Page 578 - Disaster Accident
Citizens experience tremors; it is not earth quake, says
Mild tremor with noise akin to the lightning in parts of Bengaluru sent residents in several areas into a tizzy today. Panicked residents ran out of their house fearing amajor earthquake in the offing. However, Dr G S Srinivasa Reddy, director of Karnataka State Natural Disaster Monitoring Centre (KSNDMC), ruled out it was an earthquake. "Our records show that it was not an earthquake but only the crustal movement. There is a dynamic system of our earth," Reddy told PTI. Though it was a phenomenon observed at many places, it was felt more intensely in the southern part of Bengaluru very much. Some people observed that the windows and doors flutteredwithout any reason. Padmini, a resident said, she was taken aback when the window and the door of her house fluttered wildly. Y Vasundhara, a resident of South Bengaluru said she was at home when she heard the huge roar at about 3.05 pm. "Initially I felt it was the thunderbolt but then I noticed that it was sunny weather ...
Flood misery in Kerala: Death toll touches 114; armed forces mount massive recue operation (Roundup)
With the death toll in the devastating floods rising to 114 in Kerala, and more than one lakh people living in relief camps across the state, the Centre on Thursday deployed all three wings of the armed forces in a massive rescue operation.
SCBA donates Rs 30 lakh for Kerala flood relief
The Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) has donated Rs 30 lakh to the relief fund for Kerala flood victims. In a circular issued by the SCBA, it also called up on its members to contribute "generously" towards 'SCBA Calamity Relief Fund' that has been set up for this purpose. It said a corpus of about Rs 30 lakh lying in the account shall be transferred for Kerala flood relief operations. "The SCBA, as always, must come forward not only to express its solidarity with the people of Kerala in times of this crisis, but also provide help to bring some relief in mitigating the miseries of millions," the circular undersigned by SCBA secretary Vikrant Yadav said. The bar body of the apex court said the calamity had struck Kerala in enormous proportions. It said the state has completely come to a halt and people are deprived of their basic needs such as food, water, shelter and electricity. "I request all members of the Supreme Court Bar Association to contribute generously to help our ...
Over 25 trains cancelled, rescheduled in Kerala
More than 25 trains were cancelled or rescheduled in Kerala today in view of the unprecedented floods and landslides in the state, the Southern Railway said today. Railway officials were closely monitoring the impact of flood on railway tracks, bridges and premises and in various sensitive locations, trains were being run at restricted speeds ranging from 10 kmph to 45 kmph, it said in a release here. The long distance trains cancelled included Train No 12202 Kochuveli Lokmanya Tilak Terminus (Garib Rath Express), Train No 12617 Ernakulam Harzrath Nizamuddin (Mangala Lakshadweep SF Express). "Railway officials are deployed round the clock at all sections to monitor the impact of flood on railway tracks, bridges and railway premises. Officials are also closely monitoring the situation from divisional and headquarters control offices," the release said. Kerala has been reeling under the onslaught of the monsoon rains which have triggered landslides and floods, claiming
HC seeks Delhi government's response on plea to strengthen DFS
The Delhi High Court on Thursday sought a response from the state government on a plea seeking directions to fill vacant posts in the Delhi Fire Service (DFS) and introduce programmes in line with Goa's Emergency Monitoring System in the national capital.
Kochi international airport to remain shut till Aug 26 morning
The Kochi international airport will remain closed for operation till August 26 morning in the wake of torrential rains, the Civil Aviation Ministry today said. It said airlines who were found to have spiked airfares operating to an out of Trivendrum and Calicut, have been "advised" to "cap" the ticket rates. Kochi airport has been hit by incessant rains which have wreaked havoc in Kerala. According to an earlier announcement, operations at the airport had been suspended up to the afternoon of August 16. In a communication this evening, the Ministry said, "Cochin airport is closed for operations up to 8.30 AM of August 26". It said airfares on 18 domestic routes -- 10 direct flights to and from Trivendrum and eight direct flights from Calicut are being monitored. The Ministry's advise to the airlines came as hundreds of passengers took to social media and other forums to vent their ire over the jacking up of airfares. Union Minister Sadanand Gowda "shamed" the airlines for making ...
1 killed, 6 injured in lightning strikes
A man was killed and six others were injured, two of them seriously, after lightning struck them at a village in Odisha's Mayurbhanj district today, police said. The victims had taken shelter under a thatched structure at Khodikasole under the jurisdiction of Bangriposhi due to rain when lightning struck, said Inspector In-Charge of Bangiriposi police station, Chandan Ghadei. The injured, including two children and as many women, have been admitted to Pandit Raghunath Murmu Medical college and Hospital here, he said.
HC asks AAP govt about steps taken to fill vacancies in Delhi Fire Service
The Delhi High Court today asked the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) government whether it had sent a requisition for filling up the over-45 per cent vacancy in the fire department, which, according to a PIL, is facing a "manpower crunch" and is allegedly "ill-equipped". A bench of Chief Justice Rajendra Menon and Justice V K Rao issued notice to the Delhi government and sought to know its stand on a plea moved by the Association of the Victims of Uphaar Tragedy (AVUT), which has contended that despite the lapse of 21 years since the tragic incident that claimed 59 lives, fire safety arrangements in the national capital have not improved. On June 13, 1997, during the screening of Bollywood film "Border" at the Uphaar theatre in south Delhi, 59 people, including women and children, had died of suffocation as they were trapped inside the auditorium when it got filled with smoke after a nearby transformer caught fire that spread to the cars parked close to the building. The AVUT, represented by ...
TN govt says Mullaperiyar dam safe to hold water up to 142 ft
The Tamil Nadu government today turned down a plea by flood-hit Kerala for reducing the water level in the Mullaperiyar Dam to 139 feet over safety concerns in view of heavy inflows, saying the century-old reservoir was 'safe' enough to store water Upton 142 feet. Chief Minister K Palaniswami stated this in a letter, responding to his Kerala counterpart Pinarayi Vijayan's communication to him yesterday. Incidentally, the letter came on a day when the Supreme Court directed the Disaster Management sub-committee of Mullaperiyar Dam to consider reducing water level up to 139 feet from the present 142 feet, considering the "grave" flood situation in all the 14 districts of Kerala. But, the letter was apparently written before the directive of the apex court which this afternoon took up for hearing a plea seeking a decision on disaster management steps in the background of the floods in Kerala. "An effort has to be made to bring down the water level of the Mullaperiyar dam to
Find ways to lower water level in Mullaperiyar Dam: SC to authorities
Observing that the flood situation in Kerala is "grave", the Supreme Court on Thursday asked disaster management sub committee to sit with the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) on Friday to bring down the water level in Mullaperiyar Dam "so people do not live in constant fear".
Kerala rains: 35 NDRF teams sent as ops scaled up
The Centre today decided to send 35 more NDRF teams comprising nearly 1,000 personnel to shore up relief and rescue operations in rain-battered Kerala. After the meeting of the National Crisis Management Committee (NCMC) early in the day, the government initially directed sending 12 fresh teams of the federal disaster contingency force to the state and later decided to airlift 23 more teams in order to scale up the operations. "The first 12 teams will reach Kerala by this evening. The rest 23 teams are being sent gradually. The teams have been equipped for assisting the state government authorities in launching quick relief, rescue, medical aid and food distribution tasks in both day time and at night," NDRF Director General Sanjay Kumar told PTI. He said the first 12 teams are being airlifted from Ghaziabad (6) and Vadodara (6) in Gujarat. "The 18 teams already present in Kerala are engaged in relief and rescue operations on a war footing," the DG said. An NDRF spokesperson said the .
HC directs Railways to submit report on PIL seeking safety doors on MRTS trains
The Madras High Court today directed the Railways to submit a comparative status report on a PIL seeking a direction to fix doors on suburban and MRTS trains to ensure safety of commuters. The PIL by advocate K Sathish comes in the wake of an accident that claimed five lives at St Thomas Mount station here. When the PIL came up, a division bench of justices S Manikumar and Subramonia Prasad gave the direction and posted the matter for September 17. The petitioner referred to the accident on July 24, in which five people were killed and 10 others injured while travelling on the footboard of a suburban train here. He alleged that the Railways was not making any effort to prevent such accidents and sought fixing of doors of the compartments like in the Metro rail. Claiming that it was the duty of the Railway management to install safety doors in each compartment so as to prevent such incidents in the future, the petitioner said the Railways ought to have installed safety doors on ...
SC asks panel to consider reducing water levt at Mullaperiyar dam to 139 feet
Taking note of the "grave" flood situation in Kerala, the Supreme Court today ordered the disaster management panel of the Mullaperiyar Dam to urgently decide on lowering the water level by three feet by holding a meeting tomorrow. The direction to the disaster management sub-committee to reduce the water level up to 139 feet from the existing 142 feet came in the backdrop of Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan writing to his Tamil Nadu counterpart E K Palaniswami seeking lowering of the water-level in the Mullaperiyar dam in the interest of its safety. A bench of Chief Justice Dipak Misra and Justice Indu Malhotra considered the plea for urgent hearing at 2 PM and decided to hear it today itself, observing that the flood situation the state was "grim and grave". The court directed the Disaster Management sub-committee of the Mullaperiyar Dam, set up by the Centre under section Section 9 of the Disaster Management Act, to hold an urgent meeting tomorrow with the National Crisis ...
Telangana rain alert: CM asks officials to be vigilant
Telangana Chief Minister K. Chandrashekar Rao, on Thursday, asked the state officials to be alert in view of the possible heavy rains all over the State in the next couple of days."The Chief Minister has instructed that the Special Officers who have been already appointed to handle the situation, should monitor the flood situation in the Districts for which they are in charge, and take up where ever necessary the relief and rehabilitation work in close coordination with local officers," an official release issued from the Chief Minister's Office read.According to the release, the Chief Minister today reviewed the situation arising out of rains and effect of floods in Adilabad and other districts.He also instructed, "the Special Officers who have been already appointed to handle the situation, should monitor the flood situation in the Districts for which they are in charge, and take up where ever necessary the relief and rehabilitation work in close coordination with local ...
ATMA celebrates Independence Day with Freedom from Worn-out Tyres campaign
Automotive Tyre Manufacturers Association (ATMA), premier industry body of 11 large tyre companies, connected with motorists on Independence Day through a specially designed campaign #FreedomFromWornOutTyres.ATMA ambassadors reached out to people urging them to take a decisive step towards road safety by getting rid of worn-out tyres which are a safety hazard."We have been spreading the message of Tyre Safety through our campaigns. The Independence Day fervor celebrating freedom provided an effective backdrop to spread the message of freedom from worn out tyres," said Rajiv Budhraja, Director General, ATMA.Tread is the part of the tyre that comes in direct contact with the road and plays a vital role in safety. According to ATMA, the legal minimum tread depth in case of passenger car tyres is 1.6 mm. Worn out tyres require longer distance to stop which could lead to accidents. Particularly during rains, worn out tyres adversely affect handling and increase the risk of skidding.Tread ..
Karnataka to shift flood-hit people to safer places
With heavy rains upto 25 cm lashing coastal and south interior districts of Karnataka, the state is working to shift people stranded in flood-hit regions, an official statement said on Thursday.
Cholera kills scores in DR Congo, Niger
A cholera epidemic in the Democratic Republic of Congo has killed 127 people since February, while a further 22 have died in Niger, officials have said. "A total of 2,100 patients are currently being treated and since February we have registered 125 deaths," said Hippolyte Mutombo Mbwebwe, health minister in the eastern Kasai region. Ten more cases, including two deaths, were confirmed in neighbouring central Kasai, he said yesterday. In the DRC's violence-wracked North Kivu province, 41 people have also died in the country's latest Ebola outbreak, its 10th since 1976. Meanwhile, in Niger the United Nations said yesterday that 22 people had died from cholera in the Maradi region, close to Nigeria. It said 1,351 cases had been registered including the 22 fatalities.
Konkan Railway cancels 5 trains from flood-hit Kerala
Konkan Railway on Thursday cancelled five trains emanating from Kerala, following the flash-floods in the southern state, a spokesperson said.
Bulgaria to renovate bridges after Italy disaster
Bulgaria has decided to renovate more than 200 bridges in the wake of the deadly collapse of a bridge in the Italian city of Genoa, according to government information published today. A total of 211 bridges -- most of which were built between 35 and 40 years ago -- are in a bad state, the regional development minister told a government meeting, according to minutes published today. Prime Minister Boyko Borisov said all must be renovated and strengthened. "Whether financed through loans to be paid back through tolls or whether we pay with the budget, I want them all to renovated at the same time," he told the meeting held on Wednesday. Bulgaria, the poorest country in the EU, has been receiving financial aid from Europe for decades to modernise its infrastructure. The country is nearly four times the size of Belgium but has only 777 kilometres of motorway, much of which is in a bad state of repair. The motorway bridge in the Italian city of Genoa collapsed Tuesday during a heavy ...
Thousands cry out for help in Kerala
Thousands of flood-affected people in Kerala -- mostly in Pathanamthitta and parts of Ernakulam and Thrissur -- have been stranded as rescuers battle heavy rains to reach out to them even as the death toll in the unprecedented floods rose to 88 on Thursday.