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Indian HOLOCAUST My Father`s Life and Time - One Hundred Thirteen

Palash Biswas


Aamar Gram, Tomar Gram, Shobar Gram: Nandigram,
Nandigram

My Village; Your Village; Everybody's village.
Nandigram. Nandigram

Colour, confusion and crowds... It was every bit the grand filmy wedding as Abhishek Bachchan, astride a horse, wearing an off-white sherwani and a white turban bedecked with flowers, arrived on a hot Friday evening to wed ...

KOLKATA, April 19: Only 250 odd farmers are still opposing land acquisition for the Tata small car factory at Singur while about 2,000 have accepted the project, Mr Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee said this evening hours before Miss Mamata Banerjee was supposed to address her second public meeting at Singur

Veteran CPI(M) leader Jyoti Basu today said his party was opposed to Reliance's agri-retail project in West Bengal as it would affect millions of small traders, signalling more problems for the scheme. NRI steel tycoon Lakshmi Mittal has earned a staggering 4.1 billion pounds during the past one year and retained his position as the richest person in Britain in 2007 with a wealth worth 19 billion pounds. According to The Sunday Times' annual Rich List in which foreigners dominate, only one Briton has found place among the top five richest individuals. The List will be published next Sunday. Red Horses of Post Modern Manusmriti run Faster on Global super Highway of Capitalist development. Contrarily,Asserting that his vision for development was for farmers and workers, West Bengal Chief Minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharjee today said the industrialisation move in the state was unstoppable.

''The move towards industry from agriculture is inevitable.

Providing job to the younger generation--the son and daughter of the farmer and the worker--is the goal that we are working for and we have to move ahead,'' he said while addressing a rally, organised by CITU demanding industrialisation.Observing that agriculture was no more enough to meet the livelihood of farmers, Mr Bhattacharjee said the benefit of industrialisation would benefit one and all.''Those who are crying hoarse must realise what we are losing what we are going to gain through industrialisation,'' he said.

In a bid to blunt the criticism of the opposition that farmers were being rendered landless in the ongoing industrialisation process, Mr.Bhattacharjee said his government was still holding 30,000 acres, ready to be distributed among the landless peasants.

BHARAT MONDOL’S MOTHER
oy Goswami
Translated from the original Bengali
by
Sampurna Chattarji
Dedication
To Saoli Mitra
These poems were all written in response to current events, except the poem on the back cover, which was written during the Gujarat genocide. For me, the Gujarat of 2002 and the Nandigram of 2007 are both symptoms of the same kind of state-sponsored terrorism.
- Joy Goswami [Joy Goswami is a leading living Bengali poet giving voice to the voiceless.]

BHARAT MONDOL’S MOTHER
(‘Those women who in Nandigram placed themselves in the front lines, their emotion was misplaced.’
– Sunil Gangopadhyay on Nandigram, Anandabazar Patrika, 16 March 2007)


The old lady said:
‘I’ve lost one son, let them take the other one
I will not give them my land.
Do you see these two hands…’
Saying which she lifted her veined and trembling hands
To show me: ‘I’ve worked the fields with these two hands,
now with these two hands I’ll stop them taking away my land.’

Old lady, you don’t have stashes of arms
You don’t have countless cops
You don’t have countless cadres uniforms on their backs slippers on their feet
And yet, where do you get such strength?

We cannot say – all we know is that from time to time
Ma Durga shows herself in the form of a farmer’s mother.


WHICH IS MORE, WHICH LESS
(‘In my opinion, the chief minister himself is grieving, in solitude’ – Sunil Gangopadhyay on Nandigram, Anandabazar Patrika, 16 March 2007)


The one whose tongue was cut off because she recognized the man who raped her
The one whose child was held by the legs and torn in two
The one whose husband was felled to the ground with two swift blows to the neck
And left to die without being given a drop of water
All that sorrow blazing inside all those women
Next to that fire
Place the sixty-minute sadness of the authority that ordered the firing
And then measure which is more, which less
And then think who might have said
We’ll make life hell, we’ll shoot to kill, if needs be, shoot to kill!

Saying this the peacocks with blood in their beaks
Dance their way across crematoriums

And their burning feathers scatter and fall as they dance

CORPSE
Every time I try and write of love
A corpse comes and lies down on these pages
Cutting the expanse of this book in two
A channel flows through
In the moonlight stands the cycle-van that will spirit the corpses away
In the moonlight stands the man who will drive the cycle-van, his head shrouded
Women, minors traumatised

Rajib Chatterjee
KOLKATA, April 19: Somnath Mondal (six) of Gokulnagar in Nandigram developed sleeplessness after he witnessed the death of his uncle Puspendu in police firing on 14 March. Somnath is one among 30-odd children of four trouble-torn villages in Nandigram who developed symptoms of traumatic stress disorder after viewing the police action on their family members and neighbours.
A doctors’ team, including psychiatrists, which visited Nandigram to provide medical assistance to injured villagers observed this, saying some children are suffering from insomnia due to panic.
The psychiatrists, during counselling, noticed a change in the behavioural pattern of children who witnessed the firing. “They have stopped going to school and separate themselves from group activities. They prefer to stay indoors and express their fears when asked to come out of the room,” Dr Angshuman Mitra, secretary of the Medical Service Centre Kolkata district committee, who visited Nandigram, said.
http://www.thestatesman.net/page.news.php?clid=6&theme=&usrsess=1&id=154065

While 12 platoons of force, camping in Kujang, waited on Wednesday for further instructions from the police headquarters in Cuttack, anti-Posco activists—especially in Dhinkia panchayat—unanimously resolved to face any consequences without diluting their opposition to the steel project coming up in the region.

The writ of the Orissa government did not cut much ice in Dhinkia where villagers are not allowing any outsiders to enter their area without verifying the identities. Road blockades have come up at the entry and exit points of Dhinkia and adjoining villages where villagers are keeping vigil round the clock.


What Basu says, it seems quite irrlevent in MNC raj in Corporate ruled India. Basu was not considered Fit to be The Red Star in Indian Sky, first ever Marxist plus bengali Prime minister of India. As he is unable to be out and out Promoter for NRIs and US interests. Thus, we often see him contradict Budhddev! There were also differences among Left Front partners on SEZs and they will meet to sort out these out, he said. The CPI-M's allies RSP and Forward Bloc are totally opposed to the setting up of SEZs. The party was annoyed over decisions by an empowered group of Ministers to keep intact "exorbitant and unjustified tax concessions", fix the upper limit of multi-product SEZs at 5,000 hectares and allow developers to directly purchase land from farmers.


Nevertheless, Basu has got his roots in a kayastha Zamindar family and ultimately, he has to maintain brahminical Supremacy in Bengal. Same is the case of Mamta, the toughest Cahallenger for Writers as she happens to be a brahmin and tyhe ruling class rejects her as an alternative. Hence , she despite her commitment and sustained struggle, fails to dent the rotten system.

The CPI-M will not withdraw support to the UPA Government at the Centre despite differences with it on issues like the SEZ policy and FDI in retail as this would allow the BJP to make a comeback, Marxist partriarch Jyoti Basu said today.Despite differences on fundamental issues, we are not thinking of withdrawing support to the UPA Government for the simple reason that the BJP will use the opportunity to stage a comeback to power," Basu told reporters after a meeting of the state CPI-M secretariat here. Noting that the CPI-M will oppose the UPA's policies both inside and outside the Government, he said his party has not discussed the issue of withdrawing support to the Central Government.

The Bombay Stock Exchange benchmark Sensex shot up by over 277 points today on frenzied buying by foreign as well as domestic funds on better-than-expected earnings from tech majors Wipro and Satyam Computers. The 30-share index, which had lost nearly 52 points yesterday, staged a significant recovery to close 277.71 points or 2.04 per cent up at 13,897.41 after touching the day's high of 13,915.62, thanks to a rally in oil and gas, metal, banking, IT and capital goods sector stocks. Similarly, the wide-based National Stock Exchange index Nifty, also closed 85.90 points, or 2.15 per cent higher at 4,0833.55 after hitting an intra-day high of 4,090.05 points.


"We are opposed to the way it is being done. It has created a lot of problems among us and it needs to be discussed by the party's Central Committee and Politburo before a decision is taken," the 93-year-old Marxist leader said after the party's weekly meeting. Expressing his reservations at Mukesh Ambani's Rs 2000- crore project, Basu said, "We have not come to a definite conclusion on this. But we will not do anything which will hurt the interest of the people."

Basu said the interests of millions of small traders were involved in agri-retail trade. The CPI(M) is also opposed to the entry of FDI and big business in agri-retail sector, he said.

His comments could create more problems for Reliance as the former chief minister still wields considerable clout within the party.


And this is a Saffron India. A lover girl appears and robs all the space on live TV telecast claiming that Abhishek ditched her. She systemetically was unsuccessful in committing suicide and got the Lifetime Publicty. This is called Information explosion! People in many parts of India, the world's largest importer of gold, today thronged jewellery shops to buy symbolic items on the occasion of 'Akshaya Tritiya', a day considered auspicious for any new venture as per the Hindu ...The inflation rate again crossed the six per cent mark in the first week of the new fiscal mainly due to a sudden 23 per cent surge in vegetable prices, increasing pressure on RBI to tighten money supply next week.Setting the tone for the annual supplement to the foreign trade policy to be announced on Thursday, a survey by the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (Escap) named India as one of the key drivers of global growth.

We have invested our future either in rahul Gandhi or in Priyanka. The dynasty rules. Thus, after Rahul Gandhi's whirlwind tours of Uttar Pradesh, his sister Priyanka Vadra will undertake her maiden roadshow in Amethi tomorrow.
During the campaign, her first for the UP polls, Priyanka is expected to visit several areas and villages in Amethi, which his represented by Rahul in Lok Sabha. Priyanka has been nurturing the constituencies of Amethi and Rae Bareli, represented by her mother and Congress chief Sonia Gandhi in Lok Sabha.She had addressed party meetings at Amethi in which she had asked sparring Congress activists to work together for the on-going elections. The Congress chief, with Rahul and Priyanka in tow, are expected to address rallies jointly in Amethi and Rae Bareli sometime next week.


Has the media ever covered to show all the footage live from anywhere Bidarbha, Amlasole, Kalahandi, Duars tea gardens and from other killingfields scattered all over the Sub Continent.
At this point the name of the Indian State is either PRATEEKSHA or JALSA!
Nandigram, Singur, Kalingnagar, Haripur, OBC, UP elections, Northeast, Bangladesh and even United States of America and the Manu Maharaj in Washington and the Post modern Manusmriti - all are irrelevent.In one of its harshest tirades against the Congress-led government yet, the Communist Party of India-Marxist CPI (M) has warned that the ruling coalition cannot take its support for granted if it continues its "neo-liberal" policies.

And see the Global marketing of Terror and sensation! It is also so called INformation explosion, the best tool for Saffron Zionist Corporate Imperialism!

Mahashweta Di visited Nandigram and Nono generian Marxist Leader Jyoti Basu contradicts Buddhadev`s Industrial policy and opposed RIL Retail Chain In Bengal. We don`t deserve to have informations like these events!

HRD ministry writes a strong letter to IIMs, warning them against any decision until the quota issue is resolved. Press Trust Of India.It is no news! Toeing the government`s line, the Indian Institutes of Management (IIMs) on Friday decided to keep on hold admissions to their postgraduate programme for the coming academic year till the Supreme Court decides on the quota for OBCs in elite educational institutions.


FORMER Bangladesh prime minister Khaleda Zia has asked the military-backed Government to immediately free her son and allow her one last party meeting before she leaves for exile, a report said yesterday. Indian Cahnnels see noo meat in this Item. Neither in Sheikh Hasina`s vows to return home!

Even the only National Identity, the Team India in Blue was Ashabhed! What Nationality we have! We cry against Racism against shilpa Shetty and practice Untouchability in Day today life!Shilpa had evolved for a section of Indian viewers from a mere victim of Western racism into a symbol of Indian Womanhood. The Shilpa-Gere show was a cruel letdown for the ‘cultural nationalists’.

Javno.hr
Tendulkar, Ganguly dropped from ODI squad
Hindu - 47 minutes ago
Mumbai, April. 20 (PTI): Wielding the axe, cricket selectors today dropped veterans Sachin Tendulkar and Sourav Ganguly from the Indian ODI team for the Bangladesh series while dumping Harbhajan Singh, Irfan Pathan and Ajit Agarkar from both the one ...
Sachin, Saurav dropped from ODI team Business Standard
Cricket-Tendulkar and Ganguly rested for Bangladesh one-dayers Reuters.uk
Microsoft has announced plans to offer a limited version of its Office software suite to schoolchildren in developing countries for the price of $3 per copy. Game-related sales, including software, hardware and accessories rise 33 percent year over year in March to $1.1 billion. By Reuters. And we are surprised and shocked by Virginia Tech killer!

What about the killers back home and Ruling us everywhere?
What we see? What we feel?
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/morephoto.asp?sid=PHT
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/ph_gl.asp?pageno=1&st=414
http://www.ndtvmovies.com/ashabhi.asp?id=6306

WAS NBC right to broadcast the video to Virginia Tech killer Cho Seung-Hui ranting and brandishing weapons?

Was the broadcast not giving the deranged killer what he wanted – to be noticed and feared. Of course, he was already dead when the videos aired. But will others – copycats- be inspired by his message?

Is mental illness and the desire to commit mass murder contagious?

The Times’ Bronwen Maddox says NBC was right to show the tapes.

She asks if NBC resist the scoop “beyond its dreams”? And this is the footage that offers an explanation as to why Cho did it.

Says Maddox:
“Yet NBC, which says it broadcast only after fierce internal debate, and tightly limited the choice and repetition of the material, was surely right to go ahead. People’s shock this week is understandable. But that has brought a tendency to exaggerate the distress or danger of the broadcast, and to dismiss the useful conclusions from seeing it — and even the reassurance it gives.

“Cho was clearly mentally ill, not simply a troubled student in a bad patch, or someone who snapped under sudden strain; on its own, that is reassuring. Nothing was impulsive, from the purchase of the two guns in two months, to the obsessive assembly of pictures and speeches-to-camera in a digital collage. The paranoia, the sexual and religious metaphors, the flailing accusations at rich classmates and Jesus, the conviction that he had a cancer of the mind — these tell us that the quest to “understand what made him do it” is not going to take us far. "
http://www.anorak.co.uk/twitterings/172694.html

Congratulate Ash, Abhishek!
January 15, 2007

It's finally official.

After months of frenzied media speculation, Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan are finally tying the knot.

The couple got engaged in Mumbai on January 14, and the wedding is scheduled for tomorrow, April 20.

Special: The Aishwarya-Abhishek Wedding

Come, join rediff.com in congratulating the couple on their wedding.

Leave your wishes below and we will make sure they reach the superstars.
http://www.rediff.com/movies/2007/apr/15wish.htm

The Abhi-Ash festivities begin
http://specials.rediff.com/movies/2007/apr/20sld1.htm
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Bill Gates sees tech revolution without limits

Beijing, April 19: Technology will keep getting better and better rather than plateauing out, with the humble keyboard making way for speech recognition software as standard, Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill Gates said on Thursday.

"I`m often asked, is the technology revolution going to reach an end? Is the improvement in the chips and the software, will that start to slow down as we reach some limits?" he told a forum in Beijing.

"The answer is -- certainly in the decades ahead -- we don`t see any limits. We see in fact the power will just get better and better."

In the future, students` textbooks would be replaced by individual electronic tablets that would be cheap, multimedia, and connected to the Internet, predicted Gates, the world`s richest man with an estimated $56 billion fortune.

"We really see no limits in terms of bandwidth, connecting these systems together. New wireless approaches will let us reach out into rural areas, will let us have very good, high bandwidth without wired systems," Gates said.

And television would become fully wired.
http://www.zeenews.com/znnew/articles.asp?aid=366641&ssid=365&sid=ENV


No limit can be placed on number of SEZs: Nath
New Delhi, April 20: The government Friday said any freeze on number of Special Economic Zones would not be feasible given the country's demographic reality.

"The number of SEZs are not important but it is the number of units in a zone that matter. It was not possible in India to acquire large tracts of land for SEZs because of density of population.

"It would not be proper to put any kind of limit on number of zones," Commerce and Industry Kamal Nath said after his interaction with CII.

He said in countries like China there were only a few SEZs but each had thousand of units.

"They have designated one province as an SEZ. We had a similar request from a state in India but that is not possible. Because of land constraints we are getting so many applications," Nath added.

The Minister said SEZs were here to stay and there was no intention to repeal the Act governing them.

"The issue is acquisition of land, which has to be fair and transparent. It is being looked at by the relevant ministry," Nath said.

He said government was still receiving applications for SEZs and in view of large number of pending cases it has been decided to first look at proposals received before April 5.
SC notice to Jet, Flemingo, Thomas Cook on AAI`s plea
The Supreme Court Friday issued notices to Jet Airways, Flemingo Duty Free Shops Pvt Ltd and Thomas Cook India on a plea filed by Airports Authority of India seeking transfer of petitions related to imposition of service tax on airport services to the Delhi High Court.
, rising rupee is a worry: Nath
ENS ECONOMIC BUREAUPosted online: Thursday, April 19, 2007 at 0000 hrs Print EmailExporters’ Woes: We will speak to them and discuss what can be done, assures Commerce Minister
NEW DELHI, APRIL 18 : With Indian exporters suffering at the hands of the appreciating rupee, a survey by the United Nation’s Economic and Social Commission for Asia and Pacific (ESCAP) has listed exchange rate management as the biggest challenge that will have to be countered by the region’s growing economies. The survey, which was released by commerce and industry minister Kamal Nath today, pointed out that the major currencies are likely to appreciate on the back of large capital inflows due to speculation and a slowdown in the US economy.


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Nath, however, played down the impact of the sluggish US economy, maintaining that the interdependence of the Indian economy and the US is minimal. “India’s growth is domestic market-driven and though there are vital linkages of export with overall growth, our economy is not China or US-centric. Hence, the impact of their economies on ours will be relatively less,” Nath said.

A day before the announcement of the annual supplement on foreign trade policy, the commerce and industry minister conceded that the appreciation of the rupee with respect to the dollar is a cause for concern and the government will take steps to address the issue. “The strengthening of our currency by 9 per cent over the last year has hurt our exporters and the matter has been brought to my notice. We will speak to exporters and discuss what can be done,” he said, adding that the cheaper dollar has posed a serious threat to higher imports as well.
http://www.indianexpress.com/story/28725.html


Swaminathan Panel to reflect people`s views
The report of the M S Swaminathan Commission, assigned to submit recommendations for sustainable development of Kuttanad agriculture belt, in Kerala`s Alappuzha district would draw up its conclusions based on its extensive interaction with people in the area.

First Look: Sonia Gandhi's Urdu letter to UP Muslims

Congress president Sonia Gandhi has sent signed letters to some 15,000 members of the Muslim community in Uttar Pradesh, seeking their support for her party candidates in the ongoing assembly elections.

The letter, drawn on her official letterhead and addressed to Muslim leaders all over UP, states:

'As the Congress president I would like to strengthen this country's secular traditions. As the biggest political party in the country, it is our duty to create such a society in which there is no injustice meted out to any sect. It is a big challenge that cannot be met without your backing. You are well aware of the current political scenario in Uttar Pradesh. It is my humble request to you to fully help us in this war against casteism, so that we can build a dream society as you wish.


'I hope you will strengthen my hand by casting your vote for our candidates in your constituencies.'



Did the government of India literally gain any experience between 2004 and 2006? It just shows the cavalier manner in which life and death questions of millions of displaced are dealt by the officials.

Does the Draft National Rehabilitation Policy of 2006 address the concerns? In a nutshell, it can be termed as Draft National Displacement Policy as it only strengthens the procedures for displacement.

HRD ministry writes a strong letter to IIMs, warning them against any decision until the quota issue is resolved. Press Trust Of India.


Centre sounds Maoist alert in Nandigram

Anjan Chakraborty
KOLKATA, April 17: The seizure of a large consignment of explosives bound for West Bengal in Jharkhand four days ago coupled with recent Intelligence reports suggest that Maoists are relocating a portion of their cadre to the state in the wake of the Nandigram issue, the Union home ministry has said.
In a warning to the state government, the ministry has disclosed intelligence reports of Maoists importing men to West Bengal from among its cadre base active in the neighbouring states of Bihar and Jharkhand for the last two months. The group is using the Katihar (Bihar)-Sahibganj (Jharkhand) corridor to sneak militants into the state.
Local intelligence inputs from these states suggested that a few hundred extremists might have managed to reach West Bengal already. The CPI-M, incidentally, had been alleging that the violence in Nandigram was “aided and abetted by the Maoists.”
In the so-called red corridor spread across Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Jharkhand, Bihar and West Bengal, the state remains the weakest link. “Maoists become active in three stages. First, they identify an issue and then they create a tempo against the local government and finally usher in a parallel administration. Nandigram SEZ would, no doubt, tempt Maoists,” a senior state home department official said.
Intelligence inputs were further corroborated on 14 April when Dumka police in neighbouring Jharkhand nabbed a suspected Maoist and recovered 3,000 detonators and 400 bags of explosives from his possession. Police raided a Rampurhat-bound private bus near Pusaro Bridge and arrested a teenager, Swapan Ravi Das, of Rajgram village in Suri subdivision of Birbhum district of West Bengal.
On the basis of information provided by Swapan, Dumka police rushed to Rampurhat to arrest those to whom the explosives were to be allegedly supplied. The boy had told the police that two persons would be there to receive these explosives near Rampurhat bus stand, but when police along with their West Bengal counterparts reached there, they found no one.
Police raided several places in Shikaripara block in this connection and detained four persons including Muhammad Riyauddin, Harun Sheikh, Idul Sheikh and Muhammad Jalal, all hailing from West Bengal. They have been interrogated on the destination and intended use of the explosives.
The explosives recovered had the seal of Gomia based Indian Explosive Ltd, a Central government unit in Jharkhand. Swapan admitted that it was his second such trip within a week. One Musharraf Sheikh had engaged him to procure these explosives from Durgapur village in Kundo police station of Deoghar district.
“Police in the districts bordering Bihar and Jharkhand have been asked to step up vigil following the Intelligence report,” the official added.
Calcutta High Court directs railways to prevent illegal hawking
Apr 17, 2007 - 9:42:14 PM
'I have been commuting by the railways for more than 15 years. I live in North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal and I travel by train every day. I have seen the trouble people face due to railway hawkers,' said Bhattacharya.




By IANS, [RxPG] Kolkata, April 17 - The Calcutta High Court Tuesday directed the railway authorities to ensure that no illegal hawking takes place inside train compartments and at railway stations.

Acting on a Public Interest Litigation - filed by lawyer Anjan Bhattacharya, the division bench comprising Pinaki Chandra Ghosh and Biswanath Somadder Tuesday directed the order and also asked the Eastern Railway - authorities to ensure compliance of Section 144 of the Indian Railways Act at all their stations.

The high court order also directed that no begging be allowed inside the compartments.

According to Section 144 of the Indian Railways Act, if any person practices illegal hawking or begging inside train compartments or on station premises, he will be punishable with imprisonment for a term which may extend to one year or a fine which may extend to Rs.2,000, or both.

'As of now, we haven't received a copy of the order. The moment we get it we will definitely comply,' Soumitra Majumdar, chief public relations officer of Eastern Railway, told IANS.

Bhattacharya, who is a Calcutta High Court lawyer and a daily commuter by rail, said that during his journey he had often witnessed disturbances caused by hawkers on the platforms as well as in the compartments.

'I have been commuting by the railways for more than 15 years. I live in North 24-Parganas district of West Bengal and I travel by train every day. I have seen the trouble people face due to railway hawkers,' said Bhattacharya.

He added that the division bench has directed the order asking the ER to comply with Section 144 from Tuesday.
High Court to hear PIL on Chota Angaria
Calcutta High Court refuses continuation of CBI inquiry in Nandigram case
From our ANI Correspondent


Fresh pesticide cry in soft drinks
OUR LEGAL REPORTER

Soft drink manufacturers have again been dragged to court over alleged pesticide content in their products.

In a public interest litigation filed in Calcutta High Court on Monday, city-based NGO Diganta has alleged that pesticide has been found in products of several soft drink companies. The samples were collected from the market and sent for tests to National Test House (run by the Centre), in Alipore, and the state pollution control board.

“The results are alarming. The reports state that pesticide, a poison, has been found in the soft drinks. The companies should not be allowed to market their product in the state,” submitted Sukhendu Sekhar Roy, who appeared for the petitioner. He produced copies of the reports.

The division bench of Justice P.C. Ghosh and Justice B. Samaddar asked the companies to file affidavits in response to the petitioner’s statement.

Denying the allegation, the lawyer appearing for the drink manufacturers said: “Several petitions making similar claims were filed in courts across the country, but the charges were proved false.”

The court, however, rejected the petitioner’s demand for an interim order prohibiting the firms from issuing advertisements “till further orders”.

The bench said the court had entertained a similar petition and asked the registrar to seek a report from a Delhi-based laboratory run by the Central Pollution Control Board. The report is yet to arrive.

“We will have to wait for the report,” the bench observed, while asking the companies to file affidavits within three weeks. The matter will be heard again after four weeks.

While intervening in a similar case moved in the court in February, green activist Subhas Dutta had prayed for an order directing soft drink manufacturers to mention the components on the label.

The court had assured him that the proposal would be considered latter.

Mangalore April 19: Putting forward various demands of farmers and labourers, several organisations including Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU) and Karnataka Prantha Raita Sangha (KPRS) staged a protest demonstration, in front of the Deputy Commissioner’s office here on Wednesday.BSNL Employees Union (BSNLEU), All India Insurance Employees Association (AIIEA), Bank Employees Federation of India (BEFI) and Dakshin Railway Employees Union (DREU) also supported the dharna, held on the grounds of a total of 12 demands of the working class.

The demands include; Control over the price hike of necessary commodities, strengthening of public distribution system, support price for farmers, proper implementation of land reformation, free house site for poor people, a comprehensive legislation for the welfare of labourers in the unorganised sector and staying the reduction of tax on imported commodities.

George accuses Sonia of scuttling Nandigram probe

New Delhi, April 20: Stepping up his attack against Congress chief Sonia Gandhi, NDA convenor George Fernandes Friday accused her of interfering in the CBI investigation into Nandigram police firing to help the CPM government in West Bengal.