Maharashtra floods: 112 dead, 99 missing in rain-related incidents
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Over 1.35 lakh people, rendered homeless in the monsoon fury across Maharashtra, are being relocated to safer places. The death toll from the destruction has risen to 112 in Satara, Mumbai suburban district, Raigad, Sindhudurg, Kolhapur, Pune and Ratnagiri, with maximum deaths of 52 in Raigad. Incessant rains and a dozen landslides have affected 875 villages in these districts and 99 people are still missing. The number of deaths may rise as the rescue and relief operations are still underway.
The state government has sanctioned Rs 2 crore each from the State Disaster Response Fund for Raigad and Ratnagiri and Rs 50 lakh for all the other affected districts together. The department said torrential rainfall in various parts of the state, often coinciding with high tides and also discharge from dams, led to various regions getting inundated.
India s finance minister, Nirmala Sitharaman, holds a folder containing budget documents
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India has pledged to double its spending on public healthcare after the nation’s Covid-19 epidemic exposed a chronically underfunded system, with critically ill patients turned away by understaffed and under resourced facilities.
The announcement was made during India s annual budget address on Monday, with finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman declaring that just over £21 billion will be allocated on healthcare spending in 2021.
Some £6.4 billion of the budget allocation will be spent on improving its primary, secondary and tertiary health care facilities over six years, while another £3.5 billion will go on Covid-19 vaccinations, said Ms Sitharam.