Lucknow KGM University ransacked

    Lucknow: Students of King George Medical University in Lucknow went on the rampage alleging that the death of a fellow student after an accident on Wednesday night happened due to medical negligence of the college authorities. Soon after the news of his death spread, hundreds of students went on the rampage in the campus torching and damaging vehicles and medical equipment in the trauma centre. College records over 100-year-old were burnt in the violence. The registrar's room, a conference room, computer laboratory and parts of the dental block were also damaged. Several important files and documents were destroyed. Also, parts of the main administrative building were burnt and destroyed in this violent protest.

   They were demanding compensation to the family of the victim. According to reports the victim Deepak Agarwal, a second year MBBS student at KGMU was fatally injured on the head after falling into a duct around noon on Wednesday. The incident occurred during a rehearsal for a show for concluding function of the KGMU centenary celebrations. Deepak was taken to the trauma centre of KGMU but due to malfunctioning of a ventilator, he was than shifted to a nearby private hospital. He died 12 hours later. The students alleged that Agarwal was not provided timely medical treatment as well as there was non-availability of ventilators at the trauma centre following which he died. "No one thought that they should disrupt the function mid-way and help the student and provide him with medical aid. No one wanted to move from there as the media was there," said a student. They were also demanding compensation to the family of the victim.

   However, KGMU Vice-Chancellor Mahendra Bhandari rejected the allegation of negligence and said, ''As we were still to install ultra modern medical facilities in our hospital, the injured student was shifted to a well-known private nursing home.'' "It was an accident and we are shocked and grieved. We tried our level best to save the boy," Assistant Registrar Fazili Ahmed said. The VC also termed the agitation by the students as an effort to give a bad name to the university which was celebrating its 100th year of foundation at present. He also assured the students that every effort would be made to provide adequate compensation. "Security personal including Rapid Action Force in adequate number had been deployed in the campus to maintain peace," said a senior police officer.

'Hazardous' Clemenceau warship stops at Suez (Go To Top)

    Cairo (Egypt): The cotroversial asbestos-laden Clemenceau warship of France today came to a grinding halt near Suez Canal in Egypt. The Egyptian authorities have asked the officials boarding the ship to provide the required papers to show that it does not violate the provisions of the Basel Convention. Clemenceau, a 24 000 tonne aircraft carrier decommissioned by the French Government is en route to Alang shipyard in Gujarat (INDIA) where it is to be dismantled. There is a wide opposition against the decision to scrap Clemenceau at Alang because of the ship being insulated with 45 tonnes of asbestos , a known cancer causing agent. Greece and Italy have already rejected the ship to reach its scrapping shipyard. Egypt being member nation of the Basel convention comes under the provision of not allowing any trans-national movement of hazardous waste.

   Earlier, two Greenpeace activists one French and other Danish boarded Clemenceau off the coast of Egypt. The Greenpeace activists are protesting against Clemenceau's arrival in India citing that the labourers at the Alang shipyard are not equipped properly to handle carcinogenic asbestos. The Supreme Court Monitoring Committee (SCMC) on Hazardous Waste Management earlier had said the decommissioned French ship carrying hazardous wastes would not be allowed in Indian waters and to remain 200 nautical miles from the coast of India. The chairman of the SCMC G. Thyagrajan had called that allowing the ship to India would be violations pertaining to Basel Convention. The French Government had earlier argued that in no way Clemenceau's arrival to India would mean violating Basel Convention since it is a warship and the treaty does not cover them and secondly the percentage of asbestos in them is merely 0.02 percent. The Basel Convention, adopted by the diplomatic conference in Basel in 1989 under the auspices of the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) and entered into force in May 1997 seeks to reduce trans-boundary movement of hazardous wastes. It also seeks to prohibit shipments of hazardous wastes to countries lacking the legal administrative and technical capacity to manage and dispose of them in an environmentally sound- manner.

PM may go to Pakistan to watch cricket (Go To Top)

    Karachi: Board of Control for Cricket in India (BCCI) President Sharad Pawar said on Thursday that Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's chances of visiting Pakistan to watch the Indo-Pakistan one-day series is still alive. Pawar told reporters at the Quaid-e-Azam International Airport on his arrival in Karachi to attend the International Cricket Council (ICC) meeting that the matter of Manmohan Singh and Sonia Gandhi's Pakistan visit to watch cricket was not discussed during a recent cabinet meeting. He, however,said that the possibility of the Indian Prime Minister visiting the country was not ruled out as yet. According to The News, the BCCI chief said Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf had visited India last year during cricket series, so Manmohan Singh's visit would not only benefit the cricket but also improve other bilateral matters.

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