Ten Naxalites were killed in an encounter with security personnel in Chhattisgarh's Sukma district on Friday, a senior police official said. The gunfight broke out in the morning in a forest within the jurisdiction of the Bhejji police station when a joint team of security personnel was out on an anti-Naxalite operation. The operation was launched based on inputs about the presence of Maoists belonging to Konta and Kistaram area committees of Naxalites on forested hills of Korajguda, Dantespuram, Nagaram and Bhandarpadar villages. Chief Minister Vishnu Deo Sai hailed security forces and said the era of peace and progress has returned to the Bastar region, which includes Sukma.
The Andhra Pradesh government on Friday ordered an inquiry into the Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline blast at Nagaram village in East Godavari district, in which 14 persons were killed.
State-owned Oil and Natural Gas Corp has shut some wells on two onland gas fields in East Godavari district of Andhra Pradesh following the fire in a pipeline that carried the gas to consumers.
The pipeline where the incident occurred was a dedicated line carrying gas to Lanco's 1,466 MW Kondapalli power plant.
Andhra Pradesh Police said the lighting of a stove by a tea vendor might have sparked Friday's fire at the Gas Authority of India Limited pipeline in East Godavari district after leaked gas from the line enveloped the area.
With two more persons succumbing to their burn injuries on Sunday, the toll in Friday's deadly fire-blast, apparently caused by leakage from a GAIL gas pipeline in Nagaram, Andhra Pradesh, rose to 19 even as the condition of at least three others remains critical, police said.
The petroleum ministry has blamed negligence for causing the devastating fire at state-owned gas transporter GAIL India Ltd's gas pipeline in Andhra Pradesh that killed 22 people.
The toll in the deadly blast and fire, apparently caused by leakage from a Gas Authority of India Limited gas pipeline, on Saturday rose to 17, even as Andhra Pradesh police registered a case of negligence against the state-run firm.
Singapuram Yadaiah, the 19-year-old who died on Sunday after his self-immolation on the Osmania University campus, was cremated amid high tension in his village Nagaram in Ranga Reddy district.
By the end of 2020, India will lay 32,737 km across the length and breadth of the country. It needs to lay down and comply with strict safety standards especially since some of these pipes will go through areas of dense habitation, says Rashme Sehgal.
Here are other gas leaks that made headlines in the last few years: