Nagpur (PTI): The Vidarbha Pradesh unit of Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh, an affiliate of Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh, will lead a protest march to the Vidhan Bhavan here on December 28 amid the winter session of the Maharashtra Assembly against the Centre's policy of privatisation and other labour woes.
The decision was taken at a meeting attended by Vidarbha Pradesh president Shilpa Deshpande and general secretary Gajanan Gatlewar and others recently, said a release by BMS publicity head Suresh Chaudhary.
Public enterprises are being privatised on a large-scale by the Union government and contract workers were being exploited, the release said, adding the "maha morcha" on December 28 will see the participation of 20,000 functionaries.
"The sankalp yatra will start from Arvi in Wardha, the birth place of BMS founder Dattopant Thengadi, on December 12, pass through 11 Vidarbha districts, before culminating in the maha morcha on December 28," it said.
Workers and agricultural labourers from Nagpur, Chandrapur, Gadchiroli, Gondia, Bhandara, Wardha, Amravati, Yavatmal, Akola, Buldhana and Washim districts will take part, he said.
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Jabalpur (PTI): The body of a child was retrieved on Saturday evening from Bargi Dam in Jabalpur district of Madhya Pradesh, raising the death toll in the cruise boat tragedy that took place two days ago to ten, while search continued for three missing tourists.
The boat, operated by the state tourism department, capsized during a storm on Thursday evening with some of the survivors alleging negligence and safety lapses such as life jackets not being distributed in time.
The body recovered on Saturday evening was possibly that of six-year-old Viraj Soni, said Sub-Divisional Officer of Police (SDOP) Anjul Ayank Mishra.
"The identity will be confirmed after family members identify the body," he told PTI.
Kamraj, an employee of the Ordnance Factory at Khamaria, his five-year-old son Tamil, and another child Mayuram (5) who had come from southern India were still missing.
Authorities have arranged equipment to search deep waters of the dam and are getting a generator to facilitate diving operations, Mishra added.
Divers and disaster response teams have expanded the search radius to five km, he said.
Of the 41 identified passengers on board the ill-fated vessel, 28 were rescued, police said.
More than 200 rescuers, including around 20 Army divers airlifted from Agra, joined the search operation that resumed at 5 on Saturday morning. The operation, involving the National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and local divers, was briefly affected at around 9 am due to strong winds, officials said.
Post-mortem examinations of nine deceased persons have been completed, Mishra said.
"Our priority is to search for the missing persons. We will also register a First Information Report in the case soon," he said.
Police said CCTV footage near the boarding point showed 43 people heading towards the boat while the identities of 41 passengers have been confirmed so far.
The state government on Friday ordered a probe into the tragedy and dismissed three crew members. It also banned operation of similar vessels in the state.
