Kejriwal under attack for circular on 'defamatory' news

May 10, 2015

New Delhi, May 10: Delhi Chief Minister Arvind Kejriwal today came under sharp attack for his government's controversial circular threatening action against the media for any defamatory news, with Congress and BJP accusing him of being a "hypocrite" and "anti-democratic".

Kejriwal attack"When there is criticism of the government, when the wrongdoings of his government is exposed by the media, the Chief Minister is taking objection to that. This shows the anti-democratic attitude of the Chief Minister," Congress leader P C Chacko said.

Voicing similar views, BJP said while Kejriwal talks about freedom of speech, he wants everyone else's "throat to be throttled".

"He talks about unfettered freedom of speech but he wants everybody else's throat to be throttled. This is the height of hypocrisy," BJP spokesperson GVL Narsimha Rao said.

Delhi Government has asked all its officials to lodge a complaint with the Principal Secretary (Home) if they come across any news item which damage the reputation of the Chief Minister or the government, so that further action can be initiated.

According to the circular issued by the Directorate of Information and Publicity Department, if any officer associated with the Delhi government feels that the published or aired news item damages his or the government's reputation, he should file a complaint with the Principal Secretary (Home).

Ajay Maken, Delhi Pradesh Congress Committee President, said it was "weird" that Kejriwal is doing everything opposite of what he used to say before elections.

Stressing that this was not happening for the first time, Maken said, "As soon as his party came to power, he had stopped media's entry in the building (Secretariat). He should not have a problem with the media as his party came to power with their help".

Criticising Kejriwal, Congress leader Chacko said he was being "exposed" on many issues and the AAP government was not functioning as a government from the very first day as internal dissensions marred its functioning.

"The people in responsible positions should be patient enough to listen to the criticism and also, it indicates that there is wrongdoing, corruption, lack of coordination in the government," he said.

According to the circular, if as per the opinion of the Director (prosecution), offence of defamation is made out, the Principal Secretary will refer the matter to the Law Department for examining the matter and obtain the sanction of under section 199(4) of the CrPc.

After sanction of the government is obtained, the home department will forward the case to the public prosecutor for making a complaint under Section 199(2) of the CrPc.

BJP had last night also criticised Kejriwal over the circular.

It had said the circular is the "result of repeated exposures by media of the Kejriwal government's misdeeds".

This is another proof of "anarchist, authoritarian approach" of the Arvind Kejriwal government, the party had said.

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News Network
July 10,2020

New Delhi, Jul 10: With the highest single-day spike of 26,506 COVID-19 cases and 475 deaths reported in the last 24 hours, the total number of COVID-19 cases in India reached 7,93,802 on Friday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

Out of the total number of cases, 2,76,685 are active, 4,95,513 have been cured/discharged/migrated and 21,604 have died so far due to the infection.

With as many as 2,30,599 COVID-19 cases, Maharashtra continues to remain the worst-affected state, followed by Tamil Nadu (1,26,581) and Delhi (1,07,051).

Meanwhile, 2,83,659 samples were tested for coronavirus on Thursday, taking the total number of samples tested up to July 9 to 1,10,24,491, according to the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).

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Agencies
April 23,2020

More and more Indians have become better prepared in the last one month, as far as stocking of their ration, medicine or money is concerned, according to the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker.

With the second leg of the lockdown half way through and Prime Minister Narendra Modi saying it's a long haul, 57.2% respondents said they have less than three weeks of stock while 43.3% said they have a stock that will last beyond that

However, if one breaks into weeks, most respondents said they are prepared for a week's time. 24.5% respondents said they have ration, medicine or money to last a week. This is closely followed by 21.9 % respondents saying they are ready for a month.

Meanwhile, 20.4 % said they are ready for a couple of weeks. There are 15.8 % who said they are ready for more than a month with food, ration and medicine. A tiny 5.6 % said they are ready with three weeks of stock.

However, there is 12.3% who still seem to live on the edge with less than a week's preparation.

But, the biggest takeaway from the IANS-CVoter COVID-19 Tracker is that in the last one month, a massive segment of society realised that the fight is long and the preparation should also be to last that long.

o put things into context, on March 16 when the tracker started, a whopping 77.1% said they have stock to last for less than a week. More than a month later on April 21, that number jumped to just 12.3%, which essentially means, people have become better prepared for a long-hauled lockdown period.

Similarly, on April 21, a sizable 21.9% respondents claimed they are ready with ration and medicine that will last them a month. On March 16, not even one respondent could claim they have a month's stock. In fact till March 22, just ahead of the announcement of the first lockdown, no respondent the IANS-CVoter tracker said that they have a month's preparation.

Similarly, when the tracker started, 9.9% said they simply ‘don't know'. As on April 21, that number is a big zero.

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News Network
May 29,2020

New Delhi, May 29: With the highest spike of 7,466 more COVID-19 cases and 175 deaths reported in the past 24 hours, India's COVID-19 tally reached 1,65,799 on Friday, according to the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

The number of active coronavirus cases stands at 89,987 while 71,105 people have been cured or recovered and one patient has migrated, it said. The death toll due to the infection has reached 4,706 in the country.

Maharashtra is the worst affected state with 59,546 cases. Tamil Nadu has recorded as many as 19,372 cases while Gujarat and Delhi have recorded 15,562 and 16,281 coronavirus cases respectively.

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