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By:

Rajendra Joshi

3 December 2024 at 9:20:26 am

Blocked roads take life

Kolhapur: Ten minutes. That is the gap the family of Nalini Ganesh Mainkar says may have separated life from death. On Tuesday, as preparations for Ganeshotsav gathered pace in Kolhapur, Mainkar, a resident of Wangibol in Shivaji Peth, suddenly fell critically ill after her blood pressure dropped. Her family immediately called an ambulance. The ambulance came. But it could not reach her home without delay. According to the family and the ambulance driver, roads were blocked at two or three...

Blocked roads take life

Kolhapur: Ten minutes. That is the gap the family of Nalini Ganesh Mainkar says may have separated life from death. On Tuesday, as preparations for Ganeshotsav gathered pace in Kolhapur, Mainkar, a resident of Wangibol in Shivaji Peth, suddenly fell critically ill after her blood pressure dropped. Her family immediately called an ambulance. The ambulance came. But it could not reach her home without delay. According to the family and the ambulance driver, roads were blocked at two or three locations by festival pandals, forcing the ambulance to negotiate alternative routes. By the time Mainkar was taken to hospital, doctors reportedly told the family that she had arrived about 10 minutes late. She died soon afterwards. For the Mainkar family, those 10 minutes are now an unbearable question: could she have survived if the ambulance had reached her on time? No medical conclusion establishing that link has been made public. But the incident has exposed a larger and recurring civic failure—the vulnerability of emergency services when public roads are allowed to become festival spaces. Mainkar lived barely a few minutes away from the Ambabai temple and had served there as a sevekari for several years. On Tuesday, her family watched helplessly as her condition deteriorated while the ambulance struggled to reach the house. The ambulance driver, the family said, acknowledged that the vehicle was delayed because of obstructions created by pandals at multiple points. No Implementation The Kolhapur Municipal Corporation has stipulated that a public festival pandal cannot occupy more than 25 per cent of the width of a road. The regulation is intended to ensure that traffic, pedestrians and emergency vehicles can continue to move. But on the ground, residents say, the distinction between a permitted pandal and a blocked road often disappears. In several parts of the old city, particularly the gaothan areas, festival structures have narrowed or closed roads. In other places, roads have been dug up for drainage and civic works. The result is a maze of bottlenecks at precisely the time when emergency vehicles need unobstructed access. The problem does not end with pandals. During festival processions, arrangements for dedicated passage of ambulances and fire engines are often inadequate. A traffic diversion that causes a commuter a few minutes of inconvenience can have an entirely different consequence for a patient suffering a cardiac emergency, major trauma or respiratory distress.

India working on logistics of Tahawwur Rana's extradition

PTI
Feb 14, 2025
3 min read

Updated: Feb 18, 2025

Tahawwur Rana

Washington: India is working on the logistics of Tahawwur Rana's surrender and extradition from the US, Foreign Secretary Vikram Misri has said, as President Donald Trump announced that his administration has given the go-ahead to extradite the 26/11 terror attack accused “to face justice".

“This is an issue on which the US authorities have taken very clear decisions. I think you've seen the President announce it himself from the White House podium" the decision of the US to extradite Rana, Misri said at a press conference here on Thursday.


During a joint press conference with Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the White House, US President Donald Trump announced that his administration has approved the extradition of "very evil" Tahawwur Rana, wanted by Indian law enforcement agencies for his role in the 26/11 Mumbai terror attacks, "to face justice in India”.


In response to a question by PTI on the timeframe by when Rana will be extradited to India, Misri said: "We are working on the logistics of his surrender and extradition to India. There are a few final steps to be completed. The two sides are in touch on this particular issue.”


The India-US joint statement issued during the Prime Minister's visit to the US notes that Modi and Trump reaffirmed that the global scourge of terrorism must be fought and terrorist safe havens eliminated from every corner of the world.

“They committed to strengthen cooperation against terrorist threats from groups, including Al-Qaeda, ISIS, Jaish-e Mohammad, and Lashkar-e-Tayyiba in order to prevent heinous acts like the attacks in Mumbai on 26/11 and the Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021," the joint statement said.


“Recognising a shared desire to bring to justice those who would harm our citizens, the US announced that the extradition to India of Tahawwur Rana has been approved," it said.


The leaders further called on Pakistan to expeditiously bring to justice the perpetrators of the 26/11 Mumbai, and Pathankot attacks and ensure that its territory is not used to carry out cross-border terrorist attacks.

"The leaders also pledged to work together to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and their delivery systems and to deny access to such weapons by terrorists and non-state actors,” the joint statement added.

Rana, a Canadian national of Pakistani origin, is currently lodged at a metropolitan detention centre in Los Angeles. He is known to be associated with Pakistani-American terrorist David Coleman Headley, one of the main conspirators of the 26/11 attacks.

Speaking at the joint press meet, Trump said "Today I am pleased to announce that my administration has approved the extradition of one of the plotters and very evil people of the world, and having to do with the horrific Mumbai terrorist attack, to face justice in India. So, he is going back to India to face justice."


The extradition of Rana was cleared by the US Supreme Court in January as it rejected his review petition in the case.


India last month said it was working with American authorities for the early extradition of Rana.


"The US Supreme Court on January 21 declined to hear a petition from the accused. We are now working with the US side on procedural issues for early extradition to India of the accused in the Mumbai terror attack," External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal had said.


In November 2012, Ajmal Amir Kasab, the lone surviving gunman among the Pakistani group, was hanged to death in Yerawada Jail in Pune.

-PTI

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