Anti-CAB protests intensify in Guwahati even as the PM appealed for calm, assuring the people of the state that the govt will protect their interests.
Three persons were killed and over 50 injured when a passenger train derailed after hitting an earth-cutting vehicle at an unmanned railway crossing in Assam's Kamrup (Rural) district on Friday
Train services were paralysed in Assam as several Bodo outfits resorted to a 12-hour railway blockade in Kokrajhar while violence continued for the third day in Karbi Anglong as ethnic groups stepped up their demand for a separate state on the lines of Telangana.
Fresh violence gripped the trouble-torn Assam district of Kokrajhar leaving at least nine seriously injured while unrest spread to Kamrup (rural) which reported arson and police firing on Thursday.
With the current spell of floods and landslides claiming 77 lives in Assam, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi are scheduled to visit the affected areas on Monday.
The army was deployed and indefinite curfew clamped on Saturday in the silk town Sualkuchi in Assam's Kamrup (rural) district following protests against use of artificial silk during which 14 persons were injured in a police firing.
People spent a sleepless night as a series of aftershocks shook Assam after a strong 6.4 magnitude earthquake caused extensive damage to buildings.
People have been affected in 132 villages under 12 revenue circles in Baksa, Barpeta, Dhemaji, Kamrup, Nalbari, Sibsagar and Sonitpur districts in the third wave of floods, official sources said on Wednesday.
Curfew in Rangiya sub-division of Kamrup Rural district was relaxed on Friday even as no incident of fresh violence was reported from any part of Assam.
'The BJP and RSS were working on the ground to define who is an illegal immigrant.'
The epicenter of the quake was Sonitpur and the quake occurred at 7.51 am at a depth of 17 kilometres, it said.
Harsh Vardhan said that 51 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses will be made available by July and 216 crore more between August and December.
According to an official flood bulletin, fresh rainfall across the state, particularly in the catchment areas of Brahmaputra, has resulted in alarming rise in water level.
At least three people were killed and 50 others injured when the engine and five compartments of a train derailed after hitting an earth-cutting vehicle on its track in Kamrup (rural) district of Assam on Friday.
Those who crave for a few pegs down the stomach after a hard day's work had a shock in the waiting for them when they ran into downed shutters of bars and liquor shops in Guwahati city.
The accident took place when a bus carrying a marriage party fell into a 40-feet deep pond in Kamrup (rural) district after the wooden bridge it was crossing gave in.
At least 50 passengers were injured when three bogies of the Puri-Guwahati Express were derailed in Assam's Kamrup district.
With these states imposing lockdowns anew, the health ministry emphasised that the restrictions should be utilised to focus on containment, surveillance and testing in the containment and buffer zones as the key strategy for early detection of cases and fatality management.
When she left home for her maiden visit to Jagannath temple in Puri city with her parents, Purnima Gogoi never thought the memories of the journey would beset her mind terribly and she would want to forget about it for the rest of her life.
Besides Karnataka, states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Assam, West Bengal, Arunachal Pradesh and Meghalaya have already announced area-wise lockdown for different durations.
But the overall situation witnessed further improvement on Thursday as levels of major rivers receded.
At least 15 people have died in heavy floods and landslides triggered by continuous rain for the last three days in Assam, where airforce helicopters, army, National Disaster Response Force and State Disaster Response Force have been pressed into service for rescue work, officials said.
The rains have unleashed in Assam affecting close to two lakh people
In a record turnout, more than 90 per cent voters exercised their franchise in 14 constituencies in Assam in the second and final phase of just concluded assembly polls.
The incident was recorded by locals on their mobile phones and circulated on social media.
The Centre has expressed concern at re-emergence of leprosy cases in certain pockets of the eighth North Eastern states which have reported 747 new cases.
While the flood waters receded in Bongaigaon and Sivsagar districts of Assam, fresh inundation occurred at a dozen villages in Nagaon even as four districts continued to reel under the impact of floods on Sunday.
Life was hit in lower Assam for the second day on Tuesday in three bandhs called to press for Bodoland and Kamtapur, while Karbi Anglong, which had erupted over statehood demand on the lines of Telangana, was slowly limping back to normal.
In the Northeast, while three people died in Assam, two each lost their lives in Arunachal Pradesh and Mizoram in rain-related incidents.
A high voter turnout was recorded in West Bengal, Assam Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Puducherry assembly elections on Tuesday. The massive polling exercise following COVID-19 health protocol and involving lakhs of personnel began at 7 am and the last hour from 6 pm to 7 pm was set aside for COVID-19 patients and those under isolation. The counting of votes in the states will be held on May 2.
Only 20 per cent of the nearly 50,000 licenced arms existing in Assam have been deposited so far with authorities in the run up to the three-phased Lok Sabha elections in the state.
A day after violent protests in the state capital, a silent sit-in demonstration was organised on Monday against the brutal killing of the two men in Karbi Anglong.
'The central and Assamese governments want to get 35 lakh to 40 lakh Bangladeshis (Hindus) to come to Assam and make the Assamese people a minority.' 'They want to make Assam a Bengali state.' 'Bengalis by nature are BJP supporters whereas Assamese people don't support the BJP.'
'We should move forward with a conviction that in 40-50 years we have to bring major changes in the country,' he said.
Apprehending trouble in the state especially in violence-affected Bodoland Territorial Autonomous District Council areas in the aftermath of declaration of results of election in the state on Friday, the Assam government has requested the army to be in stand by for quick deployment, if the need arises while helicopter surveillance is being continued in vulnerable areas of the violence-affected BTC areas and along India-Bhutan border.
A day after total shutdown in Assam to protest against the CAB, fresh protests erupted in the state and neighbouring Tripura and other parts of the nation.
The flood situation remained critical in Assam, affecting 7.35 lakh people in 18 districts where one lakh hectares of cropland have been inundated by the surging waters of the swollen Bahmaputra and its tributaries.
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 loose use of words like foreigner or Bangladeshis obscures the fact that the post-Partition migration to Assam has been of both Hindus and Muslims.'
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