IAF chopper sprays water to douse Delhi blaze
New Delhi, May 30: A massive blaze that erupted in a rubber factory of a densely-populated south Delhi neighbourhood last evening was brought under control on Wednesday after an Indian Air Force (IAF) Mi17V5 chopper was used to spray water, officials said.
Strong winds on Tuesday night fanned the flames emanating from the warehouse storing rubber as it took a gigantic proportion. The IAF chopper fitted with a bambi bucket had to carry out many sorties, spray hundreds of litres of water to wrestle the blaze under control.
Fire officials said the blaze will be contained only once the material burns which may take around three more hours. They said there were no casualties reported so far. The cause of it was still being ascertained.
On Tuesday evening, 65 tenders, parked in the byzantine lanes of the congested neighbourhood, were put in service to douse the blaze in the Khirki Extension of Malviya Nagar. Five tenders were used to fight the fire with foam.
A fire official told here that a call reporting the fire near Sant Nirankari School was received around 5 p.m.
The warehouse is owned by Maxwell Pvt Ltd who are into business of providing rubber raw material for remoulding of vehicle tyres.
Deputy Commissioner of Police, South, Romil Baaniya said it was found that a truck was being loaded with rubber sheets at the warehouse when the vehicle suddenly burst into flames. It quickly spread to the building where more rubber sheets were stored.
Rubber compounds stored in inflammable metallic and plastic boxes caught fire that flared up the blaze.
The officer said the fire was partially brought under control in the evening. But as it became windy during the night, flames gushed out of the building and a plume of black smoke clouded the Malviya Nagar skyline.
People living around the warehouse was evacuated as a preventive measure. Some 13 buildings, a school and a gym have been evacuated for safety reasons, according to a fire department statement.
"The nearby area has been temporarily evacuated for security reason," Baaniya said.
Medical teams at Max Saket, Rainbow Child Specialty Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital and AIIMS were kept on alert to attend to any injured. Adequate police arrangements were deployed at the medical facilities.
Policemen and women were also deployed in large numbers for assisting in the evacuation, crowd control and coordination with other agencies.
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PM, BJP spreading misinformation, industries leaving Maharashtra: K'taka minister Priyank Kharge
Pune, Nov 15: Karnataka minister and senior Congress leader Priyank Kharge on Friday said Prime Minister Narendra Modi and the BJP were spreading misinformation and were not interested in development.
Kharge, the southern state's IT minister, said this "factory of misinformation" started when Modi was chief minister of Gujarat and "was dreaming of becoming PM".
"The job of this factory is to spread misinformation, disinformation, fake news and give birth to lies. When he was CM, it was just a factory. By the time he became PM, the factory was elevated to a full-fledged industry," alleged Kharge, who is the son of Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge.
"The PM and BJP have no interest in development, particularly Maharashtra's development. Earlier, Karnataka's competition was with Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu and Telangana. But now we do not have any competition with Maharashtra," he claimed underlining the Congress' routine assertion that industries were shifting from the Eknath Shinde-ruled state.
Karnataka used to vie with Maharashtra for investment in IT and biotechnology sectors but that is not the case anymore as the latter is not in the race, he further claimed.
"Pune and Bengaluru were twin cities. What happened? How come Bengaluru has gone ahead? The reason is the PM is secretly moving projects from Maharashtra to Gujarat. I am not saying this. The Congress is not saying this. This is from government of India data," he claimed.
Kharge claimed the Tata Airbus project was supposed to be set up in Maharashtra but finally shifted to Gujarat.
"We also tried. When I insisted for Karnataka, I was told the project is going to Maharashtra because it had conducive ecosystem for the project. A project worth Rs 22,000 crore, how did it go to Vadodara (in Gujarat)?" he claimed.
How come the project went to Gujarat when Mumbai is the financial capital, Pune is the skill capital and a lot of talent is in Maharashtra, he questioned.
Kharge claimed the Vedanta Foxconn semiconductor project was supposed to be set up in Pune but went to Gujarat, and so did a medical device park.
"My appeal to the people of Maharashtra is to vote for the Maha Vikas Aghadi and the Congress. If it goes to Mahayuti, then there will be Adani government here," he claimed, adding that NCP leader and Deputy Chief Minister Ajit Pawar had spoken about the billionaire industrialist being part of efforts to bring down the MVA government.
If people want a "puppet" government under which projects will leave the state and go to Gujarat, then they can vote for the Mahayuti comprising the BJP, Shinde's Shiv Sena and NCP, the Karnataka IT minister said.
When Modi and the BJP make promises, they call it "Modi ki guarantee" and "masterstroke" but when Congress announces schemes, they will call it "revdi" (freebies), he said.
"They just give catchy slogans but in reality work does not take place," Kharge said in a swipe at the BJP.
