Special Trains

734 special trains to meet festival rush

New Delhi: Railway Ministry has decided to run 734 special trains to meet the passenger rush during festival of the Durga Puja, Dipawali and Chhath Puja to be celebrated in this and next months. An official release said," Northern and East Central Railways are planning to run special trains during the festival season to cope with the passenger rush during the consecutive festivals, between Delhi Sarai Rohilla and certain destinations in Bihar. "A total of 734 special trains have already been notified across the country anticipating a heavy movement of passengers during the period," the release said. In view of the forth-coming assembly elections in Bihar, the Ministry of Railways had approached the Election Commission for clearance of running special trains to meet the festival rush during the current season. The Commission gave the clearance on a condition that the number of such special trains should not increase in the current season compared to the last year and also that the stoppages and halts of such special trains would not be increased.

Congress casteist list for Bihar polls

Patna: Another facet of the Bihar elections came to the fore when the media got the list of candidates released by the Congress for the Bihar Legislative Assembly. The list mentioned each party nominee's caste and religion. The list comprised the names of 42 candidates. But senior Congress leaders said that it was meant only for the 'internal' use of the party. Moreover, the leaders feel that it is normal to know a person's background before any elections. "I have told you that the list that we have issued does not mention caste. The internal papers of the party were taken by some one and this was unauthorised. In every election, it is very normal that caste composition, area composition, average age, background of the person is taken into account. It is an internal matter of our party and we do not release such a list," said Digvijay Singh, Party General Secretary In charge of Bihar Congress.

25 die consuming illicit liquor in Tezpur

Guwahati: At least 25 people died after consuming spurious liquor in Tezpur of Assam's Sonitpur district. Apart from 25 deaths, over 70 people have been reported admitted to local hospitals and 23, in very critical conditions, have been referred to the Guwahati Medical College Hospital. The toll may rise as several people were in critical conditions, sources said. An agitated mob torched the Excise office in Sonitpur. The Sonitpur Deputy Commissioner said seven people had been arrested so far for selling the hooch while police were on the look out for others involved in the incident.

Police bust prolific arms-making unit in Meerut

Meerut (Uttar Pradesh): Police in Meerut have busted a major illegal arms unit, ahead of second phase of village council elections beginning this month. Acting on a tip-off, police arrested one person and recovered a huge cache of country-made pistols and cartridges. Officials said that the weapons in all likelihood were meant to be used by poll riggers during the forthcoming village council elections. "We recovered a number of country-made pistols, some partially manufactured. Various parts (of the partially-made pistols) have been seized and a number of equipment used to manufacture arms has also been recovered. I think we made a timely arrest as these weapons are in high demand during the elections," Rajeev Ranjan Sharma, Senior Superintendent of Police, Meerut, told reporters. Mobin, the accused, said that he worked with two more people who fled just before the raid. "I had been manufacturing these weapons since past one-and-a-half month. Three of us worked here. They are at large. I used to get the raw material from Kairana and Shamli (towns in Uttar Pradesh state)," he said. He added that a large number of people were engaged in this illegal but profitable business at different places under Meerut division. Uttar Pradesh, which contributes the maximum number of lawmakers to the parliament, is the country's most politically sensitive but local mafia often use unlicensed weapons to threaten voters and rig the results. Illegal arms manufacturing is particularly thriving in the state, which has gained the epithet of the crime capital of the country.

One dead as 431 slums demolished in Delhi

New Delhi: A woman was killed when the Delhi Development Authorities demolished a cluster of slums in Delhi's Mayur Vihar area on Friday. However, the DDA said the death did not occur during the demolition. They said that the woman was injured while retrieving some commodity from the debris but died in the hospital. The Delhi High Court had directed the DDA to demolish the JJ clusters consisting Rajiv Camp and Ambedkar Camp in Mayur Vihar Phase I within 15 days on September 21. The demolition programme was initially fixed for September 27 and rescheduled to September 30 on the request of the slum dwellers as they had to remove their belongings. In total, 431slum dwellings were demolished.