New Delhi: A petition has been filed in the Delhi High Court seeking a direction to the Centre to constitute a committee headed by a retired judge to look into the issue of sinking of Joshimath in Uttarakhand and rehabilitate the affected families.

Cracks have appeared in hundreds of houses of Joshimath, the gateway to some renowned pilgrimage sites like Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib.

Highlighting the woes of over 3000 people of Joshimath, the plea said cracks have developed in at least 570 houses due to continued land subsidence.

After sinking of land, apparently caused by climate and infrastructural changes, over 60 families are reported to have left the town while others are either risking their lives by staying there or searching for an alternate accommodation in winter, it claimed.

Petitioner and advocate Rohit Dandriyal claimed the construction activities done by the ministries of Road Transport and Highways and Power, New and Renewable Energy, in the town of Joshimath in past years have worked as a catalyst in the present scenario and “violated” the fundament rights of the residents there.

“The respondent no.1 (Ministry of Road Transport and Highways) invested Rs 12,000 crore in the programme for connectivity improvement for Char-Dham (Kedarnath, Badrinath, Yamunothri and Gangothri) in Uttarakhand,” it said.

The plea said the Ministry of Power has also invested Rs 2976.5 crore through NTPC and started constructing Tapovan Vishnugad power plant in 2013 for 520 MW Power run-of-river project which is under construction on Dhauliganga River in Chamoli District of Uttarakhand.

It sought to direct the authorities to constitute a high-power joint committee under the chairmanship of retired judge of the high court and representatives of all relevant ministries to inspect the affected areas and look into the issue and rehabilitate the affected people.

Joshimath is sinking gradually with huge cracks developing in houses, roads and fields there. Many houses have suffered subsidence, locals said.

Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami has ordered immediate evacuation of 600 families living in houses at risk.

New Delhi: The Prime Minister’s Office will hold a high-level meeting on the Joshimath crisis on Sunday afternoon amid alarm in the Uttarakhand region due to sinking of land and cracks in houses at several places.

P K Mishra, the principal secretary to the prime minister, will hold the review meeting with the cabinet secretary, other senior officials of the central government and members of the National Disaster Management Authority, an official statement said.

District officials of Joshimath besides senior officials of Uttarakhand will also attend the review meeting through video-conferencing.

Uttrakhand Chief Minister Pushkar Singh Dhami had visited Joshimath on Saturday to assess the situation on the ground, a day after he directed immediate evacuation of around 600 affected families.

Dhami said Joshimath is an important place from the cultural, religious and tourism point of view and all efforts will be made to save it.

Joshimath, the gateway to famous pilgrimage sites like Badrinath and Hemkund Sahib and international skiing destination Auli, is facing a major challenge due to land subsidence.

Lucknow: As the temperature drops in the capital city of Uttar Pradesh, the Nawab Wajid Ali Shah Zoological garden here has placed heaters and blankets inside the animal cages to protect them from the chilling weather.

Apart from the heaters and blankets, the zoo administration has also placed hay grass inside the cages of tigers, lions and bears.

Director of the Zoo Vishnu Kant Mishra said that they have also changed the diet of the animals and birds to help them cope with the ongoing cold weather.

“We have placed heaters, blankets and hays in the animal cages and have also arranged the sleepers for the animals of cat family,” he said.

The heaters have been placed in the cages of reptiles as they need constant heat to maintain the body temperature.

The animals are being provided with rich fat and protein diets, so that they can keep up their energy levels up to the mark.

“We are giving more non-vegetarian food to carnivores animals while wheat barn and peanuts are being given to other animals,” Mishra said.

New Delhi: The railways on Sunday said foggy weather has affected the movement of over 480 trains.

“Around 335 trains have been delayed, 88 cancelled, 31 diverted and 33 short terminated due to foggy weather,” a railway official said.

A blinding layer of dense fog enveloped northwest India and the adjoining central and eastern parts of the country, affecting road, rail and air traffic movement.

Very dense fog lowered visibility to 50 metres at the Palam observatory near the Indira Gandhi International (IGI) airport at 5:30 am.

The Delhi International Airport Limited tweeted that flights, which are not CAT III compliant, may get affected.

Passengers have been advised to contact the airline concerned for updated flight information.

According to the weather office, very dense fog is when visibility is between 0 and 50 metres, between 51 and 200 metres is dense, between 201 and 500 metres moderate, and between 501 and 1,000 metres shallow.

Hingoli: A mild tremor of 3.6 magnitude was experienced in Maharashtra’s Hingoli district on Sunday morning, officials said.

There was no report of any loss of life or property, an official from the district disaster management office told PTI.

The tremor was recorded at 4.30 am at a depth of five km, National Center for Seismology said in a tweet.

Hingoli is located about 250 km from Killari in Latur district, which was the epicentre of a devastating earthquake on September 30, 1993, that claimed around 10,000 lives and injured several other people.

Latur: A woman was arrested for allegedly killing her three-day-old daughter in Latur in Maharashtra, a police official said on Saturday.

The 25-year-old woman strangled the infant on December 29 as she was upset at delivering a second girl child, a probe has found, the Gotegaon police station official added.

“The woman, a resident of Holi in Lohara tehsil in Osmanabad, gave birth in a primary health centre in Kasar Jawala village. She strangled the three-day-old girl with a handkerchief. She was placed under arrest on Friday evening after a probe into the death,” Sub Inspector Kishor Kambale said.

Chandigarh: The Vigilance Bureau has arrested the executive director of the Punjab State Industrial Export Corporation (PSIEC), who was booked for allegedly conniving with other officials of the corporation to provide undue benefit to a realtor firm.

The action against SP Singh came under fire from opposition parties which claimed that he was arrested from the cremation ground in Mohali on Saturdya when he was performing the last rites of his father and veteran journalist N S Parwana.

Several political leaders, including Punjab Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann and his Haryana counterpart Manohar Lal Khattar had condoled Parwana’s demise. Khattar was present at Parwana’s cremation.

A Vigilance Bureau spokesperson said Singh had been booked for allegedly conniving with other officials of the PSIEC in the case of transferring an industrial plot in violation of norms and causing huge loss to the state exchequer.

He would be produced before a court here on Sunday, the spokesperson said.

“Highly insensitive and cruel to arrest a son when he was cremating his father. The SAD condemns the AAP government for interfering in the last rites of veteran journalist N S Parwana and arresting his son from the cremation ground,” Shiromani Akali Dal president Sukhbir Singh Badal said in a tweet.

Punjab Vigilance Bureau had recently registered a case against former minister Sunder Sham Arora, an IAS officer and 10 other government officials for allegedly transferring an industrial plot to a realtor firm and allowing it to establish a township by cutting plots in violation of norms.

Kolkata: Former Governor of West Bengal, Bihar and two other states Keshari Nath Tripathi died at his Prayagraj home in Uttar Pradesh on Sunday.

Tripathi, a senior BJP leader, was 88.

The veteran politician, who was a three-time speaker of the UP Legislative Assembly, was hospitalised for a fractured hand as well as old-age-related ailments and breathing issues, a party leader said.

“Tripathiji was in the ICU for a short while and his condition has improved following which he was brought home. Today at around 5 AM he breathed his last,” the official told PTI over the phone.

Prime Minister Narendra Modi has expressed his sorrow and described Tripathi as the key man in building the saffron party in UP.

“Shri Keshari Nath Tripathi Ji was respected for his service and intellect. He was well versed in Constitutional matters. He played a key role in building BJP in UP and worked hard for the state’s progress. Pained by his demise. Condolences to his family and admirers. Om Shanti,” Modi tweeted.

Born on November 10, 1934, in Allahabad, Tripathi served as the Governor of West Bengal from July 2014 to July 2019. Before that, he also had additional charges for short stints as the Governor of Bihar, Meghalaya and Mizoram.

He was a member of the UP legislative assembly six times and was the Cabinet minister of institutional finance and sales tax in the state during the Janata Party regime from 1977 to 1979.

A poet and author, Tripathi had practised as a senior advocate at Allahabad High Court and was the BJP president in UP for some time.

Gwalior (MP) : Union Civil Aviation Minister Jyotiraditya Scindia has said speedy action will be taken in the case where a man allegedly urinated on a woman co-passenger on a New York-Mumbai flight last November.

Delhi Police on Saturday arrested the 34-year-old accused, Shankar Mishra.

He allegedly urinated on the woman, a senior citizen, in an inebriated condition in the business class of the Air India flight from New York to Delhi on November 26 last year.

“Further action will be taken speedily after the completion of the ongoing proceedings,” Scindia told reporters here on Saturday without elaborating.

The carrier’s CEO on Saturday issued an apology over handling of the incident and said four cabin crew and a pilot have been de-rostered and the policy of serving alcohol on flights is being reviewed.

The Delhi Police arrested Mishra from Bengaluru after he was traced to that city through technical surveillance, officials earlier said.

A Delhi court on Saturday sent Mishra to judicial remand for 14 days while rejecting a plea by police for his custody.

The Delhi Police had registered an FIR against him on January 4 on a complaint given by the woman to Air India.

Mishra, who was working with the US multinational firm Wells Fargo in India, was sacked on Friday.