directed Railway Minister Nitish......more

‘Pak threatened to
use nukes to
internationalise Kashmir’

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: During the recent Indo-Pak stand-off, Islamabad threatened to use nukes to .......more

‘Sabotage’ caused
Rajdhani train
mishap at Rafiganj

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: An official probe into the Rajdhani train mishap in Rafiganj in Bihar last month .....more

Govt inducting
bureaucrats with
particular ideology: Singh

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: Former Prime Minister V P Singh today alleged that the NDA......more

Abu Salem faces NBWs in 6 Delhi Police cases....

Committee to monitor clinical use of blood

CHANDIGARH, Oct 3: The Haryana State Blood Transmission Council has decided to constitute hospital transfusion committee in all the districts of the State with a view to monitor clinical use of blood.

The Minister of State for Health, Dr M L Ranga said here today that the objective of constituting these committees was to provide safe blood to the people.

"These committees have been constituted under the chairmanship of district civil surgeons who will guide and audit clinical use of blood", he said according to an official release here.

Dr Ranga said that the recently approved national blood policy would be effectively implemented in the State. As per the policy, a committee was constituted to recommend minimum requirements for nursing homes and voluntary organisations to apply for new private blood banks.

The blood storage centres would be opened at first referral units to achieve the objective of providing safe blood to the needy at far off places, he said.

He said that the motivation programme for voluntary blood donation would also be taken up in a big way in the state.

"The State Government is very vigilant about the changing disease pattern and is laying great emphasis to the area concerned with AIDS. As many as 35 licensed blood banks had been set up in the State which cover all the districts of the State", Dr Ranga added. (PTI)

Delhi, Kerla, Rajasthan HC Chief Justices sworn in

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: Chief Justices of the high courts of Delhi, Rajasthan and Kerala - Justice S B Sinha, Justice Arun Kumar and Justice Srikrishna - were today sworn in at judges office in Supreme Court.

With this Supreme Court attained its full sactioned strength of 26 judges.

The three new judges were administered oath of office by Chief Justice of India, B N Kirpal in his court room at a simple ceremony which was attended by Attorney General Soli Sorabjee, Additional Solicitors General, senior advocates and other lawyers.

Justice Sinha, born in 1944, started his practice in Dhanbad, Bihar, in March 1968. He was elevated to Patna High Court as a judge in March 1987.

Justice Kumar, born in 1941, first taught Law at Delhi University and then started practice in 1967. He was appointed as a judge in Delhi High Court in 1990.

Justice Srikrishna, born in 1941, enrolled himself as an advocate in Bombay High Court in December 1962 and was appointed as a judge of the high court in 1990. His name sought into prominence because of his report on Mumbai roits indicting the then Shiv Sena Government. (PTI)

Femina Miss India World-2002 launches new NIFD centre

GORAKHPUR, Oct 3: Femina Miss India World-2002 Shruti Sharma inaugurated a centre of the National Institute of Fashion Design (NIFD) here.

Ms Sharma, speaking at the inaugural function, said yesterday this centre would provide quality education in the field of fashion design, textile design and interior design with computers as an integral part of the curriculum.

Earlier, talking to mediapersons, the beauty queen said Indian beauty had been acclaimed and widely recognised all over the world especially after the Miss World and Miss Universe contests were won by us. "Our girls are mentally and physically fit to defeat their sisters from the rest of the world," she said.

She criticised the Pakistan Government for barring Miss Pakistan Neelam Noorani from participating in the Miss International contest at Tokyo.

"It would take years for positive changes to occur in the male-dominated society of Pakistan", she added.

To a specific query, Ms Sharma said she had no immediate plans to join movies. (UNI)

Forged intelligence document case
Cong MLA Sobhana arrested

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, Oct 3: Congress MLA Sobhana George was today arrested by Crime Branch sleuths in connection with the ‘forged intelligence document case’, police sources said.

Armed with a non-bailable warrant, the Crime Branch team led by Superintendent Natarajan arrested Sobhana from her residence in the city.

Sobhana was named the third accused by the Crime Branch in its investigation report filed in the court Sunday last, as she was suspected to have played a role in the conspiracy behind alleged forgery of ‘intelligence report’ linking Kerala Tourism Minister K V Thomas with a hawala racket.

The arrest was made in the presence of executive magistrate and Thiruvananthapuram Tahasildar M Sasikumar at 1.50 pm.

After a brief interrogation, she was taken to the Chief Judicial Magistrate’s court here.

The case, rocking the State for quite some time, related to telecast of a story by Surya TV in June on the basis of an allegedly forged intelligence report purportedly sent by DGP intelligence to the Chief Minister’s office linking K V Thomas with the Rs 336-crore hawala racket being probed by the central agencies.

While, the bonafides of the "intelligence report", the Government ordered a Crime Branch investigation to ascertain the "conspiracy" behind the "forged document".

Surya TV reporter Anil Nambiar was initially named the sole accused in FIR. Last week Sobhana’s Personal Assistant Anil P Srirangam was arrested and a look out notice has also been issued against a former journalist R Jayachandran, who is wanted in the case.

A known Karunakaran camper in the faction-ridden Congress in the State, Sobhana was yesterday issued a show-cause notice by KPCC president K Muraleedharan. (PTI)

PM directs Nitish Kumar to hold probe
into Lucknow stampede

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today directed Railway Minister Nitish Kumar to order an inquiry into the stampede at the Lucknow railway station on Saturday and punish the guilty.

Vajpayee announced a compensation of Rs 50,000 from the PM’s relief fund for the next of kin of each of the 19 deceased.

He gave the direction to Kumar when Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati called on him at his Race Course Road residence to apprise him of the incident, for which she held the railway staff responsible.

Mayawati later told reporters that Vajpayee spoke to Kumar over phone in her presence expressing concern over the tragedy at the Charbagh railway station and gave necessary instructions to him for the enquiry.

Presenting the State Government enquiry report to Vajpayee, she alleged that a last minute change of platform by the local railway staff had resulted in the stampede among the people who were returning home after attending the BSP ‘Maha Rally’ on September 28.

Official sources said Kumar assured the Prime Minister that after carrying out the investigations, all those responsible for the incident would be punished.

The UP Chief Minister also met Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani and the Railway Minister separately to give a detailed account of the incident.

After her meeting with the Deputy Prime Minister, Mayawati said she explained to him how the announcement of change of platform caused the BSP workers to run helter-skelter leading to the stampede.

She said the State Government report and press reports suggest the culpability of the local railway authorities.

The Railway Minister should punish the ‘guilty’ officials and give compensation to the kith and kin of those killed and to the workers who sustained injuries, she said.

Asked if expansion of the Uttar Pradesh Cabinet figured at her meetings with Vajpayee and Advani, she said the matter did not come up for discussion.

She said the Cabinet expansion would be considered only after the State Government deals with the stampede tragedy.

Asked whether BSP would oppose the Centre’s disinvestment policy, Mayawati said, "I do not want to comment on it since disinvestment is a central subject". (PTI)

‘Pak threatened to use nukes to internationalise Kashmir’

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: During the recent Indo-Pak stand-off, Islamabad threatened to use nukes to internationalise the Kashmir issue despite lacking the necessary command and control system for a nuclear first strike, according to an eminent nuclear and security expert.

"Islamabad threatened to use nuclear weapons during the recent crisis to off-set the status quo in Kashmir," Professor Martin Zuberi, a former member of India’s National Security Advisory Board, told UNI here.

The Musharraf administration resorted to nuclear blackmail to gain territorial concessions and in the process was able to internationalise the Kashmir issue, Prof Zuberi said.

"Threat of a possible nuclear conflagration pressed a panic button resulting in the intervention of Western nations," he pointed out.

Although Pakistan was a nuclear power, it was impossible for it to establish a command and control mechanism for a nuclear first strike in the next few decades, he said.

"Whatever Pakistan could not achieve through four conventional wars and proxy wars, it cannot accomplish through periodic nuclear blackmail as well," Prof Zuberi noted.

"Pakistan failed to achieve the desired results by using nukes as a bargain chip," he said.

Islamabad’s nuclear programme from the beginning had been under military control and they treated nuclear weapons as a military tool to be used in war, he lamented. Recalling the devastation caused by nuclear bombs in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, Prof Zuberi said, "nuclear weapons are no ordinary weapons and Pakistan ought to behave in a more rational manner."

"The nuclear weapons possessed by both countries are far more powerful than those used on Japan and, if used, will cause unimaginable damage," he observed.

Nuclear weapons were political weapons and not weapons to be used in war, but the Pakistani military establishment was yet to realise this, he regretted.

"Nuclear deterrence helps a country to safeguard its own national interest without resorting to force," Prof Zuberi noted.

Unlike Pakistan, India had adopted a nuclear no-first use posture and decided not to conduct further underground nuclear tests, he said.

"Many Western experts today are campaigning for adoption of no-first use policy by the US and the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation," Prof Zuberi claimed.

"The 1998 nuclear tests have not intensified the arms race in the sub-continent."

India was the first nation in the world to draft a nuclear doctrine within a year of conducting nuclear tests, which stated that nuclear disarmament was the country’s national security objective, he said.

"Even the US took three years after they tested nukes to have some kind of a doctrine," the security expert said.

"India’s nuclear doctrine is a logically consistent one and in conformity with our stated position of non-violence and universal disarmament," said Prof Zuberi, who was a member of the team which drafted India’s nuclear doctrine.

Dismissing international as well as domestic criticisms of India’s nuclear doctrine, he said, "the doctrine rejects nuclear war because to conduct a nuclear war one requires plenty of warheads with greater accuracy of the delivery systems (missiles)."

He said the nuclear doctrine was in keeping with the times and had given the country certain diplomatic advantages. "However, it needs to be modified depending on future threats."

On threats from India’s northern neighbour China, the security expert said, "with respect to China, our capabilities are improving and today China is within the reach of our missiles."

Claiming that possession of nuclear weapons had enhanced India’s prestige, Prof Zuberi said, "today, the entire world recognises us as a nuclear power."

"As a result, the Western nations intervened when the Indo-Pak stand-off threatened to snowball into a nuclear conflict," he said.

However, India needed to devise a strategy to resolve the Kashmir imbroglio without the risk of a nuclear conflict, Prof Zuberi observed. (UNI)

‘Sabotage’ caused Rajdhani train mishap at Rafiganj

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: An official probe into the Rajdhani train mishap in Rafiganj in Bihar last month has found that "sabotage" was the cause of the accident that claimed over 100 lives.

The provisional findings of the preliminary report of the Commissioner of Railway safety, which probed the Sept 9 accident involving the Howrah-New Delhi Rajdhani Express, ascribed the mishap to "sabotage", an official release said today.

The statutory inquiry was conducted by the Commissioner of Railway Safety Commissioner, (Eastern Circle-Kolkata), Mahesh Prasad.

In the accident 116 people died and 154 others were injured, including 51 seriously, when 12 bogies derailed, five of them from a century-old bridge over Dhawa river.

Hours after the accident, Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and Board Chairman I M S Rana spoke of sabotage being the cause of the accident which was hotly contested by the State Government and police.

After a meeting with Deputy Prime Minister L K Advani the next day, Kumar said it was decided not to discuss in public any possible reason for the accident saying they would instead await the report of the statutory inquiry by the Commissioner of Railway Safety, who belongs to the Civil Aviation Ministry.

RJD president Laloo Prasad Yadav, whose party rules Bihar, accused the Railways of poor maintenance of tracks and bogies and alleged that the bridge was mainly to blame for the accident.

Kumar and officials, however, maintained the bridge was not an identified "distressed" bridge requiring speed restrictions, immediate repairs and constant special monsoon monitoring. (PTI)

Govt inducting bureaucrats with
particular ideology: Singh

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: Former Prime Minister V P Singh today alleged that the NDA Government was aggressively politicising the bureaucracy by introducing a kind of "ideological screening" of officers placed in key departments.

"The situation about a bureaucrat with particular political thought has aggravated with BJP coming to power. The ideological screening is formally applied and those close to BJP and RSS are encourged," he told the Liberhan Commission probing the demolition of disputed structure at Ayodhya on December 6, 1992.

"There is a definite policy to induct and promote bureaucrats, particularly in departments such as Home and Information, the area which deals with the battle to influence the mind," the former Prime Minister said.

Singh was replying to a question by the Commission whether in his career as Prime Minister and Chief Minister he ever came across members of bureaucracy having their own political thought and ideology.

He said as a Chief Minister and later as Finance Minister in 1980’s, he did not come across anything like this but later at the state level bureaucrats were bracketed with the ideology of a CM and it was more of a group levelling than individual levelling.

"Later these things came to the Centre also," he said referring to the present Government.

He said lately the phenomenon of bureacrats carrying the mandate of political executive, especially the MLAs and MPs has increased.

On the demolition of disputed structure in Ayodhya, Singh said "historically speaking I could sense, this could be a turning point for minority commnunity to take up arms or fall into the trap of those who could exploit them".

The former Prime Minister drew parallel between the demolition of the disputed structure and operation Blue Star of Golden Temple at Amritsar saying the sense of shock within the minority community over the December 6 incident could be compared to that of the Sikhs after the Blue Star.

When asked by advocate I B Singh appearing for the then Faizabad District Magistrate R N Srivastava and SSP D B Roy whether Muslim leaders were only shocked or surprised with the demolition, Singh said "they were shocked, angry, grieved —all but not surprised".

"As a matter of fact, we were convinced that an effort would be made to demolish the disputed structure," he said.

Asked by another counsel whether it would be correct to say temple movement was for uniting the Hindu society, Singh said "it was, in fact, aimed at continuing the hegemony of the upper castes by "confusing the backward castes".

He said the temple movement was an attempt at maintaining the status quo of present caste system which keeps the Hindu society deeply divided.

Singh alleged that BJP breached the understanding reached after 1989 election with National Front Government by adopting Ayodhya issue as the main agenda.

BJP had promised not to raise Ayodhya issue but it came later in the form of L K Advani’s Rath Yatra in reaction to the implementation of Mandal Commission recommendations, he said.(PTI)

Abu Salem faces NBWs in 6 Delhi Police cases

NEW DELHI, Oct 3: Underworld don Abu Salmem, who is in custody portugal following an Interpol red corner notice issued by CBI in 1993 Mumbai bomb blast case, figures in 71 cases in different parts of the country and six non-bailable warrants are pending against him here alone in cases relating to organised crimes.

Delhi Police have dug out cases as old as that of 1998 in which the name of Abu Salem had figured for the first time in a case where a man wanted to settle his property dispute with his brother.

The case against Salem was registered on August 25, 1998 at Lajpat Nagar when a man allegedly approached controversial politician Romesh Sharma for settling his dispute with his brother.

Delhi Police claimed that Sharma had in turn sought help of Salem in settling the dispute.

Two more cases were registered against sharma on November three of the same year. Both Sharma and Salem were charged by the Delhi Police with conspiring to kill another underworld don Babloo Srivastava and the second case pertained to making of threatening calls to a businessman to extort money from him.

The fourth case against Salem was registered in May this year when special cell of Delhi Police arrested Mohammed Ashraf alias Babloo, who had been asked by Salem to set a base in the national capital.

Considered to be the pointman of Salem, Ashraf was arrested alongwith a 9 mm pistol and five live cartridges by the police.

Delhi Police procurred an NBW against Salem in the case of alleged extortion when three persons — C P Rai, Ishtiaq and Sadiq — were arrested.

The trio was allegedly deputed by Salem to pinpoint noted businessmen and also to gather extortion money from them as per the directives of Salem.

A Delhi court on October one issued a Non-Bailable Warrant (NBW) against Salem for allegedly running an organised crime syndicate for extorting money from businessmen in the capital.

The court also allowed special cell of Delhi Police to take help of CBI in extraditing the gangster from Portugal capital Lisbon, where he was arrested by the Interpol last month.

Delhi Police had arrested five associates of Salem —Pawan Kumar Mittal, Sajjan Verma, Mohammed Ashraf, Majid Khan and Chanchal Mehta — and registered a case against them under Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA).

The matter came to light after a South-Delhi based businessman complained that he was receiving extortion calls from Salem demanding Rs five crore.

The underworld don is facing 71 cases in different States which include his role in the 1993 serial Mumbai bomb blast case, forgery, extortion and attempt to murder. (PTI)

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