2 dead in Uttarakhand cloudburst
Dehradun, July 20 : Two persons have died and three others have been buried in rubble on a hillside after a cloud burst triggered heavy rains in Chamoli district of Uttarakhand, an official said on Friday.
The downpour late on Thursday followed the cloud burst at Malari that led to a major chunk of a hill to collapse. Five labourers involved in some civil project, sleeping by the hillside were trapped in it.
Two of the bodies have been extracted while search continues for three more. A team of experts belonging to the State Disaster Management Department has been rushed to the site.
The heavy rains and inclement weather have also disrupted the Char Dham pilgrimage, the official told IANS. The Badrinath-Lambagad highway has been block, and also the Gangotri National Highway between Therang and Gangnani, near Nagdevta due to debris coming down on the road.
"Owing to some landslides and the subsequent debris falling on the highway traffic has been halted at Gangotri, Gangnani, Bhatwadi and Uttarkashi," he added.
Labourers of the Border Road Organization (BRO) are working to clear the road as their is a long queue of vehicles that are part of the annual 'Char Dham' (Yamunotri, Gangotri, Badrinath and Kedarnath) pilgrimage.
The Hemkund pilgrimage continues uninterrupted.
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Another North Goa nightclub sealed; Kejriwal says corruption led to fire tragedy
Panaji (PTI): As part of a crackdown against tourist establishments violating laws and safety norms in the aftermath of the Arpora fire tragedy, Goa authorities on Saturday sealed a renowned club at Vagator and revoked the fire department NOC of another club.
Cafe CO2 Goa, located on a cliff overlooking the Arabian Sea at Vagator beach in North Goa, was sealed. The move came two days after Goya Club, also in Vagator, was shut down for alleged violations of rules.
Elsewhere, campaigning for local body polls, AAP leader Arvind Kejriwal said the fire incident at Birch by Romeo Lane nightclub at Arpora, which claimed 25 lives on December 6, happened because the BJP government in the state was corrupt.
An inspection of Cafe CO2 Goa by a state government-appointed team revealed that the establishment, with a seating capacity of 250, did not possess a no-objection certificate (NOC) of the Fire and Emergency Services Department. The club, which sits atop Ozrant Cliff, also did not have structural stability, the team found.
The Fire and Emergency Services on Saturday also revoked the NOC issued to Diaz Pool Club and Bar at Anjuna as the fire extinguishers installed in the establishment were found to be inadequate, said divisional fire officer Shripad Gawas.
A notice was issued to Nitin Wadhwa, the partner of the club, he said in the order.
Campaigning at Chimbel village near Panaji in support of his party's Zilla Panchayat election candidate, Aam Aadmi Party leader Kejriwal said the nightclub fire at Arpora happened because of the "corruption of the Pramod Sawant-led state government."
"Why this fire incident happened? I read in the newspapers that the nightclub had no occupancy certificate, no building licence, no excise licence, no construction licence or trade licence. The entire club was illegal but still it was going on," he said.
"How could it go on? Couldn't Pramod Sawant or anyone else see it? I was told that hafta (bribe) was being paid," the former Delhi chief minister said.
A person can not work without bribing officials in the coastal state, Kejriwal said, alleging that officers, MLAs and even ministers are accepting bribes.
