Cong builds house of dreams on Narendra Modi’s turf

August 21, 2012

Modi_TurfAhmedabad, August 21: Thousands of poor voters of Gujarat surged towards Congress camps for distributing forms for dirt-cheap urban housing — a promise the Congress has made only to women in a determined bid to prevent chief minister Narendra Modi from winning his third successive state election.

The scheme targets lower and lower-middle income groups in the cities and towns of Gujarat and gave a shot in the arm to the jaded Congress, just months away from the assembly elections. The Congress has not tasted power in Gujarat for more than two decades and the 'Ghar Nu Ghar' scheme was one of the aces it had up its sleeve to halt Modi's march to New Delhi in 2014 as a clear prime ministerial prospect.

There was commotion at form distribution centres and frayed nerves in the Modi camp when the distribution of forms began at 550 camps across Gujarat. The Congress, which marked Rajiv Gandhi's birthday with this blitzkrieg, has offered houses to be registered in the name of women. State Congress president Arjun Modhwadia said nearly 28 lakh forms were distributed in eight cities and 159 towns with a target of building 15 lakh homes in five years if the Congress was voted to power in the assembly elections due later this year.

"We have ordered for printing of 10 lakh more forms," senior Congress leader Narhari Amin said. Other Congress leaders were also pleasantly surprised at the mad rush, even as Modi went into a huddle with close aides. Even his 'Sadbhavana' towards Muslims seemed to be under threat as hundreds of Muslim women forgot the Eid festivities to queue up for the forms, which were available free on mere presentation of the voter's i-card.

BJP reacted by calling 'Ghar nu Ghar' a conspiracy to misguide the women voters of Gujarat. "Congress is in the habit of cheating people," said party spokesmen I K Jadeja and Mansukh Mandaviya. "In the last Lok Sabha election, they promised to check inflation within 100 days and look where we are today," Jadeja said.

The scheme seems to have hit the bull's eye as women are seen as more committed voters of Modi. Besides, the BJP has been traditionally stronger in urban areas of Gujarat. The Congress hopes that all those women who have taken the forms would elect it to power.

Housing for urban poor was a hallmark of previous Congress governments when the Gujarat Housing Board constructed precisely 1,76,830 homes in the 1970s and 1980s. Once the BJP came to power, the GHB went defunct and housing was a subject left to the builders.


Trouble for BJP on home front

The BJP had initially reacted with scorn at the Congress scheme 'Ghar nu Ghar'. Even chief minister Narendra Modi had brushed it aside stating that this was the brainchild of fly-by-night operators. But when the Congress launched the scheme on August 2, on the occasion of Rakshabandhan, nearly one lakh forms were distributed to women from the Gujarat Pradesh Congress Committee office in Ahmedabad and nine other centres across Gujarat.

The BJP had to sit up and take notice now. Former urban development minister I K Jadeja, now party spokesman, came with an announcement that the BJP will build 2.5 lakh houses for urban poor, once voted back to power. Questions were also raised by the BJP on where the Congress would get land for building these lakhs of houses. Congress campaign committee chief Shankersinh Vaghela had retorted that he would seize all the 'benami' land held by BJP leaders and also take back land gifted to large industrial houses.

Times View

The Congress has finally managed an emotional connect with the people of Gujarat with the 'Ghar nu Ghar' scheme. But it is after all an election promise and there is a massive gulf between the cup and the lip. What the Congress scheme has shown is that there is a massive demand for affordable housing in the state. The BJP has to explain why it has turned the Gujarat Housing Board, which built nearly 1.75 lakh affordable homes during previous Congress regimes, into a defunct entity. The GHB has to be revived and turned into the main agency to cater to the housing needs of those left without a dream home in this builder-driven set-up.


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News Network
March 3,2020

New Delhi, Mar 3: A day after two new cases of novel coronavirus that included one from Delhi were reported, the Health Ministry on Tuesday said six cases with "high-viral load" were detected during sample testing in Agra and these people have been kept in isolation. The six people had come in contact with a 45-year-old patient from Delhi, whose case came to light on Monday, and they include his family members.

According to government sources, the man, who is a resident of Mayur Vihar, had visited them in Agra.

The six have been kept in isolation at Safdarjung Hospital in Delhi and their samples are being sent to NIV, Pune for confirmation.

Contact tracing of the people who came in contact with the six is simultaneously being done through the Integrated Disease Surveillance Program (IDSP) network, the ministry said in a statement.

Sources said the patient from Mayur Vihar was shifted to a quarantine ward at Safdarjung Hospital on Sunday night.

His other family members have been asked to stay alert and look out for symptoms. One accountant, who came in contact with the man and some of his family members, was also quarantined, they said.

India on Monday reported two new cases of the novel coronavirus, one from Delhi and another one from Hyderabad. The government has stepped up its efforts to detect and check the infection which has killed 2,912 people in China.

On Monday, Rajasthan Health Minister Raghu Sharma had said that an Italian tourist tested positive for coronavirus in Jaipur.

The first sample collected from him on February 29 tested negative but his condition deteriorated, so a second sample was collected which tested positive on Monday, the minister said, adding, "Since there is a variation in the reports, the samples have been sent to the NIV, Pune for testing".

India had earlier reported three cases from Kerala, including two medical students from Wuhan in China, the epicentre of the deadly novel coronavirus. They had self-reported on their return to the country and tested positive for the infection. They were discharged from hospitals last month following recovery.

The infected person from Delhi had travelled to Italy, while the other patient who tested positive for the COVID-19 infection is from Telangana and had recently travelled to Dubai.

Both the patients had self-reported after they developed symptoms.

"They tested positive. They are stable and being closely monitored," ministry said on Monday.

The government has asked people to avoid non-essential travel to Iran, Italy, South Korea and Singapore and said India was in discussions with authorities in Iran and Italy, two countries badly affected by the infection, to evacuate Indians there.

The novel coronavirus or COVID-19, which originated in China, has spread to over 60 countries.

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Agencies
January 22,2020

Kochi, Jan 22: The Left front government in Kerala on Monday decided to inform the Centre it would not cooperate with the updation of the NPR, saying there were fears among the public about the process and it has the "Constitutional responsibility" to alleviate them and ensure law and order.

A special cabinet meeting, chaired by Chief Minister Pinarayi Vijayan here, decided to inform the Registrar General and Census Commissioner under the Union Home Ministry that it was unable to cooperate with anything with regard to the updation of the NPR.

"The decision was taken as it was the Constitutional responsibility of the government to alleviate the fears of general public and ensure law and order situation in the state," a Chief Minister's Office release said.

However, the state would fully cooperate with the census procedures, it said.

The LDF government, which has been on a warpath against the Centre over the Citizenship Amendment Act, has last month stayed all activities related to updation of NPR, considering 'apprehensions' of public that it would lead to NRC in the wake of the controversial CAA.

"As the NPR is a process that leads to the National Register of Citizens (NRC), there is a sense of fear among the people that its implementation could lead to widespread insecurity", the CMO release said on Monday.

The experience of the state which had already compiled the NRC was an example for this, it added, in apparent reference to Assam.

Kerala had already stopped all procedures regarding the NPR updation, the release said adding there was also a report of the state police that the if the government went ahead with the procedures, it would adversely impact the law and order situation.

The district collectors have also informed the government that the Census procedures would be affected if the updation of the NPR was done along with it, the CMO release said.

The CPI(M)-led LDF government had recently convened a meeting of political parties and socio-religious organisations here on December 29 in the wake of the concerns among people in various stratas of the society, it said.

A special assembly session was convened and a resolution was passed requesting the Centre not to implement the CAA and the government had also approached the apex court against the law, it added.

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Agencies
June 4,2020

New Delhi, Jun 4: CSIR Director-General Shekhar Mande said on Thursday that the World Health Organisation's (WHO) decision to halt hydroxychloroquine (HCQ) drug trial was taken in haste and the global body should have actually analysed the data before making the decision.

"I firmly believe that WHO decision was taken in haste it was a kind of knee jerk reaction they should have actually analyse the data on their own before temporarily suspend the trials that is my personal opinion," Mande said.

India's nodal government agency ICMR (Indian Council of Medical Research) overseeing the country's response to the coronavirus pandemic last month wrote to the WHO citing differences in dosage standards between Indian and international trials that could explain the efficacy issues of HCQ in treating COVID-19 patients.

In addition, Dr Sheela Godbole, National Coordinator of the WHO-India Solidarity Trial and Head of the Division of Epidemiology, ICMR-National AIDS Research Institute also wrote a letter via an email to Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Chief Scientist at World Health Organisation.

In a letter, Dr Godbole stated: "There was no reason to suspend the trial for safety concern," attributing it to the current RECOVERY data which differs significantly from the non-randomised assessment by Mehra et al, a scientific paper.

Referring to the letter, the CSIR head said, "We don't know what actually happened behind the scenes but the hypothesis is that because of the paper published in Lancet. It is a very well known journal and if Lancet has done due vigilance in publishing the paper. 

Therefore, the WHO thought the paper's findings are right that's why WHO hold based on what is published on Lancet. The WHO shouldn't have accepted it immediately this should have taken their own due vigilance to find out that study is right or not."

DG CSIR said because there is a global outcry it must have put pressure on both Lancet as well as WHO and both of them now retracted from their original position. "WHO has started a trial again and Lancet has put an expression of concern on their website both of these are very welcome development for science," he said.

"So I am pretty sure that Lancet would have published the reports only after seeing somewhere the drug failed to work," Mande said.

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