Sab ko maloom hai ‘Seema’ ki Haqeeqat lekin, dil kay khush rakhne ko, ‘Shah-yad’ yeh khayal acha hai!
– Tweets Rahul Gandhi
सब को मालूम है ‘सीमा’ की हक़ीक़त लेकिन,
— Rahul Gandhi (@RahulGandhi) June 8, 2020
दिल के ख़ुश रखने को, ‘शाह-यद’ ये ख़्याल अच्छा है।https://t.co/cxo9mgQx5K
Mumbai: Defence Minister Rajnath Singh on Monday said India’s military and diplomatic levels talks with China have been positive and will continue.
Addressing the BJP’s Maharashtra Jan-Samvad Rally via video link, the minister also said the Narendra Modi-led government will ensure that the India’s pride is not affected as far as the situation along Indo-China border is concerned.
“The border dispute between India and China has been ongoing for a long time. We want to resolve it as soon as possible,” Singh said.
“Talks with China are on at military and diplomatic level. The June 6 talks were very positive and both the countries have agreed to continue talks to resolve the ongoing tussle,” he said.
“I want to assure people that leadership of the country is in strong hands and we will not compromise on India’s pride and self-respect,” he said.
Singh said Congress leader Rahul Gandhi and some opposition leaders had sought the government’s clarification on what is happening at the India-China border.
“As the Defence Minister of the country, I want to say that whatever I have to say I will say it inside Parliament, I will not mislead the people,” the minister said.
Scaremongering done especially with some development partners who are in the NGO sector, says the Minister for Women and Child Development
Union Minister Smriti Irani has denied claims that the coronavirus-induced lockdown led to an increase in cases of domestic violence against women.
Replying to a question that the lockdown has increased domestic violence and women are not being able to even lodge complaints, Ms. Irani retorted: “It is false. Every state has a police line functioning. We have one stop crisis centres across every district of every State.”
“I without revealing the faces and names of women that we have rescued, have state by state, district by district rescue rehabilitation details of every individual victim,” she said on Sunday.
The Minister for Women and Child Development and Textiles said there was some “scaremongering done especially with some development partners who are in the NGO sector that 80% of women who are now at homes in India or across the world will be getting beaten up.”
She said every man is not beating up the woman in his house in India.
“Our police lines have been functional throughout the lockdown. Our crisis centres have been functional throughout the lockdown,” said the Minister.
Ms. Irani said rescue and rehabilitation facilities have been provided not only for women but also children.
“In fact, so far as the numbers go, I have 35 helpline numbers across all states apart from a central number that has been functioning fully throughout the lockdown period,” said the Minister.
She was addressing a TiE talk event hosted through a virtual platform on Sunday night.
National carrier’s repatriation flights in phase 3 of Vande Bharat Mission from June 10
Hundreds of stranded Indians in West Asia had been hit hard by the hike in the airfare for repatriation flights to be operated by national carrier Air India in the phase three of Vande Bharat Mission set to take off from June 10.
The one-way airfare in the economy class from the key three airports at Riyadh, Dammam and Jeddah in Saudi Arabia to the four airports in Kerala has gone up from ₹18,760 (950 Riyals) to ₹33,635 (1,703 Riyals) when the airline opened its booking for phase III.
The one-way airfare in the national carrier from Jeddah to Cochin and Thiruvananthapuram had gone up from 1,000 Riyals to 1,700 Riyals. In the Business class, the fare has touched 2,470 Riyals. From Dammam, one has to pay 1,170 Riyals to Kochi and 1,773 to Kannur.
Compared to the hike in the airfare in the Saudi Arabia-Kerala sector, there is only marginal increase in the airfare in the Qatar-Kerala sector. The one-way airfare has gone up only from 766 Riyals to 780 Riyals.
Air India Express, low-cost arm of the national carrier Air India (AI), that is gearing up to operate 107 flights from West Asia and South East Asian countries in the phase III has not steeply increased the fare like Air India. “Fares had gone up six to seven AED (United Arab Emirates Dirham),” airline sources said. AI officials were not available for comments.
For many in Saudi Arabia who had been awaiting eagerly to return to the home soil, the hike in the airfare was a bolt from the blue as they came to know only after reaching the airline offices.
“The flyers had no other option other than to borrow money and book the seats as bulk of the flights are handled by Air India from Saudi Arabia and uncertainty prevails over the commencement of the commercial flights,” Feroz Khan, a social worker from Riyadh, said. “There was marginal increase in airfares in the Phase II. We were told that everything is decided at Delhi. But, now the Union government has taken the Non-Resident Indians for a ride at these testing times,” he said.
The Vande Bharat Mission was kicked off by the Centre on May 7 to bring back stranded Indians on a payment basis amid the COVID-19-induced lockdown. It also permitted foreign nationals and valid visa-holders to book seats on these flights.
With inputs from The Hindu
New Delhi: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal has gone into self-quarantine and will get himself tested for COVID-19 on Tuesday, officials said on Monday.
They said the chief minister was feeling unwell since Sunday afternoon.
New Delhi: Petrol and diesel prices were hiked by 60 paisa per litre on Monday, for the second day in a row, as state-owned oil firms reverted to daily price revisions after a 83-day hiatus.
Petrol price in Delhi was hiked to Rs 72.46 per litre from Rs 71.86 on Sunday, while diesel rates were increased to Rs 70.59 a litre from Rs 69.99, according to a price notification of state oil marketing companies.
This is the second daily increase in rates in a row. Oil companies had on Sunday raised prices by 60 paisa per litre on both petrol and diesel after ending a 83-day hiatus in daily rate revision.
Daily price revision has restarted, an oil company official said.
While oil PSUs have regularly revised ATF and LPG prices, they had since March 16 kept petrol and diesel prices on hold, ostensibly on account of extreme volatility in the international oil markets.
Auto fuel prices were frozen soon after the government raised excise duty on petrol and diesel by Rs 3 per litre each to mop up gains arising from falling international rates.
The government on May 6 again raised excise duties by Rs 10 per litre on petrol and Rs 13 per litre on diesel.
Oil companies, instead of passing on the excise hike to consumers, decided to adjust them against the reduction required because of the drop in international oil prices. They used the same tool and did not pass on the Re 1 per litre hike required for switching over to ultra-clean BS-VI grade fuel from April 1.
Meghalaya and Ladakh have reported one COVID-19 fatality each, according to ministry data.
India on Monday recorded it highest-ever single-day spike in new novel coronavirus cases at 9,983, a Health Ministry data revealed. At least 206 corona patients died in the last 24 hours in India, taking the total fatalities to 7,135.
Now, India is the fifth most corona-affected country as it surpassed Spain on Sunday, with its total corona cases standing at 2,56,611.
Of the total cases, at least 1,25,381 are active whereas 1,24,094 persons have been cured, one patient migrated and discharged, and 7,135 fatalities recorded so far.
At least 4,975 individuals had been cured since Sunday and India’s recovery rate stood at 48.35 per cent, as against a growth rate of 3.89 per cent.
Maharashtra’s corona cases stood at 85,975, which is more than 36 per cent of the national tally, followed by Delhi with 27,654, Tamil Nadu with 31,667 and Gujarat 20,070.
According to the WHO COVID-19 dashboard, as of Monday morning, the total number of corona cases worldwide stood at 67,99,713, while the death toll increased to 3,97,388, the WHO revealed in its latest update.
India is now fifth worst pandemic-hit country globally, after surpassing Spain’s total cases on Sunday. The other top countries are the US (19,42,363), Brazil (6,91,758), Russia (4,67,073), the UK (2,87,621) according to the data collected by Johns Hopkins University and Medicine.
In second-highest single-day surge, Maharashtra reports more than 3,000 cases.
With 3,007 COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra recorded its second-highest single-day case surge on Sunday as its tally surged to 85,975, exceeding even that of China’s reported tally of 83,000-odd cases.
With 91 deaths, the State’s toll reached 3,060.
However, according to the Health department, only 43,591 of the cases are active with 1,924 patients being discharged on Sunday to take the number of recoveries till date to 39,314.
Mumbai’s tally has now crossed the 48,000-mark to reach 48,774 with the city reporting 1,420 cases. It presently has 25,940 active cases.
With 61 deaths, the city’s toll stands at 1,638.
State Surveillance Officer Dr. Pradeep Awate said the recovery rate had increased to 45.27% while its case fatality rate stood at 3.55%.
Six deaths were reported from Pune district to take its toll to 406. However, its authorities said the toll had already risen to 409.
Similarly, as per officials, while Solapur district in Pune division reported eight deaths to take its toll to 104, the divisional authorities said the district’s toll had already climbed to 115.
Five deaths were reported from Ulhasnagar and Mira-Bhayander civic body regions in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region (MMR) to take their respective toll to 20 and 39.
Deaths were also reported from other districts in the region such as Nashik, Jalna and Akola among other parts of the State.
“Of the deaths reported on Sunday, 31 had occurred in the last couple of days while the remaining took place between April 13 and June 4. 73.6% of the deaths reported had high-risk co-morbidities such as diabetes, hypertension, asthma and heart disease,” said Dr. Awate
Pune district’s tally, as per official figures, has reached 9,705 with the district reporting a massive spike of more than 400 new cases.
Besides Mumbai, the surge in fresh cases in Thane in the MMR continued unabated with 273 cases taking the district’s tally to 6,048. Navi Mumbai reported a similarly big spike of more than 130 cases (tally 3,484).
“Till date, of the 5,51,647 laboratory samples, 85,975 (15.8%) have been tested positive with almost 14,000 samples across the State tested today,” Dr. Awate said.
He said 5,58,463 persons across the State were in home quarantine and 28,504 were in institutional quarantine facilities.
There are 3,654 active containment zones, said Dr. Awate.
With inputs from The Hindu
‘He also abused me and pulled at my long hair’
A Sikh student has alleged that an IPS officer had assaulted and abused him and pulled at his long hair, the symbol of his faith, in Agra on Saturday.
Gursimar Setia, who identified himself as a law student of the West Bengal National University of Juridical Sciences, Kolkata, wrote on Twitter about his alleged ordeal.
He said that around 7.40 p.m., he was stopped by police officers at Sanjay Place, where he had gone with a friend in a car to withdraw money. Mr. Setia said an officer, who could be identified from his badge as ASP Saurabh Dixit, started abusing him, noticing that he had a long hair tied in a bun.
Mr. Setia said the officer asked him for his identity card and upon discovering that he was a Sikh, he used communally laced expletives and “proceeded to physically assault me and pulled my hair.”
His friend, who rushed out of the car to help him, was also beaten up, said Mr. Setia, who shared the pictures of his head and some strands of hair allegedly pulled out by the officer.
After the screen-shots of Mr. Setia’s ordeal were widely circulated on social media, the Agra police said a senior police officer was inquiring into the alleged incident. “Will act accordingly,” the police said.
While a formal statement from the police was still awaited, Mr. Setia said on Sunday that he received an apology from the officer and accepted it. “I accepted his apology because he was willing to introspect, never to repeat such an instance of unprovoked police brutality again,” he said in a statement. “…I believe that he will genuinely learn from his mistake.”
He said that when the incident happened, he was angry and made up his mind to hold the officer accountable. “Today it was me, but most often this happens to people who have no voice in society,” he said.
He would not pursue the matter further, but he would not delete the tweets either, Mr. Setia said. “I genuinely hope that the public will respect my family’s privacy.”
With inputs from The Hindu
Central government facilities are open to all.
As complaints mounted on social media of poor treatment at Delhi’s hospitals, Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal announced on Sunday that all government and private hospitals in the city would only treat Delhi residents till the rising COVID-19 cases are contained.
While informing people of this first-of-its-kind decision in the country to “reserve” hospitals even as cases mushroomed in the national capital, Mr. Kejriwal, said there were several Central government hospitals in the city that would continue to treat all patients.
Residents will be identified by voter IDs, bank passbooks, ration cards, driving licences, phone and electricity bills in addition to Aadhaar cards issued before June 7, among other documents bearing a residential address from the city.
The Delhi government also decided to open the borders of the city from June 8; the closure was implemented more in the breach, as people moved in and out of the city with ease.
Launching a sharp attack on the Kejriwal government, Delhi Congress leader Ajay Maken claimed that 33 of the 38 government hospitals were not treating COVID-19 patients. He also said Delhi was not prepared for the opening of malls, restaurants and places of worship from Monday.
Addressing an online press conference, Mr. Kejriwal said there was a need to maintain a balance in Delhi as the State government hospitals have around 10,000 beds and the Central government hospitals have another 10,000 beds.
“For now, we have decided that the 10,000 beds under the Delhi government will be kept for residents. The beds under the Central government can be used by all,” he said.
“Private hospitals covering special treatments and surgeries will be open for all. This will make a balance for both the residents of Delhi and the people from all over the country,” he said.
Last week, Mr. Kejriwal had asked people of the city for suggestions on whether hospital beds should be reserved for residents. “The decision was taken after nearly 90% of people of the 7.5 lakh people who sent their suggestions said that till the COVID situation exists, the Delhi hospitals should be reserved for the people of Delhi,” the Chief Minister said.
He said the five-member expert committee, headed by Vice-Chancellor of Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University Mahesh Verma had studied the situation in light of the increasing number of cases and in its report said that by the end of June, Delhi will need nearly 15,000 beds for COVID-19 patients. “They have suggested reserving the Delhi hospitals for the people of Delhi because if we open the hospitals for all then the COVID beds we have will be filled within three days,” said Mr. Kejriwal.
The Chief Minister added that at any given time nearly 60-70% of patients in Delhi hospitals are from other States and the government has never denied treatment to any person. However, in the current situation, the government needed the infrastructure to arrange more beds for the people of the city.
Responding to the new order, All India Institute of Medical Science director Dr. Randeep Guleria said living with COVID-19 is now the new normal.
“Every individual should take the responsibility to protect oneself and family from COVID-19 and arrest the spread of virus,” Dr Guleria said and added that while the country is well placed to deal with COVID-19, following social distancing, boosting immunity and being responsible towards vulnerable population is a must.
With inputs from The Hindu