The government can verify 5 per cent of claims in four states -- Maharashtra, Kerala, Gujarat and Andhra Pradesh -- where the gap between number of claims and recorded deaths was wide, said a bench of Justices M R Shah and B V Nagarathna.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee visited the building collapse site at Azan Molla Lane in the city's western periphery and assured local residents of stern action against illegal construction.
The Delhi government had earlier declared that random testing of coronavirus will be held across airports, railway and bus stations.
Pakistan's army on Thursday used helicopters and boats to rescue thousands of stranded people as the country grapples with the deadliest floods in its history that have killed over 260 people and affected over a million others in Punjab and PoK.
Manual horizontal digging will start soon in addition to the ongoing top-down drilling to rescue the 41 trapped workers in the Silkyara tunnel in Uttarkashi, the NDMA said on Monday.
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.
The Supreme Court Monday said no state should deny the ex-gratia compensation of Rs 50,000, as recommended by National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA), to the kin of persons who died of COVID-19 on the sole ground that death certificate does not mention it as the cause of death.
The Appointments Committee of Cabinet has named Ravneet Kaur, a Punjab cadre IAS officer of 1988 batch, as chairperson of the Competition Commission of India (CCI). Kaur will hold the post for five years or until attaining the age of 65. She is the second woman to serve in an 'economic regulator' role after Madhabi Puri Buch, who was appointed chairperson of the Securities and Exchange Board of India last year and the first woman to head the country's chief national competition regulator.
With a major earthquake measuring 6.8 on the richter scale rocking mountainous state of Sikkim, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on Sunday spoke to its chief minister Pawan Kumar Chamling and offered help in all possible ways, including availability of defence forces.
A bench of Chief Justice DY Chandrachud and Justices PS Narasimha and JB Pardiwala asked petitioner Swami Avimukteshwaranand Saraswati to approach the Uttarakhand high court with his petition.
The fresh batch of evacuees arrived in Bengaluru, a day after 365 people returned from the African country to Delhi.
Boring through the rubble of the collapsed Silkyara tunnel was put on hold again on Thursday apparently after cracks appeared in the platform on which the drilling machine rests, in a fresh hurdle to the rescue of 41 workers trapped inside for 11 days.
The 41 workers trapped in Uttarakhand's Silkyara tunnel for the last 11 days are likely to be rescued in the next few hours or by tomorrow, National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) member Lt Gen (retd) Syed Ata Hasnain said on Thursday evening.
Amid a spike in coronavirus infections in some states, the Delhi government is likely to ask travellers from five states, including Maharashtra, Kerala and Punjab, to show negative COVID-19 test report before entering the national capital, officials said on Wednesday.
The monsoon spelt mayhem in several parts of the country on Monday, particularly Mumbai where local train services and flight operations were hit and everyday life disrupted as well as Assam that was grappling with floods yet again.
Rescuers at the under-construction tunnel collapse site in Uttarkashi on Tuesday initiated the process of inserting large-diameter mild steel pipes through the rubble using an auger machine to rescue the 40 workers trapped for two days now, officials said.
"You cannot have a lockdown of people, and a lockout of the economy. That is not the way to formulate policy. We are not criticising, we are only saying it is time to rethink, we will support the government in every possible way," said Kapil Sibal.
Six hospitals in the national capital have exhausted their oxygen supply while seven others have less than five hours of oxygen left, Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan on Thursday.
A total of 86 metres have to be drilled vertically to prepare an escape passage. Pipes of 1.2 metres in diameter have to be laid vertically through the top of the tunnel on which work began on Sunday as a second option to reach the stranded labourers.
Multiple incidents of landslide, wall and bridge collapse were reported in Thane city and neighbouring Palghar district in Maharashtra which were lashed by heavy rains on Wednesday, officials said.
As many as 400 fishermen from Gujarat are stranded in the Arabian Sea, 40 nautical miles off Daman coast in south Gujarat, due to the cyclonic storm advancing towards the state. Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi, meanwhile, called a review meeting of the state Disaster Management Authority, the revenue department and district administration in view of the impending cyclone and directed the district administration to keep an eye on the changing weather.
'These are people whom very few give importance and they were doing a mammoth job for the nation.'
Rescue operations were underway in three subdivisions of Darjeeling district where multiple landslides have claimed 38 lives besides washing away highways and damaging homes.
A court in Mumbai on Wednesday issued summons to then Mumbai Municipal Commissioner Iqbal Singh Chahal, former Maharashtra chief secretary Sitaram Kunte and then additional municipal commissioner Suresh Kakani for alleged "discriminatory" orders during the COVID-19 pandemic. A complaint was filed against the three in December 2021 by Ambar Koiri, claiming that their orders imposing various restrictions during the pandemic discriminated between vaccinated and unvaccinated citizens. On Wednesday, a magistrate's court here issued 'process' (summons) to Kunte, Chahal and Kakani and posted the matter for further hearing on January 11, 2023.
Meteorologists earlier said Cyclone 'Biparjoy' had been impacting the intensity of the monsoon and that its onset over Kerala would be 'mild'.
The protesters demonstrated against the NTPC's Tapovan Vishnugad Hydroelectric Project which was being constructed in the area.
Fearing presence of more radioactive sources in Delhi scrap yard Mayapuri, National Disaster Management Authority and Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB) plan to carry out a multi-pronged approach survey in the area.
'Imagine hanging from a thin steel cable under a helicopter with certain death staring at you below, being pulled up slowly in the din and downwash of the helicopter.' IAF Veteran Air Commodore Nitin Sathe, a helicopter pilot himself, reports on how the air force rescued those trapped in the Deoghar cable cars disaster last fortnight.
Concerned over the possibility of terror attacks on the strategic storage reserves of petroleum products, the National Disaster Management Authority plans to mount mock exercises to check their security and work out remedial measures.
Some India states are likely to record a significantly higher number of heatwave days, according to the national weather body.
A DDMA meeting, chaired by Lieutenant Governor Anil Baijal and attended by Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal, also discussed ways to strictly enforce existing restrictions to check the rising cases of the coronavirus and its Omicron variant.
The ATRs have been sought on a range of matters within four weeks, the officials said.
The injured -- 130 -- cannot go back to work nor do they have homes to return to. Many of them refuse to leave the hospital while some of their relatives sleep in the hospital corridors. Apart from their physical injuries, the trauma of seeing their family members swept away haunts them as does the loss of all their possessions. But the BJP-Sena government remains indifferent to this human crisis.
Talking to PTI, he said the development works should be implemented by protecting the lives of the people.
Several families were evacuated from Champakkara area near Kochi after leakage of ammonia gas from a barge on Friday night, district authorities said
Severe cyclonic storm Michaung crossed south Andhra Pradesh coast close to Bapatla district between 12.30 pm and 2.30 pm on Tuesday with maximum gales of up to 90-100 km per hour speed, said an Amaravati Meteorological Centre official.
Justice Subramonium Prasad said though police have filed a status report listing the standard operating procedure for bomb detection and disposal squads and the guidelines to deal with bomb threats in schools, they have not submitted data on several key aspects.
The IMD DG said there should not be an impression that climate change leads to rise in the temperature, but on the contrary, it leads to erratic weather.
The IMD has issued Yellow alert for Thiruvananthapuram, Kollam, Pathanamthitta, Alappuzha, Kottayam, Ernakulam, Idukki, Thrissur, Malappuram and Kozhikode districts for today whereas Wayanad too has Yellow alert on May 22.
Close on the heels of radiation exposure at a scrap market in New Delhi, experts on Tuesday detected one more source of radiation in the same area even as another affected person was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences taking the number of victims to seven.
