The fast-unto-death of six junior doctors at Esplanade in Kolkata, to protest the rape and murder of their colleague in the state-run R. G. Kar Medical College Hospital entered the second day on Sunday.

The protest is unique as while these six junior doctors, three female and three male, are protesting, their colleagues have resumed duties for the patients at their respective medical colleges and hospitals.

“We have withdrawn our cease-work agitation keeping in mind the interest of the patients. But at the same time six of us have started the hunger strike agitation to send a message to the state government of not succumbing unless our demands are fulfilled,” said a representative of the West Bengal Junior Doctors’ Front, the umbrella body spearheading the movement of the junior doctors against the heinous crime.

Meanwhile, Pulastya Acharya, one of the six fasting doctors, told media persons on Sunday that they have sought permission from the Kolkata Police to set up a bio-toilet near the hunger-strike venue.

“We have made it clear that the bio-toilet will be used only by those participating in the hunger strike. However, the police did not reply to our application. On Saturday only, we tried to arrange for the same. But the police did not allow us,” Acharya said.

Besides Acharya, who is from N.R.S Medical College & Hospital, the other five fasting junior doctors are Tanaya Panja, Snighdha Hazra and Anustup Mukhopadhyay from Calcutta Medical College & Hospital, Sayantani Ghosh Hazra from K.P.C Medical College & Hospital and Arnab Mukhopadhyay from S.S.K.M Medical College & Hospital.

“We have never thought setting up a simple bio-toilet would lead to so much complication. Now we are using the public toilet at a distance from the hunger-strike venue. Come what may, we will continue with our protests,” Arnab Mukhopadhyay said.

AGENCIES

In Rajasthan’s Ajmer a team of Muslim artisans from Uttar Pradesh’s Fatehpur Sikri is working day and night to construct the effigies of Ravana, Meghnath, and Kumbhkaran for the grand Ravana Dahan event to take place on October 12.

Like every year the Ajmer Municipal Corporation in Rajasthan’s Ajmer district will celebrate Dussehra with the grand Ravana Dahan event at the city’s Patel Ground, where Ravana’s effigy will be burned.

With Dussehra approaching, preparations are in full swing.

Shabbir Ahmed Farooqui, a resident of Fatehpur Sikri in Agra, has been creating these effigies for the last 30 years. He first came to Ajmer in 1993 to make Ravana’s effigy and has been doing so ever since.

Farooqui mentioned that a team of 15 artisans, including his family members, are involved in building the effigies.

“This year, Ravana’s effigy will stand at 65 feet, while those of Kumbhkaran and Meghnath will be 45 feet tall. A replica of Lanka is also being constructed,” he told IANS.

For the creation of these effigies, materials such as bamboo, waste paper pulp, rope, fabric, colours, coconut husk, jute, and crackers for the explosions are being used.

Shabbir Ahmed further informed that this year’s Ravana will feature special effects: it will blink its eyes, wave a sword with its hands, emit flames from its mouth, and have a spinning chakra in its navel. Moreover, Ravana’s 10 heads will fly off one by one, controlled by a remote.”

Shabbir’s brother, Shakeel Ahmed Farooqui, added that the Ajmer Municipal Corporation has allotted them Rs 4 lakh to make the effigies of Ravana, Meghnath, and Kumbhkaran. Due to the late issuance of the contract by the corporation, the team has been working around the clock to complete the effigies on time.

This year, Dussehra will be celebrated on October 12. As Saturday marks the fourth day of the Navratri festival, with limited time remaining for Dussehra, artisans are racing to complete the effigy before the deadline.

AGENCIES

Army said on Sunday that it seized a huge cache of arms and ammunition in Jammu and Kashmir’s Poonch district.

Officials said that the Army’s Romeo Force seized a huge cache of weapons and explosives in the Jhullas area of the district late Saturday evening.

“Based on specific intelligence inputs, a search was launched in the Jhullas area of Poonch district by the army. Weapons and explosives were recovered from a suspected terrorist’s bag. The recovered items included AK-47, pistol rounds of Pakistani origin and sophisticated explosives like RCIED (radio-controlled improvised explosive device), Timed destruction IED, Stove IED, explosives for IEDs and Chinese Grenades. The search operation was launched yesterday evening,” officials said here.

It must be mentioned that terrorists believed to be hardcore foreign mercenaries, have carried out hit-and-run attacks against the Army, local police and civilians in the hilly districts of Doda, Kathua, Rajouri, Poonch and Reasi of Jammu division during the last three to four months.

After carrying out ambushes against the Army and others in the hilly areas, the terrorists would escape into the densely foliaged and forested areas of these hilly districts.

To thwart the tactics of the terrorists, over 4,000 soldiers drawn from the elite Para Commandos and those trained in mountain warfare were deployed in the high and densely forested areas of the Jammu division. After this revised strategy by the security forces, terrorist attacks in these districts have drastically come down.

With their ubiquitous presence in these areas, the security forces have been able to establish contact (engage terrorists in gunfights) in these areas.

Eight terrorists have been killed so far after the security forces revisited their strategy to meet the challenge posed by the foreign mercenaries.

In order to protect villages from the terrorists, who seek inhabited places for food and shelter, J&K Police have issued automatic weapons and imparted basic weapon handling training to the village defence committees (VDCs) in all the hilly districts of Jammu division.

AGENCIES

 Rajya Sabha MP Kiran Choudhary on Sunday dismissed the Haryana exit polls and said that the BJP will again form government in the state. 

The BJP leader compared the situation to previous exit polls during the Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, and Himachal Pradesh elections, where despite predictions, the government was hardly formed. “We will form the government in Haryana, I assure you,” she declared confidently.

She further added that every party worker from Tosham in Haryana worked tirelessly, waging a battle for truth during the elections.

The BJP MP also claimed victory for her daughter, Shruti Choudhary.

Kiran Choudhary further stated that while elections were usually peaceful, this time outsiders were brought in. She alleged that a former Sarpanch was caught distributing money.

“Workers were assaulted, and such actions must be condemned. People must understand this and boycott those who are doing this,” she emphasised.

Soon after the culmination of voting in the Haryana Assembly polls on Sunday, exit poll forecasts started pouring in. Most have forecast a clear mandate for the Congress in Haryana and a big setback for the ruling BJP.

Multiple exit polls have predicted a landslide majority for the Congress in Haryana and a near washout for the BJP, which ruled the state for two consecutive terms.

According to Republic Bharat-Matrize, the Congress is likely to fetch anywhere between 55-62 seats while the BJP is seen getting reduced to a mere 18-24 seats. The Dushyant Chautala-led Jannayak Janta Party (JJP) is projected to fetch 0-3 seats, however, Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) is seen doing fairly better than its offshoot with 3-6 seats. The AAP is expected to draw a blank.

People’s Pulse has forecast 49-61 seats for Congress and 20-32 seats for the BJP. It sees the INLD bagging about 1-3 seats while the JJP will fail to open its account.

AGENCIES

At least five persons burned in their sleep and two others were injured in a major fire fire that broke out in a shop in North Mumbai’s Chembur suburb, the BMC Disaster Control said here on Sunday.

The gruesome tragedy occurred around 5.15 a.m. As per reports, the locals noticed the flames and informed the Fire Brigade which immediately responded.

The Mumbai Fire Brigade said the fire was at the Sidharth Colony. Two more persons were reported to be critically injured in the fire.

The major blaze triggered by unknown reasons engulfed the ground floor shop and spread to the electrical wiring and installations, household articles and other stuff.

The flames quickly engulfed the upper floor where the family was living>At least five of them due to asphyxiation.

The victims were rushed to the Rajawadi Hospital where they were declared dead on admission by the medical authorities.

They are identified as Anita Gupta, 39, Prem Gupta 30, Manju Prem Gupta, 30, Paras Gupta, 07 and Narendra Gupta, 10.

The causes of the blaze are being probed and further details are awaited.

On Saturday, a massive fire burnt to ashes an entire warehouse near Mumbai. The V Logistics warehouse in a village in Bhiwandi taluka, about 40 km from Mumbai, caught fire Friday night. A large quantity of hydraulic oil, cloth, plastic items, and chemicals were stored in the warehouse. No one was injured in the fire incident

AGENCIES

Almost all political leaders except those belonging to Congress have dismissed the exit polls with former J&K Chief Minister and National Conference (NC) vice president, Omar Abdullah calling these “pass time exercises”.

Senior most J&K politician, Dr Farooq Abdullah plainly said, “I don’t trust these exit polls”. His son and former Chief Minister Omar Abdullah said, “I’m amazed channels are bothering with exit polls, especially after the fiasco of the recent general elections. I’m ignoring all the noise on channels, social media, WhatsApp Etc because the only numbers that matter will be revealed on the 8th of Oct. The rest is just time pass”.

Tarun Chugh, national general secretary and BJP in charge of J&K polls said, “Outcome will defy the findings of the exit polls”.

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) leader, Zuhaib Mir said, “As far as we are concerned, exit polls are not a serious activity but time pass activity. PDP is confident that it will be an indispensable and important part of the secular government that will form in J-K. PDP will have an important role in forming any secular government. We had said that we are ready to take any step to save the identity of Kashmir but for this, it is important that we formulate a secular government, a government against BJP not with them.”

Lok Sabha member and president of Awami Itihad Party (AIP), Engineer Rashid said, “Everybody is at liberty to have an exit poll. They know better what was the criteria. Let us wait for October 8, as I’ve never relied on exit polls.”

Interestingly, Congress is the only political party that expressed confidence on the numbers predicted for the party by the exit polls. JKPCC president, Tariq Hameed Karra said, “The projections by various exit polls has vindicated the stand of the Congress and proved the public anger against the BJP.”

It must be mentioned that most polls have shown the Congress-NC staying ahead in the race but failing to cross the magic number, thereby leading to the possibility of a hung House in the 90-member Assembly.

A Poll of polls shows the Congress-NC alliance fetching 43 seats, three less than the majority mark of 46.

According to India Today-C Voter exit polls, the National Congress (NC)-Congress alliance is projected to win between 40-48 seats while the BJP is likely to bag 27-32 seats. Mehbooba Mufti-led People’s Democratic Party (PDP) is seen fetching 6-12 seats while others are seen pocketing another 6-12 seats, an unusually high strike rate for Independent candidates in the valley.

According to Dainik Bhaskar, the Congress-NC combine is expected to emerge as the largest alliance, however, staying short of the halfway mark. The alliance is seen bagging 35-40 seats, the BJP getting 20-25 while the PDP managing with just 4-7 seats. Others including Independents are seen emerging as big players in this exit polls, as they are projected to claim victory in as many as 16 seats.

Peoples Pulse exit poll gives the NC-Congress alliance a clear mandate, with its numbers crossing the halfway mark. It is expected to get 46-50 seats while the BJP will be reduced to 23-27 seats and the PDP will get 7-11 seats. All the polling agencies have predicted a clear majority for the BJP in the Jammu region, however Congress-NC tie-up is also seen posing a challenge in the region.

In the Kashmir Valley, people’s mandate is seen heavily tilted towards the NC-Congress alliance while the PDP is failing to repeat its clout, like earlier. Even in the case of a fractured mandate, the NC-Congress alliance is expected to be way ahead of its closest rival BJP and in a better position to form the government, the first in the UT after abrogation of Article 370. AGENCIES

The CBI officials probing the case of financial irregularities at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital in Kolkata have got specific clues about how the former principal Sandip Ghosh through his house staff Ashish Pandey used to accept cash by leaking question paper to medical students eager to pay money for easy success.

While CBI is conducting parallel probes against Ghosh in both the cases of financial irregularities and the brutal rape and murder of the junior doctor, the investigating officials have also taken Pandey into custody in the case of financial irregularities.

Sources said that through Pandey’s interrogation, the officials secured information on how Ghosh was dependent on Pandey’s recommendation to decide on the examination success of the medical students.

Ghosh and Pandey’s bank accounts are under the CBI scanner to get further clues about such illegal transactions. Pandey is among the 10 doctors of R.G. Kar who had been expelled by the College authorities as per a notification issued by the latter on Saturday night.

Sources said that besides Pandey, the officials have also been able to track links of Ghosh with a number of influential persons within the West Bengal Medical Council (WBMC), all of whom are currently under the scanner of CBI.

The other charges against Ghosh include manipulation in the tendering system, awarding infrastructure-related contracts of R.G. Kar to private agencies instead of the state public works department, smuggling of bio-medical wastes outside and selling of organs of unidentified bodies coming to the R.G. Kar morgue for post-mortem purposes.

Ghosh, Pandey and three others arrested by CBI in the financial irregularities case will be presented at a special court in Kolkata on Monday.

In the meantime, sources said that Ghosh had been investigated several times by CBI officials at a correctional home in South Kolkata where he is housed now.

AGENCIES

AAP National Convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday launched a scathing attack on the BJP, stating that the party’s “double-engine government” only results in “inflation, unemployment, and corruption.”

Addressing a large gathering at AAP’s Janta ki Adalat, Kejriwal remarked, “The BJP-led double-engine government is on its way out in Haryana and Jammu and Kashmir. The double-engine concept has failed nationwide. One engine broke down in June when they secured just 240 seats, and now the second engine will fail in Haryana, J&K, Maharashtra, and Jharkhand.”

He went on to say that people have now realised that “double-engine” is synonymous with inflation, unemployment, and corruption.

“As the Delhi elections approach, they will once again ask for a double-engine government. But you should ask them, did the double-engine government in Haryana achieve anything? They governed for 10 years, yet I saw during my campaign that the people don’t even want BJP leaders entering their villages,” he said.

Kejriwal criticised the BJP’s governance in Uttar Pradesh, stating, “They’ve had a double-engine government in UP for seven years, yet they only managed half the seats in recent elections. In Manipur, the state has been burning for two years under their watch. The country is weary of this double-engine system—it only leads to loot and corruption.”

Taking a direct jab at BJP’s campaign promises, Kejriwal urged voters to challenge the party’s claims. “They will come to your homes, promising to do everything I did. But if that’s the case, then why do we even need them? They’ve ruled 22 states, yet we’ve transformed education in Delhi. Ask them, in which state have they improved schools? In Gujarat, where BJP has been in power for over a decade, not a single school is in good condition.”

Highlighting the deteriorating law and order situation in Delhi, Kejriwal compared it to the lawlessness of Bombay in the 1990s.

“Crime in Delhi is skyrocketing. People are afraid to step outside their homes. It has become increasingly challenging for the common man to live safely in this city,” he added.

Speaking on women’s safety, Kejriwal recalled the reappointment of bus marshals under the AAP government.

“Since the appointment of bus marshals, Many women that they feel much safer on public transport. If someone misbehaves, women can now raise their voices, and marshals immediately intervene, apprehending the offender and handing them over to the police,” he said. AGENCIES

 Tension prevailed in the Jayanagar area in West Bengal’s South 24 Parganas district on Sunday as the local people protested against police apathy in the minor girl’s rape and murder case.

The local people accused the police of showing a lackadaisical attitude in addressing the early intimation by the victim’s parents about their daughter being missing.

The parents have alleged that although they intimated the police about their missing daughter on Friday evening, the cops refused to act promptly. They started the investigation only after the body of the victim was recovered from a nearby canal after Friday midnight.

The victim’s parents alleged that the cops did not take their intimation of their missing daughter seriously and had they done their job immediately, such a ghastly tragedy could have been averted.

Since Saturday morning, hundreds of local people started protesting near Jaynagar Police Station accusing police of negligence. As time passed the protests became violent and the people attacked the police station. A local police camp was ransacked and set on fire. The police had to resort to massive lathi-charge to dispel the mob.

Additional police forces rushed to the area to bring the situation under control and continued to stay put following the continuation of the tension in the area.

Meanwhile, Mostakin Sardar, the arrested accused in the rape and murder of the minor girl has confessed to murdering the girl, sources from the district police said on Sunday. However, he has not admitted to raping the girl, the sources added.

Palash Chandra Dhali, the Superintendent of Police, Baruipur district, under whose jurisdiction Jaynagar comes, said that whether the incident of rape took place or not, it will only be known after the post-mortem of the body is done.

State police sources said the arrested accused so far had not shown any kind of repentance even after confessing to his involvement in the murder. The cops are now trying to investigate what prompted him to conduct such a ghastly crime.

AGENCIES

 Google-owned YouTube said in a latest update that it has reinstated all channels and most videos that were removed due to a technical glitch or a bug.

After a bug incorrectly flagged some channels for spam and removed them, YouTube began working on the fix.

“Happy to report that all channels and most videos incorrectly removed have been reinstated and subscriptions are restored (we’re still working on the last few, bear with us),” YouTube said in a post on X social media platform early on Sunday.

“We know this caused some disruption, and we so appreciate your patience while we sort this out,” the company added.

The Google-owned company earlier said that their teams were “still working on reinstating the incorrectly removed channels and access to subscriptions”.

“We’re sorry for the trouble! Some content like playlists may be delayed, but it’s all coming back. Thanks for your patience while we work on this,” the company had mentioned in a post on X.

The YouTube channels were incorrectly removed for “Spam and Deceptive Practices.” That included access to all subscriptions (YouTube TV, YouTube Premium, YouTube Music).

The company also mentioned that some YouTube creators might have some content, like playlists, missing. But those will also be restored soon, the company added.

The original notice and subsequent updates on the support page have been addressed to “Content Creators”.

Although, some non-content creators have been unable to access their YouTube account, watch YouTube videos, or listen to YouTube Music too.

According to reports, with some paid subscriptions, like YouTube Premium, not available, saved content cannot be viewed including playlists.

YouTube, however, did not confirm how many users were affected by the technical glitch.

AGENCIES