Truck carrying LPG cylinders catches fire after collision on Jaipur-Ajmer highway
Jaipur (PTI): A truck carrying LPG cylinders caught fire following a collision with a tanker on the Jaipur-Ajmer highway on Tuesday night, police said.
The collision triggered multiple explosions as the gas cylinders began to burst. Some exploded cylinders were seen several meters away from the spot. Flames and explosions were visible and audible from several kilometres away.
IG Jaipur Rahul Prakash said that two to three persons, including the tanker driver, were injured in the incident.
CMHO Jaipur-I Ravi Shekhawat said that as per the initial information, the driver of the offending vehicle was taken to a nearby hospital for primary treatment.
Deputy Chief Minister Prem Chand Bairwa, who reached the spot on Chief Minister Bhajanlal Sharma's directions, said that the situation was under control and no casualties had been reported yet.
Police officers and fire brigades reached the site near the Dudu area, and traffic on the highway was halted.
Bairwa told the reporters that drivers and cleaners of the trucks were missing. The police and administration are trying to locate them.
"There is no information on the casualty yet," he said.
Senior police and district administrations are also present at the spot.
CMHO Shekhawat said that all the arrangements have been made in SMS hospital. However, no injured people have been brought to the hospital so far.
"As per the initial information, one man was given primary treatment in a hospital in Dudu," he said.
Meanwhile, eyewitnesses said that the truck transporting LPG cylinders was parked outside a roadside hotel and its driver had gone for a meal.
"A tanker hit the truck carrying LPG cylinders from behind. The driver of the tanker was taken to a nearby hospital with injuries," Vinod, an eyewitness, told reporters.
In December last year, an LPG tanker collided with a truck near Bhankrota in Jaipur on the same highway, sparking a massive fireball that turned a stretch of the highway into an inferno, killing 19 people.
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Dalit outfits call state-wide hartal over dental student’s death
Thiruvananthapuram (PTI): Various Dalit organisations on Monday announced a state-wide hartal seeking justice in the death of Kannur Dental College student Nithin Raj.
The hartal will be observed on Tuesday from 6 am to 6 pm.
As many as 52 Dalit organisations, including Justice for Nithin Raj Action Council, have announced the strike.
Organisations requesting cooperation for the strike said that no vehicles will be forcibly stopped and that all essential services are exempted.
Raj, a first-year BDS student at a private dental college in Anjarakkandy in Kannur district, was found critically injured after falling from a building on April 10 and later succumbed to his injuries.
Police have registered a case against two faculty members on charges of abetment of suicide and under provisions of the SC/ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Act, following allegations by the student’s family that he was subjected to caste- and complexion-based harassment.
Kerala Pinnokka Samudaya Munnani (KPSM), one of the organisations supporting the hartal, alleged in a statement that police had shown apathy in the investigation and were attempting to protect the accused in the case.
KPSM state president K V Padmanabhan and general secretary S Anwar alleged that the probe into Raj’s death was being deliberately misdirected and delayed.
While the family has firmly alleged that caste discrimination and mental harassment by faculty members led to the student’s death, police were attempting to divert the investigation towards loan app borrowings, they claimed.
The organisation alleged that this was a planned move to shield the real accused.
KPSM further alleged that by deliberately delaying the arrest of the accused teachers, police enabled them to secure anticipatory bail.
They said there was no confidence in the present police investigation and demanded that the case be handed over to an independent agency at the earliest.
