1. Fire Breaks Out at ISRO Campus Again
A minor fire broke out in the Indian Space Research Organisation’s (ISRO) Campus, at the Space Application Centre (SAC) in Ahmedabad on Friday; no casualties were reported. The fire started in the sales and purchase room of SAC and reduced the stationery there into ashes.
Chief fire officer MF Dastur said that five fire tenders were rushed to the spot but only one was used and the fire was brought under control in an hour. This is the second case of a fire in SAC this year. Earlier May a major fire started in the SAC which prompted the administration to send 25 fire tenders and 10 ambulances.
It was a major fire inside the research unit inside SAC and nobody was injured.
(Source: The Times of India)
2. AAI Orders Inquiry into Mid-air Smoking
Officials of Airport Authority of India at Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel International (SVPI) Airport, on Thursday, ordered a probe after a man was caught smoking in the lavatory of an Ahmedabad-Goa Indigo Flight.
The incident occurred on 25 December as 23-year-old student from Ahmedabad Karan G was caught violating aircraft safety regulations by smoking in the flight. The Director General of Civil Aviation prohibit flyers from carrying inflammable material on board such as lighters, match sticks etc.
According to sources the Central Industrial Security Force (CISF) personnel who was deployed to check cabin luggage on the scanners has been removed from screening duties and a chargesheet has been issued to him.
(Source: The Times of India)
3. Three IPS officers Discharged in Custodial Torture Case
Three senior IPS officers in Gujarat were discharged by a sessions court here Friday in a 24-year-old case of custodial torture. Giving relief to IPS officers Ashish Bhatia, Atul Karwal and A K Surolia, the city sessions court noted that the lower court had not obtained the state government's sanction before initiating inquiry against them.
Additional Sessions Judge V J Kalotra cited Section 197 of the Code of Criminal Procedure which provides that IPS officers can not be prosecuted without a government sanction.
The court also discharged former police sub-inspector J V Surela. The police officers had approached the sessions court after a metropolitan magistrate decided to go ahead with framing of charges against them. The officers were accused of torturing a man called Salim Khan Pathan, arrested in a case related to illegal liquor sale, during interrogation.
(Source: PTI)
4. Senior Gujarat Congress Leaders Skip Foundation Day
On the party’s foundation day, several Congress leaders in Gujarat skipped celebrations organised at the Gujarat Congress headquarter in Ahmedabada, although party president keeps brushing aside rumours of dissonance within the ranks.
According to sources in the party, several leaders have communicated with the high command to make changes in the top-level of Gujarat Congress, so as to keep the moral of the party workers high in the aftermath of the loss at Jasdan.
Former presidents Arjun Modhwadia and Siddharth Patel, Congress chief whip Shailesh Parmar and MLA Alpesh Thakor skipped the event. Not a single MLA, municipal councillor or office-bearer of the party attended the event.
(Source: The Times of India)
5. CM Orders Probe in Graft Charges Against Pilgrimage Board
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani on Friday asked the vigilance department to probe corruption charges levied against the pilgrimage board in carrying out projects at religious sites. Rupani also ordered the suspension of an officer whose audio clip brought the matter to the fore.
In an official press release the Chief Minister’s Office asked the vigilance commissioner to probe corruption charge against Gujarat Pavitra Yatradham Vikas Board.
In the purported audio clip, additional secretary in the state panchayat department, Anil Patel, can be heard admitting to large-scale corruption to an RTI activist in the board where was previously posted.
(Source: The Times of India)
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