TMC challenges Centre
Kolkata, Dec 17: The Trinamool Congress on Thursday said that the West Bengal government will not release three Indian Police Service officers on deputation following the diktat of the Centre, and dared the BJP-led regime to impose President’s Rule in the state. The Centre’s order in this regard is “unconstitutional and unacceptable”, Senior TMC leader and Rural Development Minister Subrata Mukherjee told a press conference here. “We will not send them on deputation. At most, the Centre can impose Presidents Rule. We welcome that. If the Centre has the power to do that, let it go ahead,” he said. The three IPS officers of the West Bengal cadre have been called to serve in central deputation. “This is unconstitutional and unacceptable. We will not allow interference by the Centre”, Mukherjee said. (PTI)
Maoists kills contractor
Malkangiri, Dec 17: A contractor, engaged in road construction in a remote area of Odisha’s Malkangiri district, was on Thursday hacked to death by Maoists who were opposed to the work, police said. Around 20 armed Maoists stormed the construction site near Dangriguda and set ablaze three vehicles, and machines used in the work, undertaken by contractor Sukumar Mandal, said RN Majhi, the inspector in-charge of Mathili police station. As the contractor tried to resist, the Maoists thrashed him using sticks and then hacked him to death with an axe, the officer said. They were opposing the road construction as it would facilitate the movement of vehicles of security forces, Majhi said. (PTI)
BSF kills two Pak intruders
New Delhi/Amritsar, Dec 17: Two Pakistani “armed intruders” were on Thursday shot dead by the Border Security Force along the International Border in Punjab as the force thwarted three bids of drugs smuggling at this front. In the first interception, two men in their 30s were killed near the Rajatal border post in Amritsar around 2:20 am after the troops on guard detected suspicious movement ahead of the border fence in Indian territory, a BSF spokesperson said. An AK-56 rifle, semi-automatic rifle, pistol, 90 bullets, five magazines and two PVC pipes, usually used to push drug packets across the border, of about ten feet each, have been seized after a search was conducted of the incident site, the DIG said. No drugs were found in this spot, he added. (PTI)