New Delhi: Congress president Sonia Gandhi on Tuesday met a group of opposition leaders and held consultations with them to evolve a joint strategy in Parliament, sources said.

NCP supremo Sharad Pawar, J&K National Conference patron Farooq Abdullah, Shiv Sena leader Sanjay Raut and DMK leader T R Baalu were among the leaders who met Gandhi at her 10, Janpath residence.

Sources said more such meetings would be held in the next few days, in a bid to bring all opposition forces together.

Opposition parties have been protesting the suspension of 12 Rajya Sabha MPs and are holding protests, seeking the revocation of their suspensions.

Former Congress chief Rahul Gandhi and leader of Opposition in Rajya Sabha Mallikarjun Kharge were also part of Tuesday’s meeting.

According to sources, Sonia Gandhi had invited Uddhav Thackeray and DMK chief MK Stalin. Both deputed their leaders –Raut and Baalu– respectively.

Earlier in the day, opposition MPs in both Lok Sabha and Rajya Sabha held a protest march from the Gandhi statue in the Parliament complex to Vijay Chowk with Rahul Gandhi alleging that the Opposition is not being allowed to raise issues in Parliament, which is now merely a building and a museum.

“Wherever the Opposition is trying to raise issues, they are suppressed. The government does not allow us to raise issues. This is the murder of democracy. We want to raise issues against the government, but we are not allowed to do so,” he told reporters.

New Delhi: Lok Sabha member from Lakshadweep Faisal P P Mohammed on Tuesday highlighted the plight of students and patients from the archipelago due to the non-availability of adequate passenger ships.

Raising the issue during Zero Hour, Faisal claimed that at least five passenger ships, run by the Lakshadweep Development Corporation Ltd, were non-operational for want of repairs.

He claimed that the Lakshadweep Administrator had not given funds for the repair of the ships, causing hardships to patients and students who had to travel to the mainland for medical treatment and professional exams respectively.

Faisal expressed concern over the possibility of handing over shipping operations from Lakshadweep to the mainland to the Shipping Corporation of India.

Shiv Sena member Arvind Sawant demanded the renaming of Mumbai Central railway station after Nana Shankarshet, the pioneer of railways in the country.

Sawant said Nana Shankarshet was instrumental in the formation of the Great Indian Peninsular Railway in 1845 which eventually started the first railway in the country on April 16, 1853.

NCP member Supriya Sule demanded that the government assist people provided with cochlear implants in case of wear and tear.

She appreciated the government initiative to help persons with special needs through the assistance to disabled persons for purchase, fitting of aids and appliances, which include cochlear implants and hearing aids.

Cochlear implant is a very expensive machine. But after the cochlear implant, there is a lot of wear and tear and the cost of repairing regularly is Rs 85,000, Sule said.

She urged the government to provide one cochlear implant along with support to children until the age of 18/21 to account for the wear and tear of the device.

DMK member DNV Senthilkumar demanded that the government reduce the prices of petrol and diesel, and increase the margins for retail outlet dealers.

Shiv Sena member Pratap Jadhav said farmers of Maharashtra were getting a better price for their soybean crop this year and decried the demand by poultry farm owners for importing the farm commodity.

Jadhav wanted the government to put on hold any plans to import soybean till the crops of domestic farmers are procured.

BJP member C P Joshi demanded that the government issue a postal stamp on Lord Parshuram.

BJP member Rajiv Pratap Rudy highlighted the backward status of Bihar and wanted the government to spell out policies to increase investments in sectors ranging from education, sports and infrastructure.

NEW DELHI: India has logged 6,984 new COVID-19 cases and 247 deaths in the last 24 hours, the Union Health Ministry informed on Wednesday.

Out of new cases, Kerala reported 3,377 new COVID-19 cases in the last 24 hours, along with 28 COVID-related deaths.

According to the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW), India’s active caseload currently stands at 87,562.

As many as 4,76,135 people have succumbed to the infection so far.

“Active cases constitute 0.25 per cent of the country’s total positive cases, which is lowest since March 2020,” the ministry said.

“Weekly Positivity Rate at 0.67 per cent remains less than 1 per cent for the last 31 days now. The Daily Positivity rate was reported to be 0.59 per cent. The daily Positivity rate has remained below 2 per cent for the last 72 days and below 3 per cent for 107 consecutive days now,” the ministry further informed.

Consequently, as per the ministry, India’s recovery rate stands at 98.38 per cent, the highest since March 2020.

With the recovery of as many as 8,168 patients in the last 24 hours, the cumulative tally of recovered patients since the beginning of the pandemic now stands at 3,41,46,931.

In the last 24 hours, a total of 11,84,883 tests were conducted across the country. The cumulative COVID tests conducted so far stand at 65.88 crore (65,88,47,816), the ministry said.

68,89,025 COVID vaccine doses were administered in the last 24 hours, increasing India’s vaccination coverage to over 134.61 crore.

The third case is of a 7 year old child who upon landing at RGIA gave samples for Covid-19 RTPCR test and flew to West Bengal via domestic flight before the results could come.

Three cases of Omicron have been detected at the RGIA airport in Hyderabad. All three are international passengers who tested positive for Covid and eventually for the Omicron variant. 

In a matter of concern two of the three cases of Omicron were from passengers coming in from countries not categorized as at risk. 

Patient number 1, a 24 year old female from Kenya was randomly tested at the airport and found positive eventually for Omicron. She has been shifted to TIMS and two close contacts in her father and uncle have been isolated at their home in Tolichowli.

Patient 2, a 23 year old Somalian national was also tested at random and found positive for Covid-19 Omicron variant. The patient has not yet been traced.

The third case is of a 7 year old child who upon landing at RGIA gave samples for Covid-19 RTPCR test and flew to West Bengal via domestic flight before the results could come. The child eventually tested positive and for Omicron details of which have been forwarded to GOI and Government of west Bengal.

“The variant is seen to have a doubling time of 2.5 days and in some European countries even 1.5 days so we urge all to wear masks and avoid mass gatherings,” said Dr GS Rao, Director of Health.

Surat: Activists of right-wing Bajrang Dal on Monday took down and set on fire a huge flex banner announcing “Pakistani food festival” to be organised at a restaurant here in Gujarat, a senior office-bearer said and claimed that the concerned restaurant has accepted its “mistake”.

This banner put up atop a building housing the restaurant in the Ring Road area was taken down and set blaze amid chants of “Jai Shri Ram.”

The said food festival was supposed to be organised at the ‘Taste of India’ restaurant between December 12-22.

South Gujarat Bajrang Dal president Deviprasad Dubey said the member activists took down the flex banner from the building and set it on fire because they are against such an event.

“We ensured that such a festival is not organised at that restaurant. No such festival will be tolerated. The restaurant has accepted its mistake,” he said.

Sandeep Dawar of ‘Sugar N Spice Restaurants’, which operates ‘Taste of India,’ said they will continue to serve the Mughlai cuisine and will strike out the word “Pakistani” from the food festival as it hurts the sentiments of some people.

“We will not use the word ‘Pakistani’ anymore in the food festival as it hurts the sentiments of some people. When we were using that word we felt that some people might not like it, but we did not know it would turn out like this…We are just serving cuisine which has nothing to do with Pakistan as such. The second name of Mughlai cuisine is Pakistani food,” Dawar said.

Karnataka State Contractors’ Association President D Kempanna

Bengaluru: The Karnataka State Contractors’ Association on Monday demanded a high-level inquiry int all irregularities including in government projects after having sent a letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi to this effect.

Also, the association sought an overhaul of the tender allotment process and stressed the need for a transparent system in place for tenders and bill payments.

In their letter to the Prime Minister in July, the association claimed harassment by Ministers, elected representatives and others accusing them of demanding up to 30 per cent of the tender amount for approving a contract and 5-6 per cent towards release of ‘Letter of Credit’ against pending bills.

Welcoming the inquiry ordered by the Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai into the tender process and bill payment, the association in a press release questioned the government on its silence over corruption charges and sought the high-level probe into them.

Depending on the government’s response, the association said it would also try to meet President Ramnath Kovind and the Prime Minister in person to bring to their notice the issues faced by contractors.

In the release, the association made it clear that it is not accusing only the present government of corruption, but also the increasing irregularities year on year from government to government.

Letters have also been written to the Chief Minister, the Leader of the Opposition Siddaramaiah, former JD(S) chief minister HD Kumaraswamy and all the MLAs seeking cooperation in removing corruption, the association said adding that it has even planned for a protest in Bengaluru in January in this regard.

New Delhi: Two TMC MPs on Monday submitted a notice to move privilege motion against former Chief Justice of India and Rajya Sabha member Ranjan Gogoi over his remarks about attending Parliament, sources said.

The notice from Trinamool Congress (TMC) members Jawhar Sircar and Mausam Noor is yet to be admitted by the Rajya Sabha Secretariat.

Besides them, several other MPs from various opposition parties are also expected to file notices of privilege motion against Gogoi, the sources said.

Sircar and Noor have filed the notice for privilege motion over Gogoi’s remarks about attending Parliament, they said.

In an interview to a news channel, Gogoi reportedly said in the wake of Covid curbs and lack of social distancing, he likes to attend Rajya Sabha when he feels like and when he thinks there are matters of importance on which he should speak, the sources said.

Gogoi also purportedly said he is a nominated member, and not governed by any party whip, the sources said citing his remarks.

MPs from the TMC are also expected to file a complaint against Gogoi with the Ethics Committee, they said.