OID‰‰†‰KOID‰‰†‰OID‰‰†‰MOID‰‰†‰C New Delhi, Friday,January 3, 2003 Capital 26 pages* Invitation Price Rs. 1.50 International India Times Sport Cherie Blair’s links with Ram Naik launches Butcher’s century conman make her most eco-friendly fuel propels England in unpopular figure in UK gasohol in Mumbai final Ashes Test Page 13 Page 10 Page 17 WIN WITH THE TIMES Established 1838 Hardliners Bennett, Coleman & Co., Ltd. Mobile STD rates slashed The world is getting smaller but the market is becoming larger. More incentives coming up one at a time to compete with Reliance in Pakistan — M S Ramanujan TIMES NEWS NETWORK scribers, meanwhile, will not be able to avail of new cell-cell NEWS DIGEST New Delhi: Mobile phone users Cellular reply Reliance gambit STD rates immediately because will pay just about Rs 3 a minute the two state-owned companies Petrol, diesel prices hiked: for cellular-cellular STD calls Stage I • To offer consumers using its have yet to sign up deals with across the country from Mobile-to-mobile STD rates decry US State-owned oil companies in- network an STD tariff of 40 Telesonic. creased petrol and diesel prices by Friday. Airtime charges, howev- to Rs 2.99 from Rs 9 a min. paise a minute anywhere in Similarly, Reliance is yet to around Rs 1 per litre on Thursday. er, will be added to the STD the country. connect its phone network with Petrol would now cost Rs 29.93 per rates. So far, peak STD rates Stage II Bombing after troops clash • Already incoming calls are those of cellphone companies as litre in Delhi in place of the prevailing were about Rs 9 a minute, plus Incoming calls may be free well as Telesonic. the airtime. free on WLL. Peshawar: Hardliners in House demands that the Rs 28.91 a litre. Diesel prices have on all cellular networks. Bharti Telesonic’s N Arjun The steep rate cut, about 60 per Pakistan condemned the federal government take been hiked from Rs 18.06 to • Pulse rate expected to go said his company was still in dis- Rs 19.07 per litre. cent, has been made possible by United States after a week- our protest to the US Stage III down from 3 minutes a call cussions with BSNL, MTNL and Bharti Telesonic, India’s first pri- end border clash prompted a authorities.’’ China steps in: China and South Reliance to finalise commercial vate STD service provider that Airtime rates may be slashed to around 90 seconds. US warplane to bomb a site There were varying ac- Korea have agreed to cooperate on terms. ‘‘As an STD operator, we has lowered its rates so that cell- near or inside the country’s counts of the incident. resolving the crisis over North Ko- are open to tying up with all cel- phone companies can keep sub- state-owned BSNL matched the regulator, TRAI, before making border. The Pakistan government rea’s nuclear weapons program. P13 lular companies.’’ scribers from shifting to Re- rates, which fell from Rs 24 a any move. Singh said he would The retaliatory airstrike said one of its border guards liance’s mobile wireless in local minute to Rs 9. approach the TRAI ‘‘very Bharti Enterprises CMD Sunil came after a US soldier was was involved and that the loop (WLL-M) service. Although communications soon’’ but did not say whether Mittal said that over the coming shot in the head by a Pak- clash took place on the Reliance plans to offer its cus- minister Pramod Mahajan re- he would match or better few days, cellphone companies istani border guard. The sol- Afghan side of the border. It tomers Reliance-Reliance STD frained from committing any- Telesonic’s tariffs. will make more announcements dier, who has not been identi- said no Pakistanis were calls at 0.40 paise a minute, on a thing on behalf of BSNL while BSNL is the largest phone aimed at reducing tariffs for mo- fied, was grazed on the head wounded or killed. 15 second pulse. announcing the cellular STD rate company in the country, which bile operators. and in stable condition in a Residents in the remote As an overall impact, STD cuts as a special invitee, he did provides about 37 million He did say, however, that these US military hospital in South Waziristan tribal area rates might fall for landline sub- say that once tariffs are reduced, phones across the country, offers cost reductions will be in spite of Germany. of Pakistan said Monday that scribers as well because when others have to match them. STD services. It entered the cel- huge losses being incurred by the Pakistani and US officials US bombs fell near an aban- Bharti Telesonic slashed tariffs BSNL CMD Prithipal Singh lular telephony business a few cellular industry due to increas- downplayed the incident. doned madarssa in Burmol last year after tying up with said that his company would months ago. ing competition. While the clash was not ex- village, 322 km southwest of cellphone companies, the need approval from the telecom BSNL and MTNL cellular sub- See Edit: Unlimited Mobility pected to affect the Pakistani Peshawar. government’s support to the There were no reports of Neeraj Paul US-led war on terrorism, it injuries from residents in the was seen as ammunition for border village. VHP ups the the religious right wing. Pakistani military The incident was con- spokesman Major General ante on PM demned in a resolution Rashid Qureshi discounted adopted by the anti-US, what the residents said. PEOPLE POWER New Delhi: Prime Minister ‘‘An impression has been Speak your mind—loud and free. deeply conservative coalition Atal Bihari Vajpayee’s New of Islamic parties that con- created that Pakistani terri- Question of the week: Year musings on Thursday tory was bombed, but this is Should school begin at 9 a.m in trol the legislature of Pak- the winter months? provoked a fresh offensive istan’s North-West Frontier not true,’’ he said on Wednes- from the Vishwa Hindu day, adding that a probe was Call today at 23492136 ( between 12 noon and province on the border with 1pm ) You can fax us on 2332 3346 / 2371 5832 Parishad, which stated that Afghanistan. on. ‘‘So far, we know the e-mail: [email protected]. Your the PM’s interpretation was bomb landed in Afghan response, along with your name, will be published in ‘‘American jets have violat- one of ‘‘pseudo Hindutva’’. ed the air and geographic territory.’’ AP SUNDAY TIMES OF INDIA The VHP went on to say frontiers of Pakistan,’’ one of Comment: Just what the al- January 5, 2003 that those willing to ‘‘make the sponsors of the resolu- ready buoyant religious right any kind of compromise to tion, Ikramullah Shahid, told wanted. An indication of YOU SAID IT by Laxman remain in power had no right fellow legislators before the what might await General to make such comments’’. measure was approved unan- Musharraf should he sign Declaring that they had imously in a voice vote. One- up on the side of George lost trust in politicians who hundred members were pres- W in the planned war against had ‘‘betrayed and cheated’’ ent in the 122-seat body.‘‘This Saddam. them, VHP’s vice-president Giriraj Kishore said the out- fit had decided to reopen the Ayodhya issue, irrespective Red alert for Bihar bandh of the government stand. Patna: With the Opposi- state, sources said. The VHP’s dharam sansad tion calling for a state-wide As many as 80 passenger is meeting next month, when bandh on Friday,a red alert trains passing through it will chalk out its future has been sounded in Bihar. Bihar have been cancelled, plan of action. The BJP The proposed bandh is to rescheduled. Trains origi- spokesperson Mukhtar Ab- protest the killing of three nating from Howrah, Del- bas Naqvi said the PM’s in- youths in an alleged fake hi, Gorakhpur, Varanasi terpretation of Hindutva had encounter last Saturday. and Guwahati would be ‘‘unnerved’’ their political Patrolling has been in- affected. A thick blanket of fog disrupted traffic in New Delhi on Thursday. The city expects more fog and rain in the next opponents. tensified through out the Detailed report on page 8 few days. Report on page 2 Detailed report on page 7 Find out how the builder there was able to acquire the land there meant for municipal recreation ground! Pension plan likely in Budget By Priya Ranjan Dash the country. As finance minister, such as those in the government, Book your Classifieds TIMES NEWS NETWORK he saw to it that the scheme gets earn a pension on retirement. 24 hours service: “51-666-888” off the ground by providing the The Insurance Regulatory and De- Times InfoLine “51-68-68-68” New Delhi: Finance minister necessary funds. velopment Authority (IRDA) last The ATM of information Jaswant Singh’s first budget, to be Indications are that a contributo- year provided a road map for a new presented next month, may well The Largest Classifieds Site ry pension scheme will be the cor- pension scheme for the unorganised go down as the ‘‘social security nerstone of the budget’s social secu- sector, recommending a regulatory budget’’. rity package. It is likely to combine framework for setting up pension If the budget has to have some- contributions from employees and funds to enable individuals to sub- WEATHER thing like Singh’s ‘‘personal touch’’, employers on a matching basis and scribe on a defined contribution ba- it will most probably be a pension may be supplemented by the govern- sis to obtain the benefit of pension scheme, aimed at benefiting Max.