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Rahul Gandhi not to be PM candidate, to lead Congress campaign for L S polls

January 16, 2014

New Delhi, Jan 16: Congress vice president Rahul Gandhi will lead the party's campaign for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections but will not be declared prime ministerial candidate, the party said Thursday.

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A meeting of the extended Congress Working Committee (CWC) Thursday evening decided the agenda for the All India Congress Committee (AICC) meeting Friday, in which a resolution will be moved about the role of Rahul Gandhi in the Lok Sabha polls.

Congress general secretary Janardan Dwivedi told reporters after the CWC meeting that there was a demand from several leaders to declare Rahul Gandhi the prime ministerial candidate but party president Sonia Gandhi intervened to say that the Congress did not have the tradition of declaring a prime ministerial candidate.

He said the CWC decided that the resolution be moved at the AICC meeting.

"This meeting of CWC declares that the 2014 election campaign will be led by Rahul Gandhi," Dwivedi said reading out the resolution.

Dwivedi said Sonia Gandhi told the meeting that it was not necessary for the Congress to declare a prime ministerial candidate even if some other party had done so.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has declared Gujarat chief minister Narendra Modi its prime ministerial candidate.

Dwivedi said it was always known in the Congress who will lead the poll campaign.Answering queries, he said the resolution means that the 2014 elections will be contested under "one leadership".

He said the party has been consistently saying that Rahul Gandhi was the party leader next to Sonia Gandhi.

"Rahul Gandhi is the leader of the future," he said.

Meanwhile, Rahul Gandhi said he was always ready to discharge any responsibility given to him by the party.

He also said there were attempts to strike at the Congress ideology and there was a need to strengthen it.

Dwivedi said the party's election leaders were known from the time of Jawaharlal Nehru even if there was no announcement of the prime ministerial candidate.

He said an announcement was made about Manmohan Singh's candidature as prime minister ahead of the 2009 Lok Sabha polls as he was already holding the position.

Manmohan Singh had announced earlier this month that he will not be seeking another term as prime minister.

Sources said several CWC members at the meeting asked the party-led United Progressive Alliance government to take immediate steps to check price rise.

They demanded an increase in subsidised cooking gas cylinders from nine to 12 for each household.

They said the concerns were targeted at Petroleum Minister M. Veerapa Moily, Finance Minister P. Chidambaram and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who were all present at the meeting.

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News Network
March 18,2020

New Delhi, Mar 18: As many as 276 Indians have been infected with coronavirus abroad, including 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE and five in Italy, the government informed the Lok Sabha on Wednesday.

In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha, Minister of State for External Affairs V Muraleedharan said the total number of Indians infected by coronavirus is 276 — 255 in Iran, 12 in UAE, five in Italy, and one each in Hong Kong, Kuwait, Rwanda and Sri Lanka.

A fourth batch of 53 Indians returned to India from Iran on Monday, taking the total number of people evacuated from the coronavirus-hit country to 389.

Iran is one of the worst-affected countries by the coronavirus outbreak and the government has been working to bring back Indians stranded there. Over 700 people have died from the disease in Iran and nearly 14,000 cases detected.

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News Network
August 7,2020

Idukki, Aug 7: Several people lost their lives and dozens of tea estate workers are feared trapped under soil in Kerala’s Munnar after torrential rains triggered a massive landslide on today. 

As many as five bodies have been recovered and rescue workers are fighting inclement weather to remove the debris.

According to rescue workers, four lanes of quarters and a church are buried under mud and around 80 people are feared trapped.

Seven people have been rescued so far and shifted to the hospital.

Sources said a portion of Pettimudi came crashing down on the workers colony with a deafening roar in the wee hours of Friday.

As people were sleeping in the quarters, there was little time to escape.

Further, with the Periyavara bridge being washed away, it became all the more difficult for rescue workers to reach the spot.

The construction of a new temporary Periyavara bridge however, is underway.

The bridge was previously destructed during the deluge of August 2018. Later during the north west monsoons and the south west monsoon of 2019, it suffered damage again.

The present bridge, which got damaged on Thursday after Kannimala river levels rose, was constructed under the leadership of Coir fed.

Although a new concrete bridge has been constructed near the temporary bridge in Periyavara, vehicle  movement has not been possible because the authorities are yet to build its approach via road.

The new bridge is to be constructed at a cost of Rs 4.75 crore from Devikulam MLA S Rajendran's fund.

The entire area has been cut off from outside world and communication networks have also crashed.

Teams of Fire and Rescue personnel, NDRF, revenue officials, estate workers and police are struggling to conduct rescue operations.

Meanwhile, District collector H Dhineshan said a team of rescue personnel was sent to Pettymudy after he was briefed about the mishap and search operations to locate and rescue people are underway.

Facilities have been arranged at the hospitals nearby to provide necessary treatment facilities to the people being rescued.

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News Network
February 22,2020

New Delhi, Feb 22: China is delaying grant of clearance to India's proposal to send an Indian Air Force flight to carry relief material for people affected by coronavirus in the neighbouring country and bring back Indians from its city of Wuhan, official sources said Saturday.

India was to send a C-17 military transport aircraft to Wuhan, the epicentre of the coronavirus outbreak, on February 20 but the plane could not take off as permission was not granted for the flight.

"China is deliberately delaying grant of clearance for the evacuation flight," a high-level source said.

The aircraft was to carry a large consignment of medical supplies to China and bring back more Indians from Wuhan.

Sources said the Chinese side continued to maintain that there was no delay in granting permission for the flight to go, but "inexplicably" the clearance has not been given.

In a letter to President Xi Jinping earlier this month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi conveyed India's solidarity to the people and government of China in meeting the challenge of the coronavirus outbreak and offered to provide assistance to the country.

India then put together relief supplies in pursuance of Modi's commitment as a token of India's solidarity, particularly in the 70th year of the anniversary of diplomatic relations between the two countries.

"These supplies have been offered even as India faces tremendous shortage itself, given our ethos of helping others in their hour of need," said a source aware of the issue.

The items being supplied are gloves, surgical masks, feeding pumps and defibrillators based on the requirements as indicated by the Chinese side.

India's national carrier Air India has already evacuated around 640 Indians from Wuhan in two separate flights.

According to estimates, over 100 Indians are still living in Wuhan. A sizeable number of countries have evacuated their citizens from China and restricted movement of people and goods to and from the country in view of the massive outbreak of coronavirus there.

Indian nationals in Wuhan continue their long wait for the flight. The delay is causing them and their family members in India tremendous mental anguish, said the sources.

They said relief and evacuation flights from other countries including by France are allowed to operate by China but the permission has not come through in India's case.

"Are they not interested in Indian aid provided as our token of support? Why are they creating roadblock in evacuating our nationals from Wuhan and putting them under hardship and mental agony?" said a person aware of the issue.

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