New Delhi : On Tuesday night, north India was rocked by a 6.8-magnitude earthquake with its epicentre in Afghanistan’s remote Hindu Kush mountains. The tremors were felt in the national capital, Delhi, and locals panicked and rushed out onto the streets. The following day, the National Centre for Seismology (NCS) recorded a 2.7-magnitude earthquake in west Delhi.

According to NCS, the earthquake occurred at 4:42 pm on March 22, 2023, with a depth of 5 km. The agency tweeted, “Earthquake of Magnitude:2.7, Occurred on 22-03-2023, 16:42:35 IST, Lat: 28.66 & Long: 77.03, Depth: 5 Km, Location: 17km WNW of New Delhi.”

The Delhi Fire Services received several calls reporting tilted buildings and cracks in buildings in the Jamia Nagar, Kalkaji, and Shahdara areas after the tremors from the previous day’s earthquake. The police, PCR, fire brigade, and District Disaster Management Authority (DDMA) responded to the calls. However, no cracks or tilts were observed in the building in the Shakarpur area where a caller reported a tilt.

This latest earthquake serves as a reminder of the importance of earthquake preparedness and awareness. The NCS and other agencies continue to monitor seismic activity in the region and issue alerts as necessary.

New Delhi : Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday held a high-level meeting to review the Covid-related situation and public health preparedness.

India reported 1,134 new cases of Covid-19 while active cases rose to 7,026, according to Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday. The total death toll has risen to 5,30,813.

Five deaths were reported in Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Gujarat and Maharashtra with one death each from Kerala, data updated at 8 am said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.09 percent while the weekly positivity was pegged at 0.98 percent. The number of Covid cases recorded is 4.46 crore (4,46,98,118). Active cases now account for 0.02 percent of total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has been recorded at 98.79 percent, the ministry said.

The Union Health Ministry had last week written to six states reporting an increase in Covid cases, suggesting that possible local spread could lead to the increase in cases.

“Some states are reporting high number of cases, which indicates local spread of infection and need to follow a risk assessment based approach to prevent infection,” said Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan after writing to Maharashtra, Gujarat, Telangana, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Karnataka.

“It is essential for the state to maintain strict vigilance and take proactive measures if necessary in any areas of concern to control the spread of infection,” Bhushan said.

Bengaluru: As the assembly elections in the state are approaching, the Election Commission has paid special attention to increasing the percentage of voting in the booths, especially in the urban areas, where the turnout was low in the last election.

The state has more than 57,300 polling booths. Although there have been increases in the voting percentage in the state over the last few years, it has been observed to decrease in the urban areas.

In the last decade, the voting percentage in the state has been more than 70 percent, while in urban areas, especially in cities like Bangalore, it has been less than 50 percent.

State Chief Electoral Officer Manoj Kumar Meena said that out of the total polling stations in the state, low voting was observed in 9,000 polling stations. In this regard, 73 assembly constituencies have been identified and our team will visit these constituencies and hold talks with the people. Listen to people’s problems and work will be done to solve those problems, he said.

A lot of people stay in big apartments in Bangalore. Delivering voter slips to such people is a challenging task. This could be one of the reasons why voters do not come to polling booths. This time, we thought of reaching out to such people with the help of Resident Welfare Associations or Apartment Associations. We are ready to deliver voter slips to 100 percent voters. He said that he is hoping to attract more voters this time.