Fifth Boy Rescued From Thai Cave
CHIANG RAI, THAILAND: Rescue workers in Thailand brought out on Monday the fifth boy from a group of 12 and their soccer coach trapped for more than two weeks in a flooded cave complex, a navy official said, hours after the rescue mission resumed.
A Reuters witness near the Tham Luang cave in the northern province of Chiang Rai saw medical personnel carrying a person, wrapped in green sheets and lying flat, into an ambulance close to the mouth of the cave.
"Yes, one has come out already," a navy official told Reuters. He declined to give any details.
The "Wild Boars" soccer team and their coach got trapped on June 23 when they set out to explore the vast cave complex after soccer practice, when a rainy season downpour drenched the area and flooded the tunnels.
British divers found the 13, huddled on a muddy bank in a partly flooded chamber several kilometres inside the complex, on Monday last week.
The first four boys were brought out on Sunday and were in good condition in hospital, officials said. There was no immediate word on the condition of the fifth boy.
The dangerous bid to rescue the boys - aged between 11 and 16 - got going again hours earlier on Monday after a break to replenish oxygen supplies and make other preparations deep inside the cave complex in northern Thailand's Chiang Rai province.
Authorities have said the mission could take three or four days to complete. It is a race against the clock with heavy rain expected in coming days, which would again dangerously flood the tunnels.
The chief of the rescue mission, Narongsak Osottanakorn, earlier told a news conference a team had gone into the cave to rescue the remaining boys at 11 a.m. (0400 GMT), and he expected good news soon.
Thirteen foreign divers and five members of Thailand's elite navy SEAL unit make up the main team guiding the boys to safety through narrow, submerged passageways that claimed the life of a former Thai navy diver on Friday.
Narongsak said that the "same multinational team" that went into the cave on Sunday to retrieve the first four boys was deployed on Monday.
He did not say how many boys the team hoped to bring out on Monday.
On Sunday, divers held the first four boys close to bring them out, and each had to wear an oxygen mask to enable normal breathing, authorities said.
Interior Minister Anupong Paochinda told reporters the four rescued boys rescued on Sunday were in good health in hospital but did not give details.
courtesy : ndtv.com
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Why remove Mahatma Gandhi's name, asks Priyanka on move to replace MGNREGA
New Delhi (PTI): Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Monday slammed the government over its move to change the name of MGNREGA, asking what is the government's intention behind removing the name of Mahatma Gandhi who is the tallest leader not just in India but in the world.
A bill to repeal the MGNREGA and bring a new law for rural employment -- Viksit Bharat Guarantee for Rozgar and Ajeevika Mission (Gramin) (VB-G RAM G) Bill, 2025 -- is set to be introduced in the Lok Sabha. According to a copy of the bill, it seeks to introduce the VB-G RAM G Bill, 2025, in Parliament and repeal the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) of 2005.
Asked about the government's move, Priyanka Gandhi said, "Whenever the name of a scheme is changed there are so many changes that have to be made in offices, stationery... for which money is spent. So, what is the benefit, why it is being done?"
"Why is Mahatma Gandhi's name being removed. Mahatma Gandhi is considered the tallest leader not just in the country but in the world, so removing his name, I really don't understand what is the objective? What is their intention?" she told reporters in Parliament House complex.
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"Even when we are debating it is on other issues not the real issues of the people. Time is being wasted, money is being wasted, they are disrupting themselves," Priyanka Gandhi added.
The bill aims at establishing a "rural development framework aligned with the national vision of Viksit Bharat 2047", by providing a statutory guarantee of 125 days of wage employment in every financial year to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to undertake unskilled manual work.
The bill has been listed in the Lok Sabha in the supplementary list of business issued on Monday.
Rural Development Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan, in the statement of purpose of the Bill, said MGNREGA has provided guaranteed wage-employment to rural households over the past 20 years.
However, "further strengthening has become necessary in view of the significant socio-economic transformation witnessed in the rural landscape driven by widespread coverage of the social security interventions and saturation-oriented implementation of major government schemes", he said.
#WATCH | दिल्ली: कांग्रेस सांसद प्रियंका गांधी वाड्रा ने MGNREGA का नाम बदले जाने पर कहा, "...वे महात्मा गांधी का नाम क्यों हटा रहे हैं? वे इस देश के, इतिहास के और दुनिया के सबसे बड़े नेता माने जाते हैं। मुझे समझ नहीं आ रहा इसके पीछे इनकी(सरकार की) मंशा क्या है? सदन चल नहीं रहा।… pic.twitter.com/gp5wNLllDu
— ANI_HindiNews (@AHindinews) December 15, 2025
