The Prime Minister, Rajiv Gandhi, urged the chairmen of the Public Accounts Committees of Parliament and state legislatures to tackle irregularities at their very roots. This, he said, was necessary to check the abuse of public funds. He was inaugurating the seventh conference of PAC chairmen, which was also addressed by the Lok Sabha Speaker, Balram Jakhar, and the Union Finance Minister, V P Singh. Gandhi said not only was it necessary to apprehend the culprits but also to pinpoint how the crimes were committed and to plug the loopholes. To be effective, the Prime Minister said, the PACs had to ensure that wrongs did not recur. “We are working hard to eliminate corruption, leakages and misutilisation of funds.” Gandhi said and pointed out that the role of the PACs in this context was vital. Mr Gandhi took serious note of a case in which 8 kilograms of gold booked for transport by rail had mysteriously disappeared between Bombay and Agra.

Hijacker’s failed escape bid

One of the Karachi hijackers made an unsuccessful bid to escape from hospital, Pakistani police sources said. The injured hijacker, identified as Hassan, hit a security guard and tried to get away but was quickly overpowered and secured to his bed, sources said.

Combing operation in Punjab

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In one of the biggest joint operations within two months, the security forces and the Punjab Police combed several hideouts of terrorists in the sensitive districts of Firozpur, Kapurthala and Amritsar. The Director General of Punjab police, J F Reberio, said in Chandigarh that the operation commenced at around 3 am and continued till late in the evening. He said it would take some time for the details of the operation to come in. Senior police officials led by the Amritsar district chief, Mohd Izhar Alam, supervised the operation, in which six companies of the paramilitary forces and about 300 police personnel took part.

Delhi power project blueprint

The blueprint of an ambitious Rs 1800-crore national capital power project to meet Delhi’s power needs in the 1990s has been finalised. The project, which has been approved by the Energy Ministry, comprises a super thermal power station at Dadri in Ghaziabad district, a 400-KV transmission network and complete modernisation of the distribution system in the Capital. The estimated cost of the project — almost equal to the Seventh Plan budgetary allocations for Delhi — will be partly borne by the World Bank.