Excelsior... Nation

Golden girl puts
hurdles on Cong
track in race to Ranaghat

RANAGHAT (NADIA), May 7: Nobody rated her a medal prospect. Everybody thought she might, at the most, qualify ...more

Air Chief Air Marshal A Y Tipnis

Air chief visits airbases, forward locations

NEW DELHI, May 7: Air Chief Air Marshal A Y Tipnis and Air Marshal S Krishnaswamy, Air Officer.....more

Dry Saurashtra
welcomes Narmada water

AHMEDABAD, May 7: Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel dedicated Asia’s largest...more

DIG injured in
Naxalite attack

NEW DELHI, May 7: DIG A K Sinha, who was injured in a landmine blast .....more

Gang of bike lifters,
burglars busted in city

NEW DELHI, May 7: With the arrest of four persons, Delhi Police today claimed to have busted a gang of motorcycle lifters and burglars and recovered a large number of two-wheelers and costly items worth Rs 11 lakh from them.........more

Removal of gall bladder
not required in most cases

NEW DELHI, May 7: An estimated 10-15 per cent of the adult population has gallstones, and the prevalence is higher among women and certain ethnic groups....more

Assembly elections Dust
will settle down today

NEW DELHI, May 7: Dust will settle down tomorrow on the frenzied campaign for May 10 assembly elections in four states and the union territory of Pondicherry.......more

PWG Naxals raid police
station, torch records

HYDERABAD, May 7: A 15-member team of the banned People’s War Group torched the records of a police station in Kurnool district early today, holding the personnel captive during its raid. The Naxals tied the Assistant Sub-Inspector and two Constables to a tree in the compound of the Pagidyala Police .......more

Golden girl puts hurdles on Cong track
in race to Ranaghat

RANAGHAT (NADIA), May 7: Nobody rated her a medal prospect. Everybody thought she might, at the most, qualify for the final when she went to Bangkok as part of Indian contingent in the 1998 Asian Games. But she proved everyone wrong.

The question uppermost in everybody’s mind in Ranaghat West Assembly constituency in Nadia district is whether CPI(M) nominee Jyotirmoyee Sikdar, popularly known as Jyoti, would be able to repeat her Asian Games feat in the rough and tumble of electoral polities she faces a tough challenger in where sitting Congress MLA Shankar Singh.

Though Ranaghat west is witnessing a seven-cornered contest, the challenge would remain mainly between Jyotirmoyee and Shankar while BJP candidate Sunil Chakraborty is expected to garner a few thousand votes.

Since eighties, Ranaghat west constituency voted for left candidates. But the margin of vote difference between Left Front candidate and Congress started coming down since early nineties and in 1996 Congress nominee Shankar Singh, who originally hails from Bihar but settled down in Chakdah under same district, won this seat with a margin of little over 4000 votes.

During the last parliamentary election Congress polled about 10,000 votes more than the Left Front.

But since Jyotirmoyee filed her nomination, the locals have started thinking differently now. Middle aged Narayan Bhakta, and employee of Ranaghat court, said, "people here are aggrieved as Mr. Singh, who mostly stayed at Chakdah, visited his constituency only a few times during this period. Moreover, the name of Jyotirmoyee, who is the only other Indian woman athlete after P T Usha to win a grand double in any International Athletics Meet, has itself some value."

if the response from the staff and workers of the SDO office here when Jyoti came for filing her nomination is any indication then the golden girl should be able to romp home victorious this time as well. Everybody in the SDO office on that day scrambled to get a glimpse of Jyoti and get her autograph.

Before filing her nomination, Jyoti, who was working in Indian Railways, resigned from her post and is now spending more than 18 hours a day meeting and listening to people, going up to their kitchens if needed, telling her voters what her priority would be if elected.

Asked why she decided to join politics, Jyotirmoyee said, "I grew up in a political environment. After I achieved my goals in bringing laurels for my country in sports, I felt it was time to do something for my countrymen."

Jyotirmoyee’s father, a Marxist, contested from nearby Kaliganj constituency under Nadia district as a CPI candidate in 1971.

Jyotirmoyee informed that if elected she would concentrate on improving the basic facilities in the area first besides creating proper infrastructure for sports and games in the area, including setting up an "Athletics Academy." (UNI)

Air chief visits airbases, forward locations

NEW DELHI, May 7: Air Chief Air Marshal A Y Tipnis and Air Marshal S Krishnaswamy, Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief, Western Air Command, today visited the airbases and forward locations in the Rajasthan sector where air element is deployed as part of ongoing exercise ‘Operation Poorna Vijay.’

Addressing commanders and supervisors, the Air chief highlighted the necessity of meticulous planning and perfect execution of every single mission to be flown to obtain maximum results both in terms of training and objectives to be achieved.

Interacting with air and ground crews he stressed the importance of the great training value of these exercises. He said that during peace time, this was as close to the real war situation as one could get particularly for the training of the young pilots where one is expected to perform under demanding conditions and that extra pressure to perform.

Officials said here that during the exercises the Air Force will undertake one of the biggest air borne operations involving four IL-74 and 18 AN-32 aircraft in a single mission.

The attack helicopters will also be deployed in counter-surface force operation and armour protection role.

More than 120 aircraft and helicopters of the Indian Air Force are participating in the two-week exercise. These include MiG-21, MiG-23, MiG-27, MiG-29, Jaguar, IL-76, AN-32, Avros and Dornier. The helicopters are Chetak, Cheetah, MI-8, MI-17, the newly-inducted MI-17 IV and attack helicopters MI-35.

The bases involved are Nal, Suratgarh, Bikaner, Sirsa, Agra and Chandigarh.

The Air Chief and Air Marshal Krishnaswamy also paid homage to Flying Officer Ajay Sharma who was killed while flying an operational mission yesterday. (UNI)

Dry Saurashtra welcomes Narmada water

AHMEDABAD, May 7: Gujarat Chief Minister Keshubhai Patel dedicated Asia’s largest drinking water pipeline to the people of Manavadar, Kesod and Bhesan in the parched Saurashtra region.

Speaking at a function yesterday, Mr Patel congratulated the Water Supply Board for completing in record time the laying of the massive pipeline which will greatly benefit the perenially dry areas.

Mr Patel said, "there was no other alternative than the Narmada for resolving the drinking water crisis in the region."

A large congregation of people braving the scorching summer heat received the Narmada water.

He said that by expressing enthusiasm in receiving the Narmada water, the people of Saurashtra had given a reply to those opposing the Narmada pipeline project.

The main Narmada pipeline is 570 km long and if it is spread to the rural sector, its length will increase to 4700 km. The remaining areas of Kutch and Saurashtra region will receive the Narmada water through pipeline in April 2002 for which Rs. 1200 crores has been earmarked, an official release said here.

The Chief Minister said that at present 25 lakh people were engaged in relief work. He categorically denied the report about deaths of labourers engaged in relief operations and said that the people engaged in the relief work were being given a week’s ration in advance so the question of starvation death did not arise. He said that a stock of two quintal grains is being maintained at the village panchayat level. (UNI)

DIG injured in Naxalite attack

NEW DELHI, May 7: DIG A K Sinha, who was injured in a landmine blast in Chatra district of Jharkhand, has been admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences here today.

AIIMS sources said here that Mr Sinha was admitted to the Emergency Ward of the institute this afternoon. "However, it is difficult to say anything about his condition now," they said.

Mr Sinha was shifted from Ranchi to AIIMS after his condition has deteriorated.

The DIG and four others were seriously injured while a police Chowkidar died in a landmine explosion at Karimarar village under Kunda police station of Chatra district yesterday. The incident occurred when an anti-Naxalite operation led by the DIG had gone to the village to demolish a concrete bunker of the Maoist Communist Centre. (UNI)

Gang of bike lifters, burglars busted in city

On a tip off, South Delhi Police apprehended Salim and Jagmohan from Sangam Vihar area last evening when they tried to dispose of a stolen two-wheeler, DCP South Delhi P Kamaraj said in a release.

Later, both the accused admitted to have committed the theft and burglaries in Uttam Nagar, Sarojini Nagar, Vasant Vihar and other parts of the city.

Acting on the inputs from the two accused, police laid a trap to nab the kingpin of the gang Sudhir at his village Saidulajab. After waiting for 40 hours, the police team arrested Sudhir and another gang member Kamal Hassan, he said.

Sudhir said he used to make forged documents of stolen motorcycles in the name of Gurgaon Transport Authority, Kamaraj said adding various fake stamps of the Transport Authority have been recovered from them, the DCP claimed.

Sudhir also informed police that most of the two wheelers used to be sold to the students and factory workers.

Police also recovered one country made pistol with three live cartridges, 15 stolen motorcycles, one colour TV, wrist watches, music system, jewellery, duplicate keys and house beaking implements, the release said. (PTI)

Removal of gall bladder not required in most cases

NEW DELHI, May 7: An estimated 10-15 per cent of the adult population has gallstones, and the prevalence is higher among women and certain ethnic groups.

But a group of prominent doctors are of the firm opinion that all gallstones need not be treated and in most cases the removal of gall bladder is not required at all.

Women with multiple pregnancies, obesity and rapid weight loss, are more prone to getting gallstones. "The typical undergraduate teaching is a fat female of forty with flatulence is having gallstones unless proved otherwise," said Dr Ajay Kumar, Apollo Hospital, Dr Rajiv Khosla, Holy Family Hospital and Dr Chaubey, Ganga Ram Hospital, while participating in an interactive session on Doordarshan yesterday.

Heart Care Foundation of India (HCFI) vice president Dr K K Agarwal said most patients with gallstones remain asymptomatic for many years and may, in fact, never develop symptoms. Only one to four per cent of asymptomatic patients per year are likely to develop symptoms or a complication of gallstone disease.

"Existing data indicate that ten per cent of patients will develop symptoms of the problem in the first five years after diagnosis and approximately 20 per cent by 20 years. These people will have typical gall bladder stone pain," he said but strongly recommended that there was no need to touch the gall bladder in asymptomatic patients.

There are certain situations where the patient may not betray any symptoms yet it is recommended to remove the gall bladder. "Calcified or porcelain gall bladder is one such condition in which even in the absence of stones, the gall bladder should be removed because of its likely association with gall bladder cancer," Dr Agarwal pointed out.

It is always a challenge for the physician to ascertain which symptoms are actually associated with the gallstones. But the best definition of bilary or gal bladder pain is that it is relatively severe, episodic, epigastric or right upper abdomen in location, lasting one to five hours, and often waking the patient at night, he said, adding that these are the symptoms that warrant therapy.

Simple acidity, gas, flatulence or vague abdominal discomfort has nothing to do with the gall bladder stone and removing gall bladder in such cases will not get rid of the symptoms. (UNI)

Assembly elections Dust will settle down today

NEW DELHI, May 7: Dust will settle down tomorrow on the frenzied campaign for May 10 assembly elections in four states and the union territory of Pondicherry.

Campaigning for the politically significant "mini general elections" since the return of Vajpayee Government in October, 1999, was by and large peaceful except in Assam where suspected ULFA militants left a bloody trail targeting party workers and candidates.

Suspected ULFA militants shot dead BJP candidate for Dibrugarh constituency in Assam Jayanta Dutta and four others, including three AGP workers, in Dibrugarh town.

Pre-poll bloodshed in the state also took its toll in the Congress camp with unidentified gunmen killing five party workers in three separate incidents.

Joining the electioneering almost at the fag end, Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee launched the campaign for National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Assam accusing Congress of having some nexus with banned insurgent outfit ULFA.

In West Bengal, Vajpayee launched a frontal attack on Trinamool Congress chief Mamata Banerjee and said the dissident leader, who shared the election dais with him, might return to the Union Council of Ministers.

Other star campaigners of NDA included Home Minister L K Advani and Information & Broadcasting Minister Sushma Swaraj.

Congress president Sonia Gandhi undertook a whistle-stop tour of Assam, Kerala and West Bengal where she shared the dais with Mamata Banerjee for the first time since she quit Congress and launched a vitriolic attack on the state’s ruling Left Front.

Gandhi’s charade against the Left continued when she addressed a series of rallies in Kerala charging it with turning the state into a "cadre raj" and pushing it into "overall degradation".

Opposition parties have termed the assembly polls as a "referendum" on the performance of Vajpayee Government in the wake of Tehelka expose but the Prime Minister has dismissed such suggestions.

The polls also assume significance in view of realignment of political forces in West Bengal and Tamil Nadu.

Chief Ministers of Assam, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal and senior Congress leader A K Antony, former Pondicherry Chief Minister V Jankiramang are among the prominent candidates who will try their luck at the hustings.

While Trinamool leader Mamata Banerjee snapped ties with NDA to join hands with Congress in West Bengal, Jayalalitha-led AIADMK aligned with Congres-TMC-PMK in Tamil Nadu.

Electronic Voting Machines (EVMs) will be used for the first time on such a large scale, counting ballots in all the 823 seats.

Elections in Dibrugarh assembly constituency has been countermanded following the killing of BJP candidate Jayanta Dutta on May one.

Polling will be held for 234 seats of Tamil Nadu, 294 in West Bengal, 140 in Kerala, 125 in Assam and 30 in Pondicherry.

By-elections to three Lok Sabha seats of Tiruchirapalli in Tamil Nadu, Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh and Midnapore in West Bengal would also be held along with Assembly polls.

The bye-elections have been caused due to death of Union Minister P R Kumaramangalam, Congress leader Jitendra Prasada and CPI veteran Indrajit Gupta respectively.

Bye-elections to two assembly constituencies—Kshetrigao (Manipur) and Banamalipur (Tripura)—will also be held on May 11 and May 10 respectively. (PTI)