Special train reaches Bengaluru from Delhi, passengers to undergo 14-day quarantine
Bengaluru: Around 1,000 passengers arrived in Bengaluru from Delhi on Thursday on board the first train to Karnataka since limited rail services resumed in the country, officials said.
Soon after arrival at the Bengaluru City Railway Station, the passengers were screened for COVID-19 on the station premises itself, the officials said.
The train that left Delhi on Tuesday at 9.30 pm was scheduled to arrive at 6.40 am on Thursday but got delayed by 40 minutes.
According to a senior railway officer, the Bengaluru civic agency along with the Karnataka Health Department had set up 10 health check-up counters to screen the passengers.
The passengers were disembarked coach-wise as Railway Protection Force personnel kept a strict vigil on them.
"It's heartening that everyone is maintaining discipline and seated inside. No chaos," the South Western Railway public relations officer said.
These travellers will be taken to the quarantine centres as the state government has decided not to allow them mingle with anyone else till they complete 14 days in isolation and test negative for COVID-19, the officials said.
Around 15 buses belonging to the Bangalore Metropolitan Transport Corporation (BMTC), a subsidiary of the state government, were deployed at the railway station to take these passengers to the quarantine centres.
Elaborate arrangements were made to receive these passengers. As many as 4,200 rooms were booked in 42 hotels around the Majestic Railway Station.
"We have reserved 90 hotels in and around the railway station. These are for institutional quarantine. The passengers willing to stay in these hotels will have to bear the cost. Separate arrangements have been made for those who don't wish to stay in hotels," the Deputy Commissioner of Bengaluru Urban district G L Shivamurthy said in a video message.
He made it clear that everyone coming to Bengaluru will have to compulsorily remain quarantined for 14 days and undergo COVID-19 medical tests.
General public was not allowed to enter the railway station area.
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SC asks Centre to consider amending law on terminating pregnancy of rape survivors
New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court on Thursday took strong exception to a plea by AIIMS seeking to set aside its order allowing a 15-year-old girl to medically terminate her 30-week pregnancy, and asked the Centre to consider amending the law to permit rape survivors to terminate unwanted pregnancies even beyond 20 weeks.
The top court said when there is pregnancy due to rape, there should not be a time limit.
Law needs to be organic and in sync with evolving time, it stressed.
A bench of Chief Justice Surya Kant and Justice Joymalya Bagchi said this is a case of child rape and the survivor will have a lifelong scar and trauma if termination is not allowed.
The top court said if the mother does not have permanent disability then it should be carried out.
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It asked AIIMS to counsel parents of the survivor over the issue and said the decision has to be of the person concerned.
"There are children for adoption. In this country we have lot of sympathies...There are deserted, abandoned children on the streets and even mafias on it. We have to look at them. This is an unwanted pregnancy of a 15-year-old child.
"This is a curative petition. Unwanted pregnancy cannot be thrusted on a person. Imagine she is a child. She should be studying now. But we want to make her a mother. Imagine the pain, the humiliation the child has suffered in this," the bench said.
Additional Solicitor General Aishwarya Bhati, appearing for AIIMS, mentioned the curative plea, and said the termination of pregnancy is not possible.
"It will be a live baby with severe deformities. Minor mother will have lifelong health issues and cannot reproduce. Minor mother will have lifelong health issues. This child can be given for adoption. It has been 30 weeks now. It is a viable life now," she said.
The top court said the decision on termination has to choice of the survivor and her parents and AIIMS may help them take an informed decision.
On April 24, a bench of Justices B V Nagarathna and Ujjal Bhuyan had allowed the girl to medically terminate her pregnancy of 30 weeks.
