The administration is geared up for more showers as the India meteorological department has warned of heavy to very heavy rains with isolated extremely heavy rains in several districts of the state till Thursday morning.
Gokhale on December 1 tweeted a news clipping about information purportedly obtained through the Right to Information claiming that Prime Minister Narendra Modi's visit to Morbi after the bridge collapse cost Rs 30 crore.
The more than a century-old bridge in Morbi caved on Sunday when it was crammed with people.
The game zone had fire safety equipment but action taken to control the fire was not sufficient, leading to the tragedy on Saturday, a senior police officer said on Sunday, a day after the tragedy.
According to media reports, around 500 people were on the suspension bridge when it caved in.
When the Bharatiya Janata Party's Mukesh Dalal was declared elected unopposed to the Lok Sabha from Surat on Monday, he became the first candidate to achieve the feat from Gujarat since its formation 64 years ago though the erstwhile state of Saurashtra saw a similar instance in 1951.
The cyclone will make a landfall at around 9:00 pm to 10:00 pm on Thursday
Some youths started shaking the bridge intentionally, making it difficult for people to walk.
There was a rush of people on the bridge, which was reopened for the public just four days ago following the renovation work, when it snapped around 6.30 pm, officials said.
The prime minister further alleged that the work of Congress while in power was mere pretentiousness.
It will also be the third cyclone to hit the western state in June since 1965, the meteorological office said.
The Gujarat high court on Monday refused regular bail to Trinamool Congress (TMC) spokesperson Saket Gokhale in a case related to alleged misuse of money collected through crowd-funding.
The rains were being caused due to a cyclonic circulation lying over north east Arabian sea and adjoining Saurashtra and Kutch regions, the IMD said in its bulletin.
One of the teams rescued two lion cubs that had fallen into an open well in Jasadhar Range of Gir East division during the cyclone's landfall on Thursday evening, the official said.
The statue is the second of the four statues being built in the four directions across the country.
Officials in coastal Devbhumi Dwarka said around 1,300 people have been shifted to safer places so far.
Corporate margins and profits in India remain vulnerable to changes in crude oil prices in the international market. Historical quarterly data from listed companies (excluding banks, finance and insurance, oil and gas, and power sectors) indicate an adverse correlation between corporate margins and crude oil prices.
The India Meteorological Department has said that the landfall process of Cyclone 'Biparjoy' has started in Saurashtra and Kutch regions of Gujarat. The landfall process will carry on till midnight with wind speeds reaching a maximum of 140 kilometres per hour, the IMD said.
A total of 788 candidates are in the fray in the first phase of the elections on 89 seats spread across 19 districts of South Gujarat and Kutch-Saurashtra regions.
The Opposition party also sought financial and medical assistance from the government to all those affected.
The very severe cyclonic storm 'Biparjoy' intensified into an 'extremely severe cyclonic storm' and is likely to cross Saurashtra-Kutch and adjoining Pakistan coasts around the afternoon of June 15 as a 'very severe cyclonic storm (VSCS)', the India Meteorological Department said on Sunday.
Gujarat has registered a voter turnout of 64.33 per cent for the recently-concluded elections to 182 assembly seats, a drop of more than 4 per cent as compared to the turnout registered in the 2017 polls.
The cyclone is expected to make landfall on Thursday evening as a 'very severe cyclonic storm' with maximum wind speed reaching up to 150 kilometres per hour, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) said.
Heavy waterlogging was witnessed in several towns and cities, while roads were closed in rural areas on Friday morning due a heavy spell.
The state government has begun preparations to deal with the fallout of the cyclone as it will bring very strong wind and heavy rainfall in the region, officials said.
A total of 33 teams have been earmarked by the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to undertake relief and rescue operations in Gujarat and Maharashtra ahead of the expected landfall of cyclone 'Biparjoy' near the Jakhau port in Kutch district, officials said on Wednesday.
Stocks of the country's bigger tile and ceramic makers were major gainers over the past week. The leaders in this space -- Kajaria Ceramics and Cera Sanitaryware -- were up 7 per cent each. In the past three months, Kajaria Ceramics and Somany Ceramics were up 29-32 per cent, while Cera Sanitaryware gained 22 per cent.
Apart from 15 teams of the National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) and 12 teams of State Disaster Response Force (SDRF), personnel of the Army, Navy, Air Force, Indian Coast Guard and Border Security Force (BSF) are deployed for relief and rescue operations, officials said.
Cyclone Biparjoy has left a trail of destruction in Gujarat's Kutch and Saurashtra regions as some 1,000 villages are still without power with hundreds of electric poles getting damaged, while several coastal villages were flooded due to heavy rains and incoming seawater, officials said on Friday, a day after the storm made landfall.
The recent bridge collapse in Morbi in which 135 people were killed may have an impact on BJP's electoral fortunes.
A reference to Morbi bridge collapse of Gujarat was on Friday made inside the Bihar assembly by Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who alleged that states not ruled by Bharatiya Janata Party got an unfair portrayal in the media.
The WR is taking various measures including setting up disaster management rooms, help desks, and keeping relief trains ready.
The BJP has done extremely well in the Patidar-dominated constituencies of the state, winning almost every seat that has significant Patel population.
The Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) had decided to pull down the Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj flyover constructed by the AEIPL in the city's Hatkeshwar locality at a cost of Rs 44 crore and commissioned in 2017.
'The biggest problem that faces the Opposition in Gujarat is just a day or two before voting is scheduled, Modiji goes on a spree of emotional appeals.' 'That process has been set in motion much earlier this time in Gujarat.'
The Congress had won 77 seats in the 2017 assembly elections. Of these 77 legislators, as many as 20 resigned during the past five years, with three quitting in the last two days alone.
='The Gujarat results show a wide chasm between the issues facing the common people and the way the BJP engineers electoral successes.'
'I saw people hanging on to the bridge and later falling into the water as their grip loosened and they slipped into the water.'
The DG said the maximum of four teams of the NDRF have been positioned in Kutch district and the Gujarat government has done an in-depth evacuation exercise as part of which fishing boats have been anchored, big ships have been sent to the high seas so that they are not affected by the tidal waves, more than 4,000 hoarding have been taken down so that they don't become deadly flying objects as strong winds blow.
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