Cong plans several events in Amethi to mark Rajiv Gandhi’s birth anniversary ‘SAD to go it alone in upcoming polls in Haryana’ Govt orders withdrawal of 7K CRPF troops from 4 states, to be re-deployed in S Bastar
LUCKNOW/AMETHI (UP): The Congress in Uttar Pradesh’s Amethi parliamentary constituency, which former prime minister Rajiv Gandhi had represented four times, will organise a number of programmes on his birth anniversary on Monday.
The party will organise a half-marathon, competitive events for school students, a presentation of folk song Alha, and honour senior party leaders and others, said Yogendra Mishra, president of the Amethi district Congress committee; and Chandra Kant Dubey, representative of Amethi MP and party president Rahul Gandhi.
Tributes will also be paid to the former prime minister by leaders and workers at the party office in Lucknow, a statement issued by the UP Congress said today.
The Congress has also decided to collect photographs of Rajiv Gandhi from Amethi residents to mark the day, and will organise a weeklong exhibition titled ‘Hamare Rajiv (Ours Rajiv)’ at the party office in Gauriganj, the district headquarters.
Party activist Jagdish Piyush said Rajiv Gandhi was one of the most humble and simple politician whom the people of Amethi called “Bhaiya”.
Rajiv Gandhi was born on August 20 in 1944. He represented Amethi in Parliament in 1981, 1984, 1989 and 1991. KURUKSHETRA: Shiromani Akali Dal (SAD) chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Sunday announced that the party would contest the parliamentary and state assembly elections in Haryana independently.
Addressing the party’s first major rally at the grain market in Pipli town ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha polls, the SAD president said “we have promised and delivered in Punjab. Now, we are ready to take up the responsibility of working for the welfare of the people of Haryana”.
He appealed to Punjabis to unite under the flag of the SAD to script a new history in Haryana. No one can stop you from acquiring power once you unite as one with the SAD, he added.
Badal said if the SAD was voted to power in the state, it would implement a free power policy for the agriculture sector. He announced free piped irrigation water to all fields, 400 units free power per month to Dalits besides a slew of facilities for all sections of society.
The SAD is a key ally of the Bjp-led NDA at the Centre and also shared power with the saffron party in Punjab before Amarinder Singh-led Congress stormed to power. In Haryana, the SAD has parted ways with longtime ally Indian National Lok Dal (INLD), the principal opposition party in the BJP- ruled state.
Making it clear that the SAD would take on the Congress aggressively in Haryana, Badal assured the gathering that his party would continue the struggle for justice for 1984 anti-sikh riot victims as long as the perpetrators were not jailed.
Badal also alleged that the Punjabi community was discriminated against by the Congress party “be it during the Emergency or later during the period of militancy”.
He claimed even now the community was facing discrimination as reflected by an incident in Hisar where a Sikh family was the victim of an alleged target attack.
“We can stop all this only by wresting power,” he added.
SAD’S Haryana unit incharge Balwinder Singh Bhundur highlighted how former Punjab chief minister Parkash Singh Badal benefitted farmers and downtrodden by the free power facility as well as schemes like ‘Shagun’ and ‘Aata-daal’.
He said such schemes could be replicated in Haryana if the people supported the SAD.
Haryana SAD president Sharanjit Singh Sohta claimed that there was a feeling that various political parties in Haryana had not given due respect to Punjabis and now the entire community was looking up to the SAD to lead it. NEW DELHI: The central government has directed the withdrawal of over 7,000 CRPF personnel from their long drawn deployment in four states, the maximum being from West Bengal.
These armed troops, part of seven battalions, will subsequently be re-deployed for conducting operations in Naxalhit regions of south Bastar in Chhattisgarh, a recent government order has said.
The force was deployed to carry out anti-naxal operations in West Bengal, Bihar and Jharkhand whereas for internal security-related duty in Uttar Pradesh.
As per the directive issued accessed by PTI, the Union Home Ministry early this week informed the respective states enumerating that the maximum of three battalions are to be withdrawn from West Bengal, two from Bihar and one each from Uttar Pradesh and Jharkhand.
Official sources said the move to take out the Central Reserve Police Force battalions from these states has come after a long time and the Home Ministry ordered for their marching after the paramilitary made a demand to it that it requires more battalions in Chhattisgarh in order to open more bases in the Maoist hotbed in Chhattisgarh.
As the biggest Left Wing Extremism (LWE) combat challenge is now in south Bastar, that borders Odisha, Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra, it is required to enhance the number of CRPF boots in these areas, they said.
The districts of Sukma, Dantewada, Bijapur, Kanker and Kondagaon witness the maximum movement and activity of the armed Maoist cadres and since the last year, the CRPF has begun opening camps in the interior areas to penetrate into the core Naxal areas, they said.
The LWE theatre in all the states from where the battalions have been ordered to be taken out, except Uttar Pradesh, have seen a marginal dip in the strength and control of Naxals and the forces are now in the dominating position, a senior official supervising antinaxal operations for the CRPF explained.