'Mahanagar' editor Rashid stabbed
Mumbai: Sajid Rashid, editor of a local Hindi daily Mahanagar was tonight stabbed by unidentified persons near his office in suburban Matunga. According to the Joint Commisioner of Police (Law and Order) Ahmad Javed, Rashid was stabbed around 9.45 pm, near City Light cinema hall.

Rashid was admitted to KEM Hospital where his condition was stated to be stable, he said. According to the papers staffers, Rashid received injuries in his abdomen. They said that the reason behind the attack could have been an article that had appeared in the daily a few months back.
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PM to head infrastructure panel
New Delhi: The Prime Minister, Dr Manmohan Singh, announced the setting up of a high-level committee on infrastructure to monitor the progress in all key projects.

Inaugurating the JRD Tata Centenary Celebration organised by Assocham, the Prime Minister assured the business community that tax procedures would be simplified in the next Union Budget. "I am aware of the need to further simplify the procedures for tax compliance and the Finance Ministry will address these and related issues in the next Union Budget," he said.

The committee on infrastructure, to be headed by the Prime Minister, would monitor progress in sectors such as airports, power and telecommunications on a quarterly basis to ensure that targets are met.

The Planning Commission will function as the executive arm of the committee, identifying bottlenecks in policy implementation and guiding the Ministries concerned to speed up implementation of projects.

Dr Singh also said that the "tyranny of over-inspection" must end. Towards this end, he will be reconstituting the Prime Minister's Council of Trade and Industry. One of the areas of focus of this council will be the ending of the inspector raj.
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SC panel for closure of HIL - pulls up Coca Cola as well
Kochi: A monitoring Committee on Hazardous Waste set up by the Supreme Court has recommended that the public sector Hindustan Insecticides Ltd (HIL) at Eloor near here should be closed down in view of the environmental pollution it creates.

The committee said in its report submitted to the State Government that the public sector HIL should 'go in for closure' and the area where the company is operating be allowed to 'recover from the various toxic materials and chemicals' HIL uses and discharges. HIL, which makes pesticides such as DDT and Endosulfan, should be allowed to reopen only if it can shift to "clean technology and a new product mix", the committee said in its report.

The committee, which severely criticised the State for failing to safeguard its environment by checking industrial pollution, also recommended that the industrial estate of Eloor and Edayar should collectively pay a fine of Rs.2.5 crore on the `polluter pays principle' for contaminating the Periyar river.

The Kerala Pollution Control Board (KPCB) will ensure that this amount is collected as per the committee's directions and use the proceeds to monitor the health of the river, to create conditions for the re-entry of life in it and restore its ecology. The committee also looked into the allegation of pollution created by Coca Cola, which distributed its sludge to farmers at Plachimada, Palakkad, where the soft drink giant has a bottling unit.

Hindustan Coca Cola could not convince the committee of the source of the toxic heavy metals found in the sludge, the report said. Unauthorised disposal of the sludge has affected the areas around the plant and the ground water was found to be unfit for drinking.

The committee came to the conclusion that Coca Cola will take quick measures to ensure water supplies to all the people in the vicinity of the plant. The KPCB will look into this and report compliance, besides ensuring that all sludge dumped by the plant outside its walls would be retrieved and placed within a new landfill being constructed by the company.

Regarding the issue of Coke and Pepsi plants drawing ground water, the committee said though this matter was outside its purview, in order to reduce the withdrawal of ground water, both the units are directed to install reverse osmosis systems to ensure that use of public water for effluent treatment is returned to its original condition for re-used. This recommendation has to be implemented within six months.
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Chidambaram assures truckers on service tax
New Delhi: The Finance Minister, P. Chidambaram, assured the striking truck owners and operators that the Government had no intention to impose service tax on them. "No service tax is being imposed, or will be imposed on truck owners or truck operators," he said at a late night press conference here.

Making a special appeal to those truck owners who operate one or two or three trucks, Chidambaram said: "No tax has been imposed on you and will be imposed on you. You will not be required to register, you will not be required to collect or pay any service tax."

The All-India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) had on Monday said that nothing short of an assurance from the Finance Minister will convince them about the Government's stand on the vexed issue.

If the large transport corporations or cargo-booking agents have any problem, their representatives should discuss the matter with the Government. Instead of discussing their problems, they are making it appear that the truck owners and operators have a problem with service tax, he said.

However, the transporters said that the Government was making futile attempts to divide the transport community into different segments. Earlier, with the Government showing no signs of bowing to its main demand for withdrawal of service tax, the striking transport operators and truck owners on Tuesday mounted further pressure by enlisting the help of petrol pump owners for intensifying their four-day long agitation.
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