News in brief from across Gujarat

Ahmedabad/Bureaus

– District headquarters Surendranagar is observing bandh today against the nuisance of land mafias and extortionists against whom police has failed to take action so far. Yesterday a group of land mafias attacked former BJP MLA and influential local leader Dhanraj Kella and fired 3 rounds. Traders in Surendrabagar are observing bandh seeking permanent solution to this menace. They want stringent punishment to land mafias who have created atmosphere of fear in Surendranagar and surrounding areas. Locals also organized rally and gave memorandum to district collector. Victim Kella has given five names of accused to police. Kella’s driver was injured in yesterday’s attack.

– Gujarat Police has achieved another success. Main accused of Jasdan BJP Councillor’s murder case Ghanshyam Khachar and two others are nabbed from Daman. Khachar is vice president of Jasdan municipality. Khachar and others attacked BJP Councillor Vipul Hirpara and killed him. Vipul’s father was injured in this incident which took place outside Leuva Patel community hall. Jasdan town had observed bandh against the incident and witnessed a huge rally participated by Leuva Patel community members in large numbers among others.

–An air-conditioned coach of Aravalli Express running between Bandra and Jaipur today derailed near the Sabarmati railway station here, officials said.However, there was no casualty or injury to any passenger, they said. The incident occurred around 6.30 AM.According to Pradeep Sharma, Public Relations Officer (PRO) at Western Railway at Ahemdabad, the incident took place after a third AC coach of Bandra-Jaipur train number-19707 (Aravalli Express) derailed by four wheels of the rear trolley here post departure from platform number-4 of Sabarmati railway station.The passengers of the derailed coach were shifted to another coach and the front portion of the coach was cleared, he said, adding that the train left for the next station after around two hours.

– Counting for Rajpath Club election is going on in Ahmedabad at Club premises under police bandobast. Gujarat High Court’s class-2 staff is involved in counting duty in presence of Retired High Court Justice Mehta as observer. Six lawyers are supervising the counting procedure. There are 10,400 members in this club. Over 6,000 cast their votes. The fight in this election is between two panels. One is headed by Paresh Dani who presently controls the Board of Directors. The other panel is led by Jagdishbhai Patel and backed by influential cooperative leader Ajay Patel. The election took place to elect 30 directors of board. Any panel getting its 16 panel members elected will control the board. After completion of counting, the results will be presented to High Court for clearance. The results will then be declared in Board meeting at Club.

– Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation today demolished over two dozen illegal structures in Fatehvadi area of Juhapura/Sarkhej in city. It should be mentioned that recently local BJP MLA Chauhan had alleged that his letter to administration complaining about illegal structures in his constituency area was leaked.

– Veteran Gujarati humor writer Tarak Mehta reached Delhi to receive Padmashri award. Senior journalist Sheela Bhatt tweeted his this photo.