Barely a year to go for LS polls, Modi tightens up Ministers
New Delhi, June 13: As the NDA government enters its final year before the next Lok Sabha elections, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday convened a meeting of his Council of Ministers wherein he is said to have tightened up the Ministers, according to informed sources.
Convened after a gap of more than three months, it was notably the first meeting of the Council of Ministers after the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) suffered a series of electoral defeats in various by-polls including on some key Lok Sabha seats in Uttar Pradesh such as Gorakhpur, Phulpur and Kairana.
In the recently held 11 by-elections (four Lok Sabha and seven assembly seats), the BJP suffered losses on eight seats including two Lok Sabha seats of Kairana in Uttar Pradesh and Bhandara-Gondiya in Maharashtra.
According to sources, the meeting assessed the work done in the past four years by the NDA government vis-a-vis implementation of various government schemes on the ground, and also discussed the roadmap to the 2019 elections and the Ministers have been asked to "work according to a calendar in an organised way".
The schemes whose implementation and effectiveness was reviewed included Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Ujjwala Yojana, Mudra Yojana, Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Yojana, and Ayushman Bharat among others.
The Prime Minister is said to have told his colleagues to be proactive with "taking the message of various government schemes and achievements in the last four years to the public".
They have also been asked to plug the loopholes, if any, in the working of their Ministries and departments.
In the last two years, the BJP has lost six Lok Sabha seats in bypolls and currently its tally stands at 273, just one above the halfway mark.
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Jhansi fire: Nurse's heroic efforts helped save over dozen babies
Lucknow/Jhansi (UP), Nov 17: Nurse Megha James was on duty when the fire broke out at the Jhansi hospital and she threw herself headlong into the rescue efforts, playing a hero's role by saving several babies.
Even when her salwar got burned, she refused to give up and was able to evacuate 14-15 babies with others' help.
"I had gone to take a syringe to give an injection to a child. When I came back, I saw that the (oxygen) concentrator had caught fire. I called the ward boy, who came with the fire extinguisher and tried to put it out. But by then, the fire had spread," James said.
Ten babies perished in a fire that broke out at the Neonatal Intensive Care Unit of the Maharani Laxmi Bai Medical College in Jhansi Friday night.
Faced with an enormous blaze, James's mind worked with a frenetic speed, to the extent she cared little about burning herself.
"My chappal caught fire and I burned my foot. Then my salwar caught fire. I removed my salwar and discarded it. At that time, my mind was virtually not working," she told PTI Videos.
James just wore another salwar and went back to the rescue operation.
"There was a lot of smoke, and once the lights went out, we could not see anything. The entire staff brought out at least 14-15 children. There were 11 beds in the ward with 23-24 babies," she said.
Had the lights not gone out they could have saved more children, James said. "It all happened very suddenly. None of us had expected it."
Assistant Nursing Superintendent Nalini Sood praised James's valour and recounted bits from how the rescue operation was carried out.
"The hospital staff broke the glasses of the NICU ward to evacuate the babies. It was then Nurse Megha's salwar caught fire. Instead of caring for her safety, she stayed there to rescue the babies and handed them over to people outside," she said.
Sood said James is currently undergoing treatment at the same medical college. She said she did not know the extent of her burns.
"The rescued babies were shifted to a ward very close to the NICU ward… When I recall the scene, I feel like crying," she said.
Dr Anshul Jain, the head of the anaesthesiology department at the medical college, explained the standard rescue operation and claimed the hospital followed the protocol to the T.
"In the triage process during an ICU evacuation, the policy is to evacuate less-affected patients first. The rationale behind this approach is that patients requiring minimal support can be relocated quickly, enabling a larger number of evacuations to be completed in a shorter time.
"In contrast, patients on ventilators or requiring high oxygen support demand more time and resources for evacuation," he said.
"This principle was successfully implemented in Jhansi, playing a significant role in saving many lives," Jain said.
A newborn rescued from the fire died due to illness on Sunday, Jhansi District Magistrate Avinash Kumar said.
