CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI ■ ■ Chennai l Sunday l may 26, 2024 l `12.00 l PAGES 26 l late city EDITION 4 Kids among 27 killed in Rajkot fire Dilip singh kshatriya @ Ahmedabad At least 27 people, including four children under 12 year, were killed in a massive fire at a gaming zone in Gujarat’s Rajkot city on Saturday, police said. The death toll is likely to go up further. When the fire broke out, over 30 children and their parents were believed to be trapped inside TRP game zone on Kalavad Road in the city ac, cording to eyewitnesses. The source of the blaze was an explosion in the air conditioning unit possibly triggered by a short circuit, they said. “So far we have confirmed the death of 27 persons in the fire incident. The bodies are charred beyond recognition and hence their identification is difficult,” said Assistant Commissioner of Police Radhika Bharai. Most bodies were completely charred making it difficult to identify them.. Police Commissioner Raju Bhargav said, “I cannot confirm the cause of the fire; it requires probe.” Rajkot Collector Prabhav Joshi said the Fire Control Room received a call around 4.30 pm regarding the blaze. Fire safety personnel faced difficulty in dousing it as it was windy, said a Rajkot Fire Officer. Besides, a temporary structure inside the gaming zone collapsed, compounding the difficulty in the rescue effort, the fire official added. Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed grief at the loss of lives in the incident and said the local administration is working to provide help to those affected. Gujarat govt orders Fire safety audit The TRP game zone in Rajkot on fire | X Bodies charred beyond recognition ■ ■ “The fire caused the collapse of the structure. Debris is being cleared,” Rajkot Collector Prabhav Joshi said Gujarat CM Bhupendra Patel said a Special Investigation Team will probe the fire accident. The state government announced an ex-gratia of `4 lakh for the dead and `50,000 for injured people Following the tragedy, the Gujarat government directed all gaming zones across the state to cease operations. Comprehensive inspections, encompassing fire safety equipment and protocol, will be conducted at all game zones. Likewise, the Maharashtra Congress demanded that its state government conduct a fire safety audit of gaming zones and malls Kangana sweats it out against royal scion H a r p r e e t B a j w a @ Mandi (From left) President Droupadi Murmu, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Union minister S Jaishankar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal and Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi show their inked fingers after casting their ballots in the sixth and penultimate phase of the general elections, in New Delhi on Saturday | PTI 62% turnout in crucial sixth phase Loads of VIPs exercise franchise in delhi Anantnag-Rajouri seat record P r e e t h a N a i r @ New Delhi 10 trips in 3 yrs Int’l wildlife trafficking racket: TN cop sacked Siddharth Prabhakar @ Chennai A police constable attached to the Tamil Nadu special police battalion has been dismissed from service for his possible role as the linchpin in a multicrore international exotic species trafficking racket busted recently by the Chennai Customs authorities. S Ravikumar (41), havildar number 4938 of the TSP VI battalion in Madurai, was dismissed from service on May 11, a senior police official said. According to sources, Ravikumar is suspected to have made more than 10 trips to foreign countries including Malaysia and Thailand over the last three years. The value of wildlife species smuggled in by him in recent times would be around `5 crore, investigators said. Marmoset monkeys, redtailed guenon (monkey), sugar gliders, Tegu lizards, and several varieties of ball python and Fennec fox were among the exotic animals that were suspected to have been smuggled into the country by him. Ravikumar was arrested by customs officials outside the Chennai international airport on April 12 after he allegedly received 484 redeared slider turtles and nine African spurred tortoises from Mohammed Mubeen, a passenger from Bangkok. Investigations into the case revealed that Ravikumar got involved in the racket after running an aquarium in Kolathur under his wife’s name. P7 WITH THIS ISSUE We Are the World PLUS 12 PAGES Close to 62% voter turnout was recorded for the sixth and penultimate phase of the Lok Sabha elections held on Saturday As many as 58 seats across . eight states and Union Territories (UTs), including all 10 seats of Haryana and seven of Delhi, voted in this round of polling. Several politicians and prominent personalities, including President Droupadi Murmu, Chief Justice of India D Y Chandrachud, Union minister S Jaishankar, Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, Congress leaders Sonia Gandhi, Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi Vadra were among others who cast their votes in the national capital. Following the pattern of Mumbai, Delhi too registered a low turnout of 58.03% despite the Election Commission of India urging the voters to shun the apathy and exercise their voting rights. Stakes are high for the BJP-led NDA as it won 40 seats out of the 58 in the 2019 Lok Sabha elections. Though the other INDIA bloc partners won five seats in 2019, the Congress scored a duck. The contest in Delhi and Haryana is crucial for the Opposition parties as they hope to increase the tally in these states. The contest in the national capital is being keenly watched as the INDIA bloc parties — the Congress and the AAP are taking on the BJP. While the BJP swept all seven seats of Delhi in 2014 and 2019 and is looking for a hat-trick, the Opposition is fighting tooth and nail. The AAP is contesting four seats while the Congress has fielded candidates in three seats as per their seat-sharing agreement. express read 13-year-old murders 10-yr-old, dumps body in tank in Madurai Guv to inaugurate conference of V-Cs in Nilgiris on May 27 Madurai: A 13-year-old boy allegedly murdered a 10-year-old boy for speaking ill of his mother at an Urdu school at Kathapatti village near Melur in Madurai. The incident came to light around 10pm on Friday after the body of the boy, who was missing since evening, was found inside a septic tank on the school premises | P4 Chennai: Governor RN Ravi, chancellor of the state universities, will inaugurate a twoday conference of vice-chancellors of TN universities at the Raj Bhavan in Nilgiris on May 27. Vice-chancellors of all state universities, private universities and central universities or institutions in TN have been invited to take part in the annual meet | P4 While the BJP won all 10 seats in Haryana in 2019, the Congress is hoping to make a dent this time due to factors such as anti-incumbency and the anger among the farmers and wrestlers against the BJP. Voting was also held on 14 seats of UP eight seats each of Bihar , and West Bengal, six in Odisha, four in Jharkhand and one in J&K. While Bengal recorded the highest turnout at 79.96%, that for the J&K’s AnantnagRajouri stood at 54.46%, its highest in 40 years. UP’s turnout was 54.03% and Haryana 61.63%, according to the EC’s app at 1 am on Sunday . Among the most watched duels this poll season is the one at Himachal Pradesh’s Mandi where Bollywood ‘Queen’ Kangana Ranaut is cutting her electoral teeth on behalf of the BJP against Vikramaditya Singh of the Congress. It’s like an open air theater where an ebullient but inexperience candidate is sweating it out against a seasoned neta. Kangana’s glam quotient is high but so is her tendency for loose talk by straying off the script, making headlines for all the wrong reasons. The party is lear ning to manage the impulsive actor and trying keep her away from harm’s way . Her opponent is a pedigreed minister in the Sukhvinder Singh ‘Sukhu’ government, as he is a scion of the erstwhile Rampur royal family . The son of late six-time chief minister Virbhadra Singh, he was the face of intraparty rebellion in the state till Sonia Gandhi personally requested him to enter the fray. That gave him an opportunity to prove his leadership credentials. Continued on: P7 Kangana Ranaut(R) and Vikramaditya Singh Illustration: Mandar Pardikar
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