Centre taking concrete steps to contain spread of rising Covid cases in Delhi

The Ministry of Home Affairs has  said that the Central Government is taking concrete steps to contain the spread of rising Covid-19 cases in Delhi on the direction of the Home Minister Amit Shah.The Home Affairs Ministry informed that 10 multi-disciplinary teams have started visiting the hospitals for assessing bed utilization and testing capacities. It also informed that planning for house to house survey in Delhi in the advanced stage and survey is expected to begin by this weekend and projected to be completed by 25th of November of this month.It said, Indian Council of Medical Research and Delhi government are working together to enhance RT-PCR testing capacity to 60 thousand tests by the end of this month. It informed that testing capacity has already enhanced by 10 thousand tests per day and 5 RT-PCR labs including at AIIMS, Delhi have already started functioning round the clock.It said, ICMR will help Delhi government in deploying 10 mobile testing labs for COVID-19 with a total capacity of 20 thousand tests in phased manner. ICMR will also help in augmenting capacity by two thousand tests of existing Delhi labs by deploying more manpower and equipments through engagement with private sector labs.

-Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan on Wednesday addressed the Ministerial meeting of the Global Prevention Coalition (GPC) for HIV Prevention through video conference. Speaking on India’s unique HIV prevention model, Dr Vardhan said the programme is aimed at providing outreach, service delivery, counselling and testing and ensuring linkages to HIV care.Indian model is centered around the concept of ‘Social Contracting’ through which the Targeted Interventions (TI) programme is implemented. He said, India’s model can be adopted and scaled up in many countries by tailoring the intervention as per local settings. He said, it can also be replicated in other prevention and disease control programmes.The Health Minister also elaborated how India protected the gains made in HIV prevention during the COVID-19 pandemic. He said, the Government of India took swift and timely action by involving communities, civil society, development partners to reach out to the last mile with a robust implementation plan for Anti-Retroviral drugs - ARV dispensation.

-In Jammu and Kashmir, the Home Ministry has ordered deployment of 49 additional battalions of Central Reserve Police Force in the wake of the upcoming Panchayat and District Development Councils elections. State Election Commission has already announced an eight-phase poll to 20 DDCs and vacant Panchayat and Municipal seats, in the first major electoral exercise since the revocation of Article 370 in August last year. The government had in October amended J&K Panchayati Raj Act to provide for setting up of District Development Councils in each district which will have directly elected members, marking the implementation of the entire 73rd Constitutional Amendment in the J&K. The votes in the first phase would be cast on November 28 and the last phase of polling would take place on December 19. The counting of votes would take place on December 22. While the election to DDCs and Panchayat by-polls will be through ballot, by-election to Municipal seats will be conducted through EVMs. All mainstream parties in Kashmir have announced to take part in the electoral exercise and most of them are fighting under the banner of People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD).

-The Centre has said that over 27 lakh 33 thousand applications have been received under Pradhan Mantri Street Vendor’s Atma-Nirbhar Nidhi- PM- SVANidhi Scheme. Out of the total applications received, over 14 lakh and 34 thousand have been sanctioned and about 7.88 lakh loans disbursed.Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs in a statement said that vendors who had left for their native places due to Covid-19 lockdown are eligible for the loan. It said, the provision of loans has become hassle-free as one can upload the application online on their own at any common service centre or Municipal office or by going to a bank. Banks are reaching the doorsteps of people to provide loans for helping them start their ventures. The Ministry said that Prime Minister Narendra Modi has appreciated the hard-work done by the bank staff, saying that there was a time when street vendors did not go inside the bank but today the bank is going to their home.

-Leader of Opposition in the Maharashtra Legislative Assembly Devendra Fadnavis has said that the BJP will not allow any anti nationalist efforts to restore article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir.Interacting with the media at BJP office in Mumbai today, Fadnavis said that a group of unpatriotic people is hatching conspiracy to divide the country and Indian National Congress is part of that group.He alleged that People's Alliance for Gupkar declaration under the leadership of Farookh Abdulla is trying to restore Article 370 in J&K with the help of China.Coming down heavily on Congress he said that BJP along with all those who support welfare and unity of the  nation will work towards revealing all anti national forces thretening the national security. He also slammed Maha Vikas Aghadi Government in Maharashtra failing to win the confidence of the people of the state.