Telangana floods toll goes up to 70; govt on alert with fresh spell forecast

News Network
October 19, 2020

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Hyderabad, Oct 19: As many as 70 people died in rain-related incidents during the past one week in the state, Telangana Minister KT Rama Rao said on Monday even as he requested people in low-lying areas of the city to evacuate and move to relief camps as the Met department predicted heavy rains in the next two days.

Speaking to the media, KTR, as Rama Rao is also known as, said the city received the second-highest recorded rainfall after 1908, which forced the state government to relocate about 37,000 from low-lying areas to relief camps.

According to him, 33 people in Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) and adjoining areas, and 37 people in districts have lost their lives.

Urging people living in low-lying areas to shift to safer places and government-run relief camps following the India Meteorological Department's warning of insidious rainfall, the minister said thousands of people will be moved to the camps in the next two days.

"We will minimise the life loss or will zero down the life loss as much as we can. (There were) 33 (deaths) in GHMC (Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation) and about 37 (casualties) in districts. So, altogether 70 people have lost their lives," the minister told reporters.

He said, of the 33 casualties in the GHMC area, kin of the 29 deceased were compensated. A state government release on October 15 said the toll was 50 due to rain related incidents.

"IMD (India Meteorological Department) has already warned us that there would be heavy rainfall accompanied by thunderstorms. We know exactly which areas would be inundated. We are going to evacuate those colonies. We will go house by house and evacuate them. Thousands of people will be evacuated today, tomorrow and day after," he added.

Rama Rao said the state government was in touch with the Army and National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) to keep helicopters on standby in case of requirement as the MET department forecast heavy rains in the next two-three days.

A fresh spell of heavy rains on Saturday night caused flooding on Sunday in parts of the city after it last week witnessed one of the worst deluges in recent times following unprecedented downpour in over a century.

"We were able to minimise...Yes I agree things can be handled better and we will work out...We will certainly," he said, adding the government has devised a strategy to evacuate people from all low-lying areas to begin with including from Musi river and water tanks adjoining areas.

The Telangana government's preliminary estimate had pegged the losses at over Rs 5,000 crore caused due to the rains and floods.

Reacting to a query, Rama Rao said an interim report has been sent to the central government seeking release of Rs 1,380 crore assistance.

Though there was no response so far he expected a positive one.

"the union Home Minister has tweeted that they are monitoring the situation. We hope that they will respond positively...we will wait. I am sure they will be positive," he said.

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News Network
November 27,2024

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Mangaluru: Dakshina Kannada MP Captain Brijesh Chowta recently met with Union Minister for Railways Ashwini Vaishnav to discuss urgent concerns regarding the region's railway infrastructure development. Key issues raised during the meeting included the long-pending Mangaluru-Bengaluru connectivity, the Shiradi Ghat stretch, and other vital railway concerns impacting the region.

In addition to discussing these issues, Captain Chowta submitted a letter requesting the Union Minister's intervention and support. The letter emphasized the need to merge Konkan Railway with Indian Railways and called for the doubling of railway tracks between Bengaluru and Mangaluru, which would significantly improve rail connectivity between the state capital and Mangaluru.

Further, Captain Chowta raised concerns about enhancing passenger facilities along the region's rail routes, particularly the need for better services between Subrahmanya and Mangaluru.

To bring more attention to these pressing issues, Captain Chowta took to social media, urging the state government’s support. In a tweet on his official X handle, he requested Chief Minister Siddaramaiah to expedite the resolution of these concerns. “In this direction, I request our Karnataka government led by CM Shri @siddaramaiah to kindly provide the necessary state support for the swift redressal of various concerns pertaining to both Konkan Railways as well as HMRDC to ease movement of both people and cargo in this important stretch between Mangalore and Bangalore,” he posted.

The meeting with the Union Minister was attended by Bengaluru Rural MP Dr. CN Manjunath, Udupi-Chikmagalur MP Kota Srinivas Poojary, and Uttara Karnataka MP Vishweshwara Hegde Kageri, all of whom supported the discussion on enhancing railway infrastructure in the region.

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News Network
November 18,2024

Advisors to US President-elect Donald Trump have instructed his allies and associates to refrain from using the inflammatory language they previously employed when discussing issues related to migrants and the deportation of asylum seekers, in a bid to avoid “looking like Nazis.”

US media reports said that Trump’s associates had been asked to stop using the word “camps” to describe potential facilities that would be used to accommodate migrants rounded up in deportation operations across the country.

The reports said the US president-elect’s allies had been ordered to stave off such charged terms as they would bring to mind “Nazis,” and be used against Trump.

“I have received some guidance to avoid terms, like ‘camps,’ that can be twisted and used against the president, yes,” one Trump ally told American monthly magazine Rolling Stone.

“Apparently, some people think it makes us look like Nazis.”

The presidential advisers also cautioned surrogates and allies to keep racist terms, which have dogged Trump’s campaign, out of their remarks.

They said with Trump’s heated rhetoric that used to compare undocumented immigrants to “animals” and his slight that they are “poisoning the blood of our country,” detractors did not need to reach too far to find parallels to Nazi Germany.

Stephen Miller, who Trump tapped to be his deputy chief of staff of policy, specifically used the word “camps” to describe holding facilities that he hoped the military could put together for immigrants.

Tom Homan, who served as the acting director of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and is chosen by Trump to be in charge of the US borders, was no stranger to such language.

“It’s not gonna be a mass sweep of neighborhoods,” he said in an interview earlier this week. “It’s not gonna be building concentration camps. I’ve read it all. It’s ridiculous.”

Becoming a little more forthright about the new government’s aggressive deportation plans, Homan likened the early days of the Trump administration to the initial invasion of Iraq in 2003.

“I got three words for them – shock and awe,” he said. “You’re going to see us take this country back.”

Trump made immigration a central element of his 2024 presidential campaign but unlike his first run, which was mainly focused on building a border wall, he has shifted his attention to interior enforcement and the removal of undocumented immigrants already in the United States.

People close to the US president and his aides are laying the groundwork for expanding detention facilities to fulfill his mass deportation campaign promise.

The businessman-turned-politician deported more than 1.5 million people during his first term.

The figure do not include the millions of people turned away at the border under a Covid-era policy enacted by Trump and used during most of Biden’s term.

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News Network
November 27,2024

Mangaluru: A five-year-long pursuit of justice continues for several youths from Dakshina Kannada who fell victim to a fraudulent food delivery job scam in Kuwait. The victims, lured by promises of lucrative overseas employment, now find themselves entangled in legal battles and financial ruin.

In a recent development, the Enforcement Directorate (ED) summoned the victims to its Mangaluru office as part of the ongoing investigation. The case, which dates back to May 28, 2019, was initially registered at the Mangaluru North police station based on a complaint filed by Usman, a resident of Jalligudde. His brother, Aboobakkar Siddique, was among the 34 victims duped by Manikya Associates, a recruitment agency operated by Prasad Shetty.

According to the complaint, the victims were promised jobs as food delivery executives in Kuwait with a salary of ₹40,000 per month. “I paid ₹80,000 to the agent and ended up spending seven harrowing months in Kuwait without any salary,” shared a victim who now works in construction. Another victim, now employed as a driver, said, “I dreamt of working abroad to support my family. I even pledged jewelry to pay the fees, but it took me years to recover financially.”

The victims allege that they were left stranded in Kuwait in January 2019 after completing all formalities. With no jobs and mounting expenses, their ordeal lasted seven months. They were eventually repatriated with the help of Indian expats and the Embassy of India in Kuwait, just two months after the complaint was filed.

The ED investigation is reportedly progressing, and victims said they were assured that their payments to the agent would be refunded soon. An ED official confirmed that efforts to ensure justice are ongoing.

For these youths, the pain of shattered dreams and financial losses has lingered for years, with many still struggling to rebuild their lives. As they await justice, their plight serves as a cautionary tale about the perils of fraudulent recruitment schemes.

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