September 8, 2002.
- IMC condemns the hate-rape of a Muslim girl in California
- September 11 attack planners received money via Hyderabad, Gulf.
- Prime Minister Calls for a workable solution of Cauvery Water Problem
- Sacked Private School Teachers in UAE seek help to protect their rights
- Inmarsat Shows Next Generation Mobile Communications @ Gitex 2002 First
- IBM Donates Three Linux Computer Labs to Higher Colleges of Technology
- scroll down for more news
Oman Government may withdraw from Gulf Air. Qatar decides to Quit
Manju Menon
Oman Air trying to get Gulf Air routes to Madras, Trivandrum.
Manama- September 8, 2002. At a time when Qatar Government has confirmed its decision to pull out from Gulf Air, Omani Government is also considering whether to withdraw from Gulf Air.The Omani Government was skeptical about Gulf Air decision to pull out of Seeb and reduce the number of flights from Seeb. The airline have reduced 30 per cent flights to Seeb International airport, causing corresponding fall in revenues. It is also believed that the Bahrain based airline initially owned by several Gulf states was giving a step motherly treatment to the tourism promotion plans of Oman. Oman Air chief executive, Abdulrehman Al Busaidy, told Gulf News that Oman Air's future planning hinged on the Omani Government's decision on 'whether to continue with Gulf Air'.
According to market sources, the various shareholders are using one pretext or other to get away from the sinking airline which has been facing severe financial difficulties. Every member state had inducted several million dollars to bail out a sinking ship. However, since each shareholding GCC member country has got its own official airline, it is not feasible to finance two loss making companies simultaneously. Qatar Government has already made an official decision and it has been conveyed to Gulf Air officials. Now it appears to be the turn of Oman Government to quit the 5 decade old airline. Oman Air, the national carrier of Oman is already incurring heavvy losses and is being bailed out from financial crisis by the major shareholders support.
"Even if the (Omani) government decides to get out of Gulf Air, we would continue to work closely with them (Gulf Air). It is not our decision so if the government decides to pull out, we are prepared," he told Gulf News. According to the GN report, pulling out of Gulf Air would be an economical and political decision. He further added that employment opportunities for Omani nationals and support for the country's own tourism drive were important. "These are some of the facets to the decision." Recently high level Gulf Air officials were frequenting Muscat as part of the damage control exercise. They announced special plans to promote Oman tourism and provide employment opportunity to its nationals. Employing Omani nationals has been a matter of dispute between Gulf Air and Oman Government. Recently the Muscat based officials of Gulf Air were promoted, and some Omanis are given key positions in the head office, Manama.
While Oman Air is trying to get some of the closed Gulf Air routes to India., Gulf Air is keen to reintroduce some of the closed routes to regain its lost prominence in the Indian Sector. While it had five flights to Madras earlier, it discontinued three. Now the Gulf Air officials are planning to resume some of these lucrative routes. Oman Air, too is wanting to operate more trips to such Indian destinations. Similar is the case with Gulf Air flights to Thiruvananthapuram, which Oman Air wants to grab. Even though there are reports about mutual cooperation, both the airlines are keen to operate their flights to these destinations. In fact Gulf Air officials have realised their folly of closing down some of the profitable routes to India. It is said that the neglect of tourism and other factors are just sited as pretext to get out of Gulf Air.
It may be recalled that Gulf Air was the proud of many GCC countries but due to difference of opinion and conflicting commercial considerations each member shareholder country started its own national airline. While Oman Government formed Oman Air, Qatar Airways started Qatar Airways and UAE emirates formed their own airlines. Due to shrinking market and crisis facing airline business all over the world, there has been stiff competition among these airlines to capture the market. Gulf Air officials have been trying to woo back Oman Government to remain as a shareholder. Now that its fate is almost sealed, the Gulf Air officials are courting some leading International airlines to pick up a stake in Gulf Air.
Prime Minister Calls for a workable solution of Cauvery Water Problem
5th Emergency Meeting of Cauvery River Authority begins.
New Delhi --September 8, 2002. The Prime Minister, Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee called for a workable solution of Cauvery river water problem for the current season, so that farmers of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka are able to cultivate their fields in the present drought situation. He was presiding over the Fifth emergency meeting of the Cauvery River Authority (CRA), here today.
"I welcome you all to the Fifth meeting, which is an emergency meeting, of the Cauvery River Authority. The Supreme Court in its order dated September 3, 2002 has directed Karnataka to release 1.25 TMC ft of water till a final decision is taken by the Cauvery River Authority. I shall be away for more than a week. Hence the necessity for calling this emergency meeting,' the Prime Minister said in his the opening remarks.
'In the last Cauvery River Authority meeting on August 27, we had all agreed that Cauvery basin is among the most severely affected river basins. We also agreed that there is no solution other than sharing the deficit and the distress in an equitable manner in a spirit of compassion, mutual understanding and national solidarity," he added.
'We had directed the Monitoring Committee to meet and finalise before September 15, 2002 a specific formula for distress sharing keeping in view the directions of the Tribunal given on April 3, 1992. I understand that the Monitoring Committee has discussed the distress sharing formula in its Fourth Emergency Meeting held yesterday. While the basin States agreed on certain issues, no final conclusion could be arrived at. The situation being very critical this year, we have to immediately come out with a workable solution for the current season so that farmers in both the States are able to cultivate their fields in the present drought situation," he added.
"I would request the Chief Ministers to make their remarks and discuss the present situation keeping in view each other’s requirements. I hope we will be able to have a fruitful deliberation on this vexed problem and come out with a practical and workable solution acceptable to all the basin States," Vajpayee said.
Apart from the Prime Minister and the Water Resources Minister, Shri Arjun Charan Sethi, those who attended the meeting included Shri S.M.Krishna, Chief Minister, Karnataka, Shri A.K.Antony, Chief Minister, Kerala, Shri N. Rangaswami, Chief Minister, Pondicherry and the Finance Minister of Tamil Nadu, Shri C. Ponnaiyan who led the delegation of his State.
LITERACY VITAL INPUT IN VARIOUS ASPECTS OF COUNTRY'S DEVELOPMENT - VICE PRESIDENT
RAISING FEMALE LITERACY THRUST AREA - Dr. JOSHI
September 8, 2002. The Vice President, Shri Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, said that illiteracy is a curse on the county and is a big handicap in the country’s development. He was speaking at a function held to celebrate International Literacy Day, here today. The Vice President underlined that the country can take care of its population problem, unemployment problem, ond other social concerns of the country by making the literacy movement in the country a success. He pointed out that the state governments are facing resource crunch at present and therefore the literacy campaign of the centre should also supplement the states in organising school buildings, teachers etc. Only then, can we truly fulfill our commitment of compulsory primary education in the constitution.
The Vice President also made an appeal to every literate person in the country to teach five illiterate people, saying that this would definitely help to deal with the problem of illiteracy in the country. He also emphasised that poor people must have confidence in the usefulness of education. Now that literacy is becoming a fundamental right, the Government both at the centre and in the states, must embark upon making every person literate immediately and in all sincerity, otherwise, it will end up becoming an empty slogan, he added.
Responding to the issues pointed out by the Vice President in his address, Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, Human Resource Development Minister made an assurance that the government is committed, through the "Sarva Siksha Abhiyan", towards insuring that no child will be outside the school system by the end of 2003. He also said that as part of the "Abhiyan", free education is being provided to all children from classes I to VIII, school books are being provided free to all girls, Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes, studying in classes I to VIII, new posts for teachers have been sanctioned in thousands and funds have already been allocated for construction of new school rooms and buildings.
Earlier, in his address, Dr. Joshi emphasised that raising female literacy, which is only 54 per cent at present, is one of the biggest challenges before the country and is a thrust area in literacy programmes being undertaken by the Government. He also said that the male literacy rate, though at a relatively higher 75 per cent should also be made at least 90 per cent. He appreciated the programmes being undertaken in some states where the effort is to make the women literate as well as economically independent. He expressed his hope that other states would also undertake such programmes which till now have been proving quite successful. The Minister pointed out that the National Literacy Mission is running 108 Jan Sikshan Sanshthans, in various parts of the country which impart training in various vocations to the youth, in order to address the problem of unemployment, a serious issue in the country.
The Vice President gave away the Satyen Maitra and NLM – UNESCO awards. This year, the districts to which the Satyen Maitra awards were given include Mahasamund and Kanker (Chattisgarh) jointly, and Buxar (Bihar) for Total Literacy Campaign and Buldana (Maharashtra) and Bikaner (Rajasthan) for Post-Literacy Programme. The award winning districts were given a shield and citation by the Vice-President.The NLM has instituted this award in memory of the eminent Adult Educationist, late Satyen Maitra of the Bengal Social Service League, Kolkata. The award is given every year to the best performing districts in the country in the field of Total Literacy Campaign and Post-Literacy Programme. The performance is judged on the basis of the evaluation conducted by reputed Social Science Research Institutes.
The University Departments of Adult Continuing Education and Extension of SNDT Women's University, Mumbai, Gujarat Vidyapeeth, Ahmedabad and DDU Gorakhpur University, Gorakhpur were given the NLM-UNESCO award. This award was instituted to encourage the institutions working in the field of literacy and adult education, by the National Literacy Mission (NLM), in collaboration with UNESCO, New Delhi. The award includes a cash prize of Rs. 25,000/- and a citation.
On the occasion, a special publication brought out jointly with UNESCO, New Delhi by the Directorate of Adult Education was presented to the Vice President. The publication is titled Literacy in India : Achievements and Challenges which consists of articles written by eminent persons all over the country. Dr. Murli Manohar Joshi, also released a book, "School Safety Manual", brought out by Council for Indian School Certification Examinations. He also gave away the awards for the National Prize Competition on Literature for Neo-literates. Manuscripts for this competition which has been revived this year, were invited in 17 recognised languages and each manuscript was reviewed by 3 specialists and 59 manuscripts were selected for the award.
September 11 attack planners received money via Hyderabad, Gulf.
Hydrabad --A 30 million rupees (about $600,000) ransom was paid for the release of an Indian businessman found its way to the mastermind of the Sept. 11 terror attacks, police claimed in Hyderabad. The ransom was routed through illegal "hawala" channels via the southern Indian city of Hyderabad, Pakistan and the Gulf to Muhammad Atta, who planned the attacks on the World Trade Center and who piloted one of the two planes that slammed into the twin towers. The startling revelation was made at a meeting of senior police officials called by Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu to discuss the law and order situation in the state. Pointing to the linkages between Pakistan’s Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and terrorist groups in India, Inspector General of Police Shiv Shankar said the ransom paid for the release of Partha Roy Burman, a top businessman in Calcutta, in June last year eventually found its way to the perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks. Abdul Kareem, also known as Kareem Dollar, was the Hyderabad conduit for transferring the funds, Shiv Shankar maintained. He had allegedly passed on the money to a man named Shafiq in the Gulf who was a member of the Dawood Ibrahim gang that had kidnapped Burman. Earlier KM had reported that the State Bank of India's Gulf branches were used to fund Al Quida terrorist Network and that the US authorities stopped clearing dollar cheques issued from the Gulf branches of SBI. -keralamonitor.com
IMC condemns the hate-rape of a Muslim girl in California
Newyork - September 8, 2002. Indian Muslim Council-USA, a national organization of American Muslims of Indian origin have strongly condemned the alleged rape of a minor Muslim girl by a seventeen year old Malayali boy, as part of an anti-Muslim hate crime in the US.
Associated Press and the Mercury News reported that Sanjay Nair, an 18 year old Malayali Hindu, raped a fifteen year old girl in Palo Alto, CA on Friday August 30th. According to these news reports the Palo Alto police is calling the rape a hate crime, because the rapist allegedly made anti-Muslim comments during the rape. Rape has been used by the Hindu bigots as a punishment against the minority community and according to reports from Gujarat, even the Hindu women have helped their male counterparts in facilitating such henious crimes.
"We condemn this heinous act of rape in the strongest possible terms. Rape is a grave crime and the fact that it was committed against a minor and as a hate crime, magnifies its severity many folds," said the Indian Muslim Council in a statement.
"If it is true that the rapist uttered anti-Muslim statements while he raped the under-age girl, as reported by the police, then it brings home to the Indian community the pain of hundreds of girls gang-raped in Gujarat, India and then brutally killed at the hands of Hindutva-fascists," the IMC statement said.
"It underscores the fears of the Indian community in the US that the Hindutva-fascists have been running indoctrination camps for Hindu youth all over America, similar to the camps in India and the rapist might have learned this hatred in these camps like the racists in Gujarat did. Bay Area is considered one of the centers of Hindutva-fascists in the US," it said.
"We commend the police at the promptness of the action. American law-enforcement agencies should not allow these fascists to import their hatred into the US and harm US citizens. We hope that Mr. Vajpayee, the Prime Minister of India, who will be visiting the US later this month will, at last, now be forced take action against the rapists and killers of Gujarat. We demand that the Hindutva-fascist groups in the US condemn this heinous crime and disband their hate camps in the US," the statement added.
"We reaffirm our commitment to maintain inter-religious solidarity with all Indians. We must remember that the Hindutva-fascist groups have been involved in hate mongering on the occasion of the anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11 and are busy trying to polarize the Indian community in the US their chief propagandist, Sadhavi Rithambara has recently toured the United States," it said.
"We strongly request that the distinction between Hinduism which is a religion and Hindutva which is a fascist and racist political ideology be remembered and we urge the Muslim and Hindu communities in the Bay Area and all over the country to make sure that this dastardly hate crime will not cause any deterioration of the relations between the two communities," it said. Indian Muslim Council-USA is a national organization of American Muslims of Indian origin. IMC-USA is involved in education and advocacy work for Indian minorities.Keralamonitor.com
08 September 2002.
Sacked Private School Teachers in UAE seek help to protect their rights
Dubai --September 8, 2002. A large number of private school teachers in the UAE, who had been terminated for alleged misconduct soon after their contracts were renewed by school authorities recently approached the Private Education Department demanding their rights. Coming amidst reports of maltreatment of Indian school teachers in various Gulf countries, especially Iran and Oman, UAE teachers have approached the higher authorities seeking assistance to protect their legal rights. The Government authorities at the department are showing their impotence to force schools to reconsider their decision.
"A senior official at the department contacted the schools' administrations and advised teachers to negotiate with schools for three months' salary as compensation, according to the terms of their contracts," reported Khaleej Times, a leading UAE daily. 'One of the seniors at the department said that the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs would guide them on how to get their rights," it said.
It may be recalled that KM reported the hidden agenda of a leading private Indian school in Muscat to sack 19 teachers and recent case of a lady Physic teacher who is in the labour court challenging her sacking order. Similar, KM reported the fate of an Indian school couple in Iran who face a similar dilemma.
According to one of the terminated teachers he had been working at the school for nine years. "I gained the confidence of the principal, teaching staff, and parents. My record through the nine years is full of recommendations from the ministry and the school's administration, they even organised an honouring ceremony for me last year in the presence of ministry officials and parents," the teacher told KT.
Talking about the justification of the schools in terminating the students the teacher said that the administration of the school had cancelled the contract after its renewal for two years, because they claimed that the number of teachers were far more than what was required for the new academic year. In many Indian schools in the Gulf, the management committee members make it a point to recruit new teachers and get huge amounts as bribes. Each teacher recruited from India pays more than Rs.5,0000 to get the job.
"They reduced my salary and I accepted that, but it seems that the reduction did not satisfy them; their claim about the extra number of teachers is not convincing, it is just an excuse to hide their intention to reduce salaries, or to hire teachers with lower wages, and that was what they directly did. I cannot understand why the ministry would allow private schools to increase fees, if they are making education a good business," the teacher is quoted in Khaleej Times. The sacked teachers added that they were being subjected to different kinds of abuse from the administration of private schools, since there were no control over such practices. The teacher said that the Private Educational Department had no authority on private schools when it came to preserving teachers' rights. He alleged that even the contracts which were being filed in the department were all fake.
"The department advised me to go for legal consultation at the Ministry of Labour and Social Affairs, where they said that the school should compensate by giving me a three-month salary payment because they violated the terms of the contract. In case of their refusal, I would go to Dubai's courts to sue the school and this could take a long period of time, as well as high expenses which I cannot afford," the teacher said. He added that hiring a lawyer would mean extra expenses, because they demanded 10 per cent out of the total amount of money that had been collected. The teacher called upon the Private Education Department to take action and protect the rights of the teachers. "Although teachers are signing contracts like any other employee, they should go to the department whenever they face any problem with the private schools' management."--Keralamonitor.com
Inmarsat Shows Next Generation Mobile Communications @ Gitex 2002 First
Regional BGAN, Inmarsat’s next generation of mobile data communication
services, is an ideal solution that extends fast mobile communication
capabilities to an overwhelming part of the regionDubai, 8th September 2002
Inmarsat Ltd, the world’s leading global mobile satellite communications
provider, today announced that it will be showcasing, for the first time in
the Middle East, the portability and power behind its Regional Broadband
Global Area Network (Regional BGAN) service, due for commercial launch in
November 2002.Regional B-GAN offers vertical industries operating from remote areas where
telecommunication is not available or in areas where mobile high-speed data
is not available, mobile data communication that is expected to be twice as
fast as current terrestrial General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) services.
The service will be available in up to 99 countries, across the Middle East,
northern half of Africa, Western and Eastern Europe and large parts of the
Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) and the Indian sub-continent.
Regional BGAN boosts businesses data exchange capacity to up to 144 kbit/s
using a secure shared channel and is deployed instantly with a lightweight
satellite modem hooked to a laptop. GRPS, according to Jawad Abbasi,
president of Arab Advisors Group, is a service that has not picked up yet in
the region on the consumers level and is usually restricted to densely
populated areas around the Arab world. “For example, GPRS, much like the GSM
networks on top of which it operates, covers around 10% of the geographic
area of Egypt and 6% of the geographic area of Jordan. Despite the roll out
of GPRS services by most of the region telecom operators, extending the
geographic coverage of GPRS is not a priority, especially that revenues are
yet to cover initial investments.” Regional BGAN, twice as fast as current
GPRS extends mobile datacomm connectivity to wide areas not covered or
served by GPRS and GSM networks. This, according to Abbassi, is an advantage
for companies or individuals who need data connectivity in remote areas.Because it is based on Internet Protocol (IP) packet technology, users only
pay for the amount of data they send and receive, and not for time spent
online. This enables users to stay ‘always connected’.“The service is particularly suited to applications where data is sent in
bursts, such as e-mail, browsing the Web, and connecting to corporate LANs
and intranets. Other applications include file transfer and FTP for
downloading files from the Internet and sharing files with colleagues;
e-commerce, for online ordering and procurement; and secure end-to-end
connectivity over a corporate Virtual Private Network (VPN),” says Gill
Govier, Director, Regional B-GAN Commercial Launch Team at Inmarsat. “With
Regional BGAN, industries operating in the most remote areas in the region
will be instantly able to establish direct communication, at high speed,
with the rest of the world, and we are coming to Gitex to show it to the
Middle East users first.”
IBM Donates Three Linux Computer Labs to Higher Colleges of Technology
Servers, desktops, software and training provided to colleges to develop
Linux skills in UAE
Abu Dhabi, UAE, 8 September 2002 – IBM and Higher Colleges of Technology
(HCT) inaugurated today the first of three Linux computer laboratories at
selected colleges in the UAE donated by IBM. Through this initiative the
equipment was installed at three computer laboratories at the Center of
Excellence for Applied Research and Training (CERT) in Abu Dhabi, Dubai Men’
s College and Dubai Women’s College. The delivery and installation of the
technology was performed in collaboration with Gulf Business Machines (GBM),
the general marketing and services representative for IBM WTC in the Gulf
region.The three IBM eServer xSeries servers and 30 NetVista workstations have been
installed in HCT colleges. To ensure that the students fully benefit from
the latest technology advances in the Linux and open source world, IBM is
also donating a ten day “teach the teacher” course for the instructors. The
instructors have already completed five days training on the Linux
fundamentals, and another five days on advanced administration is planned
for November.Dr. Tayeb Kamali, Vice Chancellor of the Higher Colleges of Technology, said
that HCT is enhancing its very aggressive online learning program through
the Linux Labs, as well as through the IBM Scholars Program. The two
initiatives, developed to support higher education institutions with
instructional and non-commercial research opportunities, will contribute to
the efforts towards more developed online learning.
“With this program, our staff and students will get free access to over
1,500 original IBM software products via the Internet. The software set
includes selected middleware and developer products such as DB2 Universal
Database, WebSphere Application Server, MQSeries, VisualAge for Java, and
Lotus Domino, all available for AIX, Windows and Linux platforms,” Dr.
Kamali said.Farid Metwaly, General Manager of IBM for the Middle East, Egypt and
Pakistan, commented: “to succeed in the new business world, students must be
innovative and flexible, take risks and try something different – but also
value the expertise of others with hard-won experience. We believe that IBM’
s spirit embodies both of these characteristics. With our focus on open
source projects such as Linux, IBM can broaden the students’ choices, and
share an enormous amount of intellectual depth as well as business acumen.”“The donation of the three Linux laboratories is a wonderful opportunity for
us to give students in the Emirates an even richer and more hands-on
education,” commented Cesare Cardone, CEO of GBM. “We will support this
initiative to the full extent as we believe in the strategic role of
Education and Training as a fundamental mean for sustained economic growth
and development for our Region." The donation of the three Linux labs is part of an international IBM Linux skills development program called Equinox, which is intended to promote
Linux awareness and expertise within senior education institutions such as
colleges and universities.
'LET'S RIDE' WITH ENOC AND EPPCO
8th September, 2002
Mountain bikes, annual health club family memberships and a dune buggy
are the prizes in the 'Let's Ride' promotion organised by Emirates
National Oil Company Limited (ENOC) LLC and Emirates Petroleum Products
Company (EPPCO), in conjunction with Fantasy Kingdom, one of the UAE's
largest indoor family amusement arcades.ENOC/EPPCO's fast food restaurants will give away a total of 52 mountain
bikes, each featuring 28 gears, mud guards, a water holder and a rear
wheel suspension, as well as four one-year Al Bustan Residence Health
Club family memberships and a Dingo 65E dune buggy.Over the next two months, everyone spending Dhs 20 at any EPPCO fast
food restaurant or Dhs 30 at Fantasy Kingdom will be entitled to a
raffle ticket. Every two weeks, starting September 1st through October
30th, there will be 13 mountain bike winners and every fortnight
starting September 8th, one health club winner.Each of ENOC/EPPCO's 12 fast food restaurants in Dubai will stage its
own draw so every fortnight there will be one mountain bike winner at
every individual outlet.At the end of the promotion, all raffle tickets will be entered into a
mega draw to win the Let's Ride' grand prize, a powerful dune buggy.Over the same period, a scratch and win promotion, staged in conjunction
with Pepsi, will take place at EPPCO's fast food restaurants, which are
at Al Wasl Road near Safa Park, next to the Metropolitan Hotel, DIC and
Emirates Golf Club, Al Qusais, Wafi Mall, Al Rashidiya, Mankhool Road,
Sharjah-Dubai-Sharjah roads and Dubai-Abu Dhabi-Dubai roads.
