The Delhi High Court today refused to entertain a plea seeking permission to organise Chhath Puja at the banks of Yamuna river here.

Chhath Puja is celebrated on the sixth day after Diwali, primarily in Bihar, Jharkhand and Uttar Pradesh. During the festival, people fast, bathe in rivers and offer prayers to thank the Sun God.

Justice Subramonium Prasad refused to entertain the plea moved by Chhat Puja Sangharsh Samiti and others through advocate VS Dubey.

Justice Prasad said he would dismiss the plea. Thereafter, the counsel for the petitioners withdrew the plea.

The petitioners sought a direction to set aside an order issued by the Delhi government on October 29, 2021, that “no site shall be designated on the bank of the Yamuna”.

It was argued that the said order was notified by the Delhi government during the COVID-19 period without any power; apparently, in the said notification, there was no mention of the rights, contentions, or grievances of the government.

It was further submitted that the Delhi government has not mentioned the proper law under which it was entitled to restrain the worship of 30-40 lakh devotees totally dedicated to Chhath Pooja.

It was also submitted that the said notification restrained the fundamental rights and worship of the people of Delhi and the neighbouring state of Haryana and Uttar Pradesh.

A US-based Indian-origin middle school girl has just won $25,000 (Rs 21 lakh) for inventing a fire-detection device that works faster than the average smoke detector.

12-year-old Shanya Gill from San Jose, California, won the Thermo Fisher Scientific ASCEND (Aspiring Scientists Cultivating Exciting New Discoveries) Award, the top prize in the Thermo Fisher Scientific Junior Innovators Challenge competition in which 65,000 middle schoolers participated.

According to the Society for Science, in the summer of 2022, a fire destroyed a restaurant behind Shanya’s house.

“Since then, my mother has become increasingly cautious, always asking me to double-check that the kitchen stove is turned off before leaving our house,” Shanya said.

One day, Shanya discovered that thermal cameras can detect heat loss in homes during the winter months. She wondered if these cameras could also spot house fires more quickly than traditional smoke detectors.

That incident inspired her to create a fire-detection system that involved connecting an affordable thermal camera to a compact computer. She then programmed the system to differentiate between people-which were identified as warm objects moving horizontally-and heat sources, such as an active gas burner, which were identified as hot objects that remained stationary.

“With an early warning system, we could save thousands of lives every year,” Shanya said.

Shanya then programmed the system to send a text message when it detected a heat source but no human presence for a continuous 10-minute period. Shanya’s system accurately detected human presence 98% of the time and heat sources 97% of the time.

A city manager in the United States has been suspended after staffers were sent an email allegedly showing him masturbating on a couch. According to the New York Post, the video showed Kansas City Manager Doug Gerber in a compromising position and now he is expected to be fired. The email was sent to several employees from an anonymous account with the subject line: “MOST IMPORTANT”. The video appeared to have been filmed by Mr Gerber himself, who seemed to be alone during the act. 

It is unclear who sent the clip and how they got it, the outlet reported. “This is just a disturbed individual trying to cause issues with the city,” a city IT employee wrote to staff members in the Kansas City suburb.

However, speaking to the Kansas City Star, the anonymous sender said that they wanted to expose Mr Gerber’s online behaviour. “We don’t hesitate to expose people involved in these dubious and un-Catholic practices,” the sender reportedly said.

Talking about the incident, Shawnee Mayor Michelle Distler said she was “not incredibly surprised” at the scandal because of unspecified concerns over Mr Gerber’s behaviour at his previous job. However, according to council president Eric Jenkins, the city manager had been investigated over rumours of previous “impropriety” before he was hired, and the consultant leading the job search assured them that “she thoroughly searched the background and had found absolutely nothing that would give us cause not to select him”. 

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The Post noted that Mr Gerber could be a victim under a state law forbidding such sexual material from being shared without permission. But the city council in an emergency meeting unanimously voted to put Mr Gerber on administrative leave. 

“This email was received at City Hall, we’ve been told, Sept. 29th. I didn’t find out about this situation until Halloween night,” just over a month later, said Mr Jenkins, the council president. “If he failed to communicate on this, what else has he failed to communicate on?” Mr Jenkins told KCTV, adding, “I mean, this was kind of the first big test he had, and he didn’t do very well. So I think our actions were appropriate, they were measured”. 

Now, an interim manager is being chosen and Mr Gerber is expected to be fired, said Mr Jenkins. “I don’t see how this man can move forward being the leader of our staff and our go-to guy as the city manager,” he added. 

Additionally, three city council candidates have also issued a joint statement calling for an investigation into Mr Gerber’s actions and those of the city council in the month after the video was first shared.

On the other hand, Mr Gerbe has refused to address the scandal. “I think it’s not in the city;s best interest right now to comment,” he said.