West Bengal and Odisha have evacuated lakhs of people from vulnerable areas to safety as severe cyclonic storm 'Yaas' is nearing the coast and is expected to make landfall near Dhamra Port in Bhadrak district early on Wednesday morning.
According to BJP insiders, every Union minister has been given 3-4 seats to mentor and has been told to work hard on these constituencies in the next 20 months to ensure the party's victory.
Rediff.com's data journalists have broken down 2011 Census data into a constituency-wise listing.
Nearly 5 lakh people in Jajpur district of Orissa were affected as the river Brahmani, its tributary the Kharashrota, and the river Baitarani inundated vast areas with the calamities claiming three lives in the state, official sources said on Sunday.
IMD Director General Dr Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said that 'Yaas' is likely to intensify into a Very Severe Cyclonic Storm by Tuesday evening and Chandbali is likely to witness the maximum damage caused by it.
The location of the landfall is north of Dhamra and south of Bahanaga, close to Bahanaga block, on the coast, around 50 km of Balasore, he said.
Earlier, the IMD had predicted light to moderate rainfall accompanied by wind with 40 to 50 kmph in north coastal Odisha under its impact, he said.
At least 29 people were killed after being struck by lightning in different parts of Odisha.
Relief and restoration work was stepped up on Tuesday in areas ravaged by twin calamity of Cyclone Phailin and resultant floods in Odisha, which affected over 1.2 crore people in more than 16,000 villages and claimed 26 lives. Of the 26, five people died in floods.
Odisha government has declared lightning as a state-specific disaster.
Odisha chief minister Naveen Patnaik had on Tuesday sent a letter to the Election Commission requesting withdrawal of the MCC from all coastal districts to make it easier for the government to handle the impending cyclonic storm "Fani" in the state.
Ten teams of National Disaster Response Force comprising 307 personnel and 59 boats have been deployed in six flood-affected districts of Orissa.
Rains hindered air dropping of food and relief operations for the second day on Thursday, as over 1,250 villages remained marooned in the flood-affected Mahanadi delta in Orissa.
With 11 more deaths, the toll in the second spell of Orissa floods mounted to 38 on Wednesday as the government began post-relief reconstruction work and decided to continue air-dropping of food articles till Thursday.
Orissa government on Tuesday decided to continue air-dropping of food packets in marooned villages as part of relief and rescue operation amid slight respite from flood fury that claimed 27 lives.
Air dropping of food was suspended after five days on Friday with flood waters receding in the Mahanadi delta in Orissa, as a fresh flood in Baitarani river threatened three districts.
An earthquake measuring 6.8 on the Richter scale was felt in some parts of Orissa including the state capital on Tuesday night, triggering panic among people
Cutting across party lines, chief ministers and others leaders urged the people to follow the self-imposed curfew from 7 am to 9 pm, noting that "social distancing" was key to breaking the chain of infection, as the number of coronavirus cases rose to 283 after 60 new cases were detected on Saturday, the highest so far in a day, and states like Maharashtra, Odisha and Bihar imposed partial lockdown till month end.
At least 10 passengers were feared killed and 80 injured when 14 bogies of the Coromandel Express derailed near Bajpur in Orissa on Friday night. The train was on its way to Howrah station in Kolkata from Chennai Central. According to preliminary reports, several bogies piled up against each other when the bogies were derailed. Several passengers of the super-fast train are believed to be trapped.
Train services resumed on the busy Howrah-Chennai route on Sunday, 36 hours after the derailment of the Coromandel Express, which claimed nine lives and severely affected the rail traffic. One track was thrown open to traffic today morning after removal of all mangled bogies and repair of power channels and rails near the Jajpur-Keonjhar Road railway station, about 100 km from Bhubaneswar, East Coast Railway officials said.
Anxious relatives staged a demonstration near the inquiry counter at Howrah railway station on Friday night, in the absence of any information about the number of passengers killed or injured in the derailment of 18 bogies of Coromandel Express, near Jajpur Road railway station in Orissa. Hundreds of people gathered in front of the main inquiry counter at Howrah railway station to get information about the incident. They also wanted to know if any relief train has been sent.
The IMD has also issued a red-coded warning alert to the Odisha and West Bengal coasts.
The Tata Group has decided to defer its plan of setting up a rural business process outsourcing unit near the proposed steel plant at Kalinganagar in Orissa by two years.
The fear of an epidemic loomed large over the flood ravaged areas of Orissa, where train services remained severely affected due to damaged tracks.
A high-level probe has been ordered into the derailment of the Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Superfast Express train near Jajpur Road railway station, railway officials said.
Human cries for help tore through the silence of the night, as the superfast Coromandel Express came to a screeching halt, after its bogies were derailed near Jajpur Road station in Orissa on Friday night. "It was very dark and I could hear the shouts of many for help. There was utter chaos," Anupam Nayak, who was traveling to Cuttack from Howrah in the Howrah-Chennai Coromandel Express, said.
There is a growing voice of supporters of major industrial projects in Orissa that have faced opposition from sections in this little-developed state.
Modi reviewed the situation in West Bengal and Odisha with chief ministers Mamata Banerjee and Naveen Patnaik, two days after the cyclone, the worst in years, devastated their states.
Amidst a nationwide hue and cry over the setting up of special economic zones (SEZs), the Orissa government has decided to drop one of five SEZs in the state that had received formal approval from the Centre.
The clash on Monday between villagers opposing a steel project and the police had also left 17 others injured. \n
Flood waters engulfed vast areas of the delta region of Mahanadi river system in Odisha even as the death toll due to heavy rains and floods in the state climbed to 34.
The depression, which was initially over west-central Bay of Bengal and adjoining areas, moved westward and intensified into a deep depression.
With the controversy surrounding the death of 12 tribals in police firing in Kalinga Nagar showing no signs of abating, the Orissa government has launched a public relations excercise by adopting the families of the deceased.
The tribals were opposing the construction of a boundary wall of a company.
An unspecified number of people were evacuated from coastal areas of Odisha where Jagatsinghpur, Kendrapara, Bhadrak and Balasore were likely to experience heavy rainfall accompanied by high-velocity winds, particularly on May 19 and 20, IMD Director General Mrutyunjay Mohapatra said.
ASI Narayan Charan Samal used his service revolver to shoot himself in the neck inside the police station
Leaders of political parties across the spectrum condemned the action.
Baral, 28, who worked in the intelligence wing of the Border Security Force, had died in an ambush near Dimapur.
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