Alibaug (Maharashtra), Oct 6 : Eighty two percent farmers and landowners in Raigad district are against the of the proposed Reliance Special Economic Zone (SEZ) project.

Though the Government has not yet declared any result on the referendum conducted last month, SEZ Sangharsh Samiti chief N D Patil declared the result on the “basis of information sought by it”.

“About 82 percent of farmers are not in favour of SEZ,” Patil told reporters in Alibaug.

“The Samiti has decided to wait till October 21 since all the farmers are busy with rice crop and then decide the further line of action,” he said.

Dhule (Maharashtra), Oct 6 : The death toll in group clashes and poli

The Maharashtra Chief Minister, Mr Vilasrao Deshmukh said that the government would not undertake referendum for land acquisition in SEZs and other mega projects. It is recalled that the state government had carried out referendum process for 22 villages under the Maha Mumbai SEZ to address the grievances of local farm community. 

A SEZ had to set up in 10,000 hectares land by the promoters of Maha Mumbai and Reliance Industries Ltd in Raigad district. The collector of Raigad district has yet to submit his final report on referendum.

Malegaon, Sept 30 : The situation in Malegaon remains tense after Monday night''s blast at Bhikku Chowk, in which four people were killed and 70 others were injured.

According to police, the situation is under control.

Meanwhile, curfew has been relaxed in the blast locality near the Noorani mosque.

The blast took place at 9:45 p. m. near a hotel in Bhikku Chowk. The bomb was reportedly placed in a silver coloured Hero Honda Passion motorcycle.

The injured included seven policemen and eleven homeguards, who were hurt in stone-pelting by a mob after the blast. The sub-divisional-magistrate''s jeep was also damaged.

New Delhi - At least five people were killed and 95 injured in two bomb attacks carried out by suspected terrorists in two communally-sensitive towns in western India, media reports said Tuesday.

Four people died and 80 were injured in a blast near a mosque in Malegaon town of Maharashtra state, some 260 kilometres north-east of the capital Mumbai on Monday night, the NDTV news channel reported.

New Delhi - An Indian court on Wednesday convicted and sentenced six people to death for killing four members of a low-caste Dalit family in the western state of Maharashtra.

The court in the eastern Bhandara district also sentenced two other defendants to life imprisonment for the murders that took place in the Khairlanji village in September
2006.

Judge SS Das accepted public prosecutor Ujjwal Nikam's plea for capital punishment for the men who beat to death the wife and three children of a farmer, Bhaiyyalal Bhotmange, over a land dispute. Bhotmange managed to escape and survived.

But the court noted that the prosecution could not produce evidence to conclusively prove that it caste was a motive for the attack.