1. First Gear: Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation's E-Buses on the Run
“Electric Vehicles (EVs) will make a qualitative change to the lives of people," Union Home Minister Amit Shah said on Thursday, 29 August, at a function in Sola to roll out the first fleet of electric buses in the city.
Under the Faster Adaption and Manufacture of (Hybrid) and Electric Vehicles (FAME) scheme, Gujarat will get 550 electric buses, with Ahmedabad alone getting 300 buses. Surat will get 150 buses, while Vadodara and Rajkot will get 50 buses each. Each 'silent' bus can carry up to 50 passengers and will not emit smoke. They also have automatic door sensors and won't start if the doors are open.
Eight buses rolled out on Thursday itself, though a total of 50 are being inducted. Eighteen of these have swap technology — the bus can traverse about 40 km per battery and swapping takes a mere four minutes. The remaining 32 have fast charging facilities and can cover about 200 km per charge. Trial runs have been on for about six months.
(Source: DNA)
2. Shun Plastic Bags, Save Environment: Amit Shah to Women
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday, 29 August, appealed to women not to use plastic bags and suggested that they carry bags made of cloth or khadi.
“If there is any big impediment in the way of cleanliness and better environment, it is plastic,” said Shah while addressing an event of Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation where he planted a tree sapling and flagged off eight electric BRTS buses.
“We need to prevent the use of single-use plastic. Women who carry home vegetables purchased in plastic bags, perhaps don’t know that these bags prevent seepage of water into the ground. Our society that considers cow as mother, cannot imagine the pain the animal goes through when kilograms of plastic is taken out from its stomach,” he told a gathering organised near Gujarat Science City.
(Source: Indian Express)
3. Cops Booked for Murder After 65-Year-Old Man Dies in Custody
Days after a 65-year-old man was allegedly beaten to death in police custody in Junagadh on suspicion of theft, a murder case has been lodged against policemen of C-division police station, but no one has been named in particular.
Hari Bajania (65) was declared dead on 16 August evening, a day after he along with 11 others were picked up by a team of C-division police station on suspicion of theft from the shanties near Vinayak Heights Apartment in Junagadh. Hari used to pick scrap to sell them in the city area for a living. The police have refused to share the post-mortem details of the deceased.
“We were picked up around 2:30 am on 16 August and brought to the police station. They (policemen) beat us up and forced us to admit to the theft. Hari was taken to another room and tortured for hours by two policemen. Around 2 pm, they suddenly brought an ambulance and took Hari to the hospital where he was declared brought dead. We were released by 4.30 pm,” said Shankar Bajania, one of the 12 men picked up by the police. Shankar is the complainant in the case and he claimed that he couldn’t identify the policemen who tortured them.
(Source: Indian Express)
4. Vector-Borne Diseases Are Declining, State Tells Gujarat High Court
Cases of malaria, dengue and chikungunya have declined if compared with corresponding period of previous years, said the state health department in an affidavit filed at the Gujarat High Court Thursday.
The affidavit with data until July, said that from January to July 2019, 5,225 malaria cases were seen compared to 10,342 cases until January to July 2018. Dengue has seen “marginal decrease” with 713 cases until July 2019 compared to 776 cases till July 2018. The state said that 54 per cent of dangerous cases of dengue were reported from municipal corporation areas. Chikungunya decreased from 212 until July 2018 to 187 until July 2019.
(Source: Indian Express)
5. Family's Ashram Eviction Stayed
The Gujarat High Court's single-judge bench of Justice GR Udhwani on Thursday stayed the eviction of a family settled by Mahatma Gandhi at the Sabarmati Ashram. The family and its descendants have been living in the ashram since 1920.
The Sabarmati Ashram Gaushala Trust won a legal battle against the family in the lower court for getting it evicted. Sonu Thosar, grandson of Babu Thosar, moved the court against the lower court's verdict. Notably, Babu Thosar was brought by Gandhi in the ashram along with other artisans to make leather sandals from dead cattle.
The trust had filed a civil suit in 1998 against the family to get the land back. The trust had contended that the descendants of Babu Thosar have no right over the land. The lower court in February ruled in favour of the trust and ordered the Thosar family to handover the possession of the land to the trust.
(Source: DNA)
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