VOL: 03 I ISSUE NO: 75 I REG NO: ANDENG/2011/38184 I 03 APRIL 2014 I THURSDAY I Rs. 2.00 I DAILY I PORT BLAIR I www.andamansheekha.com

INSAT 3E goes out of Service

Telecom services hitbadly in A & N Islands

Port Blair, 02 Apr: Telecomservices in A & N Islandshave been affected badlydue to the net failure ofINSAT-3E satellite of ISROfrom the early hours of 02-04-2014.

In a press releasethe Assistant GeneralManger (S&M) today saidthat INSAT-3E satellite isone of the two satellites ofISRO pr ovid ingconnectivity to mainlandfor all ser vices be ingprovided by BSNL. Thissatellite has gone out ofservice due to technicalproblems.

“Due to t hisproblem, Mobile servicesand broadband services inA & N Islands have beenaffected, moreoverCampbell Bay, Katchal,

Havelock and Neil Islandhave been isolat ed.Remedial measures havebeen taken up bytransferring the bandwidthto another satellite. The

work is expected to becompleted in few days,” hesaid requesting public in A& N islands to bear with theinconvenience caused dueto the breakdown.

Bureau ReportSheekha News Service

Did BSNL hide facts?

Port Blair, Apr 02: The BSNLtoday in a press release saidthat “The Telecom Services inA & N Islands have beenaffected badly due to thefailure of INSAT- 3E satelliteof ISRO from the early hoursof 02-04-2014”. P e r h a p s

Bureau ReportSheekha News Service

BSNL has forgotten that in theage of Google, nothingremain hidden. Simplesearch in Google takes us todozens of websites, whichclearly says that the INSAT3E communications satelliteof the Indian Space ResearchOrganisation (ISRO) hasfailed in orbit on 26 March

(See page 8)

BJP release election manifesto – 2014

Port Blair, Apr 02: TheBharatiya Janta Party todayreleased its Election Manifesto-2014 during a small functionorganized at BJP’s partyheadquarter, this evening. TheManifesto promises 100

Mohammed SajidSheekha News Service

percent employment toIslanders, Regularisation ofDaily Rated Mazdoors, fillingup of 5241vacancies invarious departments, Bridgesat ATR and one bridgebetween Bambooflat and PortBlair and strengthening ofPRIS and provision ofadditional funds to PRIs etc.

2 03.04.2014 Rs. 2.00 Andaman Sheekha Daily Port Blair

Varun Gandhi clarifiesafter Rahul welcomes cousin's

'praise' for work in AmethiNEW DELHI: Varun Gandhiwas forced to issue a clarifi-cation on Wednesday afterCongress vice-presidentRahul Gandhi welcomed areported comment made bythe BJP leader on develop-ment work in Amethi.

Varun, who is a LokSabha candidate fromSultanpur, on Tuesday night ina meeting with teachers andNGOs, praised Rahul Gandhifor the work he has done inhis constituency Amethi.

"We require smallscale industries, like the onesRahul Gandhi has set up inAmethi. However, I cannotgive that example as I haven'tseen the work at the groundlevel," Varun Gandhi said.

Speaking to reportersin Rae Bareli on Wednesdayafter his mother Sonia Gandhifiled her nomination papers,Rahul welcomed Varun'sstatement. "What Varun said

is right, I am very happy otherpeople are appreciating thework done in Amethi," Rahulsaid when asked by reportersabout Varun's comments.

However, VarunGandhi was quick to deny thathe had in any way endorsedany political party or candi-date.

Varun tweeted, "Mycomment, last night, in a meet-ing with teachers and NGOs,

in response to being askedwhether I knew about initia-tives in Amethi, was that al-though I had not seen thework done via self help groupsin Amethi, I had heard it wasfairly decent, and that I wouldstress on empowering peopletowards being self-reliant.

It should NOT beseen as an endorsement ofany political party or candi-date."

Congress not in business of polarization: SoniaRAE BARELI: CongressPresident Sonia Gandhi onWednesday rejected sugges-tions that the party was in-volved in a game of polariza-tion of votes ahead of the LokSabha polls."We are not in thegame or business of polariza-tion (of votes)," she told re-porters when asked about hermeeting with Shahi Imam ofDelhi's Jama Masjid SyedAhmed Bukhari at her resi-dence in Delhi on Tuesday.

Gandhi, who filedher nomination papers fromRae Bareli constituency onWednesday and called onsome Muslim clerics here,said, "It (meeting clerics) has

been a tradition followedsince the days of FerozeGandhi and Indira Gandhi."

On Tuesday when adelegation of Muslims led byBukhari met her, she had toldthem that there was a needfor the secular vote not to be

divided.She reportedly told

them that she had embracedpolitics after hesitation to helpnurture the cause of secular-ism and appealed for a unitedmove to stop the secular votefrom splitting.

More people Joins CongressPort Blair, Apr 02: Smit SukhadaSil of NCP and Shri ChandanDas of BJP workers fromHasmatabad have joined INCyesterday infront of Shri HamidAli, Vice President while Shri DRajasekhar, former CarmelSchool teacher and FormerPresident YMCA and Shri CSG

Pillai, Secretary, Social Educa-tion and Economic DevelopmentSociety (Seed Society), bestfarmer award winner from CARIfor 2009 have also joined INCtoday along with 200 membersof the seed society beforeKuldeep Rai Sharma, PCC Presi-dent.

My Family Identity cards issued in the name ofS.KATTA POMMAN being card No. 2008048982and Budhdeo Uram being Card No 2013064831 R/oMilangram, Diglipur , lost at Diglipur bazaar. Finderplease call 9932493418.

LOST

EC takes note of Akhilesh'sendorsement of bogus voting

LUCKNOW: The Election Com-mission has taken note of UttarPradesh chief minister AkhileshYadav's support to a party candi-date who exhorted people to en-sure 100% voting and not to fearfor cases being slapped on them.Yadav supported party candidatefrom Noida Narendra Bhati, whosestatement was caught on tape.Poll officials told IANS that whilecases have been slapped againstBhati, the matter did not end thereand that Chief Electoral Officer ofUttar Pradesh Umesh Sinha hassought details of Akhilesh Yadav'sinteractions with media on Tues-day, in which he made light ofBhati's comments.

Alluding to Bhati'sstatement that "we have our owngovernment, even if the poll panelfiles cases suspecting bogus vot-ing, don't be scared, we will with-draw cases soon after the LokSabha polls", the chief ministersaid that "people have the rightto booth management".

While initially feigningignorance on what Bhati said,Akhilesh Yadav snapped back atreporters that "booth manage-ment was nothing wrong". Theopposition BJP pounced onYadav's statement and said thatthe chief minister was in fact pro-moting illegal acts such as bogus

voting. "This is simply prepos-terous, the chief minister openlybacking a party leader who is talk-ing of breaking laws," said VijayBahadur Pathak, state spokesmanof the BJP. Bahujan Samaj Party(BSP)'s Swamy Prasad Mauryasaid that nothing better could beexpected of Bhati or any otherSamajwadi Party (SP) leader, in-cluding the chief minister.

"We have always beensaying that there is mafia raj in thestate, this is yet another example,"he said.

The BJP has now de-cided to petition the EC. UmeshSinha told IANS that the commis-sion was seized of the matter andthat a case has been slappedagainst Bhati. He added that thepoll panel will look into the state-ment of the chief minister too andact in accordance with the modelcode of conduct.

Bhati had earlier shotinto limelight for using intemper-ate language against Indian Ad-ministrative Service officer DurgaShakti Nagpal and claiming in pub-lic that he got the bureaucratshunted out from Noida on aphone call to the chief minister.

The issue then snow-balled into a major embarassmentfor the Akhilesh Yadav-led stategovernment.

03.04.2014 Rs. 2.00 Andaman Sheekha Daily Port Blair 3

3rd round trng. for Presiding,polling officers on April 4&5

Port Blair, April 2: The thirdround of training to Presidingand Polling Officers appointedfor Port Blair and FerrargunjTehsil shall be imparted from10 AM onwards at BRAITauditorium, Dollygunj on April4 and 5 respectively.

Accordingly, trainingfor the Presiding and PollingOfficers in team (T-001 to T-122) shall be held on April 4

while for the Presiding andPolling Officers in team (T-123 to 244) it will be held onApril 5. Both the trainings willbegin from 10 AM onwardsat BRAIT auditorium.

The training will in-clude explaining duties andresponsibilities as Presiding& Polling Officers, hands ontraining for preparation ofEVMs on the day of poll and

procedure for conduct ofmock poll, actual poll andsealing operations etc.

All Presiding Offic-ers of Port Blair andFerrargunj have been re-quested to co-ordinate withtheir team members and en-sure their presence in thetraining on the above men-tioned date and time withoutfail.

Polling timeincreased by one hourPort Blair, Apr 02: The Elec-tion Commission of India videits Press Note No. ECI/PM/15/2014, dated 15th March,2014 fixed the hours of polls

in all the Parliamentary Con-stituency in general from07:00 am to 06:00 pm as com-pare to 7 am to 5 pm in LokSabha 2009 Election.

Third round of training to thePresiding and Polling officersPort Blair, Apr 02: Third round of training to the Presiding and Polling officers appointedfor Port Blair and Ferrargunj Tehsil shall be imparted as per the under mentioned sched-ule:-

S. No.

Team No. Date Time Venue From To

1. T 001 T 122 04.04.2014 10:00 onwards

BRAIT, Dollygunj

2. T 123 T 244 05.04.2014 10:00 onwards

BRAIT Dollygunj

All Presiding officers of Port Blair and Ferrargunj Tehsil are hereby requested to coor-dinate with their team members and ensure their presence in the training on abovementioned date and time without fail.

Sd/-Nodal Officer (Perl)/

Assistant Commissioner (S)

Mock communication drilltoday for collection of poll dataPort Blair, April 2: As part ofthe preparedness for the up-coming General Elections inA&N Parliamentary Con-stituency, a mock communi-cation drill, for collection ofpoll data during the Poll Day,will be conducted from 6 AM

onwards tomorrow (April 3).The entire process of collect-ing poll data will be put to teston a real time basis from 6AM to 12 PM. The data col-lection mechanism is to test& identify gaps in data col-lection so as to take measures

for put in place a fail safe datacollection mechanism on thepoll day. The communicationdrill will cover passing the in-formation viz. Conduct ofmock poll, start of poll, poll-ing data at 9 &11 AM and endof poll.

Port Blair, April 2: All eligiblestudents of IGNOU who filledin the required form & feesfor the 27th Convocation tobe held on 16th April 2014 atRegional Centre, Port Blairhave been asked to report atthe Regional Centre in be-tween 10.30 am to 4.30pm,on April 15, 2014 for regis-tration and guidance for the

function. It is further advisednot to miss the registration asthere will not be any regis-tration on the day of convo-cation. To avoid inconve-nience, all candidates havebeen advised to be presenton the above mentioneddate, a communication fromIGNOU Regional Centre,Port Blair said.

27th Convocation of IGNOUto be Held on 16th April 2014

Court rejects Tejpal'splea to meet ailing motherPANAJI: Additional sessioncourt, Panaji on Wednesdayrejected the Tehelka founder-editor Tarun Tejpal's applica-tion to seek permission tomeet his ailing mother. Whilerejecting the application,court has allowed liberty tofile a fresh application withspecific date and time.

On March 28, Tejpalhad moved a fresh applica-tion before the additional ses-sions court to seek permis-sion to meet his ailing motheronce a week for two hours.

"The application isvague and there is no spe-cific date and time and it canbe only granted if the appli-

cant gives proper date andtime on strict conditions. Theapplication has been rejectedwith a liberty to file a freshapplication with specific dateand time," judge Vijaya Polsaid in the order

Earlier, the court hadallowed Tejpal to meet hismother, who was undergoingtreatment at a hospital inMapusa. In his application,Tejpal had submitted that hismother is suffering from aserious ailment. He also saidthat the doctors treating herhas advised him to take herhome as further treatmentwill not improve her condi-tion.

WWW.ANDAMANSHEEKHA.COM

4 03.04.2014 Rs. 2.00 Andaman Sheekha Daily Port Blair

03.04.2014 Daily Issue::75

EDITORIAL.....Wedded to democracy

Marriages may or may not bemade in heaven. But a lot ofwedding receptions are beingheld thanks to the upcomingelections.

With the ElectionCommission’s model code ofconduct having kicked in, pollofficials are keeping a hawkeye open to ensure that cam-paigning politicians do not goaround distributing all mannerof free goodies to potentialvoters in an effort to woothem. But wily vote-catchersin rural Orissa have report-edly devised an ingeniousway to get around such re-strictions – which prohibitcontestants from spendingmore than Rs 70 lakh on theircampaigns – by organisingfake wedding receptions –complete with ’bride’,‘groom’, ‘pundit’ and ‘par-ents’ of the ‘couple’ – towhich thousands of peopleflock from local villages,lured by the promise of a freebottle of liquor for each maleguest, a sari for each womanguest, and, of course, a typi-cally lavish Indian weddingfeast for everyone. Indeed, touse wedding receptions as acamouflage for electioneer-ing is particularly apt in thatIndian marriages and Indiandemocracy have much incommon. Both are conductedwith a great deal of pomp andwhat is called ‘sho-sha’. As-trologers are consulted re-garding auspicious days whenthe important event – the mar-riage ceremony, or the an-nouncement of a contestant’scandidature from a particularconstituency – should takeplace. On both occasionsfoo-foo bands play loud, andlargely tuneless, music. Gar-lands are exchanged, andmuch food and other forms ofrefreshment are consumed.

In both instances,many promises are made andvows taken regarding loyaltyand honesty in all future deal-ings. However, like only toomany nuptials involving realbrides and grooms, in today’s

era of coalitional politicsmany of the alliances whichareformed are purely mar-riages of convenience and aredoomed to failure from thestart.

More than any ar-ranged marriage, politicsbreeds the strangest of bed-fellows, with yesterday’ssworn foes and bitter adver-saries cosying up to eachother and hitching up to formalliances with no respect tocaste, creed, gotra or ideol-ogy. Nor is there any fear ofvengeful ‘elders’ – the elec-torate – making such matingsa provocation for ‘honourkillings’. The rules with re-gard to political ‘marriages’are far more lax than thoserelating to conventional wed-lock. While unfaithfulness,the breaking of nuptial vows,and other such transgressionsultimately leading to a di-vorce are deemed to behighly deplorable in Indianmarriages, in the ‘dharma’ ofcoalition politics, promiscu-ity in changing one’s alliancepartners is not only consid-ered perfectly normal andnatural but is held in regardas a sign of great acumen inthe art of self-survival.Bothforms of matrimony – thesupposedly holy union of hus-band and wife, and the oftenunholy union of pre- or post-poll political alliances – in-volve the give-and-take ofdowry. In one case, the dowrydemands are in the form ofcash or consumer durables,like refrigerators or cars. Inthe case of political mar-riages, the dowry demandsare in the form of ministerialberths that the dominant partyis to be given in the new gov-ernment which will be born asthe result of theunion.Tragically, a number ofmarriages in India end indowry deaths. Many politicalmarriages also end in dowrydeaths, the victim being notany of the members of thecoalition in question, but thebride we call democracy.

BJP hopeful of alliancewith TDP in Andhra Pradesh

NEW DELHI: BJP on Wednesdaysounded hopeful of a tie-up with TDPin Andhra Pradesh, saying discussionsbetween the two parties have been"good" but a final outcome is awaited.

While equating alliances withmarriages which involve long nego-tiations, party spokesperson PrakashJavadekar blamed the long delay intaking a final decision on the allianceto the fact that the state will witnessboth Lok Sabha and assembly elec-tions

"The talks with TDP are on.We will tell you when anything hap-pens. Discussions have been good,"Javadekar, who is in charge of partyaffairs in Andhra Pradesh, told re-porters.

Sources said the talks be-tween two parties reached a deadend at the state level as TDP did not

agree to the numbers of seats localBJP leaders sought and a final deci-sion will now be taken by the nationalleadership.

"Alliances are like marriages.Marriage is also an alliance. It eitherhappens hundred per cent or doesnot," he quipped.

Anti-Modi hate speech: Congresscandidate Imran Masood granted bail

NEW DELHI: Congress candidatefrom Saharanpur Imran Masood wasgranted bail on Wednesday.

Imran Masood was arrestedon charge of making hate speechagainst Narendra Modi and was sentto judicial custody for 14 days.

In the speech, which went

viral on internet, Masood allegedlythreatened to "chop" BJP prime min-isterial candidate Narendra Modi "intopieces".

Congress had approachedthe Election Commission stating thatthe allegations against Masood were"unverified and distorted".

03.04.2014 Rs. 2.00 Andaman Sheekha Daily Port Blair 5

Hearing loss affectspersonality among elderly

New York, April 2: Hearingloss among old people leavesa deep impact in their person-ality as well, research finds.

The researchersstudied 400 people in the agegroup of 80-98 over a periodof six years.They were as-sessed in terms of physicaland mental measures as wellas personality aspects suchas extraversion, which re-flects the inclination to be out-going and emotional stabilityin every two years.

The results show thateven if the emotional stabilityremained constant over theperiod, the participants be-came less outgoing.

Thus far, the re-searchers were not able toconnect the observedchanges to physical and cog-nitive impairments or to age-related difficulties finding so-cial activities.The only factor

that could be linked to reducedextraversion was hearingloss.

"This is the first timea link between hearing andpersonality changes has beenestablished in longitudinalstudies. Hearing loss directlyaffects the quality of socialsituations," explained AnneIngeborg Berg from depart-ment of psychology at Uni-versity of Gothenburg.

The study throws in-

teresting lights on personalitydevelopment among the eld-erly and also points out theimportance of acknowledgingand treating hearing lossamong the elderly."Even if wecan’t conclude anything aboutcausal relationships, we canguess that the link betweenhearing loss and social with-drawal forms a potentialthreat to older people’swellbeing," the researcherssaid.

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Indian scientist developspotential non-insulin diabetes drugs

New York:A young Indian scientisthas developed a potential non-insu-lin drug candidate for diabetic pa-tients that can help eliminate the riskof low-blood glucose shock in caseof an insulin overdose.Arnab De, aPhD in Microbiology and Immunol-ogy from Columbia University inNew York, has developed the non-insulin drug candidate in collabora-tion with Richard Di Marchi ofIndianaUniversity.Patients use insu-lin to keep their sugar levels incheck,an overdose of insulin can leadto low blood-glucose (hypoglyce-mia), which may cause diabetic-coma and be life-threatening. Insu-lin treatment has also been reportedto cause weight-gain that may exac-erbate a diabetic condition, De toldPTI."We find that there is a peptidehormone in the gut called GLP1 thatincreases the secretion of insulinonly when the blood glucose is high.This effectively eliminates the riskof hypoglycemic shock. Anotheradvantage is that GLP1 administra-

tion has been found to stimulateweight-loss.The hormone offers thepromise of revolutionizing the treat-ment of Type II diabetes and re-duce obesity," he said. Regarding theclinical trial of the new drug, De saidthat GLP-1 has an extremely shorthalf-life of two minutes and this in-stability has impeded its effectiveuse in patients. As per a study pub-lished in the journal Peptide Science,De and Di Marchi "envisioned aprodrug of GLP as a means to ex-tend the duration of action" and theirresearch resulted in several range ofoptions for prolonging peptide ac-tion to once-a-day and once-a-weekformulations."Needless to say, thiswill be very helpful for patients aswe might have a formulation thatneeds to be taken only once a weekas opposed to after every meal" Desaid. Subho Mozumdar, facultymember ,University of Delhi saidthat the development of a GLP-1based pro-drug represents a patient-friendly, diabetic therapeutic. "It is

a remarkable breakthrough whichmight also help to defend againstobesity and perhaps againstAlzheimer's disease too. There is ahuge market for such a therapeuticin India given the growing numberof patients," said Mozumdar.As perestimates by The International Dia-betes Federation, around one in fiveindividuals suffer from some formof obesity.These individuals arethree times more prone to heart at-tacks or stroke and five times morelikely to develop adult-onset of dia-betes vis-a-vis individuals withoutthe syndrome.Indiana UniversityResearch and Technology Corpora-tion (IURTC) has applied for pat-ents internationally on these pro-drugs in the world-wide market.Dehas been conferred the prestigiousYoung Investigator's Award byAmerican Peptide Society."I hopegoing forward this drug essentiallyhelps people.That is when the yearsof hard work and research will payoff," he added.

03.04.2014 Rs. 2.00 Andaman Sheekha Daily Port Blair 7

NIA, Delhi Police spar overcustody of Indian Mujahideen menNEW DELHI: A tug of warwas on Wednesday witnessedin a Delhi court between theNational InvestigationAgency and the Special Cellof Delhi Police for seekingthe custody of top IndianMujahideen operativesTehseen Akhtar and Zia-ur-Rehman alias Waqas.

The special cellsought 15 days police custodyof Akhtar alias Monu, Waqasand three other suspected IMoperatives in connection withan illegal arms factory casebut NIA countered their sub-missions, saying they need totake custody of Akhtar andWaqas in the 2013Hyderabad's Dilsukhnagarblasts case.

As soon as the pro-ceeding began before Addi-tional Sessions Judge DayaPrakash, NIA told the courtthat being a federal centralagency, they have the right toformally arrest both the ac-cused wanted in the blastscase. The special cell, how-

ever, opposed NIA's submis-sions saying the probe agencycannot curtail the rights of thelocal police to investigate anycase.

"You cannot curtailthe rights of the local policein the name of NIA Act...NIA is only seeing the grav-ity of their case but they arenot seeing the gravity of ourcase," special cell prosecutorRajiv Mohan said.

NIA's prosecutorAhmed Khan, however, sub-mitted that the NIA Act hasoverriding effect and it was aspecial law.

He also said that thespecial cell was duty boundto inform NIA after arrestingthe accused.

Advocate M S Khan,who appeared for Akhtar andWaqas, told the court that hisclients were in custody of thespecial cell for the last 10days but the police was notsaying what they have doneduring this period. The spe-cial cell, however, said they

are yet to arrest some morewanted accused persons, in-cluding IM's co-founderRiyaz Bhatkal, and for thatthey need sustained custodialinterrogation of these ac-cused.

Besides Akhtar andWaqas, Mohd Maroof, WakarAzhar and Mohd SaqibAnsari were also producedbefore the court.

The court, after hear-ing the arguments, reservedits order for the post lunchsession.

Akhtar was arrestedfrom near Kakarvitta Indo-Nepal border in Darjeelingdistrict of West Bengal onMarch 25.

Pakistan nationalWaqas was arrested outsideAjmer Railway Station onMarch 22 and his three asso-ciates — Mahruf, Azhar, bothresidents of Jaipur, andAnsari, a resident of Jodhpur,were arrested by the policeon March 23 and thereafterbrought to Delhi.

Address: Roy Villa, INS Utkrosh Road, New Pahargaon, Garacharma Post Office- 744105, South Andaman. Ph: 09932082892. andaman.shikha@gmail.com, editor@andamansheekha.com

City Office: Andaman Sheekha, D & K City Building, Ground Floor, RGT Road, Port Blair. A & N Islands.

Edited, Published, Printed and Owned by Shri Sanjib Kumar Roy and Published from Roy Villa, INS Utkrosh Road, New Pahargaon,Garacharma Post Office- 744105,South Andaman, A & N Islands. Printed at Royal Printers, Bargat Line, South Andaman. Editor: Shri Sanjib Kumar Roy.

8 03.04.2014 Rs. 2.00 Andaman Sheekha Daily Port Blair

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WASH, BODY& SEAT POLISH, RUBBER DRESSING FROM750. 00 ONWARDS

Plot No : 12, Garacharma Industrial Estate, Port Blair-744105E-mail : alankar@carzspa.in Ph : 03192-252242 Mob : 9933219606

Sonia Gandhi files nominationfrom Rae Bareli LS seat

RAE BAREELI: Making yetanother bid to enter Lok Sabhathrough the family'spocketborough in UttarPradesh, Congress presidentSonia Gandhi on Wednesdayfiled her nomination papersfrom the Rae Bareli Lok Sabhaseat.

Gandhi, 67, who willbe seeking re-election fromthe seat, was accompanied byparty's vice president and herson, Rahul Gandhi while pre-senting her papers before thereturning officer.

While SP has decidednot to field anyone against herand Rahul, BJP has fielded Su-preme Court lawyer AjayAggarwal. The AAP is yet toannounce a candidate. "Thepeople of Rae Bareli haveadopted me with immense af-fection and I hope they willmake me victorious again inthe election," she told report-ers in a brief interaction afterfiling her nomination. Arrivingfrom Delhi in the morning,Sonia Gandhi was given a rap-turous welcome from theFursatganj airport to the dis-trict collectorate office. WithRahul at the steering wheel,

Gandhi was welcomed withshowering of rose petals all theway. Before she filed the nomi-nation, a havan was performedat the local Congress office inwhich Sonia and Rahul partici-pated. Old family loyalistSatish Sharma along with herlawyer was also present at thetime of filing of nominations.The constituency has been aNehru-Gandhi family bastionsince the 1960s. Indira Gandhiwon it for the first time in 1967,taking over after the death of

her husband Feroz, who wasalso an MP from here.

Gandhi is a three timeMP from Rae Bareli, includingonce elected in a byelection in2006, after she resigned overoffice of profit issue. In 2004elections she shifted to RaeBareli from Amethi, leaving itto her son Rahul Gandhi.

In 1999, she wonfrom Amethi and had also de-feated BJP's Sushma Swarajfrom the Bellary Lok Sabhaconstituency.

NEW DELHI: Notification wasissued on Wednesday for theseventh phase of Lok Sabhapolls to 89 constituenciesspread across nine states onApril 30 to decide the fate ofpolitical heavyweights likeCongress chief Sonia Gandhiand BJP's prime ministerialcandidate Narendra Modi.

The Lucknow seatfrom where BJP PresidentRajnath Singh is contestingand Amritsar, from whereLeader of the Opposition in theRajya Sabha Arun Jaitley is pit-ted against former Punjab chiefminister Amrinder Singh ofCongress also go for polls onApril 30.

The fate of BJP vet-eran Murli Manohar Joshi, whois contesting from Kanpur,Congress leader Ambika Soni(Anandpur Sahib) and BJP'sUma Bharti (Jhansi) will alsobe decided on that day.

While Gandhi todayfiled her nomination from RaeBareli, Modi is contesting fromVadodara in Gujarat, besidesVaranasi in Uttar Pradesh.

Out of the 89 constitu-encies, 17 are in AndhraPradesh, 26 in Gujarat, sevenin Bihar, one each in Jammuand Kashmir, Daman and Diu,Dadra and Nagar Haveli, 13 inPunjab, 14 in Uttar Pradeshand nine in West Bengal.

With the issuance ofnotification, candidates can filenominations till April 9, whilescrutiny of their papers willtake place the next day.

April 12 is the last dateof withdrawing from contest.

On April 12 anothernotification will be issued forthe 8th phase of polling on May7 in 64 constituencies in sevenstates.

The ninth and the lastphase of general election willbe held on May 12 in whichelectorate of 41 constituenciesspread across three states willexercise their franchise. Thenotification for the last phasewill be issued on April 17.

Notification issued for 7thphase of LS polls; Sonia, Modi in fray

2014 and not 02 April 2014.Even Andaman

Sheekha office got theinformation regarding suchfailure last month but thenews could not be crosschecked with the seniorofficers of BSNL. AndamanSheekha even tried thenumber of BSNL ChiefGeneral Manager severaltimes but there was noresponse from the other side,which can be easily verifiedfrom call details. Even someofficials of BSNL have openlyposted in Social NetworkingSites about the possiblefailure of INSAT 3E a weekback. The million dollar

question is when the BSNLofficials were aware of thissituation why no remedialmeasures were taken sinceday one? Why no press notewas issued on the very firstday? It is only when the phonelines of many Islands wentdead the BSNL came up witha misleading press notetoday.

Islanders urge the Lt.Governor to intervene intothis matter and to direct theBSNL to restore telecomservice of these Islands asearly as possible. After all thisis election time and failure intelecom service may lead tocomplications.

Did BSNL... (From page 1)