Archives for April 2021

KOLKATA: TMC candidate from Khardah assembly constituency Kajal Sinha, who had tested positive for COVID-19, died at a hospital here on Sunday morning, an official of the state health department said.

TMC supremo and Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee expressed shock and grief over his demise.

“Very, very sad. Shocked. Kajal Sinha, our candidate from Khardaha, succumbed to Covid. He dedicated his life to serving people & just fought a tireless campaign. He was a long-serving committed member of @AITCofficial. We will miss him. My condolences to his family & his admirers,” Banerjee tweeted.

Polling was held in Khardah constituency on April 22.

Earlier this month, Pradip Kumar Nandi, the Revolutionary Socialist Party (RSP)candidate from Jangipur seat, and Congress nominee from Samserganj constituency Rezaul Haque succumbed to the disease.

NEW DELHI: Noting that the second wave of COVID-19 is testing people’s patience and their limit to bear pain, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Sunday that this “toofan” (storm) has shaken the country after it was full of spirit and self-confidence after successfully tackling the first wave.

The over 30-minute broadcast was entirely focussed on the pandemic, which has been rampaging across the country for weeks, with Modi asserting that defeating the disease is the biggest priority.

He urged countrymen to go for vaccination against the disease and cautioned them against rumours about it.

The Centre, he said, will continue to provide jabs free of cost to the eligible people (those over 45 years of age) and has been helping states in their efforts to deal with the disease with its full might.

“We have to give priority to the expert and scientific advice at this time to win this battle,” he said. While people are getting affected by the disease, they are also recovering from it in big numbers, he said.

NEW DELHI: Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal on Sunday announced extension of the ongoing lockdown in Delhi for another week, saying the severity of COVID-19 was unabated and positivity rate has been as high as 36 percent in the last few days.

It was scheduled to end at 5 AM on April 26 before extension.

“We will have to watch the situation for a few more days whether the cases decrease or increase,” he said.

The chief minister said the onslaught of coronavirus has not subsided even as the government had imposed six days lockdown as a last weapon in its arsenal.

“Everybody voted for extension of lockdown. The positivity rate reached up to 36-37 percent in past few days although it has slightly dipped now. It is around 29 percent today,” he said.

To keep watch on oxygen availability, the Delhi government has decided that the manufacturers, suppliers and hospitals will update supply and consumption data every two hours on a portal set up by it.

He said the Centre has further increased Delhi’s oxygen quota by 10 tonnes per day and hoped the chaotic situation due to oxygen crisis in Delhi will end in a few days.

“The Centre has increased Delhi’s quota from 480 tonnes to 490 tonnes per day. But, we are yet to receive full quota. Currently only 330-335 tonnes per day supply is being received by us,” he said.

The chief minister said his government is receiving much support from the Centre and both are properly coordinating to solve the oxygen supply problem.

Delhi recorded the highest single-day rise in its COVID-19 deaths with 357 more people succumbing to the viral disease on Saturday as well as over 24,000 fresh cases.

The city has reported nearly 2,500 deaths due to the deadly virus in a 12-day period Several hospitals in the national capital are grappling with severe shortage of medical oxygen.

Pramesh Jain

Home and Law and Parliamentary Affairs Minister,Basavaraj Bommai,along with City Police Commissioner,Kamal Pant, accompanied with,Joint CPs,as,Sandeep Patil,BR Ravikanthe Gowda,DCPs,as,Kuldeep Kumar R Jain,Dr Sanjeev M Patil,on Saturday went on city rounds.

Home Minister,Basavaraj Bommai, Commissioner of police,Kamal Pant,with other officers inspected the measures taken for implementing the weekend curfew that started from Friday night and complimented the people for their support and cooperation.

When the Minister visited the KR Market area and noticed a woman not wearing the mandatory face mask.He asked his personal assistant to provide a spare mask to the lady.

The Minister went on city rounds starting from the KR Market,which normally used to be busy,KR Circle,Chalukya Circle,Shivajinagar, Commercial Street and other normally busy areas apart from Chamarajpet,South End Circle and other places.

He also visited the Special Covid Care Centre created exclusively for the policemen at Adugodi Kalyana Mantap and inspected the infrastructure facilities made available.

Speaking to reporters,after the city rounds,the Home Minister, Basavaraj Bommai said his reports from the police brought out the almost complete success of the weekend curfew all over the State and thanked the people and the traders for their support for making the Covid control measures a success.

As many as 1265 vehicles were seized and 23 shops and commercial establishments were booked under NDMA act for violating the weekend lockdown which started from 6 am in the morning.

I feel this is toughest part of enforcing a lockdown.So much of pain both sides our police personnel are taking.

Anticipating that people might venture outside on the weekend despite lockdown,heavy police security has been deployed and patrolling has been intensified since morning.

The shops and commercial establishments remain closed with police barricades major junctions and all the flyovers and some underpass were closed to contain unnecessary vehicle movements .

The police allowed four hours for the shops with essential services to function from 6 am to 10 am,after which they almost all the essential shops except medical and hotels were opened.

People cooperated and with the help of tight police security we managed to make the lock down successful,Basavaraj Bommai,Home minister who was o rounds,told the media 

According to him there were over 8,000 police deployed for the enforcement who worked day and night to make it successful,he said .

Many police personnel who are on enforcement duty are infected in the last few days and have been under treatment.

Considering this three covid care centres have been set up in the city to exclusively treat the police personnel and their family members, Mr.Bommai,said .

City police commissioner,Kamal Pant along with the senior police officials visited the sensitive areas of the city to supervise enforcement . 

Meanwhile senior police officials who have been designated as nodal officers visited the hospitals in their jurisdictions to take stock of the situation.

The police officials held discussions with the hospital authorities on the treatment and the facilities they are providing to the covid patients.

We are only supervising the hospitals but also coordinating with the firms dealing with the drugs and oxygen to ensure uninterrupted supplies,P Harishekaran,IGP,CID, said after visiting the fortis hospital situated on Cunningham road .

The police continued to patrol sensitive areas to ensure people stay at home and not venturing outside the houses.

But in some areas people were seen venturing outside in their own vehicles by taking a cross streets and main roads on two wheelers and four wheeler.

As there are reports that the Karnataka state government is Mulling over to extend the weekend lockdown for the next one week Chief Secretary P Ravikumar said and we need public cooperation and final decision will be taken by chief minister as there is a cabinet meeting called by CM BS Yediyurappa to discuss about the strict measures to be taken to contain the second Covid wave.