Srinagar:  With surge in number of covid-19 cases, the Divisional Commissioner Kashmir Pandurang K Pole today called for an increase in the number of bed capacity for Covid-19 patients at all designated hospitals.

The Div Com made these remarks while chairing a Covid- 19 review meeting here.

He said that buffer stock of beds including ventilators is kept available at all designated hospitals.

At the outset, a 4 member team was constituted to look after availability and smooth supply of oxygen to hospitals. The committee shall also ensure the same is supplied under government notified rates.

He further stressed on the work expedition and timely execution of all 37 oxygen generation plants at various health facilities.

While reviewing Covid- 19 related situations, the Div Com directed concerned to enhance the RTPCR lab capacity with additional testing machinery and staff is deployed at all testing facilities.

He emphasized on improvement in sample collection, testing and contact tracing in all districts and directed concerned to ensure that isolation protocol is followed in letter and spirit.

The Div Com impressed upon maintaining the proper home isolation of positive patients for their recovery.

At the outset, the Div Com took detailed district wise latest trend of positive cases, deaths, persons in home isolation, referrals, containment zones and contact tracing.

The meeting was attended by all DCs , Mission Director NHM, Director Health, Director Industries, SP Headquarter, Health Officers and other concerned.

New Delhi: Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday said the Government is committed to ensuring adequate availability of COVID-19 vaccines.

Interacting with Governors of States regarding the Covid-19 situation and ongoing vaccination drive in the country, through video conferencing, the Prime Minister underlined that the government is committed to ensuring adequate availability of vaccines.

He highlighted that India has become the fastest nation to reach the landmark of 10 crore vaccinations.

Noting the positive impact of ‘Tika Utsav’ in the last four days, Mr Modi said that in this period, the vaccination drive was expanded and new vaccination centres also came up.

The Prime Minister said that in the battle against Covid, along with the vaccines, ‘our values and sense of duty are our biggest strengths’.

Praising the citizens who participated in this battle last year considering it their duty, he said that the same feeling of ‘Janbhagidari’ needs to be encouraged now as well.

The Prime Minister said that the role of the Governors, through appropriate utilization of their social capacity thus becomes all the more critical to achieving this.

Governors are an important link to ensure better coordination between State Governments and society, he said, adding that the combined power of all community organizations, political parties, NGOs, and social institutions needs to be harnessed.

By: Bhat Imran

Srinagar: The government on Thursday ordered closure of all private coaching institutes and extended closure of all schools for physical academics till April 30 across Jammu and Kashmir.

The KNO has learnt that the State Executive Committee (SEC) has said that the Schools in Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir shall continue to remain closed for imparting on-campus or in-person education to the students of all classes till April 30.

Besides schools, the government said that all the coaching and tuition centers imparting in-person teaching to students shall also remain closed in the entire UT till April 30.

The government said that a detailed review of the current COVID-19 situation in Jammu and Kashmir was conducted with the Financial Commissioner, Health department, Administrative Secretary School Education, Divisional Commissioner of Jammu and Kashmir regions and other officers.

The government in an order said, “On the basis of the assessment, the State Executive Committee, in exercise of the powers conferred up on it under section 24 of the Disaster Management Act, 2005, hereby orders that all schools in the UT of JK shall continue to remain closed for imparting on-campus and in- person education to the students of all classes up to and including Class 12 shall remain closed till April-30.”

“It is further ordered that all Coaching and tuition centers imparting in- person teaching to Students shall remain closed in the entire UT till April-30,” reads the government order.

Srinagar:  Jammu and Kashmir administration on Thursday cancelled ongoing exams of J&K BOSE for remaining subjects of Class X and postponed class XII exams.

“In view of rising cases of COVID19, Class X ongoing exams for remaining subjects has been cancelled and their promotion to class XI will be decided on the basis of their performance in subjects already undertaken in present exam and internal assessment,” Lieutenant Governor Manoj Sinha ‘s office said in a tweet.  “In case of ongoing XII exams, it has been postponed and it will be reviewed after one month.”

Srinagar:  As Covid-19 cases continue to rise unabated in Jammu and Kashmir, Doctors Association Kashmir (DAK) on Thursday urged authorities to rope in private hospitals to treat corona patients.

“That would reduce the burden on government run hospitals,” said DAK President and influenza expert Dr Nisar ul Hassan.

“We are back in the eye of the storm, with the second wave of Covid-19 causing surge in cases and hospitalizations too,” he said in a statement.

“Virus has once again become dangerous and is behaving aggressively.”

“Today we have more patients in hospitals than what we saw during the first wave and we are finding it hard to cope with the rush of patients,” DAK President said.

“Hospitals are running full and are at the risk of becoming overwhelmed. Patients are struggling to get a bed in ICU. Even oxygen support beds are occupied and patients have to use cylinders to maintain their oxygen levels.”

“We should include private hospitals in the fight against Covid-19,” he said.

“There is an urgent need for private hospitals to take part in the management of Covid-19 patients.”

“That would ease the pressure on public hospitals, and would relieve the strained staff,” Dr Nisar said.

“For the past few weeks, cases have started rising and is now starting to reflect in the rising number of hospitalization.”

“The number is expected to rise further in coming days as there are still massive number of people in the population who are susceptible to the virus,” he said.

Hospitals should prepare for dealing with any eventuality,” Dr Nisar said.

“Public safety will depend on hospital preparedness.”

“Hospitals should have separate negative pressure isolation wards for corona patients,” he said.

“The negative pressure would prevent contaminated air from escaping the ward. These wards should have dedicated ventilators and HEPA filters that would reduce the risk of transmission of the virus. They should have separate entrance so that infected patients don’t risk other patients and staff in the hospital.”

“In order to ensure safe environment for patients, hospitals should adopt strict infection prevention and control measures and vaccination to staff,” said Dr Nisar. (GNS)

New Delhi: India has registered 2,00,739 new COVID-19 cases within the past 24 hours, marking the largest daily increase since the start of the outbreak, the Union Health Ministry said on Thursday.

The total number of those who tested positive for the coronavirus in India has reached 14,074,564, according to the ministry.

Within the same period of time, the death toll has risen by 1,038 to 173,123 people. More than 12.42 crore patients have recovered since the start of the epidemic.

Meanwhile, a total of 114,493,238 coronavirus vaccines have been administered in the country since January 16 with 3,313,848 jabs being given since yesterday.

Maharashtra on Wednesday reported 58,952 fresh coronavirus cases whereas Delhi with 17,282 fresh infections, recorded the highest ever coronavirus diseases cases, breaking its previous daily spikes. Karnataka reported the highest single-day spike in Covid-19 cases this year by recording 11,265 new infections in the last 24 hours.

Maharashtra (3,578,160), Kerala (1,172,882), Karnataka (1,094,912), Tamil Nadu (940,145), and Andhra Pradesh (928,664) are the five most affected states.

To ensure adequate stocks of Remdesivir for hospitalised Covid-19 patients, the Centre has given fast-track approval to companies to ramp up production capacities to make around 78 lakh vials per month, double the currently installed capacity of 38.8 lakh vials. Manufacturers have also agreed to voluntarily reduce the price to less than Rs 3,500 by the end of this week. At present, seven Indian companies are producing the drug under a voluntary licensing agreement with the US company Gilead Sciences, which holds the patent for the product.

Globally, the United States remains the worst-hit country with 32,149,181, followed by India, Brazil, France and Russia. However, in terms of the total number of active cases, the US tops the charts, followed by France, India, Brazil and Belgium.

By: Hamza Ameer

Islamabad:  The United Arab Emirates (UAE) is facilitating and mediating back-channel talks between India and Pakistan with an aim to turn their rivalry into a healthy and functional relationship, its envoy in Washington has confirmed.

As part of the backdoor talks and meetings, top intelligence officials from both Pakistan and India have had secret meetings in Dubai during January 2021 as the UAE played important part in bringing the two sides to calm military tensions over the Kashmir region.

“UAE played a role in bringing Kashmir escalation down and created a ceasefire, hopefully ultimately leading to restoring diplomats and getting the relationship back to a healthy level,” said Ambassador Yousef Al Otaiba, during a virtual discussion with Stanford University’s Hoover Institution.

“They might not sort of become best friends but at least we want to get it (relations)to a level where its functional, where its operational, where they are speaking to each other,” he added.

The revelation made by the UAE Ambassador to Washington has hinted towards the US’s indirect intervention in the India-Pakistan relationship through its trusted ally, the UAE. It has also raised questions over statements from Pakistan’s top ministers, of not having any backdoor channel active between India and Pakistan.

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has repeatedly maintained that there can be no talk with India until the Narendra Modi government reverses its decision to abrogate Articles 370 and 35A, stripping the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifuracting into two Union Territories.

However, the intervention of the UAE to de-escalate tensions between India and Pakistan, especially in reference to the boiling tensions along the Line of Control (LoC), has certainly yielded positive results as both sides agreed to enforce the ceasefire along the borders.

Positive results of the backdoor secret negotiations were also evident with exchanges of complementing letters from Indian PM Modi and his counterpart PM Imran Khan, sharing a mutual desire for peace.

But what remains, as the major point of contention between the two sides, is Kashmir. Pakistan has reiterated that it will not be taking any forward movement towards dialogue with India until New Delhi agrees to put the Kashmir ‘dispute’ on the table.

One reason for Pakistan’s rigid position on Kashmir is because it cannot afford to show any flexibility on the issue as it not only plays an important role in gaining political mileage for all political parties in the country, but any deviation on Kashmir and forward movement on other matters, would trigger a massive response from across the country, something that no ruling party of Pakistan can afford to see happen.

With UAE playing its role in bringing both countries closer, it remains to be seen if the Modi government and the Imran Khan led government, would agree to compromise on political backlash domestically and give priority to rational and functional relations with each other.

New Delhi: India stood firm to China’s ‘shove and push tactics’ on the northern borders in Eastern Ladakh, Chief of Defence Staff General Bipin Rawat said on Thursday.

China feels that just by doing a little bit of shove and push, it will be able to compel nations to give in to their demands, but India has stood firm on the northern borders, General Rawat said.

“We have proven that we will not get pushed,” he said while speaking at a virtual discussion during the ongoing Raisina Dialogue 2021.

General Rawat said that by standing firm, India prevented a change in the status quo, besides being able to garner world support.

“I think the international community has to come to our support to say, yes, there is an international rule based order which every nation must follow. This is what we have been able to achieve,” he said.

Stating that China attempted to say that it was either their way or no way, General Rawat said, “Such nature of undeclared war will place a dilemma in the minds of the decision makers as in whether to resort to kinetic force and thus be labelled as an aggressor.”

He also said that the Chinese tried to change the status quo by using disruptive technology without using force.

“As of now they have not used force and they thought that India as a nation will succumb to the pressures they are putting on us because of the technological advantage they have,” he added.

Stressing that nations like China are looking to use alternative means of technology in warfare to put pressure and impose their will on other nations, General Rawat said, “I think unconventional means of conflict employed by clever use of disruptive technologies could actually paralyse networks causing breakdowns of systems — banking, power grids, transportation and communication.”

Replying to a query on China’s aggressive moves and galvanisation, General Rawat said, “They feel they have arrived… they have a superior armed force because of technological advantage. They have created disruptive technologies which can paralyse systems of the adversary.”

He said while militaries around the world are seeking innovative systems to enhance their combat capabilities, disruptive technologies, on the other hand, will compel nations to rethink the techniques and doctrines of warfare.

“That is what China is evolving to do. It is trying to get into limited conflict,” General Rawat said, as he pointed out how China used information warfare sending a message of superiority thinking the adversary will not be able to stand up against them and succumb to these threats.

“Through weaponisation of social media, the internet is changing war and politics… Technology will indeed play an important role in the manner in which nations perform in the future,” he said.

India and China have been engaged in a military tussle over the last one year in Ladakh and despite the initial disengagement, the tensions prevail as there has been no final resolution of the matter yet.

On the condition of Uyghurs in Xinjiang, General Rawat said, “In our nation, we have always believed that every community, irrespective of religion, creed or colour, have equal rights. The world must stand together in ensuring that people have their human rights.”

New Delhi:  India is concerned about the vacuum that will be created after withdrawal of the US and NATO troops from war-torn Afghanistan, Chief of Defence Staff, General Bipin Rawat said on Thursday.

He said that the main concern should not create “space for other disruptors” and therefore, see violence continue in Afghanistan.

India wants to see peace and tranquility returning to the region, he added.

“We would be very happy to provide whatever support we can in the development of Afghanistan and making sure peace returns to that nation. People have got tired and are looking at peace,” General Rawat said speaking in a virtual discussion at the ongoing Raisina Dialogue 2021.

Asked whether it was Iran and Pakistan that could exploit the situation, the Chief of Defence Staff said there are many nations that would like to step into Afghanistan.

“Many people are looking at the opportunity to exploit the vacuum that is being created. Afghanistan is a nation which is rich in resources,” he said.

Noting there are nations “that tend to exploit resources for their own benefit without the benefit going to the community of that nation”, he said: “The international community must step in to ensure Afghanistan is for the Afghans.”

President Joe Biden announced in Washington on Wednesday that he will withdraw remaining US troops from the “forever war” in Afghanistan. His plan is to pull out all US forces — numbering 2,500 now — by this September 11, the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.

The UN, together with Turkey, and Qatar, announced on Tuesday that a high-level conference aimed at ending decades of conflict in Afghanistan will go ahead beginning on April 24. There would be representatives from both the Afghan government and the Taliban.

New Delhi:  The National Investigating Agency (NIA) on Thursday said that it arrested a recruiter Altaf Ahmed Rather of the Lashkar-e-Taiba in recruitment module case.
Rather is a resident of Bandipora in Jammu and Kashmir.

The case was related to the arrest of Tania Parveen by West Bengal Police for her association with LeT and an FIR was registered in Badurai police station in North 24 Parganas district of West Bengal under sections of 121A, 124A, 120B, 419 and 420 of IPC, sections 10, 13, 15, 18, 18B, 20, 38 and 39 of UA(P) Act and 66F of Information Technology Act.

The NIA took over this case on April 5 last year and re-registered a case as RC-20/2020/NIA/DLI. The probe agency had earlier filed charge sheet against arrested accused Tania Parveen.

The investigation has revealed that accused Altaf Ahmed Rather was a school teacher in Bandipora and was a sympathiser of LeT.