Congress president Mallikarjun Kharge on Saturday said that the candidates for prestigious Amethi and Rae Bareli seats in Uttar Pradesh will be announced in a few days. He was addressing a press conference where he claimed that though the BJP says the corrupt must be put in jails, when leaders facing corruption charges join the saffron party, they are put on the lap and sent to Rajya Sabha or assembly.

On being asked about the names of the candidates for Amethi and Rae Bareli Lok Sabha constituencies he said the people will have to wait for a few more days. He said when the names of candidates come from people to him and he will sign the notification, then the announcement will be made.

On being questioned about Congress leaders changing constituencies Kharge asked how many times have Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Lal Krishna Advani changed their seats. His response came when asked about the BJP criticising Rahul Gandhi for fighting the elections from Kerala’s Wayanad instead of Amethi. Referring to Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma, Kharge said the Congress is not affected by people who grew up in the party and left it later.

The Congress president launched an all round attack on the BJP and PM Modi and said the prime minister did not implement even one of his electoral promises and still says Modi did a lot of work for the country. Addressing the press conference he said the BJP never fought for the independence of India, but Congress is a party of those who made India independent. He said the BJP never fought for the independence of India, for the development of India. The Congress President said the BJP speaks so much about patriotism and that the contribution of Pandit Jawahar Lal Nehru, Indira Gandhi and Lal Bahadur Shastri is nothing before them.

Heavy rainfall in Assam, Sikkim and North Bengal caused landslides and floods in multiple areas on Friday, compelling authorities to strengthen rescue and relief operations and evacuate the affected people to safer locations. The India Meteorological Department (IMD) has issued a red alert for North Bengal and Sikkim.

According to reports, floods in Assam have affected more than 67,000 people in 17 districts of the state. The affected districts are Biswanth, Chirang, Dhemaji, Golaghat, Baksha, Jorhat, Bongaigaon, Lakhimpur, Dhubri, Nagoan, Tamulpur, Kokrajhar, Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar and Majuli. The State Disaster Management Authority stated that major rivers, namely Brahmaputra, are flowing above the danger levels in several places. 

Reportedly, an embankment was destroyed in Majuli and 18 roads were damaged in Barpeta, Chirang, Majuli, Sonitpur, Golaghata, Sivasagar, Lakhimpur and Dhubri districts. Further, large-scale erosion was also reported from the state. A crop area of nearly 2770 hectares has been damaged. 49,535 animals were also affected in the northeastern state of Assam.

Assam Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma asserted that excess water from the Kurichu dam in Bhutan was being released since the previous morning and district administration in the downstream area of Assam has been put on alert for possible flooding. 

On the other hand, in Sikkim, heavy rainfall triggered landslides in the state’s northern areas. Reportedly, a landslide in the 9th Mile area along Jawaharlal Nehru Road cut off the Nathu La Pass, that connects India and China and other tourist destinations such as Tsomgo Lake and Baba Mandir, from Sikkim’s capital Gangtok. In addition, North Sikkim has received heavy rains for the past seven days. 

Reports claim that on Thursday two people were swept away by the Kaljani river in North Bengal’s Alipurduar district. Furthermore, Torsa and Kaljani rivers in Alipurduar district crossed the danger mark after heavy rainfall for two consecutive days. Meanwhile in Jalpaiguri, the Army rescued nearly 72 people, who were stranded due to floods in Mechpara village near Hasimara.

The Manipur government is trying their best to restore peace in the violence-hit state. The BJP led government in the state on Monday issued a no work no pay policy for over one lakh employees who have been away from their offices since the violence broke out in the Manipur on May 3.

The initiative comes from the general administration who are trying to bring back things to normal in Manipur. The administrative secretaries have been asked to furnish details of employees who could not attend their official duties due to the prevailing situation in the state with details such as name, EIN and the present address by June 28.

CM Biren Singh said that the state government and the Centre had been working together to take control of the situation in Manipur. He claimed that no casualty had been reported since June 13. After the ethnic violence escalated in the state of Manipur, the Indian army had made all possible efforts to evacuate government employees and residents from both the hill and the valley districts.

Though the authorities claim that the violence in the northeastern state has been taken under control, the employees are still feared to return to work as they do not want to risk their life and safety. Notably, transfer is not an option for the employees of the general administration. Chief Secretary Vineet Joshi has received applications from senior officials asking to relocate them in some other department which is in their native district. CM Biren Singh chaired a cabinet meeting on June 12 in which it was decided that the ‘No Work No Pay’ rule would apply to all government employees.

Many employees asserts that the ‘no work, no pay’ rule is unfair as the government could not expect the employees to get back to work immediately as the wounds of the ethnic clashes were still fresh in minds of the people.