Chennai, May 21 (IANS) Heavy rain was lashing southern and western regions of Tamil Nadu on Tuesday following which the state government deployed ten SDRF teams to meet any eventuality.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy to very heavy fall for the next three days in these areas.

As the heavy rain continued, several areas in the southern region of the state faced waterlogging. SDRF and local people were jointly conducting the rescue operations to bring people to safety in low-lying areas.

People have been asked not to venture out to the beach areas.

Ramasamy (46), a businessman from Kanniyakumari told IANS that heavy rain was lashing the area and tourist inflow has been affected heavily.

The state disaster department has issued an alert for travelling in Kanniyakumari, Tirunelveli, Tenkasi, Dindigul, Coimbatore, the Nilgiris, Virudhunagar, and Theni districts.

According to the state disaster management department SMS alerts have been sent to 2.44 crore mobile phones in the above districts on the rain alerts through Common Alert Protocol.

Advisories have also been sent to tourists not to visit these destinations at present due to the heavy and very heavy rain prediction.

The heavy and very heavy rain is likely to continue for three more days in these regions and this is due to a cyclonic formation above these areas, said the IMD.

The Tamil Nadu Revenue Department has deployed 10 State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) teams in Kanniyakumari, Coimbatore, Tirunelveli, and Nilgiris districts. A total of 296 personnel are part of the SDRF teams that have reached these areas.

–IANS

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Pune (Maharashtra), May 21 (IANS) Moving swiftly, the Pune Police on Tuesday arrested a prominent city realtor Vishal Agarwal — the father of a 17-year-old boy who killed two IT techies in his speeding Porsche — from Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar.

Agarwal was absconding for the past two days after his son knocked down two IT professionals from Madhya Pradesh early on Sunday morning in an alleged case of underage, drunken driving in an unregistered vehicle, sparking a furore in Pune.

Tracked and caught by a Pune Crime Branch team in Chhatrapati Sambhajinagar, Vishal Agarwal will be brought to Pune later in the day and produced before a court, officials said.

Soon after the gruesome accident around 2.15 a.m. on Sunday (May 19), the Pune Police booked Vishal Agarwal for handing over the car without a registration to his son who did not have a driving license.

The police also booked the owners/managers — Prahlad Bhutda, Sachin Katkar, Sandeep Sangle and Jayesh Bonkar — of a prime hotel in Mundhwa, which served the accused minor and his other friends liquor and kept the establishment open beyond the permissible hours.

The two deceased victims were later identified as Ashwini Koshta and Aneesh Awadhiya, both 24, hailing from Madhya Pradesh, and returning on a motorcycle after attending a friend’s get-together.

As the boy’s gleaming silver-grey Porsche crashed into the motorcycle, Koshta was flung at least 20 feet high and fell on the road, while Awadhiya fell on a parked car.

Both succumbed instantaneously in the sudden mishap, even as the incident sparked a massive furore on social media networks with people demanding exemplary stringent punishment for the boy and others.

The boy was produced on Sunday before the Juvenile Justice Board which granted bail to the accused as he was 17 years and 8 months old, rejecting the police plea to treat him as an adult in view of the heinous crime.

The verdict created more outrage as the JJB asked the boy to write a 300-word essay on the accident, work two weeks with the Yerawada Traffic Police authorities and take medical treatment/counselling to quit drinking.

The Pune Police are now taking appropriate legal remedies to appeal against the JJB’s order in a higher court.

–IANS

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Lucknow, May 21 (IANS) Samajwadi Party (SP) National President Akhilesh Yadav said on Tuesday that the growing resentment against BJP’s politics of hate coupled with PDA’s resolve to protect the Constitution will spell defeat for the BJP in the 2024 Lok Sabha polls.

The poll plank of SP — PDA, stands for ‘Pichhade’ (Backward classes), Dalits, and ‘Alpsankhyak’ (Minorities).

“People are breaking all barriers of caste and religion to vote against the BJP because of growing anger against the party’s politics of hate and negativity. If people spread negativity and hatred, it comes back to haunt them,” he said in a statement.

Akhilesh added that people were so peeved with the BJP that 140 crore people in the country would not even spare 140 seats for the BJP.

He said the BJP govt at the Centre will change and so will the Cabinet of Ministers.

The former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister also said those who take pride in using bulldozers against the poor, have not used it against anyone involved in the paper leak.

“Question papers of 10 recruitment exams have been leaked till now. This shows that these papers are being leaked as a part of a design because the government does not want to give jobs to the youth,” he added.

“The BJP wants to change the Constitution of India because it gives us the right to vote. It gives us the right to reservation. It provides for a right to equality which in turn provides equal opportunity to grow and prosper,” he said.

“The BJP has sidelined the PDA constituents, women and poor, and deprived them of their rights. SP and PDA have come forward to protect the Constitution and democracy in India,” Akhilesh said, adding that this urge to safeguard the Constitution will result in BJP’s defeat in the ongoing Lok Sabha elections.

The SP National President said the BJP government held massive events to claim that investment was pouring into the state but nothing has emerged on the ground.

No industry or factory came up anywhere in the state, he added.

“They promised to double the income of farmers by 2022, their loans have doubled instead and their incomes have been halved owing to rise in prices of fertilisers and logistics,” he said.

“The prevailing rural distress coupled with rising joblessness has left every section of the society depressed and angry. It is this anger that people are venting out against the BJP in the form of voting in favour of the INDIA bloc in large numbers,” Akhilesh added.

–IANS

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Varanasi, May 21 (IANS) Prime Minister Narendra Modi will interact with 25,000 women at Kashi’s Sampurnanand Sanskrit University ground on Tuesday.

He will address an election rally in Prayagraj too.

Kashi region BJP Spokesperson Navaratan Rathi said: “There are 1,909 booths in Varanasi Lok Sabha and 10 women from each booth have been invited for Prime Minister Modi’s interaction with women. All preparations for the event have been completed.”

Doctors, engineers, lawyers, professors, chartered accountants, and teachers have also been invited to the programme that will start around 4 p.m. on Tuesday, he added.

BJP’s state unit secretary and Mahila Morcha in-charge Archana Mishra said: “Our enthusiastic participation at his Kashi roadshow on May 13 made the Prime Minister very happy and that is why he is coming here again to share his happiness with us.”

She said BJP’s women wing members have gone door-to-door in Varanasi to invite women for the Tuesday event.

Lok Sabha coordinator and MLC Ashwini Tyagi said: “Prime Minister has done many things for the upliftment of women during his 10 years in office. It was because of him that 33 per cent reservation to women in the Lok Sabha and State Assemblies under the Nari Shakti Vandan Act could become possible.”

After the event, Prime Minister Modi will spend the night at the BLW guest house in Varanasi.

The Prime Minister will address a meeting at the Government Polytechnic Ground on Wednesday (May 22), said Basti Superintendent of Police, Gopal Krishna Chowdhury.

He said that members of SPG security had already reached Basti and inspected the rally venue and added that no flying zone had been declared in nearby areas.

He said from May 20 to May 22, flying drones or balloons in the region have been banned due to security reasons.

Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath and Union Minister Anupriya Patel, too, would share the stage with Prime Minister Modi.

–IANS

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Aizawl, May 20 (IANS) At least 65 more refugees, including 27 women and 24 children, entered Mizoram’s southern Lawngtlai district from Bangladesh’s Chittagong Hill Tracts (CHT) during the past two days, officials said on Monday.

Officials said that the fresh refugees came to Mizoram after troubles following the conflict between the Bangladesh Army and armed ethnic outfits in the mountainous areas of the southeast region of the neighbouring country.

The refugees have taken shelter at Vathuampui village and the villagers are providing them with food.

With this, the number of refugees from CHT in the state has risen to 1,433.

On May 10, 127 refugees from CHT entered Mizoram and took shelter in 6 villages.

The newcomers belong to the Bawm and Pang communities of tribals who called themselves the Kuki-Chin.

Refugees from CHT first fled to Mizoram in November 2022 after an armed confrontation started between the Bangladesh Army and the ethnic armed outfits, who are fighting for a separate state for the tribal people in the CHT.

Meanwhile, after the military coup in Myanmar in February 2021, over 34,350 people from the Chin state of the neighbouring country fled to Mizoram and are now staying in all 11 districts of the state.

Mizoram shares a 510 km and 318 km unfenced border with Myanmar and Bangladesh, respectively

–IANS

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