Hyderabad, March 3: The rescue operation in the partially collapsed Srisailam Left Bank Canal (SLBC) tunnel in Telangana’s Nagarkurnool district entered its 10th day on Monday, with the authorities exploring the possibility of using robots to trace the eight trapped men.

Multiple rescue teams of various agencies of the Centre and state continued desilting and machine-cutting at the locations identified by the National Geophysical Research Institute (NGRI) after scanning the accident site through Ground Penetrating Radar (GPR).

The rescue teams of the Army, Navy, NDRF, SDRF, Singareni Mines Rescue, Fire Services, HYDRAA, South Central Railway plasma cutters, and Rat Miners continued to face impediments like water seepage.

The rescue workers are unable to remove silt, water and debris from the tunnel due to lack of a functional conveyor belt. Technical teams were busy repairing the belt, and it is expected to become functional by Monday evening, and this is expected to help in speeding up the rescue operation.

Chief Minister A. Revanth Reddy on Sunday suggested the use of robots in the tunnel in which eight persons have remained trapped since February 22.

The Chief Minister, who visited the tunnel and held a review meeting with agencies involved in the rescue operation, asked officials to examine the possibility of using robots to prevent any further loss of life.

“Eight missing persons have not yet been traced. Experts have not concluded whether they are alive or dead,” he said.

The Chief Minister said it may take another 2-3 days for the rescue workers to come to a conclusion.

Chief Minister Reddy said the agencies involved in the rescue have not been able to come to a conclusion about the location of the machines and human beings, though they have tentatively identified the areas.

He assured that the state government would extend all help to the families of eight persons who had come from other states to work as engineers, machine operators or labourers. Stating that helping them is the responsibility of the government, he stressed the need for all to come together to console the families affected by the accident.

Two workers were injured, and eight others were trapped when a portion of the tunnel roof collapsed on February 22 at the 14th km point.

The trapped persons have been identified as Manoj Kumar and Sri Niwas from Uttar Pradesh, Sunny Singh (J&K), Gurpreet Singh (Punjab) and Sandeep Sahu, Jegta Xess, Santosh Sahu and Anuj Sahau, all from Jharkhand.

Of the eight, two are engineers, two are operators, and the remaining four are labourers. They were employed by Jaiprakash Associates, the contracting firm for the tunnel project

New Delhi, March 3: Chief Minister Rekha Gupta on Monday announced that the Budget 2025-26 for the national capital will be presented between March 24 and March 26.

Addressing a press conference, Delhi CM said that her government is committed to fulfilling the aspirations of city residents.

“The people of Delhi gave our party a chance by electing us with a full majority. Under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, we are determined to accelerate the city’s development and welfare,” she stated.

She stressed the importance of inclusive governance, urging all sections of society to participate in the budgeting process.

“To ensure holistic growth, we must take everyone along and incorporate their suggestions into the budget. Our Sankalp Patra has highlighted key areas like financial assistance for women, healthcare expansion, public transport promotion, pollution reduction, job creation, education improvements, affordable nutrition for the poor, senior citizen welfare, and Yamuna river cleaning. These priorities will shape the budget,” she said.

Additionally, she announced stakeholders to gather insights for the budget — On March 5, women organisations and education sector representatives will be invited to the Assembly and on March 6, business and industrial leaders will submit their recommendations.

She mentioned that ministers and MLAs will also reach out to people from rural areas, farming communities, youth, and education sectors to gather feedback.

CM Gupta also mentioned that during the Assembly session on Monday, the CAG report on Delhi’s health sector would be presented, exposing alleged financial irregularities under the previous AAP-led government.

Taking aim at the AAP, she said, “They prevented the CAG report from being presented for years, but now their misdeeds are being exposed. Only two reports have been tabled so far, and 12 more are pending. The people of Delhi are witnessing how they deceived them under the garb of honesty.”

She also urged the Opposition to participate constructively in Assembly discussions, stating, “Our MLAs will debate the findings, and I call upon the opposition to engage meaningfully instead of obstructing the process.”

Kolkata, March 3: The supplementary charge sheet in the R.G. Kar rape and murder case, which the CBI is expected to file at a special court in Kolkata this month, will throw some light on the larger motive behind the crime, besides providing details on the tampering and altering of evidence when the initial probe was being done by Kolkata Police, sources said on Monday.

To establish this ‘larger motive of crime’ the investigating officials of Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) are heavily banking on the statements of the police personnel present at the local Tala Police station and the police outpost at R.G. Kar Medical College & Hospital on the night of the crime in August last year and more specially the instructions received by them from their higher officials in the morning of August 9 when the body of the female doctor was discovered at a seminar hall within the hospital premises.

The CBI has summoned 11 cops who were posted at the Tala Police Station and the R.G. Kar outpost for interrogation during the current week.

Sources aware of the development said that the statements these 11 cops will be crucial in detailing the ‘larger motive behind crime’ in the supplementary charge sheet.

Besides extracting information on the instructions received by these 11 cops from their higher officials, sources said the investigation officials will also seek other details like whether anything suspicious came to their notice on the night of the crime or after the body of the victim was recovered and whether there was any suspicious activity by an outsider within the police station and hospital premises then.

The next hearing on the R.G. Kar rape and murder case is scheduled at the Supreme Court on March 17 and the CBI officials are trying their best to file the supplementary charge sheet at the special court in Kolkata before that.

Last week, the parents of the victim went to Delhi and had a long meeting with the CBI Director Praveen Sood on the progress of the investigation in the matter. The parents told media persons that the CBI director assured them of justice and advised them to hold patience.

To recall, earlier, the CBI arrested Sandip Ghosh, the former and controversial principal of R.G. Kar and Abhijit Mondal, the former SHO of Tala Police Station, on charges of tampering with and altering evidence during the phase of initial investigation by the city police.

However, both were granted default bail as the CBI officials failed to file a supplementary charge sheet against them within 90 days from the date of their arrests.