A group of 15 people who hailed from Thiruvananthapuram in Kerala had travelled to Nepal on holiday. They were traveling from Pokhara to take a flight back to India and had made a pitstop at a hotel in Daman in Nepal’s Makwanpur district, where they had turned on the gas heater for the night, to keep themselves warm. The area is at an altitude of nearly 2500 metres above sea level.
The manager of the resort told Himalayan Times that the guests had booked four rooms but eight of them stayed in a room, while the remaining others in other rooms.
Praveen's friend Renjith Kumar TB (39) who hails from Kozhikode, his wife Indu Renjith (34) and their son Vaishnav Renjith (2) were also sleeping in the same room, according to a press release issued by the District Police Office, Makwanpur. All three of them too died. The couple had two children, their son Madhav was reportedly was sleeping in a different room and his life was spared.
The deceased persons were found unconscious inside a locked suite inside the Everest Panorama Resort in Daman. According to the hotel manager, the room in which they were found unconscious was bolted from inside. The local police were alerted after the rest of the group staying in another room went to check on them. They were immediately airlifted to Kathmandu following this. A picture of the room shows an outdoor heater that was used in the room. There have been many cases in the past where people have died because of carbon monoxide poisoning. When a heater is used in an enclosed space, a gas leak can cause a carbon monoxide build up in the room, leading to poisoning.
They were airlifted in two sorties to HAMS hospital in Dhumbahari, Kathmandu, where they were declared brought dead on Tuesday morning.
Meanwhile, the Indian Embassy issued a statement on the deaths. "Our doctor, along with a member of the group, is in the hospital. Other group members and family from India/Dubai are on their way to Kathmandu. Contact details of Mission officials have been shared with family/friends," it said.
Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan has sought the intervention of External Affairs minister S Jaishanakar to render all assistance to the families of the eight keralite tourists who died at a resort in Nepal.
Source : https://www.thenewsminute.com/article/8-tourists-kerala-including-4-kids-found-dead-nepal-hotel-room-116519
Two men have been arrested on charges of cheating elderly citizens in Calcutta on the pretext of helping them withdraw money from ATMs.
Police said the duo, who are from Gaya in Bihar, had used skimmers to steal encrypted data from the magnetic strips of ATM cards when elderly people handed over their cards to them, seeking help in withdrawing money.
The detective department’s anti-bank fraud section has seized 38 cloned cards, which suggest that data from at least 38 ATM cards had been stolen over the past few weeks in the city, the police said.
The police arrested Mudassar Khan and Irfanuddin on Thursday in connection with four cases.
Cops could get pictures of the accused through CCTV camera footage of the ATM kiosks from where money had been withdrawn without the knowledge of the card holder.
A few weeks ago, dozens of Calcuttans had lost money from their bank accounts through ATM withdrawals in south Delhi.
More than 60 cases had been reported and over Rs 25 lakh lost.
The police had busted a Romanian gang running the racket in Delhi.
Investigators, however, feel Mudassar and Irfanuddin were not linked to the Romanian gang.
“They do not appear to be part of a larger gang. Their modus operandi is different from the Romanian gang. The Romanian gang used to install skimmers in ATMs, leave it there and later use the data to clone cards,” an officer said.
“These two men mostly offered help to the elderly, asked them for the PIN to complete a transaction and exchange the cards with old invalid ones. At times, they would confuse the elderly and swipe the cards through a skimmer pretending to help them and steal the data for later use.”
Mudassar and Irfanuddin were picked up on Thursday evening minutes before they were to board a train to Darjeeling from Sealdah.
“A skimming device, a laptop, a Magnetic Strip Reader Writer (MSRW) have been seized from them,” Murlidhar Sharma, joint commissioner (crime), said.
The two had been living separately at rented apartments in Jadavpur and Tiljala.
The seized cloned cards had their PINs written on the back, an officer said. All the cases where the elderly were cheated had been reported from unguarded ATM kiosks.
“Elderly people are most vulnerable... they often find it difficult to follow the steps in different ATM kiosks and end up seeking help from guards or someone waiting to withdraw money,” an officer said. “Cheats keep watch for such people and offer help seeing them fumble at the kiosk.”
Via : The Telegraph
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North Bengal University introduced higher studies in pharmaceutical technology and food technology
The North Bengal University has launched post-doctoral (PhD) courses in pharmaceutical technology and food technology.
A few months ago, the varsity had introduced MSc courses in the two subjects.
“We have introduced higher studies in pharmaceutical technology and food technology. Twelve students have already been admitted to the post-doctoral (PhD) course in pharmaceutical technology, while two others have enrolled for PhD in food technology,” said Pranab Ghosh, the head of the department, pharmaceutical technology.
“The scholars will carry out researches on the molecular level involving natural products, their isolation, characterisation and possible application in medicine,” he added.
As the departments of pharmaceutical technology and food technology have been approved by the All India Council for Technical Education and Pharmaceutical Council of India , the research scholars will receive fellowship from the AICTE, said sources.
“At the NBU, we have a good number of instruments in the lab to take up such researches. Some more instruments would be brought in soon,” an official said.
The varsity has 18 seats for the masters’ course in pharmaceutical technology and 24 seats for MSc in food technology. In total, 12 faculty members teach these courses.
From the coming academic session, the NBU plans to introduce BPharm course.
The tea science department at the NBU has decided to send its experts to small tea plantations in the Siliguri subdivision, Jalpaiguri district and Islampur subdivision to provide field training to small growers. “We will organise camps to make the growers aware of different techniques of tea cultivation,” said Pranab Ghosh, the head of the tea science department at the NBU.
“We will also speak to youths in those areas and encourage them to take up undergraduate courses in tea science.”
Via : The Telegraph, published 8.1.20,
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A portion of the Burdwan Railway Station building collapsed on Saturday evening, injuring five people and leaving many people trapped inside. No causalities have been reported so far.
Work is on to remove the debris and look for people who might be trapped under it, an Eastern Railway official said. "The portion of the station building at Burdwan collapsed at 8.10 pm," he said.
(With inputs from PTI)
Over 35,000 people walked through prominent thoroughfares, the longest march that Siliguri saw in recent times
The 3.5km march led by Mamata Banerjee here on Friday against the Centre’s citizenship thrust witnessed the presence of a large crowd comprising members of different communities.
Over 35,000 people walked with the chief minister through prominent thoroughfares of the city, the longest march that Siliguri saw in recent times.
An equal number of people stood on either side of the route from Hill Cart Road to Baghajatin Park through Kutcheri Road, cheering and welcoming “Didi”.
Slogans against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, National Register of Citizens and the National Population Register rented the air.
“It was the longest march in recent times and we have proved that people have shunned the BJP and are with us. The event was like a test for us and it seems we have passed with flying colours,” said a Trinamul leader in Siliguri.
Along with the show of strength, Trinamul also managed to establish another major point through the meeting and the march — the presence of people of different communities.
From the hills, at least 10,000 Gorkhas had driven down to attend the procession. So had the Rajbanshis and tribals, who reached from different places of the Siliguri subdivision and the neighbouring Jalpaiguri district in large numbers.
Last month, the BJP had taken out a procession here in support of the CAA. The presence of Gorkhas, Rajbanshis and tribals was less then.
“Also, members of the minority community and different income groups of the society took part in our walk. That is significant,” the Trinamul leader said.
This is Mamata’s second march in Siliguri. The first was in March 2016 ahead of the Assembly polls. “Then, the crowd was less than what we saw on Friday,” said a political analyst.
He also pointed out a sharp contrast that was witnessed within a gap of 10 months. In April 2019, Mamata had been to Baghajatin Park to address a public meeting ahead of the Parliament polls. There were hardly 3,000 people at the venue and the ground was just partially filled.
“People had even started leaving while she was speaking. But when Mamata reached the same venue today and took the microphone, people started pouring in thousands, even though it was drizzling. The response was encouraging for Trinamul and the crowd listened to the chief minister, cheered and raised slogans. This is a significant change,” the analyst said.
The turnout at the rallies — the Trinamul chief spoke before and after the march — and the procession has bolstered the confidence of party leaders, many of whom were crestfallen after the BJP had bagged seven of eight Lok Sabha seats in north Bengal.
“In the past couple of months, there were some indications that people were returning to us. But on Friday, the response corroborated our belied that the trend is in favour of us. Leaders in Siliguri should see that Trinamul wins civic and rural polls here,” a Trinamul leader of Jalpaiguri said.
The presence of a large number of Gorkhas made Mamata announce from the dais that she would hold a march in the hills on January 22.
So far, the Binay Tamang faction of the Gorkha Janmukti Morcha — an ally of Trinamul — was organising the movement against the CAA and the NRC in the hills.
[Via : The Telegraph]
Mamata Banerjee on Friday said she had a question: “I want to ask Prime Minister Narendra Modi, doesn’t he feel ashamed comparing our country with Pakistan?”
The Bengal chief minister posed the question at a public meeting in Siliguri before leading her first march in north Bengal against the CAA-NRC-NPR, where the large turnout surprised even Trinamul leaders.
“Are you Pakistan’s ambassador? Have you been put in this post to glorify Pakistan day and night?” Mamata continued.
“If someone says that I am unemployed, give me a job, he says, ‘Go to Pakistan’,” Mamata said.
“Whenever anybody speaks on issues like unemployment, food, industry or citizenship, they are told to go to Pakistan. Despite being the Prime Minister of India, he seems to have forgotten his own country and goes on and on about Pakistan,” she said. “Why should we think about Pakistan? We want to think about Hindustan and the problems here.”
Sources in Trinamul said Mamata had brought up the issue to “expose” how the Modi regime uses Pakistan to divert attention whenever faced with difficult questions, whether on the economy, the citizenship law or elections.
The BJP’s stellar show in the last Lok Sabha polls had been partly linked to its success in creating an anti-Pakistan narrative with the air strikes, made purportedly on a terror camp in Balakot. Before the October Assembly polls in Haryana, Modi had threatened to stop the flow of river water to Pakistan.
Mamata also took a swipe at the BJP-run state governments, accusing them of throttling democracy. “You (BJP leaders) are freely coming to Calcutta and visiting other places (in Bengal), holding rallies and criticising me. But then, why are you denying us entry in Uttar Pradesh and Guwahati?” she said.
The Trinamul Congress chief was referring to visits by her party MPs to Guwahati (during the NRC exercise) and recently to Lucknow. The police in Assam and Uttar Pradesh, both ruled by the BJP, did not let them move out of the airport.
Mamata also addressed the concerns of the non-Bengali population in Siliguri and surrounding areas and sought their support.
“There are people from Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and some other states who live in Bengal now. All of them are residents of our state. Now if you are being asked to show 50-year-old documents of your families, will it be possible for you?” Mamata said.
The Trinamul chief announced a march on January 9 from Barasat to Madhyamgram in North 24-Parganas and on January 22 in the Darjeeling hills.
[By Avijit Sinha , Via : Telegraph]
The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway is likely to touch the one lakh mark in terms of the number of passengers for the second fiscal in a row, indicate the data available with the heritage mountain railway.
The mountain rail service that had started in 1881 was bestowed with world heritage status by the Unesco in 1999.
In the fiscal of 2018-2019, the number of passengers crossed the one lakh mark for the first time in the history of DHR.
“From April 1 till December 31 in 2019, 85,545 passengers boarded the DHR trains. Considering the trend, we hope the number will cross the one lakh mark by the end of this fiscal, that is, March 31, 2020,” said S. Chanda, the chief public relations officer of Northeast Frontier Railway.
During the first nine months of the current fiscal, the DHR earned Rs 9.49 crore in ticket sales.
In 2018, 95,443 passengers had boarded the toy train from April to December. The earning of the DHR was Rs 9.63 crore then, said NFR sources.
In the past two years, the DHR took a number of initiatives to popularise toy train rides among tourists.
Introduction of air-conditioned coaches and vistadome bogies and the launch of an afternoon charter ride with on-board refreshments were some of the initiatives.
Last year, the railways had held a number of events to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the world heritage status.
“We are now planning to highlight the heritage of the DHR so that people can learn more about the 130-year-old railway. As a part of the plan, a decision was taken to improve the infrastructure of the DHR museums located at Sukna, Ghum and Kurseong stations,” said an official.
Those associated with travel trade are also elated over the spike in the passenger count.
“Toy train is one of the unique properties which pulls tourists to Darjeeling from around the world.
Introduction of new coaches and services led to a rise in the number of visitors. We hope the railways will come up with new plans and decisions to popularise the DHR further. This would in due course contribute to an increase in the footfall of tourists in north Bengal,” said Samrat Sanyal, the general secretary of the Himalayan Hospitality and Tourism Development Network.
[Via : Telegraph
