3,802 people affected, 883 houses damaged as heavy rain batters Manipur
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Imphal (PTI): Heavy rain wreaked havoc in Manipur with 3,802 people affected and 883 houses damaged due to floods and landslides across the state in the last 48 hours, officials said on Sunday.
Several localities of the state's capital Imphal and many parts of Imphal East district have been inundated after a swollen river breached embankments and overflowed in Khurai, Heingang and Checkon areas, they said.
Manipur Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla visited several inundated areas of Imphal town even as the army and Assam Rifles personnel rescued nearly 800 people from submerged localities in Imphal East, the worst-affected district, they said.
Bhalla, accompanied by Chief Secretary PK Singh and other senior officials, visited Kangla Nongpok Thong, Lairikyengbam Leikai, and Singjamei Bridge in Imphal and assessed the overall situation, a Raj Bhavan statement said.
"At least 3802 people have been affected and 883 houses damaged in the last 48 hours as a result of floods and landslides in the state.
Altogether 3,275 localities or villages have been hit by heavy rain till Saturday evening. Two persons have also been injured. The death of 64 animals has been reported," an official said.
Overall, 12 landslides occurred across the state so far, he said.
Waterlogging was reported on the premises of several offices and establishments, including All India Radio Imphal complex, and state-run Jawaharlal Nehru Institute of Medical Sciences, after the Imphal river overflowed in Checkon area, another official said.
On Sunday, the water level in the Iril river in Imphal East district crossed the danger mark on Sunday but is yet to breach the embankments, he said.
Locals and authorities have been trying to strengthen the embankments.
The water level in Checkon and Wangkhei receded on Sunday morning, but the situation in Khurai and Heingang constituencies, which were inundated on Saturday, remains unchanged, another official said.
During the visit, the governor instructed the officials to monitor the river situation closely and to implement pre-emptive measures, the Raj Bhavan statement said, adding that directions have been given to deputy commissioners to arrange for evacuation and temporary relief measures for the affected people.
SDRF and NDRF units have also been alerted, it added.
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Two injuries, one DNF, a DQ as India end messy World Relays campaign
Gaborone (Botswana) (PTI): Amoj Jacob and Ragul Kumar got injured during the men's 4x400m and 4x100 races respectively as India ended their World Athletics Relays campaign in disappointment on the second day of competitions here on Sunday.
The Indian camp had high hopes of making the 2027 World Championships in the men's 4x400m relay but the team did not finish (DNF) the race as Jacob suffered cramps and pulled out of the race after taking the baton from the first leg runner Dharamveer Choudhary. Rajesh Ramesh and Vishal TK were to run in the third and fourth legs.
Those teams which could not qualify for the 2027 Beijing World Championships by reaching the final round of each of the six relay events on Saturday were given another chance in the second qualification round on Sunday.
The top two teams in each of the two heats (in all six relay events) booked the Beijing ticket on Sunday.
India will now have to try and qualify for the World Championships through the Top Lists of the World Athletics, which is a long and tedious process.
In the men's 4x100m race, third leg runner Ragul Kumar fell down the track after failing to hand over the baton inside the exchange zone to fourth leg runner Gurindervir Singh, which clearly showed the lack of coordination among the runners.
Harsh Santosh Raut and Animesh Kujur ran the first two legs.
The Indian quartet was disqualified and Kumar was seen being taken away from the Field of Play with the help of the volunteers.
It was a comedy of errors in the case of the women's 4x100m race, which saw the baton being dropped during an exchange between first leg runner Tamanna and second runner Nithya Gandhe, though the Indians finished the race in 53.09 seconds.
Gandhe started running quite a distance, but after realising that the baton was not in her hand, she turned and ran back to pick it up.
The only silver-lining for the Indian contingent was the national record time in the mixed 4x100m relay race, though the quartet of Ragul Kumar, Nithya Gandhe, Animesh Kujur and Sneha SS finished sixth in heat number two with a time of 41.35 seconds, bettering the previous national mark of 42.30 seconds set in March in Chandigarh.
The mixed 4x400m relay quartet of Theerthesh P Shetty, Kumari Saloni, Nihal William and Rashdeep Kaur ended at fifth in heat number one with a time of 3 minutes and 19.40 seconds.
On Saturday, all the five Indian relay teams had failed to make it to the respective final rounds and thus missed out on the 2027 World Championships berths.
