Cold wave grips North India; Delhi records worst fog in 4 yrs, air and rail traffic hit

January 6, 2014

Delhi_records

New Delhi, Jan 6: As cold wave maintained its grip in the North India, Delhi experienced the worst fog in four year, with flight and trains operations coming to a standstill.

Intense cold wave continued unabated in Delhi, Punjab, Haryana and Rajasthan with temperatures settling below normal in most parts of North India adversely affecting normal life.

With dense fog enveloping the IGI Airport, the visibility dropped below the mandatory 50 metres, disrupting flight operations and causing inconvenience to passengers. According to reports, as the visibility was below 50 metres, over 200 flights were delayed at the IGI. The fog was being expected to get lesser after 9.30 AM.

Fog started to descend at the airport on Sunday evening at around 6.30 PM and it became dense by 8 PM. The visibility dropped to less than 75 meters due to which flight operations were disrupted, airport sources said. The fog became more dense around 9.30 PM due to which the general visibility was almost nil while the runway visibility was below 50 meters, leading to suspension of flight operations.

The thick fog affected the rail traffic as many trains were running behind scheduled or were cancelled. Chaos prevailed at Delhi railway station as the passengers were stranded waiting for their trains.

According to MeT department, Delhi is witnessing second spell of dense fog since two days and will continue for another 24 hours.

On Sunday, Delhi recorded the minimum temperature settled down at 7.8 degree Celsius, one notch below normal, and the maximum temperature was recorded at 19.3 degree Celsius, one notch above normal.

Dense fog accompanied with biting cold wave conditions disrupted normal life in Delhi.

Besides Delhi, foggy conditions were reported in Lucknow, Jaipur, Bhubaneswar, Vizag, Patna and Guwahati leading to disruption in flight movement.

Kashmir Valley and Ladakh region experienced sub-zero temperatures as cold intensified and mercury plummeted several notches below the freezing point.

Srinagar recorded a minimum temperature of minus 4.2 degrees Celsius, over two degrees down from the previous night's minus 1.6 degrees Celsius, a MeT official said.

Several parts of Punjab and Haryana, including Hisar, Amritsar, Patiala, Bathinda, Narnaul, Ludhiana and Rohtak remained engulfed under a thick blanket of fog due to which several trains criss-crossing the region ran hours behind schedule due to low visibility.

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Agencies
March 14,2020

New Delhi, Mar 14: India on Friday was mulling over the option of deporting The Wall Street Journal's South Asia deputy bureau chief for misreporting Delhi riots in which over 50 people were killed last month. However, the government denied that it had made any such decision.

Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Raveesh Kumar said that a complaint was registered against Eric Bellman, the WSJ South Asia deputy bureau chief based in New Delhi, by a private individual on the government's online grievance redressal platform.

"Referring the complaint to the related office is a routine matter as per standard procedure. No such decision on deportation has been taken by the Ministry of External Affairs," Kumar said.

However, government-funded Prasar Bharati News Services had earlier tweeted screenshots of the complaint which was filed by an undersecretary in the Ministry of External Affairs, Vinesh K Kalra, saying that the ministry has asked the Indian embassy in the US to "look into the request for immediate deportation of Bellman for his "anti-India behaviour".

The official had complained to the embassy about Bellman's controversial reportage on the killing of an Intelligence Bureau staffer named Ankit Sharma.

The WSJ had reported that Ankit Sharma's brother had said that he was killed by a mob belonging to a particular religious community. Ankit's brother later told Indian media that he never spoke to the WSJ reporter.

After the Prasar Bharati tweet got circulated widely on social media, the government backtracked and said that no such decision has been taken.

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News Network
May 28,2020

Pulwama, May 28: A major incident of a vehicle-borne IED blast was averted by the timely input and action by Pulwama Police, Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) and Army, the Jammu and Kashmir Police said.

According to sources, Pulwama Police got credible information last night about a terrorist moving with an explosive-laden car ready to blast at some location. They took out various parties of police and security forces and covered all possible routes keeping themselves and the police and security forces away from the road at safer locations.

The suspected vehicle came and a few rounds were fired towards it. A little ahead this vehicle was abandoned and the driver escaped in the darkness. On close look, the vehicle was seen to be carrying heavy explosives in a drum on the rear seat. Possibly more explosive would be fitted elsewhere in the vehicle, sources added.

The vehicle was kept under watch for the night. People in nearby houses were evacuated and the vehicle exploded in situ by the Bomb Disposal Squad as moving the vehicle would have involved serious threat, sources said.

The vehicle reportedly sports a number plate of a scooter registered somewhere in Kathua district of Jammu zone, sources added.

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News Network
May 10,2020

Thiruvananthapuram , May 10: Issuing latest order in view of coronavirus outbreak, the Kerala government has ordered complete shut down on all Sundays.

"With a view to prevent the spread of COVID-19, improve the quality of life, reduce the carbon emissions, protect the environment and greenery of the State, the following protocol would be observed on Sundays across the State. Sundays will be observed as total shut down days until further orders," the order read.

Following activities will be permissible on Sundays:

A) Shops selling essential items

B) Collection and distribution of milk

C) Supply of Newspaper, media, hospitals, medical stores, medical labs and related institutions

D) No social gathering is permitted except for marriages and funerals

E) Departments, agencies and activities connected with the containment of COVID-19

F) Movement of goods vehicles

G) Agencies in the field of waste disposal

H) All manufacturing and processing activities of continuous nature and ongoing construction activities will be permitted

I) Take away counters of the hotel from 8 a.m to 9 p.m, online delivery up to 10 pm

J) Walking and cycling will be permitted.

K) In addition, the following roads mentioned in Annexure will be closed for motorised traffic except for movement of essential goods and emergency vehicles from 5 am to 10 am. During this time, non-motorised traffic such as walking and cycling will be permitted.

L) Movement of persons on Sundays are allowed only for health emergencies, Government servants on emergency duties and persons engaged in activities connected with Covid-19 containment, persons involved in the activities from (a) to (k) above, priests and other religious persons responsible for conducting rituals in worship places.

M) Any other movement of persons, if any in exigencies, shall only be with the travel passes obtained from District Collector or Police authorities concerned.

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