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policemen killed in Naxalite attacks in Chhattisgarh Raipur:
Twenty-six policemen were killed and over a dozen injured in two Maoist attacks
in Chhattisgarh's Rajnandgaon district on Sunday. District Superintendent of Police
BK Choubey was among the seriously injured and later succumbed to his injuries.
“Six policemen were killed and several injured in an ambush in a thickly forested
stretch of Rajnandgaon district where a reinforcement party is struggling to reach
due to the hilly terrain,” said Girdhari Nayak, Additional Director General of
Police. Nayak said further details was still awaited, as the thickly forested
attack site had no communication link with the rest of the State. Delhi
Metro chief resigns as bridge collapse kills six Top New
Delhi: Delhi Metro Rail Corporation (DMRC) chief E Sreedharan on Sunday resigned
over the bridge collapse incident in the Lajpat Nagar area of South Delhi which
killed six persons, including an engineer, and left 15 wounded, five of them seriously.
Sreedharan admitted that it was a bigger tragedy than the one which took place
earlier in the Lakshmi Nagar area. He resigned owning up moral responsibility
for the incident. "Somebody has to take technical responsibility, but as head
of the organisation, I resign. I take moral responsibility of the incident," said
Sreedharan at a news conference on Sunday afternoon. Sreedharan informed journalists
that he had sent his resignation to Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit, taking
moral responsibility for the tragic incident. Meanwhile, the Delhi Government
has set up a committee to be headed by AK Nagpal of the Indian Institute of Technology
(IIT) to investigate the mishap. After retiring from the Indian Railways as Member,
Engineering, in 1990, Sreedharan acquired worldwide recognition after supervising
the building of the next to impossible Konkan Railway along India's western coast
in a record time of seven years. Starting out 1990, the project was unique in
many respects. It was the first major project in India to be undertaken on a BOT
(Build-Operate-Transfer) basis; the organisation structure was different from
that of a typical Indian Railway set-up; the project had 93 tunnels along a length
of 82 km and involved tunneling through soft soil. The total project covered 760
km and had over 150 bridges. That a public sector project could be completed without
significant cost and time overruns was considered an achievement by many. He was
made the managing director of Delhi Metro and by mid-2005, all the scheduled sections
were completed by their target date or before and within their respective budgets.
Sreedharan was given the sobriquet of Metro Man by the media. In 2005, he was
awarded the Chevalier de la Legion d'Honneur (Knight of the Legion of Honour)
by the French government. He had announced that he would retire by the end of
2005, but his tenure was extended by another three years to oversee the completion
of the second phase of Delhi Metro. Recently he was invited by Pakistan to assess
development of the Lahore Metro plan. He was also called by the UAE govt in 2005
to Head the Dubai Metro Project, he however rejected their offer, because of his
preoccupation with DMRC. In 2008, E Sreedharan was conferred upon Padma Vibhushan,
the second highest civilian award, by the Government. In 2001, he received the
Padma Shri award. Earlier, Sreedharan
had said that he would take stock of the situation arising out of the bridge collapse,
and then decide what action was to be taken against the project contractor, Gammon
India . Sreedharan's comments came soon after he received a report that at least
five people had been killed and 20 injured when an under-construction bridge of
the Delhi Metro collapsed in Lajpat Nagar in South Delhi. The injured are being
treated at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS). Delhi police has
been recording the statements of the people who were trapped and the witnesses
at the site of the mishap, and police sources said that if there is evidence to
indicate that despite the fault in existing construction, it was carried forward,
then a case of culpable homicide will be registered. Delhi Metro spokesperson
Anuj Dayal said, "it was a structural collapse and we are investigating the matter."
The under-construction bridge fell on a water pipeline which led to some flooding
in the area. An eyewitness said 20-25 labourers were working on the site. The
under-construction bridge fell on a water pipeline, which led to flooding in the
area, hampering rescue work. CPM
leader Jyoti Basu admitted to hospital Top Kolkata:
Senior Marxist leader and former Chief Minister of West Bengal Jyoti Basu
was admitted to AMRI Hospital in Salt Lake following a breathing trouble this
morning. Basu turned 96, on July 8, and many followers greeted him at his residence
Indira Bhavan on that day. According to Basu's son Chandan Basu, the former Chief
Minister was admitted following restlessness and his condition has improved. Basu
was being treated in the hospital's ICCU, sources said. Lahore
police claims arresting RAW agent Top Lahore:
The Lahore Police has claimed arresting an agent of the Research and Analysis
Wing (RAW), India's premier secret services organization. Lahore Police officials
said they have arrested a man, Nazir Hussain, who was trying to smuggle Pakistan-made
weapons to India. Officials claimed that Hussain, who belongs to the Mendhar Poonch
region of Jammu and Kashmir, has confessed to his crime and told the investigators
that he and his other two associates Muhammad Sharif and Hussain were working
for RAW. Hussain reportedly said that he had crossed the Line of Control (LoC)
15 times earlier, and an Indian Army official, named Prithvi, gave him the money
to smuggle the arms and ammunitions to India. A case under Section 121-A of the
Pakistan Penal Code (PPC) and Section 14 of the Foreigners Act has been registered
against Hussain, The Daily Times reports. French
fashion tycoon to buy Jackson's Neverland ranch Top London:
French fashion tycoon Christian Audigier is set to buy Michael Jackson's Neverland
home. "I have decided to buy that house," the Mirror quoted him as telling French
TV. The designer is also planning to build a theme complex dedicated to the icon
similar to Elvis Presley's Graceland. He may also offer online tours for fans
to the ranch that Jackson turned into a personal theme park. Colony Capital who
had purchased the California ranch in 2008 for 20million-pound is keen to sell
it after the legend's demise. Neverland is now worth an estimated 60-million-pound.
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