Girl falls into open borewell pit
Chennai: A three-year-old girl on Saturday fell into an open borewell pit near Thiagadurgam in Tamil Nadu’s Villupuram district and efforts are on to rescue the child, police said. Fire and Rescue personnel personnel are digging a hole adjoining the pit, as the child is said to be alive, stuck at around 28-30 ft of the 500-feet pit, they said. Identified as Madhumita, daughter of Ramachandran of Pallagaseri, she is said to have been playing in the land, where the borewell was being dug, they said. While oxygen is being supplied into the pit to facilitate the child’s easy breathing, an ambulance with an emergency medical team is kept ready at the site. District administration officials, including Superintendent of Police are camping at the spot to oversee rescue operations. (PTI)
Kenyan arrested at Mumbai airport
Mumbai: A Kenyan woman was on Saturday arrested at the Mumbai International Airport here for allegedly trying to smuggle in 2.14 kg of gold worth Rs 54.2 lakh, by hiding it in the six underwears she was wearing. Customs officials said Jama Halima Dabir (40), who arrived on Kenyan Airways flight from Nairobi around 2 am, was intercepted on suspicion as she was found moving nervously. She was frisked by the female staff, who found that she was hiding a big packet of jewellery in six underwears she was wearing. The gold jewellery consisted of necklaces, earrings and bracelets weighing 2,144 grams altogether and worth Rs 54.20 lakh. She was arrested for smuggling under the the Customs Act but later released on bail. (PTI)
NYPD officer arrested in Delhi for carrying bullets in luggage
New Delhi: A New York Police Department officer has been arrested and charged here under Arms Act after three bullets were found in his luggage, police said on Saturday. Manny Encarnacion, 49, was arrested in New Delhi on March 11 after he arrived on a Lufthansa Airlines flight from New York, Deputy Commissioner of Police Airport Security M I Haider said here. “Three 9mm bullets were found in his baggage. He was booked under Arms Act,” Haider said. Encarnacion was produced in court the very same day and was granted bail, police said. US Embassy officials had visited Encarnacion to assist him. He has been barred from leaving the country and is due to appear in court on April 17. Encarnacion accidentally left the bullets in his bag when he was visiting India to meet his newly-wed wife Vida, an Iranian student, a report in the New York Post said. Meanwhile, the New York Mayor Bill de Blasio today said he is “troubled” by the detention of the police official and hoped that he would be treated fairly by Indian officials. (PTI)
Activists demand audit of Yamuna cleaning expenses
Agra: Environmentalists have demanded an audit of the total expenditure, including the foreign loans received, for cleaning the Yamuna river and appealed to candidates contesting the Lok Sabha election to include the issue in their agendas. “The latest loan of Rs.937 crores provided by the Japan International Cooperation Agency will also go into the gutters or into the pockets of corrupt officials,” activist Anand Rai said. Environmentalists Saturday celebrated Yamuna Jayanti at the Etmauddaula view-point here and appealed all the candidates contesting the election in Uttar Pradesh to include issues related to the Yamuna in their agendas and save the dying river. Naresh Paras, vice president of the Agra RTI Forum, said: “We have been hearing of various efforts to clean the Yamuna and tap drains that pollute it. Thousands of crores have been squandered away without any discernible benefits. A comprehensive audit of both the central and the state government introduced schemes and expenses should be done.” (ANI)
Fireworks factories begin strike
Virudhunagar: As many as 700 licensed Fireworks factories and cracker transporters in and around Sivakasi – the fireworks hub of India, began an indefinite strike from today to protest against an order of the Ministry of Commerce and Industry that unilaterally revised various fees, including license fee. Talking to newsmen, A P Selvaraj, President of Tamil Nadu Fireworks and Amorces Manufacturers’ Association, said the Director of Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion in a notification, dated March 20, 2014, stated that fees payable by the fireworks industry would be revised under the Explosives Rules, 2008 and as per the new notification, the revision of fees was increased from about five times to 27 times. Terming the hike as unjustified, he said the annual license fee to manufacture explosives of Class 1 or 7 (exceeding 200 kilogram at a time) has been revised to Rs 66,000 from a maximum of Rs 15,000. Similarly, the annual licence fee for possessing fireworks of Class 7 explosives in magazine has been increased to Rs four lakh from Rs 15,000. (UNI)