Over 350 get burn wounds in Delhi, Jaipur on Diwali night; properties worth crores gutted in Shimla
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New Delhi (PTI): More than 250 people reported burn wounds in Delhi, and over 100 in Jaipur, while properties worth crores were gutted in Shimla on Diwali night.
A building near Gate 31 of the Rashtrapati Bhavan caught fire on Tuesday afternoon, prompting authorities to rush five fire tenders.
Seven people were rescued after a fire broke out in a four-storey residential building in west Delhi's Mohan Garden area on Diwali night, while a massive blaze hit two adjacent buildings in Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in the early hours of Tuesday.
A total of 129 burn cases, the highest, were reported from the Safdarjung Hospital, which has the country's largest burn unit, officials said.
After that, 55 burn cases were reported from the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), 37 from the Guru Teg Bahadur (GTB) Hospital, 16 from the Deen Dayal Upadhyay (DDU) Hospital, and 15 from the Lok Nayak Jai Prakash (LNJP) Hospital.
Of the 129 cases reported by Safdarjung, 118 were caused by firecrackers and 11 by diyas (earthen lamps). A total of 117 patients were from Delhi, and nine had to undergo surgery. Twenty-four patients were children aged below 12 years, Sarabhai said.
At the Centre-run AIIMS, the Burns and Plastic Surgery Department received 55 Diwali-related burn cases in 48 hours, and 10 patients with major burns were admitted to the ICU.
"They have life- and limb-threatening injuries," said Dr Maneesh Singhal, Head of the Department of Plastic, Reconstructive and Burns Surgery at the AIIMS. He said 23 patients had to undergo surgery.
In Jaipur, 99 cases of cracker-related burns were reported from the emergency ward of the state-run SMS hospital, wounding more than 100 people. Of these, 20 were admitted, an official of the hospital said.
A fire was reported at a two-storey building near Rashtrapati Bhavan at 1.51 pm. Five fire tenders were rushed to the site. No casualties were reported Authorities said the fire was sparked in domestic articles on the ground floor of the building.
A house caught fire in Delhi's Mohan Garden area on Diwali night, prompting authorities to rescue seven people from three families from the building.
They were evacuated with the help of ropes by the local police with assistance from people before the arrival of the fire brigade, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Dwarka) Ankit Singh said.
Three more people were rescued later by the fire brigade. Forty fire tenders were rushed to Sanjay Gandhi Transport Nagar in the northwest of the national capital after a massive fire was reported from the area.
The fire had broken out in two godowns, spanning about 1,000 square metres. Authorities received a call about the blaze at 1.25 am.
"The godowns had automobile repairing tools stored," an official said.
The Delhi Fire Services (DFS) received 269 emergency calls on Diwali night, down by nearly 15 per cent from last year's figure of 318, which was the highest in the past 13 years, an officer said.
No major mishaps, loss of life or serious injuries were reported this year, the officer said.
In Himachal Pradesh, 47 incidents of fire, at least three of them major, were reported on Monday night.
A big fire broke out in the upper floors of a multi-story hotel in Manikaran in Kullu district, forcing the tourists and hotel staff to rush out. No casualties were reported, and all tourists were safely evacuated.
Shimla district saw a major fire each in Rampur, Rohru, and the Shimla Rural assembly segment, gutting about 10 shops in all.
Losses in these fires were pegged at about Rs 1.40 crore, fire officials told PTI.
At least four shops were burned near the Khopdi Temple in Rampur in Shimla district, while three shops were damaged in a fire near Bhanoti Chowk in Shimla Rural.
Many more shops were destroyed by a fire in the Chidgaon area of Rohru in Shimla.
An electrical shop in Pathiyar in Nagarota Bagwan area of Kangra district was struck by a blaze that gutted goods worth lakhs of rupees.
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Ex-PM Devegowda warns opposition of electoral losses if they continue to allege 'vote chori'
New Delhi (PTI): Former Prime Minister H D Devegowda on Monday said the Opposition parties would "suffer" if they continue to raise allegations of "vote chori" and create suspicion in the minds of voters by blaming Prime Minister Narendra Modi-led government.
Participating in a discussion on election reforms in the Rajya Sabha, he criticised the Opposition for making a mockery about the Prime Minister "in the streets and on the public platform".
"This (India) is a very big country. A large country. Congress may be in three states. Remember my friends please, by using the words 'vote chori' you are going to suffer in the coming days. You are not going to win the battle," Devegowda said, referring to the Opposition members.
He asked what the Opposition is going to earn by "blaming Narendra Modi's leadership and creating a suspicion in the mind of the voters" through the claims of "vote chori".
"What has happened to their minds? Let them rectify," Devegowda said.
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The former prime minister said that during his over seven decades of public life, he has never raised such issues of vote theft despite facing defeat in elections.
He also cited a letter written by the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru regarding inclusion of "18,000 votes" (voters) in Kerala.
"Why I am telling this (because) during the Nehru period also, there were certain lapses in the electoral system," said Devegowda, who was the prime minister between June 1, 1996 and April 21, 1997.
He said that the Congress party faced defeat in the recent Bihar elections despite raising the issues of mistakes in the electoral rolls.
"What happened after that even after so much review (of voters list). Think (for) yourself! You got six MLAs," the senior Janata Dal (Secular) leader said.
Devegowda questioned the Opposition as to why they want to make allegations against the prime minister on the issue of the voters list?
"Election Commission is there. Supreme Court is there. The Election Commission has given direction to all the state units to rectify all these things," he said.
Devegowda said people of the country have full confidence in Narendra Modi's government and it will come back to power after the next Lok Sabha elections as well.
K R Suresh Reddy, Bharat Rashtra Samithi (BRS) party's Rajya Sabha member from Telangana, said that electoral reforms are the backbone for a healthy democracy.
He said a large and diverse nation like Indi needs clean electoral rolls.
Asserting that strict re-verification should not become a mechanism for exclusion, Reddy said no eligible voter should lose their right to vote simply because accessing paperwork is difficult.
He said while the concern definitely is on the voters' exclusion, "we should also be equally concerned about the percentage of voting."
"What is happening in voting today? Once the election ends, the drama begins. The biggest challenge that the Indian democracy has been facing in spite of two major Constitutional amendments has been the anti-defection. Anti-defection is the name of the game today, especially in smaller states, especially where the legislatures are small in number," Reddy said.
The senior BRS leader suggested creation of a parliamentary committee "which would constantly look into the defection" and "ways and means to cutting that".
AIADMK's M Thambidurai raised the issues related to election campaigning.
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"Election campaigns are one of the important election processes. In that, political parties must be given the proper chance to campaign," he said and cited problems faced by his party in Tamil Nadu in this regard.
Thambidurai said political parties were facing hardships in Tamil Nadu to conduct public meetings and to express their views to the public.
YSRCP's Yerram Venkata Subba Reddy stressed on bringing electoral reforms at both the state and national levels.
He also suggested replacing Electronic Voting Machines with paper ballots in all future elections.
"EVM may be efficient but can't be trusted. Paper ballot may not be efficient but can be trusted. You need trust in democracy," Reddy added.
