k e r a l a m o n i t o r February 11, 2003.
- Application for Indian Forest Service Examination 2003 invited
- India prevails on Asian Brown Cloude issue at UNEP Meet Bottled Drinking
Election Time for Indian Associations in Muscat
India asks US to end dichotomy on terrorism
New Delhi,Tuesday, February 11, 2003: India today asked US to end the dichotomy of its stand on terrorism and said "zero tolerance" should not be confined to the September 11 attack but also the terrorist strikes on Indian Parliament and elsewhere in the world.
In an apparent reference to Washington's "soft approach" towards Pakistan which is engaged in cross-border terrorism against India, Union Urban Development Minister Ananth Kumar said, "the US should end its dichotomy. The global alliance against terrorism has to be focused and transparent." The Minister was addressing the ongoing International Youth Conference on Terrorism, organised by the Bharatiya Janata Yuva Morch (BJYM), BJP's youth wing.
"There was no justification for the attack on the World Trade Centre or Pentagon and there was no justification for the December 13 attack on Indian Parliament, the terrorist attacks in Bali, Kenya and other places. The global alliance will have to extend the 'Zero Tolerance' beyond the September 11 attack to include the Parliament attack and other terrorist activities world wide," he said.
Asserting terrorism was a "continuous attack" on the basic human right to life, he said, "there was no justification of or compromise with slavery and apartheid. Similarly, there cannot be any justification of or compromise with a mean and cowardly act like terrorism." Outlining a multi-prong strategy, he said the youth must understand terrorism, campaign against, pre-empt and fight against it. International experts including Virginia Mullin, Rohan Gunaratne and Maj Gen Afsir Karim also spoke.
Railways to run summer special trains
New Delhi,Tuesday, February 11, 2003: Southern Railway will run as many as 27 summer special trains and Central and Western Railways would ply 24 special trains each to meet the rush of passengers during the coming summer months. The Railway Ministry has given approval to the Zonal Railways for running summer specials and augmenting of existing train services during the period. While Eastern and South-Eastern Railways will run eight summer specials each, Northern and Northeast Frontier railways four and North Western Railway two, an official release said today.
All the summer specials would run on daily, bi-weekly, tri-weekly and four days a week basis, the details of which would be announced by the respective Zonal Railways, it said. In addition, the Zonal Railways will augment train services during this summer. Central Railway will augment 19 trains by adding extra coaches followed by Eastern Railway 12 trains, Northeast Frontier Railway eight trains and South Eastern Railway 18 trains.
Both the summer specials and the augmented train services will operate between early April and end of June or until the first weekend of July this year.
Prosecution sanction soon in 200 corruption cases
Ghaziabad,Tuesday, February 11, 2003: In a fillip to its probe against public servants, the Government is all set to give prosecution sanction in over 200 cases of corruption being investigated by CBI, where officers holding public office were involved. "We are holding a meeting on February 20 to discuss all outstanding issues related to these long-pending cases where public servants were involved and will resolve the issue of according sanction," Secretary (Coordination and Public Grievances) in the Cabinet Secretariat Bhure Lal told reporters here today.
"We will see that some action is taken to these cases within three months," Lal said at the sidelines of a three-day seminar on "Effective Prosecution of Corruption." Earlier, addressing the seminar, attended by representatives of 14 countries including India and jointly organised by CBI, Asian Development Bank and Organisation of Economic Cooperation and Development, Lal said corruption always hurt the poorest of the poor.
"Corruption stops external funding, development process goes slow, prices of commodities go up and rate of unemployment increases," he said expressing his displeasure over involvement of bureaucrats in corruption cases often. "We have to be honest to our job, we have to be sincere to the law of the land and see that the development resources go to the grassroots level," Lal said. Calling for a broad-based cooperation and understanding between the agencies of different countries, he said "we need international intelligence sharing and openness to curb the criminals more effectively".
Situation in Bhiwandi tense but peaceful: Police
Mumbai,Tuesday, February 11, 2003: The situation in nearby Bhiwandi township, which witnessed riots on Sunday night following impounding of eight cows, remained tense but under control today, even as one company of Rapid Action Force was deployed to maintain law and order, police sources said.
The RAF company would remain posted till the end of the Id festival, the sources added. Around 30 policemen were injured in the clashes when a 1000-strong mob pelted stones at them to protest the arrest of some persons for allegedly bringing eight cows to Nizampara area for slaughter in view of Bakr-Id tomorrow.
Police resorted to lathi-charge and burst tear gas shells to disperse the unruly mob. Later, police fired 15 rounds in the air to quell the rioters. Under Maharashtra Animal Preservation Act, 1976, slaughter of cows is banned. However, the act allows slaughter of goat and other animals. Police had imposed curfew on February 9 night for a few hours to bring the situation under control, the sources added. Altogether eight persons have been arrested on charges of rioting and causing injuries to policemen. More than 100 have been detained as a preventive measure.
US sticks to Iraq's disarmament
Washington,Tuesday, February 11, 2003: In a frigid response, the United States has said Iraq's approval of the use of US-made U-2 surveillance planes by weapons inspectors as "tactical retreats" and accused Saddam Hussein that he would use civilians as "human shields".
"The bottom line is the president (George W Bush) is interested in disarmament. This does nothing to change that," White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Monday when asked about the offer to permit U-2 flights by Iraq. State Department spokesman Richard Boucher described the Iraqi moves as tactical retreats and said Baghdad still had not indicated whether it would comply quickly and fully with UN disarmament demands. President Bush, speaking at a meeting of religious broadcasters in Nashville on Monday, said: "We face an outlaw regime in Iraq that hates our country. Saddam Hussein has broken every promise to disarm." Saddam Hussein, he said, "views the Iraqi people as human shields entirely expendable when their suffering serves his purposes."
By contrast, he said, America views the Iraqi people as human beings who have suffered long enough "under this tyrant." He promised that the US would bring food, medicines and supplies to aid Iraqi civilians if war comes. Meanwhile, during his travels in Europe, Defence Secretary Rumsfeld has urged the international community to "begin to prepare for war" with Iraq. He insisted that Iraq is continuing its defiance of UN resolutions to disarm itself. Though two key powers on the Continent, France and Germany, are opposed to war, the US counts eighteen European countries among its supporters, led by Britain.
Passenger vehicle sales at 12570 nos. set a new record Commercial Vehicle sales cross 10,000 mark
Tata Engineering reported total sales of 23,316 vehicles in the domestic market in January ‘03.
February 10, 2003: The April-January period of fiscal ‘03 saw the Company’s total sales going to 165,276 nos. which represented a growth of 25.8 % over the corresponding period last yearCommercial Vehicles
Total sales of commercial vehicles in January ’03 were 10746 nos.,a growth of 29.4% over January ’02. Sales of M&HCVs at 7304 nos. showed a growth of 22.7% as compared to January ’02. LCV sales at 3442 nos. clocked a growth of 46% over last January. The Company recorded a total sale of 84159 Commercial vehicles in the period April-January ’03, a growth of 32.6 % over 63,486 vehicles sold in the corresponding period last year.
Passenger Vehicles
The company’s domestic sales grew by 29% in January ’03 at 12570 nos., recording the highest ever monthly sales of the passenger car business. Cumulative sales for the period April ’02 – January ’03 stood at 81117 nos. – a growth of 19.7% during the fiscal.
The sales performance was led by the Tata Indigo, which recorded a sale of 2146 nos. in its first full month of launch to emerge as the leader in the mid-size (C) segment. In the process, the Indigo earned itself the unique distinction of being one of the rare brands in the Indian automobile industry’s history to become the market leader in its first month of launch. Besides getting the endorsement of the customers, the car was also recognized by auto critics, winning Overdrive – ICICI’s award for the “Most exciting car of the year” as well as CNBC – Autocar’s award for the “Best Value for Money car” for the year 2002. The Indigo’s display at the recently concluded Swadeshi Mela at Mumbai enabled the company to be awarded the “Bharat Gaurav Puraskar” in the Automobile category. The Indigo has acquired a 27% market share in January amongst 10 other competing brands in the segment.
Indica sales grew by 6% in January ’03 to 7811 nos. and 127% over December ’02 sales of 3441 nos., ending the first ten months of the fiscal with a cumulative sale of 59,280 nos. – a growth of 21.6%. Utility vehicle sales grew by 10.3% in January to 2613 nos. and ended with a cumulative sale of 19,225 nos. for the fiscal - a growth of 1%. Safari sales continue to be robust with a growth of 33% in January and 30% for the fiscal.
Election Time for Indian Associations in Muscat
Mr.Editor
It is "election"time some of the 'associations". million dollar question" how many "anonymous" letters will be flying around against those who show boldness to challenge "establishments". Employers must be warned by aspiring "sarathi"s of these "association" New self righteous "set ups" will mushroom around to hide the ugly faces of cowards.
regardsNanda Kumar -chala
