Bihar Water Resources Minister Says Rats Have Caused the Floods

Agencies
September 1, 2017

Patna, Sept 1: Rats seem to be the biggest problem that Bihar is facing right now. Some time back, Bihar police had claimed that the rodents had finished off hundreds of litres of alcohol after the government imposed a complete ban on liquor in the state. Now, state ministers have blamed the same for causing the devastating floods in Bihar that have already claimed over 500 lives.

Water resources minister, Lalan Singh, after reviewing the flood situation, claimed that rats had damaged the river embankments, which has in turn caused the floods.

“Rats are the main reason behind the seepage of Kamla Balan River. Villagers tend to store their grains on the banks thus attracting the rodents. These animals then carve out holes in the embankments thus weakening the foundation,” he said.

However, this bizarre reasoning hasn’t gone down too well among the opposition parties. RJD Spokesman Shakti Singh Yadav alleged that the government was only trying to hide its failure with such illogical statements.

“Sometimes they say that the rats have consumed the seized liquor, then they blame them for the floods. If rats are causing so much of problem, then they should come up with a plan to tackle the animals. But they haven’t done anything about that as these are baseless arguments,” he said.

Not just the Opposition, ruling BJP MLA Mithilesh Tiwari also denounced Lalan Singh’s contention. “In a written reply in the Assembly, the government had assured us that all dams are secure, then how can they blame the rats. Officials are responsible for this and they should be held accountable,” Tiwari demanded.

Earlier, the state police had come under fire for arguing that the rodents had finished off hundreds of litres of alcohol, that were seized from Bihar residents after the liquor ban. It had only come to the fore when the media caught up with the police and discovered that the bottles were missing from police 'malkhanas' (stores).

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Agencies
March 6,2020

Mumbai, Mar 6; The Indian equity indices slumped on Friday morning, with the BSE Sensex falling over 1,450 points

The slump across the sectoral indices was led by the finance and banking stocks as the Reserve Bank of India on Thursday superseded the board of directors of Yes Bank and placed it under moratorium.

Persistent fears of the coronavirus outbreak severely impacting global economy also weighed on the investor sentiments, analysts said.

At 9.36 a.m., the BSE Sensex trimmed some losses and was trading at 37,376.66, lower by 1,093.95 points or 2.84 per cent from the previous close of 38,470.61

So far, the index has touched an intra-day low of 37,011.09, falling by 1,459.52 points.

It had opened at the intra-day high of 37,613.96.

The Nifty50 on the National Stock Exchange was trading at 10,938.75, lower by 330.25 or 2.93 per cent from its previous close.

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News Network
May 25,2020

Raipur, May 25: A union minister was caught on camera issuing threats to district administration officials in Chhattisgarh saying that she “knows how to take people to a room and beat them with belts"

Officials were taken aback when Renuka Singh, Minister of State for Tribal Affairs, delivered this dialogue during her visit to the quarantine centre at Balrampur, around 400 km from Chhattisgarh capital Raipur on Sunday.

Dilip Gupta, a resident of Balarampur district in Chhattisgarh, had accused the chief executive officer and tehsildar of the district panchayat of assaulting him in a quarantine centre in the area following a quarrel over shoddy facilities. Renuka Singh took cognizance of the matter and reached the quarantine centre to speak to Dilip Gupta.

The minister, on reaching the quarantine centre, received details of the incident from Gupta and his family and lashed out at the officials for "beating him up".

In a video, Renuka Singh is seen cautioning the officials to not think of BJP workers as "weak".

"Ye bhagwadhaari BJP ke karyakartao ko kamzor mat samajhna. Janpad me baithke aur aap tehsil me baith ke jo bhed-bhaav kar rahe hain BJP ke karyakartao ke sazth, bhool jaiye (Don't think of saffron-wearing BJP workers as weak. Forget the discrimination that you are showing towards BJP workers)," Renuka Singh said, lambasting the officials.

However, the minister did not stop there and went on to threaten the officials saying she knows how to 'thrash people with a belt'. 

"Andheri kothri me le jaa ke na main belt khol ke thokna jaanti hu bohot acche se (I very well know how to lock people in a dark room and thrash them with a belt)," Renuka Singh can be heard saying in a video from the incident.

Dilip Gupta, who was put under quarantine after he recently arrived from Delhi, had reportedly complained about the quality of food and basic facilities in the centre and had even uploaded a video on social media over the same after officials failed to address his issues.

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Agencies
August 1,2020

Chandigarh, Aug 1: The death toll in the Punjab spurious liquor tragedy rose to 86 on Saturday even as Chief Minister Amarinder Singh suspended seven excise officials and six policemen, officials said.

The government also announced a compensation of Rs 2 lakh for each of the families of the deceased, they said.

Tarn Taran alone accounted for 63 deaths, followed by 12 in Amritsar and 11 in Gurdaspur’s Batala. Till Friday night, the state had reported 39 deaths in the tragedy unfolding since Wednesday night.

According to an official statement, the CM ordered the suspension of seven excise officials, along with six policemen.

Among the suspended officials are two deputy superintendents of police and four station house officers.

Strict action will be taken against any public servant or others found complicit in the case, said the chief minister, describing the police and excise department failure to check the manufacturing and sale of spurious liquor as shameful.

Nobody will be allowed to get away with feeding poison to our people, he added.

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