A fire broke out at the Maha Kumbh Mela in Prayagraj, Uttar Pradesh, India, on Sunday, engulfing 18 tents in Sector 19. The blaze, which started around 4 pm, was caused by an LPG cylinder explosion. No casualties were reported, and the fire was brought under control within an hour. Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath, who was in Prayagraj to review preparations ahead of Mauni Amawasya, visited the site and instructed authorities to take measures to prevent similar incidents in the future.
Gogoi said these arms and ammunition, which were looted from the security forces, will be used against the common people of the state that has been witnessing violence since May 3.
Authorities were bringing 150 people who had taken refuge along with several others at a make-shift tent behind the BDO's office ever since clashes erupted in trouble-torn Nandigram in the run up to the May 11 panchayat polls. However, motorcycle borne CPI-M men allegedly beat six of them at Maheshpur near Satengabari and Gokulnagar, Trinamool Congress bloc president Abu Tayeb alleged.
The death toll in the devastating landslides in Kerala's Wayanad district rose to 167 on Wednesday, while 191 were missing even as the rescue teams intensified efforts to find survivors trapped under the debris on the second day of the search operations.
'The situation is so bad that it is not possible for me to explain in words how bad the conditions are for the common man of Manipur.'
India managed to keep the five-Test series level at 1-1 heading into the Boxing day Test in Melbourne, the fragility of their top order remains a major concern for the tourists.
The Manipur government dubbed as untrue the claim by the counsel for the committee appointed by the apex court to oversee relief and rehabilitation of the victims of ethnic violence that the people of the state were suffering on account of an economic blockade.
Due to heavy rains and waterlogging over the tracks at several locations on South Central Railway network, as many as 99 trains were cancelled and four trains were partially cancelled while 54 trains were diverted, an SCR official said.
A total of 800 people, belonging to 237 families, have so far been shifted to safety by the district administration
Expressing condolences to the families of those killed, he commended Indian government on its rapid "search and rescue" operations and establishment of relief camps.
After meeting violence-displaced people in two of the relief camps in Kokrajhar in Assam on Saturday, Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh announced that the Centre would work closely with the State government to provide adequate security to help the people go back home and lead a normal life in a peaceful atmosphere.
Locals, who were forced to evacuate their homes because fears of a flood, carried out a protest complaining of the lack of food, drinking water and plastic sheets at relief camps. MI Khan reports.
Locals, who were forced to evacuate their homes because fears of a flood, carried out a protest complaining of the lack of food, drinking water and plastic sheets at relief camps. MI Khan reports.
In a statement, it said 198 properties in the state were partially damaged and 30 houses completely destroyed in the rains from July 31 to till date.
People from Manipur's Kuki community held a protest outside Union Home Minister Amit Shah's residence in New Delhi on Wednesday against the ongoing violence in the northeastern state, the police said.
The minister, who made an aerial survey of badly affected areas in Idukki and Ernakulam districts, said the rains and floods had caused 'massive damage' to the farm sector and infrastructure like roads and power.
Akshay Kumar and Urmila Matondkar expressed shock over a May 4 video of two women being paraded naked in strife-hit Manipur and demanded punishment for the perpetrators of the 'horrifying' incident.
While there was a brief respite from the incessant downpour on Tuesday, collaborative efforts from the defence, national, and state disaster response forces took the lead in executing rescue and relief operations.
As many as 849 houses in Joshimath have developed cracks following land subsidence there and 258 families have been evacuated to temporary relief centres, officials said.
The Supreme Court on Friday directed the Manipur government to apprise the apex court-appointed committee of the steps taken to secure places of public worship in the state where ethnic clashes have claimed more than 170 lives since May.
One person was shot dead in his sleep while four others were killed in subsequent exchange of fire between armed men of two warring communities, a police officer said.
The authorities have issued flood alert to the people living in the low lying areas and also along river banks in as many as nine districts.
Sri Lankan opposition leaders on Wednesday handed over a letter to a delegation of Members of Parliament from the Indian state of Tamil Nadu that is in Colombo, complaining that they were not allowed by the government to visit the relief camps for nearly three lakh displaced Tamils.
The Congress hit back at Nadda, saying his letter to Mallikarjun Kharge is a "4D exercise - denial, distortion, distraction, and defamation".
As a consequence of prominence given to the brutality during those few days, a very important aspect of that episode got almost glossed over. This was the intervention by a very significant section of people who restored faith in humanity, and conveyed the message that only a small section of Indians, that too politically backed, were consumed by anti-Sikh majoritarianism. The overlooked facet of the events of 1984 was the story of significant sections of the city's populace, public figures and nondescript ones, stepping out hand-in-hand, to first stand with little but bravery in hands, in the way of attackers, and thereafter to provide immediate relief to those who lives were uprooted and who lost family members in the violence, recalls Nilanjan Mukhopadhyay.
According to Raj Bhavan, Governor Uikey expressed during the meeting that she had already made to all the sections of the society to solve the problem through peaceful dialogue amicably.
Veteran Sachin Baby steadied Kerala's innings with a resolute unbeaten half-century, guiding his team to 206/4
Rao suggested changes should also be brought in the evaluation methods and pitched for introduction of an open-book examination system for competitive examinations designed to test the candidates' "competence, aptitude, attitude and Intelligence Quotient".
According to the Jyotirmath administration, these cracks have increased in the last 15 days.
Speaking to reporters after visiting the flood-hit Bhadrachalam town in Bhadradri-Kothagudem district, Rao announced allocation of Rs 1,000 crore as a rehabilitation package for the temple town to build colonies in highlands for a permanent solution from flood threat.
The flash flood affected 25,065 people in four districts - Mangan, Gangtok, Pakyong and Namchi, the report said.
The release of water from the Chungthang dam led to a sudden increase in water levels up to 15-20 feet high downstream, defence spokesperson Lt Col Mahendra Rawat said.
Maliwal met the mother and husband of the two victims who had been paraded naked, molested and one of them was gangraped. The mother of the woman who was gangraped also lost her husband and son who were trying to save the victim from the sexual assault, the statement said.
Of these four flights (except Qatar Airways) returned to Kozhikode airport as the weather condition in Kozhikode gained normalcy.
Acting Director General of Police of Himachal Pradesh, Satwant Atwal Trivedi, on Tuesday said that 15 Russian tourists were reportedly stranded in Kasol, and Police are trying to establish contact with them.
West Bengal Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee, who rushed to the district late on Sunday night, assured the people of all help from the administration.
'The kind of situation we are seeing...we don't believe that this can happen in a settled democracy like India'
Many of those who fled during the violence are still fearful about returning.
Nivar which wreaked havoc in 18 districts of the state has claimed four lives besides leaving several cattle dead and over 2,000 trees uprooted, Palaniswami said, a day after the very severe storm made landfall.
Rescue teams on Friday used GPS coordinates from aerial drone pictures and cell phones, including the last location of people who lived in the landslides-hit areas of Wayanad to help locate survivors, amidst accelerated search operations after the completion of the 190-foot-long Bailey bridge by the Army.
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