2020: Round-up of happenings in major cities

The 2020 Delhi riots — which are also known as the north east Delhi riots — began on February 24.

By the end of February, when the riots ended, two-thirds of the dead — numbering 53 — were Muslims, while many others were wounded; according to PTI, those injured numbered 200.

The victims included head constable Ratan Lal and Intelligence Bureau official Ankit Sharma.

The riots had followed protests across India in December 2019 in response to the passage of the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 (CAA), which allows fast-tracked naturalisation for immigrants from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan belonging to six religions — excluding Muslims.

The riots had its genesis in Jaffrabad where a sit-in by women against CAA had been in progress on a stretch of the Seelampur–Jaffrabad–Maujpur Road. Soon after the BJP leader Kapil Mishra launched into a tirade against the protesters, the violence ensued.

Other BJP leaders such as Anurag Thakur and Parvesh Verma also made alleged hate speeches after which the Delhi high court asked the Delhi Police to register FIRs. According to PTI, the Delhi Police had registered 254 FIRs and arrested or detained 903 persons in connection with the northeast Delhi violence till September 14.

In a big shock to the Telangana Rashtra Samithi (TRS) and a saffron surge, elections to Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation (GHMC) threw up a hung house.

The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) made big inroads to deny the ruling TRS a clear majority in the 150-member municipal body. While the BJP tally went up from four in 2016 to 48, the TRS numbers went down from 99 to 56.

The All India Majlis-e-Ittehadul Muslimeen secured 44 wards, retaining its hold in the old city of Hyderabad. The Congress could win only two seats. While the polling was held on December 1, counting of votes took place on December 4.

Elections were held on ballot paper and not EVMs. The mayor’s post is reserved for a woman corporator in the upcoming council. The GHMC ward members must wait till February to take oath as the term of the present body ends on February 10.

The saffron party fought the polls with all the might with top central leaders and Union ministers campaigning for its candidates.

The promise by BJP leaders to change the name of Hyderabad to Bhagyanagar if the party was voted to power also sparked a row.

This was a case that shocked and outraged the nation. Over two months after the UP government recommended a Central Bureau of Investigation probe in the alleged gang rape and murder case in Hahtras in September this year, the agency, on December 18, filed a charge sheet against four accused.

The girl was gang-raped and attacked on September 14 at her village in Hathras. The UP government had recommended the CBI probe on October 2 following a nationwide outcry over post-midnight cremation of the girl by the local administration after she died at a Delhi hospital on September 29.

The CBI charged Ravi, Sandeep, Luv Kush and Rahul for gang rape, rape and murder. Filed in the court of special judge BD Bharti, the charge sheet also included charges under provisions of SC/ST Act.

The Allahabad high court had taken suo motu cognizance of the cremation of the girl without the family's presence. Hearing a PIL, the Supreme Court also asked the Allahabad high court to monitor the case.

The CBI charge sheet confirming gang rape comes after the local and the state police had gone on record to say that that no rape or gang rape had taken place, citing a report by the Agra Forensic Science Laboratory.

At least 66 people were killed in a landslide that was triggered by floods at Pettimudi, a hamlet in Rajamala ward under Munnar village panchayat in Kerala’s Idukki district on August 6. While four others are still missing, 12 people were rescued.

The victims included 31 persons of one extended family who lived in adjacent quarters, and six temporary staff at the Eravikulam National Park.

Rajamala had recorded very heavy rainfall — 216.35 cm — between August and 7. According to reports, the high sand content in the soil and a 40 degree slope made the epicentre of the landslide vulnerable.

According to the district administration, 30 houses in four tea estate layams (cluster of workers' quarters) went under after the landslide hit Pettimudi.

Those dead included six forest department staff who lived stayed in the layams.

The tragedy occurred on the first anniversary of the landslides in Malappuram and Wayanad districts that claimed more than 50 lives during the 2019 floods.

In 2020, Rajasthan was under attack of a different kind — the locust menace. Around 90,000 hectares were affected in the state due to the locust attacks, according to commissioner of the agriculture department Om Prakash.

With the air-borne attackers — that had started coming in Rajasthan from April 11 — affecting 32 out of the 33 districts, chief minister Ashok Gehlot wrote to Prime Minister Narendra Modi in the first week of August. He demanded that the locust menace affecting many states of the country be declared a national disaster.

Locust attacks had in fact started from June 2019 which became lethal by January 2020. A TOI report dated January 18 — tracking the menace since 2019 — said locusts had damaged crops across an area of at least 3.6 lakh hectares in 10 districts as western Rajasthan continued to reel under the longest and the worst attack of the pest in 60 years.

Swarms of locusts later moved from Sri Ganganagar, Nagaur, Jaipur, Dausa, Karauli and Swai Madhopur towards other areas in Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh after the authorities conducted operations to tackle them.

Swarms of locust can travel up to 150 km a day with a speed of 15-20 km per hour and since there was no standing crop in the fields, they were targeting trees and other available vegetation, the official had said in May.

In addition to Rajasthan, locust attacks were reported in Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra.