Anna Hazare's demands met, to stay in Tihar jail till venue ready

After two nights in Tihar Jail and hard bargaining, Anna Hazare and government reached an agreement early this morning under which Delhi Police removed all restrictions and allowed him to carry out his hunger strike for a fortnight in the spacious Ramlila Maidan here.

The breakthrough in the battle of attribution between the two sides came in the wee hours of the day after top aides of Hazare met Delhi Police Commissioner B K Gupta and reached an agreement.

The deal marks a major climbdown from government and police's earlier insistence that the fast would be allowed at JP Park, a smaller venue, only for three days with maximum of 5,000 protesters besides a number of other conditions.

The agreement came more than 40 hours after Hazare's arrest of Tuesday and release the same night. However, the Gandhian refused to come out of the jail, continued his fast and carried out hard negotiations from Tihar through his emissaries.

Activist Kiran Bedi tweeted early morning that Hazare has accepted the Delhi Police offer of 15 days and announced that he will go to Ramlila Maidan after 3 pm.

However, another close aide of the 73-year-old Gandhian said this morning that it may not be possible for Hazare to launch his protest from the Ramlila Ground today as the venue was full of muck and needs cleaning up.

"I have just spoken to Commissioner of Municipal Corporation of Delhi (K S Mehra) who has promised me that a Deputy Commissioner would supervise the cleaning up operations at the Maidan," Arvind Kejriwal said.

He said Hazare going to the protest venue "looked difficult" as of now. "We can't give a time as to whether it would start today...if it is possible, (he may do it)."

Bedi had earlier said that Hazare would go to Rajghat before starting his protest in the Maidan after 3pm.

Confirming the deal, home secretary R K Singh said, "Delhi Police and Anna Hazare Team have agreed on the venue, duration, conditions etc."

"Delhi Police and the Anna Hazare team worked out between themselves this agreement. The Delhi Police has no problem in giving 15 days time and the 15 days also suits the Anna Team," he said.
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Sabarimala stampede: 104 pilgrims killed, 50 injured

At least 104 pilgrims have been killed and over 50 injured in a stampede near Sabarimala shrine in Kerala's Idukki district. The incident took place seven kilometres away from the shrine on Friday night.

Over 90 bodies have been recovered so far. Of these, 54 have been identified. The dead bodies have been taken to Vandiperiyar Hospital in Idukki. Some of the injured have been rushed to Kottayam Medical College (Kerala) and Theni Medical College in Tamil Nadu.

The tragedy struck home-bound pilgrims returning after Makaravilakku ritual in Sabarimala, after a jeep carrying devotees ran into a resting camp. Sabarimala's Special Commissioner, Rajendra Nayar, told NDTV that the stampede occurred after the jeep accident caused panic amongst the devotees. (Watch) Most of the victims hailed from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka.

Reports suggest that the accident and the consequent stampede occurred in a hilly area, beyond the Sabarimala police protection area. The terrain hence made rescue and relief operations difficult.


"A jeep went out of control and went and hit the devotees who were there. People have been killed because of the crash and also because of the stampede. Most of the casualties happened because of the stampede according to preliminary reports." Kerala's Education Minister M A Baby told NDTV.

"Idukki is a hilly area. So naturally this is a distant place. The accident took place at about 8:15 pm. The Chief Minister, Home Minister, other administrative heads have contacted the district administration. We are totally focused on providing the best treatment, rescuing the injured, recovering the dead bodies. Most of those killed are from other states. Among those who have been killed, most of them are from Tamil Nadu," he added.

The state DGP and the Home Secretary are supervising the rescue, search and relief  operations. Frantic search is on for missing children. A special team of the National Disaster Response Force has left for the spot. The Kerala Chief Minister has called an emergency meeting on relief work.

The Prime Minister has expressed deep shock and sent his condolences to the bereaved families. He has sanctioned an ex-gratia of Rs. 1 lakh for the families of each of the deceased and Rs. 50,000 for those injured.

Defence Minister AK Antony has assured all possible help from the Army in rescue operations.

"I have never seen such a huge crowd at Pulmedu in my life. The flow of pilgrims returning was much more than anybody's expectations", said Aneesh, one of the early local rescuers to reach the spot. Officials also confirmed that the rush of pilgrims had been much higher than expected.

In a similar incident in 1999, a stampede at Pampa on way to the hill shrine had killed 50 people on the occasion of Makar Jyoti.

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