OID‰‰†‰KOID‰‰†‰OID‰‰†‰MOID‰‰†‰C New Delhi, Saturday,May 17, 2003www.timesofindia.com Capital 42 pages* Invitation Price Rs. 1.50 International India Times Sport Forex control blocks Extortion case AIFF trying to Miss Venezuela from filed against Shilpa get Beckham beauty pageant Shetty’s father into India Page 14 Page 6 Page 21 WIN WITH THE TIMES Bureaucrats Established 1838 defang right Bennett, Coleman & Co., Ltd. Biggest-ever operation in J&K For safety is not a gadget Times graphic By Rajat Pandit copter weapons into the Valley from to information but a state of mind. TIMES NEWS NETWORK By Anita Katyal f Con The significance across the border, sources say. e o trol — Eleanor Everet in The operation began around April 21- TIMES NEWS NETWORK L The scale of the operation, and the use of airpower. New Delhi: In what may be the largest 22, when 13 Pakistani militants were counter-insurgency operation in the past New Delhi: What good is a Srinagar Why Surankote? killed in a hideout in the Hill Kaka area. decade or so, security forces have killed Terrorists hunker down here in large numbers Since then, the operation has been fur- Freedom of Information Act Map of J&K around 60 hard-core militants in Poonch because of easy access from PoK, coming down in ther intensified. ‘‘These militants prefer when bureaucrats who with- Surankote area over the past three Pulwama twos and threes to strike targets. Thick forests to lie low in the upper reaches in areas hold information from citi- weeks. The area is close to the Line of Rajouri make combing by security forces difficult. like Hill Kaka. They have their bases and zens cannot be penalised? Control in Jammu and Kashmir. Surankote Can it spill over? communication centres, arms and am- Faced with the unwelcome Senior officers are tight-lipped about munition dumps there. They come down prospect of actually having No. The action is all on this side of the LoC. By details but confirm the ongoing opera- Jammu only to spread terror,’’ said an officer. to respond to requests for in- destroying a major terrorist centre, the operation tion in the Hill Kaka area of Surankote. ‘‘Manual combing operations in such formation, the bureaucracy The Army ‘‘has achieved tremendous may actually smoothen Indo-Pak relations. thickly-forested areas, with heavily- has acted swiftly to defang success in killing and capturing a num- armed militants sitting on the top, have the new law. ber of terrorists’’. It has also seized a tions. For years, Pakistanis belonging to LoC, providing relatively easy all-weath- led to many casualties among Army Rules being framed will in- ‘‘huge quantity’’ of rifles, mortars, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammed er ingress to the Indian side. troops climbing up. Consequently,attack sulate erring officials from grenades, rocket-propelled grenades and and Al Badr have operated with impuni- Army headquarters is keeping the in- helicopters have been used to soften their punitive action: the cost of under-barrel grenade launchers, among ty in this forbidding region, to the west of cident under wraps for now. The Army hideouts, including fortified concrete de- other ‘‘war-like stores’’, an officer said. the Pir Panjal mountains and accessed does not like to publicise the use of as- fences,’’ he added. violating the right to infor- The Army has even used the Air through Jammu and Nowshera. While sault helicopters in counter-insurgency The terrorists residing in this area pro- mation will only be a mere NEWS DIGEST Force’s modified attack helicopters like the mountains are not particularly high, operations because it may indicate esca- vide a transit point for those moving to adverse entry in their confi- Mi-17s, armed with machine guns and they are rugged and forested and they lation in militancy and might also lead to other encampments in the Pir Panjal dential reports. Probe begins: Commissioner for rocket pods, in the month-long opera- slope towards the Pakistani side of the induction of anti-aircraft and anti-heli- heights and the Valley. The personnel depart- railway safety Bhupinder Singh on ment, which is currently Friday visited two hospitals in Ludhi- in the process of framing ana to meet the 14 injured Frontier PTI the rules for this Act, is Mail passengers and get a first hand account of the fire tragedy. learnt to have made this Delhi citizens pay recommendation. Ship wrecked: Indonesian ship M Confirming that this par- V Sigitika Biru is sinking in the Bay ticular rule had been cleared, of Bengal, off Sandheads, but its crew have been rescued. P10 highest power tariff senior officials said it is now awaiting the final nod from France-US spat: France railed By Rahul Chhabra Union minister of state against what it described as a TIMES NEWS NETWORK Costly current Harin Pathak and Deputy months-long smear campaign, fu- Prime Minister Advani. elled by unnamed US officials, inac- New Delhi: Delhiites are paying the State Average cost* Department officials say curately linking Paris to Saddam maximum average cost for one unit Hussein in the US media. P15 of power as compared to consumers Delhi Rs 4.15 no leniency is being shown to in other states. bureaucrats. YOU SAID IT by Laxman The average cost per unit of sup- Maharashtra Rs 3.15 ‘‘This is a totally new expe- ply in the city is Rs 4.15. In Maha- rience for the officials... we rashtra, it is Rs 3.15 and in Uttar Uttar Pradesh Rs 3.48 will see how this Act works and if we later feel the need Pradesh Rs 3.48. Across the border Experts warn the burden on con- for introducing stringent sumers in the city may increase fur- Karachi** Rs 16.98 punishment, we will do so,’’ ther if the Delhi Electricity Regula- said a senior official. tory Commission (DERC) approves a Beijing Rs 5.66 He, however, admitted that fresh hike in electricity tariff. it will take some time to * per unit of power ; ** tariff in Indian Rs The DERC is analysing the re- (Figures for 2002-03) change the prevailing mind- quirements of private distribution set of officials who are companies on the basis of their per- known not to part with any formance in the last nine months. in which the Commission held that kind of information, irre- Chief advisor to the National the average unit cost realised from spective of how trivial it Delhi consumers was Rs 4.15. Council for Applied Economic Re- might be. search Gajender Haldia said as per a ‘‘There has been no tariff revision In fact, the point about in- petition filed by distribution compa- after February 2002,’’ said an official troducing penalties for of Delhi government-owned nies in the DERC recently, a con- erring officials was specifi- sumer may have to shell out a higher Transco. Experts say there are two cally mentioned by Congress average cost per unit of power ways of compensating the private ... I’m not afraid of any probe! I’ve leader Pranab Mukherjee this year. companies for their revenue gap: nothing to hide! All I demand, in all when the Bill came up for ‘‘The private companies appear to Tariff hike and increase in govern- fairness, is one month’s notice passage in the Rajya Sabha before you start! be charging more than Rs 4 per unit ment support to the companies. of power,’’ he said. ‘‘The burden of the revenue gap last year. Delhi power minister Ajay Maken projected by the private distribution Mukherjee had suggested indiatimes.com POLL disagreed with Haldia’s observation. companies is going to fall on the con- that there should be a provi- sumer,’’ Haldia said. A tariff hike sion for penalising officials Yesterday’s results: Even after so many BRAVEHEART WITH THE GOODS: Nisha Sharma, the Noida woman who called off her marriage rather ‘‘The average unit cost in Delhi is be- accidents, do you think the Indian than give in to dowry demands, sits in front of the goods bought by her family for the wedding. tween Rs 3 and Rs 3.50,’’ he said. hits the customer instantly, an in- who do not give information, Railways has failed to put up an effective Vidya Dalal, the mother of the groom was arrested on Friday. Report on page 4 He, apparently, was unaware of a crease in government support hits stating that many states disaster management plan? DERC order,issued in February 2002, him indirectly. already have such a clause. Yes 82% No 18% • The poll reflects the opinions of Net users who chose to participate, and not necessarily of the general public. Today’s question: Do you think Kashmir is Lasik leaves girl partially blind the only roadblock to peace between By Kalpana Jain India and Pakistan? too has a risk of infection. The rate TIMES NEWS NETWORK Visible danger of infection varies between one in Cast your vote on 1,000 and one in 4,000. But, he adds, www.indiatimes.com or SMS ‘Poll’ to 8888 New Delhi: If you’re going in for •A 22-yr-old girl lost a large part this surgery is safe as the laser Lasik, make sure you’re in compe- of her cornea to the infection beam itself has a sterilising effect. tent hands. A 22-year-old girl lost a •She was operated upon in The specialists at AIIMS say the large part of her cornea in one eye Guwahati and came to AIIMS in infection could be the result of the to an infection, following Lasik.