Maharashtra: Havoc caused by rains dominate front pages

With floods, landslides and heavy rains killing over 130 people in Maharashtra over the last 48 hours, newspapers published in the state prominently featured the news on their front pages.

The Times of India dedicated almost half of the front page to the news under the headline, “90 killed, 70 missing as rains play havoc in Maha.”

The Indian Express also carried the story as the lead, entitled, “73 dead, 8 at a Covid hospital: rain disrupts west Maharashtra”.

The Hindustan Times carried the news on the flap, titled, “90 killed, 70 missing as rain lashes Maha”. It was featured prominently in the Hindu as well.

Surprisingly, though, the news wasn’t on the jacket page of Mid-Day, a tabloid widely read in Mumbai. On the main front page also, the lead was a story about businessman Raj Kundra, who was recently arrested for allegedly running a porn racket on social media. News about the floods featured on the front page as two small stories.

The Marathi daily Sakal gave the news due coverage by dedicating almost the entire front page to the destruction caused by the rain.

Loksatta, another widely circulated Marathi newspaper, prominently featured the news on the front page with a dramatic single-word headline, “Kadelot”, which means pushing off a cliff and is also the name of a tourist place in Ratnagiri, the district worst affected by the floods.

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