New Delhi: China is now working on allocating medical supplies from Chinese enterprises to meet the growing demand in India, including oxygen concentrators, the country’s foreign ministry said on Tuesday.
“We are allocating and pushing forward Chinese companies in actively meeting India’s demand for medical supplies such as oxygen concentrators,” said ministry spokesperson Wang Wenbin.
His statement comes amidst reports on Monday that state-run Sichuan Airlines has suspended all its cargo flights to India for 15 days, disrupting private traders’ efforts to procure the much-needed medical supplies from China.
Asked about this, Wang said, “As far as I know, that’s normal business interaction.”
“We stand ready to offer support and assistance to the best of our capability if the Indian side informs us of its specific needs. As for the operation of the specific flights of the airlines you mentioned, I suggest you check with the company concerned,” he said during Monday’s press briefing.
Separately, the spokesperson of the Chinese Embassy here, Counselor Wang Xiaojian said on Monday evening that China will ‘encourage and guide the country’s companies to facilitate medical supplies to India.
On Tuesday, the foreign ministry spokesperson reiterated providing support to India.
“China is willing to cooperate with India through multiple channels in helping it fight the epidemic, and we believe India can conquer it,” the spokesperson said.
On Monday, 800 oxygen concentrators were airlifted from Hong Kong Special Administrative Region to Delhi and 10,000 more will be sent in a week, the Chinese Embassy in Sri Lanka tweeted on Monday. It also wrote that “China is keeping in touch with India regarding urgent needs.”

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday chaired a meeting with top officials to review the Covid-19 situation in the country and was given an overview relating to oxygen availability, medicines and health infrastructure.
The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) said: “The Empowered Group working on boosting oxygen supply briefed the Prime Minister on the efforts being made to ramp up availability and supply of oxygen in the country.”
“It was discussed that the production of liquid medical oxygen (LMO) in the country has increased from 5,700 MT per day in August 2020 to the present 8,922 MT on April 25. The domestic production of LMO is expected to cross 9,250 MT per day by the end of April 2021,” it said.
The Prime Minister instructed the officials to work closely with state governments to start the PSA oxygen plants at the earliest. Officers also apprised the Prime Minister that they are encouraging states to also set up PSA oxygen plants.
The Prime Minister was briefed about the functioning of the Oxygen Express Railways service as well as the domestic sorties and international sorties undertaken by the IAF to transport oxygen tankers.
The Empowered Group working on Medical Infrastructure and Covid management briefed the Prime Minister on efforts being undertaken to ramp up availability of beds and ICUs.
“They informed the Prime Minister on efforts to break the chain of transmission. The Prime Minister stressed on the need to ensure that specific guidelines and strategies evolved regarding Covid management needs to be properly implemented by the relevant agencies in the states,” the PMO said.
Meanwhile, the Empowered Group working on communication informed the Prime Minister on the efforts being undertaken to improve awareness among people on Covid-related behaviour.

New Delhi: The Centre on Tuesday said that it has provided more than 15 crore vaccine doses to states and Union Territories (UTs) “free of cost” so far, and more than 80 lakh additional doses will be received by the states/UTs in the next three days.
In a statement, the Union Health Ministry said: “Government of India has so far provided more than 15 crore vaccine doses (15,65,26,140) to states/UTs free of cost. Of this, the total consumption including wastages is 14,64,78,983 doses. More than one crore doses (1,00,47,157) are still available with the states/UTs to be administered.”
Meanwhile, 86,40,000 more doses will be received in addition by the states/UTs in the next three days, it added.
As per the ministry data, states having more than 3.70 lakh doses of vaccine as balance are Chhattisgarh (3,72,147), West Bengal (3,97,146), Madhya Pradesh (4,67,961), Tamil Nadu (5,13,119), Karnataka (5,42,725), Jharkhand (5,95,883), Gujarat (6,09,076), Bihar (7,50,587), Maharashtra (9,23,060) and Uttar Pradesh (10,10,581).
Referring to reports quoting some government officials from Maharashtra that the vaccines in the state are finished, thereby adversely impacting the vaccination drive, the Health Ministry sought to clarify that the total Covid vaccine doses received by Maharashtra as on April 27 (at 8 a.m.) are 1,58,62,470.
“Of this, the total consumption including wastage (0.22 per cent) was 1,49,39,410. Balance of 9,23,060 doses is still available with Maharashtra for administration of vaccine doses to the eligible population groups. Furthermore, three lakh doses of Covid vaccine are in the pipeline for delivery in the next three days,” it said.
The government said that vaccination is a crucial pillar of the five point strategy of the country to fight the pandemic, which includes ‘Test, Track, Treat’ and Covid Appropriate Behaviour (CAB) as the other complementing and equally important containment and management measures.
“Country has launched the world’s largest vaccination drive on January 16 this year. A liberalised and accelerated Phase 3 strategy of Covid-19 vaccination will be implemented from May 1. In its Phase 3, the National Vaccine Strategy aims at liberalised vaccine pricing and scaling up of vaccine coverage. Procurement, eligibility and administration of vaccines have been made flexible as part of the Liberalised vaccination Strategy,” it said.

Srinagar: The High Court has upheld its single bench verdict, asking Jammu and Kashmir Services Selection Board to consider additional points for higher qualification of candidates who had omitted to fill up the same in their application forms against the posts of teachers advertised through as many as 40 notifications in 2017.
A division bench of Justices Ali Mohammad Magrey and Vinod Chatterji Koul directed the Board to redraw the list “expeditiously”, and, in any case, not later than eight weeks.

The Board had invited applications from amongst the eligible candidates for selection against the posts of Teacher vide notification Nos. 06/2017/01 to 06/2017/14 dated 28th of December, 2017 (General Line); 06/2017/15 to 06/2017/28 dated 28th of December, 2017 (Science/ Maths); and 06/2017/29 to 06/2017/42 dated 28th of December, 2017 for different Districts of the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Single Judge had directed the Board to call the all the candidates, who had filed petition before the court, for counselling, verify their documents and assess their grade based on documents so produced by them.

“From the perusal of the pleadings on record and upon hearing the learned counsel for the parties, we find that the origin of the controversy lies in the format of the application form so prescribed by the Board for the selection process in question,” the division bench said as per GNS, “This is so because the column relating to qualification, as appeared in the online application form, had shown B. Ed/ M. Ed and the candidates, by mentioning the higher qualification of M. Ed, obviously and clearly meant that they had already obtained B. Ed qualification without which they could not have acquired the higher M. Ed qualification.”

In simple terms, the court observed that the purpose of writing the qualification as B. Ed./ M. Ed was to take care of a situation where a candidate having obtained only B. Ed qualification, could not subsequently claim that he/she has obtained the degree of M. Ed as well.

“However, on the other hand, where the candidate makes mention of higher qualification of M. Ed, it is implicit in such qualification itself that the candidate has already obtained the lower qualification of B. Ed without which it is not possible for the candidate to acquire the reflected higher qualification.”

In such circumstances, the court said that it do not feel that the candidates by mentioning the qualification as M. Ed have violated any of the terms or conditions in the application format.

“It is the case of the Board that only such candidates who have entered the requisite qualification in their application forms will get preference, but this claim does not match with the qualification column of B. Ed/ M. Ed so prescribed by the Board in the application format, thereby misleading the candidates/ Writ petitioners in filing up their application forms.”

Accordingly, the court has directed the Board to assign appropriate points to all the relevant qualifications omitted by the petitioners in their online application forms, including the qualification of B. Ed “of course, in case the same have been acquired by (them) prior to the last cut-off date of the advertisement notice concerned; evaluate their merit on the basis of such award of points; and redraw the final selection list(s) for the posts in question, accordingly.”

This exercise, the court said, shall be undertaken and concluded by the Board expeditiously, and, in any case, not later than eight weeks from the date of this order. (GNS)

By: M S Nazki

Jammu: A 28-year-old army soldier allegedly committed suicide by shooting himself dead with his service rifle in Banihal area in Ramban district of Jammu region, officials said on Tuesday.
They said that at about 2 a.m. information was received soldier identified as Asangeppa Madar (28) son of Parasappa of Layadagundi Bagalkot Karnataka shoot himself with the service weapon at R-Center Camp of army’s 27RR at Banihal.
SHO Banhial Nahiem Matoo when contacted by GNS said that proceedings as per law have been imitated with regard to the suicide. It was however not immediately known as to why the soldier took the extreme step. (GNS)

Jammu: A woman Indian Air Force pilot has moved the Jammu and Kashmir High Court alleging that she was sexually harassed by her flight commander.
In her petition, the pilot said that she was posted for two years at the Awantipora airbase after which she was transferred to Jammu where the accused officer was posted as a flight commander.
Alleging that the accused officer passed lewd remarks whenever he got any chance to do so, she also accused him of repeatedly demanding sexual favours from her and passing objectionable comments against her.
She said in her petition that the accused IAF officer touched her inappropriately.
In the plea, the woman officer also stated that the inquiry by the Internal Complaints Committee (ICC) was conducted in an unfair manner.
She has sought a direction to the ICC to hold a fair inquiry and also prayed for the transfer of the accused person so that he does not harass her and other witnesses.
Hearing the plea, Justice Sanjeev Kumar issued a notice to the Ministry of Defence and Air Force officials asking them to file their responses within four weeks and stayed the proceedings before the ICC.
The case has been listed for the next hearing on May 10.

Srinagar: Two soldiers were martyred after they were buried under a snow avalanche at Siachan, the worlds highest battle field in Union Territory (UT) of Ladakh, Army spokesman said.
Northern Commander Lt Gen Y K Joshi and all ranks saluted the supreme sacrifice Sepoy of Amardeep Singh and Sepoy Parabjeet Singh and offered deepest condolences to their families.
According to delayed reports reaching here, three soldiers and a porter were buried under a huge snow avalanche at Sub Sector Haneef Siachen Glacier on April 25. However, a rescue operation was immediately launched and a soldier and porter were saved.
Sepoy Amardeep and Sepoy Parabjeet lost their lives, the reports said, adding that the bodies have been retrieved from under the snow.

Srinagar: Renowned writer, former Head of Department (HoD) and scholar Dr Ghulam Mohammad passed away on Tuesday at his Srinagar residence after a brief illness.

Meanwhile, his death was widely condoled by different social, religious and other organisations and individuals.

He was 84.

Popularly known as Marghoob Banihal, he authored more than 50 books on different subjects.

Born at Bankoot area of Banihal in Ramban district of Jammu region as Ghulam Mohammad, he was appointed in the education department before he joined Kashmiri University’s Persian Department as a professor.

However, he was appointed as HoD Kashmiri department in the KU after serving in various other departments in different capacities.

After his retirement, Dr Marghoob dedicated his life to literature and research work that earned him laurels both at the national as well as international level.

Reviews operational situation
New Delhi: Indian Army chief, General Manoj Mukund Naravane on Tuesday visited forward locations at Siachen and eastern Ladakh and reviewed the operational situation.
He was accompanied by Northern Command chief, Lt Gen Y.K. Joshi, and Leh-based Fire & Fury Corps commander, Lt Gen P.G.K. Menon.
The Army Chief was later briefed by Lt Gen Menon on the prevailing security situation and operational preparedness in the Corps Zone, an army statement said.
Gen Naravane interacted with the troops and complimented them for their steadfastness and high morale, while being deployed in some of the harshest terrain, altitude and weather conditions.
This is his first visit to Ladakh since the initial disengagement took place between the Indian and Chinese armies in Pangong Lake area even though the situation across eastern Ladakh hasn’t been resolved. The military tussle between India and China started in May last year.
There have been 11 rounds of Corps Commander level talks so far between both the countries.
After 11th round of talks this month, India and China agreed to resolve outstanding issues aimed at disengagement at the Line of Actual Control in eastern Ladakh paving way for complete de-escalation.
“The two sides agreed on the need to resolve the outstanding issues in an expeditious manner in accordance with the existing agreements and protocols,” a joint statement said.
The 11th round of Corps Commander talks at Chushul happened after a nearly two-month gap. The Indian military delegation was led by Lt Gen Menon.
The two sides had a detailed exchange of views for the resolution of the remaining issues related to disengagement along the LAC.
As the India-China military tussle almost completes a year, the tensions remain, even though disengagement has been successful in Pangong Lake. Tanks and troops from both sides have pulled back and there is no eyeball-to-eyeball confrontation but the build-up across eastern Ladakh continues.
After the recent talks, the two sides agreed that it was important to take guidance from the consensus of their leaders, continue their communication and dialogue and work towards a mutually acceptable resolution of the remaining issues at the earliest.

By: Umaisar Gull Ganie

Qazigund: A traffic constable was killed on Tuesday after being hit by a truck in Qazigund area of South Kashmir’s Anantnag district.

A police official told KNO that around 07:00 am a speeding truck (JK01W-2973) hit one traffic police constable identified as Abdul Majeed Tantary (SGCT) son of Ali Mohammad Tantary, a resident of Baramulla at Bypass Chumullah crossing Qazigund, resulting in his on spot death.

The officer further said that the truck driver namely Mushtaq Ahmad Sofi was arrested.

Traffic movement which was halted temporary was restored, the officer said.