The ruling Biju Janta Dal (BJD) in Orissa on Wednesday said it believed that the Congress wanted to “accentuate” Gandhi dynasty politics in Andhra Pradesh by naming the Polavaram multi-purpose dam project as Indira Sagar and according it (Polavaram) the “national project” status.
“The hastiness the UPA government showed to grant forest clearance to the Polavaram project and Sonia Gandhi’s assurance to accord it national project (NP) status reveal how desperate the Congress is to consolidate the Gandhi dynasty politics in the state. By agreeing to accord NP status to the project, the UPA has cleared the road for the release of `40,000 crores from the national exchequer. On the other hand, the Centre has also equally paved the way for submergence of 29 tribal villages affecting 1,002 families,” BJD youth wing chief Sanjay Das Burma told this newspaper on Wednesday.
In fact, Mr Burma has convened an Orissa banchao samavesh (save Orissa meet) at Lanjigarh on Friday.
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SC query on incomplete poll papers
AGE CORRESPONDENT
New Delhi
The Supreme Court on Wednesday wanted to know what are the consequences arising from filing incomplete nomination forms/ affidavits by candidates in the elections.
While hearing a Public Interest Litigation (PIL) filed in 2008 by Resurgence India, a civil rights group, a bench comprising Chief Justice S.H. Kapadia and Justices K.S. Radhakrishnan and Swantanter Kumar, said, “If you don’t fill the forms completely, it would mean that you are not filing a declaration.”
The bench was hearing the PIL, which detected a trend among candidates of leaving blank the columns demanding critical information about them. Advocate Prashant Bhushan, appearing for the group, had said the PIL was filed after a thorough scrutinising over more than 7,000 affidavits filed by candidates along with their nomination papers during the Punjab Assembly elections in 2007. The NGO submitted that candidates, in the affidavit, out of fear of attracting perjury charges for giving false information under oath, would rather leave the column blank.
The Election Commission, in its reply, had said that by resorting to this practice, candidates have been able to frustrate voters’ right to critical information about themselves.