India faces an environmental crisis, but this seasonâs election coverage is set to ignore it
Until the impending Assembly elections are over, we can expect little else in news coverage apart from the political circus.
Shambhavi Thakur
Once again, election season is upon us. In fact, in India, it never seems to end. And for some political parties, it s perennial.
From now until the results are declared for the Assembly elections in Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Assam, and Puducherry on May 2, we can expect little else in media coverage apart from the political circus.
For the news media, the electoral battlefield provides endless possibilities and a chance to increase readership and viewership. Elections are guaranteed to be entertaining with every politician extracting the maximum advantage from media attention. Yet, increasingly, elections have been reduced to a few personalities; the issues that matter to the majority of voters slip into the background.
Uttarakhand glacier disaster: 136 missing people to be declared dead
The rescuers had recovered 68 bodies till Monday. File photo: Indo-Tibetan Border Police personnel during a rescue operation in Uttarakhand. | ITBP/AFP
The Uttarakhand government has begun the process to declare the 136 people missing since the glacier disaster in Chamoli on February 7 as “presumed dead”,
The Times of India reported on Tuesday.
Uttarakhand Health Secretary Amit Negi issued a notification to this effect on Sunday, after which the government invoked the Birth and Death Registration Act, 1969. The act allows authorities to declare people dead before the specified seven-year period.
“In normal circumstances, the birth and death certificates are issued to a person at the place where he is born or died,” the notification said, according to
Updated Feb 20, 2021 | 23:30 IST
Earlier today, ITBP and DRDO teams returned to Joshimath after a detailed survey of the lake formed in the upper reaches of Chamoli. The report will be submitted to the administration. Rescue operations to recover trapped victims in the tunnel in Tapovan continue as the daybreak | Photo Credit: PTI
Dehradun: Five more bodies were recovered from NTPC s flood-ravaged Tapovan-Vishnugad hydel project site on Saturday, taking the death toll in the February 7 glacial disaster in Uttarakhand to 65, the officials said.
Uttarakhand DGP Ashok Kumar said, five more bodies have been recovered from the debris of the dam at Tapovan in Chamoli district. With this, a total of 67 bodies have been recovered so far.
The rescue agencies have installed an emergency sensor system to warn for emergencies during the rescue operations. DGP Ashok Kumar | Photo Credit: ANI
New Delhi: 62 bodies have been recovered till now following the glacial burst in Uttarakhand, state DGP Ashok Kumar said on Friday. The rescue efforts are on and search is being conducted inside the tunnel. The rescue agencies have also installed a water sensor warning system at the Raini village to warn for emergencies. 12 teams of SDRF are engaged in the rescue operation for the missing people from Reni village to Srinagar. The communication team is also working simultaneously for better communication in the area, State Disaster Response Force (SDRF) said on Thursday.