MNM to face LS polls by itself: Kamal Haasan
Coimbatore, Feb 7 : Actor-politician Kamal Haasan Thursday said his Makkal Needhi Maiam would contest all the 39 seats in Tamil Nadu on its own in the coming Lok Sabha polls, indicating a shift in its policy to forge alliances.
"we are trying to serve good for the people with clean hands. We are trying to keep our hands clean by not allying with any of the Dravidian parties," the 64-year-old Haasan told reporters here.
Asked whether his party would contest all the 39 Lok Sabha seats in Tamil Nadu and one in neighbouring Puducherry, he said, "yes, we have taken such a decision".
Haasan had earlier announced that his party would contest the Lok Sabha polls in alliance with like-minded parties.
To a query on his two-day meeting with the district assembly constituency and area in-charges in Pollachi near Coimbatore, he said discussions centred around the areas that need to be focused ahead of the polls.
Amid fanfare, Kamal Haasan had in February last year launched his political party.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Bridge portion collapses on Jammu outskirts; 3-4 labourers feared trapped, 1 rescued
Jammu (PTI): A portion of a small bridge collapsed in the Bantalab area on the outskirts of Jammu city on Friday, trapping at least three to four labourers under the debris, while one injured worker was rescued, official sources said.
Authorities have closed the road link following the collapse of the portion of the bridge.
The incident occurred when labourers were carrying out repair work on a retaining wall near the bridge that was damaged in last year's flash floods, the sources said.
According to the sources, a section of the bridge suddenly gave way, burying workers engaged at the site under the rubble.
Police, Army and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams launched rescue operations to extricate those buried under the debris. They pulled out one injured labourer and shifted him to a hospital, the sources said.
Family members of the labourers present at the site said around six workers engaged at the site at the time of the incident came under the debris when the structure collapsed. The family members said while two of the labourers managed to escape, four got trapped.
The sources said those trapped included the husband of a woman labourer, a mason, an unmarried labourer and a relative of the contractor.
There was no official confirmation on the exact number of persons trapped under the debris till the filing of this report.
The rescue operations are ongoing.
