Marathon is not for a city like Mumbai which is humid and polluted
Yet another runner collapsed and died at Sunday’s run sponsored by the Tata group and two others battling for their life in the ICU’s of a city hospital. I distinctly remember my friend collapsing in the 2014 edition when 38-year old Amit Kasat who was so very passionate about running marathons that he died in tragic circumstances after collapsing near to the finish line.
Running long distance like a marathon should be done after undergoing strenuous training and a proper diet. Organisers too should put stringent conditions like mandatory health checks before the race to avoid deaths which has become fairly routine in the annual Mumbai marathon which has gained popularity over the years. Medical facilities of top quality need to be pressed into service on the day of the run when organisers charge a lot of fee for the race.
S.N.Kabra
Gas leak at resort claims eight lives
In a shocking tragedy eight Indian tourists from Kerala, including four children, died on Tuesday due to a possible gas leak from a room heater in their room at a resort in Daman in Makwanpur district of Nepal. They were part of a 17-member tourist group who had checked into Everest Panorama resort at Daman, a popular tourist destination in Nepal. According to the SP of District Police Office, Makwanpur the tourists turned on the gas heater in the room and later got suffocated due to some defect in the device leading to carbon monoxide leak resulting in death.
The group — travelling to Pokhara from Kerala — were returning home. On the way, they had stopped at Everest Panorama Resort in Daman. The guests on reaching their room turned on a gas heater to keep themselves warm. The room had poor ventilation as all the windows were shut in the winter night. Hotels and homes in places experiencing very cold weather use heaters to keep the temperature warm and the most common devices to heat the rooms are gas heaters.
Gas heaters that are not installed correctly or has become faulty over time can cause a carbon monoxide leak. Carbon monoxide poisoning occurs when the heat exchanger is cracked inside the heater. It is important to have gas heaters serviced regularly.
As Carbon monoxide is a colourless, odourless, tasteless gas it becomes difficult to detect for people who are not familiar with such occurrences. Prolonged exposure to carbon monoxide leads to severe health problems and most often results in death. To prevent this hazard hotels and homes should inspect and rectify such appliances regularly. Hi tech sensors and other devices should be installed to detect and warn the people if there is any leakage.
Hotels located in cold weather places should caution the visitors of such hazards and give instructions . Also tourists staying in hotels in cold places should be aware of such silent dangers.
M Pradyu
Faulty legal loopholes responsible for delay in hanging of Nirbhaya convicts
It is wrong to play politics on regular postponement of hanging of convicts of infamous rape-cum-murder of Nirbhaya on December 16, 2012. Fault lies in system allowing too many loopholes whereby convicts get liberal opportunities to defer death-sentence. All the four convicts have no fear of death as they are still clever enough to misuse delaying-tactics to defer hanging. It is for certain that hanging to convicts will not even be possible on the third postponed date of February 1, 20 because rest of the three convicts will now file mercy-petitions one by one. It is surprising that how and why mercy-petitions of these convicts are being entertained now when they were informed by Jail Superintendent of Tihar Jail (Delhi) on December 29, 2019 that only seven days were then left to file mercy-petitions.
System should be reformed whereby crimes attracting death-penalty may be heard on fast track during all stages of trial from District Court to Supreme Court. Provision of filing mercy-petition may not be there in case death-sentence is confirmed by all the courts. Review or curative petitions may be allowed only at Supreme Court that too to be finally decided within fortnight of filing these. Mercy-petition to be decided in a time-bound period of maximum three months may be allowed only when any of the court might not have approved death-sentence.
Early and extra hangings that too to really deserving ones will practically save lives of many more by preventing rapes and murders as criminals will then only be fearful against death-penalty.
Madhu Agrawal
(The views expressed by the author in the article are his/her own.)
