Issue of judge B H Loya’s ‘mysterious’ death a serious matter: Supreme Court

Jan 27: The Andhra Pradesh Cabinet passed a resolution on Monday setting in motion the process for abolishing the state Legislative Council.

A similar resolution will now be adopted in the Legislative Assembly and sent to the Centre for necessary follow-up action.

With just nine members, the ruling YSR Congress is in minority in the 58-member Legislative Council. The opposition Telugu Desam Party (TDP) has an upper hand with 28 members and the ruling party could get a majority in the House only in 2021 when a number of opposition members will retire at the end of their six-year term.

The move by the Andhra Pradesh cabinet came after the Y S Jaganmohan Reddy government last week failed to pass in the Upper House of the state legislature two crucial Bills related to its plan of having three capitals for the state.

Andhra Pradesh Legislative Council Chairman M A Sharrif on January 22 referred to a select committee the two bills -- AP Decentralisation and Inclusive Development of All Regions Bill, 2020, and the AP Capital Region Development Authority (CRDA) Act (Repeal) Bill -- for deeper examination.

The chairman had said that he was using his discretionary powers under Rule 154 while referring the Bills to the select panel in line with the demand of the TDP.

Following this, the chief minister had told the Assembly, "We need to seriously think whether we need to have such a House which appears to be functioning with only political motives. It is not mandatory to have the Council, which is our own creation, and it is only for our convenience."

"So let us discuss the issue further on Monday and take a decision on whether or not to continue the Council," he had said.

In fact, the YSRC had on December 17 first threatened to abolish the Council when it became clear that the TDP was bent on blocking two Bills related to creation of a separate Commission for SCs and conversion of all government schools into English medium.

As the Legislature was adjourned sine dine on December 17, no further action was taken. But last week, the issue cropped up again as the TDP remained firm on its stand on opposing the three-capitals plan.

The YSRC managed to get two TDP members to its side, but the government failed to get the three capitals Bills passed in the Council.

"What will be the meaning of governance if the House of Elders does not allow good decisions to be taken in the interest of people and block enactment of laws? We need to seriously think about it… Whether we should have such a House or do away with it," the chief minister had said in the Assembly.

Thiruvananthapuram, April 5: Kerala Health Minister KK Shailaja on Sunday said that the state's preparations for containment of COVID-19 were satisfactory and added that PCR tests were going on in nine laboratories, in which upwards of eight thousand samples have been tested so far.

"Our strategy for the containment of COVID-19 is satisfactory. We are yielding good results from our strategy for tracing, isolation, testing & treatment. PCR test is going on in 9 laboratories. We have tested more than 8000 samples so far," Shailaja told ANI here.

She further said that the state government wanted to implement Rapid test in Kerala and added that they had ample PPEs and N95 masks.

"We want to implement Rapid Test in Kerala. Yesterday, we got 2000 kits; Right now, we have sufficient PPEs and N95 masks. If the number of COVID19 cases increases in the coming weeks then we will need more equipment," Shailaja said.

Keeping up with the need of the hour, the new administrative block of Kasaragod Medical College will soon be converted into a COVID-19 hospital for providing better treatment facilities to the coronavirus patients.

A team constituting 26 doctors and medical staff of the Government Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram will join the efforts of converting the new administrative block into a COVID-19 Hospital in Kasaragod on Sunday.

The total number of COVID-19 positive cases rose to 3,374 in India on Sunday, as per the data provided by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

New Delhi, May 22: India on Friday recorded its biggest spike in COVID-19 cases with 6,088 new cases and 148 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, taking the tally of coronavirus cases in the country to 1,18,447, as per the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW).

Out of the total cases, 66,330 are active cases and 3,583 have succumbed to the infection.

As many as 48,533 patients have been cured/discharged and one migrated till date.

Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-affected state with 41,642 cases, followed by Tamil Nadu (13,967 cases), Gujarat (12,905 cases), and Delhi (11,659 cases).

While Rajasthan has confirmed 6,227 cases of which 3,485 people have recovered while 151 patients are dead, Madhya Pradesh reported 5,981 cases including 2,843 patients recovered and 270 patients dead.

Uttar Pradesh has 5,515 COVID-19 positive cases.

In Kerala, which reported the first COVID-19 case, 690 people have been detected positive for coronavirus.

Ladakh has confirmed 44 coronavirus cases, 1,449 people have infected by the virus in Jammu and Kashmir.