gaddam@remus.rutgers.edu (Surekha Reddy Gaddam) (05/10/91)
AIR NEWS (by Bimal Jaipuri) from the Delhi station of All India Radio. 4:30am IST - Friday The center has declared that its decision to hold elections in the northern state of Punjab will not be reconsidered despite escalation in militant activities in the state. Speaking to the newsmen in Chandigarh, the union state minister Mr.Subodh Kant said that the fight against the militants will continue and the elections will be held on the 22nd of next month as scheduled. He said security will be provided to every candidate contesting the election and said that the state police has been fully permitted to put down terrorism with an iron hand. The law minister Dr.Subramania Swamy has said that the center has the view that some steps should be taken to restore the confidence of the people and administration in the eastern state of Bihar. He said the the Home ministry report on the Bihar situation will be presented to the election commission TODAY. Dr.Swamy who met the chief election commissioner earlier in the day also said an all party meeting is being convened tomorrow to discuss the proposed amendment to the representation of peoples act. The amendment is to prevent countermanding of election in a constituency due to the death of a NON-PARTY candidate. The CE commissioner Mr.T.N.Sheshan made it clear that there is no need to postpone elections in the eastern state of Bihar at present and denied that any uncertainity has been created in the matter. Talking to newasmen in the capital, he said the Bihar govt has been directed not to deploy home guards for the poll duty. The Bihar state govt has sought additional paramilitary forces from the center - he added. Meanwhile, the Bihar cabinet reviewd the law and order situation and administrative arrangements for ensuing polls in the state. The center is apprehensive that attempts will be made to create large scale violence in the Kashmir valley in the coming days. An official spokesman said that the recent infiltration of Pak trained militants in the Kupwara sector ( security forces shot dead about 39 militants yesterday ) has confirmed such suspicion. Security forces feel that infiltrators are likely to stepup their operations taking advantage of the weather and studying out that the Indian paramilitary forces are on election duty. The spokesman added that vigilance across the line of control is being intensified. ** ACCORDING TO THE INFORMATION REACHING NEW DELHI MILITANTS IN J&K HAVE BEEN INSTRUCTED TO STEP UP VIOLENCE AND PARTICULARLY ELIMINATE THOSE POLITICAL PERSONALITIES WHO FAVOR ANY PEACE INITIATIVE. *REPORTS ALSO INDICATE THAT ABOUT 5000 MILITANTS ARE REPORTED TO BE IN 38 TRAINING CAMPS IN THE PAK OCCUPIED KASHMIR AND SEVERAL OTHERS BEING HELD IN TWO TRAINING CAMPS INSIDE PAKISTAN. Meanwhile the bodies of those militans who were killed in yesterday's encounter with security forces have been buried in clean areas. Yesterday, Pakistan received one more jolt as the US foreign affairs subcommitte has warned that country for training, aiding and abetting secessionist activities in the northern states of Kashmir and Punjab. The flood situation in Assam, A.P., Mizoram and Tripura continues to be grim. In Assam four persons were drowned in the Bharat valley . Road and railway communications between the Bharat valley and the rest of the country were cut off following torrential rains. In Tripura, hundreds of villages have been inundated in the floods. Fifty relief camps have been setup in Northern Tripura dist. In Mizo, the death toll in the recent cyclone has risen to six. Kuwait has sought the services of 400 senior Indian engineers and high grade technicians to man their power stations. The request has been conveyed through the Indian ambassador in Kuwait. The commerce minister Dr.S.Swamy said that he has conveyed to the Kuwait govt to send a small delegation to India to coordinate the efforts to locate the Indian personnel for running electricity and water supply units. Bangladesh has decided to withdraw 40,000 tonnes of food of its own allocation form the SAARC food security reserve to meet its own emergency needs. AIR Dhaka coorespondent reports that SAARC food security had been set up in 1987 to meet the emergency needs of the member countries. In the continued carnage in Bangladesh, a severe cyclonic storm with a speed of 150kmph battered several villages of Rajgunj(??) dist today. Fire brigade sources said that a school building was collapsed in the area injuring 37 students. Another cyclonic storm with a speed of 100kmph accompanied by torrential rains lashed the city of Dhaka and the adjoining areas. Meanwhile three more helicopters sent by India to join the relief operations in the Chittagong dist arrived in Dhaka this evening. In Amritsar yesterday a police superintendent was killed in the combing operations. Several terrorists were apprehended in the encounter - the report added. Narotham Reddy =============================================================== Approved by Surekha Reddy Gaddam.