1. Poll List: BJP to Wait and Watch
Gujarat BJP's top brass met on Sunday, 17 March, for a three-day parliamentary board meeting. The leaders have been discussing political issues with the observers and in charges of each of the Lok Sabha seats. The party sources, however, revealed that the list of candidates will not be declared in haste.
The meeting was held at chief minister's residence in Gandhinagar. They assessed political equations and received report from observers for 11 seats in South Gujarat and Central Gujarat.
The board will meet again and fill in 11 more seats on Monday covering North Gujarat and some of the seats from Saurashtra region.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
2. Hardik Patel Event Disrupted, He Calls It BJP Conspiracy
A get-together programme of Hardik Patel-led Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS), who recently joined the Congress, was briefly disrupted near Gandhinagar on Sunday 17 March by some unidentified persons who tried to tear off the main banner on the stage.
Hardik, who was recently married, had organised the Sneh Milan for families of PAAS workers from across Gujarat. Hardik’s wife, Kinjal, was also present at the event.
Sources claimed the dissenters belonged to PAAS’s Surat unit, who were upset to see that the main banner had only Hardik’s photograph and not that of PAAS leader Alpesh Katheriya, who is currently in jail.
However, Hardik denied this, saying that Katheriya’s father was present on the dais, and called the episode “a BJP conspiracy”.
(Source: Indian Express)
3. Disqualified Cong MLA Barad Reaches Out to Ahirs, Flays BJP
At a time when the BJP is trying to woo Ahirs ahead of Lok Sabha polls, disqualified Gujarat Congress MLA Bhagvan Barad, who belongs to the OBC community, accused the ruling party of targetting him in an old case, in which he has been convicted by court.
In view of a spate of defections of MLAs from the Congress camp to the BJP recently, Barad alleged the government has adopted a "threat" strategy to make Congress MLAs switch sides.
Barad, who represented Talala seat in Gir Somnath district, was disqualified by the Legislative Assembly Speaker, days after he was convicted by a court in an illegal mining case, which handed him a jail term for two years and nine months.
His conviction was later stayed by upper court, which was set aside by the Gujarat High Court recently.
(Source: PTI)
4. Farmers to Block Roads If Irrigation Water Not Provided
Farmers of Mahuva, Talaja, Ghogha and Palitana talukas of Bhavnagar district have threatened blocking (chakka-jam) of main roads and other protests if state authorities do not provide them water for irrigation to save standing crops.
Farmers claim that enough water is available but the authorities are not supplying water even after taking an advance payment.
"Farmers are facing severe drought. There is water in the dam and the payments have been cleared. But there is no water supply. Our crops are destroyed too," said Pratapsinh Gohil, a farmer of Uncha Kotda village of Mahuva taluka.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
5. FMCG Distributors Demand Pension
FMCG distributors in the state are now demanding a 'pension' scheme stating that they are fighting against great odds in the face of heavy discounts being given by malls and other big retailers.
"The fact is that several distributors have gone out of business and many are not planning to extend it beyond the present generation. This is because it is no more a viable business," said Arun Parikh, chairman, The Federation of Gujarat FMCG distributors.
As of now there is only one company that offers 0.25 per cent as pension for the total turnover that a distributor contributes for the company's products.
"We are now demanding that such a rule be made mandatory for, because that will help safeguard the distributors, who are facing financial troubles and have nothing to rely on in their old age," said Parikh.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
6. Fake Job Racket Busted, Two Booked
The Shaherkotada Police on Sunday, 17 March, nabbed two men and are on the lookout for a woman in connection with a fake job racket that was being run from Naroda.
Police said that the mastermind seems to be a woman resident of Indore. The accused would pose as employees of one V-tech Enterprise and offer data entry part time job to unsuspecting candidates.
They would offer work from home option and seek a deposit. Police said once hired they would start finding faults with the data entry jobs done by the employees and fire them thus failing to return the deposit collected from them.
(Source: DNA Ahmedabad)
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