India

The deceased were identified as Piyush, 13, Nikhil,10, and Ashish,13, all residents of H-block in Jahangirpuri.

Sharing the details, Delhi Fire Service (DFS) Director Atul Garg said that around 3 p.m., a call regarding children drowned in a ditch was received following which a fire department team rushed to the spot near Mukundpur Chowk in Jahangirpuri area.

“At 4:30 p.m, STO Ram Gopal reported that three children drowned in a ditch at the metro construction site. They were taken out and rushed to the BJRM hospital where all three were declared dead by the doctors,” he said.

--IANS

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The accused were identified as Shailender Tiwari and his wife Vijay Laxmi Tiwari.

Police said that a complaint was received from Anil Shukla and 28 other victims wherein they had leveled allegations against Shailender and Vijay, that the couple had published advertisements in newspaper and engaged agents for the booking of plots.

“Having induced by the rosy picture projected by the accused persons, the complainants booked the plots and paid the sale consideration to the alleged persons. After receiving the amount, the accused persons neither got the registry done in favor of complainants nor returned the amount,” the complaints stated.

“The couple delayed the matter on one pretext or the other. The total money paid by the victims on record adds up to over Rs. 1.51 crores. It has been alleged that about 300-350 victims of the locality have also paid around Rs. 2.5 crore to the accused for booking the plots. Many of the victims belong to the lower income group of the society,” the Deputy Commissioner of Police (EOW) Vikram Porwal.

During the investigation, multiple raids were conducted at their suspected hideouts and efforts were made to track Shailender and his wife at their native place in Gorakhpur, UP but all was in vain.

“However, after the couple was arrested Shailender from their rented house in Ahmedabad, Gujarat on July 12,” said the DCP.

Explaining the modus operandi of the accused, the DCP said that the couple used to give token money to purchase agricultural land from farmers and after giving token money they used to start selling the plots of land situated at Khatkhad (Sonipat), Lampur (Narela), Swaroop Nagar and Loni without changing the land use from agricultural to residential purpose, and without observing other legal formalities for building colonies.

“Many of the victims belong to lower income group and they have made payments in cash and receipts for the same have been issued by the alleged. After receiving the sale consideration, the victims could not get the registry done as they had not made full payments to the farmers. After cheating the victims by huge amounts, both of them went underground,” said the DCP.

--IANS

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In its bulletin, it said that in northwest India, there will be fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall expected to continue over Uttarakhand and Uttar Pradesh for the next five days and Himachal Pradesh and east Rajasthan will also experience isolated heavy rainfall during this period.

“On July 17, Uttarakhand is likely to experience isolated extremely heavy rainfall,” said the IMD.

In east and adjoining northeast India, there will be fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall expected over Sub-Himalayan West Bengal and Sikkim till July 17.

“Bihar will experience similar conditions till July 17. Odisha will have isolated heavy rainfall for the next five days, while Jharkhand will experience it from July 15 to 17. Gangetic West Bengal will have isolated heavy rainfall till July 15. Nagaland, Manipur, Mizoram, Tripura, Assam, and Meghalaya will have isolated heavy rainfall for the next four days, and Arunachal Pradesh will experience it till July 16,” said the IMD.

In central India, there will be light to moderate fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall expected over west Madhya Pradesh for the next five days.

“Vidarbha will experience it on July 17 and 18. East Madhya Pradesh will have isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall for the next five days, and Chhattisgarh will experience it from July 16 to 18,” it said.

The IMD predicted that west India is expected to have light to moderate fairly widespread to widespread rainfall with isolated heavy to very heavy rainfall over Konkan & Goa for the next five days. “Ghat areas of Madhya Maharashtra will experience isolated very heavy rainfall till July 15. Gujarat will have isolated very heavy rainfall on July 18,” it said.

In South India, there will be light to moderate scattered to fairly widespread rainfall with isolated heavy rainfall very likely over coastal Karnataka till July 18.

“Telangana, Kerala, and Mahe will also experience isolated heavy rainfall on July 18,” it said.

--IANS

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He said the financial assistance would help people affected by rainfall and resultant floods that had hit various parts of the state this week.

Heavy rains and cloudbursts have triggered flooding, landslides, collapse of home and bridge that have severely disrupted access even to basic amenities.

Sharma said SJVN will always remain in forefront in assisting the government's efforts in relief measures.

"We stand by the people of the state in this hour of distress and express our solidarity and support to the ongoing relief and rehabilitation efforts. We hope that the funds will aid the people as they rebuild their lives in the aftermath of the recent floods. I also appeal everyone to generously donate to help the needy to tide over the calamity," said Sharma.

He also expressed grief over the loss of life and property due to landslides and flash floods.

Earlier, SJVN employees have voluntarily donated their one-day salary amounting to Rs 55 lakh to the CM Relief Fund.

--IANS

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Adjacent to Rajghat are the memorials of several other Prime Ministers, including Jawaharlal Nehru, Lal Bahadur Shastri, Indira Gandhi, Chaudhary Charan Singh, Rajiv Gandhi, Atal Vihari Bajpayee, and Congress leader Sanjay Gandhi.

At Rajghat, the water was more than knee-deep.

Nearby is the busy ITO Crossing, which was also submerged on Friday morning. The water had even reached near the Supreme Court.

The whole area experienced a massive traffic jam on Friday, leaving commuters stuck.

The Yamuna River broke a 45-year-old record and recorded its highest level at 208.65 metres on Thursday. On Friday, it was flowing at 208.35 metres.

As a result, several low-lying areas have been innundated, and many roads are flooded. Apart from Rajghat, areas such as Mukherjee Nagar, Model Town, Civil Lines, Majnu Ka Teela, and ISBT, witnessed massive water logging. On Thursday, the water even reached near the residence of Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

However, the water is now slowly receding.

--IANS

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In the last 48 hours, 40 sorties have been carried out in which 126 people have been rescued and 17 tonnes of relief materials have been distributed in various areas, an official said.

In the last 24 hours, major operations have been carried out towards flood-affected areas of Haryana. Villages of Nihara, Allaudin Majra, Bishangarh, Segta, Bhunni, Mumni, Segti and Jansui were provided with relief materials consisting of rations, tarpaulin sheets, fresh food and water bottles by M-17 helicopters, a statement by the IAF said.

An official said that air-warriors and all requisite assets such as M-17 and Chinook Helicopters and An-32 and C-130 Transport Aircraft remain on standby to undertake required operations.

Regarding the evacuation of stranded tourists from the snow-marooned Chandertal, a lake surrounded by Himalayan mountains in Lahaul-Spiti district, the IAF said requisition was received by headquarters of the Western Command on July 11 for humanitarian assistance and disaster relief and casualty evacuation stranded from various locations in Himachal Pradesh.

One Mi-17 V5 was launched and the aircraft landed at Bhuntar airfield at 11.40 a.m.

The first priority was of seven critical personnel stranded at Chandertal in Barashingri Glacier at an elevation of 4.3 km.

The casualty evacuation was carried out at 5.30 p.m. on July 11.

The pickup zone was in a glacier with no landing place and loose snow.

Due to sloping terrain, and to ensure wheels do not sink, the rescue was carried out with one wheel touching on snow and rest two wheels in air.

The rescued personnel were received by the Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister at Bhuntar.

Due to treacherous terrain, no communication with ground, no wind indication and no place to land, the pickup zone was extremely challenging for any kind of landing or winching operations, said the IAF in a statement.

"Because of this being a mercy mission and to save civilian lives, a one-time operation was successfully undertaken," it said.

--IANS

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Addressing the people assembled at the Mission Control Centre at the rocket port here after the successful rocket mission, S. Mohana Kumar, the Mission Director, Chandrayaan-3 said it was a 73-day penance for the ISRO family.

The penance has been finally rewarded with the injection of Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in the precise orbit.

Kumar said the LVM3 rocket has undergone continuous improvement as it will be used for India's human space mission called Gaganyaan.

According to S. Unnikrishnan, Director, Vikram Sarabhai Space Centre, this is the seventh successful mission of LVM3 rocket. Several changes have been made in the rocket to make it the ideal vehicle for the Gaganyaan mission.

On his part the Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft Director is Dr P. Veeramuthuvel, the journey to the moon has begun and several critical manoeuvres have been lined up in the coming days.

At about 2.35 p.m. on Friday, the rocket LVM3 broke free from the second launch pad and ascended towards the skies.

About 16 minutes later the rocket slung its only passenger -- Chandrayaan-3 -- in the intended orbit.

From there ISRO officials will take the spacecraft towards the moon and try to land it on the lunar soil sometime late next month.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached atv.jagannathan@ians.in)

--IANS

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The country’s heavy rocket slung the 3.8 ton Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft in its intended earth orbit.

The rocket is nicknamed as `Bahubali’ as like the hero in the successful film lifts a heavy Lingam, the rocket carried the 3.8-tonne Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.

From there it will be a long journey for Chandrayaan-3 as the distance between the earth and the moon is about 3.844 lakh km.

Speaking after the launch Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) Chairman S.Somanath ssaid that, “Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft has started its journey towards the moon. The LVM3 rocket orbited the spacecraft precisely at the intended orbit.”

Meanwhile, the MOS in PMO Jitendra Singh said that: “It is indeed a moment of glory to India. Thank you Team ISRO for making India proud. Prime Minister Narendra.”

The total project cost is about Rs.615 crore.

At about 2.55 p.m. the LVM3 rocket with a strong deep growl rose into the sky breaking free from the second launch pad here at Satish Dhawan Space Centre.

The 43.5 metre tall rocket weighing about 642 ton furiously rushed upwards with thick bright orange flame leaving behind an anaconda like long and thick white smoke.

The rocket is nicknamed as `Bahubali’ as like the hero in the successful film lifts a heavy Lingam, the rocket carries the 3.8-tonne Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft.

The other nickname is fat boy.

About 16-minutes into its flight, the rocket put into orbit Chandrayaan-3.

From there it will be over a month long journey for Chandrayaan-3 to reach its destination as the distance between the two planets is about 3.844 lakh km.

The Indian space agency will raise the spacecraft’s orbit by a series of manoeuvres to put it on Lunar Transfer Trajectory in the coming days.

Couple of days after the spacecraft enters lunar orbit, the lander will make a soft landing on the moon near its South Pole.

The Chandrayaan-3 spacecraft comprises a propulsion module (weighing 2,148 kg), a lander (1,723.89 kg) and a rover (26 kg), the ISRO said.

Incidentally, the Chandrayaan-2 payload also weighed about 3.8 ton with the orbiter weighing 2,379 kg, the Vikram lander 1,444 kg, including the Pragyan rover 27 kg.

During the Chandrayaan-2 mission ISRO had named the lander as Vikram in memory of country's space pioneer Vikram Sarabhai and rover Pragyan means wisdom in Sanskrit.

But this time around, ISRO has not officially named the lander and the rover.

Be that as it may, according to ISRO, the propulsion module has Spectro-polarimetry of Habitable Planet Earth (SHAPE) payload to study the spectral and Polari metric measurements of Earth from the lunar orbit.

The lander payloads are: Chandra’s Surface Thermophysical Experiment (ChaSTE) to measure the thermal conductivity and temperature; Instrument for Lunar Seismic Activity (ILSA) for measuring the seismicity around the landing site; Langmuir Probe (LP) to estimate the plasma density and its variations.

A passive Laser Retroreflector Array from NASA is accommodated for lunar laser ranging studies.

On the other hand, the rover will carry: Alpha Particle X-ray Spectrometer (APXS) and Laser Induced Breakdown Spectroscope (LIBS) for deriving the elemental composition in the vicinity of the landing site, ISRO said.

According to ISRO, the moon mission is divided into three phases – the earth centric phase (Pre-Launch, Launch and Ascent and Earth-bound Manoeuvre), the Lunar Transfer Phase (Transfer Trajectory), and the Moon Centric Phase (Lunar Orbit Insertion Phase, Moon-bound Manoeuvre Phase, Propulsion Module and Lunar Module Separation, De-boost Phase, Pre-landing Phase, Landing Phase, Normal Phase for Lander and Rover, Moon Centric Normal Orbit Phase -100 km circular orbit- for Propulsion Module).

With the successful launch the rocket has notched up an impeccable record of seven consecutive successful missions. This is the fourth operational flight of LVM3.

The LVM3 with a capacity to carry four ton, is a three stage/engine rocket with two strap-on motors powered by solid fuel. The second stage is a core liquid fuel booster and the third is the cryogenic engine.

Going forward, the lander is expected to make a soft-landing near the South Pole of the moon on August 23 or 24. It will descend to the moon from a height of about 100 km from the moon’s surface.

The soft landing is a tricky issue as it involves a series of complex manoeuvres consisting of rough and fine braking.

Imaging of the landing site region prior to landing will be done for finding safe and hazard-free zones.

Subsequent to the soft landing, the six-wheeled rover will roll out and carry out experiments on the lunar surface for a period of one lunar day which is equal to 14 Earth days.

The life of the payloads carried by the propulsion module post ejection of the lander is between three and six months. On the other hand, the mission life of the lander and the rover is 1 Lunar day or 14 earth days, ISRO said.

The success of Chandrayaan-3 mission will make India the fourth country in the world to land and ride on the Moon surface after the US, Russia and China.

India launched its first Moon mission Chandrayaan-1 in October 2008 using its light rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) and the second mission on July 22, 2019 with the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle-Mk III now renamed as LVM3.

The Friday moon mission is a follow up of the failed Chandrayaan-2 mission in 2019 when the lander named Vikram crashed on to the moon surface.

As regards the changes made in the lander this time as compared to the one that crash landed on the moon during the Chandrayaan-2 mission, a senior ISRO official told IANS that the lander has four motors instead of five.

The space agency has also carried out some changes in the software.

(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be reached at v.jagannathan@ians.in)

--IANS

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Sources said that the matter is likely to come up for hearing at the apex court next week.

It is learnt that in the petition she had argued that despite the investigation in the coal case in West Bengal being on for some time, never before the central agency had objected to her overseas trip.

However, on June 5, she was stopped by the immigration department at the Netaji Subhash Chandra Bose International Airport in Kolkata before boarding a Dubai- bound flight.

She was informed by the immigration department that she was stopped following a “lookout notice” issued against her by ED.

On the same day, she was served a notice by ED to appear at the central agency’s office for questioning in connection with the coal case in West Bengal.

Finally, on June 8, she appeared at ED’s Salt Lake office in the northern outskirts of Kolkata and faced questioning for about four hours.

At that point of time only, Trinamool Congress leadership had described the event of her being stopped at the airport as an action motivated by political vendetta on part of the Union government and BJP.

Describing the development as an inhuman act on part of ED, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said that she was going abroad to meet her ailing mother.

“The Supreme Court has not imposed any restrictions on her foreign tours. The apex court only asked her to inform the ED once before going out of the country. And she had informed the ED well in advance about her scheduled tour.

"The ED officials at that point of time only could have asked her not to travel abroad. But instead of doing that, she was stopped from boarding the flight this morning and also issued the notice on the same day. This is an inhuman act," the chief minister had said.

--IANS

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The poster was put outside the NCP office here.

The poster featured the infamous ‘backstabbing’ scene from the movie, ‘Bahubali: The Beginning’.

Ahead of NCP founder Sharad Pawar’s arrival in Delhi on Thursday, posters featuring a scene from ‘Bahubali: The Beginning’, where Kattappa stabs Bahubali in the back, were put up with ‘Gaddar’ written on them.

Meanwhile, all the old posters and hoardings of NCP that showed Ajit Pawar and Praful Patel on them were removed from outside NCP office in Delhi.

The meeting in the national capital comes a day after NCP supremo Sharad Pawar and his nephew Ajit Pawar both held separate meetings in Mumbai on Wednesday.

Ajit Pawar had split the NCP and took oath as Deputy Chief Minister along with eight Ministers in the BJP-Eknath Shinde government in Maharashtra.

In the meeting called by Ajit Pawar around 30 MLAs attended. The claims-counterclaims notwithstanding, senior leaders put the figures at 35 on Ajit Pawar side and 18 in Sharad Pawar’s camp, though the real picture has yet to emerge.

The NCP has 53 MLAs and Ajit Pawar would require the support of two-thirds - at least 36 legislators - without attracting the provisions of the anti-defection laws.

On Wednesday, the fight for the NCP name and symbol reached the Election Commission. Ajit Pawar's camp approached the poll panel claiming that they have the backing of a majority of the party's MLAs. The Ajit Pawar-led camp claimed the backing of 40 elected party officials (MLAs, MLCs, and MPs).

--IANS

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