13 die as rain lashes UP, Punjab

Thirteen people, four of them siblings, were killed in incessant rains that lashed vast areas of Uttar Pradesh and Punjab triggering house collapses and inundating low-lying areas।

Major rivers, including Ganga, Gomti, Rapti and Ramganga, were also rising menacingly in Uttar Pradesh due to heavy rains, officials in Lucknow said।

Two persons each were killed in Santkabir Nagar, Mau and Ballia and one each in Gorkahpur and Azamgarh districts in Uttar Pradesh in incidents of house collapse।

The Central Water Board said major rivers were rising in the state, but none of them had yet crossed the red mark.
In Punjab, the roof of a house gave way in Kotkapura town in Faridkot district killing four siblings aged between eight and 16.

All the four used to live with their parents in a single room accommodation in Kishan Nagar locality, police said.

In Chandigarh, a two-year-old boy drowned in a rain-fed rivulet in Vikas Nagar.

Heavy downpours inundated low-lying areas causing traffic snarl-ups at many places in the two states.

Government did not disclose whole truth on N-deal: CPI-M

The Communist Party of India-Marxist on Monday made a fresh attack against the United Progressive Alliance government over the Indo-US nuclear deal, saying it had not disclosed that it was mandatory to go to the International Atomic Energy Agency for the India-specific safeguard agreement.

"At the UPA-Left Coordination Committee meeting in October-November on the deal, what was stated by the government side did not represent the whole truth। They did not say at that meeting that it was mandatory for the government to go to the IAEA as it is saying now," CPI-M politburo member and party's state secretary Biman Bose said.

"This shows that certain things were not disclosed to the committee," Bose told reporters after the ruling Left Front meeting।

"The Manmohan Singh government did not do the right thing," Bose added।

The Left coordination committee, Bose said, would be meeting in Delhi on July 4 to take stock of the situation।

"The meeting can be held a day earlier," he said।

Before that meeting, Bose said, the CPI-M would hold consultations with the Left parties।

The meeting had already been held with the CPI, he said, adding the CPI(M)-Forward Bloc meeting of central leaders was likely on Monday।

"Our meeting with Revolutionary Socialist Party is likely on Tuesday," he said।

The CPI-M leader said that the United National Progressive Alliance would meet in Delhi on July 3।

Criticising the Centre, Bose said, "Instead of being serious about tackling price rise and high rate of inflation which is a 13-year high, the Manmohan Singh government is busy pushing the Nuclear deal। This is not good for the country, nor for the Government and Congress party."

Bose said that the Left parties had decided to organise campaigns against the UPA government's failure to arrest price rise and inflation।

"The government has been ignoring vital issues like countering growing communalism in the country। This has led to the growth of such forces in Karnataka, MP, Rajasthan and some other states," he said.

"By its inaction, the UPA government has been helping communal forces to grow," the CPI-M leader said।

Replying to a question that if the Lok Sabha poll could be advanced and if the Left Front was prepared for it, Bose said the meeting had not discussed the elections.

Ready to face Parliament before operationalising N-deal: PM

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Monday played down the Left Parties' threat to withdraw support to his government on the Indo-US nuclear deal and made it clear that he was prepared to face Parliament before operationalising the deal।

Breaking his silence on the nearly fortnight-long stand-off with the Left parties supporting his government from outside, he said all that he wanted was that the government should be allowed to complete the negotiation process with the International Atomic Energy Aagency and the Nuclear Suppliers Group।

Dr Singh expressed confidence that the government would be able to address concerns of all, including the Left parties on the civil nuclear cooperation agreement with the US।

"We will grapple with that stage when we come to it," he said when asked about the threat held out on Sunday by Communist Party of India-Marxist general secretary Prakash Karat that his party would withdraw support in concert with other Left parties if the government went ahead with the deal।

"I hope we can work this out। We can still work out an outcome that will satisfy all parties," he told senior journalists at his residence after releasing the 'National Action Plan on Climate Change' brought out by the Prime Minister's Council on Climate Change.

Initially the prime minister, who appeared relaxed despite the political stalemate, said he would not like to speak on the nuclear issue maintaining that silence was better but later came out with his comments in reply to questions। "I have said it before. I will repeat it again that you allow us to complete the process. Once the process is over, I will bring it before Parliament and abide by the House," he said.

The prime minister said, "I am not asking for something that the government should not be doing। I am only saying that you me to complete the negotiations. There are concerns. I agree to come to Parliament before I proceed to operationalise (the deal). What can be more reasonable than this?"

He said the Bharatiya Janata Party and the Left parties will have an opportunity to discuss the deal in Parliament। "If Parliament feels you (government) have done some wrong, so be it," Dr Singh said.

"All that I want is the authority to proceed with the process of negotiations through all stages like the IAEA and NSG that will not tie down the hands of the country," he said।

Asked about the prospects of early elections because of the political problems over the deal, Dr Singh said, "I don't see elections।"

To a question about Karat's strident attack on Sunday, he said, "There is nothing new in what the Left parties have said। I have not given up hope still."

He parried a question on the speculation about his attending the G-8 summit in Tokyo saying the nuclear deal was not on the agenda there. He laughed off a suggestion that he would be more comfortable attending the G-8 if the issue was resolved before his departure.

Dr Singh said he does recognise that the issue has aroused a great deal of interest.

ULFA strikes weekly market, kills six in Assam

Guwahati, Jun 29 (DNS) At least six people were killed and 75 injured when ULFA rebels detonated a powerful bomb at a Kumarikata weekly market, adjacent to the Indo-Bhutan boundary this afternoon.

Police said the ULFA engineered the blast, the second in three days after a faction of the outfit offered ceasefire and was ready to talk with the government.

Today's bombing that occurred at around 1340 hrs in a crowded weekly market killed four people on the spot. The other two died on way to Guwahati Medical College.

About 75 people in cluding two Assam police constables were injured in the blast.

Police recovered one unexploded bomb from the site.

Sources close to the ULFA said the attack was the handiwork of ULFA's 709 battalion and chose the Baska district as Chief Minister Tarun Gogoi had visited the district on the previous day and announced that more units of the outift were for ceasefire agreement.

On Friday the proscribed outfit triggered a bomb at Nagaon injuring four.

The explosives were strapped to a bicycle at the weekly market that sells pigs, goats, vegetables and clothes at Kumarikata in western Assam, near Bhutan border.

The area, falling under the Bodoland Territorial Autonomous Districts (BTAD), is a bastion of Bodo militants.

Private operators allege harassment, seek concessions

Hyderabad, Jun 29 (DNS) Private Bus Operators Association of Andhra Pradesh today alleged that officials of the transport department were harassing them and appealed to the state government to intervene.

Addressing a press conference here the Association's President H S C Bose alleged that though private bus operators were running their buses with valid permits, the transport authorities were terming them 'illegal' and imposing penalties.

He claimd that private bus operators were providing more facilities to passengers compared to the government owned Road Transport Corproation.

He said there were 1000 private buses in the state and they were providing direct employment to nearly two lakh people and indirect employment to another three lakh.

They also urged the state government to provide concessions and facilities to private bus operators on par with the Andhra Pradesh State Road Transport Corporation(APSRTC).

J&K govt not to go ahead with order on land transfer to SASB

Srinagar, June 29 (DNS) In a highly significant step to defuse the volatile situation in the Kashmir valley, the state government today announced that it was not going ahead with the decision of handing over 40 hectares of land to the Board handling the Amarnath Yatra, a move that has plunged the state into a political crisis.

After a week-long street protests that had nearly paralysed the valley, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad told a press conference here that the state government had assured Governor N N Vohra, who is chairman of Shri Amarnath Shrine Board (SASB), that the state was in a better position to provide better facilities to pilgrims on a large scale than the board. This was accepted by the Governor who gave up SASB's claim on the forest land.

Azad's decision came less than 24 hours after Congress party's coalition partner in government PDP had pulled out of the state government with all its nine ministers resigning over the issue.

Azad, who has accused PDP of backtracking on the controversial cabinet decision to divert the land to SASB, left no one in doubt that he does not want PDP back in the government by getting the resignation of the ministers accepted by the Governor although his government has been reduced to a minority.

Azad clearly expects to continue in power even as a minority government in the four months to the assembly elections due before mid-November. He is unlikely to get support of the other major party National Conference to regain his majority, nor does he require it. More DNS

Impasse over Indo-US nuclear deal deepens

New Delhi, Jun 29 (DNS) The stand off over the Indo-US nuclear deal worsened today with CPI(M) threatening to withdraw support to the UPA government if it pushed ahead with the "harmful" agreement.

"In case the government decides to go ahead with such a harmful agreement, which has no support in Parliament, the CPI(M) will withdraw support to the UPA government in concert with other Left parties," a statement of the CPI(M) Politburo said after a meeting here.

However, Congress, which heads the UPA that survives on the outside support of 59 MPs of the Left parties, sought to downplay the threat saying there was nothing new in the warning.

RJD, an important constituent of the UPA with 24 MPs, expressed confidence that the government will not not fall on the deal, which will also go through.

The first public declaration of withdrawal of support by CPI(M) General Secretary, Prakash Karat, came at a press conference in the midst of a deepening stand off with the government, which is keen on going ahead with the deal.

While the other Left parties, like the CPI, have already declared their intention to withdraw support if the government went ahead with the deal, the CPI(M) had so far only given strong indications that it would withdraw its support.

The UPA government is now now said to be involved in efforts to woo the Samajawadi Party, which has 39 MPs, and some other smaller groups, to make up for the numbers in Lok Sabha in case the Left carries out its threat.

SP chief Mulayam Singh Yadav, who is being watched with keen interest, maintained suspense over his party's stand saying it would be decided on July 3 when the UNPA will meet. However, the arrival of his lieutenant Amar Singh from the US is expected to set in motion moves for a tie up between the Congress and the SP. DNS