Judicial work in 17 courts at Arun Chambers, Tardeo came to a halt on Tuesday following an anonymous telephone call to the Tardeo police station that a time-bomb had been placed at the court premises set to go off at 3 pm.

The warning, however, turned out to be hoax. Police received a telephone call that a bomb would explode on the sixth or seventh floor of Arun Chambers which houses 10 labour courts, six industrial courts and one workmen compensation court.

The bomb squad and two sniffer dogs were taken to every courtroom first at 10.30 am and then again from 1.30 pm to 3 pm but no suspicious object was found. Though the courts were vacated during the search, work was not disrupted.

Strike over diesel price hike

Agitated over the hike in diesel prices in metros announced on Monday, the fourth in the state in three months, transport operators are planning an indefinite nation-wide agitation.

In January this year, the state government hiked dieselprices by 30 paise per litre to garner an additional revenue of Rs 180 crore. Next, the Union government hiked the fuel prices by one rupee in its budget. This was followed by the state government which again hiked prices by 70 paise a litre on March 22.

Various transport organisations across the country are co-ordinating the proposed strike which will begin later this month, though the current political uncertainty has in no small measure delayed plans for the agitation.

The Maharashtra Rajya Truck Tempo Tankers Bus Vahatuk Mahasangh, which represents over 2.5 lakh vehicle operators in the state, has written to the Petroleum Ministry to withdraw the proposed diesel hike and not subsidise other products like naphta at the cost of diesel.

``There is no system here, sometimes the state government hikes prices or otherwise it's the Central government,'' said Mohinder Singh Ghura, President of the association.

The central hike which came into effect midnight on Monday raised prices in the three othermetros by 34 paise and 39 paise in Mumbai. Diesel prices are now the highest in the city. This is due to the higher rates of sales tax on the fuel here.

According to the association, the combined hikes in the state had increased the prices of diesel by Rs 2.50, resulting in a hike of 25 per cent which vehicle owners could neither absorb nor pass on to the consumer because of the ongoing recession in the transport trade.

Vehicle owners would now have to shell out an additional Rs 2000 to Rs 6000 per month depending on the nature of their operation.

The association has demanded a white paper on the diesel policy to set at rest the rationale behind the frequent hikes. It has also demanded a limit on sales tax like the four per cent ceiling on octroi in the city.

Power to slums under civic councils

Deputy Chief Minister Gopinath Munde today announced that slumdwellers in the state having the proof of ration card or enrolment in the voters list till 1995 along with a no objection certificate(NOC) from the respective municipal councils will be given electricity connections.

Munde, who also holds energy portfolio, told the legislative council that the government has extended the eligibility period to give electricity connections to the year 1995 against 1985.

Munde made the announcement during the question hour while replying to a question asked by Vyankappa Patki, Chhagan Bhujbal and others regarding demands made by peoples representative in Sangli district to waive off the hike in the electricity charges. The opposition wanted to know the contents of the memorandum of the peoples representatives demands submitted after staging demonstrations in front of the Sangli collectorate on February one, this year.

Munde admitted that the members of the legislative assembly had staged demonstration to protest against recent hike in the electricity charges and other demands. Replying to a supplementary asked by Subhash Dabke (SS) on whether the government will pay the interest on the consumer'sdeposit of Rs 3500 as well as the test report of the same amount paid by those earlier, he said there is no question of paying interest on it.