Please Arrest me, Illegal Malayali worker asks Dubai Police--2000 Illegal workers who obtained Emergency Certificates from Muscat still living in Oman!

.UAE Amnesty Scheme targets 40,000 illegal Indian workers.

NICD Investigations on occurance of disese in Tamil Nadu-Use of fly ash in road construction to be made mandatory

British Territory Must Not Be Used for TorturingAl Qaeda suspects

(London, December 31, 2002) — The British government must ensure that the United States does not torture suspected al-Qaeda detainees held on the island of Diego Garcia, part of British Indian Ocean Territory, Human Rights Watch said today. In a letter to U.K. Prime Minister Tony Blair, Human Rights Watch referred to U.S. press reports that the U.S. was detaining and interrogating al-Qaeda suspects at a U.S. facility on Diego Garcia and that U.S. interrogations reportedly include practices that violate customary and conventional international law prohibitions against torture and mistreatment.

“British officials should not look the other way if the U.S. is abusing al-Qaeda suspects on British territory,” said Kenneth Roth, executive director of Human Rights Watch. “Leasing land on Diego Garcia to the U.S. does not allow the U.K. to ignore its obligation to prevent torture.”

In the letter to Blair, Human Rights Watch cited international treaty obligations that require all governments to take effective measures to prevent, investigate, and punish torture occurring on territory subject to their jurisdiction. Last week, Human Rights Watch urged U.S. President George W. Bush immediately to affirm that the use of torture is contrary to U.S policy, to investigate the reported allegations of torture and mistreatment of al-Qaeda detainees held by the United States, to adopt all necessary measures to end any such torture or mistreatment, and to prosecute those responsible for such abuse.

Use of fly ash in road construction to be made mandatory

Use of fly ash in construction, laying of roads, reclamation of low-lying areas etc. is proposed to be made mandatory under the amended Fly Ash Rules to be notified soon by the Ministry of Environment and Forests. The statutory period of 60 days for raising objections and making suggestions in this regard expires this week. Draft Fly Ash Amendment Rules were notified last month.

The Fly Ash Rules notified in September 1999 are being amended to make it compulsory for all agencies engaged in the construction of buildings within a radius of 100 kms. from coal or lignite based thermal power plants to use fly ash bricks or blocks or tiles. Beginning with a minimum of 25 per cent of fly ash products, the new rules require 100 per cent use of fly ash products in due course as per the schedule specified. This applies to all construction agencies such as housing boards and private builders of apartments, hotels, resorts, cottages etc. The State governments will be the enforcing authorities for the new rules while it was the State Pollution Control Boards in the original rules.

While the 1999 rules only required the manufacturers of clay bricks or tiles or blocks within a radius of 50 kms. from thermal power plants to mix at least 25 per cent of ash, the new rules put the onus of use of fly ash on the user agencies. The distance stipulation for manufacturers has also been enhanced to 100 kms. in the new rules. The defaulting manufacturers will be penalised with the termination of lease on land and clay mining.

The amendments also prohibit construction of roads or fly-over embankments in contravention of the guidelines issued by the Indian Road Congress within a radius of 100 kms. of thermal power plant. Reclamation of low-lying areas within a radius of 100 kms. will have to be done only with pond ash. Use of fly ash will also be permitted in the reclamation of seas.

Learning from the experience of the implementation of the original rules, the new rules require all agencies including the Central Public Works Department and the State government agencies to provide for the use of the fly ash and fly ash products in the schedule of approved materials and rates. All agencies undertaking construction of roads or fly-over bridges including the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways, National Highway Authority of India, Central Public Works Department, State Public Works Departments and other agencies are required to make necessary specifications/guidelines for road or fly-over embankments to enable use of fly ash and its products.

90 million tons of fly ash is being produced every year from the thermal power plants only in the country while only 18 million tons is being used, mostly for embankment of roads, back filling of mines, rising of dykes, landfill and to a limited extent as fly ash bricks and other products. CPWD has permitted use of fly ash in load bearing structures for two-storied buildings. National Highway Authority of India has begun to incorporate provisions for use of fly ash in the new tender documents. The Delhi High Court is seized of a public interest litigation seeking enforcement of Fly Ash Rules and the next hearing is on 26th February 2003.

NICD Investigations on occurance of disese in Tamil Nadu

There were reports in a section of press describing occurrence of an unknown disease in human beings and goats of Gumbli village, Thiruvellur district of Tamil Nadu. The news report has two components namely disease in human beings and disease in goats. The factual position on both the components is as follows:

Disease in human beings - A total of 8 human cases with three deaths were reported during a period of six weeks from 1st February to 14th March, 2002. The clinical presentation in majority of the cases were tingling and numbness in limbs. Two cases had ascending progressive, flaccid paralysis with sensory disturbance and bladder and bowel dysfunction with normal peripheral nerve conduction studies which does not match with the clinical profile of poliomyelitis. National Institute of Communicable Diseases (NICD) analysed four stool samples and six serum samples from the cases and isolated Poliovirus type III (Vaccine strain) from two of the cases. The isolates were sent to Entro-Virus Research Centre (ICMR institute), Mumbai for genomic analysis and result confirmed that this is a vaccine strain of Poliovirus and not a wild virus. Hence, the available clinical, epidemiological and laboratory evidence indicate that this episode could not be related to poliomyelitis.

Disease in Goats - Earlier, from 3rd January to 14th March, 2002, an outbreak of unknown disease was reported in the same village in goats where about 200 goats had died. A total of nine serum samples, one from ailing goat and eight from grazing goats along with one brain specimen were analysed. The results indicated absence of antibodies against Poliovirus in ailing goat and no virus could be isolated from the brain tissue indicating that Poliovirus is not associated with this illness. The Polio like antibodies were detected in four out of the eight healthy goat serum samples. Since there is no known occurrence of Polio antibodies among goats as per the available literature, the presence of Polio like antibodies could be due to cross reaction with some other viruses. NICD has not yet finalised its report and further investigation is still in progress on the cause of death of the goats.