PM, Sonia to make aerial survey of flood-ravaged Uttarakhand to assess damage

June 19, 2013
floodNew Delhi, Jun 19: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Congress president Sonia Gandhi will on Wednesday make an aerial survey of rain-ravaged areas in Uttarkhand where flash floods have claimed over a hundred lives and left thousands of pilgrims for Himalayan shrines stranded.

The situation created by the heavy rains and floods in the state was discussed at the Congress Core Group meeting this morning.

Finance minister P Chidambaram told reporters after the meeting that the situation in Uttarakhand is better than what it was yesterday and food minister K V Thomas is taking steps to rush more food grains to the flood-hit Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh.

"The objective is to ensure that food grains and food packets are available to the affected people. On the food issue, a number of decisions were taken," he said.

On the steps being initiated by the government to provide succour to the victims, Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde said that IAF helicopters have been deployed to evacuate stranded people from Gaurikund in Uttarakhand while a control centre has been established in Badrinath. ITBP has given shelter to about 6,400 people at Joshimath, he said.

"Fourteen teams comprising 540 persons of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in Uttarakhand. 62,790 people are stranded in Uttarakhand. 5000 people have been rescued by the Army," the home minister said.

Both Singh and Gandhi had yesterday written to Uttarakhand chief minister Vijay Bahuguna and the government has assured him all assistance in rescue and relief operations.

Gandhi, who had also spoken to Shinde and Himachal Pradesh chief minister Virbhadra Singh, has sought "timely and prompt" relief measures in the two states.

Shinde said that Gandhi and the Prime Minister will be undertaking the aerial survey this afternoon.

The Prime Minister had yesterday directed agencies of the central government to assist in rescue and relief operations.

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News Network
March 10,2020

New Delhi, Mar 10: A military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force (IAF) brought back 58 Indians from coronavirus-hit Iran on Tuesday, official said.

The aircraft, a C-17 Globemaster, was sent to Tehran on Monday evening.

About 2,000 Indians are living in Iran, a country that has witnessed increasing numbers of coronavirus cases in the last few days.

"The IAF aircraft has landed. Mission completed. On to the next," External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar tweeted.

In an earlier tweet, he said, "First batch of 58 Indian pilgrims being brought back from Iran. IAF C-17 taken off from Tehran and expected to land soon in Hindon."

"Thanks to the efforts of our Embassy @India_in_Iran and Indian medical team there, operating under challenging conditions. Thank you @IAF_MCC. Appreciate cooperation of Iranian authorities. We are working on the return of other Indians stranded there (sic)," Jaishankar added.

The aircraft landed at Hindon airbase in Ghaziabad, from where the passengers were take to a medical facility.

According to latest reports, 237 people have died of novel coronavirus in Iran while the number of positive cases stands at around 7,000.

It is the second such evacuation by the C-17 Globemaster in the last two weeks.

On February 27, 76 Indians and 36 foreign nationals were brought back from the Chinese city of Wuhan by the aircraft of the Indian Air Force.

The C-17 Globemaster is the largest military aircraft in the IAF's inventory. The plane can carry large combat equipment, troops and humanitarian aid across long distances in all weather conditions.

Four days ago, a Mahan airline plane brought swab samples of 300 Indians from Iran to India.

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News Network
May 8,2020

Aurangabad, May 8: At least 15 migrant workers, who were sleeping on the railway tracks while going back to their native places, were run over by a goods train between Maharashtra's Jalna and Aurangabad, officials said on Friday.

A senior railway official confirmed that 15 migrant labourers were run over by a goods train between Jalna and Aurangabad of Nanded Divison of South Central Railway.

The official said that the incident happened around 5.30 am on Friday when the migrant workers, who were on way back to their homes and sleeping on the railway tracks.

However, it is yet not clear from where this group hailed and where they were going.

Amid the nationwide lockdown, thousands of migrant workers stranded in several other cities have started their journey to return to their native places on foot.

The interstate bus service, passenger, mail and express train services have been suspended since March 24.

The railways has started running Shramik Special trains to transport the stranded migrants to their native places since May 1.

Till Thursday railways has run 201 Shramik Special trains.

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News Network
February 18,2020

New Delhi, Feb 18: Delhi Transport Minister Kailash Gahlot is the richest minister in the AAP government, according to a report released by the Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) on Monday.

In a statement, the NGO said, Delhi Election Watch and ADR have analysed the self-sworn affidavits of all the seven-party leaders including Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal.

According to the statement, the minister with the lowest declared total assets is Gopal Rai with assets worth Rs 90.01 lakh.

"The minister with the highest declared total assets is Kailash Gahlot from Najafgarh constituency with assets worth Rs 46.07 crore," it stated.

The report by ADR comes on the day Kejriwal and his six ministers took charge after the formation of the new AAP government.

Chief Minister Kejriwal and his cabinet colleagues took charge of their respective offices on Monday and asserted that they would work to fulfil the promises made in the "guarantee card", released during the poll campaign, including reduction in pollution and expansion of metro network.

Members of his Cabinet are -- Manish Sisodia, Satyendar Jain, Rajendra Pal Gautam, Imran Hussain, Gopal Rai and Kailash Gahlot.

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