'Unplanned lockdown' did not win battle in 21 days as PM claimed, but destroyed lives: Rahul Gandhi
New Delhi, Dec 19: As India's COVID-19 caseload surpassed the one crore-mark, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi on Saturday alleged that the unplanned lockdown did not manage to "win the battle in 21 days as the prime minister claimed", but "destroyed" millions of lives in the country.
The health ministry's data updated at 8 am on Saturday showed that the total number of cases mounted to 1,00,04,599 and the death toll reached 1,45,136 with the virus claiming 347 more lives in a span of 24 hours.
Taking a dig at the prime minister's remarks in March that the Mahabharata war was won in 18 days and the war against coronavirus will take 21 days, Gandhi tweeted, "1 crore Covid infections with almost 1.5 lakh deaths! The unplanned lockdown did not manage to win the battle in 21 days' as the PM claimed, but it surely destroyed millions of lives in the country."
The country's COVID-19 case tally had surpassed the 20 lakh-mark on August 7, 30 lakh on August 23 and 40 lakh on September 5.
It went past 50 lakh on September 16, 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, 80 lakh on October 29, and surpassed 90 lakh on November 20.
In another tweet, Gandhi tagged a media report on China's border infrastructure building activities and said he has been continuously warning people about Chinese actions.
"China continues to make diligent preparations while GOI sleeps. Timely action is critical for India," he said.
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Double-decker electric bus gutted in fire at Kurla BEST depot
Mumbai (PTI): An empty double-decker electric bus was gutted in a fire during servicing at a BEST depot in Mumbai's Kurla area on Sunday, officials said, adding that nobody was injured.
The blaze broke out inside the Kurla BEST bus depot near Kanakia Building at 4.14 pm, according to preliminary information from the Mumbai Fire Brigade.
The parked bus was unoccupied at the time of the incident.
Fire brigade personnel rushed to the spot and brought the blaze under control. The exact cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, they said.
No injuries were reported in the incident, officials added.
The Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport (BEST) Undertaking has hired 50 electric double-decker buses from Switch Mobility in its fleet of around 2,700 buses.
