Gujarat, June 14,2023: Around 4,500 people have been shifted from their homes to shelter homes as a precautionary safety measure ahead of cyclone Biparjoy reaching the coast of Gujarat, informed the Sub Divisional Magistrate (SDM) Parth Talsania.
While speaking to ANI, Talsania informed, “We have shifted 4,500 people from the coastal areas to various shelter houses. Preparations to meet food and medical needs are also made at the shelter homes. We are closely monitoring the situation.”
He further informed that cyclone Biparjoy has moved slightly to the west and is less likely to make landfall at the Dwarka coast. But a wind speed of around 100 to 80 kilometres is expected.
He informed that one NDRF team has been deployed in Dwarka and Okha each. One SDRF and one army team specialised in clearing roads is also on alert.
SDM further informed that Minister of Home for State Harsh Sanghvi and Fisheries Minister Purshottam Rupala are present in Dwarka and are closely monitoring the situation.
The district administration of Dwarka is coordinating with all agencies, Coast Guard, Navy, Air Force and Army.
He further informed that though the cyclone has moved slightly westward and is less likely to make landfall in Dwarka, the situation is not normal. Winds will blow with a speed of 100 km which can be fatal if not taken care of.
“I request all residents stay indoors and fill basic groceries like milk and bread,” he added.
The Indian Meteorological Department is yet to confirm the westward movement of the cyclone.
The India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Wednesday sounded a Red alert as cyclone ‘Biparjoy’ warning for the Saurashtra and Kutch coasts in Gujarat.
New Delhi , June 12,2023: The Central government on Sunday appointed Kerala IPS officer Nitin Agarwal as the Director General (DG) of the Border Security Force.
The 1989 batch officer is currently posted as an Additional DG of the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF).
“The Appointments Committee of the Cabinet has approved the proposal of the Ministry of Home Affairs for the appointment of Shri Nitin Agarwal, IPS (KL:89), presently working as Additional DG, CRPF as Director General, Border Security Force (BSF) with pay at Level-16 of the Pay Matrix from the date of joining the post and up to 31.07.2026 i.e. date of his superannuation or till further orders whichever is earlier,” a Home Ministry’s notification stated.
New Delhi, June 10,2023: The Narendra Modi-led government at the Centre has constituted a “Peace Committee” for Manipur under the Chairpersonship of the state Governor Anusuiya Uikey, a statement said on Saturday.
The latest development came days after Union Home Minister Amit Shah had announced to constitute Peace Committee during his visit to Manipur to take stock of the situation in the aftermath of violence in the Northeastern state.
The members of the committee include Chief Minister N Biren Singh, a few state Ministers, MP, MLAs and leaders from different political parties, as per the communique issued by the Home Ministry.
The mandate of the Committee will be to facilitate peacemaking process among various ethnic groups of the State, including peaceful dialogue and negotiations between conflicting parties/groups, it said.
The panel will strengthen social cohesiveness, mutual understanding and facilitate cordial communication between various ethnic groups, it added.
The opposition Congress has been blaming the BJP government in Manipur over the current situation in the state.
The party had said, “The current ‘crisis’ in Manipur is the result of the ‘divisive politics’ of BJP in the state. It is also the result of the intelligence failure of the state government.”
Bhubaneswar, June 6,2023: A ten-member team of the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Tuesday started its probe into Friday’s train accident at Bahanaga Bazar station in Balasore district that claimed the lives of 275 people and left over 1,000 injured.
The Railway Board had recommended a CBI inquiry into the horrifying accident involving two superfast trains and one Goods train.
The CBI team accompanied by some Central Forensic members reached the spot at Bahanaga station,visited control room and signal room at Bahanaga Bazar Railway station and held discussion with the railway officials at the station.
The CBI team refused to divulge the details of the investigation process to the waiting newsmen.
On Monday Commissioner of Railway Safety (Southeastern Circle) Sailesh Pathak also conducted a statutory inquiry into the Odisha train tragedy
Pathak reached Bahanaga Bazar station and visited the accident site. He then went to the control room and signal room of the station and discussed with the officials.
Balasore (Odisha), June 5,2023: Indian Railways on Monday has started running passenger trains on the tracks in Bahanaga village in Odisha’s Balasore which were affected due to the triple train accident.
The triple train accident in Odisha’s Balasore which left 275 dead and more than 1,000 injured, Indian Railways on Monday resumed running passenger trains on the tracks of the accident-affected route.
Union Railways Minister Ashwini Vaishnaw on Sunday waved at the crew of a goods train and prayed for a safe journey, as services resumed after 51 hours of a train accident in Balasore.
“Services on both tracks have been restored. Normal train services on both lines have now been restored, 51 hours after the accident,” said Ashwini Vaishnaw.
On Sunday, Vaishnaw said the accident occurred due to a “change in electronic interlocking”.
Electronic interlocking is an arrangement of signal apparatus that prevents conflicting movements between trains through an arrangement of tracks. It is basically a safety measure to prevent signals from being changed in improper sequence. The aim of this system is that no train gets the signal to proceed unless the route is proven safe.
Meanwhile, the probe of the tragic Odisha train accident that claimed the lives of 275 people and left over 1000 injured, to the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI).
“The way this accident happened, looking at the conditions, and according to the administrative information. The Railway Board is recommending the probe to the CBI,” Vaishnaw added.
The incident took place around 7 pm on June 2 near the Bahanaga Baazar station in Balasore district, about 250 km south of Kolkata and 170 km north of Bhubaneswar. It involved the Bengaluru-Howrah Express and Shalimar-Chennai Coromandel Express and a goods train.
New Delhi , May 27,2023: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday chaired the eighth governing council meeting of the Niti Aayog.
Themed on ‘Viksit Bharat @2047: Role of Team India’, the meeting was held at the new Convention Centre in the national capital’s Pragati Maidan.
As the chairman of NITI Aayog, PM Modi presided over the meeting, which deliberated on issues related to health, skill development, women empowerment and infrastructure development, with an aim to make India a developed nation by 2047.
Chief Ministers of several States participated in the council meeting that was attended by Home Minister Amit Shah, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman and Defence Minister Rajnath Singh
Chhattisgarh chief minister Bhupesh Baghel, Andhra Pradesh chief minister Jagan Mohan Reddy, Jharkhand chief minister Hemant Soren, Arunachal Pradesh chief minister Pema Khandu, Maharashtra chief minister Eknath Shinde were seen at the meeting.
“Eight prominent themes will be discussed during the day-long Meeting including (i) Viksit Bharat@2047, (ii) Thrust on MSMEs, (iii) Infrastructure and Investments, (iv) Minimising Compliances, (v) Women Empowerment, (vi) Health and Nutrition, (vii) Skill Development, and (viii) Gati Shakti for area development and social infrastructure,” the NITI Aayog stated ahead of the meeting.
“The Meeting will see the participation of Chief Ministers/Lt Governors of all States and Union Territories, Union Ministers as ex-officio Members, and the Vice Chairman and Members of NITI Aayog”, it stated.
As a preparatory prelude to the 8th Governing Council Meeting, the second Chief Secretaries Conference was held in January 2023, where these themes were extensively discussed.
“Wide-ranging stakeholder consultations and brainstorming sessions with subject experts, academia and practitioners were held prior to the Conference in order to gain well-rounded grassroots-level perspectives,” it further said.
The NITI Aayog further said, “This 8th Governing Council Meeting is also being held in the backdrop of India’s G20 Presidency. India’s G20 motto ‘One Earth, One Family, One Future’ conveys its civilisational values and its vision of the role of each country in creating the future of our planet.”
This will be the guiding spirit of India’s inclusive and sustainable vision for the next quarter century.
In order to achieve this vision, the 8th Governing Council Meeting would provide a platform for strengthening Centre-State cooperation and forging partnerships for achieving the goal of Viksit Bharat @2047.
Thiruvananthapuram, May 24 ,2023: Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan will make the ‘Total e-Governance Kerala’ declaration here on May 25, as God’s Own Country becomes India’s total e-governed state, marking a major stride in its journey towards a knowledge-based society and economy besides achieving cent per cent digital literacy.
This unique achievement, which comes decades after Kerala became the first fully literate Indian state and began its quest to become a fully e-literate society, has been realised through a set of visionary policy initiatives of the Government seeking to transform the state into a digitally empowered society.
Besides digitising the delivery of government services to the people by making them transparent and inclusive, total e-governance will also ensure the inclusion of all sections of society, including the less privileged and marginalised.
The achievement enables online delivery of the whole range of government services by leveraging state-of-the-art technology and platforms. The Government has built a single window service delivery mechanism called e-Sevanam which integrates more than 800 plus government services online.
Keeping in tune with the vision of the Chief Minister for the transparent and speedy delivery of services to all, the state IT Mission has also created a set of digitised platforms and applications including e-Office File Flow, taking it down to the village office level.
The delivery of all vital services has already been digitised, covering all key domains including health, education, land revenue, documentation of properties, public distribution system and social security payouts.
Over the period, the state has also successfully carried out a clutch of major projects like eDistrict, K-Swift, EHealth, ePDS, eCourt management, ERSS, Pol App, Cyber DOM, KITE, HSCAP and Digital Survey Mission.
Kerala IT Mission, the nodal agency for the implementation of digitisation initiative, has made all services easily accessible for people of all strata of society.
The total e-governance will also help bridging the digital divide by making digital infrastructure to all at affordable cost, which is critical in transforming Kerala into a digital society to achieve sustainable economic growth.
In its policy initiatives, the state government has, over the last few years, emphasised on the importance of Information Technology as the key instrument of social development and economic growth.
The roll-out of KFON (Kerala Fibre Optic Network) will be a decisive step forward in this direction. Kerala stands out as the first Indian state to declare access to the Internet as a citizen’s right.
Making fast-paced progress, the state also emerged top in the National e-Service Delivery Assessment conducted by the Government of India.
The Chief Minister will make the historic declaration at a function at Nishagandhi Auditorium in the state capital at 4.30 pm.
Bengaluru, May 11,2023: Karnataka has recorded a voter turnout of 73.19 per cent in 2023 state assembly election, which is the highest-ever since 1952 in the state.
“Karnataka has created a new record for itself. Final voter turnout for Karnataka Election 2023 stands at 73.19 per cent,” Karnataka Chief Electoral Office said here on Thursday evening.
Most of the pollsters are predicting a hung verdict in the state, except two who are giving BJP and Congress a comfortable majority.
Voters in Bengaluru Urban have been a disappointing breed as only 52.33 per cent of them have come out to exercise their franchise. Last year the percentage of voter turnout in the city was nearly 55 per cent.
Interestingly, the neighbouring Bengaluru Rural stood in the second spot in overall voters turnout data, registering 85.08 per cent, next to the No.1 district of Chikkaballapur where as much as 85.56 percent voters turned out to exercise their franchise.
Largely, peaceful voting has taken place in all 224 assembly constituencies in the state and no repoll has been indicated in any of the 58,545 polling stations, the EC said.
This year’s voter percentage overpassed the previous record of 72.44 per cent, which was recorded in 2018. In 2013, it was 71.83.
Counting of votes is scheduled for May 13.
The last assembly election had thrown up a hung assembly with the BJP emerging as the single largest party with 104 seats, falling slightly short of getting a majority.
The BJP is banking on its micro-management team, Modi magic and 72 new faces to take them past the magic figures of 113 and break a 38-year-old poll jinx of overthrowing the ruling party from power.
The Congress is expecting an absolute majority to gain momentum to position itself as the main opposition player in the 2024 Lok Sabha elections.
JDS is expecting to play kingmaker’s role in case of a hung verdict, while Aam Aadmi Party, which is in power in Punjab and Delhi, has also fielded candidates.
All the major parties ran their campaigns with full steam, but the resolve to ban Bajrang Dal in Congress manifesto gave a handle for Prime Minister Narendra Modi led BJP to portray Congress party as anti-Hindu by saying that they had a problem with Lord Ram, and now have with Bajrang Bali.
This forced the Congress party on the backfoot who started to clarify on Bajrang Dal ban with Veerappa Moily, first among the party leaders, who said the state governments do not have any rights to ban any organisation, except the central government, and denied that there was any proposal to ban Bajrang Dal.
Barbs like venomous snake, Vishakanya and Nalayak beta were hurled against each other during the poll campaign, which forced the election commission to issue an advisory, asking them to uphold their dignity.
While AICC President Mallikarjun Kharge called Modi a venomous snake and his son and Congress candidate Priyank Kharge called PM a nalayak beta, BJP candidate Basanagouda Patil Yatnal asked if former Congress President Sonia Gandhi is a vishkanya.
New Delhi, May 5,2023: Stepping up its attack on BJP-led government in Manipur over the violence in several parts, the Congress on Friday demanded immediate imposition of President’s Rule in the state.
“Manipur has been burning since the last 3-4 days. The law and order situation has completely broken down,” said Congress spokesperson Supriya Shrinate referring to the violence in the North Eastern state.
Accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi and Home Minister Amit Shah of not paying attention to Manipur, Shrinate said, “Where are the PM and HM ? They are busy in Karnataka elections. ”
“The BJP government in Manipur should be dismissed and President’s Rule should be imposed immediately,” she said.
Protests erupted in Manipur on Wednesday against the High Court directive to look into the demand of Meitei to be included in the ST list.
All Tribal Students Union Manipur and some other organisations opposed the decision of the HC and staged protest rallies.
Several houses were burnt in Bishnupur district by miscreants.