Millions of devotees, particularly married women, took a dip in the rivers, ponds and makeshift water bodies and offered prayers as the four-day-long Chhath began amidst tight security on Monday in Bihar.
Ten people were killed in various rain-related incidents in Andhra Pradesh as incessant rains lashed the state for the third consecutive day on Thursday.
Babu R was trapped in a mountain gorge without food or water for two days till the Indian Army rescued him in a daring mission.
The depth of water from the surface till the bottom of the pit is expected to be over 150 feet, Navy officials said.
Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa on Tuesday gave away a total sum of Rs 98 lakh as relief to families of 14 persons killed in the June 28 building collapse near suburban Porur.
Choubey, who is union minister of state for Health, was about to board his car, after meeting patients and holding discussions with doctors and hospital officials, when the bottle carrying the ink crashed to the ground close to the vehicle evoking exclamations from those flanking the minister.
It said the authorities were making all efforts to save the lives of these persons and the Indian Navy and planes and helicopters of the Indian Air Force have been deployed in the rescue operation.
Rescuers on Friday found the body of an engineering student who was among the 25 youth who were swept away in gushing waters of the Beas river on June 8 and with this the bodies of 13 students have been recovered so far.
At 11 am on 1 December, the newly constituted National Disaster Management Agency will have its big "coming out" at Gurgaon's plush DT Mall.
At least six people were killed when a three-storey building collapsed in Madhavnagar locality of Baroda.
The dam breach caused a flood-like situation in seven downstream villages, with as many as 12 houses being swept away.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah spoke to Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray through video conference and took stock of the state's preparedness to tackle any eventuality, the latter's office said. 10 units of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been deployed in vulnerable districts, while six others have been kept on a stand-by, officials said.
The building 'Matruchaya', built 35 years ago, collapsed on Tuesday night at Cholve village, following which rescue operations were launched by the National Disaster Response Force, fire brigade officials and civic authorities said on Wednesday.
With normal life thrown out of gear by the region's worst weather disasters, the authorities scrambled in various parts of the state to restore normalcy.
The world organisation said UN humanitarians and partners were working hard to assist the people of Bangladesh and India suffering from the impact of the cyclone, which made landfall on Wednesday, wreaking havoc, causing high tidal surges, flooding and embankments to collapse.
An inquiry has been ordered by the Director General of Mines Safety and a high-level committee of experts has been constituted by Coal India to investigate the causes of the accident.
'Each cyclone has its own identity and its own behaviour based on the environmental conditions in the ocean and in the atmosphere.'
Swirling floodwaters have paralysed normal life and marooned over 1.20 crore people.
The cyclone, according to an IMD report early Sunday, is developing into a severe cyclonic storm over the Bay of Bengal and can potentially become a very severe cyclonic storm in the next 24 hours, S N Pradhan, the chief of NDRF said in New Delhi.
The first batch of police personnel had taken charge of the security on Saturday.
However, the National Disaster Response Force, which has been engaged in the rescue operation since the day of the tragedy on December 13 last, will continue with their services.
Under its impact, rains will start on Sunday night and gradually increase on Monday in the northern districts of Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram, S Balachandran, Director, Area Cyclone Warning Centre, said.
A major fire swept through the parking area, far away from the venue of Asia's premier air show, gutting about 300 cars on Saturday.
The very severe cyclonic storm Nilofar has weakened into a severe cyclonic storm ahead of making landfall at the northern Gujarat coast and adjoining Pakistani coast around Naliya by Thursday night.
Shankar was Director General, Special Security Bureau.
The aircraft C-130J landed in new Delhi with 55 Indian evacuees at around 10.45 pm.
The Indian Navy and the Indian Air Force have deployed six helicopters and one Dornier aircraft to help in rescue operations at the Kerala temple where a fire has left over 90 dead.
"Six bodies have been retrieved from the accident site so far. The rescue teams are still on job," an NDRF spokesperson said.
The death toll in the two high intensity quakes that rattled Bihar on Tuesday rose to 19 on Wednesday, with two more deaths reported from Vaishali and Siwan districts.
Rain-induced flash floods crippled life on Wednesday for the second time in the past four days.
National Disaster Response Force teams and Krishna district authorities have launched a massive search and rescue operation to trace the missing people.
An injured soldier told reporters from the hospital that when the building collapsed, there were 35 army personnel inside it, of whom 30 were Junior Commissioned Officers and five were soldiers.
'Had it collapsed on the railway tracks a major disaster could have occurred if a train arrived at that time'
Three more bodies were recovered from Beas river on Thursday twelve days after 25 persons, including 24 students from a Hyderabad engineering college, were swept away in the river.
States were directed to ensure there is no movement of people across cities or on highways. Only movement of goods should be allowed.
An official order said that Rao, a 1986-batch Indian Police Service officer from Odisha cadre, has been appointed Director General of Fire Services, Civil Defence and Home Guard by 'temporarily downgrading the post' to the level of additional director general.
Nearly 6,000 passengers were stranded as train services on the Konkan Railway route in Maharashtra's Ratnagiri district were suspended on Thursday after a river overflowed following heavy rains, while incessant downpour badly hit road and rail traffic in several parts of the state, including around Mumbai, as authorities called in NDRF to help the administration in rescue efforts.
A search operation was on to trace the missing persons, the SP said.
The bus was carrying 34 staff members of an agriculture university in the Konkan region. It fell into a 500-feet deep gorge at Ambenali Ghat near Poladpur town, District Collector Vijay Suryawanshi said.
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