Maharashtra

Heavy rain lashed the city of Nagpur in Maharashtra on Friday midnight, waterlogging roads and inundating the low-lying areas as floodwater entered residential areas. A video shared by the news agency ANI shows several vehicles submerged in water following the torrential rain in the region. According to PTI, Nagpur airport reported 106 mm of rainfall till 5:30 AM. Schools and colleges have been closed in the district in view of the flood and authorities have asked the residents to leave their homes, as per PTI.

#WATCH | Maharashtra: Following incessant rainfall, heavy water logging witnessed at the Canal Road Ramdaspeth, in Nagpur. pic.twitter.com/Cu8NOsNcpT

— ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2023

A team of NDRF conducted rescue operations and safely evacuated six people in the Ambajhari Lake area. The Ambajhari lake is reportedly overflowing due to the continuous rainfall.

Nagpur, Maharashtra: A team of NDRF conducts floodwater rescue operations and safely evacuates 6 people in the Ambajhari Lake area. Rescue operation is still underway: NDRF pic.twitter.com/bgfsJsmIEl

— ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2023

The Indian Army has also joined in the search and rescue operations. A personnel from the Indian Army told ANI, “When we got the message in the morning, the water was at shoulder level. The people were stuck. As soon as we got to know, we brought a boat and rescued the people. We have provided drinking water and biscuits to them.”

#WATCH | Nagpur, Maharashtra: Rescue operations underway by the Indian Army in the waterlogged Ambajhari area. pic.twitter.com/6OMQxtpeGA

— ANI (@ANI) September 23, 2023

Office of Maharashtra Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis stated that teams of NDRF and SDRF have been deployed and district administration has been instructed to carry out the rescue operations.

“DCM has instructed the Nagpur Collector, Municipal Commissioner and CP to immediately activate multiple teams for rescuing people who are stuck at few places. NDRF and SDRF teams are also being deployed,” the office of the Deputy CM said in a post on X, formerly Twitter.

“There has been incessant rainfall due to which the Ambazari lake is overflowing. The low-lying area around it is affected more due to this. Other parts of the city too are affected,” Fadnavis’ office said.

DCM Devendra Fadnavis is continuously monitoring the heavy rain situation in Nagpur.

— @OfficeOfDevendra (@Devendra_Office) September 23, 2023

Secretary of Deputy CM Devendra Fadnavis, Sandip Joshi told ANI that, “Deputy CM has been in constant contact to take stock of the situation. He further said that with the help of the NDRF, Nagpur Municipal Corporation and Nagpur Collectorate around 200-300 people have been rescued. People should be vigilant too during the current situation in the city. And there should be no spread of rumours on social media”.

Meanwhile, District Collector Vipin Itankar told ANI that the low-lying areas were inundated after water in the Ambajhari lake overflowed following the incessant. He requested people not to step out and to remain vigilant during this time.

“Because of the 100-125 mm incessant rainfall in the night, Ambajhari lake overflowed which resulted in waterlogging at the low-lying areas. 200-300 people were rescued from there by the NDRF and SDRF teams…There is an alert for rain today as well. So I appeal to the people to be vigilant and the people living in low-lying areas should move to higher grounds to be safe”, Itankar was quoted by ANI.

He said that the District Administration has been informed to the public. Also, he requested people not to step out to watch the rain.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) Nagur has predicted that “severe/moderate thunderstorms with lightning” is likely to continue at isolated places in Nagpur, Bhandara and Gondia districts. There is also a possibility of “intense rain at isolated places” in these areas, it added. Light to moderate rainfall is likely to occur at many places in Wardha and some parts of Chandrapur, Bhandara and Gondia districts. Light rainfall is very likely to occur at isolated places over Amravati, Yavatmal and Gadchiroli, the weatherman said.

Bhatsa Dam Gates Opened

Meanwhile, all five gates of the Bhatsa dam in Thane district were opened on Friday for water discharge amid heavy rains in the region, an official told PTI. The district official said the storage of the dam was presently 99.47 per cent of its capacity.

“The water level is 141.89 metres. All five gates have been opened to 100 centimetres. The total discharge from these five gates is 18,794 cusecs or cubic feet per second,” he said.

Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) president Sharad Pawar on Tuesday said the Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (DMK) party or its chief MK Stalin will be consulted regarding any decision related to bringing All India Anna Dravida Munnetra Kazhagam (AIADMK) under the I.N.D.I.A. alliance. The statement comes a day after AIADMK ended its four-year-old ties with the BJP on Monday and announced that it is exiting the NDA. AIADMK said that it would be leading a separate front for the 2024 Lok Sabha polls, reported news agency PTI.

Pawar while talking to the media said, “The DMK is an associate of I.N.D.I.A. alliance partners. So no decision related to this will be taken without consulting DMK or Stalin.”

The I.N.D.I.A. bloc of the Opposition is a coalition of 28 parties that aim to defeat the Bharatiya Janta Party-led NDA in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

Earlier in the day, Pawar also responded to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s jibe at the Opposition over the passage of the Women’s Reservation Bill in Parliament. Pawar said that the Congress and its allies supported the Women’s Reservation Bill wholeheartedly in Parliament but, Prime Minister Narendra Modi was not briefed correctly about it. His remarks came just a day after PM Modi in Madhya Pradesh said that the Opposition supported the said bill ‘reluctantly’.

As per a report of the news agency PTI, Pawar stated that the previous Congress governments in Maharashtra as well as at the Centre had taken steps for the empowerment of women. He said, “PM Narendra Modi spoke of Congress and ‘Ghamandia’ allies supporting the Women’s Reservation Bill reluctantly. But this is not true. All of us have wholeheartedly supported the bill. The PM was not appropriately briefed.”

He added, “Congress government at the Centre had brought the 73rd constitutional amendment, which paved the way for 33 per cent quota for women in local bodies. When I was Defence Minister, 11 per cent reservation was given to women in Army, Navy and Air Force.”

The Vibrant Gujarat summit has helped development reach every section of society in the state, Chief Minister Bhupendra Patel said Wednesday while addressing an event commemorating the completion of 20 years of the summit.

“Narendrabhai’s dream of projecting Gujarat on a global map for job creation, industrial development and investments has become 100 per cent successful. We are celebrating it as a ‘summit of success’. This ‘summit of success’ is not just a name, but it is a synonym for the all-round development of the state. Along with economic growth, Vibrant Gujarat has helped vikas percolate to every section and segment of society,” he said at the event in the Gujarat Science City where Prime Minister Narendra Modi was also present.

“The increase in infrastructure facilities has also reached even those at the bottom of the pyramid. It (the summit) has also provided youths with global opportunities and platforms. Vibrant Gujarat has set a new benchmark for Gujarat’s progress,” he added.

The chief minister also pointed out that many Fortune 500 companies had commenced operations in Gujarat and that this could be credited to Vibrant Gujarat. “Gujarat has become the country’s growth engine and the number one state in attracting FDI (foreign direct investment). In the last four years, Gujarat has led the industrial growth of the country,” he said.

The central government’s figures, however, show that Gujarat was ranked fourth—behind Maharashtra, Karnataka and Delhi —in attracting FDI in 2022-23.

A film shown at the venue captured the past 20 years of Vibrant Gujarat summits. “Look back and marvel at where we started and where we are today. Factories doubled, cargo capacity quadrupled, universities multiplied fivefold, MSMEs rose sixfold, per capita income 13-fold, state GDP 16-fold and cumulative FDI is at $55 billion,” the narrator in the film said.

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Industry representatives present at the event also hailed the summit. B K Goenka, chairman of Welspun Group, said, “As a participant from the first the event to the last, I have seen how this event has increased the investment in Gujarat, leading to unparalleled growth and improvement in the socio- economic standards of Gujarat.”

Goenka said he was the first to expand his business from Vapi to an earthquake-hit Kutch. “Today Kutch, which was once a deserted area, has become a paradise for investments. In the next 5-7 years, Kutch will be the capital for green hydrogen,” he added.

Japanese semiconductor firms to visit Gujarat

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Takashi Suzuki, chief director-general of Japan External Trade Organisation, said a Japanese delegation consisting of semiconductor firms was expected to visit the state on November 8-9. Suzuki also remembered that the organisation was the first to join the Vibrant Gujarat summit in 2009. He said there were 360 Japanese companies operating in Gujarat.

At one level, the AIADMK’s exit from the BJP-led NDA points to local factors specific to the coalition and its setting in Tamil Nadu. The alliance between a Dravidian outfit and a party with Hindi-Hindutva moorings was always uneasily poised. Previous electoral outings, in 2019 at the Centre and in the state in 2021, had not delivered for either player, and the Modi-BJP’s recent assertiveness under an aggressive state unit chief further strained relations. For the AIADMK, the BJP’s alleged provocations vis a vis the figures of CN Annadurai and J Jayalalithaa — it has alleged a “planned, deliberate and premeditated effort to misrepresent those considered gods of our movement” — became a flashpoint, even before Udhayanidhi Stalin’s tirade against Sanatan Dharma handed the BJP an opportunity to sharpen an ideological faultline on which it hopes to trip up the Opposition’s INDIA alliance in other parts of the country. But the break-up of the AIADMK and BJP also points to a larger trend in the latter’s politics, and not just in Tamil Nadu. Quite simply, the BJP, which in its initial years actively sought the help of allies to grow and spread, attain power and keep it, is now, under Narendra Modi, who has led the party to two decisive majorities at the Centre, gambling on going it alone.

This has been the writing on the BJP wall, especially since 2019, after which it has lost three major and long-standing allies – Shiv Sena in Maharashtra, Shiromani Akali Dal in Punjab and the JD(U) in Bihar. Again, the reasons may have been different for each estrangement, but what is becoming clear is the BJP’s new-found unwillingness or inability or both to negotiate a way out of the impasse brought on by the ally’s real or imagined grievance. In the Shiv Sena’s case, the BJP went further. It was then seen to engineer a split in its erstwhile partner – it now shares power in the state with the new Eknath Shinde -led Sena that came into being. In recent days, the BJP has acquired a new ally – the JD(S) has joined the NDA in Karnataka. But the reputation it has acquired of being a domineering and predatory partner remains undented. There are indications, also, that the party, which under the leadership of Atal Bihari Vajpayee made friends and struck alliances, likely and unlikely, and spoke eloquently of “coalition dharma”, if only to make a virtue of a necessity, will now only join hands with smaller players which are not likely to be very demanding and those it can dominate easily.