Amnesty's concern over 'missing' people

“It is high time that the Indian government put an end to the nightmare of disappearances by bringing down the wall of silence which hides the truth and allows this gross violation of human rights to continue”, says Amnesty International.

A new report prepared by Amnesty International has asked the Government of India to “tell us if they are dead,” in a clear reference to the suffering of the “disappeared” and their families in Jammu and Kashmir.

The report also claims that “disappearances” have also been reported in the recent past from the North-Eastern states.The London-based Amnesty International further claims that up to 800 people “disappeared” since 1990 after being arrested by the police or para-military forces.

“Many appear to be ordinary citizens picked up at random, with no connection with the armed struggle”, the report says.

As per Amnesty, those missing since 1990 include children and elderly, and they come from all profession — from businessmen to lawyers and labourers to teachers.

“We have not yet seen it...we will react only after studying it,” was the curt reply from a Home Ministry spokesman, when the Ministry's comments on the report were sought.

The Amnesty mentions that the legacy of “disappearances” in Punjab between 1992 and 1994 is now coming to light with hundreds of unidentified bodies cremated by the police being “discovered”.

“No one underestimates the difficulty of the security situation in Jammu and Kashmir where armed groups with foreign backing have committed terrible abuses against the local population. But this does not excuse the use of “disappearance” as a weapon of war or remove the authorities' responsibility from justice,” the report says.

IPR of Indian tea leaves varieties to be protected

This brings cheers to the Indian tea planters as the Tea Research Association ( TRA), as an autonomous body is bracing up to protect intellectual property rights (IPR) in respect to various tea leave varieties in the country.

In the wake of alarming news of patents of turmeric and neem in other countries, the TRA's latest move seems to be timely lest some of the Indian tea varieties are patented in other countries.

These days the TRA along with a Calcutta-based organisation is working to patent many as 180 varieties of tea. These varieties are referred to as clones. Thirty-six of them are of garden series, 30 of Tocklai release clones and 14 of bi-clinical seed stock.

The TRA is an independent organisation, established long back by the tea planters and the Government of India. The Jorhat-based TRA has an experimental station at Nagrakata in Dooars in north Bengal.

So far, the tea varieties, developed and produced in India used to be smuggled to Bangladesh, a neighbouring country with a long porous border.

Moreover, the TRA is expected to earn a substantial amount in the form of royalty once its clones are patented.

|The Tea Board has also embarked upon an ambitious plan to develop and promote organic tea, which is a craze in some foreign countries. India alone accounts for about 2.1 million kg. out of a total 2.4 million kg. of organic tea production in the world.

As many as 13 bio-organic tea estates out of 20 in the country are in Darjeeling hills. At present, the bulk of the organic tea is exported to Europe, the major market being Germany and the United Kingdom.

According to the India Bio Organic Tea Association, the demand is likely to increase substantially during the coming years.

Indian computer whizkid may find a place in Guinness Book

“I had wanted a computer for a long time but my parents had told me that I would get it only after I cleared the MCSD. And that really proved to be the key motivating factor for me to slog hard with each of the four papers and clear them all with over 80 per cent marks,” said Vibhor Garg, a 13-year-old Delhi boy after clearing MCSD (Microsoft Certified Solution Developer) course recently.

The new computer whizkid's achievement came to light close on the heels of the news of a 14-year-old Jaipur boy becoming the youngest MCP (Microsoft Certified Professional) in the country.

An eighth standard student at Mont Fort School, Vibhor Garg, incidentally got his MCP certificate in July last year when he successfully completed his “Implementation and Supporting Microsoft Windows NT Server 4.0” exam on June 27, 1998.

Along with many a pat on his back from his parents, Vibhor also got a present. A Pentium-II 350 MHz personal computer. Vibhor's proud parents, Anil, a businessman, and Uma, a housewife, are already picturing their son's face staring out of the Guinness Book of World Records.

“I am sure this has to be a record of sorts”, said Mr. Garg, “I am in the process of finding out. But, even if it is not, I am really proud of my son who will be 14 this May. He used to stand first or second in his class every time, and that was getting to be the usual affair. His new achievement has made me experience joy that cannot be expressed in words.”

Vibhor was inspired to take his peripheral interest in computers seriously when Bill Gates visited India in 1997. Before that, he had only learnt some Basic and Pascal which was taught in school when he was in Class IV. Fame and fortune being a big draw, even to the then 11-year-old Vibhor, he decided to enroll into NIIT and study computers along with his regular studies.

Mumbai-Karachi sea route urged

Bharatiya Janata Party MPs from Kutch region have urged the government to open a sea route from Mumbai to Karachi via Mandvi on the Kutch coast for passenger traffick. In a letter to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh, the MPs, Anant Dave and Pushpadan Gandhavi, said the sea route was in operation till 1965. They said that during the recent visit of Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Lahore, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had expressed his desire to open the sea route between the two countries at the earliest.

6920 die in Delhi road mishap from '95 to '97

A total of 6920 people died in accidents on Delhi roads from 1995 to 1997.
While 2288 people were killed in 1995, 2626 died in 1996 and 2304 a year later.

Quattrocchi refuses to come to India to face Bofors trial

Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi, a key accused in the multi-crore bofors gun deal kickback case refused to come to India saying his willingness to appear before a trial court was wrongly conveyed to Supreme Court due to a 'miscommunication' with his lawyer.

“A miscommunication between me and my senior counsel made him suggest to the hon'ble Supreme Court that I was ready to go to India to be interrogated on the Bofors case”, Quattrocchi said in a faxed statement from Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia.

Anjana gangrape case to be investigated by CBI
The Orissa Government decided to entrust the investigation of the case relating to gangrape of Anjana Mishra with the CBI.

A formal notification is being issued in this regard, State Home Secretary Sanjeev Hota informed.
Anjana, estranged wife of an Indian Forest Service officer, who is fighting a legal battle against the State's former Advocate General Indrajeet Roy for attempting to rape her in July 1997, was gangraped by three persons near Barang, about 12 km from Bhubaneswar in the night of January 9 last.

Nepal's assurance to India

Nepal has assured India that its territories will not be used for activities innimical to India's interests, according to External Affairs Minister Jaswant Singh. Government was aware of reports of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) and some fundamentalist groups misusing Nepalese territory for their operations in India, the Minister said. He said “the matter was taken up with concerned authorities of Nepal and we have received assurances at the highest levels that Nepalese territory would not be used for such activities.”