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3 killed, 100 hurt in UP panchayat poll violence
UPA spurring ‘minorityism’: RSS
EC measures arrest arms sale in Bihar
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Notorious politicians a headache for Bihar administration
Bihar Cong chief booked
Communal tension in Agra
‘Moscow’ reunites Stalin and Khrushchev
Kalam’s call to scientists on quakes
5 die in wall collapse in Mumbai
Communist Party of Britain invites Yechury
FDI welcome, asserts Buddhadeb
Will ULFA talk peace?
Gaur demands apology from Uma loyalists
Gangs on bikes spell trouble for Mumbai cops
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3 killed, 100 hurt in UP panchayat poll violence
Lucknow, October 23 An estimated 65 per cent of the total 22.5 million voters exercised their franchise, State Election Commission (SEC) sources said today. State Principal Secretary (Home) Alok Sinha, confirming the death of three people in violence, claimed the election by and large passed off peacefully. Ten persons were killed in the four phases of polling held on October 14, 17, 20 and 23. In the last panchayat poll held in 2000, 27 persons had lost their lives and 238 were injured in the poll-related violence. A report from Ballia said one person was killed and six others were injured in a group clash at Shobachapra village in Beria block. Over 10 persons were injured in a clash at Chapar Naruiya village in the same district. In Etah district, Samajwadi Party worker Rakesh Kumar was killed in firing at Ahmedpur village under the Patiwali police station. A group clash at Paraur block in Shahajahanpur district claimed the life of one person. He was later identified as Chote Singh Yadav. Six other persons were injured in the incident. Firing was reported at Bangany polling booth in Gonda district, while clashes took place in Kannauj, Gorakhpur, Firozabad and Jaunpur districts. The SEC had already postponed the polling at Bijnor and Mau owing to law and order problems. The counting of votes for all four phases would be taken up on October 25. Meanwhile, more than 79,135 candidates were in the fray for the 14,899 seats of the khestra panchayat members and 604 seats of the zila panchayat members spread out in 183 blocks in the final phase. Repolling was held at 93 polling booths of 20 districts where polling was held during the previous three phases.
— UNI |
UPA spurring ‘minorityism’: RSS
Chitrakoot, October 23 “RSS is concerned with this trend which will disintegrate the society and unnecessarily spread communal disharmony,” the organisation’s spokesperson Ram Madhav told newspersons after the conclusion of the three-day RSS National Executive here. The RSS National Executive, in a resolution, pointed out that the judiciary had from time to time tried to caution the government about the perils of minority appeasement. The National Executive regretted to note that the “merchants of minorityism are busy inventing ways and means to bypass all such observations and advice by the judiciary.” The UPA’s decision to provide reservation for Muslims in AMU against the SC order on the minority status of AMU is standing proof of the appeasement policy, Mr Madhav said. Creation of Minority Education Commission, special subsidies for Muslim students preparing for the UPSC and other competitive examinations, setting up a commission to look into the question of granting reservations to all converted scheduled castes, further
strengthen the allegation of minority pampering by this government, he said. Reports indicate that the government is actively considering setting up a ministry for minority welfare, special recruitment drive for Muslims in Army, and setting up of Islamic banks. The National Executive noted with regret that there is a race among political parties to appease
minorities in different cases and forms, Mr Madhav said. The RSS noted that the inaction of Uttar Pradesh Government during the recent communal riots in Mau was also the result of the dangerous policy of Muslim appeasement. The resolution strongly condemned the callous attitude of the UP Government in protecting the lives and properties of Hindus. ‘’It is shocking that proper enquiry has not been instituted to look into the causes of violence, identify and punish the perpetrators of the riots,’’ Mr Madhav said. Without taking the name of LJP President Ram Vilas Paswan, the resolution said that Mr Paswan had crossed all limits of crass minority appeasement and publicly lured Muslims with the offer of Bihar chief ministership. Also reprehensible was the reported directives given to all Chief Ministers of Congress-ruled states to emulate the Andhra Pradesh
Government in extending reservation to Muslims, Mr Madhav added. — UNI |
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EC measures arrest arms sale in Bihar
Muzaffarpur, October 23 The town is one of the major centres for supply of illegal arms in the state and criminals used to make their purchases from here. So far, voting has taken place in Naxal dominated areas and Gaya district, but those usual scenes of violent booth capturing and show of arms were missing. That is one of the reasons for the drop in demand of arms by various gangs of criminals. These gangs used to work for different political parties and Independent candidates for ensuring their victory, arms merchant at Banaras Bank Chowk Rama Shankar Singh told The Tribune here. The arrest of Mr Vijay Prakash Yadav, brother of Union Minister Jai Prakash Narain Yadav, on October 18 with arms, ammunition, cash and liquor had sent warning signals to criminals and their political masters that the Election Commission meant business and it would not be easy to manipulate polling this time, he said. “We are still hoping that orders would come for the third and the fourth phases as candidates and political parties would become increasingly unsure of their victory,” another illegal arms dealer said. Apart from arms and ammunition of different makes, the demand for country-made bombs was very high in the last elections, he said. The market was full of these goods this time too, but the sale had not been good, he added. “The polling in this area is scheduled to take place on October 26 and the people are keeping their fingers crossed whether violence will erupt or not as this phase of voting is crucial for most of the political parties,” said police Inspector Vinod Prakash. In the February poll, the CPMF had been deployed in 38 per cent buildings where polling stations were located in the district. Most of the arms and ammunition purchased in the town and other constituencies, barring Minapur, could not be used. The situation this time is likely to improve further because the Election Commission has directed deployment of the CPMF at 75 per cent of polling stations, local election official Mohammad Afzal said. In the 2004 Lok Sabha poll, there were 279 incidents of violence in which 15 persons were killed and 78 injured, an official of the State Election Office said. Though in the Assembly elections in February, the number of violent incidents had come down on the polling day because of deployment of the Central forces, this time we hope the number of such incidents and cases of booth capturing would come down drastically, the election official said. In 2000, 61 persons were killed and 150 injured in 633 poll related incidents of violence. |
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Notorious politicians a headache for Bihar administration
Patna, October 23 Both Shahabuddin and Akhtar have been evading the dragnet of the police for long. And even though the police had failed to nab Shahabuddin, the controversial RJD MP was not only appearing on the TV almost regularly, giving interviews from his undisclosed destination, but also taking part in interactive sessions . The latest round of remarks by Shahabuddin was that he was the first Parliamentarian to write to the President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam expressing his desire to fight against Pakistan in the Kargil war. “I had written a letter to the President offering my services for the country during the Kargil war. Being a former NCC cadet, I know how to operate arms,” Shahabuddin said. Mohammad Shahabuddin strongly refuted the charges against him for maintaining links
with the ISI and refused to surrender before the police. He also denied charges against him under arms or wildlife protection acts. Mohammad Shahabuddin said his lawyers had already appealed against the arrest warrants issued against him in the lower and higher courts. He said despite being far away from Bihar, he was
maintaining his contacts with the party workers in Siwan to ensure the defeat of NDA. He regretted that he could not offer his services to defend secularism against “communal BJP” owing to the “goonda raj” of the police. And as if Shahabuddin was not enough, the police issued a statewide alert against the Congress candidate from Bettiah, Mohammad Shameem Akhtar, who was evading arrest in a murder case. The DIG (Champaran range), Mr Arvind Kumar, has already sought the help of his counterparts in the state to arrest Akhtar. |
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Bihar Cong chief booked
Bhagalpur, October 23 The Sub-divisional Officer of Kahalgao-cum-Returning Officer, Mr Mahendra Prasad Singh, said the FIR was filed after the Congress leader failed to get his name deleted from the voters’ list at one place within the given time. He said the leader had been booked under Sections 18 and 31 of the Representation of People’s Act, 1950.
— UNI |
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Communal tension in Agra
Agra, October 23 A near-curfew like situation prevailed in the Mantola police station area here this afternoon as the police forced the people indoors to control the situation following the clashes in which both sides indulged in brickbatting. The incident was sparked off after an altercation between a Muslim woman and an owner of a garment shop that resulted in her slapping. Subsequently some youth confronted the shopkeeper even as other shopowners rushed to his side. Soon the situation went out of hand and acquired communal overtones as the two sides traded blows and bricks, they said adding that police arrived on the scene and fired in the air to disperse the mob. The District Magistrate and Senior
Superintendent of Police, who were in the rural areas to oversee panchayat polls were on their way to the city, they said describing the situation as “tense but under control.”
— PTI |
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‘Moscow’ reunites Stalin and Khrushchev
Kottayam, October 23 Drawn from different parts of the state, the participants were received at the entrance of the venue by Gagarin and Tereshkova, bringing memories of the space odyssey of the heydays of the USSR. About 30 persons bearing names of revolutionaries, leaders and writers of that country turned up for the event. Skipping politics and taking utmost care to avoid theoretical wranglings, the participants just exchanged pleasantries and had tea and snacks before they went home. Lenin from Erattupetta won an air ticket to Moscow in the lucky dip sponsored by Qatar Airways. “This is for the second time we are organising this type of a get-together,” Russian Cultural Centre Director Ratheesh C. Nair said.
— PTI |
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Kalam’s call to scientists on quakes
New Delhi, October 23 “It seems that electromagnetic phenomena prior to final rupture may be promising,” Dr Kalam said while inaugurating the 28th General Assembly of the International Union of Radio Science here. Saying that earthquake was a sub-terrain phenomenon and predicting this from space observations would be a great challenge, he said an earthquake phenomenon in broader sense started to produce some precursors before the final rupture, although the pre-rupture stage was not usually regarded as part of an earthquake.
— UNI |
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5 die in wall collapse in Mumbai
Mumbai, October 23 Most of the victims were pulled out of the debris and rushed to the hospital. However five victims were declared dead at the hospital. |
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Communist Party of Britain invites Yechury
New Delhi, October 23 CPM Politburo member and Rajya Sabha MP Sitaram Yechury will be the inaugural speaker at the meeting that will set the tone for the discussions of the Communist University of Britain. The Communists of the world look forward of the “political school”, for definitive lessons in theory and practice of Marxism. The inaugural session will focus on “Imperialism — for peace and liberation”. “It is for the first time that an Indian Communist has been invited to inaugurate the deliberations of the Communist University of Britain, managed by the Communist Party of Britain. Traditional, the university has played a crucial role in nurturing Indian communist leaders,” Mr Yechury told UNI. Mr Yechury, who is also the Party’s International Department Secretary, while reminding how country’s top Communist leaders, Jyoti Basu, Inderjit Gupta and Bhupesh Gupta, were trained at the university, said the situation had now changed altogether with the left parites earning a position where the UPA government could not survive without their support. “The invitation to the CPM points out towards its acceptability at the international level in an era of globalisation, “Mr Yechury. Editor of party weekly — ‘People’s Democracy’, maintained. The CPM leader would share the dais with world’s top Communist leaders, Randall Howard, general secretary of the South African Transport and Allied Worker’s Union, Joanne Robert Giriffiths, general secretary of Britain and Miguel Madeira of the World Federation of Democratic Youth, among others. Mr Yechury will again speak on “Economic progress — for people or profit” and on “India — the prospectus for Left advance”. The Left leader stressed that merely criticising won’t help. “We have to present an alternative that can be cogently argued out.”
— UNI |
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FDI welcome, asserts Buddhadeb
Kanpur, October 23 He said the Left Front was not against Foreign Direct Investment, but there would not be disinvestment in profit-earning units. The CPM was against disinvestment in PSU navratnas and was discussing the issue at UPA meetings, Mr Bhattacharjee said,
adding that “now the UPA has assured us not to proceed with the issue”. He said the Politbureau of his party would be meeting next week to discuss various issues, including the FDI.
— PTI |
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Will ULFA talk peace?
New Delhi, October 23 “We are not ULFA but members of the civil society. Our main endeavour is to bring the outfit to the negotiating table for the sake of bringing peace in Assam,” an ULFA-selected Peoples’ Consultative Group (PCG)member and editor of leading Assamese daily ‘Asomiya Pratidin’, Haidor Hussain told from Guwahati on the eve of their scheduled meeting with National Security Advisor M K Narayanan on Wednesday. “We will try to remove
everything that comes as a hurdle to direct talks between the Government and the ULFA,” he said. “We will hold talks without any preconceived notion. Let’s see what comes on to the table,” Mr Bobora, son of former Assam Chief Minister Golap Bobora, said. Mr Hussain said the PCG wants the talks with the government to be held in a harmonious atmosphere so that both sides can express their views freely and exchange their ideas. He, however, made it clear that so far the PCG has not got any guideline or directive from ULFA leadership. When asked whether the PCG would like the Assam Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi to take part in the proposed talks, Hussain said that they would not mind if he (Gogoi) takes part in the initial discussions. “We would always appreciate state government’s cooperation and support to our endeveour,” he said. Mr Borbora said it is upto Gogoi whether he wants to take part in the meeting or not. Mr M.K. Narayanan on October 21 had sent an invitation to the group for discussions on October 26 at the Prime Minister’s Office. “I look forward for a fruitful and positive discussion with the group in a constructive spirit,” he said in the letter. The PCG today expressed its “anguish” over the reported statement of Army chief Gen J.J. Singh that ULFA leadership should approach the Centre after surrendering their arms and negotiate, if they are genuine about their offer for talks.
— PTI |
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Gaur demands apology from Uma loyalists
Jhabua (MP), October 23 “The MLAs and ministers should not have raised the demand for leadership change. The ministers who voiced the demand will have to tender written apologies for it,” Mr Gaur told. “If they fail to do so (tender the written apologies), the ministers will be removed from the posts,” he said. “I will remove from my ministry those ministers who don’t have confidence in the Chief Minister and are involved in a campaign by dissatisfied elements,” Mr Gaur said. “I have given another chance to those who met Bharti in the name of Dussehra Milan and took part in the signature campaign for change of guard in the state, by asking them to tender written apologies,” the Chief Minister said. However, some ministers have claimed they were not aware of the campaign and had gone to meet Bharti on the occasion of Dussehra festival, he added. Loyalists of the fiery sanyasin had virtually revolted against Mr Gaur demanding his ouster and Bharti’s return a couple of days ago. Among the ministers who were seen meeting Bharti were Mr Dhal Singh Bisen, Mr Gopal Bhargav, Mr Anup Mishra, Mr Gaurishankar Shejwar and Mr Karan Singh Verma. On the announcement made by Ms Bharti about converting Alirajpur into a district headquarter, Mr Gaur said “new districts are not formed by making announcements.” “It will only be possible after delimitation process of constituencies was over. It can be done after completing some formalities,” he added.
— PTI |
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Gangs on bikes spell trouble for Mumbai cops
Mumbai, October 23 Local policemen who came to the rescue were not spared either. The four cops were hit with iron pipes. Assistant Sub-Inspector Jaywant Shirke (50), who led the team, suffered severe gashes on his head that needed seven stitches. The other policemen who were injured were Head Constable Rajendra Awtade (38) and constables Chandrashekhar Sawant (34) and Suresh Gadigaonkar (32). The police says biker gangs that zoom along the city’s deserted roads past midnight also take to robberies and petty crime. |
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