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Time of India
a day ago
- Climate
- Time of India
Flash flood in Mandi kills 3 of a family, leaves trail of destruction
Kullu: Three members of a family died, and dozens of houses and vehicles were damaged in a flash flood that hit Jail Road area of Himachal Pradesh's Mandi town early Tuesday. The death toll in the state this monsoon has risen to 170, with 45 of them in Mandi district alone. This is the first time in decades that Mandi town has seen such death and devastation. With the weather department issuing an orange alert for heavy rainfall, the administration has ordered all educational institutions closed on Wednesday. The Chandigarh-Manali highway is blocked, yet again, due to a landslide. Following heavy rainfall since Monday evening, a nullah in Mandi town turned into a raging river of mud and debris around 3.30am, trapping residents in their sleep. Floodwaters and muck entered houses and shops, and the mud piled up several feet high. Jail Road, Hospital Road, Sain Mohalla, and surrounding residential areas within a 5km radius were devastated. According to locals, when the flood roared in, Amarpreet Singh, his parents Sapna and Darshan Singh, and a relative, Balbir Singh, ran out of their home to move their autos to higher ground. However, all four were swept away in the gushing torrent. by Taboola by Taboola Sponsored Links Sponsored Links Promoted Links Promoted Links You May Like No annual fees for life UnionBank Credit Card Apply Now Undo Only Darshan survived and is now hospitalised. Mandi deputy commissioner Apoorv Devgan said the bodies of Amarpreet and Dalbir were found but Sapna was still missing. All four are family members of Krishna, a former councillor. Parts of Mandi town are covered in mud several feet high, enough to half-bury SUVs. Cars were slammed against each other or piled up. Houses were smashed to rubble. A family trapped in their house in Tungal Colony was saved by neighbours. NDRF and SDRF teams were carrying out search, rescue, and relief operations. As many as 32 people stranded in their houses were rescued. "It was raining heavily, and the water started increasing in the evening. We got scared and didn't sleep the whole night. In the morning hours, as the rain petered off, we dozed off but were woken up by a loud bang. Suddenly, water was gushing everywhere. I have been living here for 40 years and never saw anything like this before," said Tara Verma, a resident of Jail Road. Mandi bus terminus was flooded. Himachal has incurred a loss of over Rs 1,538 crore since the onset of monsoon on June 20. MSID:: 122978335 413 |
Time of India
19-07-2025
- Time of India
Denied leave, Niger terror victim missed daughter's wedding on Jul 2
1 2 Bokaro: A pall of gloom has engulfed Karipani village under the Gomia block of Bokaro district, following the tragic death of 39-year-old Ganesh Karmali in a recent terror attack in Niger, a West African country. Karmali was working as a security guard with a private company in the country when he was killed in a brutal terrorist assault in the Dosso region on July 15. His mortal remains are yet to be brought back to India, and the grieving family is enduring an agonising wait that may stretch over a week. Fighting back her tears, Ganesh's elder daughter Sapna Kumari, appealed to the Centre to intervene and ensure that the company her father worked for compensates their family adequately. "My father was not ill, nor did he die in an accident. He was murdered by terrorists. The the external affairs minister, must ensure justice. My father was the sole breadwinner of our family. We are devastated," she said. Recalling the painful memories, Sapna also said her father had promised to attend her wedding on July 2, but the company denied him leave. "If he had returned for the ceremony, he might still be alive. It was very painful for any girl to get married without her father's presence," she said, finally wiping off a tear.. Sapna was en route to Bangalore with her husband when she received the devastating news. "I got the call on the train. I de-boarded midway in Odisha and returned home. My younger sister and brother are, too, small to even understand this loss. We just want to see him one last time," she said. Ganesh's wife, Yasoda Devi, is in a state of trauma. "My life has shattered. I have no idea how to raise my children alone. The company offered Rs 15 lakh, but how long will that last?" Bokaro labour superintendent Ranjit Kumar confirmed that the Indian embassy in Niger is working closely with the Jharkhand Migrant Cell to provide all help to the family of the deceased. "NOC has been issued by the Niger govt and the body is likely to arrive within a week," he added. The entire village of Karipani stands united in grief, mourning a man who left home seeking hope and returned only as a memory.
India.com
16-07-2025
- General
- India.com
How A Bureaucrat's Childhood Memory Led To A Literacy Revolution Touching Over 16 Million Children
New Delhi: It started with a question that stayed long after the files were signed, the speeches were made and the transfers were ordered. Somewhere in the Bodo-dominated interiors of Assam in 1986, a young IAS officer named Dhir Jhingran noticed something that tugged harder than routine ever could – children sitting silently in classrooms and lost in a language they did not understand. He was then district magistrate in Kokrajhar, a region shaken by conflict and instability in Assam. There was no Right to Education law back then. But to Jhingran, the idea that a child could be in school and still not learn felt like a breach of something sacred. That quiet discomfort would travel with him for decades. It would later take the form of the Language and Learning Foundation (LLF) – a movement now reshaping India's literacy landscape. Since 2015, the LLF has reached over 14.2 lakh children directly and impacted more than 1.6 crore through materials designed to unlock learning in the languages they know best. A Classroom Comes Alive in Varanasi In the primary school of Koirajpur, Uttar Pradesh, teacher Smita Chaturvedi remembers the days when her blackboard felt more like a wall. Students showed up, nodded through definitions, recited textbook lines and left the classroom behind, both physically and emotionally. Things shifted when her school partnered with the LLF. She was given workbooks and guides that invited curiosity. Flashcards, cue-based games, storytelling techniques and posters – all in sync with how young minds play, feel and understand. Three years in, her classroom does not sound like a classroom. It sounds like a place where children belong. 'The stories are on the walls now. The kids do not wait to be told, they begin learning the moment they walk in,' she said. Sapna Spoke, The Class Listened In Haryana, a girl named Sapna sat quietly for weeks after enrolling. She was seven. Her mother tongue was a Punjabi dialect her teachers did not speak. She was not slow and shy. She did not understand what the adults around her were saying. Trained under LLF's multilingual approach, her teacher began teaching concepts in Sapna's home language – not permanently, just as a bridge. It gave her enough confidence to cross over. Today, Sapna is the child who raises her hand first. The Experiment That Started It All Kokrajhar was burning when Jhingran was first posted there. Ethnic tensions had turned violent. But amid the conflict, he discovered something unexpected – a dormant hunger for education. Parents wanted learning. Even inside refugee camps. The solution was not more policing. It was books. Volunteers. Hope. He helped launch an adult literacy campaign across the district. Over 3,000 local youth, mostly women, became teachers overnight. They taught adults to read, to write, to count and, somewhere in the process, to heal. Tribal songs echoed in makeshift classrooms. Community peace meetings replaced armed stand-offs. Within nine months, the district had turned a corner. The experiment worked. Literacy did not follow peace. It created it. Language as a Lifeline, Not a Luxury A large number of Indian children still start school in a language they do not speak at home. They listen. They copy. They pass. But they do not understand. And when comprehension breaks, confidence collapses. This mismatch often pushes children to drop out silently. LLF's work builds a bridge between home languages and school languages. Its programmes help children transition into reading and writing while preserving what they already know. Three Tools, One Mission LLF's model rests on three pillars: Teacher training – intensive workshops, online courses and regular support for educators. Government collaboration – formal partnerships with seven states, including Assam, Jharkhand, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Teaching materials – custom handbooks, daily lesson plans and bilingual workbooks that reach the child in her own voice. One Memory Stayed Jhingran spent years at the Ministry of Human Resource Development. He coordinated primary education programmes in eight states. He was advisor to the UNICEF, helped Nepal restructure its education policy and still chose to return to the grassroots. To start from scratch. In every workshop, every workbook and every smile of a child who finally understands a poem, the memory of Kokrajhar lives on. 'I remember those children. They sat in silence for so long. I do not want any child in this country to feel that silence again,' he says. And just like that, from a forgotten district in Assam, a revolution was born – not to make children study harder, but to make them feel heard.
India.com
21-06-2025
- India.com
Newly-wed woman murdered over dowry, husband's family stages it as suicide for not getting Bullet motorcycle in UP
Hyderabad Murder case In a tragic incident, a 22-year-old newlywed woman named Sapna was found dead at her in-laws' house in Uttar Pradesh's Kotwa village, under the Maniyar police station area. The police said her body was discovered hanging from a ceiling fan, suggesting that it may have been staged to look like suicide. According to Maniyar SHO Ratnesh Dubey, the police reached the house as soon as they got the information. Sapna's body was taken into custody and sent for post-mortem at the district hospital to find out the exact cause of death. Sapna had married Narendra Chauhan on March 2, 2025. The police filed a case based on a complaint made by Sapna's maternal grandfather, Babbu Chauhan. In the complaint, he said that Sapna's in-laws had been harassing her for more dowry, even after receiving a significant amount at the time of the wedding. He claimed that Sapna's family had already given Rs 90,000 through bank transfer, Rs 3 lakh in cash, a gold chain, and a ring as dowry. But still, the harassment didn't stop. Her in-laws allegedly began demanding a Bullet motorcycle and another Rs 3 lakh. When Sapna's family couldn't meet these demands, the situation got worse. Her grandfather believes she was murdered, and her death was made to look like suicide by hanging her with a dupatta from a fan hook. Based on the complaint, the police registered a case under various sections of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS) and the Dowry Prohibition Act. The case names her husband Narendra Chauhan, his sister Champa Devi, and two sisters-in-law Puja Devi and Reena Devi. The three women were arrested and have been sent to judicial custody after completing all legal procedures. The police are still trying to find and arrest Sapna's husband, who is currently missing. (With PTI inputs)
Hindustan Times
21-06-2025
- Hindustan Times
UP: Newly-wed woman murdered over dowry, husband's family stages it as suicide
Ballia , Three women were arrested here in connection with the alleged murder of a newly-wed woman over the matter of dowry, officials said on Saturday. UP: Newly-wed woman murdered over dowry, husband's family stages it as suicide Sapna , wife of Narendra Chauhan, was found dead in a room at her in-laws' house in Kotwa village, under the Maniyar Police Station area. Her body was allegedly discovered in a position that suggested suicide, as it was found hanging from a ceiling fan, the police stated. Maniyar Station House Officer Ratnesh Dubey stated that upon receiving the information, the police reached the scene, took custody of Sapna's body, and sent it for post-mortem examination at the district hospital. A case was registered based on the complaint filed by Sapna's maternal grandfather, Babbu Chauhan. "The FIR names her husband, Narendra Chauhan, his sister, Champa Devi, and two sisters-in-law, Puja Devi and Reena Devi. They were booked under sections of the BNS and Dowry Prohibition Act," the SHO said. Citing the registered FIR, SHO Dubey stated that Sapna was married to Narendra Chauhan on March 2, 2025. ₹ 90,000 via bank transfer, ₹ three lakh in cash, along with a gold chain and a ring, were given as dowry to Sapna's in-laws, the complaint mentioned. Despite this, they allegedly continued to harass Sapna, demanding a Bullet motorcycle and an additional ₹ three lakh. When Sapna's family expressed their inability to fulfil these demands, she was allegedly murdered. Her body was then hung by a dupatta from a fan hook in an attempt to stage the death as a suicide, the police said. Champa Devi, Puja Devi and Reena Devi were sent to judicial custody after completing the necessary legal formalities. Meanwhile, efforts are underway to arrest Sapna's husband. This article was generated from an automated news agency feed without modifications to text.
