Six districts affected in Odisha nor'wester
Bhubaneswar, May 3: Three persons were killed on Wednesday and six districts affected in the nor'wester in Odisha, said an official on Thursday.
Deputy Relief Commissioner Prabhat Ranjan Mohapatra said while two persons were killed after tree branches fell on them in Balasore and Bargarh districts during the rain, another person was killed in a wall collapse in Mayurbhanj district in the squall last night.
A report from Malkangiri district said that three persons were injured in the nor'wester accompanied by heavy rain, he said.
He said the government had received preliminary reports from six districts -- Bargarh, Jajpur, Dhenkanal, Balasore, Sonepur and Mayurbhanj -- so far on the impact of unseasonal rain.
"Major damage to crops and houses have been reported in the six districts and Bargarh remains the worst hit," said the official.
The government has provided a compensation amount of Rs 5.31 lakh to the families for construction of houses in Mayurbhanj district.
Other districts had been asked to submit reports on major damages due to the unseasonal rain, he added.
"The crop loss assessment has not been done yet as it is just the initial report," Mahapatra added.
According to preliminary reports, in all 456 people died due to lightning during 2017-18.
Lightning has become a major disaster in the state that claims more than 400 human lives on an average every year.
In comparison to other natural calamities that cause more economic losses, the death toll due to lightning is much higher in Odisha. The loss of 456 lives in 2017-18 is a 15 per cent increase over that of the last year, according to an official.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
