Five killed in fire at two Lucknow hotels
Lucknow, June 19 : Five persons were killed as fire broke out in two hotels here on Tuesday, police said.
The fire broke out at the Hotel Virat international on Tuesday morning and soon engulfed the adjacent SSJ International Hotel, gutting both buildings.
Fire tenders were rushed to contain the blaze. It took more than two hours for the fire fighters to douse the raging flames.
Senior Superintendent of Police (SSP) Deepak Kumar said the fire started in the basement and soon leaped to the upper floors. Senior district officials were present at the spot and overseeing search and rescue operations.
Police officials told IANS they can still not rule out the likelihood of some people or bodies trapped inside the hotel rooms. The five victim include a woman and a child. They were staying at the Virat International Hotel.
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“Union Min. HDK has collected crores of rupees for bypolls,” alleges Cheluvarayaswamy
Mandya: Agriculture Minister N. Cheluvarayaswamy has accused Union Minister HD Kumaraswamy of collecting crores of rupees from various companies for the bypolls of three assembly constituencies of Karnataka and Maharashtra.
Addressing press persons on Monday, he stated that the JD(S)-BJP alliance has poured large amounts of funds into the bypolls of three constituencies in the state. “We could not compete against them, money alone cannot make anyone win. People will bless owing to our pro-people programs,” he added.
He claimed that the Bharatiya Janata Party through its ‘operation lotus’ has been attempting to poach Congress legislators since the formation of the government in 2023. He further said, “Kumaraswamy and BJP leaders keep saying that the government will fall, what other proof is required to determine that Operation lotus is being conducted.”
“Everyone is aware that operation lotus cannot run without money. They have lured our MLAs with money. However, our legislators have ignored such attempts. We will provide adequate proof about the amount of money and the legislators they tried to poach at the right time. Let them (BJP-JDS) prove allegations against us (Congress) first,” said the Minister responding to a reporter’s question.
Cheluvarayaswamy also refuted claims of scandal and cited them as ‘baseless.’ He further said, “Everything is under investigation. Ask them to prove their allegations first. It is just an illusion that the state government will fall owing to the scams.”
