New Delhi: As many as 4,844 foreigners were granted the Indian citizenship in the last five years under the Citizenship Act 1955, Union Minister Nityanand Rai said in Lok Sabha on Tuesday.

Rai, the Union Minister of State for Home, said 1,773 foreigners were granted the Indian citizenship in 2021, 639 in 2020, 987 in 2019, 628 in 2018 and 817 in 2017.

The Indian citizenship is governed under the provisions of the Citizenship Act 1955, he said in a written reply to a question.

Baghpat {UP}: A local trader allegedly attempted suicide on Facebook Live, accusing Prime Minister Narendra Modi for his poor financial condition. His wife, who also consumed poison, died.

Superintendent of Police, Neeraj Kumar Jadaun, confirmed the incident on Wednesday and said the condition of Rajiv Tomar (40), who ran a shoe-shop, is serious.

The incident took place on Tuesday when Rajiv started a Facebook Live during which he consumed poison.

After failing to stop her husband, Tomar’s wife, Poonam, also consumed poison.

Both of them were rushed to a private hospital where Poonam died, while the trader’s condition was stated to be critical, police said.

In the purported video, Rajiv held PM Modi responsible for his financial condition.

“Modiji will be responsible for my death. If Modi ji has any shame, he will change things. I am not saying he is wrong on everything but he is not a well-wisher (‘hitaishi’) of small traders and farmers,” he said.

When Poonam tried to stop him, Tomar said, “Government to sunti nahi tum hi sun lo” (the government doesn’t hear us, at least you should hear).

Poonam tried to take out the poison from Tomar’s mouth but after failing to do so, she also consumed it, the purported video showed.

Rajiv was a resident of Subhash Nagar.

Rajiv ran a shoe shop and the lockdown in 2020 had ruined his business, his family members said.

A large number of shoes in his shop were damaged as the shop was closed for the long period, they said.

He also had taken loans which he could not pay off, they said, adding that Rajiv had two sons.

Condoling the death, Congress general secretary Priyanka Gandhi Vadra said on Twitter, “It’s saddening to know about the suicide attempt by a trader and his wife. While the wife has died, his condition is serious and I pray to God for Rajivji’s speedy recovery.”

At a press conference in Lucknow on Wednesday, Priyanka said, “The Baghpat incident is saddening. Demonetisation, GST and lockdown had affected small and medium businessmen. It’s unfortunate that the government has not come for their help.”

SUJANPUR: SAD chief Sukhbir Singh Badal on Wednesday said AAP national convener Arvind Kejriwal has no right to ask for votes in Punjab as he did not visit the state for a major period of the past five years.

Asserting that Kejriwal was trying to “deceive Punjabis yet again”, Badal said, “You have already suffered by trusting the false oaths taken by former chief minister Amarinder Singh. Now, a party of outsiders is trying to sway you by asking you to give it one chance.”

“I ask AAP why Punjabis should trust AAP. Its convener came to Punjab five years back and his party even won 20 seats to emerge as the principal opposition party in the state. However, instead of raising the voice of people, 11 of its 20 legislators joined the Congress,” he said.

Badal said Kejriwal “ditched” Punjabis like Amarinder Singh, according to a party statement.

“The AAP leader did not even come to Punjab more than once a year before the start of the election process. He did not care to send any medicines to Punjab as chief minister of Delhi. He did not even visit the state during the Covid pandemic. How can you trust him to stand by you in case you give him a chance and elect AAP to power,” Badal asked.

Urging Punjabis to reject outsiders, the SAD president said the SAD-BSP alliance alone represented the regional aspirations of people.

He said Punjabis across the country and even the world looked up to the SAD to resolve their grievances.

“We have successfully resolved problems being faced by Punjabis across the world,” he said.

Badal said erstwhile SAD-led governments had a time-tested track record.

“We made Punjab power surplus. We are also responsible for bringing in world-class road and air connectivity to Punjab. We introduced unique initiatives like free power to farmers which is not being offered to farmers anywhere else in the country,” he said.

“We also brought in social welfare schemes like old-age pension, ‘atta-daal’ and Shagun Schemes, which have helped weaker sections of society to stand up on their feet,” he said.

CHENNAI: The overall sero-prevalence in Tamil Nadu among the people over and above the age of 18 has increased to 87 per cent in December 2021, the Health Department said on Wednesday.

According to the data shared by the Health Department, the sero-prevalence which was at 32 per cent in November 2020 (first sero survey) dropped to 29 per cent in April 2021 (second sero survey) and again surged to 70 per cent in August 2021 (third sero survey).

“In December 2021, it grew to 87 per cent,” the findings said.

A 30-member team was formed into 1,076 groups which examined 32, 245 people in rural and urban areas for the study.

Accordingly, the sero-prevalence among the people aged above 18 grew to 87 per cent, it said.

However, the study revealed those individuals between the age of 11 and 18 and the unvaccinated had just 68 per cent of sero-prevalence.

The findings revealed that among the 27,324 people who received the vaccination shots, the sero-prevalence was at 90 per cent (24,667 people) while 4,921 people who did not receive the vaccination, the sero-prevalence was at 69 per cent.

As per the study, sero-prevalence stood at 89.5 per cent for people between the age of 18 and 44 while it was 88.6 per cent for people between the age of 45 and 59.

For those above the age of 60, the sero-prevalence stood at 84.5 per cent.

For children between 10 and 18, it stood at 68.4 per cent.

All the districts reported sero-prevalance of over 82 per cent with Tiruvarur topping the list at 93 per cent while Tirupathur was at the bottom of table at 82 per cent, it said.

Tamil Nadu on Wednesday added 3,971 new Covid-19 infections, pushing the caseload to 34,24,476 while 28 more fatalities took the death toll to 37,837, the health department said.

Recoveries eclipsed new cases with 16,473 people getting discharged in the last 24 hours, aggregating to 33,09,032 leaving 77,607 active infections, a medical bulletin said.

Chennai and Coimbatore accounted for the majority of new infections with 742 and 726 cases, respectively, while the remaining was spread across other districts.

Perambalur recorded the least with nine new cases getting reported in the last 24 hours, the bulletin said.

Those who tested positive today included four returnees from West Bengal, Andhra Pradesh, Jharkhand.

A total of 1,10,494 samples were tested in the last 24 hours, pushing the cumulative number of specimens examined to 6,28,70,191.

Meanwhile, Minister for Medical and Family Welfare Ma Subramanian said in Tamil Nadu among those who tested Covid-19 positive, only four per cent required hospitalization and seven per cent of patients were in the intensive care unit.

After releasing the fourth edition of the sero positivity report that was conducted in December 2021, here, he said it has been revealed that 87 per cent of the people have antibodies against Covid-19 in Tamil Nadu.

“Coming Saturday (Feb 12) the 22nd Covid mega vaccination camp will be held. Tomorrow the camp to administer precautionary booster dose will be conducted. Till date 7.59 lakh people have received the precautionary booster dose in the state,” he told reporters.

“There are 1.50 lakh people eligible to receive the ‘precautionary booster dose’ and we appeal to them to make use of the camp,” he said.