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Archives for October 2019

Ayodhya case: Sunni Waqf Board offers to opt out

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Mediation panel report lists conditions to withdraw title claim; bench to study it today.

NEW DELHI: In a new twist to the Ram Janmabhoomi-Babri Masjid title suit, a three-member mediation panel claimed to have broken new ground, saying an important section of the litigating parties had agreed on some contentious issues, including giving up rights on the disputed land. 

In its report to the Supreme Court, the panel headed by former Supreme Court judge F M I Kalifullah, which includes senior advocate Sriram Panchu and spiritual leader Sri Sri Ravishankar, said one of the primary Muslim litigants in the title case was willing to drop its claim on the disputed 2.77 acre land if adequate alternative land is given for the construction of a mosque in the vicinity at state expenditure, according to sources.

That apart, the Muslim party demanded renovation of 22 existing mosques in Ayodhya, the sources added. Also, they wanted the government to allow devotees to offer prayers at some historic mosques where no such activity is permitted because the ASI (Archaeological Survey of India) has declared them to be protected monuments.

According to sources, bundled into the proposal was another demand by the Muslim party for the implementation of the Religious Places Act, 1991, which mandates maintaining status quo of other religious places as they existed in 1947.

The Hindu parties, including the VHP-backed Ram Janmabhoomi Nyas and the Ram Lalla deity, refused to be part the mediation, the sources said.

The mediation process restarted last month on the request of the Sunni Wakf Board after the panel had earlier expressed its inability to resolve the dispute. The panel’s report is expected to be discussed on Thursday by all the five judges of the Constitution bench — Chief Justice of India Ranjan Gogoi and justices S A Bobde, D Y Chandrachud, Ashok Bhushan and S Abdul Nazeer — in their chambers. 

While the bench reserved its verdict, it can still go ahead and adjudicate on the issue and mention the details of the report in its judgment. The verdict is likely to be delivered on or before Nov 15, Gogoi’s last working day before he retires on Nov 17.

Would like to know what selectors think about Dhoni’s future: Ganguly

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The 39-year-old Dhoni has been on a sabbatical post India’s World Cup exit and is unlikely to feature in three-match T20 series against Bangladesh, set to be picked on October 24.

MS Dhoni

KOLKATA: The BCCI president-elect Sourav Ganguly has made it clear that he would like to know the national selection committee’s plans with regards to Mahendra Singh Dhoni’s future and then give his opinion on the matter.

The 39-year-old Dhoni has been on a sabbatical post India’s World Cup exit and is unlikely to feature in three-match T20 series against Bangladesh, set to be picked on October 24.

While Dhoni has not announced his international retirement, the selectors have time and again made clear that they intend to move forward keeping next year’s World T20 in mind.

“I will find out from the selectors when I meet them on October 24. We will find out what the selectors are thinking and then I will put forth my opinion,” the soon-to-be board supremo Ganguly told reporters at Eden Gardens.

Ganguly also said that he would like to speak to Dhoniand know what he wants.

“We will have to see what Dhoni wants. I will also speak to him what he wants to do and what he does not want to do.”

He said that since he was not in the picture, he had no clarity on Dhoni’s future.

“Since I was not in the picture, it maybe a case that it’s not clear with me as of now. Now will be in a position to find out and then will decide on the way forward.”

The former India captain made it clear that he will speak to the selectors and captain once he takes charge at the AGM on October 23.

Earlier the selection meeting was scheduled on October 21 but now it will be held on October 24 along with a selection of India A, B and C teams for the Deodhar Trophy.

“During all this time, I was nowhere in the picture. My first selection committee meeting will be on October 24. So I will ask the selectors and talk with the captain. Coach (Ravi Shastri) won’t be there as per the new Constitution,” Ganguly said.

Asked if Ravi Shastri’s appointment will be subject to discussions since there were questions with regards to the validity of the Kapil Dev-led panel, Ganguly replied in negative.

“I don’t think so that it will jeopardise the selection of Ravi Shastri. I am not sure though. Even we had selected the coach when there was this conflict issue,” said Ganguly.

For the record, the president will not be a part of the selection committee meeting as secretary Jay Shah is the designated convenor.

Obviously, once the team is selected, it can be made public after BCCI president’s mandatory approval.

Ganguly also said that Devang Gandhi and Jatin Paranjpe are eligible to continue as selectors (as per five-year rule).

“Devang and Jatin are eligible to continue. There will be a couple of changes though. We will have to see who has how many days left in their respective tenures.”

Ganguly said that he has already resigned from Delhi Capitals but will continue as the MCC Board Member.

With regards to BCCI representation in the ICC, Ganguly said: “That will be decided by the apex council”.

On who all congratulated him, Ganguly said: “Shikhar (Dhawan), Rishabh (Pant), Jinks (Ajinkya Rahane), Jasprit (Bumrah), Zak (Zaheer), Viru (Virender Sehwag), Bhajji (Harbhajan Singh) have all congratulated. Also Arjuna Ranatunga, Sanath Jayasuriya, Nasser Hussain.”

However, he was non-committal when asked if Rahul Johri will be attending the next meeting that he will conduct.

“I will not comment on that.”

Notorious Dreaded Inter-State Criminal arrested by Bommanahalli police,Recovered 12 Kg Gold,Diamond and Platinum Worth of Rs.5 Crore

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Pramesh Jain

This is the history and Jackpot for Bengaluru city police first time a huge recovery has been done by one accused in one single case and huge booty is recovered. 
In its first of its kind in the history of Bengaluru city police a biggest recovery has been done by Southeast Division police in which they have nabbed the notorious kingpin and recovered Rs.5 Crore worth of 12 kg of Gold,Diamond and Platinum ornaments with the vehicle used in committing crime has also been recovered from him.
The Lalithaa Jewellery heist in Trichy early this month had taken many by surprise. 
The jewellery store situated near the busy Chathiram bus stand in Trichy.However it wasn’t safe.
Two people wearing masks had managed to loot and scoot with nearly 24kgs of jewels.
The burglars has looted jewels worth 13 Crore rupees from Lalitha jewellery. 
Trichy police had caught Suresh and Ganesan based on the similarities between the two crimes.
Masked men had looted the Punjab National Bank at Bikshandarkoil in Trichy early this year.
Murugan had taken the lion’s share in the Lalithaa jewellery heist. 
Murugan had surrendered before the Mayo Hall court in Bengaluru on 12th. 
The Bengaluru city police recovered 12 kgs of gold,diamond and platinum ornaments from Murugan. 
There were striking similarities between PNB loot and Lalitha jewellery heist. 
Murugan hid jewels inside a dense forest in a small village called Venganur in Perambalur.
The Tamilnadu and Karnataka police have nabbed the culprits in the case.
Murugan has more than 90 cases pending against him across Karnataka,Tamilnadu,and Andhra Pradesh.
Murugan is currently in the custody of Bommanahalli police station in Bengaluru. 
Suresh and Ganesan are in the custody of Trichy police.
45-year old Murugan his relatives Suresh and Ganesan were the accused in the case.

The Southeast Division police of Bommanahalli police have arrested a notorious dreaded criminal a professional thief who is a habitual offender and recovered stolen property around 12 kg of Gold,Diamond and Platinum ornaments worth of Rs 5 Crore.
The accused has been identified as,Murugan alias,Balamurugan,Shivakumar,Shiva,45,year old resident of Tiruchirapalli in Trichy.
Trichy city police told media persons that  the recovered jewellery will be submitted to Trichy court after being produced at the Bengaluru court.Trichy police had already recovered 4.750 kg of gold jewellery worth Rs 1.76 crore from E Manikandan of Madapuram and P Kanagavalli of Seera Thoppu in Tiruvarur after arresting them on October 5.Kanakavalli is the sister of Murugan while her son P Suresh who escaped from police during a vehicle check on October 3 in Tiruvarur surrendered at Chengam court in Tiruvannamalai on October 10.He has been remanded in Trichy central prison.Trichy police will take both Murugan and Suresh into custody for investigations to recover the rest of the 30 kg jewellery.
Investigating officer told media persons that, Accused Murugan is a inter-State dreaded criminal who had hid the jewels in a plastic bag inside a dense forest near the banks of cauvery river in Trichy he took about 15 minutes to find the spot when we took him there for recovery we had taken Goldsmith’s and eye-witnesses from Bengaluru at that time of recovery.He dug the ground and gave us the bag that had jewels.Murugan had two other accomplices Suresh and Ganesh they are his relatives they were caught by the police after the Lalithaa jewellery heist the police had caught them and recovered whatever they had Murugan was staying in Trichy while they were nabbed we had found out through the CCTV footage of another robbery when all the three of them had travelled in an i10 car with that information we were sure that they were the criminals.He is a habitual offender and he is a professional robber this time he taught of getting settled he even wanted to do a film and most of his money he spent is on heroines and junior artists and in prostitution he has befriended a junior artist in kollywood and most of the money he has spent in constructing house and buying cars and his addiction of going to Pub and dance bars and was leaving a lavish lifestyle,a team of cops took him under confidence by telling you will still be alive for more 10 years as he has more health issues and it was very necessary for us to make him spill out about the heist where he has kept as he spilled that he has dig a pit and stored it in a hole in a dense forest near the banks of cauvery river.He even said he has planned to loot this jewellery shop three months advance from three months he was planning to loot and this operation was carried in three days it took them 3 days to loot as they drilled the wall of the shop from the gas cutter and gained the entry into the jewellery shop and Murugan was waiting outside the showroom he sent Ganesh and Suresh by tieing a rope in their legs as if anyone comes he can alert them by pulling the rope and with this the masked men entered the showroom and looted the huge booty and then escaped the Trichy police acting on tip off nabbed three person but the main kingpin mastermind accused Murugan was caught and we secured him and recovered the huge booty of jewels from him he added.
Bhaskar Rao,Bengaluru city police commissioner,said,In inter-state matters there will be lots of complications also.Property recovery is risky job extremely risky job if it becomes success we can appreciate if something went wrong then we will be investigating as who has shown negligency in recovery so they have done a commendable job even Home Minister of karnataka Basavaraj Bommai and DG&IGP of karnataka Neelamani N Raju has also appreciated them as a police commissioner I have also appreciated them and we are going to give them good rewards for whatever the good work they have done and this is a very appreciable work they have done and recently we have conducted property parade in other divisions and after which we have returned the same property to the victims by seeking court permission which will help in build up public confidence.But I can only tell you that offence detection is easy and after detecting crimes we should recover the stolen property then produce it to court and after seeking permission from the court we return the property to actual owner which is a very very risky job very very tuf job and any mistakes that takes place here is a very very expensive mistake and at that time no one can spare or rescue them and we only have to stand by them if their efforts are genuine.in Many cases many accused will try to put blame on them by trying to offer them some gifts to settle the matter and with this the accused will blame them in this situation also they have recovered the intact property it is a great challenging job it is a good example of our integrity also their hard work their dedication and they face lot of problems from language barrier recovering the gold as their procedures will be same and they will be thinking why they should not recover and all these all challenges they have faced and brought the intact property of 12 kgs of Gold,Diamonds as well as platinum ornaments this is a biggest recovery which a Bengaluru city police have done so we will be handovering the property to the court along with the offender and the Trichnapali police will get property released and I announce a reward of Rs.2 lakhs to the whole team for their immense efforts and exemplary work done in recovering the property he added.
DCP Southeast,Isha Pant said a team under the supervision of ACP MicoLayout Karibasavana Gowda,Bommanahalli Inspector D.R.Nagaraj and his team who was in search of offenders one team got a vital clues about the accused after analysing CCTV footage the team got credible information about the offender who is a notorious habitual offender who was arrested earlier by Bengaluru city police and was released on bail and then also he continued the same as the team was checking the CCTV footage at the crime scene in HSR layout and Bommanahalli the team gathered evidence and a team was sent to Tamilnadu and search of offender at the same team collected information about Robbery took place as the team was on search the team noticed this accused Murugan the team kept a close watch on him and were behind him as the accused reached Bengaluru in Mayo Hall court to surrender before surrendering as our team was tipped and one team was behind him alerted the court constable about the developments and the same information was passed to senior officers who asked them to secure him before getting produced as soon as he reached to Mayo hall court the court constable Ramachandra was alert at the court and secured him and the inspector and his team rushed to Mayo hall court the team even carried a laptop with them to prepare the arrest procedure to take him in their custody after finishing all the formalities the court sent him to police custody and during the course of investigation the team grilled him who spilled the beans and based on his statement a team headed by Inspector D.R.Nagaraj and his crime team escorted the accused to Perambalur in Trichy to recover the property as the team reached the spot for sometime he was searching the place where he is digged up after identifying it along with Goldsmith’s and eye witnesses we have recovered the 12 Kg of Gold,Diamond and Platinum from the pit where he has stored and based on his statement the cops have recovered intact property from them she even said the team has done major recovery which is one of the biggest case in 1 case and 1 accused in case there is one inter-State criminal by name Murugan he has been arrested by Bommanahalli police and around 12 Kgs Gold,Diamond,and platinum jewellery has been recovered from him.So he has committed this type of crime in various states like Andhra,Tamilnadu and Karnataka.So in this particular case he did a huge Robbery in one of the Jewellery shop in Trichy called Lalithaa jewellers so from him we have recovered 12 kg of intact Jewellery and the recovery was done in quite a movie like passion were he had dug a pit and he had put all the jewellery inside that pit and Bommanahalli police team led by Inspector and his whole team recovered the ornaments intact,and he has almost lot of cases against him in all these three states and he has also done a major robbery in Punjab National Bank in Trichy and in HSR Layout police station of southeast division and Bommanahalli police station so like this he has committed lot of crimes and we have recovered  these 12kgs and he is in our police custody and we will be recovering more from him when asked does he alone commits this offence Isha Pant said,actually he has two of his associates Suresh and Ganesh,in which Suresh is his Sister son and Ganesh is also his relative so three of them they come from Trichy in car in i10 or Tavera and they do such crimes and they go back to Tamilnadu so basically he is from Tamilnadu and he is in Trichy.He has a lot of health issues however he hasn’t stopped his criminal activities.He does not indulge in small crimes he goes after the big ones he travels in cars like i10 and Tavera he has even built a big house in Trichy.Robbery is his profession.The Lalithaa jewellers owner and manger must provide documents to prove that the ornaments belong to them only then can we confirm and return the ornaments we still have a lot to recover we have to follow up with the receivers and recover them he has been involved in several crimes in the past and hence we cannot provide more details about the other cases as of now and we will seek body warrant of other accused from the Court and finally,Home Minister of karnataka,Basavaraj Bommai,DG&IGP of Karnataka,Neelamani N Raju,has appreciated,Police Commissioner, Bhaskar Rao,Addl CP East,S Murugan,DCP,Southeast,Isha Pant,ACP Mico-layout Sub-Division ,kari basavana Gowda,Bommanahalli,PI,D.R.Nagaraj,PSI, Shivappa,ASI,Shivashankar,crime staff as,Ramachandra,Ramalingegowda,Chikkavenkatashetty,Jayprakash,Ramesh,Raghu and others have done a tremendous and exemplary work who has successfully nabbed the notorious dreaded criminal a professional Robber and recovered intact property of 12 kg ornaments worth Rs.5 Crore and the team has arrested the kingpin Murugan and his associates were arrested by Tamilnadu police and with this the Lalithaa Jewellery case has been detected by our team and a reward of Rs. 2 lakh will be given to the team by the Bengaluru Police Commissioner’s office and other suitable reward will be given by the government,she added.

IMF revises India’s growth projection to 6.1 per cent in 2019

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On Sunday, the World Bank in its latest edition of the South Asia Economic Focus said India’s growth rate is projected to fall to 6 per cent in 2019 from 6.9 per cent of 2018.

International Monetary Fund

WASHINGTON: The IMF on Tuesday slashed India’s GDP growth projection for the year 2019 to 6.1 per cent, which is 1.2 per cent down from its April projections.

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) in April said India will grow at 7.3 per cent in 2019.

However, three months later it projected a slower growth rate for India in 2019, a downward revision of 0.3 per cent.

As against India’s real growth rate of 6.8 per cent in 2018, the IMF in its latest World Economic Outlook projected India’s growth rate at 6.1 per cent in 2019 and noted that the Indian economy is expected to pick up the next year at 7.0 per cent in 2020.

On Sunday, the World Bank in its latest edition of the South Asia Economic Focus said India’s growth rate is projected to fall to 6 per cent in 2019 from 6.9 per cent of 2018.

The downward revision relative to the April 2019 WEO of 1.2 percentage points for 2019 and 0.5 percentage point for 2020 reflects a weaker-than-expected outlook for domestic demand, the IMF said.

“Growth will be supported by the lagged effects of monetary policy easing, a reduction in corporate income tax rates, recent measures to address corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty, and government programs to support rural consumption, the IMF said.

China, whose GDP grew at 6.6 per cent in 2018, is now projected to grow at 6.1 per cent in 2019 and 5.8 per cent in 2020, it said.

“India’s economy decelerated further in the second quarter, held back by sector-specific weaknesses in the automobile sector and real estate as well as lingering uncertainty about the health of nonbank financial companies,” said the World Economic Outlook released ahead of the annual meeting of the IMF and the World Bank.

In India, growth softened in 2019 as corporate and environmental regulatory uncertainty, together with concerns about the health of the nonbank financial sector, weighed on demand, it said.

In its report, the IMF said that in India, monetary policy and broad-based structural reforms should be used to address cyclical weakness and strengthen confidence.

A credible fiscal consolidation path is needed to bring down India’s elevated public debt over the medium term.

This should be supported by subsidy-spending rationalisation and tax-base enhancing measures.

Governance of public sector banks and the efficiency of their credit allocation needs strengthening, and the public sector’s role in the financial system needs to be reduced, it said.

Reforms to hiring and dismissal regulations would help incentivize job creation and absorb the country’s large demographic dividend.

Land reforms should also be enhanced to encourage and expedite infrastructure development, the IMF said.

Welfare of farmers is my top priority: Andhra Pradesh CM Jagan Mohan Reddy

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Taking a jibe at previous TDP govt, Andhra CM hails his party for working on pending irrigation projects in the State

NELLORE:  Reiterating that the welfare of farmers remains his government’s priority, Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Tuesday said his government will provide nine-hour power supply to agriculture in the morning time across the state by July next year. Already, 60 per cent of villages being provided with nine hours free power, he said and added the government will spend Rs 1,700 crore to cover the remaining feeders. Jagan Mohan Reddy, who had launched YSR Rythu Bharosa – PM Kisan financial assistance scheme to farmers in Nellore, also said unlike previous TDP government which benefitted contractors in the name of irrigation projects, his government will complete all the pending irrigation projects in the State.

Launching the flagship programme on the eve of World Food Day, Jagan Mohan Reddy played the visuals of the YSRC’s plenary way back in July 2017 where he announced the scheme, and said he had stood by his promise by depositing the investment support amount to farmers directly to their bank accounts. 

“In the plenary held on July 8, 2017, I announced that `50,000 would be given to farmers as investment support in the month of May as Rythu Bharosa and during the 3,648 km padayatra and the subsequent brainstorming with Farmers’ Associations and others, it was improvised further and the quantum of the package was increased to `67,500 and is being paid eight months in advance,’’ Jagan said adding that a farmer will get an additional `17,500 benefit with the enhanced assistance and also by implementing it eight months in advance.

The scheme will benefit 54 lakh farmers, including tenant farmers, and the amount to be paid is split into `4,000 ahead of rabi in October, ` 7,500 before Kharif and `2,000 during Sankranti festival. “The survey done during the previous government was faulty and has recorded 43 lakh farmers. We have screened the data and arrived at the figure of 54 lakh farmer families and the number might go further as the process is still counting,’’ Jagan said. Eligible farmers, including tenant farmers, can register and claim the benefit till November 15. 

On the promise to provide nine-hour free power supply to farmers, Jagan said nearly 60 percent of areas the feeders are good while in the remaining 40 percent there is a need for repairs. “Nine hour power supply is being provided in 60 percent villages and `1,700 crores are sanctioned to upgrade the feeders and by July all farmers will be getting nine-hour free power supply,’’ he assured.

Jagan, on the aspect of Jalayagnam, said that his government will complete all the pending irrigation projects at the earliest unlike the previous government which used the construction of projects to mint money from contractors. Besides Rythu Bharosa cheques, the Chief Minister had also given a cheque towards ex gratia for loss of livestock amounting  `8,25,000.  

Agriculture minister K Kanna Babu, Home minister M Sucharitha, Irrigation minister Dr P Anil Kumar Yadav, IT Minister M Goutham Reddy, TTD Board Chairman Y V Subba Reddy, Nellore MP Adala Prabhakar Reddy, District Collector M V Seshagiri Babu and others were also present.  

Foreigners fined for traffic violations in Gangavathi

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It appears that the police in the district are in no mood to let off traffic violators even if they are foreigners. 

KOPPAL: It appears that the police in the district are in no mood to let off traffic violators even if they are foreigners. On Monday, three foreign nationals were fined Rs 7,000 for breaking traffic rules, including for riding without a helmets, in Gangavati, Koppal district. According to police, the three tourists — David Lee, Eden and Charlie — are from New Zealand. 

The New Zealand tourists hired a bike and visited Virupapura island. Subsequently, they returned to Gangavati. As the traffic police intercepted them and asked for documents, they allegedly mocked the local traffic police by claiming that they have international driving licences.

Gangavati traffic police station PSI Nagaraj said that a case has been booked against the three foreigners for not furnishing relevant records and behaving badly with the police. Police also alleged that one of them provoked the cops by clicking photos during the incident. Meanwhile, police told TNIE on Tuesday that a chargesheet has also been filed in a local court.

India switches to all-oral treatment for drug-resistant TB

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Optimal treatment and new drugs expected to save more lives

By David Bodapati

Bengaluru, 14 Oct 2019: A diminutive middle-aged woman, Pari Yusuf, woke up in the middle of the night and sat down on her bed. Frightening dreams and illusions are not new to her. “Suddenly, I was sweating and found myself in the middle of a huge raging fire. I was shouting for help and had no where to go. I woke up abruptly, and then everything seemed ok in a few minutes,” she said.

“Long back, I used to get these kind of illusions but the intensity seems to be more with the TB drugs,” she recalled. Pari (name changed) is living with HIV for over 15 years and survived drug-resistant Tuberculosis (TB). Later on due to side effects and other opportunistic infections, she literally recovered from her days on the death bed at the government Victoria hospital in Bengaluru, four years back. “These illusions and dreams are a part of the side effects of the drugs I had to take. I used to get these when I started ART (antiretroviral therapy) a decade ago. But now some of the TB drugs too have such side effects,” she explained. “Some of the injected DR-TB durgs can be brutal and can cause complete hearing loss,” she added.

Now Pari, who hails from a rural district in Karnataka, is an activist fighting for the cause of people living with HIV and TB. She fully supports the `TB Harega, Desh Jeetega’ campaign which was launched on Septemeber 25 by the Union Health Minister Harsh Vardhan, who also released the TB India Report 2019 and introduced the all-important, all-oral treatment regimen for Multi-drug resistant TB. But she feels that more needs to be done in terms of providing care after initiation of new drugs and providing access in rural and remote areas.

The Minister announced the roll out of an all-oral MDR regimen across the country based on providing access to one of the two new drugs – Bedaquiline or Delamanid  to replace  the injectable in the treatment regimen. The new all-oral treatment for drug-resistant TB is a welcome development as India. According to WHO’s Global TB Report 2018, the estimated number of DR-TB in India is 135,000, accounting for one-fourth of the global burden.

The all-oral treatment represents hope for people with DR-TB and their caregivers because they offer better cure rates and a fewer side effects. The World Health Organisation’s treatment guidelines prioritise the use of newer drugs as part of all-oral regimens for the treatment of MDR-TB and XDR-TB.

MSF urges more countries to make the switch from older, toxic treatments that need to be injected to all-oral regimens that contain the newer drugs, including bedaquiline and delamanid. “These newer drugs are critical to improving the otherwise abysmal cure rates of 55% and 34% for MDR-TB and XDR-TB, respectively. “Use of the newer TB drugs is also urgently needed for children with MDR-TB in order to improve treatment outcomes and reduce the risks of side effects,” Ms Yusuf says.

Treatment regimens for multidrug-resistant/rifampicin-resistant tuberculosis (MDR/RR-TB) and  extremely drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) have long consisted of toxic drugs, including those that cause psychosis and hearing loss. Treatment outcomes for people with MDR-TB and XDR-TB have remained unacceptably low for many years for numerous reasons, including drug toxicity, lack of new effective drugs, long treatment durations, and failure to put people at the centre of their care. Such treatments had a high pill burden, long treatment duration (of up to two years), painful daily injections (for up to eight months), and severe side effects (due to toxic drugs). The treatment success rates were only 55% for people with MDR TB) and 34% for people with XDR-TB.

A group of people affected by DR TB, and from different health organisation and People Living with HIV have made a representation to the Health Ministry last December to minimise injectible drugs and scale up all-oral new drugs for DR TB. They are happy that finally the government announced the switch to all-oral treatment which can save more lives with optimal treatment. But they feel that scaling up only Bedaquiline will not help and call for including access to Delamanid too, particularly for patients who have pre-XDR and XDR TB. In addition they call for adequate Drug Sensitivity Testing (DST) facilities throughout the country.

The new all-oral DR-TB regimens are a strong step in the right direction but they should be followed up to provide people with safer and more tolerable treatment, improve treatment outcomes and prevent unnecessary deaths. Importantly, the new all-oral regimens can also facilitate an evolution to a model of care that empowers people and supports them to complete treatment with less disruption to their lives. The benefits of implementing the new all-oral long regimen is very clear but having launched the switch, now the government must make a political commitment for sufficient financing, adequate healthcare worker training, policy updates and multi-sectoral engagement. The National programme should also keep in mind the access to treatment and drugs in rural and remote regions as well as guard against stock-outs which have become frequent in many states like Jharkhand and even in cities like Mumbai.

Now that the programme makes a shift to the all-oral treatment regimen to progress to the MDG goal by 2025, two things that need urgent attention are issuing a circular for minimising and removal of injectable from the Programmatic Managment of drug-resistant TB (PMDT), and making greater efforts to scale up universal Drug Susceptibility Testing (DST) as lack of quality assured testing facilities is a major barrier for DR-TB patients to access safer, effective and rational DR-TB regimens. As per CTD India Report 2018, only  257 of the 712 districts undertake DST on TB samples (2018).

Dr Vardhan says, “We are on track to achieve our target of a TB-free India by 2025, much ahead of the global target of 2030.” For that to happen our programme implementation should be made more robust without allowing any complacency to creep in. But the need of the hour is to attack DR TB with full force.

‘Varaha’ arrives at Mangalore port

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Image result for Varaha' arrives at Mangalore port

Mangaluru: Indian Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel (OPV) Varaha, which was commissioned on September 25, arrived at New Mangolore Port on Tuesday.

Coast Guard senior officers Raj Kamal Sinha, Laxmikant Gajibhiye and CISF officer Ashutosh Gaur were present and welcomed the Varaha.

According to a press release, the 98-meter long OPV, which is designed and built indigenously by the L&T, has advanced navigation and communication equipment, sensors and machinery.

Main accused in Murshidabad triple murder case arrested: Police

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Main accused in Murshidabad triple murder case arrested: Police

Kolkata: The police on Tuesday arrested the main accused in the Murshidabad triple murder case for his alleged involvement in the crime, a senior police officer said.

Utpal Behra, a mason by profession, was arrested from Sagardighi’s Sahapur area of the district on Tuesday morning, Murshidabad Superintendent of Police Mukesh Kumar said.

Bandhu Prakash Pal, a 35-year-old teacher, his pregnant wife Beauty and 8-year-old son Angan were found dead in their house at Jiaganj in Murshidabad district on October 8, when Durga Puja festivities were on.

According to police, Behra had paid money to Pal for two life insurance policies.

“Although Pal gave money receipt for the first policy, but he did not give him the receipt for the second policy. For the last few weeks, Pal and Behra used to quarrel over this matter. Pal had even insulted him, following which Behra decided to kill him,” police said.

Behra has confessed to the crime, the police claimed.

Kalburgi: Gulbarga University VC cancels Kanhaiya Kumar’s lecture

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Kalburgi: Gulbaraga University VC cancels Kanhaiya Kumar's lecture

Kalburgi: Vice-Chancellor Parimala Ambedkar Tuesday cancelled Kanhaiah Kumar’s lecture, which was schedule to be held at Dr BR Ambedkar Research and Study Center at Gulbarga University.

“The lecture has been cancelled following an oral instruction from the higher education department,” she said. Section 144 has been imposed surrounding Dr BR Ambedkar Auditorium.

Former President of the Jawaharlal Nehru University Students Union Kanhaiya Kumar was scheduled to deliver a lecture at 11 am here. But as per the latest development in the morning, restrictions have been imposed on the programme.

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