New Gold Deposits Found

The Geological Survey of India (GSI) has located new deposits of gold in Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala, Maharashtra, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh during the last three years, minister of steel and mines Birendra Prasad Baishya informed the Lok Sabha yesterday.

Responding to supplementaries during question hour, he said an additional reserve of 6.73 million tonnes of gold-ore had been established during the last three years.

The total reserves of gold-ore in the country as on April one, 1990 was 45.2 million tonnes, he said.

Uplinking rights: The issue of permitting uplinking facilities from Indian soil and allowing private broadcasting from within the country would be taken care of by the proposed broadcasting bill, which is likely to be introduced in the next half of the budget session, the Lok Sabha was informed.

Telephones: The government is considering nominating all MPs as members of the telephone advisory committee to ensure efficiency and proper monitoring of the functioning of telephones, minister of communications Beni Prasad Verma said in the Lok Sabha.

Rajya Sabha

CBIs powers: The government has not curtailed the powers of the CBI to probe into bank scams, the Rajya Sabha was told. The minister of state for personnel, public grievances and pensions S R Balasubramoniyan said in a written reply that according to procedure to secure cooperation between the CBI and the ministries for investigation against officers of decision-making rank (joint secretary or equivalent or above) in the central government or such officers in public sector undertakings and nationalised banks, the CBI requires prior sanction of the secretary of the administrative ministry before initiating investigation.

Quattrocchi: The government said there is no prima facie evidence to suggest that the CBI was advised not to disturb the Italian businessman Ottavio Quattrocchi in the Bofors payoffs case, the Rajya Sabha was informed. Balasubramoniyan said in a written reply that steps have been initiated by the CBI to have Quattrocchi, who is residing in Malaysia, arrested and extradited to India after the receipt of certain relevant papers from the Swiss authorities in January this year.

Enron: Enron Power Corporation has submitted proposal to create another 10,000 MW of power capacity in various states of the country, the Rajya Sabha was informed. Minister of state for power, dr s venugopalachari, said in a written reply that the proposal was preliminary and does not give sufficient details.

Food processing: The government will take necessary steps to ensure that the entry of multi-national companies does not affect the domestic market in the food processing industry, the Rajya Sabha was informed.