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Naptha Jhakri power plant reopens

           Nathpa Jhakri (HP): The 1500 megawatt Naptha Jhakri power plant restarted operations here Wednesday, a week since it was shut due to fears of a Tibetan lake bursting its banks. The power plant supplies nearly one-third of the power used by north India. Over 100 million cubic metres of water had accumulated in the artificial lake on the Pareechu river, 35 km inside Tibetan territory, with water levels rising by three centimeters a day. With a maximum cumulative discharge capacity of about 6000 cusecs of water, the dam is incapable of holding the deluge but latest report by a federal team have eased fears of an immediate breach allowing the plant to restart. "On August 15 a Centre team visited there and the main purpose was to establish what is the width of the lake. We have got the information and in morning 6 o'clock we have restarted. It is 500 MW, it is going to the northern grid and remove the shortages which the grid is facing," said H.K. Sharma, Director (Civil), Sutlej Jal Vidyut Nigam, which operates the plant. While two of the units could be safely restarted, they were doing mock trials on others, Sharma said adding "Although it is there but I think four units are 100 percent. In six units, we have done a mock trial but still you can't rule six trials maybe some risky, five percent risk. In four there is no risk at all." Built at a cost of 90 billion rupees, the state-of-the-art project is one of the most advanced in the country. It houses one of the largest underground desilting complexes in the world, as well as one of the deepest surge shafts in the world. Each day of the closure of the dam costs losses as much 80 million rupees.

Opposition takes Govt to task on Savarkar, education issue (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Proceedings in Parliament were affected today with the opposition taking the government to task again on Union Petroleum Minister Mani Shanker Aiyer's moves to have a plaque honoring freedom fighter Veer Savarkar removed from the memorial at Port Blair. The government's initiative to have its predecessor's education policies changed also rocked the two houses. This morning's session began with determined Shiv Sena and BJP members forcing the Rajya Sabha to adjourn till lunch over a demand for an apology from Aiyer for his reported remarks against Savarkar. At one point of time, Left members raised objections to some of the remarks made by a BJP backbencher casting aspersions on Left parties. Rajya Sabha Chairman Bhairon Singh Shekhawat immediately expunged those remarks. The opposition and the treasury also engaged in a verbal battle over the so-called saffronisation of education, with the BJP accusing the Congress of overruling the entire education policy introduced by the NDA government. The BJP is also accused the UPA government of 'selling out' at the recent WTO talks, especially on the issue of subsidies to farmers. The party charged Commerce Minister Kamal Nath with making too many concessions to the developed countries by allowing them to continue giving subsidies to their farmers and keeping the prices of their agriculture products competitive in the international market. It also warned that the issue would be raised over the next few days when there's a discussion on the WTO meet.

Indefinite shutdown paralyses life in Manipur (Go To Top)

          Imphal: Life in Manipur came to a standstill again today after 32 organizations called for and fully supported a shutdown of all activity in the state. Demanding the removal of the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, 1958, the protesters ensured that all markets, shops and other business establishments remained closed. Attendance at government offices was also thin and transport services were also suspended, official sources said. The sources said that the shutdown had been called to protest the death of student leader Bemam Chitaranjan, who had self-immolated himself on Sunday while asking for the Act's removal. Chitaranjan body has been lying at the Regional Institute of Medical Science Hospital here for the past three days and his family has refused to claim it. Meanwhile, 19 persons, including nine women, have been arrested for spearheading an agitation, at Kekrupat early this morning.

EC may de-recognize CPI by August end (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: The Election Commission has warned that it will de-recognize the CPI as a national-level party, which has ten members in the Lok Sabha, by August 31 if it does not respond to its notice of last week. The notice has asked the party to explain why its national status should not be withdrawn on the basis of its performance in the recent Lok Sabha polls. They said the party was not able to fulfil either of the two criteria of having 11 members in the Lok Sabha or secure six per cent votes in four or more States in the Lok Sabha elections for which a review has been undertaken. CPI has ten MPs in the Lok Sabha and has six per cent votes in two states - Kerala and Manipur. When contacted, CPI National Secretary D Raja said that the party was examining the rules and would be sending its reply to the Commission.

Trucks stranded at Indo-Nepal border (Go To Top)

           Sunoli (UP): Hundreds of lorries and oil tankers were seen stranded at the India-Nepal border as Maoist rebels, fighting to topple the Himalayan kingdom's constitutional monarchy called for shutdowns and demanded to cut off land routes leading to Kathmandu on Wednesday. Food and supplies for over 1.5 million people in Kathmandu have been affected. The Maoists regularly call for strikes but this was their first call for a complete blockade of the capital. Sunoli town in UP is a major supply and trade route for Nepal and has often faced Maoists backlash. Major businesses in the region have also shut shop. "For the last few days due to Maoist threats, all trucks and transport have stopped. They are all parked the bypass. The situation is not very good," Girish Chandu, a constable at Sunoli's border post, said. "Our vehicles are standing here. We are standing here. They say that they will not allow Indian vehicles in Nepal," Anil Kumar, a truck driver, said. Ram Swarup, another truck driver, said: "We are scared of Maoists. Due to the shutdown call in Kathmandu, we are not taking our tankers there. They have burnt our vehicles earlier so we are not going there." Rebels, who are campaigning to set up a communist state in the mountain nation perched between Asian giants China and India, are demanding the release of detained guerrillas, a probe into alleged killings of Maoist activists and information about thousands of missing comrades. They control large swathes of the countryside in the desperately poor Himalayan nation and in the past have enforced transport strikes in Kathmandu and local blockades outside. The Maoists have stepped up attacks along the cities and southern plains since peace talks collapsed last year but have spared the high security national capital from major attacks. Top ten industries and businesses have been shut since Tuesday due to the threat from rebels who accuse them of unfair labour practices. The revolt that began 1996 has cost more than 10,000 lives and wrecked the tourist and aid-dependent economy, one of the world's 10 poorest.

Gujarat youth gets death sentence for minor's murder (Go To Top)

           Ahmedabad: A lower court on Wednesday sentenced to death a 25-year-old man convicted for brutally murdering and raping a minor after chopping off her legs. The accused, Kishan Marwadi, who was convicted earlier in the day in the case, however, pleaded not guilty. "The court has given him death sentence, to be hanged till death," Gujarat government counsel Chetan Shah told reporters. The incident occurred in February in Navrangpura, when Marwadi reportedly lured the six-year-old girl, Goji, and after taking her to an isolated spot, smashed her head with a heavy stone and mercilessly chopped off both her legs before raping her. As many as 14 witnesses, including a doctor who conducted Goji's post-mortem, were examined. The doctors' deposition as well as the post-mortem report confirmed the brutal killing and rape. The police also recovered the blood stained stone that Marwadi had used to smash the girl's head and the knife that was used to chop off her legs. Relatives and neighbours of the murdered girl said that they were satisfied with the judgement. "Yes, we have got justice. We are satisfied with the judgement," said Keshavbhai, a neighbour of Goji.

Two LeT terrorists shot dead in Rajouri (Go To Top)

          Rajouri: Security forces gunned down at least two top terrorists belonging to Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) here Wednesday after a fierce 10-hour gunfight. The local police said the duo was behind a series of attacks on civilians in the region, including the gruesome massacre of the family of a retired army man, last month. "These were LeT militants. One was Ebrahim Salfi and other is Abu Jiral. We had been tracking them. Yesterday we were able to apprehend them but there was an encounter and the two were killed," S.A Mujtaba, senior superintendent of police, Rajouri said.

CPM rejects CPI's plea for merger (Go To Top)
by Gautam Ghosh

          Kolkata: The CPM has once again rejected the CPI's plea for a merger of the two communist parties in the "greater interest of the communist movement in the country." The issue was raised by CPI general secretary A.B. Bardhan at a recent meeting held here to condole the demise of veteran communist and parliamentarian Hiren Mukherjee. The latter mentioned in his "last wish" that he wanted to see unification of the two parties before his death. While paying glowing tributes to Mukherjee at the condolence meeting, Bardhan quoted him as saying "I wish I could see the merger before I die." "We have been waiting for unification of the two parties and are even ready to wait for a few more years for this to happen," the CPI general secretary later observed in Bhubaneswar.

          CPM leaders, who shared the platform with Bardhan at Mukherjee's condolence meeting, however, did not react immediately. Only Biman Bose, CPM politburo member and Left Front chairman, asserted that Mukherjee's "heart was with the CPM and his body with the CPI." What Bose meant was that the late communist leader had moved closer to the CPM ideologically despite his continued association with the CPI after the undivided party split in 1964. However, before there was any official move from the CPI to initiate a dialogue with the CPM for merger of the two parties, former West Bengal chief minister Jyoti Basu rejected the idea, saying "this is not the time for considering merger of the two communist parties. We are passing through a difficult period. There will be no problem for the two parties to work together and coordinate their activities." Basu said Bardhan did not talk to him on the issue, nor did CPM general secretary HS Surjeet had anything to say in this regard when he(Basu) met him in Delhi. According to informed sources, the CPI has some political compulsion to go for an early merger with the CPM in the wake of its somewhat poor performance in the last Lok Sabha polls. The CPI may lose its status as a national party as it could not win a minimum number of eleven Lok Sabha seats and poll at least 6 per cent votes in six states. The party won ten seats in the last elections and got 6 per cent votes only in two states--Kerala and Manipur. A notice from the Election Commission seeking an explanation on the party's current status has only added to the CPI leaders' worry.

          One of the options open to the party is to ensure merger with the CPM which is in a sound position as a national party after the Lok Sabha polls. And this explains why Bardhan mooted the idea at Mukherjee's condolence meeting. The CPM's unwillingness to merge itself with the CPI can largely be attributed to organisational factors. The Marxists, who enjoy almost monopoly political power in West Bengal and Kerala, are against the proposal as it will force them to share equal rights and status with their CPI counterparts. CPM workers, who are in the habit of calling the shots in every sphere, will not naturally like to share power with the CPI members in the two states. The CPI has insisted that ideological differences, which caused a split in the undivided communist party at the Tenali party congress in Andhra Pradesh back in 1964, have largely become irrelevant after disintegration of the Soviet Union. The CPM leaders, however, are not ready to buy this argument and feel the unification move, if imposed from above, will only complicate matters and create organisational problems at the grassroots level. The CPM's apathy towards a possible merger with the CPI can also be traced to the politcal outlook of its present generation leaders like Biman Bose, Anil Biswas and Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee who once regarded the CPI as "a stooge of the Congress" and used to question their communist credentials.

Govt says Indian hostages in Iraq are safe (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Minister of State for External Affairs, E Ahamed today said that the three Indians held hostage in Iraq are safe, and that government efforts were still on to secure their release. "We have been informed by our embassy that they have all the information from KGL that the hostages are very safe and well looked after," a television channel quoted Ahamed as saying. Militants in Iraq took Antaryami, Tilak Raj and Sukhdeo Singh, three Kenyans and an Egyptian hostage on July 21.

Gagging the press was Gen Ayub Khan's biggest regret: PM (Go To Top)

          New Delhi: Former Pakistan President General Ayub Khan's biggest regret in life was his move to gag the press during his regime, said Indian Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh on Tuesday. Addressing the media here at the launch of the Malayala Manorama newspaper here, Singh said that Khan had expressed this view soon after losing power in 1968-69. Singh said that a London University student had once asked the former Pakistan president what he would not do if he returned to office and Ayub Khan replied: "I would never gag (the press) because if one does this, then you are depending only on bureaucrats and all the advice you get is the sound of your own voice."