A six-week Measles-Rubella vaccination drive for children between the ages of nine months and 15 years will begin Tuesday in Maharashtra, state Health Minister Deepak Sawant said.
He informed that 3.38 crore children will be covered in the campaign and MR vaccines will be provided free of cost at government hospitals and dispensaries.
A 2016 report mentioned that 49,000 children died from measles infection annually in the country, of which 8000-10000 deaths took place in Maharashtra.
Over 13.20 crore children have been administered the vaccine so far and 650 of them had reported side-effects, the report said.
“The vaccine is safe and children will be kept under observation for an hour after they are administered it. The aim is to eliminate Measles and control Rubella by 2020,” Sawant told reporters.
Crisis-hit Jet Airways continues to use layoffs in small chunks as one of the means to reduce cost with the carrier handing over pink slips to around 16 more employees, a source said on Monday.
These employees were working as ground staff in Jet Airway’s Kochi and Hyderabad offices, as per the source.
Late last month, the airline had laid off 20 employees, including some senior-level executives from the in-flight services department. Prior to that, it reportedly had asked 15 managerial level employees from various departments including engineering, security, and sales, to leave the company.
The Naresh Goyal-promoted full-service carrier, which has a fleet of 124 planes, has around 16,000 workforces.
“The airline continues to lay off people from various departments in small groups. It has already shut its city office in Hyderabad, which had 4-5 employees. Last week, the airline asked some of its employees working in the Kochi office to quit. Together, it has retrenched another 16 people from these two offices,” said the source.
Jet Airways in its response said the company is optimising its resources in select cities, including re-deploying resources where needed, as part of its turnaround plan, which includes a comprehensive network review and capacity deployment.
There have been over 49,000 incidents of fire in Mumbai in the last one decade, killing more than 600 people, the Maharashtra government said Monday.
Minister of State for Urban Development Ranjit Patil said in the state Assembly that a total of 49,391 fire mishaps were reported in the megapolis between 2008 and 2018.
Faulty electricity systems caused 33,946 blazes, 1,116incidents were due to gas leakage while 14,329cases were due to other reasons, he said.
As many as 609 people and seven fire brigade personnel died in these incidents during the 10-year period while properties worth Rs 110.42 crore were destroyed, he said.
Patil was responding to a Calling Attention notice on the massive blaze which destroyed a slum area in suburban Bandra on October 30 this year.
Of the total fire incidents in 10 years, 3,151 were reported in slums, he said.
To tackle such mishaps in crowded and slum areas, 17 small fire stations were set up by the city civic body and of these 11 are functional, the minister said.
Also, 17quickresponse vehicles and three mini fire engines were purchased for improved fire security, he said.
Over 5,000 fire workers have also imparted training about fire security measures, Patil added.
Notably, a massive fire in two pubs located in the Kamala Mills Compound here had claimed 14 lives on December 29 last year.
Besides, 12 people were killed in a blaze at a snack shop in Saki Naka-Kurla area on December 18 last year.
The Bombay High Court directed the Maharashtra government on Monday to set up child-friendly courtrooms in all the judicial premises across the state on a “priority basis”.
A bench of Chief Justice Naresh Patil and M S Karnik directed the state government to ensure that its pilot project to set up three model courtrooms in the city which are child-friendly and also cater to vulnerable witnesses is implemented without further delay.
The directions came after Advocate General Ashutosh Kumbhakoni, who was representing the state, told the bench that while the government had allocated Rs 23 lakh for setting up three such courtrooms in the city, the project had faced some delay in the past months over budget allocations.
“However, now the money has been allocated. There is a meeting later in the day between architects and officials of the Public Works Department following which the design for such courtrooms will be finalised,” he said.
At this, the bench noted that the government must ensure that the pilot project was completed at the earliest so that subsequently, the same model could be extended to all court premises across the state.
“We don’t want anything fancy. The state should just ensure that all basic infrastructure and safety requirements are met at these special courtrooms. Take this up on a priority basis now,” the bench said.
The court was hearing a suo motu (on its own motion) petition following the Supreme Court’s directions to all high courts to consider, among other things, establishing courts which are child-friendly and for vulnerable witnesses in each district.
These courtrooms are an essential requirement under several laws, including the Juvenile Justice (JJ) Act, to ensure that children or vulnerable witnesses deposing in a courtroom do not feel any fear or apprehension.
In February this year, the Supreme Court had passed a slew of directions for the chief justices of all high courts across the country pertaining to a clutch of laws.
It had asked chief justices to ensure that all provisions under the JJ Act, the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act, the Prohibition of Child Marriage (POCSO) Act, and provisions under the Indian Penal Code (IPC) for trials for sexual offences were implemented in full spirit.
The bench, led by Justice Patil, had accordingly initiated the aforementioned petition on its own and sought the advocate general’s assistance on drawing up a plan to implement the directions.
Committee of Administrators (CoA) member and former India captain Diana Edulji on Monday defended the exclusion of Mithali Raj from the women’s World T20 semi-final, saying the team management’s decision cannot be questioned.
Mithali’s omission from the playing eleven against England triggered a controversy and it intensified after India were handed an eight-wicket drubbing, shattering their dreams of a maiden ICC title.
“I think too much is being made out of it. The management (captain Harmanpreet Kaur, coach Ramesh Powar, vice-captain Smriti Mandhana and selector Sudha Shah) made the decision of not changing a winning combination and that backfired. If India had won the game, I am sure nobody would have questioned their decision,” Edulji, a former India captain, said.
“We can’t be questioning the team eleven. Another example is of Krunal Pandya, who was thrashed in the first T20 but bounced back strongly yesterday. These things happen in the game,” she said referring to the men’s team’s six-wicket win in the third T20I against Australia on Sunday.
Mithali, who had missed the last pool game against eventual champions Australia as she was recovering from a knee injury, was available for the crucial game against England. In the two innings Mithali played in the tournament, she scored 51 and 56, against Ireland and Pakistan respectively.
Harmanpreet defended the decision to keep Mithali out of the eleven, saying “whatever we decided, we decided for the team”. However, she was slammed by the latter’s manager Annisha Gupta, who claimed that the 35-year-old was a victim of politics and favouritism.
The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) on Monday informed the Patiala House Court that it has been granted permission to prosecute former finance minister P Chidambaram in connection with the Aircel-Maxis case.
Patiala House Court’s Special Judge OP Saini took up the Aircel-Maxis case, which arose out of the 2G spectrum allocation scam case. Solicitor General Tushar Mehta appeared for the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate (ED) and submitted that requisite sanction from the concerned authority has been received to prosecute Chidambaram in the matter.
Mehta further said that there were a total of 18 accused in the case and prosecution sanctions were needed for six of them. He added that efforts were being made to obtain prosecution sanctions in respect of other five accused.
Meanwhile, the court extended the interim protection granted to Chidambaram and his son, Karti, till December 18.
On Saturday, Chidambaram had denied all charges leveled by the CBI and said the decision of his arrest was “plainly motivated and totally untenable.”
The Aircel Maxis case emerged out of the 2G spectrum cases, pertaining to a grant of FIPB approval to firm M/S Global Communication and Services Holdings Limited, Mauritius for investment in Aircel.
The FIPB approval was allegedly granted in the year 2006 when Chidambaram was the finance minister. According to the rules and Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) policy of the government, Chidambaram was only empowered to give approval to proposals involving a foreign investment amount of up to Rs 600 crore. However, he reportedly approved the foreign investment proposal of Global Communication and Services Holdings Ltd worth Rs 3560 crore approximately.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi Monday said India will never forget the 26/11 attack or its perpetrators and is looking for an opportunity to bring them to justice.
Addressing an election rally here on the tenth anniversary of the 26/11 terror strike when 10 Pakistani terrorists sneaked into Mumbai, killing 166 people over 60 hours, the prime minister assured the people that the law will take its own course.
“India will never forget 26/11 or its perpetrators. We are looking for an opportunity… the law will take its own course, I assure the people of the country,” Modi said.
“Justice will surely be done,” he added while expressing solidarity with the families of those who lost their lives.
He added that a grateful nation bowed to its brave police and security forces who had valiantly fought the terrorists during the Mumbai attacks.
Rajasthan goes to the polls on December 7. The votes will be counted on December 11.
Those conspiring to destroy the Constitution should know they neither have the capacity to do so nor will the Congress allow them to do anything, Congress president Rahul Gandhi said on Constitution Day Monday.
The colours of the Constitution are “engrained in every part of us”, Gandhi said on Twitter.
“The Constitution of India is the hallmark of both our struggle and existence. It is our philosophy. It is our pride…”
“Let those who conspire to annihilate it, know that neither do they have the capacity to do so, nor will the Congress party and I ever allow them to do so,” he said in a tweet in Hindi.
The Congress has accused the BJP in the past of “destroying” the Constitution, a charge denied by the ruling party.
Constitution Day, also known as Samvidhan Divas, is celebrated on November 26 to commemorate the Constitution being adopted by the Constituent Assembly on November 26, 1949. It came into effect on January 26, 1950.
BSP supremo Mayawati alleged on Monday that the BJP and the Congress were anti-Dalit parties and were trying to ‘abolish’ the reservation system.
Mayawati made the remarks while addressing an election rally in support of a BSP candidate in the Amber constituency of Jaipur.
B R Ambedkar fought for reservation for the deprived section of society, but the BJP and the Congress are now working against it, she alleged.
Both the parties disrespect Dalits, and they are now trying to abolish the reservation system, the former Uttar Pradesh chief minister alleged.
She claimed no government at the Centre accomplished anything “remarkable” in terms of the welfare of the poor, Dalits, religious minorities, tribal people since independence.
Mayawati said her party gave tickets to all sections of society proportionately for the December-7 assembly elections.
The BSP has fielded Navin Pilania, the sitting MLA, from the Amber constituency.
In the 2013 assembly elections, Pilania won the Amber seat on the ticket of the National People’s Party. He joined the BSP recently.
The constituency is witnessing a triangular contest. Satish Poonia, who had lost the 2013 election to Pilani, is the BJP’s nominee. Prashant Sharma is the Congress candidate.
Mayawati also addressed another meeting in the Surajgarh constituency of Jhunjhunu district in support of her party candidate Karanveer Yadav.
The Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD) has instructed all states and union territories to formulate guidelines to rationalise teaching of subjects to regulate the weight of school bags as per the instructions of the Government of India.
Lakshadweep administration has already taken action by directing all schools not to assign any homework to the students of Class I and II. “Schools should not prescribe any other subjects except language and mathematics for a class I and II and language, EVS and mathematics for class IV to V students, as prescribed by NCERT,” read a circular of the administration’s Directorate of Education.
In fact, a recent circular of the Directorate noted that students should not be asked to bring additional books or any other extra material to the school.
The circular instructed that school bags of students of classes I and II should not weigh more than 1.5 kilograms and in case of students of class III and IV, the weight of bag should not exceed 3 kilograms.
They also ordered schools not to exceed the weight of bags beyond 4 kilograms for students of class VI and VII, 4.5 kilograms for class VIII and IX students and 5 kilograms for class X students.
