Archives for 2022

KALABURAGI: Primary and Secondary Education Minister BC Nagesh said students have to appear for SSLC exams and answer questions this year as there will be no “Corona Pass” — a reference to students being passed without exams because of the raging COVID pandemic last year.

Nagesh said that as per his information, almost all schools in the State have completed 70 per cent of the syllabus, while 30 per cent has been reduced to help students. “Experts are of the opinion that COVID will drastically come down in the last week of February or in the first week of March, while SSLC exams will take place in the last week March to April 11. Let us see the situation at that time,” he added.

On the delay in issuing appointment orders to guest teachers for high schools, he said that the orders were issued on November 1 last year. But the orders were there since the beginning of the academic year. For 2022-23, they will be issued at the beginning of the academic year, he added.

On transfer of teachers at the end of the academic year, he said that some teachers had gone to court about two to three years ago, and the court disposed of the case only a few months back. Once the order was out, teachers started asking for transfers. “We have to respect the court order and genuine demands of teachers. Though we started the transfer process, we did not move teachers from areas where there was an acute shortage,” he clarified.

CHANDIGARH: Punjab Chief Minister Charanjit Singh Channi on Friday said he would file a defamation case against Delhi Chief Minister and AAP national convenor Arvind Kejriwal for defaming him with reference to the recent raids by the Enforcement Directorate in the state including at his nephew’s residence.

“I will file a defamation case against Kejriwal and have requested my party to give permission  to do so. I am compelled to do this he is dubbing me as dishonest and he has put that on his Twitter handle,’’ he said.

Channi said that following the ED raids, Kejriwal had posted his picture on Facebook showing him sitting with currency notes. 

The Punjab CM said, “He is calling me dishonest. But did he call himself dishonest when his nephew was caught. Why photos of bundles of notes with my photos are circulated on social media accounts? There was a raid at ten places in Punjab, but why are you linking me to this? Had money been seized from me, the ED would have conducted raids at my house, arrested me and questioned me.’’

Questioning the source of AAP’s funds Channi claimed that AAP had installed hoardings worth Rs 200 crore in Punjab. On January 18, around Rs 10 crore was recovered by the Enforcement Directorate during raids on various places in Punjab, including the residence of Channi’s nephew. 

NEW DELHI: India added 3,37,704 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,89,03,731, which includes 10,050 cases of the Omicron variant, according to Union health ministry data updated on Saturday.

There has been a 3.69 per cent increase in Omicron cases since Friday, the ministry said.

The active cases comprise 5.43 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has decreased to 93.31 per cent, the ministry said.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 17.22 per cent while the weekly positivity rate was recorded at 16.65 per cent.

The data stated that 71.34 crore tests have been conducted so far and 19,60,954 tests were conducted in the last 24 hours.

So far, 161.16 crore COVID-19 vaccine doses have been administered, it said India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19, 2020.

India crossed two crore cases on May 4 and three crore cases on June 23 last year.

The 488 new fatalities include 106 from Kerala, 52 from Maharashtra, 38 from Delhi and 35 from West Bengal.

A total of 4,88,884 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,42,023 from Maharashtra, 51,607 from Kerala, 38,537 from Karnataka, 37,145 from Tamil Nadu, 25,541 from Delhi, 23,022 from Uttar Pradesh and 20,265 from West Bengal.

The ministry said that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

NEW DELHI: In an attempt to make inroads into the minority vote bank in poll-bound Uttar Pradesh, the BJP is trying to win the support of Muslim women.

The saffron party is reaching out to Muslim women who benefitted from the Narendra Modi’s government welfare schemes along with decision to ban the practice of instant triple talaq.

Muslims constitute little less than 20 per cent of Uttar Pradesh’s total population while other minorities form around 1 per cent of the state’s population.

Muslims play a decisive role in many Assembly seats in the state. The BJP Minority Morcha has identified 40 Assembly seats in Uttar Pradesh having 60-70 per cent minority population and 100 Assembly seats having 30 per cent minority population in the state.

BJP Minority Morcha national media in-charge, Syed Yasir Jilani, told IANS that Muslim women who benefitted from the welfare schemes of the Modi government are coming out in support of the BJP and the Prime Minister.

“After seeing the overwhelming support of Muslim women for Prime Minister Modi, we have decided to reaching out to these women. We are preparing a list of Muslim women beneficiaries to reach out to the families seeking support for the BJP ahead of the Assembly polls,” Jilani said.

Jilani, who is helping the local unit in Sambhal district along with other party leaders from the national capital, claimed that Muslim women are listing a series of government initiatives which have benefitted them.

“Muslim women are defying their male family members and supporting Prime Minister Modi and the BJP. They are saying that their family benefitted from PM Awas Yojna, PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana, which provided free ration, Ujjwala Yojana and other beneficiary schemes of the Centre. These women are openly supporting Modi. They are also thanking the Prime Minister for banning instant triple talaq,” Jilani claimed.

To convert the support of the Muslim women into votes, the BJP Minority Morcha is now planning to reach out to these women in small groups of four to five workers. The BJP workers will explain to these women the benefits of government schemes, initiated both by the Centre and the Yogi Adityanath government in Uttar Pradesh.

“We also explain how our political rivals are misleading them by creating a fear in the community about the BJP,” he said.

Panaji: The name of Utpal Parrikar, son of former Goa chief minister late Manohar Parrikar, did not figure in the BJP’s list of 34 candidates that it announced on Thursday for the upcoming state assembly polls, although he had sought party’s candidature from the Panaji constituency.

The party said that although Utpal Parrikar was given four other options, he did not accept any of them.

Of the 34 nominees of the BJP, 16 are those who are currently not part of the ruling party’s legislative wing.

The BJP announced the list of candidates in Delhi for the February 14 Goa assembly elections, as per which Chief Minister Pramod Sawant will again be the party’s candidate from Sanquelim constituency.

While refusing to give a ticket to Utpal Parrikar from the Panaji constituency, which his father had represented for over two decades, the BJP nominated from that seat party’s sitting MLA Atanasio Monserrate, one of the 10 legislators, who had joined the saffron party in July 2019 after quitting the Congress.

BJP’s Goa election in-charge Devendra Fadnavis said that Utpal Parrikar is part of the BJP family and was given four other options (other than Panaji seat), which he did not accept. Fadnavis, however, did not specify the options.

Sitting Goa ministers Deepak Pauskar (Sanvordem) and Philip Neri Rodrigues (Velim) and MLA Isidore Fernandes (Canacona) also did not figure in the list of candidates. Pauskar was caught in a controversy after Monserratte accused him of selling out jobs in his Public Works Department (PWD).

The party has withheld the names of candidates for six assembly constituencies – Cumbharjua, Bicholim, Curtorim, St Cruz, Calangute and Cortalim.

Interestingly, Monserrate and his wife Jeniffer, who is IT Minister in the Pramod Sawant-led cabinet at present, and Vishwajit Rane, who is Health Minister, and his wife Divya Rane, a new face, are the two husband-wife duos who have been nominated by the party. They are the only two women candidates, which figure in the first list of the party.

Deputy Chief Minister Manohar Ajgaonkar, who was elected from Pernem assembly segment in 2017 on the Maharashtrawadi Gomantak Party (MGP) ticket before shifting to the BJP in July 2019 has been given ticket from Margao constituency.

Ajgaonkar would be pitted against Congress’ Digambar Kamat, who is currently the leader of Opposition.

Elections for the 40-member Goa Assembly will be held in single phase on February 14.

With the entry of the Aam Aadmi Party (AAP) and the Trinamool Congress (TMC) in the poll arena, the election is expected to be a multi-cornered one this time.

Parmesh S jain

A communication bridge between People and Govt: CM Bommai

Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai who launched a website providing information about central and state government programmes has said that it should work as a communication bridge between the people and government.

Speaking after virtually releasing a book on skills development,self employment and employment registration in Mysuru and launching a website providing details about central and state government programmes,Bommai said the website would enable the people to get detailed information on government programmes,their purpose and utility.

Providing public welfare programmes to every strata of the society under one roof is the long term vision of Prime Minister Narendra Modi.

The new book contains guidelines to avail the benefit of the programmes. The book would function like an encyclopedia in taking the state government’s welfare programmes to the people. It would be a good guide for administrators and people, Bommai said.

The Chief Minister lauded the effort of MLA SA Ramdas who has brought out the book with a noble purpose of creating an awareness among the people on various government schemes.