BJP leaders meet to discuss election strategy

NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (UNI) Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leaders today held several rounds of discussions to chalk out strategies for the coming Lok Sabha elections.

The first meeting was that of union ministers, convened at the residence of BJP president M Venkaiah Naidu, where they took stock of the achievements of each ministry for projecting during campaigning.

Several party panels including the ones dealing with vision document, fund mobilisation, publicity and advertisements also held separate and collective discussions at Naidu's residence.

" The meetings are basically about strategies like publicity, advertisement and sharing of responsibilities," one of the attendee leaders said.

The party is likely to brief about the meetings later in the day.

Those present at the meetings included deputy prime minister LK Advani, law minister Arun Jaitley, agriculture minister Rajnath Singh, foreign minister Yahwant Sinha, BJP vice president Pyarelal Khandelwal, general secretaries Pramod Mahajan, Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi and Shivraj Singh Chauhan.

US-based NGO brings smiles to children of Gujarat PALANPUR, Feb 10 (UNI) Over 250 children suffering from facial birth-defects and post-burn deformities have been treated by a team of doctors belonging to a US-based non-governmental organisation here.

The team of "Operation Smile" consisting of 45 members, including 18 doctors and para-medical staff, made its second visit to Gujarat.

"Operation Smile" headquartered in Virginia state, has 5,000 working members all over the world, including 1500 doctors from India, USA, Canada, Australia, Vietnam, Italy, Colombia, Kenya and Philippines.

"During our week-long mission (January 31-February 7) at the Gandhi-Lincoln hospital in Dessa, we examined over 250 cases and have successfully provided smiles to as many as 196 children suffering from cleft palate, cleft lip, and post burn deformities" said Dr William Magee, the co-founder and chief executive officer of "Operation Smile." "We came here not as anglo-saxons, Americans or Asians.

We are a bunch of common spirited individuals committed to helping children all over the world to have a chance of leading a normal life," he said.

"It is a smile on the face of a child that gives me an eternal pleasure, said Zipporah Nagumi, an anesthetist from Nairobi, Kenya.

"It was in 1987 when a team of Operation Smile brought back the smile on the faces of the children in my country.

Their way of working and selfless service mission deeply impressed me," Nagumi recounts.

"I thereafter decided to dedicate myself to the cause of bringing smiles on the faces of the children." "We work mostly in rural areas of the globe, where medical facilities are hard to reach.

We treat our patients absolutely free and do not accept funds for our projects from any government.

We not only share time and expertise among ourselves, but funds too," said Dr Magee.

"In August, we are planning to hold our next medical camp at Kolkata and would like to revisit Deesa in January next year, he added.

Jaya reinstates dismissed govt employees CHENNAI, Feb 10 (UNI) The Tamil Nadu government will reinstate all the 999 employees who were dismissed for taking part in the July 2 indefinite strike last year, chief minister J Jayalalithaa announced in the state assembly today.

Replying to the debate on the motion of thanks to the governor's address, she said the dismissed employees would be reinstated but their annual increment would be cut for four years.

She said those employees who were demoted would be restored to their posts but would suffer annual increment cut for two years, while those who were awarded a punishment of annunal increment cut for four years would only suffer for one year.

Jayalalithaa also announced a three per cent hike in dearness allowance for all government employees and teachers with effect from February 1, 2004.

This would entail an expenditure of Rs 201 crore on the state exchequer.

The state government employees and teachers had embarked on an indefinite strike from July 2 last year demanding restoration of benefits curtailed by the government.

The government put down the strike with an iron hand and dismissed 1.7 lakh employees at one stroke.

However, after the Supreme Court intervened in the matter, all, but about 6000 employees, were reinstated and a three-member retired judges panel was constituted to adjudicate the cases of the remaining employees.

The panel had upheld the dismissal of 999 employees while demoting a few and recommending a four-year annual increment cut for the others.

Trishul test fired in Orissa BALASORE, Feb 10 (UNI) Indigenously built India's most sophisticated short range surface to air missle Trishul was successfully test fired from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Chandipur-on-sea about 15 kms from here today.

The missile, specially designed for sea skimming exercise for the Indian Navy, was test fired from a mobile launcher at 11.20 hrs, ITR sources said.

Trishul was one of the five missiles under various stages of development by the Defence Resource Development Organisation (DRDO) and a part of the integrated guided missile programme.

The missile has a triple role for the three wings of the defence.

ITR sources said solid fuel propelled missile has a battle role for three wings of the defence forces with a range from 300 mts to nine kms.

The missile moves at a supersonic speed and has a command line of flight guidance system.

It has also a very sensitive radar altimeter amd can skim over the sea at a very low altitude.

The missile was test fired to prove its accuracy and other parametres, ITR sources said.

BJP defends 'India shining' campaign NEW DELHI, Feb 10 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party today spun out a strong defence of its 'India shining and Bharat Uday' advertisements in the run up to the 14th general elections, saying it was the duty of the government to inform the public of its achievements.

Accusing Congress president Sonia Gandhi of adopting double standards on the issue, senior BJP leader V K Malhotra drew her attention to the estimates of the Central Statistical Organisation (CSO), which had projected 8.1 per cent GDP growth in the next fiscal and put India on the top rung of world economies.

Prof Malhotra, who was the BJP's parliamentary party spokesperson in the dissolved Lok Sabha, also reminded Gandhi of the spate of advertisements issued by the Congress-ruled governments in Delhi, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Chhattisgarh in the run-up to last year's assembly elections in those states.

"Issued at a huge cost to the exchequer, these (ads) merely carried large photographs of Congress party leaders and hardly contained any information of public intererst.

In most cases, the full page advertisements merely reported inaugurations or laying of foundation stones," the BJP leader claimed in a statement.

In many of these states, especially in Delhi, the amount spent on the advertisement campaigns exceeded the budgetary provisions several times over, a fact which was severly criticised by Audit authorities, he said.

Prof Malhotra said Gandhi should not be oblivious of the fact that such advertisements were still being issued in the Congress-ruled states and asked her to stop them immediately before criticising the National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government at the centre.

Mungerilal's dreams coming true: PM VAISHALIGARH, Feb 10 (UNI) In an obvious dig at Congress president Sonia Gandhi, prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee today once again touched upon 'Mungerilal's Haseen Sapne," saying all his dreams are coming true.

Delivering his inaugural speech at an official function here, Vajpayee made the remark following comments by Gandhi in parliament recently that 'India was not shining'.

"Mungerilal (commonman) Ke Haseen Sapne Sach Ho Rahe Hain," he said.

Vajpyee said his government was able to do in five years what the Congress could not during the past 50 years.

The prime minister said India's image abroad had improved following the NDA government's foreign policy.

He also highlighted the overall developmental work done by his government and said the opposition should now think twice before making any statement.

Vajpayee suggested that political rivals should for self-introspection of their contribution towards development.

"Mungerilal's dreams will come true in future in the feel good atmosphere created by the NDA." Vajpayee exhorted the state governments and political parties to contribute in the development of their respective states and the nation and shun political grievances.

Meanwhile, Vajpayee also pointed out that speed and development are major thrust of his government.

Inaugurating the construction work of the Hajipur-Sagaul railway line on the last lap of the Buddhist circuit, Vajpayee said, "We cannot afford to spoil our time.

We need to accelerate our efforts on speedy development." He said the entire world was watching India with keenness and hope.

"We should not disappoint the global community." Emphasising that states should also shoulder responsibility, Vajpayee said India was viewed in its completeness and each and every state should contribute in the development process.

He said the railway network had spread in the remote areas and lauded the efforts of railway minister Nitish Kumar.

He said roads were equally important for the economic development as they facilitate quick transportation of foodgrains and industrial products to the market places.

The prime minister said development was not only an issue of money but it also involved right mentality and approach.

Reiterating his favourite one-liner 'Mungerilal Ke Hasin Sapne Such Huye', Vajpayee said the centre was providing sufficient funds for construction of roads in towns and villages and stressed on proper utilisation of funds.

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