Baby reunited with dad as Indonesia flood death toll hits 77
Sentani: A baby trapped under rubble after flash flooding destroyed his home in Indonesia has been reunited with his father after the disaster killed the rest of their family, officials said Monday, as the death toll hit 77.
The five-month old was plucked Sunday from debris inside a house where his mother and siblings were found dead in the hard-hit northeastern town of Sentani.
The tot has since been returned to his surviving father.
"We took the baby to the hospital and had him treated," Papua military spokesman Muhammad Aidi told AFP. "He was in stable condition and has been released. The father was distressed but happy to be reunited with his baby." The news came as Indonesia's disaster agency raised the official death toll from 58, with more than three dozen people still missing.
Scores have been injured in the disaster, triggered by torrential rain and landslides on Saturday.
"The death toll could still go up with 43 people unaccounted for," said national disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho. Rescuers battled mud, rocks and fallen trees in the hunt for survivors, as medical personnel treated the wounded in makeshift tents.
The military said 5,700 people have been evacuated from the hard-hit area.
"We have over 1,000 personnel searching for more victims," Aidi said. Indonesia has issued a 14-day state of emergency in response to the floods. Papua shares a border with independent Papua New Guinea on an island just north of Australia. Flooding is common in Indonesia, especially during the rainy season which runs from October to April.
In January, floods and landslides killed at least 70 people on Sulawesi island, while earlier this month hundreds in West Java province were forced to evacuate when torrential rains triggered severe flooding.
Meanwhile, three people were killed -- including two Malaysian tourists -- and some 182 were injured after an earthquake Sunday triggered a landslide on the Indonesian tourist island of Lombok, next to Bali.
The 5.5-magnitude quake is thought to have caused the landslide at the Tiu Kelep waterfall in the north of the island. Lombok was rocked by several earthquakes last summer, killing more than 500 people and leaving over 150,000 homeless.
Last September, the country was hit by an earthquake and tsunami in Palu on Sulawesi island which killed around 2,200 people.
The Southeast Asian archipelago of some 17,000 islands is one of the most disaster-prone nations on Earth, straddling the Pacific Ring of Fire, where tectonic plates collide. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are common.
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Cong slams Modi govt as 'anti-worker', calls for review of new Labour code
New Delhi (PTI): The Congress on Friday accused the Modi government of being "anti-worker" and demanded that the new labour code be reviewed, MGNREGA be revived as well as a national minimum wage of Rs 400 per day be established.
On International Labour Day, Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge took a swipe at the government and said unemployment in India today is a direct consequence of the 'Hum Do, Hamare Do' policies.
"Driven by the 'Hum Do, Hamare Do' policy, the Modi government implemented an anti-worker Labour Code. As a result, unrest has erupted everywhere - be it in Noida, at the IOCL facility in Panipat, Adani's factory in Raikheda, NTPC Patratu, or the Samsung factory in Sriperumbudur," Kharge said in a post in Hindi on X.
Instead of ensuring job security, this Code promotes policies such as contract labour and 'Hire & Fire' practices, Kharge said and called for a review of the new Labour Code.
The Modi government has effectively dismantled MGNREGA by forcibly pushing legislation through Parliament, he alleged.
"Mr. Modi has shifted 40% of the wage burden onto the State governments. State governments are unable to bear this financial strain and will eventually be forced to stop providing work," he claimed.
The Modi government has compelled workers into a state of unemployment and pushed them towards 'gig work', Kharge said.
Currently, 69% of the workforce is working for wages below the statutory minimum wage, he said.
The Modi government has engineered a crisis of stagnant wages, Kharge alleged.
"When adjusted for inflation, the wages of the majority of India's workers have grown by less than 1% annually over the last decade (from 2014-15 to 2022-23)," he said.
The Modi government has created a massive unemployment crisis among the educated workforce, specifically, among graduates, Kharge claimed and added that jobs have been eliminated through the sale of Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs).
"The government has refused to fill approximately 30 lakh vacant government positions. Furthermore, the government's policy blunders have led to the decimation of Micro, Small, and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs)," the Congress chief said.
The Congress reiterates its five demands for India's workers including revival of MGNREGA and its expansion to urban areas, Kharge said.
He said a national minimum wage of Rs 400 per day should be established, with MNREGA included within its scope.
Kharged demanded that a 'Right to Health' law must be enacted, providing Universal Health Coverage of up to Rs 25 lakh for laborers and workers.
"'Life Insurance and Accident Insurance' coverage must be provided for all unorganized workers. Preventing the contractualization of employment must be made a core priority of the government, and the new Labour Codes must be reviewed," Kharge asserted.
