The Chakki bridge in Kangra district of Himachal Pradesh collapsed today after one of its three pillars damaged completely as heavy rainfall continues in the state.

In visuals from the scene, part of the railway bridge that has been constructed on the Chakki river can be seen collapsing amid downpours.

A cloudburst also took place in Dharmshala today resulting in landslides in the area. A flash flood occurred in the Mandi district of the state in the early hours of this morning, causing water to enter houses and shops, trapping residents and damaging vehicles parked on the road. The incident affected places at Balh, Sadar, Thunag, Mandi and Lamathach in the district.

Due to heavy rainfall, schools have been closed in Kangra, Kullu and Mandi districts.

The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has predicted heavy rainfall in isolated places today in Himachal Pradesh in the districts of Kangra, Chamba, Bilaspur, Sirmaur, and Mandi districts.

Locals and tourists have been advised to avoid going near the rivers and streams in bad weather.

CommentsThe Himachal Pradesh’s disaster management department has issued a warning for landslide due to heavy rains predicted in the state till August 25.

The Indian Railways tested India’s longest and heaviest freight train called ‘Super Vasuki’ on Independence Day and its video is now going viral. The train was operated as part of central government’s Azadi Ka Amrit Mahotsav celebrations.

Here are five points about the ‘Super Vasuki’ train:

A lawyer from Mathura waged and won a legal battle in the consumer forum after a 22-year fight against Indian Railways for overcharging him ₹ 20 in 1999.

After more than two decades of fighting in court, the Consumer Forum has ruled in favour of the lawyer.

The matter dates back to December 25, 1999 when Advocate Tungnath Chaturvedi, resident of Gali Pirpanch of Mathura, reached Mathura Cantt station to take a train to Moradabad. He asked for two tickets for Moradabad at the ticket counter where the booking clerk charged him ₹ 90 instead of ₹ 70.

At ₹ 35 per person ticket, two tickets would have cost him ₹ 70.

Advocate Chaturvedi asked for the return of ₹ 20 but the booking clerk refused. Meanwhile, as his train had arrived at the station, Mr Chaturvedi boarded and departed for Moradabad.

He later filed a case in the Consumer Forum against Indian Railways for overcharging him. The General Manager of North Eastern Railway Gorakhpur and the window booking clerk of Mathura Cantonment railway station were made parties.

After 21 years, the Consumer Forum gave a verdict in favour of Advocate Chaturvedi and ordered Railways to pay a refund of 20 rupees, plus interest at 12 percent a year, and compensation of 15,000 rupees.

The Consumer Forum has ordered the Railways to pay the amount within 30 days.

“It took time to get justice. But I am satisfied that the decision against the illegal thing has finally come,” said Mr Chaturvedi.

He said that his family members and neighbours had several times insisted that he let go of the matter but he continued his fight for justice.

Mr Chaturvedi’s family and neighbours have expressed their happiness that the Forum had favoured him in its decision.

One of his neighbours said that one should always raise their voice against injustice.

The CBI has arrested Bihar’s former Chief Minister Lalu Prasad Yadav’s aide Bhola Yadav in connection with the “land-for-jobs” scam in the railways when Lalu Yadav was the Railway Minister in the UPA government, officials said today.
The Central Bureau of Investigation or CBI also conducted searches today at four premises – two each in Darbhanga and Patna – belonging to Bhola Yadav, who was the officer on special duty (OSD) to the then railway minister Prasad between 2005 and 2009, they said.

Bhola Yadav, fondly referred to as “Hanuman” or the “shadow” of Lalu Prasad among Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) supporters, was questioned by the CBI in connection with the scam, in which land measuring over one lakh square feet belonging to job aspirants’ families in Patna was allegedly purchased or transferred to Lalu Prasad’s family members in return for group-D jobs in the railways.

The CBI suspects that Bhola Yadav had played a crucial role in facilitating the jobs and later, the transfer of land to Lalu Prasad’s family.

Considered to be Lalu Prasad Yadav’s “man Friday”, Bhola Yadav had taken a plunge in electoral politics and won the Bahadurpur seat in Darbhanga in the 2015 Bihar Assembly polls on an RJD ticket.

He decided to change the seat in 2020 to Hayaghat in the same district, a decision that proved to be costly as he lost the polls.

The CBI had filed the FIR on May 18 against Lalu Prasad, his wife Rabri Devi, daughters Misa Bharti and Hema Yadav, in addition to 12 people who were given jobs in the railway zones of Mumbai, Jabalpur, Kolkata, Jaipur and Hajipur, the officials said.
The agency has alleged that land measuring about 1.05 lakh square feet in Patna was acquired by Lalu Prasad’s family members by making payments to the sellers in cash.

“The current value of the above said seven parcels of land, including the land acquired through gift deeds, as per the existing circle rate is about ₹ 4.39 crore… Enquiry has revealed that the parcel of land, which was directly purchased by the family members of Lalu Prasad Yadav from the sellers, was purchased at lower rates than the prevailing circle rates,” the FIR has alleged.

It said people were appointed in the railways without any advertisement or public notice issued for the purpose on the basis of forged documents.

The agency had also carried out searches at Lalu Prasad Yadav’s residence in Patna and other locations on May 20.

“We reiterate that the latest CBI case and the raids conducted across the country in connection with the same are sponsored by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), which rules at the Centre,” the RJD had alleged after the searches.

Four railway employees have been arrested in connection with the gang-rape of a 30-year-old woman on a platform at New Delhi railway station, police said.

Police said all the four accused are employees of the Railways’ Electrical Department. The gang-rape, police said, took place inside a train lighting hut on the platform late on Thursday night. While two of the accused allegedly raped the woman, the others stood guard outside.

The accused are 35-year-old Satish Kumar, 38-year-old Vinod Kumar, 33-year-old Mangal Chand and 37-year-old Jagdish Chand.

According to DCP Railway Harendra Singh, the woman called the police station around 3.27 am and informed them of the incident. Police immediately rushed to the station and rescued her.

The woman has told police that she lives in Haryana’s Faridabad. She had separated from her husband about two years ago and had been looking for work. She had met Satish, one of the accused, through a friend and he had promised to get her a job in the Railways, the woman has told police.

On Thursday, Satish called her and invited her for his son’s birthday party at their new home. Around 10.30 pm, the woman met Satish at Kirti Nagar metro station. He then took her to the New Delhi railway station where the three other accused met them, she has told police. She was then gang-raped inside the train lighting hut, she has said.

The police arrested the four accused within two hours of the woman’s distress call and have registered a case. They were produced before a local court which sent them to judicial custody, the Railways said.

In a first, the Railways will now use Google Maps to link the location of candidates appearing for its exams to test centres within a 300km radius in order to cut their travel time. For decades, candidates appearing for the Railway Recruitment Board (RRB) exams have complained about test centres being far away from their domicile, resulting in not only long-distance travel but also expenses on account of lodging and food which they have to bear.

“With this, we are linking the pin codes of each candidate to an exam centre within 300 km of their residences through Google Maps. Also, we are ensuring that the centres have easy access to different modes of transport like buses and trains. If this works, we will be able to solve one of the most frequent and perennial complaints of candidates,” a senior official said.

The process will be rolled out in the Level 6 and Level 4 computer-based tests to be held on July 30. Around 60,000 candidates will be appearing for the test at approximately 90 centres for 7,026 posts.

The officials said candidates would get centres within the range, but it could be in a neighbouring state with good connectivity.

However, in north-eastern states, the Railways is finding it difficult to accommodate candidates within the 300-km range as there are only a few test centres, they said.

After nearly 70 days, the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR) will resume passenger train services in Lumding-Badarpur section in Assam on July 22. Both passenger and freight train services were cancelled due to heavy rain and unprecedented landslides on May 14.

This section will connect Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and the southern part of Assam with the rest of the country, officials said on Sunday.

NFR’s spokesperson Sabyasachi De said freight train services started on July 12 in Lumding-Badarpur section via Dima Hasao mountainous district, which is the only rail route to connect Tripura, Mizoram, Manipur and southern Assam with the other parts of the country.

“Railway officials, engineers, workers worked day and night to bring back the national transporter on track in these affected areas so that scarcity of essential items in states like Manipur, Tripura, Mizoram and Barak Valley (southern Assam) areas could be avoided,” the spokesperson said.

Due to unprecedented landslides triggered by heavy rain since May 13, massive damage has been caused to stations and railway tracks at over 61 locations in NFR’s Lumding-Badarpur single line railway route.

In many places, due to heavy rain, the soil from the railway tracks got washed away and huge landslides covered the tracks and other railway assets.

CommentsIn view of the snapping of the railway services, Tripura and Mizoram had earlier approached the External Affairs Ministry to bring essential supplies and fuel via Bangladesh.

Search and rescue operation continued for the 13th day on Tuesday at a railways construction site in Manipur’s Noney district, where at least 52 people have been killed in a landslide, officials said.

“Till Monday, 52 bodies, mostly of Territorial Army soldiers were recovered, while no more body was unearthed on Tuesday,” a defence spokesman told NDTV.

The search operations by the Army, Territorial Army and the National and State Disaster Response Forces have been going on uninterruptedly since the catastrophic landslide on the intervening night of June 29 and 30 which buried alive a large number of people including some from the Territorial Army, Railway employees, workers and villagers.

Eighteen persons have been rescued and hospitalized, officials informed.

State Relief and Disaster Minister Awangbow Newmai, who visited the spot sixth time today said that a review meeting would be held after three days on the continuation of the search operation.

“The review meeting has been called on considering the hardship faced by the officials and volunteers who had been carrying out the search operation for 13 days without any break,” he said.

CommentsThe Territorial Army soldiers were deployed at Tupul for security to the railway works, part of the ₹ 14,320 crore broad gauge Jiribam-Imphal railway project, being executed by the Northeast Frontier Railway (NFR), to connect the Manipur capital to the rail network by 2024.

A passenger travelling in a Karnataka-Delhi train raised an alarm on Twitter, claiming that it has been hijacked. This alerted the railways staff that immediately responded to the user saying that the train has been diverted due to maintenance work on the track. The Twitter exchange took place on Sunday evening, in which the user Krushna Ch Behera tagged the Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) and the Divisional Railway Manager (DRM) of Secunderabad seeking help from railways authorities.

Mr Behera was travelling on the Karnataka Sampark Kranti and noticed that that train took a diversion between Majri Junction and Sitafal Mandi. He panicked and immediately posted a tweet.

“Sir, the work is going on between Kazipeta and Ballrasha and hence, the train was diverted his route through Hyderabad division . Don’t Panic,” another tweet from RPF said.

Twitter users, initially concerned about Mr Behera, later found his tweet funny and also called for action to be taken against him.

Comments“Dear @Krishooja you are the next meme material on various social media platforms,” a user said while replying to Mr Behera’s tweet. “Can you book Krishooja for acting negligently, spreading rumor and causing panic in public? At least put hefty fine on him. If he is not in train, then complaint should be directed to cyber crime unit. Don’t let these people go Scot free. He claimed hijacking,” another user commented.

A video of a boy performing one of the toughest types of gymnastics has gone viral on the internet.

Shared on Instagram, the video shows the boy named Suraj Singh performing a series of back flips in front of the general public at an unidentified railway station. In the clip, Mr Singh, who is popularly known as the “crazy flipper” as per his social media ID, is seen bringing off a series of smooth backflips on a platform while an express train is waiting in the background.

Mr Singh has edited the last part of the clip in slow motion in order to make the flip clear for the audience.

In the video, the passengers of the train seem excited about watching the stunt. A police inspector also looks impressed with Mr Singh’s attempts. However, at the end of the Instagram Reel, the officer can be seen asking for the recording device as capturing photos and videos inside several railway premises in India is not allowed.

When translated, the caption of the post also read that the police officer seized the mobile phone.

Since being shared, the video has taken the internet by storm. It has garnered more than 760,000 views and over 345,000 likes. While some internet users showered appreciation with emojis, others expressed their concern over the boy’s safety. One user wrote, “Outstanding bro but plz be careful.” Another simply called the video “super”.

CommentsSpeaking of dangerous stunts, a while back a man in Noida was filmed lying prone on a moving bike in a ‘Shaktimaan’-like stunt that sent him straight to jail. His two friends who captured it on video also ended up in jail with him. The Noida police had tweeted out a short video of the stunt followed by the arrest of the three men.