ABOUT 22 KILLED AND 170000 RENDERED HOMELESS BY FLOODS IN INDIA

People travel on a horse drawn carriage through a flooded road on the banks of river Ganga in Allahabad of northern India Flash floods triggered by torrential rain have killed at least 22 people in India and forced more than 170,000 from their homes, officials said on Monday (July 11) , as forecasters predicted more downpours in coming days.

India's monsoon rains, though vital for agriculture, regularly bring death and destruction. The rain was 35 percent above average in the week that ended on July 6, the weather office said.

Twenty people were killed in the central state of Madhya Pradesh where 70,000 people were left homeless as water rose to dangerous levels along parts of the Narmada river.

Firemen waded through thigh-deep water to rescue women and children in flooded villages while rescue teams used inflatable boats to reach people stranded in urban areas.
'Thousands of people will be evacuated today. We are working on a war footing mode to set up relief camps,' additional home secretary Basant Singh said in Bhopal, the state capital.

'The health department is distributing medicines to prevent outbreak of water-borne diseases.'

Stormy weather also ravaged parts of the remote northeast.

Heavy rain pounded the tea-growing, oil-rich state of Assam killing at least two people. About 100,000 people were forced to take shelter on higher ground, officials there said.

The rain has also swelled the Brahmaputra river, which flows into Bangladesh, to dangerous levels.


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LEADER OF PATIDAR AGITATION HARDIK PATEL GRANTED BAIL IN TWO CASES

Gujarat High Court on Friday (July 8) granted bail to Patel quota agitation leader Hardik Patel in two sedition cases, with a rider that he will have to stay outside the state for the next six months.

However, Hardik cannot come out of jail for now, as another case of mob violence at an MLA office is pending against him in Visnagar town of Mehsana district. Next hearing of the Visnagar case bail application in the high court is scheduled on July 11. Justice A J Desai granted bail to Hardik with strict conditions, one of them being that he will have to stay outside Gujarat for the next six months.

The court also directed Hardik’s lawyer to give a fresh written undertaking on his behalf which should state that he would not indulge in any activities that would lead to law and order problem.

The judge, while pronouncing the judgement, said that he has listed other conditions in written order. The 22-year-old Patel quota stir spearhead has been behind bars since October 2015, in sedition cases that were filed against him in Ahmedabad and Surat. During the hearing of the case, Government pleader Mitesh Amin had opposed bail to Hardik saying that the state government is apprehensive that if he is let off on bail, Hardik may repeat the offence, and his presence outside the jail may create law and order situation problems in the state.

Hardik’s lawyer Zubin Bharda had told the court that his client is ready to stay out of the state for six months if the court grants bail, in order to remove the apprehensions expressed by the state pleader.

During earlier hearings, the government had declined to accept Hardik’s offer for written undertaking for bail, in which he had stated that he will refrain from activities that may affect law and order situation, but added he will ‘continue to agitate for grievances of the Patidar community in a peaceful and democratic manner.’

Hardik had approached the high court for bail in the sedition cases, after the lower courts in Surat and Ahmedabad (where there are separate sedition cases against Hardik) refused to grant bail.


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