DMK rules out tie-up with Cong for 2014 LS polls

December 15, 2013
Chennai, Dec 15: Months after severing ties with Congress on the Sri Lankan Tamils issue, DMK chief M Karunanidhi today ruled out any alliance with its former ally for the 2014 Lok Sabha polls.

karunanidhi

Karunanidhi made the announcement in his concluding remarks at the meeting of the party's key decision-making body, the General Council, to rapturous applause from members, reflecting the anti-Congress mood in the party ranks.

Party sources claimed that Karunanidhi hinted that DMK may not forge an alliance with BJP also but the leader himself made a non-committal reply on this.

Sources said he had indicated that BJP's present leadership was different from A B Vajpayee who had headed the NDA government of which DMK was a constituent.

"A committee has been formed and it will discuss and decide on the alliance," was his response to reporters' queries when asked if he still kept BJP as an option.

DMK sources present at the meeting said Karunanidhi ruled out a tie-up with Congress, referring to the 2G spectrum scam which has turned out to be the gravest allegation faced by DMK in many years.

Karunanidhi's daughter Kanimozhi and junior colleague and former Telecom Minister A Raja are accused in the scam.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee, constituted to probe the matter and headed by P C Chacko (Cong) had recently tabled its report in Parliament amidst opposition from BJP, CPI and TMC which has dubbed it as "fraud".

DMK members had walked out in protest over the report. The report has given a clean chit to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh in the scam, saying he was "misled" by the then Telecom Minister Raja. DMK has said Raja was not heard.

Earlier, the General Council granted complete authority to Karunanidhi and party General Secretary K Anbazhagan to discuss and decide alliance-related issues for the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.

"This General Council gives complete authority to party president, general secretary to contact alliance parties, discuss seat sharing and announce a committee to take forward alliance for the elections," the party said in a resolution.

An erstwhile ally of the Congress, DMK had snapped ties with that party in March this year over the Sri Lankan Tamils issue. However it managed to drum up Congress' support for Kanimozhi during Rajya Sabha elections which she successfully contested.

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April 16,2020

New Delhi, Apr 16: South Delhi District Magistrate Brij Mohan Mishra on Thursday said that the administration is investigating how the pizza delivery boy contracted the coronavirus.

"In the last 15 days, we discovered houses he had delivered food. We contacted people living in 72 houses and they have been asked to stay in-home quarantine. No symptoms have been seen in people related to him. 

Testing of his roommate has been done and his reports are awaited. The rest of the people don't have any symptoms, they have been placed under institutional quarantine. Those in-home quarantines are also asymptomatic," Mishra said.

"Unless a positive case comes, we feel that transmission has not taken place. The boy told us that he was continuously wearing a mask while delivering the food. We are also finding out how he got infected. We are getting the information about the places he visited for delivery. He was tested on the basis of the doctor's advice. Later, he tested positive," he said.

72 families have to stay in home quarantine in the Malviya Nagar area after the delivery boy tested positive for COVID-19 on Wednesday.
Delhi Health Minister Satyendra Jain said that 17 other delivery boys linked with the infected person have also been placed under institutional quarantine.

"A pizza delivery boy has been detected with COVID-19 here. 17 other delivery boys linked with him have been placed under institutional quarantine and 72 people have been placed under home quarantine," Jain said.

Food delivery app Zomato said that the staff of the infected person's restaurant has delivered some orders which were placed on its platform.

"We've been made aware today that a restaurant's employee, who has been recently tested positive for COVID-19, had delivered food in the past to a few customers in the Malviya Nagar area in Delhi. All these customers have already been contacted by the govt authorities... We are not sure whether the rider was infected at the time of delivery," the company said in a statement.

Zomato also claimed that colleagues of the delivery boy have tested negative for COVID-19.
"This restaurant had instructed their riders to wear masks and follow strict hygiene to keep customers safe from any unintended mishap.

All co-workers of the said rider have been tested negative. And as a precaution, the restaurant where this rider worked has suspended operations," read the statement.

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News Network
June 20,2020

New Delhi, Jun 20: With the highest single-day increase of 14,516 COVID-19 cases reported in the last 24 hours, India's coronavirus count stood at 3,95,048 on Saturday.

The death toll has gone up to 12,948 in the country with 375 persons succumbing to the infection.

According to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, the total number of cases includes 1,68,269 active cases, 2,13,831 cured/discharged/migrated and 12,948 deaths.

Maharashtra with 1,24,331 cases continues to be the worst-affected state in the country with 55,665 active cases while 62,773 patients have been cured and discharged in the state so far. The death toll due to COVID-19 stands at 5,893 in the state.

The number of confirmed cases in Tamil Nadu also crossed the 50 thousand mark on Saturday and reached 54,449.

The national capital is the third-worst affected by the infection in the country with the count reaching 53,116 today.

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News Network
May 18,2020

As many as employees of Zee News have tested positive for the coronavirus, Editor-in-Chief Sudhir Chaudhary said on Monday. Most of them are asymptomatic, he said, tweeting an official statement from Zee News about the situation.

The organisation said that on May 15, one of its employees tested positive for the coronavirus. Following this, the company started testing employees who may have come in contact with the employee. Twenty-seven more were found to be infected.

“Fortunately most of them are asymptomatic and are not complaining of any discomfort,” Zee News said. “We believe this is because of early diagnosis and proactive intervention.”

The news network said all guidelines and protocols have been followed, and its office, newsroom and studios have been sealed for sanitisation. The Zee News team has been shifted to an alternative facility.

“At the moment, Zee Media Corporation has 2,500 employees, by far the largest in the private sector,” the company said. “We are committed to the safety of each one of them.”

Chaudhary also claimed that “those who are infected had the option of sitting at home and sharing memes”. “They came to work because they are committed professionals.”

Following this, some social media users claimed that Zee News employees found infected with Covid-19 were still at work. In response, Chaudhary alleged that a malicious campaign was being conducted to distort his statement. He said no infected employee had come to work, and all the contacts of the employee who tested positive on May 15 had been tested and quarantined.

Over the past two months, journalists from several media organisations have tested positive for the coronavirus. On April 21, 26 employees of a Tamil news channel based in Chennai tested positive for the coronavirus. The previous day, over 50 journalists from Mumbai were found infected, after samples of over 170 journalists were tested.

On May 7, a newspaper journalist died of the coronavirus in Agra. Some states, such as Uttar Pradesh, Karnataka and Delhi, have tested journalists for Covid-19.

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