Nor'westers affect normal life in Odisha
Bhubaneswar, May 23: Normal life in several parts of Odisha was affected due to Nor'westers accompanied by rain and thunderstorms on Wednesday.
Bhubaneswar Met Director Sarat Chandra Sahu said: "A cloud mass that had formed near Odisha-West Bengal border is moving towards the south triggering heavy rains in Bhubaneswar and Cuttack. It is likely to move towards Puri first and then to the Bay of Bengal."
Many people were seen stranded at railway stations and different bus stops due to waterlogging.
The East Coast Railway (ECoR) cancelled four trains, partially cancelled three and controlled more than 10 trains at several places due to the inclement weather.
Overhead wires of the railways were damaged at several places, including near Retang in Bhubaneswar, while signalling system has also been affected due to the squalls, said an official.
Services of Angul-Puri Passenger, Tata-Kacheguda Special, Talcher-Puri Passenger, Bhadrak-Bhubaneswar Passenger, Puri-Cuttack Passenger, Palasa-Cuttack Passenger, Secunderabad-Howrah Falaknuma Express, Bangalore Cant-Bhubaneswar Express, Puri-Santragachhi Passenger, Puri-New Delhi Nandankanan Express were in waiting at different stations.
The Cuttack-Paradeep-Cuttack Passenger and Cuttack-Bhadrak-Cuttack Passenger were cancelled.
The Cuttack-Puri Passenger will originate from Mancheswar instead of Cuttack while Bhubaneswar-Brahmapur Passenger will run up to Balugaon and will return to Bhubaneswar as Brahmapur-Bhubaneswar Passenger from Balugaon to Bhubaneswar, said the official.
Services of Bhubaneswar-Brahmapur-Bhubaneswar Passenger will remain cancelled between Balugaon and Brahmapur from both the directions.
Palasa-Cuttack Passenger and Cuttack-Puri Passenger will remain cancelled between Mancheswar and Cuttack.
Meanwhile, a Bhubaneswar-bound flight from New Delhi was diverted to Kolkata on Wednesday due to bad weather in the city.
The Vistara UK 785 Delhi-Bhubaneswar flight, which left Delhi at 7 a.m. and was scheduled to reach Bhubaneswar at 9.05 am, was diverted to Kolkata due to bad weather here, the airline sources said.
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Sharad Pawar praised RSS after seeing how it burst fake narrative balloon of LS polls: Fadnavis
Nagpur, Jan 10: Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday said NCP (SP) chief Sharad Pawar praised the RSS after realising how the outfit managed to overcome the fake narrative spread by the opposition in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
The opposition had claimed BJP wanted to win 400 seats to change the Constitution and end reservations, a narrative which BJP leaders later claimed hit the party hard.
On Pawar praising the RSS recently, the CM said the MVA was successful in creating a fake narrative during the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.
"When assembly polls were approaching, many people from diverse fields who are inspired by the RSS played their role and burst the balloon of this fake narrative. Sharad Pawar saheb is very intelligent. He would have certainly studied this aspect. He realised that this (RSS) is not a regular political power but a nationalist power. In any competition it is good to praise others," he added.
That is why Pawar may have praised the RSS, Fadnavis said.
Speaking at an interaction with senior editor Vivek Ghalsasi at Late Vilasji Fadnis Jivhala programme here, Fadnavis also said he had asked for organisational work when Eknath Shinde was made chief minister in June 2022, but senior leaders asked him to join the government.
He also said Prime Minister Narendra Modi asked him not to behave like an extra-constitutional authority in the government.
He said the decision to become deputy chief minister on the command of the party leadership earned him a lot of praise from the cadre.
After the massive mandate the ruling alliance received in the 2024 assembly polls, Fadnavis said people and party workers would not have been happy if the CM was not from the BJP.
Shinde himself agreed within minutes that the CM must be from the BJP, which itself got 132 seats and was close to a majority of its own in the 288-member assembly, he added.
On Shiv Sena (UBT) chief Uddhav Thackeray meeting him during the winter sessions of the legislature in Nagpur, Fadnavis said he had announced he would not indulge in politics of revenge after becoming CM and all leaders responded positively to it.
On chances of the NCP (SP) and NCP coming closer or reuniting, Fadnavis said, "If you see the developments that took place from 2019 to 2024, I realised never say never and anything can happen. Uddhav Thackeray goes to some other party and Ajit Pawar comes to us. In politics anything can happen though I am not saying this should happen."
He praised BJP leader Arun Gujarati from whom he learnt patience, which he claimed was an important quality in politics along with the ability to take criticism.
In a lighter vein, he said, "I only get angry when I am hungry. If you see me angry then give me something to eat and my anger will go away."
