Bihar in flux as Manjhi wants House dissolved

February 8, 2015

Patna, Feb 8: Bihar Chief Minister Jitan Ram Manjhi has recommended the dissolution of the Assembly to pre-empt his mentor-turned-rival and Janata Dal (United) leader Nitish Kumar’s attempts to replace him.

Manjhi

On Saturday, Mr. Kumar, who was elected leader of the JD(U) legislature party, is set to stake claim to form a new government and urged the Governor to reject Mr. Manjhi’s recommendation, arguing that he had lost the majority. Twenty Ministers from the Nitish camp had resigned.

Mr. Manjhi is moving with the support of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), say sources in both camps, in a major blow to the attempts to forge a united front against the saffron party ahead of the Assembly elections scheduled for November.

The JD(U) and Lalu Prasad’s Rashtriya Janata Dal (RJD) had buried the hatchet after their defeat at the hands of the BJP in May 2014, but Mr. Manjhi’s rebellion can derail their plans.

Mr. Kumar had given way to Mr. Manjhi, accepting moral responsibility for the party’s Lok Sabha defeat, but Mr. Manjhi soon began to assert himself and placed himself as a Mahadalit leader, causing friction between him and Mr. Kumar.

The lingering tension between the two came to the fore in an interview that Mr. Manjhi gave to The Hindu on January 6, setting off a series of developments that culminated in Saturday’s split.

Some last-minute efforts at truce did not bear fruit, with the Chief Minister holding a marathon meeting with Mr. Kumar at his 7 Circular Road residence.

Sources said Mr. Kumar refused to accept three demands put forward by Mr. Manjhi.

Mr. Manjhi left for Delhi on Saturday, where he is expected to meet BJP leaders. Prime Minister Narendra Modi reviewed the Bihar situation with leaders on Saturday.

Responding to people’s complaints, says Nitish

Without naming Mr. Manjhi, the visibly emboldened Mr. Kumar said that the need to remove him came when people were coming and complaining about his controversial statements every day. “People of the state appeared to have lost faith in him [Manjhi] and good governance was in danger”, he added.

“Now I’ve come and will lead the party from the front. We’ve majority support and we’ll definitely stake claim, if need be, to form the government in the State,” he declared.

Mr. Manjhi had called the JD(U) legislators meeting “unauthorized and unconstitutional,” and wrote to Governor, Keshari Nath Tripathi recommending dissolution of the Assembly.

At the meeting, 97 out of total 111 [membership of 8 party MLAs were terminated earlier] JD-U MLAs and 37 MLCs were present in the meeting.

In a letter to the Governor and the President of India, 130 legislators — including 24 from RJD, five from Congress and one of Communist Party India — claimed majority support in the Assembly for Mr. Kumar.

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Agencies
May 31,2020

New Delhi, May 31: India registered its highest single-day spike of COVID-19 cases on Sunday with 8,380 new infections reported in the last 24 hours, taking the country's tally to 1,82,143, while the death toll rose to 5,164, according to the Union Health Ministry.

The number of active COVID-19 cases stood to 89,995, while 86,983 people have recovered and one patient has migrated, it said.

"Thus, around 47.75 per cent patients have recovered so far," a senior health ministry official said.

The total confirmed cases include foreigners.

The death toll has gone up by 193 since Saturday morning, of which 99 were from Maharashtra, 27 from Gujarat, 18 from Delhi, nine each from Madhya Pradesh and Rajasthan, seven from West Bengal, six each from Tamil Nadu and Telangana, five in Bihar, three from Uttar Pradesh, two from Punjab, and one each from Haryana and Kerala.

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News Network
May 15,2020

Vishakhapatnam, May 15: LG Chem on Thursday said following the gas leak at its Visakhapatnam polymers plant, the company has started support measures and has begun the transportation of the Styrene Monomer inventory to South Korea to eliminate all risks factors.

The company would continue to work with government agencies to ensure all possible support for bereaved families and victims, LG Polymers, a step-down firm of LG Chem, said in a statement.

"We confirm the status-quo of the plant remains completely controlled by all measures. We have begun the transportation of the Styrene Monomer (SM) inventory within the plant as well as in the styrene tanks at the port by vessels to South Korea to prevent and eliminate all risks factors," the statement said.

The South Korean chemicals giant has sent an eight-member team from Seoul to investigate the Visakhapatnam gas leak incident and rehabilitate the victims of the tragedy that killed at least 11 people and forced the evacuation of thousands.

"The team of production, environment, and safety experts are currently investigating the cause of the incident and already supporting responsible rehabilitation which is their main objective," the statement said.

Furthermore, the team is working closely with related authorities to analyze the cause of the incident, prevent a recurrence, and support damage recovery in a prompt and expedient manner, it added.

On the support measures, the company said a special task force is currently supporting the bereaved victims and families and visiting them at the hospitals and their homes.

Besides, food and medical services have been organized for the returning residents. Various support activities such as supplying medical and household goods and sanitation of homes will be continued, it said.

"We assure everyone we will do our best to resolve the situation and prevent any incident in the future," the company said.

The company further said that "our teams will carry out mid-to-long-term Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) projects that can contribute to the local community based on suggestions of the residents.

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News Network
April 19,2020

Shimla, Apr 19: A man, who had recovered from the novel coronavirus, was again found suffering from the infection in Himachal Pradesh, officials said.

The man, a Tablighi Jamaat member, tested positive for the infection on Saturday within a week of his two reports coming out negative, they said.

Residents of different places in Mandi district, the man along with two other Jamaatis had been staying in a mosque of Nakroh village in Una'a Amb tehsil and all tested positive on April 2.

They were admitted to Tanda's Dr. Rajendra Prasad Government Medical College (RPGMC) in Kangra district on April 3.

As per the available information, they had tested negative for the first time on April 10 and they were declared as cured as per protocol after they tested negative for the second time on April 12.

Subsequently they had been discharged from the RPGMC and were kept in institutional quarantine.

However, with the man again testing positive, the total number of active cases in the hill state has increased to 23 out of the total 40 positive cases.

Four persons have been shifted to a private hospital outside the state. Eleven have recovered while two others have died.

A total of 16 confirmed cases were found in Una and health department statistics now shows 14 active cases and two cured.

Officials said 11 patients — three each from Chamba, Kangra, and Solan districts and two from Una district — have recovered.

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