The Indian Express, November 2, 1978,

With the government and the sugar industry on a collision course, the Union Cabinet is understood to have approved an ordinance which will empower the government to take over sugar mills that refuse to crush cane this season. The ordinance is ready for the President’s signature on November 2. The decision to come down heavily on mills choosing to go on strike by not accepting cane from growers was taken earlier this week. After studying detailed reports from sugarcane sites, particularly in Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, the Cabinet came to the decision that decisive action had become essential to protect the interests of the grower, who was finding it difficult to sell his crop.

Bypoll Violence

The simmering tension in the Chikmagalur Parliamentary constituency erupted into a major clash at Ujire, a little town 120 km from Chikmaglur, resulting in the death of a college girl and injuries to about 50 people, including a group of Indian and foreign journalists. According to initial reports, the police resorted to a lathi change, burst teargas shells and finally opened fire to quell the riot. Gayatri, a first-year BA student was killed when a teargas shell hit her head. Ten people have been arrested so far in connection to the violence. The Karnataka government has requested assistance from the CRPF to control the situation in the district, where Indira Gandhi is contesting the upcoming bypoll.

Begin Upset

The Israeli Prime Minister Menachem Begin, said his country found it “absolutely intolerable” that the US should call East Jerusalem occupied territory. Begin told an airport news conference before leaving on a trip to New York and a state visit to Canada that the US Assistant Secretary of State Harold Saunders, had restated the US policy on East Jerusalem, which Israel has held since the 1967 West Asia war.