9 labourers die in accident:
Subcontinent
Nine labourers fell to their deaths from the 13th floor of a residential tower block under construction in western India Friday after a concrete slab collapsed, an official said.
Four other construction workers were injured in the accident in the city of Pune, around 120 kms (75 miles) from India’s financial capital Mumbai.
“Nine workers fell to their death from the 13th floor after the slab collapsed at around 11:00 am (0530 GMT),” National Disaster Response Force official Sachidanand Gawde told AFP.
Pune police said they had launched an investigation into the incident.
Deadly accidents at building sites are relatively common in India and are often blamed on a lack of safety measures. (AFP)
Thousands stranded in New Delhi:
Thousands of Indians were left stranded overnight Friday as major traffic gridlock paralysed roads leading to a key business city near New Delhi and authorities struggled to get the situation under control.
Television images showed thousands of partially submerged cars stranded in miles-long jams on a key highway and link roads connecting New Delhi with the satellite town of Gurgaon.
Office-goers and locals were pictured wading through knee-deep water after heavy monsoon rains deluged streets late Thursday.
Local authorities issued an order Friday asking people to avoid travelling to the area in northern Haryana state and shut schools for two days.
Dubbed “Millennium City”, Gurgaon is home to scores of top multinational companies, expensive condominiums, a world-class golf course, top hospitals and gleaming shopping malls.
However, like many Indian cities it lacks an efficient drainage system making it prone to flooding.
“People coming to Gurgaon from Delhi are advised to stay back today to avoid being stuck in traffic jams due to flooding on roads,” Gurgaon police posted on Twitter.
Anubhuti Sharma was unable to pick up her child from a creche a few kilometres away from her office after getting stuck. (AFP)
Mahashweta Devi dies at 90:
Mahashweta Devi, a well-known Indian writer and social activist, who used her writing to give voice to the oppressed poor tribal and forest dwellers, has died. She was 90.
Devi had been in a hospital in the eastern Indian city of Kolkata where she was being treated for a kidney ailment for the past two months, Press Trust of India said.
Writing mostly in the Bengali language, Devi’s major works dealt with the suffering of poor laborers and forest dwellers who had lost their lands due to industrial and urban growth. She founded several social organizations to help fight for the rights of indigenous people.
Devi was the recipient of several awards including several of India’s highest civilian and literary awards. In 1997 she was awarded the Ramon Magsaysay award, a Philippine honor considered the Asian Nobel Prize.
Her citation for the Magsaysay award recognized her “compassionate crusade through art and activism to claim for tribal peoples a just and honorable place in India’s national life.” (AP)
India home minister to visit Pak: