Massive rescue and search operation continues in Uttarakhand

In Uttarakhand, a team of more than 800 personnel comprising various forces including marines from Navy continued rescue and search operation throughout the day at the calamity site in Chamoli district. Two more bodies were recovered and the death toll has reached 34 now. According to information around 170 people are still missing and some of them are feared to be trapped in the tunnel.. The herculean effort to reach the trapped people through the slush and heavy boulders continued on the fourth consecutive day at the calamity site in Chamoli district. Although the team has only reached till 120 meters inside the tunnel and backflow of water is making their task more difficult. DG of ITBP SS Deswal said that it is reported that the trapped workers could be around 180 meters deep inside the tunnel.  Bad weather affected the relief work for some time as helicopters were not able to take sorties to provide relief material to the affected neighbouring villages. A team of scientists also flew from Dehradun to the calamity site to take stock of the situation.

-In Tamilnadu, the political representatives have appealed to the Election Commission officials for a single phase election. Addressing the media after meeting the officials, party representatives said that postal ballots should be available for people above 80 years of age.Chief Election Commissioner Sunil Arora and Election Commissioners, Sushil Chandra, Rajiv Kumar and Secretary General Umesh Sinha are in the city to review the poll preparedness. Also, an eight member team from the Election Commission of India (ECI) will visit Puducherry tomorrow to review the preparedness for the assembly elections to be held in April or May this year.

-More than 187 lakh Kisan Credit Cards with credit limit of one lakh 76 thousand crore rupees have been sanctioned to farmers across the country during the last one year. A special drive to cover farmers under the Kisan Credit Card is going on from February, 2020. Minister of State for Finance and Corporate Affairs Anurag Singh Thakur said this in a written reply to a question in Rajya Sabha.In order to ensure that all the eligible farmers are provided with hassle-free and timely credit for their agricultural operations, the Government has introduced the Kisan Credit Card Scheme to enable the farmers to purchase agricultural inputs such as seeds, fertilisers and pesticides.

-Government has procured more than 620 lakh tonnes of paddy in the current Kharif Marketing Season. The Agriculture Ministry said this is an increase of 17.60 per cent against the last year corresponding purchase of around 527 lakh tonnes. Out of the total purchase, Punjab alone has contributed over 202 lakh tonnes which is 32.71 per cent of total procurement.The Ministry said, the procurement of paddy is continuing smoothly in the procuring States and Union Territories of Punjab, Haryana, Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Uttarakhand, Tamil Nadu, Chandigarh, Jammu and Kashmir, Kerala, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Bihar, Jharkhand, Assam, Karnataka, West Bengal and Tripura. The Minimum Support Price, MSP value for the quantity of paddy procured  is over one lakh 17 thousand crore rupees.

-Delhi government has announced the admission schedule for Entry Level Classes -  Nursery, KG  and Class-1 level for open seats in Private Unaided Recognised Schools in the national capital for academic session 2021-22.As per the schedule, the commencement of admission process and availability of forms will begin from 1February 18.The last date for submission of admission forms is March 4.The schools will upload the first list of selected candidates on their websites on March 20. The second list of the selected children will  be released on 25th of March  and the subsequent list, if required, will be announced on March 27. The admission process will conclude on March 31