14 killed in Indore temple tragedy, President, PM express grief

at one time and similarly only once person could be brought out at one time," a police officer, involved in the rescue operation, said.

Tokyo, March 30 (IANS) Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida will lead a panel of experts to reverse the country's critical decline in birthrate, which dropped in 2022 to its lowest level since 1998, local media said on Thursday.

Along with Kishida, the expert panel will comprise Masanobu Ogura, the minister in charge of policies for children, groups working with children, and labour union representatives, reports Xinhua news agency.

Later this week, a policy to provide more support for parents, including raising child-rearing allocations and easing outlays on higher education borne by parents, will be compiled, public broadcaster NHK said.

The draft policy will set the parameters of the budget and how it will be financed, with the plan to inform a subsequent comprehensive policy package. According to recent statistics from the Health Ministry, the birthrate in Japan last year plummeted to a record low since 1889, with the number of newborns dropping 5.1 per cent from the previous year to 799,728.

The falling birthrate and rapidly aging population are simultaneously hollowing out Japan's taxpaying labour force, leading to Kishida vowing to double budget outlay for childrelated programs.

Money allocated to help with child-rearing, coupled with ever-increasing massive outlays for social security costs related to the increasing population of seniors, who comprise a higher proportion of the population than in any country globally, is adding to the country's fiscal woes.

Indian-Australian sworn in as treasurer of NSW, takes oath on Bhagavad Gita

District Collector Illaiaraja T. also reached to monitor the rescue operation and other departments like health and fire were also alerted.

"Rescue operations were severely hampered due to narrow and iron rods on top of the well. Only one person could go inside

Illaiaraja T. said that the rescue operation was still underway and water being drained out of the well. "At least 14 feet water was stored into the well, and the process of draining it out is underway," he added.

He apprehended that the death toll likely to increase as some more people are feared trapped. Meanwhile, at least four to five rescued people are stated to be in a critical condition at hospital, officials told IANS. Amid rescue operations, the police also had to manage the crowd, especially whose family members fell into the well and were frantic. open and so welcoming to the contributions of people like my parents, who I was thinking about a lot as I took my oath earlier today," he said.

Police used ropes to take out the trapped people, however, water in the stepwell was yet another hindrance.

"Those fell into the deep well were severely injured and debris made the water muddy. One little girl is still missing and search operation was underway," Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra told the press in Bhopal.

In 2015, Mookhey was elected by the Labor to replace Steve Whan in the NSW upper house -- making him the state's first politician of Indian background, and the first to take oath of allegiance on the Bhagavad Gita. In 2019, he became the Shadow Minister for Finance and Small Business and Shadow Minister for the Gig Economy.

"This is a time to relax and enjoy before the period of really, really hard work starts again," Governor Beazley said addressing the ministers.

Mookhey's parents had migrated from Punjab to Australia in 1973. Born in Blacktown suburb, Mookhey has three university degrees and has worked as a consultant to unions, charities and community groups.