Madikeri, July 09: The Punarvasu rain has been lashing out at in the district causing widespread damage to the houses and properties besides landslides and uprooting of trees in several places.

Though the intensity of the rain came down in Talakaveri and Bhagamandala in the district, the road connectivity between the two places is disconnected as the flood water is flowing on Ayyangeri road for the last three days. However, the traffic movement was resumed on Madikeri road as the water level receded on it.

The Talakaveri region has received more than 5 inch rainfall in one day. Compared to this, district centre Madikeri received more than 6 inch rainfall from Sunday. The storm-water drainages in the city are overflowing with rainwater and inflow into the Onkareshwara Temple pond is increased, the water is being released. A part of the house belonging to Rashmi Pradeep near AV School was collapsed on Sunday night. But no casualty was reported. The houses of Abubakkar and Nabisa of Tyagarajnagar were also damaged partially.

SDPI city unit president Khaleel, leaders Basheer, Ummar, Nasir, Mohammad and others visited the areas where houses were damaged and distributed plastic sheets to get protection from rains. Landslides were occurred near Madenadu village on Mangaluru road and mud covered on the road disturbing the vehicular movement for some time. But later, the mud was removed to let the vehicles. Traffic movement was also suspended for some time as trees fell on the road at Kadagadalu, Kagodu, Boikere and other places. As Napoklu, Srimangala, Balele and Ponnampete have been receiving heavy rains, Lakshmana Theertha river is overflowing above the normal level.

Heavy rains in Somawarapete

In the last 24 hours, the taluk has received heavy rains in urban and rural areas causing landslides and other damages to the properties. As the roadside hillock was collapsed, on the road leading to Gandhi Nagar from Alekatte in Choudlu gram panchayat limits, the road was covered with mud. Though locals demanded retention wall along the road, no action was taken against it. Hundreds of vehicles including school vans are plying on this road every day. People said that the zilla panchayat engineering division should be held responsible if anything happened.

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Mumbai, Nov 25: Shiv Sena (UBT) MP Sanjay Raut on Monday demanded a re-election in Maharashtra using ballot papers, claiming there were irregularities with the electronic voting machines (EVMs).

Talking to reporters, Raut alleged several complaints about EVMs malfunctioning and questioned the integrity of the recently held elections.

The BJP-led Mahayuti won 230 out of 288 seats in the assembly elections, while the opposition Maha Vikas Aghadi managed 46 seats, with Shiv Sena (UBT) winning just 20 out of 95 seats it contested.

"We have received nearly 450 complaints regarding EVMs. Despite raising objections repeatedly, no action has been taken on these issues. How can we say these elections were conducted fairly? Hence, I demand that the results be set aside and elections be held again using ballot papers," Raut said.

Citing some instances, he said a candidate in Nashik reportedly received only four votes despite having 65 votes from his family, while in Dombivli, discrepancies were found in EVM tallies, and election officials refused to acknowledge the objections.

The Sena (UBT) leader also questioned the credibility of the landslide victories of some candidates, saying, "What revolutionary work have they done to receive more than 1.5 lakh votes? Even leaders who recently switched parties have become MLAs. This raises suspicions. For the first time, a senior leader like Sharad Pawar has expressed doubts about EVMs, which cannot be ignored."

Asked about the MVA's poor performance in the elections, Raut rejected the idea of blaming a single individual.

"We fought as a united MVA. Even a leader like Sharad Pawar, who commands immense respect in Maharashtra, faced defeat. This shows that we need to analyse the reasons behind the failure. One of the reasons is EVM irregularities and the misuse of the system, unconstitutional practices, and even judicial decisions left unresolved by Justice Chandrachud," he said.

Raut stressed that though internal differences might have existed within the MVA, the failure was collective.

He also accused the Mahayuti of conducting the elections in an unfair manner.

"I cannot call the elections fair given the numerous reports of discrepancies in EVMs, mismatched numbers, and vote irregularities across the state," Raut said.