Farmer drives burning tractor into lake, stops fire from spreading
BENGALURU: The quick thinking of a groundnut farmer in Jammanakatti village in Bagalkot district of Karnataka helped prevent a fire from spreading to several houses in the village.
Yankappa, 28, has been hailed by the residents of the village for driving a tractor that caught fire into a lake on Monday.
At around 4 pm, Yankappa was driving the tractor on a narrow village road with houses on either side. This was when the hay loaded on the tractor came into contact with an electrical wire and caught fire. The hay, stacked about 20 feet high, caught fire immediately and started spreading fast.
In spite of the heat rising behind him, Yankappa kept his cool and steered the tractor towards the lake in the village. “Standing still was not an option because the fire would have spread from the tractor to the houses nearby. The residents of the village came forward to show me the way and told me that the best thing to do was to drive the tractor into the lake,” Yankappa says, recounting the series of events that has catapulted him to fame locally.
Residents on the spot scrambled to pour water and douse the fire but it proved inadequate to contain the fast spreading fire. Seeing no other option, Yankappa accelerated and began driving the tractor towards the lake. By this time, a few people had begun filming the incident which shows the back of the tractor engulfed by a giant ball of fire and burnt hay flying all around, even as Yankappa picked up pace.
When he reached the lake, Yankappa drove right into the water and jumped out of the vehicle as the tractor half-submerged in the water and the fire died down slowly.
Yankappa claims that he incurred a loss of Rs 30,000 and is hoping for some kind of compensation following the awful incident.
courtesy : thenewsminute.com
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After arriving from Delhi, Shinde heads to his native village; Mahayuti meet likely on Sun
Mumbai(PTI): Outgoing Maharashtra Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who returned to Mumbai from New Delhi on Friday morning, is travelling to his native village in Satara district amid continuing suspense over his successor a week after the assembly poll results.
Shinde had told reporters in New Delhi on late Thursday night that the next meeting of the Mahayuti alliance on government formation will be held in Mumbai on Friday.
However, the caretaker CM, who heads the Shiv Sena, is travelling to his native village Dare in Satara district in western Maharashtra and the meeting is now expected to take place on Sunday, the sources said.
The Shiv Sena leader has repeatedly said he would not be an obstacle in the government formation and abide by the decisions taken by Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah on the next chief minister.
Different viewpoints are emerging in the Shiv Sena over Shinde's place in the next government to be headed by the BJP, the biggest constituent in the Mahayuti, which posted a thumping win in the just-held assembly polls.
Many leaders in the Shiv Sena are asking Shinde to accept deputy CM's post if offered by the BJP. However, another section feels it wouldn't be right for him to accept No. 2 position after serving as CM for more than two-and-a-half years, the sources said.
"The government formation process will start after the BJP announces its legislature party leader," they said.
During his Delhi trip, Shinde had met Shah and discussed formation of the next government in the state. His deputies in the outgoing state cabinet Devendra Fadnavis (BJP) and Ajit Pawar (NCP) had also met the senior BJP leader.
Talking to reporters in the national capital, Shinde called the discussion “good and positive”.
Shinde, Fadnavis and Pawar had also met BJP president J P Nadda.
