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BJP agrees to maintain status quo on Article 370

March 2, 2015

Jammu, Mar 2: PDP chief Mufti Mohammad Sayeed called for peace Sunday after taking oath as chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir, heading a coalition that brought the BJP to power for the first time in India's only Muslim-majority state.

Sayeed sworn

Prime Minister Narendra Modi and BJP leaders Amit Shah and L.K. Advani were among the 1,400 guests who witnessed the ceremony, over two months after the PDP and the BJP won 28 and 25 seats respectively in a hung verdict that exposed deep divisions between the Muslim and Hindu areas.

After taking oath in English, Sayeed, 79, warmly hugged Modi and sat close to him on a flower-decked stage at the Jammu University's General Zorawar Singh auditorium to witness the entire ceremony.

Later, addressing the media, Sayeed said he had told Modi that peace was a must if Jammu and Kashmir had to prosper.

He said the Modi government must address the need for a dialogue between India and Pakistan, two countries which dispute the ownership of Jammu and Kashmir. Kashmiris, he said, must be involved in the process.

In an indication as to what he desired, Sayeed lavished praise on former prime minister and now ailing BJP leader Atal Bihari Vajpayee for starting a peace process with Pakistan in 2003 - when Sayeed was chief minister the first time.

And in comments that would not have pleased many BJP supporters, he credited Pakistan, the separatist Hurriyat group and militants for what he said was a peaceful ballot in November-December last year.

"The PDP-BJP government is a historic opportunity to fulfil the aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and take the state to new heights of progress," Modi tweeted.

The National Conference and the Congress stayed away from the oath-taking ceremony.

National Conference leader Omar Abdullah took a dig at BJP ministers for taking oath to uphold the Jammu and Kashmir constitution - the only Indian state to have its own constitution and a flag.

Son of a religious preacher from the Kashmir Valley, Sayeed will head the government of his Peoples Democratic Party and the Bharatiya Janata Party, and will be the chief minister for all of six years.

BJP leader Nirmal Singh will be the deputy chief minister. He said the two parties would provide a stable government.

Former separatist leader Sajjad Gani Lone took oath as a BJP ally, and then warmly hugged Modi and Sayeed, triggering thunderous applause.

Inclusive of Sayeed, the PDP will have 11 cabinet berths and the BJP six, Lone included. The PDP and BJP have three and five junior ministers respectively. Two of the junior ministers are women: Priya Sethi (BJP) and Asiya Naqash (PDP).

The PDP cabinet ministers are Abdul Rehman Bhat Veeri, Javaid Mustafa Mir, Abdul Haq Khan, Syed Basharat Bukhari, Chowdhary Zulfiqar Ali, Haseeb Drabu, Ghulam Nabi Lone Hanjura, Altaf Bukhari, Imran Raza Ansari and Naeem Akhtar.

The BJP's cabinet members are Nirmal Singh, Chander Prakash, Choudhary Lal Singh, Bali Baghat, Sukhnandan Kumar and Lone (Peoples Conference).

The junior ministers are Chering Dorjay, Sunil Kumar Sharma, Abdul Ghani Kohli, Priya Sethi and Pawan Gupta (all BJP) and Abdul Majeed Paddar, Muhammad Ashraf Mir and Asiya Naqash (all PDP).

In the evening, the PDP and the BJP released a common minimum programme (CMP), promising to transform Jammu and Kashmir as "the most ethical state ... from the present day position of being the most corrupt state".

The CMP promised "genuine autonomy of institutions of probity", and "a sustained and meaningful dialogue" for peace with "all internal stakeholders ... irrespective of ideological views and predilections".

It revealed the continuing difference of opinion between the two parties on the controversial Armed Forces Special Powers Act, which gives sweeping powers to armed forces in the state. The PDP wants it to go.

This is the second time Sayeed heads a coalition government in Kashmir. He took power in 2002, heading a PDP-Congress alliance, for three years.

The Kashmir verdict brought about a clear divide between the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley and the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, with the PDP winning almost all its seats in the valley and the BJP sweeping Jammu.

This is the first time the BJP is tasting power in Jammu and Kashmir, where a separatist campaign which has raged since 1989 has left thousands dead.

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Bloomberg
July 27,2020

New Delhi, Jul 27: India’s coronavirus epidemic is now growing at the fastest in the world, increasing 20% over the last week to more than 14 lakh confirmed cases, according to Bloomberg’s Coronavirus Tracker.

Infections in the South Asian nation of 130 crore people have reached 14.3 lakh, including 32,771 deaths, India’s health ministry said, with daily cases close to a record 50,000 on Monday. India is only trailing the US and Brazil now in the number of confirmed infections, but its growth in new cases is the fastest.

Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Karnataka are among the states where the maximum number of daily cares are being reported. The world’s second-most populous country has been ramping up testing, with 515,472 samples taken on Sunday, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research.

Still, India and Brazil have some of the world’s lowest testing rates, with 11.8 tests and 11.93 tests per 1,000 people respectively, compared to the US with 152.98 tests per 1,000 and Russia with 184.34, according to Our World in Data, a project based at the University of Oxford in the UK.

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Agencies
July 23,2020

Ahmedabad, Jul 23: Private schools in Gujarat have suspended online classes for an indefinite period from Thursday, after a state government order said they should not collect fees from students until the schools reopen.

In a notification issued last week, the Gujarat government directed self-financed schools in the state not to collect tuition fees from students as long as they remain shut in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

It also asked these schools not to hike fees for the academic year 2020-21.

Unhappy with the move, a union of representing nearly 15,000 self-financed schools in Gujarat decided to put on hold online classes, an alternative arrangement started earlier this month for students.

Majority of these schools informed the parents through SMS on Wednesday night that there will not be any online classes for their wards from Thursday.

Self-financed School Management Association's spokesperson Dipak Rajyaguru on Thursday said almost all the self-financed schools in the state refrained from imparting online education.

"If the government believes online education is not real education, then there is no meaning of imparting such unreal education to our students. Online education will remain suspended until the government withdraws that notification," Rajyaguru said in a statement.

He said the association will also approach the high court against state government's decision.

Jatin Bharad, a prominent educationist and member of the association, said there is no alternative to online education in the present scenario.

"Self-financed schools need to pay salaries to the teachers and other staff. No state in India has taken such decision that fees cannot be collected despite conducting online classes. If we adhere to the state notification, it will be impossible for us to pay salaries and run the school.

Thus, we have decided to suspend the online classes," said Bharad said.

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News Network
June 27,2020

New Delhi, Jun 27: Delhi Environment Minister Gopal Rai on Saturday called an emergency meeting here to discuss the situation following a locust attack in neighbouring Gurugram.

The minister also directed the administration to be alert, an official said.

"After the emergency meeting, an advisory will be issued on steps to be taken to deal with the situation," Rai told PTI.

He asked the officials of the Agriculture department to make field visits to areas close to Gurugram.

The development secretary, divisional commissioner, director, Agriculture department, and the district magistrates of South Delhi and West Delhi will attend the meeting, the official said.

Earlier in the day, the skies over many parts of Gurugram turned dark as swarms of locusts descended on the town.

However, the migratory pests are likely to spare the national capital for now, officials said.

The swarms of locusts, spread across two kilometres, moved from west to east. They entered Gurugram around 11.30 am, K L Gurjar of the Locust Warning Organisation, Ministry of Agriculture, told PTI.

The pests, he said, were headed towards Faridabad and Palwal in Haryana.

Alarmed at the invasion of the locusts, which settled on trees, rooftops and plants, many residents of Gurugram shared videos from their high-rise perches.

In May, India battled a devastating desert locust outbreak. The crop-destroying swarms first attacked Rajasthan and then spread to Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh.

According to experts, broadly four species of locusts are found in India – desert locust, migratory locust, Bombay locust and tree locust. The desert locust is considered the most destructive.

It multiplies very rapidly and is capable of covering 150 kilometers in a day.

This insect, a type of a grasshopper, can eat more than its body weight. A one square kilometer of locust swarm containing around 40 million locusts can in a day eat as much food as 35,000 people.

Experts blame the growing menace of desert locusts on climate change. They say breeding of locusts is directly related to soil moisture and food availability.

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