Death toll in rain-related incidents rises to 52 in Uttarakhand

Under the world's largest vaccination drive, over 99 crore 12 lakh Covid vaccine doses have been administered in the country so far. A total of 14 thousand 623 new cases of Covid 19 were also reported in the last 24 hours. The recovery rate is currently at 98.15 percent which is the highest since March last year. Over 19 thousand 400 people recovered in the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to over 3 crore 34 lakh 78 thousand. Active cases account for less than 1 percent of total cases.

-In Uttarakhand the death toll in rain related incidents has gone up to 52 as six more bodies buried in the debris were retrieved from different parts of Kumaon division on Wednesday.49 people have died in the Kumaon region alone ,so far. In Nainital District, highest 28 deaths have been reported. Relief and rescue work is going on in full swing in the state. The National Disaster Response Force (NDRF) has rescued more than 1,300 people from disaster affected areas of state and has enhanced its rescue teams from 15 to 17.CM Pushkar Singh Dhami is continuously visiting the disaster affected areas and monitoring the relief and rescue work. Meanwhile, Chardham Yatrara has been resumed today except for Badrinath yatra as the route leading to the shrine has been blocked at few places following landslides. About 8000 pilgrims have been sent to Kedarnath Dham. 

-Union Public Service Commission, UPSC has opened a Helpline for the candidates belonging to the Scheduled Caste (SC), Scheduled Tribe (ST), Other Backward Classes (OBC), Economically Weaker Sections (EWS) and Persons with Benchmark Disabilities. The Toll-Free Number 1 8 0 0 1 1 8 7 1 1 has been set up with an objective to assist these candidates who have applied or are intending to apply for the Commission’s Examinations or  Recruitments.The Helpline will remain operational on all working days during office hours. The candidates belonging to these categories facing any difficulty in filling up the application form of any Examination or for any queries concerning the Commission’s Examinations or Recruitments may contact this dedicated Helpline for assistance. As part of Azadi ka Amrit Mahotsav, this step has been taken in this direction. This initiative is also a part of the Commission’s endeavour of undertaking queries of such candidates in a friendly manner.

-In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, a Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) District Commander among four terrorists were killed by security forces in two separate encounters in south Kashmir on Wednesday. Giving details,  police said that two terrorists were killed by security forces in a gunfight that broke out between terrorists and security forces in Dragad area of Shopian district in the morning. One Army soldier also attained martyrdom in the said operation. In another encounter, the District Commander of Lashkar-e-Toiba (LeT) terror outfit among two terrorists were killed in a brief gunfight at the Sopat area in Kulgam district in the evening. Meanwhile, Inspector General of Police (IGP) Kashmir Range, Vijay Kumar said that one of the slain terrorists killed in Dragad encounter identified as Adil Ahmad Wani, was active since July last year and was involved in the killing of a carpenter at Litter village in Pulwama district while the terrorists neutralised this evening in Kulgam district were involved in the killing of two non-local labourers at Wanpoh in Kulgam district on 17th of this month.

-The government has said that India is exporting strictly Non Genetically Modified Organism -GMO rice to the world. Ministry of Commerce and Industry in a statement clarified that there is no commercial variety of Genetically Modified- GM rice in India and in fact the commercial GM cultivation of rice is banned in the country. It said, there is no question of export of GM rice from India. Since there is no commercial variety of GM in India, proper testing was also done before shipment of the consignment and the possibility of GMO contamination due to white rice exported by India is not possible, it added.The clarification came regarding a news report in a section of the press regarding food recalls linked to alleged GM rice from India. The Ministry further said, as reported in the same news item this could be the conspiracy to malign the image of India as a reliable supplier of quality rice to the world. The experts in India both from Genetic Engineering Appraisal Committee (GEAC) and Agricultural experts from the Indian Agricultural Research Institute and other rice experts in India are, however, investigating the matter but re-confirming that the commercial GM variety of rice is not grown in India.