Category: National

Gupkar Alliance has lost everything: BJP’s Tarun Chug

Srinagar, Aug 26: Terming the People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD), a gang of frustrated people, Bhartiya Janata Party national general secretary Tarun Chug Thursday said that these people have lost everything badly and now nothing is going to happen to them.

Talking to media persons here at Jammu, the national general secretary said that the PDP had formed the party to fight with National conference(NC), and its corruption and now it has become single gang which have no basis even.

He said that Mehbooba Mufti is dreaming in a day that will never come true as the Bharatiya Janata Party and the whole country are in strong hands.

No Taliban will come here because this is Narendra Modi’s nation, it will not become Saria, nor will it become Pakistan neither Afghanistan.

PTI

New Delhi: India added 35,178 new coronavirus infections, taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,22,85,857, while the national recovery rate improved to 97.52 per cent, the highest since March 2020, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Wednesday.

The death toll climbed to 4,32,519 with 440 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The active cases declined to 3,67,415, the lowest in 148 days, and comprise 1.14 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A reduction of 2,431 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 17,97,559 tests were conducted on Tuesday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 49,84,27,083 .

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.96 per cent. It has been less than three per cent for the last 23 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.95 per cent. It has been below three per cent for the last 54 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,14,85,923, while the case fatality rate stands at 1.34 per cent, the data stated.

Cumulatively, 56.06 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered under the nationwide vaccination drive so far.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16. It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19. India cross

PTI

In a latest COVID-19 update, the United States has eased travel restrictions for India and moved the country to Level 2. This means India is now considered as safe by the US government when it comes to the COVID situation. The significant decision was announced on Monday.

The US State Department said, “Your risk of contracting COVID-19 and developing severe symptoms may be lower if you are fully vaccinated with an FDA authorised vaccine. Before planning any international travel, please review the CDC’s specific recommendations for vaccinated and unvaccinated travellers”.

On April 30, US President Joe Biden imposed new travel restrictions on India and had put the country in Level 4, which meant the danger zone. Most of the non-US citizens who had travelled to India over the 14 days before arrival in the USA were banned from entering the US.

Also, the country had asked its citizens not to travel to India due to the deadly second wave of COVID-19. But now, the Centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced a Level 2 Travel Health Notice for India, which means moderate level of COVID-19.

Besides COVID issues, the State Department has also asked its citizens not to travel to Jammu and Kashmir due to civil unrest and militancy activities.

They have also been advised not to travel within 10 km of the India-Pakistan border due to the potential for armed conflict.

Jailed for 10 years each for raping minors

PTI

Muzaffarnagar: A 26-year-old man was sentenced to 10 years in jail for raping a 16-year-old girl nearly four years ago.

Additional Sessions Judge Sanjiv Tiwari of Muzaffarnagar’s Special POCSO court sentenced Rizwan after holding him guilty under sections 376 and 506 for raping and threatening the victim in November 2017.

ASJ Tiwari also held Rizwan guilty under sections 3 and 4 of the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act and imposed a fine of Rs 21,000 on the convict.

In another case, another special POCSO court headed by ASJ Arti Faujdar too sentenced a man, Sadiq, to 10 years in jail for raping a 15-year-old girl in December 2015.

ASJ Faujdar also imposed a fine of Rs 30,000 on him.

Jammu, Aug 16 Describing the situation in Afghanistan as “worrisome”, Jammu and Kashmir BJP president Ravinder Raina on Monday said India wants an end to bloodshed in the neighbouring country.
“Afghanistan is going through a critical juncture. We have seen how 20 years ago, they (Taliban) destroyed the country and made the life of ordinary people miserable. But after a major action by NATO forces to restore peace and democracy, the situation has slipped into chaos and confusion after withdrawal of the NATO forces,” the BJP leader said.
Talking to reporters after paying homage to former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee on his death anniversary at the party headquarters here, Raina said the entire world community is concerned about the developments in Afghanistan where the Taliban has toppled the elected government of President Ashraf Ghani.
“We have been enjoying friendship with Afghanistan for centuries. The Pathans and Hindustanis have lived like brothers…we want Afghan people, especially the children and the women, to prosper without any violation to their rights,” he said.
India and Afghanistan have been friends for centuries and the BJP-led government at the centre was helping rebuild the war-torn nation, Raina said.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi enjoyed good relations with the Ashraf Ghani-led government in Afghanistan and India has been building roads and dams besides electricity projects in the country, Raina said.
He also said the BJP government is keeping an eye on the developments in Afghanistan and has made it clear that it would provide all sorts of assistance to its nationals holed up there.
Earlier, the BJP leader presided over a function to pay tributes to Vajpayee on his third death anniversary and remembered his contribution towards nation building

New Delhi: India is gearing up to evacuate hundreds of its officials and citizens from Kabul after Afghan President Ashraf Ghani left Afghanistan, setting the stage for the Taliban to recapture power in the country two decades after a US-led military invasion ousted it in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks.

Afghan media reported that Ghani and his close aides have left the country with the Taliban on the brink of seizing control of Kabul after taking over almost all leading cities and provincial capitals.

As Afghanistan stares at an uncertain future with the imminent fall of Kabul into the hands of the Taliban, several countries including the US and the UK scrambled to evacuate their staff from the city that has been gripped by fear and panic.

People tracking developments in Afghanistan said India has prepared all contingencies and eventualities including evacuating its staff in its embassy in Kabul as well as Indian citizens stranded in the country.

It is learnt that a fleet of C-17 Globemaster military transport aircraft of the Indian Air Force is kept on standby to undertake evacuation missions.

The people cited above said India will not put the lives of its staffers at the embassy and its citizens in Kabul at any risk and plans have already been finalised in case they require emergency evacuation.

“The government is closely monitoring fast-paced developments in Afghanistan. We will not put the lives of our staff at the Indian Embassy in Kabul at any risk,” said a source.

However, there is no official comment from India on the fast-paced developments in Afghanistan.

In the last few days, the Taliban fighters have swept through most parts of the country, seizing control of around 25 of 34 provincial capitals including cities such as Kandahar, Herat, Mazar-e-Sharif and Jalalabad.

Afghan media quoted acting defence minister Bismillah Mohammadi as saying that President Ghani handed the authority of solving the “crisis” in the country to political leaders.

Mohammadi said that a delegation will travel to Doha on Monday for talks on the country”s situation.

Abdullah Abdullah, the chairman of Afghanistan”s High Council for National Reconciliation, appeared to criticise Ghani for leaving the country and said “God will hold him accountable and the nation will also judge.”

Former Afghan president Hamid Karzai said on Twitter that a coordinating council comprising himself, Abdullah Abdullah and Gulbuddin Hekmatyar has been formed for transfer of power following President Ghani”s departure.

Earlier in the day, the Afghan Presidential Palace said on Twitter that the situation was under control in Kabul and it has not been attacked, though there were instances of sporadic gunshots.

It said Afghan security forces were working with international partners to ensure the security of Kabul. “Kabul has not been attacked.

The country”s security and defence forces are working together with international partners to ensure the security of the city and the situation is under control,” the statement in Pashto said.

Meanwhile, US Secretary of State Antony Blinken described the Taliban”s onslaught and the imminent fall of Kabul as “heart-wrenching stuff”.

“We went to Afghanistan 20 years ago with one mission, and that mission was to deal with the folks who attacked us on 9/11. And we have succeeded in that mission,” Blinken told CNN”s “State of the Union” programme.

‘’The objective that we set, bringing those who attacked us to justice, making sure that they couldn”t attack us again from Afghanistan – we”ve succeeded in that mission, and in fact, we succeeded a while ago,” he said.

“And at the same time, remaining in Afghanistan for another one, five, ten years is not in the national interest,” he added. The Taliban made rapid advances across Afghanistan by resorting to widespread violence since the United States began withdrawing its troops from the country on May 1.

In alarming news, at least 242 children have tested COVID-19 positive in the last five days in Bengaluru, government data revealed.

The health department has warned that this number may further rise in the coming days. This is once again proving right the earlier prediction that the third wave of the pandemic could affect children.

According to the Bengaluru civic body BBMP, 242 children below the age of 19 years tested COVID-19 positive in the last five days. The data further reveals that 106 children below the age of 9 years and 136 children between 9 and 19 years have tested positive in the last five days in Bengaluru.

Health officials recommended parents to keep their children at home and follow all the COVID-19 norms as children will have less immunity compared to older people.

They went on to warn that this number will ‘triple’ within a few days and there is a great threat to children.

The Karnataka government has already taken some strict measures to control the surge of COVID-19 cases in the state. Only yesterday the state government requested the Indian Railways to ensure all passengers travelling to the state from Kerala and Maharashtra undergo compulsory COVID-19 test before boarding trains.

Night and weekend curfews in all the districts have been ordered. Karnataka borders have restricted entries from Kerala and Maharashtra. Only those who can show their RTPCR test of less than 72 hours are allowed to enter the state.

Reports suggest that the government is likely to impose a partial lockdown from August 16.

Karnataka has been recording around 1,500 daily new COVID-19 cases in the last one month.

AGENCY

The third wave of COVID-19 will likely hit India this month as the daily infections tally will go up to 100,000 in the best-case scenario or to 150,000 in the worst-case scenario, a study done by IIT researchers has predicted.

The research, led by Mathukumalli Vidyasagar and Manindra Agrawal at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) in Hyderabad and Kanpur, the surge in COVID cases in August will push the third wave which may peak in the month of October.

States with high COVID-19 cases such as Kerala and Maharashtra could ‘skew the picture,’ Mathukumalli Vidyasagar told Bloomberg.

India is currently reporting COVID cases nearing 40,000 daily as Kerala is the biggest contributor to the tally as it is reporting nearly or over 20,000 infections in a day.

On Sunday, India reported 41,831 cases of COVID-19 and 541 deaths from the pandemic. The central government cautioned 10 states, asking them to take strict measures as COVID infections are rising.

However, the next COVID wave is likely to be far smaller than the second wave that hit India in April and peaked at a record 4 lakh-plus cases on May 7 and started declining after.

The researchers, whose prediction is based on a mathematical model, said that India still needs to accelerate its vaccination campaign, deploy surveillance methods to catch emerging hotspots, and stay vigilant through genome sequencing as new variants could emerge, Bloomberg reported.

Experts have also warned that the highly transmissible Delta variant of coronavirus can fuel the surge. In May, June, and July, nearly eight out of every 10 COVID cases were caused by the Delta variant, according to data from the Indian Sars-CoV-2 Genomic Consortium (INSACOG).

New Delhi, Aug 2: The Indian and Chinese armies have agreed to resolve the remaining issues in eastern Ladakh in an “expeditious manner” and described their 12th round of military talks as “constructive”, according to a joint statement on Monday.

Two days after the India-China military talks, the joint statement, issued here by the Indian Army said both sides had a “candid and in-depth exchange” relating to disengagement along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the Western Sector of India-China border areas.

“The two sides noted that this round of meeting was constructive, which further enhanced mutual understanding. They agreed to resolve these remaining issues in an expeditious manner in accordance with the existing agreements and protocols and maintain the momentum of dialogue and negotiations,” it added.

It said the two sides also agreed to continue effective efforts in ensuring stability along the LAC in the region and jointly maintain peace and tranquillity.

“The two sides also agreed that in the interim they will continue their effective efforts in ensuring stability along the LAC in the Western Sector and jointly maintain peace and tranquillity,” the statement added.—(PTI)

New Delhi: The Supreme Court has issued notice to the Jammu Kashmir Government
and the Committee formed for fixation and regulation of fee of private schools known as Fee and Fund Regulatory Committee (FFRC) while hearing a writ petition filed by a federation of private schools namely National Independent Schools Alliance (NISA).

The court of Justice L Nageswara Rao and Justice Aniruddha Bose issued notices while hearing a writ petition in which NISA has challenged the notice issued on January 19, 2021, by said Committee to 442 private schools operating in Jammu and Kashmir.

In the writ petition it has been claimed that the committee has no power to determine the school fees in private schools that don’t enjoy government patronage.

Fee Regulatory Committee had directed private schools to file past two years account records for the purpose of fixation of school fees in their schools.

The private schools from Kashmir Valley have not obliged to the directions so for citing various reasons.

Advocate Kapil Sibal that represented NISA in the court said that Fee Fixation Committee has no mandate to seek accounts and records from those private schools which do not get government aid.

The Supreme Court after hearing the arguments issued notice to Jammu Kashmir Government and the Fee Fixation Committee asking them to clear their stand.

Pertinently, majority of the private schools in Kashmir Valley are aided by the government. Recently, a couple of schools including Presentation Convent and Iqbal Memorial Institute were deprived of facilities being provided by Board of School Education after these schools were found ‘harassing’ parents and don’t complying the government orders. (KNT)