How Mumbai jail's women inmates battle for water: Maneka Gandhi
New Delhi, June 6: There was a time in Mumbai's Byculla jail when only two buckets of water were allocated to 600 women prisoners for the whole day, while only five sanitary towels were issue per month to every woman, Union Minister for Women and Child Development Maneka Gandhi said on Wednesday.
Speaking about the achievements of her ministry in last four years, she said on her order, officials from the ministry visited the prison only to find that the two buckets of water would not have lasted for more than 15 minutes and suitable action was taken.
She also said that a Widow's Home with a capacity of 1,000 widows was constructed in Vrindavan to provide a safe and secure place for them and will be inaugurated by the month-end.
She also informed that over 1.8 crore calls were received every year since 2014 on the Child Helpline 1098 and the number of locations where the service is operation has gone up from 279 to 435 locations from 2014.
Underscoring the importance of forensics in nabbing the culprits in sexual assault cases, the minister said special forensic kits for rape would be distributed to all the police stations and hospitals by the month of July.
"These kits would contain a complete list of evidence/samples to be collected along with the equipment required to collect the evidence. The kits would be locked and sealed before being sent to forensic labs," she said.
On the disputes in NRI marriages, the minister said her ministry is in the process of issuing orders to the Registrars that NRI marriages have to be registered within 48 hours else the passport/visas would not be issued.
The Registrars would send the details of such NRI marriages to the ministry so that a Central database can be maintained.
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Fire breaks out at Nature Bazaar in south Delhi, around 50 shops gutted
New Delhi (PTI): A major fire broke out at Nature Bazaar in south Delhi's Andheria Mor area on Sunday morning, gutting around 50 shops and triggering a massive firefighting operation, an official of the Delhi Fire Services (DFS) said.
According to the DFS, a call regarding the blaze was received at 7.37 am, following which 10 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to control the flames. No injury to anyone has been reported so far.
The fire erupted at the Nature Bazaar market located near Andheria Mor in the Lado Sarai area, where several temporary and semi-permanent shops selling handicrafts and other items are set up, he said.
Thick plumes of smoke were seen billowing from the market complex as the fire rapidly spread through multiple shops in the crowded marketplace.
Firefighters launched an extensive operation to contain the blaze and prevent it from spreading further.
Around 50 shops were gutted in the incident, causing heavy damage to goods and structures, the officer said.
Fire personnel were continuing efforts to completely douse the flames and carry out cooling operations in the area. The cause of the fire is yet to be ascertained.
Police officers also reached the spot to assist in crowd management and facilitate firefighting operations.
