top of page

By:

Quaid Najmi

4 January 2025 at 8:56:24 pm

Tibetans, Nepalis worry, pray for kin

Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya Samithi students during a candle prayer vigil in Chennai on Friday for the victims and survivors of the flash floods in Nepal. Pic: PTI Mumbai: Thousands of Tibetans and Nepalis settled in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra are worried stiff about their relatives, friends and other citizens in their native countries hit by the devastating avalanche and floods in the Himalayan region. An estimated 1000 Tibetans and more than four-lakhs Nepalis live in Maharashtra and...

Tibetans, Nepalis worry, pray for kin

Thakkar Bapa Vidyalaya Samithi students during a candle prayer vigil in Chennai on Friday for the victims and survivors of the flash floods in Nepal. Pic: PTI Mumbai: Thousands of Tibetans and Nepalis settled in Mumbai and parts of Maharashtra are worried stiff about their relatives, friends and other citizens in their native countries hit by the devastating avalanche and floods in the Himalayan region. An estimated 1000 Tibetans and more than four-lakhs Nepalis live in Maharashtra and Mumbai engaged in various professions or academics. Friends of Tibet (FoT) Coordinator Tenzin Tsundue and United Nepali Organisation (UNO) Advisor Bharat Rawal are liaising with the Indian, Nepal and Tibetan authorities for information sought by their respective members. The Tibetans are particularly anxious as communication lines are still not restored or restricted by the local authorities, making contacts with families difficult, said Tsundue. “Though details are sketchy and blocked by the Chinese authorities, there is a suspicion that at least 14 small-to-medium hydro-power plants, including 5 under construction, on the rivers in the Rasuwa and Nuwakot areas, along with dams, diversion structures and cofferdams could have played a role in triggering or aggravating the situation,” Tsundue told ‘The Perfect Voice’. He claimed that in and around the Kyirong County – the lowest and greenest in Tibet’s southern region, where the avalanche and floods originated on Wednesday - “at least 400-500 are feared missing” although the official figures by China are different. “As per current information available, evidence points to the initial floods being generated upstream in Tibet, rather than the Nepal hydropower stations,” added Tsundue. Rawal said that so far one member from Thane, Santosh Niraula has confirmed that his niece, Richa Niraula, working as an engineer in the Upper Trishuli – one of the worst-hit regions – is missing and he has rushed there to join the search and rescue operations. “Following a request from Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, Nepal’s dynamic GenZ leader and Rashtriya Swatantra Party MP, K. P. Khanal, 26, immediately helped in tracing, rescuing and arranging for the return of at least 37 pilgrims from Maharashtra stuck in the floods on the Tibet-Nepal borders,” Rawal told ‘The Perfect Voice’. No Information A Nepali eatery co-owner in Malad Geeta Rana said that her entire family of Ranas is stuck in Chitwan, a tourism haven, with little or no information reaching Mumbai as communication and power lines are affected, and there are reports of other Nepalis facing a similar ordeal in different parts of their homeland, especially in Dhading and Nuwakot districts. 290 tourists from Maharashtra stranded but safe Mumbai: As many as 290 people from Maharashtra are stranded but confirmed safe in various parts of Nepal following the devastating flash floods while 60 tourists are still untraceable, a state government official said on Friday. Further, 105 people from Maharashtra who were in Nepal at the time of the tragedy are on their way back to India, said the State Disaster Management Department official. Sixty people from the state who were on a Nepal tour organised by Mumbai-based Richa Tours Pvt Ltd could not be contacted, he said. “So far, 395 people from Maharashtra have been confirmed to be stuck in Nepal. Of these, 105 are on their way back to India, while our control room has established contact with the remaining 290 people, who are safe but stranded in various parts of Nepal,” he added. As many as 37 pilgrims who were stranded in Tibet after completing the Kailash Mansarovar Yatra left for Kathmandu on Friday morning following Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis’s intervention. According to the Chief Minister’s Office, the group, which includes pilgrims from Thane, Pune, Raigad, Alibag, and Dombivli, left Saga in Tibet around 6 am via the Nyalam check-post and is travelling towards the Nepalese capital. Their return flight from Kathmandu is scheduled for 2 pm on August 29, the CMO statement said.

Unrest within Mahayuti

Updated: Jan 21, 2025

Mahayuti

Mumbai: The state administration on Sunday stalled the appointments of guardian ministers in Raigad and Nashik districts. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had cleared the appointments before he left for Davos in Switzerland to attend the World Economic Forum on Saturday. They are believed to have been stalled on behest of Deputy Chief Minister Eknath Shinde, who heads the state in absence of the Chief Minister.


NCP’s Aditi Tatkare and BJP’s Girish Mahajan were entrusted with responsibilities of guardian minister for the Raigad and Nashik districts respectively, where Shiv Sena’s Bharat Gogawale and Dada Bhuse had staked claims. Gogawale is a first-time minister while, Bhuse had been the guardian minister of the district during previous government under Eknath Shinde.


Shiv Sena, NCP and BJP all the three constituents of Mahayuti have strong roots in both the districts. However, the Shiv Sena and the NCP had been particularly on loggerheads there. The Shiv Sena, which had been demanding the guardian minister’s post in Nashik district has managed to win only two assembly seats in the district where the NCP has Six and the BJP has Five MLAs. On the contrary, in Raigad the NCP has won only one seat while the Shiv Sena and the BJP both have Three MLAs each in the district.


Sunil Tatkare, MP from Raigad Lok Sabha constituency and the stat unit president of the NCP and father of Aditi Tatkare, had been the guardian minister of Raigad between 2004 and 2014. Gogawale had always been his political opponent before Tatkare joined the Mahayuti government under Ajit Pawar’s leadership in 2023. Gogawale claimed that all the Six Shiv Sena-BJP MLAs in the district had opined in his favour to be the guardian minister of the district and after the decision to appoint Aditi Tatkare was announced, his supporters resorted to violent protests. They burnt tyres in bid to stall traffic on highway in the district. Reacting to the developments, Tatkare said that the issue should be pondered over after CM Fadnavis returns from Davos on Saturday and settled amicably.


In Nashik Girish Mahajan had been the guardian minister of the district between 2014 and 2019 when Fadnavis was the Chief Minister.


The post of guardian minister doesn’t have any constitutional mandate and is considered to be a political appointment. Guardian ministers head the district planning and development councils (DPDC) that control the funds for development works being carried out in the particular district. This control wields much of political power to the minister in that district whereby spreading the party in the district becomes much easier. This is the reason why the grass root politicians seem to be very sensitive to such appointments.


While Gogawale and Bhuse are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian ministers, some others like NCP’s Hasan Mushrif and BJP’s Pankaja Munde are unhappy about not being appointed as guardian district in their home districts of Kolhapur and Beed respectively. DCM Shinde is learnt to have gone to his ancestral village Dare in Satara district after the decision and BJP’s firefighters Chandrashekhar Bawankule and Girish Mahajan are expected to meet him there to try finding a way out of the issue.

Comments

bottom of page