Ranchi: Members of a parents's organisation met chief minister Hemant Soren on Friday and urged him to consider reopening schools in the wake of a fall in fresh Covid cases, citing a crisis among lakhs of people dependent on educational institutions for their livlihood.

After the meeting, Private Schools and Children's Welfare Association (PSCWA) president Alok Dubey said, “We have urged the state government to work out a dynamic mechanism to reopen schools now so that classes can be regularized. One can initially begin with senior classes. We have also proposed that every school must ensure that before being allowed to reopen, all their staff is duly vaccinated.”

(Our Correspondent)

Fire at Bokaro Steel Plant stalls production for hours

Bokaro Steel Plant File picture

Bokaro: A major fire broke out in the Blast Furnace-2 of Bokaro Steel Plant (BSL), a unit of Steel Authority of India Limited, after a torpedo ladle carrying hot metal got punctured.

Hot metal of 1300 degree celsius leaked out of the torpedo shooting up fire at the spot. The flames rose so high that they engulfed the entire torpedo.
About half a dozen fire tenders took about two hours to douse the flames. Senior officials of the BSL plant reached the spot. Fortunately, no casualty has been reported. The incident took place when the locomotive was ferrying hot metal-laden torpedoes to Steel Melting Shop (SMS). Due to this incident the production of Blast Furnace-II has also been affected. The movement of locomotives from the blast furnace to SMS remained affected for several hours.
The damage assessment in the incident is yet to be done. Chief of communication, BSL, Manikant Dhan said, "At about 8.40am, due to a leakage in the Torpedo Ladle in Blast Furnace-2, hot metal spilled over on the tracks and caught fire. No personnel were affected in this incident."

"The fire tenders were immediately pressed into service and in about one and a half hours, the flames were completely doused. A portion of the cables in the cable gallery was affected by the fire. Normal operations resumed within two hours of the incident," he added.

The BSL plant is seeing a rise in accidents in the past few months. Recently a contract worker fell in a ladle having hot metal. Earlier, two employees sustained burn injuries with the radiation of hot metal that spills from the ladle at Steel Melting Shop (SMS)-2.

(Our Correspondent)

6 Ranchi youths caught with 'brown sugar' in Adityapur

Seraikela-Kharsawan SP Anand Prakash with the seven arrested youths in Adityapur on Friday. Animesh Sengupta

Jamshedpur: Seven youths were caught with 94 packets of "brown sugar" from near drum factory under Adityapur thana area in the adjoining Seraikela-Kharsawan district about five km from here on Friday.

Of those arrested, six were from Ranchi and had come to Adityapur for procuring the narcotic drug from a local with links to the peddlers' network.

Those arrested were identified as Sunny Verma, Vishal Kumar, Nitesh Jha, Saheed Akhtar, Abhishek Singh, Sunny Tirkey and Mohammed Tahir, all in their twenties.

According to Seraikela-Kharsawan district superintendent of police, Anand Prakash, till recently the brown sugar sale racket was confined to Adityapur Muslim Bustee only, but now it has spread to new localities in Adityapur and also in several parts of the steel city.

"When youngsters from Ranchi can come here for the drugs, the network of the drug-peddlers must have spread upto Ranchi," said the superintendent of police, adding that they will work to dismantle the network soon.

(Kumud Jenamani)

Dhanbad cricketers cheer for Indian Olympic team

Students and coaches of Jealgora cricket academy cheers up to the Indian Olympic team at Jealgora Stadium of BCCL at Jharia on Friday. Shabbir Hussain

Dhanbad: Cricketers and other citizens of Dhanbad on Friday congregated at Jealgora Cricket stadium to wish success to the India team representing the nation in Tokyo Olympics.

The special programme was organised by Jealgora Cricket Academy, one of the oldest cricket clubs, in association with Jharia based social organisation Youth Concept.

Besides waving of tricolour to cheer for Indian team, more than a dozen saplings were also planted to spread the green message.

“The country has high expectations from the players who went to Tokyo Olympic and we wish them all success in different sporting events,” said Abdul Karim Ansari, patron of Jealgora Cricket Club.

Ritam Dey, a level I coach of BCCI, present during the occasion said, “As four players of our own state, including three girls are part of Indian contingent this time to the Olympic games being held in Tokyo, we expect better results for the team.”

Shamil Kaul, one of the under-14 team player of Jealgora Cricket Club girls team said, “It’s time for the Indian team to prove that who we are and what we area since the Indian team has the hunger to perform and hunger to achieve goal we are confident our players will come out of the game with flying colours.”

(Praduman Choubey)

Drive against VIP number plates in steel city

Two traffic cops take a VIP plate off a car at Sakchi on Friday. Animesh Sengupta

Jamshedpur: The traffic wing of the district police on Friday stripped four-wheelers off the VIP plates in a special drive along with the helmet-checking at Sakchi locality of the steel city.

As the act of intercepting VIP cars and stripping the number plates was a tough job, deputy superintendent of police (Traffic) Babban Singh was himself present during the drive which continued for two hours from 11 am.

During the drive, the traffic cops caught two cars which were found fitted with VIP plates that were stripped off and the car drivers were penalised.

On one of the VIP plates that was removed was inscribed "Ex-police inspector" whereas on the other VIP plate was a symbol of Trinamul Congress beside the designation "district general secretary."

The senior traffic cops said they had earlier carried out awareness campaign about the drive against those using VIP plates.

"We have started the drive against the vehicles using VIP plates because during a traffic drive such vehicles would easily skip the checking points even if the drivers would violate the seatbelt norms, attracting wrath from other car owners, "said the traffic DSP, adding that the special drive will continue.

Hundreds of four-wheelers can be seen on the roads with VIP plates, sporting designation of the political parties they belong to. Owners of such vehicles also tend to use tinted glass without paying heed to the traffic rules.

(Kumud Jenamani)