Assam ferry tragedy: 270 still missing, rescue operations on

Only 80 people could be rescued during the search and rescue operations, on since the accident in Dhubri district Monday evening, and most of the other estimated 350 passengers remained missing till Tuesday evening, the official said.
"Some bodies were fished out till late Monday night by rescuers but it is difficult to estimate the toll as some relatives of the deceased have taken the bodies home for burial," said a district administration official, adding that only 17 bodies were sent for post-mortem.
"It's almost 24 hours after the tragedy now and there is hardly any chance that anyone is alive. Some of the survivors also told us that most of the passengers of the ferry were women and children," said the official.
Another official said: "We are yet to ascertain the exact number of passengers on the ferry. As per our information, about 240 passengers bought tickets but there were passengers without tickets too." 
Abdul Aziz, a survivor, said there were over 300 passengers on the ferry.
A Border Security Force (BSF) official, overseeing the rescue operations, said it was possible that the bodies may have floated downstream.
"We have been continuing with the rescue operation since last evening. However, there is a strong undercurrent in the river and the bodies might have been washed away," said S. Kumar.
"We are going to continue the rescue and search operation till evening and then we would have to call it off," he said.
BSF water wing's deputy commandant Rajesh Bhandoria told IANS that the search was on, though so far unsuccessful. "Till 5 p.m. Tuesday, we were not able to find even a single body,"  he said.
All border outposts (BOPs) of BSF's 22 and 162 Battalions along the Brahmaputra have been alerted to look for survivors and search for dead bodies.
Apart from this, BSF has also established contact with the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at Dhaka and also with its sector commander at Rangpur and battalion commander at Kurigram
"We have also requested to sensitize their riverine BOPs for carrying out search for  survivors and look for the dead bodies and make immediate arrangements to hand over the same to BSF," said a BSF spokesperson in Delhi.
Apart from the 20 deep water divers of the BSF, the district administration had also used the services of helicopters to step up the search and rescue operation from Tuesday morning.
Two senior cabinet ministers, Chandan Brahma and Nazrul Islam, rushed to the Fakirganj area on Tuesday morning to take stock of the situation.
"We have already ordered an inquiry into the whole incident to find out as to what is the exact cause of the tragedy -- whether it is the overloading of passengers or the weather," said Brahma.
He also assured the local people of improving the communication infrastructure to Fakirganj.
"We have already arranged for technically sophisticated motor launches to ply between Dhubri and Fakirganj and the new motor launches will arrive by next week," he said and added that the government had already sanctioned a bridge over the Brahmaputra river to connect Jaleswar and Dhubri.  "The construction of the bridge will start soon," he added. 
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, expressed his shock over the tragedy and announced compensation of Rs.2 lakh each for the next of kin of the ceased.

Apart from that, the Assam government has also an announced ex-gratia payment of Rs.1.5 lakh each to the next of kin of the victims. The kin will also get another amount of Rs.50,000 each from the Mukhya Mantrir Jibanjyoti Bima Achoni, a life insurance scheme of the state government that covers anyone in the age group of 3-80 years.
The state government had also announced that all the seriously injured passengers of the ferry will be given Rs.50,000 each besides making arrangements for free treatment to all the victims.
All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badaruddin Ajmal has also announced that the party will give financial assistance of Rs.2 crore to all the victims of the tragedy. All the 18 legislators of the AIUDF has also agreed to contribute their one month's salary for the overall help of the victims of the tragedy.

Assam ferry tragedy: 270 still missing, rescue operations on

Only 80 people could be rescued during the search and rescue operations, on since the accident in Dhubri district Monday evening, and most of the other estimated 350 passengers remained missing till Tuesday evening, the official said.
"Some bodies were fished out till late Monday night by rescuers but it is difficult to estimate the toll as some relatives of the deceased have taken the bodies home for burial," said a district administration official, adding that only 17 bodies were sent for post-mortem.
"It's almost 24 hours after the tragedy now and there is hardly any chance that anyone is alive. Some of the survivors also told us that most of the passengers of the ferry were women and children," said the official.
Another official said: "We are yet to ascertain the exact number of passengers on the ferry. As per our information, about 240 passengers bought tickets but there were passengers without tickets too." 
Abdul Aziz, a survivor, said there were over 300 passengers on the ferry.
A Border Security Force (BSF) official, overseeing the rescue operations, said it was possible that the bodies may have floated downstream.
"We have been continuing with the rescue operation since last evening. However, there is a strong undercurrent in the river and the bodies might have been washed away," said S. Kumar.
"We are going to continue the rescue and search operation till evening and then we would have to call it off," he said.
BSF water wing's deputy commandant Rajesh Bhandoria told IANS that the search was on, though so far unsuccessful. "Till 5 p.m. Tuesday, we were not able to find even a single body,"  he said.
All border outposts (BOPs) of BSF's 22 and 162 Battalions along the Brahmaputra have been alerted to look for survivors and search for dead bodies.
Apart from this, BSF has also established contact with the Border Guard Bangladesh (BGB) at Dhaka and also with its sector commander at Rangpur and battalion commander at Kurigram
"We have also requested to sensitize their riverine BOPs for carrying out search for  survivors and look for the dead bodies and make immediate arrangements to hand over the same to BSF," said a BSF spokesperson in Delhi.
Apart from the 20 deep water divers of the BSF, the district administration had also used the services of helicopters to step up the search and rescue operation from Tuesday morning.
Two senior cabinet ministers, Chandan Brahma and Nazrul Islam, rushed to the Fakirganj area on Tuesday morning to take stock of the situation.
"We have already ordered an inquiry into the whole incident to find out as to what is the exact cause of the tragedy -- whether it is the overloading of passengers or the weather," said Brahma.
He also assured the local people of improving the communication infrastructure to Fakirganj.
"We have already arranged for technically sophisticated motor launches to ply between Dhubri and Fakirganj and the new motor launches will arrive by next week," he said and added that the government had already sanctioned a bridge over the Brahmaputra river to connect Jaleswar and Dhubri.  "The construction of the bridge will start soon," he added. 
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who is a Rajya Sabha MP from Assam, expressed his shock over the tragedy and announced compensation of Rs.2 lakh each for the next of kin of the ceased.

Apart from that, the Assam government has also an announced ex-gratia payment of Rs.1.5 lakh each to the next of kin of the victims. The kin will also get another amount of Rs.50,000 each from the Mukhya Mantrir Jibanjyoti Bima Achoni, a life insurance scheme of the state government that covers anyone in the age group of 3-80 years.
The state government had also announced that all the seriously injured passengers of the ferry will be given Rs.50,000 each besides making arrangements for free treatment to all the victims.
All India United Democratic Front (AIUDF) chief Badaruddin Ajmal has also announced that the party will give financial assistance of Rs.2 crore to all the victims of the tragedy. All the 18 legislators of the AIUDF has also agreed to contribute their one month's salary for the overall help of the victims of the tragedy.

13 killed in copter crash in ColombiaOfficials in Colombia say a Colombian air force helicopter has crashed near the Caribbean coast and all 13 people aboard have been killed.Atlantico state civil defence director Jorge Fernandez says the aircraft crashed in a field in a rural area of the town of Sabanagrande.Two officials who spoke on condition they not be further identified put the death toll at 13. Both say they were not authorised to disclose the number.They say that the aircraft caught fire as it fell to the ground and that police and air force personnel were aboard.Colombia’s air force says on its website that the Bell 212 helicopter crashed at 4:30 pm and that the incident is under investigation.

13 killed in copter crash in ColombiaOfficials in Colombia say a Colombian air force helicopter has crashed near the Caribbean coast and all 13 people aboard have been killed.Atlantico state civil defence director Jorge Fernandez says the aircraft crashed in a field in a rural area of the town of Sabanagrande.Two officials who spoke on condition they not be further identified put the death toll at 13. Both say they were not authorised to disclose the number.They say that the aircraft caught fire as it fell to the ground and that police and air force personnel were aboard.Colombia’s air force says on its website that the Bell 212 helicopter crashed at 4:30 pm and that the incident is under investigation.

'Telecom towers kill 7mn birds in America every year'
Washington:Telecom towers are killing nearly seven million birds every year as they migrate from the US and Canada to Central and South America, says a new study.
According to the study, around 84,000 telecom towers, some of which can rise nearly 2,000 feet into the sky, much higher than the Empire State Building at 1,250 feet, dot the two countries. 
However, the birds are killed not by running into the tower itself but the dozens of cables, known as guy wires, that prop up the thin, freestanding structures, said study co-author Travis Longcore, associate professor at the University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute, US. 'This is a tragedy that does not have to be,' added Longcore. 
The taller the tower the greater the threat, the study found. The 1,000 or so towers above 900 feet accounted for only 1.6 percent of the total number of towers. Yet these skyscraper towers killed 70 percent of the birds, about 4.5 million a year, Longcore said, the journal the Public Library of Science ONE reports.During bad weather, the birds were pushed down by cloud cover and flew at lower altitudes. The clouds also removed navigation cues, such as stars, leaving only the blinking or static red lights of towers. The blinking did not fool the birds, but towers with a static red light resulted in more dead birds, according to a Southern California statement.
'In the presence of the solid red lights, the birds are unable to get out of their spell,' Longcore said. 'They circle the tower and run into the big cables holding it up.'Longcore estimated that changing the steady-burning lights on the 4,500 towers greater than 490 feet tall (about six percent of the total) could reduce mortality about 45 percent, or around 2.5 million birds. The study also recommended that businesses should share towers to reduce their number and build more freestanding towers to reduce the need for guy wires.
The study did not include shorter towers that typically are used for transmission. 

'Telecom towers kill 7mn birds in America every year'
Washington:Telecom towers are killing nearly seven million birds every year as they migrate from the US and Canada to Central and South America, says a new study.
According to the study, around 84,000 telecom towers, some of which can rise nearly 2,000 feet into the sky, much higher than the Empire State Building at 1,250 feet, dot the two countries. 
However, the birds are killed not by running into the tower itself but the dozens of cables, known as guy wires, that prop up the thin, freestanding structures, said study co-author Travis Longcore, associate professor at the University of Southern California Spatial Sciences Institute, US. 'This is a tragedy that does not have to be,' added Longcore. 
The taller the tower the greater the threat, the study found. The 1,000 or so towers above 900 feet accounted for only 1.6 percent of the total number of towers. Yet these skyscraper towers killed 70 percent of the birds, about 4.5 million a year, Longcore said, the journal the Public Library of Science ONE reports.During bad weather, the birds were pushed down by cloud cover and flew at lower altitudes. The clouds also removed navigation cues, such as stars, leaving only the blinking or static red lights of towers. The blinking did not fool the birds, but towers with a static red light resulted in more dead birds, according to a Southern California statement.
'In the presence of the solid red lights, the birds are unable to get out of their spell,' Longcore said. 'They circle the tower and run into the big cables holding it up.'Longcore estimated that changing the steady-burning lights on the 4,500 towers greater than 490 feet tall (about six percent of the total) could reduce mortality about 45 percent, or around 2.5 million birds. The study also recommended that businesses should share towers to reduce their number and build more freestanding towers to reduce the need for guy wires.
The study did not include shorter towers that typically are used for transmission. 

Bars to work till 12 midnight

Thiruvananthapuram: As per the new excise policy, the government has issued a circular to change the bar timings. The total working hours was brought down by three hours. In panchayats and municipalities, bars can function till 11 pm and in cities till 12. In panchayats, bars should be opened at 8 am and in cities at 9 am.
The other directions include allotting bars only for four-star hotels and change in working hours. As per the 1953 rules, bars were allowed to function from 6 am to 11 pm and that has been changed now. 

Bars to work till 12 midnight

Thiruvananthapuram: As per the new excise policy, the government has issued a circular to change the bar timings. The total working hours was brought down by three hours. In panchayats and municipalities, bars can function till 11 pm and in cities till 12. In panchayats, bars should be opened at 8 am and in cities at 9 am.
The other directions include allotting bars only for four-star hotels and change in working hours. As per the 1953 rules, bars were allowed to function from 6 am to 11 pm and that has been changed now. 

CBI also probing financial sources of Abdul Rasheed
Kollam : CBI will also probe the financial sources of crime branch DySP Abdul Rasheed who was held in connection with attacking Mathrubhumi reporter VB Unnithan.
CBI also gained some information on his assets inappropriate to his income. CBI also collected information on his business dealings he had made under benami names and his land dealings etc.

CBI also probing financial sources of Abdul Rasheed
Kollam : CBI will also probe the financial sources of crime branch DySP Abdul Rasheed who was held in connection with attacking Mathrubhumi reporter VB Unnithan.
CBI also gained some information on his assets inappropriate to his income. CBI also collected information on his business dealings he had made under benami names and his land dealings etc.