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THE ECHO OF INDIA SILIGURI
Other States 5
Thursday • October 9, 2014
4 suspended for rotten food
items in Maoist-hit area
RAIPUR, OCT 8/-/ Four
government officials were
suspended for supply of
rotten food items in
Jagargunda region of
Chhattisgarh’s Sukma district. Based on the directives of Chief Minister Raman Singh, the four were
suspended on Tuesday
night for their alleged failure to check the quality of
food commodities supplied
to Jagargunda on October 1,
Sukma Collector Emil
Lakra said.
Those suspended are food officer KR Pisda, food
inspectors Dron Kumar
Kamde and Sanjay Kumar
Kaushik, and revenue inspector Ramesh Kumar
Sahu. Besides, Sukma Additional Collector S R
Mahilang, the head of the
ration procuring committee
for Jagargunda, has been issued a notice in this connection, he said. The Sukma administration had last week
sent ration in around 20
trucks from Dornapal to
Jagargunda, one of the
worst Naxal-hit regions in
South Bastar. Escorted by
over 1,000 personnel of paramilitary forces and district
police, the ration was delivered at its destination after
covering 50 kms of dense
forest cover.
Rice, pulses, potatoes,
edible oils, onions, grams,
soaps and detergents were
among the ration consignment meant for around
seven villages. “When the
ration consignment was
opened in Jagargunda,
some edibles were reported
to be rotten following which
an inquiry team visited the
spot,” the Collector said.
The probe team, including
the Collector and Superintendent of Police D
Shrawan, reportedly visited
the spot and after examining the quality of ratio took
samples of the rotten edibles. The team, ho wever,
flew back to Sukma district
headquarters abandoning
the samples at Jagargunda.
When asked about the matter, the Collector said, “The
samples were under the supervision of some other officials and later they were
brought by another helicopter to Sukma.”
“During inspection,
pulses and perishable items
like onion and potatoes were
found to be rotten while the
condition of rest of the ration was good,” Lakra said.
The problem was detected
in food items procured from
contractors and prima facie
it seems the food officials
didn’t check its quality before supply, he said, adding
that there was no problem in
the quality of rice, salt,
grams and other things supplied from the state’s civil
supply corporation. Lakda
has now issued orders to
send fresh ration soon.
“Now our challenge is to
send fresh ration as early as
possible to Jagargunda. The
process has been initiated
and very soon it will be
done,” he added. PTI
Yadav attends
SP’’s convention,
fuels speculation
MP Dimple Yadav, wife of Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav, and party leader Jaya
Bachchan during party's three day ninth convention at Gyneshwer mishra park in
Lucknow on Wednesday .
Omar orders safety of people in areas hit by shelling
SRINAGAR, OCT 8/-/
Jammu and Kashmir
Chief Minister Omar
Abdullah on Wednesday
directed the administration to take all requisite
measures for ensuring
safety of life of the people
in areas hit by shelling
from across the border.
“Food,
tempora ry
shelter, transportation,
medical facilities and
supply of drinking water
should be made available
at the camps established
for border people who
have migrated for heavy
shelling from their areas,” Omar directed the
Divisional Administration of Jammu region.
Omar during the day conducted a meeting via
video conferencing with
the Divisional Commissioner, Inspector General
and Deputy Commissioner Jammu. The Chief
Minister received brief
about the arrangements
made to safeguard the
lives of border people under the shelling from
across the border. Omar
was informed that 24
tempor a ry camps have
been established in
Jammu, Samba and
Kathua Districts at safer
places for the families hit
by the shelling and over
7,000 people are residing
in these camps. It was
stated that free food,
medicine, blankets and
other requirements are
being provided to the inmates of these camps.
The Chief Minister directed identification of
more places of shelter so
they are utilised in the
hour of need. PTI
TV channel in TN hires
transgender news anchor
CHENNAI,
OCT
8/-/
A
Coimbatore-based transgender has
become a trailblazer for her community becoming the first TV
transgender news anchor when she
went ‘live’ on Independence day on
a private Tamil satellite channel in
Tamil Nadu. Still reminiscing
about the day when she read out her
first bulletin on August 15, Padmini
Prakash told PTI,
“I will be completing two
months in Lotus news channel on
October 15.” It has been a hard
grind for Padmini considering the
fact she had to drop out after her
first year in B.Com course some 15
years ago after her parents disowned her. She wanted to study for
IAS but could not because of the
discrimination and stigma she experienced and economic conditions. But such setbacks only made
her more determined to succeed,
she said.
“You see, I am a professional
classical dancer, trained in
Bharatanatyam,” she said.Padmini
realised very early on that the media was the best way to reach to
wide sections of society and to create awar eness about the problems
of the transgenders, and is happy
that she has landed a job as a news
anchor.
“It is because a transgender is
reading the news that it is creating
waves. So I feel more transgenders
should come into the media to reach
out to more sections of society.”
Padmini, who is in her thirties, participated in talk shows and some serials before she caught the attention
of Coimbatore-based Lotus representatives who were scouting for a
member of her community for their
channel.
In between, she took part in
transgender beauty contests and
won the Miss Tamil Nadu and Miss
India titles in 2007 and 2009 respectively. G K S Selvakumar, Chairman
of Lotus news channel, said he
wanted the transgender community
to come up in society. “So we were
scouting...and Rose Venka tesan,
who is the first transgender TV show
hostess, put us on to Padmini.”
“We were impressed by her fluency in Tamil and provided training for her for about two months,” he
said. “Look in places like Mumbai,
they are treated with respect and
provided assistance. But there is so
much of discrimination against the
community in other places, so I felt
some opportunities should be given
for them to come up in society,” he
said.
“Now I am getting enquiries
about Padmini from places like US,
Germany and Australia.” Impressed
by her diction and fluency in Tamil,
the channel has entrusted her the
task of reading the 7 PM special bulletin daily. PTI
LUCKNOW, OCT 8/-/
JD(U) chief Sharad Yadav
on Wednesday shared the
dais with Samajwadi Party
supremo Mulayam Singh
Yadav on the inaugural day
of SP’s national convention
here, fuelling speculation
about their joining hands.
Sharad Yadav said that he
and Mulayam had always
been “good friends” and he
had come to attend the convention on the SP supremo’s
invitation. ”We have been
together since early days.
The Constitution has been
dealt a severe blow in the
present conditions. We have
to save it,” the JD(U) leader
told reporters here at the
start of the three-day convention. Though Sharad
Yadav refused to comment
on a possible alliance with
the SP, he had recently
made it clear that he will
make efforts to “bring together all those who were
part of old Janata Parivar to
fight the new political challenge”. JD(U) and its arch rival RJD, both offshoots of
Janata Dal Parivar, have already joined hands to form
an alliance in Bihar. In
Kerala, Socialist Janata
(Democratic) Party headed
former Union Minister M P
Veerendra Kumar too decided to merge with Janata
Dal (United) last month.
Also efforts are on to bring
on board splinter groups
which are politically significant in other states.
The unity drive in the erstwhile Janata Parivar has
come after the Narendra
Modi juggernaut crushed
Janata Dal (United) in Lok
Sabha elections in Bihar
with BJP-led combine winning 31 of 40 seats in the
state. There are indications
of the rise of BJP in Kerala,
Assam and West Bengal, the
states where the saffron
party did not perform well
in past. PTI
3 CISF personnel shot
dead by colleague at
Kalpakkam
KANCHEEPURAM(TN), OCT 8/-/ A
CISF head constable on Wednesdsay
shot dead his three colleagues attached
to the Kalpakkam nuclear complex
and injured two others at the paramilitary’s camp in Kancheepuram. The accused, Head Constable Vijay Prathap
Singh (45), allegedly opened fire with
a 9mm carbine and killed Assistant
Sub-Inspector Ganesan and head constables Subburaj and Mohansingh at
CISF rpt CISF barracks in Kalpakkam
township, about 10 km away from the
nuclear complex, according to police.
Operations at the nuclear complex
were not affected, officials said.
The incident occurred at the CISF barracks in Kalpakkam township when
the troops were gathering for a morning roll call and it was not clear what
provoked the attack. “Three CISF personnel have been killed. The incident
happened around 5.30 AM,” C Vijaya
Kumar, Kancheepuram Superintendent of Police told PTI, adding an inquiry was on. Assistant Sub-Inspector
Prathap Singh and head constable
Govardhan Singh sustained major injuries and are being being treated at a
hospital, police said. “This is a disconcerting incident which has happened
after a long time in our force. Senior officers have been rushed to the unit and
we are cooperating in the police investigation,” Central Industrial Security
Force Director General Arvind Ranjan
said in Delhi. Singh, a native of
Allahabad in Uttar Pradesh, has been
arrested and is being questioned by
the police.PTI
Srinagar-Jammu
highway to be
closed for three
days
SRINAGAR, OCT 8/-/ The
294-km Srinagar-Jammu national highway connecting
Kashmir Valley with the rest
of the country will remain
closed for vehicular traffic
for three days from Thursday
in order to carry out necessary repairs on the road. “According to IGP Traffic, one
portion of hillside at Gangroo
(Ramsoo) has developed
cracks and needs urgent repairs. The Border Roads Organisation (BRO) authorities
have recommended closing
down of the national highway for three days,” an official spokesman said. The
highway will remain closed
on October 9, 10 and 11 and
no movement of vehicular
traffic will be allowed on
these days, he said. The authorities have asked people
to take permission from the
concerned district administration to use the alternate
Mughal Road and Kishtwar
route to travel to and fro to
Srinagar. “To facilitate the
passengers, transportation
of fruit and essential commodities, the passenger service vehicle (LMVs only)
empty oil tanker, empty
trucks and fruit load carriers
(medium size) can use
Mughal road from Srinagar
to Jammu after getting clearance from concerned district
administration,” the spokesman said. (PTI)
Mulayam questions Modi govt’s
“silence” on Chinese incursions
LUCKNOW, OCT 8/-/ Hitting out at the NDA over “repeated” Chinese intrusion
into the Indian side,
Samajwadi Party supremo
Mulayam Singh on Wednesday asked Prime Minister
Narendra Modi as to why
his government was “mum”
on the issue.
“Jo garajte hain, woh
baraste nahi (Thunderous
clouds do not bring showers). China is intruding into
India border again and
again. Boundaries of the
country are not safe, China
has always betrayed India.
Why this government is
mum on the issue of China,”
Mulayam said. Modi and
Chinese President Xi
Jinping last month held
talks during the latter’s visit
to the country during which
the Indian side had conveyed its concerns over
Chinese incursions as the
two sides discussed all
“substantive issues” having
a bearing on bilateral ties.
“He (Modi) did not talk
about the boundaries. He
could have mustered courage to raise the issue before
China,” Mulayam alleged.
Many BJP leaders during
the run-up to the Lok Sabha
polls had made the Chinese
incursion issue an opportunity to score over the their
opponents in the election
speeches. But, after the formation of the NDA gover nment, the opposition has
been targeting the Modi
government, accusing it of
being “silent” over the
pressing issue. SP chief
Mulayam Singh has often
attacked “Chinese designs”,
saying India will have to assert itself.
“It is surprising that
Atalji conceded Tibet easily to China. It was BJP government which conceded
Tibet. Congress is not responsible for this, BJP is
responsible,” he claimed.
The SP supremo also took a
dig at Modi’s 56-inch chest
remark.
“It needs a 56-inch chest
to criticise us (SP),”
Mulayam said while addressing party workers on
the inaugural day of the
three-day-long ninth national convention of the
party. During the day, he was
today unanimously elected
as the national president for
the ninth consecutive term.
PTI
Three women Maoists killed in Chhattisgarh
RAIPUR, OCT 8/-/ Three women Maoists
were killed on Wednesday in a fierce gunbattle between the security personnel and
ultras in Chhattisgarh’s insurgency-hit
Bijapur district, police said.
“The face-off took place in restive
Potenar forests under Jangla police station
limits when a joint squad of district force
and CRPF was carrying out a combing operation in the region,” Bijapur Additional Superintendent of Police Indira Kalyan Elesela
told PTI. When security personnel reached
Potenar? forests, located around 450 kms
away from the state capital, a group of armed
rebels opened fire on them, he said. However,
soon ultras fled the spot when jawans
launched a retaliatory attack. After the ensuing gunfight that lasted for around half-anhour,? naxals? escaped to the core forests.
Subsequently, while cordoning off the? encounter? spot, body of three uniformed
women ultras were found, the ASP said, adding that blood stains found at the spot indicate that some more ultras might either have
been killed or injured in the gun battle.