We have all agreed to what is to be done. But, time is an important factor now, Bakht told PTI on the eve of his scheduled meeting with SMC chairman Osamu Suzuki.

Bakht said he would impress upon Suzuki that two years of valuable time had been lost in internal bickering during which period there were spectacular developments on the Indian automobile scene.

The Minister, who is scheduled to meet Suzuki at the SMC headquarters in Hamamatsu, 150 kms from here tomorrow, however clarified that his visit was neither a business trip nor meant for conducting any negotiations with the car giant.

The purpose of the visit was to stress the importance of friendly business ties between India and Japan, no matter what the transient difficulties are in other areas of Indo-Japan relations, he said.

Bakht said he found his Japanese counterpart Kaoru Yasano responsive in this regard and the point was stressed that the bilateral business ties should expand.

Government and SMC had a prolonged tussle over control of the 50:50 joint venture MUL with the Japanese firm objecting to Government-nominee R S S L N Bhaskarudu being made the Managing Director of the Rs 8600 crore car venture.

SMC later withdrew arbitration proceedings against the Government after Bakht personally intervened to sort out the differences by cutting short Bhaskarudu’s term and nominating SMC-backed Jagdish Khattar as his successor from 2000.

Heavy Industry Secretary P Shanker, who was accompanying Bakht, said SMC should now compress the time normally needed for introduction of new models so that MUL can catch up with the developments in the competitive car market.

The Indian car market has seen the introduction of two new models in recent times with a couple more on the anvil.

Shanker said two new models have been chosen though the formal announcements would be made by SMC, keeping in mind the marketing strategy.

Officials in Bakht’s delegation admitted that Government would like to see new models rolling out of the Maruti factory by end-1999.

The Minister left early today for Central Japan enroute to Osaka where he is scheduled to address another seminar later this week. (PTI)

Banana with cholera or hepatitis vaccine

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: Children may soon be eating a banana to get immunised against cholera or hepatitis, according to a U S scientist who said the complete know-how for making banana vaccine is being brought to India by a scientist trained in his Institute in New York.

C J Arntzen of Boycethmpon Institute for Plant Research was speaking on the feasibility of vaccines from plants at the 10th International Congress of Immunology here today.

Cholera vaccine through banana is a real possibility, Arntzen said. Boosting may be required every year, which simply means eating one more banana.

He said the World Health Organisation is interested in banana vaccine for Cholera because it is cheaper to introduce the B-subunnit of the cholera toxin into banana than in a genetically engineered vector or carrier.

Potatoes which deliver highest amount of vaccine against two viral diseases and one bacterial toxin have already been tested in volunteers this year, he said.

Fourteen volunteers who ate raw potato containing the acine against a bacterial toxin for just one day started producing the antibodies, showing the efficacy.

Because cooking spoils the vaccine and raw potato does not taste good, a banana vaccine, especially for children, has been developed. Bananas are also cheap and easily available in developing countries where a low-ost vaccine against hepatitis and cholera is needed, Yasmin Thanavala from Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo, which collaborated with boyce institute, told PTI.

An Indian agricultural scientist learning the technology in Arntzen’s laboratory will soon be bringing to India the complete banana system.

Arntzen who is also professor at Cornwell University said reserchonedble vaccines has raised the possibility of producing novel new vaccines which would be both safe and cost-effective for global distribution.

Edible vaccines also do not require sterilised needles and syringes, or cold storage condition, added Thanavala.

The technique involves putting the desired gene in agrobacterium tumafaciens, which is nature’s genetic engineer. It infects plants and passes on the gene to the plant cells which are then regenerated into full plants for large-scale cultivation in fields.

One acre of banana crop containing the vaccine will be enough to vaccinate several thousand children.

Arntzen said the best choice of crop for India is banana which can be made to carry the hepatitis vacine s ellas te su-unit adjuvant against cholera. (PTI)

India introduces resolution on de-alerting nuke forces

NEW DELHI, Nov 3: For the first time in UN history, India yesterday introduced a resolution on de-alerting nuclear forces and adoption of no first use policies by calling for urgent steps to reduce the risks of unintentional and accidental use of nuclear weapons and a review of nuclear doctrines.

The resolution, moved by additional secretary in the External Affairs Ministry Dalip Lahiri, urges member states to provide the UN Secretary General information on the measures undertaken towards implementation of this resolution or efforts undertaken by them to promote the objectives envisaged in the resolution.

The resolution underlines that until nuclear weapons cease to exist, it was imperative on the part of nuclear weapon states to adopt measures that assure non-nuclear weapons states against the use or threat of use of nuclear weapons.

Official sources here said a vote on the resolution was expected by the end of this week but the response of several important countries was surprisingly far from positive. However, no country had yet openly opposed the resolution.

The sources said whatever the outcome of the vote, it would serve to highlight the dangers mankind faced from nuclear accidents.

The resolution said the hair -trigger alert of nuclear weapons carries unacceptable risks of unintentional or accidential use of nuclear weapons which will have catastrophic consequences for all mankind.

It regretted that limited steps relating to de-targetting have been taken by the nuclear weapon states to address this concern and that further steps were necessary to contribute to the improvement in the international climate for negotiations leading to the elimination of nuclear weapons.

The resolution stressed that reduction of tensions brought about by a change in nuclear doctrines would positively impact on international peace and security and improve the conditions for the further reduction and the elimination of nuclear weapons.

It reiterated the highest priority accorded to nuclear disarmament in the final document of the tenth special session of the UN General Assembly and by the international community.

Moving the resolution, Mr Lahiri said the benefit of de-alerting would be immediately to bring other nuclear-armed countries into the dialogue on reducing nuclear dangers. "Whatever one may think of the refusal of UK, France and China to participate in numerical reductions till the US and Russian arsenals are brought below a certain threshold, it would be very difficult for them to refuse to participate in discussions on steps to reduce nuclear dangers through de-alerting etc," he added.

He said: "What is clear is that these matters are of legitimate concern to the international community as a whole and that nuclear weapons states cannot claim the right to discuss these issues in a cabal of their own, when the consequences of nuclear accidents flowing from their nuclear doctrines could have disastrous effects on all the people of the world." (UNI)

Plea for voluntary death clinics in districts

KOCHI, Nov 3 : Once again a petitioner has approached the Kerala High Court with a death wish — for setting up voluntary death clinics and organ banks in various district hospitals in the state.

When the petition came up before Justice C S Rajan today, he admitted it and issued notices to the respondents— Central and state governments.

The 69-year-old petitioner, N Mukundan Pillai from Kareekode, Kollam, who is the the principal of NSS Public School, Thiruvananthapuram, submitted that he was mentally and physically healthy. Since he had fulfilled his obligations in life, he had no desire to live longer and his sole aim in life now was to have an honourable exit While he as mentally and physically healthy.

The petitioner also wanted the central and state governments to conduct a random survey of senior citizens as regards voluntary death and set up organ banks for preserving and transplanting organs. His other pleas are for allotment of funds for developing infrastructure facilities for assisting voluntary organisations which are willing to facilitate voluntary deaths.

Earlier, an 80-year-old man, C A Thomas Chakramakkil, hailing from Pavaratty in Kerala’s Thrissur district, had moved the court in June this year seeking a direction to the union and state governments to set up Mahaprasthana kendras or death clinics in the district hospitals or voluntary death. (PTI)

Jaya loses major legal battle
Madras High Court dismisses her petition
challenging appointment of special judges

CHENNAI, Nov 3: AIADMK supremo Jayalalitha lost a major legal battle today when the Madras High Court dismissed writ petitions challenging the appointment of three special judges to try corruption cases against her and some ministers of her erstwhile regime.

There was no malafide on the part of the Tamil Nadu Government in issuing the notification on April 30, 1997 appointing the judges to try corruption cases, a division bench comprising Chief Justice M S Liberhan and Justice E Padmanabhan held.

The Court dismissed the entire batch of writ petitions from Jayalalitha, her former cabinet colleagues and others, challenging the appointment of judges to try corruption offences allegedly committed between 1991 and 1996 when she was Tamil Nadu Chief Minister.

The Court, however, stayed the execution of its order for eight days to enable the petitioners to appeal against the verdict in the Supreme Court.

Chief Minister M Karunanidhi described the verdict as a victory for the people.

In all, 46 cases have been filed so far against Jayalalitha, her close friend Sasikala Natarajan, her disowned son V N Sudhakaran, some ministers of her former regime and some IAS officers.

This is the second bench which heard elaborate arguments as an earlier bench could not deliver the verdict in view of one of its members (Justice D Raju) being appointed Chief Justice of Himachal Pradesh High Court. In its 678-page judgment, the bench said the petitioners’ contention that there was an attempt to politically annihilate Them was not only devoid of merits but was an attempt to justify their past omissions and to wriggle out of the situation in which they have been placed.

Having held public office and having been charged with offences under the Prevention of Corruption Act (PCA), the petitioners, who were entrusted with public funds, have to face trial and come out from their cases only after establishing their innocence, the Bench said.

As there were prima facie cases against them, the petitioners Have to face criminal prosecution and get themselves cleared, it said.

The complaint that this was only due to political rivalry or aimed at political annihilation deserved rejection, the Court said.

Rejecting another principal argument of the petitioners that what had been constituted were regime courts (pertaining only to the AIADMK regime), the Bench noted that there had been no cases against former ministers or highly placed politicians prior to June 1991.

On the point that the case had been filed only to create adverse publicity against them, it said as they were all political and public dignitaries, there was obviously a wide media coverage of their cases.

It could not be said that the trial was going on only for public spectacle or adverse publicity, the Bench held. The Bench upheld the constitutional validity of section three of the PCA which enables appointment of a special Judge for any case or group of cases.

Chief Justice Liberhan, who delivered a separate and concurring judgment on some legal points, said he was unable to comprehend how conduct of trial by special judges appointed under this provision for a case or group of cases could be termed super track trial by the petitioners.

The special judges, too, were governed by the same statutory provisions which enjoined a mandatory duty on them that in cases of corruption, trial was to be held on a day-to-day basis.

If the argument (of a ‘regime trial’) is countenanced, all enactments and trials other than ordinary ones will be rendered nugatory or will have to be obliterated, and it will result in a blanket umbrella, protecting (them) from the trial, which cannot be accepted, The Chief Justice said.

On the contention that the appointments were not valid as the judges were not appointed by the High Court, the Bench clarified that the full court (all the High Court judges in their administrative capacity) had approved not only the constitution of three court but also the posting of three judges. Therefore, it had to be held that it was the High Court’s decision, and not one of the judges or the CJ alone.

They were not special courts but only additional sessions courts whose presiding officers had been appointed as special Judges under Sec.3 of the PCA, the Court said.

Apart from Jayalalitha, her former cabinet colleagues facing corruption charges are R Nedunchezhiyan, S Muthusamy, S Kannappan, K A Sengottaiyan, T M Selvaganapathy, M Chinnasamy, Indira Kumari, E Madhusudhanan, Nagoor Meeran and former State Assembly Speaker Dedapatti R Muthiah.

Other prominent persons facing conspiracy and abetment charges include Jayalalitha’s close friend Sasikala Natarajan, AIADMK supremo’s disowned foster son V N Sudhakaran, and former top bureaucrats N Haribhaskar, T V Venkataraman (both former chief secretaries), C Ramachandran, A N Dyaneswaran, H M Pandey and M Sathiyamoorthy.

Chargesheets have been filed against Jayalalitha in six cases, of which three have reached the trial stage.

These three are the disproportionate assets case (in which she has been charged with amassing unexplained wealth worth Rs 66.65 crore), the pleasant stay hotel CER granting illegal exemption from building rules o a hotel in Kodaikanal) and the Rs 10.16 crore Colour TV Scam Case (involving irregularities in the procurement of 45,000 TV sets for distribution to village panchayats).

The three special judges appointed by the impugned notification are S Sambandham, V Radhakrishnan and P Anbazhagan. (PTI)