3 girls stage own kidnapping to fulfil dream of meeting BTS pop band members
Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Dec 30: Dreams of three minor girls from a village in Maharashtra came to an abrupt halt after police detained them for allegedly staging their own kidnapping in order to raise funds to travel to South Korea and meet hugely popular BTS pop band members.
The girls, one 11 years' old and two aged 13, hailing from Dharashiv district, on Friday planned to go to Pune to earn money which they needed to travel to South Korea and meet their favourite K-pop band members, an official from Omerga police station said on Monday.
They were later handed over to their family members after counselling by the police.
On December 27, the Dharashiv police received a call on their helpline number with a person claiming three girls were forcibly taken away in a school van from Omerga taluka in the district, the official said.
The police swung into action and found the number belonged to a woman, who was travelling in a state transport bus going from Omerga to Pune.
They tracked the bus while it was passing through Mohol area in the state's Solapur district, the official said.
The Omerga police got in touch with their counterparts in Mohol as well as a woman who runs a shop at the Mohol bus stand, he said.
The three girls were subsequently taken down from the bus with the woman's help and brought to a local police station.
The Omerga police team along with the minor's parents later reached there, the official said.
The next day, the police enquired with the girls, who told them that they had a plan to go to Pune, work there and earn money which they needed to go to South Korea and meet their favourite members of the BTS pop band, the official said.
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Don't depend on freebies, produce your own solar power: Union Minister Pralhad Joshi
Mangaluru (Karnataka) Jan 2: Union Minister for Renewable Energy Pralhad Joshi urged people on Thursday not to be dependent on the governments for freebies, but to produce their own solar power.
Joshi attended a consultative meeting with the consumers, electricity supply company (ESCOM) officials, and people's representatives to discuss Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana here on Thursday.
"I will not comment on what the motives were behind the distribution of free power generated using environmentally harmful core sector material. But sustainability in the power sector is going to be the key to a safer future for the country," said Joshi, who is also the Union Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution.
According to Joshi, Surya Ghar Muft Bijli Yojana launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on February 15, 2024 aims to provide free electricity to households in India by providing a subsidy to install solar panels on their roofs. The subsidy will cover up to 40 percent of the cost of the solar panels.
He said with the free schemes involving non-renewable sources, somebody still has to pay a price.
"In this bargain, so many short cuts will have to be taken by the implementation bodies in the form of cutting production costs, thereby becoming unproductive and ending up sick," said Joshi.
Recalling the time he was a coal minister, Joshi said the cost being paid is enormous for what is being distributed as "free".
"I remember the statistics: 2.5 lakh tonnes of coal were being mined at enormous cost and environmental degradation, transported to the thermal power producers, and the process of producing thermal power involved a very high cost," he added.
Joshi also said the other renewable energy sources the government was looking at for development in the future, tidal, wind, and geothermal power are on the anvil.
"Research and product development are underway in these forms of energy.
The solar power management is also undergoing ground breaking research and product development, which will extend the life of solar power units from 25 years to 40 years. Their installed capacity will also increase, and the cost is going to be rationalised depending on the demand," added Joshi.
He said there is scientific data available that by 2050, the heat on earth is going to reach 'critical' levels.
"If we do not buckle up and use fewer heat-generating power modules, we may reach there even by 2030," Joshi pointed out.
He also pointed to Rajasthan and Gujarat, which experienced temperatures rising up to 50 degrees Celsius in 2024, as examples.
"If the temperature retains its upward tendencies, it is projected that the GDP will come down by 19 percent as a result of manpower loss due to fatigue and health issues of the human resource," said Joshi.
According to him, India has already achieved 93.5 gigawatts of solar power from 2.3 GW, 10 years ago.
"The country has solar modules that have an installed capacity of producing 60GW. With 300 days of sunny days, a family of five people can comfortably use solar power for all their electrical gadgets," Joshi added.
Brijesh Chowta MP of Dakshina Kannada also spoke on the occasion.
