In what is being seen as a major fillip to the party’s prospects in Kerala, India’s “metro man” E Sreedharan is all set to join the BJP. Kerala state party president K Surendran said Sreedharan (88), who is credited with changing the face of public transport system in the country, will officially join during the “Vijaya Yatra”, which the saffron party is launching with the aim to expand footprint in the southern state.

Beginning on February 21 from Kasaragod, the yatra will culminate at Thiruvananthapuram in the first week of March. While Uttar Pradesh CM Yogi Adityanath will inaugurate the yatra, Home Minister Amit Shah is expected to be present at its culmination. Sreedharan also expressed willingness to contest the polls “if the BJP asked him to”.

“It is for them to decide the constituency. A lot of development works can be done and I hope to do it by joining the BJP,” he added.

Source: TNS

Uttarakhand flash flood: Death toll increases to 61

Rescuers have so far recovered 61 bodies from Uttarakhand’s flash flood-hit Chamoli district even as 143 people remain missing in the aftermath of the worst natural disaster in the state in years, officials said on Friday, February 19.

District magistrate Swati Bhadauria said 34 of the bodies have been identified. “…Fourteen [of the bodies] have been recovered from the 1.7km-long tunnel at the NTPC’s power project in Tapovan which is in the focus of the rescue operation,” said Bhadauria. “The rescuers have cleared the muck up to about 146 metres inside the tunnel but are facing difficulty due to the outflow of heavy sludge.”

The rescuers were also scanning the Alaknanda river downstream of the disaster site to search for more bodies.

Praveen Alok, a spokesperson for the State Disaster Relief Force, said about 70 of their personnel are searching for bodies in the river in Chamoli, Rudraprayag, Tehri Garhwal, and Pauri Garhwal. “After recovering the bodies, their DNA samples are being collected….to ascertain their identities…”