Party workers monitoring strong rooms in for long haul

Party workers monitoring strong rooms in for long haul

Shanmughasundaram.J@timesgroup.com

08.04.2021

After toiling for more than a month electioneering under scorching sun, Tamil Nadu political party leaders are not about to let their guard down. Counting of votes is 23 days away and the DMK and AIADMK leaders have deputed workers to keep vigil round-the-clock at strong rooms, where EVMs are being guarded.

A small group of trusted functionaries from each political party have been deputed for the crucial post-poll duty. They keep a close watch over the 75 counting centres across the state. A few of the functionaries TOI contacted said their party high command had instructed them to take turns to maintain vigil near the counting centres until May 2 when the votes would be counted.

The Election Commission of India (ECI) has made elaborate security arrangements. It has deployed armed CRPF personnel in the inner circle (covering the strong rooms) of the three-tier security arrangement, while the TN special police, armed reserve police and local police would be deployed in the outer circle.

“But we don’t want to take any chances,” DMK spokesman Tamilan Prasanna told TOI, recollecting the illegal entry of a tahsildar into a strong room in Madurai after the 2019 Lok Sabha polls. “We have deployed a chief agent and a group of functionaries to keep a close watch on the strong room,” said DMK’s Harbour constituency candidate P K Sekar Babu.

“Agents of the political parties, who were given identity cards, will be allowed inside the monitoring room where live feed is screened round-theclock. The footage will be recorded and kept safely until the election results,” said Tirupattur collector M P Sivan Arul.

“We normally keep a watch over the strong rooms during all elections, even at night,’’ said an AIADMK functionary in Coimbatore. Collector S Nagarajan said necessary measures were taken and political party workers need not worry. “The EVMs from all the constituencies were kept inside the strong room and sealed in the presence of cadres from all political parties. They will be opened in their presence only,” he said.

(With inputs from V Mayilvaganan, M K Ananth)

TIGHT VIGIL: CRPF personnel guard a sealed strong room containing EVMs from Trichy west and east constituencies

Offices can hold vax sessions from April 11

Offices can hold vax sessions from April 11

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:   08.04.2021

The health ministry has allowed workplaces — in both public and private sector — to organise vaccination sessions for their employees from April11 to ramp up the exercise amid rising infections.

However, only employees aged 45 years and above can get vaccinated and outsiders, including eligible family members, cannot be vaccinated at such sessions. The move is aimed at making the vaccination drive more “citizencentric” as a substantial proportion of the population aged 45 years and above work in the organised sector of the economy. The ministry also issued guidelines to support states/ UTs to help organise these sessions.

HC: Wear mask even if alone in your car

Upholding a Delhi government decision in 2020 to fine a single occupant of a car if they didn’t wear a mask, the Delhi HC on Wednesday ruled that a mask is a “suraksha kavach” and wearing it is compulsory even if one is driving alone in a private vehicle. This also holds true if one has been vaccinated, it said.

Beneficiaries will need to register on Co-Win portal

Health secretary Rajesh Bhushan said in a letter to all states and UTs: “Covid-19 vaccination sessions may be organised at workplaces (both public and private) which are having about 100 eligible and willing beneficiaries by tagging these work places with an existing Covid Vaccination Centre (CVC).”

The sessions will still require beneficiaries to register on the Co-Win portal prior to vaccination, and the workplace management will designate one of its senior staff members to be the nodal officer for coordinating with district health authorities or private CVC and support vaccination activities.

Facility for onsite registration will also be available, but only to employees of the workplace.

“The schedule of vaccination session can be made up 15 days in advance and intimated to the work place so that maximum attendance is ensured on the day of the vaccination.

“In most of the work places vaccination schedule may, however, be completed in less than 15 days,” the guidelines said.

“The work place CVCs staff engaged in COVID-19 vaccination will follow existing SOPs for vaccination and reporting adverse events following vaccination,” it added.

10 states left with just 3-4 days’ vaccine stock

10 states left with just 3-4 days’ vaccine stock

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

18.04.2021 

At a time when Covid cases are rising in the country, about 10 states face dwindling vaccine stocks.

The vaccination drive in Maharashtra’s Gondia district was stopped with the district left with just 20 doses while the drive slowed down in Yavatmal, Akola, Buldhana and Washim. Odisha, Andhra Pradesh, Punjab, Rajasthan, UP, Uttarakhand, Chhattisgarh, Bihar and West Bengal have stocks that would last them 3-4 days. This has hit plans to ramp up vaccination. In Tamil Nadu, which aims to vaccinate three lakh people a day, now that the assembly elections are over, the stock of 18 lakh doses will last about six days.

Active cases in city cross 10,000-mark

A total of 3,986 fresh cases were recorded in TN on Wednesday and active cases in Chennai breached the 10,000-mark with 1,459 new cases. While 17 deaths took the toll to 12,821, total cases touched 9.11 lakh. The state has 18.18 lakh doses of vaccine and one lakh people were being vaccinated every day. 

Vax crisis has hit plans to ramp up vaccination in many states

Many of these states expect doses to arrive soon and have been pushing the Centre for replenishments.

While Odisha got the intimation that it would receive 3.49 lakh doses of Covishield after April 15, state additional chief secretary (health) Pradipta Kumar Mohapatra wrote to Union health secretary Rajesh Bhushan on Tuesday, seeking immediate supply of 15 lakh to 20 lakh doses of Covishield. With just 6.5 lakh doses left in stock, Odisha can manage to vaccinate people for three more days.

Andhra Pradesh faces a similar predicament. While its next big consignment — 10.8 lakh doses — is expected around April 15, the state can manage to vaccinate people for 3-4 more days. This can get extended by a few days if the scheduled tranche of 2 lakh doses reaches the state on Thursday.

West Bengal too is uncertain about stocks getting replenished. “We have been allotted about 21lakh more doses of Covishield but no date has been confirmed yet,” said Ashim Das Malakar,state family welfare officer. Following Wednesday’s vaccination, the state has about 12 lakh doses left.

Uttar Pradesh health ministerJai PratapSingh said thereis no shortage of vaccines in the state. However, the present stock —12.33 lakh doses —would last about 3-4 days with UP vaccinating 2.5-3 lakh people a day. The state is expecting about 5 lakh doses early next week.

With Punjab inoculating about 1.5 lakh people a day, its existing stock of about 5 lakh doses would pull the vaccination drive for about 4 more days. The state has raised a demand of about 15 lakh doses. The situation is similar in Rajasthan, Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttarakhand.

The shortage has also hit plans to ramp up vaccination in many states. Rajasthan had ramped up its vaccination to 5 lakh a day on Tuesday and Wednesday. However, its plan to vaccinate 7 lakh day has now hit a roadblock.

(With inputs from Mumbai, Hyderabad, Chandigarh, Kolkata, Lucknow, Bengaluru, Bhubaneshwar, Ranchi, Jaipur, Bhopal, Dehradun, Patna, Ahmedabad, Goa, Thiruvananthapuram and Chennai)

HC: All-pass fiat is uninformed political decision

HC: All-pass fiat is uninformed political decision

Sureshkumar.k@timesgroup.com

Chennai:08.04.2021

The state government’s order to cancel all arrear examinations of all college students is nothing but an uninformed political decision, said the Madras high court, making it clear that it is not acceptable to the court.

“It is inconceivable that a whole mass of students will be certificated to have qualified in a system without having basic knowledge in respect of key aspects thereof,” said the first bench of Chief Justice Sanjib Banerjee and Justice Senthilkumar Ramamoorthy on Wednesday.

“There is no doubt that lakhs of students who had thought that they had cleared the particular course after writing their final semester may have to be held back because they did not clear previous papers – at the same time, unqualified persons cannot be certified to have qualified to pursue professional courses or even higher studies,” the judges said.

The bench directed the Tamil Nadu government and the UGC to put their heads together to suggest any ameliorative measures that could be taken by way of an examination or some other method.

The court passed the order while hearing pleas moved by advocate Ramkumar Aditiyan and former vice-chancellor of Anna University E Balaguruswamy challenging the government order.

When the plea came up for hearing on Wednesday, advocate-general Vijay Narayan submitted that the exemption had been granted only to arts and science courses since the regulatory bodies of other professional courses like medicine, engineering and law refused sanction.

Recording the submissions, the bench said, “what appears to have been done by the state is all those who wanted to rewrite their exams as deemed to have passed without conducting any form of test or evaluation.”

Referring to UGC guidelines, the bench said, “it does not provide for such a scenario, nor is it acceptable to the court.”

The court then directed the state to produce the fullest particulars on a university-to-university basis or, if possible, on a college-to-college basis as to the number of such applicants and the number of those who have been found qualified.

The court then adjourned the pleas to April 15 with a direction totheUGCandthestate to indicate what would serve the interest of the relevant students in the best way without compromising on the sanctity of the system, notwithstanding the pandemic.

The bench said the state government’s decision does not adhere to UGC guidelines not is it acceptable to the court

Lost at Kumbh 5 years ago, woman reunited with kin at Maha Kumbh

Lost at Kumbh 5 years ago, woman reunited with kin at Maha Kumbh

MS Nawaz TNN

Haridwar  08.04.2021 

In 2016, Krishna Devi got lost at the Ardh Kumbh Mela in Haridwar. Her family kept looking, filed a missing person complaint and published ads, but no leads came up. Five years on, a routine identity verification drive for another Kumbh Mela — the ongoing Maha Kumbh — suddenly led to the 65-year-old woman in Rishikesh, now reunited with her family at long last.

Krishna Devi’s story goes back to the loss of her daughter in 2016. “Her younger daughter had died. She left home to go to Haridwar. The Ardh Kumbh Mela was on,” sub-inspector of Kumbh Msela police in Rishikesh Deepak Rawat told TOI. Disillusioned and overcome with grief, she drifted away.

Just as the Maha Kumbh Mela started, police launched an identity verification drive. At Triveni Ghat shelter home, they came across Krishna Devi. When they ran her records, they found a missing person complaint from five years ago. Mela police got in touch with their counterparts in Udaipur, where the complaint had been lodged. Her identity confirmed, her family was told she had been found.

Wearing mask a must even while driving alone: Delhi HC

Wearing mask a must even while driving alone: Delhi HC

New Delhi  08.04.2021 

Wearing a mask while driving alone in a private vehicle is compulsory as it is a public place in the context of Covid-19, the Delhi high court held on Wednesday and described face covering as a ‘suraksha kavach’ or protective shield against the spread of the infection.

Justice Prathiba M Singh refused to interfere with the Delhi government’s decision to impose challans for not wearing a mask while driving a private car alone, saying a vehicle even if occupied by one person would constitute a public place.

“There are several possibilities in which while sitting alone in the car one could be exposed to the outside world. Thus, it cannot be said that merely because the person is travelling alone in a car, the car would not be a public place. Wearing of a mask therein would be compulsory in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic,” the court said. Masks are necessary irrespective of whether a person is vaccinated or not, it added.

Justice Singh’s ruling and observations came while dismissing four petitions by lawyers who challenged the imposition of ‘challans’ for not wearing a mask while driving alone in a private vehicle.

“The wearing of a mask is like a ‘suraksha kavach’ for preventing the spread of Covid-19,” the court said, noting that a mask protects the person wearing it and also those exposed to him or her.

The wearing of a face mask was “one measure which saved millions of lives” during the pandemic, it pointed out. PTI

Mexico approves Covaxin vaccine for emergency use

Mexico approves Covaxin vaccine for emergency use

Swati.Bharadwaj@timesgroup.com

Hyderabad  08.04.2021 

: Mexico’s health regulator COFEPRIS (Comisión Federal para la Protección contra Riesgos Sanitarios) has granted approval for emergency use to India’s Covid-19 vaccine, Covaxin.

The news of the approval was tweeted by Mexico’s foreign minister Marcelo Ebrard. “Very timely decision by COFEPRIS to authorise the emergency use of the COVAXIN vaccine manufactured in India. The options for vaccination against COVID-19 in Mexico are expanded,” said the post by Ebrard, a translated version of which was retweeted by the Twitter handle of the Indian Embassy in Mexico.

Covaxin now becomes the sixth Covid-19 vaccine to be approved in Mexico after Russia’s Sputnik V, the Pfizer & BioNTech vaccine, AstraZeneca-Oxford vaccie, Sinovac’s Coronavac and CanSino’s vaccine.

Mexico joins other countries like Zimbabwe, Nepal, Iran and Mauritius, among others, to have approved the use of the desi vaccine. The nod by the Mexican health regulator comes over a fortnight after neighbouring country Nepal granted emergency use approval to Covaxin and about a week after India shipped about 1 lakh doses of the vaccine to Paraguay.