Monday, October 5, 1998

True tales of Hippies’ trip
NEW DELHI, Oct 4 — In the heady days of the 1960s, as western counter-culture became fascinated with the idea of India, thousands sought freedom in magical and exotic places-Goa, Benaras, Rishikesh, the Himalayas and Kathmandu.

Sample survey on Bihar
NEW DELHI, Oct 4 — Half of Bihar’s electorate say President’s rule should have been imposed in the state, and the people prefer fresh Assembly elections now, according to a sample survey by Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies.

Cong panel on manifesto
NEW DELHI, Oct 4 — The Congress has set up a central manifesto committee to project the party’s policies and programmes for the forthcoming assembly poll in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram.

Link between stress and heart disease
MUMBAI, Oct 4 — There is a definite link between stress, specific personality traits and development of coronary heart disease, according to a comparative study conducted on patients with normal and abnormal angiographic findings.

Shekhar critical of President on Bihar

LUCKNOW, Oct 4 (PTI) — Former Prime Minister Chandra Shekhar today said that President K.R. Narayanan took a wrong decision in returning the Union Cabinet’s recommendations for the dismissal of Rabri Devi government in Bihar and added "it would have bad impact on the people of the country."

"I think the President was wrong in returning the recommendations made by the Union Cabinet," he said at a meet-the-press programme organised by the UP Press Club here.

"Parliamentary authority should not be challenged because people’s power vests in Parliament", he said.

"It is, however, unfortunate that the Union Cabinet did not press it further and may be the government was unable to convince the President on its logic recommending the President’s rule in Bihar," he said.

He said the President had returned the Cabinet recommendations "twice" — one in the case of Uttar Pradesh during the United Front’s rule last year and the second this time in case of Bihar. "Such an action would only leave bad impression in the minds of people", he said.

He was critical of the Vajpayee government for not being meticulous while making recommendations to the President.

"The Union Cabinet should have meticulously drafted the recommendations so as to make them logical and sound and should have stuck to its decision when the same were referred back by the President", he said.

Mr Chandra Shekhar said "it is ridiculous if someone says they are justified in recommending President’s rule, but they have decided not to press it further in deference to the President’s wish.’’

"It is dilution of Constitution and I am afraid it will definitely leave bad impact on the minds of people.’’

He said the present state of affairs in the country during the BJP-led coalition government were only adding to the problems of the people and deepening the crisis on many counts.

He said the President, the Judiciary and Parliament were "over-stepping’’ their limits in some cases but refused to elaborate further.

He criticised the BJP government for ignoring the basic issues confronting the country and said, "they were only interested in raising newer issues and adding to the problems.’’

"The sooner this government goes the better for the country,’’ he said.

While the social tension has increased manifold, casteist politics was taking an ugly shape in the politics of survival, he said.

He said the BJP’s slogan of "swadeshi’’ was a farce because economic liberalisation and swadeshi could not go together as it would only widen gap between the rich and the poor.

Pak sending more troops to PoK

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 (PTI) — The presence of Pakistani troops in Pak-occupied Kashmir (PoK) is increasing almost on a daily basis and due to lack of barracks in the area they are using civilian buildings like schools for the purpose, reports here say.

Besides regular army, Pakistan Rangers, personnel of the coast guards and Mujahideen forces are also helping in spreading militancy in the valley, the reports quoting interrogation of arrested militants say.

The heavy presence of troops is aimed at supervising and aiding subversive elements infiltration into Jammu and Kashmir, the militants told interrogators.

The “Army is adopting a very harsh attitude not only towards locals but any foreigner or for that matter Kashmiri youths, who are imparted weapon training here,” an arrested militant, Haroon-al Yusuf (code-name), said.

He said civilian buildings including schools and small medical treatment centres in PoK had been taken over by the Army for use as barracks.

Foreigners are never left alone and visiting journalists are not more than “A” class prisoners who have to dance to the tune of Army generals, Yusuf claimed.

Tassaduk Ahmed, another arrested militant, said the recent escalation of firing along the line of control was initiated by Pakistani troops to help terrorists cross over to J and K.

Claiming that a large numbers of mercenaries and Kashmiri youths were waiting in Alaqe Ghair camp to cross over to India, Ahmed admitted that none of them was interested in Executing the plans of the ISI.

The “Mercenaries want to go back to their own countries while the Kashmiri youth want to reunite with their kith and kin,” he said.

This, Ahmed said, had forced the ISI to raise the payment rate to mercenaries — from the prevailing rate of Rs two lakh to between Rs four and eight lakh — to make them infiltrate into India.

This has also failed to generate enthusiasm among “guest militants”, Ahmed said.

He said the mercenaries were being pushed in through difficult terrain and high mountain passes where chances of getting killed due to natural calamities was very high.

The “ISI not only incited our religious sentiments but also threatened us with dire consequences if their orders were not executed,” the militant told security agencies.

Earlier, criminals facing death penalty or long jail sentences were pushed into J and K for a period of two years and on their return were not only exempted from the sentence but also paid a handsome amount.

They also pointed out that some local traders in border areas actively supported ISI activities in order to run their business. Many of them were active in drug dealing.

Atal for Indo-Pak friendship

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 (PTI) — India wants to be friends with Pakistan and it was with this intention that the BJP-led coalition had “restarted” the dialogue with Pakistan, the Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee said here today.

“We are restarting dialogue with Pakistan and I told them let us live as friends as there was no other way”, he said referring to his recent talks with Pakistani counterpart Mr Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly summit in New York which was addressed by both leaders.

Inaugurating the All-India Muslim Women Conference organised by the BJP Mahila Morcha, he said “even brothers may sometimes fight among themselves, but if we (India and Pakistan) are friends then there would be no fight since friends do not do so”.

He said the two countries were neighbours and “we have to stay together whatever maybe the relations between us” and added that the two should be friends.

Mr Vajpayee said in India Muslims were at par with those belonging to other religions and “there was no difference on the basis of religion. I don’t want to delve on what our neighbours have done”.

He said since Partition those Muslims who stayed on in India were treated as equals and with respect and dignity. When it was decided to form the then Jan Sangh, which was the predecessor of the BJP, it was decided to throw open the party to people of all religions.

Mr Vajpayee said every religion had its own way of offering prayers “but there should not be differences among the people on this basis”.

He compared religions to rivers which ultimately flowed into the ocean saying similarly all religions finally led to God and therefore it was necessary for people to respect all religions.

“The BJP was for oneness and unity of all and we want to take everybody along and it was with this in view that we are keen on developing all languages and the diverse culture”, he said.

On his addressing the UN General Assembly in Hindi, he said people should feel proud of their mother tongue and remarked “I was asked if the leader had been from Tamil Nadu then what. I said he would speak in Tamil”.

‘Local support to militants waning’

LUCKNOW, Oct 4 (PTI) — A 10-year-old girl sneaked out of her room to inform the security forces about the presence of three militants in the house in a small village in Jammu and Kashmir... within six hours the extremists were nabbed.

Though it was a small incident, it speaks volumes of the confidence that the Army has instilled among the local people of the state and their disillusionment with insurgency, said Col P.P. Singh of Northern Command posted in the valley.

Colonel Singh, here to hold an exhibition of weapons seized from Kashmiri militants, said the local support to the ultras in the valley was at an all-time low presently.

“Local people are coming forward to give information about the militants’ activities in their respective areas. Thus, assisting the Army in restoring normalcy to a large extent,” he said.

For a common man in the valley life was now nearly normal, he said and added that tourism had picked up and the lost glory of the Dal Lake was restored with shikaras and house boats humming with activity once again.

But across the border, efforts to exploit religious sentiments and involve boys of impressionable age in militancy were still continuing, he said pointing out that some 20 boys were caught while being sent to Pakistan for training; some time ago.

Colonel Singh, however, lamented the fact that people in the country were not “really aware of the ground realities in the valley”.

“The Army is also making efforts to apprise our countrymen of the ground realities by organising a series of exhibitions displaying sophisticated weapons and propaganda material seized from the militants over a period of time,” Colonel Singh said.

The in charge of the exhibition, Major-Gen B.K. Kataria, said, “This is also an effort to make the people aware of the magnitude of armed conflict in Kashmir”.

“Over 2,500 soldiers have sacrificed their lives while 500 have been injured in the operations,” he said.

Calling for these facts to be made public, Major-Gen Kataria said people should also be told about the blatant way in which Pakistan was assisting and abetting militancy in Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the security forces were pitted against mercenaries who were being paid up to Rs 2 lakh each to fight in Kashmir.

Onion price to come down this week

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 (UNI) — A fresh harvest of onions from the Nasik belt in Maharashtra is expected to hit the market here later this week which will plunge the price to about Rs 8 per kg, according to the Delhi State Civil Supplies Corporation.

Corporation Managing Director S.L. Bansal said the supplies from the fresh harvest would have already arrived but for rain in western parts of the country.

The government is at present allowing a subsidy of about Rs 15 lakh per day to sell onions at Rs 10 per kg through the corporation.

The corporation collects 150 metric tonnes of onions from the National Agricultural Federation (NAFED) and sells it in the market through its own and other government outlets.

While the procurement price fluctuates between Rs 18 and Rs 23 per kg, the government makes it available to the consumers at Rs 10, thus allowing a subsidy of about Rs 10 on each kg.

Stabilisation of onion prices at Rs 8 after the fresh arrivals would, however, depend on the extent of crop damage in the recent rain and export of the commodity to other countries, Mr Bansal said.

In all about 600 metric tonnes of onions reach Delhi daily, but most of these are meant neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab.

Long queues have become in common sight at outlets selling subsidised onions.

Meanwhile, a public interest petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the central and state governments to control the prices of onions and other essential commodities in the Capital.

The petition filed by the All-India Lawyers Union (AILU) through its counsel Ashok Aggarwal would come up for hearing before a Division Bench comprising Justice Y.K. Sabharwal and Justice K.S. Gupta tomorrow.

The AILU urged the court to pass orders to prevent hoarding and black-marketing and ensure adequate supply of essential commodities in the market immediately. It urged the court to invoke the provisions of the Essential Commodities Act, 1955, under which all the food items were covered.

The doubling of price has been triggered by the collusion of the traders and their political masters, it alleged.

Series of holiday boon or bane?
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 — Is the series of public holidays witnessed last week and which practically brought the Government and banking industry to a stop, a bane?

Starting from September 26 (Saturday), the Central Government was closed till October 4 for eight days on a stretch barring September 29 which was a restricted holiday.

Public sector banks and other financial institutions were also closed between September 28 and October 2, barring a two-hour work directive on September 30 by the RBI.

Several eminent persons, who spoke to The Tribune have questioned the string of holidays that seem to be more like a ritual and wondered whether it did any good to the country and its economy.

Sharing concern over it were former Air Chief Marshal, N.C. Suri, retired diplomat Mr M.K. Rasgotra, and Director of Delhi School of Economics, Prof Suresh Tendulkar while former CBI Director, Vijay Karan was resigned to accept it.

The former Chief of Air Staff, was of the opinion that the string of holidays, was a "luxury’’ a country like India could not afford.

He argued that the country does not have the economic strength and the problem has been compounded by the recent sanctions imposed by the USA after the Pokhran tests.

"It is easy for anyone to say sanctions may not have salutary effect because of resilience. In reality its effect cannot be wished away. Under these circumstances are we justified in mass holidaying and bringing everything to a grinding halt,’’ he said.

To cite an example, the former Air Chief said large parts of Delhi and Gurgaon had to remain without electricity for better part of the day as there were not enough working hands or maintenance staff.

"Excuses of trees falling on electric sub-station are lame excuses to say the least. To me it appears, we have no forward or contingency plans’’, he said adding that he wondered if the country paid adequate tribute to Mahatma Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri by bringing in a state of limbo.

He was of the opinion that if the country was to be among the developed nations of the world in the next century, it should also act and work and not "just enjoy holidays which are superfluous’’.

Former Foreign Secretary, Maharaj Krishen Rasgotra, was equally critical stating that the number of holidays in India was unprecedented which not only reduced working but also affects productivity and kept the country on the path to poverty.

He said India had taken a western concept even otherwise of taking a two-day weekend off when the situation was quite different to that existing elsewhere. "Out of 365 days in a year, we seem to be closed on 200 days,’’ he remarked.

The Director of Delhi School of Economics and Member of the Fifth Pay Commission, Prof Suresh Tendulkar feels that the extended public holidays affect the normal functioning of the economy.

Does it send wrong signals to foreign investors, particularly at a time when the country is trying to woo greater foreign investment to ward off the negative effects of the economic sanctions?

"Foreign investors are basically of three kinds — lending, foreign portfolio equity investment and foreign direct investment. As far as the first category is concerned, it is directly dependent on the country’s credit rating . The impact of holidays therefore can be ruled out in this case.

"In the second case, portfolio investment primarily flows into the stock market. If markets remain closed for a longer period, it will actually affect the financial transactions in the stock markets.

"Foreign Direct Investment, on the other hand, is of more long term in nature. This is where the holidays are likely to have adverse impacts as clearances both at the State and the Central level get delayed".

"In the Fifth Pay Commission we had suggested that the number of national holidays for Central Government employees be brought down to three (January 26, August 15 and October 2).

"In fact I had argued that a better way of showing respect to the Father of the Nation would be to work on his holiday rather than to stop work.

"The commission had also suggested that number of holidays that a Central Government employee currently enjoys remain the same, but they should be made optional.Thus while some would enjoy holidays during Christmas, others would enjoy the same benefit during Divali or any other festival.

"It is, however, important to carefully create skeleton staff so that the normal flow of work does not get disrupted.

"But the Unions opposed this recommendation and the group of Ministers who negotiated with the Unions did not accept this recommendation".

Does such situations present a strong case for more privatisation or is privatisation not the only answer?

Prof Tendulkar explains: "The process of privatisation is actually independent of the number of holidays. Actually several activities which are presently state operated can be contracted out. The very notion of job security in government jobs is inimical to work ethics. A person may continue to get his salary without actually working".

The effect can be dichotomised into administrative and financial aspects. On the financial front, as banks and financial institutions remain closed for a long period , then naturally the normal flow of transactions comes to a halt, with all its attendant adverse repercussions, Prof Tendulkar said.

Again when, the banks open after the long lay-off, the process of transactions itself gets longer than normal which in turn affects the smooth functioning of economic activity, he added.

On the administrative front, the adverse effect is felt in those Ministries which has got to do with public interface. The Department of Water Supply and the Passport offices are cases in point. Extended State holidays both create and enhance public inconveniences through increasing backlog.

Senior Executive Vice-President of the ICICI Banking Corporation Ltd, Mr Suresh Nanda is of the view that as far as private sector banks are concerned, retail customers are not particularly affected as many of them have ATMs and other value added services.

Business-wise, however, the transactions came to a temporary halt. Having said that it is however, wrong to put the entire onus on the banking sector.Closure of government departments have also affected the normal flow of business as the Excise and other deposits have not been able to be made.

"Practicality-wise, therefore, it is important to cut down on holidays. It would not be bad idea if we were to follow the US model where all banks are open five days a week with a skeleton service for the remaining two days", Mr Nanda says.

However, former CBI Chief Vijay Karan, said in a country with cultural diversities holidays were unavoidable. He said only if the Government pruned the holidays, there would be little that can be changed.

CPM to discuss stand on Cong

CALCUTTA, Oct 4 (UNI) — The 16th Congress of the Communist Party of India (Marxist) beginning here tomorrow is going to be crucial with a debate on the party’s attitude towards the Congress party and its participation in a coalition government at the Centre likely to dominate the proceedings.

Though the party congress is all set to identify the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as the main enemy, there will be intense debate on support to the Congress and participation in a coalition government comprising Left and democratic forces called the third alternative.

Party sources said despite open pronouncements by leaders such as Jyoti Basu and Harkishen Singh Surjeet for conditional support to the Congress to remove the BJP-led government, the rank and file was not prepared to give up the long anti-Congress stand of the party.

Hardliners believe that the party’s cooperation with the Congress should not extend beyond outside support in case it decides to form a government at the Centre with the fall of the BJP-led government.

"We may support an anti-BJP coalition of secular parties at the Centre but at the same time we will continue our efforts to forge a third viable alternative with the Left and like-minded parties. These are among some important issues we are going to discuss in the congress," party’s central committee member Biman Bose has said.

Party sources said the CPM had been strongly opposing the economic policies of the Congress from the very beginning and a considerable section within the party might not like a closer association with the Congress, simply because of the fight against communalism.

The sources said this section believed that fight for economic liberalisation should be as important as fight against the communal forces.

"We must direct our objectives politically, ideally and organisationally towards the formation of a Left and democratic front and strengthening it," Mr Basu wrote in the party mouthpiece Ganashakti on the eve of the week-long congress.

On the organisational side, the congress is expected to dwell on the problems of factionalism and erosion of communist values among some party workers.

Party sources said the draft organisational report had highlighted the leadership’s concern over organisational feuds, particularly those prevailing in Kerala and West Bengal.

Nearly 800 delegates, observers and guests from all over the country and abroad are expected to participate in the week-long congress, scheduled to end with a mass rally at Brigade Parade Ground here on October 11.

The spokesman said the party had invited communist parties of 25 countries for the congress and among them 21 had already confirmed their participation.

During the congress the party has also organised a number of seminars and exhibitions on related and contemporary issues.

The exhibitions will cover 150 years of Communist Manifesto, 50 years of Independence, 21 years of Left Front Government in West Bengal and nuclear explosions — "From Hiroshima to Pokhran."

True tales of Hippies’ trip

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 (PTI) — In the heady days of the 1960s, as western counter-culture became fascinated with the idea of India, thousands sought freedom in magical and exotic places-Goa, Benaras, Rishikesh, the Himalayas and Kathmandu.

‘Hippies’ — as that new generation of young people came to be known in the common cultural parlance — have now come together for the first time years after leaving India, to tell the true tales of those “who took the trip”.

“India to many of them was “a place where nothing was unacceptable, people were free, turned on, naturally wise and understood the concept of enlightenment.

“You could live in the forest, eat berries, meditate in a cave, wander around naked, do whatever you felt like, and nobody would take a blind bit of notice because everyone innately understood,” says author David Tomory in “A Season in Heaven, True Tales from the Road to Kathmandu”.

Creating a new style of travelogue writing, Tomory has suitably juxtaposed his own recollections with generous amount of materials taken from previously published works and diaries of hippies, who some time between 1965 and 1975 were drawn to take that ‘trail’, ‘road’ or ‘trip’.

According to Tomory, there was a grand passion for India that was to seize the counter-culture of the late sixties. By the early seventies, many thousands of people were travelling every year, usually overland, to the subcontinent.

“Often quite — and quite often completely — unprepared, people simply left, to occupy the road to India in greater numbers (no one was counting, but ‘hundreds of thousands’ is a popular guesstimate) than at any time since the fall of the Mongol empire had closed that road in the 14th century; with their own money, with their parent’s money, with no money or next to no money.

“...In the late 60s, in token of its having achieved a certain notoriety even in New Zealand, in a country town, in my school, where it was called ‘doing the India trip’ — this phenomenon had official titles conferred upon it by the press: these were ‘the hippie trail’ and the ‘road to Kathmandu’,” he says.

The kind of curiosity and interest anything about India evokes in the minds of westerners also comes through quite eloquently from the accounts of the travellers.

As Andy Weber — one of those who took the trip — writes “there was something about this ‘namaste’ in India, the folded hands, something like ‘I greet the god in you, I meet you in peace’. It had extraordinary warmth, I did take it too literally at first; if somebody make namaste to me, I would namaste back — and finish up in a souvenir shop somewhere in Amritsar, explaining that I was really looking for the Golden Temple”.

“It was the first Indian temple for many of us, and I stayed there for four days; perhaps Sikh hospitality had not been too abused yet by people assuming that it was fine to smoke there. It was not,” Weber writes.

According to Lieschen Muller, another traveller, “at the beginning of the overland trip, in the mid-60’s, there were ten men to every woman travelling, though the percentage of ‘interesting’ women was probably higher than in later days.

“The India scene was probably the least feminist and most conventional in the entire freak scene worldwide,” she writes.

Goa — that “outpost of progress” - has always been associated with the hippie scene in India. So no book on the subject could have been complete without a fair amount of pages devoted to the ‘Hippie paradise’.

The scene began in 1966 with twenty or thirty people.

As David Williams reminisces, “Goa had that old Portugese lost world vibe. They had sculpted and gardened it, they brought the cashew and the chilli. And they had only left in 1961, a few years before the first freaks arrived.

“The Goans missed that old western connections, so when we arrived, they liked us. We were no threat, and they did not mind sharing their paradise with us.

Sample survey on Bihar

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 (PTI) — Half of Bihar’s electorate say President’s rule should have been imposed in the state, and the people prefer fresh Assembly elections now, according to a sample survey by Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies (CMS).

The survey, carried out between August 28 and October 1 covered 1500 voters in five different regions of Bihar. While half of the respondents said President’s rule should have been imposed in Bihar, 35 per cent opposed it.

Although only one fourth of voters supported the President returning the Vajpayee Cabinet’s recommendation for imposition of Central rule in Bihar, two-third of them feel the government should not send back the proposal for presidential reconsideration, the survey said.

A little over half of those covered by the survey favour Assembly elections in the state now but 39 per cent feel there is no need for dissolving the House.

It said 60 per cent of the voters were unhappy with the performance of the Vajpayee government while 30 per cent think otherwise.

Cong panel on manifesto
Tribune News Service

NEW DELHI, Oct 4 — The Congress has set up a central manifesto committee to project the party’s policies and programmes for the forthcoming assembly poll in Delhi, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Mizoram.

The nine-member committee includes Mr Shard Pawar, Dr Manmohan Singh, Mr Arjun Singh, Mr Pranab Mukherjee, Mr Jitendra Prasada, Mr G. Venkataswamy, Mr Giridhar Gamang and Mr Mani Shankar Aiyar.

Interestingly, despite the perceived differences between the Congress President, Mrs Sonia Gandhi and the Leader of Opposition in the Lok Sabha, Mr Pawar, the latter has been included in the drafting committee.

Normally, a separate manifesto is prepared by the party which caters to issues specific to each state where the poll are scheduled to be held.

Party sources said while such manifestos would be prepared, the Congress central leadership has decided to have a central committee so that its policy and programmes on national issues can also be conveyed effectively.

Link between stress and heart disease

MUMBAI, Oct 4 (PTI) — There is a definite link between stress, specific personality traits and development of coronary heart disease, according to a comparative study conducted on patients with normal and abnormal angiographic findings.

Speaking at the three-day 29th annual conference of Indian Psychiatric society (IPS), West Zone, which concluded here today. Dr Malay Dave and Dr H.S. Dhavale said people living under stress often complained of chest pain thus establishing a linkage between the heart and emotion.

These patients were also found to have a high psychopathological behaviour, predominantly in the form of panic disorder and depression.

They also experience stress at any given point of time and a majority of them had more than moderate impairment in day to day and socio-occupational functioning, the paper added.

Kidnapped engineer released
IMPHAL: The Chief Engineer of Manipur Minor Irrigation Department who was kidnapped from his office on Thursday has been released, official sources said on Sunday. Mr L Bormani Singh reached home unharmed on Saturday night. No further details were available. Sources said some underground activists belonging to a valley-based group had earlier demanded Rs 5 lakh as ransom from him. — PTI

Memorial for blast victims
COIMBATORE: The BJP proposes to erect a memorial for those killed in the February 14 serial blasts in the city, with the names of about 60 victims engraved on it. The memorial pillar would be erected at the busy D.B. Road junction in R S Puram where Mr L K Advani was to address an election meeting on the fateful day, the BJP state media cell in charge S R Sekhar said on Sunday. The design of the memorial would be finalised soon and sent to the corporation for approval. — PTI

Wonder manure developed
NEW DELHI: A group of progressive farmers from Solapur district of Maharashtra has developed a wonder manure which, it claims, can revolutionise Indian agriculture leading to bumper crops at a fraction of the cost of chemical fertilisers. Titled “amrit sanjivani”, the fertiliser has been developed by members of the Pandharpur unit of the Bharatiya Kisan Sangh (BKS) after four years of experiments using cowdung as the main raw material. The manure can be prepared by a farmer himself by a simple method and is useful for all types of crops — vegetables, fruits and trees, Anant Dattatreya Karve of the BKS, Pandharpur, said. — PTI

Bank to pay compensation
NEW DELHI: A Delhi consumer court has ordered the Oriental Bank of Commerce to pay a compensation of Rs 1,500 to a customer for refusing him to prepare bank drafts in February, 1993. The District Consumer Disputes Redressal Forum at Tis Hazari, ordered the bank to pay a compensation of Rs 1,000 “for deficiency of service” and Rs 500 as the cost of litigation to the complainant Om Prakash Gulati. — PTI

Monsoon toll rises
NASIK: Toll in this year’s monsoon in Maharashtra has risen to 102 with eight more deaths reported in the past three days as heavy rains continue to lash several parts of the state. Three persons were killed and one seriously injured in a house collapse at Vanjarvadi in Bhoom taluka of Osmanabad district while a youth died when lightning struck him at Barshi town in Solapur district on Saturday, police sources said. — PTI

Militants kidnap three men
AGARTALA: Tribal militants kidnapped three persons from two places of Tripura even as two bus passengers were released from captivity after 26 days, the police said. Gunmen of the National Liberation Front of Tripura (NLFT) stopped a civilian jeep at the Narongbari area of West district on Saturday and kidnapped its driver and assistant. The ultras reportedly demanded ransom for their release. In a separate incident at the Shantir Bazar area in South district, NLFT militants stopped another jeep on Saturday and kidnapped its owner at gun point. — PTI

SP activist shot
MAINPURI (UP): Miscreants shot dead a Samajwadi Party activist, Mr Devendra Gupta, near city kotwali here on Sunday, the police said. The police has launched a hunt to arrest the culprits. — PTI