Archives for November 2021

KOLKATA: West Bengal BJP president Sukanta Majumder has said his party will aim at winning at least 25 Lok Sabha seats in the state in the 2024 general election.

Majumder, after attending a BJP meeting, told reporters on Sunday that the saffron party has coined the slogan ‘Ebar 25 paar’ (we will cross 25 this time) keeping in mind the Parliamentary election.

“Twenty five is our minimum target in the next Lok Sabha polls from West Bengal. From 18 seats at present, we will gift at least 25 seats to (Prime Minister) Narendra Modi in 2024, he asserted.

The BJP clinched 18 Lok Sabha seats in West Bengal in 2019, 16 more than it had managed in the 2014 elections.

Reacting to Majumder’s assertion, veteran Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy said the BJP leader’s claims show that he is inexperienced and has no idea of the ground reality.

“The BJP got 77 seats in the assembly polls, but with many of its MLAs having joined the TMC, the tally is effectively 70 now. By any arithmetic, the saffron party will not secure more than 10-11 seats in the Lok Sabha polls,” Roy said.

Meanwhile, the saffron party’s national vice-president Dilip Ghosh warned that the “agents who are still damaging the prospects of the BJP from within” will be thrown out.

Ghosh had earlier in the day said the BJP made a mistake by inducting a person like Rajib Bandyopadhyay in its fold.

In an explosive Facebook post the former BJP state president said, “Many agents had entered into our party before the assembly polls. Many of them have already left while others still remain and sabotaging the party.”

“They don’t want the BJP to become stronger. We will throw each of them out,” Ghosh further said.

While he did not name anyone, Trinamool Congress MP Sougata Roy wondered if “Dilip Ghosh is at all taken seriously by his party considering he had been stripped off his post as state unit president and given a non-functioning post by the central leadership.”

TMC state spokesman Kunal Ghosh said, “We don’t know if Dilip Ghosh is referring to Suvendu Adhikari as an agent. But the Facebook post reveals the growing feud within the BJP which is falling like a pack of cards.”

Bandyopadhyay returned to Trinamool from the BJP at a public meeting of Abhishek Banerjee in Agartala on Sunday and said he was repentant for crossing over to the BJP nine months back.

JAMSHEDPUR: Raising concern over “rising” rape and murder cases in Jharkhand, the BJP on Sunday, October 31, 2021, BJP leader Raghubar Das accused the Hemant Soren government of being insensitive towards women security.

Addressing a meeting of the BJP Mahila Morcha Jamshedpur Mahanagar Committee, Raghubar Das, the party’s national vice president, said at least 2,725 women were raped and 2,961 people murdered during the 19-month rule of the grand alliance government in the state.

“The government has not been serious about the women security in the state. Incidents of oppression and rape of Adivasi girls have gone up, which is a sign of deteriorating law and order situation,” Das, the former chief minister of Jharkhand, said.

He also alleged that the JMM and Congress failed to fulfil their poll promises after forming the government.

“They (JMM-Congress) made several promises to women during the elections but forgot everything soon after they came to power,” Das said.

He appreciated the party’s women workers for their services during the Covid-induced lockdown.

Menaka Sardar, former BJP MLA from Potka, said that “no concrete action” was initiated by the chief minister to curb the “increasing atrocities on women in the state”.

BENGALURU: With Covid-19 cases at a low in the capital, BBMP has instructed its staff to take up focused testing of patients suspected to have caught the virus, to keep a tab on any possible surge. “We have asked teams to visit private health clinics and conduct Covid-19 tests on patients suffering from symptoms of Influenza Like Illness (ILI) and Severe Acute Respiratory Infection (SARI). Usually, these cases report to smaller clinics first and if we test them, we get to know of any Covid-19 prevalence,” said Thrilok Chandra, Special Commissioner (Health) BBMP. 

“Here the sewage is all mixed up so we have asked the staff to test drainage samples at the ward level, to get clarity on local viral load. This will help us intensify surveillance as even asymptomatic patients can shed the virus,” Thrilok added. 

As per BBMP War Room data, Doddanekundi, Bellandur, Begur, Hoodi, Rajarajeshwari Nagar, Varthur, New Thippasandra, Horamavu, HSR Layout and Vasanthpura are reporting the highest number of positive cases in the past 10 days. There are 57 active containment zones and 1,224 others have been deactivated in all eight zones of the city. Till date, BBMP has conducted 2.12 crore (2,12,80,217) Covid-19 tests. Daily tests range between 36,000 and 52,000.

Nodal officers at public offices
Every public office has been ordered to designate a nodal officer to enforce and ensure compliance of Covid-19 Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) of officials and staff during working hours. The order issued by the Chief Secretary and Chairman, State Executive Committee, State Disaster Management Authority, stated that any serious and repeated non-compliance even after adequate awareness, shall attract penalty under the Disaster Management Act, 2005. 

GLASGOW: Prime Minister Narendra Modi will be presenting the formal position on India’s climate action agenda and lay out the best practices and achievements in the sector at the COP26 summit in Glasgow on Monday.

“Landed in Glasgow. Will be joining the COP26 Summit, where I look forward to working with other world leaders on mitigating climate change and articulating India’s efforts in this regard,” Modi said on Twitter soon after he landed here from the G20 Summit in Rome on Sunday night.

Modi was received to the notes of Scottish bagpipes as he arrived at his hotel in Glasgow, where he was greeted by a large group of Indian diaspora representatives with chants of “Bharat Mata Ki Jai”.

On Monday morning, he is scheduled to hold a meet and greet with around 45 Indian diaspora representatives from Glasgow and Edinburgh, including prominent medics, academics and business people.

He will also meet the Indian winner of Prince William’s Earthshot Prize, Delhi-based recycling firm Takachar founder Vidyut Mohan, and 14-year-old prize finalist from Tamil Nadu Vinisha Umashankar, inventor of a solar-powered ironing cart.

He will then proceed for the opening ceremony of day one of the World Leaders’ Summit of the 26th Conference of Parties (COP26) to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), being held at the Scottish Event Campus (SEC) in Glasgow.

Modi’s bilateral meeting with his British counterpart Boris Johnson is expected to take place soon after Monday’s opening ceremony, which will include cultural performances and a speech by Johnson.

Johnson has said the summit will be the ”world’s moment of truth” and has urged world leaders to make the most of it.

”The question everyone is asking is whether we seize this moment or let it slip away,” he said, ahead of the two-week conference.

According to official sources, the Johnson-Modi talks are expected to be quite brief and will focus on the UK-India climate partnership as well as a stock-take of the 2030 Roadmap for stronger UK-India Strategic Partnership – signed by the two leaders during a virtual summit in May this year.

Modi is expected to reiterate his invitation for Johnson to visit India.

“Both governments remain committed to the implementation of the Roadmap, within prescribed timelines. Accordingly, we are looking to launch negotiations in November 2021 for an Interim Agreement to be signed in March 2022 and eventually a comprehensive agreement, if all goes according to schedule, by November 2022,” India’s High Commissioner to the UK, Gaitri Issar Kumar, said ahead of the prime ministerial talks.

It would be the first in-person meeting between Modi and Johnson following the latter’s twice cancelled visit to India earlier this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The bilateral meeting will be followed by a leader-level COP26 event entitled Action and Solidarity: The Critical Decade, for which the UK has extended a special invitation for Modi to deliver an address on the subject of ”adaptation”.

“India is among the top countries in the world in terms of installed renewable energy, wind and solar energy capacity. At the WLS, I will share India’s excellent track record on climate action and our achievements,” Modi said in a statement ahead of the summit.

“I will also highlight the need to comprehensively address climate change issues including equitable distribution of carbon space, support for mitigation and adaptation and resilience building measures, mobilisation of finance, technology transfer and importance of sustainable lifestyles for green and inclusive growth,” he said.

At the end of day one of the World Leaders’ Summit on Monday, Modi will join more than 120 Heads of Government and Heads of State at a special VVIP reception at Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum – one of Scotland’s most popular visitor attractions.

The reception will also involve members of the royal family, including Prince Charles and wife Camilla and Prince William and wife Kate Middleton. Queen Elizabeth II was due to attend this special reception but pulled out last week after a medical advice against travel.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson will tell world leaders at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow on Monday as he commits to increase the UK’s climate finance by GBP 1 billion by 2025.

In an address at the World Leaders Summit opening ceremony, to be attended by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Johnson will urge all countries to take concrete steps on phasing out coal, accelerate the transition to electric vehicles, and halt deforestation, as well as supporting developing nations on the frontline of the climate crisis with climate finance.

These actions will be highlighted as making the biggest difference in reducing emissions this decade on the world’s path to net zero and keeping alive the global aim of limiting rising temperatures to 1.5 Celsius under the Paris Agreement.

“Humanity has long since run down the clock on climate change. It’s one minute to midnight and we need to act now,” Johnson will say in his address to the summit.

“If we don’t get serious about climate change today, it will be too late for our children to do so tomorrow,” he will say.

The UK claims to be leading by example by doubling its International Climate Finance commitment to GBP 11.6 billion over five years in 2019, and Johnson’s announcement on Monday would take this to a “world-leading” GBP 12.6 billion by 2025, if the UK economy grows as forecast.

“We have to move from talk and debate and discussion to concerted, real-world action on coal, cars, cash and trees. Not more hopes and targets and aspirations, valuable though they are, but clear commitments and concrete timetables for change. We need to get real about climate change and the world needs to know when that’s going to happen,” Johnson will say.

The UK’s International Climate Finance is drawn from the overseas aid budget which, as set out in the UK’s Spending Review announced earlier this week, is forecast to return to 0.7 per cent of Gross National Income (GNI) in 2024-25.

The funds are ear-marked for life-changing programmes around the world, shoring up the defences of communities on the frontline of climate change, protecting nature and biodiversity, and supporting the global transition to clean and green energy.

Later on Monday, day one of the World Leaders’ Summit, Boris Johnson will use the UK’s presidency of COP26 to bring round one table some of the world’s biggest economies with the countries most vulnerable to climate change to hear what is at stake for countries if action is not taken now and set the tone for two weeks of negotiations to come.

The COP26 climate summit comes six years after the Paris Agreement was signed by over 190 countries to limit rising global temperatures to well below 2C with a view of reaching 1.5C.

According to the UN, global temperatures are currently set to rise to 2.7C.

Scientists are clear that emissions must halve by 2030 to keep the aims made in Paris within reach.

The UK lists its climate action targets as one of the “most ambitious”, to cut emissions by at 68 per cent by 2030 as part of its Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC), which was the highest reduction target made by a major economy.

In another round of reshuffle,the state government transfred Isha pant,DCP,command centre,is among the six IPS officers to different postings.

The government on Saturday has transferred some IPS officers of 2011 to 2016 batches in the state.

While Isha Pant has been posted As SP, Kalaburgi as the existing SP,Simi Mariyam George has been transferred and posted as Deputy Director, Karnataka Police Academy,Mysuru.

Simi Mariam George has replaced incumbent Deputy Director of the Police Academy at Mysuru, Suman D Penneker, who has been transferred and posted as SP, Uttara Kannada district. Shiv Prakash Devaraju, who was SP, Dakshina Kannada, is posted as SP, Gadag replacing incumbent SP Yatish N who has been posted as SP, Mandya