Lucknow: One person was killed and over 24 were injured on Monday in clashes between rival groups during the first phase of three-tier Panchayat elections across Uttar Pradesh which registered an 80 per cent turnout.
A police jeep and a polling station were torched as reports of booth capturing and snatchng of ballot boxes were reported in some districts leading to cancellation of polling.
Rival groups used firearms and indulged in heavy brick-batting during the clashes which left one dead and at least 24 injured. Tipu, aged 28, was shot dead near a polling booth in
Gadia village in Kannauj district, Additional Director General of Police Brij Lal said.
In Akbarpur area in Ramabai Nagar, a police jeep was set ablaze while a former village head and three others were arrested after they opened fire and set afire a polling booth
in Nayapur village in Agra. At least 14 people, one of them a candidate for the
post of Gram Pradhan, were injured in clashes in Kayamganj Development Block in Farrukhabad.
The candidate for the post of Gram Pradhan was stabbed in Raehgaon village and was admitted to a hospital where his condition was stated to be critical. Five people were injured in Firozabad as rival groups traded fire and hurled bricks at each other, the ADGP said.
In Chattrapati Shahuji Maharaj Nagar, four members of a family were injured in a group clash, he said. SP demands CBI probe into sale of 11 sugar mills in UP Lucknow Oct 11 (PTI) Samajwadi party on Monday alleged largescale irregularities in the sale of 11 sugar mills of Uttar Pradesh Sugar Corporation to private parties and demanded a CBI inquiry into it.
"These 11 sugar mills have been shown to be running into losses and sold to private parties including a liquor baron who has been given five mills", Leader of Opposition in the State Assembly and senior SP leader Shivpal Singh Yadav told newspersons here without naming anyone.
While stating figures to stress his point that these mills have been sold at a very low price despite the fact that they were equipped with modern machinery and were on prime
land, Yadav demanded that a CBI inquiry be ordered into irregularities in the sale besides putting on hold the move to auction 15 more mills.
Claiming that all these 11 mills are in working condition, the SP leader alleged that the aim behind selling them was to earn commission and demanded that interpol be involved in enquiring about the money amassed by the Chief Minister in foreign banks through Havala besides a CBI probe into her as well as her family members` assets which are
disproportionate to their income.
Yadav said that the liquor baron to whom five of these mills have been sold has also got the liquor contract in 16 districts of western UP where the rates of each bottle is hiked by Rs 15 to 20. He alleged that half of the money thus raised directly goes to the Chief Minister.
PTI
