New Delhi: The Samyukta Kisan Morcha (SKM) on Wednesday said that a consensus has been reached over a revised draft proposal of the Centre on their pending demands and it will now meet on Thursday to decide the future course of the movement, even as its leaders demanded a formal communication on government letterhead.

Farmer leader and SKM core committee member Gurnam Singh Chaduni said that the earlier draft from the central government on pending demands was not acceptable to them following which a fresh proposal was received from the Centre on Wednesday.

“We are in agreement with the government regarding our demands. We will decide about suspending the agitation after the meeting tomorrow. No decision has been taken yet on calling off agitation. Another meeting of SKM will be to be held tomorrow (Thursday) at 12 noon,” Chaduni said at a press conference after a meeting of the SKM core committee.

The SKM, which is spearheading the farmers’ movement, said in a statement that a consensus has been achieved on the central government’s draft regarding farmers’ demands.

“Consensus has reached on government’s fresh proposal. Now, a formal communication signed on the government’s letterhead is awaited. SKM will meet again tomorrow at twelve noon, at Singhu Border, to take a formal decision thereafter to lift the morchas, the SKM said in a statement.

The SKM has also formed a five-member panel for a dialogue with the Centre regarding pending demands of farmers including legal guarantee on MSP, withdrawal of cases against farmers registered during the movement and compensation to kins of farmers died during the agitation.

Another farmer leader and SKM’s five-member committee member, Yudhvir Singh said, The ball is now in the government’s court and a final decision will be taken tomorrow (Thursday).

On Tuesday, the SKM had demanded clarification on certain points in the government’s proposal, including on the precondition set for the withdrawal of “fake” cases against farmers.

On November 29, a bill was passed in Parliament to repeal the three contentious farm laws, one of the main demands of the protesting farmers.

But the stalemate continues with the protesters demanding that the government fulfil their other demands that included a legal guarantee on MSP and withdrawal of cases against farmers.

New Delhi: Paying rich tributes to Chief of Defence Staff Gen Bipin Rawat, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said on Wednesday that he was an outstanding soldier and a true patriot who greatly contributed to modernising India’s armed forces and security apparatus.

Gen Rawat’s passing away has saddened him deeply, the prime minister said.

In his condolence message, Modi said he was deeply anguished by the helicopter crash in which Rawat, his wife and other personnel of the armed forces died.

They served India with utmost diligence, Modi said, adding that his thoughts are with the bereaved families.

“Gen Bipin Rawat was an outstanding soldier. A true patriot, he greatly contributed to modernising our armed forces and security apparatus.

“His insights and perspectives on strategic matters were exceptional. His passing away has saddened me deeply. Om Shanti.

“As India’s first CDS, Gen Rawat worked on diverse aspects relating to our armed forces including defence reforms. He brought with him a rich experience of serving in the Army. India will never forget his exceptional service,” the prime minister tweeted.

Rawat, his wife Madhulika and 11 other people on board an Indian Air Force helicopter died in a crash near Coonoor in Tamil Nadu on Wednesday, the Indian Air Force said.

MUMBAI: A farmer from Solapur in Maharashtra managed to earn a meagre Rs 13 after selling 1,123 kilograms of onions, despite winter tending to spike prices of the kitchen staple, leading to a state farm leader declaring such a situation was unacceptable, while a commission agent claimed the low price was due to the consignment’s poor quality.

This meant he earned just Rs 13 from the sale.

Swabhimani Shetkari Sanghatana leader and former Lok Sabha MP Raju Shetti, who tweeted the sale receipt of Kavade, said, “What should one do with this meagre Rs 13? This is unacceptable. The farmer supplied 24 bags of onion from his farm to commission agent’s shop.  And he earned only Rs 13 from it.”

“How will he repay the production cost, which includes preparation of soil for cultivation, procurement of onion seed, fertiliser and harvesting charges? If onion prices had skyrocketed, the Union government would have imported the produce from other countries on war footing.

However, now that the prices have crashed, government will ignore the farmer’s plight,” Shetti alleged.

Kavade earned enough to pay the transportation cost of Rs 1,512 to the service provider or else would have ended up paying this amount from his own pocket, Shetti further said.

Commissioner agent Rudresh Patil, who procured the onions from Kavade, said.

“I did buy onions at such a low rate, but it is mainly because of the poor quality of the produce. The onion was wet and damaged due to unseasonal rains in last few days, which is why it attracted such a low rate.”

Patil said good quality onions are fetching robust prices in the market due, and termed Kavade’s case as “unfortunate and exceptional”.

Kavade could not be contacted for comments.

KOLKATA: Two weeks to go to the civic poll in Kolkata, the BJP’s municipal election committee is hardly seen active while the Trinamool Congress is campaigning in full swing.

The BJP is scheduled to release its poll manifesto on December 8, but most of the committee members are in dark about the content of the promises that the party is going to make before the electorate of the state capital.

Discontent over the manifesto has surfaced within the party.

“A campaign committee headed by Dinesh Trivedi, who defected from the TMC before the Assembly polls, was formed for preparing the content of the manifesto. Trivedi did not discuss the content with anyone in the committee. He prepared on his own and sent it to central observer Amit Malvya. If one person decided what would be the manifesto, why the committee was formed?” asked a member.

Sources in the saffron camp said grassroots-level workers of the party are sitting idle when only two weeks are left for the election.

“This section of footsoldiers plays a crucial role in door-to-door campaign. Election committee’s main work is engaging these footsoldiers but the committee is not seen playing active role when the TMC is holding meetings almost every day,” said a senior BJP leader.

A member of the election committee said the leadership didn’t seek explanation from those who had skipped the first meeting on November 28.

“This shows the party’s approach towards the upcoming poll. We see no sign of our leadership’s come-back effort after the poor performance in the Assembly elections,” he pointed out.

Koppal (Karnataka): A team of veterinarians at Koppal on Friday surgically extracted over 25 kg of plastic items from the stomach of a cow.

According to the reports, the cow was not eating its regular food and was not producing milk for over 15 days. Upon preliminary check-up, the veterinary doctors suspected the cow to have consumed plastic waste.

A team of veterinarians comprising of Koppal Polyclinic’s Assistant Director Dr. Ashok Gonasagi, Chief Officer Dr. Chandrashekhar G, and Dr. Yamanappa carried out the surgical process and extracted 25 kg of plastic from the cow’s stomach.

Dr. Ashok then urged people to reduce the usage of plastic items and suggested against throwing plastic waste out in the open to save animals.

New Delhi: The National Investigation Agency (NIA) has moved Supreme Court against the Bombay High Court order granting default bail to lawyer-activist Sudha Bharadwaj, who was arrested in the Elgar Parishad-Maoist links case in August 2018 under the provisions of UAPA.

The high court on December 1 had said in its order that Bharadwaj, accused of being part of a conspiracy to overthrow the Union government, was entitled to bail and its denial would be in breach of her fundamental right to life and personal liberty guaranteed under Article 21 of the Constitution.

The high court had directed that Bharadwaj, lodged in the Byculla women’s prison, be produced before the Mumbai special NIA court on December 8, and conditions of her bail and date of release be decided.

Bharadwaj is the first among 16 activists and academicians arrested in the case to have been granted default bail.

Poet-activist Varavara Rao is currently out on medical bail.

Jesuit priest Stan Swamy died in a private hospital here on July 5 this year while waiting for medical bail.

The others are all in custody as undertrials.

The high court had rejected the default bail plea filed by eight other co-accused in the case – Sudhir Dhawale, Varavara Rao, Rona Wilson, Surendra Gadling, Shoma Sen, Mahesh Raut, Vernon Gonsalves and Arun Ferreira.

The case relates to alleged inflammatory speeches delivered at the Elgar Parishad conclave, held at Shaniwarwada in Pune on December 31, 2017, which the police claimed triggered violence the next day near the Koregaon-Bhima war memorial located on the city’s outskirts.

The Pune police had claimed the conclave was backed by Maoists. The probe in the case was later transferred to the NIA.

GUWAHATI: The Assam government on Sunday issued a new SOP, including mandatory RT-PCR test on arrival, for international travellers, amid rising number of cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 in the country.

The new SOP has been formulated on the basis of the protocol for international travellers prepared by the Centre, state Health Minister Keshab Mahanta said in a statement.

India reported 17 more cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Sunday – nine in Rajasthan capital Jaipur, seven in Maharashtra’s Pune district and a 37-year-old fully vaccinated man who arrived in Delhi from Tanzania – taking the tally to 21 in the country.

Most of those who tested positive either recently arrived from African countries or were in contact with such people.

With this, four states and the national capital have now reported cases of the potentially more contagious variant which has sparked a fresh alert across the world.

The country reported the first two cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 on Thursday in Karnataka.

Both patients are fully vaccinated.

On Saturday, a 72-year-old NRI from Gujarat and a 33-year-old man from Maharashtra’s Thane tested positive for the new strain.

All international travellers will have to undergo compulsory RT-PCR test for COVID-19 on arrival with children below five years of age having been exempted, Mahanta said.

However, if any child below five years of age coming from abroad is having symptoms for COVID-19, a test will have to be conducted, he said.

If travellers are found positive for the infection, they will have to abide by the state government protocol for the treatment of such patients, and their samples will also be sent to laboratories for genome sequencing to determine the COVID variant.

International travellers, who test negative on arrival, will compulsorily have to undergo seven-day home quarantine, the statement said.

As per the new SOP, district authorities will keep track of overseas travellers and ensure that they follow all the protocols.

It also asked those who are going out of or coming into Assam to upload a self-declaration form on “Air Suvidha” portal before the scheduled journey.

They have to submit travel details for the last 14-days and their negative RT-PCR report, not older than 72 hours.

Each passenger will also have to submit a declaration with respect to the authenticity of the report and will be liable for criminal prosecution if found otherwise.

They should also give an undertaking on the portal or to the Ministry of Civil Aviation through airlines before they are allowed to undertake the journey that they would abide by decisions of the appropriate government authority to undergo home or institutional quarantine as warranted.