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News:
Tehelka expose rocks LS
Parliament approves Marriage Laws Bill
Tehelka committed a crime against the country: Fernandes
Badrinath pilgrims stranded due to landslides
Pak assails proposal of granting relief to Indian soldiers
Police deployed in sensitive areas of city
`Reduction in size of Mithi river may spell disaster'
India seeks adjustments in Indo-Nepal Trade Treaty
SAARC concern over attepts to expand WTO trade agenda
India to work for getting exclusive rights over Basmati
Terms of reference for judicial probe on agreement with Enron finalised
India pull out of Asian Championship
Indians force Sri Lanka on backfoot
Tendulkar to leave for South Africa on Aug 25
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Tehelka expose rocks LS
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: Resurfacing after about four months, the Tehelka expose today rocked Lok Sabha but this time it was ruling NDA members who were on the offensive demanding immediate arrest of the Portal Chief Tarun Tejpal following revelations that the website had 'used' prostitutes to nail Army officers.
After two adjournments, Speaker G M C Balayogi called it a day with vociferous NDA members storming the well with copies of a newspaper containing a report that the Portal had arranged prostitutes for three Army officers as part of its sting operation.
The Tehelka expose on fictitious defence deals had paralysed the Budget session of Parliament in April last for about a fortnight with the Congress demanding resignation of the Vajpayee Government and setting up of a Joint Parliamentary Committee to probe the Portal revelations.
BJP President Bangaru Laxman, Samata Party Chief Jaya Jaitley and Defence Minister George Fernandes had resigned in the wake of the expose.
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Parliament approves Marriage Laws Bill
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: Parliament today approved a legislation which seeks to provide 60 days time limit for disposal of alimony applications for divorce cases with Rajya Sabha unanimously returning the measure.
The Marriage Laws (Amendment) Bill which had already been passed by the Lok Sabha seeks to amend relevant clauses of Indian Divorce Act, the Parsi Marriage and Divorce Act, the Special Marriage Act and the Hindu Marriage Act.
Replying to a brief discussion on the bill, which received unanimous support from members, Law minister Arun Jaitley said this was only a small step towards ensuring that women in the country were given appropriate rights. He said the 60 days time limit has been necessitated as the process of payment of maintenance in divorce cases was ''painfully slow'' in the country in view of lakhs of cases pending in every district.
To members query, he said, the laws were already in place to ensure divorced women get residence expenses as part of maintenance. Government was not in favour of linking maintenance to cost of living index as suggested by Congress member Kapil Sibal, he said adding the issue should be left to courts because of variable given situation. He was also against giving any fixed percentage of a husband's salary as alimony.
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Tehelka committed a crime against the country: Fernandes
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: Samata Party leader George Fernandes, who resigned as Defence Minister in the wake of the Tehelka expose, today charged the portal with committing a "crime against the country by demoralising" the army by reportedly using prostitutes for nailing officers.
"The army has been demoralised and to an extent even the country. They (the portal) succeeded in both. There cannot be any doubt that a crime against the country has been committed," Fernandes said.
Fernandes, who is the NDA Convenor, said his party colleagues were of the view that Government should register a case against the portal under the Supression of Immoral Traffic Act (SITA).
"I am told (by my party colleagues) that this is a serious criminal offence under SITA," he said when asked to comment on a newspaper report that Tehelka had arranged protitutes for three army officers as part of its sting operations.
Claiming that he knew of the methods used by the portal in its expose on fictitious defence deals, Fernandes recalled that he had told Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee at a Cabinet meeting on March 13 last that the Government should have no (no) fears regarding the functioning of the Defence Ministry despite the expose.
"I knew from the beginning what they (the portal) had resorted to. I had offered to resign then but my resignation was not accepted," he said maintaining that he stepped down when the Opposition created an impasse in Parliament.
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Badrinath pilgrims stranded due to landslides
Gopeshwar,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: Over 5,000 pilgrims, returning from Badrinath, have been stranded on the Badrinath- Hanumanchatti National Highway following heavy landslides at Hanumanchatti due to incessant rains, sources said.
Supply of ration and essential goods has also been hit as vehicular traffic remained disrupted, they said.
Nearly a thousand pilgrims returning from Kedarnath have also been stranded on Fata-Gaurikund route due to heavy landslides, sources said, adding vehicular traffic has been affected between Fata and Gaurikund for the past 20 days.
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Pak assails proposal of granting relief to Indian soldiers
United Nations,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: Taking exception to India's plan to give some relief to security personnel accused of violating human rights during fight against militancy, Pakistan has alleged that this could lead to "more repression" in Jammu and Kashmir and undermine the peace process.
"Such a draconian law will not solve the problem," Pakistan Foreign Secretary Inam ul Haq today said reacting to Home Minister L K Advani's statement on Sunday that the government was considering extending some relief to security personnel charged with violating human rights while fighting militancy.
Haq, who held meetings with UN officials here, told reporters that human rights groups and Amnesty International should take note of the Indian move which could result in "exacerbating" the situation in Kashmir.
Alleging that India is trying to avoid another meeting between Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and President Pervez Musharraf, he said "Pakistan is prepared for a meeting at any time and at any place."
Asked about the possibility of the two leaders' meeting during the United Nations General Assembly session next month in New York, he said nothing has been fixed, "but Pakistan is prepared for such a meeting."
Haq urged the Security Council members to encourage further meetings between Vajpayee and Musharraf as a summit between the two leaders at Agra last month had ended without any result. "The dialogue initiated at Agra summit should form the basis for future negotiations and discussions between the two countries," he said.
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Police deployed in sensitive areas of city
More than 20,000 policemen, assisted by Special Reserve Police Force (SRPF), have been deployed in sensitive areas of the city, which was placed on high alert following intelligence reports that Pakistan-based gangsters planned to disrupt Ganpati festival celebrations commencing on Wednesday.
Cops have been asked to organise 'nakabandis' at strategic points and conduct raids on hide-outs of gangsters, crime branch sources said here.
Arrest of two Chhota Shakeel gangsters in Surat, Gujarat, has revealed that they were hired to plant explosives at the city police headquarters. Accordingly, security has been beefed up in and around the police commissionerate, they said.
Vigil has been stepped up on the activities and movements of alleged gangsters to ensure there is no law and order problem in the city during the 10-day festival, police added.
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`Reduction in size of Mithi river may spell disaster'
The Mithi river, which originates in the Sanjay Gandhi National Park, Borivli, and flows through the city collecting nearly 800 million litres of sewage and toxic effluents from Dharavi and other areas along the course, gets flushed by tidal waves at Mahim Bay. However, environmentalists point out that over the years due to large-scale reclamation the mouth of the bay is being steadily reduced in size. They fear the reduction of the mouth of the bay will lead to the stagnation of the channel, which acts like a drainage system for the city.
Presently, the mouth of the bay between Bandra lands end and Worli is 1,600 m wide. For the Worli-Bandra sealink (WBSL), 400 m needs to be reclaimed at Bandra lands' end and 270 m at Worli, thus further reducing the mouth of the Bay by 670 m. Add to this nearly 100 support pillars for the bridge, which will fall in the mouth of the bay. "This will further obstruct the flow of tidal waves into the estuary," says environment activist Girish Raut. "If the sewage and effluents are not flushed out by the tidal waves, we could be heading for a major environmental disaster with the threat of epidemics looming large over the city," he adds.
Environmentalists also allege that the Maharashtra Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) has been abetting in the destruction of mangroves in Mahim Creek. "MMRDA has built bunds along the sides of the creek. These bunds have cut off the flow of sea water to entire tracts of mangroves, which are drying up. Once the mangroves dry up, the land can be easily reclaimed," states Mr Raut.
In fact, MMRDA's land use proposal plan for Bandra-Kurla Complex has all the mangrove tracts labelled as "unreclaimed land".
MMRDA commissioner Ajit Warti, however, vehemently denied the allegation. "The bunds have been built to facilitate various activities carried out for cleaning the Mithi river," he said.
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India seeks adjustments in Indo-Nepal Trade Treaty
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: India sought necessary adjustments and removal of imbalances in the ten-year old Indo-Nepal Trade Treaty to avoid dumping of third nation goods.
Asserting "free trade is not synonymous with free for all", External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh told the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday that India had sought modifications in the Treaty coming up for renewal to prevent India from becoming a dumping ground for third country goods.
Making a statement on his recent goodwill visit to Nepal in both Houses of Parliament, Singh said technical teams from the External Affairs and Commerce Ministries would take up the matter with the Nepalese authorities in the first week of next month.
The minister was responding to clarifications from members' who expressed grave concern over reports of dumping of cheap Chinese and other third country goods like Vanaspati Ghee, vegetable oil and acrilic fibre into India. Singh said India was all for correcting the imbalances in the Treaty and said that dumping of goods of third countries had come to the fore when "sudden surges in movement of goods" were noticed.
"India should have the right to go back to Nepal to seek redressal of such issues", the External Affairs Minister said adding that Nepalese expectation were that the spirit of the treaty was not lost.
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SAARC concern over attepts to expand WTO trade agenda
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: In the run-up to the WTO ministerial conference at Doha, Commerce Secretaries of developing nations in the SAARC region today expressed concern at attempts being made by developed countries to expand the trade agenda.
"It was essential that obligations already entered into be fulfilled in the first instance before taking on fresh commitments and obligations," the commerce secretaries of South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation (SAARC) said at a meeting held here.
Representing India Union Commerce Secretary Prabir Sengupta said India was firmly committed to the multilateral trading system, but was disappointed at the lack of transparency at Seattle.
"There was considerable imbalance in the agreements, which needed to be corrected if all countries were to benefit from trade liberalisation," Sengupta said.
Following detailed deliberations, the secretaries agreed on a common text of a draft statement which would be put up for the consideration and approval of the respective Commerce Ministers on August 23.
The meeting of SAARC commerce secretaries, convened at short notice, was attended by all the SAARC countries, other than Maldives, an official statement said.
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India to work for getting exclusive rights over Basmati
New Delhi,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: Union Agriculture Minister Ajit Singh said today there is no need to worry about the recent patenting of Basmati varieties in US as the trade name has not been given to them and government has initiated steps to get exclusive rights on it under the Geographical Indicator (GI) Act.
After inaugurating the 40th All India Wheat Research Workers Meet here he said, "only three specific varieties developed by RiceTec have been registered which in no way prevents India from marketing its own varieties."
He said to enable exclusive use of the Basmati name by India the process had been initiated under the Geographical Indicator Act passed earlier by the Parliament.
Currently, getting exclusive rights over Basmati were not possible due to enabling provisions available only for wines and spirits under the WTO agreement.
The minister said at present the priority was to get it registered within the country and the steps were being taken under the aegis of the Commerce Ministry.
"Later we will be pushing for amendments in the WTO agreement and also to get it registered in other countries which have a GI Act in place," he said.
At the same time the Plant Varieties and Farmers' Rights Bill cleared by the Lok Sabha will also be coming up for discussion in the Upper House.
The bill proposes to give farmers rights over their produce and enables the registration of all varieties developed by them.
He said the US Basmati patent was not going to affect India's exports of the commodity promoting which was a continuous process.
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Terms of reference for judicial probe on agreement with Enron finalised
Mumbai,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: The much-awaited terms of reference for a judicial probe into the controversial Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with US energy major Enron were unanimously finalised by the coordination committee of the ruling Democratic Front (DF) coalition in Maharashtra.
+We have unanimously finalised the draft document for the terms of reference into the judicial probe of Enron+, Chief Minister Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters on Tuesday at the end of the coordination committee's over two-hour meeting here.
However, Deshmukh refused to divulge the details of terms of reference saying the draft would be first ratified by the state cabinet at its coming meeting.
The Chief Minister said +once the cabinet okays it we will make the terms of reference public+.
To a query about commencement of the judicial probe, Deshmukh said, +the matter will be taken up immediately once the cabinet approves the terms of reference+.
To persistance queries about terms of reference, Deshmukh only said +we have broadly outlined the scope for the judicial probe that would include both the phases of Enron's power project+.
The judicial probe will not hamper with the ongoing litigations against Enron in Mumbai High Court and the Supreme Court, Deshmukh replied to a query.
DF coordination committee convenor N D Patil, NCP state unit chief Babanrao Pachpute, Janata Dal (Secular) leader Gopal Dukahnde and CPM's Prabhakar Sanzgiri were among those who were present at the meeting.
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India pull out of Asian Championship
India are out of the Asian Test Championship after politicians refused to sanction a match against Pakistan in September.
Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee took the decision following a meeting with the country's foreign and home ministers, according to government sources.
Sports minister Uma Bharti told reporters the national team would not be allowed to travel to Pakistan.
"Our country's policy is far more important than sports," he said.
The tournament starts next week with Pakistan hosting Bangladesh. Sri Lanka are also taking part.
It is felt that cricket, which has a huge following in both countries, arouses national sentiments and inflames passions.
Relations between the two countries have long been strained over the dispute about the Himalayan region of Kashmir.
It is not the first time the Indian government has made such a move.
They cancelled a proposed Test tour of Pakistan late last year.
The Board of Control for Cricket in India says it will abide by the government's decision, which has been backed by former Indian internationals.
Too much pressure
"I feel things are not right for India to play in Pakistan," said Roger Binny, a member of India's 1983 World Cup-winning team.
"It would put too much pressure on the players."
"When everything else is not right, how is it right to play cricket? I agree with what the government has done."
India last played a Test match in Pakistan nearly 12 years ago and the Pakistan team last travelled to India in early 1999, a few months before an undeclared war in northern Kashmir strained Indo-Pakistani relations further.
"The government knows what they are doing," said Maninder Singh, a former Test spinner who is now a television commentator.
"It's unfortunate, but if they feel the situation is not okay then they have to make the right decision."
Despite India's absence, the Asian Cricket Council says the tournament will not be postponed.
"The championship will go ahead as planned and the schedule remains unchanged," said Asian Cricket Council secretary Zakir Hussain Syed.
"The matches India was supposed to play would now be treated as walkovers," he added.
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Indians force Sri Lanka on backfoot
Kandy,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: India kept up the pressure and enjoyed an upper hand as they forced Sri Lanka on the backfoot for a total of 167 for five at tea on the opening day of the second cricket Test match here today.
Having opted to field first, the Indians bowled a probing line and length and forced the batsmen into committing mistakes. And they were duly rewarded at regular intervals with Sri Lankans failing to put up any substantial partnership except for the second wicket stand of 60 between Marvan Atapattu and Kumar Sangakkara.
After striking twice in successive over just before lunch to reduce the hosts to 82 for three, the Indians got two more wickets in the second session with Zaheer Khan dismissing Russel Arnold and Venkatesh Prasad accounting for Hashan Tillekaratne.
However, Mahela Jayawardene was continuing to trouble the Indians with some fine batting and he was unbeaten on 61 at tea break. Suresh Perera, on nine, was giving him company.
The second seesion saw the addition of 85 runs to the Sri Lankan total in 28.3 overs.
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Tendulkar to leave for South Africa on Aug 25
Baroda,Wednesday, August 22, 2001: Batting maestro Sachin Tendulkar has postponed his departure to South Africa for treatment to his injured right toe by two days, Cricket Board secretary Jaywant Lele said today.
Tendulkar, who was to leave tomorrow for a check up by noted orthopeadic surgeon Dr Mark Fergusson, postponed his trip due to personal reasons, Lele told PTI. The batting maestro will now leave on August 25, he said.
Tendulkar skipped the on-going tour of Sri Lanka due to the injury sustained during the triangular one-day series in Zimbabwe in the last league match against the West Indies on July four.
Tendulkar's stay in South Africa will depend on the advice of Dr Mark Fergusson.
However, the Mumbai star is expected to be available for team's tour of South Africa beginning from October one.
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