New Delhi, Jun 30,2020: The Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) issued new guidelines for Unlock 2.0 on late Monday evening, directing the schools, colleges, Metro and cinema halls to remain closed till July 31.
‘After extensive consultation with the States and UTs, it has been decided that schools, colleges and coaching institutions will remain closed till July 31, 2020,’ the new guidelines said.
According to the new norms, the Cinema halls, gymnasiums, swimming pools, entertainment parks, theatres, bars, auditoriums, assembly halls and similar places, social, political, sports, entertainment, academic, cultural, religious functions and other large congregations will remain closed till July 31.
International air travel has been permitted in a limited manner under the Vande Bharat mission. Further opening up will take place in a calibrated manner, whereas domestic flights and passenger trains have already been allowed in a limited manner. Their operations will be further expanded, also in a phased manner.
Night curfew timings are being further relaxed and curfew shall be in force from 2200 hrs to 0500 hrs. Further, relaxations in night curfew have been given for seamless operation of industrial units in multiple shifts, movement of persons and goods on National and State Highways, loading and unloading of cargo and movement of persons to their destinations after disembarking from buses, trains and airplanes.
Shops, depending upon their area, can have more than five persons at a time. However, they have to maintain adequate physical distance.
Training institutions of the Central and State Governments will be allowed to function with effect from July 15, 2020. The Standard operating Procedure (SOP) in this regard will be issued by the Department of Personnel and Training, Government of India, added the new norms.
NEW DELHI,June 30, 2020 India on Monday banned 59, mostly Chinese, mobile apps including Bytedance’s TikTok and Tencent’s WeChat in its strongest move yet targeting China in the online space since a border crisis erupted between the two countries this month.
Technology ministry issued an order stating the apps are “prejudicial to sovereignty and integrity of India, defence of India, security of state and public order”.
Following the order, Google and Apple will have to remove these apps from the Android and iOS stores.
Kolkata, Jun 25,2020: Parents of students of different private schools in Kolkata have staged a demonstration, demanding 50 per cent waiver of tuition fees.
Around 100 parents, under the banner of the United Guardians’ Association, staged the demonstration at College Square on Wednesday.
They also reached out to the Chief Minister’s Office, demanding her intervention on the issue if the private schools do not heed to their pleas.
“We demand that the school authorities take only the tuition fees from guardians this year and waive other charges such as transport, development and electricity,” said Supriyo Bhattacharya, the convenor of the association.
“We also demand that the schools should charge only 50 per cent of the tuition fee and the schools that have taken the full amount already should return the half of it,” he said.
Bhattacharya said if the demands are not met, the guardians will start a bigger movement.
“Guardians are not in a position to pay full fees due to the economic hardships caused by the lockdown,” he said.
Many guardians also staged protests in front of a private school in the Ranikuthi area in south Kolkata.
Demonstrations also took place outside a school in the Chandni Chowk area in central Kolkata.
Besides, some parents also protested against fee hike at a school in Durgapur in Paschim Bardhaman district.
There has been a series of protests in the past one month against hike in school fees in different parts of the city, and the state.
Chief Minister Mamata Banerjee has asked private schools not to hike fees, considering the difficulties faced by guardians in the present situation.
Education Minister Partha Chatterjee also warned of strict action if any school went ahead with the decision to hike fees.
BJP state president Dilip Ghosh said the government should intervene and resolve the issue.
“The guardians have been forced to hit the roads as they have been pushed to the wall,” he said.
When contacted, several private schools said it was not possible to provide any such waiver in fees.
“We were conducting online classes throughout this lockdown. Our teachers are working from home through laptops provided by the school. How can we reduce the tuition fees? We didn’t hike it this year but it is not possible to lessen the fees by half,” said the principal of a south Kolkata boys’ school.
The principal of a school in Belgharia said, “The drivers of our school buses, the security staff, the maintenance staff cannot go without pay just because classes are not being held.”
“The guardians knew very well they have to pay a particular amount while admitting their wards. Now, if all of them demand waivers how can that be possible? We can consider exceptional cases on humanitarian grounds,” he said.
Jun 23, 2020 12:53 IST
New Delhi, June 23,2020: In the Corps Commander level talks between India and China at Moldo, both sides have reached a mutual consensus to disengage in the Eastern Ladakh sector, Indian Army said on Tuesday.
According to sources, the modalities for disengagement from all friction areas in Eastern Ladakh were discussed and will be taken forward by both sides.
“The Corps Commander level talks between India and China on 22 June 2020 were held at Moldo in a cordial, positive and constructive atmosphere. There was a mutual consensus to disengage. Modalities for disengagement from all friction areas in Eastern Ladakh were discussed and will be taken forward by both sides,” the Army said.
The meeting had started at around 11:30 AM yesterday at Moldo on the Chinese side of Line of Actual Control (LAC) opposite Chushul to defuse the tensions in the Eastern Ladakh sector due to Chinese military build-up, sources had said.
This was the second meeting between the two corps commanders. They had met on June 6 and had agreed to disengage at multiple locations. India had asked the Chinese side to return to pre-May 4 military positions along the LAC.
The Chinese side had not given any response to the specific Indian proposal and not even shown intent on the ground to withdraw troops from rear positions where they have amassed over 10,000 troops.
India and China have been involved in talks to ease the ongoing border tensions since last month. However, last week as many as 20 Indian soldiers lost their lives in a violent face-off in the Galwan Valley after an attempt by the Chinese troops to unilaterally change the status quo during the de-escalation in eastern Ladakh.
The Indian intercepts have revealed that the Chinese side suffered 43 casualties including dead and seriously injured in the violent clash.
New Delhi, June22,2020: India has one of the lowest COVID-19 cases per lakh population in the world and continues to widen the gap between recovered and active cases, said the Union Health Ministry on Monday.
The health ministry said that World Health Organisation (WHO) Situation Report- 153 presented on June 21, showed that India has one of the lowest cases per lakh population in spite of its high population density.
“India’s cases per lakh population are 30.04 while the global average is more than its triple at 114.67. The US has 671.24 cases per lakh population while the metric for Germany, Spain and Brazil is 583.88, 526.22 and 489.42 respectively,” stated health ministry press statement.
This low figure is thus a testimony to the graded, pre-emptive and pro-active approach of the government along with the States/UTs that took extensive measures for the prevention, containment and management of COVID-19, it said.
So far, a total of 2,37,195 patients have been cured of COVID-19. During the last 24 hours, a total of 9,440 COVID-19 patients have been cured. The recovery rate is 55.77% amongst COVID-19 patients.
“Presently, there are 1,74,387 active cases and all are under active medical supervision. The difference between the recovered patients and the active COVID-19 cases continues to widen, as can be seen from the graph below,” stated health ministry.
Today the number of recovered patients has crossed the number of active patients by 62,808.
The COVID-19 testing infrastructure is continuously being ramped up. The number of government labs has been increased to 723 and private labs have been increased to 262, adding up to a total of 985.
The total number of samples being tested per day is also steadily rising, as is the number of total samples tested. In the last 24 hours, 1,43,267 samples were tested. Whereas the total number of samples tested thus far is 69,50,493.