Doubtful if Trinamool government can hold peaceful panchayat polls: Union Minister
Kolkata, April 15: Union Minister Arjun Ram Meghwal on Sunday decried the violence centred around submission of nominations for the upcoming West Bengal panchayat elections, saying it was doubtful if the Trinamool Congress government could hold peaceful polls.
"The developments with regard to the Panchayat polls in Bengal cannot be part of the democratic tradition. Violence should not take place in the run-up to the polls," he said on the sidelines of a programme here.
Iterating that in a democracy, every election down to the municipality of panchayat level should be held peacefully, the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader expressed doubts over whether the state government had the capability to conduct a violence-free poll.
"How can we say the state government had the capability to tackle the situation and conduct peaceful polls, after seeing the images and getting to know whatever is happeing?" he said in reply to a question.
The Calcutta High Court has halted the panchayat poll procedure on a petition filed by the BJP. Other opposition parties - the Left and the Congress - have also approached the judiciary accusing the ruling Trinamool of unleashing massive pre-poll violence on their party workers over the filing of nominations for the rural polls since the process began on April 2.
They also accused the State Election Commission of acting like a puppet of the state ruling party after it withdraw its order of extending the nomination process by a day, within a few hours of issuing it.
The panchayat elections are scheduled for May 1, 3 and 5, while the counting of votes is due on May 8.
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ISRO's PSLV-C62 lifts off with earth observation satellite, 14 other payloads
Sriharikota (Andhra Pradesh) (PTI): ISRO's trusted workhorse PSLV lifted off from the spaceport here on Monday, carrying an earth observation satellite along with 14 other commercial payloads for both domestic and overseas customers.
Marking the first launch of the year, the mission is part of the contract secured by NewSpace India Ltd, the commercial arm of ISRO.
The 44.4 metre tall four-stage PSLV-C62 rocket soared from the first launch pad at a prefixed time of 10.18 hours on Monday.
After a journey of 17 minutes, it is expected to place the satellites into Sun Synchronous Orbit at an altitude of about 511 km.
After the separation of all the satellites, scientists would restart the fourth stage (PS4) of the rocket to de-boost and enter a re-entry trajectory for the separation of the last satellite, the Kestrel Initial Technology Demonstrator (KID) capsule.
This process is expected to last over two hours after lift-off.
Both the PS4 stage and the KID capsule would re-enter the Earth's atmosphere and make a splashdown in the South Pacific Ocean, ISRO said.
