Maldives shuts govt offices as record rainfall triggers severe flooding

Posted on by Vividh Bharathi

Male, March 2 (IANS) Maldivian President Mohamed Muizzu ordered the closure of government offices and institutions on Sunday in response to severe flooding caused by the highest daily accumulated rainfall in the country’s history, PSM News, media reported.

The Maldives Meteorological Service in a post on X said it recorded 296 mm of rainfall in the 24 hours ended at 8 a.m. Sunday morning, Xinhua news agency reported.

Hours-long torrential rain on Saturday caused severe flooding in Male and several other islands in central Maldives.

President Muizzu has declared Sunday a public holiday with the bad weather conditions expected to prevail until at least Monday.

Four government hospitals in the Maldivian capital shut down Outpatient Department (OPD) services on Sunday, a day after torrential rain caused extensive flooding.

In a statement on Sunday morning, the Indhira Gandhi Memorial Hospital (IGMH) announced that the OPD will be closed for the day at the hospital, as the Dharumavantha Hospital, Hulhumale Hospital and Vilimale Hospital.

According to IGMH, the decision was made because Sunday has been declared a public holiday and because flooding in the areas near the hospitals make it difficult for patients to travel to and from the hospital.

While the OPD may be closed, Inpatient Department (IPD) and emergency services remain online.

The President’s decision follows continuous rainfall, which has resulted in significant hardship to the people, PSM News, the official state media of the Maldives, said.

PSM News said heavy rains on Saturday led to extensive flooding in Male City, including Male, Hulhumale, and Hulhule, which is home to Velana International Airport, and several outer islands.

The Maldives National Defence Force (MNDF) and other agencies have been mobilised to mitigate the impact of floodwaters on households and properties in the capital, it added.

A total of 17 pumps were deployed by the MNDF across six locations to remove floodwater, with an estimated 17,000 tonnes of water already pumped out, PSM News said.

The MNDF has also provided assistance to 131 properties and supplied 976 sandbags to help control and mitigate the flooding, PSM News added.

The Maldives Meteorological Service said it expects more torrential rain and thunderstorms with gusty winds on Sunday.

–IANS

int/khz

Related Posts

Biren Singh quit to restore peace, normalcy in Manipur: Former Minister

Imphal, Feb 15 (IANS) Former Chief Minister N. Biren Singh resigned on February 9 to take forward the peace efforts in Manipur, said senior BJP MLA Leishangthem Susindro Meitei, who was a cabinet minister of the Singh-led council of ministry.

Meitei, who was a Minister for Public Health Engineering Department and Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution, on Saturday, said that a section of people of the state think that the BJP failed to form a new government after the resignation of Biren Singh, as there were too many contenders for the chair.

“Actually Biren Singh quit the chief ministerial post intending that his move would help bring peace in the ethnic violence-ridden state,” Meitei, who was very close to Biren Singh, told the media.

“There are many legislators and leaders who have the quality to become the chief minister, but the CM’s post is just one. Therefore, sacrifice is needed and Biren Singh has done it for the greater interest of Manipur,” he said.

Meitei said peace in the state has often been disrupted by known and unknown elements through gun and bomb attacks.

“We believe the recent developments were pre-planned. Biren Singh wanted peace, and I feel he stepped down to facilitate it.” Biren Singh, who was leading the BJP-led government since the saffron party for the first time wrested power by defeating the Congress in the 2017 assembly elections, resigned on February 9, hours after returning from Delhi where he had met Union Home Minister Amit Shah and BJP President J P Nadda.

In the 60-member Assembly, the BJP has 37 MLAs after five of the six Janata Dal (United) legislators joined the party. Five Naga People’s Front (NPF) MLAs and three independents were also supporting the BJP government. BJP’s northeast in-charge Sambit Patra, who also came to Imphal along with Biren Singh on February 9 and since then held a series of meetings with former ministers, MLAs, leaders and Governor Ajay Kumar Bhalla to resolve the leadership crisis.

After the BJP failed to reach any consensus over the new Chief Minister issue, the Governor recommended to the President to promulgate the President’s rule in the state and put state assembly under suspended animation meaning that the state Assembly can be revived on a future date as and when the President of India deems fit.

Opposition Congress leaders including state Party President Keisham Meghachandra Singh had also claimed on Friday that the leadership crisis within the BJP and its failure to reach a consensus on a chief ministerial candidate led to the imposition of President’s rule in the state.

–IANS

sc/dan

Rajasthan DGP issues orders to stop SIs from training following HC order

Jaipur, Jan 11 (IANS) The Rajasthan Director General of Police (DGP), Utkal Ranjan Sahu, issued orders on Friday to halt the field training of trainee Sub-Inspectors (SIs) in the state, following the High Court’s order issued on Thursday, which completely banned the training and posting of trainee SIs.

The High Court is currently hearing a case related to the SI Recruitment Exam 2021.

In light of this, the court instructed the Police headquarters to halt all training and postings for SIs and Police Constables (PCs) selected in the recruitment process.

According to the DGP’s order, all trainee SIs and PCs must remain at their respective district or battalion headquarters without performing any duties or undergoing training until further notice.

Measures will be put in place to ensure their attendance at the headquarters.

On November 18, the Rajasthan High Court prohibited the posting of selected candidates from the SI Recruitment Exam 2021.

Despite this, the state government proceeded with postings for trainee SIs.

However, one trainee SI was suspended after being held in Special Operations Group (SOG) custody for more than 48 hours.

After the state government’s response on January 9, the High Court imposed a complete ban on training and postings related to recruitment.

The SI recruitment examination faced allegations of malpractice, including a leaked question paper and the use of dummy candidates during the test.

Investigations by the SOG uncovered that several candidates secured jobs through fraudulent means.

Around 50 trainee SIs have been arrested till now, with 25 of them granted bail by the High Court.

The High Court banned the posting and training of trainee SIs on Thursday as the state government said that it cannot cancel the SI Recruitment Examination-2021 while submitting its reply in the Rajasthan High Court (Jaipur bench) on Thursday (January 9).

The matter was heard in the court of Justice Sameer Jain.

The court has now banned any training and posting in this recruitment.

The next date of court hearing on the matter will take place on February 10.

Earlier, the Additional Advocate General of the Rajasthan government, Vigyan Shah, submitted a reply in the court.

“We have caught the people involved in the paper leak and have also suspended about 40 trainee SIs who were dummy candidates and copied the examination. At present, the recruitment cannot be cancelled.”

On the reply of the state government, Agriculture Minister Kirori Lal Meena said that the head of the state government must be asked in this matter as only the Chief Minister has the right to reject the decision of the committee.

–IANS

arc/khz

Daring act by Kerala woman to rescue husband from well

Ernakulam, Feb 5 (IANS) A 56-year-old woman rescued her husband who fell into a well in their house while plucking peppercorns in Kerala on Wednesday.

The husband, identified as 64-year-old Ramesan, was busy plucking black peppercorns from the pepper vines.

As he was plucking it, the ladder slipped and since the tree was close to the well, Ramesan fell into it.

Brave Padma, who was inside the house, hearing the noise, rushed out and was startled to see that her husband had fallen into the 40-foot well.

Raising a hue and cry, Padma slowly and carefully entered the well using a rope.

After reaching the bottom of the well, which had around five feet of water, she lifted Ramesan and held him close.

By the time, the locals gathered and in around 20 minutes, the Fire Force Rescue team arrived.

Praful, the local officer of the Fire Force, called out to Padma and asked if everything was fine.

“She told us that none of them need to come down, instead send a net. So we lowered a net. She first helped Ramesan into the net and we pulled him up. Then she came up and her hands were fully bruised because of going down the 40 feet well on the rope. He has been taken to the hospital and is fine. But the daring act of Padma has to be fully appreciated,” said Praful the Fire Force official who took part in the operation.

Praful added that they reached the spot in about 40 minutes and the two had to wait inside well for around 20 minutes.

–IANS

sg/svn