Page 792 - Disaster Accident
Gangwar vows security of jobs, wages for workers
Labour Minister Santosh Kumar Gangwar today said his ministry is committed to securing workers' jobs and wages besides providing them safety and good health. Moreover, the labour ministry has taken steps for simplification, amalgamation and rationalisation of Central Labour Laws, he said. He was speaking at a function to give away the National Safety Council's Safety Awards for 2017. Gangwar said the government is following the approach of Reform to Transform' through far-reaching structural reforms. Altogether 70 organisations were pronounced as winners of the awards in four categories Sarva Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar, Shreshtha Suraksha Puraskar, Suraksha Puraskar and Prashansa Patra. Besides, 12 client organisations from construction sector were also awarded. These awards are adjudged and declared every year by National Safety Council, India (NSCI), an autonomous society set up by Ministry of Labour & Employment. The awards are given in recognition for effective safety ...
Fracking may have caused rare South Korea quake: study
Fracking may have induced a rare strong earthquake last year in South Korea, a study said today, a potential "game changer" for the contentious practice of pumping water into the ground to extract energy. The 5.5 magnitude quake on November 15 injured scores in the South Korea port city of Pohang and caused major damage. It was one of the largest on record to rattle the Korean peninsula, where significant natural seismic activity is unusual. The quake struck at a shallow depth and in close proximity to a geothermal energy site. Workers at the site had been injecting high pressure water underground in the months before the quake, prompting scientists to speculate human intervention may have caused the tremors. Using seismic data, the study from experts from across Europe concluded that the shallow depth of the quake pointed to the activity at the site as the potential cause. "According to our analysis it seems plausible that the occurrence of this earthquake was influenced by these ...
USDMA to train locals in rescue operations
Uttarakhand State Disaster Management Authority (USDMA) has prepared a detailed action plan to train local Yuvak and Mahila Mangal Dals in search and rescue operations and equip them to deal with calamities. The plan has been drawn up in view of the fact that it is the locals who launchinitial search and rescue operations in the affected areas in case of a disaster but fail to do much due to lack of proper training and equipment, a USDMA press release here said. This is the further extension of a programme already being conducted by the USDMA under which it has imparted training in search and rescue operations to 15,300 local people in 612 nyay panchayats of the state, the release said. Thelocal Yuvak and Mahila Mangal Dals will have to undergo training for six days by registered voluntary organisations, it said. Gram pradhans (village heads) have also been asked to co-operate in the exercise by providing the trained groups with necessary technical equipment like loud hailers, ...
DGCA sets up panel to probe Rahul Gandhi plane incident
Aviation regulator DGCA has set up a two-member committee to probe the incident of technical snag in a chartered plane that was carrying Congress President Rahul Gandhi, a senior official said. The incident happened during landing of the flight from New Delhi at Hubballi in north Karnataka on Thursday. Alleging "intentional tampering" with aircraft, the Congress party had yesterday demanded a probe into the "suspicious and faulty performance" of the 10-seater Falcon 2000. "The Directorate General of Civi Aviation (DGCA) has set up a two member panel to investigate the incident. While one member is from the Directorate of Air Safety, the other member is from the Directorate of Airworthiness," a senior DGCA official told PTI. The panel has been asked to submit its report in the next 2-3 weeks, the official added. As part of the probe, the official said the panel would call cockpit crew and also engineers for questioning about the incident. If required, the committee might also call the .
Focus on road safety, not just hefty premiums: Gadkari to insurers
Union Minister Nitin Gadkari today exhorted insurance companies to shun "hypocrisy", asking them to focus on road safety initiatives and not just keep thriving on hefty premiums. "I am unhappy with insurance companies....they charge hefty premiums but make no contribution to road safety ...Automobile manufactures have huge profit margins...I don't buy this hypocrisy," the minister said at an event here. Insurance companies all over the world whether in the US, UK or Europe, contribute significantly towards road safety programme but their approach in India is callous, the minister said. If there are less accidents, the biggest beneficiaries will be insurers but they don't contribute in this area which is not good, he said adding the ministry had approached insurers to join hands in this regard but they failed to even respond. An official told PTI that only after several reminders GIC agreed to take up the issue seriously. Gadkari said India unfortunately accounted for maximum global ...
Seven killed in Cape Town train crash
Seven people were killed in South Africa today when a train ploughed into a pickup truck at a crossing where 10 children were killed in a similar accident in 2010, officials said. The seven victims, all men in their 30s, were reportedly travelling to work when their truck was struck by the train shortly before dawn in Blackheath on the outskirts of Cape Town. "It was human error," Metrorail spokeswoman Zino Mihi said. "The booms were down, so it was not their turn to go. People on the scene told us a taxi initially passed through and the bakkie (truck) also tried its luck." The Toyota Hilux vehicle was left a mangled wreck on the rail tracks after the accident. After the 2010 accident, the driver of a minibus carrying children was convicted of 10 counts of culpable homicide.
Trump admin ends special protections for 9,000 Nepalese immigrants
The Trump administration has decided to terminate the temporary protection status for nearly 9,000 Nepalese immigrants with authorities asking them to leave or find another way to stay in the US to allow for an orderly transition. Temporary Protected Status (TPS) is a designation afforded to nationals of countries experiencing humanitarian crisis such as violent conflict, environmental disasters, earthquake or epidemics that would prevent nationals from returning safely. This decision affects 8,950 people, 85 per cent of whom live in New York. All of these people from Nepal would have to go back to Nepal or face deportation. However, to allow for an orderly transition, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M Nielsen has determined to delay the termination for 12 months. The designation will now terminate on June 24, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security said. The decision to terminate TPS for Nepal was made after a review of the environmental disaster-related conditions upon ...
Fire breaks out in Ludhiana hosiery factory
A fire broke out at a hosiery factory on Bahadur Ke Road here, but the 12 workers who were inside the facility managed to escape, the police said today. However, a boy, Surinder Kumar, who was sitting outside the premises of the factory, has told the police that his father Ram Ashish, who was on night duty, was missing. Police Commissioner S S Gill said, "We are considering the boy's complaint very seriously." Smoke was noticed emanating from the factory past last midnight, and then fire engulfed the two-storeyed building. According to police, 12 workers were inside the unit when the fire broke out, and all of them managed to come out of the factory. Twelve fire tenders of the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation were pressed into service to douse the flames, a fire department official said. Additional Fire Officer of Ludhiana Municipal Corporation, Bhupinder Singh Sandhu said the cause of the fire was yet to be ascertained, but it was believed to have been caused by an electric short ...
4 killed in two road accidents in UP
Four people, including a woman, were killed in two separate road accidents in this district, the police said today. Viresh Chandra Verma (28) and Lalcharan Yadav (30), who worked as guards in a residential building, were returning home after duty last night when their motorcycle was hit by a heavy vehicle on the Lucknow-Faizabad national highway near Sandauli turn, killing them on the spot, the police said. In another incident, Milki Ram (50) and his sister-in-law Hemlata (62) were killed when their motorcycle lost balance and fell in front of a tractor-trolley while trying to overtake it near Imlipur village under Mohammadpur Khala police station last night, police said. The bodies have been sent for post-mortem, they said.
Major fire breaks out in Ludhiana factory, 100 fire tenders used
The fire fighting operations are still underway to douse the fire which had broken out in a garment factory at Bahadur Ke Road in Punjab's Ludhiana in the wee hours of Friday morning.So far, at least 100 fire tenders have been used since morning to douse the fire.Information of a fire at a hosiery factory here in Bahadur Ke Road was received around 1:40 am, after which fire officials rushed to the spot."We received the information at around 1:40 am, after which seven tenders were rushed to the spot. The tenders have been refilled two to three times already, but we have not been able to douse the flame yet," Srishtinath Sharma, an official from the Ludhiana Municipal Corporation fire brigade told ANI.The cause of the blaze is yet to be ascertained.Further details are awaited.
US to end special protections for 9,000 Nepalese immigrants
The Trump administration will end special protections for an estimated 9,000 Nepalese immigrants living in the United States, giving them until June 24, 2019, to leave or find another way to stay in the country, the Department of Homeland Security said today. They were granted that status during the Obama administration after an April 2015 earthquake killed more than 8,000 people in Nepal, and it was extended for 18 months in October 2016. But DHS said that after a review of conditions in the country, Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen concluded the protections were no longer warranted. The "disruption of living conditions in Nepal from the April 2015 earthquake and subsequent aftershocks that served as the basis for its TPS designation have decreased to a degree that they should no longer be regarded as substantial," DHS said. The US created Temporary Protected Status in 1990 to provide a safe haven for citizens of countries affected by war and natural disasters such as earthquakes, floods ..
Nine Israeli youths killed after caught in flash flood
Nine Israeli youths were announced dead on Thursday evening after they were swept away in a flash flood in the Negev Desert in southern Israel, the police said.
Explosion rocks Wisconsin oil refinery, casualties reported
An explosion broke out at an oil refinery in the US state of Wisconsin on Thursday, which resulted in at least multiple casualties, the media reported.
Trump administration terminates temporary protection status for Nepalese people
The Trump Administration today announced that it was terminating temporary protection status (TPS) for people from Nepal. Temporary Protected Status or TPS is a designation afforded to nationals of countries experiencing humanitarian crisis such as violent conflict, environmental disasters, earthquake or epidemics that would prevent nationals from returning safely. This decision affects 8,950 people, 85 per cent of whom live New York. All of these people from Nepal, would have to go back to Nepal or face deportation. However, to allow for an orderly transition, Secretary of Homeland Security Kirstjen M Nielsen has determined to delay the termination for 12 months. The designation will now terminate on June 24, 2019, the Department of Homeland Security said. The decision to terminate TPS for Nepal was made after a review of the environmental disaster-related conditions upon which the country's original designation was based and an assessment of whether those originating conditions ...
Explosion rocks Wisconsin refinery, at least 5 hurt
An explosion rocked a large refinery in Wisconsin today, injuring several people, a fire official said. The blast at the Husky Energy oil refinery happened at about 10 a.m. Five people were taken to hospitals in Duluth, Minnesota, Superior Fire Chief Steve Panger told The Associated Press. He doesn't know the extent of their injuries. Others were walking wounded. There were no known fatalities. A contractor who was inside the building told WDIO television that the explosion sounded like "a sonic boom" and that it happened when crews were working on shutting the plant down for repairs. Panger said the fire was out by 11:20 am. He said a small tank exploded, and the product was either crude oil or asphalt. Superior police are advising people to stay away from the area and roads around the refinery have been blocked off. There have been no neighbourhood evacuations. Superior is a city of about 27,000 people that borders Minnesota to the north and the tip of Lake Superior. No damage ...
Progress in eliminating UMLCs will be shared on website to increase accountability: Rail Ministry
Hours after 13 children died in an accident at an unmanned level crossing in Uttar Pradesh today, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal held a review meeting in which it was decided that the progress in eliminating such crossings will be shared on a website to increase accountability, a statement from the ministry said. During the meeting, Goyal reviewed the plan for elimination of unmanned level crossings across the railway network. "A detailed review was done with the GMs of five critical zones with significant number of UMLCs... Progress of elimination of UMLCs will also be shared transparently online through a website to increase accountability and public monitoring," the statement read. It said that Goyal, after taking charge as railway minister, had held a meeting on safety on September 7, 2017 and had directed that all unmanned level crossings (UMLCs) be eliminated in the next one year in a mission mode. The ministry said that significant progress had been achieved in this regard with .
Vistara gets IATA membership
Full service passenger carrier Vistara on Thursday said that it has received the membership of the International Air Transport Association (IATA).
UP Min lambasts Oppn for politicising Kushinagar accident
In the wake of the Kushinagar accident, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader and Uttar Pradesh Minister Shrikant Sharma, on Thursday, lamented the politicising of the issue."It is unfortunate that people are politicising it. The accident is very unfortunate but what's worse is that attempts were made to block the CM's path when he went there and slogans were raised by SP-BSP," said Sharma."The CM went to the spot and the hospital. He told people of SP-BSP to not politicise matter. It's being taken in a different way. CM's intentions were clear. He had left all his work to go to accident spot," he added.Earlier in the day, a school bus and a train collided at an unmanned crossing, resulting in the death of 13 students while many were left injured.The school bus ferrying 20 children belonged to Divine Public School.It was later revealed that the bus driver had earphones plugged in while driving the vehicle, thus could not hear the sound of the train, hence failing to prevent the ...
Goyal holds meet on eliminating unmanned railway crossings
After 13 students under 10 years were killed when a speeding train rammed into their school van at an unmanned rail crossing in Uttar Pradesh, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal held a high level meeting to discuss a mission mode plan to eliminate unmanned railway crossings across the vast railway network.
We urged driver uncle to stop but he was busy on phone, says boy who survived school van-train collision
The school children travelling in a van that crashed into a speeding train here today, leading to the death of 13 of them, had repeatedly shouted asking the driver of their vehicle to stop but the man did not listen as he was busy on the phone, a nine-year-old, who survived the accident said. "We kept shouting urging uncle (driver) to stop, but he did not do so, as he was very busy on phone and was unable to listen us," Krishna Verma said. Verma received a leg injury, but was still was lucky enough to survive the deadly collision which many of his friends did not. His sister Roshni too is in a critical condition. Both of them are admitted in BRD Medical Vollege, Gorakhpur. "Krishna had got leg injury and is out of danger, but the other three children received head injury and are in critical condition," Dr Ganesh Kumar, principal of BRD Medical College said. Kumar said that even the driver had received multiple fractures as well as a head injury. His condition is very critical, he ...