LS seat-sharing talks with JDS soon: Dinesh Gundu Rao
Bengaluru, Feb 18: The Congress' Karnataka unit chief Dinesh Gundu Rao Monday said the party would soon hold discussions with its coalition partner JDS on the Lok Sabha seat-sharing issue.
Rao said he would speak to JDS leaders, including the party supremo and former prime minister H D Deve Gowda after the Congress election committee meeting and fix a date for seat-sharing talks.
"The discussion with our partners JDS over Lok Sabha seat-sharing issue will be held soon," Rao told reporters after the KPCC Coordination Committee meeting here.
The meeting decided to announce Lok Sabha seat-sharing talks with the JDS to avoid needless problems for candidates, Rao said.
"The coordination committee meeting resolved to announce seat-sharing with JDS soon because Lok sabha election takes lot of time to prepare. If it is delayed, it will create problems for our candidates," he added.
The party also decided to take the BJP head on and place before the people of the state saffron party's "corrupt rule at the Centre" and other states, he said.
"The number one corrupt party in India is the BJP. They spend crores of rupees for elections.It also has dodged debate over 'Achche Din' for the last four-and-half years of its rule at the Centre.
They also shy away from debating over jobless growth rate and the economic condition prevailing in the country," he said.
The party also decided to restrain Congress leaders from speaking on issues including seat-sharing and party's relationship with the JDS, which affects their electoral prospects, Rao said.
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Indian-origin man among 4 killed in temple collapse in South Africa
Johannesburg (PTI): A 52-year-old Indian-origin man is among four people killed after a four-storey Hindu temple under construction collapsed in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province, officials have said.
The New Ahobilam Temple of Protection, situated on a steep hill in Redcliffe in north of eThekwini (formerly Durban), was being expanded when a section of the building gave way on Friday while workers were on site.
The exact number of workers and temple officials believed to be trapped beneath tonnes of rubble is unknown.
While two people, a construction worker and a devotee, were confirmed dead on Friday, the death toll rose to four on Saturday after rescue teams recovered more bodies.
Of the four deceased, one has been identified as Vickey Jairaj Panday, an executive member of the temple trust and manager of the construction project, local media reported, quoting officials.
Panday had been deeply involved in the development of the temple since its inception nearly two years ago, the reports said.
Sanvir Maharaj, director of Food for Love, a charity affiliated to the temple, also confirmed that Panday was among those who had died.
Rescue workers, who spent two days trying to recover a fifth body that had been located, had to suspend operations on Saturday afternoon due to inclement weather, Reaction Unit South Africa spokesperson Prem Balram told local media.
“At this stage, it cannot be confirmed whether additional individuals remain trapped beneath the rubble,” he said.
The temple was designed to resemble a cave, using rocks brought from India and excavated on site, and the family building the structure had claimed that it would house one of the world's largest deities of Lord Nrsimhadeva.
The eThekwini municipality, in a statement, said no building plans had been approved for the project, suggesting the construction was illegal.
Initial rescue efforts had been guided by cellphone calls from one of the trapped persons, but communications ceased late Friday evening, officials said.
KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Minister for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Thulasizwe Buthelezi visited the site on Saturday and pledged that rescue operations would continue for as long as necessary, even as experts noted that there was little hope of finding more survivors.
Buthelezi expressed gratitude to the combined government and private teams involved in the search and rescue operation, including a special dog unit from the Western Cape.
