Jan Chetna Yatra: Why starting from Bihar? Congress asks Advani

Ranchi: Congress has sought to ask L K Advani and Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar to clarify why Bihar was chosen for the BJP leader?s Jan Chetna Yatra instead of Gujarat or other BJP-ruled states.

"L K Advani should clarify his choice of state for his yatra. If, according to him, Bihar government is free of corruption, does it mean other BJP-ruled states like Gujarat have corrupt governments?" asked AICC spokesman Shakeel Ahmed.

"And Nitish Kumar should explain to the people for allowing L K Advani to start his yatra from Bihar. He (Kumar) has always distanced from Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi following the infamous Godhra incidents. Has the Bihar chief minister forgotten that Advani is one of the charge-sheeted persons in the Babri Masjid demolition?" he said.

Ahmed, who was here to attend the 'shardh' of Rajya Sabha member Ramdayal Munda, was reacting to media query on Advani embarking on his sixth career yatra, flagged off by Nitish Kumar, from Sitabdiara, the birth place of Jayaprakash Narayan.

Advani embarked on a 'Yatra' to focus on the black money issue, Congress has sought to point out how BJP had done precious little in the matter when it was in power and to project by contrast how the UPA has been "pro-active".

Party spokesman Manish Tewari told reporters that in its endevaour to tackle the menace of black money, the UPA government had in the last two years amended the Double Taxation Avoidance agreements with 81 countries and effected Tax Information Exchange agreements with four countries known to be tax havens.

Besides, he said the Directorate of Transfer Pricing detected mispricing of Rs 34,145 crores during the period and Directorate of International Taxation collected taxes to the tune of Rs 33,784 crores for cross-border transactions.

Tewari said 9920 pieces of information regarding details of assets and payments received by Indian citizens in foreign countries were being investigated.

The CBDT detected concealed income of Rs 18,750 crore, he said adding that under relevant agreement, France provided information of 69 Indians having bank accountings there from which an unaccounted income of Rs 397 crore was unearthed.

The concerte actions of the UPA showed that the issue of black money cannot be tackled by "mere tokenism and symbolism as was being done by BJP, as against the hard and resolute" action of the UPA.

"There is a world of difference between words and deeds," he added.

'Civil war'-like situation at the Centre: Nitish

Patna: A 'civil war'-like situation is prevailing at the Centre with 'squabbles' among some senior ministers over the Finance Ministry note on 2G spectrum scam, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar said.

Kumar, who was addressing the 65th annual function of Bihar Industries Association, however, did not elaborate on his comment or name any central minister.

He hit out at the Centre for not conceding special category status to Bihar and said its electorate would teach a lesson to those who were denying due rights to the backward state and its people.

"The people of Bihar sent out a terse message in 2010 assembly polls by rejecting political parties which had failed to cater to the state's economic interests. They will do it again in the future," he said without naming any political party.

Alleging discrimination, Kumar said the Centre gave many reasons to deny Bihar its 'rightful claims' but adopted a different yardstick to bail out West Bengal.

Bihar had been ignored even in sanctioning of power projects and allotment of coal linkages for the proposed power projects in the state.

The people of Bihar would not give up their efforts for special economic status and due pressure would be mounted on the Centre to grant it in due course of time, he added.

Sikkim quake: 30 killed, over 200 injured; herculean rescue operation underway

Gangtok/ New Delhi: The toll in Sikkim following Sunday's powerful 6.8 magnitude earthquake rose to 18 on Monday, an official said in Gangtok.

The high-intensity quake was followed by two after-shocks and had its epicentre on the Sikkim-Nepal border.

Extensive damages to several buildings were reported in various parts of Sikkim due to the earthquake,  whose epicentre was said to be was located at Mangan and Sakyong areas, over 50 km from Gangtok on Sikkim-Nepal border. The earthquake is being described as the biggest in 20 years in the northeast.

The number of those injured in the earthquake crossed 200 as reports came in here from different areas.

Sikkim has been cut off from the rest of the country with the national highway 31-A blocked in at least eight places following heavy mudslides, said G. Anandan, district magistrate, Sikkim East.

As many as 25 concrete bridges were damaged between Siliguri and Gangtok on the 120 km long national highway 31-A, he said.

The Sikkim secretariat also developed cracks, he added.

More updates on Sikkim earthquake:

# Road from Pegong to Chungthang tehsil washed away due to landslide.

# NDRF personnel are waiting for the highway to be cleared.

# Sikkim govt confirms 18 deaths. Rescue team of state has reached Mangan area of north Sikkim but they are yet to get input from Chungthang.

# Big landslides all over NH 31A - the lifeline of Sikkim. NDRF forces are still stranded in Siliguri.

# A herculean rescue operation begins as NDRF and Army battalions reach Sikkim.

# Missing vehicle including Army personnel found, all safe: Report

# 10 army Combat Engineers Columns deployed for opening major roadblocks on Siliguri-Gangtok.

# No casualties reported so far from Bhutan but building damages, road blocks and few minor injuries reported.

Quake kills six in Bihar

At least six people were killed and dozens injured in several parts of Bihar, police said Monday.

Two people died in Nawada, and one in Darbhanga, Nalanda, Bhagalpur and Patna each, Additional Director General of Police Rajvardhan Sharma said.

Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has announced Rs.1.5 lakh compensation for the kin of each of the deceased. 

Quake kills six in West Bengal

At least six people were killed and over 200 injured in northern districts in West Bengal.

Two people died in Siliguri, three in Darjeeling and one in Jalpaiguri district, police said.

Many buildings developed cracks and the neighbouring Himalayan state of Sikkim was cut-off from north Bengal by landslides triggered by the tremors in Darjeeling's Kalimpong and Kurseong hill sub-divisions. 

Quake jolts north India 

Tremors were felt in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, parts of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan, Chandigarh and Delhi, according to Indian Meteorological Department.

One of the two persons was killed at Singtham in East Sikkim district and another died just outside Singtham, Sikkim Chief Secretary Karma Gyatso said.

According to officials, two buildings of the Indo Tibetan Border Police (ITBP) collapsed in Pegong area though there was no immediate report of any casualty.

Three after shocks of 5.7, 5.3 and 4.6 magnitude on the Richter Scale were felt in the region within 30 minutes of the first quake.

Two teams of the National Disaster Response Force - five each from Delhi and Kolkata - are being sent to assist in the relief and rescue operations, R K Srivastava, Joint Secretary, Disaster Management, in the Home Ministry, said.



Reports said that phone lines got congested in Bengal and parts of Sikkim faced immediate power cut. However, no cases of any immediate damage and casualty have been reported from any parts of the country so far.



Many people were injured, power supply was disrupted in parts of northern West Bengal and houses developed cracks as a powerul quake, epicentred in adjoining Sikkim, rocked the region.

North Bengal Affairs Minister Gautam Deb said the quake triggered landslides in Kalimpong and Kurseong sub-divisions while several patients in a nursing home in Siliguri sub-division of Darjeeling district were injured.

 5 killed in Nepal

At least five people were killed when a strong 6.8 magnitude earthquake jolted various parts of this Himalayan country on Sunday.

Three people were killed when a high brick wall of the British Embassy here collapsed due to earthquake.

A man and his daughter and another pedestrian died after the wall of the Embassy at Lainchaur collapsed on them, according to sources at the Sorhakhutte Police Station.

Two more people killed in Dsaran municipality in eastern Nepal which was close to the epicentre of the quake.

At least 27 people in the capital were injured when they panicked and ran outside after the quake.

The Indian Embassy premises which is adjoining to the British Embassy compound did not suffer any damage, according to a mission spokesperson.

There was continuous rain in Kathmandu during the tremor and the foundation of the wall might have been weakened due to the rain and finally collapsed during the tremor, eye-witnesses said.

Cops thrash women in Bihar

Several women were injured when the police resorted to lathicharge to disperse a protest in Nalanda, Bihar. The protesters were demanding a probe into the mysterious disappearance of a woman on August 24.