The Godhra unit of Congress has accused the BJP of tearing posters of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh,which were put up in the town where the state government has organised the Republic Day celebrations this year. Godhra Congress legislator C K Raulji and another party leader Firoz Sindhi have submitted an application before the Godhra Town police station in this regard. Raulji told Newsline: It is evident that it has been done by some BJP men only because the posters were depicting the achievements of the UPA government (at the Centre). We have approached the police,but we know that the investigation might start only after the Republic Day celebrations. He said the posters talked about how the Centre helped the Panchmahals Cooperative Bank that was liquidated in 2003. After the Vaijnath Committee report,the Centre came out with a bailout package of Rs 436.76 crore for the bank,but the state government gave only Rs 7 crore. As the BJP would never be able to digest this fact,the posters were destroyed, he added. The Panchmahals Cooperative Bank has 1.24 lakh depositors,who have deposits worth Rs 215 crore in the bank. Despite Central assistance,the state government is not initiating any procedure to revive the bank,which the Reserve Bank of India has stopped since March 15,2003 after a fraud of Rs 120 crore had surfaced, he said. The Congress members are not planning to protest against the incident during the celebrations. We have already mentioned our demands in the application submitted to the police and we will decide the future course of action later, Raulji said. An official at the police station said it is still a matter of investigation and nothing much has come out as yet. Jawans rifle goes missingOn the eve of the Republic Day celebrations,the Godhra Town police were seen searching for a Self-Loading Rifle (SLR) that belonged to a Border Wing jawan,Balbhadra Singh. According to a formal complaint registered with the Godhra Town police station,the SLR along with 20 cartridges was stolen from the tent of Balbhadra Singh while he was asleep near the helipad. This is serious,especially because of the presence of top politicians and the Governor. We are trying to locate the rifle, said an official at the police station.
