Congress, DMK finalize seat-sharing deal in Puduchery

In the poll-bound Puducherry, the Congress and the DMK have finalized the seat-sharing deal for the upcoming assembly elections.The Congress will contest in 15 seats from the total 30 seats in the Puducherry legislative Assembly. DMK will contest in 13 seats and alliance partners CPI and Vidutalai siruthaigal Katchi shared each one. The seat sharing talks between the congress and DMK in the Union Territory came to an end only yesterday late evening. Previously the DMK wanted to fight independently in the elections. Then they invited NR Congress leader Rengasamy to lead the alliance. But NR Congress sealed the alliance with BJP. In the 2016 Assembly elections, the Congress had contested in 21 seats and the DMK in 9, in the 30-member Assembly of Puducherry.The Congress won 15 seats and formed the Assembly with the support of 2 DMK MLAs in the 30-member House. Later, DMK won in the Thattanchavadi by- election also. Vijayakanth' s DMDK announced 5 candidates to contest in Puducherry and they are planning to contest in all the constituencies in the UT. 

-Ministry of Civil Aviation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation have granted a conditional exemption to ICAR - Indian Institute of Sugarcane Research llSR, Lucknow for conducting the trials to evaluate drone spraying solution for controlling pest and diseases of sugarcane crop using drones.The exemption is valid until 30th November this year. This exemption shall be valid only if all conditions and limitations are strictly adhered to. In case of violation of any condition, this exemption shall become null and void and action may be initiated by the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Directorate General of Civil Aviation.

-The cumulative number of COVID19 vaccine doses administered in the country has crossed two crore 60 lakh. Union Health Ministry said, more than three lakh 18 thousand Covid Vaccine Doses administered across the country in the last 24 hours. The Ministry said, more than 59 lakh 98 thousand beneficiaries above 60 years of age have been vaccinated till date.The Ministry said, the daily COVID Vaccination coverage was on the lower side yesterday as many people particularly women including ASHA workers and women vaccinators were observing fast on the occasion of Maha Shivratri.The countrywide vaccination drive was rolled out on 16th of January this year and vaccination of the Frontline Workers started from 2nd of last month. 

-CPI(M) general secretary Sitaram Yechury on Thursday said India is now an electoral autocracy in response to media reports on Swedish Institute's democracy report that downgraded India.Modi-led government in India has used laws on sedition, defamation and counter terrorism to silence critics. India's level of liberal democracy registered a steep decline since its high in 2013. What a shame," he said quoting from the report.This comes after another global report by a US government-funded NGO, Freedom House downgraded India's status from "free" to "partly free" and claimed that "political rights and civil liberties have eroded in India since Narendra Modi became prime minister in 2014".The government has strongly rebutted the Freedom House report and called it "misleading, incorrect and misplaced", while asserting that the country has well established democratic practices.

-The opposition Congress in Meghalaya Thursday said it will table a privilege motion against Chief Minister Conrad K Sangma for allegedly misleading the House on the power purchase agreement signed with NTPC in 2007.Leader of Opposition Mukul Sangma stating this regretted that the attempt to mislead and misinform the House has come from none other than the leader of the House.He alleged that the chief minister had deliberately with a predetermined motive misinformed the House about the PPA signed by the then Congress-led government with the NTPC in 2007..In order to prevent this precedent to carry on in the future, it requires the members of the House to come up with a complaint for breach of privilege. Therefore, we have decided to table a privilege motion against the chief minister, Mukul Sangma said.