Archives for June 2021

New Delhi: Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath called on Prime Minister Narendra Modi here on Friday. Adityanath met Modi at his residence, a day after meeting Union Home Minister Amit Shah.

The chief minister, who is on a two-day visit to the national capital from Thursday to meet the BJP top brass, is also scheduled to meet party president JP Nadda in the afternoon.

His visit comes close on the heels of the party holding a series of review meetings in Lucknow, which had fuelled speculation of a ministerial reshuffle in the state.

During his meeting with Shah, Adityanath presented a copy of the report ‘Solution of Migrant Crisis’. His visit to the national capital started a day after Jitin Prasada quit the Congress and joined the BJP.

After Adityanath met Shah, Prasada called on the Uttar Pradesh chief minister here.

BJP MLC A K Sharma, a former IAS officer who is seen as a trusted hand of Modi, is also in Delhi to meet party leaders and allies.

Though there is no official word on whether there will be a Cabinet expansion in Uttar Pradesh, sources said Prasada, who comes from a noted Brahmin family of the state with political heft, and Sharma may be accommodated in such an eventuality.

BJP’s general secretary (organisation) B L Santhosh had earlier this month visited the state to review the party’s preparations for the assembly elections and held meetings with key ministers and organisation leaders.

Senior BJP leader Radha Mohan Singh, who is in-charge of the party’s affairs in Uttar Pradesh, had also visited the state.

Dehradun: Yoga guru Ramdev, who had said he does not need the Covid vaccine as he has protection of yoga and ayurveda, on Thursday did a somersault, saying he will soon get the jab and described doctors as “God’s envoys on earth”.

Ramdev had earlier stirred a controversy with his comments on the efficacy of allopathic drugs against COVID-19, drawing the ire of the medical fraternity.

Now, welcoming Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s announcement about free vaccine to all from June 21, Ramdev described it as a “historic” step and appealed to all to get themselves vaccinated.

“Get both doses of the vaccine and the double protection of yoga and ayurveda. They will combine to give you such a robust shield of protection that not a single person will die from Covid,” he told reporters in Haridwar.

Asked when he will get the vaccine shot, the yoga guru said, “Very soon.”

Ramdev also heaped praise on good allopathic doctors, describing them as “God’s envoys on earth”.

On the ongoing confrontation with the Indian Medical Association (IMA), Ramdev said he cannot have any animosity with any organisation.

All he was against the exploitation of people in the name of medicines, he said.

Ramdev said Pradhan Mantri Jan Aushadhi Kendras had to be opened because of the tendency among many doctors to prescribe expensive medicines in place of generic drugs, which are much cheaper.

“I am not against any organisation. Good doctors are a real boon. They are God’s envoys on earth. But individual doctors can do wrong things,” he said.

He also said for emergency treatment and surgery, allopathy is the best.

“When it comes to emergency treatment and surgery, allopathy is the best. There cannot be two opinions about it,” said the yoga guru who had caused so much anger among doctors by his recent remarks against allopathy.

NEW DELHI: Fifteen National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) teams have been positioned in various parts of Maharashtra in view of the prediction of heavy rains in certain parts of the state, the force chief said on Thursday.

He said the teams are being pre-deployed or positioned at these locations on the request of the state government that acted in response to the prediction of heavy rains made by the India Metrological Department (IMD).

An NDRF team usually has 47 personnel and they are equipped with inflatable boats, wood and pole cutters and basic first aid kits to rescue rains and floods affected victims and launch relief operations.

Heavy rains lashed Mumbai and its suburbs on Wednesday, causing flooding on roads and rail tracks and disrupting suburban train services as the south-west monsoon arrived in the city.

The weather department also issued a ‘red alert’ for Mumbai, neighbouring Thane, Palghar and Raigad districts, warning of very heavy to extremely heavy rainfall at isolated places there.

NEW DELHI: The Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) has decided to commence interviews for civil services examination 2020, which were deferred due to a surge in COVID-19 cases, from August 2, according to an official statement.

The civil services examination is conducted annually by the UPSC in three stages — preliminary, main and personality test (interview) — to select officers of the Indian Administrative Service (IAS), Indian Foreign Service (IFS) and the Indian Police Service (IPS), among others.

It had in April this year deferred interviews for the prestigious examination due to increase in coronavirus cases.

“After reviewing the situation, the Commission has decided to commence the personality test of the civil services examination, 2020 from 02.08.2021,” according to the statement issued by the UPSC.

The e-summon letters of personality tests (Interviews) of the candidates will be made available shortly, which may be downloaded from the Commission’s website www.upsc.gov.in and www.upsconline.in, it said.

“No request for change in the date and time of the personality test (interview) intimated to the candidates will ordinarily be entertained,” the Commission said.

On the basis of the results of the civil services (main) examination, 2020 declared by the UPSC on March 23 this year, the Commission decided to commence the personality tests (interviews) of the civil services (main) examination, 2020 from April 26.

“However, due to unprecedented growth in the number of people infected with novel coronavirus (COVID-19) countrywide, as a precautionary measure, the Union Public Service Commission deferred the personality test of the civil services examination 2020, which were scheduled to commence with effect from 26.04.2020,” the statement said.