Tag: NDRF

At 650, Bihar leads in extreme weather deaths in 2019: IMD report

Source – business-standard.com

Bihar suffered the most – with 650 deaths – due to various extreme weather conditions in the country last year, a compilation by the India Meteorological Department (IMD) from media and government reports showed.

An official statement issued by the IMD showed that almost 1,560 people died in 2019 due to unusual weather events.

These include heavy rain and floods, heat wave, lightning, thunderstorm and hailstorm.

The year 2019 was the seventh warmest recorded in the country since 1901, the statement showed. This was substantially lower than the highest warming observed over India during 2016, it added.

In 2019, the IMD statement said that eight cyclonic storms formed over the seas against the normal of five. “Heavy rain and flood-related incidents reportedly claimed over 850 lives from different parts of the country during the pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon periods. Of these, 306 lives were lost from Bihar alone,136 from Maharashtra, 107 from Uttar Pradesh, 88 from Kerala, 80 from Rajasthan and 43 from Karnataka,” the statement said.

Meanwhile, in a related event, the Centre on Monday approved the release of Rs 5,908.56 crore to seven states, including Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Assam, as assistance for the damage caused due to various calamities last year.

The home ministry, in a statement, said the decision was taken at a meeting of a high-level committee (HLC), chaired by Union home minister Amit Shah.

The HLC approved additional central assistance of Rs 5,908.56 crore to seven states from the National Disaster Response Fund (NDRF). Of this, Rs 616.63 crore will be given to Assam, Rs 284.93 crore to Himachal Pradesh, Rs 1,869.85 crore to Karnataka, Rs 1,749.73 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs 956.93 crore to Maharashtra, Rs 63.32 to Tripura and Rs 367.17 crore to Uttar Pradesh for floods, landslides or cloudburst during the monsoon season, the statement said.

Earlier, the central government released an interim financial assistance of Rs 3,200 crore to four states – Rs 1,200 crore to Karnataka, Rs 1,000 crore to Madhya Pradesh, Rs 600 crore to Maharashtra and Rs 400 crore to Bihar.

During 2019-20, the government released Rs 8,068.33 crore to 27 states as central share from the State Disaster Response Fund (SDRF).

Security beefed-up in Bihar on Eid al-Adha, last Shravan

Source: indiatoday.in

Security has been beefed-up across Bihar in the view of Eid-ul-Adha, also called Bakrid, coinciding with the last Monday of Shravan month, when devotees visit temples of Lord Shiva in large numbers, a senior police officer said.

He said the security forces have been deployed at sensitive areas in all the districts and central paramilitary forces have been kept on standby for any exigency.

“One company of Rapid Action Force and Sashastra Seema Bal have been stationed at Patna and Bhagalpur respectively to assist the local police in maintaining law and order in case any disturbance is reported,” Additional Director General of Police, Headquarters, Jeetendra Kumar told reporters.

The security beef-up comes after Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, at a high-level meeting last week, asked officials to maintain law and order during the two festivals and lay emphasis on preventing rumour-mongering through social media.

DGP Gupteshwar Pandey, who was present at the meeting, has appealed the public through the social media to remain vigilant against attempts to disrupt peace during the festivals and warned of stern action against rumour mongers.

In his message on Eid-ul-Adha eve, the Chief Minister urged the people of the state to remember that “the festival symbolises sacrifice and its true joy can be found only in an atmosphere of peace, amity and brotherhood”.

Meanwhile, four teams of National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) have been dispatched from here to neighbouring Jharkhand’s Baidyanath and Basukinath temples to prevent any untoward incident during the massive turnout of devotees there on the last Monday of Shravan.

NDRF’s Patna-headquartered ninth battalion commandant Vijay Sinha said,”Devotees visit the shrines after taking bath in the nearby ponds. Our personnel will be vigilant there with rescue boats to avert any untoward incident”.