Rabri
Devi files nomination for Bihar polls
Patna/Hajipur:
RJD chief and Railway Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav on
Tuesday accompanied his wife Rabri Devi, to file her nominations
from Raghopur constituency for the first phase of polls
in Bihar. He said their alliance would not let the communal
forces triumph in the state polls. Bihar goes to polls in
four phases beginning October 18 for electing a fresh legislature
after the February polls remained inconclusive. The second
and third phases will be on 26 October and 13 November.
The fourth and last phase of the elections will be on November
19 and counting of votes will begin on November 22. The
main fight is between the National Democratic Alliance led
by the Janata Dal (United) partnering with the Bharatiya
Janata Party (BJP) and the UPA consisting of Rashtriya Janata
Dal (RJD), the Congress and Communist Party of India (Marxist).
Neither formation could gain a clear majority in the last
elections to the 243 member legislative assembly. Lalu said
that Ram Vilas Paswan's Lok Janshakti Party (LJP) would
not be allowed to play caste-based politics in the state
polls. "We have to defeat all the powers like National Democratic
Alliance or Ram Vilas Paswan and to strengthen the secular
forces in Bihar," he said while addressing a public rally
in Hajipur. The LJP, led by Paswan with 23 legislators,
had in the last polls refused to support the RJD-led UPA
in Bihar even though both are partners in the Congress led
UPA alliance at the Centre. In May, the ruling coalition,
headed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's Congress Party,
dissolved the legislature in Bihar.
Lalu
unveils poll manifesto for Bihar elections (Go
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Patna:
RJD chief and Railway Minister Lalu Yadav today unveiled
the manifesto for the forthcoming polls in Bihar, terming
the RJD led alliance as the Secular Democratic Alliance.
Lalu has in the alliance manifesto, promised that all the
elected representatives, the Mhief Minister, other ministers,
MLAs and MLCs from his party would declare their movable
and immovable assets on the floor of the state assembly.
The alliance's manifesto has also targeted the minorities
in the state and vowed for a corruption-free Bihar. The
key promises in the manifesto include reservation for the
socially and economically backward Muslims, completion of
the Golden Quadrilateral project in the next one year, free
power to SC and ST families living below the poverty line
and development of the backward areas in the state. Nitish
Kumar's JD (U) also released its manifesto in Patna today
and promised to restore the rule of law within three months
of coming to power. It has also talked about reservation
in jobs for Dalits and Christians, a 10-point minority development
programme,
Patna
HC deadline to produce kidnapped boy (Go
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Patna:
The Patna High Court on Tuesday extended the deadline
of producing the kidnapped school boy, Gaurav Kumar alias
Golu, before the court to October seven. "A two-judge bench
of the Patna High Court, headed by Justice R.N. Prasad and
Justice S.N.Hussain, today gave a warp to the Patna Police
for failing to present Golu before the court on time. The
court ordered police to submit reports explaining why Golu
has not been rescued till date, the steps taken by police
in solving the case and if there is any obstruction in the
process of recovery. Next hearing of this case will be on
October 7," said M.P.Gupta, advocate, Patna High Court.
Meanwhile, clarifying their stand in this connection, police
said that they were trying their best to rescue Golu. "We
are not sitting idle. We are also bothered about him (Golu).
Please don't make this image that we are in connivance with
the gangsters or we are afraid of anybody. I assure that
we are neither afraid of anybody nor we are in connivance
with the gangsters," said Ambrik Singh Nimbran, I.G, Patna
zone. Golu, a student of DAV Public School, was kidnapped
from outside his home while he was returning from school
on September 20. Several private schools here were closed
down and school students staged protest demanding the State
Government to take initiative to rescue Golu.
Curfew
relaxed in Meghalaya (Go
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Shillong:
Curfew was partially relaxed in the two Garo Hills towns
of Meghalaya today, as the situation was stated to be under
control in both the places. With no fresh violence reported
from Tura and Williamnagar, curfew was relaxed for three
hours (12.30 pm to 3.30 pm) and five hours (11 am to 4 pm)
respectively in the two towns, said the district magistrates.
Curfew was clamped on Friday last in both the towns after
nine people were killed and over 100 injured in police-CRPF
firing. Meanwhile, on Monday some 200-300 students with
black flags took out silent marches in neighbouring towns
in a show of solidarity with the students in Tura.
Blast
in house kills three in Punjab (Go
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Batala
(Punjab): At least three people, including two children
were burnt alive and another seriously injured in an explosion
in a house in Batala here, in Punjab. The incident took
place late evening on Monday in Batala, 40 kilometres from
Amritsar. The two-storey building, which stored firecrackers,
was completely damaged in the blast. Policemen with the
help of locals could clear the debris only by Tuesday morning,
and rescuers recovered two bodies, while one woman succumbed
to injuries in the hospital. "There was an explosion due
to a cylinder blast in the house in which two children were
killed and the building suffered damage," said Ashok Kumar,
an eyewitness.
Preeti
Jain gets bail (Go
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Mumbai:
The sessions court on Tuesday granted bail to aspiring
actor Preeti Jain on personal bond of Rs 15,000 in the case
in which she has been accused of giving money to a contract
killer in order to eliminate film-director Madhur Bhandarkar.
The decision was announced by sessions judge Abhay Thipsay
after hearing arguments from her side. Preet is accused
to have contacted and given money to Naresh Pardesi, a former
aide of don-turned-politician Arun Gawli, to execute the
plan. Mumbai police had arrested the starlet after investigations
revealed that she tried to hire Gawli to kill Bhandarkar.
Gawli, an MLA from Chinchpokli seat in central Mumbai, had
confirmed that Jain tried to meet him, saying he was told
by his PA that she had visited him and said somebody had
taken 50,000 rupees from her to kill the Bhandarkar but
was not answering her phone calls later. According to the
police, the matter was revealed to them by advocate Bagawe,
who is considered to be very close to Gawli. Bagawe had
alleged that Jain had paid Rs 70,000 as part payment to
one of Gawli's aides in past few months to eliminate Bhandarkar.
