New Delhi, October 1
Unexpected crowd today gathered at Jantar Mantar in response to West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata's call against the latest dose of economic reforms of the Centre. The gathering swelled to a sizeable number with people from across the communities pouring in from several states till afternoon.

While the support that came from the Trinamool Congress Party workers as well as common people, comprising farmers, workers and retired government officials, served as a show of strength for the Bengal supremo and her party, for people it was an occasion to express their anger against the Congress-led UPA's 'anti-people' steps.

A farmer of Mathura district in Uttar Pradesh, Rajjan Singh said that after the Anna-led movement, Mamata's campaign has come forward to dislodge the Congress government. Otherwise all the political parties are there just for their vested interests.

"We are with all those who are against corruption and this agitation is for the farmers who are reeling from the back-breaking prices. We have come to show our support," he said while claiming that nearly 500 people had come from Mathura.

Another farmer Tudal Singh, who had come to register his protest, said, "Corruption is rampant and we have come here to oppose the hike in LPG cylinders and fertilisers. Even the rail fares have gone up now."

According to Sudhir Awasthi, a retired government employee who had come from Dehradun for the rally today, curtailing the expenditure of ministers' foreign travels will solve the common man's problems to a great extend.

New Delhi, October 1
The Delhi government has decided to amend the Agriculture Produce Marketing Committee (APMC) Act to ensure implementation of the Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) in retail in the city at the earliest.

Addressing a gathering at her residence, Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit said Delhi would be the first state to implement the FDI. The consumers will be relieved of the high profit being added to the cost by the traders as there will be a healthy competition benefiting the consumers. The 40 per cent of foodgrain, fruits and vegetables which gets rotten would be saved with the introduction of the FDI in retail as the number of cold storages will increase. The consumers would get quality goods at cheaper rates, she said.

Union Commerce Minister, Anand Sharma, who was also at the CM's residence, said FDI in retail was beneficial to all - farmers, consumers and the economy. The biggest beneficiary will be the farmers. The middlemen will be eliminated. The big traders will directly buy produce from the farmers. The decision has been taken with an aim to ensure development in villages, providing relief to farmers and ensure better remunerative prices to them for their products.

The decision will also help in earning a huge amount of foreign exchange reserves from the investment which mega multi-branch retailers will do in India, he added.

New Delhi, October 1
Four more persons, who were allegedly involved in the robbery of Rs 5.25 crore that took place in Defence Colony on Friday, have been arrested, the police said today. They are Tek Chand, Krishan, Umesh and Mukesh Saini. According to a senior police official, Rs 2.60 lakh was recovered from them. Now, the total number of arrests in teh case has risen to five and the amount recovered to over Rs 2.39 crore. One man has been arrested earlier.

Joint Commissioner of Police Vivek Gogia said that Umesh is the former employee of the bank who provided information to the robbers about the delivery of cash. he got Rs 2.60 lakh for this. “Harkishan is the kingpin of the gang. The police is conducting raids to nab him and three more accused who are on the run,” said Gogia.

Deepak Sharma, who was arrested on Saturday, said that one of the former employees was passing the information to one of the co-accused about the position of the cash van.

The employees of bank, risk management companies and Vault managing company were also scrutinised and interrogated to identify leakage of the information.

“Mukesh, the associate of the main accused, was in touch with one of the former employees Umesh. We arrested him from Mandawali. Rs 1.35 lakh was recovered,” said Gogia.

“He was in jail for the past two and a half year where he met Harkishan who was the mastermind behind the robbery. Mukesh came in touch with Umesh who was working at cash counting machine and used to place stickers on bundles of cash. Mukesh offered him money for providing information of cash delivery,” said the police official.