07:54 Cyclone Titli hits Odisha’s Gopalpur, over 3 lakh moved to safety:
The process of landfall of the very severe cyclone Titli started early Thursday with surface wind reaching speeds of 126 kmph at Gopalpur in Odisha’s Ganjam district, the India Meteorological Department said.
“The process of landfall has started and it will completely cross the Odisha coast in one or two hours. The system will pass close to Gopalpur,” said H R Biswas, Director of Metereological Centre, Bhubaneswar.
The IMD said, “The forward sector of the eye of the storm has been entering into the land mass.”
While Gopalpur in Odisha reported surface winds at 126 kmph, Kalingapatanam in Andhra Pradesh recorded wind speed of 56 kmph.
As the landfall process started, at least five districts like Ganjam, Gajapati, Puri, Khurda and Jagatsinghpur are receiving good amount of rainfall coupled with high speed winds under the impact of Titli.
Reports of trees, electric poles getting uprooted and damages to kuchha houses were reported, officials said, adding that road communication in some places, including Gopalpur and Berhampur, was snapped.
Meanwhile, the Odisha government has geared up its machinery to tackle the situation. The state government has already evacuated over 3 lakh people living in low lying areas and kuchha houses ahead of the landfall in five coastal districts.
00:26 Colleges have to return original documents, fees on no admission:
The University Grants Commission has warned varsities and colleges against retention of original documents of admitted students and non-refund of fees in case an admission is withdrawn within one month.
The higher educational institutions will be penalised with withdrawal of affiliation, deemed status and barred from receiving any assistance from the UGC if they fail to follow the directive.
“No student will be required to submit any original academic and personal certificate like marksheet and school leaving certificate at the time of submission of admission form.
“No institution can take any original certificate into their custody. They can only ask for self attested copies of the documents,” HRD Minister Prakash Javadekar told reporters.
“In case a student withdraws the admission 15 days before the notified last date of admission, he or she shall be entitled for a 100 percent refund. Some colleges which deduct a processing fee can not deduct more than 5 per cent paid by the student, subject to a maximum of Rs 5000,” he added.
In case a student decides to withdraw within 15 days before the last date of admission, he will be entitled for a 90 per cent refund of the fees and if the withdrawal happens 15 days after the last date, the amount supposed to be refunded will be 80 per cent.
While the refund amount will be 50 per cent if the admission is withdrawn between 16 to 30 days after the last date of the admission, no refund will be given for admissions withdrawn after the prescribed timeline. — PTI
Source: Rediff