India cyclone kills 56

CALCUTTA: Police say a cyclone demolished thousands of mud huts and uprooted trees in several villages in eastern India, killing at least 56 people.

Surojit Kar Purkaystha, an inspector-general of police, says the cyclone struck Tuesday night in North Dinajpur district of West Bengal state and some areas in neighboring Bihar state.

Officials said 31 people were killed in West Bengal state and another 25 in Bihar state. The area is nearly 315 miles (500 kilometers) northeast of Calcutta, the capital of West Bengal state.

India cyclone toll mounts to 68

CALCUTTA: A cyclone packing speeds of more than 100mph (160 kph) demolished tens of thousands of mud huts in villages in northeastern India, killing at least 68 people, officials said Wednesday.

The cyclone struck Tuesday night in northeastern parts of West Bengal and Bihar states, uprooted trees and snapping telephone and electricity lines, West Bengal Civil Defense Minister SrikumarMukherjee said. Hundreds of people were injured.

The cyclone demolished nearly 50,000 mud huts in West Bengal andmore than 1,000 in Bihar, officials said.The worst-hit villages in West Bengal state were Hematabad,Raiganj and Kiran Dighi, where police and rescue teams have recovered 31 bodies, Mukherjee said.

Another 37 people were killed in the northeastern Bihar districts of Araria, Kishenganj and Purnea, top Bihar state official Nitish Kumar told reporters.

Gadkari gives a little to quell revolt

New Delhi, March 20: A worried BJP chief, Mr Nitin Gadkari, rushed to New Delhi on Friday night following reports of the revolt brewing in his party. Mr Gadkari held parleys with the RSS bosses and senior leader L.K. Advani to tackle the situation. The BJP’s Bihar brigade, comprising Mr
Shatrughan Sinha, Dr C.P. Thakur, Mr Shanawaz Hussain and Mr Uday Singh, have come out against Mr Gadkari over the formation of his new team. Mr Hussain, who had skipped the meet of party spokespersons on Friday complaining of ill health, got himself admitted to Batra Hospital in the national capital.
Mr Gadkari, who left for Pathankot around noon Saturday, reportedly spoke to other leaders, including Mr Arun Jaitley, Ms Sushma Swaraj and Mr Rajnath Singh, sources said. It was after these deliberations with senior party colleagues, and in a bid to placate the Bihar brigade, that two leaders from the state were appointed special invitees to the party’s national executive. Former Bihar BJP unit president Nand Kishore Yadav, who is also the health minister in Mr Nitish Kumar’s government in Bihar, and outgoing Bihar BJP president Radha Mohan Singh are the special invitees.
A section in the BJP has also started talking about Mr Gadkari’s long absence from Delhi after he took over as party chief. “Most of the time he is in Nagpur,” a senior party functionary complained. Incidentally, Nagpur houses the national headquarters of the RSS and is also a place of business interest for Mr Gadkari. Sources disclosed that both Mr Jaitley and Ms Swaraj tried to stay out of the mess and said they would try talk to the angry BJP members.
Sources disclosed that BJP strategists were trying to extricate Mr Gadkari from the mess “he got himself into”. He has reportedly been asking close associates about the reasons for his “sudden fall in the organisation and in the media”.
Sources disclosed that Mr Shatrughan Sinha was also breathing fire against the party chief for including actor-turned-saffron-politician Vinod Khanna’s wife in the party’s national executive. Mr Sinha, sources said, wanted his wife included as well.
A section in the BJP is also asking Mr Gadkari to make Dr C.P. Thakur a party vice-president. Of the 13 vice-president posts, Mr Gadkari has kept two vacant, one reportedly for Mr Sanjay Joshi, his close friend and former general secretary (organisation), who was forced to quit the post following a CD controversy. This particular section has also asked him to shift Mr Vijay Goel from the post of general secretary to become the Delhi state unit chief. They want Mr Gadkari to bring in Mr Yashwant Sinha as a party general secretary.

Yojna Gusai

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