Himachal Pradesh declares heavy rains as state calamity
Shimla (PTI): The Himachal Pradesh government Friday declared the massive damage caused by heavy rains as a state calamity.
The entire hill state has been declared as a "natural calamity affected area" in view of the damage caused to human life and property due to heavy rains, a notification issued here on Friday said.
Earlier in the day, Chief Minister Sukhvinder Singh Sukhu had told PTI that the Himachal Pradesh government has decided to declare the massive damage caused by heavy rains as a state calamity.
The state is also awaiting a response from the Centre to declare the disaster in Himachal Pradesh as a national calamity, Sukhu said.
Meanwhile, with the recovery of three more bodies from the rubble of a Shiv temple in Summer Hill on Friday, the death toll in rain-battered Himachal Pradesh has risen to 77 and 23 of these deaths were in the three major landslides in Shimla alone -- at the Shiva temple in Summer Hill and in Fagli and Krishnanagar, Shimla SP Sanjeev Kumar Gandhi said.
About four persons are still feared buried in the temple debris, the SP said.
Speaking to PTI on Friday, Principal Secretary (Revenue) Onkar Chand Sharma said that after the weather becomes normal and accessibility is improved, a complete assessment of the losses incurred by the hill state would be conducted and the report will be submitted to the Centre for recovery and reconstruction efforts.
Heavy rains have lashed the hill state since Sunday, triggering landslides in several districts, including Shimla.
The chief minister said rescue operations are going on in full swing and the state government is making efforts to help the affected families especially those whose houses have been damaged in the flash floods and landslides with its own resources.
"Central teams have inspected the affected areas for loss assessment and we need timely help from the Centre," Sukhu said, adding that Himachal Pradesh has suffered an estimated loss of Rs 10,000 crore.
Since the onset of the monsoon in the hill state on June 24, 220 persons have died in rain-related incidents in Himachal Pradesh and 11,637 houses have been partially or completely damaged, according to the state emergency operation centre.
Over 600 roads are still closed in the state, out of which 550 would be opened in the next three days, said Public Works department (PWD) Minister Vikramaditya Singh. About 408 transformers and 149 water supply schemes have been disrupted.
Over the last three days, 2,074 people have been evacuated from the flooded areas of Kangra district.
Sukhu earlier said the state would need a year to rebuild the infrastructure damaged by the heavy rains this monsoon.
The state government on Thursday relaxed conditions for spending the MLA local area development fund.
The MLAs would now be able to use their fund of Rs 2.10 crore per year for projects like construction of retaining walls and channelisation of drains.
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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.
