Tamil Nadu govt extends lockdown till January 10

Education Minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Satueday launched a nationwide 100-day reading campaign - Padhe Bharat. The Campaign is in alignment with the National Education Policy (NEP)-2020 which emphasizes the promotion of joyful reading culture for children by ensuring the availability of age-appropriate reading books for children in their mother tongue, regional and local languages. The reading campaign aims to have the participation of all stakeholders at the national and state level including children, teachers, parents, community, and educational administrators. In a tweet,  Pradhan said, reading books is a healthy habit and a wonderful way to develop cognitive, language, and social skills. He said, inspired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s call to citizens to read books regularly, he is committed to cultivating a lifetime habit of book reading. The Minister encouraged everyone, especially young people to adopt the habit of reading books. The campaign marks an important step to improve the learning levels of students as it develops creativity, critical thinking, vocabulary, and the ability to express both verbally and in writing. It will help children to relate to their surroundings and real-life situation. Children studying in Balvatika to grade eight will be part of this campaign. During the campaign, one activity per week per group has been designed with the focus on making reading enjoyable and building a lifelong association with the joy of reading. The activities can be done by children with the help of teachers, parents, siblings, or other family members. The reading campaign will be organized till the 10th of April this year.

-Home and Cooperation Minister Amit Shah has expressed his gratitude to Prime Minister Narendra Modi for transferring twenty thousand crore rupees in the accounts of 10 crore farmers under the PM-Kisan Yojana In a series of tweets, Mr Shah said, without farmers' empowerment, the overall development of the country is not possible and the country has seen the farmer-friendly Modi Government, making continuous efforts to make farmers self-reliant, since the last seven years. He said, PM-Kisan Yojana has done a great job in keeping farmers debt-free by giving them financial support at the most critical time of farming.

-In the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir, one terrorist was killed in an encounter with the security forces in the Jumagund area of Kupwara district. According to a Police Spokesman, the encounter which started this evening was continuing when the reports last came in. The identity of the slain terrorists is being ascertained.

-Tamil Nadu government has extended the lockdown till January 10. Play schools, nursery schools and classes one to eight will not be reopened till then. Exhibitions and book fairs will be postponed, Malls, theaters, showrooms, textile shops and restaurants will function with 50 percent capacity. The restrictions on social, cultural and political meetings will continue. A maximum of only 100 people will be allowed for marriages and 50 people for funerals. Micro management will be followed to check the spread of infection in containment zones. Meanwhile, State has registered one thousand 155 new covid cases on Friday. Six hundred and three covid patients were discharged after recovery. A total of eleven deaths were reported .Seven thousand 470 patients are under treatment. One lakh four thousand 414 samples were tested by RT-PCR. 

-The Chairperson of the Supreme Court's e-Committee, Justice D Y Chandrachud on Saturday said virtual courts set up for adjudicating traffic offences have completed challan procedures in one crore 15 lakh cases across the country till the 27th of last month. Of these, fine has been paid in 20 lakh 22,000 cases,realising Rs 209 crore.Justice Chandrachud was inaugurating the e-filing module of the Kerala High Court through video conferencing.Terming the initiative of the High Court is an important step towards the decentralisation of justice, he said e-filing of cases is beneficial not just for the litigants but also for lawyers and the judiciary. He urged states to make e-filing mandatory and suggested that training on e-services should be made available free of cost to the litigants. Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan who inaugurated the paperless court initiative said that the state government is committed to the utilization of advancements in technology to enhance the ease of living of its citizens. He said more than 500 services are now available to the people and the effort is to make official procedures simplified and less cumbersome. Chief Justice of the Kerala High Court Justice S Manikumar inaugurated the e-office initiative.