DK Shivakumar | Bhupinder Singh Hooda

New Delhi (PTI): The Congress top brass on Wednesday rushed former chief minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda and DK Shivakumar to Shimla to parley with members of the party which is facing loss of support and risks losing power in the state.

Sources said Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge is learnt to have spoken to former party chief Rahul Gandhi as also general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on the Himachal developments.

Hours after six Congress MLAs voted in favour of the BJP candidate in the Rajya Sabha polls in Himachal Pradesh, Kharge swung into action to pacify the disgruntled lawmakers and sent Hooda and Shivakumar to the state. They are expected to reach Himachal Pradesh soon.

They have been asked to engage with the disgruntled MLAs, including six MLAs, who are learnt to be “disappointed” with the working style of Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu and are seeking his replacement.

The Congress government in the state faces an existential crisis after six MLAs crossed sides and are learnt to be in touch with the BJP.

Adding Congress’ woes, former state chief minister Vikramaditya Singh also announced his resignation from the cabinet and said he has already spoken to Priyanka Gandhi Vadra.

Meanwhile, HP Vidhan Sabha Speaker suspended 15 BJP MLAs for misbehaviour and adjourned the house.

The state budget is pending approval in the assembly and the BJP, with the help of Congress rebels, is ensuring that the budget is not passed and is seeking a division of votes.

In a stunning upset for the ruling Congress in Himachal Pradesh, the BJP on Tuesday won the state’s lone Rajya Sabha seat with its candidate Harsh Mahajan defeating Congress stalwart Abhishek Manu Singhvi and apparently set the stage for a no-trust motion in the assembly.

The contest tied with both the Congress and the BJP candidates getting 34 votes, indicating that at least six Congress MLAs voted against the party. The result was then declared on the basis of a draw of lots, officials said.

In the 68-member Himachal Pradesh Assembly, the Congress has 40 MLAs while the BJP has 25 legislators. The remaining three seats are held by independents.

Tumakuru: Deputy Superintendent Chandrashekar sustained injuries to the nose after being struck by a flag beam during a confrontation with BJP activists attempting to besiege the Tumakuru District Congress Committee office on Wednesday.

The BJP had alleged that supporters of Congress candidate Naseer Hussain raised pro-Pakistan slogans while celebrating his victory in the Rajya Sabha polls on Tuesday. In response, the BJP called for district-level protests against the Congress throughout Karnataka, instructing party activists to lay siege to Congress offices in each district.

The incident in Tumakuru occured when police intervened to detain BJP activists engaged in a protest and attempting to lay siege to the Congress office at Bhadramma Circle in the city. In the scuffle between protesters and law enforcement, the beam of a flag carried by the BJP activists struck DySP Chandrashekar on the nose, resulting in a gash.

New Delhi: Skipper Rohit Sharma and star batter Virat Kohli retained their place in the top bracket but the out-of-favour duo of Ishan Kishan and Shreyas Iyer were excluded after ignoring the directive to play Ranji Trophy as the BCCI unveiled its centrally-contracted players for this year on Wednesday.

Rohit, Kohli, Jasprit Bumrah and Ravindra Jadeja figured in the A plus category, the highest bracket of the BCCI’s central contracts list.

“Please note that Shreyas Iyer and Ishan Kishan were not considered for the annual contracts in this round of recommendations,” said the BCCI in a statement.

“The BCCI has recommended that all athletes give precedence to participating in domestic cricket during periods when they are not representing the national team,” the statement added.

Six cricketers feature in the A category, including R Ashwin, Mohammed Shami, Mohammed Siraj, KL Rahul, Shubman Gill and Hardik Pandya.

Suryakumar Yadav, Rishabh Pant, Kuldeep Yadav, Axar Patel and Yashasvi Jaiswal have got B category contracts.

As many as 15 have been handed C category contracts including Rinku Singh, Tilak Verma, Ruturaj Gaekwad, Shardul Thakur, Shivam Dube, Ravi Bishnoi, Jitesh Sharma, Washington Sundar, Mukesh Kumar, Sanju Samson, Arshdeep Singh, KS Bharat, Prasidh Krishna, Avesh Khan and Rajat Patidar.

The selection committee has also recommended fast bowling contracts for Akash Deep, Vijaykumar Vyshak, Umran Malik, Yash Dayal and Vidwath Kaverappa.

Akash Deep had impressed on debut in the recent fourth Test against England, which India won to seal the series.

In a departure from the norm, the BCCI this time has not mentioned the remuneration of the players across the four categories.

Cricketers are normally paid Rs 7 crore per annum in A plus bracket, Rs 5 crore in A, Rs 3 crore in B and Rs one crore in C category, over and above their match fees.

Noida: Two trained nurses who were on their way to work stopped midway to attend an emergency by helping a 33-year-old woman deliver her baby at a busy road intersection in Greater Noida.

The incident took place on Tuesday at Pari Chowk in Greater Noida when Prashant Sharma, who works in a private company, was pleading for help for his wife Roshni Sharma, who was undergoing labour pain.

Noticing his cry for help, nurses Jyoti and Renu Devi, who work at nearby Sharda Hospital, tended to the emergency and with their help the woman delivered a baby girl along the road at the busy Pari Chowk.

Nurse Devi said she was going for duty from Kasna. As soon as she got out of the auto at Pari Chowk, she saw the woman lying on the road, and her husband was pleading for help from the people.

“As soon as I reached there, the woman was suffering from labour pain. I called my fellow nurse Jyoti, she was also leaving for duty and she also came soon. We told people that we nurses are from Sharda Hospital. First, we covered the woman with her shawl with the help of a woman, after that, we both got the woman given a normal delivery,” Renu said.

“After the delivery, we wrapped the child in his jacket and booked an auto and started going to the hospital. The woman in the auto started feeling pain due to shock but we woke her up and got her admitted to the hospital,” she added.

Dr. Ruchi Srivastava, Senior Consultant, Gynecology Department, Sharda Hospital said the nurses called the hospital after delivery.

“As soon as they brought the woman and the child, we immediately started the treatment. The weight of the child is about 2.50 kg. This is the woman’s second child and now both are healthy,” she said.

“The woman was undergoing treatment in a hospital in Kasna but she said that she was having a caesarean child. From there she went to her home in Luksar. In the morning, she started having a labour pain and as soon as she reached Pari Chowk, she fell on the road. We are thankful that they were brought to the hospital timely,” Dr. Srivastava said.

Sharda Hospital spokesperson Ajit Kumar said the woman and the child are undergoing treatment and their medication is going free in the hospital and soon both will be discharged.

“The condition of the baby and mother is also stable. This is a proud moment for all of us and we should learn from such people. PK Gupta, Chancellor, Sharda University has given a certificate and Rs 5,100 to both nurses as an appreciation reward,” Kumar added.

Guwahati: Badminton player Suraj Goala of Assam played a pivotal role in helping Chandigarh University clinch the men’s team gold beating Jain University in the 4th Khelo India University Games 2023, Ashtalakshmi at the National Centre of Excellence, Amingaon here on Wednesday.

Goala, who also took oath on behalf of the athletes during the KIUG 2023, Ashtalakshmi opening ceremony teamed up with Dhruv Rawat in the first doubles for Chandigarh University and stayed unbeaten throughout the tournament to become the only player from Assam to bag the gold medal in the Games that were played across the North Eastern states.

Apart from Goala, swimmer Uttara Gogoi, who also represented Chandigarh University, clinched 3 silver and two bronze medals from the swimming competition at the Dr Zakir Hussain Aquatic complex while Angshuima Hatibaruah was part of the Bharti Vidyapeeth’s women’s kabaddi team that won the silver medal.

Uttara had won silver medals in 200m butterfly, 4x100m freestyle relay and 4×100 Medley relay apart from bagging the bronze medals in 100m butterfly and 50m butterfly category.

And Goala put an icing on the cake of Assam athletes’ performance as he laid the foundation of Chandigarh University’s victory in the men’s team final after both the teams were locked at 1-1 after the first two singles matches.

“This is my first Khelo India University Games and it is a proud feeling to win the gold medal in my home state”, Goala said after the gold medal winning performance.

The 26-year-old, who recently represented India at the Badminton Asia Team Championships is now hoping to build on this success and make a mark on the international circuit.

“I will be playing a few international tournaments in the next couple of months and hope to improve my world ranking and win a few tournaments”, said the men’s doubles national champion, who is the product of the Assam State Badminton Academy system.

New Delhi: A 39-year-old man, who had been diagnosed with cancer, allegedly committed suicide by jumping in front of a train that was approaching a station on Delhi Metro’s Yellow Line on Wednesday, according to officials.

Services were delayed for about 35 minutes on the corridor after the incident that took place at Udyog Bhawan Metro Station, a senior DMRC official said.

According to Delhi Police officials, the man was upset due to his “illness”, though “no suicide note was recovered”.

A PCR call about the incident was received at Rajiv Chowk Police Station. A team reached the spot and on enquiry and after seeing CCTV footage, “it was found that the person had committed suicide” by jumping in front of the train around 11:30 am at the station’s platform no. 2, the police officials said.

His wife told the police that her husband, a resident of Delhi’s Mukundpur area, was earlier working as a painter, but “since he was suffering from cancer, so nowadays he was not working, due to his illness”.

The body has been shifted to the RML hospital. Inquest proceedings under section 174 of the CrPC (unnatural death) is underway, police said.

A mobile number was found written in a slip recovered from his pocket, they said.

The body has been sent to mortuary for post-mortem.

His wife also told the police that he was under treatment from a leading hospital and he recently underwent a surgery.

The train was going to Vishwavidyalaya Metro Station, the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) official added.

The Yellow Line connects Millenium City Center-Gurugram and Samaypur Badli in Delhi.

The DMRC in a statement said, “A male passenger allegedly jumped in front of an approaching train at Udyog Bhawan Metro station (going toward Vishwavidyalaya) at 11.30 AM today. The passenger was retrieved and was sent to the nearest hospital, and Delhi Metro Rail Police was also apprised”.

A passenger earlier in the day said the metro he was travelling in around noon halted for more than 15 minutes at the Guru Dronacharya Metro Station which falls on the Yellow Line.

The DMRC official said train services were “briefly regulated during this period and normal train movement was restored at 12:04 pm”.

New Delhi: The entire stretch of the Ganga in West Bengal contains high faecal coliform making the water unfit for bathing, the National Green Tribunal has observed, warning the authorities concerned of imposing a fine unless there was progress in tackling the pollution.

The tribunal underlined that 258.67 million litres per day (MLD) of untreated sewage was directly flowing into the river.

The NGT was hearing a matter involving prevention, control and reduction of pollution of the Ganga across each district and state through which the river or its tributaries flow.

It was considering a report from West Bengal, submitted in pursuance of its earlier directions.

A bench of NGT Chairperson Justice Prakash Shrivastava noted that reports were filed by the District Magistrates (DM) of North 24 Parganas, Murshidabad, Nadia, Malda, Hooghly, Purba Burdhaman, Howrah, Purba Medinipur and South 24 Parganas.

“On perusal of these reports, we, in general, find that no adequate facilities for treatment of sewage generated per day have been set up and that even the timeline for achieving the target of 100 per cent treatment of sewage has not been disclosed,” the bench, also comprising judicial member Sudhir Agarwal and expert members A Senthil Vel and Afroz Ahmad, said.

In an order passed on February 21, the bench said, it was “surprising ” that not even a single Sewage Treatment Plant (STP) was set up in some districts like Purba Medinipur.

“The condition which has been reflected in these reports is far from satisfactory and shows that 258.67 million litres per day (MLD) of untreated sewage is directly flowing in river Ganga in the state of West Bengal,” it said.

The green panel directed the DMs of nine districts, through where the river’s mainstream flowed, to file affidavits setting a deadline for achieving the target of 100 per cent treatment of sewage generated every day.

The DMs also have to disclose the manner and extent of utilisation of funds received from the National Mission for Clean Ganga (NMCG), besides steps taken for demarcation of floodplains in their districts, the tribunal said.

“We also find that the entire stretch of river Ganga in West Bengal contains high faecal coliform making the water unfit for bathing and thereby not meeting primary water quality criteria,” it said.

The tribunal directed the NMCG to carry out a performance audit of each of the districts on generation and treatment of waste and the extent of pollution each was causing in the river.

“We do not find any progress in the reduction of discharge of pollutants to River Ganga in any of the districts. Therefore, if in the next report, sufficient progress is not shown then the tribunal may not have any option but to impose Environmental Compensation (EC),” the tribunal said.

It ordered the DMs concerned and the NMCG to file fresh reports within eight weeks and posted the matter for further proceedings on May 2.