Thiruvananthapuram: Six UK returnees from Kerala, including a two-year-old child, have tested positive for the new strain of the virus, Health Minister KK Shailaja said here on Monday.

“Six people who recently returned from the UK have tested positive for the new strain. We have placed them under surveillance. Their samples had been sent to NIV, Pune, and the results were received today,” she told reporters tonight.

While two persons each from Alappuzha and Kozhikode tested positive for the new variant, Kottayam and Kannur districts reported one case each, she said.

Without revealing the names, the minister, later in a release said the two Kozhikode natives are aged 35 and two.

The two from Alappuzha are aged 30 and 36, while those from Kottayam and Kannur are aged 20 and 29 respectively.

A total of 39 UK returnees have tested positive for COVID-19 till now and their samples were sent to the National Institute of Virology, Pune.

The six fresh cases of a new strain of virus was from among these 39 samples.

“The six patients are under isolation and observation,” the minister added.

Shailaja asked the people to remain cautious as the infection rate was high for the new strain of the virus.

“The infection rate for the new strain of the virus is very high. So those who have come in contact with the infected people should identify themselves. There is no need to worry. This can be cured if we take necessary precautions,” Shailaja said.

She said elderly people must remain careful and urged them to practice reverse quarantine.

Reverse quarantine involves separating those who are likely to develop severe illness (vulnerable population), from the general public who are at the risk of the disease during an outbreak of infectious disease, so that the associated mortality and morbidity can be reduced.

The minister said airports and seaports in Kerala will remain under strict vigil and those arriving in the state from European countries would be under observation.

Agra: Four people were arrested here on Monday after they waved saffron flags at the Taj Mahal complex, police said.

The CISF personnel deployed at the historic place apprehended them after which they were handed over to police.

Tajganj police station Inspector Umesh Chandra Tripathi said three people waved flags at the Taj Mahal complex under the leadership of right-wing leader Gaurav Thakur.

Police have registered a case against them, he said.

Bengaluru: Underprivileged school children in rural Karnataka and Tamil Nadu are to get 100 tablets for distance learning.

For this, the Consulate General of Israel to South India has partnered with The Art of Living, a spiritual organisation.

With the COVID-19 forcing schools to switch to distance learning, children in remote areas with limited internet access experience a larger challenge than those in urban areas, the Art of Living said in a statement on Monday.

The partnership aims to enable teachers to lend support to these students and bridge the literacy gaps, the statement said.

The Consulate looks forward to assisting students with limited resources to navigate this academic year.

Commenting on it, Sri Sri Ravi Shankar of the Art of Living said, We welcome this first-of-its-kind partnership between the Art of Living and the Israeli government.

Online learning will reach marginalised students from vulnerable communities and help them a lot.”

The Consul General Jonathan Zadka said, “This partnership with a like-minded organisation allows us to share this view with our host country, India.”

“We pray that the pandemic situation will be over soon and that these children could go back to their education routine,” Zadka said.

Banda (UP): A Dalit family has left their home in a village here after they were allegedly beaten up and threatened with dire consequences by local strongmen for using a government hand pump, a family member claimed on Monday.

The police have booked three people in connection with the incident. However, they did not comment on the family’s claim of leaving their house.

A member of the Dalit family from Tendura village under Bisanda police station told PTI that on December 25, he along with his father had gone to get water from the hand pump. Some strongmen living in their neighbourhood beat him and his 80-year-old father with sticks for using the hand pump.

He claimed the strongmen also threatened to burn him and his father alive in their home.

The family member said they left their home because of the fear of the strongmen and are now living in a hut in a farm.

In an application to the superintendent of police, the family alleged that though the local police has registered a case, there is no mention of injuries sustained by the octogenarian father.

SHO of Bisanda police station Narendra Pratap Singh told PTI that it is a case of beating that is being investigated by the Baberu circle officer. On the basis of the complaint lodged by the family, a case has been registered against three people.

Mumbai: BJP MP Pragya Singh Thakur, an accused in the Malegaon blast case of 2008, appeared before a special NIA court here on Monday.

Thakur remained in the box reserved for accused persons at the back of the courtroom along with four other co-accused in the case, which is being probed by the National Investigation Agency (NIA).

On December 19, 2020, Special Judge P R Site had given “last chance” to Thakur to appear before the court.  He had expressed displeasure over her failure to appear before the court twice last month.

Earlier, in 2019, the court had said the seven accused persons in the case, all of whom are out on bail, should appear before it at least once a week.

On Monday, Thakur and four other accused – Lt Col Prasad Purohit, Sameer Kulkarni, Ramesh Upadhyay and Sudhakar Chaturvedi – appeared before the court.

The two other accused – Ajay Rahirkar and Sudhakar Dwivedi – were absent.

One witness was also present in the court, but his cross-examination could not be done as the advocate for accused Dwivedi was not available.

The court posted the trial for hearing on Tuesday.

After the regular functioning of the court resumed in November last year, following easing of the coronavirus- induced restrictions, the court had directed all the seven accused in the case to remain present before it on December 3.

However, most of the accused, including Thakur, skipped the court that day, citing the pandemic situation. The court then asked them to appear before it on December 19.

Thakur again did not appear that day and her lawyer told the court that she was admitted to the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) in Delhi for treatment.

The court then directed Thakur to appear before it in January 4, and said this was the last chance given to her.

Thakur, who is the BJP MP from Bhopal, had last appeared before the court in June 2019 after it ordered the seven accused to remain present once a week.

However, she had sought exemption from appearance on various occasions since then.

The trial in the case came to a halt in March last year following the lockdown imposed across the country due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Last month, the special NIA court resumed the trial. So far, around 140 witnesses out of the total 400 have been examined.

On September 29, 2008, six people were killed and over 100 others injured when an explosive device strapped on a motorcycle went-off near a mosque in Malegaon, a town about 200 km from Mumbai in north Maharashtra.

The court framed terror charges against Purohit, Thakur and five other accused in October 2018.

The accused in the case have been charged under Sections 16 (committing terrorist act) and 18 (conspiring to commit terrorist act) of the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA).

They have also been charged under Indian Penal Code (IPC) Sections 120 (b) (criminal conspiracy), 302 (murder), 307 (attempt to murder), 324 (voluntarily causing hurt) and 153 (a) (promoting enmity between two religious groups), and relevant provisions of the Explosive Substances Act.

New Delhi: The seventh round of talks between protesting farmer unions and three central ministers got underway here on Monday afternoon to break the over-a-month-long deadlock on recent farm laws.

Union Agriculture Minister Narendra Singh Tomar, Railways, Commerce and Food Minister Piyush Goyal and Minister of State for Commerce Som Parkash, who is an MP from Punjab, are holding the talks with the representatives of 40 farmer unions at the Vigyan Bhawan.

The meeting began with paying respects to the farmers who lost their lives during the ongoing protest, sources said.

On December 30, the sixth round of talks was held between the government and the farmer unions, where some common ground was reached on two demands — decriminalisation of stubble-burning and continuation of power subsidies.

However, no breakthrough has been reached so far on the two main demands of the protesting farmers — a repeal of the three recent farm laws and a legal guarantee to the MSP procurement system.

On Sunday, Tomar met Defence Minister Rajnath Singh and discussed the government strategy to resolve the current crisis at the earliest, sources said.

Tomar discussed with Singh “all possible options” to find a “middle path” to resolve the crisis, they added.

Thousands of farmers, mainly from Punjab, Haryana and western Uttar Pradesh, are protesting at various Delhi borders for over a month against the three laws. They have stayed put despite heavy rains and waterlogging at protest sites over the last couple of days, besides severe cold weather conditions prevailing in and around the national capital.

Enacted in September 2020, the government has presented these laws as major farm reforms and aimed at increasing farmers’ income, but the protesting farmers have raised concerns that these legislations would weaken the MSP and “mandi” (wholesale market) systems and leave them at the mercy of big corporations.

The government has maintained that these apprehensions are misplaced and has ruled out repealing the laws.

While several opposition parties and people from other walks of life have come out in support of the farmers, some farmer groups have also met the agriculture minister over the last few weeks to extend their support to the three laws.

Last month, the government had sent a draft proposal to the protesting farmer unions, suggesting seven-eight amendments to the new laws and a written assurance on the MSP procurement system. The government has ruled out a repeal of the three agri laws.