Motivate child to talk in case of ‘silent calls’, WCD to Childline
New Delhi: The Women and Child Development Ministry has asked the national emergency helpline for children to motivate and counsel them in case of “muted calls” — where they are not able to gather courage to report incidents of abuse, a WCD official has said. The Childline Foundation recently reported that one-third of the calls received by it were “silent or muted”. “We have asked childline to counsel such children and encourage them to talk. Many a times a child is scared to talk or has last minute doubts about filing a complaint against a close relative,” a WCD official said. The Childline Foundation has received 3.4 crore calls since 2015. Of these, one crore were silent, according to official data . A muted call could be a silent call for help where the child is not able to gather courage to talk or having second thoughts over reporting the incident, an official working with Childline had said earlier. According to the official data, there are 450 childline contact centres across the country which received 6.6 lakh complaints of abuse. In 2017-18 alone, over 80,000 complaints of abuse were received through Childline and over 31,000 calls were related to information regarding missing children. Official data showed that Childline received about 1.4 crore calls in 2017-18 (till June 30) and on an average 10 lakh calls are received every month. (PTI)
British couple on honeymoon hires special train to Nilgiris
Coimbatore: A young couple from England became the first to charter the special train, introduced by Southern Railway, for a one-way trip from Mettupalayam to Udhagamandalam, to spend their honeymoon in the hills.Graham William Lynn (30) and Silviya Plasic (27), who got married recently, paid around Rs 3 lakh to travel by the train to the iconic Nilgiris hills, railways sources said. The couple had booked the entire train through the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation website. As part of efforts to promote hill tourism, the Railway Board had approved the Salem division to operate the special train with a seating capacity of 120, in the Nilgiri Mountain railway section. The couple was the first to avail the chartered service, the sources said, adding that they were accorded a rousing reception by station managers at Mettupalayam and Coonoor on their arrival on Friday, the sources said. The train left Mettupalayam at 9.10 am and reached Ooty by 2.40 PM, they added. (PTI)
BJP collects data on temples, Hindu priests in poll-bound MP
Bhopal: The ruling BJP has collected data on temples, Hindu priests and mutts across Madhya Pradesh ahead of the year-end assembly polls. However, the purpose of this entire exercise is not clear in the state, where the BJP is seeking a record fourth term in office. “Yes, we have collected data on temples, mutts along with their priests and sadhus (ascetics),” state BJP spokesman Rajnish Agrawal said Friday. The BJP has also collected details of activists, social organisations and influential people of the state from the party’s booth-level teams, he said. However, Agrawal did not disclose what the party is going to do with the collected information. “We will contact them. We will neither disclose when we will contact them nor our strategy in this regard,” he added. The BJP took up the data collection drive after an opinion poll in mid-August said the saffron outfit may fare badly in the upcoming polls. (PTI)
Drunk man urinates on woman passenger’s seat in AI flight
New Delhi: An intoxicated man allegedly urinated on the seat of a woman passenger onboard an Air India international flight, prompting the Civil Aviation Ministry to seek a report from the national carrier. The incident took place on August 30 when Air India flight AI 102 was on its way to New Delhi from New York. Indrani Ghosh, daughter of the woman passenger, tweeted about the incident Friday evening. “@Suresh Prabhu, @Sushma Swaraj @Air India. 30th Aug AI102 JFK to Delhi, seat36D. My mother travelling alone had to face extreme shock and trauma when a drunk passenger post dinner service fumbled across to her seat, removed his pants and urinated on her seat! Please look into urgently,” she said on Twitter. Accusing Air India of only changing her mother’s seat after the incident, she said in response to a tweet from activist Kavita Krishnan, “My mother while waiting in her wheelchair at Delhi airport (for her connecting flight), saw him (the accused passenger) walk away.” Following the incident, junior aviation minister Jayant Sinha directed Air India to follow up the matter immediately and report back to the ministry and aviation regulator, Directorate General of Civil Aviation (DGCA). “@airindiain please follow up immediately and report back to MoCA/DGCA. Very unfortunate that your mother had to go through this harrowing experience,” Sinha said in his tweet. (PTI)
Hospital staff suspended for taking selfie with body of Harikrishna
Hyderabad: A super-speciality hospital near here has suspended four staff members who allegedly took a selfie with the body of actor-politician Harikrishna, who died in a major road accident on August 29. A complaint has also been lodged with police against the four people for allegedly infringing on the privacy of the patient, a hospital official said on Saturday. Police said a complaint was received on the incident and investigation was on. The selfie was allegedly taken by the staff members, including nurses, with the body of late Harikrishna, they said. Nandamuri Harikrishna, son of Telugu cinema giant and thrice chief minister of undivided Andhra Pradesh N T Ramarao, died in a car crash in Telengana’s Nalgonda district on August 29. (PTI)
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New Delhi: Jain monk Tarun Maharaj died in the early hours on Saturday at east Delhi’s Radhapuri Jain Temple. He was 51. “He was not keeping well and was earlier admitted to a private hospital in Vaishali. A few days ago, he had decided to come to the Radhapuri Temple in Krishna Nagar, where he died at around 3.18 am Saturday morning,” said a senior official of the Bhartiya Jain Milan, a pan-India Jain organisation. He said the last rites will be carried out at the Tarun Sagar Dham in Modinagar in Uttar Pradesh. (PTI)