News Analysis India

Tag: Bengal

  • Bypolls in Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Maharashtra announced

    By IANS

    NEW DELHI: The Election Commission on Saturday announced that by-elections in the states of West Bengal, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and Maharashtra will be held on April 12.

    “The Commission has decided to hold the by-election to fill vacancies in the states of West Bengal – Asansol (Parliamentary Constituency) and Ballygunge, Chhattisgarh – Khairagarh, Bihar – Bochahan (SC) and Maharashtra – Kolhapur North,” the Election Commission said.

    According to the EC, the date of issuing gazette notification is March 17 and the last date of nominations is March 24. The last date of scrutiny of nomination is March 25 and the candidature can be withdrawn till March 28.

    The date of polling will be April 12 and the votes will be counted on April 16, Saturday.

    “The Model Code of Conduct shall come into force with immediate effect in the district(s) in which the whole or any part of the Assembly constituency going for election is included,” the EC said.

    The Commission said it has decided to use EVMs and VVPATs in the by-elections in all the polling stations. Adequate numbers of EVMs and VVPATs have been made available and all steps have been taken to ensure that the polls are conducted smoothly with the help of these machines.

    Electoral Photo Identity Card (EPIC) shall be the main document of identification of a voter. However, Aadhaar Card, MNREGA Job Card, Passbooks with photograph issued by Bank/Post Office, Health Insurance Smart Card issued under the scheme of Ministry of Labour, Driving License, PAN Card, Smart Card issued by RGI under NPR, Indian Passport, Pension document with photograph, Service Identity Cards with photograph issued to employees by Central/State Govt/PSUs/Public Limited Companies, Official identity cards issued to MPs/MLAs/MLCs and Unique Disability ID (UDID) Card, can also be shown at the polling station.

  • TMC names Bengal Minister Manas Bhunia as its Meghalaya in-charge, another senior leader to look after Tripura unit

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The TMC, which is trying to cement its base in the northeast, on Monday tasked three of its senior leaders with the responsibility of managing the party’s affairs in two states.

    In a statement, the party said that MLA and senior cabinet minister Manas Bhunia has been appointed as the in-charge of its Meghalaya unit with immediate effect.

    TMC-controlled Bidhannagar Municipal Corporation chairman Sabyasachi Dutta was named the co-in charge of the Meghalaya unit.

    Dutta, who had switched over to the BJP from the TMC in 2019, rejoined the Mamata Banerjee-led camp after the 2021 assembly elections.

    Another state-level leader and former minister Rajib Banerjee, who had unsuccessfully contested the last assembly polls on a BJP ticket and returned to the TMC after the party’s thumping victory, has been named as the state in-charge of TMC Tripura unit, the statement added.

    In a massive jolt to the opposition Congress in Meghalaya, 12 of its 17 MLAs, led by former chief minister Mukul Sangma, joined the TMC last November.

    The party had also been trying to gain foothold in Goa, where elections were held last month, and the results would be announced on March 10.

    Several senior Congress leaders, including former chief minister Luizinho Faleiro, joined the TMC in the western state ahead of the assembly polls there.

  • BJP demands countermanding of polls in 3 Bengal civic bodies which TMC won sans contest

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: The BJP on Thursday urged the State Election Commission to countermand elections to three municipalities in West Bengal which the ruling Trinamool Congress won without any contest.

    The TMC was declared winner in Sainthia and Budge Budge municipalities on Wednesday, and in Dinhata on Thursday.

    Elections to 108 municipalities in the state are scheduled to be held on February 27.

    Leader of Opposition Suvendu Adhikari told reporters after meeting senior SEC officials that the BJP wants the polls to the three civic bodies be countermanded due to “intimidation and threat to BJP candidates, and acts of physically preventing them from filing nomination papers”.

    “We have told SEC Sourav Das and commission secretary N Shandilya that what happened in the three civic bodies was nothing short of mockery of democracy. If the ruling party can hold up the municipal elections for about two years, why can’t elections be deferred in these three civic bodies by another six months?” he said.

    Adhikari said the BJP will launch an agitation if the demand was not met.

    The BJP leader also demanded the deployment of central armed paramilitary forces in elections to four municipal corporations of Bidhannagar, Siliguri, Chandernagore and Asansol on February 12.

    “The MHA will despatch consignments of central forces in a 24-hour notice. Let the SEC being an autonomous body take a decision to ensure free and fair polls. Let the central forces be also deployed in the February 27 polls in 108 municipalities,” he said.

    The TMC won 13 of the 16 wards of Sainthia municipality, 12 of the 20 wards in Budge Budge, and 13 of the 16 wards in Sainthia uncontested.

    Reacting to Adhikari’s demand, TMC spokesperson Kunal Ghosh said, “Who is Suvendu Adhikari to ask for countermanding the municipal polls? Does he expect the SEC to dance to his tunes?” Dinhata’s TMC MLA Udayan Guha denied the BJP allegations.

    “It is the BJP which had unleashed a reign of terror in Coochbehar during the last assembly and Lok Sabha elections. But now people are turning against them. The BJP is not finding people to contest in Dinhata, and the Congress and CPI(M) have long been decimated,” he said.

  • Infighting within Bengal BJP spreads to another stronghold

    Express News Service

    KOLKATA: Infighting within the Bengal BJP has spread to Junglemahal from the Matua-dominated pockets — both strongholds of the saffron party — as five party MLAs from Purulia district have written to BJP national president JP Nadda urging him to change the district presidents who were elevated in the recent rejig. Two MLAs from adjoining Bankura district, too, have made the same request.

    Sources in the BJP said the MLAs individually wrote to Nadda expressing their discontent on the issue of inducting new faces in the party hierarchy.

    “Many of them also left the social media group of the party,” said a BJP leader.

    The saffron camp’s deep inroads in Bengal first came to light in Junglemahal, which was earlier a Maoist stronghold and had turned into TMC’s bastion after the change of guard in the state in 2011, after the local body polls in 2018. 

    “The discontent among the MLAs from Junglemahal is significant because it is the only region, other than the Matua stronghold, where the party performed better in the last year’s Assembly elections. The back-to-back rebellion in the backward region may prove to be a double whammy for the party,” admitted a BJP leader.  

    A dissident MLA said he has sought “respect to old functionaries”.

    “At the same time, we have also requested to give opportunities to newcomers, instead of turncoats,” he said.  

    “Many leaders, who were axed from the party hierarchy in the recent reshuffle, have expressed their discontent publicly,” the legislator from Junglemahal region added.

  • Mosque loudspeaker reunites victim of Bengal train derailment with family in Assam

    By PTI

    GUWAHATI: A man, injured in the train derailment in West Bengal, was reunited with his family in Assam on Friday with the help of the loudspeakers at a mosque that are used for namaz.

    Safikul Ali, a resident of Dhula in Assam’s Darrang district, was among those injured in the Bikaner-Guwahati Express train derailment in the neighbouring state’s Jalpaiguri district on Thursday.

    Having narrowly escaped the accident that claimed nine lives, Ali was undergoing treatment at the Super Specialty Hospital in Jalpaiguri, where Railway Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw visited the injured on Friday.

    “While enquiring about Ali’s wellbeing, the minister learnt that he was unable to contact his family as neither does he nor his family members has a mobile phone,” a Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) official told PTI.

    Ali said he had the phone number of a neighbour, and Vaishnaw immediately got him connected with that person, the official said.

    But, the neighbour could not find Ali’s family at home, nor did a postman arranged by the minister could track them down, he added.

    After efforts to contact the family failed, an announcement was made from the village mosque through the loudspeakers used for namaaz, the official said.

    Following this, the family learnt about Ali’s condition and got in touch with the railway authorities.

    Ali’s elder brother is now on the way to Jalpaiguri, he added.

    At least nine people were killed and 36 others injured when 12 coaches of the train derailed near Domohani in Jalpaiguri district on Thursday.

  • Cyclone Jawad: Rain lashes Odisha, West Bengal; more in store for next two days

    By PTI

    BHUBANESWAR/KOLKATA: Heavy rain pounded the southern part of West Bengal and coastal region of Odisha on Sunday affecting normal life, as cyclone Jawad weakened into a depression, the Met department said.

    The cyclonic storm is likely to further weaken into a well-marked low-pressure area during next 12 hours, as a result of which several districts of south Bengal may receive heavy rain till Tuesday morning.

    Heavy rain affected functioning of Paradip port in Odisha while reports of crop loss is received from different parts of the state, an official said.

    The West Bengal government has stopped ferry services on the Hooghly river, evacuated people from coastal areas and urged tourists not to visit seaside resorts.

    A trawler sank during anchoring in coastal South 24 Parganas but no casualty was reported, an official said.

    Fishermen have been asked not to venture into the westcentral and northwest Bay of Bengal, and along and off Andhra Pradesh, Odisha and West Bengal coasts during the next 24 hours.

    “The Depression (remnant of cyclonic storm Jawad) over northwest Bay of Bengal near Odisha coast moved northeastwards with a speed of 25 kmph during past 6 hours, and lay centred at 5.30 pm over northwest Bay of Bengal close to Odisha coast about 30 km southeast of Paradip (Odisha), 120 km east-northeast of Puri (Odisha) and 210 south-southwest of Sagar Island (West Bengal),” the IMD said in its bulletin at 8 pm.

    The coastal districts of Odisha were soaked as the remnants of cyclone Jawad reached Puri coast in the afternoon before taking a re-curve in north-northeast direction and reaching Paradip.

    Later the system further progressed towards West Bengal coast.

    As the system reached near Puri, devotees and several organisations in the town started prayer seeking blessings of Lord Jagannath to save the state.

    South Bengal districts such as North and South 24 Parganas, Purba and Paschim Medinipur, Jhargram, Kolkata, Hooghly, Birbhum, Bankura and Nadia received heavy rain of varied intensity on Sunday.

    The weatherman said the districts of North 24 Parganas, Nadia and Murshidabad are likely to witness heavy rain till Tuesday morning.

    Squally wind with speed reaching 40 to 50 kilometres per hour gusting to 60 kmph is also likely along and off the West Bengal coast till Monday afternoon.

    During its northward journey, the depression caused heavy rainfall across Odisha while the districts of Ganjam, Puri, Khurda, Jagatsinghpur and Kendrapara suffered the burnt of the rain fury, affecting normal life.

    The highest rainfall of 201 mm was recorded in Paradip between 2.30 pm to 3.30 pm, disrupting loading and unloading of goods at the port.

    Jagatsinghpur received an average of 100 mm rainfall.

    While Paradip got 201 mm of rain, it was followed by Erasama (where the 1999 super cyclone made landfall) with 188 mm, Balikuda (130 mm), Nuagaon (123 mm), Kujang (114 mm) and Jagatsinghpur (66 mm).

    The Regional Meteorological Centre in Bhubaneswar issued a heavy rainfall alert for 14 districts in the state in the next 12 hours.

    The Met office said Kolkata, where the sky has been overcast since Saturday with intermittent rainfall, received 5.5 mm rain in 24 hours till 8.30 am on Sunday.

    Digha recorded 19.7 mm rain, while Midnapore got 16 mm and Kalaikunda 15 mm rain during the same period, it said.

    A rise in water level was witnessed at various embankments, ponds and water bodies in southern Bengal.

    The state administration had asked tourists not to visit seaside resorts such as Digha, Mandarmani, Bakkhali, Frazerganj and other coastal areas on the weekend.

    However, with the MeT department forecasting that there will not be a cyclonic storm in West Bengal, tourists were seen wading into waters and taking photographs of the choppy sea in Digha in Purba Medinipur district and Bakkhali in South 24 Parganas, ignoring the warnings of disaster management personnel camping there.

    An official said regular ferry services on Hooghly connecting North 24 Parganas and Hooghly districts had been suspended.

    The West Bengal government has evacuated 24,375 people from coastal areas of South 24 Parganas and Purba Medinipur and opened 82 relief centres in the two districts.

    The administration has also opened 115 multipurpose cyclone shelters and 135 additional temporary relief shelters to deal with any “emergency-like situation”, an official said.

    “We have kept everything ready to face any problem due to heavy rain in the next couple of days. Weekly offs and other holidays of all staffers have been cancelled,” he said.

    Nineteen National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been deployed in West Bengal and quick response teams of the state power and public works departments and West Bengal State Electricity Distribution Company (WBSEDCL) have been posted at crucial points, the official said.

    While almost all fishermen have returned to Kakdwip, Digha and other coastal areas, the authorities are coordinating with fishermen associations to find out if anyone is still in the deep sea.

    One trawler sank during anchoring at Kakdwip in South 24 Parganas district.

    However, no casualty was reported.

    Damage to crop, animal and fisheries following the incident is being assessed, an official said.

    Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee is constantly monitoring the situation and officials of the municipal bodies are on guard, state minister Firhad Hakim said.

    In the last two years, West Bengal has witnessed three devastating cyclones — Bulbul in November 2019, Amphan in May 2020 and Yaas in May 2021 – that left behind a trail of death and destruction.

  • BJP’s best yet to come; very few parallels in Indian politics to party’s growth in Bengal: JP Nadda

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Setting the tone for upcoming assembly elections in five states, BJP president JP Nadda on Sunday set targets to further strengthen the party’s organisation and asserted that its best is yet to come.

    Addressing the party’s national executive, Nadda also reached out to Sikhs, who are in majority in poll-bound Punjab, by listing a number of measures the Modi government has taken for the community, including expediting action against 1984 riots accused, facilitating foreign grants to gurudwaras and keeping langars outside the review of the Goods and Services Tax.

    Briefing reporters about the meeting, Union Minister Dharmendra Pradhan said the executive hailed Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s effective leadership during the Covid pandemic, 100 crore vaccinations and providing free food grains to 80 crore poor people.

    He said that Nadda noted that this is the largest food programme in human history.

    On BJP’s growth in West Bengal, Pradhan quoting Nadda said if one looks at its growth in the state from the political science perspective, then there will be very few parallels of it in Indian political history.

    According to Pradhan, Nadda said that if one looks at the BJP’s vote share in the 2014 assembly elections and the 2016 assembly elections in West Bengal, and compares them with the 2019 Lok Sabha polls and 2021 assembly polls, it shows substantial growth of the BJP in the state.

    Setting new organisation targets for the BJP’s expansion, Nadda said the party will constitute booth level committees at all 10.40 lakh polling stations by December 25 this year and have “panna committees”, in reference to each page of voters’ list by April 6.

    Citing the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan, Pradhan said the executive lauded Modi for his foresight of enacting the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, which aims at providing citizenship to minorities in some neighbouring countries, including Pakistan and Afghanistan.

    Following Nadda’s speech, the chief minister of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Yogi Adityanath, tabled the BJP’s resolution, touching various landmark initiatives taken by the Modi government.

    Sharing the details of the resolution, Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said the resolution specifically mentions that “we shall ensure the party’s victory in upcoming assembly elections”.

    There is positive, energetic and unconditional support from the national executive to ensure the party’s victory in upcoming assembly elections, she said.

    The resolution condemned the opposition’s “opportunistic” politics and its attempts to create fear during the pandemic.

    BJP national general secretary Tarun Chugh read out the condolence resolution.

    Prime Minister Modi will address the valedictory session of the meet.

    The BJP’s national executive meeting, which should be normally held once in three months according to the party’s constitution, is being held for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

    The party’s national office-bearers, its national executive members from the national capital and Union ministers will be physically present in the meeting, while the chief ministers of states where the party is in power and national executive members from these states will virtually attend the meeting.

    At the NDMC Convention Centre, the meeting venue, musicians from across the country played traditional instruments to greet those attending the meet.

    Prime Minister Modi while entering the venue met women, who in their traditional Chath attire and singing songs praising the Sun god, performed puja and rituals.

    Chath will be performed in many parts of the country, especially in eastern parts of poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and Jharkhand on November 10.

  • Bengal doctors write to Mandaviya for COVID booster dose

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: A doctors’ forum in West Bengal wrote to Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday requesting quick roll out of a booster dose programme for front line warriors fighting COVID-19 expressing apprehension that the efficacy of the two jabs which are being administered now will “not go further over time”.

    The West Bengal Doctors Forum (WBDF) in its two-page letter to Mandaviya cited studies stating that administration of booster doses is an effective measure to prevent COVID infection by maintaining the vaccine efficacy.

    “We are all aware that efficacy of vaccines goes no further over time and due to that numerous healthcare workers may contract the disease in their dutyline. There are studies which say that the administration of booster dose will be an effective measure to prevent COVID infection by maintaining the vaccine efficacy,” Rajib Pandey and Punyabrata Gun of the Forum said in the communication.

    “At present, the number of active COVID cases in our country is low and under this circumstance on behalf of medical fraternity, we appeal to you and your good office to issue an early advisory to commence the booster dose vaccination programme for COVID-19 for all healthcare workers and frontline warriors as early as possible,” the letter read.

    Relentless services are being provided by innumerable doctors, nurses and other healthcare personnel as well as by frontline workers like the police, the missive said and pressed for prompt compensation to the kin of the members of the medical fraternity who have died fighting COVID-19 without any delay”.

    “We do not know how many warriors will lay their lives until an effective prevention and vaccination programme is proactively enforced by the administration. All frontline health workers fought from the front and many of them sacrificed their lives, though their families remain in utter dismay due to the impermissible losses. A prompt compensation for the kin of the deceased members of the medical fraternity without any delay is also the need of the hour,” it said.

    In West Bengal at least 8,06,30,430 doses have been administered till Friday, state health department statistics said.

  • BJP MLA Krishna Kalyani joins TMC, fifth legislator to switch over

    By PTI

    KOLKATA: Raiganj’s BJP MLA Krishna Kalyani joined the Trinamool Congress on Wednesday.

    Kalyani is the fifth BJP legislator in West Bengal to join the TMC after winning the assembly elections earlier this year, in a major setback to the opposition party.

    He is the former North Dinajpur district president of the TMC who joined the BJP ahead of the assembly elections and was fielded from Raiganj.

    Kalyan, who has been at odds for quite some time with former Union minister Debasree Choudhury over running the BJP’s affairs in the North Dinajpur district, was welcomed to the TMC by its secretary-general and senior state minister Partha Chatterjee.

    “No self-respecting person can work freely in the BJP,” Kalyani told reporters at the TMC headquarters here.

    He said he was also upset with the “anti-people policies” of the Centre, which has not taken a single step to check spiralling fuel prices.

    “I was increasingly thinking that I cannot be a part of BJP anymore. If I had not spoken in favour of Mamata Banerjee’s welfare policies before the assembly polls, I had made a mistake that I want to correct now,” he said.

    “If someone wants to do good work as an MLA he is not allowed to do that in the BJP,” he alleged.

    Reacting to the development, BJP state President Sukanta Majumder said Kalyani should explain that how he suddenly “woke up” to the policies of Mamata Banerjee.

    “Kalyani will get a befitting reply from the people of Raiganj in the future,” Majumder said, adding that he joined TMC to serve his personal interest.

    Kalyani had quit the BJP earlier this month but did not resign as an MLA.

    Earlier, BJP’s Krishnanagar Uttar MLA Mukul Roy, Bishnupur MLA Tanmay Ghosh, Bagdah MLA Biswajit Das and Kaliaganj MLA Soumen Roy joined the TMC, besides Asansol MP Babul Supriyo.

    The MLAs are yet to resign from the assembly or to be disqualified under the anti-defection law, while Supriyo has put in the papers.

    BJP had won 77 seats in the assembly elections with two of the legislators — Dinhata MLA Nisith Pramanik and Santipur MLA Jagannath Sarkar — later resigning to retain their MP seats.

    TMC had won 213 seats in the assembly elections in April-May and bagged the Samserganj and Janipur seats earlier this month, taking its tally to 215 in the 294-member House.

  • Death toll due to rainfall rises to 52 in Uttarakhand; rain fury in Uttar Pradesh, Bengal and Sikkim

    By PTI

    NEW DELHI: Six more bodies were recovered on Wednesday in rain-battered Uttarakhand, taking the death toll to 52 in the Himalayan state, while Uttar Pradesh, Sikkim, and areas of north Bengal were also pounded by torrential rainfall that caused landslides and led to closure of National Highway 10, the main road linking Gangtok with the rest of the country.

    Three people were killed and hundreds marooned as heavy rains lashed Uttar Pradesh’s Bareilly and Pilibhit districts over the last two days.

    In Uttarakhand, 17 people were injured and five went missing in rain-related incidents.

    The official count of missing people does not include a trekking team of 11, who left Uttarkashi but did not reach their destination Chitkul in Himachal Pradesh, and three porters who went missing while accompanying an ITBP patrol near the India-China border.

    ALSO READ: Situation still serious in flood-hit Uttarakhand, says Rahul Gandhi

    The Kumaon region of the state, which has been worst affected by the rainfall, also reported cases of 46 houses being damaged.

    With 28 deaths, Nainital alone has accounted for the highest number of fatalities.

    Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami extended his tour of the affected areas of Udham Singh Nagar and Champawat districts in Kumaon to take stock of the situation.

    He travelled by road as his helicopter could not take off from Haldwani due to technical reasons.

    Accompanied by Union Minister of State for Defence and Nainital MP Ajay Bhatt and State Disaster Management Minister Dhan Singh Rawat, Dhami, on board a tractor, crossed vast stretches of marooned fields in Udham Singh Nagar district and assessed the damage to crops.

    ALSO READ: Rain-hit Uttarakhand stares at damages beyond repair

    He also trudged through the streets of Champawat to get a first-hand assessment of the damage inflicted by nearly three days of incessant rains.

    Home Minister Amit Shah is also likely to arrive in the state late on Wednesday night to review the situation.

    He may also undertake an aerial survey of the affected areas on Thursday morning, officials said.

    The weather cleared across Uttarakhand on Wednesday, giving momentum to rescue operations and leading to the partial resumption of the Chardham Yatra, with pilgrims allowed to proceed to Kedarnath, Yamunotri, and Gangotri.

    However, the yatra to Badrinath could not be resumed as the national highway leading to the temple was blocked by landslide at several points.

    ALSO READ: Experts explain what is causing heavy rains that killed dozens in Uttarakhand, Kerala over few days

    Water has receded completely from the streets of Nainital, which was cut off from the rest of the state on Monday, with the Naini lake flooding the roads and landslides choking them at various points.

    Life returned to normal in Nainital on Wednesday morning as tourists were found shopping and taxis plying through the town.

    Electricity and telephone connectivity which had been badly hit in Nainital by incessant rains has been restored.

    Villages on the outskirts of the town are still going without electricity and telephone connectivity.

    Haldwani and Kaladhungi roads have been opened partially to traffic restoring connectivity to Nainital.

    ALSO READ: Uttarakhand government to give Rs 4 lakh to kin of those killed in rain-related incidents

    The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) said it has rescued over 1,300 people from flood-affected areas of Uttarakhand.

    The federal force has deployed 17 rescue teams in the state.

    Torrential rains pounded the tiny Himalayan state of Sikkim and the tea growing region of North Bengal, causing landslides which cut off National Highway-10.

    Normal life in parts of north Bengal was affected due to heavy showers in Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Jalpaiguri districts that triggered landslides, causing damages to roads and bridges, halting or constricting traffic in various places.

    As the downpour continued, 3,800 cusec water was released from Bengal’s Gajaoldoba Teesta Barrage, causing inundation in several parts of the low lying town of Jalpaiguri.

    ALSO READ: Over 300 people rescued from flood-affected Uttarakhand – NDRF

    Water from the overflowing Teesta also submerged National Highway 10 that connects Siliguri with Sikkim’s capital Gangtok at Teesta Bazar area, restricting traffic.

    The Meteorological Department issued a ‘red’ alert for Darjeeling, Kalimpong and Alipurduar, forecasting “extremely heavy rain at one or two places” in these districts till Thursday morning.

    Jalpaiguri and Cooch Behar are likely to receive heavy to very heavy rain during the period, it said.

    Several low-lying areas in Jalpaiguri district have been flooded owing to a rise in the water level of Teesta and Jaldhaka rivers.

    People from these areas were being moved to safe places for shelter.

    WATCH VIDEO: River washes away under-construction bridge as rains cause havoc in Uttarakhand

    Minority Affairs Minister Mukhtar Abbas Naqvi on Wednesday visited the flood-affected areas in Uttar Pradesh’s Rampur and distributed relief material among the people.

    Instead of an aerial survey, Naqvi undertook a ground survey and even got on a boat to reach far-flung areas inundated due to the massive rains that have wreaked havoc in adjoining Uttarakhand.

    In Uttar Pradesh, around 500 villagers in Pilibhit are trapped in the flood water of the Sharda river.

    A couple in Bareilly’s Faridpur township and a nine-year-old boy in Ram Nagar area were killed after their houses collapsed because of heavy rains.

    The IMD, which had sounded an orange alert (heavy to very heavy rain) for 11 districts of Kerela on Wednesday withdrew it and changed it to yellow predicting ‘moderate rain’ in these areas.