New bench to hear Taj case

New Delhi (PTI): The Supreme Court has constituted a new bench to hear the Rs 175-crore Taj heritage corridor case involving former Uttar Pradesh chief minister Mayavati and some senior state officials.

ew bench under Justice Ruma Pal was formed as Chief Justice V.. Khare, who was heading the earlier bench, is retiring on May 2. Justices S.B. Sinha and S.H. Kapadia will remain on the bench.

The bench will consider on May 7 six departmental inquiry reports against former chief secretary D.S. Bagga, P.. Punia, former principal secretary to then chief minister Mayavati, and former environment secretary V.K. Gupta.

MiG kills one

New Delhi (PTI): A casual worker was killed when a MiG-27 made an emergency landing at the Jodhpur air base due to a hydraulic failure on Wednesday. The fighter aircraft, on a routine training flight, skidded off the runway while making the emergency landing and killed the worker who was cutting grass, an air force spokesman said here. The aircraft suffered some damage but the pilot was safe.

Jogi better

Mumbai (PTI): Former Chhattisgarh chief minister Ajit Jogi, who was hospitalised after a near-fatal accident in early April, is improving, neurosurgeon C.E. Deopujari of Bombay Hospital said on Wednesday. “Jogi is improving and doing much better.” The 59-year-old Congress leader is also moving around in a wheel-chair inside the ICU, Deopujari said.

Jail suspension

Sonepat (PTI): Nine officials of Sonepat district jail, including three chief wardens, were suspended on Wednesday on charges of dereliction of duty, after undertrial Jasbir was shot in a clash between prisoners on Monday. Director-general of police (prisons) A.S. Bhatotia ordered the suspension for their failure to check smuggling of firearms by the prisoners into the jail.

Train saved

Sonepat (PTI): A major accident was averted by an alert driver who managed to stop a train running at full speed on time at the outer signal near Sonepat station. The driver slammed brake after he noticed the open railway crossing gate near Hindu College and vehicles plying on the tracks, official sources said.

Captive lobster

New Delhi (PTI): India has become the second country after Australia to have bred sand lobsters in captivity. The Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute, which carried out the experiment, is planning to start a pilot project to field-test the results in the coastal areas of Tamil Nadu and Kerala.