At least 12 people, including four children, died when a huge wall inside a salt packaging factory in Halvad GIDC of Morbi district collapsed last week. Police said 30 labourers were engaged in salt packaging in the factory of Sagar Salt when the wall suddenly collapsed. The wall was built as a partition. Preliminary investigation suggested that heavy cement bags (each of 20 kg) stored on one side created pressure on the wall, leading to its collapse. The labourers were packing the salt in small bags on the other side. A rescue operation was launched with the help of labourers of nearby factories and an earthmover within 20 minutes. They removed the debris and found the dead bodies.
Hardik Patel finally quits Congress
Former Gujarat Congress working president Hardik Patel finally parted ways with the party by resigning from its primary membership. Pulling no punches in his resignation letter addressed to party president Sonia Gandhi, Patel (28) said it is almost like the Congress does not want to do anything good for Gujarat and at the national level the party has only played a role of creating roadblocks when people of the country wanted solutions to issues like the Ram temple at Ayodhya, revocation of Article 370 from Jammu and Kashmir and implementation of Goods and Service Tax (GST). He stopped short of praising PM Modi in his resignation letter.
30 injured in chemical factory fire in Dahej
At least 30 people were injured in a fire at an agrochemical factory in Dahej, Bharuch. District officials said that the fire broke out after an explosion in the factory’s boiler. Thick black smoke billowing from the factory of Bharat Rasayan’s agrochemical unit could be seen from far away, said fire officials who had rushed to the site. According to fire officials, at least 30 people rescued from the factory have been shifted to two private hospitals in Bharuch. Out of those injured, the condition of 10 persons was critical, they added. One fire official said that about 15 fire tenders from Dahej, Bharuch and Ankleshwar were pushed into service to control the fire. He said that though the exact reason for the fire was not known, the primary inquiry revealed that there was an explosion in one of the boilers in the factory.
J&K delimitation order comes into effect
The central government notified delimitation order on Jammu & Kashmir, appointing May 20, 2022, as the date from which the order shall take effect. The Delimitation Commission, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, had notified its order pertaining to delimitation of parliamentary and assembly constituencies in J&K on May 5 after over two years of deliberations. As per the delimitation order, J&K will now have 90 seats instead of the 83 earlier, with 47 seats allotted to the Kashmir division and 43 to Jammu. The UT will also have nine seats reserved for Scheduled Tribes and seven for Scheduled Castes.
Indrani Mukerjea walks out of jail
Former media executive Indrani Mukerjea walked out of Mumbai's Byculla women's prison, over six years after she was arrested for allegedly murdering her daughter Sheena Bora. “I am so happy,” a beaming Indrani (50) told waiting reporters. As she stepped out of the jail, her changed appearance attracted notice. Gone was the grey hair seen during her court app earances. Instead, the hair was now dyed black and a little smile was playing on her lips as she faced reporters.
