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Sri Lanka never expected bombings of such magnitude: Defence Secretary

The Sri Lankan government never expected the Easter Sunday bombings of such magnitude, Defence Secretary Hemasiri Fernando said Tuesday and asserted that it would have been "impossible" to protect a large number of churches in the country despite receiving prior intelligence about the attacks which killed 290 people, including 8 Indians.

Seven suicide bombers believed to be members of local Islamist extremist group National Tawheed Jamath (NTJ) carried out a series of devastating blasts that tore through churches and luxury hotels in Sri Lanka on Easter Sunday, in the country's worst terror attack.

No group has claimed responsibility for Sunday's attacks, but police have arrested 24 people - mostly members of an Islamist extremist group - in connection with the blasts that also killed  31 foreigners, including eight Indian nationals.

"It was quite impossible to protect a large number of churches last Sunday despite receiving prior information to these attacks," Fernando told reporters.

He said the government did not expect an attack of such magnitude to occur and the extensive measures to prevent the bombings despite would have been impossible.

"An emergency law is non-functional in this country since Sri Lanka is a democratic country. Therefore there is very little I can do" the Defence Secretary was quoted as saying by the Sunday Times.

Fernando noted that the state intelligence service had already informed the government of a small but organised and powerful criminal group operating in the country.

He said the FBI has already commenced investigations into the incident while the Interpol is expected to arrive in the country on Tuesday.

The Defence Secretary also said the government will not provide protection to hotels as it is an aspect which must be looked after by their respective security officials.

Fernando said the government had not provided security to hotels even during the civil war.

Interpol Secretary-General Jurgen Stock in a Twitter message has offered full support to the investigation being carried out by the Lankan authorities.

Meanwhile, Sri Lanka's president Maithripala Sirisena Tuesday gave the military sweeping police powers in the wake of the Easter bombings.

The military was given a wider berth to detain and arrest suspects — powers that were used during the civil war but withdrawn when it ended.

Prime Minister Ranil Wickremesinghe said he feared the massacre could unleash instability and pledged to "vest all necessary powers with the defense forces" to act against those responsible.

The suicide bombings struck three churches and three luxury hotels Sunday in the island nation's deadliest violence since a devastating civil war ended in 2009.

The blasts shattered a decade of peace in the island nation since the end of the brutal civil war with the LTTE.

The civil war ended with the defeat of the Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam (LTTE), which ran a military campaign for a separate Tamil homeland in the northern and eastern provinces of the island nation for nearly 30 years.

The LTTE collapsed in 2009 after the Lankan army killed its supreme leader Velupillai Prabhakaran. The war is thought to have killed between 70,000 and 80,000 people.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/

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16 Bokaro students shine in NTSE

As many as sixteen students of Delhi Public School Bokaro shined in the National Talent Search Examination (NTSE) 2019 conducted by NCERT.

Among the sixteen students, many were among the top 10 positions in the State.

The students who cleared the examination with flying colours include Satwik Singh (Rank 3), Varun Tandon (Rank 4), Priyanshu Ranjan (Rank 4), Avinash Kumar Sinha (Rank 4), Ashutosh Kumar Sinha (Rank 8), Niranjan Verma (Rank 8), Utsav Shekhar (Rank 8), Vivek Kumar (Rank 8), Utkarsh Kumar (Rank 10), Jayant Sethi (Rank 10), Deepanshu Kumar (Rank 11), Ankur Panday (Rank 11), Sandeep Murmu (Rank 12), Rishav Mishra (Rank 13), Aryan Sah (Rank 13) and Sahil Kumar (Rank14), informed Mritunjay Sharma Administrator of the school.

“NTSE is a national-level scholarship program as well as one of the most prestigious examinations in India at the Secondary school level to identify and recognize students with high intellect and academic talent,” he said.

Congratulating the students, Principal, DPS Bokaro, AS Gangwar said, every achievement is a result of hard work, persistence, learning from failure and dedication. “Such exams promote competitive temperament and enhance the academic talents of the students,” he added.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/state-editions/16-bokaro-students-shine-in-ntse.html

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Cong announces Pankaj Sanghvi from Indore seat

The Congress announced the name of Pankaj Sanghvi who had lost to BJP’s Sumitra Mahajan in 1998.

Sanghvi had contested his first poll as a corproator in 1983. He was fielded against Mahajan in 1998 and lost to her by over 49,000 votes. Sanghvi also had contested for the Indore mayor in 2009 but had lost to BJP’s senior leader Krishna Murari Moghe by barely 4,000 votes.

He could not end his losing streak in 2013 when he was named as Congress candidate from assembly no 5 in Indore but lost narrowly to BJP candidate Mahendra Hardia by 12 000 votes.

Like Bhopal, Indore is also another saffron citadel in MP which the party hasn’t lost since 1989.

However the party this time had few other plans as sitting MP and the LS speaker Sumitra Mahajn’s ticket is yet to be announced. An upset Mahajan had recently announced not to contest poll if the party was in any sort of dilemma over her candidature.

Mahajan had reached New Delhi on Sunday and also met senior peaty leaders and reportedly forwarded her chosen of names if her named wasn’t being considered for the seat.

The BJP is also expected to name its candidate in a day or two. If Mahajan is snubbed by the party, Mayor Malini Gaud is expected to be the nominee. A woman candidate and an MLA, Gaud represents a strong political family in Indore and has earned sizable accolade for her contrition in Indore’s number’s distinction as cleanest city of India.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/

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India, Pak come together to rescue Star Tortoise

Keeping aside their political differences, India and Pakistan have joined hands to save the rare Indian Star Tortoise (Geochelone elegans), which is widely trafficked for use as exotic pets— because of the pattern of light radiating lines on their shells— in international market.

The two neighbouring countries at the upcoming 18th Conference of the Parties of the Convention against International Trade in Endangered Species of Flora and Fauna (CITES), scheduled from May 23, have demanded the transfer of the tortoise from CITES Appendix II to Appendix I, which accords a species the highest level of protection.

In their efforts, they are joined by Sri-Lanka which is also battling to protect this endemic species. The listing of a species in CITES Appendix I effectively prevents all commercial international trade, while those listed in Appendix II can be traded under special permit conditions and only if the trade does not cause harm to them in the wild.

CITES is a multilateral treaty to protect endangered plants and animals. Roughly 5,800 species of animals and 30,000 species of plants are covered by CITES in three Appendices according to the degree of protection they need.

If transferred to the Appendix I, the Indian Star Tortoise--a medium sized tortoise endemic to parts of India, Pakistan and Sri Lanka-will get heightened protection. The species is deemed “vulnerable” by IUCN and their biological attributes make them extremely vulnerable to over-exploitation by humans because they are easily hunted, have a low reproductive rate, potentially occur at low densities, and do not survive or breed readily in captivity, India has said in its proposal to the COP.

According to the Indian Wildlife Protection Act, 1972, star tortoises fall in Schedule IV which grants them the least level of protection.

The CITES noted that to safeguard wild populations, all range states have chosen to adopt strict domestic legislation that prohibits commercial utilization of the species but these has been insufficient to stop illegal trade due to the ongoing demand for the international pet trade, and inadequate enforcement by transit and importing States. The species qualifies for Appendix I, which would both strengthen international cooperation of enforcement authorities and result in higher and more deterring fines and penalties, the CITES noted.

For example, between 2000 and 2015, at least 34,080 live individuals were recorded as seized by wildlife and customs authorities during 118 different enforcement actions internationally. In India, between 2011 and 2015, at least 8,533 individual live specimens were seized and that this species occurred in at least 23% of all such seizure events (223) reported during this time period.

Similarly, in Sri Lanka, unpublished data provided by Customs Department and other enforcement officials states that at least 3,130 individual specimens were seized between 2015 and 2017 alone.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/india/india--pak-come-together-to-rescue-star-tortoise.html

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Jet Airways pilots appeal to SBI for funds, also ask PM to save 20,000 jobs

Jet Airways pilots body, the National Aviator's Guild, Monday appealed the State Bank of India (SBI) to release Rs 1,500 crore, which was proposed to be infused in the ailing carrier as part of a debt-restructuring plan last month.

The airline is operating just 6-7 planes, with almost its entire fleet being grounded due to non-payment of rentals to lessors amid severe paucity of cash.

"We would like to appeal SBI to release Rs 1,500 crore funds for the airline to help it continue operations. We also appeal Prime Minister Narendra Modi to save 20,000 odd jobs at the airline," National Aviator's Guild ( NAG) vice president Adim Valiani told reporters at the airline's headquarter, Siroya Centre, here Monday.

Earlier, the airline's pilots, engineers and cabin crew members assembled at the headquarters to show their solidarity.

The airline's pilots along with engineers and senior staff were last paid for December, 2018. This apart, the airline has also defaulted on the March salary of other categories of employees as well.

Last month, an SBI-led consortium of lenders had taken management control of the airline post a debt-recast deal, following which the lenders had proposed to infuse as much as Rs 1,500 crore to the carrier to keep it afloat till the time it gets a investor.

The Monday meeting with lenders is reportedly expected to take a final decision on the quantum of funds to be infused immediately to avert a possible shut down. A meeting between the airline management and its major lender SBI last Friday could not take a decision on the fund infusion issue.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/

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India's growth in last 5 yrs has been transformational: Shringla

The rapid economic growth and developmental strides of India in the last five years have been transformational and the country is all set to emerge as a USD 5 trillion economy in the next five years, India's envoy to the US has said.

India is one of the strongest major emerging economies, India's Ambassador to the US Harsh Vardhan Shringla said at an event organised by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry with the George Washington University's Institute for International Economic Policy here on Tuesday.

In terms of fundamentals of the country's economy, its inflation has come down from over 10 per cent five years ago to about 4.6 per cent, the fiscal deficit has come down from almost six per cent to 3 per cent which are very important indicators, he said.

"We have made huge strides in the last five years. I think it has been transformational the way we have grown," Shringla said.

"Inflation is also seen as an unpaid tax on the middle class and the poor. So bringing down inflation, bringing down fiscal deficit is good governance and good management of the economy," he said, adding that India has been successful in attracting USD 259 billion in Foreign Direct Investment, 90 per cent of which has come through the automatic route.

The event was held to launch FICCI's report 'Envisioning India: 2030' by Shringla in the presence of a select audience.

There is a vision that in the next five years, India would become a USD 5 trillion economy, he said.

"We have already grown in the last five years from being the 11th largest economy in the world to the sixth. And this year we might as well become the fifth largest economy.

"We see ourselves growing to a USD 5 trillion economy in the next five years to 2024 and eight years after that, we see ourselves as USD 10 trillion economy," Shringla said.

At the same time, the Indian envoy said that India needs a high level of growth to achieve this goal.

India, Shringla said, needs inclusive and sustainable growth. And for this, the focus needs to be on physical and social infrastructure.

"The last five years have been transformational in the sense that a very, very large number of initiatives have been taken by the government to address and correct the imbalances in both the economic growth and development," Shringla said while participating in a fireside chat with Ajay Chhibber, chief economic advisor, FICCI.

The fireside chat was followed by a panel discussion of industry experts to discuss the competitive advantage of the India-US relationship in the sectors of higher education, pharmaceuticals and infrastructure finance requirements.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/top-stories/india-s-growth-in-last-5-yrs-has-been-transformational--shringla.html

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MCD works suffering due to election duties

With the general election approaching, the work of the Municipal Corporation of Dehradun (MCD) is being delayed as eight teams formed for election duty involve a large number of MCD employees. Notably, the staff crunch the civic body has been suffering from has been affecting work for some time. Now, after the election bugle has been blown, the staffers are being withdrawn from the civic body works and are engaged in election duty, something which would further tell upon the pace of the works being done by the body. As per the information received, eight teams have been constituted to conduct election and nearly 80 employees are parts of the teams.

It is also learnt that the basic duty of these employees is to keep an eye on the proper enforcement of the model code of conduct. They are meant to remove illegal posters, paintings, graffiti and photographs pasted on the public building. They are also meant to look into the complaints regarding the violation of the model code of conduct. Each team, thus, formed has a minimum of 10 officials from the higher ranks. The civic body sources said that the engagement of the higher rung officers in the election-related duties would have a crippling effect on the works the civic body is supposed to do. And things would go on till the results of the election are announced.

Speaking of the matter, an MCD officer, however, said that the problem would not be serious. “We are facing a problem due to the field duty entrusted to the officers and the employees. But it is wrong to suppose that it would adversely affect our works. Those who deal with the public-related works would continue to do so. Another thing is that we do not do emergency works generally. If the completion of the assigned works gets delayed by a day or two, things on the whole are not affected,” he added.

He further said, “ The only problem is that we are appointed at different places and the day duty consumes time meant for our office work. The office works cannot be left pending for long. We are thus taking the files to home and we are completing things from there. It is an additional duty for us. But we must do it. We are trying our best to balance between the office works and the newly assigned works.”

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/

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IIT Delhi to propose measures to control air pollution in city

The Indian Institute of Technology Delhi is working for the Central Government to devise a plan detailing what action should be taken and at what time for controlling air pollution in the city.

IIT Delhi, which has a Centre of Excellence for Research on Clean Air, to take up research to study air pollution issues in Delhi-NCR region, is working closely with the Central Pollution Control Board in this regard.

“Round the year, several initiatives are taken to deal with the problem of air pollution, including ban on construction activities, burning of crackers and restriction of outdoor activities in schools, to name a few.

“However, what is not realised is that suddenly suspending construction activities when air quality has already deteriorated to a certain level does not help much,” Mukesh Khare, Professor of Environmental Engineering at IIT Delhi, told PTI.

“So, it is more advisable to implement the measures beforehand. We are evaluating what should be the timing of what action regarding dealing with air pollution so there is a calendar sort of for the entire year,” said Khare, who is leading the evaluation team.

According to Khare, the need for evaluating the timing of the actions was felt few weeks after the launch of the National Clean Air Programme (NCAP) last year.

NCAP is a mid-term, five-year action plan that includes collaborative, multi-scale and cross-sectoral coordination between relevant central ministries, State Governments and local bodies.

“The overall objective of initiatives to combat air pollution is comprehensive mitigation actions for prevention, control and abatement of air pollution, besides augmenting the air quality monitoring network across the country and strengthening the awareness and capacity-building activities,” Khare said. “While city-specific action plans are being formulated for 102 non-attainment cities identified for implementing mitigation actions under NCAP, the timing of the actions which needs to be in advance rather than damage control is a grey area which needs to be addressed,” he added.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/state-editions/iit-delhi-to-propose-measures--to-control-air-pollution-in-city.html

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Working women lag behind in financial protection: Survey

Working women in India are grossly under-protected as only 70 per cent have life insurance as compared to 83 per cent of their male peers, says a survey.

According to a survey done by Max Life Insurance, the ownership of term insurance plans among women in metro cities stood at just 19 per cent, as compared 22 per cent men who own the pure protection insurance scheme.

"With 42 per cent of their earnings being diverted to basic expenses as against working males in metros who spend 38 per cent of their earnings to basic expenses, working women in metros tend to spend less on savings and investments," the report said.

It further added that the savings objectives of working women in metros are more focused on saving for kids' education and less on old age security and untimely death of a breadwinner (only 33 per cent saved for this).

According to the report nearly 68 per cent women feel that term plans are merely designed for the breadwinner.

Ensuring financial protection of women is an extremely important concern considering they make up almost half the country's population, Max Life Insurance managing director Prashant Tripathy said.

"Aside from lack of awareness, the uptake of term insurance is relatively lower in women, due to the way they often approach insurance and investment. What is required is a fundamental shift in their savings and investments patterns and a greater realisation of benefits of term plans to empower a sense of financial protection," he said.

It also highlighted that Indian women are yet to go online to buy life insurance. Only 3 per cent buy insurance online compared to 7 per cent urban men.

The survey was conducted on 4,566 people across 15 metropolitan and tier one cities in India.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/

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Modi solely responsible for delay in arrival of Rafale jets: Cong

The Congress Saturday hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi alleging that the country witnessed his "monologue, fake bravado and narcissistic lies", as Rahul Gandhi accused him of being "solely responsible" for the delay in arrival of Rafale jets.

"Dear PM, Have you no shame at all? YOU stole 30,000 Crore and gave it to your friend Anil. YOU are solely responsible for the delay in the arrival of the RAFALE jets.

"YOU are WHY brave IAF pilots like Wing Cdr. Abhinandan, are risking their lives flying outdated jets," Gandhi said on Twitter.

The response came after Modi said the country was feeling the absence of Rafale and results would have been different if India had the fighter jets as he attacked the Congress for its tirade against his government over the aircraft deal.

"India is feeling the absence of Rafale. The entire country is saying in one voice today, that if we had Rafale, the results would have been different. The country has suffered a lot due to selfish interests earlier and now politics over Rafale," the prime minister said at the India Today conclave.

Congress chief spokesperson Randeep Surjewala said the nation witnessed a monologue by a "narcissistic" prime minister sans any sense of accountability.

He said the prime minister is obsessed with one word-- 'Modi' -- and forgets that India is a thriving democracy of 132 crore people with a multitude of opinions.

"When will Modiji take decisive action against Pakistan - sponsored terror? Compromising national security and gross intelligence failure are the characteristic style of a non-functioning Modi government.

"In last 56 months, 498 soldiers and officers have been martyred in Jammu and Kashmir alone. In the month of February 2019 alone, 55 brave soldiers laid down their lives due to the menace of Pakistan-sponsored terrorism," a statement quoting Surjewala said.

He said the prime minister had blatantly "politicised" the bravery and martyrdom of India's soldiers as a political pamphlet.

"Latest instances of Modiji's cronyism are the Rafale deal and handing over of 5 out of 6 airports to his crony friends," the statement said.

The Congress also hit out at the ruling dispensation for its alleged poor handling of the economy.

"Modiji's directionless policies and myopia of economic vision have been disastrous for India's economy. No wonder, every economic expert across the spectrum now says – ‘Modinomics' is harmful for the country.

"With nearly 50 days to go, India awaits for Modi government's departure," Surjewala added.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/top-stories/modi-solely-responsible-for-delay-in-arrival-of-rafale-jets--cong.html

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Pakistan says its jets crossed LoC to undertake strikes in India

Pakistan on Wednesday said that its jets crossed the Line of Control to undertake strikes in India for "self defence".

Indian officials said Pakistani fighter jets on Wednesday violated Indian air space in Jammu and Kashmir's Poonch and Nowshera sectors but were pushed back by Indian aircraft.

Pakistan Foreign Office said in a statement said, "Today, Pakistan Air Force undertook strikes across Line of Control from within Pakistani airspace. This was not a retaliation to continued Indian belligerence,"

"Pakistan has therefore, taken strikes at non military target, avoiding human loss and collateral damage. Sole purpose being to demonstrate our right, will and capability for self defence. We have no intention of escalation, but are fully prepared to do so if forced into that paradigm.

"That is why we undertook the action with clear warning and in broad daylight. For the last few years, India has been trying to establish what they call 'a new normal' a thinly veiled term for doing acts of aggression at whatever pretext they wish on a given day.

"If India is striking at so called terrorist backers without a shred of evidence, we also retain reciprocal rights to retaliate against elements that enjoy Indian patronage while carrying out acts of terror in Pakistan. We do not wish to go to that route and wish that India gives peace a chance and to resolve issues like a mature democratic nation," it said.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/

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42 CRPF Troopers Killed in Suicide Attack in Kashmir

In the worst ever terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir since militancy erupted in 1989, a suicide bomber on Thursday rammed his SUV packed with explosives into a CRPF bus on the Srinagar-Jammu highway in Pulwama district, killing at least 42 troopers and leaving the security established stunned.

The Pakistan-based Jaish-e-Mohammad (JeM) claimed responsibility for the horror and released a video clip of the suicide bomber, a 'commander' identified as Adil Ahmad Dar, which it claimed was shot before the young man carried out the strike in Lethpora, about 30 km from here.

While precise details of the attack were still unclear, police sources said the suicide bomber-driven SUV came along the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) bus when a 78-vehicle convoy carrying 2,547 security personnel was going from the transit camp in Jammu to Srinagar and rammed it into the bus around 3.15 p.m., triggering a deafening explosion.

So devastating was the attack one report spoke of 200 kg of explosives, including probably RDX, packed into the SUV that the CRPF bus was left in a mangled heap, many of its occupants losing their limbs. The bus was transporting 39 troopers.

CRPF officials said the bus which was the main target of the militants was destroyed fully while another CRPF vehicle was partly damaged. "It is difficult to believe how anyone in that bus could have survived," said a police officer.

Jammu and Kashmir Police chief Dilbag Singh said it could have been a suicide attack. This was confirmed by other officials later.

In a statement to a local news agency GNS, a caller claiming to be a spokesman of JeM said it was a 'fidayeen' (suicide) attack.

All the injured were shifted to the Army's 92 Base Hospital in the Badamibagh cantonment of Srinagar city. Some of them were in critical condition.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi led the nation in condemning the horror.

"The attack is despicable. I strongly condemn this dastardly attack. The sacrifices of our brave security personnel shall not go in vain. The entire nation stands shoulder to shoulder with the families of the brave martyrs," he tweeted.

Home Minister Rajnath Singh, who was to visit Bihar on Friday, is set to reach Srinagar instead. Home Secretary Rajiv Gauba cut short his visit to Bhutan to rush to Srinagar for a high-level security meeting on Friday.

"Today's dastardly attack is extremely painful and disturbing. I bow to each and every CRPF jawan who has sacrificed his life in service to the nation," Rajnath Singh said.

All traffic on the Srinagar-Jammu Highway came to an abrupt halt. Senior police and CRPF officers rushed to the spot for a post-explosion analysis.

An officer said the CRPF and police would carry out a detailed investigation to understand the circumstances in which the attack took place.

This is the worst single attack in Jammu and Kashmir since a nascent Pakistan-backed separatist campaign began in 1989. It is also the worst attack carried out by militants after the one on the Uri Army camp on September 18, 2016 left 19 soldiers dead -- forcing New Delhi to launch 'surgical strikes' on terrorist camps in Pakistan.

Officials said the reason why so many CRPF personnel were on the move at one go was because the Srinagar-Jammu highway had been shut the past two days due to bad weather. The convoy left Jammu before dawn.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/

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AAP Slams Civic Body for Utter Carelessness

After the deadly fire in hotel Arpit Palace in central Delhi gobbled up 17 precious lives and left 35 baldy injured on Tuesday morning, Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) questioned the negligence in safety measures and accused the municipal corporation for utter carelessness.

“Every time there is a horrific incident in Delhi killing innocent people, we talk about negligence by some departments, we speculate about fixing the responsibility, but there is hardly any change in situation. The hotel has five floors with fibre structure on the top floor. How did authority issue approval for such building plan? If there was no approval issued, how could such hotel operate? How could they get certificate to operate from MCD? Will Delhi ever see a Commissioner of MCD or chief of fire being suspended for such huge loss of innocent human lives?” said Saurabh Bharadwaj, AAP spokesperson.

Adding further, he said, recently petitions committee visited a private school named Indian School where school had constructed a totally illegal basement and fourth floor. As per records of MCD and fire department, the school does not have a basement or fourth floor. The fourth floor was made of exactly same fibre material which was used in hotel of Karolbagh.

“The fire department found not even single ventilation in basement because it was being concealed from authorities. Such is a sad state of affairs that no action could be taken against the school as the elected Government does not have a power to do so, but the Lieutenant-Governor (L-G) who have the power do not a have an accountability,” added Bharadwaj.

Delhi Congress president Sheila Dikshit also demanded the Delhi Government to constitute a committee to probe the fire incident at Karol Bagh in which 17 people including a women and a child died.  Expressing shock over the incident, Sheila met the family members of the 18 people who died in the major fire broke out, demanded for special enquiry committee to be formed to find out the reasons behind the incident. “The guilty must be punished, but the immediate task should be to console and join in the grief of those families who have lost their near and dear ones in the fire,” she said.

Delhi BJP president Manoj Tiwari said that the incident of fire and the deaths in Arpit Hotel Karol Bagh is very tragic and I express my condolences. May the souls of the deceased persons rest in peace and I pray to God that the injured persons recover soon. We will try to ensure that an impartial inquiry is held and the guilty persons are punished. Delhi BJP will keep an eye on the process of ensuring stern punishment to the guilty persons.

Leader of Opposition (LoP) in Delhi Assembly Vijender Gupta demanded judicial enquiry into the tragedy. “Loss of 17 precious lives is a very serious matter.  But CM Kejriwal is unfortunately, taking it lightly and doing only cosmetic exercise. It is evident from the fact that reached the place of tragedy six to seven hours after the incident occurred and assured only low key enquiry,” said Gupta.

Source: https://www.dailypioneer.com/2019/state-editions/aap-slams-civic-body-for-utter-carelessness.html