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The most hyped manhuntcarried out by the cops ofUttar Pradesh
police in last sixdays finally culminated in adramatic climax when
gangsterVikas Dubey surrendered inthe Mahakal Temple in Ujjainon
Thursday morning.
According to reports, thegangster told the police that hewanted
to burn the bodies ofthe slain cops to destroy evi-dence. However,
he did nothave enough time to do so.
His arrest in Mahakaaltemple premises sparkeddebate whether he
surrenderedfor fear of being killed.
Dubey travelled 1,500 kilo-meters from Faridabad to Ujjanwithin
24 hours for a tryst withthe Mahakal and his des-tiny.”Main Vikas
Dubey hun,Kanpur wala (I am Vikas Dubeyfrom Kanpur),” screamed
theUttar Pradesh gangster. Thisreportedly alerted securityguards at
the Ujjain templewho informed the police.
As policemen walked himtowards a police car, VikasDubey shouted
again, “MainVikas Dubey hun, Kanpurwala”. ADG Law and
Order,Prashant Kumar confirmed thedevelopment and claimed thatthe
STF team was immediate-ly dispatched to Ujjain to takecustody of
Dubey.”Vikas Dubeywas going to Ujjain Mahakaltemple when he was
identifiedby security personnel. Policewere informed, he confessed
his
identity after being pushed forit. He has been apprehended bythe
police and interrogation isunderway,” Ashish Singh, UjjainCollector
told mediapersons.
Singh said Vikas Dubey ini-tially refused to reveal his
iden-tity. He also showed a PAN cardcarrying the name of
oneShubham. He produced moreIdentity Cards, as per which hewas 28
years of age. An argu-ment followed, but by then thepolice arrived
and took him
into custody. There were twomore people with Dubey, whohave also
been arrested.
Security cameras installedinside the temple premisescaught Dubey
making anappearance at the Mahakaltemple at around 8.50 am.Dubey
then went to a shoplocated outside the temple andasked how a ticket
could bepurchased and enquired aboutdarshan at the temple. Theowner
of the shop identified
Dubey. The man claimed thatwhen Dubey approached him,he was not
wearing a mask andwas calling for a person namedBunty. The temple
shop ownerthen informed a guard at theMahakal temple.
By then, Dubey had alreadypurchased a darshan ticket andentered
the temple. Dubey hasbeen on the run for almost aweek, ever since
the ambushand killing of eight police per-sonnel in Kanpur. As
police
searched for him in Haryana,Delhi, a close watch was kept onthe
Indo-Nepal border.
A photograph that has goneviral, shows Dubey sitting
com-fortably on a sofa inside thetemple complex in Ujjain soonafter
his arrest. Madhya PradeshHome Minister NarottamMishra first
confirmed thedevelopment. He told reportersthat Dubey is in the
State police’scustody in Ujjain. The Minister,however, did not
confirm if thedreaded gangster, who was car-rying a reward of Rs 5
lakh oninformation leading to hisarrest, was nabbed from with-in or
outside the Mahakal tem-ple premises. Later, Dubey waswhisked away
to an unidentifiedlocation for medical examina-tion and
questioning.
Meanwhile, two more aidesof Dubey were gunned down inseparate
encounters in UttarPradesh. While Kartikeya aliasPrabhat was killed
in Kanpurwhen he tried to flee frompolice custody, Praveen
aliasBauwa Dubey was shot dead inan encounter in Etawah, thepolice
said. Kartikeya, whowas arrested from Faridabad onWednesday, was
being broughtto Kanpur on transit remandwhen he snatched the pistol
ofa policeman and tried to flee,ADG, Law and Order PrashantKumar
said. “The encountertook place in the Panki area ofKanpur when a
police teamwas bringing Kartikeya aliasPrabhat from Faridabad
toKanpur on transit remand.
����� 2,4�7,16+
With withdrawal by boththe Armies at the borderin Ladakh
proceeding withouta hitch for the fourth day,India on Thursday
reaffirmedits stand that the Line of ActualControl (LAC) must be
“strict-ly respected” and neither sideshould take any
unilateralaction to alter it. It also stressedthe need for
continuing the dia-logue process and China alsoechoed similar
sentiments.
The Chinese ForeignMinistry said both the coun-tries will hold a
new round ofcommander level dialogue andborder issue consultation
andco-ordination mechanismmeetings. It also said in Beijingthat the
overall border situationis stable and the border ten-sions have
eased, according tothe Global Times, the govern-ment mouthpiece of
China.
As both the Armies, moreor less, completed the pullback from all
the four face-offsites in Eastern Ladakh whichwere on for the past
eightweeks besides the bloody skir-mish in the Galwan valley
onJune15, New Delhi also said,“We remain convinced of theneed for
maintenance of peaceand tranquility in the borderareas and the
resolution ofdifferences through dialogue, atthe same time, we are
alsostrongly committed to ensuringIndia’s sovereignty and
territo-rial integrity.”
Enunciating the country’sposition, External AffairsMinistry
spokesperson AnuragSrivastava said here the diplo-
matic and military officials ofboth sides will continue
theirmeetings to take forward theprocess of disengagement
andde-escalation as agreed to bythe Special RepresentativesNational
Security Advisor(NSA) Ajit Doval and ForeignMinister Wang Yi. The
nextmeeting of the WorkingMechanism for Consultationand
Coordination on India-China border affairs (WMCC)is expected to
take place soon.
He also said, “We havealso noted that there have beensome
inaccurate and unin-formed comments about thedisengagement process
and itsimplications. Let me remindyou that in the last few weeks,we
have made several state-ments spelling out categorical-ly the
position of theGovernment on differentaspects of the current
situationin the Western Sector of India-
China border areas.”“They include our position
that recent Chinese claims tothe Galwan Valley area
areexaggerated and untenable; thatthe LAC must be strictlyrespected
and observed as thisis the basis for peace and tran-quility in the
border areas; andthat neither side should takeany unilateral action
to alter it.We remain convinced of theneed for maintenance of
peaceand tranquility in the borderareas and the resolution of
dif-ferences through dialogue, atthe same time, we are alsostrongly
committed to ensuringIndia’s sovereignty and territo-rial
integrity,” he said.
Giving the sequence ofevents in the last five days, hesaid the
Special Representatives(SRs) of India and China hada telephone
conversation onJuly 5.
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The killing of a BJP leaderSheikh Wasim Bari and twoof his close
relatives onWednesday coincided with thefourth death anniversary
ofHizbul Mujahideen’s poster boyBurhan Wani, raised
seriousquestions about the role of thepolice, and stoked fears of
returnof the militancy in the valley.
After the abrogation ofArticle 370 and the reorgani-sation of
the erstwhile state ofJammu and Kashmir last yearon August 5, it is
one of themajor incident of targetedkilling of a political
leader.
Earlier on June 8, aKashmiri pandit sarpanch fromAnantnag was
killed by the ter-rorist. The J&K police havelaunched a manhunt
to nab thekillers though 10 of their owncops have been arrested
fornegligence. These cops wereassigned to protect Bari, but atthe
time of attack no one waspresent with him.
According to the prelimi-nary investigation reports a
local Lashkar-e- Toiba (LeT)terrorist along with a
foreignterrorist from Pakistan, cameon foot and targeted the
BJPleader and two others lateWednesday night from a veryclose range
and shot them intheir heads. Bari along with hisfather and brother
was sittinginside their shop-cum-office,located steps away from
theBandipora police station.
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Out of 56 new coronaviruscases reported inKhordha district on
Thursday,32 cases were detected in Statecapital Bhubaneswar.
Of the fresh cases, 18 werelocal contacts and 14 fromquarantine
centres, theBhubaneswar MunicipalCorporation (BMC) said. Withthis,
the total cases in the citysurged to 557 with 247 activeones.
The quarantine casesincluded a 36-year-old maleemployee of a
CentralGovernment Hospital linkedwith an earlier positive case,
a47-year-old security guard ofa Central GovernmentHospital linked
with an earli-er case, three cases of a samefamily of Kalinganagar
nearSUM Hospital, a 30-year-oldman of Bapuji Nagar linkedwith an
earlier case, a 31-year-old woman of Rasulgarh SabarSahi linked
with an earliercase.
A 32-year-old man ofPatrapada, a 52-year-old man
at a quarantine centre withtravel history to a hotspotdistrict,
a15-year-old girl at aquarantine centre linked withan earlier case
, a 31-year-oldman of Dumduma Phase-IV, a27-year-old man of Unit-2,
a29-year-old man ofMancheswar, an RPF staffwith travel history to
WestBengal and a 39-year-old manof Bapuji Nagar were alsofound
positive.
The local contact casesincluded a 60-year-old man ofNayapalli
IRC Village, a 52-year-old man of Nayapalli BritColony, a
19-year-old girl ofBhimatangi People’s Basti, a23-year-old male
serviceprovider of railway atChandrasekharpur, a 47-year-old male
employee of a CentralGovernment hospital, a 47-year-old woman and a
21-year-old-woman of Unit-2, a38-year-old man ofBaramunda, a
35-year-oldman of Ganganagar, a 79-year-old man of NayapalliNua
Sahi, a 72-year-old manand a 70-year-old woman ofNuagaon .
Besides, a 30-year-oldwoman of Bapuji Nagar, a 32-year-old woman
of Nakhara, a30-year-old man of Bharatpur,a 48-year-old man of
JayadevVihar, a 24 year-old man ofRasulgarh and a 48-year-oldmale
employee of a privatehospital of Sampur with trav-el history to a
hotspot districtwere detected positive.
However, seven morepatients recovered from the
virus in the city on Thursday,following which the number
ofrecovered cases stood at 302.
Meanwhile, 11 including afour-year-old boy, tested pos-itive on
the day in the CuttackMunicipal Corporation(CMC) area. With this,
thetotal tally in Cuttack citysurged to 213.
Of the new cases, threewere local contacts and fourunder
quarantine.
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The State Government onThursday requested theCentre to
reconsider its deci-sion for compulsory conductof undergraduate and
post-graduate final term examina-tions in view of the
Covid-19situation.
In a letter, the StateGovernment urged theMinistry of Human
ResourceDevelopment (MHRD) toreconsider the revised guide-lines of
the University GrantsCommission (UGC) and notto make UG and PG
final termexaminations mandatory.
Besides, the StateGovernment requested theMHRD to allow it to
adhere toits own decision on cancella-tion of the UG and PG
exam-inations.
The UGC in its new rec-
ommendation proposes toprotect the academic interestsof the
terminal semester andfinal year students globally byconducting
examinations inoffline mode (by pen andpaper) or online by the end
ofSeptember.
According to the UGC, thespecial examinations can beconducted by
a universitywhenever possible so that stu-dents do not face any
incon-venience or loss. This provisionwill only be applicable as a
one-time measure for the currentacademic session 2019-20.
Earlier on June 11, theOdisha Government cancelledthe pending UG
and PG exam-inations of all universities.
Both the pending theoryand practical examinations ofFinal Year
or Final Semester ofundergraduate and post grad-uate courses were
cancelled.
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The much-awaitedHaridashpur-Paradip railline would begin
operationwithin 10 to 15 days, informedformer Kendrapada MP
BJPnational vice-presidentBaijayant Panda on Thursday.
In a video on the socialmedia, Panda said, “Decades’dream of
Kendrapara people isgoing to be fulfilled very soon.”
He said goods trains wouldrun on the rail route first
andsubsequently passenger trainswould be introduced.
The 82.5-km-long rail lineproject, though sanctioned in1996, was
not started so far.While land acquisition for theRs 2083.9-crore
project was aproblem, environment clear-ance was availed in
October2014 and finance provisionmade in Railway Budge in2015.
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Four more persons suc-cumbed to Covid-19 in theState on
Thursday, increasingthe total death toll to 52. Whilethree persons
died in Ganjamdistrict, Bhadrak reported thefourth death.
Out of the three deaths inGanjam, one was a 65-year-oldwoman
suffering from dia-betes and hypertension; thesecond one was a
58-year-old
man suffering from tubercularmeningitis; and the third onewas a
63-year-old man suffer-ing from diabetes.
The fourth death was of a58-year-old man in Bhadrakdistrict, who
was sufferingfrom diabetes and chronic kid-ney disease.
Besides, two other personswho were tested positive for thevirus
died while undergoingtreatment at the hospital due toother causes.
One among themwas a 42-year-old man ofKeonjhar district who
suc-cumbed to cancer. The otherwas an 88-year-old man ofBhadrak
district who died dueto pyrexia with acute kidneyinjury and
metabolic acidosis.
On the day, the Staterecorded its highest single-dayjump of 577
positive cases.With this, the total cases roseto 11,201 which
included 4,128active ones.
Ganjam district reportedthe day’s maximum 260 cases,
followed by Sundargarh 83,Khordha 56, Keonjhar 48,Baleswar 30,
Gajapati 17,Mayurbhanj 14, Cuttack 14.Jajpur nine, Angul
seven,Jagatsinghpur seven, Koraputsix, Boudh five, Puri
five,Dhenkanal four, Kendrapadathree, Sambalpur three,Bhadrak two
and Jharsuguda,Kandhamal, Malkangiri andNayagarh one each.
However, a record numberof 401 patients recovered on theday,
taking the total recoveriesto 7,407 in the State. The high-est 100
patients recovered inGanjam, 67 Gajapati, 42Cuttack, 32 Jajpur, 19
Deogarh,18 Koraput, 15 Khordha, 14Bargarh, 14 Bhadrak, 12Baleswar,
10 Keonjhar and 10Malkangiri, nine Jagatsinghpur,seven each
Jharsuguda andMayurbhanj, six Kandhamal,five each Nayagarh
andSambalpur, four Nabarangpur,three Kendrapada and
twoDhenkanal.
BHUBANESWAR: All eco-nomic activities and ongoingschemes would
continue in theState amid execution of Covidnorms.
A decision to this effectwas taken at an all Secretaries’meeting
held though digitgalmode under the chairmanshipof Chief Secretry
Asit Tripathyhere on Thursday.
It was decided to enhancethe diet allowance per patientin Covid
Care Centres to Rs240 per day.
Te Chief Secretary direct-ed the concerned departmentsand
collectors to ensure con-tinuance of industrial, agri-cultural,
horticultural, miningactivities. Transport of goodsmust be
continued to ensuresupply of essential commodi-ties.
Reviewing the cases trans-ferred from the OdishaAdministrative
Tribunal tothe High Court, Tripathy
directed the departments tocategorise the cases like
regu-larisation, pension, promo-tion, transfer, etc., and
takeclear-cut in-principle deci-sions for early disposal of
thecases.
The total ProgrammeExpenditure (PE) up to June2020 was reduced
by around5.06% compared to the last fis-cal. However, the
expenditurein social and other sectorsincreased considerably.
TheTPE up to June was around Rs8,923 crore against the lastyear’s
around Rs 9,399 crore.But the expenditure in socialsectors,
including health andfamily welfare programmes,was around Rs.5,281
crore upto June against the last year’sRs 4,225 crore.
Total revenue collectionfrom both own-tax and non-tax sources up
to June camedown by around 22.94% com-pared to the
correspondingperiod of last year. The totalrevenue collection up to
Juneof current fiscal year was Rs8,204 crore against the lastyear’s
Rs 10,645 crore. PNS
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Afive-day shutdown fromJuly 9 to 13 was onThursday imposed in
all urbanareas and five block headquar-ters of Ganjam district for
thepurpose of door-to-door healthscreening in view of the rapid-ly
rising Covid-19 cases.
The shutdown has beenimposed in BerhampurMunicipal
Corporation(BeMC), Hinjili Municipalityand 16 Notified Area
Councils(NACs). The block headquar-ters include
Sheragada,Sanakhemundi, Patrapur,Dharkote and JagannathPrasad.
The screening is being con-ducted by 200 teams of doctors.More
than seven lakh peoplewould be screened during thedrive, the
district administra-tion said and urged the peoplenot to hide any
symptoms
relating to their health.All Government offices
and banks in the urban areas ofthe district are closed for
pub-lic during the shutdown, itsaid.
“Door-to-door healthscreening will be carried out ina campaign
mode in theseareas during the complete shut-down period,” said
GanjamCollector Vijay AmrutaKulange. Apart from checkingsymptoms
for Covid-19, thehealth teams would also collectdata on diseases
like tubercu-losis and malaria, he said.
However, during the shut-down period, essential ser-vices like
medical facilities,agriculture works would con-tinue without any
restriction,he said.
After the urban areas, suchscreening would be conductedin rural
areas in the secondphase, the Collector added.
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Due to the rising Covid-19cases, the Rayagada
districtadministration on Thursdaysuspended all public transportbus
services, including that ofthe OSRTC, to Ganjam districtand Twin
City of Cuttack andBhubaneswar.
Besides, entry of travellersfrom the Ganjam has beenprohibited
except for thor-oughfares to other districtsand essential services.
Anyperson visiting Rayagada fromGanjam would take priorapproval of
the Sub-DivisionalMagistrate, Gunupur,Rayagada.
Any person found contra-vening this provision would beput into
institutional quaran-tine in Rayagada district for aminimum of
seven days with
food at own cost.The order further said
Tehsildars as ‘IncidentCommanders’ would ensureits
implementation by gettinginformation from the CovidManagement
Committee orfrom any other sources.
Government officialincluding contractual employ-ees in Rayagada
district shallnot leave for Ganjam on privateor official ground
without priorapproval of the RayagadaCollector processed throughPD,
DRDA-cum-Covid NodalOfficer in e-mail only.
Vehicles related to medical,goods, agricultural,
industrialoperations as well as thor-oughfares thorough
Rayagadawould be exempted from therestrictions, the order
men-tioned.
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An inmate of an institu-tional quarantine centrein Boudh
district died onThursday. The incident wasreported from the
Gaudadeiquarantine centre.
Official sources said swabsample of the concerned per-son had
been sent for Covid-19tests. But the quarantine cen-tre inmate died
before testresults received.
The inmate’s body wastaken to the Boudh CovidCare Centre for
postmortem.
So far, a total of 50 personshave tested positive for thevirus
in the district. The num-ber of active cases stands atnine and 41
patients haverecovered.
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The Bharatiya BikashParishad led by its Statepresident Surendra
Panigrahihas submitted a memorandumto the Governor and the
ChiefMinister expressing its seriousconcern over delay in conductof
serological and antigen testof the suspected coronaviruspatients in
Ganjam district.
Even though nearly 30% ofthe Covid-19 patients identifiedin the
State are from Ganjam,the Government is going tostart both
serological and anti-gen test first in Cuttack andBhubaneswar
ignoringBrahmapur, which is the epi-centre of Covid-19 patients
inthe State, the Parishad alleged.
The Government shouldhave given priority in intro-ducing new and
advancedtechnologies for testing moreCovid-19 patients in those
dis-tricts where the number of
patients is high, Panigrahi said.This is a clear indicator of
theState Government’s apathy andstep motherly attitude
towardsGanjam district, he alleged.
Panigrahi pointed out thatout of 10,097 total covid-19patients
identified in the Stateso far, Ganjam district alonehas 2,621
patients.
Similarly, the total deathtoll of Covid-19 patients in theState
is 42 out of which Ganjamaccounts for 22 which is morethan 50% of
the total, thememorandum pointed out.
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SAMBALPUR: As many as15 corona warriors of the VeerSurendra Sai
Institute ofMedical Science And Research(VIMSAR), Burla, have
beensent on quarantine after apatient undergoing treatmentat the
hospital tested positivefor Covid-19.
Of these Covid warriors,five are doctors and 10 nurses.They had
reportedly come incontact with the patient beforehis test report
came out posi-tive. Out of them, two doctors,who are said to be at
high riskof contracting infection fromthe patient, have been asked
toremain under quarantine for aperiod of 14 days. The remain-ing 13
Covid warriors, includ-ing three doctors, have beensent to the
quarantine centrestill their test results come out.
The concerned patientfrom Kuchinda in Sambalpurdistrict with
co-morbid condi-tions was undergoing treatmentduring which he
developedCovid symptoms and was thenshifted to a Covid Hospital
inBhubaneswar. Later, he testedpositive for the virus. PNS
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Several political leaders andprominent persons of thedistrict
have gone self homequarantine after BJP MLA ofNilgiri Sukanta Nayak
wasdetected as Corona positive .
The leaders who havegone self quarantine includ-ed the Union
minister PratapChandra Sarangi, former MPRK Jena , former
MinisterRaghunath Mohanty , MLARemuna Sudhansu SekharParida, former
MLA GobindaDas, former MLA JP Dashand many others.
In fact , these leaders hadattended the condolence meet-ing of
MLA MM Dutta whichwas held recently. It is sus-pected that they had
come incontact with Nayak .
Nayak , with no certaintravel history, although he wentto
Bhubaneswar , has beenadmitted in the Covid hospitalhere following
detection.
Nayak admitted that heattended several meetings andgatherings in
his constituencyand had come in contact withscores of people during
dis-tribution of masks, sanitizersand other materials .
Nayak had visited theoffice of the district Collectoras well as
District EducationOfficer. These buildings weresanitized by the
district admin-istration.
In the meanwhile as perlatest report as many as 28 newpositive
cases including fourlocal cases , 15 home quaran-tine and nine from
TMC havebeen detected in the district.
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The Eastern India OilRefinery Workers’ Unionheld a condolence
meeting inmemory of senior politicianBishnu Charan Das, whopassed
away three days back,here on Thursday.
Union president SantoshKumar Pattnaik presided overthe meeting.
He along withgeneral secretary RanjanKumar Palei, joint
secretaryNiranjan Nayak, PPLLFU pres-ident Chinmay Das,
secretaryMihirkant Sahoo, RatnakarJena, Eastern India
ContractLabour Cooperative Societypresident Abhiram Samal,
EastCoast Beverage Employees’Union secretary Babuli CharanDas,
Ashok Kumar Nath,Siddheshwar Swain, Trinath
Biswal and Amulya Tarai paidrich tributes to Das. They
tooobserved a two-minute silencefor his soul to rest in peace.
All
participants wore facemaskand maintained social distanc-ing.
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The Mahanadi CoalfieldsLimited (MCL) is partner-ing with the
Sambalpur districtadministration and R and Bengineering department
on theambitious Rs 2.37-crore projectof renovation,
beautification,landscaping, depicting art andculture and
installation of giantbell at the famous GhanteswariTemple on the
outskirts of thecity. The company has sanc-tioned Rs 2.37 crore for
theproject under the CSR scheme,which envisages
creatingopportunities of self-employ-ment for local people by
boost-
ing tourism in the circuit.A revered place of natural
green habitat with riverMahanadi flowing by the side,Ghanteswari
is an abode ofancient sculpture and spiritu-ality and a favoured
tourist des-tination.
The project manifestsMCL’s intensive engagementtowards promotion
of art, cul-ture and tradition. Besides,this cultural intervention
willopen up tourism driven self-employment avenues
andmicro-entrepreneurial avenuesleading to creation of
livelihoodopportunities for the sur-rounding rural folk.
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The Mahakalapada police inKendrapada district onThursday
arrested a youthPintu Behera of Oliha villageon the charges on
raping a mar-ried Dalit woman on June 30 atOrta village in the
district.
Mahakapada PS IICManoranjan Chaudhury onthe fateful day barged
into thevictim’s house when her hus-band had gone to the marketand
raped her by brandishinga sharp weapon.
When the victim’s hus-band came back home Pintuattacked him and
tried toescape from the spot. However,hearing the commotion,
localscame to the couple’s rescue andnabbed Pintu and
thrashedhim.
6������������ ���"���� SAMBALPUR: To contain thespread of
Covid-19, theSambalpur administration on
Thursday decided to impose atwo-day shutdown in the dis-trict on
July 11 and 12.
District CollectorShubham Saxena advised thepeople to stay home
during theshutdown.
Barring emergency ser-vices, public transport and pri-vate
vehicles movement wouldbe stopped. All shops andother business
establishmentsexpect medicine shops wouldalso remain closed.
The district administra-tion said stringent action wouldbe taken
against those whowould violate the shutdownguidelines.
A total of 108 persons inthe district have contractedthe virus
so far. While 58patients have recovered, thenumber of active cases
standsat 50. PNS
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The Keonjhar AbhivavakMahasangha has submitteda memorandum to
the ChiefMinister through the districtCollector on July 6
demandingwaver of tuition fees of privateEnglish medium schools
dur-ing the ongoing Covid-19 pan-demic and reservation 25 percent
seats for the local poor stu-dents in Government schools.
They have also appealed tothe CM to take a cue from theJharkhand
Government whichhas declared that students tak-ing admission in
theGovernment school are onlyeligible for Government ser-vices.
They have threatened to
go on strike if their demand isnot fulfilled. Mana RanjanRout
,Kiran balaNaik,Rabindranath Sethy ,Narayan Sethy among
otherssubmitted the memorendum.
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BHUBANESWAR: FremontHindu Temple, the first abodeof Lord
Jagannath in Bay Area,California, USA, hosted theannual Ratha and
BahudaYatra. The holy festival usual-ly attracts thousands of
devo-tees. This year, however, owingto the coronavirus pandemic,the
Ratha Yatra was held in arestricted manner with 20devotees with the
heightenedprecaution of maintainingsocial distancing and
wearingmasks.
For the thousands of devo-tees who could not join, a
livetelecast of the Ratha Yatra wasorganised which gave 7,000plus
devotees the glimpses ofthe Holy Trinity on their TV,mobile phones
and laptop.
Ratha Yatra rituals startedby offering pooja to
deities,"pahandi" followed by "chherapahara" starting the
prepara-tory rituals for readying thechariot for pulling.
RadhikaSaini from Nataraj School ofDance performed
traditionalOdishi dance in front of thechariot before the chariot
waspulled by the devotees withKirtan and Bhajan and thechants of
"Jai Jagannath" led byKirtan Mellows of SiliconValley Iskcon
temple. PNS
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The Drug Controller Generalof India (DCGI) has askedthe pharma
companies sellinganti-viral injection Remdesivirto set up helpline
and makeavailable their drug distributionnetwork to the people
lookingout for the life saving drugsused for treatment of
theCovid-19 patients.
The move followed com-plaints from various quartersthat the drug
whose MRP isbetween Rs 4,800 to Rs 5,400per vial is in acute short
supplyand being sold in black marketat as high as upto Rs 80,000
per
vial.Union Health Ministry
OSD Rajesh Bhsuhan said thatthey have received reports
ofshortage of drug in the market.“In this connection, the topdrug
regulator has asked theconcerned companies to set uphelplines and
make availabletheir drug distribution net-work to help the people
accessthe injection easily and at MRP,”he said at a presser
here.
Doctors have been blamingincreased demand and limitedsupply of
the medicine for itsshortage. On June 13, theMinistry had allowed
its emer-gency use for treating Covid-19patients with moderate
symp-
toms. An increase in casesaround the country has seenmore
doctors prescribing thedrug , but supply hasn’tincreased
proportionately.Patients prescribed the drug aretypically given
five vials.
The DCGI on June 1 hadallowed Gilead Sciences, whichholds the
patent for Remdesivir,to start importing the medicine.Three Indian
manufacturers –Hetero, Cipla, and Mylan--have since been allowed
tomanufacture the drug in India.
���������������&�����2,4�7,16+
Covid-19 may have beenassociated mostly withproblems like
difficulty breath-ing, fever and cough, but casesof brain
complications linked todeadly virus are being report-ed from across
the countries.
These include confusion,stroke, inflammation of thebrain, spinal
cord, and otherkinds of nerve disease, said astudy published in the
journalThe Lancet Neurology.
"It is really important thatdoctors around the worldrecognise
that COVID-19 cancause encephalitis and otherbrain problems, which
oftenhave potentially devastating,life-changing consequences
forpatients," said study co-authorAva Easton, CEO of
theEncephalitis Society in the UK.
A recent Liverpool-ledstudy of Covid-19 patients hos-pitalised
in the UK found arange of neurological and psy-chiatric
complications that maybe linked to the disease.
To get a sense of the wider
picture, the researchers broughttogether and analysed
findingsfrom Covid-19 studies acrossthe globe that reported
onneurological complications.
The review, which includ-ed studies from China, Italyand the US
among others,found almost 1,000 patientswith
Covid-19-associatedbrain, spinal cord and nervedisease.
The study found thatstrokes, delirium and otherneurological
complications arereported from most countrieswhere there have been
largeoutbreaks of the disease.
"Whilst these complica-tions are relatively uncom-mon, the huge
numbers ofCovid-19 cases globally meanthe overall number of
patientswith neurological problems is
likely to be quite large," saidstudy researcher SuzannahLant.
According to theresearchers, one of the com-plications found to be
linked toCovid-19 is encephalitis, whichis inflammation and
swelling ofthe brain.
"We are currently poolingdata from individual patientsall around
the world, so that wecan get a more complete pic-ture. Doctors who
would like tocontribute patients to thisanalysis can contact us via
theGlobal Covid-Neuro Networkwebsite," the study authorswrote.
Recently another study, pub-lished this week in the
journalBrain, showed that Covid-19 cancause severe neurological
com-plications, including delirium,brain inflammation, stroke
andnerve damage.
The research team had iden-tified one rare and sometimesfatal
inflammatory condition,known as ADEM, which appearsto be increasing
in prevalencedue to the pandemic.
���������������&�����2,4�7,16+
Even as cases are fast spread-ing like wildfire in India totouch
to 8 lakh mark, making itthe third-worst hit nation in theworld ,
the Centre on Thursdaysaid India has not yet reachedthe community
transmissionstage of Covid and asserted thatthere have been
localised out-breaks in some geographicalareas.
The Government pointedout that eight states,
includingMaharashtra, Tamil Nadu,Delhi, Karnataka and
Telangana,account for around 90 per cent
of the active Covid-19 cases inthe country and 80 per cent ofthe
active cases have beenreported from 49 districts.
Similarly, six states —Maharashtra, Delhi, Gujarat,Tamil Nadu,
Uttar Pradesh andWest Bengal — account for 86per cent of the deaths
caused byCOVID-19 and 32 districtsaccount for 80 per cent of
suchfatalities, the Union HealthMinistry said. The death toll
inIndia has climbed to 21,129.
Union Health Minister DrHarsh Vardhan said that there isno
community transmission inIndia. “During our discussionstoday,
experts again stated that
there is no community trans-mission in India. There may besome
localised pockets wheretransmission is high but as acountry,
there’s no communitytransmission,” the Minister saidwhile
addressing a press con-ference after chairing a Group ofMinisters’
meeting to review,monitor and evaluate the evolv-ing situation on
Covid-19 in thecountry.
Noting that though Indiahas become the third mostaffected
country by the Covid-19 pandemic, he asserted it wasimportant to
understand this inthe correct perspective.
“We are a country with the
second highest population in theworld. Our cases per million
are538, while world average is1,453,” Vardhan said.
Later in the day at a press-er here, Health Ministry’s OSDRajesh
Bhushan too asserted thatthere was no need to worry forIndia which
has managed welland healthcare is not undulyburdened.
“When we talk of caseloadof Covid-19 in India, it is2,69,000
people. This tells us thatat the end of the day we've man-aged a
situation where ourhealth care infrastructure is notunduly burdened
and is notcreaking due to the pressure,” he
said. Today, we have 538 casesper million population, it's as
perWHO situation report. Caseper million population in
somecountries are at least 16-17times more than what it is inIndia.
We have 15 deaths permillion population whereas wehave countries
where it is 40times as much, the officialadded.
ICMR on its parts said thatthe number of tests hasincreased, on
an average, we aretesting more than 2.6 Lakhs ofsamples per day. We
hope to seea further rise by the use of theantigen test, said an
officialfrom the ICMR.
���������������&�����2,4�7,16+
The Enforcement Directoratehas provisionally attachedassets
worth Rs 2,203 crore ofYes Bank promoter RanaKapoor and others in
connec-tion with a money launderingcase.
The present market value ofthe attached assets is morethan Rs
2,800 crore and includeimmovable properties in Indiaand abroad,
bank accounts,investments and luxury vehi-cles, the ED said in a
statement.
Besides Lapoor, these assetsbelong to DHFL’s KapilWadhawan and
DheerajWadhawan and the entitiescontrolled by them.
The attached assets ofKapoor and related entities areworth Rs
792 crore ( presentmarket value Rs 1,400 crore)which include an
independentresidential building“Khursidabad” at Cumbala Hill,three
duplex flats at Napean SeaRoad, Mumbai, residential flatin NCPA,
Nariman Point; eightflats in India Bulls Blue, Worli,Mumbai.
Besides a bungalow belong-ing to Kapoor at 40 AmritaShergill
Marg in New Delhihaving market value of Rs 685crore has also been
attached.
The attached assets belong-ing to Wadhawans and relatedentities
are worth Rs 1,411.9crore which include 12 flats inKhar (West),
Mumbai; one flatin New York and two flats inLondon, two land
parcels inPune and Mulshi, one com-mercial property in
Australia;five luxury vehicles and 344bank accounts.
The ED had initiated inves-tigations against Rana Kapoor,Kapil
Wadhawan and DheerajWadhawan besides othersunder Prevention of
MoneyLaundering Act (PMLA) on thebasis of FIR registered by
CBIunder IPC Sections relating tocriminal conspiracy and cheat-ing
besides provisions ofPrevention of Corruption Act.
The ED had earlierattached bank deposits to thetune of Rs 115
crore of variouscompanies of Rana Kapoorand seized jewellery worth
Rs22.87 crore and seven highend luxury cars worth Rs 12.58crore
belonging to theWadhawan family.
Kapoor and Wadhawanswere arrested by ED for theirrole in the
money launderingcase and all of them are in judi-cial custody.
It was alleged that, duringApril to June, 2018, Yes BankLimited
had invested Rs 3,700
crore in the short term deben-tures of DHFL, a companybelonging
to Wadhawans forwhich kickback of Rs 600 crorewas paid to Rana
Kapoor andhis family members in the garbof loan.
In addition, Yes Bank Ltd.had also sanctioned a loan of Rs750
crore to one of the RKWDevelopers Group company,beneficially owned
by KapilWadhawan, DheerajWadhawan and their familymembers, for
their BandraReclamation Project inMumbai. But the whole amountwas
siphoned off by KapilWadhawan and DheerajWadhawan through their
shellcompanies and was never usedfor the declared purpose, theED
said.
Further, a separate casewas recorded against RanaKapoor, Gautam
Thapar andothers under PMLA on thebasis of another FIR registeredby
CBI on similar chargesunder IPC and Prevention ofCorruption
Act.
This CBI FIR alleged thatRana Kapoor obtained
illegalgratification in the form of aproperty in a prime location
inNew Delhi at much less thanthe realizable market value,belonging
to Avantha RealityLtd. (ARL).
���������������&�����2,4�7,16+
Days after opening up theASI monuments for gen-eral public, the
Union CultureMinistry has decided to allowthe film industry to
shoot at theprotected sites.
"It would be difficult for thefilm industry to go to
foreigndestinations at this time whenworld is swept withCoronavirus
pandemic, so wehave suggested that they couldgo to the Northeast
states,"Union Tourism and CultureMinister Prahlad Patel said ata
FICCI event here.
He assured the film indus-
try that that they will get per-mission to shoot at monu-ments
within 15-20 days of fil-ing their online applications.
"It would also fulfil thePrime Minister’s appeal topeople to
visit various placesin the country. I told them wewill give
permission in 15 to 20days. They just have to applyonline. I have
appealed that itwould be great if other thanthe high footfall
sites, theycould also shoot at less popu-lar monuments suggested
byus to give them a boost aswell," he said.
The ASI has over 3,000monuments and sites that werereopened on
July 6 after
remaining shut during thecoronavirus lockdown.
Currently, filming at ASIsites is permitted, but it involvesa
lot of paperwork and is timeconsuming, officials said.
"Since now the film indus-try cannot shoot abroad, theministry
will help in facilitat-ing permissions from the states.If necessary
we will coordinatewith the Information andTechnology ministry as
well,"the Minister said.
Presently, the request forfilming/ video shoot alongwith camera
crew is to bemade by the applicant at least15 days prior to the
proposeddate of shoot.
���������������&�����2,4�7,16+
HRD Minister RameshPokhriyal Nishank onThursday hit back at
criticswho alleged a conspiracy inreducing the syllabus of
theCentral Board of SecondaryEducation (CBSE) amid thecoronavirus
pandemic.
The CBSE has reduced thesyllabus up to 30 per cent fornearly 190
subjects fromClasses 9 to 12 only for boardexams of the 2020-21
ses-sion. The board has said noquestion will be asked fromthe
reduced syllabus in theexams.
"There has been a lot ofuninformed commentary onthe exclusion of
some topicsfrom #CBSESyllabus. Theproblem with these commentsis
that they resort to sensa-tionalism by connecting top-ics
selectively to portray a falsenarrative," the Nishank sharedon
twitter.
Key chapters l ikeDemocratic Rights, Food
Security in India, Federalism,Citizenship and Secularismhave
been dropped fromschool courses. The nationaleducation board has
said itseeks to reduce burden onstudents amid the pandemic.
The move led to criticismthat the centre was tweakingthe
syllabus to suit a certainnarrative. West Bengal ChiefMinister
Mamata Banerjeewas among those who criti-cised the CBSE's move
toremove those chapters.
The CBSE clarified that"each of the topics that havebeen wrongly
mentioned inmedia as deleted have beencovered under
AlternativeAcademic Calendar ofNCERT, which is already inforce for
all affiliated schoolsof the board".
Following up on theCBSE's clarification, the HRDMinister said
schools havebeen asked to follow theAlternate Academic Calendarof
the National Council ofEducational Research andTraining or
NCERT.
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Of the over 21,000 deathsbeing reported in thecountry, at least
more than12,000 ie around 53 per centis of those above 60 years
ofage, said the Government onThursday highlighting thatthe deadly
virus is more fatalto the elderly.
In contrast, just one percent of the deaths in India areamong 14
years of age, 3 percent among people between15 to 29 years of age,
while 11per cent between 30 and 44
years of age, 32 per centamong 45-59 years of agedand 39 per
cent among peo-ple who are aged between 60and 74, said an officer
fromthe Union Health Ministry ata press conference here.
Data also showed thatpersons with co-morbiditieslike diabetes
and cardiovas-cular diseases are also proneto the virus which can
dam-age organs in such patients.
When asked on Unionhealth Ministry's August 15deadline for
Covid-19 vac-cine and why has it beenexpedited, Bhushan
clarified,
"Please don't read somethingwhich is not there in DG-ICMR's
letter. Letter's intentis only to expedite dulyapproved clinical
trials with-out compromising on safetyand security concerns.”
The Ministry also saidBharat Biotech and CadilaHealthcare are
developingvaccines for the virus. Bothvaccines completed
animaltoxicity studies after approval.
"DCGI has permittedthese two vaccines to go infor phase one and
two clini-cal trials. Trials are yet tobegin," he said.
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Tamil Nadu’s seesaw battle withCovid-19 continued onThursday as
4,231 persons werediagnosed with the pandemicacross the State.
There was norespite in the death toll also. Theday saw 65 persons
succumbing tocoronavirus in the State.
With 4,231 persons gettinginfected with the disease, TamilNadu
has 46, 653 active Covid-19patients as on Thursday. Till date1.26
lakh persons has tested posi-tive for the pandemic.
According to the medical bul-letin released by the State,
thenumber of laboratories to test thesamples has gone up to 100, a
signthat the Tamil Nadu Governmentis on an aggressive testing mode.
Atotal of 41, 038 persons were test-ed on Thursday while the
numberof persons tested till date across theState crossed the 1.42
million mark.
The bulletin said 3,994 personswere discharged from
hospitalsacross the State on Thursday, tak-ing the number of
persons dis-charged till date to 78, 161.
The news from southern dis-tricts continued to be grim whilethe
northern districts showed someabatement in the number of
cases.Chennai Metropolis registered1,216 coronavirus cases
whileneighbouring districts ofChengalpet (169) andKancheepuram (
67) too showedslight decrease in the number of
persons tested positive. But inThiruvallur, another
neighbouringdistrict of Chennai, 364 personswere diagnosed with the
pandem-ic. The district had tested only 300cases on Wednesday.
Southern districts of Madurai( 262), Kallakurichi
(254),Thoothukudi ( 196) andVirudhunagar (289) continued tobe
problematic spots because of theincreasing numbers. Out of the
65deaths in the State on Thursday, 58died with comorbidities.
Chennai Corporation officialsattributed the decrease in the
num-ber of Covid-29 cases in themetropolis to the fever camps
heldacross the wards in the capital cityand suburbs. A senior
Corporationofficial said that the total positivi-ty rate (number of
positive cases forevery 100 tests) in Chennai hascome down from
24.2 per cent inJune to 18.2 per cent in July. Whilethe city has
been reporting close tojust 1,200 fresh cases for the pastcouple of
days, the doubling rate ofpositive cases (number of days ittakes
for the count to double) in thecity has risen to 25 days, from
the14-15 days in mid-June, said theofficial.
������������� � 8(''�
The miseries of thousands ofmigrant workers, farmlabourers
returning from theirvillages to earn their livelihoodin Jammu &
Kashmir are farfrom over.
On Thursday, hundreds ofthese workers stranded at aquarantine
centre in Vijaypurarea of Samba district createdruckus after they
were deniedCovid-19 testing facility.
In a free for all situation,the stranded passengersuprooted
counters, stalls andother furniture kept there at amakeshift
testing facility insidethe quarantine centre. Securitypersonnel
deployed at the quar-antine centre, were outnum-bered by the rush
of strandedworkers. According to officialsources, “around 2300
passen-gers were present in the area at
the time of the incident”. Official sources said, “for
the last five to six days an aver-age number of 500-600
pas-sengers, majority of them brickkiln workers, farm labourerswere
reporting at the quaran-tine centre”.
In the absence of adequatetesting facilities, more than2000
migrant workers werestuck there. They were blamingthe local
officers for not havingadequate testing facilities toclear the rush
of strandedworkers from the centre.
Soon after the incident,video footage of the ruckuswent viral on
various socialmedia platforms where securi-ty personnel were seen
strug-gling to contain the situationfor a long time. Senior
districtand police officers were rushedto the spot to prevent the
situ-ation from taking any uglyturn.
Incharge nodal officer ofthe administrative quarantinecentre
Kamalpreet Singh toldThe Pioneer, “ruckus startedaround 1.30 p.m on
Thursdayafter the testing team exhaust-ed their daily quota of
200-250tests as per the availability oftesting kits”.
He said, “as per the guide-lines, no passenger can begranted
permission to proceedfurther to their destinationwithout undergoing
mandato-ry Covid 19 screening”.
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Bengal on Thursday enteredinto its second phase of lock-down
only with a stricter appli-cation while large posses
policepersonnel descended on thestreets with a sense of purpose
farmore intense than what was seenin the first phase.
The lockdown started in allthe containment zones fromThursday
evening in large partsof the State, Home Departmentsources
said.
While North 24 Parganashas largest number of contain-ment zones
at 94 there are 25 suchzones in Kolkata. South 24Parganas has 54
and Howrah has56 containment zones, officialssaid.
While East and WestMidnapopre have 21 and 23 suchzones
respectively Coochbehar,Jhargram and West Burdwan dis-tricts have
none. However thereare 25 and 21 such zones in Nadiaand East
Burdwan whereasPurulia, Bankura and Birbhumhave 13, 9 and 9
extended con-tainment zones each.
In North Bengal, Alipurduarand Kalimpong have 4 and 3
con-tainment zones respectively whilethree police stations
comprisingalmost the entire Malda city havebeen put under
lockdown.
Dalkhola in North Dinajpurwhich stands at the junction ofBihar
and Bengal have been putunder full lockdown.Murshidabad too has 4
such con-tainmnent zones.
The decision to impose aseven-day second phase lock-down was
taken by ChiefMinister following a sharp spikein the number of
cases whenceshe went on record on Thursdaysaying the “the poorer
people liv-ing in slums are following therules more seriously than
the richand the middle class which is evi-dent from the data base”
showingonly 13 out of 255 cases comingfrom the slums.
The police on Thursdayevening were seen imposing thelockdown
with far more intensi-ty and purpose not only puttingup barricades
in designated areasbut also pulling up and sendingcommuters back
home for notwearing masks. In parts of Maldathe cops were seen
resorting tomild lathi-charges to disciplinethe citizens.
All the shops, governmentoffices and other institutions
saveessential services were closed inthe containment zones
policesaid.
During the lockdown localauthorities will try and arrangehome
delivery of essential com-
modities for the residents ofthese areas, a senior official
said.
Informing that containmentzones and buffer zones have
beenamalgamated into formingextended containment zones anorder
issued by Additional ChiefSecretary, Home, AlapanBandyopadhyay
earlier had said,“these broader containment zonesmay be subjected
to strict lock-down and all offices, governmentand private, all
non-essentialactivities, congregations, trans-portations and all
marketing,industrial and trading activities beclosed.”
Any extension of the lock-down beyond seven days willdepend upon
the progress madein the given areas, the ChiefMinister had earlier
said.
The Calcutta High Court toowas shut down till Monday fol-lowing
an order from the ChiefJustice. Three buildings of theCourt will be
sanitized duringthese four days, sources said.
Meanwhile a second TMCMLA have been diagnosed withcorona. The
MLA fromKumarganj in North Dinajpurdistrict had been sent on
homequarantine, sources said. Earliera senior TMC Legislator and
aclose confidante of the ChiefMinister, Tamanash Ghosh haddied of
corona last month.
����������������� *3�6+
Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan issuedan alert to the people of
Kerala thatcommunity transmission was staring theState and anytime
from now it wouldbecome a reality. The State diagnosed onThursday
339 persons with Covid-19,the highest number to be recorded
inKerala since the first citing of the pan-demic in January.
While Chief Secretary Viswas Mehtaopted to stay in his house as
part ofobservation following the diagnosis ofhis driver with
Covid-19, Poonthura, oneof the coastal suburbs of the capital
citysaw the Government deploying armedcommandos to prevent the
spread of thepandemic. “We are experiencing superspread in
Poonthura and the coastal areahas been cut off from the rest of the
dis-trict,” said Vijayan. Super Spread is theterm used to denote
unprecedentedrate of infection, a step closer to com-munity
transmission, the chief ministerexplained.
Thiruvananthapuram, which hasbeen described as a volcano
byKadakampalli Surendran, Minister forTourism, on Thursday tested
95 personswith the pandemic. Out of the 339 per-sons diagnosed with
coronavirus onThursday, 117 were expatriates, 74 were
those who returned to the State fromother parts of the country.
“What is ofconcern is that 133 persons got infect-ed through
contacts and this is a warn-ing sign. It was from the fish and
veg-etable market in the capital city that thepandemic spread to
other parts of thedistrict which forced the administrationto
declare Triple Lock Down. If we turna blind eye to this experience,
we wouldbe forced to declare Triple Lock Downin more areas,” said
the chief minister.
Vijayan also said that 133 personsgetting afflicted through
contacts is anindication of super spread which wouldmake life
difficult for others. Withoutnaming the demonstrators and
protes-tors who are taking out marches and ral-lies all over the
State in violation of thesocial distancing restrictions and
notwearing face masks, Vijayan said thiswould boomerang as not
maintainingsocial distancing and assembling with-out any purpose
are sure recipes to thespread of the pandemic.
The Chief Minister also disclosedthat 471 persons were
hospitalised onThursday after they were found to beafflicted with
covid-19. “Till date we havetested more than three lakh people.
OnThursday there were 181 hotspots in theState. Till date we have
diagnosed 6,534persons with Covid,” said the CM.
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Even as Opposition parties,the Congress and the BJPcontinued
with their protestmarches and demonstrationsacross Kerala demanding
theresignation of Chief MinisterPinarayi Vijayan whose officehas
come under the scanner fol-lowing the seizure of 30 kgsmuggled gold
atThiruvananthapuram airport,Swapna Suresh, the kingpinbehind the
smugglingapproached the Kerala HighCourt seeking anticipatory
bailon Thursday.
Swapna filed the bail peti-tion through her lawyer and thismay
be listed for Friday.Meanwhile, an audio message,purportedly
belonging toSwapna was being aired by allMalayalam news channels
inwhich she has claimed that shewas innocent and was beinghunted by
certain people withulterior motives. Interestingly,she said in the
message that itwas because of the requestmade by the UAE
Consulate,her former employers, that sherang up the Customs
officialsrequesting them to release theconsignment without
delay.
‘I do not have anythingwith the Chief Minister or anyother
Ministers. It is true that Ihave met them as part of my jobin the
UAE Consulate to invitethem for official functions heldby the
Consul General. Beyondthis I have no dealings with any-body,” said
Swapna who alsoclaimed that she rang up theCustoms officials at the
instanceof the UAE Consulate attache toget the consignment
released.
Swapna also claimed thatthe detractors of the ChiefMinister and
other ministerswere making use of her name totarnish their
image.
“You will not win in thisbattle as the ministers are allbeyond
doubt. But what youpeople are trying to do is toforce me to take my
own life,”she said in the voice recording.
Earlier in the day, Sarith,who was taken into custody onTuesday
morning fromThiruvananthapuram was sentto the Customs’ custody till
July15 by the Economic OffencesWing Court in response to aplea
filed by the CustomsDepartment.
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Apparently spurred by the“Dharavi” coronavirus suc-cess story,
Maharashtra ChiefMinister Uddhav Thackerayon Thursday exhorted
NGOsto form a link between theBrihanmumbai MunicipalCorporation
(BMC) and citi-zens form ward-wise commit-tees to fight Covid-19 at
theground-level.
Addressing the BMC offi-cials and representatives ofNGOs through
video-confer-encing, the Chief Minister said:“The NGO should take
an ini-tiative to establish a permanent
linking mechanism betweenthe BMC administration andcitizens.
Together, BMC, NGOsand citizens can easily fightcoronavirus in the
metropolis”.
“The BMC is currentlyimplementing the “chase thevirus” strategy
in some parts ofthe city. In places where theBMC is not involved in
the“chase the virus” experiment,the BMC, NGOs and citizenscan come
together, undertakedoor-to-door visits and carryout tests to
identify peopleshowing Covid-19 systems.The State Government
willprovide the necessary help,” the
Chief Minister.Maintaining that success
was guaranteed where therewas consensus among the peo-ple about
a particular issue,Uddhav said that he had issueda direction to the
officialsacross the state to set up coro-navirus vigilance
committees atthe village, taluka and districtlevels to fight the
pandemic.
“If we are able to keep ourhouse and surrounding areasclean, we
will be able to defeatCoronavirus and monsoon-related diseases. For
keepingrain- related diseases at bayduring the monsoon, we have
to lay stress on cleanliness. TheNGOs should take lead
cre-ateawareness of hygiene, wear-ing masks, sanitizers, etc
espe-cially in slums,” Uddhav said.
The Chief Ministerappealed to NGOs to visitroad, building and
bridge con-structions and take measures todisinfect water collected
atthese places.
“After visiting Dharavi inMumbai, a central team hadrecommended
that public toi-lets be cleaned periodically.After that, we
undertook amassive drive in Dharavi andused to clear public toilets
atleast six times in a day. By dis-
infecting the public toilets, wechecked the spread of
coron-avirus in a big way in Dharavi,”he said.
“All by itself, the BMCcannot fight Coronavirus alone.We need
the cooperation of theNGOs in disinfecting publictoilets and other
places. TheNGOs should also undertakedoor-to-door survey of slumsin
the city, identify people withCovid-19 symptoms and sendto
Coronavirus centres. If weare able to reach the people tohospitals
in that ̀ golden hour’,we will be able to save the livesof the
people,” the ChiefMinister said.
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Aquick reaction team (QRT)of the Indian Army wastargeted by the
terrorists lateThursday evening nearLethpora area of
Awantipora.
One Indian Army jawanalong with a civilian womanreceived
injuries in the cross-fire.
The Army jawan wasrushed to the Base hospital inSrinagar while a
civilian ladywas shifted in the nearby hos-pital.
The condition of both theinjured soldier and a civilianwoman was
stated to be stable.
According to Col RajeshKalia, a Srinagar based DefencePRO, “An
ambulance with QRTmoving from Khrew was firedupon by terrorists
from near aMosque at Laddoo Mor,Lethpora, Avantipora at 6
PMtoday”.
He said, one soldierreceived injuries in the attackand was
evacuated to 92 Basehospital. His condition wasstated to be stable,
DefencePRO added.
Meanwhile, one civilianlady also sustained injuries inthe
crossfire and her conditionwas also stated to be stable.
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Apparently having lost allhopes of recovery, a 20-year-old blood
cancer-strickenboy committed suicide at theKing Edward Memorial
(KEM)Hospital at Parel in south-cen-tral Mumbai.
Shaji Janu Kharat com-mitted suicide at the hospital at9 pm on
Wednesday, by hang-ing himself to the grill of a hugehospital
window. He was
declared dead at 9.45 pm.Coming at a time when the
administration is coping upwith the huge inflow of Covid-19
patients, the incident causedquite a stir at the hospital.
Shaji, who was a resident ofMahalaxmi Welfare Society
atChembur’s New Bharat Nagarin north-east Mumbai, hadbeen admitted
to KEM hospi-tal on June 23.
He underwent Covid-19test on July 2. He was diag-
nosed negative in the testreport which was received
onWednesday.
Confirming the cause ofthe suicide, DeputyCommissioner of
PoliceSaurabh Tripathi said: “Heended his life, as he was unableto
reconcile to the fact that hewas suffering from blood can-cer. A
case of Accidental DeathReport (ADR) has been regis-tered at
Bhoiwada police sta-tion”.
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Maharashtra crossed 2.30lakh-mark in terms ofCovid-19 infections
onThursday, as many as 6,875people tested positive for
thecoronavirus, while 219 morepeople died of pandemic invarious
parts of the State.
With the infections goingup from Wednesdays’ count of6,603 to
6,875 on Thursday, thetotal number of infected casesclimbed up to
2,30,599.
With fresh 219 deaths, thetotal deaths in the State went upto
9,667.
Of the total 219 deaths,Mumbai accounted for 68deaths, taking
the total numberof deaths in the metropolis to5132 now, while the
total num-ber of positive patients rose by1,268 cases to touch
89,124.
Apart from 68 deaths inMumbai, there were 66 deathsin Thane, 27
deaths in Pune, 17deaths in Raigad, eight deathseach in Palghar and
Solapur,seven in Jalgaon, four inNashik, three in Satara, twoeach
in Ahmednagar,Nandurbar and Nagpur, oneeach in Latur, Jalna,
Amravati,Nanded, and one from anoth-er state.
With 54,811 infected caseswith 1,483 deaths, Thane hasemerged as
the second worsthit district in Maharashtra.
Pune, which has emergedas the third worst affected dis-trict in
terms of spread of thepandemic, has recorded 33,394infections and
989 deaths tillnow.
Meanwhile, the total num-ber of patients dischargedfrom various
hospitals after fullrecovery since the second weekof March this
year touched1,27,259. The recovery rate inthe state stood at 55.19
per cent.The mortality rate in the stateis 4.19 per cent. The
statehealth authorities pegged thenumber of “active cases” in
thestate at 93,652.
Out of 12,12,487 samplessent to laboratories, 2,30,599have
tested positive (18.77%)for Covid-19 until Monday.Currently,
6,49,263 people arein home quarantine while48,191 people are in
institu-tional quarantine.
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Bengaluru: Alarmed over surgingCovid-19 cases, the Karnataka
govern-ment has decided to divide this tech cityinto containment
zones to curb thespread of the pandemic, a state minis-ter said on
Thursday.
“The city will be divided into red,orange and yellow zones in
commen-surate with the number of Covid casesin them for containing
the virus spreadon war footing,” Law and ParliamentaryAffairs
Minister J.C. Madhuswamy toldreporters here.
Cabinet ministers representingassembly segments in the city will
be in-charge of the zones to ensure the casesare curbed with strict
enforcement oflockdown guidelines, especially wearingmask and
maintaining social distancingby the people in the confinement
areas.
“Chief Minister B.S. Yediyurappa hasconvened a meeting of
ministers, MLAs,MPs and corporators of all the 198 civicwards
across the city on Friday to dis-cuss and draw an action plan to
containthe pandemic,” said Madhuswamy.
With 1,148 positive cases, the city'sCovid tally rose to 12,509
and active to10,103, while 2,228 were discharged,including 418 on
Wednesday, while 177succumbed to the infection since March9, with
23 in the last 24 hours.
“The Chief Minister ordered deploy-ing more ambulances in the
containment
areas where cases have been spiking dailyto rush Covid patients
to the nearest hos-pital for immediate treatment,”
saidMadhuswamy.
The city civic corporation -- BruhatBengaluru Mahanagara Palike
(BBMP)--has increased the containment zonesto 3,181 due to more
cases spiking, withsouthern and western suburbs account-ing for
most infections.
“The containment zones are con-centrated more in the city's
southern andwestern suburbs. Active cases doubledover the last 8
days and shot up to awhopping 12,509 from 4,555 on June 30,”an
official said.
Refuting graft charges by oppositionCongress leader Siddaramaiah
in thepurchase of medical equipment fortreatment of Covid
patients,Madhuswamy said the state governmenthad not spent more
than Rs 600 croreso far.
“We are running a government. Nota private office. We will give
account. He(Siddaramaiah) is welcome to check theaccounts and
verify the documents,”asserted the minister.
In a related development, the cabi-net also approved an
ordinance toincrease the state contingency fund toRs 500 crore from
Rs 80 crore for theCovid-19 induced economic relief mea-sures
announced by the chief ministerin June. IANS
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Karnataka and Maharashtra would set up ajoint committee to
manage floods in theKrishna river basin during the monsoon
whenheavy rains lash both states, an official said onThursday.
“The joint committee will monitor and con-trol floods if heavy
rain water overflows in theKrishna river basin across the twin
states to pro-tect lives and property,” the official told IANSafter
State water resources minister RameshJarkiholi met his Maharashtra
counterpartJayant Patil in Mumbai on Wednesday.
The committee will have the state-runNeeravari Nigam chief
engineer and its super-intendent as members from Karnataka and
theircounterparts from Maharashtra.
Heavy and widespread monsoon rains inAugust 2019 resulted in
Krishna and Bheemarivers overflowing from Maharashtra andflooding
Bagalkot, Vijapura and Belagavi dis-tricts, resulting in death and
damage in the state'snorthwest region.
“The committee will also ensure coordina-tion between the two
states to avoid floodingif the rivers and their tributaries turn
spate dueto heavy rains in their catchment areas,” said
theofficial.
The two ministers also discussed the shar-ing of the Krishna
water during summer andnotifications of the Krishna Tribunal award
forboth the states.
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The first response we shouldalways make to the banning ofauthors
by an authoritariansystem is to read their works.As it happened, I
was readingthe latest book by the young Hong Kongactivist Joshua
Wong titled, UnfreeSpeech: The Threat to Global Democracyand Why We
Must Act, Now, when newsemerged that his previous works werebeing
seized from booksellers under thenew security law imposed by
Beijing.
If we want to understand the world-wide collision of ideas,
which seemsincreasingly inevitable, events in HongKong are a good
place to start. It is herethat Western values of free
speech,openness to ideas and belief in the ruleof law have come
into direct conflict witha fundamentally opposing idea: Thatunity
and success of a major civilisationis incompatible with such
dangerousnotions. If that conflict requires theChinese security
officials to rummagearound in bookshops, gathering up allthe books
by writers such as HoraceChin, Tanya Chan, Wong and Jason YNg, it
is not a bad idea to start readingthem. We will find the world’s
future bat-tlegrounds illuminated in their pages.
What do we learn from Wong’s newbook that helps us understand
why animmensely powerful State wants to sup-press the thoughts of a
23-year-oldactivist and has previously held him inprison? Why is he
such a threat that hisevery word has to be hunted down,pulped or
burned? The answer is part-ly that we gain inspiration from the
deter-mination with which Wong has pursuedideals we know and hold
dear, with anintegrity that would shame many peo-ple in the West,
unwilling to make hissacrifices.
Also, we can find in his pages a clar-ity of perception that
explains what hashappened in Hong Kong and cutsthrough the baffling
confusion of worldaffairs. He recounts the warming feelingstowards
China among his generation atthe time of the 2008 Olympics,
accom-panied by the hope that “one country,two systems” might
actually work. Butthen he explains how this went sour asthe
commitment to universal suffrage inHong Kong was abandoned and
XiJinping, “a wolf in panda’s clothing”, cameto power. A new
political identity of“unbelonging towards the motherland”was thus
forged.
My main reflection on Wong’s book,however, is that the central
weaknessesof both Western democracy and Chinesetotalitarianism are
exposed. In the caseof the West, that weakness is our com-placency,
our indifference to growingdangers and our easy assumption that
weare too smart to be undermined fromoutside. It takes a young
activist from the
other side of the world to pointout to European and
Americanreaders that autocratic regimes,including Russia, are
mountinga serious threat to free societies.
There has been extensivereporting of the huge and sys-tematic
effort by the RussianState under Russian PresidentVladimir Putin to
sow discord inWestern countries and corrodetheir unity. That effort
appears tohave included the financing ofnationalistic political
parties, theuse of media outlets to spreadfalse information and, in
partic-ular, the exploitation of socialmedia to foster distrust.
InBritain, for instance, CardiffUniversity researchers found in2017
that fake social mediaaccounts linked to Russia set outto
exacerbate hatred after terror-ist attacks.
China’s undermining ofdemocracy is more subtle andalmost a
by-product of becom-ing the world’s first or secondeconomy with
centralised con-trol of huge enterprises and cut-ting-edge
technology. As China’sstake in Western economiesincreases, their
political leadersbecome less willing to confrontan aggressive
foreign policy orhuman rights abuses. As Chinabecomes an
indispensable mar-ket for Western corporations,they feel ever more
bound torefrain from criticism. And now,if a student from Hong
Kongwishes to speak freely at a British
university, he/she will be underthe watchful eye of China
andwill be liable to arrest when backhome. Slowly, inexorably,
thefreedom to think or speak differ-ently globally is being
eroded.
Democracies are slow toperceive when they are threat-ened as the
20th century showed.Now some of them are stirring.In the UK, the
Government isrightly working on a new legis-lation to block foreign
takeoversaffecting key technologies andnational security. It
promises aconsultation on closing loop-holes on foreign spending
inelections and the establishmentof a new CounterDisinformation
Cell.
It has taken the commend-able decision to open bordersto many
residents of HongKong. Far more will need to bedone — by many more
coun-tries and in coordination witheach other — for these effortsto
be successful. Americanleadership, paralysed by theWhite House’s
refusal to acceptthe scale of Russian involve-ment in the last
presidentialelection, will be vital. The ideaof a G7 working with
Asiandemocracies such as Japan,South Korea and India is a
rightstep. But at the moment, mostpeople in advanced democra-cies
do not realise what is hap-pening and those hurling abuseat each
other on social mediaare oblivious as to how they are
manipulated from afar.Wong says he is “sending
out a distress signal to theworld so that counter-measurescan be
taken before it is too late.”We should listen to him, for
infocussing on our tardiness inprotecting ourselves, he is spoton.
Yet his diagnosis of the ulti-mate flaw in autocratic regimesis
also correct: That they contin-ually have to double down
onrepression at home and show-ing strength abroad. He arguesthat
such a two-front strategy isthe only way to retain power,“however
invincible and invul-nerable they appear to the out-side world.”
This is indeedChina’s problem. The price ofpushing forward the
borderwith India on land, clashingwith Vietnam at sea,
bullyingAustralia on trade and suppress-ing dissent in Hong Kong
witharbitrary law is mounting alarmaround the world.
So from even one book ofa banned author, much can belearned. A
Chinese diplomatonce tried to persuade me thatChinese people were
not suit-ed to democracy as the Westknows it — “they would electa
peasant as President anddeclare war on Japan.” But inthe books that
have emergedfrom Hong Kong, we can seethey are just as suited to it
as therest of us and can teach us whatwe urgently need to know.
(Courtesy: Daily Telegraph)
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