New Delhi, Dec 9 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi reached the Palam airport here on Thursday and paid his homage to Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat, his wife Madhulika Rawat and 11 other armed forces personnel who lost their lives in the military chopper crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday.
At 7:46 pm, the mortal remains of the crash victims were brought to the Palam airport from the Sulur air base near Coimbatore. Indian Air Force chief Air Chief Marshal V.R. Chaudhari brought the mortal remains of all the deceased.
The force said that positive identification of only three mortal remains -- Gen Rawat, Madhulika Rawat and Brig L.S. Lidder -- has been possible as of now, and their mortal remains will be released to the next of kin for final rites as desired by the respective families.
All possible measures are being taken for positive identification of the mortal remains. The remaining mortal remains will be kept at the mortuary of Army Base Hospital till completion of positive identification formalities, the force said.
Close family members of all the deceased personnel have arrived at Delhi. All necessary assistance and support are being provided by Indian Army.
Appropriate military funerals of all the deceased are being planned and coordinated in close consultation with the close family members.
A fire department officer said that a three-story residential building opposite to Robin cinema in Ghanta Ghar Sabzi Mandi near Malka Ganj in Delhi collapsed and the department received a call regarding it at 12 noon. As soon as the fire department received a call, seven fire tenders were rushed to the spot for rescue operations.
Calling the Congress as the only party who protested against these 'black' laws from the very first day, the Chief Minister said his government called an all-party meeting and then held consultations with farm unions.
The highly specialised medical services to be rolled out across the state by end November will prove to be a boon for people, especially the poor for whom expert private sector medical care is out of reach, he said.
The Minister while addressing the inaugural session of 'Connect Karo 2021 - Towards Equitable, Sustainable Indian Cities' event, said that there can be no doubt that India's cities "enabled by citizen-centric infrastructure and transformational technology" will be the key to achieving the nation's development objectives.
Meanwhile, India logged 27,254 new Covid cases in the last 24 hours. The country also reported 219 Covid deaths in the same time span. The country presently has nearly 3.75 lakh active cases.
At a virtual Covid-19 review meeting, the Chief Minister said vaccine effectiveness is evident from the data being analysed. Special efforts were made to reach out to the government employees, and those who continue to avoid getting vaccinated will now be asked to go on leave till they get the first dose.
