NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (UNI): India has tremendous goodwillin Afghanistan with an overwhelming 71 per cent of theAfghan population putting it far ahead of even theUnited Nations, United States and the NATO.
An opinion poll commissioned by the BBC, ABC and ARD said India topped the list of countries viewed favourably by Afghans with 71 per cent support followed by Germany (59 per cent), the US (51 per cent), Iran (50 per cent) and UK (39 per cent).
Pakistan, surprisingly, has just 2 per cent support and the Taliban 3 per cent.
The opinion poll said India's assistance programme had earned it tremendous goodwill among the ordinary people there, cutting across ethnic and geographic divides.
In response to a query in the survey on the role played by various groups or countries in resolving the situation in Afghanistan, 56 per cent Afghans mentioned India's role in reconstruction programmes, a percentage even higher than the UN and NATO.
India's assistance to Afghanistan has focussed on infrastructure development, human resource development and capacity building, food assistance and small development projects that bring immediate benefit to the people.
"Indian projects in Afghanistan are Afghanledand Afghandriven and aimed at building up local capacity," sources said.
India is involved in a number of reconstruction programmes in Afghanistan including road building, IT, power projects and the construction of schools, buildings and a new Parliament building.
US Defence Secretary, Robert Gates, currently on a visit to India, also described India's reconstruction assistance in Afghanistan as "ideal" and "extraordinary." "I think, frankly, the kind of extraordinary support India is providing is ideal," Mr Gates said at a press conference here after his meeting with Defence Minister A K Antony.
Mr Gates, who arrived here yesterday, has already met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and External Affairs Minister S M Krishna.
He also urged both India and Pakistan to work with transparency in the wartorn country to remove mutual suspicions.
Misuse of emergency alarm led to loss of operation hours: DMRC NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (UNI): Expressing disappointment overcommuters' behaviour, Delhi Metro today said its trainslost over 13 operation hours due to misuse of PassengerEmergency Alarm (PEA) by travellers in the last threemonths.
"Passengers operated the PEA button 260 times which delayed train services by two to five minutes each time it was misused," Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) spokesperson Anuj Dayal said.
"As a result of such misuse, the DMRC had to cancel 200 train trips affecting three lakh passengers as each train trip can carry up to 1500 passengers," he added.
Every misuse of the PEA caused bunching on the line as the trains behind were also held up till the effected PEA system was reset.
Mr Dayal pointed out that any passenger found misusing the PEA could be prosecuted under the DMRC's Operations and Maintenance Act, 2002 for interfering with the means of communication in trains.
Hasnain denies giving 2035 as year for Himalayan glaciers melt NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (UNI): Controversial TERI scientist Prof Iqbal Hasnain, who is at the centre of the Himalayan glacier melt controversy, today asserted that he had not given any date oryear on the likely disappearance of Himalayan glaciers.
In a press statement, he said the date of 2035 for disappearance of the glaciers in the Himalayas was neither given in any interview nor in any of his publications in various journals.
Whatever got published in New Scientist ('Flooded Out', 05 June 1999, by Fred Pearce) was a journalistic assumption interpolated by the interviewer, over which he had no control, he said.
He sought to clarify that during the interview, he presented the outcome of the findings on the basis of 20 years of his research till 1999.
Prof Hasnain said the statement he gave on the basis of the results being found till then was that "All the glaciers in the middle Himalayas are retreating" and a scientific postulation was made that all the glaciers in the central and eastern Himalayas could disappear in the next 4050 years at their present rate of decline.
"Moreover, this postulation factually represented the findings based on research techniques and instruments available in 1980s and 1990s.
Now, we have more sophisticated and accurate instruments and techniques, as compared to those 10 years back.
So precision has increased and the new results are coming out," he said.
"I must stress that a journalistic substitution of the year 2035 was made without my knowledge and approval that was markedly contrary to my research supported finding of the likelihood of the central and eastern Himalayan glaciers disappearing in 4050 years," he said.
The scientist said he was not answerable to those who deny climate change was happening but would say that vested interests had targeted his research with the overall objective to malign the science of climate change and scientists who had succeeded in establishing the correlating factors.
He asserted he was "a scientist with years of painstaking study, collation and analyses of field experience who relies more on facts and figures and not an astrologer who may give any date on the demise of glaciers." It was now well established that climate change was being driven by longlived Green House Gases as well as shortlived forcers like Black Carbon, and had its impact globally, said Prof Hasnain.
However, the intensity of impact is governed regionally and locally.
Microlevel climatic as well as topographical variations like slope facies etc have strong influence on local level impacts of global warming, he added.
"With reference to climate change and its impacts on Himalayan glaciers, can there be any doubt on the pathetic state of the Himalayan glaciers! This has been affirmed by the findings of research works, published in peerreviewed journals after 1990s, as well as the present research work being carried out by me and my team," said Hasnain.
All these findings, he said, indicated towards the negative mass balance of the Himalayan glaciers studied, whether by remote sensing or fieldbased monitoring techniques.
Moreover, the analysis of data presented in the report released from the MoEF in November 2009, supported the alarming rate of melting of Himalayan glaciers, he said.
He said he would soon be presenting a report on the status of Himalayan Glaciers, based on research works by Indian and International scientists, published in different peerreviewed journals across the world.
Delhi Gate BRT corridor ready for commissioning: Sheila NEW DELHI, Jan 20 (UNI): The remaining portion of the DelhiBRT corridor from Moolchand to Delhi Gate is ready forcommissioning, Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit saidhere today.
"The first stretch of the Delhi BRT corridor from Ambedkar Nagar to Moolchand has been operational since April 2008.
The remaining portion of this 14.5kmcorridor from Moolchand to Delhi Gate is ready for commissioning," Ms Dikshit said.
She asserted that the corridor carried maximum number of passengers and "is bound to cater to the local needs." "The next BRT corridor in the capital, will be constructed keeping in view the experiences and feedback received from all concerned sections," she stated while referring to the new route chalked out in east Delhi, linking Shastri Park Metro Station to Karawal Nagar.
The Chief Minister was addressing a twoday symposium on Public Transportation in Indian cities with a special focus on Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) organised by the Delhi Integrated Multimodal Transit System (DIMTS) Limited here.
Transport Commissioner R K Verma, CMD Naresh Kumar, MD (DIMTS) SN Sahai, Bhure Lal, Director UITP (International Association of Public Transport) Brussels, Tony Dufays and Youth Project Coordinator, UITP Brussels Alessandra Gorini were also present at the inaugural session.
Emphasising that an effective green transport system played a crucial role in economic development, she said the government was keen to overcome incidents of traffic jams by providing a quick, safe, pollutionfree, comfortable public transport system to discourage use of private vehicles.
"The government is going to double its green bus fleet from current strength of 5,500 to 11,000, with all of them being low floor, including airconditioned," she said.
Bus stops were also being made wheelchair accessible, opening up travel opportunity for the differentlyable and those travelling with young children, she said.
Delhi Metro would also be one of the largest systems in the world by 2020 with the route network extending to 413 km, she added.
