The campaigning for phase one of Uttar Pradesh assembly election on February 10 ends on February 8 evening.
Hours after an Iranian military commander claimed to have located the crash site of the helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi, conflicting reports emerged as the head of Iran's Red Crescent Society, Pir Hossein Koulivand, said that rescue teams are still searching the area for the accident site.
In Delhi, Union Home Minister Amit Shah assessed the situation in Joshimath and steps taken to ameliorate people's hardship at a meeting attended by Union ministers Nitin Gadkari, R K Singh, Bhupendra Yadav and Gajendra Singh Shekhawat and top officials.
The deluge, which had affected 2.5 lakh people in 11 districts on Wednesday, spread to six more districts on Thursday affecting 4.23 lakh people, it said.
'Since there is no photo-op, or quick fix solutions, politicians do not want to address climate change. It is very unfashionable.'
The meeting of DDMA chaired by Lt Governor Anil Baijal, will review the COVID situation in the national capital, as per notice of the meeting.
With questions being raised whether large-scale deaths in Uttarkhand could have been averted, the MeT department today said it had issued "timely" warnings of heavy rains and landslides while the state government claimed there was not enough prior indication of a "crisis of this magnitude".
Currently, the Brahmaputra at Guwahati, Nimatighat in Jorhat, Tezpur in Sonitpur, Goalpara and Dhubri towns, while the Barak at AP Ghat in Cachar and Badarpurghat in Karimganj are flowing above the danger mark.
Thirteen teams of the National Disaster Response Force and three of the State Disaster Response Force were deployed in vulnerable districts of the state, a disaster management department report said.
In Uttar Pradesh, southwest monsoon has been normal so far where rains and thundershowers occurred in few places since Friday.
The district magistrates will explore the possibility of sending those Tablighi members, who belong to other states, in buses to their designated places in accordance with social distancing norms and other protocols, Delhi Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) Special CEO K S Meena said in a letter to deputy commissioners (administration).
'This pandemic has given him a new platform to perform,' says a member of the government. 'He should feel lucky that he has got an opportunity now to demonstrate to the world his original talent.' 'He needs a visionary script to perform.' Sheela Bhatt reports on the politics of the pandemic.
The new order will impact cities like Nagpur, Thane and Pune as they had seen more relaxations than Mumbai, which continued to be under 'level 3' restrictions, despite qualifying for 'level 1' where all curbs are allowed to be lifted.
The flood situation in Assam remained grim after fresh heavy rainfall in Meghalaya's Garo hills and Goalpara district as the death toll mounted to 40.
The Delhi government has allowed reopening of bars, public parks and gardens from Monday under a phased easing of restrictions, which were imposed due to the second Covid wave.
National Disaster Management Authority had in 2016 suggested assistance offered as a goodwill gesture 'may' be accepted.
During the heavy rains through the week here and other regions of Tamil Nadu not only inflatable boats, but preparedness, determination and presence of mind came in handy for personnel including policemen and women, civic and forest workers who rescued people, animals and snakes.
To capture the information regarding movement of migrants and facilitate the smooth movement of stranded persons across the states, National Disaster Management Authority has developed an online dashboard namely, National Migrant Information System, on the existing NDMA-GIS portal
Home Secretary L C Goyal said 72 deaths were reported from the four states of Bihar -- 56, Uttar Pradesh -- 12, West Bengal -- 3 and Rajasthan --1.
No immediate relief appears in sight as the India Meteorological Department issued a red alert for six districts which have been already pounded by downpour, forecasting "extremely heavy" rainfall and recommending preventive actions.
Massive evacuation has been undertaken in four districts of Andhra Pradesh before a severe cyclone hits the eastern coast on Thursday followed by very heavy rainfall.
When it comes to the Congress and Wayanad, the only way the scepticism in the minds of some in Kerala may be addressed is by the Gandhi family proving that they are more than a passing caravan in town, reports Shyam G Menon.
These items will remain under essential commodities segment till June-end, a move aimed at ensuring availability at reasonable prices and cracking down on hoarders/black marketeers.
Two more bodies were on Sunday found in the search and rescue operations which continued for fourth day following the collapse of a bridge on Mumbai-Goa highway near Mahad in Raigad district, taking the death toll to 26.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has forecast 'extremely heavy rains' at a few places in Marathwada, Mumbai and other parts of the coastal Konkan region of Maharashtra in the next 24 hours.
Given the vital role played by cyberspace in new-age electioneering, the UP police have constituted a digital monitoring cell to curb objectionable and defamatory social media posts on the eve of the elections.
In a curious turn of events on Wednesday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi picked Rajeev Topno, a 1996 batch Indian Administrative Service officer from the Gujarat cadre and a part of the Prime Minister's Office under former PM Manmohan Singh, as private secretary.
The Centre has assured all help to Odisha and Andhra Pradesh where a "very severe" cyclone is expected to hit on Saturday and sent nearly 500 personnel of National Disaster Response Force for relief and rescue operations.
The Supreme Court on Friday asked the Uttarakhand government not to force people, caught in flash floods, to walk long distances and said that they should be air lifted to safer places.
Landslides blocked roads, many villages went without electricity and the death toll climbed to 52 as authorities on Wednesday faced the aftermath of the rains that had battered Uttarakhand for over two days.
The picturesque port town of Visakhapatnam, a major industrial, educational and tourism hub in the east coast, is still reeling under the impact of havoc caused by the cyclonic storm Hudhud and is picking up pieces from a trail of destruction left behind by the calamity.
This is the first time in the history of Jharkhand that it is facing such a severe cyclonic storm.
The Maharashtra government on Wednesday imposed several new restrictions, including a ban on inter-city and inter-district travel and curbs on office attendance in an attempt to bring the spiralling coronavirus infections under control.
Heavy overnight rains across Uttarakhand on Monday led to a rise in the levels of most water bodies, including the Bhagirathi River and the Tehri Lake.
Four National Disaster Response Force teams are engaged in rescue work, he added. The village has around 50 houses, of which 17 were buried under the landslide, the official said.
The conditions that lead to landslides, including soil texture, soil moisture and slope are known, and it is important to put all this knowledge into an operational system, he said.
The directions came after the Delhi government told the court that oxygen that was to come from Panipat in Haryana was not being allowed to be picked up by the local police there.
A low-pressure area, set to form over east central Bay of Bengal on May 22, is likely to intensify into a cyclonic storm and strike the Odisha-West Bengal coast on May 26, the Met department said on Thursday, sparking fears of another Amphan-like catastrophe.
The army, SDRF and NDRF are assisting the district administrations in evacuating the affected population to safer places, the authority said.
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.
