tribuneindia...Spotlight

			Friday, September 18, 1998
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Army called out in Kokrajhar
GUWAHATI, Sept 17 (PTI) — Army was deployed today in lower Assam’s strife-torn Kokrajhar district where the toll in ethnic clashes since Tuesday rose to 44. Officials said troops had been redeployed in the district from where they were withdrawn recently to make way for para-military forces to maintain law and order, adding the situation was ‘’tense but under control’’. A tribal woman was killed by Bodo militants at a market at Salakathi under Kokrajhar police station this evening. So far, 43 bodies of victims of the state’s worst-ever clash between Santhals and Bodos have been recovered from Gossaigaon sub-division. The bodies of 26 have been identified, the officials said. Meanwhile, Kokrajhar district Deputy Commissioner S. Thadou has been transferred and replaced by former Kamrup district DC Jones Ingti Kathar. Hundreds of panic-stricken people were fleeing their villages and over 71,000 Santhals and Bodos had taken shelter in 28 relief camps, they said.

Dropsy toll
NEW DELHI, Sept17 (TNS) — Several Congress workers started a 24-hour fast at the Sabzi Mandi Ghanta Ghar here today to protest against a rise in dropsy deaths even as another dropsy death was reported from a city hospital. The toll due to dropsy mounted to 62 after a five-year-old girl died at the Northern Railway hospital here.

Deadline to stay
NEW DELHI, Sept 17 (PTI) — The Supreme Court today refused to extend the October 2 deadline for phasing out commercial vehicles in Delhi which were over 15 years old even as the government expressed willingness to scrap commercial vehicles over 12 years old if the deadline was extended till March 31, 1999. Solicitor-General Santosh N. Hegde submitted that around 20,000 commercial vehicles, including 8574 autorickshaws, 1652 taxis, 5947 goods vehicles and 1840 buses, had to be phased out and sought extension till March, 1999.

Rural banks stir
NEW DELHI, Sept 17 (PTI) — Thousands of officers and employees of regional rural banks will go on a nation-wide strike on September 22 in support of their charter of demands, the All-India Gramin Bank Officers and Workers Organisation said today. They are demanding, among other things, the formation of a national rural bank by amalgamating 196 regional rural banks and the implementation of the sixth bipartite settlement.

Non-cooperation stir
BANGALORE, Sept 17 (PTI) — The Karnataka unit of the BJP has decided to launch a statewide "non-cooperation" agitation on September 21 to October 18 to press its demands, including the withdrawal of power tariff hike. The party leaders in nine teams, including its two union ministers, Mr Ananth Kumar and Baba Gouda Patil, would undertake the campaign seeking people's support in the state, president B.S. Yediyurappa told newsmen.

Lanka clashes
COLOMBO, Sept 17 (PTI) — Fourteen LTTE rebels and six Army personnel were killed in encounters between the two in Sri Lanka's north in the past two weeks, a defence spokesman said here today. The troops also recovered 120 landmines in northern Vanni where the LTTE was resisting the Army's attempts to open a land route to the northern Jaffna peninsula, the spokesman told reporters. Answering questions about the programmes made by the investigations into last week's bomb blast at Jaffna in which the Mayor and top security officials were killed, he said it was now established that the claymore mine with an external detonator was fixed to the roof of the municipal building a day before the explosion.

Flood alert
THANE, Sept 17 (UNI) — Thousands of people are trapped in Manor village on the western express highway, about 100 km from here, due to a flash flood caused by incessant rain since yesterday. Army and Navy helicopters summoned for rescue operations have not been able to reach the village and a red alert has been sounded in the area, official sources said.