Cyclone Bulbul: 7 killed, normal life disrupted in West Bengal

News Network
November 10, 2019

Kolkata, Nov 10: Cyclone 'Bulbul', which barrelled through the coastal districts of West Bengal before hurtling towards Bangladesh, claimed at least seven lives in different parts of the state, official reports said on Sunday.

The severe cyclonic storm, which brought in its wake heavy rain coupled with gale wind till early Sunday, uprooted hundreds of trees and snapped cables in the city and its adjoining areas in North and South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore, bring life to a near-halt.

In North Parganas alone, five people were killed in separate incidents.

According to a senior police officer, a septuagenarian woman, Suchitra Mandal, died at Purba Makala village in Basirhat area of the district when a tree fell on her.

Several trees were also uprooted at Gokhna village, one of which claimed the life of Reba Biswas (47).

Manirul Gazi (59) was the third casualty in North 24 Parganas. He was electrocuted to death after coming in contact with a lamp post, the officer added.

Two more deaths, one due to wall collapse and another after coming under a falling tree, were also reported in the district, a state government official said.

In East Midnapore, too, a man died after he was crushed by a falling tree.

Earlier, on Saturday, even before the cyclone hit the coast, an employee of a renowned club in the city was killed when a branch of a cedar tree fell on him during heavy rain.

Torrential rain lashed the metropolis throughout Saturday, forcing people to remain indoors. Gale wind with gusts up to 135 kmph prevailed over the coastal districts of South 24 Parganas and East Midnapore and its adjoining areas in North 24 Parganas as the cyclone made landfall around midnight on Saturday.

Hundreds of uprooted trees have blocked thoroughfares in the state capital and its fringe areas, even as people braved the adverse conditions to come out of homes on Sunday afternoon as the weather improved.

The NDRF, along with the Kolkata Municipal Corporation (KMC), police and fire personnel, is working on a war footing to clear road blockades caused by fallen trees and branches.

"We have already engaged workers to clear the roads and pump out water from low-lying areas. We are hopeful our work will be over by tonight," said a KMC official.

State disaster management minister Javed Khan said all emergency services have been put in place to ensure that the uprooted trees are removed at the earliest.

According to the IMD, the very severe cyclonic storm had weakened into severe cyclonic storm before making landfall close to Sunderban Dhanchi forest.

"Yesterday's very severe cyclonic storm 'Bulbul' over northwest Bay of Bengal (BoB) moved northeastwards, weakened into a severe cyclonic storm and crossed West Bengal coast close to Sunderban Dhanchi forest during 8.30 pm to 11.30 pm with a maximum sustained wind speed of 110-120 kmph gusting to 135 kmph," it said in an official release.

The Met department also predicted light to moderate rainfall over the next six hours from 12.30 pm in North and South 24 Parganas, East Midnapore and Nadia districts.

In a tweet, Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee said on Sunday she would conduct an aerial survey of the affected areas around Namkhana and Bakkhali in South 24 Parganas.

"Due to the severe cyclonic storm 'Bulbul', I have decided to postpone my North Bengal visit in the coming week.

Instead, tomorrow I would take an aerial survey of the affected areas around Namkhana and Bakkhali.

"Later I would take a meeting at Kakdwip with administration to review relief and rehabilitation measures of the cyclone-affected people. I am also planning to visit the cyclone-affected areas of Basirhat of North 24-Parganas on 13 November, 2019," Banerjee tweeted.

State power minister Sovandeb Chattopadhyay said measures were being taken to restore power supply in areas, where electric cables have been torn apart due to the cyclone.

Earlier in the day, Prime Minister Narendra Modi spoke with West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee about the situation arising out of the cylone and assured the state of all assistance to deal with the calamity.

"Reviewed the situation in the wake of cyclone conditions and heavy rain in parts of Eastern India," the prime minister wrote on Twitter.

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News Nerwork
June 7,2020

New Delhi, Jun 7: Rain lashed some parts of the Delhi-NCR on Sunday morning.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted partly cloudy sky with possibility of development of thunder lightning for three days from June 10 onwards with minimum and maximum temperature will hover around 29° Celcius and 42° Celcius respectively.

Strong surface winds during day time have been predicted for today by IMD.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Ahmedabad, Mar 15: Four Congress MLAs in Gujarat have tendered their resignation to Assembly Speaker Rajendra Trivedi ahead of the election to the four Rajya Sabha seats in the state to be held on March 26.

The four Congress legislators tendered their resignation on Saturday, which Trivedi has accepted.

Trivedi told this to PTI on Sunday.

He said he will announce the names of the legislators in the Legislative Assembly on Monday.

"Four Congress MLAs tendered their resignation to me on Saturday, and I will announce their names in the Assembly tomorrow," he said.

With this, the strength of the Congress party in the 182-member Gujarat Assembly has come down to 69 from 73.

The Congress had on Saturday shifted its 14 MLAs to Jaipur fearing horse-trading by the ruling BJP ahead of the Rajya Sabha polls.

The BJP has fielded Abhay Bhardwaj, Ramila Bara and Narhari Amin for the election.

Given its number in the Assembly, the ruling party can only win two seats unless it manages cross-voting from the opposition camp or ensures defection of Congress MLAs to win the third seat.

The Congress has fielded senior leaders Shaktisinh Gohil and Bharatsinh Solanki.

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News Network
January 6,2020

Jammu, Jan 6: Union Minister Jitendra Singh on Sunday said India is the only shelter for religiously persecuted Hindus, Sikhs and other minorities who come from Pakistan, Bangladesh or Afghanistan, for the safety of their life and honour.

"India owes responsibility towards the minorities living in these countries which proclaim Islam as their state religion," Singh said here while launching the BJP's countrywide 10-day mass contact drive to spread awareness about the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

Accompanied by senior party colleagues, including former deputy chief minister Kavinder Gupta and former minister Sat Sharma, he began by visiting the house of veteran columnist, writer and Padmashri awardee K L Pandita, where he spent time with them discussing the Act.

Later, he visited prominent social activist Amjad Mirza, eminent Sikh religious leader Baba Swaranjit Singh, retired High Court judge Justice G D Sharma, veteran journalist and former bureau head of Hind Samachar group Gopal Sachar, retired principal of Jammu government medical college Subhash Gupta, social activist and president of Peoples' Forum Ramesh Sabharwal, among others.

During his interaction with them, the Minister of State in the Prime Minister's Office claimed that Congress leaders and their allies protesting against the Act are doing so without "conviction".

He opined that if a "survey" was conducted among the family members of these Congress leaders, then, even they would not support their "anti-CAA stand".

"The tragedy of Congress party and contemporary leaders of Congress is that either they do not read their own history or are blissfully ignorant of the statements made by their own party patriarchs and former prime ministers," he said.

The minister recalled that the Nehru-Liaquat Pact of 1950 was inspired by the realisation on the part of the then Congress government headed by prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru that minorities, particularly Hindus, were not getting a fair deal in Pakistan.

"In 1949, Nehru had written a letter expressing concern about people coming in from then East Pakistan, which is now Bangladesh, and while doing so, he had referred to Hindus coming from there as 'refugees' and Muslims arriving here as 'immigrants'," Singh said.

Further, Nehru had stated that India owed a "responsibility" to these refugees, the minister said.

Referring to the opposition of senior Congress leaders Rahul Gandhi and Priyanka Gandhi to the amended legislation, the minister said someone should show them records of proceedings of the winter session of Parliament in 1950 when their great-grandfather (Nehru) had himself said that they deserved to be given citizenship and if the law was inadequate for it, then, the law should be changed.

"PM Modi should actually be given credit for showing courage and conviction to carry forward the task, which the Congress government lacked, to accomplish this," the minister opined.

Singh reiterated that a false fear psychosis against Muslims is being sought to be manufactured when there is no place as safe and comfortable to live for the community as India.

Turning the tables on the opposition to the National Population Register(NPR) and proposed National Register of Citizens (NRC), Singh pointed out that PM Modi and Union Home Minister Amit Shah have been stating that the exercise on NRC is yet to begin.

He also said that it was then Union home minister P Chidambaram, who had stated in Parliament in 2010 that NPR could be a basis for NRC.

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