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Chennai Water Crisis: Train carrying 50,000 litres of water from Vellore expected to reach drought-hit city today

Agencies
July 12, 2019

Jolarpettai, Jul 12: Indian authorities on Thursday filled tanks with water and loaded them onto a train in Tamil Nadu to supply its manufacturing capital Chennai where reservoirs have run dry.

Technicians in the railway station at Jolarpettai, located over 217 km from Chennai, worked from early on Thursday to fill fifty wagons with 50,000 litres of water each, sourced from a south Indian river.

The unusual water train, expected to reach Chennai on Friday, will provide much-needed relief to the carmaking centre dubbed “India’s Detroit.”

The train was supposed to reach Chennai on Thursday, but leakages in the valves of connecting the tank to the railway station forced authorities to push back plans by a day, officials at the railway station said.

The shortage has forced some schools to shut, companies to ask employees to work from home, and hotels to ration water for guests.

Bad water management and lack of rainfall mean all four reservoirs that supply Chennai have run virtually dry this summer. Other Indian cities, including the capital New Delhi and technology hub Bengaluru, are also grappling with water shortages.

People living on the outskirts are blocking roads and laying siege to tanker lorries because they fear their water reserves are being sacrificed so city dwellers, businesses and luxury hotels do not run out.

Groundwater levels in Chennai and in regions around the city have been falling due to lack of rainfall. Like many Indian cities, Chennai’s growth over the past 20 years has been rapid and haphazard.

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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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News Network
January 30,2020

Jan 30: BJP leader and West Bengal party head, Dilip Ghosh has yet again made a controversial statement. He said that one has to go to jail in order to gain respect or become a political leader.

"You will not be a leader if you don't go to jail, if Police don't take you, then you must go there yourself. If they don't give you any scope, you do something to go to jail, only then will people respect you. There is no place for soft people in politics," ANI quoted Ghosh as saying.

Earlier, Ghosh had triggered a controversy by saying that anti-CAA protestors in Assam and Uttar Pradesh were shot dead "like dogs", and similar punishment should be given to protestors in Bengal.

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News Network
June 5,2020

New Delhi, Jun 5: On World Environment Day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Friday urged citizens to ensure that the flora and fauna thrive and take a pledge to preserve our planet's rich biodiversity.

"On #WorldEnvironmentDay, we reiterate our pledge to preserve our planet's rich biodiversity. Let us collectively do whatever possible to ensure the flora and fauna with whom we share the Earth thrive. May we leave an even better planet for the coming generations," the Prime Minister tweeted.

He also shared a clip from his last 'Mann Ki Baat' programme where he mentioned about conservation of rainwater and protecting the rich diversity of nature.

"On June 5, the entire world will celebrate 'World Environment Day'. The theme for this year's 'World Environment Day' is bio-diversity. This theme is especially pertinent in the current circumstances. During lockdown in the last few weeks the pace of life may have slowed down a bit but it has also given us an opportunity to introspect upon the rich diversity of nature or biodiversity around us," the Prime Minister had said.

"Much of the avian fauna had sort of disappeared due to sound and air pollution, and now after years people can once again listen to their melodic chirping in their homes," he said.

The Prime Minister also said that water conservation, in particular the conservation of rainwater, is essential and exhorted everyone to strive for saving rainwater in the upcoming monsoons.

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