Admitting that the flood damage was much more than what was estimated, Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Tuesday urged the Kerala Diaspora to contribute a month’s salary for the state’s reconstruction.

Vijayan’s comments came as the total number of people in relief camps, which stood at 14.5 lakh on August 21, came down to 1.97 lakh on Tuesday as thousands returned to their once flooded homes after they were cleaned up.

“The Kerala Diaspora is already coming out in a big way to help us. What we want is a proper system in place to channelise their resources… I call upon all the Diaspora to contribute a month’s salary over a period of 10 months,” he told the media here.

The government’s priority was to source funds for rehabilitation of the hundreds of thousands displaced and badly hit by the worst floods in Kerala in nearly a century, he said.

“The damage that has taken place is much more than we have estimated and hence funds have to come. But given the response, we are confident, our people will rise to the occasion and come to our help.”

Vijayan urged businessmen to think of giving a portion of their earnings to the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund.

All schools in Kerala will reopen after the Onam holidays on Wednesday barring those in Alappuzha and Ernakulam districts which have been turned into camps to house those forced to flee their submerged homes.

“Strict action will be taken against all those who dispose waste into lakes and rivers during cleaning operations,” added Vijayan.

Tuesday saw a massive cleaning drive led by Finance Minister Thomas Issac and PWD Minister G. Sudhakaran.

“This is perhaps the biggest cleaning drive that has commenced as people have come in huge numbers from various parts of the state to clean up homes in Kuttanadu area,” said Issac.

More than one lakh people in Alappuzha continue to be in relief camps, where the cleaning drive is going on on a massive scale.

On Tuesday, Congress President Rahul Gandhi arrived here and went around relief camps in Alappuzha, Pathanamthitta and Ernakulam districts and promised that the Congress would do its best to ease people’s sufferings.

The party has decided to build 1,000 new homes through sponsorship. Gandhi handed over the first few houses in Alappuzha besides thanking the fishermen who played a key role in the rescue operations.

Chief Secretary Tom Jose said discussions would be held on Wednesday with World Bank officials on the impact of the floods.

Forest and Animal Husbandry Minister K. Raju on Tuesday said that all those who lost goats, cows and buffaloes would be compensated ranging from Rs 3,000 and Rs 30,000.

“The National Diary Development Board is also extending its support and it has been decided to provide cattle feed to farmers,” said Raju.

(IANS)

Over 800 people who were residing in the relief centres have returned home on Sunday.
Kodagu received moderate rainfall on Sunday.
Currently, there are 3,227 people residing in 32 relief camps in the district. Previously there were 7,594 victims in 51 relief camps.

According to Mr Gangaram Baderia, principal secretary and relief commissioner, revenue department (disaster management) the deputy commissioner of Kodagu may keep a team of NDRF and relieve all other rescue teams from different agencies including those of the Indian army, navy, air force, fire and emergency services, home guards, civil defence, and NCC on Sunday. The teams have so far rescued 4,450 people in Kodagu.

The Karnataka engineers association assured of free consultation for reconstruction and rehabilitation of the flood affected areas.

As many as 1,048 out of 1,052 telecom networks including those of Airtel, BSNL, TSP, Idea, Jio and Vodafone are being restored. Chescom has restored electricity in most of the villages.

State government employees association head Mr H.K. Ramu who visited Kodagu on Sunday and said that they are donating their one day’s salary which will amount to Rs 102 crores, for the relief of people of Kodagu.

Private bus operators have decided to stop their services to and from Chennai till Wednesday evening as large number of passengers have canceled their tickets and also as a precautionary measure, said an office-bearer of All Omni Bus Operators Association.

“About 75-85 percent of the passengers decided to cancel their tickets on Wednesday. As a result, the bus operators have decided to cancel the services to and from Chennai till 6 p.m tomorrow (Thursday),” A. Anbalagan, general secretary, All Omni Bus Operators Association told IANS.

According to him, about 1,000 private buses are operated out of Chennai to other parts of Tamil Nadu.

About 10,000 passengers use the private buses to and from Chennai, Madurai, and Coimbatore, he said.

Theatre owners have canceled shows starting tonight and said ticket rates would be refunded.

Following Karunanidhi’s death, several shops in different parts of the state downed their shutters.

Former Chief Minister and DMK President M.Karunanidhi breathed his last here at Kauvery Hospital where he was admitted on July 28.

Over 100 Maratha activists staged a noisy ‘jail-bharo’ agitation at Azad Maidan here on Wednesday, marking the intensified phase of their ongoing fortnight-long campaign for job quotas for the community.

Maratha Kranti Morcha city convenor Virendra Pawar said the agitation in Mumbai was a success and protests were also underway in other parts of the state including Nashik, Parbhani, Solapur and Kolhapur.

Thousands of activists marched to the Azad Maidan in the morning shouting slogans demanding Maratha quotas in government jobs and education. They later courted arrest and were whisked away in police vans.

Activists blocked a portion of the busy Pune-Solapur highway near Kondi and the Aurangabad-Jalna highway as part of the agitation, disrupting traffic and leading to massive traffic jams in both directions.

A large number of Marathas demonstrated outside the residence of Latur Guardian Minister Sambhaji Patil-Nilangekar and raised slogans demanding immediate announcement of quotas for the community.

In Aurangabad, a few Maratha activists tonsured their heads as a mark of protest against the government amidst heightened security in all parts of the state.

From August Kranti Day, August 9, the Maratha groups will unleash protests all over the state. The demonstrators will converge in Mumbai and launch a siege of Mantralaya, the state government headquarters in Nariman Point, Pawar added.

Today’s planned jail-bharo stir came after Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis said on Tuesday that the government would announce Maratha quotas after following the due process of law to ensure it stands legal scrutiny and without affecting existing quotas for other communities.

North Karnataka mutt seers protested against the state government in front of the Suvarna Vidhana Soudha (SVS) in Belagavi here today.

The seers’ protest call gathered wide support. Several social and non-political organizations have also expressed their solidarity to the campaign.

The seers have also demanded the shifting of key departments to Suvarna Soudha, making it an alternative seat of power. They pointed out that currently, the edifice was merely a 10-day venue for the winter sessions of the legislature.

At least 34 people were killed and several injured mostly in a suicide bombing in Balochistan on Wednesday as millions of voters are thronging polling stations across the country to exercise their franchise in the 11th general election.

The Balochistan bombing targeted the convoy of Deputy Inspector General of Police Abdul Razzaq Cheema near a polling station. It left 31 persons, including some policemen, dead. The senior police official escaped unhurt, Geo News reported.

Civil Hospital Quetta officials confirmed the casualties.

The area was crowded as people were making their way to vote at Tameer-e-Nau Model School. Polling was halted at the polling station, only to resume later.

While polling stations opened for voting at 8 a.m., enthusiastic citizens queued up outside their respective stations as early as 7 a.m. Voting will end at 6 p.m. Halfway through polling, the PML-N had sent a letter to the Chief Election Commissioner, seeking an extension in time by one hour.

“The PML-N is making this demand under Section 70 of the Election Act 2017, which authorises ECP to ‘extend polling hours already fixed’,” read the letter, signed by Mushahid Hussain.

The ECP, however, turned down the party’s request. The counting of the votes is being done simultaneously.

Results for the 11th general elections are expected to trickle in immediately after the polling ends with the final outcome likely by Thursday morning or afternoon, according to election officials.

A Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) worker was killed and two others injured as party activists clashed with Awami National Party (ANP) workers outside a polling station in Nawan Kali in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa, according to Express News.

Another person was killed in firing outside a Mirpurkhas polling station in Dighri area.

In a separate incident, one person was killed while five people were injured in a cracker blast outside a political camp in Larkana.

The workers of the two parties clashed in Mardan as well. Several people have been injured in the firing incident. Following the clash, police took control of the affected area.

Two people were injured in a firing incident in Dera Murad Jamali in Balochistan.

In a separate incident, four people were injured in a blast outside a political camp in Larkana, in Sindh province, the home of the Bhutto family.

Independent candidate Jibran Nasir said that Tehreek-i-Labbaik Pakistan supporters attacked a facilitation camp he had set up in Chandio Village in Karachi.

As many as 12,570 candidates are in the field for a total of 849 seats of the national and provincial assemblies in the general election. Nearly 106 million people are eligible to vote.

The battle is mainly between three parties: Shahbaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N), Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari’s Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) and Imran Khan’s PTI.

In an effort to increase voter participation, the Election Commission has declared a public holiday on Wednesday.

Over four lakh security personnel have been deployed at polling stations across the country to maintain law and order and take action against harassment, after the nation witnessed one of the bloodiest campaigning, inlcuding the July 13 bombing that killed 150 people.

According to a poll official, 5,878 polling stations have been declared “highly sensitive” — official euphemism to mean they are prone to violence — in Sindh; 5,487 in Punjab and Islamabad; 3,874 in Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and FATA and 1,768 in Balochistan.

The elections are being held as emotions run over a graft case that led to the imprisonment of ousted Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and his daughter Maryam Nawaz.

Sharif’s PML-N has condemned the legal cases against its members in order to force them to leave the party and the efforts to prevent the party from emerging victorious in the election as it had done in 2013 by getting absolute majority.

These elections are the second in Pakistan’s history in which a government was able to complete its term. Military dictators have ruled the country for half of the 71 years of its existence since its founding in 1947.

Millions of voters queued up to vote in Pakistan’s 11th general elections, with some history-making events also taking place in the conservative areas where women are usually not allowed to take part in an activity outside their homes.

Women in a village located in Khuhab, a city in Punjab, made history by casting their votes for the first time ever since the country came into being.

They reached the polling stations soon after the polling time started and used their right, Daily Pakistan reported.

Females in the tribal district of Mohmand proceeded on foot to the polling stations. Likewise, women in Dir were also allowed to cast their ballot. Dir was once a Taliban stronghold where women had few rights and were not allowed to vote.

In Lower Dir, there was a heavy turnout of women voters and it was the same scene in Mithi and Badin areas of Sindh.

Women were allowed to cast their votes in Hali Banda area of Achini on the outskirts of Peshawar after the Election Commission took notice of locals barring female voters in Peshawar and Bannu from exercising their right to vote.

In another Peshawar constituency, women voter turnout was reportedly very low. Out of 1,700 votes expected to be cast, only 56 votes were cast till the afternoon.

Women have had the right to vote since the founding of the country but being able to use it is a different story.

As the polling progressed, there were complaints of women being barred from voting in several areas, including Noshera, said the Election Commission secretary.

In one constituency of Mandi Bahauddin, a city in Punjab, women were unable to exercise their right to vote.

According to reports, women in parts of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa province were being dissuaded from voting. No woman voted in Shangla and Kohistan districts of the province.

The reason behind the low female turnout was the absence of a segregated polling station, reports said.

All political parties, especially the religious ones, said in their political campaigns that women should be allowed to vote. However, women in certain areas were forbidden to vote by jirgas — Council of Elders.

Despite announcements aired by mosques in several areas, women did not turn up to vote.

The election body said that any polling station where women’s votes were polled less than 10 per cent of the overall votes cast will have its results cancelled.

The 10 per cent requirement is part of election laws governing the process.

In the ongoing elections, as many as 105.96 million people, including 47 million female voters, will be able to use their right to vote from 8 a.m. till 6 p.m. without any formal break, with over 12,000 candidates vying for 272 national and 570 provincial assembly seats.

Imran Khan’s vote may be canceled for violating electoral rules, reports said on Wednesday, as his Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) party denied the charge and said the country’s poll body failed to prevent the spread of unverified reports.

Pakistani television channel Express News reported Khan was captured on video while exercising his franchise in violation of the Election Commission of Pakistan’s “secrecy of ballot” code.

According to the Pakistani media, the commission has taken notice of the event during the violence-marred general election that has cricket hero Khan pitted against the party of jailed former prime minister Nawaz Sharif. At least 29 people have died in attacks across the country.

Dawn.com reported the election commission has forwarded the matter to the chief election commissioner for consideration and a notice will be sent to Khan after that. A video of the PTI chief casting his vote has also been sent to the election body, it added.

The punishment for failing to maintain secrecy while voting is six months jail and a fine of Rs 1,000 under section 185 of the Election Act, 2017.

The PTI said its chairperson Khan did not violate any election rules and also criticised the commission for not curtailing the spread of unverified media reports.

“Taking notice against a particular party’s leader may present an unbalanced view and compromise the elections,” the party said.

According to the latest opinion polls, neither Khan nor Sharif are likely to win a clear majority in the election.

Khan has emerged as a slight favorite in national opinion polls, but the divisive race is likely to come down to Punjab, the country’s most populous province, where Sharif’s party has clung to its lead in recent surveys.

The election has been plagued by allegations the powerful armed forces have been trying to tilt the race in Khan’s favour after falling out with the outgoing ruling party of Sharif, who was jailed on corruption charges this month.

Khan has staunchly denied allegations by Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party that he is getting help from the military, which has ruled Pakistan for about half of its history and still sets key security and foreign policy in the nuclear-armed nation.

The army has also dismissed allegations of meddling in the election.

About 106 million people are registered to vote in polls due to close at 6 pm (1300 GMT). The likely winner should be known by around 2 am on Thursday.

The second phase of the Maharashtra shutdown call by Maratha groups seeking quotas evoked a mixed response in Mumbai and coastal districts of the state, punctuated with incidents of stray violence, here on Wednesday.

Since morning large groups of Maratha activists armed with saffron flags and banners, took to the streets with noisy processions amidst tight police security in Mumbai and other districts like Palghar, Thane, Raigad, Ratnagiri, and Sindhudurg.

Roads were blocked in several parts of Mumbai. There was an attempt to block the suburban railway system in Thane. Stones were pelted at city transport buses in Navi Mumbai, and private vehicular traffic was also stopped by the protestors.

Most shops and commercial establishments remained shut in important pockets like Dadar, Andheri, Mulund, Kanjurmarg, Borivali, Kandivali, and in many other places as Maratha activists went around requesting shopkeepers to down shutters and express solidarity with their cause.

A large group of protestors blocked certain pockets on the Eastern Express Highway and Western Express Highway, disrupting normal traffic movement, as well as arterial roads in the suburbs, stopping all vehicles from plying to and from on the highways.

Some protesters blocked the railway tracks at Jogeshwari but were evicted by the security forces and normal services resumed in 10 minutes, said a Western Railway spokesperson.

However, schools and colleges functioned normally, though there were reports of a drop in attendance. Mumbai’s lifeline the suburban trains and long-distance services were largely unaffected and other essential services functioned smoothly.

Today was the second phase of the state-wide shutdown call by the Maratha Kranti Morcha. The first phase was held spontaneously on Tuesday in most districts of northern, western and Marathwada regions of Maharashtra.

The Marathas are seeking suitable reservations in government jobs and education and the agitation conducted peacefully for the past over two years turned violent on Tuesday after a Maratha youth committed suicide in Aurangabad on Monday.

The shutdown organizers, the Bharatiya Janata Party-Shiv Sena government, and the police have appealed to all groups to maintain peace during the agitation.

A policeman and two others were injured as the campaign for a Maratha quota turned violent here even as protests were held in different parts of Maharashtra by the Maratha Kranti on Tuesday.

A large number of protestors torched a fire brigade vehicle near Kaigaon in Aurangabad district where a 28-year-old, Kakasaheb Dattatreya Shinde, committed suicide by jumping in the Godavari river on Monday evening demanding reservations.

The repercussions of Shinde’s death were felt in different parts of the state with spontaneous shutdowns, road and rail blockades, processions and stray incidents of arson on Tuesday.

A fire brigade vehicle was torched in Aurangabad and a police jeep was set ablaze in Hingoli even as the issue was raised in the Lok Sabha by Shiv Sena MP Vinayak Raut.

All major political parties including Congress’ Ashok Chavan and Sachin Sawant, Nationalist Congress Party’s Jitendra Awhad and others have urged the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party government to resolve the issue of Maratha reservations expeditiously.

Various Maratha groups have announced a Maharashtra shutdown on August 9 – celebrated as August Kranti Day – to intensify the agitation going on since nearly two years