N A T I O N

Mumbai building collapse: Toll 54, scribe among dead
Mumbai, September 28
The death toll in yesterday's building collapse in Mazgaon area here had reached 54, while 32 persons were injured, BMC officials said this evening. Yogesh Pawar (29), a journalist with Marathi daily 'Sakaal', and his father Anant Pawar, who lived in the building, died in the mishap.

Rescue work in progress in Mumbai on Saturday. PTI

UP promises job to one dependent of victims
Lucknow, September 28
The Uttar Pradesh Government has issued an order to provide government jobs to one dependent of the 56 persons reportedly killed in the recent Muzaffarnagar riots. According to a survey, 62 persons had died during the violence of which five bodies are yet to be identified.

President Pranab Mukherjee at a seminar in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI

ordinance outburst
BJP all set to publicise ‘Cong-govt disconnect’
New Delhi, September 28
The BJP is all set to publicise the “Congress-government disconnect” over the controversial ordinance to negate the Supreme Court’s verdict on convicted lawmakers as proof of the UPA’s governance system having gone “completely haywire”.

payoff row
Eight Army ex-chiefs junk VK Singh’s claims
New Delhi, September 28
Eight former Army Chiefs have rejected Gen(retd) VK Singh’s statement that the Army has been paying money to certain ministers in Jammu and Kashmir since independence to bring in stability there.

Mumbai building collapse: Toll 54, scribe among dead
Shiv Kumar/TNS

Illegal tenants To ascertain the actual number of residents in the five-storey municipal building, which collapsed on Friday, is difficult as there were a large number of illegal tenants residing in it, civic officials said Sources said nearly seven of the 28 rooms were officially unoccupied since they were in a dilapidated condition

Mumbai, September 28
The death toll in yesterday's building collapse in Mazgaon area here had reached 54, while 32 persons were injured, BMC officials said this evening. Yogesh Pawar (29), a journalist with Marathi daily 'Sakaal', and his father Anant Pawar, who lived in the building, died in the mishap.

To ascertain the actual number of residents in the five-storey municipal building which collapsed on Friday is difficult as there were a large number of illegal tenants residing in it, officials said.

“While there were 21 families of civic employees living there, some of rooms were illegally given on rent by those who were allotted the premises,” a municipal official said. Sources say, nearly seven of the 28 rooms were officially unoccupied since they were in a dilapidated condition. However a few people have been living there, residents who survived the collapse told the police.

The identities of seven persons who perished in the mishap are yet to be established, the police said. Meanwhile, the police have arrested a mandap decorator who had leased the ground floor of the building from the BMC. Ashok Mehta who ran a wedding equipment leasing business was arrested after survivors told police that he had carried out alterations to the building which may have caused it to collapse.

UP promises job to one dependent of victims

Lucknow, September 28
The Uttar Pradesh Government has issued an order to provide government jobs to one dependent of the 56 persons reportedly killed in the recent Muzaffarnagar riots.

According to a survey, 62 persons had died during the violence of which five bodies are yet to be identified. One victim has all minor dependents. One dependent of the remaining 56 victims are eligible for government jobs as per the government order.

Seven of them are expected to be employed in the Panchayati Raj Department under Group C and two in the Basic Education department. Others having lower educational qualifications would be provided Group D jobs in departments like revenue, rural development, health, public works as well as family welfare.

The Centre however, has clarified that families getting a government job on compassionate grounds would not be eligible for the Rs 3 lakh assistance for riot victims from the Centre. The Special Investigation Cell set up to probe the triple murder in Kavaal and Malikpura villages on August 27 has started its work. TNS

ordinance outburst
BJP all set to publicise ‘Cong-govt disconnect’
Vibha Sharma
Tribune News Service

Delhi BJP banks on Modi factor The BJP has pinned all hopes of its resurrection in Delhi on the Modi factor. The Sunday rally is in fact a frantic effort to get voters to take notice of their PM candidate and swing Delhi in BJP’s favour. While the Aam Aadmi Party factor is adding to its woes, severe factionalism in the state leadership is not allowing the saffron party to claim turf in a unified manner.

New Delhi, September 28
The BJP is all set to publicise the “Congress-government disconnect” over the controversial ordinance to negate the Supreme Court’s verdict on convicted lawmakers as proof of the UPA’s governance system having gone “completely haywire”.

The party believes Rahul Gandhi’s public denouncement of the government’s measure was a “diversionary tactic” to shift people’s attention from issues of “mis-governance and corruption” plaguing the UPA”, especially after the arrival of Narendra Modi on the voters’ radar.

BJP leaders say Congress’ “machinations”, first the “humiliating denouncement” of a legislative measure cleared by none other than the Cabinet headed by the PM and then the attempts by Congress leaders to sell it as a victory of Rahul, would be among issues raised by their PM candidate when he addresses his first rally in New Delhi on Sunday.

“If the Congress was so opposed to the ordinance and Rahul believed that it should be torn, what was stopping him from voicing views earlier?” asked senior BJP leader Ravi Shanker Prasad.

payoff row
Eight Army ex-chiefs junk VK Singh’s claims

‘No funds given by Army to politicians’ No funds were ever provided by the Army to any politician, political party or NGO in their tenures, nor would they have allowed it, said the former Army Chiefs in a joint statement The eight Generals are: OP Malhotra, SF Rodrigues, Shankar Roychowdhury, Ved Prakash Malik, S Padamanabhan, NC Vij, JJ Singh and Deepak Kapoor The statement came in the backdrop of a controversy over Gen VK Singh's recent remarks that the Army was paying money to certain ministers in J&K to bring stability in the state

New Delhi, September 28
Eight former Army Chiefs have rejected Gen(retd) VK Singh’s statement that the Army has been paying money to certain ministers in Jammu and Kashmir since independence to bring in stability there.

“No funds were ever provided by the Army, to any politicians, political party or any NGO in their tenures and nor would they have allowed that,” the former Army Chiefs said in a joint statement issued here.

They are Generals OP Malhotra, SF Rodrigues, Shankar Roychowdhury, Ved Prakash Malik, S Padamanabhan, NC Vij, JJ Singh and Deepak Kapoor. The statement came against the backdrop of a controversy over Gen V K Singh's recent remarks that the Army was paying money to certain ministers in Jand K to bring stability in the state.

Gen VK Singh had later clarified that this money was not a bribe and suggested that it was given under Operation Sadbhavna of the force towards winning the hearts and minds of the people.

The former chiefs said the aspect of paying money to ministers should not be mixed with that of Operation Sadbhavna. "This aspect should not be mixed with ‘Sadhbhavna’ operations, which are carried out to provide infrastructure, education and health services etc to the local populace in J&K and for this pre and post- audited funds, with laid down deliverables and procedures, are allotted in the defence budget," they said.

They further stressed that the Indian Army is completely apolitical and that they do not dabble in politics and the Army takes great pride in this time honoured tradition. — PTI

BRIEFLY

Here comes Miss Universe: Miss Universe Olivia Culpo dances with children during a visit to a school in New Delhi on Saturday. PTI

Garwah (Jharkhand)
Maoist leader, wife held
A Maoist leader and his wife were arrested from their native Khirakhand village under the Bhandaria police station in Garwah district, the police said on Saturday. CPI (Maoist) section commander Manas, alias Sohan, alias Upendra Korwa, is an expert in making and planting landmines. — PTI

Agra
Varun assails SP
BJP general secretary Varun Gandhi on Saturday said the ruling Samajwadi Party would pay for its mistakes in UP. Referring to the recent Muzaffarnagar violence, Varun said the SP government would “soon get the fruit of the sins committed in the state”. — PTI

Kolkata
TMC suspends RS MP
Dissident Trinamool Congress Rajya Sabha MP Kunal Ghosh, whose name had cropped up in the Saradha chit fund scam, was suspended from the party on Saturday. The party had served a show-cause notice on Ghosh for speaking against party chief Mamata Banerjee. — PTI

A BJP leader consoles Nagamani, elder sister of Sudarshan who was killed in the Nairobi attack, at their home in Bengaluru on Saturday. PTI

Chennai
Scorpions, spiders in parcels!
Customs officials have seized six parcels containing “highly venomous” scorpions and spiders at the airport, sources said. The parcels were bound for Philippines and Italy in Singapore Airlines and Lufthansa flights. — PTI

Indore
Asaram’s ashram gate razed
The MP Road Development Corporation on Saturday demolished an illegally-constructed gate of Asaram’s ashram. It had issued a notice to the ashram a week ago, but the authorities failed to produce a permission certificate for the construction. —PTI

Kolkata
Warrant against minister
A Murshidabad court on Saturday issued non-bailable arrest warrant against Union MoS for Railways Adhir Chowdhury in connection with the killing of local TMC leader Kamal Sheikh Hossain at Behrampore in 2011. — TNS