Maha
Govt asked to take steps to prevent
attack on N Indians
NEW
DELHI, Mar 4: Asserting that every citizen had the
right to work anywhere in the country, the Centre
today sought to disapprove the actions of
Maharashtra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thackeray
and asked the State Government to take all steps
to prevent attacks on north Indians.
Home Minister
Shivraj Patil told the Lok Sabha that "every
citizen of the country has every right to go and
work anywhere in the country.... It is not just a
constitutional right, but part of our composite
culture as well."
Patil’s
statement came in response to an impromptu
discussion in the House yesterday, which saw
several members demanding action against
Thackeray for his controversial statements which
provoked violence against north Indians.
Noting that
neither the people of Maharashtra, nor the
Government there had supported the agitation, he
said "no one can be stopped or restricted
from going to any place for work.
"Certain
statements were made by some people... But these
have not been supported by the people of
Maharashtra, neither by the State Government and
nor by the people of the country."
He said whatever
was necessary was being done by the State
Government. "If they fail to do it, the
Centre will tell them to do so."
Maintaining that
MCOCA was in operation in the state, he said the
State Government has filed more than 300 cases
against over 1500 people for "substantive
offences". This was besides preventive
action taken against 5,000 people.
Asking members to
desist from giving "high figures" of
exodus of non-Maharashtrians from the state,
Patil said caution was needed due to the
sensitivities involved in the issue and its
impact on other states.
The policy of the
State Government as well as the Centre was to
ensure that no migration takes place under threat
from anywhere, he said.
In an obvious
reference to Thackeray’s statement that his
organisation would not allow performing of
‘chhat puja’ (north Indian festival) in
Mumbai, Patil said "no one can stop these
celebrations. And action will be taken if anybody
tries to do so. All festivals are celebrated by
the people across the country and that is the
strength of our culture."
The Home Minister
said Mumbai, the financial capital of the
country, was the pride of India and people from
all regions had contributed to make it so.
Referring to some
members raising the issue of one Kishan Singh of
Siwan district of Bihar whose hands were
reportedly amputated during the agitation in
Pune, he said the media reports to this effect
would be probed.
"If
necessary, we will ask Maharashtra Government to
send a team of state police to Siwan and record
the statement of this person, if need be do a
video recording. However, the State Government
has informed us that no such case has been
registered in any of the police stations in the
state," Patil said. (PTI)
India
urges intl community to fight gender inequality
UNITED
NATIONS, Mar 4: Voicing concerns over
growing gender inequality, India has asked the
international community for a collective action
to fight the evil.
Addressing the
ongoing session of the Commission on the Status
of Women, Indian UN Ambassador Nirupam Sen said
the achievement of Millennium Development Goal to
attain gender equality and empowerment of women
would largely depend on international
community’s collective efforts in timely
allocation of necessary financial resources.
Women are agents
of social justice and social change and without
their full emancipation, there would be no social
progress, Sen said yesterday.
"While
primary responsibility for allocation of finances
rests with the country concerned, it has been
recognised that the international community
should match up to its commitment by provision of
new and additional financial resources, transfer
of technology, sharing of experiences, expertise,
information and data, technical cooperation and
capacity-building," he added.
Referring to steps
being taken by India for women’s
empowerment, Sen said gender equity and equality
has been a key guiding principle of
Government’s policies.
"India’s
planning process is fully committed to enabling
women to be equal partners in development,"
he said, adding, the delegates that a separate
Department for Women and Child Development,
created in 1985, has been upgraded to a Central
Ministry in 2005.
The Joint
Parliamentary Committee of the Parliament on
Empowerment of Women plays a crucial role in
monitoring the application of gender equality
principles in all legislation and also ensures it
is gender-responsive, Sen said.
"The
reservation in India twelve years ago of
one-third of urban and local self-government
seats for women marked a turning point in our
effort to empower women."
As a result, over
one million Indian women at the grassroots level
have been brought into political decision-making,
which effectively gives them a significant say in
utilisation of financial resources allocated to
the local-self governing bodies in rural and
urban areas," he added.
India, he said,
adopted in 2004 ‘Budgeting for gender
equity’ as a goal.
Gender budgets
have become an integral part of the budget
exercise in India and the total magnitude has
increased from 3.8 per cent to 5 per cent of the
total Union Government expenditure during the
last four years, he added.
Referring to the
Expert Group, at its meeting held in September
2007, he pointed to the shortages in Official
Development Assistance (ODA) flows, and the
concomitant negative impact on financing gender
related schemes by developing countries,
particularly the Least Developed countries.
"The twin
challenges of decreasing ODA levels to developing
countries as well as devising mechanisms to
bridge the gap between policy and practise at the
national level on financing gender, should be
addressed at this Commission," he said.
(PTI)
Security
around Tihar jail beefed up
NEW
DELHI, Mar 4 : Security around Tihar jail
here has been beefed up following intelligence
inputs that militants were planning to carry out
suicide attack on the prison complex.
This was informed
in the Lok Sabha by Minister of State for Home
Affairs V Radhika Selvi in response to a written
question from actress-turned-politician
Jayaprada.
The Minister said
an intelligence input regarding plans of Jehadi
terrorist attack on Tihar Jail was received in
the month of September last year prompting the
authorities to carry out effective changes in the
security apparatus around the prison.
The preventive and
precautionary measures taken to protect prisons
from suicide attacks include positioning of three
mobile Quick Reaction Teams at sensitive
locations, providing advanced weapons to security
personnel and carry out surprise exercise to
check arrangements.
Besides
installation of close circuit television,
additional police pickets, patrolling by police
outside and erection of mobile barricades have
been put, she said. (PTI)
6
Kashmiris arrested
BEHRAMPORE,
Mar 4: Police
today arrested seven people, suspected to be
involved in insurgency-related activities, from a
hotel here.
The arrested,
comprising six Kashmiris and one local person,
were suspected to be involved insurgency-related
activities, the police said but refused to
divulge further details.
The police also
seized Rs 40,000 from their possession.
The CID and police
were conducting a joint investigation and the
arrested persons were being interrogated, the
police added. (UNI)
NHPC to
become 10,000 mw plus
in 5 yrs; to invest Rs
28,000 cr
NEW
DELHI, Mar 4: India’s largest hydel power
company NHPC will double the power generation to
become a 10,000 mw plus corporation by 2011-12
envisaging an investment of Rs 28,000 crore.
"We currently
have a capacity of 4,700 mw with work on 13
projects going on in full swing. We shall be
commissioning all the projects without time and
cost overruns. This is all being done with
internal accruals, debt funding and public
offering in the near future," NHPC CMD S K
Garg said.
Elaborating on the
plans, Gard said Government support was
discontinued since last year and all projects
(ongoing and in the future) would be funded
largely from the internal accruals and debt
financing.
On the status of
India’s largest hydel power project of 2,000
mw (Subansiri lower) in Arunachal Pradesh, he
said work on dam’s construction will start
by December, while power house work was already
on.
"As
committed, we shall commission this project in
2011-12, while rest of the 12 projects in next
three years," he said adding two projects
totalling 1030 mw have already been commissioned
in the first year of 11th five year plan.
Asked details of
Rs 28,000 crore investment, Garg said, about Rs
4,800 crore would come from internal accruals and
the corporation has already signed an agreement
with Power Finance Corporation for Rs 3,000 crore
in addition to Rs 1,000 crore to be signed soon.
Besides, NHPC has
two lines of credit from Life Insurance
Corporation for Rs 9,000 crore.
On the public
offering, the CMD said, "we are waiting for
appointment of independent directors and as soon
as this is done we shall hit the market in no
time as all preparations have been done."
NHPC has a paid up
capital of Rs 11,500 crore and is planning to
raise 10 per cent as a fresh equity besides five
per cent disinvestment of Government’s
stake.
The corporation
had last year submitted the draft prospectus with
market regulator SEBI in April but did not get
the approval as it did not have 50 per cent
Independent Directors on the board.
Asked how much was
likely to be raised through an IPO, Garg declined
to make any guess but said the recent issue of
Rural Electrification Corporation (REC) has
proved that investors have lot faith in the PSUs.
(PTI)
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