Kutch fishermen threaten to boycott Lok Sabha polls

July 22nd, 2009 CHENNAI - The Communist parties will announce Thursday whether they will support AIADMK's decision to boycott by-polls in Tamil Nadu, party sources said Wednesday. On July 20, the AIADMK and the MDMK decided to boycott the by-elections in five assembly constituencies Aug 18, alleging that the polls would not be held in a free and fair manner.

June 26th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - Ports along the Kutch region in Gujarat's northern coast have been asked by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) to issue warning to ships about rough weather in the Arabian sea, a statement released here said Friday. "The depression over northeast Arabian sea weakened into a well marked low pressure area over Kutch and the neighbourhood at 5.30 a.m.

June 25th, 2009 AHMEDABAD - The meteorological department declared on Thursday that the monsoon has set over Gujarat except for the Central and Northern districts of the state, with heavy rainfall being predicted in Saurashtra within next 24 hours. "Now we can say that in Gujarat, monsoon has set in the Kutch, Saurashtra and South Gujarat regions, while it is yet to cover Central and Northern parts of the state," said Kamaljeet Ray, Ahmedabad Director of Indian Meteorological Department.

April 30th, 2009 KOLKATA - Thousands of tribals in West Bengal boycotted the Lok Sabha polls and vented ire Thursday demanding development in their respective regions. The Akhil Bharatiya Adivasi Vikas Parishad (ABAVP), a tribal body based in northern part of the state, called for the poll boycott protesting against the state government not heeding its four-point charter of demands including creation of a new Lok Sabha constituency comprising the foothills of the district and opening of closed tea gardens.

April 30th, 2009 SILIGURI - There was a poll boycott in two booths of West Bengal's hill district of Darjeeling though enthusiastic queues of people were seen elsewhere under a thick blanket of fog and intermittent rain Thursday. Fifteen to 20 percent votes were cast in the first two hours of the polls for the only Lok Sabha constituency of the district - Darjeeling - from where Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) heavyweight Jaswant Singh is trying his luck.

April 17th, 2009 BHUJ - About 5,000 fishermen from the Kutch region will gather near the Adani group's special economic zone (SEZ) at Mundhra port Saturday to oppose the company's proposed waterfront development project. The fishermen will demand scrapping of the project that involves construction of facilities to berth 50 large ships at a time, as well as setting up of a desalination plant.

April 16th, 2009 SRINAGAR - In a significant development, the moderate Hurriyat group led by Mirwaiz Umer Farooq Thursday decided not to call for a boycott of parliamentary elections in Jammu and Kashmir. After three days of discussions here, the group announced that the elections were no alternative to 'the right to self-determination' but did not specifically ask Kashmiris to keep away from the polls.

April 13th, 2009 BHOPAL - Over 30,000 villagers in Madhya Pradesh's Chhindwara district - where many villages have submerged due to a dam project - have decided to boycott the polls in protest against the power plant on the Pench river. 'People of 32 villages who have been effected due to the Pench project will Tuesday take a pledge at Ravindra Bhawan in Bhopal to boycott the polls,' Narmada Bachao Andolan (NBA) activist Aradhana Bhargava told IANS.

April 10th, 2009 PAITHAN - Farmers in Maharashtra, displaced by Jaikwadi Dam, have decided to boycott the polls, as they are yet to receive their dues. Residents of about 118 villages displaced by Jaikwadi Dam, 50 kilometers from Aurangabad, have been long demanding their dues from the authorities but without any success.

April 5th, 2009 PATNA - An outlawed Maoist outfit has expelled one of its senior leaders in Bihar for contesting the Lok Sabha elections, defying the group's poll boycott call. Ranjan Yadav alias Dinkar-ji, a member of the Bihar-Jharkhand-Chhattisgarh special area committee of the Communist Party of India-Maoist (CPI-Maoist), was expelled for contesting from Chatra constituency in neighbouring Jharkhand, a statement issued by the outfit said Sunday.

April 1st, 2009 SILIGURI - Akhil Bharatiya Adivashi Vikash Parishad (ABAVP), a tribal body in West Bengal's northern hills, Wednesday announced that they will boycott the Lok Sabha elections in the Terai-Dooars region of the state. 'We had given a memorandum to the Jalpaiguri administration over a month back, asking for a separate constituency at Terai-Dooars to be reserved for Scheduled Tribes,' John Barla, ABAVP's Terai and Dooars co-ordination committee president, said here.

April 1st, 2009 CHENNAI - Actor-turned-politician and DMDK leader Vijaykanth has renewed his offer to boycott the ensuing parliamentary elections to show his solidarity with the Tamils in Sri Lanka, if the bigger Dravidian parties do the same. 'The DMDK would gladly follow suit if the (ruling) DMK and (the main opposition) AIADMK agree to boycott the elections on the Sri Lanka Tamils' issue.

March 24th, 2009 KANPUR - Devoid of electricity, villagers in Uttar Pradesh have now threatened to boycott the upcoming general elections. Even after 60 years of India's independence, villages like Sultanpur Tera Jor, Hathiyapur, Kundal, Gahana of Kanpur district don't have basic amenities.

February 16th, 2009 PALANPUR - Workers of diamond polishing units from north Gujarat, who lost their jobs due to the global financial meltdown, have threatened to boycott the Lok Sabha elections to protest government apathy towards their plight. 'We are firm on boycotting the Lok Sabha elections.

January 18th, 2009 BHUJ - Seventeen Pakistani fishermen have been awaiting interrogation in this Gujarat city after they were caught for entering Indian waters at the Kori Creek last week. The fishermen, caught Thursday from the Kori Creek by the Coast Guard, are in the custody of the Narayan Sarovar Police Station and the police of the border district of Kutch have already interrogated them, police sources said Monday.