Vishwakarma community demands 3% reservation in jobs

New Delhi, Apr 26: The Centre will bring back the Indian citizens stranded abroad due to the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft, only if the respective states they belong to agree to allow them to come back home and make necessary arrangements to quarantine them after their return.

The Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) has started consultations with the State Governments on bringing back the Indians, who got stranded in the United States, United Kingdom, France, Italy, Canada and many other foreign countries due to the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft to any airport in the country. The decision on facilitating their return to the country would be taken after getting feedback on preparedness of the States and the Union Territory to receive them following all required health precautions, Cabinet Secretary Rajiv Gauba said.

Gauba on Saturday had a video-conference with the Chief Secretaries of all States and Union Territories to review the implementation of the restrictions on travel and transport as well as the lockdown imposed across the country to contain the COVID-19 pandemic.

Though the Government earlier either evacuated or facilitated the return of nearly 28000 Indians from a number of foreign countries affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, it almost stopped doing so after the ban on arrival of international passenger aircraft was enforced on March 23 in the wake of the spurt in the number of COVID-19 cases in India.

Thousands of Indian students, tourists, professionals and others are stranded around the world, including in the countries, where respective governments had imposed lockdowns to contain the pandemic. They have been desperately requesting the government on social media to evacuate them.

Bengaluru, Jan 13: Though he submitted his resignation as leader of the opposition over a month ago, former chief minister Siddaramaiah continues as the face of the Congress in Karnataka.

However, this may change as All India Congress Committee (AICC) interim president Sonia Gandhi has summoned Siddaramaiah to Delhi for a final consultation over change of guard. Over the past month, there has been speculation over the possibility of Congress persisting with Siddaramaiah as opposition leader and either party troubleshooter DK Shivakumar or former ministers MB Patil, HK Patil or Eshwar Khandre replacing incumbent president Dinesh Gundu Rao. Both tendered resignations owing moral responsibility for the party's dismal performance in the 15 bypolls held last month.

In the past 24 hours, there has been talk of Siddaramaiah being asked to be the state unit president and vacating the other post for a young turk or experience legislator including the likes of Shivakumar who could be the face of KPCC by 2023 if he gets a clean chit from the ED in cases of money-laundering, etc. Seniors, including former KPCC president and DyCM G Parameswara and former minister HK Patil, are strong contenders to be leader of the opposition if Siddaramaiah is asked to vacate the post.

However, sources in the Siddaramaiah camp dismissed the possibility of him becoming KPCC president. "He has never aspired for the post and the high command is not inclined to do it," said a member in his camp.

Siddaramaiah may meet Sonia on Tuesday morning. It's still unclear if any other KPCC functionaries have been summoned. Sources said Sonia is scheduled to leave India for medical treatment on January 15 and wanted to complete the consultations about Karnataka. The high command has reportedly gone through reports submitted by party observers Madhusudan Mistry and Parameswara.

The covid-19 lockdown has thrown wedding plans in disarray in coastal Karnataka like all other activities involving a crowd of people. While many people chose to postpone the scheduled and about to be scheduled weddings, some are going ahead with scheduled plans and holding weddings with no more than 50 guests as per the guidelines issued by the government of Karnataka. 

The government may relax the norms and allow participation of more guests in the future. However, holding wedding ceremonies will be a new challenge when people are returning to a ‘new normalcy.’ Compared to the traditional wedding ceremonies of the region, marriages in the time of Covid-19 are expected to be smaller as the organizers have to adhere to the safety protocol and safe distancing norms. Given this situation, to limit risks and ensure safety, families now will have to consider wedding planners to help them celebrate their weddings.

“The postponed weddings will take place in the coming days as the lockdown is being relaxed in a phased manner. However, it won’t be like our traditional weddings. There won’t be 3000 guests.  Government directives will be have followed. We expect change in trend from big fat weddings to a small, close family, picture perfect weddings,” says Sartaj Beary, Managing Partner, Zawaj Weddings and Events.

“Our curetted packages will take care of wedding invitations, outdoor venue, premium catering, bridal make up, mehendi function, photography, videography, décor, thermal scanning systems, hand sanitizers and N 95 masks etc. We hope with our experiences we can offer stress free celebration to the families while we plan everything from scratch as per client requirement,” he assures.

“Ultimately, our society has to adopt an innovative way of marriage. At this point, we can say that any wedding in 2020 will look different as the novel coronavirus has disrupted the weddings everywhere. We know it is a big milestone for families and we at Zawaj are here to assure families that we can help a stress free wedding,” he adds.

New Normal Era Weddings

In the ‘new normal era’, weddings across the world will be totally different from what we used to see before the pandemic. People need to be cautious while attending mass gathering and it is important. Gone are the days of closed AC venues. Outdoor weddings will be the future, where seating are spread out and space between tables, stage, food counters will be maximum as per  safe distancing protocols. 

Wedding planners and caterers will have to ensure systematic safety protocol, safe and responsible operations, preparation of the food, event crew and vendors safe zone, sanitized kitchen, transportations. Even buffet settings will change to include smaller but multiple cuisines, self serving stations, markings on line to maintaining safe distance at the food counters.

More importantly, venue has to be prepared as per the government instructions. Things like disinfection and sanitization, hygiene, ample toilet facilities, hand wash, thermometer scans, masks, sanitizing stations should be taken care of. People from all walks of life will embrace this form of marriage. The services of wedding planners will be most opted in future.

CONTACT:

WASIM : 9972442344

SARTAJ : 9740792344

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