Indian origin shares Pulitzer
New York: An Indian-origin software engineer in the US has shared this year’s Pulitzer Prize for a project in investigative journalism and the growing use of IT tools in reporting. Palani Kumanan, a software architect was part of the Wall Street Journal’s winning project ‘Medicare Unmasked’. —
A powerful cyclonic storm battered Bihar’s Seemanchal area on Tuesday night, killing 42 and injuring more than 80 persons, rendering thousands homeless and cutting off the communication network entirely.
The meteorological department said that the storm of up to 65 kms per hour entered from Nepal and created havoc in Purnia and other Seemanchal area districts.
A victim who lost relative and his house in the storm said, “We had not expected that in a single stroke all my life will change for worse”.
According to the data available with this newspaper, apart from Purnia where 32 persons died due to this storm, seven persons were killed in Madhepura and one each in Madhubani, Darbhanga and Supaul. The administrative officials in Purnia said that most of the devastation occurred in the urban area of the district. There are reports that 19 persons were killed in Dagarua block which is around eight kilometers from Purnia town.
Following this devastating storm the state government on Wednesday announced `4 lakh each as compensation to the kin of those who died. Pappu Yadav, MP from Madhepura too has announced a compensation of `50,000 each for family members of the victims.
Indian Meteorological Department director in Patna R. K. Giri said the Nor’wester, or tropical storm, which descended from Nepal hitting Purnia, Sitamarhi, Darbhanga and went deep inside the state up to Bhagalpur, packed a wind speed around 65 km per hour.