Kodagu disaster: A pall of gloom descends on marriages, festivals
Madikeri, August 22: The disaster that shook the people of the district has now affected the marriages and festivals. The life was thrown out of gear in most part of the district. People are worried about their future as they have lost everything.
However, those who are in safe place compared to the distressed people, have no interest in celebrating the festivals or conducting the marriages. Because of this worst ever disaster, some of the marriage programmes were postponed.
In Kodagu district, the marriage programmes would start soon after the completion of the Ati month. As per this, the marriages were fixed after August 15. Now, majority of the marriages were postponed and parents have been sending messages to their relatives.
Many of the families have given advertisements in the Madikeri Radio about the postponement of the marriage programmes. Many engagements were also postponed.
The election scheduled for Agriculture Credit Cooperative Society was also postponed. Many general body meetings of the associations were also postponed. Following the disaster, the election to be held for Virajpete, Somawarpete, and Kushalnagar town panchayats on August 29 were also postponed.
In Madikeri and Somawarpete, the Ganesh festival committees have decided to celebrate the festival in a simple manner. The disaster shadow cast on major festival of Kodagu, Kail, to be held on September 3.
Villagers of Mukkodlu, Makkandur, Kalur and other villages who were in preparation for the festival, have lost everything and they are not in a position to celebrate any festival. If their shattered life is improved with the planned decisions and executions, then they could celebrate the festivals.
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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.
