New Delhi, Feb 8,2021: Rajya Sabha on Monday passed Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation (Amendment) Bill, 2021 which seeks to replace an ordinance on merging the cadre of J&K with the UT cadre for administration.
After Article 370 was read down, the State of Jammu and Kashmir was bifurcated into two Union Territories. As per cadre rules for Indian Administrative Services, Indian Police Services and Indian Forest Services (All India Services) Union Territories fall under AGMUT cadre (Arunachal Pradesh, Goa, Mizoram and UTs).
To this effect, President Ram Nath Kovind had promulgated the Ordinance last month.
Initiating the debate, Leader of Opposition (LoP) Ghulam Nabi Azad questioned the move saying the bill shows the government’s intentions to keep Jammu and Kashmir as Union Territory.
He reasserted the government’s repeated assurance of bringing the status of J&K back to “State”.
Criticising the government’s move, he alleged that over seven thousand industries have shut in J&K since the abrogation.
The former chief minister urged the government to restore the “state” status and hold Assembly polls.
Replying to the debate, Minister of State for Home G Kishan Reddy claimed development in J&K is progressing at a fast pace level. Mr Reddy mentioned about Block Development Council polls conducted last year and stated that for the first time polling was peaceful with almost 98 per cent voting.
He stated that Kashmir Valley will be connected by railways by 2022. The Minister of State also mentioned Chenab bridge, the world’s highest bridge and elevated light railway system, which are to be completed in the next four years.
Bharatiya Janata Party member Samsher Singh Manhas stated the J&K now has three All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and new campuses of Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) and Indian Institute of Management (IIM) are coming to the new UT.
Aam Aadmi Party Sushil Kumar Gupta (AAP) asked the distribution of officers across the all UTs while Manoj Jha of Rashtriya Janata Dal questioned whether the reorganisation is permanent or temporary.
He also raised the case of two PhD students of Bihar who are still waiting to join their college in J&K.
Questioning the restoration of normalcy, he asked why Members of Parliaments were not allowed to visit the Valley.
People Democratic Party’s Mohammad Mir Fayaz questioned if normalcy has been restored as per the government then why there is no bill of restoring the status of “State”.
A Navneethakrishnan of AIADMK supported the government and stated that keeping geographical locations in mind, it is better if J&K is under the direct rule of the Centre.
Ashok Siddharth of Bahujan Samaj Party supported the bill saying everyone wants to visit the valley but no one wants to work there.
But, he raised an objection that the bill might affect the local officers in promotions and needed to be corrected.
New Delhi, Feb 6,2021: India has become the fastest country to reach five million mark in Covid vaccination with the country achieving the feat merely in 21 days.
The country is followed by the United States which reached the five million mark in 24 days, the UK and Israel both in 45 days, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said in a statement on Saturday.
India has registered an unprecedented record in the number of COVID-19 cumulative tests, crossing the landmark of 20 crore (20,06,72,589) total tests on Saturday with 7,40,794 tests conducted in the last 24 hours.
With 2,369 testing labs in the country, including 1,214 government laboratories and 1,155 private laboratories, the daily testing capacity has got a substantial boost.
Active caseload dropped under 1.5 lakh- the lowest in 8 months and more than 54 lakh health workers were vaccinated.
The active caseload now consists of just 1.37 per cent of the country’s infection count.
The cumulative positivity rate is also declining and presently pegged at 5.39 per cent.
The country has seen less than 100 fatalities (95) and 11,713 infections in the last 24 hours.
Amaravati (Andhra Pradesh), February 6,2021:: Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister YS Jagan Mohan Reddy on Friday directed the officials to come up with an action plan to set up three concept cities near Visakhapatnam, Tirupati, and Bengaluru to house information technology and related industries in the state.
As per an official release, the Chief Minister said that these cities should contribute to the IT progress and help in the development of the state by bringing in as many industries as possible and focus on creating a large number of jobs.
“The Chief Minister has directed officials to focus on ensuring uninterrupted internet service should be provided in every village. He had stressed on the construction of libraries with accessible bandwidth internet connections in every village. Apart from building libraries, the Chief Minister instructed that all the secretariats and Rythu Bharosa Kendras (RBKs) in the village should also be connected to the internet,” it said.
The release said that the Andhra government is also chalking out plans to develop an integrated industrial park in Visakhapatnam, which will includes high-end skill university, incubation centers, labs, departmental offices, data centre and IT towers.
“The government now plans to set up an institute of emerging technology and research university,” it said.
Reddy also directed officials to set up hubs for all e-governance applications in fields of education, health, agriculture and other services of the state.
New Delhi, Feb 4,2021: The Central Government on Thursday apprised the Delhi High Court that 43 First Information Reports (FIRs) were registered in connection with January 26 tractor rally protests and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) invoked in some of the FIRs, in which banned entity ‘Sikhs for Justice’ is allegedly involved.
The Centre informed that substantial steps have been taken in this regard and out of the 43 FIRs, 13 have been transferred to Delhi Police Special Cell.
A bench headed by Chief Justice DN Patel and also comprising Justice Jyoti Singh was hearing a plea seeking directions to the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) and the Delhi Police to take action against perpetrators involved in the January 26 clashes in the capital.
The petitioners, Shubham Awasthi and two others, residents of Delhi NCR, in their plea filed through Advocate Narayan Sharma, sought to direct the Centre to strengthen the laws pertaining to insults to the National Flag and Constitution so that a strong sense of deterrence is brewed among mishchief mongers also sought Centre’s direction to form a committee in this regard.
Chandigarh (Punjab), February 2,2021: An ‘amputee clinic’, the first of its kind in India, with the aim of improving amputation patient care by providing a collection of services under one roof with significant coordination was launched in Chandigarh.
The clinic was formally inaugurated by the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER) Director Prof Jagat Ram on Monday.
“The basic intent of this initiative is to bring an Amputee as a near-normal functional human being in society. This initiative will attempt to provide appropriate management to amputees to guide them in their path to rehabilitation in society and will support patients with counseling and medical facilities during their treatment and recovery,” Jagat Ram told ANI.
Prof MS Dhillon, Head of the Department of Orthopaedics, who spearheaded the initiative said, “This is the first of its kind clinic in the country. Over the last few years, it has been our endeavor to provide comprehensive care to Post-Trauma amputees, with various aspects of multidisciplinary care. We have combined all the specialties that help in patient care and rehab under one roof and we have now formalized this as PGI AMPUTEE CLINIC.”
New Delhi, Feb 1,2021 : Union Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Monday announced “One Nation One Ration Card” for providing benefits to workers in unorganised sectors.
‘One Nation One Ration Card plan is under implementation by 32 states and UTs, reaching about 69 crore beneficiaries – that’s a total of 86 per cent beneficiaries covered,’ Ms Sitharaman said.
Last year, the labourers and migrants were hardest hit from Covid-19 crisis and nationwide lockdown due to hardships in getting rationed food and jobs. This in all forced many to leave cities and return to their villages.
This scheme allows beneficiaries to claim their rations from anywhere in the country, especially the migrant workers, with a partial claim from where they are stationed, while their family, in their native places, can claim the rest, the minister said.
Ms Sitharaman also proposed to launch a portal that will collect relevant information on gig, building and construction-workers among others. This will also help formulate health, housing, skill, insurance, credit, and food schemes for migrant workers.
The government will implement the new labour codes for extending social security benefits to gig and platform workers with the application of minimum wages across all categories of workers.
Women will be allowed to work in all categories and also in the night-shifts with adequate protection, Ms Sitharaman said.