Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy remained untraced Wedneday evening, nearly seven hours after his helicopter went missing amid bad weather in a densely forested Maoist stronghold, triggering a desperate search by the military and police.
TV9 News Channel Website
The government said at least five Indian Air Force and one private helicopter had joined the hunt for the missing chopper that carried YSR, as the 60-year-old chief minister is known, and his special secretary besides two pilots from Hyderabad to Chittoor, 588 km away and closer to Tamil Nadu.
Flanked by Finance Minister K. Rosiah, Chief Secretary Ramakanth Reddy urged people in the Nallamalla forest area that covers Kurnool and adjoining districts to alert the police if they learnt anything about the helicopter.
YSR's fate caused tremors in New Delhi, where the office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were in touch with the state government, Reddy told reporters here.
The state government had also alerted both the home and defence ministries in New Delhi.
The chief secretary said two air force helicopters from Secunderabad and three from Bangalore were looking for the chief minister's helicopter along with a private chopper from Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh has also urged New Delhi to send an unmanned aircraft to the area.
The state government had lost touch with the chief minister at around 9.45 a.m.
"So far we have not been able to get any confirmation (about the chief minister). It is possible that because of the strong winds and heavy rains, it may have landed in some unfamiliar area," Reddy said. "If you land in an unfamiliar forested area, getting out will be very difficult."
He urged people living in the forested region to "kindly help us. If you get any signal, any reliable information, contact the nearest police station".
YSR had taken off from Hyderabad to attend a function in Chittoor Wednesday morning. The helicopter went off the radar amid inclement weather, causing panic in Hyderabad.
Shortly before before the finance minister and chief secretary spoke, there were conflicting versions about YSR's fate.
Social Welfare Minister P. Subhash Chandra Bose said the chief minister was safe after the helicopter landed in Kurnool district, but police both in Hyderabad and Kurnool declined to back the minister's claim.
"We have information that the chief minister is safe," said Chandra Bose. He did reveal any details.
Congress MP from Nandyal S.P.Y. Reddy, however, told a television channel that he was yet to receive any information about YSR's whereabouts from the police.
A high-level meeting was held at the state secretariat here after the helicopter went missing.
It was attended by Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy, Chief Secretary Ramakant Reddy, Director General of Police S.S.P. Yadav, the chief minister's close aide and Rajya Sabha MP K.V.P. Ramchandra Rao and senior state ministers.
A doctor by training, YSR is presently one of the most influential leaders in the Congress after leading the party again to a spectacular win in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in April-May this year.
Elected to the state assembly for the fifth time, YSR is also a four-time Lok Sabha member and holds the record of never losing an election.
Missing Andhra Pradesh CM Y S Rajasekhara Reddy still not found?
With panic and anxiety writ large on their faces, hundreds of Congress party workers gathered at the state secretariat here waiting to hear some news about the whereabouts and safety of Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy, who remained untraced since his chopper went missing Wednesday morning.
State ministers, top bureaucrats, a large number of state employees, ruling party leaders and workers descended at the secretariat, the seat of government, as the word spread that the chief minister remained untraced even eight hours after his chopper lost contact with the air traffic control.
With prayers on their lips, the Congress leaders and admirers of YSR, as the chief minister is popularly known, stood outside the D block in the secretariat, which houses the Chief Minister's Office.
They were raising slogans "Long live YSR" as the security personnel had a tough time controlling the crowd.
There was some relief when state ministers told reporters that the chief minister was safe and his chopper had landed somewhere.
There were also reports on Sakshi television channel owned by the chief minister's son Y.S. Jaganmohan Reddy that YSR was safe and spoke to his close aide K.V.P. Ramchandra Rao.
The channel also claimed that the chief minister would be reaching Hyderabad in an army helicopter any moment.
However, minutes later Finance Minister K.Rosaiah told reporters at the secretariat that the chief minister remained untraced.
He only hoped that the chopper had landed in some forest area and appealed to people to help trace it.
"We are worried after what Rosaiah said. We were earlier happy that the chief minister is safe. We are now praying to god," said Sudhakar Reddy, a Youth Congress leader.
Another Congress supporter said: "I am confident that he is safe. He is people's man. He did a lot for the welfare of people. Nothing will happen to him."
At Gandhi Bhavan, the headquarters of the ruling Congress, a large number of women workers were seen praying for the safety of their leader.
Hundreds of others gathered outside the chief minister's camp office in Begumpet bringing the traffic to a halt in the busy area.
Four other along with Y S Rajasekhara Reddy in the missing helicopter
Hopes for the safety of Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y.S. Rajasekhara Reddy were fading along with daylight Wednesday evening, eight hours after his helicopter went missing amid bad weather in a densely forested Maoist stronghold, triggering a desperate search by the military and police.
There were fears that the falling darkness would impede rescue operations by the five Indian Air Force and one private helicopter that had joined the hunt for the missing chopper. It was carrying YSR, as the 60-year-old chief minister is known, and his special secretary, his security officer besides two pilots from Hyderabad to Chittoor, 588 km away and closer to Tamil Nadu.
Flanked by Finance Minister K. Rosiah, Chief Secretary Ramakanth Reddy urged people in the Nallamalla forest area that covers Kurnool and adjoining districts to alert the police if they learnt anything about the helicopter.
YSR's fate caused tremors in New Delhi, where the office of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi were in touch with the state government, Reddy told reporters here.
The state government had also alerted both the home and defence ministries in New Delhi.
The chief secretary said two air force helicopters from Secunderabad and three from Bangalore were looking for the chief minister's helicopter along with a private chopper from Andhra Pradesh.
Andhra Pradesh also urged New Delhi to send an unmanned aircraft to the area.
The state government had lost touch with the chief minister at around 9.35 a.m.
"So far we have not been able to get any confirmation (about the chief minister). It is possible that because of the strong winds and heavy rains, it may have landed in some unfamiliar area," Reddy said. "If you land in an unfamiliar forested area, getting out will be very difficult."
He urged people living in the forested region to "kindly help us. If you get any signal, any reliable information, contact the nearest police station".
YSR had taken off from Hyderabad to attend a function in Chittoor Wednesday morning. The helicopter went off the radar amid inclement weather, causing panic in Hyderabad.
Shortly before before the finance minister and chief secretary spoke, there were conflicting versions about YSR's fate.
Social Welfare Minister P. Subhash Chandra Bose said the chief minister was safe after the helicopter landed in Kurnool district, but police both in Hyderabad and Kurnool declined to back the minister's claim.
"We have information that the chief minister is safe," said Chandra Bose. He did reveal any details.
Congress MP from Nandyal S.P.Y. Reddy, however, told a television channel that he was yet to receive any information about YSR's whereabouts from the police.
A high-level meeting was held at the state secretariat here after the helicopter went missing.
It was attended by Home Minister P. Sabita Indra Reddy, Chief Secretary Ramakant Reddy, Director General of Police S.S.P. Yadav, the chief minister's close aide and Rajya Sabha MP K.V.P. Ramchandra Rao and senior state ministers.
A doctor by training, YSR is presently one of the most influential leaders in the Congress after leading the party again to a spectacular win in the Lok Sabha and assembly elections in April-May this year.
Elected to the state assembly for the fifth time, YSR is also a four-time Lok Sabha member and holds the record of never losing an election.
Four-year-old Sanjay Balakrishnan died of influenza A (H1N1) infection at a private hospital here Monday, becoming the sixth swine flu victim in the country.
Sources at Neta Hospital, where the boy was admitted, said he had been hospitalised with fever and diarrhoea last week. Later, he was diagnosed with kidney failure and chest congestion.
On Saturday, Balakrishnan tested positive for swine flu. The next day, he suffered multiple organ failure and was put on ventilator. He died Monday morning.
B. 1908, D. 2004
Chanteloup, Seine-et-Marne, France
Henri Cartier Bresson is considered to be the father of modern photojournalism, an early adopter of 35mm format, and the master of candid photography.
He helped develop the “street photography” style that has influenced generations of photographers that followed.
His sharp-shooter’s ability to catch “the decisive moment,” his precise eye for design, his self-effacing methods of work, and his literate comments about the theory and practice of photography made him a legendary figure among contemporary photojournalists.
His approaches to photography and works have exercised a profound and far-reaching influence. His pictures and picture essays have been published in most of the world’s major magazines during three decades, and Cartier-Bresson prints have hung in the leading art museums of the United States and Europe (his monumental ‘The Decisive Moment’ show being the first photographic exhibit ever to be displayed in the halls of the Louvre).
In the practical world of picture marketing, Cartier-Bresson left his imprint as well: he was one of the founders and a former president of Magnum, a cooperative picture agency of New York and Paris.
Taken prisoner of war in 1940, he escaped on his third attempt in 1943 and subsequently joined an underground organization to assist prisoners and escapees. In 1945 he photographed the liberation of Paris with a group of professional journalists and then filmed the documentary Le Retour (The Return).
From 1968 he began to curtail his photographic activities, preferring to concentrate on drawing and painting. In 2003, with his wife and daughter, he created the “Fondation Henri Cartier-Bresson” in Paris for the preservation of his work. Cartier-Bresson received an extraordinary number of prizes, awards and honorary doctorates. He died at his home in Provence on 3 August 2004, a few weeks short of his 96th birthday.
Awards
1986 Novecento Premio
1981 Grand Prix National de la Photographie
1975 Deutsche Gesellschaft für Photographie
1975 Culture Prize
1964 Overseas Press Club of America Award
1960 Overseas Press Club of America Award
1959 Prix de la Société Française de Photographie
1954 Overseas Press Club of America Award
1953 A.S.M.P. Award
1948 Overseas Press Club of America Award
Credits/Sources: http://www.photo-seminars.com/Fame/bresson.htm
http://www.magnumphotos.com/archive/C.aspx?VP=XSpecific_MAG.Biography_VPage&AID=2K7O3R14T50B
Decisive Moment: This term became associated with Henri Cartier Bresson after his book “Images à la sauvette” was released in 1952 and its English edition was titled “The Decisive Moment.”
Henri said, “There is a creative fraction of a second when you are taking a picture. Your eye must see a composition or an expression that life itself offers you, and you must know with intuition when to click the camera. That is the moment the photographer is creative.”
“Oop! The Moment! Once you miss it, it is gone forever.”
Decisive Moment is the moment in an event which makes the instant and the image ever-lasting. It is the photographer’s ability to intuit that moment and click the camera at the perfect time.
Henri Cartier-Bresson’s ability to catch the moment in which an event is about to take place, made him a legendary figure in photojournalism.
At least 49 new swine flu cases were reported Saturday in this Maharashtra city, as a doctor and a pharmacist, both influenza A(H1N1) patients, continued to be critical for the second day, health authorities said.
A swine flu patient in Mumbai has also turned critical, according to the officials.
The authorities shut down four more colleges and a school in Pune for a week after some students tested positive for influenza A(H1N1).
The educational institutions that were ordered to be shut Saturday are S.P. College, ILS College, VIT College, Dehu Road College and Bishops School, said S.R. Pardeshi, head of Pune Municipal Corporation's health department.
These are in addition to the Symbiosis Campus Senapati Bapat Marg that was ordered shut Friday after an 18-year old female student tested positive, Pardeshi said.
The condition of the Symbiosis student is stable and improving, according to Faculty of Health Science Dean Rajiv Yeravdekar.
In the past few weeks, nearly 40 schools in Pune and one in Pancghani, a hill station in adjacent Satara district, have been hit by the flu cases.
Among the 116 patients in different Pune hospitals, a medico and a pharmacist have been put on ventilators as they continued to be critical, the official said.
Maharashtra has reported over 260 cases and 160 are from Pune, the city that has been declared pandemic.
In Mumbai, 28-year-old businessman Sandeep Gaikwad, who was admitted to the Hiranandani Hospital after developing swine flue symptoms last week, turned critical yesterday and was put on a ventilator.
As a precautionary measure, the Municipal Corporation of Greater Mumbai (MCGM) has opened five new swine flue screening centres, a health official said.
They include: M.T. Agarwal Hospital, Mulund, Rajawadi Hospital, Ghatkopar; Bhabha Hospital, Bandra; Siddharth Hospital, Goregaon; and Bhagwati Hospital, Borivli, even as Kasturba Hospital continues to be the main centre for treatment.
In Pune, the government opened two more cenrtres for swine flu treatment.
"Apart from the regular Naidu Hospital, we have started treating swine flu patients at Sassoon Hospital and the Aundh Hospital, too," Swine Flu Control Room head Pradeep Awate told IANS.
Five people, including a five-year old girl, have been admitted to the intensive care unit of the Sassoon Hospital. The girl's condition is "stable", according to Awate and besides swine flu symptoms, she is also suffering from pneumonia.
A 53-year-old woman died of swine flu here Saturday evening, as the influenza A(H1N1) virus claimed its second victim in India in less than a week, officials said.
The woman, identified as Fehmida Panwala, a Mumbai resident, died at Kasturba hospital here, Maharashtra's Additional Chief Secretary (Health) Sharvari Gokhale told IANS.
A resident of Jogeshwari suburb in northwest Mumbai, Fehmida was Tuesday admitted to a hospital near her residence for diabetes and hypertension problems.
On Friday, she was admitteed in the Lilavati Hospital for a few hours. Her condition worsened and she was rushed to the Kasturba Hospital in the evening. Her sample was taken Saturday morning and she was diagnosed with influenza A(H1N1) in the afternoon.
"She tested positive for swine flu and passed away this (Saturday) evening," Gokhale said.
This is India's second swine flu death after 14-year-old Reeda Shaikh succumbed to the disease in Pune Monday.
Accodring to official figures, over 720 people in India have tested positive for swine flu so far, though over 500 of them have been discharged after being treated.
Maharashtra has reported over 260 cases and 160 are from Pune, the city that has been declared pandemic-hit. A doctor and a pharmacist, both influenza A(H1N1) patients, continued to be critical for the second day Saturday.
In Mumbai, 28-year-old businessman Sandeep Gaikwad, who was admitted to the Hiranandani Hospital after developing swine flue symptoms last week, turned critical Friday and was put on a ventilator.
Following Reeda's death, the state and central governments have announced strict guidelines to deal with suspected swine flu cases.