Telangana CM hints at early polls
Hyderabad, June 24: Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrasekhar Rao on Sunday said he was ready to go for early elections and dared the opposition to face the same.
The Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) chief, who met Prime Minister Narendra Modi on June 15, said the elections may be advanced.
Rao said the leaders of his party and even people were ready for early elections. He exuded confidence that TRS will win over 100 seats in 119-member state assembly.
Elections to Telangana assembly are scheduled in April-May next year along with Lok Sabha polls but ever since the TRS chief's meeting, there have been reports of the polls being advanced.
Modi is understood to have hinted that simultaneous polls to Lok Sabha and state assemblies of Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh and Telangana could be conducted by November-December.
KCR, as Rao is popularly known, held meetings with TRS leaders during last few days to discuss the possibility of early elections and to review the preparedness of the party.
On Sunday, KCR formally admitted former minister Danam Nagender into the TRS. Nagender, who quit the Congress two days ago, joined the ruling party along with his followers.
Speaking on the occasion, KCR said all surveys show that TRS will win the next elections as the party was striving to achieve the goal of golden Telangana.
He slammed the opposition parties for criticizing the government. Alleging the opposition parties were unable to digest the number of welfare and development schemes launched by the TRS government during last four years, he challenged them to face the early elections.
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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.
