High Commission of India reopens all Visa centres in Bangladesh

Around 89 lakh children were given polio drops under National Polio Immunisation drive across the country. Union Health Ministry said, Vaccination were conducted at seven lakh booths.Sunday was the Polio National Immunization Day, also known as Polio Ravivar. The booth activity will be followed by house-to-house surveillance over the next two to five days to identify and vaccinate children under five years, who missed getting vaccinated at the booths. The Ministry said, vaccination teams have also been deployed at bus terminals, railway stations, airports and ferry crossing to vaccinate children in transit to ensure no child misses the life-saving dose. India has been free of polio for a decade, with the last case of wild poliovirus reported on 13th January 2011.

-In view of the Budget Session of Parliament, Rajya Sabha Chairman M Venkaiah Naidu held a meeting of leaders of all parties in the Upper House on Sunday. The meeting was held to seek support of the political parties to ensure smooth conduct of business in the Rajya Sabha. Naidu made a fervent appeal to leaders of various parties and groups in the House to ensure effective functioning of the House. In response, the leaders assured that there will be full participation in all the debates and discussions in the House. The meeting was attended by half a dozen ministers and 25 leaders of various parties.It was decided that instead of the scheduled sitting on the 15th of February as the last of the first part of the Budget session, the House will sit on the 13th before adjourning to enable the Department Related Parliamentary Committees to examine Demands for Grants of various departments and ministries. Further to leaders seeking more time for discussing the Motion of Thanks to the President and the General Budget, the Rajya Sabha Chairman asked Parliamentary Affairs Minister Pralhad Joshi and others concerned to rework the time schedule. Mr Naidu observed that these two discussions offer ample opportunities to the members to reflect on a wide range of issues for which more time may be allocated.

-Union Minister for Road Transport Nitin Gadkari has said that the InterModal Station (IMS) to be constructed by the National Highways Authority (NHAI) near Ajni railway station in Nagpur will be ecological and environment friendly. Addressing a press conference after holding a review meeting on the IMS project in Nagpur on Sunday,  Gadkari said, it will help in realizing the dream of a clean, pollution free and green Nagpur.The first phase of this ambitious project will focus on land acquisition and rehabilitation work. The Ministry of Road Transport has allocated 1200 crore rupees for this project.  The roads, railways, metro, broad gauge metro as well as the newly proposed Nag river waterway will come together and become an intermodal station near Ajni railway station for transporting passengers seamlessly from all routes . Acquisition of some land from Railways, Irrigation Department, Food Corporation of India and Government of Maharashtra is required for this inter modal station. Gadkari also directed the concerned authorities to take immediate action for the acquisition of the required land. The project will provide employment to about 10,000 youths and will also provide food courts, retail stores and other facilities to the general public at low rates. Gadkari also mentioned that the project would take two to three years to complete.He also instructed concerned project companies to use CNG-powered machinery in the construction of the project, which will reduce the use of diesel and petrol. 

-Textiles Minister Smriti Irani on Sunday inaugurated the 8th India International Silk Fair on Virtual Portal. The fair is considered to be India’s biggest silk fair, being held under one roof on Indian Silk Export Promotion Council’s virtual platform. The five days event is being held virtually due to COVID-19 pandemic.Speaking on the occasion, Mrs Irani said that more than 200 overseas buyers have already registered and equal number of their representatives in India will be interacting with more than 100 renowned and big Indian companies manufacturing and trading silk and silk blended products. She called upon the exhibitors and overseas buyers to take part in this initiative to celebrate the beauty and vibrancy of Indian silk.India has  long history of silk production and is the 2nd largest producer of Silk. India is the only country in the world which produces all the four major varieties of silk - Mulberry, Eri, Tassar, and Muga.

-All the Indian Visa Application Centres (IVAC) in Bangladesh have been reopened by the High Commision of India. Announcing this on Sunday, the High Commission of India informed that IVACs in Rajshahi and Chattogram Divisions which include Rangpur, Bogura,Thakurgaon, Noakhali, Comilla and Brahmanbaria centres are now open. They are accepting all visa applications except Tourist Visas. With this all the IVACs in Bangladesh are now functional.The IVACs were closed down earlier due to the Corona pandemic. The IVAC at Dhaka was opened for issuing of Visa under medical, business, employment, entry and journalist category in October this year. It had remained closed for more than 6 months after the first Corona positive case was reported from Bangladesh in March and travel restrictions were announced by India.Bangladesh sends the largest number of foreign tourists to India. A large number of Bangladeshi citizens visit India for medical purposes and as students. In 2019, the High Commission of India had issued more than 16 lakh Visas to Bangladeshi nationals for travel to India under various categories.Currently, all categories of visa except tourist Visas are being issued in Bangladesh by the Indian High Commission. High Commissioner of India to Bangladesh Vikram Doraiswami had said recently that the visa under tourist category will be opened based on the health situation in India and Bangladesh.