Amid tight security, tricolour hoisted at Chamarajpet Idgah Maidan in Bengaluru
Bengaluru(PTI): The national flag was on Monday hoisted for the "first time" at the Idgah Maidan in Chamarajet here, whose ownership had run into controversy.
The event was held under tight security with Rapid Action Force (RAF), City Armed Reserve (CAR), and Karnataka State Reserve Police (KSRP) platoons deployed in and around the venue.
With several groups recently announcing that they will hoist the national flag at the Idgah Maidan on Independence Day, the state government had recently decided that a Revenue Department official of the rank of Assistant Commissioner will be hoisting the tricolour.
Revenue Minister R Ashoka, who had visited Idgah Maidan on Sunday to take stock of the arrangements, had said for 75 years the flag was not hoisted there, and that the state government has now taken a firm decision in this regard.
Assistant Commissioner M G Shivanna hoisted the tricolour, which was attended by Member of Parliament P C Mohan, MLA B Z Zameer Ahmed Khan, Additional Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil, Deputy Commissioner of Police Laxman B Nimbargi were among those present.
Following the hoisting of the tricolour and the singing of the national anthem, "Bharat Mata Ki Jai '' slogans reverberated in the area.
The public witnessed the event that went on peacefully, which also saw cultural programmes performed by students of Chamarajpet Government School.
Bruhat Bengaluru Mahanagara Palike (BBMP), the city civic body, had recently dismissed the petition filed by the Karnataka State Board of Auqaf for a 'khata' (document which identifies the ownership of a property) in its favour for the communally-sensitive Idgah Maidan, and had declared the Karnataka government's Revenue Department to be the default owner of the land.
Following the BBMP order, several Hindu organisations had announced that they will celebrate Independence Day on the ground.
Also, local Congress MLA Zameer Ahmed Khan too had announced that they will go ahead and hoist the tricolour on the ground.
The decades-old dispute over Idgah Maidan had once again come to fore earlier this year, when some Hindu outfits sought BBMP's permission to hold events at the place.
This resulted in two contrary sets of documents emerging, as the Karnataka State Board of Auqaf presented a 1965 gazette notifying the land as Wakf property, while the 1974 City Survey records and all other civic records thereafter showed the land to be a playground.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Los Angeles county wildfires could be costliest in US history, early estimates say
Los Angeles, Jan 11: The wildfires that erupted this week across Los Angeles County are still raging, but already are projected to be among the costliest natural disasters in US history.
The devastating blazes have killed at least 11 people and incinerated more than 12,000 structures since Tuesday, laying waste to entire neighbourhoods once home to multimillion-dollar properties.
While it's still too early for an accurate tally of the financial toll, the losses so far likely make the wildfires the costliest ever in the US, according to various estimates.
A preliminary estimate by AccuWeather put the damage and economic losses so far between USD 135 billion and USD 150 billion. By comparison, AccuWeather estimated the damage and economic losses caused by Hurricane Helene, which tore across six southeastern states last fall, at USD 225 billion to USD 250 billion.
“This will be the costliest wildfire in California modern history and also very likely the costliest wildfire in US modern history, because of the fires occurring in the densely populated areas around Los Angeles with some of the highest-valued real estate in the country,” said Jonathan Porter, the private firm's chief meteorologist.
AccuWeather factors in a multitude of variables in its estimates, including damage to homes, businesses, infrastructure and vehicles, as well as immediate and long-term health care costs, lost wages and supply chain interruptions.
The insurance broker Aon PLC also said Friday that the LA County wildfires will likely end up being the costliest in US history, although it did not issue an estimate. Aon ranks a wildfire known as the Camp Fire in Paradise, California, in 2018 as the costliest in US history up to now at USD 12.5 billion, adjusted for inflation. The Camp Fire killed 85 people and destroyed about 11,000 homes.
The LA County wildfires, which were fuelled by hurricane-force Santa Ana winds and an extreme drought, remained largely uncontained Saturday. That means the final tally of losses from the blazes is likely to increase, perhaps substantially.
“To put this into perspective, the total damage and economic loss from this wildfire disaster could reach nearly 4 per cent of the annual GDP of the state of California,” AccuWeather's Porter said.
In a report Friday, Moody's also concluded that the wildfires would prove to be the costliest in US history, specifically because they have ripped through densely populated areas with higher-end properties.
While the state is no stranger to major wildfires, they have generally been concentrated in inland areas that are not densely populated. That's led to less destruction per acre, and in damage to less expensive homes, Moody's noted.
That's far from the case this time, with one of the largest conflagrations destroying thousands of properties across the Pacific Palisades and Malibu, home to many Hollywood stars and executives with multimillion-dollar properties. Already, numerous celebrities have lost homes to the fires.
“The scale and intensity of the blazes, combined with their geographic footprint, suggest a staggering price tag, both in terms of the human cost and the economic toll,” Moody's analysts wrote. The report did not include a preliminary cost estimate of the wildfire damage.
It could be several months before a concrete tally of the financial losses from the wildfires will be possible.
“We're in the very early stages of this disaster,” Porter said.
