Police book car driver,civic agency engineers following drowning of techie at an underpass in B'luru
Bengaluru, May 22: Police have registered a case against the engineers of the Bengaluru civic agency and the car driver who took the vehicle into the flooded underpass in the city leading to the death of a 22-year-old IT staffer and endangering the lives of five other family members of the victim, who were later rescued.
The Halasuru Gate police on Sunday booked a case based on a complaint lodged by Batula Sandeep, who is the relative of the victim B Bhanurekha.
Meanwhile, driver Harish on Monday said he was on the way to Hosur road via City Municipal Corporation office when his car got trapped in the flooded underpass on Sunday.
Harish said he saw an autorickshaw and a car crossing the underpass. When he was weighing the possibility of crossing it, an autorickshaw driver advised him to go ahead.
"That autorickshaw driver stopped but insisted that I should go, so I crossed In just two minutes the entire underpass was filled with water and the car's engine got switched off," he told reporters.
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Chief Minister Siddaramaiah on Sunday visited the St Martha's Hospital where the victim and the survivors were taken. He also announced a compensation of Rs five lakh to the next of kin of the deceased.
After the incident, the underpass has been shut for vehicular movement.
Following the tragedy, the Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike today started an audit of all the underpasses in the city.
"We are undertaking an audit of all the underpasses so that such incidents should not occur in future. We are closing those underpasses, which are not fit to use," Chief Commissioner Tushar Giri Nath told reporters.
Nath said he has given directions to the Chief Engineer of the civic agency to see that water drains out from these underpasses through the stormwater drains.
According to him, such an exercise has been undertaken at 18 underpasses in the city.
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Bihar CM Nitish Kumar takes oath as Rajya Sabha member
New Delhi (PTI): Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Friday took oath as a member of Rajya Sabha, marking the end of his two-decade rule in the eastern state and paving the way for a new chief minister.
The oath was administered by Rajya Sabha Chairman C P Radhakrishnan in his chamber at a brief ceremony. The Chairman later welcomed him as a member of the Upper House and also on his return in Parliament.
Kumar took the oath in Hindi in the presence of Union Minister J P Nadda, who is also leader of the house, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Panchayati Raj Minister Rajiv Ranjan Singh, Minister of State for Agriculture and Farmers Welfare Ram Nath Thakur and Minister of State for Law and Justice Arjun Ram Meghwal.
Bihar deputy chief minister Samrat Chaudhary was also present at the oath-taking.
JDU leader and party's working president Sanjay Kumar Jha, Congress chief whip in Rajya Sabha Jairam Ramesh, besides BJP MP and former union minister Rajiv Pratap Rudy and BJP chief whip in Lok Sabha Sanjay Jaiswal, were among those present during the oath-taking.
"Vice President of India and Chairman, Rajya Sabha, Shri C. P. Radhakrishnan, administered the oath to Shri Nitish Kumar as an elected Member of Rajya Sabha, from Bihar, at Parliament House today," the Vice President's office said on X, while sharing pictures of the oath-taking.
After the oath-taking, Kumar came out of the new Parliament building and spoke about the time he was a member of the Lok Sabha and sat in the old Parliament building.
As Kumar assumes the Rajya Sabha role, it marks the end of his long two-decade rule in Bihar. Kumar will soon resign as chief minister and the NDA is likely to elect a new chief minister of Bihar on April 14.
He has already resigned as a member of the State Legislative Council on March 30 after he was elected to Rajya Sabha.
The JD(U) supremo was elected to the Upper House of Parliament on March 16, and he had to quit as an MLC in the 14-day period after his election.
