KOCHI l MONday l may 27, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 12 l LATE city EDITION Resurgent Hamas launches fresh rocket attacks targeting tel aviv The first long-range rocket attack from Gaza since January sent Israelis scrambling for cover on Sunday, but there were no reports of casualties Israelis take cover in Herzliya during rocket fire from the Gaza Strip | AFP Eight Projectiles fired from Rafah: IDF Israel’s army said at least eight rockets were fired towards the country’s central regions from Gaza’s Rafah, adding “a number” of the projectiles were intercepted. In Tel Aviv, rocket sirens blared for the first time in several months. The fresh attack is seen as a show of resilience by Hamas at a time when Israel’s war cabinet is set to discuss truce and hostage release deal | p9 ■ 81 Israeli Airstrikes on Gaza continue ■ Israel continued its air strikes on northern, central and southern areas of Gaza on Sunday with its military saying more than 50 “terrorist targets” were struck across the Palestinian enclave since Saturday night The Israeli army said its troops seized dozens of rocket parts and weapons from an arms depot operating inside a school in northern Gaza’s Jabalia people killed in gaza on Sunday, THE hamas-controlled health ministry said 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 Six babies killed in Delhi hospital fire, five injured Was running without valid licence; doctors BAMS degree holders Rajkot gaming zone did not have fire dept’s NOC, says FIR D i l i p S i n g h K s h at r i ya @ Ahmedabad Crowd seen in front of a children’s hospital in New Delhi’s Vivek Vihar area where a fire broke out on Saturday night killing six newborns | Parveen Negi U J W AL J ALALI @ New Delhi Six newborns were killed and five others injured after a massive fire broke out at a private childcare hospital in Delhi’s Shahdara area late on Saturday night. According to police sources, the hospital was functioning without a valid licence and it did not have clearance from the Fire Department. The hospital did not even have the mandatory fire extinguisher. There was no emergency exit either, officials said. According to a senior officer, a total of seven infant bodies were sent for postmortem, including the body of one child who had died hours before the fire incident. “The child had died a couple of hours before the incident during treatment. He had some heart problems. The hospital staff had intimated his parents around 8.30 pm on Saturday DCP (Shahdara) Suren,” dra Chaudhary told TNIE. T he hospital’s owner Dr Naveen Khichi (45) and duty doctor Dr Aaksh (26) were arrested. Police officials said the doctors on duty were not qualified to treat infants as they were BAMS degree holders. An FIR has been registered under IPC Sections 336 (act en- express read Malayali appointed to Toronto’s Superior Court Kochi: Carissima Mathen, a legal scholar with roots in Kerala, has been appointed to the Superior Court of Justice in Toronto. She is renowned for her expertise in Canadian constitutional law. Carissima grew up in Montreal and attended McGill University, earning an honours BA in philosophy and political science in 1989. She obtained her LLB from Osgoode Hall Law School in 1992 and was admitted to the Law Society of Ontario in 1994. She holds several legal and academic honours, including the David W Mundell Medal. P4 dangering life and personal safety of others) and 304A (causing death by negligence), 304 (punishment for culpable homicide not amounting to murder) and 308 (attempt to commit culpable homicide). The Delhi government has ordered a magisterial probe into the fire tragedy . The licence issued to the hospital had expired in March. “Even as per the expired licence, it was supposed to have only 5 beds. But 12 newborns were in the hospital at the time of the accident,” a senior officer said. The fire broke out around 11.30 pm on Saturday Delhi Fire Serv. ice Director Atul Garg said nine fire tenders were rushed to the spot. By the time firemen reached the spot, the building was already engulfed in flames. The firemen and police personnel rescued 12 infants from the building and took them to a nearby hospital. According to fire officials, it took them around 70 minutes to control the inferno. Officials said the probable cause of the fire was short circuit. According to sources, the babies died due to excessive heat and asphyxiation. The fire had not reached the room where the infants were kept. A day after the deadly blaze at TRP Gaming Zone in Gujarat’s Rajkot, the city police on Sunday registered a First Information Report (FIR) as per which the facility lacked fire safety equipment and was operating without the required ‘No Objection Certificate’ from the fire department. The toll from the blaze climbed to 28 on Sunday . As per the complaint registered by the police, “The owner of the TRP Zone constructed a gaming area using an iron and sheet fabrication structure, approximately 50 meters wide, 60 meters long, and two to three floors high. Despite knowing the severe fire risk, they operated the gaming zone without effective firefighting equipment or a fire department NOC.” Rajkot taluka police have booked six persons for culpable homicide not amounting to murder including Dhaval Corporation proprietor Dhaval Thakkar, Raceway Enterprise partners Ashoksinh Jadeja, Kiritsinh Jadeja, Prakashchand Hiran, Yuvrajsinh Solanki and Rahul Rathod, as per the FIR. However, Rajkot Police Commissioner Raju Bhargava said the accused have presented evidence of fire safety equipment. Meanwhile, the Gujarat High Court on Sunday took suo motu cognizance of the incident, calling it prima facie a “manmade disaster”. The matter will be heard on Monday The court . may issue a directive concerning the state’s game zones. Big Knights eclipse Sunrisers in one-sided final GOm e s h S @ Chennai headishek is a moniker Travis Head and Abhishek Sharma earned for destroying oppositions, setting record partnerships and touching heady heights during powerplays. They rewrote the batting manual and cooked the winning recipe for Sunrisers Hyderabad. Heinrich Klaasen provided the finishing touches. Bowlers led by captain Pat Cummins then make sure to secure the matches. Put up big scores and out-bat oppositions. On Sunday with the tempera, ture hovering around 40 degree Celsius during the day Kolkata , Kolkata Knight Riders players celebrate after beating Sunrisers Hyderabad in Chennai on Sunday. This is their 3rd IPL title after 2012 & 2014 | Ashwin prasath Knight Riders, armed with an array of bowlers — both incisive and utility — led by the ever-dependable Mitchell Starc had only one thing in mind. Stop the openers from scoring big and restrict in middle overs. But in the most one-sided final, KKR not only managed to send Headishek home early but tore into the batting order. A late rearguard by Cummins helped them to reach a figure — 113 — that they usually would score in the first eight overs. With a strong KKR support in the stands, Starc delivered the ball of the season to clean up Abhishek on the fifth delivery of the match — a sharp outswinger that clipped the top Illegal constructions at Varkala Cliff must go, says municipality S h a i n u M o h a n @T’Puram Waking up from slumber, the Varkala municipality has served notices on owners of commercial establishments at Varkala Cliff, ordering them to immediately knock down all illegal structures located beyond the footpath facing the seafront. They have until Monday to comply with the fiat. The municipality’s move follows multiple reports published by TNIE, extensively covering the pathetic condition of the eroding Varkala Clif f in An illegal shop on the footpath on the edge of Varkala Cliff | B P Deepu Thiruvananthapuram. gal extensions and press seating ar range- dangerous for visitors, resiOne of the most dents and tourism stakeholders impact popular tourist desments beyond the alike. tinations in the footpath by 2pm. Every year, 50,000 foreign state, the Cliff has been facing Should they fail, the municipal- tourists visit Varkala on an avconstant neglect by the tourism ity will remove the same and erage. The 6.1-km-long red latdepartment as well as the mu- collect the expenses from the erite cliff is a major attraction, nicipality, and is becoming in- owners, the order issued by the drawing scores of domestic creasingly unsafe for the scores local body said. tourists. The conservation of visitors frequenting it daily , Several temporary struc- project of the Cliff has been owing to rapidly worsening tures, sign boards, and other long pending. Other than a few studies, the erosion. extensions of trade establishEarlier this month, huge ments dot the area beyond the state government has not done holes had appeared on the Cliff, footpath. The recent heavy much to preserve or conserve triggering safety concerns. rain further accelerated the the rare geological formation, The municipality ordered erosion. Parts of the Cliff have which was declared a Geo Herthe owners of commercial es- collapsed in multiple locations itage Site by the Geological Surtablishments to remove all ille- along the footpath, making it vey of India in 2014. ● More on P4 Bengal braces for heavy rain as Cyclone Remal makes landfall S u l a g n a S e n g u p ta @ Kolkata Rain and strong winds ahead of the landfall of Cyclone Remal, in South 24 Parganas district of West Bengal. The cyclone made landfall late on Sunday | pti Cyclone Remal intensified into a ‘severe cyclonic storm’ and made landfall between West Bengal and Bangladesh coasts on Sunday night with wind speeds ranging from 110120 km per hour and gusts reaching up to 135 kmph, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said. The IMD said the weather system will bring heavy to very heavy rainfall over South and North 24 Parganas, Purba Medinipur, Kolkata Howrah and Hooghly districts of West Ben- gal while heavy rain is likely in the state’s Paschim Medinipur, Purba Bardhaman and Nadia districts on May 26 and 27. Extremely heavy rains are also likely to lash parts of northeast India on May 27 and 28. Fishermen have been advised not to venture into the sea till May 28. Around 1.10 lakh people have been evacuated from coastal regions, including Sagar Island, Sunderbans, and Kakdwip, as a precautionary measure. Kolkata airport has suspended flight operations for 21 hours beginning from Sunday noon. The Syama Prasad Mookerjee Port in Kolkata suspended all cargo and container handling operations for 12 hours from Sunday evening. Railway operations in the port area will also be suspended during that time, officials said. Sixteen battalions each from the state disaster management force and the National Disaster Response Forces have been deployed in the coastal regions . The state government has set up a 24/7 control room at the state secretariat. The helpline numbers at the state secretariat are 1070 and (033)-22143526. of off stump. And Vaibhav Arora’s outswinger sent back Head in the next over. Then Starc removed Rahul Tripathi in the fifth, and KKR were in the driving seat. Their mystery bowlers, Sunil Narine and Varun Chakravarthy tweaked the sto, ry a little further. Venkatesh Iyer’s fifty ensured no hiccups for KKR. A highly-entertaining IPL that saw records of highest scores turned into a dampener. An antithesis. Even as a storm set to ravage Kolkata late night, this news of IPL triumph would help fans to tide over the dark and dreary night with optimism. After all, KKR has won P11 the title after 10 years. Petition in SC against posting of Anoop’s wife S u c h i t r a K a lya n M o h a n t y @New Delhi A special leave petition (SLP) has been filed before the Supreme Court by a whistleblower, challenging the Kerala High Court’s rejection of her plea against the alleged appointment of the wife of former minister Anoop Jacob in the Kerala Bhasha Institute. S Manimekhala moved the top court terming the appointment of Anoop’s wife Anila Varghese as assistant director in the Kerala Bhasha Institute as “illegal and unconstitutional”. She alleged the posting was done in blatant violation of Articles 14, 15, and 16 of the Constitution, along with per tinent service rules and employment laws. The HC had rejected her plea after it did not find any substance or evidence in her petition. In the she filed in the SC through advocate Tarini K Nayak, Manimekhala said the HC failed to adequately consider the evidence she presented demonstrating Anila’s insufficient educational qualifications and age eligibility for the post. “The appointment process allegedly flouted statutory requirements...thereby undermining fair competition for the position,” the plea said. The petition sought to overturn the HC’s dismissal order and demanded a thorough reevaluation of the entire appointment process. The matter will come up for hearing after summer vacations, after July 7. Can the rebel Soren sour JMM’s hopes in its traditional stronghold? M U K E S H RAN J AN @ Ranchi Jharkhand’s Dumka Lok Sabha seat, the traditional stronghold of JMM patriarch Shibu Soren, is witnessing a curious contest this time as Soren’s daughterin-law Sita Soren is fighting on a BJP ticket. A long-time JMM member and three-time MLA from Jama Assembly she joined the BJP in March , claiming she was “neglected and isolated” in the JMM. Since 1980, a candidate from the Shibu Soren family used to contest from Dumka. But this time, to avoid a family feud, the JMM has fielded veteran leader and six-time MLA Nalin Soren from the seat, which is reserved for the Scheduled Tribes. As for the BJP, it has benched sitting MP Sunil Soren to put Sita Soren in the fray Sita was . married to Durga Soren, Shibu Soren’s son and Hemant Soren’s brother. She entered politics after the untimely demise of her husband in 2009 at the age of 39. She was elected from the Jama Assembly seat for the first time in 2009. Among the Soren siblings — Durga, Hemant, Basant, and sister Anjani — the eldest brother, Durga, was sup- posed to take over the reins of the JMM from Shibu Soren. Durga Soren’s death paved the way for Hemant Soren’s inheriting the party . Dumka has been a stronghold of JMM with Shibu Soren getting elected eight times from the seat. However, in the Modi wave of 2019, the BJP’s Sunil Soren defeated the JMM veteran by 47,000 votes. Both Sita and Nalin have a strong support base in their respective regions but they don’t have any local issue to raise, to seek votes. Nalin Soren is trying to mobilise people on the issue of tribal respect by raising former CM Hemant Soren’s arrest as an insult to the community . Sita Soren is banking on ‘Modi ki guarantee’ and the welfare works done Sita Soren (left) and Nalin Soren Illustration: Mandar Pardikar for the tribals by the BJP-led central government. She is also seeking ‘justice’ saying that she and her daughters were ignored by Hemant Soren and his wife Kalpana Soren. The current political scenario is fluid in this constituency and it is difficult to predict who will emerge victorious. Tribal, Muslim, and Christian votes that constitute around 45% of the total vote count are expected to go to the JMM and votes of remaining communities to the BJP. However, the BJP is hopeful of increasing its votes this time as state BJP president Babulal Marandi is popular among the tribal voters in Dumka. “If Babulal Marandi succeeds in mobilising even 5% of the non-Christian tribal voters, the situation will change and the result will go in BJP’s favour,” said Shivshankar Chaudhary, a senior journalist based from Dumka. The total strength of non-Christian tribal voters in Dumka would come to around 15%, he added. On the other hand, there is a fair amount of resentment among the tribals over Sita Soren’s decision to leave the JMM when Hemant is in jail. “The timing of her leaving the party, and the family, will make a negative impact among her supporters who had been loyal to the Soren family,” said Ajiz Mian of Mohara village under Jamtara Block of Dumka.
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