Briefly8230;

According to sources, 26 flights of Indian Airlines IA and 18 of Jet Airways were delayed from 15 minutes to two hours as the agitating ATCs refused to give timely clearance since early morning. International flights, including those of Air-India, were also delayed by about one hour since Monday evening.

The situation worsened as the Airports Authority of India AAI management failed to implement its much touted contingency plan to deploy the services of the ATCs from the Indian Air Force to handle air traffic at all major airport in the country. According to sources, while the first batch of IAF ATCs were on standby awaiting orders to take over operations at Mumbai airport, the management was in no mood to actually utilise their services. AAI head of Air TrafficManagement, P C Goyal and director of air traffic, S S Parathe, were expected to fly down to Mumbai tonight to hold further negotiations with ATC Guild leaders here. Confusion over Ramabai deathsn CONFUSION prevailed at the Ramabai Ambedkar Nagar, Ghatkopar E following the death of six persons including three women in unrelated incidents.

Quoting post-mortem reports, the police said while Kachrabai Gaikwad 65 and Kantabai Kamble died of a prolonged illness, while the third Mangal Ingle who was an alchoholic, died at her residence. From among the three others who died, Paraji Gaikwad 85 passed away after a protracted illness while Dipak Jagtap 43 died of tuberculosis. The third Mohan Khaire 32 complained of nausea and vomitting and died at the Rajawadi Hospital. The death of six persons set off rumours forcing the authorities to issue a special press release to clarify facts. Security has been tightened to avoid any untoward incident.

2 Ashwin Naik gangsters held

Posing as waiters andcashier, sleuths attached to the Anti-Extortion Cell of Mumbai police arrested two notorious members of the Ashwin Naik gang when they had come to collect a ransom of Rs 5 lakh from a south Mumbai hotelier on Monday afternoon. According to Assistant Inspector of Police Suresh Vedak, who posed a cashier of the hotel, the duo approached him and asked for the cash bag8217;. No sooner he bent down, which was a signal, the others who were dressed as waiter closed in and nabbed the extortionists, Vedak added.

The arrested gangsters have been identified as Manoj Narayan Bhalekar and Madhu Suvarna alias Chikna. The duo are considered specialists in extorting money from hoteliers, said the police. The third suspect in the case, who has been identified as Hemant Pujari, however managed to give the police a slip.

Interrogation of the two accused has revealed that they have been regularly extorting money from hoteliers in south Mumbai. In an another case, a special squad attached to Zone X nabbed two members of aninternational drug cartel, including an Afghan national and recovered brown sugar worth Rs 11 crore near a hotel at Borivli on Monday evening. The police did not identify the accused.