Wrote to Modi 30 times, never replied, has an ego: Anna Hazare

New Delhi, Apr 25: With 1,429 more COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's count of coronavirus cases has reached 24,506, said Ministry of Health and Family Welfare on Friday.

Out of these, 18,668 patients are active cases and 5063 cases have been cured, discharged, or migrated.

The death toll stands at 775, with as many as 57 deaths reported in the last 24 hours.

According to the morning update by the ministry, Maharashtra continues to be the worst-hit State with 6,817 cases of which 840 patients have recovered and 301 patients have died.

Gujarat now stands in the second spot with 2,815 cases, of which 265 have recovered and 127 people have died. Meanwhile, Delhi's count stands at 2,514 of which 857 patients have recovered, while 53 patients have lost their lives.

Tamil Nadu's COVID-19 figure stands at 1,755 with 866 patients recovered and 22 fatalities. Rajasthan has reported 2,034 cases of which 230 have recovered and 27 patients are dead.

Madhya Pradesh has reported 1,852 positive cases so far of which 210 patients have recovered and 92 patients have lost their lives due to the virus. In Uttar Pradesh, as many as 1,621 people have confirmed COVID-19, of which 247 recovered and 25 people have succumbed to it.

In Kerala, which reported the country's first COVID-19 case, 450 people have been detected positive for coronavirus.

New Delhi, Mar 22: The exercise to update the National Population Register (NPR) and the first phase of the Census 2021, scheduled to begin from April 1, are likely to be deferred for an indefinite period due to Coronavirus pandemic, officials said.

A formal order on this effect is expected within a day or two.

Discussions are going on at the highest level of the government and in all probability, the NPR and house listing phase of the Census work will be deferred till the threat of the Coronavirus is over, a home ministry official said.

The exercise to update NPR and the housing listing phase of the Census is scheduled to be carried out across the country from April 1 to September 30.

Last week, the home ministry had said the preparation for the Census 2021 and updation of the NPR were at its peak and they will begin from April 1.

The ministry said this after a conference of the Directors of the Census Operations on status of preparatory work around Census 2021 and NPR updation.

There has been opposition from several state governments to the NPR and some of the assemblies even adopted resolutions expressing reservations on the exercise.

The states which have been opposing the NPR include Kerala, West Bengal, Punjab, Rajasthan, Chhattisgarh and Bihar.

However, most of them also said they will cooperate with the house listing phase of the Census.

The objective of the NPR is to create a comprehensive identity database of every usual resident in the country.

The database would contain demographic as well as biometric particulars, they said.

The notification for the house listing census and NPR exercise came recently amid furore over the contentious Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA).

The home ministry officials said most of the states have notified provisions related to the NPR.

The NPR is a register of usual residents of the country. It is being prepared at the local (village/sub-town), subdistrict, district, state and national levels under provisions of the Citizenship Act, 1955 and the Citizenship (Registration of Citizens and Issue of National Identity Cards) Rules, 2003.

The data for NPR was last collected in 2010 along with the house listing phase of the Census 2011. Updating of this data was done during 2015 by conducting door to door survey.

While updating the register in 2015, the government has asked details like Aadhaar and their mobile number.

This time, the information related to their driving licence and voter ID card may also be gathered, the officials said, adding that PAN card details will not be collected as part of this exercise.

Though information regarding the place of birth of parents will be sought, it is up to the residents whether to respond the question as it is voluntary.

For the purposes of the NPR, a 'resident' is defined as a person who has lived in a local area for the past six months or more, or a person who intends to reside in that area for the next six months.

The law compulsorily seeks to register every citizen of India and issue a national identity card.

The demographic details of every individual are required for every usual resident: name, relationship to head of household, father's name, mother's name, spouse's name (if married), sex, date of birth, marital status, place of birth, nationality (as declared), present address of usual residence, duration of stay at present address, permanent residential address, occupation, educational qualification.

The Union Cabinet has approved Rs 3,941.35 crore for the NPR exercise.

New Delhi, Apr 23: Delhi Police has booked Jamia students Meeran Haider and Safoora Zargar under the Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act (UAPA) in a case related to communal violence in northeast Delhi over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, said a lawyer.

Haider and Zargar, arrested for allegedly hatching a conspiracy to incite the communal riots in February, are in judicial custody. While Zargar is the media coordinator of Jamia Coordination Committee, Haider is a member of the committee.

The police has also booked Jawaharlal Nehru University student leader Umar Khalid under the UAPA in the case, said advocate Akram Khan who is representing Haider in the case.

Haider (35) is a PhD student and the president of RJD youth wing's Delhi unit, while Zargar is an MPhil student of Jamia Millia Islamia (JMI) university.

In the FIR, the police has claimed that the communal violence was a "premeditated conspiracy" which was allegedly hatched by Khalid and two others.

The students have also been booked for the offences of sedition, murder, attempt to murder, promoting enmity between different groups on grounds of religion and rioting.

Khalid had allegedly given provocative speeches at two different places and appealed to the citizens to come out on streets and block the roads during the visit of US President Donald Trump to spread propaganda at international level about how minorities in India are being , the FIR alleged.

In this conspiracy, firearms, petrol bombs, acid bottles and stones were collected at numerous homes, the FIR claimed.

Co-accused Danish was given the responsibility to gather people from two different places to take part in the riots, the police alleged.

Women and children were made to block the roads under the Jafrabad metro station on February 23 to create tension amidst the neighbourhood people, it said.

Over 20 film personalities, including Anurag Kashyap, Vishal Bhardwaj, Mahesh Bhatt and Ratna Pathak Shah, on Sunday had released a statement raising their voice against the arrest of the students and activists by Delhi Police for protesting against the Citizenship (Amendment) Act and demanded their release.

Following this, the police had said investigations into the JMI violence and northeast Delhi riot cases were done impartially, and arrests were made after analysis of forensic evidence.

In December last year, the police had allegedly entered the JMI campus after protests over the CAA, being held a few metres away from the varsity, turned violent.

Rajya Sabha MP and RJD leader Manoj Jha had tweeted, "Delhi Police called him for investigation and then received orders from above and arrested Meeran Haider, who has been helping people during the time of coronavirus outbreak."

The Jamia Coordination Committee (JCC), a group comprising students and alumni from the varsity, had condemned the arrest and demanded his immediate release.

"The country is facing a massive health crisis, however, the state machinery is busy harassing and framing student activists in false cases to suppress voices of dissent," they said.

The JCC said Haider was diligently working to provide ration to the needy during the lockdown. Communal clashes had broken out in northeast Delhi on February 24 after violence between citizenship law supporters and protesters spiralled out of control leaving at least 53 people dead and around 200 injured.