Posts Tagged ‘Bhopal’
Written by admin on 05 February 2012
Bhopal, Feb 5 (IANS) Car manufacturers are setting their eyes on smaller Indian cities and towns as markets boom for their products, particularly sale of luxury vehicles.
And one such city is the Madhya Pradesh capital Bhopal where an Auto Expo is going on. At least 14 major manufacturers, including Maruti Suzuki, Toyota, Hyundai, Nissan, BMW, Jaguar, Renault, and Mahindra and Mahindra, are participating in the four-day trade fair.
The car manufacturers say markets like Bhopal are booming like never before. Industry experts say the preferred choice of the affluent and young are helping the market grow.
“Our target to begin with is to sell 20 cars, but if the current trend is anything to follow, we will exceed expectations (in 2012),” BMW Sales Consultant Nilesh Tiwari told IANS.
BMW plans to have its very own service centre in Madhya Pradesh by the end of the next quarter.
Jaguar Land Rover is in the process of selecting a dealer in the state.
“Preliminary research indicated that customers from Madhya Pradesh purchase their luxury vehicles from other states. We are looking to fill this gap by creating a niche for our two brands, Jaguar and Land Rover,” said Sales Manager Sameer Ahsan.
On display at the fair is a Jagaur that costs a cool Rs.96 lakh on road. The Land Rover, whose price tag begins at Rs.41 Lakh, has already sold a couple of its models in the state, with a booking order for another dozen before the launch of its showroom in Indore.
An all-time favourite, Mitsubishi Pajero, is said to be selling more in Bhopal than across the state and even Nagpur.
“We sell on an average eight Pajeros per month in Bhopal, which ranks higher than sales in Nagpur,” S.M. Sheikh, assistant manager, sales, told IANS.
“The market for SUVs and Pajeros has picked up significantly,” he added.
Mitsubishi is gearing up to enter the Bhopal market with its luxury sedan Lancer Evolution X (also known as Evo 10). Cost almost Rs.50 lakh.
“I’ve got a car already, it’s a Civic. But I’m looking for something a little bigger, because it’s a bit cramped if you go away for the night,” said Ramesh Sharma, looking at a brochure of BMW X-series, whose price range starts from Rs.26 lakh.
(Shahnawaz Akhtar can be contacted at shahnawaz@ians.in)
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Written by admin on 03 February 2012
Bhopal, Feb 3 (IANS) Congress legislator Kalpana Parulekar was Friday arrested by officials of CID in Ujjain district for using morphed pictures to show Madhya Pradesh Lokayukta P.P. Naolekar as participating in RSS’s function as cadre, police said Friday.
Parulekar had shown the picture during the last assembly session to which Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had taken objection. State Parliamentary Affairs Minister Narottam Mishra had lodged a complaint against her.
The case was later transferred to CID, Madhya Pradesh.
The Ujjain superintendent of police Rakesh Gupta confirmed the arrest of the Congress MLA.
Leader of opposition Ajay Singh said Parulekar was highlighting the corruption issue. Singh said the Lokayukta was not conducting raids on corrupt ministers, and the Shivraj Singh Chouhan government arrested Parulekar to please Naolekar.
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Written by admin on 02 February 2012
Bhopal, Feb 2 (IANS) The year he was born saw the world’s worst industrial disaster, the Bhopal gas leak. Some 27 years down the line, he is now trying to draw attention to the tragedy through his art.
Sayed Irshad Ali, from Udaipur district in Rajasthan, is in Bhopal these days to showcase his contemporary art work, including hoardings and posters, in various public places.
He compares two major industrial disasters — the 1984 Bhopal tragedy and 2010′s oil leak from British Petroleum’s underwater drilling rig in the Gulf of Mexico off the US coast.
‘I am raising two main points through my artwork. Firstly, I am comparing these two manmade tragedies. In the first case, human beings died, and in the other, fish. The families of 500,000 Bhopal gas victims, even after 27 years, are still waiting for justice, whereas the US made BP pay a compensation of $20 billion for dead fish and environmental damage in the Gulf of Mexico,’ Ali told IANS.
‘This artwork will raise questions such as how important are human lives in our country and do we really care enough?’ he said.
The second issue he is highlighting is the ‘hypocrisy’ of Dow Chemicals, which bought Union Carbide, and its ‘tainted’ sponsorship of this year’s London Olympics.
‘Dow Chemicals inherited a criminal by buying Union Carbide in 2001, but at the same time it didn’t take any liabilities of the Bhopal tragedy, like cleanup of the site. The people of Bhopal are still drinking contaminated water and thousands are routinely exposed to cancer and birth defects,’ he said.
He said the company which is responsible for the ‘destruction of both human lives and nature’ should not be allowed to be associated with a prestigious event like the Olympics.
‘I appeal to the Indian government and people to boycott the London Olympics till the Dow Chemicals sponsorship is not taken back by the Olympics committee,’ he said.
On the intervening night of Dec 2-3, 1984, tonnes of poisonous methyl isocyanate leaked from the then Union Carbide factory in Bhopal, killing over 3,000 people instantly and around 25,000 over the years. A total of 500,000 people have been affected by the tragedy.
This is Ali’s sixth series of work focussing on social issues. His first work ‘Astitva’, on Udaipur Lakes, and ‘Shoe Men’s Property 1 & 2′, on Iraq and Afghanistan, were well received.
‘It is good that such young people and artists are coming forward for the Bhopal cause and presenting their point of view. It is in fact a kind of help and support to the fight for justice,’ Abdul Jabbar, convenor of the Bhopal Gas Peedit Mahila Udhyog Sangathan, told IANS.
(Shahnawaz Akhtar can be contacted at shahnawaz.a@ians.in)
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Written by admin on 01 February 2012
Bhopal, Feb 1 (IANS) A woman gave birth at the Vidisha railway station in Madhya Pradesh with the help of railway personnel as her husband was allegedly told by the district hospital to take her to the state capital.
Narmadi Bai of Hasapur village was admitted in Vidisha district hospital Friday.
Said her husband Randhir: “I was told by the doctors to arrange blood as Narmadi would need it during delivery. I arranged the blood but then I was told to take her to Bhopal on Tuesday morning.”
They reached the Vidisha railway station where she complained of labour pains.
Government Railway Police (GRP) head constable Nirmal Singh told IANS: “With the help of a woman, Radha Bai, Narmadi delivered. Our men held clothes from all sides to cover her. She gave birth to a boy.”
The GRP personnel sent Narmadi and the baby to Vidisha district hospital.
However, Vidisha civil surgeon Manju Jain refused that the woman was forcibly referred to another hospital. She blamed Randhir for taking her to Bhopal.
“Narmadi had a chance to undergo caesarean, so her husband was told to arrange blood but to escape from operation expenditure he took her to Bhopal,” she said.
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Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Bhopal, Jan 30 (IANS) A woman and her daughter-in-law rained fatal blows on a patwari or land record official accused in the murder of her husband and son inside the court premises in Ujjain district of Madhya Pradesh Monday, police said.
Sources said Monday evening that the older woman, in her 50s, and her daughter-in-law, in her 30s, had come to Ujjain district court for hearing of a case in which patwari Ramesh Nigam (in his 60s) was accused in the murders.
Nigam, a brother-in-law of the woman, was on bail in this case.
The women and the patwari started arguing and the two women took their sandals in their hands and started beating Nigam till he fell down and died. Police intervened and took the man to a doctor, who declared him dead.
Police said the incident is the outcome of long family dispute in which the patwari was an accused for killing the woman’s husband and son.
“The patwari is brother of the woman’s husband, whose name was Mahesh Nigam. Mahesh and his son were killed in March, 2011 and Ramesh was an accused. We have taken both women in custody and interrogation is going on,” said Ujjain superintendent of police Rakesh Gupta.
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Written by admin on 30 January 2012
Bhopal, Jan 30 (IANS) Madhya Pradesh’s main opposition the Congress Monday said it will hold a counter-protest against Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan’s proposed ‘maun vrat’ (vow of silence) Thursday.
Chouhan’s protest is aimed at highlighting the central government’s alleged delay in giving its nod to a bill which the state had passed to set up special courts to deal with corruption cases.
“Congress leaders too will sit on a ‘maun vrat’ to expose Shivraj Singh Chouhan and to urge the Lokayukta to raid the chief minister, his ministers and higher officials rather than just the lower officials,” Congress leader Digvijay Singh told reporters here.
Reacting to the comments, Chouhan said: “It seems Congressmen have Shivraj nightmares and ‘Shivraj phobia’.”
The Madhya Pradesh assembly had passed the special courts bill in April 2011.
After seizure of massive wealth during Lokayukta raids on government officials, Chouhan renewed his efforts to get the central government’s approval for the bill.
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.JPG "Neil Nitin Mukesh inaugurates Mehta Emporium in Mumbai on Wednesday afternoon. (Photo: IANS)")
