Muzaffarnagar, Dec 7: Jumping the queue in times of demonetisation may land you in jail. A man in the district found this out after he was arrested for trying to enter an SBI ATM in civil lines area here out of turn.
Police said there was a long queue outside the ATM last evening. Some people jumped the queue and tried to enter the kiosk.
An altercation ensued and police were called in, following which Wasim (25) was arrested and sent to jail.
Thiruvananthapuram, Apr 24: Kerala Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan on Thursday said that there is no community spread or the expected phase three spread of coronavirus in the state so far but the threat continues.
Speaking to media persons here on Thursday, Vijayan said that Kasargod, Kannur, Kozhikode, and Malappuram districts will be in the red zone with full restrictions.
"All the other ten districts in the State will be in the orange zone. With the detection of new cases today, the status of Kottayam and Idukki districts have been changed from green to orange. The district administration will decide on the hotspot areas to be closed," he said.
He said there would be an increase in the number of random tests in the red zones.
"In an effort to confirm that there is no community spread in the State, random antibody tests would be conducted among health workers, police personnel, home delivery persons, volunteers and migrant labourers," he added.
The Chief Minister said that COVID-19 labs set up at the Pariyaram Government Medical College at Kannur and the Kottayam Medical College have got the approval from the ICMR for coronavirus testing. The lab at Kannur Medical College will start functioning from Friday.
The UV sterilised lab, spread over 2,200 sq ft is equipped with four real-time PCR machines. In the first phase, this lab will be able to do 15 tests per day, which will be gradually increased to conduct 60 tests in the next phase.
"With the opening of these two new labs, tests to detect COVID-19 will be conducted in 14 government labs in Kerala. Apart from this, there are two private labs also in Kerala which are doing these tests. Since the number of coronavirus cases is again increasing in the State, the government has decided to procure ten real-time PCR machines to ramp up testing," he added.
Mysuru, Mar 13: A state-of-the-art viral research laboratory in the city has been identified as one of the testing laboratories for the detection of COVID-19, official sources said here on Friday.
The samples of suspected cases could be sent to the lab for analysis and it would take about three hours to get the results.
The Viral Research and Diagnostic Laboratory (VRDL), which was set up from Central grants and functions at the Microbiology Department of K.R. Hospital, has been authorised to carry out the tests. This lab in Mysuru is among the 52-plus laboratories in the country.
Though the VRDL is equipped to carry out the tests, the sole authority of confirming the virus lies with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)-National Institute of Virology (NIV) in Pune. VRDL is also the sole agency for collection and transportation of suspected samples of COVID-19 to NIV.
VRDL, which is part of the Mysore Medical College and Research Institute, functions on the advice of NIV.
According to the guidelines issued by ICMR, the results of the tests done here have to be shared with NIV the same day and the labs are not supposed to disclose the results since the NIV is the only authority to declare positive cases. Also, confirmation from the NIV should be awaited in case the samples test negative for COVID-19. The ICMR, in the guidelines made available on its website, has advised clinicians at labs to isolate the patient tested positive for COVID-19 in the identified facility and follow bio-safety precautions.
VRDL is a part of a network of labs established by the Department of Health Research, Government of India. The rise in the number of viral outbreaks and the resultant mortality had been cited as key reasons for the launch of network of such hi-tech labs in the country.
The NIV and the National Centre for Disease Control, Delhi, are the top laboratories for the network, while the National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai, is the supervising authority for the data generated by the network of labs, sources added.
Bengaluru, Apr 28: A CRPF jawan has been arrested in Karnataka for allegedly defying the COVID-19 lockdown norms with the paramilitary force taking strong exception to his 'ill treatment', following which an inquiry has been ordered by the state police.
State DGP Praveen Sood has ordered inquiry into the incident, which has triggered a row after a video of it went viral.
In the clip, some police constables are purportedly seen hitting CRPF soldier Sachin Sawant with sticks in Belagavi.
According to the information shared on social media, Sawant was washing his bike when a police team reached the spot and started beating him up for not wearing a mask during the lockdown.
Taking a serious view of the 'ill-treatment' meted out to its Cobra Commando, the CRPF has written a letter to the Karnataka police demanding an investigation into the matter.
In a letter to the DGP of Karnataka, the additional Director general of police of CRPF Sanjay Arora said Sawant was cleaning his bike when a skirmish happened between him and the police over not wearing the mask.
Arora wrote, "Sawant was manhandled and ill-treated, before his family members and paraded to the police station barefoot, where he was kept in chains and handcuff.
From the scrutiny of a viral video on social media, it is apparent that the conduct of police personnel was not citizen centric."
The CRPF ADGP also said the 'unpleasant' situation could have been avoided if the Karnataka police had taken CRPF hierarchy into confidence before making the arrest.
In response, Sood ordered an inquiry into the matter.
He tweeted that IGP Belagavi has been asked to conduct a probe into the incident involving CRPF constable. Action will be taken against guilty after receipt of report, he said.
According to sources, Home Minister Basavaraj Bommai has directed the state police chief to conduct a detailed inquiry into the incident.
Denouncing the arrest, Karnataka Irrigation Minister Ramesh Jarkiholi has sought the release of the CRPF jawan.
"It was wrong on the part of the constables to ill treat CRPF jawan and an inquiry be conducted against the erring policemen," said jarkiholi in a press release.
However, Superintendent of Police of Belagavi district, Laxman Nimbargi defended the arrest of Sawant.
Comments
This is a tragedy, did he deserve for this arrest and also did everyone of those standing on line deserve to stand over there. This is all because of disorganized way of demonitization program....the PM will suffer for it....last time his mother just went up to cashier and encashed her money....hypocrisy.....
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