New Delhi, Jul 20: Former Delhi Chief Minister and senior Congress leader Sheila Dikshit passed away here on Saturday.
Dikshit was the longest-serving Chief Minister of Delhi, having served in office for 15 years from 1998.
The 81-year-old was appointed as the president of Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee earlier this year, in the run-up to the Lok Sabha elections.
New Delhi, May 19: Spitting at workplace will be punishable with fine, the Personnel Ministry has said, citing the national directives for COVID-19 management.
In an order issued to all central government departments, it has asked their heads to ensure strict compliance of this and other directives in this regard.
This order is likely to bring about changes in and around government and private work places, where one can easily spot stains of 'pan' and 'gutka' spitted at some of the corners of walls or areas not frequented by many employees/public.
"Spitting in public and work places shall be punishable with fine, as may be prescribed in accordance with its laws, rules and regulations by the state/union territory local authority," said the national directives issued by the Home Ministry and shared by the Personnel Ministry with all central government departments.
It said wearing 'face cover' is compulsory in all public and work places.
In additional directives for the work places, the ministry said as far as possible, the practice from work from home should be followed.
"Staggering of work/business hours shall be followed in offices, work places, shops, markets and industrial and commercial establishments. Provision for thermal scanning, hand wash and sanitiser will be made at all entry and exit points and common areas," the directives said.
Frequent sanitization of the entire workplace, common facilities and all points which come into human contact e.g. door handles etc., shall be ensured, including between shifts, it said.
"All persons in charge of work places shall ensure social distancing through adequate distance between workers, adequate gaps between shifts, staggering the lunch breaks of staff, etc," the directive said.
The Centre on Monday asked 50 per cent of its junior employees, below the level of deputy secretary, to join work in office.
Till now, only 33 per cent of such employees were asked to attend office due to the novel coronavirus lockdown.
Central government employees were asked to work from home due to the lockdown that came into force from March 25.
All officers of the level of deputy secretary and above have already been asked to attend office on all working days.
Bhopal, Mar 12: The Madhya Pradesh Congress on Thursday took a dig at Jyotiraditya Scindia, who broke ranks with the party and joined BJP on Wednesday, by pointing out that neither Prime Minister Narendra Modi nor Amit Shah had not even put out as much a tweet to welcome him in the party, and construed it as "humiliation" for the "maharaja".
"Not even a tweet by Narendra Modi-ji or Amit Shah-ji to welcome Scindia-ji! Modi-ji, Shah-ji, at least do not do it so soon. It has not even been 24 hours yet and you guys have already started humiliating him...!" Madya Pradesh Congress tweeted in Hindi.
Taking a jibe at Mr Scindia, a member of the erstwhile royal family of Gwalior who ended his 18-year-long association with the Congress party on a bitter note, the state Congress said: "He is a maharaja, the one whose history is often mentioned by Shivraj-ji (former Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan)."
On Wednesday, Jyotiraditya Scindia joined BJP in New Delhi in the presence of party president JP Nadda. He had resigned from Congress a day earlier after meeting Amit Shah and Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Mr Scindia will file his nomination for the Rajya Sabha elections on March 13. He is expected to go to Bhopal today.
New Delhi, Jul 30: Even as COVID-19 cases continue to surge in various parts of India, more than 1 million people have recovered and discharged till now, informed Rajesh Bhushan, Secretary, Ministry of Health, here on Thursday.
"More than 1 million people have recovered from COVID-19 in the country. This landmark recovery has been achieved because of the selfless work and dedication of our doctors, nurses and frontline workers," Bhushan said at a press conference.
Giving the number of cured persons, Bhushan said, "More than 1,020,000 patients have recovered. They have been discharged. It is a great achievement."
He said, "The recovery rate has shown positive trends. It was 7.85 per cent in April and today it is 64.4 per cent, which is another heartening news which tells us that whatever battle is put by the Union government in collaboration with state governments is showing results."
"Sixteen states of the country have a recovery rate that is more than the national average. Of these, Delhi has a recovery rate of 88 per cent, Ladakh 80 per cent, Haryana 78 per cent, Assam 76 per cent, Telangana 74 per cent, Tamil Nadu & Gujarat 73 per cent, Rajasthan 70 per cent, Madhya Pradesh 69 per cent and Goa 68 per cent," Bhushan said.
He said effective clinical management lead to a decrease in case fatality rate. In June it was 3.33 per cent and now 2.21 per cent.
Bhushan said the case fatality rate in India today is 2.21 per cent and it's among the lowest in the world. Twenty-four states and Union Territories have lesser fatality rate than that of the country.
Herd immunity in a country of the size and population of India can not be a strategic option. It can only be achieved through immunisation.
"Over 18,190,000 tests have been conducted in the country including RT-PCR and rapid antigen tests. There has been a week-on-week increase in average tests per day. India is conducting 324 test per 10 lakhs population per day," Bhushan said.
He added, three vaccine candidates, are in phase 3 clinical trial. These three are in the US, UK and China. In India, two indigenously developed vaccine candidates are in phase I and II of clinical trials.
Trial of the first vaccine involves 1,150 subjects at eight sites, second on 1,000 subjects at five sites.
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