Ten newborn babies died after fire broke out in the Special Newborn Care Unit of a hospital in Maharashtra in the wee hours on Saturday, January 9, doctors said.
The infants were aged between a month and three months, a doctor said.
District civil surgeon Pramod Khandate said fire broke out at the Bhandara district hospital at around 1.30 am. There were 17 babies in the unit and seven were rescued, he added.
A nurse first noticed smoke coming out from the neonatal section of the hospital and alerted doctors and other staff who reached there in five minutes, he said.
Decide Rajoana mercy plea by January 26: SC
The Supreme Court on Friday, January 8, urged the Centre to decide on the eight-year-old mercy plea filed by a death row convict in two weeks. The convict, Balwant Singh Rajoana, has been in jail for over 25 years after being convicted of triggering a bomb blast that killed then Punjab chief minister Beant Singh in August 1995.Rajoana approached the Supreme Court last year complaining about a delay on the part of the central government to process his mercy petition, which he filed on March 25, 2012 with the President. The Supreme Court on December 4 asked the Centre about the delay and was informed that the proposal for commutation of his sentence was yet to be processed.
Veteran Congress leader Madhavsinh Solanki passes away at 93
Madhavsinh Solanki, a veteran Congress leader and the former External Affairs Minister of India, who also served as the Chief Minister of Gujarat for four times, passed away at the age of 93 on Saturday. Congress’s longest-ruling chief minister in Gujarat, Solanki was last seen in public some three years ago when he met Congress leaders on his birthday. Solanki who belongs to Borsad town of Anand district, lived in Gandhinagar and died at his residence during his sleep, Congress sources said.