Karnataka increases water discharge from Almatti dam
Mumbai: Karnataka has so far discharged 4.50 lakh cusecs water from the Almatti dam, a move which is expected to ease flood situation in Kolhapur and Sangli districts of Maharashtra.
An official in the Chief Minister's Office (CMO) here said at present the discharge from the dam on the Krishna river in Bijapur district of neighbouring Karnataka was 4,50,000 cusecs (cubic foot per second).
The discharge from the dam was 4,30,352 cusecs at 10 am on Friday which was later raised to 4,50,000, he said.
The official said by Friday evening, the discharge would be 5 lakh cusecs as demanded by Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis from his Karnataka counterpart B S Yediyurappa.
Fadnavis had said on Thursday that he had requested his Karnataka counterpart to discharge 5 lakh cusecs, a demand which he has agreed to.
The CM had said discharge from the Almatti dam will result in drop in water level in Kolhapur and Sangli district in western Maharashtra. Meanwhile, Fadnavis on Friday briefed Prime Minister Narendra Modi on the flood situation in the state.
A statement from the CMO said the Prime Minister took detailed information on the situation, rescue and relief measures and assured all assistance from the Centre.
An Indian Air Force helicopter has landed in Sangli, where it will be deployed to distribute relief material, the statement said. A total of 34 teams are working in Kolhapur and 36 in Sangli. These include teams of the NDRF, Navy, Coast Guard and SDRF, it added.
Besides Sangli and Kolhapur, Satara, Pune and Solapur districts are also reeling under floods.
As of Thursday, over two lakh people have been evacuated to safer places in these five flood-affected districts.
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Traffic fraud: Fake 'no-entry' sticker racket busted in Delhi, mastermind among 3 held
New Delhi (PTI): Police here have busted a crime syndicate involved in traffic fraud and extortion, arresting three people including the alleged mastermind who sold fake stickers to help commercial vehicles bypass no-entry restrictions, an official said on Saturday.
The police said they dismantled a third organised syndicate linked to traffic-related frauds, with the arrest of Rinku Rana alias Bhushan, his associate Sonu Sharma and Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, who was also connected to another extortion syndicate.
According to the police, Rinku Rana was running a well-organised network that facilitated the movement of commercial goods vehicles during restricted hours by selling fake 'marka' or stickers for Rs 2,000 to Rs 5,000 per vehicle every month. The stickers were falsely projected as authorisation to evade traffic challans.
During raids, the police recovered Rs 31 lakh in cash, property documents worth several crores of rupees, over 500 fake stickers and six mobile phones allegedly used to operate the syndicate.
The crackdown followed a complaint filed by a traffic police officer in April this year after a commercial vehicle tried to evade checking by producing a fake sticker claiming exemption from enforcement action.
Investigation revealed that social media groups were being used to coordinate the illegal movement of vehicles and alert drivers about traffic police checkpoints, police said.
"A parallel system was being run to cheat drivers and vehicle owners while undermining traffic enforcement. On the basis of evidence, provisions related to organised crime under the BNS were invoked," a senior police officer said.
Sonu Sharma, the police said, managed social media groups through which stickers were sold and real-time alerts were circulated regarding traffic police movement. He also acted as a link between Rana and drivers operating in the field.
In a related development, Mukesh Kumar alias Pakodi, an associate of Rajkumar alias Raju Meena, who was earlier arrested under the Maharashtra Control of Organised Crime Act (MCOCA), was also apprehended.
Mukesh allegedly helped extort money from transporters and was involved in blackmailing traffic police personnel by recording enforcement actions, the police said.
Investigators alleged the syndicate led by Rajkumar deployed drivers to deliberately violate traffic rules and secretly record police officials during challans, later using manipulated videos to extort money under threat of false allegations.
The police said that in total, eight accused belonging to three different organised crime syndicates linked to traffic frauds and extortion have been arrested so far.
Further investigation is underway to trace the remaining members, conduct financial probes, and analyse digital evidence recovered during the raids, officials added.
