YK MYK ASSEMBLY ELECTIONS OUTCOME TO DETERMINE CONGRESS ROLE IN OPPN OPINION Rs. 3 KOLKATA THURSDAY, 6 JANUARY, 2022 PG-8, YEAR— 8, ISSUE— 226 (RNI NO: WBENG / 2014 / 56803) TELANGANA HC GRANTS BAIL TO STATE BJP CHIEF NATION Morning India Arrest guilty in teenaged girl's murder in 24 hours: Goa TMC to police MI NEWS SERVICE PANAJI: Trinamool Congress (TMC) members on Wednesday submitted a memorandum to the state police demanding the arrest of the persons involved in the alleged murder of a 19-year-old girl who was found dead on a Goa beach in August this year. Speaking to reporters Goa TMC leader Seoula Vas said that the memorandum demanded the arrest of the person or persons involved in the alleged murder within 24 hours. The case of the mysterious death of teenager Siddhi Naik was initially described as a suicide by officials of the Calangute police station before finally registering the offence as a murder on January 2. "These persons have to be arrested within 24 hours. The police have to pull up their socks. Whatever the previous police inspector has not done, this PI has to make up for all that. We want the name of the murderer, identity of the murderer and we want that murderer to be brought to justice," Vas told reporters after submitting the memorandum to the Calangute police in the presence of the deceased's father, Sandeep. The 19-year-old girl, a resident of Nachinola village in North Goa, was missing since the morning of August 12 and a missing complaint was filed by her father with the Calangute police station. The body was found, in a partially clothed state, on the following day at Calangute beach. A post mortem ruled out sexual assault and murder, while identifying the cause of death as drowning. The deceased Siddhi's father, Sandeep, had demanded that the case should be registered and investigated as a murder, raising red flags about the police investigation. Incidentally, her father subsequently joined the TMC, days after the party's Lok Sabha MP Mahua Moitra met him and assured to pursue with the police to investigate the case as a murder. Sixteen killed, over 24 injured as bus collides with truck in Pakur SURESH PRASAD NIKHAR PAKUR: Sixteen people were killed and over 24 others injured in a head-on collision between a bus and a truck transporting gas cylinders in Jharkhand's Pakur district on Wednesday morning, police said.The accident took place at Paderkola village in Amrapara police station area, they said. "Sixteen persons have died and over two dozen people injured in the head-on collision between the speeding truck and the bus," said Sub-Divisional Police Officer (SDPO) Ajit Kumar Vimal. The condition of many of those injured is critical, he said. Several people are trapped inside the bus, and they are being brought out after dismantling the vehicle with gas-cutters, police said. The impact of the accident was such that the front ends of both the vehicles got stuck to each other, they said. Fortunately, none of the gas cylinders on the truck exploded, otherwise the accident could have taken many more lives, police said. Considering the situation, it is feared that the toll could rise, Vimal said. According to local villagers the Krishna Rajat bus JH 04K-1698 was going from Pakur to Dumka. While a truck laden with gas cylinders was coming at high speed from the opposite direction. Then there was a collision between the two vehicles near Kamardiha village and terrible sound was heard at the time of the incident. On hearing the sound of the collision, the people around gathered. Eight passengers including the truck and bus driver died on the spot. While 8 others injured passengers who died during their treatment. Villagers said that 24 passengers were got badly injured. Six or seven passengers were trapped inside the bus for about two hours after the incident. Passengers trapped inside the bus kept shouting to get them out. The people present at the scene of the incident could not help the people trapped in the bus even if they wanted too. As they have no gas cutter. The gas cutter car could not reach on time. All the bodies were taken to Sadar Hospital for post-mortem. Rescue and relief work was going on. Police Inspector Manoj Kumar said that the gas cutter vehicle is being called. The injured have been admitted to Community Health Center Amdapara for treatment. After getting information about the incident, DC Varun Ranjan also reached the spot then hospital. Where he knew the condition of the injured and directed them to be referred immediately for treatment and ambulances of other hospitals were also sent to Amdapara so that the injured could get better treatment at the earliest. 6 states/UTs have over 10K active Covid cases: Govt AGENCIES NEW DELHI: The Centre on Wednesday said the upsurge of COVID-19 cases is happening in cities and the Omicron variant is the predominant circulating strain. It also noted that the precautionary dose of Covid vaccine for healthcare and frontline workers as well as those above 60 years with comorbidities will be same as the first two doses of the vaccine. The government, however, said there is no need to panic and one must be alert, disciplined and prepared, adding that the country will face this phase of the pandemic as well. “Upsurge of infections is happening in cities. Omicron is the predominant circulating strain and mass gatherings need to be avoided to reduce the speed of the spread of infection. “There has been a surge in Covid cases globally whereas 25.2 lakh cases were recorded globally on January 4, the highest ever since the onset of the pandemic,” officials said. “India reported over 6.3 times rise in Covid cases in the last eight days. There has been a sharp rise in case positivity from 0.79 per cent on December 29 to 5.03 per cent on January 5,” they said. They said six states/UTs now have over 10,000 active Covid cases. It further stated that Maharashtra, West Bengal, Delhi, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Jharkhand and Gujarat are emerging as states of concern due to the surge in COVID-19 cases. “A total of 28 districts are reporting over 10 per cent weekly Covid positivity, while 43 districts are reporting weekly positivity between 5-10 per cent,” the officials said. The Centre added that 1.06 crore or 14.3 per cent of India's adolescents aged 15-18 years have been administered the first dose of Covid vaccine. An estimated 7,40,57,000 adolescents in the age group 15-18 years are there in the country. and are eligible for vaccination, it said. It added that relatively less hospitalisation has been observed in countries reporting the surge in CS (main) exam as per schedule on Friday: UPSC NEW DELHI: The Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2021 will be conducted as per schedule from Friday, the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) said on Wednesday.The UPSC has asked the state governments to ensure that no inconvenience is caused to the candidates and examination functionaries in their movement. The states have been told that if necessary, the e-admit cards of the candidates and the identity cards of the examination functionaries are to be used as movement passes, the UPSC said. "After carefully reviewing the situation prevailing due to COVID-19 pandemic, the Commission has decided to conduct the Civil Services (Main) Examination, 2021 as per schedule. i.e. on 7th, 8th, 9th, 15th and 16th January, 2022," it said in a statement. The civil services examination is conducted annually in three stages -- preliminary, main and interview, to select the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and Indian Police Service (IPS) officers, among others. Supporters of Trinamool Congress (TMC) wear masks with a portrait of party supremo and Chief Minister of West Bengal Mamata Banerjee as they take part in her birthday celebrations in Kolkata on Wednesday. Winter to lose its intensity by weekend MI NEWS SERVICE KOLKATA: From the beginning of the New Year, winter could be felt over Bengal. Mercury decreased a lot in one jump at night and in the morning. The people of Kolkata are literally feeling the chills. However, the temperature may rise slightly at night. Because again, due to the western disturbance, the temperature will increase a lot in one go. Northerly winds will be affected by the western disturbance. As a result, the temperature may rise slightly at night. According to the Meteorological Department, the mercury will increase by 1 to 2 degrees in the next 48 hours. However, winter cannot show its magic before it was interrupted by the western disturbance. Meanwhile, winter is in full swing in south Bengal. The maximum daytime temperature in Kolkata and adjoining areas was 22.9 degrees Celsius on Wednesday. The minimum temperature was 12.6 degrees Celsius which was 2 degrees lower than normal. The relative humidity in the air was almost 95 per cent. The weather office further said that dry weather prevailed in all the northern and southern districts of Bengal till Wednesday. But after that, the weather will change. Rising temperature will create rainy conditions. Relative humidity will increase slightly if it increases during the day. Rain is not forecast for the next 72 hours though. The State has also issued dense fog warning. There will be dense to very dense fog in North Bengal. There is a warning of dense fog in five districts of South Bengal too. Temperatures will rise by the end of the week. Wednesday was also the coldest day of the second innings of the current winter season. By the end of the first week of January, strong western disturbance could have a major impact on the weather, the weather office feared. And because of this, winter can disappear once again.