Patna, July 11 (IANS) Ten people lost their lives due to lightning strikes in the last 24 hours in Bihar, said officials on Thursday.

Three persons died in Rohtas, two in Siwan, and one each in Kaimur, West Champaran, Supaul, Munger and Banka districts.

Ram Pravesh Singh, a 55-year-old farmer from Bihar, died instantly after being struck by lightning while seeking shelter under a blackberry tree in Rohtas’s Nokha block on Wednesday evening.

A young woman in Karaundi village, Natwar block, also lost her life due to lightning.

In Sanjhauli Mathia village, Karakat block, a farmer succumbed to a lightning strike.

A five-year-old girl died while collecting mangoes during a storm in Odakpur village in Siwan district.

A labourer, who hailed from West Bengal’s Malda district, was planting paddy in Nikhati Kala village in Siwan when he was struck by lightning and died.

Another individual died due to lightning in the Mohaniya subdivision in Kaimur.

A farmer, Suresh Yadav was killed, and another person, Suman Ram, was severely injured while ploughing in Phulwaria village under the Lauriya police station area in West Champaran district. The injured person was receiving treatment at Government Medical College and Hospital (GMCH) in Bettiah.

A farmer lost his life due to lightning in Dharmapatti village in the Raghopur police station area in Supaul district.

A woman died from a lightning strike in Lagma village, Asarganj police station area in Munger.

A person named Janardan Mandal of Salempur Puranchak village under Amarpur police station in Banka district also died due to lightning.

Authorities are taking necessary actions, including post-mortem examinations and providing medical treatment to the injured. As per the norms, the state government will give a compensation of Rs 4 lakh to the family members of the deceased.

–IANS

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Prayagraj, July 11 (IANS) The Uttar Pradesh government will deploy Jal Police personnel, armed with modern gadgets to offer help to pilgrims arriving at the banks of the Ganga to take a holy dip in the Kumbh Mela 2025.

The Kumbh Mela police authorities have drafted a plan to ensure the safety and security of each and every pilgrim while taking a holy dip during the mega religious fair.

The Jal Police personnel will be equipped with underwater cameras and drones, rescue boats, scooter boats, ambulance boats, big boats, speed boats, training equipment, life-saving equipment lifebuoys, floating jetties and dragon lights.

Interestingly, the Mela police will be armed with underwater cameras and drones that can help cops track missing bodies in the rivers and other local water bodies.

Additional DG (Prayagraj zone) Bhanu Bhaskar said, “Jal police to be armed with advanced safety gadgets during Maha Kumbh, will be deployed on the banks of Ganga and Sangam to ensure the safety of devotees and to check cases of drowning”.

Besides, the duties of skilled jawans of the Provincial Armed Constabulary (PAC – flood control) and Jal Police, companies of the State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) will also be assigned to prevent any drowning incidents.

The Jal Police will be setting up a floating control room at Sangam while additional teams will be deputed to control the strength of pilgrims on the river banks.

The ADG said, “Wearing a life jacket will be mandatory for all pilgrims taking seats on boats. Moreover, personnel of Jal Police and PAC (flood control) will also be equipped with lifesaving equipment. They will be given life-saving jackets, guards, nets, boats and other apparatus.”

Besides, quick reaction teams (QRTs) will be deputed to the floating control room. These QRTs will also be equipped with safety gadgets, binoculars and other apparatus. Jal Police personnel would also patrol on boats at every ghat to check cases of drowning.

They would be apprising pilgrims about the depth of the water and restricting them from entering the deep side.

Jal Police authorities will also be engaging trained swimmers to ensure the safety of each devotee taking a holy dip.

–IANS

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Jammu, July 11 (IANS) In a shocking case, the throat-slit bodies of newborn twins were recovered in Jammu & Kashmir’s Poonch district, said officials on Thursday, adding that their father has been arrested.

The bodies of the two female babies were found in their home in the Chaijjla Kayani village of the Mendhar sub-division of the district.

The father of the babies was initially detained for questioning and later was arrested, said officials.

Authorities said immediately after receiving information about the bodies of two female babies lying in the house of Mohd Khursheed of Chajjla Keyani village, a team was rushed to the village.

The bodies have been sent for post-mortem. A board of doctors has been constituted to carry out the post-mortem and furnish a detailed report.

Doctors said that after completion of medico-legal formalities, the bodies would be handed over to police.

The incident has sent shock waves throughout the district as it involves the fate of girl children at a time when the country is celebrating the birth, education and contribution of women to the development of the country and its democratic institutions.

–IANS

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New Delhi: Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has made a provision in this year’s interim budget to constitute a High Power Committee to comprehensively consider the challenges arising from rapidly increasing population and demographic changes. Probably this is the result of the continuous voice being raised for population control across the country.

This is why on August 15, 2019, on the occasion of the first Independence Day after the formation of his second government, Prime Minister Narendra Modi appealed to the nation from the ramparts of the Red Fort for population control to strive for a good future for their next generation by becoming responsible parents.

Before making any kind of policy regarding population control, it was necessary to abolish different personal laws and implement a uniform civil code for all communities. It was started by the Uttarakhand government of Pushkar Singh Dhami with the formation of an expert committee to prepare the draft of the Uniform Civil Code in the year 2022. After long discussions with the people of Uttarakhand and stakeholders, the draft of the Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand, 2024, submitted by the Expert Committee to the Government of Uttarakhand, was passed by the Uttarakhand Assembly on February 7, 2024. At present, the work of preparing its rules and regulations is being done by another committee. Soon after the rules are prepared, the Uniform Civil Code will be implemented in Uttarakhand.

Many other states and central governments are also waiting for the same. Now the eyes of the country are on Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s address from the ramparts of the Red Fort on August 15, 2024, on the occasion of the first Independence Day after the formation of his third government, whether he will be able to make laws like Uniform Civil Code and Population Control in the country during his tenure of this coalition government?

To fulfil his dream of One Nation One Election, it is also necessary that Prime Minister Narendra Modi should quickly complete the census which has been postponed since 2021 and constitute a Delimitation Commission. Demographic changes also affect Indian politics.

In some Lok Sabha, MPs are elected with less than one lakh votes and in others with more than 20 lakh votes. Demographic change will also be a big challenge for the new delimitation. Probably, keeping this demographic change in mind, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman has announced the formation of a High Power Committee. But no information about the formation of that committee is available yet. Is this because the government is not with full majority this time? Will this topic be put on the back burner again? The idea of forming such a committee would undoubtedly be with a vision of a bright future for the country by addressing the challenges arising from the rapidly increasing population and demographic changes.

But due to political constraints, our country, which was the first in the world to initiate family planning, has today become the most populous country in the world. Will the efforts being made by the Central Government on this subject again fall prey to political compulsions? If the Central Government wants to realise its Nation First sentiment in the real sense, then it should not stop its efforts in this direction, leaving aside the compulsions of the coalition government.

The recent incident in Hathras has shocked all the countrymen. While all the political parties are accusing the government of not making proper arrangements, they must also consider how the people of our country get trapped in the trap of blind devotion and fall prey to the sorceries of fake babas. Just think that those people who do not understand what is right and what is wrong for their and their children’s future and those who are unable to make the right decisions for their family properly, they are the ones who elect the leaders to run the country.

Prime Minister Modi also said in his address on August 15, 2019, that the number of children in the family should be according to one’s resources and the same applies to the country as well. The country, which has about 2.4 per cent of the world’s land area and only 4 per cent of water, is home to about 18 per cent of the world’s population. The main reason for many problems spreading in India like unemployment, poverty, hunger, pollution, and illiteracy is the population of the country not being commensurate with the resources. Those who point to India’s population as the biggest reason for it becoming the world’s third-largest economy must look at the resources and population of the developed countries of the world.

Today, while most of the edible foods in our country are not pure, the potable water and the air to breathe have also become polluted. Due to these reasons, today our country has become the capital of diseases like cancer and problems like pollution in the world. Due to the increasing population in India, the cultivable land is continuously decreasing and due to family partitions, the size of the fields is becoming smaller. This is the biggest reason for the problems of farmers in the country.

But our leaders are busy only treating the symptoms instead of treating the underlying disease. Every political party is busy distributing taxpayers’ money in the name of getting votes. An example of which we have clearly seen in the lines to take Rs 8,500 after the results of this Lok Sabha election. There is a need for the intellectuals of the country to stop only earning money for their future generations and start putting pressure on all political parties and their leaders to enact population control laws, otherwise, in the future, their children will not be able to use the money earned by them.

Now it is up to the intellectuals and taxpayers of the country to think about what kind of India they want to leave behind for their children. Today, every intellectual, taxpayer, woman and youth of the country is looking towards Prime Minister Modi with hopeful eyes to see what he has to say on the occasion of this Independence Day on the subject of the challenges arising from the rapidly increasing population and demographic change.

(Manu Gaur is a population expert and Member, Expert Committee, Uniform Civil Code, Uttarakhand)

–IANS

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Kolkata, July 11 (IANS) The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) have tracked at least 25 bank accounts opened in the name of third parties, which were used for inward and outward remissions of the ill-gotten proceeds in the municipalities’ recruitment case in West Bengal, said sources on Thursday.

A close examination of these bank accounts revealed that multiple high-value inward remissions, each amounting to a few lakhs, were credited to these accounts and were also debited from those accounts within hours.

On questioning the official account holders, the Central agency sleuths came to know that they were either the existing or past employees of the corporate entity owned by the arrested private promoter Ayan Sil, also a co-accused in the multi-crore cash-for-school- job case.

The CBI officials interrogated some of these official account holders who confessed that they were forced by Sil to open the accounts. They were also forced to submit entire supporting documents like passbooks, chequebooks and even debit cards to Sil. The official account holders had no authority to operate those accounts, sources added.

The second interesting factor in the scam, as revealed by the investigating officials, is how a section of the middlemen, all linked to Sil, used this process to earn hefty amounts from two avenues.

The first income was a commission from the recipients or the ultimate beneficiaries or the recipients of the proceeds in the alleged scam. At the same time, this section of agents also collected commissions from those candidates after they got appointment letters.

The scam allegedly took place in multiple civic bodies between 2014 and 2018.

–IANS

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