MUMBAI: At least three of the ten infants died of burn injuries in the Bhandara district hospital fire in Maharashtra while seven others died of suffocation caused by smoke on Saturday, Health Minister Rajesh Tope said, adding that a probe is ordered and the guilty will not be spared.

He said Rs 5 lakh would be paid to family members of each of the deceased infant.

According to doctors, ten newborn babies, aged between a month and three months, died after fire broke out in the Special Newborn Care Unit of the hospital around 1.30 am.

Maharashtra Health Minister Rajesh Tope says out of 10 infants, 7 are died due to suffocation while three were burnt to death. The postmortem of infant bodies will not be carried out & handed over to families. Ajit Pawar ordered fire audit of govt hospitals. 

“The preliminary information available indicated that three infants died from burn injuries in the Bhandara district civil hospital while suffocation caused by smoke is the cause of the death of seven other infants,” Tope said in a video message.

He said the hospital staff saved seven other infants admitted in the affected Neonatal Intensive Care Unit.

“The medical staff on duty opened the windows and doors of the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit wards and shifted the infants to adjoining wards. However, they could not save the 10 infants,” he said.

Tope said, “chief minister Uddhav Thackeray informed me of sanctioning Rs five lakh to each to the family members of the deceased infants”.

He said the bodies have been sent to their respective homes for conducting the last rites.

“Persons responsible for this incident will not be spared. A detailed inquiry is ordered. We will try to avoid such incidents in future by learning from this tragedy,” he added.

Tope said he was rushing to the Bhandara civil hospital.

New Delhi: Forest staff in Maharashtra have lathis’ to defend themselves while in Karnataka they are seen roaming in Chappals’ (slippers), the Supreme Court on Friday said while expressing concern as to how they will protect the law and environment against heavily armed poachers.

The top court wondered as to how forest rangers in Assam are well-armed while in other states they are not even adequately dressed and said that it may pass orders to provide arms, bulletproof vests, and helmets to officers above a certain rank to defend themselves from poachers.

A bench of Chief Justice S A Bobde and Justices AS Bopanna and V Ramasubramanian asked Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for Ministry of Environment and Forests, amicus curiae ADN Rao and senior advocate Shyam Divan, appearing for an NGO to file a joint submission about the measures which can be adopted for the protection of forests as well as the lives of forest officers and staff.

We are of the view that the situation is serious and we find it difficult to comprehend how these forest officers and staff would be in a position to protect the environment and the forests which are normally vast tracks of uninhabited land and of which poachers take undue advantage for carrying out their nefarious activities, the bench said.

It said unlike police in the city, forest officials cannot even call for help in distress in the forest when they are attacked by poachers and there should be some mechanisms.

Recalling his recent visit to a forest area, the CJI said, Last month I was in a forest in Maharashtra and have seen that forest officials were not even armed. How will they protect themselves when they are attacked? SG (Solicitor General), we want you to explore all possibilities. These are all sophisticated crimes that need to be checked .

The bench asked Rao as to why is this problem that in some States forest officials are armed while in others they are not even adequately dressed.

Rao submitted that due to non-utilization of funds by some states, forest officials are not provided adequate infrastructure and safety gear to protect the environment and forests.

He said that similar attacks have taken place in Uttar Pradesh in 2001 and 2019 in Telangana on the forest officials. Mehta said that the biggest problems are of wood smugglers.

The bench said that millions of dollars are siphoned off by the smugglers and an Enforcement Directorate should be roped in and suggested it should also have a separate wildlife wing to deal with these crimes.

The NGO Nature Conservation Society’ brought to the notice of the court recent attacks on forest officials by miscreants in Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh, and Maharashtra.

“When we go to Assam, (we see) they are given arms while in Maharashtra they are given only ‘lathi’,” the bench said and added “We will direct that the officials are given arms, bulletproof vests, and helmets. In Karnataka, forest officials are seen roaming in ‘chappals’ and are being slapped by poachers. We want the Solicitor General to make a statement on the next date of hearing that arms will be given to personnel….”

The top court said It is difficult to imagine how any law can be enforced by the forest officers and staff who are poorly unarmed against poachers who are likely to be heavily armed .

The bench adjourned the hearing by four weeks and said that it would pass a detailed order after taking note of the statements of the lawyers concerned.

The bench was hearing an application seeking protection of forest officials from malicious prosecution lodged against them.

The NECC has pegged the suggestive price at Rs 4.85 for Namakkal on Thursday, down from Rs 5.1 a day ago. The decision was taken unanimously at an NECC meeting held in Namakkal on Thursday.

NAMAKKAL: Following the bird flu outbreak in several States, including neighbouring Kerala, the price of egg has witnessed a sharp single-day fall of 25 paise here on Thursday, according to the daily suggestive farmgate price released by the National Egg Coordination Committee (NECC).

The NECC has pegged the suggestive price at Rs 4.85 for Namakkal on Thursday, down from Rs 5.1 a day ago. The decision was taken unanimously at an NECC meeting held in Namakkal on Thursday.

“On account of the Avian Influenza outbreak (types H5 and H5NB) in a couple of districts in Kerala, the egg price has dropped drastically in Namakkal. Around 40 to 50 lakh eggs  are transported from Namakkal zone to Kerala per day. Now, around 15 to 20 per cent of the eggs have stagnated,” said NECC chairman P Selvaraj. After Christmas, the price of eggs typically starts to fall in the northern part of India, which has also played a role, he added.

Selvaraj explained that the situation was not uncommon as flu outbreaks happen every year, as there is no vaccination available to combat the flu. “The only solution is to take precautionary measures in poultry farms,” he added.

While Health Secretary J Radhakrishnan had earlier said that it is possible for bird flu to affect the human body, Selvaraj pointed out that no human had lost their life because of bird flu in the past 15 years. He added that consuming eggs was safe and there was no need to panic.

Namakkal Egg producers Association President K Mohan and Tamil Nadu Egg poultry Farmers Marketing Society’s president Vangli Subramaniam said that the process of disinfecting poultry farms was underway, as per instructions from the district administration. They maintained that the risk of bird flu was low in Namakkal.

The fall in prices has hit poultry farmers, who continue to reel under the stress caused by Covid-19 pandemic and the subsequent lockdowns.  At the time, the price had dropped to less than Rs 2 per egg, as rumours spread that the virus could spread through poultry products. This led to a pile-up of crores of eggs at cold storage units in Tiruchy, Salem and Mettupalayam.

Going forward, Selvaraj predicted that the egg price may fall over the next two weeks, as the demand for eggs in Kerala has fallen suddenly. Meanwhile, the cull bird rate has been maintained at Rs 50 for a week.

In the Tirupur zone, the price of chicken at broiler farms has dropped to Rs 77 per kg from around Rs 85 a kg a week ago, according to an office-bearer from Palladam Broiler Farm Owners Association. The retail price is pegged at around Rs 145 per kg. However, he said that the drop in price cannot be attributed to the Avian flu in Kerala. “There will be panic in the broiler farm industry only when the price drops below Rs 70 per kg. Currently, we don’t believe that there would be such a large drop in prices. However, the future is uncertain, and broiler farm owners are in a wait-and-watch mode,” he added.

Smriti Irani wrested Amethi from Gandhi, a seat he held for three consecutive terms, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls

SULTANPUR: Taking a dig at Congress leader Rahul Gandhi, Union minister and Amethi MP Smriti Irani on Thursday said she had kept her promise of visiting her Lok Sabha constituency regularly, whereas there was a time when its representative visited only once in five years.

Irani wrested Amethi from Gandhi, a seat he held for three consecutive terms, in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls.

“The Lok Sabha constituency of Amethi has seen a time when its MP used to visit once in five years to seek votes. One-and-a-half year ago, I had made a promise that I will come in your midst again and again,” Irani said in Rae Bareli.

“MPs and MLAs are regularly coming in your midst. In the time of coronavirus, they have been present through e-Choupal and resolved people’s problems,” said Irani, who was on a day-long visit to her constituency.

Later, in Sultanpur, the Union minister for textiles said the central and state governments are committed to ensuring that the poor and farmers benefit from different schemes.

She also asked all those eligible to avail the benefits of government schemes.

Two Army personnel were injured in a landmine blast along the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch.

JAMMU: Two Army personnel were injured in a landmine blast along the Line of Control (LoC) in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district on Thursday, officials said.

The Army personnel were patrolling the forward area in Mankote sector when they accidentally stepped on an anti-personnel mine triggering explosion, they said.

The personnel suffered injuries and were hospitalised, they said.

AURAIYA: A 21-year-old Muslim woman who had married a Hindu man last month against wishes of her family appeared before a magistrate here and said she doesn’t want to live with her husband as he refused to accept Islam, police said on Thursday.

According to a marriage certificate produced by Nazra, a resident of Senganpur village here, she had married Akash of Kulgaon village at an Arya Samaj temple on December 21 after changing her name to Neha, Bamaen police post incharge Devi Sah Verma said on Thursday.

As her husband Akash did not accept Islam, she gave a statement before the magistrate on Wednesday that she does not want to live with him.

She was sent with her parents, Verma said.

Both Nazra and Akash were in a relationship, which was opposed by their families.

On October 12, both had left their home, Verma said.

Two days after, the woman’s father Allahudin lodged a case against Akash and one other Raj Kumar for luring his daughter, Verma said.

He alleged that she took away Rs 80,000 cash and ornaments worth lakhs of rupees.

Police said the woman’s statement has been recorded and her medical examination has also been done.

The Centre said the Avian influenza outbreak, has been reported at 12 epicentres in four states — Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal

KOLKATA: An organisation of poultry farm owners in West Bengal has asked its members to be on alert in the wake of a bird flu outbreak in various parts of the country and take preventive measures to avoid the spread of the infection, an official said on Thursday.

The alert was sounded as a precautionary measure amid reports of the bird flu in some states, though not a single case of Avian influenza has been detected here so far, West Bengal Poultry Federation general secretary Madan Mohan Maity.

The Centre on Wednesday said the Avian influenza outbreak, has been reported at 12 epicentres in four states — Kerala, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Himachal Pradesh.

Advisories have been issued to contain further spread of the infection in poultry ducks, crows and migratory birds, the Union Ministry of Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying said.

“No bird flu case has been reported in West Bengal and its neighbouring states. With reports of the Avian influenza outbreak in various parts of the country, we have sounded an alert to our members.

“We also asked them to take all the precautionary measures like spraying of disinfectants, and maintain hygiene protocols,” Maity told PTI.

He said there was no need to panic, and Andhra Pradesh, which supplies eggs to West Bengal, remained free from the bird flu outbreak.

The state animal husbandry department officials could not be reached for their comments.

Maity said there has been “no impact on consumption” of poultry products as of now.

“If the spread of bird flu is not contained, people will start avoiding consumption of poultry products, which could impact the sector adversely,” he said.

Prices of egg and chicken could plunge if demand for such products falls in the wake of the bird flu spread.

Broiler chicken prices are now ruling at Rs 175-200 per kg, while eggs are sold Rs 6.5-7 per piece in the state.

West Bengal produces two crore eggs daily as against its consumption of 2.5 crore, Maity said.

Broiler meat production in the state is about 2.5 crore kgs per week, higher than its consumption of two crore kgs.