Tag: Bihar

Mob kills three in Bihar on suspicion of cattle theft, three arrested

Source: in.reuters.com

NEW DELHI (Reuters) – A mob on Friday beat to death three men suspected of trying to steal cattle in Bihar, police said, the latest in a spate of attacks that have provoked alarm among religious minorities.

In recent years angry mobs have lynched many people from marginalised groups in India, especially Muslims and the Dalits who occupy the lowest rung of the ancient caste system, often over suspicions of cow slaughter.

The three men were caught by some villagers early on Friday while trying to load cattle on a pickup truck, police official Har Kishore Rai said.

“They were trying to load a buffalo and a calf when some villagers woke up and took the three into their custody and beat them up,” he said, adding that the men had died.

Police have arrested three people from the village of Pithauri and have filed a case of murder against four more from the village, administrative official Lokesh Mishra told Reuters.

Police have filed a case of theft against the three men, and the villagers face a separate case of murder filed by the victims’ families, naming three accused people, although more names are likely to be added, Mishra said.

Hinduism, India’s dominant religion, considers cows sacred, and killing them is taboo.

Activists have tracked a rise in the number of mob lynchings in the last five years that Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist government has been in power. Critics accuse it of not having done enough to rein in such violence.

The Supreme Court last year recommended making mob lynching a separate offence. In July, opposition parties in Bihar demanded a separate law against mob lynching in the state, where they say the problem is growing.

Statistics don’t lie: Why Bihar CM Nitish Kumar is miles ahead of other contenders

Source: dailyo.in

Though the Bihar Assembly polls are scheduled for 2020, the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) has already declared Tejashwi Yadav as its chief ministerial candidate. While it appeared a little hasty and ill-timed for a party that drew a blank in the Lok Sabha polls, many argued that RJD’s declaration was more for intra-party consumption, and not for the people of Bihar. However, RJD’s apparent taste for Bihar’s top job has prompted many backroom boys across political lines to take a closer look at the Lok Sabha poll results. This is obviously an attempt to find whether RJD’s desire carries any weight in Bihar and if the political pecking order in the state has any new entrant.

A fresh data analysis of votes has been pulled out to assess if the poll outcome also has some hidden meaning attached to it. While statistics are notorious for not telling the whole story, the data analysis of voting during the Lok Sabha polls in Bihar has really thrown up some surprising assessments. The biggest surprise first: The BJP, which bagged the maximum votes in the state in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, is not the biggest gainer if you compare performance of political parties during the last two elections held in Bihar.

In the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, the BJP bagged 96,18,904 votes in Bihar. In the 2015 Assembly polls, the saffron tally was 93,08,015 votes. Clearly, despite their impressive showing in Bihar, having won all 17 seats contested in 2019, the BJP has gained just about 3.10 lakh votes from 2015. So, who is the biggest gainer in Bihar? The results of a data analysis — based on a comparison of the last two elections held in Bihar — are convincingly in favour of Nitish Kumar’s Janata Dal (United) or JD(U). In 2015, Nitish’s party had bagged 64,17,041 votes. In 2019, its vote tally shot up to 89,02,719 votes. If you compare the two performances, it becomes clear that Nitish’s party has added more than 24.85 lakh voters in the recently concluded Lok Sabha polls.

The JD(U)’s leap of 38.73% over its 2015 tally is staggering. If we compare the votes gained by the two ruling parties in Bihar (JD(U)’s 24.85 lakh votes to BJP’s 3.10 lakh), it becomes clear that the jump in Nitish’s vote tally is eight times more than that of the BJP. More surprises come to fore when the Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD)’s vote tally of 2019 is compared to the number of votes it polled in 2015. The RJD bagged 62,70,107 votes in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls compared to 69,95,509 votes in the 2015 Assembly polls. So, the RJD has lost just 7.25 lakh votes in 2019 against its performance in 2015. The figure, however, also reveals a significant insight.

While the JD(U) has raised its vote tally by nearly 39% over its 2015 performance, its electoral gains have not come from the losses of its opponents. The majority of additional votes that Nitish’s party has gained in Bihar appear to have come from new voters. Incidentally, since the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, Bihar has topped the country’s tally when it comes to adding new voters to the electoral roll. The figure for new voters in Bihar was 61,33,940, whereas West Bengal with 55.02 lakh new voters and Rajasthan with 43.45 lakh new voters, were second and third, respectively. 

“Assuming that about 60% of Bihar’s new voters actually voted in the Lok Sabha polls, the number comes up to 36 lakh. If we place this figure against the 24.85 lakh new votes that Nitish Kumar’s party has added to its kitty in the 2019 Lok Sabha polls, it seems that nearly 70% of the new voters have voted for JD(U),” says a senior IAS officer. “It is clear. While JD(U) has kept its support base intact, it has also added majority of the new voters in Bihar to its vote tally. The reasons are abundantly clear. The new voters, the youth of Bihar, are smart enough to identify the leader whom they can count on for vision and leadership,” says JD(U) spokesman Rajeev Ranjan Prasad. “They [Bihari youth] can differentiate between a run-of-the-mill politician and a statesman like Nitish Kumar”.

“This explains why majority of the new voters have voted for the chief minister’s party,” Prasad adds. The assumptions are well supported by Bihar’s electoral record as Nitish has, indeed, remained the fulcrum of Bihar politics since his party defeated Lalu Prasad’s RJD in the October 2005. From 2005 to 2019, Bihar has seen four Assembly and three Lok Sabha polls. Barring the 2014 Lok Sabha polls, the winner always had Nitish by his side in six of those seven elections. Though Nitish always talks about pooling all sections together, JD(U) sources admit that around 30% extremely backward castes (EBCs), and 15 per cent Mahadalits (the most marginalised among the Scheduled Castes) form the nucleus of the JD(U)’s strength.

Together, these two social sections have over 150 castes, constituting nearly 45% voters in Bihar. If RJD’s solid support base among the Yadavs, the single-largest caste group in Bihar with 14% of the population, combined with a sizeable chunk of 16% Muslim votes, has failed to stop Nitish in successive state elections, it was largely because the Bihar CM had similar consolidation of EBCs and Mahadalits behind him. Now, it seems the new voters have also preferred Nitish over others.

Governors–sage or saboteur?: Question asked in Bihar echoes in Karnataka

Source: nationalheraldindia.com

Critically examine the role of Governor in the state politics of India, especially in the context of Bihar. Is he just a puppet?

This was the question––considered objectionable by some––asked in the General Studies-II exam of the Bihar Public Service Commission, which concluded on July 16. The GS-II exam was held on July 14.

The question sparked off controversy forcing the BPSC to issue a clarification and announcing that was blacklisting the question-setter. If the sources are to be believed the expert who had set the paper is a retired bureaucrat residing outside Bihar.

It all started after a Hindi daily Dainik Jagaran carried a report on July 15. The daily was more particular over the translation of the word puppet. As most of the examinees write their answers in Hindi the puppet was translated as ‘kathputli’. As the question was asked in the context of Bihar, according to sources, the Raj Bhavan at Patna too was upset over it. There was even demand for filing a case against the expert.

Soon other newspapers, including English, followed and it was alleged that the word ‘Kathputli’ was offensive. The Chairman of the BPSC, Shishir Sinha, himself a retired IAS officer, called on the Bihar Governor, Lalji Tandon, to explain the position of the Commission. However, sources in the BPSC said that he was actually summoned by the Governor.

Some sections saw in the question a political conspiracy. They held that since chief minister Nitish Kumar is unhappy after his party Janata Dal United failed to get due representation in the Narendra Modi cabinet, somebody in the Commission used this ploy against the Governor––actually an appointee of Centre.

So far as the question is concerned, most people felt there was nothing wrong in it. “Questions over the role of the Governor are asked in various Commission exams, including the UPSC,” one of the examinees told this correspondent.

Another candidate recalled that an invigilator in his room was very appreciative of the question as Governors are in the news for all the wrong reasons in the recent years, be it in Bihar, Goa or Karnataka.

Mediapersons are themselves divided over the whole story carried by Jagaran and are of the view that a section of the Press had unnecessarily made a mountain out of molehill.

“This is a total non-issue and unnecessarily played up by the media. Such questions are often asked,” commented a political observer. However, Dainik Jagaran stoutly defended itself and strongly held that words like ‘Kathputli’ cannot be used for constitutional functionaries like the Governor.

When reminded by this correspondent that noted legal luminary, Soli Sorabjee wrote a book “The Governor: Sage or Saboteur”, he replied that anyone could write anything in a book but a derogatory term should not have been used in a Public Service Commission examination.

BPSC too in a notification clarified that apparently there was nothing wrong in the question. Only the word ‘Kathputli’ was misplaced. As the question was asked in the context of Bihar there was some misunderstanding on this issue and that everything had been sorted out.

If reports are to be believed, the Commission is likely to set up a committee to decide how to deal with the question as a large number of candidates chose to answer this particular question though they had other options.

June This Year Was Hottest June Ever, Says NASA

Source: northeasttoday.in

As per the data released by the American space agency NASA on Monday, the global average land-ocean temperatures were 0.93°C above the normal temperature (with 1951 to 1980 as base years).

It said such high temperatures have never been observed on Earth in recorded history since 1880. June of 2016 was the second-highest at 0.82°C above normal. Then also, El Niño in 2015-16 was cited as the reason.

Meanwhile, the climate community is concerned about how the temperatures have shot up despite it being a weak El Niño year.

In India, June saw heatwave across the country due to the delayed monsoon. The temperatures breached 50°C in parts of Rajasthan, and the national capital recorded the highest-ever June day temperature on June 10. The temperatures also shot up across Europe with many countries witnessing their highest-ever temperatures.

The European climate institution Copernicus had also reported June 2019 as the warmest on record. Experts say July could well be the hottest-ever, as North America and the middle-east continue to record extreme temperatures.

June was lethal for states in North India with Bihar alone reporting 137. Of this, Aurangabad reported 60 deaths, Gaya 41, Nalanda 13, Nawada 12, Munger 5, Kaimoor and Vaishali 2 each and Aara and Samastipur 1 each.

Major cities in Bihar like Patna, Gaya and Bhagalpur witnessed an intense heatwave.

Due to the continuing heatwave, the state government ordered the suspension of academic activities in all schools, colleges and educational institutes across the state till June 22 apart from ordering the closure of markets between 11 AM and 5 PM in three south Bihar districts of Gaya, Aurangabad and Nawada.

Bihar to have 11 More Medical Colleges; Says Health Minister

Source: patnadaily.com

Patna: Ignoring the fact that nearly 200 children had died in Bihar due to outbreak of the Acute Encephalitis Syndrome (AES) in the recent months in the state and the fact that Bihar hospitals remain more under lockdown due to strike by junior doctors and nurses and there is a serious crisis of doctors in nearly all state hospitals, Bihar Health Minister Mangal Pandey on Wednesday announced the government’s decision to open 11 new medical colleges in Bihar.

Reacting to the opposition’s demand of resignation in the wake of the death of children due to AES, Pandey, without mentioning anything about improving the conditions of the existing hospitals in Bihar where just as recent as last week flood water had entered in the general ward forcing the patients to be moved to different locations, said that the government was planning to open 11 new hospitals in the state. He also repeated the pledge of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar who had recently said that the Patna Medical College and Hospital (PMCH) will be turned into a ‘world-class’ hospital with 5000 beds in it.

The Health Minister was speaking at Vidhan Sabha about Rs. 96,000,000,000 (96 arab+) budget of the health department that was passed despite pandemonium by the opposition leaders who continued to demand his resignation in the wake of the AES-related deaths.

“Work has already begun on the 500-bed hospital in the Indira Gandhi Institute of Medical Sciences (IGIMS) in Patna and a proposal to build a 1200-bed hospital is also in the pipeline. Another plan includes building of a brand-new mental hospital in Koelwar with a capacity of 272 beds and hospitals with 50 to 100 bed capacity is being built in 14 blocks in various districts,” he said.

Other plans include building of a second All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Bihar, a 100-bed children hospital in Muzaffarpur, a cancer hospital with a price tag of Rs. 200 crore, and building of a disease control center inside Nalanda Medical College and Hospital (NMCH) campus, the minister said.

Riots have gone down by 32 per cent in Bihar: CM Nitish Kumar

Source: indiatoday.in

ihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Thursday claimed the incidence of riots has gone down in the state, indicating that social harmony has grown, but admitted the rise in the number of killings and robberies was a matter of concern.

Addressing the state assembly during a debate on the budget for the home department, Kumar also expressed concern over the growing influence of social media and pointed out that unverified rumours shared on these platforms have often contributed to law and order problems in Bihar.

“If we look at the crime figures for January-May this year and compare these with the corresponding period in 2018, we find riots have gone down by 32 per cent and kidnapping for ransom once rampant in Bihar has dipped by 44 per cent. There has also been a reduction in the incidence of burglary,” Kumar said.

“However, when we look at the figures for murder and dacoity, there has been a rise of two per cent and eight per cent respectively,” Kumar admitted.

He clarified “all riots do not involve a clash between members of two communities. Technically, any attempt by a group of five persons or more to disrupt law and order qualifies as a riot. However, a reduction in the number does indicate that there has been a growth in social harmony”.

About the rise in murders, he said it has come to “our notice that a large number of killings follow a land dispute. In addition to whatever can be done directly through the law and order machinery, we are also working towards reducing land disputes by introducing measures like online mutation of land records.

Moreover, we are committed to further strengthening the law and order machinery. We are working on having separate units for law and order and investigation at all police stations and the process is likely to be complete by August 15 this year,” Kumar said.

He also told the assembly that police personnel were being provided with upgraded facilities, including modern weaponry, but at the same time those found guilty of laxity in performing duties were also being punished.

“A total of 127 such lax police officials, of whom more than two dozens are of Deputy SP rank, are facing departmental action,” the chief minister said.

Kumar also lamented the role played by social media in giving rise to social tensions, saying there is no accountability and these platforms have come to acquire a wider reach than even newspapers and channels.

“However, we try to keep such instances under check as far as possible without infringing upon the freedom of expression guaranteed to citizens by the Constitution.”

The Home department budget was subsequently passed by the House amid a walkout staged by opposition parties like RJD, Congress and CPI(ML).

MLAs belonging to these parties alleged that they were not satisfied with the explanation given by the government on the deteriorating law and order situation in the state.

BPSC chairman meets Bihar Governor over question paper row

Source: hindustantimes.com

Chairman of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) has met and briefed state Governor Lalji Tandon over civil service examination question paper in which a question referred to the governors of states as “kathputli (puppet)”.

BPSC Chairman Shishir Sinha briefed Tandon and said that action has been initiated in the matter and the commission has sought an explanation from the person who set the particular question on the role of Governor in the BPSC Mains Examination paper.

The Governor Office said in a press release, “The Chairman of BPSC informed us that anyone from commission was not aware about anything related to question paper. Even, the commission get to know about if after the completion of exam.”

“Critically examine the role of Governor in the State politics in India, particularly in Bihar. Is he a mere puppet?” the question asked in the General Knowledge Paper II examination of Bihar Public Service Commission (BPSC) Mains read, which later caused flutters in political circles.

The question paper of the BPSC Mains Examination, which was held on Sunday, has come under attack from ministers in the state.

In a damage control exercise, however, the BPSC has sought an explanation from the person who put the question on the role of Governor in BPSC Mains Examination paper. Blacklisting him, the Commission has also barred him from setting the question paper in future.

“The person who put the question on a Constitutional post in BPSC Mains Exam has been asked for an explanation and has been barred from setting a question paper in future, thereby, putting him in a blacklist. Express regret over it,” said BPSC in a press release.

The BPSC Civil Services Main examination was conducted from July 12 to July 14 while the final optional subject exam will be conducted on July 16.

Bihar is flooding, but where did it start? Hint: look north

Source: downtoearth.org.in

You would expect floods to follow heavy rains, but the current flooding of north Bihar preceded extreme rainfall. The trigger for the deluge was the downpour in Nepal.

Bihar shares its northern border with the country, from which a slew of Himalayan rivers run down south. Rising water level in many of those wreaked havoc in 12 districts of north Bihar as floodwater breached embankments, snapped roads, washed away small bridges and damaged standing paddy, maize and jute crops.

On July 11-12, Nepal’s Simara weather station received more than half the 580.2 milimetre rainfall it gets in July normally. The spell totalled 478.40 mm by July 13. 

The next day Nepal opened all 56 sluice gates of the Kosi barrage, with water at alarming levels, releasing three lakh cusecs towards Bihar.

Heavy rainfall ensued in bihar as well, but the sudden rise of water levels in Kosi, Bagmati, Kamka Balan, Gandak, Budhi Gandak and their tributaries was due to an extreme weather event in Nepal, said Vyas, vice-chairman of Bihar State Disaster Management Authority (BSDMA).

The floods have affected more than 2.5 million people of 546 panchayats at 77 blocks in 12 districts, BSDMA officials said.

The state is not new to floods, but it was taken by surprise by the amount of rainfall it received this time and its timing. It usually rains heavily in the state during August, instead of July.

Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar told the Assembly on July 16, 2019 that the state is “fully prepared to deal with” the flash floods. But, everyone else in the state — be it activists or people actually bearing the brunt — feel surprised and unprepared for the unprecedented amount of rainfall.

Everyone living in villages near embankments in Supaul district failed to understand why the water level in river Koshi rose so high in July itself, said Mahendra Yadav, an activist working with flood victims in Koshi region. “Even people in their mid-60s said they had not experienced such a phenomenon in their lifetime,” added Yadav.

North Bihar districts received record-high rainfall during between July 12 and 13, said India Meteorological Department (IMD) officials. East Champaran got 214.92 mm of rainfall, Sitamarhi 154.55 mm and Muzaffatpur 125.15 in those 24 hours. This surpassed a 54-years-old record of heavy rainfall in 24 hours in Bihar.

Then, on July 14, Kishanganj block alone recorded 186.8 mm rainfall within five hours followed by Kochadham block that got 164.2 mm, Thakurganj block 163 mm and Bagadurganj block 162 mm. “Intensity of heavy rainfall was not witnessed before. It caused swollen rivers,” said a disaster management official.

These floods are an example of how climate change would affect lives of people, particularly the poor, Ranjeev, another activist, told Down To Earth.

Now, water resources department officials said water levels in rivers originating in Nepal are decreasing since no heavy rainfall has been recorded in last two days.

Relief and rescue operations are on in flood-affected areas as 26 companies of National Disaster Response Force, State Disaster Response Force and Seema Sashatra Bal have been deployed. Also, 125 boats have been pressed into rescue works.

Political storm brewing in Bihar over police seeking info on RSS, Sangh Parivar functionaries

Source: indiatoday.in

Aletter purportedly issued by the special branch of Bihar police with directions for collecting details about functionaries of the RSS and its affiliates has raised hackles of state BJP leaders and brought to fore the uneasiness in ties with ally JD(U).

Home department officials were tight-lipped about the veracity of the purported communication dated May 28 wherein a report on name, address, telephone number and occupation of district-level office bearers of 19 Sangh Parivar outfits had been sought by the special branch.

The recipients of the letter had been asked to submit their reports within a week.

State BJP leaders expressed surprise over the police move with BJP MLC Sachchidanand Rai saying the party must be careful of the intentions of Chief Minister Nitish Kumar, who holds the home portfolio in the NDA government in Bihar.

BJP MLA and state vice-president Mithilesh Tiwari expressed surprise that police were involved in surveillance of activists of Sangh Parivar, “who are known to be selflessly devoted to nation building”.

Tiwari, however, asserted the development will not have any bearing on BJP-JD(U) ties.

BJP MLC and party’s media cell national co-in charge Sanjay Mayukh said it would be better if the officials responsible for issuing such a communication come clean on the matter.

“I am astonished that the government is seeking such information. The government should have had the information by now since Sangh activists are not known to be secretive. They function in a transparent manner,” he remarked sarcastically.

Rai pointed to the timing of the letter. It was around the same time when Nitish Kumar refused to join Narendra Modi government at the Centre despite contesting the Lok Sabha polls as an NDA ally.

Kumar’s JD(U) was expected to have representation in the Union Cabinet. However, the Chief Minister who also heads the party decided otherwise stating that JD(U) was being offered a symbolic representation not commensurate with its strength in Parliament.

The chief minister has also remarked wryly on a couple of occasions thereafter that the BJP is actually not in need of allies for running its government at the centre and a mere symbolic representation is of no significance.

Notably, the BJP has 303 MPs in Lok Sabha, far in excess of 272 needed for a majority. In Bihar, it contested 17 seats and won all of these while the JD(U) which fought as many bagged 16.

“If information is being gathered as part of some routine procedure then I have no problems. But if it was being done with any ulterior motive, then I have strong objections.

“I am unable to understand why the police should keep a surveillance on activists of the Sangh Parivar, who are known to be selflessly devoted to nation building,” Tiwari said.

He, however, noted that the parties have come together to develop Bihar and will continue to work in this direction.

Both parties have a mutual understanding that each would pursue its own ideology in a way that does not harm the other, he said.

Altogether 19 organisations have been named in the purported circular. These include RSS, its minorities cell Muslim Rashtriya Manch, students body Akhil Bharatiya Vidyarthi Parishad, labour organisation Bharatiya Mazdoor Sangh besides Vishwa Hindu Parishad and Bajrang Dal, among others.

The letter also seeks information on right-wing Hindu Mahasabha though it is not an affiliate of the Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh (RSS).

Opposition RJD leaders latched onto the issue to take a swipe at the BJP and the JD(U).

Senior RJD leader Bhai Birendra said “this shows the imperfect alliance between NDA partners”.

The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) in Bihar comprises JD(U), BJP and LJP.

Kumar had snapped 17-year-old ties with the BJP in 2013 but returned to the NDA in 2017 after a short-lived alliance with arch-rival Lalu Prasad’s RJD and Congress.

Floods claim 55 lives in Assam and Bihar, red alert sounded in Kerala

Source: indiatoday.in

aging flood waters battered Assam and parts of Bihar with the death toll in the two states mounting to 55 Tuesday, while rain-related incidents claimed 14 lives in Uttar Pradesh.

A red alert was also sounded in Kerala for extremely heavy rains with an India Meteorological Department (IMD) bulletin saying that over 204 mm rains are likely in 24 hours in six districts of the southern state.

In the north, heavy rains continued to lash Punjab and Haryana while the national capital received light showers for a second consecutive day.

At least 33 people have been killed in flash floods in Bihar till Tuesday evening and 25.71 lakh people are affected in 16 districts of the state.

According to officials, unusual torrential rainfall in Nepal and subsequent massive discharge of water in rivers led to flash floods in Bihar where more than one lakh people have been moved to safer areas.

In Assam, the deluge has affected 33 districts of the state and claimed 17 lives. More than 45 lakh people have been hit by the nature’s fury, officials said.

Ninety per cent of the famed Kaziranga National Park in Golaghat and Nagaon districts of the state is still submerged, a statement from the Assam Ministry of Forest and Environment said. The Kaziranga National Park is home to the world’s largest population of Indian one-horned rhinoceroses.

With over 150 anti-poaching camps in the Kaziranga National Park affected by the floods, the authorities are working round-the-clock to check poaching at the UNESCO World Heritage site.

According to Assam State Disaster Management Authority (ASDMA) report, Brahmaputra river and its tributaries are flowing above the danger level in most of the affected districts, including in Guwahati.

In Guwahati, the flood waters of the Brahmaputra have submerged Uzanbazar, Kharguli and Bharalamukh areas.

The flood situation in Manas National Park and Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary is also critical as vast stretches in them have been inundated and animals are moving towards the neighbouring highlands.

Five persons had died earlier in rain-related incidents in Mizoram.

Meanwhile, light rains and a cloud cover kept the mercury in check in the national capital. The Safdarjung Observatory, which provides official figures for the city, reported 29.2 mm of rains till 8:30 am, the maximum in the monsoon season this year.

The city recorded a high of 33.4 degrees Celsius, two notches below normal, and a low of 24 degrees Celsius.

In neighbouring Uttar Pradesh, 14 people were killed Tuesday in rain-related incidents, a government release said. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath directed district magistrates concerned to immediately provide Rs 4 lakh to the families of the victims.

Meanwhile, heavy rains continued to lash many parts of Punjab and Haryana. The water level of Ghaggar river in Patiala district was flowing close to the danger mark in the morning, but by the evening, the level reduced, officials said.

“There was localised flooding in some parts, but there is no need to panic,” Patiala Deputy Commissioner Kumar Amit said.

There were also reports of heavy rains in Bathinda in Punjab and Ambala in Haryana, leading to water-logging in many low-lying areas.

Chandigarh recorded a high of 28.3 degrees Celsius, five notches below normal limits, a Meteorological Department report said here.

The MeT has forecast more rains in the two states till Thursday.

Rains in several parts of Himachal Pradesh brought down the day temperatures in the state, with Karsog being the wettest with 70 mm of rainfall.