2 bodies found, dozens missing in Mumbai-Goa highway bridge collapse

August 3, 2016

Raigad (Maharashtra), Aug 3: Two bodies were recovered on Wednesday after more than half the Mumbai-Goa highway bridge collapsed the previous night, plunging around 10 vehicles into the water.

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A multi-agency search operation was launched in the morning after a section of the British era bridge gave way due to heavy rains, leaving at least 22 people missing.

The bridge collapsed around midnight on Tuesday, but vehicles, unable to see the missing section in the dark, fell into the river. Two Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) buses were among the vehicles, carrying 17 passengers in total.

State authorities fear that victims of the mishap might have been washed into the sea 35 kms away.

Locals found the two male bodies 8 kms downstream from the site of the collapse. State authorities including the Raigad collector and the state public works minister, said the bodies were yet to be identified.

Government agencies, including teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Navy and Indian Coast Guard, began search and rescue operations on Wednesday morning. The collector and police superintendent had arrived to coordinate efforts.

Stalled traffic from the collapsed bridge was diverted to a parallel bridge, the collector said.

Confirming the incident, chief minister Devendra Fadnavis tweeted at around 2 am on Tuesday night, saying: “There is no confirmed assessment of the casualties as the area is still very dark.”

He explained that there were two parallel bridges -- an old one constructed during the British era, and new one -- which connected to the Mumbai-Goa highway, both critical links to the road network.

“Primary reason seems to be high pressure caused due to flooding of river Savitri due to heavy rains in catchment of Mahabaleshwar,” ANI reported him as saying.

According to MSRTC?officials, the incident happened around 11:30 pm. They received information of the mishap when a driver of a Mumbai-bound bus saw a state transport bus being swept away in the current and alerted MSRTC control.

“Appearantly two buses, Jaigad-Mumbai and Rajapur-Borivali, are suspected to have washed away in the flood when the bridge collapsed along with some private vehicles. Seventeen passengers, nine and eight each, were travelling in the two buses,”said VV Ratnaparakhi, general manager (traffic), MSRTC.

The corporation has been unable to contact their staff on the buses.

MSRTC is the biggest public transport undertaking in the country with more than 17,000 buses ferrying 60 lakh passengers daily.

Rescue efforts afoot

Ranjitsingh Deol, vice chairman and managing director of MSRTC, said their officials had reached the spot and were assisting the NDRF team and other authorities in search and rescue operations.

Anupam Srivastava, commandant, NDRF (Pune), said, “The first team comprising of 40 men consisting of divers, swimmers, boats and equipment necessary for rescue operations was dispatched at 5 am in the morning. Three more teams -- two from Mumbai and one from Pune, each consisting of 40 men, have been asked to join operations.”

The Coast Guard dispatched a Chetak helicopter for search sorties at about 8:15 am to locate people who were swept away in the river’s current. A Seaking 42C all weather aircraft with diving team is being launched by the Indian Navy, a defence spokesperson said.

Additional superintendent of police (Raigad), Sanjay Patil, said 35 professional divers were combing the area on five boats and two kayaks. He added one helicopter from the coast guard and Navy each had joined the aerial survey.

For information on the missing persons, one may contact the toll free number 1077 or call on 02141 - 222118.

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Comments

R Ahmed
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Aug 2016

Also please take proper action on Gurupr bridge , thats also very old and from british era

Rikaz
 - 
Wednesday, 3 Aug 2016

Government should give priority on maintaining Kulur bridge, that too was built during british time.....please do not save money at the cost of safety of humankind.....

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News Network
June 29,2020

New Delhi, Jun 29: A disturbing video of a Covid-19 patient, speaking his last words, after his oxygen supply was allegedly cut off, has surfaced on social media. The patient reportedly died after indicating that the oxygen supply to him was cut off despite his requests.

The video has a 35-year-old Covid-19 patient bidding good-bye to his family, from a government hospital bed in Hyderabad. The patient Ravi Kumar can be seen speaking out against the negligence of of the medical staff in providing ventilator support to him when he needed it the most.

The video has led to social media outrage as it attracted public attention towards plight of patients in government hospitals

"I am not able to breathe, I pleaded but they did not continue oxygen for the last three hours. I am not able to breathe anymore daddy, it's like my heart has stopped, Bye daddy. Bye to all, daddy," these were apparently the final words of the man, who spoke in his local dialect, and shared on social media.

Several reports have claimed that the man had been admitted to government Chest hospital, after several private hospitals refused to admit him. His ventilator support was allegedly taken off in the hospital, after which he recorded the video message.

The victim’s family shared the video message for the public to know of the negligence.

Reports have it that Ravi’s covid-19 report, which testes positive, was given to family a day after his death, when 30 of his family members performed the final rites, thus making all of them vulnerable to the virus. Ravi’s father has alleged that the test was done on June 24 and Ravi died on June 26, while the report was given to them on June 27.

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News Network
June 24,2020

New Delhi, Jun 24: With the highest single-day spike of 15,968 cases and 465 deaths in the last 24 hours, India's COVID-19 count reached 4,56,183 on Wednesday.

According to the latest update by the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), 14,476 deaths have been recorded due to the infection so far in the country.

The count includes 1,83,022 active cases, and 2,58,685 cured/discharged/migrated patients.

Maharashtra with 1,39,010 confirmed cases remains the worst-affected by the infection so far in the country. The state's count includes 62,848 active, 69,631 cured, discharged patients while 6,531 deaths have been reported due to the infection so far.

Meanwhile, the national capital's confirmed coronavirus cases reached 66,602.

2,301 deaths have been reported in Delhi due to the infection so far.

Tamil Nadu has reported 64,603 cases so far with the death toll reaching 833.

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The wire
May 20,2020

Bhopal, May 20: Two months after Deepak Bundele, an advocate and former journalist, was brutally assaulted by the Madhya Pradesh’s Betul Police on March 23, an Assistant Sub-Inspector of Kotwali Police Station in Betul district, BS Patel, approached the victim to record his statement. However, he allegedly tried to convince Bundele to withdraw the case saying that the cops had mistaken him for a Muslim since he has a long beard and assaulted him. But, the cop added, they were ashamed of the incident after they came to know that they had beaten their ‘Hindu brother’.
Bundele was on his way to the government hospital for diabetes treatment, a day before the countrywide lockdown was announced, when the assault occurred. Miffed with the incident and after the district police denied to register the case, he wrote to the State Human Rights Commission; Chief Justice of Madhya Pradesh High Court; Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan; Vivek Johri, Director General of Police, Madhya Pradesh; and SP Betul to register an FIR against the police officials and take punitive action against them.
In the wake of COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, section 144 had been imposed in Betul district and public movement was restricted when the incident had occurred. 
Talking to Bundele, ASI Patel had said, “We seek an apology on behalf of those officials [who assaulted Bundele]. We are truly embarrassed because of the incident. If you want, I can bring those officials and make them apologise in person to you. They mistook you as a Muslim and assaulted you, since you had a long beard. And the man (who assaulted you) is a kattar (staunch) Hindu…In Hindu-Muslim riots whenever a Muslim is arrested, they beat them up brutally, always,” the police official can be heard saying in an audio recording shared by the victim.
In the 14 minutes long audio, he further said, “I request to you to withdraw the complaint. Please agree to our request; understand that we are living in Gandhi’s country; we are all Gandhi’s children…I have at least 50 friends from your caste.”
The cop continued, “All those people are ashamed that they did something like this to a Hindu brother without knowing his identity. We do not have any enmity against you. Whenever there is a Hindu-Muslim riot, police always supports the Hindus; even Muslims know this. But whatever happened with you was because of ignorance. For that, I have no words.” 
Refuting ASI Patel’s claim, Bundele claimed that there was no Hindu-Muslim riot that day, and asked whether he was beaten for being wrongly identified as a Muslim. The police officials agreed, and said: “Yes, exactly.”
“When I constantly declined to withdraw the compliant, he indirectly threatened me saying, ‘Agree to our request, else you and your advocate brother will face consequences’,” Bundele claimed. 
When contacted Betul SP DS Bhadoriya said, “I’m not aware of this audio clip. I will taken strict action, if I receive any such complain.”
Bundele said that he has written to the DGP and other senior police officials with details about the incident.   
THE ASSAULT
On March 23 evening, when Bundele was on his way to a hospital for the treatment, Betul Police allegedly thrashed him. The 32-year-old advocate had worked as a journalist for various dailies in Madhya Pradesh’s state capital for a decade. He moved to Betul in 2017 and started practising in the district court with his brother. “I have been a patient of diabetes and blood pressure for the last 15 years. On March 23, since I was not feeling well, I decided to visit the hospital and get some medicines. But I was stopped by the police midway,” Bundele had said. 
Even though the advocate, who sports a beard, said that he explained to police personnel that he had to get his medicines but one of them slapped him without trying to listen to what he was saying. “When I protested and said that police have no right to beat the public, they got anxious and within no time, many police officials came and started beating me up with sticks,” he added. 
"I need constant medication and lifesaving medicines to survive and I told the policemen everything while they were assaulting me. But, they kept hitting me, even after I fell,” he said, adding, "I bled for almost a 2-3 days after the incident.”
Bundele, sustained multiple injuries and his ear bled for almost two days after the incident, but, Betul police denied to file an FIR in the incident.
‘WILL MOVE TO THE HIGH COURT’
“Even after two months of the incident, no FIR has been registered and it seems that police is trying to sweep the matter under the carpet,” Bundele said, adding, “I have talked to the Supreme Court’s veteran advocate Vivek Tankha and Etasham Hashmi and will take this matter to the court.”
He also raised serious concerns about the communal angle of the incident, saying, “It’s a matter of grave concern that the police is turning communal and targeting a particular community.”

Source: https://www.google.com/amp/s/m.thewire.in/article/communalism/madhya-pr…

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