Saturday, April 13, 2002, Chandigarh, India
 Updated at 3:00 am (IST)

BJP returns to ‘Hindutva’
* Backs Modi, advises him fresh mandate
* PM slams Muslim fundamentalism
Panjim, April 12
The Bharatiya Janata Party’s National Executive gave a clean chit to Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, unanimously rejecting his resignation offer and advising him to seek a fresh mandate from the state’s electorate at a time of his own choice.

• Army out in Ahmedabad, one killed

• Nation page: Riot-hit hard put to prove kin’s death

Congress: no compromise on secularism
Guwahati, April 12
Congress President Sonia Gandhi today accused the Centre of “condoning” killings in Gujarat by not removing Chief Minister Narendra Modi.

EPF interest rate unchanged
Sharad Yadav puts his foot down
New DelhiI, April 12
Union Labour Minister Sharad Yadav today turned down the Finance Ministry’s proposal to slash interest rate on Employees Provident Fund and decided to continue the existing rate of 9.5 per cent for an interim period.

Maoists massacre 84 policemen
Kathmandu, April 12
Thousands of Nepalese Maoist rebels killed 84 policemen in night-time raids today that left more than 100 persons dead and marked a bloody escalation of their six-year-old insurgency, officials said.

Grenade attack on CRPF mess
Two jawans killed, eleven injured
Srinagar, April 12
At least two CRPF jawans were killed and 11 others injured when militants attacked a CRPF mess and a police station in the city today.

In video: Indian and Russian Defence Ministers hold talks in Moscow on trade in arms and weapons-related technology. (28k, 56k)

• Punjab page: Genuine farmers made ‘ineligible’ for relief

• Border areas ‘suffer’ neglect

HP abolishes ST on fertilisers
Shimla, April 12
The 4 per cent general sales tax on chemical fertilisers was today abolished by the Himachal Pradesh Cabinet to benefit the farmers. The decision was taken by the Cabinet which met under the chairmanship of the Chief Minister, Mr Prem Kumar Dhumal.

UCO Bank looted
Jalandhar, April 12
In a sensational broad daylight bank robbery, two unidentified robbers managed to slip off with a whopping Rs 16.53 lakh from the extension counter of UCO Bank at Model House locality here this afternoon. As the crime graph of the city had been going up for the past fortnight, the robbery put a question mark on the efficiency of the police and security arrangements of banks in the city.

TRIBUNE INVESTIGATION Cattle graze as authorities laze Polytechnic, ITI buildings in a shambles Chandigarh, April 12 Tall claims of the government on technical education and industrial training notwithstanding, 10 ITIs and six polytechnics in Punjab, completed three to five years ago, are being used only for grazing cattle. A lone cow grazes on the campus of the ITI building at Shahkot in Jalandhar district.