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dominated Assam in 1999 despite olive branches GUWAHATI, Dec 23: Violence unleashed by militants coupled with.....more
‘Petro-chem sector NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram....more Comprehensive NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Government is working on a comprehensive....more
Comprehensive labour policy NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson....more |
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Kant reprimandes NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Chairman Krishan Kant today reprimanded....more
India can send NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO)...more 1999: A nightmare come MUMBAI, Dec 23: The last year of the millennium witnessed a different crime....more Indian filmmaker NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Another film personality — producer D Ramanaidu.....more |
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dominated Assam in 1999 despite olive branches GUWAHATI, Dec 23: Violence unleashed by militants coupled with secret killings loomed large over Assam despite olive branches being extended by Governor Lt Gen (retd) S K Sinha, Chief Minister Prafulla Kumar Mahanta and Army coupled with the surrender of more than 500 militants during the year. The Army, functioning under the aegis of the unified command, was the first to offer safe passage to the ultras for a week on the eve of the spring festival — Bihu which was rejected outright by ULFA militants. The Governor on a visit to ULFA Chairman Arabinda Rajkhowa’s village Lakwa in October offered him safe passage for ten days to visit his ailing nonagerian parents. A week later, he followed this up by granting all ULFA militants, including their Commander-in-Chief Paresh Barua, similar facilities to visit their homes without any preconditions. The Chief Minister, too, later announced in the State Assembly a ceasefire during the last week of the millennium without any strings attached so that the militants could visit their homes. ULFA, however, rejected all such offers alleging that this would in no way help them in achieving their demand of an "independent Asom". The unified command, however, kept the pressure on the militants and was successful in weaning away 538 militants from the path of violence and made them surrender this year. The militants surrendered both before the civil and defence authorities at various places like Nalbari, Sibsagar, Nagaon, Guwahati and on Independence Day nearly 300 militants returned to the mainstream in almost all the headquarters of districts where insurgents were active. The Centre’s surrender cum rehabilitation package for North East militants announced in march was availed of by the militants who were initially lodged in a rehabiliation camp with facilities for training in a particular trade or vocation and were paid a stipend not exceeding Rs 2,000 per month for twelve months. Notwithstanding the efforts made by the authorities, violence continued unabated and the "secret killings" which had emerged last year as a new phenomenon gathered momentum this year. The victims of secret killings were mostly ULFA militants and their close relatives who were allegedly killed by Surrendered ULFA (SULFA) activists thereby unleashing a series of fratricidal clashes. A rocket propelled grenade attack, the police claimed by the ULFA, was launched in march on a multi-storied apartment where several SULFA leaders lived. ULFA’s publicity secretary mithinga daimary, who also lost close family members to secret killings last year, denied the outfit’s involvement and alleged that the attack was launched by the police to unleash fratricidal killings. The rocket propelled grenade attack was immediately followed by a series of killings of close family members of ULFA militants, including three members of the outfit’s Volcano Unit Commander Putul Terong who, too, was killed later in an encounter with the police in Birubari area here in August. (PTI) ‘Petro-chem sector in NE to
be developed when NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Petroleum and Natural Gas Minister Ram Naik today assured Rajya Sabha the Government would accelerate development of petro-chemical sector in the North-East once it overcame the militancy problem in the region. Replying to supplementaries during question hour, Naik said the potential of the North-East for developing the petro-chemical sector would be fully realised as soon as we overcome the difficulties. In reply to another question, Naik said the Government was looking into the possibility of merger of Indo-Burma Petroleum (IBP) with its subsidiary Bongaigaon Refinery and Petrochemicals Ltd (BRPL) in Assam, and added it was waiting for the full report of the Sengupta Committee recommendations for the sector before arriving at any decision. He assured Gaya Singh (CPI) that the interest of workers would be safeguarded before taking any action in this regard. Demands have also been made for disinvestment of shares of BRPL to the Indian Oil Corporation, he said. Naik contended that since the share capital of BRPL was only about Rs 200 crore, it was essential to expand its capital base for higher output and expansion. (PTI) |
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Comprehensive legislation for
unorganised NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Government is working on a comprehensive legislation to protect the interest of labour working in the unorganised sector, Labour Minister Satyanarain Jatiya said today. Replying to a question in Rajya Sabha, Jatiya said the Government had already constituted a Labour Commission to protect the interest of the unorganised labour in the country. The Commission has already started working on the comprehensive legislation on unorganised sector, which employ about 32.5 crore labourers in the country, he said. To a question whether the Government would allow hire and fire policy by industries, Jatiya said the Government would not take any action or bring any legislation which would harm the interest of the labour. It would be the responsibility to see that the interest of labour is protected in the liberalised regime, the Minister said. Rajya Sabha Deputy chairperson Najma Heptullah suggested that there should be a full discussion on the subject in the next session of Parliament, to which the minister agreed. The chair also asked the Minister what steps the Government was taking to implement equal wages for equal work in the case of both men and women. Jatiya said the Government had legislated Equal Renumeration Act and was also taking steps to implement equal wages. (PTI) |
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Comprehensive labour
policy NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Rajya Sabha Deputy Chairperson Najma Heptulla today directed for a full-fledged discussion on the proposed comprehensive labour policy. Dr Najma Heptulla, intervening in the question hour, said that labour is a very important subject and almost every member wanted to speak on it. She said India is committed to providing equal remuneration to men and women for the same work and wanted to know from the minister as to whether this policy is being properly implemented. Ms Heptulla said the Minister should make some commitment to the house on these issues. This prompted the Labour Minister Satyanarayan Jatia to assure the House that the Government is prepared to have a discussion the proposed comprehensive labour policy in the House as suggested by the Deputy Chairperson. Earlier, Dr Jatia in a reply to a question said that Centre’s jurisdiction is confined to only 44 sectors for the fixation of minimum labour wages and in as many as 1152 sectors this power is vested with the State Government. He admitted that it is very difficult to provide all sorts of benefits to the labour in the unorganised sectors and to overcome this problem the Government has set up the second Labour Commission which is expected to look into all these aspects. The minister informed the house that ‘equal remuneration for equal work’ policy is being implemented since 1976. Agriculture: Answering Mr Suryabhan Patil Vahadane’s query on animal diseases in the Adivasi districts of Maharashtra, Agriculture Minister Nitish Kumar said the central funds were released to the state for control of animal diseases under national project on rinderpest eradication and for setting up Regional Diagnostic Laboratory, Pune. The money granted between 1994-95 to 1998-99 was Rs 248.69 lakh. Of this Rs 119.71 lakh had been allocated to Adivasi districts by the state and a sum of Rs 114.87 lakh has been utilised. The reason for marginal shortfall in expenditure was due to lesser expenditure incurred in travelling allowance of the staff, he said. Answering supplementaries, Mr Nitish Kumar said the overall performance of the Maharashtra Government was ‘good’ though there were some shorfalls as pointed out by the members. Mr S B Chavan wanted to know if the central money was used for payment of salaries by the State Government and said the use of central money for travelling purposes was improper. Such expenses have to be borne by the State Government, he remarked. (UNI) |
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1999: A nightmare come true for senior citizens MUMBAI, Dec 23: The last year of the millennium witnessed a different crime story of the decade as the usual bloody gang wars were replaced by cold blooded murders of the the old and wrinkled, the lonely and afflicted for an easy steal. The year witnessed around 17 brutal murders of lonely senior citizens living in some of the most affluent localities in the city. The ones that made continuous headlines included the murder of the retired english professor of the Elphinstone College, Mehroo Jussawala (65) who was found murdered in her flat at Altamount Road in South-Mumbai. The other sensational murders, that had the old and feeble denizens, resorting to helplines and stationing of security guards, was the murder of the 75-year-old Dr Makki Master in Tardeo in February and Mehroo Sanga, a retired bank officer at Napeansea Road in South-Mumbai. 1999 also saw the police zooming down on domestics for the over 750 robbery and over 419 murder cases in the city. Media and Government pressure saw the police issue warnings to people to cross check the bonafides of those employed and setting up of an alert citizen cell aimed at reaching out to those, who had fallen into the trap of criminals. Most of the murderers were either inconspicuous plumber, a delivery boy dropping the Sundry daily provisions or a servant borrowed for a day to help out with the dishes, the primary motive being easy money, according to Deputy Commissioner of Police, Sunil Paraskar. The year also saw some of the "high and mighty" falling prey to the spray of bullets of the underworld dons to settle scores. The sensational attempt on the life of S N Thapa, ex-Customs official who had been suspended following his alleged involvement in the 1993 blast case, was the climax of rivalry between Chhota Rajan and Dawood. The nexus between the criminals and those apparently on the "right" side of law was exposed after some of them became easy targets of those wielding the guns. The murder of Liaquat Shaikh and K Sutrale, eminent lawyers, were a point in the case. Shaikh, who had appeared for underworld criminals had reportedly fallen out with the Abu Salem gang, while sutrale was "punished" for failing to bail out Zahoor Makanda, a top Shakeel man who was later killed in an encounter. However, it were the two failed attempts on the life of the former city mayor, Milind Vaidya of the Shiv Sena, that had the city police scurrying in to nab the culprits, even as the pressure from the Sena alliance Government grew. The latest target was the Sena Shakha Pramukh, Vivek Kelkar who succumbed to the bullets of his assailant on December 13. The daylight gunning down of the hotelier Shaukat Sarkar was another gang- rivalry shoot out case that the city witnessed. Sarkar, who had been earlier arrested in car theft cases, had alleged links with the Dawood Ibhrahim gang. The metropolis also witnessed a vociefrous uproar following the killing of the Bombay Aman Committee leader, Wahid Ali Khan, raising a heated political debate in the city over the safety of those trying to bring to book those responsible for the bomb blast cases. (PTI) |
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Indian filmmaker in guinness book of world records NEW DELHI, Dec 23: Another film personality — producer D Ramanaidu — has joined the ranks of the large number of Indian filmmakers who have been recognised by the guinness of world records. Mr Ramanaidu, who is now a Telegu Desam member of Parliament, has received a Guinness World Records certificate for producing as many as 101 feature films in six different languages since 1963. Earlier, he had entered the Limca Book of Indian Records for producing 99 feature films in six languages between 1963 and 1998, which included eleven dubbed films. The star producer, who describes himself as ‘an honest man with the midas touch’, also claims to have introduced three or four top heroes and eleven heroines to the Indian screen. They include his son Venkatesh, while his other son Suresh has turned producer. He also claims to have introduced the largest number of directors for any single producer. Venkatesh was introduced on the Hindi screen with the film ‘Anari’ co-starring Karisma Kapoor. Some other Hindi films made by him are ‘Taqdeerwala’, ‘Santan’, ‘Insaaf Ki Awaaz’, ‘Tohfa’, ‘Mayor Saheb’ (dubbed from Tamil), ‘Jeevan Ek Sangharsh’, and ‘Bandish’. Telugu films include his first ‘Anuragam’ in 1963, ‘Dharma Chakram’, ‘Tajmahal’, ‘Andhra vaibhavam’, ‘Akka-Chellulu’, ‘Prema Vijetha’, ‘Guru Brahma’, ‘Chilpi Krishnudu’ and ‘Soggadu’. Tamil films include ‘Deiva Piravi’, ‘Michel Raja’, ‘Tanni Kattu Raja’ and ‘Kuzhandal Raja’. Apart from the films, Mr Ramanaidu who has been in the film industry for 36 years is also involved in philantropic work and one of his dream projects is a home for the aged to be managed by the Ramanaidu Charitable Trust. In a press meet here today, Mr Ramanaidu said his experience as a first-time parliamentarian had shown him that the majority of the MPs were passive or silent spectators and the system was ‘loaded in favour of the experienced.’ (UNI) |
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