New BSNL rules set to change mobile phone billing Saturday, September 15, 2001
BY AMIT MUKHERJEE, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: With the Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited issuing notices to cellular operators to enforce "traffic discipline" across the country, some mobile phone users in Gujarat may suddenly find their bills shooting up. Others, of course, stand to benefit under the new regime.
Effective from September 15, cellular operators in Gujarat have been asked to route all out-going calls from the state through the Ahmedabad trans-automatic exchange. This implies that a cell user trying to call up a land-line in Mumbai from Vapi will have to pay STD charges for Ahmedabad to Mumbai.
According to an official of Fascel Limited, the caller who was initially being charged for the airtime and STD from the local station, from where the call was been made, will now have to pay from Ahmedabad onwards as all out-of-state calls from cell phones in Gujarat will be routed through Ahmedabad.
For long now, the BSNL has been directing all the cellular operator to follow the traffic discipline, the violation of which led to the corporation freezing the allotments of new lines to cellular operators for capacity expansion. The operators had approached that Telecom Dispute Settlement and Appellate Tribunal which had further put a cap on the release of new lines till the matter was decided.
The Cellular Operators' Association of India eventually had to go for an out-of-court settlement as the freeze was affecting their business. While the COAI took back the case, the cap was removed and the BSNL released about 180 new point of intersections for land-line and cellular network compatibility in wake of expansion. The condition of the release of new POI to both CelForce and Birla AT&T was, however, that they would adhere to "traffic discipline".
With all outgoing STD calls to land-lines to be charged ex-Ahmedabad, some callers will also stand to gain. While person calling Mumbai from Vapi would have to pay more, a call made from a cellular in Palanpur to Mumbai will cost less as the STD charge will only be applicable from Ahmedabad.
Like Ahmedabad in Gujarat, the gateway for all states to route outgoing STD calls from cellular phones have been determined. For Maharashtra (apart from Mumbai), the Nagpur TAX has been set up as the gateway. Which also means that a person calling up from a land-line in Ahmedabad to a person in Pune, will have to bear STD charges for Ahmedabad to Nagpur.
Similarly a cell-to-cell call between Valsad and Virar will be charged for a STD call between Ahmedabad and Nagpur in addition to air-time charges, which would be significantly high.
The cellular operators so far have been handling outstation calls from the nearest TAXs, a practice which the BSNL said was jamming the corporation's network. BSNL said the local TAXs had smaller capacity and were unable to handle the load.
Once the new BSNL terms are enforced, while many may have to pay more, many cell users would also benefit depending on the STD band rate structure followed by the BSNL, with respect to gateways and the geopraghic locations of destinations.
News Source : Times News Network [India's best Newspaper]
Rajasthan , Kerala battle it out for top honours Saturday, September 15, 2001
BY ROBIN DAVID, TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: Gujarat seems destined to watch from the sidelines two giants roll out the red carpet to tourists. Still smarting from the fact that Kerala has become the top tourist destination among states, Rajasthan has come out with an action plan to regain first place, while Gujarat, like a timid sidekick, can't even make up its mind on what its new draft tourism policy should say.
Single window clearance for most government permissions, deference of payments for new entrants and concessions in converting rural land for commercial use are some moves the RTDC announced about a month back to counter Kerala's 'God's own country' theme.
"We were caught napping," admitted former ruler of Udaipur Arvind Singh Mewar who runs the highly successful Historic Resort Group of Hotels in Rajasthan. In Ahmedabad recently to attend a meeting of the Gujarat chapter of the Indian Heritage Hotel's Association , he said, "A couple of IAS officers have taken Kerala way ahead with some excellent marketing while we were resting on our past laurels. The new concessions should help us regain our place."
Gujarat's draft tourism policy, on the other hand, still has many rough edges to be smoothed out, like getting the finance department clearance on concessions in luxury, entertainment and electricity taxes. The focus will be on working out specific niches like circuits for eco tourists and tours of religious sites.
Sources in the state government confirmed that the suggestion to give liquor permits to three-star and heritage hotels has stirred up a hornet's nest among departments and may delay the new policy. The tourism corporation has asked for details on the number of tourists such hotels receive to gauge the demand for such permits. Gujarat may also hold on to the draft till the Centre comes up with its own tourism policy by October end.
While Gujarat is busy clearing the prohibition and taxation tangles, RTDC is busy drawing up grander plans. It has already tied up with other state tourism development corporations, airlines and other companies for joint promotions apart from making Jaipur the first 'Heritage City' in India.
A new tourist train 'Dessert Queen' is expected to be launched in November in collaboration with the Indian Railways. It is expected to be an economy version of Palace-on-Wheels and would include privilege card for regular customers.
Plans are afoot to give industry status to tourism as it could induce higher investment and allow incentives like five-year sales tax holiday.
Arvind Singhji however does not see policies as the only way to promote what he calls the 'industry of the future'. "Prohibition and the government can't be the only pegs to hang your failures on," he says. "You have failed to market yourself." According to him, Gujaratis are one of the largest tourist chunks in Rajasthan. "There are hotels that run exclusively on tourists from Gujarat. We have to stop seeing only foreigners as tourists and give more importance to domestic tourism."
Arvind Singhji also asked hoteliers in their state to behave as if only foreigners have the money to spend. "Gujarat has such a large NRI community with higher spending capacity than any foreigner. The industry should learn to target them."
The Gujarat chapter of the heritage association on the other hand demanded that the state government create a separate ministry for tourism and separate it from the industry portfolio. "We would also like to see a managing director for at least five years at the tourism corporation instead of a new man every year," secretary of the association said.
Gujarat's potential to attract tourists has been discussed over the years. The tourism sector is now demanding that this potential translate into concrete gains. Perhaps the state should learn from Rajasthan and Kerala where competition is driving them to newer heights.
News Source : Times News Network [India's best Newspaper]
Vadodara's own WTC standing tall... 100 storeys short Saturday, September 15, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
SHOULD terrorists decide to attack any of Pune’s several defence establishments, it will be all too easy.
According to defence analysts at the University of Pune’s department of defence and strategic studies, the proximity of civilian structures to key defence establishments reeks of a lack of security understanding on the part of parties concerned. Air Marshall (retd) S Kulkarni of the department of defence and strategic studies flayed the city’s civic administration for giving no thought to security. “Pune is definite-ly a very attractive and vulnerable target, with all its military and airforce bases. But Pune suffers from a very apathetic situation. Our defence security lapses have been very debatable. I blame the civil administra-tion of the city. Civil s t r u c -tures are allowed to come up within a few yards of key defence establish-ments like the airforce base and NDA. For the self inter-est of a few civilians, the entire safety of a nation is put in jeopardy. A compliant admin-istration, a corrupt politician and a willing bureaucrat can be more dangerous than all the terrorists put together. Instead of being mute spec-tators, the common citizens should campaign together and make sure that our country’s safety is not compro-mised,” he said.
With the reality of what global ter-rorism can do being constantly flashed in our faces on television and in the newspapers ever since the attack on the USA, it is not too far fetched to ask, what about Pune? Consider this. The Southern Command, the largest and most pop-ulated army head quarter base is in Pune, coupled with the Pune Sub Area. The National Defence Academy, College of Military Engineering, Armed Forces Medical College, Indian Institute of Armament Technology, the Ammunition and High Explosive Factory, the Ordnance Depot, the Central Armoured Fighting Vehicles Depot, and smaller units like the Base Workshop, Supply Depot and Bomb Disposal Unit, are all based in and around Pune.
Apart from the military installations, Pune has the high security airforce base at Lohegaon and INS Shivaji at Lonavala. Research centres like the Armament Research and Development Establishment, the High Energy Materials Research Laboratory and the National Chemical Laboratories are also situated in Pune. “Put all these together and Pune definitely becomes an attractive target for any sort of terror-ist and military attack,” a top rank-ing official of the Armed Forces told Pune Times.
Former defence personnel in the city also reiterated that Pune is definitely an attractive target for any sort of war action. Surprisingly, the experts felt that our proximity to big brother Mumbai, a city that may well be called the New York of India, may actually work in our favour, since the state’s capital is a much more visible and alluring target.
According to Admiral (retd.) Jayant Nadkarni, Pune is a very enticing target. “But one has to realise the difference between a terrorist attack and a military attack. Terrorists don’t have any par-ticular military agenda. Their main objective is to cause chaos and disorder. Therefore, any prestigious building will be a good target, especially one that is lightly defended. For that matter the National Defence Academy is a prime institute and more or less vulnerable. An attack on such an institute will certainly give a terrorist group mileage as far as publicity goes.
On the other hand, military attacks are more centered towards military bases. Air fields, ammunition depots and other military stock bases are high on target lists. But here again, with Mumbai as a neighbour, atten-tion is often drawn away from Pune.
Bombay High and the Tarapore Atomic Power Station are also high target areas. Pune may not be first on the list of a terrorist’s attack, but it will also not be last either.”
Lt Gen (retd) B T Pandit, however, felt that even though Pune did seem like it was susceptible to an attack, the probability of the same happening was quite low. “However we shouldn’t press any panic buttons right now. That will only serve the purpose of terrorist groups,” he advised.
News Source : Times News Network [India's best Newspaper]
List of Persons confirmed safe over Phone Saturday, September 15, 2001
List issued by Consulate General of India : New York
CALLER'S NAME PERSON CONTACTED
Preeti Dingle 630 728 8129
Un Known Sanjeev Bhattacharjee
Capt. S. N. Reddy, Hyderabad Satish Reddy
Un known father
Un known Sukhdev Singh
Amrit Kaur, Barnala Dr.Jasbir Singh
Un Known Benjamin, Rochester
Raman.k Shastri Velamuri(uncle)
Father ( unknown) Ahit Menon
Un known Mother
Rajesh A. Agarwal Shekhar Kumar
Nagesh Swamy,New delhi Rahul Sharma & Neru Sharma
un known Subhash Chpra, Jamaica
Kusum Kansal, Ludhiana Pradeep
Jaswinder Singh Ajmera Singh
S.K.Bajaj,Guwahati Ragini Sabharwal, Uncle
Sambasivan Brother of Sambasivan
T. Singh Manmohan Singh / J Kaur State Dep. WTC
Sister Sudhir Adhikari
Maupuri, UP Binod Goyal/ Radha Goyal
Pankaj Nigam,Kanpur,91-512-29885 S. P. Saxena, father
Jamshedpur Dr. Priya
Rekha Srinivasulu N. Balaji
Un known Sachin Man (Son)
Jaswinder Singh Ajmer Chandra
Shubra sen Gupta Ashok Majumdar, Long Island
Charan Singh Amarjit Singh
Kiran Bindale, Galgaon, Suresh Bindale
Gurdas Singh Yaspal Singh
Ralph Babosa Nestratrorenas, West Virginia
Mrs. Proniti Singh 631-400-947
Un known Mr. Karan Keshyao
Pritam Kumar Vinod Kumar Nandwani, East Meadow
Haresh Trivedi Bhuj Arjit Taralal (in Virgenia
Un known Naga Prasad
Ashish Malhotra, Shyampura, UP Malhotra
J.K. Bhatt Dr. Jonathan D. Leitesoss, Mng. Parner, Shalom Equity Co. and owners of just designed real estate company.
from Vijayawada Nagesh Rao Putsala
Unknown Singh
Punjab 718-441-5889
Hari V. Krishna murthy
Harpal Singh Balwinder Singh
Phool Chand Mehra Dev Mehra
Prabhas Chandra Haldar, Kolkata Suresh Chandra Sarkar
Guru Raj Connecticut Hemat Kumar
Viren Gandhi NJ Nitin Paragsen Paker
Kriahsn Madhar Ramesh Kumar (Brother)
H S Rane from Dheradhun.UP Uttranjal H.S. Rane's sister in Houston
Harcharan Singh, Punjab Naranjan Singh
Un known Sukbir Singh
P. Patel, Ahmedabad Dharti
Shingara Singh Joga Singh
Damodaran (grand father) Pothiraj
Jigmar Tushar desai
Rajiv Singh Govind Singh
Shajeev Alice David
Ramjeet, Nawazsahar Avtar
Gagan, Mumbai Suman Toor, Harvinder Toor
Anibu S. Dutta Sandeep Datta
J. Thomas D. Thomas, Brooklyn
Jivan Kumar Ramesh Kumar Rashmi Kumar, Jatin Kumar
Adarsh Pal Singh Harvinder Singh, Sonia, San Francisco
Anookh Singh Bhagwan Singh
Ravi Shankar Dubey Ashok Kumar Dubey
Teachers back in schools Friday, September 14, 2001
TIMES NEWS NETWORK
AHMEDABAD: There was a lot of catching up to do as higher secondary schools reopened on Thursday with teachers ending their fortnight-long strike which achieved nothing.
The teachers didn't really return to schools as victors and some of them had that sheepish grin which said it all.
Students said some teachers behaved as if nothing had happened in the last fortnight, and Thursday was just another day for students in the city.
But post-stir, the students have, indeed, begun to see their teachers in a different light, what with some of them putting up vulgar posters of the education minister on a busy Ahmedabad street.
"I wanted to ask my teacher if he would scold us if we made some similar cartoons on the black board every day," remarked a tenth standard student of St. Xavier's Loyola Hall.
It is still not clear whether the students, who have already lost precious two weeks because of the strike, would be delivered another blow with the curtailment of Navratri and Diwali holidays. This again, is not going to make the teachers too popular!
There was an ominous silence as you enter Diwan Ballubhai Higher Secondary School at Paldi. Where is the buzz of busy classrooms if the teachers have indeed withdrawn their strike, you wonder.
A peep into the classrooms proves that normal business is, in fact, back on track. Stern-looking teachers are holding fort as the students, in uniforms that look neat, peer into their textbooks.
Principal Dayalbhai Patel is also busy reading a book, but this one is a government booklet on the Essential Services Maintenance Act. He is wondering how teachers could be brought under its purview.
Patel confirmed there were hardly any absentees in school, either teachers or students.
The day was also an opportune moment for teachers at Ankur High School to congratulate their octogenarian director Frenny Desai who recently received the Eklavya Excellent Educator Award for Lifetime Achievement.
Present and past teachers gathered in her chamber to wish Desai, one of the last remaining Gandhians to have participated in the freedom struggle.
Outside, a sea of white and blue uniforms stroll out after their first day at school since the strike. "At some point during the unexpected vacation, I started missing my classmates, my friends," one of the students said. "Not the teachers, just my friends. In that sense it is good to be back. The rest is all the same."
St Xavier's High School, Loyola Hall, was one of the few schools where a handful of students of Standard XI kept coming to the campus even when the authorities had not asked them to. It was, therefore, not difficult for them to get back on track when the strike was called off.
"You can see for yourself," said principal Father Fernand Durai pointing outside his window as groups of students ran around during the recess. "They seem to be happy to be back." He added that except those who had reported sick, most of the teachers and students were back.
Source - Timesofindia.com
