Bus catches fire in Thane; passengers escape unhurt
Thane (PTI): Sixty five passengers travelling in a bus had a narrow escape after the vehicle caught fire in Maharashtra's Thane city on Tuesday, a civic official said.
The incident took place at around 8 am near Utaleshwar in the city limits, Thane Municipal Corporation's regional disaster management cell (RDMC) chief Avinash Sawant said.
The Maharashtra State Road Transport Corporation (MSRTC) bus carrying at least 65 passengers was on way to neighbouring Bhiwandi town from Thane, he said.
After noticing the fire, the driver immediately stopped the bus and raised an alarm following which the passengers got down, the official said.
The bus was partly burnt, he said.
Local firemen and a team of the RDMC rushed to the spot after being alerted and doused the blaze in half-an-hour, he said.
A short-circuit is suspected to have caused the fire in the bus, which belonged to the Bhiwandi depot, the official said.
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BJP using money garnered from paper leaks to fund Jharkhand poll campaign, alleges Soren
Ranchi (PTI): Taking a dig at the central investigative agencies, Jharkhand Chief Minister Hemant Soren on Friday claimed that they were busy probing incidents like "chicken theft" while cases like the examination paper leaks in UP remain untouched at the behest of the BJP.
Soren alleged that the BJP was behind the paper leaks in the states it ruled, and the money it garnered from there was being used to fund its poll campaigns.
"The pomp and show that you are seeing from BJP in Jharkhand elections is all due to the money from paper leaks... ED, CBI, NIA which have started investigating even chicken theft cases these days did not probe paper leaks because it is the BJP that leaks these and with that money, it buys MLAs and MPs post elections," Soren alleged in a post on X.
"Exam papers were leaked in all BJP-ruled states... MP Vyapam scam claimed several lives. In Jharkhand, we made tough law post one paper leak but BJP went to Raj Bhavan terming it a black law," he alleged.
Soren claimed that had he not been "harassed" by the ED and CBI in "false" cases, he would have created several new posts in the government and ensured large-scale recruitments.
