SINCE 1928 WEATHER `2 REG. NO. MCS/048/2015-17; RNI NO. 1541/1957 M.P.C.S office Mumbai-400001 VOL. 61 NO. 165 | FRIDAY | SEPTEMBER 1, 2017 | 24 PAGES EDITIONS : MUMBAI*, PUNE, INDORE, BHOPAL freepressjournal.in twitter.com/fpjindia Sonam’s amazing year See GLAM 320C. 260C. Sunrise: 6:23 am Sunset: 6:53 pm THOUGHT FOR THE DAY Why is there the expectation that everyone should be good? Because humans alone are blessed with the potential to create happiness for others. It is the Divine blessing. Sri Sakthi Amma 5-storey building in Bhendi Bazaar GDP growth down to 5.7%, EFFECT OF DEMONETISATION? crumbles, 23 dead and counting Jaitley says it’s worrisome G DILAPIDATED PROPERTY WAS UP FOR REDEVELOPMENT It’s BMC versus PIC: BL SONI SWAPNIL MISHRA / KAINAZ CHOKSEY G Mumbai Just as Mumbai was limping back to normalcy after heavy rains and flood, tragedy struck again in the early hours of Thursday The Hussaini five. storey building on Pakmodia Street in crowded Bhendi Bazaar opposite JJ Hospital, collapsed, claiming 23 lives, including three children and six women. More than 15 were injured, some battling for their lives in hospital. The over 100-year-old Hussaini building shook around 8.30 on Thursday morning and before the five families living in the structure could understand what struck them, the building came crashing down. Although there were reports that two floors of the building were constructed illegally the Ma, harashtra Housing and Area Development Authority (MHADA) and the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation said it wasn’t the case. Fast News Missing doc’s body fished out from Worli MUMBAI: Nearly 36 hours after Mumbai’s renowned gastroenterologist Dr Deepak Amrapurkar went missing during the deluge on Tuesday, his body was fished out from a nullah in Worli. Anjali, Dr Amrapurkar wife, identified his body from the Rado watch he was wearing. — Page 2 Aadhaar-PAN linkage deadline till Dec 31 NEW DELHI: The government on Thursday extended by four months the deadline for linking PAN with biometric identifier Aadhaar till December 31. The deadline for linking PAN with Aadhaar for taxpayers was to end on Thursday. — PTI M.N Pandey is UP BJP chief LUCKNOW: The BJP on Thursday named Mahendra Nath Pandey, presently Union Minister of State for Human Resource Development, as the next chief of its Uttar Pradesh unit. He will replace Keshav Prasad Maurya, the state's Deputy Chief Minister. — PTI G Most of the victims were crushed by the rubble of the collapsed building. The building even housed a play school on the ground floor, but fortunately it was too , early for the students to arrive. Six fire tenders, two rescue vans and ambulances were on the spot. The narrow lanes made it difficult for the vehicles to manoeuvre. Two firemen and a rescue official were injured trying to remove the rubble. The blame game over accountability started soon af- ter the building came down. The structure was being redeveloped by the Saifee Burhani Upliftment Trust (SBUT). MHADA officials say that in 2011 the building was declared dilapidated and the residents were served eviction notices. “MHADA notices dated 28-03-2011 and 20-05-2011 declaring the building dilapidated were issued along with offer of transit accommodation to the re- maining tenants and occupants,” an official said. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis visited the accident site with his Housing Minister Prakash Mehta. The CM announced Rs 5 lakh compensation to the kin of each victim. He also ordered a probe into the mishap by additional chief secretary housing. Fad, navis also asked BMC commissioner to submit a report. Related reports on Page 2 Nation’s first pvt-govt Court allows Pune girl to satellite launch abort foetus venture unsuccessful G AGENCIES New Delhi G AGENCIES Sriharikota The launch of India's latest navigation satellite onboard its polar rocket failed on Thursday following a technical glitch just prior to its scheduled orbiting in space. The rare setback for the ISRO in India's space history involving the workhorse rocket Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle (PSLV) came shortly after a perfect lift off of the PSLV C-39 from the Satish Dhawan Space Centre in Sriharikota at around 7 pm. In a brief announcement, A.S. Kiran Kumar, chief of the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO), said the mission was unsuccessful because the satellite housed within the heat sink could not be injected. “The C39 launch vehicle had a problem, heat shield has not separated. As a result of that the satellite is inside the heat shield and we have to go through the detailed analysis to see what has happened,” Kumar announced at the Mission Control Centre. The 1,425 kg satellite had piggybacked on the Polar Satellite Launch Vehicle, which was on its 41st mission. The satellite was expected to fill in for one of the seven orbiting satellites of NAVIC, which is malfunctioning. NAVIC, which is a system of seven satellites, powers India's home-grown Global Positioning System. The satellite was built by a consortium led by Alpha Design Technologies, a defence equipment supplier from Bengaluru, over eight months. The Rs. 400-crore company had been tasked to But for the failed heat shield separation, the remaining activities had gone on smoothly A success. ful launch of India's eighth navigation satellite — IRNSS1H — would have ushered in a new era in the country's history of space exploration as, for the first time, the private sector has been actively involved in assembling and testing of a satellite. Earlier, the private sector's role was limited only to supplying components. The Supreme Court allowed on Thursday a Pune-based woman to abort her 24-week foetus, which did not have a skull or a brain. The apex court relied on the report of the medical board of the Pune-based BJ Government Medical College that there was no medical treatment for the anomaly . “We consider it appropriate and in the interest of justice to allow termination of pregnancy a bench comprising ,” Justices S.A. Bobde and L. Nageswara Rao said. The 20-year-old woman was examined at the Pune hospital. The doctors said in their report that there was a “complete absence of brain and skull” of the foetus and survival rate was minimal. Solicitor-General Ranjit Kumar, appearing for the Centre, told the bench that the government had, in accordance with the apex court’s earlier direction, communicated to all states and Union Territories to constitute medical boards to deal with such abortion matters. Blue Whale strikes again: Suicide in Madurai, hospitalised in Guwahati AGENCIES Cops in Chennai said a note was also recovered from his residence stating that “Blue Whale is not a game but danger and once entered you can never exit” . Chennai/Guwahati A 19-year-old college student, Vignesh, from Madurai is suspected to be the first victim in Tamil Nadu of the macabre online game Blue Whale, police said on Thursday And a . Class X student in Guwahati was admitted to the medical college in Assam’s capital after he showed abnormal behaviour. According to the Chennai police, the second year B.Com student was found hanging at his home by his father on Wednesday evening. A picture of blue whale was drawn on his hand leading to the suspicion SWEETY ADIMULAM Mumbai DEADLY GAME G MHADA versus the Saifee trust that Vignesh was prodded to death by the online game. Cops said a note was also recovered from his residence stating that “Blue Whale is not a game but danger and once entered you can never exit”. The Guwahati student, with Blue Whale mark on his hand, was showing abnormal behaviour, after he played a few online games during the last few days. Speaking to reporters, Ramen Talukdar, the hospital super said that the student is under constant and close observation. There have been other instances where teenagers were led to attempt suicide. A boy from Mumbai, too, was one of the victims. The Blue Whale game is targeted at teenagers and forces them to perform several dangerous activities finally leading them to commit suicide. Recently the , Centre has asked internet giants like Google and others to block the deadly game. The government has even threatened to take legal action against them if the warning is not heeded. After the tragedy the blame , game begins. Even as rescue workers were pulling out the dead and the injured from the debris of the five-storey Hussaini building no one was willing to take responsibility for the disaster. The agencies were busy blaming each other for the disaster. The BMC washed its hands off the tragedy saying , that the building was in the special economic zone administered by the Maharashtra Housing And Development Authority And MHA. DA officials argued that residents of the Hussaini building, that was declared dangerous to live in, were served evacuation notices much before. Continued on Page 2 AGENCIES New Delhi India’s economy unexpectedly slowed to a three-year low in the April-June quarter, official data showed on Thursday signalling that disrup, tions from last year’s cash squeeze caused by demonetisation were far from over. Gross Domestic Product (GDP) grew 5.7% in the last quarter, undershooting market expectations, compared to 6.1% in the three months to March. The drop was even sharper when compared to the similar quarter a year ago when GDP expanded at 7.9%. The slowdown suggested the underlying momentum in the economy was still weak, posing a challenge to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government that must produce jobs to absorb a million people entering the work force every month. “Certainly a matter of concern that first quarter GDP has come down to 5.7% and it’s obvious therefore that it throws up challenge for the economy Finance Minister ,” Arun Jaitley said. A sharp fall in mining, manufacturing and construction proved a drag on the broader economy as con, sumer demand stayed muted even nine months after the government decided to scrap about 86% of cash in circulation to fight corruption. A rush to clear inventories ahead of the Goods and Services Tax (GST) rollout affected manufacturing growth, Jaitley said. The April-June data, however, does not take into account the impact of the new tax regime launched on July 1. Ahead of reshuffle, Union ministers resign G AGENCIES New Delhi Union ministers Rajiv Pratap Rudy Mahendra Nath Pandey , , Uma Bharti and Sanjiv Baliyan resigned on Thursday night ahead of the muchawaited Cabinet reshuffle. More ministers are likely to put in their papers. Rudy is an MP from Bihar and could be assigned an organisation job, sources said. Rajiv Pratap Rudy. Prime Minister Narendra Modi, who will be out of the country from September 3 for four days, was expected to reshuffle his council of ministers soon, sources said. Modi leaves for China for a Brics summit in the port city of Xiamen from September 35 and will be in Myanmar for a day before returning home on September 7. Given that the Shradh, or Pitru Paksh, considered an inauspicious period, will run from September 6 to 19, sources said it was possible that the much-awaited exercise could be carried out before Modi leaves for China.