Unhappy with the selection of candidates for the upcoming polls, Congress workers from Jamalpur-Khadia and Vatva seats in Ahmedabad city protested against their leadership and vandalised the party headquarters here Monday.Workers from the minority-dominated Jamalpur-Khadia protested against tickets being given to sitting MLA Imran Khedawala who will be fighting AIMIM Gujarat president Sabir Kabliwala and BJP’s Bhushan Bhatt. The protesters alleged that Khedawala was connected with local real-estate lobby and will lose the polls this time.Gujarat elections: Upset over candidate selection, Congress workers vandalise party headquartershttps://t.co/oIHEmidZ7a pic.twitter.com/w5OghSFFaU— Express Gujarat (@ExpressGujarat) November 14, 2022The agitated workers defaced walls of the Congress headquarters and wrote slogans against senior Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki and accused him of selling tickets to Khedawala. They sought a ticket for Shahnawaz Sheikh from Jamalpur-Khadia, raised slogans and damaged the name-plates of former Congress presidents, including that of Solanki. They also burnt his posters. In the 2017 polls, Khedawala had defeated BJP’s Bhatt by winning 58 percent of the votes polled. However, in 2012, when Kabliwala had fought as an independent, Bhatt had emerged victorious by defeating the Congress candidate.The Congress workers also protested against the party candidate Balvant Gadhavi saying they would not support any “imported” candidate but will happily work for any of the local candidates. The Congress had announced the candidates for both Jamalpur-Khadia and Vatva Sunday night.The party is expected to release an official statement regarding the protests later in the day.
Unhappy with the selection of candidates for the upcoming polls, Congress workers from Jamalpur-Khadia and Vatva constituencies in Gujarat’s Ahmedabad protested against the party leadership and vandalised the state headquarters of the Congress in the city Monday. The party had on Sunday night announced the candidates in the two seats.Workers from the minority-dominated Jamalpur-Khadia protested against the ticket given to sitting MLA Imran Khedawala who will be fighting AIMIM Gujarat chief Sabir Kabliwala and the BJP’s Bhushan Bhatt. The workers defaced walls of the party’s headquarters and wrote slogans against senior Congress leader Bharatsinh Solanki, accusing him of selling tickets to Khedawala.The agitated workers, who sought a ticket for Shahnawaz Sheikh, also damaged the nameplates of former Congress presidents, including Solanki and burnt his posters. The protesters alleged that Khedawala was connected with the local real-estate lobby and will lose the polls this time.In the 2017 polls, Imran Khedawala had defeated Bhushan Bhatt of the BJP by winning 58 per cent of the votes polled. However, Bhatt had emerged victorious in 2012 by defeating the Congress candidate.Congress workers also protested against the party candidate Balvant Gadhavi in Vatva constituency, saying they will happily work for any local candidate, but will not support an “imported” candidate.The Congress is expected to release an official statement regarding the protests soon.
VADODARA/ ANAND: A middle-aged woman from Ahmedabad died after being run over by the Vande Bharat Express train near Anand railway station on Tuesday. The victim, identified as Beatrice Archibald Peter, was crossing the railway track when the accident took place at 3.45 pm, railway police said. The Ahmedabad resident was visiting a relative in Anand. She was crossing a stretch of the track where platform number four, ends. Sources said that locals often try to cross the railway track near Bhalej railway crossing to take a shorter route towards the nearby residential society. The deceased was a resident of Bhavdeep Apartment adjacent to Laxminarayan bus stand in Ahmedabad’s Maninagar area. She was run over when the train which does not have a halt at Anand was on its way to Mumbai Central from Gandhinagar. Anand railway police have registered a case of accidental death while further investigation is underway. The police have sent the body of the deceased for postmortem. Prime Minister Narendra Modi flagged off the semi high-speed train from Gandhinagar on September 30. After the inaugural run, there have been at least three incidents of the train hitting cattle on the track. On October 6, the train had rammed into a herd of buffaloes between Vatva and Maninagar stations. The fibre-reinforced plastic of the nose of the train was damaged due to the incident. A day later, it hit a cow in the Kanjari-Boriyavi-Anand stretch of Anand district which caused a minor dent on the nose. Earlier, railway minister Ashwini Vaishnavhad told students of a private engineering college that collision with cattle on the railway tracks was unavoidable.
A 54-year-old woman was run over by the Vande Bharat Express near Anand railway station while crossing the railway track on Tuesday afternoon, railway police confirmed.The deceased was identified as Beatrice Peter, a resident of Ahmedabad. According to railway police, she was visiting Anand to meet a relative when she decided to cross the railway tracks.At around 4.30pm, when the Vande Bharat Express was crossing Anand railway station, where it does not have a stop, Peter could not spot the oncoming train.The railway police has registered a case of accidental death and initiated a probe.Officials of the Vadodara division of railways said that the train ran on its scheduled time without any delay.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30 flagged off the inaugural run of the train.There have been at least three incidents of cattle being run over by the train in the past one month.
AHMEDABAD: The Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat Superfast Express rammed into cattle near Atul railway station in Valsad district on Saturday morning, which damaged its front panel, an official said. This was the third such incident since the Vande Bharat train service started on this route from September 30. The train halted for 15 minutes after hitting a bull that had strayed on the track around 8.20am but all the passengers were safe, said Sumit Thakur, chief public relations officer of Western Railway. The train's front panel was damaged and the underbelly equipment of its first coach was also dented, he said. "There is no damage to the train, except to the nose cone cover of the front coach, that is the driver's coach. The train is running smoothly," Thakur added. The damaged panel will be replaced once the train reaches Mumbai, he said. On October 6, the train, ran over four buffaloes between Vatva and Maninagar stations near Ahmedabad on its way to Gandhinagar from Mumbai. Its nose panel had to be replaced overnight.
The third incident of cattle hit by a Vande Bharat Express train in Gujarat took place in Valsad district near the Atul Railway station Saturday morning at 8.17 am, said railway officials.The cone-shaped structure below the driver’s cabin was damaged due to the impact, the officials said and added that after a 26-minute halt for the repairing works, the train was allowed to continue its journey towards Ahmedabad.Sources in the Western Railway said the Vande Bharat express train started its journey from Mumbai Central Saturday morning around 6.10 am. On the way, near the Atul railway station, the semi-high-speed train hit a bull. The driver immediately put the train to a halt and intimated the Western Railway control room and Valsad railway authorities.The engineering staff from Valsad railway station, along with the RPF and the GRP officials, rushed to the spot. With the help of local youths, the carcass of the bull was removed from the tracks and placed on the sideway.RPF police inspector of Valsad Railway station Gracious Fernandes said, “The incident took place at the end of Atul Railway station at level crossing gate number 94. Gateman Eknath Chaudhary spotted the bull walking on the tracks just a minute before the train arrived and he tried his level best to get it out of the tracks and was successful too but the bull returned to the tracks which led to the incident.”Sources in the railway department of Valsad present on the spot told The Indian Express that the train was made to halt for around 26 minutes for repair works. The carcass of the bull was later buried. The officials also examined the railway tracks and later found it to be okay.Sources said that this is the third incident of cattle being hit by the Vande Bharat train. The first incident took place on October 6, when a Vande Bharat train rammed into a herd of buffaloes in Ahmedabad and the second took place on October 7 near Anand in Central Gujarat when a train hit a cow.The railway authorities of Valsad said cattle roam freely for grazing in the bushy areas near the railway tracks. While grazing, they walk on the tracks which lead to the accidents. Officials said if a cattle is hit by a train and nobody comes and claims the carcass, it is buried with the help of local youths.On October 9, a total of 19 cattle died on the spot after being run over by an Ajmer Mysore Express train at Joravasan village near the Dungri railway station in Valsad district.
AHMEDABAD: The steep surge of dengue cases across Ahmedabad has put health officials on tenterhooks and becoming a major worry. A number of cases involving drastic lowering of blood platelets levels were reported over the past month. The disease has claimed two lives already, including that of a child. Recent serotype tests have revealed the DenV2, one of the four dengue virus serotypes, is the dominant strain in the city. In September, 17 samples serum samples were sent by Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) for testing, of which 10 samples were detected with dengue serotype 2 (DenV2), while one sample was detected with dengue serotype 1 (DenV1) while two samples detected with dengue serotype 4 (DenV4). Children of the age group of 0 to 14 years and the elderly are the most vulnerable. AMC officials reveal that between October 1 and October 15, there were 469 fresh dengue cases needing hospitalization. In all, a total of 1,821 dengue cases have been reported between January 1 and October 15 this year. Of these, 814 were reported in the western region and 1,007 in the eastern region of the city. In the western Ahmedabad, Thaltej has reported 89 cases, the highest number, followed by Bodakdev with 82 dengue cases. Apart from this, 76 cases were reported from Gota, 69 from Jodhpur ward, 58 cases in Chandlodia and 56 cases from Stadium ward. In the eastern part of the city, Ramol and Hatijan wards have reported the highest number of dengue cases, 132 in all, followed by Lambha with 102 cases. There have been 61 dengue cases in Vastral and 53 in Vatva. A senior doctor at SVP Hospital’s medicine department told TOI that increasing severity of dengue cases is primarily because of repeat infections. “Blood platelets drastically fall in those patients who have repeat infections, children, young, adults and elders are worst affected needing hospitalization. This severity is not because of a particular dengue virus strain,” said the senior doctor.
AHMEDABAD: A 28-year-old woman lost her life to dengue in the city this month. This was the second dengue death registered in the city this year. According to Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) health department sources, a 28-year-old woman treated for dengue at LG Hospital died on October 13. The deceased woman was a resident of Vasna. The first dengue victim was a 7-year-old girl admitted with dengue to LG Hospital. She lost her life in the last week of September. According to AMC data, city hospitals registered 469 new dengue cases between October 1 and 15, and 1,821 cases between January 1 and October 15. tnn
The Railway Protection Force (RPF) in Gujarat has registered a case against the owners of buffaloes that were hit by the Mumbai-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat express, in which the front portion of the train was damaged, officials said on Friday.The nose cone cover of the driver coach of the semi-high speed train, which got damaged after hitting the buffaloes, was replaced with a new one in Mumbai, the Western Railway (WR) said in a statement.The newly-launched Mumbai Central-Gandhinagar Vande Bharat train had hit the herd of buffaloes around 11.15 am on Thursday near Ahmedabad, when the train was on its way to Gandhinagar. Four buffaloes were killed in the incident, the officials said.“The RPF has lodged a first information report (FIR) against the unidentified owners of the buffaloes that came in the way of Vande Bharat train between Vatva and Maninagar railway stations in Ahmedabad,” WR’s senior spokesperson (Ahmedabad division) Jitendra Kumar Jayant said.RPF inspector Pradeep Sharma posted at Vatva railway station said the FIR was filed under section 147 of the Railways Act, 1989, which deals with unauthorised entry into any part of a railway and misuse of its property.“The FIR was registered on Thursday evening in connection with the incident in which four buffaloes were killed,” he said.The railway police have not yet been able to identify the owners of the buffaloes so far and efforts are on to do so, he said.The incident had occurred in Punitnagar area near Vatva railway station on the outskirts of Ahmedabad city, Sharma added.The train’s damaged nose cone cover made up of FRP (fibre-reinforced plastic) was replaced with a new one in Mumbai, the WR said in a statement.“The nose cone cover of the train’s driver coach along with its mounting brackets was damaged in the cattle-hit incident. However, the vital parts of the train remained unaffected. The damaged nose cone was replaced at the Coach Care Centre in Mumbai Central,” WR’s chief public relations officer Sumit Thakur said.After the incident on Thursday, the train had covered the distance to Gandhinagar Capital station and back to Mumbai Central without the nose cover panel as there was no damage to it train’s vital parts, he said.“The nose cover is designed to absorb the impact without transmitting the same to the functional parts of the train. Therefore, it is sacrificial by design and hence replaceable,” Thakur added.Railway keeps sufficient nose-cones as spare, he said.“The damaged nose cone was replaced in no time and the train was put back to service without any extra down time. The train departed from Mumbai today without any inconvenience to the passengers,” he said.According to the official, the Western Railway is taking all necessary measures to prevent such incidents in future.The indigenously designed and manufactured semi-high speed train, the third service under the Vande Bharat series, was flagged off by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on September 30 from Gandhinagar Capital and it started the commercial run from the next day.
The engine of the newly launched Vande Bharat Express, which was on its way to Gandhinagar in Gujarat from Mumbai, was damaged after the train hit four buffaloes that strayed onto the railway tracks between Vatva and Maninagar stations at 11.15 am on Thursday. Railway authorities said there was no disruption to rail traffic.However, the impact killed “two-three buffaloes” and delayed the train “by about half an hour in reaching the Gandhinagar station”, said Jitendra Jayant, senior public relations officer (PRO), Western Railway, Ahmedabad division.“Two-three buffaloes have died in the Vande Bharat clash. The train got delayed by about half an hour in reaching the Gandhinagar station,” said Jitendra Jayant.“A few buffaloes came on the railway track. The driver could not have applied brakes or else a larger incident damaging the lives of the passengers would have happened. The train was at a speed of about 140 kmph at that time. Applying brakes would have derailed the train,” said Jitendra Jayant, Senior Public Relations Officer (PRO) at Western Indian Railways, Ahmedabad division.“The damage is on the left side of the engine, though the loss is not huge. It was sent for repair; only the outer portion which acts like a mudguard got damaged. The proper repair will take place in Mumbai. The next train for Mumbai was at 2.05 pm. The same engine was sent and the train left Gandhinagar station at 2.05 pm for Mumbai. So, there was no delay in the train schedule,” said Jayant.The train had left Mumbai at 6.10 am and was scheduled to reach Gandhinagar railway station at 12.25 pm.“No casualties happened. No complaint has been filed yet. The railway department will look into the matter further and appropriate action will be taken,” the PRO added.
