Delhi gang-rape: Sonia Gandhi writes to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde

December 19, 2012
sonia

New Delhi, December 19: UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi has written strong letters to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit and Home Minister Sushil Kumar Shinde, demanding safety for women and strict punishment for the men who gang-raped a medical student in a moving bus in Delhi on Sunday. (Read letters)

Mrs Gandhi also paid a visit to the hospital, where she met the 23-year-old victim, who is on a ventilator after multiple surgeries.

In her letter to Mrs Dikshit, the Congress leader wrote, "I would urge you to take whatever steps are necessary to undertake community action, to strengthen law and order, and to step up vigilance to protect women. There is urgent need to demonstrate our sincerity and determination. You have my support and the support of our party organizations in whatever efforts you need to curb this menace."

Mrs Gandhi's letter to Home Minister Shinde read, "This monstrous crime deserves not only universal condemnation but also the Government's most urgent attention.... I hope you initiate immediate action to remedy the situation."

Mrs Gandhi had earlier spoken to both the Delhi Chief Minister and the Home Minister on the phone. This comes after angry opposition leaders today asked the government to explain what it's doing to protect women in an increasingly unsafe capital. Mr Shinde said that he will ask for the case to be fast-tracked with daily court hearings. He said a special committee has been set up in his ministry to come up with guidelines to offer better protection for women. More policemen will patrol the roads at night, he said.

The Delhi Chief Minister has also urged the Chief Justice of the Delhi High Court to open five special fast track courts for cases of rape and assault against women.

Meanwhile, the four of the six accused in the case have been arrested. The prime accused, Ram Singh, who was the driver of the chartered bus on which the gang-rape took place on Sunday, has been sent to five-day police custody. The other three arrested, including Ram Singh's brother Mukesh, will be presented in court on Wednesday.

The 23-year-old medical student who was gang-raped and hit with an iron rod for nearly 45 minutes on a Delhi bus is in critical condition, say her doctors. Her intestines are very badly ruptured, but she cannot undergo any more surgeries till she stabilises, say the doctors, adding that the next 72 hours will be crucial. Her male friend, who tried to intervene on the bus and was beaten up, has been discharged.

The incident took place on Sunday night when the 23-year-old medical student and her male friend boarded a bus for Dwarka from Munirka in south Delhi after watching a movie at a mall in Saket. A group of men who were on the bus began harassing her, asking why she was out late with a man. When her friend tried to intervene, he was gagged and then hit mercilessly with an iron rod. Five men then hit the woman with the same rod and gang-raped her while the driver kept the bus moving. At about 11 pm, the couple was thrown semi-naked onto the road.

A passer-by phoned the police which then collected the couple and moved the pair to hospital.


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News Network
March 28,2020

Amaravati, Mar 28: The state governments of Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka carried out a joint quarantine operation to help over a thousand migrant labourers from various districts of Andhra Pradesh.
The Andhra Pradesh administration received the information that 1,334 migrant labourers were trying to return to the state after obtaining passes from the Deputy Director of Fisheries in Mangalore, Karnataka.
The labourers, according to a press release by the Andhra Pradesh government, were headed towards the Nangili Toll Plaza in Kolar district, from where they would enter the state to return to their native places.
"The Chittoor Collector, Superintendent of Police and Sub-Collector rushed to the spot to coordinate with their counterparts from Kolar, Karnataka. The migrant workers were not permitted to enter AP due to the lockdown and the guidelines of the Union as well as state government," according to the release.
Instead, both the governments decided to initiate a joint quarantine operation in Kolar while taking precautionary measures to ensure that none of the labourers are carriers of the COVID-19 infection.
The Andhra government also reassured the Kolar administration that it will provide doctors, healthcare and all other facilities. It has also issued directions for logistical support, food, water, transport to take the labourers to quarantine facility, and medical team, consisting of 12 doctors, 22 supervisors and other staff, to be provided.
While the Prime Minister had imposed a nationwide lockdown, including the suspension of inter-state travel to prevent the spread of coronavirus, migrant workers and labourers around the country have started returning back to their native places fearing joblessness and cash crunch.
Andhra Pradesh as of Saturday 9:30 am, had 14 confirmed cases of coronavirus while Karnataka's count stood at 55, according to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

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Agencies
May 24,2020

Lucknow, May 24: The Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh has banned Corona patients from keeping mobile phones inside isolation wards of COVID-19 hospitals in the state.

Patients admitted in dedicated L-2 and L-3 COVID hospitals will no longer will allowed to take mobile phones along with them in the isolation wards in order to check the spread of the infection.

According to an order issued by the state government late on Saturday night, two mobile phones will now be available with the ward in-charge of the COVID care centres so that patients and talk to their family members and administration if required.

Further, the orders specify that the mobile numbers should be communicated to the family members of the patients also.

Director General Medical Education, K.K. Gupta, who issued the order, has informed all concerned officials and directors of dedicated COVID hospitals.

"To facilitate the communication between COVID-19 patients admitted in clinics, with their family members, or anyone else, ensure that two dedicated mobile phones while adhering to infection prevention norms, are kept with ward in-charge of COVID care centre," the order said.

According to the latest data available on the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, Uttar Pradesh now has 5,735 cases of Corona positive patients and the numbers have been growing steadily since the past ten days.

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News Network
February 28,2020

Feb 28: The best economic tonic for the coronavirus shock is to contain its spread and worry about stimulus later, said Raghuram Rajan, former head of the Reserve Bank of India.

There’s little central banks can do, and while more government spending would help, the priority should be on convincing companies and households that the virus is under control, he said.

“People want to have a sense that there is a limit to the spread of this virus perhaps because of containment measures or because there is hope that some kind of viral solution can be found,” Rajan told Bloomberg Television’s Haidi Stroud Watts and Shery Ahn.

“At this point I would say the best thing that governments can do is to really fight the epidemic rather than worry about stimulus measures that comes later,” said Rajan, who is currently a professor at the Chicago Booth School of Business.

The spread of coronavirus is pushing the world economy toward its worst performance since the financial crisis more than a decade ago.

Bank of America Corp. economists warned clients Thursday that they now expect 2.8% global growth this year, the weakest since 2009.

“We have moved from extreme confidence in markets to extreme panic, all in the space of one week,” said Rajan, who previously was chief economist at the International Monetary Fund.

The virus outbreak will force companies to rethink supply chains and overseas production facilities, he said.

“I think we will see a lot of rethinking on this, coming on the back of the trade disruption, now we have this,” Rajan said. “Globalization in production is going to be hit quite badly.”

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