Mumbai Beat

The case dates back to June 1997, when the Dubai police in coordination with their counterparts in Sharjah and Umm Al Quwain, both UAE emirates, raided a factory producing mandrax tablets and a godown and made some arrests.

During the raids, police discovered 4.4 tonnes five million pills in an Umm Al Quwain factory, while in Dubai 832 kg one million pills were found, officials said.

Make voting compulsory8217;

State Cultural Affairs Minister Pramod Navalkar says voting should be made compulsory for all eligible citizens. Launching the BJP-Sena election campaign today, Navalkarlamented that the voting percentage of intellectuals and the educated had fallen from 68 per cent to even 12 in some constituencies. He said it is high time the election process is taken seriously to check the drop in polling percentage. Earlier, Navalkar had hoisted the national tricolour at the Thane district collectorate.

Dharna by Dalit Panthers

Dalit Panther leaders, Namdeo Dhasal and Jambhuvant Dhote, held a dharna at Girgaum Chowpatty today, to protest the disenfranchisement of Shiv Sena chief Bal Thackeray by the Election Commission of India.

The dharna was held near Bandstand Chowky. The two leaders demanded that President K R Narayanan withdraw the order which prevents Thackeray from casting his vote. They described the order as 8220;unprecendented8221; and expressed surprise that neither the state government nor the Centre had taken the issue seriously.