74% of northeast monsoon rains in 8 days sinks Chennai, kills 12

News Network
November 4, 2017

Chennai, Nov 4: Rain continued to come down in sheets till late Friday night in Chennai, taking the death toll from the northeast monsoon to 12 so far, and the city's total rainfall to close to three-fourths of the average for a season that has just got started.

The city had by 8.30am on Friday — mostly from a mere eight days since the northeast monsoon set in on October 27 — already recorded 554.2mm of rainfall this year, or 74% of the long-term average of 750mm it receives annually in the rainy season, which the IMD calculates between October 1 and December 15.

Chennai had till Friday recorded 441.3mm of rainfall (58.84% of the seasonal average) from the northeast monsoon, Met office data showed.

Thursday's rain was Chennai's third-highest in history in a single day for November, behind only 452.2mm in 1976 and 246.15mm in 2015. It continued on Friday evening after a brief break, leaving the city precariously placed.

Several localities reported flooding, especially of interior roads, and the showers hit traffic for a second straight day. The Chennai district collector declared Saturday, a school holiday. Most districts have recorded more than average rainfall for the season so far, the Met office said.

Water levels in temple tanks started rising after monsoon struck Chennai and its neighbouring districts. A poor monsoon last year had left several temple tanks parched, and water in them has been met with enthusiasm among residents, as it also helps recharge groundwater levels.

Meanwhile, facing public ire amidst heavy rains and inundation, the Edappadi K Palaniswami government went on the offensive on Friday, listing out various flood-prevention as well as rehabilitation measures undertaken by the government.

Leading the charge, CM Palaniswami, who visited Mudichur and Perungalathur along with his deputy O Panneerselvam, said: "We have seen Bengaluru and Mumbai getting inundated during rain. But due to the execution of the (disaster management) plan envisaged by Amma's government in 2015 on how to remove flood water from low-lying areas, there is not much water stagnation today. People are unaffected."

A stretch of 300km, out of 386km-long drain network project, has been completed at a cost of Rs 1,100 crore in Chennai, as announced by Jayalalithaa during her tenure, Palaniswami said.

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News Network
May 21,2020

Kolkata, May 21: Around 300 nurses have left Kolkata for Manipur after resigning from their jobs, said JS Joyrita, Deputy Residence Commissioner, Manipur Bhavan, Kolkata on Wednesday.

"Around 60 more nurses will be leaving tomorrow. We are getting many calls from people who want to go back to Manipur," she said.

Earlier, it was reported that 185 nurses have quit their job from hospitals in Kolkata and returned to Imphal. Cristella, a nurse said: "We are not happy that we left our duties. But we faced discrimination, racism and people sometimes spit on us. Lack of PPE kits, and people used to question us everywhere we went."

According to the latest information available on the website of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, 2961 cases of the virus have been reported from West Bengal 1074 cured/migrated/discharged and 250 deaths.

India's COVID-19 tally reached 1,06,750 on Wednesday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. As many as 140 deaths have been reported in the last 24 hours, taking the total number of deaths to 3,303. Out of the total cases, 61,149 are actives cases and 42,298 patients have been cured/discharged/migrated.

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News Network
February 27,2020

New Delhi, Feb 27: Congress leader Priyanka Gandhi Vadra on Thursday attacked the government over the transfer of Delhi High Court Judge S Muralidhar, saying the Centre's attempts to "muzzle" justice and "break people's faith in an upright judiciary are deplorable".

Delhi HC Judge S Muralidhar was transferred to the Punjab and Haryana High Court, days after the Supreme Court collegium made the recommendation.

"The midnight transfer of Justice Muralidhar isn't shocking given the current dispensation, but it is certainly sad & shameful," Priyanka Gandhi tweeted. "Millions of Indians have faith in a resilient & upright judiciary, the government’s attempts to muzzle justice & break their faith are deplorable," she said.

The judge was hearing the Delhi violence case and the late evening notification came on the day when a bench headed by him expressed "anguish" over the Delhi Police's failure to register FIRs against alleged hate speeches by three BJP leaders.

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News Network
March 5,2020

New Delhi, Mar 5: Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan assuring that the government has the coronavirus crisis under control, is like the Titanic captain telling passengers not to panic as his ship was unsinkable, Congress leader Rahul Gandhi said on Thursday.

Gandhi's remarks came after Vardhan's assurance in Parliament that the government is taking all necessary measures to prevent the spread of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease) in India.

“The health minister saying that the Indian government has the coronavirus crisis under control, is like the Captain of the Titanic telling passengers not to panic as his ship was unsinkable,” Gandhi said in a tweet.

“It's time the government made public an action plan backed by solid resources to tackle this crisis,” he said.

RMS Titanic was a British passenger liner that sank in the North Atlantic Ocean in the early morning hours of April 15, 1912, after striking an iceberg during her maiden voyage from Southampton to New York.

Gandhi has been raising concerns over the coronavirus infection since long. In a February 12 tweet, he had said coronavirus is an extremely serious threat to “our people and our economy”.

“My sense is the government is not taking this threat seriously. Timely action is critical,” he had said.

Earlier this week, Gandhi had hit out at Prime Minister Narendra Modi over the detection of fresh coronavirus cases in the country, saying he should quit wasting India's time “playing the clown” with his social media accounts when India is facing an emergency.

With the message of “Here's how it's done”, Gandhi had also tweeted a video of Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong addressing Singaporeans on how to deal with the coronavirus.

The number of coronavirus cases in India is 29, including 16 Italians, the government had said on Wednesday, adding all international passengers will now be screened at airports, amid growing concern over the spread of the respiratory infection.

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