chennai l tuesday l may 28, 2024 l `9.00 l PAGES 18 l late city EDITION Cyclone remal leaves trail of destruction in bengal, four killed Strong winds blew away roofs of huts and knocked down power poles, while accompanying downpour caused waterlogging in many areas Rains to continue till tuesday morning flight services resume after 21 hours The cyclone ravaged adjacent coasts of West Bengal and Bangladesh between Sagar Island and Khepupara after its landfall process began around 8.30 pm on Sunday. After a night of heavy rainfall, several areas of Kolkata remained inundated. More rainfall is on the cards, not only in the metropolis but also in other parts of the state till Tuesday morning, which may hamper relief works ■ ■ The deaths mostly occurred due to the collapse of roofs and walls of houses due to strong winds and relentless downpours. People have been urged to remain indoors as heavy rain persists in many areas Fight services at the Kolkata airport resumed on Monday morning after remaining suspended for 21 hours because of the cyclone | P9, P11 135 kmph Maximum wind speed recorded as the cyclone tore through bengal coast CHENNAI ■ MADURAI ■ VIJAYAWADA ■ BENGALURU ■ KOCHI ■ HYDERABAD ■ VISAKHAPATNAM ■ COIMBATORE ■ KOZHIKODE ■ THIRUVANANTHAPURAM ■ BELAGAVI ■ BHUBANESWAR ■ SHIVAMOgGA ■ MANGALURU ■ TIRUPATI ■ TIRUCHY ■ TIRUNELVELI ■ SAMBALPUR ■ HUBBALLI ■ DHARMAPURI ■ KOTTAYAM ■ KANNUR ■ VILLUPURAM ■ KOLLAM ■ TADEPALLIGUDEM ■ NAGAPATTINAM ■ THRISSUR ■ KALABURAGI Doctor dies of electrocution while charging laptop in room E x p r e s s N e w s S e r v i c e @ Chennai A 32-year-old woman doctor who was undergoing training at the Institute of Mental Health in Chennai is suspected to have died of electrocution at her hostel room in Ayanavaram on Sunday night due to a faulty cable while charging her laptop. The issue came to light after her husband’s call to her phone went unanswered. Hostel authorities who checked her room based on her husband’s request found her unconscious in the room. She was immediately rushed to the Kilpauk government hospital where doctors U Saranidhi d e cl a re d h e r brought dead. An inquiry is under way . According to the Ayanavaram police, Dr U Saranidhi was a native of Namakkal district and had completed her MD in Psychiatry at Coimbatore medical college. She was living in Coimbatore with her husband Dr Udhayakumar and their five-year old child. Udhyakumar works at Coimbatore ESI hospital. Saranidhi had come to Chennai on May 1 to attend a 25-day training course at the Institute of Mental Health in Kilpauk. Continued on p5 express read ‘Savukku’ Shankar: Plea to SC seeking CBI probe Chennai: A petition has been sent to the Supreme Court Secretary General seeking a CBI probe into the allegation of Justice G R Swaminathan about two ‘highlyplaced’ persons asking him not to decide on habeas corpus plea filed in ‘Savukku’ Shankar case | P2 Padma awardee to return award over Naxal threat Narayanpur: Traditional medicine practitioner Hemchand Manjhi, renowned for his stellar work from a remote village in Chhattisgarh’s Narayanpur district, on Monday said he will return his Padma Shri award, after he received threats from Naxalites | P9 50 TN officers booked in PM housing scam S i d d h a r t h P r a b h a k a r @ Chennai The Directorate of Vigilance and Anti-Corruption (DVAC) has booked cases against 50 officials of the rural development and panchayati raj department on the charge of misappropriating funds in the implementation of Pradhan Mantri Awas Yojana (PMAY-G), a central housing scheme for rural poor, in Tamil Nadu between 2016 and 2020. Under the scheme, each beneficiary is eligible to receive `2,77,290 in cash, material and manpower. While 62% of the money is sanctioned by the state government, the union govern- ment funds the rest. Hundreds of poor beneficiaries across the state may have been hit by the multi-crore scam, sources said. At least seven cases were booked recently by the agency in , the scam using identical modus operandi, and the latest one booked on May 20 was against officials of Sanapathur village in Gummidipoondi panchayat of Tiruvallur district. DVAC’s investigation found that the officials allegedly misappropriated `31.66 lakh by transferring the funds in violation of rules to beneficiaries who had either not built their houses com- pletely or to beneficiaries who already had own houses and are ineligible under the scheme. A few people, who are unrelated to the scheme, had also received lakhs of rupees, sources said. Four of these seven cases were booked in the last six months. The biggest case of embezzlement was the one booked in March this year against 10 officials in Nagapattinam over alleged misappropriation to the tune of `1 crore meant for 146 beneficiaries. DVAC pegged the total quantum of the scam in seven villages in as many districts to `2 crore. Lost faith in state machinery: Guj HC Roasts Rajkot civic body for not enforcing fire safety rules D i l i p S i n g h K s h at r i ya @ Ahmedabad The Gujarat High Court on Monday hit out at the Rajkot Municipal Corporation and the state government, saying it has lost faith in the state machinery that turns a blind eye to illegal structures and wakes up only after innocent lives are lost. The sharp remarks came a day after the HC took suomotu note of the blaze at the TRP Game Zone in Rajkot on Saturday evening, which killed at least 28 people. The game zone did not have the fire NOC or other crucial permissions. A special bench of justices Biren Vaishnav and Devan Desai asked the Rajkot civic body why it allowed the game zone to run. The bench was furious when it was told the operators did not apply for permissions. “Were you blind to the existence of this large structure? How do you explain that the entire zone has existed for the last twoand-a-half years? What fire safety measures were applied?” it asked. When a counsel pointed out that drastic actions must be taken to avoid such incidents in future, the bench said: “Who will take such drastic steps? Frankly we no longer , have faith in the state machinery This is the sixth incident in . four years after our orders and their assurances. They only act after lives are lost.” The HC posed a volley of questions to the corporation’s counsel, asking why were the court’s earlier orders on fire safety norms not followed. During the hearing, the bench examined photographs showing Rajkot government officials being present at the gaming zone inauguration. “Who were these officers? Were they there for play? Can we not take judicial notice of that fact? For 18 months, what did the corporation do? Just sit on it?” the bench questioned. On Monday the Gujarat gov, ernment suspended five officials from various departments, including two police inspectors, for negligence in the Rajkot fire tragedy . Debris being removed from the game zone site in Rajkot, where 28 died in a blaze | Pti Notice to past Rajkot officials The HC noted that every municipal commissioner starting from the establishment of the TRP Game Zone in 2021 up to the time of the incident “should be held responsible for the tragedy”. It instructed them to provide individual affidavits Jadavpur joust is on a razor’s edge S u l a g n a S e n g u p ta @ Kolkata The Jadavpur parliamentary constituency is known for its cerebral power as it often sends luminaries to the Lok Sabha. For example, way back in 1984, current Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee wrested the seat on a Congress ticket from CPM stalwart Somnath Chatterjee. This time around, it could be a toss up between the Trinamool’s Saayoni Ghosh, the CPM’s Srijan Bhattacharyya and the BJP’s Anirban Ganguly because the race is that tight. All three are alumni of Jadavpur University . At 47, Dr Ganguly is the eldest of them. Saayoni and Srijan are 31. Saayoni became the Trinamool Congress youth wing head after Mamata’s nephew and party general secretary Abhishek Banerjee vacated the position in 2021. An actor by profession, she got the moniker of a party streetfighter from Mamata. Srijan is member of the CPM’s West Bengal state committee. He was the state secretary of the Students’ Federation of India for just over six years till January last. As for Dr Ganguly , he is an academic and chair- man of the BJP’s Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Research Foundation. While Saayoni parrots Mamata’s seamless connect with the grassroots, adding she introduced various innovative schemes for the upliftment of the poor, Ganguly hammers away at the TMC’s scams under Mamata’s watch and her attempts to shield her tainted party leaders. Saayoni models herself on Mamata’s brand of politics, saying: “I’ve learned that real politics is different from what’s in the textbooks. A true leader understands the people’s needs and struggles, just like Mamata. A leader must be accessible, and I am here for Jadavpur.” Her political From left, Srijan Bhattacharyya, Saayoni Ghosh and Dr Anirban Ganguly Illustration: Mandar Pardikar journey began in February 2021 when she joined the TMC and unsuccessfully contested for the Asansol South assembly seat. In contrast, Srijan has been in politics for a long time. He promises to introduce more industries and bring back jobs to the state that were chased away by the current regime. He flogs the Singur example where the then CPM chief minister Buddhadeb Bhattacharya invited the Tatas to set up their Nano plant, but they were driven away by Mamata’s activism. Ganguly is seen mobilising people from other districts for large road shows and rallies with posters and banners in a demonstration of strength across the constituency Sob. ha Rani Deb, a senior voter in Baghajatin area of Jadavpur is critical of Ganguly’s mobilisation. “This is an election, not a festival. Ganguly’s road shows often end up in creating traffic bottlenecks,” she rued. The Jadavpur Lok Sabha constituency includes Baruipur Purba (Scheduled Caste), Baruipur Paschim, Sonarpur, Bhangar, Jadavpur, Sonarpur Uttar and Tollygunge assembly segments. It falls within the 24 Parganas district, which is the sixth-most densely populated in India. Those booked are mostly panchayat secretaries, block development officers (BDOs), and panchayat chiefs. The officers have also been booked for forgery . According to DVAC, officials were mandated to implement the scheme by checking documents and conducting field verification. Officers were tasked with identifying beneficiaries based on financial status, land and house ownership, and also help them in constructing the houses. The houses will have to be built by the beneficiaries themselves and the money would be released to them in phases based on the progress of work after inspection. P5 Below normal monsoon in east, northeast Heatwave days In its assessment for June, the weather office also said the number of heatwave days would be above normal over most parts of northwest India and adjoining areas of central India J i t e n d r a C h o u b e y @ New Delhi In its updated long-range forecast for the upcoming Southwest monsoon season, the India Meteorological Department (IMD) on Monday predicted above-normal rainfall over central and south peninsular India and normal rains over northwest India. However, eastern and northeast regions and some northern parts such as Jammu a n d K a s h m i r, L a d a k h , Himachal Pradesh, and Uttarakhand may likely see be- low-normal rainfall. “The southwest monsoon seasonal rainfall is most likely to be ‘above normal’ over central India and south peninsular India (greater than 106% of the long-period average), ‘normal’ over north- west India (92-108%) and ‘below normal’ over northeast India (less than 94%),” the weather office said. This means India’s core monsoon zone, where agriculture is mostly rain-fed, will get above-normal rains. The IMD has already predicted the onset of the monsoon over Kerala on May 31. In an unusual development, the Bay of Bengal branch of the monsoon may arrive earlier than the Arabian Sea branch due to cyclone Remal, which has pushed up monsoon wind.
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