Minister Lakshmi Hebbalkar's car meets with accident in Kittur; Minor injuries sustained
Belagavi: Minister for Women and Child Welfare, Lakshmi Hebbalkar, and her brother, Legislative Council member Channaraj Hattiholi, were involved in a car accident early this morning near Ambadgatti village in Kittur taluk.
The accident occurred around 6 a.m. Reports indicate that Minister Hebbalkar sustained minor injuries, while Channaraj Hattiholi suffered a head injury. Both were immediately admitted to a private hospital in Belagavi for treatment.
The incident took place as the minister and her brother were returning to Belagavi by car late last night after attending a legislative party meeting in Bengaluru. The accident reportedly occurred when a dog suddenly came onto the road near Ambadgatti village. In an attempt to avoid hitting the dog, the car went out of control and collided with a tree.
The impact left the front portion of the car severely damaged.
Superintendent of Police Bheemashankar S Guled, inspected the spot and visited the hospital in which the minister is being treated. The minister's mother and other family members visited her and inquired about her.
Police said that home minister G Parameshwar made a phone call to Ms Hebbalkar's son Mrinal Hebbalkar and inquired about her health. Dr Parameshwar has instructed officers to take the utmost care about the minister, a police officer said.
"The minister has suffered minor injuries , and is stable. She does not need longer hospital stay," a doctor who is treating the minister said.
"The minister has suffered some injuries in the neck and back, but she does not need intensive treatment. She will be alright in a few days. Ms Hebbalkar's CT scan and MRI showed that L1 and L4 in her spinal cord had received minor injuries. There is no need to worry as she was responding to treatment. But she needs to rest for four weeks,'' Ravi Patil, orthopaedic surgeon and head of VOTC hospital, told reporters in Belagavi on Tuesday.
"Mr Hattiholi has suffered a minor head injury. He has gone home after being treated as an out patient. He will come back for some additional treatment. He will need to rest for a week to allow healing,'' Dr Patil said.
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Mathura boat capsize tragedy: Death toll climbs to 13
Mathura (UP)(PTI): With the recovery of two more bodies on Sunday, the death toll in the boat capsize incident in the Yamuna river in Mathura has climbed to 13, officials said on Sunday.
Search for three more missing persons is underway.
Superintendent of Police (Rural) Suresh Chandra Rawat said renewed search efforts led to the recovery of the body of a college student, identified as Dinki Bansal, near Devraha Baba Ghat and that of a man identified as Rishabh Sharma approximately 3 km away from the accident site.
The incident occurred on Friday afternoon when a boat carrying over two dozen tourists, primarily from Punjab, hit a floating drum of a pontoon bridge and capsized near Kesi Ghat in Vrindavan.
Most of the victims were from Jagraon and Dugri areas of Ludhiana district.
Teams from the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) along with the district administration and local police were actively engaged in the search for the missing pilgrims.
However, strong currents of the Yamuna river and the significant depth of the water at the ghats are proving a hindrance.
Circle Officer (Mant) Sandeep Singh said the Yamuna river stretch extending from Keshi Ghat to Gokul Barrage has been divided into seven sectors.
The search for the missing individuals will now be conducted within this specific 20-square-km zone. A Station House Officer (SHO) has been designated as the in-charge for each sector.
Acting on the orders of the DIG (Agra Range), seven SHOs will oversee operations across the seven sectors of river Yamuna.
Giving details about the operation, Additional District Magistrate (Finance and Revenue) Pankaj Kumar Verma, citing NDRF officials, on Saturday had said although the search for the missing persons is currently focused within a 14-km radius from the spot where the boat had capsized, there is a possibility that they may have been swept much further downstream.
SHO of Vrindavan police station Sanjay Pandey said boat operator Pappu was arrested late on Friday night.
He is accused of failing to provide life jackets to passengers before allowing them to board the boat, and operating the boat at high speed. This resulted in the boat losing control and colliding with a pontoon bridge's drum, which led to the accident, officials said.
Police have registered a case and also arrested the contractor, Narayan Sharma, responsible for the repair work on the pontoon bridge.
Rawat said that on Friday evening, police registered a case under section 105 (culpable homicide not amounting to murder) of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) against the boatman Pappu (alias Dauji) and Sharma, and subsequently arrested them.
According to the case details, Pappu's boat did not have any safety equipment or provisions whatsoever.
Moreover, despite repeated pleas from pilgrims, Pappu operated the boat at high speed. By the time he realised the danger upon approaching the pontoons of the bridge, it was already too late.
Consequently, after colliding with a pontoon drum, the boat lost control and capsized. It has also come to light that he is among those operators who have not obtained the requisite license to operate a boat.
Sharma was carrying out the work of dismantling and reassembling the pontoon bridge without providing any prior notification.
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