An eight-year-old boy was killed and at least nine persons were injured in a crude bomb blast in Dumdum in West Bengal’s North 24 Parganas district on Tuesday, police said.

The blast, which took place around 9 a.m., ripped through adjacent shops, shattered window panes of nearby houses and damaged the pedestrian walk, eyewitnesses said.

“A large explosion took place outside a shop in Nagerbazar area today morning. According to the probe so far, low intensity socket bombs were used in the blast,” Barrackpore Police Commissioner Rajesh Kumar Singh said.

“More explosives were used to magnify the effects of the low intensity crude bombs — parts of which ricocheted off the concrete floor and hit a terrace causing the impact of the blast to be double.

“Bibhash Gosh, an eight-year-old kid, who was injured in the blast, has succumbed at the hospital,” he said.

According to the officer, the bomb exploding on the solid surface created a tremor which caused the glass window panes of the adjacent multi-storied buildings to shatter.

“We are investigating the matter. The bomb squad of Criminal Investigation Department (CID) has visited the spot. Several items including a bag has been seized from the spot and sent for forensic tests. We are still finding out the kind of explosives used in the bomb,” he added.

According to police, at least nine others, including a woman sustained injuries and have been admitted to the state-run SSKM Hospital.

Trinamool Congress leader and Chairman of South Dumdum municipality Panchu Gopal Roy said the blast was targeted at him.

“I think they tried to target me. Today is October 2, the birthday of Mahatma Gandhi. We all know which group was involved in Gandhiji’s killing. I will not be surprised if that same group was involved in this blast,” he said.

IANS

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday condoled the death of more than 800 people in an earthquake and consequent tsunami in Indonesia last Friday and offered all possible assistance to the Southeast Asian archipelago nation.

India’s offer of help was conveyed by Modi during a telephone conversation with Indonesian President Joko Widodo.

“The Prime Minister offered deepest condolences on his behalf and on behalf of the people of India on the loss of precious lives in the earthquake and tsunami that hit Sulawesi region of Indonesia,” the External Affairs Ministry said in a statement.

“The Prime Minister appreciated the resilience and courage of the people of Indonesia in facing the challenges emanating from the widespread devastation due to this grave natural calamity,” it stated.

“In response to Indonesia’s appeal for international aid, the Prime Minister offered to the President of Indonesia all possible assistance from India as a maritime neighbour and friend of Indonesia.”

Mass graves were dug on Monday as Indonesia began burying hundreds of people killed by the earthquake and the tsunami that cracked streets, crumbled buildings and swept homes on the island of Sulawesi. At least 844 were confirmed dead and the toll was expected to climb, with heavily populated areas cut off from any assistance.

According to Monday’s External Affairs Ministry statement, President Widodo thanked Modi for offer of assistance.

“The two leaders agreed that the details of India’s relief assistance will be worked out through diplomatic and official channels,” the statement said.

IANS

As many as 700 Public Works Department (PWD) officials, from engineers to first division assistants have been transferred in a overnight decision. This decision has been taken despite regulations against the transfer of officials in the middle of a financial year.

This ill advised and sudden move by PWD minister HD Revanna has likely lead to more friction between the coalition partners Congress and JD(s).

On Monday, Several senior Congress leaders, including a few ministers and MLA met CM HD Kumaraswamy conveyed their unhappiness on the PWD minister HD Revanna’s transfer of 700 odd officials. They urged the CM to stall all the transfers immediately.

Altogether 191 assistant engineers, 150 junior assistants, 200 assistant executive engineers, 20 executive engineers, and 10 superintending engineers have been transferred. Besides, office superintendents, first and second division assistants were also transferred.

Revanna is the brother of CM and has been in the news for wrong reasons. Recently he hit the headline for tossing biscuits at the flood victims at one of the relief camps. It is being said that the current transfers have been effected without consenting other departments. This has only caused discomfort to the ministers of the respective departments including the RDPR, Urban Development and the Water Resource Departments.

PTI

A 27-year-old man allegedly committed suicide in East Marredpally area of Secunderabad for being chided by his wife over continuously chatting with female friend on a web-based messaging app, police said on Sunday.

Upon receiving information about the death, the man’s 19-year-old female friend also ended her life by consuming toxic substance, a police official said.

K Shiva Kumar, an electrician by profession, allegedly hanged himself to death in his house on Saturday while his childhood friend C Vennela, after learning about his death, got depressed and consumed toxic substance that day itself. She died in hospital on Sunday, they said.

According to police, Kumar had got married on August 15. The couple used to quarrel quite frequently over petty issues and Kumar’s wife used to rebuke him for continuously chatting over the messaging app. A few days back, Kumar’s wife suspected that he was regularly chatting with a woman while led to heated argument between them.

Depressed over the frequent quarrels Kumar hung himself from a ceiling fan in his house on Saturday, police said. When Vennela came to know about her childhood friend Kumar’s death, she consumed a toxic substance on Saturday when nobody was at home. One of her friends rushed her to a government hospital, where she died while undergoing treatment in the early hours of Sunday, they said.

Two separate cases were registered by police.

PTI

The government expects the nation’s first compressed bio-gas (CBG) plant to become operational within the current quarter of the fiscal, Petroleum Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said on Monday.

“We expect the SATAT plan to be working fully inside of the next three months and the first CBG plant to be operational within this quarter itself,” Pradhan said while launching the Centre’s Sustainable Alternative Towards Affordable Transportation (SATAT) initiative designed to benefit both vehicle users as well as farmers and entrepreneurs.

“Our aim is that the cleaner green fuel CBG replaces LNG (liquefied natural gas) for use in households, as well as in transportation,” he added.

The event organisers, state-run oil marketing companies (OMCs) IOC, BPCL and HPCL, announced the call inviting expression of interest from potential entrepreneurs to set up CBG production plants to market the clean fuel for vehicular use.

Under the initiative, CBG plants are proposed to be set up mainly through independent entrepreneurs.

A Petroleum Ministry release said the 1,500-strong compressed natural gas (CNG) stations network in the country currently serve about 32 lakh gas-based vehicles.

“The Working Group on Biofuels, set up under the National Policy on Biofuels 2018, is in the process of finalising a pan-India pricing model for compressed bio-gas,” it said

“The entrepreneurs would be able to separately market the other by-products from these plants, including bio-manure, carbon-dioxide, etc. to enhance returns on investment.”

Noting that OMCs have decided to pay a higher procurement price for CBG than they currently pay for domestic natural gas, Pradhan asked the state-run companies in oil and gas to jointly devise a production offtake guarantee plan for CBG entrepreneurs.

“It is planned to roll out 5,000 CBG plants across India in a phased manner, with 250 plants by the year 2020, 1,000 plants by 2022 and 5,000 plants by 2025. These plants are expected to produce 15 million tonnes of CBG per annum, which is about 40 per cent of the current CNG consumption of 44 million tonnes,” the Ministry said.

“At an investment of around Rs. 1.7 lakh crore, this initiative is expected to generate direct employment for 75,000 people and produce 50 million tonnes of bio-manure for crops.”

IANS