Archives for November 2021

PUNE: A local court on Wednesday sent a woman medical officer and three staff nurses, arrested in connection with the fire that killed 11 patients at the district civil hospital in Maharashtra’s Ahmednagar, to police custody till November 12.

Dr Vishakha Shinde and nurses Sapna Pathare, Asma Shaikh and Channa Anant, have been arrested under sections 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 304 A (causing death by negligence) of the IPC.

“The four accused were produced before a court and remanded to police custody till November 12,” Ahmednagar Superintendent of Police Manoj Patil said.

At least 11 patients died in a blaze that broke out in the intensive care unit ward of the district civil hospital on November 6.

The state government has suspended Ahmednagar district civil surgeon Dr Sunil Pokharna, medical officers Dr Suresh Dhakne and Dr Vishakha Shinde, and staff nurse Sapna Pathare, while services of nurses Asma Shaikh and Channa Anant were terminated.

Dr Shinde was on duty at the hospital on November 6, but she failed to report the incident, the official had said.

Investigations have revealed that the three staff nurses were outside the ICU when the fire occurred, Patil had said earlier, adding that they were not supposed to leave the ICU.

A staff nurse’s primary job was to safeguard the patients in the event of a blaze at the ICU, he had said.

According to the official, relatives of the patients had to rush to the ICU to save their near and dear ones, while the staff nurses waited outside.

HYDERABAD: Stepping up its attack on BJP and the NDA government at the Centre, the ruling TRS in Telangana on Wednesday said it would organise state-wide protests from next Friday against the Centre’s alleged refusal to buy paddy from the state’s farmers.

TRS Working President K T Rama Rao asked the party leaders to hold dharnas after obtaining permission from District Collectors as the model code of conduct is in force for the MLC elections.

The TRS’s decision to organise protests came amid an ongoing war of words between the party and BJP over paddy procurement and reducing VAT on petrol and diesel.

TRS president and Chief Minister K Chandrasekhar Rao, who sought procurement of all the paddy grown in the state by the Centre, had said on November 7 that his party would raise the issue in Parliament, besides holding dharnas in districts.

Slamming state BJP leaders who announced agitations against the TRS government for discouraging farmers not to go for paddy cultivation this Rabi season, Rao had alleged it was the Centre that is not willing to procure paddy from the state.

Stating that the BJP had no moral right to ask states to reduce VAT on petrol and diesel, Rao had demanded that the NDA government remove the cess on petroleum products.

Rao had also said he would cut the tongues of BJP leaders if they don’t refrain from using bad language to criticise him.

Hitting out at Telangana BJP president and MP Bandi Sanjay Kumar, Rao had alleged the saffron party leader is resorting to cheap talk and looking for political gain out of farmers.

State Civil Supplies Minister Gangula Kamalakar said in Karimnagar on Wednesday that the Centre should buy the ‘Yasangi’ (summer) season paddy crop in Telangana.

Protests would be held in Karimnagar district on Friday in support of the demand, he said.

The Centre has indicated in a letter that it would not buy parboiled rice in the summer crop season, he said in a release.

BJP leader and Union Tourism Minister G Kishan Reddy alleged on Wednesday that Rao is spreading untruths about petroleum prices.

In a tweet, he said that Rao had blamed the NDA government for the increase in fuel prices despite international crude prices not going up.

The prices go up only if they rise globally. The Centre decreased the prices now as things have improved, Reddy claimed.

He said on Tuesday that 600 lakh metric tons of rice was procured across the country during 2020-21 kharif marketing season.

Out of that, 94 lakh metric tons was procured in Telangana which was the second highest. It shows the Modi government’s sincerity towards the Telangana farmers, he said.

BENGALURU: Karnataka will get coal from Maharashtra and Odisha for  thermal power generation units, said Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai in New Delhi on Wednesday after meeting Union Minister for Coal and Mines Pralhad Joshi. He claimed that the state is not facing any power crisis due to coal shortage.

“We are making arrangements to start mining,’’ he added. When he approached the Union government last time, the state did not get the environmental clearance. “We later went to Union Minister for Environment, Forests and Climate Change Bhupendra Yadav and now we have the clearance. We can mine at Mandakini block which is good news for Karnataka. As of now, there is no shortage of coal and we will ensure that there will be no shortfall in the future too,” he added. 

On Mekedaatu, he said the state government is determined to implement the ambitious project, which needs clearance from the Central Water Commission (CWC). CWC has already given permission to the state to prepare a detailed project report, but with a rider that a nod from the Cauvery Management Authority (CMA) is mandatory. “The issue has been referred to CMA and a meeting has already been convened,” he added. 

‘Will discuss water rows with lawyers’

“WE expect the project to be cleared in the next meeting. I will meet senior lawyers on Thursday and will discuss Cauvery, Mekedaatu and Krishna river disputes,” he added. Slamming Opposition Leader Siddaramaiah for alleging that senior politicians and their families are involved in the Bitcoin scam, Bommai said, “He holds a responsible position and should make allegations with proof.

We have already handed over the case to Enforcement Directorate, who are probing. We are open to any inquiry and there is no question of a cover-up, even if big names are involved,” he asserted. Asked if the BJP high command has sought a report on the controversy, he replied in the negative.

NEW DELHI: India added 13,091 new coronavirus infections in a span of 24 hours taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,44,01,670, while the active cases declined to 1,38,556, the lowest in 266 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The death toll climbed to 4,62,189 with 340 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 34 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 137 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.40 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.

25 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 1,127 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

CHENNAI: Taking a view on the miseries of people of Chennai city who are suffering from flooding and inundation triggered by very heavy spells of monsoon showers, the Madras High Court has warned the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) of initiating a suo-motu case on the matter.

The bench grilled the counsel for the GCC on what the civic body has been doing ever since the 2015 deluge struck Chennai to save the city from the perennial flood woes.

Referring to the situation of water scarcity and floods affecting the people alternately in a year, the judges stated that for half of the year we are crying for water and for the other half dying in water. 

They also pointed out that the current floods and inundation should teach a lesson to the concerned authorities on taking action to save water bodies from being encroached upon.

The judges made the observations on two petitions, which were later dismissed, relating to regulating construction of parks and ensuring enough road width by evicting encroachments.

KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday called upon the Mamata Banerjee government to come out with a white paper on Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) with details of investments attracted by the state through those programmes.

The state government is preparing to hold another edition of BGBS in April 2022, after a hiatus of two years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Call upon @MamataOfficial to come out with a WHITE PAPER #BGBS so that information is available in transparent and accountable manner,” Dhankhar tweeted.

Asserting that the rule of law, respect for human rights and democratic values are imperative for investments, Dhankhar said much needs to be done on these fronts.

“It is our obligation that we subscribe to sanctity of facts and not dictate actions by mere optics of advertisements and statements,” he said in the Twitter post.

Dhankhar was requested by the West Bengal government to promote the state as an industrial destination and he has also agreed to travel overseas for the purpose, a senior official said on Monday.

The Mamata Banerjee administration has been organising BGBS since 2015 to attract investments to the state.

In a letter to the chief minister in August last year, the governor said he had sought information on the five editions of the BGBS first from the departmental secretary and then from the finance minister but did not get it.

“Surely, their stance is far distanced from transparency in government and also not in consonance with your recent assertion that ‘Our government works with complete transparency and there are financial clearances and regular audit’,” he wrote in the letter dated August 25, 2020.

Dhankhar wrote that he had sought details of investments and jobs created in the state owing to the investment proposals and those claimed to be under implementation.

The then finance minister Amit Mitra had claimed that the state had received proposals worth over Rs 12.32 lakh crore at the business summits between 2015 and 2019 and had generated 28 lakh jobs.

The chief minister had said in the Assembly last year that 50 per cent of the investment proposals that were received in the five editions of BGBS are already in the process of implementation.

Opposition parties had also demanded publication of a white paper on the actual investment that came from the summit.

The last business summit was held in February 2019.

During that edition, Banerjee had announced that it would be a biennial affair.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday came down heavily on the BJP for “being busy in pinching” the TMC government and running down its acheivements but failing to get a single rupee allocated to the state.

She said the common man in the state are being forced by BJP to face extreme hardship by the fuel price spiral which has turned its “achhe din promise to bure din”.

“Some people (in BJP) are busy in piching the TMC government and running down its acheivements from morning to evening. But they fail to get a single rupee allocated to the state from Delhi. They do not have the power to help the people of the state. All they know is to be on the attack mode against us, to find fault with us,” said Banerjee while inaugurating a Jagaddhatri Puja in Posta area of city which is the hub of wholesale business.

“Such attacks did not happen in the past when constitutional posts used to be respected and none would speak against each other in this way. I know how it was in the past having being an MP for several terms,” she said.

Continuing her tirade against the BJP-led government at the Centre, she said it has put the common man in dire straits by demonitisation five years ago and now the fuel price hike, which fetched it Rs 4 lakh crore.

“It has hurt the aam admi hard. The achhe din promise by Narendra Modi has turned out to be bure din,” she added.

The chief minister urged the traders to make minimum profit from the sale of essentials and vegetables for one year in the interest of the general public.

“Please don’t charge too much price for vegetables. I know you are all hard hit by the fuel price spiral, but still try to ensure that vegetable prices is contained as much as possible,” she told Posta Merchants Association, the organisers of the puja.

The chief minister iterated her government plans to organize business meets, music meets, film festival and support other festivals and fairs in the coming months.

LAKHIMPUR: A forensic report has confirmed that weapons recovered from Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra and others after the Lakhimpur violence had been fired.

Though the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report confirmed that the weapons had been discharged, it does not specify whether they were fired on the day of the violence or some other day.

Four weapons, including a rifle belonging to Ashish Mishra alias Monu Mishra, had been seized following the Lakhimpur violence.

A pistol owned by Ankit Das, nephew of former Union minister Akhilesh Das, and a repeater gun, which was with Das’ bodyguard Lateef Kale, were also among them.

A forensic report of the fourth weapon, a revolver owned by Das’ aide Satya Prakash, is awaited.

“Of the four weapons sent for ballistic examination to the FSL, it has been confirmed that firing took place from three, including Ashish Mishra’s rifle. However, the report did not confirm when the firing took place,” a senior official said here.

The special investigation team (SIT) probing the case is yet to issue an official statement on the FSL report.

After the arrest of Ashish Mishra, Das and Kale, the SIT had recovered their licensed weapons — a rifle, pistol, revolver and a repeater gun — and sent them for forensic examination on October 15.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the police on a complaint of Jagjit Singh, a native of Bahraich district, the entire episode was “premeditated” for which the “conspiracy was hatched” by the minister and his son.

The FIR stated that the farmers had gathered at the sports ground of the Maharaja Agrasen Inter-College on October 3 and they wanted to peacefully show black flags to Ashish Mishra and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who were visiting Banbirpur.

“Around 3 pm, Ashish Mishra, along with 15-20 armed men, in three speeding four-wheelers, reached the protest spot in Banbirpur. Ashish Mishra, who was seated on the left side of a Mahindra Thar, opened gunfire. The Thar mowed down the crowd and sped ahead,” the FIR stated.

“Because of the firing, farmer Gurvinder Singh, son of Sukhwinder, a resident of Matronia in Nanpara, died,” it stated.

However, two successive autopsies conducted on Gurvinder Singh had ruled out bullet injuries.

Ashish Mishra and 15-20 unnamed men were mentioned as accused and charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, rash driving, and rioting among others.

Of them, police have so far arrested 13.

Minister Ajay Mishra had refuted the allegations that his son was involved in the episode that took place near his native Banbirpur village in the Tikonia area of the district.

The FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 147, 148, 149 (all three related to rioting), 279 (rash driving), 338 (causes grievous hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), 304A (causing death by negligence), 302 (murder), and 120B (party to a criminal conspiracy).