Breaking News, March 4

The American Centre on the premises of US Consulate General's office in Chennai which holds the highest collection of materials on American studies in South Asia will be reopened for public from March 7, after being closed since March 2020 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. However, visitors will be allowed only on an appointment basis and will have to book their slots in advance. The Centre will be open Monday to Friday between 10 a.m. and 4 p.m.

With the Meteorological department reporting the possibility of heavy rains in northern Tamil Nadu in the next few days following a depression in the southwest Bay of Bengal, farmers have geared up to save the harvest by shifting it to Direct Procurement Centres (DPCs) of the Civil Supplies department. Yellow and Orange alert has been issued on Thursday in delta and coastal districts of the state for the next 48 hours.

The Ministry of Home Affairs on Friday said that it has extended the modernisation programme of the Central Armed Police Forces (CAPFs) till March 31, 2026, with an allocation of Rs 1,523 crore. The scheme envisages equipping the CAPFs with modern state-of-the-art weapons and equipment, as per their operational requirement, keeping in view their deployment pattern in different theatres. Besides, upgraded IT solutions will also be provided to CAPFs, Ministry officials said.

On the territory of the Chernihiv region, the armed forces of Ukraine killed Russian Major General Andrei Sukhovetsky, the Deputy Commander of the 41st Army. This was announced by Anton Gerashchenko, the Advisor to Ukraine's Minister of Internal Affairs, UNIAN reported.

Celebrating its 15th anniversary, the BMW Group Plant located near Chennai, rolled out its car number 1,00,000. "It is a day of great joy and pride for us as the 1,00,000th 'Made-in-India' car drives out of our assembly lines. This accomplishment is a result of the team's hard work, efficiency and consistency which ensures that every BMW or MINI car locally produced here in Chennai is of the same international quality standards as any other BMW plant across the world," Thomas Dose, Managing Director, BMW Group Plant Chennai, said on Friday.

The Odisha government has asked its employees to maintain strict neutrality during the upcoming urban elections in the state. Chief secretary Suresh Chandra Mahapatra has written to all secretaries in the government, DGP, revenue divisional commissioners, heads of department and collectors on this.

Ten more students from Haryana returned from war-torn Ukraine on Friday and were provided assistance by the state government in Mumbai on their arrival, the state said. Officers deputed at the helpdesk in Mumbai gave each of them an air travel ticket and a cash of Rs 1,000.

At least 30 people were killed and some 50 others injured after a blast went off inside a mosque in Pakistan's Peshawar city, police said. Police sources told Xinhua news agency that the blast occurred inside the mosque located in the city's Kocha Risaldar area during Friday prayers.

India has so far administered over 2 crore precaution doses or the third vaccine shots among the eligible beneficiaries, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said on Friday. Additionally, over 97 per cent of the country's adult population have also received their first dose of vaccine against Covid-19. "Over two crore healthcare & frontline workers and citizens aged 60 years or above have received precaution doses", the minister tweeted.

A PIL has been moved in the Delhi High Court seeking directions to prohibit or control intoxicating drinks and drugs in the national capital and also to publish health warnings on liquor bottles similar to cigarette packets. Hearing the plea by BJP leader and Advocate Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay, the division bench presided over by Chief Justice D.N. Patel and Justice Neena Bansal Krishna on Friday orally observed that given the medicinal usage of alcohol, it may not be appropriate to publish health warnings.

Puducherry Agriculture Minister Theni Jayakumar on Friday announced an assistance of Rs 7.1 crore for farmers whose crops were damaged in rain in the union territory. The financial aid is in addition to an amount of Rs 6 crore sanctioned by the Union Government as rain relief for the affected farmers. Puducherry Lieutenant Governor Tamilisai Soundararajan made an announcement about the Central assistance on Wednesday. The government of Puducherry will provide relief at Rs 20,000 per hectare. The agriculture department along with the state revenue department had assessed that 2985.6 hectares of paddy, vegetables and tuber crops were affected. A total of 487.79 hectares of agriculture crops were affected in Karaikal and 79.53 hectares in Yanam also. The assistance will be provided to 6,054 farmers in the union territory which include 5,749 small and marginal farmers (SMF) and 305 other farmers. Theni Jayakumar in the statement said that the relief will be directly credited into the accounts provided by the farmers, and the agriculture department officials, including Directors, will ensure that the affected get the relief amount.

School principals and parents' associations were left disappointed with DDMA's decision on Thursday to not reopen schools in Delhi, saying keeping schools closed is no longer a solution. All India Parents Association (AIPA) president Ashok Agarwal said it is a very sad move, and decision makers have neither heart, nor mind as the prolonge closures will promote and perpetuate class divide and inequality in education. "Studies and childhood of students have already suffered too much which is irreparable. Closing down schools has no scientific basis. It has reduced employment and led people to face hunger. So many people are sitting idle at home and waiting for schools to reopen," he added. Sumedha Goel, director, The Shri Ram Wonder Years, Rohini suggested that schools for junior classes should be reopened in a phased manner keeping the hybrid model at its core.

Presenting the Budget for 2022-23 in the state Assembly, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday announced to increase monthly old-age pension amount from Rs 1,001 to Rs 1,500. Presenting his fifth and last budget of the current government, Thakur also announced to decrease the age limit from 70 years to 60 years for availing such pension, without any income limit. The chief minister also announced to increase the Member of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development Scheme (MLALAD) fund from the existing Rs 1.80 crore to Rs 2 crore. The MLALAD fund has been increased by Rs 20 lakh in the Budget, which is the last one before the next Assembly elections scheduled to be held in December.

"We are bringing a bill to stop cheating in exams. No investigation was conducted into paper leaks during BJP Government in Rajasthan. We are taking action and are committed to stop cheating and corruption": Rajasthan Minister Pratap Singh Khachariyawas.

Presenting the Budget 2022-23 in the state Assembly, Himachal Pradesh Chief Minister Jai Ram Thakur on Friday (March 4) announced to increase the Member of Legislative Assembly Local Area Development (MLALAD) fund from the existing Rs 1.80 crore to Rs 2 crore. The MLALAD fund has been increased by Rs 20 lakh. Presenting his fifth and last budget for the fiscal 2021-22 of the current government, Thakur stated that a total increase of Rs 90 lakh had been made in the MLALAD fund during his government. Thakur also announced to increase the discretionary grant for MLAs from Rs 10 lakh to Rs 12 lakh for the next fiscal. A total of 789 plans from NABARD worth Rs 3,200 crore had been approved during the five-year tenure of the previous Congress government, whereas the current government got approval of 826 plans from NABARD worth Rs 3,452 crore, he added.

The union territory of Puducherry logged just one new coronavirus case and zero fatalities during the last 24 hours, a senior Health Department official said on Friday. The lone infection was detected at the end of the examination of 497 samples, taking the overall tally to 1,65,739, Director of Health G Sriramulu said in a release. The only COVID-19 case reported in the last 24 hours ending 10:00 am on Friday was confined to the Puducherry region while the other three regions-Karaikal, Mahe and Yanam- did not log any infections. The number of active cases stood at 52 which included five patients undergoing treatment in hospitals and 47 in home quarantine.

Maharashtra: CBI officials reach Arthur Road jail to record the statement of Former Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh in connection with Rs 100 crore alleged extortion case.

Supreme Court lists on March 11th, a plea seeking to cancel the bail plea of accused Ashish Mishra in Lakhimpur Kheri incident.

With 6,396 people testing positive for coronavirus infection in a day, India's total tally of COVID-19 cases rose to 4,29,51,556, while the active cases dipped to 69,897, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday. The death toll climbed to 5,14,589 with 201 fresh fatalities, the data updated at 8 am stated. The daily COVID-19 cases have remained less than one lakh for 26 consecutive days. The active cases comprise 0.16 per cent of the total infections, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate has further improved to 98.64 per cent, the ministry said. A reduction of 7,255 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours. The daily positivity rate was recorded as 0.69 per cent and the weekly positivity rate as 0.90 per cent, according to the ministry. The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 4,23,67,070 while the case fatality rate was recorded as 1.20 per cent.

An eight-year-old girl was allegedly raped by a teacher and the manager of her school here, the police said. The incident happened on Thursday. The girl is a Class 3 student of a private school under Kotwali police circle. After coming home from school, the girl narrated her ordeal to her parents. Circle officer Kuldeep Singh said that on the basis of a complaint filed by her father, the two accused have been arrested. They have been booked under Section 376 (rape) of the Indian Penal Code and the Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act. The victim was sent to the district hospital for a medical examination. The report confirmed rape, said the police official.

Seven dead and several injured in an explosion in Tatarpur police jurisdiction in Bhagalpur district. Prima facie it is coming to light that the family was involved in making firecrackers. 2-3 houses damaged. We are further investigating the matter, says Bhagalpur DM, Subrat Kumar Sen. 

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Rajasthan Tourism Department is set to host a three day Holi festival "Braj Holi Mahotsav" from March 12 to 14 in the cities of Bharatpur, Deeg and Kaman.Talking about the event, Nishant Jain, Director of the Department of Tourism said, "The east of Rajasthan is imbued with the essence of Braj and the annual Braj Holi festival of Rajasthan tourism department is a celebration of the rich traditions. From local sports to folk dance and music, it is set to enthral visitors of all ages with colours of Braj."The traditional region of Braj spreads from east of Rajasthan to the neighbouring state of Uttar Pradesh and is known for its unique culture inspired and immersed in the devotion of Shri Krishna and his "Leelas" of adolescence age. The festival of Holi thus becomes even more auspicious and enchanting at Braj and hence, visitors from the country and abroad visit the region every year to be part of the Holi celebrations. The department has planned a list of activities to make the festival memorable for the visitors, Jain added.

A couple travelling in a goods autorickshaw along with their daughter died when the vehicle plunged into a roadside well, the police said. Their daughter, however, managed to get out of the vehicle and escape to safety. The incident occurred on Thursday in Tiruppur district of Tamil Nadu. The deceased have been identified as N. Vadivel (55) and his wife Banumathi (50). Police said that Vadivel was engaged in installing marquees and stages for temple festivals and other functions and a few days ago he had installed a stage for a temple festival at Tiruppur. He along with his wife Banumathi and daughter Agaya who is a class VII student was returning back home on Thursday early morning after the temple festival got over.

The enforcement directorate (ED) has provisionally attached immovable property of Ahsan Ahmad Mirza worth Rs 2.75 crore in the money laundering case against the office bearers of the Jammu and Kashmir cricket association (JKCA). Earlier in December 2020, the ED had provisionally attached the property of former chief minister, Farooq Abdullah who was the president of JKCA from 2001 to 2012. The JKCA scam being probed by the Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) and the ED is about alleged financial misappropriation between 2004 and 2009. An ED statement said that in this case properties worth Rs 14.32 crore have already been attached previously; Rs 2.46 crore of movable and immovable assets of Mirza and Mir Manzoor Ghazanfar, and Rs 11.86 crore of immovable assets of Abdullah. Abdullah has challenged the attachment order in the high court.

Delhi AAP MLA Akhilesh Pati Tripathi sustained serious injuries on Thursday after his car overturned on the Lucknow-Agra expressway in Uttar Pradesh’s Unnao while he was returning from the Assembly poll campaigning, party said. Five other people who were travelling with Tripathi in the car sustained minor injuries in the incident, AAP’s Uttar Pradesh unit spokesperson Mahendra Singh said in a statement. Tripathi, along with his associates, was returning from Gorakhpur after participating in the party’s poll campaigning when the incident took place in the Behta Mujawar police station area, he said. His car overturned as one of its wheels suddenly came off, he said. "The MLA sustained critical injuries in the accident as he was sitting in the front seat of the car," he said.

Jammu and Kashmir Director General of Police Dilbag Singh on Thursday said around 85 terror modules involving grenades, civilian killings and other terror activities were busted in Jammu and Kashmir last year. “Attempts (by terrorists) to create disturbance by planting IED (improvised explosive devices) in Jammu have been foiled recently. A huge quantity of arms, explosives, grenade and other material have been seized,” Singh said during a cricket tournament here. Accusing Pakistan of making repeated attempts to create disturbances in Jammu, Singh said, the police and other security forces were continuously monitoring and foiling their “evil designs”. Thanking the people for their support, he said the Jammu and Kashmir Police proved to be successful in its mission because of them, especially the youth of Jammu and Kashmir.