1400 HRS.
21.06.13

THE HEADLINES

• Army and ITBP step up rescue operations in flood and landslide hit Uttarakhand; 35 thousand people evacuated so far; Rescue efforts also continue in Himachal Pradesh.
• Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs approves sale of 100 lakh tonnes of wheat in open market; also clears 5 per cent stake sale in Neyveli Lignite Limited.
• Death toll in building collapse at Mumbra in Thane district of Maharashtra rises to ten.
• Sensex gains 80 points in afternoon trade; Rupee strengthens 38 paise against the dollar.
•  India storm into the final of ICC Champions Trophy beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets; To meet England on Sunday at Birmingham.

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In Uttarakhand, the Army, Indian Air Force and ITBP have intensified their rescue operations to evacuate pilgrims and tourists from badly affected Kedar valley region in Rudraprayag district. Helicopters from Army, IAF and private sector have started carrying out sorties to rescue stranded people. Yesterday, 90 sorties were carried out. The IAF has introduced its helicopters, having capacity to carry people in good numbers. Army, ITBP and National Disaster Response Force, NDRF have also dropped their commandos to locate pilgrims and tourists stranded in remote areas in Kedar Valley and is developing landing facilities for helicopters. This was disclosed by ITBP DG Ajay Chadha in New Delhi today.

"Kedarnath, Gaurikund and area between Kedarnath and Gaurikund is badly affected. ITBP teams and NDRF teams are already working there and they have approached all the people who are stranded there and evacuation is going on from Kedarnath as well as Gaurikund. At Gaurikund about 1,500 people are there. We have made foot tracks from Gaurikund and to Soneprayag, and we are evacuating people who are fit by walking also. In Badrinath also, number of people are struck because of bridge and a large portion of road has been washed away. ITBP people and BRO, they are making foot tracks so that people can walk across and come to Joshimath. But situation is not critical there because there is enough food and shelter there."

About 35 thousand pilgrims and tourists have been evacuated till now from different parts of the flood affected areas mostly from Rudraprayag, Tehri, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh districts. Army has mobilized 2500 additional troops for rescue and relief operations. Army, ITBP and National Disaster Response Force NDRF are trying to build temporary bridges and roads so that people can be brought down and flown in small helicopters which are landing at all the major places struck by rains and floods. Our correspondent has filed this report:

"State government has announced three days State Mourning. Several state governments including Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have provided their helicopters for evacuation operation. Thousands of pilgrims have been evacuated from Kedarnath during last two days through helicopters but still large number of pilgrims are stranded at Rambada, Fata and Gaurigaon . The Border Road Organization, BRO and Army have opened several roads affected in landslide in Rudraprayag, Chamoli, Tehri, Uttarkashi and Pithoragarh districts. Stepping up efforts for evacuation of passenger’s railways has also deputed senior staff at Dehradun, Haridwar and Rishikesh to oversee arrangements to run special trains. With Sunil Shukla this Sanjeev Sundriyal, AIR News, Dehradun."

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Home Minister Sushilkumar Shinde today reviewed rescue and relief operations in the flood-ravaged Uttarakhand at a meeting held in New Delhi this afternoon. Briefing reporters after the meeting, Vice Chairman of the National Disaster Management Authority, NDMA, Shashidhar Reddy said, NDMA and National Disaster Response Force have been asked to speed up rescue and relief operations in the affected areas. Mr Reddy said, the Home Minister will visit the affected areas tomorrow to take stock of the situation.

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Congress President Mrs Sonia Gandhi has directed all Congress MPs and MLAs to contribute their one month salary for Uttarakhand relief operations. AICC General Secretary and Chairman, Communication Department, Ajay Maken tweeted that Mrs Gandhi also directed Congress MPs to allocate 10 lakh rupees each for the relief operations from Member of Parliament Local Area Development funds.

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In Himachal Pradesh, relief and rescue operations resumed early this morning. Official sources said, about 400 people are still to be airlifted who have registered themselves with district authorities for evacuation. On the other hand, local people say that the rescue teams are yet to reach the places like Raksham and Chitkul in the Sangla Valley. The work for restoration of roads is being done on war footing and priority is being given to open link roads. A report:

"The state government has stepped up its efforts to normalize the situation in calamity hit district Kinnaur. Chief Minister Virbhadra Singh conducted an aerial survey of the affected areas with a team of senior officers. He went to Nako, Pooh and Gyabung to know about the ground situation there and met local people. At almost all places people requested the Chief Minister to provide adequate compensation, as their fruit and other crops that have been damaged totally in rain and snowfall. Shishu Sharma Shantal, AIR News, Shimla."

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In Uttar Pradesh, the flood scenario has begun improving slightly as water level in major rivers is receding. However, Ganga, Ghaghra, Sharda and Yamuna are still flowing above the danger mark at some places in the state. The state administration has intensified the relief and rescue operations in all the 13 flood affected districts. The animals of Dudhwa National park in Lakhimpur Kheri are also compelled to face the wrath of flood as their dwelling and grazing fields have been submerged. More from our Correspondent:

"More than two hundred villages are still submerged in the flood waters of Ghaghra in Lakhimpur Kheri whereas Pilibhit has got some relief as the water has receded from around two dozen villages after destroying around seventy houses. While Bahraich is still in a bad shape as more than 200 villages are continuously inundated, where flood victims with no food and polythene, are annoyed with the allegedly indifferent attitude of the relief and rescue teams. Merajuddin AIR News, Lucknow"

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The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, CCEA, has approved the sale of 100 lakh tonnes of wheat in the open market. The decision was taken at the CCEA meeting chaired by Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh today. According to highly placed sources, out of the 100 lakh tonnes, 85 lakh tonnes will be for sale to bulk consumers and 15 lakh tonnes for small consumers.

Meanwhile, Food Minister Prof. K V Thomas told reporters that the sale price of wheat will be 1,500 rupees per quintal ex-godown from Punjab excluding freight charges. He said, five lakh tonnes rice has also been allocated to States. Prof. Thomas said that the Food Ministry will send a separate note to the Cabinet for export of two million tonnes of wheat from government stocks next week.

The CCEA also approved 5 per cent disinvestment in the public sector company, Neyveli Lignite Corporation. The government currently holds 93.5 per cent stake in it. This will help to garner around 466 crore rupees to the public exchequer.

Our Correspondent reports that Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Jayalalithaa had written to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, last month opposing disinvestment in the company. She had said, divestment in the company would lead to labour unrest and disruption of power supply from Neyveli. However, the disinvestment department had communicated to the CCEA that there is no other option but to divest the stake in the company to make it compliant with the SEBI norm. SEBI has set a deadline of August 2013 for all listed Central public sector units to have a minimum 10 per cent public shareholding.

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Recovering from initial losses, the Sensex at the Bombay Stock Exchange stood 80 points, or 0.4 percent in positive territory, at 18,800 in afternoon trade, a short while ago. Earlier in the morning, however, the Sensex had opened with a loss of 79 points, or 0.4 percent, at 18,640, amid weakness in the global markets. Regional stock markets in China, Hong Kong, Indonesia, Singapore, Taiwan and South Korea had lost between 0.3 percent and 3.2 percent, today, after the US Federal Reserve signaled that it may soon downsize its bond purchases under its quantitative-easing program. Wall Street's Dow Jones Industrial Average had plummeted 2.3 per cent in yesterday's trade, which was its biggest one-day loss of the year.

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Erasing its early losses, the rupee today was trading higher by 38 paise at 59 rupees 19 paise against the dollar on fresh selling of the US currency by exporters and banks.The rupee resumed lower at 59 rupees 74 paise per dollar as against the last closing level of 59.57 rupees.

It hovered in the range of 59.75 rupees and 59.13 rupees per dollar before quoting 59.19 rupees.

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The death toll in Mumbra building collapse has risen to 10 while 14 persons are reported to be injured in the incident that took place in the wee hours today in Thane district of Maharashtra. The deceased include a two-month old infant. The three storey building, situated at Bazarpeth in Mumbra area of Thane district, collapsed at around 2 am when the residents were fast asleep. More from our correspondent:

"Two months after the tragic building collapse in Mumbra which claimed as many as 74 lives, a similar incident took place again in the city in the wee hours today. Some of the injured are reported to be in serious condition. According to police officials, rescue and relief operations were going on at a massive scale even as several people are feared to be trapped under the debris of the building. The building, which is over 25-years old was declared unsafe for living by the local civic body. Few people had evacuated their houses after they were served notices by the civic body while some families were still living in the building. Sweety Kothari, AIR News, Mumbai."

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In a significant development, Anup Chetia, General Secretary of the United Liberation Front of Assam, ULFA, who is currently in a Bangladesh jail, has petitioned the country's government to send him back to India. According to sources, the ULFA leader has sent an application to the Bangladesh Home Ministry urging them to cancel his petition filed for political asylum in Bangladesh and expressed his desire to return home. The Bangladesh government is reported to be examining his petition and considering its next course of action.

Anup Chetia, the Founder General Secretary of the ULFA, was arrested in Dhaka 1997 and sentenced to three-year rigorous imprisonment with a fine of 5,000 Takas for illegally staying in Bangladesh and carrying forged Bangladeshi passports and foreign currency.

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For the convenience of the pilgrims undertaking Amarnath Yatra which commences on the 28th of June, Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd has erected special towers at Baltal, Domel, Brarimarg, Holy Cave, Panjtarni, Sheshnag and Chandanwari to ensure that telecom connectivity is available to the visiting Yatris. More from our correspondent:

For all those Yatris who do not possess BSNL connections and those who possess mobiles with pre-paid cards which do not work in the State of J&K, the Telecom Department has given permission to private operators, in addition to BSNL, to provide the interested Yatris pre-paid Sim Cards with a validity of four days. This arrangement has materialized after J&K Governor N.N.Vohra, who is also Chairman of the Shri Amarnath Shrine Board, took up the matter with the Union Communication Ministry. Providing details, Chief Executive Officer of the Shrine Board, Navin K. Choudhary said that such Sim Cards will be made available only to the registered Yatris at special counters being set up at the Nunwan and Baltal Yatra Base Camps. R. K. Raina, Air News, Jammu."

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Team India have stormed into the final of the ICC Champions Trophy Cricket tournament, beating Sri Lanka by 8 wickets at Cardiff last night. Put into bat after rain delayed the toss, Sri Lanka posted a modest 181 for 8 in the allotted 50 overs. Chasing 182 for victory, India overhauled the target in just 35 overs, courtesy a 77-run opening wicket stand between Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma. Continuing his fabulous form, Shikhar Dhawan again top scored for India with a brilliant 68. Virat Kohli was the other valuable contributor with unbeaten 58. Ishant Sharma, who conceded just 33 runs in 9 overs and bagged 3 wickets, was adjudged man of the match. India will take on co-hosts England in the title clash of the competition on Sunday at Birmingham.