NEWS

Cyclone Tauktae claimed a total of 19 lives in Maharashtra while 37 persons were injured in cyclone-related incidents, the state disaster management authority said on Thursday evening. Deaths were reported from seven districts, it said in a report.

Two people died in the coastal Ratnagiri district when an electric wire snapped and fell on them, while two died in tree fall incidents in Jalgaon district of north Maharashtra, it said. The cause of death in other cases was not specified.

Raigad and Sindhudurg districts reported four deaths each, Thane and Palghar districts three each while Mumbai reported one death. All these are coastal districts. The cyclone, which made landfall in Gujarat on Monday night, affected 10 districts in Maharashtra.

Delhi on Wednesday recorded a maximum temperature of 23.8 degrees Celsius, 16 notches below normal and the lowest in the month of May since 1951, as rain drenched the national capital under the impact of cyclonic storm 'Tauktae' and a western disturbance, the India Meteorological Department said. Delhi's maximum temperature during the day was less than that of Srinagar (25.8 degrees Celsius) and Dharamshala (27.2 degrees Celsius) up in the north. The rainfall in Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, northern Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh and Uttarakhand is a result of interaction between the remnant of cyclonic storm "Tauktae" and a Western Disturbance, the IMD said. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides representative figures for the city, recorded 31.3 mm rainfall between 8:30 am and 5:30 pm, the IMD said. It said moderate rainfall is likely in the national capital on Thursday too.

The Andhra Pradesh High Court on Wednesday initiated contempt proceedings against the Crime Investigation Department officials, including its Additional Director General P V Sunil Kumar, in the YSR Congress MP K Raghu Ramakrishna Raju's arrest case. The High Court also came down on Additional Advocate General P Sudhakar Reddy over his remarks and asked why would the court have any special interest in a case.

"The courts will react when there is violation of human rights," the High Court told the Additional AG. The court gave four weeks to the CID Additional DG and also the Station House Officer of CID Police Station, Mangalagiri, against whom the contempt proceedings were initiated, to file their reply.

After half a dozen states, the Kerala government on Wednesday placed a global tender to procure 30 million Covid-19 vaccine doses, saying it would be splitting the order into four equal lots and each must be delivered within 30 days.

Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Odisha, Uttarakhand, and Maharashtra had so far issued global tenders for 151 million vaccines in all, with domestic supply failing to keep up with rising demand amid a destructive second wave of the pandemic. With Kerala, the total number goes up to 181 million vaccines. The state’s bid document, reviewed by News18, has stipulated an earnest money deposit of Rs 100 million for each bidder but has promised no advance payment. The bid document also says that the state government will be splitting the total order into four equal purchase orders and expects each order to be supplied within 30 days. “The payments of 50% of the ordered quantity will be made on receipt of documents at sight and the balance payment will be made within 30 days from the date of receipt of the item,” the document says. Technical bids will open on June 5. The storage condition of the vaccine was put at 2-8 degrees Celsius.