West Bengal Chief Minister Jyoti Basu has asked central leaders to allow his government to purchase foodgrain from other states to stave off near-famine conditions arising from a calamitous drought. “We have got only two weeks’ rations in our godowns”, he said.
Sri Lanka is likely to be put under a state of emergency soon after polling ends on October 20. Quoting “informed sources”, a Colombo English daily, sympathetic to the ruling United National Party, reported that a decision to this effect was taken at a recent national security council meeting presided over by the President J R Jayawardene, to forestall post-election violence. Post-election violence has been a regular feature in this country. The emergency, when declared, would be the third in the past 14 months.
Lok Sabha Speaker Balram Jakhar admonished a Democratic Socialist Party member, Neelalhoita Dasan Nadar, when the latter “tabled” inedible rotis which he said were being supplied to Akali prisoners in Punjab.
Virtually abandoning all bilateral talks with Karnataka on the Cauvery issue, the Tamil Nadu government has demanded that the Centre discard its present indifferent attitude to the issue and find a solution to the sharing of the Cauvery waters.
A 40-year-old man died in hospital after being shot when the police opened fire on rioters near the southern city of Krakow in Poland, the official news agency reported.
