National   

Floods: Sonia in touch with Deshmukh

Special Correspondent

NEW DELHI: The Congress on Monday said the party president, Sonia Gandhi, has been in touch with the Maharasthra Chief Minster, Vilasrao Deshmukh, on the grim flood situation in Mumbai and the State.

Commenting on the unprecedented floods in the State, the party said though it was not monitoring the situation, the party remained in touch with the State Government.

Responding to a question on the induction of Narayan Rane into the Deshmukh Cabinet amid fanfare when the State capital was reeling under floods, the party spokesperson, Anand Sharma, said he was not in a position to reply to it. He, however, said it was announced earlier that Mr. Rane would be inducted into the Maharashtra Council of Ministers and its expansion was the prerogative of the Chief Minister.

Asked to comment on the criticism that MLAs and MPs were conspicuous by their absence at a time when people were looking to the government to provide succour, Mr. Sharma said Prime Minster Manmohan Singh himself had conducted an aerial survey and the Home Minister Shivraj Patil too had visited the flood-affected areas.

He said high-profile visits would have hampered relief work since the attention of the administration would have got diverted. The larger question was the need to have a large number of trained personnel to tackle such situations.

Referring the recent spurt in terrorist violence in Jammu and Kashmir, the party said this along with other developments such as attempts at large scale infiltration by terrorists with huge quantity of arms makes it clear that the terrorist infrastructure across the borders was yet to be dismantled.

Printer friendly page  
Send this article to Friends by E-Mail

Stories in this Section

NGOs, locals focus on slums
Bihar: nod for extension of President's rule
Recall Buta Singh, NDA urges Kalam
Floods: Sonia in touch with Deshmukh
India's largest police mobile network launched in U.P.
Konkan faces monsoon fury
Supreme Court rejects CBI petition
Chanting hymns, Kawarias trek to temples
Supreme Court seeks details of judge's promotion
Recognition for Cancer Institute, says Shanta
PM's prerogative not amenable to judicial review, says Banerjee
Mourning today for King Fahd
A friend of the poor: Prince of Arcot
AMU sets up student information system
Navy to probe information leakage

Copyright © 2005, The Hindu. Republication or redissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the written consent of The Hindu