MUMBAI, July 31: Dattaram Mulam retired on Thursady after 31 years of meritorious service as Supervisor in Advertisement Composing Department of The Indian Express. He was given a warm send off by his colleagues in the department.

40 drown as bus plunges into river

INDORE: About 40 passangers drowned when a private luxury bus, in which they were travelling, plunged into the swollen Narmada River after breaking the railing of a bridge, near Nemawar, in Dewas district of Madhya Pradesh on Thursday. More deaths are feared as only two passengers could swim to safety. Rescue workers, who were summoned from Dewas, Khandawa and other adjoining places, could not carry out the operation due to heavy rains and floods. The mishap occurred when the bus, belonging to R J Fojdar and company, develpoed some problem in its steering wheel. The bus was proceeding to Indore from Amaravati in Maharashtra, sources added.

Karnataka oppn calls off dharna

BANGALORE: Ending a two-day deadlock on the issue of hike in power tariff, Opposition members in both houses of the Karnataka Legislature called off their dharna, paving the way for resumption of stalled proceedings.

Strident opposition members who even staged a night-long dharna till last morning, demanding withdrawal of the hike, resumed seats saying they did not want to block the proceedings any more as they had some vital issues to raise.

Six acquitted in arms seizure casepSURAT: The district sessions judge Ashok Dave on Wednesday acquitted six accused in the illegal firearms and lethal weapons seizure case for ``want of evidence''. The weapons were seized from two old buildings in Sodagarwad and Rani Talao localities in the heart of the city in 1995 by the city crime branch, led by the then police inspector, G P Pawar, official sources said here. The seizure included four rifles, three revolvers, 78 live cartridges and lethal weapons.

Copyright © 1997 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.