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Strike called off in WB, Orissa NEW DELHI, Oct 26 Transporters and the government resumed talks today to resolve the nationwide truckers agitation which entered its sixth day, affecting inter-state movement of goods. Campaigning ends in Bihar PATNA, Oct 26 The campaign trail tapered off this evening for Thursdays Lok Sabha flood-deferred elections in Purnea, Khagaria, Rajmahal (reserved) and Bhagalpur where the BJP is trying to protect its newly earned ground in Bihar against a determined CPM, the RJD and the Congress. |
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BJP banks on sympathy factor DHUBRI (Assam), Oct 26 The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is riding on the sympathy factor in this Lok Sabha constituency where election was countermanded after the abduction and killing of its candidate Dr Pannalal Oswal last month.
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Cyclone national calamity: Sonia BHUBANESWAR, Oct 26 Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said the devastation caused by the cyclone that hit the Orissa coast should be treated as national calamity of rare severity. Humiliated youth commits suicide Pawan
Bansal LS panel member |
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Strike called off in WB, Orissa NEW DELHI, Oct 26 (PTI) Transporters and the government resumed talks today to resolve the nationwide truckers agitation which entered its sixth day, affecting inter-state movement of goods. Both All-India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), which is spearheading the stir, and Surface Transport Ministry officials were tight-lipped about the outcome of the talks, which resumed after a gap of three days. "We have discussed some issues and will continue discussing," Road Transport Secretary Ashoke Singh told reporters after the two-hour meeting. AIMTC Secretary-General J.M. Saksena said talks were likely to resume tomorrow. The entire Opposition in the Lok Sabha, meanwhile, staged a walkout protesting against the governments failure to give an assurance to roll back the price of diesel. More truck unions withdrew from the strike as the government reiterated its stand not to roll back diesel prices. While transporters in West Bengal called off the strike, truckers in three districts of Uttar Pradesh pulled out from the agitation. The government claimed that transporters in Gujarat and Orissa had also decided to resume operations. However, AIMTC said it was united in the strike. Denying that transport operators in Gujarat and Orissa had withdrawn the strike, Mr Saksena said: "Our president represents the Orissa association. How can it withdraw?" Truck operators in West Bengal, which joined the strike only yesterday, today called it off following assurance from the state government to look into their demands, including fixation of a minimum freight rate within two months. A report from Calcutta said truck operators in West Bengal tonight called off the strike following categorical assurance by the state government to look into their demands. Mr Satyajit Majumder, General Secretary of the Federation of West Bengal Truck Operators Associations, apex body of all district truck operators association in the state, said they had withdrawn the strike from 8 p.m. Two other organisations Truck Owners Association and the All-Bengal Transport Federation (ABTF) affiliated to the AIMTC, earlier stated that they had called off the strike with immediate effect. Stating that it felt let down by the AIMTC leadership, ABTF charged the AIMTC with pushing the truckers into a strike on an "untenable issue" of withdrawal of diesel price hike. West Bengal Minister of State for Transport Sushanta Ghosh earlier told newspersons that the government had decided to constitute two committees to look into the demands of truck operators. Union Surface Transport Minister Nitish Kumar, meanwhile, said the government was open to discussion on issues other than diesel prices. "Our doors are open for talks as everyone is losing from the strike," he said. He said the supply of essential commodities was "normal" throughout the country and prices had moved up marginally only in some parts of the country. "Even this is due to panic buying rather than any shortage," he added. In Tamil Nadu, the cargo movement remained affected and goods continued to pile up in various centres of the state. Movement of finished products was also affected due to the strike. Supply of essential commodities limped back to normalcy in Maharashtra with 50 per cent more goods transport vehicles plying in the state compared to yesterday. Transporters in Haryana,
Punjab and Chandigarh hinted at an early end to the
six-day old strike as a large number of trucks were
"clandestinely" loading and unloading in these
states. Reports from Rajasthan suggested that the supply
of vegetables and essential commodities continued to be
affected. |
Campaigning ends in Bihar PATNA, Oct 26 (UNI) The campaign trail tapered off this evening for Thursdays Lok Sabha flood-deferred elections in Purnea, Khagaria, Rajmahal (reserved) and Bhagalpur where the BJP is trying to protect its newly earned ground in Bihar against a determined CPM, the RJD and the Congress. The CPM, the RJD and the Congress are in the fray from Bhagalpur and Purnea. The Congress and the RJD have reached an agreement for Rajmahal and Khagaria but the CPI walked out, dissatisfied. The CPI has fielded its party MLA, Mr Satyanarain Singh in Khagaria where the RJD candidate is Mrs Nayana Rana, wife of partys MLA and an accused in fodder scam Mr R.K. Rana. The main contest is between nominees of the RJD and the JD(U) but, the CPI MLA is trying to make it triangular. In adjoining Purnea, the BJP candidate, Mr Jaikrishna Mandal, the CPI candidate, Mr Khalil Ahmed and an Independent candidate and former MP Mr Rajesh Ranjan alias Pappu Yadav are locked in a three-pronged contest. The Bhagalpur constituency will witness a straight fight between the CPM candidate, Mr Subodh Roy and the BJP candidate, Mr Prabhashchandra Tiwari. The BJP candidate, Mr Som Marandi who won last time with the wafer-thin margin of nine votes is once again in a keen contest in Rajmahal with the Congress candidate Mr Thomas Hansda but the JMM candidate, Mr Simon Marandi, is trying to make it triangular. Bhagalpur has the maximum number of 12,33,246 voters followed by Purnea (1085515), Khagaria (1044754) and 950682 in Rajmahal. The election has put before the BJP the challenge of increasing its tally in the 13th Lok Sabha. Top leaders of the BJP and the Congress have stayed away from campaigning as the interest in the election dwindled. The RJD President Mr Laloo Prasad, instead of the Chief Minister, Mrs Rabri Devi, himself took the command of campaigning. The Union Minister of State for Communications, Mr Tapan Sikdar also campaigned in the Rajmahal constituency in view of its proximity to West Bengal. The JD(U) leaders and the Central Ministers, Mr George Fernandes, Mr Nitish Kumar and Mr Ramvilas Paswan also toured the constituencies. The state Home Commissioner U.N. Panjiyar said the inter-state and inter-district borders had been sealed in view of the elections and all police district superintendents alerted. Mr Panjiyar said the Indo-Nepal and Indo-Bangladesh border all along Bihar had been sealed. The sensitive pockets were being monitored under the supervision of armed police. Besides 24 companies of
the Central Paramilitary Forces, 50 companies of the
state police force and Home Guards were being deployed in
the four constituencies. |
BJP banks on sympathy factor DHUBRI (Assam), Oct 26 (UNI) The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is riding on the sympathy factor in this Lok Sabha constituency where election was countermanded after the abduction and killing of its candidate Dr Pannalal Oswal last month. Senior BJP leaders, including former Union Minister Sushma Swaraj, are campaigning for Mr Bimal Oswal, the eldest son of Dr Oswal, who was pitchforked into politics after the murder of his father. The constituency, which goes to the polls on October 28, has the highest concentration of Muslims in the country (70 per cent of the 10.49 lakh electorate are Muslims), and is a Congress stronghold. The party has not put its top leaders on the campaign trail for Mr Abdul Hamid who won the 1998 elections by more than 200,000 votes. The BJP event brought its lone Muslim MP and Union Minister Shahnawaj Hussain to campaign here. The party is also banking on possible division of Congress votes following the entry of rebel candidate Afzalur Rahman who was later expelled from the party. The BJP, which controls the Dhubri Town Committee, also has the backing of the United Peoples Party of Assam. The other candidates in the fray are Mr Allaudin Sarkar of the CPI and NCP nominee Ahmed Hussain. Dhubri is one of the five Lok Sabha constituencies where election was postponed to October 28. The others are in Bihar Purnia Bhagalpur, Rajmahal and Khagaria. Dhubri, which is situated on the banks of the Brahmaputra, is one of the most neglected constituencies of the country. A town, which served as a link between East Bengal (now Bangladesh) and the rest of the country till 1947, had a port, an international rail route and an airport, but it is today one of the most underdeveloped constituencies of the region. The British exploited
its worth as a vital trade link up to the hilt. The port
was used for exporting tea and wood with small ships
carrying the goods to the bigger ports in the Bay of
Bengal through the Padma river (as the Brahmaputra is
called in Bangladesh) before joining in the Hooghly in
Calcutta. The railway had a direct line via Rongpur (now
in Bangladesh) to Calcutta which was disbanded after
Partition. The town was forgotten after the
Bangaigaon-Siliguri track came up linking the North-East
with the rest of the country. |
Cyclone national calamity: Sonia BHUBANESWAR, Oct 26 (UNI) Congress President Sonia Gandhi today said the devastation caused by the cyclone that hit the Orissa coast should be treated as national calamity of rare severity. Mrs Gandhi, who visited the cyclone affected areas of Gopalpur and Berhampur in Ganjam district this morning, told newspersons at the airport that the situation was quite bad following the extensive damage in the cyclonic storm and warranted immediate central assistance. She said her party and the state government had also urged the Centre to treat the cyclone as national calamity and I also strongly feel that it should be declared as national calamity of rare severity. The Congress chief said, her party would continue to raise the issue in Parliament and press for central assistance. Mrs Sonia Gandhi, who arrived here last night, left for Berhampur this morning from where she went to some villages, entered the houses and talked to the victims while enquiring about the relief and rescue operations undertaken by the state government. Accompanied by son Rahul, AIIC general secretary Ambika Soni, Orissa Chief Minister Giridhar Gamang and Pradesh Congress Chief Hemananda Biswal, she spent nearly two hours in the affected areas. Asked about the Prime Ministers relief announcement, she said the assistance was not for the cyclone affected people but to tide over the financial crisis. She said she was told by
the state government that so far no central assistance
had been released although the Prime Minister had
announced Rs 50 crore after an aerial survey of the
affected areas. |
Ram temple work from Nov 2001 TIRUCHIRAPALLI, Oct 26 (UNI) The Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP) will construct the Ram temple at the disputed site in Ayodhya overcoming hurdles from any quarters, VHP general secretary Kakade claimed today. The temple construction work would be formally inaugurated on ekadesi day in November 2001 and during the Ramanavami celebrations in 2002, the sanctum sanctorum would be ready and lord Ramas idol would be installed for public worship, he told reporters here. On the reported protest by the VHP and other organisations against Pope John Pauls visit to the country, Mr Kakade said it would welcome the visit provided the Pope fulfilled the VHP demands, including withdrawal of foreign missionaries and stoppage of foreign funding and mass conversion. The VHP also demanded that the Pope should apologise for the cruel deeds of Catholic Christians in Goa and in Vasai in Maharashtra, where thousands of Hindus were massacred 400 years ago, he added. Mr Kakade said the VHPs rath yatra demanding an apology from the Pope, which commenced at Goa on October 19, would reach New Delhi on November 4. He said the Pope should
proclaim clearly that the Vatican declaration on the
validity of gods other than the Christian lord of the
Bible still holds. This would be in consonance with the
age-old Indian tradition of unity in diversity. Such
proclamation by the Pope would ensure a better goodwill
between the Hindus and the Christians. |
Humiliated youth commits suicide SRIGANGANAGAR, Oct 26 Humiliated by the scornful punishment, meted out by the village panchayat, a 30-year-old youth of Kikar Wali Johri village ended his life by hanging himself from tree, in Suratgarh area of this district. The panchayat had condemned the victim, Mewa Ram Babri, with ostracism from the village after smearing his face black and putting a garland of shoes around his neck for allegedly teasing a girl of the village. The police has arrested six persons, those who headed the proceedings of the panchayat, on the charge of abetment of suicide. According to Mr Sarwar Ali, the police in charge of Suratgarh, three members of the Babri community lodged a complaint with the village panchayat that the victim had misbehaved with the girl of their family on October 17. After a six-hour-long trial, the panchayat ordered the youth to be paraded in the village after putting his face black and a garland of shoes to be put around his neck. The victim was also asked to leave the village, failing which he had to pay a fine of Rs 11,000. Unable to cope with the disgrace the next day, the youth ended his life by hanging himself from a tree in the village. In a complaint lodged by
Mrs Punjab Kaur , the mother of the victim, it has been
alleged that Jhan Singh, Chhinder Pal, Sahib Ram, Pala
Ram, Kapoor Singh and Faqir Singh of the village abetted
her son to commit suicide after subjecting him to
merciless dishonour. |
Pawan Bansal LS panel member NEW DELHI, Oct 26 Mr Pawan Kumar Bansal, MP from Chandigarh, is among the 14 members who have been nominated by the Speaker, Mr G M C Balayogi to the Business Advisory Committee of the Lok Sabha. The other members of the
committee include Mr Ashok Chhaviram Argal, Mr Somnath
Chatterjee, Mr Priya Ranjan Das Munshi, Ms Sheela Gautam,
Mr Anant Gangaram Geete, Maj Gen(Retd) Bhuvan Chand
Khanduri, Mr Vijay Kumar Malhotra, Mr Ram Sajiwan, Mr
Madhavrao Scindia, Mr Akhilesh Singh, Mr Chintamani
Vanga, Mr Devendra Prasad Yadav and Mr K Yerrannaidu. |
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