Will foil all conspiracies to divide Bengal, says Mamata

SILIGURI, FEB 21 (PTI):

than a dozen locations in Chhattisgarh including at premises linked to state Congress leaders as part of an ongoing probe into the alleged coal levy scam.

Hitting out at the Centre, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said, “Prime Minister’s friend Gautam Adani has been accused of embezzlement through shell companies and many other serious allegations have been levelled against him. But did you see any agency investigating this?” it,” she stated. In a bid to pacify state government employees, who had been agitating for dearness allowance (DA) at par with the Centre, Banerjee said that their well being will always be her priority.

“But, for creating hurdles for the Congress’ plenary session, and against the voices talking about the nexus between Modi ji and his friend, an agency has been deployed,” she said in a tweet in Hindi.

(PTI): Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Tuesday spoke to his British counterpart Ben Wallace with a focus on ways to enhance bilateral defence industrial cooperation, especially in co-development and coproduction of military hardware in India.

Singh, referring to industrial cooperation, said potential areas of cooperation were identified, but he did not elaborate on it.

Alleging that the BJP had been pursuing “politics of division and polarisation” in north Bengal, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee on Tuesday said that her government will foil all plans to create unrest in the state.

To Death By Stray Dogs

Child mauled

HYDERABAD, FEB 21

(PTI): In a distressing incident that sent shock waves across Telangana, a 4 yearold child has been mauled to death by stray dogs here, prompting strong public reactions where some even described the menace as ‘terror.’ While a video of the child falling prey to the canines has gone viral, Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao termed the incident “unfortunate” and said he was “pained” over the episode while the city civic body assured of steps to prevent recurrence of such attacks.

Hailstorm, lightning

lash Shimla

SHIMLA, FEB 21 (PTI):

A severe hailstorm lashed Shimla and surrounding areas on Tuesday afternoon, reducing visibility considerably and affecting vehicular traffic. Roads and roofs of buildings were covered with a layer of hail, making the roads slippery and driving hazardous. Sky remained heavily overcast and icy winds swept the region. The hailstorm, accompanied by thunderstorm and lightning, brought down the temperature which stayed 8-10 notches above normal during the past few days resulting in early flowering of stone fruits.

“It is clearly political vendetta. It was expected. We were expecting (raids) as the Congress’ plenary session is going to be held

“We are law-abiding citizens. Don’t think that the Congress is going to be scared by the name of the BJP or (Prime Minister) Modi. We will fight it out certainly according to the law. You can see, just before the plenary session of a national party, they are doing this type of drama...,” Venugopal told reporters at the Swami Vivekananda Airport. The ED on Monday conducted raids at more

Bhiwani murder: Case against Rajasthan cops for assault

NUH (HARYANA), FEB 21 (PTI): Haryana Police on Tuesday registered a case against 30 to 40 unnamed Rajasthan police personnel on a complaint by a woman that her pregnant daughter-in-law lost her child after she was allegedly assaulted by them during a raid to nab her son, who is an accused in the Bharatpur abductionmurder case.

Following the complaint of Dulari Devi, an FIR has been registered under sections 148 (rioting, armed with deadly weapons), 149 (unlawful assembly), 354 (assault or criminal force to woman with intent to outrage her modesty), 452 (house-trespass) and 312 (causing miscarriage) of the Indian Penal Code at Nagina police station here, the police said.

Devi is the mother of accused Srikant Pandit and the woman who lost her child is his wife. He is among the five linked to the Bajrang Dal who were initially booked for allegedly abducting and killing the two men hailing from Bharatpur in Rajasthan whose charred bodies were found in Loharu in Hary- ana’s Bhiwani on Thursday.

The Rajasthan Police has denied Devi’s allegation.

“Nuh police registered the FIR against 30 to 40 unidentified cops of Rajasthan police on Tuesday,” an official said.

Rajasthan Police was conducting a raid at the house of Srikant in village Maroda on Friday morning when the alleged incident occurred. Devi alleged that her full-term pregnant daughter-in-law hgave birth to a stillborn child after she was assaulted duriga raid by 30-40 cops of Rajasthan police, who were in uniform as well as plain clothes.

Pandit’s mother, in her complaint, had also alleged that the police forcibly took away her two other sons.

After these allegations, Varun Singla, Superintendent of Police of Nuh initiated a probe into the matter.

The cause of death of the child is not ascertained yet as the viscera examination report from the forensic science laboratory is awaited, the official said.

The two victims, Junaid and Nasir, were alleged to have been abducted and murdered by cow vigilantes.

The Congress will continue to fearlessly raise its voice on issues of the country, Priyanka Gandhi asserted.

“We will take a pledge at the Congress’ plenary session to raise our voice against inflation, unemployment and corruption. You cannot suppress the voice of the country by scaring us through puppet agencies,” she said.

The defence minister described the telephonic conversation as “cordial” and “positive” and said it was aimed at future growth of the bilateral defence relationship. “It was a pleasure to speak with the UK Secretary of State for Defence, Mr. Ben Wallace. The conversation was cordial, positive and focused on future growth of the bilateral defence relationship,” he tweeted.

“We reviewed the ongoing defence cooperation and expressed satisfaction over the bilateral militaryto-military engagements. Discussed a wide range of defence and security issues in our conversation including regional developments and the Indo-Pacific,” Singh said.

Banerjee also said that her government, which had been “striving to usher in development” across the length and breadth of Bengal, will put an end to all conspiracies to divide the state. “We will foil all gamepland and conspiracies to divide Bengal,” she said.

The West Bengal Assembly had on Monday passed a motion opposing any attempt to divide the state, with the BJP calling the move a “political stunt”.

Kurseong’s BJP MLA Bishnu Prasad Sharma, however, demanded a referendum in region to find out if people there wanted to remain a part of the state.

The Gorkha Janamukti Morcha (GJM) and the Hamro Party have, meanwhile, called for a 12-hour shutdown in the Darjeeling hills on February 23 in protest against the motion.

Banerjee, while addressing a government programme here in Darjeeling district, said her government has zero tolerance for any bandh, blockade or shutdown during Class 10 state board exams, which is set to begin on February 23.

“We have shunned the politics of bandh and blockade since we came to power. If any candidate is inconvenienced while going to the exam centre, we will take appropriate action,” she said, stressing that no public programme will be allowed during the period.

Banerjee also accused the opposition BJP of trying to derail her government’s mission to create job opportunities by “moving the court against recruitment drives”. “Mark my words, we will lawfully provide jobs as and when possible to (eligible) candidates. I never go back on my promises. But every time we make provisions for jobs, the BJP moves the court to forestall

“Currently, every employee gets salary on the first day of the month unlike the situation in the past when our predecessors ruled the state. We are giving pension to all state employees and we will not waver from that. We are doing everything to the best of our abilities,” the CM asserted. State finance minister Chandrima Bhattacharya recently announced a three percent DA hike for employees, prompting some of them to call for a 48-hour pen-down or ceasework across all offices and educational institutions on February 20-21.

On the issue of a Cooch Behar youth’s killing, allegedly by the BSF, she said the district superintendent of police has been asked to conduct an inquiry and file a report. “The postmortem report says there were 180 pellet wounds in his body. I have never heard about any such case before. The BSF cannot be acting this way. An inquiry will be conducted,” she said.