Archives for 2019

Mumbai Building Collapse: Zubair and Muzammil were at home spending time with their sister Zeenat when the building collapsed on Tuesday morning. They were among the 14 people who died in the mishap. Zeenat had a miraculous escape and survived the crash.

NDRF personnel carry out the rescue operation at the site of the building collapse in Mumbai’s Dongri
MUMBAI: 

A visit by two relatives of a woman staying in the decades-old building which collapsed in Mumbai’s Dongri area ended on a tragic note as they got trapped under the debris and died, officials said today.

When 25-year-old Zubair and his brother Muzammil, 13, went to meet their sister – 23-year-old Zeenat Salmani – a resident of the building, they would have never thought that it would be their last trip.

Zubair and Muzammil were at home spending time with their sister Zeenat when the building collapsed on Tuesday morning. They were among the 14 people who died in the mishap. Zeenat had a miraculous escape and survived the crash.

“Apart from the two brothers, Zeenat’s sister-in-law Sana and her son Ibrahim, who were staying with her in the building, also got trapped under the debris and could not be saved,” Mumbai fire brigade chief Prashant Rahangdale said today.

As Zeenat lay buried under the rubble for over three hours, a fire brigade personnel, while removing some wooden planks, saw her hand moving and pulled her out after a lot of effort.

Describing it as the “golden shake hand with life”, Mr Rahangdale said Zeenat was trapped “very critically” under the debris, comprising heavy iron beams and wooden doors.

After using hydraulic cutters and power tools, Zeenat was pulled out alive from the debris, “in one of the very difficult rescue operations”, he said, while appreciating her courage during that critical time.

She was later admitted to Mumbai’s JJ Hospital, he said.COMMENT

Zeenat Salmani, who escaped only with minor injuries, described those difficult moments by saying, “It was completely dark under the debris, but I could hear some human voices. My legs were stuck in the rubble and I was not able to move.”

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said specific guidance has been given to respective armies so that peace is maintained and the border is managed properly.

Rajnath Singh was making a statement in Lok Sabha on the prevailing situation along Sino-Indian border.

NEW DELHI: 

India and China are respecting bilateral pacts to ensure peace and tranquillity along the border, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh said in Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

Making a statement on the prevailing situation along the Sino-Indian border, Mr Singh said there is complete restraint by the armed forces of India and China at Doklam, which saw months long stand-off between armed forces of the two countries in 2017.

The Defence Minister said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Chinese President Xi Jinping had a summit meeting at Wuhan where it was decided that peace and tranqullity will be maintained at the border.

Mr Singh said specific guidance has been given to respective armies so that peace is maintained and the border is managed properly.

“India and China are respecting bilateral pacts to ensure peace and tranquillity along border,” he said. 

First impression is often the last impression, Modi told MPs, a large number of them first-timers, at the BJP parliamentary party meeting, sources said.

NEW DELHI: Prime Minister Narendra Modi Tuesday asked BJP MPs to nurse their constituency by playing a leading role in its development and advised them to take up a cause of human sensitivity like eradication of leprosy or tuberculosis, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi told reporters.

First impression is often the last impression, Modi told MPs, a large number of them first-timers, at the BJP parliamentary party meeting, sources said, as he asked them to work passionately for the development of their areas.

Modi also asked Union ministers to carry out their Parliament roster duty, when they are meant to be present in one of the Houses as a government representative, and said he should be informed if they skip their duty, the sources said.

He has in the past often expressed his displeasure at MPs’ absence from Parliament when it is in session and turned his attention to ministers on Tuesday, saying that attending Parliament is not only meant for MPs.

Joshi in his briefing said that the prime minister told parliamentarians that they should take up a social cause or an issue of human sensitivity as a “mission” apart from carrying out their duties as members of Parliament.

Modi spoke about diseases like leprosy and TB and invoked Mahatma Gandhi.

Asked to inaugurate a hospital for lepers, Gandhi had said that he would rather be invited to put a lock on it, Modi said, stressing on the need to eradicate the disease.

Joshi said the prime minister also noted that India has fixed a deadline of 2025 for eradicating TB against the global deadline of 2030 and asked MPs to work for its removal.

Modi also asked them to work with local authorities for their constituency’s development.

He also referred to aspirational districts, an official term for underdeveloped districts, and asked the parliamentarians to coordinate with authorities to boost their progress.

70 per cent of the city’s water comes from from the Cauvery River and the remaining 30 per cent from Kabini Dam.

BENGALURU: With monsoon playing truant and a severe water crisis plaguing residents of the city, the state government has decided to use treated water from the city’s lakes to meet local needs.

The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), Rural Development and Panchayat Raj (RDPR) and Minor Irrigation Department (MID) officials are encouraging the use of treated water in Bengaluru and other districts. They are also working on a policy decision on the same.

They came to this decision after RDPR minister Krishna Byre Gowda recently tweeted: “Close to 100 lakes in Bengaluru urban, Bengaluru rural and Chikkaballapur district will be filled.

“Good example of recycling and reusing water. Government of India has recommended to all states in June to follow Karnataka model of reusing water. Four years of efforts by Government and Rs 1,000 crore investment behind this water flowing into our lakes.”

This idea also gains significance after Deputy Chief Minister Dr G Parameshwara had recently said that if the water level in KRS reservoir does not rise and there was no rain in the catchment areas, then Bengaluru will suffer a severe water crisis.

He said this because 70 per cent of the city’s water comes from from the Cauvery River and the remaining 30 per cent from Kabini Dam.

BBMP Commissioner Manjunatha Prasad said that there was no sewage in the 93 lakes under the BBMP and the water could be processed and used to meet citizens’ needs.

Also, work on treating water in the diverted sewage lines was underway.

Apart from this, the Minor Irrigation Department has also been sending treated sewage water downstream to lakes in Kolar and Chikkaballapura.

“The minister is referring to this project also. The MID is working on more such projects to meet the needs of people downstream, instead of letting all untreated water flow into the Dakshni Pinakini river,” an MID official said.  

RDPR Principal Secretary L K Ateeq said that the idea was the 100 per cent treatment of sewage water by 2020. The construction of sewage treatment plants by the BWSSB is underway.

Earlier wastewater used to flow into the valleys, but now it is being treated, pumped and supplied to dried-up lakes.

Meanwhile, the BWSSB has also been asked to plug leakages. Only 30 per cent of the problem has been addressed so far.

The top court had on Friday restrained the state Assembly Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar from taking any decision till July 16 on the resignation and disqualification of the rebel MLAs.

NEW DELHI: Ten rebel MLAs of the ruling Congress-JD(S) coalition Tuesday said in the Supreme Court that their resignations “have to be accepted” as there is no other way to deal with the present political crisis and contended that the Speaker has to see only if the resignation is voluntary or not.

A bench headed by Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi is first dealing with the case of 10 lawmakers who approached the court first.

Starting the argument, Senior advocate Mukul Rohtagi representing 10 MLAs told the apex court that there were instances wherein Speaker KR Ramesh Kumar accepted resignation first and then considered disqualification and cited the case of Umesh Jadhav.

“I am only submitting accept my resignation and then decide on disqualification but speaker by this way is infringing upon my right,” the lawyer said.

On CJIs query on what ground disqualification process was initiated against the MLAs, Rohtagi said, “because they were not acting like displined soldiers of the party and were not attending party meetings.”

“If I (MLA)  resign, I can join another party and become a minister tomorrow but if disqualified, I have to wait for by-election,” the lawyer added.

When CJI asked Rohtagi as to how the Assembly Speaker decides on resignation or disqualification petition, the senior advocate cited Article 190 by which if the MLA submits his resignation to the Speaker at his own wish, the speaker cannot force him against his wish.

“We can’t say how the Speaker should decide resignation or that disqualification of MLAs. We can’t fetter him. The question is whether the Speaker has any obligation to decide resignation before the disqualification, ” CJI Gogoi told Rohatgi.

Rohtagi replied to the apex bench by saying that there could be a million reasons to resign but it was the Speaker’s thinking that resignation was meant to favour other party.

“The fallacy of their argument is that it is based on my motive to resign which is completely irrelevant,” he said.

“Speaker says the reason for resignation is to avoid disqualification but that doesn’t mean that he can keep it pending,” he added further.

Rohatgi told the court that the 10 MLAs resigned on July 6 and disqualification proceedings against two lawmakers were pending.

“When was the disqualification proceedings filed against rest eight MLAs,” the top court asked, to which Rohatgi responded that disqualification proceedings started against them on July 10.

The 10 rebel MLAs moved the apex court alleging that the Speaker was not accepting their resignations.

They are: Pratap Gouda Patil, Ramesh Jarkiholi, Byrati Basavaraj, B C Patil, S T Somashekhar, Arbail Shivaram Hebbar, Mahesh Kumathalli, K Gopalaiah, A H Vishwanath and Narayana Gowda.

Disqualification proceeding is mini-trial under the Constitution’s 10th Schedule, Rohatgi said, adding that resignation is different and its acceptance is based on single criterion — it is voluntary or not.

There is nothing to show the rebel MLAs conspired with BJP, the senior advocate said.

The apex court, which was dealing with the plea of 10 rebel MLAs on July 12, will now be hearing five more lawmakers who have sought identical relief that Karnataka Assembly Speaker K R Ramesh Kumar accepts their resignations as well.

The five MLAs — Anand Singh, K Sudhakar, N Nagaraj, Munirathna and Roshan Baig — mentioned their application before a bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Justice Deepak Gupta Monday seeking an impleadment as parties to the pending plea on which it was ordered that the speaker would not take any decision till Tuesday on the resignations and disqualifications.

The top court had on Friday restrained the Speaker from taking any decision till July 16 on the resignation and disqualification of the rebel MLAs.

The top court had said an incidental question that would arise in the matter is the kind and extent of the directions that should be issued by a constitutional court to another constitutional functionary, which in the present case happens to be the Speaker of the Assembly.