BJP alleges illegal coal trade thriving under Jharkhand govt
Ranchi (PTI): Jharkhand BJP president Aditya Sahu on Friday alleged that illegal coal trade was flourishing in the state under the patronage of the JMM-led government.
Addressing reporters at the party office here, Sahu claimed that police station in-charges and district administrations in areas where illegal coal trading was taking place were involved and being protected by the state government.
He said Jharkhand did not belong to any party or family but to its 3.5 crore people.
Sahu was responding to Chief Minister Hemant Soren’s remarks made at a programme in Koderma on Thursday that the mineral-rich state contributed to the country’s development with coal, iron, mica and other resources but remained backward, forcing its people to live in poverty.
The BJP leader said if Jharkhand provided coal, other states contributed other resources and such an exchange would continue.
He demanded that the chief minister should explain what his government had done over the last six years, claiming that only false promises had been made to the people.
Rejecting Sahu's allegations, the Congress, an alliance partner of the JMM-led government in the state, said before pointing fingers at others, BJP leaders should introspect themselves.
"How the BJP has suddenly become so concerned about traders, when during their own rule, the state's resources were openly looted and illegal coal trade received political patronage. Even today, BJP MPs and leaders' names continue to surface in coal trade matters. The BJP leadership should first answer for this," Satish Paul Munjani, Jharkhand Pradesh Congress Committee media chairman, alleged.
He added that the allegations leveled by the BJP state president against Hemant Soren are nothing but political desperation.
"The Congress and the state government are committed to Jharkhand's development. Each and every misinformation by the BJP will be countered," Munjani said.
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2 Indian nationals part of crew of luxury cruise ship that reported hantavirus outbreak
London (PTI): At least two Indian nationals are part of the crew of the Dutch vessel MV Hondius which reported a hantavirus outbreak with five confirmed cases and three deaths so far, according to the BBC.
The luxury cruise ship, operated by Oceanwide Expeditions, began its journey on April 1 from Argentina’s Ushuaia and is expected to arrive in Spain’s Canary Islands on May 10.
About 150 passengers and crew from 28 countries were initially aboard the luxury cruise, but dozens disembarked on the island of St Helena on April 24, according to the report.
Of the 28 nationalities onboard, 38 are from the Philippines, 31 from the UK, 23 from the US, 16 from the Netherlands, 14 from Spain, nine from Germany, six from Canada, and two crew members from India, among others, the BBC reported.
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The World Health Organization said on Thursday that five of the eight suspected hantavirus cases had been confirmed.
A 69-year-old Dutch woman, confirmed to have the virus, has died; her Dutch husband and a German woman were also among the fatalities. Their cases are being investigated.
The UN health agency has said the outbreak is not the start of a pandemic.
Maria van Kerkhove, an infectious disease epidemiologist at WHO, told a news briefing that the situation is not the same as six years ago with Covid-19 because hantavirus spreads through “close, intimate contact”.
Van Kerkhove said “this is not Covid, this is not influenza, it spreads very, very differently”. She said authorities had asked “everyone to wear a mask” on board the MV Hondius.
Those in contact with or caring for suspected cases, she added, should “wear a higher level of personal protective equipment”.
Hantavirus typically spreads from rodents - but in the latest outbreak the transmission between people was documented for the first time, the WHO said.
Meanwhile, health authorities are racing to trace dozens of people who have recently disembarked from the Dutch vessel MV Hondius.
Oceanwide Expedition said 29 passengers, of at least 12 different nationalities, had left the MV Hondius in St Helena, the British Overseas Territory.
It also said the body of one deceased person—now known to be a Dutch man - was taken off the vessel.
Seven of those who left the cruise liner were British nationals.
