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Goa minister caught taking $10m out of country
Assembly Poll 2011 |
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Kerala
Tamil Nadu
Medical officer shot dead in Lucknow
3 CRPF men killed in ambush
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Goa minister caught taking $10m out of country
Controversial
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Mumbai, April 2 Monserrate, who was detained just before he was to board the flight, was subjected to questioning. He was still in detention late in the afternoon. Monserrate's passport was also impounded by the customs, sources said. The controversial politician had only recently defected from the United Goans Democratic Party to join the Congress party. Monserrate is an MLA from the Taleigao constituency on the outskirts of Goa's capital Panjim and virtually controls the real estate business in both these places, according to sources in Goa. Three years ago, goons led by Monserrate trashed the police headquarters of Goa after a raid at his palace-style residence in his constituency. In 2009, Monserrate's son Rohit was arrested for raping a minor German girl in Goa.The incident has caused panic in the Digambar Kamat government in Goa, according to sources. The opposition Bharatiya Janata Party has demanded that Kamat drop Monserrate from his cabinet. The Chief Minister was meeting with his advisers through out the day, sources said. Meanwhile, the BJP today made it clear that it would give a tough time to Chief Minister Digambar Kamat's government in the Goa Assembly, if he did not sack education minister Atanasio Monserrate (Congress) who was detained at Mumbai airport today for allegedly carrying unaccounted Indian and foreign currency. Leader of Opposition, Manohar Parrikar, demanded at a press conference here that Kamat should make a statement on the issue, explaining why his minister was going to Dubai with such a huge amount of cash. "When the state Legislative Assembly is in session, any minister, before leaving the station (country), should take permission from the Chief Minister, and also inform the Speaker," said Parrikar. He said that Kamat should state whether Monserrate had obtained such a permission, and why he was going abroad. Parrikar said that the Chief Minister should dismiss the minister, or ask him to resign before Tuesday, when Assembly will be in session after a Gudhi Padwa holiday on Monday. The issue would be raised in the Assembly if state government failed to drop Monserrate, he said. "We (BJP members) are meeting again to chart our course of action," Parrikar said.
(With inputs from PTI)
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Union Minister Alagiri booked for assault on poll official
Madurai, April 2 Tehsildar M Kalimuthu, who is the Assistant Returning Officer for Melur Assembly segment, and a videographer, part of a flying squad, were allegedly assaulted by DMK activists when they videographed Alagiri's visit to a temple in Keelavalavu in Melur taluk yesterday, police said. A case was registered against Alagiri, son of Chief Minister M Karunanidhi, Melur Union Secretary Raghupathy, Madurai Deputy Mayor P M Mannan and 50 others for offences under the IPC, including unlawful assembly, waylaying and assaulting government servant and violating prohibitory orders. The case was registered last night on a complaint from the tehsildar. Earlier, about 300 revenue department officials staged a dharna here demanding the arrest of Mannan, Raghupathy and another person for allegedly roughing up the official and the videographer. As the incident took place in the presence of the Union Minister, he should also be inquired in the case, Tamil Nadu Revenue Officials Association District President Sadhasivam and state Vice-President Gnana Gunalan said. Alagiri, the DMK South Zone Organising Secretary, had gone to the temple where the flying squad too arrived and started videographing his visit. Annoyed at this, the DMK men allegedly roughed up the videographer and the tehsildar besides threatening and forcing them to leave the area. As the situation turned tense, police personnel escorted the squad out of the temple, police said. The revenue officials association also demanded proper protection for the officials on election and threatened to boycott the work if the accused were not arrested. Kalimuthu had gone to the spot as per the Election Commission directive. "We only did our duty. But DMK functionaries intimidated us, abused and roughed up," he said.
— PTI
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Assembly Poll 2011 Campaign comes to an end for first
phase Guwahati: Electioneering came to an end on Saturday afternoon in Assam for the first phase of election to be held on April 4 in 62 legislative constituencies out of the total 126. Polling officials have started their journey to the different polling stations from the district headquarters today. According to Additional Chief Election Officer MC
Sahu, polling will be held in 11,264 polling booths in the first phase where 85,09,010 voters are expected to exercise their franchise to elect their representatives to the Assembly from among the 485 candidates in the fray. There will be a heavy deployment of forces for the polling.
— TNS
Guwahati, April 2 Congratulating people for putting up a brave front against militants, the PM called upon people to vote for the Congress to strengthen the hands of Sonia Gandhi to make Assam a model state of the country. ULFA faction called the bandh in a protest against the PM’s visit. “The Congress government in Assam led by Tarun Gogoi has performed tremendously during the last 10 years and please give the Congress another chance to rule the state to complete its unfinished work initiated in the 10 years to put the state on a fast track of development and progress in a peaceful atmosphere,” he said. Wishing the people of Assam for the ensuing Rangali Bihu (the spring festival), the PM stated that the Congress, which is a party of “aam admi”, was committed to make Assam one of the most prosperous states and warned them against getting fooled by “false promises” made by the rival Asom Gana Parishad (AGP) and “Assam was reeling under a severe financial crisis, employees were not paid regularly, development was standstill and an atmosphere of violence and fear was prevailing when the Congress came to power in 2001 defeating the AGP. Today the situation has completely reversed and people are hoping for better days,” the PM said. He lauded the people of Assam for cooperating with the government in tackling insurgents and division forces for restoration of peace while stating that the UPA government is ready to talk with any insurgent outfit that has abjured the path of violence to find a solution to the problem within the framework of the Constitution. He termed his February meeting with the pro-talks faction of ULFA as a positive beginning for the efforts to find a solution to the problem. “The Congress government in Assam and the UPA in the Centre worked in tandem during the last seven years to usher in development and peace in Assam and the coordination will continue if the Congress voted to power again,” the PM said while highlighting various projects being undertaken to improve infrastructure, connectivity and agriculture sectors in the poll-bound state.
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Kerala
Congress leaders from Kerala had to camp nearly a week in New Delhi to get the list of the party candidates for the April 13 Assembly elections cleared.
The exercise took long not because the candidates proposed by the state leaders were bad but the list did not contain enough youths.Rahul Gandhi wanted at least 25 youths to be included in the list. The state leaders were not ready to give more than 10 seats to them. The leaders found an easy solution and increased the upper age limit of youth to 40 for the purpose of getting the party ticket. This could have helped the party bosses accommodate the old guard, who are not prepared to yield the ground for the youth. Rahul was not prepared for such tricks. He agreed to prune his list to 20. The state Youth Congress leaders, who demanded 40 per cent representation for the youth, reluctantly accepted the final list. The declaration of the final list in New Delhi led to tremors back in the state. Neither Rahul nor Sonia Gandhi could ensure enough representation
to youth in the party’s allies. Six of their partners have apportioned the remaining 58 seats mostly among leaders who are even past 70. The oldest among the UDF candidates is K R Gowri Amma, who will turn 92 in July this year. This is her 17th outing in the electoral fray. There was a suggestion from within the party and outside to Gowri Amma to give way to the youth, but the grand old leader insisted on another term. Another elder leader of a UDF ally, who held the record of becoming the youngest MLA in the state, found it difficult to get over the temptation of fighting another election even after he was jailed in a corruption case. The attempt of the 76-year-old leader, R Balakrishna Pillai, to contest the election from the jail was thwarted by the top UDF leaders, who felt it would send wrong message to the voters about their stand on corruption. Although the party has strong youth and student organisations, only less than 15 student and youth leaders have found a place in the CPM’s list of 91 candidates. The poor representation to youth is in sharp contrast to the CPM’s call to youths to actively participate in politics for the overall development of the country. Curiously, the youth in the party are increasingly getting dissatisfied and leaving the CPM in droves. The party has lost more than a half a dozen young leaders, most of whom had won important elections. The latest to leave CPM is Sindhu Joy, national vice president of Students Federation of India (SFI), the party’s student wing. The young woman who had taken on then Chief Minister Oommen Chandy
in Puthupally in the 2006 Assembly elections is trying her luck now in Congress. The Communist Party of India (CPI) seems to
have got the youth message correctly. The party has given half of the 23 seats it was allotted for the present election to the youths. The CPI is the only party among more than a dozen large and small parties to give 50 per cent representation to the youths. The other constituents of the LDF have totally ignored youth. The Bharatiya Janata Party, which claims to be a party with a difference, has not shown any difference at least in their treatment of the youths. The party, which is contesting all the 140 seats in the state, has left only 25 seats to the youths.
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Tamil Nadu
Releasing the results of the survey, Professor Rajanayagam, head of the survey team, said 48.6 per cent of the people support the AIADMK and 41.7 back the DMK. However, he said the trends varied from constituency to constituency and added that 105 seats are likely to be won by the AIADMK front and 70 by the DMK alliance. The contest is very close in 59 constituencies, where the results will be decided by the stand to be taken by MDMK supporters, he revealed. Interestingly, AIADMK leader J Jayalalithaa's campaign, highlighting the 2G spectrum scam, has almost no takers in Tamil Nadu and the major scam which has hit the national headlines has become a non-issue in this Assembly polls, according to the survey. The major issues which have created resentment against the DMK government are power cuts, price rise, scarcity of drinking water, industrial growth and infrastructure development. Another major finding of the survey is that the freebies announced by both the alliances will not have an impact among the voters this time. Besides, the stand of the MDMK supporters, the other two factors which will affect the results are possible distribution of money or gifts to the people at the eleventh hour and the field work of the DMK front, which is perceived to be better than the AIADMK alliance. All the three factors which are expected to alter the results at the last minute go against the AIADMK alliance. Hence, there is a chance for the DMK to improve its seats from the predicted 70, while the AIADMK is unlikely to go up further. The survey sample involved 3171 persons from 117 of the total 234 constituencies. The quantitive and qualitative components of the survey were decided according to the political, social, cultural and psychological aspects in the State, the students said.
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Mumbai shuts down for World Cup final
Mumbai, April 2 While the Maharashtra government had declared a holiday, many private companies which work on Saturdays declared a half-holiday so that employees could leave early to watch the match. A number of IT companies in the city installed projector screens so that their staffers could watch the match within the office premises. Party atmosphere prevailed at a number of pubs across the city. Just a short distance from the Wankhede Stadium where the match was played the Geoffery's pub at Hotel Marine Plaza on Marine Drive had put up two huge screens for the benefit of patrons. "We expect the crowds to come from the afternoon itself," the manager said this morning. Other restaurants put up special offers to coincide with the World Cup final. "Fifty per cent discount if India wins World Cup. Hundred per cent discount if Sachin gets his 100th century," said a banner near the Night Evil Chinese restaurant in suburban Borivli. The manager insisted that no customer would be charged if the master blaster hit a ton. A number of multiplexes like Cinemax and PVR set aside screens for the World Cup final. Many of the multiplexes sold out tickets in the morning itself.
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Medical officer shot dead in Lucknow
Lucknow, April 2 “According to eyewitnesses, two motorcycle-borne assailants with their faces covered shot several rounds at the CMO and escaped," police inspector Abhimanyu Dhar Dwivedi told reporters. Singh, a cardiologist, had taken the charge as CMO a few weeks ago. Before taking the charge, he was posted in city-based Lohia Hospital. Deputy Inspector General of Police (DIG, Lucknow) D.K. Thakur said: "We are yet to establish the motive behind the crime and the identity of the assailants. Teams have been constituted. The Special Task Force (STF) is also assisting the district police in the investigations.” In October 2010, Vinod Kumar Arya, 55, who was also CMO (family welfare) was shot dead in Lucknow while he was on a morning walk. "We are probing whether the two cases have any links...The similarity between the two incidents is being looked into," Thakur said. Meanwhile, the Uttar Pradesh Provincial Medical Services' Association (UPPMS) has threatened to boycott work in hospitals and health centres across the state in protest against the
killing. — IANS
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3 CRPF men killed in ambush
Guwahati, April 2 Police said a three-vehicle convoy of the CRPF party was fired upon by militants belonging to newly formed Karbi People’s Liberation Tigers (KPLT) from the hilltop killing three jawans on the spot and injuring at least two others. The CRPF jawans, who were rushed to Assam last week for election duty, were returning from surveying places in Deothar where polling stations would be set up tomorrow for Monday’s polling in the first phase. The last one of the three vehicles of CRPF personnel came under attack of militants waiting in ambush at a hilltop. The area is under insurgency affected Bokajan Legislative Assembly Constituency that goes to poll on Monday. Under attack the CRPF jawans retaliated, which prevented the militants from taking away arms
and ammunition from them. There was heavy exchange of fire between the two parties.
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Atanasio ‘Babush’ Monserrate had recently defected from the United Goans Democratic Party to join the Congress
Chennai, April 2