Precious Kashmir

Budget Session to begin on Jan 31

Front

15/01/2022

New Delhi: The upcoming Budget Session of Parliament will begin on January 31 and conclude on April 8 as per the recommendation of the Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs, sources said on Friday.

The President will address both Houses of Parliament at a joint session at 11 am on the first day.

According to the recommendation, the Economic Survey will be presented on January 31 and the Union Budget for 2022-23 will be presented on February 1, sources said. There will be no sitting on March 18 on account of Holi.

The Union Budget for 2022-23 will be laid in the Rajya Sabha after its presentation in Lok Sabha, the sources said.

The first part of the Budget Session, which will begin on January 31, will conclude on February 11.

The second part will start after an over a month recess of both houses, when they reassemble on March 14.

The Budget Session will conclude on April 8, the sources added.

The entire schedule of the Budget Session has been conveyed to the President for approval, sources said.

COVID-19: Govt to establish two Triage Centres in each district

City

Jahangeer Ganaie

15/01/2022

COVID-19: Govt to establish two Triage Centres in each district

Srinagar: Divisional Commissioner Kashmir P K Pole has directed all deputy commissioners and chief medical officers to establish two triage centres in every district so that all the necessary logistics and staff shall be placed in the centres.

Pole stressed upon the application of fundamental Principles of Patient Care Management of asymptomatic Covid Positive patients in Home Isolation & in hospitals, besides, mindful referral of patients to the Tertiary Care Hospitals.

“So far the nature of the 3rd Wave of Covid-19 has been very mild and the cases require symptom based treatment which can be given to them at primary Health Centres and as such it is imperative that such primary health centres including Panchayat Covid Care Centres be strengthened with men and machinery,” Pole said.

He directed officials for establishment of Triage Centres; two in each district- one at district Hospital and other at Sub-District Hospital. All the necessary staff/logistics shall be put in place in these Triage Centres. All positive cases in the district shall attend the Triage Centre on getting a positive Covid 19 test report and their further destination shall be decided by the Medical Team at the Triage Centre.

“All those Hospitals as Dedicated Covid Hospitals which were earmarked for such purpose during 2nd wave of Covid-19 and special beds or wards must be designated for Covid-19 positive pregnant ladies,” he said.

Pole also directed officials to rope in additional manpower to deal with any eventuality and deputy commissioners must hold review meetings of their districts on every Monday and on every Tuesday Divisional Commissioner himself will hold meetings with all DC’s to review status of Covid.

He directed officials to establish Covid control rooms, constitute district Monitoring and supervisory teams, vaccinated, unvaccinated people above 18 and be proactive in management of containment zones.

He also instructed the Director SKIMS, Principal GMC Srinagar and Principal MCH Bemina Srinagar to depute final year MBBS students and final year Nursing/Paramedic students to Deputy Commissioner Srinagar for further deployment as per requirement. (KNO)

Cluster University students demand online not ‘in-person’ exams

City

Precious Kashmir

15/01/2022

Srinagar: Students, who are scheduled to take their examination at designated examinations centres next week, on Friday urged cluster university authorities here to review decision regarding offline mode of examination.

The government has already barred “in-person” teaching in colleges, schools, polytechnics, ITIs, Coaching Centres for Civil Services, Engineering or NEET etc.

“While teaching cannot happen, how on earth examinations are conducted when there is alarming surge in Covid-19 cases and spread of its highly infectious Omicron variant,” said a student who is scheduled to appear in 5^th semester examinations beginning January 18.

On Sunday last, the State Executive Committee headed by Chief Secretary Dr Arun Kumar Mehta asked all educational instructions to adopt online medium of teaching.

Since then there has been spurt in covid-19 cases and active cases have already surged to more than eight thousand. Also there has been confirmation of as many as 23 Omicron, the highly transmissible variant of the covid-19.

“Even the High Court of J&K and Ladakh has started online mode of hearing and strictly prohibited the entry of litigants and public inside the court premises in view of what has been observed to be ‘alarming surge in the covid-19 cases by the Chief Justice,” another student, also tipped to take examination beginning January 18, said. The student urged government to interfere into the matter and ensure that the purpose behind its order barring “in-person” teaching is not defeated. “The essence of the order is to prevent assembly of people and when it is served by barring in-person teaching, how it cannot be defeated by in-person examination,” the student asked and urged the government to interfere and ensure that no in-person examinations are conducted by the concerned varsities or other educational institutions.

“Our last few semesters were conducted through online mode and as such same mode shall be adopted this time around for large public interest and student good in keeping with upsurge in the covid-19 cases.”

Meanwhile despite repeated attemps controller examinations Cluster university Srinagar could not be contacted for comments. (GNS)

Veterans Day celebrated at JAK LI Regimental Centre in Sgr

Jammu & Kashmir

Precious Kashmir

15/01/2022

Veterans Day celebrated at JAK LI Regimental Centre in Sgr

Srinagar: Indian Armed Forces Veterans Day was celebrated at the JAK LI Regimental Centre, Srinagar on Friday to recognize the services rendered by the first Commander-in-Chief of Indian Armed Forces, Field Marshal KM Cariappa, who retired on this day in 1953.

According to a statement, a veterans meet was organised at Nongrum Auditorium, JAK LI Regimental Centre which was attended by Veterans and Veer Naris.

The Veterans were felicitated by the Commandant JAK LI Regimental Centre. The event was aimed to recognise their contribution and receive firsthand information about problems being faced by them.

Attendees were educated about various welfare projects being undertaken as also health care during COVID. To facilitate instant mitigation of issues, various stalls, including Medical and Dental Camp, Zila Sainik Welfare Board, JAK LI Records and Banks, were established. These aimed at providing basic Medical Care and mitigate pensionary issues and related documentation issues.

Commandant, JAK LI Regimental Centre during his address, felicitated them and assured continued assistance from the Army.

The Commandant also expressed his gratitude in recognition of their sacrifice, service to the Nation and gallant act during active service in the line of duty.

The veterans extended their sincere gratitude towards Army for organising the Veterans meet to mark the Veterans Day and thanked security forces for maintaining peace and tranquility in the UT of Jammu & Kashmir while providing enormous job opportunities for youth and women through recruitment, various empowerment projects and Skill Development at Army Skill Development Centre.

In 2 weeks, 75 areas declared micro containment zones in Budgam

Jammu & Kashmir

Naveed Ul Haq

15/01/2022

Budgam: Amid steep rise in Covid-19 positive cases in Jammu & Kashmir, district administration here in central Kashmir’s Budgam district has declared 75 areas as micro-containment zones in the district in past two weeks.

Chief Medical Officer (CMO) Budgam Dr Tajamul Khan said that administration has declared total of 75 micro containment zone’s in Budgam, which include 13 macro containment and 62 micro containment zones.

“Hotspots have been identified and in declared containment zones, 144 CrPC will remain in place for containment of the disease,” the CMO said, adding that from past one week, cases are rising in district and for the same, administration is ready to tackle the situation. “We have three Oxygen generation plants in district, each one at Beerwah,Magam and Chararisharief and one Oxygen manifold at Chattergam,” he said..

He said that OPD’s in all hospitals are operational, however, they have made Rapid Antigen Test (RAT) compulsory for everyone to enter hospital premises.

He said that 44 per cent vaccination has been completed for age group 13-17 different drives, covid19 awareness campaigns and vaccination drives are being held to stop it from further spread.

He has requested citizens of district to follow the Covid appropriate behavior, wear mask and avoid unnecessary travel to make it no 3rd wave. (KNO)

Decade on, Chadoora village without water supply, residents aghast

Jammu & Kashmir

Naveed Ul Haq

15/01/2022

Budgam: Residents in Noubugh area of central Kashmir’s Chadoora Budgam are up in arms against the Jal Jeevan Mission Department for failing to provide drinking water to the residents from the past one decade.

Residents while protesting said that officials have failed to provide drinking water supply to this village for the past 12 years.

Protesting residents alleged that despite being without water supply from 2007, Jal Jeevan mission are trying to install sign boards in the village where it’s written that the village has 100 percent water availability.

They have appealed to the administration to look into the matter and to provide the pure filtered water so that we can have a sigh of relief.

However, Sub District Magistrate Noor Ul Hameed said that the department has only mentioned on sign boards that schools, Anganwardi and health centres in the said village have covered 100 percent of drinking water adding that the whole village will soon get full water supply. (KNO)

Delhi court junks bail plea of ‘Bulli Bai’ app creator Neeraj Bishnoi

National

Indo Asian News Service

15/01/2022

Delhi court junks bail plea of ‘Bulli Bai’ app creator Neeraj Bishnoi

New Delhi: A court here on Friday refused to grant bail to engineering student and ‘Bulli Bai’ app creator Neeraj Bishnoi, who was arrested by the Delhi Police from Assam for creating a platform for defaming women of a particular community.

Noting that the accused ran a vilification campaign against the dignity of the women of a particular community containing derogatory material through the app affecting communal harmony of the society, Chief Metropolitan Magistrate of Patiala House Courts, Pankaj Sharma, denied the bail application.

The court also observed that the accused created the app where women journalists and celebrities of a particular community who are famous on social media are targeted and they are projected in a bad light with an objective to insult and humiliate them.

Last week, Bishnoi, who was arrested by the IFSO (Intelligence Fusion and Strategic Operations unit) of the Special Cell of Delhi Police had been sent to seven days’ custody.

He was a student of second-year B.Tech, computer science, at Vellore Institute of Technology, Bhopal.

According to police, Bishnoi had, in October, had created a list of women whom he wanted to defame online on his digital devices, a laptop, and cell phones.

He was tracing women activists all over social media and downloading their photos.

On January 1, this app, which was performing on Github’s space, posted photos of a number of women of a particular religion. These included journalists, social workers, students, and famous personalities.

It happened six months after the controversy of Sulli Deals.

Vishal Kumar Jha, the engineering student, was one of the followers of ‘Bulli Bai’, which led the police to him.

Hosting platform Github provided space to ‘Sulli Deals’, and the ‘Bulli Bai’ too was created on it.

Later, after the controversy erupted, Github removed the user ‘Bulli Bai’ from its hosting platform.

But by then, it had sparked a nationwide controversy.The app was also being promoted by a Twitter handle with the name @bullibai, with the display picture of a Khalistani supporter.

3rd Test: Petersen shines as South Africa come from behind to win series 2-1

Sports

Indo Asian News Service

15/01/2022

3rd Test: Petersen shines as South Africa come from behind to win series 2-1

Cape Town: Keegan Petersen shined with a classy 82 as South Africa defeated India by seven wickets to win the series-deciding third Test at the Newlands Cricket Ground on Friday.

After Petersen fell, Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma combined for an unbeaten partnership of 57 off 105 balls to chase down 212, scripting a remarkable series victory from being 0-1 down, losing tosses to acing 200-plus chases twice to win by 2-1

The play on Day 4 began with Petersen reaching his second half-century of the match with a brace on thick edge going through third man. It also meant that Petersen has crossed fifty thrice in the series, including twice in the ongoing match. India pacers Mohammed Shami and Jasprit Bumrah asked many questions while beating the outer edges but co’ldn’t get a wicket early on.

Van der Dussen pounced on everything with width and also survived a caught behind appeal off Shami as the bat touched the ground while looking to drive. Petersen continued to impress with his off-side play and had a reprieve at 59 when Bumrah found his outer edge with a peach of a delivery but Cheteshwar Pujara couldn’t hold onto the catch at the first slip.

Van der Dussen clipped Umesh Yadav through mid-wicket while Petersen took two more boundaries through the off-side off Shami and Bumrah. The 54-run partnership was broken by Shardul Thakur, who got Petersen to chop onto his stumps and fell 18 runs short of his maiden Test hundred.

Petersen’s knock of 82 off 113 balls, his career-best effort, comes after he made a sparkling 72 in the first innings. The 28-year-old signed off from the three-match series as the highest run-scorer with 276 runs in six innings, which should be good enough for him to seal the number three spot for himself in So’th Africa’s Test eleven.

Petersen’s departure got India to keep things tight till Temba Bavuma punched off backfoot and then creamed a drive-through extra cover off Bumrah to restart the run-flow for South Africa. Thakur almost had van der Dussen’s wicket but the right-hander survived via umpire’s call on an lbw appeal as South Africa went into lunch on the verge of a win.

Post lunch, Bavuma and van der Dussen continued their smooth run-making spree. Ravichandran Ashwin was swept over backward square leg by van der Dussen while Bavuma punched sweetly through cover off Yadav. Bavuma latched onto flight offered by Ashwin to nail the sweep through square leg.

Van der Dussen’s dab to point off Ashwin for a single resulted in four overthrows before Bavuma finished off in style with a slog-sweep over deep mid-wicket.

The roar and punch in the air from Bavuma after hitting the winning runs showed the emotions of a team who weren’t the favourites to win the series but did it.

India, who were the overwhelming favourites to clinch a maiden series win in the Rainbow Nation, will be left wondering where they faltered after winning in Centurion.

Brief scores: India 223 and 198 lost to South Africa 210 and 212/3 in 63.3 overs (Keegan Petersen 82, Rassie van der Dussen 41 not out; Shardul Thakur 1/22, Mohammed Shami 1/41) by seven wickets

Putting OPDs, Elective Surgeries On Hold

Edit
Oped

Precious Kashmir

15/01/2022

Putting OPDs, Elective Surgeries On Hold

On 11 March 2020, World Health Organization declared Novel Coronavirus Disease (COVID-19) outbreak as a pandemic and reiterated the call for countries to take immediate actions and scale up response to treat, detect and reduce transmission to save people’s lives. In the beginning, neither the government nor the people, in general, had any idea of what was unfolding. The sense of being overtaken by pandemic was so devastating that it left no room for consideration about grave consequences. As things unfolded, there was realization that dedicating most of the hospitals to covid-19 patients wasn’t such a great idea. Given the limited resources, establishing hospitals at the speed it was done in China at the beginning could not have been once given a thought by the administration. Whatever was to be done had to be done within the existing infrastructure. Things have changed since and now 3^rd wave of the pandemic has started. The government has again decided to shut OPDs and elective surgeries in key hospitals.

True there is a spike in covid-19 cases as the tally already swelled to 352623 and death toll to 4557. However the concerns for non-covid patients continue to be growing while the pandemic is spreading. Many patients would be suffering hugely either there would be no space for them in the hospitals, or they desist going there, fear they might contract the dreaded disease. Both these situations are not good, whatever way one looks at them as the patients are suffering, their ailments worsening, and as such endangers many lives. Amid this situation, the government cannot look at the other when it comes to making arrangements for regular patients. While finding the solution to such a situation is not an easy one to find, it is not as such where answers cannot be found. Many lessons have been learnt already and as such all key hospitals should not be made to shut OPDs. There are serious ailments, like cancer and chronic kidney ailments, which brook no delay. There are not many private clinics to cater regular patients. Where would these people go? There is a need to designate some hospitals for covid-19 patients and make the rest available for regular patient care. Alternatively, some emergency arrangements should be made for regular patient care. The present situation is not tenable, and the government should review the decision. While Covid-19 management cannot be ignored and needs serious focus, J&K cannot afford to ignore other killers as well.

Increase pace of vaccination to fight Covid: PM

Front

United News Of India

14/01/2022

Increase pace of vaccination to fight Covid: PM

Asks states to ensure momentum of economy

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday stressed on increasing the pace of vaccination to fight Covid, as he held a virtual meeting with Chief Ministers of all states to discuss the Covid-19 situation.

The Prime Minister also asked the Chief Ministers to ensure livelihood of common citizens is not affected, and stressed on local containment of infections. He also asked states to increase testing in areas where higher number of cases are being reported.

“India’s fight against the biggest pandemic of 100 years has entered its third year. Hard work is our only path, victory is the only option,” the Prime Minister said.

He said the Omicron variant of Covid is spreading much faster compared to earlier variants, adding that our scientists and health experts are monitoring the situation.

The Prime Minister said as per experts, vaccination is the biggest weapon against Corona, whichever variant it might be.

“It is a matter of pride for every Indian that today India has given the first dose of vaccine to about 92 percent of the adult population. The coverage of second dose has also reached around 70 percent in the country,” he said.

He also said around three crore youth in the age group 15-18 years have been vaccinated, and providing booster doses to frontline workers and elderly with comorbidities will further strengthen the fight against the virus.

He also cautioned people against rumours and doubts being spread about the vaccine, and said it should be countered effectively.

The Prime Minister also asked states to ensure that livelihood of people is not affected.

“It is very important to keep in mind that there should be minimum damage to the livelihood of the common people, economic activities, and momentum of the economy should be maintained. So it would be better to focus more on local containment,” the PM said.

He stressed that we should be in the position to provide maximum treatment in home isolation situations and for that home isolation guidelines should keep on improving and they should be strictly followed. He said use of tele-medicine facilities in treating will help a great deal.

“It is better to focus on local containment. Wherever more cases are coming, testing should be increased. We should also ensure more people get treated in home isolation,” he said.

The Prime Minister also assured all Chief Ministers that the Centre is standing with the states in support.

PM Modi also talked about ‘kaadha’, a traditional home made herbal concoction which is usually used for cold as a home remedy, even as he cautioned that it is not a medicine.

“We know every home in the country has these traditions, Ayurvedic things, the tradition of having kadha etc, is good in this season. No one says it is medicine, but it has its use… I would also urge the citizens, these traditional things help… we should focus on that as well,” he said.

The high-level meeting included Chief Ministers and Lt. Governors or Administrators of States and Union Territories to review Public Health Preparedness to Covid-19 and National Covid-19 Vaccination Progress. Home Minister Amit Shah, Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya, Minister of State Bharati Pravin Pawar were among those present. Officials briefed the meeting about the latest updates on the pandemic situation.

A statement from the Prime Minister’s Office said the Chief Ministers thanked the Prime Minister for his leadership during the successive waves of Covid-19.

“They especially thanked the Prime Minister for his support & guidance and for funds provided by the Central Government which has been of immense help in boosting health infrastructure in the states. The Chief Ministers talked about preparedness to tackle increasing cases, through steps like increase in beds, oxygen availability etc,” the statement said.

Karnataka CM talked about the spread of cases in Bengaluru and measures taken to contain spread in apartments. West Bengal CM talked about the possible increase in cases in the State on account of upcoming festivities and the administration’s preparation to tackle it. Tamil Nadu CM said the state stands together with the Centre in the fight against this wave.

Jharkhand CM talked about misconceptions in some rural and tribal areas which have caused some difficulties in the vaccination programme. Uttar Pradesh CM talked about steps being taken to ensure that no one is left out of the vaccination drive. Punjab CM thanked the Prime Minister for fund and infrastructure support, especially in meeting oxygen requirements. Assam CM said steps like precaution dose have proved to be an immense confidence booster. Manipur CM said the state is taking efforts to increase the vaccination coverage, the statement said. (UNI)

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