BJP sweeps Tripura Panchayat bypolls
Agartala, Oct 3 : The ruling BJP on Wednesday swept the bypolls for the vacant seats in different Panchayati Raj Institutions, bagging 113 Gram Panchayat seats, officials said.
The Bharatiya Janata Party's ally Indigenous People's Front of Tripura (IPFT) secured nine seats in Gram Panchayats, Tripura State Election Commission (TSEC) officials said.
The opposition Communist Party of India-Marxist (CPI-M) and the Congress won four seats each.
The BJP also won five Panchayat Samiti seats while the CPI-M managed only two seats.
The by-elections to 3,386 seats -- 3,207 Gram Panchayat seats, 161 Panchayat Samiti seats and 18 Zilla Parishad seats -- were scheduled for September 30, but polling was held in only 130 Gram Panchayat and seven Panchayat Samiti seats in 11 blocks as over 96 per cent of the seats were won by the BJP candidates unopposed.
These seats fell vacant following large-scale resignations of elected representatives of the Left and other parties after the BJP-led coalition came to power in Tripura in March.
Some of the three-tier Panchayat seats were lying vacant also due to the death of the elected representatives.
Almost all parties, including the BJP's junior partner IPFT, had been demanding rescheduling of the September 30 Panchayat elections to ensure the participation of all parties following large-scale violence during electioneering.
The Opposition CPI-M-led Left Front, the Congress and the IPFT, a tribal-based party, had separately urged the state EC to reschedule the election process as they claimed that "massive violence prevented their nominees from filing papers.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
