tuesdAY 28 may, 2024 epaper.morningstandard.in facebook.com/TheMorningStandard X.com/TheMornStandard Pa p u a N e w G u i n e a Cyclone remal leaves trail of destruction in bengal, six killed over 2,000 people buried in landslide Strong winds blew away roofs of huts and knocked down power poles, while accompanying downpour caused waterlogging in many areas A government official has told the UN that over 2,000 people are believed to have been buried alive by last Friday’s landslide and has sought int’l help A CAPITAL VIEW OF NEWS Page 9 l New Delhi l J8.00 l 135 kmph PAGES 12 Maximum wind speed recorded as the severe cyclone tore through west bengal coast Hosp owner, duty doc sent to 3-day police custody U J W A L J A L A L I @ New Delhi A city court on Monday remanded Dr Navin Khichi, owner of Baby Care New Born Child Hospital, where a fire broke out claiming seven newborns, to three-day police custody till May 30. Dr Akash, who was on duty during the incident late on Saturday night, was also sent to police custody . Both Khichi and Akash were arrested on Sunday According to . a report submitted to the Delhi divisional commissioner, at the time of the fire, there were 12 babies in the hospital. The deceased included four boys and three girls, all aged 15 days except for a 25-day-old baby boy . DCP (Shahdara) Surendra Choudhary stated that the initial cause of the fire was believed to be a short circuit, though an investigation is in progress. The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the tragedy with Divisional Commissioner Ashwani Kumar directing the Shahdara district magistrate to investigate the case. Chaudhary told this newspaper that they have obtained a three-day police custody of the alleged people to verify their degrees and the documents regarding registration of the hospital. 2 doctors nabbed in Pune Porsche crash CM aide plea rejected in Maliwal assault case A city court on Monday rejected the bail plea of Arvind Kejriwal’s close aide Bibhav Kumar and said that there appeared no “pre-meditation” by AAP Rajya Sabha MP Swati Maliwal in lodging the FIR and that her allegations could not be “swiped away.” The local court underlined that as injuries were apparent four days after the alleged incident in the medico-legal case, the delay in lodging FIR was not of much impact on the case. P4 Election to 3 RS seats from Kerala on June 25 The Election Commission on Monday announced the election to three Rajya Sabha seats from Kerala as the term of the sitting members ends on July 1. The polling will take place on June 25, the EC said in a statement. Binoy Viswam (CPI), Elamaram Kareem of CPM and Jose K Mani, who heads Kerala Congress (M), are retiring on July 1. According to laid down procedures, the counting of votes will take place an hour after the polls. 1 2 3 day after death of 7 newborns “We need to investigate the incident thoroughly he added. ,” As per the FIR accessed by this newspaper, a total of 27 oxygen cylinders were found inside and outside the two-storey building of the hospital. “During an inspection of the scene, 27 oxygen cylinders were Govt orders fire audit & submission of reports by all hosps by June 8 12 babies in the hospital at the time of the incident Roasts Rajkot civic body for not enforcing fire safety rules D ili p Si n g h K s h at r i ya @ Ahmedabad The Gujarat High Court on Monday hit out at the Rajkot Municipal Corporation and the state government, saying it has lost faith in the state machinery that turns a blind eye to illegal structures and wakes up only after innocent lives are lost. The sharp remarks came a day after the HC took suomotu note of the blaze at the TRP Game Zone in Rajkot on Saturday evening, which killed at least 28 people. The game zone did not have the fire NOC or other permissions for functioning. A special bench of justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan Desai asked the Rajkot civic body why it allowed the game zone to run. The bench was furious when it was told the operators did not apply for permissions. “Were you blind to the existence of this large structure? How do you explain that the entire zone has existed for the last twoand-a-half years? What fire safety measures were applied?” it asked. When a counsel pointed out that drastic actions must be taken to avoid such incidents in future, the bench said: “Who will take such drastic steps? Frankly we no longer , have faith in the state machinery This is the sixth incident in . four years after our orders and their assurances. They only act after lives are lost.” The HC posed a volley of questions to the corporation’s counsel, asking why were the court’s earlier orders on fire safety norms not followed. During the hearing, the bench examined photographs showing Rajkot government officials being present at the gaming zone inauguration. “Who were these officers? Were they there for play? Can we not take judicial notice of that fact? For 18 months, what did the corporation do? Just sit on it?” the bench questioned. On Monday the Gujarat state , government suspended five officials from various departments, including two police inspectors, for negligence in the Rajkot fire tragedy . Debris being removed from the game zone site in Rajkot, where 28 died in a blaze | Pti The Jadavpur parliamentary constituency is known for its cerebral power as it often sends luminaries to the Lok Sabha. For example, way back in 1984, current Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrested the seat on a Congress ticket from CPM stalwart Somnath Chatterjee. This time, it could be a toss up between Trinamool’s Saayoni Ghosh, CPM’s Srijan Bhattacharyya and BJP’s Anirban Ganguly because the race is that tight. All three are alumni of Jadavpur University At 47, Gan. guly is the eldest of them. Saayoni and Srijan are 31. Saayoni became the Trinamool Congress youth wing head after Mamata’s nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee vacated the position in 2021. An actor, she got the moniker of a party streetfighter from Mamata. Srijan is member of the CPM’s West Bengal State Committee. He was the state secretary of the Students’ Federation of India for over six years till January last. As for Dr Ganguly, he is an academic and chairman of the BJP’s Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation. While Saayoni parrots Mamata’s seamless connect with the grassroots, adding she introduced various innovative schemes for the upliftment of the poor, Ganguly hammers away at the TMC’s scams under Mamata’s watch and her attempts to shield her tainted party leaders. Saayoni models herself on Mamata’s brand of politics, saying: “I’ve learned that real politics is different from what’s in the textbooks. A true leader understands the people’s needs and struggles, just like Mamata. A leader must be accessible, and I am here for Jadavpur.” Her political journey began in February 2021 when From left, Srijan Bhattacharyya, Saayoni Ghosh and Dr Anirban Ganguly The HC noted that every municipal commissioner starting from the establishment of the TRP Game Zone in 2021 up to the time of the incident “should be held responsible for the tragedy”. It instructed them to provide individual affidavits she joined the TMC and unsuccessfully contested for the Asansol South assembly seat. In contrast, Srijan has been in politics for a long time. He promises to introduce more industries and bring back jobs to the state that were chased away by the current regime. He flogs the Singur example where the then CPM chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya invited the Tatas to set up their Nano plant, but they were driven away by Mamata’s activism. Ganguly is seen mobilising people from other districts for large road shows and rallies with posters and banners in a demonstration of strength across the constituency Sob. ha Rani Deb, a senior voter in Baghajatin area of Jadavpur is critical of Ganguly’s mobilisation. “This is an election, not a festival. Ganguly’s road shows often end up in creating traffic bottlenecks,” she rued. The Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency includes Baruipur Purba (Scheduled Caste), Baruipur Paschim, Sonarpur, Bhangar, Jadavpur, Sonarpur Uttar and Tollygunge assembly segments. It falls within the 24 Parganas district, which is the sixth-most densely populated in India. Illustration: Mandar Pardikar Deceased included four boys and three girls, all aged 15 days except one boy who was 25 days old Delhi Fire Services revealed several significant lapses, including illegal bed expansions within the hospital, inadequate fire exits, and improper use of oxygen cylinders. These violations contributed to the severity of the incident, highlighting critical safety failings in the facility . Meanwhile, the Delhi Fire Service has written to the MCD regarding the confusion over the height of the hospital building. Notably, only those buildings which are above the height of 9 metre are supposed to have a ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the fire department. More reports on page 3 Below normal monsoon in east, northeast Heatwave days In its assessment for June, the weather office also said the number of heatwave days would be above normal over most parts of Northwest India and adjoining areas of Central India J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi In its updated long-range forecast for the upcoming Southwest monsoon season, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday predicted above-normal rainfall over central and south peninsular India and normal rains over northwest India. However, eastern and northeast regions and some northern parts such as Jammu a n d K a s h m i r, L a d a k h , Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand may likely see be- low-normal rainfall. “The southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall is most likely to be ‘above normal’ over central India and south peninsular India (greater than 106% of the long-period average), ‘normal’ over north- west India (92-108%) and ‘below normal’ over northeast India (less than 94%),” the weather office said. This means India’s core monsoon zone, where agriculture is mostly rain-fed, will get above-normal rains. The IMD has already predicted the onset of the monsoon over Kerala on May 31. In an unusual development, the Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon may arrive earlier than the Arabian Sea branch due to cyclone Remal, which has pushed up monsoon wind. severe heatwave grips capital Notice to past civic officials Jadavpur joust is on a razor’s edge Sula g n a S e n g u p ta @ Kolkata 4 found inside and outside the building. Of these, five were found to have burst,” an excerpt from the FIR read. The FIR also states that Khichi and the hospital staff did not ensure the proper safety and security of the newborns. A preliminary probe by the Lost faith in state machinery, says HC Express read Police suspect financial transactions in the form of ‘kickbacks’ had taken place in the alleged replacement of the original blood sample of the juvenile driver involved in the Pune Porsche car crash with another person’s sample by two doctors of state-run Sassoon Hospital arrested on Monday. The two doctors and a staff of the hospital were remanded in police custody till May 30 by the court of Judicial Magistrate First Class (small causes). P7 FIR says out of total 27 O2 cyllinders found inside and outside 2-storied building, 5 exploded More reports on page 7 & 8 Mungeshpur in North West Delhi records 48°C Najafgarh and Narela 46°C According to IMD, maximum temperature for the next three days likely to remain above 46°C and will decrease by a degree on Thursday, followed by 44°C on Friday and 43°C on Saturday and Sunday The weather office has predicted light rain on Friday and a partly cloudy sky the next day From May 31 onwards, Delhi is likely to witness a cloudy sky followed by thundershowers for three days Temperature may fall to 43°C on June 1 and June 2 | Shekhar yadav | P4 Prajwal apologises to family, says will appear before SIT on May 31 CM seeks 7-day bail extension for medical tests Plaint lodged on May 2 Su c h i t r a K alya n M o h a n t y On May 2, a rape complaint was lodged against Prajwal in CID police station in Bengaluru. On May 6, Interpol, alerted 196 countries to report if the MP is spotted in their jurisdiction. The SIT had issued two notices against him. Warning by Deve Gowda On May 23, Prajwal’s grandfather HD Deve Gowda warned him to come back and submit himself to the legal process. In a letter posted on X, the former PM told Prajwal not to test his patience. express news service @ Bengaluru Hassan MP Prajwal Revanna, who is wanted by the Special Investigation Team (SIT) probing the sexual abuse cases against him, posted a 2.57-minute video on Monday stating that he would appear before the SIT at 10 am on Friday (May 31). Prajwal fled the country on April 27, a day before a sexual harassment case was lodged against him at the Holenarasipura Town police station in Hassan district. In the video posted from an undisclosed location, Prajwal tendered apologies to his grandfather HD Deve Gowda, his parents HD Revanna and Bhavani Revanna, his uncle and former chief minister HD Kumaraswamy, people of Karnataka and JDS workers for his actions. He stated that his travel abroad was preplanned and he left immediately after exercising his franchise in the Lok Sabha elections on April 26. “When I left the country, neither a case was there against me nor the SIT was formed. After four days of my stay abroad, I got to know about the case against me and the formation of SIT, while watching news on YouTube. Subsequently, a notice was served against me by the SIT and I had sought a week’s time to appear before it, through X and also through one of my advocates,” he said. “I went into a state of depression and isolation after many Congress leaders, including Rahul Gandhi, started discussing this issue on open platforms. Some forces in Hassan joined hands and started conspiring against me. I was shocked as all of them had meticulously planned to involve me in some cases as I am growing very strong politically. All these are being done to finish me politically Prajwal said. ,” He said he would cooperate with investigating officers and has faith in the judiciary . @ New Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Monday moved Supreme Cour t seeking an extension of his interim bail by seven days to undergo PET-CT scan and other tests. The AAP chief claimed that he has lost around seven kgs of weight since his arrest. The SC, had on May 10, granted a 21-day interim bail to Kejriwal, who was arrested in a money laundering case linked to the now-scrapped excise policy case, to enable him to campaign for the Lok Sabha elections. He was directed to surrender on June 2. The ED had opposed the Kejriwal’s bail for campaign, saying that no such precedents were available. “The right to campaign for an election is neither a fundamental right nor a constitutional right and not even a legal rightw,” the ED said, adding that a politician cannot claim a higher status than an ordinary citizen and was not entitled to differential treatment.
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