Kolkata, January 3
Trinamool supremo Mamata Banerjee today warned the people of Nandigram against false promises made by the Chief Minister, Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee at a meeting at Nandigram last week. She alleged that Bhattacharjee had turned into a capitalist and had been acting as an agent of industrialists.

Mamata asked the people to intensify their struggle against the CPM for their own interest and the interest of the state. She also announced several agitation programmes.

The Trinamool leader was addressing a massive rally at Nandigram organised jointly under the banner of Bhumi Raksha Committee and the TMC. The meeting held today a week after Bhattacharjee’s meeting , marked the completion of one year of the BRC’s movement against land-grabbing and other anti-farmers measures taken by the CPM-led Left front government. The day was observed as martyrs’ day in memory of those poor farmers who had been brutally killed by the CPM during their struggle in Nandigram.

A large number of people, mostly women and elderly persons, from neighbouring areas came to the venue of the meeting despite the cold wave and harsh weather.

Several hundreds also came to the meeting by buses and trucks arranged by the BRC and the TMC. The TMC leader alleged that the CPM had been acting like a big-brother towards their smaller partners in the front like the CPI, RSP and the Forward Bloc who had been kept in the dark about all major decisions, and particularly, on the government’s land acquiring policy for industries.

She believed soon these small parties would leave the front and she would be happy to get them by her side in the fight against the CPM.

Mamata said they were still hopeful of getting the Congress(l) in their newly built Progressive Socialist Democratic Front( PSDF) for fighting against the CPM in the state and she was confident of dethroning the incumbent Left front government. The CPM has been in power not because they are popular but because the opposition is divided, Mamata further observed.

Patna, January 3
The ruling JD(U) in Bihar today advised the Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee to come out of the shadow of the Congress and follow the ‘Bihar model’ reaffriming her ties with NDA in order to offer a true alternative to the Left in West Bengal.

JD(U) is now part of the 16 party Secular Progressive Democratic Front (SPDF) launched by the Trinamool Congress supremo Mamata Banerjee on December 30.

The observation from the JD(U) came in the wake of the outcome of the Balagarh Assembly bypoll yesterday in West Bengal where the BJP outstaged the Congress to occupy third place after the runners-up Trinamul Congress being preceded by the victorius CPM.The Congress was pushed to fourth position.

Despite Mamata’s association with NDA, both the BJP and the Trinamool Congress fought the Balagarh Assembly bypoll seperately. The Congress too reportedly did not respond to Trinamool’s offer for a common candidate.

Talking to the media here the JD(U) national spokesman Shivanand Tiwary reminded Mamata Banerjee of the success tasted by her party in 1998 and 1999 Lok Sabha poll in association with the BJP when the NDA had bagged 9 and 12 seats respectively of a total 42 in West Bengal.

“The same Trinamool came down to 1 seat in 2004 after Mamata had distanced herself from the BJP in 2001 Assembly poll and thereafter started vacillating between BJP and the Congress”, Shivanand observed.

It may be noted that even after the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had visited Mamata Banerjee’s residence in south Kolkata to see her ailing mother, it did not prevent the Trinamool Congress supremo from ditching the BJP just few days before 2001 Assembly poll to befrined the Congress in alleged violation of coalition ethics.

Mumbai, January 3
“People just watched as my husband tried to protect me.” This was how one of the two shell-shocked NRI victims of the New Year night molestation incident described her plight while recounting the tale of horror that has shocked this metropolis. The woman was married just the previous day.

She said the hooligans pinched and groped her while her husband spoke about how helpless he was when around 50 persons were trying to get at his wife and cousin. The victims are based in California and were on a vacation to Mumbai.

“I just want to get over the horror. I want to stop seeing my face on TV. When we came out of the hotel (early) on January 1, I did not sense any trouble. But when we were walking, the crowd just kept getting closer,” said the woman, who was not identified, in an interview to a city tabloid.

“They touched my butt and pinched me. They also began grabbing my cousin sister-in-law,” she said, adding that “I believe Mumbaikars are not willing to stop and help people in trouble.” Her husband, who was also not identified, said, “We are the victims. We were at J.W. Mariott from 9 pm on December 31 and around 2 am we (he, his wife and two cousins) decided to leave (the hotel) and take a rickshaw back to hotel Royal Gardens.”

“Just as we stepped out, we saw a group heading for us. They reached us and immediately began grabbing my wife. Since we were walking against the crowd it was difficult to move ahead. But then it got worse. It seemed like the whole crowd was on my wife and my cousin,” he said.

“Then somebody pushed all of us on the ground. It seemed like they were 50 persons around .... all trying to get at my wife and cousin.” — PTI

New Delhi, January 3
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will focus on all-round development of bilateral relations with China during his visit to the country from January 13 to 15. Now that the boundary disputes issue had been isolated to enable more effective engagement between the two sides on other issues.

Diplomatic sources today said the two neighbours had isolated the boundary issue to focus on bilateral cooperation in trade, energy, science and technology, defence, agriculture, water resources, culture and counter-terrorism. The two sides had so far held 11 rounds of Special Representatives-level talks on resolving the boundary dispute. On the sidelines of ASEAN-India summit in Philippines in January 2007, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Chinese premier Wen Jiabao had said the special representatives should hold the talks with ‘greater vigour and innovativeness.’

The ministry of external affairs today announced the dates of the Prime Minister’s visit to China and said during his visit, Manmohan Singh would hold officials talks with premier Wen Jiabao and would have separate meetings with President Hu Jintao, and chairman of the Standing Committee of National People’s Congress of the People’s Republic of China Wu Bangguo.

The last visit by an Indian Prime Minister to China was from June 22 to 27, 2003, by Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Manmohan Singh’s visit is a part of the high level exchanges between India and China in recent years, including those by premier Wen Jiabao to India in April 2005, and President Hu Jintao to India in November 2006. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and President Hu had unveiled a 10-point plan to deepen the Sino-India strategic partnership, which included setting up a hotline between the two countries’ foreign offices.

The positive vibes between the two countries can be gauged from two points, one a recent event and the other a process that had been gathering steam over the past several years: the first-ever Sino-Indian joint

Army exercises in Yunnan province of China (December 21-25) and the bilateral trade that had been growing at 44 per cent a year for the past five years.

While the two navies of the two countries had been holding joint exercises for the past several years, the armies held joint exercises for the first time last month - a perfect launching pad for Manmohan’s visit to China.

On the trade front, the growth had been exponential and with the bilateral trade hovering in the region of $ 30 billion currently, China looked set to overtake the United States as India’s largest trading partner.

A Chinese official last year had predicted in business meeting in India that the Sino-Indian trade would breach the $ 100 billion mark by 2015. “China and India have a history of increasing bilateral trade for the past 10 years. Now we are setting a new target of $100 billion that should be achieved by 2015,” Yu Ping of the China Council for the Promotion of International Trade told a meeting of Indian industry leaders. 

Hyderabad, January 3
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today called for a quantum jump in investments in science education and research to enable India to emerge as a global power.

“We cannot afford to miss the bus nor can we afford to delay matters further. The time has come for action. We need policy reform, institutional reform and organisational reform,” he said after inaugurating the 95th Indian Science Congress at Andhra University, Vishakhapatnam.

He identified five major areas where the application of knowledge was needed on a war-footing: Food production and utilisation and conservation of scarce water resources; energy generation and utilisation; manufacturing technologies; mass transportation systems; and building and construction technology.

Highlighting the challenges posed by climate change, he advocated the use of nuclear power as an efficient alternate energy source to reduce adverse impact on environment and cited this as a reason behind the Indo-US atomic agreement.

He spoke about the need for drawing upon modern science and technology and tapping the country’s traditional knowledge base to develop environment-friendly and efficent technologies.

The “most important area” for the application of knowledge for sustainable development is energy conservation and development of alternative renewable energy sources, he said, identifying these as nuclear, solar and clean-coal technology.

Asserting that the UPA government was committed to investing more in education, especially science education, he said the allocation for education had been stepped up from 7.7 per cent of gross budgetary support in the 10th Plan to over 19 per cent in the 11th Plan, reflecting a five-fold increase.

Outlining the new initiatives, the Prime Minister said the government was planning to fund 30 new central universities, five new Indian Institutes of Science Education and Research, eight new IITs, seven new IIMs and 20 new Indian Institutes of Information Technology.

“We are also launching a mission on vocational education and skill development through which we will open 1,600 new ITIs and polytechnics, 10,000 new vocational schools and 50,000 new skill development centres,” he said.

To enlarge the pool of scientific manpower and foster research in the sciences, a programme, Innovation in Science Pursuit for Inspired Research (Inspire), is being launched.

Under this programme, over the next next years, one million school students will be given science innovation scholarships of Rs 5,000 each. The Plan will also support scholarships for higher education, providing 10,000 scholarships per year of Rs 1 lakh, to attract talented students to enroll in BSc and MSc courses.

New Delhi, January 3
Nagaland was tonight brought under Central rule after President Pratibha Patil put her stamp of approval on the cabinet’s recommendation.

The state Assembly has been placed under suspended animation, a home ministry spokesperson said here.

The cabinet, at a meeting chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on January 1, had recommended imposition of Central rule in Nagaland in the wake of fluid political situation arising out of the no-confidence motion brought in the Assembly against Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio-led alliance government, backed by the BJP.

Rio had survived the no-confidence motion on December 13 proving a majority in the House with 23 votes in his favour and 19 against amid a controversial ruling by Assembly Speaker, who debarred three Independents and nine dissident of ruling NPF from taking part in the voting by declaring their votes invalid in the 60-member House.

Reacting sharply against the Centre’s decision, the BJP accused the Congress-led UPA of applying different yardstick to opposition-ruled states. “If the ruling of the Speaker disqualifying members under the anti-defection law is the premise for imposing President’s rule in Nagaland, then the Goa government should be dismissed first,” BJP spokesperson and former law minister Ravi Shankar Prasad told The Tribune.

“It is a blanket violation of constitutional provision and that too on the eve of elections in Nagaland,” Prasad said adding, “The government will have to come clean on this issue.”

According to a PTI report from Nagaland, Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio called the imposition of President’s rule in the state as “outrageous”. Terming the Centre’s move as “murder of democracy”, he said it could threaten the integrity of the country. “It is outrageous. Imposition of Central rule in a sensitive north-eastern state could threaten the integrity of the country,” Rio told PTI over phone from Kohima.

Guwahati, January 3
Former Lok Sabha Speaker and senior leader of the Nationalist Congress Party (NCP), Purno A. Sangma today criticised the Congress-led UPA government’s move to impose President’s rule in Nagaland.

Talking to the media here, the veteran political leader from the Northeast said that the Centre’s unconstitutional move to bring Nagaland under President’s rule could be construed as a prelude to scrapping of the anti-defection law.

“It is a Congress design to destablise the region and manipulate the forthcoming Assembly election in Nagaland. The move is quite unethical given that the Congress did not consult its allies in the UPA, including the Left parties before recommending the enforcement of the Article 356 in Nagaland,” Sangma said.

The Assembly elections in Nagaland are due in March this year, on expiry of the term of the present coalition government led by Neiphiu Rio. The Nagaland Chief Minister Neiphiu Rio has condemned the move to impose President’s rule in the state and termed the move illegal and unconstitutional as he had come to power only after being elected democratically.

Rio won a trust vote in Nagaland Assembly on December 13. The motion was defeated 23-19 in the 60-member House after the Speaker had barred three independent legislators from taking part in the voting. The Speaker also held the votes of nine dissident legislators of the BJP-backed ruling coalition were invalid.

The Trust Vote was required after nine dissident legislators of the ruling coalition, the Democratic Alliance of Nagaland (DAN), had sided with the Congress to demand the immediate dismissal of the DAN government.

Bangalore, January 3
The suspected woman serial killer, arrested for allegedly murdering six women, may have killed four more, as another case of a missing female was filed before the police here today.

The police received complaints from three persons about their missing relatives yesterday after it asked the public to come forward and give details about their possible encounters with Mallika, who had allegedly murdered six women by forcibly administering cyanide. “We are probing all these cases. People have come forward complaining that their relatives (women) had been missing and we are trying to find out if the accused had any links or role to play in these people going missing,” ACP H.K. Venkataswamy said. — PTI

New Delhi, January 3
Congress President Sonia Gandhi, who is recovering from chest infection at a city hospital here, underwent a CAT scan today and her condition is stated to be “steadily improving”.

“CAT scan of Gandhi’s chest has been done today and it is normal,” said B.K. Rao, chairman of Sir Gangaram Hospital, where the leader was admitted on January 1.

Gandhi’s condition is steadily improving and she has been advised to continue rest, he said. He said Gandhi had normal food and comfortable sleep last night. However, the hospital did not specify when the UPA Chairperson was expected to be discharged.

Gandhi was admitted to the hospital in the early hours of New Year’s day after she complained of difficulty in breathing. — PTI

New Delhi, January 3
The Supreme Court today declined to stay the execution of a non bailable warrant (NBW) against suspended IPS officer B.B. Mohanti, accused of helping his son, who jumped parole after being jailed for raping a German national in Rajasthan.

The apex court granted two weeks to Orissa cadre IPS officer to surrender before the Rajasthan Police.

A Bench comprising Justices C.K. Thakker and D.K. Jain said Mohanti's bail plea would be heard expeditiously by the trial court in Jaipur only after he surrenders.

Mohanti, who was a DGP rank officer at the time of his suspension, had filed an appeal against the order of the Rajasthan High Court, concurring with the trial court's decision, not to convert the NBW into bailable warrant.

The NBW was issued in June last year by Chief Judicial Magistrate, Jaipur, after the IPS officer failed to explain the whereabouts of his son Bitti, whose release on parole from a Rajasthan prison was facilitated by him by giving a surety. — PTI

New Delhi, January 3
The National Capital Region (NCR) will soon have its second international airport with the Union Cabinet at its meeting here today giving an in-principle clearance to the same to come up at a site identified at Javer by the Uttar Pradesh government.

The Union Cabinet at its meeting, chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, although gave its in-principle clearance for the airport at Greater Noida, it referred the matter to a “small” Group of Ministers (GOM) to go into the legal matters regarding the same.

This has been done keeping in mind the detailed legal document signed by the Central government with the GMR consortium, which is modernising the Delhi airport.

The GoM to be headed by finance minister P. Chidambaram would have law minister Hansraj Bhardwaj, science and technology minister Kapil Sibal and civil aviation minister Praful Patel as its other members.

The GoM would basically go into the issue of ‘right of first refusal’ by the GMR consortium for another airport in Delhi’s vicinity, as was apparently there in the contract signed for the modernisation of the Delhi airport. As per that GMR would have the first right to give its acceptance or refusal for the contract for this second airport.

However, what has apparently forced the matter to be referred to this GoM is the proposal of the Uttar Pradesh government to give the contract for the new airport to another private consortium.

Incidentally, Javer, a remote hamlet near Noida, had been chosen by the Uttar Pradesh government as the site for the second international airport in the NCR. Javer was selected after parleys between Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority officials and the Union civil aviation ministry. On its part the Greater Noida Industrial Development Authority (GNIDA) has already kick-started the process of developing the airport.

Earlier, setting aside objections raised by the finance and law ministries for the proposed Greater Noida airport, the ministry of civil aviation gave its clearance for a second airport around Delhi.

The civil aviation ministry, in a note to the Cabinet, had said exclusivity rights were not given to the Delhi airport by the government in the bid, and hence the proposal for the Noida airport was not against any of the bidding conditions. It said even then a second airport was being considered within 150 km of the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport. The GMR Group-led Delhi International Airport (DIAL) had earlier written that the master plan of the Delhi airport takes care of the long-term traffic requirement of the area and hence timing of building another airport in the vicinity was not appropriate.

However, the ministry in its note said, “in spite of various measures being undertaken, it’s felt necessary that a secondary airport in the vicinity of the NCR is required”. In all major metropolitan regions across the world it’s a practice to have more than one airport to cater to the large population and different market segments, it added.

New Delhi, January 3
Concerned with alarming statistics of 90,000 fatalities in road mishaps, the government has decided to set up an inspection and maintenance system for rigorous inspection of motor vehicles in the country.

Minister for road transport and highways T.R. Baalu today said the government would set up a suitably designed inspection and maintenance system throughout the country for rigorous inspection of motor vehicles and remove defects before they were allowed to ply on road.

Speaking at the National Convention of the All-India Motor Transport Congress today, he said the government was also in the process of designing a model of inspection and maintenance centres and this had been included in the plan scheme of the department for the Eleventh Five Year Plan.

Baalu said a working group had been set up to formulate rules for the Carriage by Road Act, 2007, which was notified in October. He hoped that once the new Act came into effect, it would cater to the need of the modern day trade and transport by road and help make the transport system transparent.

It would also modernise systems and procedures of the transportation trade through registration of common carrier and provide scope for apportionment of liability between the common carrier and the consignor, the minister added.

Meanwhile, the already notified rules for setting up of accreditation boards for giving accreditation to bus body builders would come into effect on March 23. Once the accreditation system is established, this would be extended to truck body builders as well.

This would bring uniformity in body building as the code of practice for bus body design, laying down dimension for floor height, gangway and footsteps for different categories of buses, minimum specifications for seats, seating lay out and illumination, minimum requirements for driver’s workplace and special provisions for persons with disabilities.

The government is in the process of creation of a National Road Safety and Traffic Management Board through a separate Act of Parliament. The board will have powers to set safety standards for design, construction and operation of National Highways and set standards for safety features of motor vehicles.

Regarding the menace of overloading the minister said it was being proposed in the Motor Vehicles (Amendments) Bill, 2007, that the consignor and the common carrier shall also be responsible, besides driver or owner of the vehicle, as overloading is mostly done with the knowledge of consignor/common carrier.

Now, officials of the Motor Vehicles Department in states would necessarily have to weigh the vehicles suspected to be overloaded, off-load the excess load, and not allow the overloaded vehicle to move further without payment of fine, he added.

The government has recently approved the proposal for establishment of an integrated network of trauma centres along the Golden Quadrilateral, north-south and east-west corridors of the National Highways by upgrading the trauma care facilities in 140 identified state government hospitals at a total cost of Rs732.75 crore during the Eleventh Five Year Plan period.

This will ensure that each accident victim on these corridors is able to get competent medical assistance within the shortest possible time, thereby saving precious lives.

Bangalore, January 3
The fissure in the eight “maths”, which look after the administration of the famous Sri Krishna temple in Udupi, has deepened with pontiffs of six maths insisting that a foreign visit conducted by Puttige math head Sugunendra Thirtha Swami disqualifies him from exercising his right to worship at the Sri Krishna math.

Sugunendra Swami, who is already in Udupi is firm on holding the “paryaya puja” ceremony which symbolises takeover of the Sri Krishna math for a two-year period on January 18.

Talks between Sugunendra Swami and Pejawar Math Visvesha Theertha Swami broke down yesterday after the former refused to accede to the demands of the Pejawar Swami to follow the majority view on the issue.

The Pejawar math head while speaking on the issue today said if the stand on the issue of foreign visits was softened the number of pontiffs favouring foreign visits would increase with many pursuing “dollar dreams”.

He said such a development would be detrimental to the interests of the Krishna math. He also maintained that all eight pontiffs linked with the “dwaita” philosophy had the right to interfere on how the affairs of the Krisna math were run and that their views should be given due importance.

Pejawar head Visvesha Swami, however, ruled out taking the issue to the courts saying it would be solved within the premises of the maths involved and there was no need to take any external help. He, however, ruled out any further talks with Sugunendra Swami on his own initiative saying he would participate in any future talks only if invited.

The Pejawar math head also claimed that Sugunendra Swami had accused him of conspiring to deny him a chance to the worship Lord Krishna at the Sri Krishna temple due to his seniority as well as “enmity” against him. The Pejawar seer said any such allegations were false and also denied that he was the brain behind the entire opposition to the Puttige seer. He said if pontiffs of other mutts softened their stand he would bow to the majority view even though he would continue to carry his personal opinion.

Sugenendra Swami only has the head pontiff of the Admary math with him on the issue of being allowed to worship in the sanctum sanctorum of the Sri Krishna math, a privilege which is traditionally denied to those who undertake ‘sagarollanghana’ or cross the seas.

But even the junior pontiff of the Adamaru mutt does not agree with his senior’s opinion. Sugunendra Swami has called for a written constitution hoping the tradition of frowning upon foreign visits would be done away with in a new set up. However the other pontiffs have not agreed positively to this appeal.

The stage is set for a boycott of the paryaya puja ceremony by most of the other heads of the mutts which follow the ‘dwaita’ philosophy even as preparation for the ceremony are in full swing at the Sri Krishna math in Udupi.

Bangalore, January 3
The BJP today chose to officially start its election campaign in the state by holding a farmers’ convention during the course of which its party president Rajnath Singh accused the Congress-led UPA government of causing the agrarian crisis in the country.

The BJP, which is already strong in the urban and semi-urban areas, is set to target farmers in its bid to return to power in the state with Rajnath Singh saying the agrarian crisis during the present UPA government’s rule had taken the lives of 15,000 farmers. He said this coupled with mishandling of terrorism problem and failure on the food front were the other major contributions of the UPA government.

The BJP president said its state leader and former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa had taken a pioneering step in extending loans to farmers at 4 per cent interest during his stint as finance minister of Karnataka. He said this scheme would be extended in the entire country once the BJP came to power at the Centre.

Senior BJP leader Yashwant Sinha, while addressing the rally, said the BJP would not have a tie up with any party for the forthcoming elections. He called upon the farmers not to be swayed by the facade put up by certain leaders while apparently referring to former Prime Minister H.D. Deve Gowda, who is perceived to be pro-farmer. He said the JD (S) had done nothing to safeguard the interests of the farmers who had their land taken away from them in the name of development.

The rally held at Lingasugur in Raichur district saw a large turnout with farmers from Gulbarga and Koppal attending it in strength. It was also addressed by BJP state president D.V. Sadanand Gowda, besides former Chief Minister B.S. Yeddyurappa. Both the leaders pointed out that the large turnout was a result of the people’s anger at the “betrayal” of the BJP at the hands of the JD (S).

Chennai, January 3
Taking a cue from veteran party leader Jyoti Basu, the Tamil Nadu CPM plans to forge a third front in the state without either of the two main Dravidian parties, the ruling DMK or the AIADMK.

The CPM state secretary N. Varadarajan said here today his party would make efforts to form a third front by entering into an alliance with the PMK, the DMDK led by actor-turned-politician Vijaykanth and other Left parties.

The CPM is at present part of the Democratic Progressive Alliance (DPA) led by the ruling DMK and extends support to the state government from outside. The CPM and the CPI have eight and six MLAS respectively in the Tamil Nadu Assembly.

Varadarajan said the PMK chief Dr S. Ramadoss was also championing the cause of the ordinary people and had been organising demonstrations. The PMK which has 18 state legislators has not only been severly critical of the DMK but has claimed to go alone during the next Assembly poll.

He said, “We will observe the stance of the PMK and the DMDK on issues taken up by us and will then decide on the issue of forging an alliance with them.” 

Mumbai, January 3
Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra are reeling under the grip of a cold wave with temperatures hovering at below 15 °C.

According to the met department, the night temperature early this morning was 13.5 degrees while on Wednesday, the temperature fell to 12.5°C.

“The sudden drop in temperatures is due to northern wind patterns,” a met official said.

Across Maharashtra temperatures fell even more. In Nashik, the temperature fell to 9.5°C while it touched 10°C in Pune. Aurangabad experienced temperatures of 13°C, according to the met department. However, elsewhere in the region there was unseasoned heat. The Konkan region, including Maharashtra’s Sindhudurg district, Goa and Karwar saw temperatures touching 31°C. Revellers coming from Goa reported a very warm New Year.

New Delhi, January 3
College students made full use of the week-long break between Christmas and the New Year, each earning Rs 1,500-7,000 during the period by working in retail stores across the country.

“Festive season in the last quarter of every year sees a spurt in temporary recruitment, especially in retail sector,” executive search firm Manpower India said.

Working as temporary staff, they were able to earn Rs 1,500-7,000 each during Christmas and New Year celebrations, which also coincided with holidays in most colleges and schools.

The party for temporary hiring service providers begins much before the Christmas, as retailers start witnessing need for additional manpower around Diwali itself.

The vacations taken by regular staff for Christmas and New Year celebrations fuel the requirement for temporary staff. The companies start recruiting additional staff just before Diwali and retain them till mid-January.

“Sales are at their peak during Diwali to New Year period, witnessing a surge of at least 20 to 30 per cent,” temporary staffing firm Teamlease Services’ CEO Manish Sabharwal told PTI.

The booming sales made it tough for retail store owners to handle the additional footfalls with their existing staff and most of them have scaled up their employees strength, Sabharwal said.

“While increased sales is key to additional staff needs, catering to maximum customers by providing high aesthetics as per the occasion is also a reason,” Matrix HR Solutions CEO Narendra Kala said.