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Railways to run 38 special trains for festival rush

       New Delhi: Railways have started 38 special trains to clear rush of passengers during Diwali, Id and Chhat festivities. According to a press release issued today, 19 trains would be operated by the Northern Railways, 13 by Central Railways, four by Western Railways, and two by Northeast Frontier Railways. 19 trains will clear Bihar bound passengers and the remaining trains from other parts of the country. Besides, East bound train services would be augmented by 1 or 2 additional coaches each. About 102 additional coaches would be attached to various trains. The concerned Zonal Railways have been directed to notify about special trains and augmentation of services, especially in Hindi, Urdu and various language newspapers.

DJB to hike water tariff from December 1 (Go To Top)

      New Delhi: The Delhi Jal Board (DJB) in a board meeting today decided to hike the water tariff in the Capital with effect from December 1. The decision has been taken to ensure an effective demand management and to prioritise the use of water. The annual revenue is barely enough to meet the power bill and for the remaining expenses, the board needs loans from the government, said DJB officials. They also said that the hike would be comparatively higher for commercial and industrial users than domestic consumers.

UK Asian homelessness mounting (Go To Top)
by Mike Lockey

     London: Homelessness in the Asian community is soaring, according to a new report put together by Shelter, the British charity for the homeless. In fact, homeless rates among ethnic communities generally are rising twice as fast as those amongst the general population of Britain. The report states that, last year, there were at least 7000 families from the Indian, Bangladeshi and Pakistani communities who needed housing, and the actual figure was probably far higher than that, with some families unwilling to admit to need, whether through pride or for other personal reasons.

     The report also indicates that over twice as many Asian families as white live in conditions that are officially deemed to be unfit for human habitation, with people of Bangladeshi origin especially likely to suffer from overcrowding. Astonishingly, no less than half of all Bangladeshi children living in Britain are living in officially overcrowded conditions, and many more live in local council funded bed and breakfast accommodation, which in Britain means cheap guest houses and hotels hardly worthy of the name, often run by landlords with a dubious grasp on morality. And even when a family is housed in a house or flat belonging to a local council, that accommodation is often of poor quality, possibly damp, and a long way from shops and schools. As Adam Sampson, director of the charity Shelter said: "The hidden housing crisis in Britain is having an immensely damaging effect on minority ethnic communities. For children, bad housing can, and does, have a devastating effect on their health, education and future prospects". Of course, one answer to the problem would be for the government to build thousands more local authority owned houses, but Britain's Labour rulers seem dead set against reintroducing such a programme of public housing that was so successful after World War Two. Only Tony Blair and his acolytes know the reasons why this should be the case. So, Shelter's findings will probably fall on deaf ears, even though, according to Naz Rahman who works for the charity, they are just the tip of the iceberg.

     Many people, she says "are invisible to the authorities and need to be helped". The big question is how, and to help answer it, Shelter has started something called The Million Children Campaign. It's a campaign that is aimed at ending bad housing for the next generation of children and calls for more investment in new homes, better regulation of landlords and more support services for those in need or likely to become so. It's a big aim, but it's a big problem that's going to get bigger, unless initiatives such as this shame governments and local authorities into action before it's too late. After all, the clock is already ticking.

Bush victory spurs Americans seek residence in N Zealand (Go To Top)

      London: Immigration authorities in New Zealand are reportedly being bombarded with inquiries by Americans about their chances of getting a residence permit in that country following President George W Bush's re-election last week. According to a report in The Telegraph, the immigration service in Wellington has confirmed that its website is recording 10,300 hits from the US a day after Mr Bush was re-elected on November 2. The figure is over four times the average of 2,500. A further 300 inquiries are reportedly being received daily by telephone or e-mail, compared with about eight a day before the election. "It has exploded. It really started picking up from 11pm on the night of the election," the paper quoted Don Badman, the service's marketing manager, as saying. Interest is especially strong in Democrat-voting San Francisco and Los Angeles, where before the election many people threatened to leave if Bush won. Canada and Australia have also reported renewed interest from Americans. New Zealand is seen as a relatively safe destination, because of its geographical remoteness. Prime Minister Helen Clark has welcomed the development, but said that the move should not be attributed to Bush's victory.

Botham, Imran lock horns in court (Go To Top)

      London: They may have been great rivals on the cricket field, but this hasn't stopped all-rounders, Ian Botham and Imran Khan from locking horns in court as well. Eight years after engaging in a high-profile libel suit, both Botham and Imran were locked again in a High Court battle on Monday - this time over costs. Imran is claiming 250,000 pounds, but says he will settle for 175,000 pounds. Botham's lawyers, according to The Telegraph, have asked Justice Richards to throw out the cost application. But if Judge Richards does not agree, lawyers from both sides are likely to engage in complex negotiations, which may also end up in Botham claiming counter-costs against Imran. On Monday, Botham's lawyer said that if the judge threw out the application, then his client was prepared to forget the whole thing. The original action, in the summer of 1996, was brought by Botham, who alleged that the former Pakistan captain had libelled him in an interview in the magazine India Today, calling him a racist and saying that he lacked class and upbringing. Botham also claimed that Imran had labelled him a cheat in an article in The Sun. Imran originally tried to say the comments were justified, but halfway through the 13-day trial, dropped that plea, saying he had been misquoted and was only trying to defend himself. At the end of the trial the jury returned a majority verdict in favour of Imran and awarded him costs. But they also awarded some costs to Botham because of Imran dropping the justification plea. Since then the two sides have argued about the costs but yesterday's court hearing was the first return to the High Court since 1996. The judge has now reserved judgment, which is expected in the next week or so, The Telegraph said.

Court dismisses Jadeja's plea to play international cricket (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The Delhi High Court on Tuesday dismissed former Indian batsman Ajay Jadeja's challenge to allow him to play any kind of competitive cricket. Justice Vijendra Jain and Justice Anil Kumar dismissed Jadeja's petition as none appeared on his behalf when the petition was taken up for hearing. However, last year on his plea, a Division Bench of the High Court had allowed him to play domestic cricket only.

India takes first steps to partnership with EU (Go To Top)
by Smita Prakash

     The Hague: The EU and India took their first steps towards a strategic partnership on Monday evening, marking New Delhi's arrival at the top table of nations after years of neglect as a poor cousin to Asian economic powerhouse China. "We believe that India has a crucial role to play in promoting security, stability and democratic reforms in South Asia and Asian continent as a whole and on a global scale," the Netherlands Prime Minister Jan Peterson Balkenende told a joint news conference after talks between European Union and Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and senior officials. Little was agreed on paper apart from a declaration on promoting cultural relations, and an EU commitment to offering 33 million euro ($42.50 million) for scholarships for 1,000 Indian postgraduates to study at European universities. But the two sides agreed to come up with a joint action plan by the time of their summit next year which will set out the framework for their partnership.

     Singh said, "In our meeting today we reviewed this state of relations between the EU and India. Considerable progress has been made since our first summit in 2000. We express particular satisfaction with the European Commission's report on the India-EU strategic partnership and the councils of the European Parliament conclusion on the report. India has responded comprehensively to the EU report. We have identified number of proposals covering the entire range of sectors to take forward India-EU relations." Only five other nations have a "strategic partnership" with the EU: the United States, Canada, Japan, China and Russia. The main thrust of their plan will be economic, with the EU looking to enjoy some of the fruits of India's vibrant growth. The 25-nation EU is the leading foreign investor in India and its biggest trading partner. But China still accounts for more than five times as much European trade and 10 times as much EU investment as India.

     The two sides agreed to improve access to each others' markets. The EU complains about Indian red tape and rules restricting foreign shareholdings in sectors such as civil aviation and financial services, despite 15 years of reform. They said they would also set up a panel to coperate on energy security. India pledged to join the multibillion-dollar EU satellite navigation system project, Galileo, as China has done already. Ambitions also include cooperating at a multilateral level on environmental protection and working jointly against terrorism and weapons proliferation. The perennial tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, which New Delhi has long maintained is not a subject for outside mediation, was also discussed at Monday's meeting. Balkenende said the bloc was encouraged by India's efforts to normalise relations with Pakistan. "We welcome and encourage India's efforts to take and to engage in dialogue with broad spectrum of the Kashmiri stake holders. We know that it is important that a country like India is involved in the development of Kashmir. The prime Minister informed us about the situation. We thought over the concerns that are in Europe on the situation and in Kashmir," Balkenende said.

     Singh said India was willing to look at all options to resolve its long-running dispute with Pakistan over Kashmir, if Islamabad kept its promises made at the start of the year. "So long as Pakistan abides by its commitments as given in January 2004 we are prepared to engage in a serious dialogue with Pakistan to resolve all outstanding issues and that also applies to the issue of Jammu and Kashmir," Singh said. India has been cool to Pakistani proposals made through the media to end the dispute over Kashmir that has caused two of the three wars between the two nations. Musharraf's suggestions include demilitarising Kashmir and looking at options for its future including independence, joint control or some form of U.N. control. Singh added that New Delhi would not carry out such public peace negotiations. "Now as regards any proposal, if you are referring to what General Musharraf said at an iftar party, well I don't consider it as a proposal. When we receive any formal proposal we will I think react to it in an appropriate manner," Singh added. Violence has eased a little since both sides launched the peace process but shootings and bomb attacks still occur regularly. To keep up the momentum created by a Singh-Musharraf meeting in September on the sidelines of a U.N. gathering in New York, further high-level talks are planned this month when Pakistani Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz meets Singh during a stop in New Delhi for a regional meeting.

India will do its best to harness energy resources: Singh (Go To Top)

      The Hague: Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh on Tuesday said that his government was in the process of taking all appropriate steps to harness the country's energy resources. Expressing this view during an interaction with captains of Indian and European industry, Singh that he was completely in favour of encouraging foreign direct investment in the energy and oil sector. Responding to a suggestion made by the Chairman of Royal Dutch Shell, Van der Veer, about creating an independent petroleum regulatory authority to encourage multinational investment in the Indian oil sector, Dr. Singh said that his government was in the process of setting up an independent and credible petroleum regulatory authority, which would look after this aspect.