Haryana CM writes to Kejriwal on water shortage
Chandigarh, June 12: Haryana Chief Minister Manohar Lal Khattar on Tuesday wrote to Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on the current water shortage of about 60 million gallons per day (MGD) in the national capital, saying it is just about 6.7 per cent of the total treatment capacity of more than 900 million gallons per day (MGD).
This can be resolved easily through internal actions of the Delhi Jal Board (DJB), Khattar said.
In a demi official letter sent to his counterpart as a reply to his last month's letter, Khattar said: "I am told that complete facts are perhaps not being presented before you. You may like to pose a simple question to your officers as to which of the following three calculations maximise Delhi's water entailment from Haryana.
"These are: (a) worked out as per share and allocation of Delhi; (b) worked out as per orders of the Supreme Court; and (c) worked out as per orders of the Delhi High Court."
"The task of maintaining a particular level of Wazirabad pond has to be performed by the DJB itself. After operationalisation of Carrier Lined Channel, Haryana is giving entire supply at Delhi Contact Point Bawana itself.
"We have acceded to request of the Secretary of the Ministry of Water Resources to supply 120 cusecs through Diversion Drain-8 for the current summer only," said the Haryana Chief Minister.
"Delhi must make its own arrangements from the next year onwards as no supplies would be made through Diversion Drain-8 by Haryana on account of reasons explained in detail in our reply before the Supreme Court," he added.
Khattar also pointed to the controversial stance of the Delhi government by referring to demi official letter written by Kejriwal on May 16.
"We have been discharging all our obligations set forth by Upper Yamuna River Board in terms of share and allocation of water to Delhi. Despite the consequent adverse impact on drinking water supplies to thousands of our villages and several towns, we have never reduced the supply to Delhi. In fact, currently we are supplying 120 cusecs over and above our obligations," said Khattar.
Kejriwal had written letters to Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and Khattar, seeking supply of the same amount of water as the neighbouring state has been doing for 22 years.
He also expressed worry that disruption in water supply by Haryana would affect the functioning of the Chandrawal water treatment plant, which supplies water to VIP areas of Delhi, including Rashtrapati Bhavan, Parliament and embassies.
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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.
