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Vajpayee elected NDA leader; to be sworn-in as PM on Wed NEW DELHI, Oct 10: Atal Bihari Vajpayee was today unanimously elected leader of the National Democratic Alliance in Parliament to be sworn in for his third term as Prime Minister on October 13. The name of 73-year-old Vajpayee was approved amidst thumping of desks by the newly-elected MPs of the 21-party coalition assembled in the Central Hall of Parliament after it was proposed and seconded by leaders of the alliance including Home Minister L K Advani, Defence Minister George Fernandes and Sharad Yadav (JD-U), Vaiko (MDMK), Mamata Banerjee (Trinamool Congress), Naveen Patnaik (BJD) and Tarlochan Singh Tur (Akali Dal). Earlier in the day, he was elected leader of the BJP Parliamentary Party. The largest ally of the BJP, the 29-member TDP, was not present at the NDA meeting. Vajpayee said after the meeting that TDP would be supporting from outside but nothing was known about the party joining the Government. In his short speech in English after the election, Vajpayee impressed on the need for adherence to the ‘dharma’ of coalition. If we protect and sustain the coalition, the coalition will protect and sustain us. An NDA delegation headed by Advani will call on President K R Narayanan tomorrow to hand over the resolution adopted at the NDA meeting electing Vajpayee as its leader enabling him to invite him to form the Government. There will be no separate letters of support from each NDA constituent, Parliamentary Affairs Ministers P Rangarajan Kumaramangalam said. Soon after his election as BJP Parliamentary leader, Vajpayee hinted at some hard decisions to be taken by the new Government and asked the people to be ready for them while seeking a constructive role from the Opposition parties. He said after the NDA MPs’ meeting that the new Government’s priorities would be national security, both external and internal, growth with equity and employment and greater attention to the social sector and infrastructure development. Friends, I need hardly emphasise the fact that this is precisely what our previous Government was attempting to do. Our work was interrupted. Our agenda remained incomplete, he said. Vajpayee said the people had now given the NDA the mandate to complete the incomplete agenda of development and also undertake new initiatives for all-round national renewal. Let no one have any doubt about our ability or our determination to carry out this mandate, he said, adding let the NDA give a deserving account of itself that it could lay the foundation of a resurgent India in the next five years. Hailing NDA’s emergence as the ruling coalition as one of the most important political developments in independent India, Vajpayee said democracy has won and destabilisation has lost In the elections. India has won. This is a collective victory for the NDA. It does not belong to any single individual or party, he asserted. Vajpayee asked the Opposition to play a constructive role and without naming Congress had a dig at it that while he had waited in the Opposition for 40 years, these days parties lose their patience in a year and crave to come to power. He said the NDA could take legitimate satisfaction at the impressive victory it had won in the elections. It was a victory for our performance, against all the odds, in the short time that we were in office last time. The mandate was an endorsement of the joint manifesto of the NDA and it was his honour and privilege that he could contribute his individual mite to this success as the captain of the team. It is obvious, however, every party in the alliance has made a valuable contribution to our winning more than 300 seats in the new Lok Sabha. Every corner of India is represented in the NDA in Parliament, he added. Vajpayee said the NDA heralded the beginning of a positive phase of stable coalition Governments at the Centre. It also marked the consolidation of the positive phenomenon of regional parties participating actively in managing the affairs of the country at the national level. Recalling the coalition experiment from the days of 1977 and the experience of some of the alliance parties in coalition Governments at the Centre and in States, he said, your experience, your knowledge and your appreciation of the needs of both the Centre and the states will serve our Government well. All of us today understand, better than ever before, the imperative of the dharma of coalition. He said the strength of their coalition was that big or small we are all equal. Our hearts are one. Our minds are one. (PTI) |
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Talks on to join Ministry : NC NEW DELHI, Oct 10 : National Conference (NC), which has decided to join the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) Government at the centre, today said talks were on regarding induction of a party MP into the Council of Ministers, but asserted that the allocation of portfolio was the Prime Minister’s prerogative. It is for the Prime Minister to choose his ministers, NC’s Lok Sabha member from Srinagar Umar Abdullah told reporters here, adding talks were on about the induction of a party MP in the Government. Umar, who arrived here along with other three newly-elected party MPs to participate in the NDA meeting, said the party had not demanded any particular portfolio. We have no portfolio in view, he said. NC president and Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah, who was originally scheduled to lead his party MPs at the NDA meeting, did not come to the National capital due to ill-health, party sources said. Asked about NC’s expectations from the new Government, Umar said the party had long-standing demand for a special package for Jammu and Kashmir and expected it to be fulfilled this time.(PTI) |
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Teen-aged boy
kidnapped Excelsior Correspondent JAMMU, Oct 10: Militants mowed down an Education Department employee at his house in village Shilmalia in Gandoh tehsil and kidnapped a teen-aged boy from village Dhandal in two separate incidents in Doda district. A police spokesman said unidentified militants entered into the house of Ghulam Hussain son of Abdullah Dar at village Shilmalia in Gandoh tehsil last mid-night. Ghulam Hussain, an employee of Education Department, was dragged out by the militants and shot dead in front of his family members. Militants escaped after the killing. They left behind a note blaming Ghulam Hussain as an ‘army source’. The note said Hussain was taught a lesson for joining hands with the army. A police party reached the spot and shifted the dead body of the victim to a local hospital for post-mortem. Body was handed over to his family today. Meanwhile, police conducted searches in Shilmalia village and adjoining areas but couldn’t get the militants, who were stated to be three in number and activists of Hizbul Mujahideen outfit. Gandoh police have registered a case in the killing and started further investigations. Meanwhile, in another incident, another group of unknown militants struck at village Dhandal in Doda and kidnapped a teen-aged boy identified as Mohd Iqbal son of Ghulam Nabi, a resident of Dhandal. Militants whisked away the boy to an unidentified location. Police reached the house of boy today after getting a report. Police said the boy was abducted for forcible recruitment into the militants’ ranks. Police was trying to locate the boy and apprehend the militants involved in forcible kidnapping. Jammu, Udhampur
Parliamentary elections By Sanjeev Pargal JAMMU, Oct 10: As many as 30 candidates forfeited their security deposits in two Parliamentary constituencies of Jammu-Poonch and Udhampur-Doda in Jammu province. They include high profile National Panthers Party candidate from Udhampur Prof Bhim Singh. Of 22 contestants for Jammu-Poonch seat, only four candidates of recognised parties managed to save their deposits while in Udhampur-Doda seat 12 candidates out of a total of 16 forfeited their deposits. An independent candidate Pt Hem Raj finished at the bottom in the tally of total votes polled in Udhampur constituency. He secured a mere 150 votes from all 17 assembly segments of the seat. Similarly, a woman independent candidate Tripta Kumari had a unique distinction of taking minimum votes (431) from Jammu-Poonch seat. National Panthers Party president Prof Bhim Singh, who after every election levels the allegations of rigging on the opponents, could muster a mere 12787 votes from Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat and lost his deposit. The major chunk of Bhim Singh’s votes came from Ramnagar assembly segment, which is represented by his nephew Mr Harshdev Singh. In most of the assembly segments, Mr Bhim Singh couldn’t cross even the three digit mark and finished even behind the Bahujan Samaj Party (BSP) candidate Roop Lal, who polled 22,278 votes. Another national party which suffered a severe drubbing in the elections was Janata Dal (Secular) headed by Mr Dhan Raj Bargotra and affiliated with Mr H D Deve Gowda. Notwithstanding the package offered to Jammu (include B2 City status and waiving off of loans upto Rs 50,000) during his Prime Ministership, Deve Gowda’s candidates Mr Kabir Shah (Udhampur) and Mr Bhagwati Saran (Jammu) polled just 1685 and 755 votes respectively and lost their deposits. Same was the position of newly formed National Congress Party (NCP) whose candidates Mr Pardeep Singh (Udhampur) and Mr Hussain Ahmed (Jammu) polled just 2131 and 2456 votes respectively. They too couldn’t save their deposits. The Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) of Laloo Parsad Yadav was no exception in Jammu province. Its candidates Vivek Gupta (Jammu) and Des Raj (Udhampur) secured 1743 and 430 votes respectively. Another recently formed Jammu Kashmir People’s Democratic Party (JKPDP) of former Union Home Minister Mufti Mohd Sayeed couldn’t do betters on both the seats. PDP candidates Mr Tarlok Singh Bajwa polled 15,598 votes from Jammu-Poonch seat while Mr Jagdish Sapolia secured 5947 votes from Udhampur-Doda Lok Sabha seat. The candidates, who failed to cross even four-digit mark in both the constituencies, include Rajinder Sharma (Janata Party), who polled 501 votes, Shashi Kumar (528), Ghulam Mohammad (623), Dev Raj (601), Surinder Pal Mahajan (356) and Pt Hem Raj (150), all in Udhampur constituency, Om Parkash (655), Jaswinder Singh (648), Jaimal Ram of Awami League (899), Durga Dass (446) and Vijay Kumar (837), all from Jammu-Poonch constituency. Votes polled by other independents and some candidates of recognised parties include Abdul Kabir (Samajwadi Janata Party, Udhampur) 2283, Shamsher Singh Bhau (Samajwadi Janata Party, Jammu) 7041, Anil Sharma (Janata Party, Jammu), 1414, Subash Chander, Jammu (1180), Sat Pal (CPI-ML), 1787, Bachan Singh, Jammu, 2878, Qammar Rabbani, Jammu 7890 and Davinder Kumar, Jammu, 1510. Such was the position of independents that some of them polled just one vote in some assembly segments. The votes secured by three main contenders—BJP, NC and Congress (I) on all the three seats went down in this elections as compared to 1998 Parliamentary election but this was attributed to low polling percentage in both the constituencies this time. Prof Chaman Lal Gupta (BJP), who had polled 2,50,813 votes in 1998 election secured 1,94, 678 votes in 1999 elections. Despite this, his winning margin went up from last year’s 80,000 to 1.18 lakhs this time. The increase in winning margin of Prof Gupta was due to sharp decline in NC’s vote. NC candidate Jagjivan Lal polled 76,371 votes in the current election compared to 1.69 lakh votes secured by Mr R S Chib for NC in 1998 election. The votes of Congress (I), however, went up from a meager 36731 last year to 75,838 in this election from Udhampur-Doda seat. Similarly, the votes of three main contestants on Jammu-Poonch seat also went down but the victory margin of BJP went up. Vaid Vishnu Dutt (BJP) in this election polled 2,89,412 votes compared to last year’s 3,36,472. But again due to sharp decline in NC’s votes (1,47,393 in 1999 compared to 2,08,571 in 1998), BJP’s winning margin increased from 1.28 lakh last time to 1.42 lakh this time. Congress (I)’s vote came down slightly from 1,40,832 last year to 1,26,356 this time but this decline was due to less voting percentage in the current election. |
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Two militants among 4 killed in Valley Excelsior Correspondent SRINAGAR, Oct 10: In the overnight encounter at Rahpora, Pattan, one militant has also got killed while as another militant has got killed in Nowgam sector. In other militancy related incidents security forces have allegedly killed a militant guide in custody while as militants have shot dead an SPO in Tangmarg area. Official sources said that a local militant has got killed in the encounter that had begun between troops of Rashtriya Rifles 02 Bn and militants at Rahpora, Palhalan, near Pattan at 2145 hours last night. As already reported, militants had fired upon a joint patrol of RR 02 Bn and SOG Palhalan. One jawan, namely Amarjit Singh had got killed, a signalman injured alongwith the Army source, Tariq. Today's reports said that one local militant, namely Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Sheikh alias Tariq S/o Abdul Ahad Sheikh resident of Para Mohalla, Pattan, also got killed later while as three militants managed to escape. One AK-56 rifle, one pistol and one wireless set were claimed to have been recovered from the spot. Unconfirmed reports from Tangmarg said that militants shot dead an SPO in Tangmarg - Pattan belt today. Sources said that troops of Dogra Scouts intercepted militants in Shivali Bahak, in Nowgam sector last evening. One militant, namely Manzoor Ahmed Pir S/o Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Pir, resident of Shirhama got killed and his associates managed to escape. One AK-56 rifle was claimed recovered from the spot. Reports from Beerwah said that troops of RR 34 Bn shot dead one Abdur Rasheed Betha S/o Mohammad Akbar Betha of Zoogu-Kharian last evening. Officially he was described as a militants' guide who got killed in an abortive attempt to escape after affecting recoveries in a hide-out. However, people of the area complained to EXCELSIOR that Rasheed was killed in cold blood two days after he was picked up by troops from the home. Residents alleged that troops had gone "mad" after militants gunned down a soldier at Beerwah town last week. Everybody in the area was being harrassed and humiliated. They said that troops picked up Rasheed from his home and demanded the presence of his brother who was a Tahreek-ul-Mujahideen militant. As he was not present, family members were beaten up severely. The wanted militant's wife was roughed up and molested untill she got injured and unconscious. She was rushed to a Srinagar hospital. Official sources claimed that Rasheed was a militant who was apprehended and agreed to effect the recoveries from a hideout. As two weapons and two rockets were being recovered, Rashid trained a gun on the troops and tried to escape he got killed in retaliatory firing. |
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Sharif to meet Vajpayee during Durban conference ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is expected to meet his Indian counterpart Atal Behari Vajpayee, the first person-to-person contact between the two leaders after the Kargil crisis, during the Commonwealth Prime Ministers’ Conference at Durban next month. The conference is scheduled to be held between November 15 and 17. Also, the Sharif-Vajpayee meeting is the first after the recent general election that put the BJP-led Government back into power. Neither of the two Prime Ministers attended the General Assembly session of the United Nations last month. (UNI) |
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AMRITSAR, Oct 10: The Amritsar police claimed to have made a major breakthrough by arresting two ISI-trained Pakistani nationals who had recently crossed over to India with a view to carrying out sabotage activities during the festival season. Acting on the basis of a tip-off the Amritsar police nabbed the two Pak nationals on October 9 from Chheharta, an industrial suburb of Amritsar, J P Birdi, IG Border Range, told reporters here today. Police seized 30 pistols, 25 rounds and four kgs of RDX with a time device and five detonators from the arrested persons. The two Pak agents were identified as Rashid Ahmad and Hamid of village Saidoke in Pakistan. Birdi claimed that their preliminary interrogation had revealed that both had been given special training in espionage and subversive activities for three months in various camps at Narowal and Sialkot in Pakistan. They had also been given special training in identifying strategic Army locations in the border range, he added. During interrogation, the Pak agents revealed that they had been sent to India under the joint operation chalked out by ISI and Khalistan Commando Force chief, Paramjit Singh Panjwar. The IG also claimed to have recovered a rough area map of strategic locations in and around Amritsar which was to be used by the ISI agents for carrying out sabotage acts in those areas at the first available opportunity. (PTI) |
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Taliban protests arrest of Afghans in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Oct 10: The Taliban has protested against what it called the harassment of Afghan nationals in its "second home" Pakistan following the recent spurt of sectarian violence that Islamabad had blamed on the militia. In a protest handed over to the Home Secretary of Pakistan, the "Afghan Government," or the Taliban regime which is recognised only by Islamabad, Riyadh and Abu Dhabi, denied of its involvement in the recent killings. Also, the militia denied the accusation that it was providing terrorist training to the people of the neighbouring countries. The Taliban alleged that several Afghan nationals were recently arrested in the NWFP and Baluchistan. Kabul’s "ambassador" in Pakistan, while handing over the protest, said Pakistan was a "second home" for Afghans and that the "sacrifices it made for the cause of their country can never be forgotten." The Pakistani authorities have assured the Taliban that they would look into the matter. Meanwhile, the interrogation of the arrested Afghan militants has reportedly revealed that ten VIPs, including two Ministers, three members of the Assembly and one Senator, were on the terrorist hit list. (UNI) |
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Pak militant killed in Rajouri; 5 escape Excelsior Correspondent RAJOURI, Oct 10: Army gunned down a Pakistani militant at village Androol in Kali Top area of Keri sector today. Five other militants managed to escape during the encounter. A large quantity of explosives were recovered from the encounter site. Official reports reaching at the district headquarters said a group of local people noticed five-six militants fetching water from a tube well in Androol village last night. The villagers rushed to a nearby army camp and informed them about militants’ movement. Troops launched a search operation in the night itself but a contact with militants was established this morning. An exchange of firing ensued between the militants and army soldiers which continued till this afternoon. In the encounter, army jawans gunned down one militant while five others managed to escape in the adjoining forest area. Reinforcement of troops was rushed to the forests to hunt the fleeing militants, all of whom were stated to be Pakistanis. Body of the slain militant was recovered from the scene of encounter today. He was identified as Mohd Saleem, a Pakistani. His identity was established from an identity card recovered from his possession. Besides an identity card, troops also recovered 28 rifle grenades, four wireless sets, one AK-47 rifle with four magazines and four ‘pithoo’ bags from the spot. Searches for the absconding militants continued but no further success has been achieved so far. Efforts were on to eliminate them, the sources said. Meanwhile, the reports said, the intermittent exchange of firing between Indo-Pak troops continued at the Line of Control (LoC) in twin border districts of Poonch and Rajouri overnight. But, there was no report of any casualty on Indian side in the firing. |
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Budgam-Beerwah Road
begins to decay Excelsior Special Correspondent SRINAGAR, Oct 10: Largescale misappropriation of funds has surfaced in Roads & Buildings Division Budgam as the Executive Engineer has bypassed the District Development Board and issued unauthorised work orders to give undue benefit to his favourite contractors. Informed sources said that unauthorised works worth crores of rupees were currently in progress as the Executive Engineer Bashir Ahmed has issued a heap of work orders without floating tenders. Since the allottees are said to be highly influential persons, engineers have compromised the quality of works. The most glaring example is that of 25-km long Budgam-Beerwah-Magam Road, parts of which have been macadamised in 1998-99. Even as funds worth Rs 15 crore are claimed to have been spent on metalling and black-topping of Budgam-Beerwah Road, it has begun to decay at several places within a year. At Chondpora, the road is dilapidated even as the hot-mix macadam has been laid on the same these days last year. Same is the position at 10 spots on the road. The scheme of macadamisation has been quite irrational as travellers find 3 km of the road blacktopped, another 2 kms simply metalled, yet another 1 km quite intact and then the same repetition upto Beerwah and Magam. Almost all the roads macadamised last year and even this year are again in dilapidated condition while as retaining walls claimed to have been raised in 1:6 cement mortar have begun to collapse at several places. Construction of Retaining Walls has also been choosy as the same have not been raised at the most accident-prone spots of roads. Residents and transporters have approached the Executive Engineer repeatedly and demanded construction of a Retaining Wall on the main road near Mirgund -- a spot with a record of 12 road accidents -- but the request has never found favour with the authorities. Sources claimed that making a mockery of the codal regulations and norms, the Executive Engineer has stopped over a dozen spillover works approved by the District Development Board and the same money has been diverted to construction of roads for the convenience and comfort of some politicians. The most glaring example is in evidence, just 100 metres from R&B Division Budgam, where a road is being laid with a massive Retaining Wall for a particular politician in his private land at the estimated cost of Rs 7 lakh. In order to ensure the construction within few days, Executive Engineer has clandestinely issued a work order at the cost of 20 works approved by the DDB Budgam. Official sources insisted that construction of roads and Retaining Walls in private lands was provided nowhere in constitution and procedure books. The Executive Engineer has managed construction of several works which do not figure in the approved works programme of the division. These works have neither been approved by DDB nor by any other competent authority. Authorities have failed to take up the 6-km long Bemina-Mirgund Road, for the last three years and commuters are constrained to take long detours via Budgam and Shariefabad. Even as all the Ministers and district officers have been travelling to Budgam via Humhama, quality of tar macadam and metalling between Ompora and Humhama has been so inferior that one can not drive a two-wheeler on a rainy day. Over Rs 3 crore have been swindled on account of upgradation of this portion of the road but the same is heavily dusty on a sunny day and dangerously muddy on a rainy day. Asked about the reasons of the poor quality of works, insiders said that money was changing hands from Junior Engineers to the Chief Engineer. These sources said that CE R&B Kashmir Mohammad Muzzafar-ud-Din has been shielding the Executive Engineer and even Vigilance officers have been taking a "hafta" from the division. Repeated attempts to contact the CE R&B and EE R&B Division failed as every day their telephone operators said that they were "busy in a meeting." Vajpayee to call on President today NEW DELHI, Oct 10: Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee, who was today elected leader of the National Democratic Alliance, will call on President K R Narayanan at 1630 hrs tomorrow to formally stake his claim to form the new Government. Mr Vajpayee will be accompanied by the leaders of the NDA constituents, Bharatiya Janata Party sources said tonight. Mr Vajpayee tonight held parleys with senior BJP leaders and leaders of the NDA at his residence in connection with the formation of the Government, the sources said. (UNI)
13th Lok Sabha
constituted NEW DELHI, Oct 10: The 13th Lok Sabha was today constituted with the Election Commission submitting the notified list of 537 newly-elected members to President K R Narayanan to initiate the process of Government formation at the Centre. Chief Election Commissioner M S Gill and Election Commissioner J M Lyngdoh initialled the notification containing the list of the MPs at Nirvachan Sadan and later drove to Rashtrapati Bhavan to hand it over to the President. With the constitution of the new House, the President will begin the exercise of the formation of the new Government. The BJP-led National Democratic Alliance (NDA) has secured a majority in the Lok Sabha after the five-phased elections spanning over a month. Gill told reporters at the forecourt of Rashtrapati Bhavan after submitting the list of MPs that the President was very satisfied with the conduct of the elections and complimented the Commission. He said it was a hard fought election and the Commission has a sense of relief and satisfaction. It was a difficult job. The CEC expressed the hope that the new Parliament would prove to be fruitful and worthwhile for the people in the new millennium. Referring to poll process, Gill said that the Commission had received "good cooperation" from all 55 including seven national parties and maintained that they had adhered by and large to the model code of conduct. He lauded the role of 50 lakh civil servants and police personnel on poll duty especially those who were killed during the election process including in landmine blasts and floods. "Their sacrifice is no less than that of the Kargil martyrs. They had laid down their lives for the national service." Of the 543 elected seats in the Lok Sabha, results of elections in 537 seats have been announced. Elections to four seats in Bihar and one in Assam and repolling in certain polling stations in Outer Manipur constituency would take place on October 28. (PTI) |
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