Page 992 - Disaster Accident
Citizens can trust food they get: FSSAI on CAG report
Food safety regulator FSSAI today assured citizens that they can trust food they get, a day after government auditor CAG pulled up the sectoral watchdog over licensing process and poor testing labs. Responding to the CAG's audit finding, the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) said it is committed to raise the bar of food safety and hygiene for which it is investing Rs 480 crore to modernise state food testing labs. FSSAI CEO Pawan Agarwal said the regulator has requested the government to recruit 600 people in the central authority to help meet manpower shortage and discharge its function of framing standards as well as ensuring compliances. He said the regulator is reviewing the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006 and will make recommendation to the health ministry in the next 3-4 months. "We assure citizens that they can trust food they get. The FSSAI is confident that the country's food safety ecosystem is well on the way to become more robust and ...
Global disaster costs soar in 2017: Swiss Re
Total economic losses from natural and man-made disasters have soared by 63 per cent to strike an estimated USD 306 billion in 2017, reinsurance firm Swiss Re said today. "The US was hardest hit, including by hurricanes Harvey, Irma and Maria, which have made 2017 the second costliest hurricane season" after 2005, the company said. Despite the rising financial cost of disasters in 2017, the cost in terms of lives held steady. "Globally, more than 11,000 people have died or gone missing in disaster events in 2017, similar to 2016," Swiss Re said. Its preliminary estimates for the amount of insured losses from natural and man-made disasters around the world is approximately USD 136 billion. This is "well-above the annual average of the previous 10 years, and the third highest since... records began in 1970," Swiss Re. The reinsurance firm -- which provides insurance to insurance firms -- said that insured losses from disasters have exceeded USD 100 billion in several ...
Nestle India, NASVI, GoI team up to raise food safety awareness
Nestle India, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries and the National Association of Street Vendors of India (NASVI) on Wednesday collaborated to raise awareness on food safety practices and hygiene in the national capital.As a part of implementation of 'Swachhta Action Plan', for the year 2017-18, the Ministry of Food Processing Industries jointly with Nestle India and NASVI will organise training for 500 street food vendors in New Delhi to generate awareness on food quality and safety.Recognising the challenge of lack of knowledge and skills in business, limited training opportunities and restricted mobility, the ministry has launched 'Project Serve Safe Food' to train street food vendors on health, hygiene, safe food handling, waste disposal and entrepreneurship.The programme has been rolled out in a phased manner by Nestle India with the first leg being launched in Goa in November 2016 followed by Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Kerala conducting training programmes for over 4000
Army pays tribute to soldiers killed in avalanche
The Army today paid tributes to two soldiers who died in an avalanche along the Line of Control in Kashmir's Gurez sector. Lance Naik Marigendra Nath Pramanik and Sepoy Shiv Singh were part of an operational team which was serving in the formidable heights along the LoC and got swept away during a snow slide, along with another soldier, on December 11. Their bodies were found on December 18. General officer Commanding of Chinar Corps Lt Gen J S Sandhu and all ranks paid homage to the soldiers in a solemn ceremony at BB Cantonment here, an army official said. "In a show of solidarity, officials and representatives from the civil administration and other security agencies also joined in paying their last respects to the martyrs," he said. The bodies were recovered due to the efforts of the specially equipped Avalanche Rescue Teams who were working in inhospitable conditions, he said. Pramanik, 32, had joined the Army in 2003 and hailed from village Kumar Chak in Purva ...
3 killed, 7 injured as SUV collides with car after tyre burst
Three persons were killed and seven others injured in a mishap involving two vehicles near Khalapur toll plaza on the Mumbai-Pune Expressway this morning, police said. The mishap occurred around 10 am when a group of youth was heading towards Adlabs Imagica, a popular amusement park in Khopoli in their private SUV, an official said. According to police, the accident took place after a tyre of the SUV burst and the vehicle flipped over to the other side of the road, where it collided with a car. "One of the tyres of the speeding SUV burst before the toll plaza, due to which the vehicle flipped over twice and landed on the other side of the Expressway before colliding with a car going towards Mumbai," he said. Asmit Tawade (19) and Shubham Borhade (19), who were in the SUV and Anant Narendra Parekh (55), who was driving the other vehicle died in this accident, whereas seven others occupants of the SUV suffered serious injuries, he added. All the injured were taken to a ...
'Post 80s reforms, extreme inequality India; not so in China'
Post the 1980s economic reforms in India and China, inequality rose to extreme level here but only moderately in China as it invested more in education, health and infrastructure for the bottom 50 per cent of its population, general coordinator of a global report on inequality, Lucas Chancel said today. He said the fact that inequality trends vary so greatly among countries, even when they share similar levels of development, highlights the important role of national policies in shaping inequality. He also noted that the challenge for India is how to share growth without destroying its environment. According to the 'World Inequality Report 2018', inequality rose substantially in India following profound transformation in the economy that centred on the implementation of deregulation and opening-up reforms. "Post 1980s, inequality has risen in China and India. Inequality rose to extreme level in India and moderate level in China as China invested more in education, health
Japan bullet train crack could have caused disaster
The discovery of a 16cm long crack in a Japanese bullet train coach could have led to a major accident, a West Japan Railway official said on Wednesday.
CIL looking to buy stakes in overseas coking coal mines
The government today said state-owned Coal India is hunting potential avenues for buying stakes in coking coal blocks overseas. In a written reply to Lok Sabha, Coal Minister Piyush Goyal said, "CIL (Coal India) is pursuing available opportunities for buying equity stakes in coking coal mines abroad." He said though the CIL Board had last year advised the company to explore the opportunities of acquiring coal assets overseas, very few prospective blocks in foreign nations have come up for sale. Coking coal is used mainly in steel-making. Stating that the entire demand of coking coal is not met indigenously, Goyal said Indian consumers import metallurgical coal mainly from Australia. Six coking coal mines are going to be auctioned, he said. During April-September of the ongoing fiscal, 22.6 million tonne (MT) (provisional) of coking coal was imported. While in the last fiscal, 41.6 MT coking coal was imported, in 2015-16, the import was 43.5 MT.
UP: Couple dies in road accident
A couple here died in a road accident, while nearly half-a-dozen people were injured in another, police said today. Aslam and Saima, both in their 20s, were travelling with their child on the Bhitaria-Haidargarh road when the motorcycle they were travelling on was hit by a truck, In- charge, Ram Sanehi Ghat police station, Brijesh Kumar Singh said. "Both were admitted in the community health centre, where Saima was declared dead, and Aslam succumbed to his injuries while he was going to the trauma centre, Lucknow. The motorcyclist was not wearing a helmet," he said. The three-month-old child was also injured, and he was handed over to the family members, police said. In the second accident, which took place at Safdarganj (on Lucknow-Faizabad road), the driver of a speeding car in order to save a moped rider lost balance and the passengers were injured. Singh said that police along with local people helped the injured persons to get admitted at the district hospital. "Two
Gurez avalanche: Body of third missing soldier recovered
The body of a soldier, who went missing after an avalanche hit Gurez region of Bandipora on December 10, was recovered on Wednesday.The army soldier has been identified as rifleman Moorty.Earlier on Monday, the Indian Army had recovered bodies of two other soldiers. A total of three soldiers had gone missing during the avalanche.They belonged to Army's 36 Rashtriya Rifles (RR) Unit, stationed at Baktore area of Gurez.The Indian Army had deployed specially trained teams of its high altitude warfare school (HAWS) to recover the bodies of the missing soldiers.
Mexico bus crash kills 12 tourists including foreigners
A bus carrying tourists from US cruise ships to an archeological site in Mexico crashed after running off the road, killing at least 12 people including several foreigners, state authorities said. The crash, which left another 18 injured, happened on a highway in the state of Quintana Roo, located on the eastern tip of the Yucatan Peninsula and well known as home to the Caribbean resort city of Cancun. The dead and injured included "citizens of the United States, Sweden and Brazil," a brief statement said without further information on numbers from each country, or their ages. The bus was carrying 31 passengers on a straight stretch of road with little traffic. The cause of the accident was not immediately known. Twenty-three of the passengers had arrived on the ships Celebrity Equinox and Serenade of the Seas, cruise owner Royal Caribbean Cruises told AFP. Mexican authorities said that they did not have further details of the nationalities of those killed. A civil ...
Mexico: 12 dead, 18 injured in bus crash
At least 12 people died and 18 got injured after a bus carrying cruise ship passengers in eastern Mexico crashed and flipped on a highway.According to the local media reports, at least seven are American among several injured.However, authorities have not disclosed the nationalities of those dead."We express our condolences to all those affected by this tragedy," a spokesman for the U.S. Embassy said on the crash. "We are in contact with local authorities and are working with them to determine if there were U.S. citizens on board. We will continue to monitor the situation."The injured were rushed to the hospitals in Bacalar and Chetumal.United States Department of State spokesperson Heather Nauert said that representatives from the U.S. mission in Mexico are reaching the spot to assist the US citizens involved."We know that lots of families and individuals are traveling this time of year," she said. "We're working with local authorities."Further details are awaited.
12 reported dead as foreign tourist bus crashes in Mexico
At least 12 people died when a bus carrying cruise ship passengers to Mayan ruins in eastern Mexico flipped over on a highway early today, officials said. Seven Americans and two citizens of Sweden are among the injured, according to Quintana Roo state Civil Defense spokesman Vicente Martin, who said authorities haven't yet established the nationalities of the dead. Video images from the scene showed the bus on its side in vegetation off the two-lane highway, with some survivors lying on the pavement while others walked around. Martin said the crash occurred as the bus was on its way to the ruins at Chacchoben, about 110 miles (175 kilometers) south of Tulum. The cause of the accident was under investigation. Costa Maya Mahahual, the bus company involved, said in a statement that the bus was carrying tourists who had arrived to the coastal town of Mahahual aboard a cruise ship. In addition to the tourists, a guide and driver were aboard the bus, the company said.
8-year-old dies on the way to school as truck hits scooter
An eight-year-old girl died and her mother and elder sister were injured after a truck hit the two-wheeler they were riding on the Chilkanagar main road here, police said. The incident took place around 8.30 am. Shobha Rani was taking her two daughters to school when the truck hit her scooter from behind, police said. All three fell on the road, said an official attached to the Uppal police station. A passer-by took them to a nearby hospital where the doctors declared the younger of two girls, a class III student, as dead on arrival. The mother and the elder daughter were undergoing treatment, the official said. Police detained the truck driver, he added. Meanwhile, reacting to reports that potholes on the road caused the accident, Hyderabad municipal commissioner B Janardhan Reddy said the road was "perfectly motorable".
CAG slams FSSAI over lapses in enforcing food safety
The Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) has come down heavily on the Union Health Ministry and its body FSSAI for not framing regulations governing various procedures, guidelines and mechanisms in line with the provisions of the Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006.
Not allowed to board aircraft, alleges wheelchair bound
A wheelchair-bound passenger today alleged he was not allowed to board an Air India flight from Bengaluru to Kolkata on December 17 as he had declined to "remove wires" from the battery of his wheelchair. Kaushik Majumdar, an Associate Professor at Indian Statistical Institute (ISI), told PTI here that the battery is disconnected every time the wheelchair is loaded in the aircraft and this time too he disconnected it. "Some weird staff, however, insisted on removing all the wires from the battery, which would have completely ruined the equipment, on which I depend," he said, adding, he declined to do so. Majumdar said he never faced this type of a "weird" situation since he started travelling by Air India after joining the ISI as a faculty member in 2009. "My electric wheelchair is always loaded in the cargo hold and this time too it was to be loaded there.I never asked for its loading inside the passenger area," he said. In all airlines including Air India, disconnecting
HC notice on plea seeking closure of restaurants in CP, Khan Market
The Delhi High Court on Tuesday issued notices to the Central and Delhi governments and police on a petition seeking closure of eateries which are running without fire clearances in the posh Khan Market and Connaught Place area.
Fire breaks out in Delhi godown
Ten people were rescued after a fire broke out in a double-storeyed godown housing transport goods in north Delhi's Sadar Bazar area in the early hours today, an official said. A call was received at 3.17 am today and 15 fire tenders were rushed to the spot, he said, adding that the fire was doused by 5.40 am. The Delhi Fire Services official said 10 people were rescued from the first floor of the godown. He said two dogs that were also trapped in the blaze were rescued. According to the official, no injuries were reported.
Mega mock exercise on earthquake in Haryana on Dec 21
Haryana will conduct its first state-level mega mock exercise on earthquake in all 22 districts on Thursday, the Revenue and Disaster Management Minister, Capt Abhimanyu said today. It comes under the 10-point agenda laid by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for renewing efforts towards disaster risk reduction. Holding a review meeting on mega mock exercise, the minister spoke to all the deputy commissioners of the districts through video conferencing today. He said for the first time in Haryana, a state-level mega mock exercise on earthquake preparedness was being simultaneously conducted in all the districts. The representatives of military, paramilitary forces, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), National Security Guard (NSG), all the departments concerned and other stakeholders would participate in the exercise, he added. He said Haryana is in high risk zone of earthquake due to urbanisation and high rise buildings in National Capital Region (NCR). "The aim of this ..
Delhi Govt seeks report from DMRC on train crash during trial
The Delhi government has sought a report from the DMRC after a train crashed during a trial run on the magenta line that was scheduled to be inaugurated by the prime minister next week. There can be no compromise on passenger safety, Delhi Transport minister Kailash Gahlot said while seeking report from the the Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC). "I have sought a report from DMRC on the derailment of its driverless train during trial run on Kalkaji-botanical Garden. Shocking lapse ! There can be no compromise on passenger safety," Gahlot tweeted. The Delhi metro train crashed into a wall today at the Kalindi Kunj depot while on a trial run, six days before its inauguration by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, an official said. The DMRC official said the metro train was on a trial run on the new magenta line that was to be opened by Modi on December 25. The front portion of the metro train and a stretch of the depot's boundary wall was damaged, the official said. There were .