Archives for 2021

NEW DELHI: India added 13,091 new coronavirus infections in a span of 24 hours taking the country’s total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,44,01,670, while the active cases declined to 1,38,556, the lowest in 266 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Thursday.

The death toll climbed to 4,62,189 with 340 fresh fatalities, according to the data updated at 8 am.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 20,000 for 34 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 137 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.40 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.

25 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 1,127 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

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.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

CHENNAI: Taking a view on the miseries of people of Chennai city who are suffering from flooding and inundation triggered by very heavy spells of monsoon showers, the Madras High Court has warned the Greater Chennai Corporation (GCC) of initiating a suo-motu case on the matter.

The bench grilled the counsel for the GCC on what the civic body has been doing ever since the 2015 deluge struck Chennai to save the city from the perennial flood woes.

Referring to the situation of water scarcity and floods affecting the people alternately in a year, the judges stated that for half of the year we are crying for water and for the other half dying in water. 

They also pointed out that the current floods and inundation should teach a lesson to the concerned authorities on taking action to save water bodies from being encroached upon.

The judges made the observations on two petitions, which were later dismissed, relating to regulating construction of parks and ensuring enough road width by evicting encroachments.

KOLKATA: West Bengal Governor Jagdeep Dhankhar on Tuesday called upon the Mamata Banerjee government to come out with a white paper on Bengal Global Business Summit (BGBS) with details of investments attracted by the state through those programmes.

The state government is preparing to hold another edition of BGBS in April 2022, after a hiatus of two years owing to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Call upon @MamataOfficial to come out with a WHITE PAPER #BGBS so that information is available in transparent and accountable manner,” Dhankhar tweeted.

Asserting that the rule of law, respect for human rights and democratic values are imperative for investments, Dhankhar said much needs to be done on these fronts.

“It is our obligation that we subscribe to sanctity of facts and not dictate actions by mere optics of advertisements and statements,” he said in the Twitter post.

Dhankhar was requested by the West Bengal government to promote the state as an industrial destination and he has also agreed to travel overseas for the purpose, a senior official said on Monday.

The Mamata Banerjee administration has been organising BGBS since 2015 to attract investments to the state.

In a letter to the chief minister in August last year, the governor said he had sought information on the five editions of the BGBS first from the departmental secretary and then from the finance minister but did not get it.

“Surely, their stance is far distanced from transparency in government and also not in consonance with your recent assertion that ‘Our government works with complete transparency and there are financial clearances and regular audit’,” he wrote in the letter dated August 25, 2020.

Dhankhar wrote that he had sought details of investments and jobs created in the state owing to the investment proposals and those claimed to be under implementation.

The then finance minister Amit Mitra had claimed that the state had received proposals worth over Rs 12.32 lakh crore at the business summits between 2015 and 2019 and had generated 28 lakh jobs.

The chief minister had said in the Assembly last year that 50 per cent of the investment proposals that were received in the five editions of BGBS are already in the process of implementation.

Opposition parties had also demanded publication of a white paper on the actual investment that came from the summit.

The last business summit was held in February 2019.

During that edition, Banerjee had announced that it would be a biennial affair.

Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee Tuesday came down heavily on the BJP for “being busy in pinching” the TMC government and running down its acheivements but failing to get a single rupee allocated to the state.

She said the common man in the state are being forced by BJP to face extreme hardship by the fuel price spiral which has turned its “achhe din promise to bure din”.

“Some people (in BJP) are busy in piching the TMC government and running down its acheivements from morning to evening. But they fail to get a single rupee allocated to the state from Delhi. They do not have the power to help the people of the state. All they know is to be on the attack mode against us, to find fault with us,” said Banerjee while inaugurating a Jagaddhatri Puja in Posta area of city which is the hub of wholesale business.

“Such attacks did not happen in the past when constitutional posts used to be respected and none would speak against each other in this way. I know how it was in the past having being an MP for several terms,” she said.

Continuing her tirade against the BJP-led government at the Centre, she said it has put the common man in dire straits by demonitisation five years ago and now the fuel price hike, which fetched it Rs 4 lakh crore.

“It has hurt the aam admi hard. The achhe din promise by Narendra Modi has turned out to be bure din,” she added.

The chief minister urged the traders to make minimum profit from the sale of essentials and vegetables for one year in the interest of the general public.

“Please don’t charge too much price for vegetables. I know you are all hard hit by the fuel price spiral, but still try to ensure that vegetable prices is contained as much as possible,” she told Posta Merchants Association, the organisers of the puja.

The chief minister iterated her government plans to organize business meets, music meets, film festival and support other festivals and fairs in the coming months.

LAKHIMPUR: A forensic report has confirmed that weapons recovered from Union minister Ajay Mishra’s son Ashish Mishra and others after the Lakhimpur violence had been fired.

Though the Forensic Science Laboratory (FSL) report confirmed that the weapons had been discharged, it does not specify whether they were fired on the day of the violence or some other day.

Four weapons, including a rifle belonging to Ashish Mishra alias Monu Mishra, had been seized following the Lakhimpur violence.

A pistol owned by Ankit Das, nephew of former Union minister Akhilesh Das, and a repeater gun, which was with Das’ bodyguard Lateef Kale, were also among them.

A forensic report of the fourth weapon, a revolver owned by Das’ aide Satya Prakash, is awaited.

“Of the four weapons sent for ballistic examination to the FSL, it has been confirmed that firing took place from three, including Ashish Mishra’s rifle. However, the report did not confirm when the firing took place,” a senior official said here.

The special investigation team (SIT) probing the case is yet to issue an official statement on the FSL report.

After the arrest of Ashish Mishra, Das and Kale, the SIT had recovered their licensed weapons — a rifle, pistol, revolver and a repeater gun — and sent them for forensic examination on October 15.

According to the First Information Report (FIR) registered by the police on a complaint of Jagjit Singh, a native of Bahraich district, the entire episode was “premeditated” for which the “conspiracy was hatched” by the minister and his son.

The FIR stated that the farmers had gathered at the sports ground of the Maharaja Agrasen Inter-College on October 3 and they wanted to peacefully show black flags to Ashish Mishra and Uttar Pradesh Deputy Chief Minister Keshav Prasad Maurya, who were visiting Banbirpur.

“Around 3 pm, Ashish Mishra, along with 15-20 armed men, in three speeding four-wheelers, reached the protest spot in Banbirpur. Ashish Mishra, who was seated on the left side of a Mahindra Thar, opened gunfire. The Thar mowed down the crowd and sped ahead,” the FIR stated.

“Because of the firing, farmer Gurvinder Singh, son of Sukhwinder, a resident of Matronia in Nanpara, died,” it stated.

However, two successive autopsies conducted on Gurvinder Singh had ruled out bullet injuries.

Ashish Mishra and 15-20 unnamed men were mentioned as accused and charged with murder, criminal conspiracy, rash driving, and rioting among others.

Of them, police have so far arrested 13.

Minister Ajay Mishra had refuted the allegations that his son was involved in the episode that took place near his native Banbirpur village in the Tikonia area of the district.

The FIR has been lodged under Indian Penal Code sections 147, 148, 149 (all three related to rioting), 279 (rash driving), 338 (causes grievous hurt to any person by doing any act so rashly or negligently as to endanger human life), 304A (causing death by negligence), 302 (murder), and 120B (party to a criminal conspiracy).

MUMBAI: Maharashtra Minister and Nationalist Congress Party (NCP) leader Nawab Malik on Wednesday alleged that former Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis is trying to protect NCB Zonal Director Sameer Wankhede, adding that Fadnavis is responsible for “criminalisation of politics”.

Malik alleged that Fadnavis shielded a number of goons and criminals like Riyaz Bhati and Munna Yadav during his tenure.

“Nagpur’s notorious criminal Munna Yadav was appointed chairman of Construction Workers’ Board by Devendra Fadnavis during his government. One Haidar Azam, involved in illegal immigration of Bangladeshis, was appointed chairman of Maulana Azad Finance Corporation by Fadnavis,” said Maharashtra Minister.

He further said, ‘One Riyaz Bhati, a close aide of Dawood Ibrahim, was arrested at Mumbai airport with a fake passport. Fadnavis must answer who is Riyaz Bhati? Everyone knows he has links with the underworld don Dawood Ibrahim. Why was he arrested and let off in 2 days? Why was Riyaz Bhati seen with you and even at BJP events? He was also seen at events where PM Modi was present. How did a man like him reach the prime minister’s event?”

The Maharashtra minister further said that Wankhede was also a part of the DRI probe when fake notes worth Rs 14.56 crore were seized from Bandra Kurla Complex (BKC) in 2017.

“It is due to the friendship between Sameer Wankhede and Devendra Fadnavis that criminal activities flourished in Mumbai and Maharashtra during the BJP government’s tenure,” Malik added saying Fadnavis is responsible for “crimilisation of politics”.

Rs 25 crore was sought to release Aryan Khan when the cruise ship was raided, but later, the parties settled for Rs 18 crore. Why was Aryan Khan invited on the cruise in the first place? asked Malik.

Earlier on Tuesday, former Maharashtra Chief Minister had alleged that NCP minister Nawab Malik had ‘underworld links’ with 1993 Mumbai bomb blast convicts.

“Nawab Malik has dealings with people from the underworld people convicted in 1993 Mumbai bomb blasts case. He purchased land from convicts of the case at rates cheaper than market rates. Was this deal to save prime land from being forfeited under Terrorist and Disruptive Activities (Prevention) (TADA) law?” asked Devendra Fadnavis at a press conference.

Malik has been opposed by the BJP following his continuous war of words with Narcotics Control Bureau (NCB) zonal director Sameer Wankhede.

Reportedly, Nawab Malik’s son-in-law Sameer Khan was arrested by the NCB in an alleged drug case on January 13 this year. The case has come into light amid the war of words between Mailk and Sameer Wankhede.

Mumbai : Maharashtra minister and Congress leader Aslam Shaikh on Monday said he was invited by one Kashif Khan to the cruise party on October 2, which was busted by the Narcotics Control Bureau, leading to the arrest of Aryan Khan, son of actor Shah Rukh Khan.

Shaikh’s reaction comes a day after his cabinet colleague and NCP minister Nawab Malik claimed that Kashif Khan, an organiser of the cruise party, had tried hard to get Shaikh and children of top ministers of the state government to attend that party.

Malik has been spearheading the Maha Vikas Aghadi government’s attack on the Centre and the NCB, calling its drug raid fake .

I don’t know the individual called Kashif (Khan) nor have I met him before. As the guardian minister of Mumbai, I get invited to various events. This was one of the invites, Shaikh told reporters.

He said two agencies the NCB and the Mumbai Police are probing this case.

As far as I can recollect, I don’t remember speaking to Kashif on my mobile phone. It cannot be possible that I will have Kashif’s mobile number because I don’t know Kashif and he doesn’t know me. He met at someplace (function) and he invited me and the matter got over, Shaikh added.

Targeting the BJP and the Centre, Shaikh added that concerted attempts are made to defame the Maharashtra government and its ministers since the tripartite MVA was formed nearly two years ago.

Shaikh said while all the focus has been on the drug cruise raid, similar attention is not given to the multi-crore drug seizure in Gujarat in September.

Bhopal: BJP General Secretary P Muralidhar Rao on Monday triggered a huge row with his statement that people belonging to Brahmin and Baniya communities are in his “pockets”.

Rao, in-charge of Madhya Pradesh, came under attack from the Congress which sought an apology from the BJP leader, who later claimed the opposition party has “distorted” his statement.

Addressing a press conference here at the BJP’s state headquarters, Rao said the party and its governments are going to have special focus on scheduled tribes and scheduled castes not as vote-banks but to address their concern like backwardness, employment and education.

After this, journalists asked Rao that perception about the BJP has been that it is a political party of Brahmins-Baniyas and he was talking about special focus on SCs/STs at a time when the saffron outfit’s slogan is sabka saath, sabka vikas (with all, for everyone’s development).

In reply, the BJP leader, while pointing towards his kurta’s pockets, said, Brahmins and Baniyas are in my pockets . You (media people) termed us a Brahmin and Baniya party when most workers and vote bank were from these sections. Rao said the BJP is working towards gaining trust of all sections of the society.

When the number of people belonging to certain sections was higher, people used to say the party belongs to them. We are working to add more people from the SC/ST sections in our party after finding their lower representation. We are reaching out to all and making the BJP a party for every section, he said.

Rao said the BJP is not leaving out any section, including Brahmins and Baniyas, from its representation, but only including those who were left out to become a national party in true sense.

After a 6-second video of Rao’s controversial remark surfaced on social media and was shared by several leaders of opposition, state Congress president Kamal Nath lashed out at the BJP.

In a statement here, the former CM said the BJP gave the slogan sabka saath sabka vikas and his party’s general secretary is saying the Brahmins and Baniyas are in his pockets.

This is an insult of these sections as the BJP is claiming its right over them. What kind of respect is given to these classes whose leaders have played an important role in building the BJP? BJP leaders have become arrogant due to power, he said.

Nath said the BJP should seek an apology from these communities. A party which talk about sabka saath, sabka vikas is now focussing on certain sections for power, he said.

Later, in a video statement, Rao said the Congress has a habit of “distorting” facts and statements.

We don’t discriminate among sections of the society. All Indians should be part of development. The Congress betrayed and divided all sections of the society. If STs are backward, the only reason is that the Congress has done injustice to them, the BJP leader said. 

Bhopal (MP): At least four infants died in a fire that broke out in the special newborn care unit (SNCU) of Kamla Nehru Children’s Hospital here on Monday night, prompting the government to order a high-level probe into the incident.

Medical Education Minister Vishwas Sarang said a short circuit may have caused the fire and described the situation inside the ward as “very scary”.

According to an official, the blaze started on the third floor of the hospital, which houses the ICU.

“Four children died in the fire that broke out in the special newborn care unit (SNCU) ward probably due to a short circuit,” Sarang said.

“We reached the spot along with others soon after getting information about the incident. It was dark inside the ward. We shifted the children to the adjacent ward,” he said.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan has announced an ex gratia of Rs 4 lakh each for the family members of the victims, he added.

The fire broke out around 9 pm and around 10 fire tenders were rushed to the spot to douse the flames, said Fatehgarh fire station in-charge Juber Khan.

A short circuit may have caused the fire, he said.

A total of 40 children were admitted to the SNCU. Of these, 36 were undergoing treatment in different wards.

In a tweet in Hindi, Chouhan said that the rescue operation was swift and the blaze is under control now.

“A high-level probe has been ordered into the incident. The probe will be conducted by ACS (additional chief secretary), health and medical education, Mohammad Suleiman,” the chief minister said.

Worried parents were seen running around in search of their children.

Angry family members of some infants alleged that instead of saving the children, the hospital staff fled.

While a parent was searching for his child, some others rushed out of the hospital with their children, eyewitnesses said.

A woman who was inside the hospital said the ward was shrouded in smoke.

Kamla Nehru Children’s Hospital is part of Hamidia Hospital, one of the biggest government medical facilities in the state.

Former chief minister and Leader of Opposition Kamal Nath termed the incident “very painful” and demanded stern action against those responsible.

In a tweet, state BJP president Vishnu Dutt Sharma also expressed grief over the incident. He said he was praying for the speedy recovery of those injured.