PUNE: The death toll in the landslide at a village in Maharashtra's Pune district today has gone up to eight with three more bodies being extricated from the rubble.

Additional District Collector Ganesh Patil told PTI two persons have also been pulled out alive.

Around 300 NDRF personnel are assisting the local administration in the rescue operations, he said.

Over 160 people were feared trapped when part of a hillside smashed 44 houses at Malin village this morning amid heavy rains. 

Earlier, Chief Minister Prithviraj Chavan said five persons were killed in the landslide and 160 feared trapped.

He said 44 houses on the hillside were swamped by the cascading debris in the village with a population of about 715.

Rescue operations are on in full swing with the help of two teams from the National Disaster Response Force, District Collector Saurav Rao said.

The rescuers were moving slowly to avoid causing harm to the survivors, he said.

About 30 ambulances and fire brigade teams from adjoining areas have been rushed to the spot, he added.

IG, NDRF, Sandeep Rai Rathore said his teams had difficulty reaching the scene of occurrence due to damage caused to roads. Quoting district authorities, he said, up to 200 people may be trapped.

Chavan has left for the village with Deputy CM Ajit Pawar to personally monitor rescue efforts.

Hospitals in the vicinity have been put on alert and medical teams rushed to the spot.

Rescuers are facing a tough time due to rain. Large parts of Maharashtra are witnessing heavy and incessant rains over the past few days. — PTI

NEW DELHI: With the Congress seeking to corner the BJP over alleged bugging of Union Minister Nitin Gadkari's residence, Home Minister Rajnath Singh today said there was no truth in those reports.

The House was adjourned twice during Question Hour as Congress members created storm in the Rajya Sabha over reports that Gadkari's house and telephone were bugged and high powered listening devices were found in his bedroom.

The Congress members demanded an impartial probe by a Joint Parliamentary Committee.

Singh, however, said no complaint has been lodged either by the Minister or anybody else on the issue.

"There is no truth in media reports," he said. "The Minister too has termed the reports as baseless and factually incorrect," the Home Minister said, adding no high powered listening device was found.

Earlier, when Rajya Sabha met for the day, Anand Sharma (Cong) said bugging of cabinet ministers is a serious matter and it should be discussed in the House.

He said the issue of call records of then Leader of the Opposition and now Leader of the House Arun Jaitley being allegedly accessed unauthorisedly was discussed in the House.

But, Chairman Hamid Ansari asked members to allow Question Hour and raise the matter during Zero Hour.

Jaitley said there was a vast difference between fiction and realty and the Home Minister will make a statement.

Singh's statement did not satisfy the agitated Congress members who continued to shout slogans like "Gujarat model nahi chalega", forcing adjournment of the House for 15 minutes.

Similar scenes were witnessed when the House reassembled as unrelenting members shouted slogans "We want JPC", forcing Ansari to adjourn the House till noon. — PTI 

Shakuntla Jakhu to take over as new Haryana CS

CHANDIGARH: Senior IAS officer Shakuntla Jakhu will be Haryana's new Chief Secretary.

Speaking to reporters after a meeting of his cabinet here today, Chief Minister Bhupinder Singh Hooda said Jakhu will take over from incumbent S C Chaudhary who retires tomorrow.

Jakhu, a 1978 batch IAS officer, is presently Haryana's Additional Chief Secretary, Revenue and Disaster Management

Second senior most IAS officer in the state, she will have a tenure of just two months as Chief Secretary as she is scheduled to retire on September 30, 2014

Sanjay Kothari, senior most IAS officer, 1978 batch, is presently posted as Secretary, Department of Administrative Reforms, Public Grievances, Pensions and Pensioners in the Government of India.

Kothari is on central deputation since October 16, 2006.

Chaudhary, who superannuates tomorrow after serving Haryana as Chief Secretary for seven months, has been named as Chairman of the Right to Service Commission.

Chaudhary's last days as Chief Secretary were marred by controversy after senior Haryana IAS officer Pradeep Kasni, who red-flagged appointment of new information commissioners by the Hooda government, accused him of sending objectionable SMSes over the issue.

Admitting that he had sent the messages, Chaudhary, however, sought to play it down, claiming these were "jokes" between "friends" and expressed regret to the officer if they had hurt his sentiments. -PTI

10 held guilty in Tamil Nadu school fire

CHENNAI: A Thanjavur court Wednesday held 10 people guilty and acquitted 11 others in the Kumbakonam school fire accident in Tamil Nadu that killed 94 children and left 18 injured in 2004.

The judgment comes a decade after the accident at the Sri Krishna Middle School July 16, 2004.

Members of the school management are among those convicted.

Reacting to the judgment, a parent told a news channel: "We have been waiting for the verdict for the past 10 years. We had expected punishment for all the 21 accused."

The fire broke out in the school's thatched noon meal centre at the first floor. There were around 200 students in the classrooms when they caught fire.

Some other schools also functioned from the same premises, like the Sri Krishna Aided Private School, Saraswathi Nursery and Primary School, and the Sri Krishna Girls High School.

The school building had inadequate exit routes for the children to escape and the gates were locked when the accident happened. The burning thatch and the bamboo poles fell, blocking the exit routes.

The fire raged for an hour and killed 94 children.

Though the accident shook the nation and cases were lodged against officials of the school management and the state government, the case moved from one court to another for years.

The case started to gather pace when charges were framed against 21 accused in 2012 and trial began soon after that.

The voluminous charge sheet in the case has around 4,000 pages.

The accused included Palanisamy, designated school correspondent, his wife Saraswathi, daughter Santhanalakshmi, the then municipal commissioner Sathyamurthy, the then town planning officer K. Murugan, three school teachers and officials of the state education department.

The headmaster of Sri Krishna Girls High School Prabhakaran turned approver.

Later, charges against C. Palanisamy, then chief educational officer at Thanjavur, S.Paramasivam, then tehsildar of Kumbakonam, and A. Kannan, then director of elementary education, were dropped.

Around 230 prosecution witnesses were examined.

The Tamil Nadu government has constructed a memorial park in Kumbakonam in memory of the 94 children who lost their lives.

Even today, there is a big banner, sporting small pictures of the children who lost their lives, outside the now defunct school at Kasiraman Street in Kumbakonam. — IANS

KAITHAL: The first meeting of the Haryana Sikh Gurudwara Management Committee (HSGMC) which was scheduled to be held in Manji Sahib Gurudrwara here has been postponed till July 31.

HSGmC general secretary Joga Singh told that the meeting had been postponed owing to the death of a nephew of senior vice-president of HSGMC Didar Singh Nalvi.

However, HSGMC president Jagdish Singh Jhinda, and executive committee members Sant Gurmit Singh, Avtar Singh Chakku and Majit Singh besides Joga Singh arrived at the meeting site.

Members of the 41-member ad hoc committee Sarjit Singh and Apaar Singh were also present in the gurudwara despite the meeting having been postponed.

Joga Singh said HSGPC would soon write to the Union Home Ministry, urging it to earmark a separate quota for Sikh pligrims. -PTI

GLASGOW: Two-time Olympic medallist Sushil Kumar spearheaded a sparkling show as Indian grapplers dominated the wrestling arena with three gold medals after the shooters ended their campaign on a rousing note with five more podium finishes on 
sixth day of competitions in the 20th Commonwealth Games here today.

With 10 medals, including three Gold, this was India's best show in this edition of the mega-event.

Sushil expectedly bagged gold in men's 75kg freestyle category while Amit Kumar won the yellow metal in men's 57kg.

In the women's section, Vinesh Phogat finished on top in 48kg at the SECC Hall.

Rajeev Tomar, however, had to settle for a Silver in the men's 125 kg freestyle event after going down to Canada's Korey Jarvis 0-3 in the finals.

Late in the evening, Chandrakant Mali clinched the bronze medal in men's 94kg weightlifting to add to the country's overall tally in the sport in the ongoing edition.

Mali, who totalled 338, lifted 146kg, 150kg and 153kg in three attempts in snatch and and 183kg, 188kg and 194 kg in clean and jerk to finish third on the podium.

Earlier, Indian shooters continued to dominate the Barry Buddon Centre with the unassuming Sanjeev Rajput and Harpreet Singh clinching a silver medal each but there was heartbreak for Olympic silver winner Vijay Kumar.

Star marksman Gagan Narang had to be contend with a bronze while Manavjit Singh Sandhu and Lajja Gauswami, too, finished third on the podium, as the Indian shooting team finished with an impressive tally of 17 medals (4 9 4) from the Games.

The wrestlers though took the limelight away with their stunning show on the mat.

The 31-year-old Sushil asserted his class as he won all his four bouts of the day quite comfortably.

In the gold-medal bout against Qamar Abbas of Pakistan, Sushil had an easy outing. Even before one could blink, the contest was over as the Indian pinned down his rival to clinch the gold with a 8-0 scoreline in under two minutes.

In no time, Sushil raced to a 6-0 lead and added two more points to finish off the contest.

Amit Kumar defeated Ebikweminomo Welson of Nigeria 6-2 in his final bout. The 20-year-old Indian started off well and completely dominated the first round to post a comfortable 4-0 win. The Nigerian, however, fought back and the two wrestlers 
gave each other a tough time in the next round and they could bag just two points each.

But due to four points in his kitty already from the opening round, the youngster from India prevailed over his opponent to pocket the yellow metal.

In what turned out to be a close battle between Vinesh and England's Yana Rattigan in the finals of the women's 48kg event, the Indian won 11-8.

Vinesh was down 2-4 in the first round and was facing a tough challenge from her English opponent. But she managed to earn two points to tie it at 4-4 before she could put her rival down again to bag another two just in time to wrap up the opening round 6-4.

The second round was also a fierce contest but the Indian somehow maintained her composure to earn the second gold for the country in wrestling.

Tomar failed to do much in his gold-medal bout, as he failed to earn even a single point. His Canadian rival, meanwhile, could snatch a few technical points in his favour to eke out a narrow 3-0 win and bag the gold.

After today's showing, India's medals tally went upto 36 with 10 Gold, 15 Silver and 11 Bronze, but they slipped a place to sixth after having regained the fifth position.

Before the wrestlers' show, shooter Narang, the biggest Indian name in the fray, failed to defend his gold in the men's 50m rifle 3 position on the concluding day of the shooting events.

The 31-year-old Narang, who had won a bronze in the 2012 London Olympics in 10m air rifle event, shot 423.3 while Rajput aggregated 436.8 in the final held under windy conditions at the Barry Buddon Shooting Center at Dundee near here.

Rajput and Narang were trailing at third and fifth after the three rounds of kneeling competition, each round having five shots. They were fourth and sixth respectively after the completion of three rounds of prone competition.

But both made a remarkable recovery in the standing position to bag the silver and bronze respectively.

Harpreet survived two rounds of nerve-wrecking shoot-off and brushed aside a penalty point docked on him to claim silver in the men's 25m rapid fire pistol event. –PTI

GLASGOW: Three Indian boxers bowed out of the Commonwealth Games on a disastrous night here on Tuesday.

Sunit Sangwan (82kg) and Manoj Kumar (64) lost their men's quarter-final bouts while Pooja Rani was beaten in the women's 75 kg round of 16 by better-rated England's Savanna Marshall 3-0.

Sangwan began well his bout with David Nyika of New Zealand by winning the first round, but was at the receiving end in the next two.

Manoj went down tamely to England's Samuel Maxwell.

Pooja was a clear-cut loser against Marshall with all three judges giving a unanimous decision.

It was a disappointing end to the day after veteran L Sarita Devi outpunched Nigeria's Kehinde Obareh 2-0 to advance to the quarterfinals in the women's 57-60kg. The 32-year-old Manipuri boxer won both her rounds convincingly.

Sarita's quarter-final opponent Friday is Charlene Jones of Wales.-Agencies