Floods swamp eastern India, 1.3 million displaced

June 30, 2012

Flood_Swamp

Guwahati, June 30: India: Torrential monsoon rains triggered floods which swamped villages in eastern India and forced at least 1.3 million people to leave their homes for higher ground, officials said yesterday.

The death toll from flood-related accidents in worst-hit Assam rose to 31 with five more deaths reported overnight from the northeastern state, regional Agriculture Minister Nilamoni Sen Deka told AFP.

An estimated 1.3 million people have been displaced from their homes due to the flooding, Deka said in Guwahati, Assam’s largest city.

“We have opened makeshift relief camps for the displaced,” he said as 21 of Assam’s 27 districts faced floods which began last weekend when annual monsoon rains lashed the tea and oil-rich state bordering Bangladesh.

In the adjoining northeastern Indian states of Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur, pounding rains brought flash floods, local officials said by telephone. There were no casualties reported from Arunachal Pradesh, which borders China, and Manipur which is adjacent to Myanmar. “The situation is very critical as floods have destroyed property and crops,” Arunachal Pradesh Chief Minister Nabam Tuki told AFP from capital Itanagar.

In Manipur, state disaster management official A. Singh said major rivers were “flowing menacingly” above danger marks.

“We are taking all precautionary measures to ensure safety of the locals,” Singh said. Authorities were also keeping a close watch on swollen rivers in rain-lashed West Bengal state in eastern India.

“Heavy rains in northern districts of the state have raised concerns of flooding in many areas as most rivers are in spate,” Gautam Dev, a regional minister, told AFP in state capital Kolkata.

In neighboring Bihar state, people fled their homes in two districts as the Kosi river threatened to overflow its banks, officials said. “Flood waters have already entered dozens of villages following incessant rains in catchment areas,” one official said.

The annual monsoon, crucial to India’s food production and economic growth, hit the tropical country earlier in the month.

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Agencies
January 4,2020

New Delhi, Jan 4: In more troubles for the former Finance Minister and senior Congress leader P Chidambaram, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) on Friday questioned him for over six hours in its probe into the Air India aircraft deal case, first time since his release from Tihar jail almost a month ago.

A senior ED official told IANS, "We questioned Chidambaram for over six hours today in the ongoing probe into the Air India deal with Airbus."

According to financial probe agency officials, Air India had planned to buy over 111 aircraft from Airbus and Boeing during the erstwhile United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government in 2009. This is the first time the ED has questioned the senior Congress leader in the Air India deal case.

The questioning of Chidambaram came for the first time since his release from the Tihar jail where he spent 106 days in connection with the INX Media money laundering case. He was released from Tihar on December 4 last year after he was granted bail by the Supreme Court. The former finance minister is also being investigated by the ED in a separate money-laundering cases of Aircel-Maxis deal.

An ED official said the contract to buy 43 aircraft from Airbus was finalised by a panel of ministers headed by Chidambaram in 2009. According to the ED, when the proposal to buy 43 aircraft from Airbus was sent to the Cabinet Committee on Security (CCS), there was a condition that the aircraft manufacturer would have to build training facilities and MRO (Maintenance, Repair and Overhaul) centres at a cost of Rs 70,000 crore. But later, when the purchase order was placed, the clause was removed.

The name of another UPA minister, Praful Patel, had also come up in the alleged scam in a charge sheet filed by the ED against corporate lobbyist Deepak Talwar on March 30 last year. Talwar was arrested last year by the ED after he was deported from the UAE.

The ED is probing the Air India-Indian Airlines merger; purchase of 111 aircraft from Boeing and Airbus at Rs 70,000 crore; ceding profitable routes and schedules to private airlines, and opening of training institutes with foreign investment.

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News Network
March 28,2020

New Delhi, Mar 28: The total number of coronavirus positive cases in the country has risen to 918 that include foreign nationals, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Saturday.

The ministry said: "The total positive cases of coronavirus are 918. The active COVID-19 cases are 819. Cured and discharged are 79. While 19 deaths have occurred so far. One person with COVID-19 migrated. As many as 15,24,266 passengers were screened at airports."

Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday announced a 21-day lockdown in the entire country to deal with the spread of coronavirus, saying that "social distancing" is the only option to deal with the disease, which spreads rapidly.

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News Network
February 26,2020

Feb 26: In his first reaction to incidents of violence in Delhi which have left at least 20 people dead, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday appealed for peace and brotherhood, and said he has held an extensive review of the prevailing situation in various parts of the national capital.

He also said it was important that calm and normalcy was restored at the earliest.

“Had an extensive review on the situation prevailing in various parts of Delhi. Police and other agencies are working on the ground to ensure peace and normalcy,” Modi tweeted.

Stressing that peace and harmony are “central to our ethos”, Modi said, “I appeal to my sisters and brothers of Delhi to maintain peace and brotherhood at all times.”

At least 20 people have been killed since Sunday in communal violence in Northeast Delhi, triggered after clashes between pro and anti-CAA protestors over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act.

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