Bhubaneswar, June 13 (IANS) The toll in the tragic triple train accident in Odisha's Balasore on Tuesday rose to 289 with the death of a man from Bihar while undergoing treatment, an official said.
Bijay Paswan, from Bihar's Motihari district, succumbed to his injuries at SCB Medical College and Hospital.
Paswan, along with six others, had boarded the Coromandel Express on June 2 from Howrah to visit Kerala's Palakkad. While one of them had died at the accident spot, another died today.
He was initially admitted to the Balasore district headquarter hospital and then shifted to the central ICU of SCB Medical College and Hospital in Cuttack with cervical spine injury and quadriplegia.
"The health condition of Paswan was stable when he was admitted at the hospital. However, his condition gradually deteriorated and yesterday, when his oxygen level started falling, we put him on a ventilator. Medicines given to raise his blood pressure too. Despite all efforts, he could not survive and passed away due to cardiac arrest," Professor Sudhanshu Sekhar Mishra, superintendent, SCB Medical College, said.
He also informed that the condition of another three people under treatment at the hospital is critical.
Kidneys of two other persons are not functioning properly while the brain of another was operated upon and his lungs also not functioning properly, said Mishra.
Its convenor and founder K.C. Singh, a former envoy to the United Arab Emirates, and Iran, said the manch wants to focus on challenges facing Punjab today and take the people's views.
Shiromani Akali Dal President Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday hailed the victory of his party in the Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee (DSGMC) elections as "a forceful referendum of the Khalsa Panth in favour of the panthic identity and religious commitment of the party".
Ranjit Singh, a former follower of Ram Rahim, was shot dead by four assailants on July 10, 2002, in Kurukshetra after he allegedly "raised his voice" against the self-styled godman, who is currently lodged at the high-security Sunaria jail in Rohtak, 250 kms from state capital Chandigarh.
Bharatiya Janata Party chief J P Nadda on Tuesday asked the Congress national leadership to clarify their stand on whether they support the remarks on Kashmir and Pakistan made by party leaders in Punjab. Nadda said that the silence of the Congress leadership will be seen as being implicit to such objectionable remarks.
The farmers union leaders had earlier pointed out that Punjab had failed to hike sugarcane SAP in proportion to Haryana over this period, causing fiscal losses to them.
The Punjab Congress leaders who have distanced themselves from the so-called festering revolt in the party are: Kuldeep Vaid, Dalvir Singh Goldie, Santokh Singh, Angad Singh, Raja Warring and Gurkirat Singh Kotli, all MLAs, and Bhalaipur Ajit Singh Mofar, a former MLA.
