Congress snubs Digvijaya Singh for speaking out of turn

June 19, 2012

Digvijaya-Singh

New Delhi, June 19: Congress on Monday snubbed Digvijaya Singh, saying that its most vocal general secretary was not authorized to speak on the party's behalf.

"Digvijay Singh is not officially authorized to speak on behalf of the party," the AICC said in a media release. The unusual statement was seen as reflection of the leadership's annoyance with the senior leader, who has been quite voluble in the first three years of UPA-II.

The announcement, virtually saying that Singh speaks for himself, came two days after he in a TV interview called the Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee "erratic" and "immature", and was being seen as an attempt to mollify the estranged West Bengal CM. Singh had also blamed Banerjee for embarrassing both the Congress president Sonia Gandhi and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh.

Sources said that the party leadership was upset with the office-bearer for saying in the same interview that the party could consider backing Vice-President Hamid Ansari for a second term, emphasizing that the party was yet to form a view on the matter.

The tough talk on Banerjee did not gel with the Congress's attempt to give fresh provocation to the Trinamool chief. Although the ties between the two parties have strained since the Congress defied Banerjee to name Pranab Mukherjee as its Presidential candidate, the party at the same time does not wish to lose the support of her 19 members in the Lok Sabha since a split would enhance its dependence on the Samajwadi Party (SP).

However, the irrepressible general secretary made light of the party's statement emphasizing that his views should not be confused with those of the party. "The media cell of AICC has clarified that I am not the party spokesman. When did I claim I am the spokesman? What the media committee has said is true". Asked whether the extraordinary party statement was a put down for him for deviating from the party line, he retorted: "You must be joking."

This is not the first instance when Singh with his outspokenness has run afoul of the party's insistence on maintaining silence and discretion on sensitive matters. The remarks of the general secretary, who has worked closely with Rahul Gandhi, on the Batla House encounter as well as his attack on Union home minister P Chidambaram for the government's anti-Naxal policy had annoyed many in the party and the government, while providing both ammunition and mirth to opponents.

During the peak of Anna Hazare's anti-graft campaign, Singh had frequent run-ins with the civil society faction. Many in the party criticize him also for frequently wading into issues which are outside his organizational responsibility.

When asked about the announcement, Congress spokesman Manish Tewari suggested such statements were reflective of the party directive. Tewari also struck a conciliatory note towards Banerjee, appealing her to support Mukherjee in the July 19 Presidential election. He also dubbed as "resting on erroneous assumption" questions over Congress's options if Banerjee walks out of the alliance.

Tewari also pointed out that Mukherjee has described the Trinamool Congress chief as his sister and had made a personal appeal to vote for him in the presidential election. Replying to a query, Tewari dismissed as "very hypothetical" questions regarding the SP joining the UPA ahead of the Presidential election and said "our appeal to all parties is for support to Mukherjee's candidature".

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News Network
April 28,2020

New Delhi, Apr 28: Nafisa Ali took to Instagram to share the inspiring story of her niece, Diya Naidu, who donated her plasma to help patients suffering from Covid-19 after recovering from the disease. The veteran actress shared a photo of her niece from the hospital bed and asked fans to read Diya's post to get a detailed account of her experience.

Nafisa wrote, "Diya Naidu my niece - a COVID19 hero - is back home after donating her plasma - looks like liquid gold - it’s value is priceless as it will save lives. So please read her COVID19 story and share the information that is first hand. It is the need of the hour. Help save lives. #diyanise. #diyanaidu #covid_19 #india (sic)."

Diya Naidu, who is a dancer and choreographer based in Bengaluru, revealed in her Instagram post that she has donated her plasma for other Covid-19 patients. She said that the method has been super effective wherever it's been tried.

Earlier, Nafisa Ali gave a shout-out to her niece on Instagram and penned a heartfelt note for her. She wrote, "I am so grateful to you brave child - a COVID19 warrior (living in Bangalore) has agreed to donate her plasma to help cure other COVID19 serious patients (sic)."

Explaining the process of plasma therapy to treat Covid-19 patients, she wrote, "The process of donating plasma to treat COVID-19 is not very complex and can be done in just two hours. One of the most discussed methods of treatment of the disease caused by the novel coronavirus is plasma therapy, which involves the transfusion of plasma from a convalescent coronavirus patient to a critical patient. The blood of a recovering patient is rich in antibodies produced by the body to fight the virus, which are expected to help the critical patient recover (sic)."

Plasma therapy has been suggested to treat people suffering from Covid-19. People, who have recovered from the disease, are donating plasma as it contains antibodies to fight the disease. Earlier, Kanika Kapoor, who was the first Bollywood celebrity to be diagnosed with the disease, also offered to donate her plasma. She has recovered from Covid-19 and is currently living with her family in Lucknow.

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Agencies
January 9,2020

Noida, Jan 6: A fire broke out at the ESIC Hospital in Noida on Thursday morning and firefighting was underway, officials said.

The blaze broke out in the basement of the seven-storey hospital building located in Sector 24, a police official said.

Fire tenders were rushed to the spot after the Fire Department was alerted about it around 8 am, the official said.

After that, a search was done to see if anyone was trapped in the building, he said.

The cooling process is now underway.

He said the fire had engulfed the ground, first and second floors of the building, except the basement.

Police said they received information about fire at Kaveri printing press at 2:45 am, when the manager Yogesh called them. The press owners have been identified as Atul and Anuj Goyal, residents of Sukhdev Vihar, they said.

The man who died in the fire has been identified as Phool Dev, from Bihar, who used to work as a help there. Dev went inside the building in the night to sleep before the fire started and died due to suffocation, the fire department official said.

The body has been kept at Lal Bahadur Shastri Hospital and the post-mortem will be done once the family reaches here, police said.

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Agencies
July 13,2020

Mumbai, Jul 13: In a significant landmark, the BrihanMumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) has achieved a doubling-rate of 50 days for COVID-19 cases, a top official said on Monday.

This was possible because of the civic body's 'open testing policy', implying tests without prescriptions, making it the only city in the country to implement it.

"After the open testing policy, our testing has gone up from 4,000 to 6,800, daily. But the total positive cases have come down from 1,400 to 1,200 now," BMC Municipal Commissioner I.S. Chahal told IANS.

Of these 1,200 positive cases, the symptomatic cases are less than 200, so the BMC needs only 200 beds daily, the civic chief said.

Even the BMC's discharge rate now stands at 70 percent, and on Sunday, after allotting beds to all patients, there were still 7,000 COVID beds plus 250 ICU beds lying vacant, said Chahal.

For this achievement, Chahal gave the credit to the entire 'Team BMC' where - despite losing a little over 100 officials to the virus - civic officials and other Corona warriors are engaged 24x7 in controlling the pandemic for over four months.

Since the first case was detected in Mumbai on March 11 (after the state's first infectees in Pune on March 9) and the state's first death notched in Mumbai on March 17, the current Maharashtra Covid-19 tally stands at 2,54,427 cases and fatalities at 10,289, while Mumbai has recorded 92,988 cases with a death toll of 5,288.

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