Rains wreak havoc in Makkah, Hail

[email protected] (Arab News)
May 10, 2014

Makkah_HailMakkah/Hail, May 10: Floods caused by torrential rain swept through parts of Makkah and Hail on Thursday killing two people and injuring several others.

The flooding also caused power cuts and damaged hundreds of cars across Makkah neighborhoods, according to eyewitnesses.

Thousands of Umrah pilgrims were stranded inside the Grand Mosque after Maghrib, many only able to reach their accommodation after midnight, according to eyewitnesses. Worshippers prayed Isha in the heavy rain.

The Civil Defense in Hail said five brothers driving in a four-wheel-drive vehicle tried to cross the flooded Al-Khafj Valley. The force of the water overturned their vehicle.

Maj. Nafea bin Alian Al-Makhalafa, media spokesperson of the Civil Defense in Hail, said that one brother had rescued three of his brothers. The fifth brother was trapped inside the vehicle and drowned.

Brig. Col. Saleh Al-Alyani, spokesperson for the Civil Defense in Makkah, said an African expatriate died in Mansour district when a tree fell on him. The police are investigating, he said.

Al-Alyani said the organization's operations room received 1,356 emergency calls, mostly about cars caught up in the floods, falling trees and power cuts. A special operations room has been set up in Makkah to monitor the situation and coordinate relief and evacuation efforts, he said.

The Civil Defense deployed helicopters, 23 patrols and 16 rescue teams with heavy machinery for emergency operations. It also sent 32 officers and six staff members on motorbikes to the Grand Mosque to assist pilgrims.

The Saudi Electricity Company said its engineers and technicians were monitoring the situation in Makkah.

Mohammed Abdul Raheem, a pilgrim, said. “It was extremely pleasurable to perform Tawaf amid the heavy rain and thunder.”

The courtyards of the Grand Mosque were deserted. This included the area popular with pilgrims outside King Abdulaziz Gate. There was not a single person sitting or sleeping there, said Mohammed Akbar Abubaker, who works and lives opposite the Grand Mosque in Makkah. He told Arab News that the rainfall was unusual for this time of the year.

Part of the roof of a leading hypermarket inside the Makkah Mall collapsed but no one was hurt, according to eyewitness Mohammed Hammed. He told Arab News that his friend's car was swept away by floodwaters at Souk Hijaz shopping mall on Jeddah Road.

The flooding also damaged hundreds of cars in other parts of Makkah including Sharayah, Aziziyah, Misfalah, and Otaibiah, according to residents of these areas who spoke over the phone.

The Jeddah-Makkah Expressway was briefly closed on Thursday night because of the flooding. The highway to Riyadh near Hada Mountain remained closed on Friday as a precautionary measure.

The Civil Defense warned that there was a possibility of more rain, thunder and lightning across Makkah, Jeddah and Hail, and urged the public to be alert.

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News Network
February 6,2020

New Delhi, Feb 6: BJP MP Tejaswi Surya said on Wednesday that the majority community has to remain vigilant or Mughal rule will return to the country, as he slammed the anti-CAA protest at Shaheen Bagh.

He was participating in the debate on Motion of Thanks on the President's Address in Lok Sabha.

Referring to the ongoing protest at Shaheen Bagh against the Citizenship Amendment Act, he said, "Unless majority community remains vigilant, the days of Mughal Raj may not be far away."

Surya also praised Prime Minister Narendra Modi for resolving several critical issues which had been pending for several decades.

The CAA, he said, was aimed at resolving the issues emanating from Partition and added, "The new India cannot to built without healing the wounds of the past."

He said that the CAA was about giving citizenship to persecuted minorities in Pakistan, Bangaladesh and Afghanistan and not for taking away anyone's citizenship.

Under the leadership of Modi, Surya said, several issues of the past have seen closure. These include abrogation of Article 370, construction of Ram temple, Bodo problems and abolition of Triple Talaq.

K Sudhakaran (Cong) said that a time when the economy was going through its worst phase and unemployment was high, the President in his speech talked about making India a USD 5 trillion economy by 2024.

On the comments of the government functionaries that fundamentals of the economy are strong, he said the same expression was used by the then US President George Bush, days before the collapse of the America's iconic investment banker Lehman Brothers.

Not only that, Sudhakaran said even before the Great Depression, the then US President used to say that fundamentals of their economy were strong.

Anupriya Patel (Apna Dal) demanded that the government set up All India Judicial Services Commission to ensure representation of the backward community in the judiciary.

Khagen Murmu (BJP) regretted that West Bengal government was not implementing the welfare schemes of the Centre in the state.

Badruddin Ajmal (AIUDF) said that people of all communities have fought for freedom of the country and it would be incorrect to declare everyone opposing the government's policies as 'gaddar' (traitor).

He said that the government should talk to people protesting against the CAA at Shaheen Bagh and other places, and explain the provisions to them.

Shrirang Appa Barne (Shiv Sena) demanded that the ruling party fulfil all promises it had made to the people of the country.

He regretted that although the government promised to double the income of farmers by 2022, farmers were still committing suicide.

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News Network
March 12,2020

Bengaluru, Mar 12: Karnataka on Thursday confirmed another positive case of the deadly coronavirus, taking the total number of infected persons to five in the state.

According to a source from the State Health Department, the infected person, a 26-year-old patient had recently returned from Greece. He is currently under observation in an isolation ward in a city hospital.

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News Network
February 7,2020

Bengaluru, Feb 7: The Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) ordered the destruction of a tilted building in the city after evacuating about 150 people from 35 families in the vicinity, an official said on Thursday.

"The top portion of the building has been destroyed 70 per cent today (Thursday). Later, the destruction contractor will allow machines to be used," Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) Yelahanka joint commissioner Ashok said.

Located on Vinayaknagar Street in Hebbal's Kempapura, the five-storey building being used as a hostel for boys got tilted on Wednesday morning, spreading panic in the neighbourhood.

Though the tilted building owned by one Rahul, a jeweller, was a sound structure, Ashok said a neighbour, Babu, hired a JCB excavator to dig deep beside the affected structure to build his own structure.

"Babu not only dug very deep but also damaged the foundation pillar of the tilted building, weakening the structure and leading to its slant," said Ashok.

Babu has been booked and arrested even as the police are on the look-out for the JCB owner and operator.

The titled building erected five floors unauthorisedly and falls into the B Khata category. It was constructed without the civic body's plan, said Ashok. 

A Khata and B Khata denote the two types of khatas that exist under BBMP. Khata is a document which shows a property owner having an account with the municipality to pay taxes. An A Khata denotes that the building owner has paid relevant property taxes and that the building conforms to building bylaws and government rules. A B Khata denotes that the building is in violation of government regulations regarding properties in Bengaluru, even when the civic charges for the property have been cleared by the owner.

"As per procedure, we issue notice, but such constructions are rampant in the city. Under the BBMP jurisdiction, there are 15 lakh B Khata structures," said Ashok.

For all B Khata sites, the civic body does not give any plan and there is no proper control on them, he said.

Ashok said the case to regularise the B Khata buildings to A Khata buildings is currently pending in the Supreme Court.

Luckily, no injury or loss of life has been reported from the tilted building.

The civic body arranged alternative accommodation for the affected families, but most of them chose to stay with their relatives, said Ashok.

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