The MeT department forecast very heavy rains over the next 48 hours in the mountainous areas of the state especially the disaster-prone Pithoragarh, Uttarkashi, Chamoli and Rudraprayag districts where torrential rains may trigger flash floods, cloudbursts and landslides asking people as well as authorities to be alert.
The right to life and health of the public at large cannot be sacrificed at the altar of a right to celebrate a festival
Chief Minister Vijay Rupani said people living in the coastal belt would be shifted to safer places.
Lockdown relaxations by Kerala amounts to dilution of its lockdown guidelines, says the Union home ministry.
"Altogether 176 persons, including three firemen, are now being treated in city hospitals," an official said.
After a brief suspension due to bad weather early in the morning, the rescue operations in rain-hit Uttarakhand resumed on Sunday on a war footing to evacuate 22,000 pilgrims still stranded in high altitude areas amid a MeT department warning of light to moderate rains in the region from Monday.
Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Y S Jagan Mohan Reddy announced an ex gratia payment of Rs 1 crore each to the kin of those killed in the incident.
A photograph of Kumar snapped while scurrying across the bridge with the child two days ago, has gone viral on the social media with people showering praise on him.
According to sources, all private offices will work from home and only government offices and essential services will be open.
The ministry of home affairs in its advisory on December 28 had advised states and Union Territories that they can impose local restrictions, including night curfew, based on their assessment of the situation to contain the spread of COVID-19.
Fire brigade officials admitted that organisers of the event had not complied with nearly 10 fire safety measures.
Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan said he ordered to stop the water outflow from the Bansagar dam so that the water level in the canal can go down, which will aid in rescue operations.
All existing emergency numbers will be phased out within a year of rolling out 112, depending upon the awareness about this new facility.
The staff and security personnel are performing their duties using mechanised and country boats to deal with any kind of eventualities, they said.
Three new categories -- all asymptomatic healthcare workers working in non-COVID hospitals/areas of COVID hospitals/blocks, asymptomatic frontline workers such as surveillance workers deployed in containment zones and paramilitary/police personnel involved in COVID-19 related activities -- have now been included.
After a long hiatus of more than 20 months, the government had on November 26 announced the resumption of scheduled international commercial flights from December 15.
At least 71 people have been killed and 127 others were still missing in floods and landslides triggered by the heaviest rains in Sri Lanka in over a quarter century even as an Indian aircraft and two naval ships arrived in Colombo on Saturday with relief supplies.
An ex gratia of Rs 2 lakh will be given per person to the next of kin of those killed in the floods.
Tightening restrictions further in select urban areas to help prevent the spread of Covid-19, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister K Palaniswami on Friday announced a complete shutdown beginning Sunday in Chennai, Coimbatore and Madurai for four days, disallowing grocery shops as well and fully curtailing the movement of public. Also, Salem and Tirupur in western Tamil Nadu will be shut similarly, albeit for three days from April 26, and Palaniswami assured people that vegetables and fruits shall reach their doorsteps via mobile outlets.
In an order, Union Home Secretary Ajay Bhalla said buses shall be used for transport of such groups of stranded people and these vehicles will be sanitised and will have to follow safe social distancing norms in seating.
In Chennai, rains are expected to start early Thursday morning and intensify gradually. Government schools in the city have been shut down for the next two days
A devastating fire at a multi-storeyed building in Kolkata that claimed nine lives turned into the epicentre of a political slugfest on Tuesday, with the Trinamool Congress government and the Bharatiya Janata Party pointing accusatory fingers at the Railways and the state administration respectively, even as the bereaved families grieved at the loss of their near ones.
Rediff.com's Syed Firdaus Ashraf traces the journey of PM-CARES from its founding to finally admitting it is not a government fund.
The hospital, in the commercial hub of Bandra-Kurla Complex, will serve as an isolation facility for non-critical COVID-19 patients. Expected to be ready in a fortnight, the new makeshift facility can be scaled up to 5,000 beds, if needed. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation will run the hospital that will have, among other things, oxygen facilities and pathological laboratories. Sohini Das reports.
This is the second time in a week that the Karnataka state capital is witnessing such severe waterlogging.
More than 1.20 lakh Himachalis have already returned home in less than a week's time. There is a list of 21,000 others approved for return, and at least two lakh more are still awaiting official nod for their return. Will this influx see a spike in coronavirus numbers? That is the administration's main worry, reports Ashwani Sharma.
'Modi as chief minister did a superb job of rehabilitation after the Kutch earthquake of 2001. He can use that hard-earned expertise for the benefit of the people of Kashmir too -- but only if they let him do so,' says T V R Shenoy.
At least a dozen officers from Gujarat are handling key assignments in various important central positions
Releasing the 'Standard Operating Procedures', the ministry said that the period from October to December witnesses large gatherings for religious worship, fairs, cultural functions, processions, etc, and it is important that necessary preventive measures are followed for such events which may last a day, a week or more.
Banerjee said the state is targeting to shift at least 10 lakh people to safer places in a bid to avoid any loss of life.
The 50 per cent capacity rule will not apply to offices dealing with health and other essential services.
In a zone-wise classification of districts in the country, the Union health ministry has designated all 11 districts of Delhi as red zone. The city has 272 wards.
'It is perplexing to see the leader of the First World with a first rate medical infrastructure come up short on its foresight to handle the pandemic,' notes Group Captain Murli Menon (retd).
Cyclone Nisarga slammed Maharashtra coast with wind speeds of up to 120 kmph, making landfall at 12.30 pm at Alibaug near Mumbai. The process was completed by 2.30 pm, a senior India Meteorological Department official said. Alibaug witnessed wind speeds of up to 120 kilometres per hour. It weakened into a 'deep depression' late on Wednesday evening, the IMD said.
'Tens of millions will be working from home for months at a time, which means the smartest brains in business will be focussed on creating more efficient WFH processes,' predicts Devangshu Datta.
Nepalese rescuers resumed their search on Monday for four persons still missing after a passenger plane with 72 people, including five Indians, crashed into a river gorge while landing at the newly-opened airport in the resort city of Pokhara, killing at least 68 people onboard.
A section of the over 50-year-old bridge on the arterial Diamond Harbour Road in south Kolkata collapsed on September 4 in which three people lost their lives.
Cities are setting the rules that now carry life and death implications for their residents, and most of these rules are sought to be set by the municipal authorities who have never wielded such power, reports Subhomoy Bhattacharjee.
'When a person is capable of infecting 50 others, will you think about the privacy of the person or about protecting the lives of people?'
Since the disastrous 2005 floods, that crippled Mumbai, little work has been done on disaster management and relief preparations.
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