Army experts comb cargo plane crash site in Greece; 8 dead
Palaiochori, Jul 17: Experts investigating the site of a cargo plane crash in northern Greece said Sunday they have found no evidence of dangerous substances but say there is still a lot of widespread ordnance, while Serbia's defense minister confirmed that all eight crew members had died in the crash.
The An-12 cargo plane from Serbia flown by a Ukrainian aviation crew smashed into fields between two Greek villages late Saturday. Its fuselage dragged on the ground for 170 meters (nearly 190 yards) before it disintegrated, authorities said. Locals reported seeing a fireball and hearing explosions for two hours after the crash.
Serbian Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic told a news conference Sunday that the plane was carrying 11.5 tons of Serbian-made mortar ammunition to Bangladesh, which was the buyer. It had taken off from the Serbian city of Nis and had been due to make a stopover in Amman, Jordan.
The Greek Army's Special Joint Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defense Unit cleared two paths Sunday for forensics experts to move in before leaving. The new team was on the site Sunday afternoon collecting body parts. They have so far identified six of the eight crew members and aim to collect their evidence by sunset, authorities say.
Explosives disposal experts have also started working on the site, although it looks like they will have to resume their work at dawn Monday, local authorities said. It is only when their work is done that Civil Aviation Authority experts will try to retrieve the plane's black box.
The fire service and police have created an extended security perimeter because of the widespread ordnance. Residents have been allowed to leave their homes since early Sunday, but have been told that their fields may not be safe to work in because of the likely presence of explosives. Nearby dirt roads have been closed to vehicles.
A plume of white smoke was still rising from the front end of the plane on Sunday morning.
The plane was operated by Ukrainian cargo carrier Meridian. The Ukrainian consul in Thessaloniki, who arrived at the crash site, told local officials that the crew were all Ukrainian.
These were illuminating mortar mines and training (mines). ... This flight had all necessary permissions in accordance with international regulations, Stefanovic said.
The plane crashed shortly before 11 p.m. about 40 kilometers (25 miles) west of Kavala International Airport. Minutes before, the pilot had told air traffic controllers he had a problem with one engine and he had to make an emergency landing. He was directed to Kavala Airport but never made it there.
The plane is a Soviet-era four-engine turboprop cargo carrier.
Drone footage shows that small fragments are all that is left of the plane. Firefighters who rushed to the scene Saturday night were prevented from reaching the crash site by smoke and an intense smell that they feared might be toxic.
Nearby residents were told to keep their windows shut all night, not to leave their homes and to wear masks.
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Single higher education regulator bill tabled in LS; Oppn flags ‘centralisation,' JPC likely
New Delhi: A bill to set up a 13-member body to regulate institutions of higher education was introduced in the Lok Sabha on Monday.
Union Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan introduced the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, which seeks to establish an overarching higher education commission along with three councils for regulation, accreditation, and ensuring academic standards for universities and higher education institutions in India.
Meanwhile, the move drew strong opposition, with members warning that it could weaken institutional autonomy and result in excessive centralisation of higher education in India.
The Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan Bill, 2025, earlier known as the Higher Education Council of India (HECI) Bill, has been introduced in line with the National Education Policy (NEP) 2020.
The proposed legislation seeks to merge three existing regulatory bodies, the University Grants Commission (UGC), the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE), and the National Council for Teacher Education (NCTE), into a single unified body called the Viksit Bharat Shiksha Adhishthan.
At present, the UGC regulates non-technical higher education institutions, the AICTE oversees technical education, and the NCTE governs teacher education in India.
Under the proposed framework, the new commission will function through three separate councils responsible for regulation, accreditation, and the maintenance of academic standards across universities and higher education institutions in the country.
According to the Bill, the present challenges faced by higher educational institutions due to the multiplicity of regulators having non-harmonised regulatory approval protocols will be done away with.
The higher education commission, which will be headed by a chairperson appointed by the President of India, will cover all central universities and colleges under it, institutes of national importance functioning under the administrative purview of the Ministry of Education, including IITs, NITs, IISc, IISERs, IIMs, and IIITs.
At present, IITs and IIMs are not regulated by the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Government to refer bill to JPC; Oppn slams it
The government has expressed its willingness to refer it to a joint committee after several members of the Lok Sabha expressed strong opposition to the Bill, stating that they were not given time to study its provisions.
Responding to the opposition, Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju said the government intends to refer the Bill to a Joint Parliamentary Committee (JPC) for detailed examination.
Congress Lok Sabha MP Manish Tewari warned that the Bill could result in “excessive centralisation” of higher education. He argued that the proposed law violates the constitutional division of legislative powers between the Union and the states.
According to him, the Bill goes beyond setting academic standards and intrudes into areas such as administration, affiliation, and the establishment and closure of university campuses. These matters, he said, fall under Entry 25 of the Concurrent List and Entry 32 of the State List, which cover the incorporation and regulation of state universities.
Tewari further stated that the Bill suffers from “excessive delegation of legislative power” to the proposed commission. He pointed out that crucial aspects such as accreditation frameworks, degree-granting powers, penalties, institutional autonomy, and even the supersession of institutions are left to be decided through rules, regulations, and executive directions. He argued that this amounts to a violation of established constitutional principles governing delegated legislation.
Under the Bill, the regulatory council will have the power to impose heavy penalties on higher education institutions for violating provisions of the Act or related rules. Penalties range from ₹10 lakh to ₹75 lakh for repeated violations, while establishing an institution without approval from the commission or the state government could attract a fine of up to ₹2 crore.
Concerns were also raised by members from southern states over the Hindi nomenclature of the Bill. N.K. Premachandran, an MP from the Revolutionary Socialist Party representing Kollam in Kerala, said even the name of the Bill was difficult to pronounce.
He pointed out that under Article 348 of the Constitution, the text of any Bill introduced in Parliament must be in English unless Parliament decides otherwise.
DMK MP T.M. Selvaganapathy also criticised the government for naming laws and schemes only in Hindi. He said the Constitution clearly mandates that the nomenclature of a Bill should be in English so that citizens across the country can understand its intent.
Congress MP S. Jothimani from Tamil Nadu’s Karur constituency described the Bill as another attempt to impose Hindi and termed it “an attack on federalism.”
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