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Bharat
Bandh
IMG for de-allocation of 2 more coal blocks
Determined to restore work culture: Mamata |
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BSP stays away from protest
Poor response in Mumbai
Road, rail traffic hit in UP
BJP not to move no-trust motion
Kanda’s bail plea dismissed
Trinamool ministers to quit today
760 Cong applicants for 68 seats in HP
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Mulayam warns govt against continuing with reforms
Ananya Panda/TNS
New Delhi, September 20 Sharing the platform with prominent leaders at Parliament Street here, SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav warned the government against continuing with its reforms or else his party would have to think of an alternative. Later, he courted arrest with nine other MPs at the area’s police station. “If the government does not roll back the recent price hike and FDI decisions, we will have to rethink,” he said while adding that his party would tour the nation to decide its future strategy. This is the first time that Mulayam Singh Yadav has come out in open with a threat to the government. His party, that is giving outside support to the government at the Centre, was hailed as a major player in the Third Front. As fervent appeals to the SP poured in from several Left leaders, CPM general secretary Prakash Karat said that Yadav could be an important leader of the Third Front, with the SP being the largest among the eight parties at the gathering. “As a result of the FDI move, companies such as Walmart will eat up the sources of income of small and medium-scale traders and farmers. We will fight for this inside and outside Parliament. I request Mulayam Singh to support us in this fight,” said Karat. During the demonstration which brought top leaders, including former Prime Minister HD Deve Gowda, CPI veteran AB Bardhan and D Raja (CPI), on one stage, the Centre’s latest set of reforms and its disinvestment of the Navratna PSUs were condemned. The UPA, maintaining a tough face after Trinamool Congress’ exit, remained unmoved over its decisions.
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IMG for de-allocation of 2 more coal blocks
New Delhi, September 20 As the IMG, headed by Additional Secretary Coal, Zohra Chatterjee, wound up review of the 29 coal blocks given to private companies, another allocation was referred to the Law Ministry for legal opinion as the CBI, which is already investigating certain cases, has registered an FIR in this particular case. A total of 12 coal blocks have been recommended for de-allocation, while another 14 have been recommended for punitive action.
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Determined to restore work culture: Mamata
Kolkata, September 20 She said that in Bengal, her party was determined to restore proper work culture and hence, as a matter of policy, it was against all methods of disruption of normal life and activities in the state. “But our protest against diesel price rise, FDI in retail and the UPA’s anti-people stands will continue in every forum everywhere,” she said. She said that all the six TMC ministers in the UPA-II government would tender their resignations to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow at 3 pm. The Chief Minister criticised the BJP, CPM and other parties for observing the bandh in Bengal, but she congratulated the people in all other states for participating in the Bharat Bandh, which was also called by the BJP and Left parties on the same issues.
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BSP stays away from protest
Lucknow, September 20 While the SP, BJP, JD(U) and Left parties participated in the bandh, BSP, the main Opposition party in the state, was conspicuous by its absence on the streets of the state. Ruling Samajwadi Party workers brought several trains to a halt in many places.
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Poor response in Mumbai
Mumbai, September 20 Uddhav Thackeray, leader of the Shiv Sena, had earlier said that his party would not enforce the bandh in Mumbai as people celebrating the Ganesh festival would be inconvenienced. Senior BJP leaders including Gopinath Munde courted arrest as part of their protest. They were released later in the day. With the Shiv Sena leaving it to traders to enforce the bandh, life continued as normal in the major cities of
Maharashtra.
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Road, rail traffic hit in UP
Lucknow, September 20 While the SP, BJP, JD(U) and Left parties participated in the bandh, BSP, the main Opposition party in the state, was conspicuous by its absence on the streets of the state. Ruling Samajwadi Party workers, clearly distinguishable in their red Gandhi cap, brought several trains to a halt in many places delaying passenger traffic for hours and throwing the railway network out of gear. Ruling SP’s youth wing activists in Allahabad stopped the Bareilly-bound Triveni Express at 5.30 am on Niranjan railway bridge. They were seen stopping trains at Mathura, Agra, Varanasi, Allahabad and Lucknow as part of their stir. In Deoria, their women supporters climbed a railway engine along with LPG cylinders symbolising the cause of their protest. Similarly, creating long traffic jams, BJP workers and traders blocked the Agra-Gwalior highway by burning tyres on the road. In Lucknow, BJP's former national president Rajnath Singh led the protest, whereas national vice-president Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi was in Kanpur to support the local leaders. Speaking to the media in Lucknow, Rajnath Singh asked the cash-strapped central government to get back the black money stashed away in foreign banks rather than increasing prices of essential items like diesel and LPG. Major markets remained closed at a number of places in Uttar Pradesh including Lucknow, Kanpur, Gorakhpur, Agra and Bareilly. In Lucknow, the police and traders came to blows as traders wanted to break the police cordon to
move towards the Vidhan Sabha. In Kanpur also, the police resorted to a mild lathi charge to disperse
the unruly crowds on the Mall Road. |
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BJP not to move no-trust motion
New Delhi, September 20 “The current crisis has arisen from the Trinamool Congress withdrawing its support to the government…we have not thought of bringing in a no-confidence motion,’’ he told a press conference here. He, however, hastened to add that the government might fall in due course due to its own deeds. On the possibility of a mid-term poll and whether the BJP was ready for it, he said "there is no confusion in the BJP. Whenever elections come, we are ready to fight anyone...We will not be responsible for mid-term polls if they happen...We are neither after this government's fall nor are we protecting it. This is UPA’s own problem."
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Kanda’s bail plea dismissed
New Delhi, September 20 Both Kanda and his aide Aruna Chaddha have been accused of abetting Geetika’s suicide.
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Trinamool ministers to quit today
New Delhi, September 20 The Centre also signalled that its relationship with TMC chief Mamata Banerjee is history when it moved fast to notify FDI in multi-brand retail this evening even before her party ministers put in their papers. Sultan Ahmed, TMC’s Minister of State for Tourism who will submit his resignation to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tomorrow along with his other colleagues, said his party would run a high-pitched anti-Congress campaign over the next year to tell the people of West Bengal how the UPA government had deliberately denied a financial package to the cash-strapped state only to keep Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee “in check”. “The Congress will be wiped out in West Bengal,” he thundered. Slamming the Congress-led UPA government for discriminating against West Bengal, Ahmed pointed out that the Centre had been quick to clear a hefty financial package for Uttar Pradesh and even Bihar to appease the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal (U), which had contested against the Congress, but did not do the same for its electoral ally the TMC. “After the TMC came to power last year, we thought the Centre would open the purse strings for West Bengal but 18 months later, nothing has been done for the state,” he said. The TMC leader also dismissed reports that it would strengthen communal forces by severing its ties with secular parties. Ahmed said his party does not fear the emergence of Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi as the TMC is capable of keeping communal forces at bay in its citadel West Bengal. “But the TMC cannot take responsibility for the entire nation. Other political parties also have a role to play in checking Narendra Modi,” he said, adding that the Congress had been a singular failure in fighting the BJP leader in Gujarat. Continuing with his diatribe, Ahmed said the Congress had deliberately planned to push out Mamata Banerjee. He said the Congress kept the TMC chief in good humour till the Uttar Pradesh elections as it could not depend on the Samajwadi Party and the BSP till then as they were fighting each other in the Assembly polls. Once the elections were over and it became clear the Congress was only a marginal player in UP, the party reached out to Mulayam Singh Yadav and BSP chief Mayawati. If the TMC is happy at charting its independent path without the baggage of the UPA government’s anti-incumbency, the Congress looked equally relieved over the departure of a “troublesome ally”. Stating it was not averse to acquiring new allies, Finance Minister P Chidambaram told reporters today, “We had enough friends yesterday, we have enough friends today. So, I don’t think why you should doubt our stability.”
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760 Cong applicants for 68 seats in HP
Shimla, September 20 According to party sources, there will no problem in respect of 40 seats and it will be possible to decide candidates by consensus. Most sitting legislators, except those whose seats have been reserved or scrapped in delimitation, will be nominated again. For instance, there is only one application each for six seats. The applicants are Kaul Singh from Darang, Harsh Wardhan from Shilai, Mukesh Agnihotri from Haroli, Sukhwinder Singh from Nadaun, Surinder Bharadwaj from Churah and Neeraj Bharati from Jawali. Legislators, who are looking for new seats after delimitation, include Rakesh Kalia from Chintpurni and Sudhir Sharma from Baijnath. Their seats have been reserved for Scheduled Caste candidates. Similarly, Sohan Lal (Kusumpti) and Yog Raj (Dehra), whose seats were reserved earlier but thrown open after delimitation, are also on the lookout for new seats. Rakesh Kalia is keen to contest from the adjoining Gagret seat, which has been de-reserved, but local Congress workers are opposing by terming him an outsider. Sudhir Sharma was eyeing Palampur but it is the seat of senior leader Brij Bihari Lal Butail who cannot be shifted. Sudhir may eventually shift to Dharamsala.
key criterion The pradesh election committee will shortlist three to five candidates from each seat. The main criterion will be “winnability” which will bring into play parameters like margin of defeat, more than two defeats and losing with a margin of more than 10,000 votes
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Resentment against allowing FDI in multi-brand retail, recent diesel price hike and cap on subsidised cooking gas cylinders gained steam with the Samajwadi Party (SP) coming in support of the four Left parties, Telugu Desam Party (TDP), Janata Dal-Secular (JD-S) and Biju Janta Dal (BJD) during the all-India protest today.
New Delhi, September 20
