Monsoon fury: 169 dead in flood, rain-related incidents in South and West India

Agencies
August 12, 2019

Thiruvananthapuram/Mumbai, Aug 12: The death toll in Kerala floods mounted to 72 even as rains abated on Sunday after pounding the state for days, while the situation remained grim in Karnataka, Maharashtra and Gujarat where 97 people have lost their lives so far due to the monsoon fury.

All rivers are in spate in Karnataka where the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (Unesco) world heritage site in Hampi, on the banks of the Tungabhadra river in Ballari district, has been inundated after over 1.70 lakh cusec water was released from a reservoir on Sunday morning. Tourists in Hampi have been shifted to safer places, officials said.

The unprecedented deluge since last week has left 31 people dead and displaced four lakh people in 80 taluks of 17 districts in Karnataka.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah undertook an aerial survey of the flood-affected areas of Karnataka and Maharashtra.

KERALA

In Kerala, over 2.51 lakh people have taken shelter in 1,639 relief camps. The toll in the flood fury has gone up 72 while 58 people still missing, according to the report issued by the state government at 7 pm Sunday.

Flight operations at the Kochi international airport resumed on Sunday afternoon, two days after it was shut due to inundation of the runway area.

The IMD has issued a red alert for Kannur, Kasaragod and Wayanad in view of heavy rain forecast.

Vadakara in Kozhikode district recorded 21 cm of rainfall, the highest in the state as of 8.30 am Sunday, followed by Kodungallur in Thrissur (19.9 cm) and Perinthalmanna in Malappuram (13.8 cm).

Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan said water levels in major dams are not a cause of worry as of now.

In the worst-hit Puthumala in Wayanad, which was struck by a massive landslide on Thursday, eight people were still missing and search operations are on, he said.

The Army, Navy, Coast Guard, National Disaster Response Force (NDRF), police force, volunteers and fishermen are involved in the rescue operation in various places.

Congress leader Rahul Gandhi visited a relief camp in Wayanad and spoke to the people sheltered there. He also went to Kavalappara, a 10-acre settlement near Nilambur in Malappuram, which bore the brunt of a massive landslide on August 8.

The Malappuram Disaster Management Authority said 11 bodies have been retrieved so far from Kavalappara. An official said it is feared that nearly 50 bodies are still under the mud and sludge.

According to the Southern Railway a number of trains, including the Jamnagar Express, Nizamuddin-Ernakulam Duronto and Kochuveli-Amritsar Express, have been cancelled.

The Railways announced waiver of freight charges for transportation of relief materials to Karnataka, Maharashtra and Kerala, where over 10 lakh people had to be shifted from their homes to escape inundation.

"All government organisations across the country can book relief material free of cost to Karnataka, Kerala and Maharashtra as of now. Other organisations, as deemed fit by the divisional Railway manager, may also avail of this provision," Deputy Director (Traffic Commercial) of the Railway Board Mahendar Singh said in a letter to all railway general managers.

KARNATAKA

The Ballari district administration in Karnataka has asked people living along the river banks to move to safer places as all 33 gates of the Tungabhadra Dam were opened in the wake of incessant rains.

Karnataka Chief Minister BS Yediyurappa said the preliminary estimate of flood-related loss in the state was Rs 10,000 crore and urged the Centre to release Rs 3,000 crore as immediate aid.

MAHARASHTRA

Around 35 people have been killed in rain-related incidents in five districts of western Maharashtra in a week, including 17 who drowned after a boat capsized near Brahmanal village in Sangli on Thursday.

Four lakh people have so far been been moved to safety from the flood-affected areas of Maharashtra, officials said on Sunday, adding 761 villages in 69 tehsils are affected by the deluge.

Over five lakh cusec of water has been discharged from Almatti dam on the Krishna river in Karnataka to ease the flood situation in western Maharashtra.

Koyna dam in Satara discharged 53,882 cusec of water as its catchment area was still experiencing torrential rains, an official said.

With the recovery of five more bodies, the toll in the boat capsize incident in Sangli rose to 17, another official said, adding water has started receding in some areas of the district.

Rains pounded Kolhapur, Sangli, Satara, Thane, Pune, Nashik, Palghar, Ratnagiri, Raigad and Sindhudurg districts in the state in the last one week.

"The NDRF has deployed 29 teams, the SDRF three, Coast Guard 16, Navy 41 and Army 21 in these 10 districts," an official said.

GUJARAT

Heavy showers continued to lash parts of Gujarat taking the toll in rain-related incidents to 31, including 12 deaths were reported from Saurashtra region since Saturday.

Several parts of central Gujarat and Saurashtra and Kutch regions have been receiving heavy rains for the last three days.

 A police official said on Sunday five fishermen drowned after three boats caught in rough weather in the Arabian sea capsized off the Porbandar coast in Saurashtra region.

In another incident, seven people from Vavdi village in Surendranagar were swept away in the strong current of Falku river as they were trying to cross a causeway on Saturday evening, a police official said.

"Six bodies have so far been recovered," he said.

Since Saturday, Nakhatrana taluka in Kutch district received 321 mm of rains, Tankara in Morbi district gauged 268 mm of rainfall, while Dhrangadhra taluka in Surendranagar recorded 209 mm of rains.

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Agencies
March 15,2020

Financially troubled Yes Bank on Saturday reported a standalone net loss of ₹ 18,560.31 crore for the third quarter of the financial year 2019-20. This is amongst the biggest losses reported by the India Inc.

At present, the private lender is under a moratorium and is controlled by the office of the administrator appointed by the RBI.

The bank had reported a net profit of ₹1,001.85 crore during the corresponding period of the previous financial year.

Besides, the bank's total income fell to Rs 6,268.50 crore from Rs 8,849.81 crore earned during the October-December quarter of the previous fiscal.

On consolidated basis, Yes Bank reported a net loss of ₹18,564.24 crore for the December quarter from a net profit of Rs 1,000.57 crore in the corresponding period of the previous fiscal.

The independent auditor's review report on the consolidated results pointed out that there is a "material uncertainty related to going concern" of the bank.

"The said assumption of going concern is dependent upon the degree of success of the final reconstruction scheme, the quantum of capital infused into the bank and the bank's ability to stabalise its deposit balances post withdrawal of the moratorium by the RBI. Our conclusion is not modified in respect of this matter," the auditor said.

Furthermore, the bank recognised additional loans of ₹ 5,150.2 crore as NPAs and related provisioning requirements of ₹772.5 crore for the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

The bank has recognised an additional provisions of ₹15,422.0 crore in the quarter ended December 31, 2019.

Last week, the RBI placed Yes Bank under moratorium and capped the withdrawal limit at ₹50,000 till next Wednesday.

Additionally, the central bank also superseded Yes Bank's board of directors and appointed former SBI CFO Prashant Kumar as its administrator.

Meanwhile, Kumar has been appointed as the new Chief Executive Officer of the financially troubled lender. He will take over his new responsibilities once the moratorium on the stressed lender is lifted on Wednesday.

Apart from Kumar, Sunil Mehta, former non-executive Chairman of Punjab National Bank, will take over as the non-executive Chairman of Yes Bank.

Other board members include Mahesh Krishnamurthy and Atul Bheda, both as non-executive Directors.

Additionally, six private lenders have joined the SBI to rescue Yes Bank with Federal Bank committing ₹300 crore by subscribing to 30 crore shares of ₹2 each at a premium of ₹8 per equity share.

The six private lenders have now committed an investment of ₹3,700 crore in the cash-strapped private sector bank.

On Friday, ICICI Bank and Housing Development Finance Corporation (HDFC) Ltd had announced that they will be investing ₹1,000 crore each in Yes Bank's equity. Axis Bank and Kotak Mahindra Bank will be investing ₹ 600 crore and ₹500 crore, respectively, while Bandhan Bank will invest ₹300 crore.

The SBI board has already approved up to 49 per cent stake purchase in Yes Bank, as per the RBI's reconstruction scheme for the lender. It had said on Thursday that an investment of ₹7,250 crore would be made in Yes Bank to pick up₹ 725 crore equity shares.

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Agencies
June 27,2020

Mumbai, Jun 27: The Shiv Sena on Saturday hit out at the BJP over its charge that the Rajiv Gandhi Foundation (RGF) had accepted donations from the Chinese embassy, and asked it whether the issue had any connection with intrusion by the neighbouring country in Ladakh and the martyrdom of 20 Indian soldiers.

The Sena also alleged that those raising questions against the government over the standoff with China were being labelled as Chinese agents by the BJP.

BJP chief J P Nadda had on Thursday targeted the Congress and the Gandhi family saying that the RGF had allegedly accepted donations from the Chinese embassy. Hitting back, the Congress had said that the RGF issue raised by the BJP government was a "manufactured charge" and "diversionary tactic" to deflect attention from the LAC crisis.

"What do you mean by Congress gets money from China? Instead of responding to the issues raised by Sonia Gandhi and Rahul Gandhi over the Chinese incursions, the BJP leaders accused the Congress of receiving funds from China," the Sena said in an editorial in party mouthpiece 'Saamana'.

"Will BJP's revelations about the donations stop the Chinese activities along the border? The BJP should tell what connection does these donations have with the Chinese incursion and the martyrdom of 20 soldiers," it added.

"In our country, many political leaders and parties, and not just the Congress, are beneficiaries of foreign countries. The BJP speaking about this is like throwing stones in the mud," it said.

The Uddhav Thackeray-led party said that Chinese President Xi Jinping visited India twice in the last six years.

"He was hosted in Gujarat. But it is a fact that China has betrayed. Holding talks on the one hand and continuing with the offensive along the border on the other hand is China's old policy," it said.

In the present scenario, the entire country stands firmly with PM Modi. This crisis is not for the BJP or the Congress, but for the entire country, whose prestige is at stake, it said.

"The BJP can fight with the Congress any time later.

But now is the time to fight against China. It should speak on that," the Sena said.

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News Network
March 20,2020

New Delhi, Mar 20: The four men convicted of the gang rape and murder of a Delhi woman on December 16, 2012 were hanged in the darkness of pre-dawn on Friday, ending a horrific chapter in India's long history of sexual assault that had seared the nation's soul. Mukesh Singh (32), Pawan Gupta (25), Vinay Sharma (26) and Akshay Kumar Singh (31) were executed at 5.30 am for the savage assault in an empty moving bus on the 23-year-old physiotherapy intern who came to be known the world over as Nirbhaya, the fearless one.

This is the first time that four men have been hanged together in Tihar Jail, South Asia's largest prison complex that houses more than 16,000 inmates. The executions were carried out after the men exhausted every possible legal avenue to escape the gallows. Their desperate attempts only postponed the inevitable by less than two months after the first date of execution was set for January 22.

They were hanged at 5.30 am, Director General of Prison Sandeep Goel said.

After raping and brutalising the woman, the men, one of whom was a juvenile at the time, dumped her on the road and left for dead on the cold winter night. Her friend who was with her was also severely beaten and thrown out along with her. She was so severely violated that her insides were spilling out when she was taken to hospital. She died in a Singapore hospital after battling for her life for a fortnight.

Six people, including the four convicts and the juvenile, were named as accused.

While Ram Singh allegedly committed suicide in the Tihar Jail days after the trial began in the case, the juvenile was released in 2015 after spending three years in a correctional home.

The road to the gallows was a long and circuitous one, going through the lower courts, the High Court, the Supreme Court and the president's office before going back to the Supreme Court that heard and rejected various curative petitions.

The death warrants were deferred by a court thrice on the grounds that the convicts had not exhausted all their legal remedies and that the mercy petition of one or the other was before the president.

On March 5, a trial court issued fresh death warrants for March 20 at 5.30 am as the final date for the execution.

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