One killed, 14 injured in building collapse in Bengaluru

One worker died after an under-construction building collapsed in Babusapalya near Hennur in Bengaluru on Tuesday (October 22, 2024) amidst incessant rains.

The police and Fire and Emergency Services team said 14 people were rescued from the debris of the six-storied building located in Anjanadri Layout and taken to different hospitals in the city.

There were 20 workers in the building at the time of the incident, and rescue operations are on to track down five more people who are said to be trapped.

The entire incident was captured on CCTV cameras installed in the opposite building, which showed the building abruptly falling like a pack of cards.

All the victims, who mostly hailed from Uttar Pradesh, were inside the building due to the rain when the building collapsed. Initial probe revealed that poor quality of construction led to the incident and constant rain may have aggravated it.

Supreme Court reserves verdict on pleas against Allahabad HC judgment quashing Uttar Pradesh madrasa law

The Supreme Court on Tuesday reserved its verdict on pleas challenging the Allahabad High Court judgment, which declared the 2004 Uttar Pradesh law on madrasas as unconstitutional on the ground of it being violative of the principle of secularism.

A Bench comprising Chief Justice of India (CJI) D. Y. Chandrachud and Justices J. B. Pardiwala and Manoj Misra heard a battery of lawyers on behalf of eight petitioners besides Additional Solicitor General K.M. Natraj for the Uttar Pradesh government for almost two days before reserving the verdict.

Commencing the final arguments on the pleas against the verdict, the Bench, on Monday heard senior lawyers including Abhishek Manu Singhvi, Salman Khurshid and Menaka Guruswamy for the petitioners.

On Tuesday, the top court also heard senior advocates including Mukul Rohatgi, P. Chidambaram and Guru Krishna Kumar for various litigants.

On March 22, the Allahabad High Court had declared the Act as “unconstitutional” and violative of the principle of secularism, and asked the State government to accommodate madrasa students in the formal schooling system.

On April 5, the CJI-led Bench had provided a breather to about 17 lakh madrasa students by staying the verdict of the High Court scrapping the Uttar Pradesh Board of Madarsa Education Act, 2004. The top court heard about eight petitions, including the lead one filed by Anjum Kadari against the High Court verdict.

We are trying to restore trust, reassure each other, other stages will follow through, says Army Chief on disengagement talks with China

A day after the Foreign Secretary announced that India and China have reached an agreement on patrolling and disengagement in Eastern Ladakh, Army Chief Gen Upendra Dwivedi sounded a cautionary note stressing that they are trying to “restore trust” and “reassure each other” and once that is restored other stages — disengagement, de-escalation and normal management of the Line of Actual Control (LAC) — will follow through.

“As of now what has happened. We are trying to restore the trust. How will that get restored? Trust will get restored if we are able to see each other. And we are able to convince each other… that buffer zones which are there, which have been created, we are not creeping. Both have to reassure each other. Patrolling gives you that kind of advantage. So that is what something which is commencing. And as we restore the trust, the other stages will also follow through soon,” Gen Dwivedi said. He was speaking at the 28th Colonel Pyara Lal memorial lecture organised by the United Service Institution of India.

“As far as we are concerned, we want to go back to status quo of April 2020,” he reiterated. “There after we will be looking at disengagement, de-escalation and normal management of LAC. The normal management of LAC will not stop there. There are phases in that also.”

“This has been our stance from April 2020 when Lt Gen YK Joshi was the Army Commander and even today that remains the same,” the Army Chief stressed.

India and China have reached an agreement on “patrolling arrangements ” along the LAC leading to “disengagement and a resolution” of the issues that had arisen in these areas in 2020, Foreign Secretary Vikram Masri announced on Monday, which officials said includes disengagement at Depsang and Demchok. Later External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that with the agreement they have gone back to where the situation was in 2020. “With that we can say the disengagement process with China has been completed,” he said.

Further Jaishankar has said that there are areas which, for various reasons after 2020, they have blocked us, so we had blocked them. “We have reached an understanding which will allow the patrolling... Depsang, that’s not the only place there are other places also. The understanding is that we will be able to do patrolling which we were doing till 2020.”

TMC’s Kalyan Banerjee suspended after smashing glass bottle during heated exchange at Waqf Bill meeting

TMC MP Kalyan Banerjee was suspended from the Joint Committee meeting on the Waqf (Amendment) Bill 2024 on Tuesday (October 22, 2024), after he reportedly broke a glass bottle during an argument with BJP MPs.

Reportedly, Banerjee smashed a glass water bottle and threw it away during a heated exchange of words with BJP’s Abhijit Gangopadhyay.

In the process, Banerjee hurt his thumb and index finger and had to be given first aid. He was seen being escorted back to the meeting room by AIMIM chief Asaduddin Owaisi and AAP leader Sanjay Singh.

The committee, chaired by BJP’s Jagdambika Pal, was listening to the views of a group of retired judges and lawyers when the opposition members questioned what was their stake in the bill.

Delhi’s air quality plummets to ‘very poor’ category, GRAP Stage II enforced

A thick layer of smog enveloped Delhi on Tuesday morning as the city’s air quality deteriorated to the ‘very poor’ category with 27 monitoring stations falling in the red zone, with an Air Quality Index (AQI) of 317 recorded around 9:00 a.m., according to the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB).

The thick layer of fog was seen in areas like Anand Vihar, Kalkaji, Nehru Place, and Akshardham Temple, as the city’s air quality continued to deteriorate. Smog also engulfed the Ghazipur area, further worsening visibility.

Warning of possible health impacts was given to residents, especially those with respiratory conditions. The pollution levels are expected to remain high if weather conditions remain unfavourable.

Hezbollah hides millions in cash, gold under Beirut hospital, says Israel

Hezbollah has stashed hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold in a bunker built under a hospital in Beirut, Israel’s military said on Monday, adding it will not strike the facility as it keeps up attacks against the group’s financial assets.

Fadi Alameh, a Lebanese lawmaker with the Shi’ite Amal Movement party and the director of the hospital in question, Al-Sahel, told Reuters that Israel was making false and slanderous claims and called on the Lebanese Army to visit and show it only had operating rooms, patients and a morgue.

Alameh said the hospital was being evacuated. Israel’s military said it was not going to strike the facility.

Reuters could not independently verify the details provided by the Israeli military’s chief spokesman, Rear Admiral Daniel Hagari, which he said had been collected by Israeli intelligence for years.

Hezbollah could not immediately be reached for comment. In a televised statement, Hagari said Hezbollah’s former leader, Sayyed Hassan Nasrallah, whom Israel killed last month, had built the bunker which was designed for lengthy stays.

“There are hundreds of millions of dollars in cash and gold inside the bunker right now. I’m calling on the Lebanese government, Lebanese authorities, and the international organisations — don’t allow Hezbollah to use the money for terror and to attack Israel,” Hagari said.

“The Israeli Air Force is monitoring the compound, as you can see. However, we will not strike the hospital itself,” Hagari said.

Israeli Chief of the General Staff Herzi Halevi told troops in Lebanon that overnight between Sunday (October 20, 2024) and Monday (October 21, 2024), aircraft had struck around 30 sites belonging to Al-Qard al-Hassan, which Israel says is Hezbollah’s financial arm. Hagari said more strikes against Hezbollah financial sites were to continue.

In Brief:

PM Modi tells Putin that India wants peace in Ukraine

Prime Minister Narendra Modi told Russian President Vladimir Putin on the eve of the BRICS summit that he wanted peace in Ukraine and that New Delhi was ready to help achieve a truce to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. Putin, who ordered tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in February 2022, wants the BRICS summit to showcase the rising clout of the non-Western world after the United States and its European and Asian allies tried to isolate Russia over the war.

Nearly 50 flights receive bomb threats on October 22

Nearly 50 domestic and international flights of Indian carriers received bomb threats on Tuesday, taking the total number of flights that have received the threats since Monday night to around 80, according to sources. The sources in the know said 13 flights each of Air India and IndiGo, over 12 flights of Akasa Air and 11 flights of Vistara received the threats on Tuesday. On Monday night, 10 flights each of Air India, IndiGo and Vistara had received the threats, with three Jeddah-bound IndiGo flights getting diverted to airports in Saudi Arabia and Qatar. In little over a week, more than 170 flights operated by Indian carriers have received bomb threats.

Evening Wrap will return tomorrow.

Published - October 22, 2024 09:34 pm IST