Kolkata, Feb 25: West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, on Tuesday, clarified to the media persons her point on the recent controversies over her comments in the Assembly earlier this month, describing “Maha Kumbh” at Prayagraj in Uttar Pradesh as “Mrityu Kumbh”.

However, throughout her interaction with the media persons, she did not utter that controversial word even once on Tuesday.

“I have nothing to say about those who went for the holy bath at Maha Kumbh. I have great regard for them. I have respect for all religions. I talked about the lack of planning there. But my statements were distorted and said all sorts of negative things. I want to tell them that all you said was untrue,” the Chief Minister told media persons.

According to her, accidents can happen.

“But the people suffer if the accident takes place because of negligence. People also suffer if there is a lack of proper planning in handling the crisis after the accident. I request the Uttar Pradesh government to hand over the compensation announced by them to the affected families at the earliest,” the Chief Minister said.

This is for the first time that the Chief Minister has commented on the controversies arising over her statement made earlier this month on the floor of the Assembly during the ongoing first phase of the Budget Session of the House.

However, last week, a senior Trinamool Congress leader and a member of the state Cabinet, Manas Ranjan Bhunia, came forward in defence of Chief Minister Banerjee over the matter and claimed that the Chief Minister’s comment was picked up selectively and out of contest.

“No one in the state government had made any attempts to malign the Maha Kumbh. The Chief Minister, too, had not criticised the event. She has spoken about the loss of life because of the administrative mismanagement there. In addition, a Central report has reported high-level faecal bacteria in the river water at Prayagraj,” Bhunia claimed.

Following the statements made by the Chief Minister on the floor of the House she came under all-round criticism from different corners of the country.

New Delhi, Feb 25: Delhi Assembly Speaker Vijender Gupta on Tuesday suspended 21 AAP legislators from attending the proceedings for the next three sittings even as the session was extended by three days for discussion on the CAG report on excise policy tabled in the House.

The suspended AAP legislators, including Leader of Opposition Atishi, were marshalled out of the House for disrupting proceedings and shouting slogans of “Jai Bhim” and demanding the restoration of photos of Dr B.R. Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh to the office of Chief Minister Rekha Gupta. A charge denied by the Chief Minister.

Incidentally, AAP MLA from Okhla, Amanatullah Khan was the only one not to be suspended out of the 22 MLAs as he was not present in the House on Tuesday.

Later, Speaker Gupta told reporters that the AAP legislators’ suspension will remain in force on February 25, 27 and 28.

“Maintaining the honour of the House is our top priority. The AAP legislators adopted unethical behaviour when the LG was trying to follow his constitutional duty,” he said.

He said the CAG report on excise policy will be referred to the Public Accounts Committee after discussion by the members in the House.

He indicated that more CAG reports are likely to be tabled in the House whose session has been extended till March 3.

Taking part in the vote of thanks on the address of Lieutenant Governor V.K. Saxena, former Gandhi Nagar legislator and Delhi minister Arvinder Singh Lovely sought a special sitting of the House to discus the CAG report, calling it an “extraordinary situation that requires exposing corruption of the previous government”.

Lovely said in the normal course a CAG report is sent to the Public Accounts Committee but a special session is needed in this case.

Hitting out at the protest by AAP legislators, Lovely claimed, “They are trying to hide behind the photo of B.R. Ambedkar and Shaheed Bhagat Singh.”

“Did Bhagat Singh ever say that a government should indulge in liquor scam or school scam?” he asked, slamming the AAP government for disrespecting Dr Ambedkar by not following the constitutional practices mandated by him.

“The AAP government disrespected Ambedkar by quashing Question Hour from Delhi Assembly’s proceedings. They took away the democratic right of legislators to raise questions in public interest,” he said.

The day’s proceedings in the Assembly began with the LG’s address in which he promised to give Rs 2,500 every month to women in Delhi.

LG Saxena on Tuesday highlighted the ‘Viksit Delhi’ manifesto as the guiding principle of the new government which is committed to delivering a corruption-free administration.

Hyderabad, Feb 25: Rescue teams involved in the intensive operation to pull out eight persons trapped in an under-construction tunnel which collapsed in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district for three days are re-drawing the strategy to move forward in the last stretch of 40-50 metres.

Facing several hurdles, the authorities have roped in experts from the Geological Survey of India (GSI), the National Geographical Research Institute (NGRI), and the National Remote Sensing Agency (NRSA) to assess the situation and suggest the way forward for rescue operations.

Multiple teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), Army, Larsen and Toubro (L&T) and various agencies are moving cautiously as the stability of the tunnel has to be taken into consideration while undertaking any excavation work.

While continuing dewatering, the rescue teams were waiting for the experts to suggest the next step.

Various agencies including the Army, Navy, SDRF, National Highway Infrastructure Development Corporation, and Singareni Collieries Company Limited have mapped out the tunnel operation. They prepared a detailed diagram to help prepare a rescue strategy to locate and reach eight trapped men.

Officials said the conveyor belt used to bring back debris from the tunnel after excavation was not working.

Minister for Roads and Buildings Komatireddy Venkat Reddy said the efforts were on to repair the belt.

Deployment of advanced equipment like endoscopic and robotic cameras to trace the trapped men has not yielded results. According to officials, the robotic camera is not working.

Tunnel Boring Machine (TBM) broke into two after a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed on the morning of February 22.

The tail unit of TBM was found 50 metres before the end of the 14 km long tunnel. The head portion of the tunnel has a safe container for workers to take shelter in an emergency. It was not known if the trapped men could enter the container when the roof collapsed and water seepage became intensive.

The drone was also not accessible after the TBM tail unit. The 50-metre area is filled with sediments and debris hampering further movement of the rescue teams for the last 24 hours.

The tunnel map prepared by the rescue teams shows that the loco track is accessible up to 12 km though the track is available for a length of 13.5 km.

There is no water stagnation in the tunnel till 10.7 km point. The teams found 1.5 feet water at 10.95 km There is 2 to 2.5 feet water at 11.30 km.

The NDRF team has also deployed a trained sniffer dog for the rescue operation but the same could not be pressed into service due to slush.

A team of expert rat miners, known for a successful rescue operation in the Silkyara Bend-Barkot tunnel in Uttarakhand in 2023, has arrived, but their services have not yet been used. In Uttarakhand, the team rescued 41 workers who were trapped inside the tunnel for 17 days.

The team members, however, said that the situation in Telangana is different. In the Uttarakhand tunnel, it was rock and they used hand tools to reach trapped workers through small pits. However, the SLBC tunnel is filled with water and mud.

Deputy Chief Minister Mallu Bhatti Vikramarka, Irrigation Minister Uttam Kumar Reddy, Roads and Buildings Minister Komatireddy Venkat Reddy and Tourism Minister Jupally visited the tunnel and reviewed the rescue operations with various agencies.

Uttam Kumar Reddy said he invited Harpal Singh, former engineer-in-chief of Border Road Organisation to share his expertise and knowledge for the rescue operation. The minister quoted Harpal Singh as saying he had never seen such a complicated tunnel accident.

Two workers were injured and eight others were trapped when a portion of the tunnel being dug as part of SLBC collapsed near Domalapenta.

A total of 50 persons were working on the left-side tunnel when the roof collapsed for three metres. The accident occurred at the 14th km point.

While 42 workers came out of the tunnel, the remaining eight were trapped. Those trapped include two engineers and two machine operators.

The trapped men are from Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab and Jammu and Kashmir.

Project manager Manoj Kumar (Uttar Pradesh), Machine engineer Srinivas (Uttar Pradesh) and machine operators Sunny Singh (J&K) and Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) are among those trapped.

The four workers from Jharkhand are Sandeep Sahu, Santosh Sahu, Anju Sahu and Jagta Khes.