Tag: cases

Patna Waterlogging: Dengue Death Causes Panic, Ink Thrown at Union Minister

Source: newsclick.in

Patna: With the death of a 7-year-old child due to dengue and a BJP MLA testing dengue positive, panic regarding a dengue outbreak among residents of Patna has increased. This is the first reported dengue death following the worst waterlogging incident in Bihar’s capital city after heavy rains.

Abhinav Kumar, son of a Bihar police constable, died in a hospital on Monday (October 14) night. He was suffering from dengue fever for the last few days.

Sanjeev Chourasia, BJP MLA from Digha Assembly seat in Patna, has also been tested dengue positive. Besides, over one dozen police officials are undergoing treatment after being affected by dengue fever.

According to health department officials, dengue has spread to new residential localities in Patna in the last two days as fresh dengue cases are being reported from there. Till Tuesday morning, the number of dengue positive cases in Patna alone stood at 1,195, while the total number of dengue cases reported in the state was over 1,500.

In Patna, more than 80 dengue patients are undergoing treatment in the government-run Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH), Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) and different private hospitals.

The rising number of dengue cases has left the residents of Patna—who were already angry with waterlogging for days—infuriated with the administration and political leaders. On Tuesday, a youth threw ink at Union Minister Aswani Kumar Choubey during his visit to the dengue ward in PMCH. The youth fled from the scene afterwards.

The accused youth has reportedly identified himself as Nishant Kumar Jha, a youth activist of Jan Adhikar Party (JAP). He said that this was his way of protesting against the NDA government in state and at the centre for neglecting waterlogged victims in Patna for days.

Several people have expressed unhappiness by blaming government agencies for negligence and have demanded that urgent steps be taken to ensure regular fogging and spraying of bleaching and lime powder as well as speeding up of the cleanliness drive.

District officials said dengue is spreading fast among the waterlogged victims in the worst waterlogged residential localities here after water receded. Waterlogging is main cause of spread of dengue in the city.

What has become a bigger worry for health officials is that waterlogging still remains a problem in certain residential areas. Health officials said that water logging help these vector-borne diseases to spread faster due to increased mosquito breeding. Another disturbing fact is that not only is dengue spreading, there are also reported cases of chikunguniya, diarrhoea and stomach upset from waterlogged areas.

Patna civil surgeon Dr R K Choudhary said arrangements have been made for dengue test in all primary health centres in view of increasing dengue cases after waterlogging.

According to a top health department officer, measures have been started to prevent an outbreak of diseases and teams of doctors will soon visit affected areas to provide medical treatment if needed.

CBI cracks down on loan defaulters

Source: thehansindia.com

New Delhi : In a possibly the biggest synchronised action against alleged bank loan defaulters, the CBI on Tuesday launched a massive crackdown by carrying out searches at over 61 locations in 18 cities after registering 17 cases involving swindling of funds to the tune of Rs 1,139 crore, officials said.

Over 300 officers drawn from various units of the agency swooped down at over 61 locations and knocked the doors of alleged defaulters on the basis of complaints received from various nationalised banks and inputs developed by the agency under close monitoring of CBI Director Rishi Kumar Shukla and senior officials in Delhi.

The figure, which stood at around Rs 640 crore, swelled to Rs 1,139 crore as the agency continued filing of FIRs during the day and expanding its search operations.
Braving the waterlogged streets of Mumbai due to incessant rains, the agency officials carried out searches at promoters and directors of Winsome Diamonds founded by absconding diamantaire Jatin Mehta who was booked in a fresh FIR registered under this operation.

This was the 16th FIR against Mehta accusing him of allegedly defaulting Rs 202 crore from Exim Bank. He is accused of allegedly swindling funds to the tune of Rs 6,500 crore.

The searches in Mumbai also covered two other firms booked in separate FIRs on a complaint by Union Bank of India.
Five places were searched in connection with Rs 57 crore loss caused to the bank by Supamad Trading Pvt Ltd and one place was searched in connection with Asuti Trading Pvt Ltd for causing loss of Rs 50 crore to the bank.

Two places were searched in Delhi and Mumbai in connection with Asuti Trading. By evening, the agency had already registered 17 FIRs across the country and the process of registering more is going on, they said.

The searches were being conducted in Delhi, Mumbai, Ludhiana, Thane, Valsad, Pune, Palani, Gaya, Gurugram, Chandigarh, Bhopal, Surat and Kolar, among others, the officials said.

Delhi-based SL Consumer Products Ltd has been booked by the CBI for causing loss to Union Bank of India to the tune of Rs 55 crore, Aligarh-based Samprash Foods Ltd for loss Rs 60 crore to Union Bank of India, Chandigarh-based International Mega Food Park Ltd for loss of Rs 40.17 crore to SIDBI, Bhopal-based Ranjeet Automobiles for loss of 34.36 crore to Bank of Baroda, Surat-based Jalpa Textiles Pvt Ltd for loss of Rs 28 crore to Bank of Baroda, they alleged.

Three FIRs pertaining to alleged irregularities in disbursal of housing loans in a Union Bank of India branch in Bhubaneswar were also registered by the agency in which senior bank officials have been named as accused.

The loans resulted in the loss of Rs 24.17 crore to the bank, the officials said, adding that searches were conducted at nine places in Odisha.

509% rise in cases under child labour law: Study by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation

Source: nationalheraldindia.com

There has been a 509% increase in the number of cases registered under the child labour law since 2017, according to a research study on child labour by Kailash Satyarthi Children’s Foundation (KSCF).

KSCF has carried out the study ‘Child labour know more’ with the objective of identifying gaps in the implementation of the Child Labour (Prohibition and Regulation) Act 1986 and strengthening national efforts towards elimination of all forms of child labour by the year 2025 as per the UN Sustainable Development Goals, a press release said.

“Since 2017, an increase of 509% in the number of cases registered under the child labour law has been recorded as per a study based on information sought under the RTI Act,” the release said.

However, it said, a comparison between this data, the figures provided by the National Crime Records Bureau across three years and the Census of India 2011 brings out the “massive disparity” between the number of working children in India and the number of cases, registered and prosecuted.

RTI replies from across the country revealed that no case of child labour was registered in Haryana, Kerala, Jharkhand and Andhra Pradesh in 2017. Rajasthan and Bihar contributed 84% of the total cases registered, it said.

“Another glaring deficiency in the policy regime for abolition of child labour is non-disbursal or disbursal with huge delays of monetary compensation and the yawning gaps in efficient delivery of rehabilitation measures,” the release said.

The report also provides a range of recommendations to address the gaps in protection, prosecution, rehabilitation and prevention of child labour in the country.