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 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 14,2024

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Bengaluru: The Prime Minister Narendra Modi led union government has requested the Karnataka High Court to direct the Mandya district administration and the state government to clear a madrasa operating within the premises of the historic Jama Masjid in Srirangapatna.

The Waqf Board, opposing this move, has claimed the mosque as its property and defended the right to conduct madrasa activities there.

The matter was brought before a division bench headed by Chief Justice N V Anjaria following a public interest litigation filed by a person named Abhishek Gowda from Kabbalu village in Kanakapura taluk. The petition alleged “unauthorised madrasa activities” within the mosque.

Representing the Central government, Additional Solicitor General of India for High Court of Karnataka, K Arvind Kamath argued that the Jama Masjid was designated as a protected monument in 1951, yet unauthorised madrasa operations continue there.

He noted that concerns over potential law and order issues have so far prevented any intervention. Kamath urged the court to direct the Mandya district administration to take action and vacate the madrasa from the mosque.

In defence, lawyers for the state government and the Waqf Board contested this request, stating that the Waqf Board had been recognised as the owner of the property since 1963 and, thus, conducting madrasa activities there is lawful.

After hearing both sides, the bench adjourned the case for further arguments, scheduling the next hearing for November 20.

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News Network
November 25,2024

Udupi: Six junior artists from the prequel of Kannada blockbuster film ‘Kantara’ were injured, when the bus they were travelling in overturned in the district, police said on Monday.

According to police, the accident occurred near Jadkal on Sunday night when the mini-bus carrying the crew of the film overturned.

“The incident happened while they were returning to Kollur after completing the shoot at Mudoor in Jadkal. The mini-bus was carrying 20 junior artistes when it met with the accident,” a police officer said.

The injured were rushed to hospitals in Jadkal and Kundapur for treatment, they said.

The Kollur police are investigating the matter.

"The news making rounds is completely false. The Kantara: Chapter 1 team began shooting at 06:00 AM today, and everything is proceeding as normal. A minor accident occurred 20 kilometres away from the shooting location, involving a local bus carrying some members of the Kantara team. However, no injuries were reported," a source close to the production said.

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