New Delhi: As the Telangana Assembly polls are scheduled later this year, a meeting of the BJP leaders to deliberate on the poll preparedness, is underway at party National President J.P Nadda’s residence under the leadership of Union Home Minister Amit Shah.
Telangana leaders, State president of Telangana Sanjay Bandi, Arvind Dharmapuri, D.K. Aruna, BJP National General secretary and Telangana state in charge Tarun Chugh, Union Minister G. Kishan Reddy are attending the meeting.
In a bid to increase its outreach to the grassroots, the party is running several programmes like Praja Gosha BJP Bharosa and Praja Sangram yatra which are being well received by the public, as per a source.
The party is deliberating on how to strengthen it at the booth level.
According to the sources, a state presidential election will be held soon as the BJP president Sanjay Bandi’s term is going to end in the first week of March. But speculations are rife that his term would be extended and a decision to this effect could be taken in the meeting.
Earlier in the national executive meeting, Sanjay was the centre of attraction as Prime Minister Narendra Modi praised his Praja Sangram Yatra and asked all the states to learn from his journey and appreciated his struggle and hard work.
As the search for survivors continues in the aftermath of two devastating earthquakes that struck the state of Kahramanmaras in southern Turkey and northern Syria on Monday, the death toll has risen to 11,859, while the number of injured reached 54,133, as of Wednesday.
In Turkey alone, the death toll from the earthquake reached 9,057, and the number of injured rose to 52,979, according to the latest statistics announced by the Turkish Disaster and Emergency Management Authority.
Meanwhile, the number of earthquake victims across Syria rose to more than 2,802 dead and 5,000 wounded, amid difficulties in delivering aid, according to Syrian Observatory for Human Rights.
Turkey President Recep Tayyip Erdogan announced new residences will be built within 1 year in 10 provinces affected by earthquakes, Anadolu Agency reported.
In the bitter cold, aid workers continue their race against time to try to rescue survivors of the earthquake in Turkey and Syria, while bad weather complicates rescue operations.
Although there is little hope of finding more survivors among the thousands trapped under the rubble of the devastating earthquake.
After 48 hours on Wednesday in Turkey, a two-month-old baby was rescued alive from earthquake rubble.
2-month-old baby rescued alive from earthquake rubble. The youngest person rescued so far was sucking his thumb as rescuers wrapped him in a blanket
🕙 Rescued after 2 days 🚼 Baby is from quake’s epicenter, Elbistan 🤱 His mother was rescued earlier https://t.co/dOtt0Dn7l7 pic.twitter.com/vwkJzG0uOW
On the other hand, Turkish search and rescue teams succeeded, on Wednesday, in rescuing a one-year-old infant, 53 hours after the earthquake that struck the south of the country.
In another rescue operation, teams managed to rescue another infant in Adi Yaman state, 36 hours after he was trapped under the rubble. The infant was immediately taken to the hospital.
On Tuesday evening, rescue teams from the Istanbul municipality found a Syrian refugee boy named Mohammad Ahmed under the rubble of a completely collapsed building in the town of Hatay, southern Turkey.
The little boy looked exhausted after 45 hours in the dark, covered in dirt, but he did not give up.
In a video documenting the rescue, the little boy appeared to sip water from a bottle cap before being pulled from under the wreckage.
The mayor of Istanbul, Akram Imamoglu, shared the video on Twitter, commenting, “Well done, Mohammad. Antakya.”
Aferin Muhammed.
Suriye vatandaşı Muhammed Ahmed’i de arama kurtarma ekibimiz Antakya’da enkaz altıdan sağ bir şekilde kurtardı. pic.twitter.com/lSxwSqyex0
As per media reports voices of people from under the rubble are still being heard.
The Turkish disaster management said that about 100,000 search and rescue personnel are working in the affected areas, and the authorities indicated that the coming hours are crucial to rescuing those trapped in the rubble.
While this was considered the worst earthquake to hit Turkey since the one that occurred on August 17, 1999, and caused the death of 17,000 people, including a thousand in Istanbul.
The White Helmets said the death toll is likely to rise, as there are hundreds of families trapped under the rubble.
It is noteworthy that the two earthquakes that struck southern Turkey, on Monday, were of magnitudes of 7.7 and 7.6 on the Richter scale, destroying thousands of buildings, and leaving thousands injured, homeless and dead.
World Health Organization fears that the number of victims may reach 20,000, and has estimated the number of people affected by the earthquake at 23 million.
Srinagar, Feb 3: State Investigation Agency (SIA) raids were underway at multiple locations in Srinagar on Friday in connection with a militant funding case.
During its investigations, the probe agency has so far attached over a dozen properties across the Kashmir Valley those were allegedly created out of militant funding or from where anti-national subversive activities were being coordinated.
In addition to this, the properties belonging to the banned Jamaat-e-Islami organisation have also been attached by probe agencies during the last six months in Jammu and Kashmir.
This, according to the authorities, is part of the administration’s effort to destroy the ecosystem of militant from where terrorists and their sympathisers ensure their survival and coordinate subversive activities.–(IANS)
Lucknow: Around a dozen people who were trapped after a four-storey residential building collapsed in Lucknow’s Hazratganj on Tuesday have been rescued and a search is on for others, officials said here.
An Army team has also arrived at the spot, they said.
Uttar Pradesh DGP D S Chauhan, who was at the site, said, “Around 12 people have been rescued. This is the hour of patience, not the time to rush because when you are cutting a building, it should not create any other problem. Rescue work is being carried out in a very scientific way, and I am confident that those who are trapped inside (under the debris) will be saved.” Asked what may have caused the collapse, Chauhan said, “The reasons will be known when the experts and the police carry out their investigations. As of now, as per our assumption, which is based on feedback from family members, around five-seven people are still inside (the debris).” The DGP added that the rescue operations will continue for another 12 hours.
District Magistrate Suryapal Gangwar said NDRF and SDRF teams are engaged in rescue operations. “So far, 11 people have been rescued, and five more are possibly trapped. As per the clues obtained from the site of the collapse, the NDRF and SDRF teams are cutting the walls, and after cutting the walls, (trapped) people will be rescued.” “Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath is keeping a watch on the rescue operations. The defence minister has also given instructions. An Army team has arrived here for rescue work,” he added.
Asked if the building collapse may have been caused by an earthquake earlier in the day, he said, “This is not the right time to deliberate on the reasons. At present, the rescue operation is going on.” He added that contact has been established with two people who are trapped under the debris and oxygen supply has been arranged for them.
“All the people who have been rescued are safe and under stable treatment. Seven rescued people were sent to Dr Syama Prasad Mookerjee Civil Hospital,” a police official said at the spot of the incident.
Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Brajesh Pathak, who earlier talked about the death of three people in the incident, retracted his comment.
Talking to PTI, he said there were initial reports of three people in an unconscious condition and were feared dead.
“But now information is coming that nobody is dead. Those rescued from the building have been moved to hospitals,” Pathak said.
“The rescue operation is going on. NDRF-SDRF personnel have arrived at the spot. Police jawans and fire brigade personnel have also arrived,” he said.
The Lucknow DM said local people informed the authorities that some work was going on in the basement of the building.
A 5.9-magnitude earthquake jolted the remote mountainous districts in western Nepal on Tuesday, killing one person and damaging dozens of houses in the region, Nepalese officials had said.
Meteorological department sources here, when contacted, said that the depth of the earthquake was 10 kilometres, and its distance was 294 kilometres NNE (North North-East) from Lucknow.
Meanwhile, Adityanath directed officials to provide adequate treatment to the injured.
Directions have also been issued to hospitals to stay alert.
Pathak further said that the four-storey building had around 12 flats, out of which nine had occupants.
Many senior civil and police officials, including Principal Secretary to the chief minister Sanjay Prasad and DGP D S Chauhan are on the spot.
Jaisalmer: The first-ever joint exercise between the special forces of the Indian Army and the Egyptian Army named “Exercise Cyclone-I” is underway in Rajasthan, according to an official statement.
The exercise which began on January 14 is aimed at bolstering defence cooperation between the two nations and focus on sharing professional skills and interoperability of the special forces in desert terrain while undertaking counter-terrorism, reconnaissance, raids and other special operations, the statement added.
This is the first exercise of its kind bringing the special forces of both the nations on a common platform.
“The 14-day exercise which is being carried out in the deserts of Rajasthan engages both the contingents to advance special forces skills such as sniping, combat free fall, reconnaissance, surveillance and target designation, sharing of information on weapons, equipment, innovations, tactics, techniques and procedures,” the release said.
The participants would also undertake joint planning and drills for special forces operations in a mechanised warfare setting as well as surgical strikes on terrorist camps/ hideouts to include sniping of high-value targets.
The joint exercise would provide an insight into the culture and ethos of both the armies thereby fostering military cooperation and interoperability to further strengthen the diplomatic relations between India and Egypt, the release added.
Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi is scheduled to arrive in India on January 24. He will be the first Egyptian President and the fifth leader from the Middle-East to grace the Republic Day celebrations as the chief guest.
