Police take possession of kidnapper Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
RAJKOT: The city police arrived here on Wednesday evening with their prize catch _ Ashif Razakhan alias Rajan, mastermind behind the kidnapping of two youth from Rajkot, who were later released after a sum of Rs 6 lakh changed hands.
The police took possession of Rajan after the Delhi and Kolkata police had interrogated him. The police would conduct an identification parade of Rajan, after which full-fledged investigations would be launched.
According to police sources, Rajan had used the ransom money for carrying out anti-national activities in the state. The police said that Rajan was closely involved with dreaded terrorists, who were released following the Kandhar plane-hijack drama two years ago.
Rajan was arrested while in the company of three terrorists, and during investigations he and his accomplice had made startling revelations of carrying out terrorists activities in the country. The police would seek Rajan's remand, to get to the depth of his alleged links with the terrorists.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Scientists dismiss any Saraswati link to Narveri Thursday, November 29, 2001
BY SHYAM PAREKH, FOR TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: The water that spurted out of the ground near Narveri in Kutch after the quake and continued to flow for months belongs to an underground reservoir more than 10,000 years old, say scientists.
This was revealed after the age of the water was determined using the 'helium-radon method'. The water samples were estimated to be between 12,000 to 89,000 years old. The study was conducted by Physical Research Laboratory and Space Applications Centre scientists in Ahmedabad.
An interesting conclusion of the research by senior scientists SK Gupta, N Bhandari, PS Thakkar and R Rangarajan was "...the Narveri waters are not related to the Vedic Saraswati or Sindhu rivers, which were postulated to have been reactivated by the January 2001 earthquake". These Vedic rivers are considered to be around 4,000 years old.
The conclusion on the age was arrived at on the basis of the exceptionally high helium concentration and the high helium and radon ages of the gases in water.
"On the basis of the measurement of helium, radon, chloride, sulphate and considering the sodium concentrations and temperature, it was determined that the water and escaping gases at Narveri had a deep confined source with a reservoir age in excess of 10,000 years," explained Gupta.
The groundwater which oozed out of a small well and other spots located between Kalo Dungar and BSF Post (north of Khavda) continued to flow forcefully with gas bubbles for at least six months, till the area was covered with the tide waters flowing from the Gulf of Kutch. The samples used for the study were collected after four-and-a-half months.
Attributing the spurting out of the groundwater at many places to mobilisation of water from the shallow sources of water due to liquefaction at sites, the scientists observed that the phenomenon stopped shortly after the quake at all other places.
While water oozed out from many places in the state after the temblor, but for Narveri all other sources dried up in a short time. Samples were also collected from Motibaru in Ahmedabad district and Nada in Bharuch district for analysis.
But Narveri was the only site where the samples showed unusually high dissolved concentration of helium gas "...significantly above the air equilibration value".
The scientists explained, "Water in equilibrium with the atmosphere usually shows low concentrations of helium. In groundwater, helium and radium can be high if injected or released through fissures and faults from deep sources, where they are produced by the decay of uranium and thorium series radionuclides."
Moreover, during a quake, because of rock expansion and fracturing during initial movements of the fault lines, both helium and radon level can be high in groundwater, they said.
The simultaneous outflow of gases and water, indicate that due to stresses developed in the deep aquifer the pore fluid is forced up and the dissolved gases get released due to drop in hydrostatic pressure during their ascent.
The calculated ages lead to the conclusion that there is significant component of confined water being injected into the shallow groundwater at Narveri.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
BSNL targets 6.50 lakh connections Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
VADODARA: BSNL would provide 6.50 lakh telephone connections in the current year, chief general manager Gujarat Circle P K Chanda said while inaugurating a telephone exchange at Derol in Godhra on Wednesday.
Distant rural areas in Gujarat circle were interconnected with Optical Fibre Cable and 800 buildings built for a better telecom infrastructure in the state.
Special focus was on serving rural subscribers and fulfilling their need to have better telecommunication connectivity. Chanda also introduced video conference facility in Derol exchange and talked with telecom officers in Mumbai. The exchange is facilitated with 3000 lines C-DOT exchange. In Panchmahals and Dahod districts ISDN facility is introduced at Godhra, Dahod and Halol.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Traffic police to tame pvt bus operators Thursday, November 29, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: With private bus operators being banned from operating on Ashram Road in the Paldi area, traffic problems are likely to ease during the day, particularly during the morning rush morning hours.
Deputy Commissioner (Traffic) Samiullah Ansari has issued strict instructions to his en to disallow private bus operators from parking or picking up passengers anywhere on Ashram Road or around the ST bus depot at Geeta Mandir.
With 110 travel agencies, 360 bus owners and an average of 1,600 private buses plying in and out of Ahmedabad every day, the move is expected to smoothen the traffic.
The instruction comes into force after the five-day grace period given to the operators for making alternate arrangements expired on Monday. The grace period was allowed after the operators apprised the DCP of their difficulties.
"While a large number of bus operators had turned the road into a permanent parking slot, inter-city passenger buses kept on waiting for hours along the narrow stretch of the road, affecting the traffic movement," explained Ansari.
According to sources, the GSRTC management, in an October letter to transport minister Narayan Patel, had sought enforcement of an existing notification, which bars private vehicles from utilising the ST premises. In Ahmedabad, private buses are not allowed within a 500-metre radius of the ST depot.
Sources revealed that at a meeting attended by home minister Zadaphiya, police commissioner P C Pande and the traffic advisory committee members, GSRTC chairman Kamlesh Patel had lashed out at the police, accusing the force of failing to implement the notification and allowing in the private bus operators, by allegedly obtaining 'haftas' to the tune of Rs 24 lakh.
The drive, according to Ansari, is to get the private buses to operate in an organised fashion.
Subsequent to the traffic department issuing the notification, the bus owners had met Mayor Himmatsinh Patel to get the municipal corporation to arrange for an alternate parking spot.
Patel, however, communicated to the police that the arrangement required time. The latter, however, are in no mood to delay enforcing the notification. "That not our problem," adds Ansari.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
Traffic police to tame pvt bus operators Thursday, November 29, 2001
SOURCE - TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: With private bus operators being banned from operating on Ashram Road in the Paldi area, traffic problems are likely to ease during the day, particularly during the morning rush morning hours.
Deputy Commissioner (Traffic) Samiullah Ansari has issued strict instructions to his en to disallow private bus operators from parking or picking up passengers anywhere on Ashram Road or around the ST bus depot at Geeta Mandir.
With 110 travel agencies, 360 bus owners and an average of 1,600 private buses plying in and out of Ahmedabad every day, the move is expected to smoothen the traffic.
The instruction comes into force after the five-day grace period given to the operators for making alternate arrangements expired on Monday. The grace period was allowed after the operators apprised the DCP of their difficulties.
"While a large number of bus operators had turned the road into a permanent parking slot, inter-city passenger buses kept on waiting for hours along the narrow stretch of the road, affecting the traffic movement," explained Ansari.
According to sources, the GSRTC management, in an October letter to transport minister Narayan Patel, had sought enforcement of an existing notification, which bars private vehicles from utilising the ST premises. In Ahmedabad, private buses are not allowed within a 500-metre radius of the ST depot.
Sources revealed that at a meeting attended by home minister Zadaphiya, police commissioner P C Pande and the traffic advisory committee members, GSRTC chairman Kamlesh Patel had lashed out at the police, accusing the force of failing to implement the notification and allowing in the private bus operators, by allegedly obtaining 'haftas' to the tune of Rs 24 lakh.
The drive, according to Ansari, is to get the private buses to operate in an organised fashion.
Subsequent to the traffic department issuing the notification, the bus owners had met Mayor Himmatsinh Patel to get the municipal corporation to arrange for an alternate parking spot.
Patel, however, communicated to the police that the arrangement required time. The latter, however, are in no mood to delay enforcing the notification. "That not our problem," adds Ansari.
News Source : The Times of India [India's best Newspaper]
