Karnal, April 25
Chairman of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front Maninderjit Singh Bitta today lambasted Tamil Nadu Chief Minister M Karunanidhi “for supporting and sympathising” with the LTTE and asked the Congress to sever links with him.

“LTTE chief Prabhakaran is the main accused in the Rajiv Gandhi assassination case and how can the Congress forgive him and cooperate with him,” he asked while addressing a press conference here.

Lauding the Sri Lankan army for launching an offensive against the LTTE, Bitta regretted that instead of supporting and aiding Sri Lanka with monetary and military support to crush the LTTE rebellion, some leaders in India were talking the language of the LTTE.

Bitta said the stand taken by Karunanidhi on the LTTE issue was surprising and the government should order a CBI inquiry to probe his alleged links with the LTTE. He disclosed that the front would confer the Rajiv Gandhi award on the Sri Lankan Prime Minister on the death anniversary of Rajiv Gandhi on May 21 for displaying “courage and will” to end terrorism.

Calling for a united effort to fight terrorism, Bitta said the Taliban were not a threat to Pakistan but to India and there should be no confusion in our minds about the intentions of Pakistan, which was now an established and recognised “epicentre of terrorism” and threat to all.

Regretting that the entire democratic system had become a farce due to focus on elections alone, Bitta said as a consequence, political parties were not concerned with the welfare of the people and the development of the country.

Bitta disclosed that representatives of 50 nations would assemble at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi, on September 11 to pledge for launching a collective assault against global terrorism and a website, “War Against Terrorism”, providing detailed information about victims of terrorism, terrorist activities and other information about terrorism, would also be launched the same day.

To a question, he said Pakistan and the ISI were solely responsible for the Mumbai blasts.

Karnal, April 25
It was a mini jamboree of youth and people from different sections of society as Quarter Marathon - "Run for 100 per cent corruption and liquor free voting" - got off to a spectacular start at Karan stadium here, this morning.

About 8,000 persons, including a large number of youth, sportspersons, artists, housewives, businessmen and ex-servicemen, participated in the “run” organised by the National Integrated Forum of Artists and Activists (NIFAA), Bharat Swabhiman, a trust of Swami Ramdev and Youth in Action, a newly formed students’ association.

The objective of organising the “run” was to educate the masses, specially the women and youth, about the importance of voting. Their motive was to create awareness that “voting” is not only a constitutional right, but also a duty towards the nation.

The “run” was also aimed at educating the people that how the misuse of money and liquor vitiate the election process and to ask the people to take a pledge not to indulge in any such practice.

Flagging off the 10-km Quarter Marathon, Maninderjit Singh Bitta, chairman of the All-India Anti-Terrorist Front, said to save “democracy” from further ruin it was obligatory that every voter exercised his franchise.

A street play “Loktantra Ka Tamasha” was also enacted in several localities to send right message to the people and its impact was “miraculous”.

Gurgaon, April 25
Voters not having the Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) due to any reason can show 13 other alternative documents for establishing their identity for casting their vote on the polling day.

The Election Commission of India has given permission to produce these alternative identity documents bearing photographs of the voter.

Disclosing this here today, Returning Officer of the Gurgaon parliamentary constituency-cum-Deputy Commissioner Deepti Umashankar said as per the guidelines of the Election Commission of India, all voters having their EPICs would have to produce these for establishing their identity before casting their votes in the coming Lok Sabha elections.

“However, if any voter fails to produce his or her EPIC, he or she can still exercise his/her franchise by producing any of the 13 alternative photo documents listed by the Election Commission,” she maintained.

The DC explained that the voters, whose EPICs had either been misplaced or could not be issued due to any reason, could show their passport, driving licence, income tax PAN card, service identity cards issued to their employees by the state or the Central Government, public sector undertakings, local bodies or public limited companies with photographs for establishing their identity for casting their votes.

“Similarly, passbooks issued by public sector banks, post offices and kisan passbooks with photographs, besides property documents such as a registered deed, etc bearing photographs can also be produced,” she added.

The Returning Officer further stated that the EC had also permitted to produce SC, ST or OBC certificate issued by a competent authority with photograph, pension documents such as ex-servicemen’s pension book, pension pay order, ex-servicemen’s widow or dependant certificates, old-age pension order, widow pension order with photograph, freedom fighter identity card with photograph, arms licences, certificate of physically challenged, job cards issued under the NREGA and the Health Insurance Scheme Smart Card issued by a competent authority under the Ministry of Labour scheme.

Umashankar, however, clarified that these alternative photo-identity documents to be produced in lieu of the EPIC should have been issued up to February 28, 2009. The documents issued after this date would not be considered.

However, if any voter produces an EPIC which has been issued by the Electoral Registration Officer of another Assembly constituency, would also be taken into account provided the name of that voter figures in the electoral rolls pertaining to the polling station where the voter has turned up for voting, she added.

Sirsa, April 25
With the political affairs wing of the Dera Sacha Sauda likely to announce its decision on its support in the elections anytime now, leaders of various political parties from Haryana and neighbouring states have been making frantic visits to its headquarters on Begu Road here.

Though the political leaders have been paying visits to the dera ever since elections have been announced, frequency of their visit has increased in the past two days.

Former Rajasthan Chief Minister Vasundhara Raje Scindia, Kurukshetra MP Naveen Jindal and BSP general secretary Man Singh Manhera are the latest to have visited the dera and met dera chief Gurmeet Ram Rahim Singh.

While Jindal’s helicopter landed on the dera premises and left soon after meeting the dera chief, Raje said the only aim of her visit here was to have “darshans” of dera chief.

Earlier, several candidates from Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan have met the dera chief during the past few days and sought support for their candidates and parties.

Meanwhile, besides the Dera Sacha Sauda, another dera in the district has started attracting political leaders during the elections.

The Dera Baba Bhuman Shah situated in Sangar Sadha village has been attracting leaders for its vote bank.

Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda was the latest to visit this Dera on Thursday.

The dera, worshipped by the Kamboj community, was set up here after independence by the 10th Guru of the Kambojs.

Kambojs have a sizable vote bank in Sirsa besides Kurukshetra and Karnal.

Karnal, April 25
The Haryana Congress today received a severe jolt as veteran Congress leader and former MP Tara Singh resigned from the party and vowed to work for the defeat of the Congress.

Tara Singh, who made the announcement while talking to mediapersons at his farmhouse, said he had already sent his resignation to AICC president Sonia Gandhi by registered post. He said he and his son were feeling “neglected and suffocated” in the Congress which was “anti-Sikh” and oppressing the Sikhs since the 1984 anti-Sikh riots.

When his attention was drawn to the fact that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was a Sikh, he said he might be a very honest man but not a true Sikh and added that he and his son would oppose the Congress and might contest the coming Assembly elections from Assandh.

Tara Singh was elected to the Lok Sabha from the Kurukshetra parliamentary constituency in 1991 and also remained MLA from Shahbad.

He did not disclose his future course of action and parried questions about joining any political party. However, sources said that the INLD had send feelers to him to join the party.

Yamunanagar, April 25
The district is in the grip of malaria again with over 330 cases having been reported from various parts. The maximum number of cases have been reported from the stone crusher zone of Khijrabad due to insanitary conditions there.

Chief Medical Officer JR Bansal said many patients were labourers who worked in the stone crusher zone and lived in insanitary conditions in Khijrabad. “We have deployed seven teams to provide medicines to patients, especially in areas prone to malaria,” he said.