"It Was A Nightmare": Foreign Media On Dust Storm That Left 125 Dead

Agencies
May 4, 2018

May 4: Severe winds and rapid-fire lightning strikes from a violent dust storm demolished homes and displaced trees across India on Wednesday, killing at least 125 people and injuring more than 200 others - with more potentially deadly weather still to come, officials said.

At least 111 people were killed in the northern states of Uttar Pradesh, Rajasthan and Punjab, with many of them in Agra, the city that houses the Taj Mahal, according to BBC News and Agence France-Presse.

Another 14 people were killed in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, "which was hammered by more than 41,000 lightning strikes on Wednesday," AFP reported.

Homes and businesses now lay in rubble littered with downed trees and electrical lines.

Livestock are dead. Schools are closed.

And residents are bracing for another storm that's predicted to strike in a few days: The Indian Express reported early Thursday that Indian Meteorological Department scientist Himanshu Sharma warned another round of dangerous weather is likely to strike the area.

"There is a high probability that winds will intensify in the next 48 hours in Rajasthan, which may lead to another dust storm," he told the Press Trust of India. "It will affect areas of Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan border, especially Karauli and Dholpur."

The majority of the deaths were in Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan, in the north.

The death toll in Rajasthan soared past three dozen, and the number may continue to climb, according to the Indian Express. The worst damage was in the Bharatpur district, according to the newspaper. "Most of the deaths occurred after walls and roofs of houses collapsed in the middle of the night," T Ravi Kant, the district divisional commissioner in the state capital, Jaipur, told CNN.

Dust storms have hit India in the past, but officials said what made this storm so deadly was the fallen debris.

"Many houses collapsed due to high intensity winds, or the trees fell over onto the houses," Sanjay Kumar, the Uttar Pradesh's state relief commissioner for the National Disaster Management Authority in India, told CNN, explaining how residents had become trapped and died.

India's National Disaster Management Authority issued an alert earlier in the week, warning residents about "severe thunderstorm activity" with hail and strong wind gusts in Gangetic West Bengal and Odisha, as well as other areas in eastern and northeastern India - but not specifically Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh.

"I've been in office for 20 years, and this is the worst I've seen," Hemant Gera, secretary for disaster management and relief in Rajasthan, told BBC News about the storm.

"We had a high intensity dust storm on 11 April - 19 people died then - but this time it struck during the night, so many people sleeping and couldn't get out of their houses when mud walls collapsed."

Shivam Lohia, who owns a resort hotel in Rajasthan, told AFP that his car was almost blown away in the storm. He abandoned the vehicle on a road, he said, and ran for his life.

"Everyone was scared and running for cover as trees and homes were getting blown away," Lohia said. "It was a nightmare."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a statement Thursday that he was "saddened by the loss of lives" and that he has asked state governments to provide assistance to those who need it.

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News Network
June 20,2020

Bhopal, Jun 20: A senior BJP MLA in Madhya Pradesh tested COVID-19 positive hours after he cast his vote for the Rajya Sabha polls in the state and attended party meetings, an official said on Saturday. The legislator's wife has also tested positive for the infection, he said.

Voting for three Rajya Sabha seats in the state took place on Friday.

The couple's test reports came on Friday night and the news of the MLA's infection triggered panic among other MLAs with some of them reaching hospitals to get themselves tested.

"The MLA and his wife were found infected with COVID- 19 in the tests conducted by a private laboratory. We are examining their condition and making a decision whether they need to be hospitalised or home quarantined," a health department official told.

He said that the MLA's contact tracing has been initiated.

"Further tests are also being conducted," he said.

He is the second legislator in Madhya Pradesh, who was tested coronavirus positive.

Earlier, a Congress MLA was found infected. He had voted for the Rajya Sabha polls on Friday after reaching the state assembly complex wearing a PPE suit.

Talking to , a member of the BJP MLA's family said that the medical team was called on Friday afternoon for the COVID-19 test after the legislator's wife complained of uneasiness.

"The MLA and his wife gave the samples to the medical team for the COVID-19 tests on Friday afternoon and they were told at night that both of them have tested positive for the infection," he said.

After the news of BJP MLA testing positive spread, a senior BJP MLA from Mandsaur, Yashpal Singh Sisodiya, reached government-run J P Hospital here along with two other party MLAs.

Talking to reporters, Sisodiya said, "I came here along with two other MLAs from our division- Dilip Makwana (Ratlam Rural) and Devilal Dhakad (Garoth)- after we came to know through media and social media that one of the MLAs from our division has tested positive for COVID-19."

"We don't have any symptoms, but came to test for COVID-19 as a precautionary measure," he said.

Dhakad said that he came for testing as he had dined with the MLA two days back.

Talking to , Madhya Pradesh State Assembly's Principal Secretary A P Singh said that all the precautionary measures were taken during the Rajya Sabha polling.

"All employees were in safety gears during the Rajya Sabha election process. The assembly campus was being sanitised every 15-20 minutes during the polling process...We are now going through the CCTV footage to trace those who had come in his contact," he said.

Congress MLA and former minister P C Sharma said that those who came in contact with the BJP legislator should be traced and quarantined.

"The employees and MLAs who came in contact with him during the voting process should be tested," Sharma said.

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News Network
July 5,2020

New Delhi, Jul 5: World's largest, 10,000-bed Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre and Hospital (SPCCCH) at Radha Soami Satsang Beas in Chhatarpur area of the national capital has made operational on Sunday.

Inaugurated by Lieutenant Governor of Delhi, Anil Baijal, the facility has been created on an emergency basis by the South Delhi District Administration with support of the Ministry of Home Affairs in a record time of 10 days.
Notably, this coronavirus treatment centre which is set up in Chhatarpur area of the national capital is said to be the "largest" of its kind in the world.
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"The Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre and Hospital has been developed to help the citizens of Delhi and NCR who are affected by the coronavirus. Our team of doctors and medical staffs will take care of this facility. Sardar Patel COVID Care Centre and Hospital will have 10 per cent of beds with oxygen facility," the Delhi LG said after the inaugural.
Talking about the facilities at the new coronavirus centre, Baijal further stated, "We have counsellors for mentally traumatised patients. We have a team of good psychiatrists and specialists in medicine."

The facility will function as an isolation centre for mild and asymptomatic COVID positive patients. 10 per cent of the beds will have oxygen facility in case the patient develops severe breathlessness and requires tertiary hospital care, read a statement.

Operationally, the facility has been linked to the Deen Dayal Upadhyay Hospital and Madan Mohan Malviya Hospital. The referral tertiary care hospitals are Lok Nayak Jai Prakash Narayan Hospital and Rajiv Gandhi Super Speciality Hospital.

ITBP will be running the first 2,000 beds with their 170 doctors/specialists and more than 700 nurses and paramedics, the statement added.
Most of the basic infrastructure such as beds, mattresses and linen has been donated by various civil society organisations and non-governmental organisations. 

A recreational centre has been made available to the patients along with a library, board games and skipping ropes. People admitted to the facility will be provided five healthy meals a day along with immunity-boosting chawanprash, juices and hot kadha, the statement added.

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News Network
February 19,2020

Feb 19: Pay increases across India’s organized sector will probably grow at the slowest pace since 2009 this year, according to a survey from Aon Plc.

Companies will increase average pay by 9.1% in 2020, down from 9.3% in 2019 and 9.5% the previous year, Aon said in a report published Tuesday. The small increase reflects a deep slowdown in Asia’s third-largest economy, where growing pessimism about job prospects have led many to cut down on consumption -- the main driver to growth.

India still leads the Asia-Pacific region in pay rises, but that is mainly due to higher inflation and a “war for key talent and niche skills,” Aon said.

“There is a general air of caution about the economy as we enter into 2020,” Tzeitel Fernandes, partner for rewards solutions at Aon, told reporters in New Delhi. “Low GDP projection and weak consumer sentiment are the reasons behind our lowest ever prediction.”

E-commerce companies and start-ups will probably get the biggest salary increases, projected at an above-average 10%, while financial institutions will hand out 8.5%. Unsurprisingly, the auto sector witnessed the biggest drop in growth -- down to 8.3% from 10.1% in 2018, according to Aon. The survey covered more than 1,000 companies across over 20 industries.

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