Archives for March 2022

NAGPUR: BJP leader Devendra Fadnavis on Thursday expressed confidence that the party will come to power in Maharashtra on its own.

The former Maharashtra chief minister, who was the BJP’s in-charge for Goa Assembly elections, was greeted by party workers after arrival here earlier in the day.

The BJP retained power in Goa by winning 20 out of 40 seats.

Fadnavis proceeded to senior BJP leader Nitin Gadkari’s residence from the airport and took his blessings.

Later, speaking at a party function where he was felicitated, Fadnavis said there was a “wave of change” in Maharashtra too.

False cases were being registered against BJP leaders in the state, he alleged.

“I want to tell the Maha Vikas Aghadi (coalition) government that we will not stop speaking out against your corruption irrespective of how many cases you file against us,” he said.

“The BJP will come to power in the next Assembly as well as municipal corporation and zilla parishad elections in Maharashtra on its own,” he added.

The saffron party’s alliance with the Shiv Sena ended in 2019 after which the latter joined hands with NCP and Congress to form government in Maharashtra.

The victory in Goa was the result of teamwork and people’s faith in Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s leadership, Fadnavis said.

The BJP would not need anyone’s support to form government in Goa but it welcomed those who extended support to it, he said.

Every vote the party got in Goa, Uttar Pradesh, Manipur and Uttarakhand was for development and faith in Modi, Fadnavis said.

“We have seen development reaching every corner of the country and government welfare schemes reaching every house. Modi served people during COVID-19 lockdown and did not let anyone starve, he also served people by implementing vaccination programme. Even recently, 20,000 Indians were safely evacuated from Ukraine,” he said.

Fadnavis also lauded the development work carried out by Gadkari, the Union Minister for Road Transport and Highways, who was present at the function.

NEW DELHI: AAP government eradicated corruption in the national capital and now Bhagwant Mann and his ministers will repeat it in Punjab, said AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal on Thursday.

Next time, if someone asks you for a bribe, don’t refuse. Just take out your phone and record the incident and share it on the number that will be released. It will be his (Mann’s) personal WhatsApp number. We will initiate strict action against that official,” Kejriwal said during an online briefing. 

The AAP chief recalled he had done something similar in his first stint in Delhi that lasted 49 days. “When I had formed the government for the first time, I had also issued a WhatsApp number and during those 49 days, we took action against 30-32 officials by sending them to jail. Corruption was eradicated in Delhi and the phone became the biggest weapon of empowerment of the public,” he said.

Kejriwal claimed that the prime minister later issued an order and took away the Anti-Corruption Branch from the AAP dispensation. “It’s been 75 years since we gained independence but we still have to pay bribes. All parties have indulged in corruption,” he said.

NEW Citing the resurgence of coronavirus cases in southeast Asia and parts of Europe, the Centre has asked the states to restart monitoring influenza-like illness and severe acute respiratory infections so that no early warning signals are missed and Covid is controlled.

Testing for influenza-like illness (ILI) and severe acute respiratory infections (SARI) cases has been the pillars of Covid management for the government.

However, the testings were stopped recently as India has been recording a steady decline in COVID-19 cases.

As part of intensified surveillance, patients being hospitalised with ILI and SARI will again be tested for COVID-19 and positive samples will be sent for genome sequencing.

In a letter, Union Health Secretary Rajesh Bhushan has asked all states and Union Territories to ensure an adequate number of samples are submitted to the INSACOG network for timely detection of new Covid variants.

He also stressed on maintaining testing according to protocols, observing all precautions and not letting the guard down while resuming economic and social activities.

“Effective surveillance by monitoring of emerging clusters of new cases, if any, testing as per norms and monitoring of ILI and SARI cases shall be taken up on a continued basis to ensure no early warning signals are missed and spread of infection can be controlled,” Bhushan said in the letter.

He further said the state machinery should create required awareness and ensure adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour and practise effective hand and respiratory hygiene.

With a spike in COVID-19 cases across Southeast Asia and some countries of Europe, a high-level meeting was chaired by Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya on March 16 where the states were advised to focus on aggressive genome sequencing, intensified surveillance and overall vigil on the Covid situation, Bhushan said in the letter.

He also emphasised continued focus on the five-fold strategy of test, track, treat and vaccination and adherence to Covid-appropriate behaviour.

“All the states and Union Territories must observe all precautions and not let the guard down while resuming economic and social activities,” Bhushan stated.

“It is also vital that states may ensure all eligible people are motivated to get vaccinated against COVID-19 as per the recent expansion of vaccination drive,” he added.

KYIV: Ukrainian actress Oksana Shvets has been killed in a Russian rocket attack on a residential building in Kyiv.

Confirming the demise of Oksana, her troupe, the Young Theater, issued a statement that read, “During the rocket shelling of a residential building in Kyiv, a well-deserved artist of Ukraine Oksana Shvets was killed.”

As per The Hollywood Reporter, Oksana was 67. She had been awarded one of Ukraine’s highest artistic honors, the title of which roughly translates as ‘Honored Artist of Ukraine’.

On February 24, Russia began a military operation in Ukraine, responding to calls for help from the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in countering the aggression of Ukrainian troops.

The Russian Defense Ministry said the special operation is targeting Ukrainian military infrastructure only. According to the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, almost 600 civilians have been killed and more than 1,000 injured in Ukraine since the start of the conflict. 

Congress MP from Virudhunagar, Manickam Tagore accused Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai, without taking his name, of trying to communalise the recent death of minors in Madurai, Thanjavur.

In the Lok Sabha, Manickam Tagore said, “Tamil Nadu has always been a state which is very peaceful and (maintained) communal harmony and faith. But for the past few years, there is a new kind of politics called ‘dead body politics’ has started in Tamil Nadu. And particularly there is a retired IPS officer (Tamil Nadu BJP chief Annamalai) who has come to Tamil Nadu from Karnataka. His work is to create tension with each death of young kids who commit suicide. He connects (these incidents) with minority communities, Christians and Muslims. They create a lot of nuisance and try to divide the society, spread lot of wrong information about the death of the kid. He is putting a lot of divisions in society. It has happened in Madurai, Thanjavur.

Manickam Tagore also requested PM Narendra Modi’s intervention and asked him to advise his party men to not indulge in cheap politics.

I request through you (Rajendra Agrawal) sir  that the Honourable Prime Minister (Narendra Modi) should intervene and ask his party men not to do these kinds of cheap politics.”

The speech of Manickam Tagore went viral on social media, following which BJP leader Annamalai on Twitter claimed that Congress which is getting extinct from the country wants to waste the time of PM Narendra Modi.

He wrote, “Very funny to see one Honourable MP from Tamil Nadu complaining about Tamil Nadu BJP and me in the Parliament today. Congres which is getting extinct from our country now wants to waste Honourable PM Narendra Modi’s precious time by complaining to the Honourable Speaker. Hope they grow up soon!”