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Sharamjeevi Express derails killing 10, injuring 100 near Jaunpur Lucknow, May 12 (ANI): At least 10 people were killed and more than 100 injured when 13 bogies of Shramjeevi Express, which runs between New Delhi and Patna, derailed near Jaunpur on Sunday morning. The incident took place at about 3:30 am between Kheta Sarai and Mehrawan stations in the Luckhnow division, according to a northern railway spokesman. "The incident occurred around 3:30 am near Jaunpur city in Uttar Pradesh", a senior railway official said, adding that relief work has begun and further details are awaited. The injured passengers have been shifted to hospitals at Mehrawan and Jaunpur. Inquiry counters have been opened at New Delhi, Varanasi and Lucknow. A special medical relief train with railway medical teams from Lucknow, Faizabad, Kanpur and Moradabad has also reached the site. A team of senior railway officials headed by Additional General Manager Northern Railways KK Gupta have left for the site. Railway Minister Nitish Kumar and Railway Board Chairman IIMS Rana have also left for the site to supervise rescue and relief operations, the spokesman added. (ANI) Ahmedabad under strict vigil
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to top Ahmedabad, May 12 (ANI): No fresh incidents of violence have been reported during the past 48 hours in Ahmedabad City, which bore the brunt of the worst ever Hindu-Muslim clashes in a decade. A strict vigil is being maintained in Kalupur, Danilimda, Kagdapith and Vejalpur areas and roads are deserted as people prefer to stay indoors. Police said they were punishing troublemakers strictly. According to them, Ahmedabad City remained peaceful on Saturday, but curfew is imposed in four areas, even as night curfew continues in 11 areas. More than 900 people, mostly Muslims, died in reprisal attacks all over the state after 59 Hindus were torched in a train on February 27. The violence has brought all economic activity to a grinding halt. Shops have remained closed for the past nine weeks as incidents of violence occurred at regular intervals. On Friday, five people were killed and 30 injured as Hindus and Muslims hurled crude bombs and fired at each other in the streets of the old city. More than 70,000 people in Ahmedabad alone have put in makeshift camps. With mercury rising day by day, the victims have been living in miserable conditions. For the past few days the temperature has been hovering around 46 degrees Celcius. Though the camps have become breeding grounds for typhoid, diarrhoea and jaundice, the people are afraid to return home fearing violence. Some even don't have any house to live in as they were burnt by enraged mobs. (ANI)
Modi says he has no lust for power Go to top Ahmedabad, May 12 (ANI): Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi has said that he has no longing to remain in power. But he has cautioned against a situation where anti-national elements exercise influence on who should be the chief minister of the state. An official press release quoting Modi says, "We all have to ponder whether such a situation in Gujarat should be allowed to be created wherein the appointment of Chief Minister would be decided by the dictates of anti-national elements like Dawood Ibrahim and Aftab Ansari." Modi was referring to Union Home Minister L K Advani's statement to the parliamentary consultative committee that there were reliable reports that underworld elements were planning retaliatory action in Gujarat.(ANI)
Gujarat tourists turn to Mount Abu again
Go to top Mount Abu, May 12 (ANI): Mount Abu felt the jolt when tourists from the riot-hit Gujarat had considerably gone down. But now from the beginning of the first week of May, there is a new hope among the hoteliers and local travel and tourist operators. The tourists once again have started pouring in and the deserted streets, hotels and motels are reverberating with their presence. Nakki lake, one of the major tourist attractions, is filled with colourful boats and people are beating the heat and trying to ease their tensions with a dip in the cool water of this lake. Suneel Agarwal, president of Mount Abu Hotel Association, said, "Gujarat violence had a negative impact on Mount Abu tourism as 50 per cent of tourists came from Gujarat. But now the situation has become normal and the tourists are feeling relaxed and tension-free in Mount Abu." Dilwara Jain Mandir had also seen lack of tourists as well as devotees coming in. During the Gujarat violence there were rumours that swords were being supplied from here in a big way. It gave a negative impact to this place. As Dr P. C. Singhvi said, "There was a misunderstanding among the people about the swords. People thought that these swords are being used in Mount Abu. Gujarati tourists bought these swords as mementoes and took them back home. But now the situations has improved." Though Gujarat violence did affect the inflow of the tourists to Mount Abu, people are of the opinion that the Administration does not do anything to attract tourists. Sudhir Jain, a local businessman who is sad with the apathetic attitude of the administration, says,"Gujarat incidents have had an adverse effect on the Mount Abu tourism. The state government is doing nothing to develop new avenues to attract tourists". (ANI)
Bhopal's "Badhi" Jheel drying up
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top Bhopal, May 12 (ANI): "Badhi Jheel", often called the pride of Bhopal, is drying up because of the scanty rainfall during the past few years, coupled with rising temperatures. The lake, which has the capacity to store over 127 million cubic metres of water, now has only 18 million cubic metres. The Badhi Jheel, which means "big" lake, is considered the lifeline of central Bhopal. Lakes have always played a prominent role in the life of Bhopal residents. Once the city used to be a network of a large number of lakes, all linked to each other. Scanty rainfall, rising population and encroachment of the lake bed have drastically reduced the water levels of the lake. The water body at one time covered an area of 361 sq km, but now more than half of it has dried up. Lack of people's will, and their participation in the upkeep of the lake has resulted in such a bad shape of the lake. Lajjashankar Hardaniya, a local journalist, said "the main reason for the loss of water in the lake is that the local residents never cared about it". Citing the example of a lake in Gwalior, he said, "there the people have surrounded the source of water with barbed wires. Only birds can get there, no animals, or human beings, have access to the water body". He said huge quantities of sewage was being pumped into the lake.Massive construction along the lake has further added to the problem of sewage. Residential colonies, religious institutions, hospitals and hotels have come up on the banks of the lake, resulting in a large outflow of human waste and polluting substances. Another reason for the growing pollution in the lake is immersion of religious idols in the water body. Hardaniya believes that the practice should be legally abolished, as is done in Mumbai. A former administrator of Bhopal municipal corporation M.N. Bucch said a major cause for the drying up of the 11th century lake, which was built by Kingh Bhoj, is its overuse. He said, "The population of Bhopal is 1.6 million. To give 100 litres of water to one family per day one needs to take out at least 150 million litres out of the lake everyday. If the capacity of the lake is only 50 million liters and you take out three times that amount, then the water level is bound to go down". Bucch further said that scanty rainfall has only hastened the shrinking of the lake. The average rainfall in Bhopal is put at 45 inches per year, but the last two years have only seen rainfall of about 14 inches per year. A concerted effort to save the lake has now been undertaken with the help of the Japanese government under "Bhoj Wetland Programme". Over 2.5 billion rupees have already been spent on the upkeep of the lake. Rameshwar Sharma, an opposition leader in the city's municipal corporation, however, said the Japanese funds had not been properly utilised by the authorities. According to him, the lake continued to remain in the same condition as before.(ANI)
Musharraf calls off his three-nation trip
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top Islamabad, May 12 (ANI): Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf has called off a three-nation Maghreb trip to provide personal guidance to the nation's fight against terrorism, according to a government statement. The statement, quoted by the APP news agency, said the May 15-21 trip to Algeria, Morocco and Tunisia, announced on Friday, was put off on account of the recent terrorist attacks in Pakistan. The announcement came three days after a suicide car bomb attack in Karachi killed 14 people, including 11 Frenchmen. The President, while chairing an inter-provincial meeting on law and order on Saturday, decided to postpone the visit so that he could personally oversee and provide leadership to the fight against terrorism, both international and domestic, the statement said. The meeting also decided to establish a special investigation force to combat terrorism and ordered a crack down on illegal immigrants. "The government is determined to protect the life and property of every Pakistani and of every foreigner living in Pakistan", Musharraf was quoted as saying. Musharraf's trip, during which he was to hold talks on regional and world issues with Morocco's King Mohammed VI and presidents Abdelaziz Bouteflika of Algeria and Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia, would have been his first foreign visit after winning a controversial referendum to extend his rule for five years. Along with the three countries Musharraf was to visit, the Maghreb group of North African, Arab countries includes Libya and Mauritania. (ANI)
Remaining Al-Qaeda fighters in western Pakistan: US
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to top Washington, May 12 (ANI): US intelligence analysts have concluded that the remaining groups Al-Qaeda fighters are mainly concentrated in western Pakistan, reports Washington Post. But, the Pakistani government has been hesitant to launch large-scale attacks against them. Such an attack would mark a major widening of the eight-month-old US war against terrorism. Despite being pressed by the US time and again to act against Al-Qaeda fighters in the Waziristan area, near Afghan border, Pakistan has been reluctant to attack with or without US aid, because of the potential backlash from Islamic extremists. Pakistani officials said that it was possible the United States could act by itself against the Al-Qaeda pockets, the Post reported. The unwillingness on part of the Pakistan would be the first major disagreement in the US-Pakistan alliance against terrorism since September 11 attacks. "We know where there is a large concentration of Al-Qaeda," one Pentagon official was quoted as saying by the Post, adding that there were hundreds in one border town. According to US Defense officials, Pakistan has been very slow to take action against the Al-Qaeda fighters, despite US offers to provide intelligence, helicopters, Special Operations troops or even conventional military units, the report added. "For the last two weeks we have been after them to attack, and we have not made much progress", the newspaper quoted one senior official as saying. Earlier, Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf had said that small bands of Al-Qaeda militants may have crossed into his country from Afghanistan and vowed to do his utmost to track them down with American help, but ruled out the US intelligence reports, saying "If you think they have come here and taken over whole chunks of territory and established themselves, this is just out of the question". (ANI)
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