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21 Killed in Train Accident in Maharashtra SECUNDERABAD (Andhra Pradesh): Twenty-one people were killed and 25 injured on Friday when a passenger train, the Secunderabad Manmad Express, collided with a stationary goods train at Ghatnandur station in Maharashtra. Three coaches of the Express were derailed. Railway Minister Nitish Kumar said the accident was a result of "human failure". "The station man and pointsman have run away from the station," he said. Many people were still trapped in the coaches. (Details) Violence Mars Bihar Bandh: 500 Held in Patna PATNA: More than 500 people in Patna were arrested on Friday after mobs torched Government buildings and clashed with security forces during a strike called in protest against the killing of three youths by the police. They fought pitched battles with police in the streets of Patna, hurling stones and burning tyres, witnesses said. The police caned the demonstrators in many places and fired teargas shells at one intersection. State police chief RR Prasad said the shutdown was total across the State with shops and businesses closed and that most of the violence and arson was reported in the State Capital.(Details) Centre Plans National I-cards for Citizens At Last (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: The Centre plans to issue identity cards for citizens to check illegal immigration since over-population and influx of unauthorised entrants were posing a threat to internal peace and proving a strain on resources. "There have been situations where due to illegal immigration we have had to go to wars. The reason behind the 1971 war was illegal immigration. So illegal immigration which posed a threat compelled us to ponder over it," Advani, who is also the Home Minister, said while inaugurating the two-day national conference of Chief Registrars of Births and Deaths in New Delhi. India went to war in 1971 with the then undivided Pakistan on the eastern and western frontiers citing large-scale influx of refugees from East Pakistan. East Pakistan was liberated and became Bangladesh but New Delhi often says that thousands of Muslim refugees still arrive from Bangladesh across the porous border distorting the ethnic population in the eastern and north-eastern regions. "Besides, we have to tackle our western neighbour. This convinced me that every citizen should have identity papers. Why should there not be a national register of citizens? The Government is working towards this," said Advani. New Delhi recently announced that it would tighten visa regulations on Pakistanis and allow them to visit only three cities in view of the spate of terrorist attacks and Hindu-Muslim tensions across the country. It has also embarked on an exercise to identify and deport Pakistani nationals overstaying in the country. Besides Pakistan and Bangladesh, India says illegal immigration thrives through third countries like Nepal and Bhutan with which India has no bar on citizens' travel. Tamil refugees from war-ravaged northern Sri Lanka also find home in Tamil Nadu. A multi-purpose national identity cards would help maintain a national register of Indian citizens and form the database for Government planning for India's billion-plus population. Though the Civil Registration System by an Act of 1969 makes it mandatory to register births and deaths, only about 55 per cent of the 70,000 born and 47 per cent of the 26,000 deaths everyday are accounted for. NSCN(I-M) Leaders to Meet Vajpayee, Advani on Jan. 9 (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Leaders of NSCN(I-M), the Naga insurgent group, will meet Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Deputy Prime Minister LK Advani here on January 9 to resolve the long-standing Naga issue. Talking to reporters here on Friday, Advani said, "They will be arriving here on January 8 and meet the Prime Minister the next day." The deputy premier will also be present at the meeting. Isak Chishi Swu and Thuingaleng Muivah will be visiting India for the first time in the last 30 years for negotiations. Town in Godhra District Under Curfew (Go To Top) LUNAWADA (Gujarat): Indefinite curfew has been clamped on Lunawada town of Godhra district following fresh incidents of religious violence there on Thursday. Police said the incident was a fall-out of clashes that erupted in the town late on Wednesday night when mobs took to the streets and set an autorickshaw ablaze. Two shops were also torched by the mobs. The police lobbed teargas shells to disperse them. They recovered arms and weapons from a house in Lunawada. SK Rathod, Sub-Divisional Magistrate of Godhra, said rumours spread like wildfire sparking violence on the slightest pretext. Thirty people have been arrested in connection with the violence in the last 24 hours, he added. Para-military forces have been deployed to maintain peace. Inamul Haq Likely to Be Pak Envoy to India (Go To Top) NEW YORK: Former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, Inamul Haq, has been tipped to become Pakistan's High Commissioner to India, Dawn said. Haq, who has also served as Foreign Secretary and Pakistan's ambassador to the United Nations and China, is reportedly favoured by President Pervez Musharraf to head the Pakistan mission in New Delhi. Kamran Niaz, earlier proposed for the post, is being sent to Japan. Foreign Secretary Riaz Khokhar has been given two years extension.. Attackers Fleeing to Pak from Afghanistan Will Be Chased: US (Go To Top) KABUL: The US military has said that its troops may pursue attackers into Pakistan from within Afghanistan if they come under fire from "hostile forces" along the border. The revelation came as the US military sought to clarify events surrounding a December 29 clash between its soldiers in Afghanistan and a Pakistani border guard that led to a US warplane bombing a religious school which Islamabad claims is in Pakistani territory. (Meanwhile, a high-level inquiry into the bombing has been initiated by Pakistani defence authorities, according to Dawn). "US forces acknowledge the internationally recognised boundaries of Afghanistan, but may pursue attackers who attempt to escape into Pakistan to evade capture or retaliation," the US military said in a press statement on Thursday. "This is done with the express consent of the Pakistani Government. We continue to operate, and have the freedom to operate where we choose," reports the News. Pakistani and US officials have downplayed the Sunday incident, which is not expected to affect the Pakistan administration's support for the US-led war on terrorism, the paper remarked. Meanwhile, Afghan border authorities have found more than 300 rockets apparently being smuggled into the eastern province of Nangarhar from Pakistan, an official said on Thursday. Colonel Syed Rahman, who oversees Nangarhar's frontier force, also said that four unidentified men had been arrested transporting the BM-12 rockets late on Wednesday along the Sasobi route linking Afghanistan and Pakistan, the News reported. "The total number of BM-12 rockets, some of them Russia-made, was 330," the paper added. Tendulkar Likely to Miss Next Two ODIs Also (Go To Top) SYDNEY: The ankle injury will in all likelihood prevent Sachin Tendulkar from playing the fourth and fifth one-day internationals too in the ongoing series against New Zealand. (Details) LPG Prices May Go Up Before Budget (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Petroleum Minister Ram Naik has hinted at a possible increase in cooking gas (LPG) price before this year's Budget in order to check the growing subsidies. (Details) Policy to Double R and D Outlay to 2 per cent of GDP (Go To Top) BANGALORE: India on Friday unveiled a new science policy that boosts tax breaks for private research to help meet a goal of doubling research and development expenditure. Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee released the new policy at the annual Indian Science Congress here, where a software boom has powered the nation's ambitions in knowledge-based industries. Vajpayee expressed concern about thousands of Indian scientists leaving the country for assignments abroad. "Apart from migration of a significant number of talented science graduates, we are facing the problem of diversion of talent from research and development to non-scientific careers in both Government and private sector. We need to examine why a career in science is not considered worthwhile by so many of our talented younger scientists", he told the gathering of 6,000 scientists. The policy document, which replaces a 1983 policy made eight years before India began unshackling State controls, said the Government would promote close interaction between private and public institutions. With about 400 State-run laboratories, 230 universities and 1,300 R and D units in industry, India has a huge scientific base, but much of the spending has been by the Government, resulting in poor profitability and complaints of red tape. Maruti Announces Rs 50-crore Bonanza for Customers (Go To Top) NEW DELHI: Maruti Udyog Limited has unveiled a mega campaign that offers hefty cash prizes and hundreds of free gifts to customers buying Maruti cars during January 3 to February 28, 2003. Customers during this period can participate in a lucky draw. (Details) GM Potatoes to Fight Malnutrition in Indian Poor (Go To Top) BANGALORE: The Indian Government is introducing an ambitious mid-day meal scheme that includes genetically modified potatoes that will be fed to poor children to redress deficiencies in their diets. The three-pronged attack on childhood mortality would aim to provide children with clean water, better food and vaccines. "Zero child mortality in under-privileged children would be the goal," Govindarajan Padmanaban, a biochemist at the Indian Institute of Science here, was quoted as saying in New Scientist. The scheme is formulated in collaboration with charities, scientists, Government institutes and the industry. Local activists had opposed the recent licensing of Bt cotton - which carries a gene for a bacterial pesticide - on the ground it is "unnatural", and that it could kill beneficial insects. -ANI |