No proposal to for restoration of MPLADS

External Affairs Ministry has said India supports the government and the people of Afghanistan in realising their aspirations for peaceful, democratic and prosperous future where the interests of all sections of Afghan society are protected.Briefing media, Ministry spokesperson Arindam Bagchi on Thurday said India Afghanistan bilateral relations are guided by the strategic partnership agreement which was signed in October 2011. He said that External Affairs Minister Dr S Jaishankar had emphasised India's long term commitment to the development of Afghanistan at the Afghanistan Conference 2020 held in Geneva.On abduction of the daughter of an Afghan diplomat in Pakistan, the spokesperson termed the incident as shocking. He said that Pakistan's denial of the victim's account is stooping to a new low.

-Government has clarified that there is no proposal to for restoration of MPLADS which has been stopped in view of Covid-19 pandemic. MPLADS was suspended in April last year for two year. In a written reply in Rajya Sabha, Minister for Planning, Rao Inderjit Singh said, the Centre has released over 55 thousand Crore rupees to the Nodal Districts Authorities under MPLADS so far. He said, the salary payable to Members of Parliament was also reduced by thirty percent to meet the exigencies arising out of COVID-19 pandemic. Singh added that the funds saved from the MPLAD Scheme and cuts from MP’s salary have been utilized to enhance the allocation of funds for improving health infrastructure, provide free ration under PM Garib Kalyan Yojana, and free vaccination. 

-Madhya Pradesh starts vaccination of pregnant women from Friday. So far, more than 2.5 crore people have been vaccinated in the state. In the Special Vaccination Campaign, vaccines will be administered to pregnant women at all Government Medical Colleges, all District Hospitals, Civil Hospitals and Community Health Centres. Arrangements will be made for additional vaccination rooms, monitoring rooms, waiting rooms, supervision by medical officers at Vaccination Centres . Guidelines issued by the Government of India for the vaccination of pregnant women at all the centres will be strictly followed. Meanwhile,  the state reported 15  positive cases while 20 patients have recovered from infection. The positivity rate has also come down to 0.01 per cent.

-Minister of State for Communications Devusinh Chauhan has said that the Department of Telecommunications has already granted permissions to Telecom Service Providers Bharti Airtel, Reliance Jio Infocomm, Vodafone Idea and MTNL for conducting 5G Technology trials with a validity period of 6 months. Chauhan informed this in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.

-The Union Health Ministry in a statement  said that the country has reported 41 thousand 383 new cases of Covid-19 in the last 24 hours. The country's active caseload is currently at 4 lakh 9 thousand and  394. The active cases constitute 1.31 per cent of the total reported cases so far. A total of  38 thousand 652 patients also recovered from the infection during the last 24 hours taking the total recoveries to more than 3 crore 4 lakh 29 thousand. and the recovery rate is at 97.35 percent. In the last 24 hours, 507 deaths were also  reported.