Amat demand

• Bhubaneswar: Finance minister Pradip Kumar Amat has asked the central government to compensate the state for losses incurred on sales tax as it had lowered the taxes from 4 per cent to 2 per cent at the Centre’s pre-budget meet in Delhi. “For the Centre’s lowering of sales tax, the state government is incurring huge losses. So the Centre should allocate more funds to compensate the losses. The schemes for the state which have been scrapped in the last budget should also be reinstated,” Amat said during the meet.

Cop assault

• Sambalpur: Police arrested two persons for allegedly assaulting a traffic constable in the city late on Saturday night. The accused have been identified as Rajesh Kar and Rasid Sarangi. The police said the duo had an argument with the constable, Pramod Bhoi, over parking the car at Dhanupali Chhak and 
assaulted him.

Accident

• Bhubaneswar: Two people were killed following a head-on collision with a truck near Kutra in Sundargarh district on Sunday. One person was injured in the accident and has been admitted to a local hospital.

Actor dead

• Cuttack: Actor-choreographer Ranjit Pattnaik aka Raja has died under mysterious circumstances. While police suspect he died in a road mishap near Bhadrak, his family members have alleged foul play. “We received a call from his number and an unknown person told us that he was in an accident. When we rushed to SCB Medical College and Hospital, we were told that he had succumbed to his injuries. But there was no one with him and we are yet to find out the person who had called from his number,” said a bereaved relative.