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Buta Singh breaks silence over Lalu letter controversy
 by Shailendra

    Patna (Bihar): Bihar Governor Buta Singh, who is in the eye of an opposition storm for writing a letter to Railway Minister Lalu Prasad to seek the transfer of two railway officers, today broke his silence over the issue. Reacting to the criticism of the opposition, Singh said that merely writing a letter should not be seen as an offence. " I write letters, if an aggrieved party comes to me. I have been a minister in 15 ministries till now. I have been in public life for fifty years now. Everybody knows me, whether by name face or anything. If I forward a letter is it such a grave mistake," said Buta Singh. He also that the state administration would extend all possible help to the visiting Election Commission team during their pre- poll assessment. "Whatever information they need, we will give them on every issue. It will be provided to them. We will fully cooperate with the Election Commission. We realise the importance of the visit of the team from Election Commission here," said Buta. He added that his appointment was a result of a cabinet decision which had the approval of Congress President Sonia Gandhi. "This is a non-issue. The President appointed me and I have come here with everybody's consent. I came here with the blessings of Sonia Gandhi," said Buta.

       In an official letter, written to Lalu on July 5, 2005, Singh had requested for the posting of two railway officers Vijay P Meshram and and Girish Bhatnagar, Chief Materials Manager of South Eastern Railway and officer of Central Railway (Mumbai) respectively. Singh had then stated that Meshram had worked for 20 years in South Eastern Railway at Kolkata, Kharagpur, Tatanagar, Bhubaneshwar, Vishakhapatnam, Raipur, Nagpur and three years in Dew in Patiala in Punjab. The opposition National Democratic Alliance, which has been demanding Governor Singh's recall after he had ordered the random transfer of 17 senior police officers in the state last month, has termed it as "immoral and denigration of the post and prestige of the office of the Governor." Lalu has dismissed the issue as nonsense by saying: "there was nothing wrong in Bihar Governor seeking relocation of a railway official in the South Eastern Railway." "Meshram was not relocated because he has a vigilance case against him and he is still where he was"he added. Meshram, who has a vigilance case against him, has said that he knows Buta Singh for the last 20 years and admitted that Buta Singh had recommended his transfer.

India unveils world's safest nuke reactor (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: India today unveiled before the International Community its revolutionary design of the Thorium Breeder Reactor, touted to be the world's safest nuclear reactor. The reactor can produce 600 megawatts of electricity for two years, without any refuelling and practically 'no control manoeuvres.' Designed by scientists of the Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), India's premier nuclear research centre, the ATBR is claimed to be far more economical and safer than any other power reactor in the world. Another important aspect for the ATBR is that it does not require any natural or enriched uranium, for running. It uses thorium, which India has in plenty, and uses plutonium only as 'seed' to ignite the reactor core initially. ATBR can also run entirely with thorium and fissile uranium-233 bred inside the reactor. BARC scientists V. Jagannathan and Usha Pal who presented the ATBR design at the 'international conference on emerging nuclear energy systems' in Brussels, said that the design has been in the making for over seven years. They said that the ATBR, while annually consuming 880 kilograms of plutonium for energy production from 'seed' rods, converts 1,100 kg of thorium into fissionable uranium-233, which in effect makes it a kind of thorium breeder. They further said that the ATBR would annually require 2.2 tonnes of plutonium as 'seed'.

Chidambaram tables first outcome budget in Parliament (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: Finance Minister P Chidambaram today tabled the much awaited outcome budget in the Parliament. While presenting the first ever outcome budget, which seeks to measure the physical target achieved on the financial outlays of various ministries, Chidambaram said that it was a historic exercise and assured the Lok Sabha that the exercise would become an annual feature. Terming the outcome budget as a mechanism to measure the development outcome of all major programmes undertaken by the government, Chidambaram said, "Though the 725-page voluminous document might not be perfect, it is a great beginning in response to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's directive to attempt such an exercise." He underlined the need for converting financial outlays into physical outcomes, with fixed quarterly measurable and monitorable targets, so as to improve the quality of implementation of developmental programmes. The outcome budget seeks to measure the physical targets that each ministry and department of the government achieved since the Union Budget 2005-06 was presented on February 28, 2005. The budget reveals that the government had approved Rs 8,000 crore for Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan while subsides for LPG and Kerosene, would cost Rs 3,600 crore to the government exchequer. Government has allocated Rs 9,000 crore for the National Highways Development Programme (NHDP) over Rs 6,000 crore to increase the refining capacity in the country. Chidambaram said this exercise has been taken up only for the plan expenditure now and from next year outcome budget will be prepared for the non-plan expenditure too.

Indian economy on track: Government adviser (Go To Top)

     New Delhi: The government's economic policies have received an endorsement from noted economist and chief adviser Ashok Lahiri. Talking to news persons in New Delhi, Lahiri said that the economic targets will be met. "The Indian economy is doing satisfactorily and there is nothing to suggest the government will not meet fiscal targets for the financial year to March 2006," said Lahiri. Speaking on the subject of excise collection, Lahiri said the issue of revenue generation would be addressed soon. "This is a point which can cause concern. We have to think upon it. Petroleum products have come down in the imports list. But we will try to take steps. There are some pressure points. There is nothing to suggest that we sound the alarm bells," said Lahiri The Indian economy might be poised to turn out better growth figures than are being forecast. Government's economic outlook suggests seven percent GDP growth for 2005-6, while private forecasters such as CMIE are cautiously pegging the expected growth rate at 6.8 percent.

Follow our laws or get out of the country: Australia to Muslims (Go To Top)

     Canberra: Australia has sent out strong signals to the Muslims community living in the country, that if they don't abide by laws of the land and prefer to be governed by their own Shariat laws, they would be asked to leave the country. The move, said to be a part of the country's policy to launch a crackdown on the extremists and Muslim radicals living in Australia, is contemplated on the basis of reports that Muslim radicals were planning terror strikes in the country. According to the Daily Times, Australian Prime Minister John Howard decided this at a meeting with his cabinet ministers. Later, it was announced that Muslim extremists would face a crackdown. The paper quoted Treasurer Peter Costello as hinting that some radical Muslim clerics could be asked to leave Australia, if they did not accept Australia as a secular state. "If those are not your values, if you want a country which has Shariat law or a theocratic state, then Australia is not for you. I'd be saying to clerics who are teaching that there are two laws governing people in Australia, one the Australian law and another the Islamic law, that that is false. If you can't agree with parliamentary law, independent courts, democracy, and would prefer Sharia law and have the opportunity to go to another country which practises it, perhaps, then, that's a better option," Costello said. The minister added: "Basically, people who don't want to be Australians, and they don't want to live by Australian values and understand them, well then they can basically clear off."

Coalition an obstacle to reforms: Manmohan Singh (Go To Top)

     New York: Amid opposition by the Left Parties on several issues relating to economic reforms, including disinvestments and labour reforms, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has admitted that coalition politics has hampered the process of reforms. "We are a coalition government, and that limits our options in some ways. Privatisation happens to be one such area," Singh said in an interview with McKinsey Quarterly, a publication of the leading global management consultancy Mc Kinsey and Co. He said that the limitations of the coalition governance have prevented the UPA from carrying forward economic reforms in a big way. "We have a problem, there is no doubt. Extreme rigidities in the labour market, inflexibility of the labour market, is not consistent in our achieving our goals in a world where demand conditions are changing so fast, technological conditions are changing so fast," Dr. Singh said. The limitations, he, however said are temporary and he expressed confidence about carrying forward the reform process. I haven't given up, and I am confident that when all things are considered, I think the reform will have more broad-based support, said Singh. Pointing out that the Communist Government in West Bengal appreciated the need for labour market flexibility, the Prime Minister said that the Left parties have to be convinced that what is good for West Bengal, is also good for the country. "Our coalition today represents nearly 70 percent of the Indian electorate, so we may be slow moving, but if we build a consensus, that will be far more durable than any other mechanism that I know of," he said. . On the question of disinvestments in profit making public sector enterprises, he said that there was no need to privatise those enterprises which were doing exceedingly well. However, if they want to raise resources for their own expansion, they are free to go to the market, he said. He said, the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), which is the benchmark for the UPA government talks against the privatisation of Navratnas, but outside the Navratnas, the field is vastly open. "For enterprises which are not Navratnas, if we want to privatize, if we want to get more investment going into those things, I think all options are open, he said. On the opening up of the retail sector, he said he had his "task cut out" to convince his coalition partners. "I am convinced that we can work out a package that is fair, that entry of foreign enterprises into the retail trade will not hurt our small shopkeepers but will create a lot more employment," he added.

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