Maoists ready for talks, truce
Day 2 of bandh: Community centre, 
tower blown up
New Delhi, June 23
Putting a moderate step a day after the imposition of ban by the Centre, the CPI (Maoist) said it is ready for talks and demanded hat the forces should be pulled back from Lalgarh. Speaking to mediapersons, Gaud Chakraborthy, a spokesperson of the Maoist organisation, expressed his group’s intention to declare ceasefire.

Editorial: Banning Maoists

Snub to Karat as Buddha agrees to put ban in place
New Delhi/Kolkata, June 23
An embattled CPM today suffered some more jolts from the expected quarters in Kerala and West Bengal, with a special CBI court in Kochi summoning party’s disgraced state secretary Pinayari Vijayan in the SNC-Lavlin corruption case and Bengal Chief Minister Budhadeb Bhattacharya ignoring the party line on Centre’s ban on CPI (Maoists).

Bhakra level receding a foot a day
Chandigarh/Bhakra, June 23
Delayed monsoon, scanty rain in catchments area of the Bhakra Beas Management Board (BBMB) are turning to be a cause of concern in the region. Water level in the Bhakra and Pong dams is receding by a foot a day while total generation from the BBMB plants has shown a considerable reduction than total generation in the corresponding period last year.

Power Pangs
Haryana
Farmers, industry take a hit
Chandigarh, June 23
Reeling under soaring temperatures, an elusive monsoon and frequent power outages, Haryana is in the grip of a power crisis this summer. There has been a nearly 67% deficit in rainfall with demand rising by 180 lakh units (LUs) per day, over and above the projected demand of 950 units.

Khanduri resigns; successor today
New Delhi, June 23
Uttarakhand Chief Minister Bhuvan Chand Khanduri today became the first major casualty of the BJP’s humiliating defeat in the Lok Sabha elections.

SAD blinks; MLA tenders apology to Kalia
Party expels Ludhiana councillor Karwal
Chandigarh, June 23
In a day of hectic political activity in the BJP-SAD camps, SAD legislator Sarabjit Singh Makkar today tendered an unconditional apology to Industries and Local Bodies Minister Manoranjan Kalia to normalise relations between the two parties.

First swine flu case in UP
New Delhi, June 23
India is learnt to be getting the support of most of the Influenza-A H1N1-affected nations in advising the passengers with active symptoms to consider aborting their travels.

Pune techie tests positive

Naxalite Menace – III The tribals who dared Maoists Besides security forces, the number one enemy of the Maoists — commonly known as Naxals — in their hotbed Bastar region are those tribals who dared to start a people’s movement against them in 2005. Many in the West have described it as India’s “hidden civil war”.