Truck falls on car crushing three college students to death, six injured

Newsroom, May 26: A migrant worker died of hunger while a 10-month-old boy suffering from fever and breathing difficulties died negligence in two separate incidents onboard Shramik Special trains in Uttar Pradesh.

The 46-year-old dead migrant worker’s nephew, who was accompanying him, said that the victim had not eaten anything in the last 60 hours.

Raveesh Yadav said that no food or water was provided on the train, which they had boarded from Mumbai to travel to their native place in Jaunpur district in Uttar Pradesh.

Yadav and his uncle were working as construction workers in Mumbai.

Yadav told the paper that the train had left the Lokmanya Terminal in Mumbai, at 7pm on May 20 and arrived at its final stop, Varanasi Cantonment station, at 7.30am on May 23.

“But my uncle, who was complaining of hunger and pain all over his body, fainted half an hour before we reached Varanasi Cantonment and died within a few minutes,” Raveesh was quoted as saying.

He added that he and his uncle were hungry when they boarded the train but could not find food or water to buy.

Railways’ apathy

Meanwhile, the family of 10 month old child, who died in the train, alleged that the railways did not arrange for a doctor despite their repeated pleas.

The railway doctors had been moved to Covid-19 hospitals and by the time a doctor was provided at Tundla railway station, it was too late, the report quoted the child's grandfather, Dev Lal, as saying.

Lal said that the family members had tried to speak to the GRP at many stations, including at Aligarh, where the train had halted. "But they showed no interest and said any help would be available only in Tundla,” Lal said.

Railways officials then took the kin to a quarantine centre in Tundla, as they suspected that the baby had died because of the novel coronavirus.  It was only on Monday that the incident came to light when another individual at the quarantine facility intimated journalists after the condition of the child's mother worsened.

Last November, the mother of the child, Priyanka Devi of Bihar's Notan village in West Champaran, had gone to visit her parents who reside in Noida with the baby, who was then just four months old. Her husband Pramod Kumar is a farmer, the report added.

Thiruvananthapuram, Dec 4: Depressed over the communal and racist policies of union government, a 67-year-old retired school headmaster committed suicide allegedly after losing matriculation certificates and documents related to his father.

The victim was identified as Mohammed Ali a resident of Narikunni in Kozhikode district in north Kerala.

On finding Ali missing from home on Friday morning, his family members conducted a search in the nearby areas. His body was later found in a well located in one of his relative’s compound nearby.

A suicide note recovered, suspected to have been written by the victim read, “I have lost all my important certificates. Matriculation certificates of me and my wife. Old documents of my father are also missing. I think all these documents were given away along with the waste recently. None should be held responsible for my foolish act. You may get into trouble.”

According to relatives, Ali was under severe stress after regularly watching programmes related to CAA. He was also actively involved in anti CAA campaign.

“He was worried about the documents and had serious apprehensions about future,” said his younger brother Abdul Nasser.

“After attending an anti CAA meeting in Kozhikode he had shared his apprehensions. He used to frequently discuss the topic with others ,” recollected Jaffer a local resident.

Ali also had health complications. Meanwhile, the local police said that preliminary investigations suggested that the man could have taken the extreme step after losing documents. However, the reason behind the suicide could be said conclusively after detailed probe.

Bengaluru, Apr 28: With fresh guidelines on the COVID-19 lockdown expected soon, Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yediyurappa on Monday chaired a meeting with key ministers, officials and Deputy Commissioners of districts and discussed about re-starting economic activities in the state, as he took stock about of the pandemic.

"At the video conference with DCs, CM took stock of COVID-19 situation and measures taken to control its spread. Discussions also happened regarding starting of certain economic activities in parts of the state," official sources said. The state government would take any decision in this regard after the Centre issues fresh guidelines or directives, they said, without elaborating.

The meeting came hours after Prime Minister Narendra Modi held a video conferencing with Chief Ministers to discuss the situation arising due to COVID-19 in the country, which is under lockdown since March 25 to contain the pandemic. Only nine chief ministers spoke in the virtual meeting with the Prime Minister and Yediyurappa did not get an opportunity.

A senior Minister, who attended the meeting told PTI, necessary directions regarding the lockdown after May 3, they were likely to come in a couple of days.

"Most of the Chief Ministers wanted the lockdown to continue to contain the spread.... nothing concrete emerged, but we expect the necessary directions will follow in couple of days. This is what we expect after seeing what has happened as a followup to three to four such video conferences in the past," he said.

The Minister said the larger opinion was that the current measures should continue and interstate or inter-district movement should not be allowed. Regarding movement within the districts that are green zone, some decision may be taken soon, he said, adding the Prime Minister also asked states to concentrate on reforms, aimed at attracting investments in the days to come.