Election Commissioner Arun Goel Resigns Ahead of LS Polls

Mumbai, Dec 19 (IANS) The search and rescue operations resumed on Thursday morning to trace out at least two tourists still ‘missing’ after an Indian Navy speedboat crashed into a passenger ferry off the Gateway of India in the Arabian Sea on Wednesday evening claiming 13 lives, including that of four naval personnel, officials said.

In one of the worst-ever maritime disasters around Mumbai, 13 people were killed while another 105 were rescued when the chockful ferry, ‘Neelkamal’ was going from Gateway of India to Elephanta Isles, the famed UNESCO World Heritage site and was hit by the Navy speedboat.

An official said that the Indian Navy, Marine Police and other agencies have deployed their vessels to search for the two persons who were thrown into the waters after the deadly collision in mid-sea, around 5 kms from the Gateway of India, in the water channel near the tiny Butcher Island oil terminal.

The Indian Navy officially said that one of its speedboats which was on engine trials developed a snag, the pilot lost control and rammed with full force into the tourist boat, as chilling videos of the incident surfaced late last night.

The passenger boat, a private catamaran named ‘Neelkamal’, was ferrying more than 100 tourists plus five crew members when the disaster struck like a bolt from the blue, around 4 P.M.

Official sources said that the Navy’s rigid inflatable boat undergoing engine trials crashed into the ‘Neelkamal’ at high speed, overturning it and throwing most of the tourists into the sea near Karanja on the Raigad coast, around 10 kms from the origin point, Gateway of India.

The owner of the vessel, Rajendra Padte, said that the ‘Neelkamal’ had departed on its regular voyage to Elephanta Islands around 3.15 P.M and barely a couple of minutes later the tragedy was reported, “but it was not our fault”.

Peasants & Workers Party of India (PWP) General Secretary and ex-legislator Jayant P. Patil, who was present at the spot slammed the concerned authorities for the massive tragedy with the ‘Neelkamal’ sinking soon afterwards.

President Droupadi Murmu, Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Defence Minister Rajnath Singh, Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis plus several Opposition leaders condoled the tragedy and the loss of innocent lives.

The PM announced an ex-gratia of Rs 2 lakh and the CM announced a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the kin of each deceased, plus financial assistance to all the injured.

A civic official said that the JNPA Hospital has admitted 57 people, 24 in the Naval Dockyard medical facility, one in INHS Ashvini Hospital, 13 in INHS Sanghani (Karanja), 10 in St. George Hospital, and 12 in a hospital on the mainland at Karanja, plus around 8 who recovered have been discharged from the concerned hospitals.

–IANS

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New Delhi, Dec 14 (IANS) The Day 2 debate on 75 years of the Constitution’s adoption witnessed fresh fireworks in the Lok Sabha, with the Congress and BJP members engaging in fierce verbal exchanges on Saturday.

Following Leader of Opposition (LoP) Rahul Gandhi’s volley of charges, BJP MP Anurag Thakur hit back at the Congress by reminding it of the ‘past misdeeds’ during late Prime Minister Indira Gandhi’s regime.

The BJP MP also taunted LoP Gandhi over flaunting a copy of the Constitution and claimed that the latter himself remains uninformed and clueless about the nitty-gritty of the sacred book.

“There are some who carry the Samvidhaan (Constitution) in their pockets but can’t tell the numbers of pages,” he said in a searing jibe at the LoP.

He said that the Congress makes tall claims about the Constitution and safeguarding its spirit but its own government led by late PM Indira Gandhi murdered democracy by imposing Emergency.

Earlier, LoP Gandhi led the Opposition’s charge in the Lok Sabha, seeking to corner the government on multiple fronts including unemployment, deprivation of backward communities over reservations and more.

Responding to his charges, the BJP lawmaker also cited ‘preface and foreword’ from the Constitution book and said that it was scripted by the most crafted and finest talents of the country and the Congress was trying to demean them.

He said that it was the power of the Constitution that compelled the then PM Indira Gandhi to end the Emergency.

“Congress MP says that the government is fooling the youth and cutting opportunities for them. I want to say that it was the Congress government under which the brutal massacre of the Sikhs took place,” said Thakur, amid desk thumping by the Treasury Benches.

He further asked the Congress members to stop hiding behind the Constitution over its failures and refrain from ‘misguiding and misleading’ the public with its canards and lies.

The debate on 75 years of the adoption of the Constitution will conclude today, with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s statement.

The first day of the debate saw heated exchanges with Wayanad MP Priyanka Gandhi leading the Congress charge and Defence Minister deflating the claims.

The second day of the debate started with Parliamentary Affairs Minister Kiren Rijiju showing the mirror to the Congress, over its claims of championing the spirit of democracy.

–IANS

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Srinagar, Dec 14 (IANS) Former J&K chief minister and Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti said on Saturday that ‘one nation, one election’ would undermine the federal structure of the country.

Talking to reporters here, Mehbooba alleged that the NDA government at the Centre was destroying India’s Constitution day by day.

“India is a federal country, which has a federal structure. By talking of ‘one nation, one election’, you are undermining that federal structure,” she said.

“The NDA government talks of making a Viksit Bharat by 2047, but actually they are taking the country backwards. They talk of 2047, but they are rather moving backwards. After the country became independent, there was ‘one nation, one election’ in the early years. After that, there has been a distribution of power among regions and a federal structure was born. They want to take us back to the same dictatorship, which I think is very wrong,” Mehbooba added.

Addressing the PDP delegates at a meeting earlier on Saturday, Mehbooba Mufti said her party is undergoing a very difficult phase. She assured the party men that the PDP was actually created to face challenges.

She said when her father formed the government with the BJP in 2014 that was for preserving the regional integrity of J&K.

“When I asked my father why he had decided to form a coalition government with the BJP, Mufti Sahib told me… look here, we have just 28 seats, they have 26. If we want to protect the regional integrity of the state, we have to take the BJP along with us,” PDP chief further said.

She added that the PDP’s decision to form government with the BJP was for the larger interest of the people while for petty administrative issues, the present government has been calling on everyone in Delhi.

“We never went to the BJP, they knocked at our door and you must not forget that we had formed the government with the BJP led by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

“Vajpayeeji went to Pakistan, he had talks with the Hurriyat leaders, he was instrumental in improving relations with neighbours,” she said.

She accused the present J&K government of its inability to address basic issues like employment, electric power etc.

“They are busy with petty administrative issues,” she alleged.

–IANS

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