Five boys drown while taking a dip

CHANDIGARH, June 23 (UNI) Five youngsters including three minor boys drowned while taking a dip to escape the heat at two different places in the region yesterday.

Official reports today said that three boys drowned in a pond in Ghurne Kala village in Mansa district of Punjab yesterday evening.

Reports said that the boys went to the pond unnoticed and after leaving their clothes on the banks jumped into the water.

The three never came out of the pond and it was only when a group of villagers noticed their clothes that an alarmed was raised.

Their bodies were later fished out of the pond.

The deceased were identified as six year old Jagjit Singh, eight year old Davinder Singh and five year old Ranjit Singh.

In the second incident two college students of Chandigarh were drowned in the Jayanti dam on the outskirts of the city.

The victi identified as Naveen (20) and Ashish (20) got entangled in the marshy waters of the dam while they were swimming.

The two boys alongwith three of their friends had gone to the dam to cool theelves off due to the intense heat.

Their bodies were later taken out of the dam waters by divers who were summoned from Ropar.

Khalistan no issue in Punjab, say leaders CHANDIGARH, June 23 (UNI) Not withstanding the hype of the arrests of militants and Khalistan ideologue Sianjit Singh Mann and the Punjab chief minister's controversial visit to a Gurdwara in Canada, senior leaders in the state cutting across party lines were of a firm opinion that 'Khalistan' was no issue in the state.

Unemployment, the proposed privatisation, power crisis and agriculture crisis were the real issues to be dealt with, they felt while talking to UNI on the present political situation in Punjab.

Not only the ruling Congress leaders have time and again stated that the people of Punjab would not acknowledge any separatist approach, which once prevailed in a specific section of the Sikh community in 1980s and early nineties, various Akali factions and the Leftists also asserted that the slogan of Khalistan was no issue in the state now.

Mann was arrested in a sedition case for raising pro-Khalistan slogans at different places earlier this month, while Hawara was arrested by Delhi cops in Patiala in the Delhi cinema hall blasts case.

There were so far 24 arrests shown by the Punjab police in its ongoing operations to look for militants and suspects across the state.

Shiromani Gurdwara Parbandhak Committee (SGPC) president Bibi Jagir Kaur said that the Delhi blasts, followed by the arrets of militant jagtar Singh Hawara and others and the controversy of Capt Amarinder Singh addressing a gathering with a slogan 'Khalistan Zindabad' written on a wall behind him in a Gurdwara in Canada should be taken as isolated cases as the entire Sikh community in Punjab would not entertain the slogan of Khalistan.

She even significantly said the 'panthic' (religious) issues like a proposal of memorial to Operation Blue Star in the Golden Temple complex were secondary to the "more important" issues like unemployment and agriculture crisis.

Shiromani Akali Dal (Longowal) president Prem Singh Chandumajra, ex-MP, said the main opposition Shiromani Akali Dal, headed by Parkash Singh Badal, had never taken up the real issues like unemployment and the crisis in agriculture and power sectors as the SAD leaders were "more busy" in 'panthic' agenda like the proposed separate Gurdwara management committee in Haryana.

Alleging that the Amarinder Singh government wanted to deviate the people's attention from these real issues, Chandumajra expressed his doubts over the authenticity of the clai of Punjab police force over the seizures of RDX and other ammunition on a large scale from different places in less than four days.

Significantly, all the leaders approached by UNI were, however, of the opinion that there was a need to check the hype which evolved after the Delhi blasts, the Hawara's arrest and the police drive to nab some more militants or suspects.

Punjab CPI secretary Dr Joginder Dayal and the CPI(M) state unit chief Balwant Singh opined that though the slogan of Khalistan was not an issue, the situation could become violatile as there was unrest in the state with people annoyed due to economic crisis and no job opportunities.

"If the Centre and the state government will not address the crisis prevailing in Punjab, terrorism could revive in the state, may be in some other form," Dr Dayal said.

A few leaders within the ruling Congress in Punjab agreed on the condition of anonimity that the issues like unemployment, and the agrarian and economic crisis were not being strongly dealt with.

Significantly, Punjab deputy chief minister REajinder Kaur Bhattal had recently told reporters at a gethering that if the state government did not immediately put in efforts to create jobs and revive the industry, the Congress would be facing a very tough situation in the next state assembly elections.

While the ruling Congress alleged that the Akalis were taking political mileage out of the prevailing atmosphere, the Leftists blamed that both Capt Amarinder Singh and Badal were now playing "a religious card" with eyes on the next state assembly elections after one and a half year.

Cabinet nod for setting up GDN for development research NEW DELHI, Jun 23 (UNI) The Union Cabinet today approved the establishment of an international organisation, Global Development Network(GDN), with its headquarters in New Delhi, to devote to global research on development activities.

India would benefit from the establishment of the Headquarters of the GDN as it would shift the hub of global research on development activities to New Delhi, Defence Minister Pranab Mukherjee told reporters here.

He said the biannual hosting of the conference at the headquarters of GDN presents an opportunity for a confluence of eminent researchers and think tank groups to gather in India and share their ideas.

This is also likely to give a fillip to social and economic research in India and benefit the academic community as a whole.

Mukherjee said the Cabinet had also approved the signing of the "Agreement establishing the Global Development Network" by India as a State Party.

The GDN, he said, was a global network of research and policy institutes working to address the proble of national and regional development.

It had its own governing structure with the objective of generating, sharing and applying multidisciplinary knowledge for the purpose of development.

The GDN, which began as a unit of the World Bank, provides funds of new research through regional competitions, supports networking through global research projects and conferences, and builds capacity for electronic networking through the GDNet.

The GDN supports multidisciplinary research in social sciences and promotes the generation of local knowledge in developing and transition countries.